ARTNY over at Zodiackillerfacts wrote this:
I have done some extensive research on GEMS (Gordon Earl Marais)
and although the newspaper report makes him sound like a crackpot
he is a good person of interest. I have given all my material to Vallejo PD
so they can look into him further if they chose
He was born in 1918 & although he's abit older, looking at his photograph
you'd say "it could be him". He was a WWII veteran, 8th Army Air Force
& a Merchant Marine Married in 1947 Lived in Southern California. Divorced in 1968
In Mar 1973 he burglarized a store named "zody's" in San Bernadino, was caught red handed
and was sent to a mental hospital (Patton in San Bernadino) where he escaped
in August 1973. He had a history of escaping from mental institutions or just
walking away from them. One of the details I had suggested the VPD to look
into is his whereabouts & whether or not he walked away or escaped from a
mental hospital days before the Sept 27, 1969 attacks at Lake Berryessa.
The Berryessa attacker had told Hartnell he was an escapee
Although the news story made him sound like a crackpot he was far from that,
his friends described him as Clever, Intelligent, but troubled. He had traveled
abroad and he passed himself off as a prominent diamond dealer from NY and had
fooled dealers in England for 20 years
His ex wife was a well loved woman by the community and was known for her
handcrafted baskets, her crafts were featured in a news story in the LA times
& 2 weeks later Zodiac wrote his one & only letter to the LA Times There is no conflict in his dates of incarcerations vs dates the z letters were
written Even the date of his final arrest, he could have sent all of the 1974 letters
He stole a Greyhound bus in Laurel Maryland and drove it to the New Jersey
entrance of the Holland Tunnel, where the bus broke down. Police officers
saw the broken down bus & he remained so calm about the ordeal, the police
helped him by calling greyhound so they could arrange assistance for him.
He calmly just walked away, it took 3 hours for greyhound & the police to
realize the bus had been stolen. (Fouke & Zelms goof)
When he was arrested on July 19, 1974 for threatening to break into the
Russian Embassy, he was only held because of his warrant from california
(the zody's burglary & escaping prosecution).
When CA decided not to prosecute he was released.
July 30, 1974 he was arrested for the final time for the fires & death of the
Priest in NY, (zodiac threatened in the October 27 1970 halloween card, by
Fire, By Knife etc) He called the NY Daily News & UPI 7 times during the 24
hour Arson Spree and not only claimed to be the zodiac killer, but the content
of those calls led police to a carved ink pen threatening message written on
a cross, which brings to mind the Riverside desktop poem.He had also made a statement "I've been in all the newspapers for years"
GEMS known crimes are out of the standard geographical area for offenders
Personally I dont believe the geographical area matters in this case given that all
of the crimes (except berryessa) were committed on long Holiday weekends ,
Christmas, July 4th & Columbus Day when people generally drive further away from home.
I could not eliminate GEMS as a suspect, im not a police officer or an experienced investigator,
but I forwarded all the info I did find to Vallejo PD, like any person of
interest its up to the police to investigate them further
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Mon Apr 11, 2011 11:01 am
