Looks more like a tribute to Z as we know him than an actual attempt at fooling anyone. A practical joke, perhaps. If the person who made it actually thought cramming as many Z-isms as he could think of into a letter (including a cipher, of course), would fool anyone, he wasn’t very smart.
Then again, perhaps Z himself did it – as an art project of sorts. Post-modern irony, quoting himself, pretending to be an unsubtle imposter – that sort of thing.
Strike me down for saying but.. no 19 year old would or could be bothered to copy so good such a large compilation of another crazy persons crap writings.. So this needs more thought.
I think you might underestimate what 19 year olds are capable of. 
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
norse did you notice the shallow as in ha.l.low
just nothing maybe
To be frank I don’t think it’s anything, my friend. Ghosts in broad daylight – they tend to show up in this case.
Also, I have to agree with T – there are literally no limits to what teenagers can come up with, especially if they’re bored. Or crazy.
agreed all round.. just interesting.
gotta wonder who mrs taylor was is or is not.
so it is a confirmed 17 year old is it?
It’s never been confirmed who wrote the letter. I have to agree after weighing all the info and seeing that most everything he included in the letter was available in the yellow book,it seems as if this is not a genuine Z letter.
I know one thing, I was 17 in 1988 when this letter was written, and after reading the yellow book,did a book report about it which my Teacher was not happy with. I certainly, after reading the book, would not even be tempted to write bogus letters using the Zodiac’s material, so this Kid may have had some issues
There is more than one way to lose your life to a killer
http://www.zodiackillersite.com/
http://zodiackillersite.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/Morf13ZKS
There was a 19 year old in Northern California at the time of the Zodiac letter who apparently wrote a few of the fakes. They were so good the cops went and talked to him. Weird people do weird things.
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
Some lonely, socially-maladjusted fantasy-prone kid read Graysmith’s 1986 Zodiac book far too many times and decided to try his hand at pulling a goof.
Nothing more to see here.
It’s never been confirmed who wrote the letter. I have to agree after weighing all the info and seeing that most everything he included in the letter was available in the yellow book,it seems as if this is not a genuine Z letter.
I know one thing, I was 17 in 1988 when this letter was written, and after reading the yellow book,did a book report about it which my Teacher was not happy with. I certainly, after reading the book, would not even be tempted to write bogus letters using the Zodiac’s material, so this Kid may have had some issues
Some is an understatement.
Handwriting and misspelling is very nice..cant make out the stamp as 1988, could be August 1968, too, couldn’t it? Any hint that it is from 1988?
Reads like a Z letter summary..double stamps, btw. Postage rather from 88 I’d say. http://www.akdart.com/postrate.html
QT
*ZODIACHRONOLOGY*
Any hint that it is from 1988?
FBI letter very clearly states a temporal provenance of 1988.
ok Yes I know I’m dragging up an old chestnut. and yes I think this is a dead duck.
Just something that is in this writing that sticks me, where he mentions "multiple transposition"
I can not remember seeing "multiple transposition" in the yellow book. That is what we are searching through now.
So if its not in the yellow book (maybe it is) and not mentioned any where else what 17 or 19 year old would posses that knowledge. me thinks not many
can someone down load the book and run it through a search optimiser please
I have taken a look at the 169 cipher and noticed that the homophones are repeated sequentially. It is the same style of homophonic substitution as used in the 408. I am wondering how well known this was in 1988, it must have been mentioned somewhere in Graysmith’s book right?
FMGYOS3J4XYAP 12Hw/^TAq4ufZ DIk544dYA36BM lcpLX-YHKwqW+ QJTtIP|5duL*X OwHQkf*7oG^fJ SrIlTYD*2NtE 38Ge6YZS9/qPF 1YK5l4BdruQ8M pWq+qVot9A2X frGAFLMN14qVw 7H2E|4TYAk0BM ScZqpRdX*7Ye/ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 4 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 11 20 9 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 9 9 28 4 11 7 29 30 2 31 32 33 34 10 35 4 15 36 16 20 37 38 39 8 19 40 25 12 41 27 28 21 34 42 10 5 16 15 39 26 22 42 43 44 3 18 22 8 6 45 25 31 46 19 4 24 42 14 47 40 48 7 49 3 50 29 4 23 6 51 17 20 12 1 13 4 36 27 31 9 30 28 45 21 39 49 2 33 46 37 20 38 20 52 44 40 51 11 14 10 22 45 3 11 1 34 2 47 13 9 20 52 16 43 15 14 48 41 9 19 4 11 26 53 30 2 6 32 23 20 33 54 28 10 42 43 4 50 17 Input to output key: -------------------------------------------------- S: F1K89F1K89F1 H: M2M2M2M2M A: GSlGSlGSlGS U: YYYYYYYYY N: O^D|O^D| I: 3Puk3Puk3Puk F: JQJQJQ Y: 4444444 O: XwTdXwTdXwTdXwTdX W: AAAAAA T: HI5LHI5LHI5LH K: /// M: qqqqqqq D: f*f*f*f* E: ZpW+oNEZpW+oNEZp L: 6B76B70B7 V: cc P: - R: trtrtr C: ee B: VV G: R
Mr lowe,
In the letters is written "multiple substitution". Possibly other wording for homophonic substitution or even polyalphabetic substitution.
Jarlve wrote.
In the letters is written "multiple substitution". Possibly other wording for homophonic substitution or even polyalphabetic substitution.
AZdecrypt
yes, thanks for correcting me Jarlvie . I will down load the yellow book and see what is mentioned.
You can go to Google books and use the search function there for each book to try to locate that phrase.
Zodiac-
https://books.google.com/books/about/Zo … 7gAAAAMAAJ
Zodiac Unmasked-
https://books.google.com/books/about/Zo … BQ9jvHU80C
I did it and did not find that phrase in either book but maybe you can try other similar wording.
