Below is the envelope and letter mailed to the television station WXIA-TV "11 Alive" at 1611 West Peachtree Street, 30308 in Atlanta, Georgia. This article has been created for those unfamiliar with this correspondence. The letter stated:
Hello its me. Haven't you people figured out who is killing these little people yet. I'll give you a hint, I used to be in San Francisco. I used to stalk women, but I like to kill children now. At all my victims bodies I have left certain clues, but I guess it's too much for you Rebels to handle. So I guess I'll have to tell you. I'll (to) kill children because they are so easy to "pick off: Buy the way, if you still have letters from the other murders, I am not writing in the same hand writing. 

The author of the letter, dated March 8th 1981, was suggesting he was responsible (in part) for the Atlanta Child Murders from 1979-81, 

Wayne Williams would eventually be arrested on June 21st 1981 in connection to the Atlanta Child Murders  He was found guilty on two counts of murder and sentenced on February 27th 1982 to two consecutive life terms in Georgia's Hancock State Prison in Sparta. Some of the child murders were attributed to Wayne Williams and some were unresolved. The author of the Peachtree letter (Zodiac or not) was likely piggybacking off these crimes to garner attention.

The FBI Bureau requested that the FBI laboratory "compare this letter with any other letters on file from the Zodiac Killer, responsible for a string of unsolved murders in San Francisco in the early and mid 1970's." What 'unsolved murders' the Zodiac was responsible for in the early to mid 1970's is difficult to ascertain. 

Here is more great discussion on the ZodiacKillerSite forum regarding the 'Hello It's Me' or 'Peachtree' letter. If you scroll down the forum page you will notice a second mailing around the same timeframe, described as similar to the Sacramento 'Cancer' and 'Fairfield' Leo cards mailed on December 10th 1969 and December 11th 1969 respectively - in a prepaid envelope. The message read "PLEASE STOP FORCED BUSSING OR I WILL KILL 3 MORE BLACK BOYS IN ATLANTA IN MARCH !".. Note the comparison to the 148 character cipher and letter mailed from Fairfield to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1971, where the author threatened to "SKIN 3 LITTLE KIDS" if his communication was not published on the front page of the Chronicle. A weak connection admittedly.  

There is a strong possibility that the author of the 'Peachtree' letter was the same individual responsible for the May 1978 'Channel Nine' letter. Both were mailed to television stations, WXIA-TV in Atlanta and KHJ-TV in Los Angeles, the handwriting looked similar (although subjective) and both contained racial overtones. The 'Peachtree' envelope contained the acronym ATKID for Atlanta Child Murders, along with the Zodiac crosshairs. The 'Channel Nine' envelope contained the acronym AIC 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 AGCGTH (All Good Children Go To Heaven) from the Manson Family's Spahn Ranch, along with the Zodiac crosshairs once again. All Good Children Go To Heaven is a British nursery rhyme: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, All good children go to heaven; When they die their sin's forgiven, One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, All good children go to heaven: A penny by the water, Tuppence by the sea, Threepence by the railway, Out goes she!"
   G

Sometime in 1971 a questionable Zodiac correspondence and cipher was received by the San Francisco Chronicle, postmarked Fairfield, California. This was now the third Zodiac related communication mailed from Fairfield, following the December 7th and December 16th letters. There is limited information on the internet regarding this letter, other than the Zodiologists.com website, who have analyzed this correspondence in great detail. The letter and cipher can be found using the Wayback Machine on Ed Neil's old website TheZodiacFiles.com. I have cleaned up the letter without altering any of the text by the author:

I'll DO IT TO BECAUSE I DONE IT 21 TIMES. I CAN'T STOP BECAUSE EACH ThAT I KILL MAKES IT WORSE AND I MUST KILL MORE. MAN IS ThE MOST PRIZED GAME. ILL NERVER GIVE MY NAME BECAUSE YOU dONT UNDERSTAND. NEXT TIME I WILL SEND A PATCH OF HUMAN SKIN if their is SOME Left OVER.

The 148 character cipher decodes to:

"Tis the Zodiac Speacking. Why can't you stop me. I can't stop killing. Stop listening t(o) phonys. If this is not on your front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin". 

The wording in the letter "I'll do it to because I done it 21 times" is consistent with a mailing date sometime after the March 13th 1971 Los Angeles correspondence from Zodiac, claiming 17+ victims. Using a simple calculation we can estimate how often the Zodiac claimed a victim. From December 20th 1968 to July 26th 1970, the Zodiac Killer claimed 13 victims over 584 days. That is one victim every 44.9 days. Therefore, from victim 13 to 21, another 8 victims were claimed (8 X 44.9 = 359 days). Add 359 days to July 26th 1970 and we arrive at July 20th 1971, approximately four months after the Los Angeles letter.

This letter and cipher appears at first glance a dubious Zodiac communication, but as Zodiologists.com point out, how difficult would it be for a hoaxer to mimic the ciphers or crosshairs of Zodiac. The fact the author failed to do this, should be pause for thought. There is also something about this letter that indicates the author had written another 'Zodiac' communication (or the author was the actual Bay Area murderer). The other communication, also mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 13th 1971, mirrored the 148 character cipher and letter in one crucial way - the victim total. The last two widely accepted Zodiac communications were the March 13th 1971 Los Angeles letter claiming 17+ victims, and the January 29th 1974 Exorcist letter  claiming 37 victims. The author of the above correspondence had 19 victim totals to choose from (18 to 36), yet he chose the total of 21, exactly the same as the total mentioned in the July 13th 1971 Monticello card, which featured in the San Francisco Police Department DNA report under "suspected Zodiac correspondence". Did the author of the above correspondence just get lucky by randomly choosing 21 victims and thereby mirroring the Monticello card, or was he the author of both?

The Monticello card was mailed on July 13th 1971 stating:
 
"Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April".

By my rudimentary calculations, the 148 character cipher and letter should have been mailed on July 20th 1971, only one week after the Monticello card. If somebody can find the exact date of mailing regarding the 148 cipher and letter, or when this correspondence was published in the San Francisco Chronicle, it would be of immense value. The Monticello card was not published in the newspapers, therefore the notion of a victim total of 21 having been chosen by two independent authors looks extremely unlikely. If the Monticello card was designated as "suspected Zodiac correspondence" by the San Francisco Police Department, then by extension, the above correspondence should be afforded the same value.        

On December 20th 1969 the Zodiac Killer mailed the 'Melvin Belli' letter claiming he may "lose control again and take his ninth or possibly tenth victim". The Zodiac Killer last stated his victim count on November 9th 1969, when he claimed "This is the Zodiac speaking up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people". Therefore victim number eight (if there ever was one) would have to fall between these two dates. However, in this article I will present some new information that could narrow down victim number eight to a period of just thirteen days, and add some intriguing connections to the murder of Leona LaRell Roberts (16) who featured in Robert Graysmith's 1986 Zodiac book. 

Just four days before the 'Melvin Belli' letter arrived, the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter was mailed to the San Francisco Examiner insinuating the author's involvement in the September 27th 1969 Lake Berryessa attack, by including a drawing and the wording "The Bleeding Knife of Zodiac." The same author had mailed a previous Fairfield letter on December 7th 1969 to the San Francisco Chronicle. This communication failed to acknowledge any current victim count, in conflict to the majority of his future correspondence - and he made no mention of victim number eight - leaving the very real possibility that victim number eight fell between the dates of December 7th 1969 and December 20th 1969. There are also three other mailings that point to the abduction and murder of Leona Roberts as a Zodiac victim, or at the very least, a claimed Zodiac victim, ending with the 'Melvin Belli' letter on December 20th 1969 (the first anniversary of the Lake Herman Road murders). But first, let's outline the story of Leona Roberts, abducted from her boyfriend's house on December 10th 1969.   

On Wednesday December 10th 1969 Leona Roberts left her job at the White Front Discount Store in Pleasant Hill (560 Contra Costa Boulevard) at approximately 5:00 pm for the eleven mile journey to her boyfriend's (Greg V. Valo) apartment at 749 Tormey Avenue, Rodeo. This location is only 8 miles from the Lake Herman Road murder site. At about 5:50 pm a neighbor, Susan Clark, heard the sound of a girl screaming, followed by somebody running from the rear of the apartment. A suspicious male was observed many times between the front door and a blue station wagon, before he eventually drove away. The man was described as 25 years old, 5'8", short blond hair and wearing brown trousers and a jacket. A while later her boyfriend arrived home to find a disturbance inside the apartment, scuff marks near the back door and her red Volkswagen parked outside. 

Here is an excerpt from Websleuths by Steph54 "On 28 December 1969, a man searching for driftwood on the beach at Bolinas Lagoon in Marin County found the nude body of Leona Roberts. It was later determined that a unique wristwatch was missing from the girl's wrist, but a Napa High School class ring given to her by a neighbor still remained on her finger. The tan dress she wore when last seen, along with two pairs of bell-bottomed pants, a blouse, a black purse and wallet, a key chain with car and house keys were also reported missing. There were marks on the wrists and ankles indicative of binding, but the coroner was unsure whether they occurred before or after death. The cause of death was reported as "due to viral infection of an unidentified species." It was also reported that there was "evidence of choking which could probably be linked to the virus." link.

Leona Roberts time of death has not been pinned down, but it has been estimated at approximately ten days to two weeks before her discovery, somewhere between December 14th and 18th 1969, just before the mailing of the 'Melvin Belli' letter. It is this letter that may contain a subtle clue to the abduction of Leona Roberts on December 10th 1969. The Zodiac Killer wrote in the 'Melvin Belli' letter "I will loose all controol of myself. Please help me. I can not remain in control for much longer" (edited). This mirrored closely a message written in lipstick on the wall of a murder victim in Chicago in 1945. The message read "For heavens Sake catch me Before I kill more. I cannot control myself". Frances Brown was discovered at her 3941 North Pine Grove apartment in Edgewater, Chicago. She had multiple knife wounds, along with a bullet wound to the head. William George Heirens would eventually be convicted for this and two other murders, and jailed for life. But why would the Zodiac Killer seemingly pluck the wording from a murder case 24 years prior? Was it a clue to his eighth victim? Frances Brown was discovered on December 10th, exactly the same date as the abduction of Leona Roberts from the 749 Tormey Avenue apartment. She was abducted and likely restrained for approximately one week before her eventual murder.

Bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer may have mailed the two Fairfield letters on December 7th 1969 and December 16th 1969, had he held the young girl somewhere in the vicinity of Fairfield, California, before eventually driving her body 65 miles to Bolinas Lagoon, located in the West Marin region of Marin County. There are another two potential Zodiac communications that may add weight to the Fairfield connection, mailed from Sacramento and San Francisco on December 10th and 11th of 1969. 

On December 10th 1969 (again, the date of Leona Roberts abduction), the Cancer FLT 555 Paste-Up Message was mailed from Sacramento to the Sacramento Bee newspaper, containing the wording "Action Guide, Watch, Want, Zodiac, Birds Fly South, Hidden, FLT 555 and Magic Amulet." The word "watch" has some relevance, regarding the missing "unique wristwatch" from the body of Leona Roberts, however, the phrase "Birds Fly South" may hold the biggest clue of all. Was the 'Cancer' card representative of the abduction of Leona Roberts and the invasion of her 'home' by an unwanted presence? A deadly invader of sorts. Her "cause of death was reported as "due to viral infection of an unidentified species."​

The following day, December 11th 1969, a similar paste-up message was postmarked San Francisco, and mailed to the San Francisco Newspaper Printing Company, P.O. Box 3100, Rincon Annex, San Francisco. If Leona Roberts was one day into her captivity and was to be held under duress for several days to one week, then the December 11th 1969 mailing was the most pertinent communication of all. It was entitled DAY-BY-DAY FORECAST FOR LEO, containing the words "A THRILLING PHENOMENON" and "C HARRY OTT can be Ridden", along with FLT Three of a kind, Hangups, Hidden, Train, time, Now, dangerous ride, warring love emotions and Ember's Lucky.  If Leona Roberts was being kept "hidden" in Fairfield, was the Zodiac Killer preparing to give us day-to-day updates and forecasts regarding the captivity and current status of Leona Roberts? The title of the communication may be a play on words by the Zodiac Killer: "DAY-BY-DAY FORECAST FOR LEONA ROBERTS". Unfortunately, the forecast for Leona Roberts would turn out deadly in a matter of days.

The murderer of Leona Roberts may have known the location he was going to dispose of her body in advance. The phrase "Birds Fly South" could very well be a reference to his chosen dumping ground of Bolinas Lagoon, somewhere he may have frequented on a regular basis. "One of the main attractions at Bolinas Lagoon are the millions of shorebirds and other waterfowl that visit the mudflats and quiet waters each year. The lagoon is one of the most important stopover points for birds that migrate along the Pacific Flyway. The lagoon is also home to a thriving population of harbor seals that can always be seen at low tide when they haul out to rest and replenish their depleted oxygen supply. Wildlife at this preserve should be observed at a respectful distance; seals that are flushed into the water suffer if they aren’t allowed to spend a minimum amount of time drying out. Birds may be exhausted and near starvation after having traveled nonstop for several hundred miles to reach the safe haven of the lagoon". Marin County Parks.

Bolinas Lagoon is a tidal estuary, approximately 1,100 acres in area, located in the West Marin region of Marin County, California, United States, adjacent to the town of Bolinas. The Pacific Flyway is a major north-south flyway for migratory birds in America, extending from Alaska to Patagonia. Every year, migratory birds travel some or all of this distance both in spring and in fall, following food sources, heading to breeding grounds, or travelling to overwintering sites. Along the Pacific Flyway, there are many key rest stops where birds of many species gather, sometimes in the millions, to feed and regain their strength before continuing. Some species may remain in these rest stops for the entire season, but most stay a few days before moving on. Wikipedia.

So, we have the 'Melvin Belli' letter and the December 10th murder of Frances Brown and abduction of Leona Roberts, linked by the wording in the correspondence, the "DAY-BY-DAY FORECAST FOR LEONA ROBERTS" mailed on December 11th 1969, and the dumping ground of Bolinas Lagoon, where "Birds Fly South". 

Other crimes loosely linked to the Zodiac Killer (and close to Bolinas Lagoon) involve the hanging of Pat Tan on Mount Tamalpais on April 19th 1970 (one day before the '13 Symbol' cipher communication) and the 'Tamalpais Valley Attack' on Isobel Watson. 
Isobel Watson (33) had just got off the bus on the evening of April 7th 1972, and was walking home along Pine Hill Road, Tamalpais Valley, Marin County at 9.00 pm, when a light colored vehicle veered towards her, knocking her to the ground. The driver exited his vehicle offering to take her home, but after she had refused his offer of apparent help a second time, the concerned citizen suddenly became enraged, pulling out a knife and stabbing the woman in the neck and shoulder. ​Her screams alerted the neighborhood, forcing the assailant into a hasty retreat from the scene. She was treated at Marin General Hospital and fortunately survived the brutal attack. Her description of the man alerted investigators to a possible Zodiac connection - that of a man with heavy rimmed black glasses, in his early 40's, 5' 9" in height and short brown hair. It was not overlooked by police that the killer had attempted to lure the woman into his vehicle, not dissimilar to the method employed in the Modesto abduction of Kathleen Johns. Napa County homicide detective Ken Narlow believed in a greater than 50-50 chance of a Zodiac connection, bearing in mind the description given by Isobel Watson.

On October 27th 1970 the Zodiac Killer mailed the Halloween card to the San Francisco Chronicle, stating "sorry no cipher" in the form of a cross, and fashioning "Paradice" and "Slaves" in the same manner. In the four corners he placed By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife. For anyone who believes the September 27th 1969 Lake Berryessa attack was at the hand of the Zodiac Killer, must surely conclude the "by knife" reference on the Halloween card to be admitting his participation in this crime, as this phrase on the car door had been withheld from the public and newspapers alike. This inextricably links the author of the Halloween card to the Lake Berryessa attack. Elements of the Halloween card can be found in the 340 cipher, with "Paradise" and "Slaves" bisecting the cipher (17 X 17) horizontally and vertically, with the word "by" placed horizontally in each of the four quadrants. 

The Halloween card alliance to the Lake Berryessa attack formed "by knife", in conjunction with the knothole in the tree and the wording "peek-a-boo you are doomed", should leave little doubt the two are connected. There is also a strong connection from the Halloween card to both the December 7th 1969 and December 16th 1969 Fairfield letters, and in turn, all three to the 340 cipher. The December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter contained a crude arrangement of 9 symbols (10 including the large crosshairs), impossible to decode as it stood. The four crosshairs around a larger version looked extremely similar to the Halloween card arrangement - and bearing in mind the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter was accompanied by a crude drawing of a knife entitled "The Bleeding Knife of Zodiac", it seemed likely the short code may have been Zodiac's initial attempt at revealing the hidden words on the car door of Bryan Hartnell's 1956 white Karmann Ghia. 

Thanks to Tahoe 27's excellent find linking the Halloween card to a Tim Holt comic book, depicting Death By Fire, Death By Gun, Death By Rope and Death By Knife, it seemed obligatory to consider the connection from the Halloween card "by knife" to the "The Bleeding Knife of Zodiac", along with the similarity in design between the Paradice/Slaves arrangement and the four crosshairs circling a larger version. The four methods of death represented by the four crosshairs or targets.   

The Halloween card, 340 cipher and both Fairfield letters seemed intertwined. The fact that Zodiac placed "sorry no cipher" in the form of a cross rather than just singularly, can be linked to "Paradice" and "Slaves", and therefore the 340 cipher. Was he suggesting the 340 cryptogram was not a true cipher? It appeared he may have been dropping clues to the design of the 340 cipher as early as December 7th 1969, placing a 38 character code in the first Fairfield letter.

On the left, "by" can be observed in all four quadrants. Parts of the December 7th 1969 code are highlighted in blue, while four of the adjacent symbols from the December 16th 1969 code are highlighted in yellow.

The December 7th letter opened with the words "I just need help", reminiscent of the December 20th 1969 Melvin Belli letter, and followed by "I will kill again, so expect it any time the will be a cop", similar in fashion to the April 20th 1970 letter, where Zodiac stated "But there is more glory in killing a cop than a cid because a cop can shoot back". The December 16th letter opened with the same two words as the December 7th letter, stating "I just want to tell you", almost certainly tying them together - along with the handwriting and crude coding. Bearing in mind neither of the Fairfield letters appeared in the newspapers, it appears that Zodiac either just accidentally mirrored these communications with the subsequent December 20th 1969 and April 20th 1970 letters, or he was the author of all four.

Was the Paradice, Slaves, By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife configuration a representation of the number of murders he was intending to secure for the afterlife. Paradice, Slaves, By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife oddly contained 38 letters. The character count on the December 7th 1969 Fairfield letter code was 38. The intended victims on the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter was 38. The 340 'Dripping Pen' card, eerily similar to the "Bleeding Knife of Zodiac" depiction, opened with the wording "Sorry I haven't written, but I just washed my pen." This phrase again contained the words "I just", but also an alphanumeric count of 38. The April 20th 1970 letter, stating "I hope you have fun trying to figgure out who I killed" had a code that added up to 38 when the alphabet was placed alongside it.
And finally, the Exorcist letter (widely believed to be the final offering by the Zodiac Killer) claimed 37 victims, but promising to kill again if his demands were not met. Probably coincidence, but curious nonetheless.  

The 'Dripping Pen' card may have been a depiction chosen by the Zodiac Killer regarding his exploits at Lake Berryessa. The pen dripping blood as he is writing on the car door of Bryan Hartnell's vehicle, and his reason for washing it. The 340 cipher accompanying this card, with the "Paradice", "Slaves" and "by knife" link back to the Halloween card, further indicating a connection to Lake Berryessa through these communications. 

​The 'Death By Fire, Death By Gun, Death By Rope and Death By Knife' agenda could have been formed in the mind of the killer as early as the beginning of his campaign of terror, when he mailed the 408 cipher, stating  "the best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradise and all the (people) I have killed will become my slaves. I will not give you my name because you will try to slow down or stop my collecting of slaves for my afterlife". The same paradice and slaves permeating through much of his correspondence, and possibly the 340 cipher also. "By knife" an integral part of both Fairfield letters and the Halloween card, to hopefully lay any doubts to rest, of his involvement and knowledge of the writing at the foot of the message on Bryan Hartnell's car door.

The December 16th 1969 "knife," in a side-by-side comparison to the writing on the car door of Bryan Hartnell. Anyone could have read about the Lake Berryessa attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard with a knife, but would an impostor have emphasized it in the form of a drawing, as to signify its importance, without knowing for certain the hidden message on the car door? And how would the Zodiac Killer, when designing the Halloween card, accidentally mirror the "death by fire, gun, rope and knife" arrangement on the Fairfield letter, when the December 16th 1969 letter was never published in the newspapers. Somebody attempting to imitate the Zodiac Killer in both December letters, would surely have attempted to imitate him, not go out of their way to undo the neatness and organization exhibited by the 340 cipher and thereby nullify their efforts? The Zodiac Killer would have had no such concerns.

The Exorcist letter has recently come under the spotlight regarding its authenticity as a Zodiac communication, but regardless, we will examine it in context to previous correspondence from the Bay Area murderer and hopefully show that the entire letter is designed around the Gilbert & Sullivan comedic opera 'The Mikado', in particular Ko-Ko the Lord High Executioner. The Zodiac Killer had now seemingly dropped his long-held pseudonym after a three year hiatus and had reemerged, vowing to continue his campaign of murder under a new guise.    

The Zodiac Killer had previously used two musical numbers from The Mikado when he mailed the Little List letter on July 26th 1970. The first was 'A More Humane Mikado', followed by 'As Some Day It May Happen', featuring Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner.​ This was noted in the San Francisco Chronicle on October 12th 1970, just 15 days prior to the mailing of the 'Halloween' card: "It was immediately apparent that Zodiac had plagiarized several stanzas from an aria in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta 'The Mikado'. It is the entrance aria of Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner. A quiet search of onetime Ko-Ko's has turned up none that could be Zodiac. Obvious differences in physical description and handwriting comparisons have cleared all Ko-Ko's tracked down since the arrival of the July 27 letters."

The text on the Exorcist letter is split into three sections: [1] The introduction referring to the recently released Exorcist movie, and featured in a newspaper article by reporter Paul Avery, [2] The latest Zodiac pseudonym disguised under the heading of 'Yours truley', and [3] The customary threat promising more victims if his "note" is not published.

There is little doubt that the Zodiac Killer (now Lord High Executioner) is describing the William Friedkin movie 'The Exorcist' in terms of 'The Mikado'. The Gilbert & Sullivan play is often described as a comedic opera of political satire, so the author choosing the words "I saw and think "The Exorcist" was the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen" is certainly not by accident. However, it is the introduction of "I saw and think" that may carry more meaning than initially thought.
​
'As Some Day It May Happen' featured heavily in the July 26th 1970 letter. It was spoken by Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner, with the word "think" appearing four times during this act, including the introduction :
[1] "Gentlemen, I'm much touched by this reception. I can only trust that by strict attention to duty I shall ensure a continuance of those favours which it will ever be my study to deserve. If I should ever be called upon to act professionally, I am happy to think that there will be no difficulty in finding plenty of people whose loss will be a distinct gain to society at large". [2] and [3] "And who doesn't think she dances, but would rather like to try; And that singular anomaly, the lady novelist — I don't think she'd be missed — I'm sure she'd not be missed". 
[4] "He's got her on the list — he's got her on the list; And I don't think she'll be missed — I'm sure she'll not be missed".

Was the Zodiac Killer reprising his performance of the Little List letter and using the introduction of "I saw and think" under the guise of Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner?  This argument may be bolstered, when he immediately follows this up by signing his new pseudonym in the form of another Ko-Ko, Lord High Executioner verse from 'On A Tree By A River' featuring tit-willow. The author is simply saying "Signed, yours truley: The Lord High Executioner." 

The third section of text on the 'Exorcist' letter is uncannily similar to the first letters mailed by the Zodiac Killer on July 31st 1969. The 'Exorcist' letter was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, so we will take a look at the July 31st 1969 letter mailed to the same paper. This is what the killer signed off with: "I want you to print this cipher on the front page of your paper. In this cipher is my idenity. 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." It begins with a demand to print his material in the paper, and finishes with the threat "to kill" again if his instructions are not followed, exactly like the Exorcist letter. 

The 'Exorcist' letter symbols were decoded by Kevin Robert Brooks to spell the words "To Kill", which although not proven, makes perfect sense with respect to the July 31st 1969 letters, and in keeping with the Lord High Executioner's list of people who will not be missed. The Mikado style symbolism at the foot of the Exorcist letter threatening "To Kill" again, lending credence to the notion the Zodiac Killer is now operating under the pseudonym of a Japanese High Executioner. 

The answer that has always eluded people - is did the Zodiac Killer begin his murders and letter writing in Riverside, before resuming his campaign of terror in the Bay Area? The Zodiac Killer communications began on July 31st 1969, and presumably ceased with the last confirmed correspondence on January 29th 1974. We have shown the similarity of threats exhibited by the Exorcist letter and the trinity of July 31st 1969 letters, regarding his promise "to kill" if his cipher or "Tit-willow" communications were not published. The 408 cipher was split into three parts (similar to the Exorcist letter) containing 8 lines of text, thereby 24 lines in total. The verse Tit-willow was split identically to the 408 cipher, three verses of 8 lines. The three Bates letters were mailed to Joseph Bates, the Riverside Press Enterprise and Riverside Police, and once again contained double postage like much of the Zodiac correspondence, with each containing just 8 words: "Bates/She had to die there will be more".   

The Mikado influence is present in all three sections of the Exorcist letter (including the Asian style characters) in a reinvention of the July 26th 1970 Little List letter. Was the Exorcist letter a hoaxer operating under the guise of the Zodiac Killer, plagiarizing the Gilbert & Sullivan opera once again and convincing us the threat was still alive in the Bay Area after nearly five years, or was the executioner at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969 biding his time, before extinguishing the Zodiac Killer once and for all?

Many people have attempted to understand the meaning of the December 27th 1974 Christmas card mailed to Donna Lass' sister, Mary Pilker, with the wording "Best Wishes, St Donna & Guardian of the Pines." Was it innocuous or a sinister message from the Zodiac Killer, forever connected to the disappearance of Donna Ann Lass from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970? The following is not an attempt to claim an answer to this mystery, but to throw out a few ideas regarding this subject. The title of 'Saint' is often attached to a person acknowledged as holy or virtuous and regarded in Christian faith as being in heaven after death. Therefore, the inference that can be drawn from this card, is that Donna Lass is likely dead and her spirit is somehow serving as a "guardian of the Pines", leading some to believe she is buried in a location around Lake Tahoe. Could the author of the 1974 Christmas card be referencing something in his past in the wording he chose? ​

A newspaper article stated that "the site depicted on the (March 22nd 1971) 'Pines Card' was from an advertisement published last Sunday by several newspapers. It was an artist's rendition of houses among the trees at a Boise Cascade Company project at Incline Village, where construction has just begun on the development. While much of the Sierra area is under several feet of snow, Incline Village has only two feet on the ground. Police went to the area to determine if a search is possible".

If the author of the 1974 Christmas card was the same individual as the 1971 'Pines' card, could he again be referring to vacation properties at a different location, where we can tie the words "Guardian", "Pines" and "Donna" together. 

On December 15th 1971, a correspondence was mailed from Scottsville, New York and addressed to Mr J Edgar Hoover, first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The communication would claim that with proper investigation it would disclose the name and identity of the infamous Zodiac Killer of California. In an article entitled 'The John Edgar Hoover Letter', a similarity in the handwriting between this communication and the 1974 letter was noted. 

​On August 1st 1973, a suspected Zodiac letter was mailed to the New York, Albany Times Union newspaper threatening to murder an employee/nurse at the local hospital during "shift change", reminiscent of Donna Lass, who disappeared near her end of shift three years earlier. Although it appears the 1974 Christmas card was mailed from Alameda County, California, could the Zodiac Killer have been living in New York from 1971 to 1974, or beyond, and occasionally commuting to the Bay Area? The 'Pines' card was mailed on March 22nd 1971, before a hiatus of nearly three years, when the 'Exorcist' letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle on January 29th 1974 and culminating with the Christmas card correspondence on December 27th 1974, tenuously linked to the Zodiac Killer. Can any link be forged to New York with respect to the 1974 Christmas card?

On October 18th 1969 Paul Avery ran a piece in the San Francisco Chronicle describing the Zodiac Killer as a 'latent homosexual'. Under the banner 'Zodiac-Portrait of the Killer' he stated "The killer of five who calls himself 'Zodiac' is a clumsy criminal, a liar and possibly a latent homosexual."  Had the Zodiac Killer murdered young heterosexual courting couples as a result of his own suppressed homosexual leanings? This topic was explored in the article 'Skeleton in the Closet'. Had the Zodiac Killer moved to, or near an area of New York, akin to the Castro District of San Francisco, where he could explore his repressed identity? We now need to use a bit of that 'pattern seeking animal', in order to knit "homosexuality", "Guardian", "Pines" and "Donna" into one single location.

On the right is the 1952 brochure for 'Fire Island Pines'. It states "The original brochure from the Home Guardian Company of New York for the new Fire Island community called the Pines".
​
"Fire Island Pines (often referred to as The Pines, simply Pines, or FIP) is a hamlet in the Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is located on Fire Island, a barrier island on the southern side of Long Island.
Fire Island Pines along with the adjoining Cherry Grove, are the areas most strongly associated with the gay community on Fire Island. The island has been referred to as America’s first gay and lesbian town and served since the 1920s and 1930s as a refuge for vacationers and others who desired the more liberal attitude the island's occupants allowed.
The Pines, which has the most expensive real estate on Fire Island, has approximately 600 houses and a 100 unit condominium complex on its square mile of location. It has two-thirds of the swimming pools on Fire Island. Its summer seasonal population is between 2,500 and 3,000." Wikipedia.

This is the original brochure from the Home Guardian Company of New York for the new Fire Island community called the Pines, supplying bungalow sites and condominiums, much like the Boise Cascade Company project at Incline Village, Lake Tahoe. 

The Zodiac Killer had taken the phrase "peek through the pines" from the Boise Cascade Company advertisement. Did his inspiration for the 1974 Christmas card have similar roots of the Home Guardian Company?

"The surveyor called it “Five Islands.”  After a hundred years came another survey.  By then the cuts had healed, giving this surveyor the impression of a beach entire; taking “Five” for a misprint he “corrected” it to “Fire.”  Why fire?  Because fires did appear, campfires of Indians (whose name for the island was “Seal” and “Raccoon”), fires of whalers rendering blubber, fires of salvagers luring ships aground, and more kindly ones as beacons warning them away, fires of runaways, survivors– perhaps even early Sierra Club Outings".  
​Pines History.   Hurricane History at Fire Island Pines.

"The last major storm in the New York metropolitan area was in June 1972, when Hurricane Agnes tore for 10 days along the Eastern Seaboard". New York Times. 
Was the Zodiac Killer invoking the spirit of Saint Donna from the afterlife as a Guardian of the Fire Island Pines, recalling memories from his formative years? Donna Lass disappeared on September 6th 1970. Hurricane Donna appeared and dissipated between August 29th and September 13th 1960, ten years earlier. 

By coalescing various stories of homosexuality, Fire Island Pines in New York, the Home Guardian Company and Hurricane Donna, a perceived link can be forged back to the 1974 Mary Pilker Christmas card. But it's just a work of fiction like so many Zodiac claims on the internet.

As early as August 10th 1969, Professor D.C.B. Marsh of the American Cryptogram Association (ACA) was commenting on the Zodiac ciphers. In the San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle, he praised Donald Harden's deciphering skills and called the code "complicated and obviously drawn by somebody who knows his business". 
​
The Zodiac Killer had already responded to prompts by Vallejo Police Chief Jack Stiltz to send more details to prove the letter writer and killer were one and the same. The more the Zodiac Killer wrote, not only lessened his time for killing, but may have provided additional clues to detectives regarding his identity. This tactic was likely adopted by Professor D.C.B. Marsh in the October 22nd 1969 San Francisco Examiner newspaper article by Will Stevens, which laid down a challenge to the Zodiac Killer to reveal his name. The newspaper stated "Dr Marsh told the Examiner today: "The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts. He knows, to quote Edgar Allen Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name -in cipher code - would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated - which will truly and honestly include his name".

Clearly, Dr. Marsh and the detectives would have considered it highly unlikely for the Zodiac Killer to respond by giving us his name, but while he was constructing ciphers he wasn't murdering innocent civilians. There also remained an outside chance that Zodiac would rise to the challenge and create a code, "however complicated", that Dr Marsh and his fellow cryptographers could unpick. This article, rather than a straightforward challenge to Zodiac, could have been deliberately manufactured with the assistance of detectives, to bait the Zodiac Killer into using a particular methodology in his cipher construction. If the police knew the source of Zodiac's inspiration, then it could unearth the cipher technique he employed when designing his next code

'Nobody', a contributor to this site, considered the idea that the Zodiac Killer may have used a foreign language in the cipher, or possibly a rotating key that switches at certain intervals. By employing such a technique, the Zodiac Killer could make the cipher virtually "crackproof". The article in the October 22nd 1969 San Francisco Examiner may have been specifically designed to lead the Zodiac Killer down a particular path, making his next cipher easier to crack. Dropping innocuous sections of text into an article such as "to quote Edgar Allen Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man", can be specifically designed to guide the Bay Area murderer into using one of Edgar Allan Poe's cipher techniques or a model suggested by him. We know the Zodiac Killer was an avid reader of the newspapers and may have took this bait of using a publication by Edgar Allan Poe, thinking he was getting one over on Dr Marsh and the police. The hope from the standpoint of law enforcement, was that the Zodiac Killer would bite the hook and get reeled in. 

Sixteen days later, the Zodiac Killer mailed the 340 cipher revealing - not his name - but his identity carefully positioned at the base of his cipher. This bolstered the idea that the Zodiac Killer had indeed responded to the article by Dr Marsh, but wasn't quite ready to reveal his name to authorities just yet. But it is my belief that the Zodiac Killer did create the 340 and 13 Symbol ciphers in tandem, with a view to inextricably link his identity to his name using the word "Zodiac" on the final row of the 340 cipher, with the three 8's as the conduit between the two. See here.


The Zodiac Killer, however, would hold back his 13 Symbol cipher for approximately six months. Zodiac researcher Michael Cole stated "Clearly, the Zodiac did not send the cryptogram to Marsh, as had been requested (this non-public way of satisfying the challenge was apparently unacceptable to the attention-craving serial killer). Neither did he respond in a time frame that most would have expected. But these details matter little. In fact, the timing itself provides yet another reason to conclude that what we have here is a specific instance of cause and effect. As mentioned, this article was published in the Examiner on October 22, 1969.  Six months to the day later, April 22, 1970, the people of the San Francisco Bay Area were reading about the My Name Is cipher in the Chronicle".

But there may have been a much more cunning reason why the Zodiac Killer delayed his mailing of the April 20th 1970 communication, and it has everything to do with Edgar Allan Poe. Did the Zodiac Killer pick up on the wording of Dr. D.C.B. Marsh in the article, and so create and mail his 13 Symbol cipher based on something in the writings of Edgar Allen Poe?

We can see in the Edgar Allan Poe essay 'A Few Words on Secret Writing' - at the very beginning he shows the alphabet being split into two halves of 13 letters, A to M, and N to Z. Below is a section of the text:

"Were two individuals, totally unpractised in cryptography, desirous of holding by letter a correspondence which should be unintelligible to all but themselves, it is most probable that they would at once think of a peculiar alphabet, to which each should have a key. At first it would, perhaps, be arranged that a should stand for z, b for y, c for x, d for w, &c. &c.; that is to say, the order of the letters would be reversed. Upon second thoughts, this arrangement appearing too obvious, a more complex mode would be adopted. The first thirteen letters might be written beneath the last thirteen, thus:
n o p q r s t u v w x y z
a b c d e f g h i j k I m; and, so placed, a might stand for n and n for a, o for b and b for a, &c. &c. This, again, having an air of regularity which might be fathomed, the key alphabet might be constructed absolutely at random". ​​

The Zodiac Killer not only created the April 20th 1970 cipher with 13 characters, but it too began with an A and ended with an M, just like the suggested encryption technique featured by Edgar Allan Poe. Notice the way the cipher is organized symmetrically using the alphabetical characters, the three 8's and the two symbols. The same symmetry was observed when placing half the alphabet alongside the 13 character cipher. See here.  

The Dr. Marsh newspaper article opened with "A Challenge perhaps unique in the annals of American crime was injected today into the bizarre case of the killer who begins his letters to newspapers 'This is the Zodiac Speaking". The article continued, and bemoaned the fact that Zodiac hadn't revealed his true identity, stating  "Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name - in cipher code - would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated - which will truly and honestly include his name".

'A Few Words on Secret Writing' stated "This challenge has elicited but a single response, which is embraced in the following letter. The only quarrel we have with the epistle, is that its writer has declined giving us his name in full. We beg that he will take an early opportunity of doing this, and thus relieve us of the chance of that suspicion which was attached to the cryptography of the weekly journal above-mentioned–the suspicion of inditing ciphers to ourselves. The postmark of the letter is Stonington, Conn". ​link. 

If the Zodiac Killer was basing the 13 Symbol cipher on the Dr. Marsh article and secret writing of Edgar Allan Poe, why did he wait approximately six months to mail it to the San Francisco Chronicle? It may not have been the six month anniversary that was important to him, but the only date mentioned in the Edgar Allan Poe literature, A Few Words on Secret Writing. That date was April 21st. 

Had the Zodiac Killer deliberately waited six months to ensure his 13 Symbol cipher letter would be postmarked April 21st, or be published on April 21st, which unfortunately for him never materialized? He was slightly early on the mailing, resulting in the postmark of April 20th, and the San Francisco Chronicle published his cipher in the April 22nd edition, effectively thwarting any intentions to recreate the Connecticut letter. However, the possibility remains, that the Zodiac Killer could have used one of the cipher techniques employed or suggested by Edgar Allan Poe in A Few Words on Secret Writing.
​
"It is not to be supposed that Cryptography, as a serious thing, as the means of imparting important information, has gone out of use at the present day. It is still commonly practised in diplomacy; and there are individuals, even now, holding office in the eye of various foreign governments, whose real business is that of deciphering. We have already said that a peculiar mental action is called into play in the solution of cryptographical problems, at least in those of the higher order. Good cryptographists are rare indeed; and thus their services, although seldom required, are necessarily well requited. An instance of the modern employment cipher is mentioned in a work lately published by Messieurs Lea & Blanchard, of this city–“Sketches of Conspicuous Living Characters of France.” In a notice of Berryer, it is said that a letter being addressed by the Duchess de Berri to the legitimists of Paris, to inform them of her arrival, it was accompanied by a long note in cipher, the key of which she had forgotten to give. “The penetrating mind of Berrver,” says the biographer, “soon discovered it. It was this phrase substituted for the twenty-four letters of the alphabet–Le,gouvernement provisoire". 'A Few Words on Secret Writing' by Edgar Allan Poe.

Beach Street runs from Pier 39 to the Maritime Museum, however, despite what Google maps indicates, there is no 56 Beach Street present today. Thanks to 'Nobody':"56 Beach St is the old block numbering from the original planning maps, which comes out as 1654/1656 on the street numbering. 1654/56 Beach St, San Francisco, CA is a condo home that contains 2,141 sq ft and was built in 1938".

"During the 1960s, California was the site of many outdoor art fairs, which nurtured a culture of independent artists and craftspersons. At this time there was an effort to sell crafts on the sidewalks of the liberal Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Artists and street performers who illegally set up in public areas were frequently harassed and arrested by the police. In the 700 block of Beach Street adjacent to Victorian Park and near Fisherman's Wharf, between 15 and 25 artists would set up their displays and use lookouts to alert them to the arrival of the police". Wikipedia.

Sergeant Lynch couldn't locate a 56 Beach Street in 1969, so considered Beechwood Street starting in the 700 block. This location was actually Beechwood Drive, Daly City, CA 94015 and it is 8.6 miles from Beach Street, San Francisco.
This clearly indicates that Sergeant Lynch was considering the letter from the standpoint of San Francisco due to its proximity to San Mateo. 

The question that arises from this letter, is were the "concerned citizen" and "good citizen" communications designed by the same author or linked in any way? The first supplied a code key relating to the 408 cipher, solved by Donald Gene and Bettye June Harden of Salinas, California. The second referred to "code letters" - and both correspondences were mailed to Sergeant John Lynch. Bearing in mind the "concerned citizen" card wasn't mentioned in any newspapers, does this increase the significance of the October 7th 1969 mailing?
U.S. Route 101 or U.S. Highway 101 links Salinas, San Mateo and Beach Street.​ Paul Stine picked up the Zodiac in the proximity of Union Square on October 11th 1969. The "good citizen" letter was mailed only four days earlier and mentioned ESP and Beach Street - a location that is only 1.4 miles from Union Square.   

Without knowing more about this communication and its exact contents, this analysis must be treated with caution. 

# "Zener cards are cards used to conduct experiments for extrasensory perception (ESP) or clairvoyance. Perceptual psychologist Karl Zener (1903–1964) designed the cards in the early 1930s for experiments conducted with his colleague, parapsychologist J. B. Rhine (1895–1980). The original series of experiments have been discredited and replication has proved elusive. The Zener cards are a deck of twenty five cards, five of each symbol. The five symbols are: a hollow circle, a plus sign, three vertical wavy lines, a hollow square, and a hollow five-pointed star. They are used to test for ESP." Wikipedia.

As explained in the previous article, there appears little doubt that the author of the "concerned citizen" card had read the August 9th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle article entitled 'A Murder Code is Broken'. The article clearly stated that Donald Harden's worksheets had been forwarded from the Chronicle to the Vallejo Police Department (which would obviously contain the cipher key and method of decryption). It stated "Vallejo Police Sergeant John Lynch, in charge of the investigation of the murders and of the cipher letter writer, asked The Chronicle to send Harden's code breaking worksheets to him for further checking; which was done." The wording "cipher letter writer" is an unusual combination of words, that apparently didn't go unnoticed by the "concerned citizen" author, who used the same sequence in his opening gambit: "I hope the enclosed "key" will prove to be beneficial to you in connection with the cipher letter writer."  
This should be proof enough that the "concerned citizen" had read the Chronicle article, knew the code had been broken, and knew Donald Harden's worksheets had already been sent to the Vallejo Police Department and Sergeant John Lynch. Therefore, do you have to question the integrity of the "concerned citizen" regarding the motivation behind his August 10th 1969 mailing?    

​The Vallejo Times-Herald also broke the story on August 9th 1969, stating "Lynch talked to Harden and said, "I'm convinced he has it solved". He said he would talk to him again today. Meanwhile Lynch has Harden's worksheets and is studying and comparing them with the three-part cryptogram and the translation." 

So, having presumably read all this, was the "concerned citizen" just a helpful member of the public attempting to corroborate the Harden's solution, or did the Zodiac Killer, knowing his cipher had been broken quickly, begin playing a game of 'cat and mouse'. The author of the "concerned citizen" card didn't want to give the Vallejo Police Department his name for fear it would be published in the newspapers, just like Zodiac stated in the 408 - but did the anonymous card reveal his identity? 

The "concerned citizen" card only contained 69 words, so why did the sender bother to type the message rather than write a handwritten message or simply capitalize the text.
When he wrote the cipher key he capitalized the alphabetical letters to mirror the 408, so what purpose was behind him choosing not to do this in his message?

The sender would certainly not have given away his identity by using upper case lettering in the message (as he had already done it in the key), nevertheless, he chose to type it anyway. If the author was the Zodiac Killer, did he believe, that by using capitals in his message rather than handwriting it may have been construed as suspicious, so opted to use a typewriter for a more professional approach and give the card a level of credibility. Opting to write the message in his normal handwriting would obviously have given the game away. He also may have thought it easier to type the message rather than make the effort to disguise his handwriting. The cipher key was obviously written rather than typed because of the unusual characters present within the 408 cipher not being available on a standard typewriter. 

 This is all very speculative, however, with very little to indicate one way or another as to the identity of the "concerned citizen", feeding on scraps may be the only avenue. Was the sender of the August 10th correspondence simply being a helpful citizen wanting to corroborate the Harden's solution, or Zodiac attempting to regain a semblance of lost pride by surreptitiously offering a lending hand to the Vallejo Police Department, declaring "I do not wish to have my name in the papers".
This may have been the Zodiac Killer's idea of a joke, after having previously stated "I want you to print this cipher on the front page of your paper. In this cipher is my idenity."
This contradiction certainly wouldn't have been lost on a killer who craved attention at every turn.
A killer who was prepared to confuse with "name" and "identity" in his first communications with the newspapers, would not be averse to creating similar parallels with "signature" or "name" in the "concerned citizen" card just ten days later. 

THE CONCERNED CITIZEN CARD [PT1]    THE CONCERNED CITIZEN CARD [PT3]

Having not covered this topic previously, I thought I would add the "Concerned Citizen' card to this site, mailed from San Francisco and postmarked August 10th 1969, one day after the article 'A Murder Code is Broken' featured in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. In this article "Vallejo Police Sergeant John Lynch, in charge of the investigation of the murders and of the cipher letter writer, asked The Chronicle to send Harden's code breaking worksheets to him for further checking; which was done." (see foot of article for newspaper cutting).     

Many have asked the identity of the "concerned citizen."  Was it Donald Harden, the Zodiac Killer or a third party who broke the code independently? The latter having not been aware of the code being broken, as published in the newspaper.
The Chronicle, according to the August 9th 1969 newspaper article had "already done" sending Sergeant John Lynch the worksheets, so why would Donald Harden be mailing the cipher key through the mail, when clearly he was already in contact with police. Therefore, this option can be summarily dismissed as the least likely option. 

The Bay Area murderer, as of August 4th 1969, had already given us his pseudonym with the dramatic introduction of "This is the Zodiac Speaking", so why would he now be acting coy in giving us the cipher key under the guise of a "concerned citizen". This tactic may have surfaced during the 1974 communications, but to implement it so early, just after threatening to "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", seemed an immediate backpedal. From "ruthless killer" to "concerned citizen" in a matter of days.
On the other hand, this may have been the start of his game with both the newspapers and law enforcement alike. 

The card reads:
Dear Sergeant Lynch.
   I hope the enclosed "key" will prove to be beneficial to you in connection with the cipher letter writer.
  Working puzzles criptograms and word puzzles is one of my pleasures. Please forgive the absence of my signature or name as I do not wish to have my name in the papers and it could be mentiond by a slip of the tongue.
      With best wishes.
                                     concerned citizen.

Although it has been stated on many forums that the author of the "concerned citizen" card may have mailed it, unaware of the code being broken and published in the San Francisco Chronicle on August 9th 1969, this seems highly unlikely. The author used the wording "cipher letter writer", exactly as published in the newspaper. This, from a grammatical standpoint, is highly likely to have been copied from the newspaper, indicating that the person who mailed in the cipher key already knew it had been broken. This could indicate it was Zodiac after all.

Zodiac researcher David Oranchak has comprehensively covered all aspects of the Zodiac ciphers on his excellent ZodiacKillerCiphers website, including two articles on the topic covered in this article. The first is a 'Detailed Analysis of the 408 Solution'  and the second is entitled 'Who is the Concerned Citizen'. The latter will show you the code key mailed by the "concerned citizen" for handwriting comparison purposes. 
​
THE CONCERNED CITIZEN CARD [PT2]    THE CONCERNED CITIZEN CARD [PT3]

Vallejo Times-Herald - Cryptogram Deciphered by Teacher August 9th 1969 

In a recent article David Oranchak posed the question "Are the Ciphers Gibberish", analyzing the pros and cons to the legitimacy of the Zodiac 340 cipher. There is, however, another legitimate argument to be discussed when searching for a solution to the Zodiac Killer's second cipher. Is it worth trying to solve at all? If it does contain a message, it will likely be a collection of inane ramblings akin to the solved 408 cipher. There will of course be the immense notoriety attached to your name, having been the cryptographer who broke the infamous Zodiac code, from which numerous television appearances and a book deal will inevitably follow. In the midst of tragedy, your name will be up in lights. But here is the reality check. Even if you do achieve the seemingly insurmountable task of unequivocally solving the 340 cipher, then comes the next insurmountable hurdle - convincing people you have the correct solution. In a Zodiac community wearily grazing on skepticism and fueled by a heavy dose of déjà vu syndrome, your perfectly good solution will likely drift on down the river with barely a ripple from the esteemed adjudicators.   

Even if it does get snagged by an overhanging branch for a fleeting moment, attempting to prove that the "key" used to decipher it, is the one Zodiac intended, will again create a hill you can never climb.

There are so many claimed solutions to the 340 cipher haystack, that if one really existed, it will eventually be as hard to find as a solution to the cipher itself. David Oranchak stated here:   
​"The 340 cipher has 63 unique symbols. If one of 26 plaintext letters can be assigned to each symbol, then the number of possible solutions is 26 raised to the 63rd power. So, how many of those solutions would computers need to examine PER SECOND to finish within 100 years? The answer is about 4.4 x 10^80 solutions, or 440 million billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion. This is LIGHT YEARS beyond what current computers are capable of.
According to Top500.org, the world's fastest supercomputer as of November, 2011, achieved a computational power of 10.51 Petaflop/s, or 10.51 quadrillion floating point operations per second. If you were somehow able to check a decryption solution of the 340 cipher using a single floating point operation, then this supercomputer could go through all of the possible solutions to the 340 cipher in about 1.3×10^57 years. By comparison, our humble universe is estimated to be only 13.7 x 10^9 years old!"

With so many variables that can be applied to the cipher, or more importantly, the one conjured up by the warped and dissociative brain of Zodiac, the probability is, that a supercomputer designed by logic and born from reality will probably be heading course on the wrong superhighway. Throw in a handful of Zodiac errors into the mix, could mean proving your solution an impossible task to the baying hordes of furrowed experts, armed with statistical probabilities. Solving the 340 cipher may yet prove to be the easy part, however, convincing somebody else you have, could take a quadrillion years you haven't got.

David Oranchak stated "When Z408 was cracked, the papers talked about how the solvers took advantage of patterns found in the cipher text. Zodiac could have focused on somehow removing those patterns from Z340. Or maybe he found some obscure idea in a book or one of those pulp fiction detective stories".
​Herein lies part of the problem. If you discover an obscure idea that answers key elements of the 340 cipher, or provides a readable message (possibly using a rotating key code), then it could be argued that your obscure idea is so obscure, that it isn't worth considering as a credible solution and thereby roundly dismissed as lunacy. The more crazy the solution, the more unlikely it is, despite being crafted by the perfectly sane Zodiac.

Alternatively, how do you prove the cipher gibberish while it still remains unsolved in the eyes of most observers. By extension, if it's unsolved, then it still has a possible solution. But be warned - if you do find the real solution to the 340 cipher, you will have to work far harder than the Harden's did in 1969 to convince the world you are correct. And my guess is, you never will.    

Robert Michael Salem's body was discovered by friends on the evening of Sunday April 19th 1970 at his 745 Stevenson Street, San Francisco residence. The autopsy concluded he had died on Wednesday April 15th. The article below was published in the San Francisco Chronicle on the morning of April 20th 1970. This is the same day that Zodiac's '13 Symbol' cipher communication was postmarked, proclaiming "I hope you have fun trying to figgure out who I killed."​​​
​
Bearing in mind this article was considering a Zodiac connection, did the Bay Area murderer respond by creating this letter and mailing it almost immediately. The killer hadn't written since the 'Melvin Belli' letter on December 20th 1969, exactly 122 days ago. Therefore, do we conclude that [1] the Zodiac Killer just happened to independently write the April 20th 1970 communication, which accidentally coincided with the April 20th 1970 San Francisco Chronicle article, but he wasn't the murderer of Robert Salem. [2] He was the murderer of Robert Salem and had prepared the letter from the time of his death on the 15th, before mailing it on the 20th, or [3] He immediately sprang into action on April 20th 1970 after reading the article, and created the '13 Symbol' cipher in double quick time, designed his 'photoelectric switched' bus bomb diagram, and recalled the murder of San Francisco police officer Brian McDonnell on February 16th 1970, all in time to have this letter postmarked on the same day. To answer this question we have to go back six months. 

Michael Cole wrote an excellent article entitled "My Name Is" Cipher Motivation that suggested the Zodiac Killer likely drew his inspiration for the '13 Symbol' cipher from an October 22nd 1969 newspaper article by Will Stevens, which laid down a challenge to the Zodiac Killer from the president of the American Cryptogram Association (ACA), Professor D.C.B. Marsh, to reveal his name. Apparently, several months later the killer duly obliged by opening his correspondence with the line "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you. My name is...."

Michael Cole wrote "Clearly, the Zodiac did not send the cryptogram to Marsh, as had been requested (this non-public way of satisfying the challenge was apparently unacceptable to the attention-craving serial killer). Neither did he respond in a time frame that most would have expected. But these details matter little. In fact, the timing itself provides yet another reason to conclude that what we have here is a specific instance of cause and effect. As mentioned, this article was published in the Examiner on October 22, 1969.  Six months to the day later, April 22, 1970, the people of the San Francisco Bay Area were reading about the My Name Is cipher in the Chronicle. This relationship between the Examiner article and the My Name Is cipher may well mean there is an even higher likelihood that the cryptogram does indeed encipher some form of the killer's name"

If the April 20th 1970 letter was referring to the Robert Salem murder, by teasing us with the statement "I hope you have fun trying to figgure out who I killed"​​​, then any manufactured correlation between the dates by the Zodiac Killer would rely on the Zodiac Killer committing the murder just shy of the six month anniversary and then mailing the letter. This would mean the Zodiac Killer could prepare the letter in the days between the murder and the mailing date of April 19th or 20th, to enable it to be postmarked on the 20th. If he didn't kill Robert Salem, and was simply responding to the San Francisco Chronicle with an unprepared letter, then his code and bus bomb diagram must have been designed with little forethought, and mailed in time to be franked on the same day. The other possibility, is he had the code and bus bomb diagram already prepared in advance and just added the text around these designs. However, there is one major problem. The photograph of the crime scene wasn't shown until a follow up article by Paul Avery in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 21st 1970. By which time, the Zodiac Killer had already mailed the letter.               

It has previously been argued that the Zodiac Killer created the '13 Symbol' code in tandem with the 340 cipher, a matter of weeks after the October 22nd 1969 challenge by the American Cryptogram Association (ACA) and Professor D.C.B. Marsh. 
The reason behind this claim was the correlation between eight characters on the final row of the 340 cipher and eight characters from the '13 Symbol' cipher (six being the circled eights).   

On the left we have lined up the alphabet over the top of the cipher. Now calculate numerically the difference in each column. ie: C to N produces a difference of 11, whereas B and E produces a difference of 3. Non alphabetical symbols cannot produce a difference, so a zero is inserted. The resulting numbers produced have been color coded. The red section is before the first circled 8, the green section is after the last circled 8 and the blue section spans the first and last circled 8. Notice the perfect symmetry. The red and green numbers are identical read forwards or backwards, and the blue numbers again read identically in either direction, producing a mirror image. Is this a coincidence or is it by design. 
​
The 340 Cipher was the Zodiac Killer's unsolved masterpiece, and being a man with an inflated ego, driven by self publicity, what better way to drop us a hint by placing his signature or pseudonym on the final line of the 340 Cipher. You will notice he placed the Zodiac crosshair symbol, followed by what could be interpreted as Zodiac and then an upside down Aries symbol, with a line on the top and a dot to the left. So what we shall do is place the correct spelling of Zodiac alongside the version he placed on the 20th line of the 340 Cipher and use the identical technique we used to create the symmetry on the '13 Symbol' cipher. The alphabetical difference of ZOD produces three zero's, the IAC produces 888. These two sets of figures incorporated gives us the three circled 8's found on his next cipher, as though he was carrying them forward. It is also apparent on the '13 Symbol' cipher that either side of the three circled 8's are the Zodiac crosshairs and an inverted Aries symbol, identical to the final line of the 340 Cipher. So, the author has effectively carried eight symbols from one cipher to another.

"In Christian numerology, the number 888 represents Jesus, or sometimes more specifically Christ the Redeemer. This representation may be justified either through gematria, by counting the letter values of the Greek transliteration of Jesus' name, or as an opposing value to 666, the number of the beast." Wikipedia.

The ZOD and IAC are separated. The first produces the 000. The second produces the 888. The two are then combined, to create the transition from the 340 cipher to the '13 Symbol' cipher. This was presumably designed by the Zodiac Killer when he created the 340 cipher sometime before November 8th 1969, with a view to his next cipher. 

When the Zodiac Killer mailed the April 20th 1970 letter and code (assuming he wasn't the killer), he hadn't seen the way Zodiac was written on the wall of Robert Salem's apartment. Therefore, did the killer of Robert Salem just accidentally separate the ZOD and IAC of ZODIAC, thereby mimicking the Zodiac Killer's 340 cipher creation, when he had ample room on the wall to write it normally, or was the Zodiac Killer present at the 745 Stevenson Street, San Francisco residence on April 15th 1970, giving him the opportunity to create the design, and at least five days to prepare his letter? The April 20th 1970 code being the confirmation of his involvement in the murder. 
Was this the reason for the wording "I hope you have fun trying to figgure out who I killed"?

The crucified image on the wall of Robert Salem's wall may well be the Egyptian ankh. The ankh appears frequently in Egyptian tomb paintings and other art, often at the fingertips of a god or goddess in images that represent the deities of the afterlife conferring the gift of life on the dead person's mummy; this is thought to symbolize the act of conception. 
​Wikipedia.

The Zodiac Killer's primary focus was attention from the media, who themselves also benefited from the extensive reporting of his murderous campaign, letter writing and extortion, in a form of symbiotic relationship. The murderer would use this to full advantage during and after his confirmed attacks dried up, often claiming or insinuating his involvement in certain crimes. The August 1969 Debra Gaye Furlong and Kathie Ann Snoozy stabbings, along with the 1970 murders of Robert Michael Salem, Officer Richard Radetich and Donna Ann Lass come to mind. But the killer was also prepared to mention other crimes, such as the murder of San Francisco police officer Brian McDonnell on February 16th 1970: "I hope you do not think that I was the one who wiped out that blue meannie with a bomb at the cop station.  Even though I talked about killing school children with one. It just wouldn't doo to move in on someone else's teritory.  But there is more glory in killing a cop than a cid because a cop can shoot back." The Zodiac Killer wasn't averse to rubbing their "noze in their booboos" when adversity came their way.
The following is extremely speculative and probably way off base, but since it has never been suggested before (as far as I am aware), it is worth putting forward as a possible example of Zodiac piggybacking a crime unrelated to his murderous exploits. 

At approximately 8:10 pm on October 19th 1970 Lieutenant Shaw and Sergeant Noren entered the Sosquel area of Santa Cruz, California responding to a fire on a hill between Rodeo Gulch Road and San Jose Road. The horror of what ultimately lay at 999 North Rodeo Gulch Road was yet to be unearthed.

The bodies of Dr. Victor Ohta (45) and his wife, Virginia (43), along with their two sons, Victor Taggart (11) and Richard Derrick (12), and secretary, Mrs Dorothy Cadwallader (38) were found murdered in the swimming pool of the residence. They had been callously executed.

Dr. Ohta had been shot in the back and under the arm, while the others had been shot in the back of the neck. It was literally a bloodbath. The victims had been bound and blindfolded with scarves before being murdered. The Ohta residence was then set on fire. When the fire crews arrived at the isolated estate they were hampered by Dr. Victor Ohta's Rolls Royce and Mrs. Dorothy Cadwallader's Lincoln Continental blocking the entrance.

Later that day Dr. Ohta's green Oldsmobile station wagon was discovered burnt out on railway tracks near Felton, approximately 18 miles northwest of the crime scene. Although not definitively linked to the other five murders, Thomas DeCecco (19), a service station attendant was found bound and shot in the head near Saratoga only hours after the initial crime, possibly bringing the victim count to six.    

"KPIX News footage from October 20th 1970 with reporter Pat O'Brien featuring scenes from a house in Soquel, CA, in the aftermath of the mass murder of eye surgeon Dr. Victor Ohta, his wife Virginia, two sons Taggart and Derrick and secretary Dorothy Cadwallader. Includes aerial views of the Ohta home, the swimming pool in which their bodies were found." link.

A typewritten note was discovered under the windshield wipers of Dr. Ohta's Rolls Royce. It stated "Halloween...1970. Today World War III will begin as brought to you by the people of the free universe. I and my comrades from this day forth will fight until death for freedom, against anything or anyone who does not support natural life on this planet. Materialism must die or mankind will." Signed "Knight of Wands, Knight of Cups, Knight of Pentacles, Knight of Swords."

John Linley Frazier was arrested shortly after the murders and was sentenced to death on November 29, 1971. However, in 1972 the death penalty was abolished in California and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He committed suicide by hanging  on August 13th 2009.

One week after the Ohta murders and typewritten note stating "Halloween...1970", the Zodiac Killer mailed the 'Halloween' card on October 27th 1970, featuring two skeletons, with twelve eyes added to its design. One eye peered from the knothole of a tree, surrounded by the words "peek-a-boo you are doomed". Why did the killer add twelve eyes to this card?
​Dr. Victor Ohta was an eye surgeon (ophthalmologist), and six possible victims were reported in the newspapers (6 pairs of eyes). The skeletons on the card outer and inner also had the eyes highlighted in red, one in the form of a blindfold, in similar fashion to the victims thrown into the pool. 

Zodiac researcher Tom Voigt 'floated' this idea on his message board in 2012: "I received an interesting observation of the Halloween card via e-mail recently -- it suggested the skeletons were meant to depict a water scenario, with the top skeleton being a diver (my guess would be the pumpkin representing swim trunks?) and the bottom skeleton floating under water, I'm guessing then the many eyes possibly representing bubbles?" What if the water was from the swimming pool at 999 North Rodeo Gulch Road.

The 'Halloween' card would emphasize four methods of death: By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife, three of which would feature heavily in the Ohta murders.

Had the Zodiac Killer read the coverage of the brutal murders at Sosquel and beyond, and fearing that his relevance was dwindling in the newspapers, used the crime of John Linley Frazier to piggyback himself back into prominence? If this was the case, unfortunately for him, nobody understood the connection, and the meaning of the 'Halloween' card was lost in translation. As an explanation for the October 27th 1970 correspondence, this is probably wide of the mark. It does, however, give us a flavor of some of the radical views that permeated California in the 1960s and 1970s, and the beginning of the end for the Zodiac Killer.