Morbid - Episode 667: The Zodiac Killer (Part 1)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey weirdos, before we dive into today's twisted tale, let me tell you about a place where the darkness never ends. Wondery Plus. It's like stepping into a haunted mansion where the floorboards creak with ad-free episodes and early access to new episodes lurks around every corner. So come join us, if you dare. Morbid is available one week early and ad-free only on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Starting point is 00:01:32 It was the tabloid sensation of the 60s, a wealthy socialite more used to gracing the pages of Tatler, suddenly thrust onto the front pages of the newspapers for all the wrong reasons. Margaret Campbell was the Duchess of Argyle, but when her gambling, cheating husband's money problems became marriage problems, he divorced her, telling the world about her voracious sexual appetite and 88 lovers.

Starting point is 00:01:56 But Margaret was not prepared to go down without a fight. So get ready for wind up copper penises, you heard me, dodgy Polaroids and disgrace. The Dirty Duchess is available now. Follow British Scandal now wherever you listen to podcasts and binge entire seasons early and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Do you think it's the first time that any Wondery title has said wind up copper penis? The question is, will it be the last? Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash. I'm Alaina. And this is Morbid.

Starting point is 00:02:40 That was a rushed intro because we're having a fight. We are. And it's serious. The pod might be... No, I'm just kidding. It's serious. It's serious. So buckle in for the last episode. Here's the, I don't, okay.

Starting point is 00:02:54 So the fight is over. The fight. The fight. It's a fight. The brawl is over. We're going to come to board soon. Whether you can use the word aesthetic as an adjective. And you can.

Starting point is 00:03:06 I say no. The Oxford Dictionary disagrees. I don't give a fuck what the Oxford Dictionary says. I've never... Whoa! I've never... You heard it here first. I don't...

Starting point is 00:03:18 That does not sound correct to me to say like, wow, that's so aesthetic. Like what? I don't know. I like it wow, that's so aesthetic. Like what? I don't know. I like it. I don't get it. Cause it can be an adjective. It's on the line. It says adjective concerned with beauty

Starting point is 00:03:34 or the appreciation of beauty. Yeah, I don't get that. I think Mikey's on my side here. Yeah, cause he's old. Yeah. Mikey just reached for that Mike. Wow. He said, I'm old. Yeah. Mike, he just reached for that Mike. Wow. He said, I'm sorry.

Starting point is 00:03:48 Wow. They've been attacking me all day. That's all my god. We will go into specifics. She is rallying the morbid listeners. Is this real? She's like, guys. They've been attacking me all day.

Starting point is 00:04:00 They've been making Ash sad all day. Listen guys, they have. I cried in the bathroom earlier. That's dirty. That's dirty. It's because you know that everyone's going to be like, bitch, for Ash. It's true.

Starting point is 00:04:13 Do it. Guys, don't. Come forth, little one. That's irresponsible usage of your power is what that is. You know what? Irresponsible. That's wielding power like a dictator. You guys, this might be the last episode.

Starting point is 00:04:30 Oh, my God. Now the dogs are pissed at you. That's fake. My dogs are like, bitch, wah, wah, wah. I got the listeners, but you got literal hellhounds. Hell yeah, I do. I don't think... Oh. They're pissed. I don't think it do. I don't think, oh. They're pissed.

Starting point is 00:04:45 I don't think it's, I don't think that's fair. We're just angrily drinking water at each other now. I need it. That's a real thing. No, but we're both just going, which is ridiculous because we're both just holding, I'm holding a Stanley and you're holding a fucking roommate and we're just going, like snarling at each other across the microphones taking aggressive steps. See, we're sisters. It's not actually her. I never

Starting point is 00:05:12 cried in the bathroom. I'm reading this off a script. It's true. She was not. She was not say it again. Say it with more feeling now. Say it with aesthetic. No, that actually doesn't make any sense. But yeah, what do you guys think? Um, do you even know what we're fighting about? Do we make it can you use aesthetic as like, or do I shouldn't say can you do you use aesthetic in that way as like, this is a big, I've seen people argue about this before. Like, I didn't even know this was a thing. I think it's argue about this before. Like on TikTok. I didn't even know this was a thing. I think it's a generational thing.

Starting point is 00:05:47 I think you're right. I think I, since I tow the Gen Z millennial line, and I don't, listen, Gen Z, I love you, but I don't always love to, you know, head over that way. I think I'm on that way with this one. You are on that way. I feel like that's definitely more of a Gen Z thing. I think it is.

Starting point is 00:06:00 I think they like reworked the word. Yeah. I'll agree with you there. Yeah. But that word has been retooled, I think it is. I think they like reworked the word. Yeah. I'll agree with you there. Yeah. But that word has been retooled, I think. Yeah, I think so too. For sure. But I like it. And you know what? Here's where we come out. You can like it.

Starting point is 00:06:16 Thank you. And I can fucking hate it. Raise your roommate. Raise your little roommate. I'll raise my roommate for your family. Eye contact. Cling. You have to drink too. Actually, you really shouldn't cheers with water. I think that's bad luck.

Starting point is 00:06:25 So maybe the show is ending. Oh, so is it technically water? You know, it's crazy. Usually mine has my little arm around there, but today it doesn't because I just wanted ice water. It's just wow. I don't like wow. I don't like the you're saying that.

Starting point is 00:06:33 I actually, I don't like that. I actually, I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that.

Starting point is 00:06:41 I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't ice water. It's just wah-wah. I don't like wah-wah. I don't like that you're saying that. I don't like that. I actually hate it so much. I just horrified myself.

Starting point is 00:06:54 Ew. Oh man, we're taking a little bit of time off, but you won't know, so we're batch recording a lot of things right now. So if we sound insane, that's why. So we're taking time off, but it's not going to affect episodes. Yeah, your episodes will come out at the same time. So we have to record a bunch of stuff in advance, and that makes us cuckoo crazy. And that makes us cuckoo crazy.

Starting point is 00:07:15 But right now, I'm actually excited, question mark, to talk about this case. I think this is a really fascinating case. This is obviously, if you're hearing notes, the Zodiac case. This is like a obviously, obviously, obviously, I just keep saying that over and over again. This is a very devastating case. Yeah. But I think it's very interesting and it's wild to me that don't come at me in the comments because it still is unsolved that it's still unsolved. Yeah. You can sit there and you can tell me that it's solved all you want to. It's still technically unsolved. It's not solved.

Starting point is 00:07:46 It's the same thing as the Jack the Ripper thing. Yeah, no, I feel that way. It's the same thing. I'm going to become a zodiologist. A zodiologist. Also, oh, sorry. I didn't mean to. Go ahead.

Starting point is 00:07:59 Also, I didn't, I can't find the little, I wrote down on a card who sent me this, but a listener, and if you're listening, you're fucking awesome and I'll make sure to figure out your name. And you better be on her side of the aesthetic argument. Yeah, be on my side. No, a listener sent me, went to London and went to the Jack the Ripper like a tour and all that and sent us like in the PO box,

Starting point is 00:08:21 like sent me a pin that says Ripperologist on it from the like, like the museum. That's so cool. And I put it on my leather jacket. Oh, did you put it on? All the time. She opened it and goes, I'm putting this on my leather jacket.

Starting point is 00:08:33 Because I'm so excited. I love it. So you rule. Thank you so much. That was such a cool gift. I loved it. And I wear it. Now I wear it all the time.

Starting point is 00:08:42 She was very genuinely excited. I was to get that because I was like, I'm officially a ripperologist. Yeah, yeah. You have been, I feel like it's already beneficial. So let's get into it. So the Zodiac killing started with the Lake Herman Road murders where 17 year old David Faraday

Starting point is 00:08:58 and his girlfriend 16 year old Betty Lou Jensen were killed. Betty Lou? I know Betty Lou. What an adorable name. 16 and 17 years old. My God, literal babies. And they were your typical American teenagers in the fall of 1968.

Starting point is 00:09:13 David was one of Alejo High School star wrestlers. He was a popular student. He was an Eagle Scout, not a cub. That year, he had actually been awarded the Scouts God and Country Award, which is like a pretty high honor. Whoa. Similarly, Betty was said to be a popular and responsible student at Hogan High School, where she was in her junior year. So young. Nicole Soule-Nicholson Jr. in high school.

Starting point is 00:09:35 Yeah. They were both active and after school activities. They both participated a lot in community events. Like they were just like very all-American teenagers. In fact, it was one of those community events actually, the decorating committee for a winter dance that was being put on by the city that brought the two of them together in mid-December. And within a week of meeting, they had fallen for each other hard. And they started rearranging their schedules so they could spend more time together outside of school. Just young love.

Starting point is 00:10:04 Oh, I love it. Now, Betty's parents had always forbidden her from dating. They really wanted her to focus on school instead. But that December, she did manage to convince them to let her go out with David. And she and David made plans for Friday, December 20th, which was going to be Betty's first ever date. So this was a big deal, and it's literally less than a week before Christmas.

Starting point is 00:10:27 So when the day finally arrived, David picked Betty up from school and they spent a few hours together just kind of like hanging out before their official date that night. But David dropped her off at home around 6pm and then came back to pick her up a few hours later a little bit after 8pm. Betty invited him inside, of course he had to go meet the parents. And the four of them chatted briefly for about 20 minutes. And then David and Betty left the house. They told Betty's parents that they were going

Starting point is 00:10:53 to the Hogan High Christmas concert and then to a party at a friend's house and that they'd definitely be back in time to make Betty's 11 p.m. curfew. It turns out they didn't really have any plans of going to the school concert. Oh. They actually went to visit one of Betty's 11 p.m. curfew. It turns out they didn't really have any plans of going to the school concert. Oh. They actually went to visit one of Betty's friends and they left that friend's home around

Starting point is 00:11:10 9 p.m. Okay. Then where they went from there is unknown, but some speculated that maybe they visited another friend along the way or stopped at like a fast food restaurant. But whatever the case, by 11 p.m., David's station wagon was seen parked at the entrance to Benneka Pumping Station on Lake Herman Road, which was a very popular lovers lane area in Delahoe. They parked right at the start of a shift change at the pumping station too, so a lot of people remembered seeing the car and saw the two of them inside.

Starting point is 00:11:40 Okay. Many, many witnesses. Yeah. Now around 1120 PM, a local mom, Stella Borges was driving past the pumping station on her way to pick her son up from a local movie theater. And when she rounded the corner by the entrance to the station, her headlights swept across the lovers lane, where she and the other passengers in her car could clearly see two bodies lying on the ground outside of the station wagon. Stella would later tell police it looked like David had fallen out of the open door. Obviously very frightened by what she'd seen, she sped past the scene in the direction of the nearby downtown Benneka where she flagged down the first police cruiser that she could find. And after listening

Starting point is 00:12:21 to her story, Captain Dan Pitta and his partner called in the report to the station, rushed to the scene, and called for an ambulance on the way. Now Captain Dan Pitta's arrival at the scene was followed very quickly by members of the Benneka and Vallejo police departments, and also deputies from the Solano County Sheriff's Department. It was the latter department who did have jurisdiction over the entire area that night. Betty was declared dead at the scene. But when paramedics checked on David, he was still breathing.

Starting point is 00:12:50 He was just barely conscious. Holy shit. Weirdly, that happens a lot in this case. Really? And it doesn't seem to be intentional. It's just a strange thing that happens with a lot of these killings. That's interesting.

Starting point is 00:13:05 Yeah. So David was rushed to Vallejo General Hospital, but unfortunately it was too late. He did end up being pronounced dead at the hospital at 1205 AM. He had been shot once in the head just behind the left ear, and Betty had been shot five times in the back with one of the bullets piercing her heart. Holy shit. Yeah, this was intense. A search and analysis of the crime scene really didn't yield much as far as clues, and there were even fewer leads, unfortunately. From what investigators could tell, the couple had been parked on that lover's lane

Starting point is 00:13:37 when a second car arrived and pulled right up behind them, which is just so creepy to me. I hate that. Based on the locations where shell casings were discovered, they theorized that the driver of the second car fired into the station wagon, evidenced by the bullet hole in the back window of the car. That gunshot obviously forced the couple out of the car, where David was likely shot in the head

Starting point is 00:14:01 while he was still on the ground. Betty, it seemed, had tried to run away from the shooter, but she only made it, they estimated about 20 feet when the gunman started firing from his position next to the station wagon with five of the six shots hitting Betty in the back. Once the killer believed he had executed the two teenagers, he left the scene without even collecting the bullet casings. Wow. Just calmly left the scene. Holy shit.

Starting point is 00:14:27 Yeah. Intense. Now the crime scene was frustrating. And it was frustrating from the moment investigators arrived because it was December, the ground was practically frozen solid. So that made it impossible to identify any kind of tire tracks from the second vehicle. Deputy Sheriff Russell Butterbach told reporters, I just couldn't say how or what happened. We haven't got that far in the investigation. But there was really nobody anyone could think of as a potential suspect because both victims seemed like really the last people anybody would want dead.

Starting point is 00:15:00 Yeah, it's not like they had all these ties to crime or something, you know? No, and again, they're 16 and 17 years old. They're involved in their community. Like there's not even people really at school that don't like them. Yeah. They like hung out at like church events. Yeah. So days later, investigators had swept the crime scene several times at that point, but had made almost no progress in the case. Lead investigator, Ledley Lundblad said, we gathered all the physical evidence that was available at the scene, cartridge cases and other items, and these will be tested in the laboratory."

Starting point is 00:15:31 Meanwhile, investigators started interviewing, of course, friends and family, hoping that one of them could shed light on who might have wanted David or Betty dead. Unfortunately, while David and Betty's friends were able to provide a lot of information about their day to day lives, nobody had any information about who would have wanted to kill them. And even though this had been Betty's first date in the absence of a clear suspect, detectives started wondering whether the killer was maybe a young man who had been rejected by Betty in the recent past. It's always a possibility. Yeah, I mean, sure. We have really not like they didn't really have anything to go on.

Starting point is 00:16:06 So yeah, I start somewhere. And honestly, that is the most that's the easiest route to go down. Exactly. Investigator Lundblad said we're looking into it. But at this stage, we're not overlooking any possibilities whatsoever. So she was like, we're looking into it, but we're looking at everything. Which again, you have to. Yeah, you can't you can't discount any possibilities

Starting point is 00:16:26 when you have nothing to go on. Exactly. You got to start somewhere. You got to honestly at that point, you got to like pull shit out of the air. Yeah, just start pulling strings. Now, when interviews with the victim's families turned up really no useful information,

Starting point is 00:16:38 investigators had to start considering alternative theories like we were just saying, including the potential that the teenagers had, quote, met their deaths Friday night at the hands of a murderous maniac who was not acquainted with either of his victims. Likely theory. Yeah. And this theory was given a little more weight when sheriff's deputies received a call from a teenager,

Starting point is 00:16:57 William Crowe, who reported having a strange experience about an hour and a half before the murders occurred. According to Crowe, he'd been parked with a friend in the same exact area where David and Betty were discovered, and he noticed another car parked in a dark area just a short distance away. He said the driver was watching them for sure. He said, when I saw his, when I saw its backup lights come on,

Starting point is 00:17:20 I gunned our car out of there. The driver followed Crow and his friend until they reached downtown Venica where he turned off and dropped out of sight. But Crow said, as far as I was concerned, that was the end of it until I read Saturday what happened in the same spot where we were. Huh? Imagine knowing that you were in the same spot. I was going to say in like knowing that you somehow had an instinct

Starting point is 00:17:45 that got you out of there, like, trust your gut. No, no. Toward the end of December, after exhausting the really small amount of leads that they had anyway, sheriff's investigators had grown more confident in the murderous maniac, quote unquote theory. One blood said, I think they were ordered out of the car at gunpoint. And when they didn't come out quickly, the killer fired a warning shot through the rear side window of the vehicle. The assailant then shot the boy and when he fell, the girl started running and was killed as she ran, which, so they're pretty much thinking the same thing here.

Starting point is 00:18:16 Yeah. Nothing of value had been taken from the vehicle. So robbery was ruled out as a motive. Nobody had been sexually assaulted. So that was ruled out now too. The, but the problem investigators faced was that there was virtually no way of connecting the killer to the victims, and that made solving this case seem very unlikely. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. There used to be such a stigma around going to therapy, seeking help, admitting that you

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Starting point is 00:20:58 By the dawn of the new year, the story had unfortunately slipped from the front pages of the local papers and into the back. And by mid-January, it really stopped getting coverage altogether. That's crazy. I know. As the end of January approached those, student groups from Vallejo and Hogan High Schools established a reward fund, and they went door to door around the community to collect donations, hoping that the offer of a reward would elicit some kind of help from the community and jumpstarting the case, which they knew was getting colder

Starting point is 00:21:30 and colder. And they did. They got a good reward fund up, but nobody ever attempted to collect it. Well, and you look at it now and you're like, knowing that we are now in 2025, and we don't know who this person is. Like, that's crazy. Like, you just think about it back then, they probably never in their wildest dreams could fathom that in 2025, we still would not possibly know who this person is.

Starting point is 00:21:57 Probably couldn't even fathom the year 2025, nevermind the fact that they would, like, that this case would make it this far without getting any kind of. So crazy. You know, obviously it's had moments where it's come back up and people have found out new things, of course, but, you know, it's really sad. So a few months later on March 30th, though, the story did pop up again in the Vallejo Times

Starting point is 00:22:17 Herald, only to remind readers, though, of how little progress had been made. Leslie Lundblad told reporters, There isn't a day that goes by that I don't work on it. I've got a case file about four inches thick, all the information I've been able to turn up, and I have a fairly sizable evidence locker.'" But even with all that information, she did acknowledge that investigators were, quote,

Starting point is 00:22:36 "'only a bit nearer to the solution of the crime than they were when they first arrived on the scene that cold Friday night in December.'" Damn. Yeah, really sad. Yeah. By that time, everybody had pretty much settled into the belief that David and Betty's killer was completely unknown to the both of them, and the crime was, as far as they knew, motiveless.

Starting point is 00:22:56 Betty's father, Vern Jensen, said, I don't feel vindictive, but I am apprehensive. I feel some nut is on the loose. Which, I mean, yeah. You would feel that way. David's mother, Jean, was similarly unnerved by the idea that her son had been killed by a deranged stranger who was still on the loose and like, might kill again. Yeah. I think that would be the scariest part of all.

Starting point is 00:23:16 For sure. She said, and he'll find it easier next time. We know he's a nut, but what kind of nut? Which I mean, and we're still asking that. Yeah. Yeah. Truly. They weren't wrong. And soon they were going to find out just what kind of person killed their children. So true.

Starting point is 00:23:32 Scary. I just feel so bad. Imagine that being she goes out on her first date. Her first date ever. And her parents were like reluctant to even let her go. That must be that I can't awful feeling my brain just can't wrap around that. Nobody should have to feel that way. So by the summer of 1969, David and Betty's murders had faded completely from the newspapers and life in Vallejo was starting to get back to

Starting point is 00:23:56 normal. Then in early July, that feeling of terror and helplessness returned when two more young people were gunned down by an unidentified killer. 22 year old Darlene Ferrin worked at a local diner and she was well liked by everybody who knew her. Yeah, it seemed to everybody that she and her husband Dean had a pretty good life. They were living together raising their infant daughter in a pretty nice neighborhood. Even though she was married, Darlene was known to date other men on occasion. And that summer she had been seeing 19-year-old Mike, I think it's Mugeau, who she'd met at the diner. Okay. So on the afternoon of July 4th, Mike and Darlene made plans to see each

Starting point is 00:24:34 other later that evening. First, Darlene was going to go to a 4th of July party with her sister, and then she'd go see Mike after. Okay. It was around 1130 PM when she finally arrived to pick Mike up. So they decided to go out to a late Mike after. It was around 11.30 PM when she finally arrived to pick Mike up, so they decided to go out to a late dinner together. A short time later, Darlene pulled off the road into the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs,

Starting point is 00:24:53 which is just a local park, and turned the engine off. A few minutes earlier, she actually had mentioned to Mike that there was something she wanted to talk to him about, but before she could actually get out what she wanted to say, their conversation was interrupted because a carload of teenagers pulled into the lot and were just like throwing firecrackers everywhere. Teenagers. Being teenagers.

Starting point is 00:25:12 But so they couldn't talk really because every time she went to say something there would be a loud blast. It was interrupted. So they resumed their conversation a few minutes later after the group of teenagers had left, but then they were interrupted again, this time by another car that had pulled into the lot. By this time, the entire parking lot was empty, but this driver, who was alone in his car, pulled about eight feet behind Darlene's car, turned off his headlights, and sat motionless

Starting point is 00:25:40 in his car for a minute or two, started his car again, and drove out of the lot. Huh. Creepy. I would hate that. Creepy. Yeah. Obviously, that was a strange situation. So Mike asked Darlene if she knew the driver of that vehicle.

Starting point is 00:25:58 It sounds like she was getting pretty annoyed at this point because she was clearly trying to have an important discussion and she kept getting interrupted. So she just said, Oh, nevermind. And Mike didn't know what to make of Darlene's confusing response. But he knew that she seemed irritated or overwhelmed. So he decided not to push for an explanation. With the distraction behind them, they got to talking again. But it wasn't long before again, they were interrupted. About five minutes after leaving the parking lot, that second car, the one who had pulled behind them, returned, this time parking a little bit farther away from Darlene's car, about 10 feet behind on the passenger side. With the headlights still on this time, the driver got

Starting point is 00:26:36 out of the vehicle and walked toward the passenger side of Darlene's car. It was especially dark in the lot that night, and Mike couldn't really make out any details of the driver of the other car, only that he appeared to be carrying a large flashlight, like a police officer's flashlight. Interesting. So he figured you they were getting hassled by the police for some reason, like maybe they couldn't park there or something. Yeah, that would be the first thing I would think. Yeah. So he reached into his pocket for his wallet and was looking for his driver's license. But when the man reached Mike's window and shined the light in, he didn't ask for ID. He just started firing into the car with a semi-automatic handgun, shooting Mike in the back, neck, and mouth.

Starting point is 00:27:17 Everybody knows this case, but I fear that, and I can count myself among these people, I fear that we don't truly, a lot of people don't truly recognize like how brutal and intense it is. Because I think it's like, it gets painted a lot of times with a very broad brush of like a lover's lane. Yeah, people know the cyphers and the more... The cyphers and all like, which very interesting. Yeah. The more salacious parts of the story. I'm not taking away that that's interesting.

Starting point is 00:27:49 I'm saying me personally, I've never, this is one case I never looked super far into in like hearing details like this, that it was like a high powered weapon being just shot into a car. At point blank range. Like I don't, I didn't fully appreciate how gnarly. No, neither did I. Like that is horrifying. Reading about this, your jaw just like is open the entire time.

Starting point is 00:28:19 Yeah. I'm shook. Just wait. So convinced that Mike was dead, the shooter turned the gun toward Darlene, who sat in the driver's seat, obviously paralyzed with fear at this point. Yeah. And she was shot several times, hitting her in the arm, shoulder, chest, and back. As the killer was walking back to his vehicle, Mike yelled out in pain because he's still alive, causing the shooter to return to the vehicle where he shot each of them two more times. Holy shit.

Starting point is 00:28:47 Now convinced that he killed the couple in the car, the man returned to his vehicle and sped out of the parking lot. But as the shooter pulled out of the lot, Mike, still alive, managed to get the passenger door open and fell onto the pavement. He had been shot multiple times at this point, but somehow he was still able to get a good look at this person's car and described it later as a similar to Darlene's brown Corvair, although perhaps a lighter shade of brown. And he also was able to get a look at the license plate. He didn't get numbers, but he recognized it

Starting point is 00:29:22 as an older style that was no longer used by the state. Holy shit. To have the wherewithal after being shot that many times at that close range is unthinkable. It really is. Like that's miraculous. Yeah. I can't believe it's happened twice

Starting point is 00:29:40 that somebody was at least left surviving for any period of time. And it happens again. That's weird. It is weird. And it's just weird. It's happened twice that somebody was at least left surviving for any period of time. And it happens again. That's weird. It is weird. And it's just, again, it's not intentional. No, you can tell it's not.

Starting point is 00:29:52 He's leaving these scenes very much thinking that he's killed both. I mean, and he's done a lot to make sure he has killed everybody, so it's even more miraculous that people are... Even, like, when Mike yelled out, he went back to the scene. Yeah, to make sure. And not only shot Mike again, but shot Darlene again as well. Jesus. So Mike laid there on the ground for about 10 minutes

Starting point is 00:30:12 until he was finally discovered by three teenagers who luckily pulled into the lot. Wow. Yeah. They checked on... We're following up like fucking teenagers with like, thank goodness for these teenagers. We're following up with teenagers. Let's thank goodness for these teenagers. We're falling up with teenagers.

Starting point is 00:30:25 Let's go. Yes, teenagers. So he was bleeding badly. So they left to get him help. And not long after Vallejo police arrived in the parking lot where they found Mike still lying on the ground beside the car. He was in bad shape, but he still took the time to provide officers with the details of everything that had happened, including his basic description of the shooter's car. Wow. That's unbelievable.

Starting point is 00:30:48 It is. Darlene, on the other hand, was barely breathing and couldn't speak. Both victims were rushed to the hospital where Mike was immediately rushed into emergency surgery and he was placed in the ICU. But unfortunately, Darlene died before they reached the hospital. So it's awful. And she's a young mom. She was a 22 year old mother.

Starting point is 00:31:09 At 1240 a.m. as investigators were still processing the scene at Blue Rock Springs, a startling call came into the Vallejo Police Department. The caller said, I want to report a double murder. If you will go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to the public park, you will find the kids in a brown car. They were shot with a nine millimeter lugger. I also killed those kids last year. Goodbye.

Starting point is 00:31:30 Wow. Can you imagine being on the other end of that motherfucking phone? That is so cold. Goodbye. Goodbye. And they said, I also killed those kids. They said that it was like cold, chilling, freaky. I hate that. So investigators quickly determined that the call had been placed from a gas station payphone a little less than a

Starting point is 00:31:52 mile from the crime scene, which had closed several hours earlier. Of course, by the time they arrived, the caller had gone. But what was clear from the caller's tone was that it wasn't a confession made out of guilt or some sense of moral responsibility, anything like that. It was very much intended to mock investigators. Yeah, absolutely. Like, I did it again, try to catch me. Yeah, like, haha. Like the attack on David Faraday and Betty Jensen, the Blue Rock Springs crime scene didn't turn up much as far as clues or leads. Despite having had the flashlight shine in

Starting point is 00:32:23 his face when the killer approached, Mike did feel confident that he would be able to identify the shooter if he saw him again, which is crazy. That's like, that's like, he's honestly shocking. He is as a human being. Like, I can't believe that. Yeah. He described the man as young, short and heavy set and driving a brown car. Wow. At the time, this was the best description that he could provide. And even that was a struggle, because one of the slugs had entered his neck,

Starting point is 00:32:51 which injured his tongue and fractured his jaw. Oh, my God. So he's providing all of this information, you have to remember, while dealing with those kind of injuries. Oh, my God. I don't know how you concentrate on anything, but the horrific pain that you're probably in. And the trauma of what you've gone through.

Starting point is 00:33:09 Like, that's incredible. It's crazy. Another important witness was George Bryant, who was the son of a local golf course owner, about 800 feet away from the parking lot when the two were shot. According to George, he had been looking out his bedroom window a little after 11.30 p.m. that night. And he couldn't see into the parking lot,

Starting point is 00:33:28 but he could hear everything very well. He told investigators he initially heard a group of young people laughing, followed by the sound of firecrackers, that group of teenagers. And around midnight, George said he heard what he thought was the sound of a single gunshot, a short pause, another series of shots fired in rapid succession. Damn. I can't imagine hearing that. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:33:47 And he said once the shots finally stopped, he heard the sound of a car start and pull out of the parking lot. In a press conference the next day, representatives of the Vallejo Police Department didn't and really couldn't do much to calm the public's fears over now four shootings having occurred in the span of about seven months. Wow. Yeah. One officer put it really simply saying, we've got a crazy man on the loose. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:34:11 Which, yeah. Yeah. I get why you said it. Period. They hadn't really identified any specific motive for the shootings, but it was clear that the suspect had set out intending to kill people. Of the semi-automatic hand weapon used in the killings, the officer said, it's an offensive weaponending to kill people. Of the semi-automatic hand weapon used in the killings, the officer said,

Starting point is 00:34:27 it's an offensive weapon made to kill people. It packs more power than a.45. Holy shit. Yeah. When asked why the shooter would have left the scene without being certain that the two were dead, the officer replied, I think he left because he emptied his gun.

Starting point is 00:34:40 Wow. Which turns out- That's chilling. That hunch was a good one. Technicians at the scene ended up finding the exact number of cases you would find Wow. Which turns out that hunch was a good one. Technicians at the scene ended up finding the exact number of cases you would find in a loaded nine millimeter pistol, leading investigators to theorize that yes, the killer had only stopped because he hadn't brought additional ammunition.

Starting point is 00:34:57 That is terrifying. Yeah. That he would have kept going. Probably. And that he just totally unloaded his gun. Also, imagine being Mike and hearing that. Like, that you only are here because of your own, like, you know... Insane, like...

Starting point is 00:35:14 Like, strength. Yeah. Yeah, and like, you know, perseverance. But like, also, just some wild thing that, like, there was nothing left. But if there was... he would have kept going. I don't know what that feeling would be, but it must be wild. Under the circumstances, Darlene's husband Dean was the most logical suspect in this case, but he had an alibi. At the time of the shootings, he was working a shift at the

Starting point is 00:35:42 Tennessee street restaurant and his presence was verified by every single one of his coworkers. Otherwise, there was no other suspects or really any evidence that would have pointed investigators in the direction of the killer. And given the phone call made shortly after the shooting, detectives had pretty good reason to suspect that the shooter in this case was the same person who killed David and Betty the previous December. This wasn't a one-off, you know? Yeah, they weren't like, maybe this is a different situation.

Starting point is 00:36:08 No. So those suspicions were strengthened a few weeks later when the San Francisco area newspapers all received similar letters from somebody claiming to be the killer. The first letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle was written in crude block printing and read, Dear Editor, this is the

Starting point is 00:36:25 murder of the two teenagers last Christmas at Lake Herman plus the girl on the 4th of July near the golf course in Vallejo. To prove I killed them I shall state some facts which only I plus the police know. Christmas. One brand name of ammo. Super X. Two ten shots were fired. Three the boy was on his back with his feet to the car. Four, the girl was on her right, side feet to the west. Fourth, July. One girl was wearing patterned slacked. Two, the boy was also shot in the knee. Three, brand name of ammo was Western. Over, indicating to them to flip the sheet of paper over. Here is part of a cipher. The other two parts of the cipher

Starting point is 00:37:05 are being mailed to the editors of the Vallejo Times plus SF Examiner. And I kind of tried to pause where he breaks. Because it's written very interestingly. Like it's a new line when you don't necessarily need a new line. It's interesting. Yeah. The that's very unsettling. It's very unsettling. There's a lot to be made of the way that the zodiac communicates. Yeah. In time, the letters to the news outlets would become a hallmark, like we know, of the zodiac killer and the press would eventually dub him the zodiac killer.

Starting point is 00:37:38 But when they got these initial letters, everybody was incredibly confused. And really, they could have just been easily dismissed as the confession of a mentally ill person who maybe hadn't committed these crimes. Yeah. I mean, that happens all the time. Yeah. So nobody was taking them too, too seriously at first. But very detailed.

Starting point is 00:37:55 Very detailed. Yeah. And we'll get there. For one thing though, the grammar and punctuation were noticeably inconsistent with some statements ending in a period and others having no punctuation at all. And each letter had a solid number of misspelled words. Like for example, he spells Christmas, C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S-S. That kind of thing. That's really the only one I can point to in that letter. He spelled patterned wrong, I think. There's a few things

Starting point is 00:38:24 that are spelled wrong. But people got the feeling that maybe these mistakes were also intentional, like he's trying to look a little off. Yeah, especially the added S in Christmas. It almost feels like it's like, yeah, I'll just put this in. Yeah, who knows, but. There's sweaters, there's candles, there's that dreaded bathrobe that you're always gifting your mom. Mother's Day gifts can get a little bit predictable and I hate to say it, but kind of boring.

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Starting point is 00:40:01 Conquer rugged terrain with on-road comfort. Until June 15th, receive up to $60 on a prepaid Now accompanying each letter was a cipher. Each of the three ciphers were hand drawn and were unique, but they all went together. So in order to solve one, you needed access to all three, but they were all sent to separate newspapers. There was also an ominous warning in each letter that read pretty much as an ultimatum to the editors of the papers, published the ciphers by the next afternoon, or the killer threatened to quote, go on a killing rampage. And he said he would kill a dozen or more people. As indicated in the letters, the killer definitely like you caught on to did know information about the murders that hadn't been disclosed by investigators, including the brand of ammunition used in the shootings. So detectives did have every reason to believe

Starting point is 00:41:09 that the letters were genuine. But still, only the Chronicle complied with the killer's demand and published the cipher the next day. The Examiner ran a story the day after receiving the letter, but didn't publish the cipher itself. And the Times Herald published their cipher a few days later and didn't put it onipher itself. And the Times Herald published their cipher a few days later and didn't put it on the front page like the killer wanted. Despite not fully complying with his demands, there luckily was no mass shooting. Wow. Yeah. Surprising. Yeah, it is. So in hopes of drawing the killer out of hiding or at least maybe getting some additional information, Vallejo police chief Jack Stilts told reporters he was not convinced the letter was written

Starting point is 00:41:46 by the actual killer. If it was, he would like the letter to supply more facts to prove it. Wow. He's just nagging him. Yeah. In response, the San Francisco Examiner received a second letter on August 4th that read,

Starting point is 00:41:59 Dear editor, this is the Zodiac speaking. I answer to your asking for more details about the good times I have had in Vallejo. I shall be very happy to supply even more material. By the way, are the police having a good time with the code? If not, tell them to cheer up. When they do crack it, they will have me. On the 4th of July, I did not open the car door.

Starting point is 00:42:18 The window was rolled down already." And he wrote, already, like, are you all ready? Instead of, it already happened. Yeah, like, all you all ready? Oh, okay. Instead of, it already happened. Yeah, like, all, all. Yeah. The boy was originally sitting in the front seat when I began firing. When I fired the first shot at his head, he leaped backwards at the same time, thus spoiling my aim.

Starting point is 00:42:36 He ended up on his, uh, on the back seat, then the floor thrashing about violently with his legs. That's how I shot him in the knee. I did not leave the scene, spelled C E NE, of the killing with squealing tires plus racing engine as described in the Vallejo paper. I drove away slowly so as not to draw any attention to my car. And that was it. That's like so like, I wasn't freaked out and like skidding away. I was actually going slow, but thanks though. Like that's very like somebody who's very insecure

Starting point is 00:43:10 with their own situation and is trying to be like, I'm actually a tough guy and I wasn't scared at all. It definitely comes off as a very insecure person. You're not a tough guy. And like an attention grabber. Somebody who's like, I want you to know all the facts and like, I want you to know how I set out to do this. Yep, like I am fixing this story.

Starting point is 00:43:31 It's very BTK-ish to me where it's like, where he was in, which tells you exactly what kind of person this person is or was. Because it's like, he has to be like, well, wait a minute, you have it wrong. This is why I did this. This is what happened. And this is how I have it wrong. This is why I did this. This is what happened.

Starting point is 00:43:46 And this is how I did that. Like you can't say these things. And it's like, there's a, there's a story here. And it's like, baby, you killed people. So I think that's really the most important thing here. Nobody's worried about how you, if you like skid it out of the place or if you slowly drove. Like that really makes no difference.

Starting point is 00:44:03 It's not the biggest part of this. That one is just like, like you said, like I wasn't scared. Yeah, it's very much like a personal thing. I was being brave, I drove out slowly. Yeah, after I murdered two teenagers, but okay. Two, like, people who are unarmed. Yeah. While I'm armed to the teeth.

Starting point is 00:44:16 Like, yeah, tough guy. Now the letter had no signature, just a simple symbol in the shape of a crosshairs, which will become very familiar. The publication of the letter so soon after the killings did emphasize to the public that there definitely was something to fear in their community. In an interview with the examiner, Police Chief Jack Stilts encouraged all residents

Starting point is 00:44:36 to quote, stay out of lonely areas. A warning reiterated by Captain Wade Bird, who said, we could be looking for a very dangerous man. I can't imagine being a teenager or like, we'll come to find out being anybody at this point in time. Yeah, just it's so, it must have been so scary. Yeah. It's very much like like the David Berkowitz kind of situation where it's like, you just

Starting point is 00:45:02 don't know when they're gonna hit next. Yeah. You know? It's so true. Really scary. And whatever I do read about this case, I always think of that movie, The Town That Dreaded Sundown. Oh my God, yeah.

Starting point is 00:45:14 So that is a scary movie. That's a terrifying movie. And it's really so similar to the facts of this case. Like obviously it's, you know, dramatized, but yeah, of course. Dramatized. Dramatized. Dramatized. Dramatized. Dramatized. Dramatized. We don't know. Mikey, right in. Is the word dramatized or dramatized? Dramatized. Yeah. Does it dramatized also sound right though? I don't know why it sounds like it is, but I see why. Yeah. Yeah. Traumatized. So because that one's the, um, the Texarkana

Starting point is 00:45:53 moonlight murders. Yeah. 1946, which I think you covered at a live show once. Yeah, I think, yeah, you're right. First one of our first live shows. I think early live show, I think. But yeah, it's a similar... It's got similar... Vibe to it. Yeah. Where it's one of those things too, where it's like they're telling people not to, like to be careful. Don't go to lovers lanes.

Starting point is 00:46:14 Yeah. And they just like, you don't know when they're going to hit. Yeah. It's really scary. Yeah. It's got, oh, I hate that so much. It's got all the makings of this. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:46:23 So while Spokespeople for Law Enforcement did their very best to keep the public calm, investigators were working behind the scenes to crack the cipher that had been received by the three news outlets. Stilton listed the help of the cryptographic unit of the US Navy radio station on nearby Skaggs Island. They were a group who had a lot of experience with encrypted messages and very complex ciphers. But before the Navy had made any progress on the cipher, investigators received a call from a couple in Salinas who had seen the puzzle in the paper and managed to crack the code themselves. Oh, I remember this part of it. That's like that blew my mind.

Starting point is 00:46:58 That's awesome. Yeah. In the few days since the cipher was published, high school teacher Donald Hardin and his wife Betty spent several hours just focused on the code before they were able to decipher the symbol's spelling kill. From there, it was just a matter of identifying the remaining symbols, and after about 20 hours, they decoded the entire message. There were some hiccups, of course.

Starting point is 00:47:21 Donald told a reporter, as you can tell, his spelling is rather poor. And in some places he had made errors in the use of his own cipher, which he did. I love how like they are roasting this person. They're just like, as you can see, he's a fucking idiot. He's an idiot. You gotta it's like us when we call people what lettuce and shit. So the message with errors intact read, this is so fucked. And it's all in capital letters, which freaks me the fuck out. I like killing people because it is so much fun.

Starting point is 00:47:49 It is more fun than killing wild game in the forest because man is the most, it's hunger to, so people don't know if it was meant to say hungry or dangerous maybe. Yeah. Nobody really knows, but the most hunger to animals of all. To kill something gives me the most thrilling experience.

Starting point is 00:48:06 It is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl. I feel like you haven't. The best part of it, I, a, thy, so like I, a, t, h, a, e, but he was very clearly trying to write the best part of it is that. When I die, I will be reborn in paradise spelled P-A-R-A-D-I-C-E. And all the I have killed will become my slaves. I will not give you my name because you will truss try to S-L-O-I slow down or stop my collecting of slaves for my afterlife." And then it was signed, E.B.O. Riot MF Hippity. What the fuck? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:48:53 What the fuck? Yeah. That is unhinged. Unhinged for sure. Wow. Unhinged as fuck. Holy shit. Neither Donald or his wife were able to decipher those last four words that I very clearly struggled through, but they suspected that it was a signature of some kind. When you say it out loud, it sounds like some kind of Latin. So I don't know if he's like guising it in his own way as Latin. I'm not sure. Maybe.

Starting point is 00:49:19 We'll get there someday. Who knows? We'll get there someday. So the next day, a second decryption arrived in the mail, this time from an anonymous source. Despite some discrepancies in the two solutions, they were more or less the same. Several months later, when he was asked for comments on what he thought the cipher revealed about the killer, Donald Hardin said, he's bright enough, but not necessarily of high intellect. Interesting.

Starting point is 00:49:43 Which I can agree with. Because I mean, there's got to be some level of intelligence to create a cipher. Yeah, absolutely. It's not an easy thing to do, especially one that will stump as many people as this one did. Yep. But it is strange that it's like, that's why it feels like these spelling mistakes and shit are like intentional.

Starting point is 00:50:00 I think they're intentional. Absolutely. Yeah. But Hardin suspected the killer actually had no experience with cryptography and that he had either made up the cipher on his own, which is impressive. Yeah. Or had pulled it from some obscure detective story that he read somewhere. He said there's no continuity, no fidelity in his code. There are no special characters in these cryptograms. They are all just something he dreamed up. Interesting.

Starting point is 00:50:25 Yeah. Even scarier. Yep. So the next eight weeks passed pretty quietly in and around Vallejo in San Francisco. Not even the publication of the decrypted message prompted another letter from the killer. He was probably pissed. Yeah. Then in late September, the silence was broken when yet another young couple was attacked, this time at Lake Baraniza,

Starting point is 00:50:46 about an hour outside of Vallejo. 22-year-old Cecilia Shepard and 20-year-old Brian Hartnell, two students at Pacific Union College, had met in 1968, quickly fallen in love and started spending all their free time together. By the fall of 1969, though, their relationship had cooled off a bit, and eventually they drifted apart, with their breakup becoming final when Cecilia decided to transfer to UCLA, Riverside. The breakup was pretty amicable, but Cecilia ran into a problem. She still had some things in her dorm up at Pacific Union, so on the afternoon of September 27th she decided to make the trip to campus to grab the last of her things.

Starting point is 00:51:26 After grabbing what she needed from her dorm, she stopped in the cafeteria for some lunch and wouldn't you know it, she ran into Brian. They ate together, they caught up, but when they finished lunch, they didn't want to go their separate ways just yet. So the two of them, along with a friend, Judy, decided to go to a rummage sale in nearby St. Helena. After leaving the rummage sale around 2 that day, Brian and Cecilia dropped Judy back at campus, but still weren't done

Starting point is 00:51:50 hanging out yet and decided to visit Lake Baranesa. They weren't done. I know. A location that Brian had really always loved. So after parking the car, they started walking the short distance to the shoreline where Brian laid on a blanket on the grass for the two of them and they just sat there chatting. to the shoreline, where Brian laid on a blanket on the grass for the two of them, and they just sat there chatting. Now, a short time passed when Brian started hearing something large moving around in the bushes, about 15 or 20 feet behind them.

Starting point is 00:52:15 He was laying on his back and wasn't wearing his glasses, so he knew he wasn't going to be able to see what was happening, and he asked Cecilia, who was laying on her stomach facing him, he said, what was making the noise? She looked off in the distance and she saw a man standing at the tree line and then saw him disappear. Oh, I hate that. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:52:33 I hate that. It sounds like something out of a movie. It really does. Brian just chuckled to himself and was like, he probably went into the woods to relieve himself and was like embarrassed that you saw him. But Cecilia was like, no, I feel like he was watching us and she couldn't shake that feeling. Yeah, that would freak me the fuck out. Literally moments, moments after that man disappeared behind the tree. He reappeared this time much closer to the couple than either of them had

Starting point is 00:53:00 expected and Cecilia then shouted, Oh my God, he's got a gun. Holy shit. And the worst part is that you know, they have seen all the stories. Yeah, I know they know. Like you they've seen the like, think about seeing all these stories, hearing the horrible things, feeling the fear. Yeah. And then you find yourself face to face with this person. And again, they're not like, this is the middle of the day. They're not thinking doing something. And they're at a park. They're not a quote unquote lonely place. That's the thing. Like you're not even like you've watched. You've seen the articles, you've watched the coverage, quote unquote.

Starting point is 00:53:39 And you've thought that fear and you've sat there and said, oh my God, like what if that was me? All the things that we do sit here and be like, oh my God, like what if that was me? Kind of thing. All the things that we do sit here and be like, oh my God, I can't imagine blah, blah, blah. That would be so scary. And then you find yourself in that position. In the middle of it. Yup.

Starting point is 00:53:53 Like it just, like that stuff always freaks me out. It's so scary. After the attack, Brian would describe for the police the incredibly surreal and confusing moments leading up to the attack. In the time between ducking behind the tree and reappearing in front of them, the man donned what appeared to be a heavy canvas executioner's hood that covered his entire head and came all the way down to his stomach. That's so fucking scary. Oh, just wait, it gets crazier. The top of the hood seemed to be flat with four corners like a paper bag. It

Starting point is 00:54:25 clearly looked like it had been made by somebody who didn't really know how to sew. Embroidered on the front chest area was a concentric cross and circle about three inches in diameter that looked like crosshairs. And possibly the strangest part of the attire. The eye holes of the hood were covered with what Brian thought were clip-on sunglasses. What the fuck? I don't know why and tell me if I'm crazy, but for some reason, the scariest part of that is the sunglasses. That's so weird. It's just so unsettling.

Starting point is 00:55:00 I mean, the scariest part is the fact that he's wearing an executioner's hood. But clip on the sunglasses so you can't see his eyes. But like why that? You could have chosen any other way to do that. Like you could have put like a darker fabric that you could like still gauzy that you can see through. And that would have been less like that's for some reason that is just beyond.

Starting point is 00:55:24 And it just, it feels unhinged. 100% Like it feels like a scary ass move to make. Absolutely. As Cecilia had said, the man did have a gun in his hand, but he didn't appear to be advancing on them with menacing energy per se. The man told Cecilia and Brian that he was an escaped convict from Deer Lodge Prison in Montana and that he was on his way fleeing to Mexico. He said he had no intention

Starting point is 00:55:49 of hurting them. He just wanted their money and the keys to Brian's car so that he could leave the country. So they were like, okay. Cool, man. Obviously sensing that they're in danger here though. Brian spoke calmly to the man wearing the hood and tried to engage him in conversation. He even offered to write him a check. He was like, I only have 75 cents on me, but I'll write you a check. Yeah. The man just ignored what Brian was saying and instead told him he was going to have to tie the two of them up. Oh, I hate that. Yeah. I hate it. Because why would he have to tie you guys up if he's just taking your car? Yeah. That's when you know shit is gonna ride. Yep. So the gunman pulled a length of plastic clothesline from his back pocket and tossed it to Cecilia telling her that she needed to tie Brian's hands behind his back. She did as she was

Starting point is 00:56:34 told, but she didn't want to hurt Brian. So she tied the knots loosely. When she finished, the man tied Cecilia's hands behind her back using very tight knots. Yeah, I figure. And then retied Brian's hands with similarly tight bindings. Once. Yeah, I figure. And then retied Brian's hands with similarly tight bindings. Once their hands were bound, the gunman told Brian to lie on his stomach so that he could tie his feet. But Brian protested at this point.

Starting point is 00:56:55 He said, we might not be found here for hours and we could get hypothermia. Like, we're tied up, just take the car. Go ahead. Take what you want. Irritated, the man placed the barrel of the gun to Brian's head and shouted I told you to get down some people get a wild haircut or book a spontaneous trip when life throws them a curveball but Molly well? Well, she dove headfirst into a world of no strings attached sex, secret rendezvous, forbidden affairs

Starting point is 00:57:32 and unforgettable adventures. And together we tell every juicy detail in Dying for Sex, Wondry's award-winning podcast that's now streaming on a TV near you, starring Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate. And to top it off, we're dropping brand new bonus episodes where I sit down with the cast to spill all the spicy secrets. Desire, friendship, self-discovery, and the ultimate bucket list of pleasure. This is a story that had everyone talking. Listen to the original Dying for Sex and brand new episodes on the Wondry app

Starting point is 00:58:06 or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge the original series before anyone else and completely ad free on Wondry Plus. ["Wonderful Music"] The dramatic tone was obviously horrifying, so Brian just did what the guy said. Now he was hog-tied on the ground, and the man turned his attention to Cecilia, binding her ankles in the same way.

Starting point is 00:58:33 As the man was tying Cecilia's bindings, Brian noticed that as he was doing it, the guy's hands were shaking. Interesting. So he asked him, are you nervous? And the gunman replied, yes, I guess so. Oh, yeah. That's very like I'm, I'm so impressed to that Brian had the wherewithal to ask that question.

Starting point is 00:58:57 I think he was trying to appeal to this guy's humanity in any way. Show him. Really, you don't have to do this if you're nervous conversation where people. Yeah. So in his mind, he interpreted the guy's hand shaking to mean that maybe he wasn't as dangerous as he appeared. And maybe he wasn't going to harm them. But unfortunately, the gunman's nervousness was probably less of a sign of inexperience as it was excitement. Yeah, you may have been shaking because it was

Starting point is 00:59:23 so excited. Yeah, He may have been shaking because he was so excited, which is horrifying. Especially judging from that cipher. Like the way he was talking seems like this is- He said he gets so excited that it's even better than sex. Yeah. So accounts about what happened next have varied depending on when the story was told. According to the park ranger who discovered Brian

Starting point is 00:59:44 and Cecilia a short time after the attack, Brian initially said that the man produced a knife from a holster and said, I'm going to have to stab you. Oh, yeah. At hearing this, Brian reportedly told the man stabbed me first. I'm chicken. I couldn't stand to see her stabbed first. Oh my gosh. Like that's a fucking gentleman. That just shattered my heart. I know. Sometime later though, Brian told detectives he couldn't remember whether he saw the man produce the knife or if he heard him say anything, and that it was equally possible that he said nothing before he plunged the knife into Brian's back.

Starting point is 01:00:17 Oh. Whatever the case, he then stabbed Brian in the back eight times. Oh my God. And Brian pretended to be dead again. Wow. And then when Brian, you know, as Brian was pretending to be dead, the man turned his attention to Cecilia and started brutally attacking her. He stabbed her more than 10 times in the back, abdomen and groin all while she was fighting

Starting point is 01:00:42 back. Oh my God. Confident that he'd be leaving both victims for dead, he stood up and calmly walked away, leaving Brian's wallet and the car keys laying right on the ground beside the couple. Because he had no intention of taking that car. Holy shit. Once he was sure that the man had gone, Brian called out to Cecilia and despite the brutality of the attack, they both started discussing how they could get

Starting point is 01:01:08 their bindings off and go for help. She's still alive. They were both alive. They're both still alive. Holy shit. So using his teeth, Brian was able to loosen Cecilia's bindings enough to free one of her hands, but the clothesline had been tied so tightly

Starting point is 01:01:23 and for so long at this point that both of her arms had gone numb. And she wasn't unable to tie his hands or her own ankles. Desperate to find help though, they just started screaming in the hopes that one of the boats on the reservoir nearby might hear them and investigate the sound. It took some time, but about 15 minutes later, which imagine 15 minutes, 15 days, 15 years, a local fisherman, Richard Fong heard the cries for help and he went to get a park ranger. In the meantime, Cecilia actually luckily had regained the use of one of her arms and she managed to free Brian's hands, which let him untie all the remaining bindings believing Believing that no

Starting point is 01:02:05 help was coming because they can't hear anything coming back and then Brian decided he needed to get to the main road and flag down a passing car. He's been stabbed in the back eight times. I was just going to say, like Jesus. Luckily, he only had to make it about 225 yards, but even still, that is incredibly impressive. When he was spotted by Ranger Dennis Land, who had heard the broadcast about Fong's report and started making his way to the scene. At that same time, Fong and Park Ranger William White had gone back to the shoreline by boat,

Starting point is 01:02:36 along with another couple who had also heard the noise. So a ton of people are arriving on scene. By the time everybody reached Cecilia, it was clear that her injuries were a lot more serious than Brian's. Because she's been stabbed in the abdomen. Yeah, the groin, the groin, and a few more times. And they're more serious than Brian's, but his injuries are still really bad. Like that. So that's saying a lot that we're so

Starting point is 01:02:59 bad. Ranger White would later say, I've seen a lot of things people cut by boat blades and such, but never anything like these two nice kids just cut to pieces. Oh my God. So White immediately called an ambulance and the group started tending to Cecilia the best they could while they waited for help to arrive. But unfortunately, the lake was in a remote area pretty far from any main road. So it took the ambulance and additional law enforcement almost 45 minutes to arrive. Yeah. The MTs when they got there loaded both victims into the ambulance and wasted no time getting to the hospital. But by the time they reached their destination, almost two and a half hours had gone by since the attack. And though Brian was still conscious, Cecilia had fallen into a coma.

Starting point is 01:03:46 At 740 PM, a little over an hour after Brian and Cecilia were attacked at Lake Berryessa, a call came in to the Napa Police Department from an anonymous caller who said, I'd like to report a murder. No, a double murder. They are two miles north of Park headquarters. They are in a white Volkswagen Carmen Kia. Just told them. The fuck? Assuming the caller was simply reporting a crime

Starting point is 01:04:10 they witnessed, Officer David Slate asked the caller for their name and location, but the man on the end ignored him and just kept talking, saying quietly, I'm the one that did it. And then just hung up. Holy shit. Yeah, the officer on the other end said he literally heard the phone being nestled back on the cradle. What a nasty fucker.

Starting point is 01:04:31 Yeah. Later, Officer Slate, who took the call, would describe the voice as possibly in his early twenties. In the background, he said he could hear the noise of traffic and background chatter just before the caller had hung up. When they traced the call to its origin, investigators discovered it had been placed from a payphone in downtown Napa. In total, 35 latent prints were lifted from the payphone, including one promising palm print, and some of the prints were actually so fresh that they still showed beads of moisture, which is cool, but unfortunately they didn't do much in identifying their killer.

Starting point is 01:05:06 Back at the crime scene, investigators were having little luck finding any leads. After Brian and Cecilia were removed from the scene, a well-meaning park ranger moved their belongings and the bindings back to the park headquarters, which effectively compromised any evidence that could have been collected. They just, that's unfortunate. They didn't know that then, you know, it's not like they were trying to fuck everything up. No, they were trying to help. There was however, one strange and intriguing clue left at the scene on the passenger side door of Brian's car written in felt tip pen. The gunman wrote the following message, Vallejo 12-20-68, 7-4-69, September 27-69, 6-30, by knife.

Starting point is 01:05:54 What the fuck? So he's laying out the first murders, the first set of murders, the second set of murders, and now the third set of murders with a time stamp and how he killed them. By knife. I hate that. with a timestamp and how he killed them by knife. I hate that.

Starting point is 01:06:08 Yeah. Or how he thought he killed them. Holy shit. Above the message, the killer drew the now familiar symbol of the crosshairs. Within a few days, the message would be made public in the area papers, but smart investigators withheld the final line by knife, knowing that they could use that information to later verify the identity of their killer. Good call. Yeah, they were like,

Starting point is 01:06:28 he's definitely gonna contact us again, so let's keep that. Despite a solid amount of critical evidence having been compromised, there were still other clues at the scene that helped reconstruct what happened. The day after the attacks, investigators discovered a clear set of footprints

Starting point is 01:06:43 leading from the scene back to where Brian's car was, which it was parked on Knoxville Road. And they also discovered a set of clear tire impressions leading from where the gunman had parked right behind Brian's car out to the main road. And luckily the tire impressions revealed a unique detail that the two front tires on the man's car didn't match, which would be invaluable should they ever find the car. Yeah, so that's good. Now that same day investigators discovered the tracks. Detectives got a call from the Dean of Pacific Union College who reported that three students had come forward with some information that might be of help. According to the three young women, they were also at the lake that day. They had gone to sunbathe and they were settled on a spot near the Western shore, which is

Starting point is 01:07:29 where Brian and Cecilia had been attacked. As they were getting out of their car, they said they all noticed a man quote, in a light blue Chevrolet with California license plates. And he was parked nearby. They thought really nothing of it at the time. But in our half hour later, all of them saw the time. But a half hour later, all of them saw the man from the parking lot standing about 50 feet away and he was clearly watching them. Yeah. However, whenever they would look in his direction, he'd look away. Just fucking creepy. I hate that. He's such a fucking creep. Creepy. That's the thing. A short time later, the man passed by the group as he walked back

Starting point is 01:08:06 toward the cars. And when each witness was interviewed separately, they all described the man in pretty much the same way, approximately 30 years old, six feet tall, 200 to 225 pounds stocky with dark hair parted on the left side, wearing dark pants and a short sleeve sweater. And they all agreed he was nice looking. Okay. Which is even scarier that he's just in pot. I mean, who knows if this is the guy, it could be just a normal looking, just a normal looking dude, like nothing out of the ordinary. And I, it, there's a good chance it could have been that the Zodiac because if you look at the earlier descriptions of him, everybody says around 20 to 30, they

Starting point is 01:08:45 say stocky or like heavy set kind of. Yeah, which makes sense. Yeah. Now, the same day as detectives were interviewing the students from Pacific Union, investigators held a press conference to provide what few details they could about the case. Identifying the assailant as likely the same man who had attacked the two couples in Vallejo earlier that year. Napa Sheriff's Captain Don Townsend told reporters, this man is a psychopathic killer.

Starting point is 01:09:09 Yeah. Which like, yes. Valid. And he went on to say that the attack on Cecilia showed definite sexual overtones, but it's unclear what that statement was really based on. But he did suggest again, without evidence that quote, the slayings might be part, might be the work of a Napa state hospital inmate. That's interesting. Yeah. I think it's like didn't the last time he said he was escaped from a, yeah. Oh, he told, yeah, he told Brian and Cecilia that he was, but I don't know.

Starting point is 01:09:48 It's yeah, I mean that does, because he said he was an escaped inmate from like Minnesota. Yeah. Something like that. So that's different, but interesting that it was brought up a couple of times. Yeah, it is interesting. But who knows what the basis was on the afternoon of September 29th. Unfortunately, just before four PM, Cecilia Shepard passed away in the hospital, making her the fourth confirmed murder victim of the man

Starting point is 01:10:10 that the press now was referring to officially as the Zodiac killer. Oh, that makes me so sad. I know Brian Hartnell remained in serious condition, but would eventually recover from his injuries. That is unbelievable. And to have that happen three times in a row in the men. It's yeah, which is, it's just by happenstance. Yeah. And it's interesting. I hate it. I do too. Like, like, I'm glad that they, you know, he survived. I mean, like, I hate that, like, well, we don't know what that's about. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I hate that coincidence. I think, I think it is a coincidence, but it is bizarre. But it's just very bizarre. we don't know what that's about. You know what I mean? Like I hate that coincidence. I think it is a coincidence, but it is bizarre.

Starting point is 01:10:48 But it's just very bizarre. There's a lot of, I'm not saying like supernatural in the way of like ghostly, but there are like a lot of supernatural, paranormal-y. Things that feel supernatural about this. Not that there is. Yeah, I'm not saying there is.

Starting point is 01:11:02 It has a vibe to it that's very otherworldly. Yes. It feels like it. Because even his outfit feels like from another planet kind of situation. You're just like, I can't reconcile someone wearing that. Yeah. And I think obviously the fact that it's unsolved leads even more to heightens that feeling. Yeah, like makes it have an alien-esque quality to it.

Starting point is 01:11:23 Yeah, but it's a case that really leaves you with the chills. But in an interview conducted shortly after he came out of surgery, Brian described the killer as having brown hair, about five, nine to maybe six feet tall, 20 to 30 years of age and 200 to 250 pounds with a husky voice. Okay. So pretty similar to all the other descriptions. Investigators checked other aspects of Brian's story, including the killer's claim that he escaped from Deer Lodge State Prison in Montana.

Starting point is 01:11:51 That's what it was. I think I said Minnesota earlier. Either one. But officials at Deer Lodge confirmed all their inmates were accounted for. Hmm. Now, like we know, the term serial killer had not been established at this point. But in the two weeks that followed the attacks at the lake, the press and public started to process the fact that there was a multiple murderer living amongst them. And if the past was any indication, this guy was going to kill again. Some people were starting to think maybe the Zodiac was sexually motivated, evident in what was described as his, quote unquote, effeminate handwriting and the quote, sexual aberration suspected by a psychiatrist. I don't know though. The only, I think that's kooky to, to attribute it to that.

Starting point is 01:12:36 I don't think there's enough. What's I think what's more interesting is the fact that he literally wrote in the cipher, like it's better than getting your rocks off with some girl. Well, and I think that's really where people were getting that feeling from. Let's talk about his quote unquote, a feminine handwriting. It's like, really? Yeah. And it's like, I don't think these crimes are necessarily sexually motivated. I think he gets probably a sexual thrill from killing. Yeah, like maybe that's the thing. Maybe like, that's what it's about. Yeah. Is that's the thing, maybe like that's what it's about. Is that's where he gets his pleasure from is doing this, which is fucked up in a whole

Starting point is 01:13:12 different way. But I don't know if I would consider that. I don't know. Maybe it's just like the wording that sounds off to me. You know what I mean? Because I always think of like a sexually motivated murder to include sexual assaults or rape. Which of course it doesn't always.

Starting point is 01:13:31 When you really think about it, you're like, okay, well maybe it's just the term that's throwing me off, but perhaps they're correct. Yeah, they could be. We don't really know. In some way, shape or form. But to others, he was simply a maniac who believed the stars and planets commanded him to kill. According to an astrologer's prediction made just before the Berryessa attack, the attack on the lake,

Starting point is 01:13:54 quote, the heavens indicated the killer might strike a third time. And this astrologer was only off by one day. Wow. Yeah. That's impressive. But regardless of the killer's motivations, almost everybody believed it was only a matter of time

Starting point is 01:14:07 before he struck again. And unfortunately, they wouldn't be waiting long. Oh man. But that is where we are going to wrap for part one. Oh wow. Yeah. Wow. Give you a lot of information for part one.

Starting point is 01:14:20 I was gonna say, this is just like so heavy. Like there's just so much involved in this case. There really is. And there's still a lot more to talk about in part two. Damn. But holy shit, we will leave you here because that's a lot to digest. That is a lot to digest. Crazy. Very crazy. Bunkers case. Damn. So with all that, we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird. Keep it so weird that you fight with your sister about the use of the word aesthetic. Keep it that fucking weird. And keep it so weird that you're on my side. No, my side.

Starting point is 01:14:55 I'm not old. Whatever. Whatever. Whatever. Michael. Backel. Thank you. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. Hi, weirdos. I'm Candace DeLong, retired FBI criminal profiler and the host of Killer Psyche. If you enjoyed morbid's coverage of the tragic murder of Jennifer Levin, known as the Preppy Killer case, you should check out my episode of Killer Psyche where I dive deep into the psychology of Robert Chambers. I explore his troubling behavior, privileged background, and the psychological factors that

Starting point is 01:16:38 led to this devastating crime. On Killer Psyche, I used my decades of experience to uncover the why behind some of the most shocking crimes in history. If you are fascinated by what drives people to commit such heinous acts, join me for a closer look into the twisted minds behind them. Follow Killer Psyche on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Wondery Plus subscribers can listen early and add free. Start your free trial in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify today.

Morbid - Episode 667: The Zodiac Killer (Part 1)

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