Inspired by the great work of Druzer on the Zodiac Killer Site forum, we can delve further into the possible Zodiac Killer threats toward Santa Rosa during the October of 1969. It was highlighted in the last article that a person claiming to be the Zodiac Killer phoned authorities in Santa Rosa (likely Santa Rosa Police Department) on, or shortly before October 15th 1969, threatening schoolchildren with bombs. This was crucially important, as the Stine letter text of "School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out" had not been released to the newspapers at this juncture. This was compelling evidence that the phone caller to Santa Rosa was very likely the Zodiac Killer. If that wasn't nearly enough, there is a little more to bolster this claim.
School bus driver [October 17th 1969] On October 17th 1969, KRON News footage featured an interview with a school bus driver who claimed that someone fired a shot at the bus she was driving. The woman was driving a school bus in Santa Rosa. She stated "As I came around this bend I heard a loud shot from the left hand side of the bus. The children heard it too. Now I don't know if anything struck the bus. We can't find anything that struck the bus". The woman was confident she had heard a shot that day.
The release of Keith Power's article in the San Francisco Chronicle on October 17th 1969 revealed that school bus drivers had been issued with evasion tactics in the event of a Zodiac attack. The article not only released the Zodiac threat on schoolchildren, but stated "Detectives issued an all-points bulletin yesterday, with advice to bus drivers if an attack is, in fact made. The drivers were told to keep the bus in motion "at all costs", instruct passengers to lie on the floor and to attract as much attention as possible with horn and lights". The perceived attack on this school bus in Santa Rosa could easily be attributed to imagination or hysteria, bearing in mind the attention the Zodiac Killer had drawn over recent months. However, the story given by the bus driver becomes more significant when we consider the October 21st 1969 article in the San Francisco Chronicle. It stated "Even before starting on its routes each vehicle has undergone a thorough check to make sure a bomb isn't aboard. Someone hinting he might be Zodiac has telephoned such a threat in Santa Rosa. The man responsible for the safety of the students who ride the buses is Fred Sowash, the district's transportation director. Since last Wednesday (October 15th), when he learned of Zodiac's threat, Sowash has been devoting 18 to 20 hours a day to blunt it".
The release of Keith Power's article in the San Francisco Chronicle on October 17th 1969 revealed that school bus drivers had been issued with evasion tactics in the event of a Zodiac attack. The article not only released the Zodiac threat on schoolchildren, but stated "Detectives issued an all-points bulletin yesterday, with advice to bus drivers if an attack is, in fact made. The drivers were told to keep the bus in motion "at all costs", instruct passengers to lie on the floor and to attract as much attention as possible with horn and lights". The perceived attack on this school bus in Santa Rosa could easily be attributed to imagination or hysteria, bearing in mind the attention the Zodiac Killer had drawn over recent months. However, the story given by the bus driver becomes more significant when we consider the October 21st 1969 article in the San Francisco Chronicle. It stated "Even before starting on its routes each vehicle has undergone a thorough check to make sure a bomb isn't aboard. Someone hinting he might be Zodiac has telephoned such a threat in Santa Rosa. The man responsible for the safety of the students who ride the buses is Fred Sowash, the district's transportation director. Since last Wednesday (October 15th), when he learned of Zodiac's threat, Sowash has been devoting 18 to 20 hours a day to blunt it".
This bomb threat (October 15th) on schoolchildren with respect to Santa Rosa was only made available in the San Francisco Chronicle on October 21st 1969. Therefore, it must be considered extremely coincidental that the first major news footage of an attack on a school bus, happened in Santa Rosa just four days earlier. This attack on a school bus could have happened anywhere in the Bay Area, but it just happened to occur in Santa Rosa, just two days after a man claiming to be the Zodiac Killer rang Santa Rosa authorities threatening schoolchildren on buses. If they weren't the same person, then it has to be a massive stroke of luck for the Santa Rosa caller on October 15th 1969 to pre-empt the details in the Stine letter, which was shortly followed on October 17th 1969 by a reported shooting of a school bus in Santa Rosa, that coincidentally occurred in the same location as the target chosen by the caller.
Law enforcement were skeptical that any shooting took place on a school bus in Santa Rosa on October 17th 1969. If this was the case, then the reported "loud shot" heard by the bus driver just happened to never occur in Santa Rosa, rather than the innumerable other places in the Bay Area.
Law enforcement were skeptical that any shooting took place on a school bus in Santa Rosa on October 17th 1969. If this was the case, then the reported "loud shot" heard by the bus driver just happened to never occur in Santa Rosa, rather than the innumerable other places in the Bay Area.