Anyone have any theories as to Zodiac’s location between Pelissetti’s arrival to the scene then Fouke and Zelms passing him on Jackson? Pelissetti says he proceeded with caution down Cherry then Jackson Streets, which I assume means relatively slowly, and didn’t see anything. Of course after this, Fouke and Zelms pass Zodiac on Jackson. I suppose Zodiac saw/ heard Pelissetti’s arrival to the scene and hid in an alcove until he thought the coast was clear then reemerged heading East on Jackson to be seen by Fouke and Zelms ?
First thing is, find a good map of the streets in question. He attacked at Washington & Cherry(or at leas thats where the taxi wound up)and walked over a street and up Jackson towards Washington & Maple(which was the address in Stine’s log). Personally, I think he either had a car stashed there, or had use of a house etc, or maybe wanted to escape into the Presidio
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The problem (and it’s a big one) here is that we don’t have an accurate time frame. We don’t know how long it took Pelissetti to cautiously proceed to the point where he met up with Fouke. Both men’s accounts of their movements that night are hard to interpret – and contradictory.
What we do know is that Z was at the intersection (Cherry/Jackson) just before Pelissetti arrived. It’s reasonable to assume that he would have noticed the latter arriving, but he may have felt reasonably safe, being out of sight – and he had no reason to expect a second patrol coming towards him on Jackson.
So, my take on it is that he didn’t hide anywhere prior to Fouke passing him: He just kept on going (east) on Jackson, headed to wherever he was going (be it a safe house or a car). Then, after the Fouke encounter, I imagine that he sped up considerably once the cop car was out of sight.
The time it takes to walk at a reasonable pace (not running) from the crime scene to the encounter point (where Fouke passed him) seems to match well enough with how long it would have taken Fouke to drive from the point where he received the dispatch (somewhere on Presidio Ave just north of Washington) to the encounter point. In short, there was no great amount of time between P’s arrival (which would have alerted Z) and the Fouke encounter – not enough time for him to go into hiding anywhere.
Hi Cooler–I see you are posting here as well. 
Just to reiterate here what I did at the zk.com message board…use the search function. Pages and pages of this very subject.
“…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
The encounter point is roughly estimated (can be pinpointed better, but I don’t have the time right now, and it’s pretty close anyway). Fouke’s exact starting point is unknown but he says they got the dispatch right after they passed Washington.
Pelissetti got to the scene of the Paul Stine murder very quickly at 9.55 pm, this is what he said on ‘This is the Zodiac Speaking‘, Pelissetti ushered the kids to the alcove, then checked Paul Stine, 99.9 % certain he was dead. It was at that point he took the revised ‘White male description’ and "couldn’t get to the radio fast enough to let everybody else know and that included Donald Fouke".
It is then he carefully walked up Cherry, checking the parked cars, not wanting to get his head blown off, it is then some time later he bumped into Donald Fouke coming down Cherry. Donald Fouke in the documentary said he used an expletive when he was told it was a white man and he had just passed one. How didn’t Donald Fouke not already know as Pelissetti had supposedly already let everyone know when he "couldn’t get to the radio fast enough". The timeline suggests Fouke should already have been aware of the white description long before he met Pelissetti.
Yes, it’s one of the mysteries of that night.
I’ve speculated in the past about the possibility that the SFPD radio set-up/system was an antiquated one (just like the LAPD one was described to be at roughly the same time). A major overhaul of the communication systems took place in the late 60s/early 70s, with the introduction of the 911 number and so forth, but some departments were slower to upgrade than others.
If Pelissetti could only communicate with a central operator/dispatcher, this could – possibly – explain why Fouke was not aware of the updated description:
Pelissetti gets on the radio and updates the info. He then proceeds on foot after Z.
For some reason the dispatcher doesn’t broadcast the new info right away – there’s a delay of, say, a minute or so. The updated info is dispatched around the very time when Fouke and Pelissetti meet up.
