New Zodiac Candidate

[RivkahChaya]

A guy named Gary Stewart, who was adopted as an infant, and didn't know what his biological father looked like until a few years ago, has decided the that the man, Earl Van Best, Jr., is the Zodiac. Or was-- Van Best died in 1984.

The picture is a very good likeness of the police sketch, and Van Best was not a nice guy; he did time for both statutory rape and wife-beating.

Thus far, the SFPD have refused to test Stewart's DNA, though, so the police must not think there's much of a case. Stewart has a book out nonetheless.

Here's more.

[GUT]

G'day Rivkah

He wrote a book fingering his father ... what a shock!

[RivkahChaya]

G'day Rivkah

He wrote a book fingering his father ... what a shock!

I know. I'm still recovering from the concussion when I hit my head in a dead faint, I was so shocked, shocked, I tell you!

[GUT]

I'm look around for a relative in the USA at the right time to cash in on, I've already got one just right for Jack, but imagine the book if I can get Jack and Zodiac. . . .

[sdreid]

This man is more interesting than most of the recent candidates but I will be surprised if there's a DNA match. In fact, since he has an arrest record, this guy's prints should be on file to compare to the print found at the Stine murder scene and that should be real easy to check.

[RivkahChaya]

This man is more interesting than most of the recent candidates but I will be surprised if there's a DNA match. In fact, since he has an arrest record, this guy's prints should be on file to compare to the print found at the Stine murder scene and that should be real easy to check.

Yeah. This guy has more going for him than most other candidates, but if the police aren't interested, that carries a lot of weight for me. I might buy the book when I can get a used copy on Amazon for a couple of dollars.

[GUT]

G'day Stan

This man is more interesting than most of the recent candidates but I will be surprised if there's a DNA match. In fact, since he has an arrest record, this guy's prints should be on file to compare to the print found at the Stine murder scene and that should be real easy to check.

Maybe that is why the police are not interested, ie they checked the prints and they didn't match so why bother with DNA.

[RivkahChaya]

The Stine prints are bloody prints, and apparently there's some issue with getting good matches with bloody prints. The son says that his father had scars on his thumbs that match the prints. I haven't found an image online, and the used copies of the book aren't cheap enough for me yet.

But you are probably right.

It's also possible that the police are not convinced by the man's evidence that Van Best is in fact his biological father, and want independent verification of that before they will use his DNA to check the Zodiac DNA. Basically, they have only his birth-mother's say-so, and she was a runaway who hooked up with Van Best when she was 14. He later went to prison for statutory rape of her. If she admits to having sex with anyone else during the right time frame, or if she claims she didn't, but there is good reason to doubt her, then I would want another relative of Van Best to come forward.

In other words, Stewart could be correct that Van Best is the Zodiac, but if Van Best is not really his biological father, and a DNA test doesn't match for that reason, Van Best might get dismissed for the wrong reason.

The fingerprints are the Occam's Razor explanation, but the biological father problem would explain why the police are being evasive with Stewart.

[GUT]

G'day Rivkah

What you say makes sense to me.

If there is a question mark over his paternity why spend money on DNA tests?

[RivkahChaya]

I'm only guessing there's a question mark over his paternity. It's just that we seem to have nothing more than his birth-mother's word for it, and she was 14 at the time, a long time ago.

But I have not read the book. FWIW, the Amazon reviews are all over the place.

[kensei]

There seems to be way too many new Zodiac suspects the last few years. I heard of another on a radio show just last night that had me really rolling my eyes, a man named Edward Wayne Edwards who died in prison a couple of years ago and who the guest on the show was alleging in a new book to be the Zodiac, the killer of the Black Dahlia at the age of only 13 (!), the Atlanta Child Killer, the murderer of both Chandra Levy and Jon Benet Ramsey, and many other lesser known crimes. Oh by the way, also Adam Walsh, the son of John Walsh of "America's Most Wanted." There are reviews of his book that say it is remarkably compelling, but I think we've all seen as Ripperologists how a completely convincing case can be built against just about any suspect suggested. Edwards sounded to me like someone who did very careful research in an attempt to take credit for all those crimes and be thought of as the most prolific serial killer ever after he died.

[sdreid]

Seems like we are getting about one a month.

[GUT]

G'day Stan

Seems like we are getting about one a month.

Getting like Jack, it seems anyone can be turned into a suspect.

[sdreid]

Maybe it's daily. I see a new suspect today named Ross Sullivan. My understanding is that he worked near where Bates was killed and then moved to the S.F. region before the other murders occurred. He looks a lot like the sketch also. He's new to me anyway. Reportedly, he died in 1977.

[Barnaby]

There seems to be way too many new Zodiac suspects the last few years. I heard of another on a radio show just last night that had me really rolling my eyes, a man named Edward Wayne Edwards who died in prison a couple of years ago and who the guest on the show was alleging in a new book to be the Zodiac, the killer of the Black Dahlia at the age of only 13 (!), the Atlanta Child Killer, the murderer of both Chandra Levy and Jon Benet Ramsey, and many other lesser known crimes. Oh by the way, also Adam Walsh, the son of John Walsh of "America's Most Wanted." There are reviews of his book that say it is remarkably compelling, but I think we've all seen as Ripperologists how a completely convincing case can be built against just about any suspect suggested. Edwards sounded to me like someone who did very careful research in an attempt to take credit for all those crimes and be thought of as the most prolific serial killer ever after he died.

This tops just about every ludicrous Ripper suspect I have ever read about on these message boards.