RCC's scary "Zodiac" connection

About halfway into the film "Zodiac" the 1966 murder of Cheri Jo Bates at Riverside City College is brought into the story.

It's not everyday that the city you live in is talked about along with one of the most high profile serial killers of all time, let alone the college that you attend. Many people don't know about the connection... or even the murder for that matter.

Seeing "Zodiac" on the day it opened in theaters that fact was made clear by the giggling and outbursts whenever Riverside was mentioned on screen (The Riverside murder makes up roughly 10-15 minutes of this almost three hour long film.)

In the film Paul Avery, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and played by Robert Downey Jr., drives down to Riverside to meet with a source about another possible Zodiac murder. In Riverside he also meets with the San Francisco police who have come down to find out about the case after Avery leaks the info to the press.

Avery is convinced that the murder of Bates was infact a Zodiac killing, but the police think otherwise and move on.

I knew about the case and RCC's connection because we did a story last semester about the 40th anniversary of Bates' death and watching the film I did smile a bit.

Grusome?

No, I just got a kick about the city I live in and the college that I attend being apart of something like this.

Plus, I was sort of proud of Anthony Whitacre (who wrote the story last semester) and that our newspaper is a part of history, even if it is a bloody history.