We had found, previously, that this letter was in response to a news article that ran in the previous days or weeks about zodiac. I can’t find the article now, can anybody tell me which article it was or when it ran/ which paper? Thanks

Here it is, a 7/22/73 article, in which this Albany letter clearly is in response to

If Zodiac actually did spend time in some type of institution, maybe the newspaper comment was especially stinging. So then he feels compelled to cause a disruption at an area hospital in the city where he is living/staying. I wonder why he also chose to send this letter only to the Times Union, leaving out the Knickerbocker News.

He mentions the shift change at 5:00. I wonder if it’s because he would get a thrill out of being there to witness cops & Detectives milling around? I could see him getting some gratification from witnessing that. I definitely am leaning towards this letter being a real Zodiac letter.

Out of all the cities across the country, a fake Z letter just happens to get mailed in Albany, the same city Darlene, Crabtree, and Gaik, all had spent time. The same city in which Darlene had multiple people listed in her Address book.I don’t buy it, thinking its real. I think there’s some sort of connection there, in some unknown way. Friends Darlene may have met while she was there,etc, Maybe an associate of Gaik’s or Crabtree’s that they met at the newspaper?

I gotta say I’m not seeing this as Z. Good job on the newspaper article though. The letter mas most probably created as a response to and inspired by it but just not from Z. I’ll have a look it regarding the writing in time, just to be thorough, but even the cipher part alone leaves me cold TBH. Even in his shortest ciphers Z was tidy and took his time over crafting them. This one is a slapdash rendering and I don’t see Z’s pride allowing himself to do that. Also I kinda get the feeling that Z had ‘been there done that’ in his writing campaign. The last one being the Z32 in 1970 which was short and included as part of another graphic puzzle (the map). Then the Halloween card envelope stating ‘sorry no cipher’. Kinda feels like he was done with that ‘angle’ of communication.

I don’t half wonder if that decision was actually inspired by the copycat attempts. The next time we hear from Z he’s taking a disguised handwriting approach to amuse himself and possibly keep his communication unique to himself.

Just some thoughts off the top of my head.

Agree that this one didn’t have the same amount of craftmanship as other Z codes. But I think Morf also makes a good point — it’s odd that a Z-letter (if legit) comes from a city where one of the higher-profile suspects once worked. Also notice the sentence, "But you had better…" Gaikowski had a well-known habit of starting sentences with the word "But," even in his mainstream journalist pieces.

Agree that this one didn’t have the same amount of craftmanship as other Z codes. But I think Morf also makes a good point — it’s odd that a Z-letter (if legit) comes from a city where one of the higher-profile suspects once worked. Also notice the sentence, "But you had better…" Gaikowski had a well-known habit of starting sentences with the word "But," even in his mainstream journalist pieces.

I would dismiss it easier if it was from any other city across America. The fact that it happened in Albany where Darlene & Crabtree had lived for a while, where Gaik worked, and where Darlene had multiple listings of people in her address book, it all makes it harder for me to dismiss it. Add to that the letter came during Zodiac’s hiatus of writing in CA, it’s pretty powerful to me. I think it’s possible the letter is zodiac’s, and that he may have been in Albany for work,Family,etc, and simply could not pass up the chance to respond when he read that article. Also, the way in which he writes ‘Albany is a nice town’, makes it seem as if he is trying to deny a connection to the town, or that he is just passing thru, when he actually may have been residing there.

I am not endorsing Gaik as a suspect, I want to see where the Albany clues lead, whether they be to Gaik or anybody else.

Agree that this one didn’t have the same amount of craftmanship as other Z codes. But I think Morf also makes a good point — it’s odd that a Z-letter (if legit) comes from a city where one of the higher-profile suspects once worked. Also notice the sentence, "But you had better…" Gaikowski had a well-known habit of starting sentences with the word "But," even in his mainstream journalist pieces.

Zodiac also did this with his 4/20/70 letter.

One hurdle with this letter, is it’s simply not a great copy. I have requested from the FBI, clear hi-def copies of all the original letters, both confirmed & unconfirmed. I am not holding my breath that they will comply, but it’s worth a shot

Agree that this one didn’t have the same amount of craftmanship as other Z codes. But I think Morf also makes a good point — it’s odd that a Z-letter (if legit) comes from a city where one of the higher-profile suspects once worked. Also notice the sentence, "But you had better…" Gaikowski had a well-known habit of starting sentences with the word "But," even in his mainstream journalist pieces.

Zodiac also did this with his 4/20/70 letter.

One hurdle with this letter, is it’s simply not a great copy. I have requested from the FBI, clear hi-def copies of all the original letters, both confirmed & unconfirmed. I am not holding my breath that they will comply, but it’s worth a shot

They might not even have them but you never know, we may get something that’s better than what we have. Good job for trying. You can but ask.

As for this letter I’m not against it but I’m not for it either. I was leading with the cipher presentation as a reason but the writing isn’t doing it for me either. There’s probably similar ‘things’ in it but that hardly lifts it above any other letter of which the same could be claimed. That’s why I asked about the page size earlier in the thread so we might get some idea of the scale of the writing. As we know Z did write quite small so that might be another factor against which to judge it.

Sorry Trav,I don’t see the page size provided anyplace. This is one of the rare times that we don’t agree on writing

Sorry Trav,I don’t see the page size provided anyplace. This is one of the rare times that we don’t agree on writing

No probs on the page size, didn’t think we had it. It’s good to not always agree otherwise there’d be no point in discussions or a board. Keeps us on our toes and learning. Plus, I get to see what it feels like playing devil’s avocado

Here’s how I broke down the cipher text:

http://zodiackillerciphers.com/albany-letter/

Ambiguous interpretations are shown within parentheses. And there’s one wildcard denoted with a question mark.

When I examined every permutation using an algorithm and a list of about 5000 common first names, the only valid name that fit was CONNIE.

I believe there is only one symbol for "C", but the two symbols do differ slightly.

I ran the same examination against a list of about 89,000 surnames, to see if any of them fit at the beginning before "HENLY". If there’s no middle initial before HENLY, then we’re looking for a seven letter name. Only one match found:

CHOATES

If there’s a middle initial for HENLY, then the name is six letters long. In addition to CONNIE, more matches are found among the list of surnames:

CHOATE, CONDIE, CHOUTE, and COONSE.

Doranchak, you stated only one possibility, CHOATES. There is a town called, ‘Cohoes’ close to Albany, there’s no way that could be the word, is there?

Bump…. One of the most interesting questioned Z letters in the entire Zodiac case,in my opinion. Also, there is no doubt that the Author,Zodiac or not, mailed this letter/cipher, in response to the article that ran a couple weeks before speculating Z was dead or in jail,etc

Doranchak, you stated only one possibility, CHOATES. There is a town called, ‘Cohoes’ close to Albany, there’s no way that could be the word, is there?

It almost fits, but doesn’t quite seem to. I wish there was a clearer scan of the cryptogram.

Question, anybody know off hand how many confirmed or unconfirmed Z envelopes, had crosshair symbols on top left where the return address should be?