Police searching for two different killers

QT

Brother of Stine / service station in Modesto

Journalists wearing buttons

1974-07-31 Desert Sun, Crazy man claiming to be Z

NEW YORK (UPI) – A recently released mental patient was charged with murder, arson and burglary in connection with three fires at churches in Manhattan. Criminal Court Judge Bruce Wright ordered a special suicide watch for the suspect, Gordon Earl Marais, 56, after learning he had been released from a federal mental hospital in Washington by court order last Friday. Maris, gaunt and gray-haired, was without bail. Father Thomas Smith, 67, died of smoke inhalation during the first fire Monday night at the rectory of St. Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic Church. Marais was arrested after United Press International and the New York Daily News received seven telephone calls late Monday and early Tuesday from a man who claimed to be San Francisco’s notorious "Zodiac,” believed responsible for a series of West Coast slayings. The caller bragged that he had set the fires. In following up information from one call, authorities found a sheet draped over a crucifix at St. Vincent Ferrer with an ink-scrawled message reading, "Take heed, I shall return to destroy this temple and all therein." The message was signed “R. God ” Marais was arrested Tuesday morning while crouching by a fourth church minutes after the fire at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary the Virgin was discovered The second fire occurred at Episcopal Church of the Ascension. On July 17, Marais was picked up by Secret Service agents at a White House security post for a routine check. He was turned over to local Washington police after it was learned that California authorities had an unspecified fugitive warrant out for him. District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Alfred Burka ordered Marais committed to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, a mental institution, but last Friday Marais was ordered released by Superior Court Judge Paul F. McArdcl after California authorities said they would not prosecute. The Washington arrest and release followed a bizarre series of contacts with a United Press International newsman in New York.

San Bernardingo Sun, weapon of Zodiac ("between 32 and 38 but greater muzzle velocity".."terrible impact quality"…sounds like 9×29 mm Magnum or such type)

1974-07-31 Desert Sun, Crazy man claiming to be Z

Here’s an article with his photo. The Journal News (White Plains, New York) – Wed 31 Jul 1974, Page 8.