The Channel 9 letter was mailed to KHJ-TV Studios, 5615 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles on May 2nd 1978. However, the envelope was misaddressed and should have been mailed to 5515 Melrose Avenue, which was the correct address of Channel 9 KHJ-TV, which sat right next to Paramount Studios located at 5555 Melrose Avenue. This area is just below the Hollywood Hills and iconic sign. 5515 Melrose Avenue is only 6 miles from 10050 Cielo Drive, where Sharon Tate (26) was brutally murdered by the Manson Family on August 9th 1969. On the night of August 8, 1969, Manson directed Watson to take Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel to Melcher's former home at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles and kill everyone there. The home had only recently been rented to actress Sharon Tate and her husband, director Roman Polanski.

The Channel 9 letter contained all the ingredients related to the map below. The letter threatened to kill Susan Atkins calling her the "Judas of the Manson Family" and threatening "Shes gona get hers now". She was present at 10050 Cielo Drive during the murder of Sharon Tate. The letter continued with "Hey - - - you actors - this is your lucky Break. Remember - whoever plays me has his work cut out for him". Unsurprising rhetoric from the Zodiac Killer (or copycat), bearing in mind the location of 5515 Melrose Avenue by Paramount Studios and the Hollywood Hills. 

The author of the envelope wrote the reversed 1234567 A.G.C.G.T.H. (All Good Children Go To Heaven) on the envelope, taken from The Beatles You Never Give Me Your Money lyrics, as well as drawing the Apple logo from their record label in the bottom left corner. This was also written in blood on a door at the Manson Family Spahn Ranch at 12,000 Santa Susana Pass Road in the Simi Hills. Boxed off in the top left corner of the envelope, usually reserved for the sender's return address, were the reversed letters AIC. Bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer was active in California, and the Channel 9 envelope was postmarked Anaheim, California, the Zodiac Killer was probably telling us his return address was "ANAHEIM IN CALIFORNIA". 

Evan from Texas has recently uploaded a video to Youtube exploring the claims of Thomas Henry Horan and adding some very interesting extra information. This material is extremely relevant, bearing in mind a recent article on this site entitled Squealling Tires and Raceing Engine. The column in the July 6th 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald newspaper with regard to the Blue Rock Springs attack, quoted George Bryant as saying he heard "the car take off at a high rate of speed, peeling rubber and cutting corners". The police added that "He wasn't sure, but he thought it was headed to the freeway". It was believed that the Zodiac Killer was responding to this newspaper article in the August 4th 1969 Debut letter, when he stated "I did not leave the cene of the killing with squealling tires + raceing engine as described in the Vallejo paper. I drove away quite slowly so as not to draw attention to my car". However, he used the words "squealing and tires" in identical fashion to the Blue Rock Springs police report of "he then heard a car take off at super speed and it burned rubber and was squealing its tires as it sped along the road".  This has led some to believe that the killer had access to the police reports.  

Below I will cover just a small part of Evan's excellent video, with respect to somebody who may have had access to the police reports when compiling his July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969 letters. The entirety of the video can be viewed here. It contains a lot more information on this topic, presented over 32 absorbing minutes.

There are two snippets from the police reports below, which includes the Captain Daniel Pitta police report from Lake Herman Road and page 20 of the Lake Herman Road police report. The Zodiac Killer could be argued to be copying the police reports when writing his July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969 letters, just switching or reversing the odd word to disguise the fact. The Captain Daniel Pitta police report in respect to David Faraday, stated "Victim #2 was lying face up". The Zodiac Killer wrote "the boy was on his back". The Captain Daniel Pitta police report in respect to David Faraday, stated he was found "with his feet to the right rear wheel". The Zodiac Killer wrote that David Faraday was left in the turnout "with his feet to the car". He had changed "face up" to "on his back". He had changed "his feet to the right rear wheel" to "his feet to the car".

In respect to Betty Lou Jensen, the Captain Daniel Pitta police report stated she was found with her "head to the east". The Zodiac Killer wrote that Betty Lou Jensen was left in the turnout with her "feet to the west". He had changed "head" to "feet". He had changed "east to west". The Blue Rock Springs police report stated "The girl was lying on her side facing the road". The Zodiac Killer wrote in the July 31st 1969 Examiner & Vallejo Times-Herald letters, that "the girl was on lyeing her right side". He had added the word "right".

This means, that through two sets of communications on July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969, the Zodiac Killer provided an uncanny selection of facts that appeared to mimic the wording in the Lake Herman Road police report, Captain Daniel Pitta police report and Blue Rock Springs police report. When Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz asked the claimed killer of David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen and Darlene Ferrin for "more facts to prove it", did the Zodiac Killer go back to the police reports once again, using the word "squealling" in his reply on August 4th 1969? Or is this one big coincidence?

The Zodiac Killer chose to describe Darlene Ferrin at Blue Rock Springs as wearing "patterned pants" and "paterned slacks". The Blue Rock Springs police report on page 13 described her as a "WFA wearing a white and blue flowered slack dress" - and wearing a "slack dress" on page 2.

We also know that 10 shots were fired at Lake Herman Road on December 20th 1968, because that too is in the police report. The Zodiac Killer also described the brand of ammo as Super X, which can be found in the Department of Justice report here.
When the Zodiac Killer wrote in the October 13th 1969 letter "This is the Zodiac speaking. I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by Washington St + Maple St last night, to prove this here is a blood stained piece of his shirt", was he aware of the Washington and Maple destination on the taxicab trip sheet? This destination was not mentioned in the October 12th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article, or anywhere prior to the Zodiac Killer mailing the Paul Stine letter.

Evan from Texas plans to do some follow up work on the Zodiac Killer in upcoming videos. Please stay tuned. 
Zodiac Killer Peer Review on Youtube

Below is the envelope of the May 2nd 1978 Channel 9 letter featured on zodiackiller.com, mailed to KHJ-TV in Los Angeles just eight days after the "I Am Back With You" letter, postmarked April 24th 1978. There have been links forged on the Zodiac Killer Site forum between two of the 1978 letters and the March 8th 1981 "Atlanta" letter, mailed to West Peachtree Street in Atlanta. All three carried the Symbols of America stamps of the 13c Liberty Bell, 13c Eagle and Shield, and 15c American Flag from the Americana Seies. In addition to these three communications, another communication was mailed on July 19th 1978 to the San Francisco Chronicle from Los Angeles, rambling on about tape waiting for him all over California. In this analysis, I would like to focus initially on the three 1978 letters mailed within three months of one another, as well as the Melvin Belli letter mailed to 1228 Montgomery Street in San Francisco on December 20th 1969. The reason to jump back to 1969, was not only because the handwriting on the Melvin Belli letter looked somewhat similar to the Channel 9 envelope, but because of the content contained within it. 

The Melvin Belli letter contained the phrases I am afraid I will loose control again, I will loose all controol of my self and Please help me I can not remain in control for much longer. The communications on April 24th 1978 and July 19th 1978, either side of the Channel 9 letter, both continued this theme of control. The April 24th 1978 letter concluded with "I am now in control of all things". The July 19th 1978 letter concluded with "I am the ZODIAC and I am in control," but also began with "I am the ZODIAC and I am in control of all things". One couldn't help thinking that this theme should be present in the Channel 9 letter, therefore binding it to the other two 1978 letters - and possibly the Zodiac Killer.

The upper left corner of an envelope is usually reserved for the sender's name and address, but the author of the Channel 9 letter has placed 1234567 All Good Children Go To Heaven (abbreviated) from The Beatles You Never Give Me Your Money lyrics, as well as drawing the Apple logo from their record label in the bottom left corner. However, we are left with the boxed off section in the top left corner of the envelope, which if a mirror image just like the other writing, should be the acronym AIC. Was the answer present in the July 19th 1978 letter, when he twice stated "I AM THE ZODIAC AND I AM IN CONTROL", or are we looking for a continuation of The Beatles theme regarding the letters AIC.

If we consider one author responsible for the April 24th 1978, May 2nd 1978, July 19th 1978 and March 8th 1981 letters - and he bought several "blocks of four stamps" of the Americana Series in one visit - then we may be able to track the selection of his stamps in respect to his mailings. The Americana Series stamps followed a very uniform plan that outlined the designs of individual stamps as well as the blocks of four. In all, there were five different blocks, each with a different theme, but similar design style – the subject in the center, and the title curving around two of the edges. When all four stamps were placed together, the titles created a frame around the stamps. The five themes were Roots of Democracy, Rights and Freedoms of the American People, Symbols of America, Pioneer America, and America’s Light. Mysticstamp.com.

If the Zodiac Killer was to purchase several of the Symbols of America Series (shown below), these would have been the appropriate postage for the time. The postage was 13c from December 31st 1975 until May 29th 1978, when it switched to 15c. Then on March 22nd 1981 the postage increased to 18c. So three of these stamps would be the correct postage for his three 1978 letters and March 8th 1981 letter, had he applied just one to each.

Let us assume that the Zodiac Killer buys these blocks of four stamps just prior to his first 1978 letter on April 24th 1978. We will use the two blocks shown above to follow his course of action. Being right-handed, he tears off the two upper right Liberty Bell stamps and affixes them to his April 24th 1978 (I Am Back With You) letter. He then tears off one of the upper left Eagle and Shield stamps and affixes it to his May 2nd 1978 (Channel 9) letter. On the block of four with only two stamps remaining, he tears off the 15c American Flag stamp and affixes it to his July 19th 1978 (Friction Tape) letter. This is the easiest of the two options available to him. The stamp on the July 19th 1978 envelope is unknown because we don't have this correspondence available, so this is just a calculated guess. This would have been his only choice from the Symbols of America Series, because the stamp price increased to 15c on May 29th 1978. Then on March 8th 1981 he used the only remaining 15c American Flag stamp from the block of three stamps.

The Zodiac Killer would be left with one redundant 13c Eagle and Shield stamp in respect to correct postage for any letter up to one ounce. If another potential Zodiac letter is discovered to have been mailed between April 24th 1978 (I Am Back With You letter) and May 29th 1978 (when the 13c postage increased), and it contains an Eagle and Shield stamp on the envelope from the Symbols of America Series, we have to consider it as a strong contender for the same responsible.

If the above letters were just mailed by random hoaxers unconnected to one another, it would be rather unusual to expect three independent and consecutive communications claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, to have all contained three Symbols of America stamps from the Americana Series. If the Zodiac Killer kept a secret stash containing his writing paper, marker pens and a supply of stamps for "future use", away from prying eyes, then it is not difficult to understand how the sequence of his mailings could have unfolded.

Acquired by Tom Voigt from zodiackiller.com, the Albany letter was mailed on August 1st 1973 to the Albany Times Union newspaper in New York. As with all Zodiac outlier communications, the letter and envelope have been analyzed to death regarding the handwriting, with many determining that the letter was not authored by the Bay Area murder.

As with the recent analyses of the 1978, 1986 and 1987 communications, we have to go beyond just the handwriting and look at the composition of the envelope, taking into consideration the stamps he applied, the format of the address and the words the author chose. In this instance, we cannot compare the address format to previously unpublished Zodiac envelopes because the communication was addressed to the Albany Times Union in New York. However, as Michael Morford correctly pointed out on the Zodiac Killer message board thread, the author of the Albany Times Union letter placed the Zodiac crosshairs in the return address section of the envelope, just like the Zodiac Killer added on his October 13th 1969, Paul Stine envelope. This was the only other time the Zodiac Killer added crosshairs on the front side of his envelope by the close of 1973. On March 8th 1981, the author would do the same on the Atlanta letter.

There is also doubt surrounding the stamps affixed to this letter - but with a fair degree of certainty we can conclude that the far left stamp was a 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt. I have superimposed it next to the black outline visible on the envelope, and it matches perfectly when sized as shown. Using the remainder of horizontal black lines, it can be reasonably argued that this envelope contained three stamps amounting to postage of 18c. The postal rate for letters (for first ounce) on August 1st 1973 was 8c, so the author had used just 2c excess over double postage. The Zodiac Killer had mailed 12 confirmed letters with Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps prior to August 1st 1973. Only three of his confirmed letters (using Tom Voigt's list of letters) contained something other than a Franklin D. Roosevelt stamp by January 29th 1974. Both the Paul Stine envelope and this communication used excessive Franklin D. Roosevelt postage.

The Zodiac Killer 148 character cipher was likely mailed in the May of 1971, before the July 13th 1971 Monticello postcard. The cipher was broken to reveal the rambling message of "Tis the Zodiac Speacking. Why can't you stop me. I can't stop killing. Stop listening t(o) phonys. If this is not on your front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin". This was telling investigators not to listen to Karl Francis Werner, recently arrested for the murders of Kathy Bilek, Kathy Snoozy and Deborah Furlong - and describing him as a phony or impostor. The Zodiac Killer had previously insinuated his involvement in the murder of all three young girls. Hence the further threat to "skin 3 little kids".

The Albany letter, purported to have been mailed by the Zodiac Killer, also carried a cipher fashioned with striking geometric shapes. Below I have highlighted four characters in both the 148 character cipher and Albany letter code (not used by the Zodiac Killer previously) that match closely to one another. In fact, three are virtually identical. In effect, we have two consecutive suspected Zodiac communications mailed two years apart, each contained a geometric style cipher with four congruent characters, and both used the number 7 in the ciphertext to correspond with the letter A in the plaintext. The decoded 148 cipher stated "Why can't you stop me. I can't stop killing", whereas the Albany letter threatened that he was "going to start killing again". This theme continued in the May 2nd 1978 KHJ-TV Channel 9 letter, pointed out by Tom Voigt on the Albany forum thread. The author added in this latest letter that he had "decided to begin killing again", creating a fragile link between all three communications. 

If we consider the crosshairs on the address side of the Albany and Stine envelope, the eccessive Franklin D. Roosevelt postage used on August 1st 1973 letter and the similarity between the two geometric ciphers shown (albeit limited), can we make a case for the May 1971 and August 1973 letters both being authored by the Zodiac Killer?         

The Albany key courtesy of Dave Oranchak, author of the website Zodiac Killer Ciphers. 

With the handwriting of the Zodiac Killer so freely available in the newspapers throughout 1969 and 1970, the best way to authenticate later communications such as the 1978, 1986 and 1987 letters is through the design and composition of the address on the envelopes. Had all the confirmed envelopes of the Zodiac Killer been withheld from the newspapers, this would have gone a long way to helping authenticate later material sent by the Zodiac or potential copycats.

Unfortunately, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article on November 16th 1970, using the Dripping Pen card envelope mailed on November 8th 1969. This gave any future hoaxer to the San Francisco Chronicle the perfect opportunity, to mimic not only the handwriting, but the structure and layout of the address. Had this not been done, any significant deviation to known envelope styles could then be challenged, if the content within them contained nothing of any substance regarding the Zodiac Killer. However, the publication of the Dripping Pen card envelope in the San Francisco Chronicle on November 16th 1970, when compared to the questioned April 24th 1978 envelope and letter, may still give us some clues.

Despite being separated by eight years, the 1978 envelope shows extreme similarity to the envelope published in the San Francisco Chronicle. One could be forgiven for believing the author of the 1978 envelope copied the envelope from the November 16th 1970 San Francisco Chronicle. The Zodiac Killer addressed his envelopes to the Chronicle many different ways, using only S.F. Chronicle and San Fran. Chronicle for the name of the newspaper between 1969 and 1974, but used San Fran. Calif., San Francisco Calif, San Fran Calif, San Francisco, Calif., San Fran. Calif, and San Fran. Claif in the remainder of the address. The author of the 1978 letter used the exact wording on the publicized Dripping Pen card envelope (including the not always used "Please Rush To Editor" phrase), which could lead to the assumption that a copycat was mimicking the newspaper publication of this envelope.      

It was considered that Inspector David Toschi had forged this communication to drive publicity back to the ever dwindling Zodiac case. But why would Inspector David Toschi of Homicide Detail attempt to convince authorities of the authenticity of the 1978 letter, by using the exact same handwriting and format of the envelope published in the November 16th 1970 Chronicle newspaper. He likely had many Zodiac envelopes at his disposal, so why not use an unpublicized envelope to appear more convincing? After all, a copycat couldn't have mimicked an envelope not released to the public, from which was known to have been penned by the Zodiac Killer. By mimicking the November 16th 1970 envelope released in the newspapers, you are in effect negating the premise of the 1978 letter being from the genuine Zodiac Killer. I just don't believe a seasoned detective would be that naive.

But there is another thing to consider when determining the authenticity of this letter. The November 16th 1970 reproduction of the envelope in the San Francisco Chronicle did not contain noticeable dotted i's in Francisco, Calif or Editor, but the 1978 envelope dotted all three (just like the original Dripping Pen card envelope). Additionally, the author of the 1978 letter wrote Calif. , placing a dot after the abbreviation. This was a known trait in five confirmed Zodiac communications.

It is unfortunate that the 1978 letter used the address style of the publicized envelope, but while this may lead some to the inevitable conclusion it was designed by a hoaxer, it by the same token appears to exonerate David Toschi, who surely wouldn't have been so stupid to mimic a widely publicized envelope in order to pass off the 1978 letter as being penned by the real killer.

Much is made of the 1978 letter being ruled out by DNA in the San Francisco Police Department report of "suspected Zodiac correspondence." The report states next to the 1978 letter: "DNA sample obtained. Not authentic Zodiac letter". However, it does not explicitly state that the letter was ruled out as being from Zodiac by use of DNA. It had long been determined by many handwriting experts that the 1978 letter wasn't penned by the Zodiac Killer - so incorporating the letter in a list of "suspected Zodiac correspondence" with that determination already in place, is not confirmation it was ruled out specifically by way of DNA analysis. Only that DNA was obtained from a doubted Zodiac correspondence. To have ruled out the 1978 letter through DNA, would imply one of three things. The DNA was determined to have come from a female donor, the DNA was matched to David Toschi, or the DNA didn't match known Zodiac DNA (which by all accounts we don't have). There is every chance that the 1978 letter was never ruled out through DNA, only that it was attributed the title of "not authentic Zodiac letter" through previous determination of its handwriting and the spurious claims of Armistead Maupin. The analysis above, along with investigations exonerating David Toschi as being the author of the 1978 letter, opens up the possibility once again, that the 1978 letter originated from the real killer of five in the Bay Area.    

Every confirmed correspondence of the Zodiac Killer to the San Francisco Chronicle was addressed in a particular way. The envelopes were either addressed S.F. Chronicle or San Fran. Chronicle. That is ten consecutive communications mailed throughout 1969 and 1970 to the San Francisco Chronicle, all of which used full stops in the name of the newspaper. If you include the Exorcist letter mailed to the Chronicle on January 29th 1974, that is eleven consecutive communications that followed this pattern. The following three communications to the San Francisco Chronicle, dubbed  the SLA letter, Citizen card and Red Phantom letter, all broke with this pattern. They were addressed San Francisco Chronicle, SF Chronicle and San Francisco Chronicle respectively. Not only did these three 1974 communications use an address style never before used by the Zodiac Killer, but suddenly the author had discovered the ability to spell, making not one single spelling error in any of these three communications, which included words such as Symbionese, consternation, evidenced, glorification, deplorable, justifiable, sensibilities, psychological and anonymously. 

In his letter to the San Francisco Examiner on July 31st 1969, he addressed the envelope to S.F. Examiner. In his letter to Melvin Belli he addressed the envelope to Mr. Melvin M. Belli, using dots after abbreviations in the addressee. His letter to the Los Angeles Times again abbreviated the addressee to L.A. Times. The only exception from July 31st 1969 to January 29th 1974 was the envelope addressed to the Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969. It was addressed in full, using Vallejo Times Herold rather than V.T. Herald, or Vallejo Times (as he used in two of the July 31st letters). The envelope to the Vallejo Times-Herald (confirmed as Zodiac) was the only communication out of 15, from July 31st 1969 to January 29th 1974, that did not abbreviate the addressee and include full stops. In fact, the letter to the Vallejo Times Herald was the only time up to the Exorcist letter that Zodiac ever used the full name of the newspaper he was addressing. 

This should give you extreme pause of thought when you consider the previously debunked October 27th 1987 Halloween letter (click link). This communication not only carried the full address of Vallejo Times Herald, just like the 1969 envelope, but both contained no full stops or commas, both carried the "Please Rush To Editor" phrase twice, both contained the same exact 13 words, both used "Calif" for "California" and both contained extremely excessive postage. The postal rate in 1969 was 6c, but the Zodiac placed 24c on his Vallejo Times-Herald envelope (an excess of 18c). The postal rate in 1987 was 22c, but the author affixed 44c worth of stamps (an excess of 22c). These were by far the most excessive postage used in any Zodiac or suspected Zodiac communications. When you consider the fact that a copycat would never have seen the 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope in 1987, he did a remarkable job imitating the real killer in all of the above, not withstanding the fact that the handwriting looked eerily similar. The author would have had handwriting available to him from published Zodiac letters and the Dripping Pen card envelope published in the November 16th 1970 San Francisco Chronicle, but how on earth does he use this to mimic the July 31st 1969 envelope so perfectly in 1987. The author of the 1987 envelope could have designed it in a multitude of different ways, yet he just happened to choose the exact wording from an envelope in 1969 to which he should have had no knowledge of if he was a hoaxer. The October 27th 1987 envelope (shown below) is the best available image we have currently.

This should allay any doubts to the authenticity of the October 27th 1987 Halloween letter. This was the Zodiac Killer. If the eyewitnesses at Presidio Heights were correct in describing the killer as "in his early forties", "about 40" and "35 to 45" (averaging 40), then the Zodiac Killer would have been approximately 58 years of age when he authored the 1987 letter. He would have been 72 years of age when the 2001 Happy New Year card arrived, stating "What happened with the white people drivers we once had, are they all retired on welfare or at Laguna Honda". He would currently stand at 91 years of age today, assuming he is still alive. One thing we can be sure of, is if the author of the 1987 letter is the Zodiac Killer, then Ross Sullivan and Earl Van Best Jr. cannot be the Bay Area murderer. The book would be finally closed on these two individuals.

It is also my belief that the July 31st 1969 envelope, October 27th 1987 envelope and September 25th 1990 Celebrity Cypher postcard were all addressed misspelling the word "Herald" to "Herold". The July 31st 1969 and September 25th 1990 communications most certainly were. If I am able to secure a clearer image of the October 27th 1987 envelope and it reads "Herold", then we can almost certainly link the Zodiac Killer to three communications spanning four decades.

1986 AND 1987 LETTERS - ONE HAND

The Zodiac Killer made an error when transitioning from cipher two (mailed to the San Francisco Examiner), to cipher three (mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle) in the 408 cipher. Since the Zodiac Killer used the word "people" six times in his July 31st 1969 communications, it's probably a safe bet that the missing word in "The best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradice and all the (?) I have killed will become my slaves", is people. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that the Zodiac Killer ever intended to leave 18 characters at the foot of the 408 cipher - rather 12 characters.

Dave Oranchak, author of the hugely successful website Zodiac Killer Ciphers, managed to stick a giant monkey wrench in this conclusion with an excellent idea, by suggesting that the Zodiac Killer may have inadvertently missed out a whole line from his cipher. Although this may on first consideration seem less likely, it must be noted that row 17 and row 18 would both begin with the letter "E" in the new presentation. Dave Oranchak  came up with an idea for the missing line (shown below left), to which I added a further suggestion (shown below right). The idea behind my suggestion, was utilizing the words chosen by the Zodiac Killer when he threatened to kill more "people" in his July 31st 1969 letters.

#1. In his communication to the Vallejo Times-Herald, the Zodiac Killer wrote "I will cruse around and pick of all stray people or coupples that are alone then move on to kill some more untill I have killed over a dozen people".

#2. In his communication to the San Francisco Examiner, the Zodiac Killer wrote "If you do not print this cipher, I will go on a kill rampage Fry night. This will last the whole weekend, I will cruse around killing people who are alone at night untill Sun Night or un till I kill a dozen people".

#3. In his communication to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Zodiac Killer wrote "I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night. I will cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend".  

The reason to suspect the missing section of 17 letters/characters would have been "lone or stray people", is because the Zodiac Killer used these exact words in the Vallejo Times-Herald and San Francisco Chronicle above. This suggestion by Dave Oranchak, of the Zodiac Killer accidentally omitting a whole line from his plaintext draft to ciphertext encryption, would have the added benefit of filling 407 of the 408 characters in the cipher.

It is easy to see how the Zodiac Killer may have made this mistake, when his original draft had the letter "E" beginning both row 17 and row 18. A cipher created by the Zodiac Killer using 407 characters out of 408 spaces (arranged 17 X 24) seems far more acceptable. This would have left little room for his identity on the final row, if indeed one was ever meant to be reserved for the final line of the cipher. The only possibility would have been "Z" - now that takes me back a few years. 

Thanks to Dave Oranchak.

The Zodiac Killer, being the narcissist he was, very likely kept the newspapers or cuttings of his reported crimes. It can be seen from the above excerpts that the Zodiac Killer carefully crafted his responses to particular sections of the newspaper text. That is, until he completely deviated off script when writing "The man who told police that my car was brown was a negro about 40-45 rather shabbly dressed. I was in this phone booth having some fun with the Vallejo cop when he was walking by. When I hung the phone up the damn X@ thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me + my car". There was no mention whatsoever of a negro male adult identifying the vehicle of Zodiac, either from the police or in any newspaper by the time the Zodiac Killer sent his August 4th 1969 letter. The Zodiac Killer, who carefully read every detail about himself during a 6 1/2 month period (from December 23rd 1968 to July 6th 1969 in the examples above), had suddenly and apparently crafted a "negro about 40-45, who was rather shabbly dressed" out of thin air, in total contrast to his specific responses to the San Francisco Chronicle and Vallejo Times-Herald. 

Vallejo Times-Herald, July 31st 1969, 4 X 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps.
San Francisco Examiner, July 31st 1969, 2 X 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps.
San Francisco Chronicle, July 31st 1969, 2 X 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps.
San Francisco Examiner, August 4th 1969, hand delivered, no envelope.
Paul Stine Letter, October 13th 1969, 2 X 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps.
Dripping Pen Card, November 8th 1969, 2 X 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps.
Bus Bomb Letter November 9th 1969, 2 X 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps.

Issue Date: January 29, 1966.

Fairfield Letter, December 7th 1969, 1 X 5c George Washington stamp.
Fairfield Letter, December 16th 1969, 1 X 5c George Washington stamp.

Issue Date: November 17, 1967.

Melvin Belli Letter, December 20th 1969, 6 X 1c Thomas Jefferson stamps.

Issue Date: January 12, 1968.

My Name Is Letter, April 20th 1970, 2 X 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps.
Dragon Card, April 28th 1970, 2 X 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps.
Button Letter, June 26th 1970, 1 X 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps.
Kathleen Johns Letter, July 24th 1970, 1 X 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps.
Little List Letter, July 26th 1970, 1 X 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps.

Issue Date: January 29, 1966.

Thirteen Hole Postcard, October 5th 1970, 1 X Apollo 8 Moon Orbit stamp.

Issue Date:  May 5, 1969.

'Zodiac Is Going To' Postcard, October 17th 1970, 2 X 3c Statue of Liberty stamp. 

Issue Date: June 24, 1954.

Halloween Card, October 27th 1970, 1 X Apollo 8 Moon Orbit stamp.

Issue Date:  May 5, 1969.

Los Angeles Times Letter, March 13th 1971, 2 X 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps.

Issue Date: January 29, 1966.

Pines Postcard, March 22nd 1971, Abraham Lincoln 4c Card.

U.S. Postcard rate from January 7th 1968 to May 16th 1971 = 5c.

Albany Medical Center Letter, August 1st 1973, 3 X 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps.

Issue Date: January 29, 1966.

Exorcist Letter, January 29th 1974, 1 X 8c Dwight D. Eisenhower stamp.
SLA Letter, February 3rd 1974, 1 X 8c Dwight D. Eisenhower stamp.

Issue Date: May 10, 1971.

Citizen Postcard, May 8th 1974, Samuel Adams 8c Card.

U.S. Postcard rate from March 2nd 1974 to September 14th 1975 = 8c.

Red Phantom Letter, July 8th 1974, 1 X 10c Famous Works of Art: Goya stamp.

Issue Date: June 6, 1974.

Mary Pilker Christmas Card, December 27th 1974, 2 X 10c Contemporary Christmas: Currier and Ives "Winter Road" stamp.

Issue Date: October 23, 1974. 

1978 (I Am Back With You) Letter, April 24th 1978, 2 X 13c Americana Series: Liberty Bell stamp.

Issue Date: November 25, 1975.

Atlanta Letter, March 8th 1981, 1 X 15c 1980 Americana Series stamp.

The 1986 (Freeway) Letter, May 6th 1986, 1 X 22c Flag Over Capitol stamp.
The 1987 (Cars Make Nice Weapons) Letter, October 28th 1987, 2 X 22c Flag Over Capitol stamp.

Issue Date: March 29, 1985.

Celebrity Cypher Postcard, September 25th 1990, 1 X 25c Literary Arts: Marianne Moore stamp.

Issue Date: April 18, 1990.

Eureka Card, December 1990, 1 X 25c Contemporary Christmas: Tree and Greetings stamp. 

Issue Date: October 18, 1990.

Happy New Year Card, January 10th 2001, 1 X 34c Statue of Liberty stamp.

Issue Date: December 15, 2000.

"A letter sent to a newspaper by someone who said he was the Zodiac serial killer of 19 years ago was declared a hoax Thursday by the state Department of Justice. The letter, in which the writer threatened to kill trick or treaters on Halloween, was similar to several mailed to area newspapers in the late 1960s and early 70s. It was received by the Vallejo Times-Herald Wednesday, but a handwriting analysis found it to be a phony, police reported. Vallejo police Capt. Roy Conway said the letter ″was not authored by the authentic Zodiac, but that it is a simulation of a hoax letter written in 1978". link. "In Sacramento, spokeswoman Melinda Stehr of the attorney general's office said handwriting experts confirmed the letter was a simulation of a letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle a decade ago, which was also considered to be a hoax. 'Someone saw the letter and was using it as a copy,' Stehr said. 'It's a fake. It's a hoax". link.

The author of the October 1987 letter had a multitude of genuine Zodiac letters available to him from the 1960s and 1970s. but we are led to believe that the designer of the 1987 letter chose to mimic the only letter ever made public to be comprehensively questioned regarding its authenticity. Any author that is trying to convince the reader he is Zodiac would simply take a trip to the library, scroll through the microfilm and access a wealth of Zodiac writings, or buy Robert Graysmith's 1986 Zodiac book.  According to the excerpts from the articles above, the hoaxer got his hands on images of the 1978 letter from nine years ago. If he was capable of doing that, he was capable of accessing the Zodiac letters from 1969 through to 1971. Despite this, the author of the 1987 letter copycatted the copycat from nine years ago, to convince current investigators he was the real Zodiac and not a copycat. Also, why would a copycat determined to pass themselves off as Zodiac, deliberately choose to mimic the opening three lines of the 1978 letter and give the impression they are a copycat. The real Zodiac Killer would have no such concerns.

How did the handwriting experts conclude that the killer mimicked an envelope from 18 years ago so accurately, if he had no access to an image of the 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope? They clearly made a comparison between the 1987 and 1978 letters, but could not have compared the two envelopes and arrived at the conclusion they made. The copycat managed to imitate the July 31st 1969 envelope down to the full address of Vallejo Times-Herald, which was never used in the 1969 letters themselves. Although blurry, the handwriting looks compatible, the "Please Rush to Editor" directive was added twice, no commas or full stops were used on both occasions and thirteen words comprised each envelope in both instances. This copycat certainly went to a lot of effort to apparently mimic an envelope he had no access to, while apparently copying the 1978 letter he did have access to and knew was regarded as a fake. This clearly makes no sense. Then we consider the letter mailed in 1986.    

The 1987 author was without doubt the designer of the 1986 letter. The May 6th 1986 letter wasn't published in the newspapers prior to October 27th 1987 (or thereafter), yet just one year later, the supposed hoaxer of the 1987 Zodiac letter just happened to fashion his letter with near identical opening lines, and referenced how "The Blue Meannies almost caught me" and how "The blue pigs can catch me". That is one hell of a coincidence if the authors are two separate and distinct individuals. This is either a determined hoaxer, writing Zodiac letters twelve and thirteen years adrift from the last confirmed Zodiac letter on January 29th 1974, or it is the real Zodiac Killer. What is the likelihood that the author of the 1986 and 1987 letters was a hoaxer, maintaining his interest over 1 1/2 years, who was also able to reproduce the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope to such accuracy when apparently he had no access to it?  

The 1990 Eureka Christmas card and 2001 Happy New Year card weren't enough to rule out candidates as the Zodiac Killer, but the 1986 and 1987 letters, in conjunction with the envelope comparison, leaves little doubt remaining that Ross Sullivan and Earl Van Best Jr were not the Zodiac Killer. Ross Sullivan died on September 29th 1977 and Earl Van Best Jr died on May 20th 1984, so could not be the author of either the 1986 or 1987 letter.

Of course, it goes without saying, that almost all staunch advocates of Ross Sullivan and Earl Van Best Jr will by default reject the 1978, 1986, 1987, 1990 and 2001 communications out of hand. The default setting will be turned to discredit rather than objectively analyze, irrespective of the strength of any presentation.

While some people have claimed that Robert Graysmith may be responsible for forging the 1986 and/or 1987 letter to ignite interest in his book, they have yet to offer any evidence to support such such a claim, other than just speculation. If Robert Graysmith had secured access to all the Zodiac envelopes, you could be assured they would have featured in his Zodiac book, as opposed to the just the Dripping Pen card and Los Angeles Times envelopes. The former of which was readily available in the San Francisco Chronicle article by Paul Avery on November 16th 1970.

A FRESH LOOK AT THE 1987 LETTER [PART ONE]

The biggest problem with authenticating Zodiac communications in the Zodiac community is disagreement regarding the handwriting. Some will say the handwriting looks like Zodiac, while others will take the opposite stance. That is why it is crucial to go beyond the handwriting and analyze the wording, composition and structure of a communication. Recently I have been attempting to validate the October 27th 1987 Vallejo Times-Herald correspondence, opening with the lines "This the Zodiac speaking. I am crack proof. Tell herb caen that I am still here. I have always been 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". To do this, the 1987 envelope was compared with the July 31st 1969 envelope, previously unreleased in the public domain 

In this analysis we will attempt to bind the May 6th 1986 and October 27th 1987 letters to one author. That way, if we can prove the validity of one correspondence as being authored by Zodiac (such as the 1987 letter), we automatically validate the other. In the 'Los Angeles' letter from March 13th 1971, the Zodiac wrote "This is the Zodiac speaking. Like I have allways said, I am crack proof. If the Blue Meannies are evere going to catch me, they had best get off their fat asses + do something. Because the longer they fiddle + fart around, the more slaves I will collect for my after life". In the 1986 letter, the Zodiac wrote "This is the Zodiac speaking. I am still out here an crack proof. I want you to know about my latest slaves that I have collected about two weeks ago up by Sacramento Ca". 

The author of the 1986 letter converted "I am crack proof" to "I am still out here an crack proof". In other words, he just plagiarized the words from the 1971 letter, which doesn't prove he is the Zodiac Killer. Many letters and cards have been mailed to the newspapers between March 13th 1971 and May 6th 1986. I have noted at least thirteen communications linked to the Zodiac Killer between these dates, and not one used the term "crack proof". The first time this term was used, was in the October 5th 1970 pasted postcard, but it was written as "crackproof" without the separation. That means the author of the 1986 communication selected the words "crack proof" for the first time since March 13th 1971 (15 years later). The author also used a  'Flag Over Capitol' US stamp.

The 1986 letter was never released to the newspapers, yet in the following year, the author of the 1987 letter, not only used the similar 'Flag Over Capitol' US stamp, but again began his correspondence using the words "crack proof" in the separated format. Therefore, we have two consecutively released 'Zodiac' communications with the term "crack proof". If the 1987 author was different to the 1986 author, then he got extremely lucky mimicking the stamp selection and the opening two sentences, including the words "crack proof". 

You will also notice that the author of both communications managed to prominently black out two words on each occasion. All four words prominently blacked out over both letters, almost certainly began with the letter T. What is certain, is that the prominently blacked out words were all followed by a word beginning with T. Those four words were They, The, Tell and Toschi. Three individual letters were blacked out over both communications also.

Additionally, the Los Angeles letter of March 13th 1971 stated "If the Blue Meannies are evere going to catch me, they had best get off their fat asses + do something".  The 1986 letter author would mimic this narrative, by stating "The Blue Meannies almost caught me". But if the 1987 letter writer was not the author of the 1986 letter, he was again extremely fortunate to use wording similar to that contained in the 1986 letter: "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. The pigs can catch me if they find me out there".

I think it is therefore reasonable to assert, that the 1986 and 1987 letters were written by the same hand.

AUTHENTICATING THE 1987 LETTER

On October 29th 1987, two days after the 1987 Halloween letter arrived at the Vallejo Times-Herald claiming to be from the Zodiac Killer, Department of Justice documents experts declared it a clever copy of a 1978 hoax letter. Shortly after that announcement, a similar letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle. That letter, too, was declared a hoax. "My very firm opinion is that they were not written by the authentic "Zodiac," said Justice Department handwriting expert Robert Prouty". This means that a second Halloween letter was mailed alongside the Vallejo Times-Herald offering. 

The statement above is one that argues against itself, concluding that the author of the 1987 Vallejo Times-Herald Halloween letter would choose to hoax a hoax letter. They declared it a clever copy of a 1978 hoax letter. Therefore, the 1987 copycat, copycatted a copycat of the real Zodiac Killer, when it would have been far simpler for the copycat to choose any number of authenticated Zodiac letters from either Robert Graysmith's 1986 book or any good library archive. Instead, we have to believe the 1987 copycat made the schoolboy error of choosing one of the few unauthenticated Zodiac letters ever released, and widely touted as such in many newspaper articles. 

Robert Prouty added "They appear to be composed of previous letters which have since been made public". Does this mean that the 1987 San Francisco Chronicle communication was determined to have been composed of writing mimicking letters other than the 1978 correspondence? The emphasis here, is that it seems handwriting analysts compared the writing on the 1987 letters with previous letters - and not the handwriting on the 1987 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope with the only other envelope ever mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald, on July 31st 1969. The similarity and composition of both the 1969 and 1987 envelopes may have changed their determination.

It is my understanding that the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope was not released into the public domain, so the author of the 1987 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope could not have mimicked it. However, he did a pretty good job, even using the full address of 'Vallejo Times Herald' on both occasions, in contrast to the publicly available 'Valejo Times' in Zodiac's July 31st 1969 letters to the Chronicle and Examiner. If anybody can find the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope in any newspaper prior to the October 27th 1987 letter, please let me know in comments. I do not want to draw any unnecessary conclusions based on incorrect understanding. This currently is just a probing exercise.      

An article dated October 29th 1987 in the San Francisco Chronicle (shown below) made no reference to any Halloween letter received by them. According to the San Francisco Examiner article above, "Department of Justice documents experts declared (the Vallejo Times-Herald letter) a clever copy of a 1978 hoax letter. Shortly after that announcement, a similar letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle. One can only assume the second Halloween letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle shortly after this article went to print, and they subsequently decided not to feature it. That means a second letter, likely mailed in tandem with the known 1987 Halloween letter, is yet to be unearthed. 

After the Lake Berryessa attack on September 27th 1969, the Zodiac Killer drew the attention of investigators in the August 3rd 1969 knife slayings of Kathy Snoozy and Deborah Furlong in San Jose. This is the attention he likely courted in switching from gun to knife, after reading the extensive front page coverage received in the double homicide. However, because he knew he wasn't responsible for the murders in San Jose, he never came right out and said so, like he did in his previous four attacks. In the Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs attack he made a phone call 40 minutes after the second attack and provided details in three July 31st 1969 letters only the police and he knew. At Lake Berryessa he adorned the Zodiac symbol, wrote on the car door of Bryan Hartnell's Karmann Ghia and made a phone call about 70 minutes later from a Napa payphone. While at Presidio Heights he effectively attached the crime scene to his correspondence by including a piece of the murdered taxicab driver's shirt.

He never did anything of value to corroborate his involvement in the murder of Kathy Snoozy and Deborah Furlong. He merely insinuated he was their murderer by dropping "Aug" into his Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969 and bumping up his total victims from five to seven. The Zodiac Killer, at this juncture, was effectively leaving himself an escape clause if these murders were ever attributed to the real killer. His vagueness was evidence of deception, unlike his four canonical attacks, which he backed up by near irrefutable proof of his involvement.

On June 26th 1970, the Zodiac Killer would repeat this tactic by insinuating his involvement in the shooting death of Sgt Richard P. Radetich (25) on June 19th at 5:25 am, who was gunned down by three shots from a .38 caliber revolver at point blank range through the driver side window of his vehicle while in the process of serving a parking ticket. He was sat in his police car near 643 Waller Street in San Francisco. The Zodiac Killer once again left himself an escape clause if Sgt Richard Radetich's real murderer was ever apprehended. Rather than write "I shot a cop sitting in a parked car with a .38" which is a little more specific, he merely stated "I shot a man sitting in a parked car with a .38". The Zodiac Killer avoided inextricably binding himself to the crime by leaving the door half open.  

The Kathleen Johns abduction he again laid claim to on July 24th 1970, by stating "So now I have a little list, starting with that woeman + her baby that I gave a rather intersting ride for a coupple howers one evening a few months back that ended in my burning her car where I found them". Yet again, the only information he ever gave was readily available in the newspapers. This newspaper story was a no-brainer for the Zodiac Killer, because Kathleen Johns had already identified her attacker as him from the Presidio Heights sketch on the wall of Patterson Police Station. This night of terror for Kathleen Johns would extend Zodiac's portfolio well beyond the Bay Area. Now nobody was safe.

On September 26th 1970, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article about the missing (believed abducted) nurse Donna Lass in South Lake Tahoe on September 6th 1970, and the murder of nurse Judith Hakari, who was abducted on March 7th 1970 and discovered in a shallow grave aside Ponderosa Way in Weimar nearly two months later. But why did the Zodiac Killer latch onto this newspaper story? 

This newspaper publication had all the ingredients the Zodiac Killer could possibly have wished for. He didn't want to appear too eager to claim either of these crimes, not only because the immediacy of the claim would have looked forced, but Donna Lass had only been missing for twenty days at the time the San Francisco Chronicle article featured and she may have turned up unharmed. Investigators feared Donna Lass may have been abducted, just like the abduction and eventual murder of Judith Hakari six months earlier. The Zodiac Killer had just come off the back of being linked with the abduction of Kathleen Johns in Tracy, California, so the story of these two women was the perfect opportunity to spread his terror into Placer County and Nevada.

Lake Tahoe borders Placer County, so when the Zodiac Killer mailed his Pines card on March 22nd 1971 with the words "pass Lake Tahoe areas", he was effectively leaving the Pines card open to interpretation. He could be insinuating his involvement in the abduction of Donna Lass from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino, which bordered the lake, or he could be insinuating his involvement in the abduction and murder of Judith Hakari from the Sutter Hospital, who was ultimately discovered in a shallow grave in Placer County. "Pass lake Tahoe areas" could be referencing the burial site of Donna Lass or Judith Hakari - or both. By leaving the Pines card intentionally vague in design, the Zodiac Killer is effectively introducing to the observer the idea of three abductions into his portfolio of crime, all of whom were young women, of which, two were nurses with an unfortunate connection to the lake. The Zodiac Killer knew by mailing the Pines card in such an unspecific way, that investigators would make the connection between these crimes, but yet again, the Zodiac Killer had left the door ajar if any of these crimes by the lake were solved, and subsequently proven not to be the Bay Area murderer. The vagueness of the Dripping Pen card, Button letter and Pines card are telling. They are a complete departure from the specificity exhibited by the Zodiac Killer's actions during and after Lake Herman Road, Blue Rock Springs, Lake Berryessa and Presidio Heights - and indicative of a man who was lying about Snoozy & Furlong, who also had no hand in any of these 1970 crimes.

The Zodiac Killer couldn't believe his luck, when on November 16th 1970 the San Francisco Chronicle published an article by Paul Avery, giving persuasive evidence of a link between the Riverside murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966 and the Zodiac crimes. Cheri Jo Bates was brutally attacked by a knife-wielding psychopath in the alleyway bordering the Riverside City College library. She was discovered the following morning by Riverside City College caretaker, Cleophus Martin.

He would again bide his time, before begrudgingly uttering the words "I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there". The Zodiac Killer seemed surprised that investigators had stumbled across his Riverside activity, but probably not half as surprised as when Paul Avery presented him with another murder to add to his growing portfolio. His acceptance speech in the March 13th 1971 'Los Angeles' letter, yet again replete with vaguness and a ready made get out clause. He could easily have stated "I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside library murder, but they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there", but used the word "activity" as a less than full confession. I chose the word "confession" carefully, because the Zodiac Killer left the door open to being responsible for the Riverside letters on November 29th 1966 and April 30th 1967, and nothing more.

He then cements the notion of involvement by claiming "a hell of a lot more down there", when he hasn't given us one shred of evidence he was the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates. The Zodiac Killer didn't supply one piece of evidence in his 'Los Angeles' letter only known to him and Riverside police, just like the Confession letter author did 4 1/2 years earlier. Riverside activity doesn't equate to Riverside murder - and neither does boasting about more murders in Southern California as a way to validate the crime you haven't yet proven. There was a sea change in Zodiac activity after the October 11th 1969 Paul Stine murder, from a ruthless killer, to a killer who wanted to appear ruthless. But he did remain consistent subsequent to October 11th 1969, in that he always left the back door open, clutching his escape clauses firmly between his grubby hands. 

When the Zodiac Killer mailed his July 31st 1969 letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald, he informed each newspaper to the fact he had mailed letters to the other two. He addressed the San Francisco Chronicle as S.F. Chronicle on its envelope and in the letters to the other newspapers, the San Francisco Examiner as S.F. Examiner on its envelope and in the letters to the other newspapers, but addressed the Vallejo Times-Herald as Vallejo Times Herald on its envelope and Vallejo Times to the other newspapers. The 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope had not been made visible to the public at the time the disputed October 27th 1987 Halloween letter was mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald. The three July 31st 1969 envelopes even failed to make the San Francisco Police Department DNA report in the late 1990s.

An article from ABC News in 2003: "The lab has found a partial DNA "fingerprint" on one of the envelopes, but not enough for definitive matching. However, a Primetime investigation prompted the discovery of three envelopes that offer new hope. The envelopes (July 31st 1969) were thought to have been lost, but an anonymous Primetime source — a long-retired investigator — found them, in mint condition, during a search of his personal files and turned them over to the San Francisco police".

Experts very quickly determined the 1987 letter was mailed by a hoaxer. "The fake letter sent to the Vallejo Times-Herald in midweek was a simulation of a hoax letter written in 1978", police Capt. Roy Conway said Thursday. "The determination was made by experts in the state Department of Justice", he said. In Sacramento, spokeswoman Melinda Stehr of the attorney general's office said handwriting experts confirmed the letter was a simulation of a letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle a decade ago, which was also considered to be a hoax."Someone saw the letter and was using it as a copy."  Stehr said. "It's a fake. It's a hoax". When they made this determination, they clearly didn't have the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope at their disposal, so they could compare it to the October 27th 1987 envelope. If they had, they may very well have come to a different conclusion. The Zodiac Killer wrote 'Vallejo Times' in his letters when he addressed the Chronicle and Examiner on July 31st 1969 (which were made public), but his envelope to the Vallejo newspaper contained the full name of 'Vallejo Times Herald'. An envelope not made public prior to October 28th 1987. Yet the recent 1987 envelope contained the full title of 'Vallejo Times Herald', just like the unpublished 1969 Vallejo envelope.

If you compare the now available July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope, with the October 27th 1987 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope, the similarity is noticeable. How could a hoaxer mimic the 1969 Vallejo envelope so closely if he had never laid eyes on it. The same words and amount of words (and abbreviations) are used in both, with no commas or full stops in either address. The dominant alphabetical V is present on both, with a distinct right leaning slant extending over the "a" of Vallejo. Up to October 27th 1987, these were the only two communications ever mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald from either Zodiac, or a supposed copycat of Zodiac. If the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope was never made public prior to October 27th 1987, I suggest that this recent Halloween offering should be declared genuine Zodiac Killer correspondence. This is the best image available of the 1987 envelope. There are two March 29th 1985 issue date 22c stamps of Flag Over Capitol on the 1987 envelope. The May 6th 1986 'Zodiac' envelope contains one smaller Flag Over Capitol stamp.          

This article is what I would describe as an investigative piece written with impartiality to the best of my knowledge. We know that the July 31st 1969 letters were the Zodiac Killer because of their content, so if the October 27th 1987 envelope can unequivocally be tied to one of these letters through the handwriting style and composition of each envelope, we can say without doubt the Bay Area murderer was still alive in 1987. However, if any reader of this article can find the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope published prior to October 27th 1987, for the latest Halloween letter author to mimic, I will delete this article immediately.  

It has been shown recently that the February 3rd 1974 SLA letter and the July 8th 1974 Red Phantom letter were almost certainly authored by the same individual, assuming the author of the envelope in each case was responsible for its contents. The SLA envelope was not featured in the newspapers, so the author of the Red Phantom envelope could not have mimicked the address so accurately. It was also shown how the SLA letter was almost certainly authored by the Symbionese Liberation Army, who not only mailed it the day before Patty Hearst's kidnapping, but typed a letter and addressed it to the Hearst family on February 10th 1974 mimicking the introduction and signature of the SLA letter. Both communications began with "Dear" and ended with "a friend".  

A friend of the Symbionese Liberation Army, associate of the group or a member themselves, had they authored the SLA letter and envelope, were with little doubt also responsible for authorship of the Red Phantom letter and envelope. The problem being that the Red Phantom letter was mailed on July 8th 1974, nearly two months after the deadly shootout with Los Angeles police on May 17th 1974 at the 1466 East 54th Street SLA hideout. Six members of the Symbionese Liberation Army died that day, including Nancy Ling Perry, Angela Atwood, Camilla Hall, Willie Wolfe, Donald DeFreeze and Patricia Soltysik. Therefore, it is patently obvious that none of these individuals were responsible for the Red Phantom letter, and by extension, the SLA letter. That reduces the pool drastically and could open the door to an associate or friend of the Symbionese Liberation Army.  

Kathleen Soliah was born in Fargo, North Dakota, while her family were living in Barnesville, Minnesota. When she was eight, her conservative Lutheran family relocated to Southern California. After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Soliah moved to Berkeley, California with her boyfriend, James Kilgore. There she met Angela Atwood at an acting audition where they both won lead roles. They became inseparable during the play's run. Atwood tried to sponsor Soliah into the SLA. Regardless, Soliah and Kilgore, along with her brother Steve and sister Josephine, followed the SLA closely without joining. It is apparent these were fringe players in the early days of the Symbionese Liberation Army, but nonetheless sympathizers and friends who would later play a more integral part.

Sara Jane Olson (born Kathleen Ann Soliah on January 16, 1947) was one possible author of the SLA letter. She grew up in Palmdale, California, the daughter of Norwegian-American parents, Elsie Soliah (née Engstrom) and Palmdale High School English teacher and coach Martin Soliah. Engström, Engstrøm and Engstrom are surnames of Swedish and Norwegian origin. Was she responsible for authoring the SLA letter on February 3rd 1974, one or two days before the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst? She was "a friend" of the Symbionese Liberation Army with close ties to Angela Atwood. She also had Scandinavian ancestry, that may have influenced the "Old Norse" reference on the SLA letter. 

When Atwood and other key members of the SLA were killed in 1974 during a standoff with police in Los Angeles, the Soliahs organized memorial rallies, including a rally in Berkeley's Willard Park where Soliah spoke in support of her friend Angela Atwood while being covertly filmed by the FBI. Kathleen Soliah said that her fellow SLA members had been: "viciously attacked and murdered by 500 pigs in L.A. while the whole nation watched. Well, I believe that Gelina [Atwood] and her comrades fought until the last minutes, and though I would like to have her with me here right now, I know that she lived happy and she died happy. And in that sense, I'm so very proud of her. SLA soldiers – I know it is not necessary to say; but keep on fighting. I'm with you and we are with you". But if Kathleen Soliah was responsible for the February 3rd 1974 SLA letter, then she had to be responsible for the July 8th 1974 Red Phantom letter also (if we conclude the author of both envelopes were the same handwriting).

As with many female members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, Kathleen Soliah was a staunch advocate of women's rights and equality, and the polar opposite of the image portrayed by Marc H. Spinelli in his column in the San Francisco Chronicle. The Count Marco column drew regular ire from its female readership, who branded Count Marco a misogynist. The obituary of Marc H. Spinelli began with "Marc H. Spinelli, better known to Chronicle readers as Count Marco, a columnist who gave outrageous advice to women for 15 years. As Count Marco, Mr. Spinelli was a star performer in a circulation war in the 1960s between The Chronicle and other Bay Area newspapers. At the height of his fame, he wrote his newspaper column, appeared on his own daily television show, wrote three books, won prizes and developed a huge audience that was either amused or appalled by his words".

Therefore, it wouldn't have been too surprising if his column inches had caught the attention of one of the female members or associates of the Symbionese Liberation Army, who were voracious letter-writers throughout 1974. In the September and October of 1976 Olson, under the name Nancy Bennett, was still involved in female activism, appearing in two feminist plays in Seattle. She disappeared after four performances. The viability of female authorship through the SLA and Red Phantom envelope handwriting, makes her a credible candidate (although not a certainty). But there is one other crucial factor that links the SLA letter and Red Phantom letter together. 

In 1969, James Kilgore began dating Kathleen Soliah. She joined a band of extremists known as the Symbionese Liberation Army or SLA. In 1974, Soliah introduced Kilgore to group members Emily and Bill Harris. He soon became involved in the organization. He helped create fake IDs for several of the members and began orchestrating bank robberies. They claimed that they committed the robberies so they could finance their plan to overthrow the government. In late February of 1975, SLA members held up the Guild Savings and Loan in Sacramento. On April 21, 1975, Kilgore, Soliah, the Harrises, and Michael Bortin decided to rob the Crocker National Bank in Carmichael, California. At the same time, forty-two-year-old Myrna Opsahl and two of her friends arrived at the bank, planning to deposit money from their church group.  Unsolved Mysteries. So it is fairly obvious Kathleen Soliah and James Kilgore, heavily bound to the Symbionese Liberation Army, were extremely close to one another.   

James William Kilgore was born in California, graduating from San Rafael High School in 1965. Kathleen Ann Soliah grew up in Palmdale, Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles and San Francisco were the two headquarters of the Symbionese Liberation Army.

The February 3rd 1974 SLA letter (Old Norse being spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia) was mailed from Los Angeles, where Kathleen Soliah grew up with her Norwegian-American parents, and the July 8th 1974 Red Phantom letter was mailed from San Rafael (where boyfriend of Soliah, James Kilgore spent his early years). Two members and/or close associates of the Symbionese Liberation Army with close ties to both these locations.

Whether the SLA letter or Red Phantom letter were mailed by Kathleen Soliah cannot be proven, but with little doubt, these two communications were likely authored by the same individual. If a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army was responsible for the SLA letter, then a high probability exists they mailed a communication to Count Marco also.  

THE PHANTOM ZODIAC LETTER ON JULY 8TH 1974 [PART ONE]