Yes, a demand note was given during a robbery on December 3rd 1968. The version you see is a suspect replicating the handwriting, like Arthur Leigh Allen was asked to write Zodiac material. Regardless, if this bank robbery note only contained the threat "This is bank robbery. If you don’t do as R say I will shot", then it should have no reason to make it into the Zodiac Extortion files, because it would just be a bank robbery note with random writing. Therefore, my guess, is it found its way into the Zodiac FBI files because the pseudonym Zodiac was used. This is my take, but hey, I could be wrong.

But :-

1. Was the note actually made public for somebody to replicate in the first place.
2. As this was the Pines card why would somebody replicate the writing from this as opposed to the the confirmed Zodiac letters ?

I don’t know if the bank robbery note was made public in 1968 (I doubt it). As for the Pines card, I doubt it has any relevance, because that written section of "Zodiac" wasn’t the original version on the 1968 demand note. We don’t know how Zodiac was written on the original.

Richard Grinell said;
"The version you see is a suspect replicating the handwriting,
like Arthur Leigh Allen was asked to write Zodiac material."

Why causes you to think this? Why can’t what is shown just be
the actual original of the bank robbery demand note?

Richard Grinell said;
"The version you see is a suspect replicating the handwriting,
like Arthur Leigh Allen was asked to write Zodiac material."

Why causes you to think this? Why can’t what is shown just be
the actual original of the bank robbery demand note?

"A request to compare writing on demand note submitted previously in the case (redacted) Wells Fargo Bank, Sutter Street Office, San Francisco, California, 12/3/68; BR" with the specimens in captioned case". The captioned case being the specimens submitted.

The FBI document also states "It was not determined whether the specimens in the captioned case were prepared by the writer of the Q1 demand note in the case".

Seems to me that you’re somehow come to a particular interpretation
of what you think the FBI officialese language used could mean.

The way I read that FBI Request Received document, the meaning of
“Request to compare writing on demand note submitted previously
in the case — Wells Fargo Bank, Sutter Street Office, San Francisco
California, 12/3/68: BR” with the specimens in captioned case.“
is meant to convey this interpretation;
‘compare writing on (Bank Robbery) demand note, submitted
previously in the case — Wells Fargo Bank (etc.) BR”(=Bank Robbery?),
with the specimens (i.e. other Zodiac letter handwritings) in the
captioned case (i.e. the Captioned Case referenced in the FBI Request
Received document , that Captioned Case being plainly seen as
‘ZODIAC EXTORTION‘).’

I don’t understand how the wording in the FBI Request Received document
leads you to your interpretation, that you stated to Cragle as “The version”
(of the demand note) “you see is a suspect replicating the handwriting,
like Arthur Leigh Allen was asked to write Zodiac material.” ??

You may very well be correct. That would mean a demand note containing the pseudonym "Zodiac" seventeen days before the Lake Herman Road murders. But like most things Buyerninety, it will be routinely dismissed as irrelevant.

You may very well be correct. That would mean a demand note containing the pseudonym "Zodiac" seventeen days before the Lake Herman Road murders. But like most things Buyerninety, it will be routinely dismissed as irrelevant.

Could this be why the FBI has always been involved in the case? The threats in Zodiac’s letters could not be classified as extortion due to the lack of a ransom, but bank robbery is another matter.

You may very well be correct. That would mean a demand note containing the pseudonym "Zodiac" seventeen days before the Lake Herman Road murders. But like most things Buyerninety, it will be routinely dismissed as irrelevant.

Could this be why the FBI has always been involved in the case? The threats in Zodiac’s letters could not be classified as extortion due to the lack of a ransom, but bank robbery is another matter.

Even as early as the July 1969 letters in the FBI files, it was classified as extortion. Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. Robbery is just the simplest and most common form of extortion. Demanding the printing of letters in the newspapers under threat of murder or violence is classified as extortion. Wells Fargo in Sutter Street sits alongside Union Square, the area where Paul Stine was requisitioned.