Sometimes I think one could justify adding Dave Toschi to the list of Zodiac victims because if having your career, reputation and life destroyed because of Zodiac doesn’t him a victim of Z’s then it’s only for the lack of a physical attack on Toschi by Z. Toschi the cop had been a fine cop with a great record of homicide’s solved and Toschi the man was a man that other aspiring Detectives looked up to as the man they one day hoped to mirror, and a man that Citizens of The Bay were proud t say was ‘Their’ Inspector. Toschi’s reputation and determination even saw the Movie Character ‘Dirty Harry’ based partly on Dave Toschi. Glittering career, great personal life with family and kids and on Oct 10, 1969 things just couldn’t get much better for Dave. Then, one day later, on Oct. 11, the wheel of destruction, that would end in Toschi’s fall from grace, was set in motion as, what appeared at first to be a simple, straight forward routine cab driver robbery homicide, turned out to be the ultimate nemesis for such a decorated Homicide Inspector in The Zodiac killer. Toschi makes no secret that capturing The Zodiac wasn’t just a professional necessity, it also became a personal one. Toschi, like so many others, failed in this one effort, and sadly, it cost him dearly. In 2009, speaking to The Chronicle’s Duffy Jennings, Toschi said of the Stine murder and the years that followed:
"I always park exactly where I parked the radio car that night, I look around the intersection and I wonder what the heck happened. Did we cover all the bases? Did we miss anything at the scene?
“Why didn’t we get this guy? I ended up with a bleeding ulcer over this case. It still haunts me. It always will.”
"
I write this post with the desire to
"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.
Horan referred to Toschi as "a terrible detective" I believe, during one of his interviews.
Does anyone agree with this?
I don’t know anything about Toschi’s "clear up" rate, which I suspect is the yardstick upon which Detectives world-wide are truly judged, but there’s certainly nothing adverse about the mans detective skills in the public domain that I’ve yet found. There are assertions/rumours that he was a self-publicist, writing his own letter of praise, and that her wrote the ’78 letter, yes. I think the latter is untrue.
Mr Horan was trying to spark a response, I suspect. He does that. Mind you, don’t we all? 
You seem to post a lot about this Horan bloke, for instance.
Mr Horan was trying to spark a response, I suspect. He does that. Mind you, don’t we all?
You seem to post a lot about this Horan bloke, for instance.
Only because he’s sort of the latest pundit to reinvigorate my interest in the Z case again, and his "debate" with Morf brought me to this site.
Gotcha – off topic, sorry, but I was wondering.
If you ever want to poke The Horan in the eye for yourself btw, he’s got a web site over there:
http://zodiackillerhoax1986.freeforums.net/
What if Ross Sullivan was the guy Toschi had looked for? Where are his documents, by the way? Is there anybody still following Toschi’s idea of catching Z on police side after all?
QT
*ZODIACHRONOLOGY*
I found this article about Dave Toschi while doing some primary research. It says here that he has some "held back information". I wonder what that is?
Hi Darla–
I asked (basically) this same question at the zodiackiller.com message board. Some interesting replies:
http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/topic/5 … N2wvNJ4pcQ
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
It’s routine police investigation to hold back on a few facts, say for instance someone is killed by asphyxiation via a plastic bag over their head tightened with a cable(zip) tie. When the police release information they may leave out the zip-tie and just include the cause of death as plastic bag, that way they can weed out false confessors by asking how the bag stayed in place on the victim. If someone answers, rope or string then that would be step one in beginning to eliminate them as a suspect.
From what I have read, and the fact Toschi was the inspiration for 2 fictional film cops, I dare say he was a fine officer. Remember he was demoted a rank and moved to the shit section for detectives and worked his way back to homicide. You can’t do that if you are simply a "doughnut muncher"
Did he work his way back to homicide? I thought is cop career in homicide pretty much went down the tubes.
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
Did he work his way back to homicide? I thought is cop career in homicide pretty much went down the tubes.
I apologise, I was going by memory and upon fact checking I found that my information on Toschi’s career post Zodiac came from the Yellow Book. So after disregarding that information (as it comes from a wonton braggart, and proven liar) I did some more research into it.
"Toschi retired in 1987 after 34 years on the force, including 12 in homicide from 1966 to 1978. He worked on at least a hundred murder cases, including the Zebra killings and others with notoriety, but none as compelling, frustrating or infamous as Zodiac" (source: http://blog.sfgate.com/djennings/2009/1 … ve-toschi/)
The fact he stayed on for nine years afterwards, and his bravery and integrity plus his closed case ratio, would say to me that he was a decent cop.
Armistead Maupin speaks about Toschi and letters that were sent to Maupin to the press in this newly converted video.
https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/231082
This is great! So glad they are doing this.
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
Hi,
A retired SFPD Inspector told me on Monday that Dave Toschi had died on 1/6/18. I don’t see it being discussed here. Kevin Fagan just emailed me and said he had written an obituary for the Chronicle website.
Mike
Mike Rodelli
Author, The Hunt for Zodiac; 3.9 stars on Amazon and
In The Shadow of Mt. Diablo: The Shocking True Identity of the Zodiac Killer, a second edition in print format. 4.3 Amazon stars and great Editorial reviews. Twitter:@mikerodelli
Hi,
A retired SFPD Inspector told me on Monday that Dave Toschi had died on 1/6/18. I don’t see it being discussed here. Kevin Fagan just emailed me and said he had written an obituary for the Chronicle website.
Mike
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/SF-c … 488886.php
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
