First apologies, this is off topic but generally in line with the title of the thread. Basically, this is a one off point open to interpretation and I doubt it deserves a thread of it’s own. Please feel free to move it.

Anyway, in this letter Zodiac writes:- " The S.F cops could have caught me last night"…. Doesn’t that make it appear that Zodiac was not from San Francisco?
It doesn’t sound right that a person from S.F would be writing to a S.F newspaper and feeling the need to distinguish. However it might be something a person from another jurisdiction might say/write!

This makes sense to me.If I say it out loud "substituting my town in it’s place" it just sounds odd. I would not say the the S.F. I would just say " the cops could have caught me last night."

But Z watched his p’s and q’s and may have phrased things appropriately to suit his purpose.

Early on in the letter he writes the word "driver" and the r at the end looks like a dash. I think he was meaning to write "area," but the r looks like a dash.

Actually, a lot of his r’s look live v’s or like a checkmark.

Here is the original image with all of the lowercase R’s (they are all lowercase in this letter) marked with a nearby red dot. For comparison.

I’ve already said my piece on this one. LOTS of them look like lines/underlines. Taken in whole, it all seems very consistent to me.

-glurk

Just wondering what the little artifact on the AM is, interesting its on the part I AM

Just wondering what the little artifact on the AM is, interesting its on the part I AM

Not sure to be honest.

It isn’t ink whatever it is. Or rather it isn’t blue felt tip pen ink (whatever it is is black). Even with the quality of the image isn’t good enough to get a close look. One thing I would say is that with repro cameras there was a glass sheet with suction to keep artwork flat. This isn’t the same process but I could imagine that it would be very similar. i.e the evidence being placed under glass to keep it flat whilst photographing it. It would have been for cataloging and perhaps press purposes to have these images made and as such I could imagine this being after any sensitive forensic tests (for the time) had been carried out so this would have been a less critical point in the evidence chain. It’s entirely feasible that ‘that thing’ is a piece of fibre or a hair that either found it’s way under the glass at the time or was already there. IIRC there may be other or another image of evidence that actually does have a hair in it, can’t remember off the top of my head.

But yeah, it looks like it could be a fibre.

One thing that might be a clue in this letter… why does he mention that he is the murderer of the people in the north bay? He called himself Zodiac when he took responsibility for those murders as well, so why would he feel the need to write this? Is it because there was more than one murderer? The man who killed the people in the north bay area might not have been the same man that shot Paul Stine. Put down the group theory all you want, but it is very possible.

Long time since this was dragged out.. But With all due respects to traveller I don’t think it’s a fibre, way to consistently inconsistent .. Looks a lot like the squiggly stuff (dripping blood) at the bottom of the sharp Gaul note found in The apartment.

Put down the group theory all you want, but it is very possible.

Don’t know about "very", but it certainly is possible, just like many other things are possible.

As for this particular thing, though, it could easily be him just wanting to make sure they knew who they were dealing with. "I’m the same guy – used to operate elsewhere, but now I’m here in the big city."

I don’t think it’s logical, or the most obvious interpretation, to read what you imply into that statement. It works just as well – if not better – if it’s just one guy.

Put down the group theory all you want, but it is very possible.

Don’t know about "very", but it certainly is possible, just like many other things are possible.

As for this particular thing, though, it could easily be him just wanting to make sure they knew who they were dealing with. "I’m the same guy – used to operate elsewhere, but now I’m here in the big city."

I don’t think it’s logical, or the most obvious interpretation, to read what you imply into that statement. It works just as well – if not better – if it’s just one guy.

The group theory makes more sense that a lone person, IMO… just like in he JFK assassination.

One thing the letter reveals is that Z had knowledge about the street names in that particular area. He mentions Washington + Maple as if he knew it quite well. Of course, he could’ve read it from the street signs when committing the murder but it rather sounds as if he already knows the names of those streets. That again, would imply that he had a personal connection to that area, e.g. being a client at Bloch’s.

QT

One thing the letter reveals is that Z had knowledge about the street names in that particular area. He mentions Washington + Maple as if he knew it quite well. Of course, he could’ve read it from the street signs when committing the murder but it rather sounds as if he already knows the names of those streets. That again, would imply that he had a personal connection to that area, e.g. being a client at Bloch’s.

QT

Or, is it the opposite—he didn’t know it that well and that is why he didn’t say Washington and Cherry…where it happened. He only remembered the name of his original destination.

One thing the letter reveals is that Z had knowledge about the street names in that particular area. He mentions Washington + Maple as if he knew it quite well. Of course, he could’ve read it from the street signs when committing the murder but it rather sounds as if he already knows the names of those streets. That again, would imply that he had a personal connection to that area, e.g. being a client at Bloch’s.

QT

Or, is it the opposite—he didn’t know it that well and that is why he didn’t say Washington and Cherry…where it happened. He only remembered the name of his original destination.

Or… it’s another proof of "something only the killer & police know" i.e. that washington & maple was in the fare book.

Exactly, RTF.

Those lower case "r"s in the zodiac letter from the first post of this thread look a lot like the hand writing from Don Cheney…

Now, compare the lower case "r"s in this letter written by don Cheney to the "r’s" in the letter posted in the first post of this thread…