The canonical murders of Jack the Ripper began on August 31st 1888 with the brutal murder of Mary Ann Nichols in Buck's Row, her throat severed, her vagina stabbed and her lower abdomen partly ripped open to expose her bowels. This grisly affair was followed on September 8th 1888, when the body of Annie Chapman was discovered in the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. She had also suffered deep cuts to her throat and abdomen, but this time the killer had removed her small intestine and placed it on her right shoulder, and excised part of her stomach and deposited it on her left shoulder. Annie Chapman's uterus was missing, along with parts of her bladder and vagina. 

Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes both met their fate on September 30th 1888, with Elizabeth Stride being found in Dutfield's Yard, having received one knife wound to her neck. The severity of her injuries were believed to be considerably less because of the arrival of Louis Diemschutz, the steward of the International Working Men's Educational Club, who arrived at the location in his horse and two-wheeled cart. The killer, now unable to perform the mutilation of the corpse as in previous attacks, sought out Catherine Eddowes less than an hour later, cutting her throat and once again ripping her intestines from her body. Her left kidney and the majority of her uterus had been taken from the site of the murder. The final attack, that of Mary Jane Kelly inside her single room at 13 Miller's Court on November 9th 1888 is almost impossible to describe, other than to say that her body was destroyed beyond recognition.          

Jack the Ripper was fond of removing various body parts, some of which he carried away from the crime scene and some he left on public display for the whole world to see. This sickening display of the grotesque was the seeming ambition of the Confession letter author in Riverside on November 29th 1966, who confessed that he wanted to mutilate furher victims, stating that he would "cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see" and had recently "finished the job out cutting her throat", referring to the October 30th 1966 murder of Cheri Jo Bates. The Confession letter author issued the Riverside Police Department a stark warning, that he was "stalking your girls now", just like the Ripper had done in the dimly lit streets of Whitechapel, 78 years earlier.

Five days before the Confession letter was postmarked, a newspaper article from the Press-Enterprise told of the recent murder of Cheri Jo Bates and postulated a connection to the abduction of a 19-year-old girl on November 22nd 1966. The perpetrator in this case invoked the name of "Jack the Ripper", by stating "Well, after all, I'm not Jack the Ripper" after she refused to enter his vehicle. This led me to explore the idea that the author of the Confession letter, who plagiarized key phrases from this newspaper article, had also been inspired to create a typed letter using the sadistic reportings of Jack the Ripper. The promise to cut off female parts, the stalking of girls, and the casual and brutal way he described cutting the throat of Cheri Jo Bates - synonymous with the Whitechapel murderer - required further exploration to see whether this was coincidental or a deliberate choice by the Confession letter typist. And indeed, if the author of the letter was the killer of Cheri Jo Bates.         

To discover material on Jack the Ripper, the easiest route for the killer in 1966 was to use the Riverside library (possibly) on his doorstep, writing a poem on the desktop in between his searches of the microfiche reels. The Riverside City College library may have been convenient for him, but any library would have sufficed. Today, I approached the task at hand by typing in key phrases from the Confession letter, and/or the year 1888, to see if the newspaper archives churned up any interesting results, whereas in 1966 the task would have been a bit more arduous and labor intensive. However, it would have been easily  accomplished by somebody who was determined enough, who was prepared put considerable thought into his compositions. Somebody like the Zodiac Killer.

The following section of the Confession letter looked contrived, stating "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". The last phrase reading "I said it was about time for her to die" appeared over-dramatic and had a punchline effect, as though it had been borrowed for purpose from elsewhere. I typed the shortened phrase of "it was about time for her to die" into the newspaper archive and it produced only one result in 336 years. That year was 1888, the year of Jack the Ripper. Alongside the stories of Jack the Ripper in 1888 was the accompanying story of "The Sturdy Beggar", who attempted to scrounge food from a woman inside her home and placed his hand into his hip pocket (probably reaching for a presumed knife) and stated that "it was about time for her to die".​ Had the Confession letter author added this phrase into his communication to bolster the Jack the Ripper theme of "body parts" and "cutting her throat"?

​In 1927, multiple American newspapers reported the Ripper like murders from New York, spanning the previous 15 years. The first in 1912, detailed the savage knife murder of Julia Connors by Nathan Swartz, who wrote a confession letter after the killing and an additional message on a soiled linen collar with a lead pencil, reading "I am guilty. I am insane", using five of the same words from the Riverside Confession letter, which read "I am not sick. I am insane". Two stories, loosely connected to Jack the Ripper, with two perinent phrases. But there had to be more.

On October 27th 1970, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Halloween card with the skeleton of an unknown victim. One observer of this communication by the name of Phil Sins contacted San Francisco Chronicle newspaper reporter, Paul Avery, believing that the greeting card was insinuating the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, whose lifeless body was discovered by a Riverside groundskeeper on Halloween morning in 1966.

It turned out that the prominent word "by" was shared 6 times by the Halloween card and the two typed Confession letters. The Halloween card author also used the signature "Z" for the first time, that was suggested by Paul Avery as the signature present on two of the three Bates' letters on April 30th 1967. The presumed connection was laid bare by Paul Avery in a comprehensive newspaper article in the San Francisco Chronicle on November 16th 1970. By claiming a connection between the Zodiac Killer and the Riverside communications, Paul Avery was suggesting that the murder of Cheri Jo Bates may have been the early work of the Zodiac Killer. To see if this has any validity, I decided to explore the Jack the Ripper connection a little further. Did the Zodiac Killer select the Halloween card with wording similar to the Confession letter?

​The wording on the selected Halloween card inner read "But, then why spoil our game. Happy Halloween". The typed Confession letter read "I then finished the job by cutting her throat. I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game". One communication didn't want the game spoiled, while the other pledged to not to stop the game.

On October 16th 1888 the "From Hell" letter, addressed to George Lusk, the president of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, arrived inside a cardboard box from somebody claiming to be Jack the Ripper. It contained a "body part" in the form of half a kidney, with the message "Mr Lusk, Sor I send you half the Kidne I took from one woman and prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer". signed "Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk". 

​Just before Halloween, on October 29th 1888 (one day before the date Cheri was murdered), a letter was sent to Dr. Openshaw, who performed the medical examination on the portion of kidney received by George Lusk. The letter stated "Old boss you was rite it was the left kidny i was goin to hoperate agin close to you ospitle just as i was going to dror mi nife along of er bloomin throte them cusses of coppers spoilt the game but i guess i wil be on the jobn soon and will send you another bit of innerds. Jack the Ripper. O have you seen the devle with his mikerscope and scalpul a-lookin at a kidney with a slide cocked up". 

This letter arrived on October 29th 1888, Cheri Jo Bates was murdered on October 30th 1966, her body was found the next day on Halloween morning, and the Confession letter about Cheri Jo Bates contained many plausible links to Jack the Ripper (shown above). The Halloween card contained the phrase "spoil our game", that somewhat mirrored "spoilt the game" from the Openshaw letter, and "stop the game" from the Confession letter. Throw in "The Most Dangerous Game" and we have a cocktail of "games". You may also notice that the Openshaw letter described murder as a "job", just like the Confession letter author, who typed "I then finished the job out cutting her throat".  Many Ripper letters use the word "job" in respect to the killing of women.
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​Four months after reading the San Francisco Chronicle article by Paul Avery (on November 16th 1970), the Zodiac killer replied to the claim he was involved in Riverside, by stating on March 13th 1971 "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". Not only was the Zodiac Killer invoking the word "hell" and using similar phraseology from the Bates' letters that "there will be more", he was apparently accepting his involvement to some capacity in the murder of Cheri Jo Bates. If that "activity" was suggestive of the communications, involving the Confession letter with Jack the Ripper overtones, then it's really curious that his next two widely published letters (mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle) on January 29th 1974 and April 24th 1978, began using the Jack the Ripper valediction of "yours truley" and "yours truly", that the Whitechapel murderer used in the majority of his letters from 1888. If the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the "riverside activity" down south, was his use of "yours truley" and "yours truly" in these following communications a case of playing more "games" with law enforcement? The continuation of the Jack the Ripper theme in these letters laying bare his character - and belatedly pointing a finger to the secrets of the Confession letter, now that his Riverside connection had finally come to light?

In his July 31st 1969 letters and 408 cipher, the Zodiac Killer would delve into the distant newspaper archive of 1932 to create the significant phrase of "man is the most dangerous animal of all", which he plagiarised from the utterances of Merian C. Cooper, the associate producer of "The Most Dangerous Game". Was the same archival  technique used to fashion the typed Confession letter in 1966, borrowing the wording of "it was about time for her to die" from "The Sturdy Beggar" in 1888, with both the Riverside and Bay Area communications created by the cunning disposition of one author and one mind?   ​
​THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF MURDER.

It appears as though the Confession letter on November 29th 1966 primarily focused on attractive women, who "crazed " the author enough to want to kill them. The typed letter began "She was young and beautiful. But now she is battered and dead. She is not the first and she will not be the last. I lay awake nights thinking about my next victom. Maybe she will be the beautiful blond that babysits near the little store and walks down the dark alley each evening about seven. Or maybe she will be the shapely blue eyed brunett that said xxx no when I asked her for a date in high school".

After discovering that the phrase "man is the most dangerous animal of all" from the Zodiac Killer's 408 cipher was uttered by Merian C. Cooper, the associate producer of "The Most Dangerous Game" movie in 1932, which could only reasonably have been found by diligently trawling through microfiche reels from newspapers of the day, I wanted to see if the author of the Confession letter employed the same technique. By finding a commonality of approach between the 408 cipher and Confession letter authors, it may shed light on the idea of one mind and one person responsible for the communications in 1966 and 1969. This is the first step in determining whether the Zodiac Killer was responsible for "riverside activity" or "riverside murder".

I then looked at the seemingly contrived section of the Confession letter where it stated "I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". After dropping the phrase "it was about time for her to die" into a newspaper archive search, I was surprised to receive a hit from 1888 (the year of "Jack the Ripper"), bearing in mind that the Confession letter author appeared to mimic the language of a recent newspaper article on November 24th 1966, mentioning Cheri Jo Bates and invoking the name of "Jack the Ripper". The two phrases of "man is the most dangerous animal of all" and "it was about time for her to die", I could only find in newspaper articles dated 1932 and 1888 respectively, despite searching 331 years of newspaper archives.  

​If the author was searching the archives in 1966 for Jack the Ripper related material to insert into the Confession letter, I needed to know if anything other than "it was about time for her to die" could be found to bolster the argument for this hypothesis. Although the following isn't compelling, it does provide a possible second layer to consider. I focused in on another section of the Confession letter where the author typed "I am not sick. I am insane", which seemed an unnecessary addition to the story. However, I was unable to find this exact quote from 1690 to 2021 in the Genealogy Bank archives.

​So I refined the search to "Jack the Ripper" and "I am insane", hoping to find these two sections of text within one newspaper story. The search was successful, when I found several large articles in 1927 detailing the horrible mutilations of "Jack the Ripper", The newspapers stated "Nothing the London monster did exceeded the wanton devilishness the murders of half a dozen New York children by "rippers" whose crimes have stirred the city during the past fifteen years" (see below). This was a promising find, but I needed more.

​The Nathan Swartz murder of Julia Connors had some of the features of Riverside, in that he wrote a Confession letter, told of being crazed by the beautiful make-up of women, stabbed a young girl to death, articulated a "two minutes" window, and stated that "I am guilty. I am insane". The Confession letter author at Riverside mentioned that they would "cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see" in "Jack the Ripper" style, only five days after a newspaper article mentioning Cheri Jo Bates and "Jack the Ripper". We also have the phrase "it was about time for her to die", found in a newspaper article entitled "The Sturdy Beggar"​ from 1888 (the year of "Jack the Ripper"), in which a women was threatened by a man motioning towards a potential knife in his pocket. And finally, the Nathan Swartz story was embedded within a comprehensive "Jack the Ripper" newspaper article from 1927. It may be nothing, but it could be something.   

CONNECTING RIVERSIDE TO THE ZODIAC USING JACK THE RIPPER [IN 6 PARTS]

On October 31st 1966, the body of Cheri Jo Bates was discovered lying in a driveway adjacent to the Riverside City College library, stabbed six times in her upper torso and right arm, before being slashed seven times across her neck in a callous and senseless murder. This murder would be accompanied by six communications in the form of a desktop poem, two typed Confession letters and three handwritten notes promising "there will be more". Although no further mutilation of the body occurred, the possibility exists that the person who murdered the young 18-year-old college student, was a ruthless individual inspired by a far more sinister series of events seventy-eight  years previous. 

In 1888, a densely populated area in London spawned the Whitechapel murders of Jack the Ripper, claiming the canonical murders of Mary Ann Nichols on August 31st 1888, Annie Chapman on September 8th 1888, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes on September 30th 1888, described as the double event, and Mary Jane Kelly on November 9th 1888. Apart from Elizabeth Stride, in which the murderer was likely disturbed in the act, the other four women were extensively mutilated with disembowelment and the removal of organs an abhorrent feature of these attacks. Other disturbing findings, such as the Thames Torso Murders between 1887 and 1889, and the Pinchin Street Torso Murder on September 10th 1889, have also been suggested as possible Jack the Ripper murders. Undoubtedly, being the most high profile murders in recorded history, it isn't surprising that future murderers may have been influenced by the depravity that came before them. This may not have been the case in the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, however, there are some disturbing features of this crime that deserve a closer look. Could the individual who murdered Cheri Jo Bates have had an unhealthy interest in the Whitechapel murders of 1888? 

Whether from the hand of the killer or the press, the Jack the Ripper murders spawned many letters during 1888 and beyond, and caused fear and panic in the East End of London. The murderer of Cheri Jo Bates made contact with the authorities and the newspapers six times in only five months - possibly beginning on November 29th 1966 and ending on April 30th 1967. These writings undoubtedly glorified in the thought of knifing women, by revelling in the imagery of blood "spurting, dripping and spilling" over a young girl's dress, and the inevitable pleasure of a "next time".where the victim wouldn't be so lucky.

The Confession letters to the Riverside Police and Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper ramped up the terror by further glorifying in the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, whose author appeared to gain satisfaction from the pain he inflicted on the obviously terrified young woman. Phrases such as "she is now battered and dead", "she went to the slaughter like a lamb", "I said it was about time for her to die", "she squirmed and shook as I choked her" and "I finished the job out cutting her throat", should leave you with no doubt that this individual was a warped sadist, who enjoyed the physical and emotional suffering he caused through the act of murder (if indeed the murderer and writer were the same person). And in true Rippereseque fashion threatened to "cut off female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". Every Jack the Ripper victim had their throats slashed, but unlike Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, the injuries to the neck of Cheri Jo Bates were far greater in number.

​The main focus of the Riverside attack was above the nipple line, with three of the five wounds to her front torso striking her breasts. The Confession letter author even made a point in typing "Her breast felt very warm and firm under my hands", so it isn't difficult to conclude that this attack was sexual in nature. The unusual wording of "I finished the job out cutting her throat. I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game", is not dissimilar to the workmanlike language seen in the Ripper communications such as the "Dear Boss" letter on September 27th 1888, which stated "How can they catch me now. I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with, but it went thick like glue and I cant use it". 

Did the abductor and eventual attacker of a 19-year-old UCR college student on November 22nd 1966 recognise the brutality of the Cheri Jo Bates murder while tempting the hesitant female into his vehicle? Who, after mentioning the recent October 30th 1966 slaying to the University of Riverside student during conversation, uttered the words "Well, after all, I'm not Jack the Ripper". This encounter, detailed extensively in the Press-Enterprise newspaper on November 24th 1966, seemed to catch the interest of the Confession letter author, who plagiarized several key phrases from the wording used by the attacker in the newspaper article. Assuming they were different people. 

Aside from this mimicry, one thing in the Confession letter looked contrived. Having remembered the use of movie quotations in the 3-page JonBenet Ramsey ransom letter from 1996, I wondered whether the author of the Confession letter, having typed "I shall cut off female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see", had borrowed a quotation from the times of Jack the Ripper to insert into his Confession letter.

​The section of the letter which read "I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die", appeared like he had deliberately teed up the final line (and it wasn't an original thought). So I placed the phrase "it was about time for her to die" into a newspaper search engine from 1690 to November 29th 1966 and got only one result. It was from the year of Jack the Ripper, in an article entitled "The Sturdy Beggar" on December 11th 1888. Had the Confession letter author been searching for suitable Ripper quotes to place in his letter, when he stumbled across this story and its memorable quote during the microfiche searches he conducted at the Riverside library? (or elsewhere). I was not expecting any results from a search of eight consecutive words, but was flabbergasted when it returned a hit from 1888 (the exact year I had hoped for).

​It's even more surprising when you can replicate this feat from a search of "man is the most dangerous animal of all", which I have found in only three newspapers from 1932. Uttered from the mouth of Merian C. Cooper, the assocate producer of "The Most Dangerous Game" upon release of the movie in the same year - and used by the Zodiac Killer in his 408 cipher on July 31st 1969..The author of the Confession letter and 408 cipher, both seemingly delving into the distant past to plagiarize a distinctive phrase to place within a menacing communication. Unless these individuals were one and the same person. Two confessions to murder on November 29th 1966 and July 31st 1969.

If the Riverside Confession letter author borrowed the wording "it was about time for her to die" from December 11th 1888, I wonder if he searched nine days after "The Sturdy Beggar" article and discovered the murder of Rose Mylett, another proposed Jack the Ripper victim, on December 20th 1888? The day and month his murders began in the Bay Area of northern California. 

​CONNECTING RIVERSIDE TO THE ZODIAC USING JACK THE RIPPER [IN 6 PARTS]

Recently I have been examining whether the Zodiac Killer was responsible for both the Confession letters on November 29th 1966 by searching for historic text in the newspapers of yesteryear. In the Confession letter the author typed "it was about time for her to die", which was seemingly plucked from The Evening Bulletin newspaper from Providence, Rhode Island on December 11th 1888 (the year of Jack the Ripper). I have only found this phrase of eight words in one newspaper prior to 1966.

​On July 31st 1969, the infamous Zodiac Killer took the wording "man is the most dangerous animal of all" from the utterances of Merian C. Cooper, which I have found quoted in only three newspapers prior to 1969. All three were from 1932, the release date of "The Most Dangerous Game" movie, whose associate producer was Merian C. Cooper. The author of the Confession letter and July 31st 1969 letters both seemingly plagiarized eight consecutive words from newspapers, 78 years and 37 years previous. 

The Confession letter author also appeared to plagiarize wording from "The Press" newspaper on November 24th 1966 (five days earlier}, which ran an article where the offender was quoted as saying "I'm not Jack the Ripper". Therefore, I considered the possibility that its author may travel back to 1888 and search microfiche reels, in order to subtly place a quote from the times of Jack the Ripper into the Confession letter. It appears the Confession letter author found "it was about time for her to die" in a piece called "The Sturdy Beggar", which ran alongside the Ripper stories. As of writing, I have found this sequence of eight words in only one newspaper in 334 years, other than reporting about the Confession letter. Present in a newspaper from 1888. 

But if the Confession letter author scoured the newspapers from 1888, where would they most likely focus when composing the typed letters? There is a good chance that the Confession letter author would initially focus their search in the direction of notable "Jack the Ripper" events in the newspapers. Three of which were widely reported in the newspapers in early October 1888.

​The "Saucy Jacky" postcard was postmarked October 1st 1888, just one day after the "double event" murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes on September 30th 1888. The other, was a letter from September 29th 1888 to the Central News agency, eventually forwarded to the Metropolitan Police two days later. The text from this letter was featured in several American newspapers, including the Abilene Weekly newspaper from Kansas on October 4th 1888.

The letter (see below), beginning "Dear Boss" and ending "Jack the Ripper", contained the wording "The next job I do I shall cut off the lady's ear and send it to the police". The Confession letter read "I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see" and "I then finished the job out cutting her throat". It wasn't necessarily the similarity of "I shall cut off" and the use of the word "job" that caught my eye. It was another newspaper article from the same day the "Jack the Ripper" letter appeared on October 4th 1888, that had the well known phrase from Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, featured under the sub-headline "Gems of Thought". It read "Those who are weary of life, and yet are most unwilling to die". The Riverside Desktop Poem was entitled "Sick of living/unwilling to die". Although not exact, the famous quote from Edward Hyde appeared in at least 125 newspaper articles in the 19th century, including 1888. The phraseology is extremely similar, with both expressing a disappointment of life, followed by the wording "unwilling to die". 

In total, we have "man is the most dangerous animal of all" from 1932, "it was about time for her to die" from 1888, "I shall cut off" from 1888, and "weary of life, and yet are most unwilling to die" from 1888, all mimicked in three communications linked to the Zodiac Killer. The September 29th 1888 letter somewhat resembling the Confession letter, turning "I shall cut off the lady's ear and send it to the police" into "I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". So were the Confession letters and Riverside Desktop Poem created close to one another? Both inspired from the newspaper archives of Jack the Ripper in 1888. Did the Zodiac Killer "not stop the game" promised in the Confession letter, when he began his "Most Dangerous Game" in the Bay Area in 1969?

​What is rather amazing, is that in 2012 David Oranchak released an article showing how 46 consecutive characters from the book “The life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, lord high chancellor of England: Volume 2” could fit into a chunk of ciphertext in the 408 cipher. Although Dave Oranchak downplayed this one in eleven billion chance, it appears at the time he wrote this article he was unaware of the famous Edward Hyde quote of "Those who are weary of life, and yet are most unwilling to die", which was extremely similar to the Riverside Desktop Poem.title of "Sick of living/unwilling to die". Was this another bridge from Riverside to the Bay Area? The chunk of text in the 408 cipher was HEBESTPARTOFITIATHAEWHENIDIEIWILLBEREBORNINPAR. It contained the word "die", just like the Riverside Desktop Poem (twice), the Confession letter (once) and the Bates' letters (three times).  All three Riverside communications contained the phrase "to die". See link below. 

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​JACK THE RIPPER AND THE CONFESSION LETTER          THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF MURDER

                       EDWARD HYDE IN THE 408 CIPHER - DAVID ORANCHAK

As Zodiac researchers and sleuths, we have long sought a credible link between the Zodiac murders and the Riverside activity in 1966 and 1967, if one exists. Recently I came to the conclusion that the only way to achieve this, other than a forensic link, was to confidently bind together the two lengthy communications associated with the Zodiac Killer on November 29th 1966 and July 31st 1969. If these were Zodiac letters, then they would be the last Riverside communication of any length, followed by the first communications from Zodiac.

In between, we had the three Bates' letters in 1967 carrying the short message of "Bates had to die. There will be more" and "She had to die. There will be more". Three letters to mirror his opening gambit on July 31st 1969. The trinity of Zodiac letters to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969 had elements of the Bates' letters, replacing "She had to die. There will be more", with "When I die" and "I will cruse around and pick off all stray people and coupples that are alone, then move on to kill some more". The Zodiac Killer would now be considering his death with "die", and be promising "more" murder if his demands were not met. But of course, that wasn't all.

The Zodiac Killer on July 31st 1969 would exactly plagiarize the utterances of Merian C. Cooper, the associate producer of The Most Dangerous Game (1932), who upon release of the RKO movie, stated "man is the most dangerous animal of all". In other words, the Zodiac Killer took eight consecutive words from 1932, which I have currently found in only three newspaper articles from 37 years previous.

The Confession letter author on November 29th 1966 did exactly the same thing, taking the eight consecutive words of "it was about time for her to die" from The Evening Bulletin newspaper from Providence, Rhode Island on December 11th 1888 (the year of Jack the Ripper). If the November 29th 1966 and July 31st 1969 letters were both from Zodiac, then he used sixteen words (two consecutive sequences of eight) from historic newspapers, 78 years and 37 years previous to his writings. But how would it come about that the author of the Confession letter would use wording from the newspaper article on the left?

The Confession letter author appeared to plagiarize wording from "The Press" newspaper on November 24th 1966, which ran an article mentioning Jack the Ripper. Therefore, I considered the possibility that its author may travel back to 1888 and search microfiche reels, in order to subtly place a quote from the times of Jack the Ripper into his Confession letter. Don't forget, the Confession letter did contain the Ripper style wording of "I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". Alongside the stories of Jack the Ripper in 1888 was the above story of "The Sturdy Beggar", who placed his hand into his hip pocket (probably reaching for a presumed knife) and stated that "it was about time for her to die", thereby threatening the woman. If the Confession letter author had read this newspaper article, all he had to do was set up the preamble of "When we were away from the library walking, I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said ..." - and then deliver this punch line  It would imply that these words were never spoken by the killer of Cheri Jo Bates, whether the author of the Confession letter or not. This sequence of wording on November 29th 1966 always appeared excessively dramatic - as though the author had teed himself up to deliver this punch line. These eight words possibly being sourced from 1888, continuing the theme from the November 24th 1966 newspaper article, in which the offender stated "I'm not Jack the Ripper". 

The April 30th 1967 "Bates Had to Die" letters stated that "there will be more". The July 31st 1969 letter to the Vallejo Times-Herald promised "to kill some more". The March 13th 1971 letter to the Los Angeles Times, in which the Zodiac Killer credited police for stumbling across his Riverside activity, stated "there are a hell of a lot more down there".  The content of the Bates' letters were unknown to the public on July 31st 1969. I was unable to find the phrase "it was about time for her to die" in any other newspaper article in the 276 years previous to November 29th 1966. Other than reporting about the Confession letter, I have also not found these consecutive eight words in the 58 years subsequent to 1966. If you can find either of these eight word phrases outside of 1888 and 1932 (other than quotes about the Zodiac Killer writings or Confession letter), please let me know in comments. 

JACK THE RIPPER AND THE CONFESSION LETTER
A JOURNEY FROM HELL TO RIVERSIDE 

It is without much doubt that the Zodiac Killer had an ability to garnish his letters using references from newspapers, days, weeks, months, and sometimes years previous. Absent of stocking up on piles of newspapers in his home, one of the easiest options for the Zodiac Killer would have been to work in, or regularly frequent an accessible library and harvest material from its current publications - or scroll through the many reels of microfiche to unearth the newspapers of yesteryear. This would have provided an almost endless resource of rich pickings.   

​This was exemplified by his encoded phrase in the 408 cipher, in which he used the quote of Merian C. Cooper upon release of The Most Dangerous Game (1932). Cooper was quoted as saying "man is the most dangerous animal of all" in only a handful of newspaper publications. Currently I have only found this quote from the movie's assocate producer three times - and all were in 1932 - thirty-seven years prior to the trinity of letters on July 31st 1969. This sort of effort from a killer demonstrates a conscientiousness unrivalled in the savage and stark reality of cold-blooded murder. It appears that the Zodiac Killer went to great lengths when composing his letters to the press. Could this effort be found in the Riverside confession letter mailed on November 29th 1966?   

​The author of this letter seemed to borrow phrases from The Press newspaper on November 24th 1966. The newspaper article stated that the man "grabbed her around the neck". The confession letter author typed "I grabbed her around the neck with my hand over her mouth". The newspaper article stated "I could just hit you in the head with this piece of wood". The confession letter author typed "She let out a scream once and I kicked her in the head to shut her up". But it's the use of the wording "I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see" in the confession letter that I would like to focus upon. This reminded me of Jack the Ripper.

The newspaper article on November 24th 1966, which compared an attack on a 19-year-old woman to that of Cheri Jo Bates, five days before the confession letter arrived, remarked on the attacker stating "I'm not Jack the Ripper". In fact, the entire confession letter had overtones of Jack the Ripper in its sadistic nature. But one phrase seemed unusual - as though it was borrowed from a movie or book for dramatic effect. The author of the confession letter typed "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". This wording appeared like a set-up introduction for the punch line "I said it was about time for her to die". It appeared contrived. With this in mind, I dug a little further.

I searched newspaper archives for this phrase and found an attack on a woman where the criminal stated "it was about time for her to die", using the same eight consecutive words as the confession letter  This story appeared in The Evening Bulletin newspaper from Providence, Rhode Island on December 11th 1888 (the year of Jack the Ripper), on the day it was reported that "Jack the Ripper" had possibly "cut the throat" of a woman on Bermondsey Street in London, causing great excitement in the neighborhood (see above and below). The confession letter, with overtones of Jack the Ripper, used three phrases: [1] "I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see" [2] "I said it was about time for her to die" and [3] "I then finished the job out cutting her throat". The first phrase is self-explanatory, with the second two reminiscent of December 11th 1888, a day that Jack the Ripper hit the headlines in America once again  Had the confession letter author trawled through the microfiche of Riverside City College library (or another) looking for quotes to use from the times of Jack the Ripper and stumbled across "The Sturdy Beggar" story, which caught his eye? The story of Arthur Craven (below), sentenced to five years in state prison on October 6th 1888, ran alongside several Jack the Ripper newspaper articles. I have not found the phrase "it was about time for her to die" in any newspaper from 1690 to November 29th 1966, other than 1888, the year of Jack the Ripper.

PART TWO: THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF MURDER 
PART THREE: A JOURNEY FROM HELL TO RIVERSIDE ​
PART FOUR: BRINGING WHITECHAPEL TO RIVERSIDE      
PART FIVE: YOURS TRULY, JACK THE RIPPER     
​PART SIX: I AM GUILTY, I AM INSANE BY NATHAN SWARTZ
​PART SEVEN: THE "GAMES" OF THE ZODIAC KILLER

The Nancy Drew YouTube channel recently highlighted an individual called Flake Crawford Casto, who graduated from Ramona High School in Riverside in 1965, the year before Cheri Jo Bates. He was involved with varsity football in 1964-1965, while Cheri was a cheerleader during those years. They both had connections to St Catherine's Church, 7005 Brockton Avenue in Riverside. Cheri Jo Bates had attended mass there with her father on the morning of her death, on October 30th 1966. One week earlier, on October 22nd 1966, Flake Casto got married at St Catherine's church to Kathleen Corcoran. In "The Press" newspaper it reported on November 14th 1966 that the newlyweds were now living in San Diego, where Flake Castro was stationed in the Navy. Curiously, the Casto family lived at the 4195 Via San Jose address (until 1958) before Joseph Bates and Cheri.

On January 21st 1968, The San Diego Union and Daily Bee newspaper reported on the arrest of Flake Casto (21) in Clairemont, San Diego for the rape of two women near the University of California, San Diego. He was now the father of a month-old boy (born December 19th 1967) and worked at the Miramar Naval Air Station in Clairemont. He was captured by Thomas Hudson of 3260 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard  Detective Guerin of the police sex crime detail stated that Casto was suspected of the rape of two 19-year-old girls on December 3rd 1967 and January 1st 1968. Just over a year previous, on November 22nd 1966, a male was reported by a woman, also 19 years old, who was walking towards the University of California, Riverside, when she was approached by a man driving a vehicle and subjected to an apparent rape. She stated that she had been held captive for more than two hours before making her escape. Her abductor remarked on the recent murder of Cheri Jo Bates and used language seemingly mimicked by the Confession letter author five days after the November 24th 1966 newspaper article describing this encounter.             

​The author of the confession letter on November 29th 1966 apparently took inspiration from the Press-Enterprise newspaper on November 24th 1966 (see below). The newspaper article stated that the man "grabbed her around the neck". The confession letter author typed "I grabbed her around the neck with my hand over her mouth". The newspaper article stated "I could just hit you in the head with this piece of wood". The confession letter author typed "She let out a scream once and I kicked her in the head to shut her up". The assailant mentioned in the newspaper stated "I'm not Jack the Ripper". The confession letter author typed "But I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". At one point the assailant offered to "take her home", with the confession letter author typing he "would give her a lift home". The woman was first approached by the man on Linden Street, just 2.5 miles from the murder location of Cheri Jo Bates. 

The following year, on April 30th 1967, the author of the three Bates' letters again seemingly mimicked the Press-Enterprise newspaper from the same day. Jack Matthews, the Staff Writer of the Press-Enterprise newspaper, wrote about the murder of Cheri Jo Bates and the content in the confession letter, stating "The letter told of how Cheri struggled while she was being stabbed to death and the writer said there would be more killings to come". The author of the Bates' letters mimicked this wording by writing "Bates had to die, there will be more".

​The day after the Bates' letters that claimed "there will be more", on May 1st 1967, Nikki Alexandra Benedict (14) had left her friend Kathie Gomski's house in Halper Road, Poway shortly after 6:00 pm, to walk the 2 1/2 mile journey to her home at 13530 Olive Tree Lane, when approximately 25 minutes into her journey her life was cruelly snatched away. She was just passing the intersection of 12784 Poway and Carriage Road, traveling along a dirt pathway that straddled the Poway Road, when an unknown assailant, presumed to be laying in wait, leapt from a grassy depression and viciously attacked the young teenage girl with a short-bladed knife. She had a knife wound to her neck and bruises on her elbows and knees, but the fatal injuries were two stab wounds that penetrated her heart. The young girl did not succumb to her injuries immediately, with a trail of blood extending 200 yards to the west side of Carriage Road as she desperately sought help near a local shopping center. At approximately 6:30 pm, an 11-year-old boy, Ronald Fisk, discovered the critically injured girl and raced away on his bicycle to seek help from his father, who worked at a nearby market store. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of responding personnel, Nikki Benedict would be pronounced dead upon her arrival at Palomar Hospital.

​Flake Crawford Casto lived at 12021 Pomerado Road, only 1 1/2 miles from the location where Nikki Benedict was attacked. In fact, Pomerado Road bisected Poway Road just 921 meters from the attack site. An eyewitness described a young man running away from the crime scene. Flake Casto would have been 20 years of age on May 1st 1967. His first suspected rape attack in Clairemont on December 3rd 1967 was seven months after the murder of Nikki Benedict. The rape occurred sixteen days before his wife gave birth at Knollwood Hospital in Riverside. 

On January 4th 1975, the Press-Enterprise newspaper stated that Flake Casto (27) had been sentenced to five years in jail for burglary, despite initially being charged with the rape of two University of California, Riverside women on February 2nd 1974 and February 21st 1974. Casto was found at 3am in March walking down the hallways of the campus, trying the doors on the floor where the women had been previously raped. The Nancy Drew YouTube channel found later reports that Flake Casto was described as a mentally disordered sex offender.
​
The teenager years of Flake Casto overlapped with that of Cheri Jo Bates, murdered by a short-bladed knife on the Riverside City College campus on October 30th 1966 - so it's unusual that he would live so close to the murder location of Nikki Alexandra Benedict, also stabbed with a short-bladed knife in Poway on May 1st 1967, located 72 miles south of Terracina Drive (by crow). His family's residence at 8279 Marie Street, Riverside was 3 1/2 miles from the Riverside City College campus. I wonder if those brush offs were real?

In a previous article I examined the notion that the Confession letter mailed on November 29th 1966 was the forerunner to the July 31st 1969 Zodiac letters. When "The Most Dangerous Game" movie was released in 1932, its associate producer, Merian C. Cooper, reflected on the evil of the human condition and stated "man is the most dangerous animal of all". This would be the wording used by the Zodiac Killer in his decrypted 408 cipher, solved by Donald and Bettye June Harden on August 8th 1969. Thirteen years after "The Most Dangerous Game" was released, "A Game of Death" starring John Loder and Audrey Long opened in US cinemas on November 23rd 1945. A poor remake of the original, the only real difference was that the evil Russian, Count Zaroff, had turned into the insane German, Erich Kreiger.

​This later movie featured on television throughout California from November 5th 1966 to November 8th 1966 - so if the Zodiac Killer was present in Riverside (or California) during this period, and was responsible for any of the communications down south - could this movie have had any influence on the phrases chosen in the Confession letters? Did the flawed character traits of Count Zaroff and Erich Kreiger, who were insane, heartless, and psychopathic men with a thirst to hunt human beings, form the basis of the wording "I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game" in the Confession letters on November 29th 1966? That "game" being "a game of death", in which the insanity of Erich Kreiger and the Confession letter author created no barrier to the murderous game and ambitions of either.. "A Game of Death" in 1966 turning into a "Most Dangerous Game" in the Bay Area, two to three years later. The murders in southern and northern California cloaked under the banner of the Richard Connell short story of 1924. ​

There were extremely close similarities between the language used in the Confession letter to the Riverside Desktop Poem. The desktop poem appeared to be reminiscing in the present tense about the attempted murder by knife of Roslyn Atwood (19} on the Riverside City College campus on April 13th 1965, before switching attention to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, writing "Just wait till next time. rh." The footnote being riverside, halloween, the day Cheri Jo Bates' lifeless body was discovered next to the library. An interesting connection was made by Ricardo Gomez of MK-Zodiac, who showed a strong similarity between the headline of the Riverside Daily Press on April 17th 1965, to the opening lines from the desktop poem. The Riverside Daily Press stated "Clean-cut youth sought in stabbing", with the desktop poem beginning "cut, clean, if red/clean. blood spurting, dripping, spilling; all over her new dress". 

Was this just one big game, comparing the "unwillingness" of Roslyn Atwood to die on April 13th 1965 in the desktop poem title, to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, who the author of the Confession letter claimed was as a woman who "went very willingly" to her death. The Riverside Daily Press on April 17th 1965 with the "clean-cut" headline also mentioned that Roslyn Atwood was "stabbed in the lower abdomen with a hunting knife with a 4 1/2 inch blade". Strangely, the morning after the Riverside City College library reconstruction on November 13th 1966 concerning the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, a buried hunting knife with a blade measuring 4 1/2 inches was raked up by a groundskeeper just 50 feet from the location of Cheri Jo Bates' body, in the same driveway. Although this was unlikely the weapon used in the attack on Roslyn Atwood, was the game now being played out in the campus itself? The comparison between the murder of Cheri Jo Bates and Roslyn Atwood was briefly considered in the Riverside Daily Press newspaper published on November 3rd 1966, entitled "Key Clue Goes to C11 Unit". Only briefly, however, because Rolland Lin Taft (19) was still behind bars for the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood.      

The typed wording on the Confession letter of "I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game" may have a different meaning. Was the author of the Confession letter, just like the Riverside Desktop Poem, harking back to the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood in 1965, using a mocking defence of his actions in the stabbing of Cheri Jo Bates? It was reported in the Riverside Daily-Enterprise newspaper on September 11th 1965 that Rolland Taft had pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood by reason of insanity. It appeared that the author of the Confession letter was doing the same. But I suspect this claim of insanity was just another part of the "game". It must also be noted that one of the Confession letters was mailed to the Riverside Daily-Enterprise.   

When the Zodiac Killer concealed "man is the most dangerous animal of all" in his 408 cipher, he mimicked the exact quote used by Merian C. Cooper upon the release of the 1932 film "The Most Dangerous Game". I have only found this quote in a handful of newspapers from 1932, so how did the Zodiac Killer acquire this from 37 years prior to 1969 without the use of old newspapers, possibly stored on the microfiche from a library? Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, was an English statesman, lawyer, diplomat and historian who served as chief advisor to royalty in the 17th century. The words once used by Edward Hyde of “They who are most weary of life, and yet are most unwilling to die" are extremely similar to the Riverside Desktop Poem title of "sick of living, unwilling to die," who himself survived a murderous attack, when English sailors nearly killed him at Evreux in France in 1668. If the title of the desktop poem had such lofty origins, it would seem that a library would be of great value once more. A history graduate that can migrate from southern to northern California perhaps? 

MERIAN C. COOPER AND "THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME" (1932)

It has recently been shown how phrases from the Riverside newspapers have been used to create the Riverside Desktop Poem in November/December, The Confession letters on November 29th 1966 and the "Bates Had to Die" letters on April 30th 1967. It seems like the author of the desktop poem trawled through old articles from the local newspaper (the Riverside Daily Press), and used "Clean-cut youth sought in stabbing" from April 17th 1965 about the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood (19). She was stabbed once in the lower abdomen by Rolland Taft while she was walking through a Riverside City College parking lot on April 13th 1965 at 9:30pm. The Riverside Desktop Poem stated "cut, clean, if red/clean. blood spurting, dripping, spilling; all over her new dress". 

The author of the confession letter used the same mimicry on November 29th 1966 by taking phrases and inspiration from the Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper on November 24th 1966. This newspaper article was about another 19-year-old female college student, who was offered a ride in a man's car and then attacked, just like the claims in the confession letter five days later. The newspaper article stated that the man "grabbed her around the neck". The confession letter author typed "I grabbed her around the neck with my hand over her mouth". The newspaper article stated "I could just hit you in the head with this piece of wood". The confession letter author typed "She let out a scream once and I kicked her in the head to shut her up". The assailant mentioned in the newspaper stated "I'm not Jack the Ripper". The confession letter author typed "But I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". At one point the assailant offered to "take her home", with the confession letter author typing he "would give her a lift home".

The author of the "Bates Had to Die" letters continued the theme of mimicry from local newspapers. The sender of the three Bates' letters on April 30th 1967 parroted the words used by Jack Matthews, the Staff Writer of the Press-Enterprise newspaper. On the same day the three threatening letters arrived (one to the Press-Enterprise), he wrote an extensive article about the murder of Cheri Jo Bates and the content in the confession letter, stating "The letter told of how Cheri struggled while she was being stabbed to death and the writer said there would be more killings to come". The author of the Bates' letters mimicked this wording by writing "Bates had to die, there will be more".

​On October 19th 1966, eleven days before the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, The Riverside Daily Press ran an article about David Karp's original drama series on ABC Stage 67. It ran from September 14th 1966 to May 4th 1967, featuring 26 episodes. The episode immediately before the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, aired on October 19th 1966, was entitled "The Confession", in which a lieutenant who was unaware of the latest Supreme Court ruling on murder confessions, attempts to coerce a confession from murder suspect Brandon de Wilde. 

​On June 13th 1966 Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, was a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that law enforcement in the United States must warn a person of their constitutional rights before interrogating them, or else the person's statements or confession cannot be used as evidence at their trial. Specifically, the Court held that under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the government cannot use a person's statements made in response to an interrogation while in police custody as evidence at the person's criminal trial unless they can show that the person was informed of the right to consult with a lawyer before and during questioning, and of the right against self-incrimination before police questioning, and that the defendant not only understood these rights but also voluntarily waived them before answering questions. ​ 

"The Confession" to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on November 29th 1966 may have been another time the author mimicked the local Riverside newspaper (four times in total), mockingly confessing to a recent murder, knowing that anything he typed was in advance of any Miranda rights being issued. We have the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood (19) on April 13th 1965, the murder of Cheri Jo Bates (18) on October 30th 1966, the abduction of a young 19-year-old woman on November 22nd 1966, and the fictitious "murder" of Bonnie on October 19th 1966, all wrapped up in three suspicious communications authored in Riverside, using mimicry from the local Riverside newspaper.   

On October 31st 1966, the day Cheri Jo Bates was found by 3692 Terracina Drive, detectives conducted a thorough search of the driveway where her body was found, using metal detectors to locate the possible murder weapon. They came up empty handed. The morning after the highly publicized library reconstruction, on November 14th 1966, a hunting knife was discovered by a Riverside City College gardener while raking the ground, just 50 feet from the location where the body of Cheri was found. It was unearthed at the other end of the house at 3692 Terracina Drive. Assuming a competent and thorough search of this area was undertaken on October 31st 1966 (including the use of metal detectors), one must assume that this knife was buried in shallow dirt at this location subsequent to the search, and up to the early morning hours of October 14th 1966. The timing of this discovery hours after the library reconstruction is unusual to say the least. I have shown the approximate location of the knife below (it may have been slightly out of shot).  

Investigators stated that preliminary reports suggested it wasn't the knife that killed Cheri Jo Bates. Either they missed it on October 31st 1966, having searched the driveway and the shrubbery only yards from the hunting knife, or it was deliberately placed there sometime in the following two weeks by a mischievous individual or the killer (who used a different knife). The knife was covered with rust, so it may have been there all along and simply missed. A slight oversight one could argue.

The five knife wounds to the front torso and right arm of Cheri Jo Bates were almost certainly delivered while the young woman was standing upright (likely restrained by the killer from behind). The initial part of the attack to this region was probably over in as little as five seconds. She was then likely thrust forward, face down, into the position her body was eventually found on the driveway floor. It is in this position the sixth knife wound was "plunged into her". When the Confession letter author mailed their two typed letters on November 29th 1966, this strike was described as the one prior to "cutting her throat". The sequence of the attack described in the letters matches with the findings in the autopsy report. But crucially, the author stated "I plunged the knife into her and it broke".    

During the initial part of the attack Cheri suffered a "1.7 cm mainly transverse fresh laceration of the skin of the left chest over the 5th rib and centered about 2 cm medial to the left vertical nipple line". This produced a "1.5 cm oblique cut in the bony portion of the 5th rib anteriorly on the left corresponding somewhat to the skin lacerations over it". This is the only damage noted at autopsy to the hard skeletal structures of her body. It is at this point the lock mechanism of the knife was most likely compromised. The knife may still have appeared functioning, but it's possible that the blade was not fixed in position (see here).

​If this bone injury was the fifth knife wound administered to the front of her body before she was thrust forward to the ground, a faulty lock mechanism, weakened during this strike, would have meant that the sixth and final stab wound glancing the transverse process of her spine "2 cm lateral to the midline and opposite the spinous process of the 7th thoracic vertebrae", would have alerted the stabber to the malfunctioning knife blade - which was described by the Confession letter author as a knife that "broke". However, a knife in this condition can still function perfectly well as a slicing tool. A right or left-handed person drawing the knife across their victim's neck would effectively keep the blade open. The author describing the cutting of her throat immediately after they "plunged the knife into her and it broke", is a possible consequence of the prior strike and the rib injury detailed at autopsy. It also shouldn't be forgotten that the Confession letter author mentioned "her breast felt very warm and firm under [his] hands". when we consider that all three wounds to her front torso were to her breasts.

​Andrew Gray, an excellent Zodiac researcher, speculated why a hoaxer would need to add the phrase about the broken knife into the typed Confession letter, because this appears like an unnecessary addition to a letter if you are a hoaxer. This statement seems like an admission only relevant to somebody who was present in the moment. Somebody who needed to explain why the knife attack was brought to a premature end.

It is clear that the author of the three Bates' letters on April 30th 1967 parroted the words used by Jack Matthews, the Staff Writer of the Press-Enterprise newspaper. On the same day the three threatening letters arrived (one to the Press-Enterprise), he wrote an extensive article about the murder of Cheri Jo Bates and the content in the confession letter, stating "The letter told of how Cheri struggled while she was being stabbed to death and the writer said there would be more killings to come". The author of the Bates' letters mimicked this wording by writing "Bates had to die, there will be more" (see foot of article).

​The author of the confession letter used the same mimicry on November 29th 1966 by taking phrases and inspiration from the Press-Enterprise newspaper on November 24th 1966 (see below). This newspaper article was about a 19-year-old woman who was offered a ride in a man's car and then attacked, just like the claims in the confession letter five days later. The newspaper article stated that the man "grabbed her around the neck". The confession letter author typed "I grabbed her around the neck with my hand over her mouth". The newspaper article stated "I could just hit you in the head with this piece of wood". The confession letter author typed "She let out a scream once and I kicked her in the head to shut her up". The assailant mentioned in the newspaper stated "I'm not Jack the Ripper". The confession letter author typed "But I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". At one point the assailant offered to "take her home", with the confession letter author typing he "would give her a lift home". The author of both the Bates' letters and confession letters borrowed phrases from a recently published newspaper article in the Press-Enterprise, and summarily addressed two of these offerings to the same newspaper..The menacing letters came in duplicate on November 29th 1966 and in triplicate on April 30th 1967. The methodology of both authors was extremely similar. The strange signature on two of the Bates' letters followed the wording "There will be more". The author was implying more victims?

​The murder of Cheri Jo Bates (18) and the attack on the 19-year-old woman happened 2 1/2 miles from each other. The man who picked up the woman on Linden Street on November 22nd 1966, had initially given her a lift in his car three weeks earlier. This would have been approximately November 1st 1966, one day after the body of Cheri Jo Bates was found murdered in the driveway alongside Terracina Drive. He was described as 35 years old, 5-foot 9-inches, with a "chunky protruding stomach". I wonder what he looked like on October 11th 1969?

​It is difficult not to see a connection between the Riverside Desktop Poem, Confession letter and Bates' letters when they have the common language of "to die" running through all three, along with the numerous similarities between the poem and the Confession letter, explored here in great detail. A further comprehensive examination of the Confession letter with the then unreleased autopsy report of Cheri Jo Bates, strongly points to an author who knew too much. If the Confession letter author on November 29th 1966 was the murderer of the young college student, then he was very likely responsible for the desktop poem also. 

Only three days after the discovery of Cheri Jo Bates' body on Halloween morning (October 31st 1966), the Riverside Daily Press newspaper published an article on November 3rd 1966 entitled "Key Clue Goes to C11 Unit", comparing the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood (19) on April 13th 1965 with the murder of Cheri Jo Bates.(18) on the same campus (see below). It was soon discovered that Rolland Taft (19), responsible for the attack on Atwood, was still in jail when Cheri was murdered and therefore was not responsible for her murder and any of the subsequent communications. I suspect that the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates read this newspaper article and composed a desktop poem mentioning how Roslyn Atwood was "unwilling to die" and had escaped to a nearby house after her stabbing. with "blood spurting, dripping and spilling over her new red dress". The author concluded that she wouldn't "die this time," but Cheri Jo Bates wouldn't be so lucky, stating "just wait till next time", The addition of "rh" likely dating her demise as happening in Riverside on Halloween, because that is when her body was discovered.

The poem was predominately structured around the Roslyn Atwood attack, and was possibly written in blue ballpoint pen a matter of days after the November 3rd 1966 newspaper article. The Confession letter on November 29th 1966 likely continued where the desktop poem finished off, by describing that "next time". The Confession letter would contrast the fact that Roslyn Atwood was "unwilling to die" by remarking how Cheri Jo Bates "went to the slaughter like a lamb" and "went very willingly". The Confession letter also used the phrase "to die" again, stating "I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". It must also be noted how the word "time" appeared 5 times in these two communications.   

It is hard to believe that when the desktop poem was discovered in December 1966, a connection wasn't made between the Roslyn Atwood story and the contents of the desktop poem. I have trawled through approximately a dozen newspaper articles about the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood and found no mention of a "new red dress" in any. All police really had to do was reinterview Roslyn Atwood and discover if she had bought a new red dress shortly before she was stabbed. If she had been able to confirm this fact, it would have placed the desktop poem author and likely murderer of Cheri Jo Bates in her proximity the day she was stabbed. How else could he have reasonably acquired the knowledge she had recently purchased a new red dress and had worn it that night, other than her telling him directly, by somebody who knew Roslyn telling him, or through him overhearing a conversation of her telling someone else?

Roslyn Atwood attended night classes at the Riverside City College and had been attacked traveling home at 9:30pm that night, so it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that the desktop poem author attended the same night class as Roslyn, or had been at the Riverside college for other classes on April 13th 1965. Either way, if police could have confirmed she had bought such a dress and was wearing it when she was stabbed, it would have placed the author of the desktop poem extremely close to Roslyn Atwood at the Riverside City College. A college he would have been writing a desktop poem about 19 months later. For those who believe Zodiac to be responsible for the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, Roslyn Atwood could be the key.

There may finally be a credible answer to the meaning of the 1966 Riverside Desktop Poem and the "rh" signature at its base. The first part of the poem, reminiscing in the present tense, is referring to the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood (19), who was stabbed once in the lower abdomen by Rolland Taft while she was walking through a Riverside City College parking lot on April 13th 1965 at 9:30pm. Asking the college student if she needed a ride several times, she refused and started walking up the stairs on the north side of the lot east of Cutter Pool. After leaving his vehicle and approaching her, she resisted his attempts to grab her and was stabbed once. After he fled, she made her way to 4531 Lemon, across the street from her home at 4510 Lemon. A hunting knife with a 4 1/2 inch blade was found by officers on the steps. Miss Atwood was released from hospital on April 22nd 1965 after nine days. While there she helped create a photo-fit of her attacker. She attended night classes at the college. 

The poem's author probably read the retelling of the Roslyn Atwood story only four days after the Cheri Jo Bates murder on October 30th 1966, when the Riverside Daily Press newspaper on November 3rd 1966 compared the murder of Cheri Jo Bates to the Roslyn Atwood stabbing on the same campus (see below). But was the desktop author the murderer? Investigators realised Rolland Taft was still behind bars on October 30th 1966, so couldn't have been responsible for the murder of Cheri Jo Bates or the poem.

The Riverside Desktop author must have been inspired to search for details regarding this attempted murder in 1965, that would ultimately form the first part of the desktop poem, which borrowed from the Riverside Daily Press newspaper headline on April 17th 1965 entitled "Clean-cut youth sought in stabbing".(Credit: MK Zodiac). The Riverside Desktop Poem began with "cut, clean, if red/clean. blood spurting, dripping, spilling; all over her new dress". The second section of the poem moved from Roslyn Atwood to Cheri Jo Bates, stating "Someone'll find her. Just wait till next time. rh." The "rh" abbreviation can be found in a newspaper article about Roslyn Atwood from the Riverside Daily Press newspaper on April 29th 1965. It is not a signature.    

It appears like the author of the desktop poem trawled through old articles from the local newspaper (the Riverside Daily Press), and created the beginning and ending of the poem from "Clean-cut youth sought in stabbing" and an educational footnote from a second article on April 29th 1965, entitled "Accused youth sent to Juvenile Court" (see below)..Two further communications would have relevance to The Press-Enterprise on November 29th 1966 and April 30th 1967 regarding Cheri Jo Bates. 

The author, by adding of the "rh" footnote in a poem shortly after the killing of Cheri Jo Bates, about the attempted murder of a woman with a knife, whose blood was "spurting, dripping, spilling; all over her new dress", may have been attempting to clue us in to the Roslyn Atwood story on the same campus. If the above newspaper article published by the Riverside Daily Press had been found, the "RH" abbreviation concerning blood may have peaked some interest - but does the RH factor have any bearing on the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, when the author declared "just wait till next time"?

The Rh blood group system is a human blood group system. It contains proteins on the surface of red blood cells. After the ABO blood group system, it is the most likely to be involved in transfusion reactions. The Rh blood group system consisted of 49 defined blood group antigens in 2005. As of 2023, there are over 50 antigens among which the five antigens D, C, c, E, and e are the most important. There is no d antigen. Rh(D) status of an individual is normally described with a positive (+) or negative (−) suffix after the ​ABO type (e.g., someone who is A+ has the A antigen and Rh(D) antigen, whereas someone who is A− has the A antigen but lacks the Rh(D) antigen). The terms Rh factor, Rh positive, and Rh negative refer to the Rh(D) antigen only. Antibodies to Rh antigens can be involved in hemolytic transfusion reactions and antibodies to the Rh(D) and Rh antigens confer significant risk of hemolytic disease of the newborn.

Cheri Jo Bates' blood type detailed at autopsy is rare in the USA population. It was AB RhD positive, which accounts for only 3% of the American population. Did the author of the poem use the "rh" footnote in the Roslyn Atwood newspaper article on April 29th 1965 because they knew the rarity of Cheri Jo Bates' blood grouping? Disregarding this last observation, we still have a November 3rd 1966 newspaper article from the Riverside Daily Press comparing the Atwood and Bates cases only four days after the Riverside murder, and another article from the same newspaper on April 29th 1965 about the stabbing of Roslyn Atwood with an attached educational footnote, reading "The RH factor in blood was identified in 1940". So did the author create the desktop poem shortly after the November 3rd 1966 article, that would ultimately shape the linguistics of the Confession letter on November 29th 1966? 

If we look at the desktop poem alongside the Confession letter, we need go no further than the title of the desktop poem, which reads "Sick of living/unwilling to die". The desktop poem begins with "Sick of living", and the Confession letter states "I am not sick. I am insane". The desktop poem title uses the word "unwilling", to which the Confession letter states "She was then very willing to talk to me" and "She went very willingly". One referenced an unwillingness to die, whereas one claimed Cheri Jo Bates went "willingly" to her death. In other words, Miss Atwood resisted her death and didn't die "that time", but Cheri Jo Bates died hard and willingly. The desktop poem title uses the phrase "to die", with the Confession letter stating "I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". This brings forth another connection between both communications with the word "time" central to both. The desktop poem uses the word "time" twice, when stating "She won't die, this time someone'll find her. Just wait till next time", whereas the Confession letter uses the word "time" three times by stating "I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". We have the words "sick", "unwilling" (in root form) and "time" from the desktop poem, used 6 times in the Confession letter by way of "sick", "willing", "willingly", "time", "time" and "time". In fact, the words "die" and "time" are used in the same context in both communications by the sentences "she won't die, this time someone'll find her" and "I said it was about time for her to die". If you add in the three Bates letters of "Bates had to die", "She had to die" and "She had to die" into the equation, we have the phrase "to die" used 5 times in all three communications.

Miss Atwood escaped the clutches of Rolland Lin Taft in 1965, expressed by the desktop author when they stated "she won't die, this time someone'll find her", but reminded everybody that the next time Cheri Jo Bates wouldn't be so lucky by finishing the poem with "Just wait till next time. rh".

Thanks to Jibberjabber for giving me access to a new newspaper database 

Ten injuries were noted at autopsy on the right hand of Cheri Jo Bates and only two on her left hand, along with brown Caucasian hairs found in blood at the base of her right thumb (microscopically different to her hair). Just like her killer, there was a 90% chance she was right-handed, which appeared to be her dominant hand during the attack. As was her right arm, which received two knife wounds to the axillay fold (armpit) and mid upper arm. A killer thrusting a knife forward while facing her is not born out by the autopsy report, as demonstrated in these three articles. She was close enough to her killer to grab his hair and scratch either his head, hands, arms or face (because of foreign skin under her fingernails), and likely tear the Timex wristwatch from his left wrist. If Cheri Jo Bates was being held by an assailant from behind with his non-dominant arm and hand around her neck and mouth, his hair, face, arms and wrists would all be in close proximity and make this possible.

Close quarter restraint was also evidenced by the narrow vertical grouping of wounds to her breasts and right axillary fold, and the close mirroring of the knife wound widths on her upper torso (1,4cm, 1.5cm, 1.7cm, 1.9cm) to the estimated width of the blade (0.5 inches/1.27cm), along with what seemed to be compression or strangulation petechiae noted on her forehead at autopsy. If the killer had been forcibly restraining or choking Cheri Jo Bates around the neck from behind, then this compression could increase intra-capilliary pressure by restricting the venous return of blood, thereby creating the petechial haemorrhaging evident on the forehead of the young woman..But why would our killer be using his left hand to choke her? - or as he put it - "grabbed her around the neck with my hand over her mouth and my other hand with a small knife at her throat".

​If we go by statistics, the killer would be right-handed, restraining her from behind with his left arm, while using his right hand to stab backwards into her upper torso. Because a right-handed person usually wears their watch on the non-dominant left side, it would mean that his watch would be over her mouth or neck during the initial part of the attack - and the area she would naturally grab to remove this restriction. This could explain why she pulled the watch from his wrist (and why skin was found under her fingernails). If the killer was facing Cheri Jo Bates and thrusting the knife forward with his right hand in an unrestrained attack, the chance of her being able to grab his left wrist and watch with enough purchase to remove it from his person would diminish in likelihood. It could be argued that there was a higher probability of the watch being yanked from his wrist before the stabbing began (or early part of the attack), because there appeared to be no blood found on the watch, which would be much more likely as the attack unfolded.  

This would explain why the watch was discovered 10 feet distant from her right foot, pulled from the assailant's wrist the moment his left arm was placed around her mouth/neck area. A brief struggle ensued, before she was thrust forward into the ground, detaching the straw bag from her shoulder.  A kick to her head and one knife wound to her back, probably culminated with the seven slice wounds to her neck. A brief, but undeniably horrible and brutal murder of a gregarious, intelligent young woman. 

Zodiac researcher Andrew Gray noted that the author of the Confession letter on November 29th 1966 typed "I plunged the knife into her and it broke", despite this never being featured in the newspapers or detailed at autopsy. It seemed strange to consider a hoaxer just inventing this unnecessary inadequacy regarding the attack if it didn't actually happen. Bearing in mind the sequence of events described above, the plunging of the knife into her appears to be describing the wound to her back, opposite the spinous process of her 7th thoracic vertebrae. This would explain why the small knife could have broken as it struck the bony processes of the spinal column. A broken hinge mechanism would now only be good for the final action of drawing the knife across her neck region, which the author described. Despite volunteering this unnecessary admission of a malfunctioning knife, the author of the Confession letter doesn't address the elephant in the room, notably the Timex watch found by the body of Cheri Jo Bates and mentioned heavily in the newspapers. The inclusion of the broken knife, but omission of the watch, forces one to conclude it was probably his timepiece.

The author of the Confession letter stated "Her breast felt very warm and firm under my hands" and "I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". This focus on "female parts"and "her breast", allied with the claim of "brush offs" in the very next sentence, gives rise to the notion of a sexually motivated attack when one considers there were only three knife wounds to her torso and all three were to her breasts (four attempted wounds to her breasts if you include the axillary fold injury slightly above the right breast). An individual who had focused his unhealthy attention towards the attractive young woman beyond his reach and unattainable, may have driven him to target the very objects of his desire - an attack on her sexuality. The knife wounds to this region was another detail that was absent from the newspapers. The author also claimed that "She let out a scream once and I kicked her in the head to shut her up". The scream was noted in the newspapers, but the "2 cm oblique ragged edge fresh non gaping laceration of the upper lip on the left side, that angles laterally from above and extends completely through the thickness of the lip" was exclusive to the autopsy. A severe kick to the head is perfectly capable of lacerating the lip from back to front without damaging the teeth, if delivered as an angular blow. 

The entire attack, short in duration, with "only" 5 stab wounds to her front upper torso and right arm (clustered in an area measuring 20cm horizontally and 10cm vertically), all above the breast line, taking place in a small section of the driveway, with petechiae on her forehead and the straw bag alongside and partially under her body, suggests an attack of close contact and restraint. The hair from the assailant at the base of her right thumb, the skin under her fingernails and the Timex watch found just 10 feel from her body, confirms this hypothesis and is commensurate with the details provided by the author of the Confession letter, who was probably the killer of Cheri Jo Bates.