From the link provided by Morf above-

A Short Scanner History
Back in the early days of radio, in the early to mid 1900s, tunable radio receivers were used to monitor police channels. In actuality many police departments used a frequency just at the end of the AM radio dial around 1700 KHz to broadcast to their patrol cars. In the 1960s, when police and fire departments were using FM radio channels around 40 and 155 MHz (VHF Low and High band), enterprising radio enthusiasts developed the scanner which in effect performed a rapid tuning function, searching local radio channels for activity by "scanning" them. The first scanners scanned four or eight channels. To monitor these channels people had to buy crystals for the specific radio frequency used by their local departments, and install them inside the scanner. In later years a keyboard replaced the crystal and now you can program thousands of channels into a scanner from a keyboard or a PC.

Back then you needed to install the proper crystal to listen to police broadcasts so unless the taxi company had installed the proper crystal in their radios the cab drivers using those cabs would not have been able to listen to police broadcasts. A scanner is just that, it scans and you can listen to the various broadcasts but you can not transmit, you need a transmitter for that. Since cab drivers could transmit back and forth with their dispatchers they did have the transmitters but it is unlikely that they would also have the capability to transmit to the police dispatcher.

Yes. I believe the photographer at the LHR scene and the reporter who found the Napa phone were both using scanners.

But, unless Paul Stine’s cab had a scanner in it, how would Zodiac have heard the alert for a black male?

I was actually suggesting (speculatively) that Z might have used Stine’s radio to send the message on police channels about a black male to cause confusion. Just wasn’t sure if the taxi radio could operate in that frequency.

If I am not mistaken, the tactic of sending a phony baloney message like that would have been used in wartime.

Thanks for the clarification G. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

GG I was kind of stuck in scanner/transmitter mode when making my reply to you. After further consideration I remembered that there was a police call box on the corner where Stine was killed. What you suggest, that Zodiac called in the erroneous description information that the suspect was black, theoretically would have been possible with that police call box!

A picture of the call box and discussion-

http://www.zodiackiller.com/discus/mess … 1168667170

GG I was kind of stuck in scanner/transmitter mode when making my reply to you. After further consideration I remembered that there was a police call box on the corner where Stine was killed. What you suggest, that Zodiac called in the erroneous description information that the suspect was black, theoretically would have been possible with that police call box!

A picture of the call box and discussion-

http://www.zodiackiller.com/discus/mess … 1168667170

Yes Seagull! That callbox has been of interest.

It would make it a lot more interesting if that call originally went to (came from?) dispatch via that call box! Wouldn’t one need a key to use? I didn’t think the ones in S.F. were public. ?

If a key was needed to use the box and likely it was, it would need to be a fairly universal key. The police officers would not be carrying around a big ring of keys to fit every call box in the city. That said I do not know how likely it would be that Zodiac could have gotten a copy of the key or even if the type of lock on the call box could have been easily "picked". That’s part of the reason I said "theoretically" Zodiac could have made a call to dispatch from that box.

Another consideration would be that the kids who called in the murder did not say that Zodiac stopped on the corner for even a few seconds. But there again, did they have a direct line of sight from the window to the call box? There is so little in the way of police reports on the Stine murder so we don’t have the actual times of when everything happened. Did the description of a black suspect come into the dispatcher before LE had arrived on scene? Were everybody’s watches synchronized? The timelines would have been close and even a minute or two might have made a difference.

To satisfy Welsh Chappie’s question..as to why going over to Maple and not take Cherry to escape ? Because there is a gate at Maple which leads into the Presidio..if he escaped thru Cherry, he’d have to leap over the retaining wall and in total darkness, that would be a kinda risky..

You guys are thinking outside of the box, and that’s a good thing, an interesting subject for sure. However, don’t forget, Zodiac had originally sent Stine to Washington & Maple, NOT Washington & Cherry. I am curious, is there a police call box on that corner too?

I think the million dollar question is, why did Zodiac choose that location? Personally, I don’t think Zodiac was a rich guy like Mr X, and I think if he was in that neighborhood, it was as a visitor and not a resident. Was he house sitting, visiting Family?? Sure he could have had some business or reason to go into the Presidio too. A thought I have had for a while is that perhaps, he worked for somebody in that area, and wanted to shock them or scare them, or maybe he was a Patient of a Doctor that lived nearby. That leads me to the next question, anybody have a 1969 criss cross directory for that neighborhood? Maybe we could look at every person in that small area to see if any of the residents stands out to us for any reason.

Near the bottom of this page I copied and posted the Polk’s Directory listings for the neighborhood.

viewtopic.php?f=98&t=504

There is a link to the online copy of the directory in the post in case you want to look at streets I did not copy.

There is no police call box in the area that I have noticed..there is a postage box still located at Washington and Cherry..a really small one on a post…the one thing about this neighborhood is that there are usually a lot of dog walkers traversing the area..the area around Julius Kahn playground is a great place to let a dog stretch the legs..I was at the crime scene today and spoke to a woman walking her dog just over the wall at Maple..there is a median at the end of Maple by the wall it is filled with flowers and shrubbery which is very visible from Washington St..the exit at Spruce has a better gate to get through but if Z was in a hurry then he’d of had to take on a 4 ft. drop here (impossible for me because of my bad knee) but very negotiable for a healthy individual..
Also further west on Washington St. by about one or two blocks away was the "Presidio Terrace" where some of SF’s utra-elite residences were..I believe Mayor Alioto and other SF dignitaries lived there and part of my feeling Z killed here was to show that this neighborhood wasn’t excluded from violence, and it made a statement..this is one of the wealthiest areas in the US..the richest woman in the world had a residence here as well as wealthy doctors, lawyers and heirs to fortunes..a very affluent place to commit a murder.

Near the bottom of this page I copied and posted the Polk’s Directory listings for the neighborhood.

viewtopic.php?f=98&t=504

There is a link to the online copy of the directory in the post in case you want to look at streets I did not copy.

Thanks for posting this Seagull, I assume this is just a directory, didn’t the criss cross list people’s jobs or companies?
I actually had forgotten, but I had already diagnosed this list, and started to sift thru the people:

quick walk to the end of Maple would put him around these homes: (the most likely spots in RED)

MAPLE ST-
1 Maple..Frederick C. Whitman (His Father was Malcolm D. Whitman, a three-time U. S. national singles champion, and a little about Fred,he was a longtime trustee of the Mental Health Institute of San Francisco and the Langley Porter Clinic

34 Maple, L. Arundel Hopkins/ William Sterba/Donald H. Campbell (Several diff names at one residence???) Lambert Arundel Hopkins(His Daughter was Anne Hopkins Aitken, married to Robert Aitken, both were authors about ZEN)

101 Maple, John R. Gamble
SPRUCE ST-
1 Spruce St..Robert P. Lilienthal
2 Spruce St…Mabel Filmer
16 Spruce st, Iver Lyche
33 Spruce st, Mrs. M D Young
100 Spruce, Milton C Coburn
101 Spruce, orphanage
107 Spruce, Donald P. Hill
115 Spruce, Vecki Morrell
121 Spruce, Garrison Southara Jr

JACKSON ST- (after Maple if you are walking in Zodiac’s shoes)
3600 Jackson,Andrew Simpson
3616 Jackson,Robert S. Sherman
3625 Jackson, Reed L. Funston
3629 Jackson, Mark S. Cluett
3630 Jackson,John A. Vietor
3631 Jackson, Robert H. Footman
3633 Jackson,Wilfred E. Willis
3636 Jackson, Kjell Qvale (MR.X)
3641 Jackson, Charles P. Lebo
3653 Jackson, John G. Bowen
3660 Jackson, Rose N. Sutro
3673 Jackson, John P. Cox
3675 Vacant
3680 Jackson, Helen Laphan

(before Maple if you are walking in Zodiac’s shoes)
3712 Jackson, Fred W. Bloch,
3728 Jackson, Coll Mac
3731 Jackson, Ilse Jawetz & Allen B. Wheelis
3736 Jackson, Charles B. Ehrman
3737 Jackson, Vincent K. Butler Jr (multiple generations of this name, one of them was a prominent atty in SF)
3746 Jackson, Beatrice Saroni
3747 Jackson, Laurence Sanford
3755 Jackson, Thomas E. Bacon
3756 Jackson, Mary L. Durkin
3760 Jackson, John B. Ducato
3765 Jackson, Morton A. Rosenblum
3769 Jackson, Evan R. Peters He was born in 1901, too old to be Zodiac…how about a son? I think this guy was associated with something called KENWOOD PRESS. Anybody ever hear of that?
3785 Jackson, Francis D. Boylon
3858 Jackson, Louis K. Lowenstein
3850 Jackson, Jas Mailliard (not sure how common last name is, there are some in Riverside County)

The Polk’s is divided into four sections. The first is businesses, second is people listed alphabetically by name (includes spouse, occupation and address), third is addresses by streets and last is by phone number. If you want to know the occupation of someone named in the address listings you will need to go the people section and cross reference them there.

The Polk’s is divided into four sections. The first is businesses, second is people listed alphabetically by name (includes spouse, occupation and address), third is addresses by streets and last is by phone number. If you want to know the occupation of someone named in the address listings you will need to go the people section and cross reference them there.

Got it, only I dont have a copy

Morf there is a link to an online copy in my post!

There is no police call box in the area that I have noticed..there is a postage box still located at Washington and Cherry..a really small one on a post…the one thing about this neighborhood is that there are usually a lot of dog walkers traversing the area..the area around Julius Kahn playground is a great place to let a dog stretch the legs..I was at the crime scene today and spoke to a woman walking her dog just over the wall at Maple..there is a median at the end of Maple by the wall it is filled with flowers and shrubbery which is very visible from Washington St..the exit at Spruce has a better gate to get through but if Z was in a hurry then he’d of had to take on a 4 ft. drop here (impossible for me because of my bad knee) but very negotiable for a healthy individual..
Also further west on Washington St. by about one or two blocks away was the "Presidio Terrace" where some of SF’s utra-elite residences were..I believe Mayor Alioto and other SF dignitaries lived there and part of my feeling Z killed here was to show that this neighborhood wasn’t excluded from violence, and it made a statement..this is one of the wealthiest areas in the US..the richest woman in the world had a residence here as well as wealthy doctors, lawyers and heirs to fortunes..a very affluent place to commit a murder.

Greg the police call box is still on that corner according to the latest Google maps, April 2011. Most likely what you thought was a really small postage box is the old police call box.

Here are three pictures of that corner. The first was taken in 1969 and is from this link http://www.zodiackiller.com/discus/mess … 1168667170

The second is a current Google maps screen capture of the corner showing the police call box. The third is a close up of the call box showing the words "Police Telephone" albeit rather blurry.

Some more info about the call box system and the keys used:

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/W … to-2281240

-Nin

Some more info about the call box system and the keys used:

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/W … to-2281240

-Nin

Interesting article. Thanks, Nin. And thanks to you as well, Seagull.

Sounds to me like the boxes are easy to access.

Also, if every young cop gets a key, there must be lots out there. Probably not hard to get one.

G