On October 12th 1970, Paul Avery of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article concerning the Zodiac Killer's latest two communications, notably the July 26th 1970 "Mikado" letter and the October 5th 1970 "13 Hole" postcard. The Zodiac Killer may have used much of this newspaper article to choose and fashion the October 27th 1970 Halloween card, including a continuance of The Mikado theme. The Zodiac Killer wasn't averse to plagiarising reading material for his communications, with the Halloween card fashioned not only from the Tim Holt comic book, but possibly crafted using the Paul Avery article as his inspiration.

The October 12th 1970 newspaper article was entitled Gilbert and Sullivan Clue to Zodiac, thereby giving the Bay Area murderer about two weeks to find the appropriate reply in the form of a Halloween card beginning "I feel it in my bones you ache to know my name. And so I'll clue you in". The newspaper article detailed "Sheriff's detective sergeant Kenneth Narlow who had fruitlessly followed up another 900 tips as to Zodiac's identity since Sept 27, 1969". So finding a Halloween card teasing us again with his name and offering to clue us in, appeared like the ideal card in response.

In the first column of the article, Paul Avery wrote "Homicide detectives who've been hunting Zodiac for nearly two years frankly admit he is much an enigma now as he was on Dec. 20, 1968, when he chalked up his first two victims". Those two victims were teenagers David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen. The Zodiac Killer decided to chalk his victims on the Halloween card in white marker pen above the head of the inner skeleton and beneath its feet, in the form of 4-TEEN and what could be Zodiac Victims Fourteen or Zodiac Fourteen.

The author of the card could have written 14 (similar to the outer skeleton hand) or fourteen, but intentionally separated it to 4-TEEN. David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were two of Zodiac's confirmed victims, but he had also claimed Deborah Furlong and Kathy Snoozy by the addition of "Aug" in the Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969, who were both teenagers. The Zodiac Killer had claimed 4-TEENS as victims, hence why he altered fourteen to 4-TEEN, to incorporate them into his running victim total. The addition of four dots (little marks) around ZVF or ZF possibly created for a similar reason. It can be noted that Paul Avery also referred to David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen in the article as teenagers, but he hyphenated the word into teen-agers, just like Zodiac did with his running teenager total of 4-TEEN.

The majority of the newspaper article focused on the July 26th 1970 "Mikado" letter and the search for potential Ko-Ko's, The Lord High Executioner featured prominantly in the July 26th 1970 (Little List) letter. The Mikado Act One Part 5a  As some day it may happen was performed by Ko-Ko of the town of Titipu. This led investigators to consider the possibility of a Zodiac Killer who played Ko-Ko in his student days. But where was The Mikado and Ko-Ko in the Halloween card? Perhaps the investigators could have searched the knothole in the tree.

The original card came with one eye peeking from the knothole in the tree, in which the Zodiac Killer circled the words "Peek-a-Boo you are doomed". But notice how "Peek-a-Boo" and "you are doomed" are deliberately separated.

The Mikado is a two-part comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, which opened to the paying public on March 14th 1885 and was hugely successful, running for 672 performances at the Savoy Theatre in London. However, this wasn't the only version of the opera from that time period, In 1888, Ed J. Smith wrote a stage parody of The Mikado called The Capitalist; or, The City of Fort Worth to encourage capital investment in Fort Worth, Texas. In this version, Peek-A-Boo is listed as one of the three sisters and wards of Kokonut (The Lord High Executionist).

The Mikado original featured Peep-Bo: A ward of Ko-Ko and sister of Yum-Yum and Pitti-Sing. Peep-Bo is the British version of Peek-a-Boo. Peekaboo (also spelled peek-a-boo) is a form of play primarily played with an infant. To play, one player hides their face, pops back into the view of the other, and says Peekaboo!, sometimes followed by I see you! There are many variations: for example, where trees are involved, "Hiding behind that tree!" is sometimes added.

Peep-Bo can also be reversed to Bo-Peep, believed to originate from the 16th century practice of concealment, before reappearing to startle or surprise. See here. Little Bo Peep is a popular English nursery rhyme The earliest record of this rhyme is in a manuscript of around 1805, which contains only the first verse. There are references to a children's game called "Bo-Peep", from the 16th century, including one in Shakespeare's King Lear (Act I Scene iv), but little evidence that the rhyme existed. The additional verses are first recorded in the earliest printed version in a version of Gammer Gurton's Garland or The Nursery Parnassus in 1810.

The phrase "to play bo peep" was in use from the 14th century to refer to the punishment of being stood in a pillory. For example, in 1364, an ale-wife, Alice Causton, was convicted of giving short measure, for which crime she had to "play bo pepe thorowe a pillery". Andrew Boorde uses the same phrase in 1542, "And evyll bakers, the which doth nat make good breade of whete, but wyl myngle other corne with whete, or do nat order and seson hit, gyving good wegght, I would they myghte play bo pepe throwe a pyllery". Taken from Wikipedia. The skeleton on the card inner also appeared to be hanging in the form of punishment, as if placed in a pillory. I suppose the "punishment must fit the crime".

Bearing in mind the newspaper article of Paul Avery, was the Halloween card drawing on the search for Ko-Ko's by its design of inserting Peek-a-Boo around the knothole of the trunk, with the eye "hiding behind that tree"? Was the chalked-up victim count of 4-TEEN above the pilloried skeleton denoting the running total of fourteen, including four teen-agers? The newspaper article of Gilbert and Sullivan Clue to Zodiac may have spawned the choice of Halloween card with the introduction of "I feel it in my bones you ache to know my name. And so I'll clue you in". But did it inspire anything else?

Question marks have always hung over the October 5th 1970 13-Hole Postcard as to whether the author was the Zodiac Killer or a copycat. This article will hopefully go a long way to convince people that the communication was indeed mailed by the Bay Area murderer. The Zodiac Killer wrote the lengthy Little List Letter on July 26th 1970, beginning the correspondence with his intentions for his slaves in paradise, followed by the torture methods he was going to apply, before finishing with the plagiarism of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado, from the Act As Some Day it May Happen. The crucial thing to remember here, is that the Little List Letter was withheld from the newspapers and public alike, so by October 5th 1970 when this postcard was mailed, the author (if not Zodiac} was totally unaware to the contents of the Little List Letter. It is possible that the Zodiac Killer could have been reemphasizing his victim total of thirteen after his previous letter was unpublished, or a copycat could have been suggesting thirteen victims for the first time, unaware that the Little List Letter had ever been mailed. Therefore, this is no help in determining whether the author of the 13-Hole Postcard was the Zodiac Killer or not. We need to look at the wording on both communications back to back.

The first thing to notice on the 13-Hole Postcard is the crucifix and number 13 in close alliance - extremely relevant when we consider the Zodiac Killer using the phrase "I shall (on top of everything else) torture all 13 of my slaves that I have waiting for me in Paradice" in the Little List Letter. The crucifix, a symbol of Christianity and the progression from life on earth to the paradise of heaven, is further cemented by the October 27th 1970 Halloween Card where the Zodiac Killer actually combines all three elements. However, if you are also a skeptic of the Halloween Card, then we need to focus entirely on finding a link between the 13-Hole Postcard and the previously unpublished Little List Letter, both eventually released in tandem with one another on October 12th 1970 in a newspaper article by Paul Avery. Below I have separated the Little List Letter into its constituent parts - his promise of torture, his methods of torture and the search for victims.            

The Zodiac Killer refers to his victims in the plural and in the future tense, beginning his torture methods with "Some I shall tie over ant hills and watch them scream + twich and sqwirm. Others shall have pine splinters driven under their nails + then burned. Others shall be placed in cages + fed salt beef untill they are gorged then I shall listen to their pleass for water and I shall laugh at them". He uses the word "some" to begin his rhetoric, then continues with his Little List of potential victims, sourced from As Some Day it May Happen, beginning with "As some day it may hapen that a victom must be found". Therefore, is it any great surprise that the Zodiac Killer having noted his lengthy communication was not published in the newspapers, would begin the 13-Hole Postcard in the past tense, stating "The pace isn't any slower. In fact it's just one big thirteenth. Some of them fought it was horrible". The last sentence likely referring to the slaves he previously mentioned he was going to torture. 

The Zodiac Killer is effectively saying that he had now tortured his victims in paradice and "some of them had fought". He is telling Paul Avery and the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper he had made good on his promises. This strongly suggests that the author of the 13-Hole Postcard knew the contents of the July 26th 1970 Little List Letter, thereby cementing the notion that the Zodiac Killer was the author of both communications. The alternative, is that a copycat just threw together a random postcard that not only continued the theme of the previous letter accidentally, but was adopted by the Zodiac Killer in the October 27th 1970 Halloween Card and the following March 13th 1971 letter, where the Zodiac Killer stated "This is the Zodiac speaking Like I have allways said, I am crack proof". The copycat scenario proliferated by many, a sensational subplot to discredit certain Zodiac communications and attacks, where no merit for such claims exist. 

The other notable element of the 13-Hole Postcard is the Mon, Oct 5, 1970 attribution in the top right corner. The Zodiac Killer did recite the Gilbert & Sullivan Act As Some Day it May Happen. So was Monday, October 5th the day something happened - and the reason he added a specific date for the very first time?   

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. 

The Zodiac Killer quoted a portion from one of the three stanzas of The Mikado's Tit-Willow, when he mailed the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. This may possibly have been the third correspondence, including the Halloween card, where The Mikado was referenced. The Zodiac Killer began with the Little List letter on July 26th 1970, in which he paraphrased As Some Day It May Happen featuring Ko-Ko the Lord High Executioner. In this letter he was effectively outlining his search for future victims by paralleling his agenda throughout the state of California with The Mikado. If we break down the Exorcist letter into its constituent parts, it becomes apparent the correspondence is a further threat towards the citizens of California rather than a declaration of his impending suicide.

If we take a look at the October 27th 1970 Halloween card and compare it to his confirmed attacks, only one stands out. On September 27th 1969, Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell were relaxing by the shores of Lake Berryessa when a man spotted by Cecelia ducked behind a tree to don an executioner's mask and waistline bib. This theatrical entrance in the form of Ko-Ko the Lord High Executioner has long been suggested as an influence on the Zodiac's actions and writings. Here is an extract from the San Francisco Chronicle on October 12th 1970, just 15 days prior to the mailing of the Halloween card: "It was immediately apparent that Zodiac had plagiarized several stanzas from an aria in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta 'The Mikado'. It is the entrance aria of Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner. A quiet search of onetime Ko-Ko's has turned up none that could be Zodiac. Obvious differences in physical description and handwriting comparisons have cleared all Ko-Ko's tracked down since the arrival of the July 27 letters".

The Halloween card depicted an eye peering from the knothole of a tree, accompanied by the words "peek-a-boo you are doomed", possibly implying the impending threat of the Zodiac Killer hiding behind the tree at Lake Berryessa and his ultimate arrival bedecked in an executioner's outfit. If you look up the definition of peek-a-boo in Wikipedia, it quotes Peekaboo (also spelled peek-a-boo) as a form of play primarily played with an infant. To play, one player hides their face, pops back into the view of the other, and says Peekaboo!, sometimes followed by I see you!  There are many variations: for example, where trees are involved, "Hiding behind that tree!" is sometimes added.

However, Peek-A-Boo was also a character in another version of The Mikado at around the same time as the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. In 1888, Jack the Ripper terrorized the Whitechapel district of London. In the same year of somewhat less significance Ed J. Smith wrote a stage parody called The Capitalist; or, The City of Fort Worth. Designed to encourage capital investment in Fort Worth, Texas, and underwritten by local banks and railroad lines, the two act piece features characters named Yankee-Doo, Kokonut, By-Gum and Peek-A-Boo. Here is an image depicting this reference.     

Peep-bo is the English version of peek-a-boo, and has a curious, albeit likely unintentional connection to the Lake Berryessa murder of Cecelia Shepard, in the nursery rhyme Little Bo-Peep.

​"The earliest record of this rhyme is in a manuscript of around 1805, which contains only the first verse. There are references to a children's game called "bo-peep", from the 16th century, including one in Shakespeare's King Lear (Act I Scene iv), for which "bo-peep" is thought to refer to the children's game of peek-a-boo, but no evidence that the rhyme existed earlier than the 18th century. The additional verses are first recorded in the earliest printed version in a version of Gammer Gurton's Garland or The Nursery Parnassus in 1810. Wikipedia.

Peep-bo was one of the three little maids from The Mikado: "Three little maids from school are we, pert as a school-girl well can be, filled to the brim with girlish glee, three little maids from school". Three young girls from Pacific Union College would feature in the Zodiac story of Lake Berryessa that day, when describing a suspicious individual roaming the hillside bordering the lake - later providing a sketch of the individual. Little Bo-Peep was a shepherdess, so its significance to the name of Cecelia Shepard could not be ignored, although likely accidental. "She heaved a sigh and wiped her eye, and over the hillocks went rambling, and tried what she could, as a shepherdess should, to tack each again to its lambkin".

The Riverside murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966 and the subsequent Confession letter held an odd precursor to the events of Lake Berryessa, when it stated "Miss Bates was stupid. She went to the slaughter like a lamb", along with the widely referenced "She squirmed and shook as I choked her, and her lips twitched" connection to the Little List letter.  

​The Zodiac Killer, after mailing his response to the unearthed Riverside connection, would then go into hibernation from March 13th 1971 until the arrival of the Exorcist letter nearly three years later on January 29th 1974, leading many to believe the Zodiac Killer was likely incarcerated during this period. 

"Taken from the county jail
By a set of curious chances;
Liberated then on bail,
On my own recognizances;
Wafted by a favouring gale
As one sometimes is in trances,
To a height that few can scale." 
Behold the Lord High Executioner Youtube
The Mikado/Act I/Part V

The Lord High Executioner was to return, ridiculin the 1973 film, The Exorcist, yet curiously comparing it to Gilbert and Sullivan's satirical operatic comedy, The Mikado, calling it "the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen".  He then signed his name using the verse of Tit-Willow by Ko-Ko: "He plunged himself into the billowy wave and an echo arose from the suicides grave, titwillo, titwillo, titwillo". The whole letter appeared to be announcing the return of the Lord High Executioner after nearly three years. Here is the Exorcist letter broken down into its constituent parts to reveal its likely meaning.

"I saw and think "The Exorcist" was the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen, even better than The Mikado. Signed, yours truley: The Lord High Executioner. If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing- To Kill". Kevin Robert Brooks came up with possibly the best interpretation of the Japanese/Asian symbols at the foot of the letter, befitting of Ko-Ko the Lord High Executioner. The "This is the Zodiac speaking" introduction was apparent by its absence, as well as the Zodiac crosshairs - but the Lord High Executioner was alive and well, and still making threats.  

The Zodiac Killer teased us with his name on more than one occasion, firstly in the July 31st 1969 San Francisco Chronicle letter where he stated "I want you to print this cipher on the front page of your paper. In this cipher is my idenity". He would follow this up with the 'My Name is...' Letter on April 20th 1970 and the Halloween Card on October 27th 1970 tempting us with his name again; "I feel it in my bones, You ache to know my name, And so I'll clue you in.." ​It would appear however, these were empty promises and we are still no nearer to securing the identity of the Zodiac Killer nearly half a century later.

It always seemed strange the Zodiac Killer would integrate the Gilbert and Sullivan Mikado into his correspondence, leading researchers to believe he was a fan of the theater, having quoted three acts of The Mikado in the Little List Letter of July 26th 1970 and Exorcist Letter of January 29th 1974. But there may be an ulterior motive behind this apparent fascination with Gilbert and Sullivan, in that the killer was using The Mikado to reveal his name - and likely through four mailings rather than the accepted two. We will take a closer look at these four correspondences and the speculative links between them, without claiming this is anything more than coincidence. Let us first look at the Exorcist Letter.   

The first thing to notice is its carefully structured appearance, being divided neatly into four sections of text. The curious thing about the correspondence is Zodiac wrote "Signed, yours truley," as though he was about to offer up his name in the third block of writing. He then recited ​Act II - On a tree by a river from The Mikado. It seemed like Zodiac was wasting our time, plucking out random verses from The Mikado - that is until you read verse three of this particular act. It not only contained a reference to 'name', but pointed us towards 'The My Name is...' Cipher mailed on April 20th 1970. Here is verse three.

Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name
Isn't Willow, titwillow, titwillow,
That 'twas blighted affection that made him exclaim
"Oh, willow, titwillow, titwillow!"
And if you remain callous and obdurate, I
Shall perish as he did, and you will know why,
Though I probably shall not exclaim as I die,
"Oh, willow, titwillow, titwillow!"

Was the Zodiac Killer giving us clues to his identity or name, by leading us back to the 13 Symbol Cipher. This observation on its own is meaningless, so we will travel back in time to the Little List Letter mailed on July 26th 1970, apparently the only other correspondence to contain references to The Mikado. The first section of the Little List Letter pulled lines from  A More Humane Mikado and continued on to extensively recite Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado Act One Part 5a As Some Day it May Happen, performed by Ko-Ko. In the introductory part of the letter, the Zodiac Killer simply boasted about how he would torture his slaves in paradise - but he again did something curious - by selecting just one small section of A More Humane Mikado, despite it being ten verses in length. The same as he did in the Exorcist Letter. He then continued to paraphrase the entirety of As Some Day it May Happen.

The Exorcist Letter, we have shown to have tenuous links to the April 20th 1970 'My Name is...' Letter, using verse three of Tit-Willow. So let us look at the small section of text Zodiac selected from A More Humane Mikado. The Little List Letter read "And all billiard players I shall have them play in a darkened dungen cell with crooked cues + Twisted Shoes".  Why does Zodiac select this small portion? Was this also hinting towards the 'My Name is...' Cipher? When we think of billiard players or billiard balls from the standpoint of America, eight-ball comes to mind, and the circled eights on the 13 Symbol Cipher. 

This is the full verse (right) from A More Humane Mikado. It is actually verse eight out of ten, providing us with the numerical link, as did verse three from the Exorcist Letter. The Zodiac Killer did state on the 'My Name is...' Letter; "PS I hope you have fun trying to figgure out who I killed".

There is however another link from A More Humane Mikado to the alphabetical characters on the '13 Symbol' code mailed by Zodiac.
The Zodiac Killer supplied us with eight alphabetical characters, reading from left to right  A, E, N, K, M, N, A and M. In the diagram below, key sections of A More Humane Mikado are highlighted for comparison to the '13 Symbol' Cipher. Seven letters have been highlighted in green and yellow. This is where we must take a bold leap of faith and consider that the Zodiac Killer chose The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan because it simply contained his name, Kim. Nothing more theatrical than that. 

The green highlighted sections on A More Humane Mikado in reverse, read KIMNAM. If we believe therefore, that the middle eight represents the letter I on the '13 Symbol' Cipher, it reads forward KIMNAM, exactly the same. The remaining letters of the cipher AEN are shown highlighted in yellow. Every letter on the '13 Symbol' Cipher is contained within this section of seven letters. ​The three eights encapsulated his identity, just like the three eights at the foot of the 340 character cipher mailed on November 8th 1969: The Mathematics of the 13 Symbol Cipher. Who said the Magic 8 ball was just for telling fortunes! Additionally, Mikado can be formed using the alphabetical characters on the 20th line of the 340 Cipher.

The Zodiac was keen to share with us what he had in store for his slaves in paradise: "This is the Zodiac speaking. Being that you will not wear some nice buttons, how about wearing some nasty buttons. Or any kind of buttons that you can think up. If you do not wear any type of buttons, I shall (on top of everything else) torture all 13 of my slaves that I have waiting for me in Paradice. Some I shall tie over ant hills and watch them scream + twich and squirm. Others shall have pine splinters driven under their nails + then burned. Others shall be placed in cages + fed salt beef untill they are gorged then I shall listen to their pleass for water and I shall laugh at them. Others will hang by their thumbs + burn in the sun then I will rub them down with deep heat to warm them up. Others I shall skin them alive + let them run around screaming. And all billiard players I shall have them play in a darkened dungen cell with crooked cues + Twisted Shoes. Yes I shall have great fun inflicting the most delicious of pain to my slaves".

The talk of slaves, paradise, pine splinters, dungeons and hanging his 'prisoners' by the thumbs, catapulted me to the Halloween Card mailed on October 27th 1970 and the last Mikado installment. The Zodiac Killer placed some wording around the knothole in the tree stating "peek a boo you are doomed". Bearing in mind that The Mikado opened to the paying public on March 14th 1885, and was hugely successful, running for 672 performances at the Savoy Theatre in London, a British connection had to be sought. The British term for peek-a-boo is peep-bo, and peep-bo is a character in The Mikado.      

The Halloween Card was mailed on October 27th 1970, one month after of the first Lake Berryessa anniversary, and one cannot help thinking the Zodiac Killer may have delayed this correspondence a short time, with Halloween providing the perfect backdrop to 'commemorate' his attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard on the shores of Lake Berryessa, bearing in mind that dressing up in costumes is central to the All Hallows Eve festivities. Before the attack on the couple, Cecelia Shepard noticed the eventual assailant conceal himself behind a tree, before approaching them bedecked in his executioner's costume. It has not gone unnoticed that the Halloween card parallels this to some extent, with eyes peering from the tree and the phrase 'peek-a-boo you are doomed' circled around a knothole in the tree, along with the mask on the skeleton. The author of the card accentuates the section 'ME' of 'DOOMED', lending weight to the thought he was indeed referring to himself as the eyes behind the tree.

The Lamplighters, hailed as one of the oldest company's in the Bay Area, specializing in Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, operated at the Harding Theater throughout the 1960s, and were performing the Mikado in San Francisco in 1969, opening on April 20th. This connection is nothing new, with many speculating the Zodiac Killer could have been a cast member or had viewed the production, prior to his version, when he tabled in the 'Little List' letter on July 26th 1970. But it is equally likely he may have been a theater technician, employed in the area of stage management, lighting, electrics or quite possibly wardrobe, trained in costume design, as a tailor or more specifically wardrobe crafts involving masks and disguises.

In two other correspondences mailed by the Zodiac Killer he referenced three portions of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. In the 'Little List' letter mailed on July 26th 1970 he paraphrases 'A more humane Mikado' and 'As some day it may happen'. On the Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974 he refers to 'On a tree by a river', in what many believe to be the Zodiac Killer's final offering. But there could be a fourth reference to the Mikado production and we need look no further than the Halloween card itself, with two possibilities.
​
In 1888 Jack the Ripper terrorized the Whitechapel district of London. In the same year of somewhat less significance Ed J. Smith wrote a stage parody called The Capitalist; or, The City of Fort Worth. Designed to encourage capital investment in Fort Worth, Texas, and underwritten by local banks and railroad lines, the two act piece features characters named Yankee-Doo, Kokonut, By-Gum and Peek-A-Boo. Taken from Wikipedia. This drew its inspiration from the the Gilbert and Sullivan opera, however, it may be pushing the boat out a little farther than necessary to suggest the Zodiac Killer was either aware, or in any way influenced by this promotion.

One thing evident throughout his correspondence, was his use of the word 'shall', leading to speculation that he may have been of British origin, as the word 'shall' is infrequently used in American English. However, another option exists. As a member of theater production, his exposure to the word 'shall' would have been far more common in the performance of stage plays, particularly in traditional works of English origin, yet he would seek maximum impact when he took it to the next level and started crafting his own scripts.

Peek-a-boo is known as Peep-bo in British culture, being the act of concealing one's face behind the hands or other object, before suddenly appearing back into view and uttering the words peek-a-boo or peep-bo. It can be seen in Wikipedia that many variations involve trees, similar to the depiction on the Halloween card, where 'Hiding behind that tree' is added. See here. Whether or not this a significant phrase to the Zodiac Killer is open to question, but Peep-Bo is a character that features during Act I of the Mikado. Peep-bo can also be reversed to Bo-peep, believed to originate from the 16th century practice of concealment, before reappearing to startle or surprise. See here.   

Little Bo Peep is a popular English nursery rhyme The earliest record of this rhyme is in a manuscript of around 1805, which contains only the first verse. There are references to a children's game called "Bo-Peep", from the 16th century, including one in Shakespeare's King Lear (Act I Scene iv), but little evidence that the rhyme existed. The additional verses are first recorded in the earliest printed version in a version of Gammer Gurton's Garland or The Nursery Parnassus in 1810. 

​The phrase "to play bo peep" was in use from the 14th century to refer to the punishment of being stood in a pillory. For example, in 1364, an ale-wife, Alice Causton, was convicted of giving short measure, for which crime she had to "play bo pepe thorowe a pillery". Andrew Boorde uses the same phrase in 1542, "And evyll bakers, the which doth nat make good breade of whete, but wyl myngle other corne with whete, or do nat order and seson hit, gyving good wegght, I would they myghte play bo pepe throwe a pyllery". Taken from Wikipedia.

Little Bo Peep was a shepherdess, who lost her sheep and went in search to find them. The connection of shepherd to the Lake Berryessa attack via this route would be one hell of a stretch, however, the connection to the theater, with an English slant, still remains an avenue for investigation.

Waiting in the wings, the Zodiac Killer was not content with a supporting role and yearned to have his name in the spotlight, determined to act out his deep seated desire on a much grander scale - but unlike the theatrical tragedies that had gone before him, this one was to be performed on the very real stage of Northern California, with dark consequences. This analysis probes into the mindset of the Zodiac Killer and his influences as the driving force behind the numerous communications he orchestrated over a period of nearly five years, to narrow down a profession that, above all, takes center stage. It has been noted on countless occasions that the Zodiac Killer had leanings toward the dramatic, His early correspondence included part inference to The Most Dangerous Game, a short story by Richard Connell, published on January 19th 1924, as well as several references to the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera, The Mikado, first viewed by the paying public on March 14th 1885. The Mikado featured heavily in his 'Little List' letter, mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 26th 1970 and was resurrected in the 'Exorcist' letter, his last confirmed correspondence, mailed on January 29th 1974.

In the counterculture revolution of the 1960s, a new breed of expressionism emerged, in alliance with the already existing forces of cinema and theater that permeated the San Francisco culture and provided the backdrop for a diverse cocktail of literary and visual freedom.​

He claimed in his Bus Bomb letter of November 9th 1969 "The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them.  I look like the description passed out only when I do my thing, the rest of the time I look entirle different. I shall not tell you what my descise consists of when I kill". He also made a grand appearance at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969, having purchased, borrowed or crafted a black executioner's hood and a waistline bib, emblazoned with the Zodiac crosshairs - but either way, his entrance was of theatrical proportions.

One thing evident throughout his correspondence, was his use of the word shall, leading to speculation that he may have been of British origin, as the word shall, is infrequently used in American English. However, another option exists. As a member of theater production, his exposure to the word shall would have been far more frequent in the performance of stage plays, particularly in traditional works of English origin, which he would seek to take to the next level when he started crafting his own scripts. Embittered by rejection, he mailed his work to the heart of the American people via the San Francisco Chronicle, seeking literary recognition, but sadly only succeeded in creating a tragedy of epic proportions, while hiding behind a pseudonym and mask of sanity.

The Zodiac Killer mystery retains an unfaltering allure, that has managed to captivate a worldwide audience for more than four decades. When people become entranced with the case, there are many times upon reviewing the postcards, ciphers and wording, that the breath of the killer can almost be felt for a brief moment, when you spot something you think is significant, before it is cruelly snatched away. But it does not stop you trying to close the book on years of torment for the victims families and friends, which often has become overlooked in the midst of this tragic affair. Many suspects have been touted as the infamous Zodiac Killer, and most have been effectively eliminated from ongoing scrutiny. Recently however, another name has emerged as a contender for the Zodiac murders, that of Donald Lee Bujok, promoted from previous obscurity to the forefront of the discussion by the detailed and extensive research of Zodiac enthusiast Kevin Robert Brooks, who can claim to have felt the breath of a killer more than most.

But can Kevin Robert Brooks convince us that Donald Lee Bujok is the killer?
As an introduction to this suspect, one must first acquaint themselves with the forerunner to this story, Donald Lee Bujok-Zodiac Suspect, which details the thought processes the killer used in the design of the Halloween card. Bearing in mind the killer is approaching his writings from a rationale different from the norm, the key to cracking his codes may lie in the unconventional thinking held naturally by very few individuals. 

Kevin Robert Brooks also dissects the Exorcist letter and subsequent SLA letter, which he believes are inextricably linked by the word "Kill". It is a widely held belief that the footnote of the Exorcist letter stating "Me-37 SFPD-0", is a reference to his murder count so far. If we believe that his victim total was in any way realistic, then who and where are all his victims, and why the three year hiatus from his previous correspondence? If the killer was incarcerated during this period, then murder on this magnitude is frankly implausible, if we are to believe the Exorcist letter as genuine Zodiac material. Kevin Robert Brooks believes that the reference to "Me-37" is relevant to the age of Donald Lee Bujok, who would have been 37 years of age on January 29th 1974. Donald Lee Bujok was born on July 6th 1936

The strange characters drawn by the author of the Exorcist letter have been rearranged by Kevin Robert Brooks to form the words 'To Kill !" (shown in the image below). Kevin Robert Brooks believes that the dyslexia he has become accustomed to, has provided him with a unique perspective on the Exorcist letter, thereby enabling him to 'decode' the characters at the foot of the correspondence. This unique perspective may have been shared with the Zodiac Killer. Five days later, on February 3rd 1974, the Zodiac Killer mailed the SLA letter from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Chronicle, in which he again emphasizes the word "kill". This may have been a possible hint to the workings of the previous correspondence. Note the similarity of the letter K in both communications, to The Mikado stylism shown above. The Zodiac Killer was widely believed to have an affinity towards The Mikado, a two-part comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, which opened to the public on March 14th 1885, being hugely successful and running for 672 performances at the Savoy Theatre in London.

Donald Lee Bujok's early life was beset with problems. He suffered from a bi-polar disorder - a form of depression punctuated by mood swings - along with a speech impediment, to which in later years he gained some form of control by speaking in a slow deliberate tone However, this resulted in the young Bujok being bullied by other schoolchildren, which created a degree of social detachment.

Determined to lay claim to some meaning in life, Donald Lee Bujok joined the army in 1954 and was stationed at Fort Ord on Monterey Bay. His brief time in the army, according to Kevin Robert Brooks, became pivotal in his later correspondence - manifesting itself in the construction of The Halloween card and envelope, and detailed extensively by Kevin Robert Brooks in a Youtube video.

But another tantalizing clue lay in something Donald Lee Bujok could have retained from his brief spell at Fort Ord, before his medical discharge - notably the writing paper used at the military base.
Possibly the same paper used to author the Zodiac letter mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969, described on page 446 of Robert Graysmith's Zodiac Unmasked. The paper was described as so thin, that the overleaf became visible, and measured exactly 7 and 1/8 inches by 10 and 1/2 inches, identical to the Fort Ord stationary that Donald Lee Bujok would have had access to.

Kevin Robert Brooks, through careful and diligent research, is steadfast in his belief that Donald Lee Bujok is the Bay Area murderer - more confident than ever, that the breath of his killer is the one that condensed in the chill of the Lake Herman Road night of December 20th 1968.