the Zodiac Killer

Modesto

On the night of March 22, 1970, Kathleen Johns was driving from San Bernardino to Petaluma to visit her mother. She was seven months pregnant and had her 10-month-old daughter beside her. While heading west on Highway 132 near Modesto, a car behind her began honking and flashing its lights. She pulled off the road and stopped. The man in the car parked behind her, stated her right rear tire was wobbling, and offered to tighten the lugs. After finishing his work, the man drove off, and when Johns pulled forward the wheel came off the car. The man stopped, backed up, and offered to drive her to the nearest gas station for help. She and her daughter climbed into his car. They drove past several service stations but the man did not stop. For some three hours he drove them up and down the backroads around Tracy, and when she asked why he was not stopping, he would change the subject.[21]

When the driver stopped at an intersection, Johns jumped out with her daughter and hid in a field. He came out to look for her, but when a truck driver spotted the scene, Johns' abductor drove off. Johns hitched a ride to the police station in Patterson. As she gave her statement to the sergeant on duty, she noticed the police composite of Paul Stine's killer and recognized him as the man who abducted her and her child. Fearing the Zodiac might come back and kill them all, the sergeant had Johns wait in nearby Mil's Restaurant in the dark. When found, her car had been gutted and torched.

There are many conflicting accounts of the Johns abduction. Most claim he threatened to kill her and her daughter while driving them around, but at least one police report disputes that.[21] Johns' account to Paul Avery of the Chronicle indicates her abductor left his car and searched for her in the dark with a flashlight; however, in the two reports she made to the police, she stated he did not leave the vehicle.[22] Some accounts state Johns' vehicle was moved then torched, while others contend it was located where she'd left it.[22] The various discrepancies among Johns' accounts over the years have led many researchers to question whether she was an actual Zodiac victim.[23]