Rolland Taft was sentenced to 6 months to 20 years for the attempted murder of a young female student on the Riverside College campus in April 1965. She attended evening classes as a student of the college. Taft served 2 1/2 years and was released in 1968. The female victim suffered severe knife wounds in the attack but was able to escape and seek help from her neighbors. On April 17th 1965 The Press-Enterprise ran an article about the attempted murder, running with the headline Clean-Cut Youth Sought in Stabbing. This headline is extremely reminiscent of how the poem on the Riverside Desktop Poem began, with "clean" and "cut" used in each instance. So was the author of the Riverside Desktop Poem familiar with this crime, causing him to reminisce about it as he constructed the poem on the plywood desk?

If the author of the Desktop Poem was referring to this attempted murder, then he was clearly of the opinion that the young girl was stabbed while wearing a new red dress. The poem read "blood, spurting, dripping, spilling; all over her new dress. Oh well, it was red anyway".  The author was referring to past events, fully aware that she didn't die after the attack because someone found her bleeding outside their house and sought help.

Cragle, a regular poster on both forums, is attempting to locate some historic newspaper articles describing the attempted murder in the hope there is mention of the girl's attire that evening. If no newspaper articles or media coverage mentioned her new red dress, it may suggest that the author of the Desktop Poem knew Rolland Taft and the details surrounding the attack - or he knew the young victim and knew first-hand what she was wearing on that fateful evening in 1965. This could indicate that he attended the Riverside City College as a fellow student, with access to the plywood desk in order to write the poem. The most crucial aspect of the poem is the final section, which carries the foreboding message of "She won't die. This time someone'll find her. Just wait till next time. rh". In other words, this girl didn't die by knife, but the next girl will. The author may have written this poem prior to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, with the rh at the foot of the poem a place and time prediction  - that of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside on Halloween. The murderer of Cheri Jo Bates may have been attempting to lure her to a secondary location to kill her but her valiant struggle against her attacker may have thwarted his plans and resulted in the Halloween prediction falling short by 75 minutes.

The impressionable author of the Riverside Desktop Poem could conceivably have been a student of the college, who was inspired by the attempted murder of Miss Atwood. He could also have known the young woman and studied alongside her. Wherever she had been that fateful evening on April 13th 1965, possibly wearing a brand new red dress, he may have been present. This would be the only reasonable conclusion had she been wearing a red dress and these details were not mentioned in any media coverage (and he didn't know Rolland Taft). If the author of the Desktop Poem was the author of The Confession letter, then the mention of "brush offs" in a seemingly immature typed letter, could place the person responsible for both in the age range of Miss Atwood (19) and Miss Bates (18)- and very likely somebody connected to the Riverside City College. 

I have recently discovered a documentary channel on Youtube called Bryan Bruce Documentaries, with the majority emphasis on true crime. Two excellent storytelling channels on Youtube are That Chapter and MrBallen, but this has to be a contender for the best investigatory channel of them all, taking a look at recent and historic unsolved murder cases, in addition to assessing the validity of some criminal convictions.

Bryan Bruce, born in Scotland in 1948 and now residing in New Zealand, is a documentary maker who covers a wide range of topics, including the true crime genre, which will no doubt appeal to the majority of visitors to this site. Currently he has twenty-one videos on his Youtube channel, in which fourteen are labelled True Crime Investigation. Despite a relatively low number of videos thus far, his burgeoning channel has already reached nearly 10,000 subscribers (as of writing), which is a fantastic return per video. The way Bryan Bruce examines each case is captivating viewing, using a logical, analytical and forensic approach in an attempt to unlock the mystery in each case. I would implore anybody who has a fascination with true crime and the unknown to visit his channel as soon as possible. Here is link to the videos available. Red Sky Television Videos. 

On December 3rd 2020 David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke unlocked the mystery to the 51-year-old 340 cipher, mailed by the Zodiac Killer on November 8th 1969.  The decoded message was a response to the Jim Dunbar Show in which an imposter/fraud called in to the TV show pretending to be the infamous Zodiac Killer.on October 22rd 1969. It may have also been a response to the San Francisco Chronicle article on October 23rd 1969 entitled A TV Runaround With Zodiac Calls in which "Belli told Sam he'd attempt to get a promise from District Attorney John J. Ferdon that Zodiac would be spared the gas chamber if convicted of murder". The Zodiac Killer responded in code that he was "not afraid of the gas chamber". 

The following day, the San Francisco Chronicle published another article which featured the opinions of Nancy Slover, David Slaight and Bryan Hartnell, who were the only three people credited with hearing the Zodiac's voice to date. The headline of that column read That Wasn't Zodiac, Say 3 Who Know, to which the Zodiac Killer would reply in his message in the 340 cipher by confirming "That wasn't me on the TV show". He took the newspaper headline and incorporated it into his hidden message. The Zodiac Killer was effectively rejecting the notion that the person who appeared on the Jim Dunbar Show claiming to be him was the genuine article - the caller was a fraud or imposter.

The decoded 340 ciphertext read: I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME - THAT WASN’T ME ON THE TV SHOW - WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME - I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE - SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH - I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH.

However, it didn't stop there. On February 5th 1970, the Desert Sun newspaper reported that "a man claiming to be the Zodiac killer of five persons held another on-the-air conversation today with television personality Jim Dunbar. Two police inspectors closeted themselves with Dunbar at station KGOTV immediately after the one-sided conversation, which consisted mainly of Dunbar asking questions and repealing fragments of answers". This second call was also reported in the San Francisco Chronicle on February 6th 1970, again highlighting the belief of investigators that this person was another fraud impersonating the Zodiac Killer. Just over a year later the Zodiac Killer mailed a 148 character cryptogram and letter, again encoding a contemporary message, but this time calling out Karl Francis Werner as a phony. Karl Francis Werner had just been arrested in connection with the murders of Kathie Reyne Snoozy, Debra Gaye Furlong and Kathy Bilek, two of which he had long claimed he murdered since the mailing of his November 8th 1969 Dripping Pen card and 340 cryptogram. He would also soon claim Kathy Bilek as a murder victim in the July 13th 1971 Monticello card. The Zodiac Killer was clearly upset somebody else had been arrested for the two San Jose murders on August 3rd 1969 and was responding to a San Francisco Chronicle article on April 30th 1971 entitled San Jose Student Held in Slaying of Three Girls. The newspaper article read "He was immediately advised of his rights concerning any statements he may make and legal representation to which he is entitled, the detectives said. Werner was then taken to the scenes of the crimes. Late yesterday he was undergoing questioning. The detectives would not reveal what statements, if any, he had made concerning the killings of the three girls". His response was immediate, likely firing off the following communication in early May. 

The Zodiac Killer was responding to the Paul Avery newspaper article on April 30th 1971 describing the arrest and interview of Karl Francis Werner by law enforcement, imploring investigators to "stop listening to phonys". Just like the 340 cipher, in which the Zodiac Killer used the newspaper headline banner of That Wasn't Zodiac, Say 3 Who Know to create "That wasn't me on the TV show", he would again use a newspaper headline banner in his rebuttal of Karl Francis Werner as the killer of the three girls (in particular, Snoozy & Furlong).

An imposter/fraud had called into the Jim Dunbar TV Show on October 22nd 1969, followed by a second call to the show on February 5th 1970. The San Francisco Chronicle article on the left was entitled Talk Show's Zodiac Caller Called a Phony. The article read "Homicide detectives later listened to a tape recording of the conversation and concluded that Sam was a phony. It most certainly was not Zodiac, said Inspector David Toschi".  Fast forward to May of 1971, in which Karl Francis Werner is being interviewed by investigators for three murders, including the brutal stabbings of Kathie Reyne Snoozy and Debra Gaye Furlong, to which Zodiac had previously claimed by the addition of "Aug" on his November 8th 1969 Dripping Pen card. Perceived by him, the Zodiac Killer has now had the indignity of two phone calls to the Jim Dunbar Show, where a phony has effectively claimed his crimes, followed by the arrest and interview of Karl Francis Werner in 1971, possibly being credited with crimes he had previously claimed. His response to law enforcement was "stop listening to phonys", again using a newspaper headline incorporated into the ciphertext message of his cryptogram.

At the time the Zodiac Killer mailed the 148 character cipher in 1971, the 340 cryptogram was unsolved. Yet here we have two lengthy cryptograms, both of which are incorporating in contemporary form the rejection of an imposter or phony by using the phrases "That wasn't me on the TV show" and "stop listening to phonys" - and both cryptograms incorporated the language used in two newspaper headlines.

The 340 and 148 character cryptograms are inextricably linked through a message that is contemporary in nature, both are the rejection of two people connected to his crimes (and claimed crime), and both the Dripping Pen card and 148 character cipher are indelibly linked to the murders of Kathy Reyne Snoozy and Debra Gaye Furlong who were horribly killed and mutilated on August 3rd 1969 in San Jose. The Zodiac Killer would finish his written message in May 1971 with the wording of "I will send a patch of human skin if their is some left over". This was a threat to kill another three kids, just like Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek. The nature of these three brutal stabbings (in excess of 300 knife wounds) should leave you in no doubt the meaning behind the sinister message of "I will send a patch of human skin if their is some left over".

On November 21st 1969, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer threatened a widow in San Jose, resulting in 24-hour protection given to the woman in question. The FBI file read "For the information of the Bureau and Sacramento, after a cursory analysis, officers of the San Jose, California PD, believe widow in message may be Mrs (redacted), San Jose, California. San Jose PD instituting 24 hour surveillance on Mrs (redacted)". It is fairly evident by the wording in the FBI file that the address of the woman wasn't given by the sender, hence the cautionary wording in the passage of "believed to be the widow". If this threatening letter was mailed by the Zodiac Killer, it is extremely likely he plucked this woman's name from the newspapers. Therefore, we should be looking at a recent widow, either connected to a Zodiac investigation, or independent of a Zodiac investigation, chosen because she featured in recent newspaper articles (possibly in November), that was relevant to Zodiac. Also, by choosing somebody to threaten in San Jose only thirteen days after his claim of involvement in the August 3rd 1969 San Jose murders of Kathie Snoozy & Debra Furlong, the Zodiac Killer could maintain the threat in San Jose and so bolster his involvement in that region. The following analysis will highlight one possibility for the woman in question, but not outright claim she was the widow featured in the November 21st 1969 letter. This possible connection was unearthed by the fantastic work of Cragle, a contributor to both main Zodiac forums, who trawled the newspaper articles in the run up to the mailing of this threatening letter.       

James Albert Pike (born February 14, 1913 – died September 3–7, 1969) was an American Episcopal bishop, accused heretic, iconoclast, prolific writer, and one of the first mainline, charismatic religious figures to appear regularly on television. In 1966, after they had shared a sabbatical study at Cambridge University, Pike's son, Jim Jr., fatally shot himself in a New York City hotel room. Shortly after his son's death, Pike reported experiencing poltergeist phenomena—books vanishing and reappearing, safety pins open and indicating the approximate hour of his son's death, along with half the clothes in a closet disarranged and heaped up. Pike led a public pursuit of various spiritualist and clairvoyant methods of contacting his deceased son to reconcile. In September 1967, Pike participated in a televised séance with his dead son through the medium Arthur Ford, an ordained minister in the Disciples of Christ church. Pike detailed these experiences in his book The Other Side (released on January 1st 1968). In 1968, in defiance of C. Kilmer Myers, the Bishop who'd succeeded him, he married Diane Kennedy, a Methodist student twenty-five years his junior, with whom he had collaborated on The Other Side. Wikipedia

The Other Side, detailed James Pike's attempts to contact his dead son in the afterlife, described "as a moving narrative of a father's efforts to save his son from enslavement to psychedelic drugs, a tragic story of a young and gifted man's premature death, a startling story of poltergeist occurrences that led the father and other witnesses to believe that from beyond the grave his son was trying to get in touch, and a detailed account of how this communication proceeded during a time when the father was under accusation for heresy for believing too little".

She became Diane Kennedy Pike, an American writer and educator who lived in San Jose at the time this threatening letter was mailed. She was a school teacher at Willow Glen High School in San Jose between 1962 and 1964. It has been argued on this website that the Zodiac Killer made persistent threats on school teacher Daniel Williams, by way of threatening phone calls to his residence in Martinez and subtle references in the Zodiac Killer's two previous November communications, starting on October 23rd 1969 and ending on November 9th 1969.

Having recently become a widow after the tragic death of her husband in Israel in September 1969, Diane Kennedy Pike was featured in many newspaper articles in the intervening period before the November 21st 1969 "Zodiac" letter arrived. In August 1969, Pike and Diane traveled to Israel, to do research for a proposed book on the historical Jesus. They attempted to travel to Qumran but during their journey through the Judean Desert they got stuck in a deep rut on a dirt road. After leaving the vehicle they went in search of help, with Diane ultimately separating from her older husband (who was in a serious condition). She eventually found help and a rescue party began the search. Unfortunately, it came too late for James Pike, who was found deceased five days later on September 7th 1969. By targeting this widow in San Jose (because of her history and connections), the Zodiac Killer may have thought this would secure him more front page coverage. However, this communication seemingly fell by the wayside - and as of writing - no newspaper coverage of this threat has been uncovered. The Other Side, featuring the afterlife, by the high profile authors of Diane and James Pike, along with his recent death in Israel and the publicity that surrounded it, may have been the required incentive for the Zodiac Killer to threaten this widow in San Jose on November 21st 1969. But until the FBI file is unredacted, we will never know for sure.