RICHARD GAIKOWSKI: Nancy Slover and the Voice Identification


Former Vallejo police dispatcher Nancy Slover answered the call from the Zodiac shortly after the shooting at Blue Rock Springs Park. Tom Voigt of Zodiackiller.com had publicly promoted Richard Gaikowski as a Zodiac suspect and also promoted his accuser, Blaine Blaine. Voigt provided an audio recording of Gaikowski’s voice for Nancy Slover and she concluded that the suspect’s voice was the same voice she had heard almost four decades earlier. For those who believed that Gaikowski was a good suspect, Slover’s “identification” was strong evidence; others had great difficulty believing that anyone could accurately identify a voice they had heard for only a matter of seconds almost forty years ago.

Nancy Slover appeared on the History Channel program MysteryQuest broadcast, and was asked to listen to tapes of Gaikowski’s voice again. The program gave viewers the impression that Nancy Slover listened to the tape of Gaikowski’s voice for the first time during her filmed segment with accusers Tom Voigt and Davis Morris; in fact, Slover had heard the tape some time ago and had already stated that Gaikowski’s voice was similar to that of the Zodiac (she allegedly “identified” Gaikwoski as the man she spoke with more than forty years ago). “That came very close to his ‘Good-bye,’ to me,” Nancy said of one portion of the tape. “It’s the same guy.” When asked if she was certain, she replied, “I – well – I am. Nobody I have listened to before even came close to him.” Slover added, “In my opinion, that is the man that called VPD in the early morning hours of July 5, 1969. I just know what my gut feeling is, and my reaction is.”

In the past, Slover had stated that the voice of Manson follower and Zodiac suspect Bruce Davis was similar to the Zodiac’s voice; later, after she had participated in the production of the feature film ZODIAC, Slover stated that the voice of the actor who portrayed Arthur Leigh Allen was most like that of the Zodiac. Critics noted that the voices of these two men were not similar and questioned Slover’s ability to accurately identify any voice after so many years had passed.

In April 2009, this author spoke with Nancy Slover regarding her so-called “identification” of Richard Gaikowski and asked the former police dispatcher about her previous statements concerning the caller’s voice. After noting the fact that she had once considered the voices of Davis and the actor to be similar, Slover said that she now found Gaikowski’s to be the most compatible candidate. When asked whether or not it was possible that someone could come forward with a tape recording of a fourth voice that could ultimately be more compatible than the previous three, Slover replied, “I don’t know – I’d have to hear the voice.”