Hi Alice.

Lurk all you want and enjoy. Thanks for finally saying Hi lol.

Good luck with the PHd and hopefully you get something out of being here.

Trav.

Welcome Alice aka Zazu,
Looking forward to your view points
Zincerely, Zam*

Welcome Zazu, looking forward to hearing your opinions

Zazu – Hi there, and in regard to the quality of your written English, I’d say you have nothing to worry about.

Hi Alice…

welcome to the board.

I do believe that Z had been dyslexic to some grade…do you know if and why this also might come with Z’s strange voice? He had told Nancy Slover ‘Gooooood Byyyyyyyyye’ in sort of a creepy way and it has been mentioned that his voice was sort of robotic when he was in rage or on the phone.

To write letters with errors however, on first appearance, is something completely different.

Can those two behaviours somehow be connected? Thanks if you know anything about that.

QT

I do believe that Z had been dyslexic to some grade…do you know if and why this also might come with Z’s strange voice? He had told Nancy Slover ‘Gooooood Byyyyyyyyye’ in sort of a creepy way and it has been mentioned that his voice was sort of robotic when he was in rage or on the phone.

To write letters with errors however, on first appearance, is something completely different.

Can those two behaviours somehow be connected? Thanks if you know anything about that.

QT

Hello.
To begin with, it is important to note that dyslexia is believed to be more genetic than psychological disorder, tho latest researches shows that psychological aspects plays crucial role in it’s development.
Dyslexia can occur in persons’ writing and also in a speech, but it is not necessary that one individual would contain both of them in an active form. For example, person can write "normally", but at the same time have troubles with a speech.
Writing errors are related to speech recognition mechanism and speech as such, in case if person is reading text or trying to make a grammatically correct sentence. An individual who have dyslectic speech disorder and who is reading a text (especially in particularly high excitability conditions) would usually make words sound long, because of speech recognition problem. They also tend to mess up words, stammer and blend sounds to make a certain word, also it may take a certain time to say a sentence due to a problem of thought organization.
Speech disorder for people with dyslexia usually includes mainly five aspects:
1) Hoarseness;
2) Complete loss of voice for certain period of time;
3) Strain while speaking;
4) Vocal nodules;
5) Breathing difficulties while speaking.
As for my personal experience from working with kids who suffer from dyslexia (6-8y old), I’ve experienced certain things which lead me to think that dyslectic speech disorder is strongly linked with psychological matters. For example some 75% (more or less) of kids with this problem tend to hide their face from a people they are talking to (including cases when they hide their face while talking to some animal – cat, dog, etc.). Face hiding phenomenon tends to help solving their dyslectic speech problem and gives them more confidence for a period of speech act. Most commonly kids:
1) Tend to hide behind table, chair, other obstacles;
2) Hides in closet;
3) Turns back on their discussion partners or asks them not to look on them, because they don’t let them talk;
4) Covers their face with something;
5) Talks with a person who doesn’t look on them.
If we now follow the possibility that Zodiac, when making his phone calls to police, was actually reading content of his message from a paper to not forget all that he wanted to say (if he had dyslexia and problems with organizing his speech into logically constructed sentences), then yes, it could of affect speech in a way that witnesses described.
However I doubt that this voice problem in this particular case can be related to dyslexia. There are so many speech disorders (genetic/psychological/neurological) and many of them still haven’t been fully explained and researched. Voice changes due to anger can as well point to so called Repressed anger syndrome. Also speech defects doesn’t always lead us to some psychological/genetic disorders. Might as well be unsuccessful speech organ surgery, brain injury. Might as well be: "I want to sound creepy"
But in this context – as much as I’ve read about Zodiac – monotone robotic voice, clumsy walk, etc., I’d rather suggest a closer look at Asperger syndrome (maybe an early stage of Parkinson’s disease, depending on his age).
Crucial factor (and still not enough) to answer this question would be to know Zodiac’s exact age by the time of his crimes, because dyslectic speech disorder for 25y old guy can be completely different as for a 45y old one. That is why I suggested closer look to Asperger syndrome with it’s most common symptoms:
1) Difficulty with social skills;
2) Inability to develop peer relationships;
3) Socially and emotionally inappropriate responses;
4) Unusually loud or monotonous voice with a certain rhythm;
5) Physically awkward, clumsy and uncoordinated motor movements;
6) Talks at length about a subject or repeats a word or phrase many times;
7) Normal to superior intellectual abilities;
8) Preoccupation with their own agenda – in their "own world";
9) Unusually accurate memory for details;
10) Formal manner of speaking;
11) Unaware of others’ feelings;
12) Areas of special interest, particularly in intellectual areas (math, science, reading) or parts of objects;
13) Difficulty with nonverbal communication – limited use of gestures, clumsy body language, inappropriate facial expressions;
14) Obsessiveness with routines.

But this all is just my subjective view And honestly I don’t like this what psychology does with adjusting objective symptoms to everyone. Each case is sooooo individual and you can never find any person who doesn’t fit to any disorder symptom ever given by psychologists.

Nice to have you posting Zazu!

Very good post, Zazu, thanks for this detailled perspective.

As far as I know, some references on those ‘criteria’:

‘Physically awkward, clumsy and uncoordinated motor movements’ (Ted Kaczynski was limping, btw)
– Officer Fouke: “Stumbling along, lumbering Gait, a semi-limp walking motion"
– Girl at Lake Berryessa: "a girl at Lake Berryessa observed that a man watching them who may have been the Zodiac ‘favored one leg over the other’".
– Possibly Mary Elizabeth Grant: ‘he had the most horribly insane looking face I’ve ever seen.’

Breathing difficulties while speaking
– The Ferrins stated that the caller said nothing; only the sound of heavy breathing could be heard over the line.

Complete loss of voice for certain period of time
– ‘This is Zodiac. I just killed (inaudible)’. The call occurred at 1:59 pm at the FBI’s Sacramento office switchboard. The voice on the line trails off at the end of the statement. This was similar to the LB call where the caller says he killed someone and then his voice diminishes at the end of his statement. The operator who took the call said that after the word "killed", the caller’s "voice began to soften until it faded away entirely. Then he hung up."

Vocal nodules
– Nancy Slover: "Goooood..byyyyeee"

Talks at length about a subject or repeats a word or phrase many times
– Kathleen Johns: It was after that the driver got threatening and constantly repeated the same two statements, except for when he suddenly said ‘I want to throw the baby out of the car.’

Unusually loud or monotonous voice with a certain rhythm
– Kathleen Johns: ‘He, with a flat monotone voice said ‘when I get through them they won’t need any help.’

Unusually accurate memory for details
– July 31st 1969 letter: "the boy was on his back with his feet to the car…the girl was on her right side feet to the west"

Preoccupation with their own agenda – in their "own world"
– 408-Cipher: ‘Because you will try to slow down or stop my collecting of slaves for my afterlife.’

Formal manner of speaking
– Brian Hartnell: ‘Not an accent, but a distinctive cadence to it, very slow and measured.’

Areas of special interest, particularly in intellectual areas (math, science, reading) or parts of objects
– The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians & # inches along the radians

Besides that, Z had definitely proven his ‘unawareness of others’ feelings’ as well as his ‘difficulty with social skills’. At least 9-10 aspects of this Asperger syndrome theory seem to be fulfilled. An additional one could possibly be a psychogenic headache.

QT

Very good post, Zazu, thanks for this detailled perspective.

As far as I know, some references on those ‘criteria’:

‘Physically awkward, clumsy and uncoordinated motor movements’ (Ted Kaczynski was limping, btw)
– Officer Fouke: “Stumbling along, lumbering Gait, a semi-limp walking motion"
– Girl at Lake Berryessa: "a girl at Lake Berryessa observed that a man watching them who may have been the Zodiac ‘favored one leg over the other’".
– Possibly Mary Elizabeth Grant: ‘he had the most horribly insane looking face I’ve ever seen.’

Breathing difficulties while speaking
– The Ferrins stated that the caller said nothing; only the sound of heavy breathing could be heard over the line.

Complete loss of voice for certain period of time
– ‘This is Zodiac. I just killed (inaudible)’. The call occurred at 1:59 pm at the FBI’s Sacramento office switchboard. The voice on the line trails off at the end of the statement. This was similar to the LB call where the caller says he killed someone and then his voice diminishes at the end of his statement. The operator who took the call said that after the word "killed", the caller’s "voice began to soften until it faded away entirely. Then he hung up."

Vocal nodules
– Nancy Slover: "Goooood..byyyyeee"

Talks at length about a subject or repeats a word or phrase many times
– Kathleen Johns: It was after that the driver got threatening and constantly repeated the same two statements, except for when he suddenly said ‘I want to throw the baby out of the car.’

Unusually loud or monotonous voice with a certain rhythm
– Kathleen Johns: ‘He, with a flat monotone voice said ‘when I get through them they won’t need any help.’

Unusually accurate memory for details
– July 31st 1969 letter: "the boy was on his back with his feet to the car…the girl was on her right side feet to the west"

Preoccupation with their own agenda – in their "own world"
– 408-Cipher: ‘Because you will try to slow down or stop my collecting of slaves for my afterlife.’

Formal manner of speaking
– Brian Hartnell: ‘Not an accent, but a distinctive cadence to it, very slow and measured.’

Areas of special interest, particularly in intellectual areas (math, science, reading) or parts of objects
– The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians & # inches along the radians

Besides that, Z had definitely proven his ‘unawareness of others’ feelings’ as well as his ‘difficulty with social skills’. At least 9-10 aspects of this Asperger syndrome theory seem to be fulfilled. An additional one could possibly be a psychogenic headache.

QT

Thank you for connecting given symptoms to facts! Some of them I had in my mind when writing symptoms down, but not all, and some of them are new to me.
But unfortunately that allows us to talk only about some visual and vocal aspects (which are of course very important). None of these genetic/neurological symptoms links straightly to psychopathology (they, however, can be part of the cause), which I think is very subjective and individual in each such case and for that matter – crucial. Of course, if Zodiac actually had all these other physical "disorders", they could of affect development of psychopathology. Speaking from a Freudian context now – I think in this particular case Zodiac’s persona and killing as such might of been a way for self-justification for himself (relationship between subject’s heteronomy and autonomy), which is closely linked to Freud’s theory of so called "death drive", later analysed in psychoanalytic way by Michel Foucault as power relations between individual’s Ego and Super-Ego structures. But I don’t think we need to go so deep now
P.S. While I am at psychoanalysis – have anyone ever done psychoanalytic research of Zodiac’s drawing patterns?

Doing a little self-bump to remind about myself in need for an introduction.
Unfortunately this is too sad and too tragic day for my country, so I will skip happy introduction part.