On the issue of where Zodiac was when the search was being carried out of Julius Kahn and the general area of the Presidio, I have always agreed with Chief Lee’s opinion that Zodiac is a liar, he was not in the park. Like Lee, I also think it’s so unlikely, bordering on impossible, for Zodiac to have avoided detection if he were hid behind some tree or bush considering their were several police dogs, every available Officer from the SFPD searching, and several search lights illuminating the entire area like some Hollywood film set. But wherever he was, he was close enough to give accurate details of the scene and search itself.
One thing stands out about Zodiac’s letters regarding that night. He seems to want to push across this idea of him being in the park to the point where it becomes noticeable and not natural, like he’s trying too hard to convince you he’s in the park. Gets me wondering ‘why is he so eager to keep directing us to the park? Classic Misdirection? Here is Zodiac’s own statements:
"The S.F. Police could have caught me last night if they had searched the park properly"
"Hey blue pig I was in the park — you were using fire-trucks to mask the sound of your cruzeing prowl cars."
"p.s. 2 cops pulled a goof about 3 min after I left the cab. I was walking down the hill to the park when this cop car pulled up"
"I disappeared into the park a block + a half away"
He also makes other indirect references to the park, or being in the park also such as "The car drivers should have just parked their cars and sat there quietly waiting for me to come out of cover."
So why is he so intent on keeping our attention on the park as the place he was? Classic misdirection again, maybe? Just like the magician who draws his audiences attention over here to his left hand, while the real trick is quickly palmed away in his right, is Zodiac trying too hard to divert our attention to the park and away from somewhere else close by, like a house?
"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.
He was trying to make the police look incompetent. That’s what I always thought anyway.
It seems like he did not hide in the park and was trying to direct attention to that failed search.
He does seem to know about a few of the elements of the police search. Wonder if he was still hiding in the area, his car or the yard of the house on Jackson, while the search was taking place…
It seems like he did not hide in the park and was trying to direct attention to that failed search.
He does seem to know about a few of the elements of the police search. Wonder if he was still hiding in the area, his car or the yard of the house on Jackson, while the search was taking place…
I’ve thought and stated before I think he may have been in the back yard of 3712, the house he approached. Perfect place to be to hear the motorcycles go by and nab a quick peek at the two groups of parking seen as there is only a fence separating the yard from West Pacific Avenue. But that doesn’t make sense for me and the reason why has to do with your first idea….
"It seems like he did not hide in the park and was trying to direct attention to that failed search."
Well if making them look absolutely incompetent was the goal then he’d surely admit to being in that back yard by saying something like: "The Cops saw me walk up the steps and onto the drive pathway and go toward the house, the garden of which I was then hiding in! I had no choice as the police were approaching in their prowl car, and so I went up the steps, onto the drive and through the gate into the back yard. I was just about to make my escape over the yard fence when the prowl cars came dashing onto West Pacific and toward Julius Kahn and I was surrounded & cornered with nowhere else to go so I stayed listening to the search bikes and peering through a gap in the fence as they frantically searched all over the grounds of the park and Presidio when the cop had just seen me heading for this house with a yard & they didn’t even search the house or the yard, I expected to be rumbled any moment."
That would make them look far more incompetent if he said the police had actually seen him dash onto a house front path after spotting police, and yet never bothered to search the house grounds in response. There is one answer why he didn’t and this answer fits both why he wanted to make it appear he was in the park, and why he couldn’t say he was in the house or its yard to maximise the level of incompetence he could tag the SFPD with and that is, he actually lived there, or if he didn’t, knew someone who did. That’s why:
He isn’t able to state he was actually in the house yard or house itself, because he himself is linked to the address and it isn’t just a random house or yard he dashed into, but is in fact his own or a friends.
Keeps on insisting he was in the park, because for them to think any different may bring them sniffing around his or his friends house.
He never mention’s anywhere that he walked onto any driveway at all that night, which again you may expect him to if the address was random and unknown to him because he could again point to SFPD incompetence by showing "All I had to do was walk up a few steps when I saw the cop car approach, and they drove straight past." No mention of that which would have been another huge blow for them to take, and a big point scored for him which he loved to do.
"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.
He was in his car, driving past or even through the area as the search was going on.
"you’re doing that thing WC. The thing we discussed, The thing I don’t like." To quote Paul Avery in Fincher’s Zodiac. It’s not looming however, it’s randomly creating thread’s to express your own thinking. Please, somehow, find a way to not do that. Otherwise I will just ban you, permanently. Capesh?
“I don’t know Chief, he’s very smart or very dumb.“
But wherever he was, he was close enough to give accurate details of the scene and search itself.
Wellll, the details in the letter were provided on November 9th – more than three weeks after the fact.
Doesn’t that mean he might also have been a good researcher? That he didn’t need to have hung around in that area at all?
(If he was ever there of course, but then that’s another whole kettle of fish, I know).
And about those facts, too.
"The dogs never came with in 2 blocks of me + they were to the west" – is that true? The west?
"the motor cicles went by about 150 ft away going from south to north west" – also true? There were motorcycles there?
A bit dubious, this stuff. No wonder the Chief was so emphatic.
BTW – did an Irish guy just ask a Welsh guy if he understood something, in pigeon Italian? 
Technically I’m British but yes, I did, you oink. 
“I don’t know Chief, he’s very smart or very dumb.“
British huh? 
British huh?
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It’s on our passports, surely you have heard of it? At the very least it might be something we cling to in the end. Still, it can all very well be irrelevant. It’s us ourselves that matter. And…we find our way just fine. 
“I don’t know Chief, he’s very smart or very dumb.“
Hi-
This is actually not a new observation. I made this one several years ago and probably posted about it somewhere. Z doth protesteth too much that he was "in the park." He wants you to believe he was in the park. He wants it published in the paper for all to see and understand. He was in the park!
I don’t think he was in the park. But if he had a home nearby that overlooked the park…well, you know.
I think it would have been risky for him to drive around and around the neighborhood in a car with Stine’s wallet and car keys stashed in it. What if they found his actions suspicious and took the car downtown to take it apart looking for evidence. And I think it is out of the question that he drove away in a car prior to the search due to another observation that my brother the NYC police officer made ten years ago: Ze described the SOUNDS of the search. You can’t hear those in Marin.
Mike
Mike Rodelli
Author, The Hunt for Zodiac; 3.9 stars on Amazon and
In The Shadow of Mt. Diablo: The Shocking True Identity of the Zodiac Killer, a second edition in print format. 4.3 Amazon stars and great Editorial reviews. Twitter:@mikerodelli
No question Z’s repeated insistence to print that aspect of his getaway raises eyebrows and no question he’ll lie when it suits him.
http://zodiackiller.com/BombLetter3.html
In this case, it’s hard to say whether lying or telling the truth would suit him more since he is intent on pointing out inaccuracies or mistakes made by police. In the same request, he wants it known that he was observed (and allegedly questioned) by two cops walking away from the scene, which was later found out to be true. His hiding out in the park could certainly be a lie but I could certainly see him demanding the publication if the truth served his agenda to make police look foolish and incompetent as well.
Zodiac’s lies are one of my favorite topics:
I think it would have been risky for him to drive around and around the neighborhood in a car with Stine’s wallet and car keys stashed in it. What if they found his actions suspicious and took the car downtown to take it apart looking for evidence.
Nobody would have thought of stopping a guy in a car. They were looking for a suspect who escaped on foot.
I think it would have been risky for him to drive around and around the neighborhood in a car with Stine’s wallet and car keys stashed in it. What if they found his actions suspicious and took the car downtown to take it apart looking for evidence.
Nobody would have thought of stopping a guy in a car. They were looking for a suspect who escaped on foot.
Well they didn’t seem to do a very good job then because two units saw two different men, at least they seem to claim it was two different white males, in the area that we know of, both on foot, and none were detained.
I mean one of the men on foot even seemed to dash onto a driveway upon noticing the police car approach which to most people would be highly suspicious, yet they still did not get out and draw their weapons. The suspect pictured below could have been standing on the corner of Maple & Jackson Street and still they’d have probably slowed to look at him before speeding off up the hill.
"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.
British huh?
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It’s on our passports, surely you have heard of it? At the very least it might be something we cling to in the end. Still, it can all very well be irrelevant. It’s us ourselves that matter. And…we find our way just fine.
Trav,
Huh? If I understand it right, the UK is the parent while GB and NI are siblings.
Logically that seems to me to make you UK-ish, rather than Bri’-ish, not so?
Otherwise, if you become a Brit, then by the same logic Smithy must be Irish…yet he frequently appears completely sober.
G
