It happens all the time – and it happened back then too.

It does and it did. It would have also been on the radar back then as well. The suspicion that something might be a fake or a crackpot played a part and I think we should remember that the ‘stuff’ we have as evidence, whilst not ironclad, is surely the end product, to a certain degree, of vetting processes. Whilst it’s certainly possible that the confession letter and Bates letters were by an unknown party inserting themselves into a case there are certain ‘extra’ factors that make these things a bit more than possible ‘fakes’ for want of a better description.

The backward compatibility in these letters from the Z-campaign make these, imho, more than possible crackpot letters. Unless of course we think that Z somehow noticed this crime and took certain otherwise obscure minutia from it’s details and incorporated them into his own communications before he also got really lucky when someone else noticed these things and brought them to world’s attention or did Z just get lucky with the little things incorporating them into his own campaign purely by chance and then was handed a gift wrapped crime in terms of the communications laced with these little similarities and all he had to do was claim it?

I guess this is where ‘No Zodiac’ theories are born. Just unrelated crimes linked by a time travelling letter writer lol. Actually that’s quite good. My movie idea, hands off.

Letters mailed about murders, from somebody claiming to be the killer, is actually, pretty rare. I went looking for all kinds of cases after 1974 in which letters were mailed to newspapers, police,or Victim’s Families, from somebody claiming to be the killer of a murder Victim, and I only found a few, which I have posted about before. A few in PA, NH, IN and TX. There may be more, but when you consider all of the unsolved murders in the USA, very few are accompanied by letters from a person claiming to be the killer, whether they are legit letters from the killer, or a prankster

Found at
http://www.zodiackiller.com/InsideDetective7.html

5th paragraph from bottom in last column, Another good catch from Seagull- mentions that there were two copies of the confession letter, one was sent to the RPD and the other to the Press Enterprise. This is huge, and further demonstrates, that the confession letter typer is likely the letter writer of the Bates letters!

Yes, there are two copies. There is a picture of the one sent to the Press Enterprise, but it is not very clear; however, you can tell that it is spaced differently than the one sent to RPD. It’s been pointed out that the one sent to RPD started out as double spaced between sentences and then reverted to single space midway through. The one sent to Press Enterprise appears to be double spaced between sentences throughout, which makes me think that the one to the press was prepared first. The writer got lazy midway through the RPD version.

Is there any idea of what the envelope looks like? It’s hard to understand how Morrill could have verified that the envelope addressed to the newspaper was from Zodiac. Perhaps the envelope to RPD was written differently.

Where have I seen i’s before like the one on the confession letter envelope? Hmmmmm I wonder….oh yeah here it is. Probably just another coincidence . (increasingly & blatantly obvious Z was responsible for the Z letters)By the way, Sherwood supposedly wasn’t as impressed at first by the Bates case letters until he saw the envelopes, and immediately saw the similarities to z.

Is there any idea of what the envelope looks like? It’s hard to understand how Morrill could have verified that the envelope addressed to the newspaper was from Zodiac. Perhaps the envelope to RPD was written differently.

I don’t recall ever coming across a pic of the RPD envelope.

Where have I seen i’s before like the one on the confession letter envelope? Hmmmmm I wonder….oh yeah here it is. Probably just another coincidence . (increasingly & blatantly obvious Z was responsible for the Z letters)By the way, Sherwood supposedly wasn’t as impressed at first by the Bates case letters until he saw the envelopes, and immediately saw the similarities to z.

Yes, I do know that Zodiac used circles over his i’s but that is not unique to him. Many teenaged girls also go through a phase of doing that. Zodiac/the confession letter writer could have been mimicking a teen girl. The confession letter is about teen girls and how the letter writer was treated by them.

Where have I seen i’s before like the one on the confession letter envelope? Hmmmmm I wonder….oh yeah here it is. Probably just another coincidence . (increasingly & blatantly obvious Z was responsible for the Z letters)By the way, Sherwood supposedly wasn’t as impressed at first by the Bates case letters until he saw the envelopes, and immediately saw the similarities to z.

Yes, I do know that Zodiac used circles over his i’s but that is not unique to him. Many teenaged girls also go through a phase of doing that. Zodiac/the confession letter writer could have been mimicking a teen girl. The confession letter is about teen girls and how the letter writer was treated by them.

I agree, but it’s just one more thing to add to the list

The Cheri Jo reports about hair DNA have circled i’s. I know though, it is more convincing from the standpoint of a letter writer.

I noticed it read they traced the watch to a foreign military base. I’ve probably read it at some point before, but it’s interesting. I have thought before this person could have been a friend of her brother.

They also mention blood drops leading away from the scene back to the street. If we did then what we do today…we’d have a lot more DNA to go on. She must have got him good! Unless he was dripping in her blood. I wish they determined that.

Any idea of the date this was written?

Also…

I don’t know if it’s the original or reproduction, but there is the mention of "brownette"…which some say is a foreign term.

A 60’s version of Barbie had a model "Bubble Cut Brownette".

I had never heard that term before. I wonder how popular it was (or wasn’t) then.

The article was published January 1969.

Thanks Seagull.

So there is a chance Zodiac (if not the Confession letter writer) read this.

Apparently “brownette” was a term coined by Max Factor in the 1920s – to describe a certain kind of lighter brunette, no doubt so that he could sell a specific type of make-up to women with that particular shade.

It seems to have had its heyday somewhere before WWII. After that the most famous “brownette” around seems to have been the Barbie doll mentioned by Tahoe. It doesn’t seem to have ever been a (very) widely used term – but it’s still used here and there to distinguish between (darker) brunettes and women with (lighter) brown-ish hair.

That the Confession writer uses the term is certainly noteworthy, as it would have been much rarer and less obvious than “brunette” at the time.

I have talked to many women (my Mom included b. 1945) who have never heard of "brownette". While I don’t think it would be behind finding the letter writer, it’s something to consider. What? I don’t know. But hey, there was a "brownette" Ken doll too.