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In the 1969 DOJ report it states "Subsequent to September 27th 1969 481 suspects have been eliminated as a result of investigation, handprinting and latent print examinations compared with latents relative to the Napa County and San Francisco homicides."
We know suspects can only be eliminated using fingerprint analysis, by comparison of their prints to the blooded fingerprints on the taxicab. The un-blooded fingerprints on a public payphone and public taxicab are not necessarily the killer's, so couldn't be inextricably linked as being donated by the killer. Therefore to eliminate a suspect, as stated in the above DOJ report, it can only be done by comparing suspects to the blooded prints from the taxicab. This in theory links the killer to the murder scene, having been in contact with a bleeding Paul Stine. However the above report clearly states "suspects have been eliminated with latents relative to the Napa County and San Francisco homicides," when only the blooded taxicab fingerprints are required to achieve this. The Napa payphone prints 1 through 35, could have been donated by any member of the public, so why include these in your elimination process. The above may as well have read "Subsequent to October 11th 1969 suspects have been eliminated as a result of latent print examinations compared with latents relative to the San Francisco homicide." You can only exclude suspects from the October 11th 1969 fingerprints, so why include the previous Napa crime, unless they had a match from the taxicab to either the Napa payphone or Karmann Ghia. This could then certainly eliminate suspects as the killer.

Wow, if I have this right...They likely have a conclusive match between a non-blooded taxi print and a print from the Napa phone or car door, and that these matching prints would have to also be inclusively matched with the blooded taxi partial. I haven't read this report, but if it isn't explicitly stated elsewhere that the prints were from the taxi, is it possible they are referring to a match made from a print on a letter relating to the San Francisco homicide?

It's possible, it all depends on how you interpret the DOJ report.

If it is true that they have a possibly complete and conclusive print profile of Zodiac, and had this information in October '69 when they investigated the Riverside link, then maybe it did not match the VW print, and that is why RPD dismissed the connection.

This article on November 1st 1966 claims a fingerprint on the Volkswagen car door.
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=969&p=55016#p55016

I think a match to eliminate someone would definitely have to happen if there were matches somewhere. I wouldn't even have 100% faith in the bloody print alone. Now if a suspect matched a print, that of course would be something else, but if they eliminated people based on one print...that would be unfortunate, imo.

That is my thinking Tahoe, how can you eliminate anybody unless you have a corroborating print. Eliminating to random prints on letters, the taxicab, payphone or vehicles is not eliminating anybody, because they could be 'innocent prints'. But a corroborating print carries more substance between letters, or say the payphone and taxicab.

I think Bryan's car would be the only prints worth considering...although, I don't have a lot of faith in that DOJ report. It's like it was transcribed via someone at a message board.

Richard, if you are currently taking requests, I would love for you to consider writing an article on zodiacciphers.com about the variables and possibilities of this connection.

I wrote an article covering this a little bit in January 2017.
http://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-new ... t-evidence