For latest developments and discussion on the three Cheri Jo Bates letters please visit the Zodiac Killer message board here. Alternatively, you can visit the Riverside Police Homicide Cold Case Unit, detailing a 2016 anonymous letter postmarked from San Bernardino, later revealed through DNA to have been mailed from a "troubled teenager" who claimed to have penned the three Bates letters as a sick joke.
Riverside Police Department.
Riverside Police Department.
Cheri Josephine Bates
Three lined letters measuring 8.5" by 11" were mailed on the six month anniversary of the slaying of Cheri Josephine Bates (18). The young college student was murdered on Sunday, October 30th 1966 in an alleyway close to the Riverside City College library, brutally stabbed and slashed numerous times with a short-bladed instrument. The killer had sabotaged her Volkswagen Beetle car by tampering with the middle wire of her distributor, with the intention of luring the young girl to her death. Read more...
The letters were mailed with two 4c Abraham Lincoln stamps (double postage) to the following addresses on April 30th 1967:
1. Sent to her father, Joseph Bates, at 4195 Via San Jose, Riverside, California.
2. Sent to the Riverside Press Enterprise at 3512 14th Street, Riverside, California.
3. Sent to the Riverside Police.
ALL LETTERS AND ENVELOPES CAN BE VIEWED BELOW (WITH SUPERIMPOSED STAMPS).
Only the letter sent to the victim's father had been adapted to read SHE HAD TO DIE THERE WILL BE MORE. Like the Confession letter, mailed on November 29th 1966, a fingerprint was retrieved, but to this day no suspects have been identified. The letter Z, or something resembling it, was placed at the foot of the Riverside Enterprise and Riverside Police Department letters.
The letters were mailed with two 4c Abraham Lincoln stamps (double postage) to the following addresses on April 30th 1967:
1. Sent to her father, Joseph Bates, at 4195 Via San Jose, Riverside, California.
2. Sent to the Riverside Press Enterprise at 3512 14th Street, Riverside, California.
3. Sent to the Riverside Police.
ALL LETTERS AND ENVELOPES CAN BE VIEWED BELOW (WITH SUPERIMPOSED STAMPS).
Only the letter sent to the victim's father had been adapted to read SHE HAD TO DIE THERE WILL BE MORE. Like the Confession letter, mailed on November 29th 1966, a fingerprint was retrieved, but to this day no suspects have been identified. The letter Z, or something resembling it, was placed at the foot of the Riverside Enterprise and Riverside Police Department letters.
1. Mailed to Joseph Bates
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2. Mailed to the Riverside Press Enterprise
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3. Mailed to the Riverside Police Department
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Riverside Press Enterprise
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Riverside Police Department
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FBI files, Zodiac 5, page 50/249
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