Pencel flashlight

[morf13]

I certainly don't want to take this topic off course, so back to the flashlight/penlight scenarios. I certainly think he could have used his headlights and or a flashlight as he did at BRS. If the penlight was so great, why did he not use it at BRS? I think he was lying about it

[smithy]

Me too.
I wonder why? He could have said "I had my headlights on" could he not? Bogus!
Perhaps he wanted to portray himself as a funky super-villain, full of tricks. Perhaps he wanted to have the police chasing after pen-light sales, the way they did after the shoes at Berryessa. Give 'em some bussywork to do.

[Welsh Chappie]

Well to get back to the pencil light.

Many times I have seen it said that the 5 shots that hit Betty Lou in the back did so with extremely good accuracy as the 5 bullets entered in a similar area, or a 'cluster effect'. This again, if you pardon the abbreviated expression, is BS. The truth is, if Zodiac was using a laser like beam to pinpoint a target, then the results were anything but a cluster of entry wounds on her body.

Three of the five shots hit around the upper right hand side of her torso. One at the shoulder itself, the second hit to the right and lower down by several inches. and the third almost in the upper middle of her back slightly to the right of her Spine.
The remaining two are pretty close in their proximity to each other, with one striking her in the lower right center of her back just to the right of her spine, with the final bullet to the right of the previous just above the pelvic hip area.

Sketch of BLJ bullet enteries.jpg

Not going to make the Navy Seal's Sniper team anytime soon, is he?

[Bayarea60s]

Trying to recall but I think it was that Z in the 5 shots he hit Betty Lou 3 or 4 out of the 5 hit vital organs, thus making one believe that Z was some sort of great marksman. It could have been he placed the first shot as a kill shot and the rest he did while she was down.

[Welsh Chappie]

Trying to recall but I think it was that Z in the 5 shots he hit Betty Lou 3 or 4 out of the 5 hit vital organs, thus making one believe that Z was some sort of great marksman. It could have been he placed the first shot as a kill shot and the rest he did while she was down.

Well combining the two statements there would mean that while Zodiac has given us reason to believe he is the the best marksman in the United States of America, he failed to aim and shoot the fleeing girl in the one place that would instantly guarantee she would not get any further, that being a head shot.

[Nachtsider]

Unless, of course, he wanted her to die slowly and painfully.

[traveller1st]

I don't think a headshot is advisable. Aren't most 'agencies/parties' ie LE, military taught to use several shots to the central mass as a stopping method?

As for Z not being the world's best marksman I don't think he ever claimed to be. In fact I think he claimed the exact opposite and instead wanted to rubbish LE's 'implications' that he might have had some skill in that area. If you read the letter concerning the 'pen light' I think too much is read into the details and not enough into the context. This is Zodiac's fault/doing because he goes into the details.

He talks about the 'dot' being 3 to 6 inches. This is just an estimate because he knows, and we know and should remember, that is variable. He confuses the issue though by using words like exactly along with the measurements. He says the LE were implying he could hit them in the dark because it was a well lit night but all he is doing is saying, not true, I taped a light to the gun. His 'details' are just frosting for his ego, he wants to show off about the idea, as if it was ingenious to him.

He puts it in context himself. "All I had to do was spray them as if it was a water hose. No need to use the gun sights". Hardly the words of someone claiming to be a crack shot.

It could be classic misdirection. One is a counter claim to what he thinks LE were thinking, the next seems to convey skill in the area he's just denying skill in and then he ends with confirmation again of no need for skill.

Whatever he did it worked unfortunately for those poor kids, once for David and five times for Betty Lou.

[Welsh Chappie]

[quote="traveller1st"]I don't think a headshot is advisable. Aren't most 'agencies/parties' ie LE, military taught to use several shots to the central mass as a stopping method?

As for Z not being the world's best marksman I don't think he ever claimed to be. In fact I think he claimed the exact opposite and instead wanted to rubbish LE's 'implications' that he might have had some skill in that area. If you read the letter concerning the 'pen light' I think too much is read into the details and not enough into the context. This is Zodiac's fault/doing because he goes into the details.

He talks about the 'dot' being 3 to 6 inches. This is just an estimate because he knows, and we know and should remember, that is variable. He confuses the issue though by using words like exactly along with the measurements. He says the LE were implying he could hit them in the dark because it was a well lit night but all he is doing is saying, not true, I taped a light to the gun. His 'details' are just frosting for his ego, he wants to show off about the idea, as if it was ingenious to him.

He puts it in context himself. "All I had to do was spray them as if it was a water hose. No need to use the gun sights". Hardly the words of someone claiming to be a crack shot.


Well I don't know about the American forces but over here in Britain Branches of the police force such as the Anti Terror Police are trained to aim for the head if they believe the suspect has a device on them that he is about to detonate. A shot to the head instantly removes all possibility of threat because a head shot is, so they say, the only way to guarantee that a suspect will be instantly unable to press any detonation device.
In 2005, Terror Suspect Jean Charles de Menezes was chased into a tube station where he had dived onto a train, pursuing police shot him 7 times in the head at point blank range. That's just to give an example that it really is the policy of certain agencies who may be required to shoot to kill are trained that the fastest way to disable someone completely is by aiming for the head.

[traveller1st]

Betty lou wasn't a terror threat with a bomb strapped to her. In this instance Zodiac was the threat ....again....in his head, which was probably true at the time in his thinking....all he had to do was spray.

[Welsh Chappie]

Betty lou wasn't a terror threat with a bomb strapped to her. In this instance Zodiac was the threat ....again....in his head, which was probably true at the time in his thinking....all he had to do was spray.

Trav now don't be silly, you know full well I wasn't suggesting betty Lou was a member of Al Qaeda. I was responding to your claim of: "I don't think a headshot is advisable. Aren't most 'agencies/parties' ie LE, military taught to use several shots to the central mass as a stopping method?"

I replied that using the terror suspect example to point out your above claim, while it may be partly true for certain forces, the Anti-Terror Police are trained that in how best and quickest to stop a suspect with a device and they are trained to shoot the suspect directly in the head. So point is, if Zodiac was such a fantastic shoot and was looking for the quickest way to stop any victim who's trying to escape, then a head-shot is the answer. Plus it would have saved a lot of extra gun shot reports echoing around the hills of LHR. And then lastly, when Zodiac has wanted to dispatch victims quickly with a gun such as Stine and Faraday, he did so by one single shot to the head. He even said that he walked up and aimed directly at Mike Mageau's head and half a second or so before pulling the trigger, Mageau leapt backwards and "Spoiling my aim".