Recently I have been examining whether the Zodiac Killer was responsible for both the Confession letters on November 29th 1966 by searching for historic text in the newspapers of yesteryear. In the Confession letter the author typed "it was about time for her to die", which was seemingly plucked from The Evening Bulletin newspaper from Providence, Rhode Island on December 11th 1888 (the year of Jack the Ripper). I have only found this phrase of eight words in one newspaper prior to 1966.

​On July 31st 1969, the infamous Zodiac Killer took the wording "man is the most dangerous animal of all" from the utterances of Merian C. Cooper, which I have found quoted in only three newspapers prior to 1969. All three were from 1932, the release date of "The Most Dangerous Game" movie, whose associate producer was Merian C. Cooper. The author of the Confession letter and July 31st 1969 letters both seemingly plagiarized eight consecutive words from newspapers, 78 years and 37 years previous. 

The Confession letter author also appeared to plagiarize wording from "The Press" newspaper on November 24th 1966 (five days earlier}, which ran an article where the offender was quoted as saying "I'm not Jack the Ripper". Therefore, I considered the possibility that its author may travel back to 1888 and search microfiche reels, in order to subtly place a quote from the times of Jack the Ripper into the Confession letter. It appears the Confession letter author found "it was about time for her to die" in a piece called "The Sturdy Beggar", which ran alongside the Ripper stories. As of writing, I have found this sequence of eight words in only one newspaper in 334 years, other than reporting about the Confession letter. Present in a newspaper from 1888. 

But if the Confession letter author scoured the newspapers from 1888, where would they most likely focus when composing the typed letters? There is a good chance that the Confession letter author would initially focus their search in the direction of notable "Jack the Ripper" events in the newspapers. Three of which were widely reported in the newspapers in early October 1888.

​The "Saucy Jacky" postcard was postmarked October 1st 1888, just one day after the "double event" murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes on September 30th 1888. The other, was a letter from September 29th 1888 to the Central News agency, eventually forwarded to the Metropolitan Police two days later. The text from this letter was featured in several American newspapers, including the Abilene Weekly newspaper from Kansas on October 4th 1888.

The letter (see below), beginning "Dear Boss" and ending "Jack the Ripper", contained the wording "The next job I do I shall cut off the lady's ear and send it to the police". The Confession letter read "I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see" and "I then finished the job out cutting her throat". It wasn't necessarily the similarity of "I shall cut off" and the use of the word "job" that caught my eye. It was another newspaper article from the same day the "Jack the Ripper" letter appeared on October 4th 1888, that had the well known phrase from Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, featured under the sub-headline "Gems of Thought". It read "Those who are weary of life, and yet are most unwilling to die". The Riverside Desktop Poem was entitled "Sick of living/unwilling to die". Although not exact, the famous quote from Edward Hyde appeared in at least 125 newspaper articles in the 19th century, including 1888. The phraseology is extremely similar, with both expressing a disappointment of life, followed by the wording "unwilling to die". 

In total, we have "man is the most dangerous animal of all" from 1932, "it was about time for her to die" from 1888, "I shall cut off" from 1888, and "weary of life, and yet are most unwilling to die" from 1888, all mimicked in three communications linked to the Zodiac Killer. The September 29th 1888 letter somewhat resembling the Confession letter, turning "I shall cut off the lady's ear and send it to the police" into "I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". So were the Confession letters and Riverside Desktop Poem created close to one another? Both inspired from the newspaper archives of Jack the Ripper in 1888. Did the Zodiac Killer "not stop the game" promised in the Confession letter, when he began his "Most Dangerous Game" in the Bay Area in 1969?

​What is rather amazing, is that in 2012 David Oranchak released an article showing how 46 consecutive characters from the book “The life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, lord high chancellor of England: Volume 2” could fit into a chunk of ciphertext in the 408 cipher. Although Dave Oranchak downplayed this one in eleven billion chance, it appears at the time he wrote this article he was unaware of the famous Edward Hyde quote of "Those who are weary of life, and yet are most unwilling to die", which was extremely similar to the Riverside Desktop Poem.title of "Sick of living/unwilling to die". Was this another bridge from Riverside to the Bay Area? The chunk of text in the 408 cipher was HEBESTPARTOFITIATHAEWHENIDIEIWILLBEREBORNINPAR. It contained the word "die", just like the Riverside Desktop Poem (twice), the Confession letter (once) and the Bates' letters (three times).  All three Riverside communications contained the phrase "to die". See link below. 

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​JACK THE RIPPER AND THE CONFESSION LETTER          THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF MURDER

                       EDWARD HYDE IN THE 408 CIPHER - DAVID ORANCHAK

As Zodiac researchers and sleuths, we have long sought a credible link between the Zodiac murders and the Riverside activity in 1966 and 1967, if one exists. Recently I came to the conclusion that the only way to achieve this, other than a forensic link, was to confidently bind together the two lengthy communications associated with the Zodiac Killer on November 29th 1966 and July 31st 1969. If these were Zodiac letters, then they would be the last Riverside communication of any length, followed by the first communications from Zodiac.

In between, we had the three Bates' letters in 1967 carrying the short message of "Bates had to die. There will be more" and "She had to die. There will be more". Three letters to mirror his opening gambit on July 31st 1969. The trinity of Zodiac letters to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969 had elements of the Bates' letters, replacing "She had to die. There will be more", with "When I die" and "I will cruse around and pick off all stray people and coupples that are alone, then move on to kill some more". The Zodiac Killer would now be considering his death with "die", and be promising "more" murder if his demands were not met. But of course, that wasn't all.

The Zodiac Killer on July 31st 1969 would exactly plagiarize the utterances of Merian C. Cooper, the associate producer of The Most Dangerous Game (1932), who upon release of the RKO movie, stated "man is the most dangerous animal of all". In other words, the Zodiac Killer took eight consecutive words from 1932, which I have currently found in only three newspaper articles from 37 years previous.

The Confession letter author on November 29th 1966 did exactly the same thing, taking the eight consecutive words of "it was about time for her to die" from The Evening Bulletin newspaper from Providence, Rhode Island on December 11th 1888 (the year of Jack the Ripper). If the November 29th 1966 and July 31st 1969 letters were both from Zodiac, then he used sixteen words (two consecutive sequences of eight) from historic newspapers, 78 years and 37 years previous to his writings. But how would it come about that the author of the Confession letter would use wording from the newspaper article on the left?

The Confession letter author appeared to plagiarize wording from "The Press" newspaper on November 24th 1966, which ran an article mentioning Jack the Ripper. Therefore, I considered the possibility that its author may travel back to 1888 and search microfiche reels, in order to subtly place a quote from the times of Jack the Ripper into his Confession letter. Don't forget, the Confession letter did contain the Ripper style wording of "I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". Alongside the stories of Jack the Ripper in 1888 was the above story of "The Sturdy Beggar", who placed his hand into his hip pocket (probably reaching for a presumed knife) and stated that "it was about time for her to die", thereby threatening the woman. If the Confession letter author had read this newspaper article, all he had to do was set up the preamble of "When we were away from the library walking, I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said ..." - and then deliver this punch line  It would imply that these words were never spoken by the killer of Cheri Jo Bates, whether the author of the Confession letter or not. This sequence of wording on November 29th 1966 always appeared excessively dramatic - as though the author had teed himself up to deliver this punch line. These eight words possibly being sourced from 1888, continuing the theme from the November 24th 1966 newspaper article, in which the offender stated "I'm not Jack the Ripper". 

The April 30th 1967 "Bates Had to Die" letters stated that "there will be more". The July 31st 1969 letter to the Vallejo Times-Herald promised "to kill some more". The March 13th 1971 letter to the Los Angeles Times, in which the Zodiac Killer credited police for stumbling across his Riverside activity, stated "there are a hell of a lot more down there".  The content of the Bates' letters were unknown to the public on July 31st 1969. I was unable to find the phrase "it was about time for her to die" in any other newspaper article in the 276 years previous to November 29th 1966. Other than reporting about the Confession letter, I have also not found these consecutive eight words in the 58 years subsequent to 1966. If you can find either of these eight word phrases outside of 1888 and 1932 (other than quotes about the Zodiac Killer writings or Confession letter), please let me know in comments. 

JACK THE RIPPER AND THE CONFESSION LETTER
A JOURNEY FROM HELL TO RIVERSIDE 

It is without much doubt that the Zodiac Killer had an ability to garnish his letters using references from newspapers, days, weeks, months, and sometimes years previous. Absent of stocking up on piles of newspapers in his home, one of the easiest options for the Zodiac Killer would have been to work in, or regularly frequent an accessible library and harvest material from its current publications - or scroll through the many reels of microfiche to unearth the newspapers of yesteryear. This would have provided an almost endless resource of rich pickings.   

​This was exemplified by his encoded phrase in the 408 cipher, in which he used the quote of Merian C. Cooper upon release of The Most Dangerous Game (1932). Cooper was quoted as saying "man is the most dangerous animal of all" in only a handful of newspaper publications. Currently I have only found this quote from the movie's assocate producer three times - and all were in 1932 - thirty-seven years prior to the trinity of letters on July 31st 1969. This sort of effort from a killer demonstrates a conscientiousness unrivalled in the savage and stark reality of cold-blooded murder. It appears that the Zodiac Killer went to great lengths when composing his letters to the press. Could this effort be found in the Riverside confession letter mailed on November 29th 1966?   

​The author of this letter seemed to borrow phrases from The Press newspaper on November 24th 1966. The newspaper article stated that the man "grabbed her around the neck". The confession letter author typed "I grabbed her around the neck with my hand over her mouth". The newspaper article stated "I could just hit you in the head with this piece of wood". The confession letter author typed "She let out a scream once and I kicked her in the head to shut her up". But it's the use of the wording "I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see" in the confession letter that I would like to focus upon. This reminded me of Jack the Ripper.

The newspaper article on November 24th 1966, which compared an attack on a 19-year-old woman to that of Cheri Jo Bates, five days before the confession letter arrived, remarked on the attacker stating "I'm not Jack the Ripper". In fact, the entire confession letter had overtones of Jack the Ripper in its sadistic nature. But one phrase seemed unusual - as though it was borrowed from a movie or book for dramatic effect. The author of the confession letter typed "When we were away from the library walking, I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". This wording appeared like a set-up introduction for the punch line "I said it was about time for her to die". It appeared contrived. With this in mind, I dug a little further.

I searched newspaper archives for this phrase and found an attack on a woman where the criminal stated "it was about time for her to die", using the same eight consecutive words as the confession letter  This story appeared in The Evening Bulletin newspaper from Providence, Rhode Island on December 11th 1888 (the year of Jack the Ripper), on the day it was reported that "Jack the Ripper" had possibly "cut the throat" of a woman on Bermondsey Street in London, causing great excitement in the neighborhood (see above and below). The confession letter, with overtones of Jack the Ripper, used three phrases: [1] "I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see" [2] "I said it was about time for her to die" and [3] "I then finished the job out cutting her throat". The first phrase is self-explanatory, with the second two reminiscent of December 11th 1888, a day that Jack the Ripper hit the headlines in America once again  Had the confession letter author trawled through the microfiche of Riverside City College library (or another) looking for quotes to use from the times of Jack the Ripper and stumbled across "The Sturdy Beggar" story, which caught his eye? The story of Arthur Craven (below), sentenced to five years in state prison on October 6th 1888, ran alongside several Jack the Ripper newspaper articles. I have not found the phrase "it was about time for her to die" in any newspaper from 1690 to November 29th 1966, other than 1888, the year of Jack the Ripper.

PART TWO: THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF MURDER 
PART THREE: A JOURNEY FROM HELL TO RIVERSIDE ​
PART FOUR: BRINGING WHITECHAPEL TO RIVERSIDE      
PART FIVE: YOURS TRULY, JACK THE RIPPER     
​PART SIX: I AM GUILTY, I AM INSANE BY NATHAN SWARTZ
​PART SEVEN: THE "GAMES" OF THE ZODIAC KILLER

The Nancy Drew YouTube channel recently highlighted an individual called Flake Crawford Casto, who graduated from Ramona High School in Riverside in 1965, the year before Cheri Jo Bates. He was involved with varsity football in 1964-1965, while Cheri was a cheerleader during those years. They both had connections to St Catherine's Church, 7005 Brockton Avenue in Riverside. Cheri Jo Bates had attended mass there with her father on the morning of her death, on October 30th 1966. One week earlier, on October 22nd 1966, Flake Casto got married at St Catherine's church to Kathleen Corcoran. In "The Press" newspaper it reported on November 14th 1966 that the newlyweds were now living in San Diego, where Flake Castro was stationed in the Navy. Curiously, the Casto family lived at the 4195 Via San Jose address (until 1958) before Joseph Bates and Cheri.

On January 21st 1968, The San Diego Union and Daily Bee newspaper reported on the arrest of Flake Casto (21) in Clairemont, San Diego for the rape of two women near the University of California, San Diego. He was now the father of a month-old boy (born December 19th 1967) and worked at the Miramar Naval Air Station in Clairemont. He was captured by Thomas Hudson of 3260 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard  Detective Guerin of the police sex crime detail stated that Casto was suspected of the rape of two 19-year-old girls on December 3rd 1967 and January 1st 1968. Just over a year previous, on November 22nd 1966, a male was reported by a woman, also 19 years old, who was walking towards the University of California, Riverside, when she was approached by a man driving a vehicle and subjected to an apparent rape. She stated that she had been held captive for more than two hours before making her escape. Her abductor remarked on the recent murder of Cheri Jo Bates and used language seemingly mimicked by the Confession letter author five days after the November 24th 1966 newspaper article describing this encounter.             

​The author of the confession letter on November 29th 1966 apparently took inspiration from the Press-Enterprise newspaper on November 24th 1966 (see below). The newspaper article stated that the man "grabbed her around the neck". The confession letter author typed "I grabbed her around the neck with my hand over her mouth". The newspaper article stated "I could just hit you in the head with this piece of wood". The confession letter author typed "She let out a scream once and I kicked her in the head to shut her up". The assailant mentioned in the newspaper stated "I'm not Jack the Ripper". The confession letter author typed "But I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". At one point the assailant offered to "take her home", with the confession letter author typing he "would give her a lift home". The woman was first approached by the man on Linden Street, just 2.5 miles from the murder location of Cheri Jo Bates. 

The following year, on April 30th 1967, the author of the three Bates' letters again seemingly mimicked the Press-Enterprise newspaper from the same day. Jack Matthews, the Staff Writer of the Press-Enterprise newspaper, wrote about the murder of Cheri Jo Bates and the content in the confession letter, stating "The letter told of how Cheri struggled while she was being stabbed to death and the writer said there would be more killings to come". The author of the Bates' letters mimicked this wording by writing "Bates had to die, there will be more".

​The day after the Bates' letters that claimed "there will be more", on May 1st 1967, Nikki Alexandra Benedict (14) had left her friend Kathie Gomski's house in Halper Road, Poway shortly after 6:00 pm, to walk the 2 1/2 mile journey to her home at 13530 Olive Tree Lane, when approximately 25 minutes into her journey her life was cruelly snatched away. She was just passing the intersection of 12784 Poway and Carriage Road, traveling along a dirt pathway that straddled the Poway Road, when an unknown assailant, presumed to be laying in wait, leapt from a grassy depression and viciously attacked the young teenage girl with a short-bladed knife. She had a knife wound to her neck and bruises on her elbows and knees, but the fatal injuries were two stab wounds that penetrated her heart. The young girl did not succumb to her injuries immediately, with a trail of blood extending 200 yards to the west side of Carriage Road as she desperately sought help near a local shopping center. At approximately 6:30 pm, an 11-year-old boy, Ronald Fisk, discovered the critically injured girl and raced away on his bicycle to seek help from his father, who worked at a nearby market store. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of responding personnel, Nikki Benedict would be pronounced dead upon her arrival at Palomar Hospital.

​Flake Crawford Casto lived at 12021 Pomerado Road, only 1 1/2 miles from the location where Nikki Benedict was attacked. In fact, Pomerado Road bisected Poway Road just 921 meters from the attack site. An eyewitness described a young man running away from the crime scene. Flake Casto would have been 20 years of age on May 1st 1967. His first suspected rape attack in Clairemont on December 3rd 1967 was seven months after the murder of Nikki Benedict. The rape occurred sixteen days before his wife gave birth at Knollwood Hospital in Riverside. 

On January 4th 1975, the Press-Enterprise newspaper stated that Flake Casto (27) had been sentenced to five years in jail for burglary, despite initially being charged with the rape of two University of California, Riverside women on February 2nd 1974 and February 21st 1974. Casto was found at 3am in March walking down the hallways of the campus, trying the doors on the floor where the women had been previously raped. The Nancy Drew YouTube channel found later reports that Flake Casto was described as a mentally disordered sex offender.
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The teenager years of Flake Casto overlapped with that of Cheri Jo Bates, murdered by a short-bladed knife on the Riverside City College campus on October 30th 1966 - so it's unusual that he would live so close to the murder location of Nikki Alexandra Benedict, also stabbed with a short-bladed knife in Poway on May 1st 1967, located 72 miles south of Terracina Drive (by crow). His family's residence at 8279 Marie Street, Riverside was 3 1/2 miles from the Riverside City College campus. I wonder if those brush offs were real?

It could be argued that the author of the Scorpion letters, which were mailed to John Walsh, presenter of the popular television show America's Most Wanted, was hinting he was once the infamous Zodiac Killer. In a series of cryptograms and letters sent in 1991, the headline text of "Hi, Remember Me" is fairly self-explanatory. To discover whether the Zodiac Killer had reinvented himself as the "Scorpion", let us take a look at the 148 character cipher, the last lengthy code mailed by the Zodiac Killer in May 1971 and see if there are any overlapping features to the longest of the Scorpion ciphers (180 characters).

Disregarding the orientation of the characters, I have noted seven overlapping ciphertext characters from the Z148 to the main Scorpion cipher. Six of these characters (boxed in red below) had never been used by the Zodiac Killer prior to 1971. The ciphertext character "7" represented the plaintext letter "A" in both the Z148 and Albany code. The "sun cross" symbol (similar to crosshairs) and ciphertext character "7" were both present in the Z148, Albany and Scorpion codes. 

​The Zodiac Killer signed off his accompanying letter to the 148 character code in 1971 with a "sun cross" symbol (see below). This represented the plaintext letter "Z" in the Z148.cipher, which meant that Zodiac Killer was effectively signing off with a "Z" in his communication, just as he did in the Halloween card on October 27th 1970.

So I took a gamble and presupposed that the Zodiac Killer, if he composed the Scorpion ciphers, may have used the "sun cross" symbol to represent the plaintext letter "Z" in the main Scorpion cipher. The "sun cross" symbol was only present in the main Scorpion cipher, headed by "Hi, Remember Me". If the plaintext letter "Z" was featured in the main Scorpion cipher, then it held the possibility of the pseudonym "Zodiac" being present. However, to bolster this proposition, we needed at least two repeating ciphertext characters (the same distance apart) within two runs of six consecutive characters of the Scorpion cipher - and they both had to begin with a "sun cross". It was possible. 

On October 22nd 1969 Eric Weill hijacked the Zodiac Killer's appearance on the Jim Dunbar TV Show and passed himself off as the infamous Bay Area murderer, effectively claiming responsibility for the canonical Zodiac murders by default. Three and a half months later, on February 5th 1970, Eric Weill would again contact the Jim Dunbar TV Show repeating the ruse. This was readily dismissed by Detective David Toschi, who confidently stated that "it was most certainly not Zodiac", with homicide detectives listening to the tape of the caller's voice and concluding that "Sam" was a phony The San Francisco Chronicle, the following day, ran with the appropriate headline of "Talk Shows 'Zodiac' Caller Called a Phony". It is with little doubt that the Zodiac Killer would have noticed these headlines of a second call.

​Fast forward to May 1971 when the Zodiac Killer mailed the 148 character cipher and letter. This communication arrived just after the arrest and questioning of Karl Francis Werner for the April 11th 1971 murder of Kathy Bilek in Saratoga, and the distant murders of Kathie Reyne Snoozy (15) and Debra Gaye Furlong (14) in San Jose on August 3rd 1969. This clearly irked the Zodiac Killer, who after claiming the murders of Snoozy and Furlong in his Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969, saw Karl Francis Werner as another individual stealing victims from under his nose, just like Eric Weill on the Jim Dunbar TV Show. Encoded within his 148 character cipher he urged police to "stop listening to phonys", using the description given to Eric Weill by homicide detectives in the San Francisco Chronicle article on February 6th 1970. The Zodiac Killer was likening Karl Francis Werner to Eric Weill and calling them both "phonys".  

The Zodiac Killer was calling out Eric Weill in his 148 character cipher just as he had called him out in the 340 cipher, encrypting the wording "That wasn't me on the TV show". This shows that the author of the 148 character cipher had intrinsic knowledge to the contents of the 340 cipher plaintest, despite this cipher remaining unbroken for another 49 1/2 years. However, this wasn't the only thing that bound the two ciphers together under one author. 

The 148 character cipher and letter stated that he would "skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin" if his cipher was not printed on the front page of the newspaper. The July 31st 1969 letters demanded newspapers that they printed the 408 cipher "on the front page of your paper". The Dripping Pen card communication also requested that the 340 cipher be placed on the "frunt page". Every lengthy cipher/communication wanted front page coverage for his cryptic offerings. But crucially, both the 340 cipher/Dripping Pen card and 148 character cipher were bound together through two victims. The Dripping Pen card inflated the known victim count from five to seven, adding "Aug" to the chronological list of months by including the murders of Snoozy and Furlong on August 3rd 1969 in San Jose. The 148 character cipher also included Snoozy and Furlong, along with Kathy Bilek, when he threatened to "skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin". The Zodiac Killed claimed he would "skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin" and "send a patch of human skin if there is some left over", but neither of these statements mentioned the potential murder of three kids. That is because he was referring to the three previous murder victims of Kathie Snoozy, Debra Furlong and Kathy Bilek.  ​

​Edward Theodore Gein, dubbed "The Butcher of Plainfield", was found guilty in the first degree murder of Bernice Worden (58), who was abducted and later found hung and decapitated in a shed on Gein's property. Although he was only convicted of one murder and found criminally insane, Edward Gein was believed to have killed many more, including Mary Hogan (51), Georgia Weckler (8) and Evelyn Hartley (15). Called the "House of Horrors", his property in Plainfield, Wisconsin revealed the true depravity of an individual who had lost touch with reality, when detectives found a lampshade made from a human face, a waste basket made from human skin, a corset made from a female torso and bowls made from human skulls, to name just a few of the devilish offerings.

His mother, Augusta Wilhelmine Gein (who died on December 29th 1945), was a domineering woman with an intense hatred for females, but whose death from a stroke left Edward Gein devastated and alone in the farmhouse. Soon after his mother's death, Gein began to create a "woman suit" so that "he could become his mother and literally crawl into her skin". He would achieve this by exhuming the bodies of recently deceased middle-aged women from local graveyards and using their skin to fashion his grizzly creations. The Zodiac Killer, who must have been aware of the Ed Gein story, clearly ran with this concept and threatened to exhume the bodies of Kathie Snoozy, Debra Furlong and Kathy Bilek, and "make a suit from the skin", just as Ed Gein had sourced graveyards for his skin. It's doubtful that the Zodiac Killer was ever going to follow up on this macabre threat, but he may have come close.

​On July 13th 1971, the Monticello communication was mailed by the Zodiac Killer, insinuating the murder of Kathy Bilek (18), who died in the Villa Montalvo woods on April 11th 1971, by using the burial site of her phonetic namesake Kathie Snoozy (15), who was murdered alongside her friend Debra Furlong (14) in San Jose on August 3rd 1969. The Zodiac Killer included the following message into the correspondence, pasting the newspaper text of "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ... In The Woods Dies April". Kathy Bilek was murdered "near Monticello" in the Villa Montalvo "woods" on "April" 11th 1971. Kathie Snoozy was buried at the Oak Hill Memorial Cemetery "near the Villa Montalvo woods" in the "Monticello" neighborhood of San Jose. The Zodiac Killer chose the location of "Monticello" to bind together the murders of Kathy Bilek, Kathy Snoozy and Debra Furlong - the latter two of which he had claimed on November 8th 1969 in the Dripping Pen card.

Just over two years later, on September 18th 1973, somebody removed a tombstone from the Oak Hill Memorial Cemetery in Monticello at First Street & Curtner Avenue, and deposited it at the gated front entrance. The tombstone had the pseudonym "Zodiac" written on it in crayon. There are good reasons to believe the Zodiac Killer committed this unsavoury act, because we know that the Zodiac Killer had a vested interest in the murder of Kathie Snoozy and the location of her burial site. Of all the places in America (or California) this could have occurred, somebody just happened to remove a tombstone from the Oak Hill Memorial Cemetery in Monticello and write "Zodiac" on it, despite the Monticello card never being released into the public domain. The card has been known to researchers in recent times, but was certainly not public knowledge on September 18th 1973. The person who removed the tombstone from the Oak Hill Memorial Cemetery in Monticello must have been the Zodiac Killer. The body of Kathie Snoozy wasn't exhumed in 1973, but the Zodiac Killer may have stood just six feet away from a victim he once claimed.. 

It has been widely accepted for 56 years that the Zodiac Killer entered the Lake Herman Road turnout on December 20th 1968 and parked abreast and to the right of the Faraday Rambler, before commencing his attack on the young couple. This has been deduced primarily from the eyewitness statement of James Owen, who saw a second vehicle positioned on the far side of the Rambler, minutes before Stella Medeiros passed the turnout and saw the aftermath of the attack - spotting only the Rambler and Betty Lou Jensen lying on the floor. This was the obvious assumption, but it totally ignores what the other two sets of eyewitnesses stated that night.

The first eyewitnesses to see the Rambler during the crucial period, Peggy and Homer Your, stated that "As they were driving west on Lake Herman Road at the turn off to the Benicia Water Pumping Station, she observed a Rambler station wagon parked with front end heading east (on the east bank), there were two Caucasians in the front seat, male and female, when the lights from the car came upon the station wagon, the male sat up in the seat". Robert Connelly and Frank Gasser left the area after the Your's and stated "that the Rambler was parked on the bank (west bank). That would be on the south side. He did not see any person in the car".

​So why had David Faraday changed the position of the Rambler from east bank to west bank between the two sightings? The reason for David relocating the vehicle, one can conclude, was done because David saw the west bank as preferential to him and Betty Lou Jensen. The answer probably lies in the two statements, in which the first stated "when the lights from the car came upon the station wagon, the male sat up in the seat", and the second stated "He did not see any person in the car". We don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to conclude that David Faraday likely moved the Rambler because of the obtrusive nature of car headlights, and thought the west bank provided more privacy. This was the last noted position of the Rambler in the turnout before two vehicles were spotted by James Owen several minutes later. In other words, this was the last noted position of the Rambler in the turnout before the Zodiac Killer arrived. So why do Zodiac researchers assume that David Faraday willingly, of his own volition, relocated the Rambler back to the east bank before Zodiac arrived, rather than just accept that the Rambler was still on the west bank when Zodiac arrived? Probably because it's less complicated to explain.

The Zodiac Killer at Blue Rock Springs not only illuminated and blinded the occupants of the target vehicle, but he parked behind them to restrict their movement. Why at Lake Herman Road, if David and Betty were parked on the east bank, wouldn't the Zodiac Killer have parked flush behind them to effectively box them in, rather than parking to the less advantageous right side? We have to consider he didn't, because the Rambler may have still been on the west bank when the Zodiac Killer arrived. Let's go with the last known position described by Robert Connelly before the sighting of two vehicles, rather than just inventing stories - and attempt to reason a likely chain of events why the Rambler ends up back near the east bank when police discovered the crime scene later that night.

The Zodiac Killer spots the Rambler on the west bank, so pulls in behind it to restrict its options of escape. He immediately exits his vehicle carrying a flashlight and makes David and Betty think exactly like Michael and Darlene did 6 1/2 months later - that he was a policeman. The Zodiac Killer now has several choices. He can immediately open fire when he arrives at the driver side window of the Rambler, he can ask them to leave their vehicle, or he can instruct them to move their vehicle over to the east bank. 

We already know that he wanted them out the vehicle because of what ultimately transpired. This is probably why he didn't immediately shoot them on the west bank. Or extricate them from the Rambler at this location, because his vehicle make and model (and license plate) were in an exposed position relative to the road and any potential eyewitnesses. His best option for concealment was ordering the couple across the turnout so that he could park abreast of the Rambler, to its right side, away from the road. This proved to be a good decision, because James Owen was unable to make out any significant details about the Zodiac Killer's vehicle when he passed the turnout, whereas Robert Connelly was earlier able to describe a light colored 1960 Station Wagon parked on the west bank. So imagine if the Zodiac Killer had decided to commence his attack on the young couple, with his vehicle even closer to the road on the west bank, parked behind the Rambler. His vehicle would have been much more exposed to passing motorists. 

The last question is trickier. If the Zodiac Killer, acting as a policeman or authority figure, had convinced David Faraday to move the Rambler to the east bank, why didn't he just instruct them to leave their vehicle at this location rather than apparently shooting at the Rambler? The problem is, we don't know when the two shots into the Rambler were fired. They may have been fired into the Rambler after the couple had exited through the passenger door by a killer exhibiting bravado, to force compliance from David and Betty. Or maybe David and Betty had become suspicious of the individual, showing a reluctance to leave the vehicle, causing the Zodiac Killer to fire into the Rambler to encourage cooperation from the couple. It may have been a mixture of the two.

​There are so many possible variables at this point, it's difficult to be confident on the most probable scenario. Regardless of how and when the shots were fired into the Rambler, it doesn't change the fact that the last position the Rambler was observed alone in the turnout before James Owen passed, was on the west bank by Robert Connelly. This is where we should assume David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were when Zodiac arrived, rather than place him back on the east bank for the sake of convenience. This story is much easier to tell with David and Betty on the east bank throughout, but ignoring the eyewitness testimony of Robert Connelly to achieve this, only serves as self-deception. Something that has permeated the Lake Herman Road story ever since Robert Connelly had to insist to the police that the Rambler was on the west bank that night. The widely held narrative from December 21st 1968 to this day, is a Zodiac Killer who drives into the turnout and immediately parks alongside the Rambler to its right. Although this is still possible, it contradicts the last known sighting of the Rambler when sitting alone in the Lake Herman Road turnout.

In a previous article I examined the notion that the Confession letter mailed on November 29th 1966 was the forerunner to the July 31st 1969 Zodiac letters. When "The Most Dangerous Game" movie was released in 1932, its associate producer, Merian C. Cooper, reflected on the evil of the human condition and stated "man is the most dangerous animal of all". This would be the wording used by the Zodiac Killer in his decrypted 408 cipher, solved by Donald and Bettye June Harden on August 8th 1969. Thirteen years after "The Most Dangerous Game" was released, "A Game of Death" starring John Loder and Audrey Long opened in US cinemas on November 23rd 1945. A poor remake of the original, the only real difference was that the evil Russian, Count Zaroff, had turned into the insane German, Erich Kreiger.

​This later movie featured on television throughout California from November 5th 1966 to November 8th 1966 - so if the Zodiac Killer was present in Riverside (or California) during this period, and was responsible for any of the communications down south - could this movie have had any influence on the phrases chosen in the Confession letters? Did the flawed character traits of Count Zaroff and Erich Kreiger, who were insane, heartless, and psychopathic men with a thirst to hunt human beings, form the basis of the wording "I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game" in the Confession letters on November 29th 1966? That "game" being "a game of death", in which the insanity of Erich Kreiger and the Confession letter author created no barrier to the murderous game and ambitions of either.. "A Game of Death" in 1966 turning into a "Most Dangerous Game" in the Bay Area, two to three years later. The murders in southern and northern California cloaked under the banner of the Richard Connell short story of 1924. ​

There were extremely close similarities between the language used in the Confession letter to the Riverside Desktop Poem. The desktop poem appeared to be reminiscing in the present tense about the attempted murder by knife of Roslyn Atwood (19} on the Riverside City College campus on April 13th 1965, before switching attention to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, writing "Just wait till next time. rh." The footnote being riverside, halloween, the day Cheri Jo Bates' lifeless body was discovered next to the library. An interesting connection was made by Ricardo Gomez of MK-Zodiac, who showed a strong similarity between the headline of the Riverside Daily Press on April 17th 1965, to the opening lines from the desktop poem. The Riverside Daily Press stated "Clean-cut youth sought in stabbing", with the desktop poem beginning "cut, clean, if red/clean. blood spurting, dripping, spilling; all over her new dress". 

Was this just one big game, comparing the "unwillingness" of Roslyn Atwood to die on April 13th 1965 in the desktop poem title, to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, who the author of the Confession letter claimed was as a woman who "went very willingly" to her death. The Riverside Daily Press on April 17th 1965 with the "clean-cut" headline also mentioned that Roslyn Atwood was "stabbed in the lower abdomen with a hunting knife with a 4 1/2 inch blade". Strangely, the morning after the Riverside City College library reconstruction on November 13th 1966 concerning the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, a buried hunting knife with a blade measuring 4 1/2 inches was raked up by a groundskeeper just 50 feet from the location of Cheri Jo Bates' body, in the same driveway. Although this was unlikely the weapon used in the attack on Roslyn Atwood, was the game now being played out in the campus itself? The comparison between the murder of Cheri Jo Bates and Roslyn Atwood was briefly considered in the Riverside Daily Press newspaper published on November 3rd 1966, entitled "Key Clue Goes to C11 Unit". Only briefly, however, because Rolland Lin Taft (19) was still behind bars for the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood.      

The typed wording on the Confession letter of "I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game" may have a different meaning. Was the author of the Confession letter, just like the Riverside Desktop Poem, harking back to the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood in 1965, using a mocking defence of his actions in the stabbing of Cheri Jo Bates? It was reported in the Riverside Daily-Enterprise newspaper on September 11th 1965 that Rolland Taft had pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood by reason of insanity. It appeared that the author of the Confession letter was doing the same. But I suspect this claim of insanity was just another part of the "game". It must also be noted that one of the Confession letters was mailed to the Riverside Daily-Enterprise.   

When the Zodiac Killer concealed "man is the most dangerous animal of all" in his 408 cipher, he mimicked the exact quote used by Merian C. Cooper upon the release of the 1932 film "The Most Dangerous Game". I have only found this quote in a handful of newspapers from 1932, so how did the Zodiac Killer acquire this from 37 years prior to 1969 without the use of old newspapers, possibly stored on the microfiche from a library? Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, was an English statesman, lawyer, diplomat and historian who served as chief advisor to royalty in the 17th century. The words once used by Edward Hyde of “They who are most weary of life, and yet are most unwilling to die" are extremely similar to the Riverside Desktop Poem title of "sick of living, unwilling to die," who himself survived a murderous attack, when English sailors nearly killed him at Evreux in France in 1668. If the title of the desktop poem had such lofty origins, it would seem that a library would be of great value once more. A history graduate that can migrate from southern to northern California perhaps? 

MERIAN C. COOPER AND "THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME" (1932)

It has recently been shown how phrases from the Riverside newspapers have been used to create the Riverside Desktop Poem in November/December, The Confession letters on November 29th 1966 and the "Bates Had to Die" letters on April 30th 1967. It seems like the author of the desktop poem trawled through old articles from the local newspaper (the Riverside Daily Press), and used "Clean-cut youth sought in stabbing" from April 17th 1965 about the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood (19). She was stabbed once in the lower abdomen by Rolland Taft while she was walking through a Riverside City College parking lot on April 13th 1965 at 9:30pm. The Riverside Desktop Poem stated "cut, clean, if red/clean. blood spurting, dripping, spilling; all over her new dress". 

The author of the confession letter used the same mimicry on November 29th 1966 by taking phrases and inspiration from the Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper on November 24th 1966. This newspaper article was about another 19-year-old female college student, who was offered a ride in a man's car and then attacked, just like the claims in the confession letter five days later. The newspaper article stated that the man "grabbed her around the neck". The confession letter author typed "I grabbed her around the neck with my hand over her mouth". The newspaper article stated "I could just hit you in the head with this piece of wood". The confession letter author typed "She let out a scream once and I kicked her in the head to shut her up". The assailant mentioned in the newspaper stated "I'm not Jack the Ripper". The confession letter author typed "But I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". At one point the assailant offered to "take her home", with the confession letter author typing he "would give her a lift home".

The author of the "Bates Had to Die" letters continued the theme of mimicry from local newspapers. The sender of the three Bates' letters on April 30th 1967 parroted the words used by Jack Matthews, the Staff Writer of the Press-Enterprise newspaper. On the same day the three threatening letters arrived (one to the Press-Enterprise), he wrote an extensive article about the murder of Cheri Jo Bates and the content in the confession letter, stating "The letter told of how Cheri struggled while she was being stabbed to death and the writer said there would be more killings to come". The author of the Bates' letters mimicked this wording by writing "Bates had to die, there will be more".

​On October 19th 1966, eleven days before the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, The Riverside Daily Press ran an article about David Karp's original drama series on ABC Stage 67. It ran from September 14th 1966 to May 4th 1967, featuring 26 episodes. The episode immediately before the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, aired on October 19th 1966, was entitled "The Confession", in which a lieutenant who was unaware of the latest Supreme Court ruling on murder confessions, attempts to coerce a confession from murder suspect Brandon de Wilde. 

​On June 13th 1966 Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, was a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that law enforcement in the United States must warn a person of their constitutional rights before interrogating them, or else the person's statements or confession cannot be used as evidence at their trial. Specifically, the Court held that under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the government cannot use a person's statements made in response to an interrogation while in police custody as evidence at the person's criminal trial unless they can show that the person was informed of the right to consult with a lawyer before and during questioning, and of the right against self-incrimination before police questioning, and that the defendant not only understood these rights but also voluntarily waived them before answering questions. ​ 

"The Confession" to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on November 29th 1966 may have been another time the author mimicked the local Riverside newspaper (four times in total), mockingly confessing to a recent murder, knowing that anything he typed was in advance of any Miranda rights being issued. We have the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood (19) on April 13th 1965, the murder of Cheri Jo Bates (18) on October 30th 1966, the abduction of a young 19-year-old woman on November 22nd 1966, and the fictitious "murder" of Bonnie on October 19th 1966, all wrapped up in three suspicious communications authored in Riverside, using mimicry from the local Riverside newspaper.   

On 12.24.68 James Owen in the police report stated that "He definitely saw two cars, a station wagon and another vehicle, parked approximately three or four feet to the right of the station wagon. He did not see anyone in the cars or around them".

James Owen traveling at 40mph along Lake Herman Road to Humble Oil in Benicia on December 20th 1968, would cover 925 feet in approximately 16 seconds. Traveling at 30mph he would cover this distance in 21 seconds. This is the distance between the bottom of the hill looking up to the now infamous Lake Herman Road turnout. James Owen never reported seeing any headlights of a vehicle entering the turnout as he approached. If the Zodiac Killer had entered the turnout just prior to James Owen arriving at this position on Lake Herman Road, can we reasonably conclude that the moment Zodiac arrived in the turnout, his immediate actions were to pull up to the right side of the 1961 Rambler, exit his vehicle, fire two shots into the Rambler, approach its passenger side door, before summoning both David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen from the Rambler, and then making David, Betty and himself completely vanish from the turnout before James Owen passed? The Zodiac Killer would have needed to achieve all these actions in marginally over 16 to 21 seconds. It simply isn't realistic. 

So let us consider that James Owen was 60 to 90 seconds away from the turnout (or more) when Zodiac pulled up alongside the Rambler. Based upon the chain of events we have been sold, wouldn't we now have expected James Owen to see two bodies lying in the turnout? (with or without Zodiac's vehicle}. However, he saw nobody in or around the vehicles, or beyond the turnout. Therefore, if the Zodiac Killer entered the turnout that night with the express intention of extracting both David and Betty from the Rambler and killing them quickly, he can only realistically have entered the turnout moments before James Owen arrived. Let us consider a third option.          

​The Zodiac arrives at the turnout while James Owen is about 45 seconds away. He has parked up, exited his vehicle, fired off two shots and removed both David and Betty from the Rambler, when he becomes aware of the approaching James Owen. He cannot now kill the couple, so he forces them behind one of the vehicles to hide from James Owen. This would require the Zodiac Killer to shut the passenger door of the Rambler, hide the couple from sight as James Owen passed, relocate both David and Betty back to the right side of the Rambler, execute the couple from this position (based upon the bullet casings and autopsy) and then re-open the passenger door of the Rambler before leaving the scene.

James Owen didn't recollect the passenger door of the Rambler being open when he passed the turnout - so if it wasn't open - then the Zodiac Killer must have closed it before Owen passed and re-opened it later - because this is how it was discovered by responding officers. If we look at the police sketches and this video, James Owen should have had a line of sight to the passenger door of the Rambler. While this version of events is possible, it sounds wholly implausible for numerous reasons.   

​This leaves us with a further option. The Zodiac Killer pulled alongside the Rambler in low gear, which certainly would have alerted David and Betty to the presence of his vehicle (even if his headlights were extinguished), and David Faraday chose to just sit there and do nothing for 16/20 seconds, while the Zodiac just sat there twiddling his thumbs, waiting for James Owen to arrive - who noticed nobody. If James Owen had been 1, 2, or 3 minutes away from the turnout when Zodiac arrived, would David Faraday have just remained in the turnout for this length of time with a man sitting a few feet away in a vehicle? So how did this story unfold? The final option to consider, albeit curious, is that James Owen saw no second vehicle and failed to notice the victims in the turnout. Or he noticed the kids in the turnout and just dismissed the sighting as drunk teenagers. When he realised later that a double murder had occurred he felt compelled to come forward, but needed to change his account because he may have been shamed for just driving by and not reporting what he saw. 

Is it possible that the Zodiac Killer had already committed the murders and was heading back to Vallejo when James Owen saw his vehicle by the Borges Ranch? This was the extended police statement given by James Owen, that "just before he approached the scene, a vehicle passed him going in the opposite direction toward Vallejo. He could give no description of the vehicle. This occurred near the Borges Ranch". The person driving this vehicle had impeccable timing, yet never came forward. If the individual driving this car towards Vallejo wasn't the Zodiac Killer, then they could have seen the second vehicle and crime in progress at the turnout also. If this driver was the Zodiac Killer, then it's pretty obvious why he never gave a police statement.

The close contact wound to David Faraday's left ear was almost certainly delivered by a killer standing in front of him, or by a killer standing to the right side of David Faraday (17), while the young man had the rear of his body pressed against the right side of the Rambler. If the killer had been standing behind him when he was shot, it is extremely unlikely that the feet of David Faraday would have been touching the right rear wheel and been in line with the bodywork of the vehicle. The Vallejo teenager's killer would have provided a buffer zone between David and the vehicle.

Ray Grant supplied the autopsy report of David Faraday to the Zodiac Tapatalk forum in 2013, which provided some interesting information from the internal and external examination. Notably, "A soft, discrete mass (2.0 cm.) is palpable over the right side of the face at the right of the mandible (towards the angle of the jaw). Wounds: A small ½ inch bruise is noted over the left side of the neck". It is the external injuries to his right cheek and neck I would like to focus on.

Assuming that the 2cm mass by the gonial angle of the mandible, and 0.5 inch bruise on the left side of the neck were not resultant from an action prior to them arriving at the Lake Herman Road turnout, what interaction with the killer could have caused these two features described at autopsy. 

The first thing I considered was a killer standing in front of David, holding him around the neck with his left hand, and pressing his thumb into the left side of David's neck, thereby causing the 0.5 inch bruise. The second possibility was a killer forcefully pressing the gun into David's neck, before switching position to fire the fatal shot into the "upper slight posterior area of the left ear". Had such an action transpired, it would suggest that David was held by the assailant for a period of time prior to his ultimate murder. A shot from this position could account for the shell casing found on the front passenger floorboard of the Rambler at the crime scene - which may never have arrived at the laboratory for analysis - and therefore omitted from the Department of Justice report.  

The gun shown above is not one of the guns believed responsible for the David Faraday murder, but I have used it to demonstrate the width of the muzzle compared to the barrel of the gun. The above example is about 0.5 inches, the same size as the bruise noted on David Faraday's neck at autopsy. A gun pressed into the neck with some force has the potential to cause bruising to the neck tissues. If the bruise to the left side of David's neck was caused by either the left thumb or gun of a killer standing in front of him, then he would have been a right-handed individual. The bullet casing possibly ejecting to the rear and into the open door of the Rambler.  

The 2cm mass described on the right cheek/jawline could have been caused by a blow from the assailant or from David striking the hard ground after being shot. David Faraday was found lying on his back, so could have collapsed forward to the turnout floor on his right side, impacting the ground with his face, before the momentum rolled him onto his back. This would have placed him standing right of the position shown above when shot (closer to the open door). This would be consistent with a killer securing David Faraday.the moment he stepped from the front passenger side of the Rambler.   

The crucial part of the Department of Justice report is the statement that ''All bullets submitted were Western copper coated .22 long rifle bullets, although some were damaged, it was possible to determine all but Item [1] had 6 right hand groove class characteristics". Item [1] was the bullet recovered from David Faraday. The report suggested that because some of the bullets were damaged (such as the one fired into David Faraday), it wasn't possible to determine if this bullet had right hand groove class characteristics like the other bullets fired at the Rambler and Betty Lou Jensen. This leaves the door open that this bullet could have been fired from a second gun. The same could apply to the missing tenth casing from the DOJ report, likely separated from the other nine when the Rambler was towed away. A bullet and casing that may be connected to one another, and a second shooter.  

The claim of the author on August 4th 1969 rings somewhat true with regards to Betty Lou Jensen, when the Zodiac Killer stated "All I had to do was spray them as if it was a water hose". However, this claim doesn't apply to David Faraday, who was clinically executed by a close-quarter assailant at point blank range. Did the author of the "Debut of Zodiac" letter overlook the perspective of his accomplice, or was this just another unimportant throwaway comment by the lone Zodiac Killer?  

Thanks to Ray Grant for making public the autopsy report.