
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:
147INFORMANT 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:
148ARMSTRONG:
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) 148CHENEY:
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:
149ARMSTRONG:
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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