Here’s an image of the 1987 letter for discussion:

To play devil’s advocate, I would suggest that parroting words, phrases or topics from confirmed (and public) Zodiac letters doesn’t really go very far toward authenticating a new letter. If anything, I would think that it is a common hallmark of copycat letters. This one honestly seems like a hodgepodge of random stuff Zodiac has mentioned before and really has nothing new to express.

If Zodiac wanted to authenticate a new letter to be paid attention to, he could have done so in many different ways. Before Stine, he was never shy about giving detailed descriptions of his method of killing, weapons, the victim’s type of dress or reaction etc. etc. in order to verify his claims and verify that the letter was authentic. He could have described something taken from Stine or some unknown fact or… more convincingly, sent along a remnant of Stine’s shirt (wasn’t that the point of taking the shirt in the first place?).

The handwriting doesn’t look too bad but there’s really nothing else here to convince me of its authenticity.

E., that’s such a good post I have nothing to add.
I’ve a questions though. When did The Zodiac Killer ever cross-hatch his mistakes like that? I remember a cross-through of "consternation" in the Badlands note and another cross-through (complet) in the Belli one, but all that scribble’s new and different.
(Yeah yeah, "handwriting changes over time" I guess.)

I’m still Half asleep and looking at this 87 letter on my iPhone, and although I previously thought it was fake, it actually looks pretty z like to me. I have to look at it later, enlarged but the lower case g looks really good as well as the capital D, then again, perhaps it’s traced from an overhead projector as Graysmith theorized. Who would have reason to forge a z letter in 1987? Hmm, didn’t somebody have a Z book hot off the presses? I would like to see what Trav thinks, maybe he can do a enhanced examination

I’m gonna say no dice.

I will look at this one in detail at some point but for now it’s just too hokey. Entropy – you’re bang on with hodge podge. Look at the opening lines, not only lifted/based on the opening lines of the ’78 letter but the shape and styling, of even the Z in Zodiac, are very very similar. Smithy – yup on the crosshatch/boxed scribble, never seen it before. Also as you said handwriting does change over time but it still changes into a variation of the writers style not completely into new forms but since this seems to show evidence of being a forgery of a forgery, that’s pretty much irrelevant.

Having said that I can’t blow it out of the water just yet but my needle is very much leaning towards fake.

QT, one small point – 2. Z uses dyslectic writing errors (‘nite’). That’s not dyslexia is an ‘Americanism’ in the same way ‘color’ is.

This seems a better copy of the 87 letter perhaps we can merge topics or at least post this version in the other diszcusion.

Here is the site where The Car letter is posted. Maybe taking it directly will result in a better image or at least one you can clean up a little.

http://www.angelfire.com/fl5/zodiac_law/Hoax.html

It is Hoax Two.

I don’t see any of the two letters being a hoax at all..am no handwriting expert, but in seconds can find multiple indications why this in fact might even be verified to be Z’s handwriting.

QT

I did not realize that the two 1987 letters arrived so close together. The one that is the topic of this thread was declared phony but it doesn’t seem there was a determination made on the second letter.

QT, one small point – 2. Z uses dyslectic writing errors (‘nite’). That’s not dyslexia it’s an ‘Americanism’ in the same way ‘color’ is.

Quoting myself, what has life become lol. Just reading through some threads and doing some catch up. Didn’t occur to me when I posted the above but the use of the spelling ‘nite’ is enough on it’s own to rule this one out. For me anyway. Zodiac spelled it ‘night’.

Regarding this letter, if a fake, it must be an excellent one, imo (me thinking its not a fake).

– Dear Editor
– This is the Zodiac speaking
– Z with wavy top, similar to Bates letters
– Curvy ‘f’
– Distance between first letter Z and other letters, similar to other words like Chronicle or the ‘Zodiac’ in this one http://zodiackiller.com/ZLetter1.html or this one http://zodiackiller.com/340Card.html or this one http://zodiackiller.com/StineLetter.html
– referring to blue pigs
– referring to herb caen (SF chronicle)
– referring to Toschi
– referring to Vallejo (VPD)
– body counting (- guess) as in April 24 1978
– ‘crackproof’ http://zodiackiller.com/LATimesLetter.html
– using Z symbol faded cross
– referring to movie (Cars)
– referring to cars ( http://zodiackiller.com/StineLetter.html )
– referring to kiddies, similar writing of dd, although this time with a capital K
– K similar in handwriting
– referring to Halloween
– hunter language (‘targets’, ‘weapons’)
– small L written simply as a vertical line ( http://zodiackiller.com/StineLetter.html )
– referring to ‘death machine’ (November 9th 1969)
– sometimes flattened writing of letters (‘around’)
– mostly connected ‘th’ (the blue pigs)
– dyslectic error (nite)
– low bent ‘g’ (pigs) and other typical letters (e.g. s in guess or d or o) http://zodiackiller.com/BombLetter2.html
– ‘Yours Truly’ as in January 29th 1974 and April 24 1978
– ‘J’ written in similar style, too http://zodiackiller.com/ExaminerLetter1.html
– BTW, the capital ‘A’ was not always with double line in the beginning http://zodiackiller.com/BombLetter7.html or in citizen card

Mentioned this before, to me this letter – due to handwriting – was rather unfakeable, but other opinions are very welcome.

I’m not seeing it. I get the similarities that you are citing QT but my other problem is that if there ever was a definable context or habits to Z’s letters then this doesn’t fit for me.

The handwriting I would expect to ‘look’ close. That’s the nature of copying depending on your ability. Also, it just seems too out of context when you take a step back. This is 13 years after the last confirmed letters and yet there is no progression in either style or content. The letter seems based on the 78 letter and it’s tone and content and as such that puts it out of place and out of time for me. Zodiac managed to make the majority of his letters relevant to the time referring to recent crimes or movies. This just seems to be inspired mostly by the 78 letter.

I do see things in the handwriting as well that don’t sit comfortably for me. Without doing a full comp one of those is the lowercase u. The tail on it is practically vertical and that seems to be the case throughout. This is not something I have seen in Z’s writing, in all it’s varied styles.

It’s just too out of context for me. It wouldn’t surprise me if the 78 writer and the 87 writer were the same but that’s just because of the style and content. I would need to look properly before suggesting that. But that’s my point about context. This one’s only context seems to be the 78 letter which has been deemed fake so that doesn’t really give much credence to this one. Or many imagination points for the writer. i.e, if it were me doing it now for example I would try and think about context and phrasing (not just similar words). If I were Zodiac writing another letter 13 years on what would be the subject matter, the tone etc. Simply put I would, given Z’s habits in this area, expect a progression based on time an relevance. Possibly even a different style based on where he last left off with his communications although that’s speculation.

The whole thing just seems stuck in time. Most likely because it was derived from something that was as opposed to being current and first hand.

Never considered this a genuine letter.