WEBVTT - Taxi Driver [5] 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:03.880 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:07.920 those of the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast, 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:12.000 and do not necessarily represent those of iHeartMedia, How Stuff Works, 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:13.040 or its employees. 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:19.640 After the attack at Lake barri Essa, the Zodiac fell silent. 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:22.000 There were no more letters, there were no more phone 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:25.000 calls after that initial phone call to the Napa Police Department, 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:30.360 and we don't know why. But two weeks after the 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:35.440 attack at Lake Barriessa, the Zodiac resurfaced in San Francisco. 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:38.000 And while he had already sent a letter to the 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:42.360 San Francisco Chronicle establishing himself as a link to San Francisco, 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:45.320 he hadn't committed any crimes there that we knew. 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:49.519 Of in the newsroom, our ears perked up, obvious a 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:52.000 little more about this kind of case. Now you've got 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:57.040 three cases and the one guy claiming responsibility and providing 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.880 in some of these letters details and only the police 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.279 would know, so they'd verify that he was at the 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:09.000 actual scene. But it wasn't until October eleventh, nineteen sixty nine, 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:12.840 when Zodiac first struck in San Francisco, that I think 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:16.240 the Chronicle went into full on serial killer mode if 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:19.560 you will. For a couple of reasons. One is in 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:22.280 this case, Zodiac hailed a taxi in front of the 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.440 theater in the current theater on Geary Street in San Francisco. 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:29.800 He asked to be taken out to a fairly upscale 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:34.200 neighborhood called Presidio Heights, where he instructed the driver to stop, 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:36.880 and once he stopped, he asked them to go another 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:41.600 block for reasons no one's ever figured out, And when 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:45.119 they got to the next corner, Zodiac shot the guy 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:49.360 in the back of the head and killed him. This 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:51.280 cab driver's name was Paul Stein. 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:58.960 A man in a mask robbed, tied, and stabbed him, 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:00.000 leaving them for day. 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:04.960 Subject stated, I want to report a murder, no a 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:05.920 double murder. 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:09.799 I did it a man who wore a medieval style 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:13.880 executioners hood, carried a knife and gun and intended to 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:14.840 use them. 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.600 They haven't arrested me because they can't prove a thing. 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:20.760 I'm not the damn Zodiac. 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.399 Who is the Zodiac and where is he from? 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:27.760 iHeartRadio, Housetuff Works and Tenderfoot TV. 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:31.040 This is monster, the Zodiac killer. 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:37.680 Taxi drivers are the unspoken experts of their cities, the 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.679 unofficial tour guides per se. In a big city like 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:46.120 San Francisco, taxi drivers are ubiquitous, They're everywhere, They're a constant, 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:49.760 a given, and because of this, they were also an 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:51.560 easy target for the Zodiac. 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:52.680 Think about it. 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:55.600 There are a few people more trusting of strangers than 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:58.760 a taxi driver. They pull over, pick you up, drop 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:03.280 you off. You never even see their face for exchange names. 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:07.880 There's intimacy here. You are sharing this small place, but 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:10.600 the stranger. Do you really know who's in the car 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:14.040 with you. The Zodiac didn't stalk his victims for weeks. 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.200 He chose them at random because of their environment, their unawareness, 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:22.639 and in some cases, their occupation. What's more frightening than 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:24.919 someone who prays on the unexpecting. 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:29.959 San Francisco is directly linked to the Zodiac killer. There's 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.639 no escaping it, which is ironic because it's not where 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:34.880 he started. He started in Valleo and Benetia. 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:37.560 This is Zodiac expert Michael Butterfield. 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:40.440 And maybe that was something that he wanted. Maybe he 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.240 lived in San Francisco. Maybe it was easier to write 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.040 to the San Francisco Chronicle and make sure that he 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:48.280 could read that newspaper than it was to drive all 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:49.960 the way to wherever he had to go to get 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:52.680 a Valeo Times Harold, I don't know. One thing that 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:56.240 we know for sure is that the Zodiac wanted the 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:56.960 attention that. 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:58.480 He wanted when he wanted it. 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:01.840 Now. What he wanted in July of nineteen sixty nine 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:04.480 was for as many people to see this as possible, 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:08.160 to get as much attention as possible, and to cement 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:12.480 his image as a real threat. And it worked. And 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.200 then after that, I think one of the things that 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:18.159 he started to realize was I'm going to do better 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:21.280 if I keep going to the Chronicle, then if I 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:24.440 keep going to another newspaper. And there's some evidence that 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:28.440 the Vleo Times Herald was not as willing to keep 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:31.320 playing this game with him. Maybe he sensed that maybe 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:33.320 when he was looking at their coverage he didn't like 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.800 what he saw. So after that he started focusing on 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:40.080 the San Francisco Chronicle and they were happy to play alone. 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.000 Well, the key papers in San Francisco were the Chronicle 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:45.880 and the Examiner. They were very different. At the end 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:49.960 of the day, the Examiner was a kind of symbolic power, 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:53.640 but it was losing its circulation war with the San 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:54.800 Francisco Chronicle. 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:59.320 Here's Peter Richardson, historian and lecturer at San Francisco State University. 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:04.080 Was never a gray paper journalistically, but they had some 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.479 very interesting columnists. It was kind of a fun read 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.880 for that reason. But the city had never really distinguished 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:15.800 itself journalistically. It didn't have a paper during this time 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.320 like the Los Angeles Times, much less the Washington Post 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:23.360 or the New York Times. They were widely read, but 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:25.280 they were not any great shakes. 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:29.240 Despite this, the San Francisco Chronicle had the highest readership 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.120 in the Bay Area, and Peter Richardson says that this 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:34.640 was the only thing that mattered to the Zodiac. 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.839 The Psychotic killer has already murdered five, one at a 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:42.440 lover's lane near a lake just north of San Francisco, 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:46.320 three others in nearby Vallejo, the latest a taxi driver 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:47.360 in San Francisco. 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:51.840 He apparently was in the area of Mason and Geary 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:56.599 in San Francisco and hailed a cab, and that cab 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.960 was being driven by Paul Stein, who was a student 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:04.240 and a husband. The plan was to direct Paul Stein 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:08.000 to the intersection of Washington and Maple, which was in 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:12.680 an upscale neighborhood of San Francisco known as Presidio Heights. So, 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:17.280 from what we know, paul Stein took the passenger to 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.719 that location. What we don't know is why the cab 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:25.600 eventually ended up one block further west at Washington and 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:30.680 Cherry Streets. Some kids were in a house across the 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.720 street and they heard some kind of commotion and looked 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:37.240 out the window and they saw a man in the 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:41.799 front seat doing something to the cab driver. They thought 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:45.719 that he was stabbing him or doing something to him, 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:50.440 and they watched as the man handled the driver, and 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:55.279 then they called the police. And apparently while they were 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.440 talking to the police dispatcher and they were describing what 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:08.120 they were seeing, something went wrong. Instead of describing the 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:12.480 killer as a white man, the radio dispatch to responding 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:20.120 officers described the killer as a black man. The witnesses 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:22.400 watched as the man finished whatever he was doing in 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:24.720 the cab. He got out of the cab. He walked 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:26.920 around to the driver's side and appeared to have some 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:30.400 sort of light colored cloth in his hand as he 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:33.520 was wiping down the cab or doing something on the 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:38.240 driver's side of the cab. He then turned and walked 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:39.760 north up Cherry Street. 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.480 Two days later, the Chronicle received a letter and only 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:48.560 the Chronicle from the Zodiac. 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:52.400 This is former reporter Duffy Jennings. He was there when 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.800 the San Francisco Chronicle received this now infamous letter. 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.720 As the woman opened it in the editorial department, a 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.640 piece of bloody shirt fell out with the letter. 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:09.400 This is the Zodiac speaking, I am the murderer of 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.400 the taxi driver over by Washington Street and Maple Street 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:16.960 last night. To prove this, here's a bloodstained piece of 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:20.080 his shirt. I am the same man who did in 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:21.320 the people in the North Bay. 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:25.520 Area, so they knew that this was Paul Stein's killer. 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:30.080 And now he's again taunting police to catch him. And 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:32.960 the fear factor went way up, and now he's in 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:33.719 San Francisco. 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:44.600 Captain Lee at this particular time is satisfied that the 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:48.040 individual who sent this piece of shut in and the 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:51.439 letter to the Chronicle was in fact connected with the 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:53.360 is the person who killed the cab driver. Let me 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:59.240 put it that way. The contents of the letters, the 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:03.680 language of the in other cases are very similar to 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:06.520 the language and the form of the letters in this 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:10.240 particular case, and because of the fact that the shirt 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:12.720 matches the shirt as I understand that we would have 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.280 to assume that there is validity to the claim of 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:17.080 this individual. 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:21.720 That was San Francisco Police Chief Thomas Cahill. The SFPD 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.480 confirmed the killer was in fact the Zodiac. They knew 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.720 this because the striped cloth found in the letter matched 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:32.440 the striped shirt paul Stein was wearing, and when investigators 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:35.840 checked paul Stein's shirt, they found that a rectangular portion 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:39.960 was missing. With the San Francisco Police department involved, this 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:44.280 crime now crossed over multiple cities and jurisdictions, and those 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:48.960 individual departments weren't necessarily working together. In Napa, where the 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.240 last murder occurred at Lake Barriessa, sheriffs had made their 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.280 own assessment of the murder in San Francisco. 0:09:55.240 --> 0:10:00.439 But pulmonary tests of certain evidence such as fingerprint and 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:05.160 handwriting have been made to where we are certain that 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:09.040 the man that we're looking for is the same man 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:13.719 responsible for the killing of the cab driver in San Francisco, 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:20.200 plus the shooting deaths in Solano County. In Leo Well, Sheriff, 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:22.480 what type of person is this man? 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:23.520 Well? 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:28.400 We have reason to believe that he's a maniac. However, 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:33.000 he is a cunning man. He knows just exactly what 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:38.120 moves he's going to make. He knows where he's going 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.720 to be from one minute to the next. He knows 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:43.079 where he's going to start and when he's going to end. 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:50.599 He plans these things out, and he knows just exactly 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:53.400 how this thing is going to turn out. We think 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:56.680 it appears to us that he is killing just for 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:58.360 the thrill of killing. 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:03.560 So how did the killer avoid the police in Presidio Heights? 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:06.719 In the Bloody Shirt letter, the Zodiac gave his own 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:08.320 account of what happened that night. 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:12.040 The San Francisco police could have called me last night 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.080 if they had searched the park properly. Instead of holding 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:18.000 road races with their motorcycles seen who could make the 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:21.720 most noise. The car drivers should have just parked their 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:24.319 cars and sat there quietly waiting for me to come 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:24.840 out of cover. 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.800 But there was more. In another letter sent just a 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:33.600 few weeks later, Zodiac gave even more details about what 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:35.640 happened after Paulstein's murder. 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:38.960 If you wonder why I was wiping the cab down, 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:41.679 I was leaving fake clues for the police to run 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.880 all over town with. As one might say, I gave 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:48.080 the cops some busy work to do to keep them happy. 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:53.280 I enjoy needling the blue pigs. Hey, blue pig, I 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:56.200 was in the park. You were using fire trucks to 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.840 mass the sound of your cruising prowl cars. The dogs 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:02.439 now came within two blocks of me, and they were 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:04.960 to the west, and there was only two groups of 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:09.000 parking about ten minutes apart. And then the motorcycles went 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:12.400 by about one hundred and fifty feet away, going from 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:17.319 south to northwest ps two cops pulled a goof About 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:20.440 three minutes after I left the cab, I was walking 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:22.160 down the hill to the park when this cop car 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:24.960 pulled up and one of them called me over and 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:27.600 asked if I saw anyone acting suspicious or strange in 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.360 the last five to ten minutes, and I said, yes, 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:33.280 there was this man who was running by waving the gun. 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:36.400 And the cops peeled rubber and went around the corner 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.200 as I directed them, and I disappeared into the park 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:42.240 a block and a half away, never to be seen again. 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:00.679 Paul Stein, unlike the other victims, became a victim because 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.320 of his job. That seems very unfair to me, and 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:05.160 I know that's an odd way to describe it, but 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.000 you know, he didn't have a chance, He had no idea. 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:09.920 He was just doing what he thought he was supposed 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:12.040 to do. He thought he would take this person where 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:14.160 he wants to go and go on his way. He 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:17.360 didn't know that the passenger he picked up had other plans. 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:21.880 This is Michael Butterfield again. He's interviewed numerous people who 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:22.960 were on the scene that night. 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:28.960 And while the kids were watching, the first responding police 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:36.080 officers arrived, and that was Frank Peta and Armand Pealasetti. 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:40.839 And Armand Pealasetti told me in several interviews I did 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:44.640 with him over the years that he arrived at the scene, 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.960 he saw the kids coming out of the house. He 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:51.000 directed them to stand back. He asked his partner to 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.480 watch the area to guard the crime scene, and he 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:59.439 approached the cab with a flashlight. He said that when 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:01.880 he got near the driver's side, he could see some 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:05.680 sort of impression on the outer door that appeared to 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:12.840 be blood and maybe fingerprints. He then looked inside the 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:16.920 cab and he saw Paulstein's body laying in the driver's seat, 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:20.440 and according to armand Pallasetti, it was obvious that he 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:27.200 was dead. Palasetti then walked north on Cherry Street in 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:31.200 pursuit of the killer, and at some point he encountered 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:35.200 two other police officers who were responding officers, Don Falk 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:41.760 and Eric Zelm's. At some point the description of the 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:43.360 killer was corrected to that. 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:44.120 Of a white man. 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.080 According to the new witness description, the killer was a 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:52.000 white male in his early forties. He was about five 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:54.840 to eight with a heavy build. He had reddish blonde 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:57.840 hair a crew cut, and he wore eyeglasses and a 0:14:57.920 --> 0:14:59.040 dark parka jacket. 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.240 And when that happened, apparently Don Falk realized that that 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:07.040 was a man that they had driven past on their 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.720 way to the crime scene. So Falc and his partner 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:13.800 turned around and went back and went looking for the killer. 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:19.040 They did not find him. Palasetti kept walking and didn't 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.880 see anything. By that time, then the fire department and 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:27.680 other investigators were arriving. They did find some fingerprints in 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.239 that area where armand Palasetti thought he had seen some fingerprints, 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.160 and those prints were found in the exact area where 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.200 the killer was last seen making contact with the cab. 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.920 According to the witnesses, no one touched that cab in 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:46.120 between the time that the killer walked away and armand 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:50.960 Pallasetti arrived, So that's a strong indication that those fingerprints 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:51.880 did belong. 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:52.200 To the killer. 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:00.880 I had a lot of questions about the murder of 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:04.240 Paul Stein. Why would the killer change his mo so 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:08.920 dramatically Again, the Zodiac had previously focused on young couples 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:12.280 in isolated areas, and his weapon of choice was a handgun. 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.800 He escalated his attacks when he wore a costume, then 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:19.120 tied up and stabbed the couple at Lake Barriessa. This 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.120 time he went back to his regular clothes and back 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.000 to his gun to kill a lone male cab driver. 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.680 It just didn't make sense to me to better understand. 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:31.720 I first wanted to retrace the Zodiac steps that night 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:34.440 to take the same route in the back of a taxi. 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.640 So I started where he did, near the intersection of 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:40.960 Mason and Geary in the Tenderloin district. There's a theater 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.480 nearby that the Zodiac may have gone into. 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.840 My name is Oliver Sutton. I am the head of 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:51.600 security for the Act Theater for more than twenty yefs. 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:55.880 I've known this area virtually all the time I've lived 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:59.880 in South Francisco. The Zodiac, the first murderer could kick 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:06.080 place in San Francisco. A patriot came out of the 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:10.639 Act Theater. At that time, it was the Geary and 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:14.120 the Act American Conservatory Theater. I don't know what show 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:16.760 was going on at that time, but he could have 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:19.639 got gone into the lobby, used that as a backdrop, 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.600 or he could actually been a patron of basict that 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.160 came out, had a taxi and murdered him. I'll take 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:28.440 you into the lobby, turned the lights on and give 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:30.480 you a chance to see where you know where it 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:30.960 took place. 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:42.040 This h the lights on, so uh, the the killer, 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:45.760 he would have come through these double doors. 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:48.560 That's they filmed it that way for the movie. That 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:51.840 he walked out of these double doors and held down 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:55.760 a yellow taxi, a yellow cabby. Being a hat in 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:59.240 any city is tough because you don't know who's getting 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.240 in the back seat of the car. According to the story, 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.520 the victim was not chosen. It was just a random 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:07.800 crime of opportunity. 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.000 From there, the killer called the taxi and was picked 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:13.600 up by Paul Stein. So I called the cab two. 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:16.560 I asked to be taken to the corner of Washington 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:20.080 and Cherry Street in the Presidio Heights neighborhood. It was 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:25.160 about three miles west, fifteen minutes by car, and oddly enough, 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:28.560 my cab driver's name was also Paul sat. 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:30.920 Diane Feinstein. 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:34.320 Whinstein yea, she lives. Paul and I got to talking. 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:36.760 He had heard about the Zodiac case but didn't know 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.439 much of the details. He asked me how many people 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:42.000 the Zodiac had killed. I told him how many of 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:45.920 the police had confirmed. He wasn't impressed. He's swaw time, 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:48.720 I know, and she's swawed potatoes. He saw a ton 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:51.040 of people. The reason why it's it's such a big 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:53.760 deal is because he was constantly writing to the chronicles. 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:55.440 Well call, he was one of the first one. 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:58.240 I mean, he was one of the first, and he 0:18:58.840 --> 0:18:59.639 was in the paper. 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:05.320 So when he did something, he may should that the 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:06.960 police knew it was him that did it. 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:09.960 Right, Yeah, he would send You want him to really claim. 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:10.880 I did that one? 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:12.520 I don't want nobody has to try. 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:13.800 To claim that as the glory. 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:14.919 This is me. 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:15.800 I did it. 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:18.040 Well, here's where it gets crazy, though, man, because he 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:20.920 like in the beginning, like with that one Paul Stein. Yeah, 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:22.840 he sent a piece of the guy's cloth with his 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:25.800 blood on it in his letter to the chronicle, right, 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.560 and it was a cab driver. He was a cab driver, yeah, 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:29.160 named Paul. 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:32.920 He gets I'm a gun spooky man. 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:35.080 I got bumped. 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:39.480 I got goose bumps onthing, you know how related to 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.920 the Zodiac. When we arrived on the scene of paul 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:46.439 Stein's final moments, I got out and just listened for 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:49.720 a while. A few cars drove by, but there wasn't much, 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:53.000 if any, foot traffic. It felt like a different universe 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:55.600 from the bustling city that was just a few blocks away. 0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:01.600 That's when I realized the Zodiac sought out these types locations, quiet, 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:07.600 unassuming areas, places that seem almost peaceful, miles away from 0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:11.879 anywhere you might consider dangerous. A country road, a public park, 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:15.320 and a popular vacation spot on a lake, in this case, 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:19.760 a beautiful, upscale neighborhood in San Francisco. It maybe wonder 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:22.960 did Zodiac want to strip away the feeling of safety 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:26.480 from these places? And as I'm standing there, lost in 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:29.200 this thought. I see a man walking towards me. He's 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:32.439 carrying some takeout. He asked me what I was doing, 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:35.600 and we got to talking. The man requested we not 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:38.480 use his name, and we altered his voice for privacy, 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:42.200 because it turns out he was related to someone who 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:43.960 witnessed Paul Stein's murder. 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:49.520 So it was my father, who was actually since past. 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:54.080 He was he was just a kid. He was a kid, 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:56.840 and he was just playing downstairs and he just you know, 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:00.159 looked outside the window and saw yellow cab and it's 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:02.280 being kids there, nosy, and they looked in and I 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:06.480 guess from my memory of what I was told, saw 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:10.720 someone slouch over in the car who, you know, come 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.359 to find it was a culprit of the zodiac. And 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:21.720 you call the police and his family or his mom 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:24.639 and dad were down the street at a party, and 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:26.560 you know, they called me. It was crazy. You know, 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:29.760 I think someone just got murdered. Police came and that's 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:32.359 what they came to find. And he's been hassled. You 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:36.199 don't buy every investigator since trying to solve it. But 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:43.520 I don't think they ever found him. He'd like talking 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:45.160 about it that much, But I think it was either 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:47.919 from that window there the first floor, or it was 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:49.960 from the third floor. Pretty sure it was from the 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:52.600 first floor. But I think he did feel some sort 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:55.720 of weight of responsibility of, you know, give accurate information 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.199 to help solve this crime. You know, I mean he 0:21:58.280 --> 0:21:59.560 was young and I think it was only twelve. 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:16.359 The Zodiacs moved to San Francisco meant there would be 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:20.160 a lot of changes in the investigation. One of them 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:22.159 was that that was the first time he had struck 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:24.919 in a major metropolitan city, which meant that a major 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:28.440 metropolitan police force would be assigned to the case. Two 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:30.919 of the investigators assigned to the case who arrived at 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:35.120 the crime scene that night were David Toski and Bill Armstrong. 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:39.320 Dave Tosky was sort of known as a celebrity cop. 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:43.960 He liked media attention. People who lived in San Francisco 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:46.240 were accustomed seeing his name in the newspaper or his 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:49.600 face on television, and when the Zodiac crime started, that 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:52.879 just naturally increased because now he was in charge of 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:56.399 the hunt for the biggest serial killer in California history. 0:22:57.040 --> 0:23:03.280 He was identified primarily as the Zodiac in the movie 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:06.760 Bullet Steve McQueen supposedly based a lot of his character 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:09.359 on Dave Toski, including the way he held his gun 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:12.000 in things like that, and there's also stories that the 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:15.880 movie Dirty Harry was inspired by the battle between Tosky 0:23:15.920 --> 0:23:16.720 and the Zodiac. 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:19.760 Is a mad Matt Loose give him the message at 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:20.280 the chronicle. 0:23:20.720 --> 0:23:21.560 We'll agree to pay. 0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:23.760 We'll tell him we need time to get the money together. 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:24.800 Wait a minute, do I. 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:25.280