Below is a long list of somewhat random questions and observations that came to mind after yet another deep dive into Z material this holiday season; books, movies, docs, podcasts, etc. I consumed many things for the 3rd or 4th time but this go around I took notes.
1. Why do ppl think the attacks were filmed? Is the rumor of a "tripod" mark at an early scene the sole reason?
2. Bleeding knife card looks copied from an image of the car door. (Door handle = blade) What to make of this?
3. Why are there so many different versions (The school bus threat) of the quote "bouncing out", "bounding out", even "tumbling out"?
4. A while back I came across a proposed solution to 340 by the Vallejo PD. I forgot to screenshoot it and have been unable to locate it since. Anyone familiar with this?
5. Fouke’s detailed description of Z absolutely does not jive with him also saying they never stopped the car. It is far too detailed (Welsh ancestry? The details of the clothing?) to get from driving by someone at night on a less than well lit street.
6. Mention of a "diagonal scar" on a "thumbprint from the cab". Any more on this?
7. Weren’t the Harden’s asked if they provided the citizen key? Surprised this is such a mystery unless they were asked and said no. In which case we would know they didn’t. But aside from no one asking at all (which sadly is possible) this should be an easy answer.
8. Z seemed to have had a psychological connection to cars / automobiles. His references are peculiarly animated – "prowl cars", "racing engines", "road races", etc. And if I remember correctly, a letter where he creates a radiating bullseye symbol to express a loud sound?
Other observations include "death machine" and the desire to bomb a bus…
9. I still find the episode around the dunbar show so confusing… Am I correct that there was a n initial call made to the police or the show requesting time on the show and that this may well have been Z? Also, that the person discovered to have made calls from the sanitarium was actually making calls to Belli and that this does not refer to the voice on the show? (Which also seems like an obvious hoax?) It all led me to wonder what if Z worked at or had a connection to the sanitarium where he could actually call in and then put a patient on the line?
10. Z’s "voice" is childish, hurt, petty. In multiple letters he says "I will not do X because you will do Y"
11. Who writes with a felt tip pen regularly? It’s odd.
12. Do we know if it’s blood or paint on the hole punch card?
13. What was the nature of the connection the Riverside cops saw between Bates and Berryessa?
14. Do the pivots point to a "woven" transposition? Vertical and horizontal strands? The pivots just being places where trigrams randomly meet? This might also be pointed to by the way some symbols "hover" around the pivots, equally spaced from both? And lastly, could these "hovering" forms point to Z saying the same thing twice and interweaving it with itself? It does make one think back to the paradice/slaves and sorry no cypher cross forms…
15. Recently went to SF and walked the Stine scene, the park, etc. Also the pickup location. I agree with a recent video on youtube that Pine was the obvious route. Also, if you don’t go to the actual scene it will be lost on you that cherry quickly terminates in a tiny cul-de-sac that if you hadn’t been there before, you wouldn’t understand how it is possible to take a few steps onto someone’s lawn and before you know it you jump down a foot or so and are at the road along the edge of the presidio. I am unsure however about the proposed route Z would have taken down toward the playground (either on the street or through the park) On the one hand I agree it’s very possible he had a car waiting nearby and quickly sped away over the bridge. But in terms of hiding from a police officer and dogs, the presidio is not what I would call "heavily wooded" like for example a forest in the northeast or PNW. On the surface it seems mad to run into the most obvious nearby hiding spot which is also a military base(!) unless of course you were very familiar with it and had a deeper understanding allowing you to do so.
16. Maple to Cherry is relatively flat. Cherry onward is downhill. Without being longwinded, I feel unsure now of my previous idea that Z shot stine while the car was moving and had to quickly jump out, run around front, leave the fingerprints, and brake the car before it went downhill.
17. The location is tantalizing. The mansion at Maple and Washington… The neighborhood… The Presidio… Chosen, dictated. Not opportunistic.
o.k that’s it!
Happy New Year
1. Why do ppl think the attacks were filmed? Is the rumor of a "tripod" mark at an early scene the sole reason?
Never heard about a rumor of tripod marks. What I have seen is people think that might be why he wore a mask.
2. Bleeding knife card looks copied from an image of the car door. (Door handle = blade) What to make of this?
Make nothing of it.
11. Who writes with a felt tip pen regularly?
Zodiac does, that’s who.
13. What was the nature of the connection the Riverside cops saw between Bates and Berryessa?
Never heard that. What I have heard is Riverside doesn’t consider the CJB mrder to be associated with Zodiac.
I believe you are referring to the Domingo/Edwards murders, which was a different jurisdiction, and the reasons why they thought they were similar are pretty obvious. They also said something about the Riverside letters too though.
Don’t you worry about the 340 solution…I’m solving it every week approximately 3-5 times but always loose the solution, too.
QT
*ZODIACHRONOLOGY*
13. What was the nature of the connection the Riverside cops saw between Bates and Berryessa?
Riverside’s Chief Kinkead’s Oct. 20th 1969 letter to Napa’s Sheriff Randol refers to their prior phone conversation regarding the similar MO of the Bates/Zodiac perps. I think we can infer from the main content of the letter that the knife attack plus the writing and contacting the cops post-crime are the key components of this MO.
http://www.zodiackiller.com/RiversideMemo1.html
There are two questions that particularly irk me.
1. In the Cheri Jo Bates case he sends a letter directly to her father, but on the confession letter he states in the order “sisters, daughters and wife’s”. It just seems an odd order to put them in especially when he sent a letter to her father. In my head it would be “daughters sisters wives“. Sorry probably not explaining it very well.
2. Why felt tip pens. Was he influenced by Jack the Ripper?, but if so why not red. Was he copying / tracing somebody else’s writing. Was he aware that you can learn a lot about a person by the angle/force used of the writing.
Regarding #1: It is possible that Z had known Bates because she was a friend of his own sister, if he had one.
QT
*ZODIACHRONOLOGY*
Regarding #1: It is possible that Z had known Bates because she was a friend of his own sister, if he had one.
QT
Or he knew her brother. The order just doesn’t sit right with me.
3. Why are there so many different versions (The school bus threat) of the quote "bouncing out", "bounding out", even "tumbling out"?
Probably just a matter of mistakes made by reporters, law enforcement speaking in their own words about the letter. The wording in the actual letter is "bouncing out".
6. Mention of a "diagonal scar" on a "thumbprint from the cab". Any more on this?
One of the blood-stained fingerprints they lifted off from the Stine cab appear to have some kind of break up in the pattern. It could be a scar, a splatter of paint (or glue) or a trash.
12. Do we know if it’s blood or paint on the hole punch card?
It was tested and determined to be paint.
There are two questions that particularly irk me.
1. In the Cheri Jo Bates case he sends a letter directly to her father, but on the confession letter he states in the order “sisters, daughters and wife’s”. It just seems an odd order to put them in especially when he sent a letter to her father. In my head it would be “daughters sisters wives“. Sorry probably not explaining it very well.
2. Why felt tip pens. Was he influenced by Jack the Ripper?, but if so why not red. Was he copying / tracing somebody else’s writing. Was he aware that you can learn a lot about a person by the angle/force used of the writing.
Sorry if this is well known already. In the letter to CBJ’s father, how did he sign it?
Why did Zodiac only start sending letters and communicating with police in 1969, months after his first attack?
In response to Fishermens Friend. When you mentioned the area around Washington and Cherry you jogged my mind a bit. What you described about going North on Cherry and hoping down a small stone wall is correct. There is a two lane road, going East and West. Next to it is a rocky gravelly area to the side. I park there once in awhile early to take a walk. Z could easily have parked a car there. It is directly across road from Julius Kahn. If he headed East on Pacific he could have gone a few blocks to Divisadero turned left and down to Lombard go left and on to G.G. Bridge. Would take no more than ten minutes probably less. Or he could have headed East also but kept on going to Van Ness Ave. Turns into South Van Ness at Market St. Keep going would take him to Bay Bridge over to East Bay Highway 80. Either way he could be long gone rather quickly. Maybe this is what happened and all his talk about cops and screw ups was just a story he told to make them look bad. Only problem with this theory is the supposed sighting by Fouke and Zelms. Even then he could have kept going East and turned left a block or so down to Maple. There is actually a opening there to same road and he could have walked right through. Finally it would’t be suspicious having a car parked there as a lot of home owners park there next to their houses.
charlie martin
