Hi-
This is something that I noticed fifteen years ago. It was originally posted on Jake Wark’s site. I think it is worth re-posting because it deserves analysis:
In his many letters and coded messages to the press, the Zodiac killer indicated that he was planting clues to his true identity for us to find. This, of course, has led some people to apply the codes and letters to any number of specific, named suspects, and extract specific clues to that particular person’s identity, which may be contained in these documents. There is, however, another possible clue to something very intimate and very important about the Zodiac killer. This clue may be found in the very manner in which the letters were actually prepared. It was while examining the entire body of Zodiac’s work for consistent themes or writing styles that I stumbled upon this trait, which seems to run pretty uniformly through all the letters. It is described below. If one gathers up all the known Zodiac letters, there is something that becomes obvious about almost all the "crossed circle" signatures that close each letter: If you look only at the "circle" part of the signature, you will notice that the circles are created by a pen stroke that begins and ends at the "1 o’clock" position. (This type of circle is seen in all three 7/69 letters, the 8/69 letter, the Dragon card, the L.A. Times letter, etc.) While I am not an expert on handwriting and cannot say whether such a circle is more a left-handed trait or a right-handed trait, that determination is actually beside the point of this discussion. The main thing the different circles tell us is that Zodiac seemed to have been making his signatures in one particular manner–maybe with the same hand each time.
A very interesting thing occurs when you now take a look at Zodiac’s "embedded" crossed-circles (i.e., those contained in the 7/26/70 "Mikado" letter), as well as his "letter ‘O’s" from within the body of the vast majority of his missives. In the "Mikado" letter for certain, most if not all of the circles within the letter begin and end at the "11 o’clock" position–the "opposite" one from the origin of the "signature" circles at the ends of the letters. (i.e., the capitalized "O"s in the many appearances of the word "Others" in that letter are examples of this). In contrast, the large crossed-circle at the end of the missive begins and ends at the "1 o’clock" position. This pattern of "embedded" "11 o’clock" circles and signature "1 o’clock" circles is seen in almost all the letters. Using the "Mikado" letter again as an example of this, you can see that even the four "embedded" crossed-circle symbols begin and end at the "11 o’clock" position. If you look at the "Mt Diablo" letter, the signature crossed-circle begins and ends at "1 o’clock", while the small, "embedded" Zodiac symbol at the bottom begins and ends at "11 o’clock".)
The question is this: Why does Z’s signature differ from the body of his correspondence?
Mike
Mike Rodelli
Author, The Hunt for Zodiac; 3.9 stars on Amazon and
In The Shadow of Mt. Diablo: The Shocking True Identity of the Zodiac Killer, a second edition in print format. 4.3 Amazon stars and great Editorial reviews. Twitter:@mikerodelli
I’m guessing he was using opposite hands to draw the circles. Maybe the right hand was 1:00 and the left was 11:00.
Mike,
it is an interesting observation and I recall reading about it. If you look at the Mikado letter ( June, not July 26th) there are o’s, where the pen stroke starts at 12 o’clock. Many have that 11o’clock loop, some do not. In the Zodiac symbols the circle overlays the cross. It is possible the writer used the vertical cross beam as an orientation mark and was rather sloppy in hitting the middle when starting the circle.
The allover flow of the words remains the same, even when switching the pen strokes on not just the o’s, by the way. So he either wrote letters with the right or left hand and yet, he drew the signature symbols with the same hand. I agree.
Also, it looks like Zodiac inserted additional paragraphs or words after he had finished his letters. Just an additional thought.
-Nin
Interesting thread. I am right handed, and just drew a circle,starting at the 12:00 position and going left,counter clockwise, all the way back to completion of the circle at 12:00. I am curious how others draw it.
There is more than one way to lose your life to a killer
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http://zodiackillersite.blogspot.com/
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Mike the best way to see how you truly write a circle is to look at some of your own older handwriting. That way you wont get a non subjective circle, as you may get subconscious thought of where you started off. What may also be interesting is how this correlates to his o’s
I am left handed. I form an ‘O’ in handwriting counter-clockwise. If however I was ‘drawing’ a circle I would create it clockwise.
“I don’t know Chief, he’s very smart or very dumb.“
Given his propensity to make eleven o’clock and one o’clock circles, it is now interesting to look at the 11/9 bus bomb diagram. Looking at the "timer," the only circle of one of those two natures that you
can get is an eleven o’clock circle. That means that you must hold the diagram so the timer is towards you and the "bus" is at the top. It is a fair assumption to say that it was using this orientation
that the author drew this diagram.
Mike
Mike Rodelli
Author, The Hunt for Zodiac; 3.9 stars on Amazon and
In The Shadow of Mt. Diablo: The Shocking True Identity of the Zodiac Killer, a second edition in print format. 4.3 Amazon stars and great Editorial reviews. Twitter:@mikerodelli
I made the same observation a while ago in viewtopic.php?f=81&t=1902.
In the 340 cipher he starts every symbol in the exact same way. Triangles left corner, squares top-left corner and circles top-leftish. And all the dot symbols hover a bit above the average height of the row.
On the page of the halloween card that contains "by fire, by gun, etc" there can be observed a degree of order. In 2d (piece of paper) we write in a left-to-right, top-to-bottom manner. So the primary direction is east and the secondary direction is south. Following this order the words "fire, gun, knife and rope" follow alphabetic order. The words "by" are in the primary direction and the words "fire, gun, knife and rope" are in the secondary direction. The word "slaves" is in the primary direction and the word "paradice" is in the secondary direction because it should read "slaves paradice" and not "paradice slaves".
I believe this kind of adherence to order is unusual and is probably something which he was gifted at. When he breaks order he does it intentionally. Perhaps not always to clue us in but worthy of further research nevertheless.
welshchappie had posted a thread a while back, maybe years back, talking about the formation of the characters. To me, this seems to be of a piece with that in that it seems to show that he was using BOTH hands to write these letters. This has been commented on before I am sure, but the thread welshchappie started drove it home for me. It seems to be the most reasonable explanation for the different starting and stopping points of the characters. This is even mentioned in the docu that accompanied the Fincher film. For some reason, it seems, and maybe because it seems to point towards ALA, that people don’t really want to SAY that. Just because it matches the ambidexterity of a known suspect that has been much maligned and probably at this point fairly disregarded, it shouldn’t be ignored that all signs point to Z being ambidextrous.
An interesting point about ambis, as well, is that they are a TINY TINY portion of the population, something like 2 percent, and that there is a high incidence of mental illness and mood disorders there. I think that common sense is gonna dictate- he was ambidextrous. I think that is something that could safely be written in stone. How else to reasonably explain the different starting-stopping points? Honestly, I have thought about this a lot, trying to think of another explanation, and I can’t find any. I could be wrong, but I think its good to look at these small points because these letters are the ONLY THING WE HAVE that we KNOW belongs to Z. Every other piece of physical evidence can be brought into question, and not by conspiracy theories but common sense. The letters, we know he wrote those freaking letters.
I think its good to look at these small points because these letters are the ONLY THING WE HAVE that we KNOW belongs to Z. Every other piece of physical evidence can be brought into question, and not by conspiracy theories but common sense. The letters, we know he wrote those freaking letters.
I am not so certain the killer and the writer are one in the same. I’d be more apt to say that there was a definite attempt at deception. In other words, the killer was definitely not writing in his familiar style, if it was him. But it’s entirely plausible that if someone else (Manalli, for instance) wrote the letters, he wouldn’t attempt to disguise his handwriting as much.
As far as what we KNOW I think, despite all the information that has arisen over the years, what we actually know is very, very little.
I think its good to look at these small points because these letters are the ONLY THING WE HAVE that we KNOW belongs to Z. Every other piece of physical evidence can be brought into question, and not by conspiracy theories but common sense. The letters, we know he wrote those freaking letters.
I am not so certain the killer and the writer are one in the same. I’d be more apt to say that there was a definite attempt at deception. In other words, the killer was definitely not writing in his familiar style, if it was him. But it’s entirely plausible that if someone else (Manalli, for instance) wrote the letters, he wouldn’t attempt to disguise his handwriting as much.
As far as what we KNOW I think, despite all the information that has arisen over the years, what we actually know is very, very little.
Manelli is someone I am just starting to look at more closely. Its certainly not out of the realm of possibility that two people would be involved, but certainly the killings themselves were committed by a single perpetrator. Not two. And the handwriting on the door at the lake, that is full on Z writing. You can just glance at it and see the similarities. So did one guy hang back and write on the door? And the other guy go to the lake and commit the crime? That part makes it hard to believe.
Here’s a great thread for Manalli where I posted the most compelling similarities to Z, and there is an awful lot-
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=15
I had even forgotten that he used a candy cane F.
There is more than one way to lose your life to a killer
http://www.zodiackillersite.com/
http://zodiackillersite.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/Morf13ZKS
Interesting thread. I am right handed, and just drew a circle,starting at the 12:00 position and going left,counter clockwise, all the way back to completion of the circle at 12:00. I am curious how others draw it.
I would instinctively do the same, and I am right-handed.
Interesting thread. I am right handed, and just drew a circle,starting at the 12:00 position and going left,counter clockwise, all the way back to completion of the circle at 12:00. I am curious how others draw it.
I would instinctively do the same, and I am right-handed.
That’s interesting, I’m left handed and I draw a circle counter clockwise as well.
Interesting thread. I am right handed, and just drew a circle,starting at the 12:00 position and going left,counter clockwise, all the way back to completion of the circle at 12:00. I am curious how others draw it.
I would instinctively do the same, and I am right-handed.
That’s interesting, I’m left handed and I draw a circle counter clockwise as well.
If you think about it, right-handed or left-handed, we all write several circular letters in a counter-clockwise direction, starting at the top and moving left: C, G, S. So, subconsciously, writing O or zero the same way is probably just natural.
