Did Zodiac killer spend final days in South Sound?

A California man is trying to convince the FBI that his stepfather, who died in the Olympia area about two-and-a-half years ago, was the San Francisco Bay Area's notorious Zodiac killer.

Dennis Kaufman, 41, of Pollock Pines, Calif., said his stepfather, Jack Tarrance, died in Thurston County in August 2006 at the age of 78.

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Zodiac killer's crimes

The following are among the slayings that the Zodiac killer is suspected of ...

• On Dec. 20, 1968, Betty Lou Jensen, 16, and David Faraday, 17, were found shot to death on Lake Herman Road, near Vallejo, Calif., outside Faraday's mother's station wagon.

• On July 5, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau were shot repeatedly while in Ferrin's vehicle parked at the Blue Rock Springs Golf Course in Vallejo by a man who shone a light on the car before opening fire on the occupants. Ferrin was killed. Mageau survived, despite being shot three times. Minutes after the shooting, an anonymous man placed a call from a pay phone to the Vallejo Police Department "to report a double murder." The man also claimed credit for the Jensen and Faraday homicides.

In letters to the San Francisco Chronicle and other Bay Area newspapers in late July 1969, the Zodiac killer claimed responsibility for the Jensen and Faraday murders, as well at the shooting that killed Ferrin and wounded Mageau, giving details known only to police. Ciphers sent to the newspapers were decoded and read in part: "I like killing people because it is so much fun it is more fun than killing wild game in the forrest because man is the most dangeroue anamal of all to kill."

• On Sept. 27, 1969, Bryan Hartnell and Cecilia Shepherd were stabbed repeatedly by a man dressed in black and wearing a black hood while picnicking at California's Lake Berryessa. Shepherd died, and Hartnell survived. He reportedly is a lawyer now in Southern California.

• On Oct. 11, 1969, San Francisco cab driver Paul Stine was shot and killed in his car by a passenger in the back seat on Washington Street in San Francisco. On Oct. 14, Zodiac sent the San Francisco Chronicle a letter claiming responsibility for the murder. The letter contained a bloody piece of Stine's shirt.

In one of his last letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, Zodiac claimed responsibility for 37 murders.