Gerald Tagert had a 7-year-old son in 1970 (Greg Tagert), who went on to become a professional baseball coach. There is a high probability that if these tickets were mailed by the Zodiac Killer, he knew Gerald Tagert well enough to know he had a young son obsessed with baseball, who was almost certainly the intended recipient of the second baseball ticket. The two Oakland A's tickets were likely a "gift" for "Father's Day", which was on June 21st 1970 (the day after the date on the tickets). A gift for father and son, wrapped up in "wrappring paper" like a present. Offering a baseball ticket to a 7-year-old with the signature of "Zodiac" can only be perceived as sinister, bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer threatened school children on more than one occasion.
Postmarked June 18th 1970, but received on June 19th 1970, Gerald Tagert of 1423 Roleen Drive, Vallejo was the recipient of a letter containing two Oakland A's baseball tickets for Saturday, June 20th 1970 against the Chicago White Sox, with the attached message "Gift from Zodiac" wrapped in a piece of paper. Why would the Zodiac Killer (if responsible) mail two baseball tickets to Gerald Tagert for this particular game at the Oakland Coliseum - and who was the second ticket for? One thing we know about the Zodiac Killer was his ability to play on words when mailing his communications, so what was the meaning behind the wording "Gift from Zodiac"?
Gerald Tagert had a 7-year-old son in 1970 (Greg Tagert), who went on to become a professional baseball coach. There is a high probability that if these tickets were mailed by the Zodiac Killer, he knew Gerald Tagert well enough to know he had a young son obsessed with baseball, who was almost certainly the intended recipient of the second baseball ticket. The two Oakland A's tickets were likely a "gift" for "Father's Day", which was on June 21st 1970 (the day after the date on the tickets). A gift for father and son, wrapped up in "wrappring paper" like a present. Offering a baseball ticket to a 7-year-old with the signature of "Zodiac" can only be perceived as sinister, bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer threatened school children on more than one occasion.
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On June 18th 1970, somebody claiming to be the Bay Area murderer mailed a letter to Gerald Tagert of 1423 Roleen Drive in the northern section of Vallejo. Inside was a note stating "Gift from Zodiac" and two Oakland A's baseball tickets. An avid baseball fan, his son, Greg Tagert, would go on to manage the Gary SouthShore RailCats. On June 29th 1972, Edward J. Salmina, sports editor of the Novato Advance who funded and managed the Novato Knicks team, received a death threat from an individual claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, stating "If you leave your house past 3:13:47 on the next ten Saturdays, you will be killed". It was thought that the threat was an attempt to prevent his management of the Novato Knicks baseball team. Two sinister threats (one perceived) on two people, with baseball a factor in both. Four months later, on Saturday, October 21st 1972, a telephone company operator received a bomb threat aimed at the Oakland Coliseum. The caller stated "I just wanted to tell you that a bomb is going to go off at the Oakland Coliseum when the A's return tonight". The call was traced and Luther E. Jackson (32) was arrested on Sunday, October 22nd 1972 and given $5,000 bail. He lived at 572 Fernando Drive, Novato. This individual combined facets of both the "Zodiac Killer" communications on June 18th 1970 and June 29th 1972, through Novato and the Oakland A's. His address at 572 Fernando Drive, Novato, was located just 1.5 miles (by crow) from the 25 Crescent Lane, Novato residence of Edward J. Salmina. I found an obituary of Luther Jackson (72), who passed away in Santa Rosa in 2012, so the age and location fits with the Luther E. Jackson mentioned in the newspapers (who may or may not be the same person). It stated that Luther Jackson coached the Phillies baseball team in the Novato Little League for several years, just like Edward J. Salmina coached the Novato Knicks baseball team. A few hours before Luther E. Jackson rang in a bomb threat to the Oakland Coliseum stating "I just wanted to tell you that a bomb is going to go off at the Oakland Coliseum when the A's return tonight", the Oakland A's baseball team had defeated the Cincinnati Reds in the 6th game of the baseball World Series at the Riverfront Stadium. It appears that Luther E. Jackson was extremely upset at the Oakland A's victory. Had he previously become upset with the Novato Knicks baseball team - and disguised as Zodiac - threatened the life of their coach, Edward J. Salmina on June 29th 1972 in an attempt to interfere with his coaching duties, or through just plain anger? The telephone bomb threat on the Oakland A's team was issued on October 21st 1972 from a man who lived 1.5 miles (by crow) from Edward J. Salmina's residence, who likewise received a threat just four months earlier. Both threats concerning Saturday's. And both related to baseball.
Although much of the following has been covered before, I feel it is necessary to re-examine certain elements of the Donna Lass case, a 25-year-old woman, who worked as a nurse at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino in Stateline, Nevada, and was last seen at this location on September 6th 1970. Sixteen years later, in 1985/1986, some of her remains were found near Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap, but were only belatedly identified as her in December 2023. This breaking news caused a major stir in the Zodiac Killer community with renewed hope - but as happens in many cases - this awakened story has effectively disappeared from the discussion forums once again, and an unspoken resignation has returned that no further developments will be forthcoming. One of the key questions surrounding her murder was the question of Zodiac involvement, which will be examined here. Still persisting to this day, some Zodiac sleuths are still claiming that the individual who created the Pines postcard and mailed it to the San Francisco Chronicle on March 22nd 1971, was insinuating that Donna Lass was their twelfth victim. However, the postcard never claimed Donna Lass as victim number 12 on March 22nd 1971, only that they "sought" her when she had the potential to become victim number 12. The Zodiac Killer claimed 10 victims on April 20th 1970 and 12 victims on June 26th 1970, when Donna Lass was still living and working in San Francisco for much of this time. She had left for her new job at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on or around June 5th 1970. Her savings account at the Bank of America located at 3701 Balboa Street (close to where she lived at 4122 Balboa Street) had remained dormant since early June. So if the Zodiac Killer had "sought" Donna Lass as victim number 12 in San Francisco, then he had trailed or stalked her between April 20th 1970 and June 5th 1970. The Dragon card mailed on April 28th 1970 showed no movement in the victim count, so this window could potentially narrow from April 28th 1970 to June 5th 1970. If this were the case, then the Zodiac Killer had a maximum of 39 days in which Donna Lass could have been "sought" as victim number 12. The fact that Donna Lass worked and lived close to the Presidio Heights murder of Paul Stine, at a time when she had the potential to become the Zodiac Killer's twelfth victim, certainly wasn't lost on the designer of the Pines card. By fashioning a postcard that combined both South Lake Tahoe and San Francisco, its creator was attempting to convince law enforcement that there was a connection between the Zodiac Killer and the missing nurse, navigating through two states and lasting several months. If Donna Lass was killed by somebody she knew, then creating a Pines postcard shifting the attention toward the Zodiac Killer could be seen as beneficial to the murderer. However, this postcard was mailed 6 1/2 months after the nurse went missing, so any benefit gained by such a move would have drastically diminished. You would expect somebody hoping to focus attention toward the Zodiac Killer and away from them, to have crafted the postcard in the early part of the investigation by overtly claiming her murder, not insinuating this in a cryptic communication the following year. Also, if the phone caller to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on September 7th/8th was the murderer of Donna Lass (and author of the Pines postcard), he could easily have implicated the Zodiac Killer by phone on any date between September 6th 1970 and March 22nd 1971, but we know of no "Zodiac Killer" calls between these dates. The creator of the Pines postcard didn't just fashion any old communication, they took the time to add a "Forest Pines" advertisement onto face of the postcard and searched for relevant directional text in the form of newspaper cuttings to paste onto it, while punching a hole in the top right corner and scalloping all four sides. Then they acquired the knowledge to know that Donna Lass would have been "sought" as victim 12 in San Francisco at the appropriate time she lived and worked there. This person placed some considerable thought into the design of this postcard, unlikely to have been created by somebody attempting to shift the disappearance of Donna Lass toward the Zodiac Killer, who could have done so with far less effort. The time and effort, along with the subtlety employed in the creation of this communication, is something we know from previous Zodiac correspondence. This subtlety was clear to see, when four months after the arrival of the Pines postcard, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Monticello card on July 13th 1971 claiming the murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971, again using a retrospective victim total. The pasted text read "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The Zodiac Killer was retrospectively claiming he "sought" Kathy Bilek before her murder, just as he had done with Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe. If he didn't murder Kathy Bilek when using this tactic, what are the chances that he killed Donna Lass but was telling the truth on this occasion? To establish whether the Zodiac Killer knew Donna Lass from San Francisco and/or South Lake Tahoe enough to trail her from one state to another, we have to return to the phone call received by security guard, Gordon Petrovich, at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on September 7th/8th 1970. We have to determine if the phone caller knew Donna Lass to some extent, or was a complete stranger. The following section is taken from a previous article. It is fairly obvious that the story of the mysterious phone call to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino didn't originate from the police, so its origin must have come from the killer of Donna Lass for the following reasons. The security guard at the casino, Gordon Petrovich, claimed he received a phone call from somebody calling themselves Mr. Davis on either September 7th or 8th, who stated Donna Lass had been called out of town for a family illness. If Gordon Petrovich had murdered Donna Lass, it would be totally ridiculous to pretend he received a phone call from Mr. Davis about an illness in the Lass family, that he knew would be denied later by the landlord of Donna Lass, Nick Davis. This could only have served to draw suspicion upon himself. Also, why would Nick Davis ring Gordon Petrovich and report a family illness that never was, if he had murdered Donna Lass? Once the family illness story was found to be fake, likewise, Nick Davis would have brought suspicion upon himself. Neither of these two men would have had anything to gain by fabricating a story of illness in the family of Donna Lass, that would eventually be found out to be a lie. When Donna Lass began working at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino in June 1970 it would have been her responsibility to supply the casino with her contact details (phone number and/or current address), and encumbent upon her, to acquire the contact details (phone number) of the casino in case she needed to ring them in the event of unforeseen circumstances, such as an illness to herself, family illness, accident or medical emergency By September 6th 1970, this most certainly would have been done. If Donna Lass had really received an urgent message from her family because of an illness, what would have been the appropriate response - waste valuable time trying to locate her landlord, Nick Davis, asking him to ring the casino on her behalf - or simply making the phone call to the casino herself by using a public payphone or asking to use her landlord's phone? If the relations of Donna Lass did have an illness in the family and only had the phone number of Nick Davis by way of contacting her, he would have then made contact with Donna Lass, who would have rang her family back enquiring about the gravity of the situation, before contacting the casino. Any phone call received by Gordon Petrovich of the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino, on behalf of Donna Lass, makes little sense. The only person who had anything to gain by reporting a family illness on behalf of Donna Lass, is an individual who knew that Donna Lass was incapable of making the phone call herself, because she was either under duress at the time, or dead. According to Jo Anne Goettsche, who was visiting Donna Lass during this period, she had no way of contacting Donna Lass by phone when she arrived at the casino and found her friend absent. Therefore, Donna Lass had no phone in her apartment. But this still doesn't explain the obvious path Donna Lass should have taken if she had somehow received a message from her family about an illness. She would have notified her workplace by using the nearest convenient public or private phone. Or made the call en route to South Dakota (apparently without her vehicle). If the family of Donna Lass had wanted to contact her in an emergency, what phone number would Donna have given them? She would have given them either the phone number of Larry & Ann Lowe (where she previously lived), the Monte Verdi apartment landlord (if she had relayed this to her family yet) and the casino. Or any combination of all three. Donna Lass had just moved into the Monte Verdi apartments, so how likely is it that the family of Donna Lass had the phone number of the landlord, Nick Davis, to even ring him about a family illness? And even if they had, why would Nick Davis bypass Donna Lass and inform the casino of the family illness himself, rather than informing Donna Lass of the family illness and her taking responsibility in notifying the casino? The mysterious phone call using the name of Mr. Davis, which he denied was him, must have come from a murderer familiar enough with Donna Lass to know the name of her landlord. Another question that must be asked - is how many people (then or today) would know the name of their friend's landlord? Taking into account that Donna Lass had just moved into the Monte Verdi apartment complex, there may have been some friends that would have known her plans, but how many of these friends would have known that her landlord was called Mr. Davis? One such friend (or casual acquaintance) that may have been privy to this information, would have been somebody who lived at the Monte Verdi apartments themselves. Possibly somebody who informed Donna Lass previously that the Monte Verdi apartments were a good place to live. Often, people move into future premises on the recommendations of others - usually friends they trust. The Zodiac Killer was clearly familiar with San Francisco on some level, so it is feasible he could have known Donna Lass from the Letterman General Hospital where she worked, or from activities outside of her employment. He could have lived or worked close to her 4122 Balboa Street address - and chose Presidio Heights as a suitable location for his October 11th 1969 murder based on local knowledge. It is also possible that when Donna Lass went missing in South Lake Tahoe and the newspapers printed her previous employment at the very park the Zodiac Killer claimed he escaped into, the Bay Area murderer would almost certainly have known that linking himself to her disappearance was an opportunity too good to turn down. He must have calculated that investigators would forge the connection between South Lake Tahoe and San Francisco through her profession, and hopefully boost his credibility on March 22nd 1971. The delay between the Donna Lass disappearance and the arrival of the Pines postcard may have been an indication he wasn't her murderer. He could have waited 6 1/2 months to satisfy himself the young nurse wasn't just missing, or that her real murderer would likely not be found. On the other hand, it is possible he was unaware of the Donna Lass story until early 1971. Establishing a connection between the Zodiac Killer and South Lake Tahoe in advance of Donna Lass' murder was further confused by several threatening phone calls (reported in the Sacramento Bee newspaper on December 15th 1969) aimed towards school buses from Incline Village and Tahoe City in November 1969. There may have been a fair number of hoax Zodiac calls throughout the years, but this person claimed to be the Zodiac Killer and threatened Incline Village by Lake Tahoe, nearly 1 1/2 years prior to the mailing of the Pines postcard which contained an advertisement of Incline Village. This, on its surface, appears to lend credence to the Zodiac Killer being responsible for the Pines postcard. Or, that he wasn't responsible for the 1969 threat and somehow gained access to the Sacramento Bee newspaper article after the fact (had kept the newspaper when bought, or kept a cutting in his possession from the time), or had it stored in his memory bank and decided in 1971 to choose anything he could find in the newspapers concerning Incline Village to paste onto his postcard, so as to cement a connection between both. By issuing a second malicious threat involving Incline Village, maybe the Zodiac Killer was hoping law enforcement would take his latest threat more seriously, just as he had done by adding "sought victim 12" onto the postcard and again linking himself back to activity in the Bay Area and vicinity. The murderer of Donna Lass, when traveling from South Lake Tahoe to the body deposition site (had this been his route), bypassed innumerable earlier and more remote locations where he could have separated himself from her body, assuming she was dead. Yet he chose to select an area popular with campers, fishermen and hikers, which appeared far riskier. This may suggest a familiarity with the area of Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap, because killers will often choose a deposition site based on knowledge and risk level, rather than areas they are totally unfamiliar with. The murderer of Donna Lass could have known pockets within the area of Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap that presented minimal risk in darkness, despite it being a popular area with locals and tourists alike. This is an argument for "better the devil you know" over uncertainty. If this deposition site was chosen because the killer was a previous or frequent visitor to this location in Placer County, while simultaneously knowing the name of Donna Lass' landlord, we could be looking for somebody known to Donna Lass whose history is connected to this tourist destination. He may have stayed, drank or eaten at any of the several lodges or establishments that lay close to Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap. He may even have visited this area with Donna Lass during the brief three months she lived at South Lake Tahoe. I certainly don't know with certainty, but I strongly suspect that the killer and victim in this case were known to one another, in absence of the Zodiac Killer.
"Considering the fact that offenders transporting a dead body are subject to time, distance, speed, weather, geographical, and effort constraints (Häkkänen et al., 2007), it is not surprising that in the current study, most offenders did not travel to dispose of the body, but rather, left it at the murder site. Similarly, as most sexual homicides are committed by strangers, it is possible that as suggested by Häkkänen et al. (2007), offenders see no rationale for making the effort to dump the body at a different location. Offenders with stranger victims may perceive the risk of moving the victim's body to be greater than that of being linked to the crime should they simply leave the body at the attack location". Research Gate. The distance traveled by the murderer of Donna Lass to dispose of her body appears to indicate a desire to delay the analysis of her murder, in which family, friends and work colleagues would inevitably become the first port of call for investigators. A complete stranger, with no prior links to Donna Lass, will be less likely to feel the need for concealment. The distance from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino (now the Golden Nugget) to the area of Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap is approximately 80 miles. The phone call to Gordon Petrovich at the casino claiming Donna Lass had left town for a family illness is extremely likely to have been placed to diffuse any concern when Donna Lass failed to return to work. This would buy the killer more time to relocate the body and clean up any incriminating evidence. The need to buy time until the police come knocking is far more relevant to somebody known to Donna Lass than a stranger. The "Channel 9" letter mailed to the KHJ-TV Studios in Los Angeles by the Zodiac Killer on May 2nd 1978, was a response to the Oscars yearly special run by the station on the eve of the award ceremony, which used public voting to determine the potential Academy Award winners. Hence the Zodiac Killer's wording of "Hey-you actors-this is your lucky Break. Remember-whoever plays me has his work cut out for him" and "please hold the applause". This phraseology was also present in the April 24th 1978 letter which stated "I am waiting for a good movie about me". The Channel 9 letter's primary targets were "Chief piggy Darrel Gates" and "Ex Chief piggy Ed Davis", who were selected in positions (1) and (2) of five targets. This wasn't particularly unusual for the Zodiac Killer to focus his attention on law enforcement, but why did he target Pat Boone, Eldridge Cleaver and Susan Atkins? The answer likely lay in the religious wording "theocratic" and "Judas". Pat Boone grew up in the Church of Christ. In the 1960s, Boone's marriage to Shirley Lee Foley nearly came to an end because of his use of alcohol and his preference for attending parties. However, after coming into contact with the Charismatic Movement, Shirley began to focus more on her religion and eventually influenced Pat and their daughters to have a similar religious focus. At the time they attended the Inglewood Church of Christ in Inglewood, Los Angeles County, California, before being excommunicated in 1971 The 20th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 23rd 1978, in which his daughter, Debby Boone, won the award for "Best New Artist", which she followed up by singing the "Best Original Song" winner at the April 3rd 1978 Academy Awards ceremony, called "You Light Up My Life" from the film score. At the same time, the Boone family began a series of specials on television covering their life and religiosity, which was regarded extreme by some. Clearly the Zodiac Killer was one such person, who slammed Pat Boone by writing "Pat Boone-his theocratic crap is an obscenity to the rest of the world". A Theocracy relates to or denotes a system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god. Susan Atkins (part of the Manson family) published her autobiography, "Child of Satan, Child of God" in 1977, but it was reissued on May 1st 1978, one day before the Channel 9 letter was postmarked in Anaheim, California. From 1974 onward, Atkins said she was a born-again Christian after seeing a vision of Jesus Christ in her cell. No wonder the Zodiac Killer called her the "Judas of the Manson Family", The third person (other than law enforcement) to be named by the Zodiac Killer was Eldridge Cleaver, an American writer and political activist who became an early leader of the Marxist Black Panther Party. Once a radical, in later years he regularly spoke of his conversion to Christianity despite the many dissenting voices who doubled his sincerity. On the right is an excerpt from Eldridge Cleaver's visit to LC's Gunn Auditorium on April 11th 1978. Susan Atkins and Eldridge Cleaver both belonged to groups that dealt in murder before claiming their conversion to Christianity, with Pat Boone becoming heavily influenced by his wife Shirley's religious beliefs that governed his decision making when choosing film and television roles. All three were publicly announcing their Christian beliefs to a wider audience through the media, which to the ordinary churchgoer and non-believer may have been perceived as the fanatical preaching of religious zealotry. This sort of virtue signalling, prevalent in the society of today, may have been the reason why these three individuals were chosen by the Zodiac Killer, who ironically led us to believe that killing people was a requirement for his afterlife. On the envelope of the Channel 9 letter the Zodiac Killer added 1234567 A, G, C, G, T, H. (All good children go to heaven) from the lyrics of "The Beatles" song "You Never Give Me Your Money". Paul McCartney stated that "it's basically a song about no faith in the person". It appeared that the Zodiac Killer had no faith in Eldridge Cleaver, Susan Atkins and Pat Boone, whose religious proclamations through the media possibly got under the skin of the Bay Area murderer - a killer who bragged and rejoiced in claiming several children for his own version of heaven. If the Zodiac Killer singled out these three individuals because of their overt religiosity, it would appear hypocritical of a killer, who himself distorted religion to sell us a story through the power of the media. The following describes the four year journey of the Zodiac Killer from July 31st 1969 to September 18th 1973. It is a blend of many previous articles, hoping to achieve a greater understanding into the mind of a killer, who thrived on terror and extortion. Edward Theodore Gein, dubbed "The Butcher of Plainfield", was found guilty in the first degree murder of Bernice Worden (58), who was abducted and later found hung and decapitated in a shed on Gein's property. Although he was only convicted of one murder and found criminally insane, Edward Gein was believed to have killed many more, including Mary Hogan (51), Georgia Weckler (8) and Evelyn Hartley (15). Called the "House of Horrors", his property in Plainfield, Wisconsin revealed the true depravity of an individual who had lost touch with reality, when detectives found a lampshade made from a human face, a waste basket made from human skin, a corset made from a female torso and bowls made from human skulls, to name just a few of the macabre offerings. His mother, Augusta Wilhelmine Gein (who died on December 29th 1945), was a domineering woman with an intense hatred for females, but whose death from a stroke left Edward Gein devastated and alone in the farmhouse. Soon after his mother's death, Gein began to create a "woman suit" so that "he could become his mother and literally crawl into her skin". He would achieve this by exhuming the bodies of recently deceased middle-aged women from local graveyards and using their skin to fashion his grizzly creations. A well read Zodiac Killer was seemingly inspired by the continuing fascination of the story of Edward Gein, that featured in many movies, beginning with Psycho (1960), produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh, along with later productions such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). The Zodiac Killer mailed a cryptogram and letter in the middle of 1971 (likely early May) claiming the murders of Kathy Bilek (18), Debra Furlong (14) and Kathie Snoozy (15), whose brutal slayings had all been recently attributed to Karl Francis Werner in the newspapers. The Zodiac Killer would make reference to all three girls in his 148 character and letter, asking investigators not to listen to "phonys" such as Werner, and warning them he would "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and "send a patch of human skin if their is some left over". Having claimed the brutal stabbing of Snoozy and Furlong on August 3rd 1969 in San Jose through the "Aug" reference in his November 8th 1969 "Dripping Pen" card, he was now left with the necessity of claiming the stabbing of Kathy Bilek also. She became the focus of his later Monticello card, mailed on July 13th 1971, stating "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". Kathy Bilek was stabbed in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga (near Monticello in San Jose) on April 11th 1971. Edward Theodore Gein was determined to raid graveyards and "make a woman suit from the skin", whereas the Zodiac Killer promised to "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin". Kathy Bilek was buried in the Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, Debra Furlong in the Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz, and Kathie Snoozy in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in San Jose. I have always assumed that the Zodiac Killer was promising to kill three more kids in the future and make a suit from the skin, but based on the possible inspiration of the Edward Gein story, was the Zodiac Killer suggesting the macabre intention of visiting the three graveyards of Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek, and removing their skin to create a suit? Then mail "a patch of human skin if their is some left over". This may seem far-fetched, until you discover that Kathie Snoozy was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in San Jose, located in the neighborhood of Monticello, near Saratoga. Hence the wording "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April" in the Zodiac Killer's message on July 13th 1971. The neighborhood of Monticello is near to the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, where Kathy Bilek was brutally stabbed to death on April 11th 1971. There is no doubt that the Monticello card is referring to the murder of Kathy Bilek, through the gravesite of Kathie Snoozy - and so linking the Zodiac Killer to all three girls. But did the 148 character cipher and letter have a much more sinister connotation to its contents than first thought, inspired by the continuing story of Edward Theodore Gein? Kathy Bilek was murdered in the Villa Montalvo woods on April 11th 1971, hence the words "In The Woods Dies April". The Zodiac Killer also gave us a clue to the name of Kathy Bilek by identifying her namesake, Kathy Snoozy, who was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The murder of Kathy Bilek in the woods in April was near to the Monticello neighborhood. The three murder victims of Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek were all credited to Karl Francis Werner, who was arrested and questioned about their murders on April 29th 1971. The Zodiac Killer, having previously insinuated himself responsible for the murders of Snoozy & Furlong on November 8th 1969, now felt compelled to also claim the murder of Kathy Bilek in the Monticello card. The fact that Kathy Bilek, "in the woods died April", with "Monticello" containing the burial site of Kathy Snoozy, who were both murdered by Karl Francis Werner (along with Debra Furlong) and claimed by the Zodiac Killer, should not be overlooked when examining the Pines card mailed four months earlier. The Monticello card contained pasted newspaper text and never directly named Kathy Bilek as the victim he was claiming, but gave us directions to the burial site of one of his previously claimed victims (Kathy Snoozy). The Pines card used the same template, by again using newspaper cuttings, and failing to mention the name of Donna Lass (but insinuating her as the victim). The newspaper cuttings on the March 22nd 1971 "Pines card" appear to direct us to the deposition or burial site of the Lake Tahoe nurse, just like he did with Kathy Snoozy at Monticello. If the Zodiac Killer was the author of the Pines card, then he retrospectively claimed the lives of Donna Lass, Kathy Snoozy, Debra Furlong and Kathy Bilek months after their murders. He would retrospectively claim the murder of Cheri Jo Bates also. We may now have two pasted postcards, both possibly giving us directions to the remains of a murder victim claimed by the Zodiac Killer. For many years now I have stated that the Zodiac Killer designed the Monticello card on July 13th 1971, reading "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The card was claiming the murder of Kathy Bilek (18), who was murdered in Saratoga, in the Villa Montalvo woods near the neighborhood of Monticello (in San Jose) on April 11th 1971. Kathy Snoozy (15) was the phonetic namesake of Kathy Bilek, and was buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery at 300 Curtner Avenue in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The Zodiac Killer chose the location of "Monticello" to bind together the murders of Kathy Bilek, Kathy Snoozy and Debra Furlong, the latter two of which he had claimed on November 8th 1969 in the Dripping Pen card. He added Kathy Bilek to his total when he mailed the 148 character cipher and letter in (likely) May of 1971, and confirmed this on July 13th 1971 with the mailing of the Monticello card. These two communications in 1971 were a response to the arrest of Karl Francis Werner for the murder of all three girls. The burial location of Kathy Snoozy became integral to the Zodiac story on July 13th 1971, but investigators have apparently never made this connection. This is what makes the events of September 18th 1973 so very, very interesting. On this date, somebody removed a tombstone from the Oak Hill Cemetery at First Street & Curtner Avenue and placed it in front of the cemetery gate. The tombstone had the pseudonym "Zodiac" written on it in crayon. We don't know the identity of the perpetrator who committed this unsavoury act, but we do know that the Zodiac Killer had a vested interest in the murder of Kathy Snoozy and the location of her burial site. I will leave it to you to guess the tombstone removed. The Zodiac Killer's interest in the case of Kathy Snoozy & Debra Furlong likely began on August 6th 1969 (3 days after their murders) when the San Francisco Chronicle released a comprehensive front page article of the knife slayings, with a reference to her burial at the Oak Hill Cemetery in San Jose. In his very first communications, the Zodiac Killer wrote three letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969, and fully expected to receive front page coverage, demanding "I want you to print this cipher on your frunt page by Fry Afternoon Aug 1-69, If you do not do this I will go on a kill ram page Fry night that will last the whole week end". After all, he had now committed the murders of David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen and Darlene Ferrin, while seriously injuring Michael Mageau. He again reiterated the importance of publicity when the August 4th 1969 Debut of Zodiac letter arrived at the San Francisco Examiner offices, stating "I was not happy to see that I did not get front page coverage". This trend would continue in the Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969 when he asked politely "Could you print this new cipher in your frunt page", and when the Los Angeles letter was mailed on March 13th 1971, declaring "The reason I'm writing to the Times is this, They don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others". By August 4th 1969 he had killed three, nearly killed another, sent four letters and created a 408 character cipher formed of three parts - but despite this - the two main newspapers in the Bay Area relegated his cipher offerings to page four and page nine in the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner respectively. The Zodiac Killer was probably wondering what more he had to do to achieve the front page coverage his crimes and communications merited. The answer would come sharply into focus, when two days after he announced himself to the world as "Zodiac" - and while he was scouring the newspapers for any progress on his 408 cipher - the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a comprehensive article on the front page of their newspaper featuring the brutal slayings of Kathie Reyne Snoozy (15) and Debra Gaye Furlong (14) in San Jose on August 3rd 1969. The two young teenage girls were brutally stabbed countless times as they picnicked atop an oak grove in Alamedan Valley. The Zodiac Killer, having created terror in Benicia and Vallejo - and having sent four communications to date - noticed that the Snoozy & Furlong murders received front page coverage, while he received inner-page status. Is it really any surprise that the Zodiac Killer reappeared on the shores of Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969, armed with a large knife and wearing an ominous executioner's costume. Dr. John E. Hauser, Santa Clara county's chief medical examiner and coroner, stated of the Snoozy & Furlong murders "I've never seen a case with this many stab wounds. 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". The Zodiac Killer knew he had to perform an attack that would shock, so it's not difficult to understand why he ramped up the terror in the manner he did, knowing that a close-quarter attack should secure him the front page coverage he felt he warranted. After the attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard, the Zodiac Killer traveled back up the hill and wrote "Vallejo 12-20-68, 7-4-69, Sept 27-69 - 6:30. by knife" on the car door of the young couples' vehicle. The addition of "by knife" was effectively saying to law enforcement "I've now killed with a knife, do I now get front page coverage like the San Jose murders". The plan worked perfectly, because the Lake Berryessa attack had the added advantage of him being linked to the murders of Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong. Something he would capitalize on in the Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969, when he upped his victim count to seven and added the month of August to his chronological list of murder months. There is also the possibility he threatened the family members of Debra Furlong on December 19th 1969 (see newspaper cutting above), when a phone call was received by police dispatcher, Shirley Searey, of the San Jose Highway Patrol, claiming to be the Zodiac Killer and stating "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". The remaining five Furlong family members were Glen Furlong and his wife, along with Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11. All the information required to create this phone call and know the burial site location of Kathy Snoozy was available in the August 6th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article. On October 27th 1970, the Zodiac Killer would mail the Halloween card, upping his victim count to fourteen, but chose to write 4-TEEN as an alternative, to include the only four teenagers he was claiming thus far. Those four were David Faraday (17), Betty Lou Jensen (16), Kathie Snoozy (15) and Debra Furlong (14). Seven months later (probably early May, 1971), the Zodiac Killer mailed the 148 character cipher and letter in response to the recent arrest and interrogation of Karl Francis Werner (18) for the murders of Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong, as well as the recent murder of Kathy Bilek (18) in Saratoga on April 11th 1971. The headlines stated San Jose Student Held in Slaying of Three Girls, San Jose Student Held in Slaying of 3 Girls and Youth Arraigned in Knife Slayings of Three Girls. Paul Avery of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote "He (Werner) was immediately advised of his rights concerning any statements he may make and legal representation to which he is entitled, the detectives said. Werner was then taken to the scenes of the crimes. Late yesterday he was undergoing questioning. The detectives would not reveal what statements, if any, he had made concerning the killings of the three girls". The Zodiac Killer, having invested nearly two years linking himself to the Snoozy & Furlong murders, could now abandon his connection to the two young teenagers, or continue the facade, and now claim all three murders, which included Kathy Bilek. It was either all three, or none at all. His choice became apparent when the 148 character cipher included in his 1971 letter was deciphered. It read "T(h)is (is) the Zodiac Speacking. Why can't you stop me. I can't stop killing. Stop listening t(o) phonys. If this is not on the front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin". The Zodiac Killer was urging investigators not to listen to Karl Francis Werner, referring to him as a "phony". The 408 cipher mailed on July 31st 1969 could be considered an introductory cipher by the Zodiac Killer, laying out his plans to collect more slaves for his afterlife and warning police of more murder to come. The 340 cipher, solved by eminent cryptographers David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke in December 2020 was contemporary in nature, effectively calling out Eric Weill who telephoned into the Jim Dunbar TV Show on October 22nd 1969, that initiated the response of Zodiac just over two weeks later, who stated "That wasn't me on the TV show". The 32-Symbol cipher was also contemporary in nature, threatening to detonate a bomb in San Francisco & Vicinity soon after the Zodiac Killer had referenced the Park Police Station bombing (on April 20th 1970) which killed San Francisco police officer Brian McDonnell. The Zodiac Killer also called out Karl Francis Werner shortly after his arrest and interrogation for the murders of Snoozy & Furlong on April 29th 1971, again encoding a contemporary message stating "stop listening to phonys". This message (plural in nature) was not only labelling Karl Francis Werner as an imposter, but included Eric Weill from the Jim Dunbar Show - and so bound the 340 and 148 character ciphers under the banner of one author. The Zodiac Killer wrote "stop listening to phonys" in 1971. The phonys mentioned by Zodiac were Eric Weill and Karl Francis Werner. Both the 340 cipher and 148 cipher used the headlines (and text) from two newspapers. The 340 cipher effectively rejected the phony caller to the Jim Dunbar TV Show. The 148 cipher rejected the phony, Karl Francis Werner, who was being credited with the murders of Snoozy & Furlong, to which Zodiac had claimed for himself on November 8th 1969, by the addition of "Aug" on the Dripping Pen card. The Z148 code (probably mailed May 3rd 1971) was again contemporary in nature, being a response to the police arrest and interview of Karl Francis Werner on April 29th 1971. Three newspaper articles ran with the headlines "San Jose Student Held in Slaying of Three Girls", "San Jose Student Held in Slaying of 3 Girls" and "Youth Arraigned in Knife Slayings of Three Girls". The Zodiac Killer utilized these headlines in his 148 character cipher by promising to "skin three kids and make a suit from the skin" if his latest letter was not published. Victims of serial killers make up a very small percentage of the total number of murder victims each year. Communications written by such killers (and accompanying hoaxers) are even less. So imagine the percentage of serial killers and their accompanying hoaxers that mail communications to authorities with cryptograms and codes included within the correspondence. Now imagine two cryptograms contained within two letters unreleased into the public domain, both of which have many crossover features, that both use the ciphertext character "7" to represent the plaintext character "A" in the code, with both claiming to be from the Zodiac Killer, and both using the "sun cross" in their respective codes. These two letters were mailed from Fairfield, California (1971) and Albany, New York (1973). Now imagine mailing a 148 character cryptogram in 1971 using the root word "phony" that was previously used to describe the Jim Dunbar TV Show hoaxer Eric Weill in the headlines of a newspaper article on February 6th 1970, who was the focus of the 340 cipher solve in 2020 when the Zodiac Killer wrote "That wasn't me on the TV show" and effectively proclaimed the caller a hoaxer. A 340 cipher message that wasn't known to anybody else but the Zodiac Killer in 1971.
When "The Most Dangerous Game" movie was released in 1932, its associate producer, Merian C. Cooper, reflected on the evil of the human condition and stated "man is the most dangerous animal of all". This would be the wording used by the Zodiac Killer in his decrypted 408 cipher, solved by Donald and Bettye June Harden on August 8th 1969. Thirteen years after "The Most Dangerous Game" was released, "A Game of Death" starring John Loder and Audrey Long opened in US cinemas on November 23rd 1945. A poor remake of the original, the only real difference was that the evil Russian, Count Zaroff, had turned into the insane German, Erich Kreiger. This later movie featured on television throughout California from November 5th 1966 to November 8th 1966 - so if the Zodiac Killer was present in Riverside (or California) during this period, and was responsible for any of the communications down south - could this movie have had any influence on the phrases chosen in the Confession letters? Did the flawed character traits of Count Zaroff and Erich Kreiger, who were insane, heartless, and psychopathic men with a thirst to hunt human beings, form the basis of the wording "I am insane. But that will not stop the game" in the Confession letters on November 29th 1966? That "game" being "a game of death", in which the insanity of Erich Kreiger and the Confession letter author created no barrier to the murderous game and ambitions of either.. "A Game of Death" in 1966 turning into a "Most Dangerous Game" in the Bay Area, two to three years later. The murders in southern and northern California cloaked under the banner of the Richard Connell short story of 1924. The film Rampage (1963) borrowed elements of "The Most Dangerous Game", including "The woman who was the most dangerous game of all", while using "Big, Bold, Bob Mitchum is on a Rampage" in its promotional advertisements, along with "They lived, loved and fought by the code of the jungle" and "His code was to snare everything". Bearing in mind the choice of words used by the Zodiac Killer in his code and letters on July 31st 1969, coupled with the crosshairs he adopted, which featured in the opening sequence of the "Rampage" movie, this production had many interesting parallels and appeared on US television screens in California just 11 days prior to Zodiac's opening communications. "A Game of Death" was showing in California three weeks before the typed Confession letters arrived at the Riverside Homicide Detail and Riverside Press Enterprise in 1966. The Riverside Desktop Poem, Confession letters and "Bates Had to Die" letters had a consistency of language that permeated all three, shown in this article (and the image below). Another point of interest, is that all three communications ended in similar fashion. The Riverside Desktop Poem finished with "Just wait till next time", the two Confession letters finished with "Beware....I am stalking your girls now", and the Bates' letters finished with "there will be more". All three, by implication, promising death in the near future. These Riverside communications had a consistency of menace and language, but they were all fashioned in markedly contrasting ways. One was written on a desktop in blue ballpoint pen (for the most part) in lower case handwriting. Both Confession letters were typed (with the envelopes in capital letters), and the Bates' letters were written in, what can only described as scrawl (with no consistency). One could argue that if all of these communications were authored by one person, then they had deliberately manufactured them with such difference of design, so as to disguise this fact to the reader. If deception was their intention, I would argue that they failed miserably because of the similarity of language that flowed from one to the other.
"The Most Dangerous Game" heavily focused on a tense stalking sequence in the second half of the movie as Rainsford and Eve attempted to outwit Count Zaroff as he tracked them while wielding his prized Tatar war bow. The 1945 film mimics the original for the most part. Therefore, is it a coincidence that after the Confession letter stated "I am insane. But that will not stop the game", it concluded with "I am stalking your girls now". It appeared that the "game" was stalking women as prey. This stalking would seemingly continue on July 31st 1969, when the Zodiac Killer began with "I like killing people because it is so much fun - it is more fun than killing wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal of all". Was the game employed by the Zodiac Killer, at least in a literary sense, continuing after 32 months? Was the Zodiac Killer operating in Riverside in 1966 (at least with his communications), or was he simply incorporating the story of Riverside into his current campaign of terror in the Bay Area of northern California? ADDITIONAL READING: RETHINKING "THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME" On August 1st 1973 (I believe) the Zodiac Killer mailed the Albany Times Union letter and cryptogram threatening murder towards the Albany Medical Center in New York. This communication, irrespective of who mailed it, was triggered by an article by Kermit Jaediker that appeared in the New York Daily News on July 22nd 1973 entitled "A Code For Murder". The response in the letter was "You were wrong, I am not dead or in the hospital. I am alive and well and I'm going to start killing again. Below is the name and location of my next victim. But you had better hurry because I'm going to kill her August 10th at 5:00 pm when the shift change. Albany is a nice town". It contained a code (shown below) stating "(12 characters undeciphered). Albany Medical Center this only the beginning". Bearing in mind that this newspaper article was entitled "A Code For Murder" and began with the wording "Zodiac, a screwball with two hobbies, killing and cryptograms, hasn't been heard from for quite a spell now", one shouldn't be surprised that the Zodiac Killer replied with "I'm going to start killing again" and added a new cryptogram. Later in the article, with respect to the Zodiac Killer's earliest murders, it stated "Police were leaning toward the mad murderer theory. This line of reasoning was virtually confirmed Aug. 1 when Gibson Publications, publishers of the morning Vallejo Times-Herald and the evening News-Chronicle, received a thick envelope postmarked San Francisco". The beginning three lines of the cryptogram mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald were featured at the top of this recent newspaper article. So is it a coincidence that the Albany cipher letter was postmarked August 1st, tying in with the Daily News article and the Zodiac Killer's demands in 1969 (including the one to the Vallejo Times-Herald), stating "I want you to print this cipher on your frunt page by Fry Afternoon Aug 1". Another unusual coincidence between the Albany cryptogram (above) and the portion of cipher shown in the July 22nd 1973 newspaper article (below), is that both have 51 ciphertext characters. When the Albany code was cracked, it finished with "This is only the beginning". The 51 ciphertext characters from the Vallejo Times-Herald shown below were ironically the beginning of the Zodiac Killer's cryptographic exploits, as explained in the latest newspaper article, which read "When decoded it began "I like killing people". The Zodiac Killer had never before May 1971 used ciphertext squares with lines bisecting them, he had never used a sun cross character (Zodiac crosshairs without overhanging lines), a circle with internal lines, or a standalone number as a ciphertext character (only a reversed P in the Z408 and circled 8 in the Z13). The 148 and 51 character cryptograms mailed in (probably) May 1971 and August 1st 1973 respectively, not only were consecutive cryptograms claimed by a Zodiac Killer, but both had these overlapping features. A reversed N and reversed slanted N was also a possibility. The ciphertext character 7 featured in both cryptograms - and in both instances represented the plaintext letter A. It is extremely rare for killers or copycats to mail communications to the press. It is even rarer when those communications contain cryptograms. So how rare is it that two consecutive communications would be mailed by somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, who added a cryptogram to their letter, both containing at least four overlapping features never before used by the Zodiac Killer, who utilized the ciphertext character 7 to represent the plaintext letter A on both occasions, despite neither communication having been publicly released. One could argue that the two authors had to be one individual. The 148 character cipher used the ciphertext character 3, with the Albany cipher continuing the theme with 4, 5 and 7. By connecting the message in the 148 character cipher and letter from (probably) May 1971 to the contents of the 340 character cipher unearthed by Dave Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke in 2020 (which in 1971 was unbroken), it becomes possible to authenticate both the 1971 and 1973 letters, if the connections argued above have met the threshold of proof in your eyes If not, then the article you have just read has been 5 minutes of your life wasted, for which I sincerely apologize. See The Zodiac Killer's Seventh Cipher/Code.
After the murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969 his brother, Joe Stine, made an ill-advised challenge to the Zodiac Killer shortly afterwards, by advertising his workplace and routes to and from the Richfield service station where he worked as a mechanic. On October 22nd 1969 he was reported in the San Francisco Chronicle as saying "Zodiac has to be sick, a maniac. I hope that by offering myself as a target I can flush him out. I work at the Richfield Service Station at 706 Sutter Street in Modesto, near Rouse Street. I start at 7 am. I go to lunch at the Walk-In Chicken in a shopping center two blocks away, riding a bicycle along Sutter Street and leaving the station at noon each day. I go back to the service station and work until 5". This challenge was widely condemned by Modesto residents and law enforcement, who accused Joe Stine of bringing potential danger to their city, that resulted in advise being given to school bus drivers in the event of an attack. Most days at noon Joe Stine went for lunch at La Von's Walking Chicken at 440 Paradise Road in Modesto, a 650 meter, 10 minute walk along Sutter Avenue. If the Zodiac Killer had targeted Joe Stine here, he would literally have been securing a kill in Paradise. Situated along Paradise Avenue and H Street is the Modesto High School, home of the Paul Tischer Performing Arts Theatre. It would have been quite the thing for a young Zodiac to have left his high school each day and walked home along Paradise Avenue. But how coincidental was it that the subsequent crime to the Paul Stine murder, which was connected to the Zodiac Killer, was along Highway 132 near Modesto, where Joe Stine worked and invited the Zodiac Killer to pay him a visit? Kathleen Johns' route from San Bernardino to Petaluma on March 22nd 1970 via Highway 99, took her 4,750 feet from the Richfield service station of Joe Stine. Assuming that Kathleen Johns didn't read or watch the Joe Stine challenge to Zodiac back in October 1969 and decide to concoct an abduction story involving the Zodiac Killer near Modesto, it must be considered an unusual coincidence that - of all the places in California - the Zodiac Killer would strike in the very location the challenge was issued (assuming it was the Bay Area murderer). Some researchers from the Zodiac forums uncovered an unusual letter mailed to the Modesto Bee newspaper that they suspected could have been the Zodiac Killer playing games. AK Wilks stated "Someone reacted to Joe Stine very strongly. Doug Oswell and I, and some others, wonder if this letter from AROUSED is actually the Zodiac". Joe Stine worked near ROUSE Street. This individual claimed he went to Hughson Union High School with Paul Stine (a notable alumni in 1957). Two decades after the claimed abduction of Kathleen Johns, in December 1990, a Christmas card was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle from Eureka, California, that dragged Chester Clark Kilingel into the Zodiac story. Believed by many to have been sent by the Zodiac Killer, the card carried the image of a disguised snowman wearing spectacles, with the photocopied image of two post office box keys. The numbers on these keys were traced to Chester Clark Klingel. The last time the Zodiac Killer could be linked to spectacles, a possible disguise and keys, is when he left the taxicab of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969, having taken the keys of the taxicab driver. Regarding the Eureka card, it appears that the Zodiac Killer may have also swiped a key belonging to Chester Clark Klingel, twenty-one years later. If the Eureka card was mailed by the Zodiac Killer, how did he acquire one of the post office box keys of Chester Clark Klingel in order to photocopy it? If the Zodiac Killer didn't find the key and trace its owner, then the logical conclusion is that at some point he may have crossed paths with Chester Clark Klingel. After Chester married his wife, Blandina, in 1965, they visited relatives regularly in Turlock, before they purchased property at 6413 E Keyes Road in Hughson, California in 1973 (now Alpine Pacific Nut Company). The route taken by Kathleen Johns on March 22nd 1970 had her traveling northwest on Highway 99, through Turlock and near Hughson, California, before reaching Modesto and heading west on Highway 132. It so happens that E Keyes Road passes over the top of Highway 99, with the 15-acre farm at 6413 E Keyes Road in Hughson situated less than two miles from Highway 99. The farm purchased by Chester Clark Klingel was just 3 miles from Hughson High School that Paul Stine attended. The school is located at 7419 E Whitmore Ave, only 5 miles from Highway 99. It means that Kathleen Johns, on March 22nd 1970, drove close to the high school of Paul Stine, the workplace of Joe Stine and the East Keyes farm eventually owned by Chester Clark Klingel (who Zodiac sent xeroxed keys from in 1990), before she was abducted by the Zodiac Killer on Highway 132 near Modesto - if you believe her story. You can't make this stuff up. A psychologically disturbed individual rang the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969 pretending to be the Zodiac Killer, to which the Bay Area murderer responded on December 20th 1969 by seemingly mocking the whole affair and claiming he was about to lose control and find more victims. It has been speculated by some that the Zodiac Killer appeared to somewhat mimic the murder scene of Frances Brown, who had been stabbed numerous times on December 10th 1945 at her 3941 North Pine Grove, Chicago apartment. The killer had left a sinister message on her apartment wall in red lipstick, reading "For Heaven's sake, stop me before I kill more. I cannot control myself". This claim of a lack of control formed the basis of the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969 in which Zodiac thrice feared he was about to lose control and needed help from Melvin Belli. I wasn't sure whether a strong connection could be forged between 1945 and the letter in 1969 until the discovery of a comprehensive analysis of the Zodiac Killer by Dr. Lawrence Z. Freedman, a psychiatric consultant to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. Chairman of the Institute of Social and Behavioral Pathology at Chicago University, his in-depth psychological analysis of the Zodiac Killer in November 1969 was part of the World Book Science Service and was published statewide in the newspapers, including The Napa Valley Register on November 21st 1969. Dr. Lawrence Z. Freedman (85), who was a pioneering forensic psychiatrist whose research and writings delved into the causes of violence, particularly assassinations, terrorism and mass murder, died on October 6th 2004 at his home in Chicago. His detailed analysis in November 1969 of the Zodiac Killer's psyche, not only included the red lipstick writing from 1945, but heavily centered his findings around the perceived lack of control exhibited by Zodiac (see left for one example)..He also wrote "Afraid of others, envious, he has sought a fulfilment through violence. But his fear and self-loathing are now compounded by his realization that he lacks the power to control himself. Therefore he seeks that control from the outside himself, from capture and punishment. Below are two newspaper headlines stating "Zodiac Killer Wants To Be Caught, Pleads For Control" and "Boasts by Zodiac really plea for his own control". It is extremely unlikely that a voracious newspaper reader such as the Zodiac Killer failed to see these numerous articles claiming his control was lacking. So did this detailed analysis by forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Lawrence Z. Freedman, one month earlier, shape the design of the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969, with the Zodiac pleading for help and a wish for control |
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