SACRAMENTO, CA - The sister of the Zodiac Killer's third victim said she was disappointed to learn the man blamed for the serial killings in a new book had died.
"I wanted him brought to justice," Pam Huckaby said from her home near Portland. "Now that will never happen."
Huckaby's sister, Darlene Ferrin, was shot to death as she sat in her car at a Vallejo park on the Fourth of July, 1969.
Former California Highway Patrol officer Lyndon Lafferty has just published a book identifying a Fairfield man as the Zodiac Killer.
Lafferty first encountered the man in an Interstate 80 rest area in 1970 and spent years collecting evidence he says points to the man's guilt.
Lafferty was unaware when "The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up" was published in April that the subject of the book had already been dead for two months.
The Solano County coroner confirmed the man's death at age 91 on Feb. 2 from a fall resulting in a broken neck.
Lafferty said he was somewhat relieved when told of the man's death by News10 because even at the man's advanced age, Lafferty still feared him.
Lafferty used a pseudonym for his suspect, in part, because he was afraid of retaliation.
Huckaby said Lafferty showed her a picture of the man in 1987 and she immediately recognized him as the man who had been stalking her sister when she worked as a waitress in a Vallejo restaurant.
"She was afraid of him. She told me he was bad," Huckaby said.
After seeing the picture, Huckaby said she posed as a salesperson to knock on the front door of the man's home so that she could see him face to face.
"He opened the front door and my knees, I should have fallen to the ground," Huckaby said. "That's the man."
Huckaby expressed disappointment that Lafferty didn't publish his book sooner and use the man's real name.
She said she was convinced by Lafferty's evidence that the man who had stalked her sister was, indeed, the Zodiac Killer.
But law enforcement agencies aren't so sure.
Solano County Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. Gary Faulkner was asked about Lafferty's book.
"If Mr. Lafferty has (new) information about this case, we'd like to speak to him. Other than that, the case is closed," Faulkner said.
By George Warren, News10/KXTV.
