Many people have described the author of the Fairfield letter (with code) as a lazy hoaxer who just dragged two sections of ciphertext from the 340 cipher and plonked them in the Z38 code below. Not only would this be a pointless task, but if this person wanted to make the reader believe they were the Zodiac Killer, why would they adopt the approach of an obvious impersonator and imitate previous correspondence? The more realistic answer to this communication is that it was the Zodiac Killer giving us a clue to the workings of the 340 cipher. Before David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke cracked the 340 cipher in 2020, nobody was aware that the first 4 and last 5 characters of the 340 cipher spelled "IRON" and "DEATH" when the cipher key was applied to it, yet the author of the Z38 code just happened to feature these two sections of ciphertext in their December 7th 1969 letter. Probably the most obvious thing for an impersonator to do, was to bring forth the "near Zodiac"  (ZO∆AIK) from the final row of the 340 cipher and drop it into this code, but this person snubbed that opportunity and broke it up to what we see in the second red rectangle below. An obvious feature in the 340 cipher that the impersonator failed to impersonate. This segment of code is also noticeably larger than the rest of the ciphertext, including the row it sits on.

After the cipher key was applied to the original 340 ciphertext we got the incoherent plaintext shown below. However, after the period 19 shift was applied, the word "DEATH" remained one of only three forward facing words to stay intact (the others being "WILL" and "EASY"). But "DEATH" stands out because it isn't surrounded on both sides by other plaintext, sitting in a prominent position at the end of the cipher. 

The ciphertext characters "H" and "+", not only begin and end the original 340 ciphertext, they begin and end the new ciphertext arrangement after the period 19 shift is applied to it. They also form the beginning two ciphertext characters on the first row of the new ciphertext arrangement. And begin and end the Z38 code mailed on December 7th 1969. If you apply a period 19 shift to the Z38 code above, you get the ciphertext characters "H" and "+" featuring for a fifth time. Because the cipher is 38 characters in length, if you continue the period 19 shift you will get a repeated "H+" sequence continuously. Sam Fisher, a Zodiac researcher, also pointed out that the plaintext letter "H" was represented by the ciphertext character "+" in the 148 character cipher mailed by the Zodiac Killer in May 1971.

Of course, this is all totally coincidental, created by a hoaxer who pleaded "I just need help" (not published in the newspapers) two weeks before the Melvin Belli letter arrived on December 20th 1969, stating "please help me". A December 7th 1969 letter mailed a matter of hours before somebody rang the Oklahoma City radio station KTOK, and made mockery of the Jim Dunbar TV show on October 22nd 1969, featuring attorney Melvin Belli. If we want to discover more about the Zodiac Killer, it's imperative we analyse every potential communication mailed in his name. The other option, adopted by many researchers, is to pay little heed to these communications and lazily believe what they have been fed by others in the Zodiac community, adopting an "Ignorance is bliss" type approach. Lazy individuals who believe in lazy hoaxers, who refuse to even consider that they may be wrong. 

On December 7th 1969 the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter and code from Fairfield just hours before he phoned the Oklahoma radio station KTOK, both times imitating the caller to the Jim Dunbar TV show on October 22nd 1969. The person who mailed the letter provided crucial information in the Z38 code that showed intrinsic knowledge regarding the mechanics of the 340 cipher and its use of the knight's move in chess. In other words, the person who mailed the December 7th 1969 letter knew how to solve the 340 cipher. They knew this because they were the Zodiac Killer. The following will show how I arrived at the plausible solution of  "TRYING TIMES. SO I NEED APPOINTMENT TO GET HELP". 

Bearing in mind that the phone call to Oklahoma and the letter mailed on December 7th 1969 to the San Francisco Chronicle, were both continuing the theme of the Jim Dunbar TV show and Melvin Belli fiasco, in which the hoax caller was pleading for help, there is a strong probability that the Z38 code may contain a message along the same lines. If it did, it would almost certainly have been something the Zodiac Killer read in the newspapers on this topic, such as the article in the Los Angeles Times newspaper on October 23rd 1969, the day after the television show.
​
In the 340 cipher message, decoded by David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke on December 5th 2020, the Zodiac Killer used the headlines from the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper on October 24th 1969, which was titled over two pages, reading both "That Wasn't Zodiac, Say 3 Who Know" and "It Wasn't Zodiac, Say 3 Who Know". In his 340 message he stated "That Wasn't Me on the TV Show". The numerous references in the newspapers immediately after October 22nd 1969 about the caller saying "I don't want to go to the gas chamber", was replied to by Zodiac, who encoded "I am not afraid of the gas chamber". The Zodiac Killer would emphasize these two points in the first seven lines of the deciphered message.   ​

The news was abound with the failed meeting between the "Zodiac Killer" (Sam) and Melvin Belli at the Vincent de Paul thrift store in Daly City, later that day. The Los Angeles Times newspaper on October 23rd 1969 read "Attorney Melvin Belli in a phone booth at a San Francisco television station talking to caller who said he was the Zodiac Killer. Caller made an appointment but didn't keep it". This was the sort of the thing the Zodiac Killer may have mocked, after writing "I just need help" on December 7th 1969. There were two plus signs (+) together in the Z38 code, so I knew they had to represent the same plaintext letter, and gambled on the word "appointment". This would not only fill up a significant portion of the Z38 code, but would mean that the code ended with the plaintext letter "P". That was likely the last letter of "help", which also featured prominently in the Los Angeles Times newspaper and others. In fact, the title of the article was "I Want Help, Zodiac Caller Tells Attorney on Telephone". After placing "appointment" and "help" in the Z38 code, it allows us to form the word "to" immediately after "appointment" because of the double character (dotted circles). The phrase "appointment to get help" was then easy to work out. 

The first 18 ciphertext characters could then be filled in somewhat, with the dotted circle represented by the plaintext letter "T",  the circle with the single vertical line through it represented by the plaintext letter "I", the plain circle ​represented by the plaintext letter "E", the square represented by the plaintext letter "G", the triangle represented by the plaintext letter "O", and the slanted line​ represented by the plaintext letter "N". We were left with this.

The plaintext letters in blue on the top line looked like it could spell "times", followed by the word "so", thereby satisfying the double "L" ciphertext. So I took a gamble and placed the words into the message like so. 

The rest was pretty simple. After the word "so" I added the personal pronoun of "I", and "need" was the obvious next choice. The final part was filling in the blanks for the starting five plaintext letters ending in "G". Trying times" is a well-known phrase that one might experience, and necessitates the need for an "appointment to get help". This completed the Z38 code. Whether it is the correct solution I can't say for certain, but it satisfies the workings of a substitution cipher and has relevance to the contemporary events the Zodiac Killer was reading in the newspapers at the time, just like the message in the 340 cipher.

In cryptography, unicity distance is the length of an original ciphertext needed to break the cipher by reducing the number of possible spurious keys to zero in a brute force attack. That is, after trying every possible key, there should be just one decipherment that makes sense, i.e. expected amount of ciphertext needed to determine the key completely, assuming the underlying message has redundancy. For a simple substitution cipher, the number of possible keys is 26! = 4.0329 × 1026 = 288.4, the number of ways in which the alphabet can be permuted. Assuming all keys are equally likely, H(k) = log2(26!) = 88.4 bits. For English text D = 3.2, thus U = 88.4/3.2 = 28. So given 28 characters of ciphertext it should be theoretically possible to work out an English plaintext and hence the key. Wikipedia. 

• Simple Monoalphabetic Substitution Cipher: The theoretical unicity distance is about 28 characters. In practice, cryptanalysts typically need around 50 characters to perform reliable frequency analysis and achieve a definite solve.

FURTHER READING: "IRON" AND "DEATH" FEATURED IN TWO CIPHERS   

On October 22nd 1969 Will Stevens published an article in the San Francisco Examiner, in which Professor Donald C. B. Marsh urged the killer to contact him in code, stating "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"

Professor Donald C. B. Marsh, by invoking the name of Edgar Allan Poe, was probably hoping that the Zodiac Killer was going to use techniques mentioned or used by Poe, making any future offering by Zodiac easier to solve. The next two ciphers/codes mailed by the Zodiac Killer can be linked to Poe's 1841 essay "A Few Words on Secret Writing" from the July edition of Graham's magazine. The scytale method of decryption featured by Poe can solve the 340 cipher. The immediate next passage of  A Few Words on Secret Writing further describes cryptographic techniques, showing the splitting of the alphabet into ABCDEFGHIJKLM and NOPQRSTUVWXYZ, creating two portions of thirteen letters. The Zodiac Killer's April 20th 1970 communication was a 13-Symbol cipher beginning with A and ending with M. Edgar Allan Poe then describes a cipher wheel that can be used to give a credible answer to the Z13 code. But of course, it doesn't end there.

Not only did the Zodiac Killer use the encryption techniques described by Edgar Allan Poe, he may have embedded two of Edgar Allan's poems in the mechanics of the 340 cipher. Notable words from these two poems were visible when the cipher key was applied to the 340 cipher (before the period 19 shift was used to acquire the message). The presence of the second Edgar Allan Poe poem in the 340 cipher (after the key was applied) was highlighted by the author of the Z38 code mailed from Fairfield on December 7th 1969, who was undeniably the Zodiac Killer.

But let us deal with the first poem that was plainly visible in the deciphered 340 message, that read: I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME - THAT WASN’T ME ON THE TV SHOW - WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME - I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE - SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH - I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH.

"To One in Paradise" was written by Edgar Allan Poe. This poem was first published as part of the short story titled "The Visionary" (later retitled as "The Assignation"). The poem was also published under the names "To lanthe in Heaven" and "To One Beloved". The title "To One in Paradise" was used in the February 25th 1843 edition of the Philidelphia Saturday Museum. This poem was written after the death of Poe's wife. He writes that she was his life and he lived for her and now he looks forward to the future where they will be together again in death. link. Now let's look for the second poem by Edgar Allan Poe. When the Zodiac Killer mailed the Z38 code on December 7th 1969, he repeated two notable segments of ciphertext from the 340 cipher. The first four ciphertext characters, and the last five ciphertext characters (shown below). 

This may not seem significant, until you consider that when the original 340 cipher was changed using the key, it created the words "IRON" and "DEATH" in these two exact positions (see below). Are we are expected to believe that when the author of the Z38 code selected these four and five sections of ciphertext from the 340 cipher, taken from the beginning and end of the cipher, he chose two legible words created by the 340 key by accident, which he should have had no knowledge of unless he was the Zodiac Killer. No hoaxer should have been aware of this fact and had the foresight to highlight these sections in the Z38 code. The person who created the Z38 code broke up the "Zodiac-like" pseudonym (ZO∆AIK) from the last row of the 340 cipher to create the word "death", something that would not have been expected from a hoaxer. The person who did this knew exactly what they were doing, because they created the 340 cipher.

It must be remembered that Edgar Allan Poe wrote "To One in Paradise" upon the death of his beloved wife, Virginia Eliza Poe. But how can "IRON" and "DEATH" introduce a second Edgar Allan Poe poem into the equation? Edgar Allan Poe wrote "To One in Paradise" about the death of his wife, but this wasn't the only poem written by Poe about the death of Virginia. The inspiration for the second poem, "The Bells", was reported as coming from his friend, Marie Louise Shew, who likened the sound of the Fordham University bell made of "iron", to "death".

​Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Bells" uses different types of bells (silver, gold, brazen, iron) as powerful metaphors for the stages of human life, from the joy and playfulness of childhood (silver sleigh bells) through the harmony of youth and marriage (golden bells), to the panic and chaos of maturity (brazen bells), culminating in the inescapable melancholy and terror of death (iron bells). Written at the end of his life, the poem's shifting sounds and increasing length mirror the journey from youthful delight to the despair and inevitability of mortality, exploring the passage of time and its emotional toll. Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Bells" was inspired by the sounds of bells from Fordham University's church while he lived nearby in the Bronx, New York, capturing the changing emotions of life, from youthful joy (silver bells) to despair and death (iron bells), a reflection of his own grief after his wife Virginia's passing.. Inspiration for the poem is often granted to Marie Louise Shew, a woman who had helped care for Poe's wife Virginia as she lay dying. One day, as Shew was visiting Poe at his cottage in Fordham, New York, Poe needed to write a poem but had no inspiration. Shew allegedly heard ringing bells from afar and playfully suggested to start there, possibly even writing the first line of each stanza.

I always wondered why these two prominent English words began and ended the 340 cipher after the key was applied to the original 340 ciphertext, and then highlighted by Zodiac in the Z38 code. The poems "The Bells" and "To One in Paradise" were written about the grief Edgar Allan Poe experienced upon the death of his wife, with "IRON", "DEATH" and "PARADISE" instrumental to both - which just happened to be present at the beginning and end of the Zodiac Killer's 340 cipher after the key was applied (although "one in paradice" was reversed at this point). Throw in the essay A Few Words on Secret Writing by Edgar Allan Poe, containing a technique that can solve Zodiac's 340 cipher (and a further technique that possibly influenced the design and solution of the Z13), and we have a story steeped in history. 

FURTHER READING: THE MECHANICS OF THE Z38 CODE 

The Zodiac Killer mailed a threat to the San Francisco Examiner on July 31st 1969 stating "I want you to print this cipher on the frunt page by Fry afternoon Aug 1-69. If you do not print this cipher, I will go on a kill rampage Fry night". The murderer of three would use the word "Fry" six times and the word "print" five times in his trinity of letters, that included the San Francisco Chronicle and Vallejo Times-Herald. He claimed that he would "kill Fry night" if his cipher wasn't printed "by Fry afternoon".

Therefore, it isn't a great leap of faith that immediately following the demand of "you better print" on the December 16th 1969 "Fairfield" letter to the San Francisco Examiner, his 5 character code with one repeating symbol at position 3 and 5 contained "By" and "Fry". However, to satisfy the code the words would have to be reversed to "Fry" and "By". Bearing in mind that the Fairfield letter was postmarked on Tuesday, December 16th 1969, the Zodiac Killer's threat of "you better print Fry" would have given the newspaper three days to comply, as opposed to the one day he gave the newspapers on Thursday, July 31st 1969  Had investigators similarly concluded that "Fry" was the first word of the code, then the word "By" would have been the inevitable answer to the final two characters. 

​Both Fairfield letters in December threatened to murder "cops". The December 7th 1969 letter stated "I will kill again, so expect it any time the will be a cop". While the December 16th 1969 letter gave us a list of locations he would kill 38 cops, which included San Francisco (3), San Jose (1), Vallejo (6), Napa (8), Fairfield (3), Sacramento (9) and Oakland (8). If the initial part of the 5 character code on December 16th 1969 had read "Fry", then the introduction of "you better print" would have completed the phrase to "you better print Fry".

​Obviously, a failure to comply to his instructions of printing the 5 character code had consequences, just like on July 31st 1969, when he demanded compliance that his cipher be printed in the newspapers or he would kill a dozen people over the weekend. The San Francisco Examiner did not publish the Zodiac Killer's letter by Friday, December 19th 1969, so it probably comes as no surprise that on December 19th 1969 the Zodiac Killer made a phone call to Shirley Searey of the San Jose Highway Patrol on Friday night (10:10pm), stating "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". The vicious verbal assault on police continued. This late night threat on Friday, December 19th 1969 to kill 10 people in total over the weekend, somewhat validates the threat of "you better print Fry" on December 16th 1969. It also mirrored the Zodiac Killer promises on July 31st 1969 to go on a "kill rampage" Friday night if his cipher wasn't printed in the newspapers. 

The threat to target 38 cops on December 16th 1969 (including in San Jose for the first time) was reinforced by the pledge to kill 5 cops over the weekend beginning December 19th 1969, when the Zodiac Killer phoned Shirley Searey at the San Jose Highway Patrol office and threatened murder between now (10:10pm) and Monday..

​The next part of the Fairfield letter code on December 16th 1969 may have contained the word "By", when you consider the yet-to-be-mailed Halloween card on October 27th 1970. The configuration of 4 offerings in 4 quadrants within both communications, possibly contained the common thread of "By". This word also satisfied the repeating symbol at position 3 and 5 of the code. The notion that Zodiac's message read "you better print Fry" or he would "By Gun, Rope, Knife and Fire" kill multiple cops at various locations, appeared to materialize when he issued the phone threat on Friday, December 19th 1969. This phone call made to the San Jose Highway Patrol should be of interest because the Fairfield letter had not yet been published in the newspapers. The phone caller at 10:10pm on Friday (if not the same person as the letter writer) couldn't possibly have known that a Friday threat was issued on December 16th 1969 (assuming the decoding is correct).

Joe Stine, the brother of the murdered taxicab driver Paul Stine, issued a confrontational challenge to the Zodiac Killer on October 23rd 1969, daring him to pay him a visit to his workplace in Modesto. Therefore, if the Zodiac Killer had the concept of By Gun, By Rope, By Knife and By Fire​ in his mind on December 16th 1969 (partly demonstrated by the car door at Lake Berryessa), it would have been extremely noteworthy that the next crime linked to him via the testimony of Kathleen Johns on March 22nd 1970 involved the burning of her vehicle "by fire" in Modesto. The Zodiac Killer told us he was starting a "little list" on July 24th 1970, owning up to the abduction of Kathleen Johns and the burning of her car, which was accompanied by the "Little List" letter two days later. Three months later he placed By Gun, By Rope, By Knife and By Fire on the back face of the Halloween card in a clockwise fashion, mimicking the order he presented his "killing tools" through time. 

The map below shows the locations of two (possibly four) Zodiac communications postmarked December 7th 1969, December 10th 1969, December 11th 1969 and December 16th 1969 (all unpublished at the time). It is noteworthy that all four communications over a period of just 10 days were mailed in locations almost exclusively limited to Interstate 80 and the quickest route from Sacramento to San Francisco. Every single Zodiac communication from 1969 to 1970 was postmarked San Francisco, except for this burst of letters in just over a week from Fairfield and Sacramento, two cities northeast of Vallejo. On December 10th 1969, Leona Roberts was abducted from 749 Tormey Avenue in Rodeo at approximately 6:15pm, with the Day-By-Day Forecast for Cancer letter likely mailed from Sacramento before her abduction, because it had a PM postmark on the same day.

​The following day, on December 11th 1969, the Day-By-Day Forecast for Leo letter was PM postmarked in San Francisco, showing that the author had possibly driven along Interstate 80 through Rodeo as he negotiated his quickest route from Sacramento to San Francisco via Vallejo. In other words, he had passed within one mile of the abduction site of Leona Roberts at 749 Tormey Avenue during this journey (which may have been driven with no break). He then mailed a horocope letter entitled Day-By-Day Forecast for Leo, which could mean Day-By-Day Forecast for Leo(na Roberts), bearing in mind she had been abducted the previous day and her body was not found until December 28th 1969, with the coroner estimating she had been alive 10 to 14 days after her abduction.  

Three of the communications on December 7th, 10th and December 16th carried the pseudonym of Zodiac despite none being published in the newspapers. The Day-By-Day Forecast for Cancer letter had two prominent words pasted onto the horoscope page. Despite nearly 60 years of speculation on the inspiration for the pseudonym of "Zodiac" and the "crosshairs" symbol, the author of the Day-By-Day Forecast for Cancer letter appeared to anchor "Zodiac" and "Watch" together, implying that the Zodiac watch was the origin of his signatures on July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969.. 

The phrase "trying times" appeared to sum up the troubles of Melvin Belli in early December 1969 and may have influenced the language adopted in the Z38 cipher mailed in Fairfield on December 7th 1969. If we add the Melvin Belli letter mailed to 1228 Montgomery Street, San Francisco on December 20th 1969 into the mix, it brings the total to 5 letters mailed in the space of 13 days, bound by one major commuter route. If these communications were multiple hoaxers, what is the likelihood they would choose the locations of Sacramento, Fairfield and San Francisco to mail them from, which are all connected by Interstate 80 through Vallejo. ​

​The residence at 749 Tormey Avenue would return to the news on January 4th 1970 and January 6th 1970, when four malicious phone calls by a person identifying himself as the "Zodiac Killer" were received by Peggy Trainer in Rodeo. It was reported in the Contra Costa Times newspaper that Peggy Trainer lived directly behind the 749 Tormey Avenue apartment from which Leona Roberts was abducted.

​This means that the pseudonym "Zodiac" appeared in a communication mailed on the day Leona Roberts was abducted, and was used less than a month later over the phone on Peggy Trainer, who lived by the residence of the abduction site. This is significant because the Day-By-Day Forecast for Cancer letter had not been published in the newspapers by the time of the four phone calls. Therefore, the two "forecast" letters were very likely mailed by the same person who announced himself to Peggy Trainer and stated she would be his "next victim" - which of course - would have particular significance to a woman who experienced an abduction so close to her own doorstep. 

​The letters mailed on December 7th, 10th, 11th and 16th were all cryptic in nature, carrying two short codes/ciphers and an array of newspaper cuttings pasted on the backdrop of a November horoscope page. A third Fairfield letter arrived 17 months later in 1971. All  the Fairfield communications contained a code or cipher, and all can be shown to have been penned by the Zodiac Killer. The only question that remains, is the authenticity of the two "forecast" letters from Sacramento and San Francisco on December 10th and December 11th 1969 respectively.  

Only six weeks away from claiming the August 3rd 1969 San Jose murders of Kathie Snoozy (15) and Debra Furlong (14) in the "Dripping Pen" card on November 8th 1969, the Zodiac Killer attempted to augment the perception he was involved in their murders, by reinforcing newspaper stories of his possible connection to this crime and adding "by knife" on the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia of Bryan Hartnell at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969. The obviousness of the double stabbing by the lake, a clear indication that the wording on the car door had greater purpose. This became clear when the Zodiac Killer drew us a "bleeding knife" on December 16th 1969, when he mailed the second Fairfield letter. This letter was the product of a Los Angeles Times newspaper article earlier that morning, which told of the Zodiac Killer's "hint" on November 8th 1969 that he was responsible for the slayings of Snoozy and Furlong. There is no way to prove the following concept, but it's eminently possible that his two phrases of "bleeding knife" and "by knife" were deliberately taken from the newspapers which detailed the murder of Debra Furlong and her resulting autopsy. 

In the San Jose Mercury on August 6th 1969, Dr. John Hauser, who performed the two autopsies on the teenage girls, stated that he couldn't attribute a specific cause of death, but concluded that it may have been from "bleeding" or lacerations of internal organs or both. On the same day, August 6th 1969, the Los Angeles Herald & Examiner ran an article entitled "The Victims: 16 Young Girls", featuring pictures of Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong. The picture of Debra Furlong had the wording "killed by knife" written under it. The phrase "by knife" that was written on the car door at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969. One year later, on October 27th 1970, "by knife" was added to the Halloween card, which appeared to incorporate "4-TEEN" or "4 teenagers" into the running victim total of fourteen. The Zodiac Killer was only claiming the murders of four teenagers by October 27th 1970. They were David Faraday (17), Betty Lou Jensen (16), Kathie Snoozy (15) and Debra Furlong (14). 

Also, on August 6th 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle released an article entitled "The Frenzy of San Jose Girls' Slayer". The newspaper gave the proposed burial site of Kathie Snoozy at the Oak Hill Memorial Park in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose (which formed part of the 07/13/1971 Monticello card), and released details of the five remaining family members of the Furlong family, that the Zodiac Killer may have threatened on December 19th 1969, three days after the "bleeding knife" of Zodiac offering.

It appeared as though August 6th 1969 was integral to at least three "communications" (car door, Fairfield letter, Monticello card), and one phone call to the San Jose Highway Patrol on December 19th 1969, in which the Zodiac Killer spoke to dispatcher Shirley Searey and claimed he would "kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday".

​In 1971, two communications were mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle (the 148 character cipher in probably May and Monticello card on July 13th), which both indirectly referenced the Snoozy & Furlong murders and the recent murder of Kathy Bilek (18) in Saratoga on April 11th 1971. The 148 character cryptogram contained the ciphertext symbol of a "mirrored N", just like the Halloween card on October 27th 1970.. The phrase "by knife" was written on the Halloween card, not only reminiscent of the car door and picture of Debra Furlong, but the Halloween card very possibly also referenced Debra Furlong amongst the four teenagers he was claiming as victims at this juncture. The "mirrored N" would therefore have appeared in two communications from the Zodiac Killer, both of which suggested his involvement in the murders of Kathie Snoozy & Debra Furlong. The plaintext character for the "mirrored N" in the decrypted 148 character cryptogram was "K" for "Knife".  

Another message would appear on September 18th 1973:
WHAT INSPIRED THE TOMBSTONE WRITING? 

After the failed attempt of the Zodiac Killer to make contact with Melvin Belli on the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969, his next attempt to arrange an appointment with the flamboyant attorney likely took place on December 7th 1969, when the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle from Fairfield, stating "I just need help". This plea for help predated the Melvin Belli letter by thirteen days, and coincided with a phone call to the commercial radio station KTOK, in which the caller identified himself as the Zodiac Killer and did an "awfully good impression" of the man who rang the Jim Dunbar Show, according to KTOK news director Larry Lamotte. The Jim Dunbar Show had taken place 46 days earlier, so what triggered the Zodiac Killer to refocus on this missed opportunity in early December. Let us have a look at Melvin Belli's itinerary in the days previous.

On December 5th 1969 at noon, Melvin Belli was due to speak in the Speakers Podium in the West Tower Mall at the University of California in Riverside. If the Zodiac Killer had kept abreast of Melvin Belli newspaper articles (or the Riverside papers), he may have come across this story from the Riverside Daily Enterprise on December 3rd 1969. On the day Melvin Belli was scheduled to visit Riverside, on December 5th 1969, his residence at 1228 Montgomery Street in Telegraph Hill caught fire, causing S20,000 worth of damage. Firemen believed the blaze was caused by defective wiring. The font design of the "1228" numbers by his front door were used by the Zodiac Killer on his Melvin Belli envelope fifteen days later. However, it turned out that he cancelled his speaking engagement at the Riverside University campus citing an ear infection - and with advice given to him by his physician - decided not to fly..

Remembered as rock's darkest hour, the Altamont Speedway debacle headlined by the Rolling Stones on December 6th 1969 attracted between 200,000 and 500,000 music fans, who occupied a stretch of land 50 miles east of San Francisco. The concert, badly organized, was literally thrown together overnight by attorney Melvin Belli, who obtained permission from Altamont. Policed by the Hells Angels and awash with drugs, the concert oversaw the deaths of four people. Two men, Richard Salov (22) and Mark Feiger (22), died in a hit and run car accident, one man drowned in a canal running from police, and Meredith Hunter (18) was stabbed twice by Hells Angel Alan Passaro after he brandished a gun and attempted to climb onstage. Organizers such as Melvin Belli received heavy criticism from certain quarters in the following days. 

Therefore, it wasn't much of a surprise that Melvin Belli was possibly in the forefront of Zodiac's mind when he hurriedly fashioned a short letter and 38 character code on December 7th 1969. The letter began "I just need help", pre-empting the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969, which stated "please help me" three times. Both of these letters were clearly mocking the phone call received by the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969, with a phone call to the KTOK Oklahoma radio station later that day continuing this theme of derision. The letter on December 7th 1969 mimicked the wording used by the impostor on the Jim Dunbar Show, while the Oklahoma caller mimicked the voice.    

Coinciding with the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969 was the challenge issued to the Zodiac Killer by Joe Stine (brother of Zodiac's last victim Paul Stine), who encouraged the Bay Area murder to visit his workplace in Modesto. Five months later, Kathleen Johns claimed she had been abducted from Highway 132, having been trailed by a vehicle from Modesto, and taken on a 1 1/2 to 2 hour journey on the outskirts of downtown Tracy. Her burnt out vehicle was found just east of South Bird Road  The area of Tracy, California was the location of the Altamont Speedway, chosen by Melvin Belli 3 1/2 months earlier. Altamont Speedway was situated 13 miles northwest of South Bird Road on the outskirts of Tracy. 

Bearing in mind the S20,000 fire damage at Melvin Belli's 1228 Montgomery Street residence, his ear infection and the debacle witnessed at Altamont Speedway in the space of two days, it may have been the trigger for the Zodiac Killer to mail his Fairfield letter to the San Francisco Chronicle on December 7th 1969, finding common ground with the attorney by stating "TRYING TIMES. SO I NEED APPOINTMENT TO GET HELP" in his 38 character code (if the solution is correct). There is a distinct possibility he was also reaching out to Melvin Belli using previous newspaper articles about the Jim Dunbar Show to compose his letter and 38 character code. If this was the case, the Zodiac Killer changed "I don't want to give myself up" into "I will turn myself in". Then changed "I want help" into "I just need help", before requesting an "appointment" with Melvin Belli which the Jim Dunbar caller didn't keep.

FURTHER READING: A VIABLE SOLUTION TO THE 38 CHARACTER CODE 

On November 16th 1970 Paul Avery published an article in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper about a possible link between the Zodiac Killer and the murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside on October 30th 1966. The Redlands Daily Facts newspaper also covered this story (see below), by noting the resemblance between the Halloween card mailed by the Zodiac Killer and the "Bates Had to Die" letters, which both were argued to have the "Z" signature. The San Francisco Chronicle and Redlands Daily Facts newspapers also covered the abduction story of Kathleen Johns, who at the time of her ordeal on March 22nd 1970 lived at 847 West Campus Way in San Bernardino, 12 miles from the murder site of Cheri Jo Bates, alongside Terracina Drive. The Zodiac Killer would graciously accept this "riverside activity" on March 13th 1971 when he wrote to the Los Angeles newspaper. But how could he simultaneously attach himself to the Kathleen Johns crime once again, while interjecting himself close to Riverside?     

On July 30th 1971, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter to a Redlands resident stating "There is a bomb in your house that will go off tonight at midnight. Leave $1,000,000 at your front door at 11 p.m". Most reasonable people will accept that this demand was unlikely to be met by the resident of the house, yet it was a malicious threat nonetheless. We obviously do not know whether this letter was mailed by the Zodiac Killer, but if it was, it would be interesting to discover the name of the homeowner. A letter from the Zodiac Killer to somebody connected to the case would have had far more impact than a random Redlands resident plucked from the telephone directory.

​The border of Redlands was only 4.25 miles from the once home of Kathleen Johns (847 West Campus Way), where she had lived at the time of her abduction. Where was she living on July 30th 1971? Could the homeowner have been somebody connected to Kathleen Johns or to Cheri Jo Bates? If this letter was mailed by the Zodiac Killer, it may have been a strategic move on his behalf to connect himself to an area relevant to both Kathleen Johns and Riverside, arriving just 4 months after his claim of "riverside activity". 

The San Francisco Chronicle and Redlands Daily Facts newspapers highlighted the "Z" connection between the Halloween card and "Bates Had to Die" letters, so did the author of the July 30th 1971 letter provide a compelling literary connection to a Zodiac Killer letter? (preferably using a letter unreleased into the public domain). Although spelt slightly differently, the author of the July 30th 1971 letter signed off his communication with "har! har! har!", using three exclamation marks. When the Zodiac Killer mailed the second Fairfield letter on December 16th 1969 he signed off the letter with "ha! ha! ha!". We have two letters with laughing signatures, both referencing the Zodiac Killer, with the later communication mailed relatively close to the once residence of Kathleen Johns and Riverside murder of Cheri Jo Bates, both of whom were the main focus of the above two newspapers (and many more), coming 4 months after his admission of "riverside activity". Was this his attempt to apply significance to his claims on March 13th 1971? 

Recently deceased Zodiac researcher Howard Davis spoke with Kathleen Johns, stating "She told us when she jumped from the car and ran to a vineyard he was calling out to her and scanning the area with a flashlight and he was holding a gun. She told me she did mention it to an officer who didn’t take any notes as she spoke. They really didn’t want this to be a kidnap. Then in departing we were talking (and) she mentioned he sent her a Halloween card Oct.70 as l have posted several times. Inside it read:“To the lady in the blue station wagon”. She sent it to Paul Avery who had interviewed her relative to the abduction and did an article. We called him but he said he never got it". This claim by Kathleen Johns may carry some weight, because the telephone threats to Daniel Williams over a two week period beginning October 23rd 1969 by somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, made the threat to "kill the lady in the blue house". The language adopted of "the lady in the blue" was pertinent in both instances. 

​Many Zodiac researchers have looked into history (and around the world) for the inspiration and design of the Zodiac Killer's hood/costume at Lake Berryessa. Many suggestions have been put forward, ranging from Renaissance Fair's, police riot gear,  Ned Kelly's outfit and executioner's costumes. However, it's equally possible that the costume he designed had no particular inspiration at all, other than what he read in recent newspaper articles.

From my standpoint, the inspiration for the Lake Berryessa attack was conceived when his lack of front page coverage was compared to the brutal knife slayings of Kathie Snoozy & Debra Furlong in San Jose on August 3rd 1969. This obsession progressed into claiming their murders on November 8th 1969 and calling out their real killer, Karl Francis Werner, in 1971. However, this doesn't mean that other murders had no influence on his decision to switch to a bladed instrument on the shores of Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969.

As pointed out by Zodiac researchers Cragle and Druzer (among others), the recent Manson family murders of Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowskion and Steven Parent on August 8th 1969, along with the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca on August 9th 1969, likely had a part-influence in the Zodiac Killer changing course in his style of attack. When we consider why the Zodiac Killer chose to wear a hood at Lake Berryessa, it's probably wise to examine the murders of all these nine victims when considering the choices made by the Zodiac Killer at Lake Berryessa. Therefore, it's important to review the newspaper coverage in the run up to the attack on September 27th 1969 because we know the Zodiac Killer was heavily influenced by what he read..    

The "Press Tribune" newspaper on August 11th 1969, along with many others, reported on the August 8/9th murders and described a black hood over the head of Jay Sebring and the parallels between these two crimes, with words written in blood, numerous stab wounds, and electrical cord around the neck of victims. The newspaper stated "In the Bel Air slayings, the word "pigs" was scrawled in blood on the front door of the Benedict Canyon home, and one of the five victims, hair stylist Jay Sebring, was found with a black hood over his head. LaBianca's wife, Rosemary, owner of a boutique in the Wilshire business district, was found in the master bedroom. Police said she had been stabbed numerous times with a bayonet-type weapon".
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​All the ingredients were present in these newspaper articles to shape the Zodiac Killer's Lake Berryessa attack, with the use of clothesline cord, the black hood, the bayonet-style weapon as described by Dr DE Petris at the autopsy of Cecilia Shepard, and the writing on the car door of Bryan Hartnell (to replace the front door). If the Sharon Tate & LaBianca murders part-influenced the shift from gun to knife in the Zodiac Killer slayings, why couldn't the reading of "a black hood over a head" have inspired him to create his theatrical costume at Lake Berryessa.

I am also confident that the Sharon Tate & LaBianca murders influenced the design of the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter (with the "Bleeding Knife of Zodiac" drawing), when the Zodiac Killer wrote "This is the Zodiac speaking. I just want to tell you this state is in trouble. I will go for the government life. So don't forget me. I will kill more people than you can count. So look for more blood.". (corrected for errors). The following article (edited for conciseness) was published in the Los Angeles Times on December 16th 1969, a matter of hours before the Fairfield letter was mailed with an afternoon postmark. Therefore, a strong possibility exists that this article, featuring the Zodiac Killer, could have influenced the language and tone of the Fairfield letter. The opening sentence of the Fairfield letter stated "I just want to tell you this state is in trouble", which can be seen to be synonymous with the newspaper article that headlines with "State Furnishes List of Murders Similar to 7 Slayings Here", as well as the opening paragraph of the article that reads "State officials have provided Los Angeles police with details of 30 unsolved murders", and the sub-headline of "All Murders Logged by State". ​ We know that the Zodiac Killer kept himself informed of murders other than his own, so wouldn't have been averse to using those newspaper articles to style his own communications (and possibly his attacks}  

​The Zodiac Killer would counter the list provided by state officials with a list of his own. At the foot of his Fairfield letter he would give us a list of locations and the number of police he promised to kill in each city (38 in total). This would develop in later communications, when the Zodiac Killer gave us a list of "society offenders" to be targeted from the plagiarized verses of The Mikado, a Savoy comic opera crafted by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert and Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan,  released in London on March 14th 1885.

Government Official means any officer, employee or other individual acting in an official capacity for a Governmental Authority or agency or instrumentality thereof (including any state-owned or controlled enterprise). This may explain the Zodiac Killer's use of the phrase "government life" in his letter. It appeared that the Fairfield letter was specifically responding to this newspaper article - both of which corresponded to the date of December 16th. Susan Denise Atkins (21), one of six persons charged with the Tate-LaBiaca murders, provided information to police where they could find items of disposed bloody clothing related to the Cielo Drive attack, detailed in the article as "A station spokesman said the clothes, stained with what appeared to be blood and knotted in a bundle were turned over to police". I have highlighted these above in reference to the Zodiac Killer's statement of "look for more blood" in the Fairfield letter. The police were effectively dispatched to look for items of clothing stained with blood in the Tate-LaBianca slayings, to which the Zodiac Killer suggested there would be "more blood" in future for police to find. 

​If the Zodiac Killer was inspired to write on the door of Bryan Hartnell's 1956 white Karmann Ghia by reading newspaper articles about the Manson murders and the writing on the front door of the Benedict Canyon home, was he also influenced by the same thing, when (in all probability) he designed the "Channel 9" letter on May 2nd 1978 by using "1,2,3,4,5,6,7 -- All Good Children Go to Heaven" on the envelope, taken from the "Helter Skelter" door at the Spahn Ranch? It originated from a Beatles song (hence the Apple logo drawn on the envelope), but by describing Susan Atkins (a member of the Manson family) in the letter as the "Judas of the Manson Family", it isn't hard to envisage that the Zodiac Killer could have been inspired by the two doors from the Benedict Canyon home and Spahn Ranch in his writings on September 27th 1969 and May 2nd 1978.

When the Zodiac Killer mailed the second Fairfield letter on December 16th 1969 he included a very short code of five characters, accompanied by his Zodiac crosshairs, with four smaller crosshairs in each quadrant. It has been noted by many Zodiac researchers that this configuration resembled the Halloween card design he mailed approximately ten months later, which contained the bisecting "paradice" and "slaves", with the wording By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife in each quadrant. The rudimentary design of the Fairfield letter with four small crosshairs could be representative of these four weapons. I used this premise to place the word "By" immediately preceding the larger crosshairs, above ciphertext characters 4 & 5 (see below).

The last time the Zodiac Killer demanded we print his cipher in the newspaper, he wrote to the San Francisco Examiner and threatened "I want you to print this cipher on the frunt page by Fry afternoon Aug 1-69. If you do not print this cipher, I will go on a kill rampage Fry night". To the San Francisco Chronicle he wrote "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". To the Vallejo Times-Herald he wrote "I want you to print this cipher on your frunt page by Fry Afternoon Aug 1-69, If you do not do this I will go on a kill ram page Fry night that will last the whole week end". Every single time the Zodiac Killer demanded the newspaper print his cipher, he followed it up by using "Fry" to represent Friday (six times in total). Therefore, when he demanded his five character code be printed in the newspaper by stating "you better print", it could be reasoned that this sentence be completed to "you better print Fry". This satisfies the repeating ciphertext character at positions 3 & 5.  

The December 7th 1969 and December 16th 1969 Fairfield letters mailed by the Zodiac Killer were almost certainly responses to two newspaper articles published by the Los Angeles Times. A third Los Angeles Times article on December 18th 1969 likely triggered the Zodiac Killer into phoning the San Jose Highway Patrol on December 19th 1969, stating "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". The newspaper headlined with "Cult May Be Linked to Slaying of 2 Girls", incorrectly suggesting a possible connection between the Mansion Family and the murders of Kathie Snoozy & Debra Furlong in San Jose on August 3rd 1969, to which the Zodiac Killer had already claimed on November 8th 1969 when he mailed the Dripping Pen card.

The newspaper detailed the slayings of the Manson Family at the Sharon Tate residence and stated "San Jose detectives developed a possible connection between the cases after conferring with Los Angeles officers. Six members of a hippie clan led by Charles Manson have been charged with murdering five persons. One of the members of the nomadic band, Susan Denise Atkins, 21, is from San Jose. The Manson "family" has visited Miss Atkins' father there". This newspaper article had all the ingredients for the phone call on December 19th 1969. in which the Zodiac Killer may have used the Manson "family" murder of "five" people to concoct the San Jose telephone message of "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". 

It must also be remembered that a comprehensive newspaper article published by the San Francisco Chronicle on August 6th 1969 about the San Jose murders conducted an interview with the father of murdered Debra Furlong, who had a wife and three surviving children. In other words, a remaining "family of five" from San Jose. Probably upset that San Jose law enforcement had mentioned two of Zodiac's claimed victims and were implying a murder link to the Manson Family, it probably wasn't too surprising that he would phone the San Jose Highway Patrol on December 19th 1969 and threaten five officers, just as he had threatened multiple cops in different jurisdictions when he mailed the Fairfield letter on December 16th 1969, just three days earlier.  

​The Zodiac Killer may have had a long memory, because 8 1/2 years later, a letter mailed to a Los Angeles radio station again threatened to kill two officers and "five" people in total, including Susan Atkins of the Manson Family, whose name featured three times in the Los Angeles Times article on December 18th 1969. On May 2nd 1978, a letter arrived at KHJ-TV in Los Angeles, stating that the Zodiac Killer was "planning to kill five people in the next three weeks", rather than "five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". The new threat promised to kill Chief Daryl Gates, Chief Ed Davis, Pat Boone, Eldridge Cleaver and Susan Atkins. The phone call on December 19th 1969, and the letter mailed on May 2nd 1978, were both seemingly inspired by news related to the Manson Family and Susan Atkins, suggestive of one mindset that yearned to kill five. 

On October 22nd 1969 and February 5th 1970, the hoaxer called "Sam the sham" phoned into the Jim Dunbar Show at KGO-TV, both times passing himself off as the infamous Zodiac Killer. On both occasions this would be met with derision from the real Zodiac Killer, who used the newspaper headlines to incorporate into his 340 and 148 character ciphers on November 8th 1969 and May 1971. The San Francisco Chronicle headlines on October 24th 1969 stated "It Wasn't Zodiac, Say 3 Who Know", to which the Zodiac replied in the 340 cipher "That Wasn't Me on the TV Show". The San Francisco Chronicle headlined with "Talk Show's Zodiac Caller Called a Phony" on February 6th 1970 and wiith "San Jose Student Held in Slaying of 3 Girls" on April 30th 1971, to which Zodiac replied in his 148 character cipher with "I Will Skin 3 Little Kids" and "Stop Listening to Phonys" sometime in May 1971.

​Despite the 340 cipher being unbroken in 1971, both ciphers were referring to Eric Weill, ultimately found responsible for the Jim Dunbar hoax. The phonys Zodiac was referring to in his 148 character cipher were Eric Weill and Karl Francis Werner, the latter of which, had recently been arrested and questioned by detectives for the murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971 in Saratoga, and the murders of Kathie Snoozy & Debra Furlong on August 3rd 1969 in San Jose, which the Zodiac Killer had long claimed were his victims. He would compound matters by adding Kathy Bilek to his victim total when he mailed the Monticello card on July 13th 1971.

On December 7th 1969, the same day somebody impersonated the Jim Dunbar caller when phoning an Oklahoma radio station, another Zodiac letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle impersonating the Jim Dunbar caller, stating "I Just Need Help" and "I Will Turn Myself In". Bearing in mind that this letter pre-empted the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969 that thrice pleaded "please help me", there was a more than a good chance that the 38 character code that accompanied this letter, concealed a message about Melvin Belli and the hoax phone call to the Jim Dunbar Show. There would also be a high probability that the Zodiac Killer would use a recent newspaper article for his hidden 38 character message, continuing this theme. 

On October 23rd 1969, the Los Angeles Times newspaper published an article entitled "I Want Help Zodiac Caller Tells Attorney on Telephone", with the accompanying text stating "I Don't Want To Give Myself Up". This was clearly mimicked in the December 7th 1969 letter, when the Zodiac Killer stated "I Just Need Help" and "I Will Turn Myself In". But what had he possibly taken from the newspaper to incorporates into his 38 character code? The wording accompanying the picture of Melvin Belli in the newspaper read "Attorney Melvin Belli in phone booth at a San Francisco television station talking to caller who said he was the Zodiac Killer. Caller made an appointment but didn't keep it". 

​It is the headline text accompying the Melvin Belli picture that I considered the Zodiac Killer probably responded to, just like he did when composing his 340 and 148 character ciphers. I worked out a viable message in the Z38 that read "TRYING TIMES. SO I NEED APPOINTMENT TO GET HELP". This wasn't the "good times" Zodiac was used to, but the formulated  message is in keeping with the rhetoric displayed in the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969, and with the headline text in the Los Angeles Times newspaper. I am not claiming this is the answer to the 38 character code, but it does conform to the standards of cryptology, with the coded message and accompanying writing in the letter congruent with the story in the Los Angeles Times newspaper on October 23rd 1969. 

Nine days later, on December 16th 1969, another letter mailed from Fairfield was probably inspired by another newspaper story from the Los Angeles Times, when the Zodiac Killer began his communication with "I just want to tell you this state is in trouble. I will go for the government life. So don't forget me. I will kill more people than you can count. So look for more blood.".
The newspaper article (edited for conciseness below) was published in the Los Angeles Times on December 16th 1969, a matter of hours before the second Fairfield letter was mailed with an afternoon postmark. The opening line of Zodiac's letter began with "I just want to tell you this state is in trouble", which is synonymous with the newspaper article that headlined with "State Furnishes List of Murders Similar to 7 Slayings Here", as well as the opening paragraph of the article that adds "State officials have provided Los Angeles police with details of 30 unsolved murders", and the sub-headline of "All Murders Logged by State". 
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​The Zodiac Killer would counter the list provided by state officials with a list of his own. At the foot of his December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter he would give us a list of locations and the number of police he promised to kill in each city (38 in total). This would develop in later communications, in which the Zodiac Killer gave us a list of "society offenders" to be targeted when he plagiarized verses from The Mikado, a Savoy comic opera crafted by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert and Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan,  released in London on March 14th 1885.

Government Official means any officer, employee or other individual acting in an official capacity for a Governmental Authority or agency or instrumentality thereof (including any state-owned or controlled enterprise). This may explain the Zodiac Killer's use of the phrase "government life" in his letter. It appeared that the second Fairfield letter was specifically responding to this newspaper article (see below) - both of which corresponded to one date. Susan Denise Atkins (21), one of six persons charged with the Tate-LaBiaca murders, provided information to police where they could find items of disposed bloody clothing related to the Cielo Drive attack, detailed in the article as "A station spokesman said the clothes, stained with what appeared to be blood and knotted in a bundle were turned over to police". I have highlighted these below in reference to the Zodiac Killer's statement of "look for more blood" in the Fairfield letter. The police were effectively dispatched to look for items of clothing stained with blood in the Tate-LaBianca slayings, to which Zodiac suggested there would be more blood in future for police to find. 

David Oranchak has just released another excellent Youtube video on his Let's Crack Zodiac series, examining the numeric codes of Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, who killed three and injured twenty-three in a seventeen year reign of terror between 1978 and 1995. David Oranchak has delivered the often complex and difficult topic of cryptography to the masses by attempting to simplify this topic through his visual presentations, orchestrated in such a way, it elevates the understanding of the many who once found the art of cryptography perplexing and impenetrable. One of the key members of the team that finally broke the Zodiac Killer's 340 cipher after fifty-one years, alongside Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke,

David Oranchak has sought to demystify the specialized skills of codebreaking through eighteen well produced videos. Although some uncharitable individuals claim the hard work in breaking the 340 cipher was achieved predominantly through the use of computers, this overlooks the fact that we have had these powerful computers for many years with no resolution until 2020, the requirement to develop new systems such as "zkdecrypto", and the human input required to recognize the Zodiac Killer's language as it emerges from the noise. These three gentlemen achieved what every other person failed to surmount in over fifty years - and for this - they deserve all the accolades they have been rightly bestowed. 

The 340 message, claimed by many to be another rambling and meaningless collection of Zodiac tropes, has in fact, opened the window to many other Zodiac Killer communications such as the first Fairfield letter mailed on December 7th 1969 and the third Fairfield letter mailed on or around May 2nd 1971, both containing cryptograms known as the Z38 and Z148 respectively (the latter having been solved). Both of these communications were related to the 340 cipher through coding and messaging, despite the 340 cipher solution being decades away from being solved. The Z38 appeared to know the wording in the 340 cipher before the code was broken, and the text in the accompanying letter seemed to pre-empt the wording in the Melvin Belli letter mailed on December 20th 1969, just thirteen days later. The Fairfield letter on December 7th 1969 also pre-empted the phone call to an Oklahoma radio station later that day, in which the author of the letter and phone caller both mocked the caller to the Jim Dunbar Show and Melvin Belli on October 22nd 1969. The phone caller to Oklahoma, mimicking the person who rang into the Jim Dunbar Show, also stated he left California because "it got too hot for me", just like phone caller to the Palo Alto Times newspaper, who stated he had left San Francisco because "because I'm too hot there", less than a day before the Jim Dunbar TV Show. If that isn't enough evidence that the Zodiac Killer was the responsible, we have the solved message in the Z148 calling out both Karl Francis Werner and Eric Weill (the Jim Dunbar caller) as phonys, just like the message in the 340 cipher calling out Eric Well by stating "That wasn't me on the TV show". The Jim Dunbar TV show, in which a second phone call was received on February 5th 1970, from somebody that the San Francisco Chronicle and homicide detectives described as a phony. 

To ascertain whether a communication is authentic or unproven, we must get away from consistently using the reasoning of "handwriting and tone" as a throwaway line to examine Zodiac communications in a matter of minutes. The interconnectivity of Zodiac communications must be examined through the picture created by the Zodiac Killer throughout many years and multiple correspondences and phone calls, just like the story of the San Jose murders which spanned the time period of August 3rd 1969 to July 13th 1971, when the Zodiac Killer mailed the Monticello card to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The interconnectivity between the Monticello card and the Z148 character cipher (and Pines card), the interconnectivity between the Z148 cipher and Albany letter code mailed in 1973, and the interconnectivity between the second Fairfield letter mailed on December 16th 1969 to the phone call delivered to the San Jose Highway Patrol on December 19th 1969, are just a fraction of the strands in the spider web that link these occurrences together. Just staring at a letter for a handful of minutes and declaring it a hoax, is inadequate, when we consider that the Zodiac Killer was traveling on a journey of murder and domestic terrorism spanning many years. To view the whole picture, please open the links provided in this article.

I am fairly confident that the Z38 code mailed on December 7th 1969 is somehow related to the 340 and 148 character ciphers through its messaging. Both the Z340 and Z148 ciphers referenced Eric Weill (the caller to the Jim Dunbar Show), by stating "That wasn't me on the TV show" and "stop listening to phonys" - and the Z38 code was mailed on the same day that somebody rang the Oklahoma radio station mimicking Eric Weill. My contention is that all three were the Zodiac Killer.

​I am not confident I can crack the Zodiac Killer's Z38 cipher because, despite having some limited knowledge of cryptography, this pales into insignificance when compared to individuals such as David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke, who ultimately broke the Zodiac Killer's masterpiece cipher. The recognition of the phrase "gas chamber" in the cryptogram was pivotal in understanding that the Zodiac Killer referenced recent newspaper articles (or the Jim Dunbar TV show) which detailed this very subject pertaining to Zodiac's capture. If we run with this concept, it may help to unearth the message in the Z38 code, which may (or may not) hold vital information of a contemporary nature and unlock the fifth of eight known enciphered messages. I have a strong belief that David Oranchak could make some valuable observations and inroads into the Z38 cipher if he chooses to tackle yet another Zodiac mystery, and thereby, attempt to close another chapter in this intriguing story.

As shown numerous times before, we can usually find the inspiration for Zodiac communications by looking at the most recent newspaper articles published in the Bay Area or Los Angeles. The November 21st 1969 letter to the San Jose Police Department was possibly directed at the recently widowed Diane Kennedy Pike, whose husband James Albert Pike had met an unfortunate death in Israel in September (information provided by Cragle). The letter caused enough alarm to institute 24-hour surveillance on the young woman and her residence. Information regarding this letter is sparse, but the language adopted in this communication is taken directly from the last San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article on November 13th 1969 entitled Zodiac 'Legally Sane', featuring the Zodiac Killer's 340 cipher and investigators attempts to snag the murderer of five.    

The newspaper snippet on the left reads "Through physical clues Zodiac has clumsily left behind at crime scenes and bits and pieces of information about himself he has inadvertently revealed in letters sent to The Chronicle, police feel sure there will be no doubt they have the right man in custody when an arrest is made". Eight days after this newspaper article was released, and thirteen days after he had claimed seven victims (the canonical five and the two San Jose murders of Snoozy & Furlong), the Zodiac Killer wrote to the San Jose Police Department and responded to "there will be no doubt they have the right man in custody when an arrest is made", by writing "There's no doubt I will do my Thing". The Zodiac Killer was clearly confident that no arrest was forthcoming, and his reign of terror would continue by doing his "Thing". His chronological list of victims by using months of the year would continue, when he wrote November=8 in his latest letter. He also added a short six character code of ~+62+~.  

His next letter, postmarked December 7th 1969 from Fairfield, was shown to be authentic by pre-empting the pleading nature of the Melvin Belli letter and his use of another code of 38 characters. This code contained similar characters to the 340 cipher, unlike the following 13-Symbol and 32-Symbol ciphers. It opened the door to the possibility that the 38 character code was somehow related to the 340 cipher and maybe contained a clue to its construction. Druzer, an avid and diligent Zodiac researcher, mailed me the 38 character code deciphered with the 340 cipher key. The result is mostly garbled, but he drew my attention to the final line of both codes ending in "death". The Zodiac Killer only took a 4+ horizontal combination of characters from the 340 cipher to the 38 character code on two occasions. Those were HER> and AIKꞮ+, which spelled the standalone words of IRON and DEATH before the diagonal shift was applied to the 340 cipher to reveal the message. Despite the last two rows of the 340 cipher being a mixture of forward and backward reading words, the word "death" sits at the end of both the 340 and 38 character ciphers, indicating that this word likely concludes the message in each instance. 

Other horizontal words do exist in this format, however, the Zodiac Killer gave us 4 and 5 characters which bound the 340 and 38 character ciphers together, and both formed English words. The Zodiac Killer began and ended his 38 character code with two prominent sections from the start and end of the 340 cipher, both of which contained visible words before any shift was applied (the final word remaining static). This may be another observation, which confirms to the doubters the December 7th 1969 letter as an authentic Zodiac communication. Unless of course, the 38 code hoaxer identified two passages of 4 and 5 characters from the undeciphered 340 cipher, that just happened to accidentally find two English words after the 340 key was applied. This hoaxer would also have to guess that by separating the prominent ZO∆AIKꞮ+ characters on the bottom line of the 340 cipher, into AIKꞮ+ on the bottom line of the 38 character code, he would be reducing these characters to create something meaningful. He apparently did. By separating these characters into the five visible at the end of the 38 character code, he created the word "death", just like the solved 340 cipher. Druzer pointed out the same thing, stating "The most curious/compelling feats are that the author isolated actual words, most notably death, and that he refrained from copying Zodaik, which would certainly be expected of a hoaxer". In other words, he dismantled the ZO∆AIK element, while leaving Ɪ+ in place, to form "death" as the final word on the 38 character code. This appears to show knowledge of the hidden message in the 340 cipher. 

The above image from the San Francisco Chronicle on November 13th 1969 shows the correlation on three rows of the 38 character code to the 340 cipher. We have 4, 5 and 5 characters from three rows of the 38 character code, organized in the correct order to three rows on the 340 cipher. The crucial 10th row of the 340 cipher which begins the second section of the 3-part cipher (9, 9 and 2), contains the four symbols of ~+62+~ in the correct order (and FB which numerically equals 62). Both the November 21st 1969 and December 7th 1969 letters were unreleased to the public, so it would be difficult to envisage how two different authors would choose to supply two relatively short codes that mimicked important features of the 340 cipher independent of one another. The three rows of the Z38 highlighted in blue rectangles above, all either begin or end a row on the 340 cipher - as does the six character code of the November 21st 1969 letter. Was the 38 character code on December 7th 1969 a clue to the construction of the 340 cipher or somehow related to the message ultimately found within it? If so, then the short code of ~+62+~ in the November 21st 1969 letter could be somehow related to the 340 cipher also. The December 16th 1969 letter, also mailed from Fairfield, contained another short code of five characters. This completed a quartet of puzzles from the Zodiac Killer in just over a month.

​The Zodiac Killer was likely reading this newspaper article on November 13th 1969 when he used the wording "There's no doubt I will do my Thing", so it's perfectly feasible that the presence of his 340 cipher prominently displayed within this article, may have been the inspiration to provide further codes based upon its construction. The newspaper article concluded with "Amateur cryptographers by the hundreds were at work trying to decode the cryptogram from Zodiac published in yesterday's Chronicle. It was an amateur - a Salinas teacher - who cracked Zodiac's cipher message in August to which he said the people he killed would serve him as his slaves in paradise. One cryptographer, who has studied the latest message, says it definitely contains word patterns hidden in the 340 symbols. "There is a definite message" he said. "Testing shows it is not just gibberish. Once that is determined then it's just a matter of patience before it pieces itself together". Did the Zodiac Killer take note of this section and provide "bits and pieces" in his next two codes to help in its decryption? 

The Zodiac Killer had murdered three people, seriously injured one, and mailed four communications, including three cryptograms forming one whole, by August 4th 1969, yet failed to receive the front page coverage he felt he deserved from the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner newspapers. This may have influenced his decision to switch from gun to knife, when he read the San Francisco Chronicle article on August 6th 1969 regarding the brutal knife killings of Debra Furlong and Kathie Snoozy three days earlier in San Jose, which received extensive from page coverage. After this, the Zodiac Killer turned up on the shores of Lake Berryessa armed with bayonet type weapon measuring 9 to 11 inches. He would later claim the murders of Snoozy & Furlong by the addition of "Aug" in the November 8th 1969 'Dripping Pen' card.

The extensive coverage of the Tate–LaBianca murders at 10050 Cielo Drive, Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles may also have had a galvanising effect in the Zodiac Killer's switch to a more hands-on approach at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969. However, the Zodiac Killer would intimate his involvement in the Snoozy & Furlong many times by the close of 1971, yet would not reference the Manson murders once. This suggests that the driving force was predominantly the murders of Snoozy & Furlong in San Jose on August 3rd 1969.  

​As with many Zodiac communications, they were often a response to recent newspaper articles detailing his exploits. So with this in mind I took a look at the Zodiac Killer's letter mailed from Fairfield on December 16th 1969, stating "This is the Zodiac speaking. I just want to tell you this state is in trouble. I will go for the government life. So don't forget me. I will kill more people than you can count. So look for more blood.". (corrected for errors). The following article (edited for conciseness) was published in the Los Angeles Times on December 16th 1969, a matter of hours before the Fairfield letter was mailed with an afternoon postmark. Therefore, a strong possibility exists that this article featuring the Zodiac Killer could have influenced the language and tone of the Fairfield letter. The opening sentence of the Fairfield letter: "I just want to tell you this state is in trouble", can be seen to be synonymous with the newspaper article that headlines with "State Furnishes List of Murders Similar to 7 Slayings Here", as well as the opening paragraph of the article that adds "State officials have provided Los Angeles police with details of 30 unsolved murders", and the sub-headline of "All Murders Logged by State". 
​
​The Zodiac Killer would counter the list provided by state officials with a list of his own. At the foot of his Fairfield letter he would give us a list of locations and the number of police he promised to kill in each city (38 in total). This would develop in later communications, in which the Zodiac Killer gave us a list of "society offenders" to be targeted when he plagiarized verses from The Mikado, a Savoy comic opera crafted by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert and Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan,  released in London on March 14th 1885.

Government Official means any officer, employee or other individual acting in an official capacity for a Governmental Authority or agency or instrumentality thereof (including any state-owned or controlled enterprise). This may explain the Zodiac Killer's use of the phrase "government life" in his letter. It appeared that the Fairfield letter was specifically responding to this newspaper article - both of which corresponded to one date. Susan Denise Atkins (21), one of six persons charged with the Tate-LaBiaca murders, provided information to police where they could find items of disposed bloody clothing related to the Cielo Drive attack, detailed in the article as "A station spokesman said the clothes, stained with what appeared to be blood and knotted in a bundle were turned over to police". I have highlighted these below in reference to the Zodiac Killer's statement of "look for more blood" in the Fairfield letter. The police were effectively dispatched to look for items of clothing stained with blood in the Tate-LaBianca slayings, to which Zodiac suggested there would be more blood in future for police to find. 

Two days later, on December 18th 1969, another article by Dial Torgersen in the Los Angeles Times, again featured the Tate-LaBianca murders, and the San Jose murders of Snoozy & Furlong, with accompanying references to the Zodiac Killer and the once consideration he may have been involved in the two teenagers deaths. The following day, on December 19th 1969, the Zodiac Killer made a payphone call to the San Jose Highway Patrol stating "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". He had threatened to kill one copper in San Jose in his Fairfield list, but had now upped that total to five, in line with rest of the Fairfield communication (unpublished at the time this phone call was made). The family of five, I believe, was Mr. and Mrs. Furlong and their three remaining children, Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11, who featured heavily in the San Jose article on August 6th 1969 in the San Francisco Chronicle. The article that likely triggered the attack at Lake Berryessa. The article that triggered the choice of "Monticello" in the Zodiac Monticello card on July 13th 1971, where Kathie Snoozy was buried in San Jose. "Funeral services for Kathy were held on Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Oak Hill Memorial Park", which is situated in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose.

THE SAN JOSE MURDERS AND ZODIAC-THE COMPLETE STORY