A shot in the dark: anyone know if Richard Hoffman had any connection to Riverside?

I’m curious as well, because I have been trying to rule out Hoffman as a person of interest in blue rock springs, but have only found further leads connecting Hoffman these other cases, even potentially to riverside.

Did you know that Cecelia Ann Shepard , from the lake berryessa attack, was a student at riverside?
This could be a potential connection between the Cheri Jo Bates case and the Cecelia Ann Shepard case.

(A friend of mine believes that zodiac was obsessed with movies, and that he had actually filmed his attacks, but I discount this notion, though it would explain the flashlight at blue rock springs and the elaborate costume at lake berryessa, as well as the eyes in the tree in the paul averly card, though I feel this is all simple coincidence)

Any way, I am occupied with clearing Hoffman as a suspect in blue rock springs at the moment… did you know that hoffman reported to be in the area just before the murder, then, when he responds by radio telling dispatch that he is on his way to the scene, it only takes him two minutes to get to mike’s side, two minutes! Which leads,me to believe that he never went far from the scene of the murder, he was in the exact area before, most likely during, and after the murder… I was hoping that making my timeline was going to eliminate Hoffman as a suspect, but it’s actually only making him look more suspicious…

I think there is a chance that richard Hoffman was involved in these killings, I also think there is a chance that the "rh" initials could stand for "richard Hoffman", however, it does not matter what one thinks, it matters what one can prove.

It’s is VERY weird that he’s out patrolling…and they/he have 6 mins to pull off the kill. With a cop right out there. Unless someone is listening to his radio calls or whatever…that’s pure luck, AND he had just checked that area out. Like wtf?

Has anyone used a site such as Classmates.com to search for possible ‘rh’ matches? I did a quick search and found a couple ‘rh’ +/- a few years of 1966. Not sure how complete of a list this is, but it’s a possible tool. Are there any other sources? Yearbooks, perhaps? -D

A little while ago I looked through the college yearbooks from 1963 to 1966 for anyone with the initials R.H. or H.R. In ’66 book directory there is Harry Redifer, but no page provided on which he would appear. I have not eyed the whole book in case it’s just a mistake and he’s on some page and the lacking number is just an error. So he’s sort of a mystery person. Here’s all R.H.’s and H.R.’s from ’66 book:

Hendrickson Rich
Hess Robert
Hoyle Robert A.
Redifer Harry
Rush Howard
Ruther Hans
Rutledge Harold

In one of the books (the one with the weird poem about death and unwilling to live, zodiac symbol, strange goat and devil drawings) CJB is in 5 pictures but only listed in 3 and they are all incorrect. Strange an RH person has the same thing. Can you check if anyone else is mislabelled. Did someone screw up this whole yearbook ON PURPOSE? Weird…

Does anybody have copies of the RCC yearbooks from 1960-65? I haven’t been able to find them online anywhere. I’m particularly interested in someone with the last initial of H.

I believe that the "r" is not the letter originally intended to be written. If one looks closely, it appears darker than the others, as if it is an attempt to change it at the last second.

Anybody have thoughts about that?

I thought it might be a bad P, like in Patricia Haultz or whatever her name ‘was’.

The pictures that I have seen of the desks , they looked like the kind I had and those did not fold, you just slide into them. Regardless if it did fold or not ,it was probably done in that storage room, away from anyone walking in on him.
My guess as to how it was possible for someone to write all of that without being seen? Is that it was already in the storage room because of the construction work being done at that time.
In the storage room that desk was turned upside down, that was how the writing was spotted.

Again it is only speculation, but anyone who was there working construction ,or a night janitor would have access to that room. The person who wrote it ,wanted it to be seen and left it upside down.
He would have waited for everyone to go home, so he could do his writing.

If he was one of the workers, he could stay behind putting his equipment away and washing up. I wonder if the police questioned the person who found it?

Yes, either music room or library NO ONE is carving that in broad daylight. Person might be angry at night…so who’s got access to a desk when no one is there. From my high school experience, the music room is only used when classes are going and alot of the time it was empty. Maybe z liked to hang out there away from everybody. Only a student, teacher or janitor would have access tot hat desk and be able to do that…

Sandy: In ’91 I was so involved in the Z case, particularly CJB, that the wife threatened to leave. So, I chucked all the files. I found the card haphazardly, in a nursing office drawer. It was an average-looking card, nothing special. Had a lot of text, though. And, like I said,its printing looked exactly like Z’s. Incidentally, my POI graduated from San Jose State University in ’71 with a degree in Graphic Arts.
Paul

Thanks Dag, Very interesting. Was the card addressed to anyone in particular? Zodiac liked nurses , or so it seems. Kathleen Johns was living at one time in San Jose at least in 1990. My RH suspect was also into Graphic Arts. Do you remember anything at all about what was on the face of the card, was it a holiday card? I have one card unsigned from my suspect showing a woman in distress, laying across railroad tracks, in black and white.( Dressed like in the 1920’s ) Perhaps that was a warning?

The things that were left in my car Sept 28th or 29th 1969, were things like what a graphic artist would use. Lots of felt topped pens, a ruler from Healds collage and a couple of erasers, protractor.Plastic template of the alphabet,very old dictionary and a few other things. My impression was that who ever left the things in my car was onto art.
I take it that your wife is not upset that you are back looking at the case?

Probably liked nurses cuz he was in the nuthouse…or always around nurses.

Between the RH on the underside of a desk that no one was meant to see and the "You ache to know my name" (ache = H, the pun thereby explaining the awkwardness of the sentence), RH almost certainly were Zodiac’s initials.

I got the gut feeling that, if those are the Zodiacs initials, it’s not only RH, but Rus H.
That would explain why the ‘please RusH to’ part was not on the Z13 and how his identity would be in the earlier ciphers. He could still outsmart anyone by saying ‘well I did put my name in, I literally said Rus H to editor, just not in place you’d expect’.

There aren’t any suspects fitting this I believe, but in a post from years ago here, there’s mentioned a RH that graduated in ’63 from Ramona High, that could also fit this.

Backwards 

hr 

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