SERIAL KILLERS > MOST NOTORIOUS

The Zodiac Killer

By Jake Wark

San Francisco

SFPD Homicide Case #696314 

On the night of Saturday, October 11, 1969, San Francisco cab driver Paul Stine picked up a fare at the corner of Mason and Geary Streets in Union Square headed for the Presidio, which lies at the northern tip of the San Francisco peninsula.  The destination that Stine entered in his log and called in to his dispatcher was at the corner of Washington and Maple Streets in Presidio Heights. 

The cab was parked one block west, however, at the intersection of Washington and Cherry Streets, when the passenger shot Stine point blank in the right side of the head.  Whether the killer had made the trip in the front seat or got in front after the murder is uncertain, but witnesses saw him in front as he removed the dead man's wallet and keys, and then cut a large piece from the back of his shirt which he soaked in blood and took with him as he walked slowly north on Cherry Street.

Three teenage siblings on the second floor of 3899 Washington, directly across the street from the cab, happened to spot the killer as he cut Stine's shirt and suspected foul play.  They watched him exit the cab and wipe down parts of the cab's interior and exterior, briefly leaning on the driver's side door frame. 

They called the police, who logged the call at 9:58 p.m. and broadcast an incorrect description of the killer as a black male.  Consequently, when patrolmen Donald Foukes and Eric Zelms responded in a radio car and noticed a heavyset white man sauntering east on Jackson Street, they made no effort to apprehend him.  Despite the intensive search of the area that followed, the killer's head start allowed him to escape, probably to a nearby getaway car.

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1. The Zodiac Killer
2. The First Letter
3. Bates Had To Die
4. Speculation
5. Vallejo
6. Ferrin and Mageau
7. Phone Calls
8. Cryptic Message
9. This is the Zodiac Speaking
10. Lake Berryessa
11. Shepard and Hartnell
12. Evidence
13. San Francisco
14. The Suspect
15. Threats
16. Taunting Police
17. Melvin Belli
18. Highway 132
19. More Threats
20. The Summer of '70
21. The Halloween Card
22. The Riverside Connection
23. The LA Times Letter
24. 1974 Reappearance
25. Final Letters
26. The 1978 Letter
27. Controversy
28. Possible Authors
29. A Look at Lake Berryessa
30. Fingerprint Evidence
31. A Tip
32. Donald Cheney
33. The Case Against Arthur Allen
34. Allen's Interview
35. No Evidence
36. Still A Favorite
37. What's Going on with the Zodiac?
38. Mystery Has its own Allure
39. Footnotes