Cancer of Detectives Joseph Borelli ( That is Bornelli :Two “r’s” , Two “l’s” boy’s) once led the “Son of Sam: probe. The strange circumstances seem to fall under the”Son of Same” prone . “The strange circumstances seem to fall under the “Zodiac” sigs of the dates of the shootings “ , Borrelli said, “In the beginning when we were looking at the shootings” , he said. “In the beginning we looked at it as pure happenstance , pure chance and serrenipidity . But when you get four out of four you begin to look at it much more closely and thoroughly. The day after Purham was shot the New York Post received another note form the New York “Zodiac” killer.
“This is the Zodiac:. I have seen and noted the Post and you say that The note sent to the Post not any of the The San Francisco Zodiac letters you are Wrong the hand writing is different it is . One of the same Zodiac , one Zodiac. In San Francisco killed a man in the park with a gune and killed a women with a knife and killed a man in the taxi cab with a gun”.
<!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} p {mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> Winnipeg Hotel Virtual Tours of the Quality Inn Hotel Winnipeg
Astrologists found themselves more than baffled in developing a coherent, star-based theory to predict the shooter’s next moves. Previously they had limited the attacks to the first and second phases of the moon, but on June 21 the moon had been in the last quarter. Then came the startling headline ” Expert: Copy Cat Attack by West Coast Book “N.Y.P.D. Combs “Zodiac”. Thriller. The New York “Zodiac” was using the San Fransisco Zodiac Killer as a model and guide.
It became an apparent viewpoint and theory that the New York Zodiac was imitating the California kiler.
“He is following an account in the book “Zodiac” written by Robert Graysmith. It seemed that the imitator had read parts of that book. The scope sight, the circle with the cross inside the drawings, the name “Zodiac” , the astrological signs… these all came from that book. Further it became an apparent concern that with this kind of emerging apparent behaviors that it would not be long before the incidents and behaviors would intensify and escalate” In addition there may be shorter time frames between incidents.
Zodiac struck in Manhattan in the first days of summer. The heat was on in Brooklyn. To dodge the frightened police net , he took the subway to 59′th street and west to Central Park about 7 p.m.. It would be quiet then he reasoned. He walked around more than a few hours. Then he came across Larry Parhham , thirty , a former janitor, now homeless. Zodiac had approached his victim sometime earlier to ask him his astrological sign- Parham then born June 29, was a Cancer. He slept nights on a park bench just behind Central Park and waited until a few people still there had left. Parham made a mattress from pieces of cardboard and a pillow from his duffel bag. Five hours after the start of Parham’s astrological period, and on the cusp of Gemini ad Cancer , Zodiac shot him in the upper chestal area. The Zodiac Killer folded a note, covered with astrological signs under a rock amongst Parham’s meager possessions. “In the letter that I just left” the killer said later “I used the phrase I read from the encyplopedia jt was to throw you right off the track,,, I simply wanted to inrease your fear”
“Zode - as I call him” , wrote Avery in a memo, ” is something like the Viet Cong” . After all Avery had done three years in a stint as war military correspondent in Vietnam and Indo-China. You do not know who he is, where he is or when he might decide to strike at you next. I am getting cross-eyed from trying to keep one eye directed ahead and the other eye directed over my shoulder. I really doubt that he intends to come after me , but one can never be too careful. Sage advice from the mystery man himself - W. Simpson.
As Avery drove alone to the meeting, he thought back three days earlier to an incident that had occured along Berkey’s Telegraph Avenue. A stocky stranger ” between twenty five and fourty five years old”, had approached two young girls and offered them a ride. “No thanks” , they said , gesturing to a VW beetle at the curb “We’ve got our own”. The two ate at the snack bar and found 40 minutes later that the car just would not start. Suddenly the exact same “stranger” was at their side offering his help and aid. A passerby happended by and noticed the young girl pushing a Volkswagen, the other girl behind the wheel of the car. When he offered to help the stocky enraged by the intrusion quickly fled. The second Samaritan checked the engine only to find that the middle distributor wire had been literally ripped out. The girls had filed a report with the local police. An anonymous caller had reported the incident. Perhaps he said the police had the liscence plate. Twelve hours later the Chronicle received an anymous call yet again. “This is the Zodiac and it is the last time that I am going to call. Avery thought it odd that the Zodiac knew newspaper lingo so exactly. Berkley cops combed their files , but could not find the plate number.
In a conversation with his friend Phil Tucker, Allen spoke also of a 1945 film “A Game of Death” .
With its stalking by crossbow and Zodiac-like title, the film was an inspiration. General Keighner’s insanity is attributed to a wound from a Cape Buffalo rather than a need to dispel boredom. Ohter adaptations of Connell’s story followed.
Because Willis O’Brien’s animation of his giant ape, King Kong took too many months to complete producer Merian C. Cooper and directors Ernest B. Shoedsack and Irving Pichel decided to shoot a second movie employing Kong’s existing sets and much of its cast.
RKKO’s sixty three minute long black and white adaption of “The Most Dangerous Game” was shot in 1932 a year after Allen’s birth. Screen writer James Ashmore Creelman, while retaining Connel’s dialogue introduced a sexual man to account for the cunning Count Zaroff’s mania - hunting inflamed his other passions. Thus the hunt as a precursor for sex had now entered the equation.
Bob Rainsford (Joel Mc Crea) , an American big game hunter returning from Safari, swims to nearby Ship-Trap Island after fake channel lights lure his yacht onto a reef. Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks), archer , waltz composer and self confessed barbarian in evening dress is the perfect host.
Costar fay Wray (Eve Trowbridge)recalled ” the actor who played Count Zaroff wtih a jagged scar across his forehead had something wrong with one eye and it gave him a real scary expression”. Bank’s face presented two dramatically different profiles - the left brutish, the right handsome - the result of a serious wound that the actor had received during World War I. A real Jekyl-Hyde metaphor and presentation all and all.
Leigh Allen freely admitted that he loved Cornell’s short tale. He remarked that it “was the best story that I read in high school”. He earnestly told detectives as much when interogated , similar to being at a canada customs border office , in that hot refinery office. Connell’s story existed as a book and film. Which influenced the Zodiac - the printed story or the movie. It will never be known and in a way is it of great concern or value. What matters is that the influence - the great influence was there for the taking and the effect, and effects.
Subtle differences indicate and indicated which . It was possible thus to learn when ” a terrible thought crept like a snake” into Zodiac’s brain/ “The most dangerous game ” printed in Variety and published by Minton Balch and Company in 1924 won the O.Henry Memorial Award for that year. The printed version, included in adventure anthologies and high school texts ever since can be said to go like this:
Sanger Rainsford , a big game hunter , falls overboard from his yacht. Stranded, he hears the report of a .22 , and thinks that the hunter must have nerve to tackle large game with so light a gun. He meets General Zaroff, a sadistic Russian expatriate sportsman . ( It is interesting to note the similarity and likeness of the name Zaroff to the name “Zodiac”, hunts at night with different weapons to make the hunt even more exciting. When Rainsford says that he considers the Cape Buffalo the most dangerous of all game , Zaroff (Zodiac) corrects him. “No you are wrong… here on my preserve on (Ship-Trap Island) , I hunt the most dangerous game… My hand was made for the trigger my father indeed said…. My whole life has been one long prolonged hunt… I enjoy the problems of the chase ( so ) I had to invent a new animal to hunt. I bought the island , built the house ( an ancient castle with towers) and a gargoyle- shaped door knocker) , and here i do my hunting.
“Surrounding are jungles with mazes of trails , hills and swamps” Every day I hunt and never go bored now, for I have a quarry with which I can match my wits”.
In a conversation with his friend Phil Tucker , Allen spoke of a 1945 film - “The Game of Death”.
The film itself lists as RKO “A Game of Death” , directed by Robert Wise , starring John Loder and Audrey Long, Edgar Barrier played the Zaroff character General Kreigner.
Johnny Allegto , later in 1946 , used elements indeed of this story. In 1956 “Run for the Sun” starred Richard Widmark , Jane Greer and Trevor Howard , was set on a jungle plantation rather than an island. In 1961 came “Bloodlust” another variation. Colonel Wilde’s “The Naked Prey ” showed five years later.
Thus the theme itself run deep in man - the very nature of the philosphosical questiions of good and evil - evil and good , power over man.
In a way its all similar to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness being remade and recast again and again - whether as an original greek drama or as in the film “Apocolypse Now”
[lang_en]Zodiac : Hooded , secretive , yet more than precise - with a predilection for bizarre , handmade weapons and unbreakable ciphers - unlike the most modern auto immobilizer mechanisms installed on cars in 2008.
It can be said that the Zodiac killer possessed a scent of demonic possession and brimstone. Intelligent yet not compulsive and full of compulsion at the same time - it can be truly and specifically said that the Zodiac really lacked originality in his thoughts and actions. What a dichotomy. Almost a split personality - yet bounded by other people’s rules and experiences.
The Zodiac Killer plagiarized his modus operandi from a watch face, a short story and a movie film. Actually in his deciphered three-part cryptogram he explained what his primary motivation was - an obsession with Richard Connel’s thrilling adventure story “The Most Dangerous Game”.
“I like killing people because it is so much fun “, Zodiac had written “It is more fun than killing wide game in the forrest because MAN IS “the Most Dangerous Animal for all to kill”.
It was said many times and by many authorities that “Zodiac is not an ordinary criminal”. That was certainly an understatement if ever one was said of a criminal , or a criminal residing in the Bay Area of the state of California. The Zodiac was certainly a man of great ego , or perhaps lacking ego. The Zodiac found great pleasure in laughing at , indeed tormenting the police authorities. To this day he has stumped and confounded the trained authorities both the lay and the highly specialized.
The police used such new and novel tactics including the bait of the newspaper trade and its agents and actors - including crime reporters , experienced staff and the powers of the front pages of the newspapers to try to entice and trap the Zodiac with his very poisons . The cryptic phrase “RHADINI Challenges Dr. Zodiac” was one such attempt.
The apparent background and research of this cryptic message was to tap into the lore of Dr. Zodiac. In the movie a dapper magician “Fred Rhadini” (actor Caesar Romero) of the Temple of Magic on Treasure Island joins forces with Chan to expose Zodiac. “I accept your challenge” , Zodiac replies in a note pinned to a wall with a knife. In the end , Rhadini turns out to be Zodiac himself.
He saw a film about Treasure Island that became a last blueprint for Zodiac - the 1939 20?th Century-Fox film “Charlie Chan at Treasure Island” starring Sidney Toler. In the 1960’s local Bay area TV station KRON-TV screened its 72 minutes in length cut to 59 minutes. “Zodiac” asks detective Charlie Chan ( who is arriving in San Francisco by plane from Honolulu - Allen’s birthplace. “Yea he is a big shot in the spook racket around here”, says another passenger. Dr. Zodiac is a crooked medium dressed in black robes , uses his guise as a psychic consultant to blackmail his clients and patients. He answers the phone, “This is Zodiac speaking”, carries an odd knife and shoots a crossbow. One of his victims blockprints “CAN’T ESCAPE ZODIAC” - Eve Cairo reads the minds of assembled subjects at a party and says - “Doctor Zodiac . I hear the name Dr. Zodiac in his thoughts…. I cannot go on! I hear death among us. I am frightened. There is evil here ! Someone here is thinking murder!”
After the war, Naval Commander Ethan Allen was stationed at the U.S. first stop for Navy men returning at the rate of twelve thousand a day. In 1947 , a fourteen year old Leigh Allen wandered the artificial island where his father worked. The Naval Station housed 4 commands, The Naval Receiving Station, Naval Schools Command , the Naval Station itself , which administered the island and the Naval Sea Frontier Headquarters. Movies changed daily and only cost a quarter to see. “He used to watch movies at Treasure Island all the time”, a friend of Leigh’ confirmed. “My mom worked as a secretary on Treasure Island and she saw him there often and may of been his “date” at the movies. The “Excorcist” was a favorite of his “.
Ciphers - ” On the basis of the frequencies , it appeared on analysis that there should of been two symbols in the Zodiac Killers ciphers. Noting the apparent frequency of the letter “L” in his messages , it appeared that the Zodiac switched after the enchiphering was begun and initiated to using the square half-black, and fully black , thus giving himself another symbol for the letter “L”. For greater variety in the double L’s he gave up “alternation” regularity. A first major discovery on analysis was the identity of the two squares and B ( all the symbols for L). Zodiac’s symbol for A appears, seemingly by error an S and S as A. More dust in the solver’s eyes. There is no mistake in that. It appears that the Zodiac Killer of the Bay Area was fully trying to confuse the decipherers . That is for sure.
The Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939-40 opened in Febuary . Under bright , blue skies, visitors drove across the bridge or came by steam ferry to enter Aztec-India “Elephant Gates”. The exposition features included Pacifica , her hands raised in benediction , the four hundred foot Tower of the Sun” an amusement zone packed with rolercoasters, ferris wheels and nude dancers.
Streets named Sturgeon , courts named Halibut and Flounder intersected, and an Avenue of Palms, buttressed the island’s west side. An enclosure of tile and once been the Fountain of Western Waters. It had been cascaded before a seventy-five terra-cotta-colored statue of the goddess Pacifica. Then ,Treasure Island had been the city of light, floating upon the waves in the very climes where Robert Louis Stevenson once trod. It shimmered briefly at the end of the 1930’s era as a beacon of peace, flickered and then went out. But for a while the night had been lit with pastel searchlights illuminating domes and towers: colored lights were reflected in still pools and sparkled in falling cascades.
Treasure Island began as as series of jagged surf-washed shoals north of Yerba, Buena Island. Prevailing summer winds from the Golden Gate forced workers to first construct a ten-foot seawall. They massed thousands of tons of boulders to erect a barrier thirteen feet above sea level around a square mile area. The resulting lagoon, a mile long , and two thirds of a mile wide, was then filled in with twenty million cubic yards of seafloor mud. A ramp soon connected with Treasure Island. Finally , San Francisco decided to hold its third world’s fair on the man-made California Island.
Though no real sex was involved in Zodiac’s assaults, technically he was more than a real sexual pyschopath and predator. Even more accurately the Zodiac Killer was a sexual “Sadist” or Sexual PyschoSadist. Stanford University’s expert on the matter was Dr. Donald T. Lunde reported and described that “Sexual Sadists” and “Sexual Pyschopaths” are known and described to carry out the most sadistic impulses in their early years and early teens. These may include such despicable acts as torturing and killing cats, dogs and assorted small animals. “They will torture and kill so called “substitute victims” small animals and the like. There appears to be a need to kill and hurt anything and something at certain even regular intervals. Lunde postulates that in adulthood , such a individual , or monster, if it were made difficult for him to kill and attack human beings , might yet revert back to killing and torturing small animals. After all something is better than nothing.
Leigh had been in such a hurry that he had left his trailer door open - wide open. The door was standing open. Had he somehow known that “they” were coming and fled rapidly with incriminating evidence. His immediate flight was suspect , but nothing could be done about it. The suspect - a police “groupie” , was more than friendly with many police officers and might have been warned that “If you get friendly with cops and you hear things,” said Toschi. Perhaps his relatives had had a last minute change of heart. The detectives just did not know for certain. All that they knew for certain was that they were dealing with a most intelligent and cunning man.
[lang_en]Zodiac might be powerful, intelligent and extraordinarily deadly but one point and one shortcoming - little originality abounds. Sort of like a criminal repeating his past - or the lack of originality one might expect of a convicted felon , getting out of prison and opening up a temporary employment service . From costume , costumes to weapons , to code symbols, he drew his persona from outside - indeed mostly from films. If a psychologist were ever to examine him - he might well describe the zodiac as person of low self esteem, who got feelings of power from physical stature using intimidation of the legend ” in his own mind” of great power and even intelligence. What a joke it seems - except for the poor victims of the Zodiac. Interestingly to people he ( or even she) comes into contact with and meets , the Zodiac might proudly announce ” I am a genius”. If anything the Zodiac could be said to be little more than a foolish, stupid buffoon - a legend in his own little mind.
Two films mainly inspired the Zodiac and his mind set . What can be said to be rather amazing is that the Zodiac did not ask for , indeed demand , that a film be made about the Zodiac and his “exploits”
The two films had inspired his campaign of terror - the first and most influential movie suggested his entire method of operation. The Zodiac had seen the movie at a formative time and period in his life.
[lang_en]Tosschi - who was manager of nationwide Globe Security , received a State Senate commendation for long meritorious serivce . His joy was dampened when he learnt Paul Stine’s blood-thickened shirt vanished from within the SFPD. Three months later to the day , someone got into the Vallejo Tomes Herald and stole the entire “Zodiac” file. It was all very similar how Avery’s file was earlier stolen from his car. Similarities abound.
“I do not think that there is any doubt on this” said Mulanax “Although I base my conclusions at least in part , on a large amount of circumstantial evidence” . In addition Mulnax retorts ” We might find out when more people come forward or time just rolls onwards>”
Graysmith mentions the lack of information -trading among police departments as an on-going basis. Sharing of information among police departments limits cross information and even serendipity. The September 11 attacks certainly showed that this problem of limiting information among services and across services certainly limits action and response.
The question arose more than one time , and in different police officers and departments that perhaps more than one killer was involved in the Zodiac killings. Perhaps there was more than one killer , perhaps the killers acted in concert , as was shown in the Son of Sam events , perhaps it was a matter of a single original Zodiac who then had copycats - seeking the same fame .
With sharing of information on a transparent level more may of come to light in solving the mystery of the “Zodiac”.
It can be said that some of the Vallejo police agree with author Robert (Bob) Graysmith and some do not.
Vallejo Police Department Detective Jack Mulanax - who had inherited the Ferrin case from Sargeant Lynch , differs from his predecessor on the inclusion of one of the killings . Mulanax believes the Lake Herman , Blue Rock Springs Park , Lake Berryessa and San Fransisco taxicab attacks were all done by the exact same man, that the man was Zodiac , and that this is the man (Leigh Allen) to whom Mr. Graysmith has given the name - “Starr”
The next afternoon Zodiac mailed “Averly” a garish decorated Halloween card signed “Your Secret Pal”. It can be compared to an unaltered card demonstrating that Zodiac had done a considerable drawing and redrawing. Indeed he had cut out and painted a skeleton an average sized pumpkin to the card and painted staring eyes, skillfully adding brush lettering. It had taken him at least a day to prepare. Thus you can see the pleasure that Zodiac must have taken in putting his own marking and markings on the card itself. In addition a loud “Peek-a-Boo” figure was added, if that was not enough, as well as adding extra printing on the card itself. Unbelievably or perhaps believably to further taunt and harass the card itself was illustrated with a “smiling skeleton” or skeleton like figure giving Mr. Avery the high five sign and was signed “Your Secret Pal”. Zodiac had painted a small number 14 on the skeleton’s skeletal right hand. Inside he claimed victim “4-Teen”. The news of the latest victim - the death of Bennallack had not yet appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and would not appear until the following morning.
Avery went on to say and note “Due to the death threat mailed me by the Zodiac killer - I whole heartedly agree with the advice that I have received from Armstong and Tischi that discretion is the better part of valour and that I should carry a gun in order to protect myself should the need arise. Therefore this is my formal request that your office issue me on a temporary basis a permit to carry a concealed handgun”.
Chronicle editors eventually cast a jaundiced eye upon two former employees. The editors went over their employment records to see if any days taken off , or other times corresponded with crimes of the “Zodiac”. One worker suffered bouts of severe depression had disappeared during the night shift, leaving behind a note for four years sick time.
The other worker vanished leaving behind four pay checks that he never picked up.
In North Sacramento , two days after Avery’s files were stolen , twenty eight year old court reporter and juvenile court aide, Nancy M. Bennallack failed to show up at work. Friends discovered her bloody body , throat slashed in her second-floor flat. The unknown killer had entered via a sliding glass door Miss Bennallack had left open so that her cat could get in. She was engaged to get married November 28. She had not been sexually assaulted. Her apartment was half a mile from nurse Judith Hakari’s apartment. Hakari a twenty three had been kidnapped in front of her North Area apartment after leaving her job at a local hospital. Her badly beaten body was found in a shallow grave in a remote section of Placer County. She too had not been sexually assaulted. Like Miss Bemmalllack , she was engaged to be married.
When the Zodiac began writing his letters, the newspaper was at the point of attempting to enter the electronic age with a computer system then known and referred to a “Braegen”. The “Braegen” System and procedures worked that as opposed to generating a tape punched copy for the Linotype machines on Fairchild TTS machines , copy was generated on IBM “typewriters ” - trade name IBM Selectric Electric Typewriters . The finished product was then then single fed into scanners. The scanners then generated tape that was sent to the Linotypes. The paper used for typing was narrow , fan-fold , cheap bond type of paper. This was the exact type of paper that the Zodiac himself routinely used in his messages.
A Chronicle printer believed that the Zodiac worked there ,”Many of the Zodiac cipher symbols were actually printer’s proofreaders”. ” The Zodiac symbol itself is a proofreader’s mark used to line up corrections on a tissue overlay and for color registration. ” In addition the Zodiac’s method of numbering pages is also the printer’s method /16,2/6 one of six , two of sox etc… to alert the typesetter and proofreader to follow the flow of copy. In addition the arrows used by the bus diagrams are as well printer’s arrows. Not just a line with an inverted “V” but with the “V ” filled in.
Avery filed a story , then returned promptly to his vehicle. The right vent window of the car had been smashed — the mark of an experienced car booster. Only a few things were missing. His Wells Fargo checkbook, containing checks numbered 118 to 125, had been taken or removed. It was as if Warren Wilshire had spotted the checkbook and proudly announced “Look What I Have Found”. His expensive , then high tech Sony tape recorder , which held an interview with a Zodiac tipster - a man with a muffled voice - was also gone - as if removed with forethought. Avery was concerned enough to call the Police. Officers Gerald Derham and William Thiffault reported.
It was then that Avery noticed that his large gray briefcase , emblazoned with his initials ,”P.A.” had been stolen. He had stuffed the briefcase with a complete clipping file on Zodiac. He looked up and down the darkened street. It began to dawn on him how close the killer may well be. He seemed to be privy to reporter’s notes and Sunday features even before they had been published ; indeed he used newspaper and Teletype paper and supplies that might of been purchased from Woolworths down the street. What if Zodiac was getting into the building late at night ? The paper was a twenty-four 24/7 operation, but manned by a skeleton crew during the nighttime. Security at the building consisted of one lonely solitary guard at the front desk area on the fifth street entrance but there were two sets of back stairs and two elevators that led to the editorial offices. Additionally there was a passage between the Examiner and the Chronicle that spanned Minna street that allowed people to walk from one building safely to another. Zodiac was not watching the hunters, he might be entering the paper at night.
The Zodiac case was already affecting Chronicle reporter’s Paul Avery’s health. It would eventually destroy it. In the early morning hours he drove his car onto the narrow little Mary street. Mary lay in the shadow behind the Chronicle and continued on Northwest running behind the Old Mint. Avery parked where Mary intersected Minna, the dank alley sepeeating the Chronicle from the Examiner. It was a rough area at the time and Minna and Minna at that time held the dubious honor. It was the site of more murders than any other place in the Bay area city. He was not gone long - from 12:40 A.M. until 1:40 am , but more than long enough. During that time , he traversed a long dimly lit corridor into the city’s room. The Chronicle was a huge three story barn like building with a tower at Mission and Fifth Street corner.
The quality of light was yellow green at best. Beneath his feet Avery felt the tremble of tremendous presses grinding otu an early morning edition. Teletype keys rattled nervously in a little room to his left - a ghost was on the line. Line of rubber cement pots , rows of battered Smith Coronas, and stacks of used photo zincs , copper backed and etched with acid. crowded desktops.