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. 

On July 27th 2023 I presented a viable solution (but not confirmed) to the 38 character code mailed by the Zodiac Killer on December 7th 1969 from Fairfield. The wording in the solution mimicked an article published by the Los Angeles Times on October 23rd 1969 about the impostor who phoned the Jim Dunbar TV Show the previous day. The article was 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 incorporate into his 38 character code? (if anything). 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". 

​The "addition" sign in the code formed the bedrock of the code when I applied the plaintext letter "P" to it, leading to the words "help" and "appointment". Once these two words were in place, the rest of the code was relatively easy to create. The composition of the message tallied with the newspaper article, except for the phrase "trying times" which began the Z38 message. Therefore, I needed to find out why the Zodiac Killer chose this phrase. Three days after the December 7th 1969 "Fairfield" letter, anothet cryptic correspondence was mailed from Sacramento to the Sacramento Bee on December 10th 1969, dubbed the Day-by-day forecast for Cancer with the pasted newspaper text of "Zodiac". Sacramento and Fairfield are only 30 miles from one another, so I had to consider the possibility that the Zodiac Killer was operating in that area in the early part of December. Many Zodiac researchers have speculated on a Zodiac Killer writing to the "Dear Editor" section of newspapers, so I began looking for language similar to that used by the Zodiac Killer in his letters (and ciphers/codes). Or a signature possibly used by the Bay Area murderer.
​Continued below........

Because the Zodiac Killer had mailed a letter from Fairfield to the San Francisco Chronicle on December 7th 1969, and possibly from Sacramento to the Sacramento Bee on December 10th 1969, I trawled through the newspapers in this region just prior to December 7th 1969 for any letters to the editor that used the phrase "trying times", and a signature previously used by a "possible" Zodiac Killer, such as the "concerned citizen" card mailed on August 10th 1969, when a 408 cipher key was mailed to Sergeant John Lynch at the Vallejo Police Department. The "concerned citizen" card stated "I hope the enclosed "key" will prove to be beneficial to you in connection with the cipher letter writer" and "Please forgive the absence of my signature or name as I do not wish to have my name in the papers". In the 408 cipher the Zodiac Killer concealed the message "I will not give you my name". 

The "letter to the editor" I found on December 4th 1969 in the Sacramento Bee began with "Editor of the Bee-Sir: Since the Bee does not give out the real name of letter writers who request anonymity, may I use this column to address Harding Republicans ". The "letter to the editor", three days before the Fairfield code, continued with "In these trying times of Social Security, medicare, bank insurance and workmen's compensation creeping into our way of life, we need your voice loud and clear". It was signed "concerned conservative" instead of "concerned citizen", with "Davis" underneath. The pasted Day-by-day forecast for Cancer letter with the pseudonym "Zodiac" would be mailed to the Sacramento Bee a matter of days later.. I am not saying that the "concerned conservative" was the Zodiac Killer, but the search by Zodiac researchers for characteristics of the Bay Area murderer in "letters to the editor" columns is a worthwhile approach - preferably when he gives us his real name. If these were "trying times" for the Zodiac Killer rather than the "good times" he claimed in Vallejo, then he was certainly "finding it extremely difficult to keep it in check" by December 20th 1969 when a letter arrived at the home of Melvin Belli. 

ANOTHER LETTER TO THE SACRAMENTO BEE ON DECEMBER 12TH 1969 (APPARENTLY) RESPONDING TO THE "CONCERNED CONSERVATIVE"
​
A VIABLE SOLUTION TO THE 38 CHARACTER CODE  

​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".
​
​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". 
​
​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. 

MORE READING:  THE "TRYING TIMES" OF THE ZODIAC KILLER?

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 

The Zodiac Killer's 38 character code may be solved by examining three of his other ciphers (two solved and one unsolved), including the day he mailed the first Fairfield letter in December. The Z340 (November 8th 1969), Z38 (December 7th 1969), Z13 (April 20th 1970) and Z148 (probably May 3rd 1971) all have one other date in common - October 22nd 1969.

[1] The Z340 (November 8th 1969) was a response to the October 22nd 1969 Jim Dunbar Show, stating that the person who phoned into the show was effectively an imposter or phony, encoding a contemporary message and using wording similar to the headlines in the San Francisco Chronicle on October 24th 1969. The 340 message read, in part "That wasn't me on the TV Show", mimicking the headlines of "That Wasn't Zodiac, Say 3 Who Know" and "It Wasn't Zodiac, Say 3 Who Know". He also responded to the Jim Dunbar Show and the October 23rd 1969 Chronicle article, entitled "A TV Runaround With Zodiac Calls", in which "Belli told Sam he'd attempt to get a promise from District Attorney John J. Ferdon that Zodiac would be spared the gas chamber if convicted of murder". The Zodiac Killer responded in code that he was "not afraid of the gas chamber".​ 

​[2] The Z148 code (probably mailed May 3rd 1971) was again contemporary in nature, and a response to the police arrest and interview of Karl Francis Werner on April 29th 1971. Three newspaper articles ran with the headlines "San Jose Student Held in Slaying of Three Girls", "San Jose Student Held in Slaying of 3 Girls" and "Youth Arraigned in Knife Slayings of Three Girls". The Zodiac Killer encoded these headlines in his 148 character cipher by promising to "skin three kids and make a suit from the skin" if his latest letter was not published. He also encoded the statement "stop listening to phonys" in the Z148, referring to both Karl Francis Werner (who was being interviewed for the Snoozy & Furlong murders on August 3rd 1969, to which the Zodiac Killer had already claimed as his victims) and Eric Weill (who phoned into the Jim Dunbar Show at least twice, claiming to be Zodiac}. The second phone call was reported in San Francisco Chronicle on February 6th 1970, entitled "Talk Show's 'Zodiac' Caller a Phony", with Inspector David Toschi pitching in: "Homicide detectives later listened to a tape recording of the conversation and concluded that Sam was a phony. It most certainly was not Zodiac, said Inspector David Toschi".  The headlines of the October 24th 1969 and February 6th 1970 Chronicle articles both placed within the encoded text of the Z340 and Z148.

[3] The Zodiac Killer mailed the Z13 on April 20th 1970, very likely a response to the October 22nd 1969 article in the San Francisco Examiner, entitled "Cipher Expert Dares Zodiac to Tell Name". It read "Dr Marsh told the Examiner today: The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts. He knows, to quote Edgar Allen Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name-in cipher code-would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code, which will truly and honestly include his name". The Zodiac responded on April 20th 1970 by stating "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you? My name is___ " The letters N, A, M and E could be found in the ciphertext of the code.

[4] The Z38 mailed on December 7th 1969 began with "This is the Zodiac speaking. I just need help", mimicking the caller (Eric Weill) to the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969. It is clear that this cry for help was a disingenuous attempt at ridicule from a killer who either listened to the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969, or read the subsequent newspaper articles. On October 22nd 1969, the Los Angeles Times reported that "Belli was put on the line, and the voice said "I want help". On October 23rd 1969, the Desert Sun newspaper claimed that Melvin Belli told the caller “All of San Francisco wants to help you. The hand is out, you can feel the hands out.” On the same day of December 7th 1969, we have a man mailing a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle mocking the call to the Jim Dunbar Show by stating "I just need help", followed a few hours later by a call to an Oklahoma radio station by a man doing an awfully good impression of the man who rang the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969. This impressionist caller could possibly be the Zodiac Killer mocking the Jim Dunbar Show, just as he had done in the letter earlier that day.

​Therefore, we have the Z340 (November 8th 1969), Z38 (December 7th 1969), Z13 (April 20th 1970) and Z148 (probably May 3rd 1971), all relevant to the date of October 22nd 1969. Bearing in mind the Z38 carried the same four and five characters from the beginning and the end of the 340 cipher, along with the observations above, we could expect the Z38 message to be somehow related to these other ciphers. The message may very well lie in the newspaper inches from October 22nd 1969 to December 7th 1969 - and may be related to the Jim Dunbar TV Show yet again. 

This is a continuation from the article The Day the Zodiac Killer Rang Oklahoma. The original article will be replicated here under Part One, immediately followed by some fresh information under Part Two (with the help of Zodiac Killer Net forum).

Part One: ​An imposter by the name of Eric Weill called into the Jim Dunbar KGO-TV station on the morning of October 22nd 1969 and attempted to pass himself off to the host and Melvin Belli as the infamous Zodiac Killer. During the phone call Eric Weill pleaded with Melvin Belli, stating "I want help".  On October 23rd 1969, the Desert Sun newspaper claimed that Melvin Belli told the caller “All of San Francisco wants to help you. The hand is out, you can feel the hands out.” The Zodiac Killer clearly latched onto this plea for help, when in mocking fashion he wrote to the residence of Melvin Belli on December 20th 1969 and stated "please help me" on three occasions, in accompaniment to the phrase "I cannot reach out for help". However, this wasn't the first time the Zodiac Killer would mock the spectacle of the Jim Dunbar Show, when on December 7th 1969 he mailed a letter from Fairfield to the San Francisco Chronicle stating "I just need help. I will kill again so expect it any time soon the will be a cop". Thirteen days later, the Melvin Belli letter would replicate this plea for help, despite the fact the December 7th 1969 correspondence was never released to the newspapers. But here's the kicker.

After the Zodiac Killer communication, postmarked December 7th 1969, a phone call was received later that night by the host of commercial radio station KTOK in Oklahoma City claiming to be from the Zodiac Killer. KTOK news director Larry Lamotte told the San Francisco Chronicle that a man rang the station and declared that he had to leave California because "it got too hot for me", remarking that the man did an awfully good impression of the man who rang the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969. This is the crucial part. On the same day of December 7th 1969, we have a man mailing a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle mocking the call to the Jim Dunbar Show by stating "I just need help", followed a few hours later by a call to an Oklahoma radio station by a man doing an awfully good impression of the man who rang the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969. This impressionist caller could possibly be the Zodiac Killer mocking the Jim Dunbar Show, just as he had done in the letter earlier that day - and would do thirteen days later when he thrice pleaded "please help me". There is no way of finding out the full transcript of the phone call to the Oklahoma radio station, but it wouldn't be too far-fetched to believe he mockingly asked for help on this occasion too.   

The caller to the Oklahoma radio station, doing an impression of the Jim Dunbar Show caller, claimed he left California because "it got too hot for me". A few hours before the October 22nd 1969 Oakland Police Department phone call requesting that either Melvin Belli or Francis Lee Bailey, high profile lawyers at the time, appear on a chat show hosted by Jim Dunbar later that day, somebody rang the Palo Alto Times newspaper claiming to be the Zodiac Killer and stated that he had left San Francisco because "because I'm too hot there". Two similar pieces of phraseology connected by two phone calls and the Jim Dunbar Show.

​In addition, we have the December 7th 1969 letter stating "I will kill again so expect it any time soon the will be a cop", followed by the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter listing 38 "cops" as potential victims, and a December 19th 1969 payphone call to Sergeant Robert Rengsdorff of the San Jose Highway Patrol threatening "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". Three threats to kill cops within twelve days of December. Then came the mocking Melvin Belli letter just one day later. Neither of the Fairfield letters were released to the newspapers, making the December 19th 1969 payphone caller just another lucky chap if it wasn't the Zodiac Killer. It is fairly evident that the Zodiac Killer was responsible for many more phone calls than the two he has been accredited with, including a phone call to the Santa Rosa Police Department on October 15th 1969. 

The apparent familiarity with the KTOK radio station, by choosing to call one of its hosts over 1,000 miles from the Bay Area, could suggest an affinity to their style of broadcasting. During the 1960s KTOK radio station featured news, sport and adult music, with the 1960 Broadcasting Yearbook describing its content as "toe tapping music (no rock and roll) and all the announcers are adults". That music included such artists as Tony Bennett, The Mills Brothers and Al Martino. This may give an insight into the maturity and age of the Zodiac Killer when the phone call was made on December 7th 1969, in a year when all three sets of eyewitnesses at Presidio Heights described the Zodiac Killer as 40 years or above. Was the Zodiac Killer an avid listener to this radio station, or did he once have roots in Oklahoma?   

Part Two: Then came the ridiculous statements in the Lodi News-Sentinel by a detective sergeant and KTOK news director, Larry Lamotte. The detective sergeant told the Sentinel that "Major Miller told us it was a hoax. I don't know if we even looked into the case". Apparently the police ended their investigation inside of one day - and according to Larry Lamotte they didn't even come to collect recordings of the man's voice when offered the tapes. Larry Lamotte remarked "I don't see how it can be anything but a hoax. The caller was too familiar with Oklahoma City. He knew the name of our shopping centers and mentioned our high rate of traffic fatalities and even the governor's 'Live for the 70s program". Well, maybe he had visited Oklahoma recently, and/or had possibly lived there at some point Larry. Maybe he read newspapers and magazines.   

When the caller was asked if he was the Zodiac Killer, he stated "I could be", and added that "I don't need to kill. There are too many people killed on the highways and that's legal". The conversation continued with the caller remarking "You're going to try and trace it" - and when met with the affirmative - replied "then I better hang up". The caller added one final thing, threatening more killings by stating "There are plenty of parking lots" - mentioning one large Oklahoma shopping center by name. This call to Oklahoma City on December 7th 1969 came forty-seven days after the Jim Dunbar Show, yet it mimicked the October 22nd 1969 call to KGO-TV station the very same day a Zodiac letter was postmarked to the San Francisco Chronicle, also mimicking the Jim Dunbar Show hoaxer by stating "I just need help". Again, predating the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969 that thrice pleaded "please help me". The caller to the Oklahoma radio station stated he had to leave California because "it got too hot for me", just like the caller to the Palo Alto newspaper just hours before the Oakland Police Department call in the early morning hours of October 22nd 1969. On that occasion the caller stated that he left San Francisco "because I'm too hot there". So, the notion the Oklahoma City caller was an isolated hoaxer that was currently resident in Oklahoma doesn't stack up, especially when you consider the December 7th 1969 letter was postmarked Fairfield, California. This Oklahoma City recording could reveal the true voice of the Zodiac Killer. At the very least, it should have been played to Bryan Hartnell, Nancy Slover and David Slaight, who had all heard the Zodiac Killer's voice a matter of months earlier.       

Additional Information: On October 19th 1969, the San Francisco Examiner ran an article entitled "Message to the Zodiac Killer". It read: "Five people are dead. Let there be no more killings. Police say you are intelligent. If you are, then listen to reason. You are being hunted everywhere in the state, and nation. You are alone in this world. You can share your secrets with no one. No friend can help you. You are as much a victim of your crimes as those whose lives you snuffed out. You cannot walk the streets a free man. There is no safety for you, anywhere. And you will be caught, there is no doubt. You face life as a hunted, tormented animal - unless you help yourself. We ask that you give yourself up to the Examiner. We offer you no protection, and no sympathy. But we do offer you fair treatment, the assurance of medical help and the full benefits of your legal rights. And we offer to tell your story. Why have you killed? How has life wronged you? Call the City Editor of the Examiner any time, day or night. The telephone number is (415) 781 24 24. Call collect. Your call will not be traced".

This message may have inspired the Zodiac Killer to ring the Oakland Police Department on October 22nd 1969 requesting that either Melvin Belli or Francis Lee Bailey, two high profile lawyers at the time, appear on a chat show hosted by Jim Dunbar later that day. The San Francisco Examiner article was published on October 19th 1969 with the assurance of "legal rights" if the Zodiac Killer phoned in - and requested the murderer to "give yourself up". It was reported in a magazine article in August 1971 that after the caller to Oakland Police made contact, the main thrust of the conversation was that the Zodiac Killer wanted to give himself up, but only if he could be represented by a famous lawyer. Approximately six weeks after the Oakland call, a letter mailed on December 7th 1969 to the San Francisco Chronicle (now validated as Zodiac correspondence), mocked the dialogue in the Jim Dunbar Show by opening his communication with "I just need help", but after threatening to kill a cop he stated "I will turn myself in". This was the only time the Zodiac Killer offered to turn himself in, other than the caller to the Oakland Police Department. To the best of my knowledge no newspaper articles immediately subsequent to the Jim Dunbar Show mentioned the Oakland caller offering to turn himself in - and neither did the Jim Dunbar Show hoaxer. This last section will be deleted if fresh information proves otherwise.  

An imposter by the name of Eric Weill called into the Jim Dunbar KGO-TV station on the morning of October 22nd 1969 and attempted to pass himself off to the host and Melvin Belli as the infamous Zodiac Killer. During the phone call Eric Weill pleaded with Melvin Belli, stating "I want help".  On October 23rd 1969, the Desert Sun newspaper claimed that Melvin Belli told the caller “All of San Francisco wants to help you. The hand is out, you can feel the hands out.” The Zodiac Killer clearly latched onto this plea for help, when in mocking fashion he wrote to the residence of Melvin Belli on December 20th 1969 and stated "please help me" on three occasions, in accompaniment to the phrase "I cannot reach out for help". However, this wasn't the first time the Zodiac Killer would mock the spectacle of the Jim Dunbar Show, when on December 7th 1969 he mailed a letter from Fairfield to the San Francisco Chronicle stating "I just need help. I will kill again so expect it any time soon the will be a cop". Thirteen days later, the Melvin Belli letter would replicate this plea for help, despite the fact the December 7th 1969 correspondence was never released to the newspapers. But here's the kicker.

After the Zodiac Killer communication, postmarked December 7th 1969, a phone call was received later that night by the host of commercial radio station KTOK in Oklahoma City claiming to be from the Zodiac Killer. KTOK news director Larry Lamotte told the San Francisco Chronicle that a man rang the station and declared that he had to leave California because "it got too hot for me", remarking that the man did an awfully good impression of the man who rang the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969. This is the crucial part. On the same day of December 7th 1969, we have a man mailing a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle mocking the call to the Jim Dunbar Show by stating "I just need help", followed a few hours later by a call to an Oklahoma radio station by a man doing an awfully good impression of the man who rang the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969. This impressionist caller could possibly be the Zodiac Killer mocking the Jim Dunbar Show, just as he had done in the letter earlier that day - and would do thirteen days later when he thrice pleaded "please help me". There is no way of finding out the full transcript of the phone call to the Oklahoma radio station, but it wouldn't be too far-fetched to believe he mockingly asked for help on this occasion too.   

The caller to the Oklahoma radio station, doing an impression of the Jim Dunbar Show caller, claimed he left California because "it got too hot for me". A few hours before the October 22nd 1969 Oakland Police Department phone call requesting that either Melvin Belli or Francis Lee Bailey, high profile lawyers at the time, appear on a chat show hosted by Jim Dunbar later that day, somebody rang the Palo Alto Times newspaper claiming to be the Zodiac Killer and stated that he had left San Francisco because "because I'm too hot there". Two similar pieces of phraseology connected by two phone calls and the Jim Dunbar Show.

​In addition, we have the December 7th 1969 letter stating "I will kill again so expect it any time soon the will be a cop", followed by the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter listing 38 "cops" as potential victims, and a December 19th 1969 payphone call to Sergeant Robert Rengsdorff of the San Jose Highway Patrol threatening "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". Three threats to kill cops within twelve days of December. Then came the mocking Melvin Belli letter just one day later. Neither of the Fairfield letters were released to the newspapers, making the December 19th 1969 payphone caller just another lucky chap if it wasn't the Zodiac Killer. It is fairly evident that the Zodiac Killer was responsible for many more phone calls than the two he has been accredited with, including a phone call to the Santa Rosa Police Department on October 15th 1969. 

The Zodiac Killer may have attempted to ring the Jim Dunbar Show before the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969. On October 22nd 1969, Eric Weill (Sam) rang into the morning KGO-TV Jim Dunbar Show - but when Jim Dunbar and Melvin Belli interviewed this man it was on the understanding he may have been the infamous Zodiac Killer, with the host asking him "Did you try to call us one other time, about two or three weeks ago". This suggests that Jim Dunbar was aware of a previous attempt by the Zodiac Killer to contact the show prior to the murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969. The Zodiac Killer may have attempted to contact the Jim Dunbar Show for a second time, when he rang the Oakland Police Department on October 22nd 1969, but again his debut on the show was thwarted by imposter Eric Weill. With this in mind, did he then choose to redirect his attention to a different radio station in Oklahoma on December 7th 1969? But why would he choose KTOK radio station in Oklahoma? There has to be a reason.  

The apparent familiarity with the KTOK radio station, by choosing to call one of its hosts over 1,000 miles from the Bay Area, could suggest an affinity to their style of broadcasting. During the 1960s KTOK radio station featured news, sport and adult music, with the 1960 Broadcasting Yearbook describing its content as "toe tapping music (no rock and roll) and all the announcers are adults". That music included such artists as Tony Bennett, The Mills Brothers and Al Martino. This may give an insight into the maturity and age of the Zodiac Killer when the phone call was made on December 7th 1969, in a year when all three sets of eyewitnesses at Presidio Heights described the Zodiac Killer as 40 years or above. Was the Zodiac Killer an avid listener to this radio station, or did he once have roots in Oklahoma?   

So, could the 38 character code hold some further reference to the Jim Dunbar Show, or the upcoming appearance on the KTOK radio station? If the Z38 is somehow related to the Z340 (through its opening 4 characters and 5 ending characters), does it carry a similar message? The first communication after the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969 was the 'Dripping Pen' card and 340 cipher mailed on November 8th 1969, stating "that wasn't me on the TV show". With the December 7th 1969 letter and KTOK radio call coming on the same day, could it have any bearing on the message contained within the code? "That was me on the Oklahoma radio station" would have certainly been the ideal contemporary message to encode.  

Just a quick recap: ​The author of the 38 character code prominently featured two sections of the 340 cipher, that included the beginning 4 ciphertext characters of the 340 cipher, and the last 5 ciphertext characters of the 340 cipher. The only logical reason for the Zodiac Killer to have done this, would have been to give us a clue to the solving of the 340 cipher. When the code key is applied to the 340 cipher before any period 19 (diagonal shift), the first 4 plaintext characters of the 340 cipher spell IRON. The last 5 plaintext characters spell DEATH. As previously pointed out, a hoaxer would have had to be extremely lucky to keep the beginning and ending of the 340 cipher intact, to the tune of 4 & 5 characters (when creating the Z38), that just happened to create two English words in these notable positions. One would have expected a lazy hoaxer to replicate ciphertext characters 333 to 338 in the 340 cipher, because these characters were close to the spelling of "Zodiac". But the author of the December 7th 1969 letter refrained from doing this, choosing to separate these 6 ciphertext characters, so as to form the word DEATH at the end of the 38 character code. See here.

The red rectangle above (around the first three rows of the Z38 code) represents the first 18 rows of the Z340 cipher, These sections both begin with the letter H and end with the number 9 (or reversed P), The last line in the red rectangle contains five characters, all of which can be found on the last line of the 340 cipher (that is solved only using the period 19 diagonal shift). If you apply the period 19 shift to the red rectangle of the Z38, you get H+, mirroring the first two characters seen when you apply the period 19 shift to the 340 ciphertext.  The blue rectangle (around the last two rows of the Z38 code) represents the last two rows of the Z340 (solved absent of the period 19 diagonal shift). The final five characters in the blue rectangle spell DEATH when using the 340 code key. The author of the December 7th 1969 letter (containing the Z38 code) also predated the appeal to Melvin Belli by stating "I just need help". The Zodiac Killer could not have copied the December 7th letter because it was unpublished by the time the Melvin Belli letter was mailed on December 20th 1969. It is such a shame that the majority of the Zodiac community dismiss this communication (and its sister communication on December 16th 1969) based on their extensive research of "it doesn't look like a Zodiac letter". A great opportunity to reveal another Zodiac message is sadly being ignored.  

On December 3rd 2020 David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke unlocked the mystery to the 51-year-old 340 cipher, mailed by the Zodiac Killer on November 8th 1969. On December 7th 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed a communication from Fairfield containing a 38 character code, yet to be broken. In recent years I have had little doubt that this letter was genuine Zodiac material, but the solving of the 340 cipher put to rest any lingering doubt regarding its authenticity.

​The author of the 38 character code prominently featured two sections of the 340 cipher, that included the beginning 4 ciphertext characters of the 340 cipher, and the last 5 ciphertext characters of the 340 cipher. The only logical reason for the Zodiac Killer to have done this, would have been to give us a clue to the solving of the 340 cipher. When the code key is applied to the 340 cipher before any period 19 (diagonal shift), the first 4 plaintext characters of the 340 cipher spell IRON. The last 5 plaintext characters spell DEATH. As previously pointed out, a hoaxer would have had to be extremely lucky to keep the beginning and ending of the 340 cipher intact, to the tune of 4 & 5 characters (when creating the Z38), that just happened to create two English words in these notable positions. One would have expected a lazy hoaxer to replicate ciphertext characters 333 to 338 in the 340 cipher, because these characters were close to the spelling of "Zodiac". But the author of the December 7th 1969 letter refrained from doing this, choosing to separate these 6 ciphertext characters, so as to form the word DEATH at the end of the 38 character code. 

After the solving of the 408 and 340 cryptograms in 1969 and 2020, there is a strong argument to be had, that the Zodiac Killer's remaining unbroken codes also contain a message, which includes the Z38 mailed just one month after the 340 cipher. I have attempted to tackle the Z38 code, but it needs an expert in code breaking to take a look at this encipherment, such as Dave Oranchak, who I believe could shed more light on this small code. The message beneath - at the very least - should provide a little more insight into the thinking of the Zodiac Killer during this crucial period. 

Did the Zodiac Killer create the 38 character code so soon after his November 8th 1969 offering as a prompt to the solution of the 340 cipher? I hope Dave Oranchak will take a look and possibly correct some of the incorrect assumptions I may have made. Thanks to Druzer, a regular contributor to both main Zodiac forums, for his assistance in this matter.
CLICK HERE FOR UNOBSTRUCTED VIEW OF CODE.