I haven’t done any extensive research on West myself, but if he was a Minister then obviously the natural assumption to make is surely a minister couldn’t be responsible for committing such heinous crimes. But Minister’s committing murder isn’t unheard of, I’ve seen several crime shows where this has happened. But i know what you mean, serial murder is a different level altogether. But then again, what better cover is there hide behind? Nobody would ever suspect a Minister, he’d be ‘crack-proof’ because His profession would make him off limits as a suspect surely? His name came up in the investigation, that much we cannot dispute.

Hey Morf, any idea if he was involved in Evangelical TV Work? I ask because we have speculated previously on the issue of how the Eight year old could have known a suspect to name him theorising that he must have lived in the immediate vicinity of the witness, or been someone that was of sufficient standing in society to be recognisable from elsewhere. I am just wondering if the witness may have known this preacher from tv, and said that the man he saw in Pacific Heights looked exactly like the preacher from TV. I mean at the very least, assuming that were true, we could discover what, or more accurately who, this witness thought the suspect he saw in Pacific Heights looked a lot like.

Wotcher WC.
It wouldn’t put me off the guy, that he was a minister. A good motive for stabbing Cecilia and Bryan might be that she was a church-going 7thDA and he was a minister’s son, for instance. If you were perhaps trying to prevent Evil Forn-i-cation.

West Chappie,
Interesting find & thank you for sharing with us. The minister idea is interesting….. as I actually stumbled on another minster that made me wonder, I don’t discount anyone at this time. Interesting find & welcome back! I’ll look forward to seeing more dug up on this guy for our curiosity.

Zam*

WC,

You mad old b*****d lol. You do my head in. You do, with your mainc posts and all. Now, that being said and I have just said it I’m not judging you. Who am I to do that? Truth be told and god help me for admitting this I’m really pleased to see you posting again. We all feel our way in this world and find little enclaves and try to protect them. That was and is the most political we ever get here. I hope our recent interactions weren’t hurtful when you took your leave.

Now, I haven’t read your findings yet and maybe I’m not the best person to do so, so maybe that’s not such a bad thing. I would however like to pick up on the thing that morf highlighted. I do not feel in any way that being a ‘minister’ is a red flag, sorry Mike. Look at BTK he was an active and elevated member of his own church. There are also elements of Zodiac’s communications that have made me wonder about a ‘spiritual’ connection. Take the halloween card for example. Could that be a blatant bastardisation of the ‘Jesus saves’ signage?

Anywho I just wanted you to know there isn’t any ill will. There never was. So whether you choose to be here or not is up to you and I’m glad that path is open to you. I’m a bit of a sap and I do think about everyone that crosses my path and wonder how they are and if they are ok.

Thank you for sharing your findings WC.

p.s notice I used the word ‘whether’ and I didn’t spell it weather, you tard lol.

Thank you Trav, and your welcome
And like I said in the last post i posted before I left, no hard feeling or animosity harboured toward anyone. The real reason for my absence Trav is due to my having visited Paradice to see how Zodiac was doing. We shared a spot of Tea in Paradice and All I am at liberty to say, as per Zodiac’s wishes, is that he appreciates all the attention and investigative efforts on the part of the Amateur Community.

Whether the Weather is whatever, I have cured my whether vs weather Dyslexia….I think. Lol

Are you assuming that Robert West is the person that the eight year old witness saw at the Stine crime scene? The way I read the document it could have been any one of the four people that are listed. Three of which we do not have names for.

While the redaction of the name of the person the eight year old saw looks to be a relatively short name, the redacted names of the other three in the document likely include a first, middle and last name so we have no idea whether the other people have short last names or not.

I think it is great that you went to the trouble of getting this information and it does give us another name to research.

Are you assuming that Robert West is the person that the eight year old witness saw at the Stine crime scene? The way I read the document it could have been any one of the four people that are listed. Three of which we do not have names for.

While the redaction of the name of the person the eight year old saw looks to be a relatively short name, the redacted names of the other three in the document likely include a first, middle and last name so we have no idea whether the other people have short last names or not.

I think it is great that you went to the trouble of getting this information and it does give us another name to research.

I specifically asked in the FOIA request for the name of the suspect named by the eight year old witness to be released. And in response, they supplied the above document. And thank you for the compliment.

Smithy – Trav & Zam, Hello back at ya.

WC our government works in strange ways. It could be that they have provided you with this document because there is mention of the eight year old witness and not necessarily that the suspect’s name you seek was actually released.

The reason I think this is because West was stationed at Camp Pendleton which is a long way from San Francisco. It’s in southern California closer to San Diego. I’m trying to reconcile how an eight year old would be able to recognize a soldier from Oklahoma who was stationed in southern California. West could have been on leave in San Francisco during the time Stine was murdered but how would the eight year old have known him well enough to name him?

I, too, would not discount a minister as a suspect for the reasons that others have already mentioned.

Welcome back Welsh Chappie!

WC our government works in strange ways. It could be that they have provided you with this document because there is mention of the eight year old witness and not necessarily that the suspect’s name you seek was actually released.

The reason I think this is because West was stationed at Camp Pendleton which is a long way from San Francisco. It’s in southern California closer to San Diego. I’m trying to reconcile how an eight year old would be able to recognize a soldier from Oklahoma who was stationed in southern California. West could have been on leave in San Francisco during the time Stine was murdered but how would the eight year old have known him well enough to name him?

I, too, would not discount a minister as a suspect for the reasons that others have already mentioned.

Well you said it yourself, ‘stationed in camp Pendleton’. While he may have been from OK, and stationed in CA, he may hhave had family or friends in SF that he either stayed with or visited while stationed in Southern CA.

If he isn’t the man named by the eight year old then I can say nothing other than that was the name I specifically asked for.

That’s exactly right WC! He may have had family or friends in SF or he may have been sightseeing and knew no one. Could go either way. I think before you absolutely believe that West was the person that the eight year old named you should try to confirm it somehow. You do have a name to work with now which is something you did not have before and that is due to your diligence. Even LE double and triple checks information they receive, no reason why you shouldn’t do the same.

Welcome back Welsh Chappie!

Quite! (lol).

Thank you.

That’s exactly right WC! He may have had family or friends in SF or he may have been sightseeing and knew no one. Could go either way. I think before you absolutely believe that West was the person that the eight year old named you should try to confirm it somehow. You do have a name to work with now which is something you did not have before and that is due to your diligence. Even LE double and triple checks information they receive, no reason why you shouldn’t do the same.

Seagull, you talking as if my FOIA request was ‘Please could you release the name of anybody you like so long as he is involved with the Zodiac case. I don’t care who’s name you decide on releasing because i am quite partial to surprises."

Like i said Seagull, I am not simply assuming he is the guy named by the eight year old, nor should I run around trying to confirm this. How would you suggest I confirm this? Send another FOIA request asking "Please confirm the name you released is the one i requested because Seagull doesn’t believe you. Yours: Alex."

Like i said, i asked specifically for the name of the man given by the eight year old witnesses and if they decided to search and then release a totally different name because it happens to be in the same document as the requested is, then that is something I can’t answer for. I can only relay and pass on what i asked for, and the response and details they gave,

FOIA requests are often unsuccessful because they are not specific enough in what they are asking for, the FBI website itself will tell anyone that reads it that the more information you submit on whatever or whoever your request is for, the better the chance of you being successful. I mean from what your suggesting, the FBI take FOIA requests and search for the subject of your request then respond with "Well we did not/could not find/release the name of the person you asked for. But on the bright side, we have decided to release the name of someone you didn’t request as a consolation gift to you because this man appears in the same file’.
From my own experience, you need to be very specific about who or what info your requesting, if your not, they’ll just reply saying that they hae searched their systems for info relevant to what you requested and found no relevant doc’s or files pertaining to your request.

The documents are digitized and the way they look for what you want is to use key words like we would use in a Google search, for instance. Likely the key words that were used to find what you requested were along the lines of "eight year old witness". The key words would have to be something that was easily recognized by the search engine. The longer and more complicated your key words are the less hits you are going to receive.

This is why you are asked to be specific when you are requesting materials. Exact word phrases or names are what the search engine looks for.

From my perspective there is a 25% chance that West was the person that the eight year old witness named because there were four names on that document. I am entitled to my view in the matter. I have complimented you on getting the material and I am sincere about that. There are many instances where people do not see the same situation the same way and they agree to disagree without taking offense. I am sorry that you see my opinion as some sort of confrontation because it is not. My opinion is just that, mine, and I would not expect anyone to agree with me 100%.