On December 10th 1969 a paste-up horoscope communication was mailed and postmarked PM from Sacramento entitled Day-By-Day Forecast for Cancer, followed by a similar communication mailed and postmarked PM from San Francisco on December 11th 1969 entitled Day-By-Day Forecast for Leo. Not published in the newspapers, it was clear that both of these communications had the same author just one day apart. The following is a summary of the abduction and murder of Leona LaRell Roberts by Steph54 on Websleuths:

On Wednesday, 10 December 1969, 16-year-old Leona Larell Roberts worked her first day at a part-time job at the White Front Discount Store in Pleasant Hill. After her 1-5 p.m. shift, she drove to her boyfriend's apartment (749 Tormey Ave, Rodeo) where she planned to cook him dinner. At the time, Leona attended K's American Beauty College in Napa, where she also lived with her mother. Within 15 minutes of arriving at her boyfriend's apartment, a neighbor heard a girl scream. The neighbor called the sheriff and soon after heard someone running down the stairs at the back of the apartment house followed by the slam of a door from the direction of the downstairs apartment where Leona's boyfriend lived. When the boyfriend arrived, he saw Leona's red VW out front but did not find her inside the apartment. The apartment was dark and the back door was unlocked. He noticed scuff marks on the wall near the back door. He found that a pair of his pants had been removed from the bedroom closet and left on the living room couch, the belt missing. He noticed Leona's work smock crumpled on the couch. A sheriff's deputy arrived 30 minutes after the call. Another neighbor told the deputy of seeing a white male, about 25 years old, short blonde hair, acting suspicious. He walked several times from the front door to the rear of a blue station wagon before driving away. On 28 December 1969, a man searching for driftwood on the beach at Bolinas Lagoon in Marin County found the nude body of Leona Roberts.

From the postmark dates and times it is extremely likely the Forecast for Cancer communication was mailed prior to the abduction/murder of Leona Roberts, with the Forecast for Leo communication likely mailed after her abduction/murder. This meant that the author of the Cancer communication on December 10th in Sacramento traveled to San Francisco to mail the second correspondence. The most direct route is shown below and uses only Interstate 80. This journey between communications passes just 0.9 miles from the 749 Tormey Avenue residence from where Leona Roberts was abducted. 

Less than 24 hours after the abduction/murder of Leona Roberts, the Forecast for Leo communication arrived. Was the perpetrator using a play on words to hint that her forecast was in his hands? The Forecast for Cancer communication was emblazoned with the pasted text of Zodiac - and we know that the Bay Area murder has become synonymous with abduction and murder. How many abductions and murders occurred in the Bay Area on December 10th 1969? Yet here we have two sinister communications mailed in Sacramento, followed by San Francisco, where the most direct route using Interstate 80 passes just 0.9 miles from the abduction site of Leona Roberts, which is then followed by a communication entitled Forecast for Leo. If this is a coincidence, it is one hell of a lucky one.

The question arises though - was the author of the two communications the Zodiac Killer or an impostor? Had somebody close to Leona Roberts planned her murder, and by mailing these communications with the word Zodiac in bold lettering, attempted to shift the focus of the investigation onto the Bay Area murderer, thereby making him the convenient fall guy? However, if the author of the Cancer and Leo communications wanted to achieve this goal, why would he be so cryptic? By sending a correspondence with nothing more than a heading of Day-By-Day Forecast for Leo, you are leaving open the possibility that investigators will not make the connection between the communication and the abduction of Leona Roberts. If you are attempting to lay the abduction squarely at the feet of Zodiac, then you simply create a communication using the pseudonym Zodiac and mentioning Leona Roberts by name, thereby creating no ambiguity. This may put the ball back in Zodiac's court.   

But it doesn't end there. Two more Zodiac communications were mailed either side of the above two forecasts. The first was mailed on December 7th 1969 from Fairfield, with the second arriving from Fairfield on December 16th 1969. These again fall directly along Interstate 80. If the four communications were the work of the Zodiac Killer, then we have a murderer mailing a correspondence from Fairfield on December 7th, before traveling northeast to Sacramento, then abducting Leona Roberts in Rodeo and continuing on to San Francisco, before heading back to Fairfield on December 16th. The author of four consecutive communications would possibly be using one direct route back and forth.

The Bus Bomb letter mailed on November 9th 1969 claimed seven victims, while the Melvin Belli letter mailed on December 20th 1969 claimed a search for number nine and ten. The December 7th 1969 Fairfield letter claimed no update to victim seven, leaving open the possibility that the abduction and murder of Leona Roberts on December 10th 1969 was victim number eight.

The Zodiac Killer gave us the answers to his six unsolved ciphers by March 13th 1971 without ambiguity, but effectively gave us all the answers by October 27th 1970. It is important to read Three Months After the Mount Diablo Code to understand all of the following, but I shall give a very brief recap. The Zodiac gave us the answer to the Mount Diablo code (32 symbol Cipher} in the Little List Letter on July 26th 1970. In fact, he gave us the answer word for word, in the form of Radians and 5 inches along the radians (all we had to do was add the number 5 where he placed the arrow and hashtag}. The 13 Hole Postcard on October 5th 1970 gave us the answer to the 13 Symbol Cipher word for word, in the form of Fk I'm crackproof. The Halloween Card on October 27th 1970 gave us the answer to the 340 Cipher word for word, in the form of Paradice and Slaves. No mathematics was required and no manipulation was needed - all we had to do, was use the three phrases that Zodiac provided us with in three consecutive communications, to answer the three previously unsolved ciphers. But that wasn't all. The Zodiac gave us the answer to both the Fairfield Letter codes of December 7th and 16th of 1969, again word for word using the Halloween Card. The 18 unsolved characters in the 408 cipher he again gave us the solution word for word, using the trinity of communications on July 31st 1969 and following letter on August 4th 1969, when he revealed his pseudonym to the world. However, there is even more.

The Zodiac Killer's 408 Cipher was effectively a written message that he enciphered into characters. When you take a look at the decoded message, it isn't structured and organized - because one line or row bleeds into the following. The Zodiac Killer didn't contain his words within the confines of one row. For example, when he opened the cipher with "I like killing people", the letter E is positioned at the beginning of the second row. This randomness is not displayed in the answers to his remaining six unsolved portions of code. The answer to the 18 unsolved characters, the 340 Cipher, the two Fairfield letters, the 13 Symbol Cipher and the 32 Symbol Cipher are all organized and deliberately structured, where every single solution and word is contained within each line - and does not leak from one row to another. Let us take a look at the 13 Symbol Cipher that exhibits symmetry within its design.             

I don't have to explain the above, because its structure and symmetry is there for all to see. The Zodiac Killer had already responded to prompts by Vallejo Police Chief Jack Stiltz to send more details to prove the letter writer and killer were one and the same. The more the Zodiac Killer wrote, not only lessened his time for killing, but may have provided additional clues to detectives regarding his identity. This tactic was likely adopted by Professor D.C.B. Marsh in the October 22nd 1969 San Francisco Examiner newspaper article by Will Stevens, which laid down a challenge to the Zodiac Killer to reveal his name. The newspaper stated Dr Marsh told the Examiner today: "The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts. He knows, to quote Edgar Allen Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name -in cipher code - would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated - which will truly and honestly include his name".

The above invitation by Dr. Marsh, quoting Edgar Allen Poe, was met with the 13 Symbol Cipher that mirrored a code used in Poe's A Few Words on Secret Writing. The alphabet being split A to M, and N to Z. The 13 Symbol Cipher began with A and ended with M. So it was logical to place the alphabet alongside the 13 Symbol Cipher and see if any patterns emerged by counting the numerical difference between corresponding characters. This resulted.

I don't want to labor the point again, so for a full explanation please visit the article Embedded Symmetry  Suffice to say, that when the Zodiac's solution or answer to the 13 Symbol Cipher was inserted into the code above, it showed an organized and structured pattern without a word bleeding from one end of the cipher to the other. The Zodiac Killer gave us the cyclical solution of Fk I'm crackproof on October 5th 1970, and followed this up with the line "This is the Zodiac speaking Like I have allways said, I am crack proof" on March 13th 1971. But in the Los Angeles Letter you will notice he separates "crackproof" to "crack proof", exactly how it is found in the 13 Symbol Cipher. It does not bleed from the end of the cipher to the start.

The first 8 begins FK. The second 8 begins IM. The third 8 begins CRACKPROOF. But CRACK and PROOF are separated, without either word being fragmented. The FK and IM also fit nicely around the existing K and M in the cipher. The cipher solution maintains an organized and symmetrical appearance. The introduction on the April 20th 1970 letter now read "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you? My name is Fk, I'm crackproof". He was leading us into the belief these were his initials.

The Paradice and Slaves configuration from the Halloween Card to the 340 Cipher also exhibited form, with Paradice exactly bisecting the columns of the 340 Cipher, and Slaves exactly bisecting the rows of the 340 Cipher in a 17 X 17 pattern. Each word contained within a row or column. The Halloween Card envelope providing us with "sorry no cipher" in a cross formation, not only telling us that the 340 wasn't a standard cipher, but the design of the 340 was to be found in a cross formation.

The 32 Symbol Cipher also adhered to a solution where no word bled from one row to another. The 32 Symbol Cipher contained two rows of 17 and 15 characters - obviously created this way for a purpose. When we discovered that the number 5 was to be inserted into the cipher using the arrow and hashtag, the answer of Radians and 5 inches along the radians again fell perfectly into the 32 Symbol Cipher with no word extending from one line to another. You will notice that when the Zodiac Killer provided us with the answer in the July 26th 1970 Little List Letter, he self-contained the answer on a separate line, with the first Radians beginning with a capital letter. This was the beginning of the code solution.

"PS. The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians and # inches along the radians" was in fact Radians and 5 inches along the radians. When this is placed into the 32 Symbol Cipher, you will notice that once again it retains separation, with "inches" ending line one, and "along" beginning line two. Each word is contained within the line. This organization and structure flies in the face of the solved portion of the 408 Cipher and implies a deliberate and calculated design. But we need to take it even further.

Explained in greater detail in the article The Answer to the Z38 Code, the structure of the Zodiac 38 character cipher was pointed out. The code below has been structured with different character counts on each line (unlike the 408 and 340 ciphers), but is instead arranged in a formation of 12 characters on line one, 7 characters on line two, 5 characters on line three, 6 characters on line four and 8 characters on line five. This may suggest that the words are contained separately on each line, without running from one line to another. We would expect Slaves and Paradice to be grouped together - and the last two lines satisfy this character count of 6 and 8. We then have three lines remaining of 12, 7 and 5 characters. By Gun satisfies the 5 characters, By Knife satisfies the 7 characters, and By Fire, By Rope satisfies the 12 characters. This forms the basis of the completed 38 character code solution, mimicking the second Fairfield Letter design and the exact wording on the Halloween Card configuration. Furthermore, no word extends from one line to another, exactly as displayed in the above codes.

So far (including the Tim Holt comic book unearthed by Tahoe27), every single solution or answer to the ciphers can be achieved using the exact words employed by Zodiac from three consecutive communications spanning July 26th 1970 to October 27th 1970. [1] Radians and 5 inches along the radians [2] Fk I'm crackproof [3] Paradise and Slaves, and [4] By Fire, By Gun, By Rope, By Knife, Paradice and Slaves. And none extend or bleed into another line, or from end to beginning in the 13 Symbol Cipher. That is five ciphers down with one to go. 

The Zodiac Killer claimed that his 408 Cipher contained his identity or pseudonym. What was important to the Bay Area murderer was the structure exhibited by all the above codes. The characters he used were of no particular significance, because they weren't designed to be solved without future Zodiac input. This input came towards the end of his letter writing campaign, when he supplied us all the answers in just three consecutive communications. He was effectively wrapping up business. There was no way a man with such an inflated ego and inability to resist writing to the newspapers, could keep the secret to his ciphers for upwards of five decades. The answer to the 408 Cipher was given to us in just four days, contained in the trinity of July 31st 1969 letters and the August 4th 1969 'Debut of Zodiac' Letter. He claimed his identity was in the 408 cipher - and we know his identity was "Zodiac" because he gave us his pseudonym. All we then had to do, was fit Zodiac around the declaration of who he was. 

Initially, the Zodiac Killer had intended to leave 12 characters at the base of the 408 Cipher, but his accidental omission of the word "people" when he encoded his message, inadvertently left him with 18 unsolved characters. However, this was of no consequence - it was an easy adjustment. You will notice again, that the unsolved 18 characters are split into an ungainly 1 and 17 configuration. If we are to hold true to single words not bleeding from one line to another, then the single character must stand for I or A. We know that the Zodiac Killer was an egotist, beginning the 408 Cipher with "I like killing people because it is so much fun". He also began two of the July 31st letters with "I am the killer". So it wouldn't be any great leap of faith to believe that the isolated singular character on line 23 was "I". Coupling the "Zodiac" with "I am the killer" to produce "I am the Zodiac Killer" satisfies his declaration of identity and the 18 characters at the base of the 408 Cipher. We again have used only the words written by the Zodiac Killer - and no word extends from one line to another. The third of code containing his identity was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, which is why he began that introduction with "This is the murderer". He was reserving "I am the Zodiac Killer" for the base of the 408 Cipher.  

We now have six unsolved portions of code answered, using only the words written by the Zodiac Killer in a total of four communications. Every single answer was organized and structured to remain within each row, line and column with no manipulation whatsoever. We can wait another 50 years for these codes to be "solved" - or believe they were all answered by October 27th 1970 from the pen of the Zodiac Killer.

In the article Three Months After the Mount Diablo Code we showed how the Zodiac Killer gave us the answers to his three main unsolved ciphers in three consecutive communications spanning July 26th 1970 to October 27th 1970. Here we will do exactly the same thing regarding the December 7th 1969 Fairfield Letter (the companion to the December 16th 1969 letter). The December 7th 1969 letter showed traits of the 408 cipher, in which the author had simply dragged characters from above to provide filler for the remaining 18 unsolved characters. In the December 7th 1969 letter he had dragged groups of characters from the 340 cipher in similar fashion. 

Tahoe27 made an excellent discovery when she linked the October 27th 1970 Halloween Card to the Tim Holt comic book, showing the connection to the configuration displayed on the card in the wording By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife. However, the Zodiac Killer had likely made this connection much earlier than October 27th 1970, when he designed the December 16th 1969 Fairfield Letter (shown on the left}. In this communication he gave us a rudimentary design of the Halloween Card configuration preceded by the word "death", thereby satisfying the Tim Holt comic book of "Death By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife. Below I have shown the interconnectivity between the Halloween Card, 340 cipher and both Fairfield letters, demonstrating how the Tim Holt comic book played a part in the design of them all, with By Fire, By Gun, By Rope, By Knife, Paradice and Slaves the running theme.

The December 16th 1969 Fairfield Letter was essentially a very rudimentary precursor to the Halloween Card design of By Fire, By Gun, By Rope, By Knife, Paradice and Slaves. It was also very likely a clue to the December 7th 1969 code scribbled at the base of that letter, containing 38 characters. If this code followed the same way as all the others, in that the Zodiac Killer simply provided us with the answer to his codes in later communications, then what are the chances the solution depended on the wording in the Halloween Card, which mimicked the design of the second Fairfield Letter?

The December 16th 1969 Fairfield Letter stated "Look for more blood", then provided us with the Halloween Card style design of large crosshairs surrounded by four smaller crosshairs in each quadrant, intended to signify By Fire, By Gun, By Rope, By Knife, Paradice and Slaves. But the Zodiac Killer inexplicably chose the over inflated promise of 38 more victims from San Francisco, San Jose, Vallejo, Napa, Fairfield, Sacramento and Oakland. Curiously, the exact same number as characters on the December 7th 1969 Fairfield Letter. These victims, likely to be murdered By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife. So, was there a correlation between the two letters using these words? You will notice that the code above hasn't been structured uniformly like the 408 and 340 ciphers, but instead arranged in a formation of 12 characters on line one, 7 characters on line two, 5 characters on line three, 6 characters on line four and 8 characters on line five.

This may suggest that the words are contained separately on each line, without running from one line to another. We would expect Slaves and Paradice to be grouped together - and the last two lines satisfy this character count of 6 and 8. We then have three lines remaining of 12, 7 and 5 characters. By Gun satisfies the 5 characters, By Knife satisfies the 7 characters, and By Fire, By Rope satisfies the 12 characters. This forms the basis of the completed 38 character code solution, mimicking the second Fairfield Letter design and the exact wording on the Halloween Card configuration. Furthermore, no word extends from one line to another, satisfying the non-uniformity displayed by the 38 character code. We now have By Fire, By Gun, By Rope, By Knife, Paradice and Slaves running through four communications - that of the Halloween Card, 340 cipher and both Fairfield letters. The Zodiac Killer yet again supplying us with the answer to one of his codes in subsequent communications.          

On October 20th 1969, nine days after the murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights, somebody made a threatening phone call to the Palo Alto Times newspaper saying he intended "to pick the kids off as they get on the school bus". The San Bernardino County Sun reported on the threat, stating "Patrol cars convoyed school buses around Palo Alto yesterday after a telephoned murder threat by a man claiming to be the Zodiac Killer of five persons. The weird slayer who signs himself "The Zodiac" made a similar threat in a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle last week after the Oct 11 shooting of a taxi driver. The district transportation supervisor said an armed guard might ride with each of the system's 25 buses. Officers in Napa and Vallejo, areas of the first three murderous attacks, some 45 miles north of Palo Alto, have been convoying police officers. Palo Alto Police Chief William Hydie called the new threat "extremely serious," but warned against over reaction to what might be a crank call".

On November 8th 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed the 'Dripping Pen' card and 340 cipher to the San Francisco Chronicle claiming the "Aug" murders of Debra Gaye Furlong (14) and Kathy Ann Snoozy (15), who were found brutally stabbed on August 3rd 1969 in the Bay Area of San Jose.

On November 21st 1969, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer wrote to the San Jose Police Department​ threatening the life of a widow, accompanied by the words "There's no doubt I will do my Thing". The brief text in the letter clearly contained enough information for police to identify the woman and implement 24-hour surveillance on her residence.

On December 7th 1969, a letter was mailed from Fairfield stating "I just need help. I will kill again, so expect it any time the will be a cop".

On December 16th 1969, another letter arrived from Fairfield threatening to kill "government life" and "cops" in Sacramento, Fairfield, Napa, Vallejo, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose. A future geographic profiling technique was applied to the locations in which he 'threatened murder' (as detailed in the Fairfield letter), and noted that "Interstate 80 begins at an interchange with U.S. Route 101 (US 101) in San Francisco, and then crosses the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge into Oakland. It then heads northeast through Vallejo, Fairfield, Sacramento, and the Sierra Nevada mountains before crossing into Nevada". The idea was to identify the areas the Zodiac Killer was prepared to target, based on their accessibility to him using a main commuter route he regularly traveled. If he regularly used the I-80 for his profession, then six of these seven destinations are directly passed by the I-80, with Napa only a few miles off route.

On December 19th 1969, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer again threatened cops, making a phone call to Sergeant Robert Rengsdorff of the San Jose Highway Patrol (see article above), stating "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". This threat towards San Jose police and a family of five was issued on a Friday, exactly as was the November 21st 1969 letter, mailed to San Jose police threatening harm on a widow. After the threat on the widow was thwarted by 24-hour police surveillance on her residence, was this the response, to once again instigate fear in the San Jose community? Were the widow and 'family of five' of the same residence? We know he was threatening the lives of numerous police officers, but the threat on five members of a family appears rather specific.           

On December 20th 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed the 'Melvin Belli' letter containing a piece of murdered Paul Stine's shirt, effectively proving the author was the murderer of the taxicab driver on October 11th 1969. This letter mimicked the December 7th 1969 Fairfield letter by stating "please help me", which in some way helps to authenticate both Fairfield letters not released to the newspapers.

​The purpose of this article is to show the targeted areas of the Zodiac Killer (if responsible for these letters and phone calls) from the standpoint of geographic profiling. These events spanned from the October 11th 1969 murder of Paul Stine, to the mailing of the 'Melvin Belli' letter on December 20th 1969 (71 days). The areas shown in red above, highlight the locations the Zodiac Killer targeted by murder, proposed murder, as well as by his threatening phone calls and letters - and they are all connected by one direct route of travel.

During these 71 days in October, November and December the Zodiac Killer focused his attention on Sacramento, Fairfield, Vallejo, Oakland, San Francisco, Palo Alto and San Jose. Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 101 provide one seamless journey from Sacramento to San Jose. Was the Zodiac Killer a traveling salesman which took him through each of these locations - and therefore he had a familiarity with? Do these commuter route tell you anything about his home residence during this time period? 
When you commit, or intend to commit these acts, accessibility to and from a main commuter route could be invaluable.

Equidistant (as the crow flies) to Sacramento and San Jose is the waterfront city of Vallejo, believed by many to be the home residence of the Zodiac Killer. It is 53 miles from Sacramento and 57 miles from San Jose. The Springs and Tuolumne payphone, where Zodiac placed a call to police dispatcher Nancy Slover on the morning of July 5th 1969, sits 728 metres from Interstate 80.

The December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter has its own unique design, written on lined paper threatening "government life" and 38 cops in San Francisco, San Jose, Vallejo, Napa, Fairfield, Sacramento and Oakland. This correspondence was not released to the newspapers, thereby making any subsequent letter mirroring this communication all the more significant. Any future author could not be accused of copycatting the Zodiac Killer using the Fairfield letter as their guide. That is what makes the "Jimmy Carter" letter, mailed on June 8th 1977, so very interesting when placed alongside the 'Zodiac letter' from December 16th 1969. 

The FBI files stated "Enclosed for the bureau is one copy of a letter threatening to kill numerous political figures and television personalities and envelope postmarked Sacramento, California 6/8/77. For information of the bureau, on 6/9/77, the Sacramento Bee newspaper received the enclosed letter and information was developed that captioned subject was currently under indictment for threatening to kill the president and a check with U.S. Secret Service, Sacramento, confirmed this. On 6/9/77 Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Heller, Sacramento, determined that redacted had been sentenced that day for violation of Title 18, section 871, Threats to Kill the President to an indeterminate sentence under the Youth Corrections Act. Based on this information, Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Heller advised he would consider no further prosecution of captioned subject. On 6/19/77, the originals of the enclosed letter and envelope were turned over to the U.S. Secret Service Agent to be made a part of their case".            

The candidates threatened high on the list are elected government officials from the Democratic Party, followed by television personalities - with President Jimmy Carter top of the hit list of 30. The December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter also threatened "government life", with 38 people placed in a similar list at the foot of the letter Two letters, both on lined paper, separated by nearly eight years, and both promising to kill 30+ people. Let us take a closer look at the Jimmy Carter and Fairfield letter alongside each other. The Fairfield letter has been placed beneath the Jimmy Carter letter in the image below. 

I have highlighted certain areas of interest in blue, green and red. In the Jimmy Carter letter the author begins with "this letter has been written to tell the people", whereas in the Fairfield letter the author begins with "I just want to tell you". The Jimmy Carter letter then threatens the "following people to be killed", with the Fairfield letter stating "I will kill more people". And finally, the Jimmy Carter letter concludes with "you better carry out the demand", with the Fairfield letter ending with "you better print".  Not withstanding the similar construct and tone of each letter, along with the lined paper, the handwriting is comparable. Furthermore, if we compare these two letters with the threat letter to Richard Nixon (more government life) on May 14th 1973, we see a pattern. The December 16th 1969, May 14th 1973 and June 8th 1977 letters, all begin with either "to tell you that", "to tell you this" and "to tell the people". 

I thought I would take another look at the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter in which Zodiac stated "I will kill more people than you cops can count so look for more blood". The Zodiac Killer accompanied his lined letter with the large drawing of a knife entitled "The Bleeding Knife of Zodiac". I had always believed this to be a crude reference to the brutal stabbing of Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell on September 27th 1969, however, the answer may lie elsewhere - to be found in the November 12th 1969 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle. 

In an article with the header "I've Killed Seven, The Zodiac Claims" by Paul Avery, the article begins with "San Jose Girls May Be Victims" and continues "Beyond leaving several cryptic clues indicating that the newly revealed killings occurred last August, possibly in San Jose, Zodiac's latest correspondence - a long rambling letter and a contemporary greeting card - revealed nothing as to who the two victims were".  

Law enforcement and the newspapers had long posed the question as to whether Zodiac had any involvement in the brutal stabbing murders of the two young San Jose girls. The two teenagers, Debra Gaye Furlong (14) and Kathy Ann Snoozy (15), had been savagely attacked with a short-bladed knife on August 3rd 1969. Therefore, it didn't come as much of a surprise when the Zodiac Killer bolstered his victim total to seven murders on November 8th 1969, when he mailed the 'Dripping Pen Card' to the San Francisco Chronicle. After the attack on Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell at Lake Berryessa, followed by the message on the car door, a depiction of a fountain pen dripping with blood probably seemed like an apt choice by the Zodiac Killer.

I couldn't help noticing the similarities between the Dripping Pen and Dripping Knife of Zodiac, particularly because of the seven blood drops falling from the knife correlating with his "I've Killed Seven" claims in the greeting card and the addition of "Aug" in his chronological victim count. We know he was responsible for five murders, that of David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen, Darlene Ferrin, Cecelia Shepard and Paul Stine - but had now tagged victims six and seven onto his running total. These two extra victims were Debra Furlong and Kathy Snoozy. 

Five weeks later, on December 16th 1969, he effectively rejoiced in these murders by mailing the "The Bleeding Knife of Zodiac" correspondence, which depicted seven drops of blood falling from a knife - one for each victim - and fashioned like his Dripping Pen card. The Zodiac Killer, inspired by the Deborah Furlong and Kathy Snoozy murders on August 3rd 1969 and its coverage on the front page of the Chronicle three days later, launched his callous knife attack at Lake Berryessa seven weeks later, resulting in the premature death of Cecelia Shepard. The Zodiac Killer was hoping the attack on the shores of Lake Berryessa would augment the belief of law enforcement to his involvement in the San Jose murders. This is why he wrote August on the Dripping Pen card, bumped his total up to seven and then boldly exhibited the "The Bleeding Knife of Zodiac" on December 16th 1969 with seven drops of blood. 

Four days later, on December 20th 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Melvin Belli letter containing a piece of Paul Stine's blood-soaked shirt, confirming its authenticity. Ironical then, that the Zodiac Killer wrote "look for more blood" in his previous correspondence. The Melvin Belli letter attempted to depict a killer who was losing control and searching for a ninth and tenth victim. Bearing in mind the two brutal attacks perpetrated with a knife, was the Melvin Belli letter attempting to paint a picture of a bloodthirsty maniac, looking for two more victims picnicking alongside a scenic backdrop?

The drawing of a 'bleeding knife' not a direct reference to the "by knife" phrase written on the car door of Bryan Hartnell at Lake Berryessa, but more of a triumphant claim of his involvement in two brutal knife attacks in the Bay Area. It would take nearly two years to conclusively expose this deception, coming with the arrest of Karl Francis Werner in late April of 1971. Regardless, the Zodiac Killer wasn't finished yet. 

On December 16th 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter to the San Francisco Examiner from Fairfield, threatening "government life". Within the communication he compiled a list of potential "cop" targets (38 in total), claiming he would kill more people if his letter was not printed in the newspaper. In previous articles I have used geographic profiling to pinpoint where the Zodiac Killer most probably lived, based upon the crimes and telephone calls that he made. I wondered if the same could be achieved regarding something he hadn't done, but wanted to do. One would like to believe that the Zodiac Killer, in respect to his home residence, would choose murder sites based upon their accessibility to him. In other words, he would threaten to kill less, the further he traveled away from his home residence.

The Fairfield letter has a threatened kill count of 9 in Sacramento, 8 in Oakland, 8 in Napa, 6 in Vallejo, 3 in Fairfield, 3 in San Francisco and 1 in San Jose. This would suggest that San Jose would be his furthest commute to kill, with his residence at a reasonable traveling distance to Sacramento, Oakland, Napa and to a slightly lesser extent Vallejo. The letter itself was postmarked Fairfield, which is telling, because Sacramento to the northeast of Fairfield is 37 miles, while Oakland to the south is 34 miles. Fairfield to Napa is 14 miles, and to Vallejo is 15 miles. Therefore, Fairfield is fairly equidistant to the areas targeted in the letter the most (Sacramento, Oakland, Napa and Vallejo). The two furthest from Fairfield are targeted the least in terms of a proposed kill count (central San Francisco and San Jose, 39 and 63 miles respectively). Does this tell us anything about the Zodiac Killer's residence based upon the distance decay model of geographic profiling. Distance decay is a geographical term which describes the effect of distance on cultural or spatial interactions. The distance decay effect states that the interaction between two locales declines as the distance between them increases. Once the distance is outside of the two locales' activity space, their interactions begin to decrease. The Zodiac Killer would therefore attack less frequently the further he moved away from his residence and comfort zone. However, this is not what interested me regarding the Fairfield letter.  

If we take a look at Sacramento, Fairfield, Vallejo, Oakland and San Francisco - one thing stands out regarding these locales. These areas account for 29 of the 38 potential victims targeted in the Fairfield letter - and all are passed by Interstate 80.
"I-80 begins at an interchange with U.S. Route 101 (US 101) in San Francisco, and then crosses the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge into Oakland. It then heads northeast through Vallejo, Sacramento, and the Sierra Nevada mountains before crossing into Nevada" Wikipedia.. Was this commuter route integral to the movements of the Zodiac Killer, such as a profession or pastime? His early correspondence was mailed to San Francisco and Vallejo, with Fairfield accounting for two postmarks on December 7th 1969 and December 16th 1969. If we include the December 10th 1969 and December 11th 1969 paste-up letters, dubbed the "Cancer" and "Leo" communications, then these were mailed from Sacramento to Sacramento, and Fairfield to San Francisco respectively. These communications were spanning Sacramento to San Francisco, taking in Fairfield, Vallejo and Oakland along the way - the primary hit zones identified in the December 16th Fairfield letter. The only exception being Napa, positioned only 7 miles off route to Interstate 80 at its nearest point. We will call this geographic profiling of the future.  

Nobody knows for certain what the Zodiac Killer developed into after his brief, but deadly reign over Northern California during the late 1960s and early 1970s, but what we do know is that he mailed numerous letters threatening the police and promising to terrorize the citizens of the Bay Area by planting bombs. The December 7th 1969 and December 16th 1969 'Fairfield' letters stated "I will go for the Goverment life" and expressed disdain for the police, promising "any time now the will be a cop". 
These two letters were authored by the same individual, expressing "I just need help", but neither were published in the newspapers - so when the December 20th 1969 'Melvin Belli' letter arrived just days later with a piece of taxicab driver Paul Stine's shirt and proclaiming "please help me", it goes a long way to authenticating the Fairfield letters as genuine Zodiac correspondence. Rubislaw, a regular contributor to this site, pointed me in the direction of the Spiro Agnew Files in the FBI archives, regarding threats (including bomb threats) made to President Richard Nixon in 1973 (return address Leavenworth, Kansas). Rubislaw pointed to a comparison between these threats (of which there were many) to the Steve McQueen threat letter mailed in 1977 (which included a threat to President Jimmy Carter), and highlighted on the Zodiac Killer Site forum. The comparison is justified, irrespective of whether they were authored by the same individual, as the threats were aimed at high profile people in news and television. But for now I shall concentrate on the Richard Nixon threat and the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter.    

Mark Hewitt, author of a trilogy of Zodiac books, argued a case for Theodore Kaczynski as the infamous Bay Area murderer, taking his bomb threats of 1970 into reality, when he initiated a bombing campaign in the late 1970s. Whether this is in fact the case remains to be seen, but the concept of the Zodiac Killer metamorphosing into another form of terrorism, clearly illustrated by his shift in emphasis during 1970 is not without merit. So, without further ado, we will compare the Richard Nixon threats with the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter.

The December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter opened with the line "I just want to tell you this state is in trouble..I will go for the Goverment life". One of the Richard Nixon letters dated May 14th 1973 began "This is just to tell you, that you will die. There is no way to stop it believe me". There is a similarity in wording, which obviously may be coincidental, but both are a threat on "government life", refer to "pigs" or "cops", the two communications are written on lined paper and both have a circle as part of the logo. They are probably two separate individuals, but nevertheless, it cannot be dismissed out of hand that the Zodiac Killer may have gone through an evolution in the intervening three and a half years, developing the gravity of his threats. I certainly understand the drawbacks of handwriting comparisons, but here are the December 16th 1969, May 14th 1973 and June 8th 1977 (Steve McQueen) letters, all written on lined paper - and in which - each contained either "to tell you that", "to tell you this" and "to tell the people". 

THE 340 CIPHER WAS CRACKED ON DECEMBER 3RD 2020 BY DAVE ORANCHAK, SAM BLAKE AND JARL VAN EYCKE, SO THIS EARLIER ARTICLE SHOULD BE VIEWED IN RESPECT TO RECENT DEVELOPMENTS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Zodiac mailed correspondence to the San Francisco Chronicle on April 20th 1970, in which he stated "I have killed ten people to date. It would have been a lot more except that my bus bomb was a dud.  I was swamped out by the rain we had a while back." Suisun City, Solano County, California can be seen via the link to border the city of Fairfield. But why is this relevant?

It has been suggested in previous articles that the Zodiac Killer may have resided near the payphone at Springs Road and Tuolumne Street, but we know that three letters were mailed from Fairfield to the San Francisco Chronicle on December 7th 1969 and in the middle of 1971 (possibly May) and to the San Francisco Examiner on December 16th 1969. These were genuine Zodiac letters, so there is a possibility that he may have been a resident of Suisun City or Fairfield for the duration of the 7th to 16th of December and mailed his letters from this location. Was he a resident of this area beyond December 16th 1969, or did he reside here permanently? The Bay Area murderer may have had two residences, a vacation home, lockup or a business in this region of Solano County. 
​
Just a matter of weeks after the final Fairfield letter, floods in Suisun City/Fairfield, "from Laurel Creek and Union Avenue Creek caused flooding in January 1970" resulting in the evacuation of many "residences and businesses" in the area. The Zodiac Killer then wrote to the San Francisco Chronicle in April, stating "that my bus bomb was a dud.  I was swamped out by the rain we had a while back." But was he telling the truth?  

# The population of Suisun City was only 2,917 in 1970.
# The population of Fairfield was 44,146 in 1970.

We know the Zodiac Killer mailed his first three letters simultaneously on July 31st 1969, but what inspired him to design a trinity of cryptograms that when combined formed an almost complete and uniform message. It is likely he split the cipher into three parts for maximum newspaper coverage, however, we know little of what inspired him to design the codes in the first place.

The 'Zodiac Killer' pseudonym may never have existed had it not been for the skepticism of Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz, who insisted the three-time-murderer send more details to prove he was the 'cipher killer'. It was reasoned that something Zodiac read in the Sunday August 3rd 1969 San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle inspired him to repackage himself from "the murderer" to "the Zodiac". So, what drove the killer of David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen and Darlene Ferrin to include a cryptogram alongside his deadly deeds and threats. The short answer is, nobody knows for sure - but we do know it took the Lake Herman Road double murderer just over seven months to finally begin his letter writing campaign. Was the killer always planning to kill again and write to the newspapers, or was it the extensive press coverage that inspired him to rise to the picture being painted of him?

It seemed Detective Sergeant Leslie Lunblad beat a lone furrow in the pursuit of the murderer, but he was ably assisted throughout by many agencies, including the Criminal Investigation Bureau in Sacramento, Vallejo Police Department, Napa and Sanoma County sheriff's departments and Sergeant Jack Richard Oller, an investigator in the Fairfield office of the sheriff's department.  Jack Oller moved to Oakland, California in 1929 and served in the U.S. Army as a combat engineer in Europe. In 1978, he retired from the Solano County Sheriff Department with the rank of lieutenant.

Along with the Zodiac murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969 and the November 21st 1969 San Jose letter and cryptogram, we effectively had the entire shopping list of threats tabled in the 'Fairfield' letter, mailed on December 16th 1969. His threat of 'this state is in trouble..I will go for the Goverment life' may be traced back to a Sunday Times-Herald article on March 30th 1969, in which these law enforcement agencies were pivotal in the search for the Lake Herman Road murderer, including Sergeant Jack Oller. The Zodiac Killer's threat on police in the 'Fairfield' letter centered around Fairfield, Sacramento and Oakland. The inspiration behind the July 31st 1969 letters and cryptogram is difficult to ascertain, but often with the Zodiac Killer throughout it was something he read that triggered a response, such as the 'Debut of Zodiac' and 'Bus Bomb' letters. The Sunday Times-Herald article on March 30th 1969 may or may not hold the answers, however, it was published four months prior to the July 31st trinity and did contain some noteworthy passages. Whether these were the trigger for the murderer to begin his letter writing campaign is pure speculation, but in the absence of alternatives it was worth considering. Here is the newspaper article in full:     

The youth, a scalor at Vallejo High, planned to make teaching his career. He was extremely active in Scouting, and was a member of the Interact Club at the high school. "Last summer, he discovered girls" Mrs Faraday reminisced "but he hadn't done much dating- for one thing he could use the car only when I didn't need it to go to work." She is employed in the passenger reservations department at Travis Air Force Base. She said that when he did take the car for a date "he was good about observing curfews" (12.30 on Friday nights). "So I didn't think a thing about it that night. I was asleep when the phone rang at 3 am".

Mrs Faraday conversed with total composure, although the wounds haven't healed and won't. The same was true of the Jensens. Nothing in his 21 years as an army officer had prepared Lt Col. Verne Jensen for the shock of his younger daughter's death, however. He retired in 1963, decided to remain in Vallejo and now is employed as supply officer for the General Services Administration in San Francisco. The Jensens, with their elder daughter, Melodie, live at 123 Ridgewood Ct. " I don't feel vindictive" he mused "but I am apprehensive. I feel some nut is on the loose".

His words could have been uttered by Mrs Faraday, who said her principal concern that the killer be found was not based on vengeance but on her fears there may be further victims. "And, he'll find it easier the next time". She said the other three Faraday children Debra, Robert and Steven "have handled the situation very well, I think. Presumably they have long and happy lives ahead of them, and they've got to live them".

The Jensens' lives remain clouded by the tragedy. "We'd like to have her back" Mrs Jensen said wistfully. "It took a lot to bring her this far". At Hogan High Betty was an excellent student, a junior, she was hopeful of winning an art scholarship and she worked extremely well in several forms, some of which were displayed as I talked to the family. All three shook their heads negatively when asked if they had any ideas to the perpetrator. "We know he's a nut, but what kind of nut" Mrs Jensen replied. She added she was dubious about anything worthwhile could be gained in once again turning the spotlight on the murder case. "But we'll do anything we can to help" she declared.

As for the investigation's progress, Lunblad said there has been considerably more than might be gleaned from news accounts of it. "If I talk to a suspect, I'll know positively whether he was there that night" he said cryptically. Beyond that, he would not comment. ​​

It is not difficult to cherry-pick certain phrases and words to fit ones agenda, however, we must consider that the murderer of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen likely read this article, and was buoyed by the description of his exploits as a "horrifying crime that may very well be the most celebrated murder mystery currently under investigation in California".

David Faraday's mother summed up her fears: "who said her principal concern was that the killer be found, not based on vengeance but on her fears there may be further victims. "And, he'll find it easier the next time". She wouldn't have to wait long for the killer to live up to her fears, promising he would "cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend".

Detective Sergeant Les Lunblad's support may too have not gone unrecognized, with his assistance from a "score of law enforcement agencies in the state," including Sergeant Jack Richard Oller and the Fairfield Office. If this newspaper article was the last major feature regarding the Lake Herman Road slayings, before the killer began his July 4th 1969 attack on Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin at Blue Rock Springs, then it is rather unusual that the ​Sunday Times-Herald article on March 30th 1969 would finish with the thoughts of Detective Sergeant Les Lunblad:in such a manner: "If I talk to a suspect, I'll know positively whether he was there that night" he said cryptically.

Four months later, the murderer stated "I will not give you my name because you will try to slow down or stop my collecting of slaves for my afterlife", and he too said it cryptically.    

Here we will take a further look at the two letters mailed from Fairfield to the San Francisco Chronicle on December 7th 1969 and the San Francisco Examiner on December 16th 1969. Many have dismissed these two communications as having been penned by the Zodiac Killer, but either way, they were almost certainly written by the same individual. The most important question to ask - is were these letters ever publicized in the newspapers during the December of 1969. They seemingly got no coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle or Examiner newspapers, but did they appear in any other publication? If not, then there can be little doubt these two Fairfield letters were mailed by the Zodiac Killer. 

The article on the left appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on December 28th 1969, regarding the letter mailed to attorney Melvin Belli on December 20th 1969. It states "The Zodiac Killer-unheard of in recent weeks-is back in operation and pleading for help before he takes his ninth and tenth victims".

The Melvin Belli letter was mailed only 13 days after the December 7th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle 'Fairfield' letter, so it appeared as though the Chronicle had dismissed the Fairfield letter, claiming they had not heard from the Zodiac "in recent weeks". They apparently never published the Fairfield letter (unless anybody knows otherwise), and the follow up letter on December 16th 1969, mailed to the San Francisco Examiner equally appeared to make little impact. Why were these communications apparently overlooked? 

Many Zodiac researchers and enthusiasts regard the two Fairfield letters to have been penned by a hoaxer - but if the letters were created by a hoaxer why did he do such a poor job as to negate the purpose of sending them. The Zodiac Killer created two organized and structured ciphers of 408 and 340 characters. Both were designed with care, using seventeen characters in each row, and a form of 'filler' on the 408 code to keep the cipher symmetrical. The December 7th 1969 Fairfield letter contained a 38 character code, much of which was 'stolen' from the 340 cipher and formed into scruffy disorganized rows. If the letter writer was attempting to disguise himself as Zodiac, then why didn't he simply create a few lines of symbols in an organized fashion like the 408 and 340 cipher. The fact he didn't do this could suggest that he wasn't trying to pass himself off as Zodiac - because he was Zodiac. The argument, is that the December 7th 1969 letter is a poor Zodiac imitation and therefore not the Zodiac. However, it isn't very difficult to copy any of the characters from the first two ciphers and create a new and realistic looking cipher that mimics its predecessors. This is not a difficult task - and neither is the handwriting. The following image (December 7th 1969 Fairfield letter and 38 character code) was inspired by a forum thread on Zodiac Killer Site.

The December 7th 1969 letter stated "I just need help. I will kill again so expect it any time now. The will be a cop. Then I will Turn myself in  OK". If this letter was by a hoaxer and not published in any newspapers, then how was the Zodiac Killer able to know its contents. The December 20th 1969 'Melvin Belli' letter was confirmed Zodiac correspondence, as it contained a piece of Paul Stine's blooded shirt. The Melvin Belli letter pleaded for assistance: "Dear Melvin. This is the Zodiac speaking. I wish you a happy Christmass. The one thing I ask of you is this, please help me. I cannot reach out for help because of this thing in me won't let me. I am finding it extreamly dificult to hold it in check I am afraid I will loose control again and take my nineth & posibly tenth victom. Please help me I am drownding. At the moment the children are safe from the bomb because it is so massive to dig in & the triger mech requires much work to get it adjusted just right. But if I hold back too long from no nine I will loose complet all controol of my self & set the bomb up. Please help me. I can not remain in control for much longer".

Can it be argued that the Fairfield letter stating "I just need help" and the Melvin Belli letter thrice urging "please help me" just 13 days later, was just simple coincidence, or is it more likely the Zodiac Killer had written the earlier Fairfield letter and was just continuing the theme. In addition, the second part of the December 7th Fairfield letter is threatening to kill a cop just like the communication following the Belli letter on April 20th 1970, in which Zodiac suggested "there is more glory in killing a cop than a cid because a cop can shoot back". Additionally. the Fairfield letter after stating he "needs help," intimates he "will kill again," as does the Melvin Belli letter when warning he "will lose control again".

Now let us approach this from a different angle and consider the possibility that the December 7th 1969 letter was featured in the Fairfield Daily Republic newspaper, or some other publication prior to the Zodiac Killer composing the Melvin Belli letter.
The Zodiac Killer certainly appeared to design his ciphers in a carefully structured way - so imagine - that when saw this poorly designed and crude 38 character code plagiarizing his 340 cipher in a newspaper, why on earth would he then validate the hoaxer by mimicking the December 7th 1969 letter by stating "please help me" in the Melvin Belli letter later that month. One would think he'd have wanted to disassociate himself from it. Whatever approach you pursue, tends to validate the December 7th 1969 letter mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, and by association, the December 16th 1969 letter mailed to the San Francisco Examiner, which was almost certainly penned by the same author. The latter Fairfield letter could also have links to the 'Halloween' card, with the code reading Death By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife. link    

Much has been made of the single postage on both the Fairfield envelopes, the writing paper used by the author and the crudeness of the two short codes. However, there could be a perfectly reasonable explanation for all these anomalies.

The Zodiac Killer thought he had sent proof of his connection to the first two crimes when he mailed the trinity of July 31st 1969 letters. Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz urged the author for more details to prove he was the killer, and the Zodiac duly obliged on August 4th 1969. The Zodiac then mailed a piece of taxicab driver Paul Stine's shirt in his next three consecutive and 'confirmed' communications. Firstly, in the October 13th letter, secondly, with the November 8/9 card and letter, and finally with the Melvin Belli letter.

All these communications were mailed from San Francisco, likely during his normal routine - but the December 7th & 16th letters were mailed from Fairfield. If he was away from his usual residence during this span of 10 days (possibly having broken up for Christmas) and was on holiday, or visiting family, or simply away from his home location on business, then it is conceivable that he had to improvise with writing paper and stamps. He most certainly would have stored the blooded shirt piece in a secure location (possibly at home), to which he likely had no access during the mailing of the two Fairfield letters. These letters have all the hallmarks of 'spur of the moment' communications while away from his home location. This may explain their deviation from what had come before or after. Nevertheless, it is crucial to find out if these two Fairfield letters were published by any newspapers prior to December 20th 1969. If they weren't published, then the two Fairfield letters are almost certainly penned by the Zodiac Killer. 

In 2013, Tahoe27 made an excellent discovery, almost certainly linking the Halloween card with a Tim Holt comic featuring the Wheel of Fortune or Rota Fortunae. The cover displayed the four methods of death used by the Zodiac Killer on his Halloween card configuration of Death By Gun, Death By Knife, Death By Fire and Death By Rope.

However, the discovery may be far greater than first considered, with the 1952 Tim Holt comic the source behind the design of the 340 cipher on November 8th 1969. The Halloween card was just the confirmation that the 340 was not a cipher at all, hence the crossed "sorry no cipher" addition on the inside of the envelope, linking the Paradice and Slaves configuration back to the November 8th 1969 offering. ​See 'Zodiac admitted 340 not a real cipher' [pt1].' The Zodiac Killer may have been pushing us in the right direction on October 27th 1970, but his attempt at revealing the workings of the 340 cipher may have begun as early as December 16th 1969 - when just 38 days after his 'so called' masterpiece, the Zodiac Killer was claiming a potential 38 more victims.

The December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter has been considered dubious Zodiac correspondence, however, it may have been Zodiac's first foray into revealing the mechanics of the 340 cipher, albeit using a rudimentary code as a tool. There are two key features of this correspondence which possibly links it to the Halloween card - and more importantly - to the Tim Holt comic. The second we will deal with later, but the first is the rather amateurish offering of a code consisting of only nine characters.

Clearly, the Zodiac must have known that offering just five different symbols in a code of nine is open to many different interpretations and therefore practically unsolvable. Therefore, one could suggest this wasn't his intention - he was simply teasing us with the mechanics of how the 340 cipher was designed by using a rudimentary diagram based on the Tim Holt comic - and something he would expand upon nearly a year later. One can see how he uses the four Zodiac crosshairs around the large crossed circle in the Fairfield letter codethereby implying a uniformity of message in these four quadrants, but aligns five symbols as an introduction to this design. This marries perfectly with Death By Gun, Death By Knife, Death By Fire and Death By Rope. Death is the introduction, followed by the methods of death around the large crossed circle. This is exactly what he offered us on October 27th 1970, when he placed the methods of death in the four quadrants of the bisecting Paradice and Slaves.  Here is a representation. 

The November 8th and 9th 1969 communications came as one package, and he certainly wasn't going to reveal the workings of the 340 cipher after just one day in the Bus Bomb letter, so the December 16th 1969 (or possibly December 7th 1969) Fairfield communication was effectively the Zodiac Killer's first communication after the 340 cipher. Can we again call it coincidence that, not only did the Fairfield offering give us a further code, but Death By Gun, Death By Knife, Death By Fire and Death By Rope would fall readily into its design, as would the Halloween card configuration of Paradice and Slaves so readily mirror the 340 cipher - possibly bringing these three communications in line with one another. The second interesting feature of the Fairfield letter is the wording the author uses: "This is the Zodiac speaking. I just want to tell you this state is in trouble. I will go for the Goverment life, so don't foreget me. I will kill more people than you cops can count, so look for more blood. You better print".    

The Halloween card has become synonymous with either a threat of a fourteenth victim or the claim of a fourteenth victim. However, the number four may hold more significance within its design. The eyes are obviously of great importance to the Zodiac Killer - after all, he added twelve to the card inner, along with 4-TEEN and the unusual symbol. He deliberately chose to separate fourteen, creating the number 4. He added four larger eyes outside of the tree, as well as placing four dots around the symbol. He also highlighted four eyes on the skeletons in red, on both the card outer and inner. 

The strange symbol (with the four dots) could be a joined Z, V and F - and being preceded by four eyes - could simply be interpreted as "look for Zodiac victim fourteen", or with respect to 4-TEEN, "look for number four-teen". Up to this point and beyond, none of Zodiac's confirmed or insinuated victims (Kathleen Johns, Cheri Jo Bates and Richard Radetich) lay undiscovered, so it is entirely possible that this card was referring to the disappearance of Donna Ann Lass 51 days earlier. The skeletons indicative of a body lain undiscovered for a measurable period of time. The coloring of the four skeleton eyes may be suggestive of blood or death - a formula used in the creation of the 13 Hole postcard on October 5th 1970, where the author added a pasted red crucifix to the card.

The Halloween card could be telling us to "look for Zodiac victim fourteen" or equally "look for blood," as did the Fairfield letter on December 16th 1969 when the author stated "I will kill more people than you cops can count, so look for more blood. You better print". This discovery by Tahoe27 on December 30th 2013 was certainly a great find, but it may just turn out to be the greatest find of them all. A discovery that may finally reveal the 340 offering to be masquerading as a fully fledged cipher, that has had us chasing our tails for nearly half a century. Albeit, undecipherable at the time, the answer was probably staring us in the face just 38 days after the November 8th 1969 communication - in a letter many thought was penned by a hoaxer.

ZODIAC ADMITTED 340 NOT A REAL CIPHER [PT1]
ZODIAC ADMITTED 340 NOT A REAL CIPHER [PT2]

Courtesy of Zodiac Killer Site forum. These envelopes have been cleaned up using editing tools. 

On the left is the Fairfield letter, mailed on December 16th 1969. Nine days prior to this communication another Fairfield letter was received, dated December 7th 1969 (see below). These two communications were mailed by the same author, not only based on the handwriting and tone of each correspondence, but because neither were published in the newspapers, thereby denying the possibility of a copycat. Many have questioned these two letters as being genuine Zodiac material, however, there is every reason to consider them as being true Zodiac correspondence based on several factors.

Without knowledge of these 'dubious' letters existence or having seen them in any newspapers, it would be uncanny how the Zodiac Killer would continue the theme of these two letters into the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969, the My Name Is letter on April 20th 1970 and the Button letter mailed on June 26th 1970. In other words, three of his next four communications. Here is the theme running consecutively through these communications, starting with the December 7th 1969 letter:
 
"I just need help. I will kill again so expect it any time now. The will be a cop. Then I will turn myself in OK. I will kill in SF 3 times (including cops). The one thing I ask of you is this, please help me. Please help me I cannot remain in control for much longer. But there is more glory in killing a cop than a cid because a cop can shoot back. I shot a man sitting in a parked car with a .38".

It is clear from the December 7th and 16th communications, the author is threatening 'government life'- most likely the police. In the December 7th 1969 communication the author has supplied a code containing 38 characters, followed by the December 16th 1969 letter threatening another 38 kills including cops, and curiously in his June 26th 1970 Button letter, the claim of shooting "a man with a .38". Most likely coincidence, but you never know. Here is a forum thread on Zodiac Killer Site with some of the same salient observations, particularly by AK Wilks. The December 7th 1969, 38 character Fairfield letter (below) has been cleaned up and darkened to make the letter more readable. 
"I just need help. I will kill again so expect it any time now. The will be a cop. Then I will Turn myself in  OK".

Was this code a crude attempt at pushing us in the right direction regarding his infamous 340 character cipher mailed just one month earlier. The obvious similarities are there, particularly the first four characters of this code mimicking the opening four characters of the 340 cipher, and the last five characters of each code in both instances. It certainly isn't difficult to spot an inference to 'Zodiac' once again, possibly indicating its importance within the 340 cipher. 

A hoaxer could easily have copied elements of the 340 cipher and incorporated them into what many believe is a poor imitation of a Zodiac correspondence. But if the Zodiac Killer hadn't seen either of the two Fairfield letters, do we attribute the continuing theme through three of the next four genuine Zodiac correspondences as just sheer luck, referring to "needing help" and his suggestion of "killing a cop".  Additionally, from the 'double event' November 8th/9th 1969 contact, we have effectively been given four ciphers or codes (whether crude or not) in five correspondences. These observations may lend more credence to the Fairfield communications and their rightful place as having been penned by the hand of the Zodiac Killer. 
​THE MESSAGE WITHIN THE FAIRFIELD LETTER

'Rubislaw,' a regular contributor to this site, inspired me to take another look at the Fairfield letter, mailed on December 16th 1969. ​The correspondence stated "This is the Zodiac speaking. I just want to tell you this state is in trouble..I will go for the Goverment life, so don't foreget me. I will kill more people than you cops can count, so look for more blood. You better print". The author then added the trademark crosshairs with a small code. The crosshairs had the same symbol in each of the four quadrants, with five symbols to its left. Decoding such a small sample could never be authenticated, however, an attempt will be made later in this article. 

The author attached a drawing of blood dripping from a knife, entitled "The Bleeding Knife of Zodiac".  Zodiac had previously claimed seven victims in the Bus Bomb letter mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on November 9th 1969, so it wasn't surprising to see this knife drawing had 7 drops of blood falling from the blade. See here. It is extremely difficult to pinpoint the inspiration for this letter, but here are a few notable events in December 1969.

The first being the murder of Meredith Hunter at the Altamont Free Concert on December 6th 1969 at the hands of Hells Angel Alan Passaro, who fatally stabbed and beat the 18-year-old to death after he produced a revolver. This is not insinuating Alan Passaro was the Zodiac Killer, but bearing in mind the Hells Angels connection on Warren Avenue, Vallejo, and the drugs bust at The Cottage on Lake Herman Road in the run-up to the murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, it was worth mentioning. Alan Passaro was later cleared of the murder having deemed to have acted in self defense.
​ 
On the political front, bearing in mind the author was threatening to go for 'government life,' was the author referencing the troubles of the day. On December 1st 1969 the Selective Service System of the United States conducted two lotteries to determine the order of call to military service in the Vietnam War for men born from 1944 to 1950. These lotteries occurred during a period of conscription from just before World War II to 1973. It was the first time a lottery system had been used to select men for military service since 1942. The lottery numbers assigned in December 1969 were used during calendar year 1970 both to call for induction and to call for physical examination, a preliminary call covering more men. Taken from Wikipedia. For those believing in a Vietnam or military connection to Zodiac, was he responding with outrage to this lottery based conscription- threatening to attack 'government life'.
 
On December 12th 1969, the Desert Sun ran an article about 'Two Attorneys Jailed in Tate Murder Case.'
District Judge David Brown today sentenced two Los Angeles lawyers to 72 hours in jail and fined them $lOO each for trying to make a “press spectacular” out of the case of Charles D. Watson, charged in the Sharon Tate murders. "I am fining you $lOO and jailing you for 72 hours but I will suspend this provided you take the next plane back to California and shut your mouths,” Brown told the attorneys, Perry Walshin and David DeLoach. “I admonish you for making a circus out of my courtroom,” said the judge. Watson, dressed in green work clothes, made his first public appearance since he gave himself up Nov. 30 in I answer to a California murder I warrant. He since has been indicted on seven counts of murder and one count of conspiracy. Susan Denise Atkins, another, of a hippie band charged in the California murders, told a grand jury Watson was the one who killed Miss Tate with a knife. “Do you want to talk to these men or be represented by them" Judge Brown asked Watson today about the two California lawyers. “No, sir, I do not,” Watson said. “Do you want to see them” Brown asked. “No, I do not,” Watson replied. At least 30 Texas highway 1 patrolmen guarded Watson. At least 20 patrolmen and sheriffs deputies were in the courtroom. Watson, who grew up at nearby Copeville, Tex., was moved into the courtroom before 6:30 a. m. and no reporters or photographers were allowed near him. Leaving the courtroom, officers threw a coat over Watson’s head and hustled him past photographers. Walshin and DeLoach came to Texas last week. Walshin said he had represented Watson on the coast and that Watson’s mother wanted him in the case. link.

This article was published four days before the Fairfield letter and eight days before Zodiac's letter to attorney Melvin Belli.
Was the Fairfield letter actually written by somebody connected with the Manson Family, or an avid follower of the unfolding events? Tex Watson would ultimately be convicted of the seven counts of first degree murder he was charged with. These are three unlikely examples of a possible inspiration for the Fairfield letter. Please post any further ideas in comments.

The final observation is regarding the code. The Zodiac Killer mailed the 'Halloween' card on October 27th 1970. Was the Fairfield letter (if a Zodiac correspondence) the precursor to this card in rudimentary form. The Fairfield letter had four identical symbols in the four quadrants of the crosshairs. The 'Halloween' card contained four methods of death in the four quadrants, bisected by Paradice and Slaves - not dissimilar to the Fairfield letter. Tahoe27 discovered a connection between a Tim Holt comic and the 'Halloween' card regarding the wording  By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife. Is it possible the Fairfield letter symbols around the crosshairs represented these four methods of death? But what of the five symbols to the left. Take a look at the Tim Holt picture above.