The Zodiac Killer claimed "slaves for the afterlife" and "victims" all over the state of California, only deviating from this, when he insinuated a hand in the disappearance of Donna Lass from Stateline, Nevada on September 6th 1970, by suggesting he "sought" her as "victim 12" when she had previously lived in San Francisco. Despite stating that he sought her as victim 12, the Zodiac Killer never outright claimed her as a victim. Not once between July 31st 1969 and April 24th 1978 did the Zodiac Killer ever mention the state of Nevada in any of his communications. Fifteen years would elapse from the mailing of the Pines postcard on March 22nd 1971 to the arrival of the "Freeway" letter on May 6th 1986, before the Zodiac Killer finally mentioned the state of Nevada for the first time.

​Unbeknownst to anybody reading the Roseville Press-Tribune on January 23rd 1986, other than the person who murdered Donna Lass, the discovery of her body in the Yuba Gap area of Placer County was being detailed. Therefore, it must be regarded as a curiosity, that the next Zodiac Killer communication on May 6th 1986 mentioned the state of Nevada, from where Donna Lass disappeared on September 6th 1970..

The Roseville Press-Tribune newspaper article read "The skull was found by a sheriff's search party headed by Deputy Lowell Carleton, who used scent dogs in looking for remains of the body believed to have been murdered elsewhere and dumped in the Yuba Gap area". Three and a half months later, on May 6th 1986, the Zodiac Killer wrote "The body count is growing now 100+ all over the state of Ca and Na". The "victim count" of the Zodiac Killer had now become a "body count" for the very first time. Only the murderer of Donna Lass, reading this newspaper article, would have known that these remains were hers. So was the Zodiac Killer attributing the finding of her body to his ever growing "body count" - and feeling it necessary to mention the state of Nevada from where she went missing, and the location she was possibly murdered? 

* Although the state of Nevada is abbreviated to "Nv" and not "Na", which the Zodiac Killer appeared to write in the 1986 letter, it is reasonable to conclude that he meant Nevada, which shares a border with California.  

The Zodiac Killer gave us two working electrical circuits in his November 9th 1969 and April 20th 1970 bomb diagrams, threatening to blow up school buses in California. But how familiar was the Zodiac Killer when it came to circuitry and electronics? Did his profession require a knowledge of electronics, or did he simply copy the bomb-making designs from the publications he read?

​In the last article it was shown how the word "radians" began on the ciphertext symbol of Omega (in the Z32 code), taken from the concept that "The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians & # inches along the radians" formed the basis of the Z32 answer. When you consider that the Zodiac Killer placed a bold, black circle in his crosshairs with SFPD alongside (in his Little List letter), positioned at 4 radians and magnetic north, it becomes fairly obvious that the target was San Francisco. Only "four radians and five inches" fell inside San Francisco using the map scale provided.

If the Zodiac Killer was fairly adept in his knowledge of electrical circuits (having used the term radians), he would have known that "Radians and angular velocity are terms that are commonly used in AC theory and AC measurement. Most of the electric energy used commercially is generated as Alternating Current (AC). The main reason Alternating Current is used is that alternating voltage may be easily raised or lowered in value. This is a tremendous advantage in electrical distribution systems, allowing AC power to be generated and distributed at a high voltage and reduced to a more practical voltage at the load". Link to the Electronics Technician Training website. The Zodiac Killer would likely have known that "angular velocity" is represented by the lowercase Omega sign (ω), and that "angular velocity is another term that's related to Radian measure. Therefore, Omega is equal to so many radians per second. It is the time rate of change in angular displacement. This is equal to the distance traveled by the conductor, which is measured in radians, divided by the period (T), time taken for one revolution". So did the Zodiac Killer use the uppercase Omega sign as a subtle clue to "radians", bearing in mind the Z32 was comprised of uppercase letters?    

Therefore, if we go with the hunch that the "radians" word begins on the Omega part of the code (see above), how likely is it that "radians and five inches" would perfectly complete the Z32 code from character 13 to character 32. All we have to do then is add the word "four" before "radians" to complete characters 9 to 12, thereby creating "four radians and five inches" (from character 9 to character 32). Then we have to fill in the three repeating ciphertext characters with the plaintext characters of E, S and A. The answer of "estimate" is now fairly obvious, bearing in mind the target chosen by the Zodiac Killer was extremely unlikely to have fell on an exact amount of radians and inches. It could be argued that the Zodiac Killer gave us the three repeating ciphertext characters within the word "estimate", to give us a chance at uncovering the final part of the solution. The rest of the solution he had already given us in the phrase "The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians & # inches along the radians".."The Mt. Diablo Code concerns (FOUR) RADIANS & # (FIVE) INCHES along the radians".

Despite this concept being obvious once presented, the idea was undoubtedly a brilliant discovery by Zodiac researcher, Druzer, who unfortunately will never get the credit he deserves. This discovery, while incredibly easy to present, required somebody of the caliber of Druzer to unearth the answer. The simplicity of this solution is its strength, when compared to the fantastical and convoluted presentations you will encounter throughout the internet. Did the Zodiac Killer just read this information from the various publications that came his way, or did he have an intrinsic knowledge of electrical circuitry, so enabling him to create fully functioning bomb-making diagrams?           ​

In 2020, the Zodiac Killer's 32 character code was solved by Druzer, who put forth the answer of "Estimate Four Radians and Five Inches". The Zodiac Killer, knowing the code was unsolvable with only three repeating characters, pretty much gave us the answer on July 26th 1970, when he wrote "PS. The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians & # inches along the radians". The "code concerns Radians & # inches" meant using "radians and inches" in the answer, with the hashtag key the obvious giveaway.

Once "four radians and five inches" was placed in the code from character 9 to 32, only the word "estimate" satisfied the three repeating ciphertext characters in the 1 to 8 position in the code. The four radians and magnetic north of 246.2 degrees (229.2 + 17 degrees), fell slightly shy of Ingleside Police Station (SFPD), which was the target highlighted by the black circle within the crosshairs. You may come across a disingenuous individual cloaking his identity under the pseudonym of VT Squire, who insists that I manipulated the overlays to achieve a preconceived and desired result. However, as you can see in the 2020 article linked above, the accuracy was never exact. Four radians and magnetic north measured 246.2 degrees, while Ingleside Police Station sat at 251 degrees. Manipulating the overlays to produce an exact result would completely negate the point of having "estimate" in the Z32 code. 

​The Zodiac Killer once again used radians in his Bus Bomb letter approximately 7 1/2 months earlier (November 9th 1969), when he threatened to target Salesian High School (likely with a bomb). The crosshairs he provided in this instance, highlighted the numbers 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11 on a clock face, which when tilted close to magnetic north in 1970 and centered over Mount Diablo, landed over the five attack sites he was claiming at Lake Herman Road & Blue Rock Springs (line 10), Lake Beryessa (line 11), Presidio Heights (line 8) and San Jose (line 6). See below. The Zodiac Killer falsely claimed the murders of Snoozy & Furlong in San Jose a day earlier in his Dripping Pen card. Only line 9 remained unanswered. Next to his crude crosshairs "clock face", shown here, he wrote "PS. Be Shure to print the part I marked out on page 3 or I shall do my thing". His "thing" seemed to be the targeting of schoolchildren, so it wasn't surprising that line 9 fell over the Salesian High School where Daniel Williams worked as a school teacher. Daniel Williams had received numerous threats from somebody identifying themself as the Zodiac Killer in the preceding weeks.

One has to remember when looking at the crosshairs on the Bus Bomb letter (and Little List letter), that these are crude designs not meant to be totally accurate. The 9 o' clock position is 270 degrees on a compass rose, therefore, 9 o' clock and magnetic north (of 17 degrees) is 287 degrees. One radian is approximately 57.3 degrees, so 5 radians is 286.5 degrees. Therefore, 5 radians equals line 9 tilted to magnetic north.

With the crosshairs "clock face" tilted close to magnetic north, line 9 falls over the Salesian High School.(9 o' clock position). Not only did somebody identifying as the Zodiac Killer target Daniel Williams with arsenic on November 2nd 1969, but the school where he worked was also targeted on November 9th 1969 by the Zodiac Killer, using a measurement of 5 radians. That's because the Zodiac Killer was responsible for both. The Zodiac Killer did exactly the same thing on June 26th 1970 (Button letter), when he used 4 radians to target the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) with a bomb. On both the Phillips 66 map (mailed with the Button letter) and the Bus Bomb letter, the Zodiac Killer utilized the numbers on a clock face. In both instances, the 9 o' clock position has to be rotated clockwise by magnetic north to identify the target.

USING MOUNT DIABLO ON NOVEMBER 9TH 1969

Ten years ago Mike Morford released an image of a letter mailed in Sacramento to the editor of the Sacramento Bee newspaper on June 8th 1977 (see below), demanding the release of several prisoners under the threat of murder. The author produced a comprehensive list of politicians, actors and actresses that they promised to kill, including Steve McQueen, Burt Reynolds, Jimmy Carter, Jackie Kennedy and Jaclyn Smith. This letter was discussed on the Tapatalk forum regarding its viability as a Zodiac Killer communication. The letter (on lined paper) appeared similar to the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter, which also gave us an extensive kill list, with both letters beginning with similar phraseology of "to tell the people" and "I just want to tell you". There is limited information to be gleaned from looking at the June 8th 1977 letter in order to consider it's authenticity or otherwise, but there may be something else that occurred in early 1977 that mirrors this communication. 

On February 11th 1977, an anonymous letter was received at Folsom Prison threatening to kill the driver and children on a school bus if two inmates were not let out of prison. Folsom State Prison is approximately 20 miles northeast of the state capital of Sacramento, from where the June 8th 1977 was mailed. Both letters demanded the release of prisoners, but the earlier letter "received by prison officials Friday, said the driver and children on the Folsom-Cordova Unified School District bus would be killed unless two inmates were let out. The prisoners are Pancho Agila, who was placed in special confinement Jan.28 on suspicion of escape, and Jerry Pena, who was segregated Jan.30 on suspicion of possessing a weapon and narcotics". Whether the Zodiac Killer mailed the February 11th 1977 and/or June 8th 1977 letters is unknown, but we certainly know he had a history of threatening schoolchildren and school buses in numerous communications to Bay Area newspapers.      ​

Both the Zodiac Killer communications mailed outside of California carried small Zodiac crosshairs on the address side of the envelope, thereby drawing attention to the sender by the receiver. These two letters were mailed to the Albany Times Union, Albany, New York on August 1st 1973 and to the television station WXIA-TV "11 Alive" in Atlanta on March 8th 1981.

Later that month, on March 18th 1981, a letter addressed to the "Editor of the Washington Post" was received (but postmarked February 17th from Prince George's County, Maryland), claiming to have information on the Atlanta killings - and requested that the editor place an advertisement in the newspaper stating "Daniel Please Call Home" - promising they would initiate further contact with the editor of the Washington Post if the request was fulfilled. The newspaper clipping on the right is from the Indianapolis Star on November 29th 1980, stating: Darron Glass, one of four missing black children who have been the subject of widespread searches here, may have tried to contact his foster family recently, police said Friday. "We are investigating someone calling the foster parents and hanging up", said Atlanta Public Safety Commissioner Lee Brown. It is fairly clear that the author of this suspicious letter has borrowed their wording from the newspapers and was meant to read "Darron Please Call Home".

On March 2nd 1981, a business reply envelope postmarked Cleveland, OH, bearing the press printed address "The Danbury Mint, Richards Avenue, P.O. Box 5260, Norwalk, Conn" was mailed with the message: "Please stop forced bussing or I will kill 3 more black boys in Atlanta in March". The Zodiac Killer was almost certainly responsible for the March 8th 1981 letter to the WXIA-TV station, so he must be under consideration for all three communications mailed over a span of nineteen days. If he was insinuating his involvement in the disappearance of Darron Glass in November 1980, who was he referring to in his March 8th 1981 letter? ​

It stated "Hello its me. Haven't you people figured out who is killing these little people yet. I'll give you a hint, I used to be in San Francisco. I used to stalk women, but I like to kill children now. At all my victims bodies I have left certain clues, but I guess it's too much for you Rebels to handle. So I guess I'll have to tell you. I'll (to) kill children because they are so easy to "pick off: Buy the way, if you still have letters from the other murders, I am not writing in the same hand writing". See letter. Bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer drew his inspiration from the newspapers he read, I focused on one line of this letter reading "At all my victims bodies I have left certain clues, but I guess it's too much for you Rebels to handle". The Zodiac Killer began to emphasize the phrase "certain clues", so I needed to find a newspaper article that referenced "certain clues" in the preceding days or weeks to the March 8th 1981 letter, that was possibly accompanied by the word "Rebels" (which began with an upper case "R").

The above article in The News and Observer on February 22nd 1981 told of the missing Patrick Baltazar (11) whose body was found dumped adjacent to a parking lot on February 13th 1981, with "police working on the assumption that more than one person was involved in the crimes, but they have also found certain clues linking some of the murders. "It's the old Oliver Twist story" said Felton. "If you're out there and available, trouble will find you". The author of the letter, writing "At all my victims bodies I have left certain clues" is unsurprising as a response to the above statement, but why did the Zodiac Killer then use the word "Rebels"?

​The next wording in the statement read "It's the old Oliver Twist story", so I looked for a connection between "Rebels" and "Oliver Twist". In the novel "Oliver Twist", written by Charles Dickens in the 19th century, he referred to Oliver as the "small rebel". It featured in the film's most remembered scene, when Oliver approached Mr Bumble in the orphanage, begging 'Please, sir, I want some more". The master was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupified astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The assistants were paralysed with wonder; the boys with fear. 'What!' said the master at length, in a faint voice.'Please, sir,' replied Oliver, 'I want some more". I suppose this film theme played into the context of the letter, claiming he was targeting children now, with a subtle play on words by invoking the word "Rebels". It may be just a coincidence, but by using the mirrored phrase "certain clues" from the newspaper, was the Zodiac Killer latching on to the fact that police believed the murders were linked by evidence found on the bodies? In this instance, the murder of Patrick Baltazar.  

Mrs. Dorothy Cullison stated that she observed Donna Lass (who she recognised from a later photograph) in the company of a clean shaven, blonde haired man traveling southbound on Pioneer Trail Road away from the Tahoe Bottle Shop at 3950 Lake Tahoe Blvd, South Lake Tahoe on September 7th 1970 at about 3pm to 4pm. Of course, she could have been mistaken, but the location would have been relevant to Donna Lass as she lived nearby, having just moved into the Monte Verdi apartments at 3893 Pioneer Trail Road. The location described by Mrs. Dorothy Cullison would have placed Donna Lass just 650 feet from her home residence  

According to the private investigator's report, friend of Donna Lass, Jo Anne Goettsche, was planning to meet her on the night of September 7th 1970 at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino, making contact with security guard George Victor Jonasson and asking of Donna's whereabouts through until 4:00am on September 8th 1970. If both of these recollections were correct, then something prevented Donna Lass from meeting Jo Anne Goettsche between approximately 4pm and the night of September 7th 1970. This ties in with the suspicious phone call from a "Mr. Davis" the following day (September 8th), which was previously argued to be from the killer of Donna Lass, who knew her well enough to know the name of her landlord. Did the man accompanying Donna Lass also live at the Monte Verdi apartments, or was it possible he was just walking her home? Their route along Pioneer Trail Road had them heading towards the Monte Verdi apartment complex, but this wasn't the only pertinent address along this road.

​According to the private investigator's report, Donna Lass dated a waiter at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino called Tony Chapman, who testified that he never REALLY dated Donna Lass, although he did have drinks with her after work until 5am, and had "taken her out" at least three times but never kissed her. Tony Chapman's address was also located close to Pioneer Trail Road, 4,260 feet beyond the Monte Verdi apartments at 3608 Terry Lane. He stated he hadn't seen Donna Lass since September 2nd 1970, when he, Donna and Vern Lauflin had a drink after work. Was this the individual seen walking with Donna Lass by Mrs. Dorothy Cullison on September 7th 1970, heading in the direction of the Monte Verdi apartments or 3608 Terry Lane? It would certainly be interesting to discover if Tony Chapman was a clean shaven, blonde haired individual. Despite this, Mrs. Dorothy Cullison couldn't state conclusively that her sighting was Labor Day weekend, so we cannot put all our eggs in this basket. 

If Donna Lass was murdered in the region of Pioneer Trail Road, her killer certainly felt the need to create great distance from the murder site to the location her body was ultimately found in 1986. Despite innumerable, secluded wooded areas being available to dispose of a body en route to Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap, our killer selected a location popular with campers, fishermen and hikers. This doesn't seem like the quickest and most obvious choice to dispose of a body, unless it's a location that the killer felt comfortable with because he had previous knowledge of this area. Killers will often select dumping sites based on previous experience. If the killer of Donna Lass is ever identified, I expect it to be a young man closely associated with Donna Lass through her work or the Monte Verdi apartment complex, who had previously spent some of his time in the region of Camp Spaulding, Lake Spaulding and Lake Valley Reservoir. On the other hand, I could be completely wrong.

It is fairly obvious that the story of the mysterious phone call to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino didn't originate from the police, so its origin must have come from the killer of Donna Lass for the following reasons. Security Guard at the casino, Gordon Petrovich, claimed he received a phone call from somebody calling themselves Mr. Davis on either September 7th or 8th, who stated Donna Lass had been called out of town for a family illness. If Gordon Petrovich had murdered Donna Lass, it would be totally ridiculous to pretend he received a phone call from Mr. Davis about an illness in the Lass family, that he knew would be denied later by the landlord of Donna Lass, Nick Davis. This could only have served to draw suspicion upon himself. Also, why would Nick Davis ring Gordon Petrovich and report a family illness that never was, if he had murdered Donna Lass? Once the family illness story was found to be fake, likewise, Nick Davis would have brought suspicion upon himself. Neither of these two men would have had anything to gain by fabricating a story of illness in the family of Donna Lass, that would eventually be found out to be a lie. 

When Donna Lass began working at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino in June 1970 it would have been her responsibility to supply the casino with her contact details (phone number and/or current address), and encumbent upon her, to acquire the contact details (phone number) of the casino in case she needed to ring them in the event of unforeseen circumstances, such as an illness to herself, family illness, accident or medical emergency  By September 6th 1970, this most certainly would have been done. If Donna Lass had really received an urgent message from her family because of an illness, what would have been the appropriate response - waste valuable time trying to locate her landlord, Nick Davis, asking him to ring the casino on her behalf - or simply making the phone call to the casino herself by using a public payphone or asking to use her landlord's phone? If the relations of Donna Lass did have an illness in the family and only had the phone number of Nick Davis by way of contacting her, he would have then made contact with Donna Lass, who would have rang her family back enquiring about the gravity of the situation, before contacting the casino. Any phone call received by Gordon Petrovich of the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino, on behalf of Donna Lass, makes little sense. The only person who had anything to gain by reporting a family illness on behalf of Donna Lass, is an individual who knew that Donna Lass was incapable of making the phone call herself, because she was either under duress at the time, or dead.          

According to Jo Anne Goettsche, who was visiting Donna Lass during this period, she had no way of contacting Donna Lass by phone when she arrived at the casino and found her friend absent. Therefore, Donna Lass had no phone in her apartment. But this still doesn't explain the obvious path Donna Lass should have taken if she had somehow received a message from her family about an illness. She would have notified her workplace by using the nearest convenient public or private phone. Or made the call en route to South Dakota (apparently without her vehicle). If the family of Donna Lass had wanted to contact her in an emergency, what phone number would Donna have given them? She would have given them either the phone number of Larry & Ann Lowe (where she previously lived), the Monte Verdi apartment landlord (if she had relayed this to her family yet) and the casino. Or any combination of all three.

Donna Lass had just moved into the Monte Verdi apartments, so how likely is it that the family of Donna Lass had the phone number of the landlord, Nick Davis, to even ring him about a family illness? And even if they had, why would Nick Davis bypass Donna Lass and inform the casino of the family illness himself, rather than informing Donna Lass of the family illness and her taking responsibility in notifying the casino?

The mysterious phone call using the name of Mr. Davis, which he denied was him, must have come from a murderer familiar enough with Donna Lass to know the name of her landlord. Another question that must be asked - is how many people (then or today) would know the name of their friend's landlord? Taking into account that Donna Lass had just moved into the Monte Verdi apartment complex, there may have been some friends that would have known her plans, but how many of these friends would have known that her landlord was called Mr. Davis? One such friend (or casual acquaintance) that may have been privy to this information, would have been somebody who lived at the Monte Verdi apartments themselves. Possibly somebody who informed Donna Lass previously that the Monte Verdi apartments were a good place to live. Often, people move into future premises on the recommendations of others - usually friends they trust.

Recently, Mike Rodelli, author of "The Hunt for Zodiac: The Inconceivable Double Life of a Notorious Serial Killer" and  "In The Shadow of Mt. Diablo: The Shocking True Identity of the Zodiac Killer", has again been defending the false narrative of a Zodiac Killer who didn't lick the stamps and envelopes when mailing his communications. His argument revolves around the notion of "true" Zodiac letters containing no DNA, while the "fake" Zodiac letters do contain DNA. What is more inconceivable than the claims in his book, is that not one single person on the Tapatalk forum, with decades of sleuthing behind them, is capable of destroying his arguments once and for all.

​So, once again, I will show how Mike Rodelli's claims fail to make any sense using his words only. I won't argue against his claims, because he will argue against himself. This is a recent post he made on the Tapatalk forum when responding to contributor Bolt: "You're missing the point. In 1998 using very primitive techniques from that time, Keel was reportedly able to isolate DNA from the two forgeries that matched each other.  At the same time, he was unable to obtain any DNA from over a dozen Z letters.  Later, using PCR, Holt was STILL unable to develop any "Zodiac DNA" from the killer from the stamps/envelopes, so she resorted to the FRONT of a contaminated stamp just to get any DNA to give to ABC to use to screw me and two other amateurs on national TV.  But that is another story. And now you are hoping that there are "two cells" on these letters that will solve the case.  Why haven't they been able to find ANY DNA from the Zodiac in twenty years when Keel was able to find it on the two "forgeries" as far back as 1998?  I wish I could get Keel to address these questions personally but he is not talking so far".

Mike Rodelli begins with the premise that "two forgeries matched each other" because he has already drawn the conclusion that the 1978 letter is not from the Zodiac Killer. He then correctly makes the observation that the 1974 letter that matched the 1978 letter had to be the Exorcist letter, stating on October 29th 2021 "The fact remains that in 2007 Keel told me, as he had told Lafferty before me, that there is a 1974 forgery based on DNA and the ONLY 1974 letter that had been tested for the presence of cells during Keel's tenure (as demonstrated by the DNA chart that I believe Keel made in about 2000) was the Exorcist letter. This is not rocket science.  Even if it is not the Exorcist letter that Keel was talking about, it IS a candidate as being a forgery whose DNA matches the 1978 letter based on the information in the chart". 
In his book, The Hunt For Zodiac, he stated "Now there was DNA proof that whoever had penned the April 1978 letter had also penned one of the 1974 letters. And apparently it was not Zodiac. According to the chart of DNA testing results compiled by SFPD's lab in ca. 2000, the only one of the 1974 letters that had been tested by Keel up to that time was the January Exorcist letter. This was the letter that had a swarm of palm prints on it. This created an interesting dilemma that lends credence to the possibility that this is a forged letter. Zodiac had penned a dozen letters prior to writing the Exorcist letter and had never left even a single palm print on them. So why had he suddenly and carelessly taken off his glove(s) to write this one and leave a virtual montage of his palms all over it. From that standpoint alone, it makes sense that someone else may have written the Exorcist letter, its bizarre content notwithstanding. While it is possible that one of the other three letters was tested for DNA subsequent to the compilation of the DNA summary chart that Keel had assembled, I believe that on balance the most likely candidate for being the 1974 forgery is the Exorcist letter until proven otherwise". The fact that Mike Rodelli believes the SLA, Badlands and Red Phantom communications are from the Zodiac Killer, should leave you in no doubt that he believes that a DNA match exists between the 1978 letter and Exorcist letter - and because he has already concluded that the 1978 letter is a forgery, then the Exorcist letter must be a forgery too. 

Mike Rodelli was strident in his claims in a discussion with me about the SLA envelope, stating "Envelopes: This is where the rubber truly meets the road in this discussion and where we can see that it is unlikely that anyone but Zodiac wrote the SLA letter. When you look at the hand printing on the SLA letter in a vacuum, it certainly does not jump off the page to me that it was penned by Zodiac. But when you take a close look at the envelope, that is a different story". Mike Rodelli pointed out a comparison to the 340 & Dripping Pen card envelope to bolster the authenticity of the SLA envelope and letter. Irrespective of my opinion regarding the SLA letter. let's take a look at the two envelopes from November 1969 and February 1974. 

Disregarding my opinion on the comparison (and ignoring the fact that the 340 envelope had appeared in the newspapers before 1974), let us now accept the claims of Mike Rodelli that the Zodiac Killer wrote the wording on both the 340 and SLA envelopes, because (as he claims) both are genuine Zodiac communications. If he believes that the handwriting shown above is a close enough match to authenticate the SLA letter, then he has to agree that the handwriting match between the Exorcist envelope and the two April 1970 envelopes (shown below) are also a match (particularly the April 28th 1970 Dragon card). Neither envelope from April 1970 had been released into the public domain by January 29th 1974, so the author of the Exorcist letter (if a hoaxer) not only used an address style that matched the two April 1970 envelopes (only used in these three letters), but the handwriting and composition is virtually identical. If Mike Rodelli claims the handwriting on the SLA envelope matches the 340 envelope (which was in the public domain), then it's impossible for him to argue against a match between the Exorcist envelope and the genuine Zodiac letters mailed in April 1970 (particularly the April 28th 1970 envelope), which hadn't been released into the public domain. Therefore, if the Exorcist letter author is the same as the author of the two April 1970 letters, then all three were created by the Zodiac Killer. If Mike Rodelli is claiming a DNA match between the 1978 letter and the Exorcist letter (which is genuine), it makes the 1978 letter genuine too. This totally negates his claims that the Zodiac Killer didn't lick his stamps or envelopes. The only way Mike Rodelli can escape this hole is to now claim that both April 1970 letters were forgeries (and others before them), or claim that a hoaxer (with no access to the two April 1970 letters), just luckily matched the address format and handwriting of envelopes he could never have seen. If Mike Rodelli wants to take the route that he cannot see a similarity between the Exorcist envelope and the two April 1970 envelopes, then he cannot justify the comparison he argues for the SLA and 340 envelope.

What has been presented here, shows that the claims of Mike Rodelli are completely backwards. His own words have effectively argued the case that the Zodiac Killer licked both the Exorcist and 1978 letters, by making statements such as "In 1998 using very primitive techniques from that time, Keel was reportedly able to isolate DNA from the two forgeries that matched each other". The notion that the 1978 and Exorcist letters were those forgeries has been completely dismantled. If Alan Keel found a DNA match between the 1978 letter and the Exorcist letter, he found a complete DNA profile of two genuine Zodiac Killer letters and the Zodiac Killer himself. But will Mike Rodelli now reverse course, realize he has made a grave mistake, and correct these errors? He has written two books and made countless forum posts and videos pushing this narrative - so the answer is no. The consequences of abandoning this narrative will come at too great a cost. The most disheartening aspect of this whole story, is the inability of the Tapatalk forum members to recognise a claim that holds no (tap) water, when that claim is destroyed by the very person making it.

On May 17th 1974, the last stand of six Symbionese Liberation Army members took place at 1466 East 54th Street in Los Angeles between the police and the left-wing militant group. Under heavy fire and tear gas grenades, Donald DeFreeze, Patricia Soltysik, Nancy Ling Perry, Angela Atwood, Camilla Hall and Willie Wolfe, all died in the burning building. As a response to the Symbionese Liberation Army deaths, another left-wing group, the Weather Underground, set off a powerful bomb in the Old State Building in the early morning hours of May 31st 1974, shattering the reception room of Attorney General, Evelle J. Younger and caused considerable damage to three floors of the building.

A few hours later, the Los Angeles Times and radio station KPFK were told to go to certain telephone booths where they would retrieve letters from the Weather Underground, expressing their condemnation of the killing of six SLA members, stating "To our sisters and brothers in the Symbionese Liberation Army we want to express with you and all free-loving people grief and rage at the deaths". This "grief and rage" was reported heavily throughout the June of 1974, alongside a slew of psychological appraisals of the Symbionese Liberation Army by numerous psychiatrists, turning the "grief and rage" of the Weather Underground back onto the Symbionese Liberation Army, claiming their use of psychotic drugs and repressed hostility towards their parents manifested itself as a "rage reaction". Newspapers piggybacked off this psychoanalysis by stating that the six SLA members "perished not as martyrs but as victims of roles they assumed and emotions they summoned from within themselves - their desperate rage, their destructive and self-destructive fantasy world, their paranoid folly. The forces of their inner rage varied with their life situations. But in each case their imaginative leap released their rage, letting it fix on the society as target and the gun as means".   

The Symbionese Liberation Army were heavily made up of strident feminists who wrote numerous letters expressing the empowerment of women and their fight against misogyny within the capitalist stranglehold of society. The embodiment of misogyny and the target for many women during 1974 was Marc Henry Spinelli, better known as Count Marco, who was a columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle. Often accused of belittling and ridiculing women in his popular newspaper column, it really wasn't that surprising he would receive a letter on July 8th 1974 stating "Editor. Put Marco back in the hell-hole whence it came - he has a serious psychological disorder. I suggest you refer him to a shrink. Meanwhile, cancel the Count Marco column. Since the Count can write anonymously, so can I - the Red Phantom (red with rage)".

This is a letter much more likely to have originated from the hand of a female writer, possibly from a remaining Symbionese Liberation Army member, a sympathizer or friend of the group or somebody allied to the Weather Underground, who made special reference to a "psychological disorder", "shrink" and "rage", thereby turning the newspaper column inches throughout June back onto an individual who embodied everything they hated about American society - a misogynistic and capitalist newspaper columnist in the clutches of a newspaper magnate. 

Or was it the Zodiac Killer, who didn't use the "Zodiac speaking" introduction, didn't use his crosshairs, didn't use a running victim total, didn't threaten to murder anyone, didn't use handwriting synonymous with previous letters (according to most observers), didn't make any spelling mistakes, and used an address style only previously found on the Symbionese Liberation Army letter/envelope mailed on February 3rd 1974? A letter mailed from Los Angeles, totally devoted to the Symbionese Liberation Army - and again - devoid of all the aforementioned traits of the Zodiac Killer. The handwriting on the Red Phantom envelope is virtually identical to the handwriting on the SLA envelope, despite both of these letters being kept out of the public domain. So why do Zodiac researchers keep insisting that these are Zodiac communications despite the overwhelming evidence against? The answer is pretty straightforward. They have been brainwashed by individuals who peddle misinformation and perpetuate the notion that letters can be authenticated by looking at them. They are continuously bombarded with lazy references to an authenticated list of Zodiac communications, in absence of any critical thinking on behalf of themselves. It's easier for them to follow the pack and abandon the notion of self discovery.

When we throw in the Symbionese Liberation Army letter mailed on February 10th 1974 to the Hearst family beginning with "Dear" and signing off with "A friend", just like the February 3rd 1974 SLA letter to the San Francisco Chronicle, seven days earlier, it becomes apparent that both the February 3rd 1974 and July 8th 1974 communications have one author, who is connected to the February 10th 1974 letter. But will this article make any difference to individuals, who for decades have believed the SLA and Red Phantom letters are from the Zodiac Killer. The answer is an unequivocal no - because these individuals don't follow evidence and lines of logic - they follow the notion of what they have been told to be true in absence of any reasoning. What they have been indoctrinated with for decades is too powerful for any logic to penetrate. Ask them why they believe the Red Phantom letter to be genuine, and they will tell you that handwriting document examiners told them so. The very same document examiners that can't agree with themselves about certain other Zodiac letters - and the many certified document examiners who cannot agree with each other on who authored the JonBenet Ramsey 3-page ransom note. Not to mention the certified document examiners who align themselves to multiple "Zodiac suspects" who can't all be the Zodiac Killer. Yet people will still quote the authorative statement of a document examiner as evidence, despite the very nature of handwriting analysis being subjective. In absence of this argument, I'm still waiting for a logical and coherent answer to why this letter is genuine Zodiac material. They can't give you one, because there isn't one.    

What you will be presented with is this: "I would rather believe a document examiner with first-hand knowledge of the letter than somebody analysing the letter 50 years later". This is not an answer, only whataboutery. It attempts to suspend your critical thinking about the flaws of the handwriting argument shown above, by making a comparison between two individuals and arguing one is better than the other. It doesn't address the issue of why we should believe document examiners who can't agree with one another. You will notice that this issue is ignored when boldly claiming a letter has been authenticated. I would like to know which of the many document examiners got the final vote on which communications made the authenticated list. This is another question that won't be answered by esteemed Zodiac researchers, who have a perfunctory attitude towards any kind of analysis regarding the Zodiac Killer communications. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

We know that the Zodiac Killer was prepared to link himself to many murders with little to no evidence that vindicated his claims, such as Donna Lass, Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong, Cheri Jo Bates, Richard Radetich and the Atlanta Child murders. Law enforcement claimed that they had received dozens of hoax Zodiac letters by the end of 1970, which they obviously classified as such, based on nothing more than handwriting analysis and gut feelings, resulting in the loss of many communications that could have shed greater light on the Zodiac Killer mystery. Unfortunately, this method of determining authentic and inauthentic letters in the Zodiac case still persists 54 years later, with individuals that currently have the ability to spot fake Zodiac letters by the shape of the writing and the tone of a letter. But don't expect this quackery to change.

I mention this as a cautionary warning in regards to the perceived gaps in Zodiac Killer activity, such as the widely touted 4-year hiatus in Zodiac communications between 1974 and 1978. It's one thing believing a letter hasn't met the threshold of evidence to declare its authenticity, but quite another claiming it's a hoax based on nothing more than looking at it. With that said, I will continue the following observations based upon the April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters being genuine Zodiac material, because the evidence against is practically zero compared to the evidence for. 

The Hillside Strangler murders, eventually discovered to be both Kenneth Bianci and Angelo Buono Jr., took place in Los Angeles between October 1977 and February 1978, resulting in the murder of ten women and girls who were abducted, raped and tortured. The Hillside Strangler murders took the police far afield, with their investigation spreading to New York and the United Kingdom in pursuit of the killer/s identity, unsure of whether more than one individual was involved in the horrific crimes. One person in 1978 would have had a keen interest in the unfolding newspaper coverage, which makes a multiple page letter mailed to police in respect to this case in January 1978, very interesting. On December 7th 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter from Fairfield threatening to kill a cop, which after he would turn himself in. On January 19th 1978, Los Angeles Chief Daryl Gates held a news conference on television and stated "The fact we have not had any more murders in the last five weeks suggests that the individual or individuals are not operating. Hopefully that will continue to be the situation. I'm hopeful the killer or killers will come forward and talk with us and give themselves up". Daryl Gates informed reporters that the manhunt was the biggest since the Tate-LaBianca murders which cost 500, 000 dollars.       

Later that day a letter was mailed to Mayor Tom Bradley, with portions of the text released by Chief Daryl Gates. The letter, handwritten and several pages long, stated he was very sick and claimed he had killed his mother, writing "My mother told me to kill those bad and evil ladys", and offering to turn himself in, along with "a friend". The author of the letter also promised to mail an article of clothing from one of the victims to prove the authenticity of the claims.

The Zodiac Killer would apparently reappear on March 13th 1978 and April 24th 1978 stating "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco" and "I am back with you", before mailing another letter from Los Angeles threatening to kill five people, in which Chief Daryl Gates was number one on that list, with former Los Angeles Chief Ed Davis second. Susan Atkins, part of the Manson family responsible for the Tate-LaBianca murders, was also mentioned fifth on the list mailed to the KHJ-TV studios. As such, we have a letter postmarked January 19th 1978 promising proof to the claims of murder and offering to give himself (and "a friend") up to police, in response to a news conference hosted by Chief Daryl Gates, who asked the killer or killers to give themselves up - followed by another letter mailed from Los Angeles on May 2nd 1978 threatening Chief Daryl Gates, who spearheaded the Hillside Strangler investigation. Who knows whether this was the Zodiac Killer interjecting himself into another major investigation, but it's certainly a possibility.       

Not convinced that a previous observation of the Adventures in Paradise television series played a role in the Zodiac Killer's choice of words in the 408 cryptogram, I began looking for more contemporary offerings from a religious aspect, in respect to the phrase "reborn in paradise". Bearing in mind that the Zodiac Killer, in two letters, paraphrased three acts from The Mikado, a comic opera set in Japan, and used Japanese style symbolism at the foot of the Exorcist letter, it had to be a possibility that "reborn in paradise" was a product of Japanese history.

If the Zodiac Killer had a leaning towards Japanese culture, was he aware of the annual Obon festival, which is observed from the 13th to the 15th day of the 7th month. However, because of differences in the solar and lunar calendar, the 7th month is either July or August. Obon is therefore celebrated at different times in different regions, on and between these dates. This can be seen in the July 26th 1969 Stockton and Evening Record newspaper shown below, where the Buddhist holiday, born from the legend of a suffering mother "reborn into paradise", was held on August 2nd and 3rd - beginning the day after the Zodiac Killer's 408 cipher carrying the phrase "reborn in paradise" arrived at three newspapers. The Zodiac Killer's 408 cipher was mailed between July 15th and August 15th 1969, with its conception likely earlier. 

If the Zodiac Killer's life and/or thought processes were shaped by Japanese influences, then he would have had an interest in any newspaper or television coverage pertaining to this subject. It was previously shown how the Zodiac Killer's letters mailed on January 29th 1974, April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 were heavily influenced by the Golden Globe and Academy Award ceremonies, so could the Bay Area murderer have been triggered by any recent event he had read or watched on television, that kept the phrase "reborn in paradise" in the forefront of his mind? Could he have created the 408 cipher shortly after the murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen on December 20th 1968 and added the accompanying text after his second attack on July 4th/5th 1969? On October 17th 1968, Yasunari Kawabata became the first Japanese writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, before giving a Nobel lecture on December 12th 1968 entitled "Japan, the Beautiful and Myself". In part of his speech he stated "If Buddhism is divided generally into the sects that believe in salvation by faith and those that believe in salvation by one's own efforts, then of course there must be such violent utterances in Zen, which insists upon salvation by one's own efforts. On the other side, the side of salvation by faith, Shinran, the founder of the Shin sect, once said: "The good shall be reborn in paradise, and how much more shall it be so with the bad". This view of things has something in common with Ikkyu's world of the Buddha and world of the devil".