Soze: May I elaborate? Could be Z had difficulty, sexually and/or emotionally in dealing with females, beginning in high school. This may have carried on into a profound relationship, perhaps even marriage. Z-to-be encountered Bates in the library at RCC, and his resentment toward her for her shining him on at Ramona High fused with his relationship problems with his girlfriend/wife, and he went on to kill Bates. His murder of Bates gave Z-to-be a rush of power vis-a-vis females, and allowed him to conduct what he felt was a true male-female relationship. In time, however, the rush dissipated, and he killed again. Note, too, the territorial/age progression: from Riverside to San Francisco, and from high school (here I include Bates) to college students.

Dawg, I was just funning around so to speak and my comment wasn’t towards anything you have said. I am with you on the Zodiac having some sort of sexual/relationship issues. I am not one, however, who believes these issues have any weight to his reasons for killing. Sadly, I also don’t see a wife co-conspirator. I do think about a wife at times, wondering how much she might have "suspected" and, wondering about her mental welfare should he ever be revealed.

Soze

I can’t see Zodiac as the settling down with a wife and kids type. I believe there would be too many clues in his behavior and words and I think he was too dysfunctional to have a long term relationship. What happened after Stine in part of the lure of the case, isn’t it? The murders began occurring closer and closer together and then nothing concrete after Stine. I do believe he knew CJB, even in an oblique way. I am thinking more of a nuisance here. He stares at her. The guy she would roll her eyes at and maybe mention to her friends that he creeps her out. Maybe he sees her in the library or on campus and makes an advance or tries to strike up a conversation with her and gets rebuffed. Then in a fit of rage he kills her. It’s almost an impulsive act, as his lack of planning beforehand shows. That, in my opinion, explains the gap between CJB and LHR. He was waiting for the heat to get off him in Riverside. He messed up there. That may explain why he moved to the Bay Area if his original home was in SOCAL.

So he rages out against young students; he’s probably close to their age and can identify with them. He is lonely himself and envies couples who can have relationships. Then there is Stine. Yes, he’s a student but an adult one. Doesn’t fit. As they say in Fincher’s movie, he’s breaking the pattern. Why? I do think he initially stopped because the cops almost got him. They were very close to catching him.

But we know serial killers don’t stop killing. They may go dormant for a while but it’s always there under the surface waiting to re-emerge. I tend to discount the huge list of potential/suspected victims in the back of Graysmith’s Zodiac. Some cases have been solved, others were definitely the work of a serial killer but I don’t think it was Z. Oddly enough, I did count weekend murders from the list up to the date of the Exorcist letter where he claimed 37 victims and came up with 36 potential victims.

Could have been institutionalized or incarcerated but I can’t see him getting caught for another crime. Personally I think it was a physical infirmity or health issue. But even that doesn’t necessarily add up if he was a younger killer. So I just shot my own theory down. Long story short, I tend to think he stopped after Stine but I can’t figure out why.

Ok, so my caveat is I don’t buy into this theory that I am tossing around but since we deal in speculation, consider this remote (unlikely) possibility: if Zodiac knew Darlene and wanted to kill her, he goes around and kills some other people to make her slaying appear random when in fact she was the target. John Allen Muhammad’s wife alleged that she was his true target and all the other victims of the DV Sniper’s were just a cover-up for the true motive. I’m not sure I buy that one, either. Both seemed to kill for the joy of killing. But it might explain why the murders suddenly stopped. Kill Darlene, throw in a couple other random folks, mission accomplished.

Doc: But, why provoke the cops by sneering at their Stine-killer search? That’s a helluva way to cool things off!

I think Zodiac’s last murder was that of Paul Stine. I think he was in failing health when he started his murderous career and as his career progressed so did his illness. I think his letters from 1974 were the last efforts of man who had become gravely sick and was hoping his pen could still strike fear in the public while he knew he wasn’t capable of physical attacks any more. I think he died shortly after his final letter campaign in 74.

Was Paul Stine murder a smoke screen?
Intended to throw investigators off the trail.
The Zodiac killings were varied.
Unlike a single serial killers, which follow a consistent pattern.

Someone got suspicious and he felt it. He moved from the Bay Area and couldn’t dare risk any communication. The Bates crime was just a ploy to throw any suspicion off him and he had no connection to So Cal. My guess he alive and well surrounded by family.

Is there any research into whether the Zodiac knew Paul Stine? Stine was, according to what I read, a Ph.D. student in philosophy (does anyone know WHERE he was going to grad school–I’ve never seen the school identified by name). The Zodiac was supposedly an educated man, meaning that he could’ve become acquainted with Stine at a college. If so, killing Stine could’ve been a calculated risk to silence someone who knew (or strongly suspected) the killer’s identity.

This particularly makes sense if the Zodiac had decided to discontinue his homicides after LB but knew Stine had knowledge.

I believe the Zodiac decided to move away from the Bay Area to pursue education or a career. He decided ti make a clean break and had to silence Stine. Then he became semi-famous and achieved the notariety that homicides formerly brought. Thus, he had no need to continue his criminal activity.

There is no evidence whatsoever to indicate Paul Stine was known to the Zodiac Killer. From the taxicab meter reading it was calculated that Paul Stine picked up Zodiac in the approximate area of Union Square after dropping off his last fare at San Francisco International Airport. That is all that is known. The suggestion that Paul Stine knew the Zodiac is sheer speculation, and has manifested from the desire to seek greater meaning from an unfortunate but random murder. There is no evidence Zodiac knew any of his victims, and this is why the case has remained unsolved for nearly half a century. It is these 50 years that have created the mythical, Moriarty style Zodiac we see today, rather than the reality that existed in 1969.

Why stop with Stine?

Here’s why: the April 28 1970 envelope:

http://www.zodiackiller.com/DragonCardEnvelope.html

This mailing was followed by the June 26 ’70 mailing. That envelope:

http://www.zodiackiller.com/ZButtonEnvelope.html

Note on 6/26/70 the double postage and editor notation, which had been consistent in all of the mailings to the media up to 4/28/70, disappear. What could explain such two major changes in M.O. occurring at once?

The answer is, on 6/10/70, William Thoresen, who owned a house in Pacific Heights, and was the suspect in two brutal murders and one suspicious death, died. Thoresen had red in his hair, and his home was northeast of the Stein crime scene (which fits Stein witnesses’ description of Z’s hair color and direction Z’s walked in while escaping.)

Thoresen’s house was (exactly) from where Z said the cops were (see the bottom of page 2 of the Bus Bomb letter) when K-9 units were searching the park after Stein’s shooting, and in the neighborhood where at least one of mailboxes was that Z used.

Of further note: 1966 FBI reports reveal Thoresen was a suspect in the Valerie murder case. She was stabbed with a bayonet, an unheard of rare weapon to be used against a civilian. Read the autopsy report on Cecelia Shepard. The weapon? A bayonet.