The lie detector is in use today much as he developed it. Leonarde Keeler, though not the inventor of the lie detector, had done the most to refine the machine. As late as 1998 the Supreme Court would rule lie detectors unreliable. The lie test is not permitted as evidence in court except by stipulation because it is undependable and subject to the interpretation of the operator. As with all scientific evidence, these tests need to be evaluated. A polygraph or Psychological Stress Evaluation test should never be used as the sole judge of a person’s innocence. What is possible is the detection of stress (and in a few cases the covering up of stress). Erle Stanley Gardner wrote in his Court of Last Resort, “Lie detection is impossible. Polygraphs measure changes in pulse, blood pressure, and breathing, but can be tricked by really good liars.4 Even the term “lie detector” is a misnomer. Lie detectors, a favorite investigative tool, are fallible and register false positives about fifteen percent of the time. “A polygraph machine is only a stress detector and anxiety detector,” Toschi told me.
a hyperthymic (highly emotional) individual unable to establish normal social contact.”įinally police decided to give him a lie-detector test. (“Explain what is going on in this picture.”) Indirectly, his answers revealed aspects of his subconscious feelings and personality-“he has a violent fantasy life. During TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) evaluations, Allen was asked to make up stories based on simple line drawings portraying people in ambiguous situations. He took all his tests in this fashion: “He would not smile or show emotion and would speak in a low monotone.” He took tests as a man drugged. In order to pass various psychiatric tests during his incarceration, Allen boned up on the proper responses to make.
For his third step, he and a companion began building a bomb to blast their way out of the prison. For the second stage of his plan, he hoarded his daily medication and got a job in the dispensary. In his long outdoor chess game with authorities, Allen seemed always one step ahead. He repeated the same remark to women he knew.
Everyone knew Leigh was imprisoned for child molesting, not for being Zodiac. “If Zodiac writes one letter while I’m in here,” he wrote earnestly, “then that will clear me of being the Zodiac.” The remark was puzzling. Leigh, signing himself “Drawer A,” wrote Jim in Sonoma. She verified that he was the suspect through the Santa Rosa District Attorney, John Hawkes.” I believe he was somewhat jovial about it, but never admitted to the crimes. She asked him directly if he was the murderer. At one point, I think my mother called him there and spoke to him. He wrote to her that they suspected him of the crimes. “While Leigh was in Atascadero,” a Vallejo source told me, “I think that’s when my mother first became aware he may be the Zodiac. He was a molester of young boys, however, and has been committed to Atascadero State Hospital.” A Sonoma County man recently was considered a Zodiac suspect but was ruled out, according to Sonoma Sheriff’s Captain Jim Caulfield. Sonoma County’s seven young female victims all were dumped in rural areas. Zodiac threatened in one rambling letter to torture his victims, and Sonoma County has some murder victims who were tortured to death through slow strangulation and by administering strychnine.
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“Zodiac is still considered a possible suspect in a series of Sonoma County killings.