The Chaser Report - We found the Zodiac Killer | Julian Vincent

Episode Date: October 24, 2021

Charles is excited to crash random people's funerals, we speak to Julian Vincent from Market Forces about NAB's love for pretending to care about the environment and John cracks the greatest cold case of all time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chase of Report. Hello, and welcome to The Chaser Report for Monday the 25th of October, 2021. I thought you were going to say it was Christmas. Got Gabby and Alex are here, and how are you? Oh, hungover. Yeah, not feeling too great after this weekend. No. Oh, really?

Yeah. Well, I mean, we've said it before, but everyone keeps in making plans. Yes. I'm sick of it. Oh. It was fun for literally. really 24 hours and then I just went, I don't, I can't, I can't keep up with all of these plans. My issue after lockdown is that just like, I haven't gone out for so long.

My body's just not ready for it. It's not match fit. Or either that or it's been two years of lockdown. So I've just aged two years. Yeah, maybe it's just like we're in that peak moment where we change from a young person to an old person. I think that's probably what it is. I started, because I had lunch yesterday. Go off.

And we started drinking at about like 12. Oh, you had lunch. Lunch lunch. And stopped drinking at about three or four. Right. And so by about five or six, I was just, I was hung over already. You know that sort of hangover? Yeah, I had the unfortunate experience recently of going to a wake, which is the peak hangover at night experience.

Yeah, we started drinking at like 10 a.m. Oh, lovely. Because as you do, you have to in this country to get through funerals. But like, yeah, I got home at about 5.30. I slept for two hours. and I woke up at 7 or 8 with the worst headache I've ever had in my life. And I felt like shit. And I didn't know what day it was too.

So you're out of delirium. It's like jet lag. They like wake up and you're like, I don't know where I am. And then the next day I woke up and just felt like I felt the shame in the guilt that you'd normally feel from a regular hangover, but none of the pain. It was kind of great.

Wake hangover is a real thing. Yeah, I'll wake over. Is that like all those gangsters always like pull one out for dead homies to just reduce the amount they drink? Yes. But wait a minute. I think that you've just hit a point.

on a really good idea, which is you drink early in the day, get your first hangover in, because then your actual next day hangover isn't as bad. It's just morning. Yeah, look, I'll say this. It only works if everyone wants to do it. I feel like if you were to take the wake experience and apply it to your actual life, you probably just end up getting a lot of interventions from your family and friends going, it needs to stop, Charles.

Couldn't you just go to other people's wakes anyway? Because there's unlimited numbers. Not the wake crashes. You're not writing the way. Weight crashes right now. That's such a Vince Vaughn thing to say. What would you do? If somebody came up to you and they were like, oh, what were your memories of this person?

He'd just go, he was a great man. And then they tell you it was a woman. And you go, really? When did he ever change? Oh, my God. You can't crash awake, Charles. I feel like if you're crashing a rake to drink, you're going to be drunk. So it's perfectly believable that you've forgotten the person.

Yeah, you just go, no, I'm just here to support the bride. Or, you know, widow. Practically, I suppose, you can do it. Ethically, I'm not sure you should. Yeah. Well, the government should have thought of that before they made that the only place we could party. Fucking hell. Okay, well, coming up on the show, we're doing to John Del Minico, who has the scoop of the century when it comes to real crime.

Plus, we're talking to Julian Vincent from Market Forces. They're an environmental group about how all the big banks do all their greenwashing. But first of all, let's go to Rebecca Day andamuno in the chance. Chase the Newsroom right after this. Scott Morrison has defended his decision not to put Grace Tame on the advisory panel to prevent child sexual abuse. He said he didn't put the Australian of the Year on the panel

because he wanted someone with more expertise in making milkshakes. A country which has made abortion illegal and miscarriages a jailable offence has pledged to save Australia from its tyrannical government. The announcement came after Americans discovered that Australians were being made to wear masks in some indoor settings and vowed to invade the nation to free it from its democratically elected government.

Scott Morrison has told Joe Biden that the Australian army is ready to back the US forces if they decide to invade Australia. Christian Porter has received a Walkley nomination for excellence in investigative journalism. The judging panel praised his work in exposing the flaws and misjudgments of Christian Porter. That's the latest chase and news you can't trust. I'm Rebecca Dana Muno, and I'm really, really relieved. None of these headlines were about Alec Baldwin. So, Dom, I don't know whether you've noticed recently,

but you just get the sense that there's just a huge amount more of greenwashing going on. Yes, I mean, I've been pretending to be an environmentalist for months now. And it's really fun. Yeah, I think it's because there's this big UN climate conference coming up called COP26 in November. And it seems like every single bank and insurance company and soap manufacturer wants to tell you how green they are. I know it's coming up because I really care about that sort of stuff. It's very important to me, Charles. I can see what you're doing.

Anyway, we've got Julian Vincent, who's the executive director of market forces on the line. Hello, Julian. Ghetto, hey, Dom. So hang on, if I go to chaser.com.com. dot a u slash nab um there seems to be a website up there that looks like the national australia bank but is actually it's called knob nob and it seems not to be so complimentary about the bank that i thought you know helped us break up with other banks and i thought was on our side and i gather that the two of you have been doing a bit of collaborating on a project yes so julian is the head

of this organization called market forces and what they do well you describe what they do julian Like they sort of investigate sort of the big end of town, like banks and insurance companies and things like that. Yeah, we're an environmental finance campaigning organisation. So we work, we're environmental campaigners, we're environmental activists. A lot of what we do is focused on climate and especially in Australia.

A lot of that's about energy and fossil fuels. But we come at it through the lens of finance. So we focus on the role that banks play, the insurers play, super funds play, because basically every single person in the country, is going to be connected in one way or another to a fossil fuel company or some of the projects that they're trying to build. And what we're trying to do is turn that into a source of power. Because if your bank is invested in fossil fuels or your super's invested in fossil fuels,

then you've got a ticket to advocate as well. And so we'll try to bring people on board that way. Can I just check, given that we've been talking about greenwashing, that you are actually an environmental activist group and not a hedge fund pretending. Well, I mean, the listeners can't see it. You can see my background. Come on, surely. would a hedge fund manager sit in a dingy little room like this? Yeah, I can see a banksy on the wall, it checks out. So the hilarious story and the reason why we're doing to doling is because it was like maybe April or May, it was a few months ago.

NAB gave a sustainability loan, it was part of a consortium that gave a sustainability loan to the port of Newcastle, which is the largest coal port in the world. That's correct, isn't it? Yeah, it is. It's sustainability linked loan. That's the terminology. And I think that's one of the sort of pub testing. It's doing a lot of work there, isn't it right from the beginning?

Yeah. So it's linked to then hopefully the port, hopefully doing some positive things around environment, around reducing emissions from their own operations at the port. There are some good initiatives in there. So basically the port is carbon neutral when it gets solar panels on the. roof, is that the idea? So it exports hundreds of billions of dollars worth of coal, but it's carbon neutral according to NAB. Just specifically, nothing about this loan requires the port to reconsider its future or consider a future beyond coal or be financially sustainable in an era

where we're heading to net zero by 2050, which just means the collapse of thermal coal. No, it's more about, you know, get those low intensity light bulbs in and get your solar going. And by the way, if you don't, don't worry, it's, NAB's not going to pull the money back. It probably just impacts the interest rate a little bit. But it's not like if they don't meet these goals, then the money gets withdrawn. It's just, oh, you pay a bit more for your capital.

So it's pretty tame. But the whole point is that if you then go to the actual NAB's website, their whole thing is how environmental of it. They even have a tab, which is about, you know, sustainability. and it's all about, you know, committed to saving the environment and beyond fossil fuels and everything like that. And we were so sort of, we were shocked by how greenwashing this is. Yeah, it's got a gold medal.

It wasn't a look from the Australian being the top piece of greenwashing. And you were talking about the old Australian before they, before they reversed that position last week. Right. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So the point is, so we did that.

So instead, what we've done, because we can't actually go out. and hunt down CEOs at the moment because the lockdown, well, you know, up until recently, we decided to sort of just take the piss out of, out of NAB's website without chaser.com.com.com.com slash nab website. Oh, there's some great videos there that I seem to have been voiced by you, Charles, rather than a legitimate NAB employee. And yeah, look, it doesn't look hugely complimentary, but I think you're both forgetting the great work that the major banks are doing in all the people who haven't been able to afford their mortgage during this period and all the houses that have been repossessed and all the businesses that have

gone under they've I'm sure they've got like weeds growing in them and they're returning to nature as everyone's dreams get crushed by the recession but no it is really fascinating because you don't there is so much spin at the moment as you're saying it's the flavor of the month to talk about Copenhagen and sustainability to the point where it's quite bizarre that the you know a large part of the federal government isn't on board and the corporate tech is leaving them behind except what you're revealing is that, well, they're actually not when it comes down to the actions,

which even the Queen said speak louder than words when it comes to this stuff. Yeah, and so, Julian, like, it's not just NABs. Like, what are some other sort of big pieces of greenwashing in the finance sector? Mate, I mean, the kind of work we do, we see it every day. You just pull up a company's annual report and you'll see something nice and green and positive.

I was looking at Jan Cole's annual report recently, or its website even has a field and cows going across the field. And I think there's a couple of blokes there. And you just, if you put a thought bubble on there, it must be like, oh, we could totally big the crap out of this place and build a mine here. But it's not what you see. There's Sumatomo Corp in Japan.

We're actually battling with at the moment over coal power stations. They're trying to build in Asia. And you look at their ESG report. It's some esoteric thing with a picture of a compass on top of a, a mossy bit of wood and things like that. It's just, it's a nonsense. Totally clip. So the major commitment being made by big companies to the environment is pretty clipart.

So if you look at the emissions trajectory, we need to go on, how it's being met at the moment is probably a few percent meaningful reductions, a little bit through efficiency, and then there's this huge wedge of marketing that makes us feel like it's been taken down to where it needs to go. And, you know, that's what this NAB or this N-O-B campaigns all about, it's a bit more truth washing and greenwashing and trying to actually get the reality out so we can address the gap. And so what's the strategy? Like how do you then, is it just to shame them into being better or like what's the actual? And does it work? It's more than just shame. I think that plays a

role for sure because it's about reputational risk for the banks that's really hard to measure, which is great for us. But at the same time, I mentioned that every, every Australian's got a connection to either one of the banks or a super fund and their customers and they can walk and take their money elsewhere. So that's a risk as well. These institutions employ tens of thousands of people. And many of these tens of thousands of people will want to feel better about where they work as well. So we've done a lot of work engaging with staff of the bank, staff of super funds, staff of insurers who campaign internally. So there's a whole lot of avenues you can use. Because when you've got a population that is totally on board with the idea of doing a hell of a lot more

on climate change than we are, it's no surprise when you see them turn up as employees of these institutions and that's a source of power and and have you had any successes like is there anything that you've done in the past that sort of you can point to to decide this this works yeah absolutely i mean look at the the the fact that you've got the adani project about a decade behind where it wants to be there's 103 companies or something like that that is that they won't work with or finance that project that that particular project has probably led to a couple a dozen of financial institutions saying we're not going to finance any new coal. You've got three out of the big four banks saying they're going to be out of thermal coal by 2030.

There's a whole lot of steps being taken. No one's going to pretend that it's enough. Certainly no one on this conversation, the banks might, but it's progress. And that's progress that's come about because people have used the power that they've got. And so, yeah, it's great. We don't have to wait for, we want politicians to act, and we should be working to make sure they act as much as possible. But in the absence of that, we're not screwed. There's something we can do. We make decisions every single day and it's a matter of, I think, being able to push

back through campaigns like this and just point out that Greenwich does exist, it is everywhere and we can all be a little bit more critical about the kind of material that gets shoved in our faces by companies every day. But on the bright side, it does show the demand, doesn't it mean? They wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't a reputational benefit to be at least appearing green. and it's really interesting that you're focusing on employees as a pressure point because we've seen that work. I'm just thinking of Netflix with its response to the Dave Chappelle dramas of the past few weeks.

It's really been the employees who've put the pressure on and said, no, this isn't okay. I mean, customers too, perhaps, but it's really interesting. People want to work for a company that seems ethical these days rather than just going, yeah, look, it's a bit evil, but it pays the mortgage. And so maybe that's an optimistic path forward. Yeah, we have the same.

result with GHD and engineering company here in Australia, which was connected to the Adani project. And it was really the staff body. You're talking about engineers. They want to work on forward-looking projects, innovative, creative projects, especially ones who are coming out of uni now, that don't necessarily work on a great big dirty coal mine that's going to open up a new coal base. And a lot of them actually have solid environmental values. And they got their company to pull out of this project. It's really. effective. So, but what would you say to people who say, well, hang on, you just sort of, you're just

by knocking these projects, you're basically destroying a whole lot of jobs for people. Certainly in the clip art industry, it would appear. Oh, no, we're not going to run out of the clip art industry, surely. I think if anything, we've probably created a lot of jobs in the clip art industry because the work we've done and the pushback by the banks to, to market rather than act properly. I think everyone, we all know that there's so many more jobs to be created in an economy where we actually transition and build up renewables. And one of the things that frankly pisses me right off about where we are with the federal

government at the moment is they want to attack organizations like us. They want to attack the banks for even the meagre actions they've taken so far. Whereas if we're going to have a global net zero by 2050 outcome, that's other countries who we're trying to sell coal to saying, no, we don't want it anymore. and instead of MPs going into back for their communities a coal community or a gas community saying

hey look it's been fun while it lasted but the party's going to end soon we need to prepare for this they're denying it and they're pulling the wall over the eyes of their constituents and just creating division well look it's a great website I love the look of it chaser.com.com.

And it's been inspiring to see the work you've done together. off to go and take photos of children running through grassy fields with sunlight so I can sell them to the banks. Thanks, heaps, guys. Really good to work with you on the campaign, so loads of fun. That was Julian Vincent, who is the executive director of Marketforce's. And if you want to know more about them, marketforces.org.com. Now, while we were on our short break a couple of weeks ago.

Yeah. That was lovely. Apparently, there was this huge story that broke in the US. And we've got John Delmonico, who's a writer. for the chaser on the line. John, what is the story? So we missed one of the biggest developments, possibly in a long time when it comes to crime,

where Fox News ran the exclusive story that a group online called The Case Breakers found the Zodiac Killer? Oh my goodness, that's huge news. So is Ted Cruz going to jail? Well, no, because Ted Cruz apparently isn't the Zodiac killer, allegedly according to this group.

So there are multiple people. It was like a group of people doing the killings. Well, yeah, I suppose Zodiac would imply more than one, maybe 12, actually. Well, the guy that they claim it is is called Gary Paste. Gary. No wonder he wanted to change his name

to Zodiac killer. And he's a former Air Force engineer. So I've got a clip here from Fox News where they explain the amazing evidence that was found. Case Breakers had Tom Colbert, who ID'd hijacker D.B. Cooper, says he's confident they've nailed the Zodiac. My FBI guys say it's irrefutable.

It's a match. We also have six people that he's confessed to. that he was the Zodiac, three of them on our court affidavits. So we strongly feel that. And then, of course, one of the murder scenes in Riverside, we have counted six different similarities to the Zodiac at the murder scene. Colbert wants the Riverside Police Department in California to test DNA. They have not responded to our requests for comment.

Ooh, okay, so that sounds pretty open and shut case. Yeah, irrefutable evidence. Around the world, this has been a big story for the last two weeks. weeks with places like even the ABC recently ran a story that is almost exactly the same as the Fox News story, which would imply that it's 100% correct. But sadly, there is some naysayers who have poked holes in the evidence that was given out. Oh, yeah. They called the FBI and the police from the area. Oh, I haven't heard of them. Do they have a podcast? Yeah, what podcasts do they have? They don't seem to have a podcast because rudely they put out these

written statements about the situation. Also, on the day that the Fox News cast came out, but weirdly these haven't been quoted in a lot of the news articles about it. So the FBI said it's not going to affect their investigation, and the investigation is still ongoing. But the exact quote from the person who was representing the police station said, is there a chance that Gary Pace killed Cherry Joe Bates? No. Right, okay. Wait, so Gary Pace is a real man. They've just docks this person. Well, he's someone who has in the past claimed to be there's only a killer. What does Gary have to say about this? He has passed away.

So he's a victim of the Zodiac killer They got it the wrong way around I read through the entire document That the group put online And I thought I would give you guys the evidence To see if you come up with the same opinion As these naysayers of the FBI Oh, okay, yeah, yeah

So there is one issue I found already Where in the clip the guy said that there was six similarities between the case Yep, yep There was only four that they listed So he miscounted his own document Rude But I've got the similarities here

Two of them involve a watch A watch band was found at the scene that potentially could have been boarded at a military base. There's no proof that it was boarded at a military base. Right. But theoretically it could have been.

Yeah. Was there a particularly like military watch band? Like I can't really say, I feel like most male watch bands are like brown and leather and that's how you know. I assumed in America everyone's looking for tactical gear.

Like that's kind of how you sell stuff to men regardless of where they're involved in the military. It's got camouflage, so it must be from the army. What I'm confused about, though, If it's a military gear watch, why did it come off at a murder scene? Like, I feel like that's the last thing to leave your wrist. Like, special high-tech watch. Whoopsie.

Well, the other giveaway about the watch, that definitely means it might be him, is that there was paint on the watch, and after his military career, he became a painter. Ah, get out, get out! Slam dunk! At no point does it say when he started becoming a painter. It just said at some point in his life he was a painter. Well, that's pretty strong evidence, John.

I know I'd notice a sort of air of skepticism about you, but I think you should keep an open mind. Well, there's another one, which was that a size 10 boot print was found, and he could have possibly owned boots, and he had a size 10 foot. That is totally true. Gary does sound like a boot man. Yeah. The last piece of evidence for this one set of evidence is that there was brown hair found

at the crime scene, and he had brown hair. Yes. Oh, my God. Well, there you go. But then there is other strong evidence. that's been going around. So one is a facial scar that in the document they refer to

multiple times the way that he got it but each time they say a different thing. Like one time they say he had brain surgery and the time they said he had a car crash and it's from...

Yeah, because the Zodiac Killer famously had some scar, doesn't it? Well, I was looking in one of the police sketches and not in the other ones. Yeah. He has what could be considered a scar or it could be a badly drawn wrinkle.

Right. Because in the other ones, he has wrinkles. So it could have been that they defined a line too much. Yes. And does Gary you have any wrinkles? Because that's pretty strong proof.

Yeah, I think most of the people who are alive during the 60s also have wrinkles. Look, here's the thing I'll say. Despite the fact that everyone seems to think this Gary character is a Zodiac Killer, they're overlooking the fact that somebody who calls themselves the Zodiac Killer is very clearly a middle-aged white woman. Yeah. There's no way it's a man. It's right.

Like, I could have gone with the Leo killer, but that really narrows it down a bit too much. So I just went with a general scope. So, John, it's not good enough to just come in. out here and these people who've done a whole lot of work constructed a theory and you just you know smash it down with evidence who do you think the zodiac killer is like you you you can't just say oh it's not that person because all the evidence proves that it's not that person you've got to then yeah we need some spice john there are there have actually been people that pointed out that every piece of evidence that they've brought up could also be linked to the

actual prime suspect of the case and the prime suspect also looks like the poster. Ted Cruz. I'm not Ted Cruz. I'm also holding out hope that it is Ted Cruz just because I want to see him try to, like, do you reckon he'll go to Mexico again or do you reckon he'll go like further away? Do you reckon he'll kill again? Isn't the point that no wonder Fox News ran so hard with this story because they were trying to deflect attention away from Ted Cruz who they like because he's this Republican senator? Well, my favorite thing about the full broadcast that I couldn't use in the clip because it was a very visual thing was that at the end of the segment. One of the host turns to another one and says, wow, they've got him. This is an

amazing story. What big news. And the other host goes, yeah, sure, and roll his eyes. He's the Zodiac Killer. So he clearly didn't believe the things that they were saying in their own broadcast. I love it. You get used to that a lot at Fox News. Before we go, I just want to tell you about my kitchen renovation and how it's going. I'm not a fan. I know. You hate me because I have a kitchen. and, you know, not everyone. Yeah, that's why. You're just one of these Gen Z people who can't afford a kitchen.

Yeah, by the time I'm 40, I'll be absorbing my food through the air. But even if you have your own kitchen, renovating is just so extravagant. Like, when we were at your house on Friday, your neighbour was doing renovations. It's just a little payback scheme. You're just both trying to drill each other out of the building. Yeah.

Yeah, well, so we did a relatively minor renovation, but it did involve getting rid of our stove. And I thought, well, why don't I put in, one of those environmental stoves that Craig keeps on going on about. You know, the induction stovetop things. Yeah. We had gas, which was really easy and worked, right? Don't they use electricity?

And we just like, no, no, but the electricity can then come from solar or batteries. Oh, I see. Oh, so when you can actually build renewable energy on your house, right? So then, so I have been through four stove tops. None of them have worked. Oh, five electricians have come out. out and looked at it and confirmed that it's all working properly, but it doesn't work. And the last stove to arrive from the company itself, like from the actual manufacturer,

wasn't even, like, it wasn't just the wrong model. It was a fucking gas stove. But you got it for the price of an electric one. No, but like they're like thousands of dollars, these fucking induction ones, whereas a gas one's like a couple of hundred bucks. It was the most extravagant thing that we've done by our kitchen is put this induction thing. And the whole point was to save the environment. And I am, I'm going to tell everyone who's listening, do not try and save the environment.

Have you tried turning it off and on again, Charles? Oh, really? Well, I just feel like a lot of my electrical problems can be solved by a massive slap, you know? Yeah, right. Have you tried just giving it a bit of a whack? Oh, right. So what you're saying is that the five electricians who all say it's dead, they're wrong. Well, they said it worked.

Yeah, they all said it worked. No, they said like, it should work. work, but it doesn't work. Are you sure you don't have the wrong pots? I feel like induction. No, Induction. This is a serious answer. Induction only works with specific pots. Because I got the company on the line. They said, do you have the right pot? You're kidding. Yeah. It's your pot that doesn't work. Okay, hold on. No, I refute this out of hand now. Okay, so to make the induction pots, how environmental is that? Oh, shut up, Gabby.

So you've gone with the environmental stove that you then have to buy a separate set of pots for. Our gear is from road microphones. We're part of the ACAST creator network. But not the environmental network, apparently. No, we're not. Just get rid of the environment. I just think, I think it's all rubbish. Craig, he doesn't mean it.

I do. He doesn't mean it, Craig. I do. Go back to gas. I'm going to get a coal stove. And remember to leave us a five-star review on iTunes and subscribe to us in your app. I see all the stats. I get the stats about this podcast.

Everyone doesn't subscribe. People listen to it, but they don't follow us. What the fuck? It could have nothing to do with the aggressive tone you're taking. Fuck you and your fucking stove fucking... See ya.