Zodiackillersite.com

The hair from BRS to LB is what concerns me. He would have HAD to be wearing a wig at LB. It's just that, I too, find far-fetched. The only explanation would be that he WANTED to be seen by some that day...the three girls for example, and wanted them to describe his looks. If that is the case, and it was Zodiac, it must have been a wig.

Or a different person altogether.

This article came out on October 1, 1969. I wonder why Zodiac didn't offer what was "held back" (by knife) until over a year later? He could have easily proven he was the person who did this at the time. And why no rebuttal to his looks with this case?

I don't think it so far-fetched that his hair could've grown out between July 4 and September 27.

Nachtsider wrote:I don't think it so far-fetched that his hair could've grown out between July 4 and September 27.

I tried to find a reference to how fast hair can grow. (I no longer remember.) according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_hair_growth) and several other sources I found, an average rate would be about 0.5 inches per month or 6 inches per year.

There was an article or two that suggested that Aisian hair grows faster than Caucasian or African hair, but from what I could tell wasn't radically faster.

The fastest rate of growth I heard of was a claim by the famous Arylkin, of the Long Hair Community (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/sho ... 717&page=4) who said her hair grows at a rate of 1 inch per month in the summer and 2 to 3 inches per month in the winter. As you can see from the link, however, Arylkin is a freak with long beautiful tresses covering her entire face, so we probably can't consider her a model for the Zodiac Killer.

So, eliminating Arylkin from the equation, it sounds to me like Z, assuming him to be average in this respect, would have experienced in the general vicinity of 1.5 inches of hair growth between the Blue Rock Springs and Lake Berryessa murders.

[Also, for the record, I also looked for info on the effects of the hormones used in gender transition on hair growth. There were a few articles, but I didn't spot anything that gave clear stats on whether the rate of growth was affected. Hmmm, it's slightly off-topic, but I wonder if I would be right to suppose that hormone treatments might also affect body weight significantly? A thought to follow up on later, I suppose.]

Thanks,

G

I was just looking at the famous Unabomber composite, the one with the mirrored aviator glasses and hoodie. What struck me was that the artist has drawn hair coming down across Ted's forehead and it looks curly. This is in contrast to most pictures of Ted's hair which is normally sticking up and definitely pretty straight. I am not sure if TK wore a wig but the parallels with the Berryessa/Stine differences are obvious. Whether by the use of a wig or simple mistake, noticeable hair differences when it comes to descriptions and real life are common and inevitable.

jamesmsv wrote:I was just looking at the famous Unabomber composite, the one with the mirrored aviator glasses and hoodie. What struck me was that the artist has drawn hair coming down across Ted's forehead and it looks curly. This is in contrast to most pictures of Ted's hair which is normally sticking up and definitely pretty straight. I am not sure if TK wore a wig the parallels with the Berryessa/Stine differences are obvious. Whether by the use of a wig or simple mistake, noticeable hair differences when it comes to descriptions and real life are common and inevitable.

Yes..it could have looked curly to Mike M. when in fact maybe it was just messy, but it's the "almost blond" too have a concern with.

Zodiac has it all covered so everyone's POI's fit. Blond, brown, black, and "possibly graying".

Tahoe27 wrote:

jamesmsv wrote:I was just looking at the famous Unabomber composite, the one with the mirrored aviator glasses and hoodie. What struck me was that the artist has drawn hair coming down across Ted's forehead and it looks curly. This is in contrast to most pictures of Ted's hair which is normally sticking up and definitely pretty straight. I am not sure if TK wore a wig the parallels with the Berryessa/Stine differences are obvious. Whether by the use of a wig or simple mistake, noticeable hair differences when it comes to descriptions and real life are common and inevitable.

Yes..it could have looked curly to Mike M. when in fact maybe it was just messy, but it's the "almost blond" too have a concern with.

Zodiac has it all covered so everyone's POI's fit. Blond, brown, black, and "possibly graying".

Don't forget the 'red tint' also T

^^Ah, yes..cannot forget the red tint!

I gave more thought to this list and would like to revise it as follows:

Possible reasons for hair length discrepancy:

1) Z got hair cut between LB and PH killings
2) Some witnesses were mistaken
3) There was more than one killer
4) Z wore a bald wig, or something similar at PH
5) Z wore a greasywig under the mask at LB
...

As I was ready another thread, something made me realize there was an variation that got overlooked: Z might have been bald to begin with and all reports of him with hair were wigs.

BTW, i realize it is a replay of the wig themes, but I don't think we considered the possibility that he was bald in his daily (undisguised) life. Also, I intuitively consider this to be very farfetched, but at least feasible, so it belongs in this list, even if only to be discounted. (Plus, intuitions are helpful when they tell us to consider things we might not normally pay attention to; they are often misguided when they convince us we can ignore possibilities.)

My revised list would be:

Possible reasons for hair length discrepancy:

1) Z got hair cut between LB and PH killings
2) Some witnesses were mistaken
3) There was more than one killer
4) Z wore a crew-cut wig, or something similar at PH
5) Z wore a greasywig under the mask at LB
6) Z was bald normally and wore different wigs during his crimes.

BTW, If you happen to pick up on the fact that I have subtly, almost imperceptably, altered the bald wig option to a crew cut wig, please do not draw attention to the change as I am hoping it will escape everybody's attention. Most of all Smithy's.

The wig options remain at the bottom, signifying that I consider them all rather farfetched, though within the realm of possibility.

G

As I look over the list again, I am struck by sense that the first three alternatives are the most believable to me:

ggluckman wrote:...
Possible reasons for hair length discrepancy:

1) Z got hair cut between LB and PH killings
2) Some witnesses were mistaken
3) There was more than one killer
...

Of these, number 2 deserves special mention. In my opinion, it is actually the most certain of all, we just don't know how well it applies to hair length reports.

Any witness, even the most credible and confident, can be wildly mistaken. Research is proving that again and again.

[Aside: I have a strong sense of how easy it is for an honest witness to be quite wrong as I once had an experience where I provided what was likely a very mistaken description of a man minutes after having a face-to-face confrontation where we spoke, then he pulled a knife and threatened me. I suspect I was wrong because my description was very different from another person who dealt with him for a longer period. Since then I have considered myself to be a terrible witness.]

Even so, I would not bet against a credible witness without strong evidence to the contrary. But, on probabilities, I would say that when there are multiple witnesses involved and some have very little opportunity to get a clear view of the perpetrator, it becomes increasingly likely that at least some of the witnesses are going to be mistaken.

In the end, I think the descriptions are not highly valuable as guides to what Z looked like. I am inclined to believe the PH spotting, and (arguably) the KJ confirmation, to be the most likely description as to how Z looked at the time, but that still begs the question whether he was disguised in some way. Even if we allow that the PH/KJ description were accurate, I don't think it advances the case much, since every second guy and his sister looks like the sketch.

Regards,

G

ggluckman wrote:Possible reasons for hair length discrepancy:

1) Z got hair cut between LB and PH killings
2) Some witnesses were mistaken
3) There was more than one killer
...

More than one killer? But what about the letters.....?