First, let me firmly state up front that I am a novice on Z. I know what I know, but that's all I know. I got into this case after the Cold Case Files episode aired some years ago and after Fincher's film (which I consider to be a masterpiece) came out, I was hooked. I then read Graysmith's book which I subsequently have found to be not very well respected amongst the Z sleuths. I actually like that book quite a bit and gleaned many of my opinions about this case from it.
On the topic of that book, I do not believe ALA was Z, nor do I believe he was invovled in any way. I do think he liked the attention he got from this case though and he enjoyed screwing with the police. A better candidate from Graysmith's book is "Andrew Walker". Although, as I understand it, he had a thick northeastern accent which Nancy Slove (and others) could attest to Z not having.
The most frustrating thing about this case is that everyone (web admin, filmmaker, writer, et al) has a suspect. This tends to cause splintered opinions and ideas. The kind of thing that has consistently kept this case from being solved. There were a number of great detectives on this case, Toschi, Armstrong, Narlow.. and they all had their notable suspects.
Arthur Leigh Allen - DNA didn't match, finger print doesn't match, handwriting doesn't match, case closed on ALA.
Rick Marshall - SFPD officially ruled him out as a suspect, prior to his death, last fall. This according to Tom Voigt. Case closed on him, too.
Okay, with those two out of the way that leaves about 4,498 more.
Having fast forwarded to this point in the discussion, ruling out those two. I would like to hear your opinion
morf13. I'm always very interested in hearing theories and opinions. I do have some questions for you, if you don't mind humoring me...
1) What do you think of Gareth Penn as a suspect?
2) How about: Lawrence Kane, Mr. X (who's name I recently found!), Robert Hansen, David Carpenter?
3) Do you there was more than one person involved in the killings?
4) Do you think Z killed Cheri Jo Bates?
5) Do you think Z actually killed 37 (or more than the 5 confirmed)?
I'll start with those questions... I have others. I have just recently read Michael D. Kelleher's book "This is the Zodiac Speaking" and I consider it to be a headier read than YB. I also tend to agree with many of the opinions in the book, not all, but many. There's also a great supplementary video to the 2-disc Director's Cut of Fincher's film on the Zodiac Movie website. I recently discovered that as well. The Behavioral Profiling snippet with Sharon Hagan has really helped me form my opinions (along with Kelleher's book).
Look forward to hearing from you.