Like Trav I’m from the UK so have had quite limited access to ammo over the years. I’ve googled ‘spent 9mm casings’ and can come up with some similar but not exact matches. One consistent difference is that the one in this picture seems shorter than others I’ve seen, also the bevelled edge at the bottom (which I assume is the end the bullet was fitted to) is more pronounced than in the examples I’ve found.
Can anyone who knows guns & ammo (hey, that sounds like a great name for a magazine..) give an opinion on this?
If it is indeed a casing then it’s pretty damn weird – although my dad had a cigarette lighter made from an WW2 .302 casing so I suppose it could be a converted trinket of some kind.

I still don’t believe that it’s just a casing, james. Check out my original posted image on your phone with backlit illumination. There appears to be a very clear tip just above the frame of the glasses behind the lens, showing at least the shape of an intact bullet. I’d be interested to get an official verdict as well.

I don’t have a phone that gets internet so I can’t help you there, Entropy, but I have a suggestion along the same lines of what James is saying about the cigarette lighter made from a shell casing. There are "stash" containers made from bullets, they look like the real deal. I think it’s kind of dumb to try to disguise your white powdery stuff in a bullet but apparently it’s done.

Ah, OK. That’s a possibility. I should just say that it appears to be the exact size and general shape of a 9 mm bullet. Not sure a bullet would be the most discrete place to hide your stash though. "No drugs on me, officer. Just this random bullet in my pocket".

Forgot, by the way, that Stine was also killed by a 9mm bullet as well, albeit a different type than used at BRS. Whatever the damn thing is here, it is artfully obscured.

Since we’re on the topic of this guy and collages (actually neither are the topic of the thread but humor me), I’ll share another one of the very few personal collages that I’ve seen. It’s presented just as a point of comparison for discussion.

This one is from 1974 and began with him arranging to have himself fingerprinted at the Palo Alto Police Dept. on 2/6/74 (just eight days after the Exorcist letter in which Z seems to allude to disappearing or possibly committing suicide). He was not arrested but asked to be fingerprinted for an art project and photos were taken of the whole fingerprinting process. The work entails the fingerprint card and both handprints laid out in a lockbox along with the key and manila folders full of who knows what inside. He later had his right handprint framed and mailed to his father, who he apparently hated and who subsequently gave the work away. Prior to this work, he had refused to sign any of his artwork for the previous 3 1/2 years, roughly the same time period between Z’s last signed letter in 1971 and his unsigned Exorcist letter. In interviews, he describes identifying with Geryon, a demon from Dante’s Inferno.

What’s interesting to me aside from the timing and the apparent "locking away" of a persona eight days after what could be considered Zodiac’s retirement letter is that Z’s letter was mailed from the "940" zip code, which encompassed much of San Mateo County where this guy lived at the time.

http://www.zodiackiller.com/EEHR.html

This was shortly after the invention of the zip code but before many places were using a 5-digit zip code. Z interestingly included the "Use Zip Code" sticker from the book of stamps on the envelope. There was also the call to Daly City Police Dept. in San Mateo County on 1/12/74 from a caller claiming to be Zodiac reporting that he had dumped the body of a woman in a Daly City church (which obviously turned out to be false).

As an aside, I think it’s interesting to consider that the Exorcist movie was only showing at one location in the SF Bay Area on the date of Zodiac’s Exorcist letter (that being the Northpoint Theater in the Fisherman’s Wharf section of the city). Zodiac does comment that he saw the Exorcist movie so it at least appears to be another citing of Z in San Francisco.

ENTROPY, I missed it, who is the artist/creator of the fingerprint/handprint photos?

Same guy as "Hospital Souvenirs" in this thread, morf.

Speaking of San mateo,found this at Chris Y’s site:

Daly City Phone Call (Daly City is in San Mateo County)
From the San Mateo Times – January 12, 1974
DC Churches Searched After ‘Zodiac’ Calls
Daly City police searched every church in that city last night and early today because San Francisco police and various news outlets received an anonymous phone call from a male voice who claimed to be the infamous killer Zodiac. According to police reports, the caller, after announcing that he was Zodiac, said that he had killed a woman and placed her body in a Daly City church. Daly City Police Sgt. Ralph Warren said his department was notified of the call prior to 11 p.m. by San Francisco police. An immediate search was carried out, lasting beyond midnight, said Warren, in which all churches and church grounds in the city were checked with negative results. According to Warren, surveillance will be maintained at all the city’s churches, although police are skeptical and suspect the calls were a hoax. There are approximately 15 churches in Daly City.

17 days later, zodiac mailed his Exorcist letter,odd, Zodiac had been silent for a few years, then in 1974, we have this Daly City,San Mateo County event, followed 17 days later by teh Exorcist letter. Was the church threat really Z, or was Z responding to the hoaxed church threat???

Speaking of San mateo,found this at Chris Y’s site:

Daly City Phone Call (Daly City is in San Mateo County)
From the San Mateo Times – January 12, 1974
DC Churches Searched After ‘Zodiac’ Calls
Daly City police searched every church in that city last night and early today because San Francisco police and various news outlets received an anonymous phone call from a male voice who claimed to be the infamous killer Zodiac. According to police reports, the caller, after announcing that he was Zodiac, said that he had killed a woman and placed her body in a Daly City church. Daly City Police Sgt. Ralph Warren said his department was notified of the call prior to 11 p.m. by San Francisco police. An immediate search was carried out, lasting beyond midnight, said Warren, in which all churches and church grounds in the city were checked with negative results. According to Warren, surveillance will be maintained at all the city’s churches, although police are skeptical and suspect the calls were a hoax. There are approximately 15 churches in Daly City.

17 days later, zodiac mailed his Exorcist letter,odd, Zodiac had been silent for a few years, then in 1974, we have this Daly City,San Mateo County event, followed 17 days later by teh Exorcist letter. Was the church threat really Z, or was Z responding to the hoaxed church threat???

That’s the one… This call deserves a discussion of its own, IMO, but it’s weird that Z sent a letter from the same area of this call 17 days AFTER it was made. Copycatting the copycat is a possibility. I’ve wondered that in regards to the Oakland call which precipitated the whole Belli/"Sam" fiasco as well. Did the real Zodiac make a call and then follow up with a letter on the same topic or did Z follow up on a hoax call to generate confusion?

Here is the actual article.

Wow! That’s a familiar looking skeleton in the collage. Do you know what year this was done?

It pre-dates the Halloween card and any Z activity. 1960, I believe.

That skeleton is quite startling. As is the 13 holes in the Eye picture. reminiscent not only of the 13-hole postcard but also the 13 letter cipher. This POI is starting to rise up the ranks of probability imo. He is also a fairly good match for the Stine sketch.
I was googling some of his other works and…….. you know how we were looking for crosses in circles earlier in the thread? I’m sure Entropy’s probably found this already but for everyone else: