Janet Lynn Mallicoat was found in the office she worked at in San Jose, CA, dead from more than 130 stab wounds and set on fire.
The articles seem to indicate that she was not sexually assaulted, robbed. I’m not sure if they ever thought she might have been stalked prior to her murder. But the extreme brutality and overkill of her murder stands out.
Karl F. Werner, who was convicted of 3 similar (overkill) stabbing deaths in San Jose, was in custody at the time of the slaying of Ms. Mallicoat. Nonetheless, the similarity between the overkill is striking. Here’s 2 more articles discussing Werner and Mallicoat.
Karl F. Werner, who was convicted of 3 similar (overkill) stabbing deaths in San Jose, was in custody at the time of the slaying of Ms. Mallicoat. Nonetheless, the similarity between the overkill is striking.
Maybe he was not yet convicted, therefore free to leave after 24 hours?
QT
*ZODIACHRONOLOGY*
Karl F. Werner, who was convicted of 3 similar (overkill) stabbing deaths in San Jose, was in custody at the time of the slaying of Ms. Mallicoat. Nonetheless, the similarity between the overkill is striking.
Maybe he was not yet convicted, therefore free to leave after 24 hours?
QT
He was convicted (by pleading guilty) on three murder charges on Sept 1, 1971. Since he was a (suspected) violent offender, I assume (I hope!) that he was in custody from his arrest until his court date, and even back in 1971, I assume he would have been in custody for weeks before his Sept 1, 1971 court date, ruling him out as being a suspect in Mallicoat’s murder. I will try to check for more facts about dates…
My half-brained theory, is that someone was copycatting him and didn’t know he’d been captured, so thought they would tie it to Warner. Any takers ? 
He was arrested near the end of April (30?) 1971 in connection to the Furlong/Snoozy murders and convicted on Sept 1, 1971. I’m gonna continue to assume he wasn’t out on bail prior to his court date, otherwise, they would have linked him to Mallicoat’s murder (since he’s mentioned in all the articles above).
So if he was set free until his conviction, he had time to kill Janet Lynn Mallicoat, too.
QT
*ZODIACHRONOLOGY*
Here is a great piece on Karl Werner from the old site – Thx to Tracers:
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
Tahoe, thanks for posting that! They sure don’t write them like they used to.
QT, I have to presume that he was in jail from his arrest on april 30, 1971 thru his court date on sep 1, 1971. That is, he wasn’t freed on bail until his court date.
I’m not sure what the rules of bail are (now, or in 1970s), but there’s no guaranteed right to be freed on bail until the court date. Historically, the rules about violent offenders have changed (most recently, in ’66, ’70 and ’84) as it pertains to the right to be released on bail (I’m just now reading about this — not an expert ). Since he was captured in the same month he murdered Bilek, I would assume they still considered him a violent offender with a potential to harm again.
Further, I don’t see any indications, from reading Tahoe’s article, that his family was wealthy enough (his father was unemployed, and have moved back to MA) to have afforded an bail amount which I presume would be onerous given the severity of his crimes.
It also sounds like (again, from Tahoe’s article), that they were trying to wait until he turned 19 yo until they tried him for his crimes as that gave them additional punitive measures. I don’t know how that ties-in with his bail/freedom.
