How about this guy as a suspect?

This was interesting reading... 1962 murder case,Alameda County, lovers lane murder, the female victim was stabbed multiple times. The police were looking for a "husky" man described as being 19 years old.

They found the guy, his name was Ronald Lee Steuteville. He was sentenced to 5 years to life. How does someone get only 5 years? Obviously if this guy was incarcerated at least 5 years, he couldnt be responsible for the 1963 Santa Barbara murders, nor the 1966 Bates murder. And who knows, maybe he served longer than 5 years, and wasnt even out in time for the 12/20/68 LHR murders.

But this was interesting nonetheless, so I figured I would get some opinions, considering he would have fallen in Zodiac's aprox age bracket, was husky, and struck in Alameda County where Z sent letters from.

From the 7/13/62 Oakland Tribune:



From the 10/9/62 Oakland Tribune:


Here is a pic of him showing police what happened...its not really a clear pic, but he doesnt look "husky" to me.


I tried to find a record of this guy in CA, and didnt find too much.
I did find this guy with similar name, and age:

Name: John Ronald Steuteville
Birth Date: 23 Oct 1942
Gender: Male
Mother's Maiden Name: Lee
Birth County: Solano


Anyone have anyore on this guy? How much time did he serve?

WOW, Starless from the site www.officialcoldcaseinvestigations.com made the following post:

"I will not place this man's name on here, but I wanted to post this anyway. He committed a murder at a lover's lane in 1962. Seemingly for almost no reason. I have been told that this man was a high school drop out and that he was also rejected from entering the military. During the time of his 1962 murder he was living near several military bases in the heart of the later Zodiac mystery.
His murder at the Lover's lane was known as "The Twist Murder" because at first his victim was unidentified. She was wearing some undergarments that had a dancing girl embroidered on them that appeared to be doing The Twist. She was found dumped off in the brush, stabbed multiple times at the lover's lane.
She was later identified, and folks at the party she had attended when she was last seen said she got in a fancy green sedan with a man and left the party, leaving her own vehicle there. It was later recovered at the Alameda address of the party. The victim was known to frequent parties, known as a real party girl. She had numerous sailor boyfriends.
From the description of the vehicle she was seen getting into, a suspect was quickly developed. Police went to his residence, searched his fancy green car and found a lot of blood stains all over the front seat of the car. He was taken in for questioning after vehemently denying having anything to do with the killing in front of his wife, and he agreed to take a lie detector test. During the course of the test, he confessed to the murder.
He says that he and the victim had taken a long drive that night out U.S. 40 to Port Costa and then on to the lover's lane in El Sobrante. He stated that he wished to drop her back at her car in Alameda but that she insisted on staying at the lover's lane, messing with his ignition when he tried to start the car to leave, pulling the keys out. He said he became angry and stabbed her to death.
This man was married, and his wife divorced him while he was in prison in 1966. Shortly thereafter, a month or so, he was released from prison and immediately married another woman. He is still to this day married to that other woman and after living in California for quite a while, they moved to Montana, where they reside today.I have learned that this man had several other run ins with police after he was released from prison, but the records of these incidents are hard to find. Hopefully I can get more information.
I will post a photo of him. I will remind everyone that this picture is from 1962, so if he were to be involved with the Zodiac murders, this would be a full 8 years later after the photo was taken. I really do feel if more information were to be found that he could be potentially a very strong suspect. I don't think messing with a man's keys is a good enough reason to stab a woman multiple times, and I am personally not buying his story. I think he wanted to kill her, end of story. I think this man had a real inferiority complex where military men were concerned, he was a wannabe, even at one time working as a lookout on a Whaling Ship for a company that operated out of a Merchant Marine base also right in the heart of Zodiac territory. Maybe it is even possible that his lover's lane victim made some crack about him not being a real sailor or something to that effect. He also was at one time a Golden Gloves boxing champ and a machinist by trade.
We'll see what else can be developed about him later. I could not obtain, thus far, a sample of his handwriting.
This man was known by everyone as "Lee." He was born in Solano October 23, 1942. Lee has stated that he met his lover's lane victim at a popular San Pablo driv-in restaurant and that they arranged to meet at the Alameda party. He stabbed her with a paring knife he always kept with him in his car."

If she is accurate, and his name is really John R. Steutesville, then this obit. may be of interest:


Charles Henry Guzzo, 81, of Yuba City, Calif., died Thursday, Sept. 30, 1999, at Rideout Memorial Hospital.
A Requiem Mass will be celebrated by his nephew, Father M. Raphael Joseph Guzzo, FBA, of Queen of Angels Monastery in Wooster, and will be announced at a later date. Burial will be in Saint Mary Cemetery in Wooster.
Arrangements are being handled by Lipp and Sullivan Chapel in Yuba City, Calif.
Surviving are his wife, Helen H. Guzzo of Yuba City, Calif. and six sons, Ronald Charles Guzzo of Oakland, Kenneth Robert Guzzo of Akron, Todd Lee Steuteville of Napa, Mark Ronald Guzzo of Yuba City, Calif., Charles Elmer Steuteville of Fairfield and John Ronald Steuteville of Boone, Colo.

In fact, there are several records for that uncommon last name in NAPA.

Not sure how many of the napa people with his last name are his relatives, but his brother TODD LEE, has previously lived at various Napa addresses on the following streets- Eggleston, Alexander St, W Lincoln Ave, whitman St, and Adrian St. I Wonder how close one of these streets was to Berryessa?

Interesting Morf.

he would have been in prison for the Santa Barbara couples murder in 63. We don't know for sure if that was Z, but I tend to think it was, based on MO and ballistics.

But if he got out before October 30, 1966 - sheesh! This guy should be checked out. With Montana, you have the "Deer Lodge, Montana" reference made by Zodiac of course, relevant to my POI as well.

But this guy should be checked out - a lovers lane murderer. Though he did kill a lone woman there, his date, not a couple. But it could have given him a compulsion to return to lovers lanes. Who knows?

I see the tradition of being able to legally murder your wife or girlfriend (OJ, Robert Blake) in California is of long standing! Beat generation hero Neal Cassady, a pal of Jack Kerouac, got 5 to Life in California in the early sixties for selling some marijuana!

AK Wilks wrote:

Interesting Morf.

he would have been in prison for the Santa Barbara couples murder in 63. We don't know for sure if that was Z, but I tend to think it was, based on MO and ballistics.

But if he got out before October 30, 1966 - sheesh! This guy should be checked out. With Montana, you have the "Deer Lodge, Montana" reference made by Zodiac of course, relevant to my POI as well.

But this guy should be checked out - a lovers lane murderer. Though he did kill a lone woman there, his date, not a couple. But it could have given him a compulsion to return to lovers lanes. Who knows?

I see the tradition of being able to legally murder your wife or girlfriend (OJ, Robert Blake) in California is of long standing! Beat generation hero Neal Cassady, a pal of Jack Kerouac, got 5 to Life in California in the early sixties for selling some marijuana!

How does the guy only do 4 years? That boggles my mind. Sure would give him a reason to taunt police, plus his wife left him as well while he was in jail.
This guy seems like he was a bit timid based on his statements to police, that the girl wanted him to stay there, and he wanted to leave. She repeatedly took the keys out of the ignition. Wonder if she called him names or taunted him by making fun of him wanting to leave ,instead of staying there and getting more intiment with her. She really must have egged him on for him to stab her repeatedly like that.

I agree, this guy should be looked at a bit more, not just because of his previous crime on a lovers lane, but also because of the Napa, Solano County, and Alameda connections he had- all places Zodiac either struck, or mailed letters from.

Odds are he wanted to take it further sexually, and as it was a first date, she didn't want, and he reacted with fury.

Yeah this guy should be checked out.

I dont know of another confirmed lovers lane killer from that area, during that decade besides this guy, so yeah...he should be checked out. If he was Z, then I am sure that his prints would have been on file with police, and likely he would have been caught after the Stine murder...if the Stine prints were really from Z.

Almost forgot, the date of him killing her was 7/6/62

Maybe he only got four years on account of a successful insanity defence? I dunno. And it wasn't just the cab prints they ran, morf - all of them were run.

Nachtsider wrote:

Maybe he only got four years on account of a successful insanity defence? I dunno. And it wasn't just the cab prints they ran, morf - all of them were run.

Good point NACH...still, that article did not mention anything about insanity, the attorney asked the judge to go lightly due to his clients age of 19. It looks like he bought it.

Now the person that said he was released after 4 years was a poster named STARLESS on another site. I personally dont know if he was released after 4 years. She also said that he was divorced from his wife in 1966, and that is a fact, I checked. Also, STARLESS said that this guy moved to MT. I dont know if she verified that or not, but there was a guy by the same name in MT, but he looked like he was a local politician there in MT, and unlikely that it could be a killer just out of jail, so there is a possibility that he never went to MT.

Lastly, STARLESS said that everyone called this guy LEE. She said his DOB was 10/23/42. And the article also calls him RONALD LEE STEUTEVILLE

Well I found this guy, same last name, and same DOB that STARLESS claims was this killer's DOB.
Name: John Ronald Steuteville
Birth Date: 23 Oct 1942
Gender: Male
Mother's Maiden Name: Lee
Birth County: Solano

Now I see that his mother's maiden name was LEE, but I dont see how LEE was used in the article, since LEE doesnt appear to be part of his name.

Bottom line, the guy I found born 10/23/42 in Solano County, HAS TO BE THE SAME GUY. The only questions are, when was he released, what happened to him, and what did he look like at the time of the Z murders?

This is second hand information, so I cant say for sure if it is accurate, but the person I contacted was in touch with someone close to this guy. Supposedly, this person confirmed that this guy DID in fact, get out of jail in 1966. He allegedly also had a further run-in with the law later on in CA... some sort of possible sexual assault, again, I am not saying that is true, only relaying the info here.

One little clue, regarding the "MELVIN EATS BLUBBER" reference Zodiac made- the reference may be connected to the following pins that were circulating:

And Z simply changed it to Melvin.

But also of interest, this POI also worked on a whaling ship at one point, that was docked in a pier where alot of merchant marines left out of. Hence "blubber", like whale blubber, is interesting. Also, Ray Grant mentioned that EUREKA CA (1990 Eureka Card possibly from Z), has whale wathing as a big tourist attraction. I havent checked that out, but that is also interesting.

I did find out that this POI was not allowed to enter the military for some unknown reason, and had a strong resentment of military, and police.