has anyone broken down either of graysmith’s books into fact/fiction? he seems to cross the line between a fictional narrative (the heavy use of direct quotes and descriptions of events to which he wasn’t present) and a historical account (interviews, documents, etc) and i don’t even know where to begin in breaking down the parts where he seems to try to be historically accurate.
for example – he obviously threw everything at ala, so i just tend to ignore most of the circumstantial evidence regarding his main suspect, however is it generally accepted that his direct quotes from investigators are legit or did he take poetic license even with the stuff between the quotation marks?
This might be a good place to start…
thanks, i’ve read the related links there before. i’m still not clear when he says something like ‘and then toschi said "blah to the blah blah"‘ if it’s presumed he even fabricated those direct quotes. i’m trying to see if there’s anything useful about his books other than the fact that he kept an interest in the killings at a time when they likely could have otherwise fallen off the map.
I’m not sure anyone has taken the time to dissect the books to that extent, but it would be nice. You’d probably end up writing a book of your own with that kind of effort. 
As far as I know no one has ever come out and said that he misquoted them…
But I know for a fact that he gives two completely different accounts of the same conversation between his books and quotes Toschi as saying two different dates. People have defended this as saying that he was basing it off his memory, so he didn’t need to present it accurately and we should forgive him for contradicting himself 20 years later.
I suppose so, because I can’t remember exactly which dates and parts I was talking about now either. Guess we’re all getting old.
Here’s some hilarious Graysmith quotes and comments that I posted from his Unabomber book on ZKF. Some of the dumbest **** ya’ heard.
"Here’s Bob’s bizarre description of a Batman villain:
Graysmith’s Unabomber page 177; I had flown there (to New York) to comment on… a copycat of San Francisco’s Zodiac killer, a psychically powerful costumed genius…
And here’s that quote from above, parenthesis by author.
He had never been officially caught (though police considered the case cleared).
Implying that he had been unofficially caught by Graysmith 
Here he seems to brag about inspiring a killer
now there could be two copycats of the original West Coast Zodiac. My ten year case study was undeniably being followed.
Here’s one from his list of comparissons between UNABOMB and Z
Page 370; Zodiac had mentioned Deer Lodge, Montana, near Lincoln (where Ted lived) in a letter
Yeah, nice ten years worth of study there!"
It could have been in the giant letter he left taped to the car door at Berryessa. The one the police didn’t want released. You can see the envelope here. (I do like a good rumor lol).
“I don’t know Chief, he’s very smart or very dumb.“
