Click to enlarge The Zodiac Killer had murdered three people, seriously injured one, and mailed four communications, including three cryptograms forming one whole, by August 4th 1969, yet failed to receive the front page coverage he felt he deserved from the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner newspapers. This may have influenced his decision to switch from gun to knife, when he read the San Francisco Chronicle article on August 6th 1969 regarding the brutal knife killings of Debra Furlong and Kathie Snoozy three days earlier in San Jose, which received extensive from page coverage. After this, the Zodiac Killer turned up on the shores of Lake Berryessa armed with bayonet type weapon measuring 9 to 11 inches. He would later claim the murders of Snoozy & Furlong by the addition of "Aug" in the November 8th 1969 'Dripping Pen' card.
The extensive coverage of the Tate–LaBianca murders at 10050 Cielo Drive, Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles may also have had a galvanising effect in the Zodiac Killer's switch to a more hands-on approach at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969. However, the Zodiac Killer would intimate his involvement in the Snoozy & Furlong many times by the close of 1971, yet would not reference the Manson murders once. This suggests that the driving force was predominantly the murders of Snoozy & Furlong in San Jose on August 3rd 1969.
The extensive coverage of the Tate–LaBianca murders at 10050 Cielo Drive, Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles may also have had a galvanising effect in the Zodiac Killer's switch to a more hands-on approach at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969. However, the Zodiac Killer would intimate his involvement in the Snoozy & Furlong many times by the close of 1971, yet would not reference the Manson murders once. This suggests that the driving force was predominantly the murders of Snoozy & Furlong in San Jose on August 3rd 1969.
Sharon Tate. Click image for more information. As with many Zodiac communications, they were often a response to recent newspaper articles detailing his exploits. So with this in mind I took a look at the Zodiac Killer's letter mailed from Fairfield on December 16th 1969, stating "This is the Zodiac speaking. I just want to tell you this state is in trouble. I will go for the government life. So don't forget me. I will kill more people than you can count. So look for more blood.". (corrected for errors). The following article (edited for conciseness) was published in the Los Angeles Times on December 16th 1969, a matter of hours before the Fairfield letter was mailed with an afternoon postmark. Therefore, a strong possibility exists that this article featuring the Zodiac Killer could have influenced the language and tone of the Fairfield letter. The opening sentence of the Fairfield letter: "I just want to tell you this state is in trouble", can be seen to be synonymous with the newspaper article that headlines with "State Furnishes List of Murders Similar to 7 Slayings Here", as well as the opening paragraph of the article that adds "State officials have provided Los Angeles police with details of 30 unsolved murders", and the sub-headline of "All Murders Logged by State".
The Zodiac Killer would counter the list provided by state officials with a list of his own. At the foot of his Fairfield letter he would give us a list of locations and the number of police he promised to kill in each city (38 in total). This would develop in later communications, in which the Zodiac Killer gave us a list of "society offenders" to be targeted when he plagiarized verses from The Mikado, a Savoy comic opera crafted by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert and Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, released in London on March 14th 1885.
Government Official means any officer, employee or other individual acting in an official capacity for a Governmental Authority or agency or instrumentality thereof (including any state-owned or controlled enterprise). This may explain the Zodiac Killer's use of the phrase "government life" in his letter. It appeared that the Fairfield letter was specifically responding to this newspaper article - both of which corresponded to one date. Susan Denise Atkins (21), one of six persons charged with the Tate-LaBiaca murders, provided information to police where they could find items of disposed bloody clothing related to the Cielo Drive attack, detailed in the article as "A station spokesman said the clothes, stained with what appeared to be blood and knotted in a bundle were turned over to police". I have highlighted these below in reference to the Zodiac Killer's statement of "look for more blood" in the Fairfield letter. The police were effectively dispatched to look for items of clothing stained with blood in the Tate-LaBianca slayings, to which Zodiac suggested there would be more blood in future for police to find.
The Zodiac Killer would counter the list provided by state officials with a list of his own. At the foot of his Fairfield letter he would give us a list of locations and the number of police he promised to kill in each city (38 in total). This would develop in later communications, in which the Zodiac Killer gave us a list of "society offenders" to be targeted when he plagiarized verses from The Mikado, a Savoy comic opera crafted by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert and Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, released in London on March 14th 1885.
Government Official means any officer, employee or other individual acting in an official capacity for a Governmental Authority or agency or instrumentality thereof (including any state-owned or controlled enterprise). This may explain the Zodiac Killer's use of the phrase "government life" in his letter. It appeared that the Fairfield letter was specifically responding to this newspaper article - both of which corresponded to one date. Susan Denise Atkins (21), one of six persons charged with the Tate-LaBiaca murders, provided information to police where they could find items of disposed bloody clothing related to the Cielo Drive attack, detailed in the article as "A station spokesman said the clothes, stained with what appeared to be blood and knotted in a bundle were turned over to police". I have highlighted these below in reference to the Zodiac Killer's statement of "look for more blood" in the Fairfield letter. The police were effectively dispatched to look for items of clothing stained with blood in the Tate-LaBianca slayings, to which Zodiac suggested there would be more blood in future for police to find.
Article edited for conciseness. Click image for full article.
Two days later, on December 18th 1969, another article by Dial Torgersen in the Los Angeles Times, again featured the Tate-LaBianca murders, and the San Jose murders of Snoozy & Furlong, with accompanying references to the Zodiac Killer and the once consideration he may have been involved in the two teenagers deaths. The following day, on December 19th 1969, the Zodiac Killer made a payphone call to the San Jose Highway Patrol stating "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". He had threatened to kill one copper in San Jose in his Fairfield list, but had now upped that total to five, in line with rest of the Fairfield communication (unpublished at the time this phone call was made). The family of five, I believe, was Mr. and Mrs. Furlong and their three remaining children, Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11, who featured heavily in the San Jose article on August 6th 1969 in the San Francisco Chronicle. The article that likely triggered the attack at Lake Berryessa. The article that triggered the choice of "Monticello" in the Zodiac Monticello card on July 13th 1971, where Kathie Snoozy was buried in San Jose. "Funeral services for Kathy were held on Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Oak Hill Memorial Park", which is situated in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose.
THE SAN JOSE MURDERS AND ZODIAC-THE COMPLETE STORY
THE SAN JOSE MURDERS AND ZODIAC-THE COMPLETE STORY
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