Sourced from a 1932 newspaper (image added) As Zodiac researchers and sleuths, we have long sought a credible link between the Zodiac murders and the Riverside activity in 1966 and 1967, if one exists. Recently I came to the conclusion that the only way to achieve this, other than a forensic link, was to confidently bind together the two lengthy communications associated with the Zodiac Killer on November 29th 1966 and July 31st 1969. If these were Zodiac letters, then they would be the last Riverside communication of any length, followed by the first communications from Zodiac.
In between, we had the three Bates' letters in 1967 carrying the short message of "Bates had to die. There will be more" and "She had to die. There will be more". Three letters to mirror his opening gambit on July 31st 1969. The trinity of Zodiac letters to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969 had elements of the Bates' letters, replacing "She had to die. There will be more", with "When I die" and "I will cruse around and pick off all stray people and coupples that are alone, then move on to kill some more". The Zodiac Killer would now be considering his death with "die", and be promising "more" murder if his demands were not met. But of course, that wasn't all.
In between, we had the three Bates' letters in 1967 carrying the short message of "Bates had to die. There will be more" and "She had to die. There will be more". Three letters to mirror his opening gambit on July 31st 1969. The trinity of Zodiac letters to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969 had elements of the Bates' letters, replacing "She had to die. There will be more", with "When I die" and "I will cruse around and pick off all stray people and coupples that are alone, then move on to kill some more". The Zodiac Killer would now be considering his death with "die", and be promising "more" murder if his demands were not met. But of course, that wasn't all.
THE EVENING BULLETIN, DECEMBER 11TH 1888 The Zodiac Killer on July 31st 1969 would exactly plagiarize the utterances of Merian C. Cooper, the associate producer of The Most Dangerous Game (1932), who upon release of the RKO movie, stated "man is the most dangerous animal of all". In other words, the Zodiac Killer took eight consecutive words from 1932, which I have currently found in only three newspaper articles from 37 years previous.
The Confession letter author on November 29th 1966 did exactly the same thing, taking the eight consecutive words of "it was about time for her to die" from The Evening Bulletin newspaper from Providence, Rhode Island on December 11th 1888 (the year of Jack the Ripper). If the November 29th 1966 and July 31st 1969 letters were both from Zodiac, then he used sixteen words (two consecutive sequences of eight) from historic newspapers, 78 years and 37 years previous to his writings. But how would it come about that the author of the Confession letter would use wording from the newspaper article on the left?
The Confession letter author appeared to plagiarize wording from "The Press" newspaper on November 24th 1966, which ran an article mentioning Jack the Ripper. Therefore, I considered the possibility that its author may travel back to 1888 and search microfiche reels, in order to subtly place a quote from the times of Jack the Ripper into his Confession letter. Don't forget, the Confession letter did contain the Ripper style wording of "I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". Alongside the stories of Jack the Ripper in 1888 was the above story of "The Sturdy Beggar", who placed his hand into his hip pocket (probably reaching for a presumed knife) and stated that "it was about time for her to die", thereby threatening the woman. If the Confession letter author had read this newspaper article, all he had to do was set up the preamble of "When we were away from the library walking, I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said ..." - and then deliver this punch line It would imply that these words were never spoken by the killer of Cheri Jo Bates, whether the author of the Confession letter or not. This sequence of wording on November 29th 1966 always appeared excessively dramatic - as though the author had teed himself up to deliver this punch line. These eight words possibly being sourced from 1888, continuing the theme from the November 24th 1966 newspaper article, in which the offender stated "I'm not Jack the Ripper".
The Confession letter author on November 29th 1966 did exactly the same thing, taking the eight consecutive words of "it was about time for her to die" from The Evening Bulletin newspaper from Providence, Rhode Island on December 11th 1888 (the year of Jack the Ripper). If the November 29th 1966 and July 31st 1969 letters were both from Zodiac, then he used sixteen words (two consecutive sequences of eight) from historic newspapers, 78 years and 37 years previous to his writings. But how would it come about that the author of the Confession letter would use wording from the newspaper article on the left?
The Confession letter author appeared to plagiarize wording from "The Press" newspaper on November 24th 1966, which ran an article mentioning Jack the Ripper. Therefore, I considered the possibility that its author may travel back to 1888 and search microfiche reels, in order to subtly place a quote from the times of Jack the Ripper into his Confession letter. Don't forget, the Confession letter did contain the Ripper style wording of "I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". Alongside the stories of Jack the Ripper in 1888 was the above story of "The Sturdy Beggar", who placed his hand into his hip pocket (probably reaching for a presumed knife) and stated that "it was about time for her to die", thereby threatening the woman. If the Confession letter author had read this newspaper article, all he had to do was set up the preamble of "When we were away from the library walking, I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said ..." - and then deliver this punch line It would imply that these words were never spoken by the killer of Cheri Jo Bates, whether the author of the Confession letter or not. This sequence of wording on November 29th 1966 always appeared excessively dramatic - as though the author had teed himself up to deliver this punch line. These eight words possibly being sourced from 1888, continuing the theme from the November 24th 1966 newspaper article, in which the offender stated "I'm not Jack the Ripper".
The April 30th 1967 "Bates Had to Die" letters stated that "there will be more". The July 31st 1969 letter to the Vallejo Times-Herald promised "to kill some more". The March 13th 1971 letter to the Los Angeles Times, in which the Zodiac Killer credited police for stumbling across his Riverside activity, stated "there are a hell of a lot more down there". The content of the Bates' letters were unknown to the public on July 31st 1969. I was unable to find the phrase "it was about time for her to die" in any other newspaper article in the 276 years previous to November 29th 1966. Other than reporting about the Confession letter, I have also not found these consecutive eight words in the 58 years subsequent to 1966. If you can find either of these eight word phrases outside of 1888 and 1932 (other than quotes about the Zodiac Killer writings or Confession letter), please let me know in comments.
JACK THE RIPPER AND THE CONFESSION LETTER
A JOURNEY FROM HELL TO RIVERSIDE
JACK THE RIPPER AND THE CONFESSION LETTER
A JOURNEY FROM HELL TO RIVERSIDE
THE "RIPPER" MURDER OF JULIA CONNORS IN 1912 BY NATHAN SCHWARTZ, WHO LEFT A CONFESSION NOTE.
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