Infamous America - ZODIAC KILLER Ep. 2 | “Blue Rock Springs Park”

Episode Date: September 18, 2024

Seven months after two teenagers are murdered outside Vallejo, California, the killer reemerges. He shoots two young people at a park on the outskirts of the city, but this time one of the victims survives. Shortly after the attack, the killer calls the Vallejo police department and sets in motion a pattern of communication that will be unrivaled in American criminal history. A month later, he sends letters to three newspapers and includes a cipher that contains a coded message.   Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join   Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial.   On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage.   For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My relentless sleep problems have always come from an overactive mind. I lay in bed at night with my mind racing from one thing to another, and then, of course, I have a brainstorm about something new. That lights the fire, and then I'm in real trouble. To calm my mind, the only things that have ever worked with any consistency are sleep gummies. Sleepy Time Advanced Gummies from Mood.com come in various combinations of THC, CBD, and CBN, so you can get something that's very low in THC, but higher in CBD, which helps turn off the stress,

and CBN, which is the thing that makes you sleepy. The brain shuts up, the racing thoughts stop, and it's off to sleep. Mood is federally compliant. The gummies are legal and delivered right to your door. At Mood.com, get 20% off your first order with our promo code, Infamous. Go to Mood.com and use the code infamous to get 20% off your first order. your first order. And they have a 100-day satisfaction guarantee. Mood.com promo code infamous. The traditional halfway point of a calendar is July 2nd. By that date, it had been 194 days

since 17-year-old David Faraday and 16-year-old Betty Lou Jensen had been shot and killed. They were murdered in a dirt lot that was a well-known lover's lane spot. The area was a pullout off of Lake Herman Road, there was also the entrance to the Benicia water pumping station that sat several hundred yards back from the road. Lake Herman Road was a dark stretch of road out beyond the lights of the towns of Vallejo and Benicia, which sat right next to each other on the banks of San Pablo Bay, which feeds into San Francisco Bay in northern California. On December 20, 1968, David and Betty had been on their first date. They were probably, close to wrapping up their night because Betty's parents had issued strict instructions

that she was supposed to be home by 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. that night, they were still parked at the pullout, commonly called the gate 10 entrance to the pumping station. Based on the statements of people who drove past gate 10 between 9 and 11.30 p.m., it seemed like the killer had struck during a window of time that was technically possible, but very difficult to believe. By Christmas Eve, 1968, Sergeant Leslie Lundblad of the Solano County Sheriff's Department, which had jurisdiction over the case, believed the killer had pulled into the lot, part next to David's car a few feet away, forced the kids out of David's car by firing at least one shot into the back of it, and then shot them both.

The killer shot David once behind the left ear. Betty took off running, and the killer shot her five times in the back. In total, the killer fired 10 shots during the murders. And all that happened in a maximum of six minutes, between 1114 p.m. and 1120 p.m. Eight minutes later at 1128, the first police officer arrived on the scene. It was a frenzied investigation for a few days, but by the time the new year rolled around, there wasn't much left to do.

All the witnesses had come forward and the forensics were being analyzed. though they wouldn't yield much in the way of leads on suspects. The killer or killers had used a 22-caliber handgun, and that was about it. Witnesses reported a white Chevy Impala in the area earlier in the night that may or may not be suspicious. But without any other identifying characteristics, it wasn't much of a lead. It was possible that one of the witnesses saw the killer's car, but the witness couldn't provide any details at all about the vehicle.

So that was a dead end too. Solano County detectives were left with a double homicide that had no apparent motive. Now, it was seven months later in July 1969, and the towns of Vallejo and Benicia had largely forgotten about the crime. But then on July 4th, two days after the halfway point of the year, a killer or the killer struck in eerily similar fashion. Three and a half miles from the Lake Herman Road crime scene, two young people, who were also out on a kind of first date, were attacked by a man with a gun. The circumstances were nearly identical to those of the murders of David and Betty. But afterward, instead of going quiet again, the situation turned in the opposite direction. It went absolutely crazy.

The events in Northern California in the second half of 1969 would be a first in American history. and would almost certainly inspire future serial killers. And when those events were added to the hysteria of the sensational murders in Southern California, and the growing protests against the Vietnam War and a host of other things, the second half of 1969 would be unlike any other six-month period in memory. From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer. In this season, we're telling the story of the Zodiac Killer,

one of the most notorious unsolved criminal cases in American history. This is episode two, Blue Rock Springs Park. In June 1969, Darlene Farron met Mike Mijot. Darlene worked as a waitress at Terry's restaurant in Vallejo, and Mike and his brother ended up sitting in her section. She was an outgoing person, and she chatted easily with the two brothers. Mike and his brother were both attracted to her, but it was Mike who was able to secure a future get-together.

Mike was 19 years old, and Darlene was 22. And whether Mike knew it or not, a possible romance with Darlene would be complicated. Darlene was married, her second marriage, and she had an infant daughter with her current husband. There have been lots of reports over the years and endless speculation about the nature of Darlene's marriage. It's a constant topic because it's been widely written

that she dated other men while she was married. What does that mean? It's hard to tell. But it seems as though it wasn't necessarily unusual that she agreed to meet Mike Mijot for a private evening after they'd had a good rapport at Terry's restaurant. Darlene and Mike lived in Vallejo, and according to Mike, they made plans to go to a movie in San Francisco on July 4th. Darlene was supposed to pick up Mike at 7.30 that night, but she didn't show up. Half an hour later, she called and said she ended up having to take her sister to a Fourth of July festival. She said she would call when she was done. Darlene called Mike again at 10.30 and said she would be at his house soon.

An hour later, at 11.30 p.m., she finally arrived. Darlene picked Mike up from his house and they discussed their plans. It was too late to go into San Francisco. And, in addition, Darlene said she had to be back home relatively soon, because she and her husband were hosting a small Fourth of July party later that night. Her husband, Dean, worked at a restaurant in Vallejo, and they were going to have a party for Dean's coworkers when they all finished the late shift. With the new constraints in mind,

they agreed to go get a quick bite to eat at a diner called Mr. Ed's. But shortly after they made their decision, Darlene, who was driving, changed her mind. She said she wanted to talk to Mike about something, instead of continuing to the diner, she redirected towards somewhere quiet, Blue Rock Springs Park. The park sits right next to a street called Columbus Parkway on the edge of Vallejo. Today, residential neighborhoods go right up to the edge of the park, but in 1969, the community had not expanded that far. The park was technically in the city of Vallejo, but it was out on its own beyond the edge of town with minimal lighting at night.

As such, like the pullout at Lake Herman Road where David and Betty were killed, the park was a well-known lover's lane spot. That night, sometime before midnight, Darlene and Mike pulled into a spot in the paved parking area that served Blue Rock Springs Park. The lot was empty, at least for the moment. Darlene turned off her car, but left the radio playing as they settled into talk or whatever. They only had about five minutes of peace before three cars drove into the parking lot, apparently driven by Fourth of July revelers. The Rowdies lit a batch of fireworks in the parking lot and then sped away to continue their celebration elsewhere. The park was quiet again, but not for long.

A few minutes later, another car pulled into the lot, but this one had a much different feel to it. The car stopped about eight feet behind Darlene's car. The driver turned off the car's headlights and then just sat there. A minute passed as the driver didn't move and Darlene and Mike didn't speak. Eventually, Mike asked if Darlene knew the driver, and she responded with a strange answer. He had probably been expecting some sort of affirmative or negative reply, something like, yeah, it's so-and-so, or nope, I have no idea. But according to Mike, she said, oh, never mind.

He didn't know what to make of the response, but he didn't push it. After a short time, it didn't seem like it would matter. The driver started the car and drove out of the park. With the excitement seemingly done, Mike and Darlene were alone again, for about five minutes until the car returned. The car pulled back into the lot and parked behind Darlene's car. This time, the driver left the headlights on. Light flooded the interior of Darlene's car.

as the driver stepped out of his vehicle. He flipped on the beam of a high-powered flashlight and marched toward the passenger door. In Darlene's car, the headlights of the other car and the high-powered flashlight signaled to Mike that the man was a cop. It was the classic setup of a police officer, and Mike pulled out his identification

to present it to the man who was approaching his door. It was a hot night, and Mike's passenger window was already down as he prepared to show his ID. When the man reached the door, he said nothing. He just opened fire with a semi-automatic handgun. The man shot Mike multiple times, including in the back, the neck, and the leg. And with Mike badly injured, the man pointed the gun across the car and started firing at

Darlene. The killer shot Darlene Faron at least seven times. When he decided he was done, he turned and started to walk back to his car. Mike cried out in pain, and the noise drew the attacker back to the car. The man returned to the passenger window and shot Mike and Darlene twice more. At that point, the killer either believed he had completed his mission or thought he was running out of time, or both. He strode back to his car, climbed inside, and sped away. If the man thought he had killed his victims, he was wrong, at least for the moment.

Both were still alive, though horribly wounded. Mike managed to open a door and flop out of the car. He crashed to the pavement, and despite his injuries and his immense pain, he focused on the killer's car and tried to remember details. But this being 1969, and more than 30 years before cell phones would become a common part of everyday life, Mike didn't know if he would ever be able to relay those details to anyone. There was no way he or Darlene could go for help. Ten excruciating minutes passed with Darlene moaning in the driver's seat and Mike bleeding on the ground.

Then, mercifully, a car with three teenagers, Jerry, Roger, and Debbie pulled into the parking lot and discovered Mike and Darlene. The newcomers approached Darlene's car, and Mike was coherent enough to tell them to get help. The kids quickly drove to Jerry's house. Debbie called the police and spoke to the overnight dispatcher, Nancy Slover. Nancy put out a radio call and Vallejo police officer Richard Hoffman rushed to the scene. Right after Officer Hoffman arrived, Vallejo Detective Ed Rust arrived. He had heard the radio call and hurried to the park. Detective Rust talked to Mike Mijell before the ambulance showed up,

But Mike was only able to mutter a few words about what had happened. When Rust hurried to the driver's side of the car, Darlene tried to speak but couldn't form words. Then the ambulance arrived. Medics loaded the victims into the back and sped toward the hospital in Vallejo. Officer Hoffman jumped in with him and tried to keep Mike talking. Hoffman hoped Darlene might be able to provide a statement, but she was too far gone.

She seemed to be bleeding from everywhere. and she passed away in route. But Mike clung to life. At the hospital, doctors and nurses wheeled him into the intensive care unit and began emergency surgery. At the park, Detective Rust and others were examining a scene that would have looked familiar if they had been involved in the investigation of the murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen. It was a quirk of geography. The stretch of Lake Herman Road on which David and Betty were killed was just outside the

limits of both Vallejo and Benicia. Therefore, the Lake Herman Road murders were the jurisdiction of the Salano County Sheriff's Department. Blue Rock Springs Park was in the city of Vallejo, so a whole different team of investigators was handling the attack on Darlene and Mike. The investigators almost certainly heard about the murders of David and Betty seven months earlier, but they probably didn't know the details and didn't have the case file. If they had been at the Lake Herman Road scene or had read the crime reports, they would have noticed similarities immediately.

A dark, quiet, lover's lane setting for the attack, a young man and a young woman in a car, and a killer who fired a high number of shots, presumably from a handgun. The shell casings at the park were 9mm as opposed to the 22 caliber at Lake Herman Road. Like the Lake Herman Road attack, it would not have been obvious. right away that the killer had used a handgun instead of a rifle. But confirmation would come about 25 minutes after Officer Hoffman arrived at Blue Rock Springs Park. The killer was about to communicate with law enforcement and the world for the first time. 26-year-old dispatcher Nancy Slover was having a busy 4th of July night at the Vallejo Police Department. About 10 minutes after midnight,

she had received a call from a girl named Debbie, who had reported a brutal shooting at Blue Rock Springs Park. Then, 30 minutes later, Nancy received a call that scared her for the rest of her life. At 12.40 a.m., about 40 minutes after the shooting, Nancy's phone rang. She answered the call, but she didn't have recording equipment, so the exact message will never be known. The only documentation is the police report about the call in which Nancy relayed. laid the, quote, substance of the call, not the verbatim word-for-word discussion. The report shows just four sentences, 46 words total. Nancy said the caller spoke in a flat, monotone voice, and it sounded like he had rehearsed his lines

or was reading them from a piece of paper. These are the caller's lines as they read in the police report. I want to report a double murder. If you will go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to the public park, you will find the kids in a brown car. They were shot with a 9mm luger. I also killed those kids last year. Goodbye. But those are just the words, not the delivery.

Nancy passed away in 2011, but she was one of several people involved in the real events who consulted on the production of David Fincher's 2007 film Zodiac. To explain to the filmmakers what the call actually sounded like, Nancy performed it for them. The worst part, the part that really haunted her, was that last word, or two words. Goodbye. The caller dragged out the final word

in a deeper, guttural, mocking tone of voice that sounded something like, Goodbye. Within minutes, the police were able to trace the point of origin of the call. The killer had used a pay phone in a booth on the corner of Springs Road and Tualaumie Street in Vallejo. In 1969, there was a gas station on one corner of the intersection, and the payphone booth was in front of the gas station.

Officers raced to the payphone, which didn't take long because it was less than a mile from the police station, but the caller was gone. The Vallejo police were now dealing with two separate but connected incidents. They were processing the crime scene at Blue Rock Springs' point, park and trying to understand the cryptic call from the killer. And the call had to have been from the killer. The man on the phone had known that two people in a brown car had been shot by a 9mm gun. All three of those things were true. And the best estimate is that the call was made

about 40 minutes after the shooting. It was virtually impossible for the call to have been made by someone other than the killer, or maybe the killer's accomplice if there was one. And while While most of the information in the call was accurate, and maybe all of it, depending on how you look at it, it's the second sentence that has sparked debate for more than 50 years. If you will go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to the public park. One mile east, starting from where? From the police station? From the payphone booth, assuming the killer knew his call would be traced.

From some other point that the police didn't yet know or understand. From both the police station and the phone booth, driving one mile east doesn't get you anywhere near the park. On a diagonal line, the park is on the opposite side of the city from both locations. So was there some other, as yet unknown, starting point? Or maybe the killer wasn't trying to give solid directions to the crime scene. Maybe there was some other motive for that sentence. Or maybe Nancy Slover misremembered or misunderstood the reference. By her own admission, she talked over the caller during the beginning of the call as she tried to get more information from him.

While they were talking at the same time, maybe she didn't fully hear his words. Maybe the first part, if you go one mile east, was the beginning of a thought that got interrupted or garbled during the call. Maybe the second part, on Columbus Parkway to the public park, is a separate thought altogether. And when the two disconnected parts are placed next to each other in a police report, it makes them seem like one set of directions. The second part is accurate. Blue Rock Springs Park is on Columbus Parkway. But that raised another question. Why didn't the killer name the park?

Was he being intentionally vague? Or was it because he didn't know the name? The caller slash killer had taken credit for the Lake Herman Road murders. That crime scene was only three and a half miles from Blue Rock Springs Park. How likely was it that the killer was from somewhere else and had traveled to the Vallejo area to commit two sets of murders and was therefore justified in not knowing names or distances? It was possible, but not likely.

Both crimes were committed at well-known Lover's Lane hangouts, but they were only well-known if you knew the area. Otherwise, they were isolated and remote, especially the Lake Herman Road site. Was it possible that the person who made the call committed the Blue Rock Springs attack, but not the Lake Herman Road attack? Sure. How likely was it?

It's anyone's guess. It's just one of the many pieces of the puzzle that will be endlessly debated. Over the next few days, the Vallejo police added up all the evidence and witness statements and concluded they didn't have much. Mike Mijou had been able to say

that the killer was a white male, about five feet eight inches tall and stocky, weighing maybe 200 pounds, with short, curly hair that was light brown or almost blonde. The killer drove a car that was the same or similar to Darlene's brown 1963 Chevy Corvair. The killer's car was a lighter brown color and had California license plates, but Mike didn't see or didn't remember the plate number. The police had the 9-millimeter shell casings, and if they took the collar at his word, the bullets were fired by a Luger handgun. In terms of physical evidence, that was about it. But with hindsight, another piece, which was an evidence, could be viewed as a remarkable coincidence.

When Officer Richard Hoffman heard the radio call about the trouble at Blue Rock Springs Park, he was able to get there as quickly as he did because he had just been there. Hoffman had driven past the park about 10 minutes before midnight, and he reported no cars or people in the parking lot. Based on the sequence of events, Darlene and Mike must have arrived two or three minutes after Hoffman left. Then the three cars of Rowdies showed up, lit their fireworks, and quickly departed. Then the killer showed up. When all the timelines were put together, the killer would have had a window of about five or six minutes to commit the attack. At Lake Herman Road seven months earlier, the killer had a window of just six minutes to commit the murders.

At Blue Rock Springs Park, it was the same thing. If it was in fact the same killer, he was lucky as hell. Days passed with no good leads on suspects. The Vallejo Times-Herald newspaper was paying close attention to the attack, and it reported most of the details of the crime. But there was one notable exception. When it came time to report on the call from the killer, the newspaper was given a modified version of the statement.

Originally, the caller's claim of credit for the Lake Herman Road murders was withheld. It eventually found its way into the paper, but it was initially removed. The second big change was that the specific type of weapon was withheld. The caller had said he used a 9-millimeter Luger. In the newspaper, Luger was removed and replaced with a generic word. automatic. It was a common police tactic to withhold certain details so they could be used to identify the true killer in the future. Within a week of the attack on Mike and Darlene, the people of Vallejo knew that a man had made a call to the police and claimed credit for killing

three people in the area. He had tried to kill four, but Mike Mijot was going to survive. If the man was telling the truth, then he had been able to elude police for seven months between the two attacks. Either he was great at hiding, or he blended in. For 27 days, everyone wondered what the killer's next move would be. On day 28, they found out. The killer's next move would turn him into an American Jack the Ripper, and like the Ripper, he would give himself the nickname that would become iconic. On the afternoon of July 31st, 1969, the killer dropped three letters into a public mailbox in San Francisco. By the next morning, employees at three newspapers had read the letters that were unlike anything else in American history. The letters had been addressed to the editors

of the Vallejo Times Herald, the San Francisco Examiner, and the San Francisco Chronicle. It seems likely it was only the second time in U.S. history that a killer communicated with the public. The first was the notorious Axeman of New Orleans, whom keen listeners might remember from season 21 of infamous America. By March of 1919, a mysterious killer, who often used an axe as his weapon of choice, had murdered four people, and badly injured another five. On March 13, 1919, the New Orleans Times Picayune newspaper published a letter that was supposedly from the killer.

Among the rantings and ravings, he made a threat. Anyone who wasn't playing jazz music in their homes next Tuesday, night would be killed. He signed the letter, the Axeman. That Tuesday night, jazz music played all night long and no one died. Fifty years and five months later, a killer in Northern California went much further. The three letters were similarly worded, but not identical, though they did convey the same basic message. The killer claimed credit for the attacks at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs Park. To To prove it, he wrote a list of four details about the Lake Herman Road crime, and three about the Blue Rock Springs crime. All seven items were accurate, but authorities would debate the possibility of the author being a close reader of newspapers rather than the killer.

Each letter contained a unique cipher. It was a block of eight lines on the page. Each line was composed of 17 characters that were a mix of English alphabet letters, Greek symbols, Morse code, weather symbols, astrological symbols, and navy semaphore. Each cipher contained one-third of an encrypted message. When the code was broken and the three ciphers were put together, they would spell out one long message. The total number of characters in the three ciphers combined was 408, and the combined cipher became known as the 408 cipher.

Finally, each letter ended with one symbol at the bottom, a circle with a cross through it that looks like the crosshairs of a gun site and has become known as the signature and symbol of the Zodiac killer. Like the Axeman 50 years earlier, the author made one demand. He wanted the newspapers to print their ciphers on their front pages by the afternoon of Friday, August 1st, 1969, where he would go on a killing spree. He was cutting it close. He dropped the letters in the mail on Thursday afternoon,

and he wanted the ciphers printed 24 hours later. Luckily, all the newspapers received the letters and started making plans with enough time to meet the demand, if they chose to. As crazy as the letters looked, it was hard to know what to believe. The letters were riddled with so many spelling mistakes, grammatical mistakes, punctuation mistakes,

and weird abbreviations that they were difficult. to read. The mistakes were so bad and so many that it felt like they almost had to be intentional, but here was what he said to the Vallejo Times Herald. I am the killer of the two teenagers last Christmas at Lake Herman and the girl last 4th of July. To prove this, I shall state some facts which only I and the police know. Then the killer wrote his list of seven items. He concluded with, here is a cipher, or that is part of one. The other two parts have been mailed to the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle. I want you to print this cipher on your front page by Friday afternoon, August 1st, 1969.

If you do not do this, I will go on a kill rampage Friday night that will last the whole weekend. I will cruise around and pick off all stray people or couples that are alone. then move on to kill some more until I have killed over a dozen people. And that was it. The killer set in motion the wildest game of cat and mouse in American criminal history. This was something completely new, and there was no instruction manual for how to handle it. It was just simply crazy, and that was how one Vallejo police officer put it when he said, We've got a crazy man on the loose.

Yes, they did. and the next move was up to the newspapers. Next time on Infamous America, the newspapers all make different decisions and await the outcomes of their choices. People around the country get to work trying to crack the ciphers. The killer receives a nickname in the press,

but then comes up with his own. An investigator scrambled to make sense of all of it before the killer strikes again. That's next week on Infamous America. Members of our Black Barrow Plus program don't have to wait week to week for new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials, and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes.

Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships are just $5 per month. This series was researched by Julia Brickland, original music by Rob Valier. I'm your writer, host, and producer, Chris Wimmer. Find us at our website, blackbarrelmedia.com, or on our social media channels.

We're Black Barrel Media on Facebook and Instagram and B-Barrell media on Twitter. And you can stream all our episodes on YouTube. Just search for Infamous America Podcast. Thanks for listening.