I am interested in the Zodiac communities opinion on the validity of 10 sets of correspondence, having your thoughts on the likelihood that these communications are either genuine Zodiac material, or alternatively penned by a copycat or third party.
I would like eventually, if enough votes are cast, to post an article detailing any findings and see if any results contradict the widely publicized opinions of handwriting experts, as well as our own long held beliefs.
The communications included are:

Please spare a moment and place your vote here  http://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-letters-real-or-fake.html
Thank you.

Lawrence Kane is one of several high profile suspects linked to the atrocities that befell the Northern regions of California during the late 1960s, a period that saw a new breed of serial killer emerge from the shadows. Alex Lewis, an avid Zodiac enthusiast, also known by his pseudonym Welsh Chappie, is of the conviction that Larry Kane is the man most likely behind the mask of evil, due to several observations relating to Larry Kane's timeline during the Zodiac murders. Alex has compiled an extensive range of information on his website pertaining to this subject, and pretty much covers all you need to know about Larry Kane. http://welshchappie.wordpress.com. He has also formulated an interesting theory that links the solved 408 Cipher, the My Name is...Cipher, Larry Kane's year of birth and his residency in Round Hill Village, Zephyr Cove, South Lake Tahoe.
The following post is entirely the work of Alex Lewis, submitted to me, outlining the details of his connection between the aforementioned Zodiac letters.

Each of the three parts had eight lines of encrypted cipher. This was no random number of lines per section of cipher. Three lines of eight total twenty-four lines in total for the entire message (3 x 8 = 24). Then, in Zodiac's My Name Is line of cipher, he once again seems to want to point to three eights, or twenty-four, being relevant because this time he leaves no room for it to be overlooked by placing three circles within the line of cipher, each of which contain the number eight.

What relevance, if any, could this seemingly random number have? Well, 408 is his house number. And finally, the first 4 letters in the 'My Name Is Cipher' line are AENK. We don't need to be anagram experts to work out that this is a clear anagram of the name 'KANE'. We all know Lawrence Kane is one of the suspects in the Zodiac case, but what many won't be aware of is how 24 and 408 are extremely specific to him and here is why.
 
Lawrence Kane was born in the year 1924. Kane's main residence was in South Lake Tahoe, in Zephyr Cove's Round Hill Village and his address was: 408 Mcfaul Way, Round Hill Village, Zephyr Cove, NV. So, combining the 408 cipher with the My Name Is Cipher, it is possible to conclude that his name is Kane, as he blatantly tells is in Stating 'My Name Is....AENK'. He was born in 1924, as he twice makes reference to, once in the 408 and then in the My Name Is Cipher. And finally, his address is, just like the number of symbols in the first Cipher, 408 McFaul Way.

The conflicting accounts of police reports after the shooting of taxicab driver Paul Stine, whose vehicle eventually came to rest near the intersection of Washington and Cherry Street on October 11th 1969, has always thrown up more questions than it ultimately answers - as to whether the Zodiac was stopped by two cops, who he claimed "pulled a goof" in the Bus Bomb letter mailed on November 9th 1969.... But was he stopped?

The Zodiac Killer used every opportunity to ridicule the police and authorities in many of his letters, and much of what he claimed is difficult to corroborate. One of the responding officers that night was Donald Fouke, who gave a pretty detailed description of a lone male lumbering on the north side of Jackson Street, right down to the jacket with elastic at the waist and cuffs, rusk colored pleated trousers, low cut tan engineering boots, along with seeing right into his eyes (although was unable to make out their color). According to the 2007 documentary 'This is the Zodiac Speaking' he also recalled the mystery man entering the stairwell of a house, thought to be 3712 Jackson Street. 

It has been suggested the killer of Paul Stine could have entered a residence in the area, where he ultimately observed the subsequent police search in and around the area of the Julius Khan playground, alongside West Pacific Avenue.  This conclusion was reached due to the comprehensive detail the Zodiac Killer disclosed in the 'Bus Bomb' letter, mailed one month after the murder, on November 9th 1969. The Zodiac Killer claimed he was "hiding in the park", stating "The S.F. Police could have caught me last night if they had searched the park properly instead of holding road races with their motorcicles seeing who could make the most noise. The car drivers should have just parked their cars and sat there quietly waiting for me to come out of cover". However, this scenario was totally dismissed by Chief of Police Martin Lee, who stated the Presidio Park was flooded by lights and police dogs, and subsequently poured scorn on the suggestion that the Zodiac Killer was somehow hiding out in the area, succinctly stating "a mouse couldn't have escaped our attention".

This being the case, would the Zodiac really have risked entering the pitch black darkness of Presidio Park, observing the unfolding drama, where he risked his scent being picked up by the sniffer dogs, or even more inexplicably entering a nearby residence where any trail could have led the police and tracker dogs straight to his doorstep? Are we to take the Zodiac's letter claims at face value - after all his lies and manipulation were clear to see in much of his correspondence. His claims of the unfolding events that night may suggest that he is an avid observer of the subsequent news reports and little more.               

This also has to be coupled with the known facts, that the killer had been recorded on the trip sheet for a destination of Washington and Maple Street, and for whatever reason (possibly too much activity at this intersection), decided to travel one block further to Washington and Cherry.

It makes complete sense that this murder was a chance encounter and the victim was random, however, the decision to remove a piece of any victim's clothing and mail it to a leading newspaper, was likely preordained. Therefore, a route away from the scene of the crime, being the primary concern, would have been well thought out in advance also. It would have been logical to park his waiting vehicle directly away from his intended destination of Washington and Maple, ideally somewhere at the north end of Maple Street, before Jackson Street - not too close to the crime scene and not too far. If this was the case, the white male observed by Officer Donald Fouke would almost certainly not be the Zodiac Killer, because if his vehicle was parked at this location, the need for the killer to cross to the north sidewalk of Jackson Street after exiting Cherry Street would have been superfluous. 

However, if we believe the mystery man spotted by Officer Donald Fouke was the killer of Paul Stine, we again have to question the apparent absence of any blood spatter according to the supposition of Armond Pelissetti, and why a killer having either being questioned and let on his way by the police, or simply observed and passed, would then simply not seek out his waiting vehicle - that an organized preordained murder would suggest. But instead, chose to skulk around in the dark with the scent of blood and gunpowder residue seeping from his attire, along with the possession of the incriminating weapon and the swatch of Paul Stine's shirt. Having, by his admission, been stopped and questioned by police, any venture into the Julius Khan playground could suggest that this was his direct escape route (using the cover of the wooded park) through to a parked vehicle at an alternative location. However, this would seem unnecessary, bearing in mind his intended initial Washington and Maple destination, to have parked at a greater distance than was required for a quick exit. He may have been a resident from the northern region of San Francisco - but again - any great walking distance would have created higher risk while in possession of the gun, shirt piece and trace evidence from the taxicab. A residency too close carries equal perils. The final scenario, is that he simply didn't care - because he always claimed he was 'crackproof' - and sadly so far, this appears to be one of the few truths that has ran from the pen of this merciless killer.

The irresistible urge to put pen to paper has spawned some of the greatest literary giants of the nineteenth and twentieth century, including Edgar Allan Poe, a master of the Gothic macabre who had a penchant for cryptography, along with Fyodor Dostoevsky, a prolific novelist and keeper of diaries who was often plagued by epileptic seizures and impending doom and depression, occasionally manifesting itself as periodic outbursts of rage. Both these novelists, as well as Stephen King, Lewis Carroll, Isaac Asimov, poet Sylvia Plath, along with post impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh all have one thing in common - hypergraphia - the compulsion to express themselves through writing. This affliction can have underlying causes such as temporal lobe brain injury, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, dementia and epilepsy, routinely affecting the subject's normal pattern of behavior.

In one form, this results in the subject authoring text that means everything to the writer, but very little to the observer, as has been found in many of the letters and cards mailed by the Zodiac Killer over a five year period, between 1969 and 1974. Mirrored writing can also result from brain injury, a trait not uncommon to certain forms of dyslexia. Communication can also be expressed as rebus, where pictures or images are substituted as a representation for words, as seen in some of the works of Lewis Carroll. Bi-polar disorder is significantly more prevalent in writers than non-writers, whose compunction to put pen to paper can be increased during manic periods ​of the illness - and this can often manifest itself as illegible nonsense to the routine observer.

Donald Lee Bujok, promulgated as a prime suspect for the Zodiac murders by Kevin Robert Brooks, suffered from bi-polar disorder. This will be discussed in his upcoming book 'Zodiac The Montana Connection'. Donald Lee Bujok contributed many articles to the Billings Gazette over several years - and if indeed he was the killer in the Bay Area - the Zodiac letters, cards and ciphers would have been further testimony to his insatiable desire for literary expressionism. To view a 15 minute video detailing the formative years of Donald Lee Bujok and more, visit here,
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Lawrence Kane received a frontal lobe brain injury, sustained in an automobile accident in 1962. A comprehensive analysis of this subject, along with a detailed description of his medical condition can be better explained by Alex Lewis, at his website 

Richard Gaikowski, thrust into the spotlight by Tom Voigt of zodiackiller.com, also suffered from a mental illness and was treated at the Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco. It is claimed that during this period that all Zodiac communication ceased for approximately three years.
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There is, as far as one can ascertain, no evidence to support that any of the high profile suspects in the Zodiac case have ever been afflicted with hypergraphia, even in its milder form. However, the Zodiac Killer's literary contribution to newspapers, such as the San Francisco Chronicle, coupled with his perceived manic ramblings and the paraphrasing of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado in the 'Little List' letter mailed on July 26th 1970, may have just been the tip of one giant dripping pen, that we regret he ever had to write. 

"This is the Zodiac Speaking. I am still out there and crackproof. I want you to know about my latest slaves that I have collected about two weeks ago up by Sacramento Ca. I will give you clue to help you with the Mystry. They were killed by a freeway. The Blue Meannies almost caught me. The Body count is growing now 100+ all over the state of Ca and Na".

The date was Tuesday, April 22nd 1986, when Laotian couple Koy Ien Saechao (48) and Choy Fow Saelee (40) were traveling back on the two-and-a-half journey to their residence in Dorman Road, Yuba City after visiting their son in a Merced, California hospital, situated in the area of the San Joaquin Valley of Northern California. They were only 45 minutes from home, when it was believed they had opted to take a rest on the roadside edge near the interchange of Highway 99 and I-5 Sacramento, and their paths crossed with a merciless killer. How the killer approached is open to question, but the assailant unleashed a barrage of gunfire into their car, blowing in both front side windows, the testimony to which was the 15 small caliber shell casings scattered and retrieved from outside the driver side door. The couple suffered multiple shots to the head.

Sacramento is situated approximately a one hour drive northeast of Vallejo, CA, and a one hour and forty minutes drive due east of Lake Berryessa - and mentioned in two letters by the Zodiac Killer. Firstly, in the Fairfield Letter, postmarked December 16th 1969, it was claimed by the author he would go on to kill at least 38 more people, including three in Fairfield, CA and nine in Sacramento. Fairfield is on a direct route from Vallejo through to Sacramento and within easy traveling distance for the Zodiac Killer, if indeed he was a resident of the Benicia, Vallejo or San Francisco area during the said time period. More crucially though, the 1986 Letter, mailed on Tuesday, May 6th, is relevant to the date and area where Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee were gunned down.

Furthermore, was his alluding to the "Blue Meannies almost caught me",  just another case of the Zodiac Killer toying with the long suffering police and authorities, that he seemingly enjoyed ridiculing during his campaign of terror in the Bay Area.
A relative of Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee said "We don't want to get killed in the United States, we want to live here for freedom". Let us hope one day that they find a resolution to the answers they desperately yearn, and the killer, whomever they may be, finds that freedom will one day be no more.​