I think this case has always involved a lot of tunnel vision and over thinking. If we hadn't been fixated on looking for a couple and someone just had a thought that they might be two separate missing people, James, at least might have been identified decades ago. He had been reported missing, he was from the East Coast and his initials matched the ring he was wearing, and he looks just like the missing person photo.
Murders don't have to always be so complex. I think it's probably very simple. They probably just got a ride and were killed by the guy who had the gun. He might have robbed them, wanted to rape her or they just saw something they shouldn't have. Or maybe he was like PeeWee Gaskins and just liked to kill people.
If we were looking at another case and some shady guy was found with the murder weapon, and the other facts about him, we'd be all over him as being the killer, but for some reason we can't let this case go, it just has to be bigger than that. But it doesn't and the reason there is no action on LE is they think they know who did it and don't want to spend any more money when there are so many other cases out there.
I'm pretty sure if they ever identify Zodiac with genetic genealogy from the stamps, you will still have a lot of people who won't accept it. Even Graysmith is hedging his bet by claiming his main suspect Arthur Leigh Allen didn't lick stamps and had other people do it for him. Yeah, funny how that only came up after genetic genealogy became a thing.
I dunno, it's easy for us to have 20/20 vision nearly 50 years after the fact. Back in those days there wasn't much interaction between state and county law enforcement regarding missing persons. If someone was reported missing in California it was highly unlikely police forces in Maine or Illinois, for instance, would be advised of those missing persons.
People started moving around a lot more in the 60s and 70s unlike prior decades; we became a lot more fluid in our travels. And just think of how many UIDs are still on the books in California going back to the 60s and 70s. There's a great possibility many of those deceased are transients from other states and even countries, who made their way to Cali during that period.
It would be equally difficult for a murder victim's description be forwarded to every police force, municipal, county, city, or state. It seems to me the only people I remembered who were advertised nationally were those on an FBI wanted poster in the post office.
A lot of assumptions were made initially, specifically that they were thought to be siblings because they resembled another. Yet here many of us, almost 40 years later,
agreed with that sentiment. The fact they were killed execution style, also raised many theories of drug trafficking, etc.
Their murders just seem so pointless to me, that they were some 'hippies' passing through an area where the locals probably had some animosity to long haired freaks. It was a thing back then.
I'm more frustrated over LE being so lackadaisical toward Lonnie Henry and the fact he was in possession of the gun that killed them. LE was very soft on him, imo, and didn't pursue that clue more vigorously. So here we are.
