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Post by Admin Horan on Apr 26, 2015 13:38:16 GMT -6
Darlene's ex-husband, James Phillips Crabtree, not only matched Mike Mageau's description of the shooter perfectly, he also had actual code training, assassination training, and demolition training in the military. Vallejo police didn't even bother looking for Crabtree until they received a "tip" from self-proclaimed psychic Joseph DeLouise and his publicist. The VPD files on Crabtree can be seen here: www.flickr.com/photos/112412867@N06/sets/72157651741000997/ |
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Post by Shane on Nov 21, 2015 15:54:22 GMT -6
Its sad too because the police ruled him out instantly due to the fact that he was supposed to be "on the clock" at a resturaunt that was close to the crime scene. At my restaruant jobs I can't even count how many times I've left for over 30 minutes at a time to go do something or go to a bar near by.
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Post by Admin Horan on Nov 27, 2015 11:15:40 GMT -6
Shane:
Thanks for your comment! What's even stranger is, police didn't even bother looking for Crabtree until January of 1970. They got a "tip" from a "psychic" named Joseph DeLouise, who had been talking to Darlene's family. It seems likely that the tip really came from them. So, why wait six months? Darlene's sister Pam and brother Leo III have both said that they and their family were not totally honest when they gave their statements to police in July 1969. Leo has said that Darlene was out looking to score him a bag of weed that night. Pam has always had a thing for "diet pills." So, it seems likely (and the "Zodiac"letters seem to confirm this) that VPD originally came to the rapid conclusion that the shooting at BRS was related to the rampant epidemic of drug-related shootings in Vallejo at that time. Buuuuuuuuuuuut: Mike's description of the shooter matches Crabtree's photos of that time to a perfect T. Mike also said that, as near as he could tell, the shooter's brown car was very similar to Darlene's brown 1963 Corvair. Guess what? Crabtree owned a brown 1963 Corvair. When asked about the car, Crabtree told police that he had abandoned the car in a parking lot and told the previous owner to come pick it up. This supposedly happened before the shooting. Crabtree told police that he did not even know Darlene was dead until they came to the jail he was locked up in (on another charge) for questioning. But Darlene's family all swear he was at her funeral. People who know Crabtree have said that he is bitter about Darlene to this day and several of them have said they believe he probably killed her. All of which proves zip. By far, the worst, sloppiest, laziest investigation of all of these murders was VPD's investigation of the Ferrin murder.
Based on the ACTUAL witness statements in the files, the man who seemed to have sort of been "stalking" Darlene before her death was most likely Crabtree. But, at least one of those statements is undoubtedly about a young man named Richard Moncur (who owned a white Cougar) who simply lived across the alley and used to sit in his car, smoking and listening to the radio. The alley is very narrow, and it would have looked very much like he was parked more or less "in front of " Darlene and Dean's house.
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Post by ethano the mano on Dec 15, 2015 7:15:39 GMT -6
this guy fits the mo perfectly...plus the real murder was Darlene....the rest were cover....like dc sniper....
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Post by Celise on Nov 27, 2017 10:06:06 GMT -6
Hi. I've been sorting through threads like this for days. It seems like there are a lot of things that fit about Jim Crabtree Phillips (or Phillips Crabtree?). I wonder how thoroughly he was investigated before he was ruled out. It seems like it wasn't much of an alibi, and handwriting can be disguised. I noticed that he wanted to change his name back to Crabtree, even though his mother left him in the hospital. That's a little telling I think. It's a hunch, but I think it suggests that he didn't have a great relationship with his adoptive parents. His father through adoption was a highway patrol man. The Zodiac hated police. I wonder if his relationship with the Sr. Phillips might have something to do with that.
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Post by Admin Horan on Dec 1, 2017 11:05:28 GMT -6
Celise:
Thanks for your interest, and your comments! First, let me say, I am very careful about what I publish about people who are still alive. So, I have a LOT more on Jim and his adoptive family than I publish. Having said that, I'm 99 percent sure Jim killed Darlene--but not alone. The reason there was a pause in the shooting was to "switch" shooters--and maybe pistols.
Jim was adopted from a hospital in LA by Diamond Bell-Phillips (that's a hyphenated name; "Bell" is NOT his middle name) and his, um, wife. I say um, because, after this "wife" died, Diamond apparently lived as husband and wife with his daughter, who may or may not have been adopted, as well. I never found that out. And that's just about the "nicest" thing I've been able to find out about Diamond.
Diamond's family were one-time Planters from Alabama who migrated north to Missouri around the time of the Civil War. Diamond's father moved their family to Alta California arrrooooouuuund the time of WWI. Diamond's sister, Mae, married Harold Snook Sr, and their son, Harold Snook Jr, wrote the actual "Zodiac Killer" letters.
Soooooooooo...did Hal Snook KNOW Jim? Some of their mutual friends have told me they knew each other. After WWII, Hal got his degree in Journalism from San Jose State University (you will NOT believe who his roommate was...) and then took over two small, bankrupt newspapers in far northern California--near where Diamond lived. Jim would have been a kid then. Hal spent a lot of time with boys, but until Jim himself confirms he was, um, "mentored" by Hal, there is just no way to confirm that part of the story.
However, everything Jim ever claimed to "know" about the news biz, and all of his "Special Forces" training (according to Jim's brother, Jim never did anything in the Army beyond clerk/typist) he obviously could have learned from Hal. And I have found quite a bit of evidence that Hal also taught Graysmith everything he needed to know to get HIS first job at a newspaper--at age 12--when Graysmith lived with his parents at Tachikawa AFB, Japan. Hal was an AF officer on the same staff with Colonel Robert G Smith, Sr.
Did anything "inappropriate" happen between Hal and his two young proteges? Only they can say. But several people who knew Jim as a boy say they think he had been sexually, physically, and emotionally abused by Diamond. An allegation that, so far as Diamond goes, fits everything I've learned about HIM. Soooooooo...And Hal was his nephew. Some people who knew Hal as an adult have told me that they believed Hal was some kind of pervert, himself, and certainly spent a LOT of time with adolescent boys. Sooooooo...
To this day, Jim is a "freelance journalist." He makes most of his money on shady real estate deals. He also tries very hard to cover his tracks. With some--but not total--success. As he will soon find out...
I think he killed Darlene. But I think there is a good chance he had an accomplice. Donald Warren Porter? He's at the top of that list. Or at least, someone who knew Donald set him up to take the fall. Porter was arrested July 20, 1969, with the P38 used to shoot Mike and Darlene in his pocket. While he was sitting in the Solano County jail waiting to be arraigned, a funny thing happened:
DEAR EDITOR
I AM THE MURDERER...
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Post by Admin Horan on Dec 1, 2017 11:09:38 GMT -6
ETHANO:
Thanks for your comment! I never heard that about the DC snipers. It's interesting. Where did you hear it?
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Post by NON-OVERTHINKER on Dec 20, 2017 12:06:11 GMT -6
I am a firm believer that everyone has over-analyzed the Zodiac case and people (both law enforcement and web sleuths) has added pieces that just shouldn't be there. I'm fairly new at this case compared to others, but everyone takes the zodiac letters a the truth, when in fact, I believe are his comments are all "red-herrings", lies to make everyone over-think the situation and combine facts to muddy the investigation. I think the fist victim at Riverside College, was NOT a zodiac kill. It was probably, Ross Sullivan, but the Zodiac took credit for it to confuse the issue.
I believe that Darlene and her lover and/or dope dealer Mike was fatal domestic violence and Crabtree or then current husband Dean killed both in a fit of rage. I am not sure who connected the dots but they created and "marketed" a Zodiac phantom to the SF news papers.
Obsessed by the Zodiac, Arthur Leigh Allen dressed up in a super-villain outfit and attacked the couple at Lake Berryessa. Again the "ghost-writer" Zodiac took credit again.
It wasn't until popularity was waning that the actual letter writer executed Paul Stine to keep the story going (possibly Paul Avery)
Lastly "peak through the pines" murder was Kane. The "ghost-writer" Zodiac read the newspaper about the case and took credit for that one too.
Like I said this thing has been over-thought. I believe letter writer killed one person, Paul Stine, but took credit for 37.
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Post by Admin Horan on Dec 21, 2017 7:10:07 GMT -6
Overthinker: 1. Thanks for your comments! 2. You reeeeeaaaalllllyyyyyy need to read the original files, etc. Why? Well, I did, and I discovered something quite surprising: You're wrong. Well, more to the point: 1. Dean Ferrin has an ironclad alibi. He was at work. Loooooots of witnesses. 2. The "suspect" in the Lake Berryessa stabbing who supposedly had "two bloody knives on the front seat of his car" in the days after the attack was NOT Allen. It was someone completely different. He was pulled over by CHP for speeding, and the "two bloody knives" thing was reported in the papers. Graysmear simply lied about it, claiming that Allen had "confessed" the entire episode during a (non-existent) "interview" with Mulanax and company at Allen's workplace. In fact, the WHOLE STORY of that "interview" is 100 percent fiction. Graysmith went so far as to graft facts about CONVICTED MURDERERS already serving time for previous murders (that's right, they were in prison in 1969) onto Allen's "biography" as part of his frame around Allen. One of them was named Robert Starr, convicted for a 1960 SF murder. 3. Napa deputy Richard Lonergan, lead investigator (reporting to Captain Don Townsend) on the Berryessa attack, had a prime suspect in the case--Park Ranger Dennis Land. Who looks guilty as hell, according to the files released in 2012 in response to my work. And he is a great suspect in the SRH murders, too. But NOT Allen. The "detectives" who supposedly corroborated Graysmith's book over the years--Mulanax, Narlow, Bawart, etc--were NOT "detectives" on any of these cases. The REAL detectives on these cases ALL repeatedly affirmed what I pointed out--there was no "Zodiac" and no connection between the murders. 4. There is no doubt that Chronicle reporter Keith Power (NOT Paul Avery) or his source stole physical evidence from the Stine case. That was super-easy to do in those days. That's one of the things the letters point out. Furthermore, as I have pointed out and you can see for yourself, the blood stains and blots on the pieces of Stine's shirt mailed in some letters were clearly and indisputably torn off the shirt AFTER the body was removed from the cab. Along with the trip sheet. In other words, those pieces of shirt do NOT prove the letter writer killed Stine. They prove the OPPOSITE: That Power (or his "source") tampered with the evidence in order to make the "Zodiac" LOOK "real." 5. Circling back to the "lies" in the letters. They are NOT lies on the part of the letter writer. They are incorrect information QUOTED DIRECTLY FROM SOME OF THOSE POLICE REPORTS you need to read. And not just any reports--reports that reporters from the Chronicle/Examiner (owned and operated by the same company in the same building) and the Vallejo Times-Herald/News-Chronicle, owned and operated by the same company) had ALSO used--VERBATIM in their news stories. That's part of what the "Zodiac" was proving--that reporters had "infiltrated" police departments and crime labs. That is, "Zodiac" was NOT pointing out "errors" in news reports--he was pointing out SOURCES of news reports. 6. No "thinking" of any kind, let alone "over" thinking, is required to see this. Aaaalllllll I did was put police reports, "Zodiac" letters, news stories, and Graysmith's "book" side-by-side and read them together. Which you can either do yourself, ooooorrrr, follow along as I do it: Graysmith's book is debunked here: tinyurl.com/GZKH1986BookIf you'd like to know who REALLY wrote the Zodiac Killer letters: tinyurl.com/GZKH1969-Kindle-2nd-EditionThe footnotes in these books are clickable links that bring you back to this website where you can read and discuss these documents for yourself. |
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Post by Reason on Jan 8, 2018 16:43:47 GMT -6
It is so hard for me to believe Jim was cleared based on the alibi of being in a restaurant. Why were people other than him considered when he was the most viable suspect?
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Post by er on Apr 27, 2018 19:35:02 GMT -6
Some of their mutual friends have told me they knew each other. After WWII, Hal got his degree in Journalism from San Jose State University (you will NOT believe who his roommate was...)
Who was his roommate?
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Post by Admin Horan on Apr 27, 2018 21:01:55 GMT -6
er: I swear on Voigt's credit report that announcement is coming soon.
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Post by poweranni on Jun 25, 2018 9:02:25 GMT -6
Darlene's ex-husband, James Phillips Crabtree, not only matched Mike Mageau's description of the shooter perfectly, he also had actual code training, assassination training, and demolition training in the military. Vallejo police didn't even bother looking for Crabtree until they received a "tip" from self-proclaimed psychic Joseph DeLouise and his publicist. The VPD files on Crabtree can be seen here: www.flickr.com/photos/112412867@N06/sets/72157651741000997/What does Mageau have to say? Was Crabtree's photo ever shown to him? Did he see one in color? |
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Post by poweranni on Jun 27, 2018 18:14:23 GMT -6
Hi,
Can you explain, again, why Crabtree was ruled out as a suspect?
I have been reading the source documents that you posted on FLICKR and at this point I have stopped where VPD just doesn't feel that Jim is their guy.
I know that I have more reading to do, but on what basis was he ruled out?
I have been reading about him on other fora and from what I can gather, he seems to be something of a manipulative scatterbrain with a sour streak.
I was telling my husband last night, I love real-life cases rather then mystery novels, because we are discussing real human beings and not characters.
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Post by Admin Horan on Jun 28, 2018 8:43:34 GMT -6
A much better question is, "Why did VPD wait six months to even check into Darlene's ex-husband?" Supposedly, they waited until they got a "tip" from a "psychic."
Ooooonnnn the other hand, VPD most definitely talked to Darlene's parents (and apparently, her sister Pam and her brother Leo) the night she was killed. That report has never been released. So, I'd bet dollars to donuts it's about Crabtree. FWIW, Pam and Leo (not the most reliable sources) have both said that Darlene had gone to BRS to buy a bag of weed for Leo, and whatever else for the party at her boss's house, and that they lied to police about that.
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