“After church and a late-night dinner, my husband John wanted to pull over to some ocean lookout spots on the way home. Ironically, as fate would have it, the Zodiac had also chosen to stop by looking for someone who was alone. After seeing the Zodiac stalk couples at two other lovers’ lane locations in the space of 25 minutes, we had traveled over the Golden Gate Bridge on 101 at about 11:30 p.m., taking the exit for Vista Point immediately after crossing the bridge.
As we entered the parking lot, we immediately noticed the same lone man wearing a medium gray wool jacket, matching pants, a white turtleneck sweater, and black dress shoes. He was in his mid-50s or early 60s, having light or gray thinning hair and large light-colored rimmed glasses. The man had left the old white car with red stripes on the sides and was headed straight toward a couple whom he had finally discovered alone, clasping hands, facing each other. It looked like an imminent marriage proposal.
- John FitzPatrick, the man who chased the Zodiac Killer in mid-October 1978. Deceased of cancer in 2008.
My husband had intended to circle around and pull into a parking place about where the white car had parked. Upon seeing the suspicious actions of the man, I noticed he reached into his left pocket as if for a gun and headed straight forward toward the couple. We realized he had evil intentions. He turned around and saw us looking full view at him. His face suddenly became filled with terror and the intense emotional pain of discovery. Upon seeing us observing him for the third time in less than 30 minutes, the stalker panicked. He must have thought we were undercover police. My husband said, ‘That’s the Zodiac…let’s get him!’ The man who was the Zodiac quickly abandoned his plan, ran to his car, quickly jumped in, and dashed off, leaving through the Vista Point entrance, not an exit… back to the freeway. We were close on his tail, and the chase began!
Initially, we entered the Vista Point parking lot on the right, traveling left. The Zodiac was parked to the right of us. He was walking toward a couple standing out front where people view the water and the city. He had waited to find somebody who was alone. We looped around facing his car but did not park. Probably about 20 feet away in front of us, as he headed straight for the couple, he turned around and saw us still in our car, staring squarely at him. He stopped, then decided to run. As we saw him fearfully dash back to his car, we suddenly accelerated forward after him, initiating the chase, and exited with him through the ‘entrance only’ back to the freeway. He shot ahead at great speed. Apparently, the ‘old’ white car with the red stripes on the side was a disguise—much like him. It was a car with a big engine, obviously designed for the escape. We were driving a late-model Subaru sedan, but it was no match for the Zodiac escape car.”
“We traveled at high speed, pushing up over 110 mph, but the Zodiac’s car must have been traveling at up over 120 mph. My husband, who was an engineer and a precision driver, was dodging in and out, trying to get up close for the license plate. ‘Can you see it... can you see it?’ I strained my eyes to try to see it. It was close to midnight now, and the only light was that of the moon and neighboring motorists’ headlights.
I was blessed with 15/20 vision, but just when I could have seen the license plate, a car trying to take an exit on the left got in between our car and his car. We were forced to slow up to avoid hitting the car. The Zodiac shot ahead with the ‘phantom advantage’ he was so famous for and disappeared. We could not see which exit he took. ‘Great!’ my husband said. ‘We had him, but he got away!’ I was secretly glad, as we could not have risked following him off an exit and potentially being shot at if he felt closed in on.
Then, we saw an exit off the freeway for the California Highway Patrol and took that. The light was on in the building, and someone was still on duty. We rushed inside and told the officer our story. He immediately believed us as all officers had been put on alert due to the letter the Zodiac had written to the newspaper threatening to strike and kill that weekend. Right away, the officer got on the police radio and put out an all-points bulletin and dropped a surveillance net.
‘That's all we can do right now. Fill this out. Someone from the Francisco Police Department will get a hold of you in the morning,’ he said. The phone rang early on Monday morning. ‘This is Sergeant Tedesco,’ he said. ‘I’ve been a detective on the Zodiac case for the last ten years. So, you saw a white Volkswagen?’ he asked. My heart sank. ‘No... that was the Son of Sam’ (a serial killer from New York). I remembered the newspaper stories about the 'clone' on the east coast. ‘Did you spend all night looking for the wrong car?’ I moaned. I never was sure if he was just testing me or was just misinformed. I went through the whole story again with him in great detail. Then he responded, ‘Most people who think they saw the Zodiac… we don’t think they saw him, but I’m quite sure that’s who you saw!’
‘I am an artist of sorts,’ I told him, and I offered to do a drawing of the face. I drew my sketch and sent it to him. Tedesco called back a few days later. ‘Your drawing matches other drawings and descriptions we have. It was him. We are sure of it.’ I begged the police from the very first day to keep the story out of the newspapers, as I did not actually see his license plate. If he ever found out, he would come back and kill again. The police agreed. The effort to block the story from the media was successful. The San Francisco Chronicle thought the letter must have been written by an imposter, as no one turned up dead as he had threatened. Unfortunately, as a result, the letter—a real letter—was not preserved. Ten years of silence went by.
A well-known television network based out of San Francisco did a documentary, The Zodiac, Ten Years Later. We received calls from a few friends on our inner circle who had seen the TV program. ‘Did you know they re-enacted you two chasing him? That was the last he was ever seen alive,’ they said. The secret had leaked out through a couple we'd known since their high school years who later became TV producers. We had always told our kids, nieces, nephews, and the whole family group, 'don’t go telling your friends and teachers at school your mommy and daddy chased the Zodiac Killer. If he ever finds out we didn’t actually see his license plate, he could come back!' They were pretty good at keeping the secret.
Then one day, my high school-aged daughter Yvonne came home and dropped the bombshell:‘Mom, I talked to my friend Tony about you and Dad chasing the Zodiac.’‘Yvonne… you didn’t.’‘This time, it’s different. Tony’s grandfather, who was another key detective on the case for many years, passed away. But Tony followed the details of the case as a boy up until the present. He’s going to call you and tell you what happened that night after the Zodiac escaped from you and dad on the freeway.'
That he did. Remarkable. Leave it to two high school kids to put it all together!”
Our Story
I have thoroughly reviewed various sources of research on the Zodiac Killer and still believe our story bears strong consideration of what ultimately did happen to him! There are strong facts that suggest he is dead and took his own life as early as the next day after the chase rather than bear the humiliation of being picked up by the police, whom he mocked for years. How it all happened unfolds later in the story. This delightful book and screenplay—based on our true story (some names have been changed)—is filled with intrigue, suspense, and even humor at times.
The ending is fictional, based on things we theorize happened to him according to certain evidence that was revealed by the grandson of the detective who worked on the case. However, this grandfather died before certain points could be authenticated.
That night, we saw him leaving the scene at an ocean inlet where four couples were walking on the sandy beach. Shortly after that, we unwittingly chased him off, sparing the lives of two different couples who were only moments away from being gunned down. After the dramatic chase scene, the main part of the film is a warm-hearted story about the family who held the secret for so many years. Yes, we do tell the secret. But we are guarding the ending for now!