What you have to remember with the Exorcist letter, is if the investigators really believed this was a genuine Zodiac letter, then why in 2018 was the DNA focus squarely on the July 31st letters, when they have struggled to provide anything of significance – and in the San Francisco Police Department DNA list the majority of early letters provided "few cells", yet the Exorcist letter was labelled "cells found". Why in 2002 and 2018 was the Exorcist letter seemingly overlooked (or at least never mentioned) when this was the obvious route for DNA. On July 17th 1978, document examiners from Sacramento declared the Exorcist letter genuine, but in the search for Zodiac’s DNA in later years, it appears the first port of call is the earlier communications from 1969. Have they really got unbridled faith in the Exorcist letter as genuine Zodiac material?

Touch DNA is easily compromised through handling down the years, but his pasted letters could have trace or touch DNA beneath the pasted newspaper clippings, if not unduly affected by the adhesive used.

Richard, I am glad you posted on this thread, I was on another thread a moment ago, asking for you to comment on this one and see that you just now have! I get your point,but think that because testing for DNA is still very expensive and LE have a small budget , they went with what they know was for sure sent by Zodiac, although they do believe the Jan 29th 74 was his.

The significance of this letter I think , was to let Paul Avery know he was still alive and reading what Paul was writing. The Chinese symbol, was perhaps to claim he killed Kim Allen, who had a Soy wooden barrel with letters very much like what was shown in the Exorcist letter. The reference to the Mikado was his "game" of playing connect the dots, to figure out who wrote that letter. Knowing anyone with any knowledge of the case would know it was from Zodiac, especially Sherwood Morrill.

I keep hovering about on this letter Sandy. It’s sort of 50/50 at the moment. However, I do like the Kevin Robert Brooks answer to the symbols. The paragraph preceding the symbols lends itself to the answer "To Kill" and also mirrors the July 31st 1969 threats to kill a dozen people over the weekend.

Richard, I have been searching to see if there was any murders close to the time of the Exorcist letter and there was. I found them in the San Mateo Times newspaper, published on Jan 29th, about 7 random shootings in San Mateo county. ( The Exorcist letter was mailed from San Mateo)

The shootings took place the day before on Monday the 28th. Some witnesses saw two black men, others saw a Latino man. All of the shootings happened with in two hours and at different locations, 20 to 30 min apart. There were five other random shootings the month before. The last victim was a 23 yr old female, said she was walking to her car to get some clothes, when a man approached her and said: Hi how are you doing? ( Not Hi , how you doin) The previous sounds more formal . Then he fired two shots into her chest and left. I wasn’t able to find out what the caliber was of that gun, but found that a 38 and a 32 were used in all of the shootings. The first shooting was at 7:59 pm the last was at 10:12 pm. ( Zodiac has claimed to have used a 38 on a man in a car.)
I wish the reporter would have asked the female what her shooter look like? My suspect looks Latino at times. If the shooter was Zodiac and he did even one of those shootings, he would perhaps mail the letter from San Mateo, as a clue to look for a victim there I think?

I think that the Exorcist was getting a lot of buzz, and Zodiac was not, so he decided to capitalize on the Film’s success and write a letter about it.

But had the Zodiac been getting any buzz the year before? I’m 50/50 about this being a genuine Zodiac letter.

It is not that hard for someone like Sherwood Morrill, to be able to tell a genuine letter from Zodiac or not. ( I trusted him and his work) I read that LE believed Zodiac came from a Catholic background.
I am as well ,so that movie which was about a Catholic priest and exorcism of a young female, meant something to me. It didn’t scare me at all, it fascinated me so much so , that I have seen it a few times. Being Catholic I also believe in the afterlife, as does Zodiac. I can’t imagine Zodiac not commenting about that movie. That movie was all people were talking about and not thinking about Zodiac at that time.

How do we really know for sure , he didn’t write a year or so before that 1974 letter and it is buried in some drawer at the SF Chron.?

Sandy,
I am less enthusiastic about Morrill than you. Actual handwriting analysis is a delicate process, and even the best at it, rely on subjective opinions.

Toward the end, Morrill seemed rather aloof about the Zodiac, going so far as to say that he could tell with “just a glance” if it was Zodiac’s or not. Um, that’s how it works.

Even worse, he claimed that he was personally responsible for eliminating 8,000 suspects.

I think Sherwood Morrill is an unreliable expert at best and a complete fraud at worst. Just my opinion, and I expect others here to rush to his defense.

I think it was a mistake to put so much reliance on one handwriting expert.

Not many know about the special way that Zodiac sealed his envelopes, it was never in any newspaper or police report. That was just one of the ways the expert knew when it was from Zodiac or not.
I was told this by Dave Toschi in the 1970’s, he didn’t tell me what that special way was, he just said that Zodiac had a odd way of sealing his envelopes. I thought it was perhaps tape or wax? I had a suspect I was dating at that time and Toschi asked me to try and get my suspect to send me a letter, so they could see his writing and how he sealed the envelope. By the time I was ready to mail a letter to my suspect, to get a return letter. Toschi was accused of being the writer of he latest letters, so I stopped all contact with him. Now of course we know he did not write any Zodiac letters, just the Tinkerbell fan letters. Before that fiasco , two other handwriting experts did agree that the latest letters were from Zodiac, so it was not just Morrill, it was also Shimoda and DeGarmo. They changed their minds only after Toschi was accused of being the writer!

This past Dec. Tom V mentioned that he found out about how Zodiac sealed the envelopes. No way any hoaxer could have known what was used. I don’t have permission to mention what it was, because it is still an open case. We don’t need some kook to try and duplicate that and send a new Z letter.

It’s 50 years on. You could easily tell us how he sealed his letters. The fact you wont will only make people trust you less.

It’s 50 years on. You could easily tell us how he sealed his letters. The fact you wont will only make people trust you less.

Yes its 50 years and it is still a open case. When someone asks me to keep what I am told about how it was sealed to myself, until I have permission. That is what"I promised"to do, I really don’t give a rats ass if other people don’t trust me.

The people who count do and that is what matters, I am not running for any popularity contest.

I am trusted to keep secrets, that is how and why I get inside information.
I only brought it up to prove a point about how and why Zodiac’s letters that some think were by a copycat , could not be.

It’s 50 years on. You could easily tell us how he sealed his letters. The fact you wont will only make people trust you less.

Yes its 50 years and it is still a open case. When someone asks me to keep what I am told about how it was sealed to myself, until I have permission. That is what"I promised"to do, I really don’t give a rats ass if other people don’t trust me.

The people who count do and that is what matters, I am not running for any popularity contest.

I am trusted to keep secrets, that is how and why I get inside information.
I only brought it up to prove a point about how and why Zodiac’s letters that some think were by a copycat , could not be.

The problem is it doesn’t prove anything as we cannot tell if you’re telling the truth or not. From my short time looking into this case online I have encountered many people who claim things which turn out to be nonsense.

It’s not up to Sandy to share the info that Tom V gave her. It’s up to Tom V.

Still, I believe Sandy is honest and is telling the truth.

Is Tom V?

Is Tom V?

You’ll have to ask him. Don’t expect an answer.