A problem that can appear in copycatting/hoaxing claims is the copycatting toolkit. Basically the copycat hypothesis presents us with a news-clipping folder of Zodiac articles and says "the hoaxer had this" and that way tries to explain how they hoaxed things. The hoaxer retained info in the press and used it. The toolkit. This is actually something measurable. It means the hoaxer can only hoax with what they have and can’t what they don’t have. So you have a timeline against what they can know and can’t know.

The copycat evolves with this timeline. So the copycat hypothesis has to compare and contrast. What you should notice in true cases of copycatting is that the copycat exploits everything they have and only needs to introduce new material where there is a void in their knowledge. So the copycat hypothesis is somewhat dependent on the hoaxer not knowing some things as well as knowing some things. Yet if it is shown that the toolkit had those things they could have known but replaced it with something new instead, they are not copying. That’s the oddity that can emerge when you get deeper into the compare and contrast.

That means when the hoax hypothesis brings up an article with stuff or appeals to a collection, that really means everything in that collection and not just the parts of the article we are focused on. If they have those articles describing other things why did they need to invent their own instead? It’s not copycatting. The evolving into new directions is what is expected from this offender. The new stuff is that evolution. The direct opposite of hoaxing. The direct opposite of copycatting.

BTW, the wrong spelling of Avery to Averly was done by the writer of both communications for a reason. That is not a mistake. It is deliberate.

So basically the copycatting hypothesis should be something demonstrable with a timeline of compare and contrast against Zodiac articles.

The article has a truckload of quotes from Jack Stiltz and Martin Lee. Guess someone forgot to keep a lid on it, lol.

At any rate, "By knife" was not the big secret it was made out to be.

The article has a truckload of quotes from Jack Stiltz and Martin Lee. Guess someone forgot to keep a lid on it, lol.

At any rate, "By knife" was not the big secret it was made out to be.

You know the Halloween card can be understood in the context of a response to Dr. D.C.B.Marsh’s challenge to him in the newspapers? The President of the American Cryptogram Association thought the Zodiac would give his name if challenged. If you read John Douglas book "The Case that Haunt Us" he talks about the ways they could play with the Zodiac’s emotional needs. I think this was one attempt at that.

Read the front of the Halloween Card which seems to be addressing the challenge.

Look at the inside of the envelope flap. "Sorry no Cipher."

Why not? The copycat has By Knife and other articles so why not just do one of those ciphers instead? Why all this new stuff? Why use a Celtic Cross as a Zodiac symbol for example?

I think the answer is simply that the Zodiac displays no knowledge of cryptography beyond what is found in a kid’s book – Secret Codes and Ciphers by Bernice Kohn Hunt (1968). Z408 is a hack. So how do you become an expert cryptologist within the space of a year to answer the Marsh challenge with a really challenging cipher? The answer is you don’t because that’s not possible for most people who are that amateur. That is why I go with Prof. Bauer’s view this amateur just can’t really make advanced ciphers. The Z340 is a fail. It starts off okay and he gives in around 1/4 and then throws in something at the end. Later on he sends the Z13 which is ALFRED E. NEUMAN from MAD magazine. Why? Because the back pages of MAD magazine is a puzzle that you FOLD eliminating a huge section of the puzzle. Look here -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Fold-in There you go.

It was all filler

Zodiac even talks about ‘back pages’.

"They don’t bury me on the back pages like some of the others."

So if you accept that premise then it basically means the Zodiac has quit doing anything remotely like valid ciphers. He is doing custom puzzles because that is all he can do.

So you get this Halloween Card instead in answer to the Marsh challenge.

By the way see the A to B arrows indicating where to fold? There are symbols almost like that in the Z340.

I agree that he probably wasn’t a cipher expert. There’s just nothing to support it. The 408 was kids’ stuff, the name cipher is a joke, the Bomb code is patently unsolvable, and it seems more likely with every passing year that the 340 is either broken or not a conventional code at all.

I agree that he probably wasn’t a cipher expert. There’s just nothing to support it. The 408 was kids’ stuff, the name cipher is a joke, the Bomb code is patently unsolvable, and it seems more likely with every passing year that the 340 is either broken or not a conventional code at all.

The time element is a huge reason why I also agree its looking like a failed amateur which happens to go along with some of the other failed amateur stuff the Zodiac did. It’s different from mathematical puzzles from the past because we usually know their origins and author. So we have a very good idea of what is going on and even the pathways that usually solve them. Fermat’s last theorem is a good example of such a project which was solved by Andrew Wiles (despite some deep error he had to overcome) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_Last_Theorem So there are good reasons to keep at unsolved maths puzzles like these. With serial killer’s making puzzles and ciphers it is a very different world as we don’t even know if they are even serious about it to begin with. Comparable things would be codes sent out in WWII that were meaningless or simply to obfuscate and get the enemy to waste time. The Z340 is probably the world’s most well known unsolved cipher. So I can see why Bauer basically put a pause on looking at the Zodiac as anything more than an amateur hack making mistakes. Look at the time element and amount thrown at it. If it was a new case it would be different but 50 years later of the world going at it is a big factor why it’s probably a dud. I also like how people seem to be breaking the start of the Z340 and then it goes to pieces after. After all this time that is indicating to me that the Zodiac went to pieces after that point also.

Back in the 1960s a serial killer had no good explanation for themselves because the academic work on them wasn’t much until the 1980s when they were properly studied. What we notice after the 1980s is that serial killers for the most part somewhat change from behaving like something out of Hollywood (dressing up in a costume and mask to kill for example; leaving messages at the crime scene) or copycatting other series killers of the past and describing themselves like characters from various entertainment throughout the ages. This is because they are also learning from the studies. Forensic awareness is also forensic psychology awareness. They realize they don’t need all that old stuff to explain themselves.

Therefore it is not surprising that the Zodiac case being so old would display more of that earlier serial killer lack of knowledge and grabbing at explanations from Hollywood and history. The Zodiac for all intents and purposes is just trying to emulate "The Riddler" from Batman but turned out to be really bad at ciphers despite thinking he was good at them. He obviously was trying them though. I mean it isn’t exactly very smart to be a Riddler type nemesis who is actually bad at even constructing riddles let alone how the answer is functional. That’s sort of embarrassing. Hence the Dr. Marsh challenge.

In the end we get…

Sorry no cipher

Right, firstly, this card did not come with a piece of shirt. Let’s make that clear.
Secondly where is the evidence for the 340 cipher containing paradise / slaves? It has never been decoded properly. Perhaps someone has forced that out of it but that does not mean it’s correct!

I wondered if his name was paradice. Also I looked at old year books from high schools in the east bay area and was surprised by how many Armenians there were. People from certain ethnic groups really encourage their kids to retain their heritage and not just speak their language but also read and write it. I wondered if the reason that it was not broken was because it was coded in another language. Armenian (and I am not assuming zodiac is armenian) has many more letters in their alphabet than English and those letters are for sounds such as zz of pizza which isn’t a sound in English anyway. We know the cipher should contain the word "kill". The Armenian word for kill is "սպանել" which is pronounced spanel. So by using another language it can change those hints that were used by Donald and Bettye Harden.

BTW, the wrong spelling of Avery to Averly was done by the writer of both communications for a reason. That is not a mistake. It is deliberate.

So basically the copycatting hypothesis should be something demonstrable with a timeline of compare and contrast against Zodiac articles.

I looked at year books for the bay area and was surprised how many Armenians lived in the area. Some nationalities really like their kids to keep their ancestry and insist on their kids not only speaking the language but also reading and writing. I have met both Armenians and Greeks that insist on Saturday school to learn the language. I put Avery into google translate and translated to Greek. Then translated it back to English and it translates as "average".

I have wondered if the 340 cipher has not been broken is because it is in another language. This might identify the ethnicity of zodiac.

continuing on with google translate.

type in paradise from English to Greek and the word is
παράδεισος
parádeisos

but if you translate Paradice you get παράδοξο
parádoxo

and then back to English and you get paradox.