
Zodiac Killer's murder of Paul Stine - San Francisco, CA
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saopaulo1
N 37° 47.326 W 122° 27.425
10S E 547803 N 4182517
Murder of Paul Stine in his cab by serial killer the Zodiac Killer.
Waymark Code: WM5YHZ
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 03/02/2009
Views: 13
"On October 11, 1969, a man entered Paul Stine's cab at the intersection of Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco and requested to be taken to Washington and Maple Streets in Presidio Heights. For reasons unknown, Stine drove only one block further to Cherry Street; the passenger then shot Stine once in the head with a 9 mm, took his wallet and car keys, and then tore off his shirt tail. He was observed by three teenagers across the street at 9:55 pm, who called the police as the crime was in progress. They observed the man wiping the cab down, and then walking away towards the Presidio, one block to the north. The police arrived minutes later, and the teen witnesses explained that the killer was still nearby.
Two blocks from the crime scene, Officer Don Fouke, also responding to the call, observed a white man walking along the sidewalk, then stepping onto a stairway leading up to the front yard of one of the homes on the north side of the street; the encounter lasted only five to ten seconds. The policeman's partner, Eric Zelms, did not see the man. The radio dispatch had alerted them to look for a black and not a white suspect, so they had no reason to talk to the man and drove past him without stopping; the mix-up in descriptions remains unexplained to this day. When the officers reached Cherry, Fouke was informed by Officer Pellisetti that they were in fact looking for a white suspect; Fouke realized that they must have passed the killer. Fouke concluded that the Zodiac had resumed his original route and escaped into the Presidio, so they entered the base to look for the killer, but he had vanished. A search ensued, but no one was found. The three teen witnesses worked with a police artist to prepare a composite of Stine's killer, and a few days later returned to produce a second composite. The killer was estimated to be 35-45 years of age. Detectives Bill Armstrong and Dave Toschi were assigned to the case. The San Francisco Police Department eventually investigated an estimated 2,500 suspects over a period of years." (
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