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| The Zodiac Killer Enigma |
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| Betty Lou Jensen - David Faraday - Darlene Ferrin |
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| Paul Stine - Micheal Mageau |
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| Cheri Jo Bates - Paul Avery |
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| Cecilia Shepard - Bryan Hartnell |
We have created some different scenes. These are just a couple of many many we have made and tried out. We like to do many different things then choose what we like the best. As we complete and polish up this some will be taken off and stored in a different location.
By Randall Scott Clemons
To get back to the main page
We found all of the old black and white, degraded images, anything that had something to do with this case, and we restored and colorized them. We thought it was time as I have done a lot of work in that area with old war images. Scenes from the Civil War and World War Two. This is no different.
It occurred to me that some of you may be looking at these codes and not really know what it is all about. So, I thought I would tell you in my own words and in my own way. The best I can. At least the way I see things, and unlike some others, I will state nothing but the facts as I know them. I have recently written a couple of books on this and I am going to tie this in with them. So, sit back and relax while I will tell you a story of the boogeyman.
Here is a list of the known crimes and their dates,
1. 10-30-1966---------Cheri Jo Bates. Stabbed outside of the Riverside City College
Library. She may or may not have been an actual Zodiac victim.
2. 12-20-1968------- David Faraday age 17, and Betty Lou Jensen age 16
Both were shot on Lake Herman Road.
3. 7-4-1969 ---------- Micheal Mageau age 19, and Darlene Ferrin age 22
Both were shot in a parking lot at Blue Rock Springs. Micheal survived the attack.
I wish I could talk to him for about 30 minutes or so.
4. 9-27-1969-------- Bryan Hartnell age 20 and, Cecelia Shepard age 22
Both were bound and stabbed at Lake Berryessa in Napa. Bryan survived
The attack
5. 10-11-1969-------- Paul Stine age 29. Shot at the corner of Washington St. And Cherry St. while in his taxi cab. He did not survive the attack.
I will tell the whole story in the order by the date they occurred. There are a few more "suspected" victims, but I am not going to get into that, yet. This is meant to be an overview just to get you familiarized with the basics of what occurred. I am not going to write an entire book about it here, though we do get into a bit of detail. I have written a couple of books on this subject. you should check them out. So, let's begin.....
========================================================================Cheri Jo Bates
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Most people never start with Cheri Jo Bates. It was October the 30th 1966 in Riverside California. The night before Halloween. 18-year-old Cheri Jo Bates, daughter of Joseph Bates decided to go to the library. Cheri didn't know it but someone was stalking her when she parked her car in front of the Riverside City College Library. He watched her go into the library. While in the library her stalker quietly opens the hood of her car and removes some distributor wires to keep the car from starting. I have asked mechanics about this. The police report says he removed a wire from the distributor.
Most mechanics have told me this wouldn't keep the car from starting it would only make it miss. unless you unhook the coil wire from the distributor, which turns out to be the case. When she comes back out of the library she goes to her car. Something is wrong. The car won't start. It just so happens there is someone close by to lend a helping hand. Her killer came to her in the guise of a friend. He offers to help her fix her car. I believe this is when he removed the distributor wire. I can't say this is what happened but a far easier way and less obvious to other passersby would be just to shove a cloth or plug the tailpipe.
I also read that the wire was removed from the coil. I have to do more research on this. I asked around and found out it was common to find the hood latch on the outside of the vehicle until around 1969. It would have been easy for him to get under the hood, but it just seems like it would have attracted attention.
Here is where speculation starts coming into play. No one knows if he forced her into his car or if she went willingly. I can tell you this. Her boyfriend said she loved her car more than anything. When the police found the car her keys were in the ignition. I ask you, "If you love your car more than anything, are you going to willingly walk off and leave the doors unlocked and the keys in the ignition?".
I don't really like talking about this part of it. Most people take it lightly. Like it is just something happening in a movie, but it's not something in a movie. This actually happened to a little girl. Someone's daughter. Someone's sister. Just remember that.
He takes her close by between two empty houses, takes out a small knife, and hacks her to death. This man was never caught. Sometimes these people get an almost supernatural legend built around them. Like they are a ghost or like a shadow at night. He's not. He is just a man, and you know what they say about people who shoot other people in the back.
There was a lot of evidence taken from this scene. I think a groundskeeper discovered the body. A Timex watch that suggested the owner had a seven-inch wrist size was traced back to a military PX in England. There were footprints that indicated the person who committed the crime wore footwear identical to those of Air force personnel. A typewritten confession was mailed to a local newspaper by the name of "The Daily Enterprise", and the police.
On April 30th, 1967 six months after the murder, Joseph Bates, The Press-Enterprise, and the police all received letters that were nearly identical. All were signed with a monogram that resembles a Capricorn symbol.
Later an etching in a desktop was discovered and entered into evidence. The analysts said the writing matched the Zodiac and I will admit the f is dead on, but this is also something that any teenager could have done. If the Zodiac did do this then that would suggest he was a student there at some point. That could be important in discovering who he was, but who knows?
While Cheri Jo Bates was never officially a Zodiac case, it is linked to it. The evidence and pattern are similar. In other articles, I can show you more of a pattern to this that you have probably never seen before and I can link the Zodiac killer to the San Mateo Slasher. I will just tell you the facts and how it fits the pattern. You can decide, though I don't think they were the same person. It is just a few strange coincidences.
The Faraday and Jensen Murders
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Betty Lou Jensen David Faraday
On the night of December 20th, 1968, 16-year-old Betty Lou Jensen was getting ready to go on her first official date with 17-year-old, David Faraday. No doubt both were very excited. The young couple drove out to s secluded spot on Lake Herman Road. This was just down the road from the Blue Rock Springs golf course and the future attack of Micheal Mageau and Darlene Ferrin.
There were actually a lot of potential witnesses around the scene during this attack. The killer only had a 5 to 8-minute window to commit the crime and split the scene. There were a couple of hunters, people on their daily commutes, and others out and about. With these reports, the police were able to calculate this time frame. It just kills you because it is so close but yet so far.
The two teenagers were shot to death.................................for no reason.
It is interesting though, that this happened right down the road from a golf course. Like the murder of Paul Stine. Has anyone ever noticed this murder happened right across the street from a golf course? Darlene Ferrin was shot in the parking lot of the Blue rock springs golf course. Even Lake Berryessa and Cherri Jo Bates had golf courses nearby in the area. Then in 1976 a bunch of murders occurs on or near golf courses in San Mateo. They called them the Gypsy Hill killings. In all of these attacks, the young girls had car trouble just like Cherri Jo Bates. The FBI just linked the San Mateo Slasher to a murder that occurred in Nevada through DNA. Though a suspect was caught and prosecuted for some of these murders, they could not connect him to all of them. There have been other murders of this nature over the years.
At the Crime Scene
David Faraday's Funeral
The images above show the spot where the crime occurred. we restored and colorized these images. I even took a few images and placed them together to create a panorama. then you see a clip from the funeral of David Faraday. they say he was a really good kid. No different than most other teenage boys.
The Ferrin/Mageau Encounter
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Darlene Ferrin Micheal Mageau
July 4th, 1969. Let's picture the mood. Fireworks going off. Parties beyond parties are forming. You could probably smell someone barbequing somewhere. Everyone is getting out, going somewhere, and having a good time. I mean it is July 4th in California in 1969. I can only imagine.
Micheal Mageau was only 19 years old. I don't know a lot about Micheal, but he was probably just a dude. Just like any other young man. Taking it day by day and probably looking for some fun. Who can blame him, I would be to.
He meets up with 22-year-old Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin. She is a little bit older than him but not much. Darlene is also married and her husband was a suspect for a time but was quickly cleared. Maybe Micheal and Darlene were just friends and Maybe they were more. It's not really any of our business. I think the locations of the attacks are what is important. I think they were locations he frequented near golf courses and the murders were just based on opportunity.
Zodiac may or may not have known Darlene. I know when I would run around with my friends we would go to places that were familiar to us that we felt safe in. The fact that Darlene chose to go to that spot with Micheal means she felt safe there and it was probably a place she frequented. It is a parking lot surrounded by a golf course. I would like to find out if there were any events going on that day.
If she frequented that spot and the Zodiac frequented that spot playing golf as I suspect he might then it is possible the two had run into each other. Maybe they even talked a couple times. Wouldn't it be something if it turned out the Darlene Ferrin attack was an act of rage and jealousy? I have nothing to base this on, but anything is possible. Micheal even said he wasn't sure if Darlene knew the car or not but she acted a little strange.
He pulled in the parking lot and parked around 6 feet away on the left side of their car. He asked Darlene if she knew him and she acted a little weird and said: " Oh never mind".
Micheal and Darlene were in a Chevy, Corvair. Micheal said that the other car also looked like a Corvair. Micheal said he as far as he could tell the car only had one person in it. Then it just left in the direction of Vallejo. He took off really fast. That would suggest he may have been emotional when he left. Think about it. Your boyfriend or girlfriend gets mad at you. They get in the car. What is the first thing they do? Burn the tires and take off with that song "sittin at a bar" playing in the background, I joke but it's not funny.
The night Ferrin was murdered, she was wearing pattern slacks. It was actually a jumpsuit from what I understand, but close enough. Zodiac also pointed this out in the first letters he sent along with the 408 cipher, though he got some parts a little off. The pattern was a flower pattern. here is an image of what she was wearing that night taken from the evidence that the police have in storage
Below is a recreation I made. I was just playing around when I did this. I will probably make a better one at some point and hopefully better information. Still, it isn't too bad. It is something I will get to the bottom of (not that this small detail really matters), but some seem to think it a reason to make a hoax plausible. Though I myself do not lend to that frame of mind. This girl was actually murdered by someone. Let's talk a little more about this.
When Zodiac sent his first letters with the 408 ciphers, he mentioned the girl was wearing pattern slacks in one letter and pants in another. He sent three letters with this stated in it. A man by the name of Mr. Horan, says this is proof the Zodiac Killer was a hoax. Because Darlene was actually wearing a dress. Some say it was a jumpsuit. I will get the police reports and post them here and we can just see for ourselves what she was wearing when I can find them.
Really it doesn't make a difference and here is why. Imagine if you will...It was dark...this was somewhat of a high-stress situation...the killer had limited visibility of what he was inside the car. It is not like he hung around for five minutes and checked Darlene out to see if she was wearing pants or a dress. From his perspective, we know he could see she was wearing something patterned. I think he is focusing on all of the wrong things. Keep in mind all the details he gave in the letter only the killer could know. The fact he mentioned she was wearing patterned anything was something only the killer could know. It makes no difference if he got a small detail about what the item she was wearing was called wrong. After all... the Zodiac is only human...just not a very good one.
Hartnell's and Shepard's Date With Destiny
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Bryan Hartnell
Cecilia Shepard
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| Cecilia Shepard |
Here is a picture of the peninsula where the attack occurred. This picture was taken in 1969. We restored and colorized the old image.
High resolution, still, color, image of the Hartnell/Shepard crime scene in 1969
Here is a more recent image of Hartnell at the crime scene. Take note of the Island.
Here is the scene as far as I can gather. Bryan and Cecelia were lying on a blanket in the area marked in the image. Bryan is facing the water and Cecelia is facing the trees when she notices a man standing behind the trees marked in the image.
As the two-lay chatting, a man had crept up behind that tree, stalking his prey. It seems to me this place was well known to Zodiac, as he seemed to feel comfortable enough to terrorize two people there without fear of getting caught. Then, that may have been the reason for bringing the mask.
Everything I have ever heard about this story has given me a lot of respect for Bryan. I have spoken to people who have had the opportunity to actually talk to Bryan, and all of them have told me he was a stand-up guy. I actually feel for the man, but he didn’t let this event shape his life and define who he is. He went on after this attack to have a normal life and become a prominent attorney. I think he would just want to go on about his life and forget about all of this, and who could blame him. One officer said that he truly admired Bryan. Bryan, my hat’s off to you sir.
You see, after the two-spotted the man behind the tree, he stepped out to reveal he had a gun pointed at them. He then told them he had just broken out of prison and was on his way to Mexico. I have heard different versions of this story. All agree that Bryan thinks he remembers the man saying he had broken out of prison in Montanna. Some say he went on to say it was Deer Lodge Prison, while some say that was never mentioned. I would like to talk to him personally, but he just wants to forget all of this and who could blame him.
The man told Cecelia to tie Bryan up with some precut cord he had brought with him. That tells us when he woke up that day he had the intention of killing someone. The question is, did he follow the two to this place, or was he just in the area hunting for an opportunity? I tend to think he was in the area. I have also heard this same story told about other murders and rapes that have happened in California. The Golden State Killer, (who was just arrested as I was writing this) had done this same thing to some of his victims, but I don’t think the Golden State Killer and Zodiac, are the same person, but who knows. It just makes you wonder. Zodiac never raped anyone that we know of, and I stress, “that we know of”, because I don’t think he was above it. He changed his M.O. quite often (or seemed to, but maybe people are looking at the wrong pattern) and the only reason we know his known victims is because he told us about them.
Then after stabbing Bryan, he turned to Cecelia. Like in his other murders he was brutal on the female victim, stabbing her 29 times. One can only imagine the pain they felt, but more than that you can only imagine the pain Bryan felt, laying there helpless to do anything to help Cecelia. That must have been the greatest pain of all.
When the two first saw the man, Bryan wanted to try to go for his gun, but Cecelia signaled to him not to. You have to wonder how the outcome might have been different if Bryan had only followed his instincts. There are lots of stories about what happened next. Some say people in a boat on the lake saw the two, and there are plenty of other stories out there, but what happened next is truly amazing. Bryan, after having been stabbed eight times, dragged himself up and crawled all the way from that beach to the road.
He was thinking more of Cecelia than he was himself, as he was trying to find help to save her. Cecelia died a little later but, Bryan survived the attack to tell the story of what he had seen and heard. It makes you wonder if maybe, Zodiac, wanted him to survive, or else what was the reason for all of the theatrics? Zodiac left the scene of the crime, but not before scrawling a message on the side of Hartnell’s Volts Wagon Karmann Ghia. A circled cross with dates and times written above and below the symbol.
They were in this general area when the attack happened. One good thing about working with all of these images is that we are getting to know the crime scenes really well. Here is a picture of the phone booth the Zodiac called the police from after the Hartnell/Shepard attack at Lake Berryessa. Officer David Slaight answered this call.
They had a small office and when the dispatcher took their lunch break, one of the officers would fill in for them during this time. Zodiac called and said, " I want to report a murder, no. A double murder". I ended the call by saying, "I am the on that did it". He then leaves the phone off the hook and does not hang it up. Mr. Slaight said he could hear voices in the background and traffic. So, people were around when this call was made.
A little known fact of how they traced this call. He called the operator for a trace. While this was going, on a journalist heard about the call over a police scanner and started driving around town to each phone booth saying, "can you hear me? can you hear me?" That was how they found the phone. No one touched the phone after the killer made this call. They got prints off the phone which have never been identified. They stated that some were so fresh that they had to artificially dry them to take the prints off the phone. These pictures were taken at the scene in 1969.
Some might look at this and think, " why did this idiot make the phone booth red". Well, younger people might think that. Old rotary phone booths were actually red not blue, though, in all honesty, I don't know what color these actually were. A lot of things that most are used to today used to be different colors back in the day. Here is an example of an old rotary phone booth. I just saw one in the movie War Games.
Here is an image from the movie War Games of an old rotary phone booth used in it. I know phone booths used to be red instead of blue. So, I made the phone booth red. Either way, it is better than black and white.
I know prints were found on this phone. I saw one documentary made some years ago that claimed no usable prints were found on this phone, but I know there were. In different interviews I have seen, with the actual officers involved, they stated they got prints from this phone. They stated they got a good palm print from the phone. It is just unknown whether they belonged to the killer, but odds are pretty good they did.
Zodiac stated that sometimes he wore rubber cement over his fingers to keep from leaving prints. I don't think that would have been the case this day, but at the lake, he was wearing gloves. Though he probably took them off after the attack and this would have also been impractical to wear gloves to dial the phone, in the summer, with people around, making him stand out.
There is another place they found a palm print also. On one of the letters, the Zodiac had written. The Exorcist letter. I wonder if any of the prints they found at the various crime scenes, letters, and other sources matched each other. No doubt they were compared. I wonder if anyone out there has the results from this comparison. Here is the palm print found on the "Exorcist" letter sent by the Zodiac.
That is an actual Zodiac killer print. for all you people out there who think you may know who he is. This is just one more thing besides the handwriting that may be able to compare. Though we do endorse doing that kind of thing. It is dangerous. Always go to the police.
Bryan Hartnell in the hospital
We are always on the lookout for better quality images to colorize. Below, were a couple I found that was just a little bit better quality and the previous two I worked with of Celia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell.
Paul Stine
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Almost two weeks later on October 11, 1969, twenty-nine-year-old
Paul Lee Stine was just coming on duty. Paul was a taxi driver for the famous
Yellow Cab Company. If Paul had known that the man he was about to pick up
would be the last person he would ever speak to, I’m sure he would have just driven
on and looked for another fare. It was his first fare of the night. There are
different stories about where exactly Paul picked the man up from, but there
can be no argument about his destination. The man directed Paul to take him to
the corner of Washington and Maple. Again, one can only imagine what that cab
ride was like. Did they have a normal conversation? Did Zodiac hold him,
hostage, as soon as he stepped into the vehicle? You have to wonder what Paul’s
opinion of the man was before he revealed his true intentions. You have to
wonder why Zodiac wanted to go to this specific corner.
Upon reaching their destination at Washington and Maple,
the man then directed Paul to drive up one more corner to the corner of
Washington and Cherry, and then put a gun to his head and pulled the
trigger. Again, everyone has to wonder
why he picked this exact spot and not the corner of Washington and Maple? There
was a police phone at the corner of Washington and Cherry, and Zodiac did like
to report his crimes after he committed them. Maybe he picked that spot so an
officer could call it in after he walked upon the scene. Who knows? There are
lots of theories, but in this case, Zodiac would not have time to report the
crime himself.
Some
children on the second floor of a home across the street from where Stine was
murdered, watched as everything happened. The children reported that they saw
the man get out of the cab and walk around to the driver’s seat. They thought
the men might be fighting. They reported that it looked like he was wiping
something down on the cab, then he just calmly walks away.
When
the crime was reported, there was some kind of miscommunication and the police dispatcher put out the description of an African American male suspect. Police
in the area was looking for the wrong person at first, or the mystery may have
been ended that very night.
It was shortly
after the crime when officers Don Fouke, and Eric Zelms, happened upon a man in
the area just lumbering down the street. This is where the story gets
confusing. Over the years the story has changed a little, but it was this
encounter that produced the famous Zodiac, composite.
It may
have actually been the Zodiac, and then it may not have been. No one truly
knows, but the odds are good this man was the killer. Sometimes composites do
more harm than good. Someone may think they know who the killer is but think he
doesn’t look like the composite, so they never report it. Sometimes composites
are what break the entire case.
In a letter Zodiac wrote in the days following
the murder, he claims that the police officers actually spoke to him. Don Fouke
claims he never spoke to the man, but other officers have claimed that they
have heard these officers admitted to talking to the man that night. So, either
way, someone is lying, and one of them is a police officer. I recommend watching the documentary, “This
is the Zodiac Speaking”. Zodiac bragged
in the letter he wrote about that night, that he was hiding in the park the
whole time watching the police go by. I think he had a safe place nearby to go
after the murder because you have to ask yourself, “Why did he go to that place.”
I don’t think he lived there, but I do think he had some association with that
area. The park he claimed to be hiding in was part of the Presidio. The Presidio
is a rather large naval base in San Francisco. I think the man could have some
kind of connection to this base. That is one of the mysteries for us to solve.
When the children saw the man at the driver’s
seat of the cab wiping things down, he was really tearing off a piece of
Stine’s shirt and soaking it with blood. He also took Stine’s wallet and who
knows what else. He would later send sections of this shirt in his letters to
prove he was the man who murdered Stine, and also the so-called "Zodiac”.
Inspector Dave Toschi
Police following a bus after threats against them were made.
. The Zodiac Wanted Poster.
Bryan Hartnell
at KGO-TV Studios
Bryan Hartnell at KGO-TV at the Dunbar show in San Francisco trying to determine the voice of caller to Melvin Belli to see if it is indeed the man who attacked him at Lake Berryessa.
Bryan Hartnell on the right and Nancy Slover on the left at KGO-TV studios trying to determine the voice of the caller to Melvin Belli during the Jim Dunbar Show. Nancy Slover was a police dispatcher in Vallejo that received a call from the Zodiac the night Darlene Ferrin was murdered.
Melvin Belli at the Dunbar show at KGO-TV Studios
Here is a video clip of the actual show that day when someone claiming to be the Zodiac called Melvin Belli at the Jim Dunbar Show.
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| Betty Lou Jensen - David Faraday - Darlene Ferr |
To get back to the main title page click the link below
Table of Contents
========================================================================
Section 1...Intro to the Zodiac Codes
Section 2...The Clues
Click Here
Click Here
Section 3... The Radians, the 66 Map, and the 340 code coupling
Section 4...The 340 Hidden Message
Section 5...The 32 symbol Map Code and JKF WROTE
Section 6...The Exorcist Letter Puzzle
Section 7...The Zodiac Killer JKF Pattern
Section 8...My Name Is Connect the Dots
2014 - 2020
