Plus, Zodiac certainly isn’t the type to boast his murder count hadn’t gone up. –"Still 13". 10/5/70

The other 13 was from the other paste up card, right? Maybe he just mailed them in the wrong order. haha

other than the obvious motive of boasting, another reason for the increasing body count is if he was hoping LE might pin some murders on him that he didn’t do, which would further help obscure attempts to find him or analyze his methods. the kathleen johns kidnapping is a great example of this – if he didn’t do it then a lot of people are attributing certain things to him based on something he didn’t do, which works out well for him as far as making it harder to determine facts about him and his methods.

Good point!

In the Pines Card Zodiac never actually claimed 12 victims, only ‘sought victim 12.
The Pines Card was the anniversary of the Modesto Attack, had he killed Kathleen Johns and Jennifer his victim total in the ‘My Name is Cipher’ would have read 12 not 10. He sought 12, however never achieved it. Maybe the Pines Card is referencing the Modesto Abduction and not the Donna Lass disappearance.

In the Pines Card Zodiac never actually claimed 12 victims, only ‘sought victim 12.
The Pines Card was the anniversary of the Modesto Attack, had he killed Kathleen Johns and Jennifer his victim total in the ‘My Name is Cipher’ would have read 12 not 10. He sought 12, however never achieved it. Maybe the Pines Card is referencing the Modesto Abduction and not the Donna Lass disappearance.

The Zodiac we KNOW was Zodiac had already claimed 12 victims…a hint at Officer Radetich. June – 1970

Why would a Lake Tahoe post card hint at Kathleen Johns? He already outright talked about her. No need for innuendo now. The Pines card makes no sense.

In the Pines Card Zodiac never actually claimed 12 victims, only ‘sought victim 12.
The Pines Card was the anniversary of the Modesto Attack, had he killed Kathleen Johns and Jennifer his victim total in the ‘My Name is Cipher’ would have read 12 not 10. He sought 12, however never achieved it. Maybe the Pines Card is referencing the Modesto Abduction and not the Donna Lass disappearance.

Good theory to explain the "sought"…he wanted to kill them, but was not able to do so.

In the Pines Card Zodiac never actually claimed 12 victims, only ‘sought victim 12.
The Pines Card was the anniversary of the Modesto Attack, had he killed Kathleen Johns and Jennifer his victim total in the ‘My Name is Cipher’ would have read 12 not 10. He sought 12, however never achieved it. Maybe the Pines Card is referencing the Modesto Abduction and not the Donna Lass disappearance.

Good theory to explain the "sought"…he wanted to kill them, but was not able to do so.

Which still doesn’t explain things.

He claimed victim 12 in June. If he sought anyone, it was the victim he killed.

He wouldn’t say he sought VICTIM 12, after he had claimed he killed victim 12 in June unless the victim he is referring to was the person he killed.

He had already spoke of KJ, there was no secret to that. Donna makes zero sense–and considering timing it (10 days after the 17+ article sent to the L.A. Times, no longer the Chronicle because of the "back pages"..) it appears Donna is who the sender wanted us to believe he was referring to. But why not just say it, like Zodiac always had? Because (imo) it was hogwash. I believe the sender of the Pines card f-ed up–it is filled with reasons to not even consider it, but it adds to the mystique of things so people try and justify how hit could fit in.

Many have speculated that Stine was a wakeup call of sorts for Z: He was almost caught, and came to realize that he didn’t want to take further risks by – actually – attacking anyone. And so he continued his campaign through letters alone.

If there’s some truth to this (and I believe it is), his reason for upping the body count was two-fold: 1. It was part and parcel of the campaign: He wanted to scare and terrorize the public, maintain his bogeyman status, if you will. And he wanted to taunt the cops: I’m still out there, still killing people, and you can’t catch me. 2. What masootz suggests above: He was deliberately associating himself with crimes he did not commit as a means to throw the investigators off the scent. The more time they spent on investigating irrelevant episodes, the better for him.

Plus, Zodiac certainly isn’t the type to boast his murder count hadn’t gone up. –"Still 13". 10/5/70

The Zodiac’s Little List letter was withheld from the public until October 12th 1970, when the San Francisco Chronicle published the article ‘Gilbert and Sullivan Clue to Zodiac’. So when Zodiac mailed the 13 Hole Postcard on October 5th, he was yet to see his first correspondence totaling 13 exhibited in the newspaper as he expected. This was undeniably a deliberate act on behalf of police to illicit a response from Zodiac, which worked, he mailed a further correspondence with 13 on it, the 13 Hole Postcard.

It’s a matter of what was claimed. Law enforcement knew this claim and months later…it’s the still the same. While Zodiac may have liked some of stuff published, his real intent was to screw with LE. "Still 13…" My personal opinion is, no way.

The Zodiac’s Little List letter was withheld from the public until October 12th 1970, when the San Francisco Chronicle published the article ‘Gilbert and Sullivan Clue to Zodiac’. So when Zodiac mailed the 13 Hole Postcard on October 5th, he was yet to see his first correspondence totaling 13 exhibited in the newspaper as he expected. This was undeniably a deliberate act on behalf of police to illicit a response from Zodiac, which worked, he mailed a further correspondence with 13 on it, the 13 Hole Postcard.

While this is certainly possible, I would make the following remarks:

For me it is very unlikely that Z’s body count was real. I find it much more likely that he was simply using this “signature” as a part of his campaign of terror. It would be of some importance to him to a) keep increasing the number of victims and b) make sure he didn’t contradict himself by suddenly posting a lower number than his previous one. Beyond this, I don’t think the body count held any significance for him. In other words, I find it unlikely that he would go with “13” in October ’70 when he had already announced this number several months prior, simply because the “little list” letter (where he originally claimed “13” had not been published.

A copycat, being familiar with his published letters and claims, would opt for “13” for the obvious reason that the last known count was “12” ("buttons"). My take on it is that a genuine Z communication from October would have claimed a higher body count than 13. That was the game: Keep upping it as a means to taunt to the cops (and scare the public). Beyond the – for me – questionable October ’70 communications (“fk” and the Halloween Card) we have two letters: L.A. Times from March ’71 (where he claims “17+” victims) and Exorcist from January ’74 (where he claims 37).

It is intriguing (or not, depending on how one views these communications) that a Zodiac most consider confirmed and undoubted uses the “crack proof” expression from the “fk” card in his L.A. Times letter from ’71. Many have taken this as confirmation that “fk” is genuine. But “fk” was published well before March ’71. And Z undoubtedly kept up with how the press covered his campaign. So it is entirely possible for my money – but, like I say, intriguing – that he could have…well, copycatted the copycat. I can see him finding that pretty amusing, actually. At any rate, the publication history means that the “crack proof” expression can’t be classed as decisive.

As a last note, I might also add what Paul Avery notes in May ’71, a couple of months after the L.A. Times letter: The cops initially considered “fk” genuine, but changed their minds and ended up in agreement with Avery himself (who didn’t buy “fk” as genuine from the very beginning).

It’s a matter of what was claimed. Law enforcement knew this claim and months later…it’s the still the same. While Zodiac may have liked some of stuff published, his real intent was to screw with LE. "Still 13…" My personal opinion is, no way.

The Zodiac didn’t give a rats behind about the police. Everything he did he did for himself. He needed to see himself in print. My opinion of course.

Soze

No doubt soze but it seems to me he has some sort of beef with cops. I wouldn’t doubt if he wanted to be one, but didn’t make the cut.