The Zodiac Killer had a long memory when constructing a communication, often citing newspaper headlines and the content within them from many months and years earlier. On Saturday, November 1st 1969 the Vallejo Times-Herald ran an article entitled You Couldn't Tell It Was Halloween, expressing surprise that the Zodiac Killer had not written or made an appearance during the Halloween festivities, writing "He made no threats - in fact, he did not even communicate to police departments in the Bay Area about any plans he may be developing for Halloween. Nevertheless, parents and youngsters alike were on the extremely cautious side". Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz warned it could be a very dangerous time for youngsters to be on the streets.

Whether the October 28th 1987 Zodiac letter was just a product of fortuitous language, or whether the Zodiac Killer religiously kept a scrapbook of newspaper articles about himself, is unknown. But this letter stated "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". Regardless of this distant future communication, the following Halloween after the November 1st 1969 article was published, the Zodiac Killer mailed the October 27th 1970 Halloween card to Paul Avery, referring to teenagers through the use of the word "TEEN". He also failed to use his pseudonym, and supplied us for the first time with the character "Z" (twice) as his identity, by way of a greeting card suggesting he was going to clue us in on his name, beginning "I feel it in my bones, you ache to know my name, and so I'll clue you in." The answer once the card was opened was "BOO", emblazoned in prominence. The strange symbolism in the card, in accompaniment to the letter "Z", was not only placed within the card, but positioned on the return address side of the envelope. Was this used to indicate his identity, as it may have been on the 408th plaintext character of the July 31st 1969 cryptogram.     

Two weeks prior to the November 1st 1969 newspaper article, on October 15th 1969, another article ran in the Los Angeles Times entitled Identity In Code? Zodiac Killer-Chilling Portrait Of Madness. The whole premise of the article was analyzing and ruminating on the identity of the Zodiac Killer, stating  "He could be old Mrs. So-and-So's boy, who never says boo and still lives at home. Or that batchelor that keeps to himself and never seems to have any fun". As a response to his name, one year later he would say "BOO" in the Halloween card. The article went on to examine the July 31st 1969 letters and cryptograms, along with the unsolved 18 characters at the foot of the 408 cipher, pondering whether "his name, or some other vital clue was written in the cryptogram". Did he finally give us the vital clue to the identity in the 408 cipher, when he used the character "Z" in the Halloween card for the very first time? See The Missing Line in the 408 Cipher. 

​It could be argued that the Zodiac Killer deliberately introduced himself as the "murderer" and "killer" in his July 31st 1969 letters to withhold his identity for the 408 character cryptogram. Possibly the identity of "Z", to which he would expand upon a few days later, when he introduced his now infamous "This is the Zodiac speaking" phrase. Maybe there were only 17 redundant ciphertext characters at the foot of the 408 cipher?   
​

The rape and murder of 9-year-old Marise Ann Chiverella on March 8th 1964 in Hazleton, Pennsylvania was finally solved in 2022, when her killer was identified as James Paul Forte using semen stains from the jacket of the young girl. Forte, 22 years of age at the time of the murder, was a bartender in the area, who abducted the young girl as she made her way to school with canned goods for her teacher, who subsequently dumped her lifeless body in a coal-mining pit. This crime, solved by genetic genealogy, predated the case of Nancy Bennallack, but by no means is the oldest case solved using this crime-fighting DNA tool as the Patricia Kalitzke and Duane Bogle double murder case in 1956 showed.

The murder of 28-year-old court reporter Nancy Bennallack on October 25/26th 1970 was recently solved using genetic genealogy, identifying Richard John Davis who lived in the same apartment complex, as her killer. Stabbed more than 30 times and nearly decapitated, it is a reasonable assumption that Davis realized Nancy Bennallack's fiance had left her apartment that night at 11:30pm and noticed that she had left her second story balcony window open, which he accessed by scaling from beneath. Genetic genealogy was only possible in this case because investigators realized that a trail of blood from Nancy Bennallack's apartment to the parking lot, where it ended, had a strong possibility of being secreted by her murderer. A similar trail of blood was mentioned by investigators in the case of Cheri Jo Bates, that bridged the body and Terracina Drive in Riverside, and was noticed by responding officers on October 31st 1966. A blood trail distance of approximately 100 feet, unlikely to have been deposited by a dripping knife measuring 3 1/2 inches long and half an inch wide. The blood typing of Cheri Jo Bates detailed at autopsy of AB RhD positive is rare, accounting for only 3.4% of the American population. If this blood trail had been sampled and tested (as it should have been), then not only would it have been easy to determine whether the blood was shed by the killer or Cheri Jo Bates, but we would have ample material (if stored correctly) to apply genetic genealogy to this case as well.   

Richard John Davis and Nancy Bennallack may have crossed paths many times, as they were both resident at the Tahitian apartment complex at 1830 Bell Street in Sacramento. When Richard John Davis became fixated on Nancy Bennallack is unknown, but they would have shared a communal pool had either of them chosen to use it. Why Davis chose to attack Nancy is also unknown, but it doesn't require great speculation that a sexual motive was the likely driver that night. His choice of placing masking tape over his fingertips clearly indicated this was a premeditated attack requiring some forethought. The idea that Davis may have set his sights on Miss Bennallack possibly days or weeks in advance of the crime, with some preparation, along with the observable blood trail ending in the parking lot of the Tahitian apartment complex, is not incongruent to the attack on Judith Hakari approximately 7 1/2 months earlier. If Davis set his sights on Bennallack, he could have set his sights on Hakari, who lived at the 1740 Markston Road apartments. The communal pool at the Markston apartments sits just 760 feet from the communal pool at the Tahitian apartments.

On March 7th 1970, Judith Hakari (23) left her job at the Sutter Memorial Hospital at 11;30pm, likely arriving in her Mercury Cougar at the parking lot of the Markston apartments at 11:45pm, from where she was immediately abducted. This may be the same time that Richard John Davis began his attack on Nancy Bennallack, shortly after her fiance left the second floor apartment on October 25th 1970. The walk for Judith Hakari from her vehicle to the door of her Markston Road apartment was a matter of seconds, so the likelihood of a random killer just happening upon the young 23-year-old in this small window of time is unlikely. This is further negated because her Mercury Cougar interior was scattered with torn strips of Cannon-brand towel, strongly suggestive of an abduction with premeditation and a second vehicle.

​The idea that a pretty 23-year-old nurse traveling to and from Sutter Memorial Hospital at set times, could become the target of a pre-planned abduction by a perpetrator or perpetrators, who ruminated in the days or weeks before the abduction, is not without merit. One individual (or multiple) fixating on Judith Hakari, just like Richard John Davis may have in the case of Nancy Bennallack is a reasonable hypothesis. His original intention could have been the abduction (and possibly torture) of Nancy Bennallack, before something changed the dynamics of that crime (possibly his injury). The fact that his blood trail ceased in the parking lot and not his front door, could suggest a vehicle was waiting in the parking lot of the Tahitian apartment compex, with or without accomplices. It is perfectly conceivable that the actions of Nancy Bennallack prevented her from being abducted to a second location, that ultimately befell Judith Hakari several months earlier. 

PART ONE   

The final Zodiac Speaking podcast for the foreseeable future will be released this Saturday, August 20th 2022, with a running time of exactly 2 hours 18 minutes. Michael Morford and I tried our best at answering twenty-four questions sent in to us from various social media platforms, so we thank all those who contributed this time round. We have thoroughly enjoyed producing 36 podcasts to date, which we hope have pushed the boundaries just a little further regarding the Bay Area murderer, his crimes, and the many confirmed and unconfirmed communications mailed to the newspapers and police. If any new and interesting developments occur in the Zodiac case in the near future, or material becomes available to generate a second series of podcasts, we will regroup for another in-depth look at the Zodiac case.

​That just leaves us both to thank everybody who has tuned in over the last eighteen months and given their support to the podcast. Take care, Richard. 

On Saturday, March 7th 1970 at approximately 11:30pm, registered nurse Judith Ann Hakari left the Sutter Memorial Hospital at the end of her shift for the short 10 to 15 minute drive back to her apartment at 1740 Markston Road in Sacramento. The young 23-year-old woman had arranged to meet up with her fiance, Raymond Willis (24) of 5425 San Francisco Boulevard, who was anticipating her arrival at around 11:45pm. According to Raymond Willis, he had waited for Judith until 1:45am but became concerned when she didn't show up, venturing out into the parking lot of the Markston apartments to see if her vehicle was present. Upon seeing her car in its usual parking spot he understandably became concerned and rang the sheriff's office to report her missing. Her Mercury Cougar showed signs of foul play, with the passenger door open, her ignition keys on the floorboard, with buttons and ripped strips of Cannon-brand towel scattered inside the vehicle. First impressions seemed to indicate Judith Hakari, wearing her nurses uniform and a blue coat with white polka dots, had been forcibly removed from her Mercury Cougar as she arrived at the parking lot by one or more assailants. An immediate search of local fields turned up nothing. 

For her father, Wilho Hakari of 4532 Sycamore Drive, Carmichael, the next few days were a tortuous affair, remarking that "This is hellish, just sitting here and not knowing and not being able to do something. She knows wherever she may be and no matter what happens, she is loved". The mother of Judith stated "Please, I beg of you, whomever has taken my child, in some anonymous way contact authorities so we can find her. We just want to bring her home to take care of her".

​Investigators immediately issued a one thousand dollar reward to anybody with information on her whereabouts, but as the days turned into weeks, hopes of finding the 5'2", 118 lbs, brunette alive started to fade away. These hopes were completely dashed when on April 25th 1970, just seven weeks after her abduction, a grisly discovery was made by Leonard Theis (26) and his girlfriend Susan Reed (19) while visiting old mine shafts alongside the extremely rural Ponderosa Way in Weimar, who noticed a knee protruding from the earth and immediately reported their finding to police. Leonard Theis stated "We had spent the day hiking around the American River canyon country, panning gold and looking for places to fish. We had gone back to my car on a dirt road off Ponderosa Way in Weimar, and were going to leave when I remembered, from once before when I was in the area, a small mine and an old cabin. I told Susan 'Let go back and look at the gold mine'. We saw a knee protruding from the dirt between the cabin and the mine, a shaft which goes about five feet into a slope". Leonard Theis described the grave as very crude, as though somebody had just thrown dirt over the body and tamped it down a little. He added "There are all kinds of places near where a grave could have been hidden better than that". Sheriff-Coroner William A. Scott described the grave as approximately four feet long by two feet wide and 24 inches deep. William Scott stated that "she was the victim of one of the most godawful assaults I've ever investigated". 

After an examination of the body, pathologist Dr. Donald Jones unearthed the gruesome findings of a cruel death. Judith Hakari had been so savagely beaten, her nose had been reduced to a pulp, her jaw had been broken in several places, some teeth had been knocked out, and she had been strangled by her own stocking causing a fractured hyoid bone. She had also been sexually attacked (possibly raped), with the perpetrator/s placing her underwear in the grave beneath her body, which was still dressed in her nurse's uniform, partially wrapped in a canvas bag (manufactured in Sacramento for the San Juan Unified School District). Although she was still wearing a diamond ring, one of Judith Hakari's shoes was missing, along with her nurse's watch and purse. Despite an extensive examination of the gravesite alongside Ponderosa Way, Lieutenant Arthur Ables, co-ordinating the investigation, and Sheriff's Inspectors William Ravenscroft and Edward Reynolds, failed to uncover any further clues to crack the case.

Eleven days after Judith Hakari's body was found, on May 6th 1970, it was revealed that Placer and Sacramento County officers were searching for three men with respect to the murder, after the landowner of the site where Judith Hakari was buried came forward to reveal his sighting of three men digging at that location. He told police that three well-dressed men had parked their sedan in that area with the trunk open. When he approached them and asked what they were doing, they responded by claiming they were digging for antique glass bottles, told him not to touch the car and closed the trunk lid as he got closer. He described one of the young men in his late twenties, 6'0" tall, slender to medium build, with dark brown hair, brown eyes and an olive complexion. The other two suspects were also described as aged in their late 20s, with all three wearing shirts and slacks. The landowner relayed to police he saw the three men digging the grave six days after Judith Hakari's abduction (March 13th 1970). Investigators surmised that Judith Hakari may have suffered days of abuse and torture before finally being killed and buried 677 feet from Ponderosa Way, 48 miles from the Markston apartments where she was abducted from. Investigators wisely concluded that one or more of the men must have been familiar with area Judith Hakari was buried.

The year 1970 ended with the hunt still ongoing in the murders of 23-year-old Judith Hakari (March 7th to March 13th), 28-year-old Nancy Bennallack (October 25th or 26th) and 22-year-old Carol Beth Hilburn (November 14th), described in a newspaper article entitled Year Ends, But Hunt For Killers Of Three Capital Women Goes On. The newspaper made comparisons between the brutal deaths of the three women, with Carol Beth Hilburn and Judith Hakari receiving a brutal beating to their face, with Nancy Bennallack suffering at least 30 stab wounds and near decapitation. Wilho Hakari described the murderer of his daughter as "an animal, not a human", with detectives contemplating whether one or more persons were involved in each murder. The newspaper noted the close proximity of the Markston apartments parking lot (where Judith Hakari was abducted) to the residence of Nancy Bennallack, who lived at the Tahitian apartments on 1830 Bell Street. The two locations are about 850 feet apart. The Hakari and Bennallack murders were both described as extremely brutal, in which both of their faces were attacked, both were engaged to be married, both were attacked at weekends and both women were employed in professional fields. Although Lieutenant Jerry Saulter was quick to caution in drawing the conclusion these two murders were connected  Below is an older photograph of Richard John Davis, recently identified as the murderer of Nancy Bennallack. A younger photograph would be advantageous in making a comparison to the sketches created in the Bennallack and Hakari slayings. Richard John Davis must be considered a potential suspect in the murder of Judith Hakari. 

Nancy Bennallack (28) was murdered either late on October 25th 1970, or the early morning hours of the 26th. Her fiance, Farris Salamy, had left Nancy Bennallack's apartment at 11:30pm, so if Richard John Davis (who lived in the same apartment complex) had noticed she was now alone, he may have struck shortly after this time, either acting alone or in accompaniment with others. It is believed he made access to her apartment by climbing up to the second story balcony and entering through the sliding doors, which Nancy Bennallack had unfortunately left open for her cat to come and go. Investigators noted a blood trail from her apartment to the parking lot, where it ended - which led them to believe that the suspect may have made his getaway by vehicle.

​A trail of the assailant's blood (believed to be from his hand or arm) was sampled and stored, and was later instrumental in identifying Richard John Davis through genetic genealogy in 2022. Richard John Davis (born in 1943) was 27 years of age at the time of the murder (and according to his roommate lived at the Tahitian apartments until 1974 or 1975). In addition to the comparisons noted above, both the murder of Nancy Bennallack and abduction of Judith Hakari may have occurred just before midnight at the weekend, with the trail going cold in each case in the parking lot of two apartments, separated by 850 feet in distance. One has to ask the question, why did the blood trail end in the parking lot of the Tahitian apartments and not the home of Richard John Davis? There could of course be many reasons - but maybe it was deliberately engineered to give the impression of a getaway vehicle, and a murderer not resident in the Tahitian apartments or close vicinity? Or was a vehicle parked here with the original intention of abducting Nancy Bennallack from her apartment, similar to the abduction of Judith Hakari? If Davis had an accomplice (such as a lying roommate, or friend), it may have been wise to use a vehicle and leave the area to dispose of the weapon and misdirect police away from the apartment complex.

​It will be interesting to discover more details on the characteristics and life of Richard John Davis in the coming months, and see if he can pass as a man of 6'0" tall, slender to medium build, with dark brown/black hair, brown eyes and an olive complexion, driving a sedan. We already know he was the correct age range when the landowner spotted the three individuals on March 13th 1970. Additonally, did he, his roommate, or any of his friends have any connection to the San Juan Unified School District canvas bag found in the gravesite of Judith Hakari? Time will tell. 

PART TWO

A letter on school notebook paper was mailed from Montclair, San Bernardino County, California on November 10th 1969 (one day after the Bus Bomb letter) to an individual in Clarinda, Iowa. The letter read "Mr. (redacted) your next The Zodiac". The text was created by using scotch tape to affix cuttings from a magazine. Two weeks earlier (estimated: October 27th 1969) a similar letter bearing the same message had been mailed (from where to where is unknown).

​These communications are extremely similar to a communication mailed from Berkeley, California on October 17th 1970, which also used cuttings to convey the message, was addressed to Dr. Edw. C. Adams, and threatened "Adams You Are Next Zodiac". Three weeks prior to the November 10th 1969 mailing (October 21st 1969), a note stating "You're Next - Z" was thrown from an automobile at an 8-year-old girl in Anderson Valley in Ukiah, California. A few months before the Edward C. Adams communication, somebody rang a woman, again in Ukiah, threatening "This is Zodiac - you're next".  This phraseology would be used five times from people claiming to be Zodiac (or Zodiac) from October 21st 1969 to October 17th 1970. 

San Bernardino was recently the focus of the Riverside Police Homicide Cold Case Unit, when they reported that in 2016 investigators received a communication from an individual in San Bernardino who claimed that he had authored the three Bates letters on April 30th 1967, stating he was a troubled teenager at the time he sent the trinity of malicious handwritten letters to the Riverside Police Department, Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper and Joseph Bates. In 2020, four years after the admission in the 2016 communication, the Homicide Cold Case Unit and the FBI Los Angeles Investigative Genealogy Team submitted the stamp for additional DNA analysis and subsequent interviews were conducted. The individual linked to the DNA evidence on the (2016) stamp admitted to writing the (2016) letter and sending it to the Riverside Police Department. The Riverside Police Department further stated that "Additional information was developed regarding a separate set of letters sent to Northern California police agencies. The author claimed to be the "Zodiac Killer", but the author ultimately admitted to sending the letters to keep the investigation going". Montclair, San Bernardino is 19 miles west of Terracina Drive on the Riverside campus. The three Bates letters on April 30th 1967 were also composed using holed notebook paper, just like the November 10th 1969 communication mailed from San Bernardino. 

The communication on November 10th 1969 from Montclair (with the one mailed circa October 27th 1969), and the one mailed on October 17th 1970 from Berkeley, were both addressed to an individual person, both used cuttings from publications and both carried a near identical threat - and could very well be the same author (as all were unreleased to the public). The two communications using cuttings in October and November 1969 predated all other correspondences of this nature, including the two horoscope mailings on December 10th and 11th 1969, the 13-Hole postcard on October 5th 1970, the Berkeley mailing on October 17th 1970, the March 22nd 1971 Pines card and the July 13th 1971 Monticello card.. The horoscope mailings in December 1969 were sourced from a November edition of a magazine, so where did the author of the November 10th 1969 mailing source his material? Whether the author was the Zodiac Killer in any of the "Your Next" or "You Are Next" communications however, is open to question.  

"Edward C. Adams spent most of his life in the Bay Area where he attended the University of California Berkeley for his undergraduate work and Stanford University for his medical degree. His residency in psychiatry was received at the Menninger Clinic, Topeka, KS. During the Korean War he was an instructor in the Medical Field Service at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, TX. After retiring from an active practice in Psychiatry he devoted his energies to travel, fly fishing, the study of poetry and the enjoyment of his family and many friends. During the time spent at his Carmel home he volunteered as a docent at the Robinson Jeffers Foundation. He was a member of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Society and an active supporter of many environmental groups". The November 10th 1969 communication was mailed to somebody in Clarinda, Iowa, located 121 miles (by crow) from where Edward C. Adams studied psychiatry at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas.

Thanks to Cragle for sending me this document.

The following San Francisco Police Department files on the Robert Salem murder have been kindly sent to me by Jarett Kobek, author of many books, including Motor Spirit:The Long Hunt for the Zodiac and How to Find Zodiac. The latter book examines a man named Paul Doerr with respect to the infamous Zodiac murders in Northern California through 1968 and 1969, and provides a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of this individual through his literary work and life. I have placed a few of the police files below, showing much clearer imagery of Robert Salem's 745 Stevenson Street apartment and the bloody writing at the crime scene, which read Satan Saves and Zodiac. I have also added a PDF file containing many more photographs from the San Francisco Police Department. I would like to thank Jarett Kobek for supplying me this additional information regarding the tragic case of Robert Salem. Link to Google Drive for all files.

Some people have considered that the Zodiac Killer may have worked at the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper offices, with inside information pertaining to the investigation days or weeks before its release to the general public. The Zodiac Killer could have (and probably did) mail in excess of twenty communications before October 27th 1970, but not one single communication expressed the Zodiac pseudonym in the form of the letter "Z". This would change on October 27th 1970, when for the first time the Zodiac Killer used the letter "Z" within his Halloween card mailed to Paul Avery. This departure from the norm came just fifteen days before a San Francisco Chronicle article published by Paul Avery on November 12th 1970, which wrote that "the printing on the 'Bates Had to Die' envelopes seemed to match exactly the desk top poem writing. And perhaps the most meaningful discovery was that two of the three notes had been signed with a "Z".

​The Halloween card was mailed by the Zodiac Killer on October 27th 1970, it was addressed to Paul Avery, it referenced Halloween and it contained the letter "Z". Fifteen days later, Paul Avery is reporting on Cheri Jo Bates being found murdered on Halloween morning, with the Bates' letters signed with a letter "Z". Paul Avery's article was likely triggered by somebody (Phil Sins) noticing similarities between the Halloween card and the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, but what were the chances of somebody recognizing something in the Halloween card in respect to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, pursuing this angle, and subsequently finding a "Z" like signature that mirrored the Halloween card? (used for the first time by Zodiac). What are the chances of Zodiac marrying Halloween and the pseudonym "Z" together, which mirrored the discovery of a murder victim on Halloween morning, which later had accompanying letters signed with a "Z" style signature? The Halloween card coming just three months after the Zodiac Killer mirrored the Cheri Jo Bates Confession letter of "She squirmed and shook as I choaked her, and her lips twiched. She let out a scream once": when he wrote in the Little List letter on July 26th 1970 "Some I shall tie over ant hills and watch them scream + twich and sqwirm".

In a time span of just three months, the Zodiac Killer had combined scream, twich, squirm, Halloween and a "Z" signature, possibly merging crucial details from the Confession and Bates letters together. Four of these details were already available in the January 1969 edition of the Inside Detective magazine, but the "Z" signature was not. If the signature on two of the Bates' letters was really meant to be the letter "Z", then the fact that the Zodiac Killer broke with tradition and used the pseudonym "Z" within a Halloween card for the first time, could be argued as carrying some significance. 

On October 21st 1969 the San Francisco Chronicle released an article entitled Fear Rides the Yellow Bus, in which Fred Sowash, the transportation director of Napa Valley Unified School District stated he had been informed that somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer had telephoned a threat on October 15th 1969 to kill schoolchildren in Santa Rosa by placing bombs on the buses. This meant that this person was targeting schoolchildren and school buses at least two days before the Zodiac Killer's threat to "wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out" was released in the San Francisco Chronicle on October 17th 1969. It is virtually inconceivable that a random person pretending to be the Zodiac Killer could have foreshadowed the real Zodiac Killer and just happened to pre-empt his threat on schoolchildren by sheer luck. The phone caller to Santa Rosa on October 15th 1969 (or slightly before) was almost certainly the Zodiac Killer. This can be backed up by a further incident on October 17th 1969.

A female school bus driver was taking schoolchildren to the Yulupa Elementary School on the morning of October 17th 1969, when she reported that sound of gunfire beside the school bus, stating "As I came around this bend I heard a loud shot from the left hand side of the bus. The children heard it too. Now I don't know if anything struck the bus. We can't find anything that struck the bus". Law enforcement, as usual, were skeptical, pointing out that there was no physical evidence that a shot was fired at the bus. The KRON news footage stated that law enforcement were expecting more reports of this kind based upon the Zodiac Killer's latest letter regarding the murder of Paul Stine. The newspaper report in the San Francisco Chronicle about the Santa Rosa bombing threat on school buses wasn't released until October 21st 1969, so a school bus driver reporting shots heard alongside her school bus in Santa Rosa four days earlier, should be considered of some significance. Also, this bus driver was transporting schoolchildren on the morning of October 17th 1969 - the same morning that the Zodiac Killer's threat on schoolchildren was released in the newspaper.

​So, if the Santa Rosa school bus shooter wasn't the Zodiac Killer, we would have to believe a random individual bought the San Francisco Chronicle on the morning of the 17th, read about the "picking off kiddies as they came bouncing out" of a school bus, and almost immediately positioned themselves on a Santa Rosa street or road, from where they started shooting at a school bus (assuming the bus driver's claims are accurate). Were law enforcement suggesting that this elderly woman school bus driver bought and read the Chronicle newspaper before collecting the schoolchildren that morning and just invented the story to mirror Zodiac's threat? While this is unlikely but possible, she could have had no knowledge of the Zodiac Killer's phone call to Santa Rosa threatening school buses and schoolchildren on October 15th 1969. Bearing in mind (in the relevant timeframe) that this currently is the only reported shooting with respect to a school bus that we know of, it seems unusual that it should somewhat mirror the threat two days earlier in the same location. Unfortunately, law enforcement regularly dismissed things as hoaxes, as they did with the Oklahoma radio station recording of a man claiming to be the Zodiac Killer on December 7th 1969. Passing things off as hoaxes seems a tried and trusted method of doing absolutely no work. 

Another threat using bombs in Santa Rosa would again be reported in the newspapers, when somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer threatened a K-Mart store on two occasions on May 8th 1970, just ten days after the Zodiac Killer promised to have his "blast" when mailing the Dragon card to the San Francisco Chronicle on April 28th 1970. 

This lends greater credence to the claim by Robert Graysmith in his "Zodiac" book that "A man identifying himself as Zodiac had made a Santa Rosa Bomb threat exactly a year earlier". In other words, Graysmith claimed that on May 8th 1969 (before the Zodiac pseudonym was known) somebody had aimed another bomb threat at Santa Rosa. This possible threat encompassing Zodiac, telephoned bomb threats and Santa Rosa would come four months before the October 15th 1969 telephone call encompassing Zodiac, bombs and Santa Rosa. An October 15th 1969 telephone call to Santa Rosa threatening schoolchildren on school buses, that was made two days in advance of the Zodiac Killer's threat to pick off kiddies as they came bouncing off the school bus, which wasn't currently known to the public when the October 15th call was made.

If Graysmith was correct about somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer on May 8th 1969, this K-Mart bomb threat (or threat to another entity in Santa Rosa) would have come just over one month after the last major newspaper article about the Lake Herman Road murders (March 30th 1969). This Sunday Times-Herald article read "The horrifying crime may very well be the most celebrated murder mystery currently under investigation in California, and Lunblad has received aid and offers of it from a score of law enforcement agencies in the state. Those which have given him particularly large measures of support include the Vallejo Police Department, his own sheriff's department, the Benicia Police Department, the Napa and Sanoma County sheriff's departments, and the Fairfield Police Department".  All these police departments would become the focus of the Zodiac Killer's murders and threats in the following months. The county seat and largest city in Sanoma County is Santa Rosa, the focus of the K-Mart bomb threat by somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer on May 8th 1969. Vallejo and Napa County both saw the wrath of Zodiac when he attacked at Blue Rock Springs and Lake Berryessa, with the two Fairfield letters in December threatening the promise of further attacks. Every police department mentioned in this newspaper article as helping Sergeant Les Lunblad would receive the attention of the Zodiac Killer.       

The "Good Citizen" letter mailed on October 7th 1969 by a possible Zodiac Killer read "On occasion, while thinking of the code letters, the pencil wrote: Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX". The Haslett Warehouse at 680 Beach Street has been identified in recent articles as the common workplace of Robert Salem, Carl John Welz and Jerry Hatcher. However, 680 Beach Street wasn't 56 Beach Street, so more work was needed. Then it was discovered by Cragle that the Haslett Warehouse Company operated a state refrigeration terminal at pier 56 in China basin. This may have been the meaning behind the cryptic message above. The Haslett Warehouse was situated on Beach Street, San Francisco, and operated from pier 56. Cragle conjectured that the seven X's may be Haslett. 

To understand the full story, please read  Robert Salem-The Complete Story and The Spirit of Zodiac  

China Basin is a neighborhood built on landfill along the San Francisco Bay. It lies north of Mission Creek and the Mission Bay neighborhood, and includes Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, numerous restaurants, and the Caltrain railroad station. It borders on the South-of-Market (SOMA) neighborhood to the northwest and the South Beach neighborhood to the north. The term China Basin also refers to the body of water from which the neighborhood takes its name. This inlet where Mission Creek flows into the bay, home to a number of houseboats, was once an active ​industrial waterfront, though in recent decades the shore has been developed with residential condominiums.

The state refrigeration terminal at pier 56, operated by the Haslett Warehouse Co. was situated less than one mile from pier 64, where Paul Stine picked up his last paying fare on October 11th 1969. China basin is just over one mile from the intersection of Mason and Geary streets.

LATEST UPDATE, INCLUDING POLICE REPORTS & PHOTOGRAPHS   

Recently I have been examining the inspiration behind the "Good Citizen" letter mailed on October 7th 1969, and its possible connection to the murder of Robert Salem at 745 Stevenson Street, San Francisco on April 15th 1970. Cragle, a contributor to both Zodiac forums, found a viable connection to 680 Beach Street through Carl John Welz, Jerry Hatcher and Robert Salem, who all worked at the Haslett Warehouse in 1969. To get up to speed on this unfolding story, please visit Robert Salem-The Complete Story. Cragle has recently contacted me again with even more compelling material to advance this story.

The message in the Good Citizen letter to Sergeant John Lynch read "On occasion, while thinking of the code letters, the pencil wrote: Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX".  Cragle correctly concluded that this form of writing is called automatic writing or psychography, which is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Scientists and skeptics consider automatic writing to be the result of the ideomotor effect and even proponents of automatic writing admit it has been the source of innumerable cases of self-delusion. Automatic writing is not the same thing as free writing. Spirit writing, later called Fuji (planchette writing), has a long tradition in China, where messages from various deities and spirits were received by mediums since the Song dynasty. In the 19th century, messages received through spirit writing led to the foundation of several Chinese salvationist religions. The spread of Chinese cultural techniques, such as printing and painting, introduced the influence of "spirit writing", practiced by Japanese Zen Ōbaku monks, who were said to communicate with an ancient Taoist sage credited with creation of the kung fu system. Parapsychologist William Fletcher Barrett wrote that "automatic messages may take place either by the writer passively holding a pencil on a sheet of paper, or by the planchette, or by a ouija board. In spiritualism, spirits are claimed to take control of the hand of a medium to write messages, letters, and even entire books. Automatic writing can happen in a trance or waking state. Some psychical researchers such as Thomson Jay Hudson have claimed no spirits are involved in automatic writing and the subconscious mind is the explanation. Wikipedia. So, it's pretty apparent the author of the Good Citizen letter was referring to spirit messages received through a planchette or ouija board.

Miss Winifred Moyes practiced this form of mediumship. Here is an excerpt from a Christian spiritualism website: Perhaps only those who were closest in the work could truly judge the remarkable gift of mediumship possessed by Miss Moyes, and the sensitiveness which enabled her to be used by Zodiac. Suffering from ill-health from the age of ten, when she was eventually used as an instrument by Zodiac, her weak physical body was compensated for by an iron will and a determination which forced the body to do the bidding of the Spirit. Such was her state of health that there were many times when Spirit Power alone enabled Zodiac to control his instrument and deliver his message. The strength of Miss Moyes lay in her implicit faith in the Christ power around her. Zodiac's first act on "taking control" was to place his medium under the protection of the Cross on the altar with upstretched arms and using the invocation: "Saviour Christ, into Thy hands I commend the spirit of this Thy child". Miss Moyes dedicated her gift of mediumship entirely to Zodiac's work. How closely she was attuned to the higher vibrations of Zodiac is shown in the perfection of the messages given. They are given in purity, unobstructed by the physical mind. Read the full story. 

The important section, not withstanding the constant reference to "Zodiac", was the following "My sister-in-law used the planchette several times, and we were very disappointed when the message came that she must not go on with it, and that i was to take the messages instead. I protested that the board would not move for me, and the reply came "Try to pencil alone". 

It is clear that the author of the Good Citizen letter when referring to ESP and the pencil writing, was referring to messages received from the afterlife. Cragle pointed out that just six weeks later, on November 21st 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed a communication directed towards Diane Kennedy Pike through the San Jose Police Department, that caused police to instigate 24-hour protection because of the threat on the widow. She had recently lost her husband, James Albert Pike (born February 14, 1913 – died September 3–7, 1969), who 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 connection between the Good Citizen letter and the San Jose letter can now be seen, through spirituality, mediumship, seance and the afterlife. In the words of Cragle: "So let us look at this is relation to the Welz's. Christian Science strongly condemns the idea of spirituality as this is a direct contradiction to their belief system, and we have a couple living in San Francisco responsible for the main publication of the Christian Science faith, being referenced in a communication that "was" made by one of the fundamental practices in spiritualism. I can only interpret this as a direct jibe at Christian Science and their beliefs. Also we have the two correspondences being linked by their theme and the associated work of Winifred Moyes and the "Zodiac" speaking through her. All tying in with Zodiac ideas on the afterlife. Something that is interesting regarding Winifred's "Zodiac" is that the small group of people which formed around her were the Zodiac Circle and their symbol was a cross. "Total control refers to the trance states into which a person goes when they are allowing another soul to pass messages"  

​One month after the letter to Diane Kennedy Pike, the Zodiac Killer wrote a letter to Melvin Belli on December 20th 1969, in which he stated "I cannot reach out for help because of this thing in me wont let me. I am finding it extreamly difficult to hold it in check. I am afraid I will loose control again and take my nineth & possibly tenth victom. Please help me. I am drownding. At the moment the children are safe from the bomb because it is so massive to dig in & the triger mech requires much work to get it adjusted just right. But if I hold back too long from no nine I will loose all controol of my self & set the bomb up. Please help me I can not remain in control for much longer". Was the thing inside of him the spirit of Zodiac, controlling his every move? Or was this what he wanted us to believe?  

If we continue the angle of spiritualism, the afterlife and contacting of the dead, and consider that the April 20th 1970 letter was mailed on the same day the Robert Salem murder story broke in the newspapers, then we can look at the 13 character code beginning with A and ending with M (half the alphabet). The ouija board was split into the two halves of the alphabet and contained the numbers 0 and 8, present in the 13 character code.

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On October 30th 1966, several earwitnesses reported hearing screams between 10:15pm and 10:45pm from the vicinity of the driveway adjacent to Terracina Drive in Riverside. Robert Graysmith wrote in his Zodiac book that: 'A neighbor heard an awful scream between 10:15pm and 10:45pm, and then about two minutes of silence, and finally the sound of an old car starting up. A man returning to the area at 10:30 pm told us he heard two screams then'. Several people in a nearby apartment building heard screams about 10:30pm. It is clear that more than one person heard these screams. If these screams were a product of the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, then it is extremely unlikely the young woman could have left the library at 9:00pm, failed to start her vehicle, and been aided by a good Samaritan who ultimately lured her away and killed her between 9:15pm and 9:45pm in the nearby driveway. Many people will try to sell you this notion by using the daylight savings argument, when the clocks are turned back one hour. In other words, attempting to change an approximate 10:30pm murder into a 9:30pm murder, by claiming people failed to turn their clocks back. 

The clocks were scheduled to be turned back from 2:00am to 1:00am, very early morning, on Sunday, October 30th 1966. This would be 20.5 hours before a 10:30pm murder. Even accepting that most people will likely turn their clocks back when they wake up between, say 7am and 10am on Sunday morning - that still leaves 12.5 to 15.5 hours for the remainder of people to achieve this simple task. So, to believe that every earwitness who reported screams at Riverside failed to turn their clocks back, and made an error by stating 10:30pm rather than 9:30pm, is not realistic. If the screams were Cheri Jo Bates, the murder almost certainly happened at approximately 10:30pm.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Thanks to Cragle and Mike.

ASSOCIATED ARTICLES:
ANCHORS AWEIGH
ROBERT SALEM-A ZODIAC MURDER?
A CONTEMPORARY CODE ON APRIL 20TH 1970
THE ZODIAC KILLER-DRIVEN BY DEVIANCY     
A SATANIC MESSAGE IN CODE? 
THE "SKIN MARKINGS" ON ROBERT SALEM 
​DELIVER UNTO SATAN
MURDER THROUGH THEATRE?

Kenneth Mains, cold case detective, private investigator, former undercover FBI operative and best selling author (to name just a few of his credentials), now runs the extremely popular and burgeoning Youtube channel Unsolved No More, currently standing at 58,000 subscribers as of June 22nd 2022. His Youtube channel features an array of different cases, including the Delphi Murders, Sam Sheppard, The Springfield Three, Ted Bundy, The Starved Rock Murders, The Yoghurt Shop Murders, and many more. Most of you may be familiar with Ken Mains, when he partnered with Sal LaBarbera for the five part docudrama entitled The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer in 2017, which featured the Riverside murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966.

Cheri Josephine Bates (18) was brutally murdered in a dirt driveway adjacent to the Riverside City College library annex by a knife-wielding assailant, who has remained unidentified for nearly 56 years. The murder appeared premeditated, with her prized lime green Volkswagen Beetle found disabled about 325 feet from her body, parked just 90 feet east of the library entrance. Ken Mains is about to release another video, re-examining the many facets of this unexplained and intriguing case, in which justice has remained elusive for far too long. To view his latest Youtube video on Cheri Jo Bates (to be released on Thursday, June 23rd 2022) and the many other cases he has delved into, please click here. To visit the website of Detective Kenneth L. Mains, click the image on the left.

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

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

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

LATEST UPDATE, INCLUDING POLICE REPORTS & PHOTOGRAPHS

ASSOCIATED ARTICLES:
ANCHORS AWEIGH
ROBERT SALEM-A ZODIAC MURDER?
A CONTEMPORARY CODE ON APRIL 20TH 1970
THE ZODIAC KILLER-DRIVEN BY DEVIANCY     
A SATANIC MESSAGE IN CODE? 
THE "SKIN MARKINGS" ON ROBERT SALEM 
​DELIVER UNTO SATAN