Don't Count Him Out, William Thoresen III

[Winward1]

In 2013, after I published information that implies that William Thoresen III killed Valerie Percy in Illinois (in 1966) several Zodiac researchers considered him as a Zodiac suspect.

They considered him because Thoresen lived in San Francisco starting in 1964, had been a suspect in several murders, and lived about a dozen blocks from the Stein crime scene.

When it came to Thoresen as Zodiac, numerous people thought he looked pretty good but he died in mid-1970 and the mailings continued and I didn’t have an explanation for that until now. (I continued studying Thoresen, now believe he killed Percy and for obvious reasons…the later mailings… he has been overlooked as Zodiac.)

You know all Zodiac’s mailings to the media had envelopes that feature two stamps/extra postage and a notation that contains the word editor.

But what is overlooked is that ended on 4/28/70, the postmark of the dragon card’s envelope, which is the last mailing before Thoresen died:

Dragon Card Envelope

Thoresen died 6/10/70.

Then, in the next mailing (the Button letter postmarked 6/26/70) the additional stamps/postage and editor notation mysteriously disappear. (It was the first mailing to arrive after his death):

Zodiac-Button Envelope

Meanwhile, there were no more Zodiac sightings, calls or attacks after Thoresen died.

What else implicates him? He had red in his hair as described by witnesses to the Stein murder. (The red in his hair is documented in his wife’s book.) Thoresen also lived in the direction the Stein witnesses saw the suspect walking in after the attack.

Then there’s Thoresen’s San Francisco address (2801 Broadway in Pacific Heights.) At the bottom of page 2 of Zodiac’s Bus Bomb letter, he references the K-9 units’ search for him in the park after Stein’s murder. “The dogs never came with in 2 blocks of me + they were to the west…”

2801 Broadway is exactly two blocks east of the area of the park that was being searched.

Far more is now documented that I believe implicates Thoresen in Zodiac’s crimes and beyond, and priced it for these times:

https://www.amazon.com/Zodiac-Mania...swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1589633223&sr=8-1

 

[Winward1]

A government file on Thoresen, once relatively easy to find online, reveals that by late 1966 the feds believed Thoresen was a prime suspect in the murder of Valerie Percy, who was beaten and stabbed to death in Illinois six weeks to the day before Cheri Jo Bates was murdered.

They called a bayonet that was found near Percy’s home the presumed murder weapon. (A Chicago detective assigned to the case was told the victim’s wounds were consistent with a bayonet by the pathologist who performed Percy’s autopsy. The hilt of that weapon features a triangular-shaped pummel that sounds like descriptions of the victim’s head wounds that were published in days prior to the bayonet’s discovery.)

The report, written by the Napa police sergeant who attended Cecelia Shepard’s autopsy, noted the pathologist who conducted her autopsy stated the weapon she was stabbed with was “similar to a bayonet”, and described the weapon’s blade as being not unlike the one on the bayonet linked to Percy’s murder (a WWII era M-1 issue bayonet. It seems arguable that while other bayonets might be capable of inflicting similar wounds, as far as knives go, such bayonets are in a class by themselves, and have been described by some as more like small swords than knives.)

The Chicago detective later became homicide commander of Chicago police and investigated thousands of murders. The lead investigator on the Percy case was a former Illinois State Police detective in the Chicago area, and also worked his share of murder cases in a decades-long career. Both recalled the bayonet from the Percy case because they could not recall another case where a civilian had been said to have been stabbed with a bayonet.

The file shows the feds also suspected Thoresen for killing Percy because Thoresen's parents were neighbors of Percy’s. He had a history of violence, and a record that showed he had entered area homes without permission from an early age. His wife was arrested at Kennedy Airport two months after Percy’s murder for attempting to deliver a cache of military weapons to her husband that included three of the same bayonets as the one linked to the Percy murder.

I have published an entry from Thoresen’s hometown police report that reveals—a year prior to the Bates murder—Thoresen had disabled cars by pulling wires from their engines as was done to Bates’ car on the date she was murdered.

 

[Tee7077]

Interesting stuff

 

[Winward1]

You likely recall that when police asked Michael Mageau what Zodiac’s car looked like he replied “like Darlene’s”, meaning Ferrin’s Corvair. But he couldn’t say for sure.

This is just a theory but it’s based on facts about Thoresen. Corvairs were common on American roads in the 1960s. It was dark but Mageau got a look at the rear of the car while Zodiac was backing it up. Had it been a Corvair it seems he would have recognized it as such.

Because he couldn’t, though, it was possibly a car that, in a dimly lit park at midnight to a kid from rather humble means, was similar in some basic ways to a Corvair but was at the also something teens like Mageau didn’t see (and hear) everyday.

It was dark but Mageau was also able to make a rough guess at the color, saying it was a somewhat lighter than Ferrin’s car, which was brown.

This could be relevant to Thoresen as he drove a red early 1960s Ferrari (my best guess is a 1962.) Though in a vastly different class when it comes to price and performance than a Corvair, under the conditions that Mageau viewed it such a car could appear roughly similar to a Corvair (which was called by some a poor man’s Corvette) in size, ground clearance, and had some similar features like round taillights. A red car in that lot and at that hour is consistent with Mageau’s description of the car’s color.

Mageau said the car as sped out of the parking lot, which Zodiac disputed by saying he drove away slowly. What could account for such conflicting versions of this detail of events?

The answer may be, if it was Thoresen, he was in his Ferrari. He drove away slowly because if he revved the engine anyone within earshot would know that whatever car it was, it was no off of the lot Chevy or Ford. Meanwhile, if it was Thoresen in such a car, even while at little more than idle while backing up and then driving away at the distance Mageau was from it, it would have sounded like the expensive, exotic, high performance sports car it was. In other words, that was something Mageau didn’t hear every day and, while recalling it, he may have equated such a loud, powerful engine with the suspect speeding out of the lot when he actually didn’t.

 

[Winward1]

Facts and evidence not yet mentioned also make Thoresen look culpable for Zodiac’s crimes. Here are a few of them:

Thoresen hired Melvin Belli mid sixties in order to fight extradition to Arizona on bombing charges. The same Melvin Belli Zodiac wrote to at Christmas, 1969, asking for help.

Thoresen was no ordinary gun enthusiast. In 1967 he was busted for illegal transport (as well as other charges) of over 70 TONs of guns. This would explain Zodiac being a suspect in shootings believed to have involved handguns and rifles as well firearms of different calibers and makes.

Thoresen bought weapons from arms dealers who supplied militias, many of whose members dressed in military clothing and outerwear (which would explain shoe and boot prints believed to have been created by military footwear.) According to his wife, Thoresen started hoarding guns after a visit to Fort Bragg, North Carolina in mid 1966.

In Zodiac’s 11/9/69 letter, he makes a reference to his basement. However, few homes in California include basements. Thoresen’s Pacific Heights home includes a basement, as did the house he was raised in in Illinois. Thoresen’s wife wrote that he planned to install a shooting gallery in the basement in their Pacific Heights home. I don’t know about you, but I would expect nothing less from Zodiac.

This is subjective, but I believe the handwriting in a letter written to the mother of one of two murder victims who were killed in spring, 1969, in Illinois (and in a case that IMHO reeks of Zodiac's involvement) matches handwriting on the Hautz envelope, which has been thought by numerous people to have a nefarious connection to Bates murder. I have included both in my latest work. You can decide for yourself.

A notation involving evidence found at the Percy crime scene, and two others in Illinois, later surfaced in Zodiac’s letters. My first release documents its existence. My second release documents its connection to the Zodiac case.

 

[Manwel]

Facts and evidence not yet mentioned also make Thoresen look culpable for Zodiac’s crimes. Here are a few of them:

Thoresen hired Melvin Belli mid sixties in order to fight extradition to Arizona on bombing charges. The same Melvin Belli Zodiac wrote to at Christmas, 1969, asking for help.

Thoresen was no ordinary gun enthusiast. In 1967 he was busted for illegal transport (as well as other charges) of over 70 TONs of guns. This would explain Zodiac being a suspect in shootings believed to have involved handguns and rifles as well firearms of different calibers and makes.

Thoresen bought weapons from arms dealers who supplied militias, many of whose members dressed in military clothing and outerwear (which would explain shoe and boot prints believed to have been created by military footwear.) According to his wife, Thoresen started hoarding guns after a visit to Fort Bragg, North Carolina in mid 1966.

In Zodiac’s 11/9/69 letter, he makes a reference to his basement. However, few homes in California include basements. Thoresen’s Pacific Heights home includes a basement, as did the house he was raised in in Illinois. Thoresen’s wife wrote that he planned to install a shooting gallery in the basement in their Pacific Heights home. I don’t know about you, but I would expect nothing less from Zodiac.

This is subjective, but I believe the handwriting in a letter written to the mother of one of two murder victims who were killed in spring, 1969, in Illinois (and in a case that IMHO reeks of Zodiac's involvement) matches handwriting on the Hautz envelope, which has been thought by numerous people to have a nefarious connection to Bates murder. I have included both in my latest work. You can decide for yourself.

A notation involving evidence found at the Percy crime scene, and two others in Illinois, later surfaced in Zodiac’s letters. My first release documents its existence. My second release documents its connection to the Zodiac case.

I've never heard of this guy until now but I like him for it. There's just no way Zodiac decided to become some nutcase one night while driving around. But this guy, this guy had a reputation. I see a narrative here that lines up. The only thing that doesn't work for me is the agreed upon Zodiac letters continued until 1974. Everyone believes those were real. So either he made the wife send them on specific dates and she did it, he asked someone else to do it and they never spoke up, or this just isn't Zodiac.

 

[Winward1]

The fact there were only two mailings between the Belli letter and Thoresen’s death, a time period that spans almost six months, indicates it was him.

He was a serial killer who used his family’s money, and his wife, to support a lifestyle that allowed him to plan and commit murders, churn out correspondence, and follow himself in the news.

But by mid ’69 he had less time as his wife had left him multiple times, and was no longer keeping up with the bills on their two mansions, rental property and an apartment (the deeds on the two mansions were back in the hands of his father, whom Thoresen hated. But he had no choice because he had squandered his money.)

And he was having to watch their kid more often (yes, Zodiac was a father) and for longer durations while his wife was gone (to meet with divorce lawyers. She left them both during Christmas, ’69, which is when he wrote his former lawyer, Belli.) There’s much to support the reason there were only two mailings the last (nearly) six months of his life.

After his death and for the duration of 1970, after only sending two mailings, we’re supposed to believe he cranked out four more, which arrived in envelopes that veer widely from his established MO (which doubtlessly been done for the point of identifying him) and include a re-designed greeting card the like of which seems would have been beyond his interest (if not realm) to produce.

Everyone believes the post-mid-'70 letters are real until they find the envelopes changed the moment he died, and there's a boatload of evidence and facts that point directly at him. Then they discover—when not acting under the guise of Zodiac—he was assaulting waiters in AZ, women in Las Vegas, and set bombs off for kicks. And got away with it because he was a rich punk.

 

[Winward1]

Came across this today:

It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled. - Mark Twain

 

[Winward1]

In 2014, retired Chicago based FBI agent Vincent Inserra published his memoirs. He included a chapter on the Valerie Percy murder case, and reveals he and the FBI were the source of a series of stories about the case that ran in Chicago newspapers in 1973.



The stories imply Percy had been killed by one of a number of Chicago based jewel thieves, some of whom had ties to the Chicago mob. But the more I learned about Percy case, which I was researching for a book, the more it seemed the thieves had nothing to do with it.



One of them, Frank Hohimer, wrote a book that was turned into a movie. (Like Inserra’s book, I read it.) The circa ‘73 stories, which Inserra reveals were planted, seem based on thin information, and unlikely scenarios. Most of them were based on a source (and mobster) who was dead, which seems convenient had anyone bothered to question why what went down at Percy’s house during the murder, and the MOs of the jewel thieves, seemed so far apart.



By ’73, one of the thieves was dead as well. I knew FBI documents show the FBI thought William Thoresen killed Percy less than three months after her murder. So why would they plant stories seven years later implying that one of a number of unlikely suspects did it?



Given the facts, it’s not a stretch to say it’s because Thoresen murdered Percy and others but was dead. Because Thoresen appears to have been like Zodiac hiding in plain sight, the the feds didn’t want anyone looking into the Percy case any further. So they planted stories that imply someone else did it.



This is something to consider when you know the reasons to believe Thoresen was Zodiac, and the envelopes to the mailings changed significantly when died. And it seems it would have been easier to pass off bogus Zodiac mailings as real than to sell stories based on thin information to big city newspapers.



(Though whoever tried with the letters screwed up the envelopes.)



Then there’s this: three years ago, a NY-based attorney, John Q Kelly, hired a lawyer in Chicago after Kelly’s FOIA request to view Percy case documents was turned down. But a judge rejected Kelly’s suit, ruling the Percy case was an active, ongoing investigation, which seems a stretch for a case police had not named a new suspect or person of interest in in almost five decades (nor have they in the years since Kelly’s suit was denied.)



The press noted, while reporting on Kelly’s suit, current memos by Chicago law enforcement agencies were released but almost entirely redacted:



Judge Blocks Release of Documents in Decades-Old Valerie Percy Murder Investigation

 

[Winward1]

Just discovered this: one friend ordered my first book twice (from Amazon.) Both copies had the pages scrambled, page 3 followed by page 5. I contacted Amazon. They say the files are just fine. Another friend told me he reviewed my book on this case. But there has not been a new review turned up on the page since mid January, despite the fact that the book has continued to sell. Gee...I wonder what's up.

 

[Winward1]

50 years ago today Zodiac Killer suspect William Thoresen III was shot dead: Desert Sun 11 June 1970 — California Digital Newspaper Collection

 

[Winward1]

As has been noted, the envelope to the first mailing (as well as others) postmarked after William Thoresen was killed (50 years ago today) arrived sans extra stamps/postage and "editor" notation, which until then had been constant MOs in Zodiac's correspondence to the media. Beyond this, there are numerous links to him in the murder of Stein, the attacks at Lake Berryessa, and the killing of Valerie Percy in Illinois in 1966. (Percy was a neighbor of Thoresen's parents.)

 

[Winward1]

It’s long been theorized Zodiac was active during the six month span between the Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs Park attacks.

Mike Morrison and Debbie Means, two high school students, were brutally murdered in early May, 1969, crimes that bear similarities to Zodiac attacks, confirmed and suspected.

The students disappeared hours after attending Morrison’s prom. Their car was discovered on a rural roadway the next day. Two days after disappearing, their bodies were discovered in an isolated area a couple of miles from where their car was found. Morrison was shot numerous times in the back of the head with a .22. Means was bound, and strangled with laundry line.

Their killer wrote a letter to Means' mother (the envelope of which also contained Morrison’s IDs), called police and took credit for the crime. In recent years it’s been reported Means was raped. But a news story from 1969 quotes the pathologist who did her autopsy. In it he said there was no evidence of rape.

Note the handwriting in the letter to Means’ mother, on the envelope discovered with the Hautz letter, and in the note found on the door of the cabin where the bodies of the Robinson family were discovered (the latter two previously discussed in this thread.)

Morrison and Means were killed in Illinois. (See earlier, documented connections between the Illinois murder of Valerie Percy, 9/18/66, the Lake Berryessa and Stein attacks, and William Thoresen III.)

 

[Winward1]

Robison, not Robinson. My bad.

 

[Winward1]

William Thoresen III, 1967.

 

[Winward1]

This is his signature (circa 1964.)

Note how the letters slant forward, the tight loops at the top of the Ls (compare with same at the top of the D in Riverside from the envelope.) Also how far back he starts the horizontals of his capital letters.

With all of the other evidence and facts surrounding him (there's a lot more than just appears in this thread), Zodiac, and midwestern crimes, I think it's clear the powers that be have known all of this since '70 and have been playing the public (and, arguably local cops) for chumps. And continue to do so to this day, perhaps most of all in online forums and social media.

 

[Winward1]

I've never heard of this guy until now but I like him for it. There's just no way Zodiac decided to become some nutcase one night while driving around. But this guy, this guy had a reputation. I see a narrative here that lines up. The only thing that doesn't work for me is the agreed upon Zodiac letters continued until 1974. Everyone believes those were real. So either he made the wife send them on specific dates and she did it, he asked someone else to do it and they never spoke up, or this just isn't Zodiac.

With everything that points to this guy (and there's a lot more than just what's been posted here) and the envelope's MO changing just when he dies, I have no doubt the later letters are bogus, not to mention there's no way he would have put out crap like the Halloween Card. There's no proof in any of them after he died, and it's conspicuous that "everyone" including the powers that be, deemed the ones they screwed up the postage on, and forgot the editor notation, deemed them real without even mentioning this.

Also, the first to arrive after he died, 16 days later, seems about as long as it would have taken them to realize all he had done and they needed to cover their asses. In their haste they overlooked the envelope's details. In that way, the envelopes were more complicated than what was inside.

They did a great job with the sketch. The nose and cheeks perfect.

 

[Winward1]

I have to watch my credibility here. Before yesterday's posts I had been advised there is a thing or two in the mailings postmarked after his death that had not been disclosed publicly. I am thankful for that. That said, I have maintained that at least some of the later letters were inside jobs by people who were privy to all relevant information.

Meanwhile, a former FBI agent is on record saying he was the source of circa 1973 stories which imply Valerie Percy was killed by mob connected jewel thieves, which is laughable not only because FBI reports written six years earlier reveal they thought Thoresen did it.

With Percy's father being a sitting US Senator in 1973, you can imagine Hoover and many others feared what they had all those years earlier on Thoresen it getting out, and what he did after that. The truth is stranger than fiction, way stranger.

 

[Winward1]

If you’ve wondered what the looks were on the guy’s faces the day they discovered Zodiac was dead, ’68-69 was merely the finale to dozens of murders stretching back to the Midwest and the 1950s, while they were cleaning out his house, now you know. Somewhere this guy’s boss was thinking “we’re gonna need some bogus letters, and quick!”

 

[Winward1]

The newly surfaced information regarding Thoresen, and the Morrison-Means case, has brought some encouraging reactions from some observers. However, there have been many non-reactions as well (I am not talking about here, but elsewhere.) Between those two, one said Thorsen is a “trash suspect,” without elaborating as to why. Given the obvious quality of the information this is curious as I’m talking about people who otherwise appear to chime in often, and often seem to be to dredging up the same old information, and suspects, and have been doing this for years. In other words, as if it’s their job. Yet, when something new of significance finally surfaces…crickets.