Luis Campos, born in Santiago, Dominican Republic is an inventor, poet and cryptographer who created puzzles and ciphers for the United Features Syndicate of New York, beginning in 1983. He would create six celebrity ciphers a week, featuring famous quotes from well-known people, past and present. The reader had to identify the person and quote from the encoded text. The characters in the cryptograms were deliberately spaced into separate words, as shown on the right. 

On September 25th 1990 somebody mailed the celebrity cypher to the Vallejo Times-Herald, approximately three months before the 1990 'Eureka' card, often associated with the Zodiac Killer. Bearing in mind the 408 cipher mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969, many have pondered whether this postcard was mailed by the Bay Area murderer. There is little to prove this notion one way or another, but if somebody was mimicking the Zodiac Killer, one might expect the wording on the card to equally mimic previous correspondence, in particular, phrases he used with respect to his codes and ciphers. 

Many people have put forward solutions to the celebrity cypher, including the website Zodiologists.com and Rubislaw32 (a regular contributor to this site). Some of these solutions can be found on Ricardo Gomez's Project MK-Zodiac site. But here, I am not going to tackle the celebrity cypher from the angle of cryptology, because not only do I have a basic knowledge of ciphers, but also, the mere fact that so many people of greater ability than me have come to wildly different conclusions, is evidence of a code that is malleable. In other words, this code is open to subjective interpretation and no solution, despite the belief of the code-cracker, has been universally accepted. Of course, nobody knows, or could know with certainty, who the author of this postcard is. However, if the author mailed a cipher to the Vallejo Times-Herald in an attempt to pass this communication off under the guise of Zodiac-style correspondence, could it be argued that the sender is also a murderer? One attempted solution caught my eye on the Zodiac Killer Site forum - and this is the path I will follow, despite the pitfall of characters being hidden behind the stamp. Here is the card, on which I have added some notations which will be explained later.   ​ 

​The first thing to notice is that the author likely places his name and address on the upper left hand side of the celebrity cypher, and also signs off the card with his name. Often a sender will provide a return address on the left side of a postcard or envelope. This is backed up by the identical thirteen characters beginning and ending the correspondence. Then we have to predict what the preceding text is before the author signs off with their name. On the left is the '13 Symbol' cipher mailed by the Zodiac Killer on April 20th 1970. He precedes the code or name with My name is. 

In the Luis Campos example at the top of the page, the final line is reserved for the name. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that the Zodiac Killer or somebody imitating him, would write My name is before signing off with their name. This may be preceded by a question, such as "Do you know me", in view of the Bay Area murderer having committed his crimes just under 21 years ago. A variation of do you remember me? Even if the author wasn't the Zodiac Killer, they may have been projecting the idea that they were. 

The next thing to look at is the return address. It has 10 characters followed by seven, then two. Many on the Zodiac Killer forum have deduced that the bottom line of the return address to be Oakland, CA - so I will run with this idea. The postcard was postmarked Oakland, so it's reasonable to conclude the return address would be Oakland too. This being the case, the 10 characters above must represent the area within Oakland. Now comes the simple task of finding a potential murderer who possibly authored this postcard. Somebody who knew of the Zodiac Killer, lived in an area of Oakland (comprised of 10 letters), and was eventually caught and convicted of murder. Surprisingly, if you type into Google search "Oakland, murderer, 1990" a possible answer is served up on a plate. Somebody who certainly lived in Oakland up to 1992, murdered two women in Oakland Hills that year, and lived with his grandparents near to Skyline Road and Golf Links Road, the deposition site of the two murdered women. Where exactly his grandparents lived, I have yet to ascertain, but there is a 10-letter neighborhood in East Oakland called Castlemont. It is less than a mile from Golf Links Road. His name was Monte Crawford, exactly fitting the 5 and 8 characters at the foot of the celebrity cypher.   

Monte Crawford, a military veteran, was sentenced on Friday, August 1st 2014 to 40 years to life for the 1992 double murder of Tredis Penny (26) and Shirley Wynn (38), both strangled and sexually assaulted, before being dumped in the Oakland Hills. I have no idea whatsoever if Monte Crawford was responsible for the celebrity cypher, but he did live in Oakland, in or near Castlemont, both of which fit the code, and he was capable of murder as he showed just one and a half years later, if he wasn't already a killer at this juncture.   

It is no coincidence that the Zodiac Killer only wrote "in this cipher is my idenity" in the letter he mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969, because this one-third of the cipher contained the 18 unsolved characters at its foot. This was also the only letter of the three to begin with "This is the murderer". The other two communications to the San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald began with "I am the killer". This shift in introduction may be completely accidental, may be subconscious or may be completely deliberate on account of the "identity" he is to place at the foot of the cipher. The author of these three communications had deliberately separated them into three parts, and therefore when he was preparing the San Francisco Chronicle letter, one would like to think he was considering the opening line when placing his identity at the end of the cipher. If he was ever going to disclose his identity (but not his name), then logically it would be an extension of "I am the killer" to "I am the Zodiac Killer", and therefore satisfy the quota of 18 unsolved characters required by the cipher. I have inserted "I am the Zodiac Killer" at the end of the opening lines of the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner to show how the revelation of his identity in the Chronicle better suits the introduction of "This is the murderer". 
San Francisco Chronicle: "Dear Editor, This is the murderer of the 2 teenagers last Christmass at Lake Herman + the girl on the 4th of July near the golf course in Vallejo. I am the Zodiac Killer" 
San Francisco Examiner: Dear Editor, I am the killer of the 2 teen-agers last Christmass at Lake Herman and the Girl last 4th of July. I am the Zodiac Killer"     

The Zodiac Killer may have accidentally dropped the word "people" from the San Francisco Chronicle cipher (shown in red above) when he transitioned from one cipher to another, unwittingly missing out this word from his original draft to final version, and thereby forcing him to switch from the intended 12 characters he meant to leave, to a revised 18 characters.To rectify his mistake he simply changed "I am the Zodiac" to "I am the Zodiac Killer". The confirmed murderer of five never used the term "Zodiac Killer" in any of his subsequent communications, opting for "This is the Zodiac speaking", but may have had his hand forced on this occasion. It would have been relatively easy to just rewrite the San Francisco Chronicle cipher, but this was an easy solution. One can see how the Zodiac Killer chose his words in the October 13th 1969 letter, opening up with "This is the Zodiac speaking. I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by Washington St + Maple St last night". He uses the words "I am" because he has already introduced himself as the Zodiac. In the July 31st 1969 San Francisco Chronicle letter he uses the words "This is the murderer" because he has thus far failed to introduce himself, which he reserves for the final line of the cipher, stating "I am the Zodiac (Killer)". It is effectively a reversal of the Paul Stine letter. 
Paul Stine letter: "This is the Zodiac speaking. I am the murderer of the taxi driver".  
San Francisco Chronicle: "This is the murderer of the 2 teenagers. I am the Zodiac Killer"    

The murderer would very quickly introduce himself in the August 4th 1969 'Debut of Zodiac' letter: "This is the Zodiac speaking. In answer to your asking for more details about the good times I have had in Vallejo, I shall be very happy to supply even more material. By the way, are the police having a good time with the code? If not, tell them to cheer up; when they do crack it, they will have me". He was introducing himself as "Zodiac", so when the police did eventually crack the code, in effect, they would have "had Zodiac". 

An anonymous caller in San Francisco declared that whoever devised the code "would have to have a vast knowledge in three fields - surveying, nautical science and marksmanship". How the caller could derive that the triple murderer had a vast knowledge of marksmanship from these attacks is hard to justify, not to mention nautical science and surveying. Was the Zodiac Killer ringing the police and blowing his own trumpet? The murderer did ultimately commit his murders with varied weaponry and did eventually introduce a map and radians into his communications.   

If we are looking for an identity or pseudonym in the 18 unsolved characters of the 408 cipher, then it must include appropriate word usage in order to increase the originally intended 12 characters up to 18 characters. So if the original message was "I am the Zodiac" or "Zodiac Killer", then the author had to supplement it with an extra 6 characters to replace the word "people". The simplest avenue available was to add "Killer" or "I am the", in order to generate these 6 characters. These were all used consecutively in two of the three communications mailed on July 31st 1969, when the Zodiac Killer wrote "I am the killer of the 2 teenagers last Christmass at Lake Herman + the girl last 4th of July" to the San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald.  

The Zodiac Killer had seemingly failed to fully convince Vallejo Police Chief Jack E Stiltz, who was less than satisfied that the letter writer and killer were one and the same, urging the author of the July 31st 1969 letters to send in more details of the crimes. The Zodiac Killer immediately dispatched the 'Debut of Zodiac' letter on August 4th 1969 with the introduction of "This is the Zodiac speaking". Although the Zodiac Killer could add more details of the crimes in this new letter to prove he was the killer, It is conceivable he revealed his pseudonym after only four days to inextricably link himself to the first three letters. The only way he could achieve this beyond any doubt, was to reveal a significant word in the unsolved cipher. Then the police would know for certain when the code was broken, that the author of the August 4th 1969 letter was not only the killer, but the designer of the cryptogram. So he introduced his pseudonym "Zodiac" earlier than he had originally intended and immediately rushed it off to the San Francisco Examiner newspaper on August 4th 1969, before the cryptogram was solved.

​Remember, if Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz had not urged the author of the July 31st 1969 letters to send in more details to prove the letter writer was the killer, the 'Debut of Zodiac' letter would likely never have been written and sent to the Examiner. The "Zodiac" would still have been the "killer" by the time of the Paul Stine murder. He revealed his pseudonym to link himself to the San Francisco Chronicle's 18 characters, but unfortunately for him, he clearly underestimated the difficulty of the encryption. The release of his identity or pseudonym "Zodiac" so quickly, may lend credence to its presence in the remainder of the 408 cipher, and by extension, the 18 unsolved characters harboring a genuine and coherent message. 

​"This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way, are the police having a good time with the code? If not, tell them to cheer up; when they do crack it, they will have me".

THE 18 UNSOLVED CHARACTERS [PT1]
THE 18 UNSOLVED CHARACTERS [PT2]
​THE 18 UNSOLVED CHARACTERS [PT3]

In the last article 'The 340 Cipher-Trick or Treat?' we attempted to show how the Zodiac Killer used two xeroxed keys in the 1990 'American Greetings' card to intimate that the 340 cipher should be inverted or flipped, in order to begin the message with 'This is the Zodiac speaking'. The 'Halloween' card intersecting "sorry no cipher" key, was also used to show how Paradice and Slaves was pivotal to the design of the 340 cipher. But another cryptic communication arrived just 22 days before the 'Halloween' card, on October 5th 1970, entitled the '13 Hole' postcard. The Zodiac Killer could easily have drawn or photographed the keys in the 'American Greetings' card, but opted to xerox or photocopy them. The same could be said of "sorry no cipher", which he could easily have written once. This led to the notion that these two deliberate choices had a meaning or message. This brings us to the '13 Hole' postcard.

Just like the 'American Greetings' card, why does the Zodiac Killer punch 13 holes through the fabric of this card in a 10:3 configuration, rather than just fill in 13 circles like his ciphers? On the address side these holes can be found on the extreme left of the card, which then obviously switch position when the card is turned over. It can also be noted that the text at the bottom left of the card is also flipped over. It read ​"There are reports city police pig cops are closeing in on me. Fk I'm crackproof. What is the price tag now?" The 'American Greetings' card, it was suggested, used two keys to infer the 340 cipher code should be flipped - the bottom row becoming the top row and vice versa - allowing one of only two prominent 'words' on the 340 to settle on the top row, to facilitate the opening message of 'This is the Zodiac speaking'. The second prominent word of 'Her' (that begins the cipher) would now be flipped to the bottom line of the 340. The '13 Hole' postcard gives us the first clue to suggest the likelihood of this being the case.

The Zodiac Killer punched 13 holes into the card with a hole punch, A keypunch is also a device for precisely punching holes into stiff paper cards at specific locations as determined by keys struck by a human operator. Or in computing, a mechanical device whose keys are pressed, individually or in combination, to punch holes in punched cards or paper tape that correspond to particular characters. Programs or wording can be encoded onto a punched card. Did the Zodiac Killer encode a message in a 10:3 configuration using these punched holes, that would not only take 'Her' to the bottom line of the 340 cipher, but use the identical wording on the envelope of the 'Halloween' card to achieve it?    

The message the Zodiac Killer may have wanted to convey, was that "sorry no cipher" hypothetically written on the address side of the '13 Hole' postcard, would not only separate the word 'Her', but it would effectively be inverted or flipped over to the other side when the postcard was turned. The flipped text containing "Fk I'm crackproof" testament to the fact we have a 'Flipped key', despite the boast of Zodiac claiming he was "crackproof" because of it  The 'Her' has now switched sides, thereby giving us our third key to the workings of the 340 cipher. The Zodiac Killer used two keys in the 'American Greetings' card to flip the 340 cipher, and a hole punch here to project the same message. He even added a red crucifix with the number 13 above, to highlight the connection to the 'big thirteen' letters of paradice and slaves on the 'Halloween' card he was soon to mail. Inversion was at the heart of these three communications, using keys in all instances - and all pointing to a 340 cipher that should be turned on its head. 

The first section of this article is a refresher, before we incorporate the rarely mentioned 'American Greetings' card, postmarked December 1990. This card, devoid of any handwriting on the card inner, was the sister communication to the Halloween card, also beginning with "From your secret pal", but contained a photocopy or xerox of two keys that have mystified as to their meaning. We will attempt to combine this communication with the Halloween card and explain its relevance to the Zodiac Killer's unsolved 340 cipher. As always, this analysis must be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism.
  
So firstly, I would like to press home the notion that the Zodiac Killer's 340 cipher was nothing more than a ruse, designed to stick two fingers up to the challenge laid down by Professor D.C.B. Marsh of the American Cryptogram Association (ACA) on October 22nd 1969, when he "invited Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated - which will truly and honestly include his name." The Zodiac Killer would eventually reveal the workings of the 340 cipher just over a year later when he mailed the rather cryptic Halloween card on October 27th 1970, revealing the trick, not treat, he had perpetrated on his challengers. The killer couldn't have been any more obvious when he actually wrote "sorry no cipher" on the envelope inner.

​In 1970, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Dragon card, the Kathleen Johns letter, the Little List letter and the '13 Hole' postcard, none of which stated the glaringly obvious, that he hadn't sent a cipher with any of them. Why would he then apologize for not sending a cipher with the Halloween card when it was patently apparent upon opening the communication? Even if he had wanted to apologize, why didn't the Zodiac Killer just write "sorry no cipher"? The fact he wrote it twice in the form of two intersecting lines suggests this design was created for a purpose. The only other intersecting text on the entire card were the words "Paradice" and "Slaves", so was the author of the Halloween card telling us that something he had created wasn't a cipher, only the intersecting words of "Paradice" and "Slaves"? If we could find "Paradice" and "Slaves" intersecting each other in any previously unsolved cipher, structured in similar fashion to "sorry no cipher", then this should be a strong argument to the meaning behind the Halloween card. We need to find "Slaves" running horizontally, preferably at the center of the 340 cipher and bisect it with the word "Paradice" (hopefully beginning with the letter "P" somewhere at the top of the cipher along the 9th column). 

Fortunately, nine characters along the top row is the letter "P". Then we must travel downwards 17 characters in order to create two lines of equal length and find the "E" of "Paradice". This will now be represented by the character "<".  We now have two lines of 17 characters, bisected by a "+" sign (the center of the crosshairs). The 'wings' of the crosshairs are represented by two dashes, situated in columns 1 and 17. These represent the two "S" letters of "Slaves". This is all very convenient. 

​There are only two identical characters (the "+" sign) in the 9th column along the first 10 rows, and we know the letter "A" is center of the bisecting "Paradice" and "Slaves" on the Halloween card. It is then a simple task of placing the "R" of "Paradice" and "LV" of "Slaves" into position, to exactly mirror the Halloween card formation. It is then not difficult to find the word "By" in all four quadrants of the 340 cipher, again mirroring the Halloween card. See here for visual. 

The second clue may have also come from the envelope, when the Zodiac Killer underlined the 'LAV' of the misspelled Paul Avery on the address side. The three letters 'LAV' bisected the center point of the 340 cipher. What are the odds of "sorry no cipher" mimicking the "Paradice" and "Slaves" formation on the Halloween card, which then mimicked the 340 cipher, along with  the three alphabetical letters 'LAV' being integral to both. 

The Zodiac Killer knew that the first anniversary of his 340 cipher being unsolved was fast approaching, and this Halloween opportunity of revealing his trick to the world, albeit wrapped in another cryptic message, was simply too much to resist.

The words "Paradice" and "Slaves" were decoded in the 408 cipher and featured prominently in the Halloween card, so what are the chances they were an integral part in the design of the 340 cipher as well? So much so, they may have formed crosshairs, bisecting the cipher at its midpoint? If none of the above was an intentional creation by Zodiac and it all fell out by accident, then he is certainly one hell of a fortunate designer. 

In the words of Thomas Horan, the 340 cipher was certainly the "Great Zodiac Killer Hoax of 1969".

When the Zodiac Killer mailed his trinity of July 31st 1969 communications he withheld his identity or pseudonym, but beginning on August 4th 1969 with his 'Debut of Zodiac' letter through to his March 13th 1971 'Los Angeles' letter, every single letter the Zodiac Killer mailed began with "This is the Zodiac Speaking" (excluding cards). So why should the 340 cipher message be any different - which was effectively a letter within a card. 

We do not know if the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the mailing of the 'American Greetings' card, but for the purpose of this argument we will assume that he was. On the left is the photocopy of the two keys that arrived with the communication. The two keys must have had some meaning to the sender - but what? It is clear that the sender could have photographed the keys, drawn two keys or even pasted two 'newspaper keys' onto the card, but made the deliberate choice of photocopying two keys for a reason. The act of the photocopying, one would like to believe, was done to convey a message.

A negative photocopy inverts the colors of the document when creating a photocopy, resulting in letters that appear white on a black background instead of black on a white background. Negative photocopies of old or faded documents sometimes produce documents which have better focus and are easier to read and study. Wikipedia. ​To invert something is to put upside down or in the opposite position, order, or arrangement. Synonyms of invert, are to turn upside down, upturn, upend, turn around, turn about, turn inside out, turn back to front, reverse, flip (over) or transpose. Therefore, was the designer of the 'American Greetings' card hinting that we should "invert the key" or "flip the key". In other words, the key to the 340 cipher is to "invert" or "flip" it on its head in order to read it. The "sorry no cipher" arrangement on the Halloween card envelope was equated with "Paradice" and "Slaves", but could have been written with the 'vertical' "sorry no cipher" running downwards. Could this imply that "Paradice" was meant to be flipped on the 340 cipher, running from bottom to top?  

If we go to David Oranchak's excellent Zodiac Killer Ciphers website and employ his 340 cipher Webtoy using the 'flip vertically' function, the 20th and 1st rows are flipped, the 19th and 2nd rows are flipped, and so forth. In essence, the bottom line now becomes the top line. The "Zodiac" he gave us on the 20th line is now in the perfect position on the top line to open up this communication or cipher with the infamous words "This is the Zodiac Speaking", just like every other letter from August 1969 to March 1971. 

The correspondence before the Halloween card was the October 5th 1970  '13 Hole' postcard. It too contained a cross and flipped text, stating "There are reports city police pig cops are closeing in on me. Fk I'm crackproof. What is the price tag now?"

Wouldn't it be nice if "Fk" meant "Flipped key" as well, and the '13 Hole' postcard was the third member of the trinity of solutions to the Zodiac Killer's unbreakable 340 cipher.

Thirteen days after the Zodiac Killer mailed the 'Dripping Pen' card and 340 cipher on November 8th 1969, another letter and code purporting to be from the Bay Area murderer was mailed to the San Jose Police Department on November 21st 1969, possibly containing a threat on a "widow" in the San Jose area. Both mailings have so much in common, along with the December 7th and 16th 1969 Fairfield letters, which also contained rudimentary codes. The Zodiac Killer wrote the chronological months of his murders at the foot of the 'Dripping Pen' card: "Des, July, Aug, Sept, Oct = 7". Bearing in mind that all but August were accounted for, it is now clear the card was inferring the murders of two young girls, Deborah Gaye Furlong (14) and Kathy Ann Snoozy (15), who were found savagely stabbed on August 3rd 1969 in the Bay Area of San Jose. It is therefore no surprise that his next communication should be focused on San Jose just two weeks later. Below is part of the FBI file revealing some of its contents.

Placing "November=8" could be viewed as an extension to his "Des, July, Aug, Sept, Oct = 7", indicating he was claiming another murder in November. He also began the communication with familiar words: "There's no doubt I will do my Thing". As the communication was mailed to the San Jose Police Department, we would now have three victims in San Jose to which he was laying claim to. The short code (shown above) was -- + 6 2 + --, containing two dashes either side, two pluses, and the numbers 6 and 2. Both Fairfield letters contained rudimentary codes pertaining to the 340 cipher, as though he was giving us a clue to its design. This may also have been the case when he mailed the Halloween card on October 27th 1970, intersecting the words Paradice and Slaves in a cross formation and writing "sorry no cipher" in similar fashion on the envelope. In fact, the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter contained a design similar to the Halloween card. The 340 cipher can be shown to accommodate the words Paradice and Slaves, bisecting the cipher horizontally and vertically across its mid-section. This opened up the possibility that the San Jose code was somehow connected to this design. Both Fairfield letters harked back to the 340 cipher, so why not the San Jose code also.  

The symbols contained in the San Jose code exactly mirror the order shown on the horizontal mid-section of the 340 cipher. The 10th line is where some believe the cipher could be divided, along with the possibility of the word Slaves residing. Not only do the dashes and pluses line up exactly with the San Jose code using the mid-section of the 340 cipher, but the numbers 6 and 2 would slot nicely in between. If we used basic number play, and converted 6 to F and 2 to B, both these letters can be found together on the 10th line also. All six characters from the San Jose code present on the Slaves line of the 340 cipher. 

This may very well be coincidence, but with "There's no doubt I will do my Thing", "November=8" and this correspondence immediately following the 'Dripping Pen' card and 340 cipher, one could argue the Zodiac Killer was dropping us hints to the mechanics of his "crackproof" cipher. Something he would again do with the arrival of both Fairfield letters in December.

The Zodiac Killer could wait only one month after the Button letter, to give us further clues regarding the bomb he claimed to have buried, when he wrote "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians". Why should the San Jose and Fairfield letters be any different?   

Sometime in 1971 a questionable Zodiac correspondence and cipher was received by the San Francisco Chronicle, postmarked Fairfield, California. This was now the fourth Zodiac related communication mailed from Fairfield, following the December 7th, December 11th and December 16th 1969 trinity. There is limited widespread information regarding this letter available on the internet other than the Zodiologists.com website, who have analyzed this correspondence in great detail. The letter and cipher is to be found using the Wayback Machine on Ed Neil's old website TheZodiacFiles.com. I have cleaned up the letter without altering any of the text by the author:

I'll DO IT TO BECAUSE I DONE IT 21 TIMES. I CAN'T STOP BECAUSE EACH ThAT I KILL MAKES IT WORSE AND I MUST KILL MORE. MAN IS ThE MOST PRIZED GAME. ILL NERVER GIVE MY NAME BECAUSE YOU dONT UNDERSTAND. NEXT TIME I WILL SEND A PATCH OF HUMAN SKIN if their is SOME Left OVER.

The 148 character cipher decodes to:
"Tis the Zodiac Speacking. Why can't you stop me. I can't stop killing. Stop listening t(o) phonys. If this is not on your front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin". 
The wording in the letter "I'll do it to because I done it 21 times" is consistent with a mailing date sometime after the March 13th 1971 'Los Angeles' correspondence from Zodiac, claiming 17+ victims. Using a simple calculation we can estimate how often the Zodiac claimed a victim. From December 20th 1968 to July 26th 1970 Zodiac claimed 13 victims over 584 days. That is one victim every 44.9 days. Therefore, from victim 13 to 21, another 8 victims were claimed (8 X 44.9 = 359 days). Add 359 days to July 26th 1970 and we arrive at July 20th 1971, approximately four months after the 'Los Angeles' letter.

This letter and cipher appears at first glance a dubious Zodiac communication, but as Zodiologists.com point out, how difficult would it be for a hoaxer to mimic the ciphers or crosshairs of Zodiac. The fact the author failed to do this, should be pause for thought. There is also something about this letter that indicates the author had written another 'Zodiac' communication (or the author was the actual Bay Area murderer). The other communication, also mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 13th 1971, mirrored the 148 character cipher and letter in one crucial way - the victim total. The last two widely accepted Zodiac communications were the March 13th 1971 'Los Angeles' letter claiming 17+ victims, and the January 29th 1974 Exorcist letter  claiming 37 victims. The author of the above correspondence had 19 victim totals to choose from (18 to 36), yet he chose 21, the exact total mentioned in the July 13th 1971 'Monticello' card, which featured in the San Francisco Police Department DNA report under "suspected Zodiac correspondence". Did the author of the above correspondence just get lucky, in accidentally choosing 21 victims like the 'Monticello' card, or was he the author of both?

The 'Monticello' card was mailed on July 13th 1971 stating: 
'Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April'.
By my rudimentary calculations the 148 character cipher and letter should have been mailed on July 20th 1971, only one week after the 'Monticello' card. If somebody can find the exact date of mailing regarding the 148 cipher and letter, or when this correspondence was published in the San Francisco Chronicle, it would be of immense value. The 'Monticello' card, by all accounts, was not published in the newspapers. If this were the case, then the victim total of 21, chosen by two independent authors looks extremely unlikely. If the 'Monticello' card was designated as "suspected Zodiac correspondence" by the San Francisco Police Department, then by extension, the above correspondence should be afforded the same value.        

Denise Kathleen Anderson (22), who resided in Sacramento, was last seen on April 13th 1971 by her roommates at approximately 05.30 am - and as of writing her disappearance still remains a mystery - although foul play is suspected. What occurred with Denise Kathleen Anderson after last being seen by her roommates is unknown, but her disappearance (and possible murder) again took place in Sacramento, near Interstate 80, only five months after the murder of Carol Beth Hilburn and exactly one month after the Zodiac 'Los Angeles' letter mailed on March 13th 1971, claiming 17+ victims. In this correspondence Zodiac stated "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." The question is, was Denise Kathleen Anderson one of them?
She disappeared on April 13th 1971, so the 'Monticello' card (with break added) could be referring to the possible murder of Denise Kathleen Anderson in the woods during April:
'Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods.  Dies April'.
The 148 character cipher and letter stating "I'll do it to because I done it 21 times" could very well be confirmation that the victim he sought (possibly Denise Kathleen Anderson) had now been claimed.

What are the chances the 'Monticello' card was also mailed from Fairfield? Denise Kathleen Anderson lived in Sacramento,  only 43 miles from Fairfield - but was she the 21st victim of the Zodiac Killer?  

On October 27th 1970 the Zodiac Killer mailed the Halloween card to the San Francisco Chronicle, stating "sorry no cipher" in the form of a cross, and fashioning "Paradice" and "Slaves" in the same manner. In the four corners he placed By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife. For anyone who believes the September 27th 1969 Lake Berryessa attack was at the hand of the Zodiac Killer, must surely conclude the "by knife" reference on the Halloween card to be admitting his participation in this crime, as this phrase on the car door had been withheld from the public and newspapers alike. This inextricably links the author of the Halloween card to the Lake Berryessa attack. Elements of the Halloween card can be found in the 340 cipher, with "Paradise" and "Slaves" bisecting the cipher (17 X 17) horizontally and vertically, with the word "by" placed horizontally in each of the four quadrants. 

The Halloween card alliance to the Lake Berryessa attack formed "by knife", in conjunction with the knothole in the tree and the wording "peek-a-boo you are doomed", should leave little doubt the two are connected. There is also a strong connection from the Halloween card to both the December 7th 1969 and December 16th 1969 Fairfield letters, and in turn, all three to the 340 cipher. The December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter contained a crude arrangement of 9 symbols (10 including the large crosshairs), impossible to decode as it stood. The four crosshairs around a larger version looked extremely similar to the Halloween card arrangement - and bearing in mind the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter was accompanied by a crude drawing of a knife entitled "The Bleeding Knife of Zodiac", it seemed likely the short code may have been Zodiac's initial attempt at revealing the hidden words on the car door of Bryan Hartnell's 1956 white Karmann Ghia. 

Thanks to Tahoe 27's excellent find linking the Halloween card to a Tim Holt comic book, depicting Death By Fire, Death By Gun, Death By Rope and Death By Knife, it seemed obligatory to consider the connection from the Halloween card "by knife" to the "The Bleeding Knife of Zodiac", along with the similarity in design between the Paradice/Slaves arrangement and the four crosshairs circling a larger version. The four methods of death represented by the four crosshairs or targets.   

The Halloween card, 340 cipher and both Fairfield letters seemed intertwined. The fact that Zodiac placed "sorry no cipher" in the form of a cross rather than just singularly, can be linked to "Paradice" and "Slaves", and therefore the 340 cipher. Was he suggesting the 340 cryptogram was not a true cipher? It appeared he may have been dropping clues to the design of the 340 cipher as early as December 7th 1969, placing a 38 character code in the first Fairfield letter.

On the left, "by" can be observed in all four quadrants. Parts of the December 7th 1969 code are highlighted in blue, while four of the adjacent symbols from the December 16th 1969 code are highlighted in yellow.

The December 7th letter opened with the words "I just need help", reminiscent of the December 20th 1969 Melvin Belli letter, and followed by "I will kill again, so expect it any time the will be a cop", similar in fashion to the April 20th 1970 letter, where Zodiac stated "But there is more glory in killing a cop than a cid because a cop can shoot back". The December 16th letter opened with the same two words as the December 7th letter, stating "I just want to tell you", almost certainly tying them together - along with the handwriting and crude coding. Bearing in mind neither of the Fairfield letters appeared in the newspapers, it appears that Zodiac either just accidentally mirrored these communications with the subsequent December 20th 1969 and April 20th 1970 letters, or he was the author of all four.

Was the Paradice, Slaves, By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife configuration a representation of the number of murders he was intending to secure for the afterlife. Paradice, Slaves, By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife oddly contained 38 letters. The character count on the December 7th 1969 Fairfield letter code was 38. The intended victims on the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter was 38. The 340 'Dripping Pen' card, eerily similar to the "Bleeding Knife of Zodiac" depiction, opened with the wording "Sorry I haven't written, but I just washed my pen." This phrase again contained the words "I just", but also an alphanumeric count of 38. The April 20th 1970 letter, stating "I hope you have fun trying to figgure out who I killed" had a code that added up to 38 when the alphabet was placed alongside it.
And finally, the Exorcist letter (widely believed to be the final offering by the Zodiac Killer) claimed 37 victims, but promising to kill again if his demands were not met. Probably coincidence, but curious nonetheless.  

The 'Dripping Pen' card may have been a depiction chosen by the Zodiac Killer regarding his exploits at Lake Berryessa. The pen dripping blood as he is writing on the car door of Bryan Hartnell's vehicle, and his reason for washing it. The 340 cipher accompanying this card, with the "Paradice", "Slaves" and "by knife" link back to the Halloween card, further indicating a connection to Lake Berryessa through these communications. 

​The 'Death By Fire, Death By Gun, Death By Rope and Death By Knife' agenda could have been formed in the mind of the killer as early as the beginning of his campaign of terror, when he mailed the 408 cipher, stating  "the best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradise and all the (people) I have killed will become my slaves. I will not give you my name because you will try to slow down or stop my collecting of slaves for my afterlife". The same paradice and slaves permeating through much of his correspondence, and possibly the 340 cipher also. "By knife" an integral part of both Fairfield letters and the Halloween card, to hopefully lay any doubts to rest, of his involvement and knowledge of the writing at the foot of the message on Bryan Hartnell's car door.

The December 16th 1969 "knife," in a side-by-side comparison to the writing on the car door of Bryan Hartnell. Anyone could have read about the Lake Berryessa attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard with a knife, but would an impostor have emphasized it in the form of a drawing, as to signify its importance, without knowing for certain the hidden message on the car door? And how would the Zodiac Killer, when designing the Halloween card, accidentally mirror the "death by fire, gun, rope and knife" arrangement on the Fairfield letter, when the December 16th 1969 letter was never published in the newspapers. Somebody attempting to imitate the Zodiac Killer in both December letters, would surely have attempted to imitate him, not go out of their way to undo the neatness and organization exhibited by the 340 cipher and thereby nullify their efforts? The Zodiac Killer would have had no such concerns.

Here I would like to return to an old topic with a fresh approach, partly inspired by 'Nobody,' a regular contributor to this site.
As early as August 10th 1969 Professor D.C.B. Marsh of the American Cryptogram Association (ACA) was commenting on the Zodiac ciphers. In the San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle he praised Donald Harden's deciphering skills and called the code "complicated and obviously drawn by somebody who knows his business". 
​
The Zodiac Killer had already responded to prompts by Vallejo Police Chief Jack Stiltz to send more details to prove the letter writer and killer were one and the same. The more the Zodiac Killer wrote, not only lessened his time for killing, but may have provided additional clues to detectives regarding his identity. This tactic was likely adopted by Professor D.C.B. Marsh in the October 22nd 1969 San Francisco Examiner newspaper article by Will Stevens, which laid down a challenge to the Zodiac Killer to reveal his name. The newspaper stated "Dr Marsh told the Examiner today: "The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts. He knows, to quote Edgar Allen Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name -in cipher code - would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated - which will truly and honestly include his name." 

Clearly, Dr. Marsh and the detectives would have considered it highly unlikely for the Zodiac Killer to respond by giving us his name, but while he was constructing ciphers he wasn't murdering innocent civilians. There also remained an outside chance that Zodiac would rise to the challenge and create a code, "however complicated", that Dr Marsh and his fellow cryptographers could unpick. This article, rather than a straightforward challenge to Zodiac, could have been deliberately manufactured with the assistance of detectives, to bait the Zodiac Killer into using a particular methodology in his cipher construction. If the police knew the source of Zodiac's inspiration, then it could unearth the cipher technique he employed when designing his next code. 

'Nobody' considered the idea that the Zodiac Killer may have used a foreign language in the cipher, or possibly a rotating key that switches at certain intervals. By employing such a technique, the Zodiac Killer could make the cipher virtually "crackproof". 
The article in the October 22nd 1969 San Francisco Examiner may have been specifically designed to lead the Zodiac Killer down a particular path, making his next cipher easier to crack. Dropping innocuous sections of text into an article such as "to quote Edgar Allen Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man", can be specifically designed to guide the Bay Area murderer into using one of Edgar Allan Poe's cipher techniques or a model suggested by him. We know the Zodiac Killer was an avid reader of the newspapers and may have took this bait of using a publication by Edgar Allan Poe, thinking he was getting one over on Dr Marsh and the police. The hope from the standpoint of law enforcement, was that the Zodiac Killer would bite the hook and get reeled in. 

Sixteen days later the Zodiac Killer mailed the 340 cipher revealing, not his name, but his identity, carefully positioned at the base of his cipher. This catapulted the idea that the Zodiac Killer had indeed responded to the article by Dr Marsh, but wasn't quite ready to reveal his name to authorities. But it is my belief that the Zodiac Killer did create the 340 and 13 Symbol ciphers in tandem, with a view to inextricably link his identity to his name using the word "Zodiac" on the final row of the 340 cipher, with the three 8's as the conduit between the two. See here.

The Zodiac Killer, however, would hold back his '13 Symbol' cipher for approximately six months. Zodiac researcher Michael Cole stated "Clearly, the Zodiac did not send the cryptogram to Marsh, as had been requested (this non-public way of satisfying the challenge was apparently unacceptable to the attention-craving serial killer). Neither did he respond in a time frame that most would have expected. But these details matter little. In fact, the timing itself provides yet another reason to conclude that what we have here is a specific instance of cause and effect. As mentioned, this article was published in the Examiner on October 22, 1969.  Six months to the day later, April 22, 1970, the people of the San Francisco Bay Area were reading about the My Name Is cipher in the Chronicle."

But there may have been a much more cunning reason why the Zodiac Killer delayed his mailing of the April 20th 1970 communication, and it has everything to do with Edgar Allan Poe. Did the Zodiac Killer pick up on the wording of Dr. D.C.B. Marsh in the article, create and mail his '13 Symbol' cipher based on something in the writings of Edgar Allen Poe? 

We can see in the Edgar Allan Poe essay 'A Few Words on Secret Writing,' at the very beginning he shows the alphabet being split into two halves of 13 letters, A to M, and N to Z.
"Were two individuals, totally unpractised in cryptography, desirous of holding by letter a correspondence which should be unintelligible to all but themselves, it is most probable that they would at once think of a peculiar alphabet, to which each should have a key. At first it would, perhaps, be arranged that a should stand for z, b for y, c for x, d for w, &c. &c.; that is to say, the order of the letters would be reversed. Upon second thoughts, this arrangement appearing too obvious, a more complex mode would be adopted. The first thirteen letters might be written beneath the last thirteen, thus:
n o p q r s t u v w x y z
a b c d e f g h i j k I m; and, so placed, a might stand for n and n for a, o for b and b for a, &c. &c. This, again, having an air of regularity which might be fathomed, the key alphabet might be constructed absolutely at random." ​​

The Zodiac Killer not only created the April 20th 1970 cipher with 13 characters, but it too began with an A and ended with an M, just like the suggested encryption technique featured by Edgar Allan Poe. Notice the way the cipher is organized symmetrically using the alphabetical characters, the three 8's and the two symbols. The same symmetry was observed when placing half the alphabet alongside the 13 character cipher. See here.  

The Dr. Marsh newspaper article opened with "A Challenge perhaps unique in the annals of American crime was injected today into the bizarre case of the killer who begins his letters to newspapers 'This is the Zodiac Speaking'."
The article continued, and bemoaned the fact that Zodiac hadn't revealed his true identity: "Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name - in cipher code - would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated - which will truly and honestly include his name." 

'A Few Words on Secret Writing' stated "This challenge has elicited but a single response, which is embraced in the following letter. The only quarrel we have with the epistle, is that its writer has declined giving us his name in full. We beg that he will take an early opportunity of doing this, and thus relieve us of the chance of that suspicion which was attached to the cryptography of the weekly journal above-mentioned–the suspicion of inditing ciphers to ourselves. The postmark of the letter is Stonington, Conn." ​link. 

If the Zodiac Killer was basing the '13 Symbol' cipher on the Dr. Marsh article and secret writing of Edgar Allan Poe, why did he wait approximately six months to mail it to the San Francisco Chronicle?
It may not have been the six month anniversary that was important to him, but the only date mentioned in the Edgar Allan Poe literature, 'A Few Words on Secret Writing'. The date was April 21st. 
Had the Zodiac Killer deliberately waited six months to ensure his '13 Symbol' cipher letter would be postmarked April 21st, or be published on April 21st, which unfortunately for him never materialized? He was slightly early on the mailing, resulting in the postmark of April 20th, and the San Francisco Chronicle published his cipher in the April 22nd edition, effectively thwarting any intentions to recreate the Connecticut letter.

However, the possibility remains, that the Zodiac Killer could have used one of the cipher techniques employed or suggested by Edgar Allan Poe in 'A Few Words on Secret Writing', and the idea proposed by 'Nobody' regarding the use of a second language as the key, a much more viable proposition than initially considered.
​
 "It is not to be supposed that Cryptography, as a serious thing, as the means of imparting important information, has gone out of use at the present day. It is still commonly practised in diplomacy; and there are individuals, even now, holding office in the eye of various foreign governments, whose real business is that of deciphering. We have already said that a peculiar mental action is called into play in the solution of cryptographical problems, at least in those of the higher order. Good cryptographists are rare indeed; and thus their services, although seldom required, are necessarily well requited. An instance of the modern employment cipher is mentioned in a work lately published by Messieurs Lea & Blanchard, of this city–“Sketches of Conspicuous Living Characters of France.” In a notice of Berryer, it is said that a letter being addressed by the Duchess de Berri to the legitimists of Paris, to inform them of her arrival, it was accompanied by a long note in cipher, the key of which she had forgotten to give. “The penetrating mind of Berrver,” says the biographer, “soon discovered it. It was this phrase substituted for the twenty-four letters of the alphabet–Le,gouvernement provisoire.” 'A Few Words on Secret Writing' by Edgar Allan Poe.

In the last three articles it was proposed that the author of the 408 cipher may have left his identity within the final 18 characters. He specifically told us that he would not give us his name, but assured us his identity was concealed within the cipher - reasoned to be something like "I am the Zodiac Killer." The theme of his identity and name were integral to the final third of the cipher and letter mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969, and may very well have manifested through both his second and third ciphers as well. The third cipher began with "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you. My name is...."- therefore, the final line of the second cipher (340 cipher) may be the 'narrative bridge' between the first and third cryptic offerings. 

The first cipher achieved everything the Zodiac Killer had wished for. He had fashioned using threats and newspaper rivalry maximum exposure for his handiwork, which was very quickly published by the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle. The failure of Zodiac to give us his name did not satiate the desire of some in the quest for the real identity of the killer, and was championed by Dr D.C.B. Marsh, president of the American Cryptogram Association, who on October 22nd 1969 in an article published by the San Francisco Examiner, stated "The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in a cipher to established cryptogram experts. "Zodiac" had not done this, Marsh suggested, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name, in cipher code, would lead to his capture. I invite 'Zodiac' to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code-however complicated."

​This article was not to go unnoticed by the killer, who, two and a half weeks later mailed his infamous 340 cipher, unsolved to this day according to official sources. This cipher was to become the all-important bridge between cipher one and three. If he gave us his identity (the Zodiac Killer) in the unsolved 18 characters of cipher one, and stated "my name is" in cipher three (supposedly giving us his name), then by logical extension, cipher two should have been the promise of a name, and the conduit between the two.

If we can provide a compelling reason to show that the near-Zodiac on the final line of the 340 cipher was actually intended to be deciphered to 'Zodiac', then we are left with the final two characters of the cipher to decode, thereby bridging the gap between cipher two and three. 
Using the most powerful supercomputers in the world and the talent of some of the brightest minds in cryptography, the 340 cipher has failed to buckle. So, it's time to use the character of the Zodiac against himself, and his willingness to respond to the newspapers.

If the Zodiac Killer is responding to Dr D.C.B. Marsh, then he clearly isn't prepared to give us his name immediately in the November 8th 1969 '340 cipher', as the opening line in his April 20th 1970 communication would testify to. It would be over five months later that he stated "my name is".  Therefore, the final two characters of the 340 cipher are the conclusion to an open-ended promise of something more to come, in similar fashion to "my name is."  The Zodiac Killer certainly wasn't going to miss the opportunity to keep Dr D.C.B. Marsh and the public waiting just a little bit longer. 
​
The final line or sequence of the 340 cipher probably read "The next cipher will reveal who the Zodiac is" or "I will soon reveal who the Zodiac is" - or something along these lines. This 'promise' can be seen in his opening gambit of the April 20th 1970 communication: "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you. My name is...." ​
The statement of "by the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you" is superfluous, as he knows only too well the 340 cipher has not been cracked, yet, it also lacks his usual abrasive sarcasm. However, it is followed by "my name is", and therefore could be construed as the conclusion to his promise from the final line of his 340 cipher and to Dr D.C.B. Marsh, and the allegorical  bridge between the two ciphers.

But how do we know that the near-Zodiac on the final line of the 340 cipher was to be decoded to 'Zodiac'?  Because he fashioned a bridge between cipher two and three using his pseudonym. Placing the real spelling of Zodiac under the '340 cipher' version of Zodiac, and counting the alphabetical difference numerically between the columns (see here), we achieve the numbers 000888. When combined, the three circled 8's found on the '13 Symbol' cipher.
​
These six characters of the 340 cipher were effectively carried forward numerically and placed front and center of the '13 Symbol' cipher design. You will also notice that the two characters either side of three 8's (shown on the right), are both visible either side of the near-Zodiac on the 340 cipher. A total of eight characters and three circled 8's the common link or bridge between cipher two and three - in which the name of Zodiac played a pivotal part in the formation of the 'My Name is Cipher'. The story is now complete. 

The Zodiac Killer stated on July 31st 1969 "I will not give you my name, but in this cipher is my identity." He promised in the 340 cipher, in a response to Dr D.C.B. Marsh, that he would soon reveal his name. Then, five and a half months later, on April 20th 1970 he stated "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you. My name is...." 

Do ciphers two and three really contain a full and coherent message, not dissimilar to the 408 cipher solution, or had the Zodiac Killer taken Dr D.C.B. Marsh's advice "to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated", and taken it a step too far?

This is the final installment covering the 18 unsolved characters at the foot of the 408 cipher. Part one. Part two.
Nobody knows for sure the exact process in which the Zodiac Killer crafted the three ciphers mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald, but one possibility is that the author wrote the message first and then transferred it to the chosen grid formation, with the intention of leaving a number of spaces to insert his identity at the end of the cipher - a signature of sorts. The killer actually stated this: "I want you to print this cipher on the front page of your paper. In this cipher is my idenity."

We now know his identity as the 'Zodiac Killer', so one may expect to see 12 unsolved characters remaining at the foot of the cipher. He could have signed off the cipher with the wording 'Zodiac Killer' or 'I am the Zodiac', but either way, he would have had to leave himself 12 available spaces to complete the entire grid of 24 rows and 17 columns. The reason for believing he intended to leave 12 characters for his identity, rather than 18, is that he transferred the message from draft to grid incorrectly, actually omitting one important word - people.
​
The author had just switched from cipher 2 to cipher 3 (see below), which may have instigated the error.
​
In the trinity of letters to the newspapers, the Zodiac Killer described the inevitable consequences of not printing his ciphers. 
To the Vallejo Times-Herald, he wrote "I will cruse around and pick of all stray people or coupples that are alone then move on to kill some more untill I have killed over a dozen people."
To the San Francisco Examiner, he wrote "If you do not print this cipher, I will go on a kill rampage Fry night. This will last the whole weekend, I will cruse around killing people who are alone at night untill Sun Night or untill I kill a dozen people." 
To the San Francisco Chronicle, he wrote "I will cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend."  

With regards to his threats, he used the word "people" no less than six times, so it was probably unfortunate that this was the word he mistakenly dropped from his grid when transferring the message to it.
The murderer wrote in the cipher "the best part of it, is that when I die I will be reborn in paradice and all the I have killed will become my slaves." It is highly likely that he accidentally reproduced his message incorrectly and failed to include the word "people" in the resultant cipher. The cipher should have read "the best part of it, is that when I die I will be reborn in paradice and all the people I have killed will become my slaves."

Since "killing", "kill" and "people" were routinely written 'hand in glove' in all the three newspaper communications, then it is no great leap of faith that the two words should have been bound together in the cipher as well. 
In the San Francisco Chronicle portion of the cipher below, I have added "people" into the grid, thereby shifting the cipher across six spaces. The resulting cipher now contains 396 characters of legible text, leaving only 12 unsolved characters at its foot. The 12 characters we discussed earlier, in which the author had reserved for his identity or pseudonym. Signing off with the 'Zodiac Killer' or 'I am the Zodiac'.

However, the Zodiac Killer had made an error, accidentally omitting the word "people", and consequently had to improvise by using a combination of 'Zodiac Killer' and 'I am the Zodiac' to enable full use of all 408 spaces on the 24 X 17 grid. He may have settled for 'I am the Zodiac Killer', thereby satisfying the 18 spaces he had inadvertently left himself.

The idea of a 396 letter message (including "people" within it) would have negated the possibility of creating 30 rows by 13 columns totaling 390 characters - which is why he didn't do it. Therefore, he opted for 17 by 24, creating the grid we have been accustomed to. 

What methodology he employed to encrypt these final 18 letters is another matter entirely.    

The blue square shows the end of the word "the". One can see that by moving the letter 'E' across two places to accommodate "those", the remainder of the cipher would be equally shifted. If we added "people" after "the", then the remainder of the cipher would be shifted six places across. The result of this would be removing the final 2 or 6 characters from the 408 cipher.

This strikes to the heart of whether the Zodiac Killer originally intended to leave a predetermined identity at the foot of the cipher. He ended up with 18 characters, which to this day remain unsolved. If he had intended to place "those" or "people" in the cipher, but transferred his message incorrectly, then the idea that 18 characters were purposely left to reveal his identity fails to materialize. His new identity would drop to 12 or 16 characters. The 4 consecutive character drop down, from the 8th to 24th line, would also not occur. 

In the last article I suggested that the final 18 characters could read "I am the Zodiac Killer", based on his wording in the trinity of July 31st 1969 communications. With the addition of "people" his intended message could have been relegated to the signature "Zodiac Killer" or "I am the Zodiac" ​ With the addition of "those", an altogether different message would likely have been created. His original intention may have been to create a 12 or 16 character message, but was forced to improvise into a longer version, created by the error on line 17. However, this would negate the premise of the previous article to some extent.
 
To presuppose an original 18 characters being left over for the designated purpose of his identity, would make the assumption that his original message read "The best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradice and all the I have killed will become my slaves," and he transferred it to the cipher correctly.

The idea of a random filler to flesh out a cipher doesn't sit well, when we consider how easy it is to just slightly redesign the message to use all the 408 available spaces. This suggests the 18 unsolved characters do have meaning, and do contain the identity or pseudonym of the Zodiac Killer. This makes more sense than a real name, bearing in mind the author has already decided against this option on lines 18 and 19.

If the Zodiac Killer's original message was 392 or 396 letters in length, he could have created a completely different grid formation with reduced leftovers or none at all, such as 6 rows of 22 characters = 132, mailed to each of three newspapers. This would give us a total of 396. However, he chose to opt for 17 characters in each row, thereby leaving more unused characters. For this reason, there appears a purpose behind the notion of a killer leaving us his identity.
​
Since he hadn't revealed his pseudonym at this juncture, can we assume that part of the 18 unsolved characters held the words "Zodiac Killer." The precursor of "I am the"- the beginning of the 18 characters, just like the introduction written on the San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald newspapers.   

THE 18 UNSOLVED CHARACTERS [PT1]  
THE 18 UNSOLVED CHARACTERS [PT3]

In a previous article it was considered that the Zodiac Killer's identity was born on August 3rd 1969, but on this occasion I shall take an altogether different approach, and consider the possibility that the Bay Area murderer had already decided upon the pseudonym Zodiac when he mailed the trinity of letters and ciphers to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969.
The San Francisco Chronicle letter (part 3) reads as follows "Here is part of a cipher the other 2 parts of this cipher are being mailed to the editors of the Vallejo Times and SF Examiner. I want you to print this cipher on the front page of your paper. In this cipher is my idenity. If you do not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry.1st of Aug 69, I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night. I will cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend." The final 18 characters of the San Francisco Chronicle code remain undeciphered. However, the clues to breaking the remaining portion of the cipher may reside within the letters themselves. 
The 408 cipher message read "I like killing people because it is so much fun it is more fun than killing wild game in the forrest because man is the most dangerous animal of all to kill something gives me the most thrilling experence it is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl the best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradice and all the (people) I have killed will become my slaves I will not give you my name because you will try to slow down or stop my collecting of slaves for my afterlife. ebeorietemethhpiti."  The unbroken characters are shown in red.     

The murderer chose his words carefully, stating "in this cipher is my identity" rather than his name. This became evident when the vast majority of the 408 cipher was cracked a matter of days later, and the killer revealed "I will not give you my name because you will try to slow down or stop my collecting of slaves for my afterlife." This still left open the possibility that his identity or pseudonym was contained in the 408 cipher. The San Francisco Chronicle letter was the only one of the trinity that contained "in this cipher is my identity," so logically, one could conclude that the 18 undeciphered characters at its foot, was the location of the murderer's identity.
If the killer had already decided upon his pseudonym when he wrote the three July 31st 1969 letters, then his decision to begin all three letters with "This is the murderer" and "I am the killer" (twice) was deliberately engineered to withhold the pseudonym Zodiac from the letters. The reason being - it was concealed in the final 18 characters of the 408 cipher.
It could be argued, that if he was to reveal his identity or pseudonym in the 408 cipher, then logically he would sign off the cryptogram with it. This was also apparent in the 340 cipher, with the near-Zodiac tantalizingly placed on the final line. 
If the Zodiac Killer had revealed his pseudonym straight away, then one of the letters would have opened with "This is the Zodiac" rather than "This is the murderer" (exactly like the August 4th 1969 letter). The other two letters would have opened with "I am the Zodiac Killer" rather than "I am the killer". But the murderer and author of the letters wanted to hide his pseudonym for now, and conceal it in the final 18 characters of the 408 cipher.    

We can now complete the 408 message:
"I like killing people because it is so much fun it is more fun than killing wild game in the forrest because man is the most dangerous animal of all to kill something gives me the most thrilling experence it is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl the best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradice and all the (people) I have killed will become my slaves. I will not give you my name because you will try to slow down or stop my collecting of slaves for my afterlife. I am the Zodiac Killer."​
This is an attempt at reasoning a solution from within the letters themselves, and not a claim of a definitive solution 

THE 18 UNSOLVED CHARACTERS [PT2]
THE 18 UNSOLVED CHARACTERS [PT3]

There is no definitive evidence to totally negate the idea that the 340 cipher contains a viable solution- with the mystery and allure of the Zodiac Killer code the driving force behind people wishing it were genuine. This, of course, exempts the 500+ people who have already solved the 340 cipher, in solutions now extending longer than the Bayeux Tapestry.  
Obviously, Zodiac researchers who specialize in the ciphers rather than the crimes themselves, have a vested interest in wishing the cipher to be a hidden message. This is the belief that keeps the dream alive.
But did the Zodiac Killer really have the ability to create a more difficult cipher than the 408, with a reasonable expectation of a solution. Placing 29 unique characters into a 32 symbol cipher, and creating a 13 symbol code would suggest not.
The October 22nd 1969 Examiner newspaper article by Will Stevens, laid down a challenge to the Zodiac Killer from the president of the American Cryptogram Association (ACA), Professor D.C.B. Marsh, to reveal his name. This may be the article that inspired the 340 cipher, and by association, the 'Halloween' card mailed approximately one year later.
 "Dr Marsh told the Examiner today: "The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts. He knows, to quote Edgar Allen Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name-in cipher code-would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code, which will truly and honestly include his name."
This contention is probably true- that the Zodiac Killer wouldn't reveal his name in any cipher (other than his pseudonym), and additionally, he likely used the fact "that any cipher created by man can be solved by man" as a springboard to create something extra special, other than a cipher. If we contend that the Zodiac Killer wrote his final letters in 1974, then is it likely that a killer touted as an attention seeker, could resist dropping us clues to the 340 cipher in his subsequent letters, spanning in excess of four years. 
Each and every one of his final three communications in late 1970 and early 1971 effectively told us he was crackproof. The upside down text on the October 5th 1970 'Pace' card stated "Fk I'm crackproof." The October 27th 1970 'Halloween' card proclaimed "sorry no cipher." The March 13th 1971 'Los Angeles' letter boasted "Like I have allways said, I am crack proof." But the Zodiac Killer hadn't always said he was crackproof- only in the two communications either side of the 'Halloween' card announcing "sorry no cipher." The suggestion he was crackproof, thereby not arising from his perceived ability to evade police, but from his smugness in knowing he created three ciphers he knew would never be solved. 

The Tim Holt comic find by Tahoe27 in 2013, and the recent assertion of a close alliance, not only with the 'Halloween' card, but the 340 cipher, has been covered here to reject the 340 cipher as containing a viable and coherent message.
In view of the "by knife" attribution on Bryan Hartnell's car door, it is arguable that the Zodiac Killer had the Tim Holt comic book or Rota Fortunae (Wheel of Death) in mind as he wrote on the car door. In other words, the concept predated the September 27th 1969 Lake Berryessa stabbings, rather than just the 'Halloween' card. The Lake Berryessa "by knife" attribution becoming the part inspiration for the complex puzzle of the 340 cipher.
The "by knife" method of death (on the right) is clearly the only one falling within its quadrant, as opposed to the others, which are all connecting with the central column.
This method of death was certainly prioritized by the Zodiac Killer, having placed it on Bryan Hartnell's vehicle (despite the fact the crime was obviously committed with a knife). The feasible presence of "by knife" within the 340 cipher. The possibility of a crude 'Halloween' card design in the December 16th 1969 'Fairfield' letter featuring "death by knife," along with the "Bleeding Knife of Zodiac" drawing. And finally, the 'October 27th 1970 'Halloween' card design and comic book, both containing "by knife" and mirroring the 340 cipher and 'Fairfield' letter.
Below are the speculative beginnings, attempting to interweave the '13 Hole' postcard into the emerging design. 

This is the last time this subject will be tackled for the foreseeable future, unless something magical sticks its head above the parapet- but before that happens- there is just one more addition to the idea of an extremely close alliance between the 'Halloween' card and 340 cipher, and the suggestion that the 340 cipher is not a meaningful and coherent message by the Zodiac Killer.
Just about every feature of the October 27th 1970 'Halloween' card, including the envelope and stamp, can be shown to exist within the 340 cipher, making the December 2013 discovery by Tahoe27, of a Tim Holt comic book connection, all the more compelling. Her discovery may have opened the door to finally end the debate on the validity of the 340 masterpiece, and place the pseudonym 'Zodiac' front and center to the 'Death Wheel' featured on the comic book cover.
At what juncture the Zodiac first stumbled across his pseudonym is of little importance, however, it could be argued that when he found it, he would likely research the name 'Zodiac' and use elements of his research to incorporate into his future correspondence. If he had happened upon the Tim Holt 'Death Wheel' comic prior to November 8th 1969, then the light bulb may have switched on, and his design of a crackproof cipher began in earnest. And possibly, a 340 cipher designed in tandem with the Tim Holt comic and cipher three, which he mailed just over five months later on April 20th 1970. His opening line of "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you. My name is....", he may have already known the answer to when he manufactured the illusion of a 340 character message.        

Here is a brief recap before we move on.
The 'Halloween' card stamp contained 17 letters "In the beginning God" that slotted nicely onto the first line of the 340 cipher, with characters 15,16 and 17 awkwardly similar- including the half-earth image present on the stamp.
Paradice and Slaves can be shown as a distinct possibility, bisecting the 340 cipher horizontally and vertically, just like the 'Halloween' card arrangement. Seventeen characters horizontally and vertically in either direction, to create the perfect crosshairs of Zodiac.
The word "by" can be found in all four quadrants of the 340 cipher, mirroring the 'Halloween' card arrangement.
At least seven, possibly eight characters on the 14th line of the 340 cipher can be formed into the design of the 'Halloween' card inner. Explanation here. 
"Sorry no cipher" written on the envelope inner and designed in similar fashion to Paradice and Slaves arrangement on both the 'Halloween' card and 340 cipher, explicitly instructed us that no cipher existed on November 8th 1969.
One has to presume that all these fell here by accident (including the inference to Zodiac on the 20th line), because to believe otherwise, would pour huge doubt on a Zodiac Killer who was able to simultaneously create a uniform message within the 340 cipher in conjunction with a 'bag of puzzles'. 
However, the Tim Holt 'Death Wheel' comic is not only interesting because it contains By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife, found in the 'Halloween' card, or because of "Redmask" or "Lady Doom," but because of the origin of the 'Death Wheel' or 'Wheel of Fortune' itself. 
Had the Zodiac Killer read anything about the pseudonym 'Zodiac' when he first appropriated it, then he may have known the relevance of the 'Wheel of Fortune' or 'Rota Fortunae,'. thereby triggering the inspiration for the 340 cipher, and the eventual 'Halloween' card explanation or solution to his devilish trick and treat.          

We could just assume that when the Zodiac Killer spotted the Tim Holt 'Death Wheel' comic book, he liked the fact it represented some or all of his killing methods, and simply chose it because of its menacing touch. However, he may have chosen it because of the pseudonym he had grown so attached to- a pseudonym he would seemingly place at the foot of the 340 cipher.
The 'Wheel of Fortune' or 'Rota Fortunae' has a long and rich history, crossing many cultures and eras. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
"In medieval and ancient philosophy the Wheel of Fortune, or Rota Fortunae, is a symbol of the capricious nature of Fate. The wheel belongs to the goddess Fortuna (Greek equivalent Tyche) who spins it at random, changing the positions of those on the wheel: some suffer great misfortune, others gain windfalls. Fortune appears on all paintings as a woman, sometimes blindfolded, "puppeteering" a wheel."
The great windfall may be the promise of paradise, but the downside is the servile nature expected by the one who summoned you.
But here is the interesting part- again taken from Wikipedia. 
"The origin of the word is from the "wheel of fortune" - the zodiac, referring to the Celestial spheres of which the 8th holds the stars, and the 9th is where the signs of the zodiac are placed. The concept was first invented in Babylon and later developed by the ancient Greeks. The concept somewhat resembles the Bhavacakra, or Wheel of Becoming, depicted throughout Ancient Indian art and literature, except that the earliest conceptions in the Roman and Greek world involve not a two-dimensional wheel but a three-dimensional sphere, a metaphor for the world. It was widely used in the Ptolemaic perception of the universe as the zodiac being a wheel with its "signs" constantly turning throughout the year and having effect on the world's fate (or fortune)." link.
The zodiac is an area of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The paths of the Moon and visible planets are also within the belt of the zodiac. The Zodiac is divided into 12 signs beginning with Aries and Taurus.
The Zodiac wheels have multiple cultural adaptations, shown here in a Wordpress blog:
"These zodiac/time wheels are not common in Eastern Orthodox iconography, but they are found in one variation or another occasionally — usually, as here — in the form of wall paintings in churches. When seeing such a “Wheel of Time” — also called a Wheel of Life — one cannot help thinking of those Tibetan images that also represent a wheel of life as the “Wheel of Becoming” — in this case a wheel of rebirth:"
Here is one final extract from the book 'Deep Value:
Plutarch says that Servius knew "fortune is of great moment, or rather, she is everything in human affairs" because it was through good fortune that he had ascended from slave to king. In Roman mythology Fortuna was the goddess of fate, and the personification of chance. She turned the Rota Fortunae- the Wheel of Fortune- which dictated the destiny of man." Therefore, did Zodiac dictate the destiny of his victims-  By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife- the very reason the 'Wheel of Death' portrayed on the Tim Holt comic was so very appealing.

The discovery by Tahoe27 linking the Tim Holt comic was fascinating in so many ways, yet, it may not have been the inspiration behind the 'Halloween' card, but the inspiration behind the 340 cipher and its accompaniment- the '13 Symbol' cipher.
If the Zodiac Killer had done his research and discovered the 'Wheel of Fortune' or 'Rota Fortunae', and its connection to the word 'Zodiac', then the Tim Holt comic may have been a gift from heaven- an offering he just couldn't resist. 
Five weeks after the November 8th 1969 340 cipher, the December 16th 1969 'Fairfield' letter may have shown the early machinations of the Zodiac design, appearing in rudimentary code- the full explanation of which would have to wait until October 27th 1970..
The interconnectivity between the 'Halloween' card, Tim Holt 'Death Wheel' comic, the pseudonym 'Zodiac' and the 340 cipher is an intriguing and perplexing blend of mystery. One that came together by deliberate intent, or came together from the mind of somebody wishing it were true.

This is a continuation of the article 'The Illusion of the 340 Cipher,' attempting to show Zodiac's second code was nothing more than a collection of puzzles, interconnected to his other mailed correspondences.   
The 'Halloween' card mailed by Zodiac on October 27th 1970 predominantly featured within the 340 cipher, in that, Paradice and Slaves was able to be shown bisecting the cipher horizontally and vertically across its mid-section, along with 'by' being found in all four quadrants. The text of the stamp 'In the Beginning God' fitted nicely on the first line of the cipher, with the word 'God' aligning nicely with characters 15, 16 and 17. In addition, the half-earth image on the stamp mirrored exactly with character 16.
The idea that all these connections to the 'Halloween' card, '13 Symbol' cipher and 'Exorcist' letter could be forged within the 340 cipher by chance, was presented as so unlikely, they must have been created by design.
The darkened section of the 'Halloween' card inner reads like an instruction manual. The skeleton's finger of 4-TEEN directing us downwards 14 lines, to find the word 'BOO.'
The 14th line containing four shaded circles, three of which can be formed into the word BOO, complete with exclamation mark (I + black circle).
The next feature on the 'Halloween' card is the strange symbol.  
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The following two characters on the 14th line of the 340 cipher can easily be rearranged, by reversing the letter F and attaching its adjacent character, to mimic the strange symbol on the 'Halloween' card. 
​The next feature on both the 14th line and 'Halloween' card is the letter N and the letter Z. Rotating the N ninety degrees clockwise forms the completed sequence of BOO!, strange symbol and letter Z on the 340 cipher.
This is achieved using 8 characters on the 340 cipher, all in close proximity to each other. Just like 'In the Beginning God' and 'Paradice and Slaves,' is this another stroke of luck, or has this been deliberately fashioned by the Zodiac Killer as part of a game. 
It is further apparent that the word 'BOO' (in reverse) bisects the word 'Paradice' running vertically down the cipher, separating the letters I and C.
On the 'Halloween' card in this approximate area, the Zodiac Killer has mirrored the letter N, which may or may not hold some significance.
This could be a case of simply looking for patterns and finding them, but with so many having now been unearthed, is this compounding evidence to reliably dismiss the 340 cipher as harboring a coherent and uniform message, as demonstrated by the 408?
The Zodiac Killer may have dropped several clues in his later communications, resisting the temptation of giving us the final solution:
"But, then why spoil the game."