Those are Z’s at the bottom of the Bates letters?

I guess that too depends on who you ask. They look like fancy looking Z’s to me

Looks like
m
L
to me. Sort of like the way people initial an office memo or such. I don’t see Z.

Those are Z’s at the bottom of the Bates letters?

I guess that too depends on who you ask. They look like fancy looking Z’s to me

Looks like
m
L
to me. Sort of like the way people initial an office memo or such. I don’t see Z.

Reminded me of a 1, 2, and 3 combined. "Three" letters. So much is up to peoples perception.

I do believe the desk poem author signed it with their initials taking credit for their (creepy) work. Just doubts it was Zodiac who did it.

Two issues: The alleged hour-and-a-half lapse between the closing of the library and Cheri’s screams might be explained by the fact that there was a time change that night, shifting an hour back. This very possibly confused people, and the actual lapse might have been only half an hour, which seems more reasonable to me.
Second issue: the peculiar "Z" of the "BATES HAD TO DIE’ notes appears to me to have started out as the Zodiac symbol for Aries, and was changed mid-stroke when the author realized that an Aries sign would lead investigators toward Ramona High, origin of the author’s problems with Cheri Bates. Why didn’t he just crumple up the first note and try again? Because his personality is, among other things, perserverant: once he starts something he finishes it, no matter what.

Those are Z’s at the bottom of the Bates letters?

I guess that too depends on who you ask. They look like fancy looking Z’s to me

Looks like
m
L
to me. Sort of like the way people initial an office memo or such. I don’t see Z.

There’s a really interesting Suspect with the initials,MLZ, who called himself ‘Zodiac’ in 1963-1966. (see the ‘ZODE’ suspect thread). While I don’t think he was Z, I wonder if one of his classmates may have been, and stole MLZ’s nickname. ZODE was classmates with PATRICIA HAUTZ, who quite possibly mailed a letter to the editor regarding the murder of Cheri Bates(you can use the search box to find more about Ms. Hautz)

I find the missing hour and a half, between the closing of the library at 9:00pm and the screams heard at 10:30pm to be interesting. An hour and a half is a long time. This fact leads me to suspect CJ knew her killer(s). It seems to me that if the killing was random, it
would have occurred in a much shorter period of time.
Jilted, revengeful admirer seems much more logical in that respect.

One thought I have had for years, is that the delay in the reporting of the time, had something to do with the changing of the clocks that weekend for daylight svgs time. Clocks would be ‘falling back’. Just a thought, no idea if that could explain the extra time.

I adhere to the principle of Occam’s Razor: the simplest explanation is usually the right one.

Yeah, It was Ross.

If I was a betting man, I’d say Ross was Z, just need that one major break to connect him.

I find the missing hour and a half, between the closing of the library at 9:00pm and the screams heard at 10:30pm to be interesting. An hour and a half is a long time. This fact leads me to suspect CJ knew her killer(s). It seems to me that if the killing was random, it
would have occurred in a much shorter period of time.
Jilted, revengeful admirer seems much more logical in that respect.

One thought I have had for years, is that the delay in the reporting of the time, had something to do with the changing of the clocks that weekend for daylight svgs time. Clocks would be ‘falling back’. Just a thought, no idea if that could explain the extra time.

Sure it could. Someone reports the time as 10:30 because they forgot to set their clocks back the night before.

But, supposedly Cheri wasn’t in the library until closing.

One thought I have had for years, is that the delay in the reporting of the time, had something to do with the changing of the clocks that weekend for daylight svgs time. Clocks would be ‘falling back’. Just a thought, no idea if that could explain the extra time.

I guess that’s possible but it seems highly unlikely to me. Offically, the time was to adjust back one hour at approx 2:00 am Sunday morning. That would allow folks at least nineteen hours to adjust for DL savings
before the library closed. Possible, but kinda of a stretch. The Death Certificate appears to list the time of death at 10:10 pm (hard to read). Hopefully LE didn’t forget to set there watches back also!

a question i have is why the bottom of a desk? wouldn’t turning a desk upside-down to write on it be kind of obvious and also a hassle? makes me think the writer wrote on a desk while it was already upside-down, perhaps while in storage or otherwise during a clean-up period of time (summer break).

Wasn’t it one of those models with a flip top of sorts? Meaning, you didn’t have to turn the whole desk over (or get underneath it) in order to write on the surface in question.

Still, it isn’t something a student could have done undetected in class, obviously.

Maybe it was put on backwards for some reason. I think it’s easy to jump to conclusions…

good points, i guess we don’t know what kind of desk? i was imagining one of those all-in-one chair/arm-rest/desktop combos with the cage underneath. maybe it was something entirely different.

It was like this:

–Movie Replica

And a photo from Cheri’s high school yearbook:

Yes, there you go – but I’m not sure precisely what sort of desk that is. There are desks like that with the top fixed (you have to, sort of, wiggle and slide down in your seat behind that writing surface) and others where the top can be flipped up.

Looks more like the former, though, I’d say – as in, the top is fixed and cannot be flipped. In which case you’d need to turn the whole thing over in order to write on it comfortably.

I actually looked into this some time ago, but I honestly can’t remember what I concluded. Could be (well, keeping in mind that I’m an idiot, that is) an indication that I didn’t conclude anything.

Someone has to know precisely what sort of desk it was, though, surely.

Another point which has been raised before and which I think it might be worthwhile to bring up again: Did Sherwood Morrill examine the actual desk – or only a picure of it? Seems to be some doubts regarding that. I would like to see some definite confirmation that he examined the actual exemplar and not just a photograph of it.

Turning a desk upside down to write a poem on the underside of the desktop seems unlikely. Who but a member of this forum would think of such a thing?;) Besides, I think I read somewhere that the desktop was of a swivel type.
As I’ve said before, the "rh" initials are, in fact, the poet’s. If they were not, their purpose was to cast suspicion on someone else. So, why was the poem, and its bogus initials, written on the underside of the desktop? Makes no sense to me.
Conclusion: the initials are the poet’s; the handwriting is, according to Morrill and other expert’s, Zodiac’s; ergo, "rh" are Zodiac’s initials.