Framing

• Richard Shelby most clearly documented DeAngelo trying to frame a specific person for one of his own crimes. The October 9, 1976 EAR case file shows that before entering the home of the rape victim, DeAngelo broke into the home of neighbor, John Dority, and planted some jewelry stolen from earlier EAR victims. After the rape, DeAngelo told the victim not to yell for help because he lived nearby, would hear her, and come back and kill her. Dority was roughly the same age, height, weight, and build as DeAngelo, and when asked, the victim believed that Dority could have been her attacker.

•It is unclear exactly how DeAngelo expected investigators to focus on Dority as a suspect. Did he have some kind of arrest record that would attract SSD attention? Was the victim supposed to guess and report him? Was DeAngelo planning to call or send in a “tip” to police implicating Dority?

•Whatever plan DeAngelo had for Dority was ruined by his own mistake—DeAngelo accidentally left the chain on the front door, which caused Dority to realize someone had been in the house while he was gone and to look for signs of a burglary. That caused him to find the planted EAR evidence in a bedroom, and report it to the police. Shelby saw that as a framing attempt, and was able to clear Dority by having him under surviellence during the next EAR attack. 

• There were several different ways that people became suspects in the EAR case:

- They came up during the investigation. Often they were suspect guesses by the victim. Sometimes there were neighbors, co-workers, or random people seen or parked nearby;

- They lived in the area, and had a criminal record for a sex offense;

- They contacted police and offered to help, or inserted themselves in the investigation;

- An identified person phoned in, or wrote to the police with a tip, often an ex; or,

- Police received an anonymous tip, often through the “Secret Witness” program, which started in Sacramento in 1971:

•Tips submitted through the Secret Witness program could be totally anonymous. The tipster made up his own sequence of numbers and letters, and then used that to call in, and check on any reward money. He could then receive the reward in cash, without providing any identification. 

•There were questions about the system being used to send the police to hassle innocent people, and possibly leading to wrongful convictions if the officers got tunnel vision, or just wanted the case closed. The police promised that they used the system with caution, and during the EAR investigation they explained how they weeded out “revenge” tips, and focused on particular subjects:

•Immediately after their first EAR attack on September 6, 1977,  Stockton PD received several anonymous written tips about possible suspects. They all appeared to live near the victims, fit the then-current physical description being used by law enforcement, and had a prior sex offense.

•The first tip was about Mike Krafft, and it arrived in an envelope from the office of the Chief of Police in nearby Ceres, but it had been altered with a small piece of correction tape to say "Thief of Police." 

MIKE KRAFFT

•Although the tip was not sent by the Chief, it appears that it was processed through the PD office postal meter (likely left in the outgoing mail basket). Clearly, Stockton PD should have assumed that this typed letter was sent by someone messing with them—like the EAR—but instead they appear to have processed it like a legitimate tip:

•The letter was addressed to Sgt. Grude, the investigator quoted in the newspaper, and interviewed on the news in Sacramento:

•The victim’s name and address were never used in any story or news report (as was true with all rape cases at that time). The only way a civilian would have known her name was if he knew her personally in some way as a friend, family, co-worker, neighbor, or through very close word of mouth. 

•The letter points out the type of matching points that law enforcement said they were prioritizing when considering which tips to follow. Krafft was 25 yrs, 5'10", 160 lbs, brown hair, and blue eyes so he matched both the EAR description, and DeAngelo himself. 

•Krafft’s prior sex offense involved a very underage girlfriend who became pregnant, so it was not a home invasion, or stranger attack. At the time of the letter, Krafft was managing his family’s tire store—Krafft Tire, in Stockton. Stockton PD investigated Krafft, but he had no connection to Sacramento, and had a good alibi for the Stockton attack. 

•The tone and content of the tip was very strange. Krafft lived about a mile north of the victim, at the edge of the same lakeside development, but he would not have causally seen her, and when asked, the victim and her husband said they did not know him. 

•There is no way to prove that DeAngelo submitted the Krafft tip, but the typewriter is consistent with the one he was confirmed as using to write the poem he sent to the press, politicians, and law enforcment in Sacramento three months later:

•Although Stockton PD felt that they had thoroughly checked and eliminated Krafft, it appears that DeAngelo was not done trying to frame him. 

• The county record of Krafft's sex offense from 1970 contained the address where he grew up--1724 Meadow. 

•When DeAngelo returned to Stockton in March of 1978, he attacked a couple at 1616 Meadow—six doors down from Krafft's childhood home.  Every house on that side of the street, including the new owners of 1724 Meadow, had their gates left open, or heard noises in their backyard on the night of the attack. DeAngelo clearly expected that the attack would point to Krafft, and Stockton PD would act on his “tip.”

TOMMY MYERS

•This tip was sent to the Stockton PD Chief, Julio Cecchetti. He had also appeared on the news in Sacramento:

•The typewriter is consistent with the Krafft letter, and includes the same descending steps typing style seen in "Excitement Crave."

•This tip is the only known time that the EAR and Zodiac were discussed as possibly being the same offender.  

•There was absolutely no reason that anyone would have speculated about that connection in September of 1977. According to Sacramento authorities, the EAR had not killed anyone, or even caused a serious injury. There was no evidence or suspicion that the EAR had any knowledge of, or connection to San Francisco, or the East Bay area. The EAR was a home invasion rapist, and Zodiac was generally thought of as a lover's lane killer of couples.

•Tommy Myers was a longshoreman, a job his father had gotten him on the docks of Stockton, and he was an extremely believable suspect as a home invasion sex offender:

•The 1963 article was the last mention of Myers in the press, and it’s unclear when he was released from prison. At some point he returned to his longshoreman’s job, and later married a woman in Stockton in 1972. He may have been in prison during some or all of the Zodiac crimes, and Myers has no known connection to the Bay Area. 

•The person who provided the tip about Myers either knew the exact details of his crimes 15 years earlier, or had access to Stockton PD's county level list of sex offenders. The evidence points to the latter. 

•In the Myers suspect section of Stockton PD’s files, there is a CLETS printout on Myers from May, 1977. It’s notable because Stockton’s first attack wasn’t until September. However, 5/77 corresponds with Inspector Shelby’s request to Stockton for possible EAR suspects in their jurisdiction. Myers CLETS showed no convictions, but he would have been on Stockton’s list of sex offenders requested by Shelby. 

•One of the other things that appeared to make Myers a good suspect for the September EAR attack in Stockton was his address of record near the crime scene. However, when Stockton PD investigated further, they discovered that Myers and his wife were living apart, and Myers was in a mobile home park south of Stockton--the location where they ended up serving a search warrant on him--and finding nothing:

•Myers was unavailable for many EAR attacks, including the one in Stockton, and had no connection to Sacramento. He was quickly eliminated as a main suspect. However, the tipster was not done with him, and sent handwritten tips in mid-October:

•The handwriting on the later Myers tips is consistent with DeAngelo. A few things are particularly specific, like the underlines, style of question mark, missing and misplaced dots over "i," and capital letters in the middle of words and sentences. The unique lower case "r" and "y" have been identified as significant in their formation. 

•The supposed significance of a bandage on Myers’ hand more than a month after the attack is a mystery, especially so soon after Stockton PD searched Myers’ home, vehicle, and person. It may point to another crime the tipster expected to be connected to the EAR, but wasn’t--maybe an attack that was never reported to police. There is nothing in Stockton's investigation reports to indicate that they took another look at Myers based upon those tips.

TONY LaPREASE

•The tip on Tony LaPrease was submitted directly to the "Secret Witness" program in Sacramento using the anonymous code system. The handwriting is clearly consistent with the handwritten Myers notes, and uses parentheses for the nickname (Tony), just as the typed Myers note did (Tommy).

•The reference to "white over green" is instantly recognizable as unique law enforcement speak, and is found in DeAngelo's own Auburn PD reports:

•Also like DeAngelo, the note writer had a difficult time maintaining block printing, and defaulted to random lower case letters.

•LaPrease lived in New York until August, 1976, so he was easily eliminated as an EAR suspect. He had never lived in Sacramento, and had no knowledge of the area. The Stockton PD file on LaPrease did not indicate any prior criminal history. 

•LaPrease had an alibi for the night of the Stockton attack, and the next Sacramento EAR attack. He was eliminated as a suspect with no indication of anything other than his physical description and "pool man" job that would have caused someone to report him. How/why he was chosen for framing is unknown. 

ROBERT GENE "BOBBY" EAST

•The anonymous tip on Bobby East was sent to Stockton PD, which was marked for follow up. 

•The entirety of the tip as submitted appears to be a "Soundex" photo available to law enforcement from the DMV files, and a handwritten message on a torn piece of paper:

•East lived and worked in Fremont, but had been arrested for DUI in the Stockton area just after the EAR attack. He matched the physical description of the EAR, but his prior arrests were all drug related, and in the Fremont area. 

•It's unknown why East was chosen for framing, or how he was so quickly cleared by Stockton PD, but he had no connection to Sacramento, and no history of anything other than addiction offenses. 

•DeAngelo may have made another, later attempt to frame East by attacking a couple in Fremont in April, 1979. 

•In addition to the connections between DeAngelo and the suspect tips, there are similarities between the tips and unique habits of Zodiac.

•The alteration to read "thief of police" in the return address, and the angled stamps are the type of messaging favored by Zodiac:

•Zodiac's Halloween card to Paul Avery showed an enormous amount of planning, execution, and a very creepy and specific sense of humor.

•The plain card, as purchased, was clearly chosen for its reference to the "game" Zodiac was playing with the police and press:

•On the front of the card, the eyes were altered, and a giant pumpkin sticker was placed over the crotch area.

•The inside of the card had more extensive customizations:

--Peek-A-Boo You Are Doomed!

--An articulated skeleton with added mask

--Twelve added eyes with lashes looking towards the skeleton

--4-Teen (claimed body count)

--BOO!

--Zodiac "Z"

--Zodiac "sight" symbol

--Zodiac pictogram

•The back of the card indicated all of the methods Zodiac planned to use to "gather his slaves" for the afterlife:

•The handwritten tips about Tommy Myers bandaged hand included an underline flourish also regularly used by Zodiac: