In 1987 a new Zodiac communication was sent to the Vallejo Times Herald saying "Cars make nice weapons." The letter itself made reference to a 1977 film called The Car, featuring a killer car played by a remodelled Lincoln Continental.
The evil, black car in the film was a highly customised 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III designed by famed Hollywood car customiser George Barris.
Now if we were for a moment to accept that this was an authentic Zodiac communication, could it be a clue to Zodiac’s new, yet discrete mode of attack? After all, he said he would change the way he committed his crimes, "to look like accidents".
As you probably know, in April 7th 1972 Isobel Watson had just gotten off the bus in Pine Hill Rd, Tamalpais Valley, Marin County at 9pm at night, when she was hit by a "light-colored auto", the driver of which got out and offered to take her home. Watson survived the attack, but was savagely stabbed in the neck after she refused the ride. The description of the man was given in the newspapers as follows:
heavy black rimmed glasses, early 40s, about 5′ 9" and neat brown hair
The attack also happened on a Friday, matching Zodiac’s previous pattern of weekend offending. LE thought it could well be Zodiac. See Richard Grinnell’s account.
Beyond colour, the car’s description wasn’t given, but could it be that the car was a late-60s or early-70s Lincoln Continental which carries at least three Zodiac-type symbols on it, both as hood ornament and side emblem? This observation has been made previously on the forum. by The Foreigner.
However, while this is only a tenuous and not so obvious link to Zodiac’s preferred cross hair symbol, not many people know that Zodiac watches also produced a 1957 special edition Lincoln Continental watch, known as the Zodiac Glorious, offered as a sales award for dealers, and thereby merging the two very similar brand logos of each firm.
A link between the name Zodiac and the car he perhaps drove?
www.zodiachalloweencard.com has a 400 paged book for free containing the super solution with an overarching explanation of the cards and more.
Sad Lincoln on the stamp?
Sad Lincoln on the stamp?
It’s another Lincoln reference found in the Zodiac list of stuff for you. The Pines card stamp. It was a very unusual card also. Pre-paid stamp. The Lincoln one.
www.zodiachalloweencard.com has a 400 paged book for free containing the super solution with an overarching explanation of the cards and more.
Thanks, BD Holland. How odd.
Two funny yet, extraneous facts I learned about the film The Car, was that: the sound the horn of The Car makes spells out the letter X in Morse code; and Aton LeVay from the Church of Satan was a technical advisor on the film.
The Watson incident didn’t get nearly as much press as Johns, but I did find an article with more details. This says the car was a "late model Ford or Chevrolet sedan"; also, Marin County didn’t agree with Narlow that it was Zodiac.
Thanks, interesting that views on whether it was Zodiac fell between jurisdictional stools. One thing that is striking about the above description, is that it says that the male was ‘stocky’. That phrase is one of the most common Zodiac descriptors.
I’m also struck scanning around the internet, by the convergence in styling between Ford, Chevy and Lincoln sedan models during this period (which shouldn’t be a surprise given competition for market share). Lincoln appears to be the first to modernise the look of their sedan around 1960 and then other companies followed in appearance a few years later.
This seems as good a place as any to share this recent article about when cars were used to prowl and murder in 70’s California.
Killing Machines: How car culture in 1970s Los Angeles fuelled a terrifying string of murders
