Welcome, Appendix G. Cool map and interesting way of looking at things…

So the hypothesis is that Z essentially stopped to communicate "on his way home" from doing his thing and on his way home seemed to point to San Francisco? No way to tell, of course, but it’s an interesting idea to ponder. I’ve always believed that Z started his career away from home but I know that’s a minority opinion. 15 of 18 letters, including the letter to the Vallejo Times-Herald were mailed from SF. He kept score with SFPD, wanted to see some nice Zodiac buttons wandering about town and was still hanging around SF to mail a letter two days after being very nearly captured walking away from Paul Stine’s murder. I think that at least raises a strong possibility of residence in or near SF.

On a side note, I recall Mike Butterfield once mentioning that SFPD was able to determine that all of the letters mailed from SF were mailed from a particular section of the city. Can anyone confirm that and/or know how they would determine that?

Appendix, Hi there, and we love a map, and a "return to basics"!
Even before a map is drawn, though, may I propose that the basics really begin with reading all the police reports and the FBI materials?
I wish I’d started there.

Hi Appendix, and welome! Cool map and post, Some things to digest for sure.

One thing in looking at your map, seems like if you draw lines from Berryessa, to Mt Diabl(mentioned by Z),to San Fran,and back to Berryessa, you get something pretty close to a triangle,and of course, Vallejo is in the middle.

I personally think Zodiac lived in vallejo and worked in San francisco, (or lived in the center of that triangle). He’s cruising around late at night on weekends in the Vallejo area for his first two attacks. If something goes wrong,he can escape quickly to his house. He’s mailing letters from San Fran during weekdays, likely on his way to work.
There was a guy named kim Rossmo(spelled right?)that had created a computer program & geographic profiling, that digested all of the Zodiac information,and came to a conclusion or geographic profile, that Zodiac likely lived in a section of Vallejo.There is a great article about it here on zodiacciphers.com-
http://www.zodiacciphers.com/1/post/201 … -back.html

From that article, "After the Blue Rock Springs Attack he made a telephone call,received by police dlspatcher Nancy Slover from a phone booth at the gas station of Springs Road and Tuolumne on July 5th at 12.40am.The approximate time of the attack was 12.10am,so if we take this as a guide,what was the killer doing for the following 30 minutes before the call was placed,as the payphone location was not half an hours travelling time from Blue Rock Springs,did the killer proceed home first to stash his gun and get changed,then venture back out to the payphone,if so he would live relatively close to the area,or was he simply delayed in making the call by unforseen events of possible witnesses in the area."

I personally think Zodiac lived close to that phonebooth on Springs & Tuolumne, went home,and stashed his gun and car,and walked to the phonebooth. With no car, he was less likely to be noticed.

I’ve always believed that Z started his career away from home but I know that’s a minority opinion.

I’m trying to keep my thoughts and opinions to a minimum, at first, so I can just focus on the established facts. It’s hard, because I definitely have a lot of opinions! It’s very easy to start seeing patterns once it’s all laid out in front of you. I think there’s a lot of merit to the idea of him starting far from home; from my understanding of criminal geographical profiling, the kill points on the map tend to indicate a residence in San Francisco or possibly somewhere in or around Oakland.

On a side note, I recall Mike Butterfield once mentioning that SFPD was able to determine that all of the letters mailed from SF were mailed from a particular section of the city. Can anyone confirm that and/or know how they would determine that?

This would be very interesting to have, if you stumble upon it, let me know!

Even before a map is drawn, though, may I propose that the basics really begin with reading all the police reports and the FBI materials?

Yeah, that is my plan, though I want to print them out to read them. The main reason I did the maps first was because I am utterly unfamiliar with the Napa/Vallejo/SF area and wanted to at least have a basic knowledge of the area so that I could put the crimes into some kind of geographical context.

I personally think Zodiac lived in vallejo and worked in San francisco, (or lived in the center of that triangle). He’s cruising around late at night on weekends in the Vallejo area for his first two attacks.

This is definitely another possibility. I think it all boils down to what kind of killer Z was (doesn’t everything):

1) Was he an intelligent, manipulative and intentional killer? If so, I would posit that he lived in San Francisco/Oakland as mentioned above. The reason being that the geographical patterns would conform with past killers of that type who tended to select their first few victims from far away, then strike close to home,

2) Was he a panicky, impulsive and unintentional killer? If so, I would say that a residence in Vallejo is likely. The first attack being somewhat impulsive, the following attacks designed to throw police off his trail.

This is absolutely a super simplified examination of the subject but those are just my gut reactions and thoughts. In my opinion, looking at the map, it’s two entirely different — almost opposite — types of killer if he lived in Vallejo versus San Francisco, or vice versa. I really hope that the FBI reports give me enough information to make a determination, to my satisfaction, as to what type of killer Z was.

From that article, "After the Blue Rock Springs Attack he made a telephone call,received by police dlspatcher Nancy Slover from a phone booth at the gas station of Springs Road and Tuolumne on July 5th at 12.40am.The approximate time of the attack was 12.10am,so if we take this as a guide,what was the killer doing for the following 30 minutes before the call was placed,as the payphone location was not half an hours travelling time from Blue Rock Springs,did the killer proceed home first to stash his gun and get changed,then venture back out to the payphone,if so he would live relatively close to the area,or was he simply delayed in making the call by unforseen events of possible witnesses in the area."

This is very interesting. I hadn’t looked at the time between the BRS attack and the call. I looked at the LB attack and it’s call, a difference of 70 minutes. It’s roughly a 55 minute drive from LB to Napa, so there’s a little time in there for action. I chalked it up to one of two things:

1) Z drove into Napa, pulled into a service station and used the restroom to clean up before making the call,

2) Z was inaccurate or misleading with the time he wrote on the car (6:30) and the real time was closer to 6:45; he could have possibly done this to lead police to believe that he had more time to get away, but if that’s the case he has to know that they’re going to trace the call to Napa and know exactly where he is at 7:40 and subsequently deduce how far he traveled in that time.

In the case of BRS, the time difference is way more pronounced. The travel time between the two points (if I remember correctly) is something like 5-6 minutes. That leaves 24-25 minutes of unaccounted time, which is a huge chunk and a long time to stay in the area if you’ve just committed a murder. I would agree that this lends weight to the theory that he lived in Vallejo.

I personally think Zodiac lived close to that phonebooth on Springs & Tuolumne, went home,and stashed his gun and car,and walked to the phonebooth. With no car, he was less likely to be noticed.

Of the known suspects, I think only Allen lived closed to the phone booth… his house was (if I remember correctly) something like a 1 minute walk away from Springs/Toulumne. I’m not sold on Allen as a suspect (or any of the present POI’s as suspects) but just wanted to share the information in the event that people weren’t aware of how close he lived to that phone.

Regarding Kim Rossmo’s data & findings, he thinks that Zodiac lived in the ‘RanchoVallejo’ dvelopment part of Vallejo,which i do not think is part of where the phonebooth was located(I could be wrong).

As far as the location of the Springs & Tuolumne phonebooth location,I undertook a mind numbing project of looking at every person listed within 1 block of that spot, and background checked every one(or most of them). It was long boring work,but found a few interesting things. One of the guys had lived in Deer Lodge back in the 1940’s or 50’s.Of course,Z mentioned Deer Lodge at Berryessa. I was hoping to find a smoking gun linking a resident there to Riverside and the Bates case

Z mentioned Deer Lodge at Berryessa. I was hoping to find a smoking gun linking a resident there to Riverside and the Bates case

This is one thing I’m not sure of… after reading the BH interview, did Z really mention Deer Lodge? Bryan initially stated that it was "double words", "Fern" or "Feathers", or something like that. The investigator then led him to "Lodge" and later "Montana Lodge". Did Bryan ever 100% confirm "Deer Lodge"?

From that interview, I’m just not totally convinced that Z said "Deer Lodge". Sure, it’s possible to say that there’s only one prison in Montana with two words in its name but who’s to say that Z even used the name of a real prison? That portion of the interview just seemed very leading to me… Bryan seemed confident that one of the words began with an "F"; the remainder of his testimony is very clear and very specific. Without direct confirmation from him that "Deer Lodge" is correct, I’d be inclined to believe that he heard a two word name and that one of those words began with the letter "F".

(Note: I don’t know if he has or hasn’t confirmed "Deer Lodge" yet, I haven’t gotten that far in my research. If he has, please disregard this post.)

A day or two before the Berryessa attack, there WAS a prison escape someplace in the US. I forget where,but will see if I can find it.

A day or two before the Berryessa attack, there WAS a prison escape someplace in the US. I forget where,but will see if I can find it.

On 9/27/69(the very morning of the Berryessa attack), a story ran across the AP, and in newspapers all over, about a prison riot/escape in Pendleton, Indiana. I don’t think the name of the prison was a two word name like DEER LODGE, but often wonder if this was the inspiration for zodiac to use the prison escape story, maybe just inserting DEER LODGE, or whatever name he used? Sice Z was such a big newspaper fan, he likely read this story that very morning

A day or two before the Berryessa attack, there WAS a prison escape someplace in the US. I forget where,but will see if I can find it.

There was a rumored prison break (I haven’t personally confirmed it, yet) from Deer Lodge on September 22, 1969. It should be written about in the Sep. 22 or Sep. 23 issues.

You’re only allowed to check one per day and I’ve exceeded my limit.

A day or two before the Berryessa attack, there WAS a prison escape someplace in the US. I forget where,but will see if I can find it.

There was a reported prison break from Deer Lodge on September 22, 1969. It should be written about here:

http://newspaperarchive.com/billings-ga … 969-09-22/

Or here:

http://newspaperarchive.com/billings-ga … 969-09-23/

You’re only allowed to check one per day and I’ve exceeded my limit.

Okay, then we have this too that very week.

Okay, then we have this too that very week.

Were you able to bring up the page and confirm it happened? If so, which day was it reported on? That way I can edit my post and save people having to wait a day to view it.

Convicts Escape DEER LODGE (AP) – Two prisoners escaped late Sunday from the medium security compound at the state prison near Deer Lodge. They were identified as Carl Pierce, 27, and Ronald Woods, 22. Acting Prison Warden Charles Dell said the two men cut the fence behind the baseball backstop at Rothe Hall, about 9 p.m. Sunday. He said Pierce, who had been in the prison since Nov. 5, 1968, was serving an eight-year sentence from Custer County for robbery. He was a miner by occupation. Woods was serving a 15-year sentence for first-degree assault from Lewis and Clark County. A brick layer by occupation, he has been in the prison since July 12, 1960. Dell said the escapes are the first since he took over Aug. 19 after the Board of Institutions discharged the former warden, E. C. Ellsworth. Security guards were searching the area around the compound in the Deer Lodge Valley. Dell said there were no immediate reports of stolen vehicles.
Apprehended in October .

Image of the article from the Independent Record Monday, September 22, 1969:

Here’s a PDF of the entire page:

http://zodiackillerciphers.com/images/77871975.pdf

Image of the article from the Independent Record Monday, September 22, 1969:

Here’s a PDF of the entire page:

http://zodiackillerciphers.com/images/77871975.pdf

Very interesting! That deserves it’s own thread, IMO. What town is the Independent Record from? I wonder if Seagull or anyone else could find any reference to this escape in Bay area newpapers. Unless Carl Pierce or Ronald Woods are Zodiac (and they were probably incarcerated for most of his activity), I think Z probably read about this in the newspapers and used it as a threat at Lake Berryessa.