Prior to, and continuing on after the Lake Berryessa attack on September 27th 1969, investigators painted the Zodiac Killer as a sexual deviant, targeting couples (primarily the females), because of some relationship inadequacies in his own life. Despite no evidence whatsoever that the Zodiac murders were sexually motivated, the psychological profile of the killer was deemed sexual in nature. The next murder was the clinical, execution style shooting of a lone male taxicab driver in the heart of San Francisco on October 11th 1969.   

The attribution of a sexual component to the Zodiac crimes were not scotched by the taxicab murder however. The Zodiac Killer was now being labeled a "latent homosexual" in a Paul Avery article on October 18th 1969.  

The next murder in San Francisco with the Zodiac pseudonym placed at the crime scene (similar to Berryessa), was the murder of a gay man, Robert Michael Salem on April 15th 1970, who had been callously stabbed numerous times in his 745 Stevenson Street apartment - and "Zodiac" had been written in the victim's blood on the apartment wall. 

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The 408 cipher mailed on July 31st 1969 could be considered an introductory cipher by the Zodiac Killer, laying out his plans to collect more slaves for his afterlife and warning police of more murder to come. The 340 cipher, solved by eminent cryptographers David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke in December 2020 was contemporary in nature, and effectively called out Eric Weill who telephoned into the Jim Dunbar TV Show on October 22nd 1969, that initiated the response of Zodiac just over two weeks later, who stated "That wasn't me on the TV show". The 32-Symbol cipher was also contemporary in nature, threatening to detonate a bomb in San Francisco & Vicinity soon after the Zodiac Killer had referenced the Park Police Station bombing (on April 20th 1970) which killed San Francisco police officer Brian McDonnell. The Zodiac Killer also called out Karl Francis Werner shortly after his arrest and interrogation for the murders of Snoozy & Furlong on April 29th 1971, again encoding a contemporary message stating "stop listening to phonys". This message (plural in nature) was not only labelling Karl Francis Werner as an imposter, but included Eric Weill from the Jim Dunbar Show - and effectively bound the 340 and 148 character ciphers under the banner of one author.

This should make you think, when you consider the April 20th 1970 letter arriving after 121 days sf silence from the Zodiac Killer, mailed on the same day his Zodiac pseudonym was reported in the San Francisco Chronicle as being written in blood on the wall of murder victim Robert Michael Salem, stabbed to death in his 745 Stevenson Street apartment. Was this just sheer coincidence after four months, or was the letter a rushed response to the breaking news in the Chronicle newspaper on the same day (with an AM postmark)? If you play the odds, the chances that this was coincidence, may appear unlikely. If the April 20th 1970 letter was a response to the San Francisco Chronicle article, then the cipher and bus bomb diagram were literally created in a matter of hours. Of course, the 13-Symbol code could have been designed in advance and added to his letter - but if not - the message contained within the code could likely be a reaction to the latest news about Robert Salem, or at the very least, be extremely contemporary in nature if his other three ciphers are anything to go by.

In fact, if you believe the 148 character cipher and letter in 1971 as genuine Zodiac material (as I do), then there will never be any reasonable chance of the Zodiac Killer ever revealing his real name in any code or communication, because the Zodiac Killer comprehensively stated in the 1971 letter that "I will never give my name because you don't understand". The offering of an alternative name in the Z13 seems equally unlikely, because its lack of ciphertext characters lends itself to thousands of possibilities, rendering any alternative name a pointless exercise when it cannot be verified. There appears two ways forward: [1] either the Zodiac Killer fashioned a code based on the Robert Salem murder or its column inches, so contemporary in nature, that it would carry great significance when unearthed, or [2] It isn't necessarily contemporary in nature and the answer or key lies in subsequent communications. The Zodiac Killer would almost certainly have known a code of just 13 characters was practically unsolvable, so the notion of a solve so contemporary in nature as to cement its validity, appears a justifiable avenue to explore. 

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The Zodiac Killer's writings were inspired (or were introduced as misdirection) from the movies, theater and reading material, such as The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell, first published on January 19th 1924 and made into a 1932 film starring Joel McCrea and Leslie Banks. The Mikado, a comic opera, which opened on March 14th 1885 in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, The Exorcist movie, a horror production released in 1973, directed by William Friedkin and adapted for screenplay by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 book.  And the 1952 Tim Holt comic book that possibly featured in his October 27th 1970 Halloween card, to name but a few.

It is difficult to say which, if any, serial killers inspired the murderous acts of the Bay Area murderer, but one may have inspired the seventh confirmed code (cryptic offering) of the Zodiac Killer. 

Edward Theodore Gein, known as the Butcher of Plainfield, was only convicted of the murder of Bernice Worden, who disappeared from her local hardware store on November 16th 1957, despite his confession to the murder of Mary Hogan in 1954. The inevitable search of his house in Wisconsin would unearth a house of horrors, with trophies and keepsakes fashioned from the skin and bones of exhumed bodies from the local graveyards. Authorities found chairs made from human skin, skulls adorning the bedposts, a corset made from a female torso, leggings made from human skin and a lampshade made from a human face. However, this was just a fraction of the unspeakable imagery that greeted investigators when they arrived at the remote dwelling. Ed Gein's descent into madness began after the death of his mother, Augusta, in 1945, igniting a desire within him to create a suit from the skin of middle-aged women dug up from their graves. A suit of human skin that he would begin to craft into the embodiment of his mother, so he could effectively crawl into her skin.  The Ed Gein story would ultimately enter American popular culture and inspire the 1959 novel, Psycho, by crime author Robert Bloch. The story then hit the big screen on June 16th 1960, produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. It would also inspire later films, such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

But the Ed Gein story may have also inspired the writings of the Zodiac Killer in the middle of 1971 (possibly May), when he composed his 148 character cipher and letter, trying desperately to keep hold of the murders of Debra Gaye Furlong (14) and Kathie Reyne Snoozy (15), who were each found brutally stabbed in excess of 100 times on August 3rd 1969 in the Bay Area of San Jose. Having claimed them in his running victim count on November 8th 1969, he now faced having them deducted from his total, when Karl Francis Werner was arrested and interrogated on April 29th 1971 for their murders, and the recent murder of Kathy Bilek (18). The murder of Kathy Bilek in the Villa Montalvo woods on April 11th 1971, the Zodiac Killer would eventually claim on July 13th 1971 when the Monticello card was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle. The Zodiac Killer would make reference to all three girls in his 148 character and letter, asking investigators not to listen to "phonys" such as Werner, and warning them he would "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and "send a patch of human skin if their is some left over". I wonder what inspired the Zodiac Killer to threaten to make a suit from the skin? 

This is a follow up article to Anchors Aweigh concerning the knife murder of Robert Michael Salem, whose body was discovered in his 745 Stevenson Street, San Francisco apartment on April 19th 1970. The Zodiac Killer mailed a communication to the San Francisco Chronicle on April 20th 1970, the very same day this story broke in the San Francisco Chronicle. If this wasn't a coincidence after 121 days of silence from the Zodiac Killer - and he reacted to the San Francisco Chronicle morning edition about the Robert Salem murder - then he had to write this letter (that included a code and bomb diagram) and mail it extremely quickly, to enable this communication to bear the postmark "SAN FRANCISCO CALIF, 4A AM 20 APR". In other words, it had to be created, mailed, collected and processed in the morning to carry an AM postmark. But was the letter designed with Robert Salem in mind? 

The San Francisco Chronicle article on April 20th 1970 only described the drawing on Robert Salem's apartment wall as "a weird cross like design with an arc, similar to the Zodiac's circled cross insignia". There was no mention of an Egyptian ankh or Crux Ansata, no mention of a crucifix style design - and other than the writing "Satan Saves Zodiac" - no mention of Christianity or Jesus Christ. The ankh or key of life (drawn in blood on the apartment wall of Robert Salem) is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol used in Egyptian art and writing to represent the word for "life" and, by extension, as a symbol of life itself. It was especially commonly held in the hands of ancient Egyptian deities, or being given by them to the pharaoh, to represent their power to sustain life and to revive human souls in the afterlife. Because it symbolizes immortality and the universe it was initially borrowed by the fourth-century Coptic Christians who used it as a symbol to reinforce Christ's message that there is life after death. The ankh cross as a symbol of eternal life eventually lost its loop at the top to become the Christian cross which, like the ancient ankh, is worn by believers in Jesus Christ in the present day for the same reason: to identify with their god and all that god promises. link.  Much more recently, the ankh has become a popular symbol in modern Western culture, particularly as a design for jewelry and tattoos. Its resurgence began when the counterculture of the 1960s stirred a greater interest in ancient religions.

Despite no direct mention of Christianity, Jesus Christ or the Egyptian Ankh in the San Francisco Chronicle article on April 20th 1970, the Zodiac Killer within hours would manufacture a code letter containing the three circled eights (which represents the name Jesus in Christian numerology, with the number 8 representing rebirth and regeneration, and infinity/eternity), along with a Christian anchor symbol. Christians adopted the anchor as a symbol of hope in future existence because the anchor was regarded in ancient times as a symbol of safety. For Christians, Christ is the unfailing hope of all who believe in him: Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and several of the early ​Church Fathers speak in this sense. link. 

So, did the Zodiac Killer create the 13-Symbol code the same day the Chronicle article was released, containing four characters of Christian symbolism, representing Jesus Christ, eternity and the afterlife, based solely upon the phrase "Satan Saves Zodiac", or was the Zodiac Killer fully aware of the Egyptian ankh symbol (representing Christianity and the hope of everlasting life) drawn in blood, because he was present in the 745 Stevenson Street apartment of Robert Salem? The other possibility is that my interpretation of the Zodiac Killer's symbols are incorrect, and they in no way correlate to the Egyptian ankh on the apartment wall. 
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On April 19th 1970, the mutilated body of Robert Michael Salem was discovered in his 745 Stevenson Street, San Francisco apartment by some friends. He had been stabbed several times, and his blood had been used to draw an Egyptian Ankh on his apartment wall, accompanied by the wording "Satan Saves Zodiac". This story would be reported in the newspapers the following morning, when on April 20th 1970 the San Francisco Chronicle released an article entitled "Bizarre 'Zodiac' Murder". At this point, the Zodiac Killer had remained silent for 121 days, so was the timing of his April 20th 1970 letter, having being mailed on the same date as the news coverage of the pseudonym "Zodiac" being discovered on the apartment wall of a murder victim, just sheer coincidence? Or had the Zodiac Killer read the morning edition of the San Francisco Chronicle and hastily created a 2-page letter containing a code and bus bomb diagram to quickly mail to the newspapers? In other words, he fashioned a communication in double-quick time to coincide with the newspaper article, stating "I hope you have fun trying to figure out who I killed", to insinuate himself as the murderer.  

This may explain why he didn't have the time to create a more complex cryptogram in the same fashion as his 408 and 340 ciphers. If the Zodiac Killer didn't murder Robert Salem and wasn't an employee of the San Francisco Chronicle, then he had to create the code in a matter of hours, because his envelope was postmarked April 20th 1970, the same date as the newspaper article. Therefore, his 13-Symbol code was about as contemporary as could be. It could have been inspired by the very newspaper article that inspired the letter.

​The April 20th 1970 newspaper article did not show an image of the apartment wall, it only mentioned the "Satan Saves Zodiac" writing, and descrbed the drawing on the wall as "a weird cross like design with an arc, similar to the Zodiac's circled cross insignia". It made no mention of an Egyptian Ankh. The image at the top of this article was taken from the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article released on April 21st 1970.

In the Zodiac Killer's short code, he added the Celtic Cross, three circled eights (which represents the name Jesus in Christian numerology) and the Christian anchor (a symbol of hope in future existence for many Christians). All the symbols have a religious connotation. The image on the right is a Christian anchor. The word "anchor" has the same phonetic root as the Egyptian "Ankh". However, the interesting aspect of the Christian anchor, is that its imagery comprises that of the crude anchor Zodiac placed in his 13 character code and the drawing of the Egyptian Ankh placed on the apartment wall of Robert Michael Salem. A drawing he should have had no knowledge of on April 20th 1970, because that image wasn't released until April 21st 1970. Not only do we have the 888 of Jesus Christ and "Satan Saves" connection, but we have the Christian anchor being a combination of Zodiac's crude "code anchor" and the yet to be released image of the Ankh, discovered the night before. Was this another coincidence, or was the Zodiac Killer responsible for the murder at 745 Stevenson Street?  
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FOLLOW UP ARTICLE: ROBERT SALEM-A ZODIAC MURDER?      

The Badlands (or Citizen Card) communication has always been difficult to prove as authentic Zodiac correspondence, sandwiched between the SLA and Red Phantom letters, which are almost certainly inauthentic. Without determining the validity of the Badlands correspondence or otherwise, let us look at some facts.

When looking at the envelopes/addresses, the Zodiac Killer abbreviated the San Francisco portion of the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner into initials, when he mailed the July 31st 1969 Chronicle letter, July 31st 1969 Examiner letter, October 13th 1969 Paul Stine letter, November 8th 1969 Dripping Pen card, November 9th 1969 Bus Bomb letter, June 26th 1970 Button letter, July 24th 1970 Kathleen Johns letter, July 26th 1970 Little List letter, October 27th 1970 Halloween card (abbreviated twice) and April 24th 1978 "I Am Back With You" letter. The Zodiac Killer abbreviated to S.F. (using periods or full stops) on all the eleven occasions he adopted this format. From July 31st 1969 to April 24th 1978, only the Badlands communication failed to follow this pattern. When mailing the December 20th 1969 Melvin Belli letter and March 13th 1971 Los Angeles letters, he also used periods after abbreviating the addressee into initials. Even on the March 22nd 1971 Pines card, the Zodiac Killer pasted the initials S.F. using periods.

The Zodiac Killer used San Fran. or San Fran on the envelopes/addresses on eleven occasions between July 31st 1969 and January 29th 1974, but never once was this the last part of the address. The Badlands communication yet again broke with tradition, with the envelope ending San Fran.