Well Marshall, The Zodiac Killer on the car door of Bryan Hartnell’s white Karmann Ghia clearly attributes both of his first two attacks under the banner of Vallejo, despite the fact David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were murdered in Benicia. In fact, the Zodiac Killer never referenced Benicia in any of his communications, while he mentioned Vallejo several times. If the Zodiac Killer played no part in the Lake Berryessa attack, then this introduction could have read "This is the Zodiac speaking. I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by Washington St + Maple St last night, to prove this here is a blood stained piece of his shirt. I am the same man who did in the people in the Vallejo area". However, he chose to use the "north bay area" for the first time, which incorporates the Napa and Sanoma wine regions. So while Zodiac didn’t directly mention Lake Berryessa, he effectively incorporated it.

If the author of the Halloween card wasn’t the Zodiac, then we would have to assume he either accidentally mimicked the 340 cipher or discovered its constituent parts, when nobody else had by October 27th 1970. The sheer fact Paradice and Slaves can be found in a cross formation and bisects the cipher both horizontally and vertically through both mid-sections (17X17), with "by" in all four quadrants, along with knife, gun, fire and rope present in the correct quadrants, takes some explaining. To me, this suggests that the author of the Halloween card had intricate knowledge of the 340 cipher workings, plus the introduction of possibly "death" and crude design on the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter, also mimicking the Halloween card and Tim Holt comic book. Either the author of the Halloween card accidentally created these connections, or discovered something nobody else could, or he was the Zodiac Killer. That design on the Halloween card, I suggest, wasn’t created for no reason. It had purpose.

So, if the Halloween card author created the 340 with the "Des, July, Aug, Sept, Oct = 7", then he was responsible for the "This is the Zodiac speaking up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people" in the Bus Bomb letter. We know the 340 and Bus Bomb letter were the same author – and with the Bus Bomb letter came a shirt piece. So by extension, the author of the Halloween card was the murderer of Paul Stine, and hence the October 13th 1969 and Melvin Belli letters, which also contained a shirt piece. It boils down to whether you believe the hoaxer of the Halloween card, was also the Lake Berryessa perpetrator, and knew the "by knife" attribution on the car door, and was responsible for these two events only, while simultaneously had decoded a portion of the 340 cipher, or just happened to fluke the following formation.

I am sure some people will state the following formation of paradice and slaves mimicking the Halloween card formation was sheer accident. I don’t buy that assertion, especially when we look at the "sorry no cipher" design, and the cross and 13 punchholes on the October 5th 1970 communication, just prior to the Halloween card.

Here is a light hearted explanation I did "off the cuff" on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-Mi9DYQfgY

If you don’t buy the connections, then all the above is irrelevant.

Looking at the handwritten message left on Bryan Hartnell’s Karmann Ghia, I am struck by what appear to be subtle differences between ‘6:30’ and the rest of the text. The rest of the text forms a column from which ‘6:30’ protrudes. ‘6:30’ also seems slightly larger, a tad less fluent somehow, the ink maybe a mite heavier. The same could be said of the word ‘knife’, though it sits a little better than ‘6:30’ within the column of text. These observations are admittedly impressionistic, and based only upon photographs of the car door. And it may simply be that whoever wrote the message had to lean more awkwardly, and was writing less naturally, the further along a given line of text he got. But I also find myself wondering about another possibility. Were there TWO writing stints, one before the attack and one after it, with details added by the attacker after 6:30 that could only be known to him after 6:30? That is, at what time he attacked, and with what weapon. A different crouching position; a presumably quite different emotional state: these might help to explain some of the orthographic differences noted above. Then again, perhaps I’m seeing differences that aren’t there to begin with.

All comments very welcome.

Silkweaver

What stands out most to me is the fact the dates switch format.

Look at "Sept".

In fact those two last lines look different to the first three lines.

That’s an interesting thought. Taken as a whole, this is an odd list to be headed up by the word ‘Vallejo’, since Berryessa is so much further north than Lake Herman and Blue Rock Springs. (Indeed, not even Lake Herman is technically in Vallejo — though it’s much closer than is Berryessa.) But if there were two writing stints, and the upper section of the list was written first, then ‘Vallejo’ makes much greater sense as a heading. He then adds the lower section after the crime and — perhaps inadvertently — complicates what he’s written.

I reiterate my question: if he wrote that message on that door in two separate times, how was the killer to know that particular car belonged to the couple he came across later near the water?

I reiterate my question: if he wrote that message on that door in two separate times, how was the killer to know that particular car belonged to the couple he came across later near the water?

He stalked them?

That’s an interesting thought. Taken as a whole, this is an odd list to be headed up by the word ‘Vallejo’, since Berryessa is so much further north than Lake Herman and Blue Rock Springs. (Indeed, not even Lake Herman is technically in Vallejo — though it’s much closer than is Berryessa.) But if there were two writing stints, and the upper section of the list was written first, then ‘Vallejo’ makes much greater sense as a heading. He then adds the lower section after the crime and — perhaps inadvertently — complicates what he’s written.

Basically to write that down first after stalking would mean they would have to get away with it for 100%. If anything happens, if they are seen, they can’t exactly erase that very quickly. If LE showed up then they would get their details taken at the least for messing up Hartnell’s car with graffiti. I think Hartnell would be smart enough one day to then say ‘wow, I know what the Zodiac looks like’ or LE would eventually get it was the Zodiac.

I think what you are seeing here is one person prepping the first section and waits for the second person to come back and fill in the rest. That is why they are different and that is why we see the mistake in the break in date format along with the rest being different. I think based on this it might be a way to sort the letters out into two different persons also working the same communication. I have often asked the question of myself, which letter stands out the most if this is so?

I go with this one…

Maybe there is better. Maybe I am wrong about all of it but we gotta try and I think new ideas is the way to go after 50 years of the old not producing satisfying results.

I reiterate my question: if he wrote that message on that door in two separate times, how was the killer to know that particular car belonged to the couple he came across later near the water?

He stalked them?

Lucky guess?

I don’t see what it matters if he wrote some first then finished it later, the important thing is we know what he did, stab two people. Whether he wrote part of it first then finished it afterwards or wrote all of it at the same time isn’t going to tell us anything important. Unless he is arrested and tells how it happened there’s no way of knowing.

BD Hollland, why do you suppose the Dripping Pen card to be two authors?

I reiterate my question: if he wrote that message on that door in two separate times, how was the killer to know that particular car belonged to the couple he came across later near the water?

He stalked them?

Lucky guess?

I don’t see what it matters if he wrote some first then finished it later, the important thing is we know what he did, stab two people. Whether he wrote part of it first then finished it afterwards or wrote all of it at the same time isn’t going to tell us anything important. Unless he is arrested and tells how it happened there’s no way of knowing.

Excuse me for interjecting on this discussion. There’s several reasons that can be put forward as to how he knew it was their car and they could all be right. I scanned through this thread and didn’t see it mentioned but he did ask BH to throw him the keys. Probably had a nice VW keyring on it?

Bryan couldn’t find his keys. They were obtained afterwards amongst Bryan’s belongings at the hospital.
The keys must have been on Bryan the whole time as the items that were recovered by Officials after the attack did not include the keys.
But said they were obtained by Lonergan at the hospital with his stuff. As per Napa County Sheriff’s report. Page 5, second paragraph

Lucky guess?

I don’t see what it matters if he wrote some first then finished it later, the important thing is we know what he did, stab two people. Whether he wrote part of it first then finished it afterwards or wrote all of it at the same time isn’t going to tell us anything important. Unless he is arrested and tells how it happened there’s no way of knowing.

Excuse me for interjecting on this discussion. There’s several reasons that can be put forward as to how he knew it was their car and they could all be right. I scanned through this thread and didn’t see it mentioned but he did ask BH to throw him the keys. Probably had a nice VW keyring on it?

I was being a bit of a smart arse by saying "lucky guess". Seems the obvious answer is, that was the only car there and they were the only couple there. It wasn’t hard to figure out who’s car it was. I think he wrote all of that after the attack, just for the record.

I was being a bit of a smart arse by saying "lucky guess". Seems the obvious answer is, that was the only car there and they were the only couple there. It wasn’t hard to figure out who’s car it was. I think he wrote all of that after the attack, just for the record.

Yeah the only car and the only couple on that spit of land was the other reason. Guess I was wondering out loud if Zodiac had seen the Keys at some point during the attack I think he wrote it afterwards as well.

BD Hollland, why do you suppose the Dripping Pen card to be two authors?

It looks like a change of style with ‘can’t do a thing with it’ but I am not a handwriting expert by any means or a linguist. I do listen to what they have to say though. So I am willing to accept their views over mine.

BD Hollland, why do you suppose the Dripping Pen card to be two authors?

It looks like a change of style with ‘can’t do a thing with it’ but I am not a handwriting expert by any means or a linguist. I do listen to what they have to say though. So I am willing to accept their views over mine.

That is what I thought you meant. Problem is, that writing was part of the original card, not written by the Zodiac.

BD Hollland, why do you suppose the Dripping Pen card to be two authors?

It looks like a change of style with ‘can’t do a thing with it’ but I am not a handwriting expert by any means or a linguist. I do listen to what they have to say though. So I am willing to accept their views over mine.

That is what I thought you meant. Problem is, that writing was part of the original card, not written by the Zodiac.

I totally missed the ball on that one. I always thought he actually added that in the design. Good one. At least I got it was different handwriting