Ted had in fact completed all his TA duties and all coursework for his PHD by the summer of 1966. So there was no need for him to be physically present on the U of M campus after the summer of 1966. He did not start teaching at U Cal Berkeley in the fall of 1967, but in the spring of 1967. When he went to California in the fall of 1966 to interview at U Cal Berkeley, he was hired, and most likely moved to California at that time or shortly thereafter.

So he would have been present in California both for the Bates murder in October 1966 and the "Bates had to die" letters mailed from California around April 1967.

Both Sarsaparilla and Snooter mentioned that it was compelling that Ted was the only major named suspect with a black hood found in his residence. I would agree, and further point out, that like the Zodiac hood, it was black, flat on top, with rectangular eye slits and hand made.

Even further, there were other things found in Ted’s residence that you would expect to find in the residence of the Zodiac. These include, out of the hundreds of different types of ammo available, Winchester .22 Super X ammo, also a gun with a flashlight attached to it, Phillips 66 road maps, proof that he was knowledgeable in math and radians, proof that he was interested in code making and had in fact made codes the FBI could not break, proof that he was a bomb designer, etc., etc.

He matches the majority of witness physical descriptions and generally looks like the SF sketch.

Also the SF sketch and wanted poster (and Bennallack/Hakari suspect witness descriptions) mention a possible "red tinge" to his hair. Ted is among the 3% of the US population that has red tinge to his hair.

I note the following conversation between Morf and myself because it touches on many of the issues raised here.

MORF13:what about the fact Ted K looked nothing like the Zodiac sketch??? Seeing is believing, and seeing a comparison of the two tells me all I need to know

I know you and others may not think much of Ted as a Z suspect, but I am honestly puzzled how you (and others) can say Ted "looked nothing like the Z sketch" I think you and many others are thinking only of how Ted looked when captured as the Unabomber in 1996. The grizzled face, long messy hair, bearded and shabby looking recluse. Because in 1969 he looked very much like the Zodiac sketch. Very short hair, neat appearance, clean shaven. His height and weight matched the description given by Officer Fouke and his partner which appears on the SFPD alert, also given by Mageau, Johns and the girls at Lake Berryessa – TK was approx 5’8" – 5’9", 160 pounds.

Look at these photos – most think they match the sketch quite well. Certainly you cannot say Ted looked "nothing like" the sketch. In 1969 it was the height of the hippie movement in California. And the general fashion trend was for men to have longer hair. Yet the Zodiac at SF in 1969 was not a hippie and did not even conform to the then dominant style of longer hair on men.

Similarities between the Zodiac SF sketch and Ted K include short, neatly trimmed hair, stacked on top, large forehead, angular cheekbones, overall "square" type face with no fat (as opposed to round face with fat), prominent jaw line and chin sticks out, "square jawed", similarity in lips, ears similar, redness -puffiness-lines under eyes, no facial hair, smooth face, overall neat, clean "normal" appearance.

Ted K and SF sketch without glasses:

Ted K, Berkeley, 1968 ——————————-SF Zodiac Sketch No Glasses 1969

Ted K………………..…………………SF Zodiac Sketch No Glasses

At the Stine shooting in San Francisco, Zodiac was reported to be wearing glasses, IIRC described as black regular glasses. Ted K did not need to wear glasses to see, but a neighbor states that he did regularly wear dark reading glasses (like Zodiac SF 1969) to protect his eyes from the elements.

Neighbors Dave Waits and Chris Shor write in their book that:

" Ted had several pairs of glasses; all protective in nature, needed to keep wind, rain, dust, sleet or snow – depending on the season – out of his eyes. Sometimes when riding his bike he wore a full, dark, rimmed pair that looked like reading glasses, or corrective lenses, but he didn’t need glasses to see."

Of course Ted also wore sunglasses as the Unabomber, as a disguise method, to cover his eyes, part of his face and break up the face, as well as for protection against the elements.

So he could have very well been wearing glasses, if he was the Zodiac, the night that Paul Stine was killed, both as a method of disguise and a way to protect the eyes from the elements.

Whoever Zodiac was, I think it’s unlikely that he needed prescription glasses to see. Mageau reports that Zodiac was not wearing any glasses.

See Unabomber: The Secret Life of Ted Kaczynski, page 42.

This is the San Francisco Zodiac sketch (1969) and a picture of Ted Kaczynski at UC Berkeley (1968), with glasses added on.

I’m still amazed that so many people seem to consider Kaczynski as not being a convincing suspect in the Zodiac case, while offering the goofiest names as the answer to who was the Z

Morf: He’s completely the opposite kind of killer that Zodiac was. That’s why Ted is dismissed so easily. Different signatures & MO’s = different killers

AK Wilks: The VR, EAR & the ONS each had very different MO’s, signatures, victims and areas. Yet we now know they were all done by one man. Killers can evolve and change. The Zodiac started as an up close and personal killer, but evolved into one who designed bombs, made bomb threats against mass transit and threatened sniper attacks. Kaczynski designed bombs, made bomb threats against mass transit and carried out a sniper rifle attack at a mining site (wounding one man).

I am curious as to why you think Zodiac and Ted Kaczynski are the "opposite" kind of killers? First of all, unlike every other major named suspect, THEY ARE BOTH SERIAL KILLERS.

When I talked to detective, forensics man and key person to solve the EAR/OMS case Paul Holes many years ago, I told him that some police dismissed Ted as a major Z suspect because he only killed with bombs (that we know of for sure). Paul told me that in his opinion sometimes police were "overly rigid" with their profiles. He said what was more important to him than weapon of choice was the desire to kill and actually killing strangers. He noted Ted had actually killed people, unlike every other credible suspect. He also said the overwhelming majority of the murders he saw every day were people killing people they know. Husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, family members, neighbors, even competing criminal gangs, etc. The killer knows the victim. Very rare is one who kills perfect strangers, as Z and Ted did.

So both Zodiac and Ted are serial killers who kill people they never met. That is a rare group. Even rarer is that they both wrote to newspapers and police about their crimes. He said contrary to what is often shown in TV and movies, most serial killers do NOT write letters to newspapers or police. Bundy, Gacy and the vast majority of serial killers DO NOT write letters to media or police. Both Z and TK wrote to newspapers, so he found it very interesting that they shared that in common.

Second, Zodiac DID shoot a man at a mining site with a rifle. He did torture and kill dogs with both poison, knives and guns. He recorded a desire to kill people by "bomb or other means". He wrote fantasies about mutilating a women’s face with a knife. 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 up close and personal were the victim was immobile, such as being bound.

In the journal that described all 16 Unabomber crimes, including three murders by bomb, he wrote that he buried or burned accounts of other unspecified crimes. At a time when the Unabomber was getting some favorable opinions from radical environmental and primitivist anarchist journals and groups, he wrote he buried or burned accounts of these unspecified "other" crimes because their revelation could be "dangerous", "embarrassing" or "just very bad public relations at this point in time".

Certainly stabbing and shooting teens in lovers lanes would not be good for his image as a deadly but principled guerrilla and terrorist fighting large corporations and spoilers of the Earth.

Third, Zodiac wrote letters to newspapers threatening to kill innocents unless his words appeared in the paper. Ted wrote letters to newspapers threatening to kill innocents unless his words appeared in the paper.

Fourth, Zodiac killed couples in known make out and lovemaking spots. In September 1966, after a failed bid for a sex change operation and thoughts of suicide, Ted wrote that instead of killing himself he would and could now "REALLY kill" those he "hated", which included couples having sex (the sound of which was driving him "mad" as he suffered from what he called "acute sexual starvation"), "rowdy college students", "promiscuous" men and especially "promiscuous" women, who were just "animals", "pigs". Zodiac moved on to bomb threats, designing bombs, sniper threats and creating an elaborate code the FBI could not break. Ted designed bombs, made bomb threats, did bomb attacks, did a sniper attack, created an elaborate code the FBI could not break.

Look at these other similarities:

OVERVIEW OF BASIC FACTS SUGGESTING CONNECTION BETWEEN KACZYNSKI AND THE ZODIAC KILLER

* Kacsynski lived in the SF Bay area during the time of most of the confirmed Zodiac murders. He was a professor at the University of California Berkeley from 1967 until the summer of 1969. It is said at the Zodiac Killer website (without any supporting evidence presented) that Ted K was out of the State of California on several dates of Zodiac activity. This is false. Ted was and is being investigated for the Zodiac crimes and other murders of women, couples and families by knife and gun.

* Kaczynski’s attorney said he could not provide any alibi dates for Zodiac murder and mailing dates, starting with Bates in 1966 and going to the 1974 letters, and also including the Santa Barbara murders in 1963 and the Swindle murders in 1964. Not that he would not, but that he could not.

* Both Zodiac and Kaczynski were ruthless killers, highly intelligent and interested in and expert at bombs and codes.

* Both made references to opera, literature and Norse language, symbols and/or myths.

* Both demanded their words be published on the front pages of newspapers on penalty of death for innocents if not done.

* Both threatened to bomb mass transit.

* Both left drawings of crossed lines inside circles at crime scenes.

* Both used crossed lines inside circles as signatures.

* Both sent taunting messages to police and family members of victims.

* Both usually used excessive postage, often double postage.

* Both wrote checkmark "r" ‘s, three stroke "k" ‘s, five stroke "m" ‘s and had many other handwriting matches.

* Both commented on the bounty put on their head.

* Both were filled with hatred and a desire for revenge against society.

* Both owned and used Winchester .22 Super X ammo.

* Both had guns with flashlights attached to the barrel.

* Kaczynski shot a man at a mining site with a rifle – Zodiac threatened to shoot school kids on a bus with a rifle

* Both had an unusual walk – Officer Fouke said the man he saw at the Stine crime scene walked with a "lumbering gait…a semi-limp", a girl at Lake Berryessa observed that a man watching them who may have been the Zodiac "favored one leg over the other", and David Kaczynski said his brother Ted was "noticably pigeon-toed" and that it "affected the way he walked".

* Both had knowledge of Deer Lodge, Montana. Zodiac said he escaped from the prison in Deer Lodge, Montana. And weeks earlier Ted had just driven through this same area with his brother. It made such an impression on him that he bought a cabin there.

* Zodiac taunted police, hinted he shot SFPD Officer Radetich and most importantly attacked and killed couples in known love making spots; Kaczynski recorded a desire in his journal to kill "police", "college students", "promiscuous" women and men and "noisy" love making "couples" in September of 1966.

—————————————————–

Found in Ted’s cabin were a black hood, flat on top, with rectangular eye slits, a gun with a flashlight attached to the barrel and Winchester .22 Super X ammo. Z used a black hood, flat on top, rectangular eye slits. Z bragged of using a gun with a flashlight attached. Z used Winchester .22 Super X ammo at LHR 68 and the killer at SB 63 used the same ammo.

NEW UPDATE:

Found in the Kaczynski cabin, it is a BLACK hood with rectangular eye slits.

Compare it to the Zodiac black hood:

As for signature, they both left crossed lines inside and over circles at crime scenes, with further writing indicating weapon used and previous crimes.

Zodiac added "By Knife" to indicate the weapon used and added the dates of previous attacks to take credit for those previous crimes.

The Unabomber added "FC", which was stamped on previously sent pipe bombs, so adding FC to the symbol drawing did indicate weapon used and a way to claim credit for previous crimes committed.

And unlike any other named suspect, Doug Oswell and I have identified more than 26 words and even multi-word phrases that both Z and TK used: just some of the examples of ZK/TK shared words and phrases are:

blast, trigger mechanism, busy work, around in the snow, contrary to what police say, to prove I am responsible, information only I and the police know, Deplorable, goes bang, watched from cover, rather messy, be sure to, the damned thing, shabby, fiddle around, nasty, fat ass, etc., etc., etc. Plus the amazing handwriting matches. See shared words and handwriting here: viewtopic.php?f=102&t=250

Marcelo did an INCREDIBLE comparison of Z and TK handwriting.

MARCELO: below are links of the letters "matrix" Ted K. of which "took" the "stuff" to construct the similar letter to Zodiac. (images below mentioned links)
happiness to all.
Marcelo
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/750×970/documents/0812081unabomber1.gif
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/750×970/documents/0812081unabomber2.gif
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/750×970/documents/0812081unabomber3.gif

One line is Zodiac, one is TK. Can you tell which is which? Not only is TK’s handwriting the most similar to Zodiac’s, by far, in many cases it is virtually indistinguishable. Which line is Z, which line is TK?:

For all TK skeptics and undecideds, ultimately we may just agree that we will disagree. But when you have even an hour or two, go to: viewtopic.php?f=102&t=938 , for the best facts and evidence on TK as Z. For more on the incredible shared words and very similar handwriting go here: viewtopic.php?f=102&t=250

The biggest drawback on tk is he looks "too good"….and that bothers me….we need a dna test on tk and that is not ever going to be done…its as if the fbi does not want this case reopened under any circumstance…SFPD would agree to let it closed as well….

The biggest drawback on tk is he looks "too good"….and that bothers me….we need a dna test on tk and that is not ever going to be done…its as if the fbi does not want this case reopened under any circumstance…SFPD would agree to let it closed as well….

On both the Zodiac and Tylenol cases, I am now mainly avoiding the FBI and concentrating on working with local or state agencies. Right now I am getting the most interest and actual progress on the Midwest murders I have been investigating. I believe a breakthrough on any of the Midwest murders, leading to an actual indictment of Ted Kaczynski for murders of college age women, male – female couples and/or couples with children, by knife and/or gun, would lend major credibility to the idea of TK as Zodiac and would lead directly to a new major focus by police on Ted K as a Zodiac suspect.

The police I am working with in these unsolved Midwest murders do not care about the reputations of the FBI or SFPD. I believe they genuinely want to solve the murders in their jurisdictions and will follow through with DNA tests and other actions. Time will tell.

Curious about something….

What motive would TK have to be involved in the tylenol crimes and what motive would he have to kill the victims the Zodiac was involved with?

Soze

Curious about something….

What motive would TK have to be involved in the tylenol crimes and what motive would he have to kill the victims the Zodiac was involved with?

Soze

Tylenol crimes because he was against the society at large and used ways to kill/hurt people from a distance, just like he did with his bombs. Zodiac killings because he felt out of place socially and hated couples because he knew he couldn’t be with a woman.

Curious about something….

What motive would TK have to be involved in the tylenol crimes and what motive would he have to kill the victims the Zodiac was involved with?

Soze

The short answer given by Claypooles above is correct. It succinctly sums up the likely motives for Ted K in the Tylenol and Zodiac cases. I can elaborate a little bit.

It is well known that Kaczynski had a hatred for the modern technological system and all large corporations. Just based on this fact, along with the Kaczynski family home being with 20 minutes of all the Illinois Tylenol cyanide tampering sites, Kaczynski should certainly at least be considered a suspect in the Tylenol Murders. The Tylenol Murders, while a personal tragedy for the victims, were also, until 9-11, the most economically devastating terrorist attack on corporations in modern American history. And the number one anti-corporate terrorist in American history had a residence within 20 minutes of all the sites, at the exact epicenter in fact. But in his famous Unabomber Manifesto, he also expressed a specific dislike for the manufacturers of drugs and pills. He felt that they played an essential role in sustaining the system he hated, as they numbed the pain of modern society to allow people to continue to function. Among other specific criticisms, he states:

Unabomber Manifesto Section 145. "Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy, then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness."

In his Unabomber Manifesto, Section 190, he states that any kind of social conflict "helps to destabilize the system", and in Section 143 he states the best way to attack the system is not an armed uprising but striking at and through "technology and ECONOMICS (emphasis added), not politics." The Tylenol Murders, which resulted in Johnson & Johnson pulling all Tylenol products off the shelf, caused over $100 million in direct losses to one of the largest corporations in America, and a loss in stock value of over $1 billion. It was, in effect, an act of economic terrorism against the modern technological consumer system. It also terrorized the public and caused a lack of faith in modern manufacturing and packaging methods of consumer products. The Tylenol Murders had exactly the kinds of serious economic and social effects that Kaczynski sought and wrote about.

It should also be pointed out that while Kaczynski did have very strong views about drugs, corporations and technology and these were part of his motive for committing the bombing murders he pled guilty to, in his secret coded journal he makes it clear that killing people gives him some kind of personal release from his anger (including a "sexual release"), that he desires revenge against all of society and that virtually every person living in society is his enemy. Kaczynski wrote in the Fall of 1977:

"The technological society may be in some sense inevitable, but it is so only because of the way people behave. Consequently I hate people…Almost anyone who holds steady employment is contributing his part in maintaining the technological society…I emphasize that my motivation is personal revenge. I don’t pretend to any kind of philosophical or moralistic justification."

Indeed, on November 15, 1979, Kaczynski put a bomb on United Airlines Flight 444 from Chicago to Washington, DC. Had the bomb exploded properly, all on board would have died; as it only partially exploded into a minor fireball, the plane was able to make an emergency landing with passengers treated for smoke inhalation. And in October of 1981 Kaczynski placed a firebomb on the campus of the University of Utah. So while Kaczynski in most of his later crimes targeted specific individuals who worked or taught in fields like business or technology, in this time period of the late seventies and early eighties he was involved in actions that would have and could have caused mass death to random citizens of all ages and all walks of life, just like the Tylenol Murders did. And the Unabomber, like the Tylenol Killer, usually wasn’t present to watch his victims die. Kaczynski recorded in his journal his joy of reading the gory details of his bombings in the newspaper.

As for Ted’s motive to kill the type of victims the Zodiac did, look at this material I wrote:

In the summer of 1966, most likely late August/early September 1966, Ted Kaczynski records a breakthrough moment in his life. He is a genius, yet socially alienated and isolated. He describes hearing the sound of couples having sex in the apartment next door to his, and he says it fills him with frustration and anger. After a failed bid for a sex change operation, out of despair and self described "acute sexual starvation", he contemplates killing himself, but then 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 especially women he deems "promiscuous", who are nothing but "animals" and "pigs". 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 mutilating 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 only 30 minutes 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 or the Zodiac – 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 did "distance crimes" of bombed buildings and did sniper shootings in furtherance of his racist and fascist ideas, but also killed women up close and personal, not for racist or political reasons, but because of lust for and hatred of women. 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 promiscuous 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, embarrassing 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. 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.

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 hand made black and green canvas and denim HOODS and MASKS in his cabin – again, only suitable for personal crimes, and the Zodiac wore a hand made black hood.. He was a known peeper on love making couples, armed burglar, house trasher and arsonist.

Kaczynski 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 crimes.

COLLEGE GIRL MURDERS 1966 – 1969: CASES THAT MAY BE RELATED – PERCY, BATES, SHEPARD,AARDSMA

Sharon Bubes, Evanston, IL – Attacked in her bedroom with a hammer, 6/30/66

Valerie Percy, Kenilworth, IL – Murdered in her bedroom by hammer like object and knife, 9/18/66

Bricca Family, Cincinnati, OH – Found bound and murdered in bedrooms by knife, 9/27/66

Cheri Jo Bates, Riverside, CA – Murdered at campus library by knife, 10/30/66

Confession letter in Cheri Jo Bates murder, Riverside, CA – mailed on 11/28/66

Cecelia Shepard, Lake Berryessa, CA – Bound and murdered by knife, 9/27/69

Betsy Aardsma, State College, PA – Murdered in campus library by knife, 11/28/69

PICTURES
Left: Valerie Percy
Middle: Cheri Jo Bates

THE VICTIMS

We know that it is most likely around late August/early September of 1966 when Kaczynski states he was "born again" and decided to "really kill everyone I hate." He states he was suffering from "acute sexual starvation" and that some of the people he wants to kill are love making couples, "college students" and young men and women. Looking at these cases we see possible links between them.

Note also that the Zodiac Killer is a prime suspect in the death of Ms. Bates, and that the interest in Kaczynski as a suspect for the Zodiac has been renewed and is ongoing. Kaczynski was in the SF Bay area at the time of the Zodiac murders, and like the Zodiac, wrote to newspapers demanding his words on the front page and was an expert in codes and bombs.

The Zodiac was known to do mailings and crimes on the anniversary dates of other crimes. On the three year anniversary of the discovery of the Bricca murders, September 27, 1969, the Zodiac attacked a couple at Lake Berryessa, CA, and bound them with rope before stabbing them. The woman, Cecelia Shepard, was stabbed 10 times and was killed. (Note: On or around September 26/27 1982, the 16th anniversary of the Bricca slaying and the 13th anniversary of the Zodiac murder of Shepard, someone put Cyanide tainted Tylenol on store shelves in the Chicago area. All the tampering sites were within a 20 minute radius of the Kaczynski family home in Lombard, Illinois).

Looking at the pictures of Valerie Percy, Cheri Jo Bates and Betsy Aardsma, there are clear similarities (and I think Linda Bricca and Cecelia Shepard would fit in here as well). All the girls are beautiful, with fresh faces and mid length hair. If perhaps not looking quite like sisters, they certainly look like they could be cousins, all from the same family.

All these women were in the same age range and all were college students. All were intelligent, charming, independent and assertive. All were "good girls" to use the language of the times. All lead clean lives with no clear suspects in their murders.

Percy and Aardsma were both graduate students. Percy had graduated from Cornell and was to start graduate school at John Hopkins; Aardsma had graduated from the University of Michigan and had just started grad school at Penn State.

It seems Ted Kaczynski had either actually or potentially crossed paths with each of these women, had a tie to the area they were in and was actually in each of the three different states they were in when they were killed.

* Percy’s Kenilworth home was within 30 minutes of where Kaczynski’s family home in Evergreen Park was located, and four hours from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

* Before enrolling at the University of Michigan, Aardsma visited and spent extensive time in Ann Arbor in 1966-1967, Ted’s last year there, they both shared an interest Native American Indian cultures and in politics, Aardsma was researching a mathematician when killed and most importantly a witness has placed Ted at the murder scene, in the Penn State library the day before the murder.
* Bates was killed in Riverside, California during the time that evidence shows Ted went out there in the late Fall/early Winter of 1966 to interview with the University of California, Berkeley, which also has campuses in LA and Riverside.

Percy was stabbed multiple times and bludgeoned in the head; Bates was stabbed multiple times and kicked in the head; Aardsma was killed by a single brutal knife thrust to the heart.

MO MATCHES AND OTHER SIMILARITIES IN THE MURDERS

In particular, there are very notable similarities between the murder of Ms. Bates in California on October 30, 1966 (when evidence shows Kaczynski was in that state), and the murder of Ms. Aardsma on November 28, 1969 at the Penn State library (when evidence shows Kaczynski was there, at that library). In some instances there are also similarities to the Percy murder. University of Michigan graduate Betsy Aardsma, attending Penn State graduate school, was brutally murdered. Like the murder of Ms. Bates:

* The murder took place within one day of a major Fall Holiday (Bates Halloween, Aardsma Thanksgiving). (Percy near the Autumnal Equinox and Harvest Moon, Bricca and Shepard on the Norse Harvest Festival).

* The murder took place at or in a campus library (Bates at the library, Aardsma actually in the library).

* The weapon was a short knife, approximately 1 inch wide and 3 1/2 to 4 inches long. (I don’t know the length of knife used on Percy but a bayonet was found in the lake nearby, Bricca was killed by a 6 1/2 inch knife, perhaps a bayonet, and Shepard may have also been killed with a bayonet or bayonet sized weapon).

* The attack was brutal and the victims led clean lives with no obvious suspects. (Also true of Percy, Bricca and Shepard).

* In both cases taunting letters were sent after the crime. (Bates killer sent a letter to her father, a threat letter was sent to Charles Percy in May 1966, Zodiac letter sent after Shepard murder).

* A poem found written/etched onto a wood surface at the Riverside college talked about killing a girl in a red dress, and Aardsma was wearing a red dress when killed. Also a morbid and cryptic statement about death was written/etched onto a wood surface, perhaps by the Aardsma killer, and signed "RSK". (Zodiac wrote a message on the car door where Shepard was killed). (The Riverside poem had the initials "RH"; Penn State writing was signed "RSK"; to throw police off track, Kaczynski later put a message in a bomb signed "RV")

* At Riverside, a wooden desk attached to a chair had a poem about death signed "RH" – police thought it might have been written by the killer.

* At Penn State, a wooden arm attached to a chair had a statement about death signed "RSK" – police thought it might have been written by the killer. It said "Here sat death in the guise of a man. RSK".

After the Zodiac murder of cab driver Paul Stine in October 1969, and the release of the Zodiac composite sketch in early November 1969, the SF area would have been very hot for the Zodiac. It would be prudent for him to leave, and in fact, Ted’s brother David says Ted did leave California at that time and came home to Illinois. That puts him in the eastern half of the US and a days drive from PA when Aardsma is killed. Ted’s father was from PA. Prior to the murder of Aardsma, Zodiac claimed 7 victims – but in his Christmas letter to Melvin Belli he says he may take a ninth and tenth victim. Who was number 8? Could it have been Aardsma?

Most importantly, a witness picked out a picture of Ted Kaczynski as being present in the Penn State library the day before Aardsma was killed, acting suspiciously.

"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}

I have seen AK post this before and every time I read this, it reminds me of the casual nature of Z at PH:

I no longer cared about death. I no longer cared about consequences

A normal killer would care, and wouldn’t hang around the cab, trying to prop up his victim’s corpse.

Were there any letters that made reference to "phoenix"…aka the mythical bird?? Or greek mythology?….i do not know of any….always found that interesting for some useless reason

Were there any letters that made reference to "phoenix"…aka the mythical bird?? Or greek mythology?….i do not know of any….always found that interesting for some useless reason

Not recalling any direct references to Greek or Roman mythology in the Zodiac case. That Ted K alludes to Greek mythology is interesting, for Zodiac was a literate killer, who made allusions to Norse language, opera and literature, and Ted K was well versed in those subjects.

I would argue that Z perhaps made one allusion to a Greek and Roman god, in that the first four symbols of the 340 are HER>, which could be read as HERC, short for HERCULES. The opening reads HER>_L_ _, which could translate as HERCULES.

In the RAW Graysmith solve of the 340, which I am in the minority in thinking it has some merit, before he mucks it up with forced word solves, he translates that opening line as HERCEAN. Ted K in his Unabomber years once used HERCULES as an alias.

"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 and do things that were daring, irresponsible or criminal." [Psych Report] {Emphasis added}

I have seen AK post this before and every time I read this, it reminds me of the casual nature of Z at PH:

I no longer cared about death. I no longer cared about consequences

A normal killer would care, and wouldn’t hang around the cab, trying to prop up his victim’s corpse.

I think that is a valid observation.

I would add to that line of thinking Ted K’s statement that not only was he going to do things that were "criminal", which murder certainly is, but that he would do things that were "daring". Consider the fact that for a killer to write to newspapers and police is dangerous, as it can give clues to your identity, via handwriting, word usage, possible fingerprints, etc. I would say to kill people, then write letters about the killings to the press and police, to send codes that you hint contain your name, to take the time to cut off a piece of a victim’s shirt, to wear a costume, threaten a city’s school buses, to do these things and others which made Zodiac the best known, most publicized and probably most feared serial killer since Jack the Ripper, were certainly "daring".

Ted’s evolution:

1- Unable to form adequate relationships with peers due to being put in classes with older students.
2- Major sexual frustrations overtake any sense of accomplishment which could have resulted from his mathematical talents.
3- Leads him to seek gratification through perceived deviancy.
4- Leads him to feel ashamed and seek to get a sex change operation.
5- Has his “rising from the ashes like a pheonix” moment where he comes to the conclusion that killing can give him the satisfaction he sought through sex. Could be a realization made after killing an animal or a human.
6- Murders people and soon feels a need for public gratification, hence the beginning of the letters to the media.
7- Knowing that it’s only a matter of time before he gets caught, he seeks to satisfy this urge sustainably and legally.
8- This leads him to creating a narrative that would sustain a need to kill to live: isolating himself in nature where he must kill animals to survive.
9- Overtime, he realizes that it is only a matter of time before even this outlet becomes unsustainable and he develops his manifesto in a desperate aim to change the world into one where his lifestyle can be sustained and to find acceptance of his behavior, fearing that an eventual departure from it would throw him back into murder or sexual frustration.

I believe Ted would admit everything if he believed conclusive proof of past murders had been obtained but that people who have this information are waiting for him to die to avoid letting him defend himself, knowing he would be better off explaining himself rather than let psychiatrists do so after he dies.

You give a quote but you don’t say who this from. Who is describing zodiac is weighing 225 or 250?

Bryan Hartnell

https://www.zodiackiller.com/HartnellInterview1.html

The Zodiac said he disguised himself when the murders took place. It is easier for a thinner person to pass as fatter than vice-versa.