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VERY VERY LONG. IF THIS DOESN'T INTEREST YOU THEN ITS PROBABLY BEST IF YOU DON'T READ ANY FURTHER.
The Zodiac Killer: The Case Reviewed
Since the Zodiac Killer was never caught, his early biography is unknown, his psychological state is unknown to the point of his killings, and the Zodiac is just as mysterious as when he was killing. The Truth of Zodiac is something that no one knows and he used his unknown status to frighten everyone. He was a master at Psychological Fear. And for the lack of background we have to start backwards, analyzing what the killer did and the possibilities of who he was.
The Location
Vallejo and Benicia lie just north of the San Pablo Bay and the Carquinez Strait, about 20 miles northeast of San Francisco. In the late 1960s, the area abutting the two rough-and-tumble, working-class cities was practically uninhabited, and even now only a few paved surfaces cross the barren expanses of southern Solano County above the Vallejo-Benicia Freeway. One of these is Lake Herman Road, running from eastern Vallejo to northern Benicia by way of the unincorporated area between them.
This is the Zodiacs territory and his place of killing. Now that we have an area to go on. Lets investigate the Victims:
Cheri Jo Bates was 18 years old when she had been killed by the Zodiac. She is considered his very first kill. On the night October 30, 1966, Cheri had left the College Library and went straight to her car. She attempted to start it to no avail. It would be later found out that the killer had disabled her lime green Volkswagen by pulling out the distributor coil and the condenser, then disconnecting the middle wire of the distributor, the zodiac killer had apparently waited for Bates to return to her car and try to start it, whereupon he made a pretense of unsuccessfully tinkering with the engine. It is then speculated that he offered her a ride, she accepted. He then drove to an alley between to abandoned houses, both owned by the college. Now comes the odd part, apparently the killer and Cheri had spent an hour and a half together, what they were doing is unknown.
Eventually the man attacked her, slashing her three times in the chest area, once in the back, and seven times across the throat. Police determined that the murder weapon was a small knife with a blade about 3 1/2" long by 1/2" wide, but the wounds to Bates' throat were so deep and brutal as to nearly decapitate her, severing her larynx, jugular vein, and carotid artery. She had also been choked, beaten, and slashed about the face.
Although the library closed at 9:00 p.m. (and books found in her car verify that she had been inside before then), two separate witnesses reported hearing an "awful scream" at around 10:30, followed by "a muted scream, and then a loud sound like an old car being started up" about two minutes later. This time matches an estimation given by the coroner, and is generally accepted as the time of her death. Of course a small conjecture can be made here, the person who killed her knew her. Hence that is why they spent so much time together in the car. Perhaps this was a crime of passion? Well according to the official police report: Neither rape nor robbery seemed to have been a motive, as her clothes were undisturbed and her purse was present and intact. So that rules out rape, sexual assault, robbery. What does that leave? A door pretty wide open for the Zodiac. And sure enough he would be taunting the police with this message:
On November 29, 1966 the Riverside Police recieved this letter about the murder of Cheri Bates:
THE CONFESSION
BY _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
SHE WAS YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL BUT NOW SHE IS BATTERED AND DEAD. SHE IS NOT THE FIRST AND SHE WILL NOT BE THE LAST I LAY AWAKE NIGHTS THINKING ABOUT MY NEXT VICTIM. MAYBE SHE WILL BE THE BEAUTIFUL BLOND THAT BABYSITS NEAR THE LITTLE STORE AND WALKS DOWN THE DARK ALLEY EACH EVENING ABOUT SEVEN. OR MAYBE SHE WILL BE THE SHAPELY BRUNETT THAT SAID XXX NO WHEN I ASKED HER FOR A DATE IN HIGH SCHOOL. BUT MAYBE IT WILL NOT BE EITHER. BUT I SHALL CUT OFF HER FEMALE PARTS AND DEPOSIT THEM FOR THE WHOLE CITY TO SEE. SO DON'T MAKE IT TO EASY FOR ME. KEEP YOUR SISTERS, DAUGHTERS, AND WIVES OFF THE STREETS AND ALLEYS. MISS BATES WAS STUPID. SHE WENT TO THE SLAUGHTER LIKE A LAMB. SHE DID NOT PUT UP A STRUGGLE. BUT I DID. IT WAS A BALL. I FIRST CUT THE MIDDLE WIRE FROM THE DISTRIBUTOR. THEN I WAITED FOR HER IN THE LIBRARY AND FOLLOWED HER OUT AFTER ABOUT TWO MINUTES. THE BATTERY MUST HAVE BEEN ABOUT DEAD BY THEN. I THEN OFFERED TO HELP. SHE WAS
THEN VERY WILLING TO TALK TO ME. I TOLD HER THAT MY CAR WAS DOWN THE STREET AND THAT I WOULD GIVE HER A LIFT HOME. WHEN WE WERE AWAY FROM THE LIBRARY WALKING, I SAID IT WAS ABOUT TIME. SHE ASKED ME, "ABOUT TIME FOR WHAT?" I SAID IT WAS ABOUT TIME FOR HER TO DIE. I GRABBED HER AROUND THE NECK WITH MY HAND OVER HER MOUTH AND MY OTHER HAND WITH A SMALL KNIFE AT HER THROAT. SHE WENT VERY WILLINGLY. HER BREAST FELT WARM AND VERY FIRM UNDER MY HANDS, BUT ONLY ONE THING WAS ON MY MIND. MAKING HER PAY FOR ALL THE BRUSH OFFS THAT SHE HAD GIVEN ME DURING THE YEARS PRIOR. SHE DIED HARD. SHE SQUIRMED AND SHOOK AS I CHOCKED HER, AND HER LIPS TWICHED. SHE LET OUT A SCREAM ONCE AND I KICKED HER IN THE HEAD TO SHUT HER UP. I PLUNGED THE KNIFE INTO HER AND IT BROKE. I THEN FINISHED THE JOB BY CUTTING HER THROAT. I AM NOT SICK. I AM INSANE. BUT THAT WILL NOT STOP THE GAME. THIS LETTER SHOULD BE PUBLISHED FOR ALL TO READ IT. IT JUST MIGHT SAVE THAT GIRL IN THE ALLEY. BUT THAT'S UP TO YOU. IT WILL BE ON YOUR CONSCIENCE. NOT MINE. YES, I DID MAKE THAT CALL TO YOU ALSO. IT WAS JUST A WARNING. BEWARE...I AM
STALKING YOUR GIRLS NOW.
CC. CHIEF OF POLICE
ENTERPRISE
Eventually, the Police would recieve another letter stating:
BATES HAD
TO DIE
THERE WILL
BE MORE
The way it is written is in the shape of a Z, the Zodiacs signiture on many things. However, many people are unsure if the Zodiac really killed her or not. I personally think he did. I think that was the beginning, why would a note be sent in the Form of a Z? Why would things add up to a killer that has not yet been named? It just does not make sense. The Zodiac was her killer....
Eventually, the killer would brandish a name: The Zodiac and he would begin by terrorizing California and he would claim two couples lives to officially begin his murderous run....
December 20, 1968, a light-colored hardtop four-door, possibly a Chevrolet Impala, was seen parked near the gated entrance to the pumping station off Lake Herman Road just east of Lake Herman. The same car was also seen there at about 10:00 by a different witness. Between these two sightings, a young man and his girlfriend were parked in the same spot when a car heading west toward Vallejo slowed to a stop several yards past their car, then began to slowly back up toward them. The car gave them both such a bad feeling that they immediately pulled out of the gravelly area and drove off toward Benicia. The other car followed them until the first exit, which they took, watching the stranger continue east on Lake Herman Road
At 11:10 p.m., David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were parked in the same place when they were shot to death near Faraday's brown Rambler. Having told Betty Lou's parents that they were going to a Christmas concert, they had instead driven to the isolated lover's lane and had been there for less than an hour when someone pulled in with them, exited his vehicle, and began firing into their car.
The killer was armed with either a .22 caliber rifle or, more likely, a handgun loaded with .22 LR ammunition. From light footprints and ballistic evidence, it appeared that the killer started from behind the car, shooting out the right rear window, then the left rear tire, then coming around to the front left. The two teenagers scrambled out the passenger's side door. LINK
Now something interesting is here, the Zodiac uses a handgun. This is important because it would become, his signiture weapon.
Jensen, 16, left the car alive and must have started to run toward the road; her body was found less than 30 feet from the rear bumper. The shot pattern — five rounds along the right side of her back, ranging from the space between the fifth and sixth ribs all the way down to the pelvis —suggested that the killer was either competent with firearms or had fired into her body as she lay wounded by a previous shot, as a coroner's report states that the shots had come from no more than 10 feet away.
Faraday was killed by being shot in the head. A minute to minute timeline was achieved when several witnesses driving by the area between 9:00 p.m. and 11:15 p.m. One of these witnesses, Stella Borges, may even have seen the killer's car, described as a light-colored Chevrolet, headed toward Benicia just before she discovered Jensen's and Faraday's bodies. The Zodiac has made his first official attack and has claimed two victims. His murderous rampage would begin again and he would be playing all sorts of games with the police and worst of all, he enjoyed what he did....
The Zodiac Killer would wait until six months later, shortly after 12:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 5, 1969 to strike and add fear once again. Again it was a couple, Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22, and Michael Renault Mageau, 19, were shot as they sat in Ferrin's car in the parking lot of the Blue Rock Springs Golf Course. However, this time something was different. The Zodiac did not finish the job, he assumed he killed both of them, but that was not the case. Mageau lived athough he recalls the incident with chilling detail... The Following is from Mageau's own words:
"Ferrin and Mageau were left alone ( Are you seeing the pattern? good because its important) until about midnight, when another car, alone this time, pulled into the lot from the direction of Vallejo. Its lone occupant turned off the car's headlights and pulled up next to Ferrin's car, six to eight feet away on her left.
The car, a brown Ford Mustang or Chevy Corvair, idled there for a moment, and Mageau asked Ferrin if she knew the driver, to which she responded, "Oh, never mind." Mageau later said that he wasn't sure whether this meant that she did or didn't know the driver, but before he could inquire further the car pulled out and drove off at high speed back toward Vallejo.
After about five minutes, the brown car returned to the parking lot and pulled up behind and to the right of Ferrin and Mageau, about 10 feet back. Leaving his headlights on this time, the driver exited his vehicle with a bright lamp or flashlight. Obscuring his face by holding the light at arm's length and shining it directly at them, he walked silently up to the passenger's side door.
From his manner, Mageau thought he might be a policeman, and was reaching for his ID when the man raised a handgun and fired five 9mm rounds through the window. He shot first at Mageau, hitting him in the face and body: at such close range, several of the slugs tore through his flesh and entered Darlene.
Fueled by pain and adrenaline, Michael kicked himself into the back seat, catching another bullet in his left knee. The attacker then fired at Ferrin, hitting her in each arm and in the back as she turned away. Mageau thought that the shots sounded quiet, perhaps fired through a silencer, but nearby resident George Bryant heard both the earlier firecrackers and the shots, and described the shots as much louder.
The killer was walking back to his car after this volley of shots when he heard Mageau begin to yell, either in pain or in rage. He returned to Ferrin's car, fired two additional shots at each of the victims, then turned around casually and got back in his own car.
Mageau was able to catch a look at the man's face in profile, and described him as short, about 5'8" tall, but extremely heavyset. Though "not blubbery fat" the man was at least 195 pounds and had a large face. In terrible pain but still conscious, Mageau managed to turn the car's blinkers on in an attempt to summon aid, then opened the passenger's side door and tumbled to the pavement. (This is HIGHLY Important, now we have an identity) So lets remember this!
The following is also highly important, so pay attention to the Killers psychological state.
From there, he watched the attacker peel out, turn his car around, and drive back in the direction of Vallejo. Though the Zodiac would later claim that he remained under the speed limit after the attack, both Mageau and George Bryant reported that he left the scene at a high rate of speed." ~End of Mageau's Personal Account.
Several police cars and an ambulance soon arrived, summoned by more late-night teenaged drivers who had discovered the car and victims, but the aid they could offer was too little and too late for Darlene, who died in the ambulance with Mageau and Officer Richard Hoffman of the Vallejo PD. Mageau went straight into surgery, but Darlene was not so lucky: she was pronounced Dead on Arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital at 12:38 a.m. LINK
The indication that Ferrin may have known her killer — or may have been known to him — was a pair of calls made to Darlene's home shortly after the murder. And lets not forget that she apparently seemed to know his car! Do not forget that either. When the calls were answered by Ferrin's friends at the house, there was no voice on the other end. One source close to the family claims that the calls were made by Darlene's brother, Leo, who was waiting to hear from Darlene about an unrelated matter. I do not believe that source, as harsh as that seems it appears that someone was trying to make it appear that they were not afflianted with the Zodiac. To give the family some peace. Thats the reason I would do that, to give some disinfo and get the peace of mind that my family and I need.
At 12:40, a pay phone call was made through the operator to Vallejo Police Headquarters. According to the police dispatcher, the caller's voice was mature and without accent, and he spoke evenly and consistently as if reading from a script. This is also important and needs to be brought into attention! All for a psychological analysis.
At one point, the dispatcher tried to ask the caller's identity and location, but he would not be interrupted and said, "I want to report a double murder. If you go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to the public park, you will find kids in a brown car. They were shot with a 9 mm Luger. I also killed those kids last year. Good bye" .
Continued next page.
The Zodiac Killer: The Case Reviewed
Since the Zodiac Killer was never caught, his early biography is unknown, his psychological state is unknown to the point of his killings, and the Zodiac is just as mysterious as when he was killing. The Truth of Zodiac is something that no one knows and he used his unknown status to frighten everyone. He was a master at Psychological Fear. And for the lack of background we have to start backwards, analyzing what the killer did and the possibilities of who he was.
The Location
Vallejo and Benicia lie just north of the San Pablo Bay and the Carquinez Strait, about 20 miles northeast of San Francisco. In the late 1960s, the area abutting the two rough-and-tumble, working-class cities was practically uninhabited, and even now only a few paved surfaces cross the barren expanses of southern Solano County above the Vallejo-Benicia Freeway. One of these is Lake Herman Road, running from eastern Vallejo to northern Benicia by way of the unincorporated area between them.
This is the Zodiacs territory and his place of killing. Now that we have an area to go on. Lets investigate the Victims:
Cheri Jo Bates was 18 years old when she had been killed by the Zodiac. She is considered his very first kill. On the night October 30, 1966, Cheri had left the College Library and went straight to her car. She attempted to start it to no avail. It would be later found out that the killer had disabled her lime green Volkswagen by pulling out the distributor coil and the condenser, then disconnecting the middle wire of the distributor, the zodiac killer had apparently waited for Bates to return to her car and try to start it, whereupon he made a pretense of unsuccessfully tinkering with the engine. It is then speculated that he offered her a ride, she accepted. He then drove to an alley between to abandoned houses, both owned by the college. Now comes the odd part, apparently the killer and Cheri had spent an hour and a half together, what they were doing is unknown.
Eventually the man attacked her, slashing her three times in the chest area, once in the back, and seven times across the throat. Police determined that the murder weapon was a small knife with a blade about 3 1/2" long by 1/2" wide, but the wounds to Bates' throat were so deep and brutal as to nearly decapitate her, severing her larynx, jugular vein, and carotid artery. She had also been choked, beaten, and slashed about the face.
Although the library closed at 9:00 p.m. (and books found in her car verify that she had been inside before then), two separate witnesses reported hearing an "awful scream" at around 10:30, followed by "a muted scream, and then a loud sound like an old car being started up" about two minutes later. This time matches an estimation given by the coroner, and is generally accepted as the time of her death. Of course a small conjecture can be made here, the person who killed her knew her. Hence that is why they spent so much time together in the car. Perhaps this was a crime of passion? Well according to the official police report: Neither rape nor robbery seemed to have been a motive, as her clothes were undisturbed and her purse was present and intact. So that rules out rape, sexual assault, robbery. What does that leave? A door pretty wide open for the Zodiac. And sure enough he would be taunting the police with this message:
On November 29, 1966 the Riverside Police recieved this letter about the murder of Cheri Bates:
THE CONFESSION
BY _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
SHE WAS YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL BUT NOW SHE IS BATTERED AND DEAD. SHE IS NOT THE FIRST AND SHE WILL NOT BE THE LAST I LAY AWAKE NIGHTS THINKING ABOUT MY NEXT VICTIM. MAYBE SHE WILL BE THE BEAUTIFUL BLOND THAT BABYSITS NEAR THE LITTLE STORE AND WALKS DOWN THE DARK ALLEY EACH EVENING ABOUT SEVEN. OR MAYBE SHE WILL BE THE SHAPELY BRUNETT THAT SAID XXX NO WHEN I ASKED HER FOR A DATE IN HIGH SCHOOL. BUT MAYBE IT WILL NOT BE EITHER. BUT I SHALL CUT OFF HER FEMALE PARTS AND DEPOSIT THEM FOR THE WHOLE CITY TO SEE. SO DON'T MAKE IT TO EASY FOR ME. KEEP YOUR SISTERS, DAUGHTERS, AND WIVES OFF THE STREETS AND ALLEYS. MISS BATES WAS STUPID. SHE WENT TO THE SLAUGHTER LIKE A LAMB. SHE DID NOT PUT UP A STRUGGLE. BUT I DID. IT WAS A BALL. I FIRST CUT THE MIDDLE WIRE FROM THE DISTRIBUTOR. THEN I WAITED FOR HER IN THE LIBRARY AND FOLLOWED HER OUT AFTER ABOUT TWO MINUTES. THE BATTERY MUST HAVE BEEN ABOUT DEAD BY THEN. I THEN OFFERED TO HELP. SHE WAS
THEN VERY WILLING TO TALK TO ME. I TOLD HER THAT MY CAR WAS DOWN THE STREET AND THAT I WOULD GIVE HER A LIFT HOME. WHEN WE WERE AWAY FROM THE LIBRARY WALKING, I SAID IT WAS ABOUT TIME. SHE ASKED ME, "ABOUT TIME FOR WHAT?" I SAID IT WAS ABOUT TIME FOR HER TO DIE. I GRABBED HER AROUND THE NECK WITH MY HAND OVER HER MOUTH AND MY OTHER HAND WITH A SMALL KNIFE AT HER THROAT. SHE WENT VERY WILLINGLY. HER BREAST FELT WARM AND VERY FIRM UNDER MY HANDS, BUT ONLY ONE THING WAS ON MY MIND. MAKING HER PAY FOR ALL THE BRUSH OFFS THAT SHE HAD GIVEN ME DURING THE YEARS PRIOR. SHE DIED HARD. SHE SQUIRMED AND SHOOK AS I CHOCKED HER, AND HER LIPS TWICHED. SHE LET OUT A SCREAM ONCE AND I KICKED HER IN THE HEAD TO SHUT HER UP. I PLUNGED THE KNIFE INTO HER AND IT BROKE. I THEN FINISHED THE JOB BY CUTTING HER THROAT. I AM NOT SICK. I AM INSANE. BUT THAT WILL NOT STOP THE GAME. THIS LETTER SHOULD BE PUBLISHED FOR ALL TO READ IT. IT JUST MIGHT SAVE THAT GIRL IN THE ALLEY. BUT THAT'S UP TO YOU. IT WILL BE ON YOUR CONSCIENCE. NOT MINE. YES, I DID MAKE THAT CALL TO YOU ALSO. IT WAS JUST A WARNING. BEWARE...I AM
STALKING YOUR GIRLS NOW.
CC. CHIEF OF POLICE
ENTERPRISE
Eventually, the Police would recieve another letter stating:
BATES HAD
TO DIE
THERE WILL
BE MORE
The way it is written is in the shape of a Z, the Zodiacs signiture on many things. However, many people are unsure if the Zodiac really killed her or not. I personally think he did. I think that was the beginning, why would a note be sent in the Form of a Z? Why would things add up to a killer that has not yet been named? It just does not make sense. The Zodiac was her killer....
Eventually, the killer would brandish a name: The Zodiac and he would begin by terrorizing California and he would claim two couples lives to officially begin his murderous run....
December 20, 1968, a light-colored hardtop four-door, possibly a Chevrolet Impala, was seen parked near the gated entrance to the pumping station off Lake Herman Road just east of Lake Herman. The same car was also seen there at about 10:00 by a different witness. Between these two sightings, a young man and his girlfriend were parked in the same spot when a car heading west toward Vallejo slowed to a stop several yards past their car, then began to slowly back up toward them. The car gave them both such a bad feeling that they immediately pulled out of the gravelly area and drove off toward Benicia. The other car followed them until the first exit, which they took, watching the stranger continue east on Lake Herman Road
At 11:10 p.m., David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were parked in the same place when they were shot to death near Faraday's brown Rambler. Having told Betty Lou's parents that they were going to a Christmas concert, they had instead driven to the isolated lover's lane and had been there for less than an hour when someone pulled in with them, exited his vehicle, and began firing into their car.
The killer was armed with either a .22 caliber rifle or, more likely, a handgun loaded with .22 LR ammunition. From light footprints and ballistic evidence, it appeared that the killer started from behind the car, shooting out the right rear window, then the left rear tire, then coming around to the front left. The two teenagers scrambled out the passenger's side door. LINK
Now something interesting is here, the Zodiac uses a handgun. This is important because it would become, his signiture weapon.
Jensen, 16, left the car alive and must have started to run toward the road; her body was found less than 30 feet from the rear bumper. The shot pattern — five rounds along the right side of her back, ranging from the space between the fifth and sixth ribs all the way down to the pelvis —suggested that the killer was either competent with firearms or had fired into her body as she lay wounded by a previous shot, as a coroner's report states that the shots had come from no more than 10 feet away.
Faraday was killed by being shot in the head. A minute to minute timeline was achieved when several witnesses driving by the area between 9:00 p.m. and 11:15 p.m. One of these witnesses, Stella Borges, may even have seen the killer's car, described as a light-colored Chevrolet, headed toward Benicia just before she discovered Jensen's and Faraday's bodies. The Zodiac has made his first official attack and has claimed two victims. His murderous rampage would begin again and he would be playing all sorts of games with the police and worst of all, he enjoyed what he did....
The Zodiac Killer would wait until six months later, shortly after 12:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 5, 1969 to strike and add fear once again. Again it was a couple, Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22, and Michael Renault Mageau, 19, were shot as they sat in Ferrin's car in the parking lot of the Blue Rock Springs Golf Course. However, this time something was different. The Zodiac did not finish the job, he assumed he killed both of them, but that was not the case. Mageau lived athough he recalls the incident with chilling detail... The Following is from Mageau's own words:
"Ferrin and Mageau were left alone ( Are you seeing the pattern? good because its important) until about midnight, when another car, alone this time, pulled into the lot from the direction of Vallejo. Its lone occupant turned off the car's headlights and pulled up next to Ferrin's car, six to eight feet away on her left.
The car, a brown Ford Mustang or Chevy Corvair, idled there for a moment, and Mageau asked Ferrin if she knew the driver, to which she responded, "Oh, never mind." Mageau later said that he wasn't sure whether this meant that she did or didn't know the driver, but before he could inquire further the car pulled out and drove off at high speed back toward Vallejo.
After about five minutes, the brown car returned to the parking lot and pulled up behind and to the right of Ferrin and Mageau, about 10 feet back. Leaving his headlights on this time, the driver exited his vehicle with a bright lamp or flashlight. Obscuring his face by holding the light at arm's length and shining it directly at them, he walked silently up to the passenger's side door.
From his manner, Mageau thought he might be a policeman, and was reaching for his ID when the man raised a handgun and fired five 9mm rounds through the window. He shot first at Mageau, hitting him in the face and body: at such close range, several of the slugs tore through his flesh and entered Darlene.
Fueled by pain and adrenaline, Michael kicked himself into the back seat, catching another bullet in his left knee. The attacker then fired at Ferrin, hitting her in each arm and in the back as she turned away. Mageau thought that the shots sounded quiet, perhaps fired through a silencer, but nearby resident George Bryant heard both the earlier firecrackers and the shots, and described the shots as much louder.
The killer was walking back to his car after this volley of shots when he heard Mageau begin to yell, either in pain or in rage. He returned to Ferrin's car, fired two additional shots at each of the victims, then turned around casually and got back in his own car.
Mageau was able to catch a look at the man's face in profile, and described him as short, about 5'8" tall, but extremely heavyset. Though "not blubbery fat" the man was at least 195 pounds and had a large face. In terrible pain but still conscious, Mageau managed to turn the car's blinkers on in an attempt to summon aid, then opened the passenger's side door and tumbled to the pavement. (This is HIGHLY Important, now we have an identity) So lets remember this!
The following is also highly important, so pay attention to the Killers psychological state.
From there, he watched the attacker peel out, turn his car around, and drive back in the direction of Vallejo. Though the Zodiac would later claim that he remained under the speed limit after the attack, both Mageau and George Bryant reported that he left the scene at a high rate of speed." ~End of Mageau's Personal Account.
Several police cars and an ambulance soon arrived, summoned by more late-night teenaged drivers who had discovered the car and victims, but the aid they could offer was too little and too late for Darlene, who died in the ambulance with Mageau and Officer Richard Hoffman of the Vallejo PD. Mageau went straight into surgery, but Darlene was not so lucky: she was pronounced Dead on Arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital at 12:38 a.m. LINK
The indication that Ferrin may have known her killer — or may have been known to him — was a pair of calls made to Darlene's home shortly after the murder. And lets not forget that she apparently seemed to know his car! Do not forget that either. When the calls were answered by Ferrin's friends at the house, there was no voice on the other end. One source close to the family claims that the calls were made by Darlene's brother, Leo, who was waiting to hear from Darlene about an unrelated matter. I do not believe that source, as harsh as that seems it appears that someone was trying to make it appear that they were not afflianted with the Zodiac. To give the family some peace. Thats the reason I would do that, to give some disinfo and get the peace of mind that my family and I need.
At 12:40, a pay phone call was made through the operator to Vallejo Police Headquarters. According to the police dispatcher, the caller's voice was mature and without accent, and he spoke evenly and consistently as if reading from a script. This is also important and needs to be brought into attention! All for a psychological analysis.
At one point, the dispatcher tried to ask the caller's identity and location, but he would not be interrupted and said, "I want to report a double murder. If you go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to the public park, you will find kids in a brown car. They were shot with a 9 mm Luger. I also killed those kids last year. Good bye" .
Continued next page.
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