Since the decoding of the Zodiac Killer's infamous 340 cipher by Dave Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke earlier this month, it is now possible to almost certainly confirm the two letters mailed on December 7th 1969 and December 16th 1969 as authentic Zodiac communications. It has long been known that these two letters were authored by the same person, but it has always been difficult to convince certain sections of the Zodiac community these letters were penned by the Zodiac Killer, who insisted they were a hoaxer based on nothing more than handwriting analysis and the disorganized appearance of the coding in each. The following, will hopefully show that handwriting alone should never be used to dismiss a questioned Zodiac correspondence. By examining the encryption methods between the 340 and 38 character codes, much can be revealed
The first Fairfield letter (Z38) mailed on December 7th 1969
The H+ are the same two characters after the period 19 shift in the 340 cipher
A 38 character code accompanied the Fairfield letter on December 7th 1969, just twenty-nine days after the Zodiac Killer's recently deciphered 340 cipher. This code contained only characters available in the 340 cipher, unlike the following 13-Symbol and 32-Symbol ciphers. This opened the door to the possibility that the 38 character code was somehow related to the 340 cipher and maybe contained a clue to its construction. Druzer, an avid and diligent Zodiac researcher, mailed me the 38 character code deciphered with the 340 cipher key. The result is mostly garbled, but he drew my attention to the final line of both codes ending in "death". The Zodiac Killer only took a 4+ horizontal combination of characters from the 340 cipher to the 38 character code on two occasions. Those were HER> and AIKꞮ+, which spelled the standalone words of IRON and DEATH, before the diagonal shift was applied to the 340 cipher to reveal the message. Despite the last two rows of the 340 cipher being a mixture of forward and backward reading words, the word "death" sits at the end of both the 340 and 38 character ciphers, indicating that this word likely concludes the message of the rearranged final two lines. It could mean that the final sentence of the 340 cipher is "life is death" rather than "death is life".
Other horizontal words do exist in this format, however, the Zodiac Killer gave us 4 and 5 characters which bound the 340 and 38 character ciphers together, and both formed English words. The Zodiac Killer began and ended his 38 character code with two prominent sections from the start and end of the 340 cipher, both of which contained visible words before any shift was applied (The final word remaining static). This may be another observation, which confirms to the doubters the December 7th 1969 letter as an authentic Zodiac communication. Unless of course, the 38 code hoaxer identified two passages of 4 and 5 characters from the undeciphered 340 cipher, that just happened to accidentally find two English words after the 340 key was applied, specifically the two which began and ended the 340 cipher. This hoaxer would also have to guess that by separating the prominent ZO∆AIKꞮ+ characters on the bottom line of the 340 cipher, into AIKꞮ+ on the bottom line of the 38 character code, he would be reducing these characters to create something meaningful. He apparently did. By separating these characters into the five visible at the end of the 38 character code, he created the word "death", just like the solved 340 cipher. Druzer pointed out the same thing, stating "The most curious/compelling feats are that the author isolated actual words, most notably death, and that he refrained from copying Zodaik, which would certainly be expected of a hoaxer". In other words, he dismantled the ZO∆AIK element, while leaving Ɪ+ in place, to form "death" as the final word on the 38 character code. This appears to show knowledge of the hidden message in the 340 cipher
This also opens up the possibility that the word "death" was present in the 5 character code on December 16th 1969, when the Zodiac Killer mailed his second Fairfield letter mimicking the yet to be designed Halloween card. The word "death" would then span three consecutive Zodiac ciphers from November 8th 1969 to December 16th 1969, with the Halloween card on October 27th 1970 the icing on the cake.
The November 8th 1969 greeting card came without a section of Paul Stine's shirt, as did the two Fairfield letters on December 7th 1969 and December 16th 1969. When neither of the Fairfield letters were published in the newspapers, the Zodiac Killer would add a shirt piece to the Melvin Belli letter just four days later. In the Melvin Belli letter the Zodiac Killer pleaded for help on four occasions, stating "please help me" on three of those occasions. The unpublished December 7th 1969 letter contained the phrase "I just need help".
Other horizontal words do exist in this format, however, the Zodiac Killer gave us 4 and 5 characters which bound the 340 and 38 character ciphers together, and both formed English words. The Zodiac Killer began and ended his 38 character code with two prominent sections from the start and end of the 340 cipher, both of which contained visible words before any shift was applied (The final word remaining static). This may be another observation, which confirms to the doubters the December 7th 1969 letter as an authentic Zodiac communication. Unless of course, the 38 code hoaxer identified two passages of 4 and 5 characters from the undeciphered 340 cipher, that just happened to accidentally find two English words after the 340 key was applied, specifically the two which began and ended the 340 cipher. This hoaxer would also have to guess that by separating the prominent ZO∆AIKꞮ+ characters on the bottom line of the 340 cipher, into AIKꞮ+ on the bottom line of the 38 character code, he would be reducing these characters to create something meaningful. He apparently did. By separating these characters into the five visible at the end of the 38 character code, he created the word "death", just like the solved 340 cipher. Druzer pointed out the same thing, stating "The most curious/compelling feats are that the author isolated actual words, most notably death, and that he refrained from copying Zodaik, which would certainly be expected of a hoaxer". In other words, he dismantled the ZO∆AIK element, while leaving Ɪ+ in place, to form "death" as the final word on the 38 character code. This appears to show knowledge of the hidden message in the 340 cipher
This also opens up the possibility that the word "death" was present in the 5 character code on December 16th 1969, when the Zodiac Killer mailed his second Fairfield letter mimicking the yet to be designed Halloween card. The word "death" would then span three consecutive Zodiac ciphers from November 8th 1969 to December 16th 1969, with the Halloween card on October 27th 1970 the icing on the cake.
The November 8th 1969 greeting card came without a section of Paul Stine's shirt, as did the two Fairfield letters on December 7th 1969 and December 16th 1969. When neither of the Fairfield letters were published in the newspapers, the Zodiac Killer would add a shirt piece to the Melvin Belli letter just four days later. In the Melvin Belli letter the Zodiac Killer pleaded for help on four occasions, stating "please help me" on three of those occasions. The unpublished December 7th 1969 letter contained the phrase "I just need help".
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