Ferrin - Mageau Related Information

  
   

Dave Peterson, a Vallejo Police Reporter, and an expert on the Zodiac case, was at the first interview for publication with Michael Mageau after the attack. He reported the event in the Vallejo Times-Herald. Dave had sent only a portion of the article he wrote as he had lost the other part. Recently, J.M. Brown, a Staff Writer of the VTH, kindly sent the complete article. (Dave's note: Deb Silva restored the missing article from another source.)

  
   
     
  Here is the transcription of the above article:  
     
  Killer's Sole Survivor Talks  
     
  By DAVE PETERSON   News-Chronicle Staff Writer  
     
  The "code killer" who has struck twice at holiday time is a San Franciscan who uses the Vallejo area as his hunting grounds.  
     
  This is the belief of the only one of the four victims who has amazingly survived although his  body was shattered on the Fourth of July by devastating 9 mm. slugs.  
     
  Michael Renault Mageau, tall, slender 19 year old, spoke from his wheelchair Monday for publication for the first time since the Blue Rock Springs Park shootings in which Darlene E.  Ferrin, 22, was gunned to death.  
     
  The slayer is a "mad dog" type who murders indiscriminately, Mageau indicated as he flexed his crippled right arm. Through surgery and physical therapy, Mageau has regained partial mobility of the arm and hand.  
     
  His left leg was encased from toes almost to hip in a cast. He hopes the leg, repaired with the aid of metal pins, can be shifted into a walking cast in three to four more weeks.  
     
  Red scars on his right neck and left cheek mark the path of another bullet which also ripped through his jaw and tongue. His jaw, which was wired in surgery, still opens only part way.  
     
  Mageau, still somewhat weak and nervous after weeks in critical condition in an intensive care unit, explained hesitatingly that the professed murderer's anonymous letters convinced him they came from the real killer. They "gave so many details," he said.  
     
  He himself told additional details about the slayer and the shootings which had not been previously revealed.  
     
  He elaborated on his description of the murderer's car. "It could have been a 1958 or 1959 Falcon." The body type was similar to that of the 1968 Corvair driven by Mrs. Ferrin, Mageau said. The color was bronze or brown.  
     
  When the other car first arrived in the parking lot at the park at about midnight it pulled up on the driver's side of the couple's car, opposite Mrs. Ferrin but with the front of the other car about even with the back of the Ferrin car.  
     
  Mageau asked her if she knew who it was. She replied only "don't worry about it," not indicating if she recognized the driver.  
     
  When the other car left and returned in about 10 minutes it pulled up opposite Mageau's passenger side – and about 10 feet away and to the rear.  
     
  A powerful beam of light then was shown on the couple from within the other car. They thought it was a policeman's spotlight – and they "started digging for identification," Mageau said.  
     
  Then the light went out. In a moment, the blinding light flashed on them from just opposite Mageau. Then the smashing 9 mm. bullets were fired.  
     
  Mageau described how he half-leaped, was half-knocked onto the back floor of the car. His legs threshed out, partly from the shock of the wounds and partly from his efforts to evade or to ward off the slugs with his own limbs.  
     
  When the killer stopped firing after the first fusillade Mageau partly boosted himself up on the rear seat. "He started firing again," Mageau said, and he lashed out with his legs again.  
     
  He got his first look at the slayer when he was walking away and was partly illuminated by his own headlights.  
     
  Surprisingly, "he walked slowly and with his head down," Mageau said. He was of stocky build and short, about 5 feet 8 or 9 inches weighing about 160 pounds, Mageau said. His face was full, he was bareheaded and had "wavy or curly light brown hair" and looked about 25 to 30 years old. He wore a blue shirt or sweater.  
     
  The gunman uttered not a single word at any time, Mageau said.  
     
  And Mrs. Ferrin gave no indication she knew him, he added. She could voice only a "moan" after the withering attack.  
     
  The slayer drove away rapidly, making some gravel fly, Mageau said, but "he didn't really gun it or burn rubber."  
     
  Mageau stressed that his description of the onslaught was not positive in his mind but was more impressional than exact. He pointed out he was suffering from the critical wounds most of the time.  
     
 

The description of Zodiac by Mageau, who was RIGHT NEXT to him during the attack is given before Zodiac description revisionism set in years later! Except for the hair color, which could have been easily altered with bleach/peroxide/rinse or a temporary hair dye, Mageau's description could fit Bruce Davis! Actually, Mageau's description could match up fairly well with most of the accounts ever given of Zodiac's appearance!

  
     
 

It seems as though Zodiac was using a very powerful beam of light from his car to simulate a police officer and he seems to have used a police "cut off" technique by the way or manner in which he parked his car behind Ferrin's vehicle.

  
     
 

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Christina Ferrin and Private Detective Johnny Smith

  
     
 

On New Years Day 1998, Detective Johnny Smith and Dr. Howard Davis met with Darlene Ferrin's younger sister, Christina. She told them that Bruce Davis looked exactly like the man she saw Darlene arguing with about 45 minutes before Darlene was killed by Zodiac!

  
     
     
 

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