Directions

[Wier]

We know Zodiac approached the scene from the south (probably left and returned same directions, if that was the same person) and drove south after.
We know he later made his phone call from a few miles south and that Police headquarters were in that area.

It is then, curious, that he would elect to give directions to the crime scene approaching from the opposite direction. "if you will go one mile east on columbus" and that he apparently got the distance wrong. I do not buy into Horan's general theory nor his explanation for this particular event but I do think the issue is worth exploring.
Could it have been a slip by him and what if anything, does it say about his knowledge of the area?
Thoughts welcome!

[Wier]

The point on Columbus exactly one mile from the crime scene marks St John's Mine road ( I believe but cannot remember the details, that there was a girl murdered or body found at that spot years earlier).....later Z sent his dragon card depicting a prospector.
Directly across the road is Solano Community College (1967) formerly Vallejo Junior college, servicing Travis air force base among other areas.

I was thinking maybe Z was deliberately drawing attention to the former for some reason or perhaps he was someone who had some connection to SCC. If he was coming to and from there he might instinctively know that it was one mile to BRS ( as opposed to the two mile stretch of Columbus to the scene)...maybe a slip on his part in the circumstances.

[mike_r]

Hi-

Deanna Hooper was found murdered at St. John's Mine Rd in 1975 but she went missing on, I believe, July 10, 1974. Last seen on Mare Island, IIRC.

Mike

[smithy]

Wier. I suspect a prank caller made that call, basing it on the directions he heard being relayed by radio to the responding ambulance.

[Wier]

Yeah, thanks Mike, that's her. Have you any more details on that crime/how she was murdered?

Sorry Smithy, this is one we are going to have to agree to disagree on. Some guy hanging around at midnight with nothing else to do listening to emergency calls, not only reacts to this crime but also links this murder to LHR immediately. Then Z writes 3 weeks later claiming responsibility for both with details and claims responsibility for the call!!! That's a huge stretch IMHO. While I give it no creedence whatsoever, it might be possible to actually prove it wasn't the case.
Google earth only goes back to the early 1990's, (satellite view)that whole area was rural at the time of the murder and only built up after. In the 1990's shot Redwood parkway looks like a road that hasn't been developed all that long. I could be wrong but maybe it wasn't even extended to Columbus 20 years earlier.
I haven't been able to track down an earlier map.

[Zamantha]

Here's, the link to possible Zodiac victim, Deanna Hooper.
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=181

[Zamantha]

Here's, the link to possible Zodiac victim, Deanna Hooper.
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=181

And here's approximately the location she was found. Sandy & I first learned about Deana Hooper from Lyndon Lafferty.

Found on St. Johns Mines Road & Columbus Parkway.

Deana is in Lyndon's Book, Page 280.

Here is the location where Sandy figured out Deana's Body was left.
She was found by kite flyers. The location was in high weeds 40 feet
of the nearest roadway. It would of been impossible for someone to
find her unless passing by right at that spot as the kite flyers did.

Photos by Zam*

[smithy]

Sorry Smithy, this is one we are going to have to agree to disagree on.

No problem mate! I got alot of fun putting the little ambulance on the picture - that's my reward.

Some guy hanging around at midnight with nothing else to do listening to emergency calls, not only reacts to this crime but also links this murder to LHR immediately.

Sadly, stupid idiots and drunks tend to make this kind of call after midnight, a lot.
Linking it to LHR immediately would be unlikely too - I agree. But that was done quite a long time later, right? Since the phone call wasn't recorded, "interpreting" what was actually said wasn't too tough, after the fact. Wouldn't happen these days, not with call recording.

Then Z writes 3 weeks later claiming responsibility for both with details and claims responsibility for the call!!! That's a huge stretch IMHO.

Mine too. Can you imagine a murderer writing in, telling the police that a witness could identify him and giving them the colour of his car - and actually meaning every word he said? It ain't likely!
What was the name of the negro guy anyway - I don't have it.

[Wier]

Thanks for the link Zam. I remember the spot and a well known researcher telling me it was exactly one mile from the BRS scene. I was mistaken though in thinking Deana's murder was before as opposed to years later. It wasn't until recently that I discovered that the College was right across the road. It had become SCC just 2 years earlier having been formerly Vallejo junior college. It had become an adult education centre offering courses to mature students from further afield. It just strikes me that it's possible Zodiac either had some purpose for giving the directions he did or he made a big error without thinking.
He may have just blurted out what he was most familiar with, in giving the directions.
This route is all part a bigger picture, with the old part of Vallejo to the east, with many travelling on Columbus, passing BRS and then taking LHR, passing the pump station going to and from work in Benicia. I wonder if Z was one such person or someone relatively new to the area having some connection to St John's mine road or the College

[4weed]

Wier. I suspect a prank caller made that call, basing it on the directions he heard being relayed by radio to the responding ambulance.

These map image's are useless Vallejo was much smaller the streets in this map did not exist.