The Associated Press decided to do a short profile of Vallejo, California which appeared in a number of newspapers over the last couple of days.
In predictably pleasant form, the article’s “Claim to Fame” section starts out by noting that Vallejo briefly served as the state capital of California. With that pleasantry out of the way, it then moves on to deal with the city’s more infamous distinction of being strongly associated with the Bay Area’s most well-known serial killer.
Par for the course, the author also touches on Vallejo’s other historic achievement – the dubious honor of becoming California’s largest city to declare bankruptcy back in 2008. Perhaps the read would have been a bit more interesting if it had mentioned some of Vallejo’s more colorful moments such as the Mayor’s motorcycle getting stolen from the City Hall parking lot.
I did find the last section, “Sign of the Times,” strangely poignant:
Many traffic signals in Vallejo are set to permanently blink. The half-empty city hall now has “please ring bell” signs in place of receptionists. The town’s symphony, which used to perform six shows a year, now performs two.
And I also have to admit, I had no idea that Sly Stone and Ed Rollins live in Vallejo. I guess you really do learn something new every day…
About Michael Cole
I'm an Electrical / Computer Engineer who has been fascinated with the case of the Zodiac Killer for more years than I care to remember... I also own and operate this website.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Being a Mets fan, Tug McGraw was from Vallejo and CC Sabathia also hails from here.
Having abandoned all previous theories I’ve held over the years, I wanted to see if I could go back over the whole case and re-examine all to see where it led me. In beginning with the first murders on LHR, the idea I had was to see if I could concentrate on Zodiac’s movements and actions on the night, with a view to seeing what ,if anything, it could tell us about him and/or if there was anything new that I hadn’t considered.
There’s nothing earth shattering here but perhaps, there’s one or two points worthy of consideration. I decided to take all the witness statements, concentrating on the approximate timelines, to try to figure out, how Zodiac approached and left the scene and how long he might have spent there. This in turn might give us an idea of how well he knew the area, how well planned it may have been, if at all and how comfortable or otherwise he was in that area, in carrying out the crime.
It would take too long to go into all the , distances, speeds and calculations I did in considering this but this is what it boiled down to:-
The Yours left the area at approximately 11:05pm followed 4-5minutes later by the Hunters, Gasser and Connelly. Peggy Your states that they drove slowly back toward the easterly turn-off at that end of LHR. She checked behind to see if any cars followed,none did, and she also states that no other cars passed on LHR.
Similarily, the Hunters state that they didn’t pass any other car before they reached the turn off. Both sets of witnesses had to travel 2.18 miles in order to reach that turn off, from Marshall Ranch.
If we can rely on those statements, it means that Z did not approch the pump station from that easterly direction, at least from the turn off, as there wouldn’t have been enough time for him to get onto LHR after the witnesses left and travel back 2 miles, to be in place before James Owen arrives at approximately 11:14pm.
All told there’s an approximate 4-5 minute “window” between the Hunters leaving and Owen arriving ,for Z to get into place.
Stella Borges arrives at approximately 11:20pm and as police state (from their own timings and calculations) this was the 6 minute window when everything occurred.
She too stated, in driving at a “casual” pace between her home and the crime scene that
no other cars passed. Again, if this is reliable, it would mean that Z did not drive west toward Vallejo after the murder.
The interesting witness though is James Owen, he did pass another car. He states that before he reached the scene “in the vicinity of Borges Ranch” that a car passed heading west toward Vallejo….
It’s impossible at this stage to identify the exact spot where he passed this car but we can reasonably assume he was beyond the actual homes of Stella Borges and her parents, which was 2 and 7/10tenths miles from the crime scene. In any case, having arrived at the scene at 11;14pm approx, we can “rewind” from the position the two cars passed each other before that, to put that mystery car at the crime scene a minimum of 1 minute earlier and probably a bit more..11:12/11:13pm, just minutes after the Hunters left.
What we can also deduce is that, that mystery car did not travel from the east end of LHR for the same reason Z could not have, because the Yours or at least the Hunters would have spotted it. This leaves two possibilities (a) this car entered LHR from some property along the road after the hunters passed or (b) this car got onto LHR from Reservoir Road.
I believe there’s a reasonable argument for the latter. At the other end of Reservoir Road, is the industrial estate in Benicia, including the oil refinery. James Owen himself is on his way to work the graveyard shift 12-8. There are two main 24hr shift rotas, Owen’s 12-8,8-4 and 4-12, the other is 11-7, 7-3 and 3-11.
We are also told that LHR in particular, was used as a short cut for workers travelling between Benica and Vallejo and vice versa. Such a person, leaving/finishing their shift at 11pm and travelling back toward Vallejo would be right on that crime scene at that time.
In any case, it’s fascinating to consider an even tighter “window” for Z, where he either passed this car just ahead of Owen, was there parked alongside the victims for longer or travelled on the same route behind this mystery car from Reservoir road.
Is it possible that Z too was destined to be at the crime scene at that time, having finished work in Benicia or did he just happen to slot in there at that particular time? He wouldn’t be the only killer/serial killer that killed going to or from work.
If the latter, it’s very likely two cars passed in a short space of time and he still went ahead. But not only did he go ahead, he spent longer there than he had to.
It wasn’t a quick in and out like BRS but a prolonged attack, forcing the victims out of the car. You would think, if he’d seen a bit of traffic in the area that he’d want to be as qiuck as possible.
It’s an awful pity this person did not come forward….
Thoughts welcome.
Well Owen says he passed a car while he’s heading to work, and so the car he passes is heading towards Vallejo, but it couldn’t be Z. Not according to Owen. when he gets to the scene, there are 2 cars; David’s & what has to be the killer’s. Owen is about 45 minutes early for his shift, so he shouldn’t be seeing anyone from the plant where he works since their shift is 45 minutes from being over. So that takes out the plant completely, unless someone left early. you would hope LE checked that out with Security at the plant.
I’ve always wondered why Mrs. Your stated she checked behind them to see if they were being followed. It could only be the hunter’s she was referring to. did she feel that threatened by the hunter’s?
There were several industries in that area, so it doesn’t necessarily have to apply to humble oil (although plenty of companies run different shift rotas).
The scenario I’ve outlined does off a resonable explanation as to why that Myster car would be right there at that time but obviously not the only one.
If we accept the other witness reports (and I have no reason not to, there being more that one person in each car) that they did not pass another car, we can deduce that Z did not approach from the easterly end of LHR, nor, after the murders did he head west on LHR in the direction of Vallejo. Though not necessarily, it does reasonably bring Reservoir Road into play.
There were other witnesses who saw a car (later identified as Stella Borges’s) seen speeding east on LHR but we cannot say with certainty, that they were on LHR long enough to exclude the possibility, that Zodiac drove out to the end of that road after the murder.
In any case it could be significant or at least worthy of further consideration, if Z came or went/or both, via Reservoir Road.
Interestingly, Stella Borges, who lived on LHR did not take Reservoir Road when speeding to inform police. Taking Reservoir Road to Benecia headquarters is a distance of 3.9 miles, she would have added another 3 miles to that distance, had she not encountered a unit along the way.
So there is at least an argument that Reservoir Road may not have been used by that many people, other than a short cut by those going to and from work between Vallejo and Benicia.
It is also possible (though probably second favourite to Z trolling the area beforehand) that Z too, was someone coming home from work and/or familiar enough with the route for a similar reason.
As to Peggy Your and the hunters, it seems likely that there was some exchange between them or why would it ever be included in reports about the gun and her checking back to see if anyone followed.