Zani was born in 1944. In July 1967 George Vizard, a student activist and anti-war organiser, was shot dead at the Austin convenience store where he worked. The case went unsolved for more than a decade.
In 1979 Zani killed his mother, and killings in Oklahoma and Arkansas were also attributed to him. He was arrested on March 28, 1980, and it was his wife's account to investigators that connected him to the Vizard killing.
He was convicted in Texas and sentenced to ninety-nine years in 1981.
The Vizard case carried a political charge in Austin, the victim having been active in left-wing organising in 1967, and theories about the killing had circulated for years. What the prosecution established was a robbery.
The range of three to six or more covers the attributed killings in three states. The entry rests on the Texas conviction.