I just don’t see someone of his stature, being so well known in the community, risking being seen like that.

If Z didn’t wear much of a disguise I find it extremely unlikely too. If he had been seen exiting the cab looking exactly like his plain old self – he would have been nailed for it. It would have been extremely risky – and he would’ve had to have been really, really reckless and crazy to pull something like that.

I think, consequently, that if KQ was Z, he was wearing some form of disguise. Glasses, certainly – but it had to have been more than that. Multiple layers of clothing to appear "heavy"? Could be. There’s a marked discrepancy between the composite (which sort of looks like KQ – just like it sort of looks like several others) and the weight estimate generally accepted. Lean face versus heavy body. Multiple layers of clothing would explain this difference.

Pure speculation, though. Common sense speaks against KQ as Z. I generally have a thing for common sense when it comes to crime detection. But in the Z case much of what is common goes out the window. I think KQ is if not an excellent than certainly a very fascinating suspect.

But the bottom line is that I’m pretty sure he lived in SF at the time those letters were sent. His fixation is on SF more than any other place. The Chronicle is his favorite. And so forth.

The Zodiac, when he wrote his original three-part cipher, chose Vallejo first. It was the recipient of the first part of his first cipher. He selected that newspaper over The Examiner and The Chronicle, which was third and second IIRC. Only when The Chronicle ran with the story did he drop the Vallejo Herald Times and The Examiner. And if you read what he wrote, he mentions this order (VHT-Chronicle-Examiner) TWICE, in his second and third cipher letter. So initially he favored the VHT. It’s very plain to see in his own letters.

As for fixation…he fixated on his audience and the oracle that served that audience. But if you read what he wrote, in his letters and whatnot, you’ll see he mentions Vallejo over and over and over, from "the good times I’ve had in Vallejo", to the writing "Vallejo" on Hartnell’s car door even though he wasn’t inside Vallejo, et cetera. It’s all there.

As for Rossmo’s geographic profiling…it focuses on the crimes and ancillary activities, like making phone calls immediately thereafter, and not his letter-writing, likely because GP was developed for the profiling of actual crimes.

I just don’t see someone of his stature, being so well known in the community, risking being seen like that.

Pure speculation, though. Common sense speaks against KQ as Z. I generally have a thing for common sense when it comes to crime detection. But in the Z case much of what is common goes out the window. I think KQ is if not an excellent than certainly a very fascinating suspect.

Both Shephard and Hartnell described The Zodiac as wearing glasses, and they, in addition to Mageau, describe him as heavy. Foot impressions at the Lake Berryessa crime scene put his weight at over 200. Foulk described him as "barrel-chested", which is an effect hard to achieve with bulky clothing.

As for the lean face…take a look around you. You’ll see more than enough people who have large bellies but much thinner faces. The Zodiac might have been a heavy-drinker, which would explain how we would be able to go kill people on the weekend and explain his absence to whomever he was living with at the time, assuming we didn’t live alone.

Really, the weight thing is pretty concrete, from several witnesses to shoe-impressions.

As for the glasses…Shephard claimed he was wearing them, and Hartnell believed he was possible wearing clip-on sun-glasses over regular eye-wear. Certainly, he was seen living the Stine murder with glasses, and though one can walk while wearing thick glasses, it’s not easy to do, especially at night. Besides, Foulk said he thought The Zodiac looked at him as he and Zelms drove past, which would be very, very difficult to do while wearing glasses as thick as Stine’s.

Personally, I think The Zodiac’s "disguise" consisted of perhaps nothing more than a crew cut and some baby power to lighten the color. Or maybe even dye. But Hartnell and Shephard both claimed his hair was brown, and it’s unlikely he changed his hair color at a crime scene where such an attribute would not be pertinent yet retain his natural hair color at an open murder scene surrounded by potential witnesses.

In addition, if you take the position that the Zodiac planned his crimes (which I do), one has to ask: Would the Zodiac have considered the implications of his words? For example, if he used the words East, would it automatically be assumed he was writing from or calling from somewhere to the west? If so, and he was writing or calling from the west, wouldn’t he have been better off stating west rather than east? I rather think that’s what he did as a matter of misdirection.

Soze

I do not believe The Zodiac lived in Sonoma simply because virtually everything, aside from where he posted his letters, indicates Vallejo. I do think though he planned at least two of his crimes. Certainly Lake Berryessa contained a bit of forward thinking, and I’m almost assured The Zodiac consulted a map for the Stine Murder.

People say that the Zodiac hailed from San Francisco because he mailed his letters from there…mailing letters is safe. Killing is not. When you kill, you want to kill closer to home so you have an expedient escape route. The rule is, in general, that the first murder of a non-commuting serial killer is he almost always starts close to home. Lake Herman Road is very close to Vallejo. The Zodiac would have wanted a quick means of escape and a location from which he could get home without much trouble. And if you look at a map, there’s no reason he would have chosen Vallejo over, say, east of Oakland, which is arguably closer, if had lived in San Francisco. That he would travel repeatedly to Vallejo from San Francisco to commit his crimes doesn’t make much sense, although I too entertained this notion many years ago. The Zodiac could have much more easily driven north from San Francisco, west of Vallejo, for example. Would have been a quicker route, per a map.

People also say that it’s likely he lived in San Francisco because he mailed letters from that area, but if one thinks about it, the opposite is actually much more likely. Why? Again, serial killers very often kill close to home, because it’s an inherently dangerous activity, but mailing letters can be done anywhere with virtually no overt concern for detection. But that’s not the real reason why The Zodiac likely didn’t live in San Francisco. The real reason is that he had to mail them from somewhere, and I think it’s highly likely he would not have chosen to send letters from his own city. Vallejo was quite small in the late 60s, and there was a rather limited number of places therein he could have dropped his mail. He never mailed from inside Vallejo, and yet three times out of four, he killed there. Thus, the fact he didn’t mail from Vallejo actually indicates it’s at least a likely location for the home of the killer.

So if you accept that he had to mail his letters form somewhere, and he wasn’t likely to leave a trail of communications inside his own rather small city, it makes more sense he would choose the city that hosted and provided so much of his desired attention, since again, he had to mail from some location.

Also: The Zodiac often over-posted. Seems perhaps he was worried his letter might not arrive. Perhaps he thought more postage would expedite the given mailing. Might also explain why he chose San Francisco: the closer to his audience his mailed, the faster his correspondences would arrive, and without much concern of them getting lost, either.

Another thing: I think the Zodiac liked driving. It’s possible this was a form of therapy for him, and for some people, the act of driving helps relieve anxieties and depression. This might explain why he was so quick to head off far from home to mail a mere letter.

But I do think that there’s very little reason to think he lived in San Francisco simply because of the letters.

Back to planning, then…if The Zodiac didn’t live in San Francisco, he likely lived in or around Vallejo, given this seems to have been his base of operations. So he would have had to drive down to San Fran. But if he were not overly familiar with the city, he probably would not know of the Presidio. So check a map. If The Zodiac drove down from Vallejo on the east side, through Oakland, he would have had to comb through many, many blocks of dense urban jungle to hit his target of Maple and Washington.

Again, if he were not familiar with the city, he would have had to consult a map as to the best location to leave a body and escape undetected (ironic, then). It’s simply difficult to believe that someone who knows little of San Francisco would miraculously choose the one location that would best afford a criminal such as himself an opportunity to kill and escape without being run down by hordes of city dwellers. And the Presidio isn’t likely a landmark you would just run into accidentally.

Remember: Pacific Heights was and still is relatively quiet, especially during the hours that The Zodiac chose to commit his brazen crime. And it was also quite dark. Then there’s the dense woods of the Presidio. I imagine The Zodiac likely consulted a map initially and then drove down for a bit of reconnoitering so he would have a much more clear idea of his angle of attack.

I find it hard to believe The Zodiac, if not a denizen of San Fran, would just jump into his car and drive around the city without an idea of from where to stage his crime. Quite simply, he thought he was superior to everyone else, and though we all know the execution of his crimes fell short of perfection, he at least operated under the veneer of an organized criminal, although I tend to believe he was a mixture of disorganized and organized.

For my money, Z lived in Vallejo, and worked in SF. Letters were mailed on weekdays in SF, and Z was stalking and killing late nights in Vallejo.

I tend to agree, and I think if one weighs the possibilities, Vallejo is by far the most likely location, all things being equal. it just makes far more sense.

For instance: the phone call after the Blue Rock Springs murder. If The Zodiac lived in San Francisco, why did he wait 45 minutes to make a call from Tuolumne and Spring Street, of all places? If he drove up to Vallejo, why not hit a payphone on the way out? Surely, that would make the most sense, and surely there were more than a few payphones between BRS and the interstate that would have carried him back to San Fran. It simply makes no sense he would commit a "double murder", or so he thought, and then wait almost an hour before making a phone call on Vallejo’s east side, only to then drive down south back to San Francisco. Granted, Spring and Tuolumne is near the police station, and one could easily argue this call was for effect, but again, why wait 45 minutes? Why not hit the phone and get going?

Such a scenario makes virtually no sense. But it does make total sense if The Zodiac drove home first. In fact, one wonders if the thought of calling the police occurred to him after he arrived home. Perhaps he had a police scanner of some type, and heard nothing of the crimes, so he decided to kickstart the fireworks by making a call.

And I don’t think The Zodiac necessarily rehearsed his call to Slover. He might have rehearsed a certain way of speaking to disguise his voice, but there’s not much to suggest he had a script or spent much time planning his words. But if he did disguise his voice, that might mean he spoke distinctly and thus realized his voice would be an aid to the police in determining the identity of the killer. Perhaps he had a lisp, or a stutter, or a foreign accent. One wonders. Sometimes, it’s not what a person does but what a person doesn’t do that conveys the most information, like negative impressions on a wall after a nuclear blast.

If Zodiac had a scanner he knew the cops were already aware of what happened at BRS.

Maybe he simply went to Denny’s and had a beer.

I think we would all agree he was familiar with Vallejo. I don’t think anyone would commit crimes like this in a location they were unfamiliar with. One would want to be familiar with possible getaways if need be.

When one considers Mare Island and the many, many military personnel, it could be one of them who had lived in Vallejo and was familiar, but not some regular who people would have recognized. It could explain his choice of the Presidio area in S.F. as well.

—On a side note JRoberson, Hartnell only stated his attacker had clip-ons on the hood. He stated he did not think he wore regular glasses.

Certainly, he was seen living the Stine murder with glasses, and though one can walk while wearing thick glasses, it’s not easy to do, especially at night. Besides, Foulk said he thought The Zodiac looked at him as he and Zelms drove past, which would be very, very difficult to do while wearing glasses as thick as Stine’s.

Eh? Where did I mention anything about Stine’s glasses? The idea that Z used the latter as disguise is "interesting" but far too outlandish for my taste.

As for the rest of it, like I’ve said elsewhere – the most obvious explanation for the various accounts of Z being "heavy-set", "husky", "beefy" or whatnot…is that he WAS just that.

If, however, Z was wearing a more elaborate disguise, an obvious method of altering and/or obscuring one’s appearance is to wear either multiple layers of clothing or baggy, unshapely clothes (see Hartnell). The idea that he MIGHT have been doing this is not too outlandish. But I stress yet again that the likeliest explanation is simply that Z was on the heavy side.

As for Rossmo, I can only repeat what I said to begin with: His theories are interesting and it may very well be that they are applicable to the Z case. What strikes me, however, is that this kind of profiling seems to presuppose a certain pathology – and that may not be possible in Z’s particular case. He was an atypical serial killer in many ways.

Regardless, we’re practically splitting hairs here – as Tahoe suggests most of us would agree that Z was indeed very familiar with Vallejo, whether he actually lived there or not.

I think we should also consider the time and day of the murders. I’ve argued before that the earlier times of the murders ( San Francisco and LB) as opposed to those in Vallejo might suggest that he was allowing time for returning home. I also believe it is worth comparing the times with the day. Both Vallejo murders occurred on friday while San Francisco and Berryessa happened on Saturdays.
Most believe Zodiac worked during the week…and like everyone else would probably return home and do what normal people do before heading out. Though not certain by any means, I think it’s telling/more likely that Friday murders be closer to home and that the other murders ( taking more time and travel) would be done when he real weekend kicked in. I don’t think anyone doubts he knew Vallejo extremely well at the very least. Vallejo or close to same is an answer that fits all variables for me.

That said. I did notice something recently that might ( if nothing else) force us to reconsider what we think we know…..It’s not a theory build on much ( a coincidence maybe)….In considering the missing time both at LB and LHR and wondering if Z went "home" before making those calls….I believe particularly with LHR that Z’s decision to make the call did most likely not come until after the murder and probably after he returned home ( as opposed to being planned beforehand)

In any case I noticed an address on Springs road ( a likely route to the phone booth and just over a mile away). In looking at Z’s most likely route to the phone booth in Napa I noticed a similar address ( less than half a mile from the phone there)…..both are mobile home parks.
Even if we view these as nothing more than a coincidence…I think it’s worthwhile asking if Z spent his murder weekends away from home.
Again we don’t know if he had anyone to answer to…but an excuse away…fishing/hunting weekend. And even if he was a loner it might be something he did.

Even though a Google map will show that it’s about 27 miles from the LB crime scene to the car wash in Napa it will take at least 50 minutes to get from the lake to the car wash. The road is twisty and narrow. If you get behind someone towing a boat or trailer or just a slow poke who won’t pull over it could take longer. It’s my opinion that Zodiac went directly from the LB crime scene to the car wash to make his call and would not have had time to stop anywhere along the way.

But I do agree that time, or more exactly timing, plays a part in the murders. Possibly Zodiac wanted to be at the hospital when the victims arrived. He may have learned from LHR that the victims arrival to the hospital would be an unknown unless the murders were called in to the police station and that would have him hanging around the hospital maybe too long waiting for them to arrive creating a greater chance of being remembered as being there????

Interesting discussion, something to think about.

Attacking at night, 11:15, it’s pretty late. If he was married, his Wife may wonder where he was, why he’s driving around at night like that, I know my Wife would Maybe he was not married and had nobody to answer to. Then again, maybe he was the type of Guy that was married, but did what he wanted when he wanted, and a Wife that didnt ask questions, or, maybe he was a Guy driving to or from work at 11ish at night, ala James Owen. Both the LHR & BRS attacks happened 11:15pm to just after midnight, so there’a pattern there

There seems to be plenty to this geographic profile approach – in general. Much is known about how serial killers operate in terms of WHERE they choose to attack and how this changes as their "careers" develop. But Z is not a typical serial killer.

I can’t get past the fact that ALL his known missives during the height of his spree were sent from San Francisco (including those that were sent to out-of-town papers). And of ALL known and confirmed missives only three (?) were sent from out of town (and not too far out of town either.)

For my money Z lived in San Francisco. He was familiar with the surrounding area. Perhaps he grew up in Vallejo, then moved to the city. Perhaps he was an outdoors enthusiast of some kind who regularly drove out into the country to go fishing or hunting.

But the bottom line is that I’m pretty sure he lived in SF at the time those letters were sent. His fixation is on SF more than any other place. The Chronicle is his favorite. And so forth.

I think San Francisco is highly unlikely. I too believe he lived in either Vallejo or Benicia and worked in San Francisco. If he lived in San Francisco, why didn’t he make the phone call en route to San Francisco straight after the Blue Rock Springs attack, rather than ‘hang around’ for 40 minutes and then head to Springs and Tuolumne payphone. Surely he would have headed for home. Also the traveling distance from San Francisco is unusually high for your first two crimes and secondly why commit the only crime on foot, covered in blood in an area of familiarity and post all your letters here also. Kim Rossmo states a really interesting point: the killer exhibited target selection, as opposed to his first three crimes, where the location was the overriding consideration. If we believe the Zodiac Killer to be a resident of Vallejo or Benicia and less familiar with the San Francisco area, then control would be the order of the day and his ‘search attempts’ in alien surroundings are less certain. He could not afford to travel around looking for victims without designated prime locations and expect to escape with any surety, thereby he targeted the victim first, as opposed to the location being the prime requisite. In the Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs attacks, he frequented known locations to find a victim, whereas in San Francisco he searched for a victim and took him to a location. Kim Rossmo states that ‘criminals who travel longer distances to offend are less likely to use uncertain target selection techniques‘.

Yeah, it’s been a while since I posted that – and my thinking about it has changed.

The crucial part for me isn’t where he actually lived, physically, at the time – but rather which ties he would have had to certain locations.

The fishing, hiking and hunting makes perfect sense, regarding him passing several viable locations before he reached Lake Berryessa, at least indicating his possible familiarity with this location. It is not an area you just pass through.

Plus, the roads aren’t easily traveled – that goes for both Berryessa and LHR. Twisting, narrow roads – and at night to boot. Seems to indicate an attacker who was more than vaguely familiar with those places and who felt comfortable using those roads for his getaway.