SYNOPSIS:

The Dark Road of the Zodiac is based on two decades of research by the author, a tracker trained in Native American methods and an expert medical court witness, into the mysteries of serial murder terrorism in America. Having met two notorious criminals of that ilk – Danny Rollings and Rex Krebs – he has concluded that some of these crimes have indeed been part of an orchestrated assault by foreign powers upon our nation. This conclusion is based in part upon the private confessions of a radical Maoist individual suspected to be the leader of the Zodiac cult – not one man, but a group of several persons, who were responsible for the assassination of Aldo Moro in Italy, and apparently involved in the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert, the former US Attorney General. Dr. Rick Martin, a Scots/Shawnee/Cherokee forensic investigator in need of a different career, is expelled from an LA tantric ashram for drunkenness, and moves into the cottage off Fountain Street that Chaplin built, where Barrymore lived and scrawled dragons on the walls. He meets a fellow mixed-breed silent film aficionado, falling in love with her at El Coyote restaurant. Laura, however, is under a trance, with an unhealthy interest in Jack the Ripper, Manson, Bundy, the Zodiac Killer, and other psychopaths. The Chicano cooks at El Coyote clue him in to her real intentions, but Rick has already forgotten the Sixties. On Halloween, amidst the fires crawling down the canyons, and later, the Northridge Earthquake, he loses his love, retreating to his trusty slide guitar. In the aftermath of love lost, he remembers a few things about the Sixties, and follows the trail of the serial killer cult to the Santiago Spa, a spot guaranteed to remain Native American by treaty agreement, but sadly not in today’s reality. A Chumash friend helps him begin to investigate the disappearances of coeds in the area. Martin starts a profitable herbal medicine company. Laura retrogrades into his life. However, Genieve, a Cajun Princess, also pulls his heart strings. As Dr. Martin builds up his practice and his herbal medicine company, he observes Chinese Tong heroin shipments that go through the railroad yard, guarded by Crips gang members and a radical Palestinian motorcycle gang of Hezbollah Angels. A rather uncharacteristic assistant DA, with a superstitious necklace of coyote bones, drops by and warns him of corruption in the local methedrine business. Meanwhile, a Sicilian sergeant with biker gang ties brews up homemade biowarfare projects in his backyard. Martin deepens his relations with other Native Americans, especially those who have also received the Snake Medicine, Chumash and Shoshone, a tradition where a warrior voluntarily submits to snakebite. Their discussions illuminate the Aztec-Maya polarity, the myth of Xibalba or Santiago, and dark beliefs of human sacrifice. The birthdays of Crowley and Manson bring horror, as more bizarre murders of coeds occur in the otherwise quiet town, and Rick is drawn into forensic investigation of a Friday the Thirteenth occult murder case that does not add up. He works the official crime scene but is pulled off the case. He learns that there is a Mayombe Palombero cult in the town, a super-sinister form of Santeria. There is a prankish group of radical socialist hippies running interference, calling themselves the Provakians. They paint a big toenail gold in caricature of Goldfinger. Guru Whammy and his consort Swami Mommy maintain a ranch outside of town, near a recombinant genetics laboratory. Martin must avail himself of white man’s medicine, the Sacred Magic of Abramelin, to understand the demonological workings of his nemesis. Together, the Chumash and the Cherokee set up the murderer for a bust, with a little old lady’s help. Rick finally finds and meets the wet-worker landlord of the homicidal hippies, Captain Bill Crove, aka Captain Crips, retired Navy alcoholic Maoist, suspected Zodiac Killer, and self-avowed Sicilian-stomping Red Brigader. At the hot springs, Rick confronts a speed-freak biker and resorts to Cherokee witchcraft to send him to his death. A knife fight ensues between Rick and a Guadalajaran goon, which leads to further revelations from the cooks at El Coyote. Rick suspects that the Gold Toe Provakian cult is rooted in a radical renascent “White Russianism,” with hints of possible ties to the Kennedy assassinations, not to mention pinning the tail of the Zodiac on the donkey named Charlie Manson. After one conviction out of a suspected three, the town calms down, but Dr. Richard Martin stashes his sword and makes for Ukraine.