Zodiac Discussion Forum

shaqmeister · 2026-03-16T02:56:41Z

99 times out of a hundred, when we start out on trying to decode the Z32 cipher, we forget what exactly it is we have been given, and what exactly we are expected to do with it. As to the former, we are handed a cipher and a very specific Phillips map. The map gives us a compass rose to be aligned on magnetic north and an unconventional direction indicating its division into twelve sectors. A later clue adds that we are interested in a distance, on the map, measured in inches. For tools, aside from deciphering the cipher itself, we thus require only 1.) the map, 2.) a protractor to mark out angles and 3.) a ruler marked in inches. As to what we are to do, we are to find the location of a bomb detailed in several places and, if actual existent, primed at the side of a road somewhere along a school bus route. But here's the thing - and this is where most attempts go astray right from the start. We have to first ask where it is that we are searching for our bomb location using what we have been given, and the ubiquitous answer to this appears to be "on the ground." Of course this is, however, not the case at all. Surely, were we to one day reach the actual solution, we will have a point identified on the solid earth. That said, however, our process of searching involves only our proposed cipher solution and the Phillips 66 map. In and of itself, the map we are given is very poorly detailed and sloppily scaled. Despite the almost universal assumption that a translation of any proposed solution into lat/long or GPS or any other coordinates on the ground will match the equivalent point as marked on the map with the same bearing and distance from Mount Diablo, it won't! Even a cursory attempt to create a semi-transparent overlay of the Phillips map on top of the equivalent terrain on, say, Google Maps, will show just how badly the attempt fails. And, in 1970, we didn't have Google Maps either. Basically, to be authentic in our search we just need to step back from the modern day, close down our Maps application, and stick with the Phillips map that we were actually given. There are, essentially, two possibilities for what we are looking for. Firstly, it may be the case that all we have been given in the cipher is the relevant coordinate pair for the feature we are guided to identify or, secondly, we are directed to a much more general area and given an additional clue as to the specific ground feature sought. In the first instance, the map must give us everything. The feature looked for must be actually present on the map. Of course, there are very few features actually shown - the bomb site must be somewhere along a pretty major highway or main road - and thus this realisation alone must cause us to give especial consideration to the second possibility. In the latter instance, then, we require something extra, and very likely the last characters of the cypher would give us this further clue. For example, suppose the intended location was back at Blue Rock Springs. With very little precision - since the map doesn't permit precision of any kind - we might find that the decoded coordinates point from Mount Diablo over Benicia toward eastern Vallejo in general. That, in itself, wouldn't give us much at all. But suppose something like 'LAZULUM' were added at the end, then now - and only now - we can pin down something not immediately present on the map. The point is, however we are to proceed, we simply have to get away from thinking about coordinates, bearings, distances on the ground. If that had been the intention, we would have either been given a better map or, more likely, none at all. Essentially, in this one instance, if not in others, Google is actually your Nemesis, not your friend.

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Decoding the location of The Zodiac's bus bomb without Google

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shaqmeister

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Posted by: @coder1987

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Zodiac didn’t operate in London. He operated in Vallejo, near Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs.

As I have to believe you would have observed, the point illustrated using the London underground map is quite generalised beyond any specific case or individual and relates solely to the relationships between maps, functioning as maps, and what it is they are mapping.

Being thus fully generalised, it is therefore applicable here, also.

This post was modified 3 hours ago by shaqmeister

“This isn’t right! It’s not even wrong!”—Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958)

Posted : March 29, 2026 1:19 pm

shaqmeister

(@shaqmeister)

Posts: 307

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Posted by: @coder1987

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Let me make sure I understand your argument. The Zodiac gave us an origin (Mt. Diablo), a bearing system (clock hours from magnetic north), and a scale (6.4 miles per inch).

The Zodiac has given us an origin (Mt. Diablo), a bearing system (radii at 30° spacing numbered from zero, with reference radius adjusted for magnetic declination), and a map.

This post was modified 60 minutes ago by shaqmeister

“This isn’t right! It’s not even wrong!”—Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958)

Posted : March 29, 2026 3:33 pm

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