The Zodiac Killer was heavily influenced by the newspapers throughout his campaign of terror in northern California, which may have continued up until January 10th 2001 with the "Happy New Year" card mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle and exclaiming "You thought I was dead. No Way" (and signed Zodiac). There are three festive greeting cards connected to the Zodiac Killer story, which ended in 2001 but included the December 27th 1974 card to Mary Pilker of Sioux Falls, South Dakota (sister of Donna Lass), and the December 1990 "Eureka" card mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle with photocopied keys tied to Chester Clark Klingel. However, none of these festive greeting cards ever mentioned the word "Christmas".

​The card on December 27th 1974 had the pre-printed message of "Holiday Greetings and Best Wishes for a Happy New Year". The Eureka card mailed in December 1990 had the pre-printed message of (in part) "Happy Holidays, anyway". The January 10th 2001 card had the pre-printed message of "Happy New Year. From January 1st to the end of December, here's wishing you a year to enjoy and remember". All three cards carried the word "Happy" and failed to mention "Christmas". There is a possibility that the Eureka card, with an unclear postmark, was mailed subsequent to Christmas day. 

Bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer's use of three of "The Mikado" verses in 1970 and 1974 (which Groucho Marx appeared in), and the comprehensive newspaper coverage of the 100 year anniversary of Groucho Marx's birth on October 2nd 1990, we can at best, only speculate if any of these had an influence on the choice of greeting card selected by a potential Zodiac Killer in December 1990. If the Eureka card was mailed on, say December 29th, 30th or 31st, we could reasonably argue that this festive greeting card with the phrase "Happy Holidays", was probably mailed with New Year's day in mind, similar to the "Happy New Year" message on both the December 27th 1974 and January 10th 2001 cards.

​I have previously wondered whether the selection of the Groucho Marx card in December 1990 on his birthday centenary year, was chosen because of his 1959 autobiography entitled "Groucho and Me", which resurfaced because of the publicity in 1990. In other words, the Zodiac Killer orchestrated a subtle way of suggesting that his identity was actually "Me" once again, as claimed in the article Four and a Half Years of Me. The idea that "Me" should be inferred from the Eureka card is not the most convincing argument thus far, so I revisited the autobiography "Groucho and Me", and discovered that it was released on New Year's day 1959, thereby complimenting the chosen greeting card and possible late December mailing date. 

The individual (or individuals) who mailed these three greeting cards opted every time to select a postage stamp of recent issue. The Currier & Ives "Winter Road" 10c stamps applied to the 1974 card were issued two months earlier, on October 23rd 1974. The 25c Contemporary Christmas:Tree and Greetings stamp applied to the 1990 card was issued approximately two months earlier, on October 18th 1990. The 34c Statue of Liberty stamp applied to the 2001 card was issued one month earlier, on December 15th 2000. 

But why did the Zodiac Killer (if him) mail the "Happy New Year" greeting card on January 10th 2001 and not in late December? The envelope address style in 2001 was a near repeat of the "Secret Pal" Eureka card envelope mailed in 1990, both of which have been thoroughly examined as being authored by the Zodiac Killer. Was there something about the 2001 mailing that suggested it was our "Secret Pal" in 1990? The 2001 "Happy New Year" card was postmarked January 10th, so its sender was probably hoping it would be received and opened by the San Francisco Chronicle editor on January 11th.

Secret Pal Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated annually on January 11th. It is a day to anonymously show appreciation for friends, coworkers, or family members, similar to a year-round "Secret Santa" concept for general kindness and emotional support. This date gained recognition in the 1990s, and was further accelerated in the 2000s by the growth of the internet. Therefore, the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle would have been receiving his 2001 "Happy New Year" card on "Secret Pal Day", stating "You thought I was dead. No way". So was the Zodiac Killer deliberately delaying the delivery of the "Happy New Year" card by a couple of weeks so it would arrive on this annually recognised day and further show he was the same "Secret Pal" who mailed the 1990 Eureka card eleven years earlier? 

Recently I released an article entitled Four and a Half Years of Me, showing that there are only four communications from July 31st 1969 to January 29th 1974 where the Zodiac Killer teased us with his identity or name. In each of these communications, including the 408 cipher on July 31st 1969, 13-Symbol cipher on April 20th 1970, Halloween card on October 27th 1970 and Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974, the Zodiac Killer may have revealed his identity of "ME" numerous times. The joke was probably on us as we attempted with ever increased fervour to find a meaningful solution to his identity. The Exorcist letter itself appeared to push the boat out even further, supplying us with "Signed, yours truley" which means "ME", gave us a "Tit-Willow" verse whose next line contained "my name is", before finally giving us the visible signature of "Me-37" in his boasting victim total..

​I thought this was the final clue to the Zodiac Killer's identity but I may have been wrong, because the December 1990 "Eureka" card delivered probably the biggest joke to date, by featuring one of the greatest comedians of all time.

This festive greeting card was designed by George Schill, a contract artist with the American Greetings Card Company, who featured the imagery of Groucho Marx on the face of the snowman, with the accompanying text that promised to reveal his identity. The outer portion of the card read "From your secret pal. Can't guess who I am yet. Well, look inside and you'll find out". Once opened the card inner failed to deliver by giving us the taunting message of "That I'm gonna keep you guessin". Happy Holidays anyway". In 1990, the Zodiac Killer had chosen a card with Groucho Marx imagery on the outside and the promise of his identity on the inside, the very year that Groucho Marx was celebrated in the newspapers in October, commemorating the 100th anniversary of his birth on October 2nd 1890. 

This centenary saw several related events and releases, including a new radio series, stage revues, and articles. A play titled Groucho Marx a Life in Revue was performed at the Geva Theatre in Rochester, New York in February 1990. But if this card was chosen specifically to highlight Groucho Marx on the cover and "ME" on the inside, how could we possibly find the clue, assuming we had already made the connections in the other four communications? Look no further than his first edition 1959 autobiography entitled Groucho and Me, published the year before he performed in the "Bell Telephone Hour" in 1960, in which he played Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner in The Mikado. He sang Tit-Willow that featured in the Exorcist letter. The book was reissued in 1990 to mark the centenary of Groucho Marx's birth.
​
Groucho and Me is the highly acclaimed autobiography of the legendary comedian Groucho Marx, first published in 1959. Written in his own unique, witty, and irreverent style, it offers anecdotes and insights into his life and the saga of the Marx Brothers. This is Groucho Marx's main autobiography, in which Groucho tells the story of the Marx Brothers' rise, the crooked world of small-time vaudeville, and their adventures in the film industry with a "rags-to-riches story with a difference" The book was first published in 1959 by Bernard Geis Associates.

​So, did the Zodiac Killer allude to the newly publicized and reissued 1959 autobiography of Julius Henry "Groucho Marx" in 1990, effectively supplying us with "Groucho and Me" on the 100th anniversary of his birth, which the Bay Area murderer possibly commemorated by mailing the biggest joke of all and asking us to guess his identity rather than supplying the word "ME" in more obvious form? The Zodiac Killer mailed two mysterious "Secret Pal" cards to the San Francisco Chronicle (including the Halloween card on October 27th 1970) - and both offerings may have pointed us to "ME" on at least three occasions. Secret pal cards are used for various occasions, including birthdays, holidays (like Christmas), or just as a "thinking of you" gesture. The primary purpose is to send messages or gifts without the recipient immediately knowing the sender's identity.
​
This, and the above linked article, highlight the argued presence of "ME" in five communications from July 31st 1969 to Christmas 1990, all of which teased us with his identity. The theatrical Zodiac Killer may have finally brought the curtain down on his audience and taken one last bow, by using the comedic genius of Groucho Marx to play his biggest prank of all. Then he left the stage for good.

Nin, a contributor to various Zodiac forums, years ago put forward an idea that the sender of the Eureka card in 1990 placed two photocopied keys in the communication because the inventor of electrophotography (xeroxing) was named Chester Floyd Carlson, and this was a subtle clue to the identity of Chester Clark Klingel (who lived in Eureka), and whose post office box key number was a match to one of the photocopied keys. But the question remained as to why the Zodiac Killer (if him) would choose a Groucho Marx styled Christmas card. Newspapers in late September and early October 1990 commemorated the 100th anniversary of Groucho Marx's birth, so this may have caught the eye of the Zodiac Killer, bearing in mind he appeared to plagiarize Groucho Marx's version of "The Mikado" on July 26th 1970 in his Little List letter. However, there had to more. Something else that connected Groucho Marx to the photocopied keys and Chester Floyd Carlson.

Produced by Paramount Pictures Corporation at their Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, Animal Crackers (1930) was the Marx Brothers' second feature film, following The Cocoanuts (1929). The production faced significant challenges in adapting the stage musical to early sound cinema. The studio made extensive cuts to musical numbers and restructured the original material. Director Victor Heerman was brought in specifically to manage the disruptive behavior of the Marx Brothers on set. The film was both a critical and commercial success upon its August 1930 release, earning $3.1 million worldwide and establishing several of the Marx Brothers' most famous comedic routines. The studio was originally constructed for Famous Players–Lasky in 1920 to provide the company with a facility close to the Broadway theater district. Many features and short subjects were filmed there between 1920 and 1933. W. C. Fields made his silent features there. The first Sherlock Holmes sound film, The Return of Sherlock Holmes (also 1929), was made at the studio by the British producer Basil Dean. The first two films featuring the Marx Brothers, The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930), were shot at the Astoria Studio in Queens. Its location is 35th Avenue, 35th, 36th, and 37th Streets. 

In 1938, Chester Floyd Carlson needed a convenient location to develop his electrophotography, so he rented the second floor of his mother-in-law's house on 37th Street in Astoria, Queens. On October 22nd 1938 the world's first xerographic image was produced at this location. It read 10.22.38 ASTORIA. The same location that Groucho Marx filmed The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930). The first two movies featuring the Marx Brothers were mentioned in virtually every newspaper in September/October 1990, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Groucho Marx, born on October 2nd 1890 (see below).

Therefore, we can link Chester Clark Klingel and Chester Floyd Carlson through the photocopied keys by forename, and link the first photocopied image of "Astoria" to the location of the first two films of Groucho Marx (and the Marx Brothers), whose imagery appeared on the cover of the 1990 Eureka card, where Chester Clark Klingel lived when the keys were traced. Did the Zodiac Killer read newspaper articles like the ones shown below and choose a Christmas card with Groucho Marx, not only because he had an admiration for the actor and singer through such things as "The Mikado", but because his early films were produced at Astoria, which he knew was the home of the first ever photocopied word (location) created by a man named Chester? We know with near certainty that the Zodiac Killer was extremely well read, often plundering material from the late 19th and early 20th century. However, in this instance, the apparent links created could be the perfect example of look long enough and you will always find something. It is likely that none of the above ever crossed the mind of the Eureka card sender.  

It is practically impossible to look at the envelope of the December 1990 Eureka card from the standpoint of handwriting and determine whether this communication was mailed by the Zodiac Killer. The only way to significantly shift the needle on its authenticity or otherwise, is to compare it to other Zodiac communications, irrespective of whether these other communications have been authenticated or not. It is possible to compare two "questionable" Zodiac communications and make a case that both are genuine. It must be remembered that the January 10th 2001 Happy New Year card mailed by somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer was created without the knowledge of the 1990 Eureka card, because the Eureka card wasn't made public until 2007 (if different authors). .

The author of the 2001 card decided not to mimic any previous confirmed Zodiac communications (envelopes) that were publicly available to them, and opted to use the full newspaper address of "San Francisco Chronicle", never done previously in any Zodiac Killer communication widely accepted as genuine by the Zodiac community. However, it was done by the 1990 Eureka card author eleven years previously. The author of the 2001 card chose to use "901 Mission Street" on the envelope, never done previously by the Zodiac Killer. However, it was done by the 1990 Eureka card author. The author of the 2001 card chose to use the zip code of "94103" on the envelope, never done previously by the Zodiac Killer. However, it was done by the 1990 Eureka card author.

It can be shown that these two questioned Zodiac communications, mailed in 1990 and 2001, used the word "Editor" at the beginning of the envelope, followed by "San Francisco Chronicle". In addition, the author of these communications chose to use only one punctuation, in the form of a comma after "San Francisco" on the fourth line of each envelope. These were the only two communications addressed to the San Francisco Chronicle and suggested as Zodiac Killer mailings, that were festive greeting cards. So we have two festive greeting cards, beginning by addressing the "Editor" of the newspaper, with the full newspaper title of "San Francisco Chronicle", "901 Mission Street", the zip code "94103" and only one punctuation in the form of a comma after "San Francisco", who were apparently two different authors that decided to use no mimicry of earlier Zodiac communications, yet managed to copy each other in all these instances. Yet they did opt to mimic the "y" style number "4" used by the Zodiac Killer in his confirmed communications. A very strange affair indeed.    

​However, there is another communication that has been shown to be genuine through extensive analysis on this website. This letter was mailed on May 6th 1986, four years before the 1990 Eureka card (and not publicly released), which also began by using "Editor" on the first line of the envelope, followed by the full address of "San Francisco Chronicle". In fact, the 1986 envelope began with "To the Editor", similar in fashion to the 2001 Happy New Year card that began with "Letters To The Editor". The 1986 letter can be connected to the 1987 letter, which can be connected to the July 31st 1969 letter mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald. The 1986, 1990 and 2001 mailings (sent to the Chronicle) are the only communications publicly available now, all consecutive to one another, that all begin by using "Editor" on the first line of the address, followed by the full newspaper title of "San Francisco Chronicle".     

The question we have to ask is this: Did two independent and separate hoaxers just happen to mimic each other in 1990 and 2001, but neither made any reasonable effort to imitate the previous publicly available communications of the Zodiac Killer? Or was it the Zodiac Killer who authored both festive greetings cards, who placed no emphasis on attempting to imitate himself? A hoaxer of the Zodiac Killer, by his very nature, should want to imitate previous communications to convince the reader he is the real deal, but the actual Zodiac Killer has no such obligation because he is the genuine article. In other words, a hoaxer of the Zodiac Killer communications, who fails to hoax properly, may not be a hoaxer.  

After the murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969 his brother, Joe Stine, made an ill-advised challenge to the Zodiac Killer shortly afterwards, by advertising his workplace and routes to and from the Richfield service station where he worked as a mechanic. On October 22nd 1969 he was reported in the San Francisco Chronicle as saying "Zodiac has to be sick, a maniac. I hope that by offering myself as a target I can flush him out. I work at the Richfield Service Station at 706 Sutter Street in Modesto, near Rouse Street. I start at 7 am. I go to lunch at the Walk-In Chicken in a shopping center two blocks away, riding a bicycle along Sutter Street and leaving the station at noon each day. I go back to the service station and work until 5". 

This challenge was widely condemned by Modesto residents and law enforcement, who accused Joe Stine of bringing potential danger to their city, that resulted in advise being given to school bus drivers in the event of an attack. Most days at noon Joe Stine went for lunch at La Von's Walking Chicken at 440 Paradise Road in Modesto, a 650 meter, 10 minute walk along Sutter Avenue. If the Zodiac Killer had targeted Joe Stine here, he would literally have been securing a kill in Paradise. Situated along Paradise Road and H Street is the Modesto High School, home of the Paul Tischer Performing Arts Theatre. It would have been quite the thing for a young Zodiac to have left his high school each day and walked home along Paradise Road.

But how coincidental was it that the subsequent crime to the Paul Stine murder, which was connected to the Zodiac Killer, was along Highway 132 near Modesto, where Joe Stine worked and invited the Zodiac Killer to pay him a visit? Kathleen Johns' route from San Bernardino to Petaluma on March 22nd 1970 via Highway 99, took her 4,750 feet from the Richfield service station of Joe Stine. Assuming that Kathleen Johns didn't read or watch the Joe Stine challenge to Zodiac back in October 1969 and decide to concoct an abduction story involving the Zodiac Killer near Modesto, it must be considered an unusual coincidence that - of all the places in California - the Zodiac Killer would strike in the very location the challenge was issued (assuming it was the Bay Area murderer). Some researchers from the Zodiac forums uncovered an unusual letter mailed to the Modesto Bee newspaper that they suspected could have been the Zodiac Killer playing games. AK Wilks stated "Someone reacted to Joe Stine very strongly. Doug Oswell and I, and some others, wonder if this letter from AROUSED is actually the Zodiac". Joe Stine worked near ROUSE Street. This individual claimed he went to Hughson Union High School with Paul Stine (a notable alumni in 1957). 

Two decades after the claimed abduction of Kathleen Johns, in December 1990, a Christmas card was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle from Eureka, California, that dragged Chester Clark Kilingel into the Zodiac story. Believed by many to have been sent by the Zodiac Killer, the card carried the image of a disguised snowman wearing spectacles, with the photocopied image of two post office box keys. The numbers on these keys were traced to Chester Clark Klingel.

The last time the Zodiac Killer could be linked to spectacles, a possible disguise and keys, is when he left the taxicab of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969, having taken the keys of the taxicab driver. Regarding the Eureka card, it appears that the Zodiac Killer may have also swiped a key belonging to Chester Clark Klingel, twenty-one years later. 

​If the Eureka card was mailed by the Zodiac Killer, how did he acquire one of the post office box keys of Chester Clark Klingel in order to photocopy it? If the Zodiac Killer didn't find the key and trace its owner, then the logical conclusion is that at some point he may have crossed paths with Chester Clark Klingel.

After Chester married his wife, Blandina, in 1965, they visited relatives regularly in Turlock, before they purchased property at 6413 E Keyes Road in Hughson, California in 1973 (now Alpine Pacific Nut Company). The route taken by Kathleen Johns on March 22nd 1970 had her traveling northwest on Highway 99, through Turlock and near Hughson, California, before reaching Modesto and heading west on Highway 132. It so happens that E Keyes Road passes over the top of Highway 99, with the 15-acre farm at 6413 E Keyes Road in Hughson situated less than two miles from Highway 99. The farm purchased by Chester Clark Klingel was just 3 miles from Hughson High School that Paul Stine attended. The school is located at 7419 E Whitmore Ave, only 5 miles from Highway 99. It means that Kathleen Johns, on March 22nd 1970, drove close to the high school of Paul Stine, the workplace of Joe Stine and the East Keyes farm eventually owned by Chester Clark Klingel (who Zodiac sent xeroxed keys from in 1990), before she was abducted by the Zodiac Killer on Highway 132 near Modesto - if you believe her story. You can't make this stuff up. 

Many people believe (but not everyone) that the Zodiac Killer paraphrased the wording from Groucho Marx's version of The Mikado into his Little List letter on July 26th 1970. The Groucho Marx connection would reappear in a possible Zodiac Killer communication in 1990, when a Christmas card was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle from Eureka. The designer of the card was George Schill, a contract artist with the American Greetings Card Company (Corporation) for 38 years, who informed me that all the imagery on the card (including the snowman) is exactly as he created it. In other words, nothing was added to the card outer by the Zodiac Killer. So, if the Eureka card was mailed by the Zodiac Killer, why did he choose to resurrect a connection to Groucho Marx after 20 years? (assuming the original connection was correct). If the image design on the Christmas card was chosen specifically, what could have triggered this choice?

The Zodiac Killer appeared to commemorate anniversaries and dates, such as the Lake Herman Road murders and Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1968 and 1969 (possibly with the release date of the 1965 movie The 10th Victim). He mailed the Pines card on March 22nd 1971 referring to the abduction of the missing Donna Lass, exactly one year after the abduction of Kathleen Johns on Highway 132. He mailed the 1987 "Halloween" letter seventeen years after the 1970 Halloween card. The March 13th 1971 "Los Angeles" letter was mailed on the US release date of the Vanishing Point movie, which used the same language as the letter in its January trailer..The August 1st 1973 "Albany" letter was mailed in response to a recent newspaper article that featured the date of August 1st 1969, by mentioning the receipt of the Zodiac Killer's first three letters and cryptograms. The "Albany" letter also carried another cryptic offering. One could argue that these are just coincidental. But if they were not, what anniverary or date could have inspired the Zodiac Killer to select a Groucho Marx Christmas card in 1990, which he may have had to source in advance to ensure his selected choice.   

Although Groucho Marx died on August 19th 1977, the year 1990 commemorated the 100th year of Groucho Marx's birth on October 2nd 1890. This was featured in many American newspapers in the run up to Christmas, with a flurry of Groucho Marx movies gracing the television screens as a mark of respect. Was this an anniversary noted by the Zodiac Killer, who decided to feature the comedian and actor on his Christmas greeting card, twenty years subsequent to the Little List letter that many believe was plagiariized from a Groucho Marx recital of The Mikado.   

The Zodiac Killer, his double postage, and the inspiration behind his communications has long been a discussion point in the Zodiac community. On October 22nd 1938, Chester Floyd Carlson made a major breakthrough when he developed the first ever xerographic copy of the handwritten message 10-22-38 ASTORIA, that paved the way to the multi-million dollar industry of photocopying that we are familiar with today. United States Public Law 100-548, signed into law by Ronald Reagan, designated October 22, 1988, as "National Chester F. Carlson Recognition Day". He was honored by the United States Postal Service with a 21¢ Great Americans series postage stamp. It was the 50-year anniversary of Carlson's discovery, recognised by extensive coverage in the newspapers  

On November 26th 1990, The Des Moines Register (and other newspapers throughout 1990) reported on plans for a new national postal museum, housing "the world's largest and most comprehensive postal and philatelic collection". The article referenced Chester Carlson as a rather obscure but important American, whose discovery of the xerographic process would become known as "the invention that no one wanted". This would ultimately prove to be one of the biggest misstatements ever, when you consider this form of technology is still widely used in current times.

In 1990, a television program profiling the life of Chester Carlson and his dry printing process would be released statewide, entitled the "Invention No One Wanted". This production ran throughout the year, as shown by the excerpt on the right from the San Francisco Examiner, stating "Chester Carlson invents xerography".  

The Zodiac Killer appeared to be a well-read individual, with one eye in the newspapers, and one eye on history. The only time the Zodiac Killer employed the use of a photocopied image (Xerox) in his communications was when he mailed the 1990 Eureka card (Christmas card) sometime in December, with the cover message of "From your secret pal. Can't guess who I am yet? Well, look inside and you'll find out". Inserted within the greetings card was the photocopied image of two post office box keys.

When analysed, the numbers on the keys would be traced back to Chester Clark Klingel, the namesake of Chester Carlson (first spotted by forum contributor Nin).  His obituary read "Chet's first wife Yolanda passed away in a car accident. His second marriage was short but his third to Blandina Sarkis added love, happiness, family and great food to his life. He had many good years in Tam Valley, CA, before beginning a farming venture near Turlock, CA. Chet and Blandina bought nut orchards and developed a successful walnut hulling and drying business. After Blandina passed away, the farming project lost appeal. Chet sold the farm and moved to Eureka, CA, where he made new friends". The Zodiac Killer was certainly clever in the design of his communications, so were the photocopied keys leading to an individual called "Chester" Clark Klingel, a deliberate and calculated choice by the Bay Area murderer, who covertly slipped the name of "Chester" Carlson into the communication through inverted imagery "to clue us in"? Assuming of course, the Christmas card was mailed by the Zodiac Killer. 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL FROM RICHARD & ZODIAC CIPHERS

The American Greetings card or Eureka card was believed to have been mailed by the Zodiac Killer in December 1990, depicting a wintry scene of a snowman and rabbit on its exterior, with an accompanying prewritten message of "FROM YOUR SECRET PAL CAN'T GUESS WHO I AM YET? WELL, LOOK INSIDE AND YOU'LL FIND OUT...". Once opened it revealed the prewritten reply of "...THAT I'M GONNA KEEP YOU GUESSIN'! HAPPY HOLIDAYS, ANYWAY". No additional writing from the sender was found on the card inner.

Many Zodiac Killer enthusiasts have questioned over the last sixteen years whether the imagery on the original American Greetings card was altered by the sender of the communication. These individuals have considered that the Zodiac Killer may have manipulated the snowman to look like Groucho Marx, because he was cast as Ko-Ko in The Mikado, reciting both A More Humane Mikado and  As Some Day it May Happen, two Gilbert & Sullivan acts used by the Zodiac Killer in his Little List letter mailed on July 26th 1970.

The designer of the card was George Schill, a contract artist with the American Greetings Card Company (Corporation) for 38 years, who informed me that all the imagery on the card (including the snowman) is exactly as he created it. In other words, nothing was added to the card outer by the Zodiac Killer. George, who retired several years ago, remarked "I did create the card as shown" and that "The ‘“guess who“ copy is typical of a greeting card friendship/secret admirer type of card, and I added the Groucho Marx glasses which are cliche". George's website lists his accomplishments as an illustrator, stating "my work has garnered a number of awards and has been selected for inclusion in the NY Society of Illustrators Annuals, Communication Arts, Printʼs Regional Design Annuals, and the Addyʼs. In addition to my freelance work, I have designed thousands of greeting cards as a contract artist with the humor divisions at American Greetings, where I also write gags, develop characters, and concept new lines. Several of my cards have been nominated for the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award".

I would like to thank George for supplying me with this information and clearing up some of the outstanding questions regarding the design of the Eureka card. You can visit George's website at https://www.georgeschill.com/   

It has been stated that one of the keys depicted in the Eureka card mailed in December 1990 was traced to its once owner, Chester Clark Klingel. The question that has arisen is: if the Eureka card was mailed by the Zodiac Killer, how did he acquire the post office box key of Chester Clark Klingel in order to photocopy it? If the Zodiac Killer didn't find the key and trace its owner, then the logical conclusion is that at some point he may have crossed paths with Chester Clark Klingel. After Chester married his wife, Blandina, in 1965, they visited relatives regularly in Turlock, before they purchased property at 6413 E Keyes Road in Hughson, California in 1973 (now Alpine Pacific Nut Company). They eventually sold this property and bought a 20-acre ranch from walnut huller, Glenn DeLay in 1976. This is the only tenuous link that can be forged between Chester Clark Klingel and the Zodiac Killer, who, if we believe abducted Kathleen Johns on March 22nd 1970, may have been traveling back to Vallejo from the Turlock or Hughson area that night. Additional link.

​Although the Kathleen Johns abduction occurred three years before the Klingels purchased the property in E Keyes Road and six years before the second purchase, the Zodiac Killer could have had family or friends, or had business dealings in Turlock or Hughson, that required him traveling there from the Bay Area before and after the Kathleen Johns abduction. If he had visited this area of California in 1970, he could have visited it regularly pre and post March 22nd 1970 - possibly into the 1980s and 1990s, where he may have crossed paths with Chester Clark Klingel in a personal or professional capacity. The route that Kathleen Johns took on March 22nd 1970 had her traveling northwest on Highway 99, through Turlock and near Hughson, California, before reaching Modesto and heading west on Highway 132. In fact, E Keyes Road passed over the top of Highway 99, with the 15-acre farm at 6413 E Keyes Road in Hughson situated less than two miles from Highway 99.

If the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the Kathleen Johns abduction in 1970, and had lived in the Bay Area during this period, it's very unlikely he would have taken a 170-mile round trip to an isolated stretch of road just to commit this type of crime, that he could have committed anywhere. This opens up the possibility he may have had reason to be in Turlock or Hughson pre and post 1970 (possibly business related). However slim, is there a chance that the Zodiac Killer trailed Kathleen Johns from Highway 99 somewhere in the region of Turlock or Hughson, or could he have traveled from this area and randomly come across Kathleen Johns as they both drove along Highway 132 at approximately 11:15pm?. Any continuing journeys to the Turlock region subsequent to the night of March 22nd 1970 may have facilitated the opportunity for the Zodiac Killer and Chester Clark Klingel to have crossed paths with one another. According to the obituary of Chester Clark Klingel, he remained in Turlock until the death of his wife Blandina on September 9th 1993, when he sold the farm and moved to Eureka. Therefore, it is entirely plausible that the Zodiac Killer 'acquired' and photocopied the post office box key from Chester in the years up to and including 1990, while Chester lived in Turlock, California.

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

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

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

The Zodiac Killer had a propensity to tease us with his name, but he also mailed two communications in the form of postcards on March 22nd 1971 and July 13th 1971, where he teased us with the name of the victim he was claiming. The "Sierra Club" of the Pines card being the Sierra Club of Clair Tappaan Lodge on the northwest side of Lake Tahoe, in conjunction with the punch-hole, may be directional markers to the gravesite of Donna Lass.

The Monticello card of July 13th 1971 gave us the phrase "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The card was insinuating the murder of Kathy Bilek in the woods of Villa Montalvo in Saratoga on April 11th 1971. The murder site was near the neighborhood of Monticello in San Jose, where one of Zodiac's previously claimed victims was buried. Kathy Snoozy was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery. The two pasted cards were probably clues to the victims he was claiming and the locations they were to be found. The Eureka card mailed in the December of 1990 was likely suggesting a third name. But on this occasion, the Zodiac Killer may have known the living victim (or at least known his name).

First brought to our attention on Tom Voigt's message board, the photocopied keys of the Eureka card were traced by the numbers on them to a post office box and one eventual owner, who they called "Sam", but was later identified as Chester Clark Klingel who lived in Eureka. This is obviously relevant because the Christmas greeting card was postmarked Eureka, California. It has been speculated that the Zodiac Killer may have found the keys, which has some merit when you consider the Ancient Greek word of Eureka meaning "I have found". However, it's unlikely that these keys were just found on the street without the Zodiac Killer knowing the owner's identity, because the Eureka card was designed in such a way that it hinted at the name "Chester" by the contents of the card. He gave us clues to the names of Donna Lass and Kathy Snoozy in two previous cards, so why shouldn't he do it for a third time. Having noticed this possibilty, I was happy to see that somebody else had also touched on this idea on the Zodiac Killer message board, but it was sadly passed over. Nin stated "Another trivia, Chester Carlson, the inventor of xerography (xerox) spent 3 years at RCC, Riverside".   

The Zodiac Killer may have been directing law enforcement to the home of Chester Clark Klingel in Eureka, with the photocopied keys and postmark. The Eureka card has the pre-printed message "From your secret pal, can't guess who I am yet? Well, look inside and you'll find out", challenging us to discover the name inside the card. The only way to discover the name was to identify the numbers on the keys. But why did the Zodiac Killer photocopy the keys? It could have been another clue to the owner of the keys, because as Nin highlighted:

Xerox was founded in 1906 in Rochester, New York, as The Haloid Photographic Company. It manufactured photographic paper and equipment. In 1938, Chester Carlson, a physicist working independently, invented a process for printing images using an electrically charged photoconductor-coated metal plate and dry powder "toner". However, it would take more than 20 years of refinement before the first automated machine to make copies was commercialized, using a document feeder, scanning light, and a rotating drum. Chester Floyd Carlson is best known for inventing electrophotography, the process performed today by millions of photocopiers worldwide. Carlson's process produced a dry copy, as contrasted with the wet copies then produced by the mimeograph process. Carlson's process was renamed xerography, a term that means "dry writing".

How likely is it, that the not so common name of "Chester" would be the inventor of a process used by millions of photocopiers worldwide, and would be the owner of at least one of the photocopied keys placed inside the Eureka card by the Zodiac Killer, while also living in Eureka, California in 1990. The card outer was now completed: "From your secret pal, can't guess who I am yet? Well, look inside and you'll find out". Chester. Chester Clark Klingel was seemingly ruled out as being the Zodiac Killer, so in all probability this was just another game by the Zodiac Killer, intending to misdirect law enforcement on yet another wild goose chase. But if he knew the name of Chester Clark Klingel when designing the greeting card, it may bring us a little closer to finding out who he was.

Recently we covered the January 10th 2001 Happy New Year card, stating it was likely mailed by the same individual as the December 1990 Eureka card, When the individual authored the 2001 card and mailed it to the San Francisco Chronicle, we have to remember that the 1990 Eureka card wasn't made public until 2007. Therefore, he couldn't have been imitating the design of the 1990 Eureka card envelope. There has been an over emphasis on comparing the handwriting between the two communications, with some believing the handwriting is a good match, and others not so sure - and this is par for the course. To determine whether these communications were created by the same author (or the Zodiac Killer) we have to analyze their composition and their layout.

For those who strongly believe the 1990 Eureka card is the Zodiac Killer, this is an important question. If the communications can be linked, then advocates for the 1990 Eureka card must advocate for the 2001 Happy New Year card also. It would rule out any suspects dead or incarcerated subsequent to December 1990 and up to January 10th 2001 such as Theodore Kaczynski, who was arrested on April 3rd 1996 and given eight life sentences. It would also rule out high profile suspect Arthur Leigh Allen, who died on August 26th 1992. Now obviously, staunch advocates of Theodore Kaczynski or Arthur Leigh Allen, who also believe that the 1990 Eureka card was Zodiac, will almost certainly reject the 2001 Happy New Year card by default, or now distance themselves from the Eureka card if it was proven beyond reasonable doubt it was linked to the 2001 card. Here is a comparison between the envelope handwriting before we move on.

Any hoaxer or copycat who wants to mail an imitation Zodiac letter, particularly in 1990 and 2001, has a wealth of genuine Zodiac communications to draw upon, including the envelopes. The November 16th 1970 Paul Avery newspaper article in the San Francisco Chronicle was one such example of how to address an envelope in Zodiac fashion. The need to mimic and convince the reader you are the genuine Zodiac, would supersede the requirement of the real Zodiac to convince the reader he is the genuine Zodiac. The real Zodiac doesn't need to convince anybody he is the Zodiac Killer, because he knows he is. One can therefore argue, that a communication in 1990 or 2001 that is pertaining to be from the Zodiac Killer, that looks nothing like the Zodiac Killer, could very well be from the Zodiac Killer. The need to mimic old communications is not a requirement for the real killer. So when researchers state that the 2001 Happy New Year card looks nothing like old Zodiac communications, they may very well be negating their own position of rejecting it. Why should the 1990 or 2001 handwriting look like the handwriting from twenty to thirty years ago. Handwriting varies over time and is easily manipulated.

The 1990 Eureka card and 2001 Happy New Year card, whether Zodiac or not, were mailed eleven years apart. We are not aware of any other Zodiac or copycat communications in between these years. If there has been any, they have not been released. We have to look at these two communications in respect to all the confirmed and suspected copycat letters from 1969 to 2001 (a span of 32 years). If these two communications were not the same author (and the 2001 author couldn't have copied the 1990 author), then it is unusual that these latter two communications are both festive greetings cards, never before mailed to the newspapers by the Zodiac Killer or a copycat in the thirty-two years prior. Not withstanding the handwriting, it is also the first time the Zodiac Killer or a copycat had employed the address format of "901 Mission Street" and the numbering "94103". So we have two communications, both are festive cards, and both use an envelope address format never employed in any previously publicized letters from the Zodiac Killer or otherwise. We have to ask the pertinent question of why a copycat would attempt to look nothing like the real killer. He is effectively imitating nothing the Zodiac Killer had done previously, and negating the art of imitation.       

Either the Zodiac Killer or somebody purporting to be the Zodiac Killer mailed a Happy New Year card to the San Francisco Chronicle on January 10th 2001, disgusted that San Francisco citizens were "getting murdered" by Muni drivers. The day before, on January 9th 2001, the Examiner ran an article describing how a Muni streetcar struck and killed pedestrian Guang Zhan Ouyang on Sunday, January 7th 2001. Another fatality occurred the following day on Van Ness Avenue. This newspaper article is courtesy of Cragle from Zodiac Killer Site forum - and is undoubtedly the trigger for the January 10th 2001 Happy New Year card. After all, the author opened up with the line [corrected] "Dear Sir. Wherever you are. This is disgusting to read, what seems to be a news that nobody really cares, but the relatives of innocent citizens murdered in our beloved S.F. It's always the pedestrians fault and never those bastard Muni drivers".

The Zodiac Killer was extremely fond of reacting to newspaper articles in his heyday, but what was it about this particular article that triggered such a response, just over eleven years after the December 1990 Eureka card (assuming the Zodiac Killer was responsible for both communications). Cragle pondered the question; Could the line "Noboby really cares but the relatives of innocent citizens MURDER in our beloved SF" allude to a relationship of some sorts to the person quoted in the article?

Here is another Examiner newspaper article, dated January 3rd 2001, describing the death of Brian Edward Cotter (18) as he played the game of "chicken" with a Muni streetcar. Thanks again to Cragle for supplying this cutting.

Here is a communication mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on January 10th 2001 threatening the Muni drivers of San Francisco, widely believed to be somebody mimicking the Zodiac Killer. While this may be the case, one has to consider the style and format of the writing (particularly on the envelope) with respect to previous Zodiac communications. No other authenticated Zodiac communication prior to this one carried the address of "901 Mission Street" with "San Francisco, CA 94103". Additionally, no previous Zodiac communication (or suspected copycat communication) was ever mailed as a festive greetings card, other than the Eureka card, which is bound to this communication by three unique features. I believe Tom Voigt of Zodiackiller.com considers the Eureka card mailed in 1990 to be a plausible Zodiac correspondence, placing this communication in his "Letters from the Zodiac" section on the message forum.  

The Eureka card is the only other possible Zodiac communication addressed in near identical fashion to the 2001 offering (shown in tandem with the envelope below). The problem arises when we consider that the Eureka card was not discovered until March 3rd 2007 by editorial assistant Daniel King of the San Francisco Chronicle among some photo files. The 2007 Zodiac movie directed by David Fincher and based on the Robert Graysmith book, was released in the USA the day before this correspondence was unearthed, on March 2nd. The movie had its premier in Los Angeles and California on March 1st.

This means that whoever wrote the January 10th 2001 card, addressed it in near identical fashion to a previously unreleased and potential Zodiac communication (thought to be genuine by many). The Eureka card wasn't made public until 2007, so the author of the 2001 communication has a high probability of being the author of the December 1990 Christmas card. You cannot 'copycat' the handwriting or style of an envelope that hasn't been released into the public domain. If you believe the Eureka card to be genuine, it follows that you should lean towards the 2001 communication being genuine also. If you hold the opinion that Zodiac was still alive in 1990 mailing Christmas cards, then it is extremely likely he was still active in 2001 doing exactly the same thing. ​

This is another speculative article searching for the name of the Zodiac Killer within his communications - so caution must be applied to any conclusions that are reached in the following analysis.

After the challenge by Dr. Marsh on October 22nd 1969 requesting that the Zodiac Killer give us his real name in a cipher "however complicated", the notion of a killer hinting at his name in later communications is certainly plausible. Presented in a hidden format, the Zodiac Killer knew that it could never be used as evidence against him, unless the unearthed solution could be proven beyond doubt to be the correct one. In the article Return to Sender we explored the introduction and answer to the 13 symbol cipher of "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you. My name is....Fk, I'm crackproof". The Zodiac Killer effectively giving us his name, but in the shortened format. 

Three months later, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Little List letter on July 26th 1970 paraphrasing the recital of Groucho Marx's As some day it may happen from the Gilbert & Sullivan comedic opera, The Mikado. On October 12th 1970, the San Francisco Chronicle featured this letter under the title of Gilbert and Sullivan Clue to Zodiac, stating "A quiet search for onetime Ko-Ko's has turned up none that could be Zodiac. Obvious differences in physical description and handwriting comparisons have cleared all Ko-Ko's tracked down since the arrival of the July 27 letters". But what if the Zodiac Killer wasn't choosing the character of Ko-Ko because he played him in a production or even liked the theater, but the name Ko-Ko was somehow pertinent to his identity. Bearing in mind the phrase "My name is....Fk, I'm crackproof", could the Zodiac Killer's surname begin with Ko. The phrase "FK, I'm crackproof" is actually 14 letters long, but it was fashioned into a code of only 13 characters. Could this deliberate formatting indicate his initials were FK in a name comprising of 13 letters?

Although questionable Zodiac correspondence, the December 1990 Eureka card yet again featured Groucho Marx in imagery on the front of the card, promising us his name yet again. The card read "From your secret pal, can't guess who I am yet? Well, look inside and you'll find out" - and contained within was a xerox copy of two keys. This too triggered the notion of a surname beginning with K. The Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974 also featured a verse recited by Groucho Marx, but more importantly, the verse of Tit-Willow by Ko-Ko was preceded by the line "Signed, yours truley", implying the character in the verse had something to do with his name. This wasn't all.

We argued that the Zodiac Killer gave us the answers to all his "unsolved" codes in his own words, and the Celebrity Cypher mailed on September 25th 1990 to the Vallejo Times-Herald may have followed a similar pattern. The name of the sender was hidden behind 5 and 8 characters totaling 13, placed on the address side of the postcard and at the foot of the communication. A Celebrity Cypher with a likely introduction of "My name is", exactly like 13 symbol cipher mailed on April 20th 1970. If the initials of the killer were given in that instance within the phrase "Fk, I'm crackproof", then there are reasonable grounds to believe the 5 and 8 letters of the name on the Celebrity Cypher begin with an F and K also. In the Return to Sender article we hypothesized the forename as "Frank", based upon the phrase "how much money you have on my head now" in reference to the stamp on the April 20th 1970 letter - and this fits nicely into the Celebrity Cypher solution. I have speculatively placed "Ko" at the beginning of the surname regarding The Mikado references, but will venture no further. There are possibilities based on the "keys" provided by the Eureka card to suggest his surname could end in "key" or "ki" such as "Kominski", however, there are plenty of other options pertaining to the xeroxed image.

Comparisons can be drawn between the April 20th 1970 and September 25th 1990 communications with respect to a name comprising of 13 letters (split into 5 and 8 characters) - and bearing in mind the Christmas card, likely mailed close to December 25th 1990 continuing the theme of promising us his name - can a link be forged between all three regarding the identity or name of the Zodiac Killer?