Larry Kaye

An authoritative biography of Zodiac killer “suspect” and con artist Lawrence Kane (Klein). Updated regularly.

Preface: This is not a Zodiac killer website. I have, however, endeavored to be as comprehensive and as accurate as possible in my analysis of Lawrence Kane’s life. Consequently, it was necessary – in places – to include certain documents and information (be it beneficial or detrimental to the case against Lawrence Kane) relevant to the Zodiac killer case. My inclusion of this material should not be interpreted as an endorsement of Lawrence Kane’s candidacy as a suspect, nor should it be construed as an out-and-out repudiation. Those who wish to evaluate Lawrence Kane’s merits as a suspect in the Zodiac killer case are encouraged to visit Alex Lewis’s website at lawrencekanezodiac.wordpress.com. For a rebuttal of his candidature, see Michael Butterfield’s website at zodiackillerfacts.com. To read about Lawrence Kane’s early life, including contemporaneous newspaper coverage concerning his criminal antecedents and dalliances with New York and Hollywood high society, please refer to the following subsections: 1940-1951 / 1952-1960

All case files, court records, and other research material featured on this site were obtained and curated by me, Travis Miller, except where otherwise noted. Attributions and annotations are demarcated by parentheses.

If you knew Lawrence Kane, or have any information concerning him, please send me an email at galaxie6001@gmail.com

Hear Lawrence Kane speak (Recording made available courtesy of Rex Strother. For additional context, see https://lawrencekane.wordpress.com/#voice-recording):

__________________________________________________________________

(Brooklyn Daily Eagle. December 12, 1922.)

Lawrence Kane was born on April 29, 1924, (note: though he would, in later years, cite various other dates, this was the date recorded on his birth certificate – see NYC birth index listing below) in Brooklyn, NY, the eldest of three sons born to the union of Morris Haim (Harry) Klein and Sarah Benjamin. Both of Kane’s brothers passed away in infancy, however, and he was raised an only child. Kane’s father was a Hungarian immigrant who (per his draft registration card) claimed Austrian citizenship while his mother was a native New Yorker of Russian parentage. He grew up in a working-class Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn’s Borough Park district.

(Above: Marriage certificate issued to Morris H. Klein and Sarah Benjamin. December 10, 1922. Information regarding Morris’s previous marriage is available here. I’ve assembled a rough genealogy for Lawrence Kane at the following address: https://i.imgur.com/xj1LVwY.png)

(NYC (Borough of Brooklyn) birth index listing for Lawrence Klein, alias Kane. April 29, 1924. Birth certificate number 18172. It’s important to note that the dates and locations of birth listed in the birth index were copied directly from the subjects’ birth certificates. In 1880, the state of New York enacted a mandate requiring that all births be registered with the municipal board of health. Compliance with this mandate was enforced beginning in 1913-15. We can therefore state conclusively that April 29, 1924 – and not the oft promulgated date of April 26, 1924 – was Lawrence Kane’s actual date of birth.)

(Birth certificate for Kane’s mother, Sarah Benjamin, showing a birth date of April 26, 1905. In his later years, Lawrence Kane sometimes listed his birth date as April 26, 1924, though, as illustrated above, his actual date of birth was April 29. Sarah’s mother, Frieda Pashkowitz, later remarried  to Hyman “Harry” Brodsky – see 1930 U.S. census listing. In April of 1936, Sarah’s father, Jacob Benjamin, married Sophie Karger of Lynn, Massachusetts.)

(1930 U.S. Census. Address: 4507 10th Ave., Brooklyn, NY. Full image here. Kane’s father, Morris Klein, is listed as a shoe salesman of Hungarian origin, having immigrated to the United States in 1915. Kane’s mother, Sarah Klein (née Benjamin), is listed as unemployed.)

(NYC Municipal Death Index listing for Kane’s younger brother, Bertram. Find A Grave link.)

(Credit: Harvey Hines; Zodiackiller.com)

Excerpt, The Hines Report (Courtesy of Alex Lewis):

“The suspect’s parents became divorced when he was approximately 13 years of age and he has since resided (…) at various locations in the eastern United States prior to migrating to the state of California around [1960]. The suspect’s mother never remarried. The suspect’s mother had several major operations in the past and suffered various physical ailments. She also suffered psychological difficulties (…) Suspect’s mother died in 1983.”

(1940 U.S. Census listings for Sarah and Larry Klein (Kane). Sarah’s marital status is recorded as “divorced” and her occupation is listed as “unemployed.” Kane’s occupation is listed as “student.” Address: 4600 14th Ave., Brooklyn, NY. Full image here.  On a side note: When I initially shared this information, I erroneously stated that Hyman (or Harry, as he was sometimes called) Brodsky was Sarah Benjamin’s biological father. In fact, he was her step-father. Kane’s maternal grandfather was Jacob Benjamin.)

Strangely, the 1940 census also included a listing for a “Sarah Klein” at the Brooklyn State Hospital for the Insane. With the exception of her marital status, which is listed as “single” rather than “divorced”, the details provided for this latter “Sarah Klein” seem to correspond with those included in the listing for Kane’s mother pictured above.

Kane completed two years of high school in the state of New York before dropping from school to obtain employment. (It should be noted, however, that when he enlisted with the United States Naval Reserve in 1943, he stated that he was a high school graduate.)

(Credit: Mike Morford, Zodiackillersite.com)

(Above: On September 13, 1941, at the age of 17, Kane (then known as Lawrence Klein) submitted an application to the Social Security Board requesting to have his name legally changed from Lawrence Klein to Lawrence Kaye. Next to “reason for filing,” he wrote that the change would be “Beneficial for employment in my field” and listed his employer as “Worrall Chemist.” The New York Social Security Board granted this request on September 22, 1941.)

(Above (right): 4600 14th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. Circa 1939-1941. Attribution: NYC.gov ; 1940s.nyc)

(Asbury Park (NJ) Press. March 31, 1942. Regarding the reference to “hotel workers” – Lakewood, NJ, was a popular resort destination among wealthy New Yorkers during the first half of the twentieth century and was once home to the Resort Hotel Workers’ Union. As an itinerant performer working the resort hotel circuit (this is further elaborated upon below), it’s probable that Kane would have had engagements there. Oddly, the 1950 United States Census lists Kane’s maternal grandmother, Frieda Benjamin (Pashkowitz), as a resident of the employee’s quarters of the New Irvington Hotel in Lakewood.)

(Above: Kings Park State Psychiatric Hospital employment registration card for Sarah Benjamin.)

(Above: Military registration card (including physical description) for Lawrence Klein/L. Kaye, dated June 30, 1942. As was the standard practice during World War II, the card was filled out by the registrar and then signed by Kane. / Kane lists his employer as Beckman & Pransky, a high-class entertainment management agency which supplied stage acts and theatrical productions to resort hotels in the Catskill Mountains. The following passage, taken from the book It Happened in the Catskills by Harvey and Myrna Katz Frommer, provides a concise summary of the agency (which was something akin to a theater troupe) and its operations: “Al Beckman and Johnny Pransky had something like a repertory theater going in the Mountains, making a circuit of different hotels. They placed weekly entertainment at each hotel: one night a concert, the next night a variety show, the next night a play, then a guest and staff show (…) Like traveling vaudeville, it moved from the Morningside to the Commodore to the Stevensville, and so on. (…) When the social staffs got smaller and entertainers began working the circuit, they selected one base hotel to stay at while they traveled around entertaining at different places. On Sunday nights, all the entertainers would go into Beckman and Pransky’s office in New York City to get their bookings for the week. They’d come back on Tuesday and begin their rounds.” Some of the more illustrious personages employed as MCs for Beckman & Pransky include Red Buttons, Joey Adams, and Robert Alda. That Kane was employed as a Master of Ceremonies by Beckman & Pransky, who ranked among the preeminent names on the hotel circuit of the time, indicates that he exhibited some level of proficiency in this regard. Kane also worked as an emcee for various nightclubs at this time. //  Kane records his residence as the Van Cortland/Cortlandt Hotel, located at 142 West 49th Street in the Broadway Theatre District, and lists his contact person as “Mrs. S(arah) Klein, Monterey Hotel.” There’s some evidence to suggest that Kane was also employed as a “song plugger” during this period, though I’ve yet to verify that.)

(Excerpt, the Hines report. Credit: Harvey Hines; Zodiackiller.com.)

(Hotel Van Cortlandt, NYC. Ca. 1939-1941. Attribution: NYC.gov / 1940s.nyc)

(Above: Military enlistment record for Lawrence Klein (Kane) which I obtained from the National Archives and Records Administration. Dated February 05, 1943. Kane’s civilian occupation is listed as ‘entertainer’. Contrary to other sources, which list his height as 5’9″, Kane’s height was here recorded as 5’6 1/2″. Complexion listed as ‘fair’. )

(Excerpt from Rider McDowell’s On the Trail of the Zodiac, San Francisco Chronicle, May 08-15, 1994. Summary of military service. Source: zodiackiller.com/KH1.html. Kane received training at the ‘Radio Materiel School’ in Chicago during this period. Admissions to the Electronics Training Program — an exclusive, highly classified military training program for which the radio material school served as hub — were approved on the basis of a rigorous classification and aptitude examination called the Eddy Test. The test featured a series of timed, multiple-choice questions, devised to give some indication of the test taker’s mathematics/physics knowledge, creativity, reasoning ability, and general aptitude. The test was primarily administered to those with scientific and engineering backgrounds, including college students who demonstrated an exceptionally high aptitude in these fields, as well as men at recruiting stations who expressed an interest in or facility for electrical engineering. In many cases, Naval Entrance and Otis Higher Examination scores were also used for preliminary screening. Of those who took the test, only an estimated fifteen percent passed. Studies indicate that those admitted to the Electronics Training Program scored, on average, in the top second or third percentile of Intelligence Quotient in the Nation. The fact that he passed the Eddy Test would also seem to suggest that Kane, despite receiving a meager formal education, had a fairly advanced understanding of mathematics and electronic componentry. From Wikipedia: “The Electronics Training Program (ETP) was the name commonly used for an unusual, difficult, and selective training activity of the United States Navy during World War II. The ETP combined college-level classroom instruction with laboratories involving highly complex electronic systems (most saliently, the Navy’s then emerging radar technology) that were classified Secret, resulting in a level of training reported to have been the most intense and difficult ever given to enlisted servicemen.(…) Other than the designation “Radio (or Electronics) Technician Training,” no official name appears on records for the overall program; however, Electronics Training Program (ETP) was the commonly used name. Official records sometimes show different names for the two levels of schools: Elementary Electricity & Radio Materiel (EE&RM) rather than Primary, and Advanced Radio Materiel (ARM) rather than Secondary. Since there was little “elementary” content in the EE&RM curriculum, these initials were usually taken to mean Electrical Engineering & Radio Materiel. (…) Admission to Pre-Radio required passing what came to be known as the Eddy Test, having an estimated 15-percent pass rate (…) The ETP (Radio Materiel) was reported to be the most difficult technical instruction ever given to enlisted personnel. Therefore, the Eddy Test needed to identify students with the basic capability and psychological fitness to pursue such instruction. The Test was noted to have been very successful for this purpose. (…) There was a firm pass-fail criteria for grading the Eddy Test, and a second chance was not allowed; therefore, it was necessary to have a central point for both grading and recording the test results. This was done by a team of WAVES at Radio Chicago. The content of the Eddy Test was tightly controlled – no public available copies are known to exist.” Upon passage of the Eddy Test and completion of basic training, Kane would have been transferred to the “Pre-Radio” school at Chicago’s Naval Reserve Armory. I’ve included some contemporary newspaper references to the P.R.S./Naval Armory at the following link: https://i.imgur.com/cTJ0UFa.png )

(Above: Naval Reserve Armory, Chicago, IL.)

Excerpt, Hines report:

“Official military records indicated the suspect entered the United States Naval Reserve February 12, 1943, and received a good conduct discharge under honorable conditions on September 28, 1943. A report by the Medical Survey Board indicated that while attending Radio Material School at Chicago, Illinois, the suspect was admitted to the sick list on June 9, 1943 (…)”

(Overview of Lawrence Kane’s military service, including dates of enlistment and discharge. Attribution: Fold3.com)

(Above: Certification of Military Service for Lawrence Klein (Kane).)

(U.S. Navy separation document for Lawrence Klein (Kane). Please note that “mental disability” does not, in this context, refer to an intellectual disability (as is generally connoted in modern usage of the phrase) but rather to the Neuropsychiatric disorder (Psychoneurosis) detailed above. Excerpt, Rider McDowell’s On the Trail of the Zodiac: “[Kane] had served seven months in the Naval Reserve, before being discharged honorably after a diagnosis of psychoneurosis hysteria was made. According to the reports, Kane’s illness stemmed from the deep worry he experienced over his often infirmed and somewhat unstable mother.”)

(Letter from “L. Kaye” to Eileen Barton, postmarked June 07, 1943, Chicago, IL. A special thank you to Eileen Barton researcher Rex Strother for discovering this. A high-quality copy is available at the following address: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rstrother/49847165343/in/photolist-2iWPKBe-8Y5zgd-94BwYa-hJJ5iF-8QypXu-eENwA1-9NV9fn)

Recorded letter (phonograph recording) no. 1 from Larry Kaye to Eileen Barton, dated June 06, 1943. Once again, I would like to extend my gratitude to Eileen Barton archivist and researcher Rex Strother for finding this recording (which is, to the best of my knowledge, the only extant recording of Lawrence Kane’s voice) and for taking the time and effort to have it transferred. Click the play button below to listen:

A note concerning record # 1: At the twenty-five-second mark of the recording, Kaye does a brief riff on the song The Patty Cake Man by Roy Jordan (stage name for songwriter/song plugger Roy Jacobs).  He refers to Jordan (with whom he was acquainted) as Roy Berlin, a sarcastic reference to famed composer Irving Berlin.  Pop-jazz vocalist Ella Mae Morse recorded a rendition of this song in 1944, which can be found on YouTube. Kane references the song’s lyrics again in a subsequent recording (see “recorded letter no. 2” below), with the “Putta-hacky-sacky-facky” Island bit featured in the recording below seemingly being a subtle nod to the song’s nonsensical refrain.

(The Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. Radio column. July 04, 1944. See note above.)

Recorded letter no. 2 from Larry Kaye to Eileen Barton, dated June 06, 1943. This would appear to be a “mock” apology for the previous recording. Credit: Rex Strother –

Transcript for recording number two (listen above): “This record is not endorsed by the United States Navy or any of its auxiliary organizations. Any similarity to persons living is almost as bad off as Eileen Barton. I would at this time like to take advantage of the fact that anyone who should be listening to this record cannot talk back to me and cannot interrupt my chain of thought. I would like at this time to make apologies for the record, number one in this series, entitled “Gallitzin, Here I Come, or, Five Graves to Altoona.” At the time of the making of the record, the young man who made it was under the influence of spirits…of ’76, but I’m sure it was 176, all straight. Blues: When the train ride was over, he had the strangest idea that he had pulled the train all the way from New York by means of a rope tied to his hair – oh, my head – but to continue, he then went to this fine place and made a record that will set progress back 150 years. He then went to a hotel to sleep it off – all 176 of them. When he awoke, he realized the mistake he had made. He jumped on his pogo stick and rushed over to try to (audio cuts out)(…)He left no table unturned. In fact, he even swept the floor. (audio cuts) But it was all to no avail. (Alas,) it was gone. The die was cast. The fates had played their little game. So, as the setting sun sets beyond the isle of Putta-hacky-sacky-facky (whatever it is) Island, and his Sagittarian love, who is by birth under the sign of zodiac a hot-tempered and very non-understanding person, figures out ways to torture him for his wrong – not ordinary tortures, mind you, but fiendish, diabolical things, like waiting for nine hours on line to hear four girls in back of them blow their undernourished (?) (audio cuts) – all he hopes and prays is that some night, when she feels very, very lonely and in a very, very understanding mood, she will (audio cut) reason for that record, and will do (humanity) a favor and destroy it. (unintelligible)”

Just for laughs, I input the transcript above into ChatGPT and asked for an analysis and summary of the text, and received the following response: “The writer of this text appears to be someone who is deeply regretful and apologetic for a past mistake. They seem to be referencing a previous record they made while under the influence of alcohol and express regret for the negative impact it may have had. They also seem to be quite flippant and use humor to express their regret. They also use vivid imagery and exaggerations to express their regret and frustration. They also seem to be someone who is quite pessimistic and defeatist, stating that the “die was cast” and “the fates had played their little game.” They also seem to have a tendency to be quite verbose and use grandiose language. They also seem to have a certain level of sarcasm and irony. They also seem to be someone who is quite self-deprecating and may have a tendency to be self-defeating.”

Another interesting aspect of the recordings is Kane’s seeming affinity for (and frequent utilization of) wordplay, particularly malapropisms: “to go from the ridiculous to the more ridiculous” in lieu of the familiar “from the sublime to the ridiculous”; “left no table unturned” instead of “no stone unturned”; “spirits of ’76”; “Five Graves to Altoona” versus “Five Graves to Cairo”.

Recording/letter scans, courtesy of researcher Rex Strother:

(Above: Recording/letter addressed to Eileen Barton, courtesy of Rex Strother. Kane’s return address is listed as “L. Kaye, P.R. 7, Co. A, Sec. 1, Naval Armory, Chicago, IL.” P.R. (#) was an official designation for pupils attending Pre-Radio (PRM) courses at the Naval Reserve Armory in Chicago. Some examples of this are provided at the following address: https://i.imgur.com/C5Bt8aA.png)

(The New York Evening Post. July 01, 1943. Bushkill Falls Villa was a popular hotel resort located in the Pocono Mountains.)

(The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. May 02, 1945. Additional information concerning Lester Lee (who was actually named Lester Lees) and his connection to Larry Kane is available further down the page.)

(The Olean Times Herald. June 25, 1945.)

(Marriage License issued to Larry Kaye (Kane) and Eileen Phylis Barton, Manhattan, July 07, 1945. Credit: Rex Strother – https://www.flickr.com/photos/rstrother/5291736729/in/photolist-8Y5zgd-hJJ5iF-9NV9fn-8QypXu-94BwYa-eENwA1. Per the license, Kane was residing at the Hotel Monterey, situated at the intersection of Broadway & W. 94th St. in Manhattan. Eileen Barton listed her residence as the Waldorf Astoria. It should also be noted that Kane gives the incorrect name and country of origin for his father – Morris Kaye rather than Morris Klein and USA rather than Hungary.)

(Larry Kaye and Eileen Barton, NYC (Borough of Manhattan) marriage registry. July 07, 1945. From Wikipedia: “Eileen Barton was an American singer best known for her 1950 hit song, “If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake.” (…) Eileen’s parents, Benny and Elsie Barton, were vaudeville performers. (Note: Eileen’s father, Ben Barton, was Frank Sinatra’s music publisher.) She first appeared in her parents’ act in Kansas City at age 2½, singing “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” as a dare to her parents from columnist (and later radio star) Goodman Ace. At 3½, she appeared at the Palace Theater, doing two shows a day as part of comedian (and Three Stooges creator) Ted Healy’s routine (…) Barton soon became a child star. By age 6, she appeared on The Horn and Hardart Children’s Hour, a radio program sponsored by Horn & Hardart’s Automat, a then-well-known restaurant chain, and, by age 7, in 1936-37, she was working with Milton Berle on his Community Sing radio program, using the name “Jolly Gillette” (Eileen Barton’s “Jolly Gillette” character was famously parodied in the 1937 Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes short “The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos”) and playing the sponsor’s “daughter” (the sponsor was Gillette Razors). She would ask to sing, he would tell her she couldn’t, and she would remind him that her daddy was the sponsor, so he’d let her sing a current hit song. She also was a regular on The Milton Berle Show in 1939. (…) She co-starred on  Frank Sinatra’s (radio) show beginning August 16, 1944, and was also part of Sinatra’s act at the Paramount Theater in 15 appearances there. She also appeared on her own and as a guest performer with such stars as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, and Danny Kaye. (Note: Throughout the 1940s, Eileen also collaborated extensively with legendary Jazz drummer Buddy Rich.) In 1945, Barton had her own radio program, Teen Timers. That November, the program’s name was changed to The Eileen Barton Show. It was broadcast Saturday mornings on NBC. ” On April 13, 1948, Eileen Barton married talent agent and “construction biggie” Irwin “Wynn” Lassner in St. Petersburg, FL. For more information regarding Eileen Barton, see eileenbarton.com)

(NYC marriage affidavit for Larry Kaye (Kane) and Eileen Barton, completed in Kane’s own handwriting and signed by both Kane and Barton. July 1945.)

Eileen Barton – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Barton

Eileen Barton on YouTube – www.youtube.com/channel/UCrt2jvA8LLysjDa85UKYNQg

(Eileen Barton publicity photographs. Taken ca. 1944-1945 and 1950. Attribution: University of Missouri-Kansas City; Dave E. Dexter, Jr. Collection and Wilbur “Buck” Clayton Collection, respectively.)

(Eileen Barton with Frank Sinatra. Circa 1944 and 1945.)

(Eileen Barton gracing the cover of Downbeat Magazine, a prestigious music publication. May 1946.)

(Eileen Barton on the cover of Radio Mirror magazine. January 1946. Attribution: Media History Digital Library / Archive.org)

(Billboard Magazine. December 18, 1943.)

(Eileen Barton newspaper and magazine references. 1936/1937.)

(Eileen Barton newspaper references. 1944 – February 20, 1947.)

(The Los Angeles Times. July 01, 2006. Obituary for Eileen Barton.)

(Eileen Barton newspaper article. The Salt Lake Tribune. July 14, 1927.)

(Above: Hotel Monterey, NYC. Circa 1939-1941. Attribution: NYC.gov / 1940s.nyc)

(Jersey Journal (Jersey City, NJ). August 06, 1945. The address furnished by Kane in the article above – 15 Washington Ave., Belleville, NJ – was not a residential address but was instead the location of his contracting office. From 1945 to 1947, in collaboration with James and Eleanor Sorce, he operated the North Jersey Construction Co., a siding and remodeling firm. Kane’s passenger, Lester Leese (actually spelled Lees), was an agent/song plugger for M. Witmark Music Publishers. He (Lees) would later become sales executive for a succession of record labels, including Atlantic Records and United Artists. At the time of the incident described in the article above, Lees was employed as tour manager for singer/songwriter and bandleader Louis Prima. He also managed bandleader Jerry Wald.)

(The Newark Star-Ledger. April 29, 1947. See clipping above. The North Jersey Construction Co. also traded under the names Modern Kitchens, Inc. and North Newark Roofing Supply Co.)

(Bizapedia profile for trade name North Jersey Construction Co.)

(The Newark Star-Ledger. June 28, 1946. Milton Novin (Novinsky), it bears noting, was Kane’s cousin through his mother’s side of the family.)

(Above: Lester Lees, who was a friend of Kane.)

(The Toledo Blade. August 05, 1946. Taken from Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated celebrity gossip column, Voice of Broadway.)

(The Laredo Times. August 30, 1946. Taken from Walter Winchell‘s Coast to Coast column.)

(The San Luis Obispo Telegram. October 22, 1946.Kane was later acquitted of this charge. Note the names of the arrested parties – Larry Kaye, Larry Kay, and Max Schulman. I have not been able to conclusively identify Max Schulman. However, it’s possible that this is the same Max Schulman who was arrested in Chicago earlier that year for “attempting to steal racing information.”)

(The Pasadena Independent. October 23, 1946.)

(Another variant of the articles featured above, taken from the October 22, 1946 edition of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Note that the article’s heading refers to Kane as a “gangster.”)

(The Paterson (NJ) Morning Call. October 19, 1946.)

(The Wyckoff (NJ) News. December 05, 1946.)

09-22-1947, Hackensack, NJ – Kane arrested on charges of conspiracy and fraud. Acquitted. “The Grand Jury for and in the county of Bergen, State of New Jersey, returned an indictment against the defendant (Kane) and his company, who were knowingly engaged in defrauding homeowners. The scheme, which seemed to be very widespread, was to have some high pressure salesman canvass homes and induce victims (note: the salesmen would often misrepresent themselves as factory executives/representatives) to have new sidings put on their homes. They were told that if their house was used as a model, they would get a commission on all the neighborhood business and the commissions would offset their indebtedness so that they would get their work done for free. They were promised that shrubbery would be planted and their homes would be made to look very attractive. The victims signed [what they believed to be] an application for bank credit and actually what they signed was a note and certificate of completion. These notes and completion certificates were then handed over to the General Roofing and Supply Corporation, a home installation company. The bank would then notify the makers that they expected payment on account but would not say who discounted the note, and therefore, the victim had no way of knowing who to complain to in order to register a complaint. According to a report made by the prosecutor in that jurisdiction, the above all came about through some very smart people taking advantage of the Federal Housing Act, and it was his opinion that if the prosecutor’s office had the time and facilities to pursue an investigation to completion, an indictment should have been returned which might have resulted in the conviction of some of the above mentioned law violators. However, subsequent investigation by the prosecutor’s office indicated that as drawn, the indictment could not be moved forward successfully and it was his recommendation that the indictment be nolle prossed. The prosecutor felt that the offense was of such an involved character that it resulted in the Grand Jury and the draftsman for the indictment both being confused. He further felt that it would probably take one person many months to understand and draw the proper kind of an indictment and present the matter properly to a trial jury.“

(The Bergen (NJ) Evening Record. September 23, 1947.)

(The Bergen Evening Record. September 24, 1947. Seymour Gruber.)

(The Bergen Evening Record. October 08, 1947)

(Above: FHA provision listings for Irving Troy and Al Barton (Kane?), 03-17-1948, Housing Act of 1954, List of Dealers Subject to the Provisions of Regulation VIII, Sec. 2. See newspaper articles above for context.)

(Federal Housing Administration, Directory of Licensed Dealers. 1948-1949. Residences listed as NYC and Lakewood, NJ.)

(The Milwaukee Sentinel. June 19, 1948. Taken from Walter Winchell’s On Broadway column. The Harem Club was a fashionable New York City nightclub located at the intersection of Broadway & W. 49th St. The club was housed in Manhattan’s famous Brill Building, a two minute walk from Kane’s previous residence at the Van Cortlandt Hotel.)

(Above: Dottie (or Dotty) Langdon/Langan, better known as Dory Previn. From Wikipedia: “Dorothy Veronica Previn (née Langan; October 22, 1925 – February 14, 2012) was an American lyricist, singer-songwriter and poet. During the late 1950s and 1960s she was a lyricist on songs intended for motion pictures and, with her then husband, André Previn, received several Academy Award nominations. In the 1970s, after their divorce, she released six albums of original songs and an acclaimed live album.”)

(Dory Previn, Bog-trotter: An Autobiography With Lyrics, 1980. See newspaper clippings above.)

(Dorothy Langan newspaper reference. August 30, 1945. The Latin Quarter was a fashionable nightclub located in the Broadway district.)

Dory Previn on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeZxsopCFG7qnfZh–3oRpA

(The Times Recorder. July 06, 1948. Follow-up to the June 1948 “Dotty Langdon” snippet posted above. Walter Winchell, On Broadway. On Broadway was a popular celebrity gossip column which was syndicated to over 2,000 newspapers worldwide. Reportedly, Kane also operated a tombstone cleaning business at this time.)

08/25/1949, Albany, NY – Kane arrested on grand larceny charge. He was able to have this charge dismissed by taking advantage of a loophole in then-existing contract laws. This was a recurrent theme in Kane’s fraud arrests/lawsuits over the years. A business associate later recounted that Kane “has an amazing knowledge of civil law.” (Side note: It’s a common misconception among Zodiac ‘researchers’ that Lawrence Kane was an ‘ex-con.’ The reality is that although he was convicted of several crimes throughout his life, Kane never served any time in prison.)

(The Freeport Daily Review. August 27, 1949. Louis Rogoff also served as a subcontractor for the Aldon Construction Co., the company founded by James Sorce following the dissolution of North Jersey Construction Co. Sorce, it will be recalled, was Kane’s former business partner. / The final disposition of this case was reported in a follow-up article (see below): “The freed man, 25-year-old Larry Kay, was dismissed by Judge Jaseph P. Lebkuecher following a brief hearing on the grand larceny charge lodged against him. (…) Judge Lebkeucher released Kay after it was revealed that the man was the actual contractor in his share of the work and that the Trimore firm acted as a sub-contractor.”)

(Melville Newsday. August 27, 1949.)

(The Albany Times-Union. August 27, 1949.)

(The Freeport Daily Review. August 31, 1949.)

(The Utica Daily Observer. November 29, 1949. The Hotel Utica, where Kane was listed as staying for six weeks leading up to this incident, was an upscale hotel located in downtown Utica.)

(The Utica Observer-Dispatch. December 17, 1949.)

(The Utica Observer-Dispatch. December 20, 1949.)

(Listing for Sarah Benjamin (Sarah Klein) in the 1949 Manhattan (NYC) city directory. Address listed as 215 West 94th St., Hotel Monterey.)

(The New York Daily News. April 03, 1950.)

(The Schenectady Gazette. April 03, 1950. Taken from Dorothy Kilgallen’s Voice of Broadway column. From Wikipedia: “Max Everitt Rosenbloom was an American professional boxer, actor, and television personality. Nicknamed “Slapsie Maxie”, he was inducted into The Ring Boxing Hall of Fame in 1972, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1984, the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1985, and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1993. He was sometimes billed as Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom for film appearances. (…) Slapsy Maxie’s, Rosenbloom’s nightclub, is prominently featured in a 2013 crime film, Gangster Squad, which is set in 1949. The original club operated in San Francisco. The club moved to 7165 Beverly Blvd in Los Angeles. From 1943 to 1947 it was located at 5665 Wilshire Blvd.” Betsy Gardner was a “chorus girl” and model who was well known among New York’s café society.)

(April 10, 1950 United States Census listing for Kane’s mother, Sarah Benjamin, listed here as Sarah Klein. Address: 309 W. 57th St., New York City. Sarah is listed as unemployed and is further designated as being “unable to work.” Given that this was a rather affluent address, it’s clear that she was being supported financially by Kane, who lived in an adjacent apartment in the same building. Per the census, other residents at 309 W. 57th Street included Peter Bartok (record manufacturer and son of legendary Hungarian composer Béla Bartók – who, it should be noted, also resided at this address prior to his passing), Fran Warren (singing star), Barbara Belle (prominent theatrical manager and songwriter), Mayo Wadler/Waldo Mayo (Orchestra leader and violinist; musical director for NBC; brother of famed theatrical producer Lucille Lortel), Robert Tucker (Broadway dancer and choreographer), Mortimer Palitz (Noted record producer and executive), Benjamin Serkowich (Publix Theatres Corporation executive), Efim Vitis (Russian opera singer and radio personality), and Steve Kennedy (Concert/Radio Pianist and Baritone; Studio proprietor; Gilbert and Sullivan interpreter; also, incidentally, an acquaintance of Eileen Barton).)

(April 15, 1950 United States Census listing for Lawrence Kane (Lawrence Klein). Address: 309 W. 57th St., New York City. Kane’s occupation is given as “canvasser” (salesman) and his employer is listed simply as a “construction company.” Kane’s address at this time was a ritzy apartment building in Manhattan, tenanted primarily by musicians, actors, and other theatrical workers. Also listed at this address was Dorothy Langan (Dottie Langdon/Dory Previn – see notes and newspaper clippings above.) Langan’s occupation is listed as night club comedian/singer.)

(1950 United States Census listing for Dorothy Langan. See above.)

(Above: 1950 U.S. Census listing for Lawrence Kane’s father, Morris H. Klein. Address: 2900 Mermaid Ave., Brooklyn, NY. This was a ground floor apartment located in the working class neighborhood of Coney Island. Morris remained in this neighborhood until his passing in 1990. Morris’s occupation was listed as shoe salesman.)

(The Utica Daily Press. June 19, 1950. Help Wanted ad for Outerwalls, Inc., a fly-by-night roofing and siding company operated by Kane in Utica, NY.)

(The Utica Daily Observer. December 13, 1950.)

(The Utica Observer Dispatch. January 03, 1951.)

(The Long Island Journal. April 21, 1952. From Wikipedia: “Denise Darcel was a French vaudevillian, actress and singer, who from 1948 to 1963, appeared in films in Hollywood, and briefly on theatre, television and radio…born as Denise Billecard in Paris, she was one of five daughters of a French baker,and she was college educated, studying at the University of Dijon…A winner of the title “The Most Beautiful Girl in France,” Darcel was a cabaret singer in Paris after World War II before being spotted by Hollywood. Denise came to the United States in 1947 and became an American citizen in 1952. Her first film appearance of note was in Battleground (1949). She made quite an impression in Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950) opposite Lex Barker, then co-starred with Robert Taylor in Westward the Women (1951) and Glenn Ford in Young Man with Ideas (1952). In 1953, she was seen in the swimming musical Dangerous When Wet, which starred Esther Williams (1953). Her most important film was Vera Cruz (1954) where she played the female lead opposite Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster.” For a celebrity gossip columnist to characterize him as “well-heeled”, Kane must have been very dapper indeed.)

Denise Darcel – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Darcel

(The San Antonio Express. April 30, 1952. Taken from (Beloved Infidel author and one-time paramour of F. Scott Fitzgerald) Sheilah Graham’s Hollywood Today column.)

(Denise Darcel, 1950s)

(Above: References to Denise Darcel culled from various newspapers. 1947-March 1952.)

(The New York Daily News. June 11, 1952.)

(The New York Daily News. June 11, 1952.)

(The New York Daily News. June 11, 1952.)

(The New York Times. June 10, 1952.)

(The New York Post. June 11, 1952.)

(The Watertown Daily Times. June 11, 1952.)

(New Castle News. June 11, 1952.)

(The Ogden Examiner. June 11, 1952.)

(The Saskatoon (Saskatchewan, Canada) Star-Phoenix. June 11, 1952.)

(The Boston Daily Record. June 11, 1952.)

(The Oakland Tribune. June 1952.)

(The Boston Daily Record. June 12, 1952.)

(The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. June 17, 1952. Kane’s address is given as 400 East 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan. A New York Supreme Court transcript from the 1940s describes this address as an “exclusive and high-rental (price)” apartment house. Other residents included Melville Henry Cane (famous lawyer and poet; legal advisor to Upton Sinclair and Ayn Rand), Elaine Stritch (Broadway and television actress), Elaine Barrymore (Actress; Former wife of John Barrymore), Ted Corday (famous radio and television producer; Director), Albert E. Lewis (Noted Broadway and film producer/screenwriter), Louise Prussing (Film and stage actress), and Catherine Littlefield (famous ballerina, choreographer, and director; founder of the Philadelphia Ballet).)

(Above (center): 400 East 57th Street, NYC. Ca. 1939-1941. Attribution: NYC.gov / 1940s.nyc)

(Midtown Manhattan, 1952.)

Johnnie Johnston – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnnie_Johnston

Johnnie Johnston on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4XaZcC3MIEipSlcOVC3asg/

(The Binghamton Post. June 17, 1952.)

(Above: Johnnie Johnston and Shirley Carmel (née Swede). Source: historicimages.com)

(The New York Times. June 17, 1952.)

(The New York Daily News. June 17, 1952. Kane’s lawyer, Martin Benjamin, was a “high price” Theatrical lawyer and television personality. Despite sharing a surname with Kane’s mother, he doesn’t appear to have been related. Some newspaper references to Benjamin (who appears to have associated with Kane in a social as well as professional capacity) are appended below.)

(Elmira Star-Gazette. August 16, 1951. See previous clipping.)

(The Scranton Tribune. December 27, 1952.)

(The Beaumont Journal. June 17, 1952.)

(The Bridgeport Post. June 17, 1952.)

(The Utica Daily Press. June 19, 1952. The final paragraph is appended here for legibility (A full transcription of this article is available below): “Although “unemployed,” Kaye’s address is a luxurious apartment in New York City. While in Utica, he also maintained a swank “summer house” on Wellesley Island near Alexandria Bay. New York City police describe him as a “man about town” and a frequenter of swank East Side nightclubs.” I would also like to draw attention to the following passage: “A former associate of Kaye said yesterday that he (Kaye) “has an amazing knowledge of civil law.” He maintains that Kaye’s legal knowledge and his selling technique “will get him out of this scrape.”” This prediction proved accurate.

“…One complainant has filed an information (formal criminal complaint) against Kaye…” As no such charges ever (apparently) materialized, it’s probably safe to assume that this was contested and struck down.)

Full transcription of the above article:

“Ex- Utica Salesman Seized in $17,000 Gotham Robbery – Larry Kaye, 28, a glib, fast-talking salesman, who New York City police say has admitted complicity in a $17,000 jewel robbery, is the former operator of “Outerwalls, Inc.” a roofing and siding concern maintained at 201 Washington from May to November, 1950. Handsome and flashy, with an addiction for luxury, Kaye, who is described as “the greatest salesman in the world,” left many critics and an imposing list of complaints at the Better Business Bureau for his local operations. One complainant says he has filed an information against Kaye, another has secured a judgment and a third, a veteran of the Bataan Death March, says he was forced to pay $1,500 for “a completely faulty and unsatisfactory job” Kaye did on his home. He is undecided what action to take. Other complaints of alleged faulty work and debts are the basis for most of the complaints.

In New York, police say Kaye signed a statement admitting complicity in the burglary of the apartment of Mrs. Shirley Carmel, fiancé of singer Johnny Johnston. Both Mrs. Carmel and Johnston are acquaintances of Kaye’s. A former associate of Kaye said yesterday that he (Kaye) has “an amazing knowledge of civil law.” He maintains that Kaye’s selling technique and his legal knowledge “will get him out of this scrape.” Kaye is listed by New York City police as having been arrested three times previously. All the charges were dismissed. They were an assault charge in California; a charge of obtaining money under false pretenses in New Jersey and a grand larceny charge in Mineola. In [1949], Kaye was arrested in Utica following an altercation with a patrolman. The charges came after Kaye objected to a ticket for a parking violation. The charges were dismissed. In New York City, police are tracking down an accomplice of Kaye’s in the robbery. He allegedly told police that needing money he planned the robbery with “a chance acquaintance” in a bar. He surrendered Monday to police with $6,000 worth of jewelry which Mrs. Carmel identified as hers.

Although “unemployed,” Kaye’s address is a luxurious apartment in New York City. While in Utica, he also maintained a swank “summer house” on Wellesley Island near Alexandria Bay. New York city police describe him as “a man-about-town” and a frequenter of swank East Side nightclubs.”

(The Utica Observer-Dispatch. June 19, 1952. From the article: “The Better Business Bureau reported it had several complaints in its file from local residents over unsatisfactory jobs of siding, in which Kaye collected money and failed to finish the jobs.” This was a variation on the scheme which Kane had employed earlier in New Jersey, wherein he would trick homeowners into signing bank notes and FHA completion certificates before work on the contracted job was commenced, thereby forcing them to pay exorbitant prices for an incomplete (or otherwise shoddy) job.)

(The Indianapolis News. June 17, 1952. From the article: “Kaye, whom police described as a man-about-town who knows a great many people in show business, said his partner in crime was a stranger he met in an east-side bar.”)

(The New York Daily News. June 18, 1952.)

(Pacific Stars & Stripes. June 19, 1952.)

(The Long Beach Press Telegram. June 23, 1952. Taken from Hy Gardner’s Coast to Coast column.)

(The Philadelphia Inquirer. June 23, 1952. Taken from Walter Winchell’s column.)

(The Schenectady Gazette. June 24, 1952. Dorothy Kilgallen, Voice of Broadway.)

(The Elmira Star-Gazette. June 26, 1952. Notice that Kane is referred to as a “playboy.”)

(The Windsor (Ontario, Canada) Daily Star. June 17, 1952.)

(The Schenectady Gazette. July 07, 1952. Taken from Dorothy Kilgallen’s Voice of Broadway column.)

(The New York Daily News. July 13, 1952.)

(The Philadelphia Inquirer. July 16, 1952. Taken from Walter Winchell’s On Broadway column.)

(The New York Daily News. July 31, 1952.)

(The Utica Daily Press. July 31, 1952.)

(The Sarasota Herald Tribune. May 16, 1953. Taken from Earl Wilson‘s It Happened Last Night column. It Happened Last Night was a nationally syndicated celebrity and high society gossip column.)

(Newsday. March 02, 1953. See previous clipping.)

(The Chicago Tribune. May 29, 1953.)

(The Lubbock Morning Avalanche. May 30, 1953.)

(The Asbury Park (NJ) Press. July 08, 1953. $500.00 in 1953 would be the equivalent of $5,580.75 today.)

(The New York Daily News. October 04, 1953.)

(The Utica Daily Press. January 26, 1954. From the article: “New York Police had arrested Kaye three times before, but each time the charge was dismissed. Well known by the Better Business Bureau here for complaints received about his work, the salesman’s “sentence” in the New York case was predicted here last June by a former associate. The man, who worked with Kaye at the establishment at 201 Washington from May to November, 1950, said Kaye’s “amazing knowledge of civil law…will get him out of this scrape.”)

(The New York Daily News. January 26, 1954.)

(The New York Times. February 12, 1954.)

(The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. February 21, 1954. Leonard Hart (born Leonard Hartmann) was a real estate broker, drummer, and one-time “music producer.” He was the father of Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and briefly served as the band’s manager.)

(Marriage License and Certificate of Marriage issued to Larry Kaye and Cynthia Brookes (Brooks), February 09-13, 1954. Alexander Freeman, who signed off as a witness on the certificate, was a Canadian “construction heir”, “Wall Streeter”, oil man, dress manufacturer, uranium speculator, celebrity gossip columnist, and New York and Hollywood high society figure. Freeman was at one time an intimate of Countess Lorraine du Monceau of Belgium and later presided over popular show business columns in the National Enquirer and the Detroit Free Press. He was once questioned in connection with the unsolved murder of international financier Serge Rubinstein, with whom he was friends. The other witness to the marriage, Lynn Barton, was a model, actress, singer, and protégé of songstress Lillian Roth. Kane’s address is listed as 309 West 57th Street. This was a fashionable apartment building located between Hell’s Kitchen and Central Park in Manhattan, directly across the street from the Broadway Theater District. Throughout the 1940s and ’50s, this building was home to numerous models, thespians, and musicians. According to the certificate, the marriage ceremony was performed at 1775 Broadway in Manhattan. This was the office of Kane’s lawyer, Martin Benjamin.)

(Manhattan (NYC) Marriage Index entries for Larry Kaye and Cynthia Brookes (Brooks), dated February 09, 1954. Cynthia Brooks was an actress, dancer, and model. She would later marry gangster, record executive, and Birdland founder Morris Levy. The following passage is excerpted from Levy’s Wikipedia page: “Levy married actress and model Cynthia Brooks in April 1958, but by May they were separated. (…)  Brooks had been under contract at 20th Century Fox, appearing in Follow the Sun (1951) and Westward The Women (1951)* (starring Robert Taylor and Denise Darcel) , and was previously a chorus girl at El Rancho Vegas. She was previously married, from May 1955 to December 1955, to Rudi Maugeri, lead vocalist with the Crew-Cuts.”)

(Clipping from the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette of August 31, 1954, referencing Brooks’ divorce from Kane – here referred to as a “New York builder.” From Wikipedia: “Joseph Stephenson “Steve” Crane was an American actor and restaurateur. A Columbia Pictures actor in the early 1940s, Crane opened the Luau, a popular celebrity restaurant, in 1953 and established a successful 25-year career in the restaurant industry. In addition to his own accomplishments, Crane is often remembered as Lana Turner’s twice ex-husband.” In the latter part of 1954, Brooks was also seen in the company of well-known screenwriter and director Cy Howard.)

(The Tribune. January 11, 1955. Though it’s true that they were engaged, Brooks’ marriage to Crane was never finalized. Instead, she married Crew Cuts vocalist Rudi Maugeri in May 1955.)

(Above: Cynthia Brooks (as “Mrs. Larry Kaye”). March, 1953. Although the Associated Press captioned her photo with the appellation of “Mrs. Larry Kaye”, the publication of this article preceded her marriage to Larry Kaye by almost a year.)

(Above: Lawrence Kane’s second wife, model Cynthia Brooks.)

(Cynthia Brooks, 1961.)

(The New York Daily News. From Danton Walker’s Broadway column. June 12, 1954.)

(The Poughkeepsie Journal. June 13, 1954.At the time of his arrest, Kane was carrying identification in the name of Lawrence Barton.)

(The Poughkeepsie Journal. July 09, 1954.)

(The Milwaukee Star-Tribune. December 22, 1954. From wikipedia: “Lana Turner was an American actress. Over the course of her nearly 50-year career, she achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized personal life. In the mid-1940s, she was one of the highest-paid actresses in the United States, and one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s (MGM) biggest stars, with her films earning the studio more than $50 million during her 18-year contract with them. Turner is frequently cited as a popular culture icon of Hollywood glamour and a screen legend of classical Hollywood cinema.”)

(Walter Winchell, On Broadway. December 24, 1954.)

(1955 entry for Outerwalls, Inc. in the Robert D. Fisher Manual of Valuable and Worthless Securities.)

(Manhattan Directory, 1957.)

(The New Orleans Times Picayune. August 28, 1957.)

(The New Orleans Times Picayune. November 06, 1957. Interestingly, this vehicle still exists: 1957 Ford Thunderbird Convertible # D7FH195739)

(New Orleans City Directory, 1958.)

(The New Orleans Times-Picayune. September 27, 1958.)

(The New Orleans Times Picayune. January 30, 1959.)

(The New Orleans Times-Picayune. August 27, 1959.)

09-05-1959, Hattiesburg, MS – Kane arrested on charges of adultery, disturbing the peace, and assault and battery.

(The Hattiesburg (MS) American. September 11, 1959. Kane’s co-defendant on the ‘lewdness’/adultery charge was 22-year-old Barbara Marx. At the time of Marx’s involvement with Kane, she was married to Elliot I. Marx, a lawyer who operated a local private detective agency. See clippings below.)

(The New Orleans Times Picayune. October 1958.)

(New Orleans City Directory, 1960.)

(The New Orleans Times Picayune. September 30, 1959.)

(The New Orleans Times-Picayune. October 08, 1959. The ‘premises’ in question likely refer to commercial property located at the corner of Broad and Cleveland (136 S. Broad Ave.) in New Orleans. See newspaper clipping below.)

(The New Orleans Times-Picayune. September 09, 1958. See clipping/note above.)

(Above: Compilation of Times-Picayune want ads from the relevant period showing 136 S. Broad as a contact address. Research (a portion of which I’ve included above) indicates that Kane was the leaseholder on this address. According to Bizapedia, this was the location of Magnolia State Builders, Inc. It would appear that Kane operated a siding and home remodeling business at this address from September 1958 until October of the following year, at which time Magnolia State Builders (another siding and remodeling company with which he was affiliated in some capacity) took over the lease. It should be noted here that the 1959 edition of Polk’s New Orleans city directory lists Marie Newall, whom Kane would marry later that year, as the Magnolia firm’s Secretary-Treasurer. Later, Marie owned and operated Capri Construction Company in Metairie, LA.)

(Marriage certificate  and license affidavit for Lawrence Kaye and Marie Newall, dated December 30, 1959. Notably, Kane omits any mention of his previous marriages. / The two men who signed off as witnesses to the marriage, Jerome Van Dilla and Harlan Sanford Perkoff, both occupied senior sales positions with the Housecraft Division of the Southern Siding Co. Given his background in siding and home construction, it’s likely that Kane had some affiliation with this company.)

(Note: Kane’s New Orleans residence (816 St. Philip St.) was a Victorian-era home located in the heart of the French Quarter, a short distance from Bourbon St. His other New Orleans address (Claiborne Towers) was an upscale apartment building located in the downtown district – it was, at that time, one of the largest and most expensive residential complexes in the Southern United States and catered to an upper class clientele. An article published in the September 08, 1954 edition of the Monroe News-Star describes the complex as a “luxury apartment-hotel.” // After vacating these addresses in early 1960, he relocated to the Motel de Ville, a “swank” Mid-City motor motel.)

(Marie Newall in the New Orleans city directory, 1959. Credit: Ricardo Gomez)

(Ethel M. Brown (Marie Newall), Santa Barbara (CA) High School yearbook photo, 1949-50.)

(New Orleans city directory, 1960. Kane’s mother, Sarah, is listed as a resident of the Claiborne Towers, 119 S. Claiborne Ave., under the name of Sarah Kaye, having adopted her son’s alias.)

(The Orlando Evening Star. Orlando, FL. August 20, 1960.)

(1961 San Francisco directory listing for Allied Aluminum, an aluminum siding and home remodeling contracting firm co-founded (in partnership with Carl Sapia – see directory listing above) and operated by Lawrence Kane. Office located at 607 Market Street, San Francisco, CA. By early 1962, the partnership had moved its offices to 1610 Harrison Street in Oakland. A sampling of Allied Aluminum’s “business model” is provided in the following passage from a 1965 summation of a lawsuit brought against the firm: “The Liseas charged that, among other things, the defendants also: Had them sign a paper with several blank spaces on it, telling them that the monthly cost would be $50 when it turned out to be $58; had them sign other blank spaces which they said were a credit application, whereas in fact they constituted a mortgage against their home; when asked by the Liseas, explained that a section head “Title Insurance and Trust Co.” provided life insurance which would pay off the cost of siding if either of the Liseas died, whereas in fact this was a deed of trust against their home, and a lien contract; told them the first six months of the contract would be free of cost, whereas in fact they were included in the contract, at the end of the seven years; and said the total cost would be $2,290, when it was actually that plus $1,699.52 service charge or time price differential.” After procuring the customer’s signature on the deed of trust against their home, the company would obtain a legal description of the victim’s property, either by inspecting the original deed at the county recorder’s office or by contacting a title company. The acquired description would then be appended to the deed. The company would then assign (or sell) the deed to a third-party beneficiary – usually Reynolds Aluminum Acceptance Corp. or Alcoa Credit Co. – in exchange for building materials. Some examples of this are provided below.)

(Assignment of Deed of Trust recorded with the Contra Costa County (CA) recorder’s office. April 13, 1962. Grantor recorded as Larry Kane and Allied Aluminum Products. Grantee recorded as Reynolds Aluminum Acceptance Corporation. See note above.)

(Above: Assignments of Deed of Trust records culled from Solano and San Joaquin County recorder indices. May 15, 1962 and March 11, 1963, respectively. Grantor listed as Allied Aluminum Products; Grantee listed as Aluminum Acceptance Corp. See previous images and accompanying annotations for relevance. On a side note, Allied Aluminum conducted business all over the state of California and appears to have been a lucrative enterprise. The company folded in late 1963/early 1964 due to mounting legal inquiries into the company’s practices.)

(The San Francisco Examiner. January 24, 1961.)

(San Rafael Daily Independent Journal. June 19, 1968.)

(Travel admissions record for Lawrence Kaye. Point of embarkation recorded as Amsterdam, Netherlands. August 29, 1961.)

09-10-1961, Alameda, CA – Kane arrested on charge 647.12 (peeping tom-ism/voyeurism under the California Lewd Vagrancy Act.) -“peeping in windows.” Fined $105.

(Preliminary Report of the Subcommittee on Sex Crimes, California Assembly Interim Committee. 1950.)

(The Tulare Advance-Register. Tulare, CA. March 24, 1962.)

(The Oakland Tribune. May 06, 1962. Help Wanted ad for Kane’s business, Allied Aluminum Products.)

(Above: Assignment of Deed of Trust recorded with El Dorado County (CA) recorder. Executed by Larry Kane and Allied Aluminum Products. May/June, 1962.)

(Lien Contract and Deed of Trust recorded with El Dorado County recorder’s office. Executed by Larry Kane, Allied Aluminum Products. July, 1962.)

(The Eureka Humboldt Standard. Eureka, CA. July 02, 1962. Allied Aluminum used fictitious owner names, specifically David Daniels and Al Saperstein, to obtain their business license in the city of Eureka. The choice of the name “Al Saperstein” as one of the fictitious owner names may have been influenced by the fact that Kane had a first cousin (once removed) with the same name on his mother’s side of the family.)

(Credit: Harvey Hines; Alex Lewis. Source: welshchappie.wordpress.com)

(Source: Rider McDowell, On the Trail of the Zodiac, San Francisco Chronicle, May 08-15, 1994.)

12-05-1962, CA – Lawrence Kane receives traffic citation for speeding.

(The Redwood City Tribune. July 15, 1963.)

(The San Mateo Times. September 20, 1963.)

(The Redwood City Tribune. April 04, 1962. See previous article.)

12-03-1963, Palo Alto, CA – “A security officer of Roos-Atkins department store at Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto, observed the subject (Kane) enter the store (…) Since subject was carrying a large overcoat and acting strangely, the security officer followed him. The subject left and re-entered the store approximately three to four times. At no time did he remove anything from Roos-Atkins. He was then followed to a nearby toy store, where he stole a toy model and wood roulette wheel. Subject removed the items from a shelf and while walking toward the door placed the items under his coat. He was apprehended approximately fifty yards from the store and placed under arrest. Subject advised police officers he knew what he had done was wrong and could offer no excuses for it. He stated he had plenty of money to buy the roulette wheel.” Receives $50.00 fine and one year informal probation with Santa Clara County probation office.

(The Palo Alto Peninsula Times. December 04, 1963. For reference, $1,160 in 1963 would be the equivalent of $11,476 in today’s money – an unusually large sum of money to carry on one’s person. The article records Kane’s address as 1469 Bellview Drive (actually Bellevue Avenue), Burlingame, CA. This was the location of the Burlingame Towers, an “affluent” apartment community.)

December, 1963, San Mateo County, CA – Kane registers with San Mateo County probation dept. under the name of Lawrence Klein. Charge not specified.

(Above: 1964 Telephone Directory and City Directory listings for Kane’s mother, Sarah Benjamin. Listed as Sarah Kane (a name which she adopted from her son) in the former and Sarah Benjamin in the latter. Address recorded as 3655 Colegrove, Culligan Crest Apartments, San Mateo, CA.)

07-20-1964, Oakland, CA – Class D driver’s license issued to ‘Larry Kane.’

09-05-1964, Oak Brook, IL – “Subject (Kane) was arrested for shoplifting at a department store for stealing a clock valued at $50.00. Subject had in his possession a fictitious driver’s license and several traffic tickets from Oakland, California.”

09-05-1964, Wheaton, IL – Arrested on theft charge.

12-05-1964, California –  Kane has driver license revoked due to unspecified traffic violations. “Records of the California Department of Motor Vehicles indicate that license driving privileges for Lawrence Klein, also known as Lawrence L(illegible; possibly Lane), also known as Larry Kane, also known as Larry Kaye, also known as Lawrence Barton, also known as S.A. Klieman,  were revoked pursuant to  Section 14.105 (inability to drive safely) of the Vehicle Code, effective December 05, 1964.(…) Order returned unclaimed. Operator’s license was not reinstated. Subject made application for Class D driving license in name of Larry Kane. This license issued in error.”

03-27-1965, Menlo Park, CA – Arrested on shoplifting charge. Pleaded not guilty. Received two years formal probation.

04-26-1965, Belmont, CA – “Police report indicated that the subject (Kane) was observed prowling about the premises and looking into an apartment window in Belmont. Subject was found guilty of the above offense by court verdict on June 3, 1965.” Fined $160.00.

(Credit: Harvey Hines; Zodiackiller.com)

Excerpt, The Hines Report:

“In 1965 the suspect had a seizure and was treated at the San Mateo County General Hospital by a Neurologist.”

(Source: Rider McDowell, On the Trail of the Zodiac, San Francisco Chronicle, May 08-15, 1994. Credit: zodiackiller.com)

(The Boston Herald. December 01, 1965. Obituary listing for Lawrence Kane’s maternal grandfather, Jacob Benjamin. Kane’s mother is listed as “Sarah Kay (…) of New York City.”)

07-11-1966, Miami Beach, FL – Arrested for credit card fraud. Fined $50 and costs.

(The New Orleans Times-Picayune. March 29, 1967.)

(The New Orleans Times-Picayune. April 06, 1967.)

(The New Orleans Times-Picayune. April 27, 1967.)

(The New Orleans Times-Picayune. June 16, 1966. See clippings above for relevance.)

04-29-1968, San Mateo, CA – Drivers License # K138675 issued to Larry Kane, showing an address of 1681 El Camino Real, Redwood City, CA. (Note: In 1968, a chiropractic proctologist’s office was located at this address. This was not, apparently, Kane’s actual place of residence. See directory listings below. On a side note, pinpointing Kane’s precise whereabouts during this period is difficult, as he seemed to have been keen on his privacy – he usually opted to have his information “unlisted” in telephone directories and was only sporadically listed in city directories. Somewhat pertinently, and contrary to information circulating on the internet, Kane had no demonstrable connection to Vallejo.)

(San Mateo County / Redwood City Directory listings for 1681 El Camino Real, Redwood City, CA. 1964/1969.)

08-29-1968, Redwood City, CA – Lawrence Kane arrested on charge 647.12 – peeping tom-ism/prowling.

(Excerpt, Hines report.)

(Credit: Harvey Hines; Zodiackiller.com)

(Above: Kane’s fingerprints, taken from 1968 booking on peeping tom charges. (For whatever reason, some online sources erroneously cite these as the possible Zodiac prints recovered from Bryan Hartnell’s car at Lake Berryessa. This is further obfuscated by the dissemination on certain message boards of an image depicting Kane’s prints superimposed over the aforementioned Berryessa prints.) Courtesy of Destry Hines. Click here to access Destry’s website.)

(Credit: Harvey Hines)

(The Palo Alto Peninsula Times-Tribune. May 01, 1969. Nevil Storage Co. was a storage facility located in Mountain View, Santa Clara County, CA.)

(Source: Rider McDowell, On the Trail of the Zodiac. 1994.)

(Credit: Harvey Hines; Zodiackiller.com. John Miles, the car dealer from whom Kane acquired the Ambassador and other vehicles, was based out of Stockton, CA – about a one-hour and thirty minute drive east of Kane’s San Francisco residence. This would tend to suggest that Kane had some (as yet undetermined) connection to the area.)

(Excerpt, the Hines Report. Credit: Alex Lewis)

(Stockton, CA city directory listing for John Miles, 1975.)

Excerpt from Rider McDowell’s On the Trail of the Zodiac, San Francisco Chronicle. May 08, 1994:

“Remembering the two San Francisco policemen who had encountered and spoken to the Zodiac (note: whether Fouke and Zelms actually stopped and spoke to the Zodiac or merely drove past him remains a matter of contention. – T) after the murder of cab driver Paul Stine, Hines sought out officer Donald Fouke, one of the two officers in question. Fouke, now with the Juvenile Division, lingered over the picture of Kane and remarked, “I’ve seen hundreds of photos since then, and this is the best likeness.” Fouke, however, added that it had been too long to make a positive identification. (Fouke’s partner, Eric Zelms, had since been killed in the line of duty.)”

Excerpt, The Hines Report:

“In March or April 1988, I made telephone contact with Don Fouke at the Juvenile Division of the San Francisco Police Department. (…) Don agreed to meet with me the next day. I drove to San Francisco to the Juvenile Division. I gave Don a single picture of suspect Kane. He studied it for awhile and said “The jowls are right. The face was rounded like that.” He said, after twenty years, he could not be sure. He said that he had been brought hundreds of pictures to look at over the years but this was the best one he had seen, but it had been too many years for a positive identification. I asked Fouke how he would classify Kane’s picture. He said, “I would say it is a maybe.” I asked him if it was just a maybe or was it a good maybe. He said, “A good maybe. That’s the best I can do.””

(Credit: Harvey Hines; Zodiackiller.com)

Extract from Rider McDowell’s On the Trail of the Zodiac, San Francisco Chronicle, May 08, 1994:

“Additionally, Hines learned that Kane’s San Francisco address in 1969 through part of ’70, 217 Eddy Street, was located two and a half blocks from where cab driver victim Paul Stine had picked up the Zodiac. The Zodiac revealed himself to be an enthusiast of Gilbert & Sullivan musicals, quoting the “Mikado” in one of his letters. During the time Kane lived on Eddy Street, Hines found that the Mikado was playing at the Lamplighter Theater Group in the theater district three blocks from Kane’s apartment.”

Extract from Rider McDowell’s On the Trail of the Zodiac, San Francisco Chronicle, May 08, 1994:

“In a roundabout way this is the story of Kathleen Johns, a nurse and divorced mother of two who, on March 17, 1970, was kidnapped on a lonely stretch of road near Interstate 5 in Modesto, California. Kathleen, along with her ten month old daughter Jennyfer, had left her mother’s house in San Bernardino earlier that evening for the seven hour trip to her home in Petaluma. Somewhere near the farming community of Patterson she noted she’d picked up a tail, a tan colored sedan, possibly a ’68, following her on the narrow two lane highway. It was nearly 1:00 AM as Kathleen slowed to allow the car to pass. Instead the driver pulled up along side her, began flashing his lights frantically, and shouted that her left rear wheel was loose. 

Kathleen, who was seven months pregnant at the time and feared for her safety on the remote road, drove on to the intersection of the more heavily traveled Highway 5. Here she pulled over onto the shoulder. The tan car pulled in behind her and a clean cut man in a windbreaker offered to tighten the lug nuts on the loose tire. Kathleen consented, thinking that her clunker of a 1957 Rambler station wagon probably needed the adjustment. After a minute the man jumped up, waved goodbye to Kathleen, and drove off.

Kathleen started her engine and resumed her journey. Almost immediately her back left tire flew off and her car screeched to a stop on the edge of the highway. Kathleen was shaken but unharmed. Then the stranger was back, having reversed along the road shoulder. He stepped into the glare of Kathleen’s headlights: “a stocky man with an oval face, dark short hair with a high forehead, and glasses like Superman wears.” The man indicated that the problem was worse than he thought and offered to drive Kathleen to the Arco station within sight up the highway. Slightly overwhelmed by the course of events, she accepted. Bundling up baby Jennyfer, she got out of her car and climbed into the sedan beside the stranger. They drove on along the highway. Past the Arco station. Without a word of explanation the stranger then pulled the car off of the highway onto one of the lonely country roads of the region. They drove on in silence and Kathleen gripped baby Jennyfer to her chest and wondered what to do.

After a bit the clean cut man turned to face Kathleen “You know you’re going to die. You know I’m going to kill you,” he said in a halting monotone. And she looked into his eyes, flat featureless ovals, the eyes of a dead thing, and a shiver ran through her as she realized the man had set her up and was now ferrying her to her death.

…

Then the madman erred. Inadvertently he had driven up a highway on-ramp. He braked solidly and prepared to back up. Kathleen tore open the door and leapt from the car with Jennyfer, hiding in a drainage ditch in a nearby field, her hand smothering the cries of her infant, while the stranger searched for her with a flashlight, scouring the field, calling to her in dulcet tones, reminding her that there was no escape.

Then a semi-truck barreled onto the scene and ground to a halt behind the sedan. The driver surveyed the terrain: the parked car with its doors ajar, the man with the flashlight, what looked to be a woman and her baby rising out of the depths of the adjacent field. “What the hell is going on?” the driver barked, and the man with the flashlight ran to his car and drove away.

…

In the minutes following her escape, the stranger had shown the true extent of his twisted thinking. Having been denied his victim, due to the appearance of the inquisitive truck driver, the suspect had driven back to Kathleen’s disabled car. In an extraordinary display of arrogance and spite, he had located the jettisoned tire, painstakingly remounted it, driven the car back to where he’d first contacted Kathleen on Highway 132, and set the car afire. The suspect, it can be deduced, then walked back to his vehicle, a distance of over a mile, returned to his car, and driven away.

…

Confirmation that Kathleen’s abductor was indeed the Zodiac came three months later on June 24th in a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle, in which he mentioned,…”I now have a little list, starting with the woeman (sic) + her baby that I gave a rather interesting ride to a couple howers (sic) that ended in my burning her car where I found them.

…

A nervous Hines had prepared a three row line up, with six pictures in each. Kane’s picture was placed in the 18th position in the third row. He was pictured without glasses, while others in the line-up wore horn-rimmed and other types of glasses. After an introductory cup of coffee, Hines read Kathleen the “line up admonishment” printed on the back of the first row of pictures. Hines presented Kathleen with one row at a time. She regarded the first two rows with interest, and shook her head no. Hines presented the third row of photos. Kathleen studied them for a moment, then placed a long nailed finger on the last photo in the row. She had picked out Larry Kane. She said, “It’s him, but I thought he was younger than this.”

Hines asked if she was sure this was the man who had sabotaged her car and driven her and her baby daughter around for two hours on that fateful night, promising her death at the end of the line. Kathleen replied, “Yes. It’s not just my eyes telling me. I know it in here.” She clenched a hand against the pit of her stomach. “That’s him.”  Hines had Kathleen sign and date the back of the picture.”

(The San Francisco Examiner. March 23, 1970.)

(The Petaluma Argus-Courier. March 24, 1970.)

(Source: Harvey Hines; Zodiackiller.com)

(Excerpt, the Hines Report. Credit: Alex Lewis)

(The San Francisco Chronicle. September 26, 1970.)

(The Lead Daily Call. October 06, 1970.)

(Argus-Leader. October 09, 1970.)

(Argus-Leader. October 17, 1970.)

(The Napa Valley Register. March 26, 1971. It should be borne in mind that Donna Lass is not considered a canonical Zodiac victim. Moreover, it’s not entirely clear that the Pines card (the authenticity of which is disputed) was intended as a reference to Lass’s disappearance.)

(The Sacramento Bee. March 28, 1971.)

(Above: The ‘Pines’ postcard. March 22, 1971. The postcard was addressed, using pasted newspaper cutouts, to the San Mateo Times (see font comparison), San Francisco Examiner, and San Francisco Chronicle. This was likely done in an attempt to parallel the Zodiac’s ‘408’ correspondence, which was mailed in three parts to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Examiner, and San Francisco Chronicle.)

The Hines report, excerpt:

“I again reviewed the two South Lake Tahoe supplemental police reports filed on March 25, 1971. These were filed (…) after the Zodiac mailed the card claiming his 12th victim in the Tahoe area. The complaints in these reports were filed by two Tahoe residents, Mary Ida Hylander (link) and Nancy Kapanos. (…) Subjects came forward after seeing a television news cast stating that the Zodiac killer had sent a card claiming he had sought his 12th victim in the Tahoe area.

(…)

Subject Hylander at the time resided at 3337 Bruce Drive, South Lake Tahoe. Her telephone number at the time was 544-6893. She was a Black Jack dealer at Harrahs Club. She said that sometime during the middle of October of 1970, she was having dinner with her two children at the International House of Pancakes on Highway 50 and Sonora Ave. in South Lake Tahoe. She states that a man who had been seated in the booth directly across from her approached her and made conversation (…) This male subject then asked what Zodiac signs her two children were born under and indicated that he was interested in astrology. (…) He indicated astrology was his hobby and continued talking about the Zodiac signs. Hylander agreed to let the man read her Zodiac chart and gave him her telephone number so that he might contact her after he had prepared her Zodiac chart.

The man telephoned Hylander at approximately 1800 hours that evening and stated that he had her chart ready. Hylander wanted the information over the telephone. However, the subject stated he could not do this. He would have to read the chart to her in person. Hylander then gave the subject her residence address and he stated that he was coming over right away.  Hylander then became frightened and called her girlfriend, Nancy Kapanos (…) Kapanos was a Roulette Dealer at Harrahs Club.

(…) A short time later, both women heard a car driving up in front of Hylander’s residence. After knocking the man was allowed to enter. He then produced a Zodiac chart.  He, however, would not show it to Hylander except at a distance. (…) He began relating astrological information and told Hylander, “Women don’t like you. People who you think are your friends really aren’t.” Then he looked at Kapanos indicating that he wished she would leave (…) Because of his strange actions, Kapanos stayed fearing to leave her friend alone with the subject. The man continued talking about Zodiac signs and stated he had recently read the chart of a murderer and continued talking about this subject, seemingly preoccupied with death. The subject contradicted himself several times. He was very evasive about questions asked of him by both women.

(…) When he left he asked Hylander if she would have dinner and drinks with him at a future date. She told him she already had a boyfriend (…) and declined. He then asked the Zodiac sign of her boyfriend. Upon learning the sign he stated that it was not compatible with Hylander’s. He then left the residence. However, before he left he gave Hylander a philosophical pamphlet to read. This pamphlet, entitled “It Works” (link), was written by R.H.J. The man then wrote his name and address on the inside of the front cover of this pamphlet before giving it to Hylander. He wrote his name as Kent Williams with an address of General Delivery Stateline Post Office, South Lake Tahoe, CA. (note: Kent Ellis Williams was the name of the manager of the Tahoe Sierra Club’s Clair Tappaan Lodge in 1970. According to Harvey Hines, subsequent investigation determined that Williams was not the individual who approached Hylander. However, it’s worth noting that this individual purportedly signed his name as Kent B. Williams and that there was, in fact, a California real estate agent by this name who had ties to the South Lake Tahoe area. It’s unclear whether or not this latter Kent Williams was ever cleared of involvement in this incident.)

Both Hylander and Kapanos described the man as being a white male in his late 30’s to 40’s, approximately 5’9″ tall, 160 pounds, with regular length brown hair (…) They further described him as stocky with a pudgy stomach and wore plastic horn rimmed glasses. (…) [He was well-spoken] and had a business like appearance. He said that he worked out of state selling real estate property. Kapanos said she saw the subject approximately one week later at the Stateline California Post Office. 

Another witness told South Lake Tahoe police that sometime between the months of July and September 1970, she was at Shakeys Pizza Parlor and was approached by a male subject approximately 38-40 years of age. She described him as having dark hair parted on the left side and was wearing plastic horn rimmed glasses. The man was carrying a book and kept referring to it. The witness did not recall the name of the book except it had the word “Psycho” and “Cybernetics” (Psycho-Cybernetics?) or words similar to that. (…) This subject engaged in conversation with the reporting party. He asked if they could go some place and talk. The woman refused. He continued in conversation, jumping from one thing to another and kept referring to a woman that he knew but would not say her name. (…) The reporting party asked if he lived in the area and where he worked. He told her he sold land for a real estate company out of state. He did not tell her the name of the company. He said he lived at Stateline in a studio apartment.“

Extract from Rider McDowell’s On the Trail of the Zodiac, San Francisco Chronicle, May 08, 1994:

“Kane was described as 40-ish, with short dark hair (…) He was about 5’9” tall, 170 pounds, dressed conservatively and wore horn rimmed glasses. He had an office in the lobby of the Sahara, across the hall from the nurse’s station, which he could monitor, had he cared to. He sold [real estate] located in Arizona and lived in a studio apartment with his mother in nearby Stateline, NV.“

(Pictured above: On December 27, 1974, Mary Pilker (the sister of possible Zodiac victim Donna Lass) received an anonymous Christmas card, the interior of which contained an opaque reference to Lass’s disappearance. It was signed “Best Wishes, St. Donna & Guardian of the Pines.” The exterior of the card depicted pine trees covered in snow, an ostensible callback to the Peek Through the Pines correspondence. The card carried a 940 postmark, indicating that it was mailed from either San Mateo County or an adjacent section of Santa Clara County, California. Lawrence Kane had lived in San Mateo County previously and retained connections with the area into the late 1970’s. The Zodiac’s ‘Exorcist’ letter, mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle in January of the same year, also received a 940 postmark. Image attribution: Howard Davis.)

(The Salinas Californian. September 02, 2000.)

(The Sacramento Bee. November 16, 2000.)

The following article, written by Gregory Crofton, is taken from the December 19, 2001 edition (original date of publication September 01, 2000) of the Tahoe Daily Tribune:

“Labor Day, 30 years ago, a young woman disappeared from a casino nursing station and was never found.

Information presented to law enforcement agencies Thursday may link the woman’s disappearance to the Zodiac Killer, a man who many believe killed at least seven people in California and Nevada in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

Law enforcement agents from El Dorado and Douglas County met to discuss reopening the case of Donna Lass. The 25-year-old disappeared while working as a registered nurse at Sahara Tahoe Casino First Aid Station. During the 1970s, the Sahara was a Stateline casino located where the Horizon Casino Resort is today.

Two members of the Lass family and a retired detective from Groveland, Calif., came Thursday to South Lake Tahoe Police station to tell the agents that they believe Donna was abducted and murdered by the Zodiac Killer.

“There are suspicions that Donna Lass was a victim of the Zodiac,” said South Lake Tahoe Sgt. Tom O’ Conner. “But we haven’t actually ever established that she was murdered. We haven’t even found the body. She was a very responsible person, for her to disappear doesn’t add up, doesn’t make sense.”

Harvey Hines, a retired detective, said he has been investigating the Zodiac Killer since 1973. He retired in 1992 from a California police department ending a 30-year-career in law enforcement. He was joined Thursday by Mary and Don Pilker, Donna’s sister and nephew.

“What I’ve wanted to do for a long time is hand my case over to some agency and let them run with it,” Hines said. “I don’t care if I don’t get a dime’s worth of credit as long as someone closes it out.”

Lass, who had moved to South Shore from San Francisco, Calif., three months before she disappeared, was working a 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift at the nurse’s station. The last entry in her log at work was listed as 1:45 a.m. Donna should have been headed home to the apartment she had just rented on the California side, but Hines thinks she was abducted at work.

“There was a lot of evidence inside Sahara Tahoe Casino that she left directly from there,” Hines said. “She was a very personal person and she left a lot of personal items behind; an opened letter, a dirty uniform and on her log, a pen was dragged from the last word she wrote to the bottom of the page.”

Donna was never seen or heard from again. Her sister Mary came to South Shore to help search for Donna in 1970. She and several other family members spent about two weeks in the area hoping for a lead. Then they went back home to Sioux Falls, S.D.

“We drove her convertible home, packed all her things,” Mary said. “And we were scared the whole way home.”

Mary said she believes Hines’ report is the key to solving Donna’s case. She’s been in contact with Hines since 1974, but only recently did her family take a serious look at the information he compiled.

“After all these years I met with Harvey Hines about a month ago,” said Don Pilker, Mary’s 35-year-old son. “I went down to the Bay Area. I went through the report with him page by page. My commitment and mother’s commitment to him that day was that it’s now going to happen. We just want some resolve and we finally believe that he has got it right on.”

Law enforcement agencies took a cautious stance to the situation Thursday. Back in the ’70s, during the initial investigations of the Lass case, Douglas County and El Dorado may have been competing to solve the case rather than working together and sharing information.

“The guy has put a tremendous amount of time into it,” O’ Conner said. “When I read our old reports and the ones from Douglas County they didn’t quite make sense. When I heard his reports it helped fill in some of the blanks. I’m very interested in reading his entire report.”

Both the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and South Lake Tahoe Police said they plan to read over all reports including Hines’ and then evaluate the information they have.

“We’re committed to reviewing all aspects of the investigation and will bring forward any new information that’s relevant,” said Douglas County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tim Minister. “We’ve been in contact with the San Francisco Police Department regarding the Zodiac murders. As yet we can’t commit to say this is Zodiac-related. There’s been some investigating done on both sides and we plan to share it with South Lake Tahoe Police Department and they have agreed to do the same.””

From the Tahoe Daily Tribune, October (?), 2000 (this appears to have been a follow-up story to the article above):

“Harvey Hines thought he might be in trouble Oct. 15.

The investigator who has been knee-deep in his Zodiac killer investigation since 1973 got a call – a worrisome call – from a convenience store he frequents.

The employee said that around noon a man who claimed he was a good friend of Hines was in the store asking strange questions.

“He is on videotape because he came into a convenience store here (Groveland, Calif.) where they happen to know me,” Hines said. “He was asking where I lived, if I was still married.”

Concern increased when no one showed up at Hines’ house that day.

“My family was worried because we didn’t know who it was,” Harvey said. “I wasn’t frightened. I was concerned about my family’s safety. I broke out the firearm and had it ready. I didn’t know exactly what to expect. The fact that a person was asking about me and then didn’t come and see me … it’s about a minute’s drive from the convenience store to my house.”

Hines said the videotape is too murky to discern who the man was, but that he’s made arrangements to have the images cleaned up.””

–

Transcript of interview with Larry Lowe, conducted by Kenneth Mains and Sal LaBarbera –

KM: I’m an investigator looking into the Donna Lass missing persons case. I got your name from some files, and it indicated that you possibly knew Donna or lived with her?

LL: Both.

(…)

LL: She was a beautiful person. Just a really outgoing personality. Very sweet. 

KM: Do you think that she was trusting of people?

LL: Oh, too much, and I told her about that. I said, “You think everybody is your friend, Donna.” I said, “Be careful. You don’t want to be that trusting.”

SB: If somebody tried to steal something, take something, is she the type that would’ve fought back?

LL: Oh, yeah. She was tough. She was in good shape.

SL: We’ve come across a name during all of this. I don’t know if it rings a bell to you at all…Lawrence Kane? I don’t know if that’s a name that you’ve heard before.

LL: I knew him well.

SL: You knew a person by that name?

LL: Absolutely. That would have been about ’71. I opened a little tropical fish store, and within a month or so, this individual came in. (…) I’d been to his place several times because he was always having trouble, “Larry, you’ve gotta come look at the fish.” and stuff (…) This guy, he had — he collected everything.  He had some swords. I’m pretty sure he had some guns, but I mean, there was all kinds of stuff he collected.

KM: How about astrology stuff? 

 LL: I think he had a plaque or something of the zodiac, and  I think –

KM: Whoa, a what? He had a what?

LL: Like, a plaque, a round plaque of the zodiac on one of the walls.

SL: What do you mean by zodiac, though?

LL: I mean, isn’t there a zodiac calendar?

KM: Okay. A round calendar.

SL: Astrology calendar?

LL: Yeah, that’s what I mean, astrology calendar.

LL: (…) He was raised by his mother. He didn’t really have a father.

KM: What was his relationship with his mom? Did he talk about his mom a lot?

LL: Yeah, he was obsessed with his mother.

SL: Where did his mom live at the time?

LL: (…) Closer to the [San Francisco] Bay area. He would go down at least once every month or every two months.

According to Harvey Hines’s report, the land development company that Kane worked for during his initial stay in Tahoe was Lake Havasu Estates. See newspaper articles below for more information. The report also states that Kane was associated with Wellington Orient, a subsidiary of land developer Cavanaugh Leasing Corp.

(The Arizona Republic. September 29, 1970.)

(The Arizona Republic. October 31, 1976.)

(The Las Vegas Review-Journal. October 31, 1976.)

Excerpt, Rider McDowell’s On the Trail of the Zodiac, San Francisco Chronicle, May 08, 1994:

“The records also showed that Kane had used several aliases over the years including: Larry Cane, Lawrence Barton, and Larry Kaye. The suspect possessed three different social security numbers under various names, two different driver’s licenses, and claimed two different birth dates. Checking various official documents and work records, Hines learned that throughout the late 60’s and early 70’s Kane had changed the spelling of his name, enigmatically replacing Kane with Cane, and back again.

Hines pressed forward, convinced that Larry Kane was a valid suspect. He continued to investigate Kane, noting that Kane had left Tahoe for a time in 1971-74, shortly after Donna Lass’s disappearance. Checking the Nevada Real Estate Association, Hines found that Kane had then moved south, renting an apartment in Las Vegas (note: more specifically, Kane lived at the La Fonda Apartments, an “elegant”, upper middle-class apartment complex located at 2439 Spring Mountain Rd.) and selling real estate for developer Allen Dorfman.

In Vegas Hines met with Detective Fred “Andy” Anderson of the Las Vegas Police Department, inquiring whether any unsolved homicides in the Vegas area matched the Zodiac’s M.O. The detective related the circumstances of a lover’s lane kidnapping and murder on April 27, 1974 (two days shy of Kane’s fiftieth birthday and one day after his mother’s sixty-ninth birthday). A 15 year old girl, Dana Lull, had been abducted at gunpoint while sitting in her boyfriend’s car on an abandoned stretch of road at 10:36 P.M. The suspect had approached the boyfriend, Roy Tophigh’s, car wearing black gloves and holding an automatic pistol. Ordering Lull out of the car, the suspect then struggled with her as the boyfriend escaped. Lull and the suspect drove off in the suspect’s sportscar, described by survivor Tophigh as a 1968 sportscar convertible, possibly a Triumph, white with a black cloth roof, and a luggage rack. The car’s front grill was missing. Tophigh described the suspect as 5’9″, 160-170 lbs, with a round face, short dark hair, and horn rimmed glasses.

Two weeks later, Dana Lull’s body was found in an abandoned cinnabar mine shaft 125 miles away. She had been shot once through the head with a .22 long jacket bullet (similar in make and model to bullets favored by the Zodiac.)

Hines noted that in the police report the case was described as a “possible Zodiac murder.” He studied the case in terms of Larry Kane, a resident of Vegas at the time, and was astounded by his findings. Dana Lull had been kidnapped in suburban Las Vegas and driven 125 miles across the desert at night to an abandoned mine shaft on Mountain Springs Road (Google Maps link) (“Dangerous Roads” link). At the time, Kane lived five miles from the abduction point on Spring Mountain Road. A coincidence, Hines pondered, or a clue, the kind of taunting, in your face clue the Zodiac was renowned for? Why, after all, had the killer driven so far to dispose of the body, when he could have left it anywhere within the vastness of the desert? The burial site was consistent with the Zodiac’s M.O. of leaving his victims by a “body of water.” On the night of the abduction, an anonymous caller had rung up Dana’s parents to tell them, “Your daughter is dead.”

Incredibly, Hines learned, the suspect was stopped by a policeman one hour after the abduction, porting the young woman to her death. A Nye County, Nevada Sheriff’s Deputy, Tom Hannah, had observed the sportscar driving erratically on a lonely stretch of desert road at 11:40 P.M. Hannah had pursued and stopped the vehicle, and was met by the exceedingly courteous suspect, still wearing his black gloves, who proferred a temporary California driver’s license. The suspect explained he had driven down from San Francisco and was very tired. During his exchange with the suspect, Hannah noted the presence of a young sandy haired woman slumped in the front seat of the sportscar, and whom Hannah assumed was asleep. The woman remained motionless during the entire encounter. Hannah observed a small bumper sticker on the back rear fender of the car which said, “Save the Pup Fish.” He let the suspect go with just a warning.

Because Hannah was in the middle of the desert and out of radio range, he did not bother calling in the car’s license plate to his dispatcher. A fatal error. Nor had an APB on the sportscar in connection with Dana’s disappearance been tendered earlier that night, authorities being initially skeptical of Dana’s rather scruffy looking boyfriend, thinking at most they were dealing with a runaway. For a time, Tophigh was also a suspect.

Hines studied the case. Kane’s physical description matched the Dana Lull suspect down to the black driving gloves that, according to Hines’s investigation, the nattily dressed Kane had taken to wearing. More remarkable, a records search by Hines revealed that at the time of the Lull murder, Kane owned a 1968 MGB convertible sportscar, identical to the description of the car driven by the killer: white body, black cloth top, luggage rack. Roy Tophigh, Dana’s boyfriend, noted in his statement to police that the car’s front grill was missing. Checking with DMV records, Hines located the man who had bought the car from Kane in December 1974. The man told him the front grill had been “damaged or missing.” Hines described the bumper sticker, “Save the Pup Fish” on the rear fender. The new purchaser, a car dealer acquaintance of Kane’s, recalled a bumper sticker of some kind, but could not remember what it said. The man, however, related that Kane was a lover of tropical fish and had had a number of aquariums in his apartment.

Hines learned from Allen Dorfman, Kane’s former employer still residing in Las Vegas, that Kane’s favorite watering hole in Las Vegas was the Spring Inn on Spring Mountain Road, a short distance  from Kane’s apartment. In a police report filed by Roy Tophigh one month after Dana’s murder, Tophigh describes spotting Dana’s killer at the Spring Inn. Tophigh had attempted to telephone the police from the bar, at which time the subject left the bar.”

Suspect in the Lull abduction was further described as having short, curly dark hair and a round face. He was neatly attired, stood approximately 5’7 – 5’9″ in height, and weighed somewhere in the vicinity of 145-170 pounds with a “husky” build. Tophigh also stated that the suspect had a small mustache and wore ‘dark’ horn-rimmed glasses. He described the suspect as being “middle aged”, 30 to 40 years old (later revised to mid-30’s to 40’s.) Additionally, he stated that the suspect wore black leather driving gloves and carried a flashlight. Tom Hannah added that the suspect was ‘heavily’ tanned and very polished and polite in his manner. He was wearing a “sports type” jacket. The weapon used in the Lull killing was later determined to be a .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol type. Cartridges and casings recovered at the scene were .22 caliber long rifle ammunition, consistent with the ammunition used in the Zodiac killings of Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday.

Both Tophigh and Hannah would later identify Dana Lull’s abductor as Lawrence Kane on the basis of photo line-ups provided to them by journalist Rider McDowell, with Hannah (who asserted that he would remember the suspect if he ever saw him again) proclaiming: “I have no doubt this is the man I stopped. It’s his eyes and eyebrows, I could never forget them. I’d stake my life on the fact that he’s the guy.” It’s important to note, however, that Harvey Hines had presented Roy Tophigh with Kane’s picture on a previous occasion and received a somewhat more tepid response. See excerpt below.

Excerpt, Hines report:

“In February 1990, I went to North Lake Tahoe to attend a Background Investigation Seminar. While I was there I met with Roy Tophigh. Tophigh was with Dana Lull at Red Rock Canyon when she was kidnapped (…) I met him and his wife at Truckee at a bar-café. I presented Tophigh with a six picture line-up card. He studied it for several moments. Then he put his finger on Kane located in slot number five. Holding his finger on Kane he said, “No, it’s been too long.” I asked him if any of them were familiar? With his finger on Kane he said, “This guy, but I don’t know where. I can’t say he is the one that night.” I asked, can you say he is not the one? He said no.”

For a time, it was very strongly believed (though never conclusively proven) by Las Vegas and San Bernardino Homicide Detectives that Dana Lull’s murder was the work of 21-year-old Michael Knaubert. See newspaper articles below:

(The Phoenix Republic. July 20, 1974.)

(The Reno Gazette-Journal. August 08, 1974.)

(The Phoenix Republic. April 01, 1975.)

Wikipedia’s page on Allen Dorfman, for whom Kane was employed in the dual capacities of salesman and Public Relations officer – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Dorfman

From Wikipedia: “Allen Dorfman (January 6, 1923 – January 20, 1983) was an insurance agency owner, and a consultant to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Central States Pension Fund. He was a close associate of longtime IBT President Jimmy Hoffa and associated with organized crime via the Chicago Outfit. Dorfman was convicted on several felony counts, and was murdered in 1983.”

A caveat concerning the “Allen Dorfman” connection: It is my strong suspicion that Lawrence Kane was not employed by Allen Dorfman, as has often been stated, but was instead employed by a Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe-based real estate developer and Del Webb affiliate named Albert “Al” Dorfman. In his report (link), Harvey Hines states that Kane worked at the Sahara Tahoe as a sales representative and Public Relations Officer for a land development company named Wellington Orient, Inc. Wellington Orient, in turn, had a subsidiary called Miami Beach Vacations, which served as the development company’s sales and promotional arm. One of the partners in the Miami Beach firm (as well as a shareholder in Wellington Orient’s parent company, Cavanaugh Communities) was a public relations specialist, real estate developer, and former gambling racketeer named Albert Dorfman – not to be confused with the aforementioned Allen Dorfman. According to Albert Dorfman’s obituary, “[he] first came to Las Vegas in 1954, from Billings, Mont., as a minority partner with Milton Prell and Al Winters (sic), in the Club Bingo, which later became the Sahara Hotel, after it was purchased by Del Webb. He (…) moved permanently to Las Vegas in 1968. He was in public relations and real estate,; a partner in Miami Beach Vacations, with offices in the Sahara, Thunderbird, Mint and Dunes, as well as offices in Reno and Lake Tahoe.” Dorfman’s obituary also noted his association with William G. Bennett, who managed the Sahara Tahoe from 1967-1971, and the actor Buddy Hackett, who was Vice President of the Sahara-Nevada corporation. Furthermore, Cliff Jones, Albert Dorfman’s former business partner, was a majority shareholder in the Wellington Orient company. I would therefore suggest that Hines, when assembling his report on Lawrence Kane in the early 1990s, conflated Albert Dorfman (who went by “Al”) with Allen Dorfman due to their overlapping whereabouts and the similarity of name. Concerning Wellington Orient – it’s important to note that Kane apparently occupied an executive officer position within the company, which would be consistent with his working directly under Dorfman.

(Excerpt from the Harvey Hines report, courtesy of Alex Lewis.)

(The Las Vegas Review-Journal. April 29, 1974.)

(Hayward Daily Review. May 03, 1974.)

(The Las Vegas Sun. May 01, 1974.)

(The Las Vegas Sun. May 03, 1974.)

(The Las Vegas Review-Journal. May 02, 1974.)

(The Las Vegas Sun. May 02, 1974.)

(The Las Vegas Review-Journal. May 07, 1974.)

(The Las Vegas Sun. May 22, 1974.)

(The Needles Desert Star. May 23, 1974.)

Additional information concerning the murder of Dana Lull (Las Vegas, 1974) is available at the following address –

lawrencekane.wordpress.com/dana-lull/

‘Find A Grave’ memorial page for Dana Marie Lull

Excerpt, the Hines report:

“Dorfman said the only woman he ever saw Kane pay any attention to was Dorfman’s own wife. Kane would send her flowers and candy. Dorfman said it did not bother him because he felt it was Kane’s way of staying “tight with the boss.””

(Excerpt from the Harvey Hines report, courtesy of Alex Lewis.)

(“)

In late 1974, Kane returned to the Lake Tahoe area and went into business as a Real Estate broker. He was also involved (albeit without the requisite qualifications) in securities mediation.

08-10-1974, El Dorado Co., CA – Lawrence Cane receives traffic citation for speeding while driving a white MGB convertible, CA plate # TDY274.

(Excerpt, Hines report. Credit: Alex Lewis.)

Excerpt from interview with Rider McDowell conducted by the producers of the ‘Monster: Zodiac Killer’ podcast:

“What’s clear is that Larry Kane really was an odd person. He was up to something. (Narration: One time, Kane asked a female real estate agent to show him a house out in the middle of the desert.) She went out there to show this house, and…there’s nobody there, but she went into the house and started looking around. You know, you’re in the middle of nowhere and really vulnerable (…)While she’s in the house, a hearse pulls up, and it was the guy from the mortuary, and he says, “Well, I had a call here to pick up a body.” And it was just…so creepy, and it so freaked out this woman that she quit her job, and Larry Kane was just a creepy, odd character.”

(Additional details: Kane apparently rewired his telephone to divert charges on long-distance phone calls. Once arrested, he was also found to be in possession of a “black box” telephone device. He later succeeded in having both charges expunged from his record. Neither charge appears on his rap sheet.)

(The Gardnerville Record-Courier. February 08, 1979.)

(The Gardnerville Record-Courier. October 18, 1979.)

(Credit: Sandy Betts. Source. )

Excerpt, Court transcript, 02/1979:

“Q: On that date did you have occasion to serve a warrant on Mr. Cane, the defendant in this case? A: Yes. Q: Where did you go to serve that warrant? A: To his residence on McFaul. (…) Q: What were you directed to look for in that warrant? A: A device known as a black box. (…) Q: What happened when you arrived at the residence? A: Knocked on the door, identified ourselves, identified myself. When  Mr. Cane came to the door, identified myself by showing my badge and ID card. (…) Advised him I had a search warrant; gave him a copy of the search warrant. He invited us into the house. Q: After Mr. Cane opened the door, what occurred? A: He asked what we were there for. I gave him a copy of the search warrant and told him we were looking for a device known as a black box, and I asked him where his phone was. Q: Did he indicate where it was to you? A: Yes. He pointed out a wall phone in the kitchen. (…)I told him we had reasonable cause to believe there was a black box on a telephone in his apartment, and that we had a search warrant; and that we didn’t want to have to go through all his stuff in his apartment. We weren’t interested in that. We were just interested in the black box. He said, “I do have another phone in the bedroom. Maybe that is what you are looking for.” (…) He led us into the bedroom. There was a phone on a desk, a plug in type phone where there is a plug in the wall. On the phone was a switch. The telephone company representative looked at it. He said that was the phone that had the black box on it. (…) Q: Did you ask Mr. Cane to give you a statement with regard to his knowledge, regarding the circumstances of his possession of this particular telephone? A: Yes, but we didn’t obtain one. He would not waive his rights and so we didn’t take any written statement.  Q: Did he make any statements or admissions in your presence? A: (…) We kept asking him if he wanted to waive his rights. He kept talking at the same time. We couldn’t get him to be quiet long enough to waive his rights. (…) Q: Was there anyone else in the apartment, besides him? A: No.”

–

“Q: Do you see anything connected with Plaintiff’s Exhibit A which would indicate to you that a black box is connected thereto? A: Yes, I do. Q: And what, specifically, do you see? A: The wiring has been modified, and what looks like a 5,000 ohm resistor has been placed in series with that line, through a switch, off-on type switch. (…) Q: Have you looked at a lot of telephones? A: Yes, I have. Q: And have you ever seen a resistor attached to a telephone in that manner? A: No, I have not. Q: Have you ever seen a switch attached to the side of the phone in that manner? A: No, I have not. (…) Q: All right. Does it change the voltage or number of amps? A: The position that this resistor is in and the switch, if the switch was on, it would impede the flow of the current in a particular telephone circuit. (…) Q: Now, based upon your testimony you advised us that the activation of the resistor would make it possible to bypass the billing apparatus, correct? A: Yes. Q: Would this device, when activated, permit incoming calls from anywhere in the country without charge to the caller or call party? A: Yes.”

–

“Q: Have you made an investigation concerning telephone ownership or use by a certain individual, namely, Mr. Lawrence Cane, in this area? A: Yes. (…) Q: And can you tell us what address he gave as the area where this phone service was connected? A: His last service address was 407 McFaul, Casa Del Sol, Apartment 21. (…) Q: Will you tell us the telephone number that was assigned to him? A: The last number that he had assigned was 588-6876. Q: Did he have that number from January – or excuse me – September ’78 to January  ’79? A: Sometime he changed his number, let me see. He connected that number on 2-8-77. Prior to that he had a number 588-5376, and then changed it to a non-published number, which was the 6876.”

“Q: Excuse me, did your list tell you how many calls you received from Incline Village? A: This is only – the ALOHA works on a sampling basis, we don’t print up all calls. (…) Q: Then the ALOHA did pick up an indication at least one call came from Incline Village? A: That is correct. Q: At least one call from Santa Rosa, California? A: That is right. Q: At least one call from the race track at Golden Gate Fields? A: That is correct.”

(Above: Excerpts culled from 1979 court transcript. Of note: Kane denied any previous criminal convictions and claimed that his true name was Lawrence Cane – assertions which seem to have gone unchallenged by the court.)

(Kane’s handwriting. Late 1970’s. Kane provided the sample during an interview with Sgt. Adler and Lt. Forbush of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Lawrence Kane’s address at this time was recorded as 408 McFaul Way, Round Hill Village, Zephyr Cove, NV. Court proceedings from 1979 listed his address as 407 McFaul Way, Apartment # 21, Casa del Sol apartments, Zephyr Cove. Credit: Harvey Hines; Zodiackiller.com)

(Excerpt, Hines report. Credit: Alex Lewis.)

(Extract from the Hines Report originally published by Alex Lewis. Source: welshchappie.wordpress.com. I was able to identify the following volumes from the list above: The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Demonology; Window to the Past: Exploring History Through Extra-Sensory Perception; Beyond the Reach of Sense: An Inquiry Into Extra-Sensory Perception. The aforementioned titles were available for selection via the Universe Book Club, a “book of the month” club devoted to astrological and “occult science” subjects (as well as esoteric subjects, more broadly.))

Excerpt, Harvey Hines’s report:

“It should be noted, however, according to Adler the books were selected through a book of the month club.”

(Above: Advertisements for the Universe Book Club, ca. 1970. See previous excerpts for context.)

(Excerpts from The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology, Rossel Hope Robbins, 1959. Notice parallels between the torture methods detailed in the passages above and concepts utilized by the ‘Zodiac’ in the “Little List” letter. )

10-01-1980, Placerville, CA – Lawrence Kane arrested on charge 484(a) – theft of personal property.

(California Death Index listing for Kane’s mother, Sarah Benjamin. Santa Clara, CA. December 13, 1982. Attribution: Ancestry.com. Strangely, the Social security number provided on Sarah’s death certificate actually belonged to a man named Harry Kane (no relation) who died on May 17, 1974 in Los Angeles, CA. More anomalous still is the fact that Harry Kane’s death entry in the Social Security index records his date of passing as January, 1983. This is indicative of a somewhat elaborate case of identity fraud. On that note, it should be remembered that Lawrence Kane possessed multiple Social Security numbers.)

(California Death Index listing for Harry Kane, whose Social Security number was listed on Sarah Benjamin’s death certificate. See previous caption.)

(Social Security Death Index listing for Harry Kane. Harry Kane was interred at Sholom Memorial Park in Los Angeles County, California, along with his wife, Sara Karger Kane, who passed away in 1970.)

(The Escalon Times. June 01, 1988. From the article: “It was in Lake Tahoe that Hines confronted his suspect. He was doing a week-long documentary with a Portland, Ore., television station and Hines, the news reporter, and the cameraman went to Tahoe looking for Hines’ Zodiac killer suspect (Kane). “We interviewed him, and he went berserk,” Hines said. The Escalon police officer recalled they spotted the suspect driving in downtown South Lake Tahoe and followed him to a roadhouse. The next thing he knew, Hines saw the reporter talking to the suspect on camera. “I heard the reporter say ‘this policeman believes you are responsible for killings in the Bay Area.’” Hines said the suspect pushed the reporter. Undaunted, the reporter continued to ask prepared questions devised by Hines to determine if, indeed, the suspect was the Zodiac killer. The suspect pushed the reporter again, before returning to his car. “When he got to his car, he reached down under the seat,” Hines said. “I figured he was going for a gun and we had had it.” Instead, the suspect came up empty-handed with a funny look on his face, Hines said. The suspect then went inside the roadhouse. Hines and the television crew followed intent on asking more questions. “The last question was, “are you the Zodiac killer?”” That question created a commotion in the roadhouse, and before they could get an answer, Hines said they were hustled outside by bouncers. When they got back outside, Hines said they found the suspect’s companion in the vehicle had reached below the same seat the suspect had looked under and pulled out a zippered pouch. In the pouch was a weapon.”)

(Certificate of Delinquency of personal property tax on California boat vessel # CF0407HK, registered in name of Lawrence Cane. 1990.)

(Release of Lien on California vessel # CF0407HK, registered to Lawrence Cane of Zephyr Cove, NV. January 1991.)

(Arrest record. Source: Alex Lewis. It is important to note that the FBI’s listed date of birth for Lawrence Kane, April 26, 1924, is likely predicated on information provided during his 1980 arrest. This interpretation is further substantiated by the inclusion of “in 1980” qualifiers next to his occupation and place of residence. The police likely obtained this date from Kane’s driver’s license or identification card and it should therefore be considered self-reported. Additionally, the FBI has the incorrect Social Security number for Kane (101-12-2960, rather than 101-12-2950) , so I would advise the reader to exercise caution when using this document as a reliable source for biographical information. It also warrants mention that April 26 was his mother’s birthday. // 116 Ponderosa, Skyland, Zephyr Cove, NV)

(FBI documents obtained by researcher Alex Lewis. Source: welshchappie.wordpress.com.)

Extract, Rider McDowell’s On the Trail of the Zodiac, 1994:

“(…) Reading the report Hines saw that Kane had lied to investigators, denying that he’d ever used an alias, or lived in San Francisco. He explained that his past police record involved such harmless things as “pissing against a building,” another lie.

According to the police records of the interview, Kane had consented to a polygraph, then advised the investigators that due to his earlier brain injury and medication, a polygraph would be worthless. Concedes Forbush, “If other things now point in Kane’s direction, or if we can prove he lied on material points, absolutely he would have to be reconsidered as a suspect.”

Many hundreds of phone calls were made over the past 18 months, as I worked to strengthen the case against Kane. Over two thousand dollars in phone bills coughed up some seemingly significant additions to the case. Tom Hannah, the retired Nye County Sheriff’s Deputy who stopped the suspect in the Dana Lull killing on the lonely desert road at night, contended that he would remember the suspect if he ever saw him again. A photo line-up of six 3×7 photos sent to Hannah, yields an exciting development. Hannah selects Kane out of the line-up, proclaiming, “I have no doubt this is the man I stopped. It’s his eyes and eyebrows, I could never forget them. I’d stake my life on the fact that he’s the guy.”

Also precipitated by the seemingly endless stream of phone calls is a “tentative” ID by Roy Tophigh, Dana Lull’s boyfriend who witnessed her abduction. Tophigh, who is sent the same photo line-up as Hannah, misreads the corresponding numbers on the backs of the photos. He selects a number other than Kane, at which point I indicate our actual suspect, and Tophigh cuts in, “That’s the one I meant. I was reading the wrong number.”

I also succeed in locating Bryan Hartnell, survivor of the Lake Berryessa attack, now a prominent California attorney. Hartnell had spoken to a hooded Zodiac for fifteen minutes, and tells me he would remember the voice if he heard it again. In the course of our conversation, I relate Kane’s background, mentioning his brain injury in an auto accident. Here Hartnell stops me, indicating that the speech pattern of the Zodiac, a barely perceptible stutter, would be consistent with a brain injury survivor. “I’ve never mentioned this before, probably because it never occurred to me.”

I locate Kane’s unlisted number and manage to engage him in a phone conversation over some gauzy premise. I record my conversation with the glib, rather agreeable (notably, this wasn’t the first time that Kane had been described as “glib”  – see 1952 newspaper clipping) Kane, noting rather remarkably the presence of the subtlest stutter. I play a section of the conversation along with equal sections of two other male voices of the same age, for Hartnell over the phone. He replies: “The third voice (Kane’s), his speech pattern is certainly consistent with the voice I heard, although it’s been too long to be certain.” 

As I’m winding up my research on this piece, calls are made to Larry Kane to ask point blank his opinion of Hines’s allegations. The first eight times (note: Reportedly, Kane required incoming callers to use a “code” before he would pick up.) I call, I get a recording on an answering machine, the kind of celebrity voice recording for sale at joke shops. The message is always the same, a second rate impersonation of Alfred Hitchcock, soliciting you to leave a message. The final fifteen seconds of the message is filled with the blood curdling sound of a woman screaming, a terrible, chilling sound, made more terrible given the context of the call.

I make two trips to Kane’s South Lake Tahoe condominium, once with Hines, once alone. There is no answer at his door, nor do his neighbors,who admit to having little to do with the man in the corner condominium, know when he’ll return.

Finally one afternoon I reach Kane by telephone and ask for his side of the story. There is a hesitation, then, “I don’t wish to discuss that. How did you get this number?” Another hesitation, and Kane hangs up, and I listen for a moment to the sound of the empty line. I don’t call back, nor do I leave my number on his machine in a subsequent call, should he have a change of heart.”

Excerpt from an interview with Rider McDowell conducted by the Monster: Zodiac Killer podcast:

“I interviewed Kane one time. He was a very creepy guy, but not so you’d necessarily notice if you were behind him in a store or something. I don’t know what his life was like, but he lived in this condo and would walk around and go into town and have coffee, and his voice was so…it had this Brooklyn accent, this New York accent, and it seemed to me that that would have been noticeable in either the phone calls to the cops or at Lake Berryessa. (Narration: But Rider says one time he played a recording of Kane’s voice to Bryan Hartnell, the survivor of the Lake Berryessa stabbing.) He said there were similarities to it because there was a little bit of a hiccup. Kane, he didn’t stutter, but there was kind of a pause.”

(Interpol State Liaison Office inquiry, addressed to Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and dated November 06, 1995. Filed by criminal investigator Terry Callison on behalf of the NV Division of Investigation. How and why Kane came to the attention of the Nevada Division of Investigation/Interpol is unclear.)

(Source: Zodiackiller.com)

(Lawrence Kane, age 18, Naval Reserve Enlistment Mugshot, February 1943. Courtesy of The History Channel.)

(Lawrence Kane (Kaye) in Naval uniform, included in June 1943 letter to Eileen Barton. Attribution: Rex Strother. Source: www.findagrave.com/memorial/62207774)

(Kane concealing his face from reporters, 1952.)

(Lawrence Kane, 1968. It should be noted that this image has been altered – glasses have been digitally superimposed over the original photograph. I’m unclear on the origins of this edit, though I assume that it was created (by Harvey Hines?) for demonstrative purposes. The original, unaltered version of this image can be seen briefly in a 1998 episode of America’s Most Wanted. To reiterate – Kane was not wearing glasses in the original photograph. See image below.)

(Unedited (though grainy) version (sans photoshopped glasses) of the image featured above.)

(Lawrence Kane. August 29, 1968)

(Larry Cane, alias Kane. June 28, 1976.)

(Larry Cane, alias Kane. June 28, 1976.)

(Lawrence Kane, date unknown. Courtesy of The History Channel.)

(Source: Rider McDowell, On the Trail of the Zodiac.)

(Above: 1976 CA driver licenses issued under the name of Larry Cane. Note that Kane uses an alternative date of birth and Social Security number. This would seem to confirm that Kane had at least one fraudulent Social Security card in his possession, as it would have been necessary to present the card to the DMV prior to having the correspondent number listed on his Driver’s License. His secondary address is recorded as the Lake Tahoe Inn, located at 4110 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe, CA, though it should be noted that this was the location of his office rather than his actual place of domicile.)

–

(Excerpt, Hines report. Credit: Alex Lewis. It bears mentioning that “Box C, Stateline, NV” was the mailing address of the Sahara Tahoe Hotel-Casino. See below.)

Excerpt, The Hines Report (Credit: Alex Lewis):

“I then ran a driver’s license check of Kane and Allen Dorfman. The suspect, under the alias of Larry Cane, showed a driver’s license number of N3490622, with a P.O. Box 375, Zephyr Cove, Nevada address. The driver’s license also showed an address of Tahoe Inn, South Lake Tahoe, California. The license also indicated “Restricted to Corrective Lenses.” An NCIC check on the suspect came back clear. The above address is no longer current. More recent information indicated he now lives at the Cave Rock Apartments in Zephyr Cove, Nevada. He owns condo number 16.”

(The Gardnerville Record-Courier. May 04, 1989.)

(Social Security Death Index listing for Kane’s father, Morris H. Klein. Attribution: Ancestry.com)

(Credit: Sandy Betts, Zodiackillersite.com. Note Kane’s use of a fictitious social security number.)

(The Las Vegas Review-Journal. July 04, 1997.)

(Credit: Seagull, Zodiackillersite.com)

(Tahoe Marketing Inc., Nevada Unclaimed Property Index.)

(Archival Business Directory Listing for South Lake Tahoe, CA.  Source: Whitepages.)

(Above: Compilation of public index sources.)

(Above: 1994 and 1998 United States Public Records Index listings for Lawrence Cane of Zephyr Cove, NV. Both entries list a (fictitious) birth date of November [01], 1930.)

(Above: Employment information for Lawrence Cane. Source: Beenverified. Attempts to locate business registration information for Tahoe Marketing Inc. in the state of Nevada haven’t yielded any results, though I can confirm that Kane did indeed operate a business under that name. First Concept was a securities brokerage/flotation company. It was registered through an attorney and “Anonymous Corporation/LLC” service, so information regarding this company is likewise elusive, though, interestingly, it had a listed revenue of 1.5-1.7 million dollars. Kane’s phone number was listed as the contact number for this latter company. According to researcher George Horwedel, First Concept also listed a physical address of 237 Tramway Drive, Stateline, NV. Upon cursory review, it would appear that this was a mailbox location for companies using the aforementioned “Anonymous LLC” (Nevada123) service.)

(While residing at the address listed above (1302 Cave Rock Dr. A, Zephyr Cove, NV – described in real estate listings as a four-story condominium/townhome overlooking Lake Tahoe), Kane is also known to have used the following (fictitious) addresses – 1201 C Ave.; 310 Portland; C Ave. # 1;  8685 C Ave. According to documents filed with the El Dorado County clerk of court, he also maintained a lakefront property in South Lake Tahoe, CA, which he operated as a vacation rental during the summer. In addition to the above-listed properties, he owned a plot of land located at 3962 Crest Rd. in South Lake Tahoe.)

(Above: 1302 Cave Rock – this was Kane’s primary place of residence from 1989 until his passing in 2010. Image attribution: NNRMLS. Click here to see the front exterior of the Cave Rock property as it appeared during Kane’s residence there.)

Lawrence Kane passed away on May 20, 2010 in Reno, NV. He was interred at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley, NV.

(Lawrence Kane (Cane), Social Security death index.)

(Lawrence Kane (Cane), Nevada state death index.)

(The Gardnerville Record-Courier. September 08, 2010.)

(Kane’s grave. Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Fernley, NV. Source: https://billiongraves.com/grave/LAWRENCE-CANE/17332744)