Zodiackillersite.com

Some points:

First, the children who witnessed the aftermath of the shooting claimed that Zodiac was sitting in the passenger seat with Stine's head in his lap. If this is true, Zodiac would have been covered in blood. If Foulke did see Zodiac immediately after, there is no way he wouldn't have seen Zodiac's blood soaked clothes. It would also be foolish for Zodiac to allow himself to be covered in blood and make an inconspicuous getaway in the busy city of SF.

So, either the children were mistaken, and Stine's head was not in Zodiac' lap, or Foulke did not see Zodiac.

Second, the Yellow Book said that there were a series of taxi robberies in which the culprit sat in the passenger seat. Stine's murder was originally thought to be an ordinary robbery gone wrong, so it's reasonable to assume that Inspector Armstrong relayed this information to Carol.

Third, Stine's autopsy states the following:

"There is a large, ragged, irregular shaped apparent gunshot entry wound over the right side of the head. This wound is located at the superior and anterior attachment of the right ear.
The vertical dimension measure 4 cm. and transverse dimensions 2 cm. There is a blackening of the skin over the ventral aspect of this wound, extending from a distance over 2 cm.
When probed, the wounds penetrates left laterally towards the midportion of the left zygomatic arch."

In layman's terms, this means the bullet entered just barely in front and above the ear. if you place your finger on the little protrusion of cartilage on the front of your ear and move it slightly up - that's where the bullet entered. The entry wound is described as "large, ragged, and irregularly shaped" which indicates the barrel of the gun was very near of in contact with the skin. It also shows that the bullet traveled through Stine's head and ended up in the left temporalis muscle which is located above the temple. The bullet likely ricocheted off the zygomatic arch (cheekbone) and fragmented into the area above his left temple. This indicates that the gun was almost, but not quite, perpendicular to the side of Stine's head and angled slightly anteriorly (towards the front). If you place your right finger on where the bullet entered, and your left finger on the middle of your cheekbone, you will see this.

In order for Zodiac to shoot Stine while sitting in the passenger seat, he would have had to reach across his body and angle the gun downward and forward at close range. Witnesses later claimed that Zodiac tried to prop up Stine but he kept falling sideways into the passenger seat, so this is likely what happened after the shot. Again, if Zodiac shot Stine in the passenger seat, he would have been drenched in copious amounts of blood.

I think it is far more logical to assume that Zodiac rode in the backseat. When Stine reached the destination, he likely turned to tell Zodiac how much he owed him. When he did, Zodiac stuck the gun against his head and fired.

Just a hypothesis based on evidence. I'm happy to hear other thoughts.

Pointless.
He had all the reasons to ride in the back seat.
1) It’s far more common
2) Could shot Stine from the back.
He rode in the back, then entered the passenger side to cut the shirt.
I guess the police can’t prove he didn’t rode in the back seat.

For all we know, Stine turned his head to the left just before Zodiac pulled the trigger, perhaps as he reached for his cash box, or instinctually when he saw the gun. Everything that happened could have occurred with Zodiac in the front seat.

Regarding blood, I don't care how much the Zodiac had on his dark clothes, it wouldn't stand out, especially at night, and especially with the officers whizzing past.

ItalianGuy wrote:Pointless.
He had all the reasons to ride in the back seat.
1) It’s far more common
2) Could shot Stine from the back.
He rode in the back, then entered the passenger side to cut the shirt.
I guess the police can’t prove he didn’t rode in the back seat.

*It wouldn't be at all common if you knew the cab driver. In fact, it would be weird.

*Zodiac never shot anyone from the back that we know of.

*There's no evidence placing the Zodiac in the rear of the cab.

*The shirt was torn, not cut or ripped.

*According to Paul's sister, the police did in fact find evidence the Zodiac rode in front.

If Stine knew his killer, wouldn't LE have worked it that way?

TomVoigt wrote:For all we know, Stine turned his head to the left just before Zodiac pulled the trigger, perhaps as he reached for his cash box, or instinctually when he saw the gun. Everything that happened could have occurred with Zodiac in the front seat.

Regarding blood, I don't care how much the Zodiac had on his dark clothes, it wouldn't stand out, especially at night, and especially with the officers whizzing past.

This is true. We don't know for certain where he sat. However, based on the autopsy report, it would make more sense for him to shoot Stine from behind rather than from the side.

Regarding blood: if Foulke spoke with Zodiac as Zodiac claims, then there is NO WAY the two officers would not have noticed blood soaked hands and clothes.

Secondly, even If Foulke did not stop and speak to Zodiac, but rather drove by, then it seems impossible he wouldn't have noticed that much blood because he gave such a detailed description of the suspect later on.

Thirdly, the Zodiac would have to be idiotic to shoot a man at close range, handle his head in his lap, and then walk off into the city night covered in blood.

I'm not discounting other theories. The truth is we will probably never know if he sat in the front or the back, but the evidence so far makes it more likely that the shot came from the backseat.

Chaucer wrote:Some points:



"There is a large, ragged, irregular shaped apparent gunshot entry wound over the right side of the head. This wound is located at the superior and anterior attachment of the right ear.
The vertical dimension measure 4 cm. and transverse dimensions 2 cm. There is a blackening of the skin over the ventral aspect of this wound, extending from a distance over 2 cm.
When probed, the wounds penetrates left laterally towards the midportion of the left zygomatic arch."

I

So a half inch to an inch above the little hole in front of your ear called the pre-auricular. Most people have a little dip, or hole there. Feel for it and then move directly up to just above the ear. Is that about right? With an exit wound just behind and above the left cheek. So that would make the vertical angle of travel almost negligable and the horizontal angle going downwards...

Assuming he didn't turn his head I would tend to think a position in front of the ear with the exit wound lower than the entry wound would be more consistent with a shot fired from front. I would expect a shot fired from the rear to enter near to the right of the cerebellum and exit a little higher rather than lower.

Or am I totally confused?

But we're sure the entry wound is definitely in front of the ear?

TomVoigt wrote:Zodiac claimed he wiped the cab down to leave fake clews. I believe he meant that he wiped the cab to give the impression he might have left fingerprints somewhere. AKA a ruse.

Also, according to Carol Stine, nobody rode in the front of Paul's cab unless Paul knew and trusted them.

Zodiac seemed very antisocial and likely had very little friends , so the odds of him also hailing a cab on a busy weekend night. When there was probably many and meant a driver he knew is unlikely to me. Specially if Carol said Paul wouldn't let someone he didn't know in the front seat. Just my opinion and can't rule it out though that Zodiac was in the front seat. But I think Zodiac had just as good chance getting into Cash Cab then one and known Stine.

Well that's not a bad assessment in the absence of physical evidence. But to say that it's unlikely that they could have been friend because the Zodiac didn't have friends would seem to imply that the you think the attack was still random and so a person with a large social circle would be more likely to coincidentally hail a cab driven by a friend. Or to put it another way, if the killer chose to target a friend/acquaintance on purpose it wouldn't make any difference if he had many, or few friends.

What makes it seem unlikely is that one would choose to kill a friend to begin with, or that one would follow through on a random attack if they discovered the knew the victim.

However the front seat theory is an interesting one. I think that the Police would have established to their own satisfaction which seat he was in, unless they couldn't make a determination. Although I would think they would have had a lot more techniques to determine that sort of thing than we do. If Armstrong said he was in the front he probably was.

Yes I'm making assumption that seem more logical to me. As for Zodiac targeting Stine I think that is a big reach. What are the odds Zodiac would have known which cab Stine was in on a busy weekend night in the Theater district ? Probably tons there and him able to flag it down before another customer did ? Unless this was preplained by both Zodiac and Stine and there is no proof of that so.