My theory as to how or why the dispatcher put out a bolo on a BMA and not a WMA, is that when she asked the teen to describe the perpetrator, the teen said :Its "very dark" and hard to see. The dispatcher heard " very dark "and thought the perp was dark skinned?

Could very well be. Or the caller described the perpetrator’s clothes as black or dark.

I think there’s a more simple explanation. The dispatcher would probably have written down the full description rather hastily whilst it was relayed to them. If you quickly write down WMA, in many people’s handwriting it can easily look like NMA which would have been the annotation for a negro male adult.

In the heat of the moment and the rush to get the description of the event and perp out over the radio, the dispatcher could very easily have accidentally read their notes as NMA instead of WMA.

Toschi himself told me in one of our phone conversations back in the early 70’s, that two officers did stop a man briefly on Jackson st. that night , but they had no idea he was Zodiac.
So I doubt that Toschi made that up and of course he had to have spoken to all of the officers who were near the scene.

In 1990 I phoned SFPD, the person who answered the phone told me that he was the artist who drew the composite. He mentioned the two officers who stopped and spoke to Zodiac that night. He also told me it was those two officers who had him make the changes to the first composite, making him older, with a more full faced.

If they did not stop Zodiac for even one second, how would they remember so much detail about his face ?

Zelm’s wife told Bruce3 that they stopped the man on Jackson street. I doubt he was confused between two different incidents.( How many incidents like that could happen in that neighborhood ? ) When Zodiac sent his letter about the goof , Zelm’s must have realized at that point about the man he saw on Jackson street must have been Zodiac.

I agree that there are too many people saying the same thing for this to be made up. It sounds like Fouke did actually stop and speak with someone. Because that fact was not reported in papers, it had to be Zodiac. The only other explanation is that Zodiac was privy to interdepartmental communications. Unlikely.

Officer Zelms told his wife that they did stop and talk to the man he believed was Zodiac. I spoke to more than one SFPD officer who told me Fouke and Zelms did in fact stop someone on Jackson street. David Toschi was one of the detectives who said that to me. I don’t want to call Fouke a liar, but he has a selective memory!

Officer Zelms told his wife that they did stop and talk to the man he believed was Zodiac. I spoke to more than one SFPD officer who told me Fouke and Zelms did in fact stop someone on Jackson street. David Toschi was one of the detectives who said that to me. I don’t want to call Fouke a liar, but he has a selective memory!

If Fouke isn’t lying, then Pelissetti must be because Pelissetti said that Fouke told him he stopped someone that night. One of the two of them must be lying. Of the two, Fouke has more motive to lie than Pelissetti. It would also mean that Zelms lied to his wife, or his wife lied about what he said. Neither of Zelms nor his wife had motive to lie, as far as I can tell.

Well, Pelissetti and Zelm’s Widow or Officer Zelm, himself, would have to be lying.