The Zodiac Killer story is full of strange coincidences, so here is another one. Alex Lewis managed to secure a redacted document from the FBI in 2016 regarding the murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969. The redacted document read "Xenophon Lusby Anthony, WMA, DOB 28th February 1931, Resides at 3218 Jackson Street, San Francisco. For Info Ident Division, San Francisco Police Department advised; eight year old witness in murder of cab driver identified Anthony as possible subject in this matter". Just ten days after the Paul Stine murder, on Tuesday October 21st 1969, an 8-year-old girl was walking along Lake Mendocino Drive with her parents when a passing motorist flung a note attached to a twig at her feet, stating "You're next..Z".

The Zodiac Killer had threatened schoolchildren when his October 13th 1969 letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle. The letter had promised that "School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out". The day before this note was thrown towards the young girl from the car, a newspaper article featured in the San Francisco Chronicle on October 20th 1969 entitled Bus Precautions-A Seminar Here on Zodiac Killer, mentioning protection for schoolchildren in many areas. Obviously there is no way to validate if this was the Zodiac Killer responding to this article or just another copycat buying into the Zodiac story.

There is quite a distance from San Francisco to Lake Mendocino Drive in Ukiah, but it is a direct journey along Highway 101 from the Bay Area that can be accomplished in two hours - and from the standpoint of the Zodiac Killer - likely outside the target zone of the police. The wording on the note would eventually become familiar, when a pasted card (mimicking the 13 Hole postcard) was mailed to the home address of Dr. Edward C. Adams at 102 Camino Don Miguel, Orinda, California, postmarked October 17th 1970 from Berkeley. Edward C. Adams was a psychiatrist. The card read: "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".

This communication arrived almost one year after the note in Ukiah with very similar phraseology. The October 21st 1969 note read "You're next..Z" and the October 17th 1970 communication read "You are next. Zodiac". On August 26th 1976, an advertisement ran in the San Francisco Chronicle for one week, beginning "Zodiac, Your partner is in deep real estate. You're next". Three communications bridging a span of seven years.

The two sketches of the suspect in the Paul Stine murder were released on October 13th and October 18th 1969, so it was probably unsurprising that many people in the subsequent days believed they had spotted the Zodiac Killer. However, five residents of Anderson Valley (15 miles southwest of Lake Mendocino Drive} did make claims of seeing the "killer" in the area and reported it to police on Sunday October 19th 1969. Two days later, the incident involving the 8-year-old girl transpired. The sightings of Boonville residents in Anderson Valley were reported in the Ukiah Daily Journal on October 20th 1969.

Bus patrols were widespread after the Zodiac threat on schoolchildren, with newspaper reports detailing the vigilance of authorities as far as the Napa Valley and Santa Rosa. Had the Zodiac Killer ventured just beyond the perceived safety net to fulfil his promise to target schoolchildren, or was this just another sick individual cashing in on the terror experienced in the Bay Area and beyond? 

Captain Hays Hickey of the California Highway Patrol had met with authorities on October 20th 1969 to finalize plans for a CHP-Sheriff's Unit Protection on half a dozen or more school buses in the outlying districts of Mendocino County in the wake of Zodiac's threats. Operation Zodiac initially began with three outlying areas covered on October 20th 1969, believing the killer was more likely to threaten areas of a more rural nature.  

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?

A pasted card, mimicking the 13 Hole Postcard was mailed to the home address of Dr. Edward C. Adams at 102 Camino Don Miguel, Orinda, California, postmarked October 17th 1970 from Berkeley. Edward C. Adams was a psychiatrist. The card read

"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".

The Gladman Hospital where Richard H. Adler worked is today listed as a Psychiatric Health Facility in Oakland. Telecare was founded by psychiatrist, Art Gladman in 1965. The Gladman Hospital was a traditional psychiatric hospital back in 1976,  extremely interesting and noteworthy, bearing in mind the FBI file concerning the Edward C. Adams Letter (shown below), which indicates Dr. Adams informed Inspector David Toschi of his belief that the threatening letter he received was sent by a former psychiatric patient who resided in Berkeley. The city of Berkeley lies on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, adjacent to Oakland.

"Edward C. Adams spent most of his life in the Bay Area where he attended the University of California Berkeley for his undergraduate work and Stanford University for his medical degree. His residency in psychiatry was received at the Menninger Clinic, Topeka, KS. During the Korean War he was an instructor in the Medical Field Service at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, TX. After retiring from an active practice in Psychiatry he devoted his energies to travel, fly fishing, the study of poetry and the enjoyment of his family and many friends. During the time spent at his Carmel home he volunteered as a docent at the Robinson Jeffers Foundation. He was a member of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Society and an active supporter of many environmental groups".  SFGATE.COM.

The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis was organized in 2007, combining the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute & Society, founded in 1941, with the San Francisco Foundation for Psychoanalysis, founded in 1991. The Center provides an extensive training program in psychoanalysis. The Center also sponsors a large, vibrant Extension Division which offers classes and seminars to mental health professionals as well as to the general public. The San Francisco Psychoanalytic Society and Institute is a facility for psychoanalytic research, training, and education located on 2420 Sutter Street in San Francisco, California. It is situated in Lower Pacific Heights, approximately one mile from the intersection of Washington and Cherry.

It can be seen on the map below that Gladman Hospital (Mental Health Rehab) is only 6.5 miles from Orinda, 6.3 miles from Berkeley and 12 miles from 2420 Sutter Street. In summary, we have two communications sent six years apart, containing the phrases "You are next" and "You're next", both likely to psychiatrists, who lived and worked in close proximity to one another, and who both were addressed by the name "Zodiac" in the message. And one had the initials R.A. 

Edward C. Adams and Richard H. Alder may have crossed paths in their profession of psychiatry, either at the San Francisco Foundation for Psychoanalysis or their places of work, and the personal ad stating "Your partner is in deep real estate" may have been referencing Edward C. Adams as a man in deep trouble, using the word partner as "business partner", or in a more loose term, as a "partner in the same profession". Bearing in mind the almost identical threat six years earlier to somebody in the same profession, this seems a distinct possibility.

In a previous article we showed with a high degree of probability that the 13 Hole Postcard mailed on October 5th 1970 was connected to the as yet unpublished Little List Letter through its wording, and therefore both were authored by the Zodiac Killer. Most people accept that the Little List Letter is authenticated Zodiac correspondence, so by extension, if the October 17th 1970 Edward C. Adams Letter and "Deep Real Estate" Letter were authored by the same person, and we can connect the two pasted letters in October 1970, then we can verify Zodiac was responsible for all. This would mean that Edward C. Adams suspicions that the letter mailed to his home address in Orinda by a former psychiatric patient who resided in Berkeley, could have been the Zodiac Killer.        

On the flip side, Richard H. Adler may have been addressing Zodiac, or somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer.

Although there is extremely limited information on this communication, it is essentially the only communication in the FBI files not covered on this site. There is little to glean from the details provided in the FBI document, but nevertheless, it completes the whole picture regarding even the weakest of Zodiac material. 

Described as being postmarked twice from Los Angeles, with March 7th 1986 and March 12th 1986, this envelope bore the hand printed address of "(Redacted) Ambler Tours 101 2ND AVE. Suite 1900 SAN DieGo, CA. 92101". Accompanying was a hand printed letter beginning "Hi ......., We Are...".  If written in this fashion, using upper and lower case lettering inappropriately, then it bore similarities to the second McDonald's Letter mailed on February 8th 1988, also sent to a business residence (and also incorrectly written). The two McDonald's letters purportedly claimed to be from the Zodiac Killer, whereas nothing in the FBI file below carries his pseudonym, other than an "O" sign and "ZODiAC KiLLER" written above Q1. Whether this was sampled writing and part of the communication itself, or added as a notation by investigators, I cannot say for sure. But again, it is a blend of upper and lower casing. If you take a look at Q2 in the McDonald's Letter here, it too has a circle (belatedly added on the FBI file) between "the" and "Zodiac", suggesting it may have formed part of the original message. But is this enough to suggest a connection between the two sets of communications, separated by approximately two years. 

Ambler Tours & Travel Service were a family business formed in 1953 by Frank and Ginny Ambler, one of the oldest travel agencies in San Diego. The company attracted business solely by word-of-mouth becoming very successful over several decades, with Dale Ambler holding the position of vice-president. They were still operating in 2008, as shown by this newsletter. So why did the Zodiac Killer, or somebody purporting to be the Zodiac Killer have reason to mail a communication to Ambler Tours? Could the letter have began "Hi Frank" or "Hi Ginny"? Here is some recent information I found.

Ambler Travel: 1010 2nd Ave , San-Diego-CA 92101 (now closed).
Ambler Tours & Travel Service Inc is a privately held company in San Diego, CA and is a single location business. Categorized under Tourist Agency Arranging Transport, Lodging and Car Rental. Our records show it was established in 1953 and incorporated in California. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of 740,000 and employs a staff of approximately four. 

When we consider whether any communication this distant from the Zodiac crimes is genuine or not, we have to look for other potential Zodiac Killer communications in and around the time period in question, in order to determine if this was an isolated occurrence by a misguided individual, or whether a pattern exists. Apart from the two McDonald's letters in February 1988, can we find anything closer to March 1986? Just two months after the Ambler Tours Letter, another purported Zodiac letter was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on May 6th 1986, stating that the author had shot two people in a car about "two weeks ago", by a freeway in Sacramento. Exactly two weeks prior to May 6th 1986, on April 22nd 1986, Koy Ien Saechao (48) and Choy Fow Salee (40) were gunned down by a hail of gunfire through the driver side window of their vehicle while parked along Highway 99 and Interstate 5, extremely similar in fashion to the first two Zodiac attacks. The only other loose connection to anything remotely Zodiac, is the location of 1010 2nd Ave, San Diego - situated 5.5 miles from Ocean Beach and the murder of John and Joyce Swindle on Wednesday February 5th 1964. These are slim pickings, but worth mentioning in relation to the location and timeline. 

Two letters were mailed and postmarked February 1st 1988 and February 8th 1988 to McDonald's at 2 Northgate Park, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Both contained the word "attention" written on the envelope, with the first stating "attn. dan r." and the second likely the full name (hence why it is redacted). The February 1st 1988 correspondence had an accompanying hand- printed sheet of paper, likely beginning "dear Dan this is the Zodiac speaking", along with accompanying printed cutouts entitled "CHINESE ZODIAC", and beginning "The Chinese Zodiac..." and "Many Chinese believe..." The February 8th 1988 correspondence had a sheet of graph paper with the hand-printed beginning "This is the Zodiac (speaking)" and accompanying form entitled "McDonald's Profile Change Notice", upon which was the hand-written message "This is shit..."

Q4 Envelope postmarked "CHATTANOOGA, TN 374 PM 1 FEB 1988" bearing the printed address "McDONALDS 2 NORTHGATE PARK CHATTANOOGA TENN. 37343 attn. dan r."

Q1 Envelope postmarked "CHATT_NOOGA, TN 374 PM 8 FEB 1988" bearing the printed address "McDonald's 2 NORTh Gate Park CHattanooga Tenn. 37343 Attention (redacted)".

ALSO SUBMITTED: McDonald's form entitled "FILET-O-FISH/CHICKEN McNUGGETS/PIES Station Observation Checklist G7/G8/G9".

The McDonald's is not present there today and it doesn't appear one was present at this location in 1988 either, but I thought I would drop down to street level on Google maps and take a peek at 2 Northgate Park, Chattanooga. Amazingly, this is the view that confronted me (although when this logo was adopted I am unsure). 119 miles separates this location and 1611 Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia, where another alleged Zodiac communication was mailed on March 8th 1981 to the television station WXIA-TV "11 Alive", claiming involvement in the Atlanta Child Murders. 

I wanted to find who the target of one (probably both) of the letters was, regarding the address of "attn. dan r.". After a little digging it was discovered that the CEO of Greenleaf Center, Inc./North Georgia, a Foreign Profit Corporation with a last annual registration year of 1988, was Dan B. Page. The address was 1 Northgate Park, Chattanooga, Tennessee.

"According to public records DAN PAGE B is connected with one company - Greenleaf Center, Inc./North Georgia . This person is appointed in Greenleaf Center, Inc./North Georgia as a CEO. This company was incorporated about thirty-seven years, ago in October of 1982 in Chattanooga. The company is listed as Withdrawn in Georgia companies records". The address listed here is 2 Northgate Park, Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Greenleaf Center, Inc./North Georgia is a Georgia Foreign Profit Corporation filed on October 14, 1982. The company's filing status is listed as Withdrawn and its File Number is J251556. The Registered Agent on file for this company is R. Lindsay Shuff and is located at 500 Greenleaf Circle, Ft Oglethorpe, GA 30742. The company's principal address is 1 Northgate Park Ste 201, Chattanooga, TN 37415-6912. The company has 3 principals on record. The principals are Dianna Gilbert from Chattanooga TN, Page B, Dan from Chattanooga TN, and Lindsay R. Shuff from Chattanooga TN. link

The February 1st 1988 envelope admittedly states "attn. dan r.", but with the dates and address matching, one can only assume that the sender got the middle initial incorrect (unless you know better in comments). We have these communications and the March 8th 1981 "Peachtree" Letter, with a loose Georgia connection, separated by 119 miles.

It is now your job to make the connection between between McDonald's, China and the addressee in question - assuming we have the right person.

In a previous article we compared a postcard from the Symbionese Liberation Army 'Hearnap' FBI files threatening the daughter of President Richard Nixon, to the Citizen Card purportedly mailed by the Zodiac Killer. The composition of the Citizen Card, expressing consternation and concern at the running of advertisements for the Badlands movie and signing off with "A citizen", was compared to the Richard Nixon Postcard with respect to "A concerned citizen". This, coupled with similarities between the February 3rd 1974 SLA Letter and a communication dated February 10th 1974 from the Symbionese Liberation Army, led to the conclusion that neither the Citizen Card or SLA Letter were penned by the Zodiac Killer. This has been questioned, leading to speculation that the Zodiac Killer may in fact have been responsible for both the Richard Nixon Postcard mailed on May 23rd 1974 and the Citizen Card mailed on May 8th 1974.     

Just prior to these two communications the Symbionese Liberation mailed a similar threat to Randolph Hearst stating "It now appears to SLA that he would rather sacrifice his daughters life than to print the truth to the American people". The message finished with "We wish C.B.S, A.B.C. or N.B.C. would dedicate one hour of national network time to the founder of C.C.S.D. so the man could deliver a message to the people that could save the nation from political disaster and economical destruction". The man they wanted to be given air time was Roland L. Hayes from the corporation of Concerned Citizens for Social Development (C.C.S.D) - and included his writings. This man clearly inspired the Symbionese Liberation Army with his message of fighting for the people against corporate greed and the likes of Randolph Hearst. Is it therefore surprising that several weeks later, a postcard was mailed to President Richard Nixon invoking a threat on his daughter and signing off with "A concerned citizen for freedom"? As can be seen in the excerpts below the SLA directive, Roland L. Hayes titled many of his sections "concerned citizens for social development" and subtitled one "The President", detailing President Richard Nixon on more than one occasion.

When we look at the wording on the Richard Nixon Postcard "Dear King, We know where Patty Hearst is. But wait till we get your daughter. A concerned citizen for freedom", the comparisons can be noted. With the Citizen Card sandwiched in between the Dear Mr. Chancellor Letter and the "Dear King" Richard Nixon Postcard, we have more cause for concern about the validity of the May 8th 1974 communication as a Zodiac Killer offering. It was directing its consternation at the running of ads by the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner - two newspapers previously highlighted with ire by the Symbionese Liberation Army because of their connection to Randolph Hearst.

To view the entire FBI documents on this matter, visit page 400 of the Hearnap files, part 36 of 42.

Here is another interesting feature, discovered by investigators written on the apartment wall of a previously occupied Symbionese Liberation Army residence. The discovery would have been prior to the July 8th 1974 Red Phantom Letter, signing off with "the Red Phantom (red with rage)". The message scrawled on the wall began "Every day my rage grows fonder of the poison I pack into the heads of my bullets". But did this rage last until July 8th 1974?

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.  

On July 19th 1978 a typewritten letter from Los Angeles arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle stating: "I am the ZODIAC and I am in control of all things. I am going to tell you a secret. I like friction tape. I like to have it around in case I need to truss someone up in a hurry....I have my real name on a small metallic tape. You see, while you have it in your possession, I want you to know it belongs to me and you think I may have left it accidentally. I am athletic. It could be swim fins, or a piece of scuba gear. But maybe you play chess with me. I have several cheap sets in closets all over. I have my name on the bottom of the lid with the scotch tape....My tape is waiting for me all over California. Do you know me? I am the ZODIAC and I am in control". ​

In the previous article on this topic we discussed how this letter may have been a sarcastic dig at David Toschi, who had been demoted from homicide detail to pawn detail after revelations of his possible authorship of the April 24th 1978 letter. The phrase "but maybe you play chess with me" a reference to his misfortune of ending up in the pawn section. Quicktrader, from Zodiac Killer Site forum, explained how the author of this letter may have given us a clue to his name Paul, which featured at the bottom of the lid on a well known brand of Scotch tape. In fact, the majority of the letter implicitly focuses on tape, beginning with "friction tape" to bind his victims, then "small metallic tape" which he didn't leave somewhere accidentally, and finally, the "scotch tape" which we've already covered.  

Regarding the tape - twice he mentioned his name in accompaniment. The author stated "I have my real name on a small metallic tape" and  "I have my name on the bottom of the lid with the scotch tape". If we are to discover what the Zodiac Killer (if the author) meant by "small metallic tape" we need to travel back to a murder where his name featured, at or close to the attack site, and where it was deliberately left. Fortunately we don't have to go back too far.

On Sunday November 2nd 1975, a man walked up to a couple's vehicle on Monte Cresta Drive, Belmont, California and shot 17-year-old Carlmont High School student Anthony Vincent Bruno Jr to death. "According to Police Captain George Stephenson, Bruno and his girlfriend (16 years) had been parked on Monte Cresta Drive, above Barclay Way in an isolated area of western hills when a man opened the driver's side door and apparently without saying anything fired the shotgun. The girl, who was not identified by police, pushed Bruno's body aside and drove the car to her home from where police were notified. She described the assailant as white, 5 feet 5 inches tall, 140 pounds and wearing an Army green parka with hood, according to police. Stephenson said also that a late model brown pick-up truck, possibly a Dodge or Chevrolet, had been seen in the area at about the time of the shooting." San Mateo Times.

​The description doesn't sound much like the Zodiac Killer, but often he would lay claim to murders he never committed. This may have been the case here, when on the following day (possibly having read or heard about the murder) placed something interesting in a phone booth. ​Mike Morford stated, in reference to a San Mateo news article, dated November 14th 1975 "The reporter, a man named Bob Foster, mentions that on the night of November 3, 1975, the 11 pm TV news on channel KGO, ran a story about a Zodiac letter being found in a phone booth. This is pretty interesting to me for a couple reasons regarding the timing. First of all because, the night before, on 11/2/75, a young man and his girlfriend were attacked on a lovers lane by a gun wielding man. The male victim, Vincent Bruno was killed, but his girlfriend survived. If I recall correctly, there may have been a letter & cassette tape found the same night in a phone booth not far from the attack site, from someone claiming to be Zodiac. Also, I will try to find it again, but in one of the FBI files, there IS mention of a letter & casette tape found together". Here is a previous article covering this topic. 

On July 19th 1978 a typewritten letter from Los Angeles arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle stating: "I am the ZODIAC and I am in control of all things. I am going to tell you a secret. I like friction tape. I like to have it around in case I need to truss someone up in a hurry....I have my real name on a small metallic tape. You see, while you have it in your possession, I want you to know it belongs to me and you think I may have left it accidentally. I am athletic. It could be swim fins, or a piece of scuba gear. But maybe you play chess with me. I have several cheap sets in closets all over. I have my name on the bottom of the lid with the scotch tape....My tape is waiting for me all over California. Do you know me? I am the ZODIAC and I am in control". 

This letter mailed to the Chronicle newspaper and described by Robert Graysmith in his Zodiac book, appears like a mishmash of inane ramblings of somebody "not in control", however, there is always sense in the madness if you look hard enough. The one thing the Zodiac Killer did on numerous occasions during his initial letter writing campaign, was to respond to the newspaper articles he read. There are no reasons why this letter cannot be unpicked by looking at articles published in the San Francisco Chronicle in the days leading up to July 19th 1978 - the date of this typed correspondence.

In this newspaper collection compiled by cryptographer Dave Oranchak it can be seen that a flurry of newspaper articles preceded this 'Zodiac' mailing, from July 11th 1978 to July 18th 1978. They were entitled The Rise and Fall of a Good Cop, New Puzzles Further Muddle Zodiac Case, Officials Jittery Over Latest Zodiac Puzzle, New Zodiac Disclosures, Feinstein Says Toschi's Being Crucified and Gain Talks About Toschi. They all highlighted the plight of Inspector David Toschi of Homicide Detail, who came under suspicion for forging both the Exorcist letter, mailed on January 29th 1974, and the most recent 'Zodiac' communication on April 24th 1978, which stated "Dear Editor, This is the Zodiac speaking I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here, I have always been here. That city pig toschi is good - but I am smarter and better he will get tired then leave me alone. I am waiting for a good movie about me. who will play me. I am now in control of all things". Considering this July 19th 1978 letter was mailed just after these newspaper articles about David Toschi, parroting "I am in control of all things", it is a fairly safe bet that this typed communication was addressing David Toschi personally.

Quicktrader, from the Zodiac Killer Site forum, highlighted the first clue in the letter, in which the author states "I have my real name on a small metallic tape", "I have my name on the bottom of the lid with the scotch tape" and "my tape is waiting for me all over California". Scotch Tape could be bought all over California, and this version of the product did have a name on the bottom of the lid. Was this the Zodiac Killer insinuating that his forename was Paul? 

But what inspired the author of the July 19th 1978 letter to hint at his "real name" in the correspondence? In the San Francisco Chronicle article on July 18th 1978, entitled ​Gain Talks About Toschi, the journalist writes "Zodiac is the name used by a man who killed six persons at random - five in the Bay Area - in the late 1960s". So this may have been the perfect retort, declaring his real name was all over California - on the bottom of Scotch Tape lids.

However, the author of this communication also refers to chess, stating "But maybe you play chess with me. I have several cheap sets in closets all over". He is offering to play chess with David Toschi, and the clue to why was well known - and published in many newspapers precedent to this typed letter. Here is the possible answer lying in the pages of the July 14th 1978 San Francisco Chronicle. It stated Maupin turned his phony letters from Toschi over to DeAmicis, who confronted the inspector with them in the deputy chief's office last Friday morning. Toschi admitted writing them. "My recommendations" said DeAmicis "was that because of ego problems we thought it in the best interest of Dave Toschi and the department" to consign him to pawn shop detail.  

The author of this letter likely knew that David Toschi had been demoted from homicide detail to pawn shop detail and was currently taking a short holiday. What better way, in true Zodiac style, to take the mickey out of the demoted inspector by offering the steward of the pawn shop detail a game of chess. The answer is always so black or white.

THE 7/19/78 LETTER [PART TWO]

The December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter has its own unique design, written on lined paper threatening "government life" and 38 cops in San Francisco, San Jose, Vallejo, Napa, Fairfield, Sacramento and Oakland. This correspondence was not released to the newspapers, thereby making any subsequent letter mirroring this communication all the more significant. Any future author could not be accused of copycatting the Zodiac Killer using the Fairfield letter as their guide. That is what makes the "Jimmy Carter" letter, mailed on June 8th 1977, so very interesting when placed alongside the 'Zodiac letter' from December 16th 1969. 

The FBI files stated "Enclosed for the bureau is one copy of a letter threatening to kill numerous political figures and television personalities and envelope postmarked Sacramento, California 6/8/77. For information of the bureau, on 6/9/77, the Sacramento Bee newspaper received the enclosed letter and information was developed that captioned subject was currently under indictment for threatening to kill the president and a check with U.S. Secret Service, Sacramento, confirmed this. On 6/9/77 Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Heller, Sacramento, determined that redacted had been sentenced that day for violation of Title 18, section 871, Threats to Kill the President to an indeterminate sentence under the Youth Corrections Act. Based on this information, Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Heller advised he would consider no further prosecution of captioned subject. On 6/19/77, the originals of the enclosed letter and envelope were turned over to the U.S. Secret Service Agent to be made a part of their case".            

The candidates threatened high on the list are elected government officials from the Democratic Party, followed by television personalities - with President Jimmy Carter top of the hit list of 30. The December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter also threatened "government life", with 38 people placed in a similar list at the foot of the letter Two letters, both on lined paper, separated by nearly eight years, and both promising to kill 30+ people. Let us take a closer look at the Jimmy Carter and Fairfield letter alongside each other. The Fairfield letter has been placed beneath the Jimmy Carter letter in the image below. 

I have highlighted certain areas of interest in blue, green and red. In the Jimmy Carter letter the author begins with "this letter has been written to tell the people", whereas in the Fairfield letter the author begins with "I just want to tell you". The Jimmy Carter letter then threatens the "following people to be killed", with the Fairfield letter stating "I will kill more people". And finally, the Jimmy Carter letter concludes with "you better carry out the demand", with the Fairfield letter ending with "you better print".  Not withstanding the similar construct and tone of each letter, along with the lined paper, the handwriting is comparable. Furthermore, if we compare these two letters with the threat letter to Richard Nixon (more government life) on May 14th 1973, we see a pattern. The December 16th 1969, May 14th 1973 and June 8th 1977 letters, all begin with either "to tell you that", "to tell you this" and "to tell the people". 

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. 

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

The Zodiac Killer had successfully murdered three and seriously injured one person by the time he mailed his trinity of July 31st 1969 letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald. He then presented codebreakers with the extremely unusual challenge of deciphering three parts of one cipher from the hand of a serial killer, demanding that he receive front page coverage for his efforts. The three communications and three murders, in his mind, warranted the full attention of the American public when he wrote "Here is part of a cipher the other 2 parts of this cipher are being mailed to the editors of the Vallejo Times and SF Examiner. I want you to print this cipher on the front page of your paper. In this cipher is my idenity. If you do not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry.1st of Aug 69, I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night. I will cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend".  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On Sunday, April 11th 1971, Kathy Bilek (18) visited Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, having planned to read a paperback book (The Gabriel Hounds) and engage in a spot of bird watching​ in the seclusion of a remote, wooded portion of the park, near a small stream. Her body was found the next day by her father, Charles, while Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies searched nearby. She had been stabbed 17 times in the back and 32 times in her chest and stomach, although her killer had taken care to avoid stabbing her breasts. Her murder was also attributed to Karl Francis Werner. Wikipedia. The brutal murder of Kathy Bilek would again be claimed by 'Zodiac', not only in the Monticello card, but in another alleged Zodiac letter, also mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle at about the same time as the Monticello card. Kathy Bilek was murdered in "April", exactly as mentioned in the Monticello card, and "in the woods" at Villa Montalvo (a wooded section of the park). Saratoga is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is located on the west side of the Santa Clara Valley, directly west of San Jose, The appearance of San Jose once again. ​ ​

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In October 1971, a magazine publication entitled 'True Detective' comprehensively featured the murders of Kathy Snoozy, Deborah Furlong and Kathy Bilek, and the subsequent arrest of Karl Francis Werner. There is every chance the Zodiac Killer read this magazine article, compelling him to continue his contact with authorities regarding these murders.

One particular section about Kathy Bilek caught my eye - that may have been the reason why the Zodiac Killer wrote a letter to the chairman of the DMV in Sacramento. It stated "At about the same moment, Park Ranger Ken Williamson was informing a member of the investigative team that he, too, had noticed a tall, bespectacled young man who had been a frequent visitor at Villa Montalvo. He was a loner and had impressed the Villa's ranger staff with his almost furtive conduct, said Williamson. The ranger had jotted down the license number of the strange youth's auto.
The license number was forwarded to the California Department of Motor Vehicles headquarters in Sacramento, the state's capital 150 miles to the north of San Jose. The information teletyped back from the registration bureau was that the auto was the property of a Karl Francis Werner, living at an address on Shawnee Lane in San Jose." 

The Zodiac Killer, having previously mailed two communications (Monticello card and 148 character cipher) referencing the murder of Kathy Bilek and the victim total of 21, it wouldn't be at all surprising if he fired off a third communication, this time to the Department of Motor Vehicles in Sacramento, after reading these two paragraphs. As this magazine article was published in October of 1971, the DMV letter may have been postmarked with the latter months of that year - possibly October, November or December. The compunction of the Zodiac Killer in claiming, or interjecting himself into the middle of these murders, may have been the driver behind his contact with the chairman of the DMV. The content of this communication is unknown, but I guess he is continuing the menacing theme of his previous two correspondences, suggesting the identification of the vehicle belonging to Karl Francis Werner is somehow another red herring and threatening more murder and mayhem.

While discussing the September 25th 1990 Celebrity Cypher in an earlier article on this site, Rubislaw32 discovered the identity of the postcard, described by Zodiac researcher Lyndon Lafferty as "Driftwood on Ocean Beach", whereas the face of the card featured a rooted tree on a beach in Carmel, California. Any doubt that this discovery by Rubislaw32 was not of Carmel Beach in California has been seemingly quashed, when the John Hinde alphanumeric publishing code in the top left corner of the address side, was compared to the alphanumeric publishing code on the original Celebrity Cypher mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald in 1990. This discovery is now available on the Project MK Zodiac website here.      

The address side of the original 1990 Celebrity Cypher contained the alphanumeric code 2CG 66-B, as did the Carmel postcard on the left, effectively tying the two together and strengthening the case regarding the image portrayed on the face of the postcard. If anybody has information to the contrary in respect to these alphanumeric codes, please let me know in comments. The only thing left to speculate upon, was whether the 1990 Celebrity Cypher was authored by the Zodiac Killer or somebody attempting to mimic the Zodiac Killer.

There have been numerous theories put forward, including from Sandy Betts, who has expressed her reservations on whether the Celebrity Cypher has Carmel Beach on the face of the card. She believes there may be a connection to the John and Joyce Swindle murder, alongside Ocean Beach, San Diego on February 5th 1964. She stated on Zodiac Killer Site forum "On Wednesday, February 5, 1964, Navy radio-man third class Johnny Ray Swindle and his newlywed wife Joyce were violently murdered along the "Ocean Beach" Boardwalk next to the Silver Spray Apartments. Swindle had married his childhood sweetheart on January 18, 1964 and they stayed in a three room cottage nine blocks from where they would eventually be slain. According to the San Diego Union Newspaper, five shots were fired from the sniper position above. Police said two more were fired at close range. Indicating that the killer fired the last two shots into their heads in a kind of coup de grâce. Their murder case remains unsolved to this day, however, there are many persons who believe the murders were committed by the infamous Zodiac Killer". She further elaborated on Zodiac Killer Forumotion "The "Ocean Beach" that I believe it is was, is in San Diego Ca. I knew about two murders there on Feb. 5th 1964. They were John and Joyce Swindle. The stamp that was used backs up what I believe. The stamp is of Marianne Moore who died on Feb. 5th 1972, I do not think that was coincidence".

The Zodiac Killer began his cipher mailings to the Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969, to which he mailed part one of a three-part cipher to Bay Area newspapers. So this 1990 offering in ciphertext (if Zodiac) would mean the only two confirmed mailings to the Vallejo Times-Herald would both have contained code. The characters of the code are certainly recognizable, but not difficult to replicate for anybody who knows something about the Zodiac Killer. The Bay Area murderer gloried in his narcissism, parading himself in an executioner's costume at Lake Berryesssa on September 27th 1969, so designing a postcard based on  the Celebrity Ciphers of Luis Campos would not be beyond him. These ciphers were published regularly in the newspapers featuring well-known people, past and present. The reader had to identify the person and quote from the encoded text. The idea that the Zodiac Killer, deeming himself a celebrity, would then tease us a further time with his name, is not so far-fetched. 

You can see that the foot of the Luis Campos cipher solution on the right is reserved for the celebrity's name (in this case, John Lee Hooker). Bearing in mind the positioning of the characters shown above, with the left side of the postcard normally reserved for the name and address - and with the final 5 and 8 characters identical to the beginning of the cipher, we should expect the red rectangles to contain the name of the postcard author. The blue rectangle to contain the address and the green rectangle to harbor the message. If this were the Zodiac Killer, being the celebrity that he is, what better way to encipher this message with one of his old quotes.

The communication that most springs to mind when we are attempting to discover the name of the Zodiac Killer, is the April 20th 1970 "My Name Is" 13 symbol cipher. That being 2 letters, followed by 4 letters, followed by 2 letters and finally his name of 13 letters (split into forename and surname). Well look at that. The 1990 Celebrity Cipher ends in a formation of 2, 4, 2 and 13. This was a Zodiac quote so good, they even named the correspondence after it. But what about the first four words in the Celebrity Cypher message. What Zodiac communication was this chosen from?

You would expect the revelation of his name to be preceded by a question, such as "do you know me" or "if you want me", followed by the answer. This is obviously assuming there is a second letter obscured by the stamp. He teased us similarly in the October 27th 1970 'Halloween' card stating "you ache to know my name. And so I'll clue you in", and in the 408 cipher with "in this cipher is my idenity". But he always failed to deliver. If we combine part of the 'Halloween' card phrase with the April 20th 1970 letter, we get "you ache to know my name. My name is".  Replacing the first "my name" with "me"  in the form of a question, it is my guess the Celebrity Cypher reads something along the lines of "do you know me. My name is".
If the 1990 Celebrity Cypher was truly by the Zodiac Killer, his name should be 5 and 8 letters in length, mirroring the '13 Symbol' cipher - but forgive me for being skeptical.