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THE BATES SYMBOLS AND DRIPPING PEN TOTAL

3/14/2017

11 Comments

 
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On April 30th 1967 the supposed killer of Cheri Jo Bates mailed three handwritten letters to Joseph Bates, the Riverside Press-Enterprise and the Riverside Police Department. All effectively carried the same message "Bates had to die there will be more." These letters bore resemblance to the Zodiac Killer's first three letters, mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, Vallejo Times-Herald and San Francisco Examiner.on July 31st 1969. Not only did both sets contain three constituent parts, they exhibited double postage and both carried the threat of more victims. In the July 31st 1969 mailings, the threat was to "cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend." 
The two sets of letters were also accompanied by a symbol at the foot of the correspondence. The crosshairs of the Zodiac Killer are all too familiar, but what were the strange symbols at the foot of the Riverside Police Department and Riverside Press-Enterprise correspondence. They do not appear to be a regular letter Z, as both have an elaborate tail off the left side, as shown in the above image.  
The Zodiac Killer was not averse to placing his running total of victims at the foot of each letter, and this may be the case in the Bates letters. In one of Zodiac's mailings he sent us the 'Halloween' card addressed to Paul Avery, but possibly replaced the victim count with an elaborate symbol on the inside of the card. We know he was inferring 14 victims over the entire card, so why should the symbol be any different. Below is a depiction of one possible interpretation.         

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The four dots are harder to interpret, but by joining three alphabetical letters together 'Zodiac Victims Fourteen' is realized. Was this a 'modern' twist on his earlier, yet more rudimentary version on the Bates letters.
On first glance the Bates symbol could be interpreted as a joined 3 and V, indicating three victims. After all, the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates was claiming previous victims, apparent in the 'Confession' letter he mailed one month after her murder. It stated "She is not the first and she will not be the last. I lay awake at night thinking about my next victim." The question is, were his next victims that of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen on December 20th 1968, just two years later.
The Zodiac Killer first gave us a running total of seven on the 'Dripping Pen' card, mailed on November 8th 1969. The Zodiac claimed "Des, July, Aug, Sept, Oct = 7" at the foot of the card. At this point in time we knew of five Zodiac murders, that included David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen in December, Darlene Ferrin in July, Cecelia Shepard in September, and Paul Stine in October. We were missing two.
If we also included Cheri Jo Bates into October, then we would be missing only one victim in August. If the Zodiac Killer was the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates, then was his first victim just two months earlier in August 1966 and Cheri was "not the first and was not to be the last." This would give us the total of seven victims the Zodiac was referring to in the 'Dripping Pen' card. Is it possible the Zodiac Killer had already adopted his pseudonym as early as 1967, bearing in mind the symbol on the Bates letters does not conform fully. 
One interpretation of the Bates symbols could have inspired his design on the 'Halloween' card, shown below. The number 2 (or possibly 3) tagged onto the left side of the arrangement, as opposed to 'fourteen' on the 'Halloween' card, tagged onto the right side.  However it may be a little convoluted, and would presuppose his use of the pseudonym Zodiac in 1967, which could not be backed up with anything tangible.          

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​Assuming the Bay Area and Riverside killer are the same person, it is conceivable that the murder of Cheri Jo Bates was one of his earliest crimes, possibly the second. The 'Confession' letter stated "She is not the first and she will not be the last," and the 'Dripping Pen' card total, if to be believed, left only one victim in August.

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Had the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates killed a second victim, only two months earlier in August. His murders may have displayed much less organization back in 1966, exemplified by the brutal stabbing in the grounds of the Riverside City College, only yards from the library annex. His letter writing may equally have looked amateurish, after all, he was in the infancy of his terror.
On the right may be an early example of the Zodiac Killer's running victim total, inferring '2 victims' (or possibly '3 victims').
However, we were two murders short on the 'Dripping Pen' card, so this coupled with the five murders in the Bay Area brings us to the correct total of seven, by November 8th 1969. The total on the 'Dripping Pen' card may only be crimes under the Zodiac umbrella, which he adopted in 1969, which do not include any of the Riverside attacks. Nevertheless, the Bates symbols may still be an early example of a running victim count, which he refreshed when he became Zodiac. If this is the case, then the hunt for victims six and seven will have to start again, maybe somewhere other than Riverside. 

11 Comments
Greg H.
3/15/2017 10:53:40 pm

Richard, I know many have considered the Domingos-Edwards murders in 1963 to be the work of Zodiac what with the similar bindings that were also employed years later at Lake Berryessa.
There has been rumor out there as well that a Wing Walker boot imprint was recovered from the murder scene in Santa Barbara. Would be a revelation if this could factoid could be confirmed.

Was listening to a podcast interview of Michael Butterfield earlier in which he mentioned this point about the bootprint. According to Butterfield's rationale the Riverside connection is an important basis on which to potentially rule out suspects. If it can be shown that someone had no ties to Riverside and specifically was not in that town/city in 1966-67, then they should be excluded. As a result, he seems to be most partial to Ross Sullivan as being Zodiac. I know we've cast doubt on Sullivan due to his hulking stature, but maybe he deserves another look? Zodiac after all was said to be 'barrel-chested' so may have been a larger man than we imagine. Likewise, Sullivan could have lost weight in the late '60s.
Just spitballing ideas, of course..Apparently, there's only one known handwriting sample on Sullivan--the widely circulated Social Security document, which doesn't reveal much.
Sort of at a loss, it could well be the actual killer defied the odds and fell through the cracks, having escaped all detection..

Reply
Richard
3/16/2017 04:20:25 am

If the Riverside murder was Zodiac, and i'm still not convinced, then Ross Sullivan being employed in the RCC library makes him worthy of investigation. However I cannot get past his height. No matter the credibility issues of Donald Fouke, it is without doubt, the man he saw on Jackson Street was Zodiac. He is a trained observer, giving a comprehensive description of the Zodiac Killer, right down to his shoes. Ross Sullivan would be 6'3" inches in heeled shoes and you simply cannot mistake 6'3" for 5'10". The three teenagers stated 5'8," even further away. So disregarding his weight, we would have to disregard the height also, irrespective of his likeness to the sketch. He was also interviewed by police after the Cheri Jo Bates murder, and not one scratch on him, despite the fact Cheri must have fought tooth and nail with her attacker for at least one minute. They obviously were looking for scratch marks, due to the skin recovered from Cheri's fingernails. Unless we believe in a master criminal, who clearly the murderer of Cheri wasn't, the watch was too small for Sullivan. Also we would have to suspend our belief, that the police fingerprinted 65 library goers, all family and friends, yet Sullivan who knew Cheri and worked at the library, and was flagged as strange by college students, sailed right past the fingerprinting test and nobody tested him. Not likely. We have evidence he resided in Riverside, but he cannot be placed in San Francisco, Vallejo, Benicia or Napa ever. When you look at the evidence against Sullivan, we have a similarity to the Presidio sketch, that looked like half the male population in 1969 and the fact he was shifty and strange. Not compelling by any means.

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Richard
3/16/2017 04:31:55 am

The Wing Walker impressions at Santa Barbara from my understanding, is unsubstantiated, supposedly information held by the police they hadn't released. Like you said, it's rumour, and with the police less than forthcoming on anything nowadays, it is unlikely to ever be confirmed or denied.

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Mike
10/9/2017 10:23:57 am

The wing walkers photos from Riverside were released, I saw them on a discovery channel documentary where that woman thinks its Earl Van Best Jr.

Potts
8/21/2018 08:48:17 pm

could be eV- same with 37. EV is from Wilmore.

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Greg
3/15/2017 11:10:00 pm

Have you ever looked into the arrest of Donald Warren Porter on July 20th 1969 for Ferrin's murder? He had a roommate named Ott apparently. Trying to learn more about this.

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Richard
3/16/2017 04:23:35 am

No, but I'll take a look Gregory.

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Richard
3/16/2017 04:36:55 am

It is discussed here http://zodiackillerhoax1986.freeforums.net/thread/60/warren

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Greg H.
3/16/2017 10:29:27 pm

Thanks for locating that, Richard. I've learned I should be very wary of Horan's brand of pretzel logic. Last night I was listening to one of his interviews and he talked about how the Stine shooting was effectively solved by the SFPD. He alluded to the 1997 shooting of Helen Menicou at the Pinecrest Diner in SF--this diner has apparently been around since 1969 and it is located just adjacent to the Mason-Geary pick-up point. Anyway, the man who shot Menicou was named Hashem Zayed. Horan says that after the diner shooting the police closed the Stine case because the unspoken conclusion was that Zayed killed Stine because the random nature of both shootings was the same, and the diner is located near Mason-Geary.
Okay, interesting, I thought.. I did some research, though, and learned that Zayed was a Jordanian immigrant who didn't even arrive in the U.S. until 1975!
Horan will throw out some intriguing tidbits but one really must do the research and never take him at face value.. He was also saying that Dennis Land, park ranger, was a strong suspect in the Lake Berryessa stabbings.. This is one I'll have to look more into... Here's the stoy about the Pinecrest Diner: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Cook-Shot-Waitress-Over-Egg-Order-Police-Say-3239897.php

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Greg H.
3/16/2017 10:43:53 pm

"No matter the credibility issues of Donald Fouke, it is without doubt, the man he saw on Jackson Street was Zodiac."

Just to play devil's advocate briefly, and I know this topic has been beaten to death..What if there's a possibility Fouke didn't see Zodiac. First, there's the kids who said the man they saw was about 25, while Fouke allegedly sees a much older individual. Then there's the matter of blood, I know you've said Zodiac managed to avoid becoming drenched in blood but I think this up to debate. I believe it was Pellisetti who looked inside the cab and essentially said the interior was saturated with blood. If Zodiac placed Stine on his lap, the run-off onto Zodiac's clothing almost had to have been substantial. It's curious then that Fouke reports nothing unusual about the suspect's clothing being wet, despite being able to discern what sort of footwear he wore.
I'm just imagining what it would be like to have a freshly shot man draped across my lap, how does one not become covered in blood? As I say, Richard, I don't have a horse in the race here, just exploring different perpectives.. Granted, it almost had to have been Zodiac they saw in order for him to come forward with the information that he encountered police.

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Alex Lewis link
3/25/2017 02:04:58 am

Well Here is the simple equasion....

There is a Gentleman walking down Jackson st that Don Fouke only admits to observing after Zodiac 'outs' the police with a 'PS, 2 Cops pulled a goof. . .' reveal. This now acknowledged Man, He is 100, maybe 150 yards from the latest Zodiac homicide scene, a homicide that took place some 5 to 10 minutes previously when Fouke observes Him. This White Male Adult is described by Fouke as wearing the exact same clothing that Hartnells attacker wore two weeks previously at Lake B! He has the Blue parka type jacket that has collar: Blue in color. Fouke recollects the same 'Pleated' style pants/trousers that Bryan testified to that His assailant wore. Fouke described the Man wearing an Engineers type of boot. We know the attacker at Lake B wore a wingwalker boot, a boot specifically designed for aircraft engineers to walk along the wing of aircrafts without causing/picking up static charge. So, what You have to believe if You do not believe that man observed by Fouke was Zodiac is this: Despite this Man being one street away from a Zodiac crime scene that happened 10 mins prior, and while being one street away He is also wearing the exact wardrobe that Zodiac wore two weeks previous, despite these two unarguable facts, the facts are the result of simple coincidence.

Do You know what the odds are of that? Neither do I but I can hazard an educated guess that the odds of that being down to sheer coincidence is simply astronomical!

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