I have a special interest in Mr X, hailing from his neck of the woods. I'm not convinced at all that he was the Zodiac, be it said, but I've read Mike Rodelli's posts on several forums with great interest - he strikes me as an honest researcher and I think he's done a great job, whether or not he has actually succeeded in identifying the Zodiac.
Some time ago I messed around a little with a screenshot - and came up with this. It's nothing revolutionary - it was mainly for my own benefit, trying to get a clearer picture of what might have transpired that night:
The red line marks Z's route from the crime scene to 3712 Jackson St (the red dot), where Fouke observed him. The green line marks Fouke's route, driving west on Jackson, turning south on Cherry St, where he met up with Pelissetti. The blue line marks the route Fouke assumed Z took, turning north on Maple, disappearing into the park area. Finally, the pink line marks a possible route from 3712 to 3636 Jackson St, where Mr X resided.
Now, the trouble here is the timeline, which nobody has been able to establish fully and finally. Who did what and in what order?
According to some sources Pelissetti claims that he encountered the infamous "dog walker" BEFORE he met up with Fouke, which makes no sense whatsoever to me, unless Fouke arrived remarkably late. Pelissetti arrived on the scene, met the kids, ushered them back into the house, talked to them, went back outside, checked on Stine, concluded he was dead, then called it in, reporting that a murder had taken place. In the meantime Z proceeded up Cherry St, headed east on Jackson and ran into Fouke outside No 3712. He pretended to go up the stairs to the entrance. Fouke passed him and proceeded to the crime scene.
Right, to me it seems obvious that Z could have - now - made it to 3636 Jackson with little difficulty. He could have even waited on the stairs a little while, making sure Fouke was out of sight, before proceeding. If nobody was around he could - for the sake of argument - have bolted down the street to No 3636 once Fouke was out of the way.
So, what I am saying? Well, it seems possible to me that Z could have made it to 3636, gone inside, changed his clothes, fetched his dog, and been outside at the time when Pelissetti appeared and accosted his "dog walker". Which is what Rodelli suggests he did. I'm not saying I agree - I'm not convinced at all - but I'm saying that If the timeline here is about right (Pelissetti arrives, deals with the kids, checks on Stine, calls it in, meets Fouke, then goes out searching, eventually meeting this dog walker somewhere near 3636 Jackson St) I can't see why such a scenario shouldn't be
possible. Is it
likely, all things said and done? Now, that is another question altogether.
EDIT Just to clarify something: I can't make sense of Pelissetti's account, as it appears here:
Went over to the cab, I would see Mr. Paul Stein, who was slumped over the front seat with his head into the well on the passenger side in the front. There was blood all over the cab, on him, and I was 99.9% certain he was dead. And it was at that point that I retook the description of the suspect. And that's when I was told it was a white male. I couldn't get to the radio fast enough at that point to let everybody else know. The kids had told me that whoever had done this crime left the cab, went out the door, seemed to be wiping the cab down, reaching into the cab and then ambling or walking down Cherry Street in a northerly direction, kind of towards the Presidio. I walked that way myself, I did not run because there are innumerable alcoves and parked cars, so I went down following every technique I knew so I didn't get my head blown off. Got down to the corner of Jackson Street, had to make a choice. I was on the east side of the street, so I turned right to the east, went up in that direction. I couldn't see anybody in either direction, nor could I see anybody scaling a wall into the Presidio. I got all the way down to the next corner which was Maple. Decision number two, which way to go? Looked to the left, toward the Presidio, saw absolutely nothing. It was much darker there. I figured the chance of finding somebody was almost nil. I turned to the right and I saw a man walking his dog. He was somewhat older than the description I had, a whole lot thinner, and he had absolutely no blood on his clothes. I asked that gentleman if he saw anybody walking in the area and he told me, "No."
All this happens, one must assume, before this:
At that point, Officer Donald Fouke, who was accompanied by what I believe was a rookie officer, Eric Zelms, at the time, pulled up very quickly in their police car, called out to me, did I see anybody? Did I know anything about where the suspect could be? I told him, "No."
Now THAT happened on Cherry St according to Fouke (and nothing else makes sense). So, Pelissetti - after having dealt with the kids, talked to them, checked out Stine, etc. - makes his way up Cherry St, cautiously (one may add, he didn't run after the suspect, he followed procedure and made sure he wasn't ambushed), turns east and proceeds down Jackson St (all of this on foot, naturally, still cautiously) to Maple St - and at some point further down the street he meets the dog walker*. He must then, necessarily, make his way back to Cherry St, where he meets up with Fouke.
There is something about this sequence which doesn't make sense. Unless I'm just reading all this the wrong way - and the time which passes between a) Pelissetti's arrival at the scene and b) Fouke's arrival at the scene is much longer than I imagine. But if the latter is the case, where does this leave Z and his encounter with Fouke? I can't quite get my head around this one.
* Exactly where this meeting takes place is uncertain. There are several versions of this, from Pelissetti's own mouth. According to one version the dog walker wasn't on the street, but in his own driveway. Pelissetti also mentions, in one version at least, that he went back to speak further with the dog walker after he accosted him the first time. But it's unclear when this happened, i.e. how much time passed between the first and the second conversation (and for that matter from where Pelissetti went back to speak further with the man).
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2013 8:16 pm