targeted..i think it was Z..take your pick either Z was in the air force or worked in an oil refinery…both are close to D/E homicide location..i put Z no older than 3 years above CJB..so who knows D/E may have been Z’s first victims…..just my take..

targeted..i think it was Z..take your pick either Z was in the air force or worked in an oil refinery…both are close to D/E homicide location..i put Z no older than 3 years above CJB..so who knows D/E may have been Z’s first victims…..just my take..

Good points, that refinery was very close to the crime scene, and the base was very close as well.

Haven’t had anything fresh in a while on Bobby & Linda’s case, so wanted to bump it a bit. I know John Averitt had no luck last I heard getting SB Sheriff’s dept to releases some reports or files. Too bad, their case is frozen solid, and is at the 50year old mark. Maybe releasing more info could make a difference.

That brings me to one thing I have been cosndidering lately, which was whether or not Bobby & Linda were random victims, or were they targeted? It was June, and school was still in. A killer looking to target kids, would be lucky to find some on a secluded beach in the middle of a school day. So, perhaps he knew about Senior ditch day, and just perhaps, he was a classmate of theirs. I know that John Averitt does not think this, and thinks their killer was older, but I can’t see how this possibility could be ruled out. They had been to that beach multiple times before, along with other students. Maybe they were followed there by one oof them, or told one of their fellow studnts where they would be. The other possibility us that their killer just happens upon their car in the middle of a weekday, and decides to go down and check the area out to see who is there, and happens upon the couple. A jealous suitor? A rival or enemy of Bobby’s? The outcast student that was never invited to the beach to party along side the popular kids? I also don’t think the area sniper shootings in the days leading up to this attack should be dismissed.

My money is on the bolded bits. The school’s outcast loner, who may have desired Linda from afar and vented his frustration by taking potshots at people on the beach. That the guy had rope on him argues against him just chancing upon them; this crime was premeditated.

On Ditch Day, he follows Robert and Linda to the beach, holds them at gunpoint and makes them tie each other up (perhaps with the intention of sexually assaulting Linda), but they fight back/escape and he shoots them. He drags the bodies into the shack where he normally stashes his ammo for his sniper shootings, makes a half-hearted attempt at post-mortem perversity with Linda’s body, then attempts to burn the evidence to no avail before fleeing.

He then goes on to become Zodiac. Nil further attempts at sexual assault are made on his part, because the thrill of killing has become ‘better than getting your rocks off with a girl’.

targeted..i think it was Z..take your pick either Z was in the air force or worked in an oil refinery…both are close to D/E homicide location..i put Z no older than 3 years above CJB..so who knows D/E may have been Z’s first victims…..just my take..

Vern Smith had been killed only two days earlier (2nd of June)..imo Reed and Coleman ‘cheated’ Coffman/Sandy/Z and left him at the beach (3rd of June)..there he stayed overnight at the shack and killed Domingos/Edwards on the next day (4th of June), later to be found (5th of June).

QT

my dilemma has always been how to connect Z in with CJB..i still think Z was a student at RCC or worked there,,but i must admit tying in Z to D/E kinda hurts thats theory as the possibility in my mind is Z could be from the Lompoc area initially..guess the easy dots are air force base or some low life grunt in the oil field/production there which in my mind is a legit theory

I was thinking the ‘rifinery’ angle. Refinery within a 1/2 mile or so of D&E murder scene, and one very close to lake Herman Rd. Then again, I know of none in Riverside. He could have been a local youth in 1963 when he killed D&E, went on to move to Riverside, quite possibly being college aged in October 66, and been infatiated with Bates, then moved on to Vallejo to become Z.

Then again, military fits right in too. Maybe he was a civilian or military member working at bases. There were bases near D&E murder site, in Riverside,and in SF bay area. If the rumors are true, and wingwalker tracks were found at the D&E crime scene, then it may well be Z. That could mean he was likely able to get them on base, or maybe his Family could

<snip>

So, perhaps he knew about Senior ditch day, and just perhaps, he was a classmate of theirs. <snip>
A jealous suitor? A rival or enemy of Bobby’s? The outcast student that was never invited to the beach to party along side the popular kids? I also don’t think the area sniper shootings in the days leading up to this attack should be dismissed.

Morf, glad you posted this. The above were my first thoughts on this double killing.

Do you think the shooter was one and the same as Zodiac?

its a good point, i bealive that the victim in herman road and blue spring get there to find some one, so i bealive they where targered. There strange backgrond for both, in one there we out of contact for some hours and them strange thiong in scene crime, the rambler reposition and the short distance are suspicius, magau is more suspicius, also moving for several places until come to the scene.
But this crime is much similar to like berriesa, i have several doubts about if was real zodiac or a copycat (a good one), and in these case with al the hood parafernalia, as far i know none as come saying they were targered.
For those than serch for the killing by fire, he tryed to burn the shak…

I someone have any information about any of them being stalkered, or any suspicios of been working in any time of intelligence brach, dont forget all california is a hotspot for militar or industrial spying.

What did their parents do?

Robert’s cousin felt it was someone that knew them. In line with the refinery idea, hadn’t Robert recently secured a job as a fuel truck driver?

In any event, I tend to go with the Sandy theory and he did indeed go and buy that .22 that the robbery pair alleged he did. That would explain why there were boxes of ammo (4) in the shack. My belief is that Sandy went and bought the .22 and was hanging out on the beach trying out his new ‘toy’. The fact that Robert and Linda arrived was just chance. I don’t think that anyone planning a murder like this would taken 4 boxes of ammo along with them. It doesn’t make sense.

Domingos/Edwards, Targeted or Random?

I think the perp was a dedicated psychopath who knew young sunbathers gather at that beach in Summer, and that the beach provided him enough isolation to commit his fantasy crimes.
Perp was trolling for victims, and set up his spot in an area likely to provide the desired victims. Probably he had done same many times before without finding his criminal opportunity.
I think it is highly doubtful the offender knew the two personally. They were random victims who walked into a psychopath’s ambush nest.

These murders seem to have the stamp of a serial offender. It could have been the Zodiac. However the behavioral clues are the only links.

I remember John Douglas.