A suspect being identified, let alone prosecuted, based on handwriting seems extremely unlikely. Handwriting is an unreliable form of evidence at the best of times.

I’ve thought about if the Zodiac were alive today he would probably be into his 80s and maybe not even know he was Zodiac.

Might not even be mentally competent to stand trial.

I think Toschi has it right on the Stine cab prints. This is the one that sent the Zodiac into a frenzy claiming he wore a disguise and airplane cement on his finger tips. I think he unintentionally dropped a clue there in his blind anger. Combine that with the military connection detectives looked into and you got Air Force. His whole response there tells me it’s his prints and that’s his face.

If the offender is dead and not cremated then just like finding a body that hasn’t undergone total decomposition we can sometimes retrieve fingerprints. There is technology/methodologies for this and is an extensive topic in forensic pathology. Recovering fingerprints from mummified bodies even today in archaeology.

I think this in one way we can establish a match even if DNA doesn’t work out. That Stine cab print.

Well there has been no news about a print matching anyone. I assume there will be more news articles that come out stating that someone thinks there family member was the zodiac. The last one was in 2018. So if We are lucky one person who comes forward holds the answer and everything lines up. The handwriting would need to match and so would the dna.

Good luck solving the case using handwriting alone. No expert will risk his career, AKA living ($$$), saying someone is the killer based on handwriting. Ain’t going to happen. I know a very specific story involving Lloyd Cunningham, THE living expert on Z’s handwriting, but I am not going to keep repeating it like I did the DNA stuff beginning in 2007. Suffice it to say that these experts will not put their necks on the chopping block based on handwriting lol because keeping their livelihood supersedes everything else. I used to live in a more naive, idealistic world years ago. But not anymore.

Look what happened to Gary Stewart’s guy, Mike Wakshull, when he tried the handwriting approach and even wrote his little book about solving the case. He got exposed big time then tried to rewrite history on the EVB show earlier this year because they refused to pay me to go to LA to be interviewed about the handwriting I obtained from the priest, handwriting that shot both him and GS to pieces. But Wakshull knows what he did and did not do. And so do we. He also knows I’m not stupid, and neither are other people who have put in lots of time on this case. In fact, Wakshull called me in August 2014 to tell me that he was wrong and I was right about the handwriting coming from the priest, not EVB. Now he wants to rewrite history. So be it. He and GS can BS all they want about their "evidence" but we who have put serious time into this case know what happened. So long GS and MW and your handwriting. Happy trails.

Interesting. Anyone think the same writer is responsible for the letters codes and ciphers and killings?

Yes, and far more communications than he is credited with.

Does anyone see this case being solved? The last person to come forward put forth a former sheriff as a suspect. I’ve seen the handwriting and I have ruled him out. Perhaps the next person will be correct or a former lead will be.

Back in ’91, I found a greeting card that displayed printing (hand-writing) that, to my amateur’s eyes, was indistinguishable from Zodiac samples. Unfortunately, the card is long gone, but might be considered in checking out Zodiac for Graphic Artist possibilities.

Was this the 1991 Christmas card? I am willing to give a bit more credence to handwriting analysis / matching. I found that zodiac had an interesting 2 on Bryan Hartnell”s car door one comparison with his twos on the July 31st letter to the examiner. The two twos on his examiner letter share similarities but the car door and July letter also do, it looks more like a backwards two upsidown. Actually not upsidown but the 2s look different between the car door and July examiner letter. Perhaps the zodiac was kneeling at Lake Berryessa and that changed the shape of his twos on the car door. I see a similarity of a long end on one two and the car door. It’s at the lower part of the car door and also on the lower left side of the examiner letter. Not identical so I guess handwriting can be suggestive of same authorship.

I am on record that handwriting analysis is a borderline pseudo-science and was even worse during the 60s and 70s. I am also on record about Sherwood Morrill being a dubious source of analysis. Compound that with the fact that several Zodiac correspondence were hoaxed – possibly by people close to the case – and you will never ever solve the case with handwriting analysis.

This case will be solved two ways:

1. DNA/forensic genealogy
2. Someone comes forward with physical evidence connnecting the case with a person (gun, hood/costume, Stine’s wallet or shirt, etc.)

For me, as time passes, my hopes of solving the case dwindle.

I’ve thought about if the Zodiac were alive today he would probably be into his 80s and maybe not even know he was Zodiac.

Might not even be mentally competent to stand trial.

I think Toschi has it right on the Stine cab prints. This is the one that sent the Zodiac into a frenzy claiming he wore a disguise and airplane cement on his finger tips. I think he unintentionally dropped a clue there in his blind anger. Combine that with the military connection detectives looked into and you got Air Force. His whole response there tells me it’s his prints and that’s his face.

If the offender is dead and not cremated then just like finding a body that hasn’t undergone total decomposition we can sometimes retrieve fingerprints. There is technology/methodologies for this and is an extensive topic in forensic pathology. Recovering fingerprints from mummified bodies even today in archaeology.

I think this in one way we can establish a match even if DNA doesn’t work out. That Stine cab print.

I always understood the airplane cement as a reference to the clear modeling glue.

I think there is reason to be excited. For one, there are more than a dozen handwritten letters written to Newspapers by the Man , or Men,(I presume it’s one Man) written to Newspapers in California. In May of 2018 there was Dna testing being initiated. It’s 2020 and We haven”t heard anything. But let’s just say for a minute that there isn’t any known matches or not enough of a sample. Then there is the handwriting. The handwriting could match up with someone and lead to a suspect. Handwriting was used in the Lindbergh kidnapping case and the Robert Durst case. So that is another way to forgo the dna. But another thing is that the physical descriptions of the zodiac have him being around 85 now. If You listen to Nancy Slovers description of him being in his thirties that could put him older or younger than 85. One lead which still intrigued Me is from 2018 when A California mans handwriting intrigued a handwriting expert. Nothing is happening with that now.

I saw a pretty interesting DNA related old(2002) episode of ABC’s Primetime on youtube recently. Good bit of detail on where the DNA profile came from and how it was obtained. I don’t know if the site here likes links to outside stuff like that. But if you go to youtube just search "Primetime Zodiac DNA episode". Quality is just okay as it was uploaded from a VCR tape.

I’ve thought about if the Zodiac were alive today he would probably be into his 80s and maybe not even know he was Zodiac.

Might not even be mentally competent to stand trial.

I think Toschi has it right on the Stine cab prints. This is the one that sent the Zodiac into a frenzy claiming he wore a disguise and airplane cement on his finger tips. I think he unintentionally dropped a clue there in his blind anger. Combine that with the military connection detectives looked into and you got Air Force. His whole response there tells me it’s his prints and that’s his face.

If the offender is dead and not cremated then just like finding a body that hasn’t undergone total decomposition we can sometimes retrieve fingerprints. There is technology/methodologies for this and is an extensive topic in forensic pathology. Recovering fingerprints from mummified bodies even today in archaeology.

I think this in one way we can establish a match even if DNA doesn’t work out. That Stine cab print.

I always understood the airplane cement as a reference to the clear modeling glue.

It does. Mr. Holland, as usual, is wrong.

No, it’s the stuff they use on aeroplanes so they don’t go too high.

I don’t think it’s impossible that the case could get solved without DNA. The quality of other evidence would have to be assessed on its individual merit. For example, whilst it’s true that handwriting analysis is hardly reliable, it’s not totally unreasonable to believe in some rare cases you may just get a very compelling match, that in turn may lead to more solid evidence.

I think if we ever find him, you won’t have to turn your head sideways and squint, if you take my meaning.

It’s kind of a hindsight thing, if you found the real killer, I think other evidence would follow soon after. Its the main reason I doubt all the suggested suspects. It seems likely if one of them was Z, someone would have dug up something more irrifutable by now.