WHO ARE THE ZIZIANS?

AUTHORITIES ARE INVESTIGATING A RADICAL SPLINTER GROUP OF MATH AND TECHNOLOGY EXPERTS FOR THEIR ALLEGED INVOLVEMENT IN A DEADLY CRIME SPREE

- CHRISTINE PELISEK

Just before the pandemic lockdown took hold in 2020, Jon Jenkins, 66, was talking to his friend Curtis Lind, a former tugboat captain who operated an RV and boat storage yard in Vallejo, Calif., about an odd group of new tenants who were living in trailers and trucks on his property and walked around naked and wearing gas masks. “He said, ‘These are friends of mine,’” recalls Jenkins. “He was all up for it. He was always helping people.” But by the fall of 2022, the relationship between the kind landlord and his eccentric renters—followers of a blogger named Jack “Ziz” LaSota who preached a mash-up of ideas about anarchism, veganism, transgender rights and the dangers of AI technology—had turned sour.

DARK DEED A bouquet of black paper flowers was left at the gate of Lind's RV and boat storage yard a week before he was assaulted and killed on Jan. 17, 2025.

'CAPTAIN CURT Curtis Lind (in 2022) "loved San Francisco Bay and working on boats and trucks at his yard," says friend David Ferrera.