Doreen Gaul (19) and James Sharp (15) were murdered on November 21st 1969, their bodies discovered in a Los Angeles alleyway, between Arapahoe Street and Magnolia Avenue. A threatening typed letter signed "The Zodiac Killer" was discovered in Doreen Gaul's belongings with the message "So you think you can fool the old killer, ha ha. I know all your movements and the time they are made. Time is short, enjoy life while you can. You are to beautiful to live and I must kill you".

On August 1st 1973, a letter postmarked Albany, New York was mailed to the Albany Times Union newspaper declaring "You were wrong, I am not dead or in the hospital. I am alive and well and I'm going to start killing again. Below is the name and location of my next victim. But you had better hurry because I'm going to kill her August 10th at 5:00 pm when the shift change. Albany is a nice town". It contained a code stating "(name) Albany Medical Center this only the beginning". The Albany Letter was a direct response to a New York Daily News article about the Zodiac Killer.

The two-page news article was published on July 22nd 1973, speculating on whether the Zodiac Killer was in "a mental hospital or dead", so it wasn't too surprising that the author of the Albany Letter replied just nine days later and began with "You were wrong, I am not dead or in the hospital. I am alive and well". And then added a cryptogram threatening a medical center. But was the Zodiac Killer or hoaxer a resident of Albany, New York, or had traveled there for family or business? Albany Medical Center was 350 feet from Myrtle Avenue, the street on which Doreen Gaul previously lived. The exact address was 570 Myrtle Avenue, shown here on Google Maps. 

Five months after the Albany Letter, The Exorcist film was released in the USA on December 26th 1973 - a supernatural horror movie showcasing the fight between good and evil through the practice of exorcism and the Catholic Church. Sixteen or seventeen days later, on January 11th/12th 1974, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer telephoned the San Francisco police and several news outlets, stating they had killed a woman and placed her body in a Daly City church. Despite an extensive search, no such victim was discovered. This newspaper cutting is courtesy of Seagull from the Zodiac Killer Site forum.   

 Was the release of The Exorcist film the trigger for the phone calls? These telephone calls arrived at about the same time as a San Francisco Chronicle publication on January 11th 1974 by Paul Avery, entitled "Weird Goings-On At the Movies" and describing the audience reaction to The Exorcist film. The Zodiac Killer may have been responding to this Paul Avery newspaper article by phoning the police and applying a religious angle to his threats. A movie featuring Catholicism and exorcism, shortly followed by the claim of a "murdered woman in a church" would be remiss to ignore. The 01/29/74 Exorcist Letter postmark has been linked to San Mateo County, California, in which Daly City is the largest city.

On July 10th 1972, Jan and Brian Neven requested the assistance of psychics, reporting that paranormal activity and fires were spontaneously occurring in their home in Daly City (bordering San Francisco). This "poltergeist activity" eventually drew the services of Greek Orthodox priest Father Karl Pazelt, renowned for performing exorcisms.

This story was featured heavily 18 months later in a New York Times article on January 25th 1974, stating  "Father Pazelt said the family members were reportedly the victims of peculiar forces that he labeled as “exterior signs of the devil.” At times, he said, the devil choked them by the throat, knocked them unconscious, threw knives and glasses through the air and caused objects to break, burn, move, and fly.” Father Pazelt concluded that After receiving permission from San Francisco Archbishop Joseph T. McGucken, Father Pazelt performed 14 exorcisms of the Nevens family and Dr. Freda Morris in 1972-73". If the Zodiac Killer (or impersonator) had been living in New York (in or near Albany), could this New York Times article only four days prior to the mailing of the Exorcist Letter on January 29th 1974, coupled with The Exorcist film, have been the inspiration behind the Exorcist communication? The Daly City escapades of Father Karl Pazelt also appeared in a January 19th 1974 Watertown Daily (New York) feature, describing the unfolding drama in the Nevens family home.link.

With the former home address of Doreen Gaul, the typed letter and her eventual murder, the Albany Letter, and the New York publications regarding Father Karl Pazelt occurring in the ten days run-up to the Exorcist Letter, can we argue a case for the Zodiac Killer in New York on these dates? Or was he firmly resident in the Bay Area and vicinity, claiming a "church murder" as a response to Paul Avery or the recent release of the Exorcist film - or both?

Unearthed by Michael Morford in 2013, here is an unusual addition to the Zodiac Killer communications featured in the Modesto Bee newspaper on May 11th 1973. A bottle was discovered floating in the Delta by Paradise Point near Stockton, California, containing a purported message from the Zodiac Killer. It stated "The war is over, thank God. Please help me. Am still the Zodiac and going to kill a baby. P.S. Help! Save the world". It was self dated February 2nd.

Paradise Point is 44 miles from the Carquinez Bridge (and Interstate 80) which runs from Vallejo to Crockett, and about 10 miles from Lodi, California. The San Joaquin River flows west from the high elevations of the Sierra Nevada Range to the valley floor and then heads north to Vernalis where it flows into the Delta. The area where the bottle was discovered is punctuated by the White Slough Wildlife Area - 880 acres of man-made ditches, canals, freshwater marshes and grassland. It is highly improbable a bottle dropped into the water by Vallejo would find itself here three months later, and every chance the bottle was thrown or placed into the water in the vicinity of where it was found, or east of this location.  

On January 15th 1973, the United States, North and South Vietnam and the Vietcong signed a peace agreement and so ended direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam war. Therefore, we know that the message in the bottle declaring "the war is over", was very likely dated February 2nd 1973 and placed into the water around this date. It must have sat in the water for just over three months before being discovered if this was the case. Of course, it could have been backdated and placed in the water more recently - but there seems little to be gained by such subterfuge.

The author of this note can easily mimic previous Zodiac communications, so very little can be done to prove its authenticity or otherwise. The phraseology of "please help me" is identical to the wording on the Melvin Belli Letter mailed on December 20th 1969, and similar to the "I just need help" on the December 7th 1969 Fairfield Letter. To give some form of timeline to this  communication - it was likely placed into the water six months prior to the Albany Times Union Letter mailed on August 1st 1973, stating "You were wrong, I am not dead. I am alive and well and I'm going to start killing again".

There would be a devastating number of murders in Lodi, California that year (10 miles from Paradise Point)  when on November 9th 1973 Willie L. Steelman (28) and Douglas E. Gretzler (22) were arrested for the massacre of nine people in a family home. Walter Parkin, his wife and two children, along with five friends had been bound and shot in the head. Stories of the Forgotten.

Thanks to Michael Morford and Zodiac Killer Site forum.

The Zodiac Killer committed the senseless slayings of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen on December 20th 1968. Six and a half months later he would follow this up with a second attempted double murder at Blue Rock Springs Park on July 4th 1969, in which sadly, Darlene Ferrin would succumb to her devastating injuries. Approximately one month later, the Zodiac Killer mailed three letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald announcing that he was responsible for the three murders and attempted murder, while challenging authorities to decode a 408 character cipher. The Zodiac Killer threatened the newspapers, stating "If you do not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry.1st of Aug 69, I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night. I will cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend".  Imagine his horror when the two main newspapers failed to bow to his threats, with the San Francisco Chronicle placing the story on page 4 of the August 2nd 1969 edition, and the San Francisco Examiner demoting him to a lowly page 9 on August 3rd 1969. The problem was further compounded, with Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz even questioning the validity of the author and "urged the writer to send more letters, with more facts to prove his connections to the crimes."

The Zodiac Killer in his haste to prove he was the killer responsible for three people, immediately sent a letter to the San Francisco Examiner on August 4th 1969 - and despite the Examiner printing his letter the same day, in which he declared "This is the Zodiac Speaking" and that he "was not happy to see that he did not get front page coverage", imagine his utter disbelief when he discovered that the San Francisco Examiner had again relegated his letter supplying more details of the crimes to page 4. It equally wouldn't have escaped his attention, that on the front page of the same paper it featured the double knife slaying of two young girls from San Jose. Deborah Furlong (14) and Kathy Snoozy (15) had been brutally stabbed while picnicking on a grassy knoll on August 3rd 1969. The Zodiac Killer had now murdered three people, nearly killed Michael Mageau and sent four communications (including three cryptograms), yet he was still unable to command front page coverage. But now he knew exactly what was required - and it was staring him squarely in the face on page one. August 4th 1969 was not only the day he announced his pseudonym to the world, but the day he realized that a brutal stabbing was required to secure himself front page coverage. This was the day the fate of Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard would be sealed, almost two months in the making.   

Forever the narcissist, the Zodiac Killer couldn't believe his luck when he happened upon three young girls on the shores of Lake Berrryessa by Smittle Creek. I am sure for a brief moment he could see the headlines flash in front of his eyes: "3 Girls Stabbed, Sunbathing Murders, Footprint Clue". However, the Zodiac Killer for whatever reason, decided against the attack, returned to his vehicle and drove away. Fortunately, the three young women from Pacific Union College would escape the wrath of the Zodiac Killer - but he was not done yet. Approximately two hours later and eight tenths of a mile south, the Zodiac Killer would reappear and set his sights on the 1956 White Karmann Ghia of Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard, before traversing the 510 yard hillside descent to the area of the picnicking couple. Driven by an insatiable desire to secure front page coverage, he proceeded to callously stab the young couple sixteen times before finally returning up the hillside and out of sight. The thoughts of the San Jose murders of Deborah Furlong and Kathy Snoozy - and the headline news they generated - were probably in the forefront of his mind when he approached the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia and pulled the black marker pen from his pocket. He proceeded to write on the car door of Bryan Hartnell's vehicle, to leave you in no doubt that he was mimicking the murders of the two young girls from San Jose. He wrote "Vallejo 12-20-68, 7-4-69, Sept 27-69 - 6:30 by knife". If you ever wondered why he wrote the time 6:30 on the car door, even though he rang in the crime just seventy minutes later, then the newspaper article below may give you a clue. This is the article from the San Francisco Examiner on August 4th 1969 - the very reason why the Zodiac Killer arrived at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969 in the first place.  

This annotation of 6:30 on the car door of Bryan Hartnell's vehicle was supposed to mark the time that the young couple at Lake Berryessa failed to return home also.

Chaucer, an excellent investigative contributor to the Zodiac forums, noted correctly that Robert C. Cozens was director of the State Motor Vehicles from 1969 until at least 1976. Here is a notation in history stating "DMV letter from the Director of the California DMV, Robert C. Cozens, dated May 31, 1974", indicating he was certainly active as director in 1974.

Ronald Reagan was the Governor of California for two terms, the first beginning in 1967 and the second in 1971. He left office in 1975, declining to run for a third term.
Here is an excerpt from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
OFFICE OF THE GOVERER, Sacramento, California:
Governor Ronald Reagan today announced the appointment of Robert C. Cozens, 50, of Del Mar, as director of the State Motor Vehicles effective December 29, 1969. Cozens, a member of the San Diego county Board of supervisors with wide experience in transportation, highway and traffic safety matters, succeeds Verne Orr who has been appointed State Director of General Services.

As director of DMV, Cozens will also serve as Safety Coordinator for the State. He will receive a salary of $30,000 and will serve at the pleasure of the Governor. A Republican, he was appointed to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in 1960 and was re-elected in 1962 and 1966. In addition to serving as both vice chairman and chairman of the Board of supervisors, he has also served as a chairman of the Local Agency Formation Commission, the San Diego County Comprehensive Planning Organization and Regional Transportation Coordinating Committee, the Airport Study Group of San Diego County, the Governor's committee on Traffic Safety, Traffic Operations to Improve Capacity and Safety Committee and the California Highway Functional Classidfication Advisory Comraittee.

Active in the County Supervisors Association of California, Cozens has served as general chairman of that group's Transportation and Public Works Committee, Aviation Committee, county Highway Safety Organization and City-county Sign Industry Committee. He is a member of the Southern California Regional Air Transportation Study Comrnittee, the Southern California Air Space Committee, the San Diego Stadium Committee, the United Community Services and the Engineering Grading Contractors Association.

A native of San Diego, he is a graduate of the Black-Foxe Military Institute and San Diego State College. During World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and commanded a bomber squadron in the European theater. In 1944, as a lieutenant colonel holding the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with three clusters, he was assigned to the Pentagon where he worked on the nation's missile program. Cozens and bis wife Patricia have three married children.

The Zodiac Killer mailed several communications regarding the murders of Debra Furlong and Kathie Snoozy, brutally stabbed in San Jose on August 3rd 1969 - inextricably linked to the Zodiac Killer's Monticello Card mailed on July 13th 1971 insinuating the murder of Kathy Bilek in a wooded park in Saratoga on April 11th 1971. Three communications in 1971 can be linked together in the three young girls murders, one of which resulted in Karl Francis Werner being described as a "phony" by Zodiac, who he deemed responsible for snatching away his previously claimed attacks while being interviewed by detectives.

Tom Voigt of Zodiackiller.com stated "While I don't yet have as many details as I would like, at some point the Zodiac wrote a letter to the chairman of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in California. The letter was authenticated, apparently via handwriting, and was kept quiet for reasons unknown".

Without knowing for certain, I have concluded that the DMV Letter was yet another response to newspaper and magazine articles that the Zodiac Killer had read. In October 1971, a magazine publication entitled 'True Detective' comprehensively featured the murders of Kathie Snoozy, Debra Furlong and Kathy Bilek, stating "At about the same moment, Park Ranger Ken Williamson was informing a member of the investigative team that he, too, had noticed a tall, bespectacled young man who had been a frequent visitor at Villa Montalvo. He was a loner and had impressed the Villa's ranger staff with his almost furtive conduct, said Williamson. The ranger had jotted down the license number of the strange youth's auto. The license number was forwarded to the California Department of Motor Vehicles headquarters in Sacramento, the state's capital 150 miles to the north of San Jose. The information teletyped back from the registration bureau was that the auto was the property of a Karl Francis Werner, living at an address on Shawnee Lane in San Jose".

After several 1971 communications such as the Monticello Card and 148 Character Cipher Letter mailed from the Zodiac Killer (including the March 13th 1971 'Los Angeles' Letter), it was apparent his obsession was focused on the savage knife murders of several females, including the suggestion of his involvement in the Riverside murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966. Then came the unfortunate news from his perspective, that his claimed murders of Debra Furlong and Kathie Snoozy as early as November 8th 1969, had been ripped away from him with the arrest of Karl Francis Werner in late April of 1971. His response was the 148 Character Cipher Letter and Monticello Card, which unfortunately fell on deaf ears. The police had arrested the real killer of these three young girls and Zodiac's vain attempt to claw them back had exposed him for the "phony" he was. However, that wasn't going to deter the Zodiac Killer, and he may very well have fired off one last hurrah in the form of correspondence to the Sacramento Department of Motor Vehicles. As Chaucer pointed out, Robert C. Cozens was appointed Director of the California DMV in 1969 and was serving during this period in 1971. 

If the Zodiac Killer had read the True Detective magazine or accompanying newspaper articles, detailing the capture of Karl Francis Werner through the diligent work of park ranger Ken Williamson at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, then he would have read the passage stating that the "license number was forwarded to the California Department of Motor Vehicles headquarters in Sacramento". The perfect recipe for his fifth and final communication of 1971, conceivably addressed to Robert C. Cozens, who was the director of the California Department of Motor Vehicles at the time.

Of course, the exact contents of the elusive DMV Letter remain unknown, so the above thoughts on the communication must be viewed with this in mind. But if there is one thing we do know for certain, it is the inability of the Zodiac Killer to resist responding to publications that concern him - and the arrest of Karl Francis Werner through number plate recognition at the Department of Motor Vehicles, may very well have been one of those instances.

Ken Williamson and the DMV Letter
The Story of San Jose
1971-The Epitaph of a Killer
The Sacramento DMV Letter

A pasted card, mimicking the 13 Hole Postcard was mailed to the home address of Dr. Edward C. Adams at 102 Camino Don Miguel, Orinda, California, postmarked October 17th 1970 from Berkeley. Edward C. Adams was a psychiatrist. The card read

"Mon Oct 12, 1970. Edward Adams. The Zodiac is going to change the way of committing murders. I shall announce when I shall commit my murders, The Adamses are Next. you taught me to mean it. ADAMS YOU ARE NEXT. Zodiac".

The Gladman Hospital where Richard H. Adler worked is today listed as a Psychiatric Health Facility in Oakland. Telecare was founded by psychiatrist, Art Gladman in 1965. The Gladman Hospital was a traditional psychiatric hospital back in 1976,  extremely interesting and noteworthy, bearing in mind the FBI file concerning the Edward C. Adams Letter (shown below), which indicates Dr. Adams informed Inspector David Toschi of his belief that the threatening letter he received was sent by a former psychiatric patient who resided in Berkeley. The city of Berkeley lies on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, adjacent to Oakland.

"Edward C. Adams spent most of his life in the Bay Area where he attended the University of California Berkeley for his undergraduate work and Stanford University for his medical degree. His residency in psychiatry was received at the Menninger Clinic, Topeka, KS. During the Korean War he was an instructor in the Medical Field Service at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, TX. After retiring from an active practice in Psychiatry he devoted his energies to travel, fly fishing, the study of poetry and the enjoyment of his family and many friends. During the time spent at his Carmel home he volunteered as a docent at the Robinson Jeffers Foundation. He was a member of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Society and an active supporter of many environmental groups".  SFGATE.COM.

The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis was organized in 2007, combining the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute & Society, founded in 1941, with the San Francisco Foundation for Psychoanalysis, founded in 1991. The Center provides an extensive training program in psychoanalysis. The Center also sponsors a large, vibrant Extension Division which offers classes and seminars to mental health professionals as well as to the general public. The San Francisco Psychoanalytic Society and Institute is a facility for psychoanalytic research, training, and education located on 2420 Sutter Street in San Francisco, California. It is situated in Lower Pacific Heights, approximately one mile from the intersection of Washington and Cherry.

It can be seen on the map below that Gladman Hospital (Mental Health Rehab) is only 6.5 miles from Orinda, 6.3 miles from Berkeley and 12 miles from 2420 Sutter Street. In summary, we have two communications sent six years apart, containing the phrases "You are next" and "You're next", both likely to psychiatrists, who lived and worked in close proximity to one another, and who both were addressed by the name "Zodiac" in the message. And one had the initials R.A. 

Edward C. Adams and Richard H. Alder may have crossed paths in their profession of psychiatry, either at the San Francisco Foundation for Psychoanalysis or their places of work, and the personal ad stating "Your partner is in deep real estate" may have been referencing Edward C. Adams as a man in deep trouble, using the word partner as "business partner", or in a more loose term, as a "partner in the same profession". Bearing in mind the almost identical threat six years earlier to somebody in the same profession, this seems a distinct possibility.

In a previous article we showed with a high degree of probability that the 13 Hole Postcard mailed on October 5th 1970 was connected to the as yet unpublished Little List Letter through its wording, and therefore both were authored by the Zodiac Killer. Most people accept that the Little List Letter is authenticated Zodiac correspondence, so by extension, if the October 17th 1970 Edward C. Adams Letter and "Deep Real Estate" Letter were authored by the same person, and we can connect the two pasted letters in October 1970, then we can verify Zodiac was responsible for all. This would mean that Edward C. Adams suspicions that the letter mailed to his home address in Orinda by a former psychiatric patient who resided in Berkeley, could have been the Zodiac Killer.        

On the flip side, Richard H. Adler may have been addressing Zodiac, or somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer.

A half-century after the shadowy killer known as Zodiac terrorized Northern California, the case remains stubbornly stalled despite the massive gains made in solving cold cases in recent years. Writer Glenn Wall introduces a new suspect, and theory to explain why. Supported by witness statements, documentation, and evidence, he builds a case against a ruthless killer whose criminal escapades and playing of the U.S. criminal justice system were too much a threat to many people who held power in high places to ever be allowed to see the light of day … until now.

In addition to the above book, Glenn Wall has previously investigated the murder of Valerie Percy (21), who was beaten and stabbed to death in her home on September 18th 1966 in Kenilworth, Illinois.  

A dark morning. Waves on Lake Michigan. An elegant home on the beach, and a senatorial candidate at home with his close knit family in one of Chicago's wealthiest suburbs. This is the unlikely setting for the most notorious, and baffling cold case murder of the 1960s. Valerie Percy...pretty, smart, 21 years old and a key aide for her father, Charles Percy... beaten and stabbed to death by an intruder. The only witness - her stepmother. The killer escaped to a beach and disappeared into thin air. Glenn Wall revisits the long cold case. He explores the players, the place, and posits a compelling theory of who did it, a violent, disturbed individual who was raised a two minute walk from Percy's home, and ultimately died at the hands of his own family. Features 22 never before seen photographs.

Although there is extremely limited information on this communication, it is essentially the only communication in the FBI files not covered on this site. There is little to glean from the details provided in the FBI document, but nevertheless, it completes the whole picture regarding even the weakest of Zodiac material. 

Described as being postmarked twice from Los Angeles, with March 7th 1986 and March 12th 1986, this envelope bore the hand printed address of "(Redacted) Ambler Tours 101 2ND AVE. Suite 1900 SAN DieGo, CA. 92101". Accompanying was a hand printed letter beginning "Hi ......., We Are...".  If written in this fashion, using upper and lower case lettering inappropriately, then it bore similarities to the second McDonald's Letter mailed on February 8th 1988, also sent to a business residence (and also incorrectly written). The two McDonald's letters purportedly claimed to be from the Zodiac Killer, whereas nothing in the FBI file below carries his pseudonym, other than an "O" sign and "ZODiAC KiLLER" written above Q1. Whether this was sampled writing and part of the communication itself, or added as a notation by investigators, I cannot say for sure. But again, it is a blend of upper and lower casing. If you take a look at Q2 in the McDonald's Letter here, it too has a circle (belatedly added on the FBI file) between "the" and "Zodiac", suggesting it may have formed part of the original message. But is this enough to suggest a connection between the two sets of communications, separated by approximately two years. 

Ambler Tours & Travel Service were a family business formed in 1953 by Frank and Ginny Ambler, one of the oldest travel agencies in San Diego. The company attracted business solely by word-of-mouth becoming very successful over several decades, with Dale Ambler holding the position of vice-president. They were still operating in 2008, as shown by this newsletter. So why did the Zodiac Killer, or somebody purporting to be the Zodiac Killer have reason to mail a communication to Ambler Tours? Could the letter have began "Hi Frank" or "Hi Ginny"? Here is some recent information I found.

Ambler Travel: 1010 2nd Ave , San-Diego-CA 92101 (now closed).
Ambler Tours & Travel Service Inc is a privately held company in San Diego, CA and is a single location business. Categorized under Tourist Agency Arranging Transport, Lodging and Car Rental. Our records show it was established in 1953 and incorporated in California. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of 740,000 and employs a staff of approximately four. 

When we consider whether any communication this distant from the Zodiac crimes is genuine or not, we have to look for other potential Zodiac Killer communications in and around the time period in question, in order to determine if this was an isolated occurrence by a misguided individual, or whether a pattern exists. Apart from the two McDonald's letters in February 1988, can we find anything closer to March 1986? Just two months after the Ambler Tours Letter, another purported Zodiac letter was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on May 6th 1986, stating that the author had shot two people in a car about "two weeks ago", by a freeway in Sacramento. Exactly two weeks prior to May 6th 1986, on April 22nd 1986, Koy Ien Saechao (48) and Choy Fow Salee (40) were gunned down by a hail of gunfire through the driver side window of their vehicle while parked along Highway 99 and Interstate 5, extremely similar in fashion to the first two Zodiac attacks. The only other loose connection to anything remotely Zodiac, is the location of 1010 2nd Ave, San Diego - situated 5.5 miles from Ocean Beach and the murder of John and Joyce Swindle on Wednesday February 5th 1964. These are slim pickings, but worth mentioning in relation to the location and timeline. 

Mike Rodelli stated in his book The Hunt For Zodiac:The Inconceivable Double Life of a Notorious Serial Killer that the "All points bulletin (APB} went out over three police radio channels and was heard by all units". The closest police unit were Officers Armond Pelissetti and Frank Peda, who (in Armond Pelissetti's own words) arrived very quickly at 9:55 pm. The exact time doesn't really matter for the following observations, because Officers Donald Fouke and Eric Zelms in a second police unit also got the APB at the same time, as they were traveling northbound on Presidio Avenue, just past Washington Street, One of the three teenagers who observed Zodiac in and around the taxicab that night had ventured to the intersection of Washington and Cherry, where he pleaded with Officer Armond Pelissetti "He's getting away, He's getting away. He's right there", gesturing toward Zodiac as he approached the corner of Jackson and Cherry Street.

We will afford Officer Armond Pelissetti a very quick arrival time (let us say 30 seconds). If he arrived at 9:55 pm, then he must have received the APB at 9:54:30 - and so must Officer Donald Fouke. Officer Armond Pelissetti is now at the corner of Washington and Cherry at 9:55 pm, with Lindsey Robbins yelling at him and pointing out Zodiac approaching to north end of Cherry Street. Therefore, the Zodiac Killer is approximately 10 seconds shy of vanishing from Cherry Street, at 9:55 pm. If Officer Donald Fouke also got the APB at 9:54:30, his 819 meter journey to Jackson and Maple Street, at a modest 35 mph (allowing for intersections), is a journey time of 60 seconds. He stated he saw a man (believed to be Zodiac} approaching the intersection of Jackson and Maple, before this man headed north on Maple. This sighting was at 9:55:30 - meaning Zodiac was approaching the intersection of Jackson and Cherry at 9:55 pm at the very earliest, while also present near the intersection of Jackson and Maple.at 9:55:30, separated by at least 450 feet.(a journey time of at least 1 minute 37 seconds at normal walking speed}.   

Let us flip this scenario on its head and show how the timeline simply isn't possible. Officer Donald Fouke would be viewing Zodiac approaching the intersection of Jackson and Maple at 9:55:30. The Zodiac Killer's jouney time from Washington and Cherry to Jackson and Maple is approximately 2 minutes 37 seconds (p.s. 2 cops pulled a goof abot 3 min after I left the cab}. Officer Donald Fouke spotted Zodiac at 9:55:30. Therefore, the Zodiac Killer began his journey just shy of 2 minutes and 37 seconds earlier from the intersection of Washington and Cherry. This means Zodiac would have been beginning his journey from the intersection of Washington and Cherry (by the taxicab} at about 9:52:53 (before the time of the reported attack). But Armond Pelissetti arrived at 9:55 pm at the earliest. So how did Zodiac take 2 minutes and 7 seconds to not even reach the intersection of Jackson and Cherry? Imagine Officer Armond Pelissetti taking a more reasonable one minute to arrive at the crime scene  - Zodiac would then have taken 2 minutes 37 seconds to travel up Cherry and still be in view to both officer and teenager. 

If the Zodiac Killer was spotted by Officer Donald Fouke at 9:55:30, having left the intersection of Washington and Cherry at 9:52:53, then he must reasonably be at the north end of Cherry by 9:53:53 at the latest. But for Officer Armond Pelissetti to see Zodiac there at 9:53:53, he must have received the initial radio dispatch 30 seconds earlier, at 9:53:23, which happens to be 1 minute 37 seconds before the reported time of the attack at 9:55 pm. I have been very generous with the timeline regarding Officer Armond Pelissetti and the Lindsey Robbins sighting of Zodiac, but whichever way you cut it, the timeline doesn't make sense. Even if we say that both Officer Armond Pelissetti and Lindsey were correct, and saw Zodiac approaching the intersection of Jackson and Cherry at 9:55 pm. Then we have to add a minimum of 1 minute and 37 seconds for Zodiac to be spotted by Officer Donald Fouke approaching Jackson and Maple. That would be 9:56:37, thereby making Officer Donald Fouke's journey time from Washington Street and Presidio Avenue to Jackson and Maple, a 2 minute and 7 second journey, traveling at 14.4 mph. The longer Officer Armond Pelissetti took to arrive at the crime scene, the more unbelievable the timeline becomes. If he arrived at the intersection of Washington and Cherry at 9:55 pm and it took him only one minute, he must have got the APB at 9:54 pm, which Officer Donald Fouke received also. Now Officer Armond Pelissetti is observing Zodiac at the top of Cherry at 9:55 pm, while Officer Donald Fouke would be observing Zodiac at 9:55 pm at Jackson and Maple, which is obviously not possible.  

Mike Rodelli stated in his book that as Officer Donald Fouke passed the intersection of Jackson and Maple they saw the "man about 100 feet west of the corner of Maple. The man was in no hurry and kept his head down as he walked. When he got to a residence just west of Maple (3712 Jackson Street) he casually turned left and began to ascend a flight of stairs to that residence". Although, Donald Fouke in his November 12th 1969 memorandum, recalled no such story - stating a man was "walking in an easterly direction on Jackson Street and then turned north on Maple Street". Mike Rodelli then stated Officer Donald Fouke (having a description of a Negro Male Adult from the initial dispartch) continued onward toward Cherry Street and the crime scene. The distance from 3712 Jackson Street to the corner of Cherry Street is 340 feet (traveling at 30 mph, would take approximately 8-10 seconds). 

"Meanwhile, Officer Armond Pelissetti had been examining the cab", and once he got the amended description to a white male he got on the radio to update everybody. He then traveled up Cherry Street cautiously, using his police training to make sure he "did not get his head blown off". Mike Rodelli described that "as Pelissetti carefully made his way up the block, the patrol car carrying Officers Fouke and Zelms rounded the corner (Fouke having spotted the man near Maple Street seconds earlier) and they stopped and spoke". They had a brief conversation about the updated description, "as finally the corrected APB description from SFPD Dispatch came over the air on the channel Fouke was monitoring that evening, which was different from the channel over which it had initially been broadcast by Pelissetti". 

Officer Armond Pelissetti received the amended description to a white male at the crime scene by the kids. which according to Mike was eventually aired by SFPD Dispatch as Pelissetti spoke to Fouke nearing the top of Cherry. But if Officer Donald Fouke had only spotted "the man near Maple Street seconds earlier", then he had passed the Zodiac Killer just over a minute into his journey from the initial dispatch at Washington Street and Presidio Avenue. That means Officer Donald Fouke met Officer Armond Pelissetti at the top of Cherry no longer than 90 seconds after he received the initial dispatch. Therefore, Armond Pelissetti had to travel to the crime scene after receiving the initial dispatch (at least 30 seconds), have his interactions with the teenagers, check on Paul Stine in the taxicab, update everybody on the radio to the amended description, and then travel up Cherry Street in a cautious fashion so he "did not get his head blown off" in a grand total of just 90 seconds in order to meet Donald Fouke at the top of Cherry. The journey up Cherry Street in cautious fashion, on its own, would take 90 seconds. Again showing the massive discrepancy in the timeline offered up by this order of events.

Mike quoted Bryan Hartnell in the 1989 Crimes of the Century TV show regarding the height and weight of the suspect at Lake Berryessa, suggesting that Zodiac may have skewed his appearance at Presidio Heights using "lifts in his shoes" and possibly "three sweaters" under a loose fitting jacket - obviously to create a different body shape to that of Kjell Qvale, and so disguise his appearance. 

What Mike does not tell you, is the quote by Officer Donald Fouke in the 1989 Crimes of the Century show, in which he stated "We proceeded on Jackson Street towards Arguello continuing our search. As we arrived at Arguello Street the description of the suspect was changed to a white male adult - believing this suspect was possibly the one involved in the shooting we entered the Presidio of San Francisco and conducted a search on West Pacific Avenue, the opposite side of the wall and the last direction we observed the suspect going, we did not find the suspect." Here he gets the updated description to the white male adult on Arguello Boulevard, not at the top of Cherry Street as mentioned earlier. If we are going to use quotes from the 1989 TV show (or even the 2007 documentary), then why was this omitted from the storyline? Cherry picking certain quotes, while failing to mention others, can be used to guide the reader towards your particular narrative. The question that has to be asked, is what was Officer Donald Fouke doing traveling away from the crime scene he is supposed to be responding to, when supposedly he is still under the impression he is searching for a black male adult - unless Zodiac directed him that way. We can of course just conveniently ignore this statement by Officer Donald Fouke if it's not very helpful.

After the brief meeting with Officer Armond Pelissetti in the upper reaches of Cherry Street, in which Officer Donald Fouke had seconds earlier spotted the Zodiac Killer just past Maple Street, Donald Fouke made a three-point turn and headed off north on Cherry and west on Jackson. Armond Pelissetti then traveled up to the corner and headed east on Jackson to the intersection of Jackson and Maple, where he spotted a dog walker (Kjell Qvale/Zodiac) as he turned to go back toward Washington Street.
The 100 foot journey that the Zodiac Killer has from 3712 Jackson Street to the corner of Jackson and Maple, is approximately 22 seconds traveling at normal walking speed. This gives Donald Fouke ample time to travel to the corner of Jackson and Cherry and bump into Armond Pelissetti. The Zodiac Killer would now be roughly at the intersection of Jackson and Maple, while the two officers began their brief exchange. In the time it now takes for Officer Armond Pelissetti to travel the short distance to the top of Cherry Street and negotiate the journey east to the intersection of Jackson and Maple (approximately 500 feet in total distance) to spot Kjell Qvale, would mean that the Zodiac Killer (if Kjell Qvale) has to do the following.

Kjell Qvale would have to travel 370 feet to reach the front door of his residence (80 seconds}, possibly change his clothes (including the "three sweaters" and "lifts in his shoes" maybe), ditch the weapon, put his dog on the leach and immediately travel back to the intersection of Jackson and Maple (another 80 seconds) to be spotted by Officer Armond Pelissetti in Maple Street. This is a bare minimum of four minutes (longer if he entered the rear of his residence}. I shall let you decide if it took Armond Pelissetti four minutes to negotiate this journey east - and whether Kjell Qvale could reasonably manage everything he did at home, as well as traveling away from the Jackson and Maple intersection, and back again, before Armond Pelissetti arrived.  

If we conclude that both Officer Donald Fouke and Lindsey Robbins saw Zodiac, then something about the story isn't correct. This has been covered several times before - but until I get a different answer to "your quibbling about minutes" (which is not an answer), the story remains impossible in its current form. Begin the video below at 1 minute.    

We know the Zodiac Killer was an avid reader of the newspapers, often replying to law enforcement officers such as Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz and Captain Martin Lee, as well as arbitrary content from the newspaper articles themselves. Therefore, would it be any great surprise if he found his pseudonym in the newspapers as well. Covered very briefly on Zodiac Killer Mystery forum and Tom Voigt's old message board, this finding deserved another showing. The Zodiac Killer and the influence of astrology has been widely covered throughout the years, but below we have a column that featured daily over several decades in many newspapers, including the Vallejo Times-Herald throughout the relevant time period of the Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs attacks. The Star Gazer astrology column was created by Clay R. Pollan and ran in over 400 newspapers. He was a newspaper editor and publisher for many years, and founded the Inter-American Features Syndicate in the mid 1940s which distributed Star Gazer and Scram-lets puzzles.

The columns began with "To develop the message for (day), read words corresponding to numbers of your Zodiac birth sign". We mention the Zodiac Killer crosshairs being found in conjunction with the word "Zodiac" on a watch, but here we have a column that would have featured in the Vallejo Times-Herald in 1969, that contained a hidden message within the Zodiac horoscope - and on July 31st 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed a hidden message in three portions of code, one of which was sent to the Vallejo Times-Herald, and one which was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, in which he wrote "In this cipher is my idenity". Is it conceivable that the inspiration for his pseudonym was derived from this Zodiac horoscope, which further inspired him to begin his letter writing campaign with a concealed message?  

Twenty-one years later, could the Zodiac Killer have returned and used the very same technique, when he mailed the Celebrity Cypher. Luis Campos, born in Santiago, Dominican Republic is an inventor, poet and cryptographer who created puzzles and ciphers for the United Features Syndicate of New York, beginning in 1983. He would create six celebrity ciphers a week, featuring famous quotes from well-known people, past and present. The reader had to identify the person and quote from the encoded text. The characters in the cryptograms were deliberately spaced into separate words, as shown below.  

On September 25th 1990, somebody mailed the Celebrity Cypher to the Vallejo Times-Herald, approximately three months before the 1990 'Eureka' card - often associated with the Zodiac Killer. Bearing in mind the 408 cipher mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969, many have pondered whether this postcard was mailed by the Bay Area murderer.

We may now have two sets of Zodiac communications inspired by the hidden messages of Clay R. Pollan and Luis Campos, with the Vallejo Times-Herald the common denominator in both instances. We know the Zodiac Killer derived inspiration from the newspapers, but did this inspiration extend to mimicking the art of hidden messaging? This concept could have extended even further, when the Zodiac Killer designed his infamous unsolved 340 cipher, that may have been taken straight from the Dick Tracy comic and breakfast cereals of children - again receiving widespread publicity in the newspapers. See the Dick Tracy 340 Cipher article. 

The Zodiac Killer placed a phone call to police dispatcher Nancy Slover at 12:40 am on July 5th 1969, reporting his attack on Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin at Blue Rock Springs Park, while also stating he was responsible for the Lake Herman Road double murder on December 20th 1968. Although universally regarded as a payphone call with incorrect directions from Zodiac, this was never the case. The directions he gave were totally accurate and make perfect sense by the addition of one full stop in the message, described as the "substance of the statement" and not a verbatim transcription in the police report. The full explanation can be found here - but here is a depiction of what should have been transcribed by police.  

Recently, the phone call "trace" has been discussed again on the Zodiac forums, which I believe is probably the most important topic regarding the home address of the Zodiac Killer. The original transcription of the payphone message is below, containing two crucial times. 12:40 am: The time the payphone call from Zodiac was received, and 12:47 am: The time Mrs Johnson notified police that the call had been traced to a payphone at the intersection of Springs Road and Tuolumne Street in Vallejo.    

How they achieved the trace in 1969 will not be discussed here, suffice to say, they located the correct payphone. The Zodiac Killer stated in his August 4th 1969 letter, that "when I hung the phone up the damn thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me + my car". It is therefore very likely that this trace resulted in the payphone being rung back by PT&T opersators, much to the annoyance of Zodiac. If it wasn't rung back, then it's clear that the Zodiac Killer used this story to invent an eyewitness who saw his "brown car" as a ruse. Assuming the payphone was contacted by a PT&T operator, we have to consider the time that this occurred. Let us evaluate two scenarios, bearing in mind the Zodiac phone call would have lasted no longer than 30 seconds.

[1] The phone call by Zodiac was completed at 12:40:30. Let us assume that Betty Main traced the call very quickly, at about 12:41 am. She would have done this in full knowledge of the seriousness of the call, possibly regarding four murders. So if she understood the gravity of the call and the need for police to respond quickly to the payphone at the intersection of Springs Road and Tuolumne Street, why did the police get the call from PT&T operator, Mrs Johnson, six minutes later? Are we to assume that they just sat on their hands for six full minutes. This makes no sense.

It is common knowledge that in many knife attacks, such as the one perpetrated on Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside on October 30th 1966, the attacker will often cut themselves with their own knife. The Riverside Police Department (who for the most part did a thorough investigation) must have considered this a strong possibility bearing in mind the viciousness of the attack on the young woman. The Cheri Jo Bates autopsy findings showed extensive defensive wounds on her hands and arms, with the majority of the brutal attack focused on the upper part of her body (from the breasts upwards). The attack had all the hallmarks of somebody known to the victim, planned in advance by the disabling of her prized Volkswagen Beetle. Law enforcement stated that "the driveway adjacent to 3680 Terracina Street was so churned up it looked like a tractor had been over the ground. The girl, who was very athletic, put up a terrific struggle." The driveway and the autopsy report undeniably proved that Cheri Jo Bates did not exit this world like "a lamb to the slaughter", rather a woman who fought valiantly to the last. The police scoured for clues in the alleyway and noted that "at the murder scene, drops of blood were leading from the body to Terracina Street, indicating to the detectives that the murderer had walked back to the street following the slaying". This being the case, they must have considered that the drops of blood could have originated from the killer, who may well have cut himself "when the knife broke".

Cheri Jo Bates was found lying face down in the alleyway, 100 feet from Terracina Drive by groundskeeper Cleophus Martin the following morning. The knife used in the attack was described by Captain Cross as a pocket knife with a "3-inch blade or less." Had the blood really dripped off this small knife leaving a trail all the way to Terracina Drive, or was the killer now nursing an injury.

Mitochondrial DNA was extracted from the crime scene evidence in 1999/2000, leading to a DNA concentration of  0.003 nanograms per microliter being retrieved from a discarded cigarette butt found in the alleyway, and 0.01 nanograms per microliter being retrieved from the hair discovered at the base of Cheri Jo Bates' right thumb. There is however, no mention of the blood from the alleyway floor. This blood trail could be a combination of blood from the knife and blood from the killer, but the longer the trail extends, the likelier it becomes that it originates from the bloodstream of the murderer.

Assuming that the blood was retrieved along the whole trail to Terracina Drive, it would have been extremely routine forensic work in 1966 to determine the blood group of the submitted samples. Cheri Jo Bates' blood type detailed at autopsy is rare in the USA population. It was AB RhD positive, which accounts for only 3.4% of the American population. Any samples submitted that were not an AB blood group were almost certainly from her killer. However, even if the submitted samples were of the same blood group as Cheri Jo Bates, it still doesn't eliminate the possibility of the samples having originated from her murderer. He may have had the same blood type.

The tail of the blood drops would have indicated the directional movement of the killer towards Terracina Drive (as opposed to away), but should also have revealed which side of the alleyway the killer was favoring as he headed towards Terracina Drive - and the likely location of his parked vehicle (assuming he had one). If he had no vehicle, then it could have told us which side of the city he was heading to reach his residence. The diameter of the blood drops (reducing in size or not) could also tell us whether this was a freshly dripping wound, or the gradually reducing volume of blood falling from a knife blade. If the killer was telling the truth when he stated "I plunged the knife into her and it broke", then it is quite possible there was no knife to be dripping. No broken blade was found at autopsy, so it is perfectly conceivable that the hinge mechanism of the small pocket knife may have given way when striking the back of Cheri Jo Bates.

A female earwitness described "an awful scream between 10:15 pm and 10:45 pm, and then about two minutes of silence, and finally the sound of an old car starting up". If the author of the Confession Letter was really the killer of Cheri Jo Bates, then we can estimate the location of his vehicle, assuming the earwithness was hearing the actual murder take place. By combining the direction of the blood trail to one side of Terracina Drive, with the two minute interval from "scream to vehicle starting up", we can use the details in the Confession Letter to pinpoint fairly accurately the location of his vehicle. 
The Confession Letter stated "She let out a scream once and I kicked her in the head to shut her up. I plunged the knife into her and it broke. I then finished the job out cutting her throat". If this is when he "finished the job out" before leaving the scene, then he had two minutes to "kick her in the head, plunge the knife into her, cut her throat" and walk to his waiting vehicle. Allotting about 45 seconds at the murder scene, he has approximately 75 seconds to negotiate the 100 feet to Terracina Drive, and the rest to reach his vehicle. Traveling at an average walking speed of 1.4 meters per second, the 100 feet (30.48 meter) journey would take about 22 seconds, leaving 53 seconds walking time on Terracina Drive. That would mean a vehicle parked 243 feet (74 meters or 81 yards) from the alleyway. Cheri Jo Bates' Volkswagen Beetle was parked 75 yards (68 meters) east of the alleyway, just beyond the library annex. This rough estimate, would place the killer's vehicle only 6 yards (18 feet) behind the vehicle of Cheri Jo Bates (had he exited the alleyway east) - the ideal spot to offer her assistance when her vehicle failed to start - and the near exact location of the Tucker Torpedo (or Studebaker) described in Robert Graysmith's book.       

Two letters were mailed and postmarked February 1st 1988 and February 8th 1988 to McDonald's at 2 Northgate Park, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Both contained the word "attention" written on the envelope, with the first stating "attn. dan r." and the second likely the full name (hence why it is redacted). The February 1st 1988 correspondence had an accompanying hand- printed sheet of paper, likely beginning "dear Dan this is the Zodiac speaking", along with accompanying printed cutouts entitled "CHINESE ZODIAC", and beginning "The Chinese Zodiac..." and "Many Chinese believe..." The February 8th 1988 correspondence had a sheet of graph paper with the hand-printed beginning "This is the Zodiac (speaking)" and accompanying form entitled "McDonald's Profile Change Notice", upon which was the hand-written message "This is shit..."

Q4 Envelope postmarked "CHATTANOOGA, TN 374 PM 1 FEB 1988" bearing the printed address "McDONALDS 2 NORTHGATE PARK CHATTANOOGA TENN. 37343 attn. dan r."

Q1 Envelope postmarked "CHATT_NOOGA, TN 374 PM 8 FEB 1988" bearing the printed address "McDonald's 2 NORTh Gate Park CHattanooga Tenn. 37343 Attention (redacted)".

ALSO SUBMITTED: McDonald's form entitled "FILET-O-FISH/CHICKEN McNUGGETS/PIES Station Observation Checklist G7/G8/G9".

The McDonald's is not present there today and it doesn't appear one was present at this location in 1988 either, but I thought I would drop down to street level on Google maps and take a peek at 2 Northgate Park, Chattanooga. Amazingly, this is the view that confronted me (although when this logo was adopted I am unsure). 119 miles separates this location and 1611 Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia, where another alleged Zodiac communication was mailed on March 8th 1981 to the television station WXIA-TV "11 Alive", claiming involvement in the Atlanta Child Murders. 

I wanted to find who the target of one (probably both) of the letters was, regarding the address of "attn. dan r.". After a little digging it was discovered that the CEO of Greenleaf Center, Inc./North Georgia, a Foreign Profit Corporation with a last annual registration year of 1988, was Dan B. Page. The address was 1 Northgate Park, Chattanooga, Tennessee.

"According to public records DAN PAGE B is connected with one company - Greenleaf Center, Inc./North Georgia . This person is appointed in Greenleaf Center, Inc./North Georgia as a CEO. This company was incorporated about thirty-seven years, ago in October of 1982 in Chattanooga. The company is listed as Withdrawn in Georgia companies records". The address listed here is 2 Northgate Park, Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Greenleaf Center, Inc./North Georgia is a Georgia Foreign Profit Corporation filed on October 14, 1982. The company's filing status is listed as Withdrawn and its File Number is J251556. The Registered Agent on file for this company is R. Lindsay Shuff and is located at 500 Greenleaf Circle, Ft Oglethorpe, GA 30742. The company's principal address is 1 Northgate Park Ste 201, Chattanooga, TN 37415-6912. The company has 3 principals on record. The principals are Dianna Gilbert from Chattanooga TN, Page B, Dan from Chattanooga TN, and Lindsay R. Shuff from Chattanooga TN. link

The February 1st 1988 envelope admittedly states "attn. dan r.", but with the dates and address matching, one can only assume that the sender got the middle initial incorrect (unless you know better in comments). We have these communications and the March 8th 1981 "Peachtree" Letter, with a loose Georgia connection, separated by 119 miles.

It is now your job to make the connection between between McDonald's, China and the addressee in question - assuming we have the right person.

THE 340 CIPHER WAS CRACKED ON DECEMBER 3RD 2020 BY DAVE ORANCHAK, SAM BLAKE AND JARL VAN EYCKE, SO THIS EARLIER ARTICLE SHOULD BE VIEWED IN RESPECT TO RECENT DEVELOPMENTS.

The following article will coalesce several pieces of work from 2019 into one cogent story regarding a handful of communications mailed by the Zodiac Killer in 1970. For some, the following will be repetitive, for which I apologize. It will hopefully make the case that the Zodiac Killer was winding down his operations and ultimately revealing the answers to his Z340, Z32 and Z13 ciphers and codes, to which he knew were practically unsolvable without such a prompt. The Zodiac Killer was a narcissistic braggart, who boasted of his exploits and threatened all and sundry with the possibility of more murders and mayhem if his demands were not met, including the claim he had killed far more than could be accounted for. If we applied the same model to his ciphers and codes, we would have expected him to be unable to resist giving us the answers - or at the very least - some clues to break open his puzzles. The notion of a killer keeping deathly silent on the solutions to his codes for up to 50 years, runs contrary to everything we know about the Bay Area murderer during his brief but deadly reign. That is why I don't believe he did.

The story begins with the final thing he wrote on the July 26th 1970 Little List Letter, and finishes just two communications later with the October 27th 1970 Halloween Card. All the answers to his codes were contained in just three short months. The end of the Little List Letter read "PS. The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians and # inches along the radians". The Z32 was the easiest code to crack because the Zodiac Killer just gave us the answer above - the code concerned "Radians and inches along the radians". Why make it any more complicated than it has to be? A code of 29 unique symbols within a total of 32 characters is simply not solvable without a key - and there is insufficient wording on the 13 Hole Postcard, Halloween Card or Los Angeles Letter written in plain English to formulate any such key. The Z32 is even worse than giving us the English alphabet of 26 letters, replacing M with A, W with B and H with C and saying "now solve it". There is no transposition key present in the remaining three communications from October 5th 1970 to March 13th 1971, so if the Zodiac Killer was to be consistent in his inability to resist revealing his deeds, then the only realistic alternative is he gave us all the answers instead.

You need look no further than the Paul Stine police report to notice that the hashtag symbol is used to represent the word "number". The Zodiac Killer, by use of an arrow pointer underneath the hashtag, was telling us to replace the hashtag with a number value. The Mount Diablo map scale was 6.4 miles to the inch, so it is probably unsurprising that the "Mt Diablo code would concern inches". In this instance, I have placed the number 5 into place, giving us the answer of "5 inches along the radians". The reason for 5 inches is self explanatory, because 4 or 6 inches from Mount Diablo to San Francisco would fall into the sea on the east and west side. The San Francisco element will be covered shortly. The Zodiac Killer also gave us a second set of crosshairs (shown below).

This was the first time the Zodiac Killer had ever placed an accentuated zero within his crosshairs alongside the acronym SFPD. This had to be the second clue to the location of the bomb. The hashtag and arrow signified the value of inches required, so this had to signify the radian value. By some massive stroke of luck (almost beyond belief), the bold, black accentuated circle fell over 246 degrees on a compass rose - which is 4 radians and magnetic north (17 degrees in 1970). Therefore, the target of his bomb must have been 4 radians and magnetic north, and 5 inches along the radians. 

All Zodiac's bomb threats were focused towards the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Police Department, so placing this bomb location alongside the acronym SFPD should tell us that the threat was most likely focused toward a police station. By another massive stroke of luck, when we travel 4 radians and 5 inches from Mount Diablo, the target area for the bomb lies right by Ingleside Police Station. Allowing for a degree of flexibility of about 2%, by the Zodiac Killer rounding off his radians and inches, along with the black circle diameter, no other San Francisco police station comes close. However, we need to find a location where a school bus would be traveling from north to south (with the sun to the east), that has an embankment on the right side (as displayed on the April 20th 1970 bomb diagram), with easy and covert access to that embankment, and within a few hundred feet from Ingleside Police Station. The Zodiac Killer certainly wouldn't have wanted to attract attention by parking on the road itself, but by accessing the incline from a secondary location - likely at the top of the embankment - he could achieve this task in relative anonymity. Fortunately for us, that location sits approximately 230 feet from Ingleside Police Station. The perfect location for the Zodiac Killer to target a school bus and thumb his nose at the San Francisco Police Department, with covert access to the top of the embankment via the car park of San Francisco City College.             

Then came the 13 Hole Postcard punched in the style of a 'Dick Tracy' code with a "red crucifix decoder". What are the chances that if we arranged the 13 holes into the shape of a cross and place it over the midsection of the 340 cipher both horizontally and vertically, it would reveal the wording "paradice" and "slaves"? Then, what are the chances that the Zodiac Killer would write "paradice" and "slaves" in his next communication in a cross formation on the card, accompanied by "sorry no cipher" in a cross formation on the inside of the Halloween Card envelope? - totaling three cross formations - but supposedly, all created for absolutely no reason whatsoever in just two communications. Isn't it more believable they were created for purpose. The Zodiac Killer could easily have written "sorry no cipher" just the once, but deliberately fashioned it this way to tell us that the 340 character cipher was not a cipher after all. It was simply a design of "paradice" and "slaves" as exhibited by the Halloween Card. Throw in a few bigrams, pivots and 'corrected sixth line', and hopefully it will look convincing. 

All these clues from the back end of the Little List Letter to the Halloween Card giving us the literal answer to both the Z340 and Z32 in "paradice" and "slaves", and "Estimate: Four Radians and Five Inches". The 32 character code wasn't the complete solution, because the Zodiac Killer explicitly stated "the map coupled with the code will tell you where the bomb is set", which included magnetic north of 17 degrees in 1970. The code contained "four radians and five inches", to be coupled with the map which incorporated the magnetic north, giving us a total of 246.2 degrees.​ See The Blast Estimate of Zodiac and The Blast Estimate of Zodiac (Part Two) and The Blast Estimate of Zodiac (Part Three). Could either the 13 Hole Postcard or Halloween Card give us the answer to the Z13 as well? Again, totally unsolvable because of its limited number of characters, the Zodiac Killer could either keep quiet for up to fifty years or give us the answer.

From a previous article: On January 29th 1970, the Yellow Cab Company put up a thousand dollar reward for any information leading to the arrest of the Zodiac Killer. In addition, the Teamsters Union which represents the Yellow Cab Company were reported in the San Francisco Chronicle to be considering offering a further reward on February 8th 1970 in the case of Paul Stine and Charles Jarman (another taxicab murder victim). The April 20th 1970 letter gave us the code and was immediately followed by "I am mildly cerous as to how much money you have on my head now". The October 5th 1970 postcard gave us the possible solution of "Fk, I'm crackproof" and was immediately followed by "What is the price tag now". These are the only two communications in which the Zodiac Killer asked the police the price of his capture. These two communications not only had a code and an answer that fitted the code, but both were followed by the exact same question. When the Zodiac Killer was designing his 13 Hole Postcard, it is very likely he had at his disposal a copy of his original April 20th 1970 letter, or the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper cutting below, to which he was now supplying the answer. This may have been the trigger that influenced him to repeat the phrase "how much money you have on my head now" into the very similar "What is the price tag now". The Zodiac Killer, in essence, had inadvertently bound both communications together through phraseology, as well as code and solution.   

The Zodiac Killer introduction would now give us his name (albeit his initials) in absence of his full name. It would also read fluently as a sentence, as follows: "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you? My name is Fk, I'm crackproof". Nobody realistically believed he was going to supply his full name, but this way he satisfies the promise in a restricted format. Two communications mailed nearly six months apart, with a solution that satisfies the code, as well as a satisfactory introduction to the code - and both followed by the same question.    

The three 8's (representing Jesus Christ in gematria), along with the number 8 which symbolizes a new beginning, actually begins each element of the phrase Fk I'm crackproof. In addition, when we begin the phrase on the first 8, it fits perfectly around the existing K and M already present in the code and thereby creating a cyclical format, where the code ends and begins with the same letter. The Little List Letter provided the solution to the Button Letter and Mount Diablo code that preceded it. His next communication, the 13 Hole Postcard, provided the solution to the 13 Symbol Cipher before that, and finally the Halloween Card provided the solution to the 340 cipher. Three chronological solves to the three previous ciphers - and the only thing we had to add was the number "5", for which he inserted the hashtag and arrow. Why look for convoluted and excessively complicated solutions to these ciphers, when the Zodiac Killer gave us all the answers literally word for word.

This isn't a case of dragging wording from the entire Zodiac collection of cards and letters, but using just the two crosshairs of the Little List Letter, followed by the 13 Hole Postcard and Halloween Card. The bold, black circle and "PS. The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians and # inches along the radians" to answer the Z32. The 13 holes, red cross, "paradice" and "slaves", and "sorry no cipher" to answer the Z340. And finally, "Fk, I'm crackproof" to give us a shorthanded version of his name, while still retaining his anonymity. The alternative is that the codes are genuine, the designs on the 13 Hole Postcard and Halloween Card are devoid of any purposeful meaning, and the big-headed, braggart called Zodiac, kept his lips 'butoned' for however many years afterwards. 

It is clear that everything contained in the November 29th 1966 Confession Letter was harvested from the newspapers, and whoever created the typed letter was deliberately dragging orchestrated words from the newspapers into their narrative. Below I have used one particular article to demonstrate how the author used superfluous and unnecessary verbiage to flesh out the Confession Letter and convince us they were the killer of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966. 

The author begins by ladening their introduction with "young and beautiful" and "beautiful blond" just like the newspapers, in order to build the narrative of believability. The author then describes the disabling of the Volkswagen Beetle by disconnecting the "middle wire from the distributor" - another name for the coil wire described in the newspaper publication shown below. This was a key ingredient to convince investigators they were genuine, despite the fact they had approximately four weeks to uncover what the coil wire was. Quote from Liveaboutdotcom: "The ignition coil is the unit that takes your relatively weak battery power and turns it into a spark powerful enough to ignite fuel vapor. Inside ​a traditional ignition coil are two coils of wire on top of each other. These coils are called windings. One winding is called the primary winding, the other is the secondary. The primary winding gets the juice together to make a spark and the secondary sends it out the door to the distributor. You'll see three contacts on an ignition coil unless it has an external plug, in which case the contacts are hidden inside the case. The large contact in the middle is where the coil wire goes (the wire that links the coil to the distributor cap}. There is also a 12V+ wire that connects to a positive power source. The third contact communicates information to the rest of the car, like the tachometer". link.

The Confession letter continues with a vague reference to their car being down the street, which has been gleaned from the anonymous female earwitness account in the newspaper, telling us they heard a "car driving away". This anonymous earwitness account was further harvested for another part of the story, where the murderer apparently kicked Cheri Jo Bates in the head to stop her screaming, stating "she let out a scream once and I kicked her head to shut her up". The female earwitness described "a muffled scream" - almost as though it had been curtailed by a kick in the head.

An appeal for the weapon to be found was broadcasted by police almost immediately, describing it as a small knife or pocket knife, but it was never found. Why would a proclaimed big, brave, boasting killer add the phrase "with a small knife at her throat", if they were not using this to confirm the size of the knife described by police? The addition of the word "small" was totally unnecessary and devoid of any good reason, other than to convince the reader of the Confession Letter they were in fact the killer. If you read the multiple newspaper publications regarding the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, the overwhelming consensus is of a young woman "stabbed in the back, with her throat slashed", despite the fact that the autopsy showed far more wounds on the young woman's body, indicative of a prolonged and violent struggle between Cheri Jo Bates and her assailant. The Confession Letter just parroted these articles, stating "I plunged the knife into her, then finished the job out cutting her throat". The plunging of the knife was referencing the stab in the back, and the cutting of her throat just mimicked her throat being slashed. The fact that the author knew nothing about the intricacies of the crime was evident when they claimed "she went willingly, didn't put up a struggle and went to the slaughter like a lamb" - all of which were clearly untrue, and corroborated by not only the autopsy findings, but the freshly churned up driveway alongside the library.  

However, the most important feature of the newspapers at the time, was the reporting of the anonymous call from a female earwitness who described "an awful scream between 10.15 pm and 10.45 pm, and then about two minutes of silence, and finally the sound of an old car starting up". This earwithness was described as anonymous in several newspaper publications.

The author of the Confession Letter claimed they made a call to the police or newspaper. However, the Riverside Police Department and the Riverside Press-Enterprise could not confirm any phone call made to them by the claimed killer of Cheri Jo Bates. Zodiac Killer Facts wrote "Police could not confirm a phone call to the police or the local newspaper, The Press-Enterprise. The letter was considered most suspicious. Kinkead offered a disturbing conclusion: “The person who wrote the confession is aware of facts about the homicide that only the killer would know. There is no doubt that the person who wrote the confession letter is our homicide suspect.” There has been no confirmation or admission that the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates made any phone calls subsequent to the crime, and as shown above, there is no evidence whatsoever that the killer and Confession Letter author are the same person. In fact, there is no evidence the author of the letter was even a man. Running the wording through many software programs has comprehensively indicated female authorship.

The only phone call we know of, was the anonymous call by a female the following day, describing screams being heard nearby. So, was the author of the Confession Letter when stating "Yes I did make that call to you also. It was just a warning" referring to this call - and pretending they were the anonymous caller as some form of practical joke. If so, then they would be claiming they were female by association. However, what they would not have known, was the extended version of this 'anonmous call' story, elaborated upon in the Inside Detective magazine on January 1969.

Other detectives interviewed residents of a nearby apartment building, A girl tenant in an apartment only a few doors from the dirt driveway where the body was discovered, told the detectives that she heard screaming and yelling about 10:30 pm. "Then I heard a muted scream, and then a loud sound like an old car being started up - this was about two minutes after I heard the first scream", the girl informant said. However, the girl admitted she had not called police that night to inform them of the sounds of apparent violence she had heard.  Inside Detective, 1969. 

The woman/girl was not anonymous because detectives had interviewed her in person at her apartment, but to any newspaper reader in 1966 they could have been forgiven for believing the woman was simply phoning police while remaining anonymous and unknown. Was the author of the Confession Letter, as they had done for all the details typed above, simply taken this "anonymous telephone caller" from the newspapers and claimed "Yes I did make that call to you also"? - and why the Riverside Police and Riverside Press-Enterprise recollect no phone call being received by the killer. If this were the case, then the author of the Confession Letter is effectively admitting they are a female, and certainly not the Zodiac Killer. If the author of the Confession Letter was actually the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates, then the young Riverside City College student could conceivably have been murdered by another woman - a story that I doubt many would believe.

If the Zodiac Killer was a resident of Vallejo or its surrounding areas, then a murder in the northwest corner of San Francisco would be the perfect choice for a number of reasons. With a vehicle positioned alongside the Presidio Park, a murder such as the one perpetrated on Paul Stine on October 11th 1969, would provide an escape from the big city in a matter of minutes via Highway 101 and the Golden Gate Bridge. If anything goes awry, the murderer has the added advantage of a wooded park for momentary respite from responding law enforcement. This is the one confirmed Zodiac attack where the killer would direct the victim to the scene of the crime and thereby control the location of his murder. Dr. Kim Rossmo stated "The San Francisco murder differs significantly from the Zodiac's other crimes. Up to this point he was hunting in locations that had a good probability of containing his desired victims. Target selection was a function of area, not of an individual. However, it is unlikely the Zodiac was successful in all his searches; serial killers typically engage in extensive hunting activities, and for every attack there are many unsuccessful search attempts. In San Francisco, however, the Zodiac controlled the situation through his selection of victim type. The need for such control could be indicative of the distance the Zodiac had to travel to the crime site. Criminals who travel longer distances to offend are less likely to use uncertain target selection techniques". The notion of a killer who lived a matter of blocks from the intersection of Washington and Cherry, while not impossible, presents a greater risk in a number of ways. Committing such a daring murder in your own neighborhood, possibly minutes from your residence, and hoping everything goes to plan without being spotted, is not the ideal choice after previously committing three successful crimes with a comfortable buffer zone around your residence. Why now bring your murderous exploits to the doorstep of your home?  

There is every chance this murder was planned meticulously, from the standpoint of a waiting vehicle and immediate separation from San Francisco. The trip sheet of Paul Stine had a destination of Washington and Maple, but the taxicab was discovered one block further west at the intersection of Washington and Cherry. The movement of the killer, backtracking east along Jackson Street towards the Jackson and Maple intersection, strongly indicated the initial murder site had been pencilled in for Washington and Maple. If we compare the last three Washington intersections of Cherry, Maple and Spruce, and swivel Google maps around each intersection, it is clearly noticeable that this is the best choice from the perspective of a killer keen to avoid eyewitnesses. This may have indicated a level of forethought and planning.

The Zodiac Killer was last seen running into Julius Khan playground by eyewitnesses at Spruce Street. Therefore, a murder committed at Washington and Maple would allow the Zodiac Killer a walking distance of just 86 meters northwards, before heading east along Jackson Street and out of sight from the crime scene. He now has 131 meters to Spruce Street and the seclusion of Presidio Park and Julius Khan playground. This allows him three phases of separation: [1] Up Maple and east on Jackson [2] Into the park to reach his vehicle, and [3] Into his vehicle and over the Golden Gate Bridge. However, something happened as the taxicab approached the intersection of Washington and Maple, that forced a change of plan and Paul Stine to travel one block further west to Washington and Cherry. The reason for this switch could be manyfold, such as pedestrians at the desired location or occupied vehicles in the vicinity of Washington and Maple. Despite all the best laid plans, the Zodiac Killer was still reliant on the timing of the taxicab approaching a populous area with any number of distractions.

In his letter to the San Francisco Chronicle two days after the murder, the Zodiac Killer began his communication "I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by Washington St + Maple St last night, to prove this here is a blood stained piece of his shirt". By his statement of "last night", it is clear he is preparing this letter on Sunday, October 12th 1969. The Zodiac Killer may have scouted the area in advance, highlighting Washington and Maple as his preferred kill site, but this doesn't necessarily mean he knew every street in the area by name. He could have checked a map the following day and noted that his murder occurred at Washington and Cherry, but it didn't appear that this was the case or of high priority to him.

The newspaper headlines the following day were obviously unaware that this was a Zodiac crime, when the San Francisco Chronicle wrote on October 12th "A Yellow Cab driver was found shot to death in his cab last night, the victim of an apparent robbery attempt in Presidio Heights". The article continued, stating "Police said three youngsters saw a scuffle near the cab, which was stopped on Washington Street, near Cherry Street, about 10 pm". Although this should have told the Zodiac Killer the location of the murder site, we are not in a position to determine what time he prepared and sealed this letter with respect to the San Francisco Chronicle publication. If he sealed it before the article's release, he may have been unfamiliar with the road he traveled up after leaving the taxicab. I don't suppose noting down the street name after the murder was high on his priority list. If the letter was prepared after the newspaper publication and he had read it, then writing "I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by Washington St + Maple St last night" could have been a deliberate choice by the Zodiac Killer, signifying that he had knowledge of the destination contained within the trip sheet. There is no reason to conclude his writing of  "by Washington St + Maple St" was evidence of his unfamiliarity with the general area he was operating. 

The best chance of catching the Zodiac Killer is by re-examining all the evidence from his four crime scenes and hopefully extracting useable DNA from his communications mailed from 1969 to 1971. Unfortunately in recent years, despite the bloodstained shirt piece of the victim being mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle only two days after the murder, a select number of people still argue this murder could have been perpetrated by a hoaxer or group of nefarious individuals. So much so, this unknown third party decided that they should add a crime to the Zodiac portfolio that in no way resembled any previous Zodiac crimes. They were obviously aware of the murder and robbery attempt of Paul Stine, and thought they should gain access to the victim and surreptitiously tear a piece of bloodstained shirt from his body, before seeking out the trip sheet and noting the Washington and Maple destination. Or, they overheard Inspector David Toschi shouting out to all and sundry the contents of the trip sheet at the corner of Washington and Cherry, before sneaking onto the ambulance or creeping into the morgue unnoticed. Then finally, mimicking the Zodiac Killer's handwriting and threatening schoolchildren. The concept of creating well-thought-out counter narratives to the perceived narrative is a healthy one, but creating counter narratives for no other reason than you can, is counterproductive to ever pushing this case forward.

October 11th 2019 will mark the 50th anniversary of the murder of Paul Stine with little progress or resolution in sight. One day in the future the mask of the Zodiac Killer will hopefully be removed - the Zodiac circus will stop - and the traveling clowns will not be required to entertain the crowd anymore.