Inspired by the savage knife murders of Kathy Snoozy (15) and Deborah Furlong (14) on August 3rd 1969, the Zodiac Killer drove away from the shores of Lake Berryessa to the corner of Clinton and Main Streets in Napa. By November 9th 1969, the Zodiac Killer had retrospectively added the San Jose murders of the two teenagers into his running victim count. Just twelve days later he was claiming an eighth victim, when a letter arrived at the San Jose Police Department on November 21st 1969 with the insertion of November = 8. Bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer had now switched to brutal knife attacks, whether he was claiming them or participating in them, there is a distinct possibility that victim number eight was along these lines. He had no involvement in the Snoozy and Furlong murders, but the ferocity of the attack which left both victims absolutely brutalized, was ideal for a killer intent on stoking fear in the psyche of the American people. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that "the Snoozy youngster had 150 wounds on her back, 50 on the front and a "storm" of punctures on her neck. Deborah's body had about 100 wounds on her back and upper front and a dozen on her neck". The location of the attack was another advantageous feature for the Zodiac Killer, keen to bolster his burgeoning reputation as the most feared sociopath in the Bay Area. It was imperative that the Zodiac Killer chose his next victim wisely.

It is extremely unlikely that the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the murder of Reet Jurvetson (19) on November 14th 1969, found in dense undergrowth alongside Mulholland Drive two days later, but he was claiming victim number eight by November 21st 1969. Like the Snoozy and Furlong murders, Reet Jurvetson had been viciously stabbed 157 times in the neck, chest and torso, yet apparently transported to this location and thrown down the canyon from the roadside edge. Her body was discovered just north of Kimridge Avenue, only eight miles west of her last known address, at 5311 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. The journey would have been west on Melrose Avenue, before heading north on Loma Vista Drive to Mulholland Canyon.

This, coupled with the fact she had consumed a meal just two hours prior to her death, could have given police an indication of where that meal had been eaten, bearing in mind the journey time from 5311 Melrose Avenue to the location of her body is about 25 minutes, and her apartment (by all indications) wasn't the site of her murder. That leaves approximately 90 minutes for events to unfold. Accounting for the fact that somebody had to murder the young woman by way of 157 stab wounds, carry or drag her body to a waiting vehicle and drive to Mulholland Drive, it is very likely she was murdered not long after seemingly being at ease in taking a meal. The victim's body showed no evidence that this crime was the result of robbery, or driven by a sexual motive. Drag marks at the crime scene indicated Reet Jurvetson had been transported to the crime scene in an upright position within a car and rolled down the ravine where she snagged in the brush just a short distance down, resulting in her being discovered by a 15-year-old birdwatcher. Her identity remained unknown until 2016.

Had the Zodiac Killer read about the case of the woman alongside Mulholland Drive, noted the similarity in the ferocity of the attack to murders he had already claimed - and so insinuated his involvement by adding November = 8 in his November 21st 1969 communication? The last time he had written the months of his murders, he was also attempting to deceive.

The November 21st 1969 communication was postmarked five days after Reet Jurvetson's body was discovered, claiming an eighth victim, but was postmarked the exact day that Doreen Gaul and James Sharp's bodies were found on November 21st 1969 at around 11:00 PM in an alley behind the residence at 1138 South Magnolia, Los Angeles. They were murdered elsewhere and stabbed in excess of 50 times. This may not seem that unusual, until we consider that Doreen Gaul and James Sharp's bodies were found less than 3 miles (by crow) from the residence of Reet Jurvetson at 5311 Melrose Avenue. Even more curious that a typewritten letter from the supposed Zodiac Killer was discovered in the room of Doreen Gaul stating "You are too beautiful to live and I must kill you". And even more unusual that the Zodiac Killer purportedly mailed a threatening letter to the Albany Times Union newspaper on August 1st 1973 claiming his next victim would be from the Albany Medical Center, only 350 feet from 570 Myrtle Avenue, the street on which Doreen Gaul had previously lived. Then we have the May 2nd 1978 Channel 9 letter mailed to KHJ-TV Studios at 5515 Melrose Avenue - also purported to be from the Zodiac Killer - and located just 437 meters from the once residence of Reet Jurvetson (pointed out to me by Toots). The murders of Kathy Snoozy, Deborah Furlong, Reet Jurvetson, James Sharp and Doreen Gaul bound by the savagery of excessive knife wounds, with the Zodiac Killer never seemingly far away. Certainly not responsible for the murders of Kathy Snoozy and Deborah Furlong - and unlikely the murderer of Reet Jurvetson, James Sharp and Doreen Gaul - but the Bay Area murderer appears to have an uncanny sense of timing and location. 

In a previous article, The Secret Codes of Zodiac, we explored the idea that cryptographer D.C.B. Marsh dropped the name Edgar Allan Poe into his San Francisco Examiner newspaper article on October 22nd 1969, hoping that Zodiac would take the bait and design a cipher using techniques employed or featured by Edgar Allan Poe in one of his essays. We showed how the 13 character cipher of April 20th 1970 resembled a cipher technique shown in A Few Words On Secret Writing. The alphabet in both instances seemed split into two halves, with the 13 character Zodiac cipher beginning with A and ending with M. There was also a letter-writer who contacted Poe but "declined giving his name in full", dating the envelope April 21st 1841. Additionally, there was a Dick Tracy style technique mentioned in A Few Words On Secret Writing similar to that employed by Zodiac in his 340 cipher, 13 Hole postcard and Halloween card. But what if there was a cryptographic technique featured in A Few Words On Secret Writing that could directly produce the figure 888, clearly visible front and center of the Zodiac Killer's 13 character cipher. 

The Zodiac Killer had certainly made the figure eight the centerpiece of his coding on April 20th 1970, not only using three, but circling them as if to imply greater meaning. Was the circling of the number eights a hint towards the technique used in the coding? When we look at the first paragraph of A Few Words On Secret Writing, it features a technique using two wooden cylinders (scytala) as a method of coding, but directly underneath the example of coding in the essay, where the alphabet is split A to M, and N to Z, lies the important paragraph  It states;

A letter composed of such characters would have an intricate appearance unquestionably. If, still, however, it did not give full satisfaction, the idea of a perpetually shifting alphabet might be conceived, and thus effected. Let two circular pieces of pasteboard be prepared, one about half an inch in diameter less than the other. Let the centre of the smaller be placed upon the centre of the larger, and secured for a moment from slipping; while radii are drawn from the common centre to the circumference of the smaller circle, and thus extended to the circumference of the greater. Let there be twenty-six of these radii, forming on each pasteboard twenty-six spaces. In each of these spaces on the under circle write one of the letters of the alphabet, so that the whole alphabet be written — if at random so much the better. Do the same with the upper circle. Now run a pin through the common centre, and let the upper circle revolve, while the under one is held fast. Now stop the revolution of the upper circle, and, while both lie still, write the epistle required; using for a that letter in the smaller circle which tallies with a in the larger, for b that letter in the smaller circle which tallies with b in the larger &c. &c. In order that an epistle thus written may be read by the person for whom it is intended, it is only necessary that he should have in his possession circles constructed as those just described, and that he should know any two of the characters (one in the under and one in the upper circle) which were in juxta-position when his correspondent wrote the cipher. Upon this latter point he is informed by looking at the two initial letters of the document, which serve as a key. Thus, if he sees a m at the beginning, he concludes that, by turning his circles so as to put these characters in conjunction, he will arrive at the alphabet employed.

We know the Zodiac Killer often drew his inspiration from deep history, such as the short story The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell, first published on January 19th 1924, and The Mikado (1885), so what if he took this concept of two circles with a common center and looked for a cipher technique he could plagiarize in his April 20th 1970 letter. But more importantly, a technique of coding that had previously featured three eights (888) in its design.  

The Union Cipher Disk from the American Civil War was 3.75 inches (95 mm) in diameter and made of light yellow heavy card stock. It consisted of two concentric disks of unequal size revolving on a central pivot. The disks were divided along their outer edges into 30 equal compartments. The smaller inner disk contained letters, terminations and word pauses, while the outer disk contained groups of signal numbers. For easier recognition, the number eight represented two. The initials A.J.M. represent the Chief Signal Officer General Albert J. Myer.

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". The first incarnation of the disk had plates made of copper and featured the alphabet, in order, inscribed on the outer edge of each disk in cells split evenly along the circumference of the circle. This enabled the two alphabets to move relative to each other creating an easy to use key. Rather than using an impractical and complicated table indicating the encryption method, one could use the much simpler cipher disk. This made both encryption and decryption faster, simpler and less prone to error. Wikipedia.

The single and triple 8 number is featured heavily within the design of the Union Cipher Disk, with the 888 representing "tion".
Not only did the split alphabet of Edgar Allan Poe's 13 characters appear in the Zodiac code of April 20th 1970, along with the near date of April 21st, but the concentric circle cipher technique explicitly detailed in A Few Words On Secret Writing, can be found in the American history of the Union Cipher, with the number 8 front and center of everything, including the number 888.

On April 26th 1975 an article entitled Slayer of 14--A Possible Profile appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. It would be over one year until the San Francisco Chronicle featured an article about David Toschi and his endless pursuit of the Zodiac Killer. This article on August 26th 1976 was headed by the title Tips Still Pursue Multiple Slayer and contained an important piece of text on the third paragraph, of  "With the transfer of his long time partner, William Armstrong, to the fraud detail, Toschi is the only San Francisco detective on the case now, one of the most baffling in the history of American crime". The first major newspaper article in the Chronicle for 16 months, referencing Zodiac and Toschi's long time partner William Armstrong, which coincided with an advertisement placed in the personal column of the Chronicle on August 26th 1976 (to run for one week) beginning with the name "Zodiac" and stating "Your partner is in DEEP REAL ESTATE". That is a coincidence too far - and with little doubt - the newspaper article and the advertisement were connected in some way.  

One of the most common crimes in America is mortgage fraud, so the reference to partner William Armstrong having been transferred to fraud detail in the newspaper article, could very well be the inspiration behind the advertisement from Zodiac, stating "Your partner is in deep real estate".  

But was this the only time the Zodiac Killer targeted the detective duo of David Toschi and William Armstrong via the newspapers or through a personal advertisement? We know that the emphasis of the Zodiac Killer switched from killing people to bomb threats in the latter part of 1969 and throughout 1970. Whether or not he reappeared in 1974 is open to debate, but he certainly would have been aware of his so-called return, even if he wasn't the responsible. The last letter in 1974 credited to the Zodiac Killer in the newspapers, was the Red Phantom letter postmarked July 8th 1974. So, what are the chances that the Zodiac Killer would mail another letter in the August of 1974, indicating his intention of bombing certain locations in San Francisco, getting David Toschi and William Armstrong to "run all over town", including map directions and requesting that an advertisement be placed in the personal column of two newspapers, just like the advertisement above?  

On or shortly before August 16th 1974, an unaddressed letter found in a U.S. Post Office opened with the cordial greeting "Good morning gentlemen and politicians", but carried the ominous message that he had placed explosives in "hard to find places" all over San Francisco. The letter stated he was an educated older man who had fell on hard times, losing his money to unscrupulous businessmen and politicians, but was now going to exact revenge by blowing up various buildings in San Francisco. He had placed 350 pounds of plastic explosives and 13 cases of dynamite around San Francisco and demanded that advertisements be placed in the personal columns of the San Francisco Examiner and Oakland Tribune newspapers indicating that $350,000 be paid to him.

The author included a map and location of a payphone, insisting that "two policemen", whose names are specifically set forth in his letter were to make the pay off. The San Francisco Police Intelligence Unit complied with his wishes, however, no further contact was made by the subject and the matter was closed. Bearing in mind the revitalized interest in the Zodiac Killer in the months preceding this communication, and the relentless pursuit of the killer by David Toschi and his partner, William Armstrong, one couldn't help thinking that the two policemen named to "run around town" with a suitcase of money, may have been Toschi and Armstrong. They were two high profile "policemen" who would certainly have been known by name. I couldn't imagine the author of the letter choosing two ordinary "beat coppers" to run around after him. Not withstanding the fact, that both David Toschi and William Armstrong may have been referenced in another 'personal column advertisement' just two years later, with the pseudonym "Zodiac" front and center of that message.  

The following newspaper article from August 27th 1976 is courtesy of Cragle, a regular contributor to both Zodiac forums.

A business reply envelope postmarked Cleveland, OH, March 2nd 1981, bearing the press printed address "The Danbury Mint, Richards Avenue, P.O. Box 5260, Norwalk, Conn", contained the message "Please stop forced bussing or I will kill 3 more black boys in Atlanta in March". Six days later, a letter claiming to be from the Zodiac Killer arrived at the television station WXIA-TV "11 Alive" at 1611 West Peachtree Street, Atlanta, 30308 on March 8th 1981, stating "Hello its me. Haven't you people figured out who is killing these little people yet". I therefore went in search of other communications from these postmark locations that bore any similarity to the Zodiac Killer. The following find is extremely unlikely to have any connection to the Bay Area murderer, but it was a threatening greeting card that carried the same message apparently included with the Zodiac Killer's October 27th 1970 Halloween card, the arrival date carries some significance, the card was postmarked just 22 days before the 2001 Happy New Year "Zodiac" greeting card, which was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on January 10th 2001, and it was postmarked from Cleveland, Ohio, just like the March 2nd 1981 letter above.   

It was a threatening communication, cut into four pieces and mailed to the Republican Headquarters, 526 Superior Avenue Northeast, Cleveland, Ohio on December 19th 2000 to U.S. Senator George Voinovich, and received on December 20th 2000. Two stickers apparently came with the Zodiac Halloween card in 1970 with the messages "Thinking of you" and "Have a nice day". This greeting card, adorned with an image of flowers, also came with the message "Thinking of you". Three parts of the handwritten threat stated "Hey you stinking white bitch", "We don't want no TV bullshit" and "we will cut off your head and impale it on a spear". The envelope bore a zip code of 44126-1906 and a 33c upside down General Omar N. Bradley stamp.

In essence, we have a 2000 greeting card bearing the message "Thinking of you", the exact wording previously mailed with the 1970 Halloween card. The 2000 communication bore the postmark Cleveland, Ohio, the same as a potential Zodiac correspondence from 1981. The 2000 greeting card was postmarked 22 days before a suspected Zodiac greeting card on January 10th 2001. The March 2nd 1981, December 19th 2000 and January 10th 2001 communications all carried a racial overtone of "Please stop forced bussing or I will kill 3 more black boys in Atlanta in March", "Hey you stinking white bitch" and "Those bastard Muni Drive (The majority Black and asians) What happened to the White people Drivers we once had".

To find out the reason Senator George Voinovich was targeted, we have to look at his timeline on Wikipedia, where it states "In the Senate, Voinovich opposed lowering tax rates. He frequently joined Democrats on tax issues and in 2000 was the only Republican in Congress to vote against a bill providing for relief from the "marriage penalty". In previous suspected Zodiac communications the author had targeted many notable Democrats, so the fact Senator Voinovich "frequently joined with Democrats on tax issues" is in keeping with a Zodiac Killer of Republican persuasion attacking anybody who opposed his views. However, it must be stressed, that this greeting card was unlikely to have been mailed by the Zodiac Killer despite some of the overlapping features.

On October 22nd 1969, the San Francisco Examiner and Dr. D.C.B. Marsh of The American Cryptogram Association designed a newspaper article with the express intention of trapping the narcissistic Zodiac Killer into inadvertently giving us his name, by carefully dropping key words into the framework of the article. The Zodiac Killer, it can be argued, took up the challenge and was led by the wording in the article. Dr. D.C.B. Marsh stated "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". 

It is perfectly conceivable that by dropping the name of Edgar Allan Poe, who was synonymous with coded challenges to his audience, into the newspaper article in an offhand way, Dr. D.C.B. Marsh was probably hoping the Zodiac Killer would use the techniques of Poe in offering us his name in subsequent ciphers. This would allow Marsh to narrow down the avenues of encryption used in any future Zodiac correspondence. When we consider the November 8th 1969 and April 20th 1970 codes of Zodiac, in comparison to Poe's A Few Words on Secret Writing, it is conceivable that the Zodiac Killer brought an essay from the last century into the heart of the Bay Area and presented this historic offering to The American Cryptogram Association.

So, after reading this newspaper article, the Zodiac Killer toddled off to the nearest library and searched for the works of Edgar Allan Poe. He arrived at A Few Words on Secret Writing - and remembering that Marsh had invited him to create a cipher "however complicated" - the Zodiac Killer took a prompt from the Poe essay and did completely the opposite. Wouldn't it be expected by observers, having had his 408 cipher cracked in a matter of days by the Harden's - and being challenged by Marsh to create a cipher "however complicated" - that the Zodiac Killer would dish out the mother of all ciphers. A cipher so devilishly fiendish, we would still be sweating over it 50 years later. The Zodiac Killer, knowing this would be expected of him, did completely the opposite and created a cipher on November 8th 1969 so unbelievably easy, that it still slipped through the cracks of the over-thinking mind. Not only that, but he got his idea from the wording of Edgar Allan Poe, as Marsh had hoped. 

The essay of Poe stated "Many of the cryptographs were dated in Philadelphia, and several of those which urged the subject of a bet were written by gentlemen of this city. Out of, perhaps, one hundred ciphers altogether received, there was only one which we did not immediately succeed in resolving. This one we demonstrated to be an imposition — that is to say, we fully proved it a jargon of random characters, having no meaning whatever". The Zodiac Killer wasn't one in a hundred, more like one in several million, so he certainly wasn't going to play by the rules. He now knew that he was going to create a cipher of nonsense, but not entirely without meaning.

The Zodiac Killer studiously continued down the essay just one paragraph, until the wording triggered off the second light bulb in his head. It stated "A very common, and somewhat too obvious mode of secret correspondence, is the following. A card is interspersed, at irregular intervals, with oblong spaces, about the length of ordinary words of three syllables in a bourgeois type. Another card is made exactly coinciding. One is in possession of each party. When a letter is to be written, the key-card is placed upon the paper, and words conveying the true meaning inscribed in the spaces. The card is then removed and the blanks filled up, so as to make out a signification different from the real one. When the person addressed receives the cipher, he has merely to apply to it his own card, when the superfluous words are concealed, and the significant ones alone appear. The chief objection to this cryptograph is the difficulty of so filling the blanks as not to give a forced appearance to the sentences. Differences, also, in the handwriting, between the words written in the spaces, and those inscribed upon removal of the card, will always be detected by a close observer".

Or, the card is punched with 13 holes, which when placed in true 'Dick Tracy' style over the 340 cipher, reveals the skeletonized version of Paradice and Slaves bisecting the cipher, 17 by 17 in cruciform. The rest of the 340 cipher filled with random noise, but fashioned in such a way to give the appearance of design, by forming the tell-tale signs of a real cipher. The Zodiac Killer even had the brazen cheek to correct one character of nothing, thereby feeding the false notion of a cipher he was conscientiously trying to get right. He even had the time to sign his work of art on the bottom line of his masterpiece. A work of art, but a work of fiction, that has been believed as credible for longer than Robert Graysmith. 

Several paragraphs later, and in order, the Zodiac Killer arrived at the Marsh trigger. Remember the challenge laid down by the eminent cryptographer: "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, which will truly and honestly include his name". This challenge is whirring around Zodiac's brain when he observes the piece of text in Poe's essay that mimics the challenge of Marsh. The text reads "This challenge has elicited but a single response, which is embraced in the following letter. The only quarrel we have with the epistle, is that its writer has declined giving us his name in full. We beg that he will take an early opportunity of doing this, and thus relieve us of the chance of that suspicion which was attached to the cryptography of the weekly journal above-mentioned — the suspicion of inditing ciphers to ourselves. The postmark of the letter is Stonington, Conn. S———————, CT., APRIL 21, 1841".

When we consider the challenge of Dr. D.C.B. Marsh to encourage the Zodiac Killer to give us his name in cipher form, with an encryption technique of a split alphabet presented in A Few Words on Secret Writing (shown below) - in combination with the postmark of April 21st above - then it is rather revealing that Zodiac should begin his April 20th 1970 cipher with "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you. My name is....", and form it into 13 characters beginning with A, and ending with M. The Zodiac Killer was kind of mischievous like that.

It turned out that Zodiac didn't give us his name in full in the 13 character cipher, but he did give us something. 

Before the United States entered World War I, Hearst’s sympathies lay with Germany. He used his publishing empire to gather pro-German editors and writers around him, did a deal with a German agent for newsreel footage, and used a paid agent of the German government as his newspaper correspondent for German matters. But once the United States declared war on Germany, Hearst could no longer maintain this stance, so he took up a new one. With American flags decorating his newspapers’ masthead, he declared that the freshly belligerent Americans should tender no aid to the Allies also fighting Germany: “Keep every dollar and every man and every weapon and all our supplies and stores AT HOME, for the defense of our own land, our own people, our own freedom, until that defense has been made ABSOLUTELY secure. After that we can think of other nations’ troubles. But till then, America first".

With “AMERICA FIRST” at the center of his newspaper masthead, emblazoned above a stylized eagle clutching a ribbon reading, “AN AMERICAN PAPER FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE", Hearst promoted the virtues of Nazism, whose “great achievement”—and a lesson to all “liberty-loving people”—was the defeat of communism. Hearst now saw communism everywhere—not only in the Roosevelt administration, but among college professors “teaching alien doctrines” and among striking union workers in San Francisco, against whom Hearst’s papers encouraged vigilante violence. In July 1934, during the San Francisco general strike, mobs broke the windows of residents in tradesmen’s neighborhoods, threatened them with violence, and told them to move; “police,” The New York Times daily reported, “said that not all the victims were radicals.”For his part, Hearst responded appreciatively: “Thank God the patriotic citizens of California have shown us the way". Eric Rauchway, writing for The Atlantic

Unsurprising then, that this drew ire from some American citizens, when they wrote to the authorities accusing William Randolph Hearst of being part of the fifth column. Here are some anonymous examples from a single author in the early 1940s, addressing the District Attorney in Los Angeles with a signature of "A Citizen" and "An anxious Citizen", with respect to their concerns as an American patriot. The anonymous letters would include newspaper clippings regarding the statements of William Randolph Hearst in his newspapers.

The competition between the Chronicle and Examiner took a financial toll on both papers until the summer of 1965, when a merger of sorts created a Joint Operating Agreement under which the Chronicle became the city's sole morning daily while the Examiner changed to afternoon publication. The two newspapers produced a joint Sunday edition, with the Examiner publishing the news sections and the Sunday magazine and the Chronicle responsible for the tabloid entertainment section and the book review. From 1965 on the two papers shared a single classified-advertising operation. This arrangement stayed in place until the Hearst Corporation took full control of the Chronicle in 2000.

Postmarked May 8th 1974, the San Francisco Chronicle received a card berating them for the running of advertisements for the 1973 movie Badlands movie, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. This doesn't seem particularly out of the ordinary, until we consider the rancour between William Randolph Hearst and Orson Welles, during which Hearst demanded that his newspapers stop running advertisements for the 1941 Citizen Kane film. Here is a small extract from the Telegraph under the title 'Citizen Kane 'feud' between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst thaws after 70 years'. It states "When Welles' masterpiece was released in 1941 Hearst, who was the partial inspiration for the movie, was incensed and banned his newspapers from reviewing or even mentioning it". Therefore, it must be an amazing coincidence that the Citizen card called for "cutting the ads" before signing off with "A citizen". Not to mention that the release date in Los Angeles, California for the movie Citizen Kane was May 8th 1941 - the exact date this correspondence was postmarked, on May 8th 1974.   

Two authors, separated by over three decades, expressing their concern for "public sensibilities" with respect to William Randolph Hearst and his newspaper coverage of disturbing content. Bearing in mind the Chronicle and Examiner ran a single classified-advertising operation, it wasn't unusual for the author of the May 8th 1974 communication to be addressing the Hearst family through the San Francisco Chronicle, whose reach was far greater. Both authors expressing consternation regarding the activities of William Randolph Hearst and his coverage of the World War and the Badlands movie. Just off the back of the Symbionese Liberation Army letter to the San Francisco Chronicle on February 3rd 1974, three months earlier.

The Symbionese Liberation Army had typed a similar letter to the one in the 1940s, when they addressed the Hearst family on February 10th 1974, again berating William Randolph Hearst for his commentary on another American war. The letter read

Hearst Family, 
(Second Commandment: "For I the Lord as a jealous God and visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation). No, we are not religious nuts, but we hate you for your father's part in starting the Spanish-American War, and also for his later, cheap liason with the trollop Marion Davies." Our male ancestors were killed in your father's war and their wives were left with pensions of $25 to $50 a month for life. We wonder how you can hold up your heads in decent society, and why your contemporaries can stomach your presence. Our once proud families were destroyed by your father's war.....which he started to boost his circulation. HERE IS WHAT WE DEMAND; Before we release your daughter Patricia, you must show proper humility by acknowledging the guilt of William Randolph Hearst (in regard to starting yellow journalism and instigating the Spanish-American War. You must publicly beg the forgiveness of your country. This must be done on ALL media and must be expressed in terms of abject humility. When we are convinced you are showing abject humility for the sins of your father and his papers, we will release Patricia, whose only sin is that she carries the genes of William Randolph Hearst. The SLA.

This letter bisected the SLA letter (February 3rd) and Citizen card (May 8th), with all three likely mailed by the Symbionese Liberation Army - and all three directly or indirectly referring to the Hearst family. The SLA letter, postmarked the day before the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst, referenced the Old Norse word of "kill" and signed off with the equally respectful "a friend". Then came the July 8th 1974 Red Phantom letter to the San Francisco Chronicle, again expressing consternation, but this time aimed at Count Marco, requesting the cancellation of his newspaper column, much like the retraction desired in the Citizen card. The author wrote "Since the Count can write anonymously, so can I - the Red Phantom". When we consider that the author of the Citizen card was referring to a 1941 feud between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst and the SLA letter was postmarked the day the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst, it wouldn't be too surprising if the pseudonym "Red Phantom" was another subtle dig at William Randolph Hearst through the newspapers. "Hearst promoted the virtues of Nazism, whose “great achievement”—and a lesson to all “liberty-loving people”—was the defeat of communism. Hearst saw communism everywhere". Was this another "Red Phantom" lurking in the shadows?   

Threatening letters to the newspapers, police and celebrities are not uncommon (so cannot all be attributed to the Zodiac Killer), but in the interest of impartiality we will look at as many as possible and consider if any link exists to the Bay Area murderer or other suspected Zodiac material.

The following communication (postmark address unknown) was dated by its author as January 19th 1974, but was received by Sammy Davis, JR on the same day the Exorcist letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle, on January 29th 1974. It was received at Harrah's Reno Hotel & Casino, Reno, Nevada, situated 20 miles north of Lake Tahoe and Incline Village. It contained several interesting items accompanied by the signed pseudonyms "The General" and "Der Führer". Part of the letter "From: U.S. Armed Forces To: Sammy David, JR", stated "You are on a death list. The police cannot help you. If you wish to stay alive, go to the L.A. (SFV) Nike Missile Base for instructions. The General".

The Zodiac Killer, or somebody purporting to be the Zodiac Killer, sent a "death list" of 30 politicians and celebrities on June 8th 1977, dubbed the "Steve McQueen" letter. Then on May 2nd 1978, another letter with a "death list" was mailed in Los Angeles to 5615 Melrose Avenue and the Channel 9 KHJ-TV Studios. The envelope postmarked May 2nd 1978 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. However, there are many things that came with the "Der Fuhrer" letter that parallel the May 2nd 1978 Channel 9 letter. 

There are many parts to the January 19th 1974 letter, but the "death list" introduction was written on the reverse side of a billing invoice dated October 31st 1971, from the Monterrey Pharmacy, 12901 Riverside Drive, Sherman Oaks, California. Irrespective of this being the date Cheri Jo Bates' body was found in Riverside, the Monterrey Pharmacy was just 7 miles (by crow) from the Channel 9 Studios at 5515 Melrose Avenue. Another part of the January 19th 1974 letter had a small card enclosed, bearing the name "Institute for Family Neurosis Research". The flip side of the card bore the handprinting "KGIL, (213) 894-9191". This was a radio station in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles. KGIL began broadcasting on October 19th 1947, on 1260 kHz with 1,000 watts of power full-time. The station was licensed to San Fernando Valley Broadcasting Company, with studios and executive offices at 4919 Van Nuys Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, California. This location was 9 miles from the Channel 9 Studios at 5515 Melrose Avenue.      

Another item in the January 19th 1974 letter was an extensive list of well-known individuals and accusations on a memographed sheet dated December 4th 1973. This was signed with the pseudonym "Der Führer". Two individuals mentioned on the list could be connected to the Channel 9 letter, which included "Ex Chief piggy Ed Davis" and "Susan Atkins" (see right). 

The "Der Führer" section stated "Police Chief Ed Davis and City Atty, Burt Pines managed the poisoning of Marv Gray....Pres". Later in the ramblings it mentioned the murder victim Sharon Tate, killed by the Manson family and Susan Atkins, which also featured heavily on the Channel 9 envelope and in the letter. Sharon Tate was murdered at 10050 Cielo Drive, a former luxury home in Benedict Canyon, in the west-central part of the Beverly Crest neighborhood of Los Angeles, bordering Beverly Hills. This location was just 5 miles from the Monterrey Pharmacy and KGIL radio station.

Therefore, did we have an individual mailing the January 19th 1974 and May 2nd 1978 letters from the region of Los Angeles, with a passing interest in the Monterrey Pharmacy, KGIL radio station, Channel 9 KHJ-TV Studios and the Manson family murders at Cielo Drive, all located within a 9-mile circumference of one another. And of course, both letters mentioned or carried a "death list".  

Another threatening letter to a famous personality, was postmarked December 5th 1973 from California and mailed to Colonel Harland D. Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kentucky. It bore the return address of Central News - Wave Publications, 1016 West Vernon Avenue, Los Angeles, California. It was another typewritten letter, dated December 4th 1973, exactly the same date attributed to the "Der Führer" letter above, thereby indicating it was almost certainly mailed by the same individual. It was accompanied by a handwritten note bearing the letterhead "United Paper & Press, 13240 Riverside Drive, Sherman Oaks, California", dated January 14th 1974, and signed "The General" once again. The return address on the typed letter of 1016 West Vernon Avenue, Los Angeles, bisects Sherman Oaks and Anaheim (postmark on the Channel 9 letter).

United Paper & Press at 13240 Riverside Drive, Sherman Oaks, California is just 702 meters from the Monterrey Pharmacy at 12901 Riverside Drive, Sherman Oaks (from the Sammy Davis, JR letter insert). Both inserts from Sherman Oaks (Monterrey Pharmacy and United Paper & Press) were from U.S. Armed Forces. This one too carried a similar ominous message: "This is to inform you that you are in grave danger of being murdered. For details go to any recruiting station and call the Los Angeles Nike Missile Base. The General". 

We can now add United Paper & Press at 13240 Riverside Drive, to the Monterrey Pharmacy, KGIL radio station, Channel 9 KHJ-TV Studios and the Manson family murders at Cielo Drive, totaling 5 locations within a 9-mile circumference - along with Police Chief Ed Davis, Sharon Tate, Susan Atkins and the 1234567 A.G.C.G.T.H. (All Good Children Go To Heaven) additions.

Darron Glass (10) was last seen at approximately 4:00 pm on September 14th 1980, having left the house at 2289 Memorial Drive SE, Atlanta, Georgia, where he lived with his foster mother Fannie Mae Smith. Shortly after Darron had left the house she received an emergency phone call from a person claiming to be Darron, who abruptly hung up before she could speak. Young Darron Glass has never been seen or heard from again. His case was considered part of the Atlanta child murders, in which Wayne Bertram Williams was attributed responsibility for 18 child victims. He was additionally found guilty for the murder of two adult victims, Jimmy Ray Payne and Nathaniel Cater. 

On March 2nd 1981, a business reply envelope postmarked Cleveland, OH, was mailed with the message "Please stop forced bussing or I will kill 3 more black boys in Atlanta in March". It is believed that the author was also responsible for the letter mailed six days later.

The Zodiac Killer, or somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, would mail a communication on March 8th 1981 to the television station WXIA-TV "11 Alive" at 1611 West Peachtree Street, 30308, insinuating it was he that was killing all these "little people". The author stated:

Hello its me. Haven't you people figured out who is killing these little people yet. I'll give you a hint, I used to be in San Francisco. I used to stalk women, but I like to kill children now. At all my victims bodies I have left certain clues, but I guess it's too much for you Rebels to handle. So I guess I'll have to tell you. I'll (to) kill children because they are so easy to "pick off: Buy the way, if you still have letters from the other murders, I am not writing in the same hand writing. 

On March 18th 1981, a letter addressed to the "Editor of the Washington Post" was received (but postmarked February 17th from Prince George's County, Maryland), claiming to have information on the Atlanta killings, and requested that the editor place an advertisement in the newspaper stating "Daniel Please Call Home", after which, the writer would initiate further contact with the editor of the Washington Post. Three communications in close succession that may be from the same author, or quite possibly the Zodiac Killer. The message "Daniel Please Call Home" appears to be an appeal for a male to make contact. If the named person in the communication is a missing person, then the request is either an innocent appeal, or a sinister taunting. If the author claimed to have information on the Atlanta killings, yet didn't initiate later contact with the editor of the Washington Post, one could assume malintent.

Darron Glass is the only child listed in the victims of Wayne Williams whose remains have never been found - so is effectively still missing. The newspaper clipping on the right is from the Indianapolis Star on November 29th 1980, stating: Darron Glass, one of four missing black children who have been the subject of widespread searches here, may have tried to contact his foster family recently, police said Friday. "We are investigating someone calling the foster parents and hanging up", said Atlanta Public Safety Commissioner Lee Brown. 

Bearing in mind the suspicious phone calls regarding Darron Glass and the headline in the newspaper of "Child may have tried to call home", it puts a new light on the trinity of potential Zodiac communications above - particularly the last one. The March 18th 1981 letter to the "Editor of the Washington Post" requested an advertisement be placed in the newspaper, stating "Daniel Please Call Home". Because the author of this letter mentioned the Atlanta killings, it is my contention the message should have read "Darron Please Call Home". 

If the person who contacted the Washington Post by letter was just a helpful citizen, did he accidentally get the name incorrect, using "Daniel" instead of "Darron". Or was this person responsible for the other two letters on March 2nd and March 8th, thereby giving a sinister and mischievous element to the March 18th 1981 appeal.

When we consider that the author of the March 18th 1981 letter claimed he had information pertinent to the Atlanta murders, and place this alongside Darron Glass, the missing boy from Atlanta, it isn't too difficult to reach the conclusion of a message that should have read "Darron Please Call Home". When you add in the newspaper headline on the right and the sinister phone calls, then a whole new line of investigation opens up in the case of the missing Darron Glass.  

In two recent articles [1] [2] we have been attempting to find potential Zodiac Killer communications along the route of California, Texas, Atlanta, Washington and New York, thereby bridging the gap between the March 8th 1981 "Zodiac" Atlanta letter, implying he was killing children, and the Santa Claus card mailed to the family of missing Joan Webster, on or shortly after January 20th 1982.

On March 2nd 1981, a business reply envelope postmarked Cleveland, OH, bearing the press printed address "The Danbury Mint, Richards Avenue, P.O. Box 5260, Norwalk, Conn" was mailed with the message: "Please stop forced bussing or I will kill 3 more black boys in Atlanta in March". On March 18th 1981, the Washington Post received a letter addressed to "Editor of the Washington Post" and claiming to have information on the Atlanta killings, requesting that the editor place an advertisement in the newspaper, stating "Daniel Please Call Home". In the Santa Claus card, mailed circa January 20th 1982, the author typed "Please, where can I write you,?" Three ominous/cryptic brief messages, all containing the polite request of "Please", either in the first or second word of the message.

Below is a further communication, postmarked Williamsport PA 177 PM 23 APR 1981, bearing a pre-printed address. The accompanying handwritten note began "You shall die I'm going to..." The postage-paid envelope was used by a company to distribute literature to its prospective customers. The distribution was made from the New York office of the company because it was printed in red ink. The company retained a list of individuals who received such an envelope, however, no suspects have been formally identified in the matter. The name "Bobby Doe" had been added over the erased return address on the face of the envelope, while the reverse side of the envelope carried a threat to President Ronald Reagan. This communication was reminiscent of the threat to kill Jimmy Carter in a suspected Zodiac letter postmarked June 8th 1977, and "You shall die I'm going to..." similar to the beginning of the October 17th 1970 card, stating "The Zodiac is going to". I am unsure whether the crosshairs on the second page below were sourced from the original letter, but a curious addition nonetheless, bearing in mind the two Zodiac crosshairs added to the March 8th 1981 Atlanta letter, one of which was present on the envelope.    

Williamsport, Pennsylvania is approximately 160 miles from New York and Washington, which featured regarding the "Daniel Please Call Home" letter and the Santa Claus card. The analysis of the letter determined that the author was probably a male, aged between 10 and 15 years. However, it is specified that the linguistic method employed is not considered a positive means of identification. Was it the scrawling childlike writing of the Zodiac Killer, akin to the scribbled Bates letters, or indeed an extremely youthful impersonator? 

Joan Lucinda Webster, a 25-year-old Harvard graduate, disappeared after her arrival at Boston's Logan International Airport on 28th November 1981, with her remains identified nearly nine years later on April 30th 1990 in Hamilton, Massachusetts. The envelope and card (shown below) were likely mailed to the parents of the missing woman on, or shortly after January 20th 1982 (because the postmark is missing the date). See previous article The Santa Claus Card.

If the Zodiac Killer had travelled from Los Angeles to Texas by car, either in late 1980 or January 1981, he could have travelled through Texas and picked up the Better Life Journal envelope after a moderate stay. His next port of call in the early months of 1981 would have been Atlanta, Georgia, where he claimed in a letter that he had now killed children and was targeting more.
Not everybody believed that 23-year-old Wayne Bertram Williams was responsible for the totality of the Atlanta Child Murders.
The letter, purportedly written by the Zodiac Killer, was postmarked Atlanta, Georgia and mailed to the television station WXIA-TV "11 Alive" at 1611 West Peachtree Street, 30308 on March 8th 1981.

In accompaniment to the Atlanta letter, the author wrote another short note stating "Please stop forced bussing or I will kill 3 more black boys in Atlanta in March". This was a business reply envelope postmarked Cleveland, OH, March 2nd 1981, bearing the press printed address "The Danbury Mint, Richards Avenue, P.O. Box 5260, Norwalk, Conn". Shortly before these letters (or after, depending on how you interpret the files), an anonymous communication postmarked Prince George's County, Maryland, February 17th 1981, addressed to "Editor of the Washington Post" and claiming to have information on the Atlanta killings, demanded that the editor place an advertisement in the newspaper stating "Daniel Please Call Home", after which the writer would initiate further contact with the editor of the Washington Post. At approximately 2:30 pm on the same date, March 18th 1981, the Washington Field Office contacted (redacted) and he advised that he and his newspaper would cooperate fully and place the "Daniel Please Call Home" advertisement in the March 19th 1981 edition. If the Zodiac Killer was in Cleveland or Maryland, was he going to initiate further contact with the editor of the Washington Post when he arrived in Washington - once he had finished his promise of murdering three more kids in Atlanta in March. 

Did the Zodiac Killer commute between Atlanta, Cleveland and Maryland, before continuing eastwards toward New York. The question is, who is Daniel and did the Zodiac Killer initiate further contact with the Washington Post during his stop in Washington? Was the author insinuating his involvement in another missing person case? When the Zodiac Killer arrived in New York, he acquired the Santa Claus card in the latter months of 1981 (during the approach to the festive period). The card carried the return address of 654 Grand View Avenue, Ridgewood, New York. This New York Santa Claus card was soon to be placed inside the Better Life Journal Texas envelope 

Los Angeles to Atlanta is a virtual straight line across the country, through Texas. U.S. Route 20 or U.S. Highway 20 is an east–west United States highway that stretches from the Pacific Northwest all the way to New England. Once the Zodiac had collected the Santa Claus card in New York, did he continue north-east to Massachusetts (Boston's Logan International Airport) where he abducted and murdered Joan Webster? Then, a month later, on January 21st 1982 (or thereabouts) he used both envelope and card he picked up on his travels, mailing them in unison to the Webster family at Glen Ridge, New Jersey. The Zodiac Killer may have had nothing to do with Joan Webster's abduction and murder, but the Atlanta letter does place him on that trajectory 9 months prior to her disappearance, presuming any, or all of these communications have anything to do with the Bay Area murderer.

Joan Lucinda Webster, a 25-year-old Harvard graduate, disappeared after her arrival at Boston's Logan International Airport on 28th November 1981, with her remains identified nearly nine years later on April 30th 1990 in Hamilton, Massachusetts. The cause of her death remains undetermined and nobody has been charged with her presumed abduction and murder. The case is constantly kept alive by determined individuals keen for a resolution to this thirty-nine year old murder mystery - and is covered extensively on the Joan Webster Murder site. 

Joan Webster's parents made a heartfelt appeal for any information pertaining to their missing daughter, which was broadcast throughout New England on Christmas Day of 1981, less than a month after her disappearance. On January 18th 1982, a $10,000 reward was offered by George Webster's employer, International Telephone and Telegraph Inc, for any pertinent information regarding the disappearance and present whereabouts of the young Harvard graduate. 

Gareth Sewell Penn, by some considered a Zodiac Killer suspect, contacted George and Eleanor Webster suggesting that the missing woman may have been the work of the Zodiac Killer. He was convinced that a Santa Claus greeting card was fashioned by the Bay Area murderer, likening it to the November 29th 1966 Confession letter by use of Morse and binary code, along with a whole host of mathematical trickery in a vain attempt to forge a link. However, he was able to receive photocopies of the Santa Claus card and envelope, to which he refers to in a communication retrieved from the FBI files, shown below. 

I have taken four clippings of the communication, which include the Santa Claus greeting card (front and back) and the envelope (front and back) that contained it. The original size and quality of the photocopies were poor, so I have enhanced and resized them for greater clarity. Next to the return address on the envelope (from Better Life Journal) was a newspaper cutting wrapped around the envelope from front to back. The newspaper cutting was in respect to the missing woman, with the only visible section on the front reading "Offer 10G reward for missing coed". The envelope was addressed "Deliver to ::: Joan Webster./Familie Glen Ridge NJ." The $10,000 reward was offered on behalf of the family on January 18th 1982, with the above typed Gareth Penn communication dated April 5th 1982, so it's clearly evident that the Santa Claus greeting card was mailed between these dates. The envelope carried 4 X 5c George Washington stamps, the correct postage for 1982.

The postmark does not give away its mailing date, but the family made a 1981 Christmas day appeal, followed up by a $10,000 reward on January 18th 1982, in all likelihood, making the deliberately chosen Santa Claus greeting card to be mailed on or shortly after January 20th 1982. That is because I have identified the newspaper cutting from this date, reporting that the family "offer 10G reward for missing coed". I can see no connection to the Riverside murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, but if I was attempting to forge a link between this greeting card and the Zodiac Killer case, I would start by comparing it to the Christmas card mailed in 1974 to the sister of missing nurse Donna Lass. The 1974 card was addressed to Mary Pilker, a family member of the missing Donna Lass, much the same as the Santa Claus card was mailed to the family of missing Joan Webster. Both women were 25 years of age, and both were still missing when the respective greetings cards were mailed. The 1974 Christmas card contained the cryptic message "Best Wishes, St Donna & Guardian of the Pines", while the 1982 Santa Claus card held the equally cryptic, but typed "Please, where can I write you, ?. SC".

THE SANTA CLAUS CARD (PART 2)
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Recently I have examined a connection between the 1969 and 1987 Vallejo Times-Herald envelopes not only through handwriting, but through design. We know of only three communications to the Vallejo Times-Herald, mailed on July 31st 1969, October 28th 1987 and September 25th 1990. There is a strong possibility that the Bay Area murderer mailed all three. I am sure he was a killer who meticulously kept all the newspaper cuttings written about him over the years and drew inspiration from them when he mailed his latter communications, dropping in subtle clues beyond the capability of the casual hoaxer. 

If we take a look at the three July 31st 1969 letters, you will notice that the communication addressed to the San Francisco Chronicle contained the word "cipher" spelled correctly five times. To the San Francisco Examiner the word "cipher" was spelled correctly three times. In the Vallejo Times-Herald he spelled the word "cipher" correctly once, while spelling it incorrectly on the only other occasion, depositing the letter "Y" into the word (cyipher). The author of the postcard mailed on September 25th 1990 from Oakland, addressed the card as the Celebrity Cypher to the Vallejo Times Herold Vallejo CA. The 1969, 1987 and 1990 communications all used the full address of the newspaper, despite the publicly known July 31st 1969 letters to the Chronicle and Examiner only using the title of Vallejo Times.

But more crucially, both the communications on July 31st 1969 and September 25th 1990 addressed the Vallejo Times-Herald as "Herold", switching the "A" for an "O". I have contacted the editor of the Vallejo Times-Herald for a clearer image of the October 28th 1987 envelope and he promised to have a look in the files. Not only would we be able to view the handwriting in greater clarity, but we would find out if he addressed the envelope "Herold" for a third time. If he did, then the Bay Area murderer would have mailed only three communication to the Vallejo Times-Herald (that we know of), and all would have contained the misspelling of "Herald" to "Herold".

Below is an FBI file from November 8th 1973 carrying the name of Leslie B. Lundblad, analyzing some handwriting in respect to the Vallejo Times-Herald envelope, the Debut of Zodiac letter and the Little List letter. It is accompanied by two excerpts from the Zodiac Killer FBI files (Part One). All three FBI documents feature the address used on the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope. All three show that it was addressed to the Vallejo Times Herold, just like the 1990 Celebrity Cypher. What is the betting on the October 28th 1987 envelope containing the word "Herold" as well? Could a casual copycat just keep getting so many things correct, despite having no access to any of the preceding Zodiac envelopes - or is it more likely that the Zodiac Killer was more nuanced than we give him credit for.

I have found a little bit more information on the April 22nd 1986 murders of Laotian couple Koy Ien Saechao (48) and Choy Fow Saelee (40), who were gunned down by 15 rounds of small caliber fire on Highway 99, near downtown Sacramento. They were traveling back from a Merced County hospital, likely in the dark, early hours of Tuesday, when they were either ushered to the side of the freeway by a trailing motorist, or happened upon as they were parked up in their 4-door, light-blue 1983 Mercury. They had been mercilessly struck by a fusillade of shots through the driver side window of their vehicle and discovered upright in their seats by a person described as a "hitchhiker" in the Sacramento Bee and Santa Cruz Sentinel newspapers. He described finding the couple shortly after sunrise, at 6:30 am. Therefore, it is extremely likely the couple were murdered sometime during the early hours of April 22nd 1986. This crime bears the hallmarks of both the questioned Kathleen Johns abduction and the attack at Blue Rock Springs on July 4th 1969.

In two newspaper reports, the "hitchhiker" is described as notifying an East Nicolaus Highway Patrol officer of, what he described as an accident. There are further newspaper reports stating that the "hitchhiker" informed authorities in Marysville, Yuba County. However, we are led to believe this "hitchhiker" was never traced. These two accounts of a "hitchhiker" reporting the couple dead in their vehicle to an East Nicolaus officer and to authorities in Marysville, California, appears to suggest that this person was just a concerned citizen traveling from, or through Sacramento to Marysville on a direct route from south to north. The notion of a nefarious criminal (or Zodiac Killer) twice playing games with officialdom, appears the less likely narrative regarding the murders of  Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee.          

Assuming the "hitchhiker" reported his discovery of the couple at the 316 6th St, Marysville Police Department, then he would have reported their demise just 1.5 miles from their residence in Dorman Avenue, Yuba City. Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee would have been only 40 minutes from home.

The distance between the crime scene and East Nicolaus is approximately 22 miles. Had the "hitchhiker" continued north to Marysville Police Department, this would have been a further 15 miles. It appears that this person was just a helpful citizen, notifying authorities of his tragic discovery, rather than a Zodiac Killer playing "cat and mouse" games with the police. However, the newspaper reports may have been the inspiration behind the author of the May 6th 1986 "Zodiac" letter, claiming "The Blue Meannies almost caught me". This may exempt the "hitchhiker" being responsible for the crime, but doesn't necessarily preclude the Zodiac Killer being the orchestrator behind the double murder of the Laotian couple.

One can only speculate with such scant material on this case, that Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee had likely traveled back from the Merced County Hospital in the early hours of Tuesday, April 22nd 1986 after visiting their son, because he may have been receiving specialist care. Hence the 155 mile (2 1/2 hour) journey from Dorman Avenue to the Merced hospital. It would have been fairly dark on their return journey along Highway 99, when the killer struck. The exact time of their departure from the Merced hospital and time of their murder has not yet been nailed down, but it appears to be have been sometime before sunrise on Tuesday morning.

We have to weigh up the probability of the couple opting to take a rest by the side of Highway 99 just 40 minutes from home, with the likelihood they were flagged down by a trailing motorist, akin to the ruse supposedly orchestrated on Kathleen Johns near Modesto in 1970. This, allied to the style of the attack at Blue Rock Springs Park on July 4th 1969, is enough to pause for thought. Exactly two weeks after their murders, a letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle offices on May 6th 1986 claiming responsibilty for the crime, stating "I want you to know about my latest slaves I collected about two weeks ago up by Sacramento. They were killed by a freeway". 

This letter has been unequivocally linked to the author of the October 28th 1987 letter, which has been equally linked to the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald letter, detailing the murders at Blue Rock Springs Park and Lake Herman Road in Vallejo and Benicia respectively. This indicates that the origin of the 1986 "Freeway" letter lies squarely at the hands of the Zodiac Killer. Whether he was the actual murderer of Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee is an entirely different matter. But the crime itself, bearing in mind the limited publicity it received, appeared rather a fortuitous discovery by the Zodiac Killer had he not been present on Highway 99 in the early morning hours of April 22nd 1986.