From August 4th 1969 to March 13th 1971 the Zodiac Killer mailed 12 authenticated letters (inc. Fairfield letters} that carried the introduction of "This is the Zodiac speaking" on the first line of the message. Of these 12 letters, only the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969 failed to keep the "This is the Zodiac speaking" introduction exclusively on the main first line (ignoring the "Dear" intro). It was written "This is the Zodiac speaking I". The San Francisco Chronicle published at least four of these introductions, which included the October 13th 1969, November 8th 1969, April 20th 1970 and March 13th 1971 letters (shown below). The author of the April 24th 1978 "I am back with you" letter (if a hoaxer) had every opportunity to just mimic any one of these published introductions, yet he chose to mimic the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969, which broke with tradition. The Melvin Belli message began with "This is the Zodiac speaking I", but was grammatically incorrect in failing to place a comma or full-stop between "speaking" and "I". Therefore, the author of the 1978 letter (if a hoaxer) managed to imitate the message on the opening line of the Melvin Belli letter (including the punctuation error) despite the fact an image of the Melvin Belli letter was not published in any newspapers (to my knowledge). One would have expected a Zodiac copycat to mimic any one of the four introductions available in the San Francisco Chronicle (images below) - but they didn't. The 1978 author mimicked the only one not publicly available in the Chronicle. Both letters also began with the author addressing the receiver by way of "Dear Melvin" and "Dear Editor". From August 4th 1969 to March 13th 1971, this "addressing of the receiver" within the letter was only performed twice (8/4/69 and 12/20/69). These observations may suggest the Zodiac Killer authored the 1978 letter after all. Up to and including 1978, the Melvin Belli and "I am back with you" letters were the only two letters that opened with the message "This is the Zodiac speaking I". Therefore, was it just coincidence that the Melvin Belli letter stated "I can not remain in control for much longer", to which the 1978 letter replied with "I am now in control of all things"?
This, along with the observations shown in a previous article, should help to authenticate a letter long believed to be a hoax by many in the Zodiac community. This could very well rule out David Toschi as the author of the 1978 letter and finally clear his name altogether. The San Francisco Police Department DNA report states that a "DNA sample was obtained" from the 1978 letter. Therefore, if the 1978 letter is genuine, we already have the Zodiac Killer's DNA. If anybody has information showing that the Melvin Belli letter was published in the newspapers prior to April 24th 1978, please let me know and this article will be amended or deleted.
I would like to thank Zodiac researcher Druzer, whose initial insights into the structure of the Zodiac letters have made all this possible. Including the article "A Pattern of Writing".
This, along with the observations shown in a previous article, should help to authenticate a letter long believed to be a hoax by many in the Zodiac community. This could very well rule out David Toschi as the author of the 1978 letter and finally clear his name altogether. The San Francisco Police Department DNA report states that a "DNA sample was obtained" from the 1978 letter. Therefore, if the 1978 letter is genuine, we already have the Zodiac Killer's DNA. If anybody has information showing that the Melvin Belli letter was published in the newspapers prior to April 24th 1978, please let me know and this article will be amended or deleted.
I would like to thank Zodiac researcher Druzer, whose initial insights into the structure of the Zodiac letters have made all this possible. Including the article "A Pattern of Writing".
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