Also, I see "word salad" in this poem. It’s a way some schizophrenics communicate. Their thinking isn’t exactly organized. Google up word salad, and you can see what I’m talking about.

Interesting. Welcome to the forum by the way, hope you will post an intro in the ‘introduce yourself’ thread

Here’s my take on the Desktop "Poem": very probably it was written sometime between September and December, 1966, and discovered by a custodian during Winter Break, 1966. I find it interesting that subsequent communications by Cheri’s self-proclaimed killer were either carbon-copy typing or printing done with his off-hand. Either way, the writer obviously wanted to disguise his handwriting. Why? Because of the Desktop "Poem’s" rh signature. Better than anyone, he realized the incriminating nature of his "verse"; and, while compelled to brag about his infamous deed, he wanted to distance himself from the "Poem’s" initials–HIS initials.
As far as Cheri’s killer is concerned, I think it very likely he "graduated" to Zodiac. He murdered Bates for personal reasons and got a rush from the commission of his crime and its subsequent notoriety, which fattened his starved ego. He went on and on until its bloat almost got him arrested after Stine’s murder. Despite his bluster and bragging Zodiac was, basically, a coward.

Here’s my take on the Desktop "Poem": very probably it was written sometime between September and December, 1966, and discovered by a custodian during Winter Break, 1966. I find it interesting that subsequent communications by Cheri’s self-proclaimed killer were either carbon-copy typing or printing done with his off-hand. Either way, the writer obviously wanted to disguise his handwriting. Why? Because of the Desktop "Poem’s" rh signature. Better than anyone, he realized the incriminating nature of his "verse"; and, while compelled to brag about his infamous deed, he wanted to distance himself from the "Poem’s" initials–HIS initials.
As far as Cheri’s killer is concerned, I think it very likely he "graduated" to Zodiac. He murdered Bates for personal reasons and got a rush from the commission of his crime and its subsequent notoriety, which fattened his starved ego. He went on and on until its bloat almost got him arrested after Stine’s murder. Despite his bluster and bragging Zodiac was, basically, a coward.

I agree! I believe it was the same guy, but he had a sort of "graduation" level inside his mind. He really didn’t want anyone to know, that he’s connected to Cheri, or her murder. The reason why, after he really, really thought about it. It would connect him to her, and therefore, it could be solved, as to who his identity is. He wasn’t organized with his thinking sometimes, it’s like he would sometimes be impulsive, and then REALLY THINK about what he did, and how it could / could not connect him to the identity of the "Zodiac" inside his mind. He had a "chopped" mind and disorganized sometimes. He reminds me of the type, that sometimes made notes to remembering things, depending on how clear his thinking was at the time.

If he were the killer of Cheri, then he had to think about it. How could he not? How he could be identified. I believe, that’s a reason he changed style of writing and signature. He did in his mind anyway.

Also, the fact that his letters were all over the place and contained nonsense IMO, tells me he was disorganized and sloppy. I don’t believe the guy was a mastermind. He wasn’t dumb, but wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed either. He just was!
I believe people underestimated him, and that’s a reason why he never was investigated thoroughly. "Aww, he’s a good boy. He wouldn’t do anything like that!" I can hear it now.

I’m getting a bit off topic, but I do agree, that Cheri was killed by the Zodiac. I don’t agree she was his first victim, because I feel there’s more victims before Cheri.

Also, I see "word salad" in this poem. It’s a way some schizophrenics communicate. Their thinking isn’t exactly organized. Google up word salad, and you can see what I’m talking about.

Interesting. Welcome to the forum by the way, hope you will post an intro in the ‘introduce yourself’ thread

Have you ever noticed how the Zodiac’s writings are chopped and change subjects, as if he were moody? It’s like he really didn’t know exactly what he was trying to say himself, and some people say he did things intentionally. I don’t think he did. Not as much as people think anyway. Not only did the poem have word salad in it, but so did the letters. All of them, as far as I have read. He would misspell words. It’s as if he spelled them like he heard them. When I seen Ross had misspelled Syracuse, as Seracuse. That’s a good example of word salad, it certainly can be. The Zodiac also misspelled words, as if he written them out, like he heard them.

I don’t think Ross misspelled Seracuse on purpose. A schizophrenic can forget things sometimes easily. It’s as if they have a cognitive fog, where perception, language and memory get fogged up. He just spelled it out like he heard it at the time, even though, he didn’t always misspell it. It was just at that time of writing it out.

It may not prove Ross as the Zodiac, and I’m not completely saying he was the Zodiac. However, I do believe that the Zodiac had some schizophrenia going on. Sometimes worse than other times, but it was there.

IMO, Z misspelled words deliberately, as an insult to LE: "I can’t spell, but I’m smarter than you, because you can’t catch me"!

IMO, Z misspelled words deliberately, as an insult to LE: "I can’t spell, but I’m smarter than you, because you can’t catch me"!

I think it was just part of his game and I agree that it was probably deliberate. At least in part. It’s possible he wasn’t a wonderful speller and this was his way of masking his weakness. This way he could always claim he was just playing around, if he felt justification was needed.

It’s kind of the old version of blaming autocorrect when you make a mistake. I’m sure sometimes it was really autocorrect while other times it really was a mistake.

Doesn’t the fact Betsy Aardsma was murdered in a library while wearing a red dress in November 28th, 1969 in the Penn State University popped into someone’s mind? Too weird to be coincidence. She apparently was attacked from behind while working on a paper by 1 or 2 men who later left the library with alerting the clerk ("someone will find her" in the RCC desk "poem"): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Betsy_Aardsma. She was an English and Arts graduate, which are also fields thought to be associated with "zodiac" (other than calligraphy) as a student, and he himself would tell Melvin Belli in his Christmas letter that he already killed 8 people till writing that letter (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer_letters#December_20th_1969). Interestingly there was a suspect called richard haefner (rh?) who dated her shortly before she broke up with him due to him being erratic and violent towards women (https://www.collegemagazine.com/penn-state-cold-case-unsolved-murder-betsy-aardsma/).

Doesn’t the fact Betsy Aardsma was murdered in a library while wearing a red dress in November 28th, 1969 in the Penn State University popped into someone’s mind?

Once or twice. Do a search on this site.

Don’t know what you’re getting at. The desktop poem (written God knows when, but obviously well before Betsy was killed) somehow refers to her murder? So, it’s written by someone who intended to attack a woman wearing a red dress (and who also intended that she should be found)? But who decided to leave this message of (obscure) intent in a place which by its very nature makes it pure happenstance whether someone gets it (the message, I mean)?

I don’t think so.

The desktop poem was written by someone who has no bearing on any criminal case whatsoever – that would be my guess.

Doesn’t the fact Betsy Aardsma was murdered in a library while wearing a red dress in November 28th, 1969 in the Penn State University popped into someone’s mind?

Once or twice. Do a search on this site.

Don’t know what you’re getting at. The desktop poem (written God knows when, but obviously well before Betsy was killed) somehow refers to her murder? So, it’s written by someone who intended to attack a woman wearing a red dress (and who also intended that she should be found)? But who decided to leave this message of (obscure) intent in a place which by its very nature makes it pure happenstance whether someone gets it (the message, I mean)?

I don’t think so.

The desktop poem was written by someone who has no bearing on any criminal case whatsoever – that would be my guess.

The only way Betsy could be tied, was years later, this person saw her in a library,red dress,etc and decided to act on his earlier desktop writing. It’s simply just a coincidence. The desk was found a couple months after Cheri’s murder. My guess is, the person was writing a morbid poem that means different things to different readers, obviously twisted thoughts one way or another, and this person later wound up writing letters as the Zodiac

Doesn’t the fact Betsy Aardsma was murdered in a library while wearing a red dress in November 28th, 1969 in the Penn State University popped into someone’s mind?

Once or twice. Do a search on this site.

Don’t know what you’re getting at. The desktop poem (written God knows when, but obviously well before Betsy was killed) somehow refers to her murder? So, it’s written by someone who intended to attack a woman wearing a red dress (and who also intended that she should be found)? But who decided to leave this message of (obscure) intent in a place which by its very nature makes it pure happenstance whether someone gets it (the message, I mean)?

I don’t think so.

The desktop poem was written by someone who has no bearing on any criminal case whatsoever – that would be my guess.

The only way Betsy could be tied, was years later, this person saw her in a library,red dress,etc and decided to act on his earlier desktop writing. It’s simply just a coincidence. The desk was found a couple months after Cheri’s murder. My guess is, the person was writing a morbid poem that means different things to different readers, obviously twisted thoughts one way or another, and this person later wound up writing letters as the Zodiac

Just a crazy coincidence a few years later in my opinion. As for the Desktop Poem, I question if Sherwood Morrill actually got it right saying the author of the Desktop was the same as the Confession letters ? If so as always I question the unknown janitor that RPD never mentions in police reports that found it!

I don’t understand why people question Morrill’s analyses of Zodiac handwriting, including the desktop poem. I mean, he was the State of California’s expert graphologist! You’d think that’d be good enough.

I don’t understand why people question Morrill’s analyses of Zodiac handwriting, including the desktop poem. I mean, he was the State of California’s expert graphologist! You’d think that’d be good enough.

Dag, I think some people lost confidence in Morrill because of the April 1978 letter which at first was deemed genuine but after further inspection three handwriting experts said the letter was a fake. Morrill was the only one that stuck to his original opinion, that the letter was genuine. It came out in a SF Chronicle article that Morrill had examined a photocopy of the letter and refused to re-examine the original when the others re-examined it a few months later. This was the letter that Toschi was accused of possibly forging.

The fact that Morrill examined a photocopy and not the original in the first place turned people off. You would think that a professional handwriting examiner would insist on looking at the original because there is more to the examination than how the letters are formed.

I know this article is posted here somewhere but I’m not quite sure where now, so here it is again.

I’ve mentioned this before, but there is a major difference in matching the handwriting of the 2 letters to Z.

1) 1978 was forged after much of the Zodiac writings was public. You can’t go back in time and forge a series of writings 3 years in the past. And don’t anyone try to tell me Z copied his writing style from the 1966 writings! That is beyond far fetched.

2) Another major point is that the forger of the 1978 letter, might have been a talented illustrator who consulted with Morrill and learned what he would be looking for.

3) It’s very possible Morrill was defending Toschi. Knowing that claiming the 1978 was a fake, was like saying Toschi was the author.

I’ve posted this before, I think it’s convincing evidence that Zodiac wrote the confession letter envelope,if so then the odds that
he also wrote the desk top poem seem astronomically high considering all the other handwriting similarities.

My point being what are the odds that two people with strikingly similar handwriting would use little circles to dot the I’s ?

To me, the only thing similar about the handwriting is the circled i’s.