A shift cipher with circled numbers (often seen in puzzles like escape rooms) relies on a Caesar cipher, where the secret shift key is represented by numbers wrapped inside circles, such as the three number 8's present on the simple Z13 code mailed on April 20th 1970. A shift cipher replaces each plaintext letter with another letter located a fixed number of positions down the alphabet. When you hit the end of the alphabet, the count would wrap around to the beginning. In the case of the Z13, the count of 8 would travel in a right shift and wrap around to the beginning (this would apply to the second two 8's).

This was just a continuation of the technique adopted in the 340 cipher---at the time unsolved---in which the Zodiac Killer employed a positive nine and negative eight shift to encode his message---that could be decoded with a period 19 shift. He also encoded errors into his 340 cipher using a nine shift, that became apparent as diagonal patterns across the second half of this cipher. The April 20th 1970 letter was very likely triggered by the morning newspaper reports of the Robert Salem murder in San Francisco on the same day (with Zodiac scrawled in blood on his apartment wall). A letter that had a morning postmark, so was likely created in haste with very little regard for complex cipher techniques. It is not certain that the Zodiac Killer was inspired to resume his letter writing campaign because of the Robert Salem murder, but it had been four months since the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969, so this letter coinciding with his pseudonym appearing at a murder site, is probably not coincidental. 

The November 8th 1969 and April 20th 1970 letters were very likely prompted by Professor Donald C. B. Marsh, who told the San Francisco Examiner on October 22nd 1969: "The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts. He knows, to quote Edgar Allan Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name - in cipher code - would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated - which will truly and honestly include his name".

​That is because Edgar Allan Poe's lengthy essay "A Few Words on Secret Writing".held all the ingredients to the design of the Z340 and Z13, including the splitting of the alphabet into two halves, and the cipher wheel which adopts the forwards and backwards shifting method of encryption and decryption, involving two concentric, independently rotating circles. The bottom line is that the Zodiac Killer likely didn't have much time to dazzle us with complex cryptograms on April 20th 1970, so created a simplistic code of 13 characters in which the three circled 8's became the engine room to the solution, where we had to circle around the code to produce the joke reply to "My name is" of "ME ⊕".  

This is the answer he gave us on October 27th 1970, highlighting the word "ME" twice on the Halloween card by the clever positioning of the word "BOO", preceded again by the promise of his name through the selection of a card with the introductory message of "I feel it in my bones you ache to know my name. And so I'll clue you in". The comedic answer was "ME"--- now given to us three times. The fourth time was in plain sight on January 29th 1974, when the Zodiac gave us his "pseudonym" or "name" as "Me-37".

A further fifth clue could be found by looking at the next line in the "Tit-Willow" verse he provided in 1974. The wording "My name is" can be extrapolated from the "The Mikado" text---thereby returning us back to the April 20th 1970 letter and ""ME" once again. We have now gone full circle back to the three circled eights. We effectively have four examples of "ME" through three communications---all but one of which are sitting in plain sight. The only one hidden from view can be easily found in seconds using a simple right shift the Zodiac Killer had previously employed. The Zodiac Killer mailed at least seven ciphers during his reign of terror, but it is safe to say that the four most commonly talked about ciphers have now been finally resolved.
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FOUR AND A HALF YEARS OF ME             THREE INNOCUOUS EXCLAMATION MARKS

On June 2nd 2026 David Oranchak completed his 3-part destruction of yet another hopeless and deranged offering, which this time attempted to link the Zodiac Killer with the Black Dahlia murder from 1947. It is another excellent video series from David Oranchak, whose presentation skills are superlative in every aspect, as he comfortably annihilates the most recent of dumb theories. Massively respected in the Zodiac community by almost everybody, his services will no doubt be called upon in a year or two when the next chancer comes along, who will undoubtedly put forward more half-baked nonsense that captures the attention of an immoral mainstream media only concerned with generating money over truth.

This publicity effectively creates "puppets" in the Zodiac community, who feel compelled to confront the latest claims and dedicate unbridled effort to correct the record and quell the most recent uninformed fervour. There appears an irresistible compunction to expend great resource in dismissing drivel, where shade is probably the best disinfectant. If individuals have that much of an uncritical mind that they blindly accept rubbish spewed from the mainstream media, then they probably aren't going to distinguish between reasonable and unreasonable. Providing a counterweight to this stupidity is an endless task that David Oranchak will have to revisit time and time again. David Oranchak, whose fantastic work alongside Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke in solving the 340 cipher on December 5th 2020, is a highly intelligent person, blessed with dedication, modesty and ethics that sets him apart from most. 

With that said, let's examine a statement made by David Oranchak at 11 minutes and 50 seconds into his latest video, which appears to contradict the approach adopted in the rest of the video. This statement is not the focus of the overarching message in the video and will undoubtedly present as nitpicking, but nonetheless, it is a statement without merit. David Oranchak is widely known and respected to not just accept things without evidence---he meticulously examines claims through dedicated and diligent research, that is often labor intensive and time consuming. David is not the sort of person to just repeat a narrative without careful evaluation of that claim. However, at 11m 50s into the video David casually makes a claim that he cannot possibly substantiate---but one that has been repeated endlessly by individuals over many years, who I dare say, have not dedicated any time whatsoever in examining their throwaway comments (or the letter itself).

David stated "He (Baber) also links the DC Freeway Phantom using this 1981 letter from a Zodiac copycat". This statement is factually incorrect, because irrespective of your thoughts on this letter's authenticity, nobody has physically identified its sender to prove it wasn't Zodiac. And if the claim that the letter is from a copycat has its foundations based solely on handwriting and tone---then that is another falsehood perpetuated by researchers unable to prove this concept. With handwriting alone, it is currently impossible to say whether the 1981 "Atlanta" letter was penned by the Zodiac Killer, or somebody mimicking the Bay Area murderer. Unless you can undeniably identify the sender of this communication, you cannot possibly claim it was mailed by a copycat. Unfortunately David Oranchak, in this instance, has just copycatted the narrative that this is a copycat---and fell into the trap of repeating a claim passed down through the years---in absence of any evidence to make such a claim. The diligent research exemplified in the rest of the video, is not repeated in this limited instance. It may be a minor point in an otherwise excellent presentation by David Oranchak, whose work I value greatly---but it appears that when it comes to the Zodiac communications, comprehensive research by most is not a requirement when making such assertions. 

AUTHENTICATING THE ATLANTA LETTER?

The individual 10 letters he replaced were A, E, H, N (2 times), O, R (3 times), S (2 times), T, V and Y. In the total count of 14 letters he replaced with misspellings, all but V and Y fall in the top nine most frequently occurring letters in the English alphabet. This means that 12 of the correct letters he replaced (to produce errors) could be found in the nine most frequently used letters in normal text. Only the letter "I" was not selected in the nine most commonly used letters replaced on any diagonal (it was replaced on the 10th row in position 14, when the Zodiac Killer used the letter "E" instead. But this was not on a diagonal). The four green dots in the images above (showing misspellings) have yet to be fully explained. The frequency table on the left was based on a sample of 40,000 words. This frequency of letters is pretty much replicated on Wikipedia.   

It could be of interest to go back to his 408 cipher on July 31st 1969 and examine which letters he chose to misspell in that instance. The majority of the letters replaced in the 340 cipher along the diagonal are of higher frequency in everyday text---but I cannot say whether this was a deliberate choice on behalf of the Zodiac Killer.  

Virtually every communication the Zodiac Killer mailed had an inspiration that can be traced back to recent newspaper articles about him. The first letters mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969 may have their roots in a Times-Herald (Vallejo) newspaper article written by Frances Flaherty on March 30th 1969, entitled "Teenagers' Slayer Still at Large".

​This was the last meaningful coverage of the Lake Herman Road murders before the Zodiac Killer began sending his communications, by writing "This is the murderer of the 2 teenagers last Christmass at Lake Herman + the girl on the 4th of July near the golf course in Vallejo. To prove I killed them I shall state some facts which only I + the police know". But rather than just announcing he killed David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen and taking the opportunity to glorify in their murders, the Zodiac Killer immediately provided a list of details only known to him and the police. There is a strong possibility he was responding directly to Sheriff's Sergeant Leslie Lundblad's cryptic utterance below.   

Lundblad was effectively saying there was plenty more information about the double murder that hadn't been released into the newspapers---which the killer would be able to inadvertently provide if he talked to him. So the Zodiac Killer spared him the effort, by wilfully speaking to Lundblad through the Bay Area newspapers and giving him four key details about Lake Herman Road on December 20th 1968, and three about Blue Rock Springs on July 4th/5th 1969---which happened in the interim. The use of the word "cryptically" at the end of the newspaper article is rather fitting, because if Lundblad could address the audience in a cryptic manner, then I suppose the murderer could reply in kind. ​Lundblad conceded that after almost 100 days they were only slightly closer to solving the grisly slayings at Lake Herman Road on Friday night in December. The Zodiac Killer would however promise more slayings, to begin on "Fry night" in August.

Despite the concise nature of facts and promises offered by the Zodiac Killer in his July 31st 1969 written text, the content of the 408 cipher deviated markedly by rambling about his victims becoming his slaves in paradise (and the afterlife). So why did the Zodiac Killer present two vastly contrasting sides to Lundblad, which included the divulgence of facts, but was cloaked in a disparate layer of fantasy reminiscent of a madman? The answer may have been shaped by the March 30th 1969 Times-Herald newspaper article which described him as a "hopelessly deranged person" and a "nut on the loose". If this is what they believed the murderer was, the Zodiac Killer may have opted to play to the gallery and send Lundblad a cryptically charged message describing a deranged vision of the afterlife. The newspaper may have [1] shaped a man who was prepared to supply facts only known to him and the police, [2] given the Zodiac Killer the opportunity to become the madman they already believed he was, and [3] Seeded in the mind of a killer to continue his search for "over a dozen people" to murder on "Fry night" and into the weekend--- and follow the theme of the two murders he had already claimed on "Friday night in December" (and July). 

​The March 30th 1969 newspaper article began on page one and concluded on page four, with Lundblad stating "If I talk to a suspect, I'll know positively whether he was there that night", he said cryptically. Sergeant Lundblad could not have known that the identity of the killer was but mere inches away. A simple glance to the right would have revealed the Zodiac pseudonym. 

Knowing that the Zodiac Killer was a narcissist who bathed in the spotlight of notoriety, it wasn't surprising that by 1974, after several of his communications failed to be published in the newspapers, that he ultimately harbored resentment towards the headline grabbers and decided to change course. Three consecutive letters on January 29th 1974, April 24th 1978 and March 2nd 1978 all focused on the movie industry and its associated award ceremonies  The "Exorcist" letter on January 29th 1974 responded to the recent Golden Globe film awards at the Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, California on January 26th 1974, where "The Exorcist" film won four awards for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". The Zodiac Killer wrote "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy".

He followed this up on April 24th 1978---dissatisfied with being in the shade---by addressing his audience with "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me". Three weeks earlier, the 50th Academy Awards of cinematic achievement took place at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles on April 3rd 1978, with Oscar winning films subsequently benefitting at the box office in cinemas and theaters across the country. Nine days after the April 24th 1978 letter, on May 2nd 1978, the Zodiac Killer began taunting the actors paraded at the ceremony, insisting that they needed to raise their game if they wanted to take on the role of the Bay Area murderer, by stating "Hey-you actors-this is your lucky Break. Remember-whoever plays me has his work cut out for him, I have decided to start killing again-please hold the applause". It really came as no surprise that his "Channel Nine" letter was addressed to KHJ-TV Studios at 5615 Melrose Avenue, as the Los Angeles television station was only 4.5 miles from where the Academy Awards were held one month earlier--- a television station that held its 13th annual 2-hour voting ceremony called "Your Choice for the Oscars" on the eve of the Academy Awards.  

In amongst the slew of Academy Award winning films hitting the big screen in March and April of 1978, was the movie "Blue Collar" starring Richard Pryor and Harvey Keitel. Advertisements for this movie littered the newspapers alongside the Academy Award winning films---described as "A Damned Good Movie" in every publication. Contrast this with a newspaper hungry Zodiac Killer, who couldn't have failed to notice this advertisement when stating "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me". Well, I can certainly guarantee that it wasn't going to be Richard Pryor.

It really is quite amazing how David Toschi managed to author all of these letters under one common theme of award ceremonies, while generously taking time away from being a detective to mail the January 29th 1974 and April 24th 1978 letters from San Mateo/Santa Clara County, and take the short 6-hour journey to mail the "Channel Nine" letter from Los Angeles. This would have been unprecedented commitment from a serving detective, who with plenty of imagination and endeavor, had the foresight to manufacture such elaborate schemes over a 4-year period.

Inspector David Toschi even went so far as to investigate his own sinister phone call to the Mission District on March 13th 1978, when his voice was recorded on an answering machine, warning "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco". This came 42 days before the April 24th 1978 letter, which read "I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here". After an extensive investigation into this phone call, David Toschi concluded that he didn't recognise his own voice and the case was closed, yet he still decided to mimic the language used in the phone call for his April 24th 1978 letter. 

Not satisfied with being demoted to pawn detail after he was suspected of writing the April 24th 1978 letter, he decided to do a further impression of the Zodiac Killer on July 19th 1978, when he mimicked the language used in the unreleased May 2nd 1978 letter, which continued the theme of the April 24th 1978 letter. They read in chronological order "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me" (04/24/78), "whoever plays me has his work cut out for him" (05/02/78} and "Maybe you play chess with me" (07/19/78). All three used the verb "play" and the singular pronoun "me" in the same sentence. The third author could not have copied the second author if different individuals, but they could have been the same person. If David Toschi managed to accomplish all of the above---taking the time to scour the newspapers and travel around the country to fashion this elaborate hoax---then he deserves an Oscar and a massive posthumous round of applause. I doubt even I could have found these connections. 

A PAWN IN A GAME OF DEATH   

The "Good Citizen" letter mailed on October 7th 1969 was addressed to Sergeant John Lynch of the Vallejo Police Department, just like the "Concerned Citizen" card was on August 10th 1969, which provided a key to the solution of the 408 cipher and the three "code letters" mailed on July 31st 1969 to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle. The "Good Citizen" and "Concerned Citizen" authors both mailed the letters to Sergeant John Lynch and used the word "citizen" in their signature. The two communications also referred to the July 31st 1969 "code letters"---one provided a key to the 408 cipher, while the other stated "On this occasion, while thinking of the code letters, the pencil wrote: "Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is SIMPSON".

​Thanks to some excellent research by "Desmitty11" from the Discord forum, who has done extensive work on the "Good Citizen" letter, the below redacted police file was provided to me. The communications on August 10th 1969 and October 7th 1969, despite being very short in nature, both used the word "name" twice in their message. The "Concerned Citizen" author typed "Please forgive the absence of my signature or name as I do not wish to have my name in the papers", with the "Good Citizen" letter author appearing to reply with "I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows somebody or his name is SIMPSON".

Neither of these letters were released into the public domain at the time, so it is fairly obvious to conclude they were mailed by the same author. If the "concerned citizen" was attempting to disguise the fact he was the Zodiac Killer on August 10th 1969 when providing supportive material to the solving the 408 cipher, then the "good citizen" on October 7th 1969 by offering a cryptic array of nonsense, probably did nothing but give this deception away. The unhelpful and confused nature of the "Good Citizen" letter---in direct contrast to the "Concerned Citizen" letter---managed to throw shade upon the author in both instances.

In the above San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article on August 12th 1969 entitled "A Name in Murder Cipher", Sergeant John Lynch ponders the name "Robert Emmett" suggested by code breakers about the "code letters". He concludes the search for a "name" by stating "We aren't sure Robert Emmett is who we are looking for. Maybe he'll send another letter and let us know". Another letter did arrive on October 7th 1969--- addressed to John Lynch personally---giving the sergeant the name of "Jerry" and suggesting that "perhaps he knows people" (in respect to the code letters). 

Was the October 7th 1969 author giving Sergeant John Lynch a pointer towards somebody named "Jerry" to aid in his quest for answers? It is almost certain that the Zodiac Killer accidentally missed out a line in the 408 cipher while transcribing his plaintext draft message into ciphertext, with seven consecutive characters pulled from the columns above (four from the same row). This strongly suggests (if Zodiac) that the October 7th 1969 cryptic message pertaining to "Jerry" as a name in the unsolved eighteen characters of the 408 cipher, was not the intended message meant by the so-called "good citizen". A helpful message, attempting to aid Sergeant John Lynch in his investigation, would be coherent and understandable, in complete contrast to the October 7th 1969 offering which lacked clarity and direction. It seems that "Jerry" was able to provide answers, rather than being the answer.
​
It is easy to believe that the "Good Citizen" letter author was confused and uncertain, but that doesn't mean "Jerry" was just plucked out of thin air---and was irrelevant to the sender and/or Sergeant John Lynch. If these two communications were mailed by the Zodiac Killer, then their conception would usually be found in the newspapers he recently read. The name of "Jerry" may be found in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner or Vallejo Times-Herald sometime between August 10th 1969 and October 7th 1969, with obvious relevance to the content of the letter. Maybe the pencil holds the name. 

The Zodiac Killer employed only two pseudonyms between 1969 and 1987 in the form of "Zodiac" and "Me"---the latter of which appeared in the only known genuine mailing of 1974, when the Zodiac Killer sent the "Exorcist" communication on January 29th 1974. A signature that can easily be unearthed by taking a right shift of eight from each circled 8 in the Z13 cipher.

But it was the "Halloween" card on October 27th 1970 that again teed us up with the promise of his identity, by the Zodiac choosing a card with the introduction of "I feel it in my bones you ache to know my name. And so I'll clue you in". Knowing that this was written on the front of the card, one might have expected the Bay Area murderer to supply us with a humorous answer subtly concealed within the design of the card inner, just like "My name is" may have been followed by "ME ⊕" in the April 20th 1970 letter. This was covered extensively in a previous article, however, it appeared that the Zodiac Killer made a deliberate choice to add two exclamation marks to the "Halloween" card inner to compliment the third exclamation mark already present in the writing "But, then why spoil our game!".  The fourth was partially hidden by the the skeleton's right foot.
​
In the earlier article it was shown that the Zodiac Killer placed "Peek-a-boo you are doomed" around the knothole of the tree, yet it was fashioned in such a way that the "ME" of "DOOMED" was noticeably larger and bolder than the rest of the text. The following letter "D" returned to normal size, but was followed by an oversized exclamation mark, effectively creating an emphasis on "ME!".(ME complimented by an exclamation mark). This mimicked the word to the right of the inner skeleton's left arm, which was the only part of the "cut and pasted" skeleton out of position compared to the original. The left arm had been accidentally or deliberately shifted to the right to obscure the "a" of "game" to spell "me!". This was not all.

The phrase "PEEK-A-BOO" around the knothole is positioned so that "BOO" lines up with the personal pronoun of "ME". The "D" and exclamation mark is broken off to line up with the large "BOO!" (BOO and exclamation mark) in the center of the card inner, which in turn is tilted 45 degrees anticlockwise to line up with the "me!" by the skeleton's left arm, which just happens to be the only part of the skeleton out of place compared to the original (see below). So, did.the Zodiac Killer deliberately add two exclamation marks to the card inner to form a bridge to the third, positioned after "me" by the misplaced left arm? The Zodiac Killer would have lined up "BOO" with "ME" twice (with both "BOO'S" sitting at approximately 45 degrees on the card), and fashioned "ME" followed by an exclamation mark twice. Was this a further mocking joke to compliment the simplistic answer to the Z13 on April 20th 1970? A joke that the Zodiac Killer finally got tired of on January 29th 1974, when he eventually exorcised the true identity of himself. Did anybody really expect the Zodiac Killer to give us his real name?  

Beginning on October 23rd 1969 and culminating on November 5th 1969, Daniel Williams (24), a Salesian High School teacher in the city of Richmond received multiple telephone threats from an individual claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, who stated he "had gone to a Martinez school in search of victims but left when he found police there". His residence at 1234 Bush Street in Martinez was broken into and his 7-Up drink was spiked with enough arsenic to kill him. Finally, on November 5th 1969, the same individual almost certainly rang the Martinez Police Department at 12:30 am stating "There's going to be a shooting at 1234 Bush Street", before immediately hanging the receiver up. These were prolonged threats of murder spanning two weeks, before the "Bus Bomb" letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle on November 9th 1969 threatening to blow up a school bus and likely identifying the Salesian High School of Daniel Williams as the next target (by way of X's on crosshairs). 

However, this wasn't the first threat on a Richmond school, because four days before the first "Zodiac" telephone call to Daniel Williams on October 23rd 1969, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer telephoned "The Independent" newspaper in Richmond twice on the night of October 19th 1969 and threatened to target the Peres Elementary School on 5th Street & Pennsylvania Avenue. He again called "The Independent" newspaper twice on October 20th 1969 at 7:01 pm and 7:16 pm stating "Keep the police away from Peres" and "Keep the police away from Peres. I was there today...there were too many police". Many concerned citizens contacted police, with one woman reporting hearing a prowler and was "sure it was him". Another reported seeing a man chasing a girl and asserted that "he looks like the Zodiac". Police cautioned residents not to automatically assume any suspicious person was the Zodiac Killer, having been whipped up by the newspaper coverage of the phone caller the previous day.

​This school was situated only 1.4 miles (by crow) from the Salesian High School where Daniel Williams taught. I highly doubt that two separate and autonomous individuals claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, within four days of one another, both began the sustained targetting of the Peres Elementary School in Richmond, and the subsequent and prolonged two-week attack on the school teacher Daniel Williams, who worked at Salesian High School in Richmond----although it's certainly feasible that one had been inspired by the "The Independent" newspaper stories about the Zodiac Killer days earlier and acted upon it.

This threat on Peres Elementary School is currently the earliest known threat on schoolchildren reported in the newspapers since the October 13th 1969 "Paul Stine" letter was made public. The threat on Peres Elementary School came just two days after the San Francisco Chronicle published the Zodiac message which promised to "wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out".  

On November 9th 1969, the Zodiac Killer wrote "This is the Zodiac speaking up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people. I have grown rather angry with the police for their telling lies about me. So I shall change the way the collecting of slaves. I shall no longer announce to anyone. When I committ my murders, they shall look like routine robberies, killings of anger, + a few fake accidents, etc". If the Zodiac Killer was going to disguise his upcoming murders, clearly the intention---at this juncture---was to cease contact with the newspapers and remove or diminish the pseudonym "Zodiac" from being linked to any reported crimes. To continue writing to the newspapers under the guise of "Zodiac" and linking himself to future murders would have totally defeated the object of disguising them as accidents and robberies. The phone caller to "The Independent" newspaper on October 19th 1969 showed an earlier reluctance to be connected to the pseudonym "Zodiac", by stating "Don't call me Zodiac anymore". Was this the precursor to no longer announcing himself? Unfortunately for the Zodiac Killer, this commitment to future anonymity didn't last long.

Unsurprisingly, no attack transpired on Peres Elementary School, so if this was the Zodiac Killer targetting schoolchildren at a Bay Area location, why did he choose this specific school as his starting point? If you believe that the Daniel Williams attack was the Zodiac Killer, then there is good reason to believe that the person who delivered their threats to the Peres ​Elementary School via "The Independent" newspaper---all with links to Richmond--- was the Zodiac Killer too.   

The opening line of the "Exorcist" letter mailed on January 29th 1974 borrowed from the newspaper coverage of the 1973 film which won four Golden Globe awards at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California on January 26th 1974, Having received four awards for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay", the Zodiac Killer chose to mock the film's achievements by writing "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy". He then featured a verse from "The Mikado", a British comic opera by Arthur Seymour Sullivan and William Schwenck Gilbert, based in a fictionalised version of Japan.

After plagiarising a verse from Tit-Wllow, the Zodiac Killer then added what appears to be Japanese style symbolism at the foot of the letter, preceded by a threat, which read  "If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing". Kevin Robert Brooks "To Kill" is the arguable frontrunner of solutions to this strange array of characters. If the Zodiac Killer had watched "The Exorcist" movie in the days or weeks before writing this letter, did anything in the film contain Japanese characters that may have inspired him to add this symbolism to his communication addressed to the San Francisco Chronicle?

In "The Exorcist" movie, Father Karras takes audio recordings of the possessed Regan to a university language laboratory. The laboratory director (played by John Mahon) analyses the eerie, garbled noises and realises that the demonic speech is actually English spoken in reverse. The red writing on the wall of the laboratory in the above image reads "TASUKETE" (タスケテ) which is Japanese for "Help me", that appears on possessed Regan's torso in the very next scene. In Japanese writing, this is written in Katakana (the phonetic alphabet used for foreign words and emphasis). It serves as a subtle, eerie Easter egg placed in the background of the scene, mirroring the demonic possession. This personal pronoun (of "Me") was used by Zodiac in the "Exorcist" letter on January 29th 1974, when he wrote "Me-37, SFPD-0". To the left of "Me" in the "Exorcist" letter are a group of Japanese style symbols. To the left of "Help me" on the wall of the language laboratory are a row of Japanese symbols. The plea of "Help me" featured three times in the "Melvin Belli" letter on December 20th 1969. 

Zodiac researcher, Jibberjabber, pointed me in the direction of the highlighted Katakana symbol on the left, which resembles one of the Japanese style characters used by the Zodiac Killer in his Exorcist letter. However, we have hit a roadblock since, and have been unable to properly identify any of the remaining characters. It might be very useful to "decode" the Japanese writing shown in the visible image below, because if the Zodiac Killer saw "The Exorcist" movie as he claimed, he may have "thinked" a little longer than we thought.

"The Most Dangerous Game" was released into US cinemas on September 16th 1932 following much publicity, with its associate producer Merian C. Cooper sought by the press to give comment on his latest venture. He duly obliged by giving reporters the quote of "man is the most dangerous animal of all", which was published in a handful of newspapers such as the Oregon Daily Journal on September 27th 1932. Bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer used this exact quote in his July 31st 1969 cipher---that most agree was referring to "The Most Dangerous Game" movie---it's extremely unlikely this was chosen by accident. Either the Zodiac Killer drew this sequence of eight words from memory, or he made a conscious decision to visit the library and search the newspaper microfiche for memorable quotes to apply to his opening communications, which he had ample time to prepare after the Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs attacks on December 20th 1968 and July 5th 1969 respectively.

Many things point to a killer who attached a sighting implement to his gun and ventured into the fields surrounding the Gate #10 turnout on December 20th 1968---implying that the eventual murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen may never have happened if the Zodiac Killer's earlier searches had turned out to be successful---and probably why he wrote "there was no need to use the gunsights" in his August 4th 1969 letter. The "pencil flashlight" would have been extremely useful in the extreme darkness of the field, but less so in the turnout with the additional lighting from both vehicles. The movement of a killer into the surrounding wilderness is also explained by the vacant white Chevrolet Impala sitting idle in the Lake Herman Road turnout for a minimum of one hour on at least two separate occasions. A driver who very likely walked beyond the road and turnout on a dark, freezing night in December with a distinct purpose in mind. A purpose that would reflect the content of the July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969 letters, in which a killer would search for prey in the forest using a mounted flashlight, that necessitated him leaving his vehicle for an extended period of time. The 408 cipher was the motivation for the crimes, whereas the accompanying text in the letters was the proof. 

The above newspaper article---had the Zodiac Killer searched the library microfiche regarding the 1932 movie release---would have been the sort of reporting that would have caught his eye. This was the most comprehensive newspaper article containing the phrase "man is the most dangerous animal of all" that the Zodiac Killer would have come across, so may have heavily influenced the language chosen in the opening section of his 408 cipher.

After plagiarising the Merian C. Cooper quote "man is the most dangerous animal of all", the newspaper article read "his career has been a succession of thrilling adventures in which the most ferocious beasts have figured". The Zodiac wrote "to kill something gives me the most thrilling experience".  The newspaper article told of a "big game hunter tracking down and killing wild beasts". The Zodiac Killer wrote of "killing wild game". The opening gambit of his 408 cipher somewhat mirrored the Oregon Daily Journal newspaper article from September 27th 1932, about a movie exploring the notion of hunting human prey in the wild. The is the story of two killers---Count Zaroff and the Zodiac Killer---both armed with a .22 small calibre weapon in search of the ultimate prize. Unfortunately, one of them was real, despite some current Zodiac researchers attempting to turn him into the fiction that preceded him.   

On October 13th 1969 the first wanted poster was released to the public concerning the murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Height two days earlier. On January 29th 1970, the Yellow Cab Company put up a thousand dollar reward for any information leading to the arrest of the Zodiac Killer. In addition, the Teamsters Union which represents the Yellow Cab Company were reported in the San Francisco Chronicle to be considering offering a further reward on February 8th 1970 in the case of Paul Stine and Charles Jarman (another taxicab murder victim).

​Then came the murder of Sergeant Brian McDonnell (44) on February 16th 1970, who suffered devastating and sadly fatal injuries when a bomb packed with 1 1/2 inch fence staples exploded on an outside ledge of Park Police Station in the Upper Haight neighborhood. Almost immediately a reward of $5,000 was offered for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator or perpetrators connected to this crime, authorized by Mayor Joseph Alioto on February 17th 1970, who stood on the ruins of Park Police Station and offered the money for the capture of the "maniacs" who bombed it. This total very quickly snowballed to $35,000 when the San Francisco Examiner newspaper added a further $5,000 to the reward fund. 

This devastating bomb attack on Park Police Station continued to be reported throughout February, March and April - and by April 9th 1970 the reward fund had reached $38,000, with Police Chief Alfred Nelder informing the press that four full-time inspectors had been detailed to track down the responsibles.

Therefore, it really isn't surprising that the Zodiac Killer, who threatened to bomb school buses and had a wanted poster and rewards offered for his capture, decided to piggyback off this story and begin his April 20th 1970 letter with the wording "I am mildly cerous as to how much money you have on my head now.  I hope you do not think that I was the one who wiped out that blue meannie with a bomb at the cop station". By invoking the murder of Sergeant Brian McDonnell, adding a bomb diagram to his latest letter, and writing "Even though I talked about killing school children with one (a bomb), It just wouldn't doo to move in on someone else's teritory", accompanied by the attribution of SFPD=0 - it was apparent that the Zodiac Killer was prepared to move his perceived bombing campaign to another district in San Francisco. The drawing of a school bus to the left of a steep embankment mirrored exactly a location just 274 feet from the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) of Ingleside Police Station, which closely aligned with his Mount Diablo map and Z32 code. 

THE ANSWER TO THE MOUNT DIABLO CODE

The Zodiac Killer's letter may have made a subtle reference to the uncle of Brian McDonnell, Sergeant Joseph Emmett Lacey (40), who was 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 armed men burst into the establishment with the intention of robbing it. Sergeant Lacey, despite being off-duty at the time, drew his gun and attempted to put a stop to the robbery, but was beaten to the draw and sadly killed. The April 20th 1970 communication stated that "there is more glory in killing a cop than a cid because a cop can shoot back".

Whether this was in anyway connected to the murder of Sergeant Joseph Emmett Lacey in 1956 is unknown, but its immediacy after the reference to the killing of family member Sergeant Brian McDonnell in the letter, makes it an outside possibility. The Zodiac Killer had on many occasions showed us his ability to delve into the distant past to fashion his communications.

But after mentioning it "wouldn't do to move in on someone else's territory", why would he choose Ingleside Police Station adjacent to the Southern Freeway as his next location to "rub the officers noze in their booboos"? Despite the Zodiac Killer's ability to draw from yesteryear, almost everything contained within the many Zodiac communications were often sourced from recent newspapers. In this instance, it was imperative to look through the recent publications about the Park Police Station bombing and murder of Sergeant Brian McDonnell, to see if Ingleside Police Station got a mention regarding future security measures to combat similar attacks. Any reference towards this police station may have been the only inspiration needed by the Zodiac Killer to make this his next target, and somewhat replicate the bombing attack on February 16th 1970. As usual it didn't take much searching, because Ingleside Police Stations featured numerous times in newspaper articles about the Park Police Station bombing.        

Police Chief Alfred Nelder explored the idea of installing high wire fences and floodlights around the whole of Park and Ingleside police stations, which due to tree coverage were the most vulnerable to sneak attacks and bombings. This measure would have been circumvented had the Zodiac Killer placed his bomb on a school bus route alongside the Southern Freeway---yet would still have had the devastating consequences of murdering schoolchildren within earshot and eyeline of Ingleside Police Station for maximum impact and embarrassment. The Zodiac Killer would have achieved his goal of targetting schoolchildren and a police station under the collective banner of one single attack. 

Another San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article in February 1970 reported that the previous year San Francisco police had tried out---and rejected---steel window shutters, which could have prevented the death and injury at Park Police Station. Cecil L.Ball of Ball-Bilt Millwork said he believes the bulky, heavy interior shutters would have absorbed the shock of the Park Station bombing and would have knocked down the deadly building staples which were sprayed through the air. His company put together a set of the shutters----consisting of half-inch thick steel armor plate mounted on heavy timber---which were tried out briefly at the Ingleside Police Station.   

The Zodiac Killer long claimed he was "crackproof", but he may also have proved to be "bombproof" had he placed his photoelectric cells on the embankment bordering the Southern Freeway. A countermeasure designed to target schoolchildren and the police, and render floodlights and fencing around such places as Ingleside Police Station effectively useless. The inspiration for which may have germinated in the mind of the Zodiac Killer as he read about the callous murder of Sergeant Brian McDonnell in the newspapers---who became the focus of his April 20th 1970 letter.   

Apart from the tragic murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969 in Presidio Heights, the overarching weight of Zodiac communications in San Francisco in late 1969 and 1970 focused on schoolchildren, school buses and schools, whether that be by "picking off the kiddies as they come bouncing out" or blowing them to smithereens by the use of a bomb. Spearheaded by Inspectors David Toschi and William Armstrong, they meticulously searched for the infamous Zodiac Killer for many years, with David Toschi continuing his pursuit into his most turbulent year of 1978, when the Zodiac Killer resurfaced on April 24th 1978 and declared "I am back with you", while asserting that the "city pig toschi is good -- but I am smarter and better".

But why did the Zodiac Killer feel the need to reappear and write two letters on April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978, other than their callback to the Oscars movie ceremony, which was celebrating its 50th Academy Awards of cinematic achievement at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles on April 3rd 1978? Why did the Zodiac Killer wait at least three weeks after the awards ceremony to add such phrases as "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me" (04/24/78), "Hey-you actors-this is your lucky Break. Remember-whoever plays me has his work cut out for him" (05/02/78}, and "hold the applause" (05/02/78}?  What events happened close to April 24th 1978 that compelled the Zodiac Killer to put pen to paper, that had relevance to San Francisco, relevance to David Toschi, and relevance to schoolchildren, that occurred just prior to the mailing date of this letter? Something newsworthy related to schoolchildren who the Zodiac Killer many times threatened to target in San Francisco. By declaring "I am back with you" when writing to the San Francisco Chronicle, was the Bay Area murderer attempting to stoke up fear in the region with the possibility of more attacks in the near future?   

On April 18th 1978, six days before the "I am back with you" letter, a 15-year-old child, Ernesto Apodaca, was shot and killed at Unity Junior High School at 1950 Mission Street, San Francisco. On April 20th 1978 Police Chief Charles Gain informed the press by way of a news conference at the school district headquarters that uniformed officers would be assigned as protection to San Francisco public schools to reassure the community its schoolchildren were safeguarded. School Superintendent Robert Alioto, who had arrived at the school approximately 30 minutes before the body had been removed from the playground, stated "I don't know how we can control something like this". Robert Alioto was unsure how he was going to manage this situation moving forward, but the Zodiac Killer had little self doubt in his forthcoming letter only four days away, when he wrote "I am now in control of all things".

We absolutely know that the Zodiac Killer was inspired by recent newspaper articles and breaking news----and this breaking story about a school shooting investigated by Inspector David Toschi just days before the arrival of the April 24th 1978 letter, naming him in the correspondence and announcing "I am back" in San Francisco----has to be a reasonable candidate that shattered the four year hiatus of the Zodiac Killer.   

A 17-year-old man, not connected to the school, gave himself up to police shortly after the murder, confessed to the crime, and was placed in the custody of the California Youth Authority. The mother of Ernesto Apodaca, shattered by the senseless murder, described her son as "a nice kid with a good attendance record". Almost two years after the murder, Lucia Apocada stated that she intended to sue the Unified School District for $1 million, claiming the school should have prevented outsiders from accessing school property. I suppose the question that has to be asked of April 24th 1978, is whether a recent school shooting in San Francisco, which David Toschi was integral to investigating, awoke the Zodiac Killer from his slumber to inspire him to drive fear into the community once again, by addressing the prominent newspaper in San Francisco with the immortal words "I am back with you".      

On July 10th 2024 I wrote an article about Heidi Hoffman (16) and Lenny Parsons (19) who had parked their vehicle at the end of Saddle Road by Heavenly Valley in South Lake Tahoe on December 13th 1969, when a man approached the young couple at approximately 9:45 pm carrying a flashlight, before shooting them with a 12-guage shotgun. Heidi Hoffman was struck by 40 pellets, with Lenny Parsons hit 7 times.

This came one month after the Sacramento Bee reported multiple threats by the "Zodiac Killer" on school buses at Incline Village over the previous few weeks, culminating on November 23rd 1969. There remained a faint chance this may have been the Bay Area murderer, who was known to target couples armed with a flashlight. On the other hand, it was considered they may have been targetted by known double murderer, Joseph Stephen Holt, who lived at 1390 Keller Road when he murdered Brynn Rainey eight years later in 1977. This address was less than a mile from the double shooting. 

However, after further digging, I discovered another newspaper from the Sacramento Bee on December 17th 1969, which describes the confession of Gerald Paul Smith (17), a marine from Camp Pendleton, who admitted to police he was responsible for firing at the couple with a shotgun in a case of blind panic. In an extremely suspect account of events, he claimed himself and a 15-year old companion were looking for a Christmas tree, when they mistook footsteps in the distance for an approaching bear or bobcat and fired indiscriminately to protect themselves. What a load of baloney. 

Anyway, just recently I have added some additional material to the article "The Reason Why the Zodiac Killer Wrote the Exorcist Letter on January 29th 1974", explaining its links to the April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters, including some newspaper cuttings from 1972 showing why the Zodiac Killer wrote "Pat Boone is an obscenity to the rest of the world". The Bay Area murder had a long memory, which may have extended to the use of library microfiche to compose his communications. The above article and its follow up "A Pawn in a Game of Death", corroborates the case that the April 24th 1978 letter was mailed by the Zodiac.   

On April 15th 1971 the San Jose sheriff's office received an unsigned letter invoking the pseudonym of Zodiac and speaking of "another victim" and the "next victim". The Zodiac Killer letters - by and large - were simply a product of the newspapers he read - and this communication was no different. From April 12th 1971 to April 15th 1971, the newspapers were rampantly speculating on whether the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the April 11th 1971 murder of Kathy Bilek (18), who was brutally stabbed in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga. They were repeating the narrative of the possible involvement of the Zodiac Killer by describing Kathy Bilek as a potential "another victim" of the Bay Area murderer. Therefore, it really isn't surprising that the Zodiac Killer (or somebody pretending to be him) would latch onto this phrase and use it to garnish the letter. The implication being that the author was insinuating their connection to the murder. 

This was repeated in the use of the phrase "next victim", where the author harnessed wording from the ongoing advertising of the "The Zodiac Killer" movie, directed by Tom Hanson and released in San Francisco on April 7th 1971. The advertisements ran all over the Bay Area (and beyond) with a callback to the 1966 "Confession" letter, which stated "I lay awake nights, thinking about my next victim". But strangely, the author of the April 15th 1971 letter pre-empted the August 1st 1973 "Albany" letter, both of which suggested they would claim a "next victim" from a medical facility. We know that the "Albany" letter referred to a female target from the Albany Medical Center on August 10th 1973 at 5;00 pm during shift change, but who was the "next victim" in the April 15th 1971 letter?         

We may likely never know whether the Zodiac Killer responded to the "Dirty Harry" movie, released in San Francisco on December 21st 1971, because communications from the killer (and possible hoaxers) were at this juncture routinely withheld from the newspapers. According to document examiner Robert Prouty in 1987, he claimed there were currently at least 15 "hoax" Zodiac communications a year, which of course, nobody can confidently assert without verifying who mailed them through DNA or fingerprints. The Zodiac Killer communication count exceeds 30, but could be as many as 100 or more. 

In the April 15th 1971 letter, the author used the wording "girl works in hospital" and could be the "next victim", so the logical approach would be to collectively look at the recently released Zodiac Killer film by Tom Hanson, the movie poster, and its accompanying advertisement in the newspapers. The movie poster and advertisements carried the phrase "next victim" - therefore we should watch the movie and see whether or not it features a girl working in a hospital. You know the answer already - of course it does. 

​Towards the end of the film, "Jerry" (the Zodiac Killer) played by Hal Reed, enters a hospital to visit his father and briefly interacts with a nurse in the corridor and exchanges pleasantries. After getting upset when his father fails to reply to him, Jerry proceeds to murder two patients from the hospital. Eight days after the release of "The Zodiac Killer" movie in San Francisco, with "next victim" featuring on its movie poster and newspaper advertisements, somebody wrote a letter to the San Jose sheriff's office hinting at the murder of Kathy Bilek and suggesting that the "next victim" could be the "girl who works in the hospital". The actress who played the nurse in the film was Melissa Mosley. Without seeing the entirety of the letter, it's impossible to tell whether the author was threatening the actress in the movie to achieve increased gravitas, or was drawing inspiration from the film and generalizing about murdering a nurse, as he may have done just over two years later on August 1st 1973.

​What we do know, is that about two weeks later, the real Zodiac Killer mailed a 148 character cipher & letter implying he was the murderer of Kathy Bilek (18), Kathie Snoozy (15) and Debra Furlong (14) in Santa Clara County - and followed this up by mailing the "Monticello" card on July 13th 1971, again insinuating his involvement in the three murders. These two communications somewhat mimicked the April 15th 1971 letter, which had used the phrase "another victim" (of the Zodiac Killer) from the newspapers in relation to the recent murder of Kathy Bilek. This means that three communications were mailed consecutively in 1971 - and all hinted at the murder of Kathy Bilek. Two were definitely from the Zodiac Killer, but what about the third, mailed to law enforcement in San Jose on April 15th 1971?

I will keep the following brief so you can watch the YouTube video presented by Detective Ken Mains on his channel Unsolved No More, who was contacted by Cindy Cannella, the sister of Gordon Mark Cannella (17), who went missing along with Bridget Cantrell Sons (19), following a robbery at a Bayou Vista convenience store in Morgan City, Louisiana, and later found murdered on April 27th 1978. Their murders connected to Robert Hohenberger, a sexual sadist, serial rapist. kidnapper and murderer, who has also been tied to the 1978 killings of Judy Adams (15), Bertha Gould (14) and Mary Rodermund (16) by strangulation. It appears that Hohenberger's penchant for kidnapping and victimization began many years earlier. He had kidnapped and raped at least four people in California, before leaving the state. 

While living at Eagle Mountain in Riverside County, he was a reserve deputy sheriff, when initially charged with the kidnapping, rape and assault of a young Arizona school teacher in May 1966, who was traveling from Los Angeles back to her home in Phoenix. It is believed he used his official position to carry out attacks on many other young girls and women using knives and guns.​ However, at the time Cheri Jo Bates was murdered on October 30th 1966, Hohenberger (24) was out on bail and not incarcerated. After losing his unpaid job at the Riverside Sheriff's Department on May 11th 1966, he continued to be employed as a contract laborer at the Kaiser Steel Corporation in Eagle Mountain, who, according to the sister of Gordon Mark Cannella, were contracted to supply materials to the Riverside City College, which was undergoing major renovation to its infrastructure in the mid 1960s. 

In the driveway adjacent to the library---10 feet from the body of Cheri Jo Bates was a Timex watch---believed to have been ripped off her murderer's wrist during the attack. An inspection of the watch revealed a broken wristband and paint specks on its face. Robert Hohenberger, who later worked in Louisiana at the R&M Welding Company (as a sandblaster) under the alias of Frank Henry Green, listed his desired position on the work application as a "painter" and "blaster". On the evening of Cheri's murder, four workmen were observed sitting on a fence opposite Cheri Jo Bates' lime green Volkswagen Beetle by the library entrance, who may have been a few of the many contractors that had access to the storage room where the desktop poem was ultimately found in December 1966. A desktop poem that many researchers believe carried the author's signature of "rh". Ken Mains spoke with a former co-worker of Robert Hohenberger from Louisiana, who just happened to mention that Hohenberger wore sunglasses with the initials "rh" on them.

During the November 14th 1966 police reconstruction of the events surrounding the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, eyewitnesses recalled a "bearded man" and woman being present in the library on October 30th 1966 who, to this day, have never been identified. On the left is a photograph of Robert Hohenberger, whose sister, Linda Hohenberger, was a student at the Riverside City College in 1966. Many researchers believe that Cheri Jo Bates was being led (or forced) away from her disabled Volkswagen Beetle to the perpetrator's vehicle in an attempted kidnapping for sexual purposes. Everything that Robert Carl Hohenberger was known to do before and after the murder of Cheri Jo Bates. He died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound on May 31st 1978 when approached by four undercover officers. 

​The fingerprints and DNA of Robert Hohenberger are documented, but have they been checked and eliminated to those on the Volkswagen Beetle and the mitochondrial DNA from the four Caucasian hairs found at the base of Cheri Jo Bates' right thumb?