Excellent find imo, although profiling stuff. It also could be that Cheri Jo Bates was a friend of Z’s own sister..

QT

Just something that I’ve wondered about over the years which may or may not be telling………I’ve always been intrigued by the order in which the author of the Confession letter lists his potential victims. He writes…" keep your sisters, daughters and wives off the streets".

I have from time to time put this to many people (in a different context) and have found in the vast majority of cases, that the order people would list these terms depended very much on where they were in there own lives…..age, relationships etc.

Myself, I found it peculiar that he would begin with Sisters,(as opposed to daughters) also there is no mention of Mothers ( many female friends began with fathers then husbands and vice versa). In any case my thinking was that this pointed to a younger person ( ok DOH, that’s the general consensus) but I wondered if that’s how he seen Cheri Jo Bates i.e the Sister of her brother. It just kinda strikes me personally as if the author may have been aware of Cheri through her brother and/or generally listed Sisters first because he was that age where he may have fancied a couple of sisters of friends of his. Then again maybe I’m overplaying a bad hand.
Thoughts welcome.

P.S he also writes "I’m stalking your girls now" ( as opposed to "women")

Excellent Wier. You bring up something I have wondered about for a while,and that’s whether or not her killer knew her thru her Brother Mike. A friend of his that had a crush on her,etc. I personally think that her killer(who I believe likely to be Zodiac)was high school to college aged at the time of her murder, and may very well have been friends with her or her Brother.

As far as the language of the confession letter,it could be that in his mind, he was targeting ‘girls’ of a certain age not Mothers,which is why he might not have mentioned Mothers. Starting off with Sisters, might also mean that Cheri,was in the right age range to be his own sister,which to me indicates he was likely in her age range.

P.S he also writes "I’m stalking your girls now" ( as opposed to "women")

Nice thoughts Wier.

Regarding the last line, it’s something that I’ve wondered about from time to time. What I can’t quite decide though is the context. I have thought about it as you have proposed it above, ie it being a differentiation between stalking the women or anyone else of a certain group to focusing specifically on the ‘girls’.

The other side of the coin is also suggested through "She is not the first and she will not be the last". The implication here being that ‘girls’ is just a generic term for female victims and that he has stalked (at the very least) ‘girls’ in another town hence the word ‘your’. That also brings up the question of what has changed? Why is he now ‘stalking’ in Riverside? Was it simply a choice in a change of locale? Did he start from Riverside but stalk somewhere else to being with until he felt more confident or has he recently moved to Riverside from somewhere else?

Apart from being unsure of how much of this Confession letter is truthful Trav, I’d have to agree that his reference to "your" girls and probably more specifically "Now" implies that he’s saying it’s NOW Riversides turn, so to speak and he has, as you suggest, at least stalked elsewhere. On the term "girls" I’m with Morph….the omission of "Mothers" implies his targets were younger as indeed, it seems, were the other potential targets, the babysitter and shapely blue eyed whom he supposedly asked out in high school.
Regarding "Sisters" I thought it could be telling because of the different answers I got when putting it to different age groups and how, in hindsight, it reflected where they were in their own lives. There was an added bouns here also in that, if the Author did see Cheri Jo as Mike’s sister, it’s easy to imagine how a friends sister might be "off limits" at that age. Maybe a crush he couldn’t act on and neither mentioned anything, if he did attempt to make his feeling known at some stage. But even at that, I’m just throwing this stuff out not knowing what I believe myself.
He did too single her father out ( assuming the written notes were the same guy), so again, I wonder why not "daughters" first. Could a friend of the family ( friend of Mike’s) be looking to punish them further becuase he held them responsible for not being able to forge a relationship with Cheri previously.
Or perhaps I’m speaking out of my ear.

Anybody knowing anything about friends of Mike Bates?

QT

Another oar in the water: I think Z knew Cheri and her brother, and the fact that she was Mike’s sister impacted his choice of relationships. Had he who killed Cheeri been mature, he probably would have issued a warning to wives/women and daughters/children.

Another oar in the water: I think Z knew Cheri and her brother, and the fact that she was Mike’s sister impacted his choice of relationships. Had he who killed Cheeri been mature, he probably would have issued a warning to wives/women and daughters/children.

Do you know Mike personally?

I think they were doing it for themselves.

No, I don’t know Mike personally. Perhaps I should have referred to him as Michael Bates.

by traveller1st » Wed Aug 21, 2013 5:28 pm

I think they were doing it for themselves

You’re a sick man Trav, I hope you’re going to stand on your own two feet and accept responsibility for cracks like that.

by traveller1st » Wed Aug 21, 2013 5:28 pm

I think they were doing it for themselves

You’re a sick man Trav, I hope you’re going to stand on your own two feet and accept responsibility for cracks like that.

I think he meant the letter writer was doing for himself. As if it were pertaining to his own personal life. ??

**

Thx Dag…I was reading your post wrong and that you were referring to Mike’s relationships. My bad.

by traveller1st » Wed Aug 21, 2013 5:28 pm

I think they were doing it for themselves

You’re a sick man Trav, I hope you’re going to stand on your own two feet and accept responsibility for cracks like that.

I think he meant the letter writer was doing for himself. As if it were pertaining to his own personal life. ??

**

Thx Dag…I was reading your post wrong and that you were referring to Mike’s relationships. My bad.

Did I miss something??

Sisters……are doing it for themselves. That’s all I meant

And "standing on their own two feet" while doing so.