Casino In San Francisco Bay Area - hitgetbobus.co

Is it possible the Santa Rosa slasher is connected to numerous other vehicle related killings across California. From the late 60s to early 70s young women were killed in the California Bay Area, Valley, and Los Angeles areas. These murders all featured either a act of sabotage or an abduction after car trouble. This trend then stops. In 1972 Girls hitchhiking in California's Santa Rosa area were viciously murdered. In 1973 killings of teenage and college aged San Francisco girls took place in the span of 47 days. Could the Zodiac killings of the late 1960s and early 1970s have taught killers to not leave a pattern. Changing location and technique allowed for the killer to go uncaptured. Thoughts if these could be connected ? (Links Below)
Theories on the Santa Rosa Slasher ? Theories on the San Francisco killings ? Theories on the Zodiac and did the Zodiac ever travel into Oregon or Nevada ?
List of murders Below:
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer Summary: A series of at least seven murders in the North Bay, California area, the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders occurred between 1972 and 1973. The female victims of these murders were all found nude in rural areas near steep embankments, or in creek beds along a roadside. Originally, it was thought that there were only seven victims in the case, who ranged in ages from 12 to approximately 23 years old. However, the FBI released a report in 1975 claiming that there were a series of fourteen connected homicides, which included the original seven Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders. The cause of death for victims was typically asphyxiation due to being strangled with a cord of some nature. Many possible murder suspects were proposed, ranging from The Zodiac Killer to Ted Bundy, but no one was ever prosecuted, and the case has gone cold in Sonoma County.
Zodiac Killer Summary: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer Theories are vast. Highly unlikely but seems to fit a pattern of changing serial killer techniques. These change as others begin. None were captured. Did the Zodiac ever travel to Oregon ?
The San Francisco Murders of ‘73 Summary:The body of Rosa Vasquez (20) was discovered close to the Arguello boulevard entrance of the Golden Gate Park on May 29th 1973. She had been strangled and thrown from the nearby road. Twelve days later, a pregnant Yvonne Quilantang (15), from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries. Nancy Patricia Gidley (24) was last seen alive on Thursday July 12th 1973 leaving the Rodeway Inn at 895 Geary Street, San Francisco. Her body was found on Sunday 15th July 1973, nude and strangled in the grounds of George Washington High School in the Richmond area, although it was believed she was murdered elsewhere. Finally, Angela Thomas (16), a resident of Belton, Texas, had traveled to San Francisco for a brief stay. After a day out in Hayward she visited friends in the Presidio district- but neither of her friends were at home and she was last seen walking away at 9.00 pm on Sunday July 1st 1973. She was found naked and smothered the following day in the grounds of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School.
Almost three years earlier Donna Ann Lass disappeared from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970 after finishing her shift as a nurse. A few months earlier in June she had moved to South Lake Tahoe, from San Francisco, where she had previously been employed as a nurse at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio, near the Paul Stine murder scene. Curiously Rosa Vasquez was also employed at the Letterman General Hospital as a keypunch operator.There is no evidence to suggest that any of these four victims were Zodiac crimes, although there is reason enough, to consider these four murders may have been committed by a single perpetrator, due to numerous similarities, within such a short time frame.
Some researchers believe that Lawrence Kane and the Zodiac Killer may be one and the same, trailing Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe, having lived at 217 Eddy Street, close to Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco at the time of the Paul Stine murder. Latterly, working near Donna Lass at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, according to former law enforcement officer Harvey Hines. Is it possible he returned in 1973?. Two possible murders- that of Donna Lass and Rosa Vasquez from the same hospital, inside of three years seems unusual, albeit probably coincidental. Whoever the Zodiac Killer is, may never be known- but did he continue his reign of terror beyond the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969?
Bonus Nevada, Oregon, and Montana story
Cheri Jo Bates Vehicle: Sabotaged (Ignition Coil Disabled) The murder of Cheri Jo Bates is an unsolved murder that occurred in Riverside, California on October 30, 1966. Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman, was stabbed and slashed to death on the grounds of Riverside City College.
In November, 1967, Multiple Van Nuys area women were approached by a man following them and flashing their lights. similar to the
In the Fall of 1968, on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, two young women were walking when a man pulled alongside them and asked if they needed a ride. Cheri Jo Bates similar SABOTAGE Survived
David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia. (Zodiac Killing)
Rose Tashman Vehicle: Tire went flat On May 18th 1969, Rose Tashman (aged 19) was driving from a friend’s home in Van Nuys to her home in Hollywood when she had gotten a flat tire near the Highway Avenue off ramp within the greater Los Angeles, California area.
Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. (Zodiac Killing)
Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969. (Zodiac Killing)
Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. (Zodiac Killing)
Cindy Lee Mellin Vehicle: Tire was flat in parking lot. Not flat when parked Cindy was abducted on January 20, 1970.After work that evening. Cindy walked to her car in the parking lot, apparently to find she had a flat tire. Cindy’s father admitted that his daughter would not have been able to tend to a flat tire, so a theory that an unidentified man approached Cindy under the guise of helping her makes sense. Ventura, California
Joy Hungerford Vehicle: Headlights Went Out January, 1970 Redwood City
Kathleen Johns Vehicle: Signalled with lights to pull over, then sabotaged. On March 20, 1970, a man driving behind her started flashing his headlights. Johns pulled over for the man. He walked up to her car and said that her rear wheel was loose and wobbling and that he’d tighten it for her. Modesto, California area. (Survived)
Donna Lass (Nevada) Vehicle: Found Untouched A Stateline casino nurse, Donna Lass, 25, disappeared after work on September 6, 1970. Her car was found parked at her apartment with no signs of a struggle. She may have been a victim of the infamous Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who claimed 37 murder victims (seven of whom who were confirmed by investigators) during the 1960s and 1970s.
Vicki Miner Abduction method: Unclear On November 14, 1970 Vicki Miner’s badly decomposed body was found in a vacant field near Malvern Avenue and Dale Street. Police determined that she had been bludgeoned to death. A student at Buena Park High School, Miner was last seen alive as she left for school at about 9:30 on the morning of Oct. 30. Her parents reported her missing later that day when she didn’t show up at school.
Robin Graham Vehicle: Ran out of Gas On November 15, 1970 Robin Ann Graham, an 18 year old college student, ran out of gas on a Los Angeles area freeway near the Santa Monica off ramp.
Maureen Louise Sterling and Yvonne Lisa Weber Abduction method: Hitchhiking On February 4, 1972 both 12-year-old Herbert Slater Middle School students disappeared around 9 pm. after visiting the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa.
Kim Wendy Allen Abduction method: Hitchhiking On March 4, 1972 Kim Wendy Allen, 19, was given a ride by two men on March 4, 1972 from her job at Larkspur Natural Foods to San Rafael. They last saw her at approximately 5:20 pm hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound, carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Her body was found the following day down an embankment in a creek bed 20 feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa.
Ernestine Terello Vehicle: Tire was punctured On April 20, 1972, a woman named Ernestine Terello pulled over for a flat tire near the Ventura freeway in Agoura.
Lori Lee Kursa, Abduction method: Hitch-hiking On November 11, 1972 after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save and was last seen on November 20 or 21 in Santa Rosa while visiting friends, having deliberately run away She was a frequent hitchhiker and habitual runaway. The 13 year old girls' frozen remains were located on December 14, 1972, in a ravine approximately 50 feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.
Rosa Vasquez Abduction Method: Unclear On May 29th 1973, the body of Rosa Vasquez, 20, was found strangled near the Arguello Boulevard entrance at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The victim had been thrown seven feet off the roadway into some shrubs.
Yvonne Quilantang Abduction Method: Unclear Quilantang aged 15, from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries.
Angela Thomas Abduction Method: Unclear Angela, 16, was found July 2, 1973, smothered on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Daly City. She had last been seen the previous evening at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Nancy Patricia Gidley Abduction Method: Unclear Nancy was a 24-year-old radiographer. She was found strangled behind the George Washington High School gymnasium on 15 July 1973. She was last seen at a Rodeway Inn motel on July 12, 1973.
Carolyn Nadine Davis Abduction method: Hitchhiking Carolyn, 14, ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County on 6 February 1973, but disappeared 15 July 1973 after being dropped off by her grandmother at the Garberville Post Office. She was last seen hitchhiking that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp in Garberville. Her body was discovered on 31 July 1973 about three feet from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months earlier. Carolyn died of strychnine poisoning 10–14 days before her body was discovered. It could not be determined if she had been raped.
Nancy Feusi Abduction Method: Unclear Nancy, 22, disappeared after going dancing at a club in the Sacramento area on July 22, 1973. A fisherman discovered the body in a remote area off Pleasant Grove Road. The woman was clad only in a miniskirt and bikini-type briefs. A blouse was found nearby.
Laura A. O'Dell Abduction method: Unclear Laura, 21, was found in bushes behind the boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. She was last seen on 4 November 1973, three days before her body was discovered.
Theresa Walsh Abduction method: Hitch-hiking On December 22, 1973 Theresa Diane Smith Walsh, 23, was last seen on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled and had been dead approximately one week when her body was discovered.
Brenda Kaye Merchant Abduction method: Unclear Brenda, 19, was found stabbed to death at her home February 1, 1974, in Marysville. The killer left a bloody fingerprint on the screen door when he fled.
Donna M. Braun Abduction method: Unclear On September 29, 1974, the strangled body of, 14, was found in the Salinas River near Monterey.
Mona Jean Gallegos Vehicle: Ran out of gas On June 19,1975, Mona Jean Gallegos, a 19 year old Covina girl, was returning home from a friend’s house in Alhambra at about 1am when she ran out of gas near Santa Anita Avenue on the San Bernardino Freeway.
Eileen Hynson Abduction method: Unclear Eileen Francis Hynson’s disappearance on June 1, 1976, from Napa, California. Hynson left the residence she shared with her father and brother to attend a wedding in Solano County. She never arrived and her suitcase was left at home.
Unidentified Remains On July 2, 1979, the skeletal remains of a young white female were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road approximately 100 yards from where the body of Lori Lee Kursa had been recovered seven years earlier. One expert consulted by authorities determined that the victim was likely killed between 1972 and 1974 and was about 19 years old.The victim had been hogtied and her arm fractured around the time of her murder.
Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan (Oregon) On the evening of November 26, 1960, Larry Ralph Peyton and his girlfriend, Beverly Ann Allan disappeared after having made plans to shop at the Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon, United States. The following day, November 27, Peyton's Ford coupe was found in Forest Park, with his mutilated body inside. Allan was missing from the scene, though her purse and coat were still inside the car. A widespread manhunt ensued over the following two months. In January 1961, a highway crew 30 miles outside Portland discovered Allan's partially-nude body in a ravine, and it was determined she had been raped and strangled to death.
Lloyd Duane Bogle and Patti Kalitzke (Montana) On Jan. 3, 1956, three young boys walking west of Great Falls, in an area now known as Wadsworth Park, discovered the body of 18-year-old airman Lloyd Duane Bogle lying next to a car. Bogle's hands were tied behind his back using his own belt, and he'd been shot through the head. The car's ignition switch was still engaged, and its headlights were still on. The body of Bogle's 16-year-old girlfriend, Patti Kalitzke, was found the next day northwest of the city. Like Bogle, Kalitzke was shot through the head. She showed no signs of sexual assault.
More Information: http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/suspects.php
https://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-the-santa-rosa-hitchhiker-murders/
https://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=86http://truecrimeguy.com/californias-good-samaritan-ruse/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Larry_Peyton_and_Beverly_Allan
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/the-san-francisco-1973-murders
Boston Hitchhiker Killers: (unrelated but interesting to read) https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/2/14/the-hitchhike-murders-pbbebllen-reichb-was/

Is it possible the Santa Rosa slasher is connected to numerous other vehicle related killings across California. From the late 60s to early 70s young women were killed in the California Bay Area, Valley, and Los Angeles areas. These murders all featured either a act of sabotage or an abduction after car trouble. This trend then stops. In 1972 Girls hitchhiking in California's Santa Rosa area were viciously murdered. In 1973 killings of teenage and college aged San Francisco girls took place in the span of 47 days. Could the Zodiac killings of the late 1960s and early 1970s have taught killers to not leave a pattern. Changing location and technique allowed for the killer to go uncaptured. Thoughts if these could be connected ? (Links Below)
*reuploaded with new information
Theories on the Santa Rosa Slasher ?
Theories on the San Francisco killings ?
Theories on the Zodiac and did the Zodiac ever travel into Oregon or Nevada ?
List of murders Below:
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer
Summary: A series of at least seven murders in the North Bay, California area, the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders occurred between 1972 and 1973. The female victims of these murders were all found nude in rural areas near steep embankments, or in creek beds along a roadside. Originally, it was thought that there were only seven victims in the case, who ranged in ages from 12 to approximately 23 years old. However, the FBI released a report in 1975 claiming that there were a series of fourteen connected homicides, which included the original seven Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders. The cause of death for victims was typically asphyxiation due to being strangled with a cord of some nature. Many possible murder suspects were proposed, ranging from The Zodiac Killer to Ted Bundy, but no one was ever prosecuted, and the case has gone cold in Sonoma County.
Zodiac Killer:
Summary: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer
Theories are vast. Highly unlikely but seems to fit a pattern of changing serial killer techniques. These change as others begin. None were captured. Did the Zodiac ever travel to Oregon ?
The San Francisco Murders of ‘73
Summary: The body of Rosa Vasquez (20) was discovered close to the Arguello boulevard entrance of the Golden Gate Park on May 29th 1973. She had been strangled and thrown from the nearby road. Twelve days later, a pregnant Yvonne Quilantang (15), from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries. Nancy Patricia Gidley (24) was last seen alive on Thursday July 12th 1973 leaving the Rode-way Inn at 895 Geary Street, San Francisco. Her body was found on Sunday 15th July 1973, nude and strangled in the grounds of George Washington High School in the Richmond area, although it was believed she was murdered elsewhere. Finally, Angela Thomas (16), a resident of Belton, Texas, had traveled to San Francisco for a brief stay. After a day out in Hayward she visited friends in the Presidio district- but neither of her friends were at home and she was last seen walking away at 9.00 pm on Sunday July 1st 1973. She was found naked and smothered the following day in the grounds of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School.
Almost three years earlier Donna Ann Lass disappeared from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970 after finishing her shift as a nurse. A few months earlier in June she had moved to South Lake Tahoe, from San Francisco, where she had previously been employed as a nurse at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio, near the Paul Stine murder scene. Curiously Rosa Vasquez was also employed at the Letterman General Hospital as a keypunch operator. There is no evidence to suggest that any of these four victims were Zodiac crimes, although there is reason enough, to consider these four murders may have been committed by a single perpetrator, due to numerous similarities, within such a short time frame.
Some researchers believe that Lawrence Kane and the Zodiac Killer may be one and the same, trailing Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe, having lived at 217 Eddy Street, close to Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco at the time of the Paul Stine murder. Latterly, working near Donna Lass at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, according to former law enforcement officer Harvey Hines. Is it possible he returned in 1973?. Two possible murders- that of Donna Lass and Rosa Vasquez from the same hospital, inside of three years seems unusual, albeit probably coincidental. Whoever the Zodiac Killer is, may never be known- but did he continue his reign of terror beyond the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969?
Bonus Nevada, Oregon, and Montana story
Cheri Jo Bates
Vehicle: Sabotaged (Ignition Coil Disabled)
The murder of Cheri Jo Bates is an unsolved murder that occurred in Riverside, California on October 30, 1966. Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman, was stabbed and slashed to death on the grounds of Riverside City College.
In November, 1967, Multiple Van Nuys area women were approached by a man following them and flashing their lights. similar to the
In the Fall of 1968, on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, two young women were walking when a man pulled alongside them and asked if they needed a ride. Cheri Jo Bates similar SABOTAGE Survived
David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia. (Zodiac Killing)
Rose Tashman
Vehicle: Tire went flat
On May 18th 1969, Rose Tashman (aged 19) was driving from a friend’s home in Van Nuys to her home in Hollywood when she had gotten a flat tire near the Highway Avenue off ramp within the greater Los Angeles, California area.
Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. (Zodiac Killing)
Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969. (Zodiac Killing)
Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. (Zodiac Killing)
Cindy Lee Mellin
Vehicle: Tire was flat in parking lot. Not flat when parked
Cindy was abducted on January 20, 1970.After work that evening. Cindy walked to her car in the parking lot, apparently to find she had a flat tire. Cindy’s father admitted that his daughter would not have been able to tend to a flat tire, so a theory that an unidentified man approached Cindy under the guise of helping her makes sense. Ventura, California
Joy Hungerford
Vehicle: Headlights Went Out
January, 1970 Redwood City
Kathleen Johns
Vehicle: Signalled with lights to pull over, then sabotaged.
On March 20, 1970, a man driving behind her started flashing his headlights. Johns pulled over for the man. He walked up to her car and said that her rear wheel was loose and wobbling and that he’d tighten it for her. Modesto, California area. (Survived)
Donna Lass (Nevada)
Vehicle: Found Untouched
A Stateline casino nurse, Donna Lass, 25, disappeared after work on September 6, 1970. Her car was found parked at her apartment with no signs of a struggle. She may have been a victim of the infamous Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who claimed 37 murder victims (seven of whom who were confirmed by investigators) during the 1960s and 1970s.
Vicki Miner
Abduction method: Unclear
On November 14, 1970 Vicki Miner’s badly decomposed body was found in a vacant field near Malvern Avenue and Dale Street. Police determined that she had been bludgeoned to death. A student at Buena Park High School, Miner was last seen alive as she left for school at about 9:30 on the morning of Oct. 30. Her parents reported her missing later that day when she didn’t show up at school.
Robin Graham
Vehicle: Ran out of Gas
On November 15, 1970 Robin Ann Graham, an 18 year old college student, ran out of gas on a Los Angeles area freeway near the Santa Monica off ramp.
Maureen Louise Sterling and Yvonne Lisa Weber
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On February 4, 1972 both 12-year-old Herbert Slater Middle School students disappeared around 9 pm. after visiting the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa.
Kim Wendy Allen
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On March 4, 1972 Kim Wendy Allen, 19, was given a ride by two men on March 4, 1972 from her job at Larkspur Natural Foods to San Rafael. They last saw her at approximately 5:20 pm hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound, carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Her body was found the following day down an embankment in a creek bed 20 feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa.
Ernestine Terello
Vehicle: Tire was punctured
On April 20, 1972, a woman named Ernestine Terello pulled over for a flat tire near the Ventura freeway in Agoura.
Lori Lee Kursa,
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On November 11, 1972 after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save and was last seen on November 20 or 21 in Santa Rosa while visiting friends, having deliberately run away She was a frequent hitchhiker and habitual runaway. The 13 year old girls' frozen remains were located on December 14, 1972, in a ravine approximately 50 feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.
Rosa Vasquez
Abduction Method: Unclear
On May 29th 1973, the body of Rosa Vasquez, 20, was found strangled near the Arguello Boulevard entrance at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The victim had been thrown seven feet off the roadway into some shrubs.
Yvonne Quilantang
Abduction Method: Unclear
Quilantang aged 15, from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries.
Angela Thomas
Abduction Method: Unclear
Angela, 16, was found July 2, 1973, smothered on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Daly City. She had last been seen the previous evening at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Nancy Patricia Gidley
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy was a 24-year-old radiographer. She was found strangled behind the George Washington High School gymnasium on 15 July 1973. She was last seen at a Rodeway Inn motel on July 12, 1973.
Carolyn Nadine Davis
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
Carolyn, 14, ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County on 6 February 1973, but disappeared 15 July 1973 after being dropped off by her grandmother at the Garberville Post Office. She was last seen hitchhiking that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp in Garberville.
Her body was discovered on 31 July 1973 about three feet from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months earlier. Carolyn died of strychnine poisoning 10–14 days before her body was discovered. It could not be determined if she had been raped.
Nancy Feusi
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy, 22, disappeared after going dancing at a club in the Sacramento area on July 22, 1973. A fisherman discovered the body in a remote area off Pleasant Grove Road. The woman was clad only in a miniskirt and bikini-type briefs. A blouse was found nearby.
Laura A. O'Dell
Abduction method: Unclear
Laura, 21, was found in bushes behind the boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. She was last seen on 4 November 1973, three days before her body was discovered.
Theresa Walsh
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On December 22, 1973 Theresa Diane Smith Walsh, 23, was last seen on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled and had been dead approximately one week when her body was discovered.
Brenda Kaye Merchant
Abduction method: Unclear
Brenda, 19, was found stabbed to death at her home February 1, 1974, in Marysville. The killer left a bloody fingerprint on the screen door when he fled.
Donna M. Braun
Abduction method: Unclear
On September 29, 1974, the strangled body of, 14, was found in the Salinas River near Monterey.
Mona Jean Gallegos
Vehicle: Ran out of gas
On June 19,1975, Mona Jean Gallegos, a 19 year old Covina girl, was returning home from a friend’s house in Alhambra at about 1am when she ran out of gas near Santa Anita Avenue on the San Bernardino Freeway.
Eileen Hynson
Abduction method: Unclear
Eileen Francis Hynson’s disappearance on June 1, 1976, from Napa, California. Hynson left the residence she shared with her father and brother to attend a wedding in Solano County. She never arrived and her suitcase was left at home.
Unidentified Remains
On July 2, 1979, the skeletal remains of a young white female were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road approximately 100 yards from where the body of Lori Lee Kursa had been recovered seven years earlier. One expert consulted by authorities determined that the victim was likely killed between 1972 and 1974 and was about 19 years old. The victim had been hogtied and her arm fractured around the time of her murder.
Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan (Oregon)
On the evening of November 26, 1960, Larry Ralph Peyton and his girlfriend, Beverly Ann Allan disappeared after having made plans to shop at the Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon, United States. The following day, November 27, Peyton's Ford coupe was found in Forest Park, with his mutilated body inside. Allan was missing from the scene, though her purse and coat were still inside the car. A widespread manhunt ensued over the following two months. In January 1961, a highway crew 30 miles outside Portland discovered Allan's partially-nude body in a ravine, and it was determined she had been raped and strangled to death.
Lloyd Duane Bogle and Patti Kalitzke (Montana)
On Jan. 3, 1956, three young boys walking west of Great Falls, in an area now known as Wadsworth Park, discovered the body of 18-year-old airman Lloyd Duane Bogle lying next to a car. Bogle's hands were tied behind his back using his own belt, and he'd been shot through the head. The car's ignition switch was still engaged, and its headlights were still on. The body of Bogle's 16-year-old girlfriend, Patti Kalitzke, was found the next day northwest of the city. Like Bogle, Kalitzke was shot through the head. She showed no signs of sexual assault.
More Information:
http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/suspects.php
https://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-the-santa-rosa-hitchhiker-murders/
https://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=86http://truecrimeguy.com/californias-good-samaritan-ruse/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Larry_Peyton_and_Beverly_Allan
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/the-san-francisco-1973-murders
Boston Hitchhiker Killers: (unrelated but interesting to read)
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/2/14/the-hitchhike-murders-pbbebllen-reichb-was/

Is it possible the Santa Rosa slasher is connected to numerous other vehicle related killings across California. From the late 60s to early 70s young women were killed in the California Bay Area, Valley, and Los Angeles areas. These murders all featured either a act of sabotage or an abduction after car trouble. This trend then stops. In 1972 Girls hitchhiking in California's Santa Rosa area were viciously murdered. In 1973 killings of teenage and college aged San Francisco girls took place in the span of 47 days. Could the Zodiac killings of the late 1960s and early 1970s have taught killers to not leave a pattern. Changing location and technique allowed for the killer to go uncaptured. Thoughts if these could be connected ? (Links Below)
Theories on the Santa Rosa Slasher ?
Theories on the San Francisco killings ?
Theories on the Zodiac and did the Zodiac ever travel into Oregon or Nevada ?
List of murders Below:
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer
Summary: A series of at least seven murders in the North Bay, California area, the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders occurred between 1972 and 1973. The female victims of these murders were all found nude in rural areas near steep embankments, or in creek beds along a roadside. Originally, it was thought that there were only seven victims in the case, who ranged in ages from 12 to approximately 23 years old. However, the FBI released a report in 1975 claiming that there were a series of fourteen connected homicides, which included the original seven Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders. The cause of death for victims was typically asphyxiation due to being strangled with a cord of some nature. Many possible murder suspects were proposed, ranging from The Zodiac Killer to Ted Bundy, but no one was ever prosecuted, and the case has gone cold in Sonoma County.
Zodiac Killer]
Summary: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer
Theories are vast. Highly unlikely but seems to fit a pattern of changing serial killer techniques. These change as others begin. None were captured. Did the Zodiac ever travel to Oregon ?
The San Francisco Murders of ‘73
Summary: The body of Rosa Vasquez (20) was discovered close to the Arguello boulevard entrance of the Golden Gate Park on May 29th 1973. She had been strangled and thrown from the nearby road. Twelve days later, a pregnant Yvonne Quilantang (15), from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries. Nancy Patricia Gidley (24) was last seen alive on Thursday July 12th 1973 leaving the Rodeway Inn at 895 Geary Street, San Francisco. Her body was found on Sunday 15th July 1973, nude and strangled in the grounds of George Washington High School in the Richmond area, although it was believed she was murdered elsewhere. Finally, Angela Thomas (16), a resident of Belton, Texas, had traveled to San Francisco for a brief stay. After a day out in Hayward she visited friends in the Presidio district- but neither of her friends were at home and she was last seen walking away at 9.00 pm on Sunday July 1st 1973. She was found naked and smothered the following day in the grounds of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School.
Almost three years earlier Donna Ann Lass disappeared from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970 after finishing her shift as a nurse. A few months earlier in June she had moved to South Lake Tahoe, from San Francisco, where she had previously been employed as a nurse at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio, near the Paul Stine murder scene. Curiously Rosa Vasquez was also employed at the Letterman General Hospital as a keypunch operator. There is no evidence to suggest that any of these four victims were Zodiac crimes, although there is reason enough, to consider these four murders may have been committed by a single perpetrator, due to numerous similarities, within such a short time frame.
Some researchers believe that Lawrence Kane and the Zodiac Killer may be one and the same, trailing Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe, having lived at 217 Eddy Street, close to Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco at the time of the Paul Stine murder. Latterly, working near Donna Lass at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, according to former law enforcement officer Harvey Hines. Is it possible he returned in 1973?. Two possible murders- that of Donna Lass and Rosa Vasquez from the same hospital, inside of three years seems unusual, albeit probably coincidental. Whoever the Zodiac Killer is, may never be known- but did he continue his reign of terror beyond the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969?
- Bonus Oregon and Montana murders Lovers lane Murder's (at end)
Cheri Jo Bates
Vehicle: Sabotaged (Ignition Coil Disabled)
The murder of Cheri Jo Bates is an unsolved murder that occurred in Riverside, California on October 30, 1966. Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman, was stabbed and slashed to death on the grounds of Riverside City College.
In November, 1967, Multiple Van Nuys area women were approached by a man following them and flashing their lights. similar to the
In the Fall of 1968, on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, two young women were walking when a man pulled alongside them and asked if they needed a ride. Cheri Jo Bates similar SABOTAGE Survived
David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia. (Zodiac Killing)
Rose Tashman
Vehicle: Tire went flat
On May 18th 1969, Rose Tashman (aged 19) was driving from a friend’s home in Van Nuys to her home in Hollywood when she had gotten a flat tire near the Highway Avenue off ramp within the greater Los Angeles, California area.
Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. (Zodiac Killing)
Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969. (Zodiac Killing)
Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. (Zodiac Killing)
Cindy Lee Mellin
Vehicle: Tire was flat in parking lot. Not flat when parked
Cindy was abducted on January 20, 1970.After work that evening. Cindy walked to her car in the parking lot, apparently to find she had a flat tire. Cindy’s father admitted that his daughter would not have been able to tend to a flat tire, so a theory that an unidentified man approached Cindy under the guise of helping her makes sense. Ventura, California
Joy Hungerford
Vehicle: Headlights Went Out
January, 1970 Redwood City
Kathleen Johns
Vehicle: Signalled with lights to pull over, then sabotaged.
On March 20, 1970, a man driving behind her started flashing his headlights. Johns pulled over for the man. He walked up to her car and said that her rear wheel was loose and wobbling and that he’d tighten it for her. Modesto, California area. (Survived)
Donna Lass (Nevada)
Vehicle: Found Untouched
A Stateline casino nurse, Donna Lass, 25, disappeared after work on September 6, 1970. Her car was found parked at her apartment with no signs of a struggle. She may have been a victim of the infamous Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who claimed 37 murder victims (seven of whom who were confirmed by investigators) during the 1960s and 1970s.
Vicki Miner
Abduction method: Unclear
On November 14, 1970 Vicki Miner’s badly decomposed body was found in a vacant field near Malvern Avenue and Dale Street. Police determined that she had been bludgeoned to death. A student at Buena Park High School, Miner was last seen alive as she left for school at about 9:30 on the morning of Oct. 30. Her parents reported her missing later that day when she didn’t show up at school.
Robin Graham
Vehicle: Ran out of Gas
On November 15, 1970 Robin Ann Graham, an 18 year old college student, ran out of gas on a Los Angeles area freeway near the Santa Monica off ramp.
Maureen Louise Sterling and Yvonne Lisa Weber
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On February 4, 1972 both 12-year-old Herbert Slater Middle School students disappeared around 9 pm. after visiting the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa.
Kim Wendy Allen
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On March 4, 1972 Kim Wendy Allen, 19, was given a ride by two men on March 4, 1972 from her job at Larkspur Natural Foods to San Rafael. They last saw her at approximately 5:20 pm hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound, carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Her body was found the following day down an embankment in a creek bed 20 feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa.
Ernestine Terello
Vehicle: Tire was punctured
On April 20, 1972, a woman named Ernestine Terello pulled over for a flat tire near the Ventura freeway in Agoura.
Lori Lee Kursa,
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On November 11, 1972 after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save and was last seen on November 20 or 21 in Santa Rosa while visiting friends, having deliberately run away She was a frequent hitchhiker and habitual runaway. The 13 year old girls' frozen remains were located on December 14, 1972, in a ravine approximately 50 feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.
Rosa Vasquez
Abduction Method: Unclear
On May 29th 1973, the body of Rosa Vasquez, 20, was found strangled near the Arguello Boulevard entrance at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The victim had been thrown seven feet off the roadway into some shrubs.
Yvonne Quilantang
Abduction Method: Unclear
Quilantang aged 15, from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries.
Angela Thomas
Abduction Method: Unclear
Angela, 16, was found July 2, 1973, smothered on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Daly City. She had last been seen the previous evening at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Nancy Patricia Gidley
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy was a 24-year-old radiographer. She was found strangled behind the George Washington High School gymnasium on 15 July 1973. She was last seen at a Rodeway Inn motel on July 12, 1973.
Carolyn Nadine Davis
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
Carolyn, 14, ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County on 6 February 1973, but disappeared 15 July 1973 after being dropped off by her grandmother at the Garberville Post Office. She was last seen hitchhiking that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp in Garberville.
Her body was discovered on 31 July 1973 about three feet from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months earlier. Carolyn died of strychnine poisoning 10–14 days before her body was discovered. It could not be determined if she had been raped.
Nancy Feusi
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy, 22, disappeared after going dancing at a club in the Sacramento area on July 22, 1973. A fisherman discovered the body in a remote area off Pleasant Grove Road. The woman was clad only in a miniskirt and bikini-type briefs. A blouse was found nearby.
Laura A. O'Dell
Abduction method: Unclear
Laura, 21, was found in bushes behind the boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. She was last seen on 4 November 1973, three days before her body was discovered.
Theresa Walsh
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On December 22, 1973 Theresa Diane Smith Walsh, 23, was last seen on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled and had been dead approximately one week when her body was discovered.
Brenda Kaye Merchant
Abduction method: Unclear
Brenda, 19, was found stabbed to death at her home February 1, 1974, in Marysville. The killer left a bloody fingerprint on the screen door when he fled.
Donna M. Braun
Abduction method: Unclear
On September 29, 1974, the strangled body of, 14, was found in the Salinas River near Monterey.
Mona Jean Gallegos
Vehicle: Ran out of gas
On June 19,1975, Mona Jean Gallegos, a 19 year old Covina girl, was returning home from a friend’s house in Alhambra at about 1am when she ran out of gas near Santa Anita Avenue on the San Bernardino Freeway.
Eileen Hynson
Abduction method: Unclear
Eileen Francis Hynson’s disappearance on June 1, 1976, from Napa, California. Hynson left the residence she shared with her father and brother to attend a wedding in Solano County. She never arrived and her suitcase was left at home.
Unidentified Remains
On July 2, 1979, the skeletal remains of a young white female were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road approximately 100 yards from where the body of Lori Lee Kursa had been recovered seven years earlier. One expert consulted by authorities determined that the victim was likely killed between 1972 and 1974 and was about 19 years old.The victim had been hogtied and her arm fractured around the time of her murder.
Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan (Oregon)
On the evening of November 26, 1960, Larry Ralph Peyton and his girlfriend, Beverly Ann Allan disappeared after having made plans to shop at the Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon, United States. The following day, November 27, Peyton's Ford coupe was found in Forest Park, with his mutilated body inside. Allan was missing from the scene, though her purse and coat were still inside the car. A widespread manhunt ensued over the following two months. In January 1961, a highway crew 30 miles outside Portland discovered Allan's partially-nude body in a ravine, and it was determined she had been raped and strangled to death.
Lloyd Duane Bogle and Patti Kalitzke (Montana)
On Jan. 3, 1956, three young boys walking west of Great Falls, in an area now known as Wadsworth Park, discovered the body of 18-year-old airman Lloyd Duane Bogle lying next to a car. Bogle's hands were tied behind his back using his own belt, and he'd been shot through the head. The car's ignition switch was still engaged, and its headlights were still on. The body of Bogle's 16-year-old girlfriend, Patti Kalitzke, was found the next day northwest of the city. Like Bogle, Kalitzke was shot through the head. She showed no signs of sexual assault.
​
More Information:
http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/suspects.php
https://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-the-santa-rosa-hitchhiker-murders/
https://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=86http://truecrimeguy.com/californias-good-samaritan-ruse/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Larry_Peyton_and_Beverly_Allan
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/the-san-francisco-1973-murders
Boston Hitchhiker Killers: (unrelated but interesting to read)
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/2/14/the-hitchhike-murders-pbbebllen-reichb-was/

Is it possible the Santa Rosa slasher is connected to numerous other vehicle related killings across California. From the late 60s to early 70s young women were killed in the California Bay Area, Valley, and Los Angeles areas. These murders all featured either a act of sabotage or an abduction after car trouble. This trend then stops. In 1972 Girls hitchhiking in California's Santa Rosa area were viciously murdered. In 1973 killings of teenage and college aged San Francisco girls took place in the span of 47 days. Could the Zodiac killings of the late 1960s and early 1970s have taught killers to not leave a pattern. Changing location and technique allowed for the killer to go uncaptured. Thoughts if these could be connected ? (Links Below)
Theories on the Santa Rosa Slasher ?
Theories on the San Francisco killings ?
Theories on the Zodiac and did the Zodiac ever travel into Oregon or Nevada ?
List of murders Below:
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer
Summary: A series of at least seven murders in the North Bay, California area, the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders occurred between 1972 and 1973. The female victims of these murders were all found nude in rural areas near steep embankments, or in creek beds along a roadside. Originally, it was thought that there were only seven victims in the case, who ranged in ages from 12 to approximately 23 years old. However, the FBI released a report in 1975 claiming that there were a series of fourteen connected homicides, which included the original seven Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders. The cause of death for victims was typically asphyxiation due to being strangled with a cord of some nature. Many possible murder suspects were proposed, ranging from The Zodiac Killer to Ted Bundy, but no one was ever prosecuted, and the case has gone cold in Sonoma County.
Zodiac Killer:
Summary: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer
Theories are vast. Highly unlikely but seems to fit a pattern of changing serial killer techniques. These change as others begin. None were captured. Did the Zodiac ever travel to Oregon ?
The San Francisco Murders of ‘73
Summary: The body of Rosa Vasquez (20) was discovered close to the Arguello boulevard entrance of the Golden Gate Park on May 29th 1973. She had been strangled and thrown from the nearby road. Twelve days later, a pregnant Yvonne Quilantang (15), from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries. Nancy Patricia Gidley (24) was last seen alive on Thursday July 12th 1973 leaving the Rode-way Inn at 895 Geary Street, San Francisco. Her body was found on Sunday 15th July 1973, nude and strangled in the grounds of George Washington High School in the Richmond area, although it was believed she was murdered elsewhere. Finally, Angela Thomas (16), a resident of Belton, Texas, had traveled to San Francisco for a brief stay. After a day out in Hayward she visited friends in the Presidio district- but neither of her friends were at home and she was last seen walking away at 9.00 pm on Sunday July 1st 1973. She was found naked and smothered the following day in the grounds of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School.
Almost three years earlier Donna Ann Lass disappeared from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970 after finishing her shift as a nurse. A few months earlier in June she had moved to South Lake Tahoe, from San Francisco, where she had previously been employed as a nurse at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio, near the Paul Stine murder scene. Curiously Rosa Vasquez was also employed at the Letterman General Hospital as a keypunch operator. There is no evidence to suggest that any of these four victims were Zodiac crimes, although there is reason enough, to consider these four murders may have been committed by a single perpetrator, due to numerous similarities, within such a short time frame.
Some researchers believe that Lawrence Kane and the Zodiac Killer may be one and the same, trailing Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe, having lived at 217 Eddy Street, close to Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco at the time of the Paul Stine murder. Latterly, working near Donna Lass at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, according to former law enforcement officer Harvey Hines. Is it possible he returned in 1973?. Two possible murders- that of Donna Lass and Rosa Vasquez from the same hospital, inside of three years seems unusual, albeit probably coincidental. Whoever the Zodiac Killer is, may never be known- but did he continue his reign of terror beyond the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969?
Bonus Nevada, Oregon, and Montana story
Cheri Jo Bates
Vehicle: Sabotaged (Ignition Coil Disabled)
The murder of Cheri Jo Bates is an unsolved murder that occurred in Riverside, California on October 30, 1966. Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman, was stabbed and slashed to death on the grounds of Riverside City College.
In November, 1967, Multiple Van Nuys area women were approached by a man following them and flashing their lights. similar to the
In the Fall of 1968, on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, two young women were walking when a man pulled alongside them and asked if they needed a ride. Cheri Jo Bates similar SABOTAGE Survived
David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia. (Zodiac Killing)
Rose Tashman
Vehicle: Tire went flat
On May 18th 1969, Rose Tashman (aged 19) was driving from a friend’s home in Van Nuys to her home in Hollywood when she had gotten a flat tire near the Highway Avenue off ramp within the greater Los Angeles, California area.
Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. (Zodiac Killing)
Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969. (Zodiac Killing)
Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. (Zodiac Killing)
Cindy Lee Mellin
Vehicle: Tire was flat in parking lot. Not flat when parked
Cindy was abducted on *January 20, 1970.*After work that evening. Cindy walked to her car in the parking lot, apparently to find she had a flat tire. Cindy’s father admitted that his daughter would not have been able to tend to a flat tire, so a theory that an unidentified man approached Cindy under the guise of helping her makes sense. Ventura, California
Joy Hungerford
Vehicle: Headlights Went Out
January, 1970 Redwood City
Kathleen Johns
Vehicle: Signalled with lights to pull over, then sabotaged.
On March 20, 1970, a man driving behind her started flashing his headlights. Johns pulled over for the man. He walked up to her car and said that her rear wheel was loose and wobbling and that he’d tighten it for her. Modesto, California area. (Survived)
Donna Lass (Nevada)
Vehicle: Found Untouched
A Stateline casino nurse, Donna Lass, 25, disappeared after work on September 6, 1970. Her car was found parked at her apartment with no signs of a struggle. She may have been a victim of the infamous Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who claimed 37 murder victims (seven of whom who were confirmed by investigators) during the 1960s and 1970s.
Vicki Miner
Abduction method: Unclear
On November 14, 1970 Vicki Miner’s badly decomposed body was found in a vacant field near Malvern Avenue and Dale Street. Police determined that she had been bludgeoned to death. A student at Buena Park High School, Miner was last seen alive as she left for school at about 9:30 on the morning of Oct. 30. Her parents reported her missing later that day when she didn’t show up at school.
Robin Graham
Vehicle: Ran out of Gas
On November 15, 1970 Robin Ann Graham, an 18 year old college student, ran out of gas on a Los Angeles area freeway near the Santa Monica off ramp.
Maureen Louise Sterling and Yvonne Lisa Weber
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On February 4, 1972 both 12-year-old Herbert Slater Middle School students disappeared around 9 pm. after visiting the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa.
Kim Wendy Allen
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On March 4, 1972 Kim Wendy Allen, 19, was given a ride by two men on March 4, 1972 from her job at Larkspur Natural Foods to San Rafael. They last saw her at approximately 5:20 pm hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound, carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Her body was found the following day down an embankment in a creek bed 20 feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa.
Ernestine Terello
Vehicle: Tire was punctured
On April 20, 1972, a woman named Ernestine Terello pulled over for a flat tire near the Ventura freeway in Agoura.
Lori Lee Kursa,
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On November 11, 1972 after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save and was last seen on November 20 or 21 in Santa Rosa while visiting friends, having deliberately run away She was a frequent hitchhiker and habitual runaway. The 13 year old girls' frozen remains were located on December 14, 1972, in a ravine approximately 50 feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.
Rosa Vasquez
Abduction Method: Unclear
On May 29th 1973, the body of Rosa Vasquez, 20, was found strangled near the Arguello Boulevard entrance at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The victim had been thrown seven feet off the roadway into some shrubs.
Yvonne Quilantang
Abduction Method: Unclear
Quilantang aged 15, from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries.
Angela Thomas
Abduction Method: Unclear
Angela, 16, was found July 2, 1973, smothered on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Daly City. She had last been seen the previous evening at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Nancy Patricia Gidley
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy was a 24-year-old radiographer. She was found strangled behind the George Washington High School gymnasium on 15 July 1973. She was last seen at a Rodeway Inn motel on July 12, 1973.
Carolyn Nadine Davis
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
Carolyn, 14, ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County on 6 February 1973, but disappeared 15 July 1973 after being dropped off by her grandmother at the Garberville Post Office. She was last seen hitchhiking that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp in Garberville.
Her body was discovered on 31 July 1973 about three feet from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months earlier. Carolyn died of strychnine poisoning 10–14 days before her body was discovered. It could not be determined if she had been raped.
Nancy Feusi
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy, 22, disappeared after going dancing at a club in the Sacramento area on July 22, 1973. A fisherman discovered the body in a remote area off Pleasant Grove Road. The woman was clad only in a miniskirt and bikini-type briefs. A blouse was found nearby.
Laura A. O'Dell
Abduction method: Unclear
Laura, 21, was found in bushes behind the boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. She was last seen on 4 November 1973, three days before her body was discovered.
Theresa Walsh
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On December 22, 1973 Theresa Diane Smith Walsh, 23, was last seen on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled and had been dead approximately one week when her body was discovered.
Brenda Kaye Merchant
Abduction method: Unclear
Brenda, 19, was found stabbed to death at her home February 1, 1974, in Marysville. The killer left a bloody fingerprint on the screen door when he fled.
Donna M. Braun
Abduction method: Unclear
On September 29, 1974, the strangled body of, 14, was found in the Salinas River near Monterey.
Mona Jean Gallegos
Vehicle: Ran out of gas
On June 19,1975, Mona Jean Gallegos, a 19 year old Covina girl, was returning home from a friend’s house in Alhambra at about 1am when she ran out of gas near Santa Anita Avenue on the San Bernardino Freeway.
Eileen Hynson
Abduction method: Unclear
Eileen Francis Hynson’s disappearance on June 1, 1976, from Napa, California. Hynson left the residence she shared with her father and brother to attend a wedding in Solano County. She never arrived and her suitcase was left at home.
Unidentified Remains
On July 2, 1979, the skeletal remains of a young white female were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road approximately 100 yards from where the body of Lori Lee Kursa had been recovered seven years earlier. One expert consulted by authorities determined that the victim was likely killed between 1972 and 1974 and was about 19 years old. The victim had been hogtied and her arm fractured around the time of her murder.
Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan (Oregon)
On the evening of November 26, 1960, Larry Ralph Peyton and his girlfriend, Beverly Ann Allan disappeared after having made plans to shop at the Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon, United States. The following day, November 27, Peyton's Ford coupe was found in Forest Park, with his mutilated body inside. Allan was missing from the scene, though her purse and coat were still inside the car. A widespread manhunt ensued over the following two months. In January 1961, a highway crew 30 miles outside Portland discovered Allan's partially-nude body in a ravine, and it was determined she had been raped and strangled to death.
Lloyd Duane Bogle and Patti Kalitzke (Montana)
On Jan. 3, 1956, three young boys walking west of Great Falls, in an area now known as Wadsworth Park, discovered the body of 18-year-old airman Lloyd Duane Bogle lying next to a car. Bogle's hands were tied behind his back using his own belt, and he'd been shot through the head. The car's ignition switch was still engaged, and its headlights were still on. The body of Bogle's 16-year-old girlfriend, Patti Kalitzke, was found the next day northwest of the city. Like Bogle, Kalitzke was shot through the head. She showed no signs of sexual assault.
More Information:
http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/suspects.php
https://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-the-santa-rosa-hitchhiker-murders/
https://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=86http://truecrimeguy.com/californias-good-samaritan-ruse/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Larry_Peyton_and_Beverly_Allan
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/the-san-francisco-1973-murders
Boston Hitchhiker Killers: (unrelated but interesting to read)
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/2/14/the-hitchhike-murders-pbbebllen-reichb-was/

Is it possible the Santa Rosa slasher is connected to numerous other vehicle related killings across California. From the late 60s to early 70s young women were killed in the California Bay Area, Valley, and Los Angeles areas. These murders all featured either a act of sabotage or an abduction after car trouble. This trend then stops. In 1972 Girls hitchhiking in California's Santa Rosa area were viciously murdered. In 1973 killings of teenage and college aged San Francisco girls took place in the span of 47 days. Could the Zodiac killings of the late 1960s and early 1970s have taught killers to not leave a pattern. Changing location and technique allowed for the killer to go uncaptured. Thoughts if these could be connected ? (Links Below)
*reuploaded with new information
Theories on the Santa Rosa Slasher ?
Theories on the San Francisco killings ?
Theories on the Zodiac and did the Zodiac ever travel into Oregon or Nevada ?
List of murders Below:
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer
Summary: A series of at least seven murders in the North Bay, California area, the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders occurred between 1972 and 1973. The female victims of these murders were all found nude in rural areas near steep embankments, or in creek beds along a roadside. Originally, it was thought that there were only seven victims in the case, who ranged in ages from 12 to approximately 23 years old. However, the FBI released a report in 1975 claiming that there were a series of fourteen connected homicides, which included the original seven Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders. The cause of death for victims was typically asphyxiation due to being strangled with a cord of some nature. Many possible murder suspects were proposed, ranging from The Zodiac Killer to Ted Bundy, but no one was ever prosecuted, and the case has gone cold in Sonoma County.
Zodiac Killer:
Summary: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer
Theories are vast. Highly unlikely but seems to fit a pattern of changing serial killer techniques. These change as others begin. None were captured. Did the Zodiac ever travel to Oregon ?
The San Francisco Murders of ‘73
Summary: The body of Rosa Vasquez (20) was discovered close to the Arguello boulevard entrance of the Golden Gate Park on May 29th 1973. She had been strangled and thrown from the nearby road. Twelve days later, a pregnant Yvonne Quilantang (15), from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries. Nancy Patricia Gidley (24) was last seen alive on Thursday July 12th 1973 leaving the Rode-way Inn at 895 Geary Street, San Francisco. Her body was found on Sunday 15th July 1973, nude and strangled in the grounds of George Washington High School in the Richmond area, although it was believed she was murdered elsewhere. Finally, Angela Thomas (16), a resident of Belton, Texas, had traveled to San Francisco for a brief stay. After a day out in Hayward she visited friends in the Presidio district- but neither of her friends were at home and she was last seen walking away at 9.00 pm on Sunday July 1st 1973. She was found naked and smothered the following day in the grounds of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School.
Almost three years earlier Donna Ann Lass disappeared from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970 after finishing her shift as a nurse. A few months earlier in June she had moved to South Lake Tahoe, from San Francisco, where she had previously been employed as a nurse at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio, near the Paul Stine murder scene. Curiously Rosa Vasquez was also employed at the Letterman General Hospital as a keypunch operator. There is no evidence to suggest that any of these four victims were Zodiac crimes, although there is reason enough, to consider these four murders may have been committed by a single perpetrator, due to numerous similarities, within such a short time frame.
Some researchers believe that Lawrence Kane and the Zodiac Killer may be one and the same, trailing Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe, having lived at 217 Eddy Street, close to Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco at the time of the Paul Stine murder. Latterly, working near Donna Lass at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, according to former law enforcement officer Harvey Hines. Is it possible he returned in 1973?. Two possible murders- that of Donna Lass and Rosa Vasquez from the same hospital, inside of three years seems unusual, albeit probably coincidental. Whoever the Zodiac Killer is, may never be known- but did he continue his reign of terror beyond the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969?
Bonus Nevada, Oregon, and Montana story
Cheri Jo Bates
Vehicle: Sabotaged (Ignition Coil Disabled)
The murder of Cheri Jo Bates is an unsolved murder that occurred in Riverside, California on October 30, 1966. Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman, was stabbed and slashed to death on the grounds of Riverside City College.
In November, 1967, Multiple Van Nuys area women were approached by a man following them and flashing their lights. similar to the
In the Fall of 1968, on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, two young women were walking when a man pulled alongside them and asked if they needed a ride. Cheri Jo Bates similar SABOTAGE Survived
David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia. (Zodiac Killing)
Rose Tashman
Vehicle: Tire went flat
On May 18th 1969, Rose Tashman (aged 19) was driving from a friend’s home in Van Nuys to her home in Hollywood when she had gotten a flat tire near the Highway Avenue off ramp within the greater Los Angeles, California area.
Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. (Zodiac Killing)
Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969. (Zodiac Killing)
Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. (Zodiac Killing)
Cindy Lee Mellin
Vehicle: Tire was flat in parking lot. Not flat when parked
Cindy was abducted on *January 20, 1970.*After work that evening. Cindy walked to her car in the parking lot, apparently to find she had a flat tire. Cindy’s father admitted that his daughter would not have been able to tend to a flat tire, so a theory that an unidentified man approached Cindy under the guise of helping her makes sense. Ventura, California
Joy Hungerford
Vehicle: Headlights Went Out
January, 1970 Redwood City
Kathleen Johns
Vehicle: Signalled with lights to pull over, then sabotaged.
On March 20, 1970, a man driving behind her started flashing his headlights. Johns pulled over for the man. He walked up to her car and said that her rear wheel was loose and wobbling and that he’d tighten it for her. Modesto, California area. (Survived)
Donna Lass (Nevada)
Vehicle: Found Untouched
A Stateline casino nurse, Donna Lass, 25, disappeared after work on September 6, 1970. Her car was found parked at her apartment with no signs of a struggle. She may have been a victim of the infamous Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who claimed 37 murder victims (seven of whom who were confirmed by investigators) during the 1960s and 1970s.
Vicki Miner
Abduction method: Unclear
On November 14, 1970 Vicki Miner’s badly decomposed body was found in a vacant field near Malvern Avenue and Dale Street. Police determined that she had been bludgeoned to death. A student at Buena Park High School, Miner was last seen alive as she left for school at about 9:30 on the morning of Oct. 30. Her parents reported her missing later that day when she didn’t show up at school.
Robin Graham
Vehicle: Ran out of Gas
On November 15, 1970 Robin Ann Graham, an 18 year old college student, ran out of gas on a Los Angeles area freeway near the Santa Monica off ramp.
Maureen Louise Sterling and Yvonne Lisa Weber
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On February 4, 1972 both 12-year-old Herbert Slater Middle School students disappeared around 9 pm. after visiting the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa.
Kim Wendy Allen
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On March 4, 1972 Kim Wendy Allen, 19, was given a ride by two men on March 4, 1972 from her job at Larkspur Natural Foods to San Rafael. They last saw her at approximately 5:20 pm hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound, carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Her body was found the following day down an embankment in a creek bed 20 feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa.
Ernestine Terello
Vehicle: Tire was punctured
On April 20, 1972, a woman named Ernestine Terello pulled over for a flat tire near the Ventura freeway in Agoura.
Lori Lee Kursa,
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On November 11, 1972 after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save and was last seen on November 20 or 21 in Santa Rosa while visiting friends, having deliberately run away She was a frequent hitchhiker and habitual runaway. The 13 year old girls' frozen remains were located on December 14, 1972, in a ravine approximately 50 feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.
Rosa Vasquez
Abduction Method: Unclear
On May 29th 1973, the body of Rosa Vasquez, 20, was found strangled near the Arguello Boulevard entrance at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The victim had been thrown seven feet off the roadway into some shrubs.
Yvonne Quilantang
Abduction Method: Unclear
Quilantang aged 15, from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries.
Angela Thomas
Abduction Method: Unclear
Angela, 16, was found July 2, 1973, smothered on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Daly City. She had last been seen the previous evening at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Nancy Patricia Gidley
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy was a 24-year-old radiographer. She was found strangled behind the George Washington High School gymnasium on 15 July 1973. She was last seen at a Rodeway Inn motel on July 12, 1973.
Carolyn Nadine Davis
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
Carolyn, 14, ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County on 6 February 1973, but disappeared 15 July 1973 after being dropped off by her grandmother at the Garberville Post Office. She was last seen hitchhiking that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp in Garberville.
Her body was discovered on 31 July 1973 about three feet from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months earlier. Carolyn died of strychnine poisoning 10–14 days before her body was discovered. It could not be determined if she had been raped.
Nancy Feusi
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy, 22, disappeared after going dancing at a club in the Sacramento area on July 22, 1973. A fisherman discovered the body in a remote area off Pleasant Grove Road. The woman was clad only in a miniskirt and bikini-type briefs. A blouse was found nearby.
Laura A. O'Dell
Abduction method: Unclear
Laura, 21, was found in bushes behind the boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. She was last seen on 4 November 1973, three days before her body was discovered.
Theresa Walsh
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On December 22, 1973 Theresa Diane Smith Walsh, 23, was last seen on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled and had been dead approximately one week when her body was discovered.
Brenda Kaye Merchant
Abduction method: Unclear
Brenda, 19, was found stabbed to death at her home February 1, 1974, in Marysville. The killer left a bloody fingerprint on the screen door when he fled.
Donna M. Braun
Abduction method: Unclear
On September 29, 1974, the strangled body of, 14, was found in the Salinas River near Monterey.
Mona Jean Gallegos
Vehicle: Ran out of gas
On June 19,1975, Mona Jean Gallegos, a 19 year old Covina girl, was returning home from a friend’s house in Alhambra at about 1am when she ran out of gas near Santa Anita Avenue on the San Bernardino Freeway.
Eileen Hynson
Abduction method: Unclear
Eileen Francis Hynson’s disappearance on June 1, 1976, from Napa, California. Hynson left the residence she shared with her father and brother to attend a wedding in Solano County. She never arrived and her suitcase was left at home.
Unidentified Remains
On July 2, 1979, the skeletal remains of a young white female were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road approximately 100 yards from where the body of Lori Lee Kursa had been recovered seven years earlier. One expert consulted by authorities determined that the victim was likely killed between 1972 and 1974 and was about 19 years old. The victim had been hogtied and her arm fractured around the time of her murder.
Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan (Oregon)
On the evening of November 26, 1960, Larry Ralph Peyton and his girlfriend, Beverly Ann Allan disappeared after having made plans to shop at the Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon, United States. The following day, November 27, Peyton's Ford coupe was found in Forest Park, with his mutilated body inside. Allan was missing from the scene, though her purse and coat were still inside the car. A widespread manhunt ensued over the following two months. In January 1961, a highway crew 30 miles outside Portland discovered Allan's partially-nude body in a ravine, and it was determined she had been raped and strangled to death.
Lloyd Duane Bogle and Patti Kalitzke (Montana)
On Jan. 3, 1956, three young boys walking west of Great Falls, in an area now known as Wadsworth Park, discovered the body of 18-year-old airman Lloyd Duane Bogle lying next to a car. Bogle's hands were tied behind his back using his own belt, and he'd been shot through the head. The car's ignition switch was still engaged, and its headlights were still on. The body of Bogle's 16-year-old girlfriend, Patti Kalitzke, was found the next day northwest of the city. Like Bogle, Kalitzke was shot through the head. She showed no signs of sexual assault.
More Information:
http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/suspects.php
https://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-the-santa-rosa-hitchhiker-murders/
https://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=86http://truecrimeguy.com/californias-good-samaritan-ruse/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Larry_Peyton_and_Beverly_Allan
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/the-san-francisco-1973-murders
Boston Hitchhiker Killers: (unrelated but interesting to read)
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/2/14/the-hitchhike-murders-pbbebllen-reichb-was/

Is it possible the Santa Rosa slasher is connected to numerous other vehicle related killings across California. From the late 60s to early 70s young women were killed in the California Bay Area, Valley, and Los Angeles areas. These murders all featured either a act of sabotage or an abduction after car trouble. This trend then stops. In 1972 Girls hitchhiking in California's Santa Rosa area were viciously murdered. In 1973 killings of teenage and college aged San Francisco girls took place in the span of 47 days. Could the Zodiac killings of the late 1960s and early 1970s have taught killers to not leave a pattern. Changing location and technique allowed for the killer to go uncaptured. Thoughts if these could be connected ? (Links Below)
Theories on the Santa Rosa Slasher ?
Theories on the San Francisco killings ?
Theories on the Zodiac and did the Zodiac ever travel into Oregon or Nevada ?
List of murders Below:
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer
Summary: A series of at least seven murders in the North Bay, California area, the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders occurred between 1972 and 1973. The female victims of these murders were all found nude in rural areas near steep embankments, or in creek beds along a roadside. Originally, it was thought that there were only seven victims in the case, who ranged in ages from 12 to approximately 23 years old. However, the FBI released a report in 1975 claiming that there were a series of fourteen connected homicides, which included the original seven Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders. The cause of death for victims was typically asphyxiation due to being strangled with a cord of some nature. Many possible murder suspects were proposed, ranging from The Zodiac Killer to Ted Bundy, but no one was ever prosecuted, and the case has gone cold in Sonoma County.
Zodiac Killer]
Summary: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer
Theories are vast. Highly unlikely but seems to fit a pattern of changing serial killer techniques. These change as others begin. None were captured. Did the Zodiac ever travel to Oregon ?
The San Francisco Murders of ‘73
Summary: The body of Rosa Vasquez (20) was discovered close to the Arguello boulevard entrance of the Golden Gate Park on May 29th 1973. She had been strangled and thrown from the nearby road. Twelve days later, a pregnant Yvonne Quilantang (15), from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries. Nancy Patricia Gidley (24) was last seen alive on Thursday July 12th 1973 leaving the Rodeway Inn at 895 Geary Street, San Francisco. Her body was found on Sunday 15th July 1973, nude and strangled in the grounds of George Washington High School in the Richmond area, although it was believed she was murdered elsewhere. Finally, Angela Thomas (16), a resident of Belton, Texas, had traveled to San Francisco for a brief stay. After a day out in Hayward she visited friends in the Presidio district- but neither of her friends were at home and she was last seen walking away at 9.00 pm on Sunday July 1st 1973. She was found naked and smothered the following day in the grounds of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School.
Almost three years earlier Donna Ann Lass disappeared from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970 after finishing her shift as a nurse. A few months earlier in June she had moved to South Lake Tahoe, from San Francisco, where she had previously been employed as a nurse at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio, near the Paul Stine murder scene. Curiously Rosa Vasquez was also employed at the Letterman General Hospital as a keypunch operator. There is no evidence to suggest that any of these four victims were Zodiac crimes, although there is reason enough, to consider these four murders may have been committed by a single perpetrator, due to numerous similarities, within such a short time frame.
Some researchers believe that Lawrence Kane and the Zodiac Killer may be one and the same, trailing Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe, having lived at 217 Eddy Street, close to Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco at the time of the Paul Stine murder. Latterly, working near Donna Lass at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, according to former law enforcement officer Harvey Hines. Is it possible he returned in 1973?. Two possible murders- that of Donna Lass and Rosa Vasquez from the same hospital, inside of three years seems unusual, albeit probably coincidental. Whoever the Zodiac Killer is, may never be known- but did he continue his reign of terror beyond the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969?
- Bonus Oregon and Montana murders Lovers lane Murder's (at end)
Cheri Jo Bates
Vehicle: Sabotaged (Ignition Coil Disabled)
The murder of Cheri Jo Bates is an unsolved murder that occurred in Riverside, California on October 30, 1966. Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman, was stabbed and slashed to death on the grounds of Riverside City College.
In November, 1967, Multiple Van Nuys area women were approached by a man following them and flashing their lights. similar to the
In the Fall of 1968, on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, two young women were walking when a man pulled alongside them and asked if they needed a ride. Cheri Jo Bates similar SABOTAGE Survived
David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia. (Zodiac Killing)
Rose Tashman
Vehicle: Tire went flat
On May 18th 1969, Rose Tashman (aged 19) was driving from a friend’s home in Van Nuys to her home in Hollywood when she had gotten a flat tire near the Highway Avenue off ramp within the greater Los Angeles, California area.
Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. (Zodiac Killing)
Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969. (Zodiac Killing)
Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. (Zodiac Killing)
Cindy Lee Mellin
Vehicle: Tire was flat in parking lot. Not flat when parked
Cindy was abducted on *January 20, 1970.*After work that evening. Cindy walked to her car in the parking lot, apparently to find she had a flat tire. Cindy’s father admitted that his daughter would not have been able to tend to a flat tire, so a theory that an unidentified man approached Cindy under the guise of helping her makes sense. Ventura, California
Joy Hungerford
Vehicle: Headlights Went Out
January, 1970 Redwood City
Kathleen Johns
Vehicle: Signalled with lights to pull over, then sabotaged.
On March 20, 1970, a man driving behind her started flashing his headlights. Johns pulled over for the man. He walked up to her car and said that her rear wheel was loose and wobbling and that he’d tighten it for her. Modesto, California area. (Survived)
Donna Lass (Nevada)
Vehicle: Found Untouched
A Stateline casino nurse, Donna Lass, 25, disappeared after work on September 6, 1970. Her car was found parked at her apartment with no signs of a struggle. She may have been a victim of the infamous Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who claimed 37 murder victims (seven of whom who were confirmed by investigators) during the 1960s and 1970s.
Vicki Miner
Abduction method: Unclear
On November 14, 1970 Vicki Miner’s badly decomposed body was found in a vacant field near Malvern Avenue and Dale Street. Police determined that she had been bludgeoned to death. A student at Buena Park High School, Miner was last seen alive as she left for school at about 9:30 on the morning of Oct. 30. Her parents reported her missing later that day when she didn’t show up at school.
Robin Graham
Vehicle: Ran out of Gas
On November 15, 1970 Robin Ann Graham, an 18 year old college student, ran out of gas on a Los Angeles area freeway near the Santa Monica off ramp.
Maureen Louise Sterling and Yvonne Lisa Weber
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On February 4, 1972 both 12-year-old Herbert Slater Middle School students disappeared around 9 pm. after visiting the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa.
Kim Wendy Allen
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On March 4, 1972 Kim Wendy Allen, 19, was given a ride by two men on March 4, 1972 from her job at Larkspur Natural Foods to San Rafael. They last saw her at approximately 5:20 pm hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound, carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Her body was found the following day down an embankment in a creek bed 20 feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa.
Ernestine Terello
Vehicle: Tire was punctured
On April 20, 1972, a woman named Ernestine Terello pulled over for a flat tire near the Ventura freeway in Agoura.
Lori Lee Kursa,
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On November 11, 1972 after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save and was last seen on November 20 or 21 in Santa Rosa while visiting friends, having deliberately run away She was a frequent hitchhiker and habitual runaway. The 13 year old girls' frozen remains were located on December 14, 1972, in a ravine approximately 50 feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.
Rosa Vasquez
Abduction Method: Unclear
On May 29th 1973, the body of Rosa Vasquez, 20, was found strangled near the Arguello Boulevard entrance at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The victim had been thrown seven feet off the roadway into some shrubs.
Yvonne Quilantang
Abduction Method: Unclear
Quilantang aged 15, from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries.
Angela Thomas
Abduction Method: Unclear
Angela, 16, was found July 2, 1973, smothered on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Daly City. She had last been seen the previous evening at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Nancy Patricia Gidley
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy was a 24-year-old radiographer. She was found strangled behind the George Washington High School gymnasium on 15 July 1973. She was last seen at a Rodeway Inn motel on July 12, 1973.
Carolyn Nadine Davis
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
Carolyn, 14, ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County on 6 February 1973, but disappeared 15 July 1973 after being dropped off by her grandmother at the Garberville Post Office. She was last seen hitchhiking that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp in Garberville.
Her body was discovered on 31 July 1973 about three feet from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months earlier. Carolyn died of strychnine poisoning 10–14 days before her body was discovered. It could not be determined if she had been raped.
Nancy Feusi
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy, 22, disappeared after going dancing at a club in the Sacramento area on July 22, 1973. A fisherman discovered the body in a remote area off Pleasant Grove Road. The woman was clad only in a miniskirt and bikini-type briefs. A blouse was found nearby.
Laura A. O'Dell
Abduction method: Unclear
Laura, 21, was found in bushes behind the boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. She was last seen on 4 November 1973, three days before her body was discovered.
Theresa Walsh
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On December 22, 1973 Theresa Diane Smith Walsh, 23, was last seen on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled and had been dead approximately one week when her body was discovered.
Brenda Kaye Merchant
Abduction method: Unclear
Brenda, 19, was found stabbed to death at her home February 1, 1974, in Marysville. The killer left a bloody fingerprint on the screen door when he fled.
Donna M. Braun
Abduction method: Unclear
On September 29, 1974, the strangled body of, 14, was found in the Salinas River near Monterey.
Mona Jean Gallegos
Vehicle: Ran out of gas
On June 19,1975, Mona Jean Gallegos, a 19 year old Covina girl, was returning home from a friend’s house in Alhambra at about 1am when she ran out of gas near Santa Anita Avenue on the San Bernardino Freeway.
Eileen Hynson
Abduction method: Unclear
Eileen Francis Hynson’s disappearance on June 1, 1976, from Napa, California. Hynson left the residence she shared with her father and brother to attend a wedding in Solano County. She never arrived and her suitcase was left at home.
Unidentified Remains
On July 2, 1979, the skeletal remains of a young white female were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road approximately 100 yards from where the body of Lori Lee Kursa had been recovered seven years earlier. One expert consulted by authorities determined that the victim was likely killed between 1972 and 1974 and was about 19 years old.The victim had been hogtied and her arm fractured around the time of her murder.
Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan (Oregon)
On the evening of November 26, 1960, Larry Ralph Peyton and his girlfriend, Beverly Ann Allan disappeared after having made plans to shop at the Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon, United States. The following day, November 27, Peyton's Ford coupe was found in Forest Park, with his mutilated body inside. Allan was missing from the scene, though her purse and coat were still inside the car. A widespread manhunt ensued over the following two months. In January 1961, a highway crew 30 miles outside Portland discovered Allan's partially-nude body in a ravine, and it was determined she had been raped and strangled to death.
Lloyd Duane Bogle and Patti Kalitzke (Montana)
On Jan. 3, 1956, three young boys walking west of Great Falls, in an area now known as Wadsworth Park, discovered the body of 18-year-old airman Lloyd Duane Bogle lying next to a car. Bogle's hands were tied behind his back using his own belt, and he'd been shot through the head. The car's ignition switch was still engaged, and its headlights were still on. The body of Bogle's 16-year-old girlfriend, Patti Kalitzke, was found the next day northwest of the city. Like Bogle, Kalitzke was shot through the head. She showed no signs of sexual assault.
More Information:
http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/suspects.php
https://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-the-santa-rosa-hitchhiker-murders/
https://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=86http://truecrimeguy.com/californias-good-samaritan-ruse/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Larry_Peyton_and_Beverly_Allan
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/the-san-francisco-1973-murders
Boston Hitchhiker Killers: (unrelated but interesting to read)
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/2/14/the-hitchhike-murders-pbbebllen-reichb-was/

This post is updated daily.
You can also follow the Reddit Live thread here.
 
COVID-19 has now infected more than 215,956 people. There have been 8,757 confirmed deaths and 84,080 confirmed recoveries attributed to the virus.
 
Recent Updates
Note: These are the updates from the last 48-72 hours.
MARCH 18 -

• United States: President Trump signed into law a coronavirus relief package, which provides free coronavirus testing and ensures paid emergency leave for those who are infected or caring for a family member with the illness. The bill also provides additional Medicaid funding, food assistance and unemployment benefits. The "third phase" coronavirus response bill is expected to pass later this week. Read more here.
  
• United States: President Trump announced that home foreclosures and evictions will be suspended “until the end of April.” Read more here. He also invoked the Defense Production Act, which gives the government the authority to control the production and distribution of scarce materials deemed "essential to the national defense." In his executive order, Trump specifically cites protective equipment (presumably face masks) and ventilators as meeting the criteria in this provision. Read more here.
  
• United States: Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Ben McAdams become first members of Congress to test positive for coronavirus. Read more here.
  
• United States: King County in Washington State is building a 200-bed field hospital on Shoreline soccer field amid coronavirus outbreak. Read more here.
  
• United States: The New York Stock Exchange said starting March 23, it will temporarily close its historic trading floor and move fully to electronic trading. This is the first time the physical trading floor of the Big Board has ever shut independently while electronic trading continues. Read more here.
  
• United States and Canada: US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have agreed to close the US-Canada border to all non-essential travel in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus. Trade will not be affected. Read more here.
  
• Canada: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced a massive $82-billion aid package to help Canadians and businesses cope with the global COVID-19 pandemic, including income supports, wage subsidies and tax deferrals. The package includes $27 billion in direct supports and another $55 billion to help business liquidity through tax deferrals. Read more here.
  
• Japan’s Hokkaido, the nation’s prefecture with the highest number of coronavirus infections, will end its state of emergency over the epidemic on Thursday. Read more here.
  
• Europe: The European Central Bank launched an extra emergency bond-buying program worth 750 billion euros ($820 billion) in the latest attempt to calm markets and protect a euro-area economy struggling to cope with the coronavirus epidemic. Read more here.
  
• France: French police handed out over 4,000 fines Wednesday to people found violating an order to stay at home, on the first full day of a lockdown aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus in the country. Read more here.
  
• Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa declared a state of emergency to combat the coronavirus pandemic. The new measures allow Prime Minister António Costa's government to restrict movement of people, temporarily suspend the right of workers in vital sectors — such as health, civil protection, security and defense — to strike, and ban protests and social or religious meetings Read more here.
  
• Brazil: Davi Alcolumbre, the head of Brazil's Senate, became the latest high-level political figure to test positive for coronavirus on Wednesday. Read more here.
  
• Chilean president Sebastian Pinera declared a 90-day state of catastrophe Wednesday to address the spread of COVID-19 in the country, which has 238 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. By law, a state of catastrophe puts the armed forces in charge of public order and security and enables military control of the movement of people and goods. Military officials will be able to issue direct instructions to public employees and local governments and establish measures deemed necessary to maintain public order, including curfews. Read more here.
  
• Africa: Sub-Saharan Africa records first coronavirus death. Read more here.
  
• Both the United States and the United Kingdom have confirmed cases of coronavirus within their jails.
  
• Europe: This year's Eurovision Song Contest has been canceled in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, organizers confirmed on Wednesday, marking the first time that the much-loved competition has ever been scrapped. Read more here.
  
• Australian airline Qantas and its subsidiary Jetstar will suspend scheduled international flights from late March until at least the end of May due to the coronavirus crisis. In a statement posted on its website Thursday, Qantas Group announced that 60% of its domestic flights would also be cut, and two-thirds of its 30,000 employees would be temporarily stood down. Read the announcement here.
  
• RyanAir, Europe’s biggest low-cost carrier, said it expected “most if not all” flights to be grounded, apart from a small number to maintain connections between the UK and Ireland. Read more here.
  

 
MARCH 17 -

• United States: A plan developed by the federal government to combat the coronavirus reportedly projects the pandemic will last 18 months or more and could feature multiple “waves.” Read more here.
  
• United States: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin raised the possibility with Republican senators that U.S. unemployment could rise to 20% without government intervention because of the impact of the coronavirus. Mnuchin discussed the scenario with the lawmakers on Tuesday as he proposed an economic stimulus of $1 trillion or more. Read more here.
  
• United States: Treasury and IRS to delay tax payment deadline by 90 days. Read more here.
  
• United States: The U.S. military is preparing Naval hospital ships for deployment, and is looking to open its labs to help test civilians for coronavirus. The Pentagon also plans to distribute equipment. Read more here.
  
• United States: White House requests and additional $45.8 billion in emergency funding due to coronavirus. The request comes on top of the $8.3 billion in emergency funding passed by Congress just two weeks ago and underscores just how dramatically financial demands at federal agencies have grown in a matter of days. Read more here.
  
• United States: Schools are likely to be closed for the rest of this school year according to Governor Newsom of California. Ohio's governor has made similar statements. Read more here.
  
• United States: Are Hospitals Near Me Ready for Coronavirus? Here Are Nine Different Scenarios. | There is a tool in the article that allows you to see your area's hospital capacity. See the interactive tool here.
  
• EU: Leaders of European Union countries have agreed to close the EU’s external borders to most people from other countries for 30 days in a new effort to slow the coronavirus pandemic. Movement within European Union member nations will be still be allowed. Read more here.
  
• Spain: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced a package of measures worth a total 200 billion euros ($219 billion), between loans, credit guarantees, benefits and direct aid, to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the economy. The package represents about 20% of the country’s gross domestic product; 117 billion euros for the package will come from the government, with the rest to come from private companies. Read more here.
  
• Scotland: No new jury trials will take place in Scotland for the foreseeable future due to coronavirus. Read more here.
  
• Bolivia will close its borders to non-residents and suspend all international flights to combat the spread of coronavirus. The measure will remain in place until March 31. Read more here.
  
• Australia declares emergency, warns coronavirus crisis could last six months. Read more here.
  
• Euro 2020 has been postponed by one year until 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Read more here.
  

 
MARCH 16 -

• A Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating an investigational vaccine designed to protect against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has begun at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) in Seattle. Read more here.
  
• The European Union will ban all nonessential travel into the bloc for at least 30 days. Read more here.
  
• France has instituted a lockdown and will deploy 100,000 police to enforce the lockdown and fixed checkpoints will be set up across the country. Under the new measures, soldiers would help transport the sick to hospitals with spare capacity and a military hospital with 30 intensive care beds would be set up in the eastern region of Alsace, where one of the largest infection clusters has broken out. Macron also announced he was postponing the second round of local elections on Sunday. Read more here.
  
• United States: President Trump held a press conference today, where he said that the U.S. may be able to get the new coronavirus outbreak under control by July or August at the earliest. He also said his administration may look at lockdowns for “certain areas” or “hot spots” in the nation, but said he wasn’t considering a full national lockdown. Watch the press conference here and/or read about it here.
  
• United States: The Department of Health and Human Services experienced suspicious cyberactivity Sunday night related to its coronavirus response. The suspicious activity HHS was not a hack but it may have been a distributed denial of service -- or DDOS -- attack. Read more here.
  
• United States: Six Bay Area counties announced “shelter in place” orders for all residents on Monday — the strictest measure of its kind yet in the continental United States — directing everyone to stay inside their homes and away from others as much as possible for the next three weeks. The directive begins at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday and involves San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda counties — a combined population of more than 6.7 million. Read more here.
  
• United States: New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut institute regional rules that ban gatherings of over 50, and close casinos, gyms, and theaters. Read more here.
  
• United States: The Ohio primary has been postponed. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) announced late Monday that his administration will order that polls be closed on Tuesday due to a health emergency. Read more here.
  
• United States: Dow Plummets Nearly 3,000 Points as Virus Fears Spread. Read more here.
  
• Canada is closing its borders to noncitizens because of the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. citizens are exempt from the ban “for the moment." Read more here.
  
• Israel is preparing to open four hotels across the country as quarantines sites for confirmed cases of coronavirus, Minister of Defense Naftali Bennett announced Monday night. The hotels will be used to treat people exhibiting mild symptoms of the virus. Read more here.
  
• Finland closes schools, declares state of emergency over coronavirus. Daycare centres are to stay open but parents were asked to keep their kids home if possible. Read more here.
  
• Sudan’s ruling sovereign council closed all airports, ports and land crossings and declared a public health emergency on Monday over fears about the spread of coronavirus. Read more here.
  
• Idris Elba has tested positive for coronavirus along with several other celebrities. See Idris' tweet here.
  
• Amazon will hire 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers in the United States to deal with a surge in online orders, as many consumers have turned to the web to meet their needs during the coronavirus outbreak. Read more here.
  
• The Peace Corps is telling its volunteers around the world that it is suspending all operations globally and evacuating all volunteers in light of the spread of the new coronavirus. Read more here.
  
• United States: The College Board has cancelled the May SATs. Read more here.
  

 
Tracking COVID-19

• Vox is keeping track of COVID-19 infections for each U.S. state here.
  
• John Hopkins University has a live trackemap of the global spread of COVID-19 here.
  
• Today's situation report from the WHO.
  
• The CDC's COVID-19 Situation Summary.
  
• There are tons of travel bans globally right now. CNN has put together a full list here.
  

 
Reputable Sources for Information:

• The CDC's Dedicated Coronavirus Resource,
  
• The WHO's Dedicated Coronavirus Resource,
  
• The University of Chicago School of Medicine's handy FAQ style resource.
  

Company Name	Title	City
BetterHelp	Licensed Therapist Jobs - Remote Work From Home	Bakersfield
BetterHelp	Licensed Therapist - Work from home online	Bakersfield
TNG Retail Services	Grocery Remodel Merchandiser	San Jose
Guittard Chocolate	Mechanic	Burlingame
TNG Retail Services	Overnight Reset Merchandiser	Petaluma
Allied Universal	Armed Security Officer-NASSCO	Bonita
Allied Universal	Armed Security Officer-NASSCO	Cardiff By The Sea
Allied Universal	Armed Security Officer-NASSCO	Chula Vista
Metal Sales Manufacturing Corporation	General Operator	Woodland
TNG Retail Services	Grocery Merchandiser	Paso Robles
Bluecrew	Assistant Mover	Aliso Viejo
Bluecrew	Package Handler	Alviso
Bluecrew	General Production Associate	Alviso
Morongo Casino Resort and Spa	Host - Good Times Cafe (Part-Time)	Cabazon
Morongo Casino Resort and Spa	Engineer II	Cabazon
Morongo Casino Resort and Spa	Engineer III	Cabazon
ABC Supply co.	CDL Delivery Truck Driver	Chatsworth
Lineage Logistics	General Warehouse	Colton
Carlisle Construction Materials	Maintenance Technician	Dixon
ABC Supply co.	CDL Delivery Truck Driver	Paso Robles
Zinier	Channels & Alliances Director	San Mateo
Carlisle Construction Materials	Machine Operator (Swing Shift)	Dixon
Carlisle Construction Materials	Machine Operator (Day Shift)	Dixon
Mutual of Omaha	Entry Level Financial Advisor	Artesia
Community Medical Centers	Interventional Rad Tech 1, Per Diem, 12 Hours	Clovis
Community Medical Centers	Clinical Lab Scientist, Clin Lab-Chemistry	Fresno
Gale Healthcare Solutions	$700 - $860 shift - MedSurge RN's Needed- Registry Opportunity	Lake Forest
Sunrise Senior Living	Resident Care Director / Registered Nurse Manager / RN	Santa Monica
Sunrise Senior Living	LVN Med Care Manager	Simi Valley
Sunrise Senior Living	Licensed Practical Nurse/Licensed Vocational Nurse (LPN/LVN)	Sunnyvale
Confidential Search	CDFI Director	San Francisco Bay Area
Qualcomm Incorporated	Design Verification Engineer, Senior Staff	Santa Clara
Loves Travel Stops & Country Store	Diesel Mechanic - Truck Care	Lodi
Loves Travel Stops & Country Store	Diesel Mechanic - Truck Care	Lost Hills
Loves Travel Stops & Country Store	Diesel Mechanic - Truck Care	Madera
Kool Pak	Professional Driver	Rancho Cucamonga
Graphic Packaging International	Building Maintenance	Visalia
Kindred at Home	Personal Care Attendant - PCA	San Leandro
El Camino Health	Surgical Tech II - OR LG - Eve - FT	Los Gatos
El Camino Health	Lab Tech Supp Spec II - Lab Hemology - Full Time	Los Gatos

Hey guys, here are some recent job openings in ca. Feel free to comment here or send me a private message if you have any questions, I'm at the community's disposal! If you encounter any problems with any of these job openings please let me know that I will modify the table accordingly. Thanks!

TL;DR: Man with too much time on his hands goes deep down the rabbit hole on a concept this sub already didn’t seem that enthusiastic about. If you really want to skip ahead, CTRL+F “verdict” and it’ll get you there.
Two days ago, u/MrPhillyj2wns made a post asking whether USL should launch a D1 league in order to compete in Concacaf. From the top voted replies, it appears this made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.
But I’ve been at home for eight weeks and I am terribly, terribly bored.
So, I present to you this overview of what the USL pyramid might look like if Jake Edwards got a head of steam and attempted to establish a USSF-sanctioned first division. This is by no means an endorsement of such a proposal or even a suggestion that USL SHOULD do such a thing. It is merely an examination of whether they COULD.
Welcome to the Thunderdome USL Premiership
First, there are some base-level assumptions we must make in this exercise, because it makes me feel more scientific and not like a guy who wrote this on Sunday while watching the Belarusian Premier League (Go BATE Borisov!).

1. All D1 teams must comply with known USSF requirements for D1 leagues (more on that later).
   
2. MLS, not liking this move, will immediately remove all directly-owned affiliate clubs from the USL structure (this does not include hybrid ownerships, like San Antonio FC – NYCFC). This removes all MLS2 teams but will not affect Colorado Springs, Reno, RGVFC and San Antonio.
   
3. The USL will attempt to maintain both the USL Championship and USL League One, with an eventual mind toward creating the pro/rel paradise that is promised in Relegations 3:16.
   
4. All of my research regarding facility size and ownership net worth is correct – this is probably the biggest leap of faith we have to make, since googling “NAME net worth” and “CITY richest people” doesn’t seem guaranteed to return accurate results.
   
5. The most a club can increase its available seating capacity to meet D1 requirements in a current stadium is no more than 1,500 seats (10% of the required 15,000). If they need to add more, they’ll need a new facility.
   
6. Let’s pretend that people are VERY willing to sell. It’s commonly acknowledged that the USL is a more financially feasible route to owning a soccer club than in MLS (c.f. MLS-Charlotte’s reported $325 million expansion fee) and the USSF has some very strict requirements for D1 sanctioning. It becomes pretty apparent when googling a lot of team’s owners that this requirement isn’t met, so let’s assume everyone that can’t sells to people who meet the requirements.
   

(Known) USSF D1 league requirements:
- League must have 12 teams to apply and 14 teams by year three
- Majority owner must have a net worth of $40 million, and the ownership group must have a total net worth of $70 million. The value of an owned stadium is not considered when calculating this value.
- Must have teams located in the Eastern, Central and Pacific time zones
- 75% of league’s teams must be based in markets with at a metro population of at least 1 million people.
- All league stadiums must have a capacity of at least 15,000
The ideal club candidate for the USL Premiership will meet the population and capacity requirements in its current ground, which will have a grass playing surface. Of the USL Championship’s 27 independent/hybrid affiliate clubs, I did not find one club that meets all these criteria as they currently stand.
Regarding turf fields, the USSF does not have a formal policy regarding the ideal playing surface but it is generally acknowledged that grass is superior to turf. 6 of 26 MLS stadiums utilize turf, or roughly 23% of stadiums. We’ll hold a similar restriction for our top flight, so 2-3 of our top flight clubs can have turf fields. Seem fair?
Capacity is going to be the biggest issue, since the disparity between current requirements for the second-tier (5,000) and the first tier (15,000) is a pretty massive gap. Nice club you have there, triple your capacity and you’re onto something. As a result, I have taken the liberty of relocating certain (read: nearly all) clubs to new grounds, trying my utmost to keep those clubs in their current markets and –importantly--, ensure they play on grass surfaces.
So, let’s do a case-by-case evaluation and see if we can put together 12-14 teams that meet the potential requirements, because what else do you have to do?
For each club’s breakdown, anything that represents a chance from what is currently true will be underlined.
Candidate: Birmingham Legion FC
Location (Metro population): Birmingham, Ala. (1,151,801)
Time zone: Central
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Legion Field (FieldTurf, 71,594)
Potential owner: Stephens Family (reported net worth $4 billion)
Notes: Birmingham has a pretty strong candidacy. Having ditched the 5,000-seater BBVA Field for Legion Field, which sits 2.4 miles away, they’ve tapped into the city’s soccer history. Legion Field hosted portions of both the men’s and women’s tournaments at the 1996 Olympics, including a 3-1 U.S. loss to Argentina that saw 83,183 pack the house. The Harbert family seemed like strong ownership contenders, but since the death of matriarch Marguerite Harbert in 2015, it’s unclear where the wealth in the family is concentrated, so the Stephens seem like a better candidate. The only real knock that I can think of is that we really want to avoid having clubs play on turf, so I’d say they’re on the bubble of our platonic ideal USL Prem.
Candidate: Charleston Battery
Location (Metro population): Charleston, S.C. (713,000)
Time zone: Eastern
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Johnson Hagood Stadium (Grass, ~14,700)
Potential owner: Anita Zucker (reported net worth $3 billion)
Notes: Charleston’s candidacy isn’t looking great. Already disadvantaged due to its undersized metro population, a move across the Cooper River to Johnson Hagood Stadium is cutting it close in terms of capacity. The stadium, home to The Citadel’s football team, used to seat 21,000, before 9,300 seats on the eastern grandstand were torn down in 2017 to deal with lead paint that had been used in their construction. Renovation plans include adding 3,000 seats back in, which could hit 15,000 if they bumped it to 3,300, but throw in a required sale by HCFC, LLC (led by content-creation platform founder Rob Salvatore) to chemical magnate Anita Zucker, and you’ll see there’s a lot of ifs and ands in this proposal.
Candidate: Charlotte Independence
Location (Metro population): Charlotte, N.C. (2,569, 213)
Time zone: Eastern
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Jerry Richardson Stadium (Turf, 15,314)
Potential owner: James Goodnight (reported net worth $9.1 billion)
Notes: Charlotte ticks a lot of the boxes. A move from the Sportsplex at Matthews to UNC-Charlotte’s Jerry Richardson stadium meets capacity requirements, but puts them on to the dreaded turf. Regrettably, nearby American Legion Memorial Stadium only seats 10,500, despite a grass playing surface. With a sizeable metro population (sixth-largest in the USL Championship) and a possible owner in software billionaire James Goodnight, you’ve got some options here. The biggest problem likely lies in direct competition for market share against a much better-funded MLS Charlotte side due to join the league in 2021.
Candidate: Hartford Athletic
Location (Metro population): Hartford, Conn. (1,214,295)
Time zone: Eastern
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Pratt & Whitney Stadium (Grass, 38,066)
Potential owner: Ray Dalio (reported net worth $18.4 billion)
Notes: Okay, I cheated a bit here, having to relocate Hartford to Pratt & Whitney Stadium, which is technically in East Hartford, Conn. I don’t know enough about the area to know if there’s some kind of massive beef between the two cities, but the club has history there, having played seven games in 2019 while Dillon Stadium underwent renovations. If the group of local businessmen that currently own the club manage to attract Dalio to the table, we’re on to something.
Candidate: Indy Eleven
Location (Metro population): Indianapolis, Ind. (2,048,703)
Time zone: Eastern
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Lucas Oil Stadium (Turf, 62,421)
Potential owner: Jim Irsay (reported net worth of $3 billion)
Notes: Indy Eleven are a club that are SO CLOSE to being an ideal candidate – if it weren’t for Lucas Oil Stadium’s turf playing surface. Still, there’s a lot to like in this bid. I’m not going to lie, I have no idea what current owner and founder Ersal Ozdemir is worth, but it seems like there might be cause for concern. A sale to Irsay, who also owns the NFL Indianapolis (nee Baltimore) Colts, seems likely to keep the franchise there, rather than make a half-mile move to 14,230 capacity Victory Field where the AAA Indianapolis Indians play and expand from there.
Candidate: Louisville City FC
Location (Metro population): Louisville, Ky. (1,297,310)
Time zone: Eastern
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Lynn Family Stadium (Grass, 14,000, possibly expandable to 20,000)
Potential owner: Wayne Hughes (reported net worth $2.8 billion)
Notes: I’m stretching things a bit here. Lynn Family stadium is currently listed as having 11,700 capacity that’s expandable to 14,000, but they’ve said that the ground could hold as many as 20,000 with additional construction, which might be enough to grant them a temporary waiver from USSF. If the stadium is a no-go, then there’s always Cardinal Stadium, home to the University of Louisville’s football team, which seats 65,000 but is turf. Either way, it seems like a sale to someone like Public Storage founder Wayne Hughes will be necessary to ensure the club has enough capital.
Candidate: Memphis 901 FC
Location (Metro population): Memphis, Tenn. (1,348,260)
Time zone: Central
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Liberty Bowl Stadium (Turf, 58,325)
Potential owner: Fred Smith (reported net worth $3 billion)
Notes: Unfortunately for Memphis, AutoZone Park’s 10,000 seats won’t cut it at the D1 level. With its urban location, it would likely prove tough to renovate, as well. Liberty Bowl Stadium more than meets the need, but will involve the use of the dreaded turf. As far as an owner goes, FedEx founder Fred Smith seems like a good local option.
Candidate: Miami FC, “The”
Location (Metro population): Miami, Fla. (6,158,824)
Time zone: Eastern
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Riccardo Silva Stadium (FieldTurf, 20,000)
Potential owner: Riccardo Silva (reported net worth $1 billion)
Notes: Well, well, well, Silva might get his wish for top-flight soccer, after all. He’s got the money, he’s got the metro, and his ground has the capacity. There is the nagging issue of the turf, though. Hard Rock Stadium might present a solution, including a capacity of 64,767 and a grass playing surface. It is worth noting, however, that this is the first profile where I didn’t have to find a new potential owner for a club.
Candidate: North Carolina FC
Location (Metro population): Durham, N.C. (1,214,516 in The Triangle)
Time zone: Eastern
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Carter-Finley Stadium (Grass/Turf, 57,583)
Potential owner: Steve Malik (precise net worth unknown) / Dennis Gillings (reported net worth of $1.7 billion)
Notes: We have our first “relocation” in North Carolina FC, who were forced to trade Cary’s 10,000-seat WakeMed Soccer Park for Carter-Finley Stadium in Durham, home of the NC State Wolfpack and 57,583 of their closest friends. The move is a whopping 3.1 miles, thanks to the close-knit hub that exists between Cary, Durham and Raleigh. Carter-Finley might be my favorite of the stadium moves in this exercise. The field is grass, but the sidelines are artificial turf. Weird, right? Either way, it was good enough for Juventus to play a friendly against Chivas de Guadalajara there in 2011. Maybe the move would be pushed for by new owner and medical magnate Dennis Gillings, whose British roots might inspire him to get involved in the Beautiful Game. Straight up, though, I couldn’t find a net worth for current owner Steve Malik, though he did sell his company MedFusion for $91 million in 2010, then bought it back for an undisclosed amount and sold it again for $43 million last November. I don’t know if Malik has the juice to meet D1 requirements, but I suspect he’s close.
Candidate: Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC
Location (Metro population): Pittsburgh, Penn. (2,362,453)
Time zone: Eastern
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Heinz Field (Grass, 64,450)
Potential owner: Henry Hillman (reported net worth $2.5 billion)
Notes: I don’t know a ton about the Riverhounds, but this move in particular feels like depriving a pretty blue-collar club from its roots. Highmark Stadium is a no-go from a seating perspective, but the Steelers’ home stadium at Heinz Field would more than meet the requirements and have a grass surface that was large enough to be sanctioned for a FIFA friendly between the U.S. WNT and Costa Rica in 2015. As for an owner, Tuffy Shallenberger (first ballot owner name HOF) doesn’t seem to fit the USSF bill, but legendary Pittsburgh industrialist Henry Hillman might. I’m sure you’re asking, why not the Rooney Family, if they’ll play at Heinz Field? I’ll tell you: I honestly can’t seem to pin down a value for the family. The Steelers are valued at a little over a billion and rumors persist that Dan Rooney is worth $500 million, but I’m not sure. I guess the Rooneys would work too, but it’s a definite departure from an owner in Shallenberger who was described by one journalist as a guy who “wears boots, jeans, a sweater and a trucker hat.”
Candidate: Saint Louis FC
Location (Metro population): St. Louis, Mo. (2,807,338)
Time zone: Central
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Busch Stadium (Grass, 45,494)
Potential owner: William DeWitt Jr. (reported net worth $4 billion)
Notes: Saint Louis has some weirdness in making the jump to D1. Current CEO Jim Kavanaugh is an owner of the MLS side that will begin play in 2022. The club’s current ground at West Community Stadium isn’t big enough, but perhaps a timely sale to Cardinals owner William DeWitt Jr. could see the club playing games at Busch Stadium, which has a well established history of hosting other sports like hockey, college football and soccer (most recently a U.S. WNT friendly against New Zealand in 2019). The competition with another MLS franchise wouldn’t be ideal, like Charlotte, but with a big enough population and cross marketing from the Cardinals, maybe there’s a winner here. Wacko idea: If Busch doesn’t pan out, send them to The Dome. Sure, it’s a 60k turf closed-in stadium, but we can go for that retro NASL feel and pay homage to our nation’s soccer history.
Candidate: Tampa Bay Rowdies
Location (Metro population): Tampa, Fla. (3,068,511)
Time zone: Eastern
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Raymond James Stadium (Grass, 65,518)
Potential owner: Edward DeBartolo Jr. (reported net worth $3 billion)
Notes: This one makes me sad. Despite having never been there, I see Al Lang Stadium as an iconic part of the Rowdies experience. Current owner Bill Edwards proposed an expansion to 18,000 seats in 2016, but the move seems to have stalled out. Frustrated with the city’s lack of action, Edwards sells to one-time San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr., who uses his old NFL connections to secure a cushy lease at the home of the Buccaneers in Ray Jay, the site of a 3-1 thrashing of Antigua and Barbuda during the United States’ 2014 World Cup Qualifying campaign.
Breather. Hey, we finished the Eastern Conference teams. Why are you still reading this? Why am I still writing it? Time is a meaningless construct in 2020 my friends, we are adrift in the void, fueled only by brief flashes of what once was and what may yet still be.
Candidate: Austin Bold FC
Location (Metro population): Austin, Texas (2,168,316)
Time zone: Central
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Darrel K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium (FieldTurf, 95,594)
Potential owner: Michael Dell (reported net worth of $32.3 billion)
Notes: Anthony Precourt’s Austin FC has some unexpected competition and it comes in the form of tech magnate Michael Dell. Dell, were he to buy the club, would be one of the richest owners on our list and could flash his cash in the new first division. Would he have enough to convince Darrel K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium (I’m not kidding, that’s its actual name) to go back to a grass surface, like it did from ’96-’08? That’s between Dell and nearly 100,000 UT football fans, but everything can be had for the right price.
Candidate: Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC
Location (Metro population): Colorado Springs, Colo. (738,939)
Time zone: Mountain
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Falcon Stadium (FieldTurf, 46,692)
Potential owner: Charles Ergen (reported net worth $10.8 billion)
Notes: Welcome to Colorado Springs. We have hurdles. For the first time in 12 candidates, we’re back below the desired 1 million metro population mark. Colorado Springs actually plans to build a $35 million, 8,000 seat venue downtown that will be perfect for soccer, but in our timeline that’s 7,000 seats short. Enter Falcon Stadium, home of the Air Force Academy Falcons football team. Seems perfect except for the turf, right? Well, the tricky thing is that Falcon Stadium is technically on an active military base and is (I believe) government property. Challenges to getting in and out of the ground aside, the military tends to have a pretty grim view of government property being used by for-profit enterprises. Maybe Charles Ergen, founder and chairman of Dish Network, would be able to grease the right wheels, but you can go ahead and throw this into the “doubtful” category. It’s a shame, too. 6,035 feet of elevation is one hell of a home-field advantage.
Candidate: El Paso Locomotive FC
Location: El Paso, Texas
Time zone: Mountain
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Sun Bowl (FieldTurf, 51,500)
Potential owner: Paul Foster (reported net worth $1.7 billion)
Notes: God bless Texas. When compiling this list, I found so many of the theoretical stadium replacements were nearly serviceable by high school football fields. That’s insane, right? Anyway, Locomotive don’t have to settle for one of those, they’ve got the Sun Bowl, which had its capacity reduced in 2001 to a paltry 51,500 (from 52,000) specifically to accommodate soccer. Sure, it’s a turf surface, but what does new owner Paul Foster (who is only the 1,477th wealthiest man in the world, per Forbes) care, he’s got a team in a top league. Side note: Did you know that the Sun Bowl college football game is officially, through sponsorship, the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl? Why is it not the Frosted Flakes Sun Bowl? Why is the cereal mascot the promotional name of the football game? What are you doing, Kellogg’s?
Candidate: Las Vegas Lights FC
Location: Las Vegas, Nev. (2,227,053)
Time zone: Pacific
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Allegiant Stadium (Grass, 61,000)
Potential owner: Sheldon Adelson (reported net worth $37.7 billion)
Notes: Sin City. You had to know that the club that once signed Freddy Adu because “why not” was going to go all out in our flashy hypothetical proposal. Thanks to my narrative control of this whole thing, they have. Adelson is the second-richest owner in the league and has decided to do everything first class. That includes using the new Raiders stadium in nearby unincorporated Paradise, Nevada, and spending boatloads on high profile transfers. Zlatan is coming back to the U.S., confirmed.
Candidate: New Mexico United
Location: Albuquerque, N.M.
Time zone: Mountain
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Isotopes Park – officially Rio Grande Credit Union Field at Isotopes Park (Grass, 13,500 – 15,000 with expansion)
Potential owner: Maloof Family (reported net worth $1 billion)
Notes: New Mexico from its inception went deep on the community vibe, and I’ve tried to replicate that in this bid. The home field of Rio Grande Cr---I’m not typing out the whole thing—Isotopes Park falls just within the expansion rules we set to make it to 15,000 (weird, right?) and they’ve found a great local ownership group in the Lebanese-American Maloof (formerly Maalouf) family from Las Vegas. The only thing to worry about would be the metro population, but overall, this could be one of the gems of USL Prem.
Candidate: Oklahoma City Energy FC
Location: Oklahoma City, Okla. (1,396,445)
Time zone: Central
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark (Grass, 13,066)
Potential owner: Harold Hamm (reported net worth $14.2 billion)
Notes: There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow and it says it’s time to change stadiums and owners to make it to D1. A sale to oil magnate Harold Hamm would give the club the finances it needs, but Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark (home of the OKC Dodgers) actually falls outside of the boundary of what would meet capacity if 1,500 seats were added. Could the club pull off a move to Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma – home of the Oklahoma Sooners? Maybe, but at 20 miles, this would be a reach.
Candidate: Orange County SC
Location: Irvine, Calif. (3,176, 000 in Orange County)
Time zone: Pacific
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Angels Stadium of Anaheim (Grass, 43,250)
Potential owner: Arte Moreno (reported net worth $3.3 billion)
Notes: You’ll never convince me that Rangers didn’t choose to partner with Orange County based primarily on its name. Either way, a sale to MLB Angels owner Arte Moreno produces a fruitful partnership, with the owner choosing to play his newest club out of the existing Angels stadium in OC. Another baseball conversion, sure, but with a metro population of over 3 million and the closest thing this hypothetical league has to an LA market, who’s complaining?
Candidate: Phoenix Rising FC
Location: Phoenix, Ariz. (4,857,962)
Time zone: Arizona
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): State Farm Stadium (Grass, 63,400)
Potential owner: Ernest Garcia II (reported net worth $5.7 billion)
Notes: We’re keeping it local with new owner and used car guru Ernest Garcia II. His dad owned a liquor store and he dropped out of college, which is making me feel amazing about my life choices right now. Casino Arizona Field is great, but State Farm Stadium is a grass surface that hosted the 2019 Gold Cup semifinal, so it’s a clear winner. Throw in Phoenix’s massive metro population and this one looks like a lock.
Candidate: Reno 1868 FC
Location: Reno, Nev. (425,417)
Time zone: Pacific
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Mackay Stadium (FieldTurf, 30,000)
Potential owner: Nancy Walton Laurie (reported net worth $7.1 billion)
Notes: The Biggest Little City on Earth has some serious barriers to overcome, thanks to its low metro population. A sale to Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie and 1.6 mile-move to Mackay Stadium to split space with the University of Nevada, Reno makes this bid competitive, but the turf surface is another knock against it.
Candidate: Rio Grande Valley FC
Location: Edinburg, Texas (900,304)
Time zone: Central
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): McAllen Memorial Stadium (FieldTurf, 13,500 – 15,000 with expansion)
Potential owner: Alice Louise Walton (reported net worth $45 billion)
Notes: Yes, I have a second straight Walmart heiress on the list. She was the first thing that popped up when I googled “McAllen Texas richest people.” The family rivalry has spurred Walton to buy a club as well, moving them 10 miles to McAllen Memorial Stadium which, as I alluded to earlier, is a straight up high school football stadium with a full color scoreboard. Toss in an additional 1,500 seats and you’ve met the minimum, despite the turf playing surface.
Candidate: San Antonio FC
Location: San Antonio, Texas (2,550,960)
Time zone: Central
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Alamodome (FieldTurf, 64,000)
Potential owner: Red McCombs (reported net worth $1.6 billion)
Notes: I wanted to keep SAFC in the Spurs family, since the franchise is valued at $1.8 billion. That said, I didn’t let the Rooneys own the Riverhounds based on the Steelers’ value and it felt wrong to change the rules, so bring on Clear Channel co-founder Red McCombs. Toyota Field isn’t viable in the first division, but for the Alamodome, which was built in 1993 in hopes of attracting an NFL franchise (and never did), San Antonio can finally claim having *a* national football league team in its town (contingent on your definition of football). Now if only we could do something about that turf…
Candidate: San Diego Loyal SC
Location: San Diego, Calif. (3,317,749)
Time zone: Pacific
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): SDCCU Stadium (formerly Qualcomm) (Grass, 70,561)
Potential owner: Phil Mickelson (reported net worth $91 million)
Notes: Yes, golf’s Phil Mickelson. The existing ownership group didn’t seem to have the wherewithal to meet requirements, and Phil seemed to slot right in. As an athlete himself, he might be interesting in the new challenges of a top flight soccer team. Toss in a move to the former home of the chargers and you might have a basis for tremendous community support.
Candidate: FC Tulsa
Location: Tulsa, Okla. (991,561)
Time zone: Central
Stadium (playing surface, capacity): Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium (FieldTurf, 30,000)
Potential owner: George Kaiser ($10 billion)
Notes: I’m a fan of FC Tulsa’s rebrand, but if they want to make the first division, more changes are necessary. A sale to Tulsa native and one of the 100 richest men in the world George Kaiser means that funding is guaranteed. A move to Chapman Stadium would provide the necessary seats, despite the turf field. While the undersize population might be an issue at first glance, it’s hard to imagine U.S. Soccer not granting a waiver over a less than a 10k miss from the mark.
And that’s it! You made it. Those are all of the independent/hybrid affiliates in the USL Championship, which means that it’s time for our…
VERDICT: As an expert who has studied this issue for almost an entire day now, I am prepared to pronounce which USL Championships could be most ‘ready” for a jump to the USL Prem. A reminder that of the 27 clubs surveyed, 0 of them met our ideal criteria (proper ownership $, metro population, 15,000+ stadium with grass field).
Two of them, however, met almost all of those criteria: Indy Eleven and Miami FC. Those two clubs may use up two of our three available turf fields right from the outset, but the other factors they hit (particularly Silva’s ownership of Miami) makes them difficult, if not impossible to ignore for the top flight.
But who fill in the rest of the slots? Meet the entire 14-team USL Premier League:
Hartford Athletic
Indy Eleven
Louisville City FC
Miami FC
North Carolina FC
Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Saint Louis FC
San Antonio FC
New Mexico United
Phoenix Rising FC
Las Vegas Lights FC
Orange County SC
San Diego Loyal SC
Now, I shall provide my expert rationale for each club’s inclusion/exclusion, which can be roughly broken down into four categories.
Firm “yes”
Hartford Athletic: It’s a good market size with a solid stadium. With a decent investor and good community support, you’ve got potential here.
Indy Eleven: The turf at Lucas Oil Stadium is no reason to turn down a 62,421 venue and a metro population of over 2 million.
Louisville City FC: Why doesn’t the 2017 & 2018 USL Cup champion deserve a crack at the top flight? They have the market size, and with a bit of expansion have the stadium at their own SSS. LCFC, you’re in.
Miami FC, “The”: Our other blue-chip recruit on the basis of ownership value, market size and stadium capacity. Yes, that field is turf, but how could you snub Silva’s chance to claim victory as the first division 1 club soccer team to play in Miami?
Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC: Pittsburgh sacrificed a lot to be here (according to my arbitrary calculations). Their market size and the potential boon of soccer at Heinz Field is an important inclusion to the league.
Saint Louis FC: Willie hears your “Busch League” jokes, Willie don’t care. A huge market size, combined with the absence of an NFL franchise creates opportunity. Competition with the MLS side, sure, but St. Louis has serious soccer history and we’re willing to bet it can support two clubs.
Tampa Bay Rowdies: With a huge population and a massive stadium waiting nearby, Tampa Bay seems like too good of an opportunity to pass up for the USL Prem.
Las Vegas Lights FC: Ostentatious, massive and well-financed, Las Vegas Lights FC is everything that the USL Premier League would need to assert that it didn’t intend to play second fiddle to MLS. Players will need to be kept on a short leash, but this is a hard market to pass up on.
Phoenix Rising FC: Huge population, big grass field available nearby and a solid history of success in recent years. No brainer.
San Diego Loyal SC: New club? Yes, massive population in a market that recently lost an absolutely huge sports presence? Also yes. This could be the USL Prem’s Seattle.
Cautious “yes”
New Mexico United: You have to take a chance on New Mexico United. The club set the league on fire with its social media presence and its weight in the community when it entered the league last season. The market may be slightly under USSF’s desired 1 million, but fervent support (and the ability to continue to use Isotopes Park) shouldn’t be discounted.
North Carolina FC: Carter-Finley’s mixed grass/turf surface is a barrier, to be sure, but the 57,000+ seats it offers (and being enough to offset other fully-turf offerings) is enough to put it in the black.
Orange County SC: It’s a top-tier club playing in a MLB stadium. I know it seems unlikely that USSF would approve something like that, but believe me when I say “it could happen.” Orange County is a massive market and California likely needs two clubs in the top flight.
San Antonio FC: Our third and only voluntary inclusion to the turf fields in the first division, we’re counting on San Antonio’s size and massive potential stadium to see it through.
Cautious “no”
Birmingham Legion FC: The town has solid soccer history and a huge potential venue, but the turf playing surface puts it on the outside looking in.
Memphis 901 FC: Like Birmingham, not much to dislike here outside of the turf playing surface at the larger playing venue.
Austin Bold FC: See the other two above.
FC Tulsa: Everything’s just a little bit off with this one. Market’s slightly too small, stadium has turf. Just not enough to put it over the top.
Firm “no”
Charleston Battery: Small metro and a small potential new stadium? It’s tough to say yes to the risk.
Charlotte Independence: A small new stadium and the possibility of having to compete with an organization that just paid over $300 million to join MLS means it’s best for this club to remain in the USL Championship.
Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC: When a club’s best chance to meet a capacity requirement is to host games at a venue controlled by the military, that doesn’t speak well to a club’s chances.
El Paso Locomotive FC: An undersized market and a turf field that meets capacity requirements is the death knell for this one.
Oklahoma City Energy FC: Having to expand a baseball field to meet requirements is a bad start. Having to potentially play 20 miles away from your main market is even worse.
Reno 1868 FC: Population nearly a half-million short of the federation’s requirements AND a turf field at the hypothetical new stadium makes impossible to say yes to this bid.
Rio Grande Valley FC: All the seat expansions in the world can’t hide the fact that McAllen Memorial Stadium is a high school stadium through and through.
Here’s who’s left in the 11-team Championship:
Birmingham Legion FC
Charleston Battery
Charlotte Independence
Memphis 901 FC
Austin Bold FC
Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC
El Paso Locomotive FC
Oklahoma City Energy FC
Reno 1868 FC
Rio Grande Valley FC
FC Tulsa
With MLS folding the six affiliates it has in USL League One, the league is a little bit thin (especially considering USSF’s requirements for 8 teams for lower level leagues), but seems definitely able to expand up to the necessary numbers with Edwards’ allusions to five new additions this year:
Chattanooga Red Wolves SC
Forward Madison FC
Greenville Triumph SC
Union Omaha
Richmond Kickers
South Georgia Tormenta
FC Tucson
Format of Assorted Leagues – This (like everything in this post) is pure conjecture on my part, but here are my thoughts on how these leagues might function in a first year while waiting for additional expansion.
USL Premier – We’ll steal from the 12-team Scottish Premiership. Each club plays the other 11 clubs 3 times, with either one or two home matches against each side. When each club has played 33 matches, the top six and bottom six separate, with every club playing an additional five matches (against each other team in its group). The top club wins the league. The bottom club is automatically relegated. The second-bottom club will enter a two-legged playoff against someone (see below) from the championship playoffs.
USL Championship -- 11 clubs is a challenge to schedule for. How about every club plays everyone else three times (either one or two home matches against each side)? Top four clubs make the playoffs, which are decided by two-legged playoffs. The winner automatically goes up. I need feedback on the second part – is it better to have the runner-up from the playoffs face the second-bottom club from the Premiership, or should the winner of the third-place match-up get the chance to face them to keep drama going in both playoff series? As for relegation, we can clearly only send down the last place club while the third division is so small.
USL League One – While the league is so small, it doesn’t seem reasonable to have the clubs play as many matches as the higher divisions. Each club could play the other six clubs four times – twice at home and twice away – for a very equitable 24-match regular season, which would help restrict costs and still provide a chance to determine a clear winner. Whoever finishes top of the table goes up.
And there you have it, a hypothetical look at how the USL could build a D1 league right now. All it would take is a new stadium for almost the entire league and new owners for all but one of the 27 clubs, who wouldn’t feel that their property would be massively devalued if they got relegated.
Well that’s our show. I’m curious to see what you think of all of this, especially anything that you think I may have overlooked (I’m sure there’s plenty). Anyway, I hope you’re all staying safe and well.