Here’s my problem, I think his suspect is interesting. I think it’s also interesting that the Girl who he kidnapped/married, had Grandparents living in Vallejo in 1969. I think the fact his Father/Suspect, assuming he really enjoyed the Mikado is interesting. Ther’e alot of interesting stuff.

What I can’t even accept, or force myself to read(listen to since its an audio book),is the part in which the author, out of left field, suddenly just starts saying that "Van shot Darlene","Van mailed a letter to the editor". No warning, no bother to make a connection or show how he came to be zodiac, or if he knew the victims. None of that. This is no short book, and I can’t bring myself to go thru 5 more hours of bullshit in which this guy decides, with no proof, to declare his Father was zodiac.

I think the suspect is interesting, and he may even be zodiac, but I can’t finish it, I just can’t. If his Suspect turns out to be zodiac, it apparently will be thur dumb luck, because in my opinion, the Author has shown no verifiable evidence or connections.

Luckily, it looks like several people her will have the book soon, so reports should be plenty. I have a feeling, they will mostly be negative.

I hope everybody here understands

Understand completely, morf. I know if I was Stewart, and my birth mother had found me after all these years that I would also want to locate my father. The mother I’m sure gave him the name of his birth father, which got him started. I’m sure the first thing he found out was that his father was deceased. So then what? He wanted to learn more about his father and started doing research on him? But how did he come to the conclusion that his father was Zodiac? I don’t get it. I know until someone has read the entire book, we probably won’t know. I just find it weird. True, there are some things that fit with the case, but so far I have seen nothing that makes me think he could be Zodiac. Still though, I look forward to learning more about this suspect and see what comes of it.

Can anyone confirm that Best. Jr was the great grandson (or maybe great-great grandson?) of Earl Van Dorn, the famous US Army General? He was born in Mississippi and is buried there. Maybe Best Jr went to pay his respects and visit the grave? [ in reference to his fender bender in Mississippi ]

Gen. Earl Van Dorn (September 17, 1820 – May 7, 1863) married Caroline Godbold in December 1843. They had one son, Earl Jr., and one daughter, Olivia. Some believe that Van Dorn fathered other children through adulterous affairs prior to, and possibly during, the Civil War.

Earl Van Dorn Jr was born 1854 and died 1884 in Alabama. The only problem is that I cannot find any children for Earl Van Dorn Jr., so I’m not sure how the bloodline continues on.

Gen. Earl Van Dorn – "Known to be physically short, impulsive, and highly emotional, Van Dorn was also a noted painter, writer of poetry, was respected for his skill at riding a horse, and also known for his love of women. This last trait would lead to his death in 1863, when his alleged womanizing became public knowledge. A reporter at the time dubbed him "the terror of ugly husbands" shortly before Van Dorn’s murder."

On the right is the Van Dorn battle flag. Anyone know if it resembles anything Zodiac has included in a card or anything? Possible clue.

"Van Dorn was born near Port Gibson in Claiborne County, Mississippi, to Sophia Donelson Caffery, a niece of Andrew Jackson, and Peter Aaron Van Dorn, who worked as a lawyer and judge. He had eight siblings among whom were two sisters, Emily Van Dorn Miller and Octavia Van Dorn (Ross) Sulivane. His sister Octavia, had a son, Clement Sulivane, who was a captain in the CSA forces and served on Earls staff; he later became a Lt. Colonel. In December 1843 Earl married Caroline Godbold, and they had a son named Earl Van Dorn, Jr. and a daughter named Olivia."

Is that the only writing sample? Eh, I hate that. "Look at these two words that kind of look alike!" Why don’t they ever show us an unedited page of normal writing so that they we can actually get a real idea of what the author’s writing looks like? probably because it would be instantly obvious that it didn’t match.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FJeVLNGv-g

Youtube introduktion of the book, including a few handwriting samples, they looks good to me

The handwriting that IMO seem to be a Zodiac match is shown at 0:33-0:35 in the video link above, and it is NOT blurry at all, the handwritten text read:

5th, Earl V. Best, California, and the you can see the upper half of San Francisco.

And Morf just stop the video when that handwriting turns up and then you can study it, maybe someone could make a screenshot of that handwriting and post it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FJeVLNGv-g

Youtube introduktion of the book, including a few handwriting samples, they looks good to me

The handwriting that IMO seem to be a Zodiac match is shown at 0:33-0:35 in the video link above, and it is NOT blurry at all, the handwritten text read:

5th, Earl V. Best, California, and the you can see the upper half of San Francisco.

And Morf just stop the video when that handwriting turns up and then you can study it, maybe someone could make a screenshot of that handwriting and post it.

Here’s a screen grab. Pretty close IMO, if it’s legit.

Sorry, I for one need a clear, side by side of the writings. not these little tiny samples rushing by on a video.

Sorry, I for one need a clear, side by side of the writings. not these little tiny samples rushing by on a video.

What do you mean Morf? there is now posted a screenshot with the hadnwriting in question, including several words ;

"5th"
"Earl V Best"
"California"
"San Francisco" (upper half of this)

to compare with Zodiac handwriting.

I don’t understand your attiude concerning this handwriting issue, and why didn’t/don’t you just stop the video to study the handwriting isted of complaning that it was only there for seconds

Sorry, I for one need a clear, side by side of the writings. not these little tiny samples rushing by on a video.

What do you mean Morf? there is now posted a screenshot with the hadnwriting in question, including several words ;

"5th"
"Earl V Best"
"California"
"San Francisco" (upper half of this)

to compare with Zodiac handwriting.

I don’t understand your attiude concerning this handwriting issue, and why didn’t/don’t you just stop the video to study the handwriting isted of complaning that it was only there for seconds

I’m sorry Foreigner, I am going by the writing comparison seen here-
http://themostdangerousanimalofall.com/ … riel-2.gif

On the site, he super imposed his Father’s writing over top of Zodiac’s and the result is a blurry mess. Maybe Traveller1st has spoiled me with his nice,clean,side by side comparisons of writing samples, but that’s more appropriate for a writing examination, in my opinion

Let’s have a closer look at this writing, in particular, the letter t as seen here:

I am going to go thru the Z letters, but offhand, does anybody know if Z made a lower case t with a little tail on the bottom like this?

Morf-

I am confident enough to say 100% that Zodiac NEVER EVEN ONCE made a lower case "T" with a tail at the bottom. His always resemble a christian cross, or are sometimes shortened and look like a plus sign.

-glurk

Here’s the mystery cable showing Earl Van Best’s death in 1974:

I agree with both morf and glurk and DK.

That lowercase t jumped out at me as well as a no no. The ‘overlaying’ of things as well I agree is just a mess. I would have done that myself in the past to illustrate spacing but it’s not really useful as a comparison device if you are claiming a match. I have discovered myself that you need to compare as much as you can to spot not only similar characters but also spacing habits and underlying patterns etc.

Hypothetically, if this were Zodiac, the ‘examples’ shown don’t really do anyone any justice. IF it were him then I would expect something a bit more WOW from the writing samples. Unfortunately I’m not seeing that here, for now at least.

There will be countless thousands of people who have very, very similar writing styles to Zodiac. But that’s the easy bit. They might be so similar that it’s spooky but I believe that’s where the similarities end for most. I have come (and am coming) to see that Z has a style and a style set. His style are his own ingrained writing habits and his style set are the variations he employs. It takes all of the Z letters to see that start to emerge so unfortunately a few words here or there, no matter how impressive, wouldn’t be enough.

The ‘overlayed’ diagram morf linked to is very hard to read and confusing. There may be differences there but it’s tricky to tell. I can’t criticize someone for that though. It’s taken me years to iron out my approach to such things and I’m still learning.

So …. I would say there’s not much to work with, not enough even, regarding the writing samples (that we’ve seen at least). That lowercase t might just say it all though. So I wouldn’t hinge too much on that aspect of investigating this guy.

Ok…on the flip-side.

Zodiac never used a capital "E" (Editor) like he did in the SLA letter, but that has been thought by many to be from Zodiac.

Surely we can find may individual letters from suspects who wrote them like Zodiac never did, but they aren’t dismissed because "Zodiac never wrote them like that".

–Not that I think this guy is Zodiac. I sense a man with black, horn-rimmed glasses from S.F. is what got the son thinking Daddy-O was Zodiac and took it from there. I do agree there isn’t enough to go by in that snippet.

And who fills out their own marriage certificate??

The newpapers articles about the child/ ice cream bride sart in 1962 and end with the Aug 1963 Tuscon article about Best being given a one year sentence, just three months earlier was the June 4th Domigoes/Edwards crime that many think was the work of Z where was Best at that time in Jail on trial in court or on the run?

Hi-

As a long time researcher who has seen suspects come and go and feels that pretty much everyone has gone straight to the police or FBI, I find this guy’s behavior troubling. If he felt SFPD couldn’t handle the investigation objectively, there were three other jurisdictions he could have gone to. Did he?

Note: I don’t have the book but now someone says on Tom’s board that he did go to SFPD but feels they covered up the truth or didn’t compare the DNA. So I stand corrected about him not going to LE.

Mike