There are a number of military bases in the Bay Aray, so it’s hard to say. A lot of them have closed now. There used to be a secret Naval Communication Station near Vallejo, maybe that’s what they are referring to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skaggs_Is … on_Station

Still,interesting,wonder if Z could have been a student or instructor there?

It’s probably the one on Mare Island mentioned in these articles.

Morf, this seems like a pretty good avenue for investigation. I’m surprised it hasn’t been brought up before.

A few more articles:

The name of the school is Combat Systems Technical Maintenance School Mare Island ("CTMS" Cryptographic Technical Maintenance School).

There’s an alumni site here.

From the comments section, an alumnus from 1969-1975 says that CWO Norman Reece was the commander of the school at that time.

Info on Norman:

Norman H. Reece of Vallejo
Born: June 27, 1941, Detroit, Mich.
Education: Solano Community College, attended, 1971-84; San Francisco Baptist Theological Seminary, M.Div., 1976-80; Sacramento Bible Institute, Bible dipl, 1976.
Military Service: Navy, 1959-72; Naval Reserve, 1972-93.
Occupation: Teacher; electronics mechanic.
Family: Wife, Jeanine; five children.
Religion: Baptist.
Political Career: Sought Republican nomination for U.S. House (write-in), 1994; Republican nominee for U.S. House, 1996; Solano Republican Party vice chairman, 1995-98.

Elaine Lehtinen had worked at Mare Island, too (worked as a warrant officer). There is a good chance that Z had learned about homophone substitution ciphers there. And the maritime id card would also match with Robert Tarbox’s description. However incomplete alumni records are the problem, aren’t they? Fine would be a guy matching both, Riverside area and Mare Island. Doubt it that police had ever focussed on that institution..

Update:
Some CSTSC members can be found here

https://navy.togetherweserved.com/usn/s … t&ID=11760

Nice coincidence this guys name is Richard Humphries as well….RH…hmmm

Nice coincidence this guys name is Richard Humphries as well….RH…hmmm

yes , its true

Nice coincidence this guys name is Richard Humphries as well….RH…hmmm

Wow, I didn’t even notice that

a Richard Humphries went to pacific high in 65 ..common name I know.. from memory…zode and Patricia Hautz schooled at pacific high in 64?, and in the area of Kathleen Johns? just passing time

edit: a Ross Sullivan is on the 64 list, a common name? he went there? or somebody dropped his name in for a giggle. probably the latter as it also has "big bad zode" second last.
http://pacifichighschool.org/san_bernar … -1964.html

More info on the Crypto school.

a Richard Humphries went to pacific high in 65 ..common name I know.. from memory…zode and Patricia Hautz schooled at pacific high in 64?, and in the area of Kathleen Johns? just passing time

edit: a Ross Sullivan is on the 64 list, a common name? he went there? or somebody dropped his name in for a giggle. probably the latter as it also has "big bad zode" second last.
http://pacifichighschool.org/san_bernar … -1964.html

If that WAS the same Guy, that would be very interesting but I am not sure it is

I could see a flunkie out of this school going on to become Z and use what cipher skills he had learned in his codes,even if he didn’t make it far in the training

So I scoured newspapers.com for all the articles with these keywords: Crypto school, Cripto school, Cryptography school and Cryptographic school during the time period of 1950-1975. Mostly announcements of servicemen who enrolled or graduated from the various schools around the country.

Here’s a pdf of all the articles and here’s a folder of each of the individual articles.

I did run across one article that seemed interesting, though I’m sure it’s entirely unrelated to the case… but you never know!

There are a lot of newspaper stories about this incident, but I couldn’t find anything more on Fred.