Deborah Perez claims that her father, Guy Ward Hendrickson, who died in 1993, was the Zodiac killer who murdered at least five people in the late Sixties.
The grisly murder mystery has inspired countless movies and true crime novels, and for more than 40 years no one has been able to name the killer who terrorized San Francisco by shooting or stabbing couples as they 'parked' in their cars at night...
Deborah Perez claims her father made her help him write comfession notes which he then sent to the police for taunting purposes and claimed he was responsible for 37 deaths.
"I was a child and just thought I was helping my dad," claims Perez, 47, one of six children adopted by Hendrickson. "I didn't know. He told me he was sick, and all I wanted to do was help my dad ... He kept telling me he was sick and he killed many, many people. I had no idea."
Perez claims she witnessed two of the gruesome murders, like his second attack on 5 July 1969 when Darlene Ferrin, 22, and Michael Maggeau were killed by shots into their car, parked at a golf course in Vallejo, north of San Francisco.
"My father grabs his gun, goes to the passenger side and I hear shots, I hear moans, I hear screams," Ms Perez said. "We leave and we're pulled over by police. My father takes the gun and puts it into a bag and sticks it into my pants and says, 'Don't move. The police will not understand if they find this gun.' "
She also claims to have a pair of glasses taken from the Zodiac killer's final victim, Paul Lee Stine.
Until now, most people have believed the Zodiac killer was Arthur Leigh Allen, a convicted child molester who died in 1992, though there was never any conclusive evidence.
Ms Perez explained her failure to previously come forward by saying that she had been oblivious to the case until
According to her, Perez didn't know anything about the Zodiac case until 2007, when she saw a sketch of the killer on America's Most Wanted and thought he looked a lot like Daddy.
Though she insists she's just coming forward to 'tell the truth' and 'right her father's wrongs', some journalists suggested at the press conference at th San Francisco Chronicle on Wednesday, April 29th that she was coming out with her story because there is a documentary about her that is in the works.
Comments
This is interesting. I wonder if they are going to do any further investigation into this. The Zodiac has always been the most interesting killer to me because he never got caught. The thing that bugs me is that it took about 40 years from the time of the murder which is understandable since she was a kid but over 15 years from the time Arthur Leigh Allen case for her to come forward and her reason was because she didn't know.