Finally, let us put to rest the wacky suggestion that the "Poem" was written by a suicidal female. Not only is the handwriting distinctively masculine, but women prefer ODing to stabbing themselves to death.

You’re welcome to put it to rest. Some others, not so much. I for one did not translate it as anyone "stabbing themselves to death," but possibly slitting one’s wrists. Neither sex has a monopoly on that method. Also, what about the handwriting do you find "distinctly masculine"?

Finally, let us put to rest the wacky suggestion that the "Poem" was written by a suicidal female. Not only is the handwriting distinctively masculine, but women prefer ODing to stabbing themselves to death.

You’re welcome to put it to rest. Some others, not so much. I for one did not translate it as anyone "stabbing themselves to death," but possibly slitting one’s wrists. Neither sex has a monopoly on that method. Also, what about the handwriting do you find "distinctly masculine"?

Has anyone ever stabbed themselves to death?

I think it is easy for some to assume the poem was written by Cheri’s killer and it’s not to be ignored, but until there is scientific proof–you find her killer and his prints are on the desk, it’s all just talk.

I think it’s safe to say other people at RCC or even another school where that desk may have originated had thoughts such as these. It doesn’t make them a murderer. While the desk fascinates many of us, in the scheme of things, it means nothing to the Riverside P.D.

As I understand it, the "CONFESSION" letter and the "BATES HAD TO DIE’ notes were created a month after Cheri’s murder, and before the "Desktop Poem" was discovered. This suggests to me that whoever wrote the letter and notes did so to avoid being linked to the "Poem." Why? Because the "Poem" would identify him as an RCC student with the initials, "RH". Does anyone know if RPD attempted such a match-up? Or were they already so enamored of Bill Bennett that they ignored the "RH" possibility?
Incidentally, I was a high school janitor for a time, which leads me to suspect that the "Poem" was written sometime between the beginning of RCC’s Fall semester, and Winter Break in December. Had it been written before the beginning of Fall semester, it likely would have been discovered during the extensive Summer cleanup, and been replaced.
Finally, let us put to rest the wacky suggestion that the "Poem" was written by a suicidal female. Not only is the handwriting distinctively masculine, but women prefer ODing to stabbing themselves to death.

The poem would indeed identify any potential murderer as "rh" if the latter are in fact his initials.

The bit in bold makes little sense to me. When did he write this poem? And why on earth did he sign it with his initials if he was worried about being detected? If the latter was a pure slip-up on his part, why make further communications at all?

Furthermore, I don’t see the poem as describing someone "stabbing themselves to death". The obvious interpretation is that someone has tried to commit suicide by slitting their (her) wrists, a common enough method for both sexes as far as I know. In fact I don’t think stabbing yourself to death is a common suicide method for anyone, regardless of gender, lest we include harakiri and similar, ritual forms of suicide.

Lastly, if you take the poem as a suicide note or a suicide fantasy (regardless of whether the writer was male or female), how does it then pertain to CJB? If this was written by CJB’s killer, he isn’t talking about suicide at all, surely?

Okay, okay. I’ll settle for the "Poet" slitting his/her wrists. Point is, women generally prefer to make a voluntary exit via pills rather than the more violent methods. As far as the handwriting goes, it seems decidedly masculine to me. I realize we’re in the Twenty-first Century, and it’s forbidden to be "sexist", but there really are differences between men and women, and not just anatomically. In the absence of bulletproof proof, I play the odds. To me, the odds are that the "Poet" was male.
The "Poem" was written before Cheri’s death, not after, and represents a malignant fantasy that, unfortunately, was acted out in real life. Once the "Poet" killed Cheri, his poem, with its initials, would incriminate him. Since its desk was stashed in storage, he couldn’t find and erase it. So, when compelled to crow over his cowardly deed, he resorted to a typed "Confession" and notes printed in an obviously distorted hand.

How do we know it was written before she died?

If the "Poem", with its initials, were written after Cheri’s death, it would have been for only one reason: to incriminate someone. In that case, the author would have written it on top of the desk, not underneath it. It was written underneath the desktop because it represented fantasies still unacceptable to the author, but which could not be totally repressed. It was a last-ditch attempt to retain his sanity and, unfortunately, failed.

The "Poem" was written before Cheri’s death, not after, and represents a malignant fantasy that, unfortunately, was acted out in real life. Once the "Poet" killed Cheri, his poem, with its initials, would incriminate him. Since its desk was stashed in storage, he couldn’t find and erase it. So, when compelled to crow over his cowardly deed, he resorted to a typed "Confession" and notes printed in an obviously distorted hand.

That’s possible – sure. None of it is necessary, though.

For me the ONLY connection between that poem and the Bates murder is that Morrill claimed Z wrote it. That is no insignificant connection! But it’s one man’s opinion on the provenance of the poem – one which is not (and was not, back then) uncontroversial. The poem itself doesn’t point to Bates at all – there is nothing in it which can be said to point to Bates, or any other particular murder case.

If the "Poem", with its initials, were written after Cheri’s death, it would have been for only one reason: to incriminate someone. In that case, the author would have written it on top of the desk, not underneath it. It was written underneath the desktop because it represented fantasies still unacceptable to the author, but which could not be totally repressed. It was a last-ditch attempt to retain his sanity and, unfortunately, failed.

You write as if this is fact though.

Why does it have to have been written to incriminate someone? It could simply be someone taking credit for their poetry "work". Maybe someone didn’t want to get in trouble for writing on the desk so they were sneaky about it.

I know it’s been said it was underneath the desk, but I still question the validity of that. Either way, there is absolutely no proof whoever killed Cheri Jo authored that poem. It makes no sense in relation to Cheri’s death either before or after. There must be evidence, not theories which cannot be validated.

The "Poem" was written before Cheri’s death, not after, and represents a malignant fantasy that, unfortunately, was acted out in real life. Once the "Poet" killed Cheri, his poem, with its initials, would incriminate him. Since its desk was stashed in storage, he couldn’t find and erase it. So, when compelled to crow over his cowardly deed, he resorted to a typed "Confession" and notes printed in an obviously distorted hand.

That’s possible – sure. None of it is necessary, though.

For me the ONLY connection between that poem and the Bates murder is that Morrill claimed Z wrote it. That is no insignificant connection! But it’s one man’s opinion on the provenance of the poem – one which is not (and was not, back then) uncontroversial. The poem itself doesn’t point to Bates at all – there is nothing in it which can be said to point to Bates, or any other particular murder case.

I have to disagree, the State’s Zodiac case writing expert is of the opinion that the Bates desktop poem was, "unquestionably the work of Zodiac". The poem may be totally unrelated to Bates, but it may quite possibly be related to Zodiac(as in he may have authored it). The desktop poem may be quite possibly related to the letters, letters seemingly initialed with a Z. It seems like simply dismissing the desktop would be foolish, no matter if it has to do with Cheri’s murder or not. We may never know if this desktop poem was authored by Cheri’s killer or not, but if it was authored by Z, then we can narrow the suspect list down quite a bit.

Thanks for your insight, Morf. WHOEVER wrote that "Poem" was nuttier than a triple-layered fruitcake. Which, for me, goes a long way toward inclining me to believe he was Cheri’s killer. It may be possible there was a homicidal personality who wrote the "Poem", and someone else at RCC who was the actual killer, but I doubt it. Again, I play the odds. And, to me, the odds favor "RH" being Cheri’s killer, who went on to become the Zodiac.

Thanks for your insight, Morf. WHOEVER wrote that "Poem" was nuttier than a triple-layered fruitcake. Which, for me, goes a long way toward inclining me to believe he was Cheri’s killer. It may be possible there was a homicidal personality who wrote the "Poem", and someone else at RCC who was the actual killer, but I doubt it. Again, I play the odds. And, to me, the odds favor "RH" being Cheri’s killer, who went on to become the Zodiac.

You may be correct. Personally, I don’t think that the author of the desk poem intended it to be found or connected to the Bates or Zodiac case, nor could he know it would be found or connected

The author of the Desk "Poem" wrote it as a kind of psychotic doodling, or escape valve for surfacing impulses that were still, as yet, unacceptable to him. Ergo, they were committed to the underside of a desk. He didn’t intend for them to be found but, after murdering Cheri, via typewriter or distorted printing, disguised his true handwriting, principally because he had partially identified himself with the initials, RH.

You may be correct. Personally, I don’t think that the author of the desk poem intended it to be found or connected to the Bates or Zodiac case, nor could he know it would be found or connected

Agree. It very well may be Zodiac’s achilles heel. He probably wrote it before any crime was committed, when LE found it they never mentioned it publicly.

Remember, when Bates was killed there was no Zodiac writings yet, or any official mention of the desktop. Only after all the Z letters years later was the desktop mentioned publicly, the handwriting matched and LE was able to conclude Zodiac, at one point, was in the RCC library. Zodiac then stopped writing for 3 years, dropped off the radar, and never called himself Zodiac again right after the connection was made.

You may be correct. Personally, I don’t think that the author of the desk poem intended it to be found or connected to the Bates or Zodiac case, nor could he know it would be found or connected

Agree. It very well may be Zodiac’s achilles heel. He probably wrote it before any crime was committed, when LE found it they never mentioned it publicly.

Remember, when Bates was killed there was no Zodiac writings yet, or any official mention of the desktop. Only after all the Z letters years later was the desktop mentioned publicly, the handwriting matched and LE was able to conclude Zodiac, at one point, was in the RCC library. Zodiac then stopped writing for 3 years, dropped off the radar, and never called himself Zodiac again right after the connection was made.

"Law enforcement" is quite vague. I don’t believe they ever "concluded" Zodiac was in the library or killed Cheri Jo. Certainly not Riverside P.D.– so who IS the law enforcement that came to this conclusion?

You may be correct. Personally, I don’t think that the author of the desk poem intended it to be found or connected to the Bates or Zodiac case, nor could he know it would be found or connected

Agree. It very well may be Zodiac’s achilles heel. He probably wrote it before any crime was committed, when LE found it they never mentioned it publicly.

Remember, when Bates was killed there was no Zodiac writings yet, or any official mention of the desktop. Only after all the Z letters years later was the desktop mentioned publicly, the handwriting matched and LE was able to conclude Zodiac, at one point, was in the RCC library. Zodiac then stopped writing for 3 years, dropped off the radar, and never called himself Zodiac again right after the connection was made.

"Law enforcement" is quite vague. I don’t believe they ever "concluded" Zodiac was in the library or killed Cheri Jo. Certainly not Riverside P.D.– so who IS the law enforcement that came to this conclusion?

I think, Paul meant by ‘law enforcement’, that he was likely talking about Sherwood who represented LE in the Z case. SFPD was pretty much relying on Sherwood for what WAS, and WASN’T Zodiac handwriting. Sherwood confirmed all of the ‘confirmed’ Z letters, right alongside the Bates desktop and letters.

I think over the years, Z investigators, the DOJ, etc, have swayed back and forth that Bates was a Z Victim, but I don’t know if that’s true of the Bates case letters & desktop. To me, this may be the major clue to Zodiac’s ID. In the end, and I don’t want to sound disrespectful or cold towards Cheri, but it doesn’t matter if she was a Z Victim or not, what matters are the writing in her case. If that writing belongs to Z, our Suspect pool shrinks way down, and catching Z becomes much easier possibly.