Stepsister denies woman's Zodiac claims

SAN FRANCISCO, May 2 (UPI) -- A woman who claims her late stepfather was San Francisco's infamous Zodiac killer is dead wrong, another daughter of the man says.

Janice Hendrickson, 65, told Saturday's San Francisco Chronicle the woman making the claims, Deborah Perez, 47, is off-base about their father, the late Guy Ward Hendrickson. Perez maintains their father was the 1960s serial killer believed responsible for at least five slayings.

"If the evidence proves that my father was the Zodiac, I will apologize, but if not, I will sue for defamation," Hendrickson said.

Perez said she went with her father, who died in 1983, to kill people and has come forward to clear her conscious.

Janice Hendrickson vehemently disagreed, telling the Chronicle that while he was a sometimes violent man who her beat her, he couldn't kill anyone.

"My dad read the Bible every night of the week, and he was always preaching that every man should support every kid he fathers," she said. "He didn't even like guns much."

Hendrickson claimed Perez was making the accusations because she is making a documentary she says will prove her case, the newspaper said.