Zodiac Killer Lake Berryessa Commentary: Joseph Paul Franklin
I wanted to make a commentary on Lake Berryessa in regards to Joseph Paul Franklin.
Lake Berryessa Commentary in Regards to Joseph Paul Franklin
Background: I can and have placed Joseph Paul Franklin at the end of August in Mobile/LSU to drive with friends David Duke and Don Black to a Nazi rally in the DC area beginning of September of 1969. By what I have found he was kicked out of Nazi headquarters for things he said to women and was described as weird and creepy even by other members of the Nazi party back in the DC area. This happened the first week of September and his whereabouts are unknown after this. Around this time he was described as not being in line with the other Nazi party members with such things as long hair and more like a “hippie” and using slang like dude and other terminology not usually associated with other members of the Nazi party.
Some reports have him as being photographed with an Israeli ambassador during mid September but other accounts have this occurring in 1970, so multiple accounts of his whereabouts and conflicting information.
Is is my belief that after being kicked out of Nazi headquarters he traveled back to California as he was described around this time as having a job as a trucker in 1968 and I believe 1969. During his known killing spree of three years he told others he worked as a traveling plumber with contracts out of state, so the trucker job was a lie I believe.
He could keep a secret and never felt the need to confide his killings to others, even during his known three year killing spree.
Lake Berryessa
The use of a costume, I have wondered if he didn’t learn that by robbing banks. My big suspicion is that he was the bank robber in late 1968, but that is my belief. Bank robbers then were often in costumes as seen by the pictures below.
The story the Zodiac gave to the victims was a lie, meant to coerce certain behavior, get them to behave and act according to what the Zodiac Killer wanted. Joseph Paul Franklin had used the same method at least in one high profile case, The Rainbow Murders, in W. VA and if needed would use stories to coerce victims and manipulate others. This was not unknown to Franklin to do.
The use of the escapee story is somewhat interesting because having looked into his childhood he was a great admirer of outlaws of the old west. Growing up he later recounted how he often wanted to be an outlaw of the old west, admiring figures such as John Wesley Hardin, Billy the Kid, and bank robbers such as Dillinger amongst others. He saw himself as an outlaw just like those and had grown up wanting to be an outlaw, wanting to always play the bad guy, liking to dress in all black.
Speaking of clothing, Franklin was known to go to military surplus stores before his bank robberies, sometimes dressing up in old military clothing as this was a good place to get disposable clothing that wouldn’t be traced to him. This can also be a place to buy used military knives, while we don’t know the type of knife used I imagine this was also bought along with the clothing of course we don’t know for sure.
With the actual stabbings, Hartnell and Shepard were bound in such a way described as hog tied, which allowed for complete control of both of them. Commentary here in regards to Joseph Paul Franklin is that in some literature there is evidence that the Nazi party put out material suggesting these type of things, however, I can’t prove they had literature like this at this time, but many of the literature later on suggests learning this from militaristic magazines like Nazi or even something along those lines is not out of the question. On top of this, Franklin may not have needed training from a magazine as his father was a butcher, so a good possibility he learned how to tie and hunt from his father. He did enjoy hunting as a younger teen I think he spent some time in GA a few years prior and enjoyed hunting in the woods of GA, from which he gained a love of firearms.
The symbol used, well his friends he drove with I mentioned earlier both later went on to use that symbol, so there is an association with that symbol he would have known about that symbol.
Commentary on the message on the door. So, the message on the door lists the first two dates but interestingly if you add all the numbers of the first two dates you get the number 180.
As many of you know the number 8 and 18 are significant to the Zodiac killer, as well as the number 180 would be since it would include the number 18. For those reading about this the first time, this would be consistent with Obsessive compulsive with numbers sometimes known as arithmomania. Interestingly I recently found out he had more obsessions with other numbers such as 3, 13, 23, 63.
Notice the time of 6:30 on the door, it has the numbers 6 and 3.
Franklin admired and was described as having “idolized” Charles Manson. In August before the Zodiac stabbings began is when the Manson murders had occurred and I believe that after having gained so much national press coverage that when the Zodiac Killer read about all the coverage Manson got from his crimes he tried to replicate that with the stabbings at Lake Berryessa.
After the stabbings we do get a call from the Zodiac Killer. Franklin did the same with regards to at least one of his crimes.
Descriptions: Hair color is consistent. Franklins height is either 5/10 or 5/11 somewhere in there, I don’t know his shoe size though I have never been able to get that. Hartnell described his voice as being possibly a student, so in my opinion younger sounding with a “drawl”. This could be the Alabama accent that Franklin had.
Although I realize the Zodiac Killer was described as heavy, I don’t give much weight to this as he clearly had a thing for disguises and masking his true identity. Remember it is easier to disguise yourself as heavier than thinner. A heavy man can’t disguise himself as a thin man, but a thinner man go disguise himself as heavier, which is why I go with the thin descriptions overall. That’s not to say Franklin was thin, he was into weights and having a healthy body, described around this time as being around 200 pds, or so if I am not mistaken. He was a health nut as well, but described as bulky due to his weights.
Here is some comparison to the drawing of the man at Lake Berryessa vs some screenshots of Franklin:
Speculation:
The following is pure speculation on my part, but I have often wondered if he could have used a WW2 Nazi knife bought at a surplus store to use in the Berryessa stabbings. This could all be purchased from a surplus store, the knife would have been highly significant to him being a Nazi weapon. My opinion though. I sometimes think he was aiming for 18 stab wounds or possibly 23 or 24 to be consistent with his OCD with certain numbers. Nervousness could have prevented him from properly counting the number of times he stabbed his victims though, but pure speculation on my part.
I think I read somewhere, but not sure that the tire tracks indicated different sizes of wheels? Not sure, but if this is true I think Franklin also had other cars with larger, sportier tires in the back vs the front. He changed cars regularly.
As far as the evidence, he most likely ditched both the weapons and clothes he was wearing to hide any connection to the Lake Berryessa crime. My opinion, could have thrown the weapon out the car to throwing it in the trash. Franklin even buried one of his weapons in a field after one of his crimes to hide evidence, he used all sorts of techniques and tactics to make it impossible to forensically trace murders back to him. Very well could have ditched the car also to be sure.
