I agree, I personally do not solely consider the desk writer’s or Zodiac’s initials to be R.H.

I also think the desk writer could have been faculty, staff, etc at RCC or a student. As far as the Z sketch being aged 35-45, the original description was 25-35. Somebody that was a year or two older than Cheri in High School, would be in his mid 20’s in 1969, and therefore could fit the sketch. Additionally, both Hartnell & Slaight, described a ‘student’s voice’ or ‘in his early 20’s’.

For my money, Zodiac was 22 to 45 in 1969, and his initials may or may not have been R.H.

Not Slover though. She said the voice sounded mature. Another LB difference.

Has anyone ever thought to search for students of RCC/Ramona High who attended Pacific Union College. Surely this has been done. I seem to recall some talk, just wondering if anyone REALLY delved into it.

The problem with the voice descriptions is that it is subjective (Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.) One might think a voice sounds one way while someone else would describe it differently. Also, the man Bryan describes could have been intentionally altering his voice during the conversation, making it higher pitched for instance, in order to purposely sound younger.

Whilst at it: Notre Dame high school Riverside attached to St Catherines church that Cherri Jo was a parishioner of. maybe he took a fancy to her during church.

If anything, I think he would have been making his voice sound older to Slover. Remember, she thought the voice sounded like Richard Gaikowski who did not sound like a young student–I think we can all agree on that.

Bryan had quite the conversation with this person and he never mentioned the voice sounded altered or anything…just a monotone. If the guy had a deeper, mature voice, surely Hartnell would have noticed the guy was trying to make his voice sound higher pitched. I think out of anyone, Bryan had the best take on the true voice of his attacker.

For another thread….sorry I got off track!

Whilst at it: Notre Dame high school Riverside attached to St Catherines church that Cherri Jo was a parishioner of. maybe he took a fancy to her during church.

That has always been a very good possibility in my mind too.

I agree, I personally do not solely consider the desk writer’s or Zodiac’s initials to be R.H.

I also think the desk writer could have been faculty, staff, etc at RCC or a student. As far as the Z sketch being aged 35-45, the original description was 25-35. Somebody that was a year or two older than Cheri in High School, would be in his mid 20’s in 1969, and therefore could fit the sketch. Additionally, both Hartnell & Slaight, described a ‘student’s voice’ or ‘in his early 20’s’.

For my money, Zodiac was 22 to 45 in 1969, and his initials may or may not have been R.H.

Not Slover though. She said the voice sounded mature. Another LB difference.

Has anyone ever thought to search for students of RCC/Ramona High who attended Pacific Union College. Surely this has been done. I seem to recall some talk, just wondering if anyone REALLY delved into it.

I skimmed thru some people but not a full blown project, it should surely be explored

It seems the "ideal POI" would be:
1. A male who attended Ramona High at the same time as Cheri Bates.
2. Who attended Riverside City College in the Fall of 1966.
3. Whose initials are/were RH.
4. Who moved from Riverside to the Bay Area ca. 1968.

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.

I don’t disagree wildly with that reasoning, morf. There is a possibility Z wrote the poem "innocently", that is, as someone who had some legitimate business at the RCC library (most likely being a student, I’d say). We’ve been over this before – but, yes, even though I don’t exactly fancy that possibility (partly because of the nature of the poem itself), I don’t discard the possibility.

What’s so damn attractive about this possibility, I might add, is that if this poem was actually scratched by Z, then he was – in my opinion – without any doubt whatsoever tied to RCC in some form or capacity. He had to have been.

What’s so damn attractive about this possibility, I might add, is that if this poem was actually scratched by Z, then he was – in my opinion – without any doubt whatsoever tied to RCC in some form or capacity. He had to have been.

Exactly! It’s very unlikely that ALA, Ted K, Gyke, Bruce Davis, Mr.X, Earl Van, or many of the other Z suspects drove down to RCC and wrote that poem.

In fact, the main reason that the poem is discounted so much has to do with POI’s not having a connection to the RCC. (Starting with SFPD and ALA)

RPD, which was the agency responsible for investigating the desktop poem, totally opted for Bennett as Cheri Bates’ killer. They wanted no part of any poem signed, RH. Apologies to Morf, but Cheri’s killer was initialed RH, not RS.

RPD, which was the agency responsible for investigating the desktop poem, totally opted for Bennett as Cheri Bates’ killer. They wanted no part of any poem signed, RH. Apologies to Morf, but Cheri’s killer was initialed RH, not RS.

Just so you know, you are not the first person to suggest that the killer’s initials were "RH." That idea has been floating around for, 1 or 2, lets say 50 years. No good suspect with RH initials has ever been put forth.

Bill Bennett was cleared by DNA testing in 1999. Pretty safe to say he didn’t do it.

RPD, which was the agency responsible for investigating the desktop poem, totally opted for Bennett as Cheri Bates’ killer. They wanted no part of any poem signed, RH. Apologies to Morf, but Cheri’s killer was initialed RH, not RS.

Actually, we don’t know what Cheri’s Killer’s initials are. The desktop poem R.H. may be it’s Author’s initials, it might not be. Anyhow, R.S. could certainly still be Cheri’s killer and/or the Zodiac.

RPD, which was the agency responsible for investigating the desktop poem, totally opted for Bennett as Cheri Bates’ killer. They wanted no part of any poem signed, RH. Apologies to Morf, but Cheri’s killer was initialed RH, not RS.

Just so you know, you are not the first person to suggest that the killer’s initials were "RH." That idea has been floating around for, 1 or 2, lets say 50 years. No good suspect with RH initials has ever been put forth.

Bill Bennett was cleared by DNA testing in 1999. Pretty safe to say he didn’t do it.

I still think the R.H. could be the Author’s initials, I just have not found any solid Suspects with those initials. I looked at almost every R.H. in the 1966 Riverside directory, and cross referenced them with every R.H. in the 1969 Vallejo directory, with no confirmed matches. The problems are:

1) If R.H. from the desktop lived with his parents in Riverside, he may not have lived with them in Vallejo,but rather on his own. Then there would be no matching listings.

2)R.H. may not have lived in Riverside in 66, but could have lived in surrounding towns like San Bernardino, just as Z may have lived in Napa,SF, etc.

Morf:
Phone book entries can be as much as a year late; that is, someone may move to an address shortly after info has been compiled for a particular year, and not be included until the following year. I know "my" RH was listed in the Riverside directory ca. 1966-67.
So far as I can tell, "my" RH moved from Riverside to San Jose ca. 1968, which meant he would have had opportunities to wreak havoc while supposedly looking for a place to move to. He need not have lived in Vallejo.
Please remember that, as I trashed my Z files, I cannot now be absolutely sure of particular dates, and have to ballpark them. I’m not trying to be difficult or deceptive but, as I explained before, I became obsessed with tracking Z in the early 90s, and it nearly cost me my marriage; it was either trash the files or trash the wife.

Morf:
Phone book entries can be as much as a year late; that is, someone may move to an address shortly after info has been compiled for a particular year, and not be included until the following year.

True, but the 1st Z murder was 1968, so there’s a good chance, by 1969, he was listed. A 1970 book could possibly be important too.