Discussion of this passage in Sanders book was brought up early on, when Gaikowski was first named as a suspect. It’s buried somewhere in the Gaik threads at ZK.com. Gaikowski was never in prison, he was jailed for a few hours in the Contra Costa County jail. He had gotten himself arrested in order to write a piece on conditions in the jail or some such thing.

Sanders is an entertaining author but like the many authors of the Zodiac Killer much of his book is unsubstantiated or poorly sourced and like Graysmith much of his work has been soundly disproved. Whether or not Blaine in Sanders book is the Blaine that was Gaikowski’s friend is unknown. Could be, Sanders was not shy about using people’s true names, or at least the names they were commonly known by.

Hi-

Did not know that this was discussed already. Even though the "facts" are not correct about "Richard," do we know if he was dragging Gyke into the Manson story at the time? Is "Richard" believed to have been Gyke?

I found this on a website. The website is a bit "corny" but…:

"Blaine Blaine", aka "Goldcatcher", aka "Zakatarious", has been conclusively exposed as a liar & hoaxter by Zodiac killer researchers:

http://zodiackillerfacts.com/blog/archi … ther-name/

Blaine Blaine was Ed Sanders’ principle source for the idea that Charles Manson was a practising & high-ranking Satanist. He is the author of the infamous "Father P. and Pussycat" fantasy, which starts on page 91 of my copy of "The Family".

As Blaine was almost certainly also a source of various fantasies for Ted Gunderson and Maury Terry, it’s conceivable that this man was personally responsible for a large portion of the whole "murderous satanic cults in America" mythos.

http://dysgenicsreport.blogspot.com/201 … -body.html

Never fear, Blaine is like the proverbial broken clock, which is right twice a day (unless it is digital and gives "AM" and "PM" readings, then only once. LOL!). Even if BTB is not credible, the stroy goes, Gyke is still the strongest suspect ever developed. That’s what the disclaimer says. He even admitted it from the great beyond the other night…

Mike

Here’s the mention on ZK.com:

http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/reply/72797/Is-this-article-BS#reply-72797

It has never been proven that Manson was ever a Satanist. Manson’s deal was to learn about the various dogmas of the times and weave them into his own "philosophy". He followed no one, he was not a joiner. Before Susan Atkins hooked up with Manson she did participate with Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan in San Francisco. I can only surmise that this is how Manson was connected to the Church of Satan and that he probably did meet LaVey at some point.

Years later Nickolas Schreck, who is married to LaVey’s daughter Zeena, collaborated with others to published "The Manson File" , a book sympathetic to Manson, and has had an off and on relationship with Manson for decades now. Schreck and his cohorts are the ones responsible for the 8-8-88 celebration in San Francisco that was staged to commemorate the anniversary of the Tate LaBianca murders. This event also was billed as a tribute to the Zodiac Killer. (Painted Black, Carl A Raschke 1990, page 236)

Brother Ely in Sanders story is a man named Victor Wild. He did participate in the occult and the dark side. Wild had a leather shop in San Jose, later in Santa Barbara. He was the person who made the buckskins Manson was wearing when he was famously arrested. There are kernels of fact within Sanders book but the way he connected those facts leaves a lot to be desired.

Hi-

That is not much discussion….

I wonder if "Richard" in this story is Gyke but Blaine just wove him into some fantasy story involving Manson and Satanism. Since Sanders’ book did not come out until 1971, if this is a fantasy, the 1964 date mentioned in the story is meaningless. This story in the "Berkeley paper" could have appeared anytime prior to 1971 after BTB met Gaikowski, even if he did not know him as far back as 1964. I wonder if Blaine came up with this after he met Gaikowski. It would show that Blaine was weaving fantasy about RG even prior to his ramblings about the Z case involving Gyke.

It is just so weird to see BTB writing a story about some "other" Richard…

Too bad the original Berkeley story is not sourced….

Mike

There was definitely another thread discussing this at zkiller.com but I can’t find it offhand. The passage is from pages 79-82 in The Family, which is a really fascinating read for anyone interested in the dark side of the 60s counterculture. Blaine wrote for the Berkeley Barb so I do believe that "an interesting article that appeared in a Berkeley newspaper authored by a person named Blaine" is too much of a coincidence NOT to be Goldcatcher of Gyke fame. He claims that Manson was involved in a "death cult" operating out of "the notorious Waller Street Devil House", a former crash house run by the Diggers where Manson had previously stayed briefly.

I also think it is likely that Blaine is referring to Gaikowski as Manson’s former lover although that’s less than certain and it is nearly impossible to sort out fact from fiction from fantasy with him. A lot of Blaine’s claims are over the top but some of the goings on at that time were indeed stranger than fiction. I think the whole assortment of wild claims attributed to Blaine in this book are entirely consistent with some of his other writings and claims about Gaikowski.

gaik is interesting..but i have no use for blain..none

In some crazy mixed up way I think Blaine or his motley circle of friends did have something to do with the Zodiac case (more than Blaine or a certain other person are letting on at this time). Certain information cannot be released for the time being. We have not heard the last about Blaine, who I believe is 80 years old this year.

I found it rather interesting that in Blaine’s diary from the 60’s, he named a guy working at the Good Times office as someone the staff felt was the Zodiac. It wasn’t Dick Gaik though…

Goldcatcher (Blaine) is a nutjob, and so is Tom Voigt for believing Goldcatcher’s nonsense.

I found it rather interesting that in Blaine’s diary from the 60’s, he named a guy working at the Good Times office as someone the staff felt was the Zodiac. It wasn’t Dick Gaik though…

Yes, suffice to say a LOT of people are sitting on information… which will one day come out. Whether it will reveal the identity of the Zodiac is another matter. Somehow I doubt that it will conclusively, but it could take the case in some new and interesting directions.

The answer to the mystery is likely in the unreleased Vallejo police files, but by the time they make that information public, assuming it’s then still extant, it’ll be far too late, not only for the killer, but for many of us.

Goldcatcher (Blaine) is a nutjob, and so is Tom Voigt for believing Goldcatcher’s nonsense.

Well um I’ll refrain from commenting because such statements as these border on libel. I started digging deeper and doing more research and find Blaine and his circle of friends very interesting. A lot does not make sense or add up, but a few things that didn’t at first add up sometimes did make sense in ways that were not obvious or stated. I think Tom is sitting on information for a reason, which I have already… um… implied. That’s about all I want to say on this topic for now. I will say this, we should not write people off just because of their history or because we see them as being crazy. We must remember that the Zodiac was himself crazy, as was Manson, and for that matter, as was a great many people within a certain circle of friends and acquaintances at the time. Therefore the solution may at first seem totally crazy. It is what people are NOT telling us but seem to be implying which I sometimes find interesting.

So you’re saying Blaine isn’t a nutjob?

And yet you want to label my labeling of Blaine a nutjob as libel when Blaine has labeled a defenseless dead man as a serial killer.