California police chief's 1969 letter suspected Zodiac killer link to Cheri Jo Bates murder, group says
Fox News
The police chief of a Southern California city at the time a young woman was murdered in 1966 said the killing could have been related to the Zodiac Killer murders that occurred hundreds of miles away, despite the department's current stance that the slayings are not related, according to a group who recently claimed to have unmasked the notorious murderer.
The Case Breakers, a group comprised of former police investigators, military intelligence analysts and journalists, claimed an Oct. 20, 1969 letter from then-Riverside Police Chief Lambert "Curly" Kinkead to Napa County Sheriff Earl Randol said the murder of Cheri Jo Bates followed a "similar M.O. of your ‘Zodiac’" suspect.
Napa County was where college students Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell were stabbed while picnicking at Lake Berryessa on Sept. 27, 1969. Shepard died of her wounds two days later while Hartnell survived. In total, five deaths have been attributed to the Zodiac that occurred between December 1968 and October 1969 in Northern California.