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.
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?
The Monticello card contained pasted newspaper text and never directly named Kathy Bilek as the victim he was claiming, but gave us directions to the burial site of one of his previously claimed victims (Kathy Snoozy). The Pines card used the same template, by again using newspaper cuttings, and failing to mention the name of Donna Lass (but insinuating her as the victim). The newspaper cuttings on the March 22nd 1971 "Pines card" appear to direct us to the deposition or burial site of the Lake Tahoe nurse, just like he did with Kathy Snoozy at Monticello. If the Zodiac Killer was the author of the Pines card, then he retrospectively claimed the lives of Donna Lass, Kathy Snoozy, Debra Furlong and Kathy Bilek months after their murders. He would retrospectively claim the murder of Cheri Jo Bates also. We may now have two pasted postcards, both possibly giving us directions to the remains of a murder victim claimed by the Zodiac Killer.
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 confirmed 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.
In his very first communications, the Zodiac Killer wrote three letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969, and fully expected to receive front page coverage, demanding "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". After all, he had now committed the murders of David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen and Darlene Ferrin, while seriously injuring Michael Mageau.
He again reiterated the importance of publicity when the August 4th 1969 Debut of Zodiac letter arrived at the San Francisco Examiner offices, stating "I was not happy to see that I did not get front page coverage". This trend would continue in the Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969 when he asked politely "Could you print this new cipher in your frunt page", and when the Los Angeles letter was mailed on March 13th 1971, declaring "The reason I'm writing to the Times is this, They don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others".
By August 4th 1969 he had killed three, nearly killed another, sent four letters and created a 408 character cipher formed of three parts - but despite this - the two main newspapers in the Bay Area relegated his cipher offerings to page four and page nine in the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner respectively. The Zodiac Killer was probably wondering what more he had to do to achieve the front page coverage his crimes and communications merited. The answer would come sharply into focus, when two days after he announced himself to the world as "Zodiac" - and while he was scouring the newspapers for any progress on his 408 cipher - the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a comprehensive article on the front page of their newspaper featuring the brutal slayings of Kathie Reyne Snoozy (15) and Debra Gaye Furlong (14) in San Jose on August 3rd 1969. The two young teenage girls were brutally stabbed countless times as they picnicked atop an oak grove in Alamedan Valley.
Dr. John E. Hauser, Santa Clara county's chief medical examiner and coroner, stated of the Snoozy & Furlong murders "I've never seen a case with this many stab wounds. You know, I've been in this profession a long time and sometimes I think I'm rather callous, but when I saw these girls, believe me it was terrifying. The Nazi sex mutilations during World War II were nothing compared to what was done to these young girls".
The Zodiac Killer knew he had to perform an attack that would shock, so it's not difficult to understand why he ramped up the terror in the manner he did, knowing that a close-quarter attack should secure him the front page coverage he felt he warranted. After the attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard, the Zodiac Killer traveled back up the hill and wrote "Vallejo 12-20-68, 7-4-69, Sept 27-69 - 6:30. by knife" on the car door of the young couples' vehicle. The addition of "by knife" was effectively saying to law enforcement "I've now killed with a knife, do I now get front page coverage like the San Jose murders". The plan worked perfectly, because the Lake Berryessa attack had the added advantage of him being linked to the murders of Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong. Something he would capitalize on in the Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969, when he upped his victim count to seven and added the month of August to his chronological list of murder months.
There is also the possibility he threatened the family members of Debra Furlong on December 19th 1969 (see newspaper cutting above), 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.
The Zodiac Killer, having invested nearly two years linking himself to the Snoozy & Furlong murders, could now abandon his connection to the two young teenagers, or continue the facade, and now claim all three murders, which included Kathy Bilek. It was either all three, or none at all. His choice became apparent when the 148 character cipher included in his 1971 letter was deciphered. It read "T(h)is (is) the Zodiac Speacking. Why can't you stop me. I can't stop killing. Stop listening t(o) phonys. If this is not on the front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin". The Zodiac Killer was urging investigators not to listen to Karl Francis Werner, referring to him as a "phony".
The Zodiac Killer wrote "stop listening to phonys" in 1971. The phonys mentioned by Zodiac were Eric Weill and Karl Francis Werner. Both the 340 cipher and 148 cipher used the headlines (and text) from two newspapers. The 340 cipher effectively rejected the phony caller to the Jim Dunbar TV Show. The 148 cipher rejected the phony, Karl Francis Werner, who was being credited with the murders of Snoozy & Furlong, to which Zodiac had claimed for himself on November 8th 1969, by the addition of "Aug" on the Dripping Pen card.
The Z148 code (probably mailed May 3rd 1971) was again contemporary in nature, being a response to the police arrest and interview of Karl Francis Werner on April 29th 1971. Three newspaper articles ran with the headlines "San Jose Student Held in Slaying of Three Girls", "San Jose Student Held in Slaying of 3 Girls" and "Youth Arraigned in Knife Slayings of Three Girls". The Zodiac Killer utilized these headlines in his 148 character cipher by promising to "skin three kids and make a suit from the skin" if his latest letter was not published.