In a previous article we explored the concept of geographic profiling with respect to the Zodiac Killer, using search cost percentages to highlight the possible home location of the Bay Area murderer. Therefore, I thought it appropriate to look at the geographic profiling prediction applied to an already convicted serial killer, that of Dennis Rader (BTK). Some people have actually touted Dennis Rader as the infamous Zodiac Killer because of their propensity for writing poems, making phone calls and mailing letters to the newspapers and radio stations. So this geographic profile is more pertinent to the advocates of Dennis Rader as the cryptic killer.

Dennis Rader was responsible for 10 murders and 7 attacks from 1974 to 1991, that included in chronological order the Otero family, Kathryn Bright, Shirley Vian, Nancy Fox, Marine Hedge, Vicki Wegerle and Dolores E. Davis. He was eventually arrested near his home in Park City, Wichita on February 25th 2005. Below I have placed his murders on a map of Wichita and highlighted his home residence and the Christ Lutheran Church where he was president of the church council. The distances on the map show that he never ventured more than 9 miles from his home residence, and for the most part (except for two of his last three murders) gave himself a buffer zone of at least 6.27 miles for five of his attacks. The murders of Marine Hedge and Dolores E. Davis much closer to his home residence. The hot zone, represented by a search cost of 0% is shown by the large red dot on the map. This hot zone, predicted as where Dennis Rader most likely lived, was in the College Hill District of Wichita, exactly 7.50 miles from his home residence at 6220 Independence Street, Park City (subsequently bulldozed). His residence had a search cost of about 15% on a scale of 0 to 100%. So this would be described as a fairly warm zone.

Suspects are ranked based on their search cost—the percentage of the map searched before reaching the suspect’s anchor point. The search is conducted from the highest point of probability to the lowest; therefore, the lower the search cost, the more viable the suspect. If the geographic profile is accurate, the offender will have a low search cost. In the case of search cost, “map” refers to only the portion of the profile containing the crime scenes. As a result, suspects can have a search cost greater than 100%, which means a space larger than the area containing the crime scenes would have to be searched before reaching their anchor point. link. Here is a link to the Dennis Rader geoprofile using the Kim Rossmo model. geographicprofile.com. 

It has been stated that a serial killer will often commit his first murders in his comfort zone, implementing a buffer zone between the sites of his attacks and his home residence. In the case of Dennis Rader, his first two attacks were that of the Otero family and Kathryn Bright, 7.43 miles and 6.27 miles from his home residence. All but two of Dennis Rader's murders were perpetrated on a weekday. The Otero family were murdered on a Tuesday and Kathryn Bright was murdered on a Thursday - which is extremely relevant to the Zodiac Killer's first two attacks at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs Park, both perpetrated on a Friday. If Dennis Rader and the Zodiac Killer had worked that day, you have to consider the time constraints and expect the murders to be closer to their residence compared to a weekend, when they have greater freedom to travel.

So, if the Zodiac lived in one of the hot zones just east of American Canyon, let us compare the distances Zodiac would have traveled to his first two attack sites. As the crow flies, Lake Herman Road is 8.00 miles from American Canyon, wheres Blue Rock Springs Park is 4.77 miles. Compare this to the 7.43 miles and 6.27 miles traveled by Dennis Rader for his first two attacks. In total (both attacks) Dennis Rader traveled 13.70 miles. If the Zodiac Killer lived in American Canyon, he would have traveled a total of 12.77 miles (a difference of just 0.93 miles). The Zodiac Killer and Dennis Rader both sought the attention of the newspapers and media, but can both be compared using the Rigel software system of geographic profiling?       

The Bay Area murderer mailed three communications in total to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969, demanding that his ciphers be printed on the front page of the respective newspapers by Friday afternoon (August 1st). This is what he wrote to each newspaper after stating several facts about his crimes.

Vallejo Times-Herald - Here is a cyipher or that is part of one. the other 2 parts have been mailed to the S.F. Examiner + the S.F. Chronicle 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. I will cruse around and pick of all stray people or coupples that are alone then move on to kill some more untill I have killed over a dozen people.

San Francisco Examiner - Here is a cipher or that is part of one. The other 2 parts are being mailed to the Vallejo Times + S.F. Chronicle 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. This will last the whole weekend, I will cruse around killing people who are alone at night untill Sun Night or un till I kill a dozen people.

San Francisco Chronicle - Here is part of a cipher the other 2 parts of this cipher are being mailed to the editors of the Vallejo Times and SF Examiner. I want you to print this cipher on the frunt page of your paper. In this cipher is my idenity. If you do not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry.1st of Aug 69, I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night. I will cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend. 

In a previous article we examined the present and past tense usage in the three letters, along with the stamps applied to the envelope, to make the case for the Zodiac Killer being a Vallejo resident. The following will be nothing groundbreaking, but examines the phrases and grammar used by the author to paint a picture of the subject when considering his identity. The Zodiac Killer threatened chaos over the weekend if his codes were not published on the front page of the papers. Unfortunately for him, the main two publications refused to bow to his threats. On August 2nd 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle under the title Coded Clue in Murders placed one-third of his cipher on page 4, while the San Francisco Examiner under the banner Vallejo Mass Murder Threat Fails (despite publishing the entire cipher) relegated it to page 9 on August 3rd 1969. This lowly showing in the San Francisco Examiner clearly upset the Zodiac Killer the most, when he hurriedly delivered by hand the August 4th 1969 'Debut of Zodiac' letter to the Examiner, stating "I was not happy to see that I did not get front page coverage". Putting aside the December 16th 1969 'Fairfield' letter (which many dispute), he never wrote to the San Francisco Examiner again.  

In a recent article we discussed the topic of geographic profiling to narrow the search field for an offender's home residence. Equally, the wording used by the Zodiac Killer in his communications may also help pinpoint a location, or at the very least give us an insight into his comfort zone or movements. Target or Victim Backcloth is the model by which a murderer may select his victims. The Zodiac Killer (wherever he lived) would have selected his victims dependent upon availability and location, along with the constraints of time and the day of the week. For a serial killer committing his crimes in Vallejo, his knowledge of the Target Backcloth may govern the types of individual he chooses. This seemed evident in his choice of couples parked up in lonely areas on December 20th and July 4th.

His communications to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald exemplified this knowledge of a Target Backcloth perfectly, when he only threatened to kill couples in his address to the Vallejo Times-Herald (or stray people). He knew exactly where to find them, despite the fact it was highly unlikely he would continue to kill in the same area again. The Zodiac Killer never used the word couples in his address to the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, suggesting that his knowledge of the Target Backcloth was less comprehensive and more uncertain in this city- and why at San Francisco he would target a lone taxicab driver rather than target the location, as he did at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs. As Kim Rossmo stated  "The San Francisco murder differs significantly from the Zodiac's other crimes. Up to this point he was hunting in locations that had a good probability of containing his desired victims. Target selection was a function of area, not of an individual. However, it is unlikely the Zodiac was successful in all his searches; serial killers typically engage in extensive hunting activities, and for every attack there are many unsuccessful search attempts. In San Francisco, however, the Zodiac controlled the situation through his selection of victim type. The need for such control could be indicative of the distance the Zodiac had to travel to the crime site. Criminals who travel longer distances to offend are less likely to use uncertain target selection techniques".  

The Zodiac Killer wrote of ​"killing lone people in the night" or "killing people who are alone at night" to the Chronicle and Examiner, which is exactly what he did just over two months later on October 11th 1969, when Paul Stine was brutally gunned down inside his taxicab at Presidio Heights. The target selection began with the individual not the location. He then directed Paul Stine to an area to facilitate his best chance of escape. A Target Backcloth requires knowledge of an area and will govern to some extent the victims chosen, as displayed by some serial killers who target sex workers.   

It was considered that if the Zodiac Killer lived in Vallejo, he likely had a 9-5, Monday to Friday profession, based upon the fact, that when constrained by time he murdered close to home on a Friday, but unconstrained (on his day off), he was able to venture further afield to San Francisco and Lake Berryessa. He admitted as much in all the July 31st 1969 communications.

"I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night. I will cruse around all weekend" and "I will cruse around killing people who are alone at night untill Sun Night". The Zodiac Killer may potentially be limited in searching for courting couples on weekdays, but certainly not for lone victims in San Francisco, Vallejo or elsewhere Yet he has specifically tied himself to murder within the parameters of Friday night to Sunday night in these letters, and therefore highly suggestive he is employed on a weekday basis. 

The Brentingham model of geographic profiling details an activity space where an individual lives, works and plays. The Zodiac Killer targeted the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald in his first communications to the newspapers, indicating that Vallejo and San Francisco were his primary sites of travel. He most likely lived and worked in both. The newspapers he chose and the location he lived, part of his mental map, exhibited to its fullest extent when he subconsciously used the present and past tense in his three July 31st 1969 letters 

The Zodiac Killer - A Vallejo Resident [Part 2]​   

With the search for the infamous Zodiac Killer through DNA looking ever more threadbare, one very much overlooked tool in locating our offender is the 'science' of geographic profiling pioneered by Canadian criminologist Kim Rossmo, who utilizes the software geo-profiling tool Rigel to analyze the likely home residence of the Zodiac Killer. Rigel uses an algorithm called criminal geographic targeting (CGT) to identify hot and cold zones on a map and give the areas that our killer may (or may not) likely reside. In the case of the Zodiac Killer, it would take into account such things as the murder sites, phone calls, commuter routes, and geographic profiling models such as buffer zone, comfort zone, least effort principle, mental map, target backcloth and distance decay function. As Kim Rossmo points out, this is an accompaniment to law enforcement to narrow the pool of suspects, but takes a back seat to powerful forensic evidence. However, with limited forensic evidence available from the Zodiac crimes, this appears our best bet to narrow down the home location of our killer before venturing outwards. Searching for suspects the length and breadth of California is a thankless task, with many researchers identifying a potential suspect and ultimately layering weak circumstantial evidence upon weak circumstantial evidence, until they become convinced the totality of the evidence should now be reclassified as powerful and irrefutable proof of their suspect's guilt. There is a tendency to fit the suspect around the evidence, rather than let the evidence be the driver. 

Kim Rossmo stated: ​​"The San Francisco murder differs significantly from the Zodiac's other crimes. Up to this point he was hunting in locations that had a good probability of containing his desired victims. Target selection was a function of area, not of an individual. However, it is unlikely the Zodiac was successful in all his searches; serial killers typically engage in extensive hunting activities, and for every attack there are many unsuccessful search attempts. In San Francisco, however, the Zodiac controlled the situation through his selection of victim type. The need for such control could be indicative of the distance the Zodiac had to travel to the crime site. Criminals who travel longer distances to offend are less likely to use uncertain target selection techniques. In respect to the killer's home residence, he continued "There's a number of possibilities. But remember, Rancho Vallejo was possibly 26,000 people at that time, of which only 13,000 will be male, and only a certain proportion of those are of the correct age, and a certain portion of those are only going to be white. Then we start looking at the neighborhoods involved, we have a pretty small subset. Then we start combining that with some of the personal and behavioral descriptors, and then we work in the vehicle information. If this case was active today, it would not be too difficult to find this person." 

There is an excellent interactive online tool that has generated geo-profiling heat maps for killers such as Jack the Ripper, Dennis Rader (BTK), Atlanta Child Murders, Golden State Killer, Night Stalker, Yorkshire Ripper, Long Island Serial Killer and more. It can be found here at geographicprofiler.com. The Kim Rossmo heat map for the Zodiac Killer is located here. 
You can toggle the geoprofile using the sidebar to remove the heat map and identify the locations underneath the color. The red color is the most likely residence of the Zodiac Killer, with a graded scale to the least likely areas of purple and beyond. This is classified as a percentage search cost (link) - Suspects are ranked based on their search cost—the percentage of the map searched before reaching the suspect’s anchor point. The search is conducted from the highest point of probability to the lowest; therefore, the lower the search cost, the more viable the suspect. If the geographic profile is accurate, the offender will have a low search cost. In the case of search cost, “map” refers to only the portion of the profile containing the crime scenes. As a result, suspects can have a search cost greater than 100%, which means a space larger than the area containing the crime scenes would have to be searched before reaching their anchor point.

One can see that the search cost is lowest for the area just east of the Napa Junction, the area of Ridgeview Park, Mare Island Naval Shipyard and across the Carquinez Strait Bridge to the area of Crockett Hills (just east of Rodeo). The area I favor, around the Springs and Tuolumne payphone, is afforded a 4% search cost. Despite the majority of the Zodiac mailings originating from San Francisco, this area features low on the geo-profiling heat map, and backed up by the statements of Kim Rossmo above. He states that "geographic profiling can't solve a crime; there are only three ways to do that - eyewitness, confession or physical evidence - the role of geographical profiling is to allow a detective to get to that stage, where he or she can apply one of those techniques sooner, faster, more effectively and more efficiently". 

This means we target the red hot zones first, before extending outwards to orange, yellow, green, blue etc.The hot zones will inevitably sometimes fall over an unpopulated area, so the areas around them become the focus of our search. The technique of geographic profiling is a supportive tool to narrow the suspect pool and search parameters, especially in a case over 50 years old with limited physical evidence - narrowing the search field in order to prioritize our efforts. The possible candidates for the Zodiac Killer can be massively whittled down, as shown in the case of Rancho Vallejo, highlighted by Kim Rossmo above. After all, he did state "If this case was active today, it would not be too difficult to find this person."

The Symbionese Liberation Army enjoyed thumbing their nose at the FBI, law enforcement, Hearst Corporation and newspapers, in a general attack on the capitalist society they believed harmed the everyday lives of the American people. Their propensity for imitating Zodiac communications, I believe, just another avenue to obfuscate the investigation into the Zodiac murders and surreptitiously irritate any law enforcement agency. I have argued they were the agents in the design of at least three (if not all) of the 1974 communications widely attributed to Zodiac. Evidence in the form of documented Symbionese Liberation Army correspondence was used to discredit the February 3rd 1974 S.L.A letter, mailed to the Hearst family through the Burlingame, California, U.S. Postal Annex on February 10th 1974. For a full list of Symbionese Liberation Army articles visit here. It has been argued they were responsible for the Exorcist letter, S.L.A letter, Badlands card, Red Phantom letter, Albany letter and Channel Nine letter. In fact, none of the 1974 letters made any reference to the Zodiac Killer whatsoever and never utilized the infamous crossed-circle symbol.

On December 27th 1974, a Christmas card was mailed to Mary Pilker, Donna Lass' sister, portraying trees covered in snow. Once opened it revealed a message that was part of the card itself- 'Holiday Greetings and Best Wishes for a Happy New Year', followed by the handwriting "Best Wishes, St Donna & Guardian of the Pines". The envelope was addressed to Mrs Mary Pilker, 1609 South Grange, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It was postmarked 940, either from San Mateo or Santa Clara County.

If my contention is correct, and the four purported Zodiac communications from 1974 were actually mailed by the Symbionese Liberation Army, then there is a reasonable argument to be made, that this is the fifth - and may explain the four year delay between the disappearance of Donna Lass from the Sahara Tahoe Casino and the mailing of this cryptic communication. The height of Symbionese Liberation Army activity was in 1974. 

We also have to question why this card was mailed from San Mateo or Santa Clara County to South Dakota rather than the Chronicle newspaper. It could be perceived as a sick ploy to upset the family of Donna Lass - although this could have just as easily been achieved by directing the correspondence through a newspaper outlet with greater publicity. After four years since the disappearance, one can't help thinking that the area the card was mailed to, had some significance regarding the Symbionese Liberation Army. The Symbionese Liberation Army targeted individuals in their communications, something the Zodiac Killer never did through his four confirmed canonical attacks. So let us take a look at three of the four alleged 1974 Zodiac correspondence to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Prior to the March 13th 1971 Los Angeles letter, every Zodiac communication was mailed from San Francisco. The January 29th 1974 Exorcist letter was postmarked 940 from either San Mateo County or Santa Clara County. The December 27th 1974 Mary Pilker Christmas card was postmarked 940 from either San Mateo County or Santa Clara County. William Peter Blatty, allegedly retired to a remote and rented chalet in woodland off Lake Tahoe, and wrote The Exorcist, a story about a twelve-year-old girl being possessed by a powerful demon. 

One possible author of the S.L.A letter (and possibly the Exorcist letter) was Sara Jane Olson (born Kathleen Ann Soliah on January 16, 1947). She was a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army in the 1970s. She grew up in Palmdale, California, the daughter of Norwegian-American parents, Elsie Soliah (née Engstrom) and Palmdale High School English teacher and coach Martin Soliah. Engström, Engstrøm and Engstrom are surnames of Swedish and Norwegian origin. Was she responsible for authoring the S.L.A letter on February 3rd 1974, one or two days before the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst? To examine this possibility we have to examine her background. The S.L.A letter was postmarked "U.S. Postal Service, CA 913 PM 3 FEB 1974". Kathleen Ann Soliah was brought up in Palmdale, Los Angeles County, California, often frequenting the nearby census-designated area of Agua Dulce. In fact, Agua Dulce was the commuter route from Palmdale to 1466 East 54th Street, Los Angeles -  the site of the deadly shootout between Symbionese Liberation Army members and law enforcement on May 17th 1974, resulting in the deaths of six urban militants. The Symbionese Liberation Army had its main headquarters in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Agua Dulce had a postal zip code of 91390, tying in nicely with the postmark on the February 3rd 1974 S.L.A letter. It is less than five miles from Palmdale. Kathleen Ann Soliah was brought up in Palmdale, California but was born in Fargo, North Dakota. This obviously borders the state of South Dakota (the address on the Christmas card), possibly giving us three links to Soliah through three 1974 communications. But this isn't the only link to South Dakota regarding the Symbionese Liberation Army. Something began in South Dakota in 1973 and continued through the mailing of the Mary Pilker Christmas card.  

Let us move on to the Badlands card, I have argued, was written by the Symbionese Liberation Army as an attack on the capitalist agenda and yellow journalism of the Hearst Corporation - and why Patricia Campbell Hearst was kidnapped in the first place. Here is the introduction of a two-part article outlining this concept. 

The Badlands card was postmarked Alameda County and mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on May 8th 1974. It stated "Sirs -- I would like to expression myconsternt (crossed out) consternation concerning your poor taste + lack of sympathy for the public, as evidenced by your running of the ads for the movie "Badlands", featuring the blurb: "In 1959 most people were killing time. Kit + Holly were killing people." In light of recent events, this kind of murder-glorification can only be deplorable at best (not that glorification of violence was ever justifiable) why don't you show some concern for public sensibilities + cut the ad?  A citizen".

But why would the Symbionese Liberation Army choose this particular movie to highlight their consternation at the running of advertisements? Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia detailing the plot of the Badlands movie:

South Dakota; 1959. 15-year-old Holly Sargis is a teenage girl living in a dead-end town called Fort Dupree. She lives with her sign painter father, although their relationship has been strained since her mother died of pneumonia some years earlier. One day Holly meets a 25-year-old garbage collector named Kit Carruthers. Kit is a young, troubled greaser and Korean War veteran, who resembles James Dean, an actor Holly admires. Kit charms Holly, and she slowly falls in love with him. As Holly falls deeper in love for Kit, his violent and anti-social tendencies start to slowly reveal themselves. Holly's father disapproves of Holly and Kit's relationship, and shoots her dog as a punishment for spending time with him. Kit then comes to Holly's house and shoots her father dead. The couple fakes suicide by burning down the house and go on the run together, making their way towards the badlands of Montana.

The movie was based upon the real life events of Charles Raymond Starkweather (20) and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate (14). They were a pair of spree killers who embarked on a two month rampage, killing 10 people in total, including her entire family in the area of Nebraska and Wyoming back in 1958, before they were finally captured. ​Charles Raymond Starkweather was sentenced to death and executed in the electric chair at Nebraska State Penitentiary on June 25th 1959, while Caril Ann Fugate received a life sentence but was ultimately paroled after seventeen years,.in the June of 1976. Caril Ann Fugate lived in Lincoln, Nebraska, with her mother and stepfather. In 1956, at age 13, she formed a relationship with Charles Starkweather, a high school dropout five years her senior. However, the film was mentioned in the purported "Zodiac" card (not the real events), which featured an impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town and her older greaser boyfriend, who embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota badlands. IMDB.

So, were the Symbionese Liberation Army responsible for the Mary Pilker Christmas card in the December of 1974, hinting at the Donna Lass disappearance through their connections to this area of Dakota? So far, there is only a weak connection through Kathleen Ann Soliah (possibly being the 1974 S.L.A author) and the South Dakota Badlands card. The Mary Pilker Christmas card used the almost spiritual or symbolic phrase of "Guardian of the Pines", as though somebody was protecting a region of Pine trees. So that is exactly what we will look for in the area of South Dakota, spanning the time period in question. But crucially, we must find a link to a Symbionese Liberation Army member who was effectively a "guardian of the Pines".

On November 6, 1973, in Oakland, California, two members of the SLA killed school superintendent Marcus Foster and badly wounded his deputy, Robert Blackburn, as the two men left an Oakland school board meeting. The hollow-point bullets used to kill Foster had been packed with cyanide. The SLA had condemned Foster for his plan to introduce identification cards into Oakland schools, calling him "fascist". In fact, Foster had opposed the use of identification cards in his schools, and his plan was a watered-down version of other similar proposals. On January 10, 1974, Joseph Remiro and Russell Little were arrested and charged with Foster's murder, and initially both men were convicted of murder. Both men received sentences of life imprisonment. Seven years later, on June 5, 1981, Little's conviction was overturned by the California Court of Appeal, and he was later acquitted in a retrial in Monterey County. Remiro remains incarcerated in San Quentin State Prison serving his life sentence. Wikipedia. Joseph Remiro's commitment to fighting the United States government led him to the Wounded Knee, South Dakota battleground on the Sioux reservation in April 1973. While there he assisted by running ammunition from bunker to bunker during firefights. He also became a member of Venceremos, a Maoist action oriented Bay Area organization which had a tremendous influence upon the future SLA. link.

We can now link a Symbionese Liberation Army member to South Dakota from April 1973 with a link to the word Sioux (both present on the Mary Pilker envelope). This however, is not enough on its own.  

The image on the right is seven-headed SLA hydra-like cobra symbol based on the seven principles of Kwanzaa, each head representing a principle. The Swahili words for these seven principles are: Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity) and Imani (faith). The appearance of the symbol of the seven-headed cobra on SLA publications indicates that it was copied from the ancient Sri Lankan and Indian seven-headed nāga; carved stones depicting a seven-headed cobra are commonly found near the sluices of the ancient irrigation tanks in Sri Lanka and are believed to have been placed there as guardians of the water. The particular graphic of the seven-headed cobra used by the SLA may have been copied from an illustration in The Lost Continent of Mu by James Churchward. Wikipedia. Had the Symbionese Liberation Army shifted guardians of the water to guardian of the Pines?

Wounded Knee Creek is a tribunal of the White River, approximately 100 miles (160 km) long, in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota in the United States. Its Lakota name is Čhaŋkpé Ópi Wakpála..The creek's name recalls an incident when an American sustained an injury to his knee during a fight. The creek rises in the southwestern corner of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, along the state line with Nebraska, and flows northwest. It borders the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, in which the 7th US Cavalry under Colonel James W. Forsyth massacred approximately 300 Sioux, mostly women and children, many unarmed. Towns in this region include Wounded Knee and Manderson. The Wounded Knee Creek flows NNW across the reservation and joins the White south of Badlands National Park. But as already stated, the Wounded Knee incident began on February 27, 1973, when approximately 200 Oglala Lakota and followers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The protest followed the failure of an effort of the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO) to impeach tribal president Richard Wilson, whom they accused of corruption and abuse of opponents. Additionally, protesters criticized the United States government's failure to fulfill treaties with Native American people and demanded the reopening of treaty negotiations. Oglala and AIM activists controlled the town for 71 days while the United States Marshals Service, FBI agents, and other law enforcement agencies cordoned off the area. The activists chose the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre for its symbolic value. Wilson stayed in office and in 1974 was re-elected amid charges of intimidation, voter fraud, and other abuses. The rate of violence climbed on the reservation as conflict opened between political factions in the following three years; residents accused Wilson's private militia, Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs), of much of it. More than 60 opponents of the tribal government died violently during those years, including Pedro Bissonette, director of the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO). Wikipedia.

Leonard Peltier (born September 12, 1944) is a Native American activist and an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa, who is also of Lakota and Dakota descent. He is a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM). In 1977, he was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for first-degree murder in the shooting of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents during a 1975 conflict on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. In the early 1970s, he learned about the factional tensions at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota between supporters of Richard Wilson, elected tribal chairman in 1972, and traditionalist members of the tribe. Consequently, Peltier became an official member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1972. Wilson had created a private militia, known as the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOON), whose members were reputed to have attacked political opponents. Protests over a failed impeachment hearing of Wilson contributed to the AIM and Lakota armed takeover of Wounded Knee in February 1973, which resulted in a 71-day siege by federal forces, known as the Wounded Knee incident. In 1975, Peltier traveled to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation as a member of AIM to try to help reduce the continuing violence among political opponents. Wikipedia.

The links are there to South Dakota, Sioux, Pines, guardians, Joseph Remiro and the Symbionese Liberation Army, but where is the connection to Donna Lass? We already have St. Donna, however, we don't have the surname Lass. Leonard Peltier is known in his native country of Great Turtle Island as Gwarth-ee-lass - "He Leads the People." Also known among his Sioux brethren as Tate Wikuwa - "Wind Chases the Sun." Also known as U.S. Prisoner #89637-132. Worldcat.org.  

Through the actions of Joseph Remiro, the author of the Mary Pilker Christmas card may have been alluding to the defense of Wounded Knee by a Symbionese Liberation Army member, from the "guardian of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation" to the "guardian of the Pines" - and concealing lass within its obscure meaning. However, the connections made in this article are an example of the lengths we can go to in the Zodiac community to forge a link that in all likelihood doesn't exist.

It is a perfectly reasonable assumption that the biggest clue to the identity or inner mind of the Zodiac Killer should reside within the many communications he mailed over several years - the window to his soul if you like. He began his contact with the newspapers using three encoded messages on July 31st 1969, in part stating "when I die I will be reborn in paradise and all the (people) I have killed will become my slaves". The November 9th 1969 'Bus Bomb' letter continued this theme, promising to "change the way the collecting of slaves". The emphasis on paradice and slaves would continue through the July 26th 1970 'Little List' letter, the October 27th 1970 'Halloween' card and the March 13th 1971 'Los Angeles' letter. One could make the argument that this was designed to throw investigators off the scent, but one could equally make the case that the Zodiac Killer picked up the concept of victims becoming his slaves in the afterlife through personal experiences in his everyday life. The language we use and the words we speak are a product of the environment we live in. The 1960s and 1970s were a turbulent time in respect to race relations, with San Francisco no exception - and the Zodiac Killer having mailed the overwhelming majority of his communications from this location was not impervious to the society he operated in. As still exists in American society, the enmity between police and the black community has a long and well documented history.

Taking the Zodiac Killer as a product of his society, in tandem with the volatile racial tensions that permeated 1960s San Francisco and beyond, we will explore the "slaves in the afterlife" reference in the Zodiac communications from the angle of a racist connotation. Zodiac researcher Randall Scott Clemons, author of the website 'Zodiac Killer Enigma, Cracking the Zodiac Killer Code', contacted me regarding this topic - and the information he provided is the inspiration behind this article.

Entitled Spiritualism, Summerland, Slavery in the Afterlife by Emily Sosolik, this informative piece of writing showed the undeniable connection between religiosity and racism as a never ending bond of subservience. Here is a small extract: 
"No topic illustrated this dichotomy more than slavery. Much has been written about the egalitarian nature of Spiritualism, but the focus of the present piece is on Spiritualism in practice and how Spiritualists often used the movement to preserve the systemic racism of American society. When confronted with the overarching issue of slavery, Spiritualists used spirit messages to fashion a version of the afterlife called the Summerland which calmed their fears but perpetuated the subservient role of African Americans. And since Spiritualism’s focus was inward, on enlightenment of adherents, and upward on knowledge of the afterlife, the movement invariably distracted from acknowledging, understanding, and remedying the social inequality present on Earth". Zetojournal.com. 

Randall Scott Clemons was searching for a link between "slaves in the afterlife" and the Zodiac Killer, from the perspective of where this phrase originated in his mind, prior to putting pen the paper. In other words, the Zodiac Killer didn't just pluck this phrase out of thin air - his interaction within society shaped him as a person and possibly influenced his propensity to adopt this form of language within his communications. Randall Scott Clemons then found an extremely interesting book entitled Parental Discretion is Advised; The Rise of N.W.A and the Dawn of Gangsta Rap featuring a section on the brutal beating of Rodney King on March 3rd 1991 by Los Angeles Police Department officers, sparking riots in 1992 after the acquittal of three of the four defendants. The book made reference to phrases used by LAPD officers via computer transmissions in their patrol cars.    

Here is an extract from the book:
"Racial bias was rampant in the department, with an LAPD survey agreeing that prejudice on the part of officers towards citizens contributed to a negative interaction between police and the community, and that bias often led to use of excessive force. The report also showed how often incidents involving racial slurs from white officers against minority colleagues were frequently ignored. The culture of racism was so prevalent, officers were comfortable enough typing disparaging messages on computer transmissions between squad cars: "If you encounter these negroes, shoot first and ask questions later". "Sounds like monkey-slapping time". I'm back over here in the projects, pissing off the natives". "Everybody you kill in the line of duty becomes a slave in the afterlife". 

These phrases are not only deeply racial, they also do not exist in isolation of the time they were uttered - but have origins -often passed from one generation of police officers to another. This drives to the heart of the question - as to how long these 'police phrases' have been in existence and whether the Zodiac Killer may possibly have been involved in law enforcement prior or current to the murders in the Bay Area. Had the Zodiac Killer worked for the Los Angeles Police Department during this racially charged era in American history, picking up the phrase "Everybody you kill in the line of duty becomes a slave in the afterlife", and conveniently dropping the introduction to disguise his profession? As a law enforcement officer seeking victims in his spare time, access to copious seized weapons would be of little difficulty. 

Black slavery in America is well documented, and may shed new light on the design of the October 27th 1970 'Halloween' card, featuring four methods of execution commonly employed in the burning, lynching, shooting and stabbing of appropriated slaves. When we tie in the cross formation of paradise and slaves back into the equation, the inspiration and motivation of the Zodiac Killer in choosing this form of language may focus the eye in a whole new direction. The March 13th 1971 letter to the Los Angeles Times stated "If the Blue Meannies are evere going to catch me, they had best get off their fat asses + do something. Because the longer they fiddle + fart around, the more slaves I will collect for my after life". 

The admonishment of police by the Zodiac Killer and his adoption of the phrase "slaves in the afterlife" may indicate a history between the two - albeit one that likely didn't end on the best of terms.     

Eduard Versluijs brought to the attention of the Zodiac Killer Site forum a threatening letter directed toward Harland David Sanders,  best known for founding fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. He was titled 'Colonel' Sanders, although this was not an official rank, merely an honorary title. The envelope was addressed to Shelbyville, Kentucky. This letter was discussed with regards to the Zodiac Killer, but in actual fact it was almost certainly mailed by - you've guessed it - the Symbionese Liberation Army. The letter signed off with 'The General', which could be interpreted as a play on words, bearing in mind the 'Colonel' title of the recipient. However, it probably had more to do with the sender of the letter, or somebody sending it on his behalf. 

The SLA began as a collaboration between convicts and prison activists. Led by DeFreeze, an escaped convict and initially the only black member of the group, the seven other members, who were white middle-class men and women, adopted Swahili names and took up arms for the self-styled Symbionese Federation. The group’s motto, “Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people,” was included on each of their communiqués. The Symbionese Liberation Army were a small group of multiracial militant revolutionaries based in California during the 1970s that owes nearly all its notoriety to the kidnapping and subsequent indoctrination of Patty Hearst, the newspaper heiress. Founded in the Berkeley, California-area in 1973 by Donald DeFreeze, he was known to the group as General Field Marshal Cinque Mtume. This alone, would not be proof that the Symbionese Liberation Army mailed this communication, so we will dig a little further. 

Michael Morford unearthed a similar threatening letter mailed to Sammy Davis Jr in Las Vegas, Reno, Nevada, also signed off with 'The General'. There was an additional pink sheet of paper enclosed with a typewritten message beginning "Dec. 4, 1973..." and signed "Der Fuhrer". Both this and the Colonel Sanders threat were written on paper with the pre-printed address of Riverside Drive, Sherman Oaks, California, indicating they were almost certainly mailed by the same individual or group. 

The 'Colonel' Sanders threat was dated by the sender as January 14th 1974, and the Sammy Davis Jr threat was dated January 19th 1974. It is my contention that these two threats were probably mailed under the shortened pseudonym of General Field Marshal Cinque Mtume, aka Donald DeFreeze. The Symbionese Liberation Army were prolific letter writer's to the newspapers, radio and television stations, high profile individuals, along with the FBI and police. They used handwritten and typewritten communications - the latter of which is something the Zodiac Killer never did in any of his confirmed correspondence subsequent to July 30th 1969. These two threats were mailed to Shelbyville, Kentucky and Las Vegas, Nevada, and both were self-dated in January, 1974. So, you wouldn't be too surprised to hear that the Symbionese Liberation Army, led by a 'General', also mailed letters to Kentucky and Las Vegas in the same timeframe. 

Three letters from the Symbionese Liberation Army were mailed in February, 1974 to the 'Kentucky State Police in Henderson, Kentucky' (return address Henderson, Kentucky) and 'City Police Department, Berkeley, California' (return address Henderson, Kentucky). They also mailed a letter to the FBI in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 14th 1974. 'In early 1960s, the city of Las Vegas was growing rapidly, and the Bureau’s caseload there was rising right along with it. As a result, FBI Headquarters ordered the transfer of all cases and files pertaining to Nevada from the Salt Lake City Division to Las Vegas. In December 1960, John H. Williams was designated Special Agent in Charge and in February, 1961, the opening of the new division was announced. The new division was first housed in an office at 300 Fremont Street, but moved into a new federal building at 11th and Bridger Streets in May 1961'. FBI. In other words, the Symbionese Liberation Army were mailing to Kentucky and Las Vegas within one month of 'The General' mailing letters to 'Colonel' Sanders and Sammy Davis Jr, in Kentucky and Las Vegas respectively.  

The Symbionese Liberation Army appeared to target wealth (as they did with Randolph Hearst), in line with the seemingly anti-capitalist or anti-greed agenda they had built for themselves. Below are the four relevant envelopes mailed by the militant group, outlining their agenda.

In a series of recent articles, it was shown that the February 3rd 1974 SLA letter was mailed by the Symbionese Liberation Army, as were possibly two of the other three 1974 communications purportedly mailed by the Zodiac Killer. The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) were thrust into the spotlight after the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, a media heiress, on February 4th 1974. They were a short-lived urban militant group, operating from 1973 to 1975. The SLA letter was mailed from Los Angeles County - the location  of a deadly shootout between Symbionese Liberation Army members and law enforcement on May 17th 1974 at 1466 East 54th Street, resulting in the deaths of six urban militants. The Symbionese Liberation Army had its main headquarters in San Francisco and Los Angeles. However, despite the militant group effectively fragmenting in 1975, not all members or allies of the group were apprehended.

The group mailed numerous letters and cassette recordings to the newspapers, and to radio and television stations during the height of their operations. It is certainly conceivable that all the 1974 'Zodiac' letters were in fact written by the Symbionese Liberation Army, with the January 29th 1974 letter specifically designed to mimic previous Zodiac correspondence. The proof for this militant group's involvement in posing as the Zodiac Killer would come approximately four years later, when the Channel Nine letter was mailed to KHJ-TV in Los Angeles on May 2nd 1978. Arriving just one week after the April 24th 1978 "I am back with you" letter, widely considered a hoax, it may indicate the Symbionese Liberation Army's involvement in both 1978 letters. There was little motivation for the Zodiac Killer to reappear in 1978 and threaten [1] Daryl Gates [2] Edward Davis [3] Pat Boone, and [4] Eldridge Cleaver, all of which had no relevance to him whatsoever. But the Symbionese Liberation Army certainly had every reason to threaten numbers 1 & 2 on the list - Daryl Gates and Edward Davis.

Patricia Hearst was convicted in March 1976 and sentenced to seven years imprisonment. 'Hearst suffered a collapsed lung in prison (the beginning of a series of medical problems) and underwent emergency surgery, which prevented her from appearing to testify against the Harrises on eleven state charges including robbery, kidnapping, and assault; she was also arraigned for those charges. Hearst, who was being held in solitary confinement for security reasons, was granted bail for an appeal in November 1976, on condition she was protected on bond. Dozens of bodyguards were hired by her father. Saying he considered that Hearst's actions had not been voluntary, Superior Court judge Talbot Callister gave her probation on the sporting goods store charge when she pleaded no contest. California Attorney General Evelle J. Younger said if there was a double standard for the wealthy it was the opposite of what was generally believed, and though Hearst had no legal brainwashing defense there was a good deal of equity favoring her in the essential point that everything started with her kidnapping. Hearst's bail was revoked in May 1978 when appeals failed and the Supreme Court declined to hear her case'. Wikipedia.

Her appeals had failed and the Channel Nine letter arrived on May 2nd, threatening to kill both Daryl Gates and Edward Davis. But why were these names top of the letter's hit list?

Daryl Gates was born Darrel Gates (as the Channel Nine letter stated).
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'While not the first to use specially trained units, the LAPD was the first to form a police tactical unit, and originally created the term, "Special Weapons And Tactics". John Nelson was the LAPD officer who came up with the idea to form a specially trained and equipped unit in the LAPD, intended to respond to and manage critical situations involving shootings while minimizing police casualties. In 1967, Nelson's CO, then-Inspector Daryl F. Gates approved this idea, and he formed a small select group of volunteer officers. This first SWAT unit initially consisted of fifteen teams of four men each, for a total staff of sixty. These officers were given special status and benefits. They were required to attend special monthly training. This unit also served as a security unit for police facilities during times of civil unrest.

In 1971, SWAT personnel were assigned on a full-time basis to Metropolitan Division to respond to continuing action by subversive groups, the rising crime rate and the continuing difficulty of mustering a team response in a timely manner. Metropolitan Division, which had a long-established reputation as the tactical unit of the Department, was reorganized into 6 units: "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", and "K-9" Platoons. The Special Weapons And Tactics Unit was given the designation of "D" Platoon, and at the same time formally adopted the acronym SWAT.

The first significant deployment of LAPD's SWAT unit was on December 9, 1969, in a four-hour confrontation with members of the Black Panthers. The Panthers eventually surrendered, with three Panthers and three officers being injured. By 1974, there was a general acceptance of SWAT as a resource for the city and county of Los Angeles.

On the afternoon of May 17, 1974, elements of a group which called itself the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a group of heavily armed leftists, barricaded themselves in a residence on East 54th Street at Compton Avenue in Los Angeles. In response, more than 400 LAPD officers, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) deputies, California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers, and Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) firefighters surrounded the residence. Coverage of the siege was broadcast to millions via television and radio and featured in the world press for days after. Negotiations were opened with the barricaded suspects on numerous occasions, both prior to and after the introduction of tear gas. Law enforcement units did not fire until the SLA had fired several volleys of semi-automatic and fully automatic gunfire at them. In spite of the 3,772 rounds fired by the SLA, no civilians or sworn personnel sustained injury from gunfire.

During the gun battle, a fire erupted inside the residence. The cause of the fire is officially unknown, although police sources speculated that an errant round ignited one of the suspects' Molotov cocktails. Others suspect that the repeated use of tear gas grenades, which function by burning chemicals at high temperatures, started the structure fire. All six of the suspects suffered multiple gunshot wounds and perished in the ensuing blaze.
By the time of the SLA shoot-out, SWAT teams had reorganized into six 10-man teams, each team consisting of two five-man units, called elements. An element consisted of an element leader, two assaulters, a scout, and a rear-guard. The normal complement of weapons was a sniper rifle (apparently a .243-caliber bolt-action, judging from the ordnance expended by officers at the shootout), two .223-caliber semi-automatic rifles, and two shotguns. SWAT officers also carried their service revolvers in shoulder holsters. The normal gear issued them included a first aid kit, gloves, and a gas mask. In fact it was a change just to have police armed with semi-automatic rifles, at a time when officers were usually issued six-shot revolvers and shotguns. The encounter with the heavily armed Symbionese Liberation Army, however, sparked a trend towards SWAT teams being issued body armor and fully automatic weapons of various types'. Wikipedia.

'The public became aware of SWAT in May of 1974, when a shoplifting incident at an Inglewood sporting goods store led investigators to a South Los Angeles home on 54th Street. The Symbionese Liberation Army and heiress Patty Hearst, who were barricaded inside, exchanged gunfire with tactical officers for two hours before surrendering. Six SLA members were killed, as thousands of rounds of ammunition was used. The incident, which unfolded on live television, brought home the usefulness of SWAT to Gates, who was the field commander of that incident'. Policemag.com

Edward Davis was the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1969 to 1978. He instantly became well-known internationally in 1969 when he held a press conference announcing the arrests of Charles Manson and his followers for what are known as the Tate and LaBianca murders. His role is well-documented in the book Helter Skelter, written by Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor in the case. Wikipedia.

In an NBC News article reporting his death in 2006, it led with the words "Ed Davis, the tough-talking former Los Angeles police chief who led the department during its shootout with the Symbionese Liberation Army and the arrest of Charles Manson, died Saturday, a family spokesman said. He was 89".

You don't have to search hard on the internet to discover that Daryl Gates and Edward Davis were instrumental in the demise of the Symbionese Liberation Army and the deadly shootout on May 17th 1974 which resulted in the deaths of six of its members. The Zodiac Killer had never crossed swords with either of these two law enforcement officers and had absolutely no reason to want to threaten them with death, as displayed in the Channel Nine letter. On the contrary, an ex-member, close associate or sympathizer of the Symbionese Liberation Army had every reason to want to see these two LAPD servants dead. The author of the Channel Nine letter held them personally responsible for the slaying at 1466 East 54th Street.

On April 24th 1978, the author of the 1978 letter wrote "I am waiting for a good movie about me, who will play me". Eight days later, the Channel Nine letter was mailed to ​KHJ-TV in Los Angeles on May 2nd 1978, stating "Hey you actors, this is your lucky break. Whoever plays me has his work cut out for him". There is every chance that, if the Channel Nine letter was mailed by an associate or somebody sympathetic to the SLA cause, then the 1978 letter (widely regarded as a hoax anyway) was also mailed by somebody in and around the Symbionese Liberation Army circle. This wouldn't be the first time that somebody connected or loosely affiliated with the militant group mailed a letter pretending to be the Zodiac Killer. The 1974 SLA letter was almost certainly unconnected to the Bay Area murderer, and the remaining three 1974 letters are widely questioned.   


https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/sla-letter-not-zodiac-and-here-is-the-fbi-file-to-prove-it

On April 1st 2019 a new true crime podcast was launched entitled The Murder Squad. Featuring former detective and investigator Paul Holes, pivotal in the capture of the Golden State Killer, and investigative journalist Billy Jensen, it will tackle an array of unsolved cold cases and employ the listener as a valuable crime fighting tool through social media. 

Episode 1 is now available, seeking your help in identifying possible victims of the now deceased murderer William Richard "Bill" Bradford, who photographed 54 women in various poses, quite possibly moments before they were murdered. 

Anybody who is instrumental in helping solve a case will be credited, but the motivation for doing so should be primarily driven by a desire to seek some form of closure for the victims families and friends. Visit the Murder Squad by clicking the above link. 

After five murders in a matter of 10 months in 1968 and 1969, followed by numerous communications, 1971 was a watershed year for the Zodiac Killer. When all is said and done, it will probably be remembered as the year Zodiac tried to convince law enforcement he had committed four brutal stabbings, when in fact he had committed none. The Zodiac legacy was coming to an end and his final two communications in the latter half of 1971 failed to make the newspapers, ultimately marking the final days of the Zodiac Killer. He wouldn't be heard from again. When Paul Avery wrote the San Francisco Chronicle article 'New Evidence in Zodiac Killings' on November 16th 1970, it must have been a heavenly blessing for the Zodiac Killer. He was being linked to the Cheri Jo Bates murder in Riverside on October 30th 1966. He would gladly accept this offering on March 13th 1971 when he unashamedly wrote a letter stating "I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there". A man inspired to attack Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard with a knife at Lake Berryessa, driven by the front page coverage of the August 3rd 1969 Snoozy/Furlong murders in San Jose - something he yearned - not only laid claim to the murder of these two young girls in the November 8th 1969 'Dripping Pen' card, but was only too happy to claim another in Riverside. 

​Then, just one month later, a gift arrived from the Vallejo Times-Herald on April 13th 1971, when the Zodiac Killer saw the words "One thing's certain, Miss Bilek's murder is almost a carbon copy of a double killing Santa Clara County" homicide detective said. "And all three could well be the work of the so-called Zodiac".

The Zodiac saw the publicity generated from the brutal stabbing of Deborah Furlong and Kathy Snoozy on August 3rd and capitalized on this at Lake Berryessa in September. It had now paid dividends on April 11th 1971, when Kathy Bilek (18) visited Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, having planned to read a paperback book (The Gabriel Hounds) and engage in a spot of bird watching​ in the seclusion of a remote, wooded portion of the park, near a small stream. Her body was found the next day by her father, Charles, while Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies searched nearby. She had been stabbed 17 times in the back and 32 times in her chest and stomach. This crime was obviously linked to the Snoozy/Furlong murders because of the extensive knife wounds and the locality. But by committing the savage knife attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard at Lake Berryessa and hinting at his involvement in the San Jose murders of Snoozy and Furlong, the Zodiac Killer had now been given the opportunity by Paul Avery to accept the Riverside murder in 1966, along with the Kathy Bilek murder by the Vallejo Times-Herald on April 13th 1971. His switching to a knife in the commission of murder would inevitably lead law enforcement to link him to more crimes - something he knew only too well.

The 'Monticello' card mailed on July 13th 1971 was open-ended. It didn't directly claim the murder of Kathy Bilek, thereby allowing him a get out clause should this crime be later attributed to somebody else. The Zodiac Killer had used this tactic before when he insinuated his involvement in the murder of Officer Richard Radetich by stating "I shot a man sitting in a parked car with a .38". Then in the 'Pines' card, by again offering a cryptic message open to interpretation. He never actually claimed the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, simply stating "I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside activity". Everything designed in such a fashion to avoid full admission.

The "August" reference on the 'Dripping Pen' card, while not actually writing it on the car door of Bryan Hartnell's vehicle, had metaphorically opened the door to the speculation shown by law enforcement in the article by the Vallejo Times-Herald. The September 27th 1969 attack, effectively enabled the Zodiac Killer to extend his reign of terror far beyond the shores of Lake Berryessa, into the heart of San Jose. The July 13th 1971 'Monticello' card was now the fifth communication referencing San Jose in the last 20 months - but there was still time for one more.

The final communication of 1971 may have been the elusive 'Sacramento DMV' letter, probably mailed in the November or December of 1971. This correspondence likely mirrored the November 21st 1969 San Jose letter and code, in which the Zodiac Killer mailed a correspondence to the San Jose Police Department and threatened a "widow". I have little doubt this woman had some involvement in the Deborah Furlong and Kathy Snoozy murders from the perspective of an eyewitness, and by Zodiac threatening her, he was effectively giving the impression that the murders were somehow pertinent to him. The Sacramento DMV letter was used for the same purpose - to keep the Zodiac story alive by means of interjection.  
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In October 1971, a magazine publication entitled 'True Detective' comprehensively featured the murders of Kathy Snoozy, Deborah Furlong and Kathy Bilek, and the subsequent arrest of Karl Francis Werner. There is every chance the Zodiac Killer read this magazine article, compelling him to continue his contact with authorities regarding these murders.

One particular section about Kathy Bilek caught my eye - that may have been the reason why the Zodiac Killer wrote a letter to the chairman of the DMV in Sacramento. It stated "At about the same moment, Park Ranger Ken Williamson was informing a member of the investigative team that he, too, had noticed a tall, bespectacled young man who had been a frequent visitor at Villa Montalvo. He was a loner and had impressed the Villa's ranger staff with his almost furtive conduct, said Williamson. The ranger had jotted down the license number of the strange youth's auto.
The license number was forwarded to the California Department of Motor Vehicles headquarters in Sacramento, the state's capital 150 miles to the north of San Jose. The information teletyped back from the registration bureau was that the auto was the property of a Karl Francis Werner, living at an address on Shawnee Lane in San Jose."

This was the final entry point of the Zodiac Killer. The 'Monticello' card and 'Sacramento DMV' letter had failed to hit the newspapers - and the reign of the Zodiac Killer had reached its end. The arrest of Karl Francis Werner for the three murders in San Jose had finally exposed the Zodiac Killer for the fraud he had metamorphosed into. The long shadow he had cast over the Bay Area of Northern California was starting to recede - and he knew his days were numbered.

Alan Keel, Criminalist at the San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco, California from 1996 to 1999 "revealed that there were two letters in possession of the department that, in contrast to the "true" Zodiac letters, had abundant saliva and DNA-containing oral epithelial cells on them, that DNA was easily extracted from these two letters, and that the DNA extracted from these two letters matched between them. These two letters were considered forgeries, since the "true" Zodiac verifiable letters had not been licked by the sender". Mike Rodelli, an avid Zodiac researcher, who conversed with Alan Keel, revealed "In contrast (to earlier communications), Keel analyzes two other letters, one of which is the 1978 forgery, and finds that this letter and one of the 1974 letters are loaded with saliva and cells. He then easily extracts DNA from both of these letters using the more primitive DNA technology of that time and finds that the DNA matches between those two letters, thus proving that one person sent both".  Mike Rodelli.

​If you take a look at the San Francisco Police Department DNA report, the 1974 Exorcist letter is the only letter that year to produce any viable results, described as "cells found". The S.L.A letter was totally disregarded, and the "Citizen" and "Red Phantom" communications had no entry in comments. If Alan Keel is correct in his assertion, then the Exorcist letter would enter the classification of unlikely Zodiac correspondences - ones that had "been licked by the sender". 

In the latest round of DNA testing in the Zodiac case, two of the three July 31st 1969 communications have again come under scrutiny. These were unavailable at the time the San Francisco Police Department DNA testing was undertaken. It is apparent that these letters have struggled to give up their secrets, as have other communications listed in the report, which includes the October 13th 1969 'Paul Stine' letter, the November 8th 1969  'Dripping Pen' card, the November 9th 1969 'Bus Bomb' letter, the December 20th 1969 'Melvin Belli' letter, the April 20th 1970 'My Name Is' letter, the April 28th 1970 'Dragon' card and the June 26th 1970 'Button' letter. In total, nine consecutive communications that, it is fair to say, have produced little in the way of a recognizable DNA fingerprint. Most of these are labelled in comments as "few cells".

The only remaining communications in the DNA report subsequent to June 26th 1970 which produced any notable results, classified as "cells found", were:
[1] The July 24th 1970 'Kathleen Johns' letter.
[2] The July 26th 1970 'Little List' letter, and
[3] The January 29th 1974 'Exorcist' letter.
And all three had one crucial element in common - The Mikado. 

The 'Kathleen Johns' letter began the trilogy by stating "So now I have a little list, starting with that woeman + her baby that I gave a rather intersting ride for a coupple howers one evening a few months back that ended in my burning her car where I found them".  This would be continued two days later with the paraphrasing of two of Gilbert and Sullivan's acts from The Mikado. The first section of the 'Little List' letter pulls lines from the A more humane Mikado, where the author uses the words billiard along with crooked cues and twisted shoes.
This correspondence goes on to paraphrase Gilbert and Sullivan's  As some day it may happen, performed by Ko-Ko, as did the future correspondence of the Exorcist Letter in 1974, when reciting Tit-Willow from Ko-Ko's On a tree by a river, part of Act Two.  

We don't know the exact concentrations of DNA retrieved from these three communications, but it is evident that these were the only three letters classified as "cells found" - and all three made reference to The Mikado. If "cells found" could be proven as "saliva" found, and the "true Zodiac verifiable letters had not been licked by the sender" according to Alan Keel, then this could indicate that all The Mikado letters were not authored by the Zodiac Killer. An extremely hard notion to accept when we look at the handwriting and design of each of these correspondences. 

One can understand why certain sections of the Zodiac communications were withheld from the public, such as his bomb diagrams - yet the entire July 26th 1970 'Little List' letter was not released to the newspapers until October 12th 1970. This innocuous correspondence for the most part was withheld for two and a half months until it featured in a San Francisco Chronicle article entitled 'Gilbert and Sullivan Clue to Zodiac', in tandem with the subsequent October 5th 1970 '13 Hole' postcard. If the 'Little List' letter and '13 Hole' postcard were authored by the Zodiac Killer, then it is notable that, despite putting a lot of effort into this rather lengthy correspondence on July 26th 1970, he failed to make any issue about the complete absence of newspaper coverage that this letter received when he mailed his next correspondence. It is believed he repeated his victim count of 13 because his last letter hadn't been published in the newspapers. But could it have been the case that the Zodiac Killer wasn't reaffirming the victim count of 13 because his previous correspondence wasn't published, rather, he was unaware somebody had mailed the 'Little List' letter in his name? Hence his lack of concern about "front page coverage", or for that matter, any coverage at all. 

If the Zodiac Killer hadn't written any of The Mikado communications, then he also wasn't claiming the abduction of Kathleen Johns on March 22nd 1970. In fact, the notion of a killer driven by the theatrical librettos of Sir William Schwenck Gilbert would be quashed entirely. It is extremely difficult to sell a story of a Zodiac Killer who didn't author any of The Mikado communications, let alone all of the 1974 communications - so the curtain call will be cancelled for this performance only. 

Although this is questionable Zodiac material, it does appear in the FBI files and has never been featured before - so I thought I would try to unearth as much information as possible, despite the limited coverage provided by the documents available. On November 19th 1969 two notes or slips of paper, labelled Questioned Documents 1 and 2, were discovered at a Marine Amphibious Force Base.
​They read as follows:

Q1. Slip of paper bearing hand printing beginning "Dear Gunny Kramer, This is the Zodiac speaking" and ending "take head Zodiac" [sic]. Should be heed.
Q2  Slip of paper bearing hand printing beginning "Dear Jim; Here I am again" and ending "the Zodiac & The Ridder".  

The address at the top left of the FBI file reads Office of the Provost Marshall. 1st Marine Division (Rein), San Francisco 96602. The zip code being a non-designated land mass, Armed Forces Pacific, USA.

The only crumb I could note from these two communications was the phrase "Here I am again", vaguely reminiscent of the letter mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on April 24th 1978, where the author declared "I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here." I may also have identified Gunner Kramer in the 'Air Ground Team, Marine Amphibious Force', listed in the PLANS BRANCH as MCDC LNO (GND) MAJ KRAMER, R I.  Dated 1968 through 1969. There was a Holebaeur, J F, Brown, J L, Waterstreet, J R and Bailey J R from the same PLANS BRANCH section. One of these men may have been the recipient of the second note.

Clearly, access to military facilities are restricted, so the Zodiac Killer can't just wander in off the street. Handwriting comparisons were done on military personnel to find a match to the two notes, but failed to identify an individual because of the distorted nature of the questioned handwriting. The notes were also compared to known Zodiac writing, with the conclusion equally inconclusive.    

Here is another excerpt from the FBI files about an Employment Manager at Yosemite Park suggesting another YFC employee exhibited a distinct likeness to the picture of Zodiac. What is curious about this FBI file, is it states "Law Enforcement Ranger, Yosemite National Park, California, advised on January 12th 1969, that the Employment Manager of Yosemite Park and Curry Company, recently observed publicity relative to the wanted killer known as Zodiac". How does he advise this only 23 days after the Lake Herman Road double murder, when nobody knew what Zodiac looked like.

Luis Campos, born in Santiago, Dominican Republic is an inventor, poet and cryptographer who created puzzles and ciphers for the United Features Syndicate of New York, beginning in 1983. He would create six celebrity ciphers a week featuring famous quotes from well-known people, past and present. The reader had to identify the person and quote from the encoded text. The characters in the cryptograms were deliberately spaced into separate words, as shown on the right. 

On September 25th 1990 somebody mailed the celebrity cypher to the Vallejo Times-Herald approximately three months before the 1990 'Eureka' card, often associated with the Zodiac Killer. Bearing in mind the 408 cipher mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969, many have pondered whether this postcard was mailed by the Bay Area murderer. There is little to prove this notion one way or another, but if somebody was mimicking the Zodiac Killer, one might expect the wording on the card to equally mimic previous correspondence, in particular, phrases he used with respect to his codes and ciphers. 

Many people have put forward solutions to the celebrity cypher including the website Zodiologists.com and Rubislaw32 (a regular contributor to this site). Some of these solutions can be found on Ricardo Gomez's Project MK-Zodiac site. But here, I am not going to tackle the celebrity cypher from the angle of cryptology, because not only do I have a basic knowledge of ciphers, but also, the mere fact that so many people of greater ability than me have come to wildly different conclusions, is evidence of a code that is malleable. In other words, this code is open to subjective interpretation and no solution, despite the belief of the code-cracker, has been universally accepted. Of course, nobody knows or could know with certainty, who the author of this postcard is. However, if the author mailed a cipher to the Vallejo Times-Herald in an attempt to pass this communication off under the guise of Zodiac-style correspondence, could it be argued that the sender is also a murderer? One attempted solution caught my eye on the Zodiac Killer Site forum - and this is the path I will follow, despite the pitfall of characters being hidden behind the stamp. Here is the card, on which I have added some notations which will be explained later.   ​ 

​The first thing to notice is that the author likely places his name and address on the upper left hand side of the celebrity cypher, and also signs off the card with his name. Often a sender will provide a return address on the left side of a postcard or envelope. This is backed up by the identical thirteen characters beginning and ending the correspondence. Then we have to predict what the preceding text is before the author signs off with their name. On the left is the '13 Symbol' cipher mailed by the Zodiac Killer on April 20th 1970. He precedes the code or name with My name is. 

In the Luis Campos example at the top of the page, the final line is reserved for the name. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that the Zodiac Killer or somebody imitating him, would write My name is before signing off with their name. This may be preceded by a question, such as "Do you know me", in view of the Bay Area murderer having committed his crimes just under 21 years ago. In other words, a variation of do you remember me? Even if the author wasn't the Zodiac Killer they may have been projecting the idea that they were. 

The next thing to look at is the return address. It has 10 characters followed by seven, then two. Many on the Zodiac Killer forum have deduced that the bottom line of the return address to be Oakland, CA - so I will run with this idea. The postcard was postmarked Oakland, so it's reasonable to conclude the return address would be Oakland too. This being the case, the 10 characters above must represent the area within Oakland. Now comes the simple task of finding a potential murderer who possibly authored this postcard. Somebody who knew of the Zodiac Killer, lived in an area of Oakland (comprised of 10 letters), and was eventually caught and convicted of murder. Surprisingly, if you type into Google search "Oakland, murderer, 1990" a possible answer is served up on a plate. Somebody who certainly lived in Oakland up to 1992, murdered two women in Oakland Hills that year, and lived with his grandparents near to Skyline Road and Golf Links Road, the deposition site of the two murdered women. Where exactly his grandparents lived, I have yet to ascertain, but there is a 10-letter neighborhood in East Oakland called Castlemont. It is less than a mile from Golf Links Road. His name was Monte Crawford, exactly fitting the 5 and 8 characters at the foot of the celebrity cypher.   

Monte Crawford, a military veteran, was sentenced on Friday, August 1st 2014 to 40 years to life for the 1992 double murder of Tredis Penny (26) and Shirley Wynn (38), both strangled and sexually assaulted before being dumped in the Oakland Hills. I have no idea whatsoever if Monte Crawford was responsible for the celebrity cypher but he did live in Oakland, in or near Castlemont, both of which fit the code - and he was capable of murder as he showed just one and a half years later, if he wasn't already a killer at this juncture.   

Diane Louise Gerrish (19), a young and attractive cosmetologist, who resided at 1042 Peralta Avenue, Albany, was found beaten and strangled to death in the grounds of the San Francisco Presidio by three soldiers on Monday, August 30th 1965 at 7:30 am. The blonde, blue-eyed, North Berkeley Beauty College graduate had been strangled with a garrotte, fashioned from her own stockings and brassiere. It was determined she had been dead for approximately 8 hours, so was likely murdered during the late night hours of Sunday, August 29th. She was last seen on Friday night after having an argument with her family over the use of a car. Diane was found lying on the bed of an ice plant near Lincoln Boulevard, close to the southern entrance of the Golden Gate Bridge.

San Francisco Coroner, Henry Turkel, concluded the attack was sexually driven. Her skirt had been pulled up, her undergarments were removed and then her depraved attacker had subsequently mutilated her with the branch of a shrub. She had also been savagely beaten about the face and body, by what was believed to be the fists of her assailant. Investigators clearly understood they were looking for a sexual psychopath. The case was turned over to the FBI as the Presidio base came under federal jurisdiction. 

Diane was a regular visitor to the Fort Scott Presidio Enlisted Men's Club, a log cabin on Presidio Hill. 

Courtesy of Murder Inc Wordpress.com.

SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) FBI agents pressed their search today for a “sexual” psychopath" who strangled a young cosmetologist and dumped her body on a field of iceplant at the Presidio of San Francisco.

​Agents said Diane Louise Gerrish, 19, of Albany, had been killed with a garrotte fashioned out of her stockings and brassiere and had been mutiliated sexually in an appalling manner. Her face was covered with blood and her skirt had been tossed carelessly over her body.

Miss Gerrish’s body was discovered by three Presidio soldiers Monday. They called MP’s who immediately turned the case over to the FBI since the military post is under federal judisdiction.

​Miss Gerrish had been missing from her family home since last Friday after she stormed put of the house in an argument over use of the family car. She was a popular girl who had recently graduated from the North Berkeley Beauty College and was to have taken her operator’s examination in San Francisco today. The tall, blue-eyed girl was considered extremely attractive and was described as a "friendly, kind girl" who was "very good with children".

In the last article 'More Than Just By Knife' we looked at the message "by knife" on the car door at Lake Berryessa and the month of "Aug" on the 'Dripping Pen' card, mailed on November 8th 1969. It was argued that the reference to "by knife" meant so much more to the killer than just telling us the patently obvious, that Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard were attacked with a knife. It was a declaration of what was soon to be revealed on November 8th 1969, that the Zodiac Killer was suggesting his involvement in the Kathy Snoozy and Deborah Furlong double stabbing on August 3rd 1969.  

The addition of the time on the car door also appeared to be lacking any great purpose, so this led me to believe that the time of 6:30, just like "by knife", also had some significance to the killer. The Zodiac Killer would certainly have been scouring the newspapers around the time of his July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969 communications to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald. It is apparent that his narcissistic tendencies would have compelled him to purchase the newspapers for any reading material about himself. 

It must therefore have annoyed him greatly that the Kathy Snoozy and Deborah Furlong murders featured on the front pages of the San Francisco Examiner on August 4th 1969 and the San Francisco Chronicle on August 6th 1969, when he had declared at the same time that he "was not happy to see that he did not get front page coverage" in the 'Debut of Zodiac' letter. This is probably the moment he decided on an altogether more hands-on approach to his method of murder - by knife. The inspiration for the Lake Berryessa attack may have come straight from the pages of the San Francisco Examiner. On the same day the Zodiac Killer hand delivered his 'Debut of Zodiac' letter to the Examiner offices, the San Francisco Examiner headlined with '2 Girls Stabbed-Picnic Murders Footprint Clue'. Apart from "Girls", this headline could easily have been written for the September 27th 1969 Lake Berryessa attack.       

Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard were enjoying a pleasant afternoon/early evening picnic near the Oak Shores Recreation Area, when a man in an executioner's outfit changed everything. The San Francisco Examiner (above) stated "San Jose-A killer armed with a thin-bladed stiletto was hunted here today as the one who savagely stabbed to death two teenage girls yesterday as they picknicked in Almaden Valley. The scene where the bodies were found is just south of Blossom Hill Road, two blocks west of Calahan in the northern end of the valley. About 10:00 am yesterday, the girls packed a lunch and left Deborah's parents' San Jose home for a picnic atop a grassy knoll nearby. The picnic ground is a rugged area, near a narrow, serpentine trail used by motorcyclists for hill-climbing contests". 

​The question being: did the Zodiac Killer switch from gun to knife, head down the serpentine trail of Lake Berryessa to target unsuspecting picknickers or people enjoying a relaxing day out, because he just fancied a change, or did he believe this was his path to guaranteed "front page coverage", just like the brutal stabbing of the two young girls in San Jose? The car door may have held the answer, by the addition of the "by knife" phrase. The Zodiac Killer was effectively saying "do I get front page coverage now". But how does the time of 6:30 (pm) on Bryan Hartnell's car door play into the Kathy Snoozy and Deborah Furlong murders of August 3rd 1969.

Serial killer Karl Francis Werner may inadvertently have been responsible for the murder of Cecelia Shepard and attempted murder of Bryan Hartnell at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969. Many people have made the case for questioning the Lake Berryessa attack as a Zodiac crime, by pointing out that the Zodiac Killer included the month "Aug" on his November 8th 1969 'Dripping Pen' card, yet he failed to include this date on the car door of Bryan Hartnell's white Karmann Ghia. However, the inclusion of August on the 'Dripping Pen' card may be the confirmation of the "by knife" message on the car door withheld by police. As early as October 1st 1969, only four days after the Lake Berryessa attack, an article in the San Francisco Examiner entitled 'Sex Fiend Sought For Six Killings' stated "A psychotic killer police say brutally slays females for sexual gratification is loose in the North Bay today". Extremely irresponsible and factually incorrect journalism, that may have driven the attack on a lone male in San Francisco to prove this assertion incorrect.

The Zodiac Killer would use this "North Bay" reference only twelve days later, after the callous execution of taxicab driver Paul Stine on October 11th 1969 in San Francisco, to confirm his link to Berryessa. The Zodiac Killer mailed a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle with the admission "I am the same man who did in the people in the north bay area". The San Francisco Examiner would detail the withholding of part of the message on the car door at Berryessa, stating "There was more to the inked car door message than dates. But Captain Townsend masked the information, considered it "classified". In the September 30th 1969 edition of the Examiner, entitled 'Police Dare Cipher Killer', Captain Don Townsend dared him to write or phone again to prove he wrote the message: "There is more, and we are not releasing it now. Why? Because this man has a pattern of contacting the police and newspapers by phone and letter after his killings. We are holding back part of the note because, when and if he writes, he can say what else was written there - and thus prove he is the 'man who loves to kill'"   

I believe the Zodiac Killer did respond - not as the police had hoped - but indirectly, by the inclusion of the month of "August" on the November 8th 1969 'Dripping Pen' card, just five weeks later. The killer wrote "Des, July, Aug, Sept, Oct = 7". The murders in December, July and October were all perpetrated with a firearm, and police knew that September represented the Lake Berryessa attack with a knife. Therefore, it left "Aug" to figure out.

​The answer lies in the October 1st 1969 San Francisco Examiner edition, where investigators contemplated a link to the brutal stabbing and murder of two young girls in San Jose on August 3rd 1969. Deborah Gaye Furlong (14) and Kathie Ann Snoozy (15) were found murdered in the Bay Area of San Jose, in what can only be described as a barrage of knife wounds. These murders were eventually linked to the hand of Karl F. Werner, who was also convicted of the Kathy Bilek murder. However, these murders were not solved until 1971. The October 1st 1969 Examiner stated "And today San Jose police, to the south, inquired of law enforcement officers here whether there was indication that the "Cipher Killer" might be linked to the knife slaying of two teenage girls Aug.3, still unsolved".   

This is exactly what the Zodiac Killer had hoped - and why he perpetrated the Lake Berryessa attack in the first place. He was laying the seeds for law enforcement to conclude this very idea - and the reason he switched to a knife attack on this occasion. The "Aug" reference was pushing law enforcement to conclude he was responsible for the brutal slaying of Kathy Snoozy and Deborah Furlong - "by knife" - and therefore, in his mind, unequivocally linking himself to the Lake Berryessa stabbings. Had Karl Francis Werner not killed Kathy Snoozy and Deborah Furlong, it is my contention that Cecelia Shepard would still be alive today.

The Zodiac Killer knew that he had to kill to secure the attention of the newspapers, and the bolder the attack, the more publicity he would generate. He had murdered three young people by July 4th 1969 and had sent newspapers a trinity of communications on July 31st 1969 containing three parts of a cipher, determined to secure the headlines he felt he deserved. His letters promised more murder if "you do not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry.1st of Aug 69, I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night. I will cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend". To his dismay, he felt he was being short-changed, writing in the August 4th 1969 'Debut of Zodiac' letter "I was not happy to see that I did not get front page coverage". At this point in time, without doubt, the Zodiac Killer would have been scouring the newspapers for progress on solving his cipher, along with updates on his crimes. Then came the savage knife attack on Kathy Snoozy and Deborah Furlong in San Jose, featured on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle on August 6th 1969: ​   

The Zodiac Killer likely read this article and knew the course of action he needed to take to secure "front page coverage". His next crime had to be bolder, more savage and more personal - using a knife. The brutal murder of these two young girls by Karl Francis Werner would ultimately change the tactics of the Zodiac Killer in his relentless pursuit of notoriety. Seven weeks later he arrived on the shores of Lake Berryessa.

It has been questioned as to why the Zodiac Killer wrote "by knife" on the car door of Bryan Hartnell's vehicle, when it was patently obvious the couple had been stabbed with a knife. But it was much more than this. The writing of "by knife" on the car door was a statement to the publicity he felt he deserved - and was also partly alluding to the Snoozy and Furlong murders he would lay claim to just six weeks later. The "Aug" reference on the November 8th 1969 'Dripping Pen' card was further corroboration to the 'hidden' message on the car door of Bryan Hartnell. The Zodiac Killer attacked Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard with a knife at Lake Berryessa, then planted the seed on the car door to hint towards the San Jose murders just seven weeks earlier, to which he would finally confirm on his 'Dripping Pen' card at the beginning of November. He knew the month of August would be interpreted by law enforcement as the murder of Snoozy and Furlong, because law enforcement had contemplated the link only weeks earlier. The "by knife" message on the car door at Lake Berryessa, would on November 8th 1969, now hold much more significance than it did on September 27th 1969. 

Confirmation of the Snoozy and Furlong "August" link, would arrive on July 13th 1971, when a pasted card was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle with the words "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The Zodiac Killer was now claiming (or at the very least associating himself with) Karl Francis Werner's third victim, Kathy Bilek. On Sunday, April 11th 1971, Kathy Bilek (18) visited Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, with the intent to read and engage in a spot of birdwatching in the seclusion of a remote, wooded portion of the park, near a small stream. Her body was found the next day by her father, Charles, while Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies searched nearby. She had been stabbed 17 times in the back and 32 times in her chest and stomach. The Zodiac Killer's requirement to associate himself with three brutal stabbings, despite the fact he wasn't responsible for any, tells you all you need to know regarding his quest for notoriety - and why he was only too willing to write "by knife" on the car door at Lake Berryessa.on September 27th 1969. Its meaning went far beyond the obvious.