Blue Rock Springs Park 1969

On July 4th 1969 a telephone call came into Vallejo Police dept at 12.10am from a woman who said 2 youths were being shot at in Blue Rock Springs Car Park. Police would attend the scene several minutes later finding Michael Mageau 19 sitting outside to the rear door of the car where he told Police they had been shot. Michael was injured badly and the policeman could see blood coming from his mouth and did his best to comfort Michael until the ambulance arrived.

In the front driver's seat they found Darlene Ferrin, a 22 year old waitress, wife and mother slumped over the wheel with her head resting on the side window. The policeman could see she had been shot 3 times to the side, he could see no other wounds on going around the vehicle but could see a substantial amount of blood inside the car.

Darlene sadly died on her way to hospital but amazingly Michael survived and was able to give Police much more details about what had happened that night. His statement was as follows, click on the documents below to open up larger.

At 12.40am the same morning night of the shooting a call came into Vallejo Police, the man would not identify himself but said the following to the operator

" I want to report a double murder. If you will go one mile east on Columbus Park Way to the public park you will find the kids in a brown car. They were shot with a 9mm Luger. I also killed those kids last year. Goodbye"

The Police Captain had asked the operator at the time to elaborate on the above call, this is what she said. " She could distinguish no trace of accent, the caller appeared to be reading or had rehearsed what he was going to say, in an even consistent voice (rather soft but forceful). When she had attempted to get more information from the caller he raised his voice over the operators and would not stop talking until his statement was complete. The subjects voice seemed mature, the only real change came in his voice when he said goodbye, as if in taunt, a very slow goo-ood-by-ye".

There are several aspects here that I find interesting in this case, let's take the telephone call first, the operator tells us his voice is soft but forceful, rehearsed lines, and taunting, regarding the Golden State Killer, survivors often tell us through their statements to police that they think his voice is higher pitched than what he tries to project, speaking through clenched teeth and a forced voice. The Golden State Killer also had a script as such during his EAR/ONS crimes, often using the same pretences and lines throughout his crime spree. He also did'nt like it when his victims talked, often telling them to shut up and would get angrier still if they did'nt comply, the taunting also was a favourite, you just have to look at the amount of times he called victims before and after attacks, there are also a couple of cases where GSK actually tells his victim he better not see it in papers tomorrow or he'll kill two people, tell the pigs referring to the police.

Another aspect of this case is the Description from Michael Mageau about how Zodiac approached the car with a Flashlight which threw them off thinking he was a Police Officer, they had been reaching for their I.D cards when the shooter opened fire. It is a well known part of GSK's M.O that he always used a flashlight when waking his sleeping victims after breaking into their home. He would shine the light in their eyes so they would have to look away from him. I find it interesting that Zodiac used his torch as the Police do and given that GSK eventually became a Policeman himself it's not out of the realm of possiblity that there is a conncetion between them man we know of as Jospeh J DeAngelo and the Zodiac.

The description that Michael gave Detectives was of a Man approx 5ft 8 with Light Brown or Blonde Hair which was Curly and Short, he thought the Man was of Stocky Build approx 200lbs with a large face. Michael had only seen the shooter from the side so could not give a facial description but there is enough here for me that resonates with witness descriptions of GSK.

The fact that the shooter had walked away then calmly walked back and shot the victims again is very telling how cold this killer is, he was in no hurry to get back to his car he did'nt run, again we have witnesses telling us how nonchalant GSK was, even when having a Mask on.

The next case at Lake Berryessa has a few strange coincidence's too which I will discuss in my next post. Photo below is of Jospeh J DeAngelo standing in yellow t shirt taken July 1970.