Ted’s feet look relatively straight in this pic, IMO, but the image is fuzzy and one foot’s obscured. IIRC there’s a sharper copy here without the overlay, but I can’t seem to locate it.
The exact quote, from THE UNABOMBER AND THE ZODIAC: "Ted’s left foot is noticeably pigeon toed which affects the way he walks." — FBI Interview of David Kaczynski, February 21, 1996. I’ve never been able to find the actual interview.
However, there’s plenty of news footage of Ted where he appears to get around just fine. He certainly wasn’t hobbling around wherever he went.
I think, if his brother actually did state those specific words, that he just did not understand what pigeon toed means. I think he may have meant TK had bad supination on his left foot. I have found a picture that would suggest this, but it would be easily correctable if thinking about it while walking or with the correct shoes.
As you can see, this is from his arrest at his cabin, and it appears his left foot distinctly supinates from the positioning of his foot and the angle of his leg. It could be that this is exaggerated by his foot being right on the edge of the step, but it still appears that he fairly heavily supinates in his left foot to me.
The key phrase by his little brother is "affects the way he walks". Foukes said he had shuffling lope or whatever. The guy Foukes saw walked funny. We assume the guy Foukes saw was the Z, although that is not an absolute certainty.
I can’t see anything from that picture. The thing to do is talk to the many LE and prison personnel who have seen Kaczinski walk through the years and simply ask them if he actually walks funny. Or check his medical records. We can’t do that, however.
Maybe just a little limp can be seen in that video. Maybe when he was walking downhill he started limping and Foukes saw that. Anyway this thread is making a big deal out a guy walking with a shuffling lope which could very well be temporary in his life due to a sprain or whatever. Still Kaczinski has a record of being described as walking funny and this goes along with Foukes description. The other thing in the Stine murder that points toward Kaczinski is that the witness descriptions in this one say he’s a little smaller than in the other murders. He could have worn a lot of clothing in the other murders as a disguise to look bulky but less clothing in this last one. Easier for an average guy to look fat than for a fat guy to look average.
Well Ted’s a good suspect, but Fouke is the only witness I know of who reported such a thing, and people still haven’t figured out exactly what he meant by that. The suspect could have been faking it (if you believe Fouke, Z also pretended to head toward the entrance of a house on Jackson), stubbed his toe on the curb or god knows what. 
Has anyone ever wondered if Z could have been a biker or someone who had spent a lot of time in a saddle? I’ve known people who have spent many years riding either motorbikes or horses and they do develop a distinctive walk. I guess it could be described as a kind of shuffling lope… probably bikers moreso than cowboys, as cowboys often tend to develop a kind of John Wayne swagger, especially if they are a bit big around the middle.
People have a tendency to take his comment as evidence that Zodiac must have had a permanent impediment – for which there is zero evidence. Fouke’s observation indicates nothing beyond the fact that something about the way Z walked caught his attention, for whatever reason.
To infer an actual (and permanent) limp from what Fouke says is illogical. It doesn’t follow.
I’ve theorized before that his so-called "shuffling lope" could have been the result of him slowing down suddenly, while moving downhill, when he noticed the cop car approaching: That could cause a vaguely odd sort of gait, of the sort Fouke describes.
But whatever it was, we have zero evidence which supports it being something permanent – and that is the key point. People have been using this ambiguous comment for years in support of various theories involving suspects who had a permanent limp or impediment – and it’s unfounded, illogical, non-valid, call it what you will.
Has anyone ever wondered if Z could have been a biker or someone who had spent a lot of time in a saddle? I’ve known people who have spent many years riding either motorbikes or horses and they do develop a distinctive walk. I guess it could be described as a kind of shuffling lope… probably bikers moreso than cowboys, as cowboys often tend to develop a kind of John Wayne swagger, especially if they are a bit big around the middle.
He certainly could have been. But it’s the permanent thing again. There’s no evidence that Z’s gait was striking or peculiar other than on one occasion. He was observed walking away from three crime scenes. Only Fouke noticed anything odd about his gait. If anything, this suggests that he did not have a permanent condition which affected his gait – but rather that the Jackson St "lope" was a one-off.
Not to mention that just in daily life, sometimes people stub their toe, or hurt their back, or sprain an ankle, etc, etc, etc…
I’ve had a "lope" a time or two just because of such things. And I could probably even FAKE such, if I wanted to.
This seems like an unanswerable question to me.
Have you ever walked down stairs in the dark, thought you were at the bottom, but then there was one more step? Worst shock in the world, right there.
-glurk
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I don’t believe in monsters.
A hurting back seems the most logical to me. Zodiac had just killed someone and then manipulated the body, which by then was truly dead weight, so that he could get a piece of the shirt. It’s reasonable to believe he was tense and strained his back muscles thus walking away from the crime scene with what appeared as an odd walk. I agree with Norse and Glurk that it could have been a temporary condition.
Have you ever walked down stairs in the dark, thought you were at the bottom, but then there was one more step? Worst shock in the world, right there.
Ugh! That’s almost as bad as slamming the top of the fridge with the milk carton, mistakenly expecting it to be heavy.
The struggle is real.
I’m now picturing a man walking nervously, with a shuffling lope, down a flight of stairs in the dark – clutching a half full milk carton.
I am on a business trip right now and don’t have my copy of Zodiac Unmasked handy, so forgive me if this info is wrong, but didn’t a dentist and his son shooting a .22 at LB see a stocky man (who Graysmith alleges was Zodiac Unmasked) watching them from afar and when he left his gait was described as lumbering?
Pure speculation is all we have. I guess if multiple witnesses report a shuffling gait I am more inclined to attribute it to a physical issue, like a bum hip or polio. Could just be that he injured it during the shooting at the cab, climbing over Stine and trying to tear his shirt and he comes up lame pulling a hammy. The idea of different shoes is creative and intriguing but I personally tend to dismiss both. After the murder, I’m thinking Z wants to get away as quick as he can and not attract any undue attention to himself. Survivors didn’t note any apparent braces or anything like that…who knows maybe they were concealed under his outfit. But I am more inclined to think it is more like a bad hip, if that makes sense. However, perhaps a progressive physical condition might explain why the killings eventually stopped.
I appreciate all the suggestions and ideas, though. No one really knows and with this case you never can tell. I tend to think the most obvious answer is usually the right one, but to me the most obvious answer is the suspect most closely identified with the case (ALA) and yet no evidence exists that could secure a conviction. Go figure.
Here’s my headscratcher: how does an officer who allegedly observed a suspect for a minute or less determine he is of Welsh ancestry? And what exactly does Welsh ancestry look like (and the answer can’t be Welsh ancestry looks like Welsh ancestry or the Zodiac composite)?
