The "Deer Lodge Gang" Edwards/Dryman/Bujok

RE: The "Deer Lodge Gang" Edwards/Dryman/Bujok

Over at Zk.com, they have a good thread going about possible Deer Lodge connection to Z.
In Edwards' autobiography, he mentioned serving time with a guy that claimed his victims would be "slaves in the afterlife". That guy was possibly DONALD (DON)BUJOK. Bujok wrote alot of letters to the editor back in MT, and was fond of the word 'SHALL' (as was Zodiac). He also wrote a letter to the editor about the EXORCIST (as did Z). Dryman, who was also serving time there was originally from NAPA. I know for a fact that in 1951 when Dryman was arrested for murder, he was living in VALLEJO, as I found an article that mentions it. After Edwards got out, he was in CA at some point, and he also had convictions later on for a lovers lane double murder.

These are 3 very interesting fellas in my opinion, and the fact they all knew each other from Deer Lodge, and had some connection to the Vallejo area, wrote letters to the editor, etc, and the fact Z mentioend he was from Deer Lodge, all makes this pretty powerful in my opinion.

THEFOREIGNER found some really good stuff about these 3 guys. I hope she will post more about it here. I never have suspected that Z was part of a team, but with these 3, and their backgrounds, it doesnt seem too far fetched now after seeing their connections and background. They all were cold blooded killers, and all got out of prison one way or another, despite their violent pasts. The question is, were one or more of these guys in the Vallejo area during the Z murders??? If that could be proven, that would be very powerful.

I do wonder if these guys prints are in any databases?

Bujok's mother's maiden name was 'Zulevic' (sounds alot like Zodiac)

Not sure if he had any relatives in the bay area, but there are several Zulevics in the Bay area.

Rufus discovered the Frank Dryman/Valentine/Houston story and started this thread a while back...and I ran with it. I was lucky enough to speak with the reporter from Montana who did a big story about Dryman--so, I was able to get a bit more of an insight. The reporter was kind enough to send me handwriting samples of this man.

https://zodiackillersite.forummotion.com/t161-frank-dryman-found-after-40-years?highlight=DRYMAN#1331

Dryman's fingerprints were NOT in the national fingerprint data-base.

tahoe27 wrote:

Rufus discovered the Frank Dryman/Valentine/Houston story and started this thread a while back...and I ran with it. I was lucky enough to speak with the reporter from Montana who did a big story about Dryman--so, I was able to get a bit more of an insight. The reporter was kind enough to send me handwriting samples of this man.

https://zodiackillersite.forummotion.com/t161-frank-dryman-found-after-40-years?highlight=DRYMAN#1331

Dryman's fingerprints were NOT in the national fingerprint data-base.

Thanks Tahoe, reading thru it again.. Are the writing samples posted, I didnt see them,unless i missed them

I have a source I dealt with before in the MT area that did some digging for me previously. May take a couple weeks, but I will try to dig up all I can including photos or mugshots.

Tahoe, what is your take on all this?? Very intersting I think.

His mugshot is posted in the link I provided. He is probably worthy of moving to the "other suspects" thread.


Middle photo from his time at Deer Lodge Prison.

tahoe27 wrote:

His mugshot is posted in the link I provided. He is probably worthy of moving to the "other suspects" thread.

I did see that, and I have seen Edward Wayne Edwards mugshot too.. I was wondering if anyone had the Bujok mugshot?

No Bujok yet...

I added Dryman's mugshot above.

I think the Deer Lodge guys are very interesting to say the least! I mean, how many guys have Vallejo/Napa/Deer Lodge connections?

I never posted the handwriting samples. At the time, I felt a confidence with the reporter and posting the samples publicy was questionable for me. Let me think about it...

tahoe27 wrote:

No Bujok yet...

I added Dryman's mugshot above.

I think the Deer Lodge guys are very interesting to say the least! I mean, how many guys have Vallejo/Napa/Deer Lodge connections?

I never posted the handwriting samples. At the time, I felt a confidence with the reporter and posting the samples publicy was questionable for me. Let me think about it...

What is your opiinion on the writing?

Nothing jumped out. Some similarities. I need to go back and look--seems like he wrote in all caps. If I remember correctly, he was writing about his life and family--his (not so good) relationship with his father.

Bujok had a Family member, likely his Brother, that lived in King's County CA during the 70's. And I found an article that stated, Donald Bujok had been in the army in Fort Ord CA prior to his arrest

One weird thing, all of the letters to the editor in the newspapers from Bujok, start in October, 1973. That is weeks after his Father died. Not sure why he suddenly started writing letters right then.

I know some people think that the town mentioned by Z at Berryessa was in fact NOT Deer Lodge, but someplace else. The day before the Berryessa attack, the San Mateo Times ran an AP story about a prison riot in an Inidanapolis prison, in which someone was killed. Sometimes, I wonder if Z made the escape thing up after reading a news article, and since that one was from the day before Berryessa, that one is of interest. The Oakland Tribune also ran this AP story on the morning of the Berryessa attack. Very possible Z read it, and used the prison escape backstory, although these Deer Lodge guys are of interest for sure.

The Indianapolis prison was located in FALL CREEK twp.

Dryman's last name was Valentine. Reminds me of the stickers inside the HC: http://www.zodiackiller.com/Stickerz.html
Was this another clue about his identity contained in the HC?

rand wrote:

Dryman's last name was Valentine. Reminds me of the stickers inside the HC: http://www.zodiackiller.com/Stickerz.html
Was this another clue about his identity contained in the HC?

Pretty interesting

yes, TF's find of the letters to the editor that Bujok wrote is quite intriguing. I was at Dahlia's house when I was reading Seagull's copy of the Edwards autobiography and came across the page mentioning some inmates he recalled from Deer Lodge.

Dahlia found a memorial page dedicated to under sheriff Fossen which gave Donald L. Bujok's name. She looked up dates of birth and death til we were sure this was the same guy Edwards mentioned. Here is the page from Edward's book.



Since Dryman got paroled after serving 13-14 years of his life sentence, it seems likely the same thing happened to Bujok. So far, I have not been able to find any records of Bujok's release.

I should also add that to the best of my knowledge, it was Dr. Doogie who first presented Edwards as a possible Zodiac suspect.

Dryman seems to have been paroled in 1969 (not sure what month), but this could make it definite he could not have killed F&J.

Edward Wayne Edwards was apparently paroled in 1967, so he could be a possibility. And the 3rd wheel from MT, Bujok, I dont think anyone knows for sure yet, but I am working on that.

Yes, Dahlia contacted the Montana Department of Corrections and they looked for any records on Bujok Since the Department purged a lot of files in 1984, they couldn't find any release/parole information for Bujok in their system. Let's hope the other avenues people are looking into will shed some light on when Bujok got out.

morf13 wrote:

Dryman seems to have been paroled in 1969 (not sure what month), but this could make it definite he could not have killed F&J.

Edward Wayne Edwards was apparently paroled in 1967, so he could be a possibility. And the 3rd wheel from MT, Bujok, I dont think anyone knows for sure yet, but I am working on that.

Dryman was released early January of '69.

morf13 wrote:

rand wrote:

Dryman's last name was Valentine. Reminds me of the stickers inside the HC: http://www.zodiackiller.com/Stickerz.html
Was this another clue about his identity contained in the HC?

Pretty interesting

And there is clearly a prominent F (for Frank) and V (for Valentine) in the strange HC symbol (which I've always believed is a stylized version of Z's name because he put it where the signature would be in the card, and where the return address would appear on the envelope)





And there's even an r (for Robert) if you flip the other wing, like this:

"A talented artist from the time he was a child, Dryman picked up sign painting and drafting while in prison. He earned his diploma and was taking corre­spondence courses to earn his engineering degree."

--From Great Falls Tribune, Montana 4/4/10

Several months ago, I spoke with John Cameron, the retired homicide detective from Great Falls MT who fingered Edwards as the Zodiac. He forwarded to me a copy of his report to LE detailing all his "evidence." If anyone is interested in reading this report, PM your email address to me and I'll send you the pdf file. Be warned, however, that his attempt at decrypting the ciphers leaves a bit to be desired.

-tbz

thebigZ wrote:

Several months ago, I spoke with John Cameron, the retired homicide detective from Great Falls MT who fingered Edwards as the Zodiac. He forwarded to me a copy of his report to LE detailing all his "evidence." If anyone is interested in reading this report, PM your email address to me and I'll send you the pdf file. Be warned, however, that his attempt at decrypting the ciphers leaves a bit to be desired.

-tbz

Yeah I want to read it. Soooooo send it to me Please.
What else can you share about your talk with John Cameron?

Much thanks, Zam*

Zamantha wrote:

thebigZ wrote:

Several months ago, I spoke with John Cameron, the retired homicide detective from Great Falls MT who fingered Edwards as the Zodiac. He forwarded to me a copy of his report to LE detailing all his "evidence." If anyone is interested in reading this report, PM your email address to me and I'll send you the pdf file. Be warned, however, that his attempt at decrypting the ciphers leaves a bit to be desired.

-tbz

Yeah I want to read it. Soooooo send it to me Please.
What else can you share about your talk with John Cameron?

Much thanks, Zam*

Well, when I said I "spoke" to him, we actually just facebooked each other a few times (I contacted him, of course). And if Facebook wasn't blocked here at work, I could copy and paste some of the dialog, but alas. So to make it brief... Nice guy and hell-bent on proving that EWE was the Zodiac (and that he murdered Ramsey as well). There are some very interesting similarities, however, I believe that Edwards himself denied that he was Zodiac (not that you could believe him either way). Cameron was working on getting a DNA comparison done, but I think LE brushed him off. In one of his last messages, he expressed quite the disgust for LE and claimed they were all being ignorant. The cipher decryptions were done by a friend of Cameron's, but the "solutions" are downright goofy.

Im posting some letters to the editor found by theforeigner on zk.com.
I didn´t see the pictures anywhere over here but I think they really should be looked at.
If theforeigner would like to edit and add some writing to the pictures, that would be nice.
I dont have an account at ancestry.com but anyone that have should perhaps find the remaining letters to the editor and post them over here..

Don Bujok, Roundup.