It is no coincidence that the Zodiac Killer only wrote "in this cipher is my idenity" in the letter he mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969, because this one-third of the cipher contained the 18 unsolved characters at its foot. This was also the only letter of the three to begin with "This is the murderer". The other two communications to the San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald began with "I am the killer". This shift in introduction may be completely accidental, may be subconscious or may be completely deliberate on account of the "identity" he is to place at the foot of the cipher. The author of these three communications had deliberately separated them into three parts, and therefore when he was preparing the San Francisco Chronicle letter, one would like to think he was considering the opening line when placing his identity at the end of the cipher. If he was ever going to disclose his identity (but not his name), then logically it would be an extension of "I am the killer" to "I am the Zodiac Killer", and therefore satisfy the quota of 18 unsolved characters required by the cipher. I have inserted "I am the Zodiac Killer" at the end of the opening lines of the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner to show how the revelation of his identity in the Chronicle better suits the introduction of "This is the murderer".
San Francisco Chronicle: "Dear Editor, This is the murderer of the 2 teenagers last Christmass at Lake Herman + the girl on the 4th of July near the golf course in Vallejo. I am the Zodiac Killer"
San Francisco Examiner: Dear Editor, I am the killer of the 2 teen-agers last Christmass at Lake Herman and the Girl last 4th of July. I am the Zodiac Killer"
San Francisco Chronicle: "Dear Editor, This is the murderer of the 2 teenagers last Christmass at Lake Herman + the girl on the 4th of July near the golf course in Vallejo. I am the Zodiac Killer"
San Francisco Examiner: Dear Editor, I am the killer of the 2 teen-agers last Christmass at Lake Herman and the Girl last 4th of July. I am the Zodiac Killer"
The Zodiac Killer may have accidentally dropped the word "people" from the San Francisco Chronicle cipher (shown in red above) when he transitioned from one cipher to another, unwittingly missing out this word from his original draft to final version, and thereby forcing him to switch from the intended 12 characters he meant to leave, to a revised 18 characters.To rectify his mistake he simply changed "I am the Zodiac" to "I am the Zodiac Killer". The confirmed murderer of five never used the term "Zodiac Killer" in any of his subsequent communications, opting for "This is the Zodiac speaking", but may have had his hand forced on this occasion. It would have been relatively easy to just rewrite the San Francisco Chronicle cipher, but this was an easy solution. One can see how the Zodiac Killer chose his words in the October 13th 1969 letter, opening up with "This is the Zodiac speaking. I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by Washington St + Maple St last night". He uses the words "I am" because he has already introduced himself as the Zodiac. In the July 31st 1969 San Francisco Chronicle letter he uses the words "This is the murderer" because he has thus far failed to introduce himself, which he reserves for the final line of the cipher, stating "I am the Zodiac (Killer)". It is effectively a reversal of the Paul Stine letter.
Paul Stine letter: "This is the Zodiac speaking. I am the murderer of the taxi driver".
San Francisco Chronicle: "This is the murderer of the 2 teenagers. I am the Zodiac Killer"
Paul Stine letter: "This is the Zodiac speaking. I am the murderer of the taxi driver".
San Francisco Chronicle: "This is the murderer of the 2 teenagers. I am the Zodiac Killer"
The murderer would very quickly introduce himself in the August 4th 1969 'Debut of Zodiac' letter: "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. By the way, are the police having a good time with the code? If not, tell them to cheer up; when they do crack it, they will have me". He was introducing himself as "Zodiac", so when the police did eventually crack the code, in effect, they would have "had Zodiac".
An anonymous caller in San Francisco declared that whoever devised the code "would have to have a vast knowledge in three fields - surveying, nautical science and marksmanship". How the caller could derive that the triple murderer had a vast knowledge of marksmanship from these attacks is hard to justify, not to mention nautical science and surveying. Was the Zodiac Killer ringing the police and blowing his own trumpet? The murderer did ultimately commit his murders with varied weaponry and did eventually introduce a map and radians into his communications.
If we are looking for an identity or pseudonym in the 18 unsolved characters of the 408 cipher, then it must include appropriate word usage in order to increase the originally intended 12 characters up to 18 characters. So if the original message was "I am the Zodiac" or "Zodiac Killer", then the author had to supplement it with an extra 6 characters to replace the word "people". The simplest avenue available was to add "Killer" or "I am the", in order to generate these 6 characters. These were all used consecutively in two of the three communications mailed on July 31st 1969, when the Zodiac Killer wrote "I am the killer of the 2 teenagers last Christmass at Lake Herman + the girl last 4th of July" to the San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald.
An anonymous caller in San Francisco declared that whoever devised the code "would have to have a vast knowledge in three fields - surveying, nautical science and marksmanship". How the caller could derive that the triple murderer had a vast knowledge of marksmanship from these attacks is hard to justify, not to mention nautical science and surveying. Was the Zodiac Killer ringing the police and blowing his own trumpet? The murderer did ultimately commit his murders with varied weaponry and did eventually introduce a map and radians into his communications.
If we are looking for an identity or pseudonym in the 18 unsolved characters of the 408 cipher, then it must include appropriate word usage in order to increase the originally intended 12 characters up to 18 characters. So if the original message was "I am the Zodiac" or "Zodiac Killer", then the author had to supplement it with an extra 6 characters to replace the word "people". The simplest avenue available was to add "Killer" or "I am the", in order to generate these 6 characters. These were all used consecutively in two of the three communications mailed on July 31st 1969, when the Zodiac Killer wrote "I am the killer of the 2 teenagers last Christmass at Lake Herman + the girl last 4th of July" to the San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald.
Saturday August 2nd 1969 San Francisco Chronicle article The Zodiac Killer had seemingly failed to fully convince Vallejo Police Chief Jack E Stiltz, who was less than satisfied that the letter writer and killer were one and the same, urging the author of the July 31st 1969 letters to send in more details of the crimes. The Zodiac Killer immediately dispatched the 'Debut of Zodiac' letter on August 4th 1969 with the introduction of "This is the Zodiac speaking". Although the Zodiac Killer could add more details of the crimes in this new letter to prove he was the killer, It is conceivable he revealed his pseudonym after only four days to inextricably link himself to the first three letters. The only way he could achieve this beyond any doubt, was to reveal a significant word in the unsolved cipher. Then the police would know for certain when the code was broken, that the author of the August 4th 1969 letter was not only the killer, but the designer of the cryptogram. So he introduced his pseudonym "Zodiac" earlier than he had originally intended and immediately rushed it off to the San Francisco Examiner newspaper on August 4th 1969, before the cryptogram was solved.
Remember, if Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz had not urged the author of the July 31st 1969 letters to send in more details to prove the letter writer was the killer, the 'Debut of Zodiac' letter would likely never have been written and sent to the Examiner. The "Zodiac" would still have been the "killer" by the time of the Paul Stine murder. He revealed his pseudonym to link himself to the San Francisco Chronicle's 18 characters, but unfortunately for him, he clearly underestimated the difficulty of the encryption. The release of his identity or pseudonym "Zodiac" so quickly, may lend credence to its presence in the remainder of the 408 cipher, and by extension, the 18 unsolved characters harboring a genuine and coherent message.
"This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way, are the police having a good time with the code? If not, tell them to cheer up; when they do crack it, they will have me".
THE 18 UNSOLVED CHARACTERS [PT1]
THE 18 UNSOLVED CHARACTERS [PT2]
THE 18 UNSOLVED CHARACTERS [PT3]
Remember, if Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz had not urged the author of the July 31st 1969 letters to send in more details to prove the letter writer was the killer, the 'Debut of Zodiac' letter would likely never have been written and sent to the Examiner. The "Zodiac" would still have been the "killer" by the time of the Paul Stine murder. He revealed his pseudonym to link himself to the San Francisco Chronicle's 18 characters, but unfortunately for him, he clearly underestimated the difficulty of the encryption. The release of his identity or pseudonym "Zodiac" so quickly, may lend credence to its presence in the remainder of the 408 cipher, and by extension, the 18 unsolved characters harboring a genuine and coherent message.
"This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way, are the police having a good time with the code? If not, tell them to cheer up; when they do crack it, they will have me".
THE 18 UNSOLVED CHARACTERS [PT1]
THE 18 UNSOLVED CHARACTERS [PT2]
THE 18 UNSOLVED CHARACTERS [PT3]
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