One of the long-standing questions in the Zodiac community is whether a solid link can be forged between the Riverside murder of Cheri Jo Bates and/or the associated communications in 1966 and 1967, with the crimes or letters of the Zodiac Killer, beginning on December 20th 1968. On April 30th 1967, somebody mailed three letters to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, Riverside Police Department and Joseph Bates stating "She had to die. There will be more" and "Bates had to die. There will be more".
This approach would be somewhat mimicked by the Zodiac Killer on July 31st 1969 (without the 1967 Bates letters currently published), who mailed three letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald with his hidden cryptographic message of "the best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradise and all the I have killed will become my slaves". One individual had already used the phrase "to die" in the Riverside Desktop Poem, Confession letters and Bates letters (six times), so looking at the transition from "she had to die" to "when I die" from Riverside to the Bay Area, it is certainly worth looking into further. Especially when you consider the fact that the Zodiac Killer never used the word "die" in any of his subsequent communications.
Also noteworthy, but not compelling, was the continuation in the religious overtones of "The Confession" letter and "She went to the slaughter like a lamb. She did not put up a struggle", to the message of the Zodiac Killer in the 408 cryptogram, in which he enciphered the wording "paradice", "reborn" and "afterlife" with respect to his death (when I die). The saying, "Like sheep to the slaughter", was used in respect to the notion of Jewish people being led passively to their deaths during the Holocaust. In other words, the suggestion that they offered no resistance or struggle - to be articulated by "The Confession" letter author when they typed "She (Bates) did not put up a struggle". and "She went very willingly". Cheri Jo Bates, it was claimed, was being marched passively to her death.
This approach would be somewhat mimicked by the Zodiac Killer on July 31st 1969 (without the 1967 Bates letters currently published), who mailed three letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald with his hidden cryptographic message of "the best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradise and all the I have killed will become my slaves". One individual had already used the phrase "to die" in the Riverside Desktop Poem, Confession letters and Bates letters (six times), so looking at the transition from "she had to die" to "when I die" from Riverside to the Bay Area, it is certainly worth looking into further. Especially when you consider the fact that the Zodiac Killer never used the word "die" in any of his subsequent communications.
Also noteworthy, but not compelling, was the continuation in the religious overtones of "The Confession" letter and "She went to the slaughter like a lamb. She did not put up a struggle", to the message of the Zodiac Killer in the 408 cryptogram, in which he enciphered the wording "paradice", "reborn" and "afterlife" with respect to his death (when I die). The saying, "Like sheep to the slaughter", was used in respect to the notion of Jewish people being led passively to their deaths during the Holocaust. In other words, the suggestion that they offered no resistance or struggle - to be articulated by "The Confession" letter author when they typed "She (Bates) did not put up a struggle". and "She went very willingly". Cheri Jo Bates, it was claimed, was being marched passively to her death.
Just a few months before the November 29th 1966 "Confession" letter, Jean-François Steiner released a highly controversial book entitled Treblinka: The Revolt of an Extermination Camp, claiming that the Jews were led "like sheep to the slaughter" - and in doing so - caused worldwide consternation in the newspapers. Although Steiner was not the originator of the phrase, it nevertheless was contemporary to 1966 to anybody who was well-versed in literature or recent newspaper coverage. If the author of the 1966 Riverside Desktop Poem can borrow headlines from The Press and Daily Enterprise on April 17th 1965 entitled "Clean-cut Youth Sought In Stabbing", then they can do the same in the case of the Jean Francois Steiner story. Changing "sheep to the slaughter" into "slaughter like a lamb".
In Isaiah 53, a chapter in the Hebrew Bible tells of a virtuous servant who is murdered but does not protest: "Like a sheep being led to the slaughter or a lamb that is silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth". The Confession letter author typed "I grabbed her around the neck with my hand over her mouth and my other hand with a small knife at her throat. She went very willingly". There appears a mix of religiosity with contemporary news in the Confession letter, but it still isn't compelling.
In Isaiah 53, a chapter in the Hebrew Bible tells of a virtuous servant who is murdered but does not protest: "Like a sheep being led to the slaughter or a lamb that is silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth". The Confession letter author typed "I grabbed her around the neck with my hand over her mouth and my other hand with a small knife at her throat. She went very willingly". There appears a mix of religiosity with contemporary news in the Confession letter, but it still isn't compelling.
The Minneapolis Star Thursday, 12th May 1966
A link to Alfred Hitchcock and the Lake Herman Road murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen on December 20th 1968 has been suggested by Zodiac researchers, who highlighted the 1961 episode of the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, entitled Museum Piece. Aired on April 4th 1961, it featured an individual who used a light attached to his .22 caliber rifle in the commission of a murder, just as the Zodiac Killer had claimed in his follow up to the July 31st 1969 letters. The father of the convicted killer appealed to the district attorney about his son's innocence, which was rejected. The district attorney is then murdered - to which the father latterly reminisced “I remember the excitement of the manhunt. The most dangerous game”. Three years earlier, on April 13th 1958, Alfred Hitchcock Presents released an episode entitled "Lamb to the Slaughter", which was not that dissimilar to the phrase "to the slaughter like a lamb" used in the Confession letter. These observations ultimately fail to cement a link between Riverside and the Zodiac Killer, but the definitive answers we seek may still be found one day.
RSS Feed
