1969: The Zodiac Killer Leaves His Own Scorecard Written on a Victim’s Car Door
On September 27, 1969, at about 6.30 pm, the Zodiac Killer attacked Bryan Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Shepard, 22, as they picnicked at Lake Berryessa in Napa County, California. He wore a black hooded costume marked with his crosshair symbol and, breaking from the shootings of his earlier attacks, stabbed both victims repeatedly. Hartnell survived; Shepard died two days later.
Before leaving, the killer used a black felt-tip pen to draw his crosshair signature on Hartnell’s car door, then listed beneath it the dates and locations of his previous attacks: Vallejo, 12-20-68, 7-4-69, and the day’s own assault, 6:30, by knife. The first date referred to the killing of David Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16, on Lake Herman Road, and the second to the shooting of Michael Mageau, 19, and Darlene Ferrin, 22, in a Vallejo park, where Mageau survived and Ferrin died.
The note tied all three attacks together in the killer’s own hand at the scene, before any letter to police or press had been sent. He then drove roughly 27 miles to a car wash in downtown Napa and, from a payphone, calmly called the Napa County Sheriff’s Department himself at 7.40 pm to report the crime.
