On April 20th 1970, the Zodiac Killer referenced the Park Police Station bombing in San Francisco and the resulting death of Brian McDonnell on February 16th 1970. Eight days later, he mailed the Dragon card to the San Francisco Chronicle asking them to publish the workings of his bus bomb with all the details, with failure to do so resulting in him having his blast. The Zodiac Killer informed the San Francisco Chronicle that he would like to see some nice Zodiac buttons around town. On June 26th 1970, the Zodiac Killer had become upset because the people of San Francisco had not complied with his wishes to wear some nice Zodiac buttons, but had to delay his bombing of a school bus until the Fall, as school was out for the summer. However, he supplied us with a map of San Francisco & Vicinity, stating "the map coupled with the code will tell you where the bomb is set". So, it's a real head-scratcher where the bomb was to be set? Was it San Francisco by any chance? Or was Fayçal Ziraoui correct when he identified a school in South Lake Tahoe, that wasn't even present on the Phillips 66 Map that Zodiac provided? Many have asked whether it is possible to find the location of the bomb without the extra clues he provided in the Little List letter on July 26th 1970 of "PS. The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians & # inches along the radians". Clearly the Zodiac Killer thought it was, when he mailed the map and code on June 26th 1970.
From the above sarcasm, it is reasonable to conclude that the target was a school bus in San Francisco. So how do we find that location? The crosshairs he placed on the map where "0 was to be set to Mag.N", along with the clock face numerals, are a good indication that we must travel around the circumference of Mount Diablo and measure a certain distance from it. However, we can't use individual degrees as a measurement tool, because any number of degrees can fall over the land mass of San Francisco from north to south (and there isn't enough information on the map to conclude which number of degrees is correct). Therefore, we have to find an angular measurement where only one answer exists. If somebody had looked up radians in 1970, they would have concluded that only the whole measurement of 4 radians and magnetic north can fall inside the land mass of San Francisco between its northernmost and southernmost tips. No other radian value can fall within San Francisco. This would have to be the starting point.
From the above sarcasm, it is reasonable to conclude that the target was a school bus in San Francisco. So how do we find that location? The crosshairs he placed on the map where "0 was to be set to Mag.N", along with the clock face numerals, are a good indication that we must travel around the circumference of Mount Diablo and measure a certain distance from it. However, we can't use individual degrees as a measurement tool, because any number of degrees can fall over the land mass of San Francisco from north to south (and there isn't enough information on the map to conclude which number of degrees is correct). Therefore, we have to find an angular measurement where only one answer exists. If somebody had looked up radians in 1970, they would have concluded that only the whole measurement of 4 radians and magnetic north can fall inside the land mass of San Francisco between its northernmost and southernmost tips. No other radian value can fall within San Francisco. This would have to be the starting point.
The map scale was in inches and miles, however, the answer could not be in miles because any number of miles can fall inside the land mass of San Francisco between its easternmost and westernmost tips. But using the map scale of 6.4 miles to the inch, only the whole measurment of 5 inches can possibly fall inside the land mass of San Francisco. Had somebody concluded the measurements in radians and inches immediately after receiving the Phillips 66 Map in 1970 using the scant information provided by the Zodiac Killer, then one month later when the Little List letter arrived stating "PS. The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians & # inches along the radians", they would likely have been taken seriously. The lack of information on the map meant that we had to be looking for measurements where only one answer was possible for the angle and distance. That answer was whole numbers of radians and inches over San Francisco. Since the code concerned radians and inches, it could be concluded that placing "four radians and five inches" in the code was the obvious choice, before finding the meaning behind the remaining eight characters that painted the full picture. The location the Zodiac Killer selected to claim his bomb placement was a function of roadside, school bus and San Francisco Police Department - so was very unlikely to satisfy such an exact measurement.
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