Zodiackillersite.com

comeback65 wrote:

Tahoe27 wrote:My Dad's old '56 Chevy Bel Air had the ability to keep running with the keys out. Maybe some cabs were the same? Doesn't seem like a good thing though. Interesting question.

I don't think this was entirely uncommon -- in at least one of my dad's cars from back in the day, I remember being able to remove the key from the ignition while the car was running.

So if the keys are taken and the engine's running, would you normally stall it to shut it down?

I'd imagine the cops would have stopped it running by another means (something under the hood), as stalling the engine would cause the vehicle to jerk forward and possibly alter the crime scene?

Maybe the keys that were taken were a set that belonged to Paul Stine, his house keys, not the Taxi cab keys.

Taking Stine's keys, and wallet that would have his ID, and home address, maybe Zodiac was planning on going there? Maybe Stine had something he wanted?

In the police report it states keys to the taxicab.

My Dad used to have a car that had something wrong with the ignition lock mechanism that would allow the key to be
removed while the engine was running.

Usually it would stop running without keys. We drove around with a 64 T-bird recently and it wouldn't work without keys.

QT

Richard Grinell wrote:In the police report it states keys to the taxicab.

Well, so much for my theory. Still, I wonder if the taxi keys were on a key ring with his house keys.

And I can attest to vehicles that you could remove the keys from and they would still run. I had a '73 Ford pick-up like that. As a matter of fact, I took to removing them after I cranked it because they were so loose they would fall out onto the floor board while driving down the road.

Looks to me like the 12th October SF Chron article is the only place where it's mentioned that the engine was running. I presume this is erroneous; likely a mistake in the reporter's notes. Not the only Z article to contain errors, for sure.

Pity. I thought this engine running with keys taken thing could have meaning.

RTF wrote:Looks to me like the 12th October SF Chron article is the only place where it's mentioned that the engine was running. I presume this is erroneous; likely a mistake in the reporter's notes. Not the only Z article to contain errors, for sure.

That's certainly possible. The police report says the meter was still running, might be the news reporter confused it with engine running.