Four months had elapsed between the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969 and the Z13 code on April 20th 1970, so what (if anything} inspired the Zodiac Killer to mail this most recent letter in April? For a long time I believed it was the newspaper coverage of Robert Salem's murder in San Francisco on the same day this letter was postmarked. However, this communication appeared like a response to a challenge laid down by Professor Donald C. B. Marsh, who told the San Francisco Examiner on October 22nd 1969 that "The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts. He knows, to quote Edgar Allan Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name - in cipher code - would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated - which will truly and honestly include his name". See article.

The newspaper story was entitled "Cipher Expert Dares Zodiac to Tell Name", so it seemed that this letter stating "My name is" was the Zodiac Killer's response to the challenge six months earlier. But why would the killer of five have waited half a year to deliver his response? Was there something significant about the data of April 20th? The challenge by Marsh and the invocation of Edgar Allan Poe's name, can be seen as a subtle prompt by Marsh to direct Zodiac down the path of encryption using techniques featured by Poe, thereby making any subsequent solve easier. It may have worked.

​George Rex Graham was the founder of Graham's Magazine, who hired Edgar Allan Poe as a critic and editor in February 1841. The magazine was the first to publish "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "A Descent into the Maelström", "The Island of the Fay, The Mask Of The Red Death - A Fantasy", and others.

​Edgar Allan Poe's publication "A Few Words on Secret Writing" featured in Graham's Magazine in July 1841, showing different cryptographic methods, that began with the scytale method of decryption which can be employed to solve the 340 cipher. This was immediately followed by another cryptographic technique of splitting the alphabet into two lots of 13 characters, A through M, and N through Z, just like the Zodiac appeared to do with the Z13 offering. His code of thirteen characters began with A and ended with M, which when rotated by 8 positions on a circle, would create a signature later used in the Exorcist letter  This technique of using a cipher disk was another encryption method thoroughly covered in "A Few Words on Secret Writing"  Everything in Poe's publication in Graham's Magazine is instrumental to both the Z340 and Z13. But again, why would the Zodiac Killer wait six months to reply to the challenge of Professor Donald C. B. Marsh on April 20th, unless of course, this date was significant to Edgar Allan Poe and Graham's Magazine.  

On April 20th 1841 Graham's Magazine was the first to publish "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, credited with being the first modern detective story. As the first fictional detective, "C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mystery of the brutal murder of two women. Numerous witnesses heard a suspect, though no one agrees on what language was spoken. At the murder scene, Dupin finds a hair that does not appear to be human".Wikipedia. Bearing in mind that the Zodiac case was turning into an extremely intriguing mystery that confounded the likes of Detectives David Toschi and Bill Armstrong who searched tirelessly for the murderer of five, it's quite possible that the Zodiac Killer found it humorously apt to mail a code on April 20th based on Edgar Allan Poe's featured cryptographic methods in Graham's Magazine, which coincided with the release date of the first modern detective story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"..

​Professor Donald C. B. Marsh would offer the Zodiac a cryptic challenge on October 22nd 1969 invoking the name of Poe, with his coded reply possibly coming six months later on the exact day and month that Edgar Allan Poe, a prolific solver of ciphers, released the first modern detective story in Graham's Magazine. During 1970, the newspapers were filled with news of an impending Hollywood blockbuster entitled "Murders in the Rue Morgue" starring Jason Robards, Herbert Lom and Christine Kaufmann, to be released the following year. If the Zodiac Killer needed any reminder in April 1970 to the challenge given by Professor Donald C. B. Marsh, then the news of a movie to be released based on an Edgar Allan Poe short story, may have been the trigger. Not any movie, but "Murders in the Rue Morgue", initially published in short form on April 20th.

In the July edition of Graham's Magazine containing "A Few Words on Secret Writing", somebody mailed in a cryptographic challenge to Poe dated April 21st 1841, the same day and month Zodiac's Z13 cipher should have landed on the desk of the San Francisco Chronicle. The letter in Graham's Magazine introduced itself with the very same dash that followed the "My name is" introduction in the April 20th 1970 letter (see below). However, if the Zodiac Killer's initial trigger was "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", this subsequent date may have been a fortunate by-product. The "Sketches of Conspicuous Living Characters of France" and the mention of different languages (published in April), could be connected to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", which was set in Paris, France - and in which - several of the witnesses reported hearing two voices at the time of the murder, one male and French, but who disagreed on the language spoken by the other. In other words, Edgar Allan Poe may have been continuing a theme in the April 20th edition of the magazine, to which the person below responded by dating his letter the following day and mailing it sometime later. This would effectively bind the two dates of April 20th and April 21st to the April edition of Graham's Magazine, If the Zodiac Killer had searched for cryptographic material on Edgar Allan Poe in 1969 and/or 1970, he may have found "A Few Words on Secret Writing" in the July edition of Graham's Magazine, which ultimately led him to the April edition and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". Whether this is a viable route to the date of April 20th 1970 and the mailing of the Z13 code, is still open to question. 
​
The Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is a professional organization of mystery and crime writers, founded in New York City in 1945, which presents the Edgar Award, a small bust of Edgar Allan Poe, to mystery or crime writers every year. The Mystery Writers of America honors Edgar Allan Poe's groundbreaking work, particularly "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" as the foundation of modern detective fiction. The annual Edgar Awards, given by the MWA, are named after Poe in recognition of his role as the genre's inventor.

It is clear that the Zodiac Killer knew he gave us insufficient clues to reasonably solve the Z32 cipher on June 26th 1970, so a month later, on July 26th 1970, he gave us some additional clues such as "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians". This provided us with the following answer. So where are the supplemental clues to the Z13 cipher mailed on April 20th 1970? There are hundreds (probably thousands) of possible unverifiable answers to the Z13 using substitution methods, which the Zodiac must have known to be the case. Therefore, one could conclude that this wasn't the method he chose to use. We had to find a later communication that contained the solution to the Z13 that can be simply demonstrated. The identity in this later communication may also be preceded by "My name is". The following is nothing new, but I just wanted to present the findings in a different format.

When we look at the Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974, the Zodiac Killer appears to add the "Tit-Willow" verse from "The Mikado" for no apparent reason. However, the verse was preceded by "Signed, yours truley;" This may suggest that his identity is within the verse. This concept gained little traction until I looked up the following line in the complete song. The Zodiac Killer plagiarised the section below (in red) to place into his letter. The next line in the below verse (in blue) reads in part "Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name Is". In other words, the Zodiac Killer introduced his Tit-Willow verse with "Signed, yours truley:", followed by the next line which contained the phrase "my name is", and ended with his identity of "Me". The complete sequence reading 
"Signed, yours truley: My name is Me". 

When we use the circled 8's in the Z13 to cycle around the cipher by a right shift of eight, we get an identity of "Me" (see below), just like the signature on the Exorcist letter. ​The Exorcist letter, in order, read "Signed, yours truley: My name is Me". The April 20th letter (with a right shift of 8) would now read "My name is Me". The common phrase "My name is Me" can now be shown as a Zodiac identity through two letters, both of which teased us with his name. But is there anything to indicate that the Zodiac Killer employed a "shift-type" cipher on April 20th 1970? Edgar Allan Poe may have the answer.

MUST READ FOLLOW UP ABOUT THE EDGAR ALLEN POE CONNECTION TO THIS ARTICLE 
​ALSO: CRACKING THE CRACKPROOF AND AN IDENTITY IN THE HALLOWEEN CARD

The Zodiac Killer often reacted to newspaper articles within his communications, such as the quotation of Merian C. Cooper that appeared in a handful of newspapers in 1932, when the associate producer of "The Most Dangerous Game" (1932) responded to the release of his latest film while being interviewed and stated "man is the most dangerous animal of all", which Zodiac incorporated into his 408 cipher on July 31st 1969. This quotation had never appeared in any newspaper from 1690 to 1969, other than a few 1932 publications.

If the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the Confession letters sent on November 29th 1966, he may have taken the phrase "it was about time for her to die" from a newspaper in 1888 (the year of Jack the Ripper), and designed the letters around the Whitechapel murderer. We also know that the Zodiac Killer referenced three acts of "The Mikado" (1885) in his communications, and certainly wasn't afraid to delve into the archives and utilize material from yesteryear. Additionally, he appeared to have derived inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) in the design of his 340 cipher and the wording contained within it.

Recently I made the suggestion of "My name is me" as the answer to the 13-Symbol cipher mailed on April 20th 1970, but couldn't help wondering if the Zodiac Killer plagiarized this quotation as well. So I typed this phrase into a newspaper search engine and got what I was looking for in a piece of literary work by Charlotte Wilson, centered on the word "name". It appeared in several newspapers in 1906, including the Chicago Daily News. If the Zodiac Killer was scanning microfiche to grab quotes such as "man is the most dangerous animal of all" (1932) and "it was about time for her to die" (1888) to incorporate into his letters, was it possible he took "My name is me" from Charlotte Wilson in 1906?

It may seem unlikely until we consider the design of the April 20th 1970 letter which was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle and featured the bombing of police officers, along with the possible solution of "My name is me", and the three 8's in the 13-Symbol code. If we throw in Vallejo (and Mare Island) where the Zodiac Killer may have lived, then Charlotte Wilson and the Haymarket massacre is central to them all. If the Zodiac Killer had scoured the newspaper archives or was historically familiar with Vallejo, he would have come across this information (as I did with just a cursory search). The numbers 888 (possibly within a clock face) was pivotal to the writings of Charlotte Wilson in 1888.

Charlotte Mary Wilson was an English Fabian and anarchist who co-founded Freedom newspaper in 1886 with Peter Kropotkin, and edited, published, and largely financed it during its first decade. She remained editor of Freedom until 1895. The current headquarters of Freedom Press is 84b Whitechapel High Street in London (127 Ossulston Street in 1898). Charlotte Mary Wilson was a prolific writer, as can be seen here in a comprehensive list of articles. She advocated heavily for the working man and union rights. 

The Haymarket affair, also known as the Haymarket massacre, the Haymarket riot, the Haymarket Square riot, or the Haymarket Incident, was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886 at Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois. The rally began peacefully in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day; it was held the day after a May 3 rally at a McCormick Harvesting Machine Company plant on the West Side of Chicago, during which two demonstrators had been killed and many demonstrators and police had been injured. At the Haymarket Square rally on May 4, an unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at the police as they acted to disperse the meeting, and the bomb blast and ensuing retaliatory gunfire by the police caused the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; dozens of others were wounded.

Charlotte Wilson wrote extensive articles about the Haymarket massacre, that included "The Chicago Anniversary" (1888), "The Chicago Martyrs" (1889), and "In Memory of Chicago" (1889) to name but a few. She wrote "The eight Anarchist Socialists picked out by the Chicago police as victims of the rage and terror inspired in the propertied classes by the growing energy of the labor movement, had absolutely nothing to do with the throwing of the bomb at the Haymarket meeting in May, 1886. The prosecution utterly failed to connect these eight men with the fatal bomb in any sense which did not equally apply to the 20,000 revolutionary Socialists of the Chicago Central Labor Union, or indeed to any active revolutionary propagandist in the world. They were simply selected as the most energetic and earnest advocates of opinions obnoxious to the ruling classes, opinions gaining ground so fast as to threaten the very existence of property and wage-slavery. These opinions were, (1) Socialism, i.e., common property of the workers in the instruments of labor; (2) Anarchism, i.e., the destruction of all arbitrary authority and the substitution of cooperation by free consent and decision by unanimity; (3) that these great social changes can only be brought about by the direct action of the workers; (4) that if the monopolists of property and upholders of authority resist the demands of the people by armed force, the people are right in defending themselves by armed force, and for this contingency they must be prepared".

Rudolph Schnaubelt, the fierce visaged anarchist who was suspected of throwing the Haymarket bomb in Chicago and for whose apprehension the police machinery of the world has been in motion since, died in 1896. The end of his long flight; and years of hiding ended in a little town in southern California. Consumption - also known as tuberculosis - finally found him out. Schnaubelt was one of the first men arrested with Lines, Spies and Schwab after the great riot in Chicago. For ten hours the police kept him in the sweat box, but his nerves stood the test and they let him go. He took immediate advantage of this and disappeared into the night. In fact, there were reports he was seen in Vallejo, California in 1895, including newspaper articles that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Eight anarchists were charged with the Haymarket bombing on police. They were convicted of conspiracy in the internationally publicized legal proceedings. The evidence put forward in the court trial was that one of the defendants may have built the bomb but none of those on trial had thrown it, and only two of the eight were at the Haymarket at the time. Seven were sentenced to death and one to a term of 15 years in prison. This anarchist bombing was the culmination of workers striking for an 8 hour working day, which grabbed the attention of Charlotte Wilson, who authored and editorialized many articles about it.  

The Haymarket affair is closely associated with the number 888, which symbolized the movement for an 8-hour workday. This number was used to represent the ideal of three 8-hour shifts: one for work, one for rest, and one for personal time ("Three Eights"rule). The affair itself involved a labor protest in Chicago on May 4th 1886, where a bomb was detonated, leading to violence and casualties. The intertwined numbers 888 had previously been placed on many union buildings around Australia. This "Eight Hour March", which began on 21 April 1856, continued each year until 1951 in Melbourne, when the conservative Victorian Trades Hall Council decided to forgo the tradition for the Moomba festival on the Labour Day weekend. In capital cities and towns across Australia, Eight Hour day marches became a regular social event each year, with early marches often restricted to those workers who had won an eight-hour day. The phrase "888" represents the concept of dividing a 24-hour day into three equal eight-hour blocks: eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest. This concept, popularized by Robert Owen in the early 19th century, is often associated with the eight-hour workday movement, which aimed to establish a more balanced and healthy work-life balance. Below is the 888 campaign in Denmark in 1912.

In essence we have Charlotte Wilson, an anarchist, who wrote extensively on the demonstration and bombing of police in Chicago in 1886, in which the numbers 888 were an integral part of the 8-hour workers rally in Haymarket Square, from where, one of the suspected bombers would disappear from and eventually be sighted in Vallejo, California. Rudolph Schnaubelt's brother, Edward (also an anarchist), worked at the United States Naval Shipyard at Mare Island. When the numbers 888, formed into a clock face in the 13-Symbol cipher, are given a right shift of eight positions, they complete the phrase of "My name is me", used by Charlotte Wilson in the above newspaper snippet from 1906 entitled "An Ancient Problem". A signature that would be later used by the Zodiac Killer in the Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974, featuring "The Mikado" (1885). The 13-Symbol cipher letter mailed on April 20th 1970 carries all of these ingredients The police, the bombing, the numbers 888, and possibly the phrase "My name is me". The common denominator being Charlotte Wilson. Or is it just one of a series of coincidences that plague the Zodiac Killer case?     

*The 8-hour workday campaign refers to the historic movement to reduce the standard working day to eight hours. The movement gained momentum in Australia, particularly with the stonemasons' strike in Melbourne on April 21, 1856, which is considered a key event in the fight for an 8-hour day. This strike, along with other worker protests, led to the eventual implementation of the eight-hour day in Australia and other parts of the world. April 21st was possibly the day the Zodiac Killer believed his cipher and letter would be published. 

The following is nothing new, but I am going to run an old story in reverse. Ever since July 31st 1969 the Zodiac Killer had been taunting us with his name or identity through various letters, cards and ciphers, yet only gave us three "signatures" up to January 29th 1974. The SLA letter, Badlands card and Red Phantom letter will not be included in this analysis because they were not authored by the Zodiac Killer.

​The Bay Area murderer gave us three ways to identify himself as the author, by using "Zodiac" and his "crosshairs" in numerous communications, and "Me" (only once) in his Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. The question being, why did he use "Me" in 1974 when he could have just written "Zodiac" or added his "crosshairs"? The Zodiac Killer usually had purpose beneath his assumed madness.

​The answer probably lay in the verse he added after writing "Signed, Yours Truley" in the Exorcist letter, which carried the 8-letter phrase "My name is" in the extended version of the "Tit-Willow" verse. Only one communication carried all three signatures of the Bay Area murderer if you apply the following logic.

​The April 20th 1970 letter not only began with "This is the Zodiac speaking", carried the 8-letter phrase of "My name is", and had three 8's in the code, but also produced "Me" and the "crosshairs" by simply circling through the code 8 positions from each circled 8. This would give us "Zodiac", "Me" and his "crosshairs" in one communication. A communication with a 13-character code that is practically unsolvable by using standard homophonic substitution methods. This form of cryptography is able to produce thousands of possible answers, so why would the Zodiac Killer use a methodology that provides no resolution to his puzzle?

​He gave us the answer to his Z32 code by writing  "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians" one month later, on July 26th 1970. Both "radians" and "inches" could be found in the Z32 solution, so why not "Me" in the Z13 solution. The Zodiac Killer, in mocking fashion, may have been giving us the answer to the Z13 code in the most simplistic of terms. A signature he would corroborate on January 29th 1974 when he unusually added "Me" to his letter. This is the only Z13 solution ever presented as a "signature" that was replicated in a later Zodiac Killer communication. The April 20th 1970 and January 29th 1974 letters would now carry both "My name is" and "Me" in each instance.

We also have to consider why the Zodiac Killer added three circled 8's to his code when he could have just added three triangles, three squares, or indeed, three circles without the 8's? The answer may lie in the dual purpose of both characters. In essence, we have to circle through 8 positions of the code to arrive at the answer. What are the chances that when we apply this methodology to the Z13 code, we produce a signature that is present in a letter nearly 4 years later, that also harbors the phrase "My name is".

If we know that replacing ciphertext characters with plaintext characters can never produce a verifiable answer without later validation, then the Zodiac Killer almost certainly knew it.

​The technique of rotating an outer circle of characters around an inner circle of fixed characters by a desired number of positions was ably covered by Edgar Allan Poe in "A Few Words on Secret Writing".. He wrote about this immediately after detailing another technique of splitting the alphabet into two lots of 13 characters, A through M, and N through Z. Odd therefore, that the Zodiac Killer would create a code of 13 characters beginning with A and ending with M, which when rotated by 8 positions on a circle, would create a signature later used in the Exorcist letter. Both of these techniques coming after Edgar Allan Poe described the scytale method of decryption in "A Few Words on Secret Writing", that can be used to solve the Zodiac Killer's 340 cipher. A cipher that Zodiac referred to when opening his April 20th 1970 letter, stating "By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you?".

We have two techniques described in "A Few Words on Secret Writing" that when combined and rotated through eight positions, gives us a signature used in the Exorcist letter. However, it may just be one of those massive coincidences.  
​
FURTHER READING: DEATH IN PARADISE    

It is patently clear by now that if the 13-Symbol cipher contains a name or message, there are going to be thousands of answers that could fit into this short code, that may or may not be correct. The Zodiac Killer almost certainly knew this to be the case after designing two lengthy ciphers of 408 and 340 characters, which he knew only contained one possible decryption. He must have known that any solution of 13 characters could never be proven to be the correct answer. That is possibly why he didn't create a solution of 13 characters.

​After the challenge by D. C. B. Marsh of the American Cryptogram Association on October 22nd 1969, invoking the name of Edgar Allan Poe in his address to Zodiac to reveal his name, he must have hoped that the Zodiac Killer would employ methodology featured by Poe, such as the ones described in his famous essay entitled "A Few Words on Secret Writing". The first three cryptographic methods detailed in Poe's essay were the scytale cipher, which can be used to decode the 340 cipher. The second cryptographic method told of splitting the alphabet in 13 characters of A through M, and N through Z. The Zodiac Killer supplied us with a 13-Symbol cipher on April 20th 1970, beginning with A and ending in M. The third cryptographic method (based on the second method) described two circular pieces of pasteboard, one on top of the other, each containing 26 letters of the alphabet in 26 segments, radiating from the center. One disk was fixed and one was moveable. See here. 

​In cryptography, a Caesar cipher, also known as Caesar's cipher, the shift cipher, Caesar's code, or Caesar shift, is one of the simplest and most widely known encryption techniques. It is a type of substitution cipher in which each letter in the plaintext is replaced by a letter some fixed number of positions down the alphabet. For example, with a left shift of 3, D would be replaced by A, E would become B, and so on. The method is named after Julius Caesar, who used it in his private correspondence.

​The Zodiac Killer may have employed a variation of this technique by using a right shift of 8 in his 13-Symbol cipher, encircling the number 8 to denote the use of a Caeser Cipher Wheel. By placing a wheel or circle around the number 8 in the 13-Symbol cipher, the Zodiac Killer may have been telling us to rotate through 8 positions of the cipher to reveal his name. Of course, the Zodiac Killer was highly unlikely to give us his name, but he could have been playing one big joke. In his 148 character cipher in May 1971 the Zodiac Killer actually stated "I'll never give my name". 

It can be seen in this image that if you rotate the outer circle clockwise by eight positions from the first number 8, it lands over the M of the inner circle. The second number 8 rotated by eight positions lands over the letter E. The third number 8 rotated by eight positions lands over the crosshairs of Zodiac, giving us the following message shown below. But how can we possibly prove this was the intended message, in contrast to a name or message that used all thirteen characters. 

After nearly four years of this code being unsolved, the Zodiac Killer may have thought it time to give us the answer by mailing us the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974, offering us the words "Signed, yours truley" followed by a verse from The Mikado's Tit-Willow. When you examine the complete verse of Tit-Willow, you will notice the immediate next sentence after Zodiac's contribution contains eight consecutive letters of the alphabet spelling "My name is". The only other place this is found is in the introduction to the 13-Symbol cipher on April 20th 1970. In other words, we can only connect the phrase "My name is" to these two communications. 

The Zodiac Killer certainly wasn't going to make it easy for us, but if the observations described above are correct, the Zodiac Killer gave us "My name is", followed by his signature of "Me - 37" in the Exorcist letter, in similar fashion to the April 20th 1970 letter, which may have given us "My name is", followed by "Me (and his crosshairs)".  In most of his communications the Zodiac used his crosshairs accompanied by a running victim total, therefore, "Me - 37" and "Me (and his crosshairs)" can be equated to "crosshairs - 37", just like his previous running victim totals. Such as the April 20th 1970 letter below. This solution to the 13-Symbol cipher can at least be replicated in a later communication, with the common signature of "Me". 

The phrase "My name is Me" is a statement of identity, often used playfully or to emphasize a unique connection to oneself. In the July 31st 1969 letter to the San Francisco Chronicle the Zodiac Killer wrote "In this cipher is my idenity". On August 4th 1969 he wrote "By the way, are the police having a good time with the code? If not, tell them to cheer up; when they do crack it, they will have me".

"Signed, yours truly, me" is a somewhat informal and often playful way of signing off a letter or email, signifying that the sender is the "me" in the message. It's used as a closing, similar to phrases like "Sincerely" or "Best wishes," but with a touch of self-deprecating humor. Informally, yours truly is also used as a synonym for I, me, or myself. Yours truly is a conventional phrase that is used to politely end a letter. It is used in the same way as similar phrases, such as Sincerely or Best wishes. ​​"Your humble servant" and "yours truly" are both valedictions, formal closings used in letters and emails to express respect and sincerity. "Your humble servant" is a more formal and historical phrase, while "yours truly" is a more common and less formal option. 

On October 22nd 1969, the San Francisco Examiner newspaper published an article by Will Stevens, which laid down a challenge from Professor D.C.B. Marsh of the American Cryptogram Association (ACA) to the Zodiac Killer, attempting to coax him into revealing his name. The newspaper stated "Dr Marsh told the Examiner today: "The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts. He knows, to quote Edgar Allan Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name -in cipher code - would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated - which will truly and honestly include his name".

It was probably hoped that by invoking the name of Edgar Allan Poe, the Zodiac Killer would use a technique employed by Poe in the design of his next code. The Zodiac Killer, having created two lengthy ciphers, must have known that code breakers would find it difficult to confirm a solution to such a short code of thirteen characters on April 20th 1970, so may have hinted towards an answer using material created by Edgar Allan Poe. After all, it wouldn't have been the first time.

Edgar Allan Poe's essay A Few Words on Secret Writing began with an examination of the scytale method of encryption and decoding, which can be used to reveal Zodiac's message in the 340 cipher. The essay followed up with a second encryption technique by splitting the alphabet into two sections of thirteen characters, A through M, and N through Z. It didn't go unnoticed that Zodiac used thirteen characters in his code on April 20th 1970, beginning with the ciphertext character A, and ending with the ciphertext character M. In the next section of the essay, an individual who withheld his name, provided us with the following:  

Being the only date referenced in Poe's essay, it is noticeable that the Zodiac Killer by mailing his April 20th 1970 letter on this date, probably hoped it would be received by the newspaper on April 21st 1970, with "My name is ____", imitating the introduction above. I previously discovered that the only complete novel ever published by Edgar Allan Poe was  entitled "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket". The very first line of this book read "My name is Arthur Gordon Pym". Oddly, the name "Arthur Gordon Pym" begins with the letter "A" and ends with the letter "M", just like the 13-Symbol cipher. But this wasn't all. Here is the opening chapter of the novel mentioning "money", as did Zodiac on April 20th 1970 when he wrote "I am mildly cerous as to how much money you have on my head now". The opening paragraph also mentions the locations of Nantucket and New Bedford.

But how does "My name is" from the novel "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" tie into Edgar Allan Poe's essay A Few Words on Secret Writing? The unnamed author in the above challenge to Poe on April 21st was from Stonington, Connecticut (revealed by the postmark). Is it possible that the Zodiac Killer, having mailed the thirteen character code within one day of this postmark, was choosing the introduction of "My name is" from a Poe novel to point us towards Stonington, Connecticut? The Zodiac had given us the near-postmark from the essay, so why not give us a clue to Stonington as well. The opening paragraph of the novel "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket", beginning with "My name is", gave us the two locations of Nantucket and New Bedford. These locations are only 88 miles and 54 miles east of Stonington, Connecticut. The locations of Norwalk, Connecticut and Albany, New York are also relevant to two Zodiac communications on March 2nd 1981 and August 1st 1973.      

I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME - THAT WASN’T ME ON THE TV SHOW - WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME - I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE - SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH - I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH.   

"To One in Paradise" was written by Edgar Allan Poe. This poem was first published as part of the short story titled "The Visionary" (later retitled as "The Assignation"). The poem was also published under the names "To lanthe in Heaven" and "To One Beloved". The title "To One in Paradise" was used in the February 25, 1843 Saturday Musuem. This poem was written after the death of Poe's wife. He writes that she was his life and he lived for her and now he looks forward to the future where they will be together again in death. link.

​The Zodiac Killer must have known that any solution to the thirteen character code on April 20th 1970 was practically unverifiable, unless the answer resided within the works of Edgar Allan Poe - and this link could be reasonably demonstrated. If the Zodiac Killer was capable of placing "One in Paradice" from a poem title by Poe into the 340 cipher, then he is capable of giving us a solution to the thirteen character code from material within the novel of "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket". "My name is" begins the novel - and is the prelude (with dash) to the thirteen character code - so why shouldn't the answer to the Zodiac's code follow both and be the same. The solution to the thirteen character code may lie within ​"The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" by Edgar Allan Poe. Or can the method used to decode the "Stonington" cipher be used to provide a solution for the April 20th 1970 Zodiac cipher.

The first part of this presentation is from a previous article.
On October 22nd 1969, the San Francisco Examiner newspaper published an article by Will Stevens, which laid down a challenge from Professor D.C.B. Marsh of the American Cryptogram Association (ACA) to the Zodiac Killer, attempting to coax him into revealing his name.

The newspaper stated "Dr Marsh told the Examiner today: "The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts. He knows, to quote Edgar Allan Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name -in cipher code - would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated - which will truly and honestly include his name".

Professor D.C.B. Marsh was probably hoping the Zodiac Killer would employ a cryptographic technique featured in the works of Edgar Allan Poe, thereby making any future cipher mailed by the Zodiac Killer easier to crack. As it turned out, the Zodiac Killer's 340 cipher mailed on November 8th 1969 could be solved using the scytale method of encryption detailed in Edgar Allan Poe's essay A Few Words on Secret Writing in the very first paragraph. We have Professor D.C.B. Marsh of the American Cryptogram Association creating the trigger, by inserting Edgar Allan Poe into the mind of the Zodiac Killer. The Zodiac Killer then created the 340 cipher that could be deciphered using the scytale method featured in Poe's A Few Words on Secret Writing. Therefore, what are the odds that one of Edgar Allan Poe's poems would partially appear in the solution to the 340 cipher?

I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME - THAT WASN’T ME ON THE TV SHOW - WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME - I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE - SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH - I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH.   

"To One in Paradise" was written by Edgar Allan Poe. This poem was first published as part of the short story titled "The Visionary" (later retitled as "The Assignation"). The poem was also published under the names "To lanthe in Heaven" and "To One Beloved". The title "To One in Paradise" was used in the February 25, 1843 Saturday Musuem. This poem was written after the death of Poe's wife. He writes that she was his life and he lived for her and now he looks forward to the future where they will be together again in death. link.

The Zodiac Killer would eventually mail the April 20th 1970 letter containing a 13 character code, prefixed with "My name is". The 340 cipher could be solved with the scytale method of decryption featured in Poe's essay A Few Words on Secret Writing, so it was extremely noteworthy that the second encryption technique covered in Poe's A Few Words on Secret Writing involved splitting the alphabet A through M, and N through Z. The Zodiac Killer's code on April 20th 1970 began with "A", ended with "M", and was 13 characters in length (half the alphabet). But why did the Zodiac Killer prefix the code with "My name is"? Edgar Allan Poe's only complete novel was entitled "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket". The very first line of this book read  "My name is Arthur Gordon Pym". 

On January 29th 1974 the Zodiac Killer tempted us with his name by writing "Signed, yours truley" and then placing an extract from The Mikado's Tit-Willow verse. The implication being that the Zodiac Killer's name may be found within the verse. In 2017, I noticed that the complete Tit-Willow verse from Gilbert & Sullivan's play had the phrase "my name is" within the wording "my name isn't", reminiscent of the April 20th 1970 letter stating "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you? My name is....", followed by a 13 character code.

The full Tit-Willow verse read "my name Isn't Willow, tit-willow, tit-willow", so could this have featured in the 13 character code? The Zodiac Killer could have playfully used Tit-Willow as his name on April 20th 1970, before reversing this on January 29th 1974 by invoking the Tit-Willow verse in his Exorcist letter. The proposed suggestion being "My name is only Tit-Willow". Although this solution fails by using the plaintext letters "T" and "I" to represent the ciphertext "circled 8", the three "circled 8's" can spell "TIT". One would like to believe that the Zodiac Killer - knowing his 13 character code was practically unsolvable - would have given us a clue in his later letters. So was the "Signed, yours truley" phrase, followed by "my name isn't" in 1974, that clue?   

To understand the mindset of the Zodiac Killer when composing his communications, we have to look for running themes over a period of time (such as Snoozy & Furlong) and evaluate whether his offerings were deliberately designed to mislead, or an extension of his true character. It has recently been shown that the "cannibal killer" Stanley Dean Baker (and possibly an accomplice) was almost certainly responsible for the murder of Robert Salem in his 745 Stevenson Street apartment in San Francisco on April 15th 1970. However, what weight do we attribute to a Zodiac letter being connected to this murder, when it was postmarked on the morning of April 20th 1970, four months after his last communication, but dated the same day Robert Salem's murder was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle and Zodiac's pseudonym reported as being being present on his apartment wall.

​To achieve this, the Zodiac Killer would had to have read the morning newspaper about Salem, create his letter in a short period of time, then mail the letter so it could be processed and stamped with a morning postmark. This would have made the code contained within the letter contemporary to the murder of Robert Salem (unless it was created in advance). The writing on the apartment wall stating "Satan Saves Zodiac" and the severing of Salem's left ear, led me to consider the possibility of the code reading "Skin A Satanist" or "Ate Severed Ear", which both fit seamlessly into the code. But these solutions would be more relevant to Stanley Dean Baker than the Zodiac Killer, with Baker branded a "hippie satanist" by the newspapers after he admitted removing victims body parts and eating them. However, I have come to the conclusion that both of these solutions to the Z13 are almost certainly incorrect. But what about the rest of the letter? 

There is a good reason to believe the Zodiac Killer was responsible for making a phone call to the San Jose, California Highway Patrol on December 19th 1969. On this date, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer followed up his threats on the lives of multiple cops in the December 16th 1969 "Fairfield letter", by making a phone call to dispatcher Shirley Searey of the San Jose Highway Patrol and stating "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". This threat towards California Highway Patrol may be relevant to his wording in the April 20th 1970 letter, when he wrote "But there is more glory in killing a cop than a cid because a cop can shoot back". Two weeks before this letter arrived - and dubbed the "Newhall Incident" - was the the worst massacre of police officers in the 80 year history of the California Highway Patrol, and possibly the worst in American history. It changed police procedure forever thereafter— improved police training on how to approach a suspect, better weaponry, bullet proof vests — saving the lives of many police officers in the line of duty. It was the story of the bravery and sacrifice of four young CHP officers, and the story of a true American hero, a civilian bystander who risked his life under fire from gun toting suspects to try to save the life of a downed patrolman. On the evening of April 5, 1970, four CHP officers, Roger Gore, Walt Frago, James "Skip" Pence, and George Alleyn were brutally gunned down by two dangerous suspects in the lot of a Standard Service Station next to J's Coffee Shop on what is now the intersection of the Old Road and Magic Mountain Parkway in Valencia, California. Link SCV History.com. 

The Zodiac Killer's wording of "But there is more glory in killing a cop than a cid because a cop can shoot back" on April 20th 1970 - bearing in mind the previous threat on five CHP officers on December 19th 1969 - could have been inspired by the wall-to-wall newspaper coverage of the "Newhall Incident" on April 5th/6th 1970. In Zodiac's letter, there was also the reference to the murder of San Francisco police officer Brian McDonnell on February 16th 1970, who suffered devastating and sadly fatal injuries two months earlier, when a bomb packed with heavy industrial fence staples exploded on an outside ledge of Park Police Station in the Upper Haight neighborhood. 

​The uncle of Brian McDonnell was Sergeant Joseph Emmett Lacey (40), murdered on December 30th 1956 while socializing with a friend at Eddies' Cocktail Lounge at 502 Ellis Street, San Francisco. The two were enjoying a drink, when two men brandishing firearms burst into the establishment with robbery in mind. Sergeant Lacey, despite being off-duty at the time, drew his gun and attempted to prevent the robbery, but was beaten to the draw and sadly died before reaching the Mission Emergency Hospital.  One of the robbers was apprehended shortly after the crime and plead guilty to first-degree murder. The actual shooter of Sergeant Lacey remained a free man for nearly three years, before being captured and found guilty of second-degree murder. Fourteen years after the murder of Joseph Lacey, the end of watch would unfortunately befall his nephew, Brian McDonnell.

​Whether this historical case was mentioned in the newspapers to some degree in relation to the Brian McDonnell murder is unknown - but if it was featured and noted by the Zodiac Killer, the sentence of "there is more glory in killing a cop than a cid because a cop can shoot back" would certainly have more meaning with respect to the April 20th 1970 communication. So, did the "Newhall Incident" or the murder of Sergeant Lacey (or both) have any role in the use of this phrase on April 20th 1970, or can we attribute pure coincidence to the wording chosen by the Zodiac Killer in this instance. 

The headline of the Desert Sun newspaper on February 17th 1970, covering the murder of Brian McDonnell, read "Haight Ashbury Police Station Rocked By Bomb. Six Officers Injured In Blast Showering Big U-Shaped Staples". The Zodiac Killer would seemingly use this headline, and capitalize and emphasize the word "Blast" when creating his Dragon card on April 28th 1970, stating "I hope you enjoy yourselves when I have my Blast"..He would repeat the word "blast" on the card inner, stating "If you don't want me to have this blast you must do two things". It is clear that the Zodiac Killer invariably created his communications with previous newspapers being the inspiration, so I would be extremely grateful if anybody with a newspapers.com subscription could search for any mention of Sergeant Joseph Lacey in respect to the murder of San Francisco police officer Brian McDonnell on February 16th 1970. Thank you.  

I would like to revisit something I've covered previously regarding the Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974 and the "My Name is" letter mailed on April 20th 1970. When the Zodiac Killer designed the Exorcist letter he wrote "signed, yours truley" and then proceeded to paraphrase a verse from Tit-Willow and Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado. One would have thought that placing "signed, yours truley" preceding this verse was a prelude to his identity. When we visit the entirety of this act from The Mikado, it becomes apparent that the next line in the verse following what Zodiac quoted is "Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name is(n't) Willow, titwillow, titwillow".

​In this instance we have a trinity of coincidences, where the Zodiac Killer tempts us with a signature from the verse, from which we can form the sentence of "my name is", that he previously used in his April 20th 1970 letter as an introduction to a mystery 13 symbol code and his name.

The Exorcist letter broke with tradition when he used "Me" instead of his crosshairs as an identity, before giving us his running victim total. Bearing in mind the aforementioned correlation between the Exorcist letter and "My Name is" letter, I couldn't help thinking his identity of "Me" would be found in the 13 symbol code using an extremely simplistic method. There is little doubt that the Zodiac Killer knew a 13 character code could not be solved using conventional techniques because of its length, so very likely created something superficial. The fact that this letter was mailed with an AM postmark on the same day the Robert Salem murder broke in the morning edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, with the Zodiac pseudonym scrawled on the wall of the victim's apartment - likely meant that this letter was prepared in haste. A code created this quickly has a high probability of being solved - a code with one repetitive feature of three circled 8's. Using the shift technique the Zodiac Killer employed in the 340 cipher, solved by David Oranchak (USA), Sam Blake (Australia) and Jarl Van Eycke (Belgium) in 2020, I used a period 8 shift in the code to select new characters 8 places to the right. 

Using a circular shift pattern, the first circled 8 right-shifted to the letter "M", the second circled 8 right-shifted to the letter "E", and the third circled 8 right-shifted to the Zodiac crosshairs, thereby equating the Zodiac Killer's identity to "ME", just as he had done in the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. Both of these correspondences tempted us with a name, both communications can be linked to The Mikado and the "my name is" phrase, and the April 20th 1970 code can easily reproduce the "Me" signature present in the Exorcist letter using the standout numerical feature in the code.

​Another communication, mailed on October 27th 1970, also featured a name synonymous with The Mikado, when the Zodiac Killer wrote *peek-a-boo you are doomed" around the knot-hole of a tree. Peek-a-boo was a character from an 1888 production of The Mikado, entitled The Capitalist. But take a look at the "ME" in the word doomed, in a card that stated "I feel it in my bones, you ache to know my name, and so I'll clue you in." 

The following is an amalgamation of previous articles: 

​Six months after the Zodiac Killer's Albany, New York letter and code, another letter would arrive at the San Francisco Chronicle on January 30th 1974. Postmarked the day before (January 29th), this letter was a curious blend of The Exorcist movie (1973) and the comedic opera The Mikado (1885), two productions separated by 88 years.

The Zodiac Killer plagiarized The Mikado twice in the July 26th 1970 letter, but this appeared to have some purpose in relation to his hunting activities - that the Zodiac Killer had created a list of potential victims, who he would then kill and ultimately torture in paradise. This seemed at odds with his use of The Mikado in 1974. Any suggestion that the Zodiac Killer was contemplating suicide at this juncture because of his choice of Tit-Willow, appeared to be dashed in the following paragraph when he stated "If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing". The notion that the Zodiac Killer had reached a watershed moment and was about to ditch the pseudonym he had coveted for so many years, would also be premature, when he mailed the 1978, 1986 and 1987 letters, all containing his infamous introduction of "This is the Zodiac speaking".

​The 1978 and 1987 letters had one thing in common with the 1974 letter, in that they all carried the wording "yours truly" or "yours truley", followed by a colon. This wording is commonly used before a signature, with the colon used to separate two independent clauses when the second explains or illustrates the first. In the 1978 and 1987 letters the Zodiac Killer follows "yours truly" with "guess", whereas, he inserts the plagiarized verse from Tit-Willow where his signature should be placed in the 1974 Exorcist letter. The primary conclusion to draw from this, is the Zodiac Killer was yet again asking us to "guess" his name through the verse of Tit-Willow. 

He may have been bluffing, but giving us his first name in such cryptic fashion could never be realistically used as evidence against him, because any conclusions drawn from this verse through subjective interpretation, would never have any standing in a court of law. There are five things in relation to The Exorcist movie and the Tit-Willow verse that point to one name. There is also another that points backwards to the April 20th 1970 letter, when the Zodiac Killer teased us with his name by stating "My name is", followed by a thirteen character code. The Exorcist book was written by William Blatty in 1971, which told the story of a twelve-year-old girl possessed by a powerful demon, that was later adapted by director William Friedkin in the film version released on December 26th 1973. The Tit-Willow verse from The Mikado was created by William Schwenck Gilbert, which contained multiple examples of "Will" and "Bill" within words such as "Willo" and "Billowy" (Will and Bill being short for William). This verse followed The Exorcist introduction and the promise of a signature by use of "yours truley". If we look at the next paragraph in the Tit-Willow verse from the complete version, it reads "Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name Isn't Willow, titwillow, titwillow". Very reminiscent of the "My name is" letter, but in this instance "My name Isn't". 

Now let us take a look at the final paragraph of the Exorcist letter where he wrote "If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing". This mirrors his very first communications on July 31st 1969 when he wrote "I want you to print this cipher on your frunt page by Fry Afternoon Aug 1-69, If you do not do this I will go on a kill ram page Fry night that will last the whole week end. I will cruse around and pick of all stray people or coupples that are alone then move on to kill some more untill I have killed over a dozen people". On July 31st 1969 and January 29th 1974, he concluded both correspondences with the threat "to kill" more people if his letters were not published in the newspapers. In his decoded 408 cipher, he wrote "To kill something gives me the most thrilling experence". To the best of my knowledge, this is the only time the Zodiac Killer used the word "something" prior to January 29th 1974 - and used it in reference "to kill something". So, when we look at the final paragraph of the Exorcist letter where he wrote the words "I will do something nasty", it is apparent that "to kill something" was his likely threat. The Zodiac Killer then finished the letter with another puzzle (likely decoded by Kevin Robert Brooks). 

The San Francisco Chronicle ran a very clever newspaper article on October 22nd 1969 challenging the Zodiac Killer to issue another cryptogram that would surely contain his name. However, they did this hoping that the Zodiac Killer would create a cipher down the path they had guided him towards. By dropping the name Edgar Allan Poe into their challenge, they were relying on the Zodiac Killer choosing a cipher technique described in the essays of the American writer and poet, thereby increasing their chances of solving it.

​The murderer of five not only responded by employing the first cipher technique described in Poe's A Few Words on Secret Writing to create the 340 cipher, but also inserted one of Poe's poems into the message. Here is a portion of the newspaper article: "Dr Marsh told the Examiner today: "The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts. He knows, to quote Edgar Allan Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name -in cipher code - would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated - which will truly and honestly include his name".  

The first section of Poe's essay mentioned the encryption technique of using scytala to conceal a message. In cryptography, a scytale (also transliterated skytale), is a tool used to perform a transposition cipher, consisting of a cylinder with a strip of parchment wound around it, on which is written a message. This online scytale decoder can be used to unearth the message in the Zodiac Killer's 340 cipher, which used a period 19 shift. Quite the coincidence that the Zodiac Killer would employ a similar technique from the very first portion of the essay 'A Few Words on Secret Writing'. This alone is not evidence of a connection between the newspaper article, Edgar Allan Poe and the Zodiac Killer, but the following observations may change your mind.     

Five months later, the Zodiac Killer would then mail the "My name is" cipher on April 20th 1970, apparently responding to Dr. Marsh directly, with "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you? My name is...."  In the essay 'A Few Words on Secret Writing', the second cipher technique described by Poe involves splitting the alphabet into two parts of 13, A to M, and N to Z. The Zodiac Killer's code this time contained 13 characters, beginning with A and ending with M.

But what is really interesting, is that the essay then suggests the notion of a perpetually shifting alphabet by creating two concentric circular pieces of pasteboard, with one placed inside the other and fixed, while the other can rotate. On each, the alphabet would be written (or random characters). By shifting the outer circle a certain number of spaces, different letters can represent others in the message. Bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer created three circled 8's, I considered the idea of placing Zodiac's 13 characters in two concentric circles with the characters aligned. In other words, A on the outer circle aligned with the A on the inner circle ,E on the outer circle aligned with the E on the inner circle, N on the outer circle aligned with the N on the inner circle, etc. Then I just shifted the outer circle 8 spaces clockwise, so that the 8's aligned with three new characters. Those characters were ME and the Zodiac crosshairs (shown above in the red boxes). 

Ordinarily, this would appear a little crude and unconvincing, if it wasn't for the fact the Zodiac Killer mailed the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974, switching from his usual crosshairs equalling his victim total, to "Me" corresponding with his victim total. He often allotted SFPD=0, while giving himself the latest victim total (10 in the April 20th 1970 letter). If "Me" corresponds to a victim total and his crosshairs correspond to a victim total, then "Me" corresponds to the crosshairs (and Zodiac). The shifting of the 13 character cipher by a factor of 8 to create the message "Me (crosshairs), would be similar to the period 19 shift employed in the 340 cipher.

The Zodiac Killer must have known that by creating a 13 character code, he was making it practically unsolvable using standard cryptographic methods. By using this method, employing a simple "shift of 8" technique, we at least get a crude message that he used later in the Exorcist letter: "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you? My name is Me (crosshairs)"   

The Zodiac Killer likely mailed this communication knowing it would arrive at the San Francisco Chronicle offices on April 21st 1970, which tallies with the only date supplied in the essay 'A Few Words on Secret Writing'. The Chronicle stated on April 22nd 1970 that "in a letter received yesterday, Zodiac claims he has killed again". A letter dated April 21st was noted by Edgar Allan Poe after a challenge had been laid down in Graham's Magazine. The responder to the challenge stated "In the April number of your magazine, while reviewing the translation by Mr. Walsh of “Sketches of Conspicuous Living Characters of France,” you invite your readers to address you a note in cipher". This was reminiscent of the direct challenge given to Zodiac by Dr. Marsh, to encode his name in cipher form.  

The Zodiac Killer would almost certainly have been aware that Edgar Allan Poe was a poet, so it would be rather fitting had Zodiac incorporated one of Edgar Allan Poe's poems into one of his ciphers or codes. We had to wait 51 years to find the answer to this question. In December 2020, David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eykce cracked the 340 cipher, which ended with the likely message of "I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS DEATH. LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE". The moving epitaph to his recently deceased wife, written by Edgar Allan Poe, was delivered in the form of poetry and entitled "To One in Paradise". 

​Are all these connections to Edgar Allan Poe a coincidence?  

An amalgamation of articles: 
LATEST UPDATE, INCLUDING POLICE REPORTS & PHOTOGRAPHS

Sergeant John Lynch of the Vallejo Police Department received a typewritten card from a "concerned citizen" on August 10th 1969 stating "Dear Sergeant Lynch. I hope the enclosed "key" will prove to be beneficial to you in connection with the cipher letter writer. Working puzzles criptograms and word puzzles is one of my pleasures. Please forgive the absence of my signature or name as I do not wish to have my name in the papers and it could be mentiond by a slip of the tongue. With best wishes. concerned citizen". It also contained a working key to the 408 cipher, which was mailed by the Zodiac Killer in his three "code letters" to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner on July 31st 1969. On October 7th 1969, another concerned citizen, this time describing himself as a "good citizen", mailed another cryptic message to Sergeant John Lynch, stating "On occasion, while thinking of the code letters, the pencil wrote:Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX". The author by mentioning "code letters" is clearly referring to the trinity of communications mailed on July 31st 1969, to which the August 10th 1969 communication provided a key. Despite both the "concerned citizen" and "good citizen" communications being extremely brief in nature, both utilized the word "name" twice. The author of these two communications can be argued to be the Zodiac Killer, who also mailed the April 20th 1970 letter, teasing us with "my name is". Crucially, the "concerned citizen" card and code key had not been released into the public domain by the arrival of the "good citizen" letter.  

Recently I have been examining the murder of Robert Michael Salem who was found stabbed in his 745 Stevenson Street, San Francisco apartment on April 19th 1970. The April 20th 1970 Zodiac Killer letter was received at the San Francisco Chronicle the same day the Robert Salem murder was reported in their newspaper. The letter read "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you? My name is", belatedly followed by "I hope you have fun trying to fiygure out who I killed". The Zodiac Killer chose three Christian symbols in his enclosed 13 character code that mirrored the Christian symbolism written in blood on the apartment wall of Robert Salem. Above the Japanese tatami mat where Robert Salem's body lay was the drawing of an Egyptian ankh or "crucified man", along with the wording "Satan Saves" and "Zodiac". The murder of Robert Salem and the April 20th 1970 letter so reeked of Christian symbolism that it was hard to ignore that the two weren't connected, and led me to believe that the wording "Satan Saves" had some biblical meaning with respect to Robert Salem and his homosexual lifestyle. Whether the drawing of the Egyptian ankh or "crucified man" on the wall of Robert Salem were interchangeable in the mind of the killer is unknown, but the San Francisco Chronicle on April 20th 1970 made no mention of the Egyptian ankh - making the appearance of the Christian anchor in Zodiac's 13-Symbol cipher intriguing. Anchor and ankh have the same phonetic root - and when the Zodiac Killer's crude anchor in the code is superimposed over the ankh drawing on Robert Salem's wall - a full and complete Christian anchor is revealed.   .

The ankh (key of life) was commonly held in the hands of ancient Egyptian deities, or being given by them to the pharaoh, to represent their power to sustain life and to revive human souls in the afterlife. The ankh was one of the most common decorative motifs in ancient Egypt and was also used decoratively by neighbouring cultures. Coptic Christians adapted it into the crux ansata, a shape with a circular rather than oval loop (as seen in the image above), and used it as a variant of the Christian cross. The message of "Satan Saves" rather than "Jesus Saves", along with a crucifix style cross, gives the strong impression of a murder with religious connotations, bearing in mind the anti-gay and intolerant Christian attitudes that permeated society in 1970 (and to a lesser extent today). Robert Salem was a gay man who may have unfortunately attracted somebody with the belief he was a sinner or non-believer - and hence the sarcastic message of "Satan Saves" and the "key of life" being drawn on his stomach. Clearly, the person who drew the symbol and writing, was portraying a message to the viewer (whether a belief sincerely held or not).

The most unusual and notable features inflicted to the body of Robert Salem were the crucifix style design "drawn" on his stomach and the removal of his left ear. Both of these featured heavily in the crucifixion of Jesus. Simon Peter, a disciple of Jesus, attempted to "save" and protect Jesus from arrest by severing the ear of Malchus, who was a servant of the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas. According to the gospels, Calaphas organized a plot to kill Jesus. The arrest of Jesus was a pivotal event in Christianity recorded in the canonical gospels. It occurred shortly after the Last Supper (during which Jesus gave his final sermon), and immediately after the kiss of Judas, which is traditionally said to have been an act of betrayal since Judas made a deal with the chief priests to arrest Jesus. This event ultimately led, in the Gospel accounts, to the crucifixion of Jesus. Although the right ear of Malchus was severed as opposed to the left ear of Robert Salem, this was the most viable connection I could find that links the two unusual features discovered by investigators on the body of Robert Salem.​

The immediate murder with a Zodiac connection after the "latent homosexual" suggestion was floated in the San Francisco Chronicle, where the Bay Area murderer's pseudonym was found at the crime scene, was the murder of gay man, Robert Salem on April 15th 1970 in San Francisco. The Zodiac Killer's 13-Symbol cipher is arguably contemporary in nature, with his April 20th 1970 letter being mailed the same day this murder was published in the newspapers. Homosexuality and acceptance has been a continuing struggle for gay activists to this day, but the 1960s and 1970s were arguably more difficult times with newspaper coverage on this topic less than acceptable. Many religious people were unwilling to accept individual rights, claiming that homosexuality was the mark of the beast and an abomination in the eyes of God. The writing in blood on Robert Salem's apartment wall stating "Satan Saves" must have had some meaning to the killer - so was it in any way connected to the sexual preferences of Robert Salem? I couldn't help thinking that the "Satan Saves" element written in blood on the apartment wall had a more important role to play, not only in the fact Robert Salem was homosexual, but in the damage inflicted to his body and the removal of his left ear. So I looked for a bible verse that may have been known to the killer. 

​I also had to be mindful that the bible verse was relevant to perceived "sins of the flesh". In other words, the murderer of Robert Salem had an issue with homosexuality and believed it to be satanic, wanting to deliver him unto Satan to be saved (see image above). Hence the wording "Satan Saves". 1 Corinthians 5:5 featured Paul, who had commanded the Christians in Corinth to remove from among them a man who was sleeping with his father's wife, a form of sexual immorality that even their own pagan culture condemned. The killer of Robert Salem may have considered his lifestyle the devil's work and a form of sexual immorality that resulted in "destruction of the flesh" as witnessed by investigators at the crime scene. I also took the "Satan" element from the apartment wall and combined it with the "destruction of the flesh" to create a relevant solution to the 13-Symbol cipher of "Skin A Satanist". Not only did the Zodiac Killer encipher the word "skin" twice in the 148 character cipher in 1971, but it was relevant to the Robert Salem crime scene in April 1970.

Robert Michael Salem was found murdered in his 745 Stevenson Street San Francisco apartment on April 19th 1970, accompanied by the drawing of a religious crux ansata (crucified man) and the words "Satan Saves" scrawled in blood on the wall. This somewhat mirrored the religious characters in the 13 character code mailed by the Zodiac Killer the following day (April 20th 1970), when he posed the question "I hope you have fun trying to fiygure out who I killed". Investigators found no forced entry at Robert Salem's apartment, and little appeared to have been taken from the property other than possibly some money from an open wallet on a shelf. The crime scene appeared to scream of far more than a simple robbery. This opens up the possibility that Robert Salem was murdered by somebody known to him, or somebody that befriended him with common interests. Robert Salem was a lamp designer whose products had been exhibited in Japan, England and Russia. His apartment certainly showed an Oriental influence, with a Japanese hurricane lamp hanging from the ceiling, tree trunks prominent in the apartment in the style of Japanese tea houses, and he was discovered murdered wearing Oriental lounging clothes on top of a Japanese tatami mat.

Three months after this crime, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Little List letter on July 26th 1970 paraphrasing two acts from The Mikado, a Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera set in Japan. The first act he paraphrased was entitled A More Humane Mikado, followed by As Some Day It May Happen, in which victims or society offenders must be found and who would never be missed. His introduction in the communication detailed how he would torture his victims in paradise, stating in one part: "Others I shall skin them alive + let them run around screaming". In the middle of 1971 the Zodiac Killer would again mention the skinning of victims, when he encrypted the following in his 148 character cipher: "If this is not on the front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin", and wrote in accompaniment to the cipher "Next time I will send a patch of human skin". This is why I found the phrase "Skin A Satanist" very interesting, when from a cryptology standpoint it satisfied the 13 character code on April 20th 1970, arriving the same day the Robert Salem story broke in the San Francisco Chronicle detailing the "Satan Saves" on the apartment wall. Robert Salem was effectively skinned, when his left ear was severed and taken from the crime scene. On January 29th 1974 the Zodiac Killer would again recite a section from The Mikado using a verse from Tit-Willow. Not only did he paraphrase the Japanese based opera, but he added some Oriental characters at the foot of the letter. One line in this act reminded me of the introduction in the April 20th 1970 (My Name Is letter). It read "Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name Isn't Willow, titwillow, titwillow", 

Robert Salem was a flamboyant character with an interest in the arts, having been the lighting designer for the historic Haslett Warehouse at 680 Beach Street, San Francisco in 1969. Other than the mention of Washington and Maple streets on October 13th 1969, the only other street the Zodiac Killer ever imentioned in his communications (if authentic} was when he mailed a letter to Sergeant John Lynch on October 7th 1969, when he wrote ''Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX''. So, was the Zodiac Killer in the apartment of Robert Salem in April 1970?​​​

​​Cragle, an excellent Zodiac researcher who contributes to both forums, sent Michael Morford some invaluable information that he knew I would like (and Mike subsequently added some extra findings). It was fantastic news. A letter was possibly mailed by the Zodiac Killer on October 7th 1969, containing the wording ''Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX'' (and mentioned code letters). This letter can now be inextricably linked to the Concerned Citizen card postmarked August 10th 1969, which gave us a key to the 408 cipher, mailed by the Zodiac Killer within three "code letters" on July 31st 1969. The 56 Beach Street address never existed in 1969, except for on street planning maps. Cragle found a Carl John Welz (married to Jerry Hatcher) who were working at 680 Beach Street, San Francisco and living at 2529 Union Street, San Francisco in 1969, He had a Batchelor and Master of Arts, taught in many public and  private schools and was well known in Christian science circles with a mentioned periodical from him in 1967 (see below).

If this was the "Jerry" a possible Zodiac Killer was referring to, then this is an enormous find, Carl John Welz (and wife) would most likely have been working at 680 Beach Street at the same time as Robert Michael Salem, who was murdered by somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer on April 15th 1970. Throughout 1969, Robert Salem worked as the lighting designer for the historic Haslett Warehouse at 680 Beach Street. Carl John Welz wrote an anti gay article entitled Homosexuality Can Be Healed, so the fact that murdered Robert Salem was a homosexual with the wording "Satan Saves" and a "crucified man" drawn in blood on his apartment wall, with the pseudonym Zodiac present also, makes this is a significant find. We can now connect the August 10th and October 7th 1969 communications, link the name "Jerry" to the Haslett Warehouse at 680 Beach Street, and to murder victim Robert Salem, who also worked there - and finally - combine the religious overtones from the above article to the apartment wall, and to the Zodiac Killer's 13-Symbol cipher.. 

Robert Michael Salem was found murdered in his 745 Stevenson Street San Francisco apartment on April 19th 1970, accompanied by the drawing of a religious crux ansata (crucified man) and the words "Satan Saves" scrawled in blood on the wall. This mirrored the religious characters in the 13 character code mailed by the Zodiac Killer the following day (April 20th 1970), when he posed the question "I hope you have fun trying to fiygure out who I killed". Investigators found no forced entry at Robert Salem's apartment, and little appeared to have been taken from the property, other than possibly some money from an open wallet on a shelf. The crime scene appeared to scream of far more than a simple robbery. This opens up the possibility that Robert Salem was murdered by somebody known to him, or somebody that befriended him with common interests. Robert Salem was a lamp designer, whose products had been exhibited in Japan, England and Russia. His apartment certainly showed an Oriental influence, with a Japanese hurricane lamp hanging from the ceiling, tree trunks prominent in the apartment in the style of Japanese tea houses, and he was discovered murdered wearing Oriental lounging clothes on top of a Japanese tatami mat.

Three months after this crime, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Little List letter on July 26th 1970, paraphrasing two acts from The Mikado, a Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera set in Japan. The first act he paraphrased was entitled A More Humane Mikado, followed by As Some Day It May Happen, in which victims or society offenders must be found, and who would never be missed. His introduction in the communication detailed how he would torture his victims in paradise, stating in one part: "Others I shall skin them alive + let them run around screaming". In the middle of 1971, the Zodiac Killer would again mention the skinning of victims, when he encrypted the following in his 148 character cipher: "If this is not on the front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin", and wrote in accompaniment to the cipher "Next time I will send a patch of human skin". This is why I found the phrase "Skin A Satanist" very interesting, when from a cryptology standpoint, it satisfied the 13 character code on April 20th 1970, arriving the same day the Robert Salem story broke in the San Francisco Chronicle detailing the "Satan Saves" on the apartment wall. Robert Salem was effectively skinned, when his left ear was severed and taken from the crime scene. On January 29th 1974, the Zodiac Killer would again recite a section from The Mikado, using a verse from Tit-Willow. Not only did he paraphrase the Japanese based opera, but he added some Oriental characters at the foot of the letter. One line in this act reminded me of the introduction in the April 20th 1970 (My Name Is letter). It read "Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name Isn't Willow, titwillow, titwillow", 

Robert Salem was a flamboyant character with an interest in the arts, having been the lighting designer for the historic Haslett Warehouse at 680 Beach Street, San Francisco in 1969. Other than the mention of Washington and Maple streets on October 13th 1969, the only other street the Zodiac Killer ever imentioned in his communications (if authentic} was when he mailed a letter to Sergeant John Lynch on October 7th 1969, when he wrote ''Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX''. So, was the Zodiac Killer in the apartment of Robert Salem in April 1970?

LATEST UPDATE, INCLUDING POLICE REPORTS & PHOTOGRAPHS

ASSOCIATED ARTICLES:
ANCHORS AWEIGH
ROBERT SALEM-A ZODIAC MURDER?
A CONTEMPORARY CODE ON APRIL 20TH 1970
THE ZODIAC KILLER-DRIVEN BY DEVIANCY     
A SATANIC MESSAGE IN CODE? 
THE "SKIN MARKINGS" ON ROBERT SALEM 
​DELIVER UNTO SATAN

​Recently I have been examining the horrific murder of Robert Salem (40), stabbed seven times in his 745 Stevenson Street, San Francisco apartment on April 15th 1970. Robert was a gay man, whose lifestyle may have attracted the attention of the Zodiac Killer or another sick individual, who left many clues at the crime scene to suggest a religious element to the comissmion of this murder. Either that, or the person responsible wanted us to draw this conclusion. The murderer of Robert Salem had written "Satan Saves", "Zodiac", and drawn an Egyptian ankh (or crux ansata/cross surmounted by a loop) in blood on the apartment wall. The same day this story broke in the newspapers, on April 20th 1970, the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle with a short thirteen character code containing a Christian anchor, Celtic cross (a form of Christian cross) and 888 (the number representing Jesus in Christian numerology). Not only did the Christian element span both crime scene and letter, the ear of Robert Salem was also severed and removed from the crime scene by the killer. The murderer had also drawn a crucifix style design on Robert Salem's stomach. 

In a previous article, it was noted that both of these featured heavily in the crucifixion of Jesus. Simon Peter, a disciple of Jesus, attempted to "save" and protect Jesus from arrest by severing the ear of Malchus, who was a servant of the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas. According to the gospels, Calaphas organized a plot to kill Jesus. The arrest of Jesus was a pivotal event in Christianity recorded in the canonical gospels. It occurred shortly after the Last Supper (during which Jesus gave his final sermon), and immediately after the kiss of Judas, which is traditionally said to have been an act of betrayal since Judas made a deal with the chief priests to arrest Jesus. This event ultimately led, in the Gospel accounts, to the crucifixion of Jesus. Although the right ear of Malchus was severed, as opposed to the left ear of Robert Salem, this was the most viable connection I could find that links the two unusual features discovered by investigators on the body of Robert Salem. However, I couldn't help thinking that the "Satan Saves" element written in blood on the apartment wall had a more important role to play, not only in the fact Robert Salem was homosexual, but in the damage inflicted to his body and the removal of his left ear. So I looked for a bible verse that may have been known to the killer.     

I also had to be mindful that the bible verse was relevant to perceived "sins of the flesh". In other words, the murderer of Robert Salem had an issue with homosexuality, believing it to be satanic, and wanted to deliver him unto Satan to be saved (see left image). Hence the wording "Satan Saves".

1 Corinthians 5:5 featured Paul, who had commanded the Christians in Corinth to remove from among them a man who was sleeping with his father's wife, a form of sexual immorality that even their own pagan culture condemned. The killer of Robert Salem may have considered his lifestyle the devil's work and a form of sexual immorality, that resulted in "destruction of the flesh" as witnessed by investigators at the crime scene. 

I also took the "Satan" element from the apartment wall and combined it with the "destruction of the flesh", to create a relevant solution to the 13-Symbol cipher of "Skin A Satanist". Not only did the Zodiac Killer encipher the word "skin" twice in the 148 character cipher in 1971, but it was relevant to the Robert Salem crime scene in April 1970.

LATEST UPDATE, INCLUDING POLICE REPORTS & PHOTOGRAPHS

ASSOCIATED ARTICLES:
ANCHORS AWEIGH
ROBERT SALEM-A ZODIAC MURDER?
A CONTEMPORARY CODE ON APRIL 20TH 1970
THE ZODIAC KILLER-DRIVEN BY DEVIANCY     
A SATANIC MESSAGE IN CODE? 
THE "SKIN MARKINGS" ON ROBERT SALEM