Four months had elapsed between the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969 and the Z13 code on April 20th 1970, so what (if anything} inspired the Zodiac Killer to mail this most recent letter in April? For a long time I believed it was the newspaper coverage of Robert Salem's murder in San Francisco on the same day this letter was postmarked. However, this communication appeared like a response to a challenge laid down by Professor Donald C. B. Marsh, who told the San Francisco Examiner on October 22nd 1969 that "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 Allan 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". See article.
The newspaper story was entitled "Cipher Expert Dares Zodiac to Tell Name", so it seemed that this letter stating "My name is" was the Zodiac Killer's response to the challenge six months earlier. But why would the killer of five have waited half a year to deliver his response? Was there something significant about the data of April 20th? The challenge by Marsh and the invocation of Edgar Allan Poe's name, can be seen as a subtle prompt by Marsh to direct Zodiac down the path of encryption using techniques featured by Poe, thereby making any subsequent solve easier. It may have worked.
The newspaper story was entitled "Cipher Expert Dares Zodiac to Tell Name", so it seemed that this letter stating "My name is" was the Zodiac Killer's response to the challenge six months earlier. But why would the killer of five have waited half a year to deliver his response? Was there something significant about the data of April 20th? The challenge by Marsh and the invocation of Edgar Allan Poe's name, can be seen as a subtle prompt by Marsh to direct Zodiac down the path of encryption using techniques featured by Poe, thereby making any subsequent solve easier. It may have worked.
George Rex Graham was the founder of Graham's Magazine, who hired Edgar Allan Poe as a critic and editor in February 1841. The magazine was the first to publish "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "A Descent into the Maelström", "The Island of the Fay, The Mask Of The Red Death - A Fantasy", and others.
Edgar Allan Poe's publication "A Few Words on Secret Writing" featured in Graham's Magazine in July 1841, showing different cryptographic methods, that began with the scytale method of decryption which can be employed to solve the 340 cipher. This was immediately followed by another cryptographic technique of splitting the alphabet into two lots of 13 characters, A through M, and N through Z, just like the Zodiac appeared to do with the Z13 offering. His code of thirteen characters began with A and ended with M, which when rotated by 8 positions on a circle, would create a signature later used in the Exorcist letter This technique of using a cipher disk was another encryption method thoroughly covered in "A Few Words on Secret Writing" Everything in Poe's publication in Graham's Magazine is instrumental to both the Z340 and Z13. But again, why would the Zodiac Killer wait six months to reply to the challenge of Professor Donald C. B. Marsh on April 20th, unless of course, this date was significant to Edgar Allan Poe and Graham's Magazine.
Edgar Allan Poe's publication "A Few Words on Secret Writing" featured in Graham's Magazine in July 1841, showing different cryptographic methods, that began with the scytale method of decryption which can be employed to solve the 340 cipher. This was immediately followed by another cryptographic technique of splitting the alphabet into two lots of 13 characters, A through M, and N through Z, just like the Zodiac appeared to do with the Z13 offering. His code of thirteen characters began with A and ended with M, which when rotated by 8 positions on a circle, would create a signature later used in the Exorcist letter This technique of using a cipher disk was another encryption method thoroughly covered in "A Few Words on Secret Writing" Everything in Poe's publication in Graham's Magazine is instrumental to both the Z340 and Z13. But again, why would the Zodiac Killer wait six months to reply to the challenge of Professor Donald C. B. Marsh on April 20th, unless of course, this date was significant to Edgar Allan Poe and Graham's Magazine.
On April 20th 1841 Graham's Magazine was the first to publish "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, credited with being the first modern detective story. As the first fictional detective, "C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mystery of the brutal murder of two women. Numerous witnesses heard a suspect, though no one agrees on what language was spoken. At the murder scene, Dupin finds a hair that does not appear to be human".Wikipedia. Bearing in mind that the Zodiac case was turning into an extremely intriguing mystery that confounded the likes of Detectives David Toschi and Bill Armstrong who searched tirelessly for the murderer of five, it's quite possible that the Zodiac Killer found it humorously apt to mail a code on April 20th based on Edgar Allan Poe's featured cryptographic methods in Graham's Magazine, which coincided with the release date of the first modern detective story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"..
Professor Donald C. B. Marsh would offer the Zodiac a cryptic challenge on October 22nd 1969 invoking the name of Poe, with his coded reply possibly coming six months later on the exact day and month that Edgar Allan Poe, a prolific solver of ciphers, released the first modern detective story in Graham's Magazine. During 1970, the newspapers were filled with news of an impending Hollywood blockbuster entitled "Murders in the Rue Morgue" starring Jason Robards, Herbert Lom and Christine Kaufmann, to be released the following year. If the Zodiac Killer needed any reminder in April 1970 to the challenge given by Professor Donald C. B. Marsh, then the news of a movie to be released based on an Edgar Allan Poe short story, may have been the trigger. Not any movie, but "Murders in the Rue Morgue", initially published in short form on April 20th.
In the July edition of Graham's Magazine containing "A Few Words on Secret Writing", somebody mailed in a cryptographic challenge to Poe dated April 21st 1841, the same day and month Zodiac's Z13 cipher should have landed on the desk of the San Francisco Chronicle. The letter in Graham's Magazine introduced itself with the very same dash that followed the "My name is" introduction in the April 20th 1970 letter (see below). However, if the Zodiac Killer's initial trigger was "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", this subsequent date may have been a fortunate by-product. The "Sketches of Conspicuous Living Characters of France" and the mention of different languages (published in April), could be connected to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", which was set in Paris, France - and in which - several of the witnesses reported hearing two voices at the time of the murder, one male and French, but who disagreed on the language spoken by the other. In other words, Edgar Allan Poe may have been continuing a theme in the April 20th edition of the magazine, to which the person below responded by dating his letter the following day and mailing it sometime later. This would effectively bind the two dates of April 20th and April 21st to the April edition of Graham's Magazine, If the Zodiac Killer had searched for cryptographic material on Edgar Allan Poe in 1969 and/or 1970, he may have found "A Few Words on Secret Writing" in the July edition of Graham's Magazine, which ultimately led him to the April edition and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". Whether this is a viable route to the date of April 20th 1970 and the mailing of the Z13 code, is still open to question.
The Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is a professional organization of mystery and crime writers, founded in New York City in 1945, which presents the Edgar Award, a small bust of Edgar Allan Poe, to mystery or crime writers every year. The Mystery Writers of America honors Edgar Allan Poe's groundbreaking work, particularly "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" as the foundation of modern detective fiction. The annual Edgar Awards, given by the MWA, are named after Poe in recognition of his role as the genre's inventor.
Professor Donald C. B. Marsh would offer the Zodiac a cryptic challenge on October 22nd 1969 invoking the name of Poe, with his coded reply possibly coming six months later on the exact day and month that Edgar Allan Poe, a prolific solver of ciphers, released the first modern detective story in Graham's Magazine. During 1970, the newspapers were filled with news of an impending Hollywood blockbuster entitled "Murders in the Rue Morgue" starring Jason Robards, Herbert Lom and Christine Kaufmann, to be released the following year. If the Zodiac Killer needed any reminder in April 1970 to the challenge given by Professor Donald C. B. Marsh, then the news of a movie to be released based on an Edgar Allan Poe short story, may have been the trigger. Not any movie, but "Murders in the Rue Morgue", initially published in short form on April 20th.
In the July edition of Graham's Magazine containing "A Few Words on Secret Writing", somebody mailed in a cryptographic challenge to Poe dated April 21st 1841, the same day and month Zodiac's Z13 cipher should have landed on the desk of the San Francisco Chronicle. The letter in Graham's Magazine introduced itself with the very same dash that followed the "My name is" introduction in the April 20th 1970 letter (see below). However, if the Zodiac Killer's initial trigger was "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", this subsequent date may have been a fortunate by-product. The "Sketches of Conspicuous Living Characters of France" and the mention of different languages (published in April), could be connected to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", which was set in Paris, France - and in which - several of the witnesses reported hearing two voices at the time of the murder, one male and French, but who disagreed on the language spoken by the other. In other words, Edgar Allan Poe may have been continuing a theme in the April 20th edition of the magazine, to which the person below responded by dating his letter the following day and mailing it sometime later. This would effectively bind the two dates of April 20th and April 21st to the April edition of Graham's Magazine, If the Zodiac Killer had searched for cryptographic material on Edgar Allan Poe in 1969 and/or 1970, he may have found "A Few Words on Secret Writing" in the July edition of Graham's Magazine, which ultimately led him to the April edition and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". Whether this is a viable route to the date of April 20th 1970 and the mailing of the Z13 code, is still open to question.
The Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is a professional organization of mystery and crime writers, founded in New York City in 1945, which presents the Edgar Award, a small bust of Edgar Allan Poe, to mystery or crime writers every year. The Mystery Writers of America honors Edgar Allan Poe's groundbreaking work, particularly "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" as the foundation of modern detective fiction. The annual Edgar Awards, given by the MWA, are named after Poe in recognition of his role as the genre's inventor.
FURTHER READING: DEATH IN PARADISE MAKING FOOLS OF US IN APRIL
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