The newspaper article at the foot of this article is single-handedly the most influential piece of text that governed and shaped the Zodiac Killer's actions for four years, which included one attack on September 27th 1969, a phone call on December 19th 1969 targeting a family of five in San Jose (likely the Furlongs), the brazen desecration of a cemetery plot in San Jose in 1973, and multiple communications from November 8th 1969 to July 13th 1971, including the Zodiac Killer's seventh cipher of 148 characters in (probably) May 1971. In the article, Dr. John E. Hauser described in detail the murders of Kathie Snoozy (15) and Debra Furlong (14), who were brutally stabbed in San Jose on August 3rd 1969 in a manner he articulated as exceeding the "Nazi sex mutilations during World War II".
Dr. John E. Hauser is almost certainly referring to the events surrounding "The Beast of Buchenwald", a female German war criminal named Ilse Koch, who, by many accounts, was infamous for the creation of human skin artifacts during her time at Buchenwald concentration camp, made from the bodies of tortured and murdered prisoners of war, and described universally as a sadistic and perverse woman who enjoyed acts of cruelty, including the beating of male genitalia. Some of the grisly souvenirs reportedly made from human skin included lampshades and books. She hung herself at Aichach women's prison on September 1st 1967 aged 60. Some newspapers have claimed that Edward Theodore Gein may have been inspired by Ilse Koch and the Nazi's at Buchenwald, despite minimal evidence to support this claim. However, in 1957, investigator's did find many items in his Plainfield, Wisconsin house made from human body parts, dug up from the local cemetery, that included a wastebasket made from human skin and a lampshade created from the skin of a human face.
Dr. John E. Hauser is almost certainly referring to the events surrounding "The Beast of Buchenwald", a female German war criminal named Ilse Koch, who, by many accounts, was infamous for the creation of human skin artifacts during her time at Buchenwald concentration camp, made from the bodies of tortured and murdered prisoners of war, and described universally as a sadistic and perverse woman who enjoyed acts of cruelty, including the beating of male genitalia. Some of the grisly souvenirs reportedly made from human skin included lampshades and books. She hung herself at Aichach women's prison on September 1st 1967 aged 60. Some newspapers have claimed that Edward Theodore Gein may have been inspired by Ilse Koch and the Nazi's at Buchenwald, despite minimal evidence to support this claim. However, in 1957, investigator's did find many items in his Plainfield, Wisconsin house made from human body parts, dug up from the local cemetery, that included a wastebasket made from human skin and a lampshade created from the skin of a human face.
Edward Theodore Gein house On April 7th 1971, a movie entitled "The Zodiac Killer", directed by Tom Hanson, was released in US cinemas. Four days later, Kathy Bilek (18) was murdered in the Villa Montalvo woods on April 11th 1971. Eighteen days more had elapsed until the announcement in the newspapers, on April 29th 1971, about the arrest of Karl Francis Werner for the murders of Kathy Bilek, Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong. The fact that the Zodiac Killer had previously claimed the murders of Snoozy & Furlong on November 8th 1969, coupled with the release of "The Zodiac Killer" film, maybe provided the perfect cocktail for a communication in May of 1971.
A communication sometime in May that was seemingly inspired by Edward Theodore Gein and/or the movie Psycho (1960), based on the grisly events in Wisconsin. A letter that promised to "skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin", with the Zodiac Killer stating "next time I will send a patch of human skin if there is some left over". The suggestion in the letter was that the Zodiac Killer was going to dig up the remains of Bilek, Snoozy and Furlong, just like Gein did at his local cemetery. Soon after his mother's death, Edward Theodore Gein, the "Butcher of Plainfield", began to create a "woman suit" from pieces of skin so that "he could become his mother and literally crawl into her skin". It appeared as though Edward Gein wanted to feel close to his dead mother and become the embodiment of her once life. However, I could find no significant newspaper coverage about Edward Theodore Gein in 1971. So what inspired the Zodiac Killer to mimic the "Butcher of Plainfield"? Or was there another answer?
A communication sometime in May that was seemingly inspired by Edward Theodore Gein and/or the movie Psycho (1960), based on the grisly events in Wisconsin. A letter that promised to "skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin", with the Zodiac Killer stating "next time I will send a patch of human skin if there is some left over". The suggestion in the letter was that the Zodiac Killer was going to dig up the remains of Bilek, Snoozy and Furlong, just like Gein did at his local cemetery. Soon after his mother's death, Edward Theodore Gein, the "Butcher of Plainfield", began to create a "woman suit" from pieces of skin so that "he could become his mother and literally crawl into her skin". It appeared as though Edward Gein wanted to feel close to his dead mother and become the embodiment of her once life. However, I could find no significant newspaper coverage about Edward Theodore Gein in 1971. So what inspired the Zodiac Killer to mimic the "Butcher of Plainfield"? Or was there another answer?
The West Australian newspaper Since the death of his mother, Ilse Koch, in 1967, Uwe Kohler had fought to clear his mother's name in the court of public opinion and through official means, contacting the The New York Times in Spring 1971. He utilized clemency documents from her former lawyer and spoke with international media, which included The New York Times on May 7th 1971 in a comprehensive article entitled "Ilse Koch's Posthumous Rehabilitation Sought by Son". The newspaper read "On her release in 1949 she (Koch) was retried by the West Germans and sentenced once more to life on two counts of “incitement to murder” of Buchenwald prisoners. None of the three courts established any connection between Mrs. Koch and the tattooed skins of Buchenwald inmates that were made into lampshades and other things. But by the time she had gone on trial a third time not even compelling evidence to the contrary could separate her from the allegation that she had ordered prisoners to be killed and skinned because she fancied their tattoos".,
At about the same time of this newspaper article (and others) the Zodiac Killer mailed the 148 character cipher and letter, stating he would "skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin", adding that "next time I will send a patch of human skin if there is some left over". This letter would effectively shadow the August 6th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle article (shown below), in which Dr. John E. Hauser compared the Snoozy & Furlong murders to the Nazi mutilations of World War II, and would draw from the current newspaper coverage about Ilse Koch and the skinning of humans.
At about the same time of this newspaper article (and others) the Zodiac Killer mailed the 148 character cipher and letter, stating he would "skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin", adding that "next time I will send a patch of human skin if there is some left over". This letter would effectively shadow the August 6th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle article (shown below), in which Dr. John E. Hauser compared the Snoozy & Furlong murders to the Nazi mutilations of World War II, and would draw from the current newspaper coverage about Ilse Koch and the skinning of humans.
The Peninsula Times Tribune The Zodiac Killer was certainly well-read when it came to the newspapers, so it is reasonable to conclude he knew of the connections being forged between Edward Theodore Gein and the brutal practices of Ilse Koch at Buchenwald. The Zodiac Killer wrote about skinning people at the near same time that the story of Ilse Koch broke in the newspapers about her skinning prisoners in the concentration camp. Two months later, on July 13th 1971, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Monticello postcard to the San Francisco Chronicle, with the pasted newspaper text reading "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April".
This postcard spoke of the murder of Kathy Bilek in the woods on April 11th 1971, by pointing out that the location of Villa Montalvo in Saratoga was near Monticello. In a 2018 article on this website, I discovered that the Monticello neigborhood in San Jose was near to Saratoga, and contained the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery at 300 Curtner Avenue, where Kathie Snoozy was buried. The Zodiac Killer was simply giving us a further clue to the name of Kathy Bilek in the Monticello card, by pointing us towards the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery and her phonetic namesake, Kathie Snoozy (spelled Kathy in the newspapers).
Although I knew I was correct, any lingering doubt was fully removed in 2023, when I found a newspaper article stating that a tombstone had been removed from the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in Monticello on September 18th 1973 and placed in front of the cemetery gates, with the pseudonym "Zodiac" written on it in crayon. The tombstone was almost certainly that of Kathie Snoozy. The Zodiac Killer hadn't dug up the bodies of Bilek, Snoozy and Furlong from their graves and removed a section of the skin from their corpses, but he had done the next best thing from his perspective, by visiting the cemetery containing the remains of Kathie Snoozy's body and removing her tombstone.
This postcard spoke of the murder of Kathy Bilek in the woods on April 11th 1971, by pointing out that the location of Villa Montalvo in Saratoga was near Monticello. In a 2018 article on this website, I discovered that the Monticello neigborhood in San Jose was near to Saratoga, and contained the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery at 300 Curtner Avenue, where Kathie Snoozy was buried. The Zodiac Killer was simply giving us a further clue to the name of Kathy Bilek in the Monticello card, by pointing us towards the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery and her phonetic namesake, Kathie Snoozy (spelled Kathy in the newspapers).
Although I knew I was correct, any lingering doubt was fully removed in 2023, when I found a newspaper article stating that a tombstone had been removed from the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in Monticello on September 18th 1973 and placed in front of the cemetery gates, with the pseudonym "Zodiac" written on it in crayon. The tombstone was almost certainly that of Kathie Snoozy. The Zodiac Killer hadn't dug up the bodies of Bilek, Snoozy and Furlong from their graves and removed a section of the skin from their corpses, but he had done the next best thing from his perspective, by visiting the cemetery containing the remains of Kathie Snoozy's body and removing her tombstone.
San Francisco Chronicle
August 6, 1969 - front page
The 'Frenzy' Of San Jose Girls' Slayer
The two young girls, found dead Sunday on a sun-parched San Jose hillside, appear to have been victims of a sexual psychopath, whose blood frenzy led him to "overkill."
Dr. John E. Hauser, Santa Clara county's chief medical examiner and coroner, said yesterday that the girls, Deborah Gay Furlong, 14, and Kathy Snoozy, 15, died in a "frenzied flurry of knife-wounds" inflicted so swiftly that neither gave any evidence of having struggled against the attack.
Dr. Hauser, so shaken by the brutality of the crime he could scarcely find words, said the Snoozy youngster had 150 wounds on her back, 50 on the front and a "storm" of punctures on her neck. Deborah's body had about 100 wounds on her back and upper front and a dozen on her neck.
PUZZLE
Dr. Hauser said he was "puzzled" by many aspects of the brutal slaying. He said neither girl had been sexually molested; neither had suffered any wounds below her waist, neither gave evidence of having struggled to escape.
Only the Snoozy girl, he said, had one small mark on her hand, suggesting she may have tried vainly to deflect the plunging knife.
The coroner said both girls must have died very quickly and he is investigating the possibility they may have been drugged before the stabbing began. Blood and skin samples as well as stomach contents have been sent for further examination to area laboratories, he said. The results should be known in a few days.
It is Dr. Hauser's opinion that the multiple puncture wounds were inflicted by one or two small knives, the largest wound the size of a pocket knife with a half-inch blade.
"I've never seen a case with this many stab wounds," Dr. Hauser said. "You know, I've been in this profession a long time and sometimes I think I'm rather callous, but when I saw these girls, believe me it was terrifying.
"The Nazi sex mutilations during World War II were nothing compared to what was done to these young girls.
INVESTIGATION
So far, according to Chief of San Jose Detectives Barton Collins, his investigators have uncovered no solid clues to the slaying.
He said police and sheriff's deputies are looking for a "light colored van—a Volkswagen, a Dodge, a Chevrolet or a Ford" in which the girls may have been killed and then rolled, carried or dragged down the hillside to a grove of snarled, dusty oaks where their bodies were found.
Both he and the coroner emphasized that at the scene there was almost no blood, suggesting they had been slain elsewhere.
Collins said he and his men have talked to at least 200 people so far, searching for some information that might draw them closer to the killer.
Asked if he were looking for a "mad man," Collins, pale and exhausted, snapped:
"I'm looking for a killer and it doesn't matter whether he was under drugs or what."
Collins did not mention this, but the Chronicle learned that wedged in between the two bodies of the dead girls police found a "new," but empty beer can. There was speculation the killer may have rolled or carried one girl down, then finished off a can of beer, and then disposed of the second body without noticing the can.
The scene, not more than six blocks from where the two girls lived with their families in a neat, prosperous subdivision in San Jose's Almaden area, was utterly desolate yesterday.
A few small boys on bicycles paused to look up at the tanned knoll, swathed with wide paths used for scrambles by neighborhood motorcyclists, and scurried off.
Normally scores of children play in that area, because, in the words of Deborah's father, Glen Furlong, "It's the only open area close by where kids can go to."
Housewives living in the immediate area, across the street and around the corner, conceded they were suddenly "very frightened."
One mother said that since the murder she had seen some children poking around the scene, and added, "We were shocked.
"Maybe their parents don't care. But I wouldn't let mine go up there"
PUBLICITY
Although very close to tears, Furlong said yesterday that he was allowing interviews in the hope that more and more publicity "would trigger something in someone's mind and we can solve this crime."
The 40-year old father works at the big International Business Machines plant only about a mile away from the family home. He is a senior associate engineer in the logic design section of IBM and he tried to bring objectivity to the disaster that has befallen his family.
"The individual or individuals who did this either had to be deranged or high on dope or something of that nature," he said. "They didn't know what they were doing. It was such a senseless killing."
He said his neighborhood has never had any problems, although mahy complain about the noise made by the weekend cyclists.
He noted parenthetically that the riders are not of the Hell's Angel variety, but use lighter motorcycles.
He said his neighbors were "very sympathetic," but complained he found some of his phone calls "very disconcerting."
CALLERS
"On several occasions people have called and as soon as we answer, they hang up," he said in bewilderment.
Furlong tried to control his emotions as he spoke of his eldest daughter — one of his four children.
"She was only a freshman in high school," he said, "and this was the first year we allowed her to date. We talked to her about it, and I sort of teased her. She went out with a boy friend a few times — a very nice boy who came over yesterday morning to extend his condolences — but most of her social activities were confined to her school. She was never any trouble."
School mates and neighborhood friends of Deborah said the girl, very slim and looking more like a 10-year-old than a 14-year-old, was "just an ordinary nice girl who baby set and had a boy friend and talked about becoming an airline stewardess."
CHILDREN
The other Furlong children are Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11.
Furlong said he did not know and had not yet talked to Kathy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred Snoozy. Both Snoozy, a carpet layer, and Mrs. Snoozy reportedly are in a state of collapse.
Her funeral has been scheduled Friday at 11 a.m. at the Place Funeral Home in Los Gatos. Burial will be at Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz.
Funeral services for Kathy will be held tomorrow (Thursday) at 2 p.m. at the Oak Hill Memorial Park Mortuary in San Jose. Burial will be at Oak Hill Memorial Park.
August 6, 1969 - front page
The 'Frenzy' Of San Jose Girls' Slayer
The two young girls, found dead Sunday on a sun-parched San Jose hillside, appear to have been victims of a sexual psychopath, whose blood frenzy led him to "overkill."
Dr. John E. Hauser, Santa Clara county's chief medical examiner and coroner, said yesterday that the girls, Deborah Gay Furlong, 14, and Kathy Snoozy, 15, died in a "frenzied flurry of knife-wounds" inflicted so swiftly that neither gave any evidence of having struggled against the attack.
Dr. Hauser, so shaken by the brutality of the crime he could scarcely find words, said the Snoozy youngster had 150 wounds on her back, 50 on the front and a "storm" of punctures on her neck. Deborah's body had about 100 wounds on her back and upper front and a dozen on her neck.
PUZZLE
Dr. Hauser said he was "puzzled" by many aspects of the brutal slaying. He said neither girl had been sexually molested; neither had suffered any wounds below her waist, neither gave evidence of having struggled to escape.
Only the Snoozy girl, he said, had one small mark on her hand, suggesting she may have tried vainly to deflect the plunging knife.
The coroner said both girls must have died very quickly and he is investigating the possibility they may have been drugged before the stabbing began. Blood and skin samples as well as stomach contents have been sent for further examination to area laboratories, he said. The results should be known in a few days.
It is Dr. Hauser's opinion that the multiple puncture wounds were inflicted by one or two small knives, the largest wound the size of a pocket knife with a half-inch blade.
"I've never seen a case with this many stab wounds," Dr. Hauser said. "You know, I've been in this profession a long time and sometimes I think I'm rather callous, but when I saw these girls, believe me it was terrifying.
"The Nazi sex mutilations during World War II were nothing compared to what was done to these young girls.
INVESTIGATION
So far, according to Chief of San Jose Detectives Barton Collins, his investigators have uncovered no solid clues to the slaying.
He said police and sheriff's deputies are looking for a "light colored van—a Volkswagen, a Dodge, a Chevrolet or a Ford" in which the girls may have been killed and then rolled, carried or dragged down the hillside to a grove of snarled, dusty oaks where their bodies were found.
Both he and the coroner emphasized that at the scene there was almost no blood, suggesting they had been slain elsewhere.
Collins said he and his men have talked to at least 200 people so far, searching for some information that might draw them closer to the killer.
Asked if he were looking for a "mad man," Collins, pale and exhausted, snapped:
"I'm looking for a killer and it doesn't matter whether he was under drugs or what."
Collins did not mention this, but the Chronicle learned that wedged in between the two bodies of the dead girls police found a "new," but empty beer can. There was speculation the killer may have rolled or carried one girl down, then finished off a can of beer, and then disposed of the second body without noticing the can.
The scene, not more than six blocks from where the two girls lived with their families in a neat, prosperous subdivision in San Jose's Almaden area, was utterly desolate yesterday.
A few small boys on bicycles paused to look up at the tanned knoll, swathed with wide paths used for scrambles by neighborhood motorcyclists, and scurried off.
Normally scores of children play in that area, because, in the words of Deborah's father, Glen Furlong, "It's the only open area close by where kids can go to."
Housewives living in the immediate area, across the street and around the corner, conceded they were suddenly "very frightened."
One mother said that since the murder she had seen some children poking around the scene, and added, "We were shocked.
"Maybe their parents don't care. But I wouldn't let mine go up there"
PUBLICITY
Although very close to tears, Furlong said yesterday that he was allowing interviews in the hope that more and more publicity "would trigger something in someone's mind and we can solve this crime."
The 40-year old father works at the big International Business Machines plant only about a mile away from the family home. He is a senior associate engineer in the logic design section of IBM and he tried to bring objectivity to the disaster that has befallen his family.
"The individual or individuals who did this either had to be deranged or high on dope or something of that nature," he said. "They didn't know what they were doing. It was such a senseless killing."
He said his neighborhood has never had any problems, although mahy complain about the noise made by the weekend cyclists.
He noted parenthetically that the riders are not of the Hell's Angel variety, but use lighter motorcycles.
He said his neighbors were "very sympathetic," but complained he found some of his phone calls "very disconcerting."
CALLERS
"On several occasions people have called and as soon as we answer, they hang up," he said in bewilderment.
Furlong tried to control his emotions as he spoke of his eldest daughter — one of his four children.
"She was only a freshman in high school," he said, "and this was the first year we allowed her to date. We talked to her about it, and I sort of teased her. She went out with a boy friend a few times — a very nice boy who came over yesterday morning to extend his condolences — but most of her social activities were confined to her school. She was never any trouble."
School mates and neighborhood friends of Deborah said the girl, very slim and looking more like a 10-year-old than a 14-year-old, was "just an ordinary nice girl who baby set and had a boy friend and talked about becoming an airline stewardess."
CHILDREN
The other Furlong children are Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11.
Furlong said he did not know and had not yet talked to Kathy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred Snoozy. Both Snoozy, a carpet layer, and Mrs. Snoozy reportedly are in a state of collapse.
Her funeral has been scheduled Friday at 11 a.m. at the Place Funeral Home in Los Gatos. Burial will be at Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz.
Funeral services for Kathy will be held tomorrow (Thursday) at 2 p.m. at the Oak Hill Memorial Park Mortuary in San Jose. Burial will be at Oak Hill Memorial Park.
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