Recently we covered the January 10th 2001 Happy New Year card, stating it was likely mailed by the same individual as the December 1990 Eureka card, When the individual authored the 2001 card and mailed it to the San Francisco Chronicle, we have to remember that the 1990 Eureka card wasn't made public until 2007. Therefore, he couldn't have been imitating the design of the 1990 Eureka card envelope. There has been over emphasis on comparing the handwriting between the two communications - obviously some believe the handwriting is a good match, while others disagree - and this is par for the course. To determine whether these communications were created by the same author (or the Zodiac Killer), we have to analyze their composition and their layout.

For those who strongly believe the 1990 Eureka card is the Zodiac Killer, this is an important question. If the communications can be linked, then advocates for the 1990 Eureka card must advocate for the 2001 Happy New Year card also. It would rule out any suspects dead or incarcerated subsequent to December 1990 and up to January 10th 2001 such as Theodore Kaczynski, who was arrested on April 3rd 1996 and given eight life sentences. It would also rule out high profile suspect Arthur Leigh Allen who died on August 26th 1992. Now obviously, staunch advocates of Theodore Kaczynski or Arthur Leigh Allen, who also believe that the 1990 Eureka card was Zodiac, will almost certainly reject the 2001 Happy New Year card by default, or now distance themselves from the Eureka card if it was proved it was linked to the 2001 card. Here is a comparison between the envelope handwriting before we move on.

Any hoaxer or copycat who wants to mail an imitation Zodiac letter, particularly in 1990 and 2001, has a wealth of genuine Zodiac communications to draw upon, including the envelopes. The November 16th 1970 Paul Avery newspaper article in the San Francisco Chronicle, was one such example of how to address an envelope in Zodiac fashion. The need to mimic and convince the reader you are the genuine Zodiac, would supersede the requirement of the real Zodiac to convince the reader he is the genuine Zodiac. The real Zodiac doesn't need to convince anybody he is the Zodiac Killer, because he knows he is. One can therefore argue, that a communication in 1990 or 2001 that is pertaining to be from the Zodiac Killer, that looks nothing like the Zodiac Killer, could very well be the Zodiac Killer. The need to mimic old communications is not a requirement for the real killer. So when researchers state that the 2001 Happy New Year card looks nothing like old Zodiac communications, they may very well be negating their own position of rejecting it. Why should the 1990 or 2001 handwriting look like the handwriting from twenty to thirty years ago. Handwriting varies over time and is easily manipulated.

The 1990 Eureka card and 2001 Happy New Year card, whether Zodiac or not, were mailed eleven years apart. We are not aware of any other Zodiac or copycat communications in between these years. If there has been any, they have not been released. We have to look at these two communications in respect to all the confirmed and suspected copycat letters from 1969 to 2001 (a span of 32 years). If these two communications were not the same author (and the 2001 author couldn't have copied the 1990 author), then it is unusual that these latter two communications are both festive greetings cards, never before mailed to the newspapers by the Zodiac Killer or a copycat in the thirty-two years prior. Not withstanding the handwriting, it is also the first time the Zodiac Killer or a copycat had employed the address format of "901 Mission Street" and the numbering "94103". So we have two communications, both are festive cards, and both use an envelope address format never employed in any previously publicized letters from the Zodiac Killer or otherwise. We have to ask the pertinent question of why a copycat would attempt to look nothing like the real killer. He is effectively imitating nothing the Zodiac Killer had done previously.      

Either the Zodiac Killer or somebody purporting to be the Zodiac Killer mailed a Happy New Year card to the San Francisco Chronicle on January 10th 2001, disgusted that San Francisco citizens were "getting murdered" by Muni drivers. The day before, on January 9th 2001, the Examiner ran an article describing how a Muni streetcar struck and killed pedestrian Guang Zhan Ouyang on Sunday, January 7th 2001. Another fatality occurred the following day on Van Ness Avenue. This newspaper article is courtesy of Cragle from Zodiac Killer Site forum - and is undoubtedly the trigger for the January 10th 2001 Happy New Year card. After all, the author opened up with the line [corrected] "Dear Sir. Wherever you are. This is disgusting to read, what seems to be a news that nobody really cares, but the relatives of innocent citizens murdered in our beloved S.F. It's always the pedestrians fault and never those bastard Muni drivers".

The Zodiac Killer was extremely fond of reacting to newspaper articles in his heyday, but what was it about this particular article that triggered such a response, just over eleven years after the December 1990 Eureka card (assuming the Zodiac Killer was responsible for both communications). Cragle pondered the question; Could the line "Noboby really cares but the relatives of innocent citizens MURDER in our beloved SF" allude to a relationship of some sorts to the person quoted in the article?

Here is another Examiner newspaper article, dated January 3rd 2001, describing the death of Brian Edward Cotter (18) as he played the game of "chicken" with a Muni streetcar. Thanks again to Cragle for supplying this cutting.

Here is a communication mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on January 10th 2001 threatening the Muni drivers of San Francisco, widely believed to be somebody mimicking the Zodiac Killer. While this may be the case, one has to consider the style and format of the writing (particularly on the envelope) with respect to previous Zodiac communications. No other authenticated Zodiac communication prior to this one carried the address of "901 Mission Street" with "San Francisco, CA 94103". I believe Tom Voigt of Zodiackiller.com considers the Eureka card mailed in 1990 to be a plausible Zodiac correspondence, placing this communication in his "Letters from the Zodiac" section on the message forum.  

The Eureka card is the only other possible Zodiac communication addressed in near identical fashion to the 2001 offering (shown in tandem with the envelope below). The problem arises when we consider that the Eureka card was not discovered until March 3rd 2007 by editorial assistant Daniel King of the San Francisco Chronicle among some photo files. The 2007 Zodiac movie directed by David Fincher and based on the Robert Graysmith book, was released in the USA the day before this correspondence was unearthed, on March 2nd. The movie had its premier in Los Angeles and California on March 1st.

This means that whoever wrote the January 10th 2001 card, addressed it in near identical fashion to a previously unreleased Zodiac communication. The Eureka card wasn't made public until 2007, so the author of the 2001 communication with near certainty had to be the author of the December 1990 Christmas card. You cannot 'copycat' the handwriting or style of an envelope that hasn't been released into the public domain. If you believe the Eureka card to be genuine, it follows that you should believe the 2001 communication to be genuine also. If you hold the opinion that Zodiac was still alive in 1990 mailing Christmas cards, then it is extremely likely he was still active in 2001 doing exactly the same thing.