Donna Ann Lass This is the third and final instalment re-examining the Pines postcard (March 22nd 1971), and determining whether the pasted "Sierra Club" and punch-hole were really designed to point us toward the deposition or burial site of Donna Lass, using the measurement of inches and a map scale as the conduit. This idea was rejected by some commenters on VT Squire's Reddit post regarding my analysis of the postcard as a directional tool.
Wolf4968 stated "Does anyone really think the Zodiac, or the hoaxer/card sender, sat and measured cards by the hundredth inch, thinking, "There's the skeleton key to this whole thing, that they'll never figure out!!!".? Really?" The Zodiac Killer took the time to create at least 30 communications and mail them to the newspapers, he encrypted several messages in ciphers and codes, using a period 19 shift in his design of the 340 cipher, and mailed a Phillips 66 Map and code, challenging us with "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians" so we could unearth his bomb. So does Wolf4968 think that the Zodiac Killer would really sit down and measure the distance in inches between two points on a postcard using a standard classroom ruler, that would take but a few seconds?
The more important question is determining whether the punch-hole on the Pines postcard was intended to identify a deposition or burial location, and was its positioning relative to the pasted "Sierra Club" of any significance? What we do know is that the Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club" on Donner Pass Road is directly in line (on the east-west axis) with the location of Chubb Lake where the jawbone of Donna Lass was found on December 31st 1985. The pasted "Sierra Club" on the postcard is also perfectly aligned with the punch-hole on the east-west axis. The distance between the center of the punch-hole and pasted "Sierra Club" was 2.19 inches (2 3/16 inches}, which equated to 14.02 miles using the map scale of 6.4 miles to the inch. This was the distance (by crow) between Clair Tappaan Lodge and the location of Donna's remains near Chubb Lake (to within a few hundred meters).
Wolf4968 stated "Does anyone really think the Zodiac, or the hoaxer/card sender, sat and measured cards by the hundredth inch, thinking, "There's the skeleton key to this whole thing, that they'll never figure out!!!".? Really?" The Zodiac Killer took the time to create at least 30 communications and mail them to the newspapers, he encrypted several messages in ciphers and codes, using a period 19 shift in his design of the 340 cipher, and mailed a Phillips 66 Map and code, challenging us with "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians" so we could unearth his bomb. So does Wolf4968 think that the Zodiac Killer would really sit down and measure the distance in inches between two points on a postcard using a standard classroom ruler, that would take but a few seconds?
The more important question is determining whether the punch-hole on the Pines postcard was intended to identify a deposition or burial location, and was its positioning relative to the pasted "Sierra Club" of any significance? What we do know is that the Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club" on Donner Pass Road is directly in line (on the east-west axis) with the location of Chubb Lake where the jawbone of Donna Lass was found on December 31st 1985. The pasted "Sierra Club" on the postcard is also perfectly aligned with the punch-hole on the east-west axis. The distance between the center of the punch-hole and pasted "Sierra Club" was 2.19 inches (2 3/16 inches}, which equated to 14.02 miles using the map scale of 6.4 miles to the inch. This was the distance (by crow) between Clair Tappaan Lodge and the location of Donna's remains near Chubb Lake (to within a few hundred meters).
Newspaper cutting from Thursday, January 2nd 1986 It must be noted that after the jawbone and teeth were discovered on December 31st 1985, Sheriff Donald A. Nunes stated that a more detailed search would be conducted on January 4th 1986 looking for more remains at the 5,300 feet elevation. Later in January a skull was discovered near to where the jawbone was found.
The area close to the eastern side of Chubb Lake sits at an elevation between 5,300 and 5,400 feet, so matches the elevation described by Sheriff Nunes and the location of the jawbone described in the newspaper as "found in 2 inches of snow, a mile northeast of Interstate 80 by Melvin Bennett, who along with his son was enroute to fish at the reservoir". Yuba Gap sits at an elevation of 5,790 feet, Yuba Pass sits at 6,710 feet and Emigrant Gap sits at 5,200 feet. Despite these observations, we need to go further and see if the Zodiac Killer did anything else to support the notion that he identified burial or deposition sites using directional markers.
The area close to the eastern side of Chubb Lake sits at an elevation between 5,300 and 5,400 feet, so matches the elevation described by Sheriff Nunes and the location of the jawbone described in the newspaper as "found in 2 inches of snow, a mile northeast of Interstate 80 by Melvin Bennett, who along with his son was enroute to fish at the reservoir". Yuba Gap sits at an elevation of 5,790 feet, Yuba Pass sits at 6,710 feet and Emigrant Gap sits at 5,200 feet. Despite these observations, we need to go further and see if the Zodiac Killer did anything else to support the notion that he identified burial or deposition sites using directional markers.
Edward Theodore Gein Sometime in May 1971, the Zodiac Killer mailed the 148 character cipher and letter, using language straight out of the Ed Gein handbook, when he wrote "I will skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and "I will send a patch of human skin if their is some left over". Ed Gein, known as "The Butcher of Plainfield", dug up corpses from the cemetery to make an array of ghastly household objects from human skin, and began to fashion a "woman suit" so "he could become his dead mother and literally crawl into her skin". So when the Zodiac Killer threatened to "skin three kids and make a suit from the skin", it is almost certain he was referring to the murdered Kathy Snoozy, Debra Furlong and Kathy Bilek, who, he was not only claiming as his victims, but who he was threatening to dig up from the cemetery, just like Ed Gein previously.
This theme of burial sites would continue on July 13th 1971, when the Zodiac Killer mailed the Monticello card with pasted text, stating "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The postcard was referring to Kathy Bilek, who was stabbed in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga (near Monticello in San Jose) on April 11th 1971. Kathy Snoozy was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The Zodiac Killer used the phonetic namesake of Kathy Bilek and the location of Monticello to identify the burial location of Kathy Snoozy, who he had previously claimed alongside Debra Furlong on November 8th 1969.
Somebody would later visit the cemetery housing Kathy Snoozy on September 18th 1973 and remove a tombstone from the grounds, placing it at the front gates with the pseudonym "Zodiac" scrawled on it. We don't know for certain whose tombstone it was, but it doesn't take much guessing. This person had desecrated a gravesite at the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery, but thankfully they fell short of removing body parts from the depths.
This theme of burial sites would continue on July 13th 1971, when the Zodiac Killer mailed the Monticello card with pasted text, stating "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The postcard was referring to Kathy Bilek, who was stabbed in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga (near Monticello in San Jose) on April 11th 1971. Kathy Snoozy was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The Zodiac Killer used the phonetic namesake of Kathy Bilek and the location of Monticello to identify the burial location of Kathy Snoozy, who he had previously claimed alongside Debra Furlong on November 8th 1969.
Somebody would later visit the cemetery housing Kathy Snoozy on September 18th 1973 and remove a tombstone from the grounds, placing it at the front gates with the pseudonym "Zodiac" scrawled on it. We don't know for certain whose tombstone it was, but it doesn't take much guessing. This person had desecrated a gravesite at the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery, but thankfully they fell short of removing body parts from the depths.
CLICK IMAGE ABOVE TO ENTER GOOGLE MAPS
Kathy Reyne Snoozy When the Zodiac Killer wrote in the Los Angeles letter on March 13th 1971, stating "The reason I'm writing to the Times is this, They don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others", I am not sure he was aware that "burial" was to become a feature of all his next three communications. The overlapping features in the Pines postcard and Monticello card are fairly obvious from the standpoint of directional markers. The Pines postcard contained "pass Lake Tahoe areas", "Sierra Club" and "around in the snow". The Monticello card had "in the woods". and "near Monticello".
We know that Kathy Bilek's body was found "in the woods near Monticello", so it's likely the body of Donna Lass would have been found "around in the snow" near the "Sierra Club" had she been discovered in March 1971. The remains of Donna Lass were found approximately 14 miles from the Sierra Club. The remains of Kathy Snoozy were buried nearly 10 miles from the Villa Montalvo woods. The Monticello card was identifying the location of Kathy Bilek's body in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, by using the Monticello gravesite of Kathy Snoozy as the directional tool. The Pines postcard also contained two key markers by having the "Sierra Club" location and the punch-hole to identify the "burial" site of Donna Lass. Hopefully, this goes someway to showing how "burial locations" and "body sites" would become the main focus of the Zodiac Killer in 1971. The 148 character cipher/letter and Monticello card were simply continuing the theme of the Pines postcard, mailed on March 22nd 1971. If the Monticello card is ever released to the public it will be curious to see what positions relative to one another the Zodiac Killer pasted the wording "in the woods" and "Monticello", and the distance between them. Or whether it was unnecessary in this instance because he named Monticello.
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART ONE)
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART TWO]
We know that Kathy Bilek's body was found "in the woods near Monticello", so it's likely the body of Donna Lass would have been found "around in the snow" near the "Sierra Club" had she been discovered in March 1971. The remains of Donna Lass were found approximately 14 miles from the Sierra Club. The remains of Kathy Snoozy were buried nearly 10 miles from the Villa Montalvo woods. The Monticello card was identifying the location of Kathy Bilek's body in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, by using the Monticello gravesite of Kathy Snoozy as the directional tool. The Pines postcard also contained two key markers by having the "Sierra Club" location and the punch-hole to identify the "burial" site of Donna Lass. Hopefully, this goes someway to showing how "burial locations" and "body sites" would become the main focus of the Zodiac Killer in 1971. The 148 character cipher/letter and Monticello card were simply continuing the theme of the Pines postcard, mailed on March 22nd 1971. If the Monticello card is ever released to the public it will be curious to see what positions relative to one another the Zodiac Killer pasted the wording "in the woods" and "Monticello", and the distance between them. Or whether it was unnecessary in this instance because he named Monticello.
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART ONE)
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART TWO]
Chubb Lake provides the Scouts with some activities but that doesn't include motor boating and waterskiing, which are conducted as a Hi-Adventure activity at nearby Lake Spaulding. A notable point about Chubb Lake is that it is approximately 30 feet deep in the middle and therefore one of the warmest lakes in the Sierras. Chubb Lake supports fishing, sailing, rowboating, canoing and swimming.
ALLOWING SOME LEEWAY IN THE STATEMENT "A MILE NORTHEAST OF INTERSTATE 80"
FOREST PINES ADVERTISEMENT ROTATED THROUGH 180 DEGREES
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