As far as I am aware the key’s have not, and cannot, be proven to be those belonging to Paul Stine and/or his Cab. Because of this, I have my doubt’s about this letters authenticity. If ‘The’ Zodiac had decided to commnicate 20 years after his last official murder, and wished to prove he was ‘The’ Zodiac by sending a Photograph, then I would have thought he’d have sent a photo of Stine’s Driver’s Licence, or some other personal effect from Paul’s wallet. As we all know, this is the same man who said…

"In answer to your asking for more details about the good times I have had in Vallejo, I shall be very happy to supply even more material"

"This is the Zodiac speaking. I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by Washington St + Maple St last night, to prove this here is a blood stained piece of his shirt."

"To prove that I am the Zodiac, Ask the Vallejo cop about my electric gun sight which I used to start my collecting of slaves."

The Key’s didn’t look at all like car keys, I don’t think Zodiac wanted us to think they belonged to Paul Stine , he was toying with us if anything and perhaps trying to point the finger at someone else , like Sam. (Making some busy work for whom ever.) I don’t believe that this card was a hoax, it was to make us wonder if it was him or not .
A hoaxer would have done more to try and make us believe it was from the Zodiac. Attached to the keys was what I think was a pen light, others have said it was a magnet or something else , I have had pen lights before and they did look like that one.
If it was a pen light , that would tie into what was used at Lake Herman rd. A magnet wouldn’t tie into anything that I know of connected to Zodiac. Zodiac likes giving subtle clues , that is what I see in that card.

Dahlia and I went to the Santa Rosa Library to look at the criss cross city directories, to see if we could find a name of a business, for the phone number that was on the pen light. The numbers were hard to make out so we looked a t a lot of numbers that we thought they could be. We found two that looked close but that was it. Then we drove on to Eureka to look up Sam.

Good point about the hoax characteristics, Sandy.

Thanks Sandy. My memory on this is fuzzy but did he have a brother or a relative who lived in PH and who was considered an even better suspect than Sam, or am I confuzzling things?

Mike

The Key’s didn’t look at all like car keys, I don’t think Zodiac wanted us to think they belonged to Paul Stine , he was toying with us if anything and perhaps trying to point the finger at someone else , like Sam. (Making some busy work for whom ever.) I don’t believe that this card was a hoax, it was to make us wonder if it was him or not .
A hoaxer would have done more to try and make us believe it was from the Zodiac. Attached to the keys was what I think was a pen light, others have said it was a magnet or something else , I have had pen lights before and they did look like that one.
If it was a pen light , that would tie into what was used at Lake Herman rd. A magnet wouldn’t tie into anything that I know of connected to Zodiac. Zodiac likes giving subtle clues , that is what I see in that card.

Dahlia and I went to the Santa Rosa Library to look at the criss cross city directories, to see if we could find a name of a business, for the phone number that was on the pen light. The numbers were hard to make out so we looked a t a lot of numbers that we thought they could be. We found two that looked close but that was it. Then we drove on to Eureka to look up Sam.

Tbh Sandy that exactly what I thought about the Keys, that they look nothing like car keys. They resemble house door keys if anyting. Sorry I have forgotten the context of the letter that accompanied the photo of the Keys. Did Zodiac say why he was sending the photo? Was it relevant to anything in the letter? Or did he just add the photo and say nothing of the reason why he had?

There is just flat out no proof this was Zodiac. I truly don’t think the item pictured was a penlight.

I know of one professional handwriting expert who was on the case for a very long time (not Morrill) stated it was NOT authentic.

I have two identical keys for two different Post Office locations. The postmaster told me the numbers COULD be used to located the box they belong to, but of course they are not the actual PO Box numbers on the keys—just in case they were lost.

Here are my keys with my magnet:

It was you all along eh Tahoe? I should have known. Doh!

It was you all along eh Tahoe? I should have known. Doh!

Just you try and find me….I’ll even give you the numbers on the keys.

While I do have my doubts it was from Zodiac, I think investigating it further was a good idea. I mean, it could be! See where it takes you. Could even be from a past (’69/’70-ish) hoaxer.

So what was going on in the Zodiac case around the time the letter was actually mailed—December, 1990?

I think it was 1987 that SFPD officially stopped actively investigating the case, wasn’t it? Maybe Zodiac tried to stir interest back up again, if it was him behind the letter.

Thanks Sandy. My memory on this is fuzzy but did he have a brother or a relative who lived in PH and who was considered an even better suspect than Sam, or am I confuzzling things?

Mike

Mike, I will have to look over my notes, my memory is fuzzy at times as well. I don’t think Sam led us to another suspect, but I will check to be sure and get back to you on that. I will also check on the S.F.address Sam and his family called the home in S.F. the Taj Mahal, so it could have been in PH and not the outskirts. I would like to see that home, so maybe that is something I should do, the next time I am in the city.

Tahoe

Print out an 8 x 10 photo of the keys. It is: 79468 & 58351

I would disagree on one digit T. The 6 in the first number. It’s either a 0 or a 9 – which exactly is open to interpretation. Mostly I’m sure it’s a 0 but there’s distortion at the worst possible place to it could be a 9.

As for the second one. 58351 could well be. It’s the 83 that’s tricky, the 5,5 and 1 are pretty clear. Looking at it though I’m not convinced about the 3. I was before and was happy enough for it to be a 3 but now I’m leaning back to an 8. As for the second digit, the 8, I now think that could be a 9.

It’s tricky as we all know due to the quality. Difficult to be totally sure what we are seeing, if they are parts of the numbers or image distortions ad reflections from the original copying.

Anyway here’s my fiddlings with them and my best guess which would be 79408 or 79498 + 59851

Great work Trav ! It looks like 79408 to me. Have you been able to see that phone number or business name ? I am willing to go back and check it out, if you have a better number or name? You did a wonderful job on making the voice recording of my stalker much better, thank you very much! I will have a link to the more clear one on You Tube soon.

No Sandy I haven’t,

Morf asked me to look at it a while back but I don’t think there’s anything I could do to it that would be better than the guesses others have made already.

The one for sure is: 58351

Look closely at what some think are two 8’s. They are completely different stamps. Look at the fat belly atop the first "8". It does not match the next number…which is a "3".

My PO Box key was issued in 1991. The "3" is rounded.

This is my key–the last number is "3":

I agree T that the 2nd and 3rd digits aren’t the same. I can’t make a definite call on the 3rd one being a 3 but it’s quite possible. The 2nd digit though I’m really not sure about it being an 8. Look at the 8 on the other key, it doesn’t look like it, there’s a definite lack of rounding on that 2nd digit which makes me think it could be a 9 and despite the distortion the top half seems similar in size to the bottom half which for me would rule out an 8 as the 8 on the keys seems to have a slightly smaller top loop. So 59315 is certainly possible.