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listed as unsolved, but this timeline would get a conviction any day!

Posted by Duilawyer (A) on February 17, 2007 at 16:12:37

In Reply to: It is still unsolved, though some believe Allen was the killer. posted by sjb on February 17, 2007 at 09:29:39:

The Allen-Zodiac Connection
Riverside
Arthur Leigh Allen's connections to the Zodiac killer began on Oct. 30, 1966, when Cheri Jo Bates was stabbed to death at Riverside City College (RCC) in Riverside, Calif. In late-November 1966, two anonymous, typewritten Bates-murder confession letters were mailed to the local police and newspaper. (The typewriter was identified as being a Royal model, with either Elite or Pica type.) Allen allegedly was in Riverside the weekend Bates was murdered. The information placing Allen in Riverside was developed in 1971 by the Vallejo Police Department (VPD) and the California Department of Justice (DOJ). Allen later hinted it was true, first claiming to have been "in the area" at the time, then telling people he was in nearby Pomona when he first heard of the Bates murder.

Employed as an elementary-school teacher in California's Calaveras County at the time of the Bates murder, by the time his employment ended in late March 1968 Allen had used only one of 19 available sick days. The day Allen was absent was Nov. 1, 1966. (Initially, Allen attributed the absence to "school business." He was later charged with a sick day.) Did Allen stay an extra day or two in Riverside, gathering second-hand information to use in the anonymous confessions? Or did Allen actually kill Bates, missing work on Nov. 1 because of facial wounds inflicted by his victim? (Modern FBI profiles on serial killers usually say that during periods of activity, the killer will behave erratically, exhibit moodiness, drink or smoke more than usual and miss work.) During the execution of a 1991 search warrant, VPD seized a Royal typewriter with Elite type from the home of Allen.

In late-April 1967, three anonymous letters referring to Bates were mailed. In 1970, Sherwood Morrill, head of the Questioned Documents Section of California's Criminal Identification and Investigation Bureau, determined them to be the work of Zodiac. Each contained double the necessary postage, a Zodiac trademark. Two of the three letters were signed with an unusual symbol. Some believe the symbol resembles a sloppy "z," others say it looks like a "32." At the time Bates was killed, Allen was 32 years old, and his permanent residence was 32 Fresno St. in Vallejo, Calif. (In 1970, Zodiac would create a cipher that contained 32 symbols.)

At the approximate time the three letters were mailed, a desk was discovered on the RCC campus that had a morbid poem scratched into the surface, possibly referring to the Bates murder. In 1970, Morrill claimed the poem was definitely the work of Zodiac, although other experts believed the condition of the desk prevented authentication. The poem was signed "rh." The president of RCC at the time Bates was murdered was RH Bradshaw, a detail a stranger to the area probably wouldn't have known.

Interestingly, after establishing the moniker "Zodiac," the only reference Zodiac ever made to the Bates murder came in a letter to the Los Angeles Times postmarked March 13, 1971. RCC, where Bates was a student, was founded on March 13, 1916. Timing his letters to be postmarked on a significant date was a Zodiac specialty and the Times reference to Bates is another example of this.

The Bates murder was initially merely local news, not likely to have gotten much exposure outside of the Riverside area. If Zodiac didn't actually kill Bates, which is a strong possibility, he at least had enough knowledge of the crime to produce the anonymous confessions.

A strong case can be made that Zodiac had ties to the Riverside area. Allen certainly did.

**To date, even though it was an item it was looking for in the 1991 search, VPD has not attempted matching Allen's typewriter to that of the anonymous confessions.

Zodiac name/cross-circle symbol/ciphers/etc.
According to his brother, Ron, Allen was given a Zodiac watch as a Christmas gift from their mother in 1967. (Allen's estimation of when he received the watch was July or August 1969.) The logo for the Zodiac watch is a cross-circle symbol, the same as eventually used by the Zodiac killer.

According to police statements, within days of receiving the watch, Allen is alleged to have made these claims to his friend, Don Cheney:
(Allen used the premise of writing a novel to communicate this fantasy. Cheney estimates the conversation took place on Jan. 1, 1969.)
He would like to kill couples at random.
He would taunt the police with letters detailing his crimes.
He would sign the letters with the cross-circle symbol from his watch.
He would call himself "Zodiac."
He would wear make-up to change his appearance.
He would attach a flashlight to the barrel of his gun in order to shoot at night.
He would fool women into stopping their cars in rural areas by claiming they had problems with their tires, then loosen their lug nuts and eventually take them captive.

Don eventually took this information to the police and, in 1972, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) was able to secure a search warrant against Allen as the Zodiac killer. Unfortunately, SFPD elected to search a trailer that Allen frequented in nearby Santa Rosa instead of searching his home at 32 Fresno St. in Vallejo. Nothing incriminating was found.

According to a police statement, in an early-1968 conversation with his friend, Philip, Allen is alleged to have been fascinated with the concept of hunting people. According to Allen, people would be more challenging to hunt than animals, since they "have intelligence."

On July 31, 1969, Zodiac mailed a cipher to the news media. Within days it was solved and stated that killing man was "(sic) more fun than killing wild game in the forrest because man is the most dangeroue anamal of all to kill." Additionally, during a 1971 police interrogation, Allen offered the fact that, as a youth, he had read a book that had made a lasting impression on him. The book was called The Most Dangerous Game and was about hunting a man "like an animal."

On June 15, 1958, Allen was arrested by VPD and charged with disturbing the peace, the result of an altercation with acquaintance Ralph Spinelli. The charges were dismissed on July 8, 1958. Zodiac would later taunt San Francisco Chronicle columnist Marco Spinelli in a letter postmarked July 8, 1974.

According to statements to police by family and friends, prior to the publication of Zodiac's codes, Allen had possession of codes featuring identical symbols. Additionally, Allen was known to use the same unusual spelling and phrasing as Zodiac later used, such as spelling "Mery Xmass" instead of Merry Xmas and saying "trigger mech" instead of trigger mechanism. Allen would intentionally misspell words to be funny.
In a 1969 letter, Zodiac used the term "bussy work," which is jargon used by elementary-school teachers. ("Busy work" is a technique used to keep children busy and therefore happy, by assigning them menial tasks.) Prior to his termination in March 1968, Allen had almost 10 years of experience as an elementary-school teacher.

**Despite its negative ramifications on his life, Allen continued to wear his Zodiac watch until it was seized during the execution of VPD's search warrant in 1991.

Want to read how you explain it to a jury?? Guilty conviction in two hours.

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