The Glory Hole only does its thing when the lake is above capacity. Lately, with the drought conditions in California, it hasn’t overflowed through the Glory Hole in ages. It’s not as scary as it looks in the online pictures and you really have to go out of your way and be a complete idiot to go near it. It’s well marked and chained off well before you can get yourself in trouble.

Could he be claiming that he was responsible for Lynda Kanes, who was killed "in a wooded area" west of Lake Berryessa four months earlier (in early March, not April)? See:

It would be weird, seeing as "Willie the Woodcutter" was on trial when they received the letter. If Zodiac was trying to claim a murder as his own, it’d be risky (and downright dumb) considering there was a suspect in custody. It did get a lot of media attention as a possible Zodiac crime and I can’t imagine Z would not realize they had a suspect, considering how much he liked the newspapers. Maybe it’s a copycat letter from somebody who wanted to throw off the trial. Or maybe Z just wanted to create a spectacle.

Whatever it was, this was the height of the Willie the Woodcutter trial, as he was convicted on July 23rd, just after this letter was received.

Could he be claiming that he was responsible for Lynda Kanes, who was killed "in a wooded area" west of Lake Berryessa four months earlier (in early March, not April)? See:

It would be weird, seeing as "Willie the Woodcutter" was on trial when they received the letter. If Zodiac was trying to claim a murder as his own, it’d be risky (and downright dumb) considering there was a suspect in custody. It did get a lot of media attention as a possible Zodiac crime and I can’t imagine Z would not realize they had a suspect, considering how much he liked the newspapers. Maybe it’s a copycat letter from somebody who wanted to throw off the trial. Or maybe Z just wanted to create a spectacle.

Whatever it was, this was the height of the Willie the Woodcutter trial, as he was convicted on July 23rd, just after this letter was received.

Good question. We pondered over this previously, and never came up with any smoking gun as to what this letter may have been about.

Yep Morf is right. I did an FOIA to SFPD for this letter, but while they did not deny release, they said they could not find it! It may have been sent to another agency, perhaps FBI or Cal DOJ. Have to check to see if I ever did a follow up FOIA to them.

Originally found/posted by Tom V and then Tahoe. This document indicates it was on an SFPD list of Z letters, with the April 78 "That city pig Toschi" letter listed as "not authentic". This letter is listed with the others that were real.

It is described as words pasted over pictures – it sounds very similar in concept to the March 22, 1971 "peek through the pines" – "tahoe" card. It came 4 months after that card, it also makes a mention of trees (Pines; Woods).

The Pines card is thought by most to be a reference to the abduction and presumed murder of Tahoe resident Donna Lass, which took place 6 months and 16 days before the Pines card was sent.

If this "Woods" card is real, what victim might it be refering to? Who died 6 months to 12 months earlier?

This what we know:

July 13, 1971

Letters pasted on picture

"NEAR MONTICELLO SHOUGHT VICTIMS 21…IN THE WOODS DIES APRIL"

"VICTIMS" More than one victim? A couple perhaps? Were any couples murdered in this time fram? What about Hood and Garcia?

Possible Victims? "Woods" Card was sent July 13, 1971.

Robin Graham, November 15, 1970 – Morf and others have noted she was a victim of a "car trouble" ruse attack, like Bates and Kathleen Johns. Could be a LA Zodiac victim.

Carol Hilburn, November 13, 1970 – Listed by Graysmith as a possible Zodiac victim, like Betty Cloer she was last seen at a bar and probably killed by the same man who killed Cloer – the recently convicted Phillip Arthur Thompson.

March 1971 – Lynda Kanes found dead in wooded mountainous area a few miles west of Lake Berryessa, as noted by sectarianviolins above.

March 13, 1970, Marie Anstey – debate over whether she was murdered, murder made to look like accident or real accidental death.

March 7 or 8, 1970, Nurse Judith Hakari – Possible Zodiac crime.

NEW INFO: The body of Hakari was found in the WOODS in Placer County, CA in APRIL. Consider this in light of the line "IN THE WOODS DIES APRIL…"

THEORIES AND SPECULATION:

It seems Zodiac sent the Pines card as a clue to the murder of Lass, and perhaps an indication of where her body was buried, or where a clue was buried.

Could the Woods card ALSO be a reference to Lass? The card sent to the sister of Lass had pictures of WOODS on it, a Pine Tree forest, and called her "ST. Donna, Guardian of the Pines". But the rest of the Woods card (what little we know) refers to Monticello. Unlikely Lass would be buried there, as the Pines card suggests (to me anyway) that Lass is buried at the Forest Hills condo project in Incline Village. But "Monticello" means "little mountain" – could that be a reference to FOREST HILLS or the little mountains around the Incline Village condo?

If the Woods card is hinting at another victim, who could it be? Anyone missing named April, or Woods?

Based on the very little we know, I also have some interest in Robin Graham. She has been mentioned as a possible Zodiac victim by Howard Davis, Morf and others. Her abduction date of November 15, 1970 is almost 8 months to the day before the July 13, 1971 Woods card is sent. In fact, given the postmark of July 13, 1971 (don’t know what city sent from) it might very well have arrived at the SF Chronicle on July 15, 1971.

"IN THE WOODS DIES APRIL" – A "Robin" lives (and dies) in the WOODS, and April is the start of Spring, and many mention the "songs of birds" as the sign the Spring is here. The cry of the robin signaling Spring, or April.

I don’t know, just brainstorming possible ideas, a bit of a strectch at this point, but I do see some possible association between a victim named "ROBIN" and WOODS and APRIL.

"NEAR MONTICELLO SHOUGHT VICTIMS 21…IN THE WOODS DIES APRIL"

"VICTIMS" More than one victim? A couple perhaps? Were any couples murdered in this time frame?

What about Hood and Garcia? They were attacked and killed June 21, 1970, one year and 21 days before this Woods card is sent, while they were on a blanket at a beach, much like Domingos and Edwards in Santa Barbara 1963 and Hartnell and Shepherd 1969. Like Domingos and Ewards, and many ONS victims, they were found UNDER the blanket.

MORF: Her case (Hakari) does sound very similar to Lass AK. Her car being found at her apartment, etc., interesting.

AK Wilks: Yes thats true.

In both cases (LASS & HAKARI) we have a nurse who is last seen alive at work, her car is found at her apartment, perhaps indicating that in both cases the victim nurse was trailed from work and abducted in the parking lot of her apartment. Zodiac send a card hinting that Lass is buried in the snow among the pines, and Zodiac sends a card hinting that someone (maybe Hakari) was put in the woods, and Hakari WAS found in the WOODS in APRIL.

Lake Tahoe, Nevada is across the state line and basically parallel to Sacramento, California. Police seemed to think it possible one man killed Lass and Hakari.

The problem is we only have a few of the words from this letter, and we don’t have the picture.

With all the words and the picture, we might be able to quickly identify who the victim was, just as with the Pines card and Lass.

Morf, remember the Pines card was sent 6 months and 16 days AFTER the abduction of Donna Lass.

So with this card of July 13, 1971, that points to perhaps an abduction/murder around January of 1971 to March of 1971? And nothing says Zodiac would wait exactly 6 months again. My thought is he waited awhile to insure nothing came out to connect him to the crime – no witnesses, no sketches, no reports of fingerprints found or license plates spotted. He waited 6 months after he took Lass, and feeling he was in the clear, sent the Pines card.

So I personally have considered crimes from January 1970 to June 1971.

We don’t know if the "April" he refers to is the victims name, or the month of her abduction or discovery. Hakari was abducted in March 1970, but her body was found in APRIL, IN THE WOODS. That seems a pretty strong tie-in…except the near year and a half time period, and what then is the meaning of "MONTICELLO"? The word "APRIL" also makes me think of spring, and the ROBINS return and songs are associated with spring. A clue to victim ROBIN Graham? Perhaps, but it is a bit of a stretch, a little bit of a leap in logic and word association.

What does MONTICELLO mean? Does it mean a victim was dumped at the Monticello near Lake Berryessa, as Sandy Betts noted?

Is there another Monticello in California, or on the west coast?

Could it be a clue to its Italian translation, "Little Mountain"? If so, where is the "Little Mountain"?

Or is it a clue to Thomas Jefferson, a city or county named Jefferson?

"NEAR MONTICELLO SHOUGHT VICTIMS 21…IN THE WOODS DIES APRIL"

What does "Monticello" mean? Sandy Betts notes there is a "Monticello" near Lake Berryessa. Could a body have been dumped there?

Doug Oswell notes "Monticello" in Italian means "little mountain".

The real Monticello was the home of Thomas Jefferson in Virgina.

What is meant, if anything, by "In the woods dies April"?

Doug Oswell notes a poem named by English writer Alfred Austin called "Agatha", with lines:

"She wanders in the April woods…And still she haunts those woodland ways".

This is the full poem "Agatha", which was noted by Doug Oswell to have perhaps inspired the "In the woods dies April" line. Did the line likely come from this poem? If so, any other possible clues in the poem?

Agatha Written by: Alfred Austin Poem

SHE wanders in the April woods, That glisten with the fallen shower; She leans her face against the buds, She stops, she stoops, she plucks a flower.

She feels the ferment of the hour: She broodeth when the ringdove broods; The sun and flying clouds have power Upon her cheek and changing moods. She cannot think she is alone, As o’er her senses warmly steal Floods of unrest she fears to own, And almost dreads to feel.

Among the summer woodlands wide Anew she roams, no more alone; The joy she fear’d is at her side, Spring’s blushing secret now is known. The primrose and its mates have flown, The thrush’s ringing note hath died; But glancing eye and glowing tone Fall on her from her god, her guide.

She knows not, asks not, what the goal, She only feels she moves towards bliss, And yields her pure unquestioning soul To touch and fondling kiss. And still she haunts those woodland ways, Though all fond fancy finds there now To mind of spring or summer days, Are sodden trunk and songless bough.

The past sits widow’d on her brow, Homeward she wends with wintry gaze, To walls that house a hollow vow, To hearth where love hath ceas’d to blaze: Watches the clammy twilight wane, With grief too fix’d for woe or tear; And, with her forehead ’gainst the pane, Envies the dying year.

Hmmm….this could be it. A "wooded" area in "April" of 1971. And of course a "Zodiac" mention as with one of Donna Lass’s newspaper articles.

Not Monticello, but who knows what that meant!

Avery, Paul. “Knife Murder Of Girl, 18 – Fears of Zodiac,” San Francisco Chronicle, 13 April 1971, 1.

Avery, Paul. “Deputies Search For Knifing Clues,” San Francisco Chronicle, 14 April 1971, 2.

Wow that’s a good possibility Tahoe. I think we have been looking for a girl named APRIL, but maybe that’s not the right path

Question" "Few cells", as opposed to "Cells found". Does "Cells found" indicate enough cells were found that a DNA match would be possible?

Question" "Few cells", as opposed to "Cells found". Does "Cells found" indicate enough cells were found that a DNA match would be possible?

I think it depends on the "cells found" I read we don’t have DNA in red blood cells. What interests me is nowadays DNA can tell us hair color, eye color, skin color and age. Would be nice to know the traits of some of the DNA they do have.

One problem I have with connecting these crimes with the Zodiac is the weird change in stabbing MO:

Aug. 3, 1969: Furlong stabbed 100 times, Snoozy stabbed 200 times.
Sep. 27, 1969: Shepard stabbed 10 times, Hartnell stabbed 6 times.
Apr. 13, 1971: Bilek stabbed 49 times.

I know Z is known for changing MOs, but this is a weird change of pace considering he had Shepard/Hartnell completely submissive. Isn’t "overkill" when stabbing a sign of rage and/or a personal slight. Didn’t Hartnell describe Z as being nervous at Berryessa? Like he sounded nervous and had a shaky hand? To go from rage kill to nervous stabbing to rage kill is really weird to me.

I have a feeling many crimes were probably attributed to Zodiac…just like some still are today. It wouldn’t surprise me if fake letters were sent suggesting Zodiac’s responsibility. It is odd there would have been any association with Zodiac in regards to the Aug. murders. That certainly wasn’t him m.o. then. Hey…maybe Bryan should have listened to Karl Werner’s voice.

Found this about the three teen girls. Apparently they found the guy who did it:

Yes they did. A big article about it here: viewtopic.php?f=47&t=889&p=7872&hilit=karl+werner#p7872

Tried another FOIA request, probably another fail.
The FBI has received your Freedom of Information Act/Privacy (FOIPA) request and it will be forwarded to Initial Processing for review. Your request will be processed under the provisions of FOIPA and a response will be mailed to you at a later date.
Requests for fee waivers and expedited processing will be addressed once your request has been assigned an FOIPA request number. You will receive written notification of the FBI’s decision.

Tried another FOIA request, probably another fail.
The FBI has received your Freedom of Information Act/Privacy (FOIPA) request and it will be forwarded to Initial Processing for review. Your request will be processed under the provisions of FOIPA and a response will be mailed to you at a later date.
Requests for fee waivers and expedited processing will be addressed once your request has been assigned an FOIPA request number. You will receive written notification of the FBI’s decision.

Good luck!

Yes…good luck! I sure would like to see it.

Make me wonder what happened to it, ya know? DOES S.F. have it? Did it disappear? Did the FBI ever even get the chance to see it? If nobody has it, where did it go? Who would want to take THAT and not other stuff? I hope they have it and it is just one of the many thing we have not been fortunate enough to see.