The above message of 408 characters is what I believe was originally crafted by the Zodiac Killer before he accidentally skipped a line during encryption. There is every chance the Zodiac Killer wrote the plaintext of his message in a continuous 17 by 24 grid, from which he would create three ciphertext messages of 17 by 8 to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle. He finished encrypting the plaintext message of "TH" to the Examiner, knowing that he had to begin the Chronicle message by encrypting the "E" to complete the word "THE". Unfortunately, when he returned to his plaintext grid of 17 by 24, he accidentally used the "E" from the 18th line instead of the 17th line, thereby creating an encrypted message that read "The best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradice and all the I have killed will become my slaves". 

At some point he must have realized this, so effectively used some type of filler at the bottom of the cipher. Had the original message finished with "stop my collecting of slaves for the afterlife", rather than grammatically inferior "stop my collecting of slaves for my afterlife", the original message would have been the full 408 characters (shown above). It may be the case that once he realized his mistake of missing a line - and knew he now had only seven rows comprising the ciphertext to the Chronicle - he lost his train of thought. The accuracy of the remainder of the message regarding "THE" or "MY" was now an irrelevance.

The Zodiac Killer only used the word "LONE" in his address to the San Francisco Chronicle when requesting they print the cipher, so it's fitting that this word should have begun the ciphertext he mailed to them. The use of "STRAY PEOPLE" featured in the communication to the Vallejo Times-Herald, thereby completing the phrase "all the lone or stray people" that ran through rows 16, 17 and 18. The missing line (added in the diagram above left) only uses words from his July 31st 1969 letters.

Attempting to find an answer to the "18 unsolved characters" relies on the assumption that his original encryption was correct, which clearly it wasn't. The Zodiac Killer certainly misspelled words in his communications, but rarely, if ever, did he omit words entirely. If the Zodiac Killer had written his original plaintext grid of 17 by 24 into three separate and distinct sections, it's highly unlikely this mistake would ever have occurred (so it's likely he didn't). When reading text in any form, it's easy to accidentally skip a line or read a line twice. The former may have been the case with respect to the Zodiac Killer. 

Thanks to Dave Oranchak for first floating the idea of a missing line, which I now believe is the likeliest answer.

Inspired by an idea floated by Dave Oranchak of Zodiac Killer Ciphers and the third instalment of his Let's Crack Zodiac series, we will take another look at the 408 cipher and the notion of a killer who simply skipped a line accidentally when transferring his 17 by 24 plaintext grid into three separate 17 by 8 ciphertext mailings. It was an easy error to make, bearing in mind that the letter E may have began three consecutive rows on the original plaintext 408 (rows 17, 18 and 19). The Zodiac Killer may have inadvertently missed out ELONEORSTRAYPEOPL while transferring from his 17 by 24 plaintext grid into the ciphertext mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. He accidentally enciphered the next row, which also began with the letter E, converting EIHAVEKILLEDWILLB into ciphertext (which unfortunately now began the enciphered message to the Chronicle). This created the appearance of a missing word (such as people) in "the best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradise and all the (people) I have killed will become my slaves".  

The reason for believing that ELONEORSTRAYPEOPL are the missing 17 letters of plaintext, is based on his threats to the three newspapers, who he threatened with devastating consequences if they failed to publish his cipher by the afternoon of Friday, August 1st. The Zodiac Killer, when finishing his encryption, would now realise his mistake, but for whatever reason decided not to go back and correct the error. His original intention may very well have been to leave just one apparently meaningless plaintext letter E at the end of the 408 cipher (effectively creating a 407 character cipher). That is, until we run the decoding process for a second time.

Dave Oranchak showed us how the Zodiac Killer enciphered his letter E's as he traveled through the 408 cipher, by cycling through Z9W+ONE (O with dot). which all represented the letter E and created a repeating sequence (despite breaking down towards the end). This is shown at 32:47 on his Let's Crack Zodiac episode. If we apply a second decoding to the letter E remaining at the end of the 408 cipher, the letter E would now be replaced by the letter Z, which begins this repeating sequence. The 408 cipher would now be complete with a message and signature (or identity). The Zodiac Killer would be signing off his cipher with the letter Z, partially and fully evident in the April 30th 1967 Bates letters and October 27th 1970 Halloween card. Whether the letter E required a second decoding is unproven, but it's a tantalizing prospect regarding a killer who initially boasted "in this cipher is my idenity" - and a missing line that makes this all possible.

Let's Crack Zodiac (Part One)      Let's Crack Zodiac (Part Two)

The Zodiac Killer murdered David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen in Benicia on December 20th 1968, before moving into Vallejo on July 4th 1969 with the attack at Blue Rock Springs on Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau. He had successfully committed two late night attacks on two young couples - and by the time he had mailed his July 31st 1969 letters and cryptograms to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald newspapers - the police were no nearer to catching him. By all accounts, this seemed a rather 'successful' opening to his serial killer career, evolving from the murderer of three into the ominous Zodiac Killer by August 4th 1969. This being the case, why did the Zodiac Killer rip up this template of murder and embark on a whole new path on September 27th 1969, leaving many observers to this day questioning the Lake Berryessa stabbings as a Zodiac crime? Rather than constantly examining the modus operandi between the three crimes and questioning their incompatibility with one another, it may be more productive to discover the reasons why the Zodiac Killer dropped an approach that had worked on December 20th 1968 and July 4th 1969, to now adopt a brazen attack with a knife in daylight hours. Something happened externally or internally to provoke this switch in attack style.

The Zodiac Killer by August 4th 1969 had murdered three people, severely injured one, mailed three cryptograms and written four letters. From the outset he placed importance on receiving front page coverage. On July 31st 1969, his trinity of communications demanded that he received front page coverage, stating "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". Imagine his horror and dismay, that the highest circulation newspapers in the Bay Area ignored his demands and relegated the cryptic murderer of three into relative anonymity on their inner pages. The San Francisco Chronicle published his cryptogram on page four, while the San Francisco Examiner (had in his eyes), literally spat in his face, by placing their portion of the cryptogram on a lowly page nine. This wouldn't go unnoticed by the killer of three on August 4th 1969, who hastily composed a fourth letter with an imposing pseudonym and uttered his displeasure by stating "I was not happy to see that I did not get front page coverage". We have come to understand the Zodiac Killer as a narcissistic braggart, whose primary objective wasn't the murders, but the publicity they generated. This publicity, to him, meant front page coverage in the major newspapers of the day - not page four and certainly not page nine. 

Just when the Zodiac Killer didn't think it could get any worse, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a front page article on August 6th 1969, entitled The Frenzy of San Jose Girls' Slayer, detailing the brutal stabbing murders of two young teenagers in San Jose on August 3rd 1969. This article arrived just two days after his dismay at not receiving front page coverage. The San Francisco Chronicle article read as follows:

The two young girls, found dead Sunday on a sun-parched San Jose hillside, appear to have been victims of a sexual psychopath, whose blood frenzy led him to "overkill."  Dr. John E. Hauser, Santa Clara county's chief medical examiner and coroner, said yesterday that the girls, Deborah Gay Furlong, 14, and Kathy Snoozy, 15, died in a "frenzied flurry of knife-wounds" inflicted so swiftly that neither gave any evidence of having struggled against the attack. Dr. Hauser, so shaken by the brutality of the crime he could scarcely find words, said the Snoozy youngster had 150 wounds on her back, 50 on the front and a "storm" of punctures on her neck. Deborah's body had about 100 wounds on her back and upper front and a dozen on her neck.

PUZZLE: Dr. Hauser said he was "puzzled" by many aspects of the brutal slaying. He said neither girl had been sexually molested; neither had suffered any wounds below her waist, neither gave evidence of having struggled to escape. Only the Snoozy girl, he said, had one small mark on her hand, suggesting she may have tried vainly to deflect the plunging knife. The coroner said both girls must have died very quickly and he is investigating the possibility they may have been drugged before the stabbing began. Blood and skin samples as well as stomach contents have been sent for further examination to area laboratories, he said. The results should be known in a few days. It is Dr. Hauser's opinion that the multiple puncture wounds were inflicted by one or two small knives, the largest wound the size of a pocket knife with a half-inch blade. "I've never seen a case with this many stab wounds," Dr. Hauser said. "You know, I've been in this profession a long time and sometimes I think I'm rather callous, but when I saw these girls, believe me it was terrifying. "The Nazi sex mutilations during World War II were nothing compared to what was done to these young girls.

INVESTIGATION: So far, according to Chief of San Jose Detectives Barton Collins, his investigators have uncovered no solid clues to the slaying. He said police and sheriff's deputies are looking for a "light colored van—a Volkswagen, a Dodge, a Chevrolet or a Ford" in which the girls may have been killed and then rolled, carried or dragged down the hillside to a grove of snarled, dusty oaks where their bodies were found. Both he and the coroner emphasized that at the scene there was almost no blood, suggesting they had been slain elsewhere. Collins said he and his men have talked to at least 200 people so far, searching for some information that might draw them closer to the killer. Asked if he were looking for a "mad man," Collins, pale and exhausted, snapped: "I'm looking for a killer and it doesn't matter whether he was under drugs or what." Collins did not mention this, but the Chronicle learned that wedged in between the two bodies of the dead girls police found a "new," but empty beer can. There was speculation the killer may have rolled or carried one girl down, then finished off a can of beer, and then disposed of the second body without noticing the can. The scene, not more than six blocks from where the two girls lived with their families in a neat, prosperous subdivision in San Jose's Almaden area, was utterly desolate yesterday. A few small boys on bicycles paused to look up at the tanned knoll, swathed with wide paths used for scrambles by neighborhood motorcyclists, and scurried off. Normally scores of children play in that area, because, in the words of Deborah's father, Glen Furlong, "It's the only open area close by where kids can go to." Housewives living in the immediate area, across the street and around the corner, conceded they were suddenly "very frightened." One mother said that since the murder she had seen some children poking around the scene, and added, "We were shocked. "Maybe their parents don't care. But I wouldn't let mine go up there . . . "

PUBLICITY: Although very close to tears, Furlong said yesterday that he was allowing interviews in the hope that more and more publicity "would trigger something in someone's mind and we can solve this crime." The 40-year old father works at the big International Business Machines plant only about a mile away from the family home. He is a senior associate engineer in the logic design section of IBM and he tried to bring objectivity to the disaster that has befallen his family. "The individual or individuals who did this either had to be deranged or high on dope or something of that nature," he said. "They didn't know what they were doing. It was such a senseless killing." He said his neighborhood has never had any problems, although mahy complain about the noise made by the weekend cyclists. He noted parenthetically that the riders are not of the Hell's Angel variety, but use lighter motorcycles. He said his neighbors were "very sympathetic," but complained he found some of his phone calls "very disconcerting."

CALLERS: "On several occasions people have called and as soon as we answer, they hang up," he said in bewilderment. Furlong tried to control his emotions as he spoke of his eldest daughter — one of his four children. "She was only a freshman in high school," he said, "and this was the first year we allowed her to date. We talked to her about it, and I sort of teased her. She went out with a boy friend a few times — a very nice boy who came over yesterday morning to extend his condolences — but most of her social activities were confined to her school. She was never any trouble." School mates and neighborhood friends of Deborah said the girl, very slim and looking more like a 10-year-old than a 14-year-old, was "just an ordinary nice girl who baby set and had a boy friend and talked about becoming an airline stewardess."

CHILDREN: The other Furlong children are Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11. Furlong said he did not know and had not yet talked to Kathy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred Snoozy. Both Snoozy, a carpet layer, and Mrs. Snoozy reportedly are in a state of collapse. Her funeral has been scheduled Friday at 11 a.m. at the Place Funeral Home in Los Gatos. Burial will be at Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz. Funeral services for Kathy will be held tomorrow (Thursday) at 2 p.m. at the Oak Hill Memorial Park Mortuary in San Jose. Burial will be at Oak Hill Memorial Park.  

The Zodiac Killer, avidly scanning the newspapers for progress on his cryptograms and latest letter, must have been bitterly disappointed that these murders committed in San Jose featured front and center of the San Francisco Chronicle, while his three murders, allied to his cryptic ciphers, were relegated to page four and nine of the two San Francisco newspapers. He needed to switch his approach to murder and hit San Francisco hard.

The phrases of "The Nazi sex mutilations during World War II were nothing compared to what was done to these young girls", the title of "The Frenzy of San Jose Girls' Slayer" and "Dr. Hauser, so shaken by the brutality of the crime he could scarcely find words", must have resonated with the Bay Area murderer. He knew that to generate the front page coverage he so badly craved, he needed to switch from gun to knife in a savage close-quarter attack. However, he needed to elevate the fear by dressing up in a costume with his moniker emblazoned on his chest, akin to the fear the Nazi swastika instilled in its victims. He would also ramp up the terror by using a bayonet-style knife, rather than the pocket knife used in the Snoozy and Furlong murders. This article alone was the driver behind the Lake Berryessa stabbings, and effectively sealed Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard's fate, seven weeks in advance of the crime. The Zodiac Killer, dressed in ordinary clothes, gazed into the mirror and effectively saw the costumed Lake Berryessa murderer staring back at him. His fantasy was taking shape.         

Three girls from Pacific Union College may have been the initial target of the Zodiac Killer as he scoured the hillsides of Lake Berryessa, but circumstances unknown would ultimately change what transpired. Two hours later, an ominous figure stepped out from behind a tree at Twin Oak Ridge and bore down on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard. The Zodiac Killer's fantasy, driven by the August 6th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle article, had emerged into reality. The Snoozy and Furlong murders on August 3rd 1969 were about to be replicated in the mind of a killer. The costume specifically designed and crafted with care, by a man who fed into his own narcissism and who was now on the verge of securing the recognition he felt he so richly deserved. Whether the couple survived the upcoming attack and reported what they saw was incidental - the Zodiac Killer had now satiated his desire to become the embodiment of fear, he viewed as being denied from him and his accomplishments after the trinity of cryptic communications on July 31st 1969.

After the attack on the couple, he made his way up the hillside to the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia of Bryan Hartnell and defiantly listed his accomplishments on the door of the vehicle, but specifically added the words "by knife" at the foot of the message. He was effectively making a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle (and to a lesser extent, The Examiner), "do I get front page coverage now". The Snoozy and Furlong murders, in his mind, had overshadowed his accomplishments at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs, despite the cryptic offerings he had so painstakingly crafted. So he crafted a costume instead and attempted to ramp the fear factor to a new level. The fact that Bryan Hartnell survived the Lake Berryessa attack, inadvertently played right into his hands. The evil, fear-inducing costume he had carefully crafted and labored over, was now the focus and feeding frenzy of a media gripped by this new revelation. The second coming of Zodiac was now complete - and his requirement to converse with the newspapers strangely deflated, because Bryan Hartnell had successfully recounted the details of Lake Berryessa with astonishing clarity and vividness. The Zodiac Killer had now been reborn and resurrected from gun-toting lunatic into the embodiment of evil. This crime also had one added benefit with respect to the identity of the killer of Snoozy and Furlong - and I doubt this possibility escaped the attention of the Zodiac Killer when he arrived at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969.    

In an article entitled Another Grim Message by Paul Avery, a link between the Lake Berryessa stabbings and the murder of the two San Jose teenagers was pondered by both investigators and newspapers alike. The Zodiac Killer had deliberately emphasized "by knife" on the car door at Twin Oak Ridge, and included "Aug" in his victim months on the Dripping Pen card for this very reason. When he mailed the November 8th 1969 Dripping Pen card, he requested "I though you would nead a good laugh before you hear the bad news. You won't get the news for a while yet. PS could you print this new cipher in your frunt page? I get aufully lonely when I am ignored, so lonely I could do my Thing !!!!!!  Des July Aug Sept Oct = 7". The Zodiac Killer didn't need to demand front page coverage anymore, he knew he would get it. By committing the Lake Berryessa stabbings and including "Aug" in his chronology of months, he had effectively planted the seed in investigators minds that he could have been responsible for the Snoozy and Furlong murders in August. He had essentially bought himself front page coverage by piggybacking off a crime he already knew had achieved this status on August 6th 1969.
Just like the threat to pick off schoolchildren and blow up a school bus, the savagery of these two close-quarter attacks demanded he be taken seriously. Whatever we say about the Zodiac Killer, his marketing skills were second to none. He knew how to turn page four and page nine into page one, placing Another Grim Message proudly on the news stands of San Francisco.    

The importance of the San Francisco Chronicle article from August 6th 1969 cannot be underestimated with respect to Lake Berryessa and future Zodiac communications. Who would remember the burial location of one of the victims from San Jose, if not the killer who was so influenced by this very article? Who then shifted from impersonal double shootings at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs, to intimate stabbings at Lake Berryessa. Only somebody invested in murder during the time  period this article was released, would have reason to remember where the two San Jose teenagers were laid to rest. Under CHILDREN in the August 6th 1969 Chronicle article, it stated "The other Furlong children are Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11. Furlong said he did not know and had not yet talked to Kathy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred Snoozy. Both Snoozy, a carpet layer, and Mrs. Snoozy reportedly are in a state of collapse. Her funeral has been scheduled Friday at 11 a.m. at the Place Funeral Home in Los Gatos. Burial will be at Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz. Funeral services for Kathy will be held tomorrow (Thursday) at 2 p.m. at the Oak Hill Memorial Park Mortuary in San Jose. Burial will be at Oak Hill Memorial Park".

The Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in San Jose lies in the Monticello neighborhood, just nine miles east of the Villa Montalvo woods, where Kathy Bilek was brutally stabbed on April 11th 1971 - and who the Zodiac Killer referenced in his July 13th 1971 communication, stating "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". There are a multitude of places in San Jose the author of this card could have chosen, but he chose Monticello. The exact place Kathie Snoozy was buried - and the teenager whose murder he insinuated his involvement in on November 8th 1969. When Karl Francis Werner was attributed with the murders of Debra Furlong, Kathie Snoozy and Kathy Bilek, the Zodiac Killer had the option to recuse himself of all involvement in the two San Jose murders. But that wasn't his style. The attack at Lake Berryessa, the Dripping Pen card, and a whole host of communications involving San Jose had locked him into a lie he was unwilling to relinquish. He would effectively try to reclaim the Snoozy and Furlong murders, by also claiming the Kathy Bilek murder in Saratoga via the Monticello card, as well as calling Werner a phony in another Zodiac communication mailed in May 1971 (shown below). The Zodiac Killer had simply invested too much time and effort into this elaborate facade, that was encapsulated by his theatrical performance at Lake Berryessa. Two years he had lived in a house of illusion - and Karl Francis Werner was not going to tear it down. 

Recently I have examined a connection between the 1969 and 1987 Vallejo Times-Herald envelopes not only through handwriting, but through design. We know of only three communications to the Vallejo Times-Herald, mailed on July 31st 1969, October 28th 1987 and September 25th 1990. There is a strong possibility that the Bay Area murderer mailed all three. I am sure he was a killer who meticulously kept all the newspaper cuttings written about him over the years and drew inspiration from them when he mailed his latter communications, dropping in subtle clues beyond the capability of the casual hoaxer. 

If we take a look at the three July 31st 1969 letters, you will notice that the communication addressed to the San Francisco Chronicle contained the word "cipher" spelled correctly five times. To the San Francisco Examiner the word "cipher" was spelled correctly three times. In the Vallejo Times-Herald he spelled the word "cipher" correctly once, while spelling it incorrectly on the only other occasion, depositing the letter "Y" into the word (cyipher). The author of the postcard mailed on September 25th 1990 from Oakland, addressed the card as the Celebrity Cypher to the Vallejo Times Herold Vallejo CA. The 1969, 1987 and 1990 communications all used the full address of the newspaper, despite the publicly known July 31st 1969 letters to the Chronicle and Examiner only using the title of Vallejo Times.

But more crucially, both the communications on July 31st 1969 and September 25th 1990 addressed the Vallejo Times-Herald as "Herold", switching the "A" for an "O". I have contacted the editor of the Vallejo Times-Herald for a clearer image of the October 28th 1987 envelope and he promised to have a look in the files. Not only would we be able to view the handwriting in greater clarity, but we would find out if he addressed the envelope "Herold" for a third time. If he did, then the Bay Area murderer would have mailed only three communication to the Vallejo Times-Herald (that we know of), and all would have contained the misspelling of "Herald" to "Herold".

Below is an FBI file from November 8th 1973 carrying the name of Leslie B. Lundblad, analyzing some handwriting in respect to the Vallejo Times-Herald envelope, the Debut of Zodiac letter and the Little List letter. It is accompanied by two excerpts from the Zodiac Killer FBI files (Part One). All three FBI documents feature the address used on the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope. All three show that it was addressed to the Vallejo Times Herold, just like the 1990 Celebrity Cypher. What is the betting on the October 28th 1987 envelope containing the word "Herold" as well? Could a casual copycat just keep getting so many things correct, despite having no access to any of the preceding Zodiac envelopes - or is it more likely that the Zodiac Killer was more nuanced than we give him credit for.

The Zodiac Killer made an error when transitioning from cipher two (mailed to the San Francisco Examiner), to cipher three (mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle) in the 408 cipher. Since the Zodiac Killer used the word "people" six times in his July 31st 1969 communications, it's probably a safe bet that the missing word in "The best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradice and all the (?) I have killed will become my slaves", is people. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that the Zodiac Killer ever intended to leave 18 characters at the foot of the 408 cipher - rather 12 characters.

Dave Oranchak, author of the hugely successful website Zodiac Killer Ciphers, managed to stick a giant monkey wrench in this conclusion with an excellent idea, by suggesting that the Zodiac Killer may have inadvertently missed out a whole line from his cipher. Although this may on first consideration seem less likely, it must be noted that row 17 and row 18 would both begin with the letter "E" in the new presentation. Dave Oranchak  came up with an idea for the missing line (shown below left), to which I added a further suggestion (shown below right). The idea behind my suggestion, was utilizing the words chosen by the Zodiac Killer when he threatened to kill more "people" in his July 31st 1969 letters.

#1. In his communication to the Vallejo Times-Herald, the Zodiac Killer wrote "I will cruse around and pick of all stray people or coupples that are alone then move on to kill some more untill I have killed over a dozen people".

#2. In his communication to the San Francisco Examiner, the Zodiac Killer wrote "If you do not print this cipher, I will go on a kill rampage Fry night. This will last the whole weekend, I will cruse around killing people who are alone at night untill Sun Night or un till I kill a dozen people".

#3. In his communication to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Zodiac Killer wrote "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 reason to suspect the missing section of 17 letters/characters would have been "lone or stray people", is because the Zodiac Killer used these exact words in the Vallejo Times-Herald and San Francisco Chronicle above. This suggestion by Dave Oranchak, of the Zodiac Killer accidentally omitting a whole line from his plaintext draught to ciphertext encryption, would have the added benefit of filling 407 of the 408 characters in the cipher.

It is easy to see how the Zodiac Killer may have made this mistake, when his original draught had the letter "E" beginning both row 17 and row 18. A cipher created by the Zodiac Killer using 407 characters out of 408 spaces (arranged 17 X 24) seems far more acceptable. This would have left little room for his identity on the final row, if indeed one was ever meant to be reserved for the final line of the cipher. The only possibility would have been "Z" - now that takes me back a few years. 

Thanks to Dave Oranchak.

When the Zodiac Killer mailed his July 31st 1969 letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald, he informed each newspaper to the fact he had mailed letters to the other two. He addressed the San Francisco Chronicle as S.F. Chronicle on its envelope and in the letters to the other newspapers, the San Francisco Examiner as S.F. Examiner on its envelope and in the letters to the other newspapers, but addressed the Vallejo Times-Herald as Vallejo Times Herald on its envelope and Vallejo Times to the other newspapers. The 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope had not been made visible to the public at the time the disputed October 28th 1987 Halloween letter arrived at the Vallejo Times-Herald (as far as I can ascertain). The three July 31st 1969 envelopes even failed to make the San Francisco Police Department DNA report in the late 1990s.

An article from ABC News in 2003: "The lab has found a partial DNA "fingerprint" on one of the envelopes, but not enough for definitive matching. However, a Primetime investigation prompted the discovery of three envelopes that offer new hope. The envelopes (July 31st 1969) were thought to have been lost, but an anonymous Primetime source — a long-retired investigator — found them, in mint condition, during a search of his personal files and turned them over to the San Francisco police".

Experts very quickly determined the 1987 letter was mailed by a hoaxer. "The fake letter sent to the Vallejo Times-Herald in midweek was a simulation of a hoax letter written in 1978", police Capt. Roy Conway said Thursday. "The determination was made by experts in the state Department of Justice", he said. In Sacramento, spokeswoman Melinda Stehr of the attorney general's office said handwriting experts confirmed the letter was a simulation of a letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle a decade ago, which was also considered to be a hoax."Someone saw the letter and was using it as a copy."  Stehr said. "It's a fake. It's a hoax". When they made this determination, they clearly didn't have the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope at their disposal, so they could compare it to the October 28th 1987 envelope. If they had, they may very well have come to a different conclusion. The Zodiac Killer wrote 'Vallejo Times' in his letters when he addressed the Chronicle and Examiner on July 31st 1969 (which were made public), but his envelope to the Vallejo newspaper contained the full name of 'Vallejo Times Herald'. An envelope not made public prior to October 28th 1987. Yet the recent 1987 envelope contained the full title of 'Vallejo Times Herald', just like the unpublished 1969 Vallejo envelope.

If you compare the now available July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope, with the October 28th 1987 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope, the similarity is noticeable. How could a hoaxer mimic the 1969 Vallejo envelope so closely if he had never laid eyes on it. The same words and amount of words (and abbreviations) are used in both, with no commas or full stops in either address. The dominant alphabetical V is present on both, with a distinct right leaning slant extending over the "a" of Vallejo. Up to October 28th 1987, these were the only two communications ever mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald from either Zodiac, or a supposed copycat of Zodiac. If the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope was never made public prior to October 28th 1987, I suggest that this recent Halloween offering should be declared genuine Zodiac Killer correspondence. This is the best image available of the 1987 envelope. There are two March 29th 1985 issue date 22c stamps of Flag Over Capitol on the 1987 envelope. The May 6th 1986 'Zodiac' envelope contains one smaller Flag Over Capitol stamp.          

This article is what I would describe as an investigative piece written with impartiality to the best of my knowledge. We know that the July 31st 1969 letters were the Zodiac Killer because of their content, so if the October 28th 1987 envelope can unequivocally be tied to one of these letters through the handwriting style and composition of each envelope, we can say without doubt the Bay Area murderer was still alive in 1987. However, if any reader of this article can find the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald envelope published prior to October 28th 1987, for the latest Halloween letter author to mimic, I will delete this article immediately.  

Many Zodiac enthusiasts have pondered from where did the Zodiac Killer acquire his pseudonym, or when he decided upon the name Zodiac. The Bay Area murderer arrived at Lake Herman Road on December 20th 1968, where he callously executed David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen with six shots to the head and body. Just over seven months later, on July 31st 1969, he mailed three pieces of correspondence to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald, but failed to introduce himself as Zodiac despite having over half a year to formulate a pseudonym. He only introduced himself as the "killer" and "murderer".

Three letters, detailing his crimes and awash with cryptograms, announcing his arrival to the newspapers, seemed like the perfect opportunity to announce those infamous words of "This is the Zodiac speaking" - yet nothing. His next communication was only sent in response to Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz, who doubted the letter writer and killer were the same person and "urged the writer yesterday to send more letters with more facts to prove his connection with the crimes". The Bay Area murderer immediately replied on August 4th 1969, stating "This is the Zodiac speaking. In answer to your asking for more details about the good times I have had in Vallejo, I shall be very happy to supply even more material". It can be seen that this letter would never have been sent, had Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz not urged the killer to do so. If the letter had not been sent, then our killer would not have presented himself as Zodiac on August 4th 1969. In fact, he may not have adopted the pseudonym at all.

In absence of this letter, the next letter to contain his pseudonym was mailed two days after the Paul Stine murder on October 13th 1969. So, it's entirely plausible that the muderer of five could have begun and ended his attacks in the Bay Area as a nameless killer. The Vallejo News Chronicle published one-third of his 408 Cipher on August 1st 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle did the same on August 2nd 1969, with the San Francisco Examiner waiting until August 3rd 1969 and publishing all three parts, but on a lowly page nine. All three carried the message from Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz, yet despite the Examiner publishing their part of the cipher the latest and relegating it further from the front page than the other publications, in defiance of his demands for front page coverage by Friday afternoon, it was the Examiner he chose to introduce his pseudonym to. In other words, they complied the least, but the killer chose to "supply more details" to them rather than a Vallejo publication and to the home city of Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz, who he was supposedly addressing.

There is a real possibility that the murderer of three chose the San Francisco Examiner because they were the only publication to give the murderer a pseudonym, which may have ultimately triggered the following communication a day later. The Examiner wrote "The police telephone system was clogged by anxious callers asking if the "cipher killer" had been caught". The murderer seemingly didn't appreciate the pseudonym given to him and a day later, on August 4th 1969, he introduced himself to the Bay Area with "This is the Zodiac speaking". But why this phrase? The Examiner article noted that "the police telephone system was clogged by anxious callers asking if the "cipher killer" had been caught", so what better way to announce yourself as you might do over the telephone. This wasn't an anxious caller, this was the Zodiac speaking.  

Without this San Francisco Examiner article and resultant Debut of Zodiac Letter on August 4th - announcing yourself as the "Zodiac" on October 13th 1969 after the end of a ten month series of murders, certainly wouldn't have had the same impact. Without the publication of "cipher killer", the pseudonym of the Zodiac Killer would in all probability never have existed.

The counter-argument to the above, is the killer had ample time to give himself a pseudonym from December 20th 1968 to July 31st 1969, and only began the trinity of letters with "murderer" and "killer" because he had reserved the pseudonym "Zodiac" for the 18 characters at the foot of the Chronicle cipher. This was the portion he claimed held his "identity". A hidden pseudonym would be negated had he began the correspondence with "This is the Zodiac speaking". With the entirety of his communications beginning with this phrase, does it lend credence to the notion its absence from the introduction to these three letters, is validation to its concealment in the 18 unsolved characters?  If he hadn't preselected his pseudonym in advance of the July 31st 1969 letters, one could revert back to the notion it was the "cipher killer" attribution that triggered his reply on August 4th 1969. For 35 years starting in 1965, the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner operated under a Joint Operating Agreement whereby the Chronicle published a morning paper and the Examiner published in the afternoon. The Examiner published the Sunday paper's news sections and glossy magazine, and the Chronicle contributed the features. Circulation was approximately 100,000 on weekdays and 500,000 on Sundays. By 1995, discussion was already brewing in print media about the possible shuttering of the Examiner due to low circulation and an extremely disadvantageous revenue sharing agreement for the Chronicle. Wikipedia. The Bay Area murderer's reply on August 4th, including his pseudonym for the first time, would therefore have been formulated in the mind of the killer from the moment he read the Sunday Examiner publication to his creation of the letter. The Zodiac Killer being born on August 3rd 1969, or early Monday morning on the fourth.
   

However, if he had decided upon his pseudonym in advance of the July 31st 1969 letters and had consciously withheld his pseudonym from his introduction so as to place it within the 18 unsolved characters - then having failed to do so - would be counterintuitive. One could argue that his use of the words "killer" and "murderer" were chosen for purpose, thereby lending credence to a viable solution with respect to the 18 unsolved characters. 

The 18 unsolved characters (if they contain any meaning whatsoever) clearly operate under a different technique of decryption to the other 390 characters. So if the Zodiac Killer didn't happen upon his pseudonym on August 3rd or 4th, then we have the very real possibility that the identity of "Zodiac" does reside in these final 18 characters, to which he alluded to in his address to Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz on August 4th 1969. The Zodiac Killer stated "when they do crack it, they will have me".

The Zodiac Killer committed the senseless slayings of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen on December 20th 1968. Six and a half months later he would follow this up with a second attempted double murder at Blue Rock Springs Park on July 4th 1969, in which sadly, Darlene Ferrin would succumb to her devastating injuries. Approximately one month later, the Zodiac Killer mailed three letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald announcing that he was responsible for the three murders and attempted murder, while challenging authorities to decode a 408 character cipher. The Zodiac Killer threatened the newspapers, stating "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".  Imagine his horror when the two main newspapers failed to bow to his threats, with the San Francisco Chronicle placing the story on page 4 of the August 2nd 1969 edition, and the San Francisco Examiner demoting him to a lowly page 9 on August 3rd 1969. The problem was further compounded, with Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz even questioning the validity of the author and "urged the writer to send more letters, with more facts to prove his connections to the crimes."

The Zodiac Killer in his haste to prove he was the killer responsible for three people, immediately sent a letter to the San Francisco Examiner on August 4th 1969 - and despite the Examiner printing his letter the same day, in which he declared "This is the Zodiac Speaking" and that he "was not happy to see that he did not get front page coverage", imagine his utter disbelief when he discovered that the San Francisco Examiner had again relegated his letter supplying more details of the crimes to page 4. It equally wouldn't have escaped his attention, that on the front page of the same paper it featured the double knife slaying of two young girls from San Jose. Deborah Furlong (14) and Kathy Snoozy (15) had been brutally stabbed while picnicking on a grassy knoll on August 3rd 1969. The Zodiac Killer had now murdered three people, nearly killed Michael Mageau and sent four communications (including three cryptograms), yet he was still unable to command front page coverage. But now he knew exactly what was required - and it was staring him squarely in the face on page one. August 4th 1969 was not only the day he announced his pseudonym to the world, but the day he realized that a brutal stabbing was required to secure himself front page coverage. This was the day the fate of Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard would be sealed, almost two months in the making.   

Forever the narcissist, the Zodiac Killer couldn't believe his luck when he happened upon three young girls on the shores of Lake Berrryessa by Smittle Creek. I am sure for a brief moment he could see the headlines flash in front of his eyes: "3 Girls Stabbed, Sunbathing Murders, Footprint Clue". However, the Zodiac Killer for whatever reason, decided against the attack, returned to his vehicle and drove away. Fortunately, the three young women from Pacific Union College would escape the wrath of the Zodiac Killer - but he was not done yet. Approximately two hours later and eight tenths of a mile south, the Zodiac Killer would reappear and set his sights on the 1956 White Karmann Ghia of Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard, before traversing the 510 yard hillside descent to the area of the picnicking couple. Driven by an insatiable desire to secure front page coverage, he proceeded to callously stab the young couple sixteen times before finally returning up the hillside and out of sight. The thoughts of the San Jose murders of Deborah Furlong and Kathy Snoozy - and the headline news they generated - were probably in the forefront of his mind when he approached the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia and pulled the black marker pen from his pocket. He proceeded to write on the car door of Bryan Hartnell's vehicle, to leave you in no doubt that he was mimicking the murders of the two young girls from San Jose. He wrote "Vallejo 12-20-68, 7-4-69, Sept 27-69 - 6:30 by knife". If you ever wondered why he wrote the time 6:30 on the car door, even though he rang in the crime just seventy minutes later, then the newspaper article below may give you a clue. This is the article from the San Francisco Examiner on August 4th 1969 - the very reason why the Zodiac Killer arrived at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969 in the first place.  

This annotation of 6:30 on the car door of Bryan Hartnell's vehicle was supposed to mark the time that the young couple at Lake Berryessa failed to return home also.

We know the Zodiac Killer was an avid reader of the newspapers, often replying to law enforcement officers such as Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz and Captain Martin Lee, as well as arbitrary content from the newspaper articles themselves. Therefore, would it be any great surprise if he found his pseudonym in the newspapers as well. Covered very briefly on Zodiac Killer Mystery forum and Tom Voigt's old message board, this finding deserved another showing. The Zodiac Killer and the influence of astrology has been widely covered throughout the years, but below we have a column that featured daily over several decades in many newspapers, including the Vallejo Times-Herald throughout the relevant time period of the Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs attacks. The Star Gazer astrology column was created by Clay R. Pollan and ran in over 400 newspapers. He was a newspaper editor and publisher for many years, and founded the Inter-American Features Syndicate in the mid 1940s which distributed Star Gazer and Scram-lets puzzles.

The columns began with "To develop the message for (day), read words corresponding to numbers of your Zodiac birth sign". We mention the Zodiac Killer crosshairs being found in conjunction with the word "Zodiac" on a watch, but here we have a column that would have featured in the Vallejo Times-Herald in 1969, that contained a hidden message within the Zodiac horoscope - and on July 31st 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed a hidden message in three portions of code, one of which was sent to the Vallejo Times-Herald, and one which was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, in which he wrote "In this cipher is my idenity". Is it conceivable that the inspiration for his pseudonym was derived from this Zodiac horoscope, which further inspired him to begin his letter writing campaign with a concealed message?  

Twenty-one years later, could the Zodiac Killer have returned and used the very same technique, when he mailed the Celebrity Cypher. Luis Campos, born in Santiago, Dominican Republic is an inventor, poet and cryptographer who created puzzles and ciphers for the United Features Syndicate of New York, beginning in 1983. He would create six celebrity ciphers a week, featuring famous quotes from well-known people, past and present. The reader had to identify the person and quote from the encoded text. The characters in the cryptograms were deliberately spaced into separate words, as shown below.  

On September 25th 1990, somebody mailed the Celebrity Cypher to the Vallejo Times-Herald, approximately three months before the 1990 'Eureka' card - often associated with the Zodiac Killer. Bearing in mind the 408 cipher mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969, many have pondered whether this postcard was mailed by the Bay Area murderer.

We may now have two sets of Zodiac communications inspired by the hidden messages of Clay R. Pollan and Luis Campos, with the Vallejo Times-Herald the common denominator in both instances. We know the Zodiac Killer derived inspiration from the newspapers, but did this inspiration extend to mimicking the art of hidden messaging? This concept could have extended even further, when the Zodiac Killer designed his infamous unsolved 340 cipher, that may have been taken straight from the Dick Tracy comic and breakfast cereals of children - again receiving widespread publicity in the newspapers. See the Dick Tracy 340 Cipher article. 

The Zodiac Killer mailed us three parts of one cipher on July 31st 1969, to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald. In his communication to the Chronicle he stated "In this cipher is my idenity". Bearing in mind this is the only portion of cipher with unsolved characters, it could be argued that any identity the Zodiac was offering would be found at the signing off phase in this cipher. It didn't really matter, because only four days later he gave us his identity in the form of "This is the Zodiac Speaking". The Zodiac Killer clearly made a mistake when taking his draught message into his 408 cipher, accidentally omitting the word "people" from the final offering. If we therefore conclude his original identity to be left was actually six characters shorter, it would have reduced the 18 unsolved characters to 12. Using the first-person singular pronoun of "I", his identity at the base of the 408 cipher would read "I am the Zodiac", to become "I am the Zodiac Killer" upon realization of his mistake. The Bay Area murderer literally gave us the exact wording to his unsolved 18 characters through his introductions in the Examiner and Herald letters (both communications began with "I am the killer"). Once we knew the pseudonym or identity as Zodiac on August 4th 1969, the conversion to "I am the Zodiac Killer" was the next logical step. This would become a habit for the Zodiac Killer, who would ultimately give us the exact wording to solve his remaining three ciphers. Not only would he give us the solutions to the codes, but his practice of using 'filler' with no apparent correlation to the solution would continue.  

The Zodiac Killer was no master criminal in the style of Moriarty, but he was nobody's fool either. To make the false assumption he didn't understand ciphers or codes when creating his remaining three offerings to the San Francisco Chronicle, would be a misguided one. Even somebody with limited knowledge of coding, knows that giving us a 32 character code with 29 unique characters within its framework, is practically unsolvable without a key. You can literally fill in the blanks as you choose. Therefore, the only realistic solution to the two smaller codes can come in two forms: [1] The Zodiac Killer can give us a key to decrypt the code, or [2] He can simply give us the answer. The Zodiac Killer may well have chosen option two, and given us the entire solution to all his three unsolved codes in subsequent communications. In fact, the possibilty exists that he supplied us with all the answers in three consecutive communications from July 26th 1970 to October 27th 1970 - in the Little List Letter (07/26/70), 13 Hole Postcard (10/05/70) and Halloween Card (10/27/70). The Zodiac Killer was likely giving us all the solutions before slipping back into anonymity. The newspaper article on November 16th 1970 by Paul Avery, linking Zodiac to the Riverside murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, likely drew one final breath from the Zodiac Killer through 1971, before his race was run.    

The "key" phrases for the four codes are *in this cipher is my identity", "the Mt. Diablo code concerns radians and inches",  "Fk, I'm crackproof" and "paradice and slaves". The 408 cipher we have examined, so we will now tackle the 32 symbol code.

The Little List Letter mailed on July 26th 1970, one month after the Mount Diablo code (06/26/70), told us the code "concerns radians and # inches along the radians". It was as simple as adding in two figures to complete the code (hence the hashtag symbol denoting a number). The Zodiac gave us the exact wording for the solution, detailed here in a previous article. As stated above, the 32 symbol code with 29 unique characters couldn't be solved without a key or the answer. The Mount Diablo map and crosshairs were the framework, onto which we "coupled" the code for the location of the bomb. The answer was likely "4 radians and 5 inches along the radian", thereby giving us the solution word for word. An alternative to this solution (where only the hashtag is replaced by the number 5), is "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians and 5 inches along the radians". The Zodiac didn't necessarily have to incorporate the number 4 because we already knew the radian value from the bold, black circle provided on the Little List Letter crosshairs.

The next solutions may have been given to us in the 13 Hole Postcard - that may ultimately become the most important communication of them all. By combining the "red crucifix" decoder and 13 punch-holes in true "Dick Tracy" style, the Paradice and Slaves formation would be revealed, bisecting the 340 cipher superficially along its mid-section both horizontally and vertically. See the article 'The Dick Tracy 340 Cipher'.  The Zodiac Killer wrote Paradice and Slaves on the Halloween card in the identical formation it could be found on the face of the 340 cipher. Three clues within the space of three weeks.

The Zodiac Killer also gave us the phrase "Fk, I'm crackproof" (upside down) on the 13 Hole Postcard. Apart from an expletive, the other viable option here, is the Zodiac Killer exclaiming that he is crackproof, preceded by his initials. The reason for this line of thinking, is the Zodiac Killer's wording before the 13 Symbol Cipher on April 20th 1970. The code is designed symmetrically and looks contrived, with three circled 8's fashioned at its center. The Zodiac Killer couldn't have supplied us with his name with any expectation it would be solved, because the code was simply too short and capable of providing us with thousands of solutions. However, he could provide us a solution to the code by giving us his initials. By doing it this way, he is in a roundabout way, giving us his name and a solution to the code that satisfies the introduction that preceded it: "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you. My name is Fk, I'm crackproof".

This solution not only fits into the 13 Symbol Cipher, but reads continuously if imagined in circular fashion. The Zodiac Killer gave us three 8's within a circle (the symbol of infinity, and regeneration and rebirth within Christianity), with the letters K and M positioned ideally in the code to fit "Fk, I'm crackproof" around. There are three elements to this phrase: Fk, I'm, and crackproof. When the entire phrase is slotted around the letters K and M, the number 8 begins each element of the phrase (as shown below).

The Zodiac Killer had effectively given us the exact wording of "I am the Zodiac Killer", "Paradice and Slaves", "Fk I'm crackproof" and "Radians and (5) inches along the radians" - all of which can be inserted untouched into all four ciphers and provide us with solutions that don't require a key (The "paradice and slaves" solution would only be present on the "canvas" of the 340 cipher, so this would only be a superficial observation). The idea of a killer who constantly responded to the newspapers at every turn, somehow resisting the temptation to ever disclose the workings of his codes and ciphers is a difficult story to sell. If we are of the belief that the 32 and 13 character codes are simply too short and too variable to be solved, then without a key the Zodiac Killer likely supplied an alternative. In the case presented above, the "key" and "answer" could be described as exactly the same thing - and It was just a case of transferring the wording from one communication to another in at least three of the examples.

John Rose used Dave Oranchak's webtoy to create features of the Halloween Card in just an 81 character block around the center of the 340 cipher. Some have stated that the variability of the characters in this area of the cipher have allowed the freedom to manufacture such a result. While that may be the case, a larger pattern of Paradice and Slaves is replicated in a 17 X 17 formation along both same midsections, effectively mirroring the John Rose presentation. The fact that both are even achievable in the same cipher, is worthy of mention. The Bay Area braggart must have been itching to throw us a few clues to his unbroken codes and ciphers - so the notion that he didn't give us any before he disappeared into the twilight - is somehow difficult to swallow.   

David Oranchak, owner of the Zodiac Killer Ciphers website, gave a very interesting and informative presentation on the Zodiac ciphers at the Cryptologic History Symposium on October 22nd 2015. If you want to discover some of the features and quirks regarding the composition of the ciphers, this is an extremely good place to start. But there was one particular section that peaked my interest, despite the fact it would probably contradict a number of articles I have featured on this site. Nevertheless, I would like to present the part of the Cryptologic History Symposium here, using the words of David Oranchak. In the video, beginning at 34:37, David states "Here's an interesting coincidence. If you take two standard sized pieces of paper, 8 1/2 inches wide by 11 inches in length and you divide the paper into equal half inch squares, you end up with these sheets that have 17 columns and 22 rows. If you write both ciphers (the 340 and 408) back to back, you end up filling both sheets exactly with no leftover squares. It is an interesting coincidence. Does it mean that Zodiac drafted both of his ciphers together on two sheets of paper? It's an interesting question".

It certainly is an interesting question, bearing in mind the difficulty experienced in solving the 50-year-old 340 cipher and the still unsolved 18 characters at the foot of the 408 cipher. The Zodiac Killer stated in the 408 cipher, preceding the final 18 characters, that "I will not give you my name because you will try to slow down or stop my collecting of slaves for my afterlife". If the unsolved section of the 408 cipher didn't contain his name or identity, is it possible these 18 characters were supposed to bleed into the message on the 340 cipher. This has to be a realistic proposition when we consider the 340 cipher begins with the final three letters of the word cipher. Was this just another coincidence - or did each cryptogram share half of the word cipher, as well as sharing a message? It is a compelling argument that the Zodiac Killer may have intended to leave only 12 unsolved characters at the foot of the first cipher (possibly decoding to "I am the Zodiac"), but the seeming omission of the word people from the message may have resulted in an unwanted extra 6 characters, thereby forcing a change of plan. Could the 18 characters now form part of a 21 character bridge (or more) between cipher one and two? The 408 cipher ending with cip and joining the her of the yet to be released 340 cipher. If the remainder of the 408 cipher and beginning of the 340 cipher was somehow conveying the idea of "sorry no cipher", in similar fashion to the October 27th 1970 'Halloween' card, then the message on the November 8th 1969 greeting card stating "I thought you would need a good laugh before you hear the bad news", may be pertinent to the cipher that accompanied it.           

Sorry no cipher written on the Halloween card once would have sufficed in order to inform us that no code was present on the greeting card, yet the Zodiac Killer appeared to fashion it to mimic the Paradice and Slaves configuration on the card, which equally mimicked the possibility shown present in the 340 cipher on the right. This configuration perfectly bisected the 340 cipher (17 by 17) both horizontally and vertically.

By extension, from the Halloween card to the 340 cipher, was the Zodiac Killer telling us that the second cryptogram was "sorry no cipher"? And by extension, was the Zodiac Killer telling us exactly the same thing from the 408 cipher to the 340 cipher, hence the tantalizing her at the beginning of the cryptogram. It could be argued that the placement of her at the beginning and the near-Zodiac towards the end, is a little too convenient. A message of "sorry no cipher" through three sets of communications may be a bit difficult to shake off as coincidental.

If the Zodiac Killer created a rambling message akin to the 408 cipher and randomly allotted his cipher key, then he was extremely fortunate to have crafted the possibility of the configuration on the right, involving the words paradice and slaves, by in each quadrant, with her at the beginning and Zodaik near the end. This design may have been a superficial message with an underlying cryptographic solution beneath. The prospect of finding the same mini-message shared between the 408 and 340 cipher, that was found on the envelope inner of the Halloween card would certainly be "bad news" for some.

I would like to thank David Oranchak for his contribution regarding the Cryptologic History Symposium, and would encourage everybody who is interested in ciphers to click the highlighted link. Below is just one rudimentary example I have drummed together, using a screenshot of the Youtube video, keeping 7 of the 21 characters in their original format.

Professor D.C.B. Marsh, in the October 22nd 1969 San Francisco Examiner newspaper article by Will Stevens, laid down a challenge to the Zodiac Killer to reveal his name. The newspaper stated "Dr Marsh told the Examiner today: "The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts. He knows, to quote Edgar Allen Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name - in cipher code - would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated - which will truly and honestly include his name". It is highly unlikely the Zodiac Killer would have been suckered into providing a genuine cipher of any length knowing that 'any cipher created by man can be solved by man'. The 13 and 32 symbol ciphers mailed in 1970 proved this very fact - both effectively crackproof without a recognizable key. However, the Zodiac could certainly have sent us a rudimentary message within the 340 cipher utilizing the wording contained within his 408 cipher.

Paradice and slaves is a well-trodden theme in the Zodiac communications, and as I have stated before, the Halloween card mailed on October 27th 1970 (almost the anniversary of the D.C.B. Marsh challenge) actually admitted that the 340 cipher was "sorry no cipher". The Zodiac Killer had never apologized previously for not sending a cipher in his 'cipherless' communications, so why start now. Even if the "sorry no cipher" writing on the envelope inner was to inform us that in about two seconds we had no cipher, then just write "sorry no cipher" once. The fact it was fashioned into a cross formation that mimicked the paradice and slaves configuration on the card inner, seemed designed to suggest that this configuration would be found in a cipher that effectively had no solution. The sheer fact that this configuration can also be found in his 340 cipher, exactly bisecting the cipher vertically and horizontally (17 by 17), one would like to believe is a convincing argument to suggest that the Zodiac Killer was finally admitting the 340 cipher wasn't a cipher at all. Additionally, it did mimic the 408 cipher with its inclusion of the paradice and slaves reference. Although this may be interesting, it understandably isn't enough to convince certain quarters of the Zodiac community who are steadfast in their belief that the 340 cipher contains a cogent but elusive message. Regardless, one couldn't help thinking that this wasn't the only time the Zodiac admitted the 340 cipher was devoid of any meaningful solution. Fortunately, the answer came in the communication prior to the Halloween card.  

If I am correct, and the paradice and slaves (13 letters) configuration was intentional in the design of the 340 cipher, then this is a significant point of interest. Two other notable features stand out in the 340 cipher. Firstly, the corrected sixth line where the Zodiac Killer blacks out a forward K and replaces it with a backward K. Secondly, the distinct possibility that he placed his pseudonym on the final line of the 340 cipher. All these three features are present in the '13 Hole' postcard.

Despite the fact that Zodiac made many spelling errors in his design of the 408 cipher and his communications as a whole, he seemed conscientious enough to correct one character in his 340 cipher, that inevitably would have made no difference in it being deciphered, had it contained a genuine solution. The fact he spoiled an otherwise neat and tidy presentation appeared designed to convince us that it was a genuine cipher. After all, why would Zodiac correct a collection of gibberish, if not to convince us it wasn't. The correction seemed contrived in order to validate the authenticity of the cipher, to which he would allude to in the '13 Hole' postcard.        

Many have speculated on why the Zodiac Killer reversed the bottom section of text on the '13 Hole' postcard. He certainly didn't do this for absolutely no reason, as he didn't create the "sorry no cipher" configuration for no reason either. The Zodiac Killer pasted the lettering "Fk I'm crackproof" on the '13 Hole' postcard in a first attempt at showing us the 340 cipher had no solution. The definition of crack-proof is something that is unable to be cracked, or in the case of a cipher, unable to be decoded. He used this word in his April 20th 1970 letter, sarcastically stating "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you". He knew only too well that it hadn't been cracked, because it couldn't be cracked - and now was telling us it was crackproof by association to himself.

The Fk has been suggested as a shortened expletive or possibly a name - but what if we take it on face value, and the Fk actually means Fk and nothing more. It is like Ronseal and 'does exactly what it says on the tin'. The Zodiac Killer is essentially telling us that the corrected Fk on the 340 cipher was a ruse, because his cipher was crackproof. This is why the text on the '13 Hole' postcard is reversed, exactly the same as the reversed K on the 340 cipher. The K on the 340 cipher is not only reversed, but it is now much smaller than all the other characters on the 340 cipher, which is why the Zodiac Killer pastes "Fk I'm crackproof" rather than "FK I'm crackproof". ​ Crackproof, Fk and the reversal of text on the '13 Hole' postcard, coupled with the cross design of 13 (paradice and slaves), inevitably leads back to the 340 cipher. Either that, or he pasted "Fk I'm crackproof" upside down on the '13 Hole' postcard for no reason whatsoever.

What we effectively have, are two consecutive October 1970 communications stating ​"Fk I'm crackproof" and "sorry no cipher", both furnished with a cross design that mimics the appearance of paradice and slaves on the 340 cipher. It is my contention that the Zodiac Killer responded to the challenge of Professor D.C.B. Marsh, but he simply wasn't going to abide by the rules laid down by the cryptography expert, yet he stayed true to the paradice and slaves message in the 408 cipher, albeit in his own inimitable style. The paradice and slaves design in the 340 cipher (extending 17 rows down) still leaves the tantalizing prospect of three 'vacant' rows comprising of 51 unobstructed characters, that may harbor a second puzzle or message. With the Zodiac pseudonym almost appearing toward the end of the cipher, there may be a twist in the tail yet.       

The Bay Area murderer mailed three communications in total to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969, demanding that his ciphers be printed on the front page of the respective newspapers by Friday afternoon (August 1st). This is what he wrote to each newspaper after stating several facts about his crimes.

Vallejo Times-Herald - Here is a cyipher or that is part of one. the other 2 parts have been mailed to the S.F. Examiner + the S.F. Chronicle I want you to print this cipher on your frunt page by Fry Afternoon Aug 1-69, If you do not do this I will go on a kill ram page Fry night that will last the whole week end. I will cruse around and pick of all stray people or coupples that are alone then move on to kill some more untill I have killed over a dozen people.

San Francisco Examiner - Here is a cipher or that is part of one. The other 2 parts are being mailed to the Vallejo Times + S.F. Chronicle I want you to print this cipher on the frunt page by Fry afternoon Aug 1-69. If you do not print this cipher, I will go on a kill rampage Fry night. This will last the whole weekend, I will cruse around killing people who are alone at night untill Sun Night or un till I kill a dozen people.

San Francisco Chronicle - Here is part of a cipher the other 2 parts of this cipher are being mailed to the editors of the Vallejo Times and SF Examiner. I want you to print this cipher on the frunt 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. 

In a previous article we examined the present and past tense usage in the three letters, along with the stamps applied to the envelope, to make the case for the Zodiac Killer being a Vallejo resident. The following will be nothing groundbreaking, but examines the phrases and grammar used by the author to paint a picture of the subject when considering his identity. The Zodiac Killer threatened chaos over the weekend if his codes were not published on the front page of the papers. Unfortunately for him, the main two publications refused to bow to his threats. On August 2nd 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle under the title Coded Clue in Murders placed one-third of his cipher on page 4, while the San Francisco Examiner under the banner Vallejo Mass Murder Threat Fails (despite publishing the entire cipher) relegated it to page 9 on August 3rd 1969. This lowly showing in the San Francisco Examiner clearly upset the Zodiac Killer the most, when he hurriedly delivered by hand the August 4th 1969 'Debut of Zodiac' letter to the Examiner, stating "I was not happy to see that I did not get front page coverage". Putting aside the December 16th 1969 'Fairfield' letter (which many dispute), he never wrote to the San Francisco Examiner again.  

In a recent article we discussed the topic of geographic profiling to narrow the search field for an offender's home residence. Equally, the wording used by the Zodiac Killer in his communications may also help pinpoint a location, or at the very least give us an insight into his comfort zone or movements. Target or Victim Backcloth is the model by which a murderer may select his victims. The Zodiac Killer (wherever he lived) would have selected his victims dependent upon availability and location, along with the constraints of time and the day of the week. For a serial killer committing his crimes in Vallejo, his knowledge of the Target Backcloth may govern the types of individual he chooses. This seemed evident in his choice of couples parked up in lonely areas on December 20th and July 4th.

His communications to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald exemplified this knowledge of a Target Backcloth perfectly, when he only threatened to kill couples in his address to the Vallejo Times-Herald (or stray people). He knew exactly where to find them, despite the fact it was highly unlikely he would continue to kill in the same area again. The Zodiac Killer never used the word couples in his address to the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, suggesting that his knowledge of the Target Backcloth was less comprehensive and more uncertain in this city- and why at San Francisco he would target a lone taxicab driver rather than target the location, as he did at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs. As Kim Rossmo stated  "The San Francisco murder differs significantly from the Zodiac's other crimes. Up to this point he was hunting in locations that had a good probability of containing his desired victims. Target selection was a function of area, not of an individual. However, it is unlikely the Zodiac was successful in all his searches; serial killers typically engage in extensive hunting activities, and for every attack there are many unsuccessful search attempts. In San Francisco, however, the Zodiac controlled the situation through his selection of victim type. The need for such control could be indicative of the distance the Zodiac had to travel to the crime site. Criminals who travel longer distances to offend are less likely to use uncertain target selection techniques".  

The Zodiac Killer wrote of ​"killing lone people in the night" or "killing people who are alone at night" to the Chronicle and Examiner, which is exactly what he did just over two months later on October 11th 1969, when Paul Stine was brutally gunned down inside his taxicab at Presidio Heights. The target selection began with the individual not the location. He then directed Paul Stine to an area to facilitate his best chance of escape. A Target Backcloth requires knowledge of an area and will govern to some extent the victims chosen, as displayed by some serial killers who target sex workers.   

It was considered that if the Zodiac Killer lived in Vallejo, he likely had a 9-5, Monday to Friday profession, based upon the fact, that when constrained by time he murdered close to home on a Friday, but unconstrained (on his day off), he was able to venture further afield to San Francisco and Lake Berryessa. He admitted as much in all the July 31st 1969 communications.

"I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night. I will cruse around all weekend" and "I will cruse around killing people who are alone at night untill Sun Night". The Zodiac Killer may potentially be limited in searching for courting couples on weekdays, but certainly not for lone victims in San Francisco, Vallejo or elsewhere Yet he has specifically tied himself to murder within the parameters of Friday night to Sunday night in these letters, and therefore highly suggestive he is employed on a weekday basis. 

The Brentingham model of geographic profiling details an activity space where an individual lives, works and plays. The Zodiac Killer targeted the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald in his first communications to the newspapers, indicating that Vallejo and San Francisco were his primary sites of travel. He most likely lived and worked in both. The newspapers he chose and the location he lived, part of his mental map, exhibited to its fullest extent when he subconsciously used the present and past tense in his three July 31st 1969 letters 

The Zodiac Killer - A Vallejo Resident [Part 2]​   

THE 340 CIPHER WAS CRACKED ON DECEMBER 3RD 2020 BY DAVE ORANCHAK, SAM BLAKE AND JARL VAN EYCKE, SO THIS EARLIER ARTICLE SHOULD BE VIEWED IN RESPECT TO RECENT DEVELOPMENTS.

The 408 cipher, mailed in three parts to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969 had 18 unsolved characters at its foot. However, the Zodiac Killer likely made an error when transferring his original message into the encrypted version, accidentally omitting the word "people" from the section of code mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle: "The best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradice and all the (people) I have killed will become my slaves". Had he transferred the message correctly, the intended version would have had only 12 unsolved characters in which his identity may have resided, such as "I am the Zodiac". After all, he promised us his identity not his name. What are the chances the Zodiac Killer left a similar message at the foot of the 340 cipher?

Professor D.C.B. Marsh, in the October 22nd 1969 San Francisco Examiner newspaper article by Will Stevens, laid down a challenge to the Zodiac Killer to reveal his name. The newspaper stated "Dr Marsh told the Examiner today: "The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts. He knows, to quote Edgar Allen Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name -in cipher code - would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated - which will truly and honestly include his name". It was speculated that the Zodiac Killer certainly wasn't going to provide another conventional cryptogram to be easily decoded, so instead created the appearance of a cryptogram with hidden "puzzles" contained within it, such as "paradice" and "slaves" running vertically and horizontally across its mid-section. This was later revealed in the 'Halloween' card, where the Zodiac Killer belatedly informed us the 340 code was "sorry no cipher" and placed "paradice" and "slaves" in a cross formation to point us in the right direction.   

The "sorry no cipher" section of the 'Halloween' card has one section running from bottom to top. The '13 Hole' postcard mailed before this offering has "Fk I'm crackproof" flipped upside down. This gave rise to the idea that the 340 cipher needed to flipped vertically, which I was able to do on Dave Oranchak's excellent Webtoy on the Zodiac Killer Ciphers website. 

​When Professor D.C.B. Marsh laid down the challenge to Zodiac, it was initially considered that the message at the foot of the 340 cipher may have teased the American Cryptogram Association with something like "next time I will tell you who the Zodiac is", bearing in mind where the near-pseudonym was placed. Then, five months later he would follow this up with the reveal of his name, which he effectively teased us with by stating "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you. My name is...."  

This statement is very telling, when we consider that it was patently obvious that his last cipher hadn't been solved - so why did he add this to the opening of the April 20th 1970 communication? The final section of the 340 cipher may explain why he began this correspondence in the way he did. It may be conceivable that the last section of the 340 cipher promised to reveal his name in the next cipher, hence the blatantly obvious introduction in the April 20th 1970 communication, of "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you. My name is...."  We effectively have to bridge the gap between "I am the Zodiac" (if correct) on the 408 cipher to "My name is" on the April 20th letter. The obvious connector would be the promise of a new cipher or code containing the Zodiac Killer's name. 

It is notable that the 340 cipher begins with "her" (the last three letters of cipher), however, it is impossible to form the word "cipher" in the format offered. The uniform 17 X 20 pattern of the cipher would be broken by adding "cip" to the beginning. For this section to provide us with the word "cipher" within the existing pattern and the promise of a new cipher containing the Zodiac's name, the 340 cipher has to be flipped - possibly as the 'Halloween' card and '13 Hole' postcard had hinted nearly a year later. Other than the 408 cipher mailings, every other Zodiac correspondence began with the introduction of "This is the Zodiac Speaking". The 340 cipher, when flipped, enables this introduction to begin the 340 character message also. ​ 

But what is the likely message encoded at the foot of the cipher? Without having decoded it, I can only make a calculated guess from other Zodiac correspondence. In the August 4th 1969 'Debut of Zodiac' letter, the killer wrote "By the way, are the police having a good time with the code? If not, tell them to cheer up; when they do crack it, they will have me".  

In the April 20th 1970 communication, the killer wrote "By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you. My name is...." 

Therefore, I will use the literal words of the Zodiac Killer to complete the last 27 characters of the 340 cipher, obviously changing "last" to "next".
​
By flipping the 340 cipher vertically we are able to use the clue of "Zodiac" to generate his usual introduction and then form the bridge between cipher one and cipher three with the promise of his name in cipher two, using the words of the Zodiac Killer himself. Whether this analysis has any semblance of truth is another matter entirely.