The latter, because still to this day they have no clue who he is.

The latter, because still to this day they have no clue who he is.

Hmmm….

I suppose you are right.

…and since the correspondence ceased around the early 1970s, and since nobody had been charged in connection to the zodiac case, I guess we would have no way of ever knowing.

Though, I was just thinking, because he calls it a "game" and gives us a "scoreboard", so, you figure our side would also have the potential to score points…

I mean, would he give us a point for cracking the z340 or finding a bomb? Do we gather points by preventing future planned zodiac homicides? Or could we gather points by apprehending the individual(s) involved?

I know it’s stupid and rather pointless in terms of actually making progress in the case, I am simply a researcher, most of the progress is made by the individuals using this site and other related sites, and the last thing I want to do is get in their way, but just for conversations sake and curiosity I end up asking questions like this.

I can understand it’s not high priority zodiac material, and that a solid answer probably can not be found, but if anybody has any other thoughts, just for the heck of it, please share.

Though, I was just thinking, because he calls it a "game" and gives us a "scoreboard", so, you figure our side would also have the potential to score points…

I can understand it’s not high priority zodiac material, and that a solid answer probably can not be found, but if anybody has any other thoughts, just for the heck of it, please share.

It was not a "fair" game. Nothing about it was fair. Shooting helpless victims at point-blank range was not fair.

A "fair" scorecard would’ve looked something like this:

Me – 5
Victims who beat me in my efforts to kill them – 2

Z’s attitude seems to me to be much like that of TK sending bombs. Victims may die, or be maimed, and really, no matter because the terror of a shooting or a bombing, on the public at large, was the point all along.

Though, I was just thinking, because he calls it a "game" and gives us a "scoreboard", so, you figure our side would also have the potential to score points…

I can understand it’s not high priority zodiac material, and that a solid answer probably can not be found, but if anybody has any other thoughts, just for the heck of it, please share.

It was not a "fair" game. Nothing about it was fair. Shooting helpless victims at point-blank range was not fair.

A "fair" scorecard would’ve looked something like this:

Me – 5
Victims who beat me in my efforts to kill them – 2

Z’s attitude seems to me to be much like that of TK sending bombs. Victims may die, be maimed, escape serious harm, and really, no matter because the terror of a shooting or a bombing, on the public at large, was the point all along.

Good point.

Though, I mean, as far as the victims go it was not a fair game, but for the police it was a different story, the police had a whole force of men, they have experts and laboratories and legal authority and they were up against a single psycho…

I see your point though.

Very interesting theory there , and I have to say that to some extent I agree with what you are saying . Didn’t Zodiac refer to his “ game “ as “ Outdoor Chess “ ? That could be what he meant when he was talking about keeping score .

Very interesting theory there , and I have to say that to some extent I agree with what you are saying . Didn’t Zodiac refer to his “ game “ as “ Outdoor Chess “ ? That could be what he meant when he was talking about keeping score .

Hmmm… I think I remember something like that as well.

…it kind of was an outdoor chess game, it was psychologically involved, each side had the potential to make moves, to calculate their opponents moves, to score points by taking opponents pieces, and each side had the potential to discover the other sides strategy and foil their opponents plans forcing them to improvise, and each side had the potential to execute complicated maneuvers which were planned several turns in advance.

…Though it was a game between the police and the zodiac, the victims were tragic collateral-damage in this psychopath’s "game". Maybe the press and public were players as well, I mean, we were all directly challenged to catch this guy, but the police seemed to definitely be key players here.

I guess the game was: " stop the zodiac, save innocent lives"

If anything it could tell us something about the psychology of zodiac, and how he viewed what he was doing.

…though I feel the first response here was probably right, the "scoreboard" was probably just a mechanism for taunting the press, the public, and the police, and actually keeping a legitimate score may have been besides the point.

I think the " scoreboard " had a dual purpose for him as a way of taunting and literally keeping track of how many people he had made his " slaves " .
That’s also one of those things that has intuited me about this case , the whole slaves for the afterlife thing he was going on about – maybe an unrecognized
religious clue ? The ancient Egyptian pantheon ( like many religions from antiquity ) is very focused on doing literally ANYTHING to make the afterlife more
enjoyable somehow . I’m thinking that if that’s the case Zodiac was probably a follower/member of some obscure Pagan sect perhaps . Just a thought .

To me, this whole thing about slaves in the afterlife is just provocation. I think Zodiac’s main purpose was to be a kind of social disruptor, and he certainly added that to his own darkest desires (killing).

To me, this whole thing about slaves in the afterlife is just provocation. I think Zodiac’s main purpose was to be a kind of social disruptor, and he certainly added that to his own darkest desires (killing).

I think that in the end he got extremely frustrated with the fact that he couldn’t separate those 2 desires ( Being a socially disrupting entity and collecting " slaves " )
which may be part of the reason why the letters stopped . Assuming that being a social disturbance was one of his goals of course . There’s something very complex
about Zodiacs psychology in the sense that one day he’s in control of his own emotions and the next he’s an utter train wreck , something you can kind of see in the later letters .

Yes, clearly in the end he was out of control of himself. But to me, his victims were purely instrumental, these murders were committed mainly to get society’s attention. I am sure he wanted to frighten Frisco, most certainly because he hated the freedom of being this city represented at the time. Still, he commited murders in Vallejo, in remote locations, and on "easy targets", so he didn’t take risks, and he got to SF only through his letters, which kinda worked (the schoolbus frenzy, the search for the Mount Diablo bomb), but he never carried out his threats in SF. The only time he "worked" in SF, he got so close to be arrested that he never tried again, and actually I’m pretty sure that’s what made him stop killing, and since he had got the public and media’s attention anyway, he carried on only through letters, and when he got too frustrated that nobody could understand all his codes and riddles and puzzles, he just got away from "the game" he had himself created.

Just noticed, if you count Ray Davis as a victim,
Followed by

Domingos and Edwards
The Swindles
Bates
Molina and Rodriguez
Faraday and Jensen
Ferrin and Mageau
Hartnell and Shepard
Stine
and finally Hood and Garcia on Feb, 21st 1970, that’s 17 people if you don’t count the woman and her baby a month later.

The 3-13-1971 LA times letter says 17.

A few years later that number changed to 37 in the exorcist letter. That’s plenty of time for 20 people. Who knows, right?

Just noticed, if you count Ray Davis as a victim,
Followed by

Domingos and Edwards
The Swindles
Bates
Molina and Rodriguez
Faraday and Jensen
Ferrin and Mageau
Hartnell and Shepard
Stine
and finally Hood and Garcia on Feb, 21st 1970, that’s 17 people if you don’t count the woman and her baby a month later.

The 3-13-1971 LA times letter says 17.

A few years later that number changed to 37 in the exorcist letter. That’s plenty of time for 20 people. Who knows, right?

I think it is entirely plausible Zodiac was telling the truth about 37 victims. We only need to look at the likes of Bundy, Alcala or DeAngelo to see how prolific killers could be in the age before DNA and other technology that would have otherwise stopped them.

Definitely agree. It seems to make a good starting point. Seen Ray Davis introduced on another website a couple weeks back, it was the first time the number in the exorcist letter made sense for reason. That was a good find in that girls part for sure.

I was just looking at this. Go figure!

So he says 10 in a 4/20/70 letter:
Oceanside
Domingos
Edwards
Swindle
Swindle
Walker
Bates
Faraday
Jensen
Ferrin
Shepherd
Stine

That’s the 12 most likely. So, not far off.

6/26/70 letter, he says 12, including a man in a parked car.
man in parked car, a Reddit user says a civil rights activist was shot in a parked car in Riverside around this time. So the whole cop thing might be a bad assumption.
??????

7/26/70 letter: 13
???

10/31/70 Halloween card: 14
Bennallack

3/31/71 letter: 17+
Donna Lass
????
????

I don’t think the number are all that hard to believe, actually.

If you can help me fill these out, it would be interesting.