Kathleen Johns abducted March 22, 1970

On March 22, 1970, Kathleen Johns, age 22, and her infant daughter were on their way to visit a sick relative in Petaluma, CA. A man Johns later identified as the Zodiac disabled her car by tampering with the rear passenger wheel as it was parked along the highway, then Johns and her daughter. There were no witnesses. Johns car was later found burned about two miles from where she claimed to have left it.


Johns had pulled over because a man in a tailing had gestured that one of her wheels was wobbling. The man pulled over and offered to fix the problem. Instead, he made the tire worse. As Johns went on her way, the wheel fell off of the vehicle. Once again offering to help, the man convinced Kathleen to ride with him to a service station. According to Johns, the creepy man drove her and her baby around desolate back roads near the town of Tracy, CA. for nearly two hours, making threats to kill them. By her account, the man was approximately 30 years old, 5'9", 160 pounds, had short dark hair and was wearing heavy-rimmed glasses and dark clothing. Johns was finally able to escape her abductor and flagged down a ride to a police station in a nearby town. While at the police station, Johns spotted the Zodiac wanted poster and identified him as being the man responsible for the abduction. Over the next few days, San Francisco's major newspapers - the Chronicle and Examiner, ran stories on the incident. On July 24, 1970 Zodiac mailed a letter to the S.F. Chronicle, taking credit for the abduction.


Here is a link to the Kathleen Johns letter... https://zodiackiller.forumotion.com/f46-7-24-1970-kathleen-johns-letter-sent-to-the-s-f-chronicle

The FBI files showed the 1st viable suspect was a yosemite park ranger although few know about it .
If you were a pr there what highway would you use to get to San Fran ? 132 fer sure

Wasn't there a park ranger that the police or FBI had investigated and cleared? I remember a pretty lengthy conversation (at Morf's site I think) about a park ranger that I found to be really interesting, but I don't remember the guy's name or anything about him now.

Yes it was like my 2nd post at ZKS  I saw this watching the coldcase files Zodiac Killer episode in 2010.

Bill curtis said  "early on the FBI thought they had there man" , when park rangers @ yosemite reported a coworker and park ranger was acting suspicious around the time of the murders  and bore a close resemblence to the napa Z ,  he would sneak onto trails near hikers and seemed furrious or irate instantly . 2 or 3 other rangers were telling this .
The FBI talked to him but ruled him out by hand writing .

I brought this up @ ZKS and other senior members jumped on me saying no never heard anything about that  , one thinking it was a LB park Ranger. Morf said no there was mention of a yosemite  park ranger being questioned early on several times in the FBI files .
he posted it there but the name is redacted  I guess the FBI did not want to ruin his career just because he is mentally unstable .

the Cold Case Files Zodiac episode I saw in 2010  now does not have that story about the Yosemite park ranger .... like it was deleated from the show ....hmmmm ?
but I promise that is how I knew about it

there is a Zodiac climbing route on El Captian named in 69 or 70 but had been climbed before that and usually are given a name as soon as someone climbs it .. so already known as Zodiac ?

I somewhat remember reading about that at ZKS. Anyone 'cleared' on hand writing should still be looked at IMO. I could totally see Z being a park ranger.