If the RH initials were fake, or used to implicate someone other than the author, the poem would have been written on top of the desk rather than underneath.

If the RH initials were fake, or used to implicate someone other than the author, the poem would have been written on top of the desk rather than underneath.

If the person who wrote the poem was an outsider with no ties to the school, ALA, RG, TK, KQ, they could just use their real initials.
If the author was trying to frame someone, they would be much more clear with the signature.

Everyone has been looking for an RH from Riverside for 50 years and it hasn’t turned up anyone interesting.

If the RH initials were fake, or used to implicate someone other than the author, the poem would have been written on top of the desk rather than underneath.

How could that poem have been created to frame somebody? There was no way to know it would ever be found or connected at all to Cheri’s case

morf: Exactly! I was trying to rule out alternative explanations for the poem being written on the underside of the desk. I am reasonably sure that the poem was written before Cheri’s death by the individual who murdered her, and his initials are, indeed, RH. I’m not at all sure that the poem’s victim was meant to be Cheri; I suspect the victim may have been generic.

morf: Exactly! I was trying to rule out alternative explanations for the poem being written on the underside of the desk. I am reasonably sure that the poem was written before Cheri’s death by the individual who murdered her, and his initials are, indeed, RH. I’m not at all sure that the poem’s victim was meant to be Cheri; I suspect the victim may have been generic.

Okay, that’s a possibility I have always considered

Two difficulties we face in determining who might be RCC’s "RH": One, of course, is the college being legally forbidden to release any info re current or former students; the other, according to a current RCC librarian, is that the college yearbook was no longer published in 1966.

Two difficulties we face in determining who might be RCC’s "RH": One, of course, is the college being legally forbidden to release any info re current or former students; the other, according to a current RCC librarian, is that the college yearbook was no longer published in 1966.

The RCC yearbook was published in 66 for the 65-66 year. It was not published in 67 for the 66-67 year when Cheri would have been there

I want to believe it was a reference to "Red Hood" from Batman, who back in the 1950s was an alias for the Joker. If this "poem" indeed is zodiac’s then I can see him as a comic book fan who admires the arch-villains like the Joker and drawing a liking to them and their sick way of living/pov.

The Zodiac Killer finished many of his communications with the running victim total. The Dripping Pen card gave us the time, in the form of a month, and the total. The Bus Bomb letter stated "up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people."
The July 31st 1969 San Francisco Chronicle letter warned us of future murders "If you do not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry.1st of Aug 69, I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night."
The Halloween card is believed by many to be a future threat towards Paul Avery.
What if we apply the same model to the Riverside Desktop Poem, where he signs off the poem with "Just wait till next time. rh."
The Riverside Desktop Poem was discovered in the December of 1966. But it might very well have been written prior to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, and the warning of "Just wait till next time. rh." was referring to the time and place of his next murder. Remember, the author of the Confession letter had suggested he was trying to lure Cheri Jo Bates into his vehicle. This may possibly indicate he had planned to murder Cheri Jo Bates later than the believed 10.30 pm, when screams emanated from the alleyway, likely on Halloween Day itself, but something clearly had resulted in the unplanned struggle in the alleyway and her ‘premature’ murder from the perspective of the killer. Had he achieved his objective in luring the young woman into his vehicle, the likely prediction of the Riverside Desktop Poem would have come true. "Just wait till next time. riverside, halloween."

Having been a school janitor, I believe the desktop poem was discovered during Winter Break, which makes me suspect that it was not present the previous summer, when there would have been a thorough cleaning, and inspection of furniture, etc.

Interesting point Grinnell,

We’ve always assumed the poem was written after CJB Murder. No date on it, so it very well could have been written before CJB. And even if Janitors do a cracker jack job at checking all sides of desks, that would still leave Aug, Sept, Oct when poem could have been written, and maybe that timing makes the poem and the killing of CJB more relevant. You know the Red Dress comment always is what made me convinced that it was Z who wrote that poem. Who else would attempt to inject their sick humor when speaking of murder? It just always has reminded me of something Z would write. And some tried to support it wasn’t Z who wrote the letter because no one in a red dress was found murdered. But if in fact Z wrote the poem before killing CJB, the red dress is meaningless, cause it was just Z’s sick humor at work.

He may have spotted CJB with a red dress, or he may be dismissing the gravity of murder, using the color of blood on a red dress, as "oh well it was red anyway."
If we combine the Riverside Desktop Poem, Confession letter and Bates communications we get a running theme.
"She won’t die this time. I said it was about time for her to die. Just wait till next time. Bates had to die, there will be more."
It is possible the Riverside Desktop ‘graffito" was spotted in October or earlier and placed in the storage basement on account of its unsavory content. The significance of it was only realized when it was viewed in December, subsequent to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates.

He may have spotted CJB with a red dress, or he may be dismissing the gravity of murder, using the color of blood on a red dress, as "oh well it was red anyway."
If we combine the Riverside Desktop Poem, Confession letter and Bates communications we get a running theme.
"She won’t die this time. I said it was about time for her to die. Just wait till next time. Bates had to die, there will be more."
It is possible the Riverside Desktop ‘graffito" was spotted in October or earlier and placed in the storage basement on account of its unsavory content. The significance of it was only realized when it was viewed in December, subsequent to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates.

That’s an interesting possibility. Still puzzling how or why it was on the under part of the desk

I believe the poem was written before Bates’ death, and the rh initials the author’s. Homicidal ideation was surfacing in the killer-to-be’s mind: ideation which was not yet acceptable to him but could not be suppressed; therefore, the poem was written on the underside of the desk–a kind of near-psychotic compromise. Had the poem been written on the top of the desk, it would have been after Bates’ death, and the initials other than those of the author, either to confuse LE or lead them to investigating someone that either the killer didn’t like, or to reinforce LE’s suspicions of Bill Bennett (in which case, of course, the initials would have been bb).

Have you ever considered that the initials could stand for "richard hoffman"?