At a time when finding Zodiac Killer DNA and solving this case is heavily debated and in question, one of the most important things to explore are the vast number of communications sent by the killer, with a view to unearthing something within them that points towards his identity and/or home location (anchor point) when committing the murders. No doubt the Zodiac Killer used caution in this regard when composing his communications, but no matter how careful and attentive you are in preventing the accidental leakage of vital information to law enforcement through your wording, mistakes and oversight can often happen. When a murderer is questioned about a missing person, they will often stray into the territory of referring to that missing person in the past tense, because they are knowledgeable to the fact they have killed them. The study of language in interviews and written form can often reveal vital information about a criminal which they have subconsciously revealed, but were incapable of preventing because of their lived experience.

​This may have been the case in the very first letters authored by the Zodiac Killer on July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969, both of which, possibly revealed the home location of the killer (or his anchor point when perpetrating the crimes). You will notice in his July 31st 1969 letters when addressing the San Francisco Chronicle or San Francisco Examiner first, the Zodiac Killer refers to posting letters to these newspapers in the past tense of "have". In other words, suggesting the significant time that has elapsed, and the distance he has traveled before returning home. When first addressing the Vallejo Times-Herald in his July 31st 1969 letters he uses the present tense of "are", because (possibly) he doesn't associate any great time and distance to the Vallejo Times-Herald offices, as they are within his close proximity. They are in his "here and now". If you left your house in Vallejo and mailed three letters into a San Francisco mailbox, before returning home - you would write "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" (associating distance to these two newspaper offices). If you live in Vallejo and are addressing the Vallejo Times-Herald first in two instances, you would write "Here is a cipher or that is part of one. The other 2 parts are being mailed to the Vallejo Times + S.F. Chronicle" or "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". The Zodiac Killer uses the word "are" in both instances he immediately addresses the Vallejo Times-Herald offices (because he doesn't associate distance to this newspaper office). He uses the present tense of "are" to associate something in his lived "mental map" or "here and now". Of course, this isn't conclusive evidence he lived in Vallejo for his first two crimes, but it may point to a subconscious use of language that he failed to keep in check. There is similar language used at the beginning of his next communication on August 4th 1969.              

The following reasoning may seem innocuous and insignificant, but it's just another example of how language could point us in the direction of a Vallejo killer. When the Zodiac Killer opened up in his August 4th 1969 mailing, he wrote "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". What he didn't write is this:"This is the Zodiac speaking. In answer to your asking for more details about the good times I had in Vallejo, I shall be very happy to supply even more material". The Zodiac Killer used the present perfect tense of "have had" rather than the past tense of "had". The present perfect tense, in this example, suggests that the Zodiac Killer has had good times in Vallejo but they are not complete. The word "had" implies a distinct separation from the past to the present, whereas "have had" implies a distinct connection from the past to the present. The "good times I have had in Vallejo" being congruent with somebody still living in this location. Although tenuous, this subtle use of language is important to analyse in conjunction with the previous example highlighted  The third example will focus on the anomaly of a phone call made to the Vallejo Police Department 40 minutes after the Blue Rock Springs attack, from a payphone located just 10 minutes from the crime scene. 

It has been widely noted that a killer living in San Francisco, Napa, Oakland, or any distant home location, could easily have made this phone call at 12:40 am from any payphone in the Bay Area, rather than place a phone call in close proximity to the police station he was delivering his message - and seemingly hanging around for an unnecessary 30 minutes, thereby risking detection. This has opened up the notion of a killer who lived in close proximity to the Springs & Tuolumne payphone, who secured his vehicle, removed any incriminating evidence and walked to the payphone from a nearby residence. This is where further language analysis could point us to a Vallejo resident, or otherwise. It depends on what merit you apply to the above arguments, in conjunction to the ones I'm about to present. ​      

The Zodiac Killer went on to write "I did not leave the cene of the killing with squealling tires + raceing engine as described in the Vallejo paper. I drove away quite slowly so as not to draw attention to my car", and "When I hung the phone up the damn thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me + my car". In the second statement the Zodiac Killer felt the necessity to highlight both him and his car. The phone apparently rang when he hung up the phone, so why didn't the Zodiac Killer just state "When I hung the phone up the damn thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me".

When he left the Blue Rock Springs parking lot he made the point of driving away slowly so as not to draw attention to his car, yet by the payphone he is making sure that investigators draw the conclusion that the eyewitness saw both him and his vehicle, despite apparently positioned at the payphone independent of his car. It could be concluded that his car was still running, and it would have been obvious to the eyewitness that he and his vehicle were in tandem (and so provided this information), but it certainly wasn't necessary to provide investigators with corroboratory evidence that his car was brown as reported in the newspapers, by stating "The man who told police that my car was brown was a negro about 40-45 rather shabbly dressed. I was in this phone booth having some fun with the Vallejo cop when he was walking by". Unless of course, his vehicle wasn't brown, The biggest red flag to his vehicle being present in the vicinity of the payphone, is the description given by the Zodiac Killer about the eyewitness.

The Zodiac Killer only went into detail regarding his murder victims when it benefited his case of proof, such as the description of clothing worn by Darlene Ferrin, or the movement of the living victims and bodies in relation to the crime scene. So why didn't the Zodiac Killer just write "The man who told police that my car was brown, noticed me + my car when he was walking by". What relevance does his race, clothing or age have to do with anything? The descriptive nature of "negro", "40-45" and "shabbily dressed" brings this eyewitness to life and makes him more believable to the reader of the letter. The Zodiac Killer, by describing this man in detail, may have been attempting to corroborate that his vehicle was present by the payphone, and was brown in color. The Zodiac Killer had previously supplied extra details to the police when it helped his cause, so the unnecessary inclusion of this man's description in the letter, could again, be viewed as beneficial to him. If the Zodiac Killer wanted to deflect away from a home location nearby, he had to create a vehicle that can take him anywhere, and supply an eyewitness to corroborate this fact. Not just any eyewitness, but a believable middle-aged, black man, with questionable clothing.   

These observations regarding the language used by the Zodiac Killer are not proof he resided in Vallejo or near the payphone, but they should provide the impetus to examine later communications mailed by the killer, who may have unwittingly left more offerings to further bolster the case argued here. Or maybe dispel it entirely.   

When the Zodiac Killer mailed the second Fairfield letter on December 16th 1969 he included a very short code of five characters, accompanied by his Zodiac crosshairs, with four smaller crosshairs in each quadrant. It has been noted by many Zodiac researchers that this configuration resembled the Halloween card design he mailed approximately ten months later, which contained the bisecting "paradice" and "slaves", with the wording By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife in each quadrant. The rudimentary design of the Fairfield letter with four small crosshairs could be representative of these four weapons. I used this premise to place the word "By" immediately preceding the larger crosshairs, above ciphertext characters 4 & 5 (see below).

The last time the Zodiac Killer demanded we print his cipher in the newspaper, he wrote to the San Francisco Examiner and threatened "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". To the San Francisco Chronicle he wrote "If you do not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry.1st of Aug 69, I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night". To the Vallejo Times-Herald he wrote "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". Every single time the Zodiac Killer demanded the newspaper print his cipher, he followed it up by using "Fry" to represent Friday (six times in total). Therefore, when he demanded his five character code be printed in the newspaper by stating "you better print", it could be reasoned that this sentence be completed to "you better print Fry". This satisfies the repeating ciphertext character at positions 3 & 5.  

Despite the vast majority of the 408 cipher being deciphered on August 8th 1969, we still had the small matter of 18 unsolved or unexplained characters at the foot of the cryptogram that were thought may have contained the name of the Zodiac Killer. Sergeant John Lynch of the Vallejo Police Department pondered this conundrum in a newspaper article on August 12th 1969 entitled "A Name in Murder Cipher", in which "Robert Emmet the hippie" was suggested as one possible solution to the mystery. Sergeant John Lynch stated that he was "pursuing the possibility that the name might be a nom de plume - or not the cipher sender's name at all". Later in the article it mentioned that the cipher was turned over to Navy cryptographers before it was solved, and suggested that the Zodiac Killer send another letter explaining the final 18 characters of the 408 cipher. 

A letter mailed on October 7th 1969 signed by a "good citizen" was addressed to Sergeant John Lynch, giving him some advice. It read "On occasion, while thinking of the code letters, the pencil wrote: Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX". It is fairly evident that "code letters" was a reference to the three cryptograms mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner, postmarked July 31st 1969 - and the author of this letter was giving Sergeant John Lynch a name, who could maybe assist him by way of his knowledge of other people in codebreaking. In other words, it is possible that "Jerry" could assist Sergeant John Lynch because of his connection to law enforcement or Navy cryptography (or was holding a more advantageous position in attempting to solve the final 18 characters). If the "Jerry" mentioned in the correspondence was a real person, it could be argued that the sender believed "Jerry" could be of benefit to Sergeant John Lynch with the remaining unsolved portion of the 408 cipher. Therefore, I needed to find somebody called "Jerry", possibly with links to the Navy (and cryptography), who had a surname of seven letters, thereby explaining the XXXXXXX placed at the end of this correspondence. How Beach Street factors into the equation, I cannot ascertain. Unless Jerry is somehow linked to that address through a friend or acquaintance.   

Jerry Johnson was a Naval Intelligence Agent stationed at the Mare Island Naval Base in Vallejo, who worked on the Zodiac case with former California Highway Patrol officer, Lyndon Lafferty, who went on to release the book "The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up: The Silenced Badge" with the assistance of Jerry Johnson. He appeared in a photograph alongside long-time Zodiac contributor Sandy Betts and other Zodiac researchers, when they gathered at Lake Herman Road for a reunion in 2016. The Vallejo Times-Herald article stated that "Orinda resident, Johnson said he was a federal agent stationed on Mare Island in the late 1960s, and it was then that the late Lyndon Lafferty, a retired California Highway Patrol officer, came to him about an encounter with a man he believed was the Zodiac Killer".

It was later claimed that Lafferty's suspect, William Grant, once sought help from Dr. Edward C. Adams, a psychiatrist living in Orinda, California, and the potential recipient of a Zodiac Killer communication on October 17th 1970 with the pasted newspaper text of "Mon Oct 12, 1970. Edward Adams. The Zodiac is going to change the way of committing murders. I shall announce when I shall commit my murders, The Adamses are Next. you taught me to mean it.  ADAMS YOU ARE NEXT. Zodiac".  

It is important to identify "Jerry" because the author of the October 7th 1969 communication was almost certainly the author of the "concerned citizen" card mailed on August 10th 1969, two months earlier. Both communications had a similar signature of "good citizen" and "concerned citizen", both were addressed to Sergeant John Lynch of the Vallejo Police Department, both referenced the 408 cipher (by way of "code letters" and the sending of a cipher key), and both used the word "name" in the correspondence twice. This is despite neither being published in the newspapers. The mischievous and cryptic nature of the "good citizen" letter may suggest that the "concerned citizen" author - if one and the same - was playing games with investigators all along. Something we know the Zodiac Killer enjoyed doing throughout his letter-writing campaign.

OFFERING A SOLUTION TO 18 ON 10/7/1969   

Despite some interesting avenues having been pursued in the search for "Jerry" in the "Good Citizen" letter mailed on October 7th 1969, it is clear that the cryptic nature of the language adopted in this communication has made it difficult to interpret its meaning. Both the August 10th 1969 "Concened Citizen" card and October 7th 1969 "Good Citizen" letter were addressed to Sgt John Lynch of the Vallejo Police Department, both utilized the word "citizen" in the signature, both used the word "name" twice in the message, with the "Good Citizen" author referring to the "code letters", which can only be reasonably assumed to be the letters mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner on July 31st 1969 (and the 408 cipher).  A footnote from Sergeant John Lynch concerning the "Good Citizen" letter stated that the writer has a strong feeling of ESP. While having these feelings, the writer writes with a pencil. "On occasion, while thinking of the code letters, the pencil wrote: Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX''. 

The last major article featuring Sgt John Lynch and the 408 cipher, entitled "A Name in Murder Cipher", suggested the name "Robert Emmet the hippie" as one possibility, despite it being too long to accommodate the 18 unsolved characters at the foot of the 408 cipher. At the end of the August 12th 1969 article, Sgt John Lynch stated "We aren't sure Robert Emmet is who we are looking for. Maybe he'll send another letter and let us know". This request from Sgt John Lynch was specifically about the 18 seemingly nonsensical characters remaining at the base of the "murder cipher" and the search for a name. Therefore, the response of the "Good Citizen", stating "On occasion, while thinking of the code letters, the pencil wrote: Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX", was likely a response to this conundrum. Sgt John Lynch was searching for a name in the 408 cipher, to which the "Good Citizen" replied: "I get the name Jerry" or "his name is XXXXXXX". The October 7th 1969 letter mentioning Beach Street (at the north-eastern edge of Presidio Park), just four days before the Paul Stine murder, is so cryptic in nature, it could be construed as unhelpful and possibly malevolent or mischievous in nature. There is a high degree of probability that the same author was responsible for the "Concerned Citizen" card and "Good Citizen" letter, bearing in mind the August 10th 1969 communication was not in the public domain by October 7th 1969. The two communications both offering answers to the 408 cipher, in addition to the aforementioned similarities. To believe these were authored by separate individuals would require a high degree of mental gymnastics.  

If we have the Zodiac Killer as the author for both of these communications - and consider the message in the 408 cipher and "Concerned Citizen" card declaring "I will not give you my name" and "please forgive the absence of my name" - then the offering of "I get the name Jerry" or "his name is XXXXXXX" as a possible solution to these 18 unsolved characters, would shed doubt on the credibility of, not only the "Good Citizen" author, but the "Concerned Citizen" as being genuinely concerned. If the author of both communications was the same person, we have two conflicting messages. If it's Zodiac, then he is likely playing a game. An individual who helpfully provides a valid key to the 408 cipher on August 10th 1969, while subsequently offering an array of unhelpful cryptic nonsense just two months later, appears to invalidate the original communication as a concerned citizen.

​Does the name "Jerry" or the grouping of seven X's in the "Good Citizen" letter have any bearing on the 18 unexplained characters at the foot of the 408 cipher, or is it just another wild goose chase? One would like to think that the reference to "Jerry" or "XXXXXXX" had some meaning to its author and had some benefit to Sgt John Lynch, rather than complete nonsense that achieves nothing for the sender. The fact that the "Good Citizen" letter (if Zodiac) appears totally unhelpful and arguably bereft of a reasonable aid to solution, could suggest the 18 unsolved characters have no meaning to be found (in complete contradiction to the code key supplied on August 10th 1969 which did aid a solution). Whatever the case, it is with little doubt that the author of these two communications are one and the same - whether that author is Zodiac or not.

On October 22nd 1969, the San Francisco Examiner newspaper published an article by Will Stevens, which laid down a challenge from Professor D.C.B. Marsh of the American Cryptogram Association (ACA) to the Zodiac Killer, attempting to coax him into revealing 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 Allan 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 has been proposed that Dr. Marsh was invoking the name of Edgar Allan Poe to guide the Zodiac Killer down the path of creating a code featured in one of Poe's essays or journals. Just over two weeks later, on November 8th 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed the recently solved 340 cipher. The scytale method of decryption, that can be used to reveal the message in Zodiac's 340 cipher, was featured in the opening section of Edgar Allan Poe's essay  A Few Words on Secret Writing. The final section of the revealed message in the 340 cipher almost mirrored one of Poe's poems, The final line of the 340 cipher was probably intended to read: "I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS DEATH. LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE". "To One in Paradise" was written by Edgar Allan Poe. This poem was first published as part of the short story titled "The Visionary" (later retitled as "The Assignation"). The poem was also published under the names "To lanthe in Heaven" and "To One Beloved". The title "To One in Paradise" was used in the February 25, 1843 Saturday Musuem. This poem was written after the death of Poe's wife. He writes that she was his life and he lived for her and now he looks forward to the future where they will be together again in death.​ In the Zodiac Killer's 408 cipher, part of the message read: "the best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradise and all the I have killed will become my slaves". The question has always been - what was the inspiration for some of the language he adopted? 

On of the overarching themes in the Zodiac correspondence was his plagiarized acts from The Mikado, a two-part comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan which opened to the paying public on March 14th 1885, and was hugely successful, running for 672 performances at the Savoy Theatre in London. The Mikado is the most internationally successful Savoy opera and has been especially popular with amateur and school productions. The work has been translated into numerous languages and is one of the most frequently played musical theatre pieces in history. Setting the opera in Japan, an exotic locale far away from Britain, allowed Gilbert to satirise British politics and institutions more freely by disguising them as Japanese.

​The Zodiac would feature three acts from The Mikado in his July 26th 1970 and January 29th 1974 letters - leading many to believe the Zodiac Killer had an avid interest in the theatre, or quite possibly worked there. His Japanese style characters at the foot of the 1974 Exorcist letter could suggest an affinity to Japanese history or culture. 

Taken from Palladiummag.com: "The world of medieval Japan was one of division. The Emperor was, in practice, a distant memory; the shoguns had lost all control over their vassals. Even shrines and temples, once united in strengthening the state through prayer and ritual, now competed for believers and alms. Japan was divided against itself and circumstances forced its inhabitants to form new bonds to survive. Among the new alliances which this age produced were the Ikkō-ikki, a network of autonomous religious collectives that led major uprisings and controlled significant parts of Japanese society for nearly a century. Their final defeat at the hands of Japan’s warrior class set the stage both for a centralized Japanese state and the social hierarchy behind it. Nobunaga, head of the powerful Oda clan, conquered the capital city of Kyoto in 1568. In the years that followed, he made clear his intention to destroy the Honganji sect. The Patriarch Kennyo took him at his word and summoned all Ikkō-ikki from across the country to defend the faith with their lives. Despite graver circumstances than those faced by his predecessor Shonyo, Kennyo did not go as far as implying that those who fought for the Amida Buddha would be guaranteed rebirth in the Pure Land. Nevertheless, he threatened expulsion from the sect for those who failed to respond to the call and he did not crack down on those who raised the Ikkō-ikki’s now-famous banner of war: “Advance and be reborn in Paradise, retreat and fall immediately into Hell.”

​Bearing in mind the numerous plagiaristic references to The Mikado in his letters, along with the plausible connection between the afterlife poem To One in Paradise from Edgar Allan Poe and the wording chosen in the 340 cipher, was the Zodiac Killer influenced by the Japanese Ikkō-ikki’s banner of war “Advance and be reborn in Paradise" and an affinity for the country's culture and belief system, that ultimately manifested in part of his 408 cipher? Not so much a paradise lost, but a paradise found.​

The following is an amalgamation of previous articles: 

​Six months after the Zodiac Killer's Albany, New York letter and code, another letter would arrive at the San Francisco Chronicle on January 30th 1974. Postmarked the day before (January 29th), this letter was a curious blend of The Exorcist movie (1973) and the comedic opera The Mikado (1885), two productions separated by 88 years.

The Zodiac Killer plagiarized The Mikado twice in the July 26th 1970 letter, but this appeared to have some purpose in relation to his hunting activities - that the Zodiac Killer had created a list of potential victims, who he would then kill and ultimately torture in paradise. This seemed at odds with his use of The Mikado in 1974. Any suggestion that the Zodiac Killer was contemplating suicide at this juncture because of his choice of Tit-Willow, appeared to be dashed in the following paragraph when he stated "If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing". The notion that the Zodiac Killer had reached a watershed moment and was about to ditch the pseudonym he had coveted for so many years, would also be premature, when he mailed the 1978, 1986 and 1987 letters, all containing his infamous introduction of "This is the Zodiac speaking".

​The 1978 and 1987 letters had one thing in common with the 1974 letter, in that they all carried the wording "yours truly" or "yours truley", followed by a colon. This wording is commonly used before a signature, with the colon used to separate two independent clauses when the second explains or illustrates the first. In the 1978 and 1987 letters the Zodiac Killer follows "yours truly" with "guess", whereas, he inserts the plagiarized verse from Tit-Willow where his signature should be placed in the 1974 Exorcist letter. The primary conclusion to draw from this, is the Zodiac Killer was yet again asking us to "guess" his name through the verse of Tit-Willow. 

He may have been bluffing, but giving us his first name in such cryptic fashion could never be realistically used as evidence against him, because any conclusions drawn from this verse through subjective interpretation, would never have any standing in a court of law. There are five things in relation to The Exorcist movie and the Tit-Willow verse that point to one name. There is also another that points backwards to the April 20th 1970 letter, when the Zodiac Killer teased us with his name by stating "My name is", followed by a thirteen character code. The Exorcist book was written by William Blatty in 1971, which told the story of a twelve-year-old girl possessed by a powerful demon, that was later adapted by director William Friedkin in the film version released on December 26th 1973. The Tit-Willow verse from The Mikado was created by William Schwenck Gilbert, which contained multiple examples of "Will" and "Bill" within words such as "Willo" and "Billowy" (Will and Bill being short for William). This verse followed The Exorcist introduction and the promise of a signature by use of "yours truley". If we look at the next paragraph in the Tit-Willow verse from the complete version, it reads "Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name Isn't Willow, titwillow, titwillow". Very reminiscent of the "My name is" letter, but in this instance "My name Isn't". 

Now let us take a look at the final paragraph of the Exorcist letter where he wrote "If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing". This mirrors his very first communications on July 31st 1969 when he wrote "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". On July 31st 1969 and January 29th 1974, he concluded both correspondences with the threat "to kill" more people if his letters were not published in the newspapers. In his decoded 408 cipher, he wrote "To kill something gives me the most thrilling experence". To the best of my knowledge, this is the only time the Zodiac Killer used the word "something" prior to January 29th 1974 - and used it in reference "to kill something". So, when we look at the final paragraph of the Exorcist letter where he wrote the words "I will do something nasty", it is apparent that "to kill something" was his likely threat. The Zodiac Killer then finished the letter with another puzzle (likely decoded by Kevin Robert Brooks). 

When determining whether the "concerned citizen" card mailed to Sergeant John Lynch on August 10th 1969 was written by a helpful member of the public or the Zodiac Killer, we need look no further than the "good citizen" letter mailed on October 7th 1969. Despite the fact the "concerned citizen" card was not in the public domain in 1969, the "good citizen" author would also adopt the word "citizen" in their signature, address the communication to Sergeant John Lynch once again, and refer to the July 31st 1969 cryptogram by mentioning "code letters", just as the "concerned citizen" author was addressing the "code letters" by supplying us with a key to the 408 cryptogram. These are compelling reasons to believe that both communications were composed by the same author. The question being; is the wording in the "good citizen" letter that of a helpful citizen or a mischievous individual playing games with the police. The "good citizen" letter read "On occasion, while thinking of the code letters, the pencil wrote: Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX".  

The "good citizen" letter was postmarked October 7th 1969 and mentioned 56 Beach Street, which is the old block numbering from the original planning maps, which comes out as 1654/1656 on the street numbering. The address at 1654/56 Beach St, San Francisco, California is a condominium home that measures 2,141 sq ft, and was built in 1938. Irrespective of the exact numbering, Beach Street is just 240 meters from the Presidio of San Francisco, where eyewitnesses saw a white male, about 40 years of age, weighing 170lbs, sporting a blond crewcut and wearing glasses, running into Julius Kahn playground shortly after the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969. Of all the places in northern California or the Bay Area the author could select, the composer of the "good citizen" letter was not only referring to Zodiac's code letters, but managed to choose the location of Beach Street, bordering the Presidio in which the Zodiac Killer possibly escaped into just four days later. Possibly coincidence, but noteworthy nonetheless. The "good citizen" author may have been referring to Beach Street in San Francisco just a matter of days before the Zodiac Killer first struck in the big city, before mailing a letter on October 13th 1969, again detailing a destination in the form of a street name - this time "Washington St and Maple St".   

This letter, likely referring to San Francisco, may hold some significance when we consider the statement of Jim Dunbar on October 22nd 1969, when somebody pretending to be the Zodiac Killer rang into the KGO-TV Jim Dunbar Show. He asked the caller "Did you try to call us one other time, about two or three weeks ago. Did you attempt to call this program one other time when Mr. Belli was with us?" It can be understood why the hoaxer, Eric Weill, would ring into the Jim Dunbar Show, because he got wind that the Jim Dunbar Show was possibly entertaining a call from the Zodiac Killer that morning. Therefore, it isn't unreasonable to conclude he used opportunism to hijack the limelight. But why would Eric Weill claim to be the Zodiac Killer and ring into the Jim Dunbar Show "two or three weeks" earlier, when the Zodiac Killer had never comitted an attack in San Francisco at this juncture?

The Zodiac Killer wanting a TV audience in San Francisco on October 22nd 1969 after his murder of Paul Stine in San Francisco eleven days earlier, can be argued. It is also possible that the Zodiac Killer may have rang into the Jim Dunbar Show "two or three weeks" earlier (between October 1st and October 8th), requesting a slot on the show to announce his intentions of bringing terror to the heart of San Francisco. A phone call placed to the Jim Dunbar Show in San Francisco on October 8th 1969 would coincide with the "good citizen" letter on October 7th 1969, also possibly involving a location in San Francisco - and both would predate the murder of Paul Stine in San Francisco by just a matter of days. A murder, in which the Zodiac Killer was spotted entering the Presidio grounds, which Beach Street borders. If we are to determine whether the "concerned citizen" card on August 10th 1969 was mailed by the Zodiac Killer, we have to factor in the letter on October 7th 1969 and the phone call to the Jim Dunbar Show around the same time - and the significance they may, or may not hold.  

On July 31st 1969, three parts of one whole cipher were mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle by the Zodiac Killer, with the latter promising to give us his identity. But what was the inspiration behind the Zodiac Killer mailing letters to three newspapers with part of his manifesto encoded in ciphertext? In his San Francisco communications he spelled his offerings as a "cipher", yet in his offering to the Vallejo Times-Herald he used the variant spelling of "cypher", with the addition of letter "i" to form "cyipher". The Chronicle and Examiner jointly released a Sunday newspaper with a dedicated weekly section called The Puzzle Page, that contained a cryptogram called the Chronicle Cypher. The July 27th 1969 edition supplied us with a 78 character cryptogram, split by message and name, with the answer supplied on page 27. The newspapers puzzle and answer section also contained two variant spellings of the word cipher.

On August 10th 1969, a "concerned citizen" addressed a communication to Sergeant John Lynch of the Vallejo Police Department and supplied the code key to the 408 cipher, stating "Dear Sergeant Lynch. I hope the enclosed "key" will prove to be beneficial to you in connection with the cipher letter writer. Working puzzles criptograms and word puzzles is one of my pleasures. Please forgive the absence of my signature or name as I do not wish to have my name in the papers and it could be mentiond by a slip of the tongue. With best wishes. concerned citizen". The author of this communication (who many believe to be the Zodiac Killer) also gave us a variant spelling (albeit incorrect) of "cryptogram", by using "criptogram". The author also expressed an interest in "word puzzles" on August 10th 1969. So was the Zodiac Killer's inspiration for the July 31st 1969 letters derived from the Sunday newspaper puzzle page?  

Thanks to Cragle for the information used in this article. 

The Zodiac Killer had a long memory when constructing a communication, often citing newspaper headlines and the content within them from many months and years earlier. On Saturday, November 1st 1969 the Vallejo Times-Herald ran an article entitled You Couldn't Tell It Was Halloween, expressing surprise that the Zodiac Killer had not written or made an appearance during the Halloween festivities, writing "He made no threats - in fact, he did not even communicate to police departments in the Bay Area about any plans he may be developing for Halloween. Nevertheless, parents and youngsters alike were on the extremely cautious side". Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz warned it could be a very dangerous time for youngsters to be on the streets.

Whether the October 28th 1987 Zodiac letter was just a product of fortuitous language, or whether the Zodiac Killer religiously kept a scrapbook of newspaper articles about himself, is unknown. But this letter stated "Tell the blue pigs if want me I will be out driving around on Halloween in my death machine looking for some kiddies to run over. Cars make nice weapons. The pigs can catch me if They can find me out there. Just like in the movie The car. Tell the kiddies watch before They cross the street on halloween nite". Regardless of this distant future communication, the following Halloween after the November 1st 1969 article was published, the Zodiac Killer mailed the October 27th 1970 Halloween card to Paul Avery, referring to teenagers through the use of the word "TEEN". He also failed to use his pseudonym, and supplied us for the first time with the character "Z" (twice) as his identity, by way of a greeting card suggesting he was going to clue us in on his name, beginning "I feel it in my bones, you ache to know my name, and so I'll clue you in." The answer once the card was opened was "BOO", emblazoned in prominence. The strange symbolism in the card, in accompaniment to the letter "Z", was not only placed within the card, but positioned on the return address side of the envelope. Was this used to indicate his identity, as it may have been on the 408th plaintext character of the July 31st 1969 cryptogram.    

Two weeks prior to the November 1st 1969 newspaper article, on October 15th 1969, another article ran in the Los Angeles Times entitled Identity In Code? Zodiac Killer-Chilling Portrait Of Madness. The whole premise of the article was analyzing and ruminating on the identity of the Zodiac Killer, stating  "He could be old Mrs. So-and-So's boy, who never says boo and still lives at home. Or that batchelor that keeps to himself and never seems to have any fun". As a response to his name, one year later he would say "BOO" in the Halloween card. The article went on to examine the July 31st 1969 letters and cryptograms, along with the unsolved 18 characters at the foot of the 408 cipher, pondering whether "his name, or some other vital clue was written in the cryptogram". Did he finally give us the vital clue to the identity in the 408 cipher, when he used the character "Z" in the Halloween card for the very first time? See The Missing Line in the 408 Cipher. 

​It could be argued that the Zodiac Killer deliberately introduced himself as the "murderer" and "killer" in his July 31st 1969 letters to withhold his identity for the 408 character cryptogram. Possibly the identity of "Z", to which he would expand upon a few days later, when he introduced his now infamous "This is the Zodiac speaking" phrase. Maybe there were only 17 redundant ciphertext characters at the foot of the 408 cipher? 

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 draft 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 draft 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.