Rolland Taft was sentenced to 6 months to 20 years for the attempted murder of a young female student on the Riverside College campus in April 1965. She attended evening classes as a student of the college. Taft served 2 1/2 years and was released in 1968. The female victim suffered severe knife wounds in the attack but was able to escape and seek help from her neighbors. On April 17th 1965 The Press-Enterprise ran an article about the attempted murder, running with the headline Clean-Cut Youth Sought in Stabbing. This headline is extremely reminiscent of how the poem on the Riverside Desktop Poem began, with "clean" and "cut" used in each instance. So was the author of the Riverside Desktop Poem familiar with this crime, causing him to reminisce about it as he constructed the poem on the plywood desk?

If the author of the Desktop Poem was referring to this attempted murder, then he was clearly of the opinion that the young girl was stabbed while wearing a new red dress. The poem read "blood, spurting, dripping, spilling; all over her new dress. Oh well, it was red anyway".  The author was referring to past events, fully aware that she didn't die after the attack because someone found her bleeding outside their house and sought help.

Cragle, a regular poster on both forums, is attempting to locate some historic newspaper articles describing the attempted murder in the hope there is mention of the girl's attire that evening. If no newspaper articles or media coverage mentioned her new red dress, it may suggest that the author of the Desktop Poem knew Rolland Taft and the details surrounding the attack - or he knew the young victim and knew first-hand what she was wearing on that fateful evening in 1965. This could indicate that he attended the Riverside City College as a fellow student, with access to the plywood desk in order to write the poem. The most crucial aspect of the poem is the final section, which carries the foreboding message of "She won't die. This time someone'll find her. Just wait till next time. rh". In other words, this girl didn't die by knife, but the next girl will. The author may have written this poem prior to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, with the rh at the foot of the poem a place and time prediction  - that of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside on Halloween. The murderer of Cheri Jo Bates may have been attempting to lure her to a secondary location to kill her but her valiant struggle against her attacker may have thwarted his plans and resulted in the Halloween prediction falling short by 75 minutes.

The impressionable author of the Riverside Desktop Poem could conceivably have been a student of the college, who was inspired by the attempted murder of Miss Atwood. He could also have known the young woman and studied alongside her. Wherever she had been that fateful evening on April 13th 1965, possibly wearing a brand new red dress, he may have been present. This would be the only reasonable conclusion had she been wearing a red dress and these details were not mentioned in any media coverage (and he didn't know Rolland Taft). If the author of the Desktop Poem was the author of The Confession letter, then the mention of "brush offs" in a seemingly immature typed letter, could place the person responsible for both in the age range of Miss Atwood (19) and Miss Bates (18)- and very likely somebody connected to the Riverside City College. 

I have recently discovered a documentary channel on Youtube called Bryan Bruce Documentaries, with the majority emphasis on true crime. Two excellent storytelling channels on Youtube are That Chapter and MrBallen, but this has to be a contender for the best investigatory channel of them all, taking a look at recent and historic unsolved murder cases, in addition to assessing the validity of some criminal convictions.

Bryan Bruce, born in Scotland in 1948 and now residing in New Zealand, is a documentary maker who covers a wide range of topics, including the true crime genre, which will no doubt appeal to the majority of visitors to this site. Currently he has twenty-one videos on his Youtube channel, in which fourteen are labelled True Crime Investigation. Despite a relatively low number of videos thus far, his burgeoning channel has already reached nearly 10,000 subscribers (as of writing), which is a fantastic return per video. The way Bryan Bruce examines each case is captivating viewing, using a logical, analytical and forensic approach in an attempt to unlock the mystery in each case. I would implore anybody who has a fascination with true crime and the unknown to visit his channel as soon as possible. Here is link to the videos available. Red Sky Television Videos. 

On December 3rd 2020 David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke unlocked the mystery to the 51-year-old 340 cipher, mailed by the Zodiac Killer on November 8th 1969.  The decoded message was a response to the Jim Dunbar Show in which an imposter/fraud called in to the TV show pretending to be the infamous Zodiac Killer.on October 22rd 1969. It may have also been a response to the San Francisco Chronicle article on October 23rd 1969 entitled A TV Runaround With Zodiac Calls in which "Belli told Sam he'd attempt to get a promise from District Attorney John J. Ferdon that Zodiac would be spared the gas chamber if convicted of murder". The Zodiac Killer responded in code that he was "not afraid of the gas chamber". 

The following day, the San Francisco Chronicle published another article which featured the opinions of Nancy Slover, David Slaight and Bryan Hartnell, who were the only three people credited with hearing the Zodiac's voice to date. The headline of that column read That Wasn't Zodiac, Say 3 Who Know, to which the Zodiac Killer would reply in his message in the 340 cipher by confirming "That wasn't me on the TV show". He took the newspaper headline and incorporated it into his hidden message. The Zodiac Killer was effectively rejecting the notion that the person who appeared on the Jim Dunbar Show claiming to be him was the genuine article - the caller was a fraud or imposter.

The decoded 340 ciphertext read: I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME - THAT WASN’T ME ON THE TV SHOW - WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME - I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE - SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH - I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH.

However, it didn't stop there. On February 5th 1970, the Desert Sun newspaper reported that "a man claiming to be the Zodiac killer of five persons held another on-the-air conversation today with television personality Jim Dunbar. Two police inspectors closeted themselves with Dunbar at station KGOTV immediately after the one-sided conversation, which consisted mainly of Dunbar asking questions and repealing fragments of answers". This second call was also reported in the San Francisco Chronicle on February 6th 1970, again highlighting the belief of investigators that this person was another fraud impersonating the Zodiac Killer. Just over a year later the Zodiac Killer mailed a 148 character cryptogram and letter, again encoding a contemporary message, but this time calling out Karl Francis Werner as a phony. Karl Francis Werner had just been arrested in connection with the murders of Kathie Reyne Snoozy, Debra Gaye Furlong and Kathy Bilek, two of which he had long claimed he murdered since the mailing of his November 8th 1969 Dripping Pen card and 340 cryptogram. He would also soon claim Kathy Bilek as a murder victim in the July 13th 1971 Monticello card. The Zodiac Killer was clearly upset somebody else had been arrested for the two San Jose murders on August 3rd 1969 and was responding to a San Francisco Chronicle article on April 30th 1971 entitled San Jose Student Held in Slaying of Three Girls. The newspaper article read "He was immediately advised of his rights concerning any statements he may make and legal representation to which he is entitled, the detectives said. Werner was then taken to the scenes of the crimes. Late yesterday he was undergoing questioning. The detectives would not reveal what statements, if any, he had made concerning the killings of the three girls". His response was immediate, likely firing off the following communication in early May. 

The Zodiac Killer was responding to the Paul Avery newspaper article on April 30th 1971 describing the arrest and interview of Karl Francis Werner by law enforcement, imploring investigators to "stop listening to phonys". Just like the 340 cipher, in which the Zodiac Killer used the newspaper headline banner of That Wasn't Zodiac, Say 3 Who Know to create "That wasn't me on the TV show", he would again use a newspaper headline banner in his rebuttal of Karl Francis Werner as the killer of the three girls (in particular, Snoozy & Furlong).

An imposter/fraud had called into the Jim Dunbar TV Show on October 22nd 1969, followed by a second call to the show on February 5th 1970. The San Francisco Chronicle article on the left was entitled Talk Show's Zodiac Caller Called a Phony. The article read "Homicide detectives later listened to a tape recording of the conversation and concluded that Sam was a phony. It most certainly was not Zodiac, said Inspector David Toschi".  Fast forward to May of 1971, in which Karl Francis Werner is being interviewed by investigators for three murders, including the brutal stabbings of Kathie Reyne Snoozy and Debra Gaye Furlong, to which Zodiac had previously claimed by the addition of "Aug" on his November 8th 1969 Dripping Pen card. Perceived by him, the Zodiac Killer has now had the indignity of two phone calls to the Jim Dunbar Show, where a phony has effectively claimed his crimes, followed by the arrest and interview of Karl Francis Werner in 1971, possibly being credited with crimes he had previously claimed. His response to law enforcement was "stop listening to phonys", again using a newspaper headline incorporated into the ciphertext message of his cryptogram.

At the time the Zodiac Killer mailed the 148 character cipher in 1971, the 340 cryptogram was unsolved. Yet here we have two lengthy cryptograms, both of which are incorporating in contemporary form the rejection of an imposter or phony by using the phrases "That wasn't me on the TV show" and "stop listening to phonys" - and both cryptograms incorporated the language used in two newspaper headlines.

The 340 and 148 character cryptograms are inextricably linked through a message that is contemporary in nature, both are the rejection of two people connected to his crimes (and claimed crime), and both the Dripping Pen card and 148 character cipher are indelibly linked to the murders of Kathy Reyne Snoozy and Debra Gaye Furlong who were horribly killed and mutilated on August 3rd 1969 in San Jose. The Zodiac Killer would finish his written message in May 1971 with the wording of "I will send a patch of human skin if their is some left over". This was a threat to kill another three kids, just like Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek. The nature of these three brutal stabbings (in excess of 300 knife wounds) should leave you in no doubt the meaning behind the sinister message of "I will send a patch of human skin if their is some left over".

On November 21st 1969, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer threatened a widow in San Jose, resulting in 24-hour protection given to the woman in question. The FBI file read "For the information of the Bureau and Sacramento, after a cursory analysis, officers of the San Jose, California PD, believe widow in message may be Mrs (redacted), San Jose, California. San Jose PD instituting 24 hour surveillance on Mrs (redacted)". It is fairly evident by the wording in the FBI file that the address of the woman wasn't given by the sender, hence the cautionary wording in the passage of "believed to be the widow". If this threatening letter was mailed by the Zodiac Killer, it is extremely likely he plucked this woman's name from the newspapers. Therefore, we should be looking at a recent widow, either connected to a Zodiac investigation, or independent of a Zodiac investigation, chosen because she featured in recent newspaper articles (possibly in November), that was relevant to Zodiac. Also, by choosing somebody to threaten in San Jose only thirteen days after his claim of involvement in the August 3rd 1969 San Jose murders of Kathie Snoozy & Debra Furlong, the Zodiac Killer could maintain the threat in San Jose and so bolster his involvement in that region. The following analysis will highlight one possibility for the woman in question, but not outright claim she was the widow featured in the November 21st 1969 letter. This possible connection was unearthed by the fantastic work of Cragle, a contributor to both main Zodiac forums, who trawled the newspaper articles in the run up to the mailing of this threatening letter.       

James Albert Pike (born February 14, 1913 – died September 3–7, 1969) was an American Episcopal bishop, accused heretic, iconoclast, prolific writer, and one of the first mainline, charismatic religious figures to appear regularly on television. In 1966, after they had shared a sabbatical study at Cambridge University, Pike's son, Jim Jr., fatally shot himself in a New York City hotel room. Shortly after his son's death, Pike reported experiencing poltergeist phenomena—books vanishing and reappearing, safety pins open and indicating the approximate hour of his son's death, along with half the clothes in a closet disarranged and heaped up. Pike led a public pursuit of various spiritualist and clairvoyant methods of contacting his deceased son to reconcile. In September 1967, Pike participated in a televised séance with his dead son through the medium Arthur Ford, an ordained minister in the Disciples of Christ church. Pike detailed these experiences in his book The Other Side (released on January 1st 1968). In 1968, in defiance of C. Kilmer Myers, the Bishop who'd succeeded him, he married Diane Kennedy, a Methodist student twenty-five years his junior, with whom he had collaborated on The Other Side. Wikipedia

The Other Side, detailed James Pike's attempts to contact his dead son in the afterlife, described "as a moving narrative of a father's efforts to save his son from enslavement to psychedelic drugs, a tragic story of a young and gifted man's premature death, a startling story of poltergeist occurrences that led the father and other witnesses to believe that from beyond the grave his son was trying to get in touch, and a detailed account of how this communication proceeded during a time when the father was under accusation for heresy for believing too little".

She became Diane Kennedy Pike, an American writer and educator who lived in San Jose at the time this threatening letter was mailed. She was a school teacher at Willow Glen High School in San Jose between 1962 and 1964. It has been argued on this website that the Zodiac Killer made persistent threats on school teacher Daniel Williams, by way of threatening phone calls to his residence in Martinez and subtle references in the Zodiac Killer's two previous November communications, starting on October 23rd 1969 and ending on November 9th 1969.

Having recently become a widow after the tragic death of her husband in Israel in September 1969, Diane Kennedy Pike was featured in many newspaper articles in the intervening period before the November 21st 1969 "Zodiac" letter arrived. In August 1969, Pike and Diane traveled to Israel, to do research for a proposed book on the historical Jesus. They attempted to travel to Qumran but during their journey through the Judean Desert they got stuck in a deep rut on a dirt road. After leaving the vehicle they went in search of help, with Diane ultimately separating from her older husband (who was in a serious condition). She eventually found help and a rescue party began the search. Unfortunately, it came too late for James Pike, who was found deceased five days later on September 7th 1969. By targeting this widow in San Jose (because of her history and connections), the Zodiac Killer may have thought this would secure him more front page coverage. However, this communication seemingly fell by the wayside - and as of writing - no newspaper coverage of this threat has been uncovered. The Other Side, featuring the afterlife, by the high profile authors of Diane and James Pike, along with his recent death in Israel and the publicity that surrounded it, may have been the required incentive for the Zodiac Killer to threaten this widow in San Jose on November 21st 1969. But until the FBI file is unredacted, we will never know for sure.

On December 3rd 2020, Dave Oranchak (USA), Sam Blake (Australia) and Jarl Van Eycke (Belgium) finally unearthed the solution to the 340 cipher after 51 years. The message read:

I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME - THAT WASN’T ME ON THE TV SHOW - WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME - I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE - SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH - I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH.
Here is what the Zodiac Killer could have written regarding the phone call to the Jim Dunbar Show:
I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME - STOP LISTENING TO PHONYS - WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME - I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE - SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH - I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH. 

It is reasonable to accept - cautiously - a scholarly identification of handwriting which depends on a balance of probability. However the scrutiny which forensic analysis has undergone should help us to maintain a healthy scepticism about handwriting identification, especially when a document is simply asserted as being in a given person's handwriting without the basis of this identification being made clear. LIMA:Forensic Handwriting Analysis.

Handwriting expert witnesses typically do not state with certainty that a particular handwriting sample came from a particular individual, even if the goal of litigation is to prove that one person wrote a particular document. Instead, handwriting experts will express their opinion as to whether the characteristics of the handwriting on the document in question are consistent or inconsistent with the known sample used for comparison. Expert Institute.

Handwriting analysis is a useful tool that can be used in conjunction with other evidence to argue a case, but should not ultimately decide the fate of a defendant or be used to definitively declare whether a handwritten communication originated from a particular subject. However, this concept has been disregarded in parts of the Zodiac community, who insist they can look at an nth generation copy of a letter and determine it's an obvious fake simply by staring at it. There are also individuals who will claim that there is a universal arbiter pertaining to which communications are genuine or otherwise, despite disagreement between questioned document examiners and handwriting analysts connected to the Zodiac scene itself.

In fact, many "so-called experts" have been discredited in recent years by a lack of due diligence, aligning themselves behind amateur researchers who are promoting a suspect, in conjunction with the release of a new Zodiac book. There is the infamous case of the JonBenet Ramsey murder, in which a three-page ransom note was supposedly left behind in the residence of the parents. Many document examiners have come to the conclusion it was written by the mother of JonBenet Ramsey, while others have dismissed this entirely. The point being, when you have disagreement in accredited experts within the field, what is the point of an authenticated list of Zodiac communications by a universal arbiter of truth or otherwise. Individuals who just look at these communications through a magnified lens, yet don't examine these communications in depth regarding the wider context of the Zodiac case - a case that has been examined far more thoroughly over 50 years since many of these determinations were made. What is far more important, is examining the content of a communication and how it fits into the overall story. One such example is the widely discredited Fairfield letter mailed on December 16th 1969, which has been routinely dismissed as being written by an amateurish and infantile hoaxer. Despite reasoning offered for its authenticity that is widely ignored, the recent solving of the 340 cipher by David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke has provided further evidence to its authenticity through the identification of words in the Z340 and Z38 cryptograms, specifically identified by the author of the sister communication on December 7th 1969, who is undeniably the author of the December 16th 1969 letter. This too has been routinely ignored, because sometimes you have to accept that no amount of evidence will move a fixed mind - even when the preponderance of evidence points strongly in one direction. For some, no amount of evidence will ever make a difference. Just ask somebody who believes the Fairfield letter was created by a hoaxer, what are the strongest five arguments given by people in favor of it being genuine, and they will almost certainly fail to give you one or two (if any). The reason why - because they have already made up their mind without having read any counter arguments to their case - which is solely based on looking at the letter and nothing more. Enter the discussion and use cogent reasoning to argue against the points suggested for the authenticity of the Fairfield letter, as opposed to just saying "It's an obvious fake", bereft of any foundation for concluding such a resounding conclusion. 

The reasoning behind the authenticity of the Fairfield letter will not be elaborated upon further because it has become plainly obvious in recent years that certain individuals have a fixed narrative of the Zodiac story - unchanging and impervious to any amount of evidence or reasoning. What they believed a decade or two ago has never altered, and never will. The same approach is plainly evident in an individuals' blind and unwavering belief in a suspect. Trying to reason against that suspect will often be met with vitriol or a defensive posture, but almost certainly, will rarely result in any positive dialogue. The way to unearth whether a communication is genuine or otherwise, is a simple case of doing some research on that communication, but unfortunately, while we have the misguided belief of some that just looking at a handwritten letter is sufficient to determine its authenticity, sadly nothing will change. The other misguided alternative, is to look at an "authenticated" list of Zodiac communications while disavowing yourself of any critical thinking. In other words, just believe what you are told and don't think for yourself. The ability of some Zodiac researchers to decide whether certain communications are genuine or not, despite never putting one ounce of effort into researching these communications, is nothing short of staggering. The consensus narrative of the Zodiac story will survive, irrespective of whether it has any foundation in truth, reasoning or logic. That you can be sure of.           

Cragle, a contributor to the main two Zodiac Killer forums, brought my attention to two sections of the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia door of Bryan Hartnell where there appears to be additional writing. The cardboard obscuring the car door on the right side is noticeably larger than the cardboard taped to the left side. This would have little significance, if it were not for the apparent lettering that seems to be present - particularly on the bottom right side where the two letters of M and L (or something like them) are just visible.  

We know that the "by knife" phrase was initially withheld from the newspapers, to distinguish between the real killer and any hoaxers, had the perpetrator of the stabbings at Lake Berryessa made contact with the police. In the San Francisco Chronicle article published on October 1st 1969, the investigators stated "there were a couple of other things we're still holding back so we'll be able to identify the man if he wants to call us again". We know that the "by knife" phrase was one, so could this potential hidden writing be the second.

Of course, there are subsequent images of the car door that show its right side without any writing, so these images would have required doctoring to conceal any writing on the right side and keep the message (if one exists) under wraps.  

One of the most remarkable achievements in the Zodiac story occurred in 2020, when David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke collaborated to finally break the 51 year resistance of the infamous 340 cipher on December 3rd. But what inspired the added complexity and the diagonal shift employed by the Zodiac Killer in his encryption technique on November 8th 1969. The trigger may have been his 408 cipher and the detailed attempt to break it in the Vallejo News Chronicle on August 4th 1969, at a time when the Zodiac Killer would undoubtedly have been scrutinizing the newspapers for progress on his 408 cipher. This was pointed out to me by the forum contributor known as Cragle, who made this astute observation recently.     

The cryptogram fan from San Francisco, a graduate student, made some observations regarding the 408 cipher (shown on the left). While his analysis wasn't wholly accurate, it is this newspaper article that may have bearings on the technique employed by the Zodiac Killer when designing his 340 cipher. On page two of this newspaper article it continued The pattern beginning to take shape apparently will end up a three-tiered diagonal structure composed of sections, of each of the three ciphers. Work with the patterns of the ciphers, which he calls complex and the work of a very intelligent person, has yielded eight doublets of symbols which are equals. He remarked that he didn't feel the ciphers were a hoax because they are too complicated and required too much effort to devise. "A computer may have been used" he said. He thinks the person who made them is intelligent, scheming and imaginative, but not really unusual. "I know kids in school who could do better" on cryptograms. 

The next communication mailed by the Zodiac Killer on October 13th 1969 promised to target young children, threatening that "School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out". But the most important section in the Vallejo News Chronicle article was "The pattern beginning to take shape apparently will end up a three-tiered diagonal structure composed of sections". The Zodiac Killer's 340 cipher, that followed the October 13th 1969 letter, was three-tiered just like the 408 cipher, but crucially it was structured diagonally for the majority of the coding, as postulated in the newspaper. The title of the newspaper article was Text Of Letter May Offer Clues, but did it offer the inspiration for the Zodiac Killer to create a diagonal shift in his 340 cipher just three months later?

On October 22nd 1969, the San Francisco Examiner newspaper published an article by Will Stevens, which laid down a challenge from Professor D.C.B. Marsh of the American Cryptogram Association (ACA) to the Zodiac Killer, attempting to coax him into revealing his name.

The newspaper stated "Dr Marsh told the Examiner today: "The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts. He knows, to quote Edgar Allen Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name -in cipher code - would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated - which will truly and honestly include his name".

Professor D.C.B. Marsh was probably hoping the Zodiac Killer would employ a cryptographic technique featured in the works of Edgar Allan Poe, thereby making any future cipher mailed by the Zodiac Killer easier to crack. As it turned out, the Zodiac Killer's 340 cipher mailed on November 8th 1969 could be solved using the scytale method of encryption detailed in Edgar Allan Poe's essay A Few Words on Secret Writing in the very first paragraph. This was covered extensively in the article The Inspiration Behind the Zodiac Killer's 340 Cipher. We have Professor D.C.B. Marsh of the American Cryptogram Association creating the trigger, by inserting Edgar Allan Poe into the mind of the Zodiac Killer. The Zodiac Killer then created the 340 cipher that could be deciphered using the scytale method featured in Poe's A Few Words on Secret Writing. What are the odds that one of Edgar Allan Poe's poems would partially appear in the solution to the 340 cipher?

I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME - THAT WASN’T ME ON THE TV SHOW - WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME - I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE - SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH - I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH.   

"To One in Paradise" was written by Edgar Allan Poe. This poem was first published as part of the short story titled "The Visionary" (later retitled as "The Assignation"). The poem was also published under the names "To lanthe in Heaven" and "To One Beloved". The title "To One in Paradise" was used in the February 25, 1843 Saturday Musuem. This poem was written after the death of Poe's wife. He writes that she was his life and he lived for her and now he looks forward to the future where they will be together again in death. link.

On March 3rd 2007, Daniel King, editorial assistant of the San Francisco Chronicle unearthed the Eureka card among some photo files, just after the release of the 2007 David Fincher film, Zodiac. The correspondence contained a Christmas greetings card with the message "FROM YOUR SECRET PAL CAN'T GUESS WHO I AM YET? WELL, LOOK INSIDE AND YOU'LL FIND OUT..." and once opened it revealed: "...THAT I'M GONNA KEEP YOU GUESSIN'! HAPPY HOLIDAYS, ANYWAY". This message was part of the original card, which had no additional writing from the sender. Within this card the sender had added two photocopied post office keys on a keychain, each of which contained five punched and traceable numbers (79408 and 58851). It was claimed that these post office box keys were traced to their owner, Chester Clark Klingel, who it was stated lived in Eureka in 1990 at the time this communication was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle in December. 

According to the obituary of Chester Clark Klingel, it somewhat detailed his timeline. The obituary read "Chet's first wife Yolanda passed away in a car accident. His second marriage was short but his third to Blandina Sarkis added love, happiness, family and great food to his life. He had many good years in Tam Valley, CA, before beginning a farming venture near Turlock, CA. Chet and Blandina bought nut orchards and developed a successful walnut hulling and drying business. After Blandina passed away, the farming project lost appeal. Chet sold the farm and moved to Eureka, CA, where he made new friends". The problem we have, is that the obituary stated that Chester Clark Klingel moved to Eureka after Blandina Sarkis Klingel died. She died on September 9th 1993 (aged 63). Therefore, if the obituary is accurate, Chester Clark Klingel moved to Eureka subsequent to her death in September 1993. So what was he doing with a post office box in Eureka when he didn't live there in 1990? Blandina Sarkis Klingel was buried in Turlock Memorial Park, Turlock, Stanislaus County, which is 370 miles from Eureka. 

'The Foreigner', a contributor to the Zodiac Killer Site forum, did point out that Chester Clark Klingel's daughter was living in Eureka at the time the Eureka card was mailed. However, If the claim we have been led to believe for many years is correct, that Chester Clark Klingel had been living in Eureka in 1990 with his wife Blandina, it would be unusual for her to be buried in Turlock, Ca, which is a 740 mile round trip for her husband. This story requires more explanation, because something doesn't make sense.  

The breaking of the 340 cipher by David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke on December 3rd 2020 was a fantastic achievement after 51 years, only slightly tarnished by the banality of the message encoded by the Zodiac Killer, in which he denied it was him on the Jim Dunbar Show, along with the usual paradice and slaves nonsense. However, it may have gone a long way to verifying two previous communications once considered inauthentic Zodiac letters. 

The 340 message stated "That wasn't me on the TV show", thereby suggesting by inference that the person who called into the Jim Dunbar TV show on October 22nd 1969 was an imposter and fraud. Shortly after the April 29th 1971 arrest of Karl Francis Werner for the murders of Kathie Reyne Snoozy, Debra Gaye Furlong and Kathy Bilek in San Jose and Saratoga, another cryptogram was mailed from Fairfield to the San Francisco Chronicle containing 148 characters. It too was effectively delivering a contemporary message, again claiming that the person (Karl Francis Werner) being 'interviewed' was an imposter and fraud, stating "Tis the Zodiac Speacking. Why can't you stop me. I can't stop killing. Stop listening t(o) phonys". The 340 cipher was unbroken in 1971, yet the author of another contemporary enciphered message was again claiming that the person in the spotlight was a "phony". The only difference this time was the Zodiac Killer was the "phony", falsely attempting to wrestle back the murder victims of Snoozy & Furlong on August 3rd 1969, that he had claimed in the Dripping Pen card mailed on November 8th 1969, with his addition of "Aug" in his chronological victim count of seven. He would further compound matters by adding the April 11th 1971 murder of Kathy Bilek to this list, when on July 13th 1971 he claimed her murder in the Monticello card by stating "In The Woods Dies April".

This should allay any doubts as to the authenticity of this communication, especially when you consider that the Monticello card "shought victims 21" just like the written message accompanying the 148 character cipher - and both were withheld from the newspapers.

The 340 cipher also went a long way to verifying the 38 character code, mailed from Fairfield on December 7th 1969, because both cryptograms isolated the word "death" at the end of each message. The person who created the Z38 deliberately separated the prominent ZO∆AIKꞮ+ characters on the bottom line of the 340 cipher, into AIKꞮ+ on the bottom line of the 38 character code. thereby manufacturing the word "death". Druzer, a valued contributor to both main Zodiac forums, pointed out the same thing, stating  "The most curious/compelling feats are that the author isolated actual words, most notably death, and that he refrained from copying Zodaik, which would certainly be expected of a hoaxer".  

The 340 cipher did indeed harbor a banal and relatively uninteresting message after a long 51 year wait, but it can be argued that the solving of the message contained within it, may have handed us two more confirmed Zodiac communications to examine, offering fresh insights into an investigation often blighted by stagnation. The Z38 can be connected to the 340 cipher through two notable portions of each code, The words IRON and DEATH can be found in both, before any period 19 shift is applied. If these two enciphered cryptograms are connected by beginning and end, then why should the middle section of the Z38 be any different. The Z38 and Z340 could very well be have a much bigger relationship, yet to be unearthed.

The first two episodes of Zodiac Speaking are available by clicking the image below. This begins the Zodiac story at Lake Herman Road on December 20th 1968 and Blue Rock Springs on July 4th 1969.

Renowned Zodiac investigator Michael Morford (USA) is the creator of the ZodiacKiller.Net website and producer of the hugely successful Criminology podcast along with co-host Michael Ferguson (featuring a vast array of true crime episodes). They have also co-authored two books entitled The Case of the Zodiac Killer and The Case of the Golden State Killer. Starting on March 13th 2021, Michael Morford and I (Richard Grinell) have formed a transatlantic partnership to produce a new series of Zodiac Killer podcasts that strives to break new ground.

Under the title of Zodiac Speaking, the first two episodes will feature the Lake Herman Road murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen on December 20th 1968, followed by the Blue Rock Springs Park attack on Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau in the early minutes of July 5th 1969, which will be released simultaneously to begin the story. Every two weeks thereafter (which may change), the entire Zodiac story will be covered chronologically in depth, delving deeper into the crimes, communications and suspects than ever before. Each episode will not be constrained to a routine retelling of events, but feature new and challenging questions surrounding the Zodiac case which have never been examined and discussed before in any other podcast. The first section of each podcast will be a scripted overview of each topic, accompanied by ideas that challenge the usual narrative and raise new questions, while the second section will be an unscripted conversation between Michael Morford and myself.

We hope to create a minimum of 50 podcasts as an initial projection, with running times estimated at 45 minutes to over an hour for certain episodes, although no time limit will be adopted. Anybody new to the case will get the basic details of the case as an introduction, but each episode won't be limited to the usual story already known by many seasoned researchers and sleuths. The further we travel through the series, the deeper we will dive. Michael Morford will bring his extensive knowledge of the Zodiac case into this series, whereas I will be taking much of what has been discovered on this website into audio form and a wider audience not familiar with the topics I have covered, attempting to question many of the pervading narratives of the Zodiac story that have routinely been accepted as true over the last 52 years. I hope you will join us on this journey, beginning on March 13th 2021.

This is the image supplied to us by the Zodiac Killer on the Phillips 66 Mount Diablo map on June 26th 1970. By placing the numbers 0, 3, 6 and 9 around the crosshairs, akin to a clock face, and instructing us that 0 is to be set to Mag. N, the Zodiac Killer is telling us that we have to travel a certain amount of degrees around the clock face from point zero (set to magnetic north, which was 17 degrees in 1970).

The Zodiac Killer realized that the information he provided in the Button letter was insufficient to discover where he was planning to set the bomb. He also realized it was insufficient to solve the 32-Symbol cipher. That is why he placed two crosshairs in his next communication on July 26th 1970. One of the crosshairs contained the radians value, while the other crosshairs contained the inches value. Zodiac wrote:

"P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians".

It was that simple, all we had to do was place the first crosshairs (shown on the right) over a compass rose. The center of the little black circle with SFPD next to it, landed exactly at 246 degrees, which is 4 radians and magnetic north. That is the answer to the radians value. The target was SFPD.

The second crosshairs had the phrase "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians" written over it. Why would the Zodiac Killer place an arrow pointing before the inches value, if he didn't intend for us to place a number here? The answer could only ever be 5 inches, because using the Phillips 66 map scale of 6.4 miles to the inch, only 5 inches falls over San Francisco (4 & 6 falls into the sea).
The target of SFPD was therefore 4 radians and five inches from Mount Diablo. The target was the Southern Freeway by Ingleside Police Station, explained in greater detail here.

Whatever target the Zodiac Killer chose, it was extremely unlikely his radians and inches values would form whole numbers. This is why he gave us an estimate. On December 3rd 2020, David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke solved the infamous 340 cipher after 51 years. On December 27th 2020, just twenty-four days later, Druzer (a regular contributor to both mainstream Zodiac forums) solved the 32-Symbol cipher. When four radians and five inches was placed into the 32-Symbol code with the word estimate, it married perfectly the three repeating ciphertext characters, giving us the complete solution to the code. The simplicity of this solution is its strength, because it doesn't require an explanation longer than the idea. I have zero doubt his solution is correct, which is why I am satisfied that the search for answers to the 32-Symbol cipher is over.

The Zodiac Killer mailed the Little List letter on July 26th 1970 setting out his search for "society offenders", but this lengthy communication was withheld from publication in the newspapers until October 12th 1970. Despite a comprehensive article in the San Francisco Chronicle on September 26th 1970 featuring the disappearance of Donna Lass from Lake Tahoe on September 6th 1970, the Zodiac Killer never raised his victim total of 13 from July 26th 1970 to October 5th 1970, when the 13-Hole postcard arrived. He never previously needed any prompting to falsely inflate his victim total in previous communications, yet a month after the abduction and likely murder of Donna Lass from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino, the Zodiac Killer kept his victim total static, suggesting at this juncture he was not claiming the young nurse as victim 14. That is, because he never murdered her. Besides, he would later retrospectively claim he had sought her as victim 12 in the March 22nd 1971 Pines card, while she was still present in San Francisco and working at the Letterman General Hospital by the Presidio.

Donna Lass would have been working as a nurse in the Presidio park in the relevant time period for her to be sought as victim 12. Bearing in mind that the Zodiac Killer was last seen entering the Presidio park after the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969, he knew that by retrospectively claiming he had targetted Donna Lass in San Francisco before her eventual disappearance, it would carry more weight to his suggested involvement in her demise through the Pines card.

The punched hole in the top right corner of the Pines card was never a hint towards her burial location, because the Zodiac Killer had no idea where her body was located. The vague and cryptic phrases pasted on the Pines card were just designed to identify the name of Donna. When the "Sierra Club" was aligned over the Sierra Club of Clair Tappaan Lodge, the punched hole landed over the "Donner" of the Donner Memorial State Park. This was shown to be likely true when a similar pasted card, dubbed the Monticello card, arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle on July 13th 1971, again hinting at the identity of a murdered woman, that of Kathy Bilek. This time, the author pasted "Woods", "April" and "near Monticello" as a clue to her name. However, on this occasion, the sender would actually direct us to a burial site.

Buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose was the resting place of Kathie Snoozy, claimed as a victim by the Zodiac Killer in the Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969. She was the namesake of Kathy Bilek, who along with Debra Furlong, were all victims of the real murderer, Karl Francis Werner. The Monticello card followed the exact pattern of the Pines card, in which the Zodiac Killer retrospectively claimed the April 11th 1971 murder of Kathy Bilek in the Villa Montalvo woods of Saratoga, by pasting "shought victim 21" on the card. He never murdered Kathy Bilek and he never murdered Donna Lass. When Karl Francis Werner was credited with two of Zodiac's previously claimed victims, that of Snoozy and Furlong, he doubled down and more, by adding Kathy Bilek retrospectively in a vain attempt to discredit the notion of Werner being responsible for all three. This belated tactic was used to claim Donna Lass as a victim also, with the Zodiac Killer selecting a time period between the 10 victims on April 20th 1970 and 12 victims on June 26th 1970, while Donna Lass was still working at the Letterman General Hospital for a large chunk of this time. He knew this would add credence to his claim of involvement in her disappearance and likely murder, particularly when he noticed the proximity of her profession to the Washington and Cherry intersection in Presidio Heights.

In fact, the Halloween card, Pines card and Monticello card may have all been retrospective communications, with the Halloween card incorporating the murders of Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong into its design by the addition of two skeletons and the 4-TEEN on the card inner. The Zodiac Killer was only claiming four teenagers as murder victims by October 27th 1970, that of David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen, Debra Furlong and Kathie Snoozy. We know that the Zodiac Killer wasn't responsible for the three victims eventually attributed to Karl Francis Werner, despite him valiantly trying to retrospectively claim all three on numerous occasions. Therefore, we should place little credence to his suggestion of involvement in the untimely disappearance of Donna Lass through the Pines card, especially when he had every chance to elevate his victim total on October 5th 1970. This should give you pause for thought when the Zodiac Killer retrospectively inferred his involvement in Riverside on March 13th 1971, four and a half years after the fact.