I’m Mark, live in Minnesota, and have been interested in Z for years now. I’ll binge on it, going a week or so reading whatever I can about the case, then go a few years with it in the back of my mind, and then get back into it.

I’ve always thought that eventually the case will be solved as follows: Usable DNA will be extracted from some of the letters/stamps, and then, one by one, suspects will be eliminated by comparing that sample to samples gathered of living direct relatives.

When I first started looking at Z, I read about the suspects. The first was Allen, and I thought "it has to be him." Then I read about Marshall and came to the same conclusion. Then kane, and so on. My background is in IT, business analysis and quality assurance analysis. So I approach this mystery that way. The first three questions I’ve asked here go to that:

1. Were there words that were spelled correctly in some letters, then mis-spelled in others? Answer given: Yes. To me this implies a high intellect and level of sophistication. The ciphers could be essentially bogus, or the methodology simply copied from a reference book or something. But Z was not a poor speller. Rather, someone pretending to be. In other words, he was deliberately trying to hide his intelligence, even while telling us how intelligent he was.

2. I asked if Allen’s typewriter was ever tested against the typewritten letters, and the answer received was, probably not. This is annoying, because a worn or flawed key could basically fingerprint such a typewriter directly to a letter. If that typewriter is still in an evidence room somewhere, that type (no pun intended) of testing could still be performed.

3. Today I asked about the artwork on the cards sent by Z. They look pretty elaborate to me. I was wondering if any of the suspects had artistic ability. Marshall created posters with lettering, but I have not seen evidence he could draw pictures.

Anyway, I have already spent over 10 hours reading on this forum, and I sincerely appreciate all the work you have all done. I also appreciate your time and patience with my questions, which I’m sure are all very basic to you.

-Mark