But doesn’t it show the owner of that ‘brand’ as Sara L Allsup?

Making a Zodiac ‘connection’ here might be reaching a bit, methinks.

-glurk

Yes it does, but I think Z just used brands for writing…the owner of the brand doesn’t really have anything to do with it other than Z may have either worked on the ranch there or someone in his family did and kept a brand book of all the ranch brands.

The SLA one is a reach, but an odd coincidence none the less. As for all the others, I think I have reasonably shown that all of his odd symbols came from brands. The non-odd symbols, or regular letters, are in almost every brand book, including the backwards ones. The way he wrote the ciphers is very similar to how brand boards/posters were written in the day, and brands are almost always capitol letters.

Just jumps off the page. how does one track down the HER brand

Just for you….New Mexico between 1899-1906

So my thought is that if you can trace a person from ranch to ranch where these brands were used then you can find either the Zodiac or the person that he got the book from.

Can anyone please poke a hole in my theory or findings so far or are they actually pretty justified? I just think this is a completely unexplored Avenue that could at least narrow down the suspect list considerably….maybe even point the finger to few enough that one of the original suspects fits somehow.

So my thought is that if you can trace a person from ranch to ranch where these brands were used then you can find either the Zodiac or the person that he got the book from.

Can anyone please poke a hole in my theory or findings so far or are they actually pretty justified? I just think this is a completely unexplored Avenue that could at least narrow down the suspect list considerably….maybe even point the finger to few enough that one of the original suspects fits somehow.

I guess the brands mostly stayed with the farm and their owners..some might have changed, but the most interesting is where the halloween card symbol (or the Z symbol) had belonged to..better with any connections to Montana than Ohio, I guess.

QT

So my thought is that if you can trace a person from ranch to ranch where these brands were used then you can find either the Zodiac or the person that he got the book from.

Can anyone please poke a hole in my theory or findings so far or are they actually pretty justified? I just think this is a completely unexplored Avenue that could at least narrow down the suspect list considerably….maybe even point the finger to few enough that one of the original suspects fits somehow.

I guess the brands mostly stayed with the farm and their owners..some might have changed, but the most interesting is where the halloween card symbol (or the Z symbol) had belonged to..better with any connections to Montana than Ohio, I guess.

QT

Actually brands transferred to whomever bought the farm or livestock. They would re-brand the livestock once bought. It isn’t so much about the brand, but who registered it and who took ownership if transferred.

I wonder if the "rh" at the end of the poem found on the underside of the desk could refer to "right hip" after reading about these brands.

I wonder if the "rh" at the end of the poem found on the underside of the desk could refer to "right hip" after reading about these brands.

How about Ranch Hand? Apologies if that’s already been suggested.

I wonder if the "rh" at the end of the poem found on the underside of the desk could refer to "right hip" after reading about these brands.

Yeah…i have posted before wondering if Bates had anything marked on her right hip….in brand world that is what rh stands for.

I wonder if the "rh" at the end of the poem found on the underside of the desk could refer to "right hip" after reading about these brands.

How about Ranch Hand? Apologies if that’s already been suggested.

Could be….

Interesting quote from an article I read which leads me to believe even more that Z was using a personal brand book for his ciphers….

Law-abiding ranch hands kept hand-written and carefully illustrated “brand books” on hand to identify and sort their cattle

I have inquiries in to multiple state brand inspectors at this point. I am trying to track down the history of each brand and who it may have changed hands to from the time it was first registered up to the late 60’s. So far they are all very helpful.

Very good of you; sounds like that would be very time consuming.

Is there a simple way to check a name to see if there was a brand connected to it in a particular state such as Missouri?

Very good of you; sounds like that would be very time consuming.

Is there a simple way to check a name to see if there was a brand connected to it in a particular state such as Missouri?

That’s the problem…Z used numerous symbols in his ciphers. I have found every single cipher character he used with the exception of a period beside two. The symbols are matching from brand books from multiple states which tells me this is either a personal ranch hand brand book or he had access to multiple state brand books. One state would nor necessarily know another states brands.

One of my early poi just a name match, he was a cattle auctioneer from Ponka Nebraska.. a bit faraway though. But a good cattle auctioneer would know his brandings….Maybe ask a couple of auctioneers there thoughts.

One of my early poi just a name match, he was a cattle auctioneer from Ponka Nebraska.. a bit faraway though. But a good cattle auctioneer would know his brandings….Maybe ask a couple of auctioneers there thoughts.

I have inquiries in to auctioneers in TX. Figured outside of brand inspectors that they would know the most. Great minds think alike!