I think the 37/38 thing is not terribly significant if you step back and look at the big picture here. In most of his letters he horrendously mangles a word or words in a way that is very obviously done on purpose. He knows we know he’s not ignorant. He knows we know he’s doing it on purpose. He has this smirking insolence about him. He doesn’t care. This letter, the writer obviously misspells a couple words but it doesn’t ring as true as the others. Stylistically, it falls flat. It feels empty, devoid of personality. Perhaps it’s because it isn’t written in felt-tip pen. Every D is looped, one of the more obvious characteristics of Z’s earlier letters. This feels forced.

Furthermore, for every letter that looks kinda sorta like something Z wrote previously there are 4-5 others that do not match in any way whatsoever, unless he wrote the letter with his feet (which, incidentally, would account for the improved penmanship) I feel like that for this to be legitimate he would have had to be ambidextrous and written it with his other hand. I really feel like I’m looking at a foreign effort here.

And as noted previously, it’s on lined paper, in normal pen, the letters are scarcely dotted, and it all appears very careful and measured. Even his Zodiac symbol lacks it’s normal confidence. Then you get into postage, the zip code, the subject matter being "off" from other letters we know he wrote at the time, and I think that there is very good reason no expert has come forward and suggested that this letter is real.

It was probably a good effort for the time considering the writer didn’t have even a fraction of the material we would have to work with today. I just wonder why he bothered mailing it in. A cursory look at the handwriting would have told him (or her, I suppose) it wouldn’t pass muster, and he does appear to be trying his damndest to produce some kind of result. Perplexing, but I guess anyone who would write a hoax letter in the first place isn’t all there.

All that said, I’ve been wrong about a lot of things and this may be no different. It’s possible the fact he’s writing on lined paper (instead of a blank sheet of paper) changed how his printing normally flows. As I’m not a handwriting expert I haven’t the foggiest idea if that’s plausible or likely.

The FBI doc says it was postmarked Dec. 16, 1969. I will add the date to the title of the thread.

Thanks, I think(cant remember)that it was received along with a Sacramento Bee flyer, or form/envelope of some sort.

It was sent along with the "Bleeding Knife of Zodiac" drawing.

Envelope postmarked Fairfield, Ca.

JS

Thanks for adding the date.

I agree with regret. It would be odd of Zodiac to completely change his tone, writing style, paper, pen, etc. during the height of all his other missives.

Some think the Exorcist letter is a fake…maybe this letter writer improved their forgery skills.

It’s possible the fact he’s writing on lined paper (instead of a blank sheet of paper) changed how his printing normally flows. As I’m not a handwriting expert I haven’t the foggiest idea if that’s plausible or likely.

Me either but I think there’s enough evidence, even with disguised writing, to show that Zodiac was as constrained as the rest of us when it comes to writing habits. So I doubt lines would alter his flow.

There’s some interesting copying here and some of it may be by accident. By that I mean there are certain odd rules that have been followed but I think that screams fake even more. Not least that it just doesn’t look like Zodiac’s writing. Probably because it isn’t. One little thing he (whoever it was) missed was the alternating lowercase e’s. Zodiac liked to mix his between follow through on the stroke and not following through. All of the l/c e’s here don’t follow through. Well mostly, some come close but no where near as pronounced as Z’s.

I’m pretty convinced that these letters, all mailed from Fairfield on 12/16/69, 12/7/69 and 1971 respectively, are all likely all the work of one dedicated hoaxster (definitely the two from December, 1969). There’s a lot wrong with all of them, IMO, including the terrible attempts at ciphers. In the 12/7 letter, the writer actually just lifted the beginning and ending symbols from the 340 cipher.

entropy-

That last image you posted is, in fact, a real cipher. It deciphers to:

TISTHEZODIACSPEACEKING
WHYCANTYOUSTOPMEICANT
STOPKILLINGSTOPLISTENING
TPHONYSIFTHISISNOTONTHE
FRONTPAGEINAWEEKIWILLSKIN
3LITTLEKIDSANDMAKEASUIT
FROMTHESKIN

-glurk

If you are a hoaxter, and want people to think you sent a Z letter, don’t you do your best to make it look as close as possible to the real Zodiac’s writing? As you mentioned, this doesn’t look much like it at all, which is why I think it may be real,coupled with that total body count. The fact this letter claims that Zodiac will kill 38, and the last ever body count given by Z is 37, would be a huge coincidence,but then again,we have seen coincidences before in this case. Thanks for the opinions gang

Whether Zodiac wrote this letter or not, I think the same author sent both this and the bleeding knife letter

Morf-

Didn’t the "This state is in trouble" letter contain the "Bleeding Knife" drawing? Or are you talking about a different letter?

-glurk

If you are a hoaxter, and want people to think you sent a Z letter, don’t you do your best to make it look as close as possible to the real Zodiac’s writing? As you mentioned, this doesn’t look much like it at all, which is why I think it may be real,coupled with that total body count. The fact this letter claims that Zodiac will kill 38, and the last ever body count given by Z is 37, would be a huge coincidence,but then again,we have seen coincidences before in this case. Thanks for the opinions gang

Hard to say, morf. This may BE a hoaxster’s best effort at mimicking Zodiac’s writing and spelling errors ("foreget"). I wouldn’t say it’s an awful effort if that’s the case. It just doesn’t seem like Zodiac to me. The brief cipher, if that’s what it is, just seems regressive for a guy who had just mailed a very meticulously created cipher which is still unsolved.

That’s a good point about the body count. I never stopped to add up the potential victims there but that is strange. It would also be really strange to present for a guy who just told us a month before that he wasn’t going to tell us any more details about future victims and only offered cryptic clues or vague acknowledgements of possible victims after that. This stuff really does make me wish that LE had redacted the symbol so future letters could be authenticated.

Morf-

Didn’t the "This state is in trouble" letter contain the "Bleeding Knife" drawing? Or are you talking about a different letter?

-glurk

Good question,I can’t remember the details,I think they were at least mailed on same day even if not mailed in same envelope.

Zodiac’s November 9 letter, seems to also show Zodiac symbols/radians placed on,or ‘orbiting’ around a larger Z symbol. This is very similar to the December 16 unconfirmed letter. Question is, was a photo of this Nov 9 letter published? If it was not published, seems like another huge coincidence and matched closely with a confirmed zodiac letter

Okay, no doubt, this letter,& the Bleeding knife letter,mailed together. Contrary to what has been posted on other sites,I have seen nothing from the FBI showing that this particular letter was proved to be fake,or from a forger,on the contrary, the other FBI memo below has a list of questioned Z letters QC34 &QC35 that "show distortion"- this letter is QC37 & QC38,and is not listed as showing distortion. If somebody has an FBI memo stating that this particular letter is from a hoaxer , please provide it here,thanks

Maybe (phony) Z was giving out someone’s phone number at the end of the "This state is in trouble" letter. With his correction, it would be 316-8938. I’m gonna call and ask for Jenny, just in case.

Morf,

I’m curious whether you think the same letter writer wrote both the 12/7/69 and 12/16/69 Fairfield letters. I just ask because I do think that the 12/16 letter is far more convincing or at least original. The 12/7 letter really says very little and borrows the beginning and end of the 340 cipher. Does the FBI offer an opinion on the 12/7 letter? Are they from the same zip code? Just thoughts… Obviously, I’m very suspicious of every letter that was postmarked from Fairfield.