The VPD got the letter from the SF News Agency and leaked it or gave it IN IT’S ENTIRETY to the VNC so they could publish it on that same day?
Well, maybe……
I would LOVE you to find that!Yes, that marine biologist nut-job is in several of the papers, spinning yarns. Might be worth a thread indeed. Ah, how we all court fame.
It was somewhere in all the hoopla I read since you posted this. It just stated the Examiner provided the letter to the VPD. Of course I go back and read and cannot find. Maybe I was hilooooscinating. 
“…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
No matter, it fits fantastically, probably did happen, and I love a conspiracy, so I’m going to choose to believe it even without a source. Shallow eh? 
When did the San Francisco News Agency titles (the Chronicle and the Examiner) first publish the name "Zodiac", in one or both titles?
(Thanks folks, most helpful.)The earliest I saw in the SF Chronicle was October 15, 1969: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s1/sh/f0bec1f1-1d61-42dd-a4c4-e37c03f37499/e302c587f0b8f44a0dbc7187de5a4e45
But maybe I missed an earlier reference.
D., you’re right, not until after Stine, and the letter in October, do the Chronicle/Examiner guys believe that there’s any point in printing the news about The Zodiac Killer by name – despite having received the August 4th letter directly.
True!? Isn’t that odd.
As I’ve said elsewhere:
The Zodiac – and for at least two days, the name – was big news in the out-of-town theatre of Vallejo, using promo material sent to the Examiner and then leaked by the VPD, (I like to believe), on the 4th August. The "let’s solve the cipher" game (also in the SFE on August 3rd) was played by the Gibson group and the San Francisco News Agency, using shared materials.
After that, reference to the name "Zodiac" isn’t used to describe the attacks, for quite a while. The Berryessa reports in the Chronicle of September 29th and 30th use "Code killer" the 1st October "code slayings" and 4th October "Napa Slayer".
The Napa Registers of September 29th, 30th, 1st, "psychopathic killer", and 2nd and 7th October don’t mention the name Zodiac.
I suppose the attacker at Berryessa didn’t mention the name either, or write it on the door, but the VNC and Chronicle knew the name in August and could have directly related it to the symbol on that door.
In the VNC of Monday September 29th Dave Peterson and Jane Smith don’t seem to remember the name, despite linking the crimes with some interesting facts. Jane Smith "Time-Herald Staff Writer" (sic) doesn’t come up with any kind of soubriquet in her copy in the VTH of 30th September, either. "Unknown assailant". (She does use that "manic laugh as she stabbed Cecilia" BS though. I think she got that from Ranger White – quite the fantisist.)
The VNC’s of 1st, 2nd and 3rd October? The paper that published the name first? Scooping the Examiner and the Chronicle on 4th August?
The 1st says "The search for the psychopathic "Code Killer" was concentrated in Vallejo and southern Napa County today as authorities checked out two suspects." The copy of the 2nd says "Code killer". The third does too. Yes, that’s odd. He was "Zodiac" in August………
