I may be mistaken here, but as far as I can determine, the description of the Presidio Heights suspect being incorrectly broadcast as a ‘BMA’ (Black Male Adult) does not appear anywhere in the Original reports such as that made on the night it actually happened (Oct 11) in a crime report by Armond Pelissetti. The report of an incorrect suspect description only seems to be claimed after Zodiac brags about two cops who pulled a goof. Below I will set out a scenario that is just theoretical as to what actually happened and why the whole ‘BMA’ thing had to be claimed.
October 11, 10:05PM, Jackson and Maple Intersection: Officers Don Fouke and Eric Zelms are responding to a routine 911 call of a taxi driver assault/robbery/murder when they spot a White Male who seems to be walking away from the direction of the scene and who turns onto the pathway of a house. For whatever reason, they don’t stop and search the man and drive past toward the scene itself. At this point, there isn’t even the slightest suspicion of ‘Zodiac’ being in anyway involved.
October 13, San Fran Chronicle Offices: Letter arrives starting with the ominous opening statement that "This is the Zodiac Speaking" and out fall’s a bloody piece of shirt ripped off Paul Stines corpse. The Zodiac informs the readers that he is responsible for the execution style slaying of the Cab Driver ‘Over by Washington & Maple streets last night. To prove this, here is a piece of his blood stained shirt." Then Zodiac says something that will cause Chief of Inspectors Martin Lee to get angry enough to respond to Zodiac latest claim when Zodiac says "The S.F. Police could have caught me last night if they had searched the park properly."
October 18, San Fran Chronicle Article published: "The killer of five who calls himself "Zodiac" is a clumsy criminal, a liar and possibly a latent homosexual says S.F Chief of Inspectors Martin Lee. And, says Lee, he is a liar. "His boast of being in the area we were searching while we were searching it is a lie," Lee said. "We had the whole area flooded with lights. We had seven police dogs and a large number of patrolmen searching the area tree by tree and bush by bush. The dogs are the best in the country. A mouse couldn’t have escaped our attention."
It is only now, after someone publically questions Zodiac’s competence and intelligence that he fires back with another letter on November 9th, announcing that if Chief Lee want’s to start talking incompetence, then "two cops pulled a goof about 3 min’s after I left the cab." As we know he goes on to say they even called him over asking him had he seen anything suspicious.
Now that Zodiac has gone on the offensive and landed a crushing blow on his opponents, the SFPD are now on the defence and need to counter this allegation or the public will be outraged that two Officers had stopped and spoke to Zodiac before thanking him for his help and driving away. How can they explain this away with a plausible explanation that doesn’t make their own Dpt look like foolish idiots and not enrage the public? Here’s where we first are given the "Despatcher description was given of a Black Male as the suspect and the man who we saw was White and that is why we didn’t apprehend him" scenario.
There was nothing mentioned about this despatchers grave error prior to Z’s November 9th Letter. And it strikes me as kind of odd that this despatcher was never questioned officially regarding the call he received and what description he/she gave over the air. Nancy Slover and David Slaight, the two despatchers who took calls in Zodiac’s two prior crimes have been in the public domain from the day they took the calls having their names in official reports. Where is the San Francisco despatcher?
There may be a possibility that no such description error was ever broadcast and that it isn’t a coincidence that this story only comes out after Zodiac announced the encounter with SFPD which has put the Dpt on the defensive and left needing to release something in response quickly to counter this and explain why their officers were not suspect of the white man on Jackson Street. And because of this being done in reaction to Z’s claim and therefor needing to be put out into the public domain quickly, there was no time, or they just didn’t realise, to consider how this would effect any of the other claims of that night. Fouke and Pelissetti’s version’s of what happened, how it happened and when it happened on the night, now contradict and counter each other and make no sense. Pelissetti says he was told as he arrived at the scene by the witnesses that the suspect was white, and says "I couldn’t get to the radio fast enough to let every one else know." This was a good 5 – 10 minutes before Don Fouke would drive up on a White Man on Jackson St, so how Could Mr Fouke not know the suspect was white when, according to Armond, he’d broadcast the update within a minute or two of arriving on scene.
I think the BMA was a story invented by SFPD higher-ups, a story which they were forced into coming up with quickly due to, to use a metaphor, Zodiac throwing a sneaky roundhouse punch at them which left them on the ropes dazed and covering up before throwing a jab back in defence.
"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.
And in 1989, Fouke stated on camera for the ‘Crimes of the Century’ documentary that "Seeing as we were looking for Negro Male Adult we proceeded on towards Arguello. Upon arriving at Arguello the description of the suspect was changed to that of a White Male Adult."
Again, this is inconsistent with how the scene unfolded in the interview for "This is the Zodiac Speaking." In that version it was not Arguello Street that Fouke proceeded to and the description was changed. In this version he doesn’t proceed to Arguello, but turn’s left onto Cherry Street and stops to talk to Armon P, who then informs Fouke that "No, he was a White Male" (even though Armond says he broadcast the updated amendment about 5 minutes before Fouke pulled up anyway).
"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.
The thing is, Chappie, I don’t remember the SFPD ever making a public announcement regarding the ‘black male adult’ goof on the dispatcher’s part. In fact, I can’t recall if they even bothered to rebut Zodiac’s claim of being stopped, or otherwise defend/explain themselves. Far as I can remember, all they did was continue to call him a liar, and that the ‘black male adult’ thing only came to light when Graysmith released his book in 1986.
If anybody knows anything pertaining to SFPD’s response regarding Zodiac’s claim of being stopped, if any response was given at all, I’d very much like to see the information posted here.
Street names, locations, timing and what-not can get fuzzy as people grow older and their memories go downhill. As for the SFPD dispatcher, the possibility exists that the guy was internally investigated and privately ‘taken care of’ (read: fired) instead of being publicly hung out to dry.
"In fact, I can’t recall if they even bothered to rebut Zodiac’s claim of being stopped"
Well Don Fouke certainly did, and does to this day, which Armond Pelissetti contests based on a conversation Fouke and Armond had back in 69.
That’s another good point and one I was thinking of also. When Zodiac made his boast in the Nov 9 letter, it seems odd that the SFPD would only deny having spoken to him, but not actually seeing him. I mean from a public safety and police competence point of view, weather the Officers spoke to him or not isn’t really the main point. The fact that He and they had a close encounter (of the Jackson Street kind) at all without apprehending him would, I imagine, be the most embarrassing to the Dpt and outrage the public the most. The specifics like did they interact with him would be secondary and not really pertinent to the overall issue that they had him in their sights end of! The SFPD did refute that they’d spoke to him, but not that they’d seen him.
"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.
Fouke isn’t the SFPD, though. I was more referring to whether the SFPD many any press conference or similar to publicly deny that they stopped Zodiac.
Come to think of it, I don’t know if they even publicly admitted to merely encountering (not stopping) him. Again, I’d very much like to see any news articles pertaining to SFPD responses to Zodiac’s claim of being stopped.
Fouke isn’t the SFPD, though. I was more referring to whether the SFPD many any press conference or similar to publicly deny that they stopped Zodiac.
Come to think of it, I don’t know if they even publicly admitted to merely encountering (not stopping) him. Again, I’d very much like to see any news articles pertaining to SFPD responses to Zodiac’s claim of being stopped.
The Official stance the SFPD took on the incident and still to this day stand by is that No evidence exists for any of their officers encountering any suspects while they were responding and that goes for Black Male’s, White Male’s, on Jackson St, Cherry, etc etc. Going by what I have heard, admittedly this isn’t coming from official sources, but if you ask the Dpt for any info on a suspect walking away from the scene being encountered by two of their Officers, they will tell you no evidence or reports exist for such an encounter. Personally, I don’t know how they still stand by this considering Fouke has admitted it and his memo has long been available to the public but apparently they still deny any such encounter irregardless of, and contrary to, what the memo suggests
I never meant to imply that Fouke was the SFPD lol. He isn’t ‘The’ SFPD no, but he is employed by The SFPD and a member of their ranks.
"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.
Part of the problem in determining what you question Chappie is that we have very little in the way of official reports. You can gain only so much information out of the two or three pages available so you end up with lots of conjecture and supposition. Logic dictates that there are pages and pages of reports we have never seen.
The DOJ Report and the Special Zodiac Homicide Report do not fare much better either with no more information beyond what is in the few pages we are privy to, so SFPD was playing this really close to their chest not even giving up information to CA DOJ, it seems.
I agree, compared with the reports regarding LHR, BRS & LB, Presidio Height incident has such a small amount of official reports available to the public. I mean it’s one thing to keep a lot of detail back from the public because they want to keep details only the killer would know out of the media for obvious reason, but it’s quite another to have the two independent responding units contradict each other so often, and even have one accuse the other of out rite lying by claiming that the other unit did tell them they had stopped someone and spoken to them, the other denying any such event.
Pelissetti: At the time, I was unaware that the other unit had stopped anybody, Black White or any other colour. However, in subsequent conversation’s he did tell me that he had stopped someone.
Fouke: We never stopped the man, we never spoke to him.
Pellissetti: He told me he saw a man walking by and that he asked that man had he seen anyone else go by and he said ‘no.’
Fouke: We did not stop the Zodiac! We didn’t stop anyone! I wish Eric Zelms was alive today to tell you that.
Pelissetti: That Scratch (Fouke Memo) and what he told me do not coincide.
And that is just the out rite accusations. That’s without the other issues like A.P claiming to have already updated the description to a White Male 5 – 10 minutes or so before Fouke saw the White Male on Jackson.
"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.
