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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Either the Zodiac Killer or somebody purporting to be the Zodiac Killer mailed a Happy New Year card to the San Francisco Chronicle on January 10th 2001, disgusted that San Francisco citizens were "getting murdered" by Muni drivers. The day before, on January 9th 2001, the Examiner ran an article describing how a Muni streetcar struck and killed pedestrian Guang Zhan Ouyang on Sunday, January 7th 2001. Another fatality occurred the following day on Van Ness Avenue. This newspaper article is courtesy of Cragle from Zodiac Killer Site forum - and is undoubtedly the trigger for the January 10th 2001 Happy New Year card. After all, the author opened up with the line [corrected] "Dear Sir. Wherever you are. This is disgusting to read, what seems to be a news that nobody really cares, but the relatives of innocent citizens murdered in our beloved S.F. It's always the pedestrians fault and never those bastard Muni drivers".

The Zodiac Killer was extremely fond of reacting to newspaper articles in his heyday, but what was it about this particular article that triggered such a response, just over eleven years after the December 1990 Eureka card (assuming the Zodiac Killer was responsible for both communications). Cragle pondered the question; Could the line "Noboby really cares but the relatives of innocent citizens MURDER in our beloved SF" allude to a relationship of some sorts to the person quoted in the article?

Here is another Examiner newspaper article, dated January 3rd 2001, describing the death of Brian Edward Cotter (18) as he played the game of "chicken" with a Muni streetcar. Thanks again to Cragle for supplying this cutting.

Here is a communication mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on January 10th 2001 threatening the Muni drivers of San Francisco, widely believed to be somebody mimicking the Zodiac Killer. While this may be the case, one has to consider the style and format of the writing (particularly on the envelope) with respect to previous Zodiac communications. No other authenticated Zodiac communication prior to this one carried the address of "901 Mission Street" with "San Francisco, CA 94103". I believe Tom Voigt of Zodiackiller.com considers the Eureka card mailed in 1990 to be a plausible Zodiac correspondence, placing this communication in his "Letters from the Zodiac" section on the message forum.  

The Eureka card is the only other possible Zodiac communication addressed in near identical fashion to the 2001 offering (shown in tandem with the envelope below). The problem arises when we consider that the Eureka card was not discovered until March 3rd 2007 by editorial assistant Daniel King of the San Francisco Chronicle among some photo files. The 2007 Zodiac movie directed by David Fincher and based on the Robert Graysmith book, was released in the USA the day before this correspondence was unearthed, on March 2nd. The movie had its premier in Los Angeles and California on March 1st.

This means that whoever wrote the January 10th 2001 card, addressed it in near identical fashion to a previously unreleased Zodiac communication. The Eureka card wasn't made public until 2007, so the author of the 2001 communication with near certainty had to be the author of the December 1990 Christmas card. You cannot 'copycat' the handwriting or style of an envelope that hasn't been released into the public domain. If you believe the Eureka card to be genuine, it follows that you should believe the 2001 communication to be genuine also. If you hold the opinion that Zodiac was still alive in 1990 mailing Christmas cards, then it is extremely likely he was still active in 2001 doing exactly the same thing. 

This is another speculative article searching for the name of the Zodiac Killer within his communications - so caution must be applied to any conclusions that are reached in the following analysis.

After the challenge by Dr. Marsh on October 22nd 1969 requesting that the Zodiac Killer give us his real name in a cipher "however complicated", the notion of a killer hinting at his name in later communications is certainly plausible. Presented in a hidden format, the Zodiac Killer knew that it could never be used as evidence against him, unless the unearthed solution could be proven beyond doubt to be the correct one. In the article Return to Sender we explored the introduction and answer to the 13 symbol cipher of "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you. My name is....Fk, I'm crackproof". The Zodiac Killer effectively giving us his name, but in the shortened format. 

Three months later, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Little List letter on July 26th 1970 paraphrasing the recital of Groucho Marx's As some day it may happen from the Gilbert & Sullivan comedic opera, The Mikado. On October 12th 1970, the San Francisco Chronicle featured this letter under the title of Gilbert and Sullivan Clue to Zodiac, stating "A quiet search for onetime Ko-Ko's has turned up none that could be Zodiac. Obvious differences in physical description and handwriting comparisons have cleared all Ko-Ko's tracked down since the arrival of the July 27 letters". But what if the Zodiac Killer wasn't choosing the character of Ko-Ko because he played him in a production or even liked the theater, but the name Ko-Ko was somehow pertinent to his identity. Bearing in mind the phrase "My name is....Fk, I'm crackproof", could the Zodiac Killer's surname begin with Ko. The phrase "FK, I'm crackproof" is actually 14 letters long, but it was fashioned into a code of only 13 characters. Could this deliberate formatting indicate his initials were FK in a name comprising of 13 letters?

Although questionable Zodiac correspondence, the December 1990 Eureka card yet again featured Groucho Marx in imagery on the front of the card, promising us his name yet again. The card read "From your secret pal, can't guess who I am yet? Well, look inside and you'll find out" - and contained within was a xerox copy of two keys. This too triggered the notion of a surname beginning with K. The Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974 also featured a verse recited by Groucho Marx, but more importantly, the verse of Tit-Willow by Ko-Ko was preceded by the line "Signed, yours truley", implying the character in the verse had something to do with his name. This wasn't all.

We argued that the Zodiac Killer gave us the answers to all his "unsolved" codes in his own words, and the Celebrity Cypher mailed on September 25th 1990 to the Vallejo Times-Herald may have followed a similar pattern. The name of the sender was hidden behind 5 and 8 characters totaling 13, placed on the address side of the postcard and at the foot of the communication. A Celebrity Cypher with a likely introduction of "My name is", exactly like 13 symbol cipher mailed on April 20th 1970. If the initials of the killer were given in that instance within the phrase "Fk, I'm crackproof", then there are reasonable grounds to believe the 5 and 8 letters of the name on the Celebrity Cypher begin with an F and K also. In the Return to Sender article we hypothesized the forename as "Frank", based upon the phrase "how much money you have on my head now" in reference to the stamp on the April 20th 1970 letter - and this fits nicely into the Celebrity Cypher solution. I have speculatively placed "Ko" at the beginning of the surname regarding The Mikado references, but will venture no further. There are possibilities based on the "keys" provided by the Eureka card to suggest his surname could end in "key" or "ki" such as "Kominski", however, there are plenty of other options pertaining to the xeroxed image.

Comparisons can be drawn between the April 20th 1970 and September 25th 1990 communications with respect to a name comprising of 13 letters (split into 5 and 8 characters) - and bearing in mind the Christmas card, likely mailed close to December 25th 1990 continuing the theme of promising us his name - can a link be forged between all three regarding the identity or name of the Zodiac Killer? 

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]