Richard Gaikowski was a civil rights activist, newspaper journalist and filmmaker born in Watertown, Codington County, South Dakota on March 14th 1936, but received further unwelcome attribution after his death in 2004 from an anonymous source, only known to the world under the pseudonym of 'Goldcatcher', a man catapulted into Zodiac Killer folklore by Tom Voigt from the hugely successful website Zodiackiller.com. Off the back of this informant, Richard Gaikowski has posthumously been propelled to one of several high profile suspects in the notorious Zodiac killings from December 20th 1968 to October 11th 1969 - but how fair is this new found attention. Well, if you take on board the credibility of the informant and the anonymity that surrounds him, it may tell you all you need to know. Anybody can throw stones from the shadows, and the evidence linking Richard Gaikowski to the Zodiac Killer is as weak as it gets, culminating in Nancy Slover, the police dispatcher who took the phone call from the Zodiac Killer on July 5th 1969, being played a recording of Richard Gaikowski's voice nearly 40 years after the Blue Rock Springs attack, and being utterly convinced the voice was the same one she heard just 40 minutes after the deadly double shooting.

The circumstantial evidence lined up against Richard Gaikowski, as it is with many suspects, is a simple case of choosing the facts that fit and blatantly disregarding anything that casts doubt on the suspect's perceived guilt by not presenting it for public consumption. The questionable movements of Richard Gaikowski from the latter part of 1968 to the early months of 1969 has come under widespread scrutiny, on whether he was even present in Northern California, or for that matter the USA during the Zodiac Killer's first confirmed attack on December 20th 1968, resulting in the double murder of David Faraday (17) and Betty Lou Jensen (16) in a remote Lake Herman Road turnout. Surely, before you project a suspect into notoriety, it must be imperative you know without doubt that your charge was even in the same country during each or any of the confirmed murders. This is, at the very least, the first thing you should do. Not being 100% sure is simply not enough.   

In 1966 Richard Gaikowski worked for the Albany, New York, Knickerbocker News publication, immersing himself in the political issues of the day. At the same time the civil rights group The Brothers, an African/American collective of around twenty members, were actively involved with some measure of success in improving social housing, public schools, police brutality issues and other projects in Albany's North and South End and Arbor Hill, gaining close attention when they highlighted the alleged Albany Democratic vote buying scandal in November 1968. Members included Leon Van Dyke, Gordon Van Ness and Clarence Williams - and their paths crossed with Richard Gaikowski as he was a frequent visitor to their Albany headquarters. The group followed the Martin Luther King policy of non-violent protest, something that courted admiration from Richard Gaikowski, who himself detailed the struggles of black minorities against the backdrop of racial injustice that permeated the American society of the day. The Brothers ran the Albany Liberator newspaper from 1967 to 1971. But things were about to change during the turbulent year of 1968. The assassination of Martin Luther King on April 4th 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, followed by Robert Kennedy's assassination on June 6th 1968 in Los Angeles, California, would in two brief months change the political landscape dramatically. Richard Gaikowski, disillusioned by the year's events, meant his stay in Albany and the Knickerbocker News was on borrowed time, as was the lifespan of The Brothers, which dissolved at the beginning of the 1970s.

In late September 1968, Richard Gaikowski, in his own words, left for Europe. At approximately the same time the political organisation People's Democracy was being formed for Northern Ireland's Catholic minority at Queen's University Belfast on October 9th 1968. The struggle of minorities once more must have pricked the attention of roving journalist Richard Gaikowski, who found himself at a loose end. Shortly he would travel to Northern Ireland to cover the unfolding events, where he witnessed the Belfast to Derry march violence on Queen's University students as they traveled as part of the People's Democracy. SEE HERE.

Two notable dates were firstly, the beginning of the troubles on Saturday October 5th 1968, when members of the Derry Housing Action Committee and the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Action Association were prevented from marching by the Royal Ulster Constabulary, when they baton charged the crowd in Derry.

The second important date was the four day Belfast to Derry January 1st 1969 march, by approximately forty members of the People's Democracy. Interestingly, this march was styled on the 54-mile Martin Luther King Selma to Montgomery march of 1965, that prided itself in peaceful protest. However, like the first Selma to Montgomery gathering on March 7th 1965, the Belfast to Derry march on January 1st 1969 erupted into violence when they were attacked many times by loyalist crowds along the route - the worst of which took place on January 4th 1969. Richard Gaikowski, in part a civil rights journalist, in all likelihood drew parallels with the struggles in America, the connection of a Martin Luther King style march and, as had occurred many times previously, feared violence would yet again rear its ugly head. He felt compelled to cover it.

In the newspaper clipping above, dated Friday January 31st 1969, it states "Special Report from Belfast : The bricks are flying in Northern Ireland. The Catholics are singing "We shall overcome" and a vociferous Protestant group rallies against "popery". The situation is explosive. Richard Gaikowski, former reporter for The Knickerbocker News, has been on the scene of the protests and rioting. He tells about them in an article that will appear tomorrow on the editorial page of The Knickerbocker News'". It is clear from the article, it mentions Richard Gaikowski has been on the scene of the protests. The question being, was he present in Northern Ireland for the entire month of January 1969? - it appears a distinct possibility. He left for Europe in late September 1968, the troubles in Northern Ireland began on October 5th 1968, and the four day march between Belfast and Derry, indicated in 'My Albany Sojourn', took place on January 1st 1969.
If he remained in Europe and Northern Ireland for this period, then Richard Gaikowski could not be responsible for the Lake Herman Road murders on December 20th 1968 and all but ruled out as the Zodiac Killer. 

If he was the Zodiac Killer, we would have to assume, that after murdering and depriving two teenagers the freedom to enjoy the rest of their lives just before Christmas, he then boarded a flight to Northern Ireland to cover a freedom march for a better tomorrow. It certainly makes for a good cover story. Possibly his newspaper articles were forged and he was never in Northern Ireland. Enter the conspiracy theorists.    

The Richard Gaikowski link in the 408 cipher has been highlighted due to the letters GYKE on the 20th line (4 to 7 symbols into the line). He often abbreviated his name to GAIK or GIKE, so this was interesting, although not compelling. The thread on Zodiackiller.com also shows the decrypted text - the GYKE becoming AUSE. Using these two portions, we are able to form the derived GYKEAUSEKEY, and therefore a crude version of his surname.

In the San Francisco Chronicle letter mailed on July 31st 1969, the Bay Area murderer tempted the observer with the lines "I want you to print this cipher on the front page of your paper. In this cipher is my idenity". When cracked by Donald Gene and Bettye June Harden several days later (August 8th 1969), it revealed little in the way of unmasking the Northern California killer - but was the murderer a master of wordplay rather than a complete liar. After all, he did not say "once the cipher was cracked we would have his identity" - moreover, his identity was in the cipher, which GYKE certainly was.

cipher (symbols 3 to 6) is the decrypted word HAVE, and directly underneath on the 18th line of the 408 cipher (symbols 4 and 5) is the word ME - to effectively form HAVE ME. The Zodiac Killer did state after all "tell them to cheer up; when they do crack it, they will have me" - so in actual fact, he held true to his word, albeit in a slightly devious way. So, can we find a clue to Richard Gaikowski in the 340 cipher as well as the 408 cipher and bolster the argument, that indeed the Zodiac did leave clues to his identity in both of the main ciphers.

Tantalizingly, we have the letters AIK on the 20th and final line of the 340, but the G is unfortunately nowhere in sight. Therefore we will fetch it from the 408 instead. As we stated earlier, GYKE is positioned on the 20th line of the 408 cipher (4 to 7 symbols into the line). We will take this and transfer it to exactly the same position on the 20th line of the 340 cipher (4 to 7 symbols into the line), and place it over the existing symbols, to form GYKES ZODIAC or GYKAUSEKEYS ZODIAC. (see below). Additionally, it is now possible to form GAIK running from left to right. But does this hint towards the Zodiac Killer and Richard Gaikowski being one and the same person. Not really - it just shows what an amazing tool the art of wordplay can be, when one has a specific objective in mind.