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THE DEMON SLAYER

10/22/2018

Paul Avery, a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle, covered many of the Zodiac stories during his reign of terror, and became the focus of the murderer's attention when the Zodiac Killer mailed the 'Halloween' card to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper on October 27th 1970. The murderer responded to an article published on November 16th 1970 by Paul Avery, linking him to the Riverside murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966. This would be followed nearly three years later, when the 'Exorcist' letter was mailed on January 29th 1974, closely followed by the 'SLA' letter on February 14th 1974, regarding the Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapping of Patty Hearst, a media heiress, on February 4th 1974.
"Paul Avery covered the Hearst case until the newspaper heiress-turned-bank robber was arrested in September 1975. Avery then holed up on his houseboat at Gate 5 in Sausalito with Boston writer Vin McLellan to write The Voices of Guns, a book on the SLA and the Hearst kidnapping." Wikipedia.

The 'Exorcist' letter has recently courted new attention with the publication of Mike Rodelli's new book 'The Hunt for Zodiac: The Inconceivable Double Life of a Notorious Serial Killer', pouring some doubt on the authenticity of this communication.
This letter, once again, appeared another response to a Paul Avery newspaper article, featuring the recently released Exorcist movie, an American horror film released in 1973, directed by William Friedkin and adapted for screenplay by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 book. The San Francisco Chronicle article entitled 'Weird Goings on at the Movies,' was published on January 11th 1974 and detailed the audience reaction to what they had just experienced. The opening lines of the article are extremely interesting when we consider the opening lines of the January 29th 1974 'Exorcist' letter, only 18 days later.

View Exorcist article

The article began "If these crowds queuing up three times a night for "The Exorcist" prove anything, it's that a lot of people are willing to go to a lot of trouble to get their wits scared out of them.
Since the day after Christmas, some 60,000 persons have endured a harsh winter's elements standing in lines - sometimes for as long as two hours - to see the see the current cinema rage playing at the Northpoint Theater near Fisherman's Wharf.
It is an experience that produces reactions ranging from vomiting to fainting, to one apparently jaded patron's demand for his money back because it was about as scary as Snow White".

The author of the 'Exorcist' letter apparently concurred with this disgruntled patron, beginning the letter with "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen,"
The author also made sure to place "The Exorcist" in quotation marks, just like the article. If this letter was the Zodiac Killer, he would go on to use quotation marks around words in his following two correspondences - something he had never previously done in his communications from 1969 to 1971.

The middle section of the 'Exorcist' letter is signed yours truley 'Ko-Ko Lord High Executioner' by means of Tit-Willow from The Mikado's On a tree by a river. The same can be said of the 'Little List' letter on July 26th 1970, which also featured Ko-Ko in A more humane Mikado.

Then we travel to the most interesting part of the 'Exorcist' letter at the bottom of the correspondence, and its comparison to the first letters mailed by the Zodiac Killer on July 31st 1969. The 'Exorcist' letter was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, so we will take a look at the July 31st 1969 letter mailed to the same paper. This is what the killer signed off with: "I want you to print this cipher on the front page of your paper. In this cipher is my idenity. If you do not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry.1st of Aug 69, I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night. I will cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend." It begins with a demand to print his material in the paper, and finishes with the threat "to kill" again if his instructions are not followed.

The foot of the 'Exorcist' letter begins with a demand to put this note in the paper, and finishes with a threat you know he is capable of. We know what the killer is capable of - it is "to kill" - as he threatened at the foot of the July 31st 1969 San Francisco Chronicle letter if his demands to print the cipher were not met. Even the decoded cipher rammed home the message "To kill something gives me the most thrilling experience". Therefore, by logical deduction, the strange characters at the foot of the 'Exorcist' letter should read "to kill". Thanks to the great work of Zodiac researcher Kevin Robert Brooks, this is exactly what he showed. Even more importantly, the beginning of each word began with an upper case letter, just like "The Exorcist" - forming the words "To Kill" with significant emphasis on the 'K' of "Kill".

Click image to view full letter

This emphasis would be carried forward into the SLA letter, mailed on February 14th 1974, where he uses quotation marks to highlight the word "kill" once more. The murderer now appears to have slayed his demons, signing off the letter with "a friend" - albeit, a friend you wouldn't invite home for tea and scones with grandma.

His reformation now appeared complete in the May 8th 1974 'Citizen' letter, railing against the publication of advertisements for the "Badlands" movie starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, and based upon the real life events of spree killers Charles Raymond Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate.

His final consternation would be reserved for Marc H Spinelli in the July 8th 1974 'Red Phantom' letter, calling for the cancellation of his Count Marco column. The murderer now seemingly devoid of the Zodiac persona after exorcising his demons subsequent to January 29th 1974, along with his inability to spell.

Had the Zodiac Killer returned after an absence of nearly three years, or was the return of the Bay Area murderer a demon that had to be resurrected for the sake of publicity in an ever dwindling case.

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NAME DROPPER

5/21/2016

19 Comments

On Monday October 12th 1970 the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article entitled 'Gilbert and Sullivan Clue to Zodiac.' Just two weeks later the Zodiac Killer would respond, when he mailed the Halloween Card to Paul Avery, a prominent San Francisco Chronicle reporter. This card containing two skeletons, opened with the phrase 'I feel it in my bones, you ache to know my name. And so I'll clue you in..' This on the face of it seems a direct response to the Chronicle article, but what clue was the Zodiac prepared to give us in this card regarding his identity or name. Before we tackle this problem, we shall fast forward to the Exorcist Letter, mailed to the Chronicle on January 29th 1974 and investigate any possible clues within this correspondence. This first part has been covered previously, however, this will be expanded upon as we delve a little deeper.
The Exorcist Letter appeared a curious blend of two productions; The Mikado (1885), a satirical portrait of Victorian England, and the horror classic The Exorcist (1973), ironically labeled "the best saterical comidy that I have ever seen' by the Zodiac Killer. The Exorcist Letter appears a mismatch of genres, an unholy alliance of mixed messages, unless of course it was designed this way to provide us with a hidden clue to his identity or name.

On the left is an excerpt from the Exorcist Letter.
After a line such as 'Signed, yours truley,' one would expect the sender to provide us with a name, yet here the Zodiac Killer gives us a line from the Mikado's On a tree by a river, part of Act Two.
Is his name concealed within these lines?
In the article 'The Best Saterical Comidy,' this idea was explored. The name William can be abbreviated to Will, Bill, Billy, Willy, or Willie. It can be seen that these lines contain the names 'Bill and Will' several times. This of course is meaningless on its own, until you wrangle with the unusual alliance of The Exorcist and The Mikado.
The Exorcist is an American horror film released in 1973, directed by William Friedkin and adapted for screenplay by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 book. The Mikado was created by Gilbert and Sullivan, however, one half of the duo was Sir William Schwenck Gilbert, to effectively give us the three William's in the excerpt above, and tempt us with the phrase 'Signed, yours truley, William.' The inspiration for William Peter Blatty's novel The Exorcist (1971) was the real life exorcism of Roland Doe, a 13 year old Maryland boy, in 1949. Father William S. Bowdern, S.J. was central to this exorcism, assisted by Walter Halloran and William Van Roo, a third Jesuit priest, bringing our total to five.
In the San Francisco Chronicle article 'Gilbert and Sullivan Clue to Zodiac,' Paul Avery wrote 'Sheriff's detective sergeant Kenneth Narlow of Napa County has fruitlessly followed up another 900 tips to Zodiac's identity since September 27th 1969." Did the Zodiac take this line and incorporate it into the Halloween Card, using the pumpkin fruit to effectively reveal his identity, deliberately placing the pumpkin over the groin and then removing it, to expose his identity. The groin becomes fruitless, yet reveals a name. I'm afraid you've guessed it, Willy.
This is highly improbable, although, the Zodiac Killer did present a rather immature element in much of his correspondence. In an attempt to reinforce this identity, we shall proceed. The Halloween Card is obviously a reference to the Western Christian celebration of All Hallows Day on October 31st, hence the use of the spiders web, skeletons and pumpkin within the card. The most notable addition to the card was the pumpkin, so other than its deliberate positioning, has it any further significance to the Zodiac Killer's identity. The pumpkin itself, is carved out on Halloween to create a spooky or ghostly face and lit on the inside to create a menacing glowing effect. This is termed a 'Jack o' lantern' or 'Will o the wisp', an atmospheric ghost light seen by travelers at night.

Click image for full picture

The Zodiac Killer placed numerous eyes on the Halloween Card, accompanied by the words 'peek-a-boo you are doomed,' wrapped around the knothole in the tree. This, on the face of it, appeared a veiled threat towards San Francisco Chronicle reporter Paul Avery, but was it yet another clue to his identity.
'Blind Bat', a member on the Zodiac Killer Site forum displayed an interesting connection to the Halloween Card, involving the 'peek-a-boo' phrase the author added to the greeting card. The picture on the right demonstrates this perfectly with the Zodiac-like letter K and the eyes and eyelashes eerily similar to the depiction on the Halloween Card itself.
William V Peekaboo Pennington Senior was a San Francisco private detective, described as a cattle man, private investigator, theater owner, building contractor, oil man and member of the Eastern Star, a freemasonry related order established in 1850 by Rob Morris. He moved to San Francisco in 1924 and performed investigative duties for prominent lawyers and attorneys, including Melvin Belli, who became closely embroiled in the Zodiac Killer case. The Halloween Card provides us with two full, and two abbreviations of William, when we consider the following.

Guy Williams as Zorro

The Halloween Card is the only time the Zodiac Killer used the letter Z on his correspondence, other than the Cheri Jo Bates letters of 1966, which has still not been definitively linked to the Northern California murderer.
He places the letter Z on the envelope and the inside of the card, but in addition to this, the Zodiac Killer places a Zorro style mask on the skeleton. Is this a further clue. Had the Zodiac spent his formative years in the 1950's, Zorro would have been a high profile television series, made into two Walt Disney films, The Sign of Zorro (1958) and Zorro, the Avenger (1959). The Disney television series ran from 1957 to 1959, and this, along with the two movies starred Guy Williams.
Revisiting the subject of Melvin Belli, the Zodiac Killer wrote a personal correspondence to the prominent lawyer on December 20th 1969. In this correspondence he stated "I will loose all controol of myself and set the bomb up. Please help me I can not remain in control for much longer." This phrase is remarkably similar to a message scrawled on the wall of a murder victim.
Frances Brown was discovered on December 10th 1945 at her 3941 North Pine Grove apartment, in Edgewater, Chicago. She had multiple knife wounds, in fact a knife was found present in the victims neck, along with a bullet wound to the head. The killer had left a calling card, in the form of a message written in lipstick on the wall. See here.
It said: :For heavens Sake catch me Before I kill more. I cannot control myself. The Zodiac Killer wrote (edited) I will loose all controol of myself. Please help me. I can not remain in control for much longer.
The killer William Heirens, known as the 'Lipstick Killer', was convicted of the murders of three females over a seven month period. Was the letter mailed to Melvin Belli a plea for help or just another subtle clue to his identity.

Patricia Campbell Hearst

Paul Avery extensively covered the Patty Hearst affair, along with San Francisco Chronicle reporter Tim Findley, something the Zodiac was unlikely to miss. The killer mailed the 'SLA Letter' on February 14th 1974, only ten days after the kidnapping of Patty Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army on February 4th 1974. There are two links here, in that Patty Hearst was the granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, who gained control of the San Francisco Examiner from his father. But more importantly, the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) leaders were Donald De Freeze and William Harris. One of its founding members was Willie Wolfe.
In the article 'Gilbert and Sullivan Clue to Zodiac', Paul Avery wrote "Zodiac is still at large today. And he is now claiming he has murdered thirteen persons. Homicide detectives who've been hunting Zodiac for nearly two years frankly admit he is as much an enigma now as he was on December 20th 1968, when he chalked up his first two victims."
In chalk-like writing the Zodiac would now be claiming a potential fourteen victims in the Halloween Card, but was it revealing a lot more than initially thought.
The Little List letter mailed on July 26th 1970 heavily featured two portions of The Mikado. The seventh line of Mikado Act One Part 5a As some day it may happen reads "All children who are up in dates, and floor you with 'em flat." The Zodiac Killer paraphrases this verse to "All children who are up in dates and implore you with im platt." It could simply be, that he was attempting to write the letter F, and accidentally formed the letter P, but if not.........

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THE HALLOWEEN CARD WITHIN THE 340 CIPHER

4/12/2014

7 Comments

It has often been theorized that the 340 Cipher may have inspired the design of later communications, but equally, as time went by the Zodiac Killer dismayed that nobody was able to crack his masterpiece, dropped clues or keys in his subsequent cards and letters, particularly the later ones as he became more desperate to push people in the right direction.
An interesting article on Jos Kirps's Popular Science and Technology Blog, indicated some extremely close connections, that suggested the 'Halloween' card mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on October 27th 1970 may have been the Zodiac Killer's biggest clue to date.
He observed that on the 'Halloween' card the Zodiac Killer had added the phrases By Fire, By Gun, By Knife and By Rope in four quadrants around the intersecting Paradice and Slaves. However, if the 340 Cipher was also separated into four quadrants, the word BY could be found in all four quadrants also. If that was not curious enough, he noticed the possibility that the word PARADICE ran down the center of the 340 Cipher, and the word SLAVES possibly across its midsection.
So in the following section we shall use this as the starting point and attempt to find some more connections to the 'Halloween' card and a few other letters.
So let us add the words FIRE, GUN, KNIFE and ROPE underneath the words BY on the 340 Cipher.
On the 'Halloween' card the Zodiac Killer places FIRE, GUN and ROPE underneath the letter B of BY. But the word KNIFE is placed under the letter Y of BY. (as the By runs vertically). In the diagram below Fire, Gun, Knife and Rope have been placed one column to the side so as not to obscure the original symbols.

If you take a look at the word KNIFE and ROPE, the letter E on both would fall over a > symbol on the 340 Cipher.
Taking the second diagram into account it is apparent the letter E in the word SLAVES would fall over a < symbol.
The E in the vertical word PARADICE would fall over a < symbol as well.
Therefore out of the five E's on the Halloween Card, four would fall over a directional symbol, either < or >.
If we transposed this E onto the fourth symbol of the entire 340 Cipher, the word HERE is formed.
This would now connect five directional symbols to the letter E.
It was always strange how his cipher began with an actual word, possibly this was intentional and not there by chance.
In the above example three E's are represented by > symbols and two E's are represented by < symbols. But it would be nice to have five the same.
Well, it may be possible.
The 'Halloween' card has many interesting features, but in terms of focusing in on individual alphabetical letters he does two things. He reverses the letter N in By Knife and underlines LAV in Paul Averly on the envelope.
If we rotate the reversed letter N, 180 degrees to form a correct N and therefore rotate all the symbols on the 17th line of the 340 Cipher along with it, the < (E) of PARADICE becomes >.
If we rotate the LAV, that would be present, in SLAVES shown on the 10th line of the 340 Cipher, the < (E) of SLAVES becomes >.
Therefore all five E's are now represented by the symbol >.
He later sent us the 'SLA' letter mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on February 14th 1974. Not only did the date of the 'SLA' letter, FOURTEENTH match the 4-TEEN of the Halloween Card, but the date of VALENTINES DAY was also relevant.
If VAL is reversed we get the LAV of PAUL AVERLY, present on the envelope..
The letter N is the FOURTEENTH or 14th letter of the alphabet and this letter is reversed on the 'Halloween' card also.
This is the reasoning behind rotating the symbols on the 10th line of the 340 Cipher.
The SLA reference is another link to SLAVES and the 'Halloween' card, along with the 10th line of the 340 Cipher.
The 'Halloween' card has the word BOO placed on the inside of the card. This is situated on the 14th line of the 340 Cipher. The number 14 is relevant to both the 'Halloween' card and 'SLA' letter and the word BOO is also reversed on the 340 Cipher.
There are possibly additional links from the 340 Cipher to the 'Exorcist' letter, shown by the blue squared section on the first diagram. See here.
Plus a further link to the '13 Symbol' cipher, shown at the bottom of the first diagram. See here.

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NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

2/24/2014

5 Comments

At around 2am on the morning of October 22nd 1969 an unknown male called the Oakland Police Department, claiming he was the Zodiac and requested that Francis Lee Bailey should appear on a channel 7 talk show later that day, but if F. Lee Bailey was unavailable he would accept Melvin Belli instead. Both were high profile lawyers of the day.
Melvin Belli, known as 'The King of Torts' by many, but also referred to as 'Melvin Bellicose' in a less favorable light by some, accepted the invitation to the Jim Dunbar Show, eventually receiving a telephone call from a man claiming to be the Zodiac, but Nancy Slover, Dave Slaight and Bryan Hartnell, the only three people to have heard the killer's voice, all categorically stated that the man who had phoned into the show was not the Zodiac. It turned out to be a mental patient called Eric Weil.
However, the Oakland officer who took the original call believed that the voice from the channel 7 talk show did not match his mystery caller, leaving open the possibility that the Zodiac may have still been involved in events.

Melvin Mouron Belli photographed in 1967

Whether this was the Zodiac or not, it triggered a response nearly two months later on December 20th 1969 on the first anniversary of Lake Herman Road murders, when a letter was received at the home residence of Melvin Belli, authenticated by the inclusion of a third portion of the shirt removed from murdered taxi driver Paul Stine, callously executed by a single shot to the head in Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969.
Again, four months later the Zodiac Killer appearing not to want to be kept from the limelight, sent his Button Letter on April 28th 1970, and in an apparent sideswipe to the prominent lawyer appealed for his audience to wear 'some nice Zodiac buttons', citing that everyone else has them, such as ones reading 'Melvin Eats Blubber'. Although spelled differently the intention appeared of a mocking nature, not unlike 'bellicose' that had been used in the derogatory previously.
The Zodiac Killer for whatever reason had closely affiliated himself with Melvin Belli, although it appeared that it may just have been as likely this affinity could have turned to attorney Francis Lee Bailey, had he originally put himself forward on the channel 7 show.

Francis Lee Bailey was a criminal defense attorney prominent in the retrial and subsequent release of Sam Sheppard, originally convicted for the murder of his wife Marilyn on July 4th 1954, who was found bludgeoned to death in her bed.
However, Francis Lee Bailey was not to be forgotten by the Zodiac Killer or at the very least it appeared that way.
After the questionable 'Pines' card of March 22nd 1971, the Zodiac Killer seemingly disappeared from prominence, either through incarceration, work commitments or simply by choice, having found a new pathway. But he was to reappear just shy of three years later heralding the Exorcist Letter on January 29th 1974, closely followed by the SLA letter on Valentine's Day of that year.
The letters of this period took a turn, and appeared less threatening, with the emphasis now shifting to a media driven fascination, citing the movies The Exorcist, Badlands, The Red Phantom, and indeed implied he was showing an avid interest in the current news of the day.
Throughout 1973 and 1974 breaking stories were pushing the Zodiac murders further from the front pages and in an apparent late rally the killer attempted to thrust himself back into prominence, allying himself to news articles, fearing his notoriety was beginning to dwindle. The Zebra murders in San Francisco spanning seven months from October 19th 1973 to April 16th 1974, and the Patty Hearst kidnapping from her Berkeley, California apartment by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) on February 4th 1974 seemed to reignite the dormant Zodiac into a response, but with one key figure possibly still prominent in his thinking.

Attorney Francis Lee Bailey defended Patty Hearst, but suffered a rare defeat, with Hearst dissatisfied at his closing arguments in the case and suspecting he was under the influence of alcohol. Was the Zodiac Killer in any way connected to the justice system himself, in terms of employment, or possibly employed in the media or newspapers, spawning this allegiance.
The 'SLA' Letter was received at the San Francisco Chronicle on February 14th 1974, only 10 days after the Patty Hearst kidnapping, stating 'Dear Mr Editor, Did you know the initials SLAY (Symbionese Liberation Army) spell sla, an old Norse word meaning "kill". a friend.'

The SLA Letter mailed on February 14th 1974

Patricia Hearst was the granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, gaining notoriety during the latter years of the counterculture revolution on account of her seemingly complicit involvement with the Symbionese Liberation Army.
William Randolph Hearst's beginnings started when he took charge of the San Francisco Examiner in 1887 and his life story was the inspiration that drove the lead character in the Orson Welles 1941 film Citizen Kane, in certain polls voted the greatest film of all time.

Charles Starkweather's final day of freedom in 1958

Was the Zodiac Killer to continue with the Francis Lee Bailey and Patty Hearst thread through to his next letter, when the 'Citizen' or 'Badlands' letter dropped onto the desk of the San Francisco Chronicle on May 8th 1974, just under three months later. The killer may have been compelled to write, as he stated "by the running of ads for the movie Badlands", a film written and directed by Terrence Malick in 1973, based on the real life events of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, who went on a killing spree in Nebraska and Wyoming in 1958. Zodiac would innocently sign off this correspondence with "A Citizen".
However, it has been suggested on many forums he was using the word citizen to imply a link to Citizen Kane. So we can therefore take it one step further and provide a backlink to his previous SLA Letter, with the Hearst name prevailing through both letters.

It has been noted previously that the 'Citizen' card mailed on May 8th 1974 was indeed the 33rd anniversary of the Los Angeles premier of the Citizen Kane film in 1941. And in a previous article, that the 'Exorcist' letter mailed on January 29th 1974 was the 16th anniversary of the demise and capture of Charles Starkweather back in 1958.
The 'Citizen' card criticized the glorification of Badlands in light of recent events, the 'Exorcist' letter was the notable anniversary of Charles Starkweather's arrest, and the 'SLA' letter can be associated with the Citizen card/Badlands letter through the Hearst family name, tying up all three pieces of correspondence into a neat bundle.
But if the Citizen Kane angle is not one you subscribe to, then the pack of cards we have just built is sitting on fragile ground.

Thanks to http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/reply/68764#.UwuiYfl_tZl
http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/topic/6105/Citizen-Card-at-33-yr-anniv-of-Citizen-Kane#.UwujGvl_tZl

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THE MONTANA CONNECTION

7/1/2013

31 Comments

Although the last confirmed murder attributed to the Zodiac was the slaying of taxi driver Paul Stine on October 11th 1969, the killer continued his onslaught towards the citizens of Northern California and beyond in the form of threatening and taunting letters, the like of which authorities had never experienced previously, driven by an overwhelming desire to keep the fear factor well and truly alive in the psyche of everyday people.
Driven by the art of humiliation and misdirection he led the investigative bodies on a piece of string, complimented by an inordinate amount of good fortune, to elude capture throughout his manifesto of evil during the late 1960's and early 1970's.
Although his correspondence to the newspapers eventually dwindled away, it may be that two of his later letters despite being shorter by comparison, that held the biggest key to unraveling or at the very least guiding us into the very footprints of a killer.
The Exorcist Letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle on January 29th 1974 was closely followed just over two weeks later by the SLA Letter, and both letters seemed to offer very little in the way of clues- that is unless you know where to look.
Kevin Robert Brooks steps into the mind of the Zodiac killer, believing he is slowly drawing his suspect out of the shadows and into the light, as one and the same.
On the face of it, little can be gleaned from these two short messages, that is until you compare these two letters to others, and place them alongside articles sent by Donald Lee Bujok to the Billings Gazette in the 1970's.
In a previous post it was shown that Donald Lee Bujok sent numerous literary observations on various social issues of the day, thereby giving us a tantalizing glimpse into the psyche of what drove him, or possibly indicated that the author was luring us into a game of 'cat and mouse' and was toying with authorities, seeing if they could connect the dots between the Billings Gazette articles and the Zodiac paraphernalia that had streamed from the pen of a killer for virtually half a decade.

One of the most interesting letters he sent to the Billings Gazette was his reference to the Exorcist film dated June 2nd 1974, approximately four months after the Zodiac mailed the Exorcist Letter to the San Francisco Chronicle on January 29th 1974.
In the article he ridiculed the idea of possession and thoughts of the supernatural, not unlike Zodiac's statement at the top of the Exorcist Letter, in which he wrote "I saw and think the Exorcist was the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen."

In the Billings Gazette he opened up with the statement "I have been reading and hearing all about the Exorcist in Billings", very similar to his superfluity of words in the Exorcist Letter.
On March 22nd 1974 in another letter to the Billings Gazette he seemed irked by a Dick Tracy horror strip apparently promoting poor moral values, mirroring the Badlands/Citizen Letter, mailed by the supposed Zodiac on May 8th 1974 just one and a half months later, in which he chastised the running of advertisements for the Badlands movie in similar poor taste, as well as parallels to the attack on columnist Marco Spinelli in the Red Phantom Letter on July 8th 1974.
In another article he moralizes over the issues of hunting and the rights of landowners.

However, there is another more revealing piece of correspondence he mailed to the Billings Gazette, dated Monday March 17th 1975, entitled 'It could be the octane rating,' and provided further and more interesting parallels to the Zodiac case, as well as to the apparently insignificant SLA Letter, that will now become the centerpiece of our focus.
The Zodiac presented us with symbols at the foot of the Exorcist Letter, thought to be the words 'To Kill', as Kevin Robert Brooks surmised this was the most reasonable assumption based on what we know about the killer. He then, as a form of prompt to the police, sent us the SLA Letter shortly thereafter, and in trademark Zodiac style continued his art of toying with authorities by stating

"Did you know that the initials SLA spell "sla", an old Norse word meaning "Kill". a friend", even stylizing his K in typical Mikado fashion.
The SLA Letter was postmarked February 14th 1974 and just over one year later on March 17th 1975 came more high octane correspondence, in the form of an article Donald Lee Bujok crafted on the subject of a haunted Volkswagen, that was headed:
'It could be the octane rating',
In the article he placed two interesting features that spiked interest.
Firstly he mentions 'Mr Kolchak', the lead character from the television series 'Kolchak the Night Stalker', the first episode of which, is about a serial killer who writes to newspapers, entitled 'The Ripper' (view on Youtube), and aired by ABC television on September 13th 1974.
The storyline is about a murderer who preys on women in Chicago, with Carl Kolchak played by Darren McGavin, strong in his belief that this was not a copycat but actually Jack the Ripper himself, a ruthless killer who slaughtered five women in the Whitechapel district of London, England in 1888. He was an intimidating and fast talking character, strong willed with a dark sense of humor, who worked as investigative newspaper journalist for Chicago's Independent News Service, going to any lengths to nail down a story.

SENT TO THE BILLINGS GAZETTE ON MONDAY MARCH 17TH 1975

A rival reporter Jane Plumb, who was also pursuing the story after receiving correspondence from the killer, felt she could arrange a meeting with 'The Ripper' for an exclusive.
Two pilots were made in 1972 and 1973 based on an unpublished novel, called 'The Night Stalker'.
The series also included 'They Have Been, They Are, They Will Be' released on TV September 27th 1974, 'Firefall' released November 8th 1974, 'Horror in the Heights' released December 20th 1974, 'Legacy of Terror' released February 14th 1975, exactly one year after the SLA Letter and ended with 'The Sentry' after twenty episodes on March 28th 1975, just 11 days after Donald Lee Bujok's most recent correspondence with the Billings Gazette.
The second interesting piece of the article is contained in only one word. Donald Lee Bujok signed the foot of the letter with the word 'Skoal', which is Danish Old Norse meaning cheers or good health, reminiscent of the SLA letter's unusual footnote, stating 'an old Norse word meaning "Kill".
On the face of it, these articles to the Billings Gazette appear insignificant, that is until you bear in mind their close proximity to known Zodiac correspondence and the subject matter involved.
This article is courtesy of Kevin Robert Brooks and this is the 'Montana Connection'.

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THE BREATH OF A KILLER

9/5/2012

20 Comments

The Zodiac Killer mystery retains an unfaltering allure, that has managed to captivate a worldwide audience for more than four decades. When people become entranced with the case, there are many times upon reviewing the postcards, ciphers and wording, that the breath of the killer can almost be felt for a brief moment, when you spot something you think is significant, before it is cruelly snatched away. But it does not stop you trying, in essence to close the book on years of torment for the victims families and friends, which often has unfortunately become lost in the midst of this tragic affair.
Many suspects have been touted as the infamous Zodiac Killer, and most have been effectively eliminated from ongoing scrutiny. However, recently another name has emerged, that of Donald Lee Bujok, promoted from previous obscurity to the forefront of the discussion, by some detailed and extensive research by Zodiac enthusiast Kevin Robert Brooks, who can claim to have felt the breath of a killer more than most.

But can Kevin Robert Brooks convince us that Donald Lee Bujok is the killer. Well that is for you to decide.
As an introduction to this suspect, one must first acquaint themselves with the forerunner to this story, 'Donald Lee Bujok-Zodiac Suspect, which details the thought processes the killer used in the design of the Halloween Card.
Bearing in mind the killer is approaching his writings from a rationale different from the norm, the key to cracking his codes, may lie in unconventional thinking, held naturally by very few individuals.
Kevin Robert Brooks also dissects the Exorcist Letter and subsequent S.L.A Letter, which he believes are inextricably linked by the word "kill".
It is a widely held belief that the footnote of the Exorcist Letter stating Me-37 SFPD-0, is a reference to his murder count so far. If we believe that his 'tally' was progressive, who and where are all his victims, and why the three year period of inactivity in correspondence. If the killer was incarcerated during this period, then murder on this magnitude is frankly implausible, if we are to believe the Exorcist Letter as genuine Zodiac material.
However, there is an alternative, in that the killer is revealing his age of 37 years, this time attributing it to Me, and not the Zodiac symbol as in previous writings.

Donald Lee Bujok was born on July 6th 1936, which meant he was 37 on delivery of the Exorcist Letter. The strange symbols the killer placed at the foot of the letter having been dissected by Kevin Robert Brooks to reveal the words 'To Kill !'.
Kevin Robert Brooks has lived with dyslexia, which may have provided a unique perspective on the Exorcist Letter, enabling him to 'decode' the characters at the foot of the correspondence.
This unique perspective may have been shared with the Zodiac Killer.
In his follow up S.L.A Letter, just over two weeks later, he again emphasizes the word "kill", as a possible hint to the previous correspondence. Note the similarity of the letter K and its apparent detachment. The Zodiac was widely believed to have an affinity towards The Mikado, a two part comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, which opened to the public on March 14th 1885, and was hugely successful running for 672 performances at the Savoy Theatre in London. The similarities can again be seen with the Asian style K. (see Mikado attachment above).
Donald Lee Bujok's early life was beset with problems. He suffered from a bi-polar disorder, a form of depression punctuated by mood swings, along with a speech impediment to which in later years he gained some control over by speaking in a slow calculated tone, resulting in the young Bujok being bullied by

other schoolchildren, and ultimately becoming socially detached.
Determined to lay claim to some meaning in life, Donald Lee Bujok joined the army, where in 1954 he was stationed at Fort Ord on Monterey Bay. This posting, according to Kevin Robert Brooks, effectively became pivotal in his later correspondence, manifesting itself in the construction of The Halloween Card and envelope, detailed by Kevin Robert Brooks in a Youtube video and previous article on this site.
But another tantalizing clue lay in something Donald Lee Bujok could have retained from his brief spell at Fort Ord, before his medical discharge- this being the writing paper used at the military base.
This may possibly be the same paper used to author the Zodiac letter, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969, described on page 446 of Robert Graysmith's 'Zodiac Unmasked'. That being, it was so thin, that the overleaf became visible, measuring exactly 7 and 1/8 inches by 10 and 1/2 inches, identical to the Fort Ord stationary Donald Lee Bujok would have had access to. But after his early contact to the newspapers, wisely switched materials, in order to protect his identity.
Kevin Robert Brooks, crafted by careful research, is steadfast in his belief that his suspect is the Bay Area murderer, and is now more confident than ever, that the breath of his killer, is the one that condensed in the chill of the Lake Herman Road air on December 20th 1968.