I’ve been looking through the Mikado seeking anything I can find that seems familiar from Zodiac’s letters. The Confession letter from the CJB’s case always seemed a bit odd to me, particularly how it is a wall of text.

Reading it though, it always seemed like it was done with a stylized writing form. There are spots where it rhymes. Then there is "I plunged the knife into her". "Plunged"? I mean, who the hell talks like that?

I went through it and separated it into paragraphs to show how I think it was written out from the writer’s thought process. I wonder if he intended it to be somewhat of a poetic story, more than an outright poem. I saw what seems to be two stanzas, each ending with somewhat of a rhyme. I bolded and underlined those.

Here’s what I came up with…

1st stanza –

She was young and beautiful

Now she is battered and dead.

She is not the first and she will not be the last.

I lay awake nights thinking about my next victim.

Maybe she will be the beautiful blond that babysits near the little store
and walks down the dark alley each evening about seven.

Or maybe she will be the shapely blue eyed brownette
that said no when I asked her for a date in high school.

But maybe it will not be either.

But I shall cut off her female parts
and deposit them for the whole city to see.
So don’t make it too easy for me.

2nd stanza –

Keep your sisters, daughters,
and wives off the streets and alleys.
Miss Bates was stupid.
She went to the slaughter like a lamb.
She did not put up a struggle,
but I did.
It was a ball.

I first pulled the middle wire from the distributor.
Then I waited for her in the library
and followed her out after about two minutes.
The battery must have been about dead by then.

I then offered to help.

She was then very willing to talk to me.
I told her that my car was down the street
and that I would give her a lift home.

When we were away from the library walking,

I said it was about time.
She asked me "about time for what?"
I said it was about time for her to die.

I grabbed her around the neck with my hand over her mouth
and my other hand with a small knife at her throat.

She went very willingly.
her breats felt very warm
and firm under my hands.

But only one thing was on my mind,
making her pay for the brush offs
that she had given me during the years prior.

She died hard.
She squirmed and shook as I choaked her,
and her lips twiched.
She let out a scream once
and I kicked her head to shut her up.

I plunged the knife into her
and it broke.
I then finished the job
by cutting her throat.

I am not sick, I am insane,
But that will not stop the game.

END OF POETIC STORY
===========================

This letter should be published for all to read it.

It just might save that girl in the alley. But that’s up to you. It will be on our conscience. Not mine.

Yes I did make that call to you also. It was just a warning.

Beware…I am staking your girls now.

Also, there are words I noticed in The Mikado that appear in the Bates confession letter. Fairly common words, but interesting they appear in both The Mikado and the confession letter. There might be more, but these come from one act from The Mikado named "The criminal cried as he dropped him down".

From the confession letter

She squirmed and shook as I choaked her

She did not put up a struggle

From the Mikado

As he squirmed and struggled

He shivered and shook as he gave the sign

The entire act just has the same vibe, in my opinion, as the confession letter. It’s about an executioner using a knife to kill someone, someone who struggled but gave in. There seems to be similarities, but they probably are just coincidence. When you go looking for things, sometimes you find them where they really aren’t.

Here’s a link to the entire act so everyone can read through it and judge for themselves.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Mika … d_him_down