Ray Cantrell was practically suffocating . Hiding in a freezer in the lobby of the RKO Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco latterly in April 1971 , Cantrell had pass hours peer through a small outlet in the widget , scanning the crowd for anyone who resembled the widely circulate police survey of the most ill-famed criminal - at - large in the country : the Zodiac Killer .
It was all part of an challenging plot hatch by Cantrell ’s friend , a fast food franchisee named Tom Hanson . Hanson had arrange for Cantrell and several other Colorado - conspirators to station themselves in various places around the cinema during the calendar week - longsighted booking of Hanson ’s modest - budget film , the aptly titledThe Zodiac Killer .
Dramatizing the recent murders and subsequent taunt by the killer via letters to newspapers , the movie was made for just $ 13,000 in a affair of week . Its tone was irrelevant : Hanson’sreal intentionin stool the picture show was to see if he could entice the Zodiac Killer himself to the picture ’s premiere , where he had set an detailed trap to single him out from the audience . If it worked , Hanson would be hailed as a hero . If it did n’t , he ’d be virtually broke .
betimes on , it look as though things would go south . Cantrell had limited line in the freezer , and was dragged out just in time on one occasion ( a minute of arc or two more and he likely would have fall behind consciousness ) . But before the week was out , Hanson think he came to face to typeface with the Zodiac . At the urinal .
“ You get it on , ” the stranger said , unzip his fly front , “ material blood does n’t come out like that . ”
Initially , Hanson did n’t have designs on becoming the next Martin Scorsese . After relocate to Los Angeles from Minnesota in the 1960s , Hanson had find his niche as the owner of several Pizza Man enfranchisement and a handful of Kentucky Fried Chicken positioning .
“ Then my underwriter went broke , " Hanson , now 81 , tells Mental Floss . " He was supposed to bring us public . I think , ' Well , if I ’m going to go down , I ’m go to do what I really want to do , which was make film . ' " Hanson had act or worked on a half - twelve lowly cinema undertaking since arriving in California , developing contacts and friendships with a bit of performer and crew members . He knew the world of low - budget filmmaking meant influence speedily and tattily , with only a modest chance of breaking out .
At the same fourth dimension Hanson make up one’s mind to mount a output , San Francisco was unraveling . On December 20 , 1968 , a teen couple had been foundshot to deathin the young man ’s car near Vallejo , California . On July 4 , 1969 , another unseasoned couple was shoot in a gondola ; 22 - year - old Darlene Ferrin was killed while her friend , 19 - class - quondam Mike Mageau , was gravely wounded . calendar week later , three major San Francisco paper receive a handwritten missive claiming credit for the criminal offense and revealing details only the killer would do it . Signing the correspondence with a circle and crossbreeding , the author would later innovate himself : “ This is the Zodiac speaking . ” He down two more people before the class was up .
As 1970 passed with no breaks in the case , Hanson had an audacious thought . “ What if I do a film and set up a ambuscade to overhear him ? I reckon he ’d go see a movie about himself . He ’d have to . ” ( In another letter , the obviously packaging - hungry killer even mused about who should play him in a movie . )
Shot in just a few weeks in early 1971 and edited just as quickly , The Zodiac Killer(originally titledZodiac ) represent no raw flat coat in the development film musical style . Hanson lease a friend , Hal Reed , to spiel the killer , whom he imagined to be a postman by Clarence Day and a murderous psycho by night ; Paul Avery , the increasingly paranoid journalist who think he might be direct by the killer , met with Hanson a few prison term to talk over details of the case . “ He ’d wait in the back street near the eating place and wait for me to come in , ” Hanson enjoin . “ He was really jumpy . ”
Hanson drop $ 13,000 onThe Zodiac Killer , eat most of his preservation . He booked a week - long premiere engagement at the RKO Theater in San Francisco and bought ads in local newspapers . Without telling authorization of his plan ( “ They might have tried to give up it , ” Hanson say ) , the film maker enlisted six friend , include Reed , to monitor the gang during the screenings .
The program sour like this : Each theatergoer would get a sweepstakes entrance card they would be learn to fill out . The prize was a Kawasaki motorcycle that stood on a podium in the lobby . By cut down the plug-in through a slot , attendees were unknowingly give Hanson a handwriting sample he could compare to the letters published in the papers .
“ We all had positions we traded out , ” Hanson enjoin . One would actually be inside the podium where the cards were being dropped , evaluating script on the fly . If he go steady one that resembled the written material in the published letter , he could riffle a switch trigger a light that another team extremity hiding in the freezer would see . Other workforce were stationed alfresco , in the projectionist ’s way , and in the hall . With a compeer , Hanson would undertake to corral and hustle the defendant into an situation to detain him .
While a fine approximation in possibility , the stakeout prove boring . During one freezer stint , Cantrell — who also co - wrote the film — well-nigh clear out . During the confusion , someone had set down a card declaring “ I am the Zodiac , I was here , ” but no one was inside the rostrum to evaluate it in real sentence .
On the last nighttime of the involution , Hanson disrupt his surveillance for a bathroom break . “ I was support at the urinal and thought I heard the door open , ” he say . “ I turned around but did n’t see anyone . ”
Without a sound , a military personnel had materialized at the urinal next to Hanson ’s , point out about a graphic scene in the motion picture and how “ real rakehell ” would n’t come out of a body like that . “ I travel rapidly up , turned , and saw the same aspect that was on the precious poster . Same center , nose , mouth , haircloth , everything . I remember , ' Son of a bitch , it ’s him . ' "
Hanson emphasise that , as the proprietor of several chain restaurants , he had been held up a act of times by robbers and quickly read to learn faces for later identification . Confronting the man in the lobby , Hanson led him to a nearby office and had his admirer surround him . " I looked right into his eyes and told him Paul Stine was my brother . " ( Stine was a cabriolet driver who was frivol away and wipe out by the Zodiac in October 1969 , and the prevarication was designed to divulge the suspect ’s composure . ) " But he did n’t blink . "
In fact , the man seemed to be making Friend with Hanson ’s crew , bond over shared experiences in the military . With no legal authority to hold his suspect , Hanson watched as he ambled off . But it would n’t be the last prison term he looked into the face of the human race he conceive might be one of the most ill-famed killers of the 20th century .
The Zodiac Killerfinished its troth at the RKOand terminate up getting booked in a few other theaters , but it was far from a collision . Hanson made another picture show in 1972 , a drug comedy titledA Ton of Grass Goes to Pot , before retreating to Wisconsin to try and recalibrate his clientele ventures . When he returned to California in 1974 , he decide the man he get word at the RKO needed to be monitored .
" I needed to get back on my groundwork and look further into this guy cable , " Hanson says .
With the aid of private detectives , Hanson fake up a new plot . Having obtained his destination from their investigation — the man originally give a hotel address at the premiere — Hanson sent a postcard inform his defendant that he had won a trophy . When he dispatch the detectives to deliver the prize corner , they were supposed to announce they had made a mistake and take it back — that way , Hanson would have his fingerprints on the software package . But no prints were found .
“ Another time , the detective phoned where he was working at the clip , which was Bank of America , ” Hanson says . “ They asked for his personnel Indian file and when the bank asked why , they say , ‘ Well , we think he ’s the Zodiac . ' " The man was soon fired .
Eventually , Hanson gave up the chase . The killer had n’t struck since 1969 and had n’t drop a line a missive since 1974 — and investigators did not conceive the handwriting samples Hanson had collected were a match .
But the lure of identifying Zodiac has never wholly pass on . Today , both Hanson and his grandson continue to research the human being he first descry in the RKO bathroom , attempting to excavate any data that might connect him to the murder . ThoughThe Zodiac Killerlargely disappeared from public position following its original limited release , it was recently excavate by the American Genre Film Archive andreleased on Blu - rayin July . A upcoming book anddocumentary , Zodiac Man , may provide the suspect ’s name , which has yet to be publicly disclosed . All Hanson will say is that the man is still alive .
If Hanson is correct , it ’ll terminate a search that has continued for intimately a half - century , proving he ’ll go to any lengths to corner his elusive quarry .
Well , almostany distance .
" I never acquire in the freezer , " Hanson acknowledge .
