He could have used a razor knife for goodness sake if he just wanted to kill them. I often wonder why he felt the need to stab them instead of just cutting their throats. I should have paid more attention in those psychology classes.

Thanks for posting Buckwheat. You don’t have to say a word and you make me smile. Your avatar does it to me every time.

I’d say stabbing (the way it was done at LB) offers a way more personal experience and an entirely different mindset. Zodiac or not.

You could kill somebody with most hunting knives, but a long or bayonet style knife, would certainly penetrate deeper and cause more internal damage, which is why bayonets were fixed to rifles for hand to hand combat. The last knife I would use to kill somebody, or for self defense, is a pocket knife like that used in Cheri’s case. They are very small bladed, and hard to hold onto.

One could make the case that if the man who killed Cecelia at Lake Berryessa also killed Cheri Jo in Riverside, he was attempting to compensate for that tiny blade that broke so easily…

When I was in the military they taught us to "stick deep and twist" in order to do the most damage with a bayonet (grotesque, I know – but there you are). Z didn’t cut either victim very deeply, as I recall – more like frenzied hacking. He "progressed" from gun to knife and there are several things which indicate that he wasn’t comfortable with the latter weapon. He certainly didn’t attack in a manner which can be described (horrible as it is to describe it in any way) as efficient. Fast (as though he wanted to get it over with) but not efficient.

As mentioned in another thread it recently struck me that Z (according to BH’s description" was wearing bloused pants. This is a style often favored by outdoors types (also by military people, of course). That could go in the "pro hunter" column.

But on the whole I agree with morf. There is nothing which strongly indicates that he was a hunter, if by the latter we mean an expert hunter. The "wild game" phrase doesn’t indicate an experienced hunter to me – it sounds almost contrived or learned, as morf suggests. Could have gotten that from a book or a movie. Or a comic book…

The story "The Most Dangerous Game" most certainly would have accounted for all the terms re. hunting. "Man is the most dangerous animal of all". That to me would explain ALL his hunting references, as in ever mention of hunting he is most certainly speaking of hunting humans.