The 1987 letter strikes me as little more than an obvious fake.

Very typical MO for the Visalia Ransacker, who indeed is believed to be the EAR/ONS..both never stole anything during their burglaries. After a confrontation with a police officer, the Visalia Ransacker started in the Sacramento area…thanks for posting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visalia_ransacker

QT

The 1987 letter strikes me as little more than an obvious fake.

I’m not an expert on the letters, by any means, but it does seem like a fake even to my unexperienced eyes.

However, it could be a letter written by the actual perpetrator of the Oakdale crime trying to emulate a Zodiac-like confession letter.

Very typical MO for the Visalia Ransacker, who indeed is believed to be the EAR/ONS..both never stole anything during their burglaries. After a confrontation with a police officer, the Visalia Ransacker started in the Sacramento area…thanks for posting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visalia_ransacker

QT

The VR was a ransacker and possibly an attempted kidnapper (ostensibly, with the intent to rape) and a murderer. The EAR was a rapist. The ONS was a murder/rapist. Both as the EAR and the ONS, the suspect still stole mementos (e.g. jewelry, photos) and sometimes objects of value from the victims. The ONS would sometimes ransack in the vicinity of a murder scene.

The VR ended in 1975 (12 years prior to this incident). The EAR was active from 1976-79, and the ONS from 79-81, with one additional murder/rape in 1986. The last ONS crime is somewhat reminiscent of this attack.

The only known instances of the VR attacking violently were in the attempted abduction of Beth Snelling, when the VR killed her father, Claude Snelling and when he wounded Officer McGowen, who was pursuing the VR (as you noted above).

The EAR occasionally beat a female victim. The ONS is known to have bludgeoned to death several of his victims (as well as shooting a few).

There doesn’t appear to be anything stolen in this incident.

Also, the EAR/ONS’s general motive was rape. His MO usually involved binding/tying the victim before the rape.

So besides the bludgeoning, that’s the only link to an ONS MO, and the crime, IMO, fits the Zodiac better than anyone else mentioned here. But of course, it could be an UNSUB.

Please forgive me…it’s early for me!

How does a woman being beaten in her bed in 1987 relate to Zodiac? Because of the letter to the VTH? Lots can happen in a year so…I’m confused.

Please forgive me…it’s early for me!

How does a woman being beaten in her bed in 1987 relate to Zodiac? Because of the letter to the VTH? Lots can happen in a year so…I’m confused.

Just thru the letter. If not for the coincidence of the timing of the letter (Oct ’87) and the comments made therein, I wouldnt’ suggest it otherwise.

I don’t think this carries enough provenance to be considered a possible. I have moved this to ‘Unconfirmed Mailings’. viewtopic.php?f=78&t=720

PLEASE CONTINUE THIS POST IN UNCONFIRMED MAILINGS. This is a shadow topic and the duplicate in ‘POSSIBLE VICTIMS’ will be deleted within 24hrs.

Trav.

(the original letter is here: http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/im … 969_ap.jpg).

Now, to the highlighted parts of the letter, in no particular order of import:

1. The writer says "Cars make nice weapons" and later just "The car". The victim’s surname was CARR.
2. Back to the above, "Cars make nice weapons" — the victim was bludgeoned with an oak log (see Compton’s blurb) from her own house: "Carr makes a nice weapon".
3. "I am crack proof" — the suspect "cracked" the head of the victim by bludgeoning (EDIT: although other possible Zodiac letters had used the term "crack proof", too)
4. "Tell the kiddies watch…" — the crime was interrupted by the 10 year-old daughter, ostensibly watching the attack.
5. "find me out there" — Oakdale is about 2 hours from Vallejo. "Out there" is a common reference to the more Eastern parts of California from a Westerner.

Additionally, note that no rape occurred — an commonality among known, and assumed for unknown, Zodiac crimes.
Also, with some liberality to the date of the actual attack, October 11th is the anniversary of Paul Stine’s murder.
I’d also note the coincidence of being beaten with an oaklog in Oakdale, which seems like a Z attempt at irony, but I’m sure oaks are abundant in Oakdale.

Of course, I have no clue to the provenance of the letter or if all the above is just coincidence.

The Zodiac stated he would run somebody over as cars made nice weapons, not necessarily kill straight away, as he may have done in his unsuccessful abduction of Isobel Watson in Tamalpais Valley on April 7th 1972. One murder that occurred on Halloween night 1987 was that of Shannon Olson, her hands tied behind her back, feet bound and stabbed more than 40 times. She apparently had been abducted and dumped at the KDOT pond in North Wichita, in an industrial area. Had the Zodiac moved or traveled there. Did he run her over in the pretense of aiding her, before abducting her.
This crime was never tied to Dennis Rader as only one of his victims Kathryn Bright was stabbed and only twice, all his other victims were predominantly strangled or suffocated. This crime was overkill, similar in fashion to the Lake Berryessa Attack, Hood and Garcia murders, where the murderer stabbed Hood 11 times in the face and back, leaving Garcia to suffer severe savagery, along with the Domingos and Edwards murders where the killer first attempted to bind them.
Of course anybody could have been the murderer but this was at least on Halloween, as the letter stated, it more than likely involved a car to abduct her, she was a kid, being only 15, October 31st 1987 was a Saturday and only three days after the letter was mailed. Also all these murders were by water.
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/85164057.html

That is interesting that the victim’s last name was CARR. Also that the attack happened on MAPLE street, that was also the location of the attack on Paul Stine as stated by Zodiac in his letter, and this attack was almost the same day October 11/12.

These were my comments on the unconfirmed 1987 letter with the actual letter:

This October 1987 letter is also seldom discussed. The handwriting seems less "Zodiac like" than the 1986 letter, to my unexpert eye. But it has a basic Zodiac look to it. The content seems uninspired, mostly old bits, and the stuff about the horror movie "The Car" may be a nod to past Z references to movies like "Most Dangerous Game", "Exorcist" and "Badlands". It feels fake to me…but some of the writing does seem to match.

Has anybody seen the film "The Car"? Anything Z like or interesting in that film?

What do people think? Anything stand out real or fake about this letter?

I saw THE CAR and own it on DVD(great movie if you are a 70’s horror movie fan).
Nothing Zodiac related at all as far as I can tell. The premise is simple, a desert town, someplace out west(I forget the state)is terrorized by a demonic car with no driver. The car kills people at every turn running them over, forcing them off the road,even crashing thru their homes, etc. The local police try to fight it and figure out whats going on, and eventually blow it up using a case of TNT. THE END.

No murders of couples parked, no weird anonymous letters to newspapers,nothing at all.

I saw THE CAR and own it on DVD(great movie if you are a 70’s horror movie fan).
Nothing Zodiac related at all as far as I can tell. The premise is simple, a desert town, someplace out west(I forget the state)is terrorized by a demonic car with no driver. The car kills people at every turn running them over, forcing them off the road,even crashing thru their homes, etc. The local police try to fight it and figure out whats going on, and eventually blow it up using a case of TNT. THE END.

No murders of couples parked, no weird anonymous letters to newspapers,nothing at all.

There is actually a possible reason for Zodiac to refere to "THE CAR" movie.

The "killer" in the movie, the actual car, was a customized 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Car

"The "evil" black car in the film was a customized 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III designed by famed Hollywood car customizer George Barris. There were four cars built for the film in six weeks. Three were used for stunt work – the fourth was for closeups, etc. The stunt cars were destroyed during production – the fourth is now in a private collection."

Now the Lincoln Continental Mark III emblem/hood ornament/symbol is a very close match for the Zodiac Killer symbol, below is from a 1969 model:

In earlier models, this below is a 1957 Lincoln Continental Mark II model, the emblem/symbol was a perfect match for the Zodiac Killer symbol:

I remember that Foreigner, that is a great find you made!

Zodiac might have enjoyed seeing a big car with "his" symbol on the hood running down people.

As MORF notes, there may not be as much of a direct tie from this film to Z’s activities, like there was with "Most Dangerous Game", but then there was not much direct ties between "The Exorcist" or "Badlands" and Zodiac’s MO either.

That might point to what truthandsoul noted in the first post here, that the real tie may not be much to the film, but to the name CARR, which was the name of the victim attacked on October 11/12 1987, perhaps by the EAR/ONS.

Interestingly, the possible suspect in the 1963 Domingos/Edwards murders named "Sandy" apparently used two fake names – one was Robert Coffman, and the other was William CARR. See MORF’s find here:

viewtopic.php?t=108

The Car letter takes me on one of those degrees of separation journeys. Zodiac, letters, David Berkowitz, Son of Sam, Sam Carr. This letter was probably a complete hoax concocted by someone who wanted to make it seem like there was a cult of killers as has been suggested by various people over the years.

I can’t understand how or why anyone would conclude that the 1987 letter has any degree of authenticity to it, however small.