Hanging round the crime scene....

[Nachtsider]

Zodiac could have doped himself up with something that night, which would explain his almost unnatural calm.

[jamesmsv]

Is it feasible/plausible that he took advantage of the taxi radio to somehow crossover to a police channel to report that the attacker was a black male?

If he was confident that the police would be on the lookout for a non-caucasian, he would have had good reason to walk, not run. It would also explain the apparent gaff.

Just wildy speculating. Not sure if it is even possible. Any thoughts?

Tks,

G

Very good idea, if it's possible. It would not surprise me if the transceiver radios of that time were far easier to adjust and possibly interfere with police frequencies than today. And if it required some basic or even more advanced technical know-how it would possibly point to a military communications background which has been suggested many times (especially his apparent knowledge of semaphor languages). I don't know if scanners were around in the 60's (I don't see why not) but it could also help explain why he had decent luck avoiding cops most of the time.

[traveller1st]

The scanner idea has been mentioned and suggested quite a few times over the years and in various threads and topics concerning Z's choices after each attack. I seem to recall a reasonably lengthy discussion about it regarding LHR. IIRC was this down to the fact that a photographer got "TO" the scene after hearing the call about it on his "scanner"?

That, if accurate, covers the scanners and in the 60's question.

He's a little more confirmation / information.

A Short Scanner History
Back in the early days of radio, in the early to mid 1900s, tunable radio receivers were used to monitor police channels. In actuality many police departments used a frequency just at the end of the AM radio dial around 1700 KHz to broadcast to their patrol cars. In the 1960s, when police and fire departments were using FM radio channels around 40 and 155 MHz (VHF Low and High band), enterprising radio enthusiasts developed the scanner which in effect performed a rapid tuning function, searching local radio channels for activity by "scanning" them.

Link to the page the quote came from: http://www.scannermaster.com/Articles.asp?ID=165

[Tahoe27]

Yes. I believe the photographer at the LHR scene and the reporter who found the Napa phone were both using scanners.

But, unless Paul Stine's cab had a scanner in it, how would Zodiac have heard the alert for a black male?

[ggluckman]

Yes. I believe the photographer at the LHR scene and the reporter who found the Napa phone were both using scanners.

But, unless Paul Stine's cab had a scanner in it, how would Zodiac have heard the alert for a black male?

I was actually suggesting (speculatively) that Z might have used Stine's radio to send the message on police channels about a black male to cause confusion. Just wasn't sure if the taxi radio could operate in that frequency.

If I am not mistaken, the tactic of sending a phony baloney message like that would have been used in wartime.

[Seagull]

From the link provided by Morf above-

A Short Scanner History
Back in the early days of radio, in the early to mid 1900s, tunable radio receivers were used to monitor police channels. In actuality many police departments used a frequency just at the end of the AM radio dial around 1700 KHz to broadcast to their patrol cars. In the 1960s, when police and fire departments were using FM radio channels around 40 and 155 MHz (VHF Low and High band), enterprising radio enthusiasts developed the scanner which in effect performed a rapid tuning function, searching local radio channels for activity by "scanning" them. The first scanners scanned four or eight channels. To monitor these channels people had to buy crystals for the specific radio frequency used by their local departments, and install them inside the scanner. In later years a keyboard replaced the crystal and now you can program thousands of channels into a scanner from a keyboard or a PC.

Back then you needed to install the proper crystal to listen to police broadcasts so unless the taxi company had installed the proper crystal in their radios the cab drivers using those cabs would not have been able to listen to police broadcasts. A scanner is just that, it scans and you can listen to the various broadcasts but you can not transmit, you need a transmitter for that. Since cab drivers could transmit back and forth with their dispatchers they did have the transmitters but it is unlikely that they would also have the capability to transmit to the police dispatcher.

[Tahoe27]

Yes. I believe the photographer at the LHR scene and the reporter who found the Napa phone were both using scanners.

But, unless Paul Stine's cab had a scanner in it, how would Zodiac have heard the alert for a black male?

I was actually suggesting (speculatively) that Z might have used Stine's radio to send the message on police channels about a black male to cause confusion. Just wasn't sure if the taxi radio could operate in that frequency.

If I am not mistaken, the tactic of sending a phony baloney message like that would have been used in wartime.

Thanks for the clarification G. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[Seagull]

GG I was kind of stuck in scanner/transmitter mode when making my reply to you. After further consideration I remembered that there was a police call box on the corner where Stine was killed. What you suggest, that Zodiac called in the erroneous description information that the suspect was black, theoretically would have been possible with that police call box!

A picture of the call box and discussion-

http://www.zodiackiller.com/discus/mess ... 1168667170

[Tahoe27]

GG I was kind of stuck in scanner/transmitter mode when making my reply to you. After further consideration I remembered that there was a police call box on the corner where Stine was killed. What you suggest, that Zodiac called in the erroneous description information that the suspect was black, theoretically would have been possible with that police call box!

A picture of the call box and discussion-

http://www.zodiackiller.com/discus/mess ... 1168667170

Yes Seagull! That callbox has been of interest.

It would make it a lot more interesting if that call originally went to (came from?) dispatch via that call box! Wouldn't one need a key to use? I didn't think the ones in S.F. were public. ?

[Seagull]

If a key was needed to use the box and likely it was, it would need to be a fairly universal key. The police officers would not be carrying around a big ring of keys to fit every call box in the city. That said I do not know how likely it would be that Zodiac could have gotten a copy of the key or even if the type of lock on the call box could have been easily "picked". That's part of the reason I said "theoretically" Zodiac could have made a call to dispatch from that box.

Another consideration would be that the kids who called in the murder did not say that Zodiac stopped on the corner for even a few seconds. But there again, did they have a direct line of sight from the window to the call box? There is so little in the way of police reports on the Stine murder so we don't have the actual times of when everything happened. Did the description of a black suspect come into the dispatcher before LE had arrived on scene? Were everybody's watches synchronized? The timelines would have been close and even a minute or two might have made a difference.