Zodiac Unmasked by Robert Graysmith

“Very
    professional,” he told me later. “Mel enjoyed a good laugh and was a very, very good law enforcement officer. With his crew cut and glasses, he
    looked like a professor. Nicolai, as a State Department of Justice CI&I agent, put cases together when multiple counties were involved. He was a
    middle guy. We could contact him and he could get us information out of Sacramento.”
    As for Mulanax, he was a man’s man, a rugged outdoorsman, a hunter like Zodiac. “After I see Starr in person, I’l contact you guys to come
    back,” he assured them as the meeting concluded. Mulanax was the kind of man you could count on. Toschi knew he would come back with the
    goods.

    Monday, August 2, 1971
    Mulanax continued his circumspect investigation into Starr’s past, gathering as much background information as he could before making
    personal contact with the suspect. He noted, as others had, that Starr’s birth date was December 18—two days shy of the December 20 date of the
    Lake Herman Road double murders. Mulanax knew some serial kil ers struck on dates that held significance for them. So far, Zodiac had shot or
    stabbed couples on the Fourth of July, near Hal oween, Columbus Day, and a few days before Christmas. However, a few VPD investigators
    believed Zodiac had only taken responsibility for the Lake Herman tragedy to enhance his rep and further confuse the police. “Mulanax told me,”
    said Toschi, “that one day when Starr wasn’t home, he went to Starr’s house and his mother was there. He kinda just walked around and searched
    a little bit.”
    If Mulanax spoke conversational y with Starr himself that day (not a questioning in any respect), no record has survived. Mulanax saw the open
    door to Starr’s basement room yawning before him, and observed it was painted the same “near-neutral green” as the kitchen, though a shade
    lighter. Was Starr down there now, peering up at him? Bernice, catching his eye, said, “It was a bedroom for both my boys for many years.” The
    mailbox was a slot in the corner of the basement room. “Al letters must drop into that hideaway,” thought Mulanax, thinking of the mail-obsessed
    kil er. And Zodiac had said in a letter he had a basement and bombs there. Starr had moved from an upstairs room back to the basement for more
    privacy. Mulanax was tempted, but caution prevented him from advancing a step further. He retreated, but was stil thinking over the substance of
    his visit and a few of Bernice’s vague remarks as the weekend ended and he prepared to confer again with the San Francisco detectives.

    Tuesday, August 3, 1971
    Many along Fresno Street had known Starr since he was a boy, knew how devoted he was to his mother. But that mutual affection existed only as
    smoke and mirrors—neighbors often overheard shouting matches between the two. “His mother was a little on the stern side,” said Cheney. “Yeah,
    she was tough. She was a tal woman, almost as tal as Starr. Both parents were tal and slender like Ron. Unlike his brother, Ron got along with
    everybody.” The main bone of contention was that Bernice held Starr’s younger brother, Ron, in higher regard than him.
    “There was a big rivalry between Ron and his older brother,” Panzarel a told me later. “Ron got more girls. He could be more charming and the
    mother used to favor him, much to Starr’s disdain. She adored Ron who was a nice-looking kid. And Starr at this time had already gotten fat. I spent
    the weekend in the home with the dad and the mom. Starr came over. He was living in his trailer at the time and I saw how unassuming the father
    was. He had been wounded in an airplane wreck over Oklahoma in the late fifties or early sixties and he was never the same after that. He was a
    draftsman now and we drove him to work, dropped him off and picked him up later. Nice man, but very meek. He wasn’t always that way. Ron told
    me it was the accident that made him that way. After the accident