Bruce Davis "mug shot"

[Scott_Bullock Profile]

If I'm not mistaken, the picture of Bruce Davis posted on the accused page was taken on October 13th, 1969, two days after Zodiac murdered Paul Stine. It doesn't exactly take a genius to figure out that even sasquatch couldn't grow a beard and shoulder-length hair in two days.

I apologize for being so blunt about this but the idea that the Manson Family had anything to do with the Zodiac crimes is absolutely ridiculous. Not only is it impossible to grow a beard and shoulder-length hair in two days but, for Heaven's sake, these people couldn't keep a secret to save their lives. Following their arrests, they were ratting each other out in a matter of days, so it seems pretty improbable that they could've protected or hidden their involvement in the Zodiac crimes. Susan Atkins had a big mouth; she'd have been bragging about the Zodiac crimes had they been involved.

Shameless opportunist + bad, unsupported theory + ill-conceived conclusion does not = Zodiac, no matter how many lies are told about the premise.

[Bullitt Profile]

I just realized something interesting about this, Scott: not only are we expected to believe that there was and is a massive conspiracy in the LA DA's office to cover up any links between Bruce Davis and Z for no adequately explained reasons, we're also expected to believe that there was and is a massive conspiracy among the Manson Family to cover up these very same links between Bruce Davis and Z? In other words, both the good guys and the bad guys were and are still conspiring to hide the truth, but presumably for different reasons???

Then when we consider there was no reason for the DA's office to engage in any sort of conspiracy when Barker Ranch was raided and the Family was arrested, because the Z story did not even break in the LA area until 10-15-1969 IIRC, a few days after Bugliosi would have seen the evidence for himself had it existed.

And you're right, the Family couldn't keep a secret to save their lives (in fact, that little problem of theirs got them the death penalty, until it was found to be "unconstitutional" in 1972 and their sentences were commuted to life in prison), so it makes absolutely no sense that they'd blab about everything else except any connection to Z...

It just doesn't make sense that LE and a bunch of murderers would both conspire to hide the truth. It would be a feather in the LA DA's cap if they nailed Z, and even if Bruce Davis admitted to being Z, they can't punish him any more than he already has been (even if he got the death penalty for the Z crimes, because of how things "work" here in CA, he'd die of old age before he even got close to being executed).

Back on topic here, you're right, there's no way Bruce Davis could have grown his hair and beard that much in a mere two days. And what would the purpose have been in using a disguise if he were Z anyway? I don't recall the Manson Family ever being accused of using disguises when committing their Southern CA crimes, correct me if I'm wrong there...

[entropy Profile]

It's rare to be able to place somebody's specific whereabouts 40 years ago but this mugshot pretty much eliminates Bruce Davis as Zodiac unless we consider a multiple-perp Manson Family scenario. I always thought Bruce Davis was an interesting potential suspect but he clearly didn't kill Paul Stine, which is a bit of a negative for him as a potential Zodiac suspect.

[Scott_Bullock Profile]

Ed, I'm shocked that you wouldn't find believability in the notion that the LADA's office uncovered a conspiracy and then conspired to cover it up. I mean, it happens all the time, right?

We can delve further into this in a new thread if you want but, suffice it to say, the alleged reason why the LA DA's office conspired to cover it up is equally ridiculous. Howard claims that he was told by his former brother-in-law that they took it upon themselves to cover it up partly because of the amount of money it would have cost to try The Family for the Zodiac crimes, especially when considering the expense already incurred from trying them for the LA murders. So, in other words, instead of leaving it up to the cities and counties where The Family and/or Bruce Davis would have actually been tried for the Zodiac crimes (Benicia, Vallejo, Napa, San Francisco), the LA DA's office went ahead and decided for all parties involved to bury the whole thing even though it wouldn't have cost them more than the postage necessary to pass along their evidence and findings. It gets even more ridiculous if you assume for a minute that the LA DA's office DID pass this information along to the aforementioned jurisdictions. If so, that would mean that not only did the LA DA's office conspire to cover up the Zodiac crimes, but that Benicia, Vallejo, Napa and San Francisco did as well! If that were the case, you'd have a district attorney's office conspiring to keep secret a conspiracy involving a band of murderous conspirators who conspired to commit the Zodiac crimes, as well as four other jurisdictions conspiring with the LA DA's office to keep the conspiracy a secret, or something along those lines. At the end of the day, one is left with no satisfying or logical conclusions where it concerns this supposed "theory." The more you try to examine it for its veracity, the more you end up , so its better to look at this "theory" and the alleged researcher behind it and simply instead.

[Zsearcher Profile]

I know we are slipping a bit off topic, but I wanted to throw in M.O. I can't see two more different M.O.s than the Family and Zodiac. The Family was haphazard, spur of the moment, messy, and followed the counsel of an LSD burnout. Zodiac was cold, calculating, intelligent, manipulating, and he followed through with days (maybe even weeks or months) of his own intricate planning for each event. Two different animals. Zs

[Scott_Bullock Profile]

I know we are slipping a bit off topic, but I wanted to throw in M.O. I can't see two more different M.O.s than the Family and Zodiac. The Family was haphazard, spur of the moment, messy, and followed the counsel of an LSD burnout. Zodiac was cold, calculating, intelligent, manipulating, and he followed through with days (maybe even weeks or months) of his own intricate planning for each event. Two different animals. Zs

[Bullitt Profile]

Back on topic here, even if we were to assume that Bruce Davis wore a crew-cut wig as part of a Z disguise (even with shoe lifts etc), there is still no way around the following 2 facts:

1) We know Z was clean shaven on 10-11-1969.

2) Bruce Davis had a full grown beard & moustache on 2 days later on 10-13-1969.

There's a real serious problem there.

[Scott_Bullock Profile]

Yes, indeed there is, Ed.

[para_owl Profile YIM]

I have my doubts about a Manson/Zodiac connection, but I can see why some have looked down that path. This is slightly off topic (please move it to another area if so), but I have wondered if Manson or Bugliosi has commented/speculated anything about the Zodiac killer.

--Will.

[Zsearcher Profile]

Does anyone else besides me think that the Sandy Betts drawing of Zodiac looks like Christopher Walken? 17 letters, oooh. Zs


http://www.thezodiacmansonconnection.co ... ition.html