One of the strangest offerings of the Zodiac Killer was the 32-Symbol cipher on June 26th 1970, but why did he design a cipher with 29 individual ciphertext characters and only three repeating, with practically no chance of a solution? The unusual answer to this question, is that the Zodiac Killer thought in 30 days this cipher had a reasonable chance of being solved, because he designed it in two parts. Knowing that the second part of the puzzle was to arrive on July 26th 1970, he deliberately engineered the first part with no reasonable prospect of a solution, with the answer available in the second instalment. The Zodiac thoroughly expected that once his "Little List" letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle on July 26th 1970, the solution to the 32-Symbol cipher would soon be discovered. However, it would take another 50 years to solve, when Andrew Gray (Druzer) forwarded me the solution on December 27th 2020.

​After the remarkable achievements of Dave Oranchak (USA), Sam Blake (Australia) and Jarl Van Eycke (Belgium) in cracking the 340 cipher earlier that month, we now had another massive breakthrough. The Zodiac had created the 32-Symbol cipher with 29 unique characters - because had he not done so - he knew that the extra clues he was going to provide on July 26th 1970 would have made it far too easy. The fact that he gave us such little opportunity to solve the 32-Symbol cipher on June 26th 1970, was effectively the evidence there was going to be further clues forthcoming. He likely knew this from the very start, which explains the difficulty of his original offering. You would only create an unbreakable cipher in June, if you knew the answer was coming down the tracks in July. The solution was so extremely simple, it was overlooked by everybody apart from Andrew Gray, Having previously identified that the only viable solution was a measurement of four radians and five inches to locate the bomb, I failed to understand that these were the measurements to be placed directly into the cipher. Fortunately, Andrew Gray was on hand to fit the final pieces into the jigsaw. The solution can be explained in three easy parts.

[1] The first crosshairs in the "Little List" letter gave us a prominent black circle positioned at four radians and magnetic north around its circumference (246.2 degrees), with the target SFPD (San Francisco Police Department) next to it. We had to travel four radians around the circle, with the zero position (from the map below left) set to magnetic north (17 degrees).
​4 multiplied by 57.3 degrees (radian value) plus 17 = 246.2 degrees.  

​​[2] The second crosshairs (see orange image below) in the "Little List" letter gave us most of the solution to the 32-Symbol cipher, where Zodiac wrote "The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians & # inches along the radians". He told us that the code concerned (was about) "Radians & # inches". The Zodiac didn't place a hashtag before the radians value because he had already given us that value in the first crosshairs. It was "four Radians & # inches". All we had to do now was add the inches value to where the Zodiac had placed an arrow pointing to the hashtag. 

​Despite the relatively recent explosion in popularity of the hashtag on social media, the hashtag is often used as a number sign, such as "#1" instead of "number 1", The Zodiac Killer was instructing us to insert the number five before inches. Hence his use of the hashtag. The target of SFPD (San Francisco Police Department) can only be five inches based on the Mount Diablo map scale of 6.4 miles to the inch, because this is the only amount of inches that can possibly land over San Francisco from the peak of Mount Diablo. Equally, four radians is the only amount of radians that can fall over San Francisco from Mount Diablo. We now have the answer of "four Radians and five inches". There was only ever one possible answer.   

[3] The location that Zodiac chose to identify for his buried bomb - the embankment opposite Ingleside Police Station (SFPD) - only fell close to whole radians and inches (it was 4.08 radians and 4.85 inches), so he approximated the measurements and rounded them off to four and five. An approximate calculation is an "estimate", hence the final solution of "estimate: four radians and five inches" (set to magnetic north).   

You will notice that when Zodiac placed "four radians and five inches" from positions 9 to 32 in the cipher, he repeated no ciphertext characters. From positions 1 to 8 he then selected three ciphertext characters to repeat in the word "estimate" to make the cipher solvable. This made the first word in the cipher self-evident, because this was the only word in the 32-Symbol cipher that required extra clues. The only mystery remaining, is why Andrew Gray doesn't get the recognition he fully deserves for cracking this supposedly unsolvable cipher. All the ciphers so far solved in the Zodiac case are easily explained once their mystery is unlocked - and this cipher is no different. It is a simple three step process.  

On June 26th 1970 the Zodiac Killer was telling the truth when he wrote "the map coupled with the code will tell you where the bomb is set". The code of "four radians and five inches", to be coupled with the map crosshairs "to be set to magnetic north", gave us the complete answer of "four radians set to magnetic north and five inches". The use of radians and inches on July 26th 1970 was an admission that the original letter on June 26th 1970 didn't meet the requirements for a solution to be satisfactorily achieved. The answer was ultimately embedded in three crosshairs spanning thirty days (06/26/1970 magnetic north, 07/26/1970 four radians, 07/26/1970 five inches)..

Michael Mageau was struck by four bullets on July 5th 1969. One was removed from his left thigh during surgery by Dr. Shirai. One bullet had exited his hip and was noted on the ground by his side when responding officers arrived at the crime scene, which had likely trapped in his clothing and fell to the floor when he exited the Corvair. The remaining 2 bullets exited his jaw and right shoulder (through skin), and had struck Darlene Ferrin seated to his left.

​The first responding officer to the Blue Rock Springs parking lot shortly after 12:10am noted that it was evident Michael Mageau was in pain, with blood visibly running from his mouth and lower left leg, Officer Richard Hoffman, who immediately summoned an ambulance upon his arrival, described Michael Mageau as coherent, before asking him a series of questions and acquiring some limited information about the shooter and his vehicle, which was broadcast over the air to all police units. Sometime around 12:25am an ambulance arrived, extricated Darlene Ferrin from the Corvair - and along with Michael Mageau - departed the crime scene with both victims around 12:30am and headed to Kaiser Foundation Hospital at 2600 Alameda Street in Vallejo, where Darlene Ferrin was pronounced dead upon arrival at 12:38am. Officer Richard Hoffman was also present, having traveled with both victims.  

Michael Mageau was initially attended to by Dr. Jantzen, before he was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit in critical condition. However, during this time he was still being questioned regarding the attack at Blue Rock Springs, recalling that "A white man drove up in a car, got out, walked up to the car, shined a flashlight inside and started shooting. Man was older than me, window was down. After (he) stop shooting I got out of car. I tried to get the people to come over but they drove off. After finally ten minutes the policeman came". Michael Mageau would have arrived at the Intensive Care Unit at about 12:45am. Despite Michael being described as critical, he was extremely fortunate that no major organs were struck, and his femoral and popliteal arteries in his legs were not severed. Otherwise, he could have been dead within minutes. This means that Michael Mageau was lucid and conscious for at least 45 minutes after the shooting. When the Zodiac Killer described these events in the parking lot in his letter to the San Francisco Examiner newspaper on August 4th 1969, he wrote "When I fired the first shot at his head, he leaped backwards at the same time, thus spoiling my aim. He ended up on the back seat then the floor in back thrashing out very violently with his legs; that's how I shot him in the knee". 

The two dynamic verbs used by Zodiac to describe Michael Mageau's actions immediately prior to him leaving the crime scene, were "leaped" and "thrashing". In fact, the Zodiac Killer noted that Michael Mageau was "thrashing about very violently" when he shot him in the back seat of the Corvair. Not the descriptors of a young man teetering on the edge of death, despite the braggadocio exhibited by the Zodiac Killer when making the payphone call to police dispatcher Nancy Slover, in which he claimed a double murder.

​"Thrashing about very violently" as Zodiac shot him in the knee does not equate to somebody who is dead. Far from it. Michael Mageau was answering questions up to 45 minutes later. This is why it makes no sense that the Zodiac Killer would drive away from Blue Rock Springs and park his vehicle on the street in the local area for close to 40 minutes, before making the payphone call from the intersection of Springs Road and Tuolomne Streets (with his car in tow). A limited description of him and his vehicle was broadcast to all police units shortly after Officer Richard Hoffman arrived at the crime scene (about 12:15am). The Zodiac Killer, in his vehicle, in possession of the gun and possibly stained with blood from leaning into the Corvair, is extremely unlikely to have sat in his parked car for nigh on 40 minutes, before driving to a payphone just 819 meters (by crow) from the Vallejo Police Department.   

Zodiac researchers will claim that the Zodiac Killer probably thought that Michael Mageau would likely die from his wounds before being discovered, so didn't worry about remaining in his vehicle for this length of time. This would have been an extremely risky and unnecessary gamble when your entire future rests upon it - and totally flies in the face of Zodiac's own words, describing Michael Mageau as very much alive when he departed the crime scene. The Zodiac Killer was a psychopath, but he was certainly no fool. A phone call made nearly 40 minutes after he left Blue Rock Springs, from a payphone that should have only taken 9 minutes to reach, strongly suggests a killer who had access to a residence within a mile radius of that payphone (quite possibly a lot closer). From which he likely walked to the payphone. There are numerous other reasons to support the idea of a killer living close to the intersection of Springs & Tuolumne. See below.
​
WHEN THE BLACK MAN WAS WALKING BY [PT1]    WHEN THE BLACK MAN WAS WALKING BY [PT2]
​WHEN THE BLACK MAN WAS WALKING BY [PT3]    WATCHING THE POLICE AT THE PAYPHONE

It is patently clear by now that if the 13-Symbol cipher contains a name or message, there are going to be thousands of answers that could fit into this short code, that may or may not be correct. The Zodiac Killer almost certainly knew this to be the case after designing two lengthy ciphers of 408 and 340 characters, which he knew only contained one possible decryption. He must have known that any solution of 13 characters could never be proven to be the correct answer. That is possibly why he didn't create a solution of 13 characters.

​After the challenge by D. C. B. Marsh of the American Cryptogram Association on October 22nd 1969, invoking the name of Edgar Allan Poe in his address to Zodiac to reveal his name, he must have hoped that the Zodiac Killer would employ methodology featured by Poe, such as the ones described in his famous essay entitled "A Few Words on Secret Writing". The first three cryptographic methods detailed in Poe's essay were the scytale cipher, which can be used to decode the 340 cipher. The second cryptographic method told of splitting the alphabet in 13 characters of A through M, and N through Z. The Zodiac Killer supplied us with a 13-Symbol cipher on April 20th 1970, beginning with A and ending in M. The third cryptographic method (based on the second method) described two circular pieces of pasteboard, one on top of the other, each containing 26 letters of the alphabet in 26 segments, radiating from the center. One disk was fixed and one was moveable. See here. 

​In cryptography, a Caesar cipher, also known as Caesar's cipher, the shift cipher, Caesar's code, or Caesar shift, is one of the simplest and most widely known encryption techniques. It is a type of substitution cipher in which each letter in the plaintext is replaced by a letter some fixed number of positions down the alphabet. For example, with a left shift of 3, D would be replaced by A, E would become B, and so on. The method is named after Julius Caesar, who used it in his private correspondence.

​The Zodiac Killer may have employed a variation of this technique by using a right shift of 8 in his 13-Symbol cipher, encircling the number 8 to denote the use of a Caeser Cipher Wheel. By placing a wheel or circle around the number 8 in the 13-Symbol cipher, the Zodiac Killer may have been telling us to rotate through 8 positions of the cipher to reveal his name. Of course, the Zodiac Killer was highly unlikely to give us his name, but he could have been playing one big joke. In his 148 character cipher in May 1971 the Zodiac Killer actually stated "I'll never give my name". 

It can be seen in this image that if you rotate the outer circle clockwise by eight positions from the first number 8, it lands over the M of the inner circle. The second number 8 rotated by eight positions lands over the letter E. The third number 8 rotated by eight positions lands over the crosshairs of Zodiac, giving us the following message shown below. But how can we possibly prove this was the intended message, in contrast to a name or message that used all thirteen characters. 

After nearly four years of this code being unsolved, the Zodiac Killer may have thought it time to give us the answer by mailing us the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974, offering us the words "Signed, yours truley" followed by a verse from The Mikado's Tit-Willow. When you examine the complete verse of Tit-Willow, you will notice the immediate next sentence after Zodiac's contribution contains eight consecutive letters of the alphabet spelling "My name is". The only other place this is found is in the introduction to the 13-Symbol cipher on April 20th 1970. In other words, we can only connect the phrase "My name is" to these two communications. 

The Zodiac Killer certainly wasn't going to make it easy for us, but if the observations described above are correct, the Zodiac Killer gave us "My name is", followed by his signature of "Me - 37" in the Exorcist letter, in similar fashion to the April 20th 1970 letter, which may have given us "My name is", followed by "Me (and his crosshairs)".  In most of his communications the Zodiac used his crosshairs accompanied by a running victim total, therefore, "Me - 37" and "Me (and his crosshairs)" can be equated to "crosshairs - 37", just like his previous running victim totals. Such as the April 20th 1970 letter below. This solution to the 13-Symbol cipher can at least be replicated in a later communication, with the common signature of "Me". 

The phrase "My name is Me" is a statement of identity, often used playfully or to emphasize a unique connection to oneself. In the July 31st 1969 letter to the San Francisco Chronicle the Zodiac Killer wrote "In this cipher is my idenity". On August 4th 1969 he wrote "By the way, are the police having a good time with the code? If not, tell them to cheer up; when they do crack it, they will have me".

"Signed, yours truly, me" is a somewhat informal and often playful way of signing off a letter or email, signifying that the sender is the "me" in the message. It's used as a closing, similar to phrases like "Sincerely" or "Best wishes," but with a touch of self-deprecating humor. Informally, yours truly is also used as a synonym for I, me, or myself. Yours truly is a conventional phrase that is used to politely end a letter. It is used in the same way as similar phrases, such as Sincerely or Best wishes. ​​"Your humble servant" and "yours truly" are both valedictions, formal closings used in letters and emails to express respect and sincerity. "Your humble servant" is a more formal and historical phrase, while "yours truly" is a more common and less formal option. 

The April 20th 1970 letter with the phrase "My name is", along with its accompanying 13 character code, was 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".

There is good reason to believe that the inspiration for both the Z340 and Z13 codes came from an essay by Edgar Allan Poe called "A Few Words on Secret Writing", Whatever the case, you can solve the 340 cipher using the scytale (or skytale) method of cryptography. Although Dave Oranchak doesn't believe the Zodiac Killer used the scytale method of encryption in the creation of the 340 cipher, this decryption tool does actually decode the message in the 340 cipher. The immediate cipher mailed by the Zodiac Killer after the challenge by Professor Donald C. B. Marsh was the 340 cipher postmarked November 8th 1969, so is it possible the Zodiac Killer used Marsh to create his cipher? If so, the clue to solving the 340 cipher would have been ever present at the American Cryptogram Association.  

Helen Fouché Gaines (October 12, 1888 – April 2, 1940) was a member of the American Cryptogram Association and editor of the book Cryptanalysis (originally Elementary Cryptanalysis) first published in 1939. The book described the principal cryptographic systems of the 19th century and cracking methods including elementary contact analysis (cryptanalysis). The original black and white logo of the American Cryptogram Association appeared on the cover of "Elementary Cryptanalysis: A Study of Ciphers and Their Solution" by Helen Fouché Gaines. The logo featured a scytale cipher. So, did the Zodiac Killer design and mail a cipher that could be solved using the scytale method of decryption, inspired by the American Cryptogram Association logo, from right under the nose of ​Professor Donald C. B. Marsh, the very man who challenged Zodiac seventeen days earlier. Below is the original and modernized version of the logo. The first cipher discussed in Edgar Allan Poe's  "A Few Words on Secret Writing" was the scytale cipher (scytala), present on the American Cryptogram Association logo, with both featuring in the San Francisco Examiner challenge by D. C. B. Marsh on October 22nd 1969.

The address of the American Cryptogram Association was 818 14th Street, Golden, Colorado. Here is a "Union Cipher Disk", with the address numbers of the American Cryptogram Association and the 888 present within the 13-Symbol cipher. A cipher disk is an enciphering and deciphering tool developed in 1470 by the Italian architect and author Leon Battista Alberti. He constructed a device, (eponymously called the Alberti cipher disk) consisting of two concentric circular plates mounted one on top of the other. The larger plate is called the "stationary" and the smaller one the "moveable" since the smaller one could move on top of the "stationary". This type of encryption features in Poe's "A Few Words on Secret Writing". In fact, the first three enciphering techniques described in "A Few Words on Secret Writing" are somewhat connected to the Z13 and Z340. [1] Scytale Cipher [2] Splitting the alphabet A to M, N to Z, into two parts of thirteen characters [3] Cipher wheel/disk. Here is a working cipher wheel using the alphabet. 

MY NAME IS ARTHUR GORDON PYM - TAKEN FROM POE'S ONLY COMPLETE NOVEL
​TO ONE IN PARADISE - A POEM BY EDGAR ALLAN POE (PRESENT IN THE 340 CIPHER)

On Saturday, September 12th 1987, Jose Santo Bugarin (26) and Alvaro Rodolfo Escobar (31) were charged with three counts of murder in the San Jose deaths of Jesus Lopez Jr. (11), his brother Cesar Lopez (5), and their friend, Berenice Marquez (6), who were playing on a 15 by 25 foot lawn outside 1821 South King Road. A fourth child, Francisco Torres (9) suffered a broken leg and collarbone.

On September 12th 1987, Bugarin and Escobar were occupants in a 1978 black Pontiac Trans Am when it swerved into the front yard of the residence and collided with the four children, before striking a fence. In his efforts to flee the scene, Jose Bugarin did the unthinkable and reversed the vehicle back over the children and sped off, only to be arrested a short time later about 1/2 mile away. They were held without bail on three counts of murder and one count of conspiracy. His callousness was revealed in Bugarin's statement, which read that he "was aware that he had run over the children and assumed that they were under the car, but he was primarily concerned with fleeing". A witness to the tragic event, Eddie Petersen (19) said the driver "was knocking over kids like they were nothing". Police Lt. Ken Hawkes stated "I'm getting sick and tired myself of drunk drivers butchering people". 

On Monday, September 14th 1987, a battered and bruised Jose Santo Bugarin appeared in Santa Clara Municipal Court to be arraigned on four outstanding warrants totaling S21,500. Two for a suspended driver's license. Unsurprisingly, Jose Santo Bugarin had a history of traffic offences dating back many years. The deaths of these three children were widely featured in dozens of newspapers throughout America, including New York 

Incredibly, Jose Santo Bugarin pleaded not guilty to murder and manslaughter charges when appearing in a San Jose Municipal Court on Monday, October 26th 1987. This latest development was reported in the San Jose Mercury newspaper on October 27th 1987. The Zodiac Killer, who we know was influenced by what he read in the newspapers (and the media in general), had referenced San Jose directly and indirectly in many of his communications, threatened a San Jose widow in a letter on November 21st 1969, made a phone call to the San Jose Highway Patrol on December 19th 1969, insinuated his involvement in the murders of San Jose teenagers, Kathy Snoozy (15) and Debra Furlong (14) on August 3rd 1969, and had written his pseudonym on a tombstone removed from a San Jose cemetery on September 18th 1973.

​So it isn't really surprising that the Zodia Killer had his nose firmly glued in the news coming out of San Jose in current times. After hearing that Jose Santo Bugarin was now pleading not guilty to murder and manslaughter on October 26th 1987, the Zodiac Killer would have composed a letter and mailed it to the Vallejo Times-Herald almost immediately. It was postmarked the following day, on October 27th 1987, with the contents seemingly piggybacking off the disturbing case of the three murdered children, stating "This is the Zodiac speaking. I am crackproof. Tell herb caen that I am still here. Tell the blue pigs if want me I will be out driving around on Halloween in my death machine looking for some kiddies to run over. Cars make nice weapons. The pigs can catch me if They can find me out there. Just like in the movie The Car. Tell the kiddies watch before they cross the street on Halloween nite. Tell Tochi my new plans".    

After the black Pontiac Trans Am of Jose Santo Bugarin slammed into the four children, it struck a fence and then reversed over their bodies The movie "The Car" (1977), referenced by the Zodiac Killer in his letter, has some interesting parallels. Here is the opening description of the movie's plot from Wikipedia: "Two cyclists riding through a canyon are followed down the road by a mysterious matte black car. At a bridge, the car proceeds to crush one cyclist against the wall and ram the other from behind, catapulting him off the bridge. A hitchhiker, hoping to get a ride, encounters the car and insults it after it purposely tries to run him down. It halts to a stop, reverses backwards, and runs him over several times before driving off. The local sheriff's office, called to a series of hit and runs, gets a lead on the car".

The Zodiac Killer had previously claimed on October 13th 1969 he was going to "wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out", indicating that he was quite prepared to glorify in the deaths of young children. Noticing that the murders of Jesus Lopez Jr. (11), his brother Cesar Lopez (5), and their friend, Berenice Marquez (6) received newspaper coverage all over America, he anticipated that a threat on young children, so soon after the San Jose hit and run on September 12th 1987, would probably achieve similar results. The Zodiac Killer was correct, because his October 27th 1987 letter was featured from west to east coast, and in between.  

STILL DRIVING AROUND IN 1987 [PART TWO]

The Zodiac Killer would employ various tactics to prove that the letters he mailed were actually authored by the murderer himself, such as removing a section of Paul Stine's shirt at Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969 and sending part of it to the San Francisco Chronicle two days later. He repeated this grisly tactic on November 9th 1969, and in a letter to Melvin Belli on December 20th 1969. However, this wasn't the only sinister tactic the Zodiac Killer employed when mailing a letter to Melvin Belli at 1228 Montgomery Street, San Francisco. He seemingly either photographed or recorded on paper the font style of the numbers from the residence, or made a mental note of their design, because the numbers 1228 on his envelope mailed to Melvin Belli, matched those on the front of the house. Was this a message from the Zodiac Killer to show he had visited the residence of Melvin Belli, and that nobody was beyond his reach?

​To prove he was the knife attacker at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969, he took his writing to the crime scene. The Zodiac would, in the attacks at Presidio Heights and Lake Berryessa, take the scene to his writing, or take his writing to the scene.

On July 13th 1971, the Zodiac Killer would mail the Monticello card to the San Francisco Chronicle insinuating his involvement in the murder of Kathy Bilek (18) in the Villa Montalvo woods of Saratoga on April 11th 1971 - and paste the message "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 .... In The Woods Dies April" onto the communication. The Zodiac Killer had long claimed the murders of Kathie Reyne Snoozy (15) and Debra Gaye Furlong (14), murdered in San Jose on August 3rd 1969, by initially adding them to his victim total on November 8th 1969. These three murders had recently been attributed to Karl Francis Werner, a resident youth from San Jose. The Zodiac Killer now had the option of relinquishing his grip on the murders of Snoozy & Furlong, or choose to claim all three. He took the latter option by mailing the Monticello card and informing the police that Kathy Bilek was murdered "Near Monticello". The Monticello neighborhood of San Jose housed the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery, where Kathie Snoozy was buried in 1969. 

Two years after the Monticello card was mailed, on September 18th 1973, somebody entered the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery and removed a tombstone from a grave, and deposited it at the front gate of the cemetery for all to see. On the tombstone, written in crayon, was the pseudonym "Zodiac". Bearing in mind that the Monticello card was not currently in the public domain, it doesn't require Sherlock Holmes to work out that the Zodiac Killer had visited this cemetery and removed the tombstone of Kathie Snoozy, a victim he once claimed as his own. It seemed that after two years he still couldn't relinquish the young girl from his running murder count. 

​But one thing stands out in this newspaper cutting: The pseudonym "Zodiac" was written in crayon, not in his usual blue marker pen, or possibly chalk. The decision to use crayon as a writing implement appeared like an unusual first choice to leave a message in a cemetery (unless he expected rain in the short time the tombstone would lay undiscovered. See foot of article). This may indicate that the Zodiac Killer, although leaving the tombstone at the front cemetery gate to send a message to law enforcement, he may have taken something else away with him. Crayon (a stick of pigmented wax) is commonly used in gravestone rubbing, a technique used to create an impression of a gravestone's inscription by rubbing either a crayon, charcoal, or wax against a sheet of paper placed on the stone. Maybe he left a message, and took a message away.
​ 
Just like the mimicry of the font numbers from Melvin Belli's residence, had the Zodiac Killer taken a gravestone rubbing from the once tombstone font of Kathie Reyne Snoozy, to mail to the San Francisco Chronicle at a later date? Was the Zodiac Killer once again taking something from a crime victim to mail to the newspapers, as he had done with the body of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969? If the Zodiac Killer had taken a crayon to the tombstone of Kathie Reyne Snoozy on September 18th 1973, did he have second thoughts about mailing it inside a letter? Or did he mail it to the San Francisco Chronicle, but out of respect for the family and public decency, they decided not to release it into the public domain? Just like they may have opted to do with the Monticello card two years earlier. This begs the question as to what imagery did the Monticello card contain, when its predecessor, the March 22nd 1971 "Pines Card", was widely publicized.   

# The weather in San Jose in September 1973 was consistently above 70 degress Fahrenheit. Only one day fell below, and there was no rain from September 1st 1973 to September 22nd 1973. 
​
A FOUR YEAR JOURNEY TO TOMBSTONE ​      

The March 13th 1971 and March 22nd 1971 communications were effectively claiming murders from October 1966 and September 1970. However, the next murder Zodiac would ultimately claim, occurred just four days after the San Francisco, California release of Tom Hanson's "Zodiac Killer" (April 7th 1971). This movie was advertised extensively in the San Francisco Chronicle the week before, and several days after the murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971 "in the woods" of Villa Montalvo in Saratoga. The movie poster and advertisements carried the wording from the Confession letter, mailed on November 29th 1966 after the Cheri Jo Bates murder, a month earlier. It read "Keep your sisters, daughters and wives off the streets", Or Zodiac Says "I lay awake nights; thinking of my next victim" (see foot of article).

Two days after this movie was advertised in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 13th 1971, a "Zodiac" letter was received at the San Jose Sheriff's Office dated "Thursday", which was April 15th 1971. It was addressed to the "Homicide Inspector". On the same day the movie was advertised in the San Francisco Chronicle (April 13th 1971), newspaper reports from around the country asked the question of whether Zodiac was responsible for the murder of Kathy Bilek (including The Riverside Press), stating "the teenager might be another victim of the Zodiac Killer".

​Therefore, we.have the San Francisco Chronicle and The Riverside Press newspapers using the phrases "next victim" and "another victim" on the same day. Followed two days later by a suggested Zodiac letter on April 15th 1971, which the local San Jose newspaper reported as a communication that spoke of "Zodiac" and "another victim". The newspaper also mentioned that the letter told of a girl who works in a hospital, who could be his "next victim". It appears that the author was incorporating phrases from the newspapers into his correspondence, which could demonstrate attentiveness to any story related to the Zodiac Killer. The letter was addressed to the "Homicide Inspector", whereas the threat of a "next victim" in one of the Confession letters from 1966, was addressed to "Homicide Detail". This letter was mailed one month after the Zodiac Killer admitted to "riverside activity" on March 13th 1971, which included a promised "next victim" in Riverside in 1966.  

The April 15th 1971 letter wasn't the first time a claimed Zodiac Killer wrote to San Jose law enforcement. A letter was mailed to the San Jose Police Department on November 21st 1969 threatening a widow in San Jose, which resulted in police providing the woman with 24 hours of protection. This current author would not have been aware of that threat, because the November 21st 1969 communication has never been released into the public domain. Unless of course, the current author was the Zodiac Killer - and he wrote both letters.

​Another curious feature of the  April 15th 1971 letter, is the suggestion that the "next victim" could be a girl who works in a hospital. On August 1st 1973 the Zodiac Killer seemed to confirm this wish by writing a letter to the Albany Times Union newspaper and threatening that the location of his "next victim" would be the Albany Medical Center in New York. The letter read "You were wrong I am not dead or in the hospital. I am alive and I'm going to start killing again. Below is the name and location of my next victim. But you had better hurry because I'm going to kill her August 10th at 5:00 PM when the shift change". The thought being that the Zodiac Killer was promising to murder a female nurse.  

It really is no surprise that in May 1971 and on July 13th 1971, the Zodiac Killer would mail a further two communications laying claim to the murder of Kathy Bilek (18), alongside his previously claimed victims of Kathie Reyne Snoozy (15) and Debra Gaye Furlong (14), murdered in San Jose on August 3rd 1969. And that he would link the May 1971 and August 1st 1973 cryptograms together through ciphertext and plaintext similarities.

​On Sunday, April 11th 1971, Kathy Bilek (18) visited Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, having planned to read a paperback book (The Gabriel Hounds) and engage in a spot of bird watching​ in the seclusion of a remote, wooded portion of the park, near a small stream. Her body was found the next day by her father, Charles, while Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies searched nearby. She had been stabbed 17 times in the back and 32 times in her chest and stomach. 

​The Gabriel Hounds is a romantic mystery by Mary Stewart, set in Lebanon. The "Gabriel Hounds" are spectral hounds in folklore, believed to foretell death or misfortune to those who hear their howls, and are associated with the crumbling palace of Dar Ibrahim in the Adonis Valley of Lebanon.  

 A FOUR YEAR JOURNEY TO TOMBSTONE 
ANOTHER "ZODIAC" LETTER ON APRIL 15TH 1971

On December 20th 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter to the home address of Melvin Belli at 1228 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, pleading for help and claiming he was in danger of murdering a ninth and tenth victim. After this letter, the communications ceased for exactly four months, until the April 20th 1970 letter containing his 13-Symbol code arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle. So did the Zodiac Killer leave California during this period, or leave the state to visit family or friends over the festive period?

​Newspaper articles from Paul Avery intensified over the months of October, November and December 1969, with two articles in the San Francisco Chronicle on December 29th 1969 and December 30th 1969, entitled "Urgent Appeal By Belli to Zodiac" and "Belli Sure Zodiac Will Talk To Him" respectively. "On Sunday (December 28th), Belli made an appeal to Zodiac to contact him by writing or telephoning the Chronicle". Melvin Belli stressed that any letter and/or telephone call would be treated with the strictest confidence. Therefore, any letter urgently mailed by the Zodiac Killer at the end of December being released into the newspapers, could have possibly scuppered any meeting with Melvin Belli or further contact with the newspaper. So did we have any Zodiac Killer letters at the end of December, mailed in urgency and withheld from the public?  

Sandy Betts contacted me regarding a possible "Zodiac" envelope she managed to get an image of while being given a tour of the San Francisco Chronicle offices a few years ago. Sandy stated "Reporter Kevin Fagan gave us a tour and showed us the drawers where they kept what Zodiac had sent over the years. I somehow missed noticing one of the envelopes which was addressed to Paul Avery, thinking it was the one which was made public, so no big deal.  But while going through my pictures, I looked closer and saw it was sent "Air Mail" from New York, NY on Dec 30th, 1969, it was most definitely written by Zodiac with his blue felt pen".

"During 1969, after he sent a letter to Melvin Belli on Dec 20th, there wasn't any communication from Zodiac until April 20th, 1970.  Being in New York, NY for four months, could explain why. That would also eliminate several suspects, we know were still in California during that time. Did he go there to spend Christmas with family, or friends, or was it because he had a job there?".

The following envelope, with two affixed 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps, was sent to me by Sandy, postmarked in the afternoon of December 30th 1969 from New York and addressed to Paul Avery. The use of "Air Mail" may have been the urgent and immediate response to the appeal by Melvin Belli, featured in the San Francisco Chronicle by reporter Paul Avery. An envelope not released into the public domain, which underlined the newspaper reporter's name, just like the Halloween card envelope on October 27th 1970, ten months later. 

Thanks to Sandy Betts for supplying the following image and accompanying information. 

Further analysis of Paul Stine's shirt shows that the left rear side is relatively free of blood staining apart from the patch I've highlighted in green (see below). This cannot have been deposited there from blood descending from above. However, with Paul Stine's "upper torso in the passenger side, head resting on the floorboard, facing north", his left side and back was accessible to the killer. The highlighted patch of blood is just above where the cut was initiated. Where the shirt on the left side may have been pulled upwards to create tension in the shirt and allow the killer to make his initial cut through the front and back of the shirt simultaneously.

​If the killer had manhandled Paul Stine's upright body around the shoulders, from the driver seat to the right side of the taxicab, with his head falling into the passenger footwell, he probably received some blood transfer to his hands. So when he gripped the left side of the shirt with his left hand to create tension, he very likely transferred this patch of blood just above the cut line. There is very little reason why this blood staining should be present on this area of the shirt, other than from the hand of a killer. Medical personnel would have arrived at the crime scene with clean hands and pulled Paul Stine around his shoulder area to extricate him from the passenger footwell (to his position shown in the below crime scene photographs). There would have been no need to grab the lower half of Paul Stine's shirt to lever him from the footwell.

The claim by some, arguing that the removed section of shirt piece could have occurred in the morgue at a later time doesn't withstand scrutiny. A person sneaking into the morgue for the express purpose of removing a section of Paul Stine's shirt, not only wouldn't have made a simultaneous cut through two layers of fabric on the left side of the shirt, they would have arrived at the morgue with clean hands and not deposited this patch of blood just above the cut line, had they even began cutting at this location.

The autopsy of Paul Stine began on Sunday, October 12th 1969 at approximately 9:30am, when photographs would have been taken of the fully clothed body, before they were removed for a more thorough examination. The clothing was then dried, given an identification tag, photographed, and then turned over to the property clerk's office to be secured. Unless some unauthorized person gained access to the body in the eleven hour window before the autopsy, or knew the location of where the property clerk had secured the clothing, there is practically no way a nefarious actor could have gained access to the shirt, to have mailed it within the next 24 hours or so. The practice of making up a story without evidence or justification, to then somehow attribute validity to it because nobody can disprove the story, is common and flawed reasoning in the Zodiac community.  

AN INITIAL CUT TO THE LEFT SIDE [PT1]

The following is a preliminary look at the Paul Stine shirt piece, either removed from the crime scene with the aid of a knife or pair of scissors on October 11th 1969. When Paul Stine was found in the taxicab by Armond Pelissetti he "immediately checked the interior of the cab and found the victim to be slumped over the front seat with his upper torso in the passenger side, head resting on the floorboard, facing north". This meant that the left side and back of Paul Stine was facing upwards. Paul Stine was in this position when the Zodiac Killer started cutting his shirt (I believe with a pair of scissors). If this was the case, it would show premeditation on behalf of the killer, who knew in advance of the murder he wanted to remove a piece of clothing to mail to the newspapers, to ultimately prove that the letter postmarked October 13th 1969 was mailed by the killer.

If you take a close look at the shirt below (the red rectangle), you will see the likely point that the Zodiac Killer began his cut that night - on the left side of Paul Stine's body and shirt (which was his nearest accessible point). The killer likely pinched the shirt and pulled it upwards with his fingers on the left side to began his cut through the front and back of the shirt at the same time. In other words, he cut through two layers of fabric simultaneously. Why else would there be a cut on the front right side? (as viewed in the below left image) Once he had made this initial cut, he probably repositioned his left hand (pulling the back side of the shirt upwards to create tension) and then cut out a rectangular piece of the shirt from the back left side towards the right side of the shirt rear, In the image below the man's left hand is not positioned next to the back of the shirt, because this part of the shirt was removed by the Zodiac Killer. His hand is positioned by the left inner front portion of the shirt. In the black and white image below, it would be the backside of the right front as we view (the section with the label on). I have placed green arrows showing two matching areas of blood staining from the inner and outer lining of the shirt front. Their size slightly altered because of how the shirt is layed out  The blue circle and blue square both show the same front section of the shirt.

Some individuals have claimed that Paul Stine's shirt was intact at the time the Zodiac Killer left the crime scene, and a portion of his shirt was removed at a later time in either the ambulance or morgue. If this was the case, there would have been no need to cut through two layers of fabric at the same time on the left side of the shirt. A body positioned on its front or back would make the shirt perfectly accessible from its front or back side. If the shirt was off the body, there would again be no need to cut through two layers of fabric to retrieve one rectangular piece of shirt. The "delayed shirt piece removal", one of the central arguments of the Zodiac Killer hoax theory, has gained little traction over the years because it's a theory conjured from the mind and not of evidence. Hopefully the analysis presented above finally relegates this claim to the cobwebs of history. 

AN INITIAL CUT TO THE LEFT SIDE [PART TWO] 

On the same day, March 13th 1978, that somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer rang a man in the Mission District of San Francisco declaring "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco" (which was recorded on an answering machine), somebody threatened a woman in the Taraval District of San Francisco. This person pinned a note and a flower on the front gate of her single dwelling with the message "You're next (The Zodiac Killers)". At a time when Zodiac occurrences should have been dwindling, two threats on the same day targeting individuals just a few miles from one another, could be argued as the same perpetrator. When you consider the similarity in messages between the March 13th 1978 phone call of "Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco", to the April 24th 1978 letter of  "I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here", it is not unreasonable to conclude one responsible for all three events. Whether this was the case or not.

​The police logged the time of the threat in the Taraval District between 7:00am on March 13th 1978 and 12:30am on March 14th 1978. Therefore, the flower and threatening note must have been placed on her front gate during a 16 1/2 hour window of time. Sunset in San Francisco was 6:15pm, so if the perpetrator applied some caution, it is likely the note was pinned on her front gate sometime between 6:15pm and just after midnight. The phone call to the man in the Mission District was logged at 11:00pm, falling between these two times. Therefore, it is possible that these two "Zodiac Killer events" occurred  within a reasonable time of one another - with 10pm to midnight being prime time for the Zodiac Killer under the cover of darkness. The individual who threatened the woman in the Taraval District could easily have made the phone call from this location. There was no need to travel to make the phone call to the Mission District.  

On November 29th 1966, one month after the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, somebody (possibly the Zodiac Killer) mailed two typed Confession letters to the Riverside Homicide Detail and Riverside Press Enterprise. In each correspondence the claimed killer stated "She is not the first and she will not be the last. I lay awake nights thinking about my next victom. Maybe she will be the beautiful blond that babysits near the little store and walks down the dark alley each evening about seven". If the woman in the Taraval District of San Francisco was known to the perpetrator, had he targeted her with the express knowledge that she wasn't at home at the time, so as to avoid identification. She had been absent from her residence on March 13th 1978 because she was babysitting that day. Maybe he "did make that phone call to the man also". 

​If the author of the threatening note was the Zodiac Killer, did he target a random person, or did he choose somebody of significance that he knew would generate a response from the police and hopefully make its way into the newspapers. The last time a Zodiac note was found on a public street was on October 21st 1969, having been thrown from a car on Lake Mendocino Drive at 3:00 pm, just north of Ukiah, California (see newspaper clipping below). The note, attached to a twig, was thrown towards an eight-year-old girl with the crudely printed message "You're next - Z". The only difference between the note in the Taraval District of San Francisco and the note in Mendocino County was the signature, morphing from ​"You're next - Z" to "You're next (The Zodiac Killers)". The note in Mendocino County, whether the Zodiac or not, was seemingly piggybacking off the October 13th 1969 threat by the Zodiac Killer to target schoolchildren.

​So did the woman he targeted with a note and flower in 1978 carry any significant value in his quest to hit the newspapers once again? Or did he just select a random member of the public, hoping his pseudonym alone was enough to generate the publicity he so badly craved? Or was it a hoaxer with nothing better to do with his life, who used the term "Zodiac Killers" to suggest he was separate to the original killer? Were the two occurrences in San Francisco on March 13th 1978 just coincidence? If not, we are back to where we started with two connected events, in which one appeared to pre-empt the message on the April 24th 1978 letter.  

*The Taraval District is the city’s largest and most populous police jurisdiction, encompassing a large part of southwestern San Francisco. It is bordered by Golden Gate Park to the north, Ocean Beach to the west, Daly City to the south, and 7th Avenue down to Interstate 280 to the east. The district includes the inner and outer Sunset neighborhoods, as well as Parkside, Golden Gate Heights, Balboa Terrace, Ingleside Terrace, Monterey Heights, St. Francis Wood, Ingleside, Oceanview, West Portal, Lakeshore Acres, Country Club, Merced Manor, Park Merced, Edgehill, Laguna Honda, Lakeside, Merced Extension, Mount Davidson Manor and Sunset Heights. link.

Although the Zodiac Killer mailed at least four communications in 1971 and one in 1973, it appeared as though his contact with the newspapers dried up after the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. No other confirmed communications have been verified between 1974 and 1978, with the newspaper coverage of the Zodiac Killer thinning out during this period. That was until the four year anniversary of the Exorcist letter, when Tim Reiterman, a San Francisco Examiner reporter, announced on Sunday, January 29th 1978 in the San Francisco Chronicle that the following day he would be taking a second look at the Zodiac Killer mystery (see right image). 

The following day, January 30th 1978, Tim Reiterman probably wrote one of the longest and most extensive newspaper articles on the Zodiac Killer in history (in part shown below), including a comprehensive interview with Inspector David Toschi of SFPD, the lone investigator on the Zodiac case. There is no way this San Francisco Examiner article escaped the attention of the Zodiac Killer - and could be argued was the reason he addressed David Toschi three months later when he mailed the April 24th 1978 "I am back with you" letter, writing "This is the Zodiac speaking I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here, I have always been here. That city pig toschi is good - but I am smarter and better he will get tired then leave me alone. I am waiting for a good movie about me. who will play me. I am now in control of all things".  

However, six weeks after this January 30th 1978 newspaper article by Tim Reiterman, on March 13th 1978, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer telephoned a man in the Mission District and used language that pre-empted the wording on the April 24th 1978 letter, announcing over the phone "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco". The phrase of "Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco" would become "I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here" just 42 days later. To my knowledge, this phone call wasn't released into the newspapers. Things got interesting when the name "Reiterman" appeared only once in the San Francisco directory in 1977 and 1978, with an address of 805 Hampshire Street in the Mission District of San Francisco. This seemed like it could be the answer, but the forenames were Frank and Katherine in 1978, and the initials were M F in 1977. To be clear, Frank Reiteman was the listed resident in both years, not Tim Reiterman of the San Francisco Examiner.  

​We don't know for certain the identity of the individual who rang the "man in the Mission District" on March 13th 1978, but the fact the telephone caller requested that the man "Tell the press", could indicate that this man had industry connections enabling him to pass the message on to the newspapers  Something that Tim Reiterman could have done had he been the individual in question. If the Zodiac Killer made this phone call, it is unlikely he was going to telephone a random member of the public, he was going to contact somebody who had the capability to pass on his message to the newspapers and be taken seriously, such as an editor or reporter. Other possibilties could be somebody previously connected to the case, a law enforcement officer, or a celebrity who would make the story newsworthy.
 
After reading the comprehensive newspaper article by Tim Reiterman on January 30th 1978 interviewing David Toschi, would it be surprising if the Zodiac Killer had attempted to send two similarly phrased messages such as the ones on March 13th 1978 and April 24th 1978 that would involve Tim Reiterman and David Toschi respectively. ​A newspaper reporter and a detective that Zodiac likely knew interacted with each other at the end of January. This newspaper article must have convinced the Zodiac Killer that his arch nemesis "pig toschi" was good, despite the fact he couldn't resist the opportunity to remind everybody that he was "smarter and better".​

According to the later research of Robert Graysnith in his 1986 book "Zodiac", he stated that David Toschi looked over the case of the suspicious phone call in 1978, therefore it is highly unlikely after reading the transcript of the message, he would then effectively plagiarize the wording and insert it into the April 24th 1978 letter in a slightly different format to commit a hoax. Especially if there was a limited number of people aware of the Mission District case.

​The name "Reiterman" is considered a very uncommon surname, likely only found in small pockets of populations, primarily due to its unique combination of elements and potential origin as a variation of the German surname "Reiter" which itself isn't particularly widespread. Did the Zodiac Killer make a mistake and ring the address at 805 Hampshire Street in the Mission District believing it to be the household of Tim Reiterman, despite his name not being listed as the owner? When a male voice answered did he just deliver his simple message of "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco", and then hang up?

Tim Reiterman seemed the most logical recipient of the phone call on March 13th 1978 because of its similarity in language to the message on April 24th 1974, and his recent interview with David Toschi. However, we could be looking for an entirely different target for the "Zodiac Killer" phone call. So if you have knowledge of any high profile candidates and can prove they lived in the Mission District in 1978, please leave your suggestions in comments. This can be another mystery solved with your help.

CONTINUED: A FLOWER ON THE FRONT GATE 

Thanks to Sandy Betts for her hard work and continued investigation into this matter.  

In previous articles I attempted to show the common methodology employed by the Zodiac Killer and the Riverside author of the Confession letter through the use of historical microfiche searches, such as "man is the most dangerous animal of all" from 1932 (The Most Dangerous Game), and "it was about time for her to die" from 1888 (Jack the Ripper). This unusual approach possibly being the product of one mind and one author. The murderer of Cheri Jo Bates and the typist of the Confession letter on November 29th 1966 (if one person) would have been somebody who savagely cut the throat of Cheri Jo Bates seven times. The author of the letter stated that they would "cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see", had "finished the job out cutting her throat", threatened that he was "stalking your girls now", and possibly used a phrase from "The Sturdy Beggar" newspaper article from 1888 of "it was about time for her to die". A phrase (other than the reporting of the Confession letter) was only found in one publication in 334 years. The notion that the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates was influenced by "Jack the Ripper" now didn't seem so fanciful. So I took a look at the media events in 1966. 

There was some standard fare, such as the release of the movie "A Study in Terror", with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson on the trail of Jack the Ripper in Whitechapel. Although a 1965 release in the United Kingdom, it made its American debut on August 10th 1966 in the USA, about eleven weeks before the murder of Cheri Jo Bates. "A Study in Terror" was also made into a book in 1966, featuring the fictional detective Ellery Queen. However, 1966 became a significant year in the story of Jack the Ripper, when long lost Ripper letters were released into the public domain by Dr. Francis Camps, Britain's leadng murder pathologist. Letters that hadn't seen the light of day for nearly 80 years, and told of a sender who promised that "The next job I do I shall clip the lady's ears off and send them to the police" (corrected for spelling).

The Jack the Ripper letters were unearthed by a man sent to search through old files in a London hospital, who turned them over to Dr. Francis Camps. Understanding their historical value he first published them in the London Hospital Gazette, before they were more widely circulated in the public domain. Numerous newspapers throughout America carried the message of the Jack the Ripper letters being published, so it is noteworthy that the Confession letter author typed "I then finished the job out cutting her throat. I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game. This letter should be published for all to read it. It just might save that girl in the alley. But that's up to you. It will be on your conscience. Not mine. Yes I did make that call to you also. It was just a warning". Confessions to murders and warnings ever present in the released Ripper letters. On September 25th 1888 a letter addressed to the police commissioner stated that "You will soon hear of me and my funny little games", A game that the Confession letter author promised would not stop.

Were the Riverside Desktop Poem, the Confession letter and Bates' letters the product of mimicry from a disturbed mind, who wanted to replicate the terror of Whitechapel's Jack the Ripper to the streets of Riverside, warning the residents to "Keep your sisters, daughters and wives off the streets and alleys", and that they would "cut off female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". 

The final trigger may have been The Press newspaper on November 24th 1966, which compared the abduction of a 19-year-old girl to that of Cheri Jo Bates, five days before the Confession letter arrived. The unknown perpetrator in that case, after the young woman declined an offer of a ride in his vehicle, remarked  "Well, after all, I'm not Jack the Ripper". How much influence, if any, did the release of numerous Jack the Ripper letters and postcards in 1966 have on the Confession letter author - along with the accompanying Riverside Desktop Poem and Bates' letters? This was a momentous year for many Ripper enthusiasts, who could now cast their eyes over these grizzly new published communications. But was the Riverside author, possibly responsible for all three offerings in 1966, one of them? A killer who may have taken his "dangerous game" to the unsuspecting residents of the Bay Area of northern California. 

JACK THE RIPPER- A SEVEN PART EXPLORATION TO RIVERSIDE AND THE BAY AREA  

Previously it has been shown how the Zodiac Killer drew inspiration from current and historical newspaper coverage to fashion any recently prepared communications he was about to mail. Two possible examples were the phrases "man is the most dangerous animal of all" and "it was about time for her to die". Another simpler example was the January 29th 1974 letter, which was a reaction to "The Exorcist" film winning four awards at the Golden Globe ceremony at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California on January 26th 1974,  for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". Which is probably why the Zodiac Killer.began his letter with a snarky rebuttal of the Exorcist film, by writing "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy". The following presentation shows some similarities to the kidnapping of Donna Lass and the resulting "Pines Card" mailed on March 22nd 1971, with the overlapping use of phraseology such as "around in the snow".

On December 8th 1963, an individual was kidnapped from Harrah's Casino in Stateline, Nevada, situated just a few hundred feet from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino where Donna Lass was last seen on September 6th 1970. This person was blindfolded and bundled into the boot of a car, with the abductors making a phone call subsequent to the kidnapping. At the time, this news story was plastered all over American newspapers and heavily featured on television - and in 1963 - was the second largest ransom payoff in US history of $240,000, which ultimately secured this person's release after days of negotiations. That person was Frank Sinatra Jr. (19). In a conversation with the kidnappers and his son, Frank Sinatra Sr. (48) relayed the message he had on the phone (shown below), stating "They took him out of the motel without socks and let him wander around in the snow with just a T-shirt on". The "around in the snow" phrase was featured in dozens of newspapers throughout the country.  

The kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. and Donna Lass both occurred on a Sunday in South Lake Tahoe by the California-Nevada border, both possibly taken from two casinos separated by no more than a few hundred feet, in which a kidnapper (in both instances) rang authorities making reference to the absent person. Frank Sinatra Jr. relayed a message to his father how he was made to walk "around in the snow", and the Zodiac Killer pasted the same message in the Pines Card on March 22nd 1971. A more mature Zodiac Killer would have almost certainly been familiar with this story of the Sinatra kidnapping, so had he delved through the library microfiche once again to select this odd phrase to add to his pasted communication, hoping that somebody might make a loose connection between the two crimes in South Lake Tahoe? To access this phrase in cutting form, the Zodiac Killer didn't have to go back to 1963, because it was readily available in more contemporary newspaper articles from 1971, shown here.     

Cal Neva Resort & Casino, previously known as the Calneva Resort and Cal-Neva Lodge, is a resort and casino straddling the border between Nevada and California on the shores of Lake Tahoe. The original building was constructed in 1926 and became famous when the national media picked up a story about actress Clara Bow canceling checks she owed to the Cal-Neva worth $13,000 in 1930 ($244,700 today). After burning down in a fire in 1937, the structure was rebuilt in only 30 days. In 1960, entertainer Frank Sinatra purchased the resort with several others, including singer Dean Martin and Chicago mobster Sam Giancana. Wikipedia. 

It is noticeable that the 0.5 inch bruise to the left side of David Faraday's neck is consistent with the muzzle of a gun being forcibly pressed into the victim's neck as he was being restrained by the right rear wheel of the Rambler, with David facing away from the Rambler. A killer looking into David's eyes, pressing a gun into the left side of his neck could only have been performed by a right-handed killer. It is not difficult to understand at the moment of the shooting, that the killer shifted the position of the gun behind his left ear flap and pulled the trigger to deliver a devastating head shot to the helpless young man. The entry point of the bullet is not consistent with a left-handed killer standing by the open door of the Rambler with an outstretched left arm (or bent arm). Not only would the gun unlikely be positioned behind the flap of the left ear, but the killer (if alone) would have had his back turned to Betty Lou Jensen (see here)..

After collapsing to the turnout floor, David Faraday's feet were literally touching the right rear tire (and both feet were in line with the bodywork of the vehicle), indicating that the killer was not left-handed and standing behind David Faraday. This could have produced a bullet entry point behind his left ear, but the killer's standing position would have created a buffer zone between David Faraday and the vehicle, preventing his body falling with his feet touching the right rear wheel. Everything points to David Faraday crumpling to the ground where he stood, with his back pressed firmly against the right rear window. The ejected casing from this shot likely landing on the front passenger floorwell of the Rambler (either directly, or via the angled open door).     

​There are comminuted fractures of both left and right temporal bones and sphenoid bones.
A "comminuted fracture of both left and right temporal bones and sphenoid bones" refers to a severe head injury where both the left and right temporal bones, as well as the sphenoid bone at the base of the skull, have fractured into multiple pieces. In other words the bullet, as stated in the autopsy report, followed a straight horizontal course from left to right, angling forward as it went (through the anterior margins of the left temporal lobe). This is consistent with a gun being pressed behind the left ear, horizontally positioned, slightly angled towards the front of David's head. Again, inconsistent with a killer standing to the right side of David Faraday, pointing a gun left-handed towards his head. The entry wound behind the ear flap, and the angle the shot was delivered, would not be natural for a left-handed shooter