A shift cipher with circled numbers (often seen in puzzles like escape rooms) relies on a Caesar cipher, where the secret shift key is represented by numbers wrapped inside circles, such as the three number 8's present on the simple Z13 code mailed on April 20th 1970. A shift cipher replaces each plaintext letter with another letter located a fixed number of positions down the alphabet. When you hit the end of the alphabet, the count would wrap around to the beginning. In the case of the Z13, the count of 8 would travel in a right shift and wrap around to the beginning (this would apply to the second two 8's).

This was just a continuation of the technique adopted in the 340 cipher---at the time unsolved---in which the Zodiac Killer employed a positive nine and negative eight shift to encode his message---that could be decoded with a period 19 shift. He also encoded errors into his 340 cipher using a nine shift, that became apparent as diagonal patterns across the second half of this cipher. The April 20th 1970 letter was very likely triggered by the morning newspaper reports of the Robert Salem murder in San Francisco on the same day (with Zodiac scrawled in blood on his apartment wall). A letter that had a morning postmark, so was likely created in haste with very little regard for complex cipher techniques. It is not certain that the Zodiac Killer was inspired to resume his letter writing campaign because of the Robert Salem murder, but it had been four months since the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969, so this letter coinciding with his pseudonym appearing at a murder site, is probably not coincidental. 

The November 8th 1969 and April 20th 1970 letters were very likely prompted by Professor Donald C. B. Marsh, who told the San Francisco Examiner on October 22nd 1969: "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 Allan 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".

​That is because Edgar Allan Poe's lengthy essay "A Few Words on Secret Writing".held all the ingredients to the design of the Z340 and Z13, including the splitting of the alphabet into two halves, and the cipher wheel which adopts the forwards and backwards shifting method of encryption and decryption, involving two concentric, independently rotating circles. The bottom line is that the Zodiac Killer likely didn't have much time to dazzle us with complex cryptograms on April 20th 1970, so created a simplistic code of 13 characters in which the three circled 8's became the engine room to the solution, where we had to circle around the code to produce the joke reply to "My name is" of "ME ⊕".  

This is the answer he gave us on October 27th 1970, highlighting the word "ME" twice on the Halloween card by the clever positioning of the word "BOO", preceded again by the promise of his name through the selection of a card with the introductory message of "I feel it in my bones you ache to know my name. And so I'll clue you in". The comedic answer was "ME"--- now given to us three times. The fourth time was in plain sight on January 29th 1974, when the Zodiac gave us his "pseudonym" or "name" as "Me-37".

A further fifth clue could be found by looking at the next line in the "Tit-Willow" verse he provided in 1974. The wording "My name is" can be extrapolated from the "The Mikado" text---thereby returning us back to the April 20th 1970 letter and ""ME" once again. We have now gone full circle back to the three circled eights. We effectively have four examples of "ME" through three communications---all but one of which are sitting in plain sight. The only one hidden from view can be easily found in seconds using a simple right shift the Zodiac Killer had previously employed. The Zodiac Killer mailed at least seven ciphers during his reign of terror, but it is safe to say that the four most commonly talked about ciphers have now been finally resolved.
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FOUR AND A HALF YEARS OF ME             THREE INNOCUOUS EXCLAMATION MARKS

Knowing that the Zodiac Killer was a narcissist who bathed in the spotlight of notoriety, it wasn't surprising that by 1974, after several of his communications failed to be published in the newspapers, that he ultimately harbored resentment towards the headline grabbers and decided to change course. Three consecutive letters on January 29th 1974, April 24th 1978 and March 2nd 1978 all focused on the movie industry and its associated award ceremonies  The "Exorcist" letter on January 29th 1974 responded to the recent Golden Globe film awards at the Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, California on January 26th 1974, where "The Exorcist" film won four awards for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". The Zodiac Killer wrote "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy".

He followed this up on April 24th 1978---dissatisfied with being in the shade---by addressing his audience with "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me". Three weeks earlier, the 50th Academy Awards of cinematic achievement took place at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles on April 3rd 1978, with Oscar winning films subsequently benefitting at the box office in cinemas and theaters across the country. Nine days after the April 24th 1978 letter, on May 2nd 1978, the Zodiac Killer began taunting the actors paraded at the ceremony, insisting that they needed to raise their game if they wanted to take on the role of the Bay Area murderer, by stating "Hey-you actors-this is your lucky Break. Remember-whoever plays me has his work cut out for him, I have decided to start killing again-please hold the applause". It really came as no surprise that his "Channel Nine" letter was addressed to KHJ-TV Studios at 5615 Melrose Avenue, as the Los Angeles television station was only 4.5 miles from where the Academy Awards were held one month earlier--- a television station that held its 13th annual 2-hour voting ceremony called "Your Choice for the Oscars" on the eve of the Academy Awards.  

In amongst the slew of Academy Award winning films hitting the big screen in March and April of 1978, was the movie "Blue Collar" starring Richard Pryor and Harvey Keitel. Advertisements for this movie littered the newspapers alongside the Academy Award winning films---described as "A Damned Good Movie" in every publication. Contrast this with a newspaper hungry Zodiac Killer, who couldn't have failed to notice this advertisement when stating "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me". Well, I can certainly guarantee that it wasn't going to be Richard Pryor.

It really is quite amazing how David Toschi managed to author all of these letters under one common theme of award ceremonies, while generously taking time away from being a detective to mail the January 29th 1974 and April 24th 1978 letters from San Mateo/Santa Clara County, and take the short 6-hour journey to mail the "Channel Nine" letter from Los Angeles. This would have been unprecedented commitment from a serving detective, who with plenty of imagination and endeavor, had the foresight to manufacture such elaborate schemes over a 4-year period.

Inspector David Toschi even went so far as to investigate his own sinister phone call to the Mission District on March 13th 1978, when his voice was recorded on an answering machine, warning "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco". This came 42 days before the April 24th 1978 letter, which read "I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here". After an extensive investigation into this phone call, David Toschi concluded that he didn't recognise his own voice and the case was closed, yet he still decided to mimic the language used in the phone call for his April 24th 1978 letter. 

Not satisfied with being demoted to pawn detail after he was suspected of writing the April 24th 1978 letter, he decided to do a further impression of the Zodiac Killer on July 19th 1978, when he mimicked the language used in the unreleased May 2nd 1978 letter, which continued the theme of the April 24th 1978 letter. They read in chronological order "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me" (04/24/78), "whoever plays me has his work cut out for him" (05/02/78} and "Maybe you play chess with me" (07/19/78). All three used the verb "play" and the singular pronoun "me" in the same sentence. The third author could not have copied the second author if different individuals, but they could have been the same person. If David Toschi managed to accomplish all of the above---taking the time to scour the newspapers and travel around the country to fashion this elaborate hoax---then he deserves an Oscar and a massive posthumous round of applause. I doubt even I could have found these connections. 

A PAWN IN A GAME OF DEATH   

The Zodiac Killer employed only two pseudonyms between 1969 and 1987 in the form of "Zodiac" and "Me"---the latter of which appeared in the only known genuine mailing of 1974, when the Zodiac Killer sent the "Exorcist" communication on January 29th 1974. A signature that can easily be unearthed by taking a right shift of eight from each circled 8 in the Z13 cipher.

But it was the "Halloween" card on October 27th 1970 that again teed us up with the promise of his identity, by the Zodiac choosing a card with the introduction of "I feel it in my bones you ache to know my name. And so I'll clue you in". Knowing that this was written on the front of the card, one might have expected the Bay Area murderer to supply us with a humorous answer subtly concealed within the design of the card inner, just like "My name is" may have been followed by "ME ⊕" in the April 20th 1970 letter. This was covered extensively in a previous article, however, it appeared that the Zodiac Killer made a deliberate choice to add two exclamation marks to the "Halloween" card inner to compliment the third exclamation mark already present in the writing "But, then why spoil our game!".  The fourth was partially hidden by the the skeleton's right foot.
​
In the earlier article it was shown that the Zodiac Killer placed "Peek-a-boo you are doomed" around the knothole of the tree, yet it was fashioned in such a way that the "ME" of "DOOMED" was noticeably larger and bolder than the rest of the text. The following letter "D" returned to normal size, but was followed by an oversized exclamation mark, effectively creating an emphasis on "ME!".(ME complimented by an exclamation mark). This mimicked the word to the right of the inner skeleton's left arm, which was the only part of the "cut and pasted" skeleton out of position compared to the original. The left arm had been accidentally or deliberately shifted to the right to obscure the "a" of "game" to spell "me!". This was not all.

The phrase "PEEK-A-BOO" around the knothole is positioned so that "BOO" lines up with the personal pronoun of "ME". The "D" and exclamation mark is broken off to line up with the large "BOO!" (BOO and exclamation mark) in the center of the card inner, which in turn is tilted 45 degrees anticlockwise to line up with the "me!" by the skeleton's left arm, which just happens to be the only part of the skeleton out of place compared to the original (see below). So, did.the Zodiac Killer deliberately add two exclamation marks to the card inner to form a bridge to the third, positioned after "me" by the misplaced left arm? The Zodiac Killer would have lined up "BOO" with "ME" twice (with both "BOO'S" sitting at approximately 45 degrees on the card), and fashioned "ME" followed by an exclamation mark twice. Was this a further mocking joke to compliment the simplistic answer to the Z13 on April 20th 1970? A joke that the Zodiac Killer finally got tired of on January 29th 1974, when he eventually exorcised the true identity of himself. Did anybody really expect the Zodiac Killer to give us his real name?  

The opening line of the "Exorcist" letter mailed on January 29th 1974 borrowed from the newspaper coverage of the 1973 film which won four Golden Globe awards at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California on January 26th 1974, Having received four awards for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay", the Zodiac Killer chose to mock the film's achievements by writing "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy". He then featured a verse from "The Mikado", a British comic opera by Arthur Seymour Sullivan and William Schwenck Gilbert, based in a fictionalised version of Japan.

After plagiarising a verse from Tit-Wllow, the Zodiac Killer then added what appears to be Japanese style symbolism at the foot of the letter, preceded by a threat, which read  "If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing". Kevin Robert Brooks "To Kill" is the arguable frontrunner of solutions to this strange array of characters. If the Zodiac Killer had watched "The Exorcist" movie in the days or weeks before writing this letter, did anything in the film contain Japanese characters that may have inspired him to add this symbolism to his communication addressed to the San Francisco Chronicle?

In "The Exorcist" movie, Father Karras takes audio recordings of the possessed Regan to a university language laboratory. The laboratory director (played by John Mahon) analyses the eerie, garbled noises and realises that the demonic speech is actually English spoken in reverse. The red writing on the wall of the laboratory in the above image reads "TASUKETE" (タスケテ) which is Japanese for "Help me", that appears on possessed Regan's torso in the very next scene. In Japanese writing, this is written in Katakana (the phonetic alphabet used for foreign words and emphasis). It serves as a subtle, eerie Easter egg placed in the background of the scene, mirroring the demonic possession. This personal pronoun (of "Me") was used by Zodiac in the "Exorcist" letter on January 29th 1974, when he wrote "Me-37, SFPD-0". To the left of "Me" in the "Exorcist" letter are a group of Japanese style symbols. To the left of "Help me" on the wall of the language laboratory are a row of Japanese symbols. The plea of "Help me" featured three times in the "Melvin Belli" letter on December 20th 1969. 

Zodiac researcher, Jibberjabber, pointed me in the direction of the highlighted Katakana symbol on the left, which resembles one of the Japanese style characters used by the Zodiac Killer in his Exorcist letter. However, we have hit a roadblock since, and have been unable to properly identify any of the remaining characters. It might be very useful to "decode" the Japanese writing shown in the visible image below, because if the Zodiac Killer saw "The Exorcist" movie as he claimed, he may have "thinked" a little longer than we thought.

On January 29th 1974, the introduction of "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy", arrived three days after the Golden Globe ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on January 26th 1974, winning four awards for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". However, the germination of the Exorcist letter may have begun after the January 11th 1974 Paul Avery article in the San Francisco Chronicle, which told of the audience reaction to "The Exorcist" movie at the Northpoint Theater at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, entitled "Weird Goings-On at the Movies". In the 2 1/2 weeks subsequent to January 11th 1974.

Beginning two years ago and culminating with fourteen exorcisms in the latter part of 1973, Catholic priest, Rev. Karl Patzelt, director of the Catholic Russian Center and pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Church, attempted to rid the "curse of Satan" from a young family home in Daly City, San Mateo, California. This story in the newspapers and on television overlapped the release of The Exorcist movie, which was hit the cinemas on December 26th 1973.

​Two weeks after the film release, Paul Avery wrote the above article for the San Francisco Chronicle on January 11th 1974 about the William Friedkin movie, that focused on the exorcism of a young 12-year-old girl in the family home by two Catholic priests. Later that day, just before 11 pm, somebody identifying as the Zodiac Killer phoned the newspapers and police and stated that they had killed a woman and placed her body in a Daly City church, resulting in immediate searches that found nothing. We appeared to have the convergence of several themes amounting from this. The numerous attempts at exorcism by Rev. Karl Patzelt in Daly City that somewhat mirrored the film, a newspaper report about The Exorcist movie by Paul Avery, who wrote about the Zodiac Killer for many years, and a threat from a claimed Zodiac Killer, centered around churches in Daly City, with the Catholic church likely being the focus of all three   

​Eighteen days after the Paul Avery article, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974, threatening that he would kill again if his letter was not printed in the newspapers. A letter probably aimed at Paul Avery, to whom he had contacted by name twice before and never mentioned the pseudonym "Zodiac" in either of those communications also. What was even more curious, is that this latest letter was mailed from San Mateo County (or Santa Clara County), which contains Daly City, the second-most populous city behind San Mateo - and the focus of numerous exorcisms by Rev. Karl Patzelt at the back end of 1973.

​The "Zodiac" phone caller on January 11th 1974 claimed he had killed a woman, with the Exorcist letter stating "If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing". Although we do know the Zodiac Killer was capable of killing, it appeared as though the claim on January 11th 1974 had no validity, and was simply a case of issuing fake information for "police to run all over town with, as one might say, And giving the cops some busy work to do to keep them happy".

The exorcism case Father Patzelt was involved in was widely covered in January 1974, with articles appearing in various newspapers like The New York Times on January 25th 1974 and the Napa Valley Register.on January 21st 1974  The event was frequently compared to the popular novel and film The Exorcist. The phrase "work of the devil" was used in newspaper headlines and captions in 1974 to refer to the real life exorcism case he performed in Daly City, California, which gained significant media attention at the time. There were many newspaper articles reporting this story just prior to the Zodiac Killer's Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974, including the Catholic Northwest Progress on January 25th 1974. One notable statement was uttered by Father Patzelt in many of these newspapers, which read "The activity lasted approximately 22 hours a day, seven days a week for 20 weeks. It would be impossible to relate all the nasty tricks the devil plagued them with". A matter of days later, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Exorcist letter (possibly from San Mateo County/Daly City) and wrote "If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing". This coming just 18 days after a "Zodiac Killer" phoned the police and press claiming a dead woman in a Daly City church. Was the Zodiac Killer suggesting it wasn't only the devil that could do "nasty" things?​

      HERE IS THE FULL TRANSCRIPT THAT APPEARED IN MANY NEWSPAPERS 

SAN FRANCISCO (NC)— Exorcism is a horror now being experienced vicariously by movie goers all over the country, but to a suburban family here it has all been very real and very horrible. The lives of the young Daly City couple and their baby had been so wrecked by two years of bizarre happenings, attributed to the devil, that last summer they sought the help of Church authorities here who sanctioned a solemn exorcism. A number of exorcism services were held between September 4 and 18. Since that time the family is said to have experienced a return to peace with no undue occurrences being reported. Details of such exorcisms are normally kept secret by the Church. However, national interest in the subject, generated by the movie ‘“The Exorcist’”’, has refocused attention on the Daly City events. A recent Jesuit newsletter disclosed that an exorcism had been performed. Now the full story has been told by the exorcist, Jesuit Father Karl Patzelt, a Byzantine rite priest who heads the Russian Catholic Center and who is also pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Church here. The name of the family involved is being kept secret to protect their privacy. It can be disclosed, however, that the father is a 29-year-old transportation worker. His wife is 26 and they have a two-year-old baby. The father was born in Britain and was brought up an Orthodox Jew. He has lived in the San Francisco Bay area for about 12 years. His wife was born a Catholic. Since last year's experiences with what he genuinely believes was the devil, the husband has been converted to Catholicism. According to Father Patzelt, the couple had suffered ‘‘devilish attacks and temptations for over two years.” They spent weeks explaining their problem to all kinds of persons whom they felt might help them, but they met nothing but skepticism, even from their own local parish priest. Yet according to a statement issued by the pastor, associate pastor and deacon assistant at St. Andrew’s Community, the couple’s home parish, reports that the parish would not help or could offer no solutions are *‘grossly inaccurate.” The parish staff said that the priests “plus two law enforcement officers and numerous others” investigated the case for weeks in 1972. But the results of the investigation left “a multitude of unresolved questions", which, while not ruling out the possibility of the supernatural presence of evil, indicated that ‘‘the situation is not as clear cut as present news reports describe.” The statement by the pastor, Father James M. Moher, associate pastor Father James Dillon Riley, and Rev. Mr. Thomas M. RolYe asserted that the question ‘‘is not whether there was an exorcism—for Father Patzelt has made clear that there was ... the concern in our minds is the evidence which we accumulated over a series of "weeks, and the decision which we reached as a consequence of this evidence.” Meanwhile the prioress of a Marin County Carmelite Monastery had come to know the suffering family and she introduced the couple to Father Patzelt. On July 17, 1972, the Jesuit visited their home and was shown evidence which the couple called the work of the devil. “There were broken windows, damaged walls, ceilings and doors dented and scraped, caused by flying objects such. as boots, knives, a poker and any other objects the devil could grab,” Father Patzelt said. ‘‘There were many articles burnt in the house. The rugs, wallpaper, curtains, chairs—even a dress being worn by the wife caught fire while she walked down the hall.” The priest said he asked the couple why they didn’t move out of the house. They told him, “We have already moved twice. It follows us.” The family had moved into the Daly City home in November, 1972, hoping that their troubles would end. However six months later—on May 27 of last year—the ‘‘devilish phenomenon” started all over again. They told Father Patzelt that every night the disturbances would last until about 4 am, leaving them with only two hours sleep a night. They had to get up for work at 6 am. “Often, their arising was not of their own will, the devil made sure they had little sleep,” the exorcist said. ‘“‘During the day there was no peace either. The activity lasted approximately 22 hours a day, seven days a week for 20 weeks. It would be impossible to relate all the nasty tricks the devil plagued them with. Also the physical and mental anguish they suffered was far beyond human endurance. Among the devil’s tricks they told me about were a pot of soup disappearing from the stove while boiling hot; one or the other of the couple would be knocked down, often unconscious, and the young husband would be constantly pestered at work. Objects kept disappearing—especially those with great sentimental value to the couple. Sometimes they would reappear, but often damaged beyond repair. “The couple could not keep food in the house for it, too, would disappear. The wife related how she would prepare dinner for the family, but when they would sit down to enjoy their meal, it had vanished.”. Three day's later, July 20, Father: Patzelt told what he found out for: himself when he visited the home: “I was absorbed in conversation: with the couple and their parents in the living room when the wife excused herself to get the baby ready for bed,” the exorcist said. “On her return to the living room she was pushed to the ground with her arm extended into a strong rigid position. ‘Where is my wedding ring,’ she asked when she got up. ‘lt's gone. He took it". As always in the case, everyone tried to dismiss the incident and went back to the conversation at hand. A short interval elapsed when all smelled something burning. Everyone ran into the kitchen where they found a paper bag, standing on the floor for trash, had burned down and was reduced to smoldering ashes. No sooner had they attended to this when the little boy started crying in his crib. The mother stated that "he always cries like that when he is being disturbed". “I led the way,” Father Patzelt said, “with the others close behind. When we entered the little boy’s room, we found him in the corner of his crib obviously very frightened. The cause of his fright was the fact that his little rocking chair had been lifted into his crib. It had been on the floor.”

The Zodiac Killer, having witnessed the young girl in the film being possessed by a "thing" inside of her, as he had claimed several years earlier by writing "help me" to Melvin Belli three times, must have been influenced by the writing on Regan's torso in one particular gruesome scene, when the words "help me" appeared on the young girl's skin, as her inner soul pleaded to be free from the force that had invaded her body.

​And you wonder why the Zodiac Killer, who mentioned The Exorcist movie in this letter, changed his signature to "Me" at the foot of the communication. He obviously altered his signature for a reason. The immediate correspondence after the Melvin Belli letter, stating "help me" three times, was mailed on April 20th 1970 and has been shown to contain the signature of "Me" by employing a simple right shift of eight. 

​But after mocking the 1973 movie by writing "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy", the Zodiac Killer completely switched to the Japanese themed theatre production of The Mikado by adding a verse from Tit-Willow (and the Japanese style symbolism). Why would the Zodiac Killer introduce this apparent dichotomy into his communication? In one scene from The Exorcist movie, Father Damien "Demis" Karras, one of the main protagonists in the 1973 film, enters the language laboratory with his tape recordings of Regan's "demonic voice" for analysis. Above the door is the word TASUKETE written on a poster. This is a Japanese word meaning "Help Me" or "Save Me". This poster foreshadows the "Help me" message that appears on Regan's body in the next scene of the film.

​The Zodiac Killer added this verse from Tit-Willow by introducing it with "yours truley", The signature of "yours truly" simply means "me". The next line of the Tit-Willow verse, which the Zodiac Killer didn't write on the Exorcist letter, contained the phrase "My name is". An introduction that gave us the 13 character code on April 20th 1970, which has been shown to contain the signature of "Me", just like the Exorcist letter, which featured The Exorcist movie and "help me" on the girl's torso, that mimicked the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969.

In The Exorcist (1973), the phrase "me" relates to the demonic entity possessing young, Regan MacNeil, who claims to be the devil ("I am the devil himself!") and often uses "me" in threats, demands, and insults, particularly toward her mother, Chris MacNeil, and the priests during the harrowing exorcism rituals, revealing the entity's powerful, blasphemous identity. It's a core part of the possession, highlighting the internal struggle and the demon's contempt for humanity. 

• Identity: The demon (using Regan's voice) asserts its divine status, saying, "I am the devil himself!".
• Blasphemy: It uses "me" in conjunction with obscene acts, like masturbating with a crucifix, shocking the mother and priests.
• Manipulation: It taunts the priests with "Lick me, lick me!" and other vile commands, using "me" to exert control.
• Physical Manifestation: The word "ME" also famously appears scratched onto Regan's stomach, a terrifying visual cue of the demon's presence and power. 

Essentially, "me" in The Exorcist isn't just a pronoun; it's the voice of pure evil, a declaration of self from the demonic entity fighting for control of Regan's soul. ​

This is a further examination of the 18 characters at the foot of the 408 cipher mailed on July 31st 1969, and the reasoning behind the apparent filler that made little sense. It is fairly clear that the Zodiac Killer made an error when converting his draft message into ciphertext form when he transitioned from the San Francisco Examiner to San Francisco Chronicle portion of the cipher, inadvertently missing out one line of 17 characters. This left him with the option of maybe dumping something unplanned into the remaining 18 characters to play a joke on the audience, which I have explored in the April 20th 1970, October 27th 1970, January 29th 1974 and December 1990 communications, found in an article entitled Four and a Half Years of "Me". 

​The word "ME" can be reasoned to be present in all the above four communications, but is also noticeable within these 18 characters, albeit not currently supported by the most convincing of arguments. So let's examine the 408 cipher in more depth, because on August 4th 1969 the Zodiac Killer informed the police to "cheer up", who would, once they solved the code "have me". This is despite his message in the 408 cipher stating that "I will not give you my name". The notion being that the identity he supplied was "ME", just like he eventually gave us in the "Exorcist" letter on January 29th 1974 when writing Me-37. The Zodiac Killer may not have been lying when he told police they would "have me" when they cracked the code. Below in green I have highlighted the characters that have seemingly been sourced by the Zodiac Killer from the columns above the final line. This final 24th row has 12 characters from the above columns, with 5 characters absent from the above columns. That is a strike rate of 70.5%. So if the final row really was just filler, why did the Zodiac Killer abandon this technique nearly 30% of the time? ​

Using the full 18 characters, let us examine the 11 characters either side of the run of 7 characters boxed in green. The first 6 characters only have a strike rate of 50% from the columns above, with the final 5 characters having a strike rate of just 40%. So its fairly obvious that the Zodiac Killer wasn't stringently harvesting characters from the above columns in these sections of the cipher. Therefore, if we discount the seven characters in a row, the remaining 11 only generate an overall strike rate of 45% from the above columns. But of these 7 consecutive characters found in the above columns, it is the grouping of 4 on row 8 that carry the most significance. The grouping of 4 characters on the eighth row spelling METH contain the object pronoun of "ME", which is visible on the final row - and an "identity" that the Zodiac Killer promised to give us in the cipher when he wrote to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969. One could conclude that a promise to give us his identity when writing to the San Francisco Chronicle and supplying us with the third portion of the cipher, meant we would find his identity in the final 8 rows of the 408 cipher (or possibly the final line). On August 4th 1969 the Zodiac stated "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 final 8 rows of the cipher did contain "HAVE", "ME" and "ME".

The phrase "yours truly" has two main uses in English: as a formal sign-off in a letter and, informally and often humorously, as a substitute for "I" or "me"..When used in conversation or informal writing, "yours truly" is an idiomatic expression used to refer to oneself, the speaker or writer, usually in a self-deprecating or ironically boastful way. It functions as a first-person pronoun substitute. This is why it's important to note the use of "yours truley" and "Me" as the Zodiac Killer's chosen identity in the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. He effectively gave us "Me" twice. After he wrote "Signed, yours truley" in the 1974 letter he gave us a "Tit-Willow" verse from "The Mikado", whose very next line contained the phrase "My name is", which was previously followed by a 13-character code on April 20th 1970. A code which can easily be shown to give us the personal pronoun of "Me" (and the crosshairs) by employing a simple right shift of 8 positions from each circled 8.  It can be argued that he gave us two identities on April 20th 1970 by supplying us with both the "crosshairs" and "ME".

We also had the visible presence of "ME" and "me" in the Halloween card on October 27th 1970, which was teed up with the introduction of "I feel it in my bones you ache to know my name. And so I'll clue you in". The Zodiac didn't give us his name on October 27th 1970, but he did give us the personal pronoun of "Me" twice. The third portion of the 408 cipher (shown above) stated that he would not give us his name, although he did, once again, give us "ME" two more times. Throw in the autobiography of Groucho Marx entitled "Groucho and Me" with respect to the Eureka card in 1990, and it appears that the Zodiac Killer may have been playing a running joke on his audience for upwards of twenty-one years. 

After noticing the presence (or inference) of "ME" at least six times on April 20th 1970, October 27th 1970 and January 29th 1974, all with the promise or suggestion of his name or identity, this has been a retrospective analysis of the 408 cipher, looking for the most reasonable way the Zodiac Killer inserted "ME" into the final portion of the 408 cipher, mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969, and followed with a promise by the Zodiac Killer to "have me" on August 4th 1969 when the code was cracked. This analysis of the 408 cipher is far from satisfactory, but I believe our focus should be squarely on the four consecutive characters on the eighth line, which appeared like a deliberate choice by the Zodiac Killer to drop into the signature line of his three-part cipher. However, I would be surprised if there wasn't more to it.

FOUR AND A HALF YEARS OF "ME"        THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GROUCHO MARX

There are only four communications from July 31st 1969 to January 29th 1974 where the Zodiac Killer teased us with his identity or name. The letter to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969 promised that "in this cipher is my idenity", but only gave us 18 characters that seemingly have no discernible message. The April 20th 1970 letter with a thirteen character code tempted us with "my name is". The October 27th 1970 "Halloween" card began with the message "I feel it in my bones you ache to know my name. And so I'll clue you in". And finally, the January 29th 1974 "Exorcist" letter substituted part of the "Tit-Willow" verse for a signature, by introducing the verse with "Signed, yours truley". The Zodiac Killer teased us in each instance - yet to this day - no common thread has been found linking all four Zodiac offerings together. However, the following presentation will serve up the same "identity" in all four communications. An identity (if correct)  that would clearly have been chosen as a joke.
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The first is incredibly tenuous, but it does exist. The deciphered portion of the 408 cipher mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969 gave us 18 letters of illegible text, yet within these 18 apparently meaningless letters the Zodiac Killer may have placed his signature, shown inside the yellow rectangle below. This suggestion is wholly unconvincing on its own, but hopefully the remainder of this analysis will maybe change your mind.

The April 20th 1970 "13-Symbol" code letter, I have argued had the key of 888, derived from the murderer's pseudonym in the 340 cipher (see here), which when applied to the Z13 code with a right shift of 8, gave us the signature of "ME ⊕" ("ME" followed by the Zodiac crosshairs). In other words, when cycling 8 positions to the right from each "circled 8", we get the signature of "ME" and his "gunsight" logo.

​If the Halloween card on October 27th 1970 was going to give us the answer of "ME" proposed in the 408 cipher and Z13 code, you would expect to find this word embedded in its design. Not only was the word "ME" curiously obvious in the Halloween card inner, it was present twice. The Zodiac Killer was clearly employing the eye in the knothole of the tree as himself, by surrounding the knothole with the ominous threat of "Peek-a-boo you are doomed".

But there is one striking feature about the writing on the tree. After the phrase "PEEK-A-BOO" the Zodiac Killer positions the word "DOOMED", such that the "ME" lines up with "PEEK-A-BOO" to create "PEEK-A-BOO, ME". It is definitely noticeable that the word "ME" is visibly larger and bolder than the rest of the writing, as if to place emphasis on this pronoun. The skeleton's left arm is also affixed to the Halloween card in such a manner that it separates the word "GAME" to spell "ME". The word "BOO" is written on the card inner at a 45 degree angle so that it too lines up with the word "ME".

The word "BOO" around the knothole and the word "BOO" to the immediate left of the skeleton, are both positioned in alignment with the word "ME". Was the Zodiac Killer giving us the answer of "ME" to "I feel it in my bones you ache to know my name. And so I'll clue you in"? Thereby replicating the answer of "ME" possibly given by the proposed solution to the Z13 code on April 20th 1970. And the signature of "ME" sitting innocuously within the 18 characters of the 408 cipher.

Finally, on January 29th 1974, the Zodiac Killer probably got tired of playing games and outright gave us his signature in plain sight, by writing "Me - 37". In fact, he effectively gave us the signature of "Me" (or "ME") a total of three times in the "Exorcist" letter. The first, as already explained, sat alongside his running victim count. The second was in the words "Signed, yours truley", because while it is often used in formal and semi-formal correspondence, in some specific contexts, it can also be used humorously or self-referentially in conversation to mean "myself". The signature of "yours truly" simply means "me". The third can be shown by using the "Tit-Willow" verse that followed "Signed, yours truley".

When we look at the Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974, the Zodiac Killer appears to add the "Tit-Willow" verse from "The Mikado" for no apparent reason. However, the verse was preceded by "Signed, yours truley;" and may suggest that his identity of "Me" should be found somewhere within the verse. This concept hit a roadblock, until I looked up the following line from the complete song. The Zodiac Killer plagiarised the section below (marked in red) to place into his letter. The next line in the below verse (marked in blue) reads, in part, "Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name Is". which the Zodiac Killer wrote on April 20th 1970 to introduce his Z13 code, that has already been shown to easily create the signature of "ME" and his crosshairs. Therefore, we have the "Exorcist" letter with a signature of "Me -37", the phrase of "yours truley" which means "me", introducing a "Tit-Willow" verse whose next line contains "my name is", that preceded the Zodiac Killer's Z13 code, which by using the three circled 8's as a mathematical tool, easily creates the signature of "ME". A "Tit-Willow" verse, by the way, which is split into three sections of eight lines, just like the 408 cipher. 

​July 31st 1969: "I will not give you my name because you will try to slow down or stop my collecting of slaves for my afterlife", but "in this cipher is my identity". EBEORIETEMETHHPITI.

August 4th 1969: "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".

It is safe to say that another mystery in the Zodiac Killer case can now be effectively closed, after Kevin Robert Brooks many years ago gave us the correct "deicipherment" of the Exorcist letter characters at the foot of the 1974 letter, which when rearranged formed the verb "to kill". Immediately preceding these characters the Zodiac Killer wrote "If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing", which practically gave us the answer in absence of these Asian symbols.

The last time the Zodiac Killer overtly threatened to do "something nasty" if his letters were not placed in the paper, was when he issued a threat to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969, writing "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". 

"I want you to print this cipher on the front page of your paper" in 1969 became "If I do not see this note in your paper" in 1974. His decoded 408 cipher read "To kill something gives me the most thrilling experience". His Exorcist letter stated "I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing". That "something" was "to kill". And that "something" was condensed into "could you print this new cipher in your frunt page? I get aufully lonely when I am ignored, so lonely I could do my Thing" on November 8th 1969, and "Be sure to print the part I marked on page 3 or I shall do my "thing" on November 9th 1969. The Zodiac Killer's use of "something" or "thing" as an act of doing, obviously meant "to kill" something, which was clearly expressed in the July 31st 1969 408 cipher when the Zodiac stated "To kill something gives me the most thrilling experience". He even added the verb "to kill" when threatening to "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 Zodiac Killer was certainly "capable" of this most heinous act. 

So why isn't this most credible solution to the Exorcist letter symbols the widely accepted narrative? Although the answer to this question is wide-ranging and nuanced, the answer can often surface in many of the unexplained Zodiac mysteries. People often refuse to accept a solution to a puzzle until they are the ones to find it. They simply don't want to lean toward the most obvious answer, by instead opting to favor a less credible offering formulated by themselves because of self-gratification. 

​The solution to the Exorcist letter symbols presented by Zodiac researcher Kevin Robert Brooks can be backed up by the paragraph that preceded it on January 29th 1974, along with the wording of "to kill" and "something" in the July 31st 1969 letters and 408 cipher, which shortened to my "thing" on the weekend of November 8th and 9th 1969. No other solution has currently been offered with this much reasoning. Unfortunately, the use of applied reason isn't always the driving force in the Zodiac community.

To view the latest Zodiac YouTube videos of Kevin Robert Brooks, please follow this link.  

It is clear that the Zodiac Killer knew he gave us insufficient clues to reasonably solve the Z32 cipher on June 26th 1970, so a month later, on July 26th 1970, he gave us some additional clues such as "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians". This provided us with the following answer. So where are the supplemental clues to the Z13 cipher mailed on April 20th 1970? There are hundreds (probably thousands) of possible unverifiable answers to the Z13 using substitution methods, which the Zodiac must have known to be the case. Therefore, one could conclude that this wasn't the method he chose to use. We had to find a later communication that contained the solution to the Z13 that can be simply demonstrated. The identity in this later communication may also be preceded by "My name is". The following is nothing new, but I just wanted to present the findings in a different format.

When we look at the Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974, the Zodiac Killer appears to add the "Tit-Willow" verse from "The Mikado" for no apparent reason. However, the verse was preceded by "Signed, yours truley;" This may suggest that his identity is within the verse. This concept gained little traction until I looked up the following line in the complete song. The Zodiac Killer plagiarised the section below (in red) to place into his letter. The next line in the below verse (in blue) reads in part "Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name Is". In other words, the Zodiac Killer introduced his Tit-Willow verse with "Signed, yours truley:", followed by the next line which contained the phrase "my name is", and ended with his identity of "Me". The complete sequence reading 
"Signed, yours truley: My name is Me". 

When we use the circled 8's in the Z13 to cycle around the cipher by a right shift of eight, we get an identity of "Me" (see below), just like the signature on the Exorcist letter. ​The Exorcist letter, in order, read "Signed, yours truley: My name is Me". The April 20th letter (with a right shift of 8) would now read "My name is Me". The common phrase "My name is Me" can now be shown as a Zodiac identity through two letters, both of which teased us with his name. But is there anything to indicate that the Zodiac Killer employed a "shift-type" cipher on April 20th 1970? Edgar Allan Poe may have the answer.

MUST READ FOLLOW UP ABOUT THE EDGAR ALLEN POE CONNECTION TO THIS ARTICLE 
​ALSO: CRACKING THE CRACKPROOF AND AN IDENTITY IN THE HALLOWEEN CARD

The following is nothing new, but I am going to run an old story in reverse. Ever since July 31st 1969 the Zodiac Killer had been taunting us with his name or identity through various letters, cards and ciphers, yet only gave us three "signatures" up to January 29th 1974. The SLA letter, Badlands card and Red Phantom letter will not be included in this analysis because they were not authored by the Zodiac Killer.

​The Bay Area murderer gave us three ways to identify himself as the author, by using "Zodiac" and his "crosshairs" in numerous communications, and "Me" (only once) in his Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. The question being, why did he use "Me" in 1974 when he could have just written "Zodiac" or added his "crosshairs"? The Zodiac Killer usually had purpose beneath his assumed madness.

​The answer probably lay in the verse he added after writing "Signed, Yours Truley" in the Exorcist letter, which carried the 8-letter phrase "My name is" in the extended version of the "Tit-Willow" verse. Only one communication carried all three signatures of the Bay Area murderer if you apply the following logic.

​The April 20th 1970 letter not only began with "This is the Zodiac speaking", carried the 8-letter phrase of "My name is", and had three 8's in the code, but also produced "Me" and the "crosshairs" by simply circling through the code 8 positions from each circled 8. This would give us "Zodiac", "Me" and his "crosshairs" in one communication. A communication with a 13-character code that is practically unsolvable by using standard homophonic substitution methods. This form of cryptography is able to produce thousands of possible answers, so why would the Zodiac Killer use a methodology that provides no resolution to his puzzle?

​He gave us the answer to his Z32 code by writing  "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians" one month later, on July 26th 1970. Both "radians" and "inches" could be found in the Z32 solution, so why not "Me" in the Z13 solution. The Zodiac Killer, in mocking fashion, may have been giving us the answer to the Z13 code in the most simplistic of terms. A signature he would corroborate on January 29th 1974 when he unusually added "Me" to his letter. This is the only Z13 solution ever presented as a "signature" that was replicated in a later Zodiac Killer communication. The April 20th 1970 and January 29th 1974 letters would now carry both "My name is" and "Me" in each instance.

We also have to consider why the Zodiac Killer added three circled 8's to his code when he could have just added three triangles, three squares, or indeed, three circles without the 8's? The answer may lie in the dual purpose of both characters. In essence, we have to circle through 8 positions of the code to arrive at the answer. What are the chances that when we apply this methodology to the Z13 code, we produce a signature that is present in a letter nearly 4 years later, that also harbors the phrase "My name is".

If we know that replacing ciphertext characters with plaintext characters can never produce a verifiable answer without later validation, then the Zodiac Killer almost certainly knew it.

​The technique of rotating an outer circle of characters around an inner circle of fixed characters by a desired number of positions was ably covered by Edgar Allan Poe in "A Few Words on Secret Writing".. He wrote about this immediately after detailing another technique of splitting the alphabet into two lots of 13 characters, A through M, and N through Z. Odd therefore, that the Zodiac Killer would create a code of 13 characters beginning with A and ending with M, which when rotated by 8 positions on a circle, would create a signature later used in the Exorcist letter. Both of these techniques coming after Edgar Allan Poe described the scytale method of decryption in "A Few Words on Secret Writing", that can be used to solve the Zodiac Killer's 340 cipher. A cipher that Zodiac referred to when opening his April 20th 1970 letter, stating "By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you?".

We have two techniques described in "A Few Words on Secret Writing" that when combined and rotated through eight positions, gives us a signature used in the Exorcist letter. However, it may just be one of those massive coincidences.  
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FURTHER READING: DEATH IN PARADISE    

When the Zodiac Killer composed his "Exorcist" letter on January 29th 1974, he was likely comparing the "satirical comedy" of "The Mikado" stage play with "The Exorcist" movie by writing "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy that I have ever seen". But did he create a "spoonerism" by switching the "i" and "e" from "satirical comedy" to play a practical joke on the audience? More accurately described as a "kniferism", he wrote "saterical comidy". A kniferism is a type of spoonerism that involves switching the vowels between words or syllables to change the meaning. By writing "signed, yours truley" and then choosing the Tit-Willow verse from "The Mikado" which contained "My name is", was the Zodiac Killer suggesting that his name could be found within the verse?

The Zodiac Killer may have noticed that "The Exorcist" movie was directed by William Friedkin, based on a novel by William Peter Blatty, and that William Shwenck Gilbert was responsible for the libretto of "The Mikado" (text of the musical work). Was this why he chose "Tit-Willow" because it contained "Will" within its text, effectively giving us "William" four times within one communication? The Zodiac Killer chose the introduction of "best saterical comidy" based upon "The Exorcist" movie winning four awards at the Golden Globe ceremony at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California on January 26th 1974,  for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". Therefore, it was just coincidental that the novelist William Peter Blatty and director William Friedkin had the same forename as William Shwenck Gilbert, because he featured "The Mikado" on July 26th 1970, when he gave us more verses from the stage play. This wasn't something he could have manufactured, but it was something he could have noticed, thereby inspiring him to apply a type of "spoonerism" and altering "best satirical comedy" to "best saterical comidy" in his introduction. This may have been deliberate, because this "spoonerism" gave us our fifth William. 

William Archibald Spooner (July 22nd 1844 to August 29th 1930) was a British clergyman and long-serving Oxford don. He was most notable for his absent-mindedness, and for supposedly mixing up the syllables in a spoken phrase, with unintentionally comic effect. Such phrases became known as spoonerisms, and are often used humorously. Many spoonerisms have been invented and attributed to Spooner. William Spooner was well liked and respected, described as "an albino, small, with a pink face, poor eyesight, and a head too large for his body". It was said that "his reputation was that of a genial, kindly, hospitable man". In the opinion of Roy Harrod, Spooner exceeded all the heads of Oxford and Cambridge colleges he had known "having regard to his scholarship, devotion to duty, and wisdom".  Wikipedia.

​It would have been apt for the Zodiac Killer to use a "comedic spoonerism" when writing the "best saterical comidy". It may have been one big game for the Zodiac Killer, who seemingly liked taunting his pursuers with a plethora of cryptic puzzles. 

Over the weekend of March 13th 1971 numerous calls poured into the Dublin Police Department saying they had seen the infamous Zodiac Killer, days before the Zodiac Killer's Los Angeles letter, mailed in Pleasanton, was released into the newspapers. Pleasanton borders the city of Dublin, situated 40 miles (about 50 minutes journey time by car) from San Francisco. Not only were these sightings a considerable distance from San Francisco, from where the Zodiac Killer usually mailed his letters, but these sightings and letter were 4 1/2 months removed from the last Zodiac communication. Therefore, an uptick in sightings of the Zodiac Killer, at a time and location corresponding to the mailing of a Zodiac letter, has to carry some significance. 

Just under three years later, on January 29th 1974, the Zodiac Killer yet again deviated from San Francisco by mailing a letter from either San Mateo or Santa Clara County. There is good reason why I would like to focus on the possibility that his "Exorcist" letter was mailed in Santa Clara County, in which San Jose is the county seat and largest city. 

The Exorcist letter began in mocking fashion with the writing "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy that I have ever seen". The Zodiac Killer's letter was almost certainly a reaction to "The Exorcist" film winning four awards at the Golden Globe ceremony at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California on January 26th 1974,  for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". However, the Zodiac Killer didn't describe the movie as "the best comidy", he described it as "the best saterical comidy", by adding the word "satirical" into the phrase. This doesn't come as much of a surprise, because the Zodiac Killer was equating "The Exorcist" movie with the satirical comedy "The Mikado", which followed on from this introduction (by citing a Tit-Willow verse). Despite the Zodiac Killer likening these two productions through humor, they didn't comfortably sit alongside each other in one communication. 

What reminded the Zodiac Killer of "The Mikado" theater play 3 1/2 years after he had previously referenced it on July 26th 1970? Especially in a communication that capitalized on the recent release of "The Exorcist" movie on December 26th 1973. Had the Zodiac Killer attended a performance of "The Mikado" or read about one in recent weeks? Enabling him to marry the two productions together.    

​If he had, I would expect this performance to have taken place in Santa Clara County in January, to have featured prominently in the newspaper to catch the Zodiac's eye, and to have the word "satirical" front and center of the article. The following newspaper cutting is from the "Sunday Mercury News" in San Jose, Santa Clara County, advertising an upcoming production of "The Mikado" in four performances at the San Jose State University Workshop, from January 11th 1974 to January 13th 1974. Did the Zodiac Killer attend this production and mail his "Exorcist" letter from Santa Clara County, with the inserted word "satirical", to unveil his recent movements? Or at the very least, to suggest that he had recently watched the operetta at the San Jose State University? The Zodiac Killer usually composed his letters by utilizing recent newspaper articles, but was this one of them?

The wording of "I saw and think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy" in the January 29th 1974 letter was an immediate response to the movie winning four Golden Globes on January 26th 1974, receiving the awards for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". The wording of "I am waiting for a good movie about me" in the April 24th 1978 letter was a belated response to the April 3rd 1978 Academy Awards (as was the Channel 9 letter on May 2nd 1978). Both of these letters on January 29th 1974 and April 24th 1978 were intrinsically bound to the movie industry, and both carried the Jack the Ripper style valediction of "yours truly", in the form of "yours truley" in 1974 (which was spelled incorrectly) and "yours truly" in 1978 (which was spelled correctly). This form of valediction is clearly not appropriate in the context of a threatening letter, so the use of this "act of farewell" is relatively unusual in this respect.

​Therefore, I looked for something on TV or in the movies that contained both elements of "Jack the Ripper" and "Yours Truly", and found the 1943 short story by Robert Bloch, subsequently made into a fifty minute TV thriller in 1961 entitled "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper", hosted by Boris Karloff and starring John Williams, Donald Woods and Edmon Ryan. On the Internet Movie Database it is described as follows: "70 years after the Jack the Ripper killings in London, Sir Guy tries to convince the police that Jack may still be alive, eternally young, and still killing, currently in New York". After a  hiatus of several years, Jack the Ripper had returned to begin killing again in New York. 

The same has been argued in the Zodiac case, where the Bay Area murderer appeared to take a hiatus from 1971 to 1974 and returned with the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. The same can be said of his inactivity between 1974 and 1978, when he returned to mail the 1978 letter with the introduction "I am back with you". So it is noteworthy that he appeared to use the "yours truly" valediction from the book and TV episode of ​"Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper", which presented the story of a killer returning after a period of inactivity. 

​Another interesting feature of the Exorcist letter was the final paragraph where the Zodiac wrote "Ps. If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing". You will notice that he described the communication as a "note" and not a letter. Bearing in mind that the TV episode of "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" featured Jack the Ripper taking his crimes from Whitechapel in London to New York, I looked for a Jack the Ripper "note" mailed in New York on the date of January 29th. A search of the newspaper archives didn't disappoint. The following newspaper article (among many) describes a "Jack the Ripper in New York", who wrote a "note" to Police Captain Ryan on January 29th 1889 promising that the streets of his precinct would soon be filled with murdered women.

In an odd turn of events, the script of "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" may have been turned on its head by the Bay Area murderer, because the previous letter claimed to have been mailed from the Zodiac Killer was postmarked August 1st 1973 from Albany, New York, six months before the arrival of the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. The letter, addressed to the Albany Times Union newspaper, stated he was "going to start killing again".

Robert Bloch, the author of "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" also wrote "The Thing" in 1932 and "Psycho" in 1959, the latter of which the Zodiac Killer featured in his 148 character cipher and letter in the middle of 1971. The 1971 letter stated that he would "skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin" if his cipher was not printed on the front page of the newspaper. This phraseology was reminscent of the murderer Edward Gein, who professed a desire to make a "skin suit" from his dead mother, and the movie "Psycho" that hit cinema screens in 1960 and featured the seated corpse of Norman Bates' dead mother. An arguable case can be made for Robert Bloch inspired letters from 1971 through to 1974, whether one was intended or not.

On January 19th 1889, ten days before the Jack the Ripper "note" on January 29th 1889, it is likely that the same individual first announced his presence to Captain Ryan in a letter (described in the newspaper cutting below), by stating "Do you think that Jack the Ripper is in England?", before promising to kill by next Thursday and signing it with the familiar valediction of "Yours truly, Jack the Ripper".

​CONNECTING RIVERSIDE TO THE ZODIAC USING JACK THE RIPPER [IN 7 PARTS]

It is no coincidence that the April 24th 1978 letter stated "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me" just three weeks after the 50th Academy Awards ceremony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles on April 3rd 1978, and was followed by a second communication on May 2nd 1978 stating "Hey-you actors-this is your lucky Break. Remember-whoever plays me has his work cut out for him" and "​please hold the applause". The May communication having been mailed to the KHJ-TV Studios in Los Angeles after they ran a public voting poll on the eve of the ceremony (April 2nd 1978) on who their viewers thought would win certain categories at the Academy Awards. A ceremony where the Oscar winning song "You Light Up My Life" was sung at the ceremony by Debby Boone, whose father Pat Boone was threatened in the May 2nd 1978 letter.

​These two letters came four years after the last Zodiac letter arrived on January 29th 1974, which stated "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy", three days after the 31st Golden Globe film awards at the Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, California on January 26th 1974, in which "The Exorcist" film won "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". Three consecutive communications that just happened to piggyback off award ceremonies for the film industry, that were all presumably conceived and written by Inspector David Toschi and/or Robert Graysmith according to some. If Inspector David Toschi wrote the April 24th 1978 letter, then he probably wrote all three of these letters, and had a hand in the phone call 42 days before the "I am back with you" letter, when somebody rang an individual living in the Mission District and stated "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco". ​

​Then we have the consistency of language between the April 24th 1978, May 2nd 1978 and July 19th 1978 letters, with all three using the verb "play" and the singular pronoun "me" in the same sentence. Only the first letter being published in the newspapers. They read "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me" (04/24/78), "whoever plays me has his work cut out for him" (05/02/78} and "Maybe you play chess with me" (07/19/78). The third author could not have copied the second author if different individuals, but they could have been the same person.

If the author of the January 29th 1974 (Exorcist), April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters is one person (linked through a film industry theme), then where does that leave us with the July 19th 1978 letter, which has a common theme with both the April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters? The author of the July 19th 1978 letter could have borrowed wording from the published April 24th 1978 letter, however, they did manage to continue the consistency in language used in the May 2nd 1978 letter, which they could never have seen if not the same person. The author on May 2nd 1978 and July 19th 1978, on both occasions, opted to mimic the verb "play" and singular pronoun "me" in the same sentence, from the April 24th 1978 letter. That probably leaves one author responsible for the last two letters. And if the May 2nd 1978 letter is linked by one theme to the January 29th 1974 and April 24th 1978 letters, then the July 19th 1978 letter is probably genuine too.

​This consistency, now seen through four communications, would be implicating Inspector David Toschi in a much bigger hoax, who would have also investigated the "I am back in San Francisco" phone call on March 13th 1978 and then mailed the "I am back with you" letter the following month. Additionally, it could open the door to the similarities shown between the April 24th 1978 and Melvin Belli letters. Either David Toschi has played a leading role in fabricating many Zodiac communications, or he is responsible for none. The obvious choice seems to be none. Inspector David Toschi was a busy man, unlikely to be scouring the newspapers for Academy Award and Golden Globe ceremonies, KHJ-TV Studios polls and the World Chess Championships, to create common themes in order to manufacture an elaborate hoax. But there was one man that seemed to find the time. Bearing in mind that the author of the April 24th 1978 letter wrote "I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me", it was quite ironical that the winner for best film in 1978 at the Academy Awards was a "satirical comedy", claimed by some to be semi-autobiographical about the life of "Allen". Woody Allen that is. The film was "Annie Hall", winner of four Academy Awards, not unlike "The Exorcist" movie, which won four Golden Globes on January 26th 1974