The Zodiac Killer was heavily influenced by the newspapers throughout his campaign of terror in northern California, which may have continued up until January 10th 2001 with the "Happy New Year" card mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle and exclaiming "You thought I was dead. No Way" (and signed Zodiac). There are three festive greeting cards connected to the Zodiac Killer story, which ended in 2001 but included the December 27th 1974 card to Mary Pilker of Sioux Falls, South Dakota (sister of Donna Lass), and the December 1990 "Eureka" card mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle with photocopied keys tied to Chester Clark Klingel. However, none of these festive greeting cards ever mentioned the word "Christmas".

​The card on December 27th 1974 had the pre-printed message of "Holiday Greetings and Best Wishes for a Happy New Year". The Eureka card mailed in December 1990 had the pre-printed message of (in part) "Happy Holidays, anyway". The January 10th 2001 card had the pre-printed message of "Happy New Year. From January 1st to the end of December, here's wishing you a year to enjoy and remember". All three cards carried the word "Happy" and failed to mention "Christmas". There is a possibility that the Eureka card, with an unclear postmark, was mailed subsequent to Christmas day. 

Bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer's use of three of "The Mikado" verses in 1970 and 1974 (which Groucho Marx appeared in), and the comprehensive newspaper coverage of the 100 year anniversary of Groucho Marx's birth on October 2nd 1990, we can at best, only speculate if any of these had an influence on the choice of greeting card selected by a potential Zodiac Killer in December 1990. If the Eureka card was mailed on, say December 29th, 30th or 31st, we could reasonably argue that this festive greeting card with the phrase "Happy Holidays", was probably mailed with New Year's day in mind, similar to the "Happy New Year" message on both the December 27th 1974 and January 10th 2001 cards.

​I have previously wondered whether the selection of the Groucho Marx card in December 1990 on his birthday centenary year, was chosen because of his 1959 autobiography entitled "Groucho and Me", which resurfaced because of the publicity in 1990. In other words, the Zodiac Killer orchestrated a subtle way of suggesting that his identity was actually "Me" once again, as claimed in the article Four and a Half Years of Me. The idea that "Me" should be inferred from the Eureka card is not the most convincing argument thus far, so I revisited the autobiography "Groucho and Me", and discovered that it was released on New Year's day 1959, thereby complimenting the chosen greeting card and possible late December mailing date. 

The individual (or individuals) who mailed these three greeting cards opted every time to select a postage stamp of recent issue. The Currier & Ives "Winter Road" 10c stamps applied to the 1974 card were issued two months earlier, on October 23rd 1974. The 25c Contemporary Christmas:Tree and Greetings stamp applied to the 1990 card was issued approximately two months earlier, on October 18th 1990. The 34c Statue of Liberty stamp applied to the 2001 card was issued one month earlier, on December 15th 2000. 

But why did the Zodiac Killer (if him) mail the "Happy New Year" greeting card on January 10th 2001 and not in late December? The envelope address style in 2001 was a near repeat of the "Secret Pal" Eureka card envelope mailed in 1990, both of which have been thoroughly examined as being authored by the Zodiac Killer. Was there something about the 2001 mailing that suggested it was our "Secret Pal" in 1990? The 2001 "Happy New Year" card was postmarked January 10th, so its sender was probably hoping it would be received and opened by the San Francisco Chronicle editor on January 11th.

Secret Pal Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated annually on January 11th. It is a day to anonymously show appreciation for friends, coworkers, or family members, similar to a year-round "Secret Santa" concept for general kindness and emotional support. This date gained recognition in the 1990s, and was further accelerated in the 2000s by the growth of the internet. Therefore, the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle would have been receiving his 2001 "Happy New Year" card on "Secret Pal Day", stating "You thought I was dead. No way". So was the Zodiac Killer deliberately delaying the delivery of the "Happy New Year" card by a couple of weeks so it would arrive on this annually recognised day and further show he was the same "Secret Pal" who mailed the 1990 Eureka card eleven years earlier? 

Mailed from Santa Clara or San Mateo County on December 27th 1974, the "Mary Pilker Christmas Card" became the second obvious communication about Donna Lass that has been connected to the Zodiac Killer case (she was the sister of Donna). The "Pines" postcard on March 22nd 1971 was clearly mailed by the Zodiac Killer, but what can be reasonably concluded about this festive offering 3 1/2 years later? A comprehensive argument has been put forward to reason that the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the deposition of Donna Lass' remains by Chubb Lake, near Yuba Gap and Camp Spaulding in Placer County, despite not being conclusive.

​If the Zodiac Killer was not the murderer of Donna Lass in 1970, then it would seem rather fortuitous that he used phrases like "pass Lake Tahoe areas", "around in the snow", "Sierra Club" and "Peek through the Pines", pasted onto an advertisement of Incline Village and directing us westwards, if he didn't know the burial site of Donna Lass. Not withstanding the fact that measurements between the Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club" and the punchhole in the postcard pinpointed the exact location her skull and jawbone were found in 1985/1986. This location in September 1970 was covered in several feet of snow amidst the pine trees, and was only accessible by vehicle from Highway 20 via Chubb Lake Road, Forty-Niner Way and Gonelson Canyon Road. Access to this area from Highway 20 looked extremely similar to the imagery present on the "Mary Pilker Christmas Card". Below I have added a little snow to the entrance of Chubb Lake and placed it alongside the Mary Pilker greeting card for comparison. We had to "peek through the pines" to discover the burial location.

The body of Donna Lass could have been disposed of in many ways by her killer, but both of these cards on March 22nd 1971 and December 27th 1974 featured snow and pine trees, which is exactly where her skull and jawbone were ultimately found "in 2 inches of snow" surrounded by pines. A killer such as Zodiac, who emphasized the afterlife in numerous communications throughout his campaign of terror, appeared to be suggesting that the spirit of (Saint) Donna Lass was now acting as a "Guardan of the Pines" - and by extension - was buried "around in the snow" close to somewhere resembling the imagery in the Mary Pilker greeting card.

I have scoured the internet for further clues to this mystery but have come up empty-handed, other than one reference to a Saint Domna of Nicomedia, who was a priestess of idols in the imperial palace in Nicomedia. She converted to Christianity after reading the Epistles of Saint Paul and was baptized by Bishop Cyril along with her servant. When Emperor Maximian discovered her true identity, he ordered her arrest and execution. The precise circumstances vary in different accounts, but she was ultimately martyred, often associated with the persecution that led to the martyrdom of 20,000 Christians on Christmas Day in Nicomedia. Despite the spelling of her name being slightly different, it must be noted that she was executed by beheading, with her life being commemorated every year on December 28th, the day the author of the Mary Pilker greeting card might have expected his December 27th 1974 offering to arrive at Sioux Falls in South Dakota by air mail. Although disturbing to contemplate, we know that the only remains of Donna Lass to be found was her head (skull and jawbone), so we don't know for certain if the entirety of her remains were transported to the area of Chubb Lake in Placer County.

If the roadway entrance to Chubb Lake was impassable due to the fall of snow in September 1970 (and assuming the remains were found in 1985/1986 where the killer deposited them), it would be almost impossible for the responsible to carry a body from Highway 20 to the location just east of Chubb Lake, which is described as "a mile northeast of Interstate 80" in the newspaper cutting above. The killer would have had to carry (or drag) Donna Lass 500 meters across mountainous and snowy terrain from the nearest access point on Highway 20..However, carrying just a head would be relatively easy. I don't want to belabor this grisly thought, but the Zodiac Killer didn't need to direct law enforcement to the entirety of her remains to prove he was responsible for her murder. The transport of an "offering" such as this from an area close to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel to Chubb Lake (about 70 miles) would have carried far less risk. 

If the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the Mary Pilker greeting card, was it a deliberate choice to send this communication at Christmas time, when he was able to deliver a veiled and sinister communication inferring the burial location of Donna Lass that would incorporate a festive scene to include "pines" and "snow"? Or was the date of December 28th an overriding factor in the author's decision to mail this greeting card just after Christmas day?​

​ANALYZING THE PINES POSTCARD WITH RESPECT TO THE LOCATION OF DONNA'S REMAINS
​​​PLOTTING THE DISTANCE OF THE DEAD ZONE
ZODIAC KILLER THREATS TO INCLINE VILLAGE IN NOVEMBER 1969

There may be a slim chance that the Zodiac Killer was hinting at the murder of Cheri Jo Bates as early as November 10th 1969, rather than fourteen months later on March 13th 1971 when he claimed "riverside activity" in a letter mailed to the Los Angeles Times newspaper. If true, this would have been three weeks after Chief Kinkead of the Riverside Police Department contacted Earl Randol, Sheriff of Napa County, exploring a link between the Cheri Jo Bates and Zodiac case on October 20th 1969.

Lately I have been examining the Edward C. Adams postcard mailed from Berkeley on October 17th 1970, which stated by use of newspaper cuttings "Mon Oct 12, 1970. Edward Adams. The Zodiac is going to change the way of committing murders. I shall announce when I shall commit my murders, The Adamses are Next. you taught me to mean it. ADAMS YOU ARE NEXT. Zodiac".

However, this wasn't the first communication to issue a direct threat toward an individual using cuttings and similar verbiage, when somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer mailed "Mr. (redacted) "your next" The Zodiac" in a letter postmarked Montclair, California on November 10th 1969, which is situated approximately 19 miles (by crow) from the murder site of Cheri Jo Bates. The cuttings were attached using scotch tape onto school notebook paper, such as that carried by Cheri Jo Bates when she visited the Riverside City College library on October 30th 1966 and was spotted by a Mexican-American student shortly before 6:00pm. Writing paper similar to that used in the "Bates Had to Die" letters on April 30th 1967, which suggested "There Will Be More" victims. We have the Riverside Desktop Poem also finishing with the parting message of "just wait till next time". The Montclair and Berkeley communications both signed off with the "Zodiac" pseudonym, as did the "13-Hole" postcard on October 6th 1970.     

On July 26th 1970 in his "Little List" letter, the Zodiac Killer used wording similar to that in the "Confession" letter mailed on November 29th 1966, which was partially reproduced by the Inside Detective magazine in January 1969, featuring the murder of Cheri Jo Bates. The Confession letter read "She squirmed and shook as I chocked her, and her lips twiched. She let out a scream once and I kicked her in the head to shut her up". The Little List letter read "Some I shall tie over ant hills and watch them scream + twich and sqwirm". The Inside Detective magazine not only mentioned the "school notebook" of Cheri Jo Bates on page 5 (shown above), but the article was entitled "YOUR DAUGHTER MAY BE NEXT" by John Montgomery, loosely taken from "I lay awake nights thinking about my next victom" and "Keep your sisters, daughters and wives off the streets and alleys". 

​Did the Zodiac Killer take "YOUR" and "NEXT" directly (or indirectly) from the Inside Detective magazine in similar fashion to the "Little List" letter, which may have borrowed from this magazine also? If the threat of "your next" was using lowercase cuttings as the FBI file appears to suggest, then this would somewhat diminish the connection between the Montclair letter and magazine.  

​The FBI file made the distinction that these were magazine cuttings rather than newspaper cuttings, so if the Zodiac Killer really was the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates, then he had every reason to have focused on this magazine more than once. The connection suggested here could be construed as extremely fragile, but for the fact that this letter was mailed relatively close to Riverside (and unpublished), and offered an extremely similar threat via affixed cuttings, to that given to Edward Adams a year later. What would make this a more interesting proposition, is if the person threatened in Clarinda, Iowa could be identified by a FOIA request, and the subsequrnt male individual turned out to have some previous connection to Riverside and/or the murder investigation of Cheri Jo Bates. If this was shown to be the case, then there is a high probability that the Zodiac Killer was linking himself to Riverside far earlier than previously thought.    

UPDATE SEPT 21ST 2025: At the bottom of the Montclair FBI file the name Allen L. Donielson is mentioned. If this is not the recipient of the "Zodiac Killer" threatening letter, then there is a high probability he is somehow connected to the person that did receive it. Allen L. Donielson became the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa in 1969. On November 1st 1976, the Governor of Iowa appointed him as the first judge of the newly created Iowa Court of Appeals. These and other United States Attorneys for the district have been responsible for the prosecution of some very important cases in the state. So this man was connected to Iowa where the threat was aimed. Two weeks before this threat (estimated: October 27th 1969) a similar letter bearing the same message had been mailed (from where to where is unknown).These two threats, likely towards an attorney (or more than one), began five days after the Zodiac Killer requested that either Melvin Belli or Francis Lee Bailey, two prominent and well-known attorneys, join him in a discussion on the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969. The Zodiac Killer's appearance on the show was likely thwarted by the imposter, Eric Weill. But why (if the Zodiac Killer) would he switch his attention from San Francisco to Clarinda in Iowa within 19 days (or possibly 5 days)? I have added a newspaper article from December 23rd 1969 at the foot of this page, regarding the conclusion to a case of four draft dodgers. This was the nearest thing I could find of any relevance to Allen L. Donielson in this time period

Michael Butterfield has covered the idea of Alfred Hitchcock Presents possibly having some influence on the Zodiac Killer, when the murderer stated in the "Debut" letter on August 4th 1969: "What I did was tape a small pencel flash light to the barrel of my gun. If you notice, in the center of the beam of light if you aim it at a wall or ceiling you will see a black or darck spot in the center of the circle of light about 3 to 6 inches across. When taped to a gun barrel, the bullet will strike in the center of the black dot in the light". He would back this claim up on November 9th 1969 when he wrote "To prove that I am the Zodiac, Ask the Vallejo cop about my electric gun sight which I used to start my collecting of slaves."  

In a series of 268 episodes running from 1955 to 1962, Museum Piece aired on April 4th 1961, in which a gun mounted sight on a .22 caliber rifle was used to aid in the hunting of victims, with a cursory mention of "The Most Dangerous Game" in the episode. The suggestion was that the Zodiac Killer may have watched Alfred Hitchcock Presents and used this sighting implement in his first attack at Lake Herman Road on December 20th 1968, before describing it in the "Debut" letter 7 1/2 months later.

Sir Howard Grubb (1844–1931) was an Irish optical engineer renowned for designing and manufacturing high-quality astronomical instruments, including some of the largest telescopes of the 19th century. He inherited and later expanded his father's company, cementing its reputation for precision optics. His innovations also included the invention of the reflector sight and improvements to the submarine periscope. In 1900, Grubb invented the reflector or "reflex" sight, a non-magnifying optical sight that uses a collimator to allow the viewer looking through the sight to see an illuminated image of a reticle or other pattern in front of them that stays in alignment with the device the sight is attached to (parallax free). This type of sight has come to be used on all kinds of weapons from small firearms to fighter aircraft.

​Using this principle, an "electric gun sight" was featured in the monthly publication of "Popular Mechanics" in the early 20th century. Michael Butterfield wrote "The Zodiac was not the first to conceive of a light attached to the barrel of a gun. Articles about a gun light had appeared in the magazine Popular Mechanics as far back as 1922 and 1933". However, the idea of an "electric gun sight" appeared in "Popular Mechanics" a little bit earlier than Michael suggested. The concept first appeared in "Popular Mechanics" in December 1908, and was featured in the San Jose Tribune, Bay Area newspaper on December 20th 1908, the very same day and month that Zodiac claimed he used an electric gun sight in his Lake Herman Road attack. The dates lining up is probably nothing more than coincidence, but it is noteworthy nonetheless.    

In a recent series of articles I attempted to show the thought process of one mind when exploring the feasibility that the Zodiac Killer may have composed communications in both Riverside and the Bay Area, through phrases such as "man is the most dangerous animal of all" and "it was about time for her to die". The thinking being that both the author in Riverside and the Bay Area used microfiche searches at the library when manufacturing the 408 cipher on July 31st 1969 and the "Confession" letter on November 29th 1966. One mind, therefore placing the Zodiac Killer in Riverside just after the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966. The Confession letter author claimed "I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game", while the author of the July 31st 1969 letters referenced "The Most Dangerous Game" from 1932. But were there any signs of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" in the Confession letter on November 29th 1966, therefore binding further the two authors? 

The Confession letter author typed "Miss Bates was stupid. She went to the slaughter like a lamb", yet they twisted the phrase "lamb to the slaughter", which comes from the Bible, specifically the Old Testament books of Isaiah and Jeremiah describing a righteous person being led to death without protest. The phrase symbolizes an innocent, unaware person being led to their own destruction. 

​In the Roald Dahl 1953 short story "Lamb to the Slaughter", the title serves as a dark, dual-meaning metaphor for Mary Maloney, who is initially an innocent, loving wife, but becomes the cunning killer who commits the act of slaughter with the leg of lamb itself. After murdering her husband with a frozen leg of lamb, she then cooks the meat to destroy any evidence and ends up serving the murder weapon in a dinner to responding law enforcement, who kindly oblige and eat the meal. While consuming the lamb, as Mary sits nearby but does not join them, the policemen discuss the murder weapon's possible location. One officer, his mouth full of meat, says it is "probably right under our very noses." I explored the possibility that the author of the Confession letter may have watched or read something about this Roald Dahl story, until I discovered that it had been made into an episode on "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" on April 13th 1958 under the same title of "Lamb to the Slaughter".  

If this phrase had been in the Confession letter author's mind when he typed this communication and subsequently mailed it to the Riverside Homicide Detail and Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper, had he recently watched the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Lamb to the Slaughter" in Riverside? Using a newspaper archive search in "Genealogy Bank" using the terms "Lamb to the Slaughter", "California" and the year "1966", I could find only three newspapers advertising this episode (using this platform), but crucially, all three were in November (and one was in Riverside).

​They were the Riverside Daily Press on November 5th 1966, Long Beach Press-Telegram on November 6th 1966 and Long Beach Independent on November 10th 1966. The show was due to air on Thursday, November 10th 1966 on KTLA (channel 5) from Los Angeles, about two weeks before the Confession letter author began typing the two Confession letters. It may have featured elsewhere in America during the year, but importantly, a Riverside resident could have viewed the episode "Lamb to the Slaughter" on television just fourteen days (or slightly more) before they typed "Miss Bates was stupid. She went to the slaughter like a lamb" into the Confession letters. It is impossible to say if a correlation exists between the two because we would have to know the mind of the author. However, if the Confession letter author did derive inspiration from "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" in Riverside in 1966, did this inspiration spill over to December 20th 1968, August 4th 1969 and November 9th 1969, when his "electric gun sight" took center stage? A murderer called Zodiac who possibly enjoyed murder mysteries. Who would have guessed.      

The map below shows the locations of two (possibly four) Zodiac communications postmarked December 7th 1969, December 10th 1969, December 11th 1969 and December 16th 1969 (all unpublished at the time). It is noteworthy that all four communications over a period of just 10 days were mailed in locations almost exclusively limited to Interstate 80 and the quickest route from Sacramento to San Francisco. Every single Zodiac communication from 1969 to 1970 was postmarked San Francisco, except for this burst of letters in just over a week from Fairfield and Sacramento, two cities northeast of Vallejo. On December 10th 1969, Leona Roberts was abducted from 749 Tormey Avenue in Rodeo at approximately 6:15pm, with the Day-By-Day Forecast for Cancer letter likely mailed from Sacramento before her abduction, because it had a PM postmark on the same day.

​The following day, on December 11th 1969, the Day-By-Day Forecast for Leo letter was PM postmarked in San Francisco, showing that the author had possibly driven along Interstate 80 through Rodeo as he negotiated his quickest route from Sacramento to San Francisco via Vallejo. In other words, he had passed within one mile of the abduction site of Leona Roberts at 749 Tormey Avenue during this journey (which may have been driven with no break). He then mailed a horocope letter entitled Day-By-Day Forecast for Leo, which could mean Day-By-Day Forecast for Leo(na Roberts), bearing in mind she had been abducted the previous day and her body was not found until December 28th 1969, with the coroner estimating she had been alive 10 to 14 days after her abduction.  

Three of the communications on December 7th, 10th and December 16th carried the pseudonym of Zodiac despite none being published in the newspapers. The Day-By-Day Forecast for Cancer letter had two prominent words pasted onto the horoscope page. Despite nearly 60 years of speculation on the inspiration for the pseudonym of "Zodiac" and the "crosshairs" symbol, the author of the Day-By-Day Forecast for Cancer letter appeared to anchor "Zodiac" and "Watch" together, implying that the Zodiac watch was the origin of his signatures on July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969.. 

The phrase "trying times" appeared to sum up the troubles of Melvin Belli in early December 1969 and may have influenced the language adopted in the Z38 cipher mailed in Fairfield on December 7th 1969. If we add the Melvin Belli letter mailed to 1228 Montgomery Street, San Francisco on December 20th 1969 into the mix, it brings the total to 5 letters mailed in the space of 13 days, bound by one major commuter route. If these communications were multiple hoaxers, what is the likelihood they would choose the locations of Sacramento, Fairfield and San Francisco to mail them from, which are all connected by Interstate 80 through Vallejo. ​

​The residence at 749 Tormey Avenue would return to the news on January 4th 1970 and January 6th 1970, when four malicious phone calls by a person identifying himself as the "Zodiac Killer" were received by Peggy Trainer in Rodeo. It was reported in the Contra Costa Times newspaper that Peggy Trainer lived directly behind the 749 Tormey Avenue apartment from which Leona Roberts was abducted.

​This means that the pseudonym "Zodiac" appeared in a communication mailed on the day Leona Roberts was abducted, and was used less than a month later over the phone on Peggy Trainer, who lived by the residence of the abduction site. This is significant because the Day-By-Day Forecast for Cancer letter had not been published in the newspapers by the time of the four phone calls. Therefore, the two "forecast" letters were very likely mailed by the same person who announced himself to Peggy Trainer and stated she would be his "next victim" - which of course - would have particular significance to a woman who experienced an abduction so close to her own doorstep. 

​The letters mailed on December 7th, 10th, 11th and 16th were all cryptic in nature, carrying two short codes/ciphers and an array of newspaper cuttings pasted on the backdrop of a November horoscope page. A third Fairfield letter arrived 17 months later in 1971. All  the Fairfield communications contained a code or cipher, and all can be shown to have been penned by the Zodiac Killer. The only question that remains, is the authenticity of the two "forecast" letters from Sacramento and San Francisco on December 10th and December 11th 1969 respectively.  

Recently I have been re-examining the likelihood that the Zodiac Killer lived in close proximity to the Springs & Tuolumne payphone in Vallejo at the time he committed the Blue Rock Springs shooting on July 5th 1969, but this doesn't necessarily mean he resided at this location for the remainder of his attacks. Is there any evidence that he may have moved from Vallejo to San Francisco after the Blue Rock Springs or Lake Berryessa attacks, or possibly had a residence and/or business at both locations simultaneously?

​Michael Morford, a dedicated and long time Zodiac researcher, has put forward an interesting case for William "Mac" Andrew, who had access to a residence at 623 Tuolumne Street in Vallejo, only 420 feet from the Springs & Tuolumne payphone where Zodiac made the call to Nancy Slover, a dispatcher at the Vallejo Police Department. This suspect and Arthur Leigh Allen are the only two individuals that align with my thoughts of a killer living within a 0.5 mile radius of that payphone. Although Michael Morford has put together a reasonable case for his suspect - and has definitely taken, in my opinion, the correct approach by implementing a search for the Zodiac Killer in proximity to the payphone - I believe he has focused in on the wrong person.

The Zodiac Killer's first three attacks were likely selected because of the remoteness of the locations, but his fourth attack at Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969 was a significant uptick in risk. The chances of being apprehended after the murder of Paul Stine was significantly greater. One of the most widely pushed narratives about this crime, is the notion of a killer who parked his vehicle somewhere in the proximity of Presidio Park for his later escape, before making his way to Union Square (or thereabouts) by either walking, using public transport, or summoning a taxicab - and after an indeterminate period of time - hailed the taxicab of Paul Stine to bring him back to Presidio Heights, commit the murder, and then make inroads to his waiting vehicle and facilitate a quick departure from the area. While this is perfectly feasible, it can also be argued as an unnecessary sequence of events with little corroborating evidence any such thing happened. Let us examine the possibility of a killer who made his escape to a nearby residence or business. Somewhere close to Presidio Park, requiring limited walking time.

The trip sheet of Paul Stine gave a destination of Washington & Maple, but for whatever reason the deceased taxicab driver was found pulled up at the intersection of Washington & Cherry, one block further west. It is clear that the Zodiac Killer intended to exit the taxicab at Washington & Maple because he backtracked east along Jackson Street in the compass direction he had just come from. This likely tells us that the Zodiac Killer's original plan that night was to leave the taxicab at Washington & Maple, head north up Maple, and turn east along Jackson Street, before traveling north up Spruce Street into the Julius Kahn playground, where he was ultimately spotted by an eyewitness running into the park (as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper). This route makes logical sense, because turning east on Jackson after heading up Maple from your intended murder site, would remove you from the eyeline of the crime. His immediate requirement to evade capture was to access the cover of the park and the next available point of entry would have been Spruce Street.

​The directional movement of the Zodiac Killer thus far virtually eliminates the notion he would travel in any other direction than east. Police motorcycles would ultimately circle Presidio Park, attempting to find a killer who had possibly sought refuge and needed to escape the attention of the resulting search. If the Zodiac Killer lived in Cow Hollow or the Marina District of San Francisco (on the north-eastern edge of Presidio Park), it would make sense for him to take the shortest route through the park and use cover as much as possible, while heading in a north-easterly direction. This tallies with what the Zodiac Killer stated in his November 9th 1969 letter, when he claimed that "the motor cicles went by about 150 ft away going from south to north west". Presidio Boulevard on the eastern edge of the park and skirted by a wooded area, would have provided the perfect cover for a killer about to escape the park. There is a section of Presidio Boulevard that shifts from south to northwest, exactly as described by the Zodiac Killer. As shown below, if we draw a straight line from Julius Kahn playground through Presidio Boulevard where it switches from south to northwest - and continue that trajectory onwards - we arrive at 225 Mallorca Way, the once home of Jo Anne Goettsche, who previously shared a residence with Donna Lass at 4122 Balboa Street in San Francisco.   

At the time of the Paul Stine murder on October 11th 1969 Donna Lass worked at the Letterman General Hospital in Presidio Park and lived at 4122 Balboa Street, San Francisco. However, according to Robert Graysmith she moved from this address a few months later and relocated to 225 Mallorca Way in the Marina District. If a few months was three or four, Donna Lass could have moved to 225 Mallorca Way in January or February 1970  Either way, it is possible she moved into an area where the Zodiac Killer was currently living (in 1970), and living when he murdered Paul Stine on October 11th 1969 - and why he may have latched onto the young nurse (who he probably referred to in the March 22nd 1971 "Pines Card").

In an interview with Michael Morford on the Zodiac Speaking podcast, Jo Anne Goettsche gave the impression she moved to 225 Mallorca Way without Donna Lass. If this was the case, it was still evident that the two young women remained friends during their time in San Francisco, and likely visited each others homes before Donna eventually moved to South Lake Tahoe in early June 1970. She would go missing from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino in Nevada just three months later, on September 6th 1970. The Zodiac Killer may have become aware of Donna Lass through Jo Anne Goettsche. 

​If the Zodiac Killer had walked through the park to the area of Presidio Boulevard where "the motor cicles went by about 150 ft away going from south to north west", he would likely exit the park by the intersection of Lyon and Union streets. This location would leave 15 to 20 minutes (just under a mile) to reach 225 Mallorca Way. That is if the Zodiac Killer lived somewhere in the vicinity of this address, which afforded him the opportunity to have crossed paths with Jo Anne Goettsche and Donna Lass.  

Interestingly, on October 7th 1969, just four days before the Paul murder, somebody mailed a letter to Sergeant John Lynch of the Vallejo Police Department, mentioning Beach Street in the correspondence and claiming to be the Zodiac Killer (this was the same person who mailed the Concerned Citizen card on August 10th 1969). In San Francisco, Beach Street is joined to Malloca Way, with the once residence of Jo Anne Goettsche only 450 feet away.

Of course, I have no way of knowing for certain that the Zodiac Killer lived within a 0.5 mile radius of the Springs & Tuolumne payphone, before moving to San Francisco prior to the Paul Stine murder. But he may have remained on foot after leaving both the payphone and Paul Stine crime scene. However, if the Zodiac Killer was walking towards a home or business in the Marina District on October 11th 1969, and walking towards a home or business by the Springs & Tuolumne payphone on July 5th 1969, then by checking a city directory such as the one published by R.L. Polk & Company, it may be possible to find a common name or business to both locations. If we find such a person or place, then we may be in business. It would be great if the members of the Zodiac Discord forum could find a directory that covers both the Marina District from 1969 to 1972 and the 0.5 mile radius around the Vallejo payphone in 1969. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

EXTRA READING: OUR KILLER LIVES HERE

Despite the continued negative criticism of looking into these outlier communications from certain quarters, this site will not deviate in exploring every avenue possible that has the capability of shedding more light on the Zodiac Killer story. Remaining entrenched in a common narrative has, and will always, fail to push this case forward.

One rarely covered communication is the "Ambler Tours" letter postmarked Los Angeles County and credited with two dates of March 7th 1986 and March 12th 1986  Mailed to "(Redacted) Ambler Tours 101 2ND AVE. Suite 1900 SAN DieGo, CA. 92101", it has very little information attached to it in the FBI files, other than the sender appeared to be addressing the San Diego owners and founders of Ambler Tours & Travel Agency, Frank and Virginia "Ginny" Ambler. They had two sons, Dale and Wayne. The ZIP code 92101 corresponds to the city of San Diego, California, and is primarily associated with downtown San Diego, including areas like the Gaslamp District and Petco Park. Something about this letter, so distant in time and location to the main body of Zodiac communications must have peaked the interest of law enforcement to have found its way into the Zodiac FBI files.

This letter arrived about two months before the "Freeway" letter on May 6th 1986, and approximately 10 weeks after the release of Robert Graysmith's book "Zodiac". Letters postmarked Los Angeles were not unprecedented in the Zodiac case, with the previous two California letters from the Zodiac Killer having both been mailed from this location on May 2nd 1978 and July 19th 1978. The "Channel 9" letter sent to KHJ-TV at 5515 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles on May 2nd 1978, was postmarked in Anaheim, a city in Orange County and part of the Greater Los Angeles area..Therefore, we have three known letters postmarked in this locality within an 8 year period (absent to the knowledge of others).  

The only crime that has regularly been touted as a potential Zodiac attack was the double murder of Johnny Ray Swindle (20) and Joyce Ann Swindle (19) at Ocean Beach in San Diego on February 5th 1964,.when they were murdered on a concrete patio overlooking the sea by a sniper situated approximately 50 feet away. Perched on the bluff above the patio, the sniper fired five shots at the couple from this distance, before walking down to where Johnny and Joyce lay and firing two more shots from near point blank range into their heads. Their location on the patio just beneath the terminus of Narragansett Avenue can be found only 5.5 miles northwest of the Ambler Tours & Travel Agency office. 

Founded in 1953, Frank and Ginny Ambler had run the travel agency for 33 years by the time this "Zodiac Killer" letter arrived on their doorstep. Their travel service organized bus tours throughout California, so if the Zodiac Killer had targeted their company, what possible threat could he have imparted upon them? We know that the Zodiac Killer had a propensity to threaten schoolchildren by way of bombs on the buses or by the roadside, so it's not incomprehensible that this would have been his leverage when targeting Frank and Ginny Ambler (or their family). 

​The previous year, on May 7th 1985 a comprehensive newspaper article on Johnny and Joyce Swindle featured in the San Diego Union newspaper, in which ongoing work was still being undertaken on the case. A recent television news story on the Swindle murders had generated "one pretty damn interesting phone call", which Sergeant Ed Stevens forwarded to the current homicide lieutenant, Paul Ybarrondo. Sgt Stevens is still of the belief that the murders were committed by a teenage boy "thrill sniper", despite no evidence forthcoming on the age of the unknown murderer in 1964. 

The 1986 "Amber Tours" letter would have been an unusual deviation for the Zodiac Killer, directed toward a business. However, it would be followed two years later, on February 1st 1988 and February 8th 1988, by two letters aimed at the McDonald's regional office at 2 Northgate Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with the signature "This is the Zodiac" introduction. Seemingly, two threats on businesses, both withheld from the newspapers. Without further information on this correspondence it is practically impossible to determine if the author of the "Ambler Tours" letter was the infamous Zodiac Killer, but it certainly doesn't hurt to explore the possibility. I may do a FOIA request for this letter in the near future.   

On October 27th 1987 the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter to the Vallejo Times-Herald threatening to run over children on Halloween night. Three months later, two communications were mailed from Chattanooga in Tennessee on February 1st 1988 and February 8th 1988 to McDonald's regional office at 2 Northgate Park, with claims to be from the Zodiac Killer and the pasted messages of "CHINESE ZODIAC", "The Chinese Zodiac" and "Many Chinese believe". The rest of the text has been withheld from the FBI files.

​There is currently no possible way to determine whether these two letters were from the Zodiac Killer or an imposter, but we do know that any communication from the Zodiac Killer would likely have been inspired by recent newspaper articles, or current media affairs. Therefore, if these letters were from the Zodiac Killer, why would he create a union of the McDonald's fast food chain and the Chinese? There is usually reason behind his offerings. Bearing in mind that the Zodiac Killer had threatened children just a few months previous, we have to consider that his Halloween theme of targeting children may have continued regarding McDonald's, a popular outlet for kids. So how can we possibly group the "Chinese Zodiac", McDonald's and children into one neat package?

The Chinese zodiac is a cycle of 12 animals, each associated with a specific year in a repeating 12-year cycle. The animals in order are Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. Each animal is believed to influence the personalities and destinies of those born in its respective year. In 1988, according to the Chinese zodiac, it was the Year of the Earth Dragon, spanning from February 17th 1988, to February 5th 1989. These two communications arrived with the upcoming Chinese New Year on the horizon. 

The Chinese New Year in 1988 wasn't just celebrated in the Chinese community and their restaurants,  the year of the dragon was a feature of the McDonald's Happy Meal. A Happy Meal is a kids' meal usually sold at the American fast food restaurant chain McDonald's since June 1979. A small toy or book is included with the food, both of which are usually contained in a red cardboard box with a yellow smiley face and the McDonald's logo. The packaging and toy are frequently part of a marketing tie-in to an existing television series, film or toyline. This was the case in 1988, when different colored Chinese dragons were included in the Happy Meal of children. I wouldn't be surprised if the Zodiac Killer contacted the McDonald's regional office to threaten kids within McDonald's establishments, which was listed under "extortion" in the FBI files. The Zodiac Killer (if responsible) may have threatened children if his demands were not met, using the Chinese New Year as his inspiration.  

The March 13th 1971 and March 22nd 1971 communications were effectively claiming murders from October 1966 and September 1970. However, the next murder Zodiac would ultimately claim, occurred just four days after the San Francisco, California release of Tom Hanson's "Zodiac Killer" (April 7th 1971). This movie was advertised extensively in the San Francisco Chronicle the week before, and several days after the murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971 "in the woods" of Villa Montalvo in Saratoga. The movie poster and advertisements carried the wording from the Confession letter, mailed on November 29th 1966 after the Cheri Jo Bates murder, a month earlier. It read "Keep your sisters, daughters and wives off the streets", Or Zodiac Says "I lay awake nights; thinking of my next victim" (see foot of article).

Two days after this movie was advertised in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 13th 1971, a "Zodiac" letter was received at the San Jose Sheriff's Office dated "Thursday", which was April 15th 1971. It was addressed to the "Homicide Inspector". On the same day the movie was advertised in the San Francisco Chronicle (April 13th 1971), newspaper reports from around the country asked the question of whether Zodiac was responsible for the murder of Kathy Bilek (including The Riverside Press), stating "the teenager might be another victim of the Zodiac Killer".

​Therefore, we.have the San Francisco Chronicle and The Riverside Press newspapers using the phrases "next victim" and "another victim" on the same day. Followed two days later by a suggested Zodiac letter on April 15th 1971, which the local San Jose newspaper reported as a communication that spoke of "Zodiac" and "another victim". The newspaper also mentioned that the letter told of a girl who works in a hospital, who could be his "next victim". It appears that the author was incorporating phrases from the newspapers into his correspondence, which could demonstrate attentiveness to any story related to the Zodiac Killer. The letter was addressed to the "Homicide Inspector", whereas the threat of a "next victim" in one of the Confession letters from 1966, was addressed to "Homicide Detail". This letter was mailed one month after the Zodiac Killer admitted to "riverside activity" on March 13th 1971, which included a promised "next victim" in Riverside in 1966.  

The April 15th 1971 letter wasn't the first time a claimed Zodiac Killer wrote to San Jose law enforcement. A letter was mailed to the San Jose Police Department on November 21st 1969 threatening a widow in San Jose, which resulted in police providing the woman with 24 hours of protection. This current author would not have been aware of that threat, because the November 21st 1969 communication has never been released into the public domain. Unless of course, the current author was the Zodiac Killer - and he wrote both letters.

​Another curious feature of the  April 15th 1971 letter, is the suggestion that the "next victim" could be a girl who works in a hospital. On August 1st 1973 the Zodiac Killer seemed to confirm this wish by writing a letter to the Albany Times Union newspaper and threatening that the location of his "next victim" would be the Albany Medical Center in New York. The letter read "You were wrong I am not dead or in the hospital. I am alive 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". The thought being that the Zodiac Killer was promising to murder a female nurse.  

It really is no surprise that in May 1971 and on July 13th 1971, the Zodiac Killer would mail a further two communications laying claim to the murder of Kathy Bilek (18), alongside his previously claimed victims of Kathie Reyne Snoozy (15) and Debra Gaye Furlong (14), murdered in San Jose on August 3rd 1969. And that he would link the May 1971 and August 1st 1973 cryptograms together through ciphertext and plaintext similarities.

​On Sunday, April 11th 1971, Kathy Bilek (18) visited Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, having planned to read a paperback book (The Gabriel Hounds) and engage in a spot of bird watching​ in the seclusion of a remote, wooded portion of the park, near a small stream. Her body was found the next day by her father, Charles, while Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies searched nearby. She had been stabbed 17 times in the back and 32 times in her chest and stomach. 

​The Gabriel Hounds is a romantic mystery by Mary Stewart, set in Lebanon. The "Gabriel Hounds" are spectral hounds in folklore, believed to foretell death or misfortune to those who hear their howls, and are associated with the crumbling palace of Dar Ibrahim in the Adonis Valley of Lebanon.  

 A FOUR YEAR JOURNEY TO TOMBSTONE 
ANOTHER "ZODIAC" LETTER ON APRIL 15TH 1971

On December 20th 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter to the home address of Melvin Belli at 1228 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, pleading for help and claiming he was in danger of murdering a ninth and tenth victim. After this letter, the communications ceased for exactly four months, until the April 20th 1970 letter containing his 13-Symbol code arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle. So did the Zodiac Killer leave California during this period, or leave the state to visit family or friends over the festive period?

​Newspaper articles from Paul Avery intensified over the months of October, November and December 1969, with two articles in the San Francisco Chronicle on December 29th 1969 and December 30th 1969, entitled "Urgent Appeal By Belli to Zodiac" and "Belli Sure Zodiac Will Talk To Him" respectively. "On Sunday (December 28th), Belli made an appeal to Zodiac to contact him by writing or telephoning the Chronicle". Melvin Belli stressed that any letter and/or telephone call would be treated with the strictest confidence. Therefore, any letter urgently mailed by the Zodiac Killer at the end of December being released into the newspapers, could have possibly scuppered any meeting with Melvin Belli or further contact with the newspaper. So did we have any Zodiac Killer letters at the end of December, mailed in urgency and withheld from the public?  

Sandy Betts contacted me regarding a possible "Zodiac" envelope she managed to get an image of while being given a tour of the San Francisco Chronicle offices a few years ago. Sandy stated "Reporter Kevin Fagan gave us a tour and showed us the drawers where they kept what Zodiac had sent over the years. I somehow missed noticing one of the envelopes which was addressed to Paul Avery, thinking it was the one which was made public, so no big deal.  But while going through my pictures, I looked closer and saw it was sent "Air Mail" from New York, NY on Dec 30th, 1969, it was most definitely written by Zodiac with his blue felt pen".

"During 1969, after he sent a letter to Melvin Belli on Dec 20th, there wasn't any communication from Zodiac until April 20th, 1970.  Being in New York, NY for four months, could explain why. That would also eliminate several suspects, we know were still in California during that time. Did he go there to spend Christmas with family, or friends, or was it because he had a job there?".

The following envelope, with two affixed 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps, was sent to me by Sandy, postmarked in the afternoon of December 30th 1969 from New York and addressed to Paul Avery. The use of "Air Mail" may have been the urgent and immediate response to the appeal by Melvin Belli, featured in the San Francisco Chronicle by reporter Paul Avery. An envelope not released into the public domain, which underlined the newspaper reporter's name, just like the Halloween card envelope on October 27th 1970, ten months later. 

Thanks to Sandy Betts for supplying the following image and accompanying information. 

It is practically impossible to look at the envelope of the December 1990 Eureka card from the standpoint of handwriting and determine whether this communication was mailed by the Zodiac Killer. The only way to significantly shift the needle on its authenticity or otherwise, is to compare it to other Zodiac communications, irrespective of whether these other communications have been authenticated or not. It is possible to compare two "questionable" Zodiac communications and make a case that both are genuine. It must be remembered that the January 10th 2001 Happy New Year card mailed by somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer was created without the knowledge of the 1990 Eureka card, because the Eureka card wasn't made public until 2007 (if different authors). .

The author of the 2001 card decided not to mimic any previous confirmed Zodiac communications (envelopes) that were publicly available to them, and opted to use the full newspaper address of "San Francisco Chronicle", never done previously in any Zodiac Killer communication widely accepted as genuine by the Zodiac community. However, it was done by the 1990 Eureka card author eleven years previously. The author of the 2001 card chose to use "901 Mission Street" on the envelope, never done previously by the Zodiac Killer. However, it was done by the 1990 Eureka card author. The author of the 2001 card chose to use the zip code of "94103" on the envelope, never done previously by the Zodiac Killer. However, it was done by the 1990 Eureka card author.

It can be shown that these two questioned Zodiac communications, mailed in 1990 and 2001, used the word "Editor" at the beginning of the envelope, followed by "San Francisco Chronicle". In addition, the author of these communications chose to use only one punctuation, in the form of a comma after "San Francisco" on the fourth line of each envelope. These were the only two communications addressed to the San Francisco Chronicle and suggested as Zodiac Killer mailings, that were festive greeting cards. So we have two festive greeting cards, beginning by addressing the "Editor" of the newspaper, with the full newspaper title of "San Francisco Chronicle", "901 Mission Street", the zip code "94103" and only one punctuation in the form of a comma after "San Francisco", who were apparently two different authors that decided to use no mimicry of earlier Zodiac communications, yet managed to copy each other in all these instances. Yet they did opt to mimic the "y" style number "4" used by the Zodiac Killer in his confirmed communications. A very strange affair indeed.    

​However, there is another communication that has been shown to be genuine through extensive analysis on this website. This letter was mailed on May 6th 1986, four years before the 1990 Eureka card (and not publicly released), which also began by using "Editor" on the first line of the envelope, followed by the full address of "San Francisco Chronicle". In fact, the 1986 envelope began with "To the Editor", similar in fashion to the 2001 Happy New Year card that began with "Letters To The Editor". The 1986 letter can be connected to the 1987 letter, which can be connected to the July 31st 1969 letter mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald. The 1986, 1990 and 2001 mailings (sent to the Chronicle) are the only communications publicly available now, all consecutive to one another, that all begin by using "Editor" on the first line of the address, followed by the full newspaper title of "San Francisco Chronicle".     

The question we have to ask is this: Did two independent and separate hoaxers just happen to mimic each other in 1990 and 2001, but neither made any reasonable effort to imitate the previous publicly available communications of the Zodiac Killer? Or was it the Zodiac Killer who authored both festive greetings cards, who placed no emphasis on attempting to imitate himself? A hoaxer of the Zodiac Killer, by his very nature, should want to imitate previous communications to convince the reader he is the real deal, but the actual Zodiac Killer has no such obligation because he is the genuine article. In other words, a hoaxer of the Zodiac Killer communications, who fails to hoax properly, may not be a hoaxer.  

On March 2nd 1981, a business reply envelope postmarked Cleveland, OH, bearing the press printed address "The Danbury Mint, Richards Avenue, P.O. Box 5260, Norwalk, Conn" was mailed with the message: "Please stop forced bussing or I will kill 3 more black boys in Atlanta in March". This business envelope came with an advertisement for miniature pewter models of classic automobiles, placed inside eighteen major Sunday newspapers on March 1st 1981 (see below). One of the newspapers this advertisement and business reply envelope was placed inside, was the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper. Bearing in mind that the sinister message threatening murder was written on an advertisement and postmarked Cleveland, it is extremely likely that the author of this message sourced their pre-printed envelope from the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper. 

Six days later, on March 8th 1981, a letter was mailed to the WXIA-TV station in Atlanta. It was signed "Zodiac" and carried the message "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". View letter. 

​The author of this letter made references associated with the Paul Stine murder in Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969, by mentioning "I used to be in San Francisco", wrote that he would "pick off children" just like the October 13th 1969 letter from the Zodiac Killer, and had "left certain clues with his victims bodies", as he did when he wrote "If you wonder why I was wipeing the cab down I was leaving fake clews for the police to run all over town with". So it is particularly noteworthy that the Atlanta envelope contained small crosshairs in the upper left corner just like the October 13th 1969 envelope, which was not publicly available in 1981. These are the only two envelopes mailed in California carrying the "Zodiac" pseudonym, with these small crosshairs on the envelope. I doubt this was a fluke by the Atlanta author. Investigators believe that the March 2nd 1981 letter (from Cleveland) and March 8th 1981 letter (from Atlanta) are from the same author. I believe they are both from the Zodiac Killer.   

If the Zodiac Killer had accessed the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper in 1981 and used material within it to mail one of his threatening letters, had he ever previously sourced from this newspaper in any his letters from July 31st 1969 to March 22nd 1971, which covered the bulk of his letter writing? Were there any key Zodiac phrases borrowed from the ​Cleveland Plain Dealer during the height of his terror? I managed to find the longest phrase yet (10 consecutive words) in a Zodiac letter that matched some wording from this same newspaper. I typed a phrase from the August 4th 1969 "Debut of Zodiac" letter into the newspaper archive and found it in only one newspaper in 334 years. Whether it has any relevance, or was a matter of chance, I really don't know.  

​In three lengthy consecutive communications on November 29th 1966, July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969, I found the quote ​"it was about time for her to die" from 1888, "man is the most dangerous animal of all" from 1932, and "darck spot in the center of the circle of light" from 1942. A newspaper article on November 24th 1966 mentioned Jack the Ripper and Cheri Jo Bates, and five days later in the Confession letter we had a Ripper style communication with "it was about time for her to die" from 1888 (found only once prior to 1966). The July 31st 1969 letters appeared to reference the movie "The Most Dangerous Game" from 1932, with the quote "man is the most dangerous animal of all" being uttered by Merian C. Cooper, the associate producer of the film, discovered in only three 1932 newspapers. The quote "darck spot in the center of the circle of light" was only found in one newspaper previous to August 4th 1969, spanning 279 years (see below).

​The "Debut of Zodiac" letter was referencing the targeting of kids with a pencil flashlight attached to a gun, whereas the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper from 1942 was referring to the targeting of cities with bombs. Both the Zodiac letter and Cleveland Plain Dealer also mentioned "the code". I fail to see why the Zodiac Killer would ever plagiarize such a newspaper article from June 17th 1942 about wartime precautions for an air raid, but I thought it was worthy of mention because of the seeming mimicry previously exhibited on November 29th 1966 and July 31st 1969. A trait, one could argue, that was specific to one individual and one mind. 

The canonical murders of Jack the Ripper began on August 31st 1888 with the brutal murder of Mary Ann Nichols in Buck's Row, her throat severed, her vagina stabbed and her lower abdomen partly ripped open to expose her bowels. This grisly affair was followed on September 8th 1888, when the body of Annie Chapman was discovered in the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. She had also suffered deep cuts to her throat and abdomen, but this time the killer had removed her small intestine and placed it on her right shoulder, and excised part of her stomach and deposited it on her left shoulder. Annie Chapman's uterus was missing, along with parts of her bladder and vagina. 

Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes both met their fate on September 30th 1888, with Elizabeth Stride being found in Dutfield's Yard, having received one knife wound to her neck. The severity of her injuries were believed to be considerably less because of the arrival of Louis Diemschutz, the steward of the International Working Men's Educational Club, who arrived at the location in his horse and two-wheeled cart. The killer, now unable to perform the mutilation of the corpse as in previous attacks, sought out Catherine Eddowes less than an hour later, cutting her throat and once again ripping her intestines from her body. Her left kidney and the majority of her uterus had been taken from the site of the murder. The final attack, that of Mary Jane Kelly inside her single room at 13 Miller's Court on November 9th 1888 is almost impossible to describe, other than to say that her body was destroyed beyond recognition.          

Jack the Ripper was fond of removing various body parts, some of which he carried away from the crime scene and some he left on public display for the whole world to see. This sickening display of the grotesque was the seeming ambition of the Confession letter author in Riverside on November 29th 1966, who confessed that he wanted to mutilate furher victims, stating that he would "cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see" and had recently "finished the job out cutting her throat", referring to the October 30th 1966 murder of Cheri Jo Bates. The Confession letter author issued the Riverside Police Department a stark warning, that he was "stalking your girls now", just like the Ripper had done in the dimly lit streets of Whitechapel, 78 years earlier.

Five days before the Confession letter was postmarked, a newspaper article from the Press-Enterprise told of the recent murder of Cheri Jo Bates and postulated a connection to the abduction of a 19-year-old girl on November 22nd 1966. The perpetrator in this case invoked the name of "Jack the Ripper", by stating "Well, after all, I'm not Jack the Ripper" after she refused to enter his vehicle. This led me to explore the idea that the author of the Confession letter, who plagiarized key phrases from this newspaper article, had also been inspired to create a typed letter using the sadistic reportings of Jack the Ripper. The promise to cut off female parts, the stalking of girls, and the casual and brutal way he described cutting the throat of Cheri Jo Bates - synonymous with the Whitechapel murderer - required further exploration to see whether this was coincidental or a deliberate choice by the Confession letter typist. And indeed, if the author of the letter was the killer of Cheri Jo Bates.         

To discover material on Jack the Ripper, the easiest route for the killer in 1966 was to use the Riverside library (possibly) on his doorstep, writing a poem on the desktop in between his searches of the microfiche reels. The Riverside City College library may have been convenient for him, but any library would have sufficed. Today, I approached the task at hand by typing in key phrases from the Confession letter, and/or the year 1888, to see if the newspaper archives churned up any interesting results, whereas in 1966 the task would have been a bit more arduous and labor intensive. However, it would have been easily  accomplished by somebody who was determined enough, who was prepared put considerable thought into his compositions. Somebody like the Zodiac Killer.

The following section of the Confession letter looked contrived, stating "When we were away from the library walking, I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". The last phrase reading "I said it was about time for her to die" appeared over-dramatic and had a punchline effect, as though it had been borrowed for purpose from elsewhere. I typed the shortened phrase of "it was about time for her to die" into the newspaper archive and it produced only one result in 336 years. That year was 1888, the year of Jack the Ripper. Alongside the stories of Jack the Ripper in 1888 was the accompanying story of "The Sturdy Beggar", who attempted to scrounge food from a woman inside her home and placed his hand into his hip pocket (probably reaching for a presumed knife) and stated that "it was about time for her to die".​ Had the Confession letter author added this phrase into his communication to bolster the Jack the Ripper theme of "body parts" and "cutting her throat"?

​In 1927, multiple American newspapers reported the Ripper like murders from New York, spanning the previous 15 years. The first in 1912, detailed the savage knife murder of Julia Connors by Nathan Swartz, who wrote a confession letter after the killing and an additional message on a soiled linen collar with a lead pencil, reading "I am guilty. I am insane", using five of the same words from the Riverside Confession letter, which read "I am not sick. I am insane". Two stories, loosely connected to Jack the Ripper, with two perinent phrases. But there had to be more.

On October 27th 1970, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Halloween card with the skeleton of an unknown victim. One observer of this communication by the name of Phil Sins contacted San Francisco Chronicle newspaper reporter, Paul Avery, believing that the greeting card was insinuating the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, whose lifeless body was discovered by a Riverside groundskeeper on Halloween morning in 1966.

It turned out that the prominent word "by" was shared 6 times by the Halloween card and the two typed Confession letters. The Halloween card author also used the signature "Z" for the first time, that was suggested by Paul Avery as the signature present on two of the three Bates' letters on April 30th 1967. The presumed connection was laid bare by Paul Avery in a comprehensive newspaper article in the San Francisco Chronicle on November 16th 1970. By claiming a connection between the Zodiac Killer and the Riverside communications, Paul Avery was suggesting that the murder of Cheri Jo Bates may have been the early work of the Zodiac Killer. To see if this has any validity, I decided to explore the Jack the Ripper connection a little further. Did the Zodiac Killer select the Halloween card with wording similar to the Confession letter?

​The wording on the selected Halloween card inner read "But, then why spoil our game. Happy Halloween". The typed Confession letter read "I then finished the job by cutting her throat. I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game". One communication didn't want the game spoiled, while the other pledged to not to stop the game.

On October 16th 1888 the "From Hell" letter, addressed to George Lusk, the president of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, arrived inside a cardboard box from somebody claiming to be Jack the Ripper. It contained a "body part" in the form of half a kidney, with the message "Mr Lusk, Sor I send you half the Kidne I took from one woman and prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer". signed "Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk". 

​Just before Halloween, on October 29th 1888 (one day before the date Cheri was murdered), a letter was sent to Dr. Openshaw, who performed the medical examination on the portion of kidney received by George Lusk. The letter stated "Old boss you was rite it was the left kidny i was goin to hoperate agin close to you ospitle just as i was going to dror mi nife along of er bloomin throte them cusses of coppers spoilt the game but i guess i wil be on the jobn soon and will send you another bit of innerds. Jack the Ripper. O have you seen the devle with his mikerscope and scalpul a-lookin at a kidney with a slide cocked up". 

This letter arrived on October 29th 1888, Cheri Jo Bates was murdered on October 30th 1966, her body was found the next day on Halloween morning, and the Confession letter about Cheri Jo Bates contained many plausible links to Jack the Ripper (shown above). The Halloween card contained the phrase "spoil our game", that somewhat mirrored "spoilt the game" from the Openshaw letter, and "stop the game" from the Confession letter. Throw in "The Most Dangerous Game" and we have a cocktail of "games". You may also notice that the Openshaw letter described murder as a "job", just like the Confession letter author, who typed "I then finished the job out cutting her throat".  Many Ripper letters use the word "job" in respect to the killing of women.
​
​Four months after reading the San Francisco Chronicle article by Paul Avery (on November 16th 1970), the Zodiac killer replied to the claim he was involved in Riverside, by stating on March 13th 1971 "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". Not only was the Zodiac Killer invoking the word "hell" and using similar phraseology from the Bates' letters that "there will be more", he was apparently accepting his involvement to some capacity in the murder of Cheri Jo Bates. If that "activity" was suggestive of the communications, involving the Confession letter with Jack the Ripper overtones, then it's really curious that his next two widely published letters (mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle) on January 29th 1974 and April 24th 1978, began using the Jack the Ripper valediction of "yours truley" and "yours truly", that the Whitechapel murderer used in the majority of his letters from 1888. If the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the "riverside activity" down south, was his use of "yours truley" and "yours truly" in these following communications a case of playing more "games" with law enforcement? The continuation of the Jack the Ripper theme in these letters laying bare his character - and belatedly pointing a finger to the secrets of the Confession letter, now that his Riverside connection had finally come to light?

In his July 31st 1969 letters and 408 cipher, the Zodiac Killer would delve into the distant newspaper archive of 1932 to create the significant phrase of "man is the most dangerous animal of all", which he plagiarised from the utterances of Merian C. Cooper, the associate producer of "The Most Dangerous Game". Was the same archival  technique used to fashion the typed Confession letter in 1966, borrowing the wording of "it was about time for her to die" from "The Sturdy Beggar" in 1888, with both the Riverside and Bay Area communications created by the cunning disposition of one author and one mind?   ​
​THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF MURDER.

The wording of "I saw and think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy" in the January 29th 1974 letter was an immediate response to the movie winning four Golden Globes on January 26th 1974, receiving the awards for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". The wording of "I am waiting for a good movie about me" in the April 24th 1978 letter was a belated response to the April 3rd 1978 Academy Awards (as was the Channel 9 letter on May 2nd 1978). Both of these letters on January 29th 1974 and April 24th 1978 were intrinsically bound to the movie industry, and both carried the Jack the Ripper style valediction of "yours truly", in the form of "yours truley" in 1974 (which was spelled incorrectly) and "yours truly" in 1978 (which was spelled correctly). This form of valediction is clearly not appropriate in the context of a threatening letter, so the use of this "act of farewell" is relatively unusual in this respect.

​Therefore, I looked for something on TV or in the movies that contained both elements of "Jack the Ripper" and "Yours Truly", and found the 1943 short story by Robert Bloch, subsequently made into a fifty minute TV thriller in 1961 entitled "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper", hosted by Boris Karloff and starring John Williams, Donald Woods and Edmon Ryan. On the Internet Movie Database it is described as follows: "70 years after the Jack the Ripper killings in London, Sir Guy tries to convince the police that Jack may still be alive, eternally young, and still killing, currently in New York". After a  hiatus of several years, Jack the Ripper had returned to begin killing again in New York. 

The same has been argued in the Zodiac case, where the Bay Area murderer appeared to take a hiatus from 1971 to 1974 and returned with the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. The same can be said of his inactivity between 1974 and 1978, when he returned to mail the 1978 letter with the introduction "I am back with you". So it is noteworthy that he appeared to use the "yours truly" valediction from the book and TV episode of ​"Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper", which presented the story of a killer returning after a period of inactivity. 

​Another interesting feature of the Exorcist letter was the final paragraph where the Zodiac wrote "Ps. If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing". You will notice that he described the communication as a "note" and not a letter. Bearing in mind that the TV episode of "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" featured Jack the Ripper taking his crimes from Whitechapel in London to New York, I looked for a Jack the Ripper "note" mailed in New York on the date of January 29th. A search of the newspaper archives didn't disappoint. The following newspaper article (among many) describes a "Jack the Ripper in New York", who wrote a "note" to Police Captain Ryan on January 29th 1889 promising that the streets of his precinct would soon be filled with murdered women.

In an odd turn of events, the script of "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" may have been turned on its head by the Bay Area murderer, because the previous letter claimed to have been mailed from the Zodiac Killer was postmarked August 1st 1973 from Albany, New York, six months before the arrival of the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. The letter, addressed to the Albany Times Union newspaper, stated he was "going to start killing again".

Robert Bloch, the author of "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" also wrote "The Thing" in 1932 and "Psycho" in 1959, the latter of which the Zodiac Killer featured in his 148 character cipher and letter in the middle of 1971. The 1971 letter stated that he would "skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin" if his cipher was not printed on the front page of the newspaper. This phraseology was reminscent of the murderer Edward Gein, who professed a desire to make a "skin suit" from his dead mother, and the movie "Psycho" that hit cinema screens in 1960 and featured the seated corpse of Norman Bates' dead mother. An arguable case can be made for Robert Bloch inspired letters from 1971 through to 1974, whether one was intended or not.

On January 19th 1889, ten days before the Jack the Ripper "note" on January 29th 1889, it is likely that the same individual first announced his presence to Captain Ryan in a letter (described in the newspaper cutting below), by stating "Do you think that Jack the Ripper is in England?", before promising to kill by next Thursday and signing it with the familiar valediction of "Yours truly, Jack the Ripper".

​CONNECTING RIVERSIDE TO THE ZODIAC USING JACK THE RIPPER [IN 7 PARTS]

In a previous article I examined the notion that the Confession letter mailed on November 29th 1966 was the forerunner to the July 31st 1969 Zodiac letters. When "The Most Dangerous Game" movie was released in 1932, its associate producer, Merian C. Cooper, reflected on the evil of the human condition and stated "man is the most dangerous animal of all". This would be the wording used by the Zodiac Killer in his decrypted 408 cipher, solved by Donald and Bettye June Harden on August 8th 1969. Thirteen years after "The Most Dangerous Game" was released, "A Game of Death" starring John Loder and Audrey Long opened in US cinemas on November 23rd 1945. A poor remake of the original, the only real difference was that the evil Russian, Count Zaroff, had turned into the insane German, Erich Kreiger.

​This later movie featured on television throughout California from November 5th 1966 to November 8th 1966 - so if the Zodiac Killer was present in Riverside (or California) during this period, and was responsible for any of the communications down south - could this movie have had any influence on the phrases chosen in the Confession letters? Did the flawed character traits of Count Zaroff and Erich Kreiger, who were insane, heartless, and psychopathic men with a thirst to hunt human beings, form the basis of the wording "I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game" in the Confession letters on November 29th 1966? That "game" being "a game of death", in which the insanity of Erich Kreiger and the Confession letter author created no barrier to the murderous game and ambitions of either.. "A Game of Death" in 1966 turning into a "Most Dangerous Game" in the Bay Area, two to three years later. The murders in southern and northern California cloaked under the banner of the Richard Connell short story of 1924. ​

There were extremely close similarities between the language used in the Confession letter to the Riverside Desktop Poem. The desktop poem appeared to be reminiscing in the present tense about the attempted murder by knife of Roslyn Atwood (19} on the Riverside City College campus on April 13th 1965, before switching attention to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, writing "Just wait till next time. rh." The footnote being riverside, halloween, the day Cheri Jo Bates' lifeless body was discovered next to the library. An interesting connection was made by Ricardo Gomez of MK-Zodiac, who showed a strong similarity between the headline of the Riverside Daily Press on April 17th 1965, to the opening lines from the desktop poem. The Riverside Daily Press stated "Clean-cut youth sought in stabbing", with the desktop poem beginning "cut, clean, if red/clean. blood spurting, dripping, spilling; all over her new dress". 

Was this just one big game, comparing the "unwillingness" of Roslyn Atwood to die on April 13th 1965 in the desktop poem title, to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, who the author of the Confession letter claimed was as a woman who "went very willingly" to her death. The Riverside Daily Press on April 17th 1965 with the "clean-cut" headline also mentioned that Roslyn Atwood was "stabbed in the lower abdomen with a hunting knife with a 4 1/2 inch blade". Strangely, the morning after the Riverside City College library reconstruction on November 13th 1966 concerning the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, a buried hunting knife with a blade measuring 4 1/2 inches was raked up by a groundskeeper just 50 feet from the location of Cheri Jo Bates' body, in the same driveway. Although this was unlikely the weapon used in the attack on Roslyn Atwood, was the game now being played out in the campus itself? The comparison between the murder of Cheri Jo Bates and Roslyn Atwood was briefly considered in the Riverside Daily Press newspaper published on November 3rd 1966, entitled "Key Clue Goes to C11 Unit". Only briefly, however, because Rolland Lin Taft (19) was still behind bars for the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood.      

The typed wording on the Confession letter of "I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game" may have a different meaning. Was the author of the Confession letter, just like the Riverside Desktop Poem, harking back to the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood in 1965, using a mocking defence of his actions in the stabbing of Cheri Jo Bates? It was reported in the Riverside Daily-Enterprise newspaper on September 11th 1965 that Rolland Taft had pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood by reason of insanity. It appeared that the author of the Confession letter was doing the same. But I suspect this claim of insanity was just another part of the "game". It must also be noted that one of the Confession letters was mailed to the Riverside Daily-Enterprise.   

When the Zodiac Killer concealed "man is the most dangerous animal of all" in his 408 cipher, he mimicked the exact quote used by Merian C. Cooper upon the release of the 1932 film "The Most Dangerous Game". I have only found this quote in a handful of newspapers from 1932, so how did the Zodiac Killer acquire this from 37 years prior to 1969 without the use of old newspapers, possibly stored on the microfiche from a library? Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, was an English statesman, lawyer, diplomat and historian who served as chief advisor to royalty in the 17th century. The words once used by Edward Hyde of “They who are most weary of life, and yet are most unwilling to die" are extremely similar to the Riverside Desktop Poem title of "sick of living, unwilling to die," who himself survived a murderous attack, when English sailors nearly killed him at Evreux in France in 1668. If the title of the desktop poem had such lofty origins, it would seem that a library would be of great value once more. A history graduate that can migrate from southern to northern California perhaps? 

MERIAN C. COOPER AND "THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME" (1932)