Second Fairfield letter. December 16th 1969. Click to enlarge The Zodiac Killer was incapable of keeping the secrets to his ciphers for any length of time, arguable by his eagerness in responding to the various newspaper articles about his crimes. The two Fairfield letters, mailed on December 7th 1969 and December 16th 1969, were perfect examples of a killer who could barely go one month subsequent to the "340" cipher before hinting at the workings of his masterpiece cipher.
The December 7th 1969 cipher of 38 characters was the beginning of many short and apparently unsolvable codes. The sheer fact that he mailed the Z38, Z9, Z13 and Z32, comprising of no more than 92 characters in total, should have set off the alarm bells that these codes were nothing more than a message only understood to their designer without further input. That further input began only 29 days after the mailing of the "340" cipher with the wording of "paradice" and "slaves", gleaned from the 408 cipher of "the best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradise and all the (people) I have killed will become my slaves" - and would play an integral part in the Z38 and Z9 codes, as they did in the superficial design of the November 8th 1969 "340" cipher and the configuration on the October 27th 1970 Halloween card. The chosen phraseology of "paradice and slaves" long preceded the Halloween card and the presumed Tim Holt comic book connection.
The December 7th 1969 cipher of 38 characters was the beginning of many short and apparently unsolvable codes. The sheer fact that he mailed the Z38, Z9, Z13 and Z32, comprising of no more than 92 characters in total, should have set off the alarm bells that these codes were nothing more than a message only understood to their designer without further input. That further input began only 29 days after the mailing of the "340" cipher with the wording of "paradice" and "slaves", gleaned from the 408 cipher of "the best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradise and all the (people) I have killed will become my slaves" - and would play an integral part in the Z38 and Z9 codes, as they did in the superficial design of the November 8th 1969 "340" cipher and the configuration on the October 27th 1970 Halloween card. The chosen phraseology of "paradice and slaves" long preceded the Halloween card and the presumed Tim Holt comic book connection.
Halloween card configuration Nobody can dispute that "paradice" and "slaves" can be slotted into the 340 cipher in cruciform. The only dispute is whether it was unintentional or by design. That is why we must turn (in absence of the code in the November 21st 1969 letter) to the Zodiac Killer's next two cryptic offerings on December 7th and 16th. He gave us three consecutive coded communications after the 340 cipher, that may show the Bay Area murderer's incompatabilty with keeping secrets, especially when you consider that these three codes were hopelessly short of characters - and as such - designed as clues to the workings of the 340 cipher rather than standalone codes in their own right. The codes of the Z38, Z9, Z13 and Z32 were all simplistic in nature, to be later revealed from July 26th 1970 to October 27th 1970. The one sure thing we know of the Zodiac Killer, was his narcissism and his inability to withhold communication from the newspapers. Irrespective of this character trait, we assume he was able to remain deathly silent regarding his codes for up to 51 years.
The fact that the December 7th 1969 and December 16th 1969 letters came within nine days of one another, separated by 29 days from the 340 cipher, facilitates an argument based on their limited characters, that these two Fairfield codes contained clues to the workings of the 340 cipher and therefore carried the same purpose. If we remove 14 characters (paradice, slaves) from the total of the Z38 code, we would have 24 characters remaining (by fire, by rope, by knife, by gun). Those 14 characters present at the base of the Z38, separated into rows of 6 and 8 characters (paradice, slaves). The others rows conveniently accommodating the remainder of the Halloween card phrase of by fire, by rope, by knife and by gun.
The fact that the December 7th 1969 and December 16th 1969 letters came within nine days of one another, separated by 29 days from the 340 cipher, facilitates an argument based on their limited characters, that these two Fairfield codes contained clues to the workings of the 340 cipher and therefore carried the same purpose. If we remove 14 characters (paradice, slaves) from the total of the Z38 code, we would have 24 characters remaining (by fire, by rope, by knife, by gun). Those 14 characters present at the base of the Z38, separated into rows of 6 and 8 characters (paradice, slaves). The others rows conveniently accommodating the remainder of the Halloween card phrase of by fire, by rope, by knife and by gun.
First Fairfield letter. December 7th 1969.
Tim Holt Wheel of Death The second Fairfield letter (Z9 code) effectively becomes a 29 character code of DEATH by fire, by rope, by knife, by gun - and the rudimentary forerunner to the Halloween card configuration - inspired by the Tim Holt comic book, which harboured the word "death" as a precursor to the instrument of death. Unless, we conclude that the two designs in the Fairfield letters were another case of unintentional scrawlings, lacking any meaning whatsoever. The design of the Z9 code with four small crosshairs around the larger crosshairs would have to be regarded as an unfortunate mirroring of the Halloween card, only nine days after a code of 38 characters was mailed in the December 7th 1969 letter (paradice, slaves, by fire, by rope, by knife, by gun). Not withstanding that death, paradice, slaves, by fire, by rope, by knife and by gun are all self-contained on a separate row.
This interwoven pattern traversing the four communications of November 8th 1969, December 7th 1969, December 16th 1969 and October 27th 1970 will still be categorized under the category of unproven and likely unintentional. Short of a cryptographic solution to the 340 cipher, approaches to the codes such as the one presented here, will always be discarded and casually dismissed under the banner of "seeing patterns in the clouds" - thereby making any non-cryptographic solution to these codes and ciphers a non-starter. This means, that if the Zodiac Killer created a puzzle rather than a cryptogram, you will never be able to prove the case. Therefore, I have just wasted my time writing this article.
This interwoven pattern traversing the four communications of November 8th 1969, December 7th 1969, December 16th 1969 and October 27th 1970 will still be categorized under the category of unproven and likely unintentional. Short of a cryptographic solution to the 340 cipher, approaches to the codes such as the one presented here, will always be discarded and casually dismissed under the banner of "seeing patterns in the clouds" - thereby making any non-cryptographic solution to these codes and ciphers a non-starter. This means, that if the Zodiac Killer created a puzzle rather than a cryptogram, you will never be able to prove the case. Therefore, I have just wasted my time writing this article.
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