If it is possible/likely that the 1962 letter writer was the Zodiac, its imo a good and overlooked clue that he was probably living in Chicago then.

I like TK but it blows my theory out on how to tie in CJB..oh well my theory its prolly a bust from all angles/sides…1 thing that has irked me for a long time is TK is still alive so why not talk to the guy..has he been interviewed by the FBI or various other LEO agencies?….of all the POI’s TK seems like a leading candidate to me (found a hood in his shack)..sure as heck was smart enuff to write codes and such…but why go after kids..seems he would have been wacking developers and such..just some thoughts

For Ted as Z to work I would think you’d have to look at it as two very different sides of a coin. The Zodiac killings seem to be about the thrill, power and lust for attention as he creates a ludicrous persona in the press with which to mock the authorities. Then you have Ted the much more sober intellectual who is desperately trying to rescue society from the evil corporations and government. It is an interesting theory to be sure, but I have trouble seeing Ted as a guy who’d pull a trigger or stab away at helpless kids. Mail bombs are much more impersonal (for Ted, that is).

Regardless, I imagine present day Ted would deny involvement even if he were Z. He seems quite proud of the persona he’s cultivated these last couple decades.

For Ted as Z to work I would think you’d have to look at it as two very different sides of a coin. The Zodiac killings seem to be about the thrill, power and lust for attention as he creates a ludicrous persona in the press with which to mock the authorities. Then you have Ted the much more sober intellectual who is desperately trying to rescue society from the evil corporations and government. It is an interesting theory to be sure, but I have trouble seeing Ted as a guy who’d pull a trigger or stab away at helpless kids. Mail bombs are much more impersonal (for Ted, that is).

Regardless, I imagine present day Ted would deny involvement even if he were Z. He seems quite proud of the persona he’s cultivated these last couple decades.

Right. Nachtsider summed it up correctly I think:

Nachtsider wrote:The thing about the ‘Kaczynski as Zodiac’ theory is that it postulates Kacyznski would rather his time as Zodiac remain dead and buried, for admitting he was Zodiac would shatter the image of him as a controlled, clinical, highly intelligent anti-technology crusader, instead making the public remember him as the sexually frustrated lunatic who went around cowardly killing helpless young people.

Exactly IMO. Ted decided he would rather face the death penalty than have his lawyers say he was insane. As the Bates letter writer said "I am not sick", Ted said "I am not a sickie. They were going to portray me as a sickie."

Ted is a hero to some people in the anarchist primitivist movement and the radical environmental groups. He is interviewed by college professors and cited in journals. They view him as a political terrorist, a leader in a cause, someone who fought against big corporations and technology.

The Zodiac is a serial killer, viewed in the category of Jack the Ripper and Ted Bundy, a sick psychopath who shot teenagers in the back, a lovers lane stalker who took out his sexual frustrations on innocent men and women. Zodiac does get some "praise" for being a genius, going uncaught and making unsolvable codes. Yet these are overshadowed by killing teens and the label as a psycho.

I think Ted is happy with how he is viewed now. Other than teasing references, like signing his name with a huge Z, I doubt he will ever admit to being Zodiac.

I like TK but it blows my theory out on how to tie in CJB..oh well my theory its prolly a bust from all angles/sides…1 thing that has irked me for a long time is TK is still alive so why not talk to the guy..has he been interviewed by the FBI or various other LEO agencies?….of all the POI’s TK seems like a leading candidate to me (found a hood in his shack)..sure as heck was smart enuff to write codes and such…but why go after kids..seems he would have been wacking developers and such..just some thoughts

See the post above for why Ted will not admit to being Zodiac.

No he ties into Bates very well. Ted completed all his University of Michigan coursework in spring 1966, and ended his TA duties then. There was nothing to tie him to Michigan or Illinois. He had a breakdown in September 1966, while in Michigan, and right after that crimes start happening in the Midwest. Then, Ted goes to California for the Fall/Winter of 1966, to interview for a professor job with the University of California. We know he interviewed at U Cal Berkeley, we don’t know if he visited other U Cal campuses, like LA or Riverside, either for interviews or to finish research or for other reasons. Based on available evidence, it seems likely he was in the State of California when Bates was killed and the letters written. He moves to Berkeley, California in the Spring of 1967, again putting him in the state when more Bates letters are written.

As for Ted wanting to kill only scientists and businessmen, not true in the late 1960’s. He identified college students, promiscuous women and love making couples as targets of his rage.

THE BIRTH OF THE ZODIAC?

In the summer of 1966, most likely late August/early September 1966, Ted Kaczynski records a break through moment in his life. He is a genius, yet socially alienated and isolated. He decribes hearing the sound of couples having sex in the apartment next door to his, and he says it fills him with frustration and anger. Out of despair and self described "acute sexual starvation", he records in his journal that instead of killing himself he will "really kill everyone I hate."

The people he says he hates and wants to kill are many, but they include two distinct groups. One group is what he calls "bigshots" or "government officials", and these include "scientists", "big businessmen", "politicians" and "police".

The other group of people he hated and wanted to kill included love making "couples", "rowdy college students" and those college men and women he deems "promiscuous". How does that match up with the targets of Zodiac, who preyed on couples in areas known for making out or having sex? Look at the government psychiatric report on Kaczynski done after he was arrested for the Unabomber crimes:

In the summer after his fourth year [of graduate school, the summer of 1966], he describes experiencing a period of several weeks where he was sexually excited nearly all the time and was fantasizing himself as a woman and being unable to obtain any sexual relief. He decided to make an effort to have a sex change operation. When he returned to the University of Michigan [most likely in late August or early September 1966] he made an appointment to see a psychiatrist to be examined to determine if the sex change would be good for him. He claimed that by putting on an act he could con the psychiatrist into thinking him suitable for a feminine role even though his motive was exclusively erotic. As he was sitting in the waiting room, he turned completely against the idea of the operation and thus, when he saw the doctor, instead claimed he was depressed about the possibility of being drafted. He describes the following:

"As I walked away from the building afterwards, I felt disgusted about what my uncontrolled sexual cravings had almost led me to do and I felt humiliated, and I violently hated the psychiatrist. Just then there came a major turning point in my life. Like a Phoenix, I burst from the ashes of my despair to a glorious new hope. I thought I wanted to kill that psychiatrist because the future looked utterly empty to me. I felt I wouldn’t care if I died. And so I said to myself why not really kill the psychiatrist and anyone else whom I hate. What is important is not the words that ran through my mind but the way I felt about them. What was entirely new was the fact that I really felt I could kill someone. My very hopelessness had liberated me because I no longer cared about death. I no longer cared about consequences and I said to myself that I really could break out of my rut in life an do things that were daring, irresponsible or criminal." [Psych Report] {Emphasis added}

That happened sometime in the summer of 1966, most likely in late August/early September 1966. Probably mere days later, on or around September 3, 1966, bombs go off at the suburban Chicago house of Elmwood Park Mayor Elmer Conti and at a glass company on Paulina St. in Chicago. Within weeks there is another attack on a home of an Illinois politician Republican Senate nominee and Bell & Howell CEO Charles Percy, this one far more brutal and lethal, and his daughter Valerie Percy is murdered on September 18. One week later Monsanto chemical engineer Jerry Bricca, his wife Linda and daughter Debbie in suburban Cincinnati are bound and killed. On October 30, 1966, when evidence shows Ted Kaczynski is in California, the first probable Zodiac crime, the murder of college student Cheri Jo Bates occurs.

His first confirmed Unabomber crime was in 1978, when he was 36 years old. Yet we know from research that the most active and violent period for the majority of serial killers is from their late teens to late twenties. And we see that Kaczynski reports the motivation, desire and ability to kill at least as early as the summer of 1966.

In 1966 he was a sexually frustrated and confused young man who resolved to kill those he hated, which included "bigshots" but also college students and young women. He later recorded a fantasy of mutiliating a woman’s face with a knife. He also wanted to – and did – kill "bigshots" like "big businessmen" and "politicians", and Bell & Howell CEO and soon to be Senator Charles Percy would represent those things to him, as well being a man associated with high technology through his company. And Mr. Bricca was a scientist working for a major corporation. The fathers of Valerie Percy, Linda Bricca and Cheri Jo Bates all worked for companies or facilities involved in technology that had government defense contracts.

In September 1966, of course, Ted was officially enrolled at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. But his TA duties and course work were done, and his thesis almost finished. There was nothing to require him to be physically present at the campus. We know that sometime in the later Fall and/or Winter of 1966 evidence shows he went to California for job interviews at the University of California, Berkeley. Where Percy was killed in Kenilworth, Illinois is ony 30 mintues from the Kaczynski family home in Evergreen Park, Illinois. Ann Arbor is only a three to four hour trip by car or train to Chicago, and a four hour trip by car to Cincinnati, Ohio.

SECOND SKETCH OF SUSPECT IN PERCY MURDER AND PICTURE OF TED KACZYNSKI

COULD KACZYNSKI KILL UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH A KNIFE, BLUNT OBJECT OR GUN?

One of the main objections some people will make to the evidence about Kaczynski being the killer of Valerie Percy, the Zodiac or the EAR/ONS – and I admit it is at first glance a reasonable objection – is that Ted was mainly known to kill with bombs, not up close and personal with a gun, blunt object or knife.

If at some point you talk to an FBI Agent, criminal psychologist or serial killer profiler, they will no doubt tell you that the majority of "distance killers", those who kill by bomb or poison, do not typically also commit "up close and personal" crimes with a gun, knife or blunt object.

First, even if studies of known cases show that majority did not also do personal crimes, there is a minority who did.

Racist Joseph Paul Franklin bombed buildings and did sniper shootings, but also killed women up close and personal. Kaczynski had a unique pathology – a specific hatred of technology, business leaders and politicians (which shows up in his Unabomber crimes from 1978 to 1996 and also may have played in a role in the selection of the Percy and Bricca homes as a target), but also the general rage expressed in 1966, in which he wanted to kill "college students" and women. So Kaczynski may well be in the minority of distance killers who also kill up close and personal.

Second, there is evidence Kaczynski actually thought about and even did kill up close and personal.

The FBI states he actually did shoot and wound a miner with a rifle.

In his journal that recorded in detail all of his bombing crimes, he also wrote of unspecified other crimes whose evidence he had destroyed and accounts of had burned or buried, because their revelation (in light of his growing reputation as a political terrorist and anti-technology activist) could prove "dangerous, embarassing or just very bad public relations." Certainly the brutal murder of a young college girl like Valerie Percy or the lovers lane killings of young couples by the Zodiac would not be something he would want publicly known, when some on the fringes of the radical environmental and anarchist movements now touted him as a hero of sorts.

He recorded a desire to kill people by "bomb or other means". He wrote fantasies about mutilating a women’s face with a knife and raping a woman in front of her husband. He spent a year and made a one shot .22 pistol from wood and junk parts that he wrote he intended to use as a "homicide weapon". As a one shot untraceable weapon, it would best be used in situations were the victim was immobile, such as being bound or asleep.

He created a shoe device to leave false sole prints of sizes other than his own. That would not help for the known Unabomber crimes, but would for up close and personal crimes. The FBI records he had black and green canvas and denim HOODS and MASKS in his cabin – again, only suitable for personal crimes, and both the Zodiac and the EAR/ONS wore hoods and masks. He was a known peeper on love making couples, armed burglar, house trasher and arsonist.

One item I find interesting was that in reading about the EAR/ONS case it was mentioned that his shoe size was thought to be in the 9 to 9 1/2 area, and that matches Kaczynski. But I also read about some smaller shoe prints – an 8 or 8 1/2 – found at one or more scenes. If true that is interesting in light of something found in the Kaczynski cabin. He created a shoe with a smaller size sole attached to the bottom.

Apparently it was invented as a rather clever way to fool police about his own size 9 to 10 shoes, by putting a smaller shoe underneath. See it below.

The strange thing is he did most of his KNOWN crimes by mail, or a few by placing bombs in parking lots or on cement. So why did he create this shoe device? He also had maps of the LA area, yet he was never KNOWN to have done a crime there. Both the shoe device and the LA maps are generally inconsistent or not relevant to his Unabomber crimes, but may match the Zodiac and EAR/ONS crimes.

And SNOOTER, there is a seperate thread here dealing with Kaczynski’s code making skills. You also mentioned the HOOD found in his cabin.

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The existence of the hood found in Kaczynski’s cabin shows that Ted, like Zodiac, wanted and could make a decent hood.

There is also a BLACK HOOD reported as found in Ted’s cabin, but as yet no image I have seen.

Looking at the pictures of Zodiac in costume, it appears the hood has a box shape, like there might be a welding mask type structure. It also appears the hood is connected to the dickey that comes over the chest. So that it is one unit. It also appears in the police drawing that the hood has RECTANGULAR EYE SLITS.

Is it POSSIBLE that he may have wanted to wear a partial face mask hood UNDERNEATH the bulky hood-dickey structure? Perhaps in case it got knocked off during a struggle, so his face would still be partially covered?

Because it does look like the rectangular eye slits on the Kaczynski hood line up quite well with the rectangular eye slits on the Zodiac hood.

And they are both flat on top.

if there is ever anything concrete to place TK in riverside i think it would be next to impossible to refute TK as the most plausible zodiac..like my other post I have liked TK for a long time..when i learned of the hood it just solidified my belief…i still like the oil field/former air force angle but its almost impossible anymore in my mind not to place TK as more than likely..somebody needs to spend a few hours with TK and just see what plays out…if I remember correctly TK would have even fit the K Johns description?…did TK ever own can or even have a valid Drivers license?…

if there is ever anything concrete to place TK in riverside i think it would be next to impossible to refute TK as the most plausible zodiac..like my other post I have liked TK for a long time..when i learned of the hood it just solidified my belief…i still like the oil field/former air force angle but its almost impossible anymore in my mind not to place TK as more than likely..somebody needs to spend a few hours with TK and just see what plays out…if I remember correctly TK would have even fit the K Johns description?…did TK ever own can or even have a valid Drivers license?…

Well I can’t place Ted in Riverside specifically. But the Illinois resident who was attending the University of Michigan had finished his courses and ended his TA job, and evidence shows he did go to California in the Fall/Winter of 1966, to interview at U Cal Berkeley. He may or may not have visited or interviewed at other U Cal campuses like LA or Riverside.

Yes Ted did match up well to the Johns description – 160 pounds, 30 years old. Ted was about 160 pounds and 28 years old in 1970.

Yes Ted did own cars, including a white Pontiac and a red 1950’s Ford or Chevy pickup, and you can see his Illinois and Montana drivers licenses below.

Kaczynski Items Licenses and ID Cards

The Red Phantom letter from October 15, 1962, was from Chicago. Ted Kaczynski had just graduated Harvard in 1962 and was living in Chicago. Ted Kaczynski went to Harvard University. That’s the Harvard Red Crimson. Maybe he got that Red Phantom idea of when he was at Harvard College. They put him to all those crazy experiments. That’s what made him go nuts. He was red with rage.

At Harvard University they have a statue of the dog. The dog is called Phantom. Harvard College president Lawrence Lowell owned Phantom. That was in the 1930s. And every day ted Kaczynski would’ve walked by that statute. The Red Phantom.

I could not save the file to post because it’s from Harvard University archive and it’s not allowed. You can Google it and see it yourself. It’s from an alkaline hobbit magazine.

At Harvard University they have a statue of dog. The dog is called Phantom. Harvard College president Lawrence Lowell owned Phantom. That was in the 1930s. And every day ted Kaczynski would’ve walked by that statute. The Red Phantom.

I could not save the file to post because it’s from Harvard University archive and it’s not allowed. You can Google it and see it yourself. It’s from an Harvard magazine.

At Harvard University they have a statue of the dog. The dog is called Phantom. Harvard College president Lawrence Lowell owned Phantom. That was in the 1930s. And every day ted Kaczynski would’ve walked by that statute. The Red Phantom.

I could not save the file to post because it’s from Harvard University archive and it’s not allowed. You can Google it and see it yourself. It’s from an alkaline hobbit magazine.

Interesting. Although it would more accurately be referred to as the Crimson Phantom, if anything. You can see in this picture of the dog statue at Harvard University, that he is indeed named Phantom, which you can see is engraved on the base of the statue.

Discovered by Chris Y and first posted here by The Foreigner – the 1962 Count Marco column mentioning a Red Phantom.

This shows that Zodiac may have been a Count Marco fan as early as 1962, and if this is Zodiac calling Count Marco a "Red Phantom" in 1962, 12 years before the Zodiac used Red Phantom in the famous letter to Count Marco, it shows that Zodiac may have lived in Chicago in the early 1960’s – just like Ted Kaczynski. To my knowledge, Ted is the only major Zodiac suspect who lived in Chicago in the 1960’s.

AK:

Some very interesting observation from Kite, who read this column and recognized the writing as having similarities to both known Zodiac writing and known Ted Kaczynski writing.

KITE:

That’s absolutely unbelievable that RED PHANTOM was used previously in a Count Marco column, if I’m not mistaken. Is the term Red Phantom common enough to be found by chance in two articles like that or should we conclude that Zodiac, in all probability, read this 1962 letter? Did Zodiac write the 1962 letter? Did Zodiac write both the ’74 and ’62 letter? Did Zodiac write the ’74 letter and only read the ’62 letter, but was impressed by the reply? Is this not a major avenue of investigation–that Zodiac may have been in the Chicago area in 1962?

Note that in this article, the apparent advice of (seeing psychiatrists). And remember also, Zodiac used the word NASTY in the 1/29/74 note ("I will do something NASTY"), while here in 1962, the writer mentions (Nasty face).

[Ted Kaczynski also used this word in his letter to Ellen, "this nasty affair." – AK Wilks]

[The 1962 Count Marco "Red Phantom" writer said "Instead of sneaking up on women…, you should…

Zodiac once wrote(….instead of holding road races with their motorcycles to see who could make the most noise, the car drivers should have…). Compare to the 1962 article.

KITE:

And look at the context of (sneaking up on women like a red phantom)[Very Zodiac like isn’t it – brings to mind the murder of Cheri Bates and Besty Aardsma – AK] .

An even more direct comparison than the one I used from a Zodiac letter above is:

Instead of encouraging your city to grow, you should realize how lucky you are to live in a small town.

That’s the 1970 Minnesota letter [to the newspaper editor] signed by Ted Kaczynski. Here in 1962:

Instead of sneaking up on women like a red phantom…., you should work openly and usefully…..

AK:

So the 1962 "Red Phantom", the Zodiac AND Ted Kaczynski all used a formulation, rather dictatorial, pedantic and teacher like, of "INSTEAD OF…YOU SHOULD…"

Some interesting observations from unazod posters tomc and kite.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what I posted so far? Pro or con? I find it quite interesting that both Zodiac and Kaczynski use the same formulation as the 1962 "red phantom" writer to the Count Marco column, the "instead of…you should" sentence! And I find it interesting that Kaczynski is the only major Zodiac suspect who lived in Chicago in the early 1960’s. Maybe nobody else does?

———————————————————-

TOMC:

I went back to the microfilm of the San Francisco Chronicle in June-July, 1974, to check Count Marco’s column. Count Marco (Mark Spinelli) wrote a woman’s advice column for the paper, which appeared in the "Society" pages Monday through Friday. His columns could be outrageous, and readers had a love/hate relationship with them. I wanted to see what might have triggered the Zodiac to send the "Red Phantom (red with rage)" letter. The letter was postmarked "July 8", a Monday, and sent from San Rafael, CA.

The letter reads: "Editor—Put Marco back in the hell-hole from whence it came—he has a serious psychological disorder—always needs to feel superior. I suggest you refer him to a shrink. Meanwhile, cancel the Count Marco column. Since the Count can write anonymously, so can I ——the Red Phantom (red with rage)"

Beginning with the June 17th column, for the next 2 1/2 weeks Count Marco’s column covered issues ranging from hats to girls as slobs and apple pie. Then, on July 3rd, a Wednesday, his column dealt with psychiatrists and psychologists. It concluded with the lines "You don’t need psychiatry. All you need is the Count Marco column." On the 4th and 5th, the column’s covered "Is Being Called Sexy Degrading" and "Swinging In Marriage".

However, the July 8 column, the date of the postmark, was titled "Why Older Men Have Trouble In Bed"–discussing male impotency in men over 40. (Kaczynski would have been 32 at the time.) Was this the triggering column that so enraged Zodiac, that he mailed the Red Phantom letter? And why?

Consider the following items.

1) Kaczynski, when he had his "turning point" in 1966, writes that at the time, he "wanted to kill that psychiatrist and anyone else whom I hate."

2) In the July 3, 1974 column, Count Marco equates his advice with the level of a psychiatrist, only better that a psychiatrist.

3) In his autobiographical journal, Kaczynski states that when he developed his plan to work 2 years (at Berkeley) to save money to move to the wilderness, he would have to keep himself from reading newspapers. He says, if "I read papers regularly I would build up too much tense and frustrated anger against politicians, dictators, businessmen, scientists, communists, and others in the world who were doing things that endangered me or changed the world in ways I resented." Reading papers, in his own words, could produce a rage in him.

4) The June 12, 1970 letter to the Brainerd (MN) Daily Dispatch, shows Kaczynski could respond with a letter to a newspaper after reading some article that had triggered a response in him.

5) Kaczynski was no stranger to sexual frustration. From the 1966 psychiatrist episode, it was sexual frustration that triggered his desire to kill.

Did Count Marco, in these 2 columns dealing with psychiatry and impotence, combine to trigger the enraged Zodiac to write the "Red Phantom" letter? An enraged Zodiac because he knew years of sexual frustration, hated psychiatrists, could be easily angered by what he read in a newspaper, and had a history of writing letters to newspapers?

I think this provides some decent clues to who the Zodiac was/is, and why the Red Phantom letter was written and sent

A very good analysis AK, as usual, but I don’t believe any of the 1974 communications were Zodiac (and therefore Kaczynski), particularly the Red Phantom correspondence. If have my suspicions on the author of all the 1974 letters, but I won’t bore you with the details. But let us presuppose they were Zodiac. On January 29th 1974 he mailed the threatening Exorcist letter in which he threatens to "do something nasty, which you know I’m capable of doing." Then on May and July 8th of 1974 he is whinging about murder glorification and railing against the male chauvinistic Count Marco, who predominantly receives ire from a female readership. So, effectively the Zodiac is castigating a man who mocks women. This is coming from a man who has effectively stabbed a woman in her back, shot and killed two others, threatened more victims only 5 months earlier – but is now a champion of women, aiming a metaphorical shot at a male chauvinistic columnist. I find the massive shift in sensibilities from a proclaimed serial killer too hard to swallow.

A very good analysis AK, as usual, but I don’t believe any of the 1974 communications were Zodiac (and therefore Kaczynski), particularly the Red Phantom correspondence. If have my suspicions on the author of all the 1974 letters, but I won’t bore you with the details. But let us presuppose they were Zodiac. On January 29th 1974 he mailed the threatening Exorcist letter in which he threatens to "do something nasty, which you know I’m capable of doing." Then on May and July 8th of 1974 he is whinging about murder glorification and railing against the male chauvinistic Count Marco, who predominantly receives ire from a female readership. So, effectively the Zodiac is castigating a man who mocks women. This is coming from a man who has effectively stabbed a woman in her back, shot and killed two others, threatened more victims only 5 months earlier – but is now a champion of women, aiming a metaphorical shot at a male chauvinistic columnist. I find the massive shift in sensibilities from a proclaimed serial killer too hard to swallow.

Ted Kaczynski is schizophrenic. They exhibit multiple personality traits in many cases. One day he hates woman another day he loves them, and because he wanted to sex change to become a woman, he had some affinity for them don’t you think.