Many years ago, Zodiac researchers on Mike Morford's forum unearthed some of the likely sources for the pasted newspaper cuttings on the 13-Hole postcard. Recently Jibberjabber, who once contributed to the Zodiac Tapatalk forum. has been thoroughly trawling the newspapers.com website - and by using keywords related to the remaining snippets of text found on this communication, he has unearthed some fresh information that shows the Zodiac Killer was likely preparing this postcard as early as September 25th 1970 (unless he maintained a stockpile of old newspapers for this very purpose). It has been shown previously on this website that some of the wording pasted on the 13-Hole postcard was an update to his Little List letter mailed on July 26th 1970, which was unreleased to the public at the time the 13-Hole postcard was mailed on October 5th 1970. This strongly indicated that the 13-Hole postcard was a genuine Zodiac communication not claiming the disappearance (and possible murder) of Donna Lass from a South Lake Tahoe casino on September 6th 1970.

Vasa Croe found a significant piece of text from the Smidgens comic strip, reading "The pace isn't any slower! In fact it's just one big sprawling subdivided rat race". The particular example below (found by David Oranchak) is from the Oakland Tribune on September 25th 1970. The Zodiac Killer took eleven consecutive words from this comic strip.

From the San Francisco Examiner on the same date (September 25th 1970), Brubaker then discovered the source of the wording "Some of Them Fought" and "It Was Horrible", contained exclusively in two subheadings in another column entitled "The Wounded Lie in the Hallways". 

Jibberjabber then emailed me a further source from the Oakland Tribune on September 25th 1970, containing "You'll hate me" and "but I've got to tell you" in the same line of text. This shows beyond any reasonable doubt that the Zodiac Killer was predominantly searching newspapers from one date in the calendar, securing "The pace isn't any slower! In fact it's just one big", "Some of Them Fought", "It Was Horrible", "You'll hate me" and "but I've got to tell you" to paste onto his 13-Hole postcard. 

Sent to me by Jibberjabber, the word "thirteenth" was also likely sourced from the Oakland Tribune on September 25th 1970 in an article entitled "Our Failing National Health".

Every pasted (complete) word in the message that isn't inverted can now be accounted for in the 13-Hole postcard, sourced from September 25th 1970 and mailed on October 5th 1970 in the form of a postcard. As of this moment, Jibberjabber is trying to identify the source for the remaining inverted text on the communication. The amount of effort displayed in trawling these newspapers to find the desired text, to not only continue the theme of the publicly unreleased Little List letter, but to deliver a specific message, strongly suggests that this correspondence was not prepared by an idle hoaxer.

THE "PACE" POSTCARD AUTHENTIC 

​Thanks to Jibberjabber for his diligent work in this matter. Cragle, another contributor to the Tapatalk forum, has previously found the same and similar newspaper cuttings related to the 13-Hole postcard. I appreciate their efforts to establish a greater understanding of the Zodiac Killer.

Zodiac Killer investigators and amateur sleuths will often quote "original source documentation" in their research as the most valuable resource in their arsenal. You will see this referenced in many Zodiac books where it is used to validate a suspect or promote a theory in the Zodiac case. One of the more recent books, released by Tom Voigt entitled "Zodiac Killer:Just the Facts", lays out the police reports in a more readable format for people to access this "original source documentation". Although this is a noble endeavor, to supply information contemporary to the Zodiac murders in Northern California, the researchers who read this information will often cherry pick the information that benefits the story they are selling, and ignore the information that doesn't suit their narrative. So, while this "original source documentation" is extremely important to have at our fingertips, it routinely gets bent and twisted out of shape by individuals trying to sell you fictional versions of reality. 

Taking fiction to a completely new level, you can read "Zodiac Killer Solved" by Ray Grant, which is the perfect example of how to completely dismiss certain eyewitness accounts and bolster others, to paint a preconceived picture you have created in your mind. What Ray Grant does in his book, is create a fictional story of multiple "Zodiacs" and cherry pick certain details in the police report that suit his narrative, while ignoring and fabricating other accounts. One such example in his chapter on Lake Herman Road is his account of Robert Connelly after he left the Marshall Ranch, quote "Connley (sic) saw the Faraday Rambler now parked in the Gate #10 turnout, but with no one inside it". While this is true, he accompanies this text with a picture of Robert Connelly and Frank Gasser heading east to Benicia at 11:05pm, with the Rambler positioned on the east bank of the turnout, which is pure fiction based on the two recorded accounts of Robert Connelly in the police report. Ray Grant has wilfully and deliberately left this out of his story about Lake Herman Road to mislead the reader into believing his contrived narrative. However, he is not alone when it comes to deception such as this.   

Robert Connelly in his first statement to police on December 21st 1968 was recorded as "a light colored 1960 Rambler S/W that was parked at the gate. It was parked southwest of where we finally found the car. This discrepancy wasn't noted at first." In his second interview on December 26th 1968 "Connelly insists that the Rambler was parked on the bank. That would be the south side. He did not see any person in the car."

The police sketch on the left clearly depicts the Rambler on the south/west bank. Due to a slightly erroneous compass drawing on the sketch, the Rambler was in fact facing south and parked on the west bank. In his book, Ray Grant deliberately placed the Rambler on the east bank when Robert Connelly passed the turnout at 11:05pm, despite two statements by Connelly to the contrary. That is because he chooses to believe some eyewitnesses over others to manipulate the story he is selling. There are countless other examples throughout his fictional retelling of the Zodiac story.

​The overwhelming majority of Zodiac researchers believe that the Zodiac Killer arrived at the Lake Herman Road turnout on December 20th 1968 and pulled alongside, and to the right of the Rambler, before exiting his vehicle and beginning the attack. While this may be true, it is certainly not the obvious choice based on the eyewitness statements in the police report. The last eyewitness to pass the turnout before two vehicles were spotted in the turnout, was Robert Connely. In other words, the last position we know the Rambler to have been placed in the turnout before Zodiac arrived, was on the west bank facing south. David Faraday could have initially parked on the east bank, relocated to the west bank, before being forced back across the turnout by the arriving Zodiac (the Rambler was detailed in three different positions that night in the police report). Or David Faraday could have wilfully moved his vehicle twice. However, this doesn't change the fact that the Rambler was last spotted alone in the turnout on the west bank before Zodiac arrived. The question therefore, is why was the sighting by Robert Connelly doubted by the police, and why do Zodiac investigators largely ignore the testimony of Robert Connelly, to paint a certain narrative of a Zodiac Killer who arrived at the turnout and pulled immediately to the right side of the Rambler? The answer can be easily explained. They ignore the details in the police report and repeat the story passed down from the many decades before. It is often more comfortable to go with the "argumentum ad populum" (what most people believe), rather than question the narrative we have been conditioned to accept.

Two weeks after the December 20th 1968 murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, in the early morning hours of Friday, January 3rd 1969, Matthew Burrell (46) was shot in his vehicle in the parking lot of a tavern at the intersection of Interstate 80 and Magazine Street. Investigators found his vehicle slammed into an adjoining motel sign, having been blasted in the back and neck by a shotgun through the rear window of his car. They concluded he had either attempted to escape from the approaching killer, or had slumped forward after the attack and accidentally struck the accelerator.

Sheriff's Deputy Russ Butterbach (assigned to the December 20th murders) indicated they were searching for clues to identify any possible link between the two cases. Sergeant Lawrence Kramer pointed out that different weapons were used in the Friday murders on December 20th 1968 and January 3rd 1969, but unbeknownst to him, this was to become a feature in all four of the canonical Zodiac attacks. Three days after the murder, on January 6th 1969, an abandoned foreign vehicle containing shotgun shells was found parked on Columbus Parkway in Vallejo. The registered owner was traced to Berkeley  This location, on Columbus Parkway, would become the setting for the Zodiac Killer's second attack on July 5th 1969, when just after midnight, Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin were shot multiple times in their vehicle in a parking lot at Blue Rock Springs. 

Darlene Ferrin (22) lived at 1300 Virginia Street, Vallejo, and was working as a waitress at Terry's Waffle Shop at the time of her murder, situated on Magazine Street, Vallejo, just off Interstate 80. The Waffle Shop and tavern were in close proximity to one another, on the same street.

I would like to revisit something I've covered previously regarding the Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974 and the "My Name is" letter mailed on April 20th 1970. When the Zodiac Killer designed the Exorcist letter he wrote "signed, yours truley" and then proceeded to paraphrase a verse from Tit-Willow and Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado. One would have thought that placing "signed, yours truley" preceding this verse was a prelude to his identity. When we visit the entirety of this act from The Mikado, it becomes apparent that the next line in the verse following what Zodiac quoted is "Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name is(n't) Willow, titwillow, titwillow".

​In this instance we have a trinity of coincidences, where the Zodiac Killer tempts us with a signature from the verse, from which we can form the sentence of "my name is", that he previously used in his April 20th 1970 letter as an introduction to a mystery 13 symbol code and his name.

The Exorcist letter broke with tradition when he used "Me" instead of his crosshairs as an identity, before giving us his running victim total. Bearing in mind the aforementioned correlation between the Exorcist letter and "My Name is" letter, I couldn't help thinking his identity of "Me" would be found in the 13 symbol code using an extremely simplistic method. There is little doubt that the Zodiac Killer knew a 13 character code could not be solved using conventional techniques because of its length, so very likely created something superficial. The fact that this letter was mailed with an AM postmark on the same day the Robert Salem murder broke in the morning edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, with the Zodiac pseudonym scrawled on the wall of the victim's apartment - likely meant that this letter was prepared in haste. A code created this quickly has a high probability of being solved - a code with one repetitive feature of three circled 8's. Using the shift technique the Zodiac Killer employed in the 340 cipher, solved by David Oranchak (USA), Sam Blake (Australia) and Jarl Van Eycke (Belgium) in 2020, I used a period 8 shift in the code to select new characters 8 places to the right. 

Using a circular shift pattern, the first circled 8 right-shifted to the letter "M", the second circled 8 right-shifted to the letter "E", and the third circled 8 right-shifted to the Zodiac crosshairs, thereby equating the Zodiac Killer's identity to "ME", just as he had done in the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. Both of these correspondences tempted us with a name, both communications can be linked to The Mikado and the "my name is" phrase, and the April 20th 1970 code can easily reproduce the "Me" signature present in the Exorcist letter using the standout numerical feature in the code.

​Another communication, mailed on October 27th 1970, also featured a name synonymous with The Mikado, when the Zodiac Killer wrote *peek-a-boo you are doomed" around the knot-hole of a tree. Peek-a-boo was a character from an 1888 production of The Mikado, entitled The Capitalist. But take a look at the "ME" in the word doomed, in a card that stated "I feel it in my bones, you ache to know my name, and so I'll clue you in." 

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

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

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

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

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

What inspired the Zodiac Killer to mail two letters in near tandem to the San Francisco Chronicle and Vallejo Times-Herald on October 28th/29th 1987 after seventeen months of apparent inactivity, since his last communication on May 6th 1986, claiming the double murder of Koy Ien Saechao (48) and Choy Fow Saelee (40) on April 22nd 1986? The letter to the Herald read in part "This the Zodiac speaking. I am crack proof. Tell herb caen that I am still here. I have always been here. Tell the blue pigs if want me I will be out driving around on Halloween in my death machine looking for some kiddies to run over". 

On October 17th 1987, just eleven days before the October 28th 1987 letter, a long and detailed Napa Valley Register newspaper article supplied to me by Zodiac researcher Jibberjabber, announced the retirement of Kenneth Narlow, "the last active investigator of the unsolved Zodiac serial killings". The newspaper read "One of Narlow's most memorable investigations resulted from an attack on two Pacific Union College students at Lake Berryesss in 1969". He stated "Sometimes I look and say to myself, how close did we really come to this guy". It seems that Zodiac may have replied inside of two weeks by stating "I am crackproof" and promised to reignite his terror on Halloween night. The Kenneth Narlow story may have invigorated the Zodiac Killer to fire off two more letters, but what inspired the Zodiac Killer to mention the prospect of running over kids in his car and referring to the The Car movie, released in 1977?

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

STILL DRIVING AROUND IN 1987 [PART TWO]

​Another series of "Zodiac Killer" phone calls have been unearthed and sent to me by Jibberjabber, a previous contributor to the Zodiac Tapatalk forum. The first were received by Redding, California police on March 18th 1970, four days before the claimed attack on Kathleen Johns near Modesto on March 22nd 1970. Two calls were received - the first at 2:46am by police dispatcher Mrs. Wanda J. Derra - in which the person identified himself as "Zodiac" and stated "Today's the day_an Enterprise school bus". Several minutes later he rang again and reiterated the threat, saying "If you don't believe me just watch the kiddies tomorrow". Unfortunately, without any extra dialogue or information, it is practically impossible to determine the validity of this threat. The city of Redding straddles Interstate 5, approximately 140 miles north of Sacramento.

The second series of phone calls from somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer were received in Middletown, California, threatening students from the Middletown Unified School District on January 19th 1971, just under two months before the Los Angeles letter was mailed by the Zodiac Killer. Middletown lies about 20 miles north of Santa Rosa, from where the Zodiac Killer aimed a bombing threat on school buses on October 15th 1969, before the threat on schoolchildren was released in the newspapers (L.A. Times Oct 16th, S. F. Chronicle Oct 17th). At 2:15pm somebody claiming to be "The Zodiac" rang the high school and stated "I'm going to get some of the monsters". When questioned by the person in the office who he was referring to, the caller added "The ones walking home". About 45 minutes later, at 3:00pm, an anonymous individual rang the household of one of the school bus drivers and spoke to his wife, stating "You don't have to worry about your husband tomorrow morning because he won't be coming home. Neither are the kids because I'm going to take care of them". Again, without any pertinent information being revealed by the caller, no verification is possible. 

The third series of calls were received by Redwood City and Belmont police in the Bay Area on Sunday, June 11th 1978, forty-eight days after the Zodiac Killer "I am back with you" letter was mailed on April 24th 1978. The difference here, was that all three phone calls were recorded by police. The calls, literally back-to-back, began at 3:20am with something like "I'm still around". San Francisco Homicide investigator James Tedesco revealed that the phone calls (similar to the 1978 letter) didn't contain any direct threats, and was unwilling to reveal how they were going to determine if the caller was the Zodiac Killer or not. Obviously, these are the most interesting of all the phone calls because they were recorded. However, like the Oklahoma radio station phone call on December 7th 1969 by somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, the likelihood these recordings still exist today, or were ever played to Bryan Hartnell, David Slaight or Nancy Slover to give some indication of their authenticity or otherwise, will likely never be known.    

On December 19th 1969, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer threatened cops by making a phone call to Sergeant Robert Rengstorff of the San Jose Highway Patrol, stating "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". This threat towards San Jose police and a family of five was issued on a Friday, exactly as was the November 21st 1969 letter, mailed to San Jose police threatening harm on a widow. After the threat on the widow was thwarted by 24-hour police surveillance on her residence, was this the response, to once again instigate fear in the San Jose community? 

The threat of killing "a family of five between now and Monday" is rather specific, almost as though he had earmarked a couple with three children. We know the Zodiac Killer read the August 4th 1969 San Francisco Examiner and August 6th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle newspapers, which may have inspired his attack at Lake Berryessa and certain subsequent claim to the Snoozy and Furlong murders by the addition of "Aug" on the November 8th 1969 Dripping Pen card. This was an obsession he would carry forward into 1971, referencing the Snoozy and Furlong murders at least two more times, if not three.

​The August 6th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle article, entitled The Frenzy Of San Jose Girls Slayer, read under the banner of Children "The other Furlong children are Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11.  Furlong said he did not know and had not yet talked to Kathy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred Snoozy. Both Snoozy, a carpet layer, and Mrs. Snoozy reportedly are in a state of collapse. Her funeral has been scheduled Friday at 11 a.m. at the Place Funeral Home in Los Gatos. Burial will be at Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz. Funeral services for Kathy will be held tomorrow (Thursday) at 2 p.m. at the Oak Hill Memorial Park Mortuary in San Jose. Burial will be at Oak Hill Memorial Park". The Furlong's had three surviving children called Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11, which ties in with the threat from the December 19th 1969 telephone caller to kill "a family of five between now and Monday".

The rather obscure article about the phone call to San Jose Highway Patrol on December 19th 1969, threatening "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday", was somewhat mirrored by the person claiming to be the Zodiac Killer in Barstow, California on March 26th 1971. Not only did this individual make a phone call at 9:15pm to the KWTC radio station stating "This is the Zodiac. I'm coming out there", which he repeated and hung up, he also rang the radio station at 11:30pm claiming "This is the Zodiac. There are going to be four people dead in Barstow by morning", before repeating the statement and hanging up once again. The California Highway Patrol, as it did on December 19th 1969, also received a threatening phone call from the "Zodiac Killer" at 5:00pm on March 26th 1971. On December 19th 1969, I believe the threat was aimed towards the Furlong family of five in San Jose, so were the four people mentioned in this latest phone call in Barstow just a random and empty threat on four random people, or was the threat target specific? These are the only two "Zodiac" calls known to have been aimed at the California Highway Patrol, with both issued on a Friday, separated by 15 months, with the possibility of multiple targets. However, this doesn't reach the level of "beyond a reasonable doubt" that the callers on December 19th 1969 and March 26th 1971 were the same person, or the infamous Zodiac Killer. 

THE ZODIAC KILLER PHONE CALLS TO BARSTOW [PART ONE]

Thanks to Jibberjabber for his assistance in this matter.

KSZL is a commercial radio station that is licensed to and serves Barstow, San Bernardino County, California, United States. The station is owned by California Communications of Barstow, LLC and broadcasts a news/talk format. The station first signed on in 1947 as KWTC. Originally owned by William T. Brown, Burton C. Boatwright, and Robert E. Reno—doing business as Mojave Valley Broadcasting Company. In June 1950, KWTC joined the Liberty Broadcasting System, an early radio network that carried live re-creations of Major League Baseball games.

On March 13th 1971, the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter to the Los Angeles Times newspaper in response to him being connected to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside on October 30th 1966. The letter stated "This is the Zodiac speaking Like I have allways said, I am crack proof. If the Blue Meannies are evere going to catch me, they had best get off their fat asses + do something. Because the longer they fiddle + fart around, the more slaves I will collect for my after life. I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there. The reason I'm writing to the Times is this, They don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others". This letter implied that he was still on the prowl for more victims, while insinuating his Riverside activity down south, in which he borrowed some of his wording from the movie trailer Vanishing Point (1971), a film released in the USA on March 13th 1971. The release date of the film marrying with the date this letter was mailed and postmarked from Pleasanton.     

Vanishing Point (1971) is about a long-distance car chase through the Mojave Desert. The main character, “Kowalski,” is a loner, a Vietnam War veteran, and an ex-cop. He is fueled by drugs that allow him to keep going without sleep, and successfully outruns the police every time a new pursuit begins. Las Vegas, often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and 2nd-largest in the Southwestern United States. Barstow is a city in San Bernardino County, California, in the Mojave Desert of Southern California, which is the natural route along the main highways from the Mojave Desert to San Francisco. In other words, Barstow is in the Mojave Desert, featured in the Vanishing Point movie, that was quoted by the Zodiac Killer in his March 13th 1971 letter, just two weeks before the phone calls to Barstow.

If one phrase summed up the Zodiac Killer, it was "the monster that challenged the world". The title of a 1957 movie starring Tim Holt - a western star, who inspired the comic book series and worked alongside such movie greats as Humphrey Bogart and Ginger Rogers. The majority of the underwater scenes in the film were shot at Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles. Other primary filming locations included the Salton Sea, as well as Brawley and Barstow, California. It is speculated by many Zodiac researchers that part of the Halloween card design was inspired by the Tim Holt comic book #30.

THE ZODIAC KILLER PHONE CALLS TO BARSTOW [PART TWO]
​ 
Thanks to Jibberjabber for his assistance in this matter.

Of the three lengthy cryptograms crafted by the Zodiac Killer, the 408 cipher mailed on July 31st 1969 was his introductory message to the public, proclaiming his intention to collect slaves for the afterlife. The cryptogram was a simple homophonic substitution cipher, cracked in a matter of days by schoolteacher Donald Gene Harden and Bettye June Harden (née Tischer) of Salinas, California. The Zodiac Killer's next character laden cryptogram appeared reactionary, in that the design of the 340 cipher on November 8th 1969 was much more complex, despite the fact it contained a contemporary message regarding the "phony" (Eric Weill), who rang into the Jim Dunbar TV Show on October 22nd 1969 and February 5th 1970 pretending to be the infamous Zodiac Killer. Although the design of the cipher was arguably more difficult, it is clear that the Zodiac Killer underestimated its complexity and failings, resulting in the contemporary message contained within it being diminished and compromised by the passage of time. 

​When the Zodiac Killer created his third lengthy cryptogram (in possibly May, 1971), containing yet another contemporary message about "phony" Eric Weill (and claimed additional "phony" Karl Francis Werner), the Zodiac Killer, this time, made sure his message would not be lost to the hands of time by manufacturing a cryptogram much simpler than the 408 cipher, by allotting just one ciphertext character to each plaintext letter. The only three times he deviated from this technique in the cryptogram was with the bold letter "G" that concluded the word "LISTENING" on the third row, and the letter "T" in "THE" and "FRONT" on the first and fifth row. The Zodiac Killer likely incorporated two deliberate errors on the first row when he used two misspellings within his "This is the Zodiac speaking" introduction. These deliberate misspellings, by adding and subtracting a plaintext letter, very likely created to add minor complexity, and prevent an immediate decoding of his cipher.  

Having used the letter "Z" in plaintext for the first time in three cryptograms, it seemed that the Zodiac Killer couldn't resist using the "sun cross" character (similar to his crosshairs) to represent the initial of his pseudonym. This becomes apparent when he uses this individual character to sign off his accompanying letter, rather than the traditional crosshairs or letter "Z".

Victims of serial killers ​make up a very small percentage of the total number of murder victims each year. Communications written by such killers (and accompanying hoaxers) are even less. So imagine the percentage of serial killers and their accompanying hoaxers that mail communications to authorities with cryptograms and codes included within the correspondence. Now imagine two cryptograms contained within two letters unreleased into the public domain, both of which have many crossover features, that both use the ciphertext character "7" to represent the plaintext character "A" in the code, with both claiming to be from the Zodiac Killer, and both using the "sun cross" in their respective codes. These two letters were mailed from Fairfield, California (1971) and Albany, New York (1973). Now imagine mailing a 148 character cryptogram in 1971 using the root word "phony" that was previously used to describe the Jim Dunbar TV Show hoaxer Eric Weill in the headlines of a newspaper article on February 6th 1970, who was the focus of the 340 cipher solve in 2020, when the Zodiac Killer wrote "That wasn't me on the TV show" and effectively proclaimed the caller a hoaxer. A 340 cipher message that wasn't known to anybody else but the Zodiac Killer in 1971. Regardless, we must not let facts get in the way of the long told Zodiac narrative. 

On November 29th 1966, one month after the murder of Cheri Jo Bates alongside the Riverside City College library, two confession letters were delivered to the Riverside Homicide Detail and Riverside Press Enterprise containing a sinister message. They read in part "Then I waited for her in the library and followed her out after about two minutes. The battery must have been about dead by then. I then offered to help. She was then very willing to talk to me. I told her that my car was down the street and that I would give her a lift home. When we were away from the library walking, I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". If the good Samaritan, as he claimed in the letter, was offering to give her a lift home from his nearby vehicle, then it's fairly obvious that Cheri Jo Bates isn't going to willingly travel 3.5 miles back to her 4195 Via San Jose home with this individual and leave her prized Volkswagen Beetle with the windows rolled down, her keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked. Therefore, the idea that her killer promised her a lift home doesn't tally with the condition her vehicle was found the following morning. 

The January 1969 Inside Detective magazine described the crime scene, stating "The victim of the savage attack was clad in faded red capris, a long-sleeved pale yellow blouse with a ribbon tied at the throat. Her feet were encased in white sandals. A large red and tan woven straw bag was half covered by the body". This large bag can be seen in the crime scene photographs. If Cheri Jo Bates had arrived back at her vehicle after exiting the library and placed her library books on the passenger seat, one might have expected Cheri Jo Bates to have first removed this straw bag from her shoulder prior to rolling the windows, placing her key in the ignition and preparing to drive away (especially if the bag was slung over her right shoulder). This oversize straw bag would certainly have impaired her ability to shift gear in a comfortable manner while driving. If she had removed this bag to prepare to drive home and was forcibly removed from her vehicle in a surprise attack under the threat of a knife or gun, why under any circumstances, would she have placed the bag back on her shoulders under duress (for it to be later found under her body in the driveway) The Confession letter author claimed she was very willing to talk and leave with him, which would explain her grabbing her bag before leaving - but not the condition her vehicle was ultimately found the next morning. If the author was her killer, she had two minutes (according to the Confession letter) to remove the straw bag from her shoulder before he arrived and offered the young woman assistance. 

Recently I looked at the autopsy report of Cheri Jo Bates, which may suggest her being placed in a choke-hold at the moment the attack began, while the killer stabbed backwards into her upper body and right arm, before thrusting her forward (face down) into the hard driveway floor and "finishing the job out" by stabbing her in the back and slashing her throat. This would explain why her straw bag remained in contact with her body throughout (although not slung over her head as a method of carrying it). A vicious attack from the front, by a knife wielding assailant facing Cheri Jo Bates, is less likely to have her retaining control of a large straw bag throughout.

​None of the knife wounds to her front torso were immediately life threatening, so a savage attack with somebody thrusting a knife towards her (and into her) while she is mobile and able to run, is unlikely to create a scenario where her bag remained on her shoulder during this period. Her bag is likely to be dropped - and she is likely to move away. The chances that she would be coincidentally reunited with that bag later in the attack is extremely unlikely. The position of the straw bag under her body, on the right side, could suggest she had the bag on her right shoulder when the killer grabbed her around the neck with his left arm and stabbed backwards with his right hand. Her right arm would naturally come upwards to defend herself, with the straw bag remaining in relatively close contact with her body while upright. When the killer thrust her face down into the driveway, her straw bag fell from her right shoulder to the position shown in the crime scene. In other words, she was grabbed and killed in virtually the same spot in the driveway. 

To listen to a comprehensive discussion on the Cheri Jo Bates murder in Riverside on October 30th 1966, with contributions from Druzer and Michael Morford, please visit the Citizen Detective podcast on Youtube (running time 3hr 10 mins). 

As shown many times on this site, the Zodiac Killer was able to forage through newspaper articles many years previously to gain inspiration for the content of his contemporary communications. It was believed this was achievable with such ease because the Bay Area murderer, a voracious narcissist, kept newspaper cuttings from his published crimes and communications. One outlier correspondence mailed on December 27th 1974 to Mary Pilker, sister of missing nurse Donna Lass, came in the form of a Christmas card addressed to Mrs. Mary Pilker 1609 South Grange, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It depicted snow covered pine trees with the already inserted message of  "Holiday Greetings and Best Wishes for a Happy New Year", followed by a cryptic addition from the author, stating "Best Wishes, St. Donna & Guardians of the Pines". The question has always been - was this festive greetings card mailed by the Zodiac Killer? To answer this, we have to unearth the likely inspiration for the message, and whether the Christmas card was intended to be malicious or otherwise.

Jibberjabber, a previous contributor to the Tapatalk Zodiac forum, forwarded me a newspaper article from the Sacramento Bee published shortly after the disappearance of Donna Lass, on September 24th 1970. This newspaper article, highlighted by Jibberjabber, had all the ingredients to create the 1974 Christmas card mailed to Mary Pilker, including her address. 

The article read: "Donna lived during the summer with Mr. and Mrs. Larry Lowe, a young couple who had planned to return to college but are remaining here also in the hope of being some assistance in locating her. Mrs. Lowe also is a nurse and worked with Donna from 1967 to 1969 at Santa Barbara. The missing woman was working at Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco when she was persuaded to seek employment at South Lake Tahoe by the Lowes last June. Donna was described by Mrs. Lowe as shy and retiring, a girl who never smoked, who drank very little and was generally opposed to the free lifestyle of many of her contemporaries. She attended church at St. Mary's in the Pines every Sunday". If Donna Lass attended St. Mary's in the Pines, it isn't difficult to contemplate how the author of the 1974 Christmas card invoked a religious element and arrived at the message "Best Wishes, St. Donna & Guardians of the Pines".​

​If the Sacramento Bee (or another contemporary article containing this information) was the source of the inspiration for the 1974 Christmas card, would this lend credence to the Mary Pilker communication being mailed by the Zodiac Killer, irrespective of whether he had a hand in the disappearance of Donna Lass? We know the Zodiac Killer was able to source newspaper articles from distant years, so does the similarity in wording between the 1970 Sacramento Bee article and 1974 Christmas card, specific to the religious tendencies of Donna Lass, lean towards the Zodiac Killer being the author of this festive message to Mary Pilker in South Dakota.  Thanks to Jibberjabber.

Attorney Jennifer Taylor and investigator Chris Williamson are currently in the midst of a series of podcasts covering the Zodiac Killer case and the pre-canonical attacks in Southern California, which are often linked with the Bay Area murderer. The first two episodes, just shy of three hours each, with contributions from Raven & Mandy from the Sirens Podcast, feature several guest speakers from the Zodiac community. In the first instalment, Michael Cole, author of the The Zodiac Revisited book trilogy and website, is joined by Kristi S. Hawthorne, who unearthed a possible link between the murder of taxicab driver Ray Davis in Oceanside in 1962 and the murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969. The second podcast features somebody from England and Ross Geraci, host of the Planet X Filmworks Youtube Channel, who has compiled several videos on the pre-canonical murders of Ray Davis (1962), Johnny & Joyce Swindle (1964) and Cheri Jo Bates (1966). He is soon to release another comprehensive video on the murders of Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards in Santa Barbara in 1963 

The Vanished Podcast, hosted by Jennifer Taylor and Chris Williamson, can be found on multiple outlets, such as Audioboom, Apple, Spotify, Podchaser, Podbean and Deezer, to name just a few. Here is a link to the Apple Podcast. The investigative duo have extensively covered many other cases, including D.B. Cooper (1971), Jack the Ripper (1888) and Amelia Earhart (1937).
​
Part One: Vanished: Zodiac: "Sick of Living, Unwilling to Die"
Part Two: Vanished Zodiac: “Many Undiscovered Victims”
Part Three: Vanished Zodiac: "Trial by Jury"
​More episodes will be added upon release. 

Despite some interesting avenues having been pursued in the search for "Jerry" in the "Good Citizen" letter mailed on October 7th 1969, it is clear that the cryptic nature of the language adopted in this communication has made it difficult to interpret its meaning. Both the August 10th 1969 "Concened Citizen" card and October 7th 1969 "Good Citizen" letter were addressed to Sgt John Lynch of the Vallejo Police Department, both utilized the word "citizen" in the signature, both used the word "name" twice in the message, with the "Good Citizen" author referring to the "code letters", which can only be reasonably assumed to be the letters mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner on July 31st 1969 (and the 408 cipher).  A footnote from Sergeant John Lynch concerning the "Good Citizen" letter stated that the writer has a strong feeling of ESP. While having these feelings, the writer writes with a pencil. "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 last major article featuring Sgt John Lynch and the 408 cipher, entitled "A Name in Murder Cipher", suggested the name "Robert Emmet the hippie" as one possibility, despite it being too long to accommodate the 18 unsolved characters at the foot of the 408 cipher. At the end of the August 12th 1969 article, Sgt John Lynch stated "We aren't sure Robert Emmet is who we are looking for. Maybe he'll send another letter and let us know". This request from Sgt John Lynch was specifically about the 18 seemingly nonsensical characters remaining at the base of the "murder cipher" and the search for a name. Therefore, the response of the "Good Citizen", 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", was likely a response to this conundrum. Sgt John Lynch was searching for a name in the 408 cipher, to which the "Good Citizen" replied: "I get the name Jerry" or "his name is XXXXXXX". The October 7th 1969 letter mentioning Beach Street (at the north-eastern edge of Presidio Park), just four days before the Paul Stine murder, is so cryptic in nature, it could be construed as unhelpful and possibly malevolent or mischievous in nature. There is a high degree of probability that the same author was responsible for the "Concerned Citizen" card and "Good Citizen" letter, bearing in mind the August 10th 1969 communication was not in the public domain by October 7th 1969. The two communications both offering answers to the 408 cipher, in addition to the aforementioned similarities. To believe these were authored by separate individuals would require a high degree of mental gymnastics.  

If we have the Zodiac Killer as the author for both of these communications - and consider the message in the 408 cipher and "Concerned Citizen" card declaring "I will not give you my name" and "please forgive the absence of my name" - then the offering of "I get the name Jerry" or "his name is XXXXXXX" as a possible solution to these 18 unsolved characters, would shed doubt on the credibility of, not only the "Good Citizen" author, but the "Concerned Citizen" as being genuinely concerned. If the author of both communications was the same person, we have two conflicting messages. If it's Zodiac, then he is likely playing a game. An individual who helpfully provides a valid key to the 408 cipher on August 10th 1969, while subsequently offering an array of unhelpful cryptic nonsense just two months later, appears to invalidate the original communication as a concerned citizen.

​Does the name "Jerry" or the grouping of seven X's in the "Good Citizen" letter have any bearing on the 18 unexplained characters at the foot of the 408 cipher, or is it just another wild goose chase? One would like to think that the reference to "Jerry" or "XXXXXXX" had some meaning to its author and had some benefit to Sgt John Lynch, rather than complete nonsense that achieves nothing for the sender. The fact that the "Good Citizen" letter (if Zodiac) appears totally unhelpful and arguably bereft of a reasonable aid to solution, could suggest the 18 unsolved characters have no meaning to be found (in complete contradiction to the code key supplied on August 10th 1969 which did aid a solution). Whatever the case, it is with little doubt that the author of these two communications are one and the same - whether that author is Zodiac or not.