Zodiac Killer Crimes Examined on “Very Scary People” Parts I & II- My Short Review of the Case: Status “The Good and Bad” as of 2019- Program Eliminates “The Usual Suspects” (Allen, Van Best Jr., Kane, and Kaczynski)

April 15, 2019
Los Angeles, California

Hosted by actor Donnie Wahlberg

I watched the two-hour opening episodes (Part I & II) of HLN’s “Very Scary People” which featured a review of the “Zodiac” serial crimes that occurred in the San Francisco Bay Area back in 1968 and 1969.

HLN Trailer for “Very Scary People”

Here’s my brief review of the show and its interpretation of the case status as of 2019.

The Bad

They seem to still be stuck on the original composite drawing which not only is only slightly better than any ten-year-old’s rendition, (my apologies to all ten-year-olds) but provides a misleading physical description from later revisions from better eye-witnesses. (Suspect much older, thinner.)

They did follow-up with alternate descriptions, but pretty much left it up to the viewer to decide was the above composite accurate or the later Stine composite?

Barros Composite

Stine Teenagers/Fouke Composite

The show completely omitted the best DNA evidence, from the Stine Gloves found in the back seat of the cab and the fact that those gloves have been tested and revealed Stine’s DNA on the outside (from the blood splatter) and contain unknown stranger DNA on the inside of the gloves. Highly probable this “stranger DNA” belongs to Zodiac. (SKH Note- It has never to my knowledge been addressed or revealed whether the gloves were ever tested for GSR? (Gunshot Residue)

No mention of Dr. George Hodel as a suspect or my investigation and a complete omission of the Neal Adams composite also obtained from witness statements and drawn in 1974 as a composite and was actually a merging of the Stine and Barros composites and presented on the true crime book, “Great Crimes of San Francisco” (Ballantine Books 1974)

Neal Adams 1974 Zodiac drawing compared to Dr. George Hill Hodel

The Good

To their credit, the show did address the question of whether Officer Donald Fouke and his Partner Eric Zelms (who was shot and killed just a few months later in an unrelated police response to a business burglary) actually stopped and talked to Zodiac.

The show reported the fact that the two officers DID STOP and speak with Zodiac (supposedly believing Zodiac was a “Male Black” and the Male White suspect told them “Yes, he had a gun and he went thataway.” (As we know, to this day, Officer Fouke maintains he and his partner Zelms did not stop the man. Fouke never reported this “suspect” until one month later, when the killer mentioned it in his letter to the press. Fouke was forced to “fess up” and in a memo, to detectives, he claimed he and his partner “just drove by fast” and provided a detailed description in his month-late “Memo” along with assisting in a revised composite of the suspect. (This, of course, contradicts his partner Zelms private claim to his wife that “we did stop and talk to the man.” Also, later the stop was confirmed by the lead Detective Toschi who admitted they (SFPD) initially kept it secret and protected officer Fouke from embarrassment. According to Detective Toschi, officer Fouke said to him, “God, Dave, he could have killed me.”

Officer Donald Fouke Memo (below) given one month later as, a “Male White 35-45 years (“closer to the high end of 45 yrs”) 5-10 180-200…glasses, possible Welsh ancestry.” (Now that we KNOW the officers talked to the suspect it is my belief Foukes claim of “Welsh ancestry” came not from his appearance, but rather his speech. George Hodel, had very much of a Richard Burton (Welsh) sounding rather cultured voice.)

SFPD Officer Donald Fouke Memo

Overall the crime scene reenactments were seemingly accurate and they included additional “possible Zodiac related crimes.”

The program updated the fact that some of the law enforcement agencies were attempting to obtain further confirmed DNA that potentially can be searched using both CODIS and civilian databank DNA sources. They also verified that NO CONFIRMED ZODIAC DNA EXISTS AS OF THIS TIME.

In concluding the program the show basically publicly eliminated all of the top “favorite suspects” from being ZODIAC. These included: Arthur Leigh Allen Lawrence Kane Earl Van Best Jr. Ted Kaczynski.