The Zodiac, the hooded serial killer who menaced the Bay Area 40 years ago, has so fascinated the public that major motion pictures, books and blogs have been devoted to sifting through clues for his identity.
Just when you thought every angle had been covered, along comes Deborah Perez, who announced at a raucous sidewalk news conference in San Francisco that the Zodiac was her dad and she rode in his car when he went out to kill.
Perez, 47, a real estate agent who lives in Corona, has, by one estimate, joined about 1,200 people who have boasted of knowing the identity of the man who stalked lovers lanes and taunted the police with letters to the media.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Perez said she had come forward to assuage her own conscience.
"I am not a wacko," she said. "I am not looking for 15 minutes of fame. This is not about that. This is about getting the truth out and telling the truth for these families."
She said she had gone to the FBI and the police, but was disappointed by their reaction.
"They all dragged their feet," she said. "This is my life that is on hold. This is my childhood. My life. My conscience does not allow me to not" come forward.
Perez, the mother of five boys, said her father was a "Jekyll and Hyde" character who did not abuse her. She said she was born in Mexico, as was her mother, and grew up in Santa Ana and Orange. Her father, Guy Ward Hendrickson, was born in North Dakota and died in 1983.
She said the killings were not all random. The Zodiac killer is blamed for at least five slayings. "Some were methodically planned by my father," she said, adding that he knew some of his victims. She also said she accompanied him as a 7-year-old on a few killings and wrote the Zodiac letter that was sent to Melvin Belli, the late flamboyant trial lawyer.
At a news conference Wednesday outside the San Francisco Chronicle, Perez said her father was the killer who terrified the city in 1968 and 1969. He was a nut, she and her spokesman explained. They also handed out video trailers of a documentary that is being made about her monster father.
Perez is making her public disclosure with help from Kevin McLean, a disbarred lawyer who for years worked as Belli's law partner. He said he is now a business manager.
McLean accompanied Perez to the news conference and said he is assisting her without pay. During the 20-minute meeting with reporters and Zodiac buffs, Perez appeared somber and sad, as befitting someone who had discovered her beloved father was a serial killer.
