Month: April 2016

The Zodiac’s “Electric Gun Sight”

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In the second “Zodiac” letter sent in August 1969, the writer stated that he had used a gun with a light attached to the barrel for shooting at night. This letter offered details regarding the shooting on Lake Herman Road on December 20, 1968, and addressed questions about the killer’s ability to see the victims in the dark.

“In that epasode the police were wondering as to how I could shoot + hit my victoms in the dark. They did not openly state this, but implied this by saying it was a well lit night + I could see the silowets on the horizon. Bullshit that area is srounded by high hills + trees. What I did was tape a small pencel flash light to the barrel of my gun. If you notice, in the center of the beam of light if you aim it at a wall or celling you will see a black or darck spot in the center of the circle of light about 3 to 6 inches across. When taped to a gun barrel, the bullet will strike exactly in the center of the black dot in the light. All I had to do was spray them as if it was a water hose; there was no need to use the gun sights.”

The Zodiac was not the first to conceive of a light attached to the barrel of a gun. Articles about a gun light had appeared in the magazine Popular Mechanics as far back as 1922 and 1933. A 1961 episode of the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents titled “Museum Piece” featured a character named Ben using a rifle with a light attached to the barrel. Ben (played by actor Bert Convy) is shown with the gun as his father narrates the story of the hunt for a devious fox.

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“I called her Circe because she led him to his doom. Worked her whiles on him, brazenly let him track her, almost as if she knew what lay in wait for him. He never hunted for sport, but once in a while, he collected an animal. In this case, he had his heart set on Circe. She’d been raiding hen houses in the neighborhood. Sooner or later, some farmer would trap her or shoot her anyway, so Ben decided to take her for his collection… He’d invented a fool proof gadget for night shooting. A spotlight mounted on his 22 in such a way that his shot would strike the exact center of light.”

Ben then tracks Circe to a barn. Using his gun-mounted spotlight, Ben shoots the fox but frightens a young couple necking inside the barn. Ben is attacked by the angry, interrupted lover and fires his gun by accident, killing the man instantly. Ben is then tried and convicted. Ben’s father later pleads with the district attorney for help but is refused. The DA is then murdered. The father recalls the failed search for the killer and says, “I remember the excitement of the manhunt. The most dangerous game.”

Hitchcock-gun-light

The description of the gun light in the Hitchcock episode is similar to the wording of the Zodiac’s letter in August 1969*. The mention of the phrase “the most dangerous game” could also be interpreted by some as another possible connection to the Zodiac’s deciphered message which referred to man as the most dangerous animal of all.

[ * Originally posted by ZodiacKillerFacts forum member Ratel, April 2010 ]

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The episode “Museum Piece” was originally broadcast on April 4, 1961, during the sixth season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

SUMMARY (with SPOILERS): Clay Hollister is a museum curator and collector of Indian relics. One day, during a tour, Clay notices a man named Newton Clovis who is fascinated by a skeleton in Clay’s collection. Newton wants to analyze the bones. He does so and reveals that the bones are those of a long-missing district attorney. Newton is really a detective and demands the skeleton for further investigation. Clay refuses and kills him. Later, he adds the bones of yet another man to his collection.

Starring:

* Tom Begley – cast: Prison Guard
* Paul Bradley – cast: Court Reporter
* Bert Convy – cast: Ben Hollister
* Larry Gates – cast: Mr. Hollister
* Tom Gilleran – cast: Tim McCaffrey
* Myron McCormick – cast: Newton B. Clovis
* Charles Meredith – cast: Judge
* Edward Platt – cast: Mr. Henshaw
* Darlene Tompkins – cast: Tim’s Girlfriend

SUMMARY: Mr. Hollister now runs a small museum that is actually something of a shrine to his late son, Ben. He tells a visitor that the human skeleton in the museum is actually that of his son. In a flashback he recounts that his son was hunting a fox for his collection of stuffed animals when he comes across Tim McCaffrey, the son of a wealthy and influential rancher. A fight breaks out and Tim is accidentally shot. Despite his protestations that it was all an accident, he is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Once there, he loses all interest in life. But just who is this stranger Mr. Hollister is telling this story to and is he being completely honest? [Written by garykmcd]

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Published articles that describe attaching a flashlight to a gun barrel:

Popular Mechanics – August 1922 issue (viewable on Google Books – page 244)

An article titled “Automatic Pistol Combined With Hand Flashlight” reads: “As a device to discourage burglars, a newly invented flashlight pistol should prove quite effective. The pistol barrel is placed along a tubular flashlight, and six shots of .22 caliber can…”

Popular Mechanics – October 1933 issue (viewable on Google Books – page 513)

An article titled “Focusing Flashlight For Gun Helps Hunter At Night” reads: “Hunting game at night is facilitated by using a focusing a flashlight which attaches to the weapon with automobile steering-post clamps, the same kind used by motorists for holding a flashlight on the steering wheel.”

Zodiac Hoax: The Reality of Satire

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On Wednesday, March 9, 2016, Comedy Central aired an episode of The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore which included a skit about the Zodiac killer. Host Larry Wilmore explained the origins of the recent meme that Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is the Zodiac killer. Then, Nightly Show contributor Mike Yard appeared as a “conspiracy theorist” who presented a set of “facts” to link Cruz to the Zodiac crimes. This skit was amusing on some levels, but Yard’s “logic” was also an ironic parody of most Zodiac theorists.

When told that Ted Cruz was born in 1970 but the Zodiac crimes began in 1968, Mike Yard countered that the Obama “birther scandal” had demonstrated that birth certificates could be forgeries, a reference to the ongoing “birther” claims that President Obama was not born in the United States and is therefore an “illegitimate president.” Bizarre conspiracy theories are popular among a shockingly large percentage of the American population, but these conspiracy claims are also common among Zodiac theorists who claim that police departments and other law enforcement agencies committed the crimes, staged a hoax, covered up the crimes as part of a massive conspiracy, or worse. Yard’s Cruz/Zodiac conspiracy theory was designed to appear ridiculous from the outset but instead served as a fairly accurate portrait of the current culture of Zodiac crackpots and con men.

Yard also noted that the letters in Ted Cruz’s name could be rearranged into an anagram which included a reference to the fictional character Dracula. Using this logic, Yard then stated that Dracula was actually Vlad the Impaler, impaling was stabbing, and the Zodiac had stabbed some of his victims. Again, Yard was trying to portray a crackpot, but his portrayal was alarmingly similar to many real life Zodiac theorists who offer claims and links which often sound just as preposterous.

Yard’s “theory” concluded with a reference to Cruz’s plans to “kill” various government agencies as a link to killing. Again, Yard’s comic theory is remarkably similar to the theories offered by many Zodiac theorists who claim that their pet suspect made statements which allude to and/or condone acts of violence and murder. Some Zodiac theorists often exaggerate or distort the meaning of certain statements in order to portray suspects as sinister, dishonest or violent when the facts are not as useful in such pursuits.

Larry Wilmore noted that approximately ten percent of Florida Republican voters polled had stated that they believed Ted Cruz could be the Zodiac killer. An even larger number of polled voters said that they were not sure. Wilmore also noted that this percentage was higher than the number of Florida Republican voters who said they did not believe that one of Cruz’s opponents could be President. Unlike Yard’s theories, the numbers cited by Wilmore were not a joke— a large percentage of Florida Republicans who participated in this poll actually believed that Ted Cruz was the Zodiac killer or they were not sure. Uninformed people who get most of their “facts” from unreliable sources on the Internet are often convinced by ridiculous and unsubstantiated theories and claims. Many people are also impressed by the ridiculous and unsubstantiated theories and claims of those peddling Zodiac suspects and solutions.

Perhaps the prominent mention of the case on a popular worldwide television show could inspire some people to do a google search and learn about the real life Zodiac story, but the irony is rich because anyone who uses the Internet to find information about the Zodiac case will find many websites featuring theories and claims which are only slightly-less absurd than Mike Yard’s “Cruz/Zodiac theory.”

On April 4th, 2016, another hoax spread on the internet with the sensational headline, “Suspect Believed To Be ‘Zodiac Killer’ Arrested In Henderson Nevada.” According to the website associatedmediacoverage.com, the Zodiac killer had been identified as one Walter Gotberg, a 74 year-old man who was recently incarcerated fin Nevada or acts of domestic violence. Gotberg allegedly confessed that he was the Zodiac during conversations with another inmate. The same website states, “According to police reports, Walter Gotberg wasn’t officially listed as a suspect in the unsolved murders until laboratory results provided a match between Gotberg’s DNA and the DNA profile created by saliva found on stamps and envelopes used by the Zodiac Killer to send cryptic messages to media reporters and police.”

Associatedmediacoverage.com was the only “news” site reporting the alleged identification and arrest of Gotberg for the Zodiac crimes. There is no credible evidence that Gotberg’s DNA has been compared to the suspected “Zodiac DNA profile” obtained by the San Francisco Police Department, let alone that the test produced a match of any kind. In fact, no one has demonstrated that Walter Gotberg even exists. The website “Hoax Alert” posted an article debunking the Gotberg story as a “hoax,” and stated, “The image of the man ‘suspected’ to be the ‘Zodiac Killer’ is actually a stock image from 2014 that is regularly used on Australian bar websites.”

Many people posted links to the Gotberg hoax article on Facebook and other social media sites, spreading the story across the globe in a matter of hours. Very few people bothered to even read the article and even fewer bothered to check other media sources for confirmation of the story and its claims. Some readers on Facebook did note, “If this were true, other news agencies would be reporting it,” and some referred to the story as a “hoax.”

One Facebook user wrote, “The Zodiac is dead and buried in Mexico according to his ‘son’,” a reference to Gary Stewart, who claims that his deceased father Earl Van Best, Jr. was the Zodiac killer. Stewart’s claims first appeared in his book The Most Dangerous Animal of All, a work of “nonfiction” which was thoroughly debunked and discredited within days of its publication. Yet, Stewart’s claims continue to circulate on the internet without scrutiny or factual rebuttal. Debunked claims persist in a world where the facts are ignored in favor of entertaining nonsense. Mike Yard’s comedy sketch was only absurd and unrealistic to those who have not followed the history of the Zodiac case or the checkered careers of the many ambitious attention seekers and dedicated con men who continue to exploit the Zodiac tragedy in the quest for fame and fortune.

Learn more about the history of the “Ted Cruz is the Zodiac killer” meme at KnowYourMeme.com