Very, very interesting.

"red black J Phantom"
"Pink Phantom" (close to Red Phantom)
"Blue Meanies"
"Masked Phantom" (a black hood?)
"Lady killer"

The Red Phantom letter only appeared in 1974. This author uses a long postscript, which Zodiac frequently did.

Suspected Zodiac murders in Santa Barbara in 1963 and 1970: https://www.zodiacciphers.com/santa-bar … -1970.html

The Blue Meanie stuff is interesting

The one about dorm life is clearly from someone very familiar with university life. RA is a common term for Residence Assistant, i.e. staff, but there is that connection withe the "you’re next" personal.

Blue meanie in general seems to have a big usage spike around 1969-70, which makes it less likely that these are Z related.

If the writer just mentioned Blue Meanies it would be less interesting, but the references to "Phantoms" and hints at murder certainly make it intriguing. What really sticks out to me is "Pink Phantom", and the "Masked Phantom" long postscript from 1968.

It’s the P.S. comment on the Masked phantom that stood out for me. Strangely reminiscent of the P.S. on the My Name is letter

Masked Phantom, 1968: P.S. Now I’ll bet you’ll have fun trying to remember who I am

Zodiac, 1970: P.S. I hope you have fun trying to figure out who I killed

"The Blue Phantom eats Yossarians for snacks". Yossarian is the lead character in Heller’s WWII novel Catch-22. Yossarian is a paranoid solider fleeing from being killed or captured by either side.

Blue Phantom also references "The Monolith", which could be a reference to the object from Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (adapted from Arthur C. Clarke’s science fiction series).

Zodiac also liked to make film references (The Red Phantom, Badlands, The Exorcist).

Interesting finds Cragle.

Blue Phantom reminds me a lot of the Red Phantom who wrote to Count Marco in 1962.

http://www.zodiackillersite.com/viewtop … 50&p=64934

Just been listening to the monster podcast on the zodiac . In which they reference the “Marquis” de Sade Book Juliet which has references to killings and slaves in the afterlife.

It is amazing how something which in all probability is just innocent personal ads can be misconstrued as something entirely different. I guess that this is a perfect example of connecting the dots and saying something which probably isn’t there . Still interesting nonetheless

Wow great finds cragle, things like these and the other personal ads in the newspapers, just strengthen (in my mind anyway ) that these are made by a military man sending to other military men, I recon when it all comes out in the wash z whoever he was had served time at mare island and that would back up bob tarbox theory

I like the idea of looking for letters to the editor etc that Zodiac wrote as himself, or before he became Z

Good post and thanks for the pointers in the right direction. This has given me further inspiration and understanding into Zodiac, and a brilliant rabbit-hole to explore. (I did read a while back about the 1940’s comics and stories, and the town that dreaded sundown theory. They could be linked. Always keep an open mind and never a closed book is my attitude.)

I’ll run the phantom context through my experiments with the 340 and see if anything of interest turns up. I’m hoping that more information will give me more words to use for referencing over the masked letter frequencies (like how the 408 was deconstructed using killing/kill etc as a starting point). This should give some idea of the second layer in the cipher’s defence and it’s complexities I’m facing, as i think the 408 was a simple tester by 340 standards now I’ve compared both and seen how Zodiac presented 408 to be solved.
Only- he didn’t expect it to be done so quickly and I think he somehow congratulated the teacher and his wife in doing so. Any particular articles in any of the newspapers is of interest to me if they raised a gut feeling, no matter how petty, where some contributor congratulates the victorious couple for outstanding work comparable to satirising them. I’m particularly interested in any satirising/mocking of the SF branch of Mensa for that matter, especially if it hints at Zodiac or has any particularly disparaging/aggressive content. (I’m thinking high IQ attitude trying to outdo another high IQ, like a disgruntled professor has had his work stolen or the like.)

I imagine the cipher in the form of a physical vault and not as a sheet of paper- a cube if you like. I think I’ve cracked the first defensive layer with how I’m approaching it, and without this first wall being recognised then it remains hidden like all secrets do, therefore making it appear a pile of crap and initially crack-proof before one has even begun to experiment. This is psychological warfare remember, and already Zodiac is fking with us just by merely looking at it.

Identifying Zodiac’s letter frequency camouflage is the next stage- identifying coherent messages should be the logical step for this, hence the need for material to compare and draw from/test with. Like the 408, I expect to see bridges of cohesive wording hidden in the hog-wash as intended. (Sandy hints that Zodiac might have a natural problem with his spelling- he doesn’t. He has a high IQ, Everything is planned because he has an OCD or traces of. Every word he writes, every communication and error he ever put before us, has a meaning no matter how insignificant.)
In order to understand this, one must be a Kraemer- a gatherer of the smallest things such as the smallest details. I am like that when focused and my enquiring mind kicks in, and when I’m on a burn out you could park a bus behind me and I wouldn’t care to notice. What I see here is that Zodiac is turning us into hunters, bringing us into his world and the thrill of the pursuit in a metaphorical sense. If we confront him with the truth, he would either kill us to maintain his superiority and continue killing, or congratulate us and retire as he is beaten and the gig is up in his Lex-Luther-vs-Superman-comic-inspired-game.

I’m also going to be looking for key shift defences (maybe several- the more of these, if they are present, means the greater chance of identifying them and so the better). I’m already preparing for these when I see the googly-makes-no-sense-bits that catches the eye to put me off the scent. If key shifts are present, they will need a form of indication- I’ve considered 2 possible methods just thinking ahead, but I feel there’s a third I’m missing which usually means it’ll present itself to me from working on the other 2, so I’m not worried about that yet.

The system of how Zodiac relayed messages- his instructions to other soldiers/hunters/psychopaths who couldn’t-organise-a-piss-up-in-a-brewery if left to their own devices, is the last line of defence. If he is as intelligent as I think, then its application could, in theory, make it crack-proof as he says if he uses a variant of the first wall which I see in the first instance. This technique is similar but applied through a different technique using a logical application that requires no computer or special gimmicks. It also turns the whole cipher head over heels in determining what could be a message and in theory adds thousands of variants, which is why the key is important to unlock this stage or else all we will do is reveal Zodiac’s story at defensive wall 3, whilst the messaging service to his soldiers in theory will still remain hidden.

In essence, if I’m going down the right rabbit-hole here I’m confident I can get the three, which is what Sodiac always wanted. I want to break down wall four if it’s there and take away his hype. If there isn’t a fourth wall, then he isn’t as intelligent as I thought, because it’s something I could’ve applied to make this thing as crack-proof as he boasted, and I’m certainly no Einstein!

Also, there is another element I should mention. The cipher can obviously be read anytime and anywhere as long as the keys are followed. These methods are so simple to apply when understood that they can be done anywhere with only a pen and paper to note the message, but most snippets of what I see are short and fairly easy to remember. In this context, a soldier could read it anywhere, even he was at work or in a room full of others. Zodiac made himself the talk of the town, so it would be interesting if anyone still living from those times could remember if their partners or friends/work colleagues suddenly took great interest in ciphers and codes beyond the point of obsessiveness, like they always had to have a copy of the 340 or a little black book/etc about them or close to hand like it was the end of the world if they didn’t. Better still, did they change their routine after joining a hunting/outdoors/men-group club that, whenever they went out hunting or did their weekend thing, suddenly saw a spike in people going missing or changes to their behaviour? Did they suddenly become withdrawn or secretive? Remember though, that if soldiers from Nam are concerned here, they would most likely be single or adept into being chameleons that mask different elements of themselves even to their nearest and dearest.

It’s 3.10 AM and the missus just woke and told me that if Zodiac is still alive, she’s going back to the U.S to shoot him in the balls as there’s not supposed to be three people in our marriage. I wonder how many of you have heard similar stuff from your partners? She comes from Texas/Lake Livingston, is half Cherokee’half English and shoots from the hip.

I’m not worried, but I’d better say G’nite, take care and stay safe before she kills me and puts us both into murderpedia!

Got some progress done now, so I’m doing a full on dive into another serial-killer rabbit-hole.
This rabbit-hole has me hooked as I’ve uncovered his full name using part of my technique. His name being present cannot be a mistake, so its either him or this guy knew Zodiac and he’s being set up by him (which logic can doubt, otherwise Zod would’ve allowed the 340 to be cracked and thus have him arrested to pin the blame on him. Logically, this has to be the sonofabitch!) so I need to destruct the processes to figure out the mechanics behind this first defence as there are still some things I need to be sure of.
I’ve began investigating this guy so I can gain more context and understanding into his psyche, with a little help from my wife along the way as she’s doing a forensic psychology degree whilst I’m doing mine in Eng. Lit.
I’m not mentioning my suspect yet as he is a known suspect already and has been dismissed by the experts because he ‘doesn’t fit the Zodiac profile’. Well, I would argue that, when you look into the same rabbit-holes as I am, he does- only we’ve been missing a lot of things that he’s been trying to say. There’s plenty of material in the archives for research and comparisons to see if Zodiac’s paper trail is true that I’m seeing. I’m following his clues as he laid them out in all of his correspondences, and he’s already called me a spaz for getting it wrong during one of my attempts (or it could be spam? What would you go with? Spam or spaz? Were they common words for Americans to use during the 60s?)
I think I also may have the idea of his keys, especially with the symbology and how he does it. This means I have to go and look at some of his work, as I think he left clues and hints in previous stuff he’s done, as well as the later.

I’ve gained some insight into why he refers to the Mikado, beyond the tit-willow despair and his broken heart. However, I have a question regarding this play and the way schools across America in the 60’s hosted it as a production.
Was it ever performed in colleges or universities, or was it restricted to high school only? The information I read about the play says it was popular, but I’m unsure of the age ranges involved. I think something happened around this play that became part of a trigger in his teenage years, but if I could get the age range, then I can try and find further details in this guy’s education and how he might have come across/met/known Cheri Jo Bates. The library is relevant as well-

I see the relevance of the library being as equally important as Cheri being the poor victim. She had to die because, as I read somewhere her name translated to death through binary conversion and morse-code (might have been Graysmith- correct me if I’m wrong). He was onto something with that, but I cannot see any further mention anywhere of what I see- the library is where books are opened and she took books out, had left them in her car in plain view, ready to be possibly stolen like her unlocked car with its windows left opened and the keys in the ignition all night. The coil had been removed to trap her and trap us- without the coil the car doesn’t start. Without the car starting, Cheri isn’t taken like a lamb to the slaughter (bit like Jack the Ripper- he’s just finding his feet, bless), and the book of the Zodiac, which begins from a library, would never have been opened.
He is attacking intelligence, institutions, structure and curriculum, and I do believe that whatever he and Cheri talked about made no difference. She knew of him enough to trust him, to accept the offer of going to his car (are we not supposed to talk to strangers?) when her friends would soon be arriving. They could have helped her, so why would she accept a lift home with him and not others she knew? Was it back home? So many questions that Zodiac created, and yet no-one considers his indicator of the library, a resource he will continue to make his hunts from in the future as his later crimes revealed.

Everything is subject to opinion though, unless you can show Zodiac in his prison how you managed to crack his legacy from start to finish, with every inspiration and creative thought process explained and every paper trail that you recognised. He will be waiting to catch you out in the smallest of details, so he can smile and still protest that his puzzle has survived an attack and remains fully crack-proof. (Would one really want to do that? Be in his presence without being able to punch him?_
Either that, or he’ll die first and leave a message- that he will admit to being the Zodiac, knowing he outsmarted everyone and his cipher will become an enigma, such is his ego.

The phantom adverts are very insightful as well, so thank you mate. They are confirming some of my suspicions as I look deeper, especially the snippet ones. I did come across an article some time ago about some newspapers that created their own letters which were sent in, using random names from different areas until they got busted. Thereafter, they used to put anon./anonymous/a concerned citizen/etc. Did any of the examples given ever use the phantom tag for their anonymous? That would be ideal for Zodiac to hide behind, by slipping into what’s already there.
Incidentally- I’m British. My wife is Texan, but luckily she gets sarcasm, especially the British one. It has layered meanings and The Mikado is spot on with it. That article also oozes it, which is why I’m drawn to it more than the others.

I can across these Personal Ad’s in the Daily Nexus paper of UCSB.

Interesting find. Did you look thru letters to the editor in those papers to see if there were frequent writers to the editor using their real names too?