Zodiac Profile & Silence of the Lambs

I suspect there were a bunch of people put away for life who were potential Zodiac-type killers. But now that you can't keep people longer than ninety days people like that are getting out. Until 1969 people could be committed for life to a mental hospital on pretty flimsy grounds. There was this drastic change where it became difficult to committ someone. You had to have concrete evidence of either suicidal acts or an act of violence toward others.


The following statements are probably the most important in this Zodiac blog site. This is for my Zodiac fans and Ricardo and John L. In the 1991 movie "Silence of the Lambs" there is a statement given by Hannible Lecter on how to catch a serial killer. He quotes the Roman Senator Marcus Aurelius from 2000 years ago. Anthony Hopkins tells Jodie Foster "simplicity . Of each particular thing ask what is it in itself? What is its nature ? What Does the Zodiac do? What needs does he serve by killing? He covets. That is his nature. How do we begin to covet? We begin to covet by what we see every day." Hopkins did not use the word Zodiac but the same dynamics apply in the Zodiac case in the present day . These statements are also for Dr. G in Vallejo, Ca. If we know where the Zodiac lives and where he goes every day is should prove invaluable in catching him if he's still alive. Even if he isn't it should help bringing closure to the case. It is extremely important to use these ideas.

Zodiac'sPsychological Profile

From R Graysmith's Zodiac 2007 paperback. Profile of a sexual sadist. It's usually a man , less than 35, clever, physically strong, and quite intelligent. He has or has had a passive, mean, or distant father and a dominant mother who gives affection and rejection at odd times. The sexual sadist seeks revenge toward his mother, fantasizes her death, but is perversely in love with her. In most cases he has a few social or sexual affiliations and has never had normal sexual intercourse. Murder is the only successful relationship he can have with a woman. His victims are a substitute for his true aim, his mother, who is often the last victim.He has a past history of animal torture in his young life. He kills his pets as substitutes for humans. It's unknown why sexual and aggressive impulses intermingle early in childhood in these sadistic types and eventually find expression in vicious sexual assaults and sadistic murders. He kills to achieve sexual pleasure. Murder produces a powerful sexual arousal and pleasure and is a replacement for normal sex. Masturbation may exist while reliving these crimes. The sexual sadist often taunts the police in letters, uses deliberate misspellings, and may use handwriting that is different than his normal writing. The pleasure of bating the police may actually become the motive for the slayings and though he takes great pains to appear normal and avoid capture, he often throws suspicion on himself. The sexual sadist has a strong self-mutilation drive. As a child he may play at his own execution and eventually become suicidal. He will become fascinated with the tools of policework and with policemen, and may actually pretend to be one. He is a weapon collector and instruments of torture and has skill in their use. The sadist seeks the dehumanization of his victims into objects that cannot reject him and that he has power over. He is incurable, feels no remorse for the pain he inflicts on others and will more than likely repeat his crimes. He chooses victims with specific characteristics such as students or hitchhikers. He can describe his assaults in great detail. If caught for one murder he takes delight in confessing to many others in an effort to dismay the police. The sexual sadist may be smart enough not to have a history of identifiable mental illness. How come so many around now? These people were perceived by parents as weird because they did things like cutting up animals and putting the parts in the freezer. (to be continued)

Zodia's Positioningof Victims

The following is from Robert Graysmith's 2007 paperback. "I shall no longer announce to anyone when I committ my murders, they shall look like routine robberies, killings, etc." This was written by the Zodiac. All of Zodiac's victims were young students killed in or around their cars, near bodies of water, and on weekends when the moon was new or full. Sexual molestation was not a motive. The killer used a different weapon each time. In some of the attacks the killer carried a large flashlight. My thoughts kept going to the right side of the car, the passenger side. The only window down at Lake Herman Road was on the right where Betty Lou was sitting. Mageau's window at Blue Rock Springs was down, and Steine's fly window was open on the passenger side. At Lake Herman Road the killer fired a shot in the rear window and fired another bullet in the left rear wheel housing to force the couple to leap from the passenger side. Zodiac was positioning the bodies in a ritual way. Usually lying on their back with their heads pointing away from the cars. Faraday's head pointed toward the east and Paul Stine's toward the north.In the dark how did Zodiac know that Betty Lou was on her right side feet to the west and at Blue Rock Springs that Darlene was wearing paterned slacks? Also that he had shot Mageau in the knee while he was thrashing around. He must have followed the victims earlier in the evening. It's likely because he shot his victims almost immediately after they stopped to park. He must have known the area very well or possibly was a Vallejo resident. Also someone who had access to the coroner's and different police reports.It was almost as if he was positioning them according to points on the zodiac or as if they were hands on the clock documenting what time they were killed. (D. Lathers idea).

I think the Zodiac was actually trying to tell us something by the positioning of the bodies. If we stand back and look at this idea and the bodies we may come upon a message left by the Zodiac.--------D. Lathers

The Victims at Blue Rock Springs and Lake Berryessa

The following is a exerpt from Graysmith's book copyright 1996, 2007. There was a confidential report from Mike Mageau in the hospital slightly different than one given before. Sue Ayers, a legal secretary said she had talked to Mike in the hospital after being shot and said that Darlene and another man had an argument while he was in Darlene's car at Terry,s  restaurant the night of the shooting and when they drove away the other man followed them to Blue Rock Springs where they continued to argue. Mike said they were shot by that man and that they were followed from the time that they left Mike's house. Darlene's sister Pam was told by Mike at the hospital that the guy came rightup and shot them. Mike also said that he called Darlene "Dee". She was known to her best friends as "Dee". It should be known that Mike had a tendency to change his story about the shooting more than once. When they went through Darlene,s papers after her death they found several letters from Mike Mageau who liked to pretend to be different people. These were signed with three different names. This was commonplace for Mike to do.

At Lake Berryessa when the Zodiac was sneaking up on Brian Hartnell and Cecelia Ann Shepard he went behind a tree and pulled on a dickey which covered his face and upper body before he got too close to the victims to be. My question is if he was going to kill these two why did he want to cover his face? ----They wouldn't be alive to identify him! I have a feeling that the Zodiac killer had been following them for a long time before he killed them.

Arthur Leigh Allen & Ralph Spinelli

Leigh Allen was the major Zodiac suspect for a long long time. Ralph Spinelli was a restaurant and saloon owner in Northern California, also with one in Alaska. Ralph, with his salesman type command of the english language, was very likeable---I enjoyed listening to him speak. The saloon in Fairfield California was as he said a "gold mine". These two men had a slight altercation back in 1958 but Ralph had forgotten all about it. One night the door man told Ralph a man wanted to speak to him outside but didn't say why. Ralph went outside and Leigh reintroduced himself. Ralph didn't remember but Leigh reminded him of the 1958 incident. Incidentally the name of the saloon was the "Crazy Horse Saloon". Leigh said he could provide a service for Ralph and his friends up to and in-cluding killing someone. Ralph said "you must be absolutely crazy". Later Paul Stine was killed in San Francisco and Leigh went back to Spinelli and said "there, I told you so". Ralph said " I believe you now and now you had better get away from me". They never talked again. This story came from Graysmith's book "Zodiac". D Lathers

Visiting

It would be interesting to visit mk-zodiac.com

Darlene Ferrin's Time Schedule

There seems to be a discrepancy in time between the time she left her new home and the time she was killed. The police said she had to be home at eleven but the babysitters said she didn't  leave the house until almost midnight. That allows only five minutes to pick up Mike, visit Mr. Ed's, also someplace called Pauls and drive all the way out to Blue Rock Springs. Even if she were chased all the way out there it is impossible to do it in that little amount of time -- to say nothing of being shot and killed at the Springs. There are so many men mentioned in Graysmith's book as to whom the chaser is it's impossible to single out any one person. She had just too many male friends.