Zebra Murders - The First Wave of Murders

The First Wave of Murders

On October 19, 1973, Richard Hague, 30, and his wife, Quita, 28, were kidnapped by a group of men and forced into a white van as they took an after-dinner stroll near their home on Telegraph Hill. Quita was fondled by two men and then nearly decapitated by a third with a machete. One of the men who had fondled Quita then similarly hacked Richard and left him for dead, but he survived.

Ten days later, on October 29, Frances Rose, 28, was repeatedly shot by a man who blocked her car's path and demanded a ride, as she was driving up to the entrance gate of the University of California Extension.

On November 9, a 26-year-old gas company clerk, Robert Stoeckmann, was assaulted by another man but was able to take the gun away and fire back. The attacker, Leroy Doctor, was later arrested and convicted of assault with a deadly weapon.

Saleem "Sammy" Erekat, a 53-year-old Jordanian Arab Muslim, was bound and shot execution-style in the restroom of his grocery store on November 25.

On December 11, Paul Dancik, a 26-year-old artist, was shot three times in the chest by a man as he was preparing to make a telephone call at a pay phone.

Two days later, on the evening of December 13, future San Francisco mayor Art Agnos, then a member of the California Commission on Aging, was attending a meeting in Potrero Hill. Agnos, 35, was in the largely black neighborhood to discuss building a government-funded health clinic in the area. After the meeting ended, Agnos was talking to two women curbside when a man shot him twice in the back. Agnos barely survived the attack.

During the same evening, Marietta DiGirolamo, 31, was walking along Divisadero Street when she was shoved into a doorway by a man and shot twice in the chest, and when the shots spun her around, once in the back. She died.

On December 20, "Angela Roselli" (not her real name), a 20-year-old college student, was shot three times near her apartment by one of two men. She survived, although one bullet nicked her spine.

An 81-year-old janitor, Ilario Bertuccio, was shot that same evening while walking on his way home from work in the Bay View district. He died almost instantly after four shots to the shoulder and chest.

On December 22, two more victims died within six minutes of each other. Neal Moynihan, 19, was killed while walking near Civic Center while doing his Christmas shopping. A man had walked in front of him and shot him in the face, neck, and heart. The killer (or perhaps a different killer, per authors Cohen and Sanders) then chased down 50-year-old Mildred Hosler as she was heading to her bus stop, and also shot her four times.

The killings stopped for five weeks, then resumed on January 28, 1974, with five more shootings. Tana Smith, 32, was shot while walking to a fabric store. Vincent Wollin, 69, was shot while walking home. John Bambic, 84, was shot while collecting discarded bottles and cans. Jane Holly, a 45-year-old housewife, was gunned down while doing her laundry in a laundromat, and Roxanne McMillian, 23, was shot while carrying items from her car to a new apartment she and her husband had rented.

Only one of the victims, Roxanne McMillian, survived, although she would use a wheelchair for the rest of her life. (A sixth victim that night whom authors Cohen and Sanders tie to the killers, Thomas Bates, a hitchhiker who survived being shot three times near Emeryville, had earlier been mentioned by author Howard, but not counted by him in that night's totals.)