No Way to Treat a Lady

The film was playing in Vallejo, California in April 1969, just after the Zodiac Killer murdered his first known victims, also in Vallejo. Many criminologists believe that the Zodiac Killer was a movie buff or was influenced by motion pictures, and that he took ideas and phrases from movies for his taunting missives to the police and to area newspapers, which began in August 1969. Others believe that he was from Vallejo. The fact that "No Way To Treat a Lady" was about a serial killer who enjoys taunting the policeman on his trail makes it an interesting footnote to the Zodiac Killer case.

The first victim is identified both in a line of dialogue and in the end credits as "Alma Mulloy;" however, when the killer reads about the murder in the paper, the news article lists her name as "Alice Mulloy."

While correct, when the killer calls the newspaper that features the article, he rages both against the lack of headlines and the lack of details pertaining to the death. The newspaperman then informs the killer that the murder occurred too close to printing for them to properly collect the information on the crime. This would explain the inaccuracy in canon, given it was the first murder and even the police didn't see the killing to be too noteworthy at the time.

Featured in The 74th Annual Academy Awards (2002)