IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR

If the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the Kathleen Johns abduction on March 22nd 1970, then where had he been and where was he going to at around 11:15 pm? If he was heading back to the Bay Area when he picked up Kathleen Johns trail, had he finished working late that night and the attack on the young woman was simply an opportunistic abduction? It certainly makes little sense that the Zodiac Killer would make a round trip of 140 miles from somewhere like Vallejo, just to abduct a woman on a lonely stetch of highway. In the Robert Graysmith book, Kathleen Johns route that night was as follows:"She had made her way up dusty Interstate 5 and onto Highway 99 just before Bakersfield, through Fresno, Merced and Modesto, where she swung left onto Highway 132, a rarely used road. In her rear view mirror she noticed a car she seemed to have picked up on her tail in Modesto. It was near midnight whe Kathleen slowed to let the car pass her. Abruptly, the driver behind began to blink his lights and honk his horn. When Kathleen ignored this, the stranger accelerated and pulled into the lane alongside her 1957 Chevrolet station wagon. He yelled through his open side passenger window that her left rear wheel was wobbling. "But I didn't stop, because it was dangerous out there. I waited until I got to the freeway, then I stopped by 5''. If this was an opportunistic attack by the Zodiac Killer, where had he come from? Kathleen Johns could have picked up this tail anywhere along Highway 132, so we should examine the location in and around Modesto more closely. Below is a map showing the route taken by Kathleen Johns.         

You will notice on the map above I have added two notable military bases that are pertinent to Highway 132. Somebody leaving NASA Crows Landing and heading to the Bay Area, would enter Interstate 5, travel 23 miles and join Highway 132, just 0.8 miles before the location of where Kathleen Johns pulled over her vehicle. This location was marginally east of Bird Road.
Somebody leaving Castle Air Force Base would also have joined Highway 99 (just like Kathleen Johns) and headed 34 miles to Modesto and then took Highway 132. Bearing in mind Kathleen Johns described her abductor as a "clean shaven and very neatly dressed man, thinking he may have been a service man or something", the possibility he had left one of these military airfields in his wing walker boots or some other military footwear, is certainly worthy of considerarion. When he had convinced Kathleen to take a ride with him, she noted that the "stranger's shoes had been shined so brightly, 'spit-shined' that they reflected the yellow interior lights of the car". The most direct route from both of these military airfields drops right onto Highway 132 and the route that Kathleen Johns noticed she had picked up a tail that night. The map below shows the position where Kathleen Johns vehicle was discovered burnt out, and the exact location where somebody traveling from NASA Crows Landing would have picked up Highway 132.

Crow’s Landing is an auxiliary field that served Alameda Naval Air Station and NASA Ames Research Center / Moffett Field.  It opened in 1942. From the 1960s to the 1990s NASA used it to conduct flight tests on experimental aircraft. The Navy also used its runways to simulate carrier landings, installing portable “Meatball” lights and arrestor cables. link. Howard Gillins recalled, “I was at Crows Landing from 5/68 to 6/70. I was assigned to the Crash Fire Rescue Dept under civilian Fire Chief Walt Latham. We had 1 SAR helo assigned at Crows Landing: an H-34 & later an H-2. We had at that time 50 enlisted (5 CPO including LCPO) 1 OIC (Lcdr) & 5 civilians. We built & occupied the Club / Rec Center / Ship Store. We provided daytime touch & go practices for the military aircraft & at night carrier landing practices. We supported the LSO, hot refueling & minor maintenance & repairs". link.

Castle Air Force Base (1941–1995) is a former United States Air Force Strategic Air Command base located northeast of Atwater, northwest of Merced and about 115 miles south of Sacramento, California. The base, located in unincorporated Merced County, was closed in 1995 pursuant to a Base Realignment and Closure Commission decision following the end of the Cold War and the disestablishment of Strategic Air Command. It is now known as the Castle Airport Aviation and Development Center. From April 1968 to April 1974, the 93rd operated a special B-52 replacement training unit to support SAC's B-52 operation in Southeast Asia. Also, the 328th and 329th Bomb Squadrons deployed to U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield, Thailand where they flew combat missions over Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos during the Vietnam War. link.

Crows Landing was an auxiliary airfield connected to Alameda Naval Air Station and Moffett Federal Airfield in Santa Clara County, both in the Bay Area where we know the Zodiac Killer operated. Did these military bases play any part in the Zodiac Killer's chosen profession, being contracted to work between the Patterson area, just south of Modesto, and the eastern fringe of San Francisco? This area of work would certainly facilitate his mailing of letters without too much deviation.

Just one month after the abduction of Kathleen Johns, the Zodiac Killer mailed the April 20th 1970 '13 Symbol' cipher, in which one of the characters resembled a circled 8. Some have considered it could represent an 8-ball or eightball, bearing in mind the July 26th 1970 'Litte List' letter - in which Zodiac promised to place Kathleen Johns top of. In the 'Little List' letter, he quoted from The Mikado, that "all billiard players I shall have them play in a darkened dungeon cell with crooked cues and twisted shoes. Yes, I shall have great fun inflicting the most delicious of pain to my slaves". Two days prior to the 'Litle List' letter he addressed Kathleen Johns, stating "So now I have a little list, starting with that woeman + her baby that I gave a rather intersting ride for a coupple howers one evening a few months back that ended in my burning her car where I found them". The above makes the connection to the military even more interesting, when we consider the design of the NASA Crows Landing military patch, and the 'circled 8' letter that followed the abduction of Kathleen Johns on March 22nd 1970.