In his very first communications, the Zodiac Killer wrote three letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969, and fully expected to receive front page coverage, demanding "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". After all, he had now committed the murders of David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen and Darlene Ferrin, while seriously injuring Michael Mageau. He again reiterated the importance of publicity when the August 4th 1969 Debut of Zodiac letter arrived at the San Francisco Examiner offices, stating "I was not happy to see that I did not get front page coverage". This trend would continue in the Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969 when he asked politely "Could you print this new cipher in your frunt page", and when the Los Angeles letter was mailed on March 13th 1971, declaring "The reason I'm writing to the Times is this, They don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others". By August 4th 1969 he had killed three, nearly killed another, sent four letters and created a 408 character cipher formed of three parts - but despite this - the two main newspapers in the Bay Area relegated his cipher offerings to page four and page nine in the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner respectively. The Zodiac Killer was probably wondering what more he had to do to achieve the front page coverage his crimes and communications merited. The answer would come sharply into focus, when two days after he announced himself to the world as "Zodiac" - and while he was scouring the newspapers for any progress on his 408 cipher - the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a comprehensive article on the front page of their newspaper featuring the brutal slayings of Kathie Reyne Snoozy (15) and Debra Gaye Furlong (14) in San Jose on August 3rd 1969. The two young teenage girls were brutally stabbed countless times as they picnicked atop an oak grove in Alamedan Valley.        

The father of one of the girls, Glen Furlong, spoke of some unsettling phone calls in the aftermath of his daughter's murder, stating "The individual or individuals who did this either had to be deranged or high on dope or something of that nature, They didn't know what they were doing. It was such a senseless killing. On several occasions people have called and as soon as we answer, they hang up". he said in bewilderment. At the foot of the San Francisco Chronicle article, it mentioned the surviving Furlong children and described the funeral services for both girls (see above). This section of the San Francisco Chronicle publication would be crucial regarding a phone call to the San Jose Highway Patrol by the Zodiac Killer on December 19th 1969 and a postcard mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 13th 1971, both of which were inspired, in part, by this section of the August 6th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle newspaper,

The Zodiac Killer, having created terror in Benicia and Vallejo - and having sent four communications to date - noticed that the Snoozy & Furlong murders received front page coverage, while he received inner-page status. Is it really any surprise that the Zodiac Killer reappeared on the shores of Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969, armed with a large knife and wearing an ominous executioner's costume. Dr. John E. Hauser, Santa Clara county's chief medical examiner and coroner, stated of the Snoozy & Furlong murders  "I've never seen a case with this many stab wounds. You know, I've been in this profession a long time and sometimes I think I'm rather callous, but when I saw these girls, believe me it was terrifying. The Nazi sex mutilations during World War II were nothing compared to what was done to these young girls". The Zodiac Killer had to perform an attack that would shock, so it's not difficult to understand why he ramped up the terror in the manner he did, knowing that a close-quarter attack should secure him the front page coverage he felt he warranted. After the attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard, the Zodiac Killer traveled back up the hill and wrote "Vallejo 12-20-68, 7-4-69, Sept 27-69 - 6:30. by knife" on the car door of the young couples' vehicle. The addition of "by knife" was effectively saying to law enforcement "I've now killed with a knife, do I now get front page coverage like the San Jose murders". The plan worked perfectly, because the Lake Berryessa attack had the added advantage of him being linked to the murders of Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong. Something he would capitalize on in the Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969, when he upped his victim count to seven and added the month of August to his chronological list of murder months.  

The Zodiac Killer knew that just committing an attack "by knife" and adding "Aug" to his Dripping Pen card, he may need more reinforcement to convince law enforcement he was responsible for the Snoozy & Furlong murders, so kept on with the San Jose angle by mailing a letter to the San Jose Police Department on November 21st 1969. A letter that would again promise more mayhem, by threatening a woman in San Jose and force police to instigate 24-hour protection to quell the possibilty of further attacks. But it didn't stop there.

On December 16th 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter from Fairfield to the newspapers, threatening to kill 38 cops by targeting 9 in Sacramento, 8 in Oakland, 8 in Napa, 6 in Vallejo, 3 in Fairfield, 3 in San Francisco and 1 in San Jose. The Zodiac Killer would include San Jose once again. This letter was withheld from the newspapers, making it fairly obvious that the person who rang the San Jose Highway Patrol on December 19th 1969, was the same person who authored this letter. 

On December 19th 1969, the Zodiac Killer again threatened multiple cops, making a phone call to Sergeant Robert Rengsdorff of the San Jose Highway Patrol, stating "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday".  The Zodiac Killer had made a list of cops he wanted to kill on December 16th 1969, but would up his San Jose total from one to five on December 19th 1969, adding that he also wanted to kill a family of five in San Jose (which is very specific}. This is where the San Francisco Chronicle article from August 6th 1969 comes into play. The article heavily featured Glen Furlong, who spoke about his daughter and the unsettling phone calls he was receiving. The article also mentioned his wife and their three children,  by stating "The other Furlong children are Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11". This was almost certainly the family of five the Zodiac Killer was referring to, staying relevant in San Jose, and keeping with tradition by never referring to his victims or potential victims by name. As stated earlier, the relevance of the San Francisco Chronicle article would again resurface on July 13th 1971. 

On October 27th 1970, the Zodiac Killer would mail the Halloween card, upping his victim count to fourteen, but chose to write 4-TEEN as an alternative, to include the only four teenagers he was claiming thus far. Those four were David Faraday (17), Betty Lou Jensen (16), Kathie Snoozy (15) and Debra Furlong (14). Seven months later (probably early May, 1971), the Zodiac Killer mailed the 148 character cipher and letter in response to the recent arrest and interrogation of Karl Francis Werner (18) for the murders of Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong, as well as the recent murder of Kathy Bilek (18) in Saratoga on April 11th 1971. The headlines stated San Jose Student Held in Slaying of Three Girls, San Jose Student Held in Slaying of 3 Girls and Youth Arraigned in Knife Slayings of Three Girls.  Paul Avery of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote "He (Werner) was immediately advised of his rights concerning any statements he may make and legal representation to which he is entitled, the detectives said. Werner was then taken to the scenes of the crimes. Late yesterday he was undergoing questioning. The detectives would not reveal what statements, if any, he had made concerning the killings of the three girls".

​The Zodiac Killer, having invested nearly two years linking himself to the Snoozy & Furlong murders, could now abandon his connection to the two young teenagers, or continue the facade, and now claim all three murders, which included Kathy Bilek. It was either all three, or none at all. His choice became apparent when the 148 character cipher included in his 1971 letter was deciphered. It read "T(h)is (is) the Zodiac Speacking. Why can't you stop me. I can't stop killing. Stop listening t(o) phonys. If this is not on the front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin". The Zodiac Killer was urging investigators not to listen to Karl Francis Werner, referring to him as a "phony". Bearing in mind the newspaper headlines of "San Jose Student Held in Slaying of 3 Girls", it wasn't a surprise the Zodiac Killer was threatening to further "skin 3 little kids", adding in his letter that he would "send a patch of human skin if their was some left over". All three girls in San Jose and Saratoga were stabbed in excess of 100 times, so it doesn't require much imagination to understand the notion of little skin being left over. However, the story doesn't end there. The Zodiac Killer now had to add Kathy Bilek to his ever-increasing victim total. 

This is where the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article from August 6th 1969 comes into play for the third time. An article that probably inspired the Lake Berryessa attack and the December 19th 1969 payphone call threatening a family of five. In the same section of newspaper under the subheading of "CHILDREN", the article detailed the burial sites of both Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong, but only one was the phonetic namesake of Kathy Bilek. The article read "The other Furlong children are Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11. Furlong said he did not know and had not yet talked to Kathy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred Snoozy. Both Snoozy, a carpet layer, and Mrs. Snoozy reportedly are in a state of collapse. Her funeral has been scheduled Friday at 11 a.m. at the Place Funeral Home in Los Gatos. Burial will be at Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz. Funeral services for Kathy will be held tomorrow (Thursday) at 2 p.m. at the Oak Hill Memorial Park Mortuary in San Jose. Burial will be at Oak Hill Memorial Park". It should therefore come as no surprise that the Zodiac Killer would mail a postcard on July 13th 1971 with newspaper cuttings reading "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". Kathy Bilek was murdered on April 11th 1971, in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, near the neighborhood of Monticello. Just nine miles east of the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, sits the neighborhood of Monticello in San Jose. The neighborhood of Monticello contains the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery where Kathie Snoozy is buried. The phonetic namesake of Kathy Bilek. The Zodiac Killer did like playing word games.    

THE HEADLINES THAT INSPIRED THE 340 AND 148 CHARACTER CIPHERS 

The Zodiac Killer mailed the Little List letter on July 26th 1970 setting out his search for "society offenders", but this lengthy communication was withheld from publication in the newspapers until October 12th 1970. Despite a comprehensive article in the San Francisco Chronicle on September 26th 1970 featuring the disappearance of Donna Lass from Lake Tahoe on September 6th 1970, the Zodiac Killer never raised his victim total of 13 from July 26th 1970 to October 5th 1970, when the 13-Hole postcard arrived. He never previously needed any prompting to falsely inflate his victim total in previous communications, yet a month after the abduction and likely murder of Donna Lass from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino, the Zodiac Killer kept his victim total static, suggesting at this juncture he was not claiming the young nurse as victim 14. That is, because he never murdered her. Besides, he would later retrospectively claim he had sought her as victim 12 in the March 22nd 1971 Pines card, while she was still present in San Francisco and working at the Letterman General Hospital by the Presidio.

Donna Lass would have been working as a nurse in the Presidio park in the relevant time period for her to be sought as victim 12. Bearing in mind that the Zodiac Killer was last seen entering the Presidio park after the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969, he knew that by retrospectively claiming he had targetted Donna Lass in San Francisco before her eventual disappearance, it would carry more weight to his suggested involvement in her demise through the Pines card.

The punched hole in the top right corner of the Pines card was never a hint towards her burial location, because the Zodiac Killer had no idea where her body was located. The vague and cryptic phrases pasted on the Pines card were just designed to identify the name of Donna. When the "Sierra Club" was aligned over the Sierra Club of Clair Tappaan Lodge, the punched hole landed over the "Donner" of the Donner Memorial State Park. This was shown to be likely true when a similar pasted card, dubbed the Monticello card, arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle on July 13th 1971, again hinting at the identity of a murdered woman, that of Kathy Bilek. This time, the author pasted "Woods", "April" and "near Monticello" as a clue to her name. However, on this occasion, the sender would actually direct us to a burial site.

Buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose was the resting place of Kathie Snoozy, claimed as a victim by the Zodiac Killer in the Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969. She was the namesake of Kathy Bilek, who along with Debra Furlong, were all victims of the real murderer, Karl Francis Werner. The Monticello card followed the exact pattern of the Pines card, in which the Zodiac Killer retrospectively claimed the April 11th 1971 murder of Kathy Bilek in the Villa Montalvo woods of Saratoga, by pasting "shought victim 21" on the card. He never murdered Kathy Bilek and he never murdered Donna Lass. When Karl Francis Werner was credited with two of Zodiac's previously claimed victims, that of Snoozy and Furlong, he doubled down and more, by adding Kathy Bilek retrospectively in a vain attempt to discredit the notion of Werner being responsible for all three. This belated tactic was used to claim Donna Lass as a victim also, with the Zodiac Killer selecting a time period between the 10 victims on April 20th 1970 and 12 victims on June 26th 1970, while Donna Lass was still working at the Letterman General Hospital for a large chunk of this time. He knew this would add credence to his claim of involvement in her disappearance and likely murder, particularly when he noticed the proximity of her profession to the Washington and Cherry intersection in Presidio Heights.

In fact, the Halloween card, Pines card and Monticello card may have all been retrospective communications, with the Halloween card incorporating the murders of Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong into its design by the addition of two skeletons and the 4-TEEN on the card inner. The Zodiac Killer was only claiming four teenagers as murder victims by October 27th 1970, that of David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen, Debra Furlong and Kathie Snoozy. We know that the Zodiac Killer wasn't responsible for the three victims eventually attributed to Karl Francis Werner, despite him valiantly trying to retrospectively claim all three on numerous occasions. Therefore, we should place little credence to his suggestion of involvement in the untimely disappearance of Donna Lass through the Pines card, especially when he had every chance to elevate his victim total on October 5th 1970. This should give you pause for thought when the Zodiac Killer retrospectively inferred his involvement in Riverside on March 13th 1971, four and a half years after the fact.

It is with little doubt that the 148 character cipher and letter mailed in May 1971 and the Albany letter and cipher mailed on August 1st 1973 were both created by the Zodiac Killer. Neither of the communications were published in the newspapers, yet both have overlapping features in not only the way they were written, but in the style and choice of ciphertext characters in each code. The Zodiac Killer ended his murder count on March 13th 1971 with 17+ victims, apparently updating this total to 37 victims on January 29th 1974 with the arrival of the Exorcist letter. The author of the 148 character cipher letter (which I will now refer to as the Skin letter) claimed he would murder again, stating "I done it 21 times", with the author of the Monticello card mailed on July 13th 1971 claiming he had "shought victim 21". The only communications between March 13th 1971 and January 29th 1974 referring to a progressing victim total, and both carried the same count of 21 despite both being unpublished. We know the Monticello card to be a genuine Zodiac correspondence because of the running theme of the Snoozy & Furlong murders in San Jose, that featured in the Zodiac communications over a two-year period, including the choice of Monticello and the Oak Hill Memorial Park in the neighborhood of San Jose. The Story of San Jose.

For the handwriting aficianados, the capital letter G present in both the 408 and 340 ciphers is noticeable in both the Albany letter and Skin letter, as is the threat of a "next time" and a "next victim". The Albany letter threatens to "start killing again", with the Skin letter threatening "I must kill more". However, all this is incidental when we consider the boxy style of both ciphers and the ciphertext characters the Zodiac Killer chose. Never before had the Zodiac Killer chosen the sun cross symbol, yet it featured in both the Albany letter cipher and the Skin letter cipher. I won't list all the correlations, because it's far easier to show the overlapping features contained in both unpublished ciphers.  

There are the same errors in coding in the 148 character cipher as displayed in the 340 cipher, with the 148 character cipher spelling simple words incorrectly such as "this" to "tis", "speaking" to "speacking" and "to" to "t". He also misses the word "is" out of the introduction entirely. There is also a scrubbed out letter in the 18th position on the top row. However, this time the cipher is created in such a way that no word runs from one row into another, making it 21, 21, 24, 23, 25, 23 and 11 = 148 characters. The revised message, with corrected sections, is:
"T(h)is (is) the Zodiac Speacking. Why can't you stop me. I can't stop killing. Stop listening t(o) phonys. If this is not on the front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin".

The use of numbers in both sequences of ciphertext is evident, as is the use of a sun cross on both occasions. The number 7 in both ciphers is used to represent the letter A. The Skin letter and Albany letter are the only two letters mailed by a potential Zodiac Killer from May 1971 to August 1st 1973. We know of no other certain Zodiac communications during this period of time (other than the Monticello card), yet here we have two consecutive ciphers, both of which use the ciphertext number 7 as the letter A. If these two letters were mailed by two independent authors, then that is one hell of a coincidence. Because we can confidently link the Skin letter to the Monticello card through "21" and the Snoozy/Furlong murders, it is a fair statement to say that the Albany letter is a genuine Zodiac communication.

The best way of confirming the authenticity of potential Zodiac letters, cards and ciphers is to make comparisons between multiple communications, particularly through unpublished mailings which have no way of being copied by hoaxers. The alternative approach, is to just look at the handwriting and make a judgment based on nothing more than letter strokes which can easily be changed by the author. The third option, is to rely on the determination of others and remove independent thinking from the equation altogether.  

FOLLOW UP ARTICLE SHOWING WHY THE 148 CHARACTER CIPHER & LETTER IS AUTHENTIC ZODIAC CORRESPONDENCE 

The animosity of the Zodiac Killer toward law enforcement increased after Captain Martin Lee accused the Zodiac Killer of being a liar with respect to his escape into Presidio park, but at no time did the Zodiac Killer directly threaten to murder a cop until his two Fairfield letters were mailed on December 7th 1969 and December 16th 1969, both of which were seemingly disregarded as hoaxes and never published in the newspapers. The second Fairfield letter was particularly interesting because it actually provided a list of the number of cops he was going to kill in each city, including one in San Jose.

These were now direct threats to murder members of law enforcement. Not only had he never done this before, but to this point, no threats on San Jose had ever featured in any published newspaper articles. The San Jose letter mailed on November 21st 1969 also failed to make the newspapers, just like the two Fairfield letters. Yet, three days after the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter, on December 19th 1969, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer rang police dispatcher Shirley Searey at the San Jose Highway Patrol station issuing two threats that mirrored the contents of the Fairfield letter (despite the fact it was unpublished).

The Fairfield letter, mailed on December 16th 1969, contained the totals of police he wanted to kill. It also contained a picture of a dripping blade entitled The Bleeding Knife of Zodiac. This was effectively an extension of his "by knife" attribution on the car door of Bryan Hartnell at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969, glorifying in the fact he was responsible for the brutal stabbing of Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard alongside the Knoxville Road, as well as the frenzied murder of Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong on August 3rd 1969 in San Jose, which he would ultimately claim by the listing of "Aug" in his running victim count on the Dripping Pen card. The second Fairfield letter was clearly still in his mind (probably angered by its failure to be published), when he made the phone call to Shirley Searey at the San Jose Highway Patrol station on December 19th 1969. He now wasn't threatening to kill one cop in San Jose, he had upped that total to five, more in line with the rest of his list on December 16th 1969. The caller stated "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". The phone call to the San Jose Highway Patrol station and the wording of "you officers", shouldn't leave anybody in any doubt as to where the threat was primarily aimed. Bearing in mind The Bleeding Knife of Zodiac drawing and the focus of the threat toward San Jose, we don't have to go very far to conclude which "family of five" he was threatening.   

The specificity of the threat to "kill a family of five" is highly suggestive that the caller had a particular family in mind. When you consider the caller was directing his threat toward the city of San Jose, take into account the "Bleeding Knife of Zodiac" drawing, his previous claim of responsibility for the Snoozy & Furlong murders in San Jose, and his annoyance at not receiving front page coverage in the Chronicle and Examiner newspapers subsequent to killing three people and mailing his cryptograms, the family of five becomes a little clearer. 

At the same time he was relegated to the inner pages of two high profile Bay Area newspapers, the murders of the two San Jose teenagers was extensively covered in the San Francisco Chronicle on August 6th 1969. The Zodiac Killer undoubtedly read this newspaper article - and it's probably an understatement to say - he must have been immeasurably displeased. We don't have to look very far in this publication to find the "family of five". 

The Zodiac Killer was already claiming the murder of Debra Furlong, so why not claim he was going to murder the rest of her family for maximum terror. Whether the police connected the dots is unknown, but it's unlikely he arrived at the figure of five randomly. If you look at the August 6th 1969 article here, you will notice the last two subheadings of "callers" and "children".
Under the banner of "callers" it describes the frustration of Glen Furlong (father of Debra) to the many annoying phone calls the family received, stating "On several occasions people have called and as soon as we answer, they hang up,"  He said his neighbors were "very sympathetic", but complained he found some of his phone calls "very disconcerting". Under the banner of "children" it lists his remaining children of Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11. With the Zodiac Killer having read this San Francisco Chronicle article (his inspiration for the Berryessa attack), it isn't very surprising that the "family of five" threatened by phone on December 19th 1969 would be Glen Furlong and his wife, along with their three children of Glen, Floyd and Pamela. 

This wasn't the only time the San Francisco Chronicle article on August 6th 1969 inspired the Zodiac Killer. It triggered his switch from gun to knife in the Lake Berryessa attack so as to secure front page coverage. It was also the inspiration for the wording "Near Monticello" on the July 13th 1971 communication, detailing the murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971. The Zodiac Killer very likely kept many of the newspaper cuttings relevant to the time he was operating - and this could have been one of them. What hoaxer in 1971, claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, could have remembered that Kathie Snoozy was buried at Oak Hill Memorial Park in the neighborhood of Monticello, with enough knowledge to have tied together the murders of Bilek, Snoozy and Furlong under one communication. The person who created the Monticello card on July 13th 1971 knew her burial location, because August 6th 1969 was a time extremely pertinent to him. A time when the Zodiac Killer would have been scouring the newspapers for updates on his 408 cipher and whether it had been decoded. The December 19th 1969 phone call to San Jose threatening a "family of five", more evidence that this newspaper article held high importance in the mind of a single perpetrator. That perpetrator being the Zodiac Killer.  

When the Zodiac Killer discovered that Karl Francis Werner was arrested on April 29th 1971 for the slaying of Kathie Snoozy, Debra Furlong and Kathy Bilek, he was understandably horrified that two of the victims he had falsely claimed in the Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969 were now being stripped from his running victim count. He was now faced with a choice of being seen as a brazen liar with his previous claims totally discredited, or continue the facade of clinging onto victims he was never responsible for. He would choose the latter. His response was almost immediate, likely mailing a letter (and 148 character cipher) sometime in early May of 1971, responding to two newspaper articles (one by Paul Avery) published on April 30th 1971 and May 1st 1971. His response was effectively an admission that the "Aug" on the Dripping Pen card was referring to the two murdered San Jose teenagers on August 3rd 1969 (Snoozy & Furlong). Here is the communication:

The 148 character code was deciphered to read: "Tis the Zodiac Speacking. Why can't you stop me. I can't stop killing. Stop listening t(o) phonys. If this is not on your front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin". 

The two newspaper articles on April 30th 1971 and May 1st 1971 covered the arrest, arraignment and questioning of Karl Francis Werner, stating "He was immediately advised of his rights concerning any statements he may make and legal representation to which he is entitled, the detectives said. Werner was then taken to the scenes of the crimes. Late yesterday he was undergoing questioning. The detectives would not reveal what statements, if any, he had made concerning the killings of the three girls". The Zodiac Killer would respond with "Stop listening to phonys", desperately attempting to appeal to the San Francisco Chronicle and law enforcement that Karl Francis Werner was not the killer of the three girls. He was effectively telling investigators to not accept any admissions by Werner because he was the real killer. Up to this point, the Zodiac Killer had only claimed the murders of Snoozy & Furlong on August 3rd 1969, not the murder of Kathy Bilek, which occurred one month earlier on April 11th 1971 in the woods of Villa Montalvo in Saratoga. He now had to face the stark choice of abandoning the two victims he had claimed for nearly two years, or add Kathy Bilek to his ever burgeoning list. He had to either abandon two or embrace all three. It isn't surprising he chose the latter.

The headlines and text in the newspapers usually governed the majority of what he wrote in the communications he mailed. In this instance it was no different, utilizing the three headlines in the two newspapers. The headlines stated San Jose Student Held in Slaying of Three Girls, San Jose Student Held in Slaying of 3 Girls and Youth Arraigned in Knife Slayings of Three Girls. The Zodiac therefore promised to skin three kids if his latest letter was not published. He was effectively saying, give me front page coverage or you'll have another three young deaths on your hands.

The newspapers covered the severity of the injuries sustained by Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek, graphically describing the fact "Miss Bilek was stabbed 49 times with a short-bladed knife", while "Furlong and Snoozy were both stabbed more than 100 times with a similar weapon". The Zodiac callously responded, by not only threatening a further three kids, but by stating that he would "send a patch of human skin if their is some left over". This was obviously meant to suggest that after so many wounds on his victims, he would be lucky to find any undamaged skin left to mail.

The wording in the letter may also pinpoint the exact day this communication was postmarked. The two articles were published on April 30th 1971 and May 1st 1971, the latter of which was a Saturday. Therefore, his wording of "If this is not on your front page in a week" could suggest it was mailed over the weekend and postmarked Monday, May 3rd 1971.

The Zodiac Killer now had one thing left to do - retrospectively claim the April 11th 1971 murder of Kathy Bilek in the woods of Villa Montalvo in Saratoga. He would do this on July 13th 1971, when he mailed the pasted Monticello card to the San Francisco Chronicle with the wording "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The only unanswered question about this card was the reference to "Near Monticello". If we travel a few miles east of where Kathy Bilek was murdered, we arrive at the neighborhood of Monticello in San Jose. The neighborhood of Monticello holds one crucial secret as to why the Zodiac Killer wrote this on the July 13th 1971 card. It is the burial site of Kathie Snoozy, laid to rest in the Oak Hill Memorial Park, and forever the phonetic namesake of Kathy Bilek (although Zodiac would have read the spelling of Kathie as Kathy in the majority of newspapers). The Monticello card was not only designed to suggest the Zodiac Killer was the murderer of Kathy Bilek, but it pinpointed the burial site of Kathie Snoozy and his connection to the San Jose murders on August 3rd 1969. The Monticello card effectively bound the murders of all three girls together. It was a sinister communication, but extremely well designed. This should give you pause for thought when considering the Pines card mailed on March 22nd 1971. When the Sierra Club section of this card is placed over Clair Tappaan Lodge on the north western edge of Lake Tahoe, the punched circle falls over the Donner Memorial State Park. Two names, Donna and Kathy, embedded in two pasted cards under the banner of "Memorial" - and designed as an epitaph to victims he wanted us to believe were his.    

The Zodiac Killer gave directions to two of his attacks on July 5th 1969 and September 27th 1969. In many communications he teased us with his name, although he always either failed to follow through on this promise of a name or we failed to understand the communication. The Pines card was a blend of previous Zodiac activity, but on this occasion he coalesced both, to provide us with the name of the victim he was claiming through a set of directions, exactly as he did just four months later with the arrival of the Monticello card on July 13th 1971. Both postcards supplying a cryptic array of pasted text to identify the victim's name. The instructions he pasted onto the Pines card aimed at the police, whose home on March 22nd 1971 was located at Fremont Avenue and Mono Way on the south tip of Lake Tahoe. It was a simple affair of "passing the Lake Tahoe areas" on the west side of the lake to the "Sierra Club" at Clair Tappaan Lodge on Donner Pass Road. Then from the roadside edge *peek through the pines" to discover the Sierra Club lodge. Once we placed the pasted text of "Sierra Club" over the Clair Tappaan Lodge, the punched hole fell nicely over the Donner Memorial State Park. The entire card designed to intimate he was responsible for the disappearance and murder of Donna Lass, who could be found buried "around in the snow". EIther this was the case, or it was extremely fortuitous that the Sierra Club was located on Donner Pass Road, and the punched hole just happened to fall over Donner Memorial State Park.

The Zodiac Killer by reading the September 26th 1970, San Francisco Chronicle article of Nurse Vanishes -- A Tahoe Mystery, knew that Donna Lass was a resident of San Francisco and worked at the Letterman General Hospital as a nurse, before leaving in June for the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino. Therefore, it wasn't that difficult for him to retrospectively claim he sought her as victim number 12, before the arrival of the Button letter on June 26th 1970 with the victim count now standing at 12. He was clearly intimating he had sought her prior to her move to South Lake Tahoe, having now finally caught up with her. The whole purpose of the card designed to coalesce his activity in San Francisco and South Lake Tahoe under the Zodiac umbrella.

The notion of an author spending a considerable amount of time choosing this particular card, methodically finding and pasting particular text from newspaper cuttings onto the card, and then punching a hole into a preselected position, to then get the victim total horribly out of sequence, doesn't hold any water. Anybody prepared to go to these lengths to design a postcard, to then be accused of failing to notice the innumerable newspaper articles featuring the Zodiac Killer claiming 12, 13, 14 and 17 victims, simply doesn't stack up. Not withstanding the fact, that the author wasn't claiming 12 victims, because he used the past participle of seek (in sought), thereby taking us back to an earlier time.

The Zodiac Killer wasn't responsible for the disappearance and murder of Donna Lass, however, this cleverly designed and thought out card was created to give the impression he was, by suggesting he had trailed her from state to state and wasn't to be denied. Just four months later he would use exactly the same technique when designing the pasted Monticello card. He again retrospectively claimed the murder of Kathy Bilek on July 13th 1971 when this card was mailed. Kathy Bilek was murdered three months earlier in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga on April 11th 1971 - and hence why the Zodiac Killer used the past tense of "shought victim 21" one again. He was taking us back to an earlier time and claiming he had trailed Kathy Bilek before murdering her. We know he wasn't responsible for the murder of Kathy Bilek (because Karl Francis Werner was ultimately jailed for the crime), and so he was very likely not responsible for the Donna Lass murder either. In both cases he attempted to bamboozle us with cryptic text, to deflect from the reality that he had nothing to do with either crime.

The July 13th 1971 Monticello card was the mirror image of the Pines card. It contained a set of clues to the name of the victim it was referring to, such as "woods", "April" and "near Monticello". April was April 11th 1971, woods was the Villa Montalvo woods, and Monticello was the directional clue to her name. Just as the Pines card directed us to the Donner Pass Road and Donner Memorial State Park, this card directed us to the neighborhood of Monticello in San Jose, where another one of his previously claimed victim's was buried. Donna Lass was claimed to be buried "around in the snow", whereas the clue to the name of Kathy Bilek lay buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park cemetery. Not only another victim of Karl Francis Werner, but the Zodiac Killer had previously claimed the murder of Kathie Snoozy by the addition of "Aug" in his Dripping Pen card. He chose the resting place of Kathie Snoozy rather than the burial site of Debra Furlong because Kathie Snoozy was the phonetic namesake of Kathy Bilek.

The Monticello card, just like the Pines card, contained a set of directional instructions which revealed a name - and both led to a Memorial Park. This level of ingenuity and thought, not the hallmarks of a casual hoaxer. The Monticello card was the culmination of a deception spanning nearly two years, but as of August 31st 2020 it has never been released into the public domain.

The Zodiac Killer murdered David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen in Benicia on December 20th 1968, before moving into Vallejo on July 4th 1969 with the attack at Blue Rock Springs on Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau. He had successfully committed two late night attacks on two young couples - and by the time he had mailed his July 31st 1969 letters and cryptograms to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald newspapers - the police were no nearer to catching him. By all accounts, this seemed a rather 'successful' opening to his serial killer career, evolving from the murderer of three into the ominous Zodiac Killer by August 4th 1969. This being the case, why did the Zodiac Killer rip up this template of murder and embark on a whole new path on September 27th 1969, leaving many observers to this day questioning the Lake Berryessa stabbings as a Zodiac crime? Rather than constantly examining the modus operandi between the three crimes and questioning their incompatibility with one another, it may be more productive to discover the reasons why the Zodiac Killer dropped an approach that had worked on December 20th 1968 and July 4th 1969, to now adopt a brazen attack with a knife in daylight hours. Something happened externally or internally to provoke this switch in attack style.

The Zodiac Killer by August 4th 1969 had murdered three people, severely injured one, mailed three cryptograms and written four letters. From the outset he placed importance on receiving front page coverage. On July 31st 1969, his trinity of communications demanded that he received front page coverage, stating "I want you to print this cipher on the front 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". Imagine his horror and dismay, that the highest circulation newspapers in the Bay Area ignored his demands and relegated the cryptic murderer of three into relative anonymity on their inner pages. The San Francisco Chronicle published his cryptogram on page four, while the San Francisco Examiner (had in his eyes), literally spat in his face, by placing their portion of the cryptogram on a lowly page nine. This wouldn't go unnoticed by the killer of three on August 4th 1969, who hastily composed a fourth letter with an imposing pseudonym and uttered his displeasure by stating "I was not happy to see that I did not get front page coverage". We have come to understand the Zodiac Killer as a narcissistic braggart, whose primary objective wasn't the murders, but the publicity they generated. This publicity, to him, meant front page coverage in the major newspapers of the day - not page four and certainly not page nine. 

Just when the Zodiac Killer didn't think it could get any worse, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a front page article on August 6th 1969, entitled The Frenzy of San Jose Girls' Slayer, detailing the brutal stabbing murders of two young teenagers in San Jose on August 3rd 1969. This article arrived just two days after his dismay at not receiving front page coverage. The San Francisco Chronicle article read as follows:

The two young girls, found dead Sunday on a sun-parched San Jose hillside, appear to have been victims of a sexual psychopath, whose blood frenzy led him to "overkill."  Dr. John E. Hauser, Santa Clara county's chief medical examiner and coroner, said yesterday that the girls, Deborah Gay Furlong, 14, and Kathy Snoozy, 15, died in a "frenzied flurry of knife-wounds" inflicted so swiftly that neither gave any evidence of having struggled against the attack. Dr. Hauser, so shaken by the brutality of the crime he could scarcely find words, said the Snoozy youngster had 150 wounds on her back, 50 on the front and a "storm" of punctures on her neck. Deborah's body had about 100 wounds on her back and upper front and a dozen on her neck.

PUZZLE: Dr. Hauser said he was "puzzled" by many aspects of the brutal slaying. He said neither girl had been sexually molested; neither had suffered any wounds below her waist, neither gave evidence of having struggled to escape. Only the Snoozy girl, he said, had one small mark on her hand, suggesting she may have tried vainly to deflect the plunging knife. The coroner said both girls must have died very quickly and he is investigating the possibility they may have been drugged before the stabbing began. Blood and skin samples as well as stomach contents have been sent for further examination to area laboratories, he said. The results should be known in a few days. It is Dr. Hauser's opinion that the multiple puncture wounds were inflicted by one or two small knives, the largest wound the size of a pocket knife with a half-inch blade. "I've never seen a case with this many stab wounds," Dr. Hauser said. "You know, I've been in this profession a long time and sometimes I think I'm rather callous, but when I saw these girls, believe me it was terrifying. "The Nazi sex mutilations during World War II were nothing compared to what was done to these young girls.

INVESTIGATION: So far, according to Chief of San Jose Detectives Barton Collins, his investigators have uncovered no solid clues to the slaying. He said police and sheriff's deputies are looking for a "light colored van—a Volkswagen, a Dodge, a Chevrolet or a Ford" in which the girls may have been killed and then rolled, carried or dragged down the hillside to a grove of snarled, dusty oaks where their bodies were found. Both he and the coroner emphasized that at the scene there was almost no blood, suggesting they had been slain elsewhere. Collins said he and his men have talked to at least 200 people so far, searching for some information that might draw them closer to the killer. Asked if he were looking for a "mad man," Collins, pale and exhausted, snapped: "I'm looking for a killer and it doesn't matter whether he was under drugs or what." Collins did not mention this, but the Chronicle learned that wedged in between the two bodies of the dead girls police found a "new," but empty beer can. There was speculation the killer may have rolled or carried one girl down, then finished off a can of beer, and then disposed of the second body without noticing the can. The scene, not more than six blocks from where the two girls lived with their families in a neat, prosperous subdivision in San Jose's Almaden area, was utterly desolate yesterday. A few small boys on bicycles paused to look up at the tanned knoll, swathed with wide paths used for scrambles by neighborhood motorcyclists, and scurried off. Normally scores of children play in that area, because, in the words of Deborah's father, Glen Furlong, "It's the only open area close by where kids can go to." Housewives living in the immediate area, across the street and around the corner, conceded they were suddenly "very frightened." One mother said that since the murder she had seen some children poking around the scene, and added, "We were shocked. "Maybe their parents don't care. But I wouldn't let mine go up there . . . "

PUBLICITY: Although very close to tears, Furlong said yesterday that he was allowing interviews in the hope that more and more publicity "would trigger something in someone's mind and we can solve this crime." The 40-year old father works at the big International Business Machines plant only about a mile away from the family home. He is a senior associate engineer in the logic design section of IBM and he tried to bring objectivity to the disaster that has befallen his family. "The individual or individuals who did this either had to be deranged or high on dope or something of that nature," he said. "They didn't know what they were doing. It was such a senseless killing." He said his neighborhood has never had any problems, although mahy complain about the noise made by the weekend cyclists. He noted parenthetically that the riders are not of the Hell's Angel variety, but use lighter motorcycles. He said his neighbors were "very sympathetic," but complained he found some of his phone calls "very disconcerting."

CALLERS: "On several occasions people have called and as soon as we answer, they hang up," he said in bewilderment. Furlong tried to control his emotions as he spoke of his eldest daughter — one of his four children. "She was only a freshman in high school," he said, "and this was the first year we allowed her to date. We talked to her about it, and I sort of teased her. She went out with a boy friend a few times — a very nice boy who came over yesterday morning to extend his condolences — but most of her social activities were confined to her school. She was never any trouble." School mates and neighborhood friends of Deborah said the girl, very slim and looking more like a 10-year-old than a 14-year-old, was "just an ordinary nice girl who baby set and had a boy friend and talked about becoming an airline stewardess."

CHILDREN: The other Furlong children are Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11. Furlong said he did not know and had not yet talked to Kathy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred Snoozy. Both Snoozy, a carpet layer, and Mrs. Snoozy reportedly are in a state of collapse. Her funeral has been scheduled Friday at 11 a.m. at the Place Funeral Home in Los Gatos. Burial will be at Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz. Funeral services for Kathy will be held tomorrow (Thursday) at 2 p.m. at the Oak Hill Memorial Park Mortuary in San Jose. Burial will be at Oak Hill Memorial Park.  

The Zodiac Killer, avidly scanning the newspapers for progress on his cryptograms and latest letter, must have been bitterly disappointed that these murders committed in San Jose featured front and center of the San Francisco Chronicle, while his three murders, allied to his cryptic ciphers, were relegated to page four and nine of the two San Francisco newspapers. He needed to switch his approach to murder and hit San Francisco hard.

The phrases of "The Nazi sex mutilations during World War II were nothing compared to what was done to these young girls", the title of "The Frenzy of San Jose Girls' Slayer" and "Dr. Hauser, so shaken by the brutality of the crime he could scarcely find words", must have resonated with the Bay Area murderer. He knew that to generate the front page coverage he so badly craved, he needed to switch from gun to knife in a savage close-quarter attack. However, he needed to elevate the fear by dressing up in a costume with his moniker emblazoned on his chest, akin to the fear the Nazi swastika instilled in its victims. He would also ramp up the terror by using a bayonet-style knife, rather than the pocket knife used in the Snoozy and Furlong murders. This article alone was the driver behind the Lake Berryessa stabbings, and effectively sealed Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard's fate, seven weeks in advance of the crime. The Zodiac Killer, dressed in ordinary clothes, gazed into the mirror and effectively saw the costumed Lake Berryessa murderer staring back at him. His fantasy was taking shape.         

Three girls from Pacific Union College may have been the initial target of the Zodiac Killer as he scoured the hillsides of Lake Berryessa, but circumstances unknown would ultimately change what transpired. Two hours later, an ominous figure stepped out from behind a tree at Twin Oak Ridge and bore down on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard. The Zodiac Killer's fantasy, driven by the August 6th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle article, had emerged into reality. The Snoozy and Furlong murders on August 3rd 1969 were about to be replicated in the mind of a killer. The costume specifically designed and crafted with care, by a man who fed into his own narcissism and who was now on the verge of securing the recognition he felt he so richly deserved. Whether the couple survived the upcoming attack and reported what they saw was incidental - the Zodiac Killer had now satiated his desire to become the embodiment of fear, he viewed as being denied from him and his accomplishments after the trinity of cryptic communications on July 31st 1969.

After the attack on the couple, he made his way up the hillside to the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia of Bryan Hartnell and defiantly listed his accomplishments on the door of the vehicle, but specifically added the words "by knife" at the foot of the message. He was effectively making a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle (and to a lesser extent, The Examiner), "do I get front page coverage now". The Snoozy and Furlong murders, in his mind, had overshadowed his accomplishments at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs, despite the cryptic offerings he had so painstakingly crafted. So he crafted a costume instead and attempted to ramp the fear factor to a new level. The fact that Bryan Hartnell survived the Lake Berryessa attack, inadvertently played right into his hands. The evil, fear-inducing costume he had carefully crafted and labored over, was now the focus and feeding frenzy of a media gripped by this new revelation. The second coming of Zodiac was now complete - and his requirement to converse with the newspapers strangely deflated, because Bryan Hartnell had successfully recounted the details of Lake Berryessa with astonishing clarity and vividness. The Zodiac Killer had now been reborn and resurrected from gun-toting lunatic into the embodiment of evil. This crime also had one added benefit with respect to the identity of the killer of Snoozy and Furlong - and I doubt this possibility escaped the attention of the Zodiac Killer when he arrived at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969.    

In an article entitled Another Grim Message by Paul Avery, a link between the Lake Berryessa stabbings and the murder of the two San Jose teenagers was pondered by both investigators and newspapers alike. The Zodiac Killer had deliberately emphasized "by knife" on the car door at Twin Oak Ridge, and included "Aug" in his victim months on the Dripping Pen card for this very reason. When he mailed the November 8th 1969 Dripping Pen card, he requested "I though you would nead a good laugh before you hear the bad news. You won't get the news for a while yet. PS could you print this new cipher in your frunt page? I get aufully lonely when I am ignored, so lonely I could do my Thing !!!!!!  Des July Aug Sept Oct = 7". The Zodiac Killer didn't need to demand front page coverage anymore, he knew he would get it. By committing the Lake Berryessa stabbings and including "Aug" in his chronology of months, he had effectively planted the seed in investigators minds that he could have been responsible for the Snoozy and Furlong murders in August. He had essentially bought himself front page coverage by piggybacking off a crime he already knew had achieved this status on August 6th 1969.
Just like the threat to pick off schoolchildren and blow up a school bus, the savagery of these two close-quarter attacks demanded he be taken seriously. Whatever we say about the Zodiac Killer, his marketing skills were second to none. He knew how to turn page four and page nine into page one, placing Another Grim Message proudly on the news stands of San Francisco.    

The importance of the San Francisco Chronicle article from August 6th 1969 cannot be underestimated with respect to Lake Berryessa and future Zodiac communications. Who would remember the burial location of one of the victims from San Jose, if not the killer who was so influenced by this very article? Who then shifted from impersonal double shootings at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs, to intimate stabbings at Lake Berryessa. Only somebody invested in murder during the time  period this article was released, would have reason to remember where the two San Jose teenagers were laid to rest. Under CHILDREN in the August 6th 1969 Chronicle article, it stated "The other Furlong children are Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11. Furlong said he did not know and had not yet talked to Kathy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred Snoozy. Both Snoozy, a carpet layer, and Mrs. Snoozy reportedly are in a state of collapse. Her funeral has been scheduled Friday at 11 a.m. at the Place Funeral Home in Los Gatos. Burial will be at Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz. Funeral services for Kathy will be held tomorrow (Thursday) at 2 p.m. at the Oak Hill Memorial Park Mortuary in San Jose. Burial will be at Oak Hill Memorial Park".

The Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in San Jose lies in the Monticello neighborhood, just nine miles east of the Villa Montalvo woods, where Kathy Bilek was brutally stabbed on April 11th 1971 - and who the Zodiac Killer referenced in his July 13th 1971 communication, stating "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". There are a multitude of places in San Jose the author of this card could have chosen, but he chose Monticello. The exact place Kathie Snoozy was buried - and the teenager whose murder he insinuated his involvement in on November 8th 1969. When Karl Francis Werner was attributed with the murders of Debra Furlong, Kathie Snoozy and Kathy Bilek, the Zodiac Killer had the option to recuse himself of all involvement in the two San Jose murders. But that wasn't his style. The attack at Lake Berryessa, the Dripping Pen card, and a whole host of communications involving San Jose had locked him into a lie he was unwilling to relinquish. He would effectively try to reclaim the Snoozy and Furlong murders, by also claiming the Kathy Bilek murder in Saratoga via the Monticello card, as well as calling Werner a phony in another Zodiac communication mailed in May 1971 (shown below). The Zodiac Killer had simply invested too much time and effort into this elaborate facade, that was encapsulated by his theatrical performance at Lake Berryessa. Two years he had lived in a house of illusion - and Karl Francis Werner was not going to tear it down. 

On April 29th 1971, Karl Francis Werner was arrested for the stabbing deaths of Kathy Bilek, Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong, murdered on April 11th 1971 and August 3rd 1969 respectively. Under the title San Jose Student Held In Slayings Of Three Girls, authored by Paul Avery of the San Francisco Chronicle, it detailed the arrest and questioning of Werner by detectives. The newspaper article stated "He was immediately advised of his rights concerning any statements he may make and legal representation to which he is entitled, the detectives said. Werner was then taken to the scenes of the crimes. Late yesterday he was undergoing questioning. The detectives would not reveal what statements, if any, he had made concerning the killings of the three girls". The Zodiac Killer was evidently dismayed and furious that somebody else was being charged for two murders he had claimed in his November 8th 1969 communication, attributing Snoozy and Furlong with the tag of "Aug" on his Dripping Pen card. His response wasn't to relinquish and accept he had been caught in a lie - instead he fired off another communication (with cipher), likely just after Karl Werner's arrest in the May of 1971, postmarked Fairfield, California. 

The wording on the 148 character cipher communication strongly indicated it was a direct response to the above article. The coded section read "Tis the Zodiac Speacking. Why can't you stop me. I can't stop killing. Stop listening t(o) phonys. If this is not on your front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin". His demand to stop listening to phonys was aimed at the detectives questioning Karl Francis Werner. His response to Werner being interviewed over the "killings of the three girls" was to threaten another "3 little kids", who he would kill and make a suit from the skin. Rather than take his medicine of being unearthed as a phony himself, he effectively doubled down, transferring the label of phony onto the real killer. However, he wasn't going to leave it there, continuing to triple down on July 13th 1971 when he mailed the unreleased Monticello card.         

I have yet to discover if the above 148 character cipher was published in the San Francisco Chronicle, but it may be significant with respect to both this communication and the following Monticello card (which wasn't published). The (possible) May 1971 communication stated "I done it 21 times", with the July 13th 1971 Monticello card stating "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". If both communications were unreleased to the public, it goes a long way to inextricably binding these communications under one author. I have no such doubts.

The Zodiac Killer was claiming he had murdered 21 victims in May, yet stated he "sought victim 21" in his July offering. He was referring to "sought victim 21" retrospectively, exactly as he had done so in the March 22nd 1971 Pines card (that mirrored the Monticello card). The Monticello card referred to the murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971, who he had claimed he sought as victim 21. The Pines card was referencing the murder of Donna Lass, who disappeared on September 6th 1970. He was also suggesting he had sought her as victim 12 when she lived in San Francisco just prior to her move to South Lake Tahoe. The Zodiac Killer had employed a similar tactic in both cards, likely too clever for the casual hoaxer.

Additonally, the Monticello card was directing us to the neighborhood of Monticello in San Jose where Kathie Snoozy was buried. The Zodiac Killer was attempting to link the murder of Kathie Snoozy (and hence Debra Furlong) into the fabric of the Monticello card detailing the murder of Kathy Bilek. Not only by the use of location, but by the common link of their phonetic sounding forename. The Monticello card was an extremely well designed communication, harking back to its roots of "Aug" in the November 8th 1969 Dripping Pen card. This story had effectively stretched for the best part of two years. A casual copycat is an extremely unlikely candidate for such intricacy.

However, this isn't the main thrust of the article. The Zodiac Killer mailed three communications from Fairfield, California from December 7th 1969 to (probably May) 1971. The first claimed "I will kill again", the December 16th 1969 communication stated "I will kill more people", with the communications from 1971 continuing with the unoriginal "I can't stop killing". There must have been something in the air at Fairfield. All three communications from Fairfield contained codes, graduating from 5 to 38 to 148.

Another code would arrive with the Albany letter on August 1st 1973, two years later. The question I have to people, is how many hoaxers were writing Zodiac letters from the middle of 1971 to August 1973, which included ciphers? How many hoaxers were creating very geometrical and blocky looking ciphers during this period? And how many hoaxers fortuitously used a ciphertext number 7 to represent the plaintext letter A in their codes? The 148 character cipher from about May of 1971 and the Albany letter from August 1st 1973 were bound by several similar characters, notably, the number 7 which represented the letter A on both occasions, as well as the squares with lines bisecting them vertically, horizontally and diagonally, the stunted Zodiac crosshairs (sun cross), the use of other numbers in the ciphertext (3, 4, 5, 7) and the reversed N (either angled or not). If the communication from May of 1971 was not published in the newspapers (and is very likely the Zodiac Killer), how many hoaxers were still around two years later to produce the Albany letter and cipher with so many crossover points?        

The standard writing on the 148 character cipher and letter, along with the Albany letter, were both a mixture of upper and lower case letters. The author on both occasions broke from writing in capital letters to ordinary handwriting, before returning back to upper case style at random points. The Albany letter also mimicked the December 7th 1969 Fairfield letter, turning "I will kill again" into "I'm going to start killing again". Not unusual phraseology for a murderer, but the interwoven pattern between the November 8th 1969, December 7th 1969, December 16th 1969, March 22nd 1971, May 1971, July 13th 1971 and August 1st 1973 communications are food for thought, when deciding to apply the label of hoaxer to later communications as the easy option. Many of these later communications are routinely dismissed on nothing more than their mailing date. The temptation is to look at post 1970 letters with a more cynical eye, that otherwise you wouldn't when looking at earlier correspondence.

If the Zodiac Killer was a native of the Bay Area and visited Lake Tahoe for recreational purposes such as hunting, fishing and hiking, then had he been responsible for the abduction and likely murder of Donna Lass on September 6th 1970, it seems a logical argument can be made for the killer disposing of his victim in an area he was familiar with. This area would be remote, free from prying eyes and somewhere the killer had previously frequented. Many killers will bury or conceal a victim in an area they feel comfortable spending the necessary time required for such a task, with limited or no fear of detection. If the Zodiac Killer was in Lake Tahoe for the wilderness and rugged terrain, he was probably familiar with the numerous hiking trails that surrounded the lake - and the many secluded areas at night, that would provide the perfect backdrop to bury a victim and lay a puzzle for the police. The burial site would likely be accessible by car, just off a hiking trail he knew well. It would be a reasonable distance from a main road, not too close to his residence, but not too far as to risk being pulled over with a body in his vehicle. The burial site of Donna Lass, as intimated by the March 22nd 1971 Pines Card fits all these criteria, and suggests (if the postcard is being truthful) that her body was hidden on the western edge of Lake Tahoe. The postcard itself, can be further backed up with the accuracy displayed by the July 13th 1971 Monticello Card. For those of you unaware of this correspondence, here is a brief recap.  

The Monticello Card mimicked the Pines Card in the directional nature of the communication. The Monticello Card contained the phrases "in the woods" and "near Monticello", whereas the Pines Card stated "pass Lake Tahoe areas" and "Sierra Club". Both communications provided us with a specific location and directions, and it is my belief that both contained a punch-hole on the right-hand side of the card  The combination of a punch-hole and directions should indicate that both these postcards were designed as an overlay, pinpointing a specific location. The Monticello Card read "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The card was describing the murder of Kathy Bilek, who was brutally stabbed in the Villa Montalvo woods on April 11th 1971 in Saratoga. The location he pinpointed as Monticello, was a few miles east of the crime scene - but more important - was the reason he chose the neighborhood of Monticello in the first place. Immediately alongside the neighborhood of Monticello sat the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery where Kathy Snoozy was buried. The Zodiac Killer had previously claimed the murders of Kathy Snoozy and Deborah Furlong (San Jose) in his November 8th 1969 'Dripping Pen' card by the addition of "Aug" in his running total. The Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery would have sat under the punch-hole on the Monticello Card. This punch-hole would not only be over a memorial park, but over a burial site. The only reason the Zodiac Killer identified this location in Monticello was to reveal the name of Kathy, the namesake of Kathy Bilek - and the final clue to the identity of the murder victim portrayed in the Monticello Card. The Pines Card followed exactly the same pattern, with the punch-hole again falling over a memorial park and the name of an alleged murder victim - that of Donna Lass. When the Pines postcard is positioned over the Sierra Club of Clair Tappaan Lodge, the punch-hole falls exactly over the Donner Memorial State Park. The Zodiac Killer gave us a memorial to Kathy and Donna in both instances.

But was it really that simple? The Monticello clue - although it identified a burial site - was not the burial site of the young woman that the Monticello Card was designed around (that of Kathy Bilek). Moreover, it was a clue to the name of Kathy. The punch-hole in the Pines Card may equally have been designed to give us the name of Donna, but not specifically denoting where she was buried. So, let us take an in depth look at the March 22nd 1971 Pines Card.   

You will notice that the wording "Sierra Club" has been inadvertently or deliberately pinned to the largest tree, as to mimic a "flagpole" or "starting point". Directly opposite (and of equal size to the pasted text) the Zodiac Killer has placed the punch-hole. When the center of Sierra Club on the flagpole is positioned over the Sierra Club of Clair Tappaan Lodge, with the postcard overlayed onto a map, the punch-hole on the right side drops nicely over the entrance to Donner Memorial State Park. But nobody in their right mind (even Zodiac) would have contemplated burying Donna Lass so close to Interstate 80 and the Donner Pass Road. As stated above, the killer would likely dispose of the body with the least chance of detection, away from the major roads, and probably alongside a hiking trail he was previously familiar with.

There is only one route that fits the criteria of "pass Lake Tahoe areas" that runs directly from the south side of Lake Tahoe where Donna Lass was abducted from (Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino), to the area of the Donner State Memorial Park. From the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino, a direct route from the crime scene to remote wilderness, could be achieved by taking US Route 50 and California State Route 89. It is approximately 30 miles from the casino along the south and west side of the lake, to the area I have identified. Furthermore, the area is alongside the Pole Creek Trailhead - a hiking trail the Zodiac Killer may have been familiar with. This location sits directly over the crosshairs of Zodiac on the Pines Card. I have drawn a green line from the location of the punch-hole (Donner Memorial State Park) to the crosshairs on the Pines Card. This green line straddles California State Route 89, with the crosshairs falling a few hunded metres to the west of Route 89, by the Pole Creek Trailhead, along Pole Creek Road. Shown here on Google maps.

This is obviously an estimation to the possible burial site of Donna Lass, but when we "pass the Lake Tahoe areas" on the west side of the lake, this trailhead presents itself. The Zodiac Killer could exit California State Route 89 just past the Silver Creek Campground and travel a few hundred meters along Pole Creek Road. This area offers quick egress from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino via US Route 50 and California State Route 89, and into remote isolation in as little as 40 minutes. More importantly, the Zodiac crosshairs fell over this area when the Sierra Club of Clair Tappaan Lodge and Donner Memorial State Park were aligned with the Pines Card. The Zodiac Killer pasted "pass Lake Tahoe areas" and "Peek through the Pines" next to the Zodiac crosshairs, so it is rather fortunate that Pole Creek Road is just past the Lake Tahoe areas on the western edge, and forged between the pine trees of California State Route 89 (see below).

In the history of cryptography, a grille cipher was a technique for encrypting a plaintext by writing it onto a sheet of paper through a pierced sheet (of paper or cardboard or similar). The earliest known description is due to the polymath Girolamo Cardano in 1550. His proposal was for a rectangular stencil allowing single letters, syllables, or words to be written, then later read, through its various apertures. The written fragments of the plaintext could be further disguised by filling the gaps between the fragments with anodyne words or letters. This variant is also an example of steganography, as are many of the grille ciphers. Wikipedia.

The Zodiac Killer began his letter writing campaign on July 31st 1969, when he mailed three portions of one cipher to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald. However, it wasn't until October 5th 1970 that his communications took on a different appearance entirely, in which the Bay Area murderer began claiming he was "crackproof" and stated "sorry no cipher", with four out of the next five communications (if we include the Monticello Card) employing the notion of a grille cipher. The '13 Hole' Postcard, possibly using a "red cross" decoder (akin to the Dick Tracy red decoder) , to be punctured by the 13 holes on the card and overlayed onto the 340 character cipher. This would reveal the enciphered "paradice" and "slaves" bisecting the 340 cipher both horizontally and vertically along its mid-section.

The 13 holes overlayed onto the 340 cipher in a cross formation, taken from the '13 Hole' Postcard would reveal the hidden arrangement in the 340 cipher (similar to the depiction on the right, although portrayed with yellow squares as opposed to white punch-holes). This was the arrangement already present on the Halloween Card in reveal mode.

The '13 Hole' Postcard has 13 punch-holes in the fabric of the card, the Halloween Card has an eye peeking through the knothole in the tree, and the mask on the skeleton has two eyeholes. Then (if I am correct) we have one hole punched in both the March 22nd 1971 Pines Card and the July 13th 1971 Monticello Card, which when overlayed on a map by the Sierra Club of Lake Tahoe and the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, would both reveal the name of the victim in both instances. The point being, we have a rudimentary grille cipher being employed or insinuated in four communications spanning through October 5th 1970 and July 13th 1971. The arrangement of "paradice" and "slaves" on the Halloween Card, and the punch-holes in every other card during this period, revealing something significant hidden beneath. The name of Donna and Kathy in the two 1971 postcards, and the hidden configuration in the November 8th 1969 340 cipher, derived from both October 1970 communications.

The grille cipher, even in its most rudimentary form, was implied or used through four of Zodiac's last five communications from October 5th 1970. I am completely confident that the Monticello Card is fashioned in exactly the same manner as the Pines Card, separated by less than four months, with the single punch-hole revealing the location of Donner Memorial State Park (Donna Lass) and Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery (Kathy Snoozy) by the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. Two locations, two victims and two names, all bound by two postcards. If these overlays didn't drop over these locations accidentally, then why should the cross design on the '13 Hole' Postcard and Halloween Card mimic the 340 cipher accidentally as well.

Was the Zodiac Killer inspired by the simple Dick Tracy grille cipher, or had he invested in the book The Codebreakers - The Story of Secret Writing by David Khan, released the year before the Zodiac attacks began on December 20th 1968? It is without much doubt, that the grille cipher featured heavily in his final two communications of 1970, even though one could argue that the single holes punched into the 1971 postcards are more representative of an overlay, rather than a decryption technique - yet in every instance, a message was revealed through the punch-holes.

Cragle, a conrtributor to the Zodiac Killer Site forum, brought up an extremely valid connection to the Lake of the Pines development in Auburn, Placer County with respect to the Boise Cascade Company. He stated "As we know Donna Lass was taken from Lake Tahoe, a card was then sent implying that she was buried at Incline Village on the north shore of the lake. Also a Christmas card was received with the quote 'St Donna & Guardian of the Pines'. Now what is the connection, Judith Hakari was abducted and then found near Weimar, CA. Weimar is next to Lake of the Pines. At the time Lake of the Pines was a brand new housing development which was still in the process of being finished. The developers of Lake of the Pines were the very same company that was responsible for Incline Village".  

Western Lake Properties purchased three large ranches to create Lake of the Pines, including the Henry Pilliard spread, which was originally settled in 1860 on 1200 acres, and still had descendants running cattle on it well into the middle of the 20th century. Bulldozers carved into a natural basin of meadows and pasture land rimmed by pine forests and oak woodlands to cut out the imprint of the lake. The reservoir's dam was completed in 1966 and the 230-acre reservoir filled by April of the following year. In 1969, the Boise Cascade development company purchased the project, marketing the lots to older workers in the Bay Area and Southern California. While the developer continued construction on the common amenities, contractors were busy constructing spec houses aimed at retirees who were scaling down, and building custom vacation homes for buyers planning to use them as weekend getaways or future retirement villas. link.

On March 22nd 1971, the Zodiac Killer mailed a postcard insinuating his involvement in the disappearance and likely murder of Donna Lass in South Lake Tahoe on September 6th 1970. A newspaper report in March 1971 stated "the site depicted on the 'Pines Card' was from an advertisement published last Sunday by several newspapers. It was an artist's rendition of houses among the trees at a Boise Cascade Company project at Incline Village, where construction has just begun on the development. While much of the Sierra area is under several feet of snow, Incline Village has only two feet on the ground. Police went to the area to determine if a search is possible'. ​Chief Lauritzen added "There's no point to a search at this time. It's unlikely a victim would be uncovered before spring".
The body of Donna Lass was never recovered in the location of Incline Village despite an extensive search. However, the forum thread created by Cragle may have opened the door to another possibility regarding the Boise Cascade Company.

The similarity between the cases of Donna Lass and Judith Hakari cannot be overlooked, despite the fact the Zodiac Killer was likely responsible for neither. But that doesn't preclude him from claiming his involvement in both, through a link to the Boise Cascade Company. Choosing an advertisement from the newspapers about condominiums, appears a rather banal choice by the Zodiac Killer when we consider the flamboyant Halloween card that preceded it. If it wasn't chosen for the location of Incline Village as the burial site of Donna Lass, then was it chosen to supply a connection to a previous victim, thereby hinting he was responsible for both? If the newspapers could make the connection from Donna Lass to the murder of Judith Hakari, abducted from the Markston Apartments in Sacramento on March 7th 1970, then the Zodiac Killer was certainly not averse to pushing investigators down the same train of thought.

Both Lass and Hakari were nurses, abducted shortly after finishing their shift at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel and Sutter Hospital respectively. How long they were kept alive from the moment they were snatched is unknown, but the suspicious phone calls after the disappearance of Donna Lass stating she had been called out of town due to a family illness, may have served the purpose of buying time by her abductor. If the same perpetrator was responsible for both, could he have traveled Interstate 80 from Lake Tahoe to Sacramento, and therefore was familiar with forest regions spanning both. Judith Hakari's body was eventually discovered nearly two months after her disappearance (April 25th 1970) buried in a shallow grave aside Ponderosa Way. Could her killer have disposed of Donna Lass somewhere in this region? 

The July 13th 1971 Monticello Card contained extremely similar pasted phrases to the March 22nd 1971 Pines Card, stating "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The postcard was referring to the April 11th 1971 murder of Kathy Bilek in the Villa Montalvo woods, near the neighborhood of Monticello in San Jose. The Zodiac Killer chose Monticello for one reason alone - it sat alongside the burial location of one of his previously claimed victims, Kathy Snoozy. He had claimed her murder under the month of "Aug" in the November 8th 1969 'Dripping Pen' Card, killed in San Jose on August 3rd 1969 along with her friend Deborah Furlong. The funeral services and burial of Kathy Snoozy were held at Oak Hill Memorial Park at 300 Curtner Avenue, right next to the neighborhood of Monticello. This is why the Zodiac Killer chose "near Monticello" rather than any other location closer to Villa Montalvo. He was not only pinpointing this location to suggest he had a hand in the murder of the San Jose teenagers, but specifically chose the area by the gravesite of Kathy Snoozy because her forename was identical to that of Kathy Bilek. Not only was Kathy Bilek murdered in April, in the woods, near Monticello - but her name could be inferred in the Monticello card from the Oak Hill Memorial Park burial site of her namesake. The Pines Card may have served a similar function through the choice of Boise Cascade. It was discovered that by placing the Sierra Club phrase over the Sierra Club of Clair Tappaan Lodge (just west of Lake Tahoe), the punch-hole fell over the Donner Memorial State Park.

The March 13th 1971 'Los Angeles' Letter was mailed nine days prior to the Donna Lass Pines Card, so it was equally interesting to find a loose connection in this communication also. 

The Vanishing Point film, which previewed in the January of 1971, had the usual trailers, and was released to the general public on March 13th 1971, the exact mailing date of the Los Angeles letter, presumably authored by the Zodiac Killer. Here is some of the wording from the trailer: "They want to get him and put him away, but there'll have to catch him first". The author of the Los Angeles letter stated "If the Blue Meannies are evere going to catch me, they had best get off their fat asses + do something". The trailer of the film continued with a radio host from KOW reporting the chase "And there goes the Challenger being chased by the Blue, Blue Meanies on wheels". So, was the Vanishing Point trailer the inspiration for the March 13th 1971 Los Angeles letter, with its mailing date deliberately manufactured to marry up with the release date of the film? The Los Angeles letter arrived six months after the disappearance of Donna Ann Lass, who vanished close to the end of her shift at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino, never to be seen again.

The final scene in the Vanishing Point movie was filmed in Cisco, Utah, but in the film it was portrayed as Cisco, California. This is the location that the film's main character, Kowalski, met his death. Cisco, California is 11.7 miles west of Clair Tappaan Lodge, the Sierra Club identified by former detective Harvey Hines as the location depicted on the Pines Card. Cisco was 15 miles west of the Donner Memorial State Park. In another strange quirk of fate, the officer overseeing the conclusion to Kowalski's death after he ran his 1970 Dodge Challenger into the roadblock of bulldozers, was the character Deputy Collins played by Robert Donner. 

The Zodiac Killer linked the Monticello Card to a victim he had previously claimed (Kathy Snoozy) by choosing the location of Monticello - so had he done the same using the location of the Boise Cascade Company developments situated at Incline Village and Lake of the Pines? The Boise Cascade development at Lake of the Pines were marketing the lots to older workers in the Bay Area, which may have come to the attention of the Zodiac Killer from the newspaper coverage - and why he ultimately chose this particular advertisement regarding Incline Village. Lake of the Pines is situated just 4.4 miles west of the burial site of Judith Hakari alongside Ponderosa Way. Was the Zodiac Killer inferring a link to another victim through this advertisement, bearing in mind he had already been linked to the Hakari murder by the newspapers - or is it just a case of finding faces in the clouds?        

Donna Lass lived at 4122 Balboa Street, San Francisco, just west of the Presidio, where she worked as a nurse at the Letterman General Hospital. It was the Presidio where Zodiac was seen entering just minutes after the murder of taxicab driver Paul Stine on October 11th 1969, never to be seen again. On June 5th 1970, Donna was preparing for her move to South Lake Tahoe to begin a new job at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on June 6th 1970, temporarily moving in with Ann and Larry Lowe at 4054 US Highway 50, before taking up residence at the Monte Verdi apartments on 3893 Pioneer Trail Road. Exactly three months later, she would mysteriously disappear at the end of her shift on September 6th 1970. Her whereabouts have never been ascertained, but it is presumed she was murdered shortly after her abduction. Six months later, on March 22nd 1971,  a postcard arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle containing a punch-hole and five pasted phrases - one of which stated "sought victim 12". Many have claimed this postcard was at the hands of a hoaxer because the victim total took a retrograde step, although it should be fairly obvious that somebody who was prepared to cut and paste this card, punch a hole and scallop the edges - who was equally determined to mimic the Zodiac Killer - would certainly have known the killer had already claimed 13, 14 and 17+ victims in his previous four communications. The past participle of the verb seek should have been the clue.

The sister card to the March 22nd 1971 offering, arrived on July 13th 1971 and was dubbed the Monticello Card. It was designed in similar fashion, stating "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The author had once more used the past participle of the word seek, with the slight variation of "shought" - but was again suggesting that the victim had at one point in time been targeted. Kathy Bilek was being claimed by the Zodiac Killer, despite the fact that this murder had already been attributed to Karl Francis Werner. See here for details. 

The Monticello Card was postmarked July 13th 1971 and Kathy Bilek was targeted and murdered in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga on April 11th 1971. Therefore, a Zodiac Killer stating "shought victim 21", would be referring to a victim he targeted 94 days ago. In other words, he "shought" Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971. This total of 21 would fit correctly in the Zodiac Killer sequence, because he claimed 17+ victims on March 13th 1971 when he mailed the Los Angeles letter. Let us apply this template of 94 days to the disappearance and murder of Donna Lass on September 6th 1970, to discover whether the "sought victim 12" would now fall into line with her being targeted in the Bay Area when she worked at the Letterman General Hospital.

If we deduct 94 days from the date of her disappearance on September 6th 1970, we get June 5th 1970 - the exact day she prepared for her move to South Lake Tahoe to begin work at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino. Was the Zodiac Killer effectively hinting that he had "sought" Donna Lass as victim number 12 in the Bay Area, but she had moved from San Francisco on June 5th or 6th 1970, thereby thwarting his plans? The April 20th 1970 '13 Symbol' cipher claimed 10 victims, which wasn't updated on the April 28th 1970 Dragon Card. The June 26th 1970 Button Letter had claimed 12 victims. Therefore, if Donna Lass had been "sought" as victim 12 by the Zodiac Killer, it would have fell somewhere between April 28th 1970 and June 5th 1970. Effectively, we are looking at the preceding month (May 1970) to when she packed up and left for South Lake Tahoe. This month could be pivotal in revealing the identity of the Zodiac Killer through the circles of Donna Ann Lass. Who were her close friends, colleagues or 'admirers' during this short window of time?

Through alliances with the Monticello Card, the Pines Card was almost certainly a Zodiac Killer offering - and therefore inconceivable that the phrase "sought victim 12" was simply a 'schoolby error' on behalf of the killer. Equally, a copycat with even the remnants of a brain, couldn't have made such a nonsensical mistake having made all the effort to mimic a Zodiac Killer communication in the first place. It wasn't like he was short of newspaper coverage. The retrograde step of the victim count to 12, in combination with the past tense of "sought" certainly wasn't a mistake - it was chosen for purpose. Possibly the day the Zodiac Killer's plans were scuppered as Donna Lass upped sticks and headed out of state to South Lake Tahoe.

Serial killer Karl Francis Werner may have found himself in the ignominious position of not only having been considered brieifly as a contender for being the Zodiac Killer, as well as the man who inspired the Zodiac Killer to his Lake Berryessa attack on September 27th 1969, but also the man who ultimately brought down the Zodiac Killer and ended his reign of terror, when he was booked for the murders of Kathy Snoozy, Deborah Furlong and Kathy Bilek on April 29th 1971. However, none of this would have been possible if it wasn't for the keen observations of park ranger Ken Williamson at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga. This man noticed that the bespectacled Werner was attending the Villa Montalvo park and woods by himself virtually every day, until such time as Kathy Bilek's brutally stabbed body was discovered down a ravine in the woods. Finding this particularly suspicious, park ranger Williamson took it upon himself to track down the man known only to him as Karl and the search began in earnest. Knowing he was a college student due to previous interactions with the young man, he visited the nearby campus and traced the vehicle he remembered Werner driving, and subsequently noted the vehicle's registrtion. This information and the excellent observation skills of Ken Williamson gave police the vital lead, that ultimately led to the capture and conviction of serial predator Karl Francis Werner. Without the astute detective work of this observant park ranger, there is no doubt whatsoever that other girls and women would have lost their lives to this heartless killer. Werner (69) is currently incarcerated at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville    

Ken Williamson may also be responsible for the premature end of the Zodiac Killer's letter writing campaign that year. By the October of 1971, the Zodiac Killer had mailed two cards and two letters that year (one including a cipher), but it was the fifth and final communication of 1971 that may have been the elusive DMV letter, which finally exposed a killer for claiming the murders of victims he wasn't responsible for. He intimated he murdered Snoozy and Furlong by the inclusion of "Aug" in the November 8th 1969 'Driping Pen' card, and also claimed the murder of Kathy Bilek in the July 13th 1971 'Montcello' card, despite the fact that Karl Francis Werner had already been charged with all three murders. The Zodiac Killer was driven to claim the Bilek murder from Werner, because for nearly two years he had laid claim to Werner's other two victims (Snoozy and Furlong). This, in essence, is what drove him to reply to a 1971 San Francisco Chronicle article by Paul Avery regarding the questioning by police of Karl Francis Werner. The Zodiac wrote to the Chronicle stating "Stop listening t(o) phonys. If this is not on your front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin". In other words, don't listen to Werner, I killed those three females. The threat of a further three kids doesn't require explanation - the correlation is there to see.   

None of these events would have transpired but for the diligence of Ken Williamson, who would ultimately inspire the last puff of defiant hot air from the Zodiac Killer before he was shamed and discredited into anonymity. He may have got away with claiming the abduction of Kathleen Johns, the murder of Richard Radetich and the disappearance of Donna Lass by virtue that none of these crimes had been solved. He was gifted the murder of Cheri Jo Bates by the column inches of Paul Avery - and not surprisingly accepted this gift with open arms, before throwing in a few more unnamed murders for good measure. None of which he revealed any information only pertinent to him and the police. He was only too willing to supply extra details in the July and August of 1969, make phone calls to the police after his second and third attack, write on a car door by a lake and send a bloody piece of shirt to the San Francisco Chronicle - yet any evidence thereafter was sadly lacking.

The dying fumes of the Zodiac Killer may have transpired in the latter months of 1971, or early months of 1972, when the Zodiac Killer was driven to communicate to the chairman of the DMV in Sacramento. A communication facilitated by the excellent work of Ken Williamson, whose 'vehicle license plate' details of Karl Francis Werner, resulted in the police identifying the home address of Werner at Shawnee Lane in San Jose and his eventual arrest. Bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer had directly and indirectly included San Jose in a total of five communications to date, with two consecutive ones in 1971, then it wouldn't be too surprising if the one mailed to the DMV in Sacramento (likely in the November or December of 1971) had a San Jose connection also.        

In October 1971, a magazine publication entitled 'True Detective' comprehensively featured the murders of Kathy Snoozy, Deborah Furlong and Kathy Bilek, stating "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".

The Zodiac Killer, probably in one last throw of the dice, sent a letter to the chairman of the DMV in a desperate attempt to reclaim some lost pride. It likely read as follows "I am the murderer of the two kids in San Jose in August and the girl on the 11th of April near the park in Saratoga. I drove away quite slowly from both crime scenes so as not to draw attention to my car. Stop listening to phonys". Yet, on this occasion he couldn't supply any extra details known only to him and the police, finally bringing the Zodiac Killer's unabated fortune of claiming unsolved crimes to a crashing halt - and thereby exposing him as the real phony that many suspected he always was. The Zodiac Killer's race was run - and Ken Williamson was the architect in his unthroning.    

Using some material from previous articles, here we will show how the March 22nd 1971 Pines postcard was designed to pinpoint the name of Donna Lass by overlaying it on a map. That location being the Donner Memorial State Park. The reason I believe this was the meaning behind the Pines card, is because the Zodiac Killer mailed an extremely similar card just under 4 months later. The Monticello postcard was postmarked July 13th 1971, also containing pasted words on its face with familiar language. These postcards were designed with respect to Donna Lass, who disappeared from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970, and Kathy Bilek, who was murdered in the Villa Montalvo woods on April 11th 1971.  ​

The Pines card: [1] Sierra Club [2] Sought Victim 12 [3] Peek through the pines' [4] pass Lake Tahoe areas [5] around in the snow.
The Monticello card: [1] Near Monticello [2] Shought Victims 21 [3] In the woods [4] Dies April. 

​It is my belief that the Monticello card, not only had some woods or trees on its face, but may have had a punch-hole in the top right corner, exactly like the Pines card. Both of these punch-holes designed to sit over the locations that inferred the name of two victims claimed by the Zodiac Killer, however, not Kathy Bilek, despite the postcard being designed with her in mind. Both postcards contain helpful directions, which both lead to a memorial for two claimed Zodiac victims. It may be helpful to read a previous article entitled The Story of San Jose, before proceeding. 

The following is an excerpt from the unreleased 120-page Harvey Hines report, regarding his investigation into the missing Donna Lass: "After studying the card, I drove to Nordin, located on old Highway 40, north of Lake Tahoe, and found the SIERRA CLUB. I learned the club was not called the Sierra Club. It was named the Claire Tappaan Lodge and it was a private club for Sierra Club members only. I believed if I followed the directions on the postcard I would find Donna Lass' grave. I believe she was buried near the Sierra Club and most likely on the Donner Ski Ranch". 

​I believe Harvey Hines had the right idea, because Donner Ski Ranch is directly in line on the east-west axis with Clair Tappaan Lodge, exactly as "Sierra Club" is with the punch-hole on the Pines card. But I have reached the conclusion that the location isn't the Donner Ski Ranch, rather the Donner Memorial State Park. The reason lies in the wording "Donner Memorial", a bleak reference to her disappearance and likely death. If we "pass the Lake Tahoe areas" traveling west, we do reach the "Sierra Club" of Clair Tappaan Lodge highlighted by Harvey Hines. If we now position the Pines card into place over a map, it can be seen that "Sierra Club" sits over Clair Tappaan Lodge (which can be seen from the road if we "peek through the pines"), and the punch-hole sits directly over the Donner Memorial State Park.  

I have now designed the Monticello card to what I believe it probably looks like. Using exactly the same process as the Pines card, we now have to follow its directions. In this instance, we know the murder victim referenced in the postcard was Kathy Bilek, murdered in April, in the woods, near Monticello (because the neighborhood of Monticello is 9 miles east of the Villa Montalvo woods). So (if it exists) what would the punch-hole in the top right corner of the Monticello card be directing us to in this instance? It is another clue to the identity of the murdered victim of Kathy Bilek in the Monticello card - by association with a previously claimed Zodiac victim.

​If the Monticello card is to stay true to the Pines card, then the punch-hole must fall over another "memorial" with a potential name. The Pines card sat over a "Donner Memorial", so the Monticello card must sit over a "Kathy Memorial". Using the same technique as above, we will place the location of "near Monticello" over Villa Montalvo woods (because it's situated near Monticello). The punch-hole in my design would now sit over the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose, where Kathy Snoozy is buried. The Zodiac Killer claimed the murders of Kathy Snoozy and Deborah Furlong in the November 8th 1969 Dripping Pen card as "Aug". This was the final clue in the Monticello card, giving us the forename of Kathy Bilek by association with Kathy Snoozy, allied with the word "memorial" once again.   

Bringing together several articles to paint the entire picture, I would like to tell you a little story about San Jose and the major impact it had on the actions of the Zodiac Killer spanning just over two years. The attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969, inextricably linked to Debra Gaye Furlong (14) and Kathie Ann Snoozy (15), two young girls who were found murdered on August 3rd 1969 in the Bay Area of San Jose. The man ultimately convicted for these two murders in 1971, Karl Francis Werner, was the trigger behind the attack at Lake Berryessa. 

The Zodiac Killer had successfully murdered three and seriously injured one person by the time he mailed his trinity of July 31st 1969 letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald. He then presented codebreakers with the extremely unusual challenge of deciphering three parts of one cipher from the hand of a serial killer, demanding that he receive front page coverage for his efforts. The three communications and three murders, in his mind, warranted the full attention of the American public when he wrote "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 front 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".  

The two major news publications, the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, dismissed his demands by only publishing his offerings on page four and nine respectively. The Zodiac Killer's disdain was immediate, when on August 4th 1969 he presented us with his sinister pseudonym "This is the Zodiac Speaking" in a follow-up letter, that concluded with "I was not happy to see that I did not get front page coverage". But imagine his horror, when two days later the San Francisco Chronicle (August 6th 1969) ran a comprehensive front page article about the murders of Debra Gaye Furlong and Kathie Ann Snoozy in San Jose. Here is an excerpt:

The two young girls, found dead Sunday on a sun-parched San Jose hillside, appear to have been victims of a sexual psychopath, whose blood frenzy led him to "overkill". Dr. John E. Hauser, Santa Clara county's chief medical examiner and coroner, said yesterday that the girls, Deborah Gay Furlong, 14, and Kathy Snoozy, 15, died in a "frenzied flurry of knife-wounds" inflicted so swiftly that neither gave any evidence of having struggled against the attack. Dr. Hauser, so shaken by the brutality of the crime he could scarcely find words, said the Snoozy youngster had 150 wounds on her back, 50 on the front and a "storm" of punctures on her neck. Deborah's body had about 100 wounds on her back and upper front and a dozen on her neck. Dr. Hauser said he was "puzzled" by many aspects of the brutal slaying. He said neither girl had been sexually molested; neither had suffered any wounds below her waist, neither gave evidence of having struggled to escape. Only the Snoozy girl, he said, had one small mark on her hand, suggesting she may have tried vainly to deflect the plunging knife. The coroner said both girls must have died very quickly and he is investigating the possibility they may have been drugged before the stabbing began. Blood and skin samples as well as stomach contents have been sent for further examination to area laboratories, he said. The results should be known in a few days. It is Dr. Hauser's opinion that the multiple puncture wounds were inflicted by one or two small knives, the largest wound the size of a pocket knife with a half-inch blade. "I've never seen a case with this many stab wounds," Dr. Hauser said. "You know, I've been in this profession a long time and sometimes I think I'm rather callous, but when I saw these girls, believe me it was terrifying. "The Nazi sex mutilations during World War II were nothing compared to what was done to these young girls.     

The Zodiac Killer must have been incensed that despite his brutal murder of three people during the holiday season, followed by his cryptic correspondences, he failed to achieve front page coverage from the Chronicle or the Examiner, despite threatening another dozen victims over the weekend. The only difference, he must have surmised, was the method of attack and the horror that such an intimate attack with a bladed instrument on two young girls had engendered in the psyche of the newspapers and public at large. The Zodiac Killer knew at this moment he had to ratchet up his attacks and get up close and personal with the use of a knife. But this wouldn't be any ordinary attack - he would dress up in an executioner's costume and hunt for young girls armed with a 12-inch knife - not "a pocket knife with a half-inch blade". Although Karl Francis Werner's capture was two years in the making, he was the absent agent behind the attack on Bryan Hartnell and murder of Cecelia Shepard just seven weeks later. Without the murders of Debra Gaye Furlong and Kathie Ann Snoozy on August 3rd 1969, it can be argued the attack at Lake Berryessa would never have taken place.

No surprise then, that the Zodiac Killer wanted to outdo the August 3rd 1969 murders, by setting his sights on three young girls from Pacific Union College as they sunbathed on the shores of Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969. Three murders with a 12-inch bladed knife would definitely have done the trick. But something clearly thwarted this attack and two hours later he focused in on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard, determined not to be denied and secure his front page coverage. After the sixteen strikes into the young couple, he retreated and traveled back up the hill to lay claim to this attack as the Zodiac Killer. After writing the dates of his previous two attacks and this one on the car door of Bryan Hartnell, he emphasized the words "by knife" at the foot of the message. The Zodiac Killer was effectively saying "do I get front page coverage now". The brutal knife attack, he hoped, would get the recognition akin to the murders of Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong. Not only did he get the recognition, but it had an added benefit of the newspapers considering the possibility of his involvement in the Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong murders. This certainly didn't escape his attention.    

Six weeks later he duly obliged by slipping in "Aug" into his confirmed murder count when mailing the 'Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969, bumping up his total to seven victims. The Lake Berryessa attack "by knife" had effectively secured him two more victims by association. But to cement his perceived involvement in the San Jose murders, he had to strike while the iron was hot.

On November 21st 1969 he mailed a threatening letter to the San Jose Police Department beginning with the words "There's no doubt I will do my Thing!". The letter initiated this response: 'For the information of the Bureau and Sacramento, after a cursory analysis, officers of the San Jose, California PD, believe widow in message may be Mrs (redacted), San Jose, California. San Jose PD instituting 24 hour surveillance on Mrs (redacted).' It is clear that this woman had some connection to the Snoozy and Furlong murders, and by the Zodiac Killer interjecting himself into the San Jose investigation, he was attempting to solidify the notion of his involvement in them. Bearing in mind this letter was mailed to the San Jose Police Department and their response to secure the woman's safety, it isn't too surprising that the Zodiac Killer would threaten to murder a San Jose policeman in the Fairfield letter mailed a month later, on December 16th 1969. The Zodiac Killer thought he had now successfully cemented his claim to the Snoozy and Furlong murders. His choice of switching from gun to knife had paid dividends. My guess, is he was banking on these murders never being solved.

Imagine the Zodiac Killer's dismay in late April of 1971, when his plans lay in tatters, upon the arrest of Karl Francis Werner for the April 11th 1971 murder of Kathy Bilek at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, as well as the murders of Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong in San Jose two years earlier, on August 3rd 1969. The Zodiac Killer would eventually be exposed as a fraud - caught in the act of claiming somebody else's victims at last. He reacted forthwith, by mailing two communications to the San Francisco Chronicle in the middle of 1971. 

In the first, he was trying vainly to convince us that he was in fact the murderer of all three girls (Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek) by claiming that Karl Francis Werner was the fraud or phony. Paul Avery, arch nemesis of Zodiac, wrote an article on April 30th 1971 detailing the capture of Werner. The newspaper article stated "He (Werner) was immediately advised of his rights concerning any statements he may make and legal representation to which he is entitled, the detectives said. Werner was then taken to the scenes of the crimes. Late yesterday he was undergoing questioning. The detectives would not reveal what statements, if any, he had made concerning the killings of the three girls". 

The Zodiac Killer responded sometime after he read this article (probably in the month of May 1971), mailing a 148 character cipher stating "Tis the Zodiac Speacking. Why can't you stop me. I can't stop killing. Stop listening t(o) phonys. If this is not on your front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin". In this correspondence he claimed his victim count was 21, by writing "I done it 21 times". This, in accordance with his claimed victim count of 17+ in the March 13th 1971 'Los Angeles' letter. We can ascertain that this communication was mailed around the middle of 1971, because he fired off a second correspondence a short time later. The correspondence about to be discussed was withheld from newspaper publication (as was the 148 character cipher), so the fact that both contained a victim count of 21 and mailed in close proximity to one another, should be enough to consider both being mailed by the Zodiac Killer. The second communication we will show, is not only trying to claim the murder of Kathy Bilek - again attempting to show that Karl Francis Werner was a phony - but is also linking itself to the murders of Snoozy and Furlong.    

On July 13th 1971 a pasted card was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle with the words "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". Many have speculated on the location mentioned in the card as "Monticello" in Napa County, California, because of the Lake Berryessa attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard on September 27th 1969. It has been further speculated on whether "April" was a woman's name or the month of the alleged murder. After a comprehensive review of all the information, I believe the woman's identity, labelled as victim number 21, can finally be revealed, along with the exact location of Monticello. 

On Sunday, April 11th 1971, 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, although her killer had taken care to avoid stabbing her breasts. Her murder was also attributed to Karl Francis Werner. Wikipedia. The brutal murder of Kathy Bilek would again be claimed by 'Zodiac', not only in the Monticello card, but in another Zodiac letter, also mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle just before the Monticello card. Kathy Bilek was murdered in "April", exactly as mentioned in the Monticello card, and "in the woods" at Villa Montalvo (a wooded section of the park). Saratoga is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is located on the west side of the Santa Clara Valley, directly west of San Jose, The appearance of San Jose once again. ​ ​

It was easy to get sidelined into believing Monticello was referring to Napa County, because the town was completely covered by Lake Berryessa, the site of Zodiac's third attack. However, the "Monticello" the author is referring to in the pasted card, is again in San Jose. Monticello is a neighborhood in San Jose, California, just over 9 miles east of Villa Montalvo, the site of Kathy Bilek's murder. ​In other words, the author of the card was saying "I killed Kathy Bilek near Monticello, in the Villa Montalvo woods in April". ​To view the proximity of Monticello to Villa Montalvo click here.

The Monticello card stated "Shought victims 21", referring to the Kathy Bilek murder, whereas, in the 148 character cipher, the author was claiming he had already "done it 21 times." The Monticello card was never released to the newspapers or public, so bearing in mind these two communications were both likely mailed at approximately the same time, there is a high probability they were mailed by the Zodiac Killer.

"I killed Kathy Bilek near Monticello, in the Villa Montalvo woods in April".
"Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April".

The ​November 8th 1969 'Dripping Pen' card would not be the only communication insinuating his involvement in the murder of Debra Gaye Furlong and Kathie Ann Snoozy, when the Monticello card arrived just over 20 months later, on July 13th 1971. The San Francisco Police Department had reason enough to place the Monticello card in 'suspected Zodiac correspondence' when searching for traces of DNA on potential Zodiac communications, indicating the high regard it was held in.

It is with little doubt that Karl Francis Werner was responsible for the murder of Debra Furlong, Kathie Snoozy and Kathy Bilek in 1969 and 1971, but the overarching question is, why did the Zodiac Killer describe the location of Kathy Bilek's body as "near Monticello"? The neighborhood of Monticello is 9 miles east of Villa Montalvo. Why did the Zodiac Killer choose to pinpoint this particular location, rather than any other neighborhood in between Monticello and Villa Montalvo? He could have pasted "near Willow Glen", "near Oster", "near Carlton", or any other location closer than Monticello. It is arguable that he chose this particular location for a specific reason.   ​

Tom Voigt, creator of the hugely successful Zodiackiller.com website has sought a potential Zodiac letter, described as the DMV letter. On his message board he stated "While I don't yet have as many details as I would like, at some point the Zodiac wrote a letter to the chairman of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in California. The letter was authenticated, apparently via handwriting, and was kept quiet for reasons unknown". None of the following can be definitively proven, but I will attempt to expand on this elusive correspondence based on the limited information we have, and use the propensity of the Zodiac Killer to respond to newspaper and magazine articles against him. We know he closely followed anything that was written about him and often replied in kind. With that said, it is possible the DMV letter was mailed to the chairman of the Department of Motor Vehicles because he read an article referencing this department. If the letter was addressed to the chairman, it is very likely the letter was addressed to the headquarters of the DMV in Sacramento. What we now have to do, is tie the Sacramento DMV to a Zodiac crime, or a crime claimed by Zodiac, written in a publication that the Zodiac Killer had reason to read - who subsequently got upset because it portrayed him as a liar and a fraud. It therefore follows, that it is highly unlikely to be a polite correspondence from the Bay Area killer. Based on the above, I believe the DMV letter was mailed in the October or November of 1971.

As early as November 8th 1969 the Zodiac Killer was claiming the murders Debra Gaye Furlong (14) and Kathie Ann Snoozy (15), who were found murdered on August 3rd 1969 in the Bay Area of San Jose. This was his "Aug" on the 'Dripping Pen' card. He would later insinuate his involvement in the murder of Kathy Bilek (18), murdered in the woods of Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, due west of San Jose. On July 13th 1971, a potential Zodiac communication arrived in the form of a pasted card. It read "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The author of the card was detailing the murder of Kathy Bilek in the woods of Villa Montalvo on April 11th 1971, just 9 miles from the neighborhood of Monticello in San Jose. He chose this neighborhood because it encompassed the Oak Hill Memorial Park at 300 Curtner Avenue. The cemetery where the body of Kathie Ann Snoozy lay - and chosen to hint at the forename "Kathy", pertaining to Kathy Bilek.

​Assuming these communications were mailed by the Bay Area murderer, it would be fairly obvious that the Zodiac Killer was following the San Jose murders closely from August 3rd 1969, through his 'Dripping Pen' card of November 8th, to the eventual murder of Kathy Bilek, and up to his correspondences in the middle of 1971. Therefore, it would be no great surprise if he continued to monitor any newspaper or magazine articles regarding the murders of the three young females. ​

In October 1971, a magazine publication entitled 'True Detective' comprehensively featured the murders of Kathie Snoozy, Debra 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." 

The Zodiac Killer, having previously mailed two communications (Monticello card and 148 character cipher) referencing the murder of Kathy Bilek and the victim total of 21, may very likely have fired off a third communication, this time to the Department of Motor Vehicles in Sacramento after reading these two paragraphs. As this magazine article was published in October of 1971, the DMV letter may have been postmarked with the latter months of that year - possibly October, November or December. The compunction of the Zodiac Killer in claiming, or interjecting himself into the middle of these murders, may have been the driver behind his contact with the chairman of the DMV. The content of this communication is unknown, but I guess he is continuing the menacing theme of his previous two correspondences, suggesting the identification of the vehicle belonging to Karl Francis Werner is somehow another red herring and threatening more murder and mayhem.