He provided proof at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs in the July 31st letters. He provided proof at Presidio Heights with the shirt piece. So, effectively you are saying you are not satisfied with the writing on the car door and phone call at Lake Berryessa. He did take credit for Berryessa by adding "sept" on the Dripping Pen card. The Zodiac Killer, on the car door of Bryan Hartnell’s white Karmann Ghia, clearly attributes both of his first two attacks under the banner of Vallejo, despite the fact David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were murdered in Benicia. In fact, the Zodiac Killer never referenced Benicia in any of his communications, while he mentioned Vallejo several times. If the Zodiac Killer played no part in the Lake Berryessa attack, then his October 13th letter should have read "This is the Zodiac speaking. I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by Washington St + Maple St last night, to prove this here is a blood stained piece of his shirt. I am the same man who did in the people in the Vallejo area". However, he chose to use the "north bay area" for the first time, which incorporates the Napa and Sanoma wine regions. What proof would you have accepted at Lake Berryessa?

Indeed Mr Grinell. I can only agree with everything above. What goes a long way, in my opinion, to determining that the same man was responsible for the BRS, LB, and Stine murders, at least, is the consistent description of the mans build as reported by the various witnesses.

Egg, As you’ve stated on the other thread about the shirt piece, there is literally nothing the Zodiac Killer could have done to prove he was the killer for some people’s satisfaction. The shirt piece argued as somebody sneaking into the morgue or evidence room. The Zodiac made two phone calls 40 and 70 minutes after two crimes – not satisfactory. Taking his writing to the crime scene – not satisfactory. Describing Betty Lou on her right side, not face down. Only viewed by Zodiac and Stella Medeiros in a small fraction of time after the murders – inside job. Short of the Zodiac handing himself in, what proof do you require. Let’s say Zodiac provided the exact make of ammo at LHR, even describing that the markings on the bullets had 6 right-hand twist characteristics, you know what people would say – inside job. When you place yourself in a position where all you have to do is keep saying inside job, not enough proof etc, you place yourself in an inpenetrable position, where nobody can prove anything. There is no proof after Stine because he likely didn’t commit any more murders. But whatever proof Zodiac ever supplied has constantly been rebuffed as an inside job or not enough. What could Zodiac have ever done to prove he was the culprit at Lake Berryessa? The answer is nothing, because even the shirt piece isn’t enough for some.

Egg, As you’ve stated on the other thread about the shirt piece, there is literally nothing the Zodiac Killer could have done to prove he was the killer for some people’s satisfaction. The shirt piece argued as somebody sneaking into the morgue or evidence room. The Zodiac made two phone calls 40 and 70 minutes after two crimes – not satisfactory. Taking his writing to the crime scene – not satisfactory. Describing Betty Lou on her right side, not face down. Only viewed by Zodiac and Stella Medeiros in a small fraction of time after the murders – inside job. Short of the Zodiac handing himself in, what proof do you require. Let’s say Zodiac provided the exact make of ammo at LHR, even describing that the markings on the bullets had 6 right-hand twist characteristics, you know what people would say – inside job. When you place yourself in a position where all you have to do is keep saying inside job, not enough proof etc, you place yourself in an inpenetrable position, where nobody can prove anything. There is no proof after Stine because he likely didn’t commit any more murders. But whatever proof Zodiac ever supplied has constantly been rebuffed as an inside job or not enough. What could Zodiac have ever done to prove he was the culprit at Lake Berryessa? The answer is nothing, because even the shirt piece isn’t enough for some.

I’m not saying the shirt piece isn’t enough, but at least you can totally rule it out if the police reports mentioned it before the Zodiac started sending bits of shirt. As for BLJ being on her right side, you see it in the case file photo (the one where her body is not covered) and this was mentioned in the case files as well of course. If it was someone close to LE who cooked up a cover-up for LH (and potentially hoping to use the same cover for other drug-related hits that would come, such as the BRS one), then it makes sense that their description provides nothing.

For LH/BRS, why does he specify the ammo type for LH but only "made by Western" for BRS? And he only gets the idea of taking physical evidence from the scene at the murder of Paul Stine? Why now and not before?

I can’t say it WAS someone close to LE, or that they didn’t do the LB attack, but it went from case-file-like description, to no bragging at all about his most famous attack, to bloody pieces of shirt from the murder of a cab driver (also stole his keys and wallet, unlike in every other case). There are points to ponder.

Egg, don’t forget that with the LB attack there wasn’t any ‘gun related info’ he could share seeing as he didn’t use one. He can be placed there by 1) writing on the car door (the handwriting tests confirmed this to be Z) 2) his general physique matched that of Mike Mageau’s description and it could be argued that he meandered his way back towards the rough Vallejo direction (the phone call being placed in Napa). And as said before, what kind of info would you have liked to get from Z? How it played out? That could be as easily made up as anything you’ve just said. So, that would rule that out too. Also, it’s important to note that he clearly did not want to get caught; you want to leave your "mark" or share information, but certainly not too much. Very frustrating…. but don’t you think that is exactly what he wanted?

On top of all that, I don’t really see why you would cover something up by becoming one of the most famous serial killers in the world? Isn’t that making yourself even more guilty and target for police and media investigation? Particularly if you start threatening to place bombs to target school busses and "pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out". That’s not covering something up, that’s putting yourself on a world wide stage.

Anyway, I think these theories are a slippy slope and if you go down that route I could also say that the Zodiac murders were a cover up for an abduction by aliens of Lyndon B. Johnson.