The Most Dangerous Animal of All (41 page)

— July 14, 1934

Earl Van Best Jr. is born in Wilmore, Kentucky.

— September 7, 1949

Van enrolls in Lowell High School, in San Francisco, and meets William Lohmus and Bill Bixby.

— August 19, 1957

Van marries Mary Annette Player.

— January 4, 1959

Mary Annette files for divorce on the grounds of extreme cruelty and inhuman treatment.

— October 1961

Twenty-seven-year-old Van meets thirteen-year-old Judy Chandler.

— January 5, 1962

Van marries Judy in Reno, Nevada, without her mother’s permission. The next month, Judy’s mother has the marriage annulled.

— February 22, 1962

Van is arrested for the rape of a female under eighteen years old. He is released on bail. Charges are later dismissed.

— February 12, 1963

Earl Van Dorne Best, son of Earl Van Best Jr. and Judy Chandler, is born in Southern Baptist Hospital, in New Orleans.

— March 15, 1963

Van abandons his son on a stairwell in an apartment building in Baton Rouge.

— April 19, 1963

Judy and Van are arrested in New Orleans. Judy is charged as a runaway, and Van is charged as a fugitive of California.

— May 17, 1963

The state of Louisiana grants custody of Earl Van Dorne Best to Loyd and Leona Stewart.

— August 13, 1963

Van is sentenced to one year in state prison, suspended, and four years’ probation for the rape of a female under eighteen years old.

— October 23, 1963

Van is arrested on fraud charges. He is sentenced to three years in state prison. In November, he is charged with two additional counts of fraud by wire and sentenced to ninety days in Atascadero State Hospital. Upon his release from Atascadero, he is sent to San Quentin.

— January 21, 1964

Loyd and Leona officially adopt Earl Van Dorne Best, and his name is legally changed to Gary Loyd Stewart.

— July 12, 1965

Van is paroled from prison.

— June 6, 1966

Van marries Edith Kos.

— October 30, 1966

The Zodiac kills Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside, California.

— December 20, 1968

The Zodiac kills Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday on Lake Herman Road near the Benicia water-pumping station in Benicia, California.

— July 4, 1969

The Zodiac kills Darlene Ferrin and shoots Michael Mageau at Blue Rock Springs Park, in Vallejo, California.

— July 27, 1969

Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil kills music teacher Gary Hinman after holding Hinman hostage in his home with the help of Susan Atkins and Mary Brunner.

— July 31, 1969

The Zodiac sends the 408 cipher in three sections to the Vallejo
Times-Herald
, the
San Francisco Examiner
, and the
San Francisco
Chronicle
.

— August 9, 1969

Manson Family members Charles “Tex” Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Susan Atkins kill Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, and Steven Parent.

— August 10, 1969

Charles “Tex” Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel kill Leno and Rosemary LaBianca at Charles Manson’s behest.

— September 27, 1969

The Zodiac kills Cecelia Shepard and wounds Bryan Hartnell at Lake Berryessa, in Napa County, California.

— October 11, 1969

The Zodiac kills cabdriver Paul Stine in San Francisco.

— November 8, 1969

The Zodiac sends the 340 cipher to the
San Francisco
Chronicle
.

— March 22, 1970

The Zodiac gives Kathleen Johns and her child a ride in what Johns would perceive as an attempted kidnapping. They escape from his vehicle.

— April 1970

Judy Chandler meets SFPD detective Rotea Gilford.

— October 20, 1973

Richard and Quita Hague are killed in San Francisco, the first victims in the Zebra murders, a series of racially motivated killings that end in April 1974.

— January 1974–September 1975

The Black Doodler kills fourteen gay men in San Francisco. He is never caught.

— June 19, 1974

Rotea Gilford and Judy Chandler are married.

— November 18, 1978

In Jonestown, Guyana, 909 people die in a mass murder/suicide orchestrated by Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple.

— November 27, 1978

San Francisco mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk are killed by Dan White in city hall.

— March 28, 1984

Earl Van Best Sr. dies and is given a military funeral at Arlington National Cemetery.

— May 20, 1984

Van dies in Mexico City.

— March 13, 1998

Rotea Gilford dies in San Francisco from complications resulting from diabetes.

— May 1, 2002

Judy Gilford contacts Leona Stewart, looking for her son.

— June 1, 2002

Gary meets his mother.

— April 6, 2004

Judy meets with former San Francisco chief of police Earl Sanders to discuss Van’s criminal file. The Zodiac case is officially closed in San Francisco that same day.

— June 16, 2012

Gary’s adoptive father, Loyd Stewart, passes away.

— December 9, 2012

Forensic document examiner Michael N. Wakshull determines that the handwriting on Van and Judy’s marriage certificate matches that in the Zodiac letters.