I tend to think that rather than Zodiac using cattle brands for some of his symbols, he used symbols off of sorority houses. Like at UC Berkeley where one of my suspects worked in the late 60’s.
The so called flange symbol was a crude drawing of Mt Diablo . As soon as I saw it that is what I believed it was, because I have drawn that mountain many times, I see it every day.
Then I found a drawing from my suspect where he draws a murder map showing where each victim was killed in the northern part of Calif., his mark for Mt Diablo was that exact symbol.
Think about it, why would Zodiac draw a cattle brand? He has a strong connection to Mt Diablo not cows!
Oddly I got hit by the symbol bug again and started calling livestock branding folks again today. Trying to get a list of livestock brand books from multiple states from the 1930’s to the 1970’s…..I think I can at least get the brand Inspector names that signed off on the books and the year over the phone. Unfortunately from the folks I have spoken to, if I want to look at them I would have to travel to each state to view them in person.
I feel like that would be an impossible task so I am wondering if there is anyone here in CA, CO, UT, AZ, MT and possibly a couple other surrounding states that would be willing to go to their state Agriculture office and possibly take some pics? It would be a huge undertaking, but I still haven’t found anything to disprove Z using livestock brands for symbols. Like I said early on in this thread, brand language is spoken very different so it would be an almost indecipherable code without the book.
Years ago I stumbled onto the writings of Frederic W Goudy and noticed in one of his books there were most of Zodiac’s "cipher symbols", including the Zodiac’s logo!
In the late 1960s -70s, some investigators felt Zodiac may have been a printer or bookbinder.
Goudy’s book was about the art of graphics. Notice some of the Zodiac’s letters and how he could mimic other styles of writing. ( Classes on Goudy’s writing was taught at universities in California ) One of my suspects worked at UC Berkeley in the printing department.
I do not believe that Zodiac was a cowboy, or had an interest in branding irons. He did seem to have an interest in graphics.
Sandy…I actually think he spent time in printing as well. The zodiac symbol in printing is called the register and is used for lining up prints. It would be etched into anyone’s brain that used them.
Sandy…I actually think he spent time in printing as well. The zodiac symbol in printing is called the register and is used for lining up prints. It would be etched into anyone’s brain that used them.
Thank you, it is always a good feeling when I find someone who agrees with me!
So, I just got Montana’s entire Brand Book collection via USB. It is thousands of pages. Some have been around for a very long time and it will be interesting to go through.
If anyone else is interested, MT is one of the only states I have found that will send you a USB drive of their brand book.
I’ll check the usual suspect symbols and dates but I don’t know how much would be in a current book versus 40 years ago.
What area of Montana is the area of interest for some? I can look up the brands by county there and see if I can find any connection.
Years ago I stumbled onto the writings of Frederic W Goudy and noticed in one of his books there were most of Zodiac’s "cipher symbols", including the Zodiac’s logo!
Do you recall the title of that book?
Years ago I stumbled onto the writings of Frederic W Goudy and noticed in one of his books there were most of Zodiac’s "cipher symbols", including the Zodiac’s logo!
Do you recall the title of that book?
Is it this one?
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/zodiack … 92#p140192
It has that sample Greek inscription which resembles Z13:
What area of Montana is the area of interest for some? I can look up the brands by county there and see if I can find any connection.
"polson" montana
edited poison to polson
its in relation to
1904-11-19: Father William "Andy" Andrew born in Polson, Montana
What area of Montana is the area of interest for some? I can look up the brands by county there and see if I can find any connection.
"polson" montana
edited poison to polsonits in relation to
1904-11-19: Father William "Andy" Andrew born in Polson, Montana
That is Lake County….Ill take a look tomorrow and see if this edition has any connection. It is the current brand book but does have old farms listed as well.
I really wish I could get digital copies of books from the 1930/40’s through 70’s
.
Yes, David that was the correct book!
The ranch/branding thing keeps bugging me so I looked into the dates of Zodiacs killings and when ranchers typically slaughter/wean/castrate, etc….
Oddly, a lot of ranchers followed the farmers almanac zodiac phases for specific activities. Zodiac killer happened to follow with the castration and slaughter times. Castration would occur during a waning gibbous moon to stem the blood flow. It has been proven that castration during the waning gibbous keeps the animal from bleeding as much…odd I know, but it is a fact. Slaughter would occur on new moon to have a “jucier” meat
Could Z have been wetting his appetite by slaughtering and castrating livestock then going after people right after?
Here is an article that explains it some….
https://www.tsln.com/news/cattle-health/ranching-by-the-signs/
Went through all (!) previous and current Texas cattle brand (254 counties..). Learned that
– reverse letters are common (e.g. reverse ‘F’)
– most brands consist of two or three initials (e.g. ‘JB’)
– “leaning” letters in a 45° or 90° angle is very common
– most brands are “connecting” the letters
– sometimes numbers are used (found: 3,6,7,9)
IF the Z symbol is a brand sign, two things are for sure:
1.) The right side is absolutely clear to be a leaning/stumbling “F”
2.) The brand consists of two components
The left side of the brand, however, is still a bit unclear: “VF” is most likely but would not contain the small line on the left top of the letter V. It therefore is possible that the brand consists of “1F” or “7F” instead. Thinkable is also an abbreviated Form of “TV” (Tom Voigt…? ;)).
After all, the ‘leaning’ F is very distinctive. Never have I seen such (part of) symbol before. As it is used very commonly amongst brands, it might well be assumed that the mystical symbol Z had used is indeed a cattle brand.
Finally, plenty similar symbols were found (in Texas). However none was identical. Such identical one, however, might exist in another state. So far, California and Texas has been looked at.
*ZODIACHRONOLOGY*
