The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (104 page)

edly at point-blank range; and 45-year-old Jane Holly, that required the murder of “blue-eyed devils” as a fatally wounded by a gunman who approached her on form of initiation. By their very nature—and the form the street. Survivor Roxanne Miller, age 23, recalled of the police response—the “Zebra” murders (so called that her assailant smiled and said “Hi” before he after a police code name for the case) heightened racial opened fire.

tension by the Bay and left a legacy of doubt that time On April 1, 19-year-old Thomas Rainwater and 21-has failed to dissipate.

year-old Linda Story were gunned down while walking The first known “Zebra” victims were Richard and to a neighborhood store. Rainwater was killed outright, Quita Hague, abducted by blacks in a van as they while Story survived with permanent nerve damage.

walked down the street on October 19, 1973. Richard Two weeks later, on Easter Sunday, Ward Anderson and Hague was hacked about the head and face with a Terry White were wounded by black gunmen at a San machete, stunned and left for dead before the attackers Francisco bus stop. The last victim, Nelson Shields, was raped his wife and finished her with the same machete, shot three times in the back and killed on April 16, leaving her nearly decapitated. By some miracle, 1974.

Richard survived the ordeal.

Police response to the “Zebra” murders was almost Three days later, gunman Jessie Lee Cooks abducted as controversial as the crimes themselves. A policy of a young white woman, holding her captive for two stopping blacks at random on the street and frisking hours while he raped her repeatedly and forced her to them for weapons produced cries of racism and civil perform oral sex. Arrested on this and other charges rights violations, while producing no viable suspects.

prior to the conclusion of the “Zebra” case, Cooks—a The case was broken in late April when gunman

psychopathic ex-convict—pled guilty to one count of Anthony Cornelius Harris surrendered voluntarily and murder in return for dismissal of other counts. By the made a full confession to authorities. Turning state’s time the “Zebra” case broke in 1974, he was already evidence, he named eight Death Angel killers aside from serving his sentence.

himself, and seven of the suspects were picked up in On October 29, 28-year-old Frances Rose was shot raids on May 1. (Jessie Cooks was already in prison.) and killed by a black man who tried to invade her mov-Four of the suspects were ultimately freed for lack of ing car on a San Francisco street. A month later, on solid evidence, and they remain at large today. Indicted November 25, 53-year-old Saleem Erakat was tied up for the “Zebra” crimes were Jessie Cooks, J. C. Simon, and shot execution-style in his small grocery store. Paul Larry Craig Green, and Manuel Leonard Moore. Harris, Dancik died on December 11, shot three times in the Moore, and Cooks had met while serving time in San chest while walking to a corner phone booth. Two days Quentin on various felony charges, and they had joined later, 35-year-old Arthur Agnos was wounded and the Black Muslim movement while still behind bars.

Marietta Di Girolamo was killed in separate, random The “Zebra” trial set a new record for California shooting incidents. The use of a similar (or identical) criminal proceedings, lasting from March 3, 1975 to weapon in each of the crimes suggested one triggerman March 9, 1979. Three of the four defense attorneys or a group of killers sharing lethal hardware.

were provided and paid by the Nation of Islam in a Things went from bad to worse near Christmas. On demonstration of solidarity with the accused murderers.

December 20, 81-year-old Ilario Bertuccio was killed At the end of the marathon trial, jurors took barely 18

while walking home from work, and Angela Roselli hours to convict all defendants on all counts, and the was wounded three times as she left a Christmas party.

four gunmen were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Neal Moynihan, 19, and 50-year-old Mildred Hosler As for the Death Angels, their existence has never died six minutes apart on December 22, cut down in been publicly acknowledged by American law enforce-random attacks. On December 23, a gathering of Death ment, and the results of confidential investigations into Angels tortured and dismembered an unknown tran-the cult remain classified. According to author Clark sient in their San Francisco loft, dumping his mangled Howard, there were 15 “accredited” Death Angels—

remains on a beach where they were found next morn-those who had earned their “wings” by killing a speci-ing. Never identified, he is listed in homicide files as fied numbers of white—at large in California during

“John Doe #169” for 1973.

1973. None of them were swept up in the “Zebra”

The killers celebrated the New Year with a free-dragnet, which bagged only prospective members, still wheeling rampage on January 28, killing four persons short of their tally for final qualification. They and their
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ZIKODE, Christopher Mhlengwa

brethren in the cult are presumably still at large and case on April 30, 1967, identical letters were posted to possibly still hunting.

the newspaper, police, and to the victim’s father. They read: “Bates had to die. There will be more.”

On December 20, 1968, 17-year-old David Faraday
ZIKODE, Christopher Mhlengwa

was parked with his date, 16-year-old Betty Lou Jensen, A South African predator known as the “Donnybrook on a rural road east of the Vallejo city limits in northern Serial Killer,” after the rural Natal midlands town California. A night-stalking gunman found them there where his crimes were committed, Zikode murdered 18

and killed both teenagers, shooting Faraday in the head victims and attempted to kill 11 more between 1993

as he sat behind the wheel of his car. Betty Lou ran 30

and 1995. Launching his rampage at age 19, Zikode feet before she was cut down by a tight group of five followed the same MODUS OPERANDI in most of his shots in the back, fired from a .22-caliber automatic attacks: choosing a likely house, he kicked the door in, pistol.

gunned down any men or boys on hand, then dragged On July 4, 1969, Michael Mageau, 19, picked up the females off to nearby plantations where they were his date, 22-year-old Darlene Ferrin, for a night on the raped repeatedly—for up to five hours at a stretch—

town. At one point, Mageau believed they were being before they, too, were killed. If the women resisted his followed, but Darlene seemed to recognize the other assault, Zikode was not above shooting them first and motorist, telling Mageau, “Don’t worry about it.” By then raping their corpses. An alternative technique, midnight, they were parked at Blue Rock Springs Park employed with several victims, involved ambushing when a familiar vehicle pulled alongside and the driver women or girls on lonely footpaths, carrying them off shined a bright light in their eyes, opening fire with a to be raped and killed.

9mm pistol. Hit four times, Mageau survived; Dar-Zikode was arrested for the first time in July 1995

lene, with nine wounds, was dead on arrival at a local for the attempted murder of a female victim named hospital.

Beauty Zulu. Granted bail on that charge, he commit-Forty minutes after the shooting, Vallejo police ted at least five more offenses—including one murder, received an anonymous call, directing officers to the one rape, two attempted murders, and one housebreak-murder scene. Before hanging up, the male caller ing with intent to rape—before he was jailed again in declared, “I also killed those kids last year.”

September. Held this time without bond, Zikode went In retrospect, friends and relatives recalled that Darto trial in late 1996, the proceedings highlighted by lene Ferrin had been suffering harassment through South Africa’s star forensic profiler, DR. MICKI PISTO-anonymous phone calls and intimidating visits by a RIUS. Finally convicted on 21 charges including eight heavyset stranger in the weeks before her death. She murders, five rapes, five attempted murders, and one called the strange man Paul and told one girlfriend that indecent assault—all committed between April and Sep-he wished to silence her because she had seen him com-tember 1995—Zikode was sentenced on January 7, mit a murder. Police searched for “Paul” in the wake of 1997, to a prison term of 140 years. The High Court Darlene’s slaying, but he was never located or identified.

judge who sentenced him avoided comment on the

“gory details” of the case but did remark specifically on Zikode’s “contemptible” attitude toward women.

“ZODIAC”

California’s most elusive serial killer claimed his first confirmed victim on October 30, 1966, in Riverside.

That evening, Cheri Jo Bates, an 18-year-old freshman at Riverside City College, emerged from the campus library to find her car disabled, the distributor coil disconnected. Police theorize that her killer approached with an offer of help, then dragged her behind some nearby shrubbery where a furious struggle ended with Cheri stabbed in the chest and back, her throat slashed so deeply that she was nearly decapitated.

In November 1966, a letter to the local press

declared that Cheri “is not the first and she will not be

“Zodiac” cryptogram, decoded by a California high school the last.” Following publication of an article about the teacher (Author’s collection)

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“ZODIAC”

A phone call to police reported the crime, but by that time, a fisherman had already discovered the victims.

Brian Hartnell survived his wounds, but Cecilia Shepherd was doomed, another victim for the man who called himself the Zodiac.

On October 11, San Francisco cab driver Paul Stine was shot in the head and killed with a 9mm automatic pistol. Witnesses saw the gunman escape on foot toward the Presidio, and police descended on the neighborhood in force. At one point in the search, two patrolmen stopped a heavyset pedestrian and were directed in pursuit of their elusive prey, not realizing that the “tip” had been provided by the very man they sought.

In the wake of Stine’s murder, the Zodiac launched a new barrage of letters, some containing swatches of the cabbie’s bloodstained shirt. Successive messages claimed seven victims, instead of the established five, and the killer threatened to “wipe out a school bus some morning.” He also vowed to change his method Threatening “Zodiac” letter addressed to a San Francisco of “collecting souls”: “They shall look like routine rob-newspaper (Author’s collection)

beries, killings of anger, & a few fake suicides, etc.”

Five days before Christmas, he wrote to prominent attorney Melvin Belli, pleading for help with the chilling remark that “I cannot remain in control for much On July 31, 1969, the killer mailed letters to three longer.”

Bay Area newspapers, each containing one-third of a On March 22, 1970, Kathleen Johns was driving

cryptic cipher. Ultimately broken by a local high school with her infant daughter near Modesto, California, teacher, the message began: “I like killing people when another motorist pulled her over, flashing his because it is so much fun.” The author explained that headlights and beeping his horn. The man informed her he was killing in an effort to “collect slaves,” who that a rear tire on her car seemed dangerously loose; he would serve him in the afterlife. Another correspon-worked on it briefly with a lug wrench, but when she dence, mailed on August 7, introduced the “Zodiac”

tried to drive away, the wheel fell off. Her benefactor name and provided details of the latest murder, leaving offered a lift to the nearest garage, then took Kathleen police in no doubt its author was the killer.

on an aimless drive through the countryside, threaten-On September 27, 20-year-old Bryan Hartnell and ing her life and that of her child before she managed to Cecilia Shepherd, 20, were enjoying a picnic at Lake escape from the car, hiding in a roadside irrigation Berryessa near Vallejo when they were accosted by a ditch. Reporting the abduction at a local police station, hooded gunman. Covering them with a pistol, the Johns noticed a wanted poster bearing sketches of the stranger described himself as an escaped convict who Zodiac, and she identified the man as her attacker.