Why did he do it? Was it "all or nothing" for him?

[vince]

This crime out of all the Zodiac crimes interests me the most.

His others, minus Lake Barryesa could be considered relatively low risk; dark lovers lanes, not engaging with the victims, shoot and dash kind of crimes.

San Francisco was the pinnacle, he must have been aware about how risky this was. A busy Saturday night, in a populated neighborhood. To sit and take the time to cut a piece of his victims shirt took serious balls, I mean anybody could have walked past the car on the sidewalk at any given moment, we know how close the police patrol car was. My question is; did Zodiac treat this like his all or nothing? The fact he stopped after this (what we know of), may suggest he retired 'on top' in his own mind, and the unforeseen encounter with Foukes (if it happened) may have encouraged him to quit while he was ahead. Though experts state serial killers simply do not retire, they either get caught, become too ill, or simply die.

I do not believe he went into the bushes at PH, imo there is 3 possible scenarios.

1. He went into a local house he was staying at (I remember reading a suspect, possible Larry Kane was at a party in one of the houses at the time, close to the scene).
2. Had a car parked close by.
3. Was staying close by in a hotel or guest house.

Though, what about all the blood? Someone made a good point, perhaps he was not wearing his jacked, and put it on the seat out of harms way, then when he shot Stine and become covered in blood (his shirt, or t shirt), he put on his clean jacket that he had placed on the floor or whatever. Makes sense.

This to me is the most fascinating due to the risk involved.

Anybody got anything to contribute? Would love to read some more opinions on how this night really unfolded.

[morf13]

I think it's possible he had business in that area. Maybe he was house sitting, visiting, etc. I definitely do not think he himself lived there. I also think the clue may be WASHINGTON & MAPLE and NOT WASHINGTON & CHERRY.

Maybe the clue is at the corner of Maple, but he thought that he should go one block further to distance himself from the clue.

[vince]

A plausible theory as to why he went a block further than what was noted in the cab book; even though he anticipated to shoot him at W&M, there may have been a passerby or something unforeseen which forced him to direct Paul Stine a block further. That would make sense.

[Paul_Averly]

I have thought for a long time that Z was simply parked on Maple in-between Washington and Jackson. If you look at that part of the block there are no driveways and a good place to park a car for an extended period of time.

There is a consensus that PH was all planned out by Z. But I think he went over there because he was picking up his car, and then took a big risk and got away with it. Probably nothing to link him to that corner, but he seemed to have parked there for a reason. Maybe it was a long term place to leave a car, maybe he worked close by on Clement but had to head downtown. Or he lived downtown and would leave his car up there because it is a safe place to leave it.

[UKSpycatcher]

The clue as Morf stated is in Washington and Maple. His letter on October 13th stated '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' '. He was claiming the murder at Washington and Maple himself. The teenage witnesses at Washington and Cherry recalled no gunshot, that's probably because there wasn't one. The Zodiac cleaned down various parts of the cab, including the front, why, because he was more than likely wiping away fingerprints, suggesting that after he had shot Paul Stine at Washington and Maple as it was pulling up, the vehicle had not been fully parked, and he would have had to enter the front of the cab to regain control, which he achieved and pulled up one block later at Washington and Cherry. Of course his intention all along was to commit the murder at Washington and Maple and then travel up Maple to his waiting vehicle somewhere at the top of Maple, however he was now one block down, which is why he went north up Cherry and East onto Jackson, back towards his vehicle. The final question you have to ask yourself is the reason he would therefore walk on the North side of Jackson Street, any approaching police cars heading towards the scene of the crime would be approaching on that side of the road, he would have been in full glare of their headlights, common sense suggests he should have been walking on the South side of Jackson Street. But if he had killed Paul Stine at Washington and Maple and entered the front of the cab, he would have had to push Paul Stine's body on the left side to commandeer control of the taxicab steering wheel, so the majority of the blood transfer would be on his left side. This now makes perfect sense why he was walking on the North side of Jackson Street, his left side was facing away from the road. When Donald Fouke and Eric Zelms see a man entering the stairwell of 3712 Jackson Street, all he is doing is turning his left side away from the oncoming vehicle and what better way to do it than pretending to enter a residence. If the Zodiac had walked on the South side pavement of Jackson Street, his blooded left side would have been facing into the street for the entire journey, a scenario he wanted to avoid and if he had then motioned to turn his left side away from any approaching police car, his face would be in full view for any description that had been witnessed.
If he had just leant over and shot Paul Stine from the rear of the taxicab at Washington and Cherry there would have been no need to enter the front to wipe it down, but he did enter the front to wipe it down suggesting he had spent time there. The reason I believe he was brazen enough to stay and remove a section of Paul Stine's shirt, was because he did not shoot him there and therefore he thought he was not being observed and had not drawn attention to himself. If he had shot Paul Stine at Washington and Cherry without a silencer, there is a high probability that no swatch of Paul Stine's shirt would have been received by the San Francisco Chronicle and we would be questioning this as a Zodiac crime to this day. The clue is the Zodiac Killer's affirmation the murder was at Washington and Maple, no gunshot was heard at Washington and Cherry Street and the Zodiac Killer was walking on the wrong side of Jackson Street, flying in the face of all logical reasoning.

[vince]

Wow, fantastic analysis.

Similar to what I was thinking; consider this:

1. He shoots Paul Stine at Washington and Maple
2. Paul's body goes limp and his foot is pressed against the accelerator, taking the car forwards.
3. Zodiac clambers into the front to take control of the car, jumping from the back into the front, or managing to get out and open the door, I don't know.
4. Once Zodiac has made it into the front, he gets Paul's foot away from the accelerator and his body in a position laying towards the passenger area of the car.
5. Zodiac parks the car at W&C.

This seems pretty reasonable.

[capricorn]

Yes this is a suberb analysis of why Zodiac was walking where he was!

However, I have a hard time imagining how he could have gotten from the back to the front seat, gained control of the cab and then managed to go another block without hitting something like a parked car!

I have taken quite a few taxi cabs in the last five years (since my attention was called here after seeing the movie on tv in 2009) and think about this every time I've been in one.

Of course the taxis then would be different from the ones now but as I recall the actual space between the top of the front seat was limited by the partition back then as I guess some are now.

When I was a child, I remember playing in the car when my mom would be in a grocery store shopping and left my sister and I in the car, which was commonly done back then. I can remember climbing from the back to the front with difficulty when I was perhaps ten years old.

In thinking about most of the descriptions, Zodiac is a big guy. It seems like it would be almost impossible for him to shoot Stine and then proceed to climb over the seat and get in the front or even reach over in an effort to turn off the ignition imo. I don't recall the make of the taxi but it was a large sedan with bench seats I'm pretty sure.

How fast do you think the cab was going at the time of the shot? Could Z have asked Paul to stop at Washington and Maple, giving him the opportunity to shoot while the car was not moving and then he could have quickly gotten out, opened the front, gotten in to gain access, restart the cab and drive to the next block?

[Seagull]

This is an image of the position that Paul Stine found to be in after he was murdered. It shows that there was no partition between the front and back seats. I believe that it is this image that leads some to think that Paul could have been moved over to allow Zodiac to get behind the steering wheel. It certainly does look like Paul was moved towards the passenger side of the front seat and makes it hard to reconcile how Zodiac was able tear the square of Paul's shirt while sitting on the passenger side.

http://coldbloodedkiller.tumblr.com/pos ... nce-in-the

Paul Stine inside cab.PNG

[UKSpycatcher]

The assertion is that when the killer raised his gun to shoot Paul Stine, the taxi driver ready to collect his fare would for a brief second have saw the gun and used any means necessary to deflect the gun and in struggling with his assailant Paul Stine's foot came off the brake and the taxi started to head off towards Washington and Cherry. The killer then faced the stark choice of letting the vehicle crash or regain some form of control. If the killer was using a form of silencer on the weapon to go unnoticed, the last thing he needed was to bundle into a row of houses. When he regained control, he pulled up at the next intersection.
I believe this was probably the least risky of his crimes. Lake Herman Road, Blue Rock Springs and Lake Berryessa were, although stacked in his cowardly favor, they involved two people. The exit route away from Lake Herman Road and Lake Berryessa were singular roads with limited exit strategies and Blue Rock Springs, he made a risky phone call but 40 minutes later.
If he had used a silencer what could have been more cowardly and easy than silently shoot a taxi driver in the back of the head at 10 pm at night. In theory nobody would have heard or seen him, he then would have had ample time to reach his parked vehicle at the top of Maple and been long gone, before anybody had noticed the inside of the cab. However he had to improvise his plan and control the cab to Washington and Cherry. Now having regained control, he believed he still had plenty of time to remove a piece of Paul Stine's shirt, but he hadn't banked on the three teenagers and if it wasn't for the incorrect description of the suspect I have no doubt he would have been caught. After the Lake Berryessa crime he took time to write on the door of the car and at Presidio Heights he removed a swatch of shirt, I believe he took extra time not because he was taking ever more risk, but because he thought they were the lowest risk. If he had been noticed at Berryessa by any witness, he not only had a mask on to protect his identity, he had a loaded gun and wasn't afraid to use it. At Presidio Heights it was a new moon, so was pitch black, apart from limited street lighting, the silencer made it unheard and even though he had overshot Washington and Maple, there were copious exit routes in San Francisco.
I believe the Murder at San Francisco was the safest crime from his standpoint and the first crime he couldn't even be man enough to face his victim, not that he ever came close to being a man, he was a monster and a yellow one at that.

[capricorn]

Thanks for posting the picture.

Maybe Paul actually stopped the car and turned off the ignition or had it in park while he was letting Z out and collecting the fare. Zodiac then shoots him and if the car wasn't moving, would have had ample time to get out of the back and then opened the DRIVER'S DOOR, pushes Paul over to the passenger side, proceeds to drive down the block where he stops and tears the shirt and wipes fingerprints.

IIRC, the kid reported seeing him wiping prints from the outside driver's door and there was speculation that Z had approached Paul for a ride and leaned against the door and realized he'd left prints while he was riding in the cab.

This is probably neither here nor there and may have been mentioned already by someone somewhere, but I think it curious that Paul was shot at Washington and Maple if perhaps it was because W upside down becomes M? I'm thinking also of some of those codes and wondering if Z had some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder along with whatever other ones he probably had.