Mike, you know the details of discovery from the reports I’m sure, and the window of opportunity that was presented.
Hal Snook was downtown processing the prints on the phone box having been summoned from home to go to there. Could he have been at the car first? Yes, I believe so. The car writing wasn’t discovered until 9:30., but he was at the phone booth for a loooong time, so in respect to "What if someone at the scene said that he discovered the handwriting and then Snook arrived? Had nobody noticed it before Snook got there?" – the answer was yes, it was discovered before he got there. Small window then, between first reports of the crime and the call at home.
Mr Horan doesn’t believe the writing on the car door matches his writing very well, by the way. Never mind, eh? More of this on the "problems" thread.

Hi-

I was not aware that it took that long for them to notice the writing. I don’t have the reports handy and would have to wade through them to find that out. I would have thought it was much earlier.

So am I to believe that Horan is saying that someone else wrote on the car, not Snook? Getting complicated…

Mike

Yes that’s right – and that’s damn complicated. I don’t like it much, that twist.
Thing is though, if it was Hal Snook all along, he’s the one who took the door off and put it into evidence, so if he also wrote on it then the man would have had to have pretty elephantine cojones, nuh?

Sounds as if Horan is hedging his bets with Snook by saying that someone else may have written on the door. What are the other possibilities? Another independent hoaxer? Land?

Mike

I think Horan adjusts his theory as each of his suspects and claims is ruled out by people here with common sense.At one point, didnt he indicate an egyptian guy was the perp?

I think Horan adjusts his theory as each of his suspects and claims is ruled out by people here with common sense.At one point, didnt he indicate an egyptian guy was the perp?

Step forward, those with common sense!
Morf, in topsy-turvy hoax land there are multiple perps possible, remember? Four or more, if you like. Crazzzzzy thought huh?
Yes, he was talking about the guy from the Pinecrest Diner being A possible perp. Despite other adjustments, yes, he still is. For the Stine murder.
Here’s a wiki link for the people who like such things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinecrest_Diner

Mike – re: "Sounds as if Horan is hedging his bets with Snook by saying that someone else may have written on the door. What are the other possibilities? Another independent hoaxer? Land?"
Seems odd to me that having traced the guy most likely to have been in the middle with the info, the handwriting (nearly!) and etc. etc. to exclude him as the writer-on-the-door, don’t it. I await mention of other possibilities!
Let’s hope that no, we don’t need a coincidental attacker in hood and symbol who also is an excellent handwriting mimic (even under pressure).
Both the Land brothers activities at Berryessa could be viewed as suspicious mind you. If you liked.

I have often though old Hal’s printing was extremely similar to the printing of the author of The Zodiac Letters. I just had a quick look at one of Hal’s obituaries also and here’s several things that may be of interest to know for anyone who doesn’t already. (I was unaware of the specifics of his LE career.)

"Hal served in the Army in the enlisted ranks for three years during World War II in New Guinea and the Philippines. He served another three years as an Air Force officer during the Korean War. Hal graduated from San Jose State College in 1949, where he met and married Barbara Parker, his wife of 60 years. He worked as editor of the Western Sentinel in Etna, Calif. and as editor of the Napa Journal before being recalled to active duty in 1951.

In 1961 Hal joined the Napa Police Department as a dispatcher and in 1962 became a deputy at the Napa County Sheriff’s Department. He specialized in crime scene and narcotic investigations and was in charge of the crime laboratory. He was recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court as an expert in narcotics and fingerprint identification. He also taught scientific crime investigation for the criminal justice department of Napa Community College."

Quite interesting that he is heavily involved in the narcotics division and David and Betty were parked in an isolated location on a road where a drug bust was being carried out. We all know the speculation of Dee and Mike being out at the Springs that night for herbal reasons. Also a Veteran and of most interest to notice is his expertise in the art of finger print recognition. Interesting that Zodiac makes a rather specific and unusual claim: "As of yet I have left no fingerprints behind me contrary to what the police say in my killings I wear transparent fingertip guards. All it is is 2 coats of airplane cement coated on my fingertips — quite unnoticible + very effective"

Anyway, here is a copy of Hal’s printing that IMO looks suspiciously similar to Z’s….

WC – welcome back.
So Hal’s CV:
His handwriting ain’t bad.
He’s an ex-newsman. I bet he saw a few people mispell things. (Like "weather". That would have been a good one.)
He’s ex-military. Codes? Well why not.
He’s RIGHT THERE at Berryessa.
He gets to read the FBI traffic, the print intell and he runs the Napa lab.
He was an ex-dispatcher – he’d know what to say on a phone.
It’s pretty sure he got to read the reports from LHR and BRS, oh yes.
I wonder if he sold Zodiac watches in his sporting goods store? He certainly used Cerous (cerium) polishing his gemstones.
It’s very unlikely he killed anyone.

imo the f is not very much but slightly Z style..interesting is the light blue Chevy, could be that this was a second car Z had access to.

QT

WC – welcome back.
So Hal’s CV:
His handwriting ain’t bad.
He’s an ex-newsman. I bet he saw a few people mispell things. (Like "weather". That would have been a good one.)
He’s ex-military. Codes? Well why not.
He’s RIGHT THERE at Berryessa.
He gets to read the FBI traffic, the print intell and he runs the Napa lab.
He was an ex-dispatcher – he’d know what to say on a phone.
It’s pretty sure he got to read the reports from LHR and BRS, oh yes.
I wonder if he sold Zodiac watches in his sporting goods store? He certainly used Cerous (cerium) polishing his gemstones.
It’s very unlikely he killed anyone.

Oooo, I wasn’t aware you were a qualified Criminal Profiler Smithy. Were you taught be Mr John Douglas himself?

"It’s very unlikely he killed anyone." Oh well if you say it then it must be true! We can now move on and drop this ‘line of enquiry.’

"I bet he saw a few people mispell things. (Like "weather". That would have been a good one.)" Like I have always said, I am English proof. If the English are ever going to get to me they better get off their fat asses and come up with something.

"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.

 

WC – welcome back.
So Hal’s CV:
His handwriting ain’t bad.
He’s an ex-newsman. I bet he saw a few people mispell things. (Like "weather". That would have been a good one.)
He’s ex-military. Codes? Well why not.
He’s RIGHT THERE at Berryessa.
He gets to read the FBI traffic, the print intell and he runs the Napa lab.
He was an ex-dispatcher – he’d know what to say on a phone.
It’s pretty sure he got to read the reports from LHR and BRS, oh yes.
I wonder if he sold Zodiac watches in his sporting goods store? He certainly used Cerous (cerium) polishing his gemstones.
It’s very unlikely he killed anyone.

Oooo, I wasn’t aware you were a qualified Criminal Profiler Smithy. Were you taught be Mr John Douglas himself?

"It’s very unlikely he killed anyone."
Oh well if you say it then it must be true! We can now move on and drop this ‘line of enquiry.’

WC – Profile what? Those are all just plain facts about Detective Hal Snook. The "it’s very unlikely he killed anyone" is mine, yes. That’s opinion. It’s much easier to write letters and scribble graffiti on car doors than it is to, say, tie people up and stab them to death. Or to shoot them in the head. No?

Have you read any of John Douglas’s stuff? (I wasn’t taught BE him, no, but I’ve read his books). "The Crimes that Haunt Us" is well worth a laugh.

Re: dropping this line of enquiry – if you ain’t going to be bringing anything to it matey, fine by me. I’ll wait for another debate on whether anyone really did hide in the park, or what the best description of The Zodiac Killer is, or why "he" used so many guns. Love that stuff!

As I said elsewhere, Hal’s writing, to my untrained eye, looks one of the closest matches to Z’s I’ve seen….

In places, it even starts to slant to the right as Z’s does, then Hal seems to correct this as if conscious of himself doing it. (I don’t mean the lines of writing going up and to the right, I mean the words themselves)

Even that is off Smithy because of the k. Not the 2 stroke vs 3 business but the overall space used in their constructions. Snoo’ks k’s are more ‘square’ , the space occupied by the arms is equaled pretty much by the upright whereas Zodiac’s have a longer upright creating more of a ‘rectangle’ of space use.

Put more simply, Snook’s k’s look closer to uppercase whereas Z’s look like lowercase. Especially when taken into context of the surrounding letters.

It’s a bit late – but the K’s on the Badlands letters are two different types, as Morf pointed out. Well I never!