Robert Graysmith - Shooting Zodiac

SHOOTING
ZODIAC

ROBERT GRAYSMITH

MONKEYS PAW PUBLISHING, INC. - LOS ANGELES

Books by Robert Graysmith

Zodiac

The Sleeping Lady

Auto Focus*

Unabomber*

The Bell Tower

Zodiac Unmasked

Amerithrax*

The Laughing Gorilla

The Girl in Alfred Hitchcocks Shower

Black Fire

Shooting Zodiac

* preview at end of book.

Audio Books

Zodiac

Zodiac Unmasked

Black Fire

Film Adaptations

Zodiac

Auto Focus

SHOOTING ZODIAC

Published by Monkeys Paw Publishing, Inc.
This book is based on face to face, tape-recorded interviews conducted on scene by the author between 2003 and 2007.

Copyright 2021 by Robert Graysmith.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the publisher or copyright owner except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Photos by the author unless otherwise noted.

Book & Cover design by Aaron Smith

ISBN: 978-1-7365800-3-5

Monkeys Paw Publishing, Inc.

Los Angeles, CA

www.monkeyspawpublishing.com

The Monkey Paw design is a trademark of Monkeys Paw Publishing, Inc.

In Memory of Inspector David Toschi,
Detective Sergeant George Bawart, and
Captain Ken Narlow, Heroes All

Something draws the girls attention, David Fincher said. The maverick director paused at the spot along the shore Captain Ken Narlow had indicated. Something was not right. Fincher looked down at the rocky ground and the steep slope of the rotting tree as if he had not seen them before. Without a word he wheeled and walked some distance around to the adjacent peninsula. The retired detectives watched the celebrated filmmaker follow the curve of land and circle to a little inlet on the other bank. His head was down as he took long, athletic strides. Suddenly, he knelt and studied the ground. He picked up a fistful of earth, let it drift between his fingers, and watched as the wind carried the reddish particles away. He looked up at the road high above where the victims car had been found, then looked back at the tree. Next, he tossed a few rocks in the air and gazed to the center of the lake where it was a couple hundred feet deep. Fincher wondered what other mysteries might be buried there. Further up, underneath the dam at Devils Gate, was the narrow point of Putah Creek.

Fincher returned from his scouting trip and made an announcement. His voice was confident and clear, ringing out over the lake. The other side of the little island out there is much more vertical than this side, he said. I think that is the actual murder site.

Lets go over and take a look, Narlow said and started north with Jamie Vanderbilt. Im not one hundred percent convinced this is the place. When Narlow reached the other side of the inlet, he clapped a hand to his forehead and then hailed Fincher and the rest of the men across the water. My God! he hollered, I took you to the wrong spot!

In that arcane way he had of penetrating to the heart of a riddle, Fincher had discerned the truth. He became quiet as he began working the puzzle of the open taxi door, the blood that should have been elsewhere, a bloody print that belonged to no one, and the shot nobody heard.

PREFACE

EVERY SATURDAY consisted of sitting in the dark watching a triple feature, broken only by my race home to hear the radio adventures of The Shadow. Childhood was spent chasing about the country and across the world with my Air Force family. It was curious that no matter where we landed, the South, or New Mexico, or Japan, I never seemed to be able to catch the first or the last chapter of the fifteen weekly cliffhangers that were shown in those days. Whatever U.S. Air Base where we happened to be living at the time, my first priority was always to find the local theatre. Id return each week to catch most of the storyline, but once again, before I could see the completion of one story or the beginning of the next, wed have already moved once more. Incomplete beginnings and missing endings left my mind wondering what had happened in the prior weeks, and the possibilities of how the other cliffhanger chapters may have ended. It was a search for resolution. These cold openings, and missing endings, likely paved my way to appreciate the unresolved qualities of the legendary Zodiac casethe true story of a costumed, hooded killer, cloaked in ciphers and trailing untraceable letters.

The two young men at my book signing were more animated than most. There was an intentness and dedication about them that was unique. As one homicide investigator later said, You had to like them. My meetings with producer Brad Fischer, and screenwriter Jamie Vanderbilt became this booka Making of book that ends before the first scene is shotthe making of a story with no ending. From boardroom to fog-shrouded lake to posh San Francisco mansions and mayors offices, I followed Brad and Jamie and director David Fincher as they climbed through the mountains and along desolate roads. Looming over us was always that moment of doubt if Fincher was going to be there at the end of the road. He was going to make the film his way, and at his price, and his satisfaction, that they had the facts, or not make it at all.

Part Hollywood boardroom drama and part true crime thriller, I was there as they battled a huge script that refused to be beaten, a case that refused to be solved, and a running time and a budget that were a stumbling block to their movie being greenlit. As Brad said no one has ever had such behind the scenes access as I had. I was there as Brad and Jamie and Fincher learned new facts and challenged old, and brought the period to life. The original investigators were lured out of their retirement holes by one of the most unorthodox, ethical, and exacting movie directors of our time. No mystery could stand up against this reluctant director. Or could it? I wondered what more was there to say about one of the most puzzling murder mysteries in historyI was about to find out.

Working with top experts in linguistics, forensics, psychology, and with new witnesses, Fincher makes speedy progress until he comes up against political intrigue and a police department that on the face of it seemingly wants to bury the case, that the fight to make his movie really begins.

I visualized a bleak landscape that might be a movie: fireworks in the sky, and marching readers carrying torches for truth. Brad, Jamie, and Finchers mantra would be sung by the throng: For Toschi. For Darlene. For Paul and all the rest. For all those who fought to never forget and put what they learned on the screen for all to seeforever. These filmmakers, like many of you, picked up that torch and ran with it, in turn inspiring another generation of detectives. They approached it with integrity, exactitude, and obsession as so many before them had done.

In an episode of The Simpsons, a movie company comes to fictional Springfield to make a movie. The townsfolk cheat and rob them at every opportunity. Finally, the director says, I cant wait until we get back to Hollywood where everyone treats you right and everyone keeps their word. That was exactly my experience. For four years, I watched and listened and questioned, all on tape and film, wondering if the three filmmakers would achieve any of their goals or none at all. Suspense lasted till the very end but no matter the outcome, I realized I was watching greatness in progress.