Europeans can typewrite as well. I’m French and we don’t learn it at school unless we choose that type of courses, at around 14 years old. I never attended this type of courses but my dad had a typewriter so I taught myself, starting at abour 12 years of age. If you have a typewriter available, i’s really easy to learn how to use it.

Think the letter could have been written on a Royal 800..look at the L, W, F letters..completely identical

Royal 800 from the 60ies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeubuVf3Cp0

Jerry Lewis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzB53YL78rE

@claypooles
Of course they do but in the UK it isn’t taught regularly at school..still find it notable that he hadn’t made any typing errors such as any letters corrected etc. at all.

Lettermen Club’ of Ramona High?

QT

There’s a photo in a Ramona High yearbook of a typing class, as far as I could tell all the students were female.

I believe it was very rare for boys to take typing class during that era of the 1960s, so that could help narrow the pool of suspects.

There’s a photo in a Ramona High yearbook of a typing class, as far as I could tell all the students were female.

I believe it was very rare for boys to take typing class during that era of the 1960s, so that could help narrow the pool of suspects.

Certainly, especially if he was about the same age..not very likely that he was very much younger, rather her age (talking about high school etc..).

QT

There’s a photo in a Ramona High yearbook of a typing class, as far as I could tell all the students were female.

I believe it was very rare for boys to take typing class during that era of the 1960s, so that could help narrow the pool of suspects.

This is an interesting discussion. As someone said above, it isn’t hard to figure out how to use a typewriter. The challenge is typing at a decent rate without errors. It is notable that the letter doesn’t contain any typing mistakes, though it’s certainly possible he had to type it multiple times to get an error-free version.

As far as people who would take typing classes, at one time it was mostly for people seeking secretarial jobs. By the time I took typing in the 80s it was seen as a useful skill for anyone interested in computers.

There are professions that require typewriter use, such as journalism, police work, and certain jobs in the military. Insert your own suspects.

They could never trace it to the exact typewriter that did the typing, because, the typer of the note used several carbons to type the letter

If the author of the typed confession letter and the 3 handwritten letters are the same person (I certainly believe they are) and if that author is actually Z (debatable IMO) then the biggest clue may indeed be that typewriter. Z never took credit for the Cheri Jo murder until after police made the connection. Someone on this thread posited that the reason Z didn’t boast about the crime at first (meaning in his Z letters) may very well have been that it was b/c Z knew that there was evidence to use against him at the Riverside crime.

The author of the Confession letter took great care to cover up something in regard to the typewriter IMO. He used several carbons in the machine … but just grabbed some paper and wrote the 3 letters and envelopes??

He must have used gloves for all of the letters – carbon is crazy messy obvi – and to my knowledge there has never been a finger print / palm print lifted from these.

He must have felt that if someone suspected him and search his belongings or work place or places with typewriters that he had access to – that the typewriter would be a dead give away.

I’m not saying anything new here. The typewriter is long gone I am sure. Has the confession letter been tested against typed police docs that we have access too? (In light of the EAR / ONS situation I think this might be a good idea – as well as running DNA against all government workers) Is there anything that stands out like a dropped ‘e’ or tall ‘a’ or line on one side of the page that could be traced to another doc that we have access to?

I still believe that Ross was Cheri’s killer and I just don’t feel that he was the Z. I still believe that they are 2 separate people. I don’t know how to reconcile that with the misspellings in the typed letter being the same in other Z communications other than to say that Z was a copycat. Z copied that confession letter to throw us. He copied the Mikado, he copied other crimes, he copied that mask, he copied comic books and even got his name from a movie, etc.

Then again, we have the most obvious clues..Z confessed to his ‘Riverside’ activities..and

– wrote to the Enterprise
– wrote to Paul Avery
– wrote to Vallejo Times
– tried to boast in the ‘media’
– used words such as ‘print’ instead of ‘publish’ etc.
– …

Now there are two options:
He either ‘liked’ to read the newspaper OR he was somehow connected to it. If Z had worked for the Enterprise, he certainly got used to using a typewriter. He also claimed that he is ‘here’

Tell herb caen I am here, I have always been here.

There is a certain likeliness that Z had worked at or for both, the Riverside Enterprise as well as the San Francisco Chronicle. It’d be interesting if there was any employee at the SF Chronicle who had worked at the Riverside Enterprise before..

If we continue this thought, there might be an easy way to figure out who that person was: The social insurance. If there is a guy who had worked at both newspapers, it could very well be Z.

QT

IMO this is rather a proof that the Unabomber wasn’t Z. Although everything you said is correct, there still are discrepancies:

– Typing errors (Z or the ‘author’ made none)
– Z stopped using the double blanks towards the end of his letter
– Different typewriter
– Not written in capital letters
– More educated language than used by Z
– No dyslectic errors at all

Especially the latter two make me believe that the Unabomb letter was rather written by Ted Kaczynski than the killer of CJB. Nevertheless a good comparison.

QT

The thing that strikes me as most interesting about this is that both Z and TK admitted to shortcomings in some of their bombs. Z said his bomb was a dud, TK said his was unreliable, Z said his bomb was too impractical to bury into position, TK said his was too long and heavy, etc. I’m relying on my memory here, but I think that is pretty close.

So you have two egomaniacs who do quite a bit of bragging about how they are in control, they talk down to LE in their correspondence, and yet each has a moment or two of admitting some failure. In both cases, involving bomb design.

Excellent point. I had never noticed.

Something lit a bulb in my head in your message, Jelberg. You wrote that "the Unabomber [ ] fooled the FBI into thinking he was a blue collar aircraft mechanic… Wasn’t it established that the Zodiac wore boots used in the Navy by mechanics specifically to walk on airplane wings? There may be a link between Zodiac and the Unabomber here.

@Jelberg

The confession letter is much shorter than the Penthouse letter, so comparing them without taking that into account is flawed.
Doesn’t change the fact that the Ted letter you had presented actually showed such errors while the confession letter did not.

There are numerous examples of Ted typing perfectly, so the only logical reason for the errors is that they are on purpose.
Don’t think this is ‘logical’, rather believe Z was dyslectic. What makes you believe the errors were made ‘on purpose’?

It is also interesting if you look at the Penthouse letter that on page 3 right under "letters as our signature." there are 18 stamped out characters. Theodore J Kaczynski is 18 characters and Zodiac did the same thing.
In which of Z’s letters?

Only "The Confession" and the "Bates had to die" Letters are in all caps while all of Z’s others letters don’t follow the same convention. So that isn’t a point worth arguing.
If we talk about typewritten Z letters – yes it is worth it. Is there any other upper and lower case typewritten Z letter?

For example spelling minutes as "minuts" to create the vertical 5 space line. Something which is not present in the double spaced version, making it seem very intentional.
Which intention?

Anyway, no need to further discuss that..Z and Ted are two completely different persons. No need to say, both were bad guys, however I can’t see any solid link between both of them except

– both present in the Bay area (well..)
– both writing letters (well..)
– both mentioning bombs (ok for that one..)
– both killing people (ok for that one, too)

But that doesn’t make Ted = Z, imo.

QT

Claypooles: I remember a post that claimed the boot prints found at the Bates murder scene were incorrectly identified as Wing Walkers; but, were, in fact, Boondockers, which were standard Navy issue to all recruits.

Claypooles: I remember a post that claimed the boot prints found at the Bates murder scene were incorrectly identified as Wing Walkers; but, were, in fact, Boondockers, which were standard Navy issue to all recruits.

I thought they were military dress shoes ? or is that the same thing ?

Though as the Unabomber he still fooled the FBI into thinking he was a blue collar aircraft mechanic…

Which was bizarre. Since when do blue collar aircraft mechanics use the word "inane"?