Yeah, I don’t make any claim as to what might be buried there.  It is impossible to do so.  It is why I reported the coordinates to the authorities, for the scan.

Initially, the vibrant green vegetation of the triangle, surrounded by the dry, brown dirt, made me think of the ammonium nitrate fertilizer he had mentioned relating to his “Death Machine”. 

But that would have been rendered inert long ago. 

It is not fertilizer that caused the vegetation contrast, but the fact that the triangle is a shallow depression.  It collects water when it rains due to this construction, which creates the green triangle effect that we see in dry conditions.  Luckily this is documented with satellite imagery evidence in the paper.

It seems the cows like to drink from this 100 ft equilateral triangle that points north, after it rains.

One Zodiac forum member had mentioned he believed the cows created the triangle, rather than the Zodiac, and they were pooping in this mathematical formation. 

I have certainly heard some interesting theories!

Just to return to a question I posed earlier, @coder1987, given that you (quite rightly, in my view) reject the idea that the Z32 conveys any notion of angles in radian measure – you choose ‘hours’ – why do you feel the need to have some reference to ‘RADIANS’ in your algorithm?

In your code you have:

PREFIXES = ["", "IN", "AT", "TO", "BY", "GO", "ON"]
RAD_UNITS = ["RAD", "RADS", "RADIAN", "RADIANS"]
DIST_UNITS = ["", "INCH", "INCHES"]

DIR_UNITS = ["HOUR", "HOURS"]
DIST_UNITS = ["INCH", "INCHES"]

X [DIR_UNITS] Y [DIST_UNITS] 

@shaqmeister I made sure to include a section in the paper that specifically addresses it, but Zodiac misuses the term radians as we discussed.  This insight came from the clock hours he explicitly drew on the map.  Radial lines from an origin point (Mt. Diablo).  Just measure inches along those radial lines.

Zodiac was a map reader with his own coordinate system, not a mathematician.

Also, about the OCLOCK mention.  As the code is open source, I encourage others to try to find their own solution that may be even better, and let me know if they find anything interesting near the decoded coordinates, if it results in a new top ranked candidate.  You might be able to find a better solution than IN THREE AND THREE EIGHTHS RADIANS TEN, and I certainly welcome you to give it a try.

Inches along the radians.  By radians, he means radial lines.

I will concede that 0 is not 12.  However, 3, 6, and 9, are in their correct clock hour positions.  This is actually a pretty important hint.

I am glad you have taken a look at the code, as you have likely also noticed that the correct map scale of 6.4 inches, and the correct magnetic declination were used in my calculations.  If those were off, it wouldn’t land by the triangle.  All of hints the Zodiac provided had to be utilized to arrive here.

Posted by: @coder1987

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@shaqmeister I made sure to include a section in the paper that specifically addresses it, but Zodiac misuses the term radians as we discussed.  This insight came from the clock hours he explicitly drew on the map.  Radial lines from an origin point (Mt. Diablo).  Just measure inches along those radial lines.

Exactly, and I think that is my point. Radial measure, no matter what units you use, comprises a radial line from an origin point going out at a defined angle along a defined distance. Along with the location of the origin and the reference direction, this is all you need. Your units of angle are ‘HOURS’ and your units of distance are ‘INCHES’. The word ‘RADIAN’, whatever its intended meaning, therefore is extraneous to any such coordinate specification. It won’t be present in any such solution.

Posted by: @coder1987

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I will concede that 0 is not 12.  However, 3, 6, and 9, are in their correct clock hour positions.  This is actually a pretty important hint.

Indeed, I don’t doubt there is a very important hint here. Given that we have 0 and not 12, however, are you confident that the hint is towards the clock face? The figure numbered thus is undoubtedly that chosen to identify ‘The Zodiac’. The Zodiac (celestial) itself, of course, divides into twelve. Could it be argued that, in fact, the use of 0 rather than 12 is made intentially to have us think of something dividing in this manner other than a clock? Should we, then, be looking at our angular units being, perhaps, ‘SIGNS’?

@shaqmeister Yeah his confusion about the proper definition and usage of the word radians can be very confusing, for sure. 

“The word ‘RADIAN’, whatever its intended meaning, therefore is extraneous to any such coordinate specification. It won’t be present in any such solution.”

I don’t agree with this part, as it is stated too definitively.  He uses the word twice in his explicit hint that he provided.

Zodiac misusing the word aligns with other mistakes he has made (many of them), such as his error that had to be manually corrected during the Z340 decryption.

We can simply agree to disagree on this one. 

GPR survey of the 100 foot triangular anomaly is a falsifiable ground truth test on the validity of this proposed solution. 

If something is buried and it is connected to the Zodiac, it is solved.  For now, it remains unconfirmed, and proposed.

@shaqmeister “are you confident that the hint is towards the clock face?”

Well, I will say that during my time, after decryption, I did run some analysis on the clock hour positions, relative to Mt. Diablo, of his crime scenes.  All of his crime scenes in Vallejo fall within the 10 o’ clock hour sector.

The Paul Stine murder is less than 1 degree off from exactly 8 o’ clock, relative to Mt. Diablo.

Paul Stine was murdered on the 10th month, just before 10PM.  My proposed solution falls exactly on the 10 o’ clock hour vector.  That is just the way the math worked out.

The calculations for the clock hour positions of his crime scenes are in the verify.py script in the included code base.