Funny! But Pierson says the tall stocky guy gave the girls the willies. Given this is San Francisco were talking about (and the Theater District) I don’t imagine they would have gotten the willies from seeing gay dudes in biker gear. Joking aside, the guy in the audience who attended multiple shows and "meet and greets" creeped out the cast. Of course this is anecdotal evidence only based on a someone’s recollection. But it does stand to reason if Zodiac lived in San Fran area and was fascinated with The Mikado he may have gone to see the production multiple times. I don’t think this guy’s recollection should be ridiculed and dismissed out of hand.
The show didn’t play in the Theater District. It was over at the theater by USF. *Closer to Tim Sullivan’s place.
Info about this is deep in one of the Ross threads. I also recall the yellow book claiming that a rehearsal happened on 10/11/69.
Don’t know who is correct. It is worth looking into.
*The Presentation theater, where The Mikado played in 1969. (Yellow Book pg 156)
Should be easy enough to pin down if someone has access to research old San Fran publications online. Print ads, reviews etc in old publications would list the location and dates of The Lamplighters performance of The Mikado.
Thing is though, Zodiac was quoting the Groucho version of the Mikado…word for word. –Minus his obvious mispronunciation of some of the words. We discussed this quite a bit during the documentary interview, but they were concerned about licensing.
Chances are he was a loner sitting at home in his basement listening to the LP. Not that that would rule out Ross. 
“…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
Be it Ross or not, I don’t see why it seems unreasonable that he wouldn’t remember a well built, stocky guy over 6 feet tall that came to multiple shows in costumes who freaked everyone out. That seems like something you’d remember for the rest of your life, especially given they were in SF during the Zodiac’s reign and he quoted that same play in his letters. His face would be burned into my memory honestly. When I was a kid, a guy we called Cookie Monster that lived down our street killed the old man he lived with. I’ll never forget every last detail of him quickly walking by us with a bag full of crap. I would imagine his memories are about the same.
Is there going to be a second season of the show on the History Channel?
No one knows yet, Lollyluv.
“…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
Haven’t seen the episode yet. It doesn’t sound like it pins Ross. But I’d like to know who the guy was. If it was Ross, it’s interesting how much he stood out to people, both there and the Riverside Library. The similarity of descriptions is far, far from definitive but quite notable.
Haven’t seen the episode yet. It doesn’t sound like it pins Ross. But I’d like to know who the guy was. If it was Ross, it’s interesting how much he stood out to people, both there and the Riverside Library. The similarity of descriptions is far, far from definitive but quite notable.
You can watch the episode here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6bm9e7
Just reading this now…a note about seasons and History Channel. What you saw recently was material which we in the industry call a sizzle, developed into enough set pieces to get the customary 4 episodes to sell a show. 4 episodes is usually a minimum amount a channel needs to package for advertisers for a one-off mini season. When the first slate does well then you get a real season. So, you have not seen a season what you saw was the teaser to the season. That they were able to get 5 and not 4, 45 minute pieces together is a tribute to using the same material again and yet again as they went forward with the field interviews, narration and cutting back to the super computer codebreaker ‘dream team,’ which gave them among other things, a way to eat up screen time on numbingly frustrating cliffhangers. As described in another thread, my overall opinion of it was of being underwhelmed, nevertheless, someone not having known about this period in California history should be intrigued.
The camera work was very good and the investigators and computer experts were as "real" as it gets under the circumstances of recreation. The narrator is viewed as one of the strongest in the industry. That most of the research came from the net and in fact from this site, if my rather cursory perusal of it is accurate, tells me you should get much of the credit, and being in New York where we have lawyers whose job it is to get you that credit, I would be making sure it was front and center.
The real payday for a season of ‘Hunt for Zodiac,’ for the filmmakers at least, would come in the next installments, if they are to come at all, and is based on numbers of viewers for the 5 episode teaser slate we saw, which were milked along for additional viewers based on deceptive editing "that the 340 had been solved" cracked, however you prefer to characterize it.
A person involved in the "Mikado" show of 1969 was interviewed by Graysmith, not sure if same one in ‘Hunt" but he did have the stories about certain ‘weirdos’ coming in at that time, this is known. It was the first time I have seen anyone from the 1969 show on camera, in any of several docs out there. That would have to be included in any tour of Zodiac history, a 1969 production sending up ‘The Mikado’ is relates to the Zodiac mystery: who wrote the letters, his taunting voice sending up the police and the entire Bay Area.
The proximity to different addresses and the Stine cab ride has also been done, ad nauseam, interesting for television, but not relevant like Bates, for example.
Morf was credited at the end of every episode. Verbally would have been a nice touch.
“…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
My thanks go to Morf, Tahoe & Doronchak and anyone else here for everything you’ve done to make this show happen, and on a bigger scale, to bring this case to a larger audience.
Because I visit this site all the time, most of what was revealed on this show was old news to me. However, if this show creates enough publicity and momentum, it could open doors in LE that were heretofore inaccessible.
One question that is nagging me about Ross Sullivan: Somewhere on this site, I remember reading that somebody once said that someone in LE told them that the Zodiac died in a shootout or an arrest raid in Santa Cruz in the ’70s. Does anyone else readinge remember this? Nevermind, I just found it in the thread about the morning of Ross’ death.
My thanks go to Morf, Tahoe & Doronchak and anyone else here for everything you’ve done to make this show happen, and on a bigger scale, to bring this case to a larger audience.
Because I visit this site all the time, most of what was revealed on this show was old news to me. However, if this show creates enough publicity and momentum, it could open doors in LE that were heretofore inaccessible.
One question that is nagging me about Ross Sullivan: Somewhere on this site, I remember reading that somebody once said that someone in LE told them that the Zodiac died in a shootout or an arrest raid in Santa Cruz in the ’70s. Does anyone else readinge remember this? Nevermind, I just found it in the thread about the morning of Ross’ death.
I remember reading that a while back too. Pretty sure had nothing to do with Ross though.
My thanks go to Morf, Tahoe & Doronchak and anyone else here for everything you’ve done to make this show happen, and on a bigger scale, to bring this case to a larger audience.
Because I visit this site all the time, most of what was revealed on this show was old news to me. However, if this show creates enough publicity and momentum, it could open doors in LE that were heretofore inaccessible.
One question that is nagging me about Ross Sullivan: Somewhere on this site, I remember reading that somebody once said that someone in LE told them that the Zodiac died in a shootout or an arrest raid in Santa Cruz in the ’70s. Does anyone else readinge remember this? Nevermind, I just found it in the thread about the morning of Ross’ death.
Well said and glad all are getting credited! I bought all the eps and never thought to watch the credits for Mike’s name.
