On October 22nd 1969, a few hours after the Jim Dunbar Show featured an imitation "Zodiac", somebody mailed a communication from Santa Rosa threatening that a school child there would become his next victim. The brief note was mistakenly delivered to KRON-TV news and read out on air on October 23rd 1969, before being turned over to San Francisco authorities. The note was declared a prank by Chief Melvin "Dutch" Flohr. While this is possible, other communications have been declared hoaxes by authorities, despite subsequently being shown to be genuine Zodiac offerings. It's practically impossible to make any determination about this note with the limited information available, but I thought it was important to present a fuller picture of "Zodiac" activity during this hectic period.
On October 14/15th somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer phoned either the Santa Rosa Police Department or the Press Democrat newspaper, and stated "I am the Zodiac and I am going to blow up a school bus and kill kids in Santa Rosa". This phone call was reported to have been made prior to the newspaper release of the threat made in the October 13th 1969 Zodiac letter of "school children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out". The Santa Rosa phone call threatening to bomb a school bus was issued at least 25 days prior to the perceived first threat on school buses, when the Zodiac Killer mailed the Bus Bomb letter on November 9th 1969. The realistic conclusion being that the Santa Rosa caller was the Zodiac Killer. On October 17th 1969, a female school bus driver believed somebody had fired a shot at her vehicle during the morning run.
On October 22nd 1969, a few hours after the Jim Dunbar Show featured an imitation "Zodiac", somebody mailed a communication from Santa Rosa threatening that a school child there would become his next victim. The brief note was mistakenly delivered to KRON-TV news and read out on air on October 23rd 1969, before being turned over to San Francisco authorities. The note was declared a prank by Chief Melvin "Dutch" Flohr. While this is possible, other communications have been declared hoaxes by authorities, despite subsequently being shown to be genuine Zodiac offerings. It's practically impossible to make any determination about this note with the limited information available, but I thought it was important to present a fuller picture of "Zodiac" activity during this hectic period. The Zodiac Killer, his double postage, and the inspiration behind his communications has long been a discussion point in the Zodiac community. On October 22nd 1938, Chester Floyd Carlson made a major breakthrough when he developed the first ever xerographic copy of the handwritten message 10-22-38 ASTORIA, that paved the way to the multi-million dollar industry of photocopying that we are familiar with today. United States Public Law 100-548, signed into law by Ronald Reagan, designated October 22, 1988, as "National Chester F. Carlson Recognition Day". He was honored by the United States Postal Service with a 21¢ Great Americans series postage stamp. It was the 50-year anniversary of Carlson's discovery, recognised by extensive coverage in the newspapers On November 26th 1990, The Des Moines Register (and other newspapers throughout 1990) reported on plans for a new national postal museum, housing "the world's largest and most comprehensive postal and philatelic collection". The article referenced Chester Carlson as a rather obscure but important American, whose discovery of the xerographic process would become known as "the invention that no one wanted". This would ultimately prove to be one of the biggest misstatements ever, when you consider this form of technology is still widely used in current times. In 1990, a television program profiling the life of Chester Carlson and his dry printing process would be released statewide, entitled the "Invention No One Wanted". This production ran throughout the year, as shown by the excerpt on the right from the San Francisco Examiner, stating "Chester Carlson invents xerography". The Zodiac Killer appeared to be a well-read individual, with one eye in the newspapers, and one eye on history. The only time the Zodiac Killer employed the use of a photocopied image (Xerox) in his communications was when he mailed the 1990 Eureka card (Christmas card) sometime in December, with the cover message of "From your secret pal. Can't guess who I am yet? Well, look inside and you'll find out". Inserted within the greetings card was the photocopied image of two post office box keys. When analysed, the numbers on the keys would be traced back to Chester Clark Klingel, the namesake of Chester Carlson (first spotted by forum contributor Nin). His obituary read "Chet's first wife Yolanda passed away in a car accident. His second marriage was short but his third to Blandina Sarkis added love, happiness, family and great food to his life. He had many good years in Tam Valley, CA, before beginning a farming venture near Turlock, CA. Chet and Blandina bought nut orchards and developed a successful walnut hulling and drying business. After Blandina passed away, the farming project lost appeal. Chet sold the farm and moved to Eureka, CA, where he made new friends". The Zodiac Killer was certainly clever in the design of his communications, so were the photocopied keys leading to an individual called "Chester" Clark Klingel, a deliberate and calculated choice by the Bay Area murderer, who covertly slipped the name of "Chester" Carlson into the communication through inverted imagery "to clue us in"? Assuming of course, the Christmas card was mailed by the Zodiac Killer. HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL FROM RICHARD & ZODIAC CIPHERS In a letter postmarked January 29th 1974, the Zodiac Killer described The Exorcist movie as "the best saterical comidy that I have ever seen". The Exorcist movie, released on December 26th 1973, was directed by William Friedkin. But why did the Zodiac Killer wait just over one month to describe this horror film as a satirical comedy? I suspect that the timing of this communication and the phraseology chosen within it was carefully designed by the Bay Area murderer. This letter was likely mailed in the hope the San Francisco Chronicle would publish the Zodiac Killer's handiwork on January 30th 1974. The day after, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote under the heading "Zodiac Mystery Letter - First Since 1971", "The killer who calls himself Zodiac broke a silence of nearly three years yesterday with a bizarre note to The Chronicle". William Friedkin made his directorial debut in the comedy movie "Good Times" in 1967 starring Sonny Bono and Cher, who appeared as themselves in this musical parody of various genres, including mysteries, westerns, Tarzan movies and spy thrillers. A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satirical or ironic imitation. The connection between Sonny Bono, Cher and William Friedkin would come full circle in January of 1974, when the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour on Channel 7 was advertised in many newspapers. The Comedy Hour was to feature a satirical (mocking) presentation of The Exorcist movie by showing the comedic reactions of patrons leaving the cinema. This can be viewed on YouTube. The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour was an American variety show that starred American pop singers Sonny Bono and Cher, who were married to each other at the time. The show ran on CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) in the United States, beginning in August 1971. The show was cancelled in May 1974, due to the couple's divorce, but the duo reunited in 1976 in a similarly formatted show. The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour was due to be aired on Wednesday, January 30th 1974, the exact day the Zodiac Killer had likely hoped his Exorcist letter would be published by the San Francisco Chronicle. So were the words "satirical" and "comedy" deliberately chosen to coincide with this show? For many years now I have stated that the Zodiac Killer designed the Monticello card on July 13th 1971, which read "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The card was claiming the murder of Kathy Bilek (18), who was murdered in Saratoga, in the Villa Montalvo woods near the neighborhood of Monticello (in San Jose) on April 11th 1971. Kathy Snoozy (15) was the phonetic namesake of Kathy Bilek, and was buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery at 300 Curtner Avenue in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The Zodiac Killer chose the location of "Monticello" to bind together the murders of Kathy Bilek, Kathy Snoozy and Debra Furlong, the latter two of which he had claimed on November 8th 1969 in the Dripping Pen card. He added Kathy Bilek to his total when he mailed the 148 character cipher and letter in (likely) May of 1971, and ratified this on July 13th 1971 with the mailing of the Monticello card. These two communications in 1971 were a response to the arrest of Karl Francis Werner for the murder of all three girls. The burial location of Kathy Snoozy became integral to the Zodiac story on July 13th 1971, but investigators have apparently never made this connection. This is what makes the events of September 18th 1973 so very, very interesting. On this date, somebody removed a tombstone from the Oak Hill Cemetery at First Street & Curtner Avenue and placed it in front of the cemetery gate. The tombstone had the pseudonym "Zodiac" written on it in crayon. We don't know the identity of the perpetrator who committed this unsavoury act, but we do know that the Zodiac Killer had a vested interest in the murder of Kathy Snoozy and the location of her burial site. I will leave it to you to guess the tombstone removed. The Zodiac Killer's interest in the case of Kathy Snoozy & Debra Furlong likely began on August 6th 1969 (3 days after their murders) when the San Francisco Chronicle released a comprehensive front page article of the knife slayings, with a reference to her burial at the Oak Hill Cemetery in San Jose. The Zodiac Killer, having been relegated to pages four and nine of the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner respectively - and killing three people and writing four letters - was probably frustrated his efforts didn't receive comparable coverage. Therefore, it was no surprise he turned up on the shores of Lake Berryessa armed with a bladed weapon and wrote "by knife" on the car door of Bryan Hartnell. There is also the possibility he threatened the family members of Debra Furlong on December 19th 1969, when a phone call was received by police dispatcher, Shirley Searey, of the San Jose Highway Patrol, claiming to be the Zodiac Killer and stating "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". The remaining five Furlong family members were Glen Furlong and his wife, along with Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11. All the information required to create this phone call and know the burial site location of Kathy Snoozy was available in the August 6th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article. To read the entire Snoozy & Furlong story from March 27th 2022, visit here. At the very early stages of the Saratoga murder investigation of Kathy Bilek (18) it was determined that her killer was likely the same individual who murdered Kathie Snoozy (15) and Debra Furlong (14) in San Jose on August 3rd 1969. It was highlighted by Santa Clara County Sheriff James Geary and Undersheriff Tom Rosa that the pattern of wounds to all three girls seemingly made a deliberate effort to avoid stabbing the chest and pelvic regions. The Zodiac Killer connection was rightly considered tenuous, despite the Bay Area murderer insinuating his involvement in the murders of Snoozy & Furlong as early as November 8th 1969. On April 15th 1971, addressed to "homicide inspector", the sheriff's office received an unsigned, somewhat incoherent letter which Rosa says may or may not be connected with the Kathy Bilek slaying (see below). The letter, on ruled paper, mentioned Zodiac and another victim, stating "Gril (sic) works in hospital" could be his next victim. It continued with "Beleaved to be Zodiac, Killer and gril lover writes long poem asking how anyone ever could ever begin to understand our world of pot etc". Looking at the wording used in the letter it's impossible to determine whether this "Zodiac" correspondence is genuine or otherwise. Observers will obviously point out that the tone of the letter points away from the Zodiac Killer and towards a "drug fueled hoaxer". While this seems like the obvious superficial conclusion based on the wording in the letter, there is simply no way to determine the authorship of this communication. The only mildly interesting thing about this letter is the mention of "girl works in hospital" and "next victim", bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter to the Albany Times Union on August 1st 1973, which stated "I am not dead or in the hospital" and warned of a "next victim" from the "Albany Medical Center". This "next victim" believed to be a nurse (girl in hospital) during the "shift change". The 148 character letter and cipher mailed by the Zodiac Killer in (probably) May 1971 about the murders of Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek, with reference to their murderer, Karl Francis Werner, as a "phony", can be linked through its cryptogram to both the 340 cipher and Albany code, see here. The newspaper article above, from the Peninsula Times Tribune in Palo Alto on April 16th 1971, could possibly have inspired the Zodiac Killer in his creation of the Albany letter (or not). The murders of Kathy Snoozy, Debra Furlong and Kathy Bilek straddled the Zodiac case from 1969 and 1971, despite the Zodiac Killer having no involvement in their murders - but would claim so to the bitter end.
The Zodiac Killer sourced his pasted text from the newspapers when creating the 13-Hole postcard and Pines card, keeping some phrases intact. When he created the March 22nd 1971 Pines card he seemingly took the complete phrase of "Peek through the pines" from the March 19th 1971 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, using an advert from the Boise Cascade Company project at Incline Village, where construction had just begun on the development. It was considered that missing nurse, Donna Lass, may have been buried at this location. The Boise Cascade Company is an American manufacturer of wood products and wholesale distributor of building materials, headquartered in Boise, Idaho, that in the mid-1960s developed an even more diverse portfolio including ownership of a motor home manufacturer, a cruise line, involvement in real estate and recreation projects, and an acquisition in the engineering and construction business for major utilities. It makes total sense that, where possible, the Zodiac Killer would source his newspaper cuttings from the publications that he bought regularly, from within stories that caught his eye, or had some relevance to him. What interested me, was that Boise Cascade dealt in real estate, bearing in mind the sister communication to the Pines card. Mailed on July 13th 1971, the Zodiac Killer designed the Monticello card, which virtually mimicked the Pines card in every way. It was created with directions to pinpoint the burial site of Kathie Snoozy in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose, where her and Debra Furlong were murdered on August 3rd 1969. Spelled Kathy Snoozy in the newspapers, she was the namesake of Kathy Bilek, who was the focus of the Monticello card that read "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". Kathy Bilek was murdered near Monticello, in Saratoga, in the woods on April 11th 1971. The Zodiac Killer was now claiming all three victims in light of the recent arrest of Karl Francis Werner, who he was calling a "phony" because of having Snoozy & Furlong taken away from his claimed "Aug" victim count in the Dripping Pen card. But where would the Zodiac Killer have sourced the pasted text for the Monticello card that was relevant to his reading material and location - and considering the possibility he may have used phrases rather than single words to design the card? I first looked at the phrase "Near Monticello" with some interesting results. The date range between April 11th 1971 and July 13th 1971 took priority, because these were the dates of Kathy Bilek's murder and the mailing date of the Monticello card. There were extremely limited results from newspapers.com, but one from the Napa Register caught my eye. Just like the "real estate" advertisement for the Forest Pines condominiums at Incline Village featured on the Pines card, a real estate advertisement appeared approximately seven weeks later in the Napa Register, on May 6th 1971 (and subsequent editions), beginning less than one month after the murder of Kathy Bilek. It was a real estate advertisement from Lee Chesnutt of Napa Valley Properties (1400 Second Street) for a guest cottage and grounds NEAR MONTICELLO PARK, a neighborhood in Napa, California. A second result from the Napa Register on May 14th 1971 was placed by Don R. Stufft Realty of 1517 Jefferson Street for two homes near Monticello Park. The real estate offices of 1400 Second Street and 1517 Jefferson Street are only 438 meters and 564 meters from the 1231 Main Street, Napa payphone, where the Zodiac Killer placed his call after the Lake Berryessa attack. Monticello Park is a neighborhood in Napa, California. and mostly features large homes that are very high value. I am sure that the Zodiac Killer would have known that Monticello Park was likely a good source for the material he required to design the Monticello card. However, there is another news story of relevance from the Sacramento Bee on March 8th 1971. Although one month before the murder of Kathy Bilek, this is the sort of news that may have stuck with the Zodiac Killer. Entitled "Vacaville Woman's Body Found", it stated "LAKE BERRYESSA - A Woman who drowned in a boating accident has been identified as Mrs. Deaun Brown, 41, of Vacaville. Her husband, Kenneth, 65, also is presumed drowned, but his body has not been found. The couple's 10-foot boat capsized Thursday near Monticello dam". Knowing that Kathy Snoozy was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park at 300 Curtner Avenue in the neighborhood of Monticello, the Zodiac Killer could easily have remembered this story about two Lake Berryessa drownings just 4 months earlier. The Bay Area murderer had previously exhibited great ability in sourcing dated newspaper articles to use as cuttings in his previous postcards. Whether he just stockpiled newspapers, took cuttings, worked at a newspaper office, or sold newspapers, is something to consider. The only "dies April" combination I could find, was again, relevant to another crime associated with the Zodiac Killer. Kathleen Johns claimed she was abducted by the Zodiac Killer on March 22nd 1970, near Modesto. She stated that the man took her on a 1 1/2 to 2 hour journey around the outskirts of Tracy, California. The only newspaper article I could find of any relevance was from the Tracy Press on March 31st 1971, nearly two weeks prior to the murder of Kathy Bilek. It told of negotiations between Southern Pacific Railroad and the Railpax corporation, and the discontinuation of valley Daylight trains. Although not ideal, it is close enough to the timeframe to be considered a possibility. I suppose, when the Monticello card surfaces (if ever), we will see whether any of the above examples have promise. But what is important: is that all the cuttings sourced have some significance to areas of Zodiac activity. When the Zodiac Killer sat down to put the finishing touches to his October 27th 1970 Halloween card, what inspired him to draw an eye mask on the second skeleton and use the prominent word "BOO" on the card inner? Maybe the Zodiac Killer was influenced by something he recently read or watched on the television (or both). The day before the card was postmarked (October 26th 1970), the San Francisco Examiner featured the "Bay Area's Most Complete Television Logs".. At 8:00 pm on the NBC network waa the extremely popular Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. The Halloween edition of the show was aptly titled "The Halloween "Boo-In" hour, featuring special guests Orson Welles, Vincent Price and Rod Serling. It can be seen on the Internet Movie Database here. The hosts began the show by covering their eyes with eye masks as they addressed the audience. The show was heavily advertised statewide, many of which contained extensive coverage of the guests, storylines and sketches. This isn't the most compelling or interesting observation regarding the Zodiac Killer case, but the "Boo-In" Halloween edition of the show did appear in a newspaper familiar to the Zodiac Killer, in an area he most likely lived, the evening before the Halloween card was postmarked. On February 3rd 1974 the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), an affiliate of the group, or a "friend" of the militant collective, mailed a communication from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Chronicle on the eve of the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst, the granddaughter of American newspaper publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. The Symbionese Liberation Army were an anti-capitalist organisation, fueled by a hatred for the publishing magnate, who would later demand anywhere between 4 and 400 million dollars of food to be distributed to the public, to be donated from the Hearst family. Their connection to William Randolph Hearst didn't end there, when on May 8th 1974, somebody from the Symbionese Liberation Army (or a sympathizer or friend of the group) mailed the Badlands card, urging the newspapers to remove the advertisements for the recently released Badlands movie, directed by Terrence Malick and starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. The communication read "Sirs -- I would like to expression my consternt (crossed out) consternation concerning your poor taste + lack of sympathy for the public, as evidenced by your running of the ads for the movie "Badlands", featuring the blurb: "In 1959 most people were killing time. Kit + Holly were killing people." In light of recent events, this kind of murder-glorification can only be deplorable at best (not that glorification of violence was ever justifiable) why don't you show some concern for public sensibilities + cut the ad? A citizen". The choice of words in this communication will take us back to one person in 1938 and 1941, indicating that the individual who composed this card was extremely well read and historically knowledgeable. On October 30th 1938, aired by the CBS Radio Network, an adapted broadcast was narrated by Orson Welles, based on the 1898 H .G. Wells novel "The War of the Worlds". The broadcast attempted to convince radio listeners that the human race was under attack by Martian invaders. It was reported in the statewide newspapers as causing panic and hysteria amongst the public. But one word was prevalent, as shown by a New York newspaper on the left, featuring Orson Welles, "whose radio dramatization of H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" caused nationwide consternation Sunday night". This word appeared over and over again in newspapers throughout America. A New York Times publication on October 31st 1938 stated H. G. Wells had "expressed profound regret that his dramatic efforts should cause such consternation", somewhat mirroring the words used in the Badlands card of "I would like to expression my consternation". A simple search on Google shows this word's prevalence with regards to Orson Welles. This connection may seem weak, until you consider the rest of the wording on the Badlands card. The author of the Badlands card wrote "I would like to expression my consternt (crossed out) consternation concerning your poor taste + lack of sympathy for the public, as evidenced by your running of the ads for the movie "Badlands". In light of recent events, this kind of murder-glorification can only be deplorable at best (not that glorification of violence was ever justifiable) why don't you show some concern for public sensibilities + cut the ad? A citizen". The individual who chose these words was very likely referring back to the widely publicized spat between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst (Patty Hearst's grandfather), who attempted to prevent the movie release of Citizen Kane (1941), by claiming that it presented an insulting portrayal of his life story (see below). William Randolph Hearst also demanded that his newspapers "cut the ads" promoting the Citizen Kane movie, just like the author of the May 8th 1974 card, who asked for advertisements of the Badlands movie to be removed from the newspapers. The Badlands card was mailed on May 8th and signed off with "A citizen", The Citizen Kane movie by Orson Welles premiered in Los Angeles on May 8th. This theme of censorship would continue in the Red Phantom letter on July 8th 1974, in which the author insisted that the newspapers "cancel the Count Marco column". These attacks on newspapers and the media - in particular, William Randolph Hearst - were prevalent in the communiques written (and typed) by the Symbionese Liberation Army. In fact, they would sign off their February 10th 1974 typed communication about Patty Hearst (and addressed to the Hearst family), by using "A Friend", just like the February 3rd 1974 letter, a week earlier.
It is extremely likely that the SLA letter (2/3/1974) and the subsequent kidnapping of Patty Hearst the following day (2/4/1974), along the Badlands card (5/8/1974), both had links to William Randolph Hearst. It also seems credible that the Badlands card, through the subtle use of language and an acute awareness of history, tied Orson Welles to William Randolph Hearst by referencing "consternation", "cutting the ads" and "A citizen". The author of the SLA letter, Badlands card and Red Phantom letter was almost certainly not the Zodiac Killer, but somebody within the Symbionese Liberation Army, or closely allied to them. MORE READING: THE PHANTOM ZODIAC LETTER ON JULY 8TH 1974 To understand the mindset of the Zodiac Killer when composing his communications, we have to look for running themes over a period of time (such as Snoozy & Furlong) and evaluate whether his offerings were deliberately designed to mislead, or an extension of his true character. It has recently been shown that the "cannibal killer" Stanley Dean Baker (and possibly an accomplice) was almost certainly responsible for the murder of Robert Salem in his 745 Stevenson Street apartment in San Francisco on April 15th 1970. However, what weight do we attribute to a Zodiac letter being connected to this murder, when it was postmarked on the morning of April 20th 1970, four months after his last communication, but dated the same day Robert Salem's murder was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle and Zodiac's pseudonym reported as being being present on his apartment wall. To achieve this, the Zodiac Killer would had to have read the morning newspaper about Salem, create his letter in a short period of time, then mail the letter so it could be processed and stamped with a morning postmark. This would have made the code contained within the letter contemporary to the murder of Robert Salem (unless it was created in advance). The writing on the apartment wall stating "Satan Saves Zodiac" and the severing of Salem's left ear, led me to consider the possibility of the code reading "Skin A Satanist" or "Ate Severed Ear", which both fit seamlessly into the code. But these solutions would be more relevant to Stanley Dean Baker than the Zodiac Killer, with Baker branded a "hippie satanist" by the newspapers after he admitted removing victims body parts and eating them. However, I have come to the conclusion that both of these solutions to the Z13 are almost certainly incorrect. But what about the rest of the letter? There is a good reason to believe the Zodiac Killer was responsible for making a phone call to the San Jose, California Highway Patrol on December 19th 1969. On this date, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer followed up his threats on the lives of multiple cops in the December 16th 1969 "Fairfield letter", by making a phone call to dispatcher Shirley Searey of the San Jose Highway Patrol and stating "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". This threat towards California Highway Patrol may be relevant to his wording in the April 20th 1970 letter, when he wrote "But there is more glory in killing a cop than a cid because a cop can shoot back". Two weeks before this letter arrived - and dubbed the "Newhall Incident" - was the the worst massacre of police officers in the 80 year history of the California Highway Patrol, and possibly the worst in American history. It changed police procedure forever thereafter— improved police training on how to approach a suspect, better weaponry, bullet proof vests — saving the lives of many police officers in the line of duty. It was the story of the bravery and sacrifice of four young CHP officers, and the story of a true American hero, a civilian bystander who risked his life under fire from gun toting suspects to try to save the life of a downed patrolman. On the evening of April 5, 1970, four CHP officers, Roger Gore, Walt Frago, James "Skip" Pence, and George Alleyn were brutally gunned down by two dangerous suspects in the lot of a Standard Service Station next to J's Coffee Shop on what is now the intersection of the Old Road and Magic Mountain Parkway in Valencia, California. Link SCV History.com. The Zodiac Killer's wording of "But there is more glory in killing a cop than a cid because a cop can shoot back" on April 20th 1970 - bearing in mind the previous threat on five CHP officers on December 19th 1969 - could have been inspired by the wall-to-wall newspaper coverage of the "Newhall Incident" on April 5th/6th 1970. In Zodiac's letter, there was also the reference to the murder of San Francisco police officer Brian McDonnell on February 16th 1970, who suffered devastating and sadly fatal injuries two months earlier, when a bomb packed with heavy industrial fence staples exploded on an outside ledge of Park Police Station in the Upper Haight neighborhood. The uncle of Brian McDonnell was Sergeant Joseph Emmett Lacey (40), murdered on December 30th 1956 while socializing with a friend at Eddies' Cocktail Lounge at 502 Ellis Street, San Francisco. The two were enjoying a drink, when two men brandishing firearms burst into the establishment with robbery in mind. Sergeant Lacey, despite being off-duty at the time, drew his gun and attempted to prevent the robbery, but was beaten to the draw and sadly died before reaching the Mission Emergency Hospital. One of the robbers was apprehended shortly after the crime and plead guilty to first-degree murder. The actual shooter of Sergeant Lacey remained a free man for nearly three years, before being captured and found guilty of second-degree murder. Fourteen years after the murder of Joseph Lacey, the end of watch would unfortunately befall his nephew, Brian McDonnell. Whether this historical case was mentioned in the newspapers to some degree in relation to the Brian McDonnell murder is unknown - but if it was featured and noted by the Zodiac Killer, the sentence of "there is more glory in killing a cop than a cid because a cop can shoot back" would certainly have more meaning with respect to the April 20th 1970 communication. So, did the "Newhall Incident" or the murder of Sergeant Lacey (or both) have any role in the use of this phrase on April 20th 1970, or can we attribute pure coincidence to the wording chosen by the Zodiac Killer in this instance. The headline of the Desert Sun newspaper on February 17th 1970, covering the murder of Brian McDonnell, read "Haight Ashbury Police Station Rocked By Bomb. Six Officers Injured In Blast Showering Big U-Shaped Staples". The Zodiac Killer would seemingly use this headline, and capitalize and emphasize the word "Blast" when creating his Dragon card on April 28th 1970, stating "I hope you enjoy yourselves when I have my Blast"..He would repeat the word "blast" on the card inner, stating "If you don't want me to have this blast you must do two things". It is clear that the Zodiac Killer invariably created his communications with previous newspapers being the inspiration, so I would be extremely grateful if anybody with a newspapers.com subscription could search for any mention of Sergeant Joseph Lacey in respect to the murder of San Francisco police officer Brian McDonnell on February 16th 1970. Thank you. At a time when finding Zodiac Killer DNA and solving this case is heavily debated and in question, one of the most important things to explore are the vast number of communications sent by the killer, with a view to unearthing something within them that points towards his identity and/or home location (anchor point) when committing the murders. No doubt the Zodiac Killer used caution in this regard when composing his communications, but no matter how careful and attentive you are in preventing the accidental leakage of vital information to law enforcement through your wording, mistakes and oversight can often happen. When a murderer is questioned about a missing person, they will often stray into the territory of referring to that missing person in the past tense, because they are knowledgeable to the fact they have killed them. The study of language in interviews and written form can often reveal vital information about a criminal which they have subconsciously revealed, but were incapable of preventing because of their lived experience. This may have been the case in the very first letters authored by the Zodiac Killer on July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969, both of which, possibly revealed the home location of the killer (or his anchor point when perpetrating the crimes). You will notice in his July 31st 1969 letters when addressing the San Francisco Chronicle or San Francisco Examiner first, the Zodiac Killer refers to posting letters to these newspapers in the past tense of "have". In other words, suggesting the significant time that has elapsed, and the distance he has traveled before returning home. When first addressing the Vallejo Times-Herald in his July 31st 1969 letters he uses the present tense of "are", because (possibly) he doesn't associate any great time and distance to the Vallejo Times-Herald offices, as they are within his close proximity. They are in his "here and now". If you left your house in Vallejo and mailed three letters into a San Francisco mailbox, before returning home - you would write "Here is a cyipher or that is part of one. the other 2 parts have been mailed to the S.F. Examiner + the S.F. Chronicle" (associating distance to these two newspaper offices). If you live in Vallejo and are addressing the Vallejo Times-Herald first in two instances, you would write "Here is a cipher or that is part of one. The other 2 parts are being mailed to the Vallejo Times + S.F. Chronicle" or "Here is part of a cipher the other 2 parts of this cipher are being mailed to the editors of the Vallejo Times and SF Examiner". The Zodiac Killer uses the word "are" in both instances he immediately addresses the Vallejo Times-Herald offices (because he doesn't associate distance to this newspaper office). He uses the present tense of "are" to associate something in his lived "mental map" or "here and now". Of course, this isn't conclusive evidence he lived in Vallejo for his first two crimes, but it may point to a subconscious use of language that he failed to keep in check. There is similar language used at the beginning of his next communication on August 4th 1969. The following reasoning may seem innocuous and insignificant, but it's just another example of how language could point us in the direction of a Vallejo killer. When the Zodiac Killer opened up in his August 4th 1969 mailing, he wrote "This is the Zodiac speaking. In answer to your asking for more details about the good times I have had in Vallejo, I shall be very happy to supply even more material". What he didn't write is this:"This is the Zodiac speaking. In answer to your asking for more details about the good times I had in Vallejo, I shall be very happy to supply even more material". The Zodiac Killer used the present perfect tense of "have had" rather than the past tense of "had". The present perfect tense, in this example, suggests that the Zodiac Killer has had good times in Vallejo but they are not complete. The word "had" implies a distinct separation from the past to the present, whereas "have had" implies a distinct connection from the past to the present. The "good times I have had in Vallejo" being congruent with somebody still living in this location. Although tenuous, this subtle use of language is important to analyse in conjunction with the previous example highlighted The third example will focus on the anomaly of a phone call made to the Vallejo Police Department 40 minutes after the Blue Rock Springs attack, from a payphone located just 10 minutes from the crime scene. It has been widely noted that a killer living in San Francisco, Napa, Oakland, or any distant home location, could easily have made this phone call at 12:40 am from any payphone in the Bay Area, rather than place a phone call in close proximity to the police station he was delivering his message - and seemingly hanging around for an unnecessary 30 minutes, thereby risking detection. This has opened up the notion of a killer who lived in close proximity to the Springs & Tuolumne payphone, who secured his vehicle, removed any incriminating evidence and walked to the payphone from a nearby residence. This is where further language analysis could point us to a Vallejo resident, or otherwise. It depends on what merit you apply to the above arguments, in conjunction to the ones I'm about to present. The Zodiac Killer went on to write "I did not leave the cene of the killing with squealling tires + raceing engine as described in the Vallejo paper. I drove away quite slowly so as not to draw attention to my car", and "When I hung the phone up the damn thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me + my car". In the second statement the Zodiac Killer felt the necessity to highlight both him and his car. The phone apparently rang when he hung up the phone, so why didn't the Zodiac Killer just state "When I hung the phone up the damn thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me". When he left the Blue Rock Springs parking lot he made the point of driving away slowly so as not to draw attention to his car, yet by the payphone he is making sure that investigators draw the conclusion that the eyewitness saw both him and his vehicle, despite apparently positioned at the payphone independent of his car. It could be concluded that his car was still running, and it would have been obvious to the eyewitness that he and his vehicle were in tandem (and so provided this information), but it certainly wasn't necessary to provide investigators with corroboratory evidence that his car was brown as reported in the newspapers, by stating "The man who told police that my car was brown was a negro about 40-45 rather shabbly dressed. I was in this phone booth having some fun with the Vallejo cop when he was walking by". Unless of course, his vehicle wasn't brown, The biggest red flag to his vehicle being present in the vicinity of the payphone, is the description given by the Zodiac Killer about the eyewitness. The Zodiac Killer only went into detail regarding his murder victims when it benefited his case of proof, such as the description of clothing worn by Darlene Ferrin, or the movement of the living victims and bodies in relation to the crime scene. So why didn't the Zodiac Killer just write "The man who told police that my car was brown, noticed me + my car when he was walking by". What relevance does his race, clothing or age have to do with anything? The descriptive nature of "negro", "40-45" and "shabbily dressed" brings this eyewitness to life and makes him more believable to the reader of the letter. The Zodiac Killer, by describing this man in detail, may have been attempting to corroborate that his vehicle was present by the payphone, and was brown in color. The Zodiac Killer had previously supplied extra details to the police when it helped his cause, so the unnecessary inclusion of this man's description in the letter, could again, be viewed as beneficial to him. If the Zodiac Killer wanted to deflect away from a home location nearby, he had to create a vehicle that can take him anywhere, and supply an eyewitness to corroborate this fact. Not just any eyewitness, but a believable middle-aged, black man, with questionable clothing. These observations regarding the language used by the Zodiac Killer are not proof he resided in Vallejo or near the payphone, but they should provide the impetus to examine later communications mailed by the killer, who may have unwittingly left more offerings to further bolster the case argued here. Or maybe dispel it entirely. Edward Theodore Gein, dubbed The Butcher of Plainfield, was found guilty in the first degree murder of Bernice Worden (58), who was abducted and later found hung and decapitated in a shed on Gein's property. Although he was only convicted of one murder and found criminally insane, Edward Gein was believed to have killed many more, including Mary Hogan (51), Georgia Weckler (8) and Evelyn Hartley (15). Called the "House of Horrors", his property in Plainfield, Wisconsin revealed the true depravity of an individual who had lost touch with reality, when detectives found a lampshade made from a human face, a waste basket made from human skin, a corset made from a female torso and bowls made from human skulls, to name just a few of the macabre offerings. His mother, Augusta Wilhelmine Gein (who died on December 29th 1945), was a domineering woman with an intense hatred for females, but whose death from a stroke left Edward Gein devastated and alone in the farmhouse. Soon after his mother's death, Gein began to create a "woman suit" so that "he could become his mother and literally crawl into her skin". He would achieve this by exhuming the bodies of recently deceased middle-aged women from local graveyards and using their skin to fashion his grizzly creations. A well read Zodiac Killer was seemingly inspired by the continuing fascination of the story of Edward Gein, that featured in many movies, beginning with Psycho (1960), produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh, along with later productions such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). The Zodiac Killer mailed a cryptogram and letter in the middle of 1971 (likely early May) claiming the murders of Kathy Bilek (18), Debra Furlong (14) and Kathie Snoozy (15), who had all been recently attributed to Karl Francis Werner in the newspapers. The Zodiac Killer would make reference to all three girls in his 148 character and letter, asking investigators not to listen to "phonys" such as Werner, and warning them he would "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and "send a patch of human skin if their is some left over". Having claimed the brutal stabbing of Snoozy and Furlong on August 3rd 1969 in San Jose through the "Aug" reference in his November 8th 1969 "Dripping Pen" card, he was now left with the necessity of claiming the stabbing of Kathy Bilek also. She became the focus of his later Monticello card, mailed on July 13th 1971, stating "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". Kathy Bilek was stabbed in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga (near San Jose) on April 11th 1971. Edward Theodore Gein was determined to raid graveyards and "make a woman suit from the skin", whereas the Zodiac Killer promised to "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin". Kathy Bilek was buried in the Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, Debra Furlong in the Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz, and Kathie Snoozy in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in San Jose. I have always assumed that the Zodiac Killer was promising to kill three more kids in the future and make a suit from the skin, but based on the possible inspiration of the Edward Gein story, was the Zodiac Killer suggesting the macabre intention of visiting the three graveyards of Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek, and removing their skin to create a suit? Then mail "a patch of human skin if their is some left over". This may seem far-fetched, until you discover that Kathie Snoozy was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in San Jose, located in the neighborhood of Monticello, near Saratoga. Hence the wording "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April" in the Zodiac Killer's message on July 13th 1971. The neighborhood of Monticello is near to the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, where Kathy Bilek was brutally stabbed to death on April 11th 1971. There is no doubt that the Monticello card is referring to the murder of Kathy Bilek, through the gravesite of Kathie Snoozy - and so linking the Zodiac Killer to all three girls. But did the 148 character cipher and letter have a much more sinister connotation to its contents than first thought, inspired by the continuing story of Edward Theodore Gein? Rolland Lin Taft (27) was gunned down and killed on April 20th 1974 by Los Angeles police officer, Robert Nava, who responded to Taft brandishing a .25 caliber automatic pistol by shooting him five times. His parents filed a speculatory 3.5 million dollar lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department claiming there was no reason for their son to have been killed. Rolland Lin Taft had previously attempted to murder a young woman (Atwood) on the Riverside City College campus on April 13th 1965 by stabbing her in the stomach with a hunting knife. Fortunately, the young woman was able to escape and seek help from local residents, who summoned the emergency services. One newspaper ran with the headline "Clean-Cut Youth Sought in Stabbing" (credit to Mk-Zodiac), and Taft was eventually apprehended and sentenced to 6 months to 20 years in March, 1966. He served just 2 1/2 years and was paroled in 1968. This newspaper headline (a tactic used by the Zodiac Killer in later years) may have formed the inspiration for the "cut, clean" introduction written on the underside of a plywood desk found in the Riverside City College library in December, 1966. The poem, created using a blue ballpoint pen, read "cut, clean, if red/clean, blood spurting, dripping, spilling; all over her new dress. Oh well, it was red anyway. Life draining into an uncertain death. She won't die, this time someone'll find her. Just wait till next time. rh". For many reasons, it is fairly evident that this poem is reminiscing in the present tense the attempted murder of Miss Atwood in 1965, before stating that "next time" would be different with the death of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966. You may read claims on the internet that this poem was the ponderings of a suicidal woman reflecting on her failure to seek death, but next time would be successful. It will be proffered that the idea of this poem being linked to Miss Atwood and Cheri Jo Bates is speculative at best. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. This poem wasn't even discovered until the December of 1966, so anything contained in the November 29th 1966 Confession letter (about Cheri Jo Bates) that links to the desktop poem, will have been created without knowledge of the desktop poem - unless the author was one person. By linking the two communications together, we would achieve the common thread of one individual who was claiming he murdered Cheri Jo Bates. The contents of the desktop poem were also not in the public domain by April 30th 1967, when the three Bates letters were mailed to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, Riverside Police Department and Joseph Bates. Firstly, all we have to do to connect the desktop poem with the Confession letter, is look at the title of the desktop poem, which reads "Sick of living/unwilling to die". The desktop poem begins with "Sick of living", and the Confession letter states "I am not sick. I am insane". The desktop poem title uses the word "unwilling", to which the Confession letter states "She was then very willing to talk to me" and "She went very willingly". One referenced an unwillingness to die, whereas one claimed Cheri Jo Bates went "willingly" to her death. In other words, Miss Atwood resisted her death and didn't die "that time", but Cheri Jo Bates died hard and willingly. The desktop poem title uses the phrase "to die", with the Confession letter stating "I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". This brings forth another connection between both communications with the word "time" central to both. The desktop poem uses the word "time" twice, when stating "She won't die, this time someone'll find her. Just wait till next time", whereas the Confession letter uses the word "time" three times by stating "I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". We have the words "sick", "unwilling" (in root form) and "time" from the desktop poem, used 6 times in the Confession letter by way of "sick", "willing", "willingly", "time", "time" and "time". In fact, the words "die" and "time" are used in the same context in both communications by the sentences "she won't die, this time someone'll find her" and "I said it was about time for her to die". If you add in the three Bates letters of "Bates had to die", "She had to die" and "She had to die" into the equation, we have the phrase "to die" used 5 times in all three communications. Miss Atwood escaped the clutches of Rolland Lin Taft in 1965, expressed by the desktop author when they stated "she won't die, this time someone'll find her", but reminded everybody that the next time Cheri Jo Bates wouldn't be so lucky by finishing the poem with "Just wait till next time. rh". That "next time" was Riverside, Halloween, denoted by a lower case "r" and "h". The Zodiac Killer would address Riverside in lower case fashion when describing his "riverside activity" on March 13th 1971, using the phrase "there are a hell of a lot more down there" to deliberately or inadvertently mimic the three Bates letters of "There will be more". Despite Cheri Jo Bates being killed on October 30th 1966, her exact time of death was not confirmed by the newspapers, who described her lifeless body being found on Halloween morning. It is perfectly reasonable to conclude that "rh" was the place and time of that "next time" cited by the desktop author. The overwhelming correlation of language used by the desktop poem, Confession letter and Bates letters, ties all three to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, and thereby strengthens the argument that the desktop poem was reflecting on the attempted murder of Miss Atwood and eventual murder of Cheri Jo Bates on the same Riverside campus by knife. Rolland Lin Taft was incarcerated at the time of Cheri Jo Bates' murder, so the desktop poem was either authored by somebody inspired by the previous attempted murder of Miss Atwood to make the future false claims of killing Cheri Jo Bates, or was indeed, the murderer of the young Ramona High School graduate - but, in their eyes, improved on the failings of Rolland Lin Taft by stating "Just wait till next time. rh". The Confession letter concluded with "I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game", "I am stalking your girls now", with the three Bates letters finishing with "There will be more". This was the bedrock of the three July 31st 1969 letters mailed by the Zodiac Killer, who enciphered the wording "it is more fun than killing wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal of all" and promised more murder over the weekend. It appeared that the Zodiac Killer was still playing the "game" and "stalking" the local residents three years later. The Confession letter and murder of Cheri Jo Bates were comprehensively detailed in the Inside Detective magazine on January, 1969, so it's perfectly feasible that the Bay Area murderer read this magazine sometime between January and July and drew inspiration for his July 31st 1969 mailings by continuing the theme of a "game", despite being innocent of any involvement in the murder of Cheri Jo Bates or subsequent communications in 1966 and 1967. This may have continued in the Melvin Belli and Little List letters, misspelling the word "victim" to "victom", and mimicking the Confession letter further by adding "Some I shall tie over ant hills and watch them scream + twich and sqwirm" to appear similar to "She squirmed and shook as I chocked her, and her lips twiched. She let out a scream once". Whether or not the Zodiac Killer played any role down south has far from been answered, but there remains little doubt that one person crafted all three communications in Riverside between October 31st 1966 and April 30th 1967. One of the cornerstone arguments I put forward for the 1978 letter being genuine, was the fact that the introduction of "This is the Zodiac speaking I" on April 24th 1978 mimicked the introduction on the December 20th 1969 Melvin Belli letter. The 1969 and 1978 letters were the only two communications to date that failed to exclusively keep "This is the Zodiac speaking" as the introduction on the top line, with the grammatical error of not placing a "period" or "full stop" between "speaking" and "I" common to both. Bearing in mind that these two communications were connected through the word "control" (unique to these two letters), meant that if an image of the Melvin Belli letter had not appeared in the newspapers to date, the author of the April 24th 1978 letter likely fashioned the Melvin Belli letter, with added shirt piece. This was used to argue (along with other reasons) that the Zodiac Killer was the author of the 1978 letter. To his credit, notable Zodiac researcher Cragle unearthed an article in The Napa Register on December 29th 1969 that dispelled this notion (see below). But when I proposed the idea - asking people to check if a newspaper image of the Melvin Belli letter existed - it took two years to achieve. This is with the combined power of the Zodiac internet community, and a comprehensive newspaper database at our fingertips. The author of the 1978 letter had none of these advantages. Often described as a "lazy" hoaxer by document examiners, the author of the 1978 letter could have accessed the above article to mimic, by keeping hundreds of newspapers featuring the Zodiac Killer since 1968, by keeping hundreds of newspaper cuttings about the Zodiac Killer, by trawling through the microfiche of a public library, or they just got extremely lucky in mimicking the introduction (with grammatical error) and the use of the word "control", common to both letters. But there is another common theme binding these two letters, which is not visible in the article above. The Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969 and the April 24th 1978 letter both inserted an unnecessary word (just once) into the correspondence, spelled it correctly one alphabetical letter shy of completion, and then very neatly (almost ruler like) crossed out each word. This was unique to both these letters. If somebody can find this section of the Melvin Belli letter in the newspapers (showing this correction technique), I will be eternally grateful. Is it more likely that the Zodiac Killer crafted the 1978 letter, with personal knowledge of the Melvin Belli letter and its composition, or is it more likely that a random hoaxer (described as lazy) went to extraordinary lengths to mimic the Melvin Belli letter? Or was the presumed hoaxer of the 1978 letter just lucky, creating all these similarities by accident? The April 24th 1978 letter, stating "I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here" was postmarked only 42 days after a voice message was left on the telephone answering machine of an individual living in the Mission District, using similar wording to that used in the letter, and claiming to be the "Zodiac". The telephone caller stated "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press I am back in San Francisco". Read more. Was this the Zodiac Killer twice, or the hoaxer twice? Thanks to Cragle, another unusual mention in the above newspaper article may be relevant to 1978. It may indicate that the person who crafted the April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters were one and the same - who had kept or read The Napa Register publication. The article above finished with the following text. The newspaper article stated "Belli said that he has a trial starting next week in Naples and plans to confer with fugitive Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver". Just eight days after the April 24th 1978 letter, on May 2nd 1978, the Channel 9 letter was mailed to KHJ-TV Studios, 5615 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles,.claiming to have been mailed by the Zodiac Killer, It too mentioned Eldridge Cleaver. Bearing in mind the similarities between the April 24th 1978 and Melvin Belli letter, it is extremely curious that the very newspaper article that featured the grammatically unique introduction common to these two communications, would also feature the name of Eldridge Cleaver, that appeared in a "Zodiac" letter only eight days later.
When the Zodiac Killer mailed the second Fairfield letter on December 16th 1969 he included a very short code of five characters, accompanied by his Zodiac crosshairs, with four smaller crosshairs in each quadrant. It has been noted by many Zodiac researchers that this configuration resembled the Halloween card design he mailed approximately ten months later, which contained the bisecting "paradice" and "slaves", with the wording By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife in each quadrant. The rudimentary design of the Fairfield letter with four small crosshairs could be representative of these four weapons. I used this premise to place the word "By" immediately preceding the larger crosshairs, above ciphertext characters 4 & 5 (see below). The last time the Zodiac Killer demanded we print his cipher in the newspaper, he wrote to the San Francisco Examiner and threatened "I want you to print this cipher on the frunt page by Fry afternoon Aug 1-69. If you do not print this cipher, I will go on a kill rampage Fry night". To the San Francisco Chronicle he wrote "If you do not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry.1st of Aug 69, I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night". To the Vallejo Times-Herald he wrote "I want you to print this cipher on your frunt page by Fry Afternoon Aug 1-69, If you do not do this I will go on a kill ram page Fry night that will last the whole week end". Every single time the Zodiac Killer demanded the newspaper print his cipher, he followed it up by using "Fry" to represent Friday (six times in total). Therefore, when he demanded his five character code be printed in the newspaper by stating "you better print", it could be reasoned that this sentence be completed to "you better print Fry". This satisfies the repeating ciphertext character at positions 3 & 5.
The Zodiologists website took a deep dive into the three Cheri Jo Bates letters mailed on April 30th 1967 and wrote "It can be reasonably assumed that the signature has a particular meaning beyond of just being a letter. If we should pick just one of the available options, we would say that the signature is a combination of the letter Z and the number 3. If it would be only the letter Z, there would be no need to write its top in flying-bird shape. The line at the bottom of the letter is straight. We also could not find a symbol that would resemble the signature. Therefore, we consider Z-3 as most plausible". In the Confession letter, mailed on November 29th 1966, the author stated that Cheri Jo Bates was "not the first and she will not be the last", suggesting that the typist was claiming more than one victim. This conforms to the notion of a signature with an attached victim count, also displayed by the Zodiac Killer alongside his crosshairs in the numerous letters and cards he mailed. However, there is one communication that may have used a similar signature to that used in two of the Bates letters. The Halloween card, mailed by the Zodiac Killer on October 27th 1970, gave us a victim count of "14" on the skeleton's hand, and fashioned the number fourteen as "4-TEEN", using the number "4" to express the word "four". The Zodiac Killer may have used the same tactic with the symbol on the envelope and card inner, using 4 dots to indicate that the "F" stood for "fourteen" rather then "fifteen". If the symbol on the Halloween card inner and outer denoted a victim count for a third time, we have the possibility of a joined "Z" and "F" denoting the fourteen victims claimed by the killer - extremely similar to the joined "Z" and "3" suggested by the Zodiologists website. If this hypothesis is true, it could indicate a common thread from Riverside to the Bay Area through the correspondence of a killer. It must also be noted that the Halloween card was the only confirmed communication to use the letter "Z" to denote the "Zodiac" pseudonym - and it used the letter "Z" twice - just like the two Bates letters (if you believe the premise). The Zodiac Killer also used the word "BY" in prominent positions four times within the Halloween card, mirroring the "BY" which headed both Confession letters. The use of a Halloween card to convey these similarities is pertinent to the fact that the body of Cheri Jo Bates was discovered on Halloween morning The Zodiac's Little List letter (July 26th 1970), believed by some to be the previous communication to the Halloween card, began his little list by misspelling "victim" to "victom", and wrote. "Some I shall tie over ant hills and watch them scream + twich and sqwirm". The Confession letter author began his little list by using the misspelling "victom", before typing "She squirmed and shook as I chocked her, and her lips twiched. She let out a scream once". The author of the Confession letter had a smaller list, but included "the beautiful blond that babysits near the little store" and "the shapely blue eyed brunett that said no when I asked her for a date". The Zodiac Killer could have fashioned the Little List letter and Halloween card to make journalists and/or law enforcement draw the conclusion he was responsible for the murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside on October 30th 1966. This ultimately became the case, when Paul Avery presented the link in the San Francisco Chronicle on November 16th 1970, much to the dismay of law enforcement. The information regarding the Confession letters was readily available to the Zodiac Killer, when the Inside Detective magazine published a comprehensive article about Cheri Jo Bates in January 1969. However, the signature on two of the Bates' letters had not been published in the newspapers or magazines prior to October 27th 1970, making the possibility of two "Z's" and a victim count, deployed in Riverside and the Bay Area, through three communications and one killer, a viable proposition. If Riverside really was the Zodiac Killer, had he reset his victim total when switching from "Z" to the "Zodiac" pseudonym, beginning anew some 450 miles north? |
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