I think it’s been pretty well established that there was indeed a struggle.

I think it’s been pretty well established that there was indeed a struggle.

Yes,no doubt. They said the area she was killed in looked like a "freshly plowed field"

They also confirmed it wasn’t Cheri’s own hair, so the end result must be it was her attacker’s.

Been thinking a bit about the poem lately. And I honestly don’t see much of Z in it. I’m not saying he didn’t write it and I don’t take the verdict of Sherwood M. lightly. But if he did, then Z wrote a poem which looks more like a suicide fantasy than a murder confession. He wrote, in fact, a poem which is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a college student (more likely a female than a male) who had been reading a bit of Sylvia Plath or something of that sort, and who tried to create something "poetic" and "dark".

And that may or may not be what you’d expect from Z. For me – it is not. I don’t smell him in those lines at all.

I have trouble smelling him in the confession letter too, to be perfectly honest. If I had to take a guess, I’d say he claimed ownership of Bates – the whole package – after he was served the chance to do so on a golden platter.

But I’m not sure. I’m just leaning that-a-way, if you will.

Totally agree, Norse, I don’t think the poem was a Z thing. You’ll remember the time frame was right around the height of the beat poets era. The desktop poem sounds like someone’s attempt at beat poetry to me. Strikes me much more like a poetic suicide attempt confession.

How did this get linked in to the Zodiac case anyway? (rhetorical).

I think the CJB murder was a jealous lover killing. The signature script at the bottom of the Bates had to die letters appears to me to be the initials ML…?

Handwriting links this poem to Z.

If you look at the bottom. The F in "find her" has an unusual style.
http://www.zodiackiller.com/ZPoem.html

That candy cane F is telltale Z. It appears all over the Zodiac letters and even on the car door:
http://www.zodiackiller.com/KarmannGhia.html

Compare d’s, p’s and b’s here http://www.zodiackiller.com/ZLetter1.html

Don’t forget the "g".

I must revisit the poem at some point and do a more in-depth comp. In the meantime you can view some elements on my handwriting thread. Here’s one thing that links it ,IMHO, to Z – the hitherto thought as unique k in ‘sick’.

It’s on the SLA card. The ‘rh’ gets a look-in as well.

viewtopic.php?f=96&t=789&start=50

Lots of work compiling all that Trav! Whether we don’t see i to i (lol) you know I appreciate your work.

Lots of work compiling all that Trav! Whether we don’t see i to i (lol) you know I appreciate your work.

Or k to k lol. I do T and i appreciate your appreciation.

Yes – great work, traveller!

I simply don’t know enough about handwriting to weigh in with much in that department. Every time I try to compare Z’s writing to a suspect I give up after two minutes – they all look more or less like him if I focus on the similarities. But I know Sherwood M. thought it was Z and that’s not to be taken lightly. All I know is that the content of that text doesn’t scream Z to me. It doesn’t even scream Bates.

I don’t like the fact that Bates was, so to speak, presented to Z. The case was unsolved, had been so for four or five years – all Z had to do was say "yeah, sure, I did that – and lots of other things down there too." It didn’t cost him much to nod his head in agreement and thus add to his tally.

someone.. sorry I don’t remember who… said in another thread that they didn’t think a student wrote the poem because they didn’t think a student would have been able to draw on the underside of the desk during class. That was a good point.

I tried to look up pictures of classrooms to see if any showed students in class with a desktop turned UP. Couldn’t find any. In fact it seems like most of the classrooms in the 60’s did not use this type of desk, or at least in the pictures I saw. They used larger rectangular ones. That makes sense because this desktop is kind of small and hard to write on.

In other words I think that it might not have been from a classroom. It doesn’t fit too well in a library either. They usually had long desks and benches. If they did have this type it might have been used in a back corner for quiet studying, and that would be a good place for someone to vandalize/etch a poem unnoticed.

I couldn’t find any pics of RCC or the library. Anyone willing to look at those to see if they show this type of desk being used?

Wasn’t it found in a storage room in the library? I don’t think it was actually used there. Not sure though.

Carried this over from page 1:

Here is the desktop from the movie "Zodiac". While it is a prop, I have every confidence it is like the original. In the documentary, they talk about how they tried to replicate everything as closely as possible.

And a photo from Cheri’s high school yearbook:

Wasn’t it found in a storage room in the library? I don’t think it was actually used there. Not sure though.

I think (but I’m not sure either) that the poem was discovered when the desk was moved INTO storage, rather than being discovered IN storage.