While discussing the September 25th 1990 Celebrity Cypher in an earlier article on this site, Rubislaw32 discovered the identity of the postcard, described by Zodiac researcher Lyndon Lafferty as "Driftwood on Ocean Beach", whereas the face of the card featured a rooted tree on a beach in Carmel, California. Any doubt that this discovery by Rubislaw32 was not of Carmel Beach in California has been seemingly quashed, when the John Hinde alphanumeric publishing code in the top left corner of the address side, was compared to the alphanumeric publishing code on the original Celebrity Cypher mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald in 1990. This discovery is now available on the Project MK Zodiac website here.      

The address side of the original 1990 Celebrity Cypher contained the alphanumeric code 2CG 66-B, as did the Carmel postcard on the left, effectively tying the two together and strengthening the case regarding the image portrayed on the face of the postcard. If anybody has information to the contrary in respect to these alphanumeric codes, please let me know in comments. The only thing left to speculate upon, was whether the 1990 Celebrity Cypher was authored by the Zodiac Killer or somebody attempting to mimic the Zodiac Killer.

There have been numerous theories put forward, including from Sandy Betts, who has expressed her reservations on whether the Celebrity Cypher has Carmel Beach on the face of the card. She believes there may be a connection to the John and Joyce Swindle murder, alongside Ocean Beach, San Diego on February 5th 1964. She stated on Zodiac Killer Site forum "On Wednesday, February 5, 1964, Navy radio-man third class Johnny Ray Swindle and his newlywed wife Joyce were violently murdered along the "Ocean Beach" Boardwalk next to the Silver Spray Apartments. Swindle had married his childhood sweetheart on January 18, 1964 and they stayed in a three room cottage nine blocks from where they would eventually be slain. According to the San Diego Union Newspaper, five shots were fired from the sniper position above. Police said two more were fired at close range. Indicating that the killer fired the last two shots into their heads in a kind of coup de grâce. Their murder case remains unsolved to this day, however, there are many persons who believe the murders were committed by the infamous Zodiac Killer". She further elaborated on Zodiac Killer Forumotion "The "Ocean Beach" that I believe it is was, is in San Diego Ca. I knew about two murders there on Feb. 5th 1964. They were John and Joyce Swindle. The stamp that was used backs up what I believe. The stamp is of Marianne Moore who died on Feb. 5th 1972, I do not think that was coincidence".

The Zodiac Killer began his cipher mailings to the Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969, to which he mailed part one of a three-part cipher to Bay Area newspapers. So this 1990 offering in ciphertext (if Zodiac) would mean the only two confirmed mailings to the Vallejo Times-Herald would both have contained code. The characters of the code are certainly recognizable, but not difficult to replicate for anybody who knows something about the Zodiac Killer. The Bay Area murderer gloried in his narcissism, parading himself in an executioner's costume at Lake Berryesssa on September 27th 1969, so designing a postcard based on  the Celebrity Ciphers of Luis Campos would not be beyond him. These ciphers were published regularly in the newspapers featuring well-known people, past and present. The reader had to identify the person and quote from the encoded text. The idea that the Zodiac Killer, deeming himself a celebrity, would then tease us a further time with his name, is not so far-fetched. 

You can see that the foot of the Luis Campos cipher solution on the right is reserved for the celebrity's name (in this case, John Lee Hooker). Bearing in mind the positioning of the characters shown above, with the left side of the postcard normally reserved for the name and address - and with the final 5 and 8 characters identical to the beginning of the cipher, we should expect the red rectangles to contain the name of the postcard author. The blue rectangle to contain the address and the green rectangle to harbor the message. If this were the Zodiac Killer, being the celebrity that he is, what better way to encipher this message with one of his old quotes.

The communication that most springs to mind when we are attempting to discover the name of the Zodiac Killer, is the April 20th 1970 "My Name Is" 13 symbol cipher. That being 2 letters, followed by 4 letters, followed by 2 letters and finally his name of 13 letters (split into forename and surname). Well look at that. The 1990 Celebrity Cipher ends in a formation of 2, 4, 2 and 13. This was a Zodiac quote so good, they even named the correspondence after it. But what about the first four words in the Celebrity Cypher message. What Zodiac communication was this chosen from?

You would expect the revelation of his name to be preceded by a question, such as "do you know me" or "if you want me", followed by the answer. This is obviously assuming there is a second letter obscured by the stamp. He teased us similarly in the October 27th 1970 'Halloween' card stating "you ache to know my name. And so I'll clue you in", and in the 408 cipher with "in this cipher is my idenity". But he always failed to deliver. If we combine part of the 'Halloween' card phrase with the April 20th 1970 letter, we get "you ache to know my name. My name is".  Replacing the first "my name" with "me"  in the form of a question, it is my guess the Celebrity Cypher reads something along the lines of "do you know me. My name is".
If the 1990 Celebrity Cypher was truly by the Zodiac Killer, his name should be 5 and 8 letters in length, mirroring the '13 Symbol' cipher - but forgive me for being skeptical.

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 on the right. 

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. There is little to prove this notion one way or another, but if somebody was mimicking the Zodiac Killer, one might expect the wording on the card to equally mimic previous correspondence, in particular, phrases he used with respect to his codes and ciphers. 

Many people have put forward solutions to the celebrity cypher, including the website Zodiologists.com and Rubislaw32 (a regular contributor to this site). Some of these solutions can be found on Ricardo Gomez's Project MK-Zodiac site. But here, I am not going to tackle the celebrity cypher from the angle of cryptology, because not only do I have a basic knowledge of ciphers, but also, the mere fact that so many people of greater ability than me have come to wildly different conclusions, is evidence of a code that is malleable. In other words, this code is open to subjective interpretation and no solution, despite the belief of the code-cracker, has been universally accepted. Of course, nobody knows, or could know with certainty, who the author of this postcard is. However, if the author mailed a cipher to the Vallejo Times-Herald in an attempt to pass this communication off under the guise of Zodiac-style correspondence, could it be argued that the sender is also a murderer? One attempted solution caught my eye on the Zodiac Killer Site forum - and this is the path I will follow, despite the pitfall of characters being hidden behind the stamp. Here is the card, on which I have added some notations which will be explained later.   ​ 

​The first thing to notice is that the author likely places his name and address on the upper left hand side of the celebrity cypher, and also signs off the card with his name. Often a sender will provide a return address on the left side of a postcard or envelope. This is backed up by the identical thirteen characters beginning and ending the correspondence. Then we have to predict what the preceding text is before the author signs off with their name. On the left is the '13 Symbol' cipher mailed by the Zodiac Killer on April 20th 1970. He precedes the code or name with My name is. 

In the Luis Campos example at the top of the page, the final line is reserved for the name. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that the Zodiac Killer or somebody imitating him, would write My name is before signing off with their name. This may be preceded by a question, such as "Do you know me", in view of the Bay Area murderer having committed his crimes just under 21 years ago. A variation of do you remember me? Even if the author wasn't the Zodiac Killer, they may have been projecting the idea that they were. 

The next thing to look at is the return address. It has 10 characters followed by seven, then two. Many on the Zodiac Killer forum have deduced that the bottom line of the return address to be Oakland, CA - so I will run with this idea. The postcard was postmarked Oakland, so it's reasonable to conclude the return address would be Oakland too. This being the case, the 10 characters above must represent the area within Oakland. Now comes the simple task of finding a potential murderer who possibly authored this postcard. Somebody who knew of the Zodiac Killer, lived in an area of Oakland (comprised of 10 letters), and was eventually caught and convicted of murder. Surprisingly, if you type into Google search "Oakland, murderer, 1990" a possible answer is served up on a plate. Somebody who certainly lived in Oakland up to 1992, murdered two women in Oakland Hills that year, and lived with his grandparents near to Skyline Road and Golf Links Road, the deposition site of the two murdered women. Where exactly his grandparents lived, I have yet to ascertain, but there is a 10-letter neighborhood in East Oakland called Castlemont. It is less than a mile from Golf Links Road. His name was Monte Crawford, exactly fitting the 5 and 8 characters at the foot of the celebrity cypher.   

Monte Crawford, a military veteran, was sentenced on Friday, August 1st 2014 to 40 years to life for the 1992 double murder of Tredis Penny (26) and Shirley Wynn (38), both strangled and sexually assaulted, before being dumped in the Oakland Hills. I have no idea whatsoever if Monte Crawford was responsible for the celebrity cypher, but he did live in Oakland, in or near Castlemont, both of which fit the code, and he was capable of murder as he showed just one and a half years later, if he wasn't already a killer at this juncture.