We know that the taxicab keys were taken from the scene by the Zodiac Killer. We also know he took the swatch of Paul Stine’s shirt, which he used in his mailings to verify he was the letter writer. The Zodiac, to our knowledge, never sent any packages and tends to negate the idea he may have taken the keys to possibly mail at a later date, firstly because he didn’t and secondly he opted for the far more time consuming method of carefully tearing a strip of Paul Stine’s shirt, when clearly the taking of a set of keys was the far quicker option. Is it therefore not reasonable to assume he took the keys for a completely different and logical reason, in that he had at some point in the taxicab journey touched them. If he was wiping down the taxicab and had inadvertently left blooded fingerprints, it is fair to say he was likely not wearing gloves. Had he touched the keys, handling them to wipe them down is counter productive and trying to wipe them down while they are ‘free swinging’ in the ignition is difficult and by the same token it is far quicker to just remove them altogether.
Therefore their removal appears the logical choice from his standpoint and appears to lend weight he had commission of the vehicle at some point during that night. Does this indicate the possibility of a Washington and Maple murder and why the taxicab was found one block later. During the shooting of Paul Stine his taxicab may have stalled, after all he was on a run through to 500 and 9th, his engine was still running and the vehicle would not have been placed in park, necessitating Zodiac’s intervention to gain control of the taxicab and coast it away from the immediate vicinity of the gunshot, that nobody heard at Washington and Cherry. There appears little other reason to remove keys he never used in any of his subsequent communications, along with the wallet, as both are bulky items and both are incapable of being mailed in standard letter form and something he always did.

Interesting thought..guess there was only one reason to take the keys – switching of the motor which most likely was still running. Not leaving any prints, Z probably had taken them with him or even had thrown them away shortly afterwards, either into a yard or at Julius Kahn playground or elsewhere. Thus the keys might still be there somewhere.

QT

Or over the Golden Gate Bridge into oblivion and on his way back to Vallejo.

Yes, I think that’s plausible.

He had to touch the keys in order to turn the ignition off (or on – and then off again), and wasn’t wearing gloves. Thus, he simply pocketed them rather than bothering with wiping them, etc.

Very likely that he threw them away shortly after too, as he never had any actual need for them.

Has anyone considered that the Zodiac Killer took the keys to pierce the shirt. Creating that initial tear is not easy, but punching a hole in the shirt or running the edge of the key over a pinched section of the shirt would initially tear the shirt and once the fabric is breached, then all he has to do is follow the weave. Now however having touched the keys, depositing fingerprints, it is quicker to remove them than attempting to wipe them down. It also may suggest the crime was not pre-planned, as he hadn’t brought a knife, scissors etc. or at the very least the removal of a swatch of the shirt wasn’t originally part of his plans.

Imagine Fouke having stopped him with Stine’s keys in his pocket…best conditions for the electric chair.

QT

Imagine Fouke having stopped him with Stine’s keys in his pocket…best conditions for the electric chair.

QT

Having the bloody shirt pieces on him were even more dangerous. You kill someone and steal keys, that convicts you of murder in the course of robbery. You kill someone and take the time to cut and save a swatch of bloody shirt as a trophy, that convicts you of murder, some degree of planning, and you’re not going to be too successful with the remorse thing later on. Also, the bizarreness of it would insure the prosecution would be particularly focused.

So, I don’t think taking the keys were dangerous, relatively speaking. But since they couldn’t be easily mailed, there was no need for Z to keep them.

Has this article Tahoe posted elsewhere been discussed regarding the keys? Basically, how could the engine still be running if the keys had been taken?

My Dad’s old ’56 Chevy Bel Air had the ability to keep running with the keys out. Maybe some cabs were the same? Doesn’t seem like a good thing though. Interesting question.

My Dad’s old ’56 Chevy Bel Air had the ability to keep running with the keys out. Maybe some cabs were the same? Doesn’t seem like a good thing though. Interesting question.

I don’t think this was entirely uncommon — in at least one of my dad’s cars from back in the day, I remember being able to remove the key from the ignition while the car was running.

My Dad’s old ’56 Chevy Bel Air had the ability to keep running with the keys out. Maybe some cabs were the same? Doesn’t seem like a good thing though. Interesting question.

I don’t think this was entirely uncommon — in at least one of my dad’s cars from back in the day, I remember being able to remove the key from the ignition while the car was running.

So if the keys are taken and the engine’s running, would you normally stall it to shut it down?

I’d imagine the cops would have stopped it running by another means (something under the hood), as stalling the engine would cause the vehicle to jerk forward and possibly alter the crime scene?

Maybe the keys that were taken were a set that belonged to Paul Stine, his house keys, not the Taxi cab keys.

Taking Stine’s keys, and wallet that would have his ID, and home address, maybe Zodiac was planning on going there? Maybe Stine had something he wanted?

In the police report it states keys to the taxicab.

My Dad used to have a car that had something wrong with the ignition lock mechanism that would allow the key to be
removed while the engine was running.

Usually it would stop running without keys. We drove around with a 64 T-bird recently and it wouldn’t work without keys.

QT