Graysmith claimed that, in February 1997, the SFPD had contacted him regarding the results of DNA testing on the envelope which had contained the suspected Zodiac forgery of April 1978. Witnesses at the Stine scene, including police officer Donald Fouke, provided this description: "White Male Adult, in his early forties, 5'8", heavy build, reddish-blond 'crew cut' hair, wearing eyeglasses, dark brown trousers, dark (navy blue or black) 'Parka' jacket, dark shoes." [Armstrong himself once told an interviewer that Graysmith's chapter regarding Allen in the book ZODIAC was "hogwash."] Graysmith claims that experts endorsed his solution and the film ZODIAC depicts a television interview of Graysmith regarding his solution. Graysmith's book was published in the spring of 1986 and the New York Zodiac first appeared in the summer of 1990. While George Bawart and Vallejo Police Captain Roy Conway described Mageau's identification as "positive," the Vallejo Police Department did not consider the identification to be valid. # 15 - Phoenix, Ariz.: Any parts of the movie (or book) that ended up on the cutting room floor you would've liked to make it in? According to the police reports, the investigators and the family of Arthur Leigh Allen, police contacted Allen's brother Ron and his sister-in-law Karen to inform them that Allen was a suspect in the Zodiac case. I have published 7 true crime books, 3 have been movies. Det. Sgt Lynch and put together a composite drawing. # 8 - Fairfax, Va.: How can you be so confident that you have the right killer? Just kidding. At that moment I was free. He was already a suspect in the other Zodiac crimes and to get himself up to that remote lake the same time as Zodiac has to be more than coincidence. Downey did a fantastic job. One of them is the silent film organist Bob Vaughn, who knew one of the suspects in the case. Robert Graysmith: I was with them from the first day, while writing the script, considering casting and trying to get the movie made. Mageau was contacted by police several times after the shooting and, on several occasions, he was asked to view photographs of various suspects (he identified none as the shooter). Jake simply observed me and I saw in the film he caught every mannerism, even wore my awful 1970s clothes. # 1 - Los Angeles, Calif.: As a prime suspect, why was Leigh Allen's photo never shown in a line-up to the surviving July 4 victim (until decades later) or the lady with the baby whose car the Zodiac burned, or the witnesses at the party above the Stine crime scene, or the cops who stopped and released him near the Presidio after the Stine killing? Back then police departments were not sharing info. My best friend, Inspector Dave Toschi who lives nearby, and I have been going over that for nearly thirty years. # 3 - Anonymous: The movie grabbed and held my attention for its (rather long) running length. In the updated edition of ZODIAC UNMASKED, Graysmith wrote that the gloves were important evidence belonging to the killer. I looked so closely to find out. During one interview, Graysmith admitted that no evidence would ever deter his belief that Allen was the Zodiac. Paul Avery was healthy and gainfully employed in the late 1970s, and, he was still employed and in good health when interviewed for a television program in 1989. Graysmith states that he is glad to have left the case behind but, at the same time, every word he utters proves that he has been consistently obsessed with the case, writing two books in less than 7 years. The earliest date for any police interest in Allen was October 1969, one month AFTER the attack at Lake Berryessa. Here is an example of the manner in which Graysmith "changed" the facts in ZODIAC. In ZODIAC, Graysmith used the pseudonym "Starr" when referring to Allen and wrote: "Starr's father died just before the Riverside murder (1966). That book ends in 1983. Michael Mageau described the suspect at the Blue Rock Springs Park shooting as a "WMA, short, possible 5'8", was real heavy set, beefy build... not blubbery fat, but real beefy, possibly 195 to 200 [lbs] or maybe even larger... short curly hair, light brown almost blond... with a large face." According to Graysmith, the initial tests had produced DNA which matched his suspect Arthur Leigh Allen; however, a second test did not match Allen. According to Mageau, the shooter approached the car carrying a bright light and Mageau was then shot in the jaw and other areas of his body. The witnesses at the Stine scene never identified Allen. Fincher never uncovered such statements. I could see his hair. # 25 - Washyington, D.C.: Was there any concern on the part of you or the filmmakers that this story takes place back when it does and that modern day science (DNA, forensics) have come along to make your story and crime solving a little bit retro and not hi-tech? Is it still an important tool? Several people allegedly named on that list, including Dean Ferrin's brother, Arthur Leigh Allen's brother Ron, and others have denied that they ever attended such a party. The methods described by Graysmith do not indicate that Allen wrote the Zodiac letters. While Graysmith did change "some dates" in his first book, more often that not he did so in order to make his suspect appear guilty. The same individual was responsible for calls to Belli's home, yet Graysmith has also attempted to deceive the public by claiming that these calls were made by the Zodiac, and, by proxy, his suspect. : The first guy who was murdered in the movie, the one with the girl who were on a hillside ... What's happened to him? Graysmith also misleads the readers by suggesting that modern technology would have been able to trace the calls to the KGO TV station and, therefore, would have led to the arrest of the Zodiac. Writing the letters and ciphers eventually became Zodiac's true motive. Robert Graysmith: In those days I weighed 145 (mainly from the stress of the search) was shorter and had much bigger feet. What if Zodiac knew Bob Vaughn and asked Vaughn to write the letters? # 18 - The Stars: Hello Robert, One more question. My latest is THE LAUGHING GORILLA a 1935 story set in San Francisco about police corruption, and the completed SHOOTING ZODIAC, the story of three Hollywood detectives who try to greenlight a film. Graysmith's book was not only available in New York at the time of the New York copycat but the evidence proved that the copycat killer had consulted Graysmith's book during his crime spree. In the film, Avery's boss takes him to task, citing the reporter's kook-like letter to the Department of Justice on Chronicle letterhead, in which Avery asks to be appointed the head of the Zodiac investigation. According to Graysmith's version of events in ZODIAC, the family suspected that Allen was the Zodiac, they held a family meeting to discuss what to do, and the family reported Allen to the police. I could see his hair. # 29 - Providence, R.I.: What about the physical disparity between the killer seen leaving the Stine cab and Leigh Allen? If Toschi had determined, in 1969, that the gloves belonged to a woman passenger, as Graysmith wrote, he would have no reason to believe that the gloves belonged to the killer when searching Allen's trailer in 1971. Sandy Panzarella Adam Trese. Arthur Leigh Allen: Arthur Leigh Allen, also known as Lee, was the prime suspect throughout the film. Here are the descriptions provided by the various witnesses. Toschi and Armstrong both stated, in public and in private interviews, that the fingerprint and handwriting evidence would identify the Zodiac long after both fingerprint and handwriting evidence had excluded Allen as a suspect. # 6 - Seattle: How much of Avery's spiral (that is, the drinking, the drugs, the loss of job) was a result of his own obsesession with the Zodiac? ... Lampshaded when Robert briefly thinks that Bob Vaughn is the Zodiac. Graysmith's claims regarding the equipment necessary to produce the Zodiac's code are simply his opinion posing as fact-- the Zodiac did not require such equipment to produce the code, although he may have used such equipment to do so. Some serial killers think that a conscience is something others have made up to make them feel inferior. Robert is convinced that this is Arthur Leigh Allen, and quickly rushes to Toschi's place in the middle of the night to tell him, and the former homicide detective finally relents for a meeting. FACT CHECK: In his book ZODIAC, Graysmith presented his proposed solution to the Zodiac's unsolved 340 symbol cipher. Any thoughts? In fact, Avery did not require the use of oxygen until the late 1990s. None of the witnesses ever described the Zodiac as Graysmith did: 6 feet tall, 230lbs, and balding. Graysmith's ridiculous claim that "every" letter was handled by a photogengraver is nothing more than yet another attempt to cast doubt on evidence which has been used to clear his pet suspect. Have they done any other DNA testing? If the list did exist, the evidence indicates that this list was produced years after Darlene's murder. What are the factors that go into the making of such a phenomenon? That's why they couldn't pin the hand writing to Allen Leigh Arthur. FACT CHECK: Graysmith is once again distorting the facts and misleading the public. Graysmith claims that he "worked with Sherwood Morrill" when, in fact, Graysmith claimed that he had consulted with Morrill after his retirement from the California Department of Justice. Allen first came to the attention of the San Francisco Police Department in the summer of 1971. 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