San Francisco

Three teenage siblings on the second floor of 3899 Washington, directly across the street from the cab, happened to spot the killer as he cut Stine's shirt and suspected foul play. They watched him exit the cab and wipe down parts of the cab's interior and exterior, briefly leaning on the driver's side doorframe. They called the police, who logged the call at 9:58 p.m. and broadcast an incorrect description of the killer as a black male. Consequently, when patrolmen Donald Foukes and Eric Zelms responded in a radio car and noticed a heavyset white man sauntering east on Jackson Street, they made no effort to apprehend him.  Despite the intensive search of the area that followed, the killer's head start allowed him to escape, probably to a nearby getaway car.

Foukes made a statement about his recollection of the incident, recorded in an SFPD memo dated November 12,1969: "The suspect that was observed by Officer Foukes was a WMA 35-45 Yrs about 5' 10", 180-200 lbs.  Medium heavy build -- Barrel chested -- Medium complexion -- Light-colored hair possibly greying in rear (May have been lighting that caused this effect.)  (Navy or royal blue) Elastic cuffs and waistbandzipped part way up.  Brown wool pants pleated type baggy in rear (Rust brown).  May have been wearing low cut shoes.

"Subject at no time appeared to be in a hurry walking with a shuffling lope, Slightly bent foreward head now.  The subject's general appearance to classify him as a group would be that he might be of Welsh ancestry." [Footnote 1]

During shooting for a documentary on the case in the mid 1980s, Foukes stated that "The individual I saw that night was a white male adult approximately 35 to 45 years of age, 5 feet 10 inches, 180 to 210 lbs.  Since we were looking for a negro male adult, we proceeded on Jackson Street toward Arguello, continuing our search.  As we arrived at Arguello Street, the description was changed to a white male adult.  Believing that this suspect was possibly the one involved in the shooting, we entered the Presidio of San Francisco and conducted a search on West Pacific Avenue on the opposite side of the wall in the last direction we observed the suspect going.  We did not find the suspect" [Footnote 2].  Mel Nicolai, a former Special Agent for the California Department of Justice who worked on all but the Lake Herman Road Zodiac murders, is quoted as saying that Foukes' and Zelms' first broadcast description of the man they saw was even taller, between 6' and 6'2", and over 200 lbs [Footnote 3].

An apocryphal passage in Robert Graysmith's book ZODIAC has the officers going so far as to stop the man and ask him if he had seen anything strange in the past few minutes, but this conversation is not noted in any of the subsequent police reports.  In no known interview does either Foukes or Zelms mention any exchange of words with the unidentified subject, and the story may have been based only on a forthcoming letter from the killer.  While dramatic, the Zodiac's account of the night's events cannot be confirmed, and may well be a prevarication.  On the other hand, such an encounter and its repercussions would be a tremendous embarrassment to the SFPD on several levels, and if this incident did in fact occur then a concerted effort would certainly have been made to keep it under wraps.

The bullet that killed Stine was mistyped at the scene as a .38, but later ballistics tests determined it to be a 9mm.  It was not, however, the same 9mm used for the Blue Rock Springs attack.  The latent impressions of thirty fingers, three palms, and one lower finger or palm were found in and on the cab.  Found on the passenger's side front door handle, the finger/palm print was relatively clear and crime lab technicians believed it was left by the killer, though the possibility exists that one of the police, firemen, or lab technicians at the scene could inadvertently have left it.  Certain other prints, none of such clarity, were actually left in blood, and "are also believed to be prints of the suspect," according to a San Francisco Police memo [Footnote 4].  In any event, none of these prints have yet matched any of the millions filed in the National Crime Identification Computer database maintained by the FBI.  Also recovered from the cab was a pair of men's leather gloves in a size 7 ( men's XXL), though it remains uncertain whether they were left by the killer [Footnote 5].

Two days later, the Chronicle received a letter from the Zodiac claiming responsibility for the murder.  The return address on the envelope was the crossed-circle design, and enclosed with the letter was a swatch of Paul Stine's bloody shirt.  Three latent fingerprints were developed on the paper by the SFPD crime lab, but remain unmatched to any suspect.

This is the Zodiac speaking.  I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by Washington St + Maple St last night, to prove this here is a blood stained piece of his shirt. I am the same man who did in the people in the north bay area. The S.F. Police could have caught me last night if they had searched the park properly instead of holding road races with their motorcicles seeing who could make the most noise. The car drivers should have just parked their cars and sat there quietly waiting for me to come out of cover. School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the frunt tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out.

The Zodiac would send three swatches of the bloody fabric, but 104 square inches of Paul Stine's shirt are still unaccounted for.

Thus far, authorities had observed the Zodiac to follow a few vague patterns. He had always attacked after sundown on weekends, always attacked young couples in or near their cars, and always attacked in remote suburban areas near water. If he could now break his pattern by shooting a lone 29-year-old male in downtown San Francisco, they felt, then there was no reason why he couldn't follow through on his threat to "wipe out a school bus;" within days, Bay area bus drivers had received special instructions on how to react if fired upon.

The school bus threat was one that the Zodiac would return to in different forms.  At the urging of the San Francisco Police, the Chronicle suppressed the threat for a week; on October 18, a police composite sketch based on the teenage witnesses' testimony was amended according to the descriptions given by the responding patrolmen at Cherry Street and was distributed with the full content of the letter.

It was during this time that the Zodiac case began to garner exceptional press coverage, and tips to the killer's identity poured in from points as far as Houston, Atlanta, and St. Louis.  At the same time, homicide detectives along the West Coast began to consider the Bay Area killer as a suspect in their unsolved cases.  Among these were L.T. Kinkead and H.L. Homsher of the Riverside, CA, Police Department, and they forwarded a summary of the 1966 Bates murder to investigators in Napa, Solano, and San Francisco Counties [Footnote 6].  The summary was lost in the shuffle for over a year.

The Zodiac's next mailing was sent to the Chronicle in early November in an envelope stamped with double the necessary postage and the instruction "Please Rush to Editor."  In 2002, the San Francisco Police crime lab retrieved a human DNA sample from beneath one of the stamps, but it has not yet been matched to any suspect.  Inside the envelope were a "Jesters" brand greeting card and another lengthy cipher.  This letter marked the first appearance of what appeared to be a body count, a number that rose steadily with each new mailing, though no evidence of any kind suggests that the Zodiac was responsible for any murders beyond the six commonly attributed to him.  The Zodiac also sent a second swatch of Paul Stine's bloody shirt in November, but it is unclear whether it was enclosed with this letter or the one that followed it. 

This is the Zodiac speaking I though you would need a good laugh before you get the bad news you won't get the news for a while yet

PS could you print this new cipher on your frunt page? I get awfully lonely when I am ignored, so lonely I could do my Thing!!!!!!

Des July Aug Sept Oct = 7

A few days later, he sent a longer letter that included a schematic drawing of a "death machine" that he claimed to have rigged and ready.  It was designed to blow up buses. The Chronicle received both of these letters on Monday, November 10, 1969, and passed them on to police after making copies for themselves.  A source at SFPD was "of opinion one or more latent prints may be developed" on this letter, but no finding was ever made public [Footnote 7].

This is the Zodiac speaking up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people. I have grown rather angry with the police for their telling lies about me. So I shall change the way the collecting of slaves. I shall no longer announce to anyone. When I committ my murders, they shall look like routine robberies, killings of anger, + a few fake accidents, etc.

The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them.

1 I look like the description passed out only when I do my thing, the rest of the time I look entirle different. I shall not tell you what my descise consists of when I kill

2 As of yet I have left no fingerprints behind me contrary to what the police say in my killings I wear transparent fingertip guards. All it is is 2 coats of airplane cement coated on my fingertips -- quite unnoticible + very efective

3 my killing tools have been boughten through the mail order outfits before the ban went into efect. Except one & it was bought out of the state. So as you can see the police don't have much to work on. If you wonder why I was wipeing the cab down I was leaving fake clews for the police to run all over town with, as one might say, I gave the cops som bussy work to do to keep them happy. I enjoy needling the blue pigs. Hey blue pig I was in the park -- you were useing fire trucks to mask the sound of your cruzeing prowl cars. The dogs never came with in 2 blocks of me + they were to the west + there was only 2 groups of parking about  10 min apart then the motor cicles went by about 150 ft away going from south to north west

p.s. 2 cops pulled a goof abot 3 min after I left the cab. I was walking down the hill to the park when this cop car pulled up + one of them called me over + asked if I saw anyone acting suspicious or strange in the last 5 to 10 min + I said yes there was this man who was runnig by waveing a gun & the cops peeled rubber + went around the corner as I directed them + I disappeared into the park a block + a half away never to be seen again. [This section has been marked off with the note "must print in paper."]

Hey pig doesnt it rile you up to have your noze rubed in your booboos?

If you cops think I'm going to take on a bus the way I stated I was, you deserve to have holes in your heads. Take one bag of ammonium nitrate fertilizer + 1 gal of stove oil & dump a few bags of gravel on top + then set the shit off + will positivily ventalate any thing that should be in the way of the blast.

The death machine is all ready made. I would have sent you pictures but you would be nasty enough to trace them back to developer + then to me, so I shall describe my masterpiece to you. The nice part of it is all the parts can be bought on the open market with no questions asked.

1 bat. Pow clock -- will run for aprox 1 year
1 photoelectric switch
2 copper leaf springs
2 6V car bat
1 flash light bulb + reflector
1 mirror
2 18" cardboard tubes black with shoe polish inside + oute

the system checks out from one end to the other in my tests. What you do not know is whether the death machine is at the sight or whether it is being stored in my basement for future use. I think you do not have the manpower to stop this one by continually searching the road sides looking for this thing. + it wont do to re roat + re schedule the busses because the bomb can be adapted to new conditions.

[Here the Zodiac's crossed-circle has been modified with five Xs drawn along the symbol's left side]

Have fun!! By the way it could be rather messy if you try to bluff me.

PS. Be shure to print the part I marked out on page 3 or I shall do my thing.

To prove that I am the Zodiac, Ask the Vallejo cop about my electric gun sight which I used to start my collecting of slaves.

No explanation was given for the marks along the Zodiac symbol's perimeter, but it was assumed that each one represented a murdered victim.  At this time, the Bates murder had not yet been linked to the Zodiac, and this has been seen as a suggestion that the Bay Area killer was not responsible for the murder in Riverside.  This drawing remained unpublished until 1996, when Douglas Oswell and Michael Rusconi posted it on the World Wide Web [Footnote 8].

Famed personal injury lawyer Melvin Belli, who had been the butt of a Zodiac hoax earlier in the year, received a Christmas card at his home on December 27. It was forwarded to his office where a secretary opened it and found yet another piece of Paul Stine's bloody shirt.  The back of the envelope was decorated with the greeting "Mery Xmass + New Year."

Dear Melvin

This is the Zodiac speaking I wish you a happy Christmass. The one thing I ask of you is this, please help me. I cannot reach out because of this thing in me won't let me. I am finding it extreamly dificult to keep in check I am afraid I will loose control again and take my nineth + posibly tenth victom. Please help me I am drownding. At the moment the children are safe from the bomb because it is so massive to dig in & the trigger mech requires so much work to get it adjusted just right. But if I hold back too long from no nine I will loose complet [crossed out] all controol of my self + set the bomb up. Please help me I can not remain in control for much longer.

Perhaps out of wishful thinking, it was assumed that the killer wrote this letter in a rare lucid moment, but a cursory examination of the original document and the envelope it arrived in plainly shows that it was meticulously arranged, with a perfect left margin and uniformly spaced lines.  Even the crossing-out of the word "complet" seems too neat to be spontaneous.  The author can also be seen to deliberately alter his handwriting, though his natural style appears to show through near the end.

Despite the gratuitous publicity events that Belli staged in the weeks that followed, the Zodiac never contacted him again.  Nothing more was heard from the killer for three months.