Postmarked October 27th 1987, a letter was mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald stating "This is the Zodiac speaking. I am crackproof. Tell herb caen that I am still here. Tell the blue pigs if want me I will be out driving around on Halloween in my death machine looking for some kiddies to run over. Cars make nice weapons. The pigs can catch me if They can find me out there. Just like in the movie The Car. Tell the kiddies watch before they cross the street on Halloween nite. Tell Tochi my new plans". 

​Just over a month before the arrival of this correspondence, on September 12th 1987, Jose Santo Bugarin (26) and Rodolfo Alvaro (31) were traveling on King Road, San Jose, California when their car slammed into four children playing on the front lawn of a residence, killing three and injuring one. The driver then backed over the bodies and left the scene. Both were apprehended a short time later. "Bugarin was arrested on three counts of second-degree murder. Alvaro also was arrested on murder charges". This was covered extensively in the newspapers.

​Did the Zodiac Killer read the news stories of this senseless crime and callously draw inspiration from this tragedy (Cars make nice weapons), compelling him to write the above correspondence and piggybacking off newspaper articles in not dissimilar fashion to his early communications? However, the Zodiac Killer communications were not usually the product of reading just one or two newspapers, such as the San Francisco Chronicle or San Francisco Examiner - he seemed to have access to numerous newspaper publications from near and afar - harnessing the column inches to create his letters. So, was his October 28th 1987 letter influenced by the story of children being run over in San Jose, or was it fashioned from a more national story such as the one detailed below?

One distinguishing characteristic of his latest communication was the use of a "death machine" as a weapon for running over children on Halloween, which meant there was a high probability that the Zodiac Killer took this from recent news stories, despite having previously used this phrase to describe his claimed bomb when writing his lengthy November 9th 1969 correspondence.

​On October 20th 1987 and October 21st 1987 (predominantly) a major news story was published throughout America about vehicle deaths. The Los Angeles Times wrote "Alarmed by a rising number of injuries and deaths, attorneys general in 23 states Monday asked the nation's largest manufacturer of all-terrain vehicles to meet with them to discuss ways of making their machines safer. The request was made in a letter to Honda under the auspices of the National Association of Attorneys General. Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox said "These vehicles are rolling death machines. There have been nearly 800 deaths and 300,000 injuries related to these machines since 1982". This quotation was parroted in virtually every newspaper I could find. The coverage continued with the statement "In what remains a largely unregulated pastime, all-terrain vehicles have been linked to an average of 20 deaths and 7,000 serious injuries each month nationwide in the last two years, according to a federal safety agency. About half the victims are under 16". The fact that the Zodiac Killer chose the phrase "death machine" while newspaper stories were abound with vehicular "death machines" being a major talking point, is a strong argument for the two being connected.  Therefore it's not difficult to see how the Zodiac Killer may have arrived at the wording of "I will be out driving around on Halloween in my death machine looking for some kiddies to run over".  But what inspired the Zodiac Killer to use "death machine" in 1969?  

Recently you may have read claims from the Zodiac Tapatalk forum that a woman was responsible for hoaxing both the 1986 and 1987 letters mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald and San Francisco Chronicle. This, of course, has been put forward without any evidence to corroborate such a claim by an individual who relies on the members of his forum just accepting him at his word. Unfortunately, many of the posters on this forum will uncritically accept everything delivered from his keyboard.

Throughout 2021 and 2022, somebody claiming to be the "Chinese Zodiac Killer" mailed several terroristic threats to media outlets, and was eventually identified and sentenced to jail time in 2023. This story featured heavily in the newspapers. On April 24th 1978, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer mailed a rather benign letter claiming "I am back with you" and "I am waiting for a good movie about me, who will play me". Tales of the City author, Armistead Maupin, would ultimately come forward and suggest that Inspector David Toschi may have been the author of the 1978 letter, based on little more than a perceived correlation of handwriting between the 1978 letter and fan letters David Toschi wrote for the Tales of the City series. Off the back of this, a well respected homicide investigator was questioned by his superiors, demoted and had his name splashed in many newspapers, before being cleared of any wrongdoing.          

Tom Voigt claimed in 2022 that the 1987 letter "was hoaxed by a woman", and when challenged on her identity retorted "I'm not going to throw her under the bus by naming her, she is still a source of mine". He added that she "had police contacts because of who she was". In 2023, Tom Voigt wrote this on his own forum regarding the 1986 letter: "I know who wrote it and so do police. And she wasn't Zodiac". So let's break this down for the individuals who still believe and accept the statements of Tom Voigt, who without evidence, readily dismisses the Riverside Police Department who claim an individual owned up to writing the three Bates letters in 1967, yet readily accepts what he has been told by another police department.

The Zodiac Killer murdered five innocent people, with friends and relatives of the victims desperate for some kind of resolution to this case. This woman, claimed by Tom Voigt to be known to him and the police, mailed terroristic threats on May 6th 1986 owning up to the murder of Koy Ien Saechao (48) and Choy Fow Saelee (40) in Sacramento on April 22nd 1986, and mailed threats to kill children on October 28th 1987. Yet, despite the fact that the "Chinese Zodiac Killer" was plastered all over the media and jailed for his crimes, and Inspector David Toschi was defamed in the newspapers for several months and demoted, this woman has seemingly avoided any newspaper coverage of her serious crimes and avoided any legal ramifications for her terroristic threats of murder and mayhem.

​If you believe what you read on the Tapatalk forum, this woman's identity is being withheld by Tom Voigt and the police in an apparent lack of transparency, despite this woman being a malicious criminal. I wonder what Inspector David Toschi (if still alive) and the families of the five victims would make of this? A woman, who has claimed and threatened murder, and attempted to derail and divert the Zodiac Killer case on at least two occasions, who is facing no consequences for her actions. There is, however, one good reason why this woman was never named in the newspapers and held accountable for her criminal deeds - she didn't exist. This fictitious woman was created in the mind of an individual who cannot refute the arguments put forward for the 1986 and 1987 letters being genuine. It's much easier to shut down the debate on these two letters by introducing fiction to his followers, who he knows will never question his perceived authority.      

What inspired the Zodiac Killer to mail two letters in near tandem to the San Francisco Chronicle and Vallejo Times-Herald on October 27th 1987 after seventeen months of apparent inactivity, since his last communication on May 6th 1986, claiming the double murder of Koy Ien Saechao (48) and Choy Fow Saelee (40) on April 22nd 1986? The letter to the Herald read in part "This the Zodiac speaking. I am crack proof. Tell herb caen that I am still here. I have always been here. Tell the blue pigs if want me I will be out driving around on Halloween in my death machine looking for some kiddies to run over". 

On October 17th 1987, just ten days before the October 27th 1987 letter, a long and detailed Napa Valley Register newspaper article supplied to me by Zodiac researcher Jibberjabber, announced the retirement of Kenneth Narlow, "the last active investigator of the unsolved Zodiac serial killings". The newspaper read "One of Narlow's most memorable investigations resulted from an attack on two Pacific Union College students at Lake Berryesss in 1969". He stated "Sometimes I look and say to myself, how close did we really come to this guy". It seems that Zodiac may have replied inside of two weeks by stating "I am crackproof" and promised to reignite his terror on Halloween night. The Kenneth Narlow story may have invigorated the Zodiac Killer to fire off two more letters, but what inspired the Zodiac Killer to mention the prospect of running over kids in his car and referring to the The Car movie, released in 1977?

Just over a month before the arrival of this correspondence, on September 12th 1987, Jose Santo Bugarin (26) and Rodolfo Alvaro (31) were traveling on King Road, San Jose, California when their car slammed into four children playing on the front lawn of a residence, killing three and injuring one. The driver then backed over the bodies and left the scene. Both were apprehended a short time later. The Chicago Tribune reported "A hit-and-run driver slammed his car into four children playing on the front lawn of an East San Jose house, backed over the bodies and sped away, police reported. Three of the children died. A witness, Eddie Petersen, 19, said the driver ''was knocking over kids like they were nothing. A neighbor, Frank Azevedo, who lives two houses away from where the children were run over, said Alberto Marquez, father of at least one of the victims, was working in his garage and saw the accident. Azevedo said the father tried to pull the driver from the car, but he suspect backed up and sped away. Jose Santo Bugarin, 26, was arrested shortly afterward Saturday evening when he struck another vehicle a few blocks away. Police said they found several beer bottles in the car and arrested Bugarin and a passenger, Rodolfo Alvaro, 31. Bugarin was arrested on three counts of second-degree murder. Alvaro also was arrested on murder charges". This story was covered extensively in the newspapers.

STILL DRIVING AROUND IN 1987 [PART TWO]

Druzer, an extremely intelligent Zodiac researcher, noted the indented lines on certain Zodiac letters as a way to help ascertain whether particular communications may be genuine or otherwise. The structure and composition of a letter may tell you more than the handwriting itself. There is a complete change in how the Zodiac letters were structured from 1969 to 1971, compared to how the letters were structured subsequent to 1971. As pointed out by Druzer, any hoaxer subsequent to 1971 has numerous early Zodiac letters from the newspapers to analyze with respect to their structure (in particular, how the killer opened with the introduction "This is the Zodiac speaking"). In every single Zodiac communication in 1969, 1970 and 1971 where the Bay Area murderer opened with "This is the Zodiac speaking", he began the introduction in line with the text below on all 12 occasions (including the Fairfield letters). Here are two examples:     

Subsequent to 1971, we have the 1978 letter (4/24/78), the Channel 9 letter (5/2/78), the 1986 letter (5/6/1986) and the 1987 letter (10/27/1987). All of these letters began with the introduction "This is the Zodiac speaking", but each time the introduction was offset from the left margin and the text below. If these were all different hoaxers, then it is rather uncanny how all these authors not only ignored how the Zodiac Killer structured his main opening line to conform with the text below, but they all structured the opening line in the same fashion. Of the 12 Zodiac letters in 1969, 1970 and 1971, only the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969 failed to keep the "This is the Zodiac speaking" introduction exclusively on the main first line (ignoring the "Dear" intro). It was written "This is the Zodiac speaking I". One may have thought a hoaxer would adopt the introduction used the majority of the time, but instead the two 1978 letters, the 1986 letter and the 1987 letter followed a similar pattern to the Melvin Bellii letter, contrary to what would be expected of a hoaxer. 

You will notice below that three of the later letters failed to insert a full-stop or comma after the introduction, and before the rest of the text. Exactly the same as the authenticated Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969. All four of the communications below begin with either the subject of "I" or "You" after the introduction, rather than something non-personal. It has been shown extensively on this website how the 1986 and 1987 letters should be included as confirmed Zodiac correspondence. This being the case, the 1978 letter and the Channel 9 letter should be regarded as worthy contenders also. The change in style from 1969, 1970 and 1971, to 1978 onwards, shows a distinct pattern of "Zodiac" development in his style of writing. 

Another pattern that can be observed in the widely believed Zodiac letters, is that the August 4th 1969, October 13th 1969, November 8th 1969, November 9th 1969, December 20th 1969 and April 20th 1970 letters all have the introduction "This is the Zodiac speaking" with no significant gap to the second line. Then a seemingly conscious change, when the June 26th 1970, July 24th 1970, July 26th 1970 and March 13th 1971 letters all left a distinct gap between the first and second line (March 13th 1971 slightly less so). This shows a marked change in pattern by the Zodiac Killer. However, the latter four communications were pre-empted by both Fairfield letters on December 7tth 1969 and December 16th 1969, which both placed a noticeable gap between the opening introduction and the second line.   

Melinda Stehr of the attorney general's office said handwriting experts confirmed the October 27th 1987 letter was a simulation of a letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle a decade ago, which was also considered to be a hoax. "Someone saw the letter and was using it as a copy". Stehr said. "It's a fake. It's a hoax". Vallejo Police Captain Roy Conway said the letter ″was not authored by the authentic Zodiac, but that it is a simulation of a hoax letter written in 1978". Robert Prouty, a documents examiner, stated in respect to the 1978 letter: "I examined the photographs of the April letter and those of previous letters attributed to Zodiac. My first impression was that it was in the same general style as previous letters, but after closer examination my ultimate conclusion was that there were so many differences that it was not written by the same person who wrote the previous Zodiac letters … Several letter characteristics in my opinion did not match the style used by Zodiac. The slant of some letters was not consistent with previous Zodiac communications. I am of the opinion that the letter of April 24 was an attempt to duplicate Zodiac letters and is not authentic. He went on to say of the 1987 letter (and its sister letter mailed to the Chronicle): "My very firm opinion is that they were not written by the authentic Zodiac. They appear to be composed of previous letters which have since been made public. All of us were hoping we'd heard the last of him",        

​Therefore, Robert Prouty, Captain Roy Conway and Melinda Stehr are claiming that the 1987 author was mimicking the 1978 author, who was also mimicking previous Zodiac letters. This means that the author of both letters in 1987 took the time and effort to compose and mail two communications, but was utterly incapable of crafting a letter using any of the Zodiac Killer's confirmed communications, either by copying the handwriting from newspapers in 1969 or 1970, or by using Robert Graysmith's book released the previous year. Instead, the author of the October 28th 1987 letter to the Vallejo Times-Herald chose the only letter out of Zodiac's entire portfolio that was widely reported as a hoax by newspapers. In other words, the so-called hoaxer of the 1987 letter chose to copy a hoax letter to convince you he was real.

If you were a hoaxer in 1987, attempting to pass yourself off as the Zodiac Killer, would you really craft a letter in 1987 that virtually mimicked the first three lines of the 1978 letter and expect anything other than a copycat label. The bottom of each correspondence was equally similar, with "yours truly:" and "guess" featuring in both letters. Anybody making a serious attempt at fooling the police and newspapers would surely not have made it so obvious. The author of the 1987 letter clearly didn't care that people viewing this letter would draw the obvious conclusions - and the only person who didn't need to convince you that he was the Zodiac Killer, was the Zodiac Killer himself. These conclusions were made by documents examiner, Robert Prouty, in absence of the comparison between the October 27th 1987 envelope and the July 31st 1969 envelope, both mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald.

The author of the 1987 envelope, if a hoaxer, would have had no knowledge of the design of the 1969 envelope, because it had never been released publicly by October 27th 1987. So maybe Robert Prouty, Captain Roy Conway and Melinda Stehr should have explained how the author of the 1987 envelope used the same 13 words as the 1969 envelope, used no punctuation in either address, used the full newspaper title of Vallejo Times Herold in both (abbreviated in the published July 31st letters), probably misspelled "Herald" to "Herold" on both occasions (as spelled in the 1990 Celebrity Cypher postcard), and finally managed to create handwriting not too dissimilar (see below). A hoaxer on this occasion would have had to mimic another communication without ever seeing it. Unless of course, it was the Zodiac Killer on both occasions.

​Robert Prouty stated "My very firm opinion is that they (1987 letters) were not written by the authentic Zodiac. They appear to be composed of previous letters which have since been made public". Had he stated "My very firm opinion is that they (the 1987 envelopes} were not written by the authentic Zodiac. They appear to be composed of previous letters (envelopes) which have since been made public", he would have been wrong. Had the 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope been released into the public domain by 1987, you can be sure that Robert Prouty would have said the author of the 1987 envelope copied the 1969 envelope. These arguments have been widely used to discredit the 1978 letter and envelope (the latter of which mimicked the Dripping Pen card envelope). If the Zodiac Killer can mimic the 1978 letter in the 1987 letter and mimic the 1969 envelope in the 1987 envelope (which a hoaxer had no access to), then he can mimic the Dripping Pen card envelope in the 1978 envelope, showing that mimicry cannot be used to justify calling somebody a hoaxer.  

Postmarked October 27th 1987, a Halloween letter arrived at the Vallejo Times-Herald with the usual threats.
 
Agent Fred Shirasago observed that the first three sentences of the new letter, postmarked Tuesday from San Francisco are almost verbatim the April 24, 1978, letter that led to Toschi’s demotion. In Sacramento, spokeswoman Melinda Stehr of the attorney general's office said handwriting experts confirmed the letter was a simulation of a letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle a decade ago, which was also considered to be a hoax. "Someone saw the letter and was using it as a copy". Stehr said. "It's a fake. It's a hoax". Vallejo Police Captain Roy Conway said the letter ″was not authored by the authentic Zodiac, but that it is a simulation of a hoax letter written in 1978". The letter, in which the writer threatened to kill trick or treaters on Halloween, was similar to several mailed to area newspapers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was received by the Vallejo Times-Herald Wednesday, but a handwriting analysis found it to be a phony, reported.Conway

Melinda Stehr and Roy Conway are effectively claiming that somebody pretending to be the Zodiac Killer was imitating the letter mailed on April 24th 1978, which had previously been determined to be a copycat. Not only would it be immensely stupid judgement for a copycat to mimic a "copycat letter" to pretend to be Zodiac, but how did this 1987 copycat manage to imitate the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope, when not only had this envelope been "misplaced" at the time, but it had never been made public by October 27th 1987? Melinda Stehr stated "Someone saw the (1978) letter and was using it as a copy". If that was the case, then how did this person in 1987 "see" the 1969 envelope in order to copy it so perfectly? This latest envelope had the same exact 13 words as the 1969 envelope, the same lack of punctuation, and both envelopes addressed the Vallejo Times-Herald in full, whereas the 1969 publicly available Zodiac letters to the Chronicle and Examiner didn't (they only stated Vallejo Times). There is also a strong likelihood that both envelopes were addressed "Herold" instead of "Herald", as was the Celebrity Cypher postcard that arrived three years later. Although I'm not a staunch handwriting advocate when comparing Zodiac communications, we have similarity between both envelopes, plus excellent corroborating material in the wording used in each instance.

But what some people may or may not know, is the October 27th 1987 "Zodiac" letter had a companion, mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle at about the same time. It too was dismissed because it "appeared to be composed of previous letters which have since been made public". However, this letter to the Chronicle also came with an envelope, making a comparison to the envelope on July 31st 1969 a possibility.

The envelope on July 31st 1969 was addressed S.F. Chronicle San Fran, Calif Please Rush to Editor! with Please Rush to Editor on the reverse. If the 1987 envelope to the Chronicle was addressed in identical fashion to the 1969 envelope, with corresponding wording and punctuation marks (including the exclamation mark), we could almost certainly declare both the 1987 letters genuine Zodiac material. The notion of a lazy copycat just mimicking old letters is possible, but mimicking two envelopes identically to which he had no access to, is virtually impossible (barring the usual claim of an inside job).

This 1987 letter and envelope to the San Francisco Chronicle could finally tell us whether the Zodiac Killer was still alive and driving around on Halloween once and for all. An everyday person just committing a casual hoax eighteen years after the Zodiac Killer's first letters, would find it extremely difficult to accidentally compose the exact wording and punctuation from the Vallejo Times-Herald envelope in 1969, let alone recreate the identical text and punctuation from the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969 also. One man who may be able to validate whether the 1987 Chronicle letter still exists, is Kevin Fagan, a longtime reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle. It would also beg the question of, how would the real Zodiac Killer have remembered the exact wording he placed on either envelope from eighteen years previously? Had he kept a record of everything he did during his campaign of terror in the Bay Area and memorialised it for posterity? This communication to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1987 could tell us so much. 

Inspector David Toschi was quoted in the July 10th 1974 San Francisco Chronicle regarding the latest May 8th and July 8th "Zodiac" communications, stating "There's no doubt in my mind about either one. I took them to a documents expert and in less than five minutes he told me positively they were in fact written by the Zodiac". There are no reputable documents examiners who could conclude in five minutes that two correspondences were written by the Zodiac Killer, if Toschi's assertions were true. There still remains much doubt over the 1974 communications to this day, as there does around the April 24th 1978 letter, with conflicting interpretations on its validity as a genuine Zodiac Killer letter. Document examiners would later disregard both the 1986 and 1987 letters, despite evidence to the contrary indicating that both these letters were penned by the real Zodiac Killer. 

Robert Prouty joined the San Diego Police Department after his service in the U.S. Air Force, before relocating to Sacramento in 1973 and working for the Department of Justice as a Questioned Documents Examiner. In the San Francisco Examiner on October 30th 1987, he stated in reference to two potential Zodiac letters "My very firm opinion is that they were not written by the authentic Zodiac. They appear to be composed of previous letters which have since been made public. All of us were hoping we'd heard the last of him", said Prouty, who analyzes about fifteen bogus Zodiac letters a year.

If we take the word of Robert Prouty, then he must have examined a minimum of 222 communications alleged to have been mailed by the Zodiac Killer over those nearly fifteen years.. Even if 20% of these were genuine, the Zodiac Killer may have mailed at least 44 communications from 1973 to October 1987. With a high degree of probability the Zodiac Killer mailed at least four, if not five communications in 1971. We therefore have a potential 222 communications ruled as bogus, when in fact some of them may have been genuine Zodiac letters - and as such - provided invaluable information as to his identity, or further insight into his movements and character? Hoping that you've "heard the last of him" is hoping for less information about the killer. More disturbing still, is how many of these communications have ended up being discarded and destroyed, when they could have contained valuable DNA evidence at a time when major breakthroughs in biological science were surfacing, along with the advancement in preservation and storage of samples pertaining to criminal investigations.         

Very few communications have been featured since 1974. Notable examples are three in 1978, one in 1986, two in 1987 (of which one was withheld), a postcard and greeting card in 1990, and a 2001 'Happy New Year' card. If these were deemed not authentic by Questioned Document Examiner's, why release these and not the other communications between 1974 and 1987, also deemed to have been penned by hoaxers. What is the difference? 

In respect to the 1987 letter received by the Vallejo Times-Herald, Robert Prouty said it "appeared to be composed of previous letters which have since been made public". In other words, it had been copied from previous letters and was a case of mimicry. Here is what Robert Prouty stated in respect to the 1978 letter: "I examined the photographs of the April letter and those of previous letters attributed to Zodiac. My first impression was that it was in the same general style as previous letters, but after closer examination my ultimate conclusion was that there were so many differences that it was not written by the same person who wrote the previous Zodiac letters … Several letter characteristics in my opinion did not match the style used by Zodiac. The slant of some letters was not consistent with previous Zodiac communications". In summary, one was ruled out because it looked too similar to previous letters and one was ruled out because it looked too different. John Shimoda of the US Postal Service crime laboratory originally deemed the 1978 letter genuine, before reversing that decision and stating “I am of the opinion that the letter of April 24 was an attempt to duplicate Zodiac letters and is not authentic".       

There was a eight-year gap from the bulk of Zodiac communications in 1970 to the April 24th 1978 letter, and a further nine-year gap to the 1987 letter. Handwriting can change over time - and can change depending on the speed of writing, the surface you are writing on, the time of day, the style of pen you are using, the angle you are writing, the level of alcohol and drugs in your system and your health at any given time. Determining that certain letters vary slightly in style, particularly over many years - and thereby concluding a different author for the Zodiac letters - is stacked with inponderables such as these.

The Zodiac Killer contacted the Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969 in his first contact with the newspapers, but according to the Vallejo Times-Herald City Editor Mary Apanasewicz on October 30th 1987, the newspaper had never received a crank letter in the previous eighteen years. Therefore, we would have to conclude that up to 222 random hoax Zodiac letters could have been mailed between 1973 and 1987, yet not one single individual hoaxer ever wrote to the Herald. The fact that somebody wrote to them on October 27th 1987, using the same thirteen words on the envelope as the July 31st 1969 envelope, with no punctuation in either, using the full title of Vallejo Times-Herald (with both likely misspelling Herald to Herold), when the 1969 envelope had not been released into the public domain by October 27th 1987, should have told Mary Apanasewicz that she still hadn't received a hoax letter by the end of 1987 either.        

On November 21st 1983 and July 31st 1986, the bodies of Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth were found raped and strangled in Narborough and Enderby in Leicestershire, England. These were the first murder cases ever solved using DNA technology.

The crimes were initially believed to have been committed by a mentally challenged 17-year-old by the name of Richard Buckland, who under questioning admitted the murder of Dawn Ashworth. That is until Alec Jeffries, who along with Peter Gill and Dave Werrett, developed the science of DNA fingerprinting - and with the cooperation of Leicestershire Constabulary - mass screened 5,500 men over a six month period. The perpetrator was not identified, because the guilty man had commandeered one of his work colleagues to stand in for him.

Ian Kelly admitted to fellow workers in a pub that he had given blood under the assumed identity of his colleague and was subsequently reported to police by a woman who overheard his admission. This ultimately led to the arrest of bakery worker, Colin Pitchfork on September 19th 1987, whose DNA fingerprint matched the semen samples recovered from both girls. It also exonerated Richard Buckland. Colin Pitchfork was sentenced to a minimum term of 30 years, later reduced to 28. 

Ironically, the murder of Dawn Ashworth would come on the seventeen year anniversary of the trinity of Zodiac letters mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969 - and the subject of DNA speculation to this day. The Zodiac letters have undergone much scrutiny with regards to securing DNA from behind the envelope seals and stamps. But to this day, the case appears as cold as the night when David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were callously murdered in Benicia, California on December 20th 1968. There has been a raging debate on whether any Zodiac DNA exists on the letters from 1969 and 1970, either because of degradation, mishandling and bad storage. Or whether the Zodiac Killer ever licked the stamps and envelopes at all. This argument could be put to bed once and for all, by testing the 1986 and 1987 Zodiac letters. Incorrectly labelled as hoaxed letters, both communications can be linked by one author, as well as to the 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope, which we know was mailed by the genuine Zodiac Killer.                

These letters were mailed on May 6th 1986 and October 27th 1987, when police forces in America should have been well aware of the potential of DNA evidence after the two cases in England. Timothy Spencer became the first American murderer to be convicted using DNA evidence in 1988. Law enforcement at this juncture must have known the importance of evidence storage and preservation, that included both the 1986 and 1987 letters. Whether or not they initially ruled them out by the unscientific approach of handwriting analysis thirty-three years ago, this is not good enough reason to rule them out in 2020. Rather than flogging the 1969 and 1970 envelopes to death, which so far has generated little headway, these letters (which should have been stored correctly) have a greater potential for the discovery of DNA. Law enforcement should have been well aware of these latest advances in DNA technology by the close of the 1980s, but a common criminal may not have been up to speed. Both of these communications were mailed just prior to the conviction of Timothy Spencer.

Testing both letters would finally answer the crucial question to the satisfaction of everybody, of whether [1] The 1986 and 1987 letters were licked by the same author and sender, and [2] Whether either letters were licked at all. These communications should have been stored correctly (despite being deemed inauthentic by handwriting experts) - and if so - should be the first port of call in the search for DNA from the Zodiac Killer. But they won't be.      

Recently I have examined a connection between the 1969 and 1987 Vallejo Times-Herald envelopes not only through handwriting, but through design. We know of only three communications to the Vallejo Times-Herald, mailed on July 31st 1969, October 27th 1987 and September 25th 1990. There is a strong possibility that the Bay Area murderer mailed all three. I am sure he was a killer who meticulously kept all the newspaper cuttings written about him over the years and drew inspiration from them when he mailed his latter communications, dropping in subtle clues beyond the capability of the casual hoaxer. 

If we take a look at the three July 31st 1969 letters, you will notice that the communication addressed to the San Francisco Chronicle contained the word "cipher" spelled correctly five times. To the San Francisco Examiner the word "cipher" was spelled correctly three times. In the Vallejo Times-Herald he spelled the word "cipher" correctly once, while spelling it incorrectly on the only other occasion, depositing the letter "Y" into the word (cyipher). The author of the postcard mailed on September 25th 1990 from Oakland, addressed the card as the Celebrity Cypher to the Vallejo Times Herold Vallejo CA. The 1969, 1987 and 1990 communications all used the full address of the newspaper, despite the publicly known July 31st 1969 letters to the Chronicle and Examiner only using the title of Vallejo Times.

But more crucially, both the communications on July 31st 1969 and September 25th 1990 addressed the Vallejo Times-Herald as "Herold", switching the "A" for an "O". I have contacted the editor of the Vallejo Times-Herald for a clearer image of the October 27th 1987 envelope and he promised to have a look in the files. Not only would we be able to view the handwriting in greater clarity, but we would find out if he addressed the envelope "Herold" for a third time. If he did, then the Bay Area murderer would have mailed only three communication to the Vallejo Times-Herald (that we know of), and all would have contained the misspelling of "Herald" to "Herold".

Below is an FBI file from November 8th 1973 carrying the name of Leslie B. Lundblad, analyzing some handwriting in respect to the Vallejo Times-Herald envelope, the Debut of Zodiac letter and the Little List letter. It is accompanied by two excerpts from the Zodiac Killer FBI files (Part One). All three FBI documents feature the address used on the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope. All three show that it was addressed to the Vallejo Times Herold, just like the 1990 Celebrity Cypher. What is the betting on the October 27th 1987 envelope containing the word "Herold" as well? Could a casual copycat just keep getting so many things correct, despite having no access to any of the preceding Zodiac envelopes - or is it more likely that the Zodiac Killer was more nuanced than we give him credit for.

Every confirmed correspondence of the Zodiac Killer to the San Francisco Chronicle was addressed in a particular way. The envelopes were either addressed S.F. Chronicle or San Fran. Chronicle. That is ten consecutive communications mailed throughout 1969 and 1970 to the San Francisco Chronicle, all of which used full stops in the name of the newspaper. If you include the Exorcist letter mailed to the Chronicle on January 29th 1974, that is eleven consecutive communications that followed this pattern. The following three communications to the San Francisco Chronicle, dubbed  the SLA letter, Citizen card and Red Phantom letter, all broke with this pattern. They were addressed San Francisco Chronicle, SF Chronicle and San Francisco Chronicle respectively. Not only did these three 1974 communications use an address style never before used by the Zodiac Killer, but suddenly the author had discovered the ability to spell, making not one single spelling error in any of these three communications, which included words such as Symbionese, consternation, evidenced, glorification, deplorable, justifiable, sensibilities, psychological and anonymously. 

In his letter to the San Francisco Examiner on July 31st 1969, he addressed the envelope to S.F. Examiner. In his letter to Melvin Belli he addressed the envelope to Mr. Melvin M. Belli, using dots after abbreviations in the addressee. His letter to the Los Angeles Times again abbreviated the addressee to L.A. Times. The only exception from July 31st 1969 to January 29th 1974 was the envelope addressed to the Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969. It was addressed in full, using Vallejo Times Herold rather than V.T. Herald, or Vallejo Times (as he used in two of the July 31st letters). The envelope to the Vallejo Times-Herald (confirmed as Zodiac) was the only communication out of 15, from July 31st 1969 to January 29th 1974, that did not abbreviate the addressee and include full stops. In fact, the letter to the Vallejo Times Herald was the only time up to the Exorcist letter that Zodiac ever used the full name of the newspaper he was addressing. 

This should give you extreme pause of thought when you consider the previously debunked October 27th 1987 Halloween letter (click link). This communication not only carried the full address of Vallejo Times Herald, just like the 1969 envelope, but both contained no full stops or commas, both carried the "Please Rush To Editor" phrase twice, both contained the same exact 13 words, both used "Calif" for "California" and both contained extremely excessive postage. The postal rate in 1969 was 6c, but the Zodiac placed 24c on his Vallejo Times-Herald envelope (an excess of 18c). The postal rate in 1987 was 22c, but the author affixed 44c worth of stamps (an excess of 22c). These were by far the most excessive postage used in any Zodiac or suspected Zodiac communications. When you consider the fact that a copycat would never have seen the 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope in 1987, he did a remarkable job imitating the real killer in all of the above, not withstanding the fact that the handwriting looked eerily similar. The author would have had handwriting available to him from published Zodiac letters and the Dripping Pen card envelope published in the November 16th 1970 San Francisco Chronicle, but how on earth does he use this to mimic the July 31st 1969 envelope so perfectly in 1987. The author of the 1987 envelope could have designed it in a multitude of different ways, yet he just happened to choose the exact wording from an envelope in 1969 to which he should have had no knowledge of if he was a hoaxer. The October 27th 1987 envelope (shown below) is the best available image we have currently.

This should allay any doubts to the authenticity of the October 27th 1987 Halloween letter. This was the Zodiac Killer. If the eyewitnesses at Presidio Heights were correct in describing the killer as "in his early forties", "about 40" and "35 to 45" (averaging 40), then the Zodiac Killer would have been approximately 58 years of age when he authored the 1987 letter. He would have been 72 years of age when the 2001 Happy New Year card arrived, stating "What happened with the white people drivers we once had, are they all retired on welfare or at Laguna Honda". He would currently stand at 91 years of age today, assuming he is still alive. One thing we can be sure of, is if the author of the 1987 letter is the Zodiac Killer, then Ross Sullivan and Earl Van Best Jr. cannot be the Bay Area murderer. The book would be finally closed on these two individuals.

It is also my belief that the July 31st 1969 envelope, October 27th 1987 envelope and September 25th 1990 Celebrity Cypher postcard were all addressed misspelling the word "Herald" to "Herold". The July 31st 1969 and September 25th 1990 communications most certainly were. If I am able to secure a clearer image of the October 27th 1987 envelope and it reads "Herold", then we can almost certainly link the Zodiac Killer to three communications spanning four decades.

1986 AND 1987 LETTERS - ONE HAND

"A letter sent to a newspaper by someone who said he was the Zodiac serial killer of 19 years ago was declared a hoax Thursday by the state Department of Justice. The letter, in which the writer threatened to kill trick or treaters on Halloween, was similar to several mailed to area newspapers in the late 1960s and early 70s. It was received by the Vallejo Times-Herald Wednesday, but a handwriting analysis found it to be a phony, police reported. Vallejo police Capt. Roy Conway said the letter ″was not authored by the authentic Zodiac, but that it is a simulation of a hoax letter written in 1978". link. "In Sacramento, spokeswoman Melinda Stehr of the attorney general's office said handwriting experts confirmed the letter was a simulation of a letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle a decade ago, which was also considered to be a hoax. 'Someone saw the letter and was using it as a copy,' Stehr said. 'It's a fake. It's a hoax". link.

The author of the October 1987 letter had a multitude of genuine Zodiac letters available to him from the 1960s and 1970s. but we are led to believe that the designer of the 1987 letter chose to mimic the only letter ever made public to be comprehensively questioned regarding its authenticity. Any author that is trying to convince the reader he is Zodiac would simply take a trip to the library, scroll through the microfilm and access a wealth of Zodiac writings, or buy Robert Graysmith's 1986 Zodiac book.  According to the excerpts from the articles above, the hoaxer got his hands on images of the 1978 letter from nine years ago. If he was capable of doing that, he was capable of accessing the Zodiac letters from 1969 through to 1971. Despite this, the author of the 1987 letter copycatted the copycat from nine years ago, to convince current investigators he was the real Zodiac and not a copycat. Also, why would a copycat determined to pass themselves off as Zodiac, deliberately choose to mimic the opening three lines of the 1978 letter and give the impression they are a copycat. The real Zodiac Killer would have no such concerns.

How did the handwriting experts conclude that the killer mimicked an envelope from 18 years ago so accurately, if he had no access to an image of the 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope? They clearly made a comparison between the 1987 and 1978 letters, but could not have compared the two envelopes and arrived at the conclusion they made. The copycat managed to imitate the July 31st 1969 envelope down to the full address of Vallejo Times-Herald, which was never used in the 1969 letters themselves. Although blurry, the handwriting looks compatible, the "Please Rush to Editor" directive was added twice, no commas or full stops were used on both occasions and thirteen words comprised each envelope in both instances. This copycat certainly went to a lot of effort to apparently mimic an envelope he had no access to, while apparently copying the 1978 letter he did have access to and knew was regarded as a fake. This clearly makes no sense. Then we consider the letter mailed in 1986.    

The 1987 author was without doubt the designer of the 1986 letter. The May 6th 1986 letter wasn't published in the newspapers prior to October 27th 1987 (or thereafter), yet just one year later, the supposed hoaxer of the 1987 Zodiac letter just happened to fashion his letter with near identical opening lines, and referenced how "The Blue Meannies almost caught me" and how "The blue pigs can catch me". That is one hell of a coincidence if the authors are two separate and distinct individuals. This is either a determined hoaxer, writing Zodiac letters twelve and thirteen years adrift from the last confirmed Zodiac letter on January 29th 1974, or it is the real Zodiac Killer. What is the likelihood that the author of the 1986 and 1987 letters was a hoaxer, maintaining his interest over 1 1/2 years, who was also able to reproduce the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope to such accuracy when apparently he had no access to it?  

The 1990 Eureka Christmas card and 2001 Happy New Year card weren't enough to rule out candidates as the Zodiac Killer, but the 1986 and 1987 letters, in conjunction with the envelope comparison, leaves little doubt remaining that Ross Sullivan and Earl Van Best Jr were not the Zodiac Killer. Ross Sullivan died on September 29th 1977 and Earl Van Best Jr died on May 20th 1984, so could not be the author of either the 1986 or 1987 letter.

Of course, it goes without saying, that almost all staunch advocates of Ross Sullivan and Earl Van Best Jr will by default reject the 1978, 1986, 1987, 1990 and 2001 communications out of hand. The default setting will be turned to discredit rather than objectively analyze, irrespective of the strength of any presentation.

While some people have claimed that Robert Graysmith may be responsible for forging the 1986 and/or 1987 letter to ignite interest in his book, they have yet to offer any evidence to support such such a claim, other than just speculation. If Robert Graysmith had secured access to all the Zodiac envelopes, you could be assured they would have featured in his Zodiac book, as opposed to the just the Dripping Pen card and Los Angeles Times envelopes. The former of which was readily available in the San Francisco Chronicle article by Paul Avery on November 16th 1970.

A FRESH LOOK AT THE 1987 LETTER [PART ONE]

The biggest problem with authenticating Zodiac communications in the Zodiac community is disagreement regarding the handwriting. Some will say the handwriting looks like Zodiac, while others will take the opposite stance. That is why it is crucial to go beyond the handwriting and analyze the wording, composition and structure of a communication. Recently I have been attempting to validate the October 27th 1987 Vallejo Times-Herald correspondence, opening with the lines "This the Zodiac speaking. I am crack proof. Tell herb caen that I am still here. I have always been here. Tell the blue pigs if want me I will be out driving around on Halloween in my death machine looking for some kiddies to run over". To do this, the 1987 envelope was compared with the July 31st 1969 envelope, previously unreleased in the public domain 

In this analysis we will attempt to bind the May 6th 1986 and October 27th 1987 letters to one author. That way, if we can prove the validity of one correspondence as being authored by Zodiac (such as the 1987 letter), we automatically validate the other. In the 'Los Angeles' letter from March 13th 1971, the Zodiac wrote "This is the Zodiac speaking. Like I have allways said, I am crack proof. If the Blue Meannies are evere going to catch me, they had best get off their fat asses + do something. Because the longer they fiddle + fart around, the more slaves I will collect for my after life". In the 1986 letter, the Zodiac wrote "This is the Zodiac speaking. I am still out here an crack proof. I want you to know about my latest slaves that I have collected about two weeks ago up by Sacramento Ca". 

The author of the 1986 letter converted "I am crack proof" to "I am still out here an crack proof". In other words, he just plagiarized the words from the 1971 letter, which doesn't prove he is the Zodiac Killer. Many letters and cards have been mailed to the newspapers between March 13th 1971 and May 6th 1986. I have noted at least thirteen communications linked to the Zodiac Killer between these dates, and not one used the term "crack proof". The first time this term was used, was in the October 5th 1970 pasted postcard, but it was written as "crackproof" without the separation. That means the author of the 1986 communication selected the words "crack proof" for the first time since March 13th 1971 (15 years later). The author also used a  'Flag Over Capitol' US stamp.

The 1986 letter was never released to the newspapers, yet in the following year, the author of the 1987 letter, not only used the similar 'Flag Over Capitol' US stamp, but again began his correspondence using the words "crack proof" in the separated format. Therefore, we have two consecutively released 'Zodiac' communications with the term "crack proof". If the 1987 author was different to the 1986 author, then he got extremely lucky mimicking the stamp selection and the opening two sentences, including the words "crack proof". 

You will also notice that the author of both communications managed to prominently black out two words on each occasion. All four words prominently blacked out over both letters, almost certainly began with the letter T. What is certain, is that the prominently blacked out words were all followed by a word beginning with T. Those four words were They, The, Tell and Toschi. Three individual letters were blacked out over both communications also.

Additionally, the Los Angeles letter of March 13th 1971 stated "If the Blue Meannies are evere going to catch me, they had best get off their fat asses + do something".  The 1986 letter author would mimic this narrative, by stating "The Blue Meannies almost caught me". But if the 1987 letter writer was not the author of the 1986 letter, he was again extremely fortunate to use wording similar to that contained in the 1986 letter: "Tell the blue pigs if want me I will be out driving around on Halloween in my death machine looking for some kiddies to run over. The pigs can catch me if they find me out there".

I think it is therefore reasonable to assert, that the 1986 and 1987 letters were written by the same hand.

AUTHENTICATING THE 1987 LETTER

On October 29th 1987, two days after the 1987 Halloween letter arrived at the Vallejo Times-Herald claiming to be from the Zodiac Killer, Department of Justice documents experts declared it a clever copy of a 1978 hoax letter. Shortly after that announcement, a similar letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle. That letter, too, was declared a hoax. "My very firm opinion is that they were not written by the authentic "Zodiac," said Justice Department handwriting expert Robert Prouty". This means that a second Halloween letter was mailed alongside the Vallejo Times-Herald offering. 

The statement above is one that argues against itself, concluding that the author of the 1987 Vallejo Times-Herald Halloween letter would choose to hoax a hoax letter. They declared it a clever copy of a 1978 hoax letter. Therefore, the 1987 copycat, copycatted a copycat of the real Zodiac Killer, when it would have been far simpler for the copycat to choose any number of authenticated Zodiac letters from either Robert Graysmith's 1986 book or any good library archive. Instead, we have to believe the 1987 copycat made the schoolboy error of choosing one of the few unauthenticated Zodiac letters ever released, and widely touted as such in many newspaper articles. 

Robert Prouty added "They appear to be composed of previous letters which have since been made public". Does this mean that the 1987 San Francisco Chronicle communication was determined to have been composed of writing mimicking letters other than the 1978 correspondence? The emphasis here, is that it seems handwriting analysts compared the writing on the 1987 letters with previous letters - and not the handwriting on the 1987 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope with the only other envelope ever mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald, on July 31st 1969. The similarity and composition of both the 1969 and 1987 envelopes may have changed their determination.

It is my understanding that the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope was not released into the public domain, so the author of the 1987 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope could not have mimicked it. However, he did a pretty good job, even using the full address of 'Vallejo Times Herald' on both occasions, in contrast to the publicly available 'Valejo Times' in Zodiac's July 31st 1969 letters to the Chronicle and Examiner. If anybody can find the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope in any newspaper prior to the October 27th 1987 letter, please let me know in comments. I do not want to draw any unnecessary conclusions based on incorrect understanding. This currently is just a probing exercise.      

An article dated October 29th 1987 in the San Francisco Chronicle (shown below) made no reference to any Halloween letter received by them. According to the San Francisco Examiner article above, "Department of Justice documents experts declared (the Vallejo Times-Herald letter) a clever copy of a 1978 hoax letter. Shortly after that announcement, a similar letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle. One can only assume the second Halloween letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle shortly after this article went to print, and they subsequently decided not to feature it. That means a second letter, likely mailed in tandem with the known 1987 Halloween letter, is yet to be unearthed. 

When the Zodiac Killer mailed his July 31st 1969 letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald, he informed each newspaper to the fact he had mailed letters to the other two. He addressed the San Francisco Chronicle as S.F. Chronicle on its envelope and in the letters to the other newspapers, the San Francisco Examiner as S.F. Examiner on its envelope and in the letters to the other newspapers, but addressed the Vallejo Times-Herald as Vallejo Times Herald on its envelope and Vallejo Times to the other newspapers. The 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope had not been made visible to the public at the time the disputed October 27th 1987 Halloween letter was mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald. The three July 31st 1969 envelopes even failed to make the San Francisco Police Department DNA report in the late 1990s.

An article from ABC News in 2003: "The lab has found a partial DNA "fingerprint" on one of the envelopes, but not enough for definitive matching. However, a Primetime investigation prompted the discovery of three envelopes that offer new hope. The envelopes (July 31st 1969) were thought to have been lost, but an anonymous Primetime source — a long-retired investigator — found them, in mint condition, during a search of his personal files and turned them over to the San Francisco police".

Experts very quickly determined the 1987 letter was mailed by a hoaxer. "The fake letter sent to the Vallejo Times-Herald in midweek was a simulation of a hoax letter written in 1978", police Capt. Roy Conway said Thursday. "The determination was made by experts in the state Department of Justice", he said. In Sacramento, spokeswoman Melinda Stehr of the attorney general's office said handwriting experts confirmed the letter was a simulation of a letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle a decade ago, which was also considered to be a hoax."Someone saw the letter and was using it as a copy."  Stehr said. "It's a fake. It's a hoax". When they made this determination, they clearly didn't have the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope at their disposal, so they could compare it to the October 27th 1987 envelope. If they had, they may very well have come to a different conclusion. The Zodiac Killer wrote 'Vallejo Times' in his letters when he addressed the Chronicle and Examiner on July 31st 1969 (which were made public), but his envelope to the Vallejo newspaper contained the full name of 'Vallejo Times Herald'. An envelope not made public prior to October 28th 1987. Yet the recent 1987 envelope contained the full title of 'Vallejo Times Herald', just like the unpublished 1969 Vallejo envelope.

If you compare the now available July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope, with the October 27th 1987 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope, the similarity is noticeable. How could a hoaxer mimic the 1969 Vallejo envelope so closely if he had never laid eyes on it. The same words and amount of words (and abbreviations) are used in both, with no commas or full stops in either address. The dominant alphabetical V is present on both, with a distinct right leaning slant extending over the "a" of Vallejo. Up to October 27th 1987, these were the only two communications ever mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald from either Zodiac, or a supposed copycat of Zodiac. If the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope was never made public prior to October 27th 1987, I suggest that this recent Halloween offering should be declared genuine Zodiac Killer correspondence. This is the best image available of the 1987 envelope. There are two March 29th 1985 issue date 22c stamps of Flag Over Capitol on the 1987 envelope. The May 6th 1986 'Zodiac' envelope contains one smaller Flag Over Capitol stamp.          

This article is what I would describe as an investigative piece written with impartiality to the best of my knowledge. We know that the July 31st 1969 letters were the Zodiac Killer because of their content, so if the October 27th 1987 envelope can unequivocally be tied to one of these letters through the handwriting style and composition of each envelope, we can say without doubt the Bay Area murderer was still alive in 1987. However, if any reader of this article can find the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope published prior to October 27th 1987, for the latest Halloween letter author to mimic, I will delete this article immediately.  

On October 27th 1987, a letter was mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald stating "This is the Zodiac speaking. I am crackproof. Tell herb caen that I am still here. Tell the blue pigs if want me I will be out driving around on Halloween in my death machine looking for some kiddies to run over. Cars make nice weapons. The pigs can catch me if They can find me out there. Just like in the movie The Car. Tell the kiddies watch before they cross the street on Halloween nite. Tell Tochi my new plans."

​Experts very quickly determined it was a hoax letter. "The fake letter sent to the Vallejo Times-Herald in midweek was a simulation of a hoax letter written in 1978", police Capt. Roy Conway said Thursday. "The determination was made by experts in the state Department of Justice", he said. In Sacramento, spokeswoman Melinda Stehr of the attorney general's office said handwriting experts confirmed the letter was a simulation of a letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle a decade ago, which was also considered to be a hoax."Someone saw the letter and was using it as a copy."  Stehr said. "It's a fake. It's a hoax". UPI.

The person responsible for this letter (if a hoaxer) was certainly determined to reinvent the Zodiac Killer after an absence of nine years from the April 24th 1978 letter, or thirteen years from the January 29th 1974 'Exorcist' letter. So, why would the hoaxer choose one of the already publicized hoax letters to imitate, rather than the copious other communications deemed genuine? In other words, why would a hoaxer choose a hoaxed letter to convince everybody he was genuine?

The opening three lines of the 1978 and 1987 letters are extremely similar, with both "telling herb caen he had always been here". Why would a hoaxer, determined to convince us he was the Zodiac Killer, not only choose a previously 'debunked' letter, but imitate the wording so closely as to give the impression to investigators it was just copied? On the flip side, if the author was the Zodiac Killer, such a concern would not be a consideration. A person attempting to hoax the 1987 letter would first have to access old newspaper cuttings of Zodiac communications and handwriting to copy. If they were prepared to go to this effort, then they may as well have reproduced any Zodiac correspondence from 1969 to 1971, as opposed to selecting the 1978 letter.​​

"The Tochi reference is to David Toschi, who was the prime investigator of the Zodiac killings, which began in 1968. He was demoted after being accused of sending a fake Zodiac letter to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1978". UPI. 

​The hoaxer must surely have been aware of David Toschi's perceived involvement in writing the 1978 letter and his recent retirement from law enforcement, hence the belated reference of "Tell Tochi my new plans", but nevertheless, continued on to mimic the 1978 letter anyway. The author of the 1987 letter could not have accidentally chosen to copy this letter without realizing the authenticity issues surrounding it - rather he chose it for purpose. The author of the 1987 letter could have been the author of the 1978 letter and therefore did not have to "see the (1978) letter to use it as a copy", and as a result, there was no need for imitation. The assertion by investigators that the author of the 1987 letter was somehow attempting to copy the 1978 letter would be negated in this instance, as it would be if the Zodiac Killer had authored both letters and didn't care if they looked similar in style or wording. If the 1987 letter had looked wildly different to anything mailed previously, people would say "the handwriting looks nothing like the Zodiac Killer". In this instance though, the difference was clearly not enough and therefore considered "a simulation".  The December 7th 1969 and December 16th 1969 'Fairfield' letters both fell foul of this contradiction.   

The Zodiac Killer implied he was responsible for the August 3rd 1969 double murder of Kathy Snoozy and Deborah Furlong in San Jose, when he mailed the November 8th 1969 'Dripping Pen' card. Two weeks later, on November 21st 1969, the San Jose Police Department were sent a warning letter threatening harm on a "widow". Then came the December 16th 1969 'Fairfield' letter which threatened "more blood" at many different locations, including a policeman in San Jose.

​On July 13th 1971, a pasted card was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle with the words "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". This was referencing the murder of Kathy Bilek (18) on Sunday, April 11th 1971, stabbed multiple times at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga (just west of downtown San Jose), only nine miles from the neighborhood of Monticello. This neighborhood sits next to Oak Hill Memorial Park, where Kathy Snoozy is buried. At about the same time, a 148 character cipher was received by the San Francisco Chronicle, postmarked Fairfield, California. Bearing in mind Kathy Snoozy, Deborah Furlong and Kathy Bilek were all stabbed innumerable times, disfiguring their bodies, it is rather telling that the author of the 148 character cipher and letter should threaten 3 more young people like so: "Tis the Zodiac Speacking. Why can't you stop me. I can't stop killing. Stop listening t(o) phonys. If this is not on your front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin" and "next time I will send a patch of human skin if there is some left over". ​

​If the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the above mentioned outlier communications, then it wouldn't at all be surprising if he mailed a later communication referencing the murder of three more "little kids" in San Jose, and used this as his inspiration to threaten "kiddies when they cross the street on Halloween nite".   The 1987 Letter-Death on Four Wheels.