A clue to the identity of Cheri Jo Bates' murderer may have been present in the newspapers all along. Dennis Earl Highland (19) was the long time boyfriend of Cheri Jo Bates, but 6 weeks prior to her murder he had moved to San Francisco to attend college, where he played on the football team. Investigators ruled him out fairly quickly. On the weekend prior to her murder, Cheri Jo Bates and Dennis Highland's parents (Mr. and Mrs. George E. Highland) had traveled to San Francisco on October 22nd 1966 to visit him. This is why the statements of two friends of Cheri Jo Bates are extremely noteworthy - who were interviewed and taped by a Los Angeles television station shortly after her murder. The Riverside Press newspaper, published in the evening, reported on November 1st 1966 that these two girls had spoken to Cheri Jo Bates, and that they were informed by Cheri she was going to the library "to meet her boyfriend". The interview with the two girls was therefore conducted no later than one day after her body was found alongside the Riverside City College library on October 31st 1966.

The Los Angeles television station were clearly interviewing friends of Cheri Jo Bates to acquire information on the young girl's background and her possible movements on the day she was murdered  Knowing that they were being interviewed because of the October 30th 1966 murder and discovery of her body, why would these friends of Cheri be referring to anything else different than October 30th 1966, when they stated she was going to the library "to meet her boyfriend". It appears that their recollection created some confusion with investigators, who stated "We have talked to the parents of this boy in Riverside (Dennis Highland), and they have no knowledge of his being in this city Sunday".

​The two friends of Cheri specifically said "library" when interviewed about the Sunday murder of Cheri Jo Bates near the library, so how would their recollection of Sunday, October 30th 1966 (just two days before being interviewed) be mistaken for Cheri meaning anything else? It is clear that the "boy friend" Cheri was referring to wasn't Dennis. Cheri Jo Bates certainly wasn't saying she was traveling to San Francisco to meet her boyfriend on October 30th 1966, because she wasn't. And San Francisco has no relevance to the word "library". If Cheri Jo Bates had informed these two girls she was going to the library "to meet her boyfriend", she very likely meant "boy friend" as a male acquaintance or friend of the opposite sex. It is not realistic that the two friends of Cheri would confuse Sunday, October 30th 1966 with any other date. And certainly not the Sunday on October 23rd 1966, which had no relevance to why they were being interviewed. If these two girls were not lying (and why would both of them do so), then Cheri Jo Bates was going to the library to meet a male friend on October 30th 1966 (which wouldn't have been Dennis because he was in San Francisco). The police stated "There must be persons who talked to the girl or had contact with her Sunday afternoon or night, and we would like very much to talk to such persons".  

We know that initially Cheri Jo Bates wanted to do some studying in the library, because she had phoned her friend Stephanie Guttman at 3:45 pm and invited her to accompany her to the Riverside City College. She wouldn't have done this if her intention was to just check out three books and immediately go home. According to Stephanie, Cheri wanted to have some company that evening. Unfortunately for Cheri, her friend Stephanie declined the offer.

​If Cheri was determined to have somebody study with her that evening, then the statement of the two girls to the Los Angeles television station that she was going to the Riverside library to meet a "boy friend", may have greater significance. When Cheri's father (Joseph Bates) tried to phone her twice at their 4195 Via San Jose resistance at approximately 5:00 pm and 5:15 pm, the line was busy on both occasions. Was Cheri Jo Bates speaking on the phone with a male acquaintance to arrange a meeting with him at the library, having been disappointed in her earlier call to Stephanie? Or had she arranged this shortly after finishing the phone call with Stephanie Guttman at 3:45 pm? There was a 2 hour 15 minute window between 3:45 pm and 6:00 pm, when the library opened its doors 

If Cheri Jo Bates had told the two girls her intentions to meet a "boy friend" at the library on Sunday, then it realistically must have occurred in this 2 hour 15 minute window. Did she speak to the girls on the phone, outside her residence or in the neighborhood, someplace on the way to the library, or on the Riverside City College grounds? The approximate time and place the two girls spoke to Cheri is absolutely crucial to the movements of Cheri Jo Bates that afternoon and evening.

Investigators stated "We don't know what boyfriend these girls are referring to, but we are checking into it". Is this one of the reasons why investigators latched onto their long-time suspect "Bob Barnett". who it is believed dated Cheri Jo Bates in the weeks prior to her murder? DNA tests in 1999 on hair found at the base of Cheri Jo Bates' right thumb produced no match to "Bob Barnett". So if it isn't "Bob Barnett", it could be another male acquaintance of Cheri's, who she arranged to meet at the library over the phone on October 30th 1966. A "boy friend" whose phone number could have been in her diary or address book. A "boy friend" who Cheri may have spent upwards of 4 hours with after she checked out the three books from the library, who hasn't come forward to this day.

If the two girls were interviewed on Tuesday, November 1st 1966, one day after the body of Cheri Jo Bates was found in the driveway by the library, then their statement of "she was going to the library to meet her boyfriend" can only be pertinent to that weekend. If Dennis Highland was proven to be in San Francisco, it should be obvious that Cheri Jo Bates was planning to meet another male at the library that evening. A male friend close enough to her, that she felt comfortable to leave the library with him to a secondary location (in absence of her vehicle) for upwards of four hours. Somebody that may have escorted her back to her Volkswagen Beetle in the dark and wanted more than she was prepared to offer. And sadly, somebody she should never have placed her trust in. The murderer of Cheri Jo Bates could be written in the pages of her address book or diary. A killer who has escaped justice for nearly 60 years.

Nin, a contributor to various Zodiac forums, years ago put forward an idea that the sender of the Eureka card in 1990 placed two photocopied keys in the communication because the inventor of electrophotography (xeroxing) was named Chester Floyd Carlson, and this was a subtle clue to the identity of Chester Clark Klingel (who lived in Eureka), and whose post office box key number was a match to one of the photocopied keys. But the question remained as to why the Zodiac Killer (if him) would choose a Groucho Marx styled Christmas card. Newspapers in late September and early October 1990 commemorated the 100th anniversary of Groucho Marx's birth, so this may have caught the eye of the Zodiac Killer, bearing in mind he appeared to plagiarize Groucho Marx's version of "The Mikado" on July 26th 1970 in his Little List letter. However, there had to more. Something else that connected Groucho Marx to the photocopied keys and Chester Floyd Carlson.

Produced by Paramount Pictures Corporation at their Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, Animal Crackers (1930) was the Marx Brothers' second feature film, following The Cocoanuts (1929). The production faced significant challenges in adapting the stage musical to early sound cinema. The studio made extensive cuts to musical numbers and restructured the original material. Director Victor Heerman was brought in specifically to manage the disruptive behavior of the Marx Brothers on set. The film was both a critical and commercial success upon its August 1930 release, earning $3.1 million worldwide and establishing several of the Marx Brothers' most famous comedic routines. The studio was originally constructed for Famous Players–Lasky in 1920 to provide the company with a facility close to the Broadway theater district. Many features and short subjects were filmed there between 1920 and 1933. W. C. Fields made his silent features there. The first Sherlock Holmes sound film, The Return of Sherlock Holmes (also 1929), was made at the studio by the British producer Basil Dean. The first two films featuring the Marx Brothers, The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930), were shot at the Astoria Studio in Queens. Its location is 35th Avenue, 35th, 36th, and 37th Streets. 

In 1938, Chester Floyd Carlson needed a convenient location to develop his electrophotography, so he rented the second floor of his mother-in-law's house on 37th Street in Astoria, Queens. On October 22nd 1938 the world's first xerographic image was produced at this location. It read 10.22.38 ASTORIA. The same location that Groucho Marx filmed The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930). The first two movies featuring the Marx Brothers were mentioned in virtually every newspaper in September/October 1990, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Groucho Marx, born on October 2nd 1890 (see below).

Therefore, we can link Chester Clark Klingel and Chester Floyd Carlson through the photocopied keys by forename, and link the first photocopied image of "Astoria" to the location of the first two films of Groucho Marx (and the Marx Brothers), whose imagery appeared on the cover of the 1990 Eureka card, where Chester Clark Klingel lived when the keys were traced. Did the Zodiac Killer read newspaper articles like the ones shown below and choose a Christmas card with Groucho Marx, not only because he had an admiration for the actor and singer through such things as "The Mikado", but because his early films were produced at Astoria, which he knew was the home of the first ever photocopied word (location) created by a man named Chester? We know with near certainty that the Zodiac Killer was extremely well read, often plundering material from the late 19th and early 20th century. However, in this instance, the apparent links created could be the perfect example of look long enough and you will always find something. It is likely that none of the above ever crossed the mind of the Eureka card sender.  

From July 31st 1969 to March 13th 1971 virtually all Zodiac communications contained the signature of the "crosshairs", placed at the foot of each correspondence only once (with the exception of the 340 cipher). The "Little List" letter, postmarked July 26th 1970 and received by the San Francisco Chronicle the following day, contained two large crosshairs and deviated from his worded letters by having this extra addition. The first crosshairs mailed to The Chronicle carried the victim total of 13 (which would normally finish a communication). If the Zodiac Killer had either sealed this envelope, or already mailed this communication, it's possible he felt the need to write a second letter which began "As some day it may hapen" from Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Mikado", with a second crosshairs signature containing the crucial phrase of "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians". In other words, the Zodiac Killer mailed two communications on (or shortly before) July 26th 1970.  

The San Francisco Chronicle on October 12th 1970 clearly stated that two letters were "sent to The Chronicle last July 27". In the San Jose Sunday Mercury newspaper they reported that "This was the new total he claimed in two letters received July 27 by the San Francisco Chronicle and kept secret until now by agreement with police while the letters' contents were analyzed. The longer of the two letters begins: "As some day it may happen that a victim must be found". Bearing in mind that these two letters were kept "secret" by investigators and the San Francisco Chronicle for 2 1/2 months, it probably isn't surprising that the Zodiac Killer chose a greeting card with the opening line "From your secret pal".​

​The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article on October 12th 1970 was entitled "Gilbert and Sullivan Clue to Zodiac", so again, the greeting card's following line of "I feel it in my bones, You ache to know my name, And so I'll clue you in" was perfectly chosen. It is fairly obvious that the Halloween card was mailed in response to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article on October 12th 1970. The Zodiac Killer even mimicked the "chalk-like writing" on the presale card to add "4-TEEN" onto the greeting card inner. The newspaper stated "And he is now claiming he has murdered 13 persons. Homicide detectives who've been hunting Zodiac for nearly two years frankly admit he is as much an enigma now as he was on Dec 20, 1968, when he chalked up his first two victims" (which were David Faraday & Betty Lou Jensen). In this period of nearly two years the Zodiac Killer only ever claimed the lives of 4 teenagers, who were David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen, Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong. Therefore, David Faraday & Betty Lou Jensen were probably included in his "chalked" 4-TEEN victim total. 

​The two large crosshairs may have ended each letter received by the San Francisco Chronicle on July 27th 1970, to begin the outside possibility we have a second envelope either lost or misplaced. However, It must be stressed that it's unlikely two letters were mailed by the Zodiac Killer when we re-evaluate the wording contained within the newspapers, which are in direct conflict with several FBI files that document a "Five page letter and envelope". But if one envelope did get misplaced, this would be the obvious conclusion.      

Although the Riverside Police Department have stymied the Cheri Jo Bates murder case through some of the actions they have undertaken in the last few decades, nobody in good faith can criticize the work done by the Riverside Police Department in the immediate aftermath of the October 30th 1966 murder. Their investigation into the 18-year-old woman's slaying was comprehensive and thorough, leaving no stone unturned. They performed a re-enactment of the day she was murdered by inviting everybody who attended the Riverside City College library that fateful evening to return on November 13th 1966, and ensured that they wore the same clothes, parked their vehicles in the same spot and sat in the same seats as previous. They took fingerprints and hair samples from everybody that attended, which amounted to over sixty people.

The Volkswagen Beetle of Cheri Jo Bates was scoured for fingerprints inside and out, which according to the Riverside Press newspaper "found eleven fingerprints and seven palm prints on Cheri's car. All but four fingerprints and three palm prints were later identified as those of Cheri, her father, brother, a girl friend and a service station attendant who worked on her car the week she was murdered".

The police checked the roofs of nearby buildings and used metal detectors up to a one block radius of the crime scene looking for the knife used to kill Cheri. Thirty-five members of a nearby fraternity building across from the library on the night she was murdered were located and questioned. The Timex watch found 10 feet from the body of Cheri Jo Bates had flecks of paint on it, which led investigators to chemically analyse the specific mineral content of the paint and compare it to individuals who had recently painted their house. They even consulted with anthropologists, trying to find the bone structure of the killer and his general appearance by analysing the width and length of the watch. The police retrieved a cigarette butt from the dirt driveway near the body, which was later tested for DNA in 1999. The driveway was also hand sifted in a radius of 12 feet around her body to a depth of 3 inches, hoping to unearth any dropped items during her fight for life. The investigation was conducted to the highest degree. 

From statements given, investigators believed Cheri Jo Bates entered the library annex shortly after it opened at 6 pm and checked out three books, which were found the following morning neatly piled on the front passenger seat of her Volkswagen Beetle. This would have indicated that Cheri had pulled out three books from the library shelves one after another. Her fingerprints should have been all over those books front and back. These books were relevant to both the library and her vehicle, and would have certainly been dusted for fingerprints.

The police couldn't have been certain that these books were not handled by the person who killed her, so based on the screams heard at approximately 10:30 pm by local people, investigators would have considered the possibility that Cheri Jo Bates may have gone to a secondary location and interacted with another person, who could have handled the books during this period and possibly carried the books back to the Volkswagen Beetle for her, just prior to the attack. The vehicle was comprehensively dusted on its exterior and interior, so any suggestion that they would have completely ignored the three books sitting on the front passenger seat of her vehicle, that were integral to her movements during the evening and night of October 30th 1966 - and overlooked as evidence - is not a realistic proposition. 

If the books had tested negative for Cheri Jo Bates' fingerprints, then Zodiac researcher Ray Grant's assertion that she was kidnapped immediately after parking her vehicle and the female member of the "Zodiac team" used her library card to check out the books, may hold some water. However, the presence of Cheri Jo Bates' fingerprints on one or all of the books, would have told investigators that she alone entered the library and checked out her own books. Three books that were relevant to what she was studying (on presidential elections and election reform). For the theory of Ray Grant to have any traction, we would have to believe that [A] Investigators didn't bother to check the books for fingerprints, or [B] Investigators tested all three books but failed to find any fingerprints of Cheri Jo Bates, despite her handling all three books individually during a period lasting several minutes up to 4 1/2 hours. The question therefore becomes; if Cheri Jo Bates removed three books from the library shelves one after another and carried them to her vehicle, how likely is it that she didn't deposit one single fingerprint on any of the books while handling them for at least a few minutes? The discovery of one single fingerprint (or palm print) from the right or left hand of Cheri Jo Bates would have confirmed to investigators her presence in the library that evening. Something they have believed to this day.

* It must be noted that the spines of each book are positioned on the left side (away from the rear of the seat), which strongly suggests they were placed here by somebody entering the driver side of the vehicle, rather than the passenger side, where the reverse would be expected. 

The Zodiac Killer often reacted to newspaper articles within his communications, such as the quotation of Merian C. Cooper that appeared in a handful of newspapers in 1932, when the associate producer of "The Most Dangerous Game" (1932) responded to the release of his latest film while being interviewed and stated "man is the most dangerous animal of all", which Zodiac incorporated into his 408 cipher on July 31st 1969. This quotation had never appeared in any newspaper from 1690 to 1969, other than a few 1932 publications.

If the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the Confession letters sent on November 29th 1966, he may have taken the phrase "it was about time for her to die" from a newspaper in 1888 (the year of Jack the Ripper), and designed the letters around the Whitechapel murderer. We also know that the Zodiac Killer referenced three acts of "The Mikado" (1885) in his communications, and certainly wasn't afraid to delve into the archives and utilize material from yesteryear. Additionally, he appeared to have derived inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) in the design of his 340 cipher and the wording contained within it.

Recently I made the suggestion of "My name is me" as the answer to the 13-Symbol cipher mailed on April 20th 1970, but couldn't help wondering if the Zodiac Killer plagiarized this quotation as well. So I typed this phrase into a newspaper search engine and got what I was looking for in a piece of literary work by Charlotte Wilson, centered on the word "name". It appeared in several newspapers in 1906, including the Chicago Daily News. If the Zodiac Killer was scanning microfiche to grab quotes such as "man is the most dangerous animal of all" (1932) and "it was about time for her to die" (1888) to incorporate into his letters, was it possible he took "My name is me" from Charlotte Wilson in 1906?

It may seem unlikely until we consider the design of the April 20th 1970 letter which was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle and featured the bombing of police officers, along with the possible solution of "My name is me", and the three 8's in the 13-Symbol code. If we throw in Vallejo (and Mare Island) where the Zodiac Killer may have lived, then Charlotte Wilson and the Haymarket massacre is central to them all. If the Zodiac Killer had scoured the newspaper archives or was historically familiar with Vallejo, he would have come across this information (as I did with just a cursory search). The numbers 888 (possibly within a clock face) was pivotal to the writings of Charlotte Wilson in 1888.

Charlotte Mary Wilson was an English Fabian and anarchist who co-founded Freedom newspaper in 1886 with Peter Kropotkin, and edited, published, and largely financed it during its first decade. She remained editor of Freedom until 1895. The current headquarters of Freedom Press is 84b Whitechapel High Street in London (127 Ossulston Street in 1898). Charlotte Mary Wilson was a prolific writer, as can be seen here in a comprehensive list of articles. She advocated heavily for the working man and union rights. 

The Haymarket affair, also known as the Haymarket massacre, the Haymarket riot, the Haymarket Square riot, or the Haymarket Incident, was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886 at Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois. The rally began peacefully in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day; it was held the day after a May 3 rally at a McCormick Harvesting Machine Company plant on the West Side of Chicago, during which two demonstrators had been killed and many demonstrators and police had been injured. At the Haymarket Square rally on May 4, an unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at the police as they acted to disperse the meeting, and the bomb blast and ensuing retaliatory gunfire by the police caused the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; dozens of others were wounded.

Charlotte Wilson wrote extensive articles about the Haymarket massacre, that included "The Chicago Anniversary" (1888), "The Chicago Martyrs" (1889), and "In Memory of Chicago" (1889) to name but a few. She wrote "The eight Anarchist Socialists picked out by the Chicago police as victims of the rage and terror inspired in the propertied classes by the growing energy of the labor movement, had absolutely nothing to do with the throwing of the bomb at the Haymarket meeting in May, 1886. The prosecution utterly failed to connect these eight men with the fatal bomb in any sense which did not equally apply to the 20,000 revolutionary Socialists of the Chicago Central Labor Union, or indeed to any active revolutionary propagandist in the world. They were simply selected as the most energetic and earnest advocates of opinions obnoxious to the ruling classes, opinions gaining ground so fast as to threaten the very existence of property and wage-slavery. These opinions were, (1) Socialism, i.e., common property of the workers in the instruments of labor; (2) Anarchism, i.e., the destruction of all arbitrary authority and the substitution of cooperation by free consent and decision by unanimity; (3) that these great social changes can only be brought about by the direct action of the workers; (4) that if the monopolists of property and upholders of authority resist the demands of the people by armed force, the people are right in defending themselves by armed force, and for this contingency they must be prepared".

Rudolph Schnaubelt, the fierce visaged anarchist who was suspected of throwing the Haymarket bomb in Chicago and for whose apprehension the police machinery of the world has been in motion since, died in 1896. The end of his long flight; and years of hiding ended in a little town in southern California. Consumption - also known as tuberculosis - finally found him out. Schnaubelt was one of the first men arrested with Lines, Spies and Schwab after the great riot in Chicago. For ten hours the police kept him in the sweat box, but his nerves stood the test and they let him go. He took immediate advantage of this and disappeared into the night. In fact, there were reports he was seen in Vallejo, California in 1895, including newspaper articles that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Eight anarchists were charged with the Haymarket bombing on police. They were convicted of conspiracy in the internationally publicized legal proceedings. The evidence put forward in the court trial was that one of the defendants may have built the bomb but none of those on trial had thrown it, and only two of the eight were at the Haymarket at the time. Seven were sentenced to death and one to a term of 15 years in prison. This anarchist bombing was the culmination of workers striking for an 8 hour working day, which grabbed the attention of Charlotte Wilson, who authored and editorialized many articles about it.  

The Haymarket affair is closely associated with the number 888, which symbolized the movement for an 8-hour workday. This number was used to represent the ideal of three 8-hour shifts: one for work, one for rest, and one for personal time ("Three Eights"rule). The affair itself involved a labor protest in Chicago on May 4th 1886, where a bomb was detonated, leading to violence and casualties. The intertwined numbers 888 had previously been placed on many union buildings around Australia. This "Eight Hour March", which began on 21 April 1856, continued each year until 1951 in Melbourne, when the conservative Victorian Trades Hall Council decided to forgo the tradition for the Moomba festival on the Labour Day weekend. In capital cities and towns across Australia, Eight Hour day marches became a regular social event each year, with early marches often restricted to those workers who had won an eight-hour day. The phrase "888" represents the concept of dividing a 24-hour day into three equal eight-hour blocks: eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest. This concept, popularized by Robert Owen in the early 19th century, is often associated with the eight-hour workday movement, which aimed to establish a more balanced and healthy work-life balance. Below is the 888 campaign in Denmark in 1912.

In essence we have Charlotte Wilson, an anarchist, who wrote extensively on the demonstration and bombing of police in Chicago in 1886, in which the numbers 888 were an integral part of the 8-hour workers rally in Haymarket Square, from where, one of the suspected bombers would disappear from and eventually be sighted in Vallejo, California. Rudolph Schnaubelt's brother, Edward (also an anarchist), worked at the United States Naval Shipyard at Mare Island. When the numbers 888, formed into a clock face in the 13-Symbol cipher, are given a right shift of eight positions, they complete the phrase of "My name is me", used by Charlotte Wilson in the above newspaper snippet from 1906 entitled "An Ancient Problem". A signature that would be later used by the Zodiac Killer in the Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974, featuring "The Mikado" (1885). The 13-Symbol cipher letter mailed on April 20th 1970 carries all of these ingredients The police, the bombing, the numbers 888, and possibly the phrase "My name is me". The common denominator being Charlotte Wilson. Or is it just one of a series of coincidences that plague the Zodiac Killer case?     

*The 8-hour workday campaign refers to the historic movement to reduce the standard working day to eight hours. The movement gained momentum in Australia, particularly with the stonemasons' strike in Melbourne on April 21, 1856, which is considered a key event in the fight for an 8-hour day. This strike, along with other worker protests, led to the eventual implementation of the eight-hour day in Australia and other parts of the world. April 21st was possibly the day the Zodiac Killer believed his cipher and letter would be published. 

When you consider the fact that a comprehensive newspaper article (see below), bearing an extremely large photograph of the Cheri Jo Bates crime scene, was released by the Press-Enterprise newspaper in Riverside on April 30th 1967 on the same day these three letters were postmarked, it is highly likely the author added this newspaper clipping into the envelope addressed to the Riverside Police Department. In this letter the author wrote "Bates had to die. There will be more". This was clearly a response to the newspaper article, which read "The last major piece of evidence came November 30 in the form of a confession letter sent to both the Riverside police department and the Press-Enterprise. The letter explained in detail how the writer allegedly tampered with Cheri's car, waited for her to return from the library and coaxed her away on the pretense of giving her a lift. The letter told of how she struggled while she was being stabbed to death and the writer said there would be more killings to come". 

The author probably added the newspaper clipping to the letter to signify the story he was responding to. The author was replying to "there would be more" by stating "there will be more". When we consider the similar phraseology, the date of April 30th 1967 being relevant to both the newspaper story and postmark date of the letters, and the large photograph attached to the press release, we can be fairly confident that the author mailed this clipping to the Riverside Police Department, who he was warning of more killings to come. What we need to fully ascertain, is what was in the newspaper article (if anything) that triggered the signature on two of the Bates letters? We know what the author was reading immediately prior to adding these two "signatures". Thanks to Cragle.

One noticeable feature of the three Cheri Jo Bates letters mailed on April 30th 1967 is the distinct lack of care or thought exhibited in creating these communications. This doesn't necessarily mean they were mailed by a different author to the two typed Confession letters sent on November 29th 1966 (that were clearly more labor intensive) - because the apparent haste shown in these letters could suggest the author was impulsively responding to something they had just read in the newspapers.

​The murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside on October 30th 1966 was now six months old, and the newspaper coverage of her brutal stabbing had sadly dwindled away. So it's clearly no coincidence that the three Bates letters on April 30th 1967 coincided with the release of a comprehensive newspaper article released by the Riverside Press-Enterprise on the same day, entitled "After Six Months Coed's Murder Remains Puzzle to Detectives". This is probably why these three letters were hastily written, and only contained eight words in each correspondence. The author may have been triggered into an immediate response by what they had read in Jack Mathews article.

The important section of text in the April 30th 1967 newspaper read "The last major piece of evidence came November 30 in the form of a confession letter sent to both the Riverside police department and the Press-Enterprise. The letter explained in detail how the writer allegedly tampered with Cheri's car, waited for her to return from the library and coaxed her away on the pretense of giving her a lift. The letter told of how she struggled while she was being stabbed to death and the writer said there would be more killings to come". Therefore, it's not difficult to contemplate somebody responding to the phrases "stabbed to death" and "there would be more" - and arriving at the wording "She had to die. There will be more" and "Bates had to die. There will be more" on the same day in three letters. The author was assuring us that the newspaper reporting of "there would be more" was to be realized by his statement of ​"there will be more". The writer was simply bringing things up to date (from the Confession letter to the Bates letters).

The Confession letter did suggest "there would be more killings to come", however, it specifically referred to the possible killings as potential victims, by stating "She is not the first and she will not be the last. I lay awake nights thinking about my next victom. Maybe she will be the beautiful blond that babysits near the little store and walks down the dark alley each evening about seven. Or maybe she will be the shapely blue eyed brunett that said xxx no when I asked her for a date in high school". 

The Press=Enterprise newspaper could easily have stated "there would be more victims to come". This may be one possible answer to the "signature" on two of the Bates letters, which "undersigns" the wording "She/Bates had to die. There will be more". If we complete the phrase, we get "She/Bates had to die. There will be more......more victims".   

On might expect that a signature (such as the pseudonym "Zodiac") would feature more prominently at the foot of these letters, rather than the small and obscure offering given. The writings at the base of these two letters are consistent in nature, suggesting that these two designs were deliberately conceived. However, they were extremely small in comparison to the rest of the lettering in these communications, which seems to detract from any importance the author placed on them. If these really were the signatures of the killer (or author), it is unusual that they would design them in such an understated manner.

If the unresolved writing at the base of two of the letters was nothing more than an afterthought, then this may explain the rather insignificant way the author finalized each letter. Could they have been 2L and 3L, denoting two parts of a trinity of letters, as mentioned by the Zodiac Killer when he wrote "Here is a cyipher or that is part of one. the other 2 parts have been mailed to the S.F. Examiner + the S.F. Chronicle" on July 31st 1969? The answer to the "signature" on the Bates letters may lie in the Press-Enterprise newspaper on April 30th 1967. 
​
​Two and a half months after the three Bates' letters were mailed promising "there will be more", a former Ramona High School classmate of Cheri Jo Bates (18) was strangled unconscious in the driveway of her home in Arlington, California, just 5 miles southwest of Terracina Drive, where Cheri was murdered in the driveway alongside the Riverside City College library. According to police the young 18-year-old woman was sexually assaulted, with Detective Wayne Durrington of the belief that her assailant lay in wait in some nearby tall bushes and attacked her shortly after she left her car at 10:30 pm when returning home from a nearby church function. After regaining consciousness, she was found screaming in a neighbor's yard and was transported to Parkview Hospital at 3865 Jackson Street in Riverside.

​Arlington is only 1.4 miles from the once 4195 Via San Jose home of Cheri Jo Bates and her father. There is little to connect the two cases, despite the common thread of Ramona High School, and a strangulation/choking in a driveway at approximately 10:30 pm in both instances. The author of the Confession letter stated "maybe she will be the shapely blue eyed brunett that said xxx no when I asked her for a date in high school" and. "dont make it to easy for me. Keep your sisters, daughters and wives off the streets and alleys. I am stalking your girls now". So the proximity of the two girls addresses is at the very least noteworthy, if both were deliberately targeted by an attacker stalking young women. Cheri Jo Bates' vehicle had seemingly been identified and disabled in advance by her killer, while in this case, on or around July 14th 1967, the assailant was apparently waiting in the bushes outside her home as she parked up in her car. It would be interesting to search for other possible attacks in the Riverside, Ramona and Arlington areas in the ensuing months and years. Two Ramona High School classmates aged 18, living approximately 1 1/2 miles apart, murdered and sexually assaulted (and both choked) within nine months of one another. It makes you wonder. 

It may be possible to track the Zodiac Killer's movements through Presidio Park on October 11th 1969 by using his wording in the "Bus Bomb" letter mailed on November 9th 1969. This communication, one month after the murder of Paul Stine in San Francisco, stated "Hey blue pig I was in the park -- you were useing fire trucks to mask the sound of your cruzeing prowl cars. The dogs never came with in 2 blocks of me + they were to the west + there was only 2 groups of barking about 10 min apart then the motor cicles went by about 150 ft away going from south to north west".

The Zodiac Killer claimed he entered the park at Spruce Street, that was earlier corroborated by a San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article on October 12th 1969, which mentioned a man matching the killer's description running into Julius Kahn playground. The Zodiac Killer by writing "the dogs never came with in 2 blocks + they were to the west", indicated that once he entered the park he walked in an easterly direction (likely taking path B in the map below). This wording is open to interpretation because he is walking in the wooded park away from Pacific Avenue - and therefore can only reasonably estimate that he is more than two blocks east of the dogs (located at Julius Kahn playground).

​Approaching the blue circle on the map, the Zodiac Killer would be in excess of two blocks from the search dogs mentioned in the October 15th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, which stated "A large contingent of police with dogs and searchlights scoured the area around Cherry Street, which includes the wooded south boundary of the Presidio and Julius Kahn playground". If the Zodiac Killer was somewhere near this location, he would have been about three blocks from the searchlights and dogs - and probably would have heard the dogs barking from the approximate location he entered the park. This was the obvious place for the police to instigate their search, based upon the eyewitness (or eyewitnesses) testimony at Spruce Street, who saw somebody running into Julius Kahn playground shortly after the murder. 

​His following statement of "the motor cicles went by about 150 ft away going from south to north west" suggested he was walking through the trees beyond the blue circle, heading towards Presidio Boulevard, where motorcycles would have been circling the park, traveling from the south to northwest (shown by the orange circle on the map). If the Zodiac Killer was watching the motorcycles from this location (and he walked at a moderate pace), the time would be about 10:15 pm (19 minutes after he left the crime scene). It was at this approximate time and location that the Zodiac Killer mentioned "there was only 2 groups of barking about 10 min apart". But what did he mean by this statement?   

The October 12th 1969 police report stated that "The military police headquarters of the Presidio of S.F. was notified and an intense search of the Julius Kahn area was made by seven dog units, other Richmond and C.P. units - to no avail". It is evident the dog units were deployed from the military police headquarters in Presidio Park - and as previously noted - a contingent of police and dogs were grouped by Julius Kahn playground. These two locations were about 11 minutes walking distance apart in Presidio Park. Therefore, a large grouping of tracker dogs assembled at both the military headquarters and Julius Kahn playground, may explain the wording adopted by the Zodiac Killer, who wrote "there was only 2 groups of barking about 10 min apart" (see below). If he was present by the orange circle on the map, he would have been capable of hearing dogs barking from the southwest and northwest. Was the information about the dogs being deployed from military headquarters available in the newspapers?    

Although Chief Martin Lee dismissed the idea that the Zodiac entered the Presidio Park, it appeared that Inspectors David Toschi and Bill Armstrong were not of the same opinion according to Robert Graysmith, who wrote "The detectives heard from neighbors that a stocky figure was seen dashing across Julius Kahn playground and into the dense undergrowth of the Presidio. The dog patrol units, seven of the best search dogs in the country, gathered at the front entrance of the Presidio and were deployed one at a time in various directions. Armstrong and Toschi considered the possibilities. Had the killer gone quickly through the dark woods and emerged from the Presidio at Richardson Avenue, and taken Highway 101 past Fort Point onto the Golden Gate Bridge and vanished into Marin County". 

It is not very likely that the murderer of Paul Stine would have parked a getaway vehicle by Richardson Avenue on the north-eastern edge of Presidio Park. This location was nine blocks north of Presidio Avenue and would have effectively negated the purpose of having a vehicle for a quick escape. There were many better options along Lyon Street much closer to the entrance at Julius Kahn playground. If the Zodiac Killer was watching the motorcycles go by on Presidio Boulevard (by the orange circle), then a vehicle parked at Green Street or Union Street would have been a wiser choice. However, there were far more favorable options to park a getaway vehicle around Presidio Park that day, by a killer who originally planned his murder at the intersection of Washington & Maple streets. His apparent decision to ignore these more obvious (and nearer) choices, could suggest that the Zodiac Killer opted to escape without the use of a vehicle that night by accessing the wooded protection of the park. Especially if he currently lived, or had access to a business on the eastern side of Presidio Park that nullified the need for transport. Leaving a vehicle unattended for a long period of time around the park still carried an element of risk.  

The Zodiac Killed seemed extremely irritated by the claims of Chief Martin Lee, firing off a seven page communication to the San Francisco Chronicle on November 9th 1969, in large part berating and mocking the police for telling lies about him. He even highlighted a section of text about his encounter with "two cops who pulled a goof". This turned out to be true. I tend to believe that his description of navigating the park was also true. If the Zodiac Killer walked through the park on October 11th 1969 and made his way to the section of Presidio Boulevard traveling from "south to northwest", then I highly doubt he was heading towards his vehicle that night. There is a good argument to be had that he was heading to his residence (or anchor point) somewhere beyond the eastern wall of Presidio Park. Possibly located in Cow Hollow or the Marina District.  

​EXTRA READING: 
WALKING TOWARDS THE MARINA DISTRICT
DID ZODIAC USE A CAR AT PRESIDIO HEIGHTS?

Many people have questioned why the Zodiac Killer had latched onto the murder of Donna Lass (25) in South Lake Tahoe after she was abducted from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on September 6th 1970, when he authored the Pines postcard on March 22nd 1971. Most of his threats centered around San Francisco and the Bay Area, so why did he infer his involvement in the disappearance of Donna Lass, who lived 165 miles away from Vallejo in Stateline, Nevada? Had the Zodiac Killer any previous and/or current connections to this area, that either drew his attention to her case in the newspapers, or did he abduct and murder the young nurse because he had a specific reason to be at that location in September 1970?

​The Zodiac Killer may have chosen Donna Lass as a victim because it was an area he frequently/occasionally visited for business, or had spent some of his time vacationing at Lake Tahoe. As previously mentioned, the Pines postcard mailed on March 22nd 1971 may not have been the first time the Zodiac Killer targeted South Lake Tahoe, when for several weeks in November 1969, during the height of his "bombing campaign" in San Francisco, several telephoned threats to school bus routes in Lake Tahoe were issued to Reno authorities, including Incline Village which became the centerpiece of his Pines card over a year later. The Zodiac Killer used a Forest Pines at Incline Village advertisement from the newspapers to attach to his postcard on March 22nd 1971. So what are the options?​

​Were the November 1969 threats to Lake Tahoe a hoaxer, who decided that the best way to convince law enforcement and the newspapers he was the genuine Bay Area murderer, was to target school buses around Incline Village, 207 miles from San Francisco? The obvious choice for a hoaxer aiming to convince police he was the genuine article, was to continue the threats in San Francisco or the Bay Area.

​However, if the threats were from the Zodiac Killer himself, then branching his terror beyond the Bay Area to spread fear into the wider community (especially somewhere he was familiar with), appears to be something that would satisfy his ego. If these threatening calls to Lake Tahoe occurred in the weeks before the above published newspaper article, then the calls were likely placed between November 3rd 1969 and November 23rd 1969 (if few weeks was a maximum of three). The Zodiac Killer's "Bus Bomb" letter was mailed on November 9th 1969.

​Is it possible that a hoaxer local to the Lake Tahoe area made the threatening calls to generate some "excitement" in the location they lived, which then featured in a Sacramento newspaper on November 24th 1969 and was stumbled across by Zodiac in March 1971, who decided to mail the Pines card with an Incline Village advertisement so as to capitalize on the threats to school buses from 16 months earlier? Is that a realistic scenario, bearing in mind that Donna Lass lived in San Francisco and worked at the Letterman General Hospital in Presidio Park (that Zodiac escaped into), before moving to South Lake Tahoe where she was abducted and murdered. The common thread being the Zodiac Killer.

​Isn't it more likely that the Zodiac Killer made the school bus threats to Lake Tahoe in 1969 because he had some connection to that area, which is why the disappearance of Donna Lass just over nine months later, on September 6th 1970, triggered his interest? He may have decided to claim his involvement in her disappearance (and murder) to continue the theme of Lake Tahoe, and thereby bolster his earlier threats as genuine. If his connection to the Lake Tahoe area was a viable one in 1969, then it is not without merit that he could be responsible for the young 25-year-old nurse's murder, Especially if the Zodiac Killer was familiar with Donna Lass (either directly) or through her friend, Jo Anne Goettsche, whom she lived with at 4122 Balboa Street in San Francisco during the Paul Stine murder (10/11/69). Jo Anne Goettsche had moved to 225 Mallorca Way in the Marina District in 1970 - an area Zodiac appeared to be heading towards as he traveled through Presidio Park on October 11th 1969. Could the Zodiac Killer have known (or become aware) of Jo Anne Goettsche's plans to travel from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe to visit Donna Lass late on the evening of September 6th 1970? The timing of her disappearance less than 24 hours earlier may be significant. It's extremely unlikely that the Zodiac Killer got wind of Jo Anne Goettsche's intentions, but stranger things have happened.     

Officers in Lake Tahoe discounted the caller's claim that he was the Zodiac slayer, but I wonder what the same officers thought sixteen months later, on March 22nd 1971? 

EXTRA READING: WALKING TOWARDS THE MARINA DISTRICT  

The following is nothing new, but I am going to run an old story in reverse. Ever since July 31st 1969 the Zodiac Killer had been taunting us with his name or identity through various letters, cards and ciphers, yet only gave us three "signatures" up to January 29th 1974. The SLA letter, Badlands card and Red Phantom letter will not be included in this analysis because they were not authored by the Zodiac Killer.

​The Bay Area murderer gave us three ways to identify himself as the author, by using "Zodiac" and his "crosshairs" in numerous communications, and "Me" (only once) in his Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. The question being, why did he use "Me" in 1974 when he could have just written "Zodiac" or added his "crosshairs"? The Zodiac Killer usually had purpose beneath his assumed madness.

​The answer probably lay in the verse he added after writing "Signed, Yours Truley" in the Exorcist letter, which carried the 8-letter phrase "My name is" in the extended version of the "Tit-Willow" verse. Only one communication carried all three signatures of the Bay Area murderer if you apply the following logic.

​The April 20th 1970 letter not only began with "This is the Zodiac speaking", carried the 8-letter phrase of "My name is", and had three 8's in the code, but also produced "Me" and the "crosshairs" by simply circling through the code 8 positions from each circled 8. This would give us "Zodiac", "Me" and his "crosshairs" in one communication. A communication with a 13-character code that is practically unsolvable by using standard homophonic substitution methods. This form of cryptography is able to produce thousands of possible answers, so why would the Zodiac Killer use a methodology that provides no resolution to his puzzle?

​He gave us the answer to his Z32 code by writing  "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians" one month later, on July 26th 1970. Both "radians" and "inches" could be found in the Z32 solution, so why not "Me" in the Z13 solution. The Zodiac Killer, in mocking fashion, may have been giving us the answer to the Z13 code in the most simplistic of terms. A signature he would corroborate on January 29th 1974 when he unusually added "Me" to his letter. This is the only Z13 solution ever presented as a "signature" that was replicated in a later Zodiac Killer communication. The April 20th 1970 and January 29th 1974 letters would now carry both "My name is" and "Me" in each instance.

We also have to consider why the Zodiac Killer added three circled 8's to his code when he could have just added three triangles, three squares, or indeed, three circles without the 8's? The answer may lie in the dual purpose of both characters. In essence, we have to circle through 8 positions of the code to arrive at the answer. What are the chances that when we apply this methodology to the Z13 code, we produce a signature that is present in a letter nearly 4 years later, that also harbors the phrase "My name is".

If we know that replacing ciphertext characters with plaintext characters can never produce a verifiable answer without later validation, then the Zodiac Killer almost certainly knew it.

​The technique of rotating an outer circle of characters around an inner circle of fixed characters by a desired number of positions was ably covered by Edgar Allan Poe in "A Few Words on Secret Writing".. He wrote about this immediately after detailing another technique of splitting the alphabet into two lots of 13 characters, A through M, and N through Z. Odd therefore, that the Zodiac Killer would create a code of 13 characters beginning with A and ending with M, which when rotated by 8 positions on a circle, would create a signature later used in the Exorcist letter. Both of these techniques coming after Edgar Allan Poe described the scytale method of decryption in "A Few Words on Secret Writing", that can be used to solve the Zodiac Killer's 340 cipher. A cipher that Zodiac referred to when opening his April 20th 1970 letter, stating "By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you?".

We have two techniques described in "A Few Words on Secret Writing" that when combined and rotated through eight positions, gives us a signature used in the Exorcist letter. However, it may just be one of those massive coincidences.  
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FURTHER READING: DEATH IN PARADISE