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.)

We might be getting a little off topic from your original thread here, Appendix, but one of my favorite posters at Zkiller.com, who went by the name "Forumer Deleted User", started this thread about that topic:

http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/topic/2 … ana?page=1

My conclusion is that, although Hartnell was definitely less than certain, I think it’s likely that Z did indeed refer to Deer Lodge Prison in Montana (and likely read about the recent escapes somewhere).

Seems pretty likely that Zodiac had read about this case(or seen it on the news),and thought it would be good material to use in his attack to keep the Victims calm. If so, then maybe we can start to rule out guys from Deer Lodge area that wound up in the Vallejo/Napa areas

What town is the Independent Record from?

Helena, Montana.

Not sure if the story originated in that paper, though, since it was an AP story.

Can someone find the followup article that mentions their recapture?

That’s a pretty darn cool story. Niiiice.

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.

It’s a tricky one. Seems very coincidental that there actually was a prison break from deer Lodge just prior to LB. At a pinch I suppose we could assume that this may be Z’s inspiration for his little story, after all he didn’t have to stick to details since he probably didn’t expect his victims to live. i.e no guard or guards killed.

Then why use an actual event? Weight to the story? Why would he think though that 2 teens in California would have heard about a prison break in Montana five days prior when they didn’t even know who he was or was supposed to be?

This doesn’t have to make sense though for Z to still have used it. The more interesting question is the one E is asking. IF this was his inspiration, where did he hear/read about it?

I did some searching, and I could find ZERO articles in the state of CA that mention the Deer Lodge incident the week of the Berryessa attack. Maybe it was on TV? I looked thru Newspaperarchive & Google news archive,and found zero newspapers in CA that mentioned the incident. The bolk of papers that mention it were in fact,in MT, athough it WAS an AP Story and could have been picked up anywhere.

We might be getting a little off topic from your original thread here, Appendix, but one of my favorite posters at Zkiller.com, who went by the name "Forumer Deleted User", started this thread about that topic

I don’t mind going off topic, as far as I’m concerned, anything that is factually based and relevant to the case is relevant to the topic. I’m trying to conglomerate all the facts that are generally agreed upon into a single document.

Also, funnily enough, I had read some of "Forum Deleted Users" comments before and thought that that was just the name used for prior members who had been banned/deleted/removed from the forum. I wasn’t aware it was a single guy and his username, haha.

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.

This is definitely what I’d be interested in and what I’ll try to do next: find out when the Deer Lodge news filtered into the Vallejo and San Francisco areas, what papers it was reported in and what exactly was said about the escapes.

We might be getting a little off topic from your original thread here, Appendix, but one of my favorite posters at Zkiller.com, who went by the name "Forumer Deleted User", started this thread about that topic

One of the best posters & thinkers over at the thread/link/forum posted above is our own entropy. If I recall correctly he deleted himself, which gave his posts Deleted User. There’s a few others that go by that name, but you can sometimes tell by their writing style who they are. Just wanted to make sure he received credit!

Zam*

I think it was "Deoxys", a confirmed poster on zk.com, who is referenced by in the aforementioned thread as "Deo" by another poster.

I think it was "Deoxys", a confirmed poster on zk.com, who is referenced by in the aforementioned thread as "Deo" by another poster.

Correct whom is entropy’s favorite poster!

Great find regarding the breakout at Deer Lodge days before LB. At last,something we can hang our hats on/makes sense. Amazing it took until now to uncover that gem, well done!

As a side note (or: "By the way,"), if anyone has any points, paths, data or information they’d like plotted on maps, let me know and I’d be glad to do it. Right now I’ve got maps of Presidio Heights and the Vallejo/SF area but I’m more than willing to throw together anything else that is relevant to the case.

Getting back to the Map and where Z may have been from/heading…I’ve always been influenced too in favour of Vallejo when considering the times of the attacks.
I’ve always thought he was closer to home (given the times of the murders) in Vallejo, while allowing himself time to get home from LB and SF, hence they were earlier!
It’s also why I think he may have had someone to answer to. Just opinion.

I’ve always been influenced too in favour of Vallejo when considering the times of the attacks.
I’ve always thought he was closer to home (given the times of the murders) in Vallejo, while allowing himself time to get home from LB and SF, hence they were earlier!

This is an interesting theory; the Stine murder occurred at ~9:55PM. To get back to Vallejo he’d be looking at a 50 minute drive, which would put him home about 10:45.

The Berryessa attack occurred at ~6:30PM, the drive to Napa is about 1 hour and 15 minutes, which would put him home around 7:45PM. However, he stopped in Napa and made a phone call at 7:40PM. The drive from Napa to Vallejo is about 25 minutes, putting him home at about 8:05PM.

The Lake Herman Road attack occurred at ~11:15PM. Depending on his proposed residence, that puts him home any time after 11:15PM.

The Blue Rock Springs attack occurred at ~12:10AM. Again, Z stopped to make a phone call, this time at 12:40AM, that puts him home any time after 12:40AM.

I did some searching, and I could find ZERO articles in the state of CA that mention the Deer Lodge incident the week of the Berryessa attack. Maybe it was on TV?

Another possibility is that it could have appeared in the police blotter or police reports in the form of a BOLO if Montana officers believed the escapees would be heading in that direction.