Kevin Robert Brooks The widely held consensus is that the Zodiac Killer wrote his last communication in 1971 during his first letter writing campaign, before returning to fire off another brief volley of four communications in 1974. For this to be the case, we would have to believe the Zodiac Killer, either willingly or through circumstances beyond his control, chose not to correspond with the newspapers to comment on The Zodiac Killer film directed by Tom Hanson released on April 7th 1971, or the Dirty Harry movie directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood, released on December 23rd 1971. Yet, he returned from his hibernation after nearly three years because he was driven or felt compelled to comment on The Exorcist movie, describing it as "the best saterical comidy that I have ever seen". You would have thought he would have got his priorities in order.
The letter was effectively a mishmash of previous Zodiac tropes, but significantly, it mimicked his first ever letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969. These 1969 letters threatened to go on a "kill rampage" over the weekend if his ciphers were not published on the front page of the respective newspapers. The Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974 was identical, threatening that if his note was not published in the paper he would do something nasty which you knew he was capable of doing. The only thing synonymous with the Zodiac Killer that we knew he was capable of doing, was "to kill". This logically should be the conclusion. Therefore, it makes perfect sense, that the strange collection of characters at the foot of the Exorcist letter should be able to be rearranged to the spell the verb "to kill". This is exactly what Kevin Robert Brooks, author of the upcoming book The Montana Connection, discovered several years ago - and it is the logical extension to the passage above it. Whether or not the Exorcist letter was written by the Zodiac Killer is another matter entirely.
The letter was effectively a mishmash of previous Zodiac tropes, but significantly, it mimicked his first ever letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969. These 1969 letters threatened to go on a "kill rampage" over the weekend if his ciphers were not published on the front page of the respective newspapers. The Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974 was identical, threatening that if his note was not published in the paper he would do something nasty which you knew he was capable of doing. The only thing synonymous with the Zodiac Killer that we knew he was capable of doing, was "to kill". This logically should be the conclusion. Therefore, it makes perfect sense, that the strange collection of characters at the foot of the Exorcist letter should be able to be rearranged to the spell the verb "to kill". This is exactly what Kevin Robert Brooks, author of the upcoming book The Montana Connection, discovered several years ago - and it is the logical extension to the passage above it. Whether or not the Exorcist letter was written by the Zodiac Killer is another matter entirely.
The San Francisco Chronicle placed this letter in their newspaper on January 31st 1974 under the title 'Zodiac Mystery Letter-the First Since 1971', but crucially omitted and whitewashed the strange Asian characters from their publication, meaning that any follow-up letters pertaining to this disguised message could be verified as likely originating from the same author. In other words, if a follow-up letter made a point of highlighting the verb "to kill", then they were likely the author of the Exorcist letter also. All the San Francisco Chronicle and law enforcement had to do, was to look at any highlighted word in the subsequent letter/s and ascertain whether this word could be created using the Exorcist symbols or characters. If it could, then it's highly likely the two letters had the same author. This is exactly what happened only five days after the Exorcist letter was mailed, and only three days after the San Francisco Chronicle omitted the Asian characters from their publication.
On February 3rd 1974 (the day before the Patty Hearst kidnapping) somebody mailed the SLA. letter to the San Francisco Chronicle from Los Angeles, with the whole communication focused on introducing us to the verb "to kill" in the Old Norse language. Sla in Old Norse can be inferred as "kill", to which the author of this communication claimed. Sla in Old Norse means "to strike" or "to smite". The archaic use of the word "smite" as shown by the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines "smite" as to kill or severely injure. In Wiktionary it is shown as the ability to strike down or kill with deadly force. So (in archaic usage like Old Norse) "sla" means "smite", and "smite" is used as "kill". Here is a PDF of Old Norse from York University, compiled by Ross G. Arthur.
The SLA. communication finished off the message by highlighting the word "kill", exactly as the Exorcist letter had done just 5 days earlier. Furthermore, the SLA. letter began its introduction with "Dear" and signed off with "a friend". This is important, because 7 days later the real Symbionese Liberation Army mailed a letter to the Hearst family on February 10th 1974, beginning their correspondence with "Dear" and ending the communication with "A friend". Uncanny that.
So, did the Zodiac Killer reappear from his slumber after nearly three years to critique the Exorcist film for our benefit, and tell us that "sla" (Symbionese Liberation Army) was the Old Norse word for "kill" to expand our foreign language skills? Or, is it more likely the Symbionese Liberation Army wrote the February 3rd 1974 SLA. letter one day before the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst and referenced the Symbionese Liberation Army within their own communication? Then just happened to mail another letter only 7 days later writing "Dear" and "A friend", exactly mimicking their previous one. It seems the Exorcist letter is beyond reproach, so I guess the.legend lives on.
The SLA. communication finished off the message by highlighting the word "kill", exactly as the Exorcist letter had done just 5 days earlier. Furthermore, the SLA. letter began its introduction with "Dear" and signed off with "a friend". This is important, because 7 days later the real Symbionese Liberation Army mailed a letter to the Hearst family on February 10th 1974, beginning their correspondence with "Dear" and ending the communication with "A friend". Uncanny that.
So, did the Zodiac Killer reappear from his slumber after nearly three years to critique the Exorcist film for our benefit, and tell us that "sla" (Symbionese Liberation Army) was the Old Norse word for "kill" to expand our foreign language skills? Or, is it more likely the Symbionese Liberation Army wrote the February 3rd 1974 SLA. letter one day before the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst and referenced the Symbionese Liberation Army within their own communication? Then just happened to mail another letter only 7 days later writing "Dear" and "A friend", exactly mimicking their previous one. It seems the Exorcist letter is beyond reproach, so I guess the.legend lives on.
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