Path · 3 stops · 4.5 km
The Zodiac Killer in San Francisco
A self-guided driving tour by Here Before Us
The Zodiac killed five people around the Bay Area in 1968–69 and taunted police and the press with letters and ciphers. His last confirmed murder was in San Francisco: on October 11, 1969 he shot cab driver Paul Stine in Presidio Heights. This path follows the San Francisco part of the story; his other attacks were in Benicia, Vallejo and at Lake Berryessa. He was never identified. These are real places where a real man died, so please be respectful, especially on a residential street.
Stops
From July 1969 the Zodiac mailed letters here, to the newspaper that received most of his more than twenty letters. Two days after the murder he sent the Chronicle a swatch of Paul Stine's shirt as proof. The "Z340" cipher arrived in November 1969 and was not decrypted until 2020.
The killer hailed Stine's cab downtown around 9:40 p.m. and asked to go to Presidio Heights. When the taxi reached Washington and Maple, he asked to be driven another block.
Around 9:55 p.m. the Zodiac shot Paul Stine, a 29-year-old doctoral student, and took his wallet and keys. Three teenagers watched from a house across the street. A dispatcher wrongly told police the suspect was Black, and officers responding nearby passed a White man walking north toward the Presidio.
Here Before Us