Zodiac Page #17

...told me her father was the

Zodiac, I'd just finished porking

her, women don't lie then...

144 OVERLAPPING - TO TOSCHI IN A LIVING ROOM: 144

INFORMANT 3

...found a note on my car saying

"Zodiac is coming for you"...

145 OVERLAPPING - NOW TO ARMSTRONG IN A DINER: 145

INFORMANT 4

...he's on the pot - you found pot

on the letters, right...

146 OVERLAPPING - TO TOSCHI AT THE PRECINCT: 146

INFORMANT 5

...I tried telling the LAPD but

they just won't listen!

147 OVERLAPPING - TO ARMSTRONG OVER THE PHONE: 147

INFORMANT 6

...he's killing geographically,

cutting a big "Z" across the state.

Armstrong writing - Giant Z on a notepad, and as the VOICES

CONTINUE, we see OTHER PADS fill up with words like Landlord,

Radians, Binary, Witchcraft, Semaphore, and Manson

and TELEPHONE NUMBERS and NAMES and more numbers and more

names and the voices grow and grow and grow and the word

Torrance is written on a pad and finally:

(CONTINUED)

FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT 98.

147 CONTINUED:
147

INFORMANT 7 (O.S.)

He said his favorite book was "The

Most Dangerous Game".

Armstrong looks up, interested for the first time. We're in

148 INT. SCIENCE DYNAMICS BUILDING -- DAY 148

July 26, 1971 - Torrance, California. Armstrong sits with

DON CHENEY and SANDY PANZARELLA.

PANZARELLA:

We were roommates with Leigh's

brother in college and Leigh would

come down sometimes. Then- Tell

him about the conversation-

CHENEY:

New Year's Day, 68. I go over toLeigh's house. He'd been out of

work a couple months.

ARMSTRONG:

What did he do?

CHENEY:

He was a teacher. Lost his jobover "politics" or something.

Teacher - fired? goes onto the pad below New Year's 68.

CHENEY (CONT'D)

He was drinkin' Coors, getting a

load on. Starts talking about

hunting people, like that book.

Says how you can put a light on a

gun to use as a sight in the dark-

ARMSTRONG:

He said that?

CHENEY:

Yeah. So I ask him, "How would

you get away with it?" He saysit'd be easy, cause there'd be no

real motive to the thing. Then he

says he'd write letters to the

police and call himself Zodiac to

mess with 'em.

PANZARELLA:

Leigh liked messing with people.

(CONTINUED)

FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT 99.

148 CONTINUED:
148

ARMSTRONG:

You're sure it was "Zodiac"?

CHENEY:

Yeah, I thought it was a stupid

name. So I told him. He gets all

upset and says "I don't care what

you think, I thought about it a

long time, and that's the name I'm

gonna use."

ARMSTRONG:

He'd been thinking about it a long

time.

CHENEY:

He was raw about losing his job at

the school. Talked about shooting

out the tires of a school bus and

picking off the "little darlings".

ARMSTRONG:

He used those words?

CHENEY:

That's what made me remember.

Afterwards I told my wife I didn't

wanna see him again and I haven't

since. Other thing is, Leigh's

into skindiving. I know he's been

up to that lake a bunch of times,

the one in Napa-

ARMSTRONG:

Berryessa. Did you ever go with

him?

CHENEY:

Couple times we went fishing by

Putah Creek near there.

PANZARELLA:

Tell him when you put it together.

CHENEY:

About a year ago in the paper,

there was a story about the

Zodiac, and it all comes back. I

tried to call the local cops-

PANZARELLA:

They blew him off. Thought he was

a nut.

(CONTINUED)

FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT 100.

148 CONTINUED:
(2) 148

CHENEY:

So I said forget it. But then I

told Sandy about it-

PANZARELLA:

I made him call Manhattan Beach

P.D. I got a friend there I knew

would take it seriously.

ARMSTRONG:

And you're sure your conversationabout Zodiac happened on the first

day of 1968?

CHENEY:

Couldn't have been any later cause

I started a new job in LA on

January 20th. I had to move.

149 INT. HALL OF JUSTICE -- HALLWAY -- DAY 149

Toschi and Armstrong, passing cops, walking and talking.

TOSCHI:

Here's the problem. This guy...

ARMSTRONG:

Arthur Leigh Allen.

TOSCHI:

This guy Allen, he just lays outhis entire evil plan to a fishing

buddy on New Year's Day?

ARMSTRONG:

I don't know. He's angry, he's

drinking, he's been thinking about

it for awhile... I can buy that.

TOSCHI:

Why didn't Cheney come to us sooner?

ARMSTRONG:

I checked, he tried. First

recorded contact with a PD about

Allen was in Pomona, January 10th,

1970. He got lost in the shuffle.

TOSCHI:

Does Cheney have anything against

Allen - did Allen screw his wife

or something?

(CONTINUED)

FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT 101.

149 CONTINUED:
149

ARMSTRONG:

We'll do a full background, but I

gotta tell you - I like this guy.

Toschi pauses in the door to the Homicide Unit.

TOSCHI:

Let's try and pull handwriting...

150 INT. HALL OF JUSTICE -- HOMICIDE UNIT -- DAY 150

Armstrong, on the phone with NICOLAI. INTERCUT:

ARMSTRONG:

He was a public school teacher,

they should still have a record of

his application, right?

Yeah.

NICOLAI:

What school?

ARMSTRONG:

(checks notes)

Valley Springs. Also, he may havebeen in the Navy which matches up

with the boots thing.

NICOLAI:

I'll see what I can get for you.

You throw a heads-up to Mulanax?

ARMSTRONG:

I was about to.

NICOLAI:

Have him check Vallejo banks, if

Allen's got an account they should

have check stubs.

151 INT. DINER -- AFTERNOON 151

Armstrong, having lunch. Toschi enters and takes a seat.

TOSCHI:

Sherwood called, he got the

samples.

(re:
sandwich)

Is that pastrami?

Armstrong tears off half and hands it to him.

(CONTINUED)

151 CONTINUED:

FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT 102.

151

TOSCHI (CONT'D)

Check stubs are a wash, cause

there's so little writing on them.

The application's got more, but he

says it doesn't look like Z. He's

not ruling him out, but he can't

rule him in either.

ARMSTRONG:

Well, that's... vague.

TOSCHI:

(chewing)

He needs more samples. Oh, also -

our guy's a perv. When Mel gotthe application from Valley

Springs, they told him Allen had

been fired for touching kids.

Touching?

ARMSTRONG:

TOSCHI:

Polite euphemism. What do youwant to do?

ARMSTRONG:

Let me make a few calls.

He rises to leave. Toschi, shouting after him:

TOSCHI:

Can I have the rest of your-

Yes!

ARMSTRONG (O.S.)

152 INT. HALL OF JUSTICE -- HOMICIDE UNIT -- DAY 152

Armstrong, on the phone with PANZARELLA. INTERCUT:

ARMSTRONG:

Did you and Mr. Cheney have a

chance to look at the copies of

the Zodiac letters we sent?

PANZARELLA:

Yeah, some of that stuff is

creepy.

We know.

ARMSTRONG:

(CONTINUED)

152 CONTINUED:

FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT 103.

152

PANZARELLA:

No, I mean creepy like Leigh. He

misspells words like that, thinks

it's funny. And he makes up rhymes,

too. Like that one "I feel it my

bones, you ache to know my name"...

Very Leigh.

ARMSTRONG:

What about the handwriting?

PANZARELLA:

I don't know. Don't you haveexperts for that stuff?

ARMSTRONG:

Our man at Questioned Documents

says it's inconclusive.

PANZARELLA:

Maybe he did it with his other

hand.

ARMSTRONG:

The letters are a little too neat

for someone to have written with

the wrong hand-

PANZARELLA:

Not for Leigh.

Armstrong leans forward in his chair.

ARMSTRONG:

What do you mean?

PANZARELLA:

He's ambidextrous. He can write

with both hands. Didn't you knowthat?

153 INT. CAPTAIN LEE'S OFFICE -- EVENING 153

Toschi and Armstrong, sitting with Captain Lee.

ARMSTRONG:

Here's our theory - In every day

life Allen uses his left hand, job

applications, letters to friends,

etcetera. But he writes the

Zodiac letters with his right handproducing a different handwriting

that he can't be linked to.

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