The fact nobody is talking about this book is strange. I don’t understand this.

The book has covered the details of the Zodiac case very well. Mike has an extensive knowledge of the Zodiac story without doubt. The problem that has emerged in recent years, particularly with the advent of the internet, is people have understandably become weary of suspect driven books. They are designed around the author’s suspicions or belief that the said suspect may possibly be, or is the Zodiac Killer. If you disagree with that notion from the off, that is an obvious barrier to purchase. The other problem that has become systemic, is the fear of giving an honest critical analysis of a person’s suspect or theory, for fear of upsetting or angering the person, since their beliefs are often strong and somewhat personal. I am not suggesting this is the case with Mike, who has always been fair with me, but often in the Zodiac scene disagreeing with somebodies staunchly held beliefs can be met with vitriol, so many just avoid commenting at all. Mike may have fell victim to this phenomena.
You only have to spend a short time on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and to a lesser extent forums, where threads get derailed by slanging matches and misrepresentation of stated facts. I have read most of Mike’s book and like the detail he has given the reader. It is definitely worth investing in from this aspect, but hopefully I reserve the right to dismiss Kjell Qvale as the Zodiac Killer, as I do for every other suspect I have ever read about. This isn’t a slight on Mike, it’s just a difference of opinion, that unfortunately many people in the Zodiac scene are incapable of handling because it bruises their ego.
If people are unable to accept constructive criticism, then they shouldn’t write books, create articles and post on forums. I wish Mike every success with his book and no doubt he will understand that some people will agree with his observations about the Zodiac case, and some won’t. An honest opinion should always be welcomed, but often it isn’t. This is the sad reality of the Zodiac scene.

Hi Richard,

i have no issue with your honest thoughts, and I do not have any vitriol for someone who reads my book and disagrees with my conclusions. The point I question is why people are not buying it and then disagreeing with me. Gary Stewart had a suspect that I was able to put a huge dent in almost immediately after it came out but his book hit the NYT best seller list, if memory serves. He professed to have the most evidence against his suspect but my evidence dwarfs his. There is a lot that is good message board fodder in my book, as well: my suspect, the evidence against him, my new interpretation of the LHR crime scene, the profile, the "second radian," the DNA chapter, and more. So why is nobody discussing the "non-suspect" issues my book like that affect everyone, not just me? In fact,my book should be higher up on the readability scale because it is not ALL about my suspect but rather I cover a range of issues.

Something else is afoot here other than the disagreement with my suspect. People read Titwillow. People read T17 despite disagreeing with Penn.

Mike

What do you think the problem is Mike? I believe it is important to read the opinions of other people, otherwise we never learn and stay fixed in one mindset. I have completely different opinions on each of Zodiac’s four crimes compared to 3 years ago and am still questioning whether the crimes occurred as currently portrayed in the consensus. I will give you a challenge on something in your book regarding the Robbins kids tomorrow, but I’m sure you can guess what I’m going to say.

Many of us have been following the Qvale/Zodiac story for almost 20 years. Much has already been revealed about him in forum postings etc going back a very long time. Certainly enough to give people an opinion about his likelihood at being the Zodiac.

The book contains

a The best Zodiac profiling I’ve read

b The most in-depth reactions from the Washington Street witnesses.

Which is true for most suspects, whether official or not, Tom. There are so many good suspects in this Zodiac case… If we get to know the truth about it all one day, I bet we’ll be very much surprised.

Richard – Curious what point you are raising re the Robbins kids.

mike_r ….. you ask why your book isn’t selling? One thing and ONLY one thing jumps out to me. I think it might very simply be that you didn’t hold a press conference. All the recent Z books that people have run out to buy or purchase online are the ones where the authors held some press conference or went on the news or tv show. I think the new Z crowd expects the hype. I don’t know how many newbies are actively searching for an ‘unknown’ book. They all want something to twitter about. It’s ridiculous and I could certainly be way off …. this is just IMO.

Good luck to you – I will buy your book at some point myself … maybe when my kid moves out and I have 5 minutes to myself.

Which is true for most suspects, whether official or not, Tom. There are so many good suspects in this Zodiac case.

Imagine if I wrote a book about Gaikowski. He’s been a topic of discussion for more than a decade in these circles. Unless a book about him contained some legit surprise brand-new blockbusters, it probably wouldn’t sell particularly well nor generate much discussion.

Mike I think you should’ve done more press. Ever thought about doing the True Murder Podcast? I’ve certanly become aware of some good true crime books through that. Regardless I still think this book is worthy of both a read and discussion.

I know I’ve stated this before Mike, but the timings are way off. Here is an excerpt from the Robbins children:

"At this time, Lindsey went downstairs to get a better look at what was happening, while one of the kids upstairs called the police. Downstairs, the lights were off, so Lindsey knew he could not be seen from the outside. He got close to the window and watched his actions. He was shortly joined by Rebecca. They both watched and observed in silence as Zodiac pushed the driver to an upright position behind the steering wheel, exited the car and walked around the rear of the car and opened the driver’s door. Stine had fallen over onto the seat and Zodiac pulled him back up into the seated position and had some difficulty keeping him upright. Once upright, he was seen to have a rag, or something like a handkerchief and began to wipe down the door area and leaning over the driver, part of the dashboard. When he was finished, Zodiac calmly walked to Cherry St. and walked north.
Not many know this, but Lindsey (being 16. feeling immortal, and believing the suspect to be armed with only a knife) ran out of his door to see where Zodiac was going. He ran to the corner of Cherry and watched as Zodiac continued his casual pace right up to the corner of Jackson & Cherry.
At this exact point, the first SFPD car arrives with two officers. One, Pelissetti, approached Lindsey and tried to extract what was happening. The other officer went to the cab and found the bloody victim. While Pelissetti was asking questions, Lindsey was trying to explain that the suspect was in sight on Cherry St. By the time Pelissetti got the point, they both looked and the Zodiac was gone."

Lindsey ran to the corner and watched as Zodiac continued his casual pace right up to the corner of Jackson & Cherry. Armond Pelissetti got the radio call and when he arrived Zodiac was approaching Jackson Street. Armond Pelissetti drove to the scene, parked up in the middle of the intersection, approached the teenagers and tried to extract what was happening. Frank Peda went to the taxicab. Meanwhile Lindsey was trying to tell Pelissetti Zodiac was approaching the corner. If as little as 1 minute had elapsed from radio dispatch to Pelissetti ‘viewing’ Zodiac at the top of Cherry, then Donald Fouke had equally traveled 1 minute into his journey from Presidio Avenue/Washington St. It is a one minute journey from Presidio Avenue/Washington St to Jackson and Maple, where he spots Zodiac nearing the intersection and according to his memorandum, Zodiac turning into Maple.
How can Zodiac have been spotted after 1 minute by Pelissetti at the top of Cherry and been spotted by Donald Fouke after 1 minute by Maple. That is a 2 minute discrepancy. Furthermore, it takes Donald Fouke no more than 90 seconds (likely less) to reach Cherry from his starting point, where he purportedly bumps into Armond Pelissetti. How can Armond Pelissetti receive the police dispatch, drive to the crime scene, talk to the kids, usher them across the road, check on Paul Stine as he claimed, update everybody of the new description on the radio and carefully walk up Cherry checking alcoves and cars, and do all that in 90 seconds to meet Donald Fouke at the top of Cherry (Cherry St on its own takes 1 minute to walk). The Robbins kids story doesn’t work if both Donald Fouke and Armond Pelissetti both received the police dispatch at the same time- which they did.

Hi Richard,

My p/w did not work for a few days, thus the slow reply. Unfortunately, I do not get into parsing minutes and seconds. They tried that about ten years ago and "proved" that there were missing minutes/seconds and that Fouke therefore MUST by lying when he says that he did not speak to Z because he "had time" to do so, etc. These arguments are pretty much fruitless. We simply don’t know how fast people did things. you do understand that Fouke did not hear the original transmission of the radio call by AP changing the description because he was on a different frequency than AP. I covered that in my book. He got a delayed APB announcement that came over all three channels, not the original call AP made. Is that something at play here?

Tom, There seems to be some misunderstanding. My book is not just about my case against KQ. I included many things in it in order to broaden interest in the book, like a new interpretation of the LHR crime scene, a complete behavioral profile by a world renowned profiler that I defend by comparing what the profile says to known and accepted traits of the killer that we have discussed for years, a discussion of my many years of research into the DNA (which effort was vindicated on your site in January, when you said there is not Zodiac DNA and there never was–and I feel there never will be but let’s see), my controversial interpretations of Zodiac’s two bus bombs, the "second radian," a discussion of Norse bumerker and the Avery card, and probably things I can’t recall off the top of my head. So I hope this clears up any confusion.

Oh yeah, I explain using profiling by Mr. Walter why Z probably did not kill CJB.

Mike

Mike, I hope you sell a ton of books. I was only referring to the Qvale element of it as it pertains to old timers like me.

Hi Tom,

Thanks. Being under constraints that nobody who was accusing people like Allen, Kane, Davis, or any dead person, etc., ever faced and being under them for 14 years, as well as having the handicap of that fake DNA exclusion hanging over my head beginning in 2002, made it virtually impossible for me to build what is called in the publishing business as a "platform." People in publishing don’t seem to be able to wrap their heads around the challenges I faced in attracting attention to my story without tremendous risk to myself. It is hard to build a "following" when you can’t even say who your suspect is, or provide too much specific evidence that creates a "libel trail." So I was stuck. However, what they don’t understand is that the lack of a "platform" does not change the quality of my research or my writing. It’s just a game you have to play nowadays, but no so in the history of publishing. Harper published Gary Stewart’s book, and he was "Gary Stewart Who?" at the time." He claimed to have the "most evidence" ever presented against a suspect in the case. I think I’ve put that argument to rest, as well as his infernal handwriting evidence and "reversed bloody fingerprint" argument.

Mike