The Zodiac Killer

Some believe that Toschi came under suspicion as being the author of the letter because he was the most high-profile law enforcement agent in the Bay Area.  Although he was known to have had strong support in city government and the media, he also had many enemies, who resented his flamboyant ways and penchant for publicity.  He was also rumored to be on the short list for the position of Police Chief should Supervisor Dianne Feinstein succeed in her bid for Mayor, a move that would directly threaten SFPD Chief Charles Gain and his deputy, Clem DeAmicis.

Toschi’s detractors believed that he was responsible because of his involvement in a similar episode in 1976. At that time, a local author, Armistead Maupin, had written a serialized article for the Chronicle about a fictitious SFPD detective who was chasing an unknown killer similar to the Zodiac.  Maupin’s protagonist, Inspector Tandy, was based on Toschi. Shortly after the serial was released, Maupin received three notecards, supposedly from readers, asking for more of the “Toschi-based” character in future stories.  However, when Maupin attempted to verify the validity of the notes, he found that the supposed authors of the notes did not exist.  Following his discovery, suspicion soon fell on Toschi as he was well-known for sending notes to various reporters and politicians.  Originally, Maupin saw the notes as a harmless prank and made no mention of them until the “Zodiac” letter that mentioned Toschi by name arrived at the Chronicle.

Concerned that Toschi may have been the letters author, Maupin raised the issue with Sergeant Jack O'Shea, head of the SFPD Intelligence Unit.  O'Shea and Lieutenant Jack Jordan, head of the Homicide Bureau, examined the evidence and determined that Toschi had written the fan letters.  Both men would eventually be disciplined for not reporting their discovery immediately.

While Toschi was never officially accused of writing the 1978 Zodiac letter, Police Chief Gain held a press conference on July 10 to make two announcements: that his department had reason to suspect that the latest “Zodiac” letter was a forgery, and that Inspector Dave Toschi was being transferred to the Pawnshop Detail to "counter and negate" Maupin's claims about his authorship of the “fan” letters.  It was later announced that two handwriting experts were also checking Toschi's handwriting against the "Exorcist" letter of January 1974.  

One month later, three out of four handwriting experts, including John Shimoda, the Postal Service expert who had initially confirmed the letter as being genuine, determined that the April letter was a fake and declared it, "a carefully drawn copy of the true Zodiac printing - constructed by a person that had access to printed letters of the Zodiac."  The only dissenting voice was Sherwood Morrill who remained fiercely loyal to Toschi. Eventually, they announced that the January 1974 letter was indeed genuine.

Following his transfer to the Pawnshop squad, Toschi spent five years in Robbery Detail before transferring to the Sex Crimes Detail in 1984. Dave Toschi officially retired on July 3, 1985 after 32 years on the force to become head of security for an apartment complex in Emeryville.

The San Francisco police have not verified a Zodiac letter since 1974.

As mentioned before, a radian is a specific angular measurement based on the irrational number pi. It is equal to a circle (or 360°) divided by 2pi (or 6.23818...). Rounded off to the nearest minute and second, this is expressed in degrees as 57° 17' 45" and decimalized as 57.29578°

In 1980, writer Gareth Penn learned about the Zodiac’s reference to a radian from a relative who was working at the California Attorney General's office. He found it strange that a brutal killer who wrote letters that were barely legible, would use an obscure geometric term that was normally reserved for mathematicians and engineers. 

Curious to discover what the Zodiac had meant, he used a sheet of clear acetate, a marking pen, a protractor and straight-edge and drew an angle of between 57 and 58 degrees on the acetate and then laid the acetate over a map of the San Francisco Bay Area. Placing the apex of the angle on Mount Diablo, he rotated the angle until one leg passed through the scene of the murder at Blue Rock Springs. According to his book, Times 17, that was when he made an astonishing discovery.

He found that the other leg of the angle made a line through Presidio Heights in San Francisco where Paul Stine had been murdered. He offers the theory that Zodiac had chosen a cab driver to be his last victim in the Bay Area because he needed to control the time and place of the murder. He reasoned that a cab driver met the criteria perfectly. Based on that assumption, Penn has described Zodiac as a genius. 

Additional independent research has since revealed that the Blue Rock Springs leg of the radian also passes through the murder site at Lake Herman Road. In addition, when this leg is extended 400 miles through Mount Diablo to southern California, it dissects the city of Riverside, where Cheri Jo Bates was killed in 1966. The 1974 letters appear to support this theory because if a line is drawn through the cities where the letters were mailed and then joined chronologically, the lines trace out a large "Z."

Although much of Gareth Pen’s theories have come under fire from many independent investigators, most are in agreement that the radian is a fundamental factor in the way the Zodiac committed his crimes.

The following is an extract from a letter sent to the Riverside police by one independent researcher who, like many of his ilk, has spent his spare time rigorously investigating every aspect of the Zodiac murders in an attempt to find a solution. This researcher, known only as Mike R., has suggested that the Timex watch found at the scene of Cheri Joe Bates’s murder, provides a link to the radian evidence revealed in later Zodiac letters:

"This letter is in reference to the October 30, 1966 murder of Cheri Jo Bates. I am certain you must wish, at some level, that you and your department had never heard of this crime or of the Zodiac killer: Undoubtedly, it has been a major distraction and a source of innumerable headaches for the RPD over the years. I realize that and hope to add intelligent, not unintelligible, thought to the discussion of the case. In spite of all the headaches and wild theories over the years, I am sure that there is some part of you, and of the RPD in general, who would love to know who killed Ms. Bates all those years ago. If it was Zodiac, so be it. If not, then who? I do not pretend to know who killed Ms. Bates, but think I have found a way to help your department get insight into who it may have been by using a piece of tangible, physical evidence that is in your possession-the Timex watch.

One of the most controversial aspects of the Zodiac case is the "radian" theory. Many people scoff at this as being part of Zodiac's plan. I feel that the theory IS a valid issue for one reason-Zodiac himself implied in one of his own letters that he was constructing this shape with his murder sites. And after all, he did take incredible risks to make the cab driver (Stine) go into a populated, residential neighborhood before killing him. Knowing that he needed to kill him in a specific location goes a long way to explain the risks Zodiac took that night. The problem with the radian is that it was first explained in a very complex and "out there" book. I grant you that. But we must realize that Gareth Penn did not DEVISE the radian scheme himself: He was merely the first to demonstrate it on paper, at Zodiac's prodding. I do not agree with much of the "out there" stuff that Penn says, but I strongly believe that we ignore the radian at our own risk, as it is an important aspect of the case. I also believe that Cheri Jo Bates was tied into the radian, and that the Timex is the link between her, the radian and Zodiac. I hope you will entertain my thoughts on this subject. If the Timex were planted to tie Bates into the other crimes, it was an act of incredible cunning and pre-planning, because the other crimes were still over two years in the future. I believe that confirming this would provide us with tremendous insight into Zodiac's mind.

I first became seriously interested in the Zodiac case, and heard of the radian theory, early this past August. (I am not an obsessed, long-term follower of this case but a serious, well-educated researcher.) I then saw the Riverside Timex via e-mail on August 28, 1998. I didn't look at it for ten seconds when I knew it was tied into the radian from the Bay area, and I did it with junior high school math (I am not Gareth Penn!). A radian is an angle between 57 and 58 degrees. This is the actual angle made when you link the Vallejo/SF murder sites, with the point or apex of the angle placed on Mt. Diablo, as Zodiac, not Penn, instructs us to do. If you extend the North/South segment of the angle southwards, it passes directly through the city of Riverside (see illustration below). It serves to call our attention to Bates, like a big arrow, and seems to be much more than just a coincidence. Finally, a straight line is 180 degrees. Using that knowledge, we can tie the radian to the watch: To get a straight line (180 degrees) starting with the radian angle (57-58 degrees), you must add 122 to 123 degrees. An alternative way of expressing "122 to 123 degrees" is: "122-123 degrees", or, simply, "122-3 degrees". Translating that last notation onto a watch face, it would then be represented as "12:23". That is the exact time on the Timex. This is the link between Bates and Northern California. What Zodiac may have been saying is that in the future, after he finished constructing the radian up north, you could link the murder of Bates by creating a straight line backwards-by adding the time on the watch to the radian angle. He was giving us a road map two years in advance! I understand that the RPD is currently of the belief that Bates was not a Zodiac victim, but I believe that the Timex may prove otherwise.

I believe the watch has a story to tell us. I am submitting the following list of questions to you in the hope you will examine the watch and answer them. This case is over 30 years old. And yet after all that time, we now have a chance to use a real piece of tangible, physical evidence to link Zodiac to Bates. There are no outlandish theories or complex calculations involved here. I believe that at this point in time, it is worth answering these questions if it will possibly provide us once and for all with the truth about the death of Cheri Jo Bates and insight into the calculating mind of the Zodiac. Here are the questions:

I realize that this list may be a bit dizzying in its detail. But this watch could prove to be a key piece of evidence in establishing Zodiac's motive for killing Bates, not as a sex crime but as a seemingly random act which was in fact related to his overall scheme, similar to all but one of his other attacks. (Zodiac was an intelligent and cunning person, and it should surprise no one familiar with the case to learn he may have planted that watch and then run his fingers along the ground to make it appear he was looking for it.) If we are ever to have any hope of unmasking Zodiac at this late date, we must be able to profile and understand him as precisely as possible. I hope you agree with me that finding a tool to help strip this crime of the sexual overtones suggested in "The Confession" letter to your department would change our image/profile of Zodiac and at least put us on a better path to his door, whoever and wherever he is. And after all, Zodiac's later crimes hardly revealed him to be a sexual sadist. He killed men and women and ended his reign of terror by killing a lone, male cabby. Therefore, the letter would prove to be a "red herring", sent for the purpose of making us think Zodiac was a common sexual sadist, when his motives were actually far more complex.

Chief Carroll, I realize that the murder of Cheri Jo Bates took place a long time ago. But a murder case, as they say, is never closed until the killer is brought to justice. The Zodiac case is arguably the most intriguing, complex and baffling case in the history of crime in this country. In the next few days, Zodiac will be featured on America's Most Wanted (11/14/98), is going to be the subject of a new feature movie, and will be the subject of several new books: In short, the case still haunts us, even after all these years. It is for that reason that the search for Zodiac will and should continue as long as there is at least some reasonable hope of apprehending him. I believe that your department, Vallejo and the FBI would still have an interest in knowing just who this man was and how he was capable of doing what he did, even though it all occurred well over a generation ago. Like Jack the Ripper, it has become a timeless mystery which begs to be solved."