Can someone refer me to a good Earl Van Best, Jr. Thread on this site please? I could not find one.
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
Perfect! Thank you.
I apologize for starting an entire thread just to ask this question, but I am still having difficulties navigating the site on my mobile device.
Thank you again.
What were your conclusions on this person of interest? As it seems that not much had resulted from the publication I am assuming there was no way of actually confirming earl van best Jr. as a suspect, but am still curious as to others thoughts here.
Scroll down to the "new book" discussion here: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/zodiack … -all-f163/
Lot’s of thoughts and opinions. Mike_R pretty much debunked the notion that handwriting was that of Zodiac. That is just the tip of much to do about nuthin‘, imo.
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
An easier look into the handwriting issue here: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/zodiack … t7259.html
It is/was Mike99 at the ZK site.
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
Do you specifically have any theories? Or person’s of interest?
Ultimatly What are you conclusions on who zodiac may have been?
(I feel Richard Hoffman may have been involved in the murder of Darlene Ferrin at blue rock springs, but beyond that, I have not done much research, only blue rock springs and a small amount of lake berryessa and Washington and cherry (Paul Stein) …)
Do you think Paul Stein was killed just for his shirt so zodiac could continue his games with the press and police? I have always thought that zodiac enjoyed composing the letters and ciphers, manipulating the press, and taunting the police more than he ever enjoyed killing people, because zodiac was not sadistic, he did not mutilate the bodies and aside from his knife attacks he seemed to want to do things fairly quickly without the desire to be drawn to the bodies or the desire for gruesome violent acts he even mentions in a letter "some fought, it was horrible"… while a sadistic killer would have enjoyed the violence, it seems Paul Stein may have been killed just so zodiac could continue his games.
The letters honestly sound like the types of things a police officer or bad fiction writer would say when pretending to be a demented psychopath…
my friend thinks he was an artist and a film writer whose demented form of art was the zodiac story playing out in real life, I mean, he designed the costume at lake berryessa really well, Brian said it was crafted perfectly, it was not just thrown together, almost like a villain in a film, the whole story is like the plot to a film, then again, this friend also thinks zodiac filmed all his murders, and leans strongly toward Rick Marshall as her main person of interest…I don’t necessarily buy in here, but they are interesting ideas.
… I mean, why would you need an elaborate well designed costume to murder people? They are not supposed to live to describe it to anyone, and a simple ski mask could have worked just as well…
I am going way off topic, I apologize for all the speculations.
I research the ciphers and letters as well, however I think that if you base your investigation on evidence that was given to you directly of the perpetrator of the crime you are bound to have a muddled and misguided investigation from the start. It is allowing zodiac to control the narrative of the nvestigation in a way, and guide those investigating him into any direction he choses, I mean, maybe you should be looking for a physical clue or a missed detail from one of the surviving victims stories, and you are off on a tangent investigating various ciphers, looking for bombs, and researching "The Mikado"… so while I research the letters and ciphers, it is completely separate from my investigation of the crimes themselves, I try to look at the crimes without any preconceptions generated by zodiacs correspondence and ciphers.
