The Zodiac Killer teased us with his name on more than one occasion, firstly in the July 31st 1969 San Francisco Chronicle letter where he stated "I want you to print this cipher on the front page of your paper. In this cipher is my idenity". He would follow this up with the 'My Name is...' Letter on April 20th 1970 and the Halloween Card on October 27th 1970 tempting us with his name again; "I feel it in my bones, You ache to know my name, And so I'll clue you in.." It would appear however, these were empty promises and we are still no nearer to securing the identity of the Zodiac Killer nearly half a century later.
It always seemed strange the Zodiac Killer would integrate the Gilbert and Sullivan Mikado into his correspondence, leading researchers to believe he was a fan of the theater, having quoted three acts of The Mikado in the Little List Letter of July 26th 1970 and Exorcist Letter of January 29th 1974. But there may be an ulterior motive behind this apparent fascination with Gilbert and Sullivan, in that the killer was using The Mikado to reveal his name - and likely through four mailings rather than the accepted two. We will take a closer look at these four correspondences and the speculative links between them, without claiming this is anything more than coincidence. Let us first look at the Exorcist Letter.
It always seemed strange the Zodiac Killer would integrate the Gilbert and Sullivan Mikado into his correspondence, leading researchers to believe he was a fan of the theater, having quoted three acts of The Mikado in the Little List Letter of July 26th 1970 and Exorcist Letter of January 29th 1974. But there may be an ulterior motive behind this apparent fascination with Gilbert and Sullivan, in that the killer was using The Mikado to reveal his name - and likely through four mailings rather than the accepted two. We will take a closer look at these four correspondences and the speculative links between them, without claiming this is anything more than coincidence. Let us first look at the Exorcist Letter.
Click to enlarge The first thing to notice is its carefully structured appearance, being divided neatly into four sections of text. The curious thing about the correspondence is Zodiac wrote "Signed, yours truley," as though he was about to offer up his name in the third block of writing. He then recited Act II - On a tree by a river from The Mikado. It seemed like Zodiac was wasting our time, plucking out random verses from The Mikado - that is until you read verse three of this particular act. It not only contained a reference to 'name', but pointed us towards 'The My Name is...' Cipher mailed on April 20th 1970. Here is verse three.
Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name
Isn't Willow, titwillow, titwillow,
That 'twas blighted affection that made him exclaim
"Oh, willow, titwillow, titwillow!"
And if you remain callous and obdurate, I
Shall perish as he did, and you will know why,
Though I probably shall not exclaim as I die,
"Oh, willow, titwillow, titwillow!"
Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name
Isn't Willow, titwillow, titwillow,
That 'twas blighted affection that made him exclaim
"Oh, willow, titwillow, titwillow!"
And if you remain callous and obdurate, I
Shall perish as he did, and you will know why,
Though I probably shall not exclaim as I die,
"Oh, willow, titwillow, titwillow!"
Was the Zodiac Killer giving us clues to his identity or name, by leading us back to the 13 Symbol Cipher. This observation on its own is meaningless, so we will travel back in time to the Little List Letter mailed on July 26th 1970, apparently the only other correspondence to contain references to The Mikado. The first section of the Little List Letter pulled lines from A More Humane Mikado and continued on to extensively recite Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado Act One Part 5a As Some Day it May Happen, performed by Ko-Ko. In the introductory part of the letter, the Zodiac Killer simply boasted about how he would torture his slaves in paradise - but he again did something curious - by selecting just one small section of A More Humane Mikado, despite it being ten verses in length. The same as he did in the Exorcist Letter. He then continued to paraphrase the entirety of As Some Day it May Happen.
The Exorcist Letter, we have shown to have tenuous links to the April 20th 1970 'My Name is...' Letter, using verse three of Tit-Willow. So let us look at the small section of text Zodiac selected from A More Humane Mikado. The Little List Letter read "And all billiard players I shall have them play in a darkened dungen cell with crooked cues + Twisted Shoes". Why does Zodiac select this small portion? Was this also hinting towards the 'My Name is...' Cipher? When we think of billiard players or billiard balls from the standpoint of America, eight-ball comes to mind, and the circled eights on the 13 Symbol Cipher.
The Exorcist Letter, we have shown to have tenuous links to the April 20th 1970 'My Name is...' Letter, using verse three of Tit-Willow. So let us look at the small section of text Zodiac selected from A More Humane Mikado. The Little List Letter read "And all billiard players I shall have them play in a darkened dungen cell with crooked cues + Twisted Shoes". Why does Zodiac select this small portion? Was this also hinting towards the 'My Name is...' Cipher? When we think of billiard players or billiard balls from the standpoint of America, eight-ball comes to mind, and the circled eights on the 13 Symbol Cipher.
This is the full verse (right) from A More Humane Mikado. It is actually verse eight out of ten, providing us with the numerical link, as did verse three from the Exorcist Letter. The Zodiac Killer did state on the 'My Name is...' Letter; "PS I hope you have fun trying to figgure out who I killed".
There is however another link from A More Humane Mikado to the alphabetical characters on the '13 Symbol' code mailed by Zodiac.
The Zodiac Killer supplied us with eight alphabetical characters, reading from left to right A, E, N, K, M, N, A and M. In the diagram below, key sections of A More Humane Mikado are highlighted for comparison to the '13 Symbol' Cipher. Seven letters have been highlighted in green and yellow. This is where we must take a bold leap of faith and consider that the Zodiac Killer chose The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan because it simply contained his name, Kim. Nothing more theatrical than that.
There is however another link from A More Humane Mikado to the alphabetical characters on the '13 Symbol' code mailed by Zodiac.
The Zodiac Killer supplied us with eight alphabetical characters, reading from left to right A, E, N, K, M, N, A and M. In the diagram below, key sections of A More Humane Mikado are highlighted for comparison to the '13 Symbol' Cipher. Seven letters have been highlighted in green and yellow. This is where we must take a bold leap of faith and consider that the Zodiac Killer chose The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan because it simply contained his name, Kim. Nothing more theatrical than that.
The green highlighted sections on A More Humane Mikado in reverse, read KIMNAM. If we believe therefore, that the middle eight represents the letter I on the '13 Symbol' Cipher, it reads forward KIMNAM, exactly the same. The remaining letters of the cipher AEN are shown highlighted in yellow. Every letter on the '13 Symbol' Cipher is contained within this section of seven letters. The three eights encapsulated his identity, just like the three eights at the foot of the 340 character cipher mailed on November 8th 1969: The Mathematics of the 13 Symbol Cipher. Who said the Magic 8 ball was just for telling fortunes! Additionally, Mikado can be formed using the alphabetical characters on the 20th line of the 340 Cipher.
The Zodiac was keen to share with us what he had in store for his slaves in paradise: "This is the Zodiac speaking. Being that you will not wear some nice buttons, how about wearing some nasty buttons. Or any kind of buttons that you can think up. If you do not wear any type of buttons, I shall (on top of everything else) torture all 13 of my slaves that I have waiting for me in Paradice. Some I shall tie over ant hills and watch them scream + twich and squirm. Others shall have pine splinters driven under their nails + then burned. Others shall be placed in cages + fed salt beef untill they are gorged then I shall listen to their pleass for water and I shall laugh at them. Others will hang by their thumbs + burn in the sun then I will rub them down with deep heat to warm them up. Others I shall skin them alive + let them run around screaming. And all billiard players I shall have them play in a darkened dungen cell with crooked cues + Twisted Shoes. Yes I shall have great fun inflicting the most delicious of pain to my slaves".
The talk of slaves, paradise, pine splinters, dungeons and hanging his 'prisoners' by the thumbs, catapulted me to the Halloween Card mailed on October 27th 1970 and the last Mikado installment. The Zodiac Killer placed some wording around the knothole in the tree stating "peek a boo you are doomed". Bearing in mind that The Mikado opened to the paying public on March 14th 1885, and was hugely successful, running for 672 performances at the Savoy Theatre in London, a British connection had to be sought. The British term for peek-a-boo is peep-bo, and peep-bo is a character in The Mikado.
The Zodiac was keen to share with us what he had in store for his slaves in paradise: "This is the Zodiac speaking. Being that you will not wear some nice buttons, how about wearing some nasty buttons. Or any kind of buttons that you can think up. If you do not wear any type of buttons, I shall (on top of everything else) torture all 13 of my slaves that I have waiting for me in Paradice. Some I shall tie over ant hills and watch them scream + twich and squirm. Others shall have pine splinters driven under their nails + then burned. Others shall be placed in cages + fed salt beef untill they are gorged then I shall listen to their pleass for water and I shall laugh at them. Others will hang by their thumbs + burn in the sun then I will rub them down with deep heat to warm them up. Others I shall skin them alive + let them run around screaming. And all billiard players I shall have them play in a darkened dungen cell with crooked cues + Twisted Shoes. Yes I shall have great fun inflicting the most delicious of pain to my slaves".
The talk of slaves, paradise, pine splinters, dungeons and hanging his 'prisoners' by the thumbs, catapulted me to the Halloween Card mailed on October 27th 1970 and the last Mikado installment. The Zodiac Killer placed some wording around the knothole in the tree stating "peek a boo you are doomed". Bearing in mind that The Mikado opened to the paying public on March 14th 1885, and was hugely successful, running for 672 performances at the Savoy Theatre in London, a British connection had to be sought. The British term for peek-a-boo is peep-bo, and peep-bo is a character in The Mikado.
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