The March 13th 1971 and March 22nd 1971 communications were effectively claiming murders from October 1966 and September 1970. However, the next murder Zodiac would ultimately claim, occurred just four days after the San Francisco, California release of Tom Hanson's "Zodiac Killer" (April 7th 1971). This movie was advertised extensively in the San Francisco Chronicle the week before, and several days after the murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971 "in the woods" of Villa Montalvo in Saratoga. The movie poster and advertisements carried the wording from the Confession letter, mailed on November 29th 1966 after the Cheri Jo Bates murder, a month earlier. It read "Keep your sisters, daughters and wives off the streets", Or Zodiac Says "I lay awake nights; thinking of my next victim" (see foot of article).

Two days after this movie was advertised in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 13th 1971, a "Zodiac" letter was received at the San Jose Sheriff's Office dated "Thursday", which was April 15th 1971. It was addressed to the "Homicide Inspector". On the same day the movie was advertised in the San Francisco Chronicle (April 13th 1971), newspaper reports from around the country asked the question of whether Zodiac was responsible for the murder of Kathy Bilek (including The Riverside Press), stating "the teenager might be another victim of the Zodiac Killer".

​Therefore, we.have the San Francisco Chronicle and The Riverside Press newspapers using the phrases "next victim" and "another victim" on the same day. Followed two days later by a suggested Zodiac letter on April 15th 1971, which the local San Jose newspaper reported as a communication that spoke of "Zodiac" and "another victim". The newspaper also mentioned that the letter told of a girl who works in a hospital, who could be his "next victim". It appears that the author was incorporating phrases from the newspapers into his correspondence, which could demonstrate attentiveness to any story related to the Zodiac Killer. The letter was addressed to the "Homicide Inspector", whereas the threat of a "next victim" in one of the Confession letters from 1966, was addressed to "Homicide Detail". This letter was mailed one month after the Zodiac Killer admitted to "riverside activity" on March 13th 1971, which included a promised "next victim" in Riverside in 1966.  

The April 15th 1971 letter wasn't the first time a claimed Zodiac Killer wrote to San Jose law enforcement. A letter was mailed to the San Jose Police Department on November 21st 1969 threatening a widow in San Jose, which resulted in police providing the woman with 24 hours of protection. This current author would not have been aware of that threat, because the November 21st 1969 communication has never been released into the public domain. Unless of course, the current author was the Zodiac Killer - and he wrote both letters.

​Another curious feature of the  April 15th 1971 letter, is the suggestion that the "next victim" could be a girl who works in a hospital. On August 1st 1973 the Zodiac Killer seemed to confirm this wish by writing a letter to the Albany Times Union newspaper and threatening that the location of his "next victim" would be the Albany Medical Center in New York. The letter read "You were wrong I am not dead or in the hospital. I am alive and I'm going to start killing again. Below is the name and location of my next victim. But you had better hurry because I'm going to kill her August 10th at 5:00 PM when the shift change". The thought being that the Zodiac Killer was promising to murder a female nurse.  

It really is no surprise that in May 1971 and on July 13th 1971, the Zodiac Killer would mail a further two communications laying claim to the murder of Kathy Bilek (18), alongside his previously claimed victims of Kathie Reyne Snoozy (15) and Debra Gaye Furlong (14), murdered in San Jose on August 3rd 1969. And that he would link the May 1971 and August 1st 1973 cryptograms together through ciphertext and plaintext similarities.

​On Sunday, April 11th 1971, Kathy Bilek (18) visited Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, having planned to read a paperback book (The Gabriel Hounds) and engage in a spot of bird watching​ in the seclusion of a remote, wooded portion of the park, near a small stream. Her body was found the next day by her father, Charles, while Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies searched nearby. She had been stabbed 17 times in the back and 32 times in her chest and stomach. 

​The Gabriel Hounds is a romantic mystery by Mary Stewart, set in Lebanon. The "Gabriel Hounds" are spectral hounds in folklore, believed to foretell death or misfortune to those who hear their howls, and are associated with the crumbling palace of Dar Ibrahim in the Adonis Valley of Lebanon.  

 A FOUR YEAR JOURNEY TO TOMBSTONE 
ANOTHER "ZODIAC" LETTER ON APRIL 15TH 1971

Having long claimed the murders of Kathie Snoozy (15) and Debra Furlong (14), brutally stabbed in San Jose on August 3rd 1969, the Zodiac Killer had clearly been exposed as a fraud when their real killer, Karl Francis Werner, was interviewed and questioned about the murders of Kathy Bilek, Kathie Snoozy​ and Debra Furlong at the end of April 1971. The Zodiac Killer's response was immediate, mailing the 148 character cipher and letter shortly afterwards, followed by the Monticello card on July 13th 1971. The Zodiac Killer was determined not to relinquish the two victims he had claimed in his running total on November 8th 1969, by compounding matters, and adding Kathy Bilek to his list on July 13th 1971. Karl Francis Werner, in his eyes, had stolen two of his victims, so he was going to steal back all three for his afterlife and vicariously live through the memories of the three young girls.
​
Upset with law enforcement and Werner, who the Zodiac Killer probably viewed with disdain, needed to reclaim the victims and threaten further action in the coming days or weeks. The 148 character cipher and letter laid bare his intentions by threatening to "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and mail "a patch of human skin if there is some left over". This was straight from the playbook of Theodore Edward Gein, who roamed the graveyards of Plainfield, Wisconsin looking to exhume body parts to fashion grisly souvenirs from the skin and bones. 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" from pieces of skin so that "he could become his mother and literally crawl into her skin". It appeared as though Edward Gein wanted to feel close to his dead mother and become the embodiment of her once life.     

Edward Gein's dark thoughts fashioned the idea behind the movie Psycho (1960), produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. Norman Bates, the lead character played by Perkins, had previously killed his mother, Norma, and her lover out of jealousy ten years earlier. For many years, Norma and Norman had lived together in the fictional small town of Fairvale, California "as if there is no one else in the world". Norma raises her son Norman with cruelty and forbids him to have a life away from her, and teaches him that sexual intercourse is sinful and that all women (except herself) are whores.

When Norman was a teenager, his mother met Joe Considine and planned to marry, who then convinces Norma to open a motel. Norman grows furiously jealous, believing that Norma has abandoned him for her fiancé, and murders them both with strychnine. He then stages it like murder-suicide, making it look as if Norma had killed Considine and then herself. Unable to bear the loss of his mother, Norman stole Norma's corpse and mummified it in the fruit cellar, and spoke to it as if his mother were still alive. He also spoke to himself in her voice and frequently dressed in her clothes. Norman Bates has effectively become his mother in order to escape the awareness of her death and the guilt of having murdered her". Wikipedia. 

​It is plain to see the similarities between Norman Bates and Edward Gein, both of whom were controlled by a domineering mother with a hatred for other females, whose male fantasies centered on their mothers living on after death. The following newspaper clipping from the Chicago Daily News on November 20th 1957 describes a mother who often told Edward Gein and his brother to "Watch out for women. They are evil". 

When you consider the specificity of the Zodiac Killer's statement to "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and mail "a patch of human skin if there is some left over", shortly after the arrest of Karl Francis Werner, it should become obvious that the Bay Area murderer was condescendingly referring to Kathie Snoozy (15), Debra Furlong (14) and Kathy Bilek (18) as the three kids he wanted to make a skin suit from. 

​Kathy Bilek was buried in the Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, Debra Furlong in the Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz, and Kathie Snoozy in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The pasted phrase of "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April" in the Zodiac Killer's Monticello card on July 13th 1971, was referencing the murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971 in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, not far from the Monticello neighborhood where Kathie Snoozy was buried. The Zodiac Killer was tying both victims together under the banner of one postcard - and by extension - the murder of Debra Furlong. 

Any doubts that this was the case were expelled on September 18th 1973, when somebody removed a tombstone from the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose and placed it in front of the cemetery gate. The tombstone had the pseudonym "Zodiac" written on it in crayon. In the whole of California (and America) we have only one instance of a tombstone being removed from a cemetery with the pseudonym "Zodiac" being written on it - and it just happened to be from the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose where Kathie Snoozy was buried. It's pretty obvious this deed was done by the Zodiac Killer, especially when you consider that the contents of the Monticello card were not publicly known on September 18th 1973. This was a Zodiac Killer who threatened to dig up the bodies of the three girls, who later visited the gravesite of Kathie Snoozy. This connection should have been made in 1973.

Fast forward to January 19th 1978, three months before the April 24th 1978 "I am back with you" letter from the Zodiac Killer. A six-page letter was mailed to Mayor Tom Bradley in Los Angeles during the search for the Hillside Strangler. Its author has never been identified, but it carried the dominant word of "PLEASE" followed by two exclamation marks, not dissimilar to the dominant word "PLEASE" on the Zodiac Killer's "Channel Nine" letter on May 2nd 1978, also mailed from Los Angeles. The Channel Nine letter read "PLEASE hold the applause", followed by one exclamation mark. Both letters ultimately had a connection to Los Angeles Chief Daryl F. Gates.

I wondered whether the Zodiac Killer may have been responsible for this six-page letter, because we know of the Zodiac Killer's propensity to write multi-paged letters, often interjecting himself into murder investigations he had no involvement in. But it was something else in the January 19th 1978 letter that struck a chord. It reminded me of the movie "Psycho", based loosely on the story of Edward Theodore Gein. The letter told of a man who had killed his mother, who couldn't get her out of his head. A woman who told him to "kill those bad and evil ladys", just like the mother of Edward Gein, who told her sons to "Watch out for women. They are evil". The author of the January 19th 1978 letter claimed that his mother made his "head hurt", not unlike the character of Norman Bates in the movie "Psycho". We know that the Zodiac Killer referenced the movies and its award ceremonies throughout his communications, so did the film "Psycho" bridge the gap from 1971 to 1978 in the musings of one mind. Below is page one of the January 19th 1978 correspondence. 

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.. 

This is the third and final instalment re-examining the Pines postcard (March 22nd 1971), and determining whether the pasted "Sierra Club" and punch-hole were really designed to point us toward the deposition or burial site of Donna Lass, using the measurement of inches and a map scale as the conduit. This idea was rejected by some commenters on VT Squire's Reddit post regarding my analysis of the postcard as a directional tool.

​Wolf4968 stated "Does anyone really think the Zodiac, or the hoaxer/card sender, sat and measured cards by the hundredth inch, thinking, "There's the skeleton key to this whole thing, that they'll never figure out!!!".? Really?" The Zodiac Killer took the time to create at least 30 communications and mail them to the newspapers, he encrypted several messages in ciphers and codes, using a period 19 shift in his design of the 340 cipher, and mailed a Phillips 66 Map and code, challenging us with "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians" so we could unearth his bomb. So does Wolf4968 think that the Zodiac Killer would really sit down and measure the distance in inches between two points on a postcard using a standard classroom ruler, that would take but a few seconds? 

The more important question is determining whether the punch-hole on the Pines postcard was intended to identify a deposition or burial location, and was its positioning relative to the pasted "Sierra Club" of any significance? What we do know is that the Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club" on Donner Pass Road is directly in line (on the east-west axis) with the location of Chubb Lake where the jawbone of Donna Lass was found on December 31st 1985. The pasted "Sierra Club" on the postcard is also perfectly aligned with the punch-hole on the east-west axis. The distance between the center of the punch-hole and pasted "Sierra Club" was 2.19 inches (2 3/16 inches}, which equated to 14.02 miles using the map scale of 6.4 miles to the inch. This was the distance (by crow) between Clair Tappaan Lodge and the location of Donna's remains near Chubb Lake (to within a few hundred meters).

​It must be noted that after the jawbone and teeth were discovered on December 31st 1985, Sheriff Donald A. Nunes stated that a more detailed search would be conducted on January 4th 1986 looking for more remains at the 5,300 feet elevation. Later in January a skull was discovered near to where the jawbone was found.

The area close to the eastern side of Chubb Lake sits at an elevation between 5,300 and 5,400 feet, so matches the elevation described by Sheriff Nunes and the location of the jawbone described in the newspaper as "found in 2 inches of snow, a mile northeast of Interstate 80 by Melvin Bennett, who along with his son was enroute to fish at the reservoir". Yuba Gap sits at an elevation of 5,790 feet, Yuba Pass sits at 6,710 feet and Emigrant Gap sits at 5,200 feet. Despite these observations, we need to go further and see if the Zodiac Killer did anything else to support the notion that he identified burial or deposition sites using directional markers.

Sometime in May 1971, the Zodiac Killer mailed the 148 character cipher and letter, using language straight out of the Ed Gein handbook, when he wrote "I will skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and "I will send a patch of human skin if their is some left over". Ed Gein, known as "The Butcher of Plainfield", dug up corpses from the cemetery to make an array of ghastly household objects from human skin, and began to fashion a "woman suit" so "he could become his dead mother and literally crawl into her skin". So when the Zodiac Killer threatened to "skin three kids and make a suit from the skin", it is almost certain he was referring to the murdered Kathy Snoozy, Debra Furlong and Kathy Bilek, who, he was not only claiming as his victims, but who he was threatening to dig up from the cemetery, just like Ed Gein previously.

This theme of burial sites would continue on July 13th 1971, when the Zodiac Killer mailed the Monticello card with pasted text, stating "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The postcard was referring to Kathy Bilek, who was stabbed in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga (near Monticello in San Jose) on April 11th 1971. Kathy Snoozy was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The Zodiac Killer used the phonetic namesake of Kathy Bilek and the location of Monticello to identify the burial location of Kathy Snoozy, who he had previously claimed alongside Debra Furlong on November 8th 1969.

​Somebody would later visit the cemetery housing Kathy Snoozy on September 18th 1973 and remove a tombstone from the grounds, placing it at the front gates with the pseudonym "Zodiac" scrawled on it. We don't know for certain whose tombstone it was, but it doesn't take much guessing. This person had desecrated a gravesite at the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery, but thankfully they fell short of removing body parts from the depths. 

When the Zodiac Killer wrote in the Los Angeles letter on March 13th 1971, stating "The reason I'm writing to the Times is this, They don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others", I am not sure he was aware that "burial" was to become a feature of all his next three communications. The overlapping features in the Pines postcard and Monticello card are fairly obvious from the standpoint of directional markers. The Pines postcard contained "pass Lake Tahoe areas", "Sierra Club" and "around in the snow". The Monticello card had "in the woods". and "near Monticello".

We know that Kathy Bilek's body was found "in the woods near Monticello", so it's likely the body of Donna Lass would have been found "around in the snow" near the "Sierra Club" had she been discovered in March 1971. The remains of Donna Lass were found approximately 14 miles from the Sierra Club. The remains of Kathy Snoozy were buried nearly 10 miles from the Villa Montalvo woods. The Monticello card was identifying the location of Kathy Bilek's body in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, by using the Monticello gravesite of Kathy Snoozy as the directional tool. The Pines postcard also contained two key markers by having the "Sierra Club" location and the punch-hole to identify the "burial" site of Donna Lass. Hopefully, this goes someway to showing how "burial locations" and "body sites" would become the main focus of the Zodiac Killer in 1971. The 148 character cipher/letter and Monticello card were simply continuing the theme of the Pines postcard, mailed on March 22nd 1971. If the Monticello card is ever released to the public it will be curious to see what positions relative to one another the Zodiac Killer pasted the wording "in the woods" and "Monticello", and the distance between them. Or whether it was unnecessary in this instance because he named Monticello.  

A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART ONE)
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART TWO]

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 macabre 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. 

​A well read Zodiac Killer was seemingly inspired by the continuing fascination of the story of Edward Gein, that featured in many movies, beginning with Psycho (1960), produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh, along with later productions such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). The Zodiac Killer mailed a cryptogram and letter in the middle of 1971 (likely early May) claiming the murders of Kathy Bilek (18), Debra Furlong (14) and Kathie Snoozy (15), whose brutal slayings had all been recently attributed to Karl Francis Werner in the newspapers. The Zodiac Killer would make reference to all three girls in his 148 character and letter, asking investigators not to listen to "phonys" such as Werner, and warning them he would "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and "send a patch of human skin if their is some left over". Having claimed the brutal stabbing of Snoozy and Furlong on August 3rd 1969 in San Jose through the "Aug" reference in his November 8th 1969 "Dripping Pen" card, he was now left with the necessity of claiming the stabbing of Kathy Bilek also. She became the focus of his later Monticello card, mailed on July 13th 1971, stating "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". ​ Kathy Bilek was stabbed in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga (near Monticello in San Jose) on April 11th 1971.  

​Edward Theodore Gein was determined to raid graveyards and "make a woman suit from the skin", whereas the Zodiac Killer promised to "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin". Kathy Bilek was buried in the Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, Debra Furlong in the Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz, and Kathie Snoozy in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in San Jose.

I have always assumed that the Zodiac Killer was promising to kill three more kids in the future and make a suit from the skin, but based on the possible inspiration of the Edward Gein story, was the Zodiac Killer suggesting the macabre intention of visiting the three graveyards of Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek, and removing their skin to create a suit? Then mail "a patch of human skin if their is some left over". 

This may seem far-fetched, until you discover that Kathie Snoozy was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in San Jose, located in the neighborhood of Monticello, near Saratoga. Hence the wording "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April" in the Zodiac Killer's message on July 13th 1971. The neighborhood of Monticello is near to the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, where Kathy Bilek was brutally stabbed to death on April 11th 1971. There is no doubt that the Monticello card is referring to the murder of Kathy Bilek, through the gravesite of Kathie Snoozy - and so linking the Zodiac Killer to all three girls. But did the 148 character cipher and letter have a much more sinister connotation to its contents than first thought, inspired by the continuing story of Edward Theodore Gein?   

Kathy Bilek was murdered in the Villa Montalvo woods on April 11th 1971, hence the words "In The Woods Dies April". The Zodiac Killer also gave us a clue to the name of Kathy Bilek by identifying her namesake, Kathy Snoozy, who was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The murder of Kathy Bilek in the woods in April was near to the Monticello neighborhood. The three murder victims of Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek were all credited to Karl Francis Werner, who was arrested and questioned about their murders on April 29th 1971. The Zodiac Killer, having previously insinuated himself responsible for the murders of Snoozy & Furlong on November 8th 1969, now felt compelled to also claim the murder of Kathy Bilek in the Monticello card. The fact that Kathy Bilek, "in the woods died April", with "Monticello" containing the burial site of Kathy Snoozy, who were both murdered by Karl Francis Werner (along with Debra Furlong) and claimed by the Zodiac Killer, should not be overlooked when examining the Pines card mailed four months earlier. 

The Monticello card contained pasted newspaper text and never directly named Kathy Bilek as the victim he was claiming, but gave us directions to the burial site of one of his previously claimed victims (Kathy Snoozy). The Pines card used the same template, by again using newspaper cuttings, and failing to mention the name of Donna Lass (but insinuating her as the victim). The newspaper cuttings on the March 22nd 1971 "Pines card" appear to direct us to the deposition or burial site of the Lake Tahoe nurse, just like he did with Kathy Snoozy at Monticello. If the Zodiac Killer was the author of the Pines card, then he retrospectively claimed the lives of Donna Lass, Kathy Snoozy, Debra Furlong and Kathy Bilek months after their murders. He would retrospectively claim the murder of Cheri Jo Bates also. We may now have two pasted postcards, both possibly giving us directions to the remains of a murder victim claimed by the Zodiac Killer.

For many years now I have stated that the Zodiac Killer designed the Monticello card on July 13th 1971, reading "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The card was claiming the murder of Kathy Bilek (18), who was murdered in Saratoga, in the Villa Montalvo woods near the neighborhood of Monticello (in San Jose) on April 11th 1971. Kathy Snoozy (15) was the phonetic namesake of Kathy Bilek, and was buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery at 300 Curtner Avenue 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. He added Kathy Bilek to his total when he mailed the 148 character cipher and letter in (likely) May of 1971, and confirmed this on July 13th 1971 with the mailing of the Monticello card. These two communications in 1971 were a response to the arrest of Karl Francis Werner for the murder of all three girls. The burial location of Kathy Snoozy became integral to the Zodiac story on July 13th 1971, but investigators have apparently never made this connection. This is what makes the events of September 18th 1973 so very, very interesting.

On this date, somebody removed a tombstone from the Oak Hill Cemetery at First Street & Curtner Avenue and placed it in front of the cemetery gate. The tombstone had the pseudonym "Zodiac" written on it in crayon. We don't know the identity of the perpetrator who committed this unsavoury act, but we do know that the Zodiac Killer had a vested interest in the murder of Kathy Snoozy and the location of her burial site. I will leave it to you to guess the tombstone removed.   

​The Zodiac Killer's interest in the case of Kathy Snoozy & Debra Furlong likely began on August 6th 1969 (3 days after their murders) when the San Francisco Chronicle released a comprehensive front page article of the knife slayings, with a reference to her burial at the Oak Hill Cemetery in San Jose.

​In his very first communications, the Zodiac Killer wrote three letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969, and fully expected to receive front page coverage, demanding "I want you to print this cipher on your frunt page by Fry Afternoon Aug 1-69, If you do not do this I will go on a kill ram page Fry night that will last the whole week end". After all, he had now committed the murders of David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen and Darlene Ferrin, while seriously injuring Michael Mageau.

He again reiterated the importance of publicity when the August 4th 1969 Debut of Zodiac letter arrived at the San Francisco Examiner offices, stating "I was not happy to see that I did not get front page coverage". This trend would continue in the Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969 when he asked politely "Could you print this new cipher in your frunt page", and when the Los Angeles letter was mailed on March 13th 1971, declaring "The reason I'm writing to the Times is this, They don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others". 

By August 4th 1969 he had killed three, nearly killed another, sent four letters and created a 408 character cipher formed of three parts - but despite this - the two main newspapers in the Bay Area relegated his cipher offerings to page four and page nine in the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner respectively. The Zodiac Killer was probably wondering what more he had to do to achieve the front page coverage his crimes and communications merited. The answer would come sharply into focus, when two days after he announced himself to the world as "Zodiac" - and while he was scouring the newspapers for any progress on his 408 cipher - the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a comprehensive article on the front page of their newspaper featuring the brutal slayings of Kathie Reyne Snoozy (15) and Debra Gaye Furlong (14) in San Jose on August 3rd 1969. The two young teenage girls were brutally stabbed countless times as they picnicked atop an oak grove in Alamedan Valley. 

​The Zodiac Killer, having created terror in Benicia and Vallejo - and having sent four communications to date - noticed that the Snoozy & Furlong murders received front page coverage, while he received inner-page status. Is it really any surprise that the Zodiac Killer reappeared on the shores of Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969, armed with a large knife and wearing an ominous executioner's costume. 

​Dr. John E. Hauser, Santa Clara county's chief medical examiner and coroner, stated of the Snoozy & Furlong murders "I've never seen a case with this many stab wounds. You know, I've been in this profession a long time and sometimes I think I'm rather callous, but when I saw these girls, believe me it was terrifying. The Nazi sex mutilations during World War II were nothing compared to what was done to these young girls". 

The Zodiac Killer knew he had to perform an attack that would shock, so it's not difficult to understand why he ramped up the terror in the manner he did, knowing that a close-quarter attack should secure him the front page coverage he felt he warranted. After the attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard, the Zodiac Killer traveled back up the hill and wrote "Vallejo 12-20-68, 7-4-69, Sept 27-69 - 6:30. by knife" on the car door of the young couples' vehicle. The addition of "by knife" was effectively saying to law enforcement "I've now killed with a knife, do I now get front page coverage like the San Jose murders". The plan worked perfectly, because the Lake Berryessa attack had the added advantage of him being linked to the murders of Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong. Something he would capitalize on in the Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969, when he upped his victim count to seven and added the month of August to his chronological list of murder months.  
 
​There is also the possibility he threatened the family members of Debra Furlong on December 19th 1969 (see newspaper cutting above), when a phone call was received by police dispatcher, Shirley Searey, of the San Jose Highway Patrol, claiming to be the Zodiac Killer and stating "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". The remaining five Furlong family members were Glen Furlong and his wife, along with Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11. All the information required to create this phone call and know the burial site location of Kathy Snoozy was available in the August 6th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article.  

On October 27th 1970, the Zodiac Killer would mail the Halloween card, upping his victim count to fourteen, but chose to write 4-TEEN as an alternative, to include the only four teenagers he was claiming thus far. Those four were David Faraday (17), Betty Lou Jensen (16), Kathie Snoozy (15) and Debra Furlong (14). Seven months later (probably early May, 1971), the Zodiac Killer mailed the 148 character cipher and letter in response to the recent arrest and interrogation of Karl Francis Werner (18) for the murders of Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong, as well as the recent murder of Kathy Bilek (18) in Saratoga on April 11th 1971. The headlines stated San Jose Student Held in Slaying of Three Girls, San Jose Student Held in Slaying of 3 Girls and Youth Arraigned in Knife Slayings of Three Girls.  Paul Avery of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote "He (Werner) was immediately advised of his rights concerning any statements he may make and legal representation to which he is entitled, the detectives said. Werner was then taken to the scenes of the crimes. Late yesterday he was undergoing questioning. The detectives would not reveal what statements, if any, he had made concerning the killings of the three girls".

​The Zodiac Killer, having invested nearly two years linking himself to the Snoozy & Furlong murders, could now abandon his connection to the two young teenagers, or continue the facade, and now claim all three murders, which included Kathy Bilek. It was either all three, or none at all. His choice became apparent when the 148 character cipher included in his 1971 letter was deciphered. It read "T(h)is (is) the Zodiac Speacking. Why can't you stop me. I can't stop killing. Stop listening t(o) phonys. If this is not on the front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin". The Zodiac Killer was urging investigators not to listen to Karl Francis Werner, referring to him as a "phony". 

​The 408 cipher mailed on July 31st 1969 could be considered an introductory cipher by the Zodiac Killer, laying out his plans to collect more slaves for his afterlife and warning police of more murder to come. The 340 cipher, solved by eminent cryptographers David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke in December 2020 was contemporary in nature, effectively calling out Eric Weill who telephoned into the Jim Dunbar TV Show on October 22nd 1969, that initiated the response of Zodiac just over two weeks later, who stated "That wasn't me on the TV show". The 32-Symbol cipher was also contemporary in nature, threatening to detonate a bomb in San Francisco & Vicinity soon after the Zodiac Killer had referenced the Park Police Station bombing (on April 20th 1970) which killed San Francisco police officer Brian McDonnell. The Zodiac Killer also called out Karl Francis Werner shortly after his arrest and interrogation for the murders of Snoozy & Furlong on April 29th 1971, again encoding a contemporary message stating "stop listening to phonys". This message (plural in nature) was not only labelling Karl Francis Werner as an imposter, but included Eric Weill from the Jim Dunbar Show - and so bound the 340 and 148 character ciphers under the banner of one author.

The Zodiac Killer wrote "stop listening to phonys" in 1971. The phonys mentioned by Zodiac were Eric Weill and Karl Francis Werner. Both the 340 cipher and 148 cipher used the headlines (and text) from two newspapers. The 340 cipher effectively rejected the phony caller to the Jim Dunbar TV Show. The 148 cipher rejected the phony, Karl Francis Werner, who was being credited with the murders of Snoozy & Furlong, to which Zodiac had claimed for himself on November 8th 1969, by the addition of "Aug" on the Dripping Pen card.  

The Z148 code (probably mailed May 3rd 1971) was again contemporary in nature, being a response to the police arrest and interview of Karl Francis Werner on April 29th 1971. Three newspaper articles ran with the headlines "San Jose Student Held in Slaying of Three Girls", "San Jose Student Held in Slaying of 3 Girls" and "Youth Arraigned in Knife Slayings of Three Girls". The Zodiac Killer utilized these headlines in his 148 character cipher by promising to "skin three kids and make a suit from the skin" if his latest letter was not published.​

​Victims of serial killers ​make up a very small percentage of the total number of murder victims each year. Communications written by such killers (and accompanying hoaxers) are even less. So imagine the percentage of serial killers and their accompanying hoaxers that mail communications to authorities with cryptograms and codes included within the correspondence. Now imagine two cryptograms contained within two letters unreleased into the public domain, both of which have many crossover features, that both use the ciphertext character "7" to represent the plaintext character "A" in the code, with both claiming to be from the Zodiac Killer, and both using the "sun cross" in their respective codes. These two letters were mailed from Fairfield, California (1971) and Albany, New York (1973). Now imagine mailing a 148 character cryptogram in 1971 using the root word "phony" that was previously used to describe the Jim Dunbar TV Show hoaxer Eric Weill in the headlines of a newspaper article on February 6th 1970, who was the focus of the 340 cipher solve in 2020 when the Zodiac Killer wrote "That wasn't me on the TV show" and effectively proclaimed the caller a hoaxer. A 340 cipher message that wasn't known to anybody else but the Zodiac Killer in 1971. 

On August 1st 1973 (I believe) the Zodiac Killer mailed the Albany Times Union letter and cryptogram threatening murder towards the Albany Medical Center in New York. This communication, irrespective of who mailed it, was triggered by an article by Kermit Jaediker that appeared in the New York Daily News on July 22nd 1973 entitled "A Code For Murder". The response in the letter was "You were wrong, I am not dead or in the hospital. I am alive and well and I'm going to start killing again. Below is the name and location of my next victim. But you had better hurry because I'm going to kill her August 10th at 5:00 pm when the shift change. Albany is a nice town". It contained a code (shown below) stating
​"(12 characters undeciphered). Albany Medical Center this only the beginning". ​ 

Bearing in mind that this newspaper article was entitled "A Code For Murder" and began with the wording "Zodiac, a screwball with two hobbies, killing and cryptograms, hasn't been heard from for quite a spell now", one shouldn't be surprised that the Zodiac Killer replied with "I'm going to start killing again" and added a new cryptogram. Later in the article, with respect to the Zodiac Killer's earliest murders, it stated "Police were leaning toward the mad murderer theory. This line of reasoning was virtually confirmed Aug. 1 when Gibson Publications, publishers of the morning Vallejo Times-Herald and the evening News-Chronicle, received a thick envelope postmarked San Francisco". The beginning three lines of the cryptogram mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald were featured at the top of this recent newspaper article.        

So is it a coincidence that the Albany cipher letter was postmarked August 1st, tying in with the Daily News article and the Zodiac Killer's demands in 1969 (including the one to the Vallejo Times-Herald), stating "I want you to print this cipher on your frunt page by Fry Afternoon Aug 1". Another unusual coincidence between the Albany cryptogram (above) and the portion of cipher shown in the July 22nd 1973 newspaper article (below), is that both have 51 ciphertext characters. When the Albany code was cracked, it finished with "This is only the beginning". The 51 ciphertext characters from the Vallejo Times-Herald shown below were ironically the beginning of the Zodiac Killer's cryptographic exploits, as explained in the latest newspaper article, which read "When decoded it began "I like killing people".  

The Zodiac Killer had never before May 1971 used ciphertext squares with lines bisecting them, he had never used a sun cross character (Zodiac crosshairs without overhanging lines), a circle with internal lines, or a standalone number as a ciphertext character (only a reversed P in the Z408 and circled 8 in the Z13). The 148 and 51 character cryptograms mailed in (probably) May 1971 and August 1st 1973 respectively, not only were consecutive cryptograms claimed by a Zodiac Killer, but both had these overlapping features. A reversed N and reversed slanted N was also a possibility. The ciphertext character 7 featured in both cryptograms - and in both instances represented the plaintext letter A. It is extremely rare for killers or copycats to mail communications to the press. It is even rarer when those communications contain cryptograms. So how rare is it that two consecutive communications would be mailed by somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, who added a cryptogram to their letter, both containing at least four overlapping features never before used by the Zodiac Killer, who utilized the ciphertext character 7 to represent the plaintext letter A on both occasions, despite neither communication having been publicly released. One could argue that the two authors had to be one individual.  

The 148 character cipher used the ciphertext character 3, with the Albany cipher continuing the theme with 4, 5 and 7. By connecting the message in the 148 character cipher and letter from (probably) May 1971 to the contents of the 340 character cipher unearthed by Dave Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke in 2020 (which in 1971 was unbroken), it becomes possible to authenticate both the 1971 and 1973 letters, if the connections argued above have met the threshold of proof in your eyes  If not, then the article you have just read has been 5 minutes of your life wasted, for which I sincerely apologize. See The Zodiac Killer's Seventh Cipher/Code.

At the very early stages of the Saratoga murder investigation of Kathy Bilek (18) it was determined that her killer was likely the same individual who murdered Kathie Snoozy (15) and Debra Furlong (14) in San Jose on August 3rd 1969. It was highlighted by Santa Clara County Sheriff James Geary and Undersheriff Tom Rosa  that the pattern of wounds to all three girls seemingly made a deliberate effort to avoid stabbing the chest and pelvic regions. The Zodiac Killer connection was rightly considered tenuous, despite the Bay Area murderer insinuating his involvement in the murders of Snoozy & Furlong as early as November 8th 1969. 

On April 15th 1971, addressed to "homicide inspector", the sheriff's office received an unsigned, somewhat incoherent letter which Rosa says may or may not be connected with the Kathy Bilek slaying (see below). The letter, on ruled paper, mentioned Zodiac and another victim, stating "Gril (sic) works in hospital" could be his next victim. It continued with "Beleaved to be Zodiac, Killer and gril lover writes long poem asking how anyone ever could ever begin to understand our world of pot etc".

​Looking at the wording used in the letter it's impossible to determine whether this "Zodiac" correspondence is genuine or otherwise. Observers will obviously point out that the tone of the letter points away from the Zodiac Killer and towards a "drug fueled hoaxer". While this seems like the obvious superficial conclusion based on the wording in the letter, there is simply no way to determine the authorship of this communication. The only mildly interesting thing about this letter is the mention of "girl works in hospital" and "next victim", bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter to the Albany Times Union on August 1st 1973, which stated "I am not dead or in the hospital" and warned of a "next victim" from the "Albany Medical Center". This "next victim" believed to be a nurse (girl in hospital) during the "shift change".      

The 148 character letter and cipher mailed by the Zodiac Killer in (probably) May 1971 about the murders of Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek, with reference to their murderer, Karl Francis Werner, as a "phony", can be linked through its cryptogram to both the 340 cipher and Albany code, see here. The newspaper article above, from the Peninsula Times Tribune in Palo Alto on April 16th 1971, could possibly have inspired the Zodiac Killer in his creation of the Albany letter (or not). The murders of Kathy Snoozy, Debra Furlong and Kathy Bilek straddled the Zodiac case from 1969 and 1971, despite the Zodiac Killer having no involvement in their murders - but would claim so to the bitter end.

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 macabre 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. 

A well read Zodiac Killer was seemingly inspired by the continuing fascination of the story of Edward Gein, that featured in many movies, beginning with Psycho (1960), produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh, along with later productions such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). The Zodiac Killer mailed a cryptogram and letter in the middle of 1971 (likely early May) claiming the murders of Kathy Bilek (18), Debra Furlong (14) and Kathie Snoozy (15), who had all been recently attributed to Karl Francis Werner in the newspapers. The Zodiac Killer would make reference to all three girls in his 148 character and letter, asking investigators not to listen to "phonys" such as Werner, and warning them he would "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and "send a patch of human skin if their is some left over". Having claimed the brutal stabbing of Snoozy and Furlong on August 3rd 1969 in San Jose through the "Aug" reference in his November 8th 1969 "Dripping Pen" card, he was now left with the necessity of claiming the stabbing of Kathy Bilek also. She became the focus of his later Monticello card, mailed on July 13th 1971, stating "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". ​ Kathy Bilek was stabbed in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga (near San Jose) on April 11th 1971.  

Edward Theodore Gein was determined to raid graveyards and "make a woman suit from the skin", whereas the Zodiac Killer promised to "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin". Kathy Bilek was buried in the Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, Debra Furlong in the Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz, and Kathie Snoozy in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in San Jose.

I have always assumed that the Zodiac Killer was promising to kill three more kids in the future and make a suit from the skin, but based on the possible inspiration of the Edward Gein story, was the Zodiac Killer suggesting the macabre intention of visiting the three graveyards of Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek, and removing their skin to create a suit? Then mail "a patch of human skin if their is some left over". 

This may seem far-fetched, until you discover that Kathie Snoozy was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in San Jose, located in the neighborhood of Monticello, near Saratoga. Hence the wording "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April" in the Zodiac Killer's message on July 13th 1971. The neighborhood of Monticello is near to the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, where Kathy Bilek was brutally stabbed to death on April 11th 1971. There is no doubt that the Monticello card is referring to the murder of Kathy Bilek, through the gravesite of Kathie Snoozy - and so linking the Zodiac Killer to all three girls. But did the 148 character cipher and letter have a much more sinister connotation to its contents than first thought, inspired by the continuing story of Edward Theodore Gein?   

On October 22nd 1969 and February 5th 1970, the hoaxer called "Sam the sham" phoned into the Jim Dunbar Show at KGO-TV, both times passing himself off as the infamous Zodiac Killer. On both occasions this would be met with derision from the real Zodiac Killer, who used the newspaper headlines to incorporate into his 340 and 148 character ciphers on November 8th 1969 and May 1971. The San Francisco Chronicle headlines on October 24th 1969 stated "It Wasn't Zodiac, Say 3 Who Know", to which the Zodiac replied in the 340 cipher "That Wasn't Me on the TV Show". The San Francisco Chronicle headlined with "Talk Show's Zodiac Caller Called a Phony" on February 6th 1970 and wiith "San Jose Student Held in Slaying of 3 Girls" on April 30th 1971, to which Zodiac replied in his 148 character cipher with "I Will Skin 3 Little Kids" and "Stop Listening to Phonys" sometime in May 1971.

​Despite the 340 cipher being unbroken in 1971, both ciphers were referring to Eric Weill, ultimately found responsible for the Jim Dunbar hoax. The phonys Zodiac was referring to in his 148 character cipher were Eric Weill and Karl Francis Werner, the latter of which, had recently been arrested and questioned by detectives for the murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971 in Saratoga, and the murders of Kathie Snoozy & Debra Furlong on August 3rd 1969 in San Jose, which the Zodiac Killer had long claimed were his victims. He would compound matters by adding Kathy Bilek to his victim total when he mailed the Monticello card on July 13th 1971.

On December 7th 1969, the same day somebody impersonated the Jim Dunbar caller when phoning an Oklahoma radio station, another Zodiac letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle impersonating the Jim Dunbar caller, stating "I Just Need Help" and "I Will Turn Myself In". Bearing in mind that this letter pre-empted the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969 that thrice pleaded "please help me", there was a more than a good chance that the 38 character code that accompanied this letter, concealed a message about Melvin Belli and the hoax phone call to the Jim Dunbar Show. There would also be a high probability that the Zodiac Killer would use a recent newspaper article for his hidden 38 character message, continuing this theme. 

On October 23rd 1969, the Los Angeles Times newspaper published an article entitled "I Want Help Zodiac Caller Tells Attorney on Telephone", with the accompanying text stating "I Don't Want To Give Myself Up". This was clearly mimicked in the December 7th 1969 letter, when the Zodiac Killer stated "I Just Need Help" and "I Will Turn Myself In". But what had he possibly taken from the newspaper to incorporates into his 38 character code? The wording accompanying the picture of Melvin Belli in the newspaper read "Attorney Melvin Belli in phone booth at a San Francisco television station talking to caller who said he was the Zodiac Killer. Caller made an appointment but didn't keep it". 

​It is the headline text accompying the Melvin Belli picture that I considered the Zodiac Killer probably responded to, just like he did when composing his 340 and 148 character ciphers. I worked out a viable message in the Z38 that read "TRYING TIMES. SO I NEED APPOINTMENT TO GET HELP". This wasn't the "good times" Zodiac was used to, but the formulated  message is in keeping with the rhetoric displayed in the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969, and with the headline text in the Los Angeles Times newspaper. I am not claiming this is the answer to the 38 character code, but it does conform to the standards of cryptology, with the coded message and accompanying writing in the letter congruent with the story in the Los Angeles Times newspaper on October 23rd 1969. 

Nine days later, on December 16th 1969, another letter mailed from Fairfield was probably inspired by another newspaper story from the Los Angeles Times, when the Zodiac Killer began his communication with "I just want to tell you this state is in trouble. I will go for the government life. So don't forget me. I will kill more people than you can count. So look for more blood.".
The newspaper article (edited for conciseness below) was published in the Los Angeles Times on December 16th 1969, a matter of hours before the second Fairfield letter was mailed with an afternoon postmark. The opening line of Zodiac's letter began with "I just want to tell you this state is in trouble", which is synonymous with the newspaper article that headlined with "State Furnishes List of Murders Similar to 7 Slayings Here", as well as the opening paragraph of the article that adds "State officials have provided Los Angeles police with details of 30 unsolved murders", and the sub-headline of "All Murders Logged by State". 
​
​The Zodiac Killer would counter the list provided by state officials with a list of his own. At the foot of his December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter he would give us a list of locations and the number of police he promised to kill in each city (38 in total). This would develop in later communications, in which the Zodiac Killer gave us a list of "society offenders" to be targeted when he plagiarized verses from The Mikado, a Savoy comic opera crafted by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert and Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan,  released in London on March 14th 1885.

Government Official means any officer, employee or other individual acting in an official capacity for a Governmental Authority or agency or instrumentality thereof (including any state-owned or controlled enterprise). This may explain the Zodiac Killer's use of the phrase "government life" in his letter. It appeared that the second Fairfield letter was specifically responding to this newspaper article (see below) - both of which corresponded to one date. Susan Denise Atkins (21), one of six persons charged with the Tate-LaBiaca murders, provided information to police where they could find items of disposed bloody clothing related to the Cielo Drive attack, detailed in the article as "A station spokesman said the clothes, stained with what appeared to be blood and knotted in a bundle were turned over to police". I have highlighted these below in reference to the Zodiac Killer's statement of "look for more blood" in the Fairfield letter. The police were effectively dispatched to look for items of clothing stained with blood in the Tate-LaBianca slayings, to which Zodiac suggested there would be more blood in future for police to find. 

MORE READING:  THE "TRYING TIMES" OF THE ZODIAC KILLER?

Of the three lengthy cryptograms crafted by the Zodiac Killer, the 408 cipher mailed on July 31st 1969 was his introductory message to the public, proclaiming his intention to collect slaves for the afterlife. The cryptogram was a simple homophonic substitution cipher, cracked in a matter of days by schoolteacher Donald Gene Harden and Bettye June Harden (née Tischer) of Salinas, California. The Zodiac Killer's next character laden cryptogram appeared reactionary, in that the design of the 340 cipher on November 8th 1969 was much more complex, despite the fact it contained a contemporary message regarding the "phony" (Eric Weill), who rang into the Jim Dunbar TV Show on October 22nd 1969 and February 5th 1970 pretending to be the infamous Zodiac Killer. Although the design of the cipher was arguably more difficult, it is clear that the Zodiac Killer underestimated its complexity and failings, resulting in the contemporary message contained within it being diminished and compromised by the passage of time. 

​When the Zodiac Killer created his third lengthy cryptogram (in possibly May, 1971), containing yet another contemporary message about "phony" Eric Weill (and claimed additional "phony" Karl Francis Werner), the Zodiac Killer, this time, made sure his message would not be lost to the hands of time by manufacturing a cryptogram much simpler than the 408 cipher, by allotting just one ciphertext character to each plaintext letter. The only three times he deviated from this technique in the cryptogram was with the bold letter "G" that concluded the word "LISTENING" on the third row, and the letter "T" in "THE" and "FRONT" on the first and fifth row. The Zodiac Killer likely incorporated two deliberate errors on the first row when he used two misspellings within his "This is the Zodiac speaking" introduction. These deliberate misspellings, by adding and subtracting a plaintext letter, very likely created to add minor complexity, and prevent an immediate decoding of his cipher.  

Having used the letter "Z" in plaintext for the first time in three cryptograms, it seemed that the Zodiac Killer couldn't resist using the "sun cross" character (similar to his crosshairs) to represent the initial of his pseudonym. This becomes apparent when he uses this individual character to sign off his accompanying letter, rather than the traditional crosshairs or letter "Z".

Victims of serial killers ​make up a very small percentage of the total number of murder victims each year. Communications written by such killers (and accompanying hoaxers) are even less. So imagine the percentage of serial killers and their accompanying hoaxers that mail communications to authorities with cryptograms and codes included within the correspondence. Now imagine two cryptograms contained within two letters unreleased into the public domain, both of which have many crossover features, that both use the ciphertext character "7" to represent the plaintext character "A" in the code, with both claiming to be from the Zodiac Killer, and both using the "sun cross" in their respective codes. These two letters were mailed from Fairfield, California (1971) and Albany, New York (1973). Now imagine mailing a 148 character cryptogram in 1971 using the root word "phony" that was previously used to describe the Jim Dunbar TV Show hoaxer Eric Weill in the headlines of a newspaper article on February 6th 1970, who was the focus of the 340 cipher solve in 2020, when the Zodiac Killer wrote "That wasn't me on the TV show" and effectively proclaimed the caller a hoaxer. A 340 cipher message that wasn't known to anybody else but the Zodiac Killer in 1971. Regardless, we must not let facts get in the way of the long told Zodiac narrative. 

Bearing in mind the propensity of the Zodiac Killer to respond to recent newspaper articles about himself, it would have crossed the minds of Zodiac researchers that the hidden message in the 340 cipher may have concerned the recent attempted poisoning of schoolteacher Daniel Williams by somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer. The logical conclusion may have been a hidden message regarding the murders of Kathie Snoozy & Debra Furlong, on account of the Zodiac Killer raising his victim count from five to seven in the Dripping Pen card. However, it ultimately transpired to be a rebuttal or rejection of Eric Weill, the Zodiac hoaxer who rang into the Jim Dunbar TV Show on October 22nd 1969. The Zodiac enciphered the message "That wasn't me on the TV show" and "I am not afraid of the gas chamber", based entirely upon the Zodiac imposter and the interaction with Jim Dunbar and Melvin Belli.

When the Zodiac Killer's seventh cipher/code was mailed shortly after the Snoozy & Furlong murders saw an arrest in the case, on April 30th 1971, it too would ultimately prove to contain a contemporary hidden message concerning the arrest and questioning of Karl Francis Werner. The 148 character cipher was probably mailed shortly after the arrest of Werner (likely May 2nd 1971 or just after). This cipher called out Werner as a phony, utilizing the wording of Inspector David Toschi and the newspaper headlines regarding a second phony Zodiac call on February 5th 1970, likely from Eric Weill once again. In fact, the Zodiac Killer didn't express an individual reference to Karl Francis Werner as a phony, he utilized the plural, enciphering "phonys" to bind Werner and Weill under one banner. In other words, the Zodiac Killer was calling out Eric Weill in the 148 character cipher, just as he had done in the 340 cipher on November 8th 1969 (through rebuttal). The 148 character message and accompanying letter was attempting to maintain his claim, not only to his perceived ownership of the Snoozy & Furlong murders, but the recent murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971, also accredited to Karl Francis Werner. The fact that both the 340 and 148 character ciphers indirectly referenced Eric Weill, inextricably links them to the same author, bearing in mind the 340 cipher was unsolved when the 148 character cipher was created and mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Based on the Zodiac Killer's ability to use phrases from newspapers many months and years ago when composing a new letter, there is every chance the Zodiac Killer kept a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about himself. In the newspaper clipping above, it stated "Homicide detectives later listened to a tape recording of the conversation and concluded that "Sam" was a phony". In the newspaper clipping below, with respect to the apprehension of Karl Francis Werner, it stated "Late yesterday he was undergoing questioning. The detectives would not reveal what statements, if any, he had made concerning the killings of the three girls". Therefore, it is with little surprise, the Zodiac Killer would respond to the April 30th 1971 article below, by urging that law enforcement "stop listening to phonys".     

The 340 cipher was unbroken by the time the 148 character cipher was mailed, so this probably explains why the Zodiac Killer reverted back to an extremely simple cipher in 1971. Having another message carrying a contemporary message lost in time, was probably not the ideal scenario for the Zodiac Killer. By signing off his accompanying letter in 1971 with a sun cross symbol, he was probably giving us a clue to his signature of "Z", because this symbol featured only once in the cipher, and it represented the plaintext letter of "Z" beginning the pseudonym "Zodiac". Quite a clever addition by the Bay Area murderer. The Zodiac Killer would further give us an eighth cipher/code on August 1st 1973, when the Albany letter was mailed with coding extremely similar to the one shown below.

An amalgamation of articles: 
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Sergeant John Lynch of the Vallejo Police Department received a typewritten card from a "concerned citizen" on August 10th 1969 stating "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". It also contained a working key to the 408 cipher, which was mailed by the Zodiac Killer in his three "code letters" to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner on July 31st 1969. On October 7th 1969, another concerned citizen, this time describing himself as a "good citizen", mailed another cryptic message to Sergeant John Lynch, stating "On occasion, while thinking of the code letters, the pencil wrote:Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX". The author by mentioning "code letters" is clearly referring to the trinity of communications mailed on July 31st 1969, to which the August 10th 1969 communication provided a key. Despite both the "concerned citizen" and "good citizen" communications being extremely brief in nature, both utilized the word "name" twice. The author of these two communications can be argued to be the Zodiac Killer, who also mailed the April 20th 1970 letter, teasing us with "my name is". Crucially, the "concerned citizen" card and code key had not been released into the public domain by the arrival of the "good citizen" letter.  

Recently I have been examining the murder of Robert Michael Salem who was found stabbed in his 745 Stevenson Street, San Francisco apartment on April 19th 1970. The April 20th 1970 Zodiac Killer letter was received at the San Francisco Chronicle the same day the Robert Salem murder was reported in their newspaper. The letter read "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you? My name is", belatedly followed by "I hope you have fun trying to fiygure out who I killed". The Zodiac Killer chose three Christian symbols in his enclosed 13 character code that mirrored the Christian symbolism written in blood on the apartment wall of Robert Salem. Above the Japanese tatami mat where Robert Salem's body lay was the drawing of an Egyptian ankh or "crucified man", along with the wording "Satan Saves" and "Zodiac". The murder of Robert Salem and the April 20th 1970 letter so reeked of Christian symbolism that it was hard to ignore that the two weren't connected, and led me to believe that the wording "Satan Saves" had some biblical meaning with respect to Robert Salem and his homosexual lifestyle. Whether the drawing of the Egyptian ankh or "crucified man" on the wall of Robert Salem were interchangeable in the mind of the killer is unknown, but the San Francisco Chronicle on April 20th 1970 made no mention of the Egyptian ankh - making the appearance of the Christian anchor in Zodiac's 13-Symbol cipher intriguing. Anchor and ankh have the same phonetic root - and when the Zodiac Killer's crude anchor in the code is superimposed over the ankh drawing on Robert Salem's wall - a full and complete Christian anchor is revealed.   .

The ankh (key of life) was commonly held in the hands of ancient Egyptian deities, or being given by them to the pharaoh, to represent their power to sustain life and to revive human souls in the afterlife. The ankh was one of the most common decorative motifs in ancient Egypt and was also used decoratively by neighbouring cultures. Coptic Christians adapted it into the crux ansata, a shape with a circular rather than oval loop (as seen in the image above), and used it as a variant of the Christian cross. The message of "Satan Saves" rather than "Jesus Saves", along with a crucifix style cross, gives the strong impression of a murder with religious connotations, bearing in mind the anti-gay and intolerant Christian attitudes that permeated society in 1970 (and to a lesser extent today). Robert Salem was a gay man who may have unfortunately attracted somebody with the belief he was a sinner or non-believer - and hence the sarcastic message of "Satan Saves" and the "key of life" being drawn on his stomach. Clearly, the person who drew the symbol and writing, was portraying a message to the viewer (whether a belief sincerely held or not).

The most unusual and notable features inflicted to the body of Robert Salem were the crucifix style design "drawn" on his stomach and the removal of his left ear. Both of these featured heavily in the crucifixion of Jesus. Simon Peter, a disciple of Jesus, attempted to "save" and protect Jesus from arrest by severing the ear of Malchus, who was a servant of the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas. According to the gospels, Calaphas organized a plot to kill Jesus. The arrest of Jesus was a pivotal event in Christianity recorded in the canonical gospels. It occurred shortly after the Last Supper (during which Jesus gave his final sermon), and immediately after the kiss of Judas, which is traditionally said to have been an act of betrayal since Judas made a deal with the chief priests to arrest Jesus. This event ultimately led, in the Gospel accounts, to the crucifixion of Jesus. Although the right ear of Malchus was severed as opposed to the left ear of Robert Salem, this was the most viable connection I could find that links the two unusual features discovered by investigators on the body of Robert Salem.​

The immediate murder with a Zodiac connection after the "latent homosexual" suggestion was floated in the San Francisco Chronicle, where the Bay Area murderer's pseudonym was found at the crime scene, was the murder of gay man, Robert Salem on April 15th 1970 in San Francisco. The Zodiac Killer's 13-Symbol cipher is arguably contemporary in nature, with his April 20th 1970 letter being mailed the same day this murder was published in the newspapers. Homosexuality and acceptance has been a continuing struggle for gay activists to this day, but the 1960s and 1970s were arguably more difficult times with newspaper coverage on this topic less than acceptable. Many religious people were unwilling to accept individual rights, claiming that homosexuality was the mark of the beast and an abomination in the eyes of God. The writing in blood on Robert Salem's apartment wall stating "Satan Saves" must have had some meaning to the killer - so was it in any way connected to the sexual preferences of Robert Salem? I couldn't help thinking that the "Satan Saves" element written in blood on the apartment wall had a more important role to play, not only in the fact Robert Salem was homosexual, but in the damage inflicted to his body and the removal of his left ear. So I looked for a bible verse that may have been known to the killer. 

​I also had to be mindful that the bible verse was relevant to perceived "sins of the flesh". In other words, the murderer of Robert Salem had an issue with homosexuality and believed it to be satanic, wanting to deliver him unto Satan to be saved (see image above). Hence the wording "Satan Saves". 1 Corinthians 5:5 featured Paul, who had commanded the Christians in Corinth to remove from among them a man who was sleeping with his father's wife, a form of sexual immorality that even their own pagan culture condemned. The killer of Robert Salem may have considered his lifestyle the devil's work and a form of sexual immorality that resulted in "destruction of the flesh" as witnessed by investigators at the crime scene. I also took the "Satan" element from the apartment wall and combined it with the "destruction of the flesh" to create a relevant solution to the 13-Symbol cipher of "Skin A Satanist". Not only did the Zodiac Killer encipher the word "skin" twice in the 148 character cipher in 1971, but it was relevant to the Robert Salem crime scene in April 1970.

Robert Michael Salem was found murdered in his 745 Stevenson Street San Francisco apartment on April 19th 1970, accompanied by the drawing of a religious crux ansata (crucified man) and the words "Satan Saves" scrawled in blood on the wall. This somewhat mirrored the religious characters in the 13 character code mailed by the Zodiac Killer the following day (April 20th 1970), when he posed the question "I hope you have fun trying to fiygure out who I killed". Investigators found no forced entry at Robert Salem's apartment, and little appeared to have been taken from the property other than possibly some money from an open wallet on a shelf. The crime scene appeared to scream of far more than a simple robbery. This opens up the possibility that Robert Salem was murdered by somebody known to him, or somebody that befriended him with common interests. Robert Salem was a lamp designer whose products had been exhibited in Japan, England and Russia. His apartment certainly showed an Oriental influence, with a Japanese hurricane lamp hanging from the ceiling, tree trunks prominent in the apartment in the style of Japanese tea houses, and he was discovered murdered wearing Oriental lounging clothes on top of a Japanese tatami mat.

Three months after this crime, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Little List letter on July 26th 1970 paraphrasing two acts from The Mikado, a Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera set in Japan. The first act he paraphrased was entitled A More Humane Mikado, followed by As Some Day It May Happen, in which victims or society offenders must be found and who would never be missed. His introduction in the communication detailed how he would torture his victims in paradise, stating in one part: "Others I shall skin them alive + let them run around screaming". In the middle of 1971 the Zodiac Killer would again mention the skinning of victims, when he encrypted the following in his 148 character cipher: "If this is not on the front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin", and wrote in accompaniment to the cipher "Next time I will send a patch of human skin". This is why I found the phrase "Skin A Satanist" very interesting, when from a cryptology standpoint it satisfied the 13 character code on April 20th 1970, arriving the same day the Robert Salem story broke in the San Francisco Chronicle detailing the "Satan Saves" on the apartment wall. Robert Salem was effectively skinned, when his left ear was severed and taken from the crime scene. On January 29th 1974 the Zodiac Killer would again recite a section from The Mikado using a verse from Tit-Willow. Not only did he paraphrase the Japanese based opera, but he added some Oriental characters at the foot of the letter. One line in this act reminded me of the introduction in the April 20th 1970 (My Name Is letter). It read "Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name Isn't Willow, titwillow, titwillow", 

Robert Salem was a flamboyant character with an interest in the arts, having been the lighting designer for the historic Haslett Warehouse at 680 Beach Street, San Francisco in 1969. Other than the mention of Washington and Maple streets on October 13th 1969, the only other street the Zodiac Killer ever imentioned in his communications (if authentic} was when he mailed a letter to Sergeant John Lynch on October 7th 1969, when he wrote ''Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX''. So, was the Zodiac Killer in the apartment of Robert Salem in April 1970?​​​

​​Cragle, an excellent Zodiac researcher who contributes to both forums, sent Michael Morford some invaluable information that he knew I would like (and Mike subsequently added some extra findings). It was fantastic news. A letter was possibly mailed by the Zodiac Killer on October 7th 1969, containing the wording ''Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX'' (and mentioned code letters). This letter can now be inextricably linked to the Concerned Citizen card postmarked August 10th 1969, which gave us a key to the 408 cipher, mailed by the Zodiac Killer within three "code letters" on July 31st 1969. The 56 Beach Street address never existed in 1969, except for on street planning maps. Cragle found a Carl John Welz (married to Jerry Hatcher) who were working at 680 Beach Street, San Francisco and living at 2529 Union Street, San Francisco in 1969, He had a Batchelor and Master of Arts, taught in many public and  private schools and was well known in Christian science circles with a mentioned periodical from him in 1967 (see below).

If this was the "Jerry" a possible Zodiac Killer was referring to, then this is an enormous find, Carl John Welz (and wife) would most likely have been working at 680 Beach Street at the same time as Robert Michael Salem, who was murdered by somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer on April 15th 1970. Throughout 1969, Robert Salem worked as the lighting designer for the historic Haslett Warehouse at 680 Beach Street. Carl John Welz wrote an anti gay article entitled Homosexuality Can Be Healed, so the fact that murdered Robert Salem was a homosexual with the wording "Satan Saves" and a "crucified man" drawn in blood on his apartment wall, with the pseudonym Zodiac present also, makes this is a significant find. We can now connect the August 10th and October 7th 1969 communications, link the name "Jerry" to the Haslett Warehouse at 680 Beach Street, and to murder victim Robert Salem, who also worked there - and finally - combine the religious overtones from the above article to the apartment wall, and to the Zodiac Killer's 13-Symbol cipher.. 

The 408 cipher mailed on July 31st 1969 could be considered an introductory cipher by the Zodiac Killer, laying out his plans to collect more slaves for his afterlife and warning police of more murder to come. The 340 cipher, solved by eminent cryptographers David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke in December 2020 was contemporary in nature, and effectively called out Eric Weill who telephoned into the Jim Dunbar TV Show on October 22nd 1969, that initiated the response of Zodiac just over two weeks later, who stated "That wasn't me on the TV show". The 32-Symbol cipher was also contemporary in nature, threatening to detonate a bomb in San Francisco & Vicinity soon after the Zodiac Killer had referenced the Park Police Station bombing (on April 20th 1970) which killed San Francisco police officer Brian McDonnell. The Zodiac Killer also called out Karl Francis Werner shortly after his arrest and interrogation for the murders of Snoozy & Furlong on April 29th 1971, again encoding a contemporary message stating "stop listening to phonys". This message (plural in nature) was not only labelling Karl Francis Werner as an imposter, but included Eric Weill from the Jim Dunbar Show - and effectively bound the 340 and 148 character ciphers under the banner of one author.

This should make you think, when you consider the April 20th 1970 letter arriving after 121 days sf silence from the Zodiac Killer, mailed on the same day his Zodiac pseudonym was reported in the San Francisco Chronicle as being written in blood on the wall of murder victim Robert Michael Salem, stabbed to death in his 745 Stevenson Street apartment. Was this just sheer coincidence after four months, or was the letter a rushed response to the breaking news in the Chronicle newspaper on the same day (with an AM postmark)? If you play the odds, the chances that this was coincidence, may appear unlikely. If the April 20th 1970 letter was a response to the San Francisco Chronicle article, then the cipher and bus bomb diagram were literally created in a matter of hours. Of course, the 13-Symbol code could have been designed in advance and added to his letter - but if not - the message contained within the code could likely be a reaction to the latest news about Robert Salem, or at the very least, be extremely contemporary in nature if his other three ciphers are anything to go by.

In fact, if you believe the 148 character cipher and letter in 1971 as genuine Zodiac material (as I do), then there will never be any reasonable chance of the Zodiac Killer ever revealing his real name in any code or communication, because the Zodiac Killer comprehensively stated in the 1971 letter that "I will never give my name because you don't understand". The offering of an alternative name in the Z13 seems equally unlikely, because its lack of ciphertext characters lends itself to thousands of possibilities, rendering any alternative name a pointless exercise when it cannot be verified. There appears two ways forward: [1] either the Zodiac Killer fashioned a code based on the Robert Salem murder or its column inches, so contemporary in nature, that it would carry great significance when unearthed, or [2] It isn't necessarily contemporary in nature and the answer or key lies in subsequent communications. The Zodiac Killer would almost certainly have known a code of just 13 characters was practically unsolvable, so the notion of a solve so contemporary in nature as to cement its validity, appears a justifiable avenue to explore. 

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The Zodiac Killer's writings were inspired (or were introduced as misdirection) from the movies, theater and reading material, such as The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell, first published on January 19th 1924 and made into a 1932 film starring Joel McCrea and Leslie Banks. The Mikado, a comic opera, which opened on March 14th 1885 in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, The Exorcist movie, a horror production released in 1973, directed by William Friedkin and adapted for screenplay by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 book.  And the 1952 Tim Holt comic book that possibly featured in his October 27th 1970 Halloween card, to name but a few.

It is difficult to say which, if any, serial killers inspired the murderous acts of the Bay Area murderer, but one may have inspired the seventh confirmed code (cryptic offering) of the Zodiac Killer. 

Edward Theodore Gein, known as the Butcher of Plainfield, was only convicted of the murder of Bernice Worden, who disappeared from her local hardware store on November 16th 1957, despite his confession to the murder of Mary Hogan in 1954. The inevitable search of his house in Wisconsin would unearth a house of horrors, with trophies and keepsakes fashioned from the skin and bones of exhumed bodies from the local graveyards. Authorities found chairs made from human skin, skulls adorning the bedposts, a corset made from a female torso, leggings made from human skin and a lampshade made from a human face. However, this was just a fraction of the unspeakable imagery that greeted investigators when they arrived at the remote dwelling. Ed Gein's descent into madness began after the death of his mother, Augusta, in 1945, igniting a desire within him to create a suit from the skin of middle-aged women dug up from their graves. A suit of human skin that he would begin to craft into the embodiment of his mother, so he could effectively crawl into her skin.  The Ed Gein story would ultimately enter American popular culture and inspire the 1959 novel, Psycho, by crime author Robert Bloch. The story then hit the big screen on June 16th 1960, produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. It would also inspire later films, such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

But the Ed Gein story may have also inspired the writings of the Zodiac Killer in the middle of 1971 (possibly May), when he composed his 148 character cipher and letter, trying desperately to keep hold of the murders of Debra Gaye Furlong (14) and Kathie Reyne Snoozy (15), who were each found brutally stabbed in excess of 100 times on August 3rd 1969 in the Bay Area of San Jose. Having claimed them in his running victim count on November 8th 1969, he now faced having them deducted from his total, when Karl Francis Werner was arrested and interrogated on April 29th 1971 for their murders, and the recent murder of Kathy Bilek (18). The murder of Kathy Bilek in the Villa Montalvo woods on April 11th 1971, the Zodiac Killer would eventually claim on July 13th 1971 when the Monticello card was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle. The Zodiac Killer would make reference to all three girls in his 148 character and letter, asking investigators not to listen to "phonys" such as Werner, and warning them he would "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and "send a patch of human skin if their is some left over". I wonder what inspired the Zodiac Killer to threaten to make a suit from the skin?