The information provided here will be nothing new to people who have read the comments of the previous article, but I wanted to expand on that article for people who don't want to trawl through the comments section.

On November 16th 1970 Paul Avery produced a comprehensive newspaper article about a potential connection of Zodiac to the Riverside murder of Cheri Jo Bates and the associated communications, which included the Desktop Poem. The newspaper article detailed the two Confession letters mailed on November 29th 1966 and read "Two unstamped envelopes, one addressed in large black print to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, the other to "Homicide Detail", were dropped into a rural mailbox". The newspaper article then detailed the three "She/Bates Had to Die" letters from April 30th 1967 and the writing on the Riverside Desktop Poem.

The only communication featured visually on November 16th 1970 was the "She Had to Die" envelope mailed to the "Press Enterprise" newspaper, with two 4 cent Abraham Lincoln stamps issued on November 19th 1965 (see image below). In other words, Abraham Lincoln was integral to the "She Had to Die" envelope and the Paul Avery article. The next communication mailed by the Zodiac Killer to Paul Avery was the Pines postcard on March 22nd 1971 featuring 4 cent pre-stamped Abraham Lincoln postage from 1962. The Pines postcard had insufficient postage for 1971, yet the Zodiac Killer chose this postcard from 9 years earlier. Was this a deliberate choice to mimic the postage from the "She Had to Die" envelope and send a subtle message to Paul Avery? The Pines postcard was the first and only time the Zodiac Killer used Abraham Lincoln postage during his known reign of terror. Ordinarily I would say this was coincidence, until you consider the Confession letter envelope mailed to the Riverside Press-Enterprise as well.    

The Confession letter envelope mailed to the Press-Enterprise newspaper (see below) also featured in the Paul Avery article on November 16th 1970, and was "addressed in large black print". This envelope contained the footnote of "attn: crime", meant for the crime department of their newspaper. As stated above, the next Zodiac communication addressed to Paul Avery was the Pines postcard carrying the footnote "att. Paul averly=chronicle" on the address side. Both of these footnotes were unconventionally placed in the bottom left corner under the address of the newspapers, rather than top and center, above the address. Since Paul Avery was involved in the coverage of "crime", both communications made a point of addressing the relevant personnel within the newspaper, using the word "attention". This was also the first and only time the Zodiac Killer did this in any of his correspondence. We now had the 4c Abraham Lincoln postage and "attention" seemingly mimicked from the Confession and ​"She Had to Die" envelopes, mailed to the Press-Enterprise newspaper. If the Confession letter envelope to the Press-Enterprise newspaper had not been made public by March 22nd 1971 (or had not been seen by the author of the Pines postcard), it is either an unusual coincidence, or the Riverside communications have the possibility of being engineered by the Zodiac Killer. The Bay Area murderer wouldn't have required knowledge of the Confession "attention" footnote in the newspapers if he had authored the Press-Enterprise envelope.      

The final connection is more tenuous, but there is a strong argument that the Riverside Desktop author was reminiscing in the present tense about the attempted murder by knife of Miss Atwood. She was stabbed several times on the Riverside campus by Rolland Taft on April 13th 1965, but managed to escape and survive. Here is a relevant snippet from a previous article:

All we have to do to connect the desktop poem with the Confession letter, is look at the title of the desktop poem, which reads "Sick of living/unwilling to die". The desktop poem begins with "Sick of living", and the Confession letter states "I am not sick. I am insane". The desktop poem title uses the word "unwilling", to which the Confession letter states "She was then very willing to talk to me" and "She went very willingly". One referenced an unwillingness to die, whereas one claimed Cheri Jo Bates went "willingly" to her death. In other words, Miss Atwood resisted her death and didn't die "that time", but Cheri Jo Bates died hard and willingly. The desktop poem title uses the phrase "to die", with the Confession letter stating "I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". This brings forth another connection between both communications with the word "time" central to both. The desktop poem uses the word "time" twice, when stating "She won't die, this time someone'll find her. Just wait till next time", whereas the Confession letter uses the word "time" three times by stating "I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". We have the words "sick", "unwilling" (in root form) and "time" from the desktop poem, used 6 times in the Confession letter by way of "sick", "willing", "willingly", "time", "time" and "time". In fact, the words "die" and "time" are used in the same context in both communications by the sentences "she won't die, this time someone'll find her" and "I said it was about time for her to die". If you add in the three Bates letters of "Bates had to die", "She had to die" and "She had to die" into the equation, we have the phrase "to die" used 5 times in all three communications.

Miss Atwood escaped the clutches of Rolland Lin Taft in 1965, expressed by the desktop author when they stated "she won't die, this time someone'll find her", but reminded everybody that the next time Cheri Jo Bates wouldn't be so lucky by finishing the poem with "Just wait till next time. rh". That "next time" may well have been Riverside, Halloween, denoted by a lower case "r" and "h". 

Ricardo Gomez of Mk-Zodiac showed the possible inspiration for the Riverside Desktop poem through a newspaper article from - you've guessed it - the Press Enterprise once more. The newspaper carried the headline "Clean-Cut Youth Sought in Stabbing". This was the referring to the attempted murder of Miss Atwood, who undoubtedly would have had "blood spurting, dripping and spilling" over her dress. But the Desktop Poem began with "cut, clean", appearing to mimic the newspaper headline. The Desktop Poem seemed to borrow from the Press-Enterprise headline of "Clean-Cut Youth Sought in Stabbing" from April 17th 1965, as did the Pines postcard when it used the pasted word "Sought", despite being sourced from a later newspaper headline. If this last observation isn't stretching the truth too much, we now have the 4c Abraham Lincoln postage, the "attention" attribution in the bottom left corner, and the word "sought" from the Pines postcard relevant to the three Riverside "communications" from 1966 and 1967.

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

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

The film Rampage (1963) borrowed elements of "The Most Dangerous Game", including "The woman who was the most dangerous game of all", while using "Big, Bold, Bob Mitchum is on a Rampage" in its promotional advertisements, along with "They lived, loved and fought by the code of the jungle" and "His code was to snare everything". Bearing in mind the choice of words used by the Zodiac Killer in his code and letters on July 31st 1969, coupled with the crosshairs he adopted, which featured in the opening sequence of the "Rampage" movie, this production had many interesting parallels and appeared on US television screens in California just 11 days prior to Zodiac's opening communications. "A Game of Death" was showing in California three weeks before the typed Confession letters arrived at the Riverside Homicide Detail and Riverside Press Enterprise in 1966.

The Riverside Desktop Poem, Confession letters and "Bates Had to Die" letters had a consistency of language that permeated all three, shown in this article (and the image below). Another point of interest, is that all three communications ended in similar fashion. The Riverside Desktop Poem finished with "Just wait till next time", the two Confession letters finished with "Beware....I am stalking your girls now", and the Bates' letters finished with "there will be more". All three, by implication, promising death in the near future. These Riverside communications had a consistency of menace and language, but they were all fashioned in markedly contrasting ways. One was written on a desktop in blue ballpoint pen (for the most part) in lower case handwriting. Both Confession letters were typed (with the envelopes in capital letters), and the Bates' letters were written in, what can only described as scrawl (with no consistency). One could argue that if all of these communications were authored by one person, then they had deliberately manufactured them with such difference of design, so as to disguise this fact to the reader. If deception was their intention, I would argue that they failed miserably because of the similarity of language that flowed from one to the other.  

"The Most Dangerous Game" heavily focused on a tense stalking sequence in the second half of the movie as Rainsford and Eve attempted to outwit Count Zaroff as he tracked them while wielding his prized Tatar war bow. The 1945 film mimics the original for the most part. Therefore, is it a coincidence that after the Confession letter stated "I am insane. But that will not stop the game", it concluded with "I am stalking your girls now". It appeared that the "game" was stalking women as prey. This stalking would seemingly continue on July 31st 1969, when the Zodiac Killer began with "I like killing people because it is so much fun - it is more fun than killing wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal of all". Was the game employed by the Zodiac Killer, at least in a literary sense, continuing after 32 months? Was the Zodiac Killer operating in Riverside in 1966 (at least with his communications), or was he simply incorporating the story of Riverside into his current campaign of terror in the Bay Area of northern California?  
​
ADDITIONAL READING: RETHINKING "THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME" 

One of the long-standing questions in the Zodiac community is whether a solid link can be forged between the Riverside murder of Cheri Jo Bates and/or the associated communications in 1966 and 1967, with the crimes or letters of the Zodiac Killer, beginning on December 20th 1968. On April 30th 1967, somebody mailed three letters to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, Riverside Police Department and Joseph Bates stating "She had to die. There will be more" and "Bates had to die. There will be more".

​This approach would be somewhat mimicked by the Zodiac Killer on July 31st 1969 (without the 1967 Bates letters currently published), who mailed three letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald with his hidden cryptographic message of "the best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradise and all the I have killed will become my slaves". One individual had already used the phrase "to die" in the Riverside Desktop Poem, Confession letters and Bates letters (six times), so looking at the transition from "she had to die" to "when I die" from Riverside to the Bay Area, it is certainly worth looking into further. Especially when you consider the fact that the Zodiac Killer never used the word "die" in any of his subsequent communications.    

Also noteworthy, but not compelling, was the continuation in the religious overtones of "The Confession" letter and "She went to the slaughter like a lamb. She did not put up a struggle", to the message of the Zodiac Killer in the 408 cryptogram, in which he enciphered the wording "paradice", "reborn" and "afterlife" with respect to his death (when I die). The saying, "Like sheep to the slaughter", was used in respect to the notion of Jewish people being led passively to their deaths during the Holocaust. In other words, the suggestion that they offered no resistance or struggle - to be articulated by "The Confession" letter author when they typed "She (Bates) did not put up a struggle". and "She went very willingly". Cheri Jo Bates, it was claimed, was being marched passively to her death.       

Just a few months before the November 29th 1966 "Confession" letter, Jean-François Steiner released a highly controversial book entitled Treblinka: The Revolt of an Extermination Camp, claiming that the Jews were led "like sheep to the slaughter" - and in doing so - caused worldwide consternation in the newspapers. Although Steiner was not the originator of the phrase, it nevertheless was contemporary to 1966 to anybody who was well-versed in literature or recent newspaper coverage. If the author of the 1966 Riverside Desktop Poem can borrow headlines from The Press and Daily Enterprise on April 17th 1965 entitled "Clean-cut Youth Sought In Stabbing", then they can do the same in the case of the Jean Francois Steiner story. Changing "sheep to the slaughter" into "slaughter like a lamb".

In Isaiah 53, a chapter in the Hebrew Bible tells of a virtuous servant who is murdered but does not protest: "Like a sheep being led to the slaughter or a lamb that is silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth". The Confession letter author typed "I grabbed her around the neck with my hand over her mouth and my other hand with a small knife at her throat. She went very willingly". There appears a mix of religiosity with contemporary news in the Confession letter, but it still isn't compelling. 

A link to Alfred Hitchcock and the Lake Herman Road murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen on December 20th 1968 has been suggested by Zodiac researchers, who highlighted the 1961 episode of the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, entitled Museum Piece. Aired on April 4th 1961, it featured an individual who used a light attached to his .22 caliber rifle in the commission of a murder, just as the Zodiac Killer had claimed in his follow up to the July 31st 1969 letters. The father of the convicted killer appealed to the district attorney about his son's innocence, which was rejected. The district attorney is then murdered - to which the father latterly reminisced “I remember the excitement of the manhunt. The most dangerous game”. Three years earlier, on April 13th 1958, Alfred Hitchcock Presents released an episode entitled "Lamb to the Slaughter", which was not that dissimilar to the phrase "to the slaughter like a lamb" used in the Confession letter. These observations ultimately fail to cement a link between Riverside and the Zodiac Killer, but the definitive answers we seek may still be found one day. 

Here is a handy little chart showing how one person was responsible for the three Riverside "communications" in 1966 and 1967. It is currently unknown whether the Confession letters or the Riverside Desktop Poem came first.

Rolland Lin Taft (27) was gunned down and killed on April 20th 1974 by Los Angeles police officer, Robert Nava, who responded to Taft brandishing a .25 caliber automatic pistol by shooting him five times. His parents filed a speculatory 3.5 million dollar lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department claiming there was no reason for their son to have been killed. Rolland Lin Taft had previously attempted to murder a young woman (Atwood) on the Riverside City College campus on April 13th 1965 by stabbing her in the stomach with a hunting knife. Fortunately, the young woman was able to escape and seek help from local residents, who summoned the emergency services.

​One newspaper ran with the headline "Clean-Cut Youth Sought in Stabbing" (credit to Mk-Zodiac), and Taft was eventually apprehended and sentenced to 6 months to 20 years in March, 1966. He served just 2 1/2 years and was paroled in 1968. This newspaper headline (a tactic used by the Zodiac Killer in later years) may have formed the inspiration for the "cut, clean" introduction written on the underside of a plywood desk found in the Riverside City College library in December, 1966. The poem, created using a blue ballpoint pen, read "cut, clean, if red/clean, blood spurting, dripping, spilling; all over her new dress. Oh well, it was red anyway. Life draining into an uncertain death. She won't die, this time someone'll find her. Just wait till next time. rh". For many reasons, it is fairly evident that this poem is reminiscing in the present tense the attempted murder of Miss Atwood in 1965, before stating that "next time" would be different with the death of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966.  

You may read claims on the internet that this poem was the ponderings of a suicidal woman reflecting on her failure to seek death, but next time would be successful. It will be proffered that the idea of this poem being linked to Miss Atwood and Cheri Jo Bates is speculative at best. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. This poem wasn't even discovered until the December of 1966, so anything contained in the November 29th 1966 Confession letter (about Cheri Jo Bates) that links to the desktop poem, will have been created without knowledge of the desktop poem - unless the author was one person. By linking the two communications together, we would achieve the common thread of one individual who was claiming he murdered Cheri Jo Bates. The contents of the desktop poem were also not in the public domain by April 30th 1967, when the three Bates letters were mailed to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, Riverside Police Department and Joseph Bates.      

Firstly, all we have to do to connect the desktop poem with the Confession letter, is look at the title of the desktop poem, which reads "Sick of living/unwilling to die". The desktop poem begins with "Sick of living", and the Confession letter states "I am not sick. I am insane". The desktop poem title uses the word "unwilling", to which the Confession letter states "She was then very willing to talk to me" and "She went very willingly". One referenced an unwillingness to die, whereas one claimed Cheri Jo Bates went "willingly" to her death. In other words, Miss Atwood resisted her death and didn't die "that time", but Cheri Jo Bates died hard and willingly. The desktop poem title uses the phrase "to die", with the Confession letter stating "I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". This brings forth another connection between both communications with the word "time" central to both. The desktop poem uses the word "time" twice, when stating "She won't die, this time someone'll find her. Just wait till next time", whereas the Confession letter uses the word "time" three times by stating "I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". We have the words "sick", "unwilling" (in root form) and "time" from the desktop poem, used 6 times in the Confession letter by way of "sick", "willing", "willingly", "time", "time" and "time". In fact, the words "die" and "time" are used in the same context in both communications by the sentences "she won't die, this time someone'll find her" and "I said it was about time for her to die". If you add in the three Bates letters of "Bates had to die", "She had to die" and "She had to die" into the equation, we have the phrase "to die" used 5 times in all three communications.

Miss Atwood escaped the clutches of Rolland Lin Taft in 1965, expressed by the desktop author when they stated "she won't die, this time someone'll find her", but reminded everybody that the next time Cheri Jo Bates wouldn't be so lucky by finishing the poem with "Just wait till next time. rh". That "next time" was Riverside, Halloween, denoted by a lower case "r" and "h".

​The Zodiac Killer would address Riverside in lower case fashion when describing his "riverside activity" on March 13th 1971, using the phrase "there are a hell of a lot more down there" to deliberately or inadvertently mimic the three Bates letters of "There will be more". Despite Cheri Jo Bates being killed on October 30th 1966, her exact time of death was not confirmed by the newspapers, who described her lifeless body being found on Halloween morning. It is perfectly reasonable to conclude that "rh" was the place and time of that "next time" cited by the desktop author. The overwhelming correlation of language used by the desktop poem, Confession letter and Bates letters, ties all three to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, and thereby strengthens the argument that the desktop poem was reflecting on the attempted murder of Miss Atwood and eventual murder of Cheri Jo Bates on the same Riverside campus by knife. Rolland Lin Taft was incarcerated at the time of Cheri Jo Bates' murder, so the desktop poem was either authored by somebody inspired by the previous attempted murder of Miss Atwood to make the future false claims of killing Cheri Jo Bates, or was indeed, the murderer of the young Ramona High School graduate - but, in their eyes, improved on the failings of Rolland Lin Taft by stating "Just wait till next time. rh".

The Confession letter concluded with "I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game", "I am stalking your girls now", with the three Bates letters finishing with "There will be more".  This was the bedrock of the three July 31st 1969 letters mailed by the Zodiac Killer, who enciphered the wording "it is more fun than killing wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal of all" and promised more murder over the weekend. It appeared that the Zodiac Killer was still playing the "game" and "stalking" the local residents three years later. The Confession letter and murder of Cheri Jo Bates were comprehensively detailed in the Inside Detective magazine on January, 1969, so it's perfectly feasible that the Bay Area murderer read this magazine sometime between January and July and drew inspiration for his July 31st 1969 mailings by continuing the theme of a "game", despite being innocent of any involvement in the murder of Cheri Jo Bates or subsequent communications in 1966 and 1967. This may have continued in the Melvin Belli and Little List letters, misspelling the word "victim" to "victom", and mimicking the Confession letter further by adding "Some I shall tie over ant hills and watch them scream + twich and sqwirm" to appear similar to "She squirmed and shook as I chocked her, and her lips twiched. She let out a scream once". Whether or not the Zodiac Killer played any role down south has far from been answered, but there remains little doubt that one person crafted all three communications in Riverside between October 31st 1966 and April 30th 1967.   

Many have considered the Riverside Desktop Poem is that of somebody exhibiting suicidal tendencies from a first person perspective, with the "just wait till next time" writing at the end of the poem, a promise these tendencies will be revisited. However, there is a realistic argument to be had that this "poem" was written within days of the Confession letter (postmarked November 29th 1966), with both composed with the murder of Cheri Jo Bates in mind. The Riverside Desktop Poem may have been structured by reminiscing in the present tense, reflecting on an attempted murder in the first part of the poem, followed by a boast of the 'successful' murder of the Cheri Jo Bates in the second part, stating "just wait till next time", before confirming the discovery of her body in Riverside on Halloween (hence the rh attribution). The phrase "just wait till next time" could be expected to have a subsequent date (or time) following it. 

When you consider there was an attempted murder by knife on the Riverside City College campus just a year earlier (April 1965), in which a young girl escaped from an assailant who stabbed her, followed by the newspaper headlines stating Clean-Cut Youth Sought For Stabbing, it's easy to see the correlation in wording to the Riverside Desktop Poem, which opened with the words "cut, clean, if red/clean, blood spurting, dripping, spilling; all over her new dress. Oh well, it was red anyway". The following "She won't die this time, someone'll find her" testimony to the fact she survived the stabbing and sought help nearby. There is every chance the author of the Riverside Desktop Poem was contemporising this attack, before reflecting on the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, implying the next victim wouldn't be so lucky in riverside on halloween (rh). This would date the Riverside Desktop Poem subsequent to October 30th 1966. Rolland Taft was arrested for the attempted murder of the girl in 1965, and was incarcerated at the time Cheri Jo Bates was murdered.      

The correlation between the newspaper headline in The Press and Daily Enterprise on April 17th 1965 of Clean-Cut Youth Sought For Stabbing and the Riverside Desktop Poem of "Cut, Clean", is not the only linguistic connection. The Riverside Desktop Poem was entitled "Sick of living/umwilling to die". Despite being only 45 words in length and unreleased to the public in 1966, the wording in its title featured heavily in the Confession letter (its full transcript also not released). The Confession letter stated  "I said it was about time for her to die", just like the three Bates letters mailed on April 30th 1967, which again, despite being only 8 words in length, thrice used the phrase "to die". The phrase "to die" having now been used in three sinister sets of communications spanning just 5 months. In fact, the phrase had been used six times in total (3 Bates letters, 2 Confession letters and one poem), along with "She died hard" in the Confession letter..

​The title of the Riverside Desktop Poem also contained the adverb of "unwilling", the root of which is used twice in the Confession letter, when the author typed "She was then very willing to talk to me" and "She went very willingly". The use of the word "sick" in the Riverside Desktop Poem title was also present in the Confession letter when the author typed "I am not sick". Therefore, we have several words in the title of the Riverside Desktop Poem that featured heavily in the Confession letter. Another feature of the Riverside Desktop Poem was the use of "just wait till next time", implying an impending death. This would mirror the promise of impending death in the Confession letter of ."When we were away from the library walking, I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". The Riverside Desktop Poem also stated "she won't die, this time someone'll find her". The word "time" used five times in total through two communications. 

Bearing in mind the linguistic correlation between the Riverside Desktop Poem, Confession letter and Bates' letters, the latter two of which referenced the murder of Cheri Jo Bates by using her name, it could be argued that the Riverside Desktop Poem was also inferring her murder through "riverside" and "halloween" in the form of rh, along with phraseology of "cut" bleeding into the Confession letter with the wording "I then finished the job out cutting her throat". Two stabbings in consecutive years on the same campus may have been the inspiration behind the Riverside Desktop Poem, with all three sets of communications crafted by the same individual. Knowledge and awareness of the knife attack in April 1965, and the delivery of the Bates' letters on April 30th 1967 spanned two years. So it's perfectly plausible, bearing in mind the writing on the desktop was discovered inside the Riverside City College, that the author of these three sets of communications was a long standing resident of Riverside County, or its neighboring areas. Although there is no way to prove which came first, it appears that the Riverside Desktop Poem was the precursor to the Confession letter (and therefore written between October 31st 1966 and November 29th 1966). The Confession letter the offshoot of the "just wait till next time" threat. 

In 2016, investigators received a communication from an individual in San Bernardino who claimed that he had authored the three Bates letters on April 30th 1967, stating he was a troubled teenager at the time he sent the trinity of malicious handwritten letters to the Riverside Police Department, Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper and Joseph Bates. However, this individual did not take responsibility for the Riverside Desktop Poem and Confession letter, indicating he was likely the author of none. 

Here are some extracts from the Riverside Desktop Poem and the three Bates' letters, that bleed into the Confession Letter.
[1] SICK OF LIVING/UNWILLING TO DIE  [2] ALL OVER HER NEW DRESS  [3] SHE WONT DIE THIS TIME  [4] JUST WAIT TILL NEXT TIME  [5] SHE HAD TO DIE  [6] BATES HAD TO DIE  [7] THERE WILL BE MORE.

Despite the Riverside communications not being in the public domain prior to November 1968 (only small parts of the Confession Letter were), the author of the typed Confession Letter carried wording similar to the Riverside Desktop Poem and Bates' letters. The wording "to die" featured in all three communications [1] "She/Bates had to die" [2] "I said it was about time for her to die" [3] "Sick of living/unwilling to die" (but "to die" or "die" was never written by the killer in any Zodiac communications). The Riverside Desktop Poem stated "over her new dress", whereas the Confession letter stated "over her mouth". The variation of the word "unwilling" in the Riverside Desktop Poem can been seen twice in the Confession Letter in "willing" and "willingly" (expressed as "unwilling to" die, she went "very willingly" and "willing to" talk to me). The Bates' letter thrice stated "there will be more", with the Confession Letter threatening "maybe she will be the beautiful blond". The Riverside Desktop Poem stated "she wont die this time" and "just wait till next time", whereas the Confession Letter stated "I said it was about time. She asked me about time for what. I said it was about time to die". The Confession Letter stated "I am not sick", in direct contrast to the Riverside Desktop Poem which declared "sick of living". The Confession letter stated "I waited for her in the library", whereas the Riverside Desktop Poem threatened "Just wait till next time". To a much lesser extent, the Riverside Desktop Poem refers to a knife by opening with "cut, clean, if red, clean", with the Confession letter also referring to the same action, by stating "I finished the job out cutting her throat". 

There is a strong probabilty that all three Riverside communications were one author. In 2016 investigators received a communication from an individual in San Bernardino who claimed that he had authored the three Bates letters on April 30th 1967, stating he was a troubled teenager at the time he sent the trinity of malicious handwritten letters to the Riverside Police Department, Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper and Joseph Bates. If he didn't also claim to have written the Riverside Desktop Poem and Confession Letter, I doubt he was responsible for any.

If the wording of the Confession letter had been withheld from the newspapers in 1966, it would make any similarities between the Confession letter and Riverside Desktop Poem more significant. It appears that the majority of the text from the Confession letter wasn't released until November 1968, when it was published in the Press-Enterprise newspaper. Here is a brief section from a previous article:making a comparison between the Desktop Poem and Confession letter, both of which begin with a title.

​The title of the Desktop Poem was "Sick of living/unwilling to die".  When we look at the Confession letter the author types two sentences carrying the similar wording of "She was then very willing to talk to me" and "she went very willingly".  The Confession letter author also typed "I am not sick. I am insane". In other words, the Desktop Poem title is embedded in the story of the Confession letter. The Desktop Poem concludes with the wording "She won't die, this time someone'll find her. Just wait till next time", suggestive of an impending death - and mirrored in the Confession letter when the author types the word "time" on a further three occasions and utilizes the word "die" in the same string of wording, by stating "When we were away from the library walking, I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die".   

Is this enough correlation to point to one author of the Riverside Desktop Poem and Confession letter? And could the author of the Bates letters (whoever that may be) be responsible for the two previous communications. Recently, the Riverside Police Department have stated that somebody contacted them via a letter in 2016 claiming responsibilty for the three Bates letters postmarked April 30th 1967. "The author apologized for sending the letters and said it was a sick joke. The author admitted that he was not the Zodiac killer or the killer of Cheri Jo Bates and was just looking for attention". But was the individual who made this admission in 2016 telling the truth? Despite the three Bates letters containing only eight words, they managed to continue the theme of the previous two communications in 1966. The Desktop Poem was titled "Sick of living/unwilling to die". The Confession letter harbored the wording "I said it was about time for her to die" (meaning Bates had to die). Then, five months later, the three Bates letters contained the wording "Bates had to die there will be more" and "She had to die there will be more". In addition, all three communications ended with the threat of further murder. The ending of each carried the wording "Just wait till next time", "I am stalking your girls now" and "There will be more". It is also noteworthy that the Zodiac Killer never wrote the wording "to die", "die" or "died" in any of his communications spanning eighteen years.

Here is some additional information regarding the Confession letter. Before the development of photographic copiers, a carbon copy was the under-copy of a typed or written document placed over carbon paper and the under-copy sheet itself (not to be confused with the carbon print family of photographic reproduction processes). When copies of business letters were so produced, it was customary to use the acronym "CC" or "cc" before a colon and below the writer's signature to inform the principal recipient that carbon copies had been made and distributed to the parties listed after the colon. With the advent of word processors and e-mail, "cc" is used as a merely formal indication of the distribution of letters to secondary recipients. A sheet of carbon paper is placed between two or more sheets of paper. The pressure applied by the writing implement (pen, pencil, typewriter or impact printer) to the top sheet causes pigment from the carbon paper to reproduce the similar mark on the copy sheet(s). More than one copy can be made by stacking several sheets with carbon paper between each pair. Four or five copies is a practical limit. The top sheet is the original and each of the additional sheets is called a carbon copy. A sheet of carbon paper is placed between two or more sheets of paper. The pressure applied by the writing implement (pen, pencil, typewriter or impact printer) to the top sheet causes pigment from the carbon paper to reproduce the similar mark on the copy sheet(s). More than one copy can be made by stacking several sheets with carbon paper between each pair. Four or five copies is a practical limit. The top sheet is the original and each of the additional sheets is called a carbon copy. Wikipedia. .

Robert Graysmith in Zodiac Unmasked stated "November 29, 1966. Two carbon copies of a "confession" letter sent to the press and Riverside Police. Zodiac typed on a sandwich of Teletype paper and carbon paper and mailed the faintest, the fourth and fifth impressions. The original typed top page was never sent". Ordinarily it is wise to double check anything Robert Graysmith claimed, however, in this instance his claims appear to concur with Wikipedia that four or five copies is perfectly feasible in this instance. The fact that the Confession letter was cut at the top and bottom suggests the paper used was taken from a Teletype roll

There is a reasonable argument to be had, that the Confession letter mailed on November 29th 1966 was created by the same author as the Riverside Desktop Poem, with both being created at around the same time by somebody who had access to the Riverside library photocopier and the desktops themselves - possibly a young student who lived in Riverside and attended the college. The author of the Riverside Desktop Poem may have split his poem into two parts: The first part reminiscing in the present tense about the April 1965 attempted murder of a young female student on the Riverside City College campus, who narrowly escaped death after being stabbed by Rolland Taft. A newspaper article entitled "Clean-cut Youth Sought In Stabbing" was released shortly after the attack, that seemed to mirror the opening two words of the Riverside Desktop Poem, and detailed on Ricardo Gomez's MK Zodiac website. The first part of the poem was correct when it asserted "she won't die, this time someone'll find her". The young woman fled the attack and sought help from a nearby residence and was rushed to hospital. The second part of the poem reminisced in the present tense that the next woman would not be so lucky, by stating "Just wait till next time. r h." That person may have been Cheri Jo Bates, brutally stabbed on October 30th 1966 close to the Riverside City College library annex and found on Halloween morning. The newspapers detailed that screams were heard on the night of October 30th 1966 but that her body was discovered the morning of Halloween, so the author of the Desktop Poem may have been using this date when he added Riverside, Halloween at the end of the poem.   

If the wording of the Confession letter had been withheld from the newspapers in 1966, it would make any similarities between the Confession letter and Riverside Desktop Poem more significant. It appears that the majority of the text from the Confession letter wasn't released until November 1968, when it was published in the Press-Enterprise newspaper. Let us make a comparison between the Desktop Poem and Confession letter, both of which begin with a title. The title of the Desktop Poem was "Sick of living/unwilling to die".  When we look at the Confession letter the author types two sentences carrying the similar wording of "She was then very willing to talk to me" and "she went very willingly".  The Confession letter author also typed "I am not sick. I am insane". In other words, the Desktop Poem title is embedded in the story of the Confession letter. The Desktop Poem concludes with the wording "She won't die, this time someone'll find her. Just wait till next time", suggestive of an impending death - and mirrored in the Confession letter when the author types the word "time" on a further three occasions and utilizes the word "die" in the same string of wording, by stating "When we were away from the library walking, I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die".   

There is every chance that the author of these two communications was a young prankster connected to the Riverside City College campus and library, who had knowledge of both attacks in 1965 and 1966, and gleaned everything about these two young women from the newspapers. The connection to both these attacks can be reasoned in the Riverside Desktop Poem, along with the claim of one author being responsible for both communications by the very wording they utilized.   

Rolland Taft was sentenced to 6 months to 20 years for the attempted murder of a young female student on the Riverside College campus in April 1965. She attended evening classes as a student of the college. Taft served 2 1/2 years and was released in 1968. The female victim suffered severe knife wounds in the attack but was able to escape and seek help from her neighbors. On April 17th 1965 The Press-Enterprise ran an article about the attempted murder, running with the headline Clean-Cut Youth Sought in Stabbing. This headline is extremely reminiscent of how the poem on the Riverside Desktop Poem began, with "clean" and "cut" used in each instance. So was the author of the Riverside Desktop Poem familiar with this crime, causing him to reminisce about it as he constructed the poem on the plywood desk?

If the author of the Desktop Poem was referring to this attempted murder, then he was clearly of the opinion that the young girl was stabbed while wearing a new red dress. The poem read "blood, spurting, dripping, spilling; all over her new dress. Oh well, it was red anyway".  The author was referring to past events, fully aware that she didn't die after the attack because someone found her bleeding outside their house and sought help.

Cragle, a regular poster on both forums, is attempting to locate some historic newspaper articles describing the attempted murder in the hope there is mention of the girl's attire that evening. If no newspaper articles or media coverage mentioned her new red dress, it may suggest that the author of the Desktop Poem knew Rolland Taft and the details surrounding the attack - or he knew the young victim and knew first-hand what she was wearing on that fateful evening in 1965. This could indicate that he attended the Riverside City College as a fellow student, with access to the plywood desk in order to write the poem. The most crucial aspect of the poem is the final section, which carries the foreboding message of "She won't die. This time someone'll find her. Just wait till next time. rh". In other words, this girl didn't die by knife, but the next girl will. The author may have written this poem prior to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, with the rh at the foot of the poem a place and time prediction  - that of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside on Halloween. The murderer of Cheri Jo Bates may have been attempting to lure her to a secondary location to kill her but her valiant struggle against her attacker may have thwarted his plans and resulted in the Halloween prediction falling short by 75 minutes.

The impressionable author of the Riverside Desktop Poem could conceivably have been a student of the college, who was inspired by the attempted murder of Miss Atwood. He could also have known the young woman and studied alongside her. Wherever she had been that fateful evening on April 13th 1965, possibly wearing a brand new red dress, he may have been present. This would be the only reasonable conclusion had she been wearing a red dress and these details were not mentioned in any media coverage (and he didn't know Rolland Taft). If the author of the Desktop Poem was the author of The Confession letter, then the mention of "brush offs" in a seemingly immature typed letter, could place the person responsible for both in the age range of Miss Atwood (19) and Miss Bates (18)- and very likely somebody connected to the Riverside City College. 

Not wanting to just copy the entirety of Ricardo Gomez's article, I suggest you take a look at the article entitled "The Taft Theory" that I believe is the true inspiration for the Riverside Desktop Poem discovered on December 1966. Whether the writing on the desktop was the Zodiac Killer or not, we do know that the writings or thoughts of people are often inspired by previous experiences - and in the case of the Zodiac Killer, things he read in the newspaper. In brief, Rolland Taft was arrested and jailed for the stabbing of a Riverside woman at Riverside City College on April 13th 1965, subsequently reported in The Press and Daily Enterprise on April 17th 1965 under the title Clean-cut Youth Sought For Stabbing and possibly the inspiration for the beginning of the poem and its overall contents. See Ricardo Gomez's follow-up article here.

Despite the Riverside Desktop Poem being diacovered in December 1966, it is unknown when this poem was written. I highly doubt it was authored shortly after the story of the stabbing broke on April 17th 1965 because of its contents on the final line, but suspect it was etched into the plywood desk with a blue ballpoint pen shortly before the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966. The newspaper story of Rolland Taft and the stabbing of the young woman at Riverside City College must have been vividly remembered by the Desktop Poem author, which inspired him to create the morbid offering. The writing on the desktop is telling regarding the April 13th 1965 attack, because the poem is reflective upon past events such as "she won't die, this time someone'll find her". The young woman did seek help and ultimately survived her brutal attack. The notion of a copycat killer is nothing new, and it appears that the author of the Desktop Poem may have been one such person.

It is highly unlikely that the author of the Desktop Poem, had they been reminiscing about the stabbing of the young woman and subsequent newspaper coverage, would have been someone other than a Riverside resident at the time of both the newspaper coverage and the authorship of the poem. If this was the Zodiac Killer and he was resident in the Bay Area in 1965 and 1966, then his knowledge of this crime would be slim at best. This person had to have knowledge of the young woman's stabbing a year earlier and must have had access to the Riverside City College library, thereby spanning an extended period. So may have lived locally.  

The reason for believing the Desktop Poem was authored just prior to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, is not only the reflective tone of the writing, but the ominous projection forward of "just wait till next time" followed by two inscribed alphabetical letters. When you are proclaiming a further attack in similar fashion to the stabbing of the young woman and immediately following it with "rh", one cannot be too surprised when a further knife attack results in the death of another young woman on Halloween eve in Riverside. Hence the attribution of "rh" meaning "riverside halloween". This was the promise of "next time". 

Remember, the author of the Confession letter had suggested he was trying to lure Cheri Jo Bates into his vehicle. This could indicate that he had planned to murder Cheri Jo Bates later than the believed 10:30 pm, when screams emanated from the nearby alleyway - likely on Halloween Day itself - but something clearly had resulted in the unplanned struggle in the alleyway and her 'premature' murder from the perspective of the killer. Had he achieved his objective in luring the young woman into his vehicle, the likely prediction of the Riverside Desktop Poem would have come true. "Just wait till next time. riverside, halloween".

The choice of present tense in writing "she won't die, this time someone'll find her" rather than "she didn't die, last time someone found her", is indicative of the author reflecting as opposed to claiming the previous knife attack. That was because Rolland Taft was incarcerated shortly after the April 13th 1965 attack and was still in jail at the time of the Cheri Jo Bates murder. The author knew this fact - and why he made no direct claim to the attack on the young woman by using the past tense.

For those believing the Riverside Desktop Poem was authored by the Zodiac Killer, may now be able to place the Bay Area murderer in Riverside as early as 1965, and quite possibly up to April 30th 1967 when the three Bates letters promising even more killing arrived. The Zodiac Killer was an avid reader of the newspapers, often inspired by articles not only about his murders, but other attacks as well. Was this the case during 1965 and 1966 in Riverside?  

Some of the questioned Zodiac communications address certain individuals using the lower case format, and the March 13th 1971 'Los Angeles' letter refers to Riverside in the same fashion: "I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there". The Riverside Desktop Poem, written sometime in 1966 and believed to have been signed off with the author's initials, also featured two lower case letters. The clue to "rh" may lie in the poem itself and in the first correspondence by the Zodiac Killer on July 31st 1969 - assuming you believe a connection between Riverside and the Bay Area murders. That is because there is a real possibility the Riverside Desktop Poem was authored prior to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966. If you believe that Cheri Jo Bates was stalked surreptitiously in the weeks or months before her death, then the Desktop Poem is the precursor or warning, and the Confession letter is the completion of that threat. 

If we look at the wording on the Riverside Desktop Poem (below) from the standpoint of somebody stalking Cheri Jo Bates, then it is perfectly conceivable that at some point in time the wannabe killer has noticed the young woman wearing a red dress and fantasized about making her pay for the "perceived brush-offs" he has endured. But what is noticeable, is that the author states "she won't die this time, someone'll find her". If the young woman was to be stabbed, why would someone necessarily find her? If his mind is seeing his fantasy in the present during school hours and in the context of a busy Riverside City College campus, then one could easily see how she could be rescued and survive. However, in the next line he is projecting his mind to the future by stating "just wait till next time". The only way "next time" could conceivably have a different outcome, is if he lures Cheri Jo Bates away from the Riverside City College campus - and this is exactly what he said he was attempting to do when he typed the November 29th 1966 Confession letter, thirty days after Cheri Jo Bates' murder. He stated "I then offered to help. She was then very willing to talk to me. I told her that my car was down the street and that I would give her a lift home".  

If the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates had made a promise to seek her out "next time" in the Riverside Desktop Poem, and had some connection to the college, or was in her near or outer circle, is it really realistic he would give his true initials at the foot of the Desktop Poem to give law enforcement a helping hand? On the other hand, if they weren't really his initials and he had just placed two random letters together, then it is a rather pointless exercise. The Zodiac Killer wrote "riverside" in the 1971 'Los Angeles' letter and "halloween"/"Halloween" in the questioned 1987 correspondence, showing yet again his ability to ignore the upper case form of these titles. It is these two words that may give us the meaning to the "rh" at the foot of the Desktop Poem. The poem indicated the necessity of the killer to separate Cheri Jo Bates from the college campus so somebody wouldn't find her in time, thereby resulting in her death. Had he achieved such an objective, then her death may very well have occurred past the midnight of October 30th, rather than around 10:30 pm when screams were heard emanating from the campus alleyway. He was ultimately thwarted by Cheri Jo Bates, who likely fought back vigorously when she was being coerced towards his vehicle. The killer ultimately boasted that this was not the case by stating "I said it was about time. She asked me 'about time for what'. I said it was about time for her to die".  This was clearly a line pulled straight from his imagination, to give the impression he was in complete control throughout. Had Cheri Jo Bates not fought valiantly against her abduction, then the prophecy of "rh" would have been realized: "Just wait till next time, riverside halloween".

On July 31st 1969, the Zodiac Killer wrote "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 Bay Area murderer was always promising more bloodshed in the future - and the Riverside Desktop Poem was no different. But on that occasion he gave us the exact time and place.    

Without a DNA or fingerprint connection apparently linking Riverside and the Zodiac Killer, many have tried to link the two through his correspondence. Was the Zodiac Killer responsible for the murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside on October 30th 1966, and if so, was he a well-read individual with connections to the campus library?

David Oranchak of ZodiacKillerCiphers highlighted the text of Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, present in the 408 Cipher, in his article entitled 'Throw the book at him, Part 3'. The section of text is from a book called 'The life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, lord high chancellor of England: Volume 2': ​Forty-six consecutive letters from this text corresponds with a section of the 408 cipher. Dave Oranchak, the foremost expert on the Zodiac ciphers, commented on this "So, only one piece of text, from a vast collection of eleven billion pieces of text, fit into this chunk of cipher text. A one in eleven billion chance seems to suggest some significance. But don’t be fooled by this. Just because this rare event occurred, doesn’t mean it is anything more than a simple coincidence. If we didn’t already know the real solution to the 408, how do we know that this chunk of old and obscure text isn’t the correct solution?" I wanted to validate or refute whether this was a simple coincidence or not by examining whether the works of Edward, Earl of Clarendon featured anywhere else in Zodiac or Riverside correspondence. One wouldn't envisage many American criminals using the writings of a seventeenth century English statesman to form part of their serial murder exploits, and certainly not without access to a comprehensive library of books.

This is when I noticed another piece of obscure text from Edward, Earl of Clarendon and flew back to the last piece of notable text from the presumed Zodiac Killer on the Riverside desktop - the title of which was "sick of living/unwilling to die." One of Edward Hyde's quotes was “They who are most weary of life, and yet are most unwilling to die, are such who have lived to no purpose, — who have rather breathed than lived.” http://izquotes.com/quote/385232. ​Although not perfect, I couldn't help wondering if the Zodiac Killer was recalling from memory, as he did his paraphrasing of 'The Mikado'. Had he plagiarized "weary of life, unwilling to die" to "sick of living, unwilling to die," and would then later hide another section of Edward Hyde's text in the 408 cipher, as a form of link between the murder in Riverside and the Bay Area.

Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon was also an avid user of ciphers as revealed here in literary manuscripts; 
"Naturally a substantial portion of Clarendon's surviving manuscripts comprises his personal correspondence — both letters received by him from numerous correspondents and his own letters, written or signed by him, whether drafts, retained copies, or the letters actually sent. Among many notable examples are his letters written in August 1646 to William, Lord Widdrington, and to Sir John Berkeley, announcing the beginnings of his History of the Rebellion, and the letter he wrote on 12 November 1646, to Sir Edward Nicholas, describing his plan for the work and stating that he had already completed sixty sheets of it. Some of his letters, particularly those dating from the Civil War period, are wholly or partly in cipher or make use of pseudonyms in both salutations and signatures. The codes to sixteen such ciphers used by the Royalists are written out in Bodleian, MS Clarendon 94, and see also British Library,"

However, are there any alternatives to Edward Hyde - someone that possibly connects the 'Confession' letter and Riverside 'Desktop Poem' together, using the title of each communication. I have always believed the Zodiac Killer was driven by some form of warped religion - one that drove him to the confession box after each crime and manifested in the form of letters mailed to the newspapers and police. Using the Riverside library as our primary focus once again, did the works of an early Christian theologian and philosopher influence the writings of Zodiac?
 
'Peter A Fiore concludes that John Milton (an English poet, author of Paradise Lost, polemicist, man of letters, and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England) like many humanists, Christian philosophers, Reformers, and theologians of every variety in the early seventeenth century, drew widely from Augustine and that such indebtedness gave a richer and fuller theological dimension to his epic of lost paradise and enhanced the meaning of the poem.' 
link  The Augustine he is referring to is St Augustine of Hippo (13 November 354 - 28 August 430), a Roman African, Christian theologian, whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western Philosophy. His work was translated by many individuals, but here are a few examples:

1] "Now is not the time for asking questions but for confessing to You. I was wretched, just as every mortal soul is wretched who is bound to the friendship of mortals. We are torn to pieces when we lose them, and so become aware of how wretched we were, even before we lost them. This is the way it was with me. I wept bitterly, and found rest only by weeping. I was so wretched that I held that life of wretchedness to be more dear to me than the friend for whom I wept. Even though I wanted to change it, I was more unwilling to lose it than I had been to lose my friend. Actually, I doubt that I would be willing to lose it even for him, as it is said of Orestes and Pylades, if that is true, that they would have gladly died for each other, or both died at the same time, rather than living part from each other. But I had begun to be afflicted with a strange kind of feeling, different from theirs. I cannot explain it, but I was tired of living and yet, I was afraid to die." link.​

2] "I do not know whether I would have been willing to die for him in the way that Orestes and Pylades, if the story is true, were willing to die together for each other. And yet a strange feeling had grown in me, and it was very different from theirs; I was sick and tired of living but I was too afraid to die." link.

​3] "But in me there was an odd kind of feeling, the exact opposite of theirs, for I was at once utterly weary of life and in great fear of death." link.
​
4] "I was at the same time thoroughly tired of living and extremely frightened of dying.”
link.
​
Was this a case of the Zodiac Killer recalling the literary work of another, as he did with Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, but paraphrasing it. However, in this instance, the author chose sick of living/unwilling to die as his title of the 'Desktop Poem'. On its own, this connection could appear a little unconvincing, but the author of the Riverside 'Desktop Poem' may have mailed correspondence to the Riverside Homicide Detail and Riverside Press Enterprise on November 29th 1966, in the form of letters entitled 'The Confession'.

Two weeks after the October 30th 1966 murder of Cheri Jo Bates, the Riverside Police staged a library reconstruction of the crime on November 13th 1966. The probable murderer then mailed the 'Confession' letters. St Augustine of Hippo wrote the Confessions (in which the above examples of text are contained), an autobiographical piece of work consisting of 13 books. "The Confessions of Saint Augustine in order to distinguish the book from other books with similar titles. Its original title was Confessions in Thirteen Books, and it was composed to be read out loud with each book being a complete unit. Confessions is generally considered one of Augustine's most important texts. It is widely seen as the first Western autobiography ever written, and was an influential model for Christian writers throughout the Middle Ages. Professor Henry Chadwick wrote that Confessions will "always rank among the great masterpieces of western literature." link.  St Augustine of Hippo was born on November 13th, the exact date of the library reconstruction. 

"The City of God Against the Pagans (Latin: De civitate Dei contra paganos), often called The City of God, is a book of Christian philosophy written in Latin by Augustine of Hippo in the early 5th century AD. The book was in response to allegations that Christianity brought about the decline of Rome and is considered one of Augustine's most important works, standing alongside The Confessions, The Enchiridion, On Christian Doctrine and On the Trinity. As a work of one of the most influential Church Fathers, The City of God is a cornerstone of Western thought, expounding on many profound questions of theology, such as the suffering of the righteous, the existence of evil, the conflict between free will and divine omniscience, and the doctrine of original sin. Shortly before Augustine's death, the Vandals, a Germanic tribe that had converted to Arianism, invaded Roman Africa. The Vandals besieged Hippo in the spring of 430, when Augustine entered his final illness. According to Possidius, one of the few miracles attributed to Augustine, the healing of an ill man, took place during the siege. According to Possidius, Augustine spent his final days in prayer and repentance, requesting that the penitential Psalms of David be hung on his walls so that he could read them. He directed that the library of the church in Hippo and all the books therein should be carefully preserved. He died on 28 August 430. Shortly after his death, the Vandals lifted the siege of Hippo, but they returned not long thereafter and burned the city. They destroyed all of it but Augustine's cathedral and library, which they left untouched."  Wikipedia.

​Was the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates somehow connected to the Riverside library, a well-read individual, who subtly introduced sections of text from St Augustine of Hippo into the titles of both the 'Riverside Desktop Poem' and 'The Confession' letter in order to give himself a feeling of superiority over the police and newspapers, as he would ultimately do several years later?

"SICK OF LIVING, UNWILLING TO DIE" 

The 'Confession' letter purportedly typed by the hand of Cheri Jo Bates' murderer delivered a sense of foreboding: "She is not the first and she will not be the last. I lay awake nights thinking about my next victim. Maybe she will be the beautiful blond that babysits near the little store and walks down the dark alley each evening about seven. Or maybe she will be the shapely blue eyed brownett that said no when I asked her for a date in high school. But maybe it will not be either....Yes I did make that call to you. It was just a warning. Beware...I am stalking your girls now." 
 
This was equally true of the Riverside Desktop Poem, discovered by a Janitor at Riverside City College in the December of 1966, after the murder of Cheri Jo Bates and after the 'Confession' letter, but in all probability was written before the October 30th 1966 murder. It gave a chilling prelude to what may transpire, what may be denied, but ultimately the threat of more to come: "Just wait till next time. rh."  If the Desktop Poem was written in the October of 1966 by the same mind who typed the 'Confession' letter, then it could be argued it was the prelude to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, and equally argued as the first correspondence of the Zodiac Killer, if you believe a connection exists between the Bay Area and Riverside.    

The Zodiac Killer often ended his communications with an unbridled mockery of police and signed off many with a running victim total and the promise of more. The July 31st 1969 San Francisco Chronicle letter warned us of future murders "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." The 'Bus Bomb' letter stated "up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people". In the November 8th 'Dripping Pen' card he added the months of his alleged attacks, stating "Des, July, Aug, Sept, Oct = 7." The Halloween card is also believed by many to be a future threat towards Paul Avery. Could the initials rh be offering us something similar. The author of the Riverside Desktop Poem warned us of a "next time," then gave us the initials. Could the author have instructed us on the time and place of his next murder, much like the unconfirmed 'Albany' letter mailed on August 1st 1973.

What if we apply the same model to the Riverside Desktop Poem, where he signs off the poem with "Just wait till next time. rh". The Riverside Desktop Poem was discovered in the December of 1966. But it might very well have been written prior to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, and the warning of "Just wait till next time. rh" was referring to the time and place of his next murder. Remember, the author of the Confession letter had suggested he was trying to lure Cheri Jo Bates into his vehicle. This may possibly indicate he had planned to murder Cheri Jo Bates later than the believed 10:30 pm, when screams emanated from the alleyway, likely on Halloween Day itself, but something clearly had resulted in the unplanned struggle in the alleyway and her 'premature' murder from the perspective of the killer. Had he achieved his objective in luring the young woman into his vehicle, the likely prediction of the Riverside Desktop Poem would have come true: "Just wait till next time. riverside, halloween." The author was giving us the area of the crime and the exact date. The Riverside Desktop Poem was the ode to murder, the 'Confession' letter was its completion. He may have planned the murder of the young woman on October 31st 1966, the day she was ultimately discovered by groundskeeper Cleophus Martin.   

​On March 13th 1971 the Zodiac Killer referenced his exploits in Riverside by 'complimenting' the police on connecting the murder of Cheri Jo Bates to him: "I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones."  

In the aftermath of the Cheri Jo Bates murder the police made appeals to the public to be on the lookout for the murder weapon, described as a small knife: "An unrelenting search had been in progress for the murder weapon, and that Tuesday detectives used a metal detector (see right) in shrubbery adjacent to the murder scene in an effort to find the knife used by the slayer. Captain Cross revealed to the news media that the autopsy showed that the murder weapon was probably a pocket knife with a 3 inch blade or less. The broadcast and published information about the knife caused the police switchboard to be flooded with calls reporting knives of similar description being found all over the city of Riverside."  Was one of those callers the murderer, who did state in the 'Confession' letter "Yes, I did make that call to you." 

How many of these calls were followed up is hard to determine, but curiously on November 14th 1966, one day after the highly publicized library reconstruction, the police did get a call from a Riverside City College gardener: "That he had unearthed a hunting knife with his rake. The knife had apparently been buried near the murder scene. Detectives hurried to the campus and turned over the knife to the homicide detail. However, examination failed to show any evidence of dried blood on the knife blade. Also, its width did not compare with the incisions made by the stab wounds." Did the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates plant the hunting knife and make a call to police, which ultimately got lost in the myriad of calls flooding the switchboard, and consequently was not followed through? Or did the killer make contact with the Riverside City College gardener to volunteer this information, while viewing the unfolding police presence from a distance?
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The police had thoroughly searched the crime scene with metal detectors in the days after the murder, so it seems likely the knife was planted subsequent to their search by either the perpetrator or a misguided prankster. The planting of a larger hunting knife near the murder scene may have been another foreboding message by the killer, that "It was just a warning. Beware...I am stalking your girls now." Stalking them with a larger and more deadly knife. After all, he did claim that he "plunged the knife into her and it broke."

For many people, Cheri Jo Bates checked out her own library books. This being the case, we have approximately four hours in which her whereabouts are unexplained. Had she gone somewhere willingly, it is highly likely she traveled there by foot, having left her vehicle parked on Terracina Drive at about 6.15 pm.
Does this center the investigation close to the college campus?

The author of the 'Confession' letter was fond of referring to that "alley," when he stated "Maybe she will be the beautiful blond that babysits near the little store and walks down the dark alley each evening about seven" and "it just might save that girl in the alley." Was he referring to the alleyway in which Cheri Jo Bates was murdered, or some other alley in the vicinity of the Riverside City College campus? Somewhere he could monitor the comings and goings of young attractive women. If he was able to go unnoticed, without drawing suspicion to himself around the college campus the evening of October 30th 1966, had composed the Desktop Poem earlier that month, and had subsequently planted the knife near the crime scene, was this indicative of somebody who worked at, or frequented the college on a regular basis? Somebody who could travel within the confines of Riverside City College unchallenged and blend into the background. 
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The Timex watch discovered ten feet from the body of Cheri Jo Bates, apparently ripped off the wrist of the killer in the struggle, had white paint specks on its face. The Riverside City College was undergoing renovation at this point in time, so is this another small pointer. The attack on Cheri Jo Bates was fairly prolonged, evident by the wounds sustained by the young woman, inflicted on her in an alleyway bordered by two vacant properties. Is this yet further indication of prior knowledge to college affairs, that the killer was prepared to attack Cheri Jo Bates here, knowing that nobody resided within these properties. This again, reinforcing the idea that the murderer either worked within the college campus, or frequented it regularly. He would seemingly stick around until at least April 30th 1967, when three more virtually simultaneous communications were received from the alleged murderer, in similar fashion to the beginning of the Zodiac correspondence, just over two years later.   

Sometime in December 1966 the inside of a folding desktop revealed a morbid poem, discovered by a  janitor at the Riverside City College library. Just two months earlier, Cheri Jo Bates was found murdered in an alleyway beside the library on October 30th 1966, and a typed Confession letter was mailed, most likely by her killer, on November 29th 1966. The Riverside Desktop Poem began with the title "sick of living/unwilling to die." The rest of the poem can be viewed here.

Questioned Documents Examiner Sherwood Morrill, who validated much of the Zodiac communications, would verify this poem as having handwriting consistent with the Zodiac Killer. The fact this was discovered in the RCC library, the question arose as to the origin of the poem.

The Zodiac Killer seemed to draw inspiration from many sources of yesteryear, such as in the 408 Cipher, which contained the phrase "the most dangerous animal," believed to be referring to a short story 'The Most Dangerous Game' by Richard Connell, first published on January 19th 1924. The Mikado paraphrased in his Little List and Exorcist letters, first viewed by the paying public in 1885, and possibly Charlie Chan created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1919. His costumed appearance at Lake Berryessa and his use of words predominantly used by the British, made some people believe he may have been connected to the theater, in addition to being a well-read individual. The RCC library no doubt was well stocked and may likely have held the answer. This poem, apart from the very short Bates letters mailed on April 30th 1967, was effectively the preceding correspondence of any substance before the 408 cipher arrived in three parts to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald  - mailed on July 31st 1969, some 2 1/2 years later. So can any connection be forged?

Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, Lord High Chancellor of England, was an English statesman and historian, with his writings detailed here in a catalog of English literary manuscripts containing one important section: "Naturally a substantial portion of Clarendon's surviving manuscripts comprises his personal correspondence — both letters received by him from numerous correspondents and his own letters, written or signed by him, whether drafts, retained copies, or the letters actually sent. Among many notable examples are his letters written in August 1646 to William, Lord Widdrington, and to Sir John Berkeley, announcing the beginnings of his History of the Rebellion, and the letter he wrote on 12 November 1646, to Sir Edward Nicholas, describing his plan for the work and stating that he had already completed sixty sheets of it. Some of his letters, particularly those dating from the Civil War period, are wholly or partly in cipher or make use of pseudonyms in both salutations and signatures. The codes to sixteen such ciphers used by the Royalists are written out in Bodleian, MS Clarendon 94, and see also British Library".

​I noticed a very interesting article on Zodiac Killer Ciphers, highlighting the 408 cipher, entitled Throw the book at him, Part 3, which featured Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon and a section of his text from a book called The life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, lord high chancellor of England: Volume 2. Dave Oranchak, the foremost expert on the Zodiac ciphers, wrote "So, only one piece of text, from a vast collection of eleven billion pieces of text, fit into this chunk of cipher text. A one in eleven billion chance seems to suggest some significance. But don’t be fooled by this. Just because this rare event occurred, doesn’t mean it is anything more than a simple coincidence. If we didn’t already know the real solution to the 408, how do we know that this chunk of old and obscure text isn’t the correct solution?" To read the entire article visit here.

This is when I noticed another piece of obscure text from Edward, Earl of Clarendon and flew back to the last piece of notable text from the presumed Zodiac Killer on the Riverside desktop, the title of which was "sick of living/unwilling to die". One of Edward Hyde's quotes was “They who are most weary of life, and yet are most unwilling to die, are such who have lived to no purpose, — who have rather breathed than lived.” http://izquotes.com/quote/385232. ​Although not perfect, I couldn't help wondering if the Zodiac Killer was recalling from memory as he did with The Mikado, taking "weary of life, unwilling to die" to "sick of living, unwilling to die," and then somehow incorporating another of Edward Hyde's quotes into the 408 cipher as a form of link between the two. However, as Dave Oranchak affirmed "Just because this rare event occurred, doesn’t mean it is anything more than a simple coincidence" - and may just prove the case that we are the "The Most Pattern-Seeking Animal of All". 

Here is the text from 'The life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, lord high chancellor of England,' with the portion of text found in the 408 Cipher having been highlighted below. I am not sure whether the figure 239 was part of the original document, but character 239 in the 408 Cipher is part of this highlighted text and the start of the 15th line (Letter N).
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1665 PROJECT ABANDONED 239 "his blessed father and himself as a subject can do from his prince, a nobleman of the best quality, the best allied and the best beloved ; to remove at such a time such a person, and with such circumstances, from his counsels and his trust." The King was not of a mould to resist plain speaking like this, and when not supported by the presence of those who made him their tool and instrument, he seldom managed to make way against the vehemence of Clarendon's rebukes. It could hardly be pleasant for a monarch to be told that what he designs is base ingratitude; that his throne is in danger ; the reputation of his Court in evil savour ; that both require such support as they may be able to get from men of reverence and station, and that he would be mad to alienate any support from such men that may be vouch- safed to him ; yet this was the plain meaning of Clarendon's words. But Charles hesitated to go back, repulsed, to those who had made him their mouthpiece. He remained " rather moved and troubled than convinced." But fortunately Clarendon found an unexpected ally in the Duke of York, who had joined the King and himself at the interview, with the intention, it appears, of supporting the King's purpose. To him Clarendon restated his arguments, and urged him to do the best service to the King his brother " by dis- suading him from a course that would prove so mischievous to him." For this once, the Duke was converted to Clarendon's view, and "prevailed with the King to lay aside the thought of it. "l Once more the Court conspirators 1 Charles not rarely showed a respect for his brother's opinion which was not founded upon any high estimate of his abilities. Clarendon himself remarks this when commenting upon the failure of any attempt to arouse jealousy between the brothers. Charles, he says, " had a just affection for him, and a confidence in him, without thinking better of his natural parts than he thought there was just cause for ; and yet, which made it the more wondered at, he did often depart, in matters of the highest moment, from his own judgment to comply with his brother " (Life, iii. 62).
https://archive.org/stream/lifeofedwardearl02craiuoft/lifeofedwardearl02craiuoft_djvu.txt