This is the first of three sections.

I have looked at this case for many years. Knowing the motive is important in murders as it tells you where to look for the culprit. In classical serial killings, the primary motive is to exercise some sort of power over their victims. This can be either sexual or otherwise. Looking at 5 of the victims there was no such display at all. It is basically ‘Shoot and scoot’, no obvious pleasure involved at all. In addition he stops killing after Paul Stine.  A serial killer getting pleasure from killing would not have stopped so soon.  Zodiac says in his letters that ‘killing being better than getting your rocks off with a girl’ . I think this points to a pattern of deception and  suggests this a lie but I think it is clearly what he intended law enforcement to believe. Zodiac is not your typical psychopathic serial killer.

The second possible  motive that is mentioned in this case  is that the whole intent is to show the police up to be stupid. I think there is definitely is an element of this but it is probably not the primary motive. If the motive is to make the police look stupid, one has to ask why he did not taunt them after the first three attacks instead of waiting  until after the Paul Stine murder. In addition he only taunts the SFPD but leaves Vallejo, Benicia  or Solano county where all but one of the assaults occur. I think this is an enormous clue by the way. One could wonder whether this may be a law enforcement officer who joined Solano county, Vallejo after possibly being rejected by SFPD. 

I actually think the evidence in the case however points to a far different motive;  The third possible motive is that this has something to do with covering up a crime. Really the Zodiac only takes shape after Darlene Ferrin’s murder. After pondering this case for what feels like decades, I think the primary motive of Zodiac is to mislead a police investigation; In other words Deception. Deception is often characterised by lies in order to deceive. Zodiac does this in spades if you look closely at the evidence.

In order to understand the Zodiacs motives, you really need to think like him.  I think a lot of what happens makes sense if you put yourself in his shoes. I will try and interpret motive for each event and explain the discrepancies in the known evidence. Try and put away any bias in thinking about the case. I have tried really hard to only put down verified evidence, if you find a mistake let me know.

I will explain this with reference to the known evidence. I think most of the circumstantial evidence in the case points to a law enforcement officer from the Vallejo area as being Zodiac. I am surprised that this line of enquiry does not receive more attention. 

A). Lake Hermann road murders. Are they really performed by the Zodiac killer? 

The Lake Hermann murders occur a good 7 months prior to the other three  events which occur over a relatively short  3-4 month period between July and October, 1969 and then completely stop. Ask yourself why? I think this discrepancy is quite important and points to the possibility they are not actually performed by the same offender. We know that some offenders do take a break after the first murder, however the bizarre nature of the last two killings is completely different with the first two events. The MO completely changes. Ask yourself why? There has to be a logical reason.

At the time of the events in July, 1969, the chief suspect for the Lake Hermann road murders was a Juvenile who had threatened David Farraday and Betty Lou Jensen in the weeks prior to their murder. He was given an alibi by his parents and sister for the time of the killing and subsequently refused to take a lie detector test. There was also some information that the victims had planned to meet up with some of their other school colleagues at the time of the murder at the location of the murder. The information was out that they would be there.

Looking back at the published interview of the chief suspect, one notices the poor quality of questioning to determine whether his alibi checks out. He was supposedly watching a Bob Hope show on TV, but nothing about the content of the show was ever asked of the suspect to determine whether his evidence is truthful. He had also made statements to colleagues that he was going out in his parents car the night of the murders. In his Alibi he stays at home and eats his sisters birthday cake.

This attack only becomes a Zodiac murder based on what the Zodiac claims in a telephone call after the next event. The problem is that this case was never followed to its conclusion due to the fact the investigation changed towards looking for a random serial killer after the Zodiac appeared. It should be noted that the suspects father was a Mare Island police officer. I am unsure whether information was shared with the law enforcement at that location. This may be important later in identifying a way forward.

B) Cold Rock Springs road shootings 

The killer drives up to the car and sees Darlene in the car and then drives away. He then returns and approaches the car like a police officer with a bright light followed by a volley of shots from the passenger side of the vehicle. This happens after Mike gets his I.D. out. Did he think Mike was getting out a gun? Could this be just another Police shooting?  Why did he need to drive away if he went there to kill some random people for fun? The gun was surely already loaded if this was the case.There was no one else there at the time. He was alone with them.

It needs to be noted that Darlene took her lovers multiple times to the exact location where she was murdered. If it was a jealous lover then maybe he returned because he was angry. It is reportedly a  location where drugs were also dealt. There are multiple possible motives. Whether it be jealousy, crime related etc. Many amateur sleuths share the opinion that Zodiac was known to Darlene, it is also what the police thought as well. Thats not to say they are right.

Those of you who have watched the Zodiac Killer documentary would realise there are discrepancies from the evidence in the police report provided by officer Richard Hoffman who states in his report he was at the site of the murder ’15 minutes’ earlier at about 11.55 pm and had seen no one at all. Those of you who know the case well would realise he puts himself there at about the time of the shootings. He should of at least seen the vehicles that were parked there. He then changes this to ’30 minutes’ earlier in the Zodiac documentary. Why the change between his report and the documentary.? Richard Hoffman was in an unmarked car and not in uniform. Richard was working undercover in Juvenile Narcotics issues at the time. The exact movements of Richard Hoffman around the time of the murder and immediately after need to be clarified. They never are. Where exactly was he in those 15 minutes. He was certainly really close after the call went out and was first on the scene.

Mike Margeau (who seems seriously knocked around) also states in the documentary that Darlene identified the person who pulled up as Richard. In a  discussion with Dee’s sister about a month after the shooting also reportedly said the assailant called her ‘Dee’.   There obviously seems to be some issues that should have been sorted out. Mike is really only interviewed when he is either ‘shocked’ or under the influence of pain killers and the police record states this. I am not sure we have a clear description at any time from Mike. 

C). The first telephone call. This call is about Deception.

The first phone call is really when the concept of a serial killer first arises. There are real problems with this evidence. The details of the phone call are printed in the local newspapers before any written statement by Nancy Slover. Obviously someone is leaking information. The call was made about 12:40am, but this time is actually imprecise. The decision to make the call happens when Darlene and Mike are being transferred to hospital in the back of an Ambulance. The call is made barely 200 yards from the police station and is put through by the operator to the police dispatcher; Nancy Slover. In order to trace the call the telephone operator had to be listening, as the call was immediately traced back.

The phone caller says that he had murdered two people. He gives highly specific directions to Cold Rock Springs.  They were not murdered. He already knows that Mike is not dead. First lie (he wants you to think he does not know they are alive).

He states he used  a 9mm Luger which contains 8 x 9mm bullets. 9 bullets were actually fired, did he have 1 in the chamber?. Browning 9mm with a 10 or 13 mm round magazine much more likely (which happens to be a police weapon in common use). Different pistols leave different marks on casings. The police reportedly worked out it was a Browning, high power, not a Luger pistol. Some claim he is referring to the ammo, 9mm Luger.  I think he is trying to divert people away from the weapon he actually uses. Why would he need to do this? There is no need to mention any weapon at all, the police can figure this out. Whether this is deceptive or whether it is a misunderstanding is not clear to me. A 9mm Browning is a police pistol. I am unsure whether Vallejo police were using this weapon or not.

Claimed he ‘killed those kids last year.’ Did not mention either the location or the weapon used.

He reinforces this idea of a deranged serial killer by using a strange disguised voice.  He rings police from a phone near police station.  Finishes off with Good Byeeeeeeee. It has been stated that this is being read out and was prepared.

The obvious first issue that one can see is that he gives good directions to location and the weapon type used at Cold Rock Springs but almost no detail about Lake Hermann. If this was really a pre prepared statement claiming two events as some have suggested  there should be much more information about Lake Hermann. The logical conclusion is that this call was neither pre prepared and suggests he did not do Lake Hermann. 

Why does he need to lie? If it is truly a random serial killer then there is no need to lie. There is actually no need to make this phone call so soon after the murder either. Ask yourself what is the rush?  He did not make any phone call after Lake Hermann.  Why does he try and disguise his voice? He does not do this to Bryan Hartnell or the dispatcher in Napa after the Lake Berryessa event. There must be a logical reason. I think he hides his voice as he may be known to the police dispatcher, Nancy Slover.

The obvious reason for this call is because he panics. Both victims are alive at the time he makes the decision to make this call.  He could not possibly know Darlene is dead. I think he is worried that one of the survivors will identify him and makes the call to mislead the Police Investigation into thinking this is a Random attack. Secondly:  Think of this as ‘reverse logic’. By lying he is trying to distance himself from actual knowledge of the truth. Therefore law enforcement could be tricked into looking for people that would know they were not dead.   Very few people knew what happened at this stage and this is an important clue. The police and ambulance officers are the only ones that know what has transpired since the shooting.

This phone call is a serious mistake in my mind. It points to someone near the Vallejo police station (he was not expecting to be traced) known to Darlene Ferrin,  who knows what is happening in the aftermath of the shootings. Because he gives no real evidence about Lake Hermann he did not commit this shooting. This phone call points to a cover up in my mind.

D) Darlene Ferrin investigation.

This is what we know happens. The investigation concentrates on Darlene Ferrin. A complicated young woman with many lovers. It is also not clear that Darlene may also be involved with criminals as well. She lies to her family and friends where she is headed to immediately before the attack. As I have said, Cold Rock Springs carpark is where Darlene takes her lovers. Any previous lover knows where to find her. This line of investigation is a clear threat to anyone involved with her.  Darlenes ex husband, James Crabtree Phillips describes her as a compulsive liar and is not even interviewed at this stage. The ex husband who despises her is not interviewed. Why not?  One of Darlenes friends called ‘Richard’ is also never interviewed. Despite admitting to being a lover of Darlene; another person does not appear in the file, this happens to be a Vallejo police officer. These facts alone suggests the investigation is either very poor or compromised.

As Law enforcement is concentrating on lovers and acquaintances of Darlene Ferrin, it is possibly just a matter of time before the culprit is caught. He must somehow know that is where the police are looking. Ask yourself how does he know?  How does he derail a Police Investigation?  This is when the Zodiac is actually born. This is why I think the case changes so abruptly at this point.

 I think the primary motive is to derail a Police investigation and what subsequently follows is to create that scene. He has four major requirements at this stage. 1) creation of a deranged ‘serial killer’ in order to  take ownership of Lake Hermann for which he has an alibi.   2) Justify why he changes weapons. 3) Cover up  his ’stupid’ phone call. 4) widen the Geographical profile and get the focus off Vallejo.

What happens from now is to simply validate this plan. Thats why I think  the attacks go from routine to the Bizarre and changes location. No other serial killer has ever changed their MO as rapidly as this in such a short time. Zodiac is about Deception.