It seems that almost everyone agrees that Zodiac’s ‘Death Machine’ is, as it appears in his letters at face value, a bomb. But for me, always cynical and cautious of Zodiac’s words and meaning, I have long thought that the Death Machine isn’t what he seems to suggest is it, at least at face value.
I’ll not beat about the proverbial bush and simply say what I believe the ‘Death Machine’ is. My personal opinion is that the Death Machine is….Zodiac. It’s not a device, object or weapon as such, but rather, Zodiac himself is the Death Machine. Again, this is just my opinion, an alternate to the widely accepted belief. It seems that either the writer is speaking in the third person, or, he actually really is not the Zodiac killer himself, but simply the Zodiac letter Writer.
Here first, is what Zodiac wrote, then below, I’ll try and show what I think it possibly means.
"The death machine is all ready made. I would have sent you pictures but you would be nasty enough to trace them back to developer + then to me, so I shall describe my masterpiece to you. The nice part of it is all the parts can be bought on the open market with no questions asked. 1 bat. Pow clock — will run for aprox 1 year. 1 photoelectric switch… "
Z then list what appear to be parts or devices that can be bought to make a working bomb. He continues:
"the system checks out from one end to the other in my tests. What you do not know is whether the death machine is at the sight or whether it is being stored in my basement for future use. I think you do not have the manpower to stop this one by continually searching the road sides looking for this thing. + it wont do to re-roat + re schedule the busses because the bomb can be adapted to new conditions."
Ok, so here’s why I think Zodiac is hiding clues right in front of us. (Keep in mind the following comments are made directly after he’s explained that cops pulled a goof and failed to catch him on Jackson St)
He starts off: "The death Machine is already made." Zodiac himself has come to life, so to speak.
"I would have sent you pictures but you would be nasty enough to trace them back to developer + then to me, so I shall describe my masterpiece to you" Here I believe he’s talking about photo’s of his residence, or where he at least hid when they searched for him in and around the Presidio, and the ‘developer’ he speaks of is, IMO, a land and property developer.
" The nice part of it is all the parts can be bought on the open market with no questions asked. 1 bat. Pow clock — will run for aprox 1 year" Zodiac, the death machine, will be active and his series of kills will run for approx. 1 year. His actual active attacking period ran from Dec, 68 – Oct, 69. Zodiac is the ticking time bomb, and he will be active for one year.
"the system checks out from one end to the other in my tests. What you do not know is whether the death machine is at the sight or whether it is being stored in my basement for future use. I think you do not have the manpower to stop this one by continually searching the road sides looking for this thing. + it wont do to re roat + re schedule the busses because the bomb can be adapted to new conditions."
Remember, this letter’s first part is all about how he managed to walk away from police who were within a stone throws distance of him minutes after he committed his latest murder. So IMO, these 4 sentences here are cryptic hints at how he killed Paul and then avoided capture. So….
"The system checks out from one end to the other in my tests." His dummy runs via taxi he’s been making from Geary in The Theatre District, to Washington & Cherry and, in his tests, the system works fine.
"What you do not know is whether the death machine is at the sight or whether it is being stored in my basement for future use." What we don’t know is whether the Death Machine, aka Zodiac, is at the sight (Julius Kahn and The Presidio) or whether it, or he, is being stored, or hiding, in my basement for future use. I think Zodiac may very well have been in a home on Jackson, hiding in the basement of either his own home, or a friends. His ‘Masterpiece’ mentioned earlier is his home, or that of a friend, and he can’t send photo’s of it to police to show them exactly where he was when they were searching Julius Kahn because they would get a developer, a land and/or property developer, to locate where that property was exactly.
His next comment is referring to the police efforts in the Presidio and along West Pacific Avenue: " I think you do not have the manpower to stop this one by continually searching the road sides looking for this thing."
He is saying here that they will need more than numbers and manpower to catch him, and continually searching the road side’s (along West Pacific Avenue) looking for him won’t help to capture him either because he isn’t there.
"it wont do to re roat + re schedule the busses because the bomb can be adapted to new conditions." He’s saying the bomb, AKA Himself – The Zodiac – can be adapted to new conditions which, I think, is his way of hinting he’s leaving the area soon.
He ends the letter with a warning: "Have fun!! By the way it could be rather messy if you try to bluff me." This last comment here is one that doesn’t really make sense to me no matter whatever the context. Nobody has tried to bluff him, so why should he make this comment? It could be in reference to Fouke never mentioning that he’d seen Z walk up the steps and toward the residence of 3712 Jackson, and Z knows this and thinks they are keeping that quiet pretending they don’t know that’s the house he went toward, instead searching Julius Kahn and the surrounding area. If he has just told them cryptically that the death machine, himself, ran into his masterpiece that night, his home for which he cannot send photo’s of because that will give away where he was, and was hiding in the basement then maybe he, like me, can’t understand why the cops never dashed to the back garden of 3712, nor knocked the door, after two cops had seen him going toward the house? Like me, he may not have been able to understand how and why they never dashed straight there instead of Julius Kahn because that would be standard police practice to speed straight to the place where the suspect was last seen. Maybe he thought that they were bluffing him by only pretending not to be interested in the grounds of 3712, and that this is a bluff designed to catch Z off guard, and in his mind they may be planning a surprise visit without knocking before they come through the font door! Maybe this is what he means by "It could get messy if you do that."
To finish, I remind readers that this is only a theory, I am not claiming it is for certain what Zodiac’s letter meant to convey, merely speculating.
As I started by saying, this is just one personal theory I have as to the meaning, or interpretation of the letter when it’s not taken for what Zodiac knows it will be taken for, at face value.
I’ve also long believed that his threat to ‘wipe out a school bus someday, just shoot out the tires and pick off the kiddies’ is a specific threat to a specific school child, but masked as a general threat. The school bus is symbolic and simply means his target is of school age, and the ‘kiddies is actually the eight year old child that saw him and gave police a name. Anything to back that up? Yep, Z’s own words in the next letter, the one after he has threatened to wipe out the school bus, where he now almost dismissively states "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." In other words, if they ever thought that was really what he meant by the threat, then they are idiots.
"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.
I believe the Death Machine reference refers to a almost infoulable system of killing and disposing with his victims that he is going to put in use.
Is this a theory?
“I don’t know Chief, he’s very smart or very dumb.“
Besides the bomb he describes…what about the death machine being a car? You can put it into your basement or aside a road..
QT
*ZODIACHRONOLOGY*
Is this a theory?
Tis Trav, Tis indeed. I am not claiming this to be fact, nor can I show any conclusive evidence to support the theory. It’s just my opinion after reading the letter. I’ve said in various other threads that I really do think Zodiac’s letters are, in and of themselves, cryptic messages, kinda like his ciphers but with the letters he hides clues in plain sight. Again, as with almost everything Zodiac, I cannot prove that or have it confirmed as rite or wrong unless He himself comes forward and gives us the answers, and that’s not something I am holding my breath about 
"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.
I mean I could be totally wrong, but to me, Zodiac would seem the type to get enormous kicks and pleasure out of writing something which is literally full of clues regarding specific events knowing full well that people will read his letter literally and not see it’s actual cryptic message and meaning. To use an analogy, they can’t see the forest because too many trees are in the way.
And I’ve always been highly sceptical of Z’s claims when it comes to making bombs and explosive devices. I just think, like his "I think I shall wipe out a school bus someday" threat, the bomb threats were just another way to create maximum fear in the Bay Area. He basically admitted in the letter after the school bus threat that he never had any intensions of actually targeting a bus full of kids and told LE if they believed he did, they deserve to have holes in their heads. When the police station became the target of a bombing, Zodiac again was quick to dismiss his threats to bomb as nothing more than just that, threats by stating:
"I hope you do not think that I was the one who wiped out that blue meannie with a bomb at the cop station. Even though I talked about killing school children with one. It just wouldn’t doo to move in on someone else’s territory (sic)."
The statement above can only be read one way, that being "I know I said I was going to, but I wasn’t really ever intending to do it, I just said it to cause panic. It wouldn’t do to move in on someone else’s thing."
"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.
Is this a theory?
Tis Trav, Tis indeed. I am not claiming this to be fact, nor can I show any conclusive evidence to support the theory. It’s just my opinion after reading the letter. I’ve said in various other threads that I really do think Zodiac’s letters are, in and of themselves, cryptic messages, kinda like his ciphers but with the letters he hides clues in plain sight. Again, as with almost everything Zodiac, I cannot prove that or have it confirmed as rite or wrong unless He himself comes forward and gives us the answers, and that’s not something I am holding my breath about
No worries. Might move it to the theories section at some point. I’m having a retinal migraine so I can’t read very well which is why I asked lol. As opposed to asking because I couldn’t figure out if it was a theory.
“I don’t know Chief, he’s very smart or very dumb.“
Well yes, the post itself is theory, but it’s a theory about the interpretation and meaning of the Bus Bomb Letter. Surely with an unsolved case, offender/s details unknown etc etc, the majority of what is talked about will be speculative and theorising?
Good, glad you agree (Grinning waiting for post to be moved now on account of out-rite cheek, lol)
I’m just messing Trav, up to you. It doesn’t really make that much difference whether it’s here or in Theory. You know me, never one to disagree with one of the site’s blue meanies.
"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.
Besides the bomb he describes…what about the death machine being a car? You can put it into your basement or aside a road..
QT
Yes, good point QT, his Vehicle could be the ‘Death Machine’ if, in fact, the death machine is a metaphor the writer is using to describe something other than a bomb.
Another point of interest, one I’ve mentioned previously on another thread to support the idea that Zodiac possibly headed for a residence close by to the scene of Paul Stine’s murder, is his apparent non-interest in the escape route at the top of Cherry Street. Surely if your the offender and your plan is to ‘Dash into the Presidio" then the quickest route available is the Cherry St entrance. Why does he ignore this and turn right and descend the hill on Jackson St and vastly increase the chances of him being detained? He must know, either at the point he leaves the scene itself or seconds later, that police are responding and are close and closing in because Armond Pelissetti states:
"We (himself and his partner Frank Peda) responded to a radio call…told us that a cab driver was being robbed and/or possibly assaulted at the corner of Cherry and Washington Streets in Pacific Heights. We, fortunately, were very close and responded to that corner and were able to do so with red light and siren."
Zodiac would most certainly have heard Pellisetti’s patrol car approaching with it’s lights and siren and that may even have forced Z in the decision of escaping via Cherry Street (because he could hear/see in the distance Pelissetti approaching along Washington St.) We know Z left the cab only a minute, possibly even seconds before Pelissetti’s arrival because the witnesses immediately tell Armond that the offender, a WMA, has just gone down Cherry and according to Fouke, when he pull’s up a few minutes later, Armond tells him he’s "looking for the White Male that has just gone down the street."
For me, the fact Zodiac would have had to have known that Police were literally seconds behind him and could, at any moment, speed down the street after him and stop him, he’d almost certainly have dashed into the Presidio via Cherry Street if his intent was always to escape into the Presidio. I don’t think it was his intent for this reason alone and just give’s me even more reason to believe that this letter and it’s content is not what it appears to be at face value and it is, in fact, a cryptic hint to just how he was able to escape that night and where he was hiding when they were ‘Continually searching the roadside’ for him.
"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.
The death machine in ’60’s parlance was the military sending the troops to Vietnam to be killed. I found a vintage button which has death machine on it, not as the main statement but around the edge of the button.
Interesting SG, especially having the ‘Death Machine’ found printed on a button, Zodiac informed ‘His’ readers that he had become very upset with the people of San Fran for not wearing some nice Zodiac buttons, and made mention of this most disappointing result on more than once occasion.
I do think, though, that the Death Machine Z is referring to in the letter is either himself, or his Vehicle and not, as it seems on the surface, a bomb.
"So it’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social, right?" Judd Nelson.
