IMO, far too much time and effort has been expended in arguing whether or not Cheri Bates was a Zodiac victim. The poor girl was horribly slaughtered, and the bastard responsible deserves to be arrested, tried, and executed (provided CA still has the death penalty). Again, IMO, enough evidence has been gathered in the Bates case that the perp should have been identified long ago. Unfortunately, Riverside Police Department has committed itself to Bill Bennett, despite DNA findings that have excluded him. It would be nice, should it be possible, if CA’s State Attorney General removed RPD from the case, and presented the evidence gathered to neutral investigators.

IMO, far too much time and effort has been expended in arguing whether or not Cheri Bates was a Zodiac victim. The poor girl was horribly slaughtered, and the bastard responsible deserves to be arrested, tried, and executed (provided CA still has the death penalty). Again, IMO, enough evidence has been gathered in the Bates case that the perp should have been identified long ago. Unfortunately, Riverside Police Department has committed itself to Bill Bennett, despite DNA findings that have excluded him. It would be nice, should it be possible, if CA’s State Attorney General removed RPD from the case, and presented the evidence gathered to neutral investigators.

LIKE++++++ and I agree!

Xavier Becerra is the Attorney General for the State of California’s Department of Justice. I’ve just emailed the Victims Services Unit, and said that over the years numerous people (including me) have offered POIs as Cheri’s murderer, but RPD obstinately insists Bill Bennett was responsible, though cleared by DNA results. I asked that the VSU transfer the Bates case from RPD to (a) neutral investigator/s, and that RPD’s info be forwarded to him/her/them.
Do I expect a favorable response? I’ll be shocked if I get ANY response! But, you try your best, you know?

Do I expect a favorable response? I’ll be shocked if I get ANY response! But, you try your best, you know?

Favorable/unfavorable. It really doesn’t matter. That seems to be the going thing. Do your best and get ignored. Very unprofessional and certainly no concern about the case I.e. not a top priority.

Soze

AK Wilks: This FBI document (obtained by Morf) confirms that RPD and FBI accepted that the actual Bates killer and the letter writer were one and the same. This was on the basis that the letter writer knew about at least three items cited by the letter writer were correct and thought to only be known by the killer – details of the manner of murder, the middle wire of distributor being pulled and a phone call made to police the night of the killing.

For me, that FBI memo seals it that the Bates killer and the letter writer are one and the same. On the basis of the combined effect of several different pieces of evidence, the totality leads me to believe that the letter writer was probably to almost certainly the Zodiac Killer. The evidence on that score does not add up to 100% proof, so I admit there is still some small room for doubt and debate. But a dozen separate pieces of evidence – circumstantial, direct, situational and otherwise – add up to tip the scales for me to somewhere between probable and almost certain that the letter writer became Zodiac.

You raise some valid objections and questions. Yes people other than the Bates killer and Zodiac use the word shall. But its noteworthy that both the Bates killer and Zodiac did. Yes other people use the word twitch. But it is not a very commonly used word, and both the Bates killer and Zodiac use it, and both misspell it the exact same way, as twich. It is pretty clear the letter writer (who we see is definitely the Bates killer) signed off with a stylized "Z". A clear link to a future Zodiac. The use of excessive postage, often double postage, is yet another match. AS is the cane "F". Handwriting experts are not infallible, but a good expert here matched the Riverside writings and Zodiac. And even an unexpert eye can see many matches. See the excellent work of traveller1st here: viewtopic.php?f=80&t=397

On every point made by Morf or me some qualifications can be made, that the noted match or similarity is not absolute or exclusive. But it is the total combined effect of looking at a dozen or more matches or similarities together that starts to gather cumulative weight. Any one item alone is not that significant, but when you look at all of them together, for me it goes beyond coincidence and into the realm of probably the same person.

AK Wilks: This FBI document (obtained by Morf) confirms that RPD and FBI accepted that the actual Bates killer and the letter writer were one and the same. This was on the basis that the letter writer knew about at least three items cited by the letter writer were correct and thought to only be known by the killer – details of the manner of murder, the middle wire of distributor being pulled and a phone call made to police the night of the killing.

For me, that FBI memo seals it that the Bates killer and the letter writer are one and the same. On the basis of the combined effect of several different pieces of evidence, the totality leads me to believe that the letter writer was probably to almost certainly the Zodiac Killer. The evidence on that score does not add up to 100% proof, so I admit there is still some small room for doubt and debate. But a dozen separate pieces of evidence – circumstantial, direct, situational and otherwise – add up to tip the scales for me to somewhere between probable and almost certain that the letter writer became Zodiac.

You raise some valid objections and questions. Yes people other than the Bates killer and Zodiac use the word shall. But its noteworthy that both the Bates killer and Zodiac did. Yes other people use the word twitch. But it is not a very commonly used word, and both the Bates killer and Zodiac use it, and both misspell it the exact same way, as twich. It is pretty clear the letter writer (who we see is definitely the Bates killer) signed off with a stylized "Z". A clear link to a future Zodiac. The use of excessive postage, often double postage, is yet another match. AS is the cane "F". Handwriting experts are not infallible, but a good expert here matched the Riverside writings and Zodiac. And even an unexpert eye can see many matches. See the excellent work of traveller1st here: http://www.zodiackillersite.com/viewtop … f=80&t=397

On every point made by Morf or me some qualifications can be made, that the noted match or similarity is not absolute or exclusive. But it is the total combined effect of looking at a dozen or more matches or similarities together that starts to gather cumulative weight. Any one item alone is not that significant, but when you look at all of them together, for me it goes beyond coincidence and into the realm of probably the same person.

Cool! Thanks, AK. That was a very informative post.

IMO, far too much time and effort has been expended in arguing whether or not Cheri Bates was a Zodiac victim. The poor girl was horribly slaughtered, and the bastard responsible deserves to be arrested, tried, and executed (provided CA still has the death penalty). Again, IMO, enough evidence has been gathered in the Bates case that the perp should have been identified long ago. Unfortunately, Riverside Police Department has committed itself to Bill Bennett, despite DNA findings that have excluded him. It would be nice, should it be possible, if CA’s State Attorney General removed RPD from the case, and presented the evidence gathered to neutral investigators.

True. I am going to approach the Bates case as a non-Zodiac case to see if there is better cooperation from the Department. The worst response would be the same response everyone else has been getting.

Thanks

In regards to FBI info posted by AK…

It reads:

*"He {RPD Officer] advised…"

**"…made it appear that the writer of this letter is actually the murderer".

I don’t see the FBI concurring here. This is a comment from the RPD.

It also seems this RPD Officer says the writer made it appear that way. Wouldn’t that be the point of someone who was not actually the killer?

The author seemed to believe that pulling the distributor wire would drain the VW battery, but apparently what the killer did would merely be a disconnection. I don’t know if that proves anything definitively but to me it strengthens the theory that the author merely read the details in the newspapers and was not the killer. For me this scenario of someone other than the killer reading about the crime and then going to the effort of terrorizing their own community (assuming he was a Riverside resident) is somehow even more disturbing.

Tahoe – You have to read the whole thing. It states RPD advised middle wire distributor had not made the papers,so info only the killer would know. Then states the same for details of the manner of murder and the phone call. Concluding that RPD says it "appears the letter writer is ACTUALLY the murderer".

It then acts that way, saying the US Attorney is evaluating the letter as if it was from the killer, and that is how the FBI is treating it.

Tahoe – You have to read the whole thing. It states RPD advised middle wire distributor had not made the papers,so info only the killer would know. Then states the same for details of the manner of murder and the phone call. Concluding that RPD says it "appears the letter writer is ACTUALLY the murderer".

It then acts that way, saying the US Attorney is evaluating the letter as if it was from the killer, and that is how the FBI is treating it.

Thanks AK,
For clarifying that.

Tahoe – You have to read the whole thing. It states RPD advised middle wire distributor had not made the papers,so info only the killer would know. Then states the same for details of the manner of murder and the phone call. Concluding that RPD says it "appears the letter writer is ACTUALLY the murderer".

It then acts that way, saying the US Attorney is evaluating the letter as if it was from the killer, and that is how the FBI is treating it.

The middle wire had made the papers though. RPD was wrong. Like the next day…or something pretty close. I’m not denying it shouldn’t have been looked at as a letter from the actual killer, it very well should have been, and could be from her killer. It just doesn’t look as if they came to any official conclusion. The use of the word "appears" seems to challenge that.

Just to add discrepancies…

"She went to the slaughter like a lamb. She did not put up a struggle". –She most certainly did. That is evident in her injuries and the ground marks. She fought like hell.

"…I choaked her". No remarks of bruising or signs of choking in her autopsy report.

"…plunged the knife into her". –See report below. It’s specifically mentions this and that there was no sign of plunging.

And, what’s up with the quotes the Dr. writes in there? "tell tale"…"up to the hilt"…"proof positive"….who told him this stuff–where did that come from?? Odd…

From my perspective it still looks as if they were trying to determine if the confession letter was not the work of the killer. Considering the dates of the death- when the confession letter was sent and the MD letter dated in Dec. So they still were not sure who wrote the letter.

You are misreading appears. It is being used as a synonym for seems. It appears the letter writer IS ACTUALLY the killer. Not the letter writer is trying to appear to be the killer. They say RPD surveyed the local papers and found no mention of mide wire. And they say the letter writer knew details of the manner of murder only the killer would know, and most importantly, the letter writer knew about a phone call that night that they imply came from the killer and that only the killer would know about. And they further treat the letter as if it did come from the killer.

I know that eventually we did find a Long Beach newspaper that mentioned coil wire, which is the middle wire. But that is not a Riverside area local paper. RPD looked at local papers and found no mention of middle wire. We can quibble with the description of the murder, but RPD, who knows all the medical details, which we don’t, says it matches. And the phone call nails it for me.