The handwriting confirms this is genuinely The Zodiac. This was his first overt communication since August 4, 1969.  He keeps score here, adding his latest victims to his earlier ones.

   In The Zodiac Speaks we introduced the first installment of his game. Those were the letters that came in the gap of his killing spree. They began July 31, 1969, and stopped August 4, 1969.

     He was silent both in terms of murders and communication until September 27, 1969, when he committed the bizarre stabbings at Lake Berryessa, far afield from Vallejo, where he had begun his crime spree.

     His Lake Berryessa attack broke a near 3 month dearth. His communication thereafter began the second installment of his game. It began that very day. He wrote on the victims’ car door. It was a score card, in a sense, of his previous victims and now this recent addition. Within an hour, he called the Napa Police and took credit. No letter came of this, however.  Two weeks later he would murder cab driver Paul Stine in San Francisco. Two days after this he would send his first letter since August 4, 1969. In it he took credit for having killed Paul Stine. He included a piece of his bloody shirt.

     Essentially, this was his reason. Had ZODIAC not mailed the letter with the bloody token, the murder of Paul Stine would appear as an ordinary, brutal cabbie robbery gone bad. He did not need to send a letter after Lake Berryessa. His writing on the door confirmed it had been him. To some extent this indicates he realized that Napa sheriff (or police) jurisdictions would contact the other jurisdictions where he had already struck and get copies of his letters in order to compare the handwriting.

     Hindsight, as all hindsight, always has 20/20 vision. The Paul Stine murder is a significant moment in the ZODIAC crime spree. He would never strike again. It is now that ZODIAC would exclusively become a poison pen pal. He would only send letters and postcards.

     Let’s take a look at this chronologically, starting with the letter on October 13, 1969.

     It’s fairly straight forward. What is most interesting is that except for a couple of words, he spells correctly, much better, in fact, than in his earlier letters. He had a habit of leaving the “e” on the ending of a word before adding the “ing” --i.e. “haveing.” On the other hand, here ‘Bouncing’ is spelled correctly.

     There are a couple of sentences that subtly indicate a knowledge of very good grammar. All writers must learn (hopefully) the correct use of a semicolon. A semicolon can be used where either a comma or a colon can be used. It indicates that one part of the sentence it intimately connected to the other part but that both sentences can nevertheless stand alone. It is more correct than using a period. The ZODIAC constructs two clauses perfectly. But instead of using a semicolon he uses a comma where most people would have used a period and begun a new sentence. The sentences are his first: “I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by Washington and Maple St last night, to prove this here is a blood stained piece of his shirt.” The next: “School buses make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning.”

     The paper is his original Eaton marked paper. This is the type of paper he began his letter writing with on July 31, 1969. It was his hasty August 4, 1969, letter that was noteworthy for being written on a different paper.

     As always, The ZODIAC must boast that he has outwitted the police. Nevertheless, it was unlikely he remained around the crime scene at all. He also says the killing took place at the Washington and Maple area. This just happens to support my own personal view that this is where he killed the cab driver and then seized the wheel and guided the cab to the next intersection. This would explain why he was seen wiping down the cab inside.

     It is possible, of course, that the shooting took place at Washington & Cherry. Stine may have stopped there but not shifted the cab into “park.” After The ZODIAC shot him, he may have had to grab the wheel and shift the car into “park.” The problem with this is that the kids (the witnesses) heard no gunshot here.

     This letter follows in style his previous ones. He declares himself, then makes sure that he presents the proof he is the killer, then ends with a threat— in this case, his famous threat to kill school kids. SFPD captain Martin Lee would read this to all San Francisco at a press conference. With this The ZODIAC would become national news. The autumn terror was now upon the Bay Area.

     What is interesting to note, again with hindsight, is that ZODIAC’s reign of terror via letters began after the San Francisco killing. A murder here guaranteed him sensational news coverage. His previous killings guaranteed his threats would be taken seriously. But without this San Francisco killing, his reign of publicity terror would probably never have come about. Did he intend this to be his last killing for that reason?

     The next communication came in to The SF Chronicle on November 8, 1969. It was a card with a dripping pen, the perfect note for a poison pen pal. Inside there was scrawled a little message. Included with this was a separate sheet with a long cryptogram.

   Red ink drips from the pen. Spelling is slightly more unbelievable inside the note. “T” is frequently left off by a number of people when writing “thought,” but other impossible misspellings are “nead” for need.” His abbreviation for December  is DES. Yet he spells “cipher” correctly. He makes his threat to kill again if his cipher isn’t printed. He made this threat with his first cipher, and yet nothing happened. He went on no killing spree as he had threatened. He continues to spell front “frunt.” He originally wrote “thing” in small letters and then went back and capitalized the “T” and made the whole word huge and bold, but the cross on the original small “t” can still be seen behind the capital “T”.

     He claims 7 victims here, but to date he was only known to have killed 5 victims. He had attacked 7 people, but 2 survived. However, that is not what he implies. He is claiming victims in August here, though there had been no attacks known between July 4, 1969, and September 27, 1969. His writing on the car at Lake Berryessa confirms this. He makes no claim to have killed anybody in August. This is an interesting slip.

     He is writing with his usual blue felt tip pen.

Police photo of the actual 340 Cipher which ZODIAC sent with the card. To this day it has never been decoded.  

     The very next day, November 9, 1969, the SF Chronicle received a very long letter. 

     One of the most interesting things about this long letter is that ZODIAC begins with the statement that he is going to disguise his future murders to “look like routine robberies, killings of anger, + a few fake accidents, etc.” — a statement often repeated today for those who like to develop the idea that ZODIAC may be a super-nefarious villain still killing over the whole nation. Yet we must defer to hindsight’s vision again. No such killings have taken place, or any such series of murders, that could possibly be attributed to ZODIAC. And, frankly, his murder spree shows how clumsy a killer he was. He could never have attempted his threat on page one and have gone undetected. Coupled with the undeniable fact ZODIAC stopped, the fact he began this letter saying he would merely disguise future killings suggests he had fully planned to stop killing already and become a terrorist by proxy.

     In this long letter, The ZODIAC revealed a genuine knowledge of making homemade bombs. Thus his threats and game rose to a new height. Yet how much was sincere threatening and how much was just dangling a carrot? On page 3 he castigates the police for believing his October 13 bus threat. “If you cops think I’m going to take on a bus the way I stated I was, you deserve to have holes in your heads.” Yet on page 5 he is also back to his bus kick again. The diagram shows how his bomb can be rigged to ‘remote control’ destroy a bus and not a car.

     He also reverts to leaving the “e” on the end of words before adding “ing.” — e.g. ‘use’ and ‘wave.’

     On page 6, as he is winding down, he ends with a huge crosshair symbol with xs on it, and his warning they better print the embarrassing information on page 3 about 2 cops letting him go the night of the Stine murder. A crosshair usually marked the end of his letters. However, on the back of this page there is a little, isolated, disingenuous paragraph. There is no need to prove he’s The ZODIAC here. His writing is enough. And talking to a Vallejo cop about his invention wouldn’t prove the letter writer is The ZODIAC. It almost seems as though it belongs to another, earlier letter that he didn’t send. It does seem like a mistake or that an earlier practice sheet was used mistakenly for this letter. ZODIAC no doubt didn’t care about the confusion this misplaced paragraph would create.

     These postcard/letters were mailed back-to-back to the SF Chronicle. They were postmarked in San Francisco.

     Then there is a dearth. This ends on December 20, 1969. It was the first known ZODIAC letter not sent to a newspaper. It was sent to San Francisco’s and, indeed the West Coast’s, most flamboyant attorney, Melvin Belli. The ZODIAC had gone out of his way to prove it was him by including a piece of Paul Stine’s bloody shirt.

   It is written in a very steady, different printing style. Its tenor is also very different. ZODIAC presents himself as a man needing help. The misspellings are even more ludicrous and unbelievable. He spells “control” correctly twice and then spells it ‘controol.’ He is implicitly claiming another victim already and fears he may kill his 9th or 10th next.

   That the letter is sham is evident in how he asks Belli to help him twice. Yet ZODIAC also writes that he can’t reach out for help. Yet there is nothing in the letter that would allow Belli to even contact ZODIAC to help him. How then can Belli help him? It’s a dead-end letter.

   But although it is a dead-end letter that follows no real logic, it does not stand on its own. It follows a logical motive when we place it in context. It’s not the product of ZODIAC’s own inspiration. He is dovetailing on what became a huge media blitz during San Francisco’s autumn of terror. This letter is directly dependent on the actions of a deranged phone caller named Eric Weil.

   On October 22, 1969, while San Francisco was now at the height of the autumn terror, Mel Belli was a guest on the local Jim Dunbar Show A.M. San Francisco. During this show, a mousy, strained voice called and supplicated for help from Belli. The plaintive voice on the other end feared he might lose control. He was having headaches. Soon the caller was promoted as possibly being The Zodiac Killer. There was much press after this and even a botched attempt on Belli’s part to meet with the caller in Daly City in order to help him. 

     Naturally the local news followed it closely, creating a media blitz. It is not important here to cover this episode in the saga of The ZODIAC’s crimes and seasons, but what is important to highlight here is that by December 20, when The ZODIAC’s authentic letter arrived at the Belli residence, the hoopla had died out. Yet it is now that ZODIAC was tardily, very tardily, trying to steal thunder.

   Another press sensation followed here, of course. Though Belli was out of the country at the time, he was soon informed of the letter. News coverage reached new heights when a phone call came to Belli’s residence, apparently on January 14, 1970, from a man claiming to be ZODIAC, who said it was his birthday. It was the same neurotic voice that had called into Dunbar’s show. Due to the authenticated letter of December 20, 1969, this only further increased the chance that the genuine Zodiac was calling. However, this “birthday call” would prove the undoing of Eric Weil, for these calls to Belli’s home would be traceable to the local hatch in Oakland. Weil was calling from the mental ward.

     But we must look beyond all this ephemera to appreciate the truly interesting clue that can be found because of it. ZODIAC’s “Belli Letter” of December 20, 1969, is indeed authentic. Curiously, The ZODIAC took up the character of the deranged caller on Dunbar’s show. Not only is this a very curious thing to do, the date of the letter follows the disturbing pattern seen in other ZODIAC letters. The hoopla created by the October 22, 1969, A.M. San Francisco show and the subsequent events had already long died down. It was now almost 2 months later. Yet in what could be viewed as very tardy dovetailing, the real ZODIAC sends a letter. This delay in genuinely curious. It argues for the theory that ZODIAC was not a resident around the Bay Area, but only visited it on business or for other reasons.

           Clearly The ZODIAC’s goading character was capable of many subtle incarnations.   
       With the Belli Letter we not only know ZODIAC watched Belli’s residence, we know he
       subtly provided that information on the envelope he sent to Belli. Ricardo Gomez and The
       Zodiac Task Force uncovered as late as 2008 that The ZODIAC imitated the unique sans serif font of Belli’s Montgomery Street house address on the writing of his envelope. This does follow his pattern to subtly terrorize people— for it would tell Belli he did indeed watch the residence long enough to take-in the address font— but he was so subtle apparently nobody had recognized he went to this sublime extreme. 

   The entire media blitz surrounding ZODIAC and Belli kept the “Cipher Slayer” in the fore of the metropolitan area’s mind, but in actuality ZODIAC had not struck in that time nor made any public contact. His only genuine attempt was to Belli, and on December 20, 1969, it was strangely late to try and steal thunder on the excitement created first on October 22.

     By April 1970, The ZODIAC had dropped from the news. There had been no genuine or feigned communication from him since December 20, 1969. No killings had happened, and despite his claim to be disguising them, he had proven too clumsy a killer to have pulled that off. He simply had not killed since October 11, 1969.

     On April 20, 1970, he mailed a significant letter. It would be the perfect letter to bait interest back in him. 

Left and below, the “My Name is” Letter. The 13 cipher-letter name has not been decoded. It may be bogus, but considering the subtlety ZODIAC showed in the address on The Belli Letter, we cannot discount that he really put something in this unlucky number cryptogram.  

The 2 page April 20, 1970, letter. Page 2 is restored from a B&W bitmap. The writing is Zodiac’s, but it was re-colored and placed on cut and paste Eaton paper.

     When was this letter written? Zodiologists, and indeed the police themselves, catalog ZODIAC’s letters according to the postal stamp on them. However, none of this means that ZODIAC wrote these letters around the time he sent them. Here, in this letter, received months after the December 20, 1969, Belli Letter, and even more significantly even longer after the November 9, 1969, “Long Letter,” he still harps incongruously on a new type of bomb for a school bus. What is interesting about this diagram on page 2 is that, in comparison to the November 9 bus bomb diagram, the bus and car are drawn from the rear aspect whereas on the November 9 diagram they are drawn from the front. How long did The ZODIAC hold onto this letter? Did he write it around the same time as the November 9 letter? Or, like in the Belli Letter, was he capable of subtleties that were simply too sublime and arcane to ever be figured out?

     There is another reason to wonder when this letter was written. On December 20, 1969, ZODIAC, in feigned worry, feared that he might kill #9 and #10 victim. Months later, now on April 20, 1970, he only claims 10 victims, as though he had been relatively idle in his killing spree.

     ZODIAC also asks a question. The answer, of course, is no. Nobody has every solved the 340 Cipher he sent to the SF Chronicle on November 8.   

   —And no one would ever solve the 13 letter “my name is” cryptogram.

     In what would become obvious as his form, ZODIAC grouped his communication. Only one week later, he sent another communication.  This was another comical card— the Dragon Card.  

A tongue-in-cheek card, he starts with the same careful printing of The Belli Letter and then quickly devolves into his “manic” or cursive, fluid printing.

   It was postmarked San Francisco, April 28, 1970. Although only a week after the “My Name Is” letter, its tenor is quite different. He is still threatening with the bus bomb— a topic that got him international publicity back in Fall— but he has turned more to humor.

     If the underlying subject wasn’t murder, one might almost laugh at ZODIAC’s sense of black humor.

     Without continuing murders, ZODIAC’s letters/cards and within them the veiled threats didn’t mean much. To generate more interest in his letters, he had to have more victims. But he simply wasn’t killing.  Police jurisdictions to this day have written off his later codes and ciphers as purely bunkum. They are condemned as meaningless attempts to steal publicity.

     There was another 2 month dearth. Then an interesting communiqué was mailed on June 26, 1970. The San Francisco Chronicle received another letter with a one-sentence cipher . . .and a map.    

   A significant letter in ZODIAC’s game of death. He starts with the same careful Belli Letter script and devolves into his manic printing. He includes a map and introduces us to his Mt. Diablo Code and cipher.

Police photo of the actual Phillips 66 map with ZODIAC’s taunting clue superimposed on Mt. Diablo.

     The June 26, 1970, letter and map are dynamite. . . for several reasons. The letter proves that ZODIAC could write in 2 relatively radically different styles. The first 3 lines of his letter are in his careful printed script, as that seen in the letter to Melvin Belli. But after line 3 it alters to what appears a much more cursive and quick style, called his “manic style.”

     The misspellings are obvious. There is a lame excuse why he didn’t attack a school “buss” and his sarcastic disappointment that people did not walk around wearing nice Zodiac buttons, as a sort of charm to ward him off.  

     The map finally introduces Mount Diablo, the Bay Area’s famous mountain, and indeed one of California’s most significant heights. It is Spanish for “Devil’s Mountain,” of course. But ZODIAC makes it a center for his code and to unraveling the location of his dreaded fertilizer bomb.

     The code, however, proved uncrackable. It may be that the police and FBI did not attach sufficient importance anymore, but one can assume they tried. To this day no one has cracked the code. Significantly, the first line, as in his other codes (except for his 13 letter name), has 17 characters in it.

     The Zodiac crosshair over Diablo, though it represents a compass (especially as it is to be pointed to magnetic north, the location where a compass points), it is marked with the numbers of a clock. A compass would read, starting clockwise— 360, 90, 180, 270.

     Significantly, The ZODIAC already claims 12 victims. This will become more significant later when a postcard is sent in March 1971 claiming that the 12th victim is buried under the snows around Lake Tahoe. The Press (and later some Zodiologists) asserted that this could be referring to Donna Lass, a nurse who vanished up there on September 6, 1970, but as the letter above notes ZODIAC already claimed #12 months before she vanished.

     Without being able to crack the cipher above, crosshairs fixed on Mount Diablo meant nothing. The code remains unbroken today.

     It was probably becoming obvious to ZODIAC by the lack of significant response to his letters that the absence of verifiable victims on his part meant his threats and black humor were losing their punch. One month later, July 24, 1970, he sent a short letter claiming as his victim a lady who had gotten in the news for claiming The ZODIAC had kidnapped her. True to his earlier form, he claimed responsibility for this event months after it had happened. He had shown himself tardy with the Belli/Dunbar publicity of October 22, 1969, and now months after the March 1970 “kidnapping” of Kathleen Johns, he tried to steal thunder.  

Restored Zodiac letter of July 24, 1970, boasting he had indeed kidnapped Johns. This was a major Zodiac mistake.

     Taking credit for Johns’ dubious encounter was a major mistake on ZODIAC’s part. He was so little informed of the incident, he must only have had snippets of information and this possibly months after-the-fact. He took credit for an incident in which the assailant was described sufficiently it could hardly have been him. This only confirmed to police then, and reaffirms for us today, that ZODIAC was merely boasting pointlessly for publicity, and doing a very poor job at it. As much as this might discredit his other claims, it does become a significant clue that ZODIAC was not intending to kill again. Yet we know he was capable of remarkable subtleties in his communications.

     True to his earlier form yet again, a much longer letter was postmarked only 2 days after the Johns Letter. He did indeed have a little list.  This is the “Little List” letter of July 26, 1970, wherein he introduced his own parody, if you like, of a piece of Gilbert & Sullivans’ The Mikado. When its contents were first introduced to the public on October 12 of that year by Paul Avery, he declared this was 2 letters, which it does, in fact, appear to be.     

   It must have been undeniably obvious to ZODIAC that the police were not cracking his codes. ZODIAC’s game was, in fact, backfiring on him. Avery even condemned ZODIAC as an empty boaster. If the Bay Area remained on the edge of its collective seat, it is only because The ZODIAC had unquestionably earned his reputation as a cold-blooded killer.

     The above “Little List” letter does indeed seem like 2 in 1. The first 2 pages are his letter, ending with his score of 13 victims now. The last 3 pages contain his version of Koko, the High Executioner’s, entrance lines in The Mikado, in which he tongue-in-cheek warns of what type of worthless or aggravating people he will kill next.

     The last page of this section is also signed with a huge crosshair. He now gives us some help in trying to understand his Mount Diablo Code. “PS The Mount Diablo Code concerns Radians  + [and] # inches along the radians”

     ZODIAC’s attempt to “help” the police to decode his Mount Diablo Code and uncover his bomb has proven that he did not understand radians. Radians, these ever-so mysterious measurements, are really only a measurement of curved space and are used by engineers for that purpose. A radian is really a piece of the pie. The radius of any circle determines the limits of a radian. A radian is merely the length along the circle equal to the radius. This link may help the reader get a cursory knowledge: Radians

     When ZODIAC wrote “# [number of] inches along the radians” he made a mistake. For the number of inches to mean something, the size of the circle and hence the radian would be necessary. This means that the exact map and size of the circle drawn on it is a prerequisite. Obviously, ZODIAC did not provide that. He could hardly mean the map he used as a master. All radians would be of the same length since the circle would be equidistant. The ZODIAC’s Mount Diablo Code actually means nothing, and his “help” is worthless without knowing the exact map and its size and the size of the circle to be drawn thereon.

     Despite this, many tried to draw a line from Diablo to one of the known crime scenes to uncover a clue. Those that do this combine The Diablo Code with the much earlier crosshair with x’s on it that came with the November 9 “Long Letter.” However, a line drawn from Diablo to a crime scene would not constitute a radian.

     Not only was ZODIAC’s help a big mistake, but if we just take his Phillips 66 map at face value, there is no way anybody could have even suspected radian measurements were involved. We have to look at all things in context and chronologically. There is nothing on the Phillips 66 map crosshair that would tell those who immediately saw it that us radians were involved. That the map indicates Mount Diablo is the center of something is obvious, but radians seem a tardy inspiration on ZODIAC’s part to confuse the police more.

     Although some theorists have drawn lines from a circle that they have superimposed over Mount Diablo (on a map of their choosing) toward ZODIAC crime scene locations, ZODIAC plainly said that the map and code lead to uncovering the location of the bomb.

     After this spate of communication in the high summer of 1970, nothing was heard from ZODIAC (technically) until Paul Avery, the reporter with the San Francisco Chronicle who had covered the Zodiac spree the most, received a Halloween card. It had been mailed on October 27, 1970, and like all ZODIAC communication it had been postmarked in San Francisco.

     The very famous “Zodiac Halloween Card” sent to reporter Paul Avery.

   As a result of this card, Avery was allowed a CCW (license to carry a concealed weapon), and for about 1 year he carried a handgun. A little reading between the lines tells us why. The ZODIAC had last claimed 13 victims. He was now claiming, naturally, 14. However, only 13 eyes exist on the card, all of them presumably eyeing Avery, and also presumably representing the previous 13 victims. “YOU ARE DOOMED” gives you a clear idea that ZODIAC meant Avery would be number 14.

     The question is, is this legitimate or a forgery? Although I stand in the minority, I tend to think it is a forgery. This is the best place now to introduce the problem of copycats, hoaxes and forgers. It wasn’t until October 12 that San Francisco learned of the high summer letters from ZODIAC, and it was Avery who introduced them to the public in his article in the SF Chronicle. In this article he mentions that police received a postcard supposedly from ZODIAC as recently as October 5.

The “Pace Postcard” of October 5, 1970.

     Although Avery admitted it was very different from previous ZODIAC communication, he wrote that it was suspected to be genuine. However, to this day this postcard actually remains quite disputed. Only recently has it been accepted again by some, but as far as I can see with little merit. Indeed, it exposes itself as a forgery. “THE PACE ISN’T ANY SLOWER! IN FACT IT’S JUST ONE BIG thirteenth.” Well, no, actually. The ZODIAC, in his “Little List” Letter back in July, already claimed his 13th victim. It didn’t just happen in late September or early October. The ZODIAC also didn’t use cut and paste words from newspapers (in this case the Chronicle).

     It has been accepted by many today because of the expression “Fk, I’m crack proof” was noticed to be similar to what appears to be a genuine ZODIAC letter that was sent months after this to the Los Angeles Times in March 1971. However, as we’ve seen with the Belli Letter, ZODIAC would assume the guise of impostors. Avery quoted the postcard in his article. All ZODIAC need have done was to read it and copy an impostor’s language in his LA Times letter.

     It is only a couple of weeks after his October 12, 1970, article, that Avery receives the Halloween Card. But the writing on the envelope is forced, thick, and not very fluid at all. It looks like somebody is trying to copy The ZODIAC’s printing.

     Disturbingly, the “Halloween Card” and the “Pace Postcard” all bear a connection to a known forgery— the “Lake Tahoe 12th Victim Postcard” sent to the Chronicle on March 22, 1971.

     The “Tahoe Postcard” claims that Victim 12 is somewhere under the snows of Lake Tahoe. Then, as now, all have assumed this was reference to Donna Lass, a nurse who had vanished in South Lake Tahoe in mysterious circumstances in the early morning of September 6, 1970. Then, as now, few if any believed ZODIAC was responsible for Lass. Her disappearance rather fits the MO of The Nightingale Murderer, who was active in Sacramento at this time, and who had also abducted and murdered a nurse in identical circumstances as Lass on March 7, 1970.

     Despite believing that ZODIAC had nothing to do with Lass, many have accepted that he could simply have been using her disappearance for boasting purposes— yet another hollow boast just like Johns, etc. However, it seems better to credit this postcard to an uninformed hoaxer. ZODIAC had already claimed Victim 12 back on June 26, 1970, when he sent in his Phillips 66 map with the beginning of his Diablo Code. Donna Lass was alive and well until September 6 of that same year.   

     The writer of the “Pace” and “Tahoe” postcards used cut and paste words and mixed text, some upside down on both. He also used a punch hole. For the Pace Card it recorded his score of 13. For the Tahoe Card, it apparently marks the victim’s burial spot. These photos are of the front and back of the “Tahoe Postcard.” 

   Not only does the style of the March 22, 1971, “Tahoe Postcard” and the October 5, 1970, “Pace Postcard” match, the writer of both wasn’t too well aware of the actual ZODIAC score. Avery’s Halloween Card can be linked to these forged cards by the “attn. Paul Averly = Chronicle” on the “Tahoe Card.” Yes, ZODIAC could have read Avery’s October 12 article and dovetailed on it by sending the Halloween Card, and therefore the card could be real. But is it really believable to think that months later the forger of the October 5 “Pace Postcard” then decides to dovetail on ZODIAC’s Halloween Card by using “Averly” on the address of the “Tahoe Postcard”? (On October 31, the Chronicle had printed the misspelling). Based on circumstances, there should be no question that the Tahoe and Pace postcards are pure and uninformed forgeries. This being the case, the Halloween Card becomes very suspect.

     Invoking the fact that Sherwood Morrill, the head Questioned Documents examiner in Sacramento, said that the Halloween Card is real is an unreassuring nod to brand name recognition and nothing else. Morrill did not take into account context and chronology. He merely looked at the printing style— such factoidery destroyed Sir Arthur Keith with Piltdown Man and other famed scientists who would not open their gaze to the full circumstances of the data they were given to examine in the lab. Morrill was a pioneer in his field, and deserves much praise, but he was not subject to peer review as those in his field are today. As a pioneer, when he spoke of the science of handwriting analysis he was basically shouting his own name. He would later deem as authentic a clear hoax (the 1978 “I’m back” Card), which was also noteworthy for being written in a forced, slow imitation of ZODIAC’s actual penmanship. Morrill was probably also blind-sighted by his inability to believe that anybody on the inside at the Chronicle or SFPD would forge ZODIAC communication. Since not much of ZODIAC’s actual printing had been published in the newspapers, it was a natural assumption on his part that Joe Blow Crank could not imitate his style. 

   If the LA Times Letter of March 13, 1971, is authentic, then it constitutes the next legitimate communication from ZODIAC after the “Little List” Letter of July 1970.

   Sadly, only a bitmap is available. Until the original surfaces in color, one can be skeptical, but it appears legitimate. Other than the contents and the free and easy writing style, ZODIAC claims 17 victims here, which is a little more believable (though fabricated) over the 13 he claimed in his “Little List” letter of July 1970, eight months before. The forged Tahoe Postcard would come in a week later claiming that No. 12 was in Tahoe.

     The statement “crack proof” is really the only thing that tangibly links this letter to a forgery (October 5, 1970, Pace Postcard). This could merely be coincidence in wording or, as noted, he dovetailed on a forgery intentionally. ZODIAC had boasted repeatedly in his letters that he could not be caught. The tenor of his communication carried with it the implicit statement he was “crack proof,” a common term at the time. He also uses it as cliché— “Like I always said . . .” Had he really sent the Pace Postcard, having said it once doesn’t justify using the cliché “Like I always said.” It seems the expression is merely coincidence and he is just goading, as he always does.

     This isn’t the article to go into certain details, like the origin of the expression “fiddle + fart around” (supposedly from Lubbock, Texas, and also used in the Navy), but what is important about the LA Times letter is that it introduced an entirely new episode in the ZODIAC’s game of death. Did he kill Cheri Jo Bates? The consensus is that he did not, and I agree with this. But did he write the letters to her family and the Press/Police after the incident? Could this have been a preamble to his game? Could he have gotten his thrill this way before he finally decided to kill for himself?

     To me it seems outside his character. He was, after all, very careful. This is evident by how he escaped detection and capture. Giving the police a link to an old crime is only risking detection. Perhaps he was this cocksure that he didn’t mind? 

     The next week the Tahoe Postcard arrived at the SF Chronicle, discussed above. If it is a forgery, then the LA Times letter marks a significant moment. After this, the ZODIAC faded away. For over 2 and a half years there was nothing. Unless one of his communiqués was lost by the post or not recognized by a new mail boy at the Chronicle (or other paper), ZODIAC was gone.

     Then finally on January 29, 1974, he mailed a letter. It is one of the most significant there is. It is called “The Exorcist” Letter.

     It’s him, of course. A genuine letter. Same paper, some bloody blue felt tip pen. No crosshair, though. With hindsight, several things become significant here. The absence of the crosshair is one. The other is that from this moment forward ZODIAC would never write again as ZODIAC. A few communications after this are debated by some Zodiologists, but the letters were never signed as ZODIAC.

     In essence, with this letter ZODIAC killed off his character. It is a strange coincidence that it is within a letter mentioning The Exorcist that he finally exorcises his ZODIAC character. The passage about “sucide” implies it, and time has only strengthened this interpretation. The person who was The ZODIAC did not commit literal suicide, but he killed off his character. He went out with a bang, claiming 37 and warning there could be more if they didn’t print his letter— hollow boasting per usual.

     Where had he been for those 2 and a half years? Much had happened in that time. One event was particularly ZODIAC significant— the release in December 1971 of what is now regarded as a landmark and classic film. Dirty Harry was incredibly popular, and it was no secret that the character of the villain— Scorpio— was inspired by ZODIAC. Yet ZODIAC never seized the opportunity to comment.

     He left us with this letter, a new symbol at the bottom and a reference to The Exorcist,  which he spells correctly.

     A number of Zodiologist wish to accept that ZODIAC sent a little card in February which was received on Valentine’s Day and carried a little observation of something quite arcane.

     An uncontested letter was posted May 8, 1974. Like the SLA Card, it is perfectly spelled and punctuated. The writing appears even more so to be ZODIAC’s. It’s about another movie. But this letter deplores violence. It is signed “A citizen.”

   The final ZODIAC communication is probably really not from him. It is contested for several reasons. The printing is quite different. It was mailed from San Rafael. ZODIAC usually mailed from San Francisco (except for the LA Times letter which was mailed from Pleasanton).

   There are similarities in the writing style, but there is also an elegance that is at odds with ZODIAC’s printing variations. That doesn’t mean he could not have written this. Considering how he could imitate Belli’s address font rather easily shows how he could imitate printing styles. But there is also no reason to infer that “Red Phantom” is an alias for ZODIAC. Quite frankly, The Red Phantom would be anybody’s alias. Balancing this with the fact that ZODIAC wrote no letter after “The Exorcist” letter in which he made explicit or even implicit reference to his ZODIAC character, it seems some citizen could have disliked Count Marco enough to write this letter and the sarcasm and printing are merely similar to ZODIAC’s.

     If these last 3 communiqués (post Exorcist Letter) are bona fide ZODIAC missives then it proves that ZODIAC all along could spell perfectly and had excellent grammar. The Count Marco Letter is noteworthy for perfect spelling, punctuation and grammar, and a certain elegance of the pen.

     This is the sum total of ZODIAC’s poison pen game. It ended here and he never came back. Red herrings abound. Carrots are dangled. Hollow threats are obvious. He never killed again, though. After his Exorcist Letter there was never a letter in which he signed his crosshair or even used his character’s makeup. He condemned violence and he faded away for good. But he left 5 bodies in his wake, and 2 wounded to bear the scars for the rest of their lives. Perhaps there were others. He terrorized a city for a season and he left it to dread his return. But he never did. He dressed in a strange and repeated way— baggy, pleated formal pants and casual track jacket— and he wore a theatrical hood far afield at Lake Berryessa. He could imitate different writing styles (he certainly watched Belli’s house long enough to absorb the font style). He spelled so badly it was obviously a ruse. After he killed his character, he spelled and punctuated perfectly.

     Few killers have left so many clues and such little evidence. Just who was The ZODIAC? Why did he start? Why did he stop?  Why did he carry on a game of taunting letters of death? Then why did he stop and deplore violence? Did he find God? Did he get religion? Or was this his ultimate taunt for those who would follow?

     Even if he is dead now, it is imperative that his identity be outed and the malignant spirit he left behind be truly exorcised from the Queen of Pacific cities.