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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The nearly nude body of Nancy Darlene Feusi (23), a separated mother of five, was discovered by a fisherman at 6:30 am on July 22nd 1973 alongside Pleasant Grove Road and Steelhead Creek, approximately half a mile north of West Riego Road in Sutter County. Dressed in a miniskirt and bikini-style briefs, with a blouse discovered nearby, she had been brutally stabbed 29 times in the stomach, chest and arm in what appeared a sexually driven crime. Shoe prints and tire tracks were discovered close to where the young woman was found, opening up the possibility she was murdered elsewhere and transported to the scene of the crime. 

Earlier that morning she had been dancing at Plumbers Hall, 5841 Newman Court in East Sacramento, with her last sighting alive at 43rd Street and 11th Avenue, about 2 miles southwest of Plumbers Hall. This sighting was only 3 1/2 hours prior to her body being discovered alongside Pleasant Grove Road, 15 miles north. It was clearly evident she had been transported to the location she was ultimately found by a vehicle, which investigators surmised would have been heavily bloodstained. Therefore, the location of her murder was considered to lie elsewhere, possibly close to the area she was last seen alive.  

Below I have added the relevant locations regarding Nancy's last known movements that morning.   

The quickest route from downtown Sacramento to Pleasant Grove Road is via Interstate 5 and Highway 99, before turning east at the interchange of West Riego Road, traveling 2.74 miles to Pleasant Grove Road and then heading north for just half a mile to the body deposition site. Clearly, the murderer had many earlier opportunisties to dispose of her body on the 15-mile journey north, so one could be forgiven for believing that this location was familiar to the killer as a safe option. This opens up the possibility that the murderer was actually traveling home that morning and dropped off the body of the young woman, not only somewhere he had likely previously visited, but en route to his residence, slightly further north. Continuing north at the interchange for just 10 miles, brings you to the the census-designated place of East Nicolaus that may be familiar to some with respect to the murders of Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee.

On Tuesday April 22nd 1986, Laotian couple Koy Ien Saechao (48) and Choy Fow Saelee (40) were traveling back on the two-and-a-half hour journey to their residence in Dorman Road, Yuba City after visiting their son in a Merced CA hospital, situated in the area of the San Joaquin Valley of Northern California. They were only 45 minutes from home when it was believed they had opted to take a rest on the roadside edge (or ushered over by a second vehicle), near the interchange of Highway 99 and I-5 Sacramento and attacked without remorse. How the killer approached is open to question, but the assailant unleashed a barrage of gunfire into their car blowing out both front side windows, testimony to which, was the 15 small caliber shell casings scattered and retrieved from beside the vehicle. The couple suffered multiple shots to the head. Two weeks later, a letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle purportedly from the Zodiac Killer laying claim to the savage killings. There were reports in the newspaper that an unidentified "hitchiker" flagged down an East Nicolaus patrol officer and directed him to the murder site, although only describing it as a car accident. In the 1986 Letter the author stated "The Blue Meannies almost caught me", bringing forth the notion he was describing the encounter with the patrol officer and effectively taunting the police.   

The distance between the crime scenes (as the crow flies) of Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee, to the deposition site of Nancy Feusi, is just 8 miles - and on both occasions the perpetrator may have been heading to East Nicolaus or somewhere nearby. Of course, the two crimes are separated by thirteen years and therefore probably unrelated to one another, but it was important to put the murder of Nancy Feusi into perspective from a Zodiac standpoint.

Judith Hakari was a nurse at Sutter Hospital, who disappeared heading back to the Markston Apartments on March 7th 1970 and later discovered murdered. At 11:30 pm. Hakari calls her fiance to tell him she's leaving Sutter Memorial Hospital where she works as a nurse. By 1:30 in the morning, she has still not come home. Her fiance, waiting at her apartment, begins to worry. "He went out to the apartment complex parking lot and discovered her car was parked in the assigned space that she had," Links said. But Judith was nowhere to be seen. She was found one month later, strangled and bludgeoned to death. "Some hikers discovered a body in a shallow grave up in the town of Weimar, in Placer County. And during their investigation they determined that it was Judith Hakari," Links said.
Sutter Hospital is just two miles from the location where Nancy Feusi was last seen - although it appears the murderer in the respective cases headed in different directions to conceal the body.

Nancy Feusi was last seen at approximately 3:00 am on July 22nd 1973 and discovered at 6:30 am, just 3 1/2 hours later. The journey time by vehicle from 43rd Street and 11th Avenue in Sacramento to Pleasant Grove Road is about 30 minutes, thereby leaving a shortfall of 3 hours. Had she befriended her killer at Plumbers Hall while dancing and met her demise shortly afterwards? Had this been the case, it is likely the murderer headed to somewhere he was sure he wouldn't be spotted while disposing of the body, while minimizing the time he was driving around with a body in the bloodstained vehicle. The fact that he drove just 15 miles to this "out of the way" location, could suggest it was somebody familiar with the area and quite possibly somebody who didn't live too far beyond.

Doreen Gaul (19) and James Sharp (15) were murdered on November 21st 1969, their bodies discovered in a Los Angeles alleyway, between Arapahoe Street and Magnolia Avenue. A threatening typed letter signed "The Zodiac Killer" was discovered in Doreen Gaul's belongings with the message "So you think you can fool the old killer, ha ha. I know all your movements and the time they are made. Time is short, enjoy life while you can. You are to beautiful to live and I must kill you".

On August 1st 1973, a letter postmarked Albany, New York was mailed to the Albany Times Union newspaper declaring "You were wrong, I am not dead or in the hospital. I am alive and well and I'm going to start killing again. Below is the name and location of my next victim. But you had better hurry because I'm going to kill her August 10th at 5:00 pm when the shift change. Albany is a nice town". It contained a code stating "(name) Albany Medical Center this only the beginning". The Albany Letter was a direct response to a New York Daily News article about the Zodiac Killer.

The two-page news article was published on July 22nd 1973, speculating on whether the Zodiac Killer was in "a mental hospital or dead", so it wasn't too surprising that the author of the Albany Letter replied just nine days later and began with "You were wrong, I am not dead or in the hospital. I am alive and well". And then added a cryptogram threatening a medical center. But was the Zodiac Killer or hoaxer a resident of Albany, New York, or had traveled there for family or business? Albany Medical Center was 350 feet from Myrtle Avenue, the street on which Doreen Gaul previously lived. The exact address was 570 Myrtle Avenue, shown here on Google Maps. 

Five months after the Albany Letter, The Exorcist film was released in the USA on December 26th 1973 - a supernatural horror movie showcasing the fight between good and evil through the practice of exorcism and the Catholic Church. Sixteen or seventeen days later, on January 11th/12th 1974, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer telephoned the San Francisco police and several news outlets, stating they had killed a woman and placed her body in a Daly City church. Despite an extensive search, no such victim was discovered. This newspaper cutting is courtesy of Seagull from the Zodiac Killer Site forum.   

 Was the release of The Exorcist film the trigger for the phone calls? These telephone calls arrived at about the same time as a San Francisco Chronicle publication on January 11th 1974 by Paul Avery, entitled "Weird Goings-On At the Movies" and describing the audience reaction to The Exorcist film. The Zodiac Killer may have been responding to this Paul Avery newspaper article by phoning the police and applying a religious angle to his threats. A movie featuring Catholicism and exorcism, shortly followed by the claim of a "murdered woman in a church" would be remiss to ignore. The 01/29/74 Exorcist Letter postmark has been linked to San Mateo County, California, in which Daly City is the largest city.

On July 10th 1972, Jan and Brian Neven requested the assistance of psychics, reporting that paranormal activity and fires were spontaneously occurring in their home in Daly City (bordering San Francisco). This "poltergeist activity" eventually drew the services of Greek Orthodox priest Father Karl Pazelt, renowned for performing exorcisms.

This story was featured heavily 18 months later in a New York Times article on January 25th 1974, stating  "Father Pazelt said the family members were reportedly the victims of peculiar forces that he labeled as “exterior signs of the devil.” At times, he said, the devil choked them by the throat, knocked them unconscious, threw knives and glasses through the air and caused objects to break, burn, move, and fly.” Father Pazelt concluded that After receiving permission from San Francisco Archbishop Joseph T. McGucken, Father Pazelt performed 14 exorcisms of the Nevens family and Dr. Freda Morris in 1972-73". If the Zodiac Killer (or impersonator) had been living in New York (in or near Albany), could this New York Times article only four days prior to the mailing of the Exorcist Letter on January 29th 1974, coupled with The Exorcist film, have been the inspiration behind the Exorcist communication? The Daly City escapades of Father Karl Pazelt also appeared in a January 19th 1974 Watertown Daily (New York) feature, describing the unfolding drama in the Nevens family home.link.

With the former home address of Doreen Gaul, the typed letter and her eventual murder, the Albany Letter, and the New York publications regarding Father Karl Pazelt occurring in the ten days run-up to the Exorcist Letter, can we argue a case for the Zodiac Killer in New York on these dates? Or was he firmly resident in the Bay Area and vicinity, claiming a "church murder" as a response to Paul Avery or the recent release of the Exorcist film - or both?

Nikki Alexandra Benedict (14) had left her friend Kathie Gomski's house in Halper Road, Poway on May 1st 1967 shortly after 6:00 pm, to walk the 2 1/2 mile journey to her home at 13530 Olive Tree Lane, when approximately 25 minutes into her journey her life was cruelly snatched away. She was just passing the intersection of 12784 Poway and Carriage Road, traveling along a dirt pathway that straddled the Poway Road, when a man laying in wait leapt from a grassy depression and viciously attacked the young teenage girl with a short-bladed knife. She had a knife wound to her neck and bruises on her elbows and knees, but the fatal injuries were two stab wounds that penetrated her heart. The young girl did not succumb to her injuries immediately, with a trail of blood extending 200 yards to the west side of Carriage Road as she desperately sought help near a local shopping center. At approximately 6:30 pm, an 11-year-old boy, Ronald Fisk, discovered the critically injured girl and raced away on his bicycle to seek help from his father, who worked at a nearby market store. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of responding personnel, Nikki Benedict would be pronounced dead upon her arrival at Palomar Hospital.

Nikki Benedict would usually travel the 2.3 mile journey home from Meadowbrook Junior High School on the school bus, however, on this Monday she visited her friend Kathie in Halper Road to discuss an art project. Kathie was planning to escort Nikki along the initial part of her journey home, but was unable to accompany her friend because she had to stay home for her dinner. Nikki Benedict would have traveled south, before heading east alongside the Poway Road toward home, or traveled southeast from Halper Road to the intersection of Poway and Carriage Road, near to where her body was discovered. Whether she had been trailed by her attacker or had walked into his path has yet to be fully determined, but the attack was swift and deadly, with no robbery or sexual interference apparent. One eyewitness recalled a white man fleeing the scene, although no solid suspects have subsequently emerged from this sighting and the case has remained relatively trapped in time for just over 52 years.

Links have been forged to the Riverside murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, some six months earlier. She too was savagely attacked with a short-bladed knife, with the Zodiac Killer belatedly laying claim to her murder on March 13th 1971 when he wrote to the Los Angeles Times, stating "I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there". Poway, San Diego is 83 miles south of Terracina Drive in Riverside, where Cheri Jo Bates body was ultimately discovered on Halloween morning by Riverside City College caretaker, Cleophus Martin.

I always find it helpful to provide a map regarding any crime scenes, so below I have identified the relevant locations in the murder of Nikki Benedict, despite the fact the topography has changed over the last half-century.  

On the map I have highlighted a second attack - that of Patricia Lee Kuzara (7), who was murdered while walking home on Saturday, September 28th 1974, with her badly beaten body discovered the following morning in a field just off Midland and Hilleary Road, Poway, just alongside the First Baptist Church. She was just a few blocks from her home in Putney Road when the attacker struck, inflicting numerous blows to her head with a blunt instrument. She had been staying with family friends/babysitters approximately 2 1/2 miles away and had left shortly before dusk (6:30 pm) according to the friends. Why on earth a babysitter would allow a seven-year-old girl to walk this distance unaccompanied I have no idea? Four days after her body was discovered, a 40-inch long angle iron with pieces of wood attached was found on Hilleary Road. It was believed to have been innocently moved from its original location in the field. 

Sergeant Doug Clements was of the opinion that the killer probably lived nearby, creating understandable apprehension in the local community. The killing of Patty Lee Kuzara was only a mile from the murder site of Nikki Benedict, and both were attacked alongside the Poway Road in a grassy area. Both young girls lived only 660 meters from one another. Investigators in a press release stated that the Patty Lee Kuzara murder appeared sexually motivated, so whether any connection exists to the murder of Nikki Benedict is sheer speculation. Had the murderer of Nikki Benedict failed to complete his objective that day because of the vigorous defence she displayed in countering his attack, and therefore had chosen easier prey in his subsequent attacks? (if any). Of course, the two may be totally unrelated.

The question for most Zodiac sleuths, is whether any credence can be placed in his Los Angeles Letter of March 13th 1971, of "a hell of a lot more down there". The Zodiac Killer certainly claimed or insinuated many more murders than the canonical five attributed to him, so whether his exploits took him to Poway on May 1st 1967 is wholly dependent on which side of the fence you sit. The timeline bridges the gap between Riverside and Lake Herman Road - and the April 30th 1967 Bates' letters were mailed only one day before the murder of  Nikki Benedict - and did promise "there will be more".

Here is a complimentary video venerating the memory Nikki Benedict. Zodiac Killer Insights.

In two previous articles we analyzed the design of the Pines Card in association with the disappearance and likely murder of Donna Lass on September 6th 1970. There are multiple possibilities, notably [1] The Pines Card contained nothing of value [2] The punch-hole fell over the Donner Memorial State Park, hinting at the young woman's name in similar fashion to the Monticello Card four months later, but had no directions to her burial site [3] The Pines Card contained clues to her name and burial site [4] The Pines Card contained directions to something Zodiac placed for investigators or the public to find, thereby (if found) bolstering the notion he was involved in her disappearance and murder. This could have been placed at a predetermined location prior to the mailing of the Pines Card. Or the most likely, [5] The Zodiac Killer crafted the Pines Card, but had absolutely nothing to do with her demise. This is the route we shall take in the following examination. 

I have come to the inescapable conclusion that the Zodiac Killer had nothing to do with the disappearance of Donna Lass from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on September 6th 1970, and his willingness to suggest such an involvement was prescribed by the writings of the San Francisco Chronicle. On September 26th 1970, the disappearance of Donna Lass was extensively covered in a San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article entitled Nurse Vanishes -- A Tahoe Mystery. This must have been a goldmine for the Zodiac Killer, with all the ingredients contained in the article a compelling blend of circumstantial evidence just waiting to be picked. The Zodiac Killer knew that the circumstances surrounding the young woman's move from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe was the perfect cocktail to convince investigators he was a viable candidate in her murder. The added benefit for the Bay Area killer was the suggestion of a link to the murder of another nurse, Judith Hakari, abducted on March 7th 1970, and later discovered in a shallow grave in Weimar. The Zodiac Killer could effectively link himself to two murders for the price of one. 

Many murders passed through the pages of the Chronicle newspaper, but this story had everything the killer required. Of course, he must have realized by now, that if he had mailed a communication immediately after the newspaper article, stating an involvement in her disappearance, then it would appear all too convenient, with his writings likely dismissed as a killer just latching on to the latest crime story. But by waiting months, as he had done with Kathleen Johns, his claims (in his mind) may carry more weight with investigators. In other words, the publicity had died down regarding the disappearance of Donna Lass, yet he still had the crime in the forefront of his mind even after six months, thereby adding validity to such a claim. 

Rubislaw32, a contributor to this site, touched on the idea that the March 22nd 1971 Pines Card may have been influenced by the abduction and murder of Judith Hakari. This idea carries much weight, when we consider the inspiration for the Pines Card was likely generated from the September 26th 1970 newspaper article six months earlier. The article was rich pickings for a killer who had previously murdered taxicab driver Paul Stine in the Presidio Heights area of San Francisco, so close to the Letterman General Hospital where Donna Lass had previously worked. The disappearance of a woman 150 miles from San Francisco, who had recent connections to San Francisco in the Presidio Heights district, must have been more than the Zodiac Killer could have wished for. Many disappearances and murders had occurred much closer to the Bay Area than the Lake Tahoe Mystery, but this one was covered comprehensively by the Chronicle and had the details the Zodiac Killer couldn't have failed to notice. We look for overlapping features in the Presidio Heights murder of Paul Stine by Zodiac, with the movements of Donna Lass and her eventual abduction from South Lake Tahoe, noting the location of the Letterman General Hospital with respect to the Presidio Park the killer escaped into. We then take the Pines Card depicting Incline Village and draw parallels to the crimes based on their locations, thereby concluding a possible Zodiac involvement in both. The problem being with this line of thinking, is the Zodiac Killer knew that these conclusions would be drawn when he created the Pines Card - because he had read the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article and noted these comparisons himself. The Zodiac Killer was effectively forcing you into making an unwarranted connection, thereby bolstering a case for his involvement in the Donna Lass case. Everything required for the Pines Card sat in the September 26th 1970 pubication.          

All the Zodiac Killer required was a map of Lake Tahoe and the above newspaper article to create the perfect ruse. He had noted that a connection was being considered between the cases of Donna Lass and Judith Hakari, with the Sutter Hospital nurse having been discovered "buried in a shallow grave in the Sierra foothills of Placer County". Therefore, to give credence to his claims in the murder of Donna Lass (and possibly Judith Hakari), what better way than to place the pasted phrase of "around in the snow" upside down, to give the impression Donna Lass is buried in a shallow grave, and thereby tying the two cases together in modus operandi. Then place the pasted location of "Sierra Club" on the Pines Card to subconsciously plant the seed of a link to the "Sierra" of "the Sierra foothills of Placer County", where Judith Hakari's remains were subsequently unearthed. 

The newspaper article told us that Donna Lass worked at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on the south side of the lake, so even a modicum of investigation to discover the location of the local police department, would allow the Zodiac Killer to direct the investigators "past the Lake Tahoe areas" to the the pine-laden wilderness and a likely burial site. Then came the pièce de résistance in the Pines Card, further forging a link between the Zodiac Killer, Donna Lass and San Francisco. The Zodiac Killer wanted investigators to draw the conclusion he had previously targeted Donna Lass in the Presidio area of San Francisco, and so driving them to the conclusion that he had traveled to South Lake Tahoe to complete his mission of killing the young woman Unfortunately, the Zodiac Killer may have overestimated the ability of police to discover the true meaning of "sought victim 12".

By using the past tense of seek in "sought", the Zodiac Killer was attempting to convince investigators he had previously trailed Donna Lass as victim number 12. The newspaper article gave us all the movements of Donna Lass, stating "Miss Lass became a first-aid nurse at the Sahara last June, living the previous five months in San Francisco and working at the Letterman General Hospital at the Presidio". The Zodiac Killer therefore knew that Donna Lass was in San Francisco in the January of 1970. He was only claiming 10 victims by April 20th 1970, and 12 victims by June 26th 1970, so it wasn't difficult for the Zodiac Killer to work out, that he could have "sought her as victim 12" before she left for South Lake Tahoe in June. The Zodiac Killer would have been seeking Donna Lass as victim number 12 sometime between April 20th 1970 and when she began her new job in June. By using the past participle of "seek", the Zodiac Killer was attempting to convince investigators his interest in Donna Lass had begun long before her disappearance - and in doing so, hopefully reinforcing a connection between San Francisco and South Lake Tahoe, with him as the common denominator between the two.

On March 19th 1971, the San Francisco ran an advertisement for condominiums at Incline Village by Lake Tahoe. The Zodiac Killer, having now waited the necessary time to authenticate his claim in the disappearance and murder of Donna Lass, lay the final piece of the jigsaw. His ruse was now complete.    

Here we will take a further look at the disappearance of Donna Lass from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on September 6th 1970, attempting to discover the approximate area she was disposed of or buried. The last article on this subject pinpointed an area along California State Route 89 by Pole Creek Trailhead. The Zodiac Killer (if responsible for her murder) had previously made two phone calls to police, directing them to the crime scenes at Blue Rock Springs Park and Lake Berryessa. When the Pines Card was mailed on March 22nd 1971 it held directions within its design, such as "Sierra Club", "pass Lake Tahoe areas" and a punch-hole on the right side. The postcard was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle and was addressing the police.

Here is a snippet from the South Lake Tahoe Police Department website: "The South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) was formed July 1, 1967. The first home of the department was on the southwest corner of Lake Tahoe Boulevard at “D” Street. This is currently the present location of the City Corp. Yard. By the spring of 1969, SLTPD had 33 officers, seven civilian positions, and nine vehicles. We needed a bigger facility. So during the tenure of John Crow, the second Chief of Police at the helm of SLTPD, the Police Department moved to a month-to-month rental facility at Fremont Avenue and Mono Way. This structure is now the home of Nel’s Hardware store. This building was not constructed as a police facility, and eventually another move was needed. In April of 1973, the department moved to its current location in the El Dorado County Government Center, on Johnson Boulevard".
All three of these locations sit under the south side of the lake, so the instructions on the Pines Card to "pass Lake Tahoe areas" can only mean one of two things - the police needed to travel along the east side of the lake using US Route 50, towards Incline Village (the area depicted on the Pines Card), or travel along the west side of the lake, towards the Donner Memorial State Park and the Sierra Club at Clair Tappaan Lodge (also depicted on the Pines Card). See below. 

If the killer was living or vacationing on the south side of the lake, then he may very well have crossed paths with his target at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino, the Monte Verdi Apartments at 3893 Pioneer Trail (where Donna Lass lived), or somewhere close by. Whether he murdered Donna Lass first, then disposed of her body, or murdered her at the location he concealed her body, his most direct and convenient route of travel from the south side of the lake, is to "pass the Lake Tahoe areas" on the east or west side, via a major route. California State Route 89 and US Route 50 both skirt the lake on either side, and more importantly, head towards Incline Village and the Sierra Club at Clair Tappaan Lodge.

A newspaper article stated that '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". This indicates that a search was to be initiated in this area, but it clearly failed to unearth the remains of Donna Lass. Parking your vehicle in the area of Incline Village under construction doesn't seem the most sensible choice to start digging a grave. When we consider that the July 13th 1971 Monticello Card revealed the name "Kathy" at the Oak Hill Memorial Park, and the Pines Card overlayed over the Sierra Club of Clair Tappaan Lodge revealed the name "Donna" (at the Donner Memorial State Park), it seems as though the Incline Village advertisement was used more as a template, rather than the actual burial site. The act of the Zodiac Killer adding "Sierra Club" to the postcard was clearly significant in this instance.  

Using a sprinkling of geographic profiling and the words on the Pines Card, the Zodiac Killer would be "past the Lake Tahoe areas" at Tahoe City, where California State Route 89 breaks away from the lake. He now has to effectively bury Donna Lass between Tahoe City and the Donner Memorial State Park by Truckee. Is he going to risk performing this task by Alpine Meadows or Olympic Valley?, or travel to the much more secluded area by Pole Creek Trailhead, which is exactly mid-distance between Tahoe City and the Donner Memorial State Park - this is the first and logical choice to avoid detection. There are some other turn off areas in this region of California State Route 89 where the Zodiac Killer could have disposed of a body, but mid-distance in a secluded area and sitting under his crosshairs on the Pines Card overlay, seems as good as any.   

The Zodiac Killer mailed the Bus Bomb Letter on November 9th 1969, opening with the lines "This is the Zodiac speaking up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people. I have grown rather angry with the police for their telling lies about me. So I shall change the way the collecting of slaves. I shall no longer announce to anyone. When I committ my murders, they shall look like routine robberies, killings of anger, + a few fake accidents, etc". Then on page 6 he gives us the Zodiac crosshairs with five X's marked on the circumference, accompanied by "PS. Be sure to print the part I marked out on page 3 or I shall do my thing". These X's are meant to be the areas he is threatening to target if his demands are not followed. The crosshairs can be spun around and placed over a map to correlate with the attacks at Lake Herman Road, Blue Rock Springs, Lake Berrryessa and Presidio Heights, like so. But this only accounts for four attacks and five murders, when clearly the Zodiac Killer is claiming five attacks and seven murders at this juncture. The additional attack he was claiming, was the August 3rd 1969 double stabbing of Kathy Snoozy and Deborah Furlong in San Jose, to which he added "Aug" on the November 8th 1969 'Dripping Pen' card. Furthermore, the inaccuracy of attempting to transfer the crosshairs from the Bus Bomb Letter, to overlay onto a map, is extremely problematic. The Zodiac Killer had placed very small dots around the crosshairs to represent the numbers on a clock face. Therefore, to be far more accurate, we need to place the perfect circle of a clock face over a map and locate the five X's he has placed around the circumference.

One thing to remember here, is that many people have centered these crosshairs over Mount Diablo, when by November 9th 1969 the Zodiac Killer had never referenced Mount Diablo in any of his communications. We would have to wait until June 26th 1970 for the Zodiac Killer to send us the Phillips 66 Road Map with his crosshairs centered over Mount Diablo. These crosshairs had the numbers 3, 6 and 9 around its face, also suggestive of a clock face. So, although the Bus Bomb Letter crosshairs came with no indication of where they (or a clock face) should be placed, it is apparent in hindsight they were to be placed over Mount Diablo. There is also no indication in the Bus Bomb Letter that we should try in any way to rotate the five X's around to suit our needs. Below, I have placed a clock face over Mount Diablo to locate the positions 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11, marked out by the Zodiac Killer         

Interestingly, the Zodiac Killer was claiming five attacks by November 9th 1969, and positions 1 to 5 are vacant on the clock face. The first X falls over position 6, which heads off towards San Jose, the site of the murders he was claiming just one day earlier. Position 10 on the clock face passes directly over Rodeo, the location where Leona LaRell Roberts was to be abducted from in one month from now, on December 10th 1969 (the date matching the clock face). Position 11 passes directly over Pacific Union College in Angwin - the college significant to the attack at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969. Position 8 passes over Oakland, brought into play, when on June 18th 1970 a letter was mailed from somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, enclosing two Oakland A's tickets for Gerald Tagert. Position 9 passes directly over Tamalpais Valley, Isobel Watson (33) had just got off the bus on the evening of April 7th 1972, and was walking home along Pine Hill Road, Tamalpais Valley, Marin County at 9.00 pm, when a light colored vehicle veered towards her, knocking her to the ground. The driver exited his vehicle offering to take her home, but after she had refused his offer of apparent help a second time, the concerned citizen suddenly became enraged, pulling out a knife and stabbing the woman in the neck and shoulder. ​Her screams alerted the neighborhood, forcing the assailant into a hasty retreat from the scene. She was treated at Marin General Hospital and fortunately survived the brutal attack.

I don't know whether these examples highlighted were the intention behind the five X's on the circumference, but it can be strongly argued, based on the Zodiac Killer's introduction in the Bus Bomb Letter, that he was threatening more attacks without announcing the murders he was to accomplish. The statement next to the crosshairs of "PS. Be sure to print the part I marked out on page 3 or I shall do my thing", suggests that these five X's would be the result of non-compliance, rather than the attacks he had already carried out. The Zodiac is split into 12 signs just like a clock face - beginning at zero degrees longitude - which is maybe why the Zodiac Killer attributed zero to the north face of his crosshairs on the June 26th 1970 Phillips Map. Had the Zodiac Killer originally intended to commit 12 attacks when he began his murderous campaign of terror, thereby completing the circle he had created for himself? Something to which he would later realize was simply unachievable.

After the final flurry of communications had ceased in 1971, many have speculated on a killer who upped sticks and left the state of California. One dubious Zodiac letter was received nearly a decade later in 1981, postmarked Atlanta, Georgia and mailed to the television station WXIA-TV "11 Alive" at 1611 West Peachtree Street, 30308 on March 8th. Wayne Williams was a serial killer attributed with twenty plus murders in Atlanta between 1979 and 1981, primarily that of children. However, Wayne Williams was only ever convicted in the murders of Jimmy Ray Payne (21) on April 23rd 1981 and Nathaniel Cater (27) on May 22nd 1981, both of whom were adults. This has led some people to question whether Wayne Williams was responsible for any or some of the murders attributed to him. Wayne Williams wasn't arrested until June 21st 1981, which in retrospect, makes the alleged Zodiac letter on March 8th 1981 claiming he was responsible for some of the Atlanta child murders even more interesting. This letter was mailed 3 1/2 months prior to the arrest of Wayne Williams. Is it possible the Zodiac Killer was responsible for some or any of the child murders just over 2,300 miles from California, bearing in mind the doubt that has surrounded the crimes? Let us examine the letter and a similar threat received in the same timeframe. 

Two black children and three black adults were murdered in March that year, with the three adults aged between 20 and 23 years, murdered between March 20th and March 25th of 1981. The letter stated:

Hello its me. Haven't you people figured out who is killing these little people yet. I'll give you a hint, I used to be in San Francisco. I used to stalk women, but I like to kill children now. At all my victims bodies I have left certain clues, but I guess it's too much for you Rebels to handle. So I guess I'll have to tell you. I'll (to) kill children because they are so easy to "pick off: Buy the way, if you still have letters from the other murders, I am not writing in the same hand writing. 

Both letters contain racist overtones, with the use of the capitalized Rebels and the demand to stop Forced Bussing.
Patriots (also known as Revolutionaries, Continentals, Rebels, or American Whigs) were those colonists of the Thirteen Colonies who rejected British rule during the American Revolution and declared the United States of America as an independent nation in July 1776. Their decision was based on the political philosophy of republicanism as expressed by spokesmen such as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Thomas Paine. They were opposed by the Loyalists who supported continued British rule. Soldiers fighting for the southern states in the American Civil War were called rebels. Wikipedia. Therefore, by invoking the title of Rebels may indicate the identity or character of the person behind the letter, particularly if he was also responsible for the short note, stating "Please stop forced bussing or I will kill 3 more black boys in Atlanta in March".  

Busing, also called desegregation busing in the United States, was the practice of transporting students to schools within or outside their local school districts as a means of rectifying racial segregation. Although American schools were technically desegregated in 1954 by the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision handed down in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), in practice they remained largely segregated owing to trends in housing and neighbourhood segregation. Busing came to be the main remedy by which the courts sought to end racial segregation in the U.S. schools, and it was the source of what was arguably the biggest controversy in American education in the later 20th century.

With extremely limited information available to be gleaned from these communications, we have to consider the possibility that the author chose the WXIA-TV "11 Alive" Station at 1611 West Peachtree Street because he may have lived or worked somewhere close to this location. Because the letter was mailed on March 8th 1981, we shall look at three of the recent victims from January 22nd 1981 to March 2nd 1981 - that of Terry Pue (15), Patrick Baltazar (11) and Joseph Bell (15), who were last seen at 4796 Memorial Drive, 201 Courtland Street and Westview Drive respectively. These locations are all within an 8.5 mile radius of the television station. But it is the abduction and murder of Terry Pue on January 22nd 1981 that we will concentrate on, primarily because of the telephone calls that accompanied this crime. Telephone calls with a racist overtone, similar to the correspondence above. These calls and letters could have been a diversionary tactic to throw off police, employed to place the murders squarely at the feet of the Ku Klux Klan or some other white supremacy group, but equally we have to consider the Zodiac Killer because of the claims in the letter - however slim that possibility.

An excellent website covering the Atlanta Child Murders is http://atkid.weebly.com, from which this excerpt has been taken: "Terry Pue's body was found off Sigman Road in Rockdale County by a passerby.  This was where an anonymous man, on January 8th, called to tell police to find a boy's body. When police came up empty handed, the man called again, claiming he put another body there, just before Pue was found.  Another call, believed to be from the same man, was traced to North Indian Creek Drive. A couple years later, a second skeletal body was found in this area".

These were the sort of 'cat and mouse' games employed by the Zodiac Killer - although it is extremely difficult to sell this notion on the basis of a few telephone calls - even if they did contain a racial element to their content. This was featured in episode six (season 2) of the Mindhunter series by Joe Penhall. The author of the letter stated that he had left "certain clues" at all his victims bodies. If this were the case in respect to Terry Pue, what could he have possibly meant?

Earlier this year, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Atlanta police chief Erika Shields announced that, following advancements in DNA technology, the city would be retesting evidence associated with the Atlanta child murders, a series of gruesome killings of more than 25 black children and adolescents in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During the press conference, Shields said there were boxes of evidence associated with the case, some of which had never been tested, and that the department believed it had a responsibility to the families of the victims to reopen the case. Rolling Stone.

Terry Pue was discovered strangled near to Interstate 20 on Sigman Road, wearing a blue windbreaker with the name "Kim" in red lettering on its rear, with dog hairs adhering to his clothing. But I doubt these are the sort of clues that Zodiac would have left behind for the police. The phone calls in the run up to the discovery of Terry Pue's body are an interesting feature of this crime, with the caller in one instance traced to the area of North Indian Creek Drive. This location is approximately 8.5 miles east of 1611 West Peachtree Street Northeast.

Two pasted communications were mailed in close proximity to one another (or possibly in unison), postmarked December 10th and December 11th 1969. The first was the Day-by-day forecast for Cancer, and the second was the Day-by-day forecast for Leo, mailed from Sacramento to the Sacramento Bee newspaper and from San Francisco to the San Francisco Newspaper Printing Company, P.O. Box 3100, Rincon Annex, San Francisco respectively.

When trying to understand these communications, we have to consider why the author (or Zodiac) didn't just opt to paste the words on a postcard or greeting card in similar fashion to the '13 Hole' Postcard or Pines Card. In this instance he chose an astrology backdrop with dates for both communications, suggestive that the numerical dates were the key ingredient for the message to be understood. In a recent article we investigated the possibility that the Day-by-day forecast for Leo was in reference to the abduction and murder of Leona Roberts, hence why it was mailed at about the same time as her abduction on December 10th 1969. The same goes for the Day-by-day forecast for Cancer communication which I have added below.

Rubislaw32, a contributor to this site, was correct when he stated that the pasted section FLT 555 on the Cancer communication was taken from State Express 555 Filter cigarettes, When you consider the title of the communication Day-by-day forecast for Cancer and realize that the font used on the State Express cigarette packets is identical to the pasted triple 5 below, along with FLT being an acronym for filter, then it leaves little doubt as to the origins of this phrase. The bigger question is, why did the designer of the pasted communication place it originating from the position of November 9th, and what new purpose had he adopted the acronym for, if any? As stated in the previous article, we are dealing with an abduction and murder in December, so it is the numerical values that we likely have to focus on.

If you take a quick peek at the Leo communication, you will notice that the pasted wording FLT Three of a Kind (meaning 555) also begins at the 9th of the month. Two phrases, FLT Three of a Kind and FLT 555, both beginning on the 9th. Is that really just accidental? This was the numerical day before the abduction of Leona Roberts. The connection is speculative at best, but we have to consider that the FLT (the common strand between both communications) having been placed next to this date twice, has some relevance to the 9th - and quite possibly the impending abduction date of Leona Roberts. Find, Locate and Target, or Find Leona at Tormey, akin to the acronym of BTK used by Dennis Rader several years later, is one possibility for this pasted section. However, there are multiple possibilities pertaining to the motivation and meaning of the communication's designer.  

Another link to the State Express 555 cigarette company (albeit questionable) is where the designer of the Leo communication places the word Train - in the same section of dates as FLT Three of a Kind (see here). Obviously, Express and Train can be linked through the railways, but here is an extract from Wikipedia: "The idea for the State Express brand came from the U.S.in 1893. Sir Albert Levy, a London tobacco merchant, was visiting the United States. While in New York State, Levy was a passenger on the Empire State Express train, which allegedly broke land speed records as locomotive No.999, the “Queen of Speed” sped its way from New York City to Buffalo".  

In this communication we have Action Guide, Want, Watch and Birds Fly South all touching the date of November 18th. This date featured in the previous article with respect to the release date of the 1969 film 'Run a Crooked Mile', which was pasted beginning on November 18th 1969. I will merge the two communications together using three of the pasted sections and state that "I will consult my action guide, because I want to watch the film Run a Crooked Mile". Of course, I have no idea if this was the intention of the designer of both communications, which is why your input is invaluable in making some sense of these seemingly senseless pastings. One would reasonably expect them to have some purpose - particularly with regard to the dates and the phrases attached alongside them.  

One of the most prominent features on this communication is the pseudonym Zodiac, placed beginning on the date of the 20th. The next confirmed communication from the Zodiac Killer was the Melvin Belli Letter mailed on December 20th 1969. The connection to Leona Roberts was speculated upon in the last article: "On December 20th 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Melvin Belli Letter, mimicking the words written in lipstick (supposedly by William Heirens) on the apartment wall of murder victim Frances Brown. She was discovered shot and stabbed multiple times in her 3941 North Pine Grove apartment in Edgewater, Chicago. The date of Frances Brown's murder was December 10th - the exact date that Leona Roberts was abducted from 749 Tormey Ave in Rodeo".

In the Leo communication the designer has placed a cross inside a circle on the dates of the 3rd, 4th and 5th. In this communication he has pasted Magic Amulet continuing onwards through the 6th, 7th and 8th. The only relevant Christian amulet I could find that looked similar to the design on the Leo communication "is the well-known amulet among Catholic Christians, that of the Saint Benedict medal which includes the Vade Retro Satana formula to ward off Satan. This medal has been in use at least since the 1700s, and in 1742 it received the approval of Pope Benedict XIV. It later became part of the Roman Catholic ritual". Wikipedia. If this was the intended symbol placed on the Leo communication, I have no idea why, other than a vague resemblance to the crosshairs of Zodiac, or the design on the December 16th 1969 Faifield Letter and October 27th 1970 Halloween Card.

All of the above are simple word association games involving numerical values, that may have no resemblance to the meaning of both the Day-by-day forecast for Cancer and Day-by-day forecast for Leo, but the possibility of a connection between the dates and words is a tangible one.

The day after the abduction of Leona Roberts, on December 11th 1969, a pasted message entitled DAY-BY-DAY FORECAST FOR LEO was postmarked San Francisco, and mailed to the San Francisco Newspaper Printing Company, P.O. Box 3100, Rincon Annex, San Francisco. If Leona Roberts was one day into her captivity and was to be held for some time yet, then the December 11th 1969 mailing contained some very interesting information. The pasted forecast was for the month of November. If a perpetrator (or Zodiac) was responsible for her abduction and the pasted communication, it cannot be overlooked that the communication began with part of her name - Day-by-day forecast for Leona Roberts (Leona is a female variant of the name Leo or Leon). But this is just the beginning of the story - starting with an observation by Soze, a contributor on the Zodiac Killer Site forum. He stated "The paste before "Mystery". I can make out what appears to be the word "Mile". Combing the two, I did a search on "mile mystery" and included the date "1969". I found in the November 18, 1969 Redlands Daily Facts from Redlands, California on Page 14, a mention of "Run a crooked mile mystery". It was a TV movie that debuted that day. just wondering if anyone thinks it possible that the paste reads "run a crooked mile mystery"?

I wondered if Soze was on to something, so I checked the Internet Movie Database for the film and it returned with 'Run a Crooked Mile (1969)'. Here is a brief summary of the plot by Ralph Cabrerar: "A man witnesses a murder in a secluded mansion. When he reports it, there's no evidence of the murder, or that anyone was there. He finds a key on the floor and goes to his boss to get help when he's struck from behind. He wakes up in a hospital room after a polo accident to find he's had amnesia for two years, is now married, and living in Switzerland. He still has the key and the memories of the murder. He goes back to England to try to resolve the mystery". It was noted that a key chain with car and house keys were reported missing from Leona Roberts, however, this wasn't the point of interest regarding the pasted wording of the film - it was its position on the Day-By-Day Forecast. This got me thinking that the communication was some type of word search puzzle, with the words deliberately placed in specific positions relative to the dates on the communication. The "run a crooked mile mystery" was pasted over the beginning date of November 18th 1969 on the forecast (the exact date of the film). Obviously, if any of the other wording had relevance to the abduction of Leona Roberts in December, then we would have to focus in on the numeric dates of the forecast, rather than the month. Below I have featured the pasted forecast communication.      

There are only two sections of dates obscured by the pasted words on the entire communication. The red rectangle above highlights the first two obscured dates of the 10th and 11th, accompanied by the pasted word of NOW. These were the dates of Leona Roberts abduction and the mailing of this communication, emphasized by the word now. The second set of dates obscured are highlighted by the green rectangle. They are the 25th, 26th and 27th, accompanied by the word HIDDEN. Obviously, the author of the communication would be projecting forward to these dates. A reasoned guess, is that these would be the dates he was intending to hide her body (but obviously not too hard, so it could be found and prove the communication correct). Leona Roberts body was discovered on December 28th 1969. The coroner estimated that she had been dead 4-7 days (December 21-24) prior to recovery. If she had been murdered on December 24th or thereabouts, then it is logical that the killer may have 'disposed or hidden' her body on December 25th, 26th or 27th, to be found on the 28th - and why he pasted the word HIDDEN on the communication in the area he did. It is curious that the first unobscured date after this section, is the 28th - the day she was found on Bolinas Lagoon beach. Three sets of dates were accompanied by a pasted word - all of which had relevance to that particular word - and thereby bringing forth the notion of a word search puzzle, akin to the 340 cipher on November 8th 1969.

On December 20th 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Melvin Belli Letter, mimicking the words written in lipstick (supposedly by William Heirens) on the apartment wall of murder victim Frances Brown. She was discovered shot and stabbed multiple times in her 3941 North Pine Grove apartment in Edgewater, Chicago. The date of Frances Brown's murder was December 10th - the exact date that Leona Roberts was abducted from 749 Tormey Ave in Rodeo.  

In previous articles we have discussed the Zodiac shift from gun to knife at Lake Berryessa, his claim to be responsible for the San Jose knife slayings on August 3rd 1969, the "Bleeding Knife of Zodiac" correspondence and the possibility he was referring to the Reet Jurvetson murder as victim number eight. Then came the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969, the tone of which bore similarities to the Frances Brown murder scene on December 10th 1945 at her 3941 North Pine Grove apartment in Chicago. She had been stabbed multiple times and the knife was discovered protruding from her neck. Her killer had left an ominous message written in red lipstick on the wall of her apartment stating "For heavens Sake catch me Before I kill more. I cannot control myself". The Zodiac Killer had written "I will loose all controol of myself. Please help me. I can not remain in control for much longer". We know that the Zodiac Killer had a propensity for plagiarism, often using lines from The Mikado, along with his reference to The Most Dangerous Game - both of which dated back to 1885 and 1924 respectively. Therefore, it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that he would again bring up another knife murder, this time from 24 years prior. The question is, whether anybody in the four subsequent months to December 20th 1969 could reasonably have been expected to make the connection between the Melvin Belli letter wording and the murder of Frances Brown in 1945, other than its designer?

William Heirens was convicted in the murders of Frances Brown, Josephine Ross and 6-year-old Suzanne Degnan, who was savagely killed and dismembered. This is what makes the murder of Robert Michael Salem on April 15th 1970 so very interesting. He was brutally stabbed in his 745 Stevenson Street, San Francisco apartment, with the newspapers reporting that "the killer had apparently tried to decapitate his victim and when that failed, cut off Salem's left ear". Suzanne Degnan's killer had severed her head, which was ultimately found in a sewer one block from her residence. The murderer of Robert Salem had also written on the wall of the apartment above his body, this time with "red blood" as opposed to "red lipstick", but accompanied by the wording "satan saves" and "Zodiac". The writing was adorned with the drawing of an Ankh - it was commonly held in the hands of deities, or being given by them to the pharaoh, to represent their power to sustain life and to revive human souls in the afterlife.

This crime scene coming just under 4 months after the Melvin Belli letter, which didn't overtly mention the Frances Brown crime scene, but disguised it within the context of the wording chosen. The murder of Robert Salem at 745 Stevenson Street just 1.6 miles from the 1228 Montgomery Street residence of prominent attorney Melvin Belli, 821 meters from the Chronicle offices and 0.8 miles from Union Square (the pick up point of Paul Stine's fateful taxicab journey). Could a random killer have engineered such a crome scene at 745 Stevenson Street by reading into the disguised writings of the Zodiac Killer 4 months earlier, when it is most likely not many had made the connection to the Frances Brown murder scene over two decades earlier? Or is it more likely that the Zodiac Killer murdered Robert Salem with multiple knife wounds (just 1.6 miles from the Belli residence), scrawled "Zodiac" on the wall in "red writing" and attempted to decapitate his victim in similar fashion to that of Suzanne Degnan?

An article describing the murder of Robert Salem featured in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 20th 1970, just hours before the Zodiac Killer mailed his '13 Symbol' cipher to the newspaper, stating "I hope you have fun trying to figgure out who I killed"​​​. After four months of silence, one could easily come to the conclusion that this was no coincidence, especially when we draw a parallel from the "satan saves" message on the wall in blood, to the 888 circled in the '13 Symbol' cipher. This figure representing Jesus or Christ the Redeemer in Christian numerology. Throw in the "Ankh" and "afterlife", and the picture becomes clearer. The massive parallels of the Robert Salem murder to the Frances Brown murder are clear to see - but could a killer pretending to be Zodiac have worked all this out from the innocuous pleas for help in the Melvin Belli letter months earlier? The Zodiac Killer (referring to the murder of San Francisco police officer Brian McDonnell) stated that "I hope you do not think that I was the one who wiped out that blue meannie with a bomb at the cop station. It just wouldn't doo to move in on someone else's teritory". But was 745 Stevenson Street, just 1.6 miles from the Melvin Belli residence and 0.8 miles from Union Square, more likely the territory he operated within - and did so on April 15th 1970?   

The first coverage of the Salem murder was in the morning edition of the San Francisco Chronicle on April 20th 1970, so did the Zodiac Killer have time to construct a letter that included a cipher, bus bomb diagram and a 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 fence staples exploded on an outside ledge of Park Police Station in the Upper Haight neighborhood? The Zodiac Killer would had to have rushed this letter in order for it to be mailed and postmarked the same day. Unless, he had prepared it days earlier, just after the murder of Robert Salem and deliberately timed to coincide with the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper coverage. 

The police claimed that the "killer was not Zodiac", but with the parallels drawn from the authenticated Melvin Belli letter regarding the murder of Frances Brown - that a copycat would have been hard pushed to extrapolate - does this make the assertion that this was not a Zodiac crime by police, a rather over-confident statement just five days after the murder?  

Geographic profiling ia an invaluable tool for mapping the probable location where an offender most likely lives. This offender, like all of us, has areas of familiarity with respect to their profession and personal life that governs one's comfort zone, and therefore the commuter routes they opt for. These are factored into their way of thinking when considering any crimes that are to be committed or the areas where an offender may conceal a body. There is a delicate balance to be struck between the least effort principle (expenditure of the least amount of effort to accomplish a task) and the buffer zone (where an offender will avoid committing crimes too close to their home). In other words, they don't want to focus the attention around the place they live, but may equally not want to expend the effort in traveling a great distance, thereby creating a mental map of a target zone - usually somewhere with which they have a familiarity. Of course, factors such as their working week will affect the distance they are prepared to travel on any given day.

​This mental map was considered in the article Seventy One Days of Terror from October 11th 1969 to December 20th 1969, analyzing confirmed and unconfirmed letters, phone calls, murders and proposed murders during this time period. It became apparent that the locations targeted during this period, that included Sacramento, Fairfield, Vallejo, Oakland, San Francisco, Palo Alto and San Jose, all have Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 101 running directly through them. This may give us a clue to the areas where the Zodiac Killer was most comfortable. If he frequented these areas regularly in his profession, then this could very well influence the newspapers he read and the stories he became interested in. The case of murder victim Reet Jurvetson in a previous article, another example of a crime conforming to the above criteria. He may not have murdered this young woman, but was familiar with the area in which she was murdered, which ultimately governed his decision to choose her as victim number eight - allied to his new found fascination of knife crime. She too was brutally stabbed 157 times and unceremoniously dumped down a ravine off Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. Her body was discovered just 2 miles from U.S. Route 101.           

When the Zodiac Killer failed to acquire the "front page coverage" he craved, he may have drew inspiration from the murders of Debra Gaye Furlong (14) and Kathy Ann Snoozy (15), who were found brutally stabbed and murdered on August 3rd 1969 in the Bay Area of San Jose. They each had suffered in excess of 100 knife wounds that can only be described as savagery. In less than two months he would arrive on the shores of Lake Berryessa armed with a 12-inch bayonet. The killer wrote on the car door of victim Bryan Hartnell "by knife". On November 8th 1969, he claimed his involvement in the Snoozy-Furlong murders by the addition of "Aug" on the 'Dripping Pen' greeting card, followed by the November 21st 1969 San Jose letter possibly suggesting that Reet Jurvetson was another one of his knife victims. Then came the "Bleeding Knife of Zodiac" mailed from Fairfield on December 16th 1969, followed by the 'Melvin Belli' letter on December 20th 1969, stating he was losing control and looking for victims nine and ten.  

On April 20th 1970 he was claiming a victim count of ten - so if we are to determine the murder victims or proclaimed murder victims of the Zodiac Killer, then we must take all of the above into account. Based on three of the four attacks to date, victims nine and ten may have been a couple. They would have been murdered between December 20th 1969 and April 20th 1970, in a non-sexual attack that involved numerous knife wounds. It is also critical (whether the Zodiac Killer was responsible or claiming to be the responsible) that they would would be found close to Interstate 80 or U.S. Route 101.
​
On February 22nd 1970, John Franklin Hood (24), who had served decorated time in Vietnam in the 64th Armoured Division and Sandra Garcia (20), who worked in the California Department of Motor Vehicles, were discovered brutally stabbed on a beach close to Santa Barbara Cemetery and East Cabrillo Boulevard. This crime in some ways mirrored the stabbings at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969, with Sandra Garcia receiving the brunt of the vicious attack. The beach where their bodies were found, lies only 500 meters from U.S. Route 101. The mental map of the Zodiac Killer is starting to take shape.

In a case where every crime and confirmed correspondence has been covered extensively, it is always refreshing to examine some of the dubious outlier communications - ones that are often regarded as more questionable Zodiac material. This brings me to the threatening letter received on June 29th 1972 by Ed Salmina, a sports editor of the Novato Advance newspaper for 33 years. Ed Salmina was a staunch baseball fan, who funded and managed the Novato Knicks team, while also having served as a sports correspondent for The Examiner newspaper.

On June 30th 1972 the San Rafael Daily Independent stated that "Edward J. Salmina, sports editor of the Novato Advance, reported to Novato police yesterday he had received a death threat yesterday in a letter signed "Zodiac". The hand-printed letter said: "If you leave your house past 3:13:47 on the next ten Saturdays, you will be killed". In the lower left corner under the heading "message" were a series of symbols. Salmina of 25 Crescent Lane told police he didn't know who or why anyone would send him such a letter. Police said a copy will be sent to the homicide division of the San Francisco Police Department to determine if the note was printed by the Zodiac Killer". 

Below I have placed the time 3:13:47 onto a clock face and marked the 10 Saturdays the author of the letter demanded that Ed Salmina remain in his house. His first Saturday of freedom, had he complied, would have been September 9th 1972. I have performed a cursory search regarding the numbers stipulated on the letter, but other than sections of Bible verse and Crown Prince Waterford (using 03:13:47) little else seems of note. Bearing in mind some code was inserted at the bottom of the message, only 63 (3+13+47 = number of characters in the 340 cipher) sprang to mind. Whoever wrote this message seemed rather specific with the time, giving the impression that it held some significance to the author of the correspondence, so hopefully a more logical suggestion can be discovered.       

It is without doubt that many Zodiac letters were hoaxed, particularly during the height of the murderer's activities from December 20th 1968 to July 13th 1971. One would expect the number of fraudulent Zodiac correspondences to have dwindled after his campaign of terror reached its conclusion sometime in 1971, which only goes to make these outlier letters all the more curious. It is likely that many will be unconvinced by this letter, but it doesn't do any harm in analyzing them, just in case something is unearthed by a reader of this article. 

Linked by U.S. Route 101, north of San Francisco, the residence of Ed Salmina at 25 Crescent Lane, Novato is only 20 miles (25 minutes driving time) from the scene of the attack on Isobel Watson along Pine Hill Road in Mill Valley. Approximately 3 months prior to the Novato threat letter being mailed, Isobel Watson (33) had just got off the bus on the evening of April 7th 1972, and was walking home along Pine Hill Road, Tamalpais Valley, Marin County at 9:00 pm, when a light-colored vehicle veered towards her, knocking her to the ground. The driver exited his vehicle offering to take her home, but after she had refused his offer of apparent help a second time, the concerned citizen suddenly became enraged, pulling out a knife and stabbing the woman in the neck and shoulder. ​Her screams alerted the neighborhood, forcing the assailant into a hasty retreat from the scene. She was treated at Marin General Hospital and fortunately survived the brutal attack.

​Her description of the man alerted investigators to a possible Zodiac connection, that of a man with heavy-rimmed black glasses, in his early 40s, 5' 9" in height and short brown hair. It was not overlooked by police that the killer had attempted to lure the woman into his vehicle, not dissimilar to the method employed in the Modesto abduction of Kathleen Johns. Napa County homicide detective Kenneth Narlow believed in a greater than 50-50 chance of a Zodiac connection, bearing in mind the description given by Isobel Watson   

The author of the Novato threat letter may have been primarily targeting Saturdays to keep Ed Salmina away from coaching the Novato Knicks baseball team, that one would have thought played over the weekend, but there could be any number of reasons. The only other purported Zodiac communication that was connected to baseball, was mailed to Gerald Tagert of 1423 Roleen Drive, Vallejo on June 18th 1970, just over two years prior to this correspondence. On that occasion the letter stated "gift from Zodiac" and contained two tickets for the June 20th 1970 Oakland A's game at the Coliseum. One letter attempting to encourage the recipient to visit a baseball game, while the other seemingly attempting to separate Ed Salmina from his love of baseball. But were either of these two letters from the hand of the Zodiac Killer?   

View this topic on Zodiac Killer Site forum. 

The Zodiac Killer mailed the 'Button' letter and Phillips 66 Map on June 26th 1970 overlaying his crosshairs over Mount Diablo. Just a month later, realizing the clues in the Button letter were insufficient, he gave us the answer in the 'Little List' letter declaring "PS. The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians & # inches along the radians". The crosshairs with the bold SFPD = 0 were telling us exactly where he planned to 'set his bomb'. By identifying the location in degrees, using a black, bold circle and coupling it with a 'dig' at the San Francisco Police Department, he was effectively giving us the target and the location. His target was the San Francisco Police Department subtended at an angle of 246 degrees from true north. Bearing in mind his bomb threats were focused in San Francisco, all we had to do was find the police department. How experienced the Zodiac Killer was regarding radians is unknown, but he designed a form of clock face with a directional marker pointing true north and then stated "0 is to be set to Mag.N" (which was approximately 17 degrees in 1970). We don't actually need to know how many radians he intended, from which point, and whether they were meant to travel clockwise or anticlockwise around the clock face, because the bold, dark circle is already the answer.   

On the left I have combined the crosshairs from the 'Button' and 'Little List' letters. The bold, dark circle is 246 degrees around the circumference (which is 4 radians + magnetic north). A radian is 57.3 degrees, so 4 X 57.3 + 17 degrees = 246 degrees. If we deduct 2 radians from true north we get 360 - 114.6 = 245.4 degrees. So, whether we use 2 radians anticlockwise from true north or 4 radians clockwise from magnetic north, the result falls within the circumference of his bold, dark circle (246 and 245.4 degrees). 

Drawing a line through this bold, dark circle from Mount Diablo and across San Francisco, it passes near only one police station, that of Ingleside. It isn't absolutely accurate, but it is the closest police station the measurement relates to. This is why he added SFPD next to the bold, dark circle rather than placing it at the foot of his letter in customary fashion. His bomb was to be set in the vicinity of the San Francisco Police Department at Ingleside. Whether he actually meant it is debatable, but it was the threat that was likely his main goal - sowing more fear into the heart of San Francisco.

The Zodiac Killer made many bomb threats in the 1970s, including references to "black power" in the April 28th 1970 'Dragon' card, along with his Symbionese Liberation Army letter in 1974. This has led some to ponder if the Zodiac Killer was somehow affiliated to a radical group, or possibly infuriated by groups such as the Black Liberation Army or Black Panthers, stealing the limelight away from his dwindling publicity: "I would like to see some nice Zodiac buttons wandering about town. Everyone else has these buttons like, black power, melvin eats bluber, etc". The Zodiac Killer may have been mailing correspondence well into 1971, with communications such as the July 13th 1971 'Monticello' card, 148 character cipher, and quite possibly, the unseen DMV letter. At this period of time, it appeared as though the Zodiac Killer was desperately attempting to connect himself to the murders of Debra Gaye Furlong, Kathy Ann Snoozy and Kathy Bilek, all savagely stabbed in excess of fifty times.   

Mary Alice Willey arrived in San Francisco in 1969, making some questionable alliances, including the black power movement. "She became a strident devotee of George Jackson, the charismatic but militant San Quentin inmate who had gained international fame for his best-selling prison classic, "Soledad Brother." She wrote letters to Black Panther Johnny Spain, who was also incarcerated at San Quentin. And she began associating with members of the Black Liberation Army, a violent offshoot of the Black Panthers that would become implicated in the Aug. 29, 1971, killing of a police officer at San Francisco's Ingleside Station. There is reason to believe that Mary Alice may have played a role in the attack and the slaying of Sgt. John V. Young". Read more at the San Francisco Chronicle. 

While in San Francisco she dated a fellow student, Patrick Warren McDowell, who claimed he belonged to the Symbionese Liberation Army, a group ultimately responsible for the kidnapping of Patty Hearst in 1974. In February 1971 he was arrested for the failed robbery of the Sugar Bowl Ski Lodge near Lake Tahoe, having borrowed Mary Alice Willey's car.

If the Zodiac Killer was still closely following the news in 1971, as it appears he was, regarding Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek, then it wouldn't have gone unnoticed that the Ingleside Police Station he had threatened to bomb just over a year ago, had now come under attack. On August 21st 1971 a gun was smuggled to George Jackson in San Quentin Prison. As Jackson was being escorted back to his jail cell, a guard noticed the gun. Jackson raised the weapon and, paraphrasing Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, declared: "This is it, gentlemen. The dragon has come." As he later ran across the prison courtyard, a guard opened fire killing Jackson instantly. 

On August 29th 1971, a woman who bore a resemblance to Mary Ann Willey, wearing a blond wig, entered Ingleside Police Station to report a stolen purse. "Police have long thought the woman who had come to the station to report her stolen purse was a lookout connected to the Black Liberation Army, and they believed that woman was Mary Alice". Chronicle.  A short time later several black men entered the station and murdered John V. Young with a shotgun through the grill of the reception desk. Within two weeks of this attack Mary Alice Willey had vanished. 

On September 11th 1971 a worker stumbled across the body of a woman while driving along the Delta-Mendota Canal in Stanislaus County near Patterson - close to the abduction site of Kathleen Johns on March 22nd 1970. There was no evidence of sexual assault, but she had been stabbed at least 65 times, and her murderer had attempted to sever her fingers and hands. An identification was not made. 

"In March 1970, a pregnant woman and her 10-month-old daughter were abducted near Modesto by a man who drove them around the valley and, according to some police reports, threatened to kill them. Kathleen Johns and her daughter ultimately escaped and hitched a ride to the police station in Patterson. While giving her statement, Johns reportedly saw a drawing of the Zodiac Killer and claimed he was the one who abducted them.

Johns' conflicting statements, though, cast doubt upon whether she had, indeed, encountered and survived the Zodiac. The murder Hedrick is revisiting happened just 18 months after that abduction. The Zodiac claimed 37 kills, though only the five were confirmed. There's nothing to suggest the Zodiac Killer, who never was captured, claimed credit for this murder, sheriff's Detective Marc Nuno said". Read more at The Modesto Bee.

Nearly four decades later, in September 2008, her body was exhumed from Patterson cemetery, and using a forensic sculptor to reconstruct her face and modern DNA testing, she was finally identified as Mary Alice Willey.​

Here is an extract from the letter sent by the Riverside City College library staff regarding their favorite 'suspect' Ross Sullivan. The first thing we notice, is that even they admit that police told them Ross Sullivan had an alibi for the time period of Cheri Jo Bates' murder. This clearly wasn't enough for the amateur sleuths of the Riverside City College library (we have to assume the police are just lying) who went on to compile a horrifying list of infractions and suspicious behavior perpetrated by Ross Sullivan. These include:

[1] His "potential for doing harm" - although we have no cited examples of harm inflicted upon any of the library staff. However, what he potentially could have done, is possibly a cause for concern. 
 
[2] Bragged about escaping over the wall from Patton State Mental Hospital, which doesn't equate to being a murderer.

[3] The library staff member stated "I wish I could remember the poem about the cataloging boss he and I both had. I remember that she did not understand the poem he wrote. I didn't either but was frightened by it". Frightened by a poem you neither understand and can't remember, is terrifying enough on its own

[4] "We could see him from the cataloging department. He was like a statue - always there". Clearly he was a menacing statue - not moving - but an ominous presence nevertheless.

5] "When the murder happened, I stated to my fellow workers that when Ross reappeared on campus (because he was not around the day after the murder), and if he had on different clothes, then he would be guilty in my mind, until someone proved him innocent". I really hope this person never sat on a jury. Whatever happened to those good old values of 'innocent until proven guilty'? Whatever happened to 'beyond a reasonable doubt'? I hereby sentence you to 50 years for buying new clothes.

[6] "Sure enough, it was a few weeks before he reappeared at his spot on the pit wall and he had on a totally new set of clothes". Guilty as charged Sir - how dare you wear a different set of clothes after a few weeks.

[7] "One rainy night after he was back in Riverside, I stopped at a liquor store in Market Street. I pulled up alongside a car that was parked just in front of the store doors. I ran inside but left the doors locked as I always do. When I ran back to my car something told me to do a very strange thing. I ran around to the passenger side and in a flash I had the door open and was inside and the door locked behind me. Just at that instant Ross came from a large hedge in front of my car door and walked between the two cars and out of the parking lot. He did not look at me. Needless to say I drove out of there as quickly as possible". This is called historical narrative building - creating a sensationalized and novelistic reconstruction of events that never happened. The person is selling you a story. Using the introduction of "one rainy night" is unnecessary to the story, used for dramatic effect. She just happened to pull up to a liquor store where Ross was hiding behind a bush in the rain, then coincidentally "something told her to do a very strange thing" - get in the wrong door of her vehicle, just before Ross "instantly" emerged from a large bush. What told her to do a very strange thing? - a sixth sense of impending doom, before she raced away fearing for her life. The fact of the matter, is that nothing happened - and if Ross Sullivan was there, he was likely just walking by without even noticing her. Had he glared at her menacingly from his sodden, furrowed brow, with dastardly intent, the story may have been a bit more compelling. Or, if he had he leaped from the bush wielding a dripping axe and mumbling incoherently. 
 
[8] "Ross apparently parked a motorbike close to one of the faculty members car each day during the fall of 1966. That faculty member also put Ross at the top of his list as a suspect in the murder. Didn't apartment residents near the murder site recall hearing a motorbike start up just after the screams". No they didn't, so it is probably advisable to read up on the facts of the murder, before establishing Ross Sullivan at the top of your suspect list - guilty of parking his motorbike close to a car in the parking lot. Was it menacingly close, bordering on threatening? Did it get closer each day, inching to a dramatic conclusion? Was it raining each day?

[9] "There are half dozen or so of us at Riverside City College that agree on a suspect - but it isn't one that the police are interested in". I will probably side with the police on this one, who actually did a proper investigation and stated he had an alibi. On the flip side, the library staff may have a compelling case to bring to court  - Ross Sullivan was smelly, changed his clothes at least once, allegedly hopped from a bush in the rain without an axe, threateningly parked his motorbike in the campus grounds, wrote poems nobody can remember and moved as fast as a statue, apart from when he was vaulting mental hospital walls. In his spare time he murdered five people in the Bay Area, despite the fact nobody can place him within 75 miles of any crime scene. On a rainy night, maybe he rode stealthily into the Bay Area on his old Triumph motorbike four times, placing the executioner's costume in the top box on September 27th 1969 for the return journey to Santa Cruz. Or maybe some evidence would help.