Who do you think the Zodiac Killer actually is?

[djtopcat]

I recently visited Vallejo, went to the Blue Rock Springs park and ate lunch where Darlene Ferrin was murdered in 69. Had an interesting conversation with one of my relatives from Vallejo about Zodiac suspect Chuck Lindsey.
He said Chuck's house was on a ranch just over the hill from Blue Rock Springs park, and it had a private locked gate to access it from the road down the street. Chuck was confirmed by Darlene Ferrin's brother Frank to have been seeing Darlene Ferrin in 1969. He was a gun nut, and worked, not only as a deputy at the Solano County Sherrif's Dept until he was fired, but he was also a crime scene photographer. He told me he would go over to his house in Blue Rock Springs and Chuck's coffee table would be piled up with gruesome crime scene photos that freaked him out. He was 11 or 12 at the time, and his uncle Paul Whaley the late drummer from the band Blue Cheer would borrow music equipment from Chuck for local gigs. Drum kits, amps etc. I guess Lindsey had several side hustles at the time. He thinks now all that stuff was stolen from police confiscations. We know now based on the newspaper article someone dug up that he was fired for stealing confiscated guns, and stolen property. He said Chuck's house was like a hoarder house. The last time my relative was over at his house it was around 1974, he was living with his son Martin who was a teen. He remembers Chuck talking about the Zodiac case, and how he could have caught him himself. Very weird. I guess Chuck was a strong suspect LE knew about, he was in Graysmith's book under a pseudonym since he was still alive I think living in Nevada. Apparently his DNA did not match the Stine murder so he got bumped off the list. Maybe someone in here knows a little more, but that's the story I got from my relative. They're all convinced he was connected.

 

[CaMan60]

He remembers Chuck talking about the Zodiac case, and how he could have caught him himself.

Chuck had a interesting resume with his work including crime scene photographer. Not everybody can do it, but a former deputy would be a good fit. It takes someone who can get close when the police are telling people to stay away. Most crime scene photos are only showing the police on scene and for good reason.
Any thing noteworthy would be kept by LE at the scene before it is made Public. They are basically on call day or night with real drama in the workplace. But for him to do a crime to make the news is.. a step too far.
A former deputy like Chuck might talk about catching the zodiac. Just by looking at the Blue Rock springs parking lot its easy to think of a Decoy car parked in a parking lot late at night with a couple of crash test dummies in it.
Have Chuck and his reporter friend stake it out under cover. When the zodiac gets close just shoot him in the foot like Clint Eastwood. And get him to confess like Barney Miller.
Hope you had a good trip and met some old friends in Vallejo.
IMHO

 

[morf13]

This guy, 'MAC'

When he died, his wife found a cipher book in his belongings in a box marked 'GUILT'. This was a book so important to him, that he had owned multiple copies

In 1969, he lived 287 feet from the phonebooth used by Zodiac to make his call after his July 4th attack.

Had similar writing to Zodiac.

Zodiac stopped mailing letters in 1971. That year, Mac took a job with the state. Zodiac didn't write again until 1974. That year, Mac, who had never dated, met and started dating his future wife. Zodiac mailed a few more letters that year and then vanished never sending a confirmed letter again. In the Fall of 1974, Mac got married and moved in with his new wife.

In 1969 at the time of the Lake Berryessa attack, Mac had a cousin who was dying in a Deer Lodge, MT hospital along with other family there. Zodiac during that attack mentioned being an escaped prisoner from Deer Lodge, MT. At that moment, there had really been a prison escape in Deer Lodge, but Zodiac could not have read about that detail in the newspapers, because it didn't appear in CA papers, indicating he likely had a connection to Deer Lodge.

In 1990, an unconfirmed Zodiac mailing was sent from Eureka, CA. This is no place close to the Vallejo area where Zodiac was active, its about 250 miles away, yet it turns out, Mac owned property there at that time.

Zodiac hinted in letters that he was responsible for the disappearance of nurse Donna Lass who went missing from South Lake Tahoe, CA in 1970. There is little evidence Zodiac really had anything to do with her death, and he was never known to abduct any victim, but for some reason, he was interested enough in her case to claim her as a victim. Why? Well it turns out Mac lived next door to a music store in Vallejo that Donna's family member worked in, so it's very possible he had heard talk of the case, or maybe even saw missing persons fliers in that store.

Mac lived in 1970-1971 in SF on Duboce Ave. This was a stone's throw and in sight of the murder of Richard Radetich, a police officer who was gunned down. Zodiac mailed a letter hinting that he was responsible for the officer's murder.

Mac was 5ft8, 195 pounds with a large round face and in his 20s in 1969. This description matches identically with the description given by surviving Zodiac victim Michael Mageau.

 

[sandy betts]

I hadn't heard about a knife similar to the one used by Zodiac being found at Lake Berryessa. I did read of one that is a perfect match. It could have been the one used to stab Barbara Schwartz, age 23, on Mt Tam, March 8th,1980. The killer not only left the knife near the scene, but he also dropped his glasses. They were prescription glasses from prison! The stems were different; the stem on his left was closer and lower to his face than the right stem. Those were not David Carpenters' glasses. My suspect has a left ear that is lower and closer to his face than his right ear. Could my suspect be Barbara's killer, yes! The knife found was 10 inches long and one inch wide, which matches the one used at Lake Berryessa. That knife was called an Ecco boning Knife, sold at Safeway stores! That could mean Zodiac had spent some time in prison when he was silent here in CA, from January 1974 to May 8th, 1974! Or some other times when he was quiet.

 

[Richard]

The most solid evidence would indicate that Zodiac committed a series of four attacks which resulted in five deaths and two seriously wounded victims.

Those four attacks took place between December 1968 and October 1969. Four different firearms were used during the course of each of those attacks. During the third attack, which took place at Lake Berryessa, California, one of the two victims, Bryan Hartnell, did survive.

Hartnell described the assailant as being hooded and armed with both an automatic pistol (which Hartnell saw up close and described as possibly being a Model 1911 Colt .45) and a foot-long bayonet-type knife which had a wooden handle with brass rivets or screws through the handle. The sheath holding the knife was described as made of wood.

After tying up the two Lake Berryessa victims, the assailant stabbed them numerous times with the described knife. No weapon was found at the crime scene at the time.

Some months or years later, a Lee Metford bayonet was found by an individual at Lake Berryessa, but it was not (to my knowledge) connected officially to the attack or identified by LE as the murder weapon.

Here is a photo of a bayonet similar to the Lake Berryessa weapon described by the victim.


British Lee Metford Bayonet of Boer War time, shortened and sharpened.



Cecelia Ann Shepard (1947-1969)
Stabbed to death at Lake Berryessa, California, on 29 September 1969.

In an earlier post to this thread, I mentioned victim Bryan Hartnell's description of the knife carried and used by Zodiac at Lake Berryessa.

I also mentioned that some months after the attack, a Lee Metford bayonet was found there but never officially connected to the case.

 

[sandy betts]

I recently visited Vallejo, went to the Blue Rock Springs park and ate lunch where Darlene Ferrin was murdered in 69. Had an interesting conversation with one of my relatives from Vallejo about Zodiac suspect Chuck Lindsey.
He said Chuck's house was on a ranch just over the hill from Blue Rock Springs park, and it had a private locked gate to access it from the road down the street. Chuck was confirmed by Darlene Ferrin's brother Frank to have been seeing Darlene Ferrin in 1969. He was a gun nut, and worked, not only as a deputy at the Solano County Sherrif's Dept until he was fired, but he was also a crime scene photographer. He told me he would go over to his house in Blue Rock Springs and Chuck's coffee table would be piled up with gruesome crime scene photos that freaked him out. He was 11 or 12 at the time, and his uncle Paul Whaley the late drummer from the band Blue Cheer would borrow music equipment from Chuck for local gigs. Drum kits, amps etc. I guess Lindsey had several side hustles at the time. He thinks now all that stuff was stolen from police confiscations. We know now based on the newspaper article someone dug up that he was fired for stealing confiscated guns, and stolen property. He said Chuck's house was like a hoarder house. The last time my relative was over at his house it was around 1974, he was living with his son Martin who was a teen. He remembers Chuck talking about the Zodiac case, and how he could have caught him himself. Very weird. I guess Chuck was a strong suspect LE knew about, he was in Graysmith's book under a pseudonym since he was still alive I think living in Nevada. Apparently his DNA did not match the Stine murder so he got bumped off the list. Maybe someone in here knows a little more, but that's the story I got from my relative. They're all convinced he was connected.

I have heard about Chuck before, I haven't seen a picture of him, and he wasn't one of the Vallejo cops I knew. I didn't know, a few who worked for VPD were suspects, including Howard Buz Gordon whom I was dating. I met ex-office Ed Cruz, Sr, who was looked at as a suspect. I didn't get any bad vibes from him. His son saw a picture of my suspect, and told me he recognized him as a construction worker who went into Home Depot often in Vallejo. Ed Cruz Jr worked at Home Depot. What DNA did SFPD get from the Paul Stine Case? This is the first time I have ever read that SFPD has Zodiac's DNA! Please, give us a link to that information.