Knowing that the Zodiac Killer was a narcissist who bathed in the spotlight of notoriety, it wasn't surprising that by 1974, after several of his communications failed to be published in the newspapers, that he ultimately harbored resentment towards the headline grabbers and decided to change course. Three consecutive letters on January 29th 1974, April 24th 1978 and March 2nd 1978 all focused on the movie industry and its associated award ceremonies  The "Exorcist" letter on January 29th 1974 responded to the recent Golden Globe film awards at the Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, California on January 26th 1974, where "The Exorcist" film won four awards for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". The Zodiac Killer wrote "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy".

He followed this up on April 24th 1978---dissatisfied with being in the shade---by addressing his audience with "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me". Three weeks earlier, the 50th Academy Awards of cinematic achievement took place at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles on April 3rd 1978, with Oscar winning films subsequently benefitting at the box office in cinemas and theaters across the country. Nine days after the April 24th 1978 letter, on May 2nd 1978, the Zodiac Killer began taunting the actors paraded at the ceremony, insisting that they needed to raise their game if they wanted to take on the role of the Bay Area murderer, by stating "Hey-you actors-this is your lucky Break. Remember-whoever plays me has his work cut out for him, I have decided to start killing again-please hold the applause". It really came as no surprise that his "Channel Nine" letter was addressed to KHJ-TV Studios at 5615 Melrose Avenue, as the Los Angeles television station was only 4.5 miles from where the Academy Awards were held one month earlier--- a television station that held its 13th annual 2-hour voting ceremony called "Your Choice for the Oscars" on the eve of the Academy Awards.  

In amongst the slew of Academy Award winning films hitting the big screen in March and April of 1978, was the movie "Blue Collar" starring Richard Pryor and Harvey Keitel. Advertisements for this movie littered the newspapers alongside the Academy Award winning films---described as "A Damned Good Movie" in every publication. Contrast this with a newspaper hungry Zodiac Killer, who couldn't have failed to notice this advertisement when stating "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me". Well, I can certainly guarantee that it wasn't going to be Richard Pryor.

It really is quite amazing how David Toschi managed to author all of these letters under one common theme of award ceremonies, while generously taking time away from being a detective to mail the January 29th 1974 and April 24th 1978 letters from San Mateo/Santa Clara County, and take the short 6-hour journey to mail the "Channel Nine" letter from Los Angeles. This would have been unprecedented commitment from a serving detective, who with plenty of imagination and endeavor, had the foresight to manufacture such elaborate schemes over a 4-year period.

Inspector David Toschi even went so far as to investigate his own sinister phone call to the Mission District on March 13th 1978, when his voice was recorded on an answering machine, warning "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco". This came 42 days before the April 24th 1978 letter, which read "I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here". After an extensive investigation into this phone call, David Toschi concluded that he didn't recognise his own voice and the case was closed, yet he still decided to mimic the language used in the phone call for his April 24th 1978 letter. 

Not satisfied with being demoted to pawn detail after he was suspected of writing the April 24th 1978 letter, he decided to do a further impression of the Zodiac Killer on July 19th 1978, when he mimicked the language used in the unreleased May 2nd 1978 letter, which continued the theme of the April 24th 1978 letter. They read in chronological order "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me" (04/24/78), "whoever plays me has his work cut out for him" (05/02/78} and "Maybe you play chess with me" (07/19/78). All three used the verb "play" and the singular pronoun "me" in the same sentence. The third author could not have copied the second author if different individuals, but they could have been the same person. If David Toschi managed to accomplish all of the above---taking the time to scour the newspapers and travel around the country to fashion this elaborate hoax---then he deserves an Oscar and a massive posthumous round of applause. I doubt even I could have found these connections. 

A PAWN IN A GAME OF DEATH   

Apart from the tragic murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969 in Presidio Heights, the overarching weight of Zodiac communications in San Francisco in late 1969 and 1970 focused on schoolchildren, school buses and schools, whether that be by "picking off the kiddies as they come bouncing out" or blowing them to smithereens by the use of a bomb. Spearheaded by Inspectors David Toschi and William Armstrong, they meticulously searched for the infamous Zodiac Killer for many years, with David Toschi continuing his pursuit into his most turbulent year of 1978, when the Zodiac Killer resurfaced on April 24th 1978 and declared "I am back with you", while asserting that the "city pig toschi is good -- but I am smarter and better".

But why did the Zodiac Killer feel the need to reappear and write two letters on April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978, other than their callback to the Oscars movie ceremony, which was celebrating its 50th Academy Awards of cinematic achievement at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles on April 3rd 1978? Why did the Zodiac Killer wait at least three weeks after the awards ceremony to add such phrases as "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me" (04/24/78), "Hey-you actors-this is your lucky Break. Remember-whoever plays me has his work cut out for him" (05/02/78}, and "hold the applause" (05/02/78}?  What events happened close to April 24th 1978 that compelled the Zodiac Killer to put pen to paper, that had relevance to San Francisco, relevance to David Toschi, and relevance to schoolchildren, that occurred just prior to the mailing date of this letter? Something newsworthy related to schoolchildren who the Zodiac Killer many times threatened to target in San Francisco. By declaring "I am back with you" when writing to the San Francisco Chronicle, was the Bay Area murderer attempting to stoke up fear in the region with the possibility of more attacks in the near future?   

On April 18th 1978, six days before the "I am back with you" letter, a 15-year-old child, Ernesto Apodaca, was shot and killed at Unity Junior High School at 1950 Mission Street, San Francisco. On April 20th 1978 Police Chief Charles Gain informed the press by way of a news conference at the school district headquarters that uniformed officers would be assigned as protection to San Francisco public schools to reassure the community its schoolchildren were safeguarded. School Superintendent Robert Alioto, who had arrived at the school approximately 30 minutes before the body had been removed from the playground, stated "I don't know how we can control something like this". Robert Alioto was unsure how he was going to manage this situation moving forward, but the Zodiac Killer had little self doubt in his forthcoming letter only four days away, when he wrote "I am now in control of all things".

We absolutely know that the Zodiac Killer was inspired by recent newspaper articles and breaking news----and this breaking story about a school shooting investigated by Inspector David Toschi just days before the arrival of the April 24th 1978 letter, naming him in the correspondence and announcing "I am back" in San Francisco----has to be a reasonable candidate that shattered the four year hiatus of the Zodiac Killer.   

A 17-year-old man, not connected to the school, gave himself up to police shortly after the murder, confessed to the crime, and was placed in the custody of the California Youth Authority. The mother of Ernesto Apodaca, shattered by the senseless murder, described her son as "a nice kid with a good attendance record". Almost two years after the murder, Lucia Apocada stated that she intended to sue the Unified School District for $1 million, claiming the school should have prevented outsiders from accessing school property. I suppose the question that has to be asked of April 24th 1978, is whether a recent school shooting in San Francisco, which David Toschi was integral to investigating, awoke the Zodiac Killer from his slumber to inspire him to drive fear into the community once again, by addressing the prominent newspaper in San Francisco with the immortal words "I am back with you".      

On the same day, March 13th 1978, that somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer rang a man in the Mission District of San Francisco declaring "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco" (which was recorded on an answering machine), somebody threatened a woman in the Taraval District of San Francisco. This person pinned a note and a flower on the front gate of her single dwelling with the message "You're next (The Zodiac Killers)". At a time when Zodiac occurrences should have been dwindling, two threats on the same day targeting individuals just a few miles from one another, could be argued as the same perpetrator. When you consider the similarity in messages between the March 13th 1978 phone call of "Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco", to the April 24th 1978 letter of  "I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here", it is not unreasonable to conclude one responsible for all three events. Whether this was the case or not.

​The police logged the time of the threat in the Taraval District between 7:00am on March 13th 1978 and 12:30am on March 14th 1978. Therefore, the flower and threatening note must have been placed on her front gate during a 16 1/2 hour window of time. Sunset in San Francisco was 6:15pm, so if the perpetrator applied some caution, it is likely the note was pinned on her front gate sometime between 6:15pm and just after midnight. The phone call to the man in the Mission District was logged at 11:00pm, falling between these two times. Therefore, it is possible that these two "Zodiac Killer events" occurred  within a reasonable time of one another - with 10pm to midnight being prime time for the Zodiac Killer under the cover of darkness. The individual who threatened the woman in the Taraval District could easily have made the phone call from this location. There was no need to travel to make the phone call to the Mission District.  

On November 29th 1966, one month after the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, somebody (possibly the Zodiac Killer) mailed two typed Confession letters to the Riverside Homicide Detail and Riverside Press Enterprise. In each correspondence the claimed killer stated "She is not the first and she will not be the last. I lay awake nights thinking about my next victom. Maybe she will be the beautiful blond that babysits near the little store and walks down the dark alley each evening about seven". If the woman in the Taraval District of San Francisco was known to the perpetrator, had he targeted her with the express knowledge that she wasn't at home at the time, so as to avoid identification. She had been absent from her residence on March 13th 1978 because she was babysitting that day. Maybe he "did make that phone call to the man also". 

​If the author of the threatening note was the Zodiac Killer, did he target a random person, or did he choose somebody of significance that he knew would generate a response from the police and hopefully make its way into the newspapers. The last time a Zodiac note was found on a public street was on October 21st 1969, having been thrown from a car on Lake Mendocino Drive at 3:00 pm, just north of Ukiah, California (see newspaper clipping below). The note, attached to a twig, was thrown towards an eight-year-old girl with the crudely printed message "You're next - Z". The only difference between the note in the Taraval District of San Francisco and the note in Mendocino County was the signature, morphing from ​"You're next - Z" to "You're next (The Zodiac Killers)". The note in Mendocino County, whether the Zodiac or not, was seemingly piggybacking off the October 13th 1969 threat by the Zodiac Killer to target schoolchildren.

​So did the woman he targeted with a note and flower in 1978 carry any significant value in his quest to hit the newspapers once again? Or did he just select a random member of the public, hoping his pseudonym alone was enough to generate the publicity he so badly craved? Or was it a hoaxer with nothing better to do with his life, who used the term "Zodiac Killers" to suggest he was separate to the original killer? Were the two occurrences in San Francisco on March 13th 1978 just coincidence? If not, we are back to where we started with two connected events, in which one appeared to pre-empt the message on the April 24th 1978 letter.  

*The Taraval District is the city’s largest and most populous police jurisdiction, encompassing a large part of southwestern San Francisco. It is bordered by Golden Gate Park to the north, Ocean Beach to the west, Daly City to the south, and 7th Avenue down to Interstate 280 to the east. The district includes the inner and outer Sunset neighborhoods, as well as Parkside, Golden Gate Heights, Balboa Terrace, Ingleside Terrace, Monterey Heights, St. Francis Wood, Ingleside, Oceanview, West Portal, Lakeshore Acres, Country Club, Merced Manor, Park Merced, Edgehill, Laguna Honda, Lakeside, Merced Extension, Mount Davidson Manor and Sunset Heights. link.

Although the Zodiac Killer mailed at least four communications in 1971 and one in 1973, it appeared as though his contact with the newspapers dried up after the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. No other confirmed communications have been verified between 1974 and 1978, with the newspaper coverage of the Zodiac Killer thinning out during this period. That was until the four year anniversary of the Exorcist letter, when Tim Reiterman, a San Francisco Examiner reporter, announced on Sunday, January 29th 1978 in the San Francisco Chronicle that the following day he would be taking a second look at the Zodiac Killer mystery (see right image). 

The following day, January 30th 1978, Tim Reiterman probably wrote one of the longest and most extensive newspaper articles on the Zodiac Killer in history (in part shown below), including a comprehensive interview with Inspector David Toschi of SFPD, the lone investigator on the Zodiac case. There is no way this San Francisco Examiner article escaped the attention of the Zodiac Killer - and could be argued was the reason he addressed David Toschi three months later when he mailed the April 24th 1978 "I am back with you" letter, writing "This is the Zodiac speaking I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here, I have always been here. That city pig toschi is good - but I am smarter and better he will get tired then leave me alone. I am waiting for a good movie about me. who will play me. I am now in control of all things".  

However, six weeks after this January 30th 1978 newspaper article by Tim Reiterman, on March 13th 1978, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer telephoned a man in the Mission District and used language that pre-empted the wording on the April 24th 1978 letter, announcing over the phone "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco". The phrase of "Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco" would become "I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here" just 42 days later. To my knowledge, this phone call wasn't released into the newspapers. Things got interesting when the name "Reiterman" appeared only once in the San Francisco directory in 1977 and 1978, with an address of 805 Hampshire Street in the Mission District of San Francisco. This seemed like it could be the answer, but the forenames were Frank and Katherine in 1978, and the initials were M F in 1977. To be clear, Frank Reiteman was the listed resident in both years, not Tim Reiterman of the San Francisco Examiner.  

​We don't know for certain the identity of the individual who rang the "man in the Mission District" on March 13th 1978, but the fact the telephone caller requested that the man "Tell the press", could indicate that this man had industry connections enabling him to pass the message on to the newspapers  Something that Tim Reiterman could have done had he been the individual in question. If the Zodiac Killer made this phone call, it is unlikely he was going to telephone a random member of the public, he was going to contact somebody who had the capability to pass on his message to the newspapers and be taken seriously, such as an editor or reporter. Other possibilties could be somebody previously connected to the case, a law enforcement officer, or a celebrity who would make the story newsworthy.
 
After reading the comprehensive newspaper article by Tim Reiterman on January 30th 1978 interviewing David Toschi, would it be surprising if the Zodiac Killer had attempted to send two similarly phrased messages such as the ones on March 13th 1978 and April 24th 1978 that would involve Tim Reiterman and David Toschi respectively. ​A newspaper reporter and a detective that Zodiac likely knew interacted with each other at the end of January. This newspaper article must have convinced the Zodiac Killer that his arch nemesis "pig toschi" was good, despite the fact he couldn't resist the opportunity to remind everybody that he was "smarter and better".​

According to the later research of Robert Graysnith in his 1986 book "Zodiac", he stated that David Toschi looked over the case of the suspicious phone call in 1978, therefore it is highly unlikely after reading the transcript of the message, he would then effectively plagiarize the wording and insert it into the April 24th 1978 letter in a slightly different format to commit a hoax. Especially if there was a limited number of people aware of the Mission District case.

​The name "Reiterman" is considered a very uncommon surname, likely only found in small pockets of populations, primarily due to its unique combination of elements and potential origin as a variation of the German surname "Reiter" which itself isn't particularly widespread. Did the Zodiac Killer make a mistake and ring the address at 805 Hampshire Street in the Mission District believing it to be the household of Tim Reiterman, despite his name not being listed as the owner? When a male voice answered did he just deliver his simple message of "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco", and then hang up?

Tim Reiterman seemed the most logical recipient of the phone call on March 13th 1978 because of its similarity in language to the message on April 24th 1974, and his recent interview with David Toschi. However, we could be looking for an entirely different target for the "Zodiac Killer" phone call. So if you have knowledge of any high profile candidates and can prove they lived in the Mission District in 1978, please leave your suggestions in comments. This can be another mystery solved with your help.

CONTINUED: A FLOWER ON THE FRONT GATE 

Thanks to Sandy Betts for her hard work and continued investigation into this matter.  

On April 24th 1978, the San Francisco Chronicle received a letter from the Zodiac Killer stating "Dear Editor:​ This is the Zodiac speaking I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here, I have always been here. That city pig toschi is good - but I am smarter and better he will get tired then leave me alone. I am waiting for a good movie about me. who will play me. I am now in control of all things".

Seventeen days later, on May 11th 1978, Robert Graysmith had a cartoon featured in the San Francisco Chronicle "Letters to the Editor" page. It depicted Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (leader of the Soviet Union) swinging from a tiger's tail, with the phrase "I am in control of all things" (with only the word "now" dropped from the April 24th 1978 letter).  

In Robert Graysmith's book "Zodiac Unmasked" in 2002, he wrote of a typewritten letter mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 19th 1978 (two months after his cartoon). It read "I am the ZODIAC and I am in control of all things. I am going to tell you a secret. I like friction tape. I like to have it around in case I need to truss someone up in a hurry....I have my real name on a small metallic tape. You see, while you have it in your possession, I want you to know it belongs to me and you think I may have left it accidentally. I am athletic. It could be swim fins, or a piece of scuba gear. But maybe you play chess with me. I have several cheap sets in closets all over. I have my name on the bottom of the lid with the scotch tape....My tape is waiting for me all over California. Do you know me? I am the ZODIAC and I am in control". 

​The wording in this letter exactly mimicked the wording from the Robert Graysmith cartoon, also dispensing with the word "now". The day before this letter arrived, on July 18th 1978, the opening game in the World Chess Championship between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi took place in the Philippines. Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi were two Soviet Union chess grandmasters. The story of their drawn match featured in the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper on July 18th 1978, alongside a Zodiac Killer story entitled "SF Chief Says Inspector Didn't Write Zodiac Letter". The following day, the July 19th 1978 letter was mailed according to Robert Graysmith. It carried the phrase "But maybe you play chess with me. I have several cheap sets in closets all over". This means we have a possible connection between the beginning of the World Chess Championship featuring two Soviet Union grandmasters and the phrase "I am in control of all things" from a cartoon featuring the Soviet Union leader, ​Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev.

So did Robert Graysmith copy most of the phrase from the April 24th 1978 "Zodiac" letter to use in his cartoon on May 11th 1978, subconsciously leaking the "I am in control of all things" phrase and the "Soviet Union" theme of the cartoon into a forged letter on July 19th 1978, the day after two "Soviet Union" grandmasters opened the World Chess Championship? Writing "But maybe you play chess with me". Did Robert Graysmith forge both letters on April 24th 1978 and July 19th 1978? Or did the Zodiac Killer author both letters - and Robert Graysmith plagiarized the Bay Area murderer? In later years Robert Graysmith spoke of the Zodiac Killer's "game of chess" with the police and newspapers. 

The wording of "I saw and think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy" in the January 29th 1974 letter was an immediate response to the movie winning four Golden Globes on January 26th 1974, receiving the awards for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". The wording of "I am waiting for a good movie about me" in the April 24th 1978 letter was a belated response to the April 3rd 1978 Academy Awards (as was the Channel 9 letter on May 2nd 1978). Both of these letters on January 29th 1974 and April 24th 1978 were intrinsically bound to the movie industry, and both carried the Jack the Ripper style valediction of "yours truly", in the form of "yours truley" in 1974 (which was spelled incorrectly) and "yours truly" in 1978 (which was spelled correctly). This form of valediction is clearly not appropriate in the context of a threatening letter, so the use of this "act of farewell" is relatively unusual in this respect.

​Therefore, I looked for something on TV or in the movies that contained both elements of "Jack the Ripper" and "Yours Truly", and found the 1943 short story by Robert Bloch, subsequently made into a fifty minute TV thriller in 1961 entitled "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper", hosted by Boris Karloff and starring John Williams, Donald Woods and Edmon Ryan. On the Internet Movie Database it is described as follows: "70 years after the Jack the Ripper killings in London, Sir Guy tries to convince the police that Jack may still be alive, eternally young, and still killing, currently in New York". After a  hiatus of several years, Jack the Ripper had returned to begin killing again in New York. 

The same has been argued in the Zodiac case, where the Bay Area murderer appeared to take a hiatus from 1971 to 1974 and returned with the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. The same can be said of his inactivity between 1974 and 1978, when he returned to mail the 1978 letter with the introduction "I am back with you". So it is noteworthy that he appeared to use the "yours truly" valediction from the book and TV episode of ​"Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper", which presented the story of a killer returning after a period of inactivity. 

​Another interesting feature of the Exorcist letter was the final paragraph where the Zodiac wrote "Ps. If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing". You will notice that he described the communication as a "note" and not a letter. Bearing in mind that the TV episode of "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" featured Jack the Ripper taking his crimes from Whitechapel in London to New York, I looked for a Jack the Ripper "note" mailed in New York on the date of January 29th. A search of the newspaper archives didn't disappoint. The following newspaper article (among many) describes a "Jack the Ripper in New York", who wrote a "note" to Police Captain Ryan on January 29th 1889 promising that the streets of his precinct would soon be filled with murdered women.

In an odd turn of events, the script of "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" may have been turned on its head by the Bay Area murderer, because the previous letter claimed to have been mailed from the Zodiac Killer was postmarked August 1st 1973 from Albany, New York, six months before the arrival of the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. The letter, addressed to the Albany Times Union newspaper, stated he was "going to start killing again".

Robert Bloch, the author of "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" also wrote "The Thing" in 1932 and "Psycho" in 1959, the latter of which the Zodiac Killer featured in his 148 character cipher and letter in the middle of 1971. The 1971 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. This phraseology was reminscent of the murderer Edward Gein, who professed a desire to make a "skin suit" from his dead mother, and the movie "Psycho" that hit cinema screens in 1960 and featured the seated corpse of Norman Bates' dead mother. An arguable case can be made for Robert Bloch inspired letters from 1971 through to 1974, whether one was intended or not.

On January 19th 1889, ten days before the Jack the Ripper "note" on January 29th 1889, it is likely that the same individual first announced his presence to Captain Ryan in a letter (described in the newspaper cutting below), by stating "Do you think that Jack the Ripper is in England?", before promising to kill by next Thursday and signing it with the familiar valediction of "Yours truly, Jack the Ripper".

​CONNECTING RIVERSIDE TO THE ZODIAC USING JACK THE RIPPER [IN 7 PARTS]

It is no coincidence that the April 24th 1978 letter stated "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me" just three weeks after the 50th Academy Awards ceremony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles on April 3rd 1978, and was followed by a second communication on May 2nd 1978 stating "Hey-you actors-this is your lucky Break. Remember-whoever plays me has his work cut out for him" and "​please hold the applause". The May communication having been mailed to the KHJ-TV Studios in Los Angeles after they ran a public voting poll on the eve of the ceremony (April 2nd 1978) on who their viewers thought would win certain categories at the Academy Awards. A ceremony where the Oscar winning song "You Light Up My Life" was sung at the ceremony by Debby Boone, whose father Pat Boone was threatened in the May 2nd 1978 letter.

​These two letters came four years after the last Zodiac letter arrived on January 29th 1974, which stated "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy", three days after the 31st Golden Globe film awards at the Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, California on January 26th 1974, in which "The Exorcist" film won "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". Three consecutive communications that just happened to piggyback off award ceremonies for the film industry, that were all presumably conceived and written by Inspector David Toschi and/or Robert Graysmith according to some. If Inspector David Toschi wrote the April 24th 1978 letter, then he probably wrote all three of these letters, and had a hand in the phone call 42 days before the "I am back with you" letter, when somebody rang an individual living in the Mission District and stated "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco". ​

​Then we have the consistency of language between the April 24th 1978, May 2nd 1978 and July 19th 1978 letters, with all three using the verb "play" and the singular pronoun "me" in the same sentence. Only the first letter being published in the newspapers. They read "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me" (04/24/78), "whoever plays me has his work cut out for him" (05/02/78} and "Maybe you play chess with me" (07/19/78). The third author could not have copied the second author if different individuals, but they could have been the same person.

If the author of the January 29th 1974 (Exorcist), April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters is one person (linked through a film industry theme), then where does that leave us with the July 19th 1978 letter, which has a common theme with both the April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters? The author of the July 19th 1978 letter could have borrowed wording from the published April 24th 1978 letter, however, they did manage to continue the consistency in language used in the May 2nd 1978 letter, which they could never have seen if not the same person. The author on May 2nd 1978 and July 19th 1978, on both occasions, opted to mimic the verb "play" and singular pronoun "me" in the same sentence, from the April 24th 1978 letter. That probably leaves one author responsible for the last two letters. And if the May 2nd 1978 letter is linked by one theme to the January 29th 1974 and April 24th 1978 letters, then the July 19th 1978 letter is probably genuine too.

​This consistency, now seen through four communications, would be implicating Inspector David Toschi in a much bigger hoax, who would have also investigated the "I am back in San Francisco" phone call on March 13th 1978 and then mailed the "I am back with you" letter the following month. Additionally, it could open the door to the similarities shown between the April 24th 1978 and Melvin Belli letters. Either David Toschi has played a leading role in fabricating many Zodiac communications, or he is responsible for none. The obvious choice seems to be none. Inspector David Toschi was a busy man, unlikely to be scouring the newspapers for Academy Award and Golden Globe ceremonies, KHJ-TV Studios polls and the World Chess Championships, to create common themes in order to manufacture an elaborate hoax. But there was one man that seemed to find the time. Bearing in mind that the author of the April 24th 1978 letter wrote "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me", it was quite ironical that the winner for best film in 1978 at the Academy Awards was a "satirical comedy", claimed by some to be semi-autobiographical about the life of "Allen". Woody Allen that is. The film was "Annie Hall", winner of four Academy Awards, not unlike "The Exorcist" movie, which won four Golden Globes on January 26th 1974  

We know that the Zodiac Killer was prepared to link himself to many murders with little to no evidence that vindicated his claims, such as Donna Lass, Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong, Cheri Jo Bates, Richard Radetich and the Atlanta Child murders. Law enforcement claimed that they had received dozens of hoax Zodiac letters by the end of 1970, which they obviously classified as such, based on nothing more than handwriting analysis and gut feelings, resulting in the loss of many communications that could have shed greater light on the Zodiac Killer mystery. Unfortunately, this method of determining authentic and inauthentic letters in the Zodiac case still persists 54 years later, with individuals that currently have the ability to spot fake Zodiac letters by the shape of the writing and the tone of a letter. But don't expect this quackery to change.

I mention this as a cautionary warning in regards to the perceived gaps in Zodiac Killer activity, such as the widely touted 4-year hiatus in Zodiac communications between 1974 and 1978. It's one thing believing a letter hasn't met the threshold of evidence to declare its authenticity, but quite another claiming it's a hoax based on nothing more than looking at it. With that said, I will continue the following observations based upon the April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters being genuine Zodiac material, because the evidence against is practically zero compared to the evidence for. 

The Hillside Strangler murders, eventually discovered to be both Kenneth Bianci and Angelo Buono Jr., took place in Los Angeles between October 1977 and February 1978, resulting in the murder of ten women and girls who were abducted, raped and tortured. The Hillside Strangler murders took the police far afield, with their investigation spreading to New York and the United Kingdom in pursuit of the killer/s identity, unsure of whether more than one individual was involved in the horrific crimes. One person in 1978 would have had a keen interest in the unfolding newspaper coverage, which makes a multiple page letter mailed to police in respect to this case in January 1978, very interesting. On December 7th 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter from Fairfield threatening to kill a cop, which after he would turn himself in. On January 19th 1978, Los Angeles Chief Daryl Gates held a news conference on television and stated "The fact we have not had any more murders in the last five weeks suggests that the individual or individuals are not operating. Hopefully that will continue to be the situation. I'm hopeful the killer or killers will come forward and talk with us and give themselves up". Daryl Gates informed reporters that the manhunt was the biggest since the Tate-LaBianca murders which cost 500, 000 dollars.       

Later that day a letter was mailed to Mayor Tom Bradley, with portions of the text released by Chief Daryl Gates. The letter, handwritten and several pages long, stated he was very sick and claimed he had killed his mother, writing "My mother told me to kill those bad and evil ladys", and offering to turn himself in, along with "a friend". The author of the letter also promised to mail an article of clothing from one of the victims to prove the authenticity of the claims.

The Zodiac Killer would apparently reappear on March 13th 1978 and April 24th 1978 stating "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco" and "I am back with you", before mailing another letter from Los Angeles threatening to kill five people, in which Chief Daryl Gates was number one on that list, with former Los Angeles Chief Ed Davis second. Susan Atkins, part of the Manson family responsible for the Tate-LaBianca murders, was also mentioned fifth on the list mailed to the KHJ-TV studios. As such, we have a letter postmarked January 19th 1978 promising proof to the claims of murder and offering to give himself (and "a friend") up to police, in response to a news conference hosted by Chief Daryl Gates, who asked the killer or killers to give themselves up - followed by another letter mailed from Los Angeles on May 2nd 1978 threatening Chief Daryl Gates, who spearheaded the Hillside Strangler investigation. Who knows whether this was the Zodiac Killer interjecting himself into another major investigation, but it's certainly a possibility.       

Recently it was shown how the Zodiac Killer responded to 31st Golden Globe film awards at the Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, California on January 26th 1974, by mailing the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974, and reacted to 50th Academy Awards ceremony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles on April 3rd 1978, by mailing the April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters (the latter mailed from Los Angeles). See here. Two and a half months later, a questionable "Zodiac Killer" letter would be mailed from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 19th 1978. This communication may also have been partly influenced by a big event. The culmination of the letter read "But maybe you play chess with me. I have several cheap sets in closets all over. I have my name on the bottom of the lid with the scotch tape....My tape is waiting for me all over California".

I have previously suggested that this section of the letter may have been poking fun at David Toschi, who had recently been demoted to "pawn" detail after suggestions he may have been the author of the 1978 letter. However, based on the Zodiac Killer's propensity to infuse recent newspaper articles into his wording, I looked for the keyword "chess" in the days prior to the July 19th 1978 letter. On July 18th 1978, the Santa Cruz Sentinel (and numerous others), reported on the opening game in the World Chess Championship between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in the Philippines. And chess was a big thing in the 1970s. But the Santa Cruz Sentinel coverage had one peculiar aspect - it carried the headline "Korchnoi, Karpov Play To Draw" alongside another article entitled "SF Chief Says Inspector Didn't Write Zodiac Letter". Could the Zodiac Killer (or impostor) have read the two articles and coalesced them both into his July 19th 1978 letter, the following day. The Santa Cruz Sentinel article also mentioned that David Toschi had been "transferred from the homicide squad to the pawn shop detail last week". Therefore, we have the mention of "pawn detail", "chess" and David Toschi alongside each other, on the same page.       

The whole letter read "I am the ZODIAC and I am in control of all things. I am going to tell you a secret. I like friction tape. I like to have it around in case I need to truss someone up in a hurry....I have my real name on a small metallic tape. You see, while you have it in your possession, I want you to know it belongs to me and you think I may have left it accidentally. I am athletic. It could be swim fins, or a piece of scuba gear. But maybe you play chess with me. I have several cheap sets in closets all over. I have my name on the bottom of the lid with the scotch tape....My tape is waiting for me all over California. Do you know me? I am the ZODIAC and I am in control". 

I noticed that the author used "My tape is waiting for me all over California" and "I have cheap sets in closets all over", suggesting that his "cheap chess sets" and "tape" were maybe in the same locations or relevant to one another. The author also stated that "I have my name on the bottom of the lid with the scotch tape" - and we know a chess case or chess box has a lid. Was the author suggesting that he could play David Toschi at chess anywhere in California, now that he was reported in the newspapers to be "vacationing at an undisclosed location"? In a previous article (linked above), a common theme was shown between the January 29th 1974, April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters through the film industry, so could any common verbiage be unearthed between the consecutive May and July letters mailed from Los Angeles, bearing in mind the May letter wasn't released to the public. On May 2nd 1978, the Zodiac Killer wrote in respect to the film industry "whoever plays me has his work cut out for him", while the following July 19th 1978 letter stated "But maybe you play chess with me". The two phrases of "plays me" and "play chess with me" both used in respect to another participant. It's not compelling, only noteworthy.  

The Zodiac Killer would shape his communications around previous newspaper articles - and I noticed that the author of the July 19th 1978 letter used the phrase "I am in control" at the beginning and end of the letter, rather than "I am now in control" that was used at the end of the April 24th 1978 communication. This meant that the author of the July 19th 1978 letter could have altered the wording to mimic the misquoted phrase used in some newspaper articles in April, such as the Atlanta Journal shown above. Was this the Zodiac Killer reaffirming to the public what he had read in the newspapers, or somebody simply misquoting or deliberately changing the wording of the Zodiac Killer? The April 24th 1978, May 2nd 1978 and July 19th 1978 letters all had one common theme, with only the first letter being published in the newspapers. They read "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me" (04/24/78), "whoever plays me has his work cut out for him" (05/02/78} and "Maybe you play chess with me" (07/19/78). All three used the verb "play" and the singular pronoun "me" in the same sentence. The third author could not have copied the second author if different individuals, but they could have been the same person. If the author of the January 29th 1974 (Exorcist), April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters is one person (linked through a film industry theme), then where does that leave us with the July 19th 1978 letter, which has a common theme with both the April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters? The author of the July 19th 1978 letter could have borrowed wording from the published April 24th 1978 letter, however, they did manage to continue the consistency in language used in the May 2nd 1978 letter, which they could never have seen if not the same person. The author on May 2nd 1978 and July 19th 1978, on both occasions, opted to mimic the verb "play" and singular pronoun "me" in the same sentence, from the April 24th 1978 letter. That probably leaves one author responsible for the last two letters. And if the May 2nd 1978 letter is genuine Zodiac material, then the July 19th 1978 letter probably is too. 
​
APRIL 24TH 1978: "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me".
MAY 2ND 1978: "Whoever plays me has his work cut out for him". (unpublished)
JULY 19TH 1978: "Maybe you play chess with me". (unpublished)

It has previously been shown that the Zodiac Killer designed the April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters in response to the Oscars movie ceremony, which was celebrating its 50th Academy Awards of cinematic achievement at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles on April 3rd 1978. The Dorothy Chandler Pavillion at North Grand Avenue was situated 4.5 miles from the KHJ-TV Studios at 5615 Melrose Avenue, which was the target of the May 2nd 1978 letter mailed by the Zodiac Killer that opened with the words "Dear Channel Nine".

But why would the Zodiac Killer choose a seemingly random television station in Los Angeles to deliver his Oscars message, by writing "Hey-you actors-this is your lucky Break. Remember-whoever plays me has his work cut out for him", preceded by the message "I am waiting for a good movie about me" on April 24th 1978?

On the eve of the Academy Awards ceremony the KHJ-TV Studios ran its yearly special about the Oscars (voted on by polling), hosted in 1978 by George Hamilton and Brenda Vaccaro on Channel 9 (see more newspaper articles). Wayne Thomas joined KHJ-TV Studios as an announcer in 1959 and served for 27 years. The "Your Choice for the Oscars" production was the brainchild of Wayne Thomas, which voted for the best film, best actor and actress, best supporting actor and actress, and best song, spanning six categories. The Zodiac Killer, back with us in 1978 after four years in the wilderness, was clearly yearning attention from the movie industry for his perceived special achievements (or he wanted to make it appear so). The May 2nd 1978 "Channel 9" letter would target Pat Boone for his perceived religious zealotry, stating "Pat Boone-his theocratic crap is an obscenity to the rest of the world". He was present at the Oscars watching his daughter, Debby Boone, perform her 1977 hit song "You Light Up My Life", which spent 10 weeks at No 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and won the best original song category at the Academy Awards ceremony. This song was also voted for in the  KHJ-TV Studios 2-hour television special. So it's no surprise that the Zodiac Killer wanted to know which actor was going to play him in a "good movie" a few weeks later, hinting at the Academy Awards and stating "I have decided to start killing again-please hold the applause". However, this tactic employed by the Zodiac Killer in 1978 was not the first time he used this methodology of invoking movie award ceremonies in his correspondence, when he mailed the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974 - effectively binding three consecutive letters under the banner of acting and film awards.    

One has to ask themselves the question of why did the Zodiac Killer wait from December 26th 1973 (The Exorcist release date) to January 29th 1974, to mail a letter beginning with "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy that I have ever seen"? The use of "best satirical comedy" gives the impression of comparison to other movies in a genre, by categorizing The Exorcist into a grouping of comedy films. In other words, it wasn't the best movie, it was the best satirical comedy. The timing of this letter, the Zodiac Killer's use of the word "best", and his propensity to respond to recent newspaper coverage, compelled me to search through newspapers.com in the days leading up to the Exorcist communication, to see what may have inspired the Bay Area murderer to compose this introduction. I didn't have to go far.

​The Exorcist movie won multiple 31st Golden Globe film awards at the Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, California on January 26th 1974 for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". This was featured in many newspapers, including the Santa Cruz Sentinel and The Sun Times on January 28th 1974. So, it's not difficult to see why the Zodiac Killer mailed the Exorcist letter three days later (January 29th 1974) and began his snarky rebuttal of the film by writing "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy". He simply used the newspaper headlines and stories to compose a response to the accolades received by an extremely popular and successful film. His response to the Golden Globe film awards would be replicated after the 50th Academy Awards ceremony on April 3rd 1978, when he mailed the April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters, stating "I am waiting for a good movie about me", "Hey-you actors-this is your lucky Break. Remember-whoever plays me has his work cut out for him" and "please hold the applause". 

This running theme of movie awards present in three consecutive Zodiac Killer communications, that hasn't been spotted by amateur researchers for nearly 50 years, should convince you that one mind was responsible for composing the January 29th 1974, April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters. But unfortunately for many it won't. The idea that a hoaxer could have spotted the inspiration for the Exorcist letter and replicated it four years later (in 1978), that no Zodiac researcher has found in nearly half a century, will now be used as a viable explanation. For some, no amount of evidence will shift their belief that the April 24th 1978 letter is a hoax. They will die with this inscription on their tombstone. But hopefully, some people will keep an open mind and consider the possibility that the Zodiac Killer did return in 1978.

MORE EVIDENCE ZODIAC WROTE THE 1978 LETTER: A PAWN IN A GAME OF DEATH

FOLLOW UP ARTICLES:  
REVIVING THE 1978 LETTER       THE 1978 LETTER UNLIKELY PENNED BY TOSCHI 
THE GREATEST COPYCAT IN TOWN

You may be wondering why the Zodiac Killer mailed the April 24th 1978 letter with the statement "I am waiting for a good movie about me" - and then possibly - followed this up with a mailing on May 2nd 1978 to KHJ-TV Studios in Los Angeles, writing "Hey-you actors-this is your lucky Break. Remember-whoever plays me has his work cut out for him". We know that most Zodiac Killer correspondence had purpose, by taking something he had read in the newspapers and incorporating it into his letters. The year 1978 was a special occasion for the Oscars because it was celebrating its 50th Academy Awards ceremony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles on April 3rd 1978. The Dorothy Chandler Pavillion at North Grand Avenue was situated 4.5 miles from the KHJ-TV Studios at 5615 Melrose Avenue Three and four weeks later, the two above communications arrived mentioning "actors" and "movies", with the second letter addressed to Los Angeles.​

Debby Boone became a household name with her 1977 hit song "You Light Up My Life", which spent 10 weeks at No 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song won the Oscar for Best Original Song, which she performed at the 1978 Academy Awards ceremony. Debby Boone was the daughter of actor-singer Pat Boone, who was threatened as a third target by the "Zodiac Killer" in the May 2nd 1978 letter, when he wrote "Pat Boone-his theocratic crap is an obscenity to the rest of the world". Pat Boone was present at the awards ceremony. Therefore, we can connect "actor" Pat Boone in the letter, to the Academy Awards ceremony of "actors", through his daughter. But why would the "Zodiac Killer" choose KHJ-TV Studios​ to mail his correspondence? 

​Wayne Thomas joined KHJ-TV Studios as an announcer in 1959 and served for 27 years. He created a show on the eve of the Oscars called "Your Choice for the Oscars", in which public polling decided upon the nominations in six categories. On the eve of the 50th Academy Awards ceremony, the predicted awards by KHJ-TV were John Travolta, Jane Fonda, Star Wars, Melinds Dillon, Alec Guiness and the song "You Light Up My Life" (sung at the ceremony by Debby Boone). This now binds Pat Boone, KHJ-TV and the Oscars into one neat bundle. So it's no surprise that the "Zodiac Killer" wanted to know which actor was going to play him in a movie a few weeks later, hinting at the Academy Awards and stating "I have decided to start killing again-please hold the applause". Two months prior to the May 2nd 1978 letter, in which the "Zodiac Killer" targeted "Ex Chief piggy Ed Davis" as his second potential victim, the once Los Angeles police chief (turned politician) spoke with KHJ-TV interviewers Ann Kesner and Nathan Roberts about his reputation as "the marshal from Dodge City who will make this a safe state".

One of the cornerstone arguments I put forward for the 1978 letter being genuine, was the fact that the introduction of "This is the Zodiac speaking I" on April 24th 1978 mimicked the introduction on the December 20th 1969 Melvin Belli letter. The 1969 and 1978 letters were the only two communications to date that failed to exclusively keep "This is the Zodiac speaking" as the introduction on the top line, with the grammatical error of not placing a "period" or "full stop" between "speaking" and "I" common to both. Bearing in mind that these two communications were connected through the word "control" (unique to these two letters), meant that if an image of the Melvin Belli letter had not appeared in the newspapers to date, the author of the April 24th 1978 letter likely fashioned the Melvin Belli letter, with added shirt piece. This was used to argue (along with other reasons) that the Zodiac Killer was the author of the 1978 letter.

​To his credit, notable Zodiac researcher Cragle unearthed an article in The Napa Register on December 29th 1969 that dispelled this notion (see below). But when I proposed the idea - asking people to check if a newspaper image of the Melvin Belli letter existed - it took two years to achieve. This is with the combined power of the Zodiac internet community, and a comprehensive newspaper database at our fingertips. 

The author of the 1978 letter had none of these advantages. Often described as a "lazy" hoaxer by document examiners, the author of the 1978 letter could have accessed the above article to mimic, by keeping hundreds of newspapers featuring the Zodiac Killer since 1968, by keeping hundreds of newspaper cuttings about the Zodiac Killer, by trawling through the microfiche of a public library, or they just got extremely lucky in mimicking the introduction (with grammatical error) and the use of the word "control", common to both letters. But there is another common theme binding these two letters, which is not visible in the article above. The Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969 and the April 24th 1978 letter both inserted an unnecessary word (just once) into the correspondence, spelled it correctly one alphabetical letter shy of completion, and then very neatly (almost ruler like) crossed out each word. This was unique to both these letters. 

If somebody can find this section of the Melvin Belli letter in the newspapers (showing this correction technique), I will be eternally grateful. Is it more likely that the Zodiac Killer crafted the 1978 letter, with personal knowledge of the Melvin Belli letter and its composition, or is it more likely that a random hoaxer (described as lazy) went to extraordinary lengths to mimic the Melvin Belli letter? Or was the presumed hoaxer of the 1978 letter just lucky, creating all these similarities by accident? 

The April 24th 1978 letter, stating "I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here" was postmarked only 42 days after a voice message was left on the telephone answering machine of an individual living in the Mission District, using similar wording to that used in the letter, and claiming to be the "Zodiac". The telephone caller stated "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press I am back in San Francisco".  Read more. Was this the Zodiac Killer twice, or the hoaxer twice?

​Thanks to Cragle, another unusual mention in the above newspaper article may be relevant to 1978. It may indicate that the person who crafted the April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters were one and the same - who had kept or read The Napa Register publication. The article above finished with the following text.

The newspaper article stated "Belli said that he has a trial starting next week in Naples and plans to confer with fugitive Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver".​ Just eight days after the April 24th 1978 letter, on May 2nd 1978, the Channel 9 letter was mailed to KHJ-TV Studios, 5615 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles,.claiming to have been mailed by the Zodiac Killer, It too mentioned Eldridge Cleaver. Bearing in mind the similarities between the April 24th 1978 and Melvin Belli letter, it is extremely curious that the very newspaper article that featured the grammatically unique introduction common to these two communications, would also feature the name of Eldridge Cleaver, that appeared in a "Zodiac" letter only eight days later. 

Forty-two days before the mailing of the April 24th 1978 letter which stated "I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here", somebody made a telephone call on March 13th 1978 to an individual in the Mission District proclaiming "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco". The obvious similarities in the language indicates there could be one individual responsible for both messages. The person who received the telephone call is unlikely to be some random member of the public, but somebody relevant to the Zodiac Killer case who lived in the Mission District in 1978 and had some influence in passing on the message. It could be somebody in the media or somebody connected to law enforcement, so if anybody can offer a suggestion please post it on any relevant Zodiac forum. The incident was obviously taken seriously because it was personally investigated by Inspector David Toschi - and if not reported in the newspapers - made the mention of David Toschi in the 1978 letter even more curious, in accompaniment to the use of "I am back" in both messages, along with "Tell the press" and "Tell herb caen".

This phone call was captured as a recording on a voice answering machine, but I suspect it was routinely dismissed as a hoax as many phone calls had been previously and likely lost to the hands of time, despite no evidence for such a conclusion. Much evidence has fell by the wayside through incompetence and lethargy in the Zodiac case, and this phone call is just another example of a missed opportunity.

On May 5th 1978, just 11 days after the "I am back with you" letter, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer phoned the San Mateo Police Department and falsely reported that a bomb had been placed in the Transamerica Pyramid at 600 Montgomery Street. This too had a loose connection to the 1978 letter, which mimicked the Melvin Belli letter mailed on December 20th 1969. Both the 1978 and Melvin Belli letter began the introduction with "This is the Zodiac speaking I", which were not only grammatically incorrect in both instances by failing to punctuate between "speaking" and "I", but were the only two communications to date that didn't keep the "This is the Zodiac speaking" introduction exclusively on one line. Something a copycat would have been expected to do, had he copied at least four Zodiac letters published in the newspapers. The 1978 and Melvin Belli letters also inversely mimicked each other by the use of  "I can not remain in control for much longer" in 1969 (one example) and "I am now in control of all things" in 1978. Bearing in mind these comparisons between the two letters - and the Melvin Belli letter was mailed to 1228 Montgomery Street in San Francisco - it is unusual that the telephone threat on May 5th 1978 was directed against the Transamerica Pyramid at 600 Montgomery Street, just 600 meters south of the Belli residence. The law offices of Melvin Belli at 722 Montgomery Street, purchased in 1959, were even closer to the Transamerica Pyramid at a mere 100 meters.

​It should also be noted that the 1978 letter was thought to have been mailed in either San Mateo or Santa Clara County, just like the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. On April 28th 1978, the Chronicle reported that "Toschi said yesterday that the common, white envelope had no outstanding marks and that the single piece of plain white stationary on which the note was written contained nothing that would give us any indication where he might have gotten it. It was also learned that although the envelope bore a San Francisco postmark, other notations on the cancelation indicated that the letter might have been mailed in San Mateo county or Santa Clara county and was brought here for processing". The threat towards the Transamerica Pyramid was phoned into the San Mateo Police Department.  

When the Zodiac Killer last claimed he was to plant a bomb on June 26th 1970, he utilized the peak of Mount Diablo on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay in Contra Costa County, which dominated the skyline at 3,849 feet. When the Transamerica Pyramid was completed in 1972 it was the tallest building in San Francisco, with an elevation of 853 feet. Would it really be a surprise if the Zodiac Killer had chosen the two most prominent landmarks on the San Francisco Bay Area skyline to threaten its residents with bombs? The Transamerica Pyramid would also feature in the 2007 Zodiac film directed by David Fincher, shown in time lapse photography to depict the transition of time between Zodiac events.

However, this wasn't the only similarity between the Melvin Belli letter and 1978 letter. Not once, in any of the widely touted list of authenticated Zodiac Killer communications from July 31st 1969 to January 29th 1974, did the killer ever cross out a spelling mistake (or otherwise) with a straight line (he blacked out errors). The Badlands card (not authenticated) on May 8th 1974 did scruffily cross out the misspelling of consternation, but failed in any capacity to identify its sender, such as the Zodiac introduction or his crosshairs. The Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969 and the April 24th 1978 letter both inserted an unnecessary word (just once) into the correspondence, spelled it correctly one alphabetical letter shy of completion, and then very neatly (almost ruler like) crossed out each word. Not only did the 1978 letter carry the identical introduction and punctuation error as the Melvin Belli letter, as well as being very deliberately and carefully written, but both inserted an unrequired word into the message before crossing it out, despite it being spelled correctly thus far. These are the only two communications up to April 24th 1978 that carried both of these features. 

When we look at the similarities between the Melvin Belli letter and 1978 letter described above, we also have to note that the 1978 letter was specifically using language adopted from the Belli letter when stating "I am now in control of all things". Just over eight years earlier, the Belli letter stated  "I will loose control again and take my nineth & possibly tenth victom" and "I will loose all controol of my self & set the bomb up. Please help me I can not remain in control for much longer". Therefore, the introduction similarity of "This is the Zodiac speaking I" between the two letters ​(with grammatical error), and the crossed out wording only existing in these two letters up to April 24th 1978, in all likelihood influenced the author of the 1978 letter when designing this latest correspondence. The introduction, the correction technique, and the use of the word "control" regarding the Zodiac Killer's mindset were unique only to these two letters up to April 24th 1978. 

Exactly one year before the murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights, Melvin Belli appeared in an episode of Star Trek on October 11th 1968 entitled "And the Children Shall Lead", playing the character Gorgan. When referencing the Melvin Belli letter in 1978, the Zodiac Killer stated "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me". 

Excerpt from Wikipedia on And the Children Shall Lead: "The federation starship Enterprise arrives at the planet Triacus. Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, and First Officer Spock beam down in time to witness the death of Professor Starnes, the leader of a scientific expedition team. The other members of the expedition, apart from their five seemingly unconcerned children, seem to have died at their own hands. The crew bring the children back to the Enterprise, where McCoy evaluates them and determines that they are suffering from lacunar amnesia, unaware of what happened to their parents and unable to grieve. However, when left unattended in one of the ship's rooms, the children chant an evocation and summon a glowing humanoid named Gorgan. He advises them to take control of the crew in order to get to Marcus XII, his preferred destination. The eldest child, Tommy, uses mental powers Gorgan has bestowed on the children to trick the crew into steering the ship while presenting illusions that make them think they are still in orbit above Triacus. Upon reviewing a troubling expedition film recorded by Starnes, Spock, McCoy, and Kirk return to the bridge to find the children and Gorgan fully in control of the crew. Unable to break their hold on the crew, Spock observes that the children are merely possessed by Gorgan, who must be the evil embodiment of an ancient group of space-warring marauders released by Starnes's archaeological survey".

1978 letter: "I am now in control of all things". ​

The 1998 San Francisco Police Department DNA chart of suspected Zodiac correspondence shows that DNA was obtained from the 1978 letter, but it was deemed not authentic. If we believe that investigators correctly cleared Inspector David Toschi of any wrongdoing in the manufacture of the 1978 letter, then it is hard to argue against this communication being created by the same individual who mailed the 1969 Melvin Belli letter, with added shirt piece from the Paul Stine murder. The Zodiac speaking introduction with grammatical error on the opening line and the correction technique employed in the 1978 letter, which mimicked the Melvin Belli letter from 1969 (allied to the use of "control" in both communications), could only have been reasonably crafted by one person. If it wasn't David Toschi who wrote the 1978 letter, there is a good chance it was the Zodiac Killer. The DNA obtained from the 1978 letter has already ruled out both Arthur Leigh Allen and Lawrence Kane many years ago. The 1978 letter being genuine would also rule out Ross Sullivan, who died in 1977. If David Toschi didn't author the 1978 letter, then a fresh examination of this letter using more advanced DNA recovery should be a priority.
​ 
THE "I AM BACK" PHONE CALL - MARCH 13TH 1978

It has regularly been stated that there was an approximate four year hiatus in Zodiac communications from 1974 to the arrival of the "I am back with you" letter on April 24th 1978. If you believe in this 4 year absence of Zodiac communications, then the following information from page 204 of Robert Graysmith's Zodiac paperback book should be of interest. Despite Robert Graysmith often playing loose with the facts of this case, the following information within his book concerns Inspector David Toschi directly.

​It stated that on March 13th 1978 at 2300 hours (just over a month before the "I am back with you" letter) somebody made a sinister phone call to an individual living in the Mission District of San Francisco, whose home voice recorder had stored the message. Apparently David Toschi responded to this incident. When played, the message read "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco". The reportee stated he has no idea why the call came to him. Over four years had elapsed since the January 29th 1974 Exorcist letter, yet here we have a malicious phone call from somebody claiming to be Zodiac with the words "I am back", just over a month before the April 24th 1978 letter mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle stating "I am back with you". Another comparison between the two is "Tell the press that I am back" and "Tell herb caen I am here". Both concerning the newspapers. Herb Caen was a San Francisco humorist and journalist whose daily column ran in the San Francisco Chronicle for nearly sixty years. 

Would Inspector David Toschi seriously listen to a sinister voice recording with these words, then fashion a hoax letter 42 days later using the same phraseology, while inserting the wording "That city pig toschi is good". While possible, it seems wholly implausible. After four years of perceived inactivity, what is the likelihood that the San Francisco voice recording and letter are two separate individuals perpetrating a hoax with identical wording, within a month and a half of one another? As with the Oklahoma radio station recording of an individual claiming to be Zodiac, I suspect this recording was also summarily dismissed as a hoax and lost to the hands of time. I am not suggesting it was the real Zodiac Killer, but losing or tossing away potential evidence that may later gain significance, should be avoided. This voice recording may have seemed unimportant on March 13th 1978, but less so on April 24th 1978.

​On May 5th 1978, just 11 days after the "I am back with you" letter, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer phoned the San Mateo Police Department and falsely reported that a bomb had been set in the Transamerica building at 600 Montgomery Street (the same street of Melvin Belli's residence in 1969). Although it is difficult to separate the hoaxers from the real Zodiac Killer, we do have the common phraseology in the voice recording and letter on March 13th and April 24th 1978, that while not compelling, is nonetheless interesting.  

THE THREAT ON THE TRANSAMERICA PYRAMID