DCD with her mother and her father, Donald Cheney.

This week was the birthday of my ex’s dad: Donald Lee Cheney. That may seem like an unusual thing to take note of, especially since he died in 2009. But then, Donald Lee Cheney was the man who alerted the Pomona police, way back in January of 1970, that he feared his friend Arthur Leigh Allen was the Zodiac killer, who murdered at least five people in Bay Area in the late ‘60s — and who may have killed many more. Cheney mentioned comments made by Allen that eerily echoed passages in the taunting letters the Zodiac wrote about his crimes, as well as a Zodiac watch worn by Allen. (Police eventually found reason to serve search warrants, and most investigators became convinced Allen was the killer, although he was never charged with any of the Zodiac crimes.) And Donald Lee Cheney was even accused by some people of being the Zodiac himself.

Zodiac movie

I already thought Don’s daughter (who we’ll call DCD) was one of the most interesting people I’d met, even before she told me about her dad. I met her in the late ‘70s, before Robert Graysmith’s 1986 book Zodiac first pointed the finger at Allen — who Don’s family knew as Leigh — and long before John Carroll Lynch portayed Allen in David Fincher’s film by the same name. But even back then, she was convinced. “I’ve thought it had to be Leigh for 55 years now,” she told me recently.

DCD recalled, “I think last time I saw Leigh was when my dad and I went fishing with him on his boat in the summer or early fall of 1967. For some reason, my mom and brother didn’t go with us that time…I remember parts of that day extremely well. It was the first time I was going to have my very own fishing pole. Okay, it was my mom’s white fishing pole, but since she wasn’t coming, it was to be my pole for the day. I was so excited! I remember Leigh driving and towing his boat. When we got to the water, we discovered that my fishing pole was gone! It must have fallen out on the way. I went from so happy — anticipating fishing with my own pole — to completely devastated. I cried so hard. I remember so clearly how disappointed I was, but beyond that, I was terrified that I was going to be in big trouble because I lost my mom’s pole. It’s funny how we remember some things so clearly, and completely forget other things.”

Those other things involved Leigh. “It was a day or two later I told my parents, ‘Uncle Leigh touched my bottom.’ I do not remember that. According to my mom, that was the last time I saw Leigh. After I said that, we never saw him again. As far as my mom knows, my dad only saw Leigh once after that, on January 1, 1968.”

DCD's mom and dad. "The first photo of my dad in my grandparents' photos.”

In October of last year, Netflix brought renewed interest in the famously unsolved case of the Zodiac killer with the documentary series This Is the Zodiac Speaking. The title is taken from his letters, but it had an unpleasant significance for DCD. If you watched the series, you may think you heard Don Cheney’s voice on an original police interview tape, saying that he last saw Allen in 1969. I had met Cheney a few times, and even I thought it was his voice at first. But I soon decided that it was someone attempting to sound like him, reading aloud from a transcript. DCD concurred. “That is not my Dad’s voice,” she said. “It is [someone] reading a transcript from what I believe to be the interview my Dad did with Tom Voigt” — in 2000. “The fake voice says ‘disturbed spirit.’ The Voigt interview is the only place I ever heard my Dad use that phrase.”

Both Voigt and Zodiac author Graysmith “claim the last time my Dad saw Leigh was 1969. But it was January 1, 1968! My Dad started a new job in Pomona in late January 1968. He bought a house in Pomona on La Vitta Avenue. I started kindergarten in 1968 at Arroyo Elementary School. Leigh’s new Zodiac watch was still in the package it came in from Christmas 1967. You can read the original police reports. Getting known facts wrong intentionally really chaps my hide.” 

The discrepancy matters, because it has led many Zodiac investigators — both amateur and professional — to accuse Don Cheney of changing his story. But, said DCD, “My Dad only became confused about the year more than three decades later, when Tom Voigt convinced him it must have been 1969. Before that, it was always 1968. In fact, he said 1968 in the [Voigt] interview before being convinced otherwise. My Dad remembers helping Leigh move after he lost his teaching job. Because of this, [Voigt] said it must have been 1969, because Leigh didn’t get fired until spring of 1968. The thing is that Leigh was fired more than once from teaching.” 

Arthur Leigh Allen taught at Travis Elementary, Travis Air Force Base, California, until reportedly being fired in 1963 for having a loaded weapon in his car on school grounds. Then in 1966, Allen began teaching at Valley Springs Elementary in Valley Springs, California, where his teaching career is said to have ended in 1968 after he was fired for molesting a student. “My Dad helped Leigh move after he was fired from the Travis teaching job, not Valley Springs.”

DCD wants the record corrected, for the sake of her father’s reputation. In the interview with Voigt, Cheney brings up the incident between Leigh and his daughter. This caused many people to chatter online about why Cheney would even stay friends with Allen after such a transgression. “He didn’t,” said DCD. “After I said, ‘Leigh touched my bottom,’ my mom, my brother, and I never saw him again. That was probably summer or early fall of 1967. My Dad only saw Leigh once after that, a few months later, and that was New Years Day 1968. When he got home, he told my mom he didn’t want to see Leigh ever again, and he didn’t.”

The belief that Cheney changed his story has even led some people to suspect the man himself. One YouTuber has built a channel and written a book about Cheney, proposing that he is either the real Zodiac killer or was Allen’s accomplice. The YouTuber tracked down DCD online: “Photos that he took from my Facebook page cropped me out and were used on his YouTube channel. I have seen his cropped versions spread all over the place. With me cropped out, people are talking about how shifty my Dad looks. I prefer the truth of the full pictures. But how to do that without jumping into the fray of the comments sections?”

The Cheney family in their backyard.

After the true crime crowd got hold of the alleged discrepancy, they were loath to let go. Online debates raged over why Cheney waited years before notifying police of his suspicions about Allen. “He didn’t,” said DCD. “It was less than three months from the time my Dad suspected Leigh until he went to the police. My Dad didn’t become aware that Leigh might be the Zodiac until the middle of October 1969, after he read an article in the L.A. Times that quoted the letter talking about picking kids off as they came ‘bouncing off the bus’…He remembered Leigh saying exactly the same thing. My Dad wasn’t the kind of person to jump to conclusions and run to the police with such serious accusations without careful consideration. He thought about it. His suspicions were based mostly on events from nearly two years before, that he had tried to put out of his mind. Before reading that article, there was no reason to contact the police about a creepy conversation with a man known to be creepy.”

DCD’s and her father at her grandparents’ home in Pomona, circa 1966.

Before speaking to law enforcement, “He talked with my mom when they thought I was out of earshot. I was well aware that adults said the most interesting things when they thought there were no kids around. I often sat quietly listening to the grownups talking in hushed tones. He had told my mom about what happened that New Year’s Day in ’68. They talked about the time Leigh showed my dad how you could tape a flashlight to a gun and use it as a sight in the dark [a method reportedly used by Zodiac]. They discussed the fact that Leigh was extremely vindictive, and it might be dangerous for our family if my Dad went to the police. They talked about doing the right thing.” 

In the end, Cheney did wait — but not for years. “He waited until after the holidays. It was a busy time of the year with Halloween, Thanksgiving, my sixth birthday, Christmas, and a New Year coming. He wanted to be sure. He waited until he could talk to his friend — Leigh’s brother and the best man at my parents’ wedding.” Donald Cheney had in fact once been roommates with Arthur Leigh Allen’s brother. 

Christmas at DCD's grandparents' home in Pomona, circa 1968.

“Leigh’s brother and sister-in-law came to our house in Pomona and sat at our kitchen table with my parents. I hid around the corner listening. My Dad recounted his last visit with Leigh. How he had gone over to Leigh’s basement and found him writing thank-you notes for birthday and Christmas gifts. How Leigh had asked him to help by putting stamps on the envelopes.” Cheney has mentioned licking those envelope stamps in interviews — an act that some have accused Cheney of bringing up in order to deflect suspicion if his own DNA were ever found on a confirmed Zodiac letter.

DCD recalled, “Leigh’s brother laughed and said ‘He never licked stamps or envelopes. He hated the taste. He always got someone else to lick them or used a damp sponge. Hell, he’d even get the dog to lick them!’ At that point, I laughed out loud, and gave away that I was listening. My mom came around the corner and suggested I go outside or to my room. I pretended to go to my room, and then snuck back to continue listening. I was not going to miss a conversation that had dogs licking stamps!”

She recalled, “They talked about the way both Leigh and Zodiac spelled things wrong for fun. How Leigh spelled Christmas as ‘ChristMass,’ just like Zodiac. Both Leigh and Zodiac liked having ‘Fun with Phonics,’ just like we learned in school. ‘Sound it out’ still echoes in my mind all these years later. Both Leigh and Z’s misspellings follow the rules taught in Hooked on Phonics lessons.”

"Christmass"

She also recalled, “They talked about Leigh being able to use both hands equally to write and do other things. They went over all the known dates and places Zodiac struck. They tried to prove it couldn’t be Leigh. They couldn’t.” The four grownups were able to place Allen in the right places at the right times to be Zodiac, based on the murders known about at the time. They were also able to place him at several other unsolved murder sites. 

“They talked about a time Leigh had been visiting them in Pomona. If he had gone south instead of north when he left, it put him exactly in the right place at the right time for a couple that was killed on a beach in San Diego” — February 5, 1964, already a suspected Zodiac case by 1969. “They knew he was in Riverside for the races when that girl was killed at the library” on October 30/31, 1966. “They talked about another couple on a beach with a shack. They knew Leigh was in the area at the time” — June 4, 1963. “There seemed to be many couples killed on beaches, and several times, unsolved murders happened when Leigh was visiting southern California. They talked for quite a while. There was a lot of stuff that Leigh had in common with Zodiac. They couldn’t find any evidence that would rule Leigh out.”

When they were done talking, “Leigh’s brother said he absolutely could not be the one to turn in his own brother for this. But he wouldn’t hold it against my Dad if he did — and that when the police came to question him, he would answer honestly. After that, my Dad felt he had no other option but to tell the police. It was pretty unlikely for it not to be Leigh, all things considered.”

DCD with her father at their home in San Francisco, circa 1965.

On January 10, 1970, Cheney drove to the Pomona police station to talk about his suspicions. DCD was six years old. She recalled being with her dad on that day. “My mom, my brother and myself waited in the car. When my dad got back in the car, he said, ‘Well, that’s going in the round file.’ That really stuck with me, because I had no idea what a round file was. I remember leaning forward and asking repeatedly, ‘What’s a round file?’ It’s a trash can.”

Donald Cheney didn’t talk only to the Pomona police. “When nothing came of that, my Dad called our former neighbor from Concord. He was a cop with either the San Francisco Police department or Concord PD. This guy knew my Dad to be trustworthy and took him seriously. His commanding officer, however, did not. He said, ‘Everyone is turning in everyone,’ and nothing more happened.” (The Netflix documentary has Graysmith getting this sequence of events backwards, a notable error. “He says Concord, then Pomona. It was definitely the other way ‘round.”)

Cheney next talked to his friend and employer Sandy Panzarella, who also knew Allen. “Sandy was also one of my Dad’s and Leigh’s brother’s roommates while at Cal Poly. Sandy Panzarella decided he was going to get someone in law enforcement to take this seriously, despite the fact that his wife was adamant that he have nothing to do with it. She never liked Leigh, and feared he would kill all of us when he found out who turned him in. As a very successful businessman, Sandy had some clout. He called someone he knew at Manhattan Beach PD, who contacted SFPD, and eventually [detectives] Armstrong and Toschi came down and talked with my dad and Sandy at work — Science Dynamics in Torrance, California.”

Contra the narrative, said DCD, “My Dad didn’t wait very long to contact the police. But it did take a long time and multiple attempts to get anyone to listen. For decades, people have been twisting the facts and flat out lying about my Dad and me. Some people have twisted things so far from reality that they think my Dad was Zodiac. I was there at the beginning. I just want to remind everyone how the conversation began —with the facts.”

DCD did grant that the publicly repeated errors about her dad — while annoying and misleading and sometimes heartbreaking — did yield some positive results. Consider the YouTuber who claimed that her dad was complicit in Zodiac crimes. “It was his insane lies about my Dad that first made me feel a need to contact Dave Seawater” — who, as a boy, had accompanied Leigh on holiday trips along with his sister Connie. In This is the Zodiac Speaking, Dave relates that Leigh confessed to him that he was the Zodiac, and also that he drugged and molested Dave’s sister Connie. DCD says “I probably never would have found Connie again all these years later if I wasn't so concerned about all the lies. We first met on the beach in 1967 and, oddly, that is a memory that stuck with both of us all these years. As for me finally speaking out, that credit goes to Connie.”

DCD said that in the documentary, “the Seawaters’ story was heavily edited. They could have done six hours of just the Seawaters, and not covered it all. It’s definitely worth watching, and although it leaves a lot out, they get most of it right.” Almost more importantly, “I’ve become quite close with Connie. Talking with her has answered so many unknown and forgotten questions for me. Most recently, I’ve remembered why I have always mooed at cows. I couldn’t explain why, but I always felt it was very important to moo every time I saw a cow. Connie remembers Leigh would always say, ‘Look, a deer’ when he saw a cow, and then he pretended to shoot it with his hand in the traditional finger-gun gesture.”

Allen’s killer pantomime every time he saw a cow bothered young DCD, who — then as now — is a devoted animal lover. It bothered her so much that it never completely left her mind. “I had long forgotten why it felt so important to identify cows as cows. I find it comforting to remember why I feel the way I do…I’ve often wondered why I felt so strongly about cows, and why it felt defiant to moo at them. I often don’t know why I feel the way I do about things, but I do know my intuition is more accurate than my thoughts.”

She had other memories. “I remember Leigh singing. It made a lasting impression on me, because it was so confusing. There was something about Leigh that is difficult to explain. He had a way of communicating far beyond his words. He would sing these bouncy upbeat songs with a smile on his face, and a glint in his eye. But the stories these songs told were not happy. They were awful tales of death and depression, and he seemed delighted to be telling them.” She recalled Allen singing “Hang down your head Tom Dooley,” a folk song about a man being hanged for murdering a woman.

Today, DCD maintains a low online profile. She requested her real name not be used for this article, mainly due to the unwelcome and often unfriendly scrutiny from an online world that ranges from amateur sleuths to full-on murder junkies. “I find I’m quite suspicious lately,” she said — with good reason. Few unsolved crimes have achieved the widespread notoriety of the Zodiac case, and the interactivity of the internet stokes an almost unquenchable hunger for more data and discussion. “The problem is that it has been decades, and every year the ‘facts’ get twisted and misinterpreted. It is the worst game of telephone I know of. If you want to know the truth about Leigh, you should listen to the people who knew him. The people who were there when the conversation started.”

For DCD, “the mystery about the Zodiac was not who he was. It was why can’t they prove it. As Don Cheney’s daughter, I knew that it would be extremely unlikely for Zodiac to be anyone other than Leigh. There are a lot of folks spinning wild theories on the subject. I’d like the truth to be among the theories available for discussion.”

DCD offered one last story. “In 1991, Ralph Spinelli, while trying to get a better deal for his crimes [armed robbery], told how Leigh had come to him looking for a job as a hit man. He was going to do something big in San Francisco. After the cab driver was killed and the piece of blood stained shirt was sent to the press, [Spinelli claimed] Leigh returned and said, ‘Do you believe me now? I’m Zodiac.’ Based on that, George Bawart of the Vallejo police reopened the case. He contacted my mom and Dad, and tracked down the surviving witnesses. He got a search warrant for Leigh’s house. The police had only searched his trailer when they got the previous warrant based on my dad’s testimony. Just recently, Connie had the realization that the reason ‘Mr. Allen’ was constantly muttering about ‘Georgie Porgy’ at that time was because George Bawart was on his heels. They were just about to arrest him in 1992 when he died.”