If Zodiac was seen in the drivers seat at W&C, then we can only assume this is where he shot Paul Stine.

Paul pulls up at W&C and turns round to collect the fare from Z, Zodiac then shoots him in the side of the head. Requiring his possessions, Zodiac then got out and for some reason let himself in Paul’s drivers door rather than the passenger door, he pushes Paul towards the passenger seat and he does what he needs to do. Upon leaving the cab he wipes down the dash board, and the handle of the drivers door as this is where he let himself in.

That is just a theoretical assumption I have made based upon my own opinion on what went down in that couple of minutes, or relatively close to it.

Can anybody see any inconsistency’s?

Yes, if he shoots Paul Stine at Washington and Cherry Street and Paul Stine slumps over to the position of the passenger seat or is pushed over to that position, this action of the shooting and accessing the driver side door would have been a matter of seconds, after all he didn’t want to hang about having just shot somebody. However if you take a look at the police photographs of Paul Stine’s shirt, it shows the blood flow pattern downwards and for more than a few seconds, suggesting he was in an upright position for a prolonged period of more than a few seconds, to lend greater weight to the hypotheses he was murdered one block earlier and the Zodiac Killer supported the body while coasting the taxi to Washington and Cherry. Now covered in blood, he had little left to lose by cutting a swatch of the taxi drivers shirt. If he had just shot him at Washington and Cherry from the rear of the cab, then leave, why enter the front, cover yourself in blood and splatter your fingerprints everywhere, only then having to wipe them away and waste more time. The blood pattern on Paul Stine’s shirt tells a story, that he wasn’t shot and then fell over to remain that way from then on, it suggests an upright position and downwards flow, not consistent with him slumping over immediately. Blood rarely flows upwards or sidewards in the pattern shown, it shows blood flowing down and around his chest, thereby spreading as it descends. Also both of the rear taxicab doors were shut, if you were in a rush, you would exit the back door and leave it open, not waste even more time closing it, and depositing even more fingerprints on the outside of the rear door that you have to wipe away as well.
The back doors being shut suggest an interaction other than at Washington and Cherry: ie Washington and Maple, which he stated in his letter all along, it may have been one of the rare truths he ever told us.

Very interesting, thanks for providing the picture also.

You said "and the Zodiac Killer supported the body while coasting the taxi to Washington and Cherry.". This created an image in my head, lets try and break it down logically as to why he would possibly want to do this. If he shot him at W&M why did he not just get out of the car there? Why did he feel the need to take control of the car and drive to W&C? He may have decided to support Paul upright as to make it look like he was ‘alive’ to anybody passing, it was dark so perhaps they would have been unable to see the blood; and sitting upright would have created the impression of him being alive. I think trying to keep a dead weight upright (no pun intended) would be extremely difficult, especially a fully grown adult. I think logically keeping a dead adult upright whilst handling a steering wheel would be near impossible.

Also if Zodiac drove to W&C, did he get back into the passenger side, as the kids said he was more on the passenger side than the drivers side. If somebody made a time line for this, in detail and an ‘event chart’ based on how we believe it went down; I think it would all seem pretty logical.

The shirt certainly does tell a story. Though, have you considered that bleeding may have occurred in the time the police where there? If Paul was slumped for 45 minutes whilst waiting on the ambulance, detectives, etc, to arrive, they would the blood flow still not mess his shirt up in the manner the photo suggests?

In the autopsy report/record of death it states ‘There were dark marks on the deceased’s dorsal surface of the left hand’
It is possible, although I am no expert, that Paul Stine had pulled up at Washington and Maple Street, not placed his vehicle into park, as he had intended to collect the fare and then move off to his next assignment, he saw the gun in the corner of his right eye approaching his temple, his immediate instinct would have been to move away, to the left side, to distance himself from the gun, but that would have been limited. His next option would naturally to have attempted to grab or deflect the gun away, however his right hand may have in an instant not been in the ideal position and raised his left hand to either grab or deflect the gun away and may account for the dark stippling or marks on his left hand. Regardless, Paul Stine’s priority was not to keep his foot on the brake pedal and the car motioned forwards, heading out of control. The taxi driver was killed after this momentary ‘scuffle’, but the taxicab was heading into the buildings. The last thing the Zodiac needed was to have the taxicab crash and wake the neighborhood, so he thrust his arms forward in an instant to gain control of the vehicles steering wheel, then pulled the remainder of his body over. Yes he could have jumped out of the moving vehicle, but opening the door and clambering out would have taken longer than just lunging for the steering wheel. Once he had veered the taxicab in the correct direction, it then made sense to get off the main road, so headed to the next intersection to achieve this. Gaining quick control of the taxicab steering wheel was more advantageous than crashing the vehicle into a wall or building, drawing more attention to himself, hence the change of plan and in his eyes the relative calm at Washington and Cherry. This is why he probably backtracked down Jackson Street.
Keeping a body upright would require minimum force, you would only have to lean against it, Paul Stine may also have been resting against the driver side door, hence the substantial blood loss to the left side of the shirt from the right side of his head. When he arrived at Washington and Cherry, he would have parked up and shuffled towards the passenger side, wiped the taxicab down and left. If you look at the photo of Paul Stine’s head in the picture, there is no way the blood could flow up his shirt against gravity in this photo. The blood is now on the roadside. The question still remains, if the Zodiac Killer had killed Paul Stine at Washington and Cherry Street and exited the rear door of the vehicle to access the front, why close the rear door and deposit more fingerprints, and waste valuable time, were they shut because he never exited them. Maybe.

According to Pelissetti’s report, Z was seen leaning over the body, wiping the driver’s side compartment. It would be extremely reckless to shoot the driver while the cab’s still moving, but it would explain why Zodiac needed to wipe the prints there (though the report doesn’t specifically say "steering wheel" or what-have-you).

If he entered Stine’s side of the cab, he could have just pushed Stine over — why get in the passenger side and pull the bloody body on top of himself? He was never seen in the rear of the cab or wiping down the rear area of the cab. Again, if he sat in the rear and came out, why climb into the passenger side and risk getting blood all over himself?

Edit: Another issue with Z in the backseat — Stine could have (theoretically!) seen the gun in the rear-view mirror before it was anywhere near his head, potentially causing a car accident, and the nature of the wound suggests he was caught by surprise.

Just a thought…

Does the police report note if the emergency brake was pulled? If the car wasn’t shut off, which I think it’s fair to assume that it was not, Stine would’ve had both the clutch and the brake depressed. If Z shot Stine at Washington and his foot stayed on the clutch but came off the brake, the car could’ve rolled until Z was able to pull the emergency brake.

Are you sure the taxi had a clutch? I would think it had an automatic transmission in which case the engine would have had to have been shut off or the emergency brake applied or someone would have had to have kept their foot on the brake in order to stop it.

As I remember, street parking was always at a premium in San Francisco as it is in most large cities. I just cannot imagine someone deciding to shoot someone while the car was moving in a city where there surely were cars parked all along the streets and then managing to maneuver the car to a stop without hitting a parked car or building or curb. That is why I think Paul was shot at W & C and Z had a silencer on the gun.

Does anyone know or remember just what it was that drew the kids attention to the window since it was not a gunshot or any noise?

I think the idea of him parking on Maple may be likely. Between Washington and Jackson it is really dark there with street trees giving more cover. It would have been easy to leave car there and get downtown. California St. runs parallel to Washington three blocks away. It has frequent bus service directly to downtown. There is restricted two hour parking now but back then I don’t think there was.

Washington and Maple, vs. Washington and Cherry….

I think for years many of us, me included, had a hard time with Z noting Wash & Maple in his communication, and not mentioning Cherry St. And many went off to a logical conclusion that this showed Z didn’t really know the PH area. Well that always bothered me, and I never accepted that scenario, but didn’t have a logical reason to dispute it either. Then one night in discussion about Paul’s log book it hit me. Z referenced Washington and Maple, not because he didn’t know Cherry St., but because he wanted to show all that he, the killer, knew what Paul had written as his destination in his log/trip book, because that’s the destination Z gave to him. I think Z’s intention’s were to kill Stine at Maple and Washington, but someone was at or around that intersection, so he had Stine go up a block. Z was referencing the evidence that he knew would be found in Stine’s log book, that only the killer could know.

The Car Get Away…..

The problem with the car get away for Z would be that he didn’t use it. He was within ear-shot, if we go by the letter he writes the next day, he describes what one could hear going on in the park. So he clearly doesn’t get away in a car. Some have suggested that he drove to another location where he could observe the police actions in the park. But Z doesn’t write about what he sees, only what he can hear. If Z had a car to get away, in minutes, 3-5 minutes, he could be crossing the Golden Gate heading north, on 19th Ave. heading south towards the peninsula/San Jose perhaps, head back towards the wharf Area/downtown and get on the Bay Bridge, head out to Highway 1, but he doesn’t leave the area. Maybe due to the absurdly short window of time he gets after the shooting, two cops at the cab within a minute or two, and Z doesn’t get 2 blocks away and runs into the SFPD and they see him. So maybe his entire get away plan is broken down and he goes into hiding, until it’s safe for him to come out. Not in the park as he stated, dogs would have found him. Or he had a place to hide out in, close to the park, and could hear the goings on in the park. Or he was forced to hide out at a residence, until the heat subsided.

My theory on Stines murder was that a good plan was used and it was not just a hap-hazrd attempt
I know there were two zodiacs, heck the composites show different eye colors . I strongly think the real objective was to get control of the cab allowing him /them to kill 12 people over the weekend as he promised he would . Drive to a secluded place to clean out the cab ,dump Stine and other body’s he would get posing as a cab driver for 1 hour and shooting them through the front seat with the silenced Luger , pretty easy .
I think the stop or destination of maple st was a important step with an accomplice that could drive around to see if there were any cops near by ,using a scanner too. there were cheap walkie- talkies that had a 2 button morse code and a ear piece back then . when the kids saw and reported the cab attack #2 hears of it on the scanner and with the walkie talkie abborts the plan and picks up #1
Cab 912 stops at Maple and if Z #2 doesn’t give a go signal to Z#1 it’s off , but apparently it was on that nite, but foiled by the kids report .
also from just a few more blocks east the terrain slopes all the way to the sea , you can view a great deal of the city ,certainly seeing a flashing light coming from 3-4 miles away

….heck the composites show different eye colors…

They do? Who got close enough to describe eye color?

….heck the composites show different eye colors…

They do? Who got close enough to describe eye color?

blow up the napa composite the eyes are drawn as a blue eye ,light and airy irises not solid like brown eyes are think the sketch artist knew this ,one of the most critical features

I think that’s a bit of a stretch.

Any more opinions to share on this?

Imo the eye color is irrelevant. The eyewitnesses who are alive (Bryan Hartnell and Mike Mageau) both were under extreme duress when confronted by Zodiac. When Bryan saw him, he had some sort of sunglasses over the opening of the hood or was wearing them under the hood. IIRC, Mike is very clear that he didn’t get a good look and it was very dark when he was attacked.

Further, in one of the letters purported to be written by Z, he said he looked nothing like the sketches. He was imo probably wearing some sort of disguise and part of a disguise could have been COLORED CONTACT lenses.

It would be a big mistake to rule anyone out solely because their eye color didn’t match if there was enough other incriminating information that did.

I think that ultimately, eye color is a relevant thing — it would be very damning if it came down to identifying the right person between suspects. However with Z, it doesn’t seem that any witnesses have been in a position to observe that attribute, as others have said. The police are trained to observe eye color, as it can’t be changed as easily as hair and clothing under normal circumstances (colored contacts aside.)

But since we don’t know if the man SFPD officers encountered was actually Z — and, that they probably weren’t scrutinizing him like they might have, had they had reason to suspect him at that moment — it becomes less likely that they honed in on the color of his eyes. No one else seems to have come anywhere near close enough to see.

As for the title of the post (if I am following the question accurately): I do think there was an "all or nothing" spirit to the actions of Z. The risks he took during all of the murders were extreme — even if every move were planned meticulously in advance, too many things could go wrong. When risk-takers are athletes or business people, they are applauded for going big. But this is killing, and most people in their right mind would understand that the consequences are dire with just about every outcome. That, to me, does not denote a right mind.

Unforunately for his victims, luck seemed to favor him. That, or he was somehow invisible.