JULY 19, 1978 Letter – I Am In Control of All Things
Postby Bently » Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:14 am

This letter contains an interesting riddle. Does not contain the usual "This is the Zodiac speaking". Mailed from LA to the Chronicle, typewritten, no envelope image published.

http://zodiackillertruth.com/control.htm

I am the ZODIAC and I am in control of all things. I am going to tell you a secret. I like friction tape. I like to have it around in case I need to truss someone up in a hurry….I have my real name on a small metallic tape. You see, while you have it in your possession, I want you to know it belongs to me and you think I may have left it accidentally. I am athletic. It could be swim fins, or a piece of scuba gear. But maybe you play chess with me. I have several cheap sets in closets all over. I have my name on the bottom of the lid with the scotch tape….My tape is waiting for me all over California. Do you know me? I am the ZODIAC and I am in control.

i think its about this

I am sorry, maybe I am just getting too old to understand some of the posts, what riddle???????? That makes about as much sense to me as a clue to Jock itch fitting the Zodiac.

Sandy, I was reading through this the other day and found it interesting. Quicktrader created a thread that ran through some scenarios of Zs first name being Paul based on the riddle. I was just simply saying that the last name of St Jacques fits nicely into the rest.

One of the first famous chess players was named Paul. Jacques could be a play on words for jocks, meaning athletic. And I am pretty sure Cousteau had a lot to do with scuba diving.

Like I said, just a thought based on what is probably a worthless riddle.

Ok, I looked for the riddle didn’t find it. The name Paul was a name I gave to VPD back in 1970 as a possible suspect.
That is in Darlene’s police report, but he had a alibi for July 4th 69 and was no longer a suspect. That is the only Paul I am familiar with.

I think that if you are posting about something from another thread, it would help people like me, if you either give a link to what you are posting about or do it using a quote.I don’t read every post I just don’t have the time, so unless there is something like a quote to the subject, I am lost.

Myself I would be looking for older men with the first name starting with R and last name starting with H, who perhaps once lived or worked in southern Ca. and moved to or worked in Vallejo at least by 1968. I have gone over some of the unsolved cypher’s and found the name Robert more than once with a last name starting with H. I truly believe that the RH at the bottom of the desk top poem in Riverside, was a huge mistake made by Zodiac that couldn’t be erased. Lucky for him RH has been ignored by many as being a blood type? For me it is the best clue to finding Zodiac other than his DNA.

Thanks Mr Lowe for the information about the can of tape with the name St.Paul at the bottom. Interesting St. Paul, reminded me of the Saint Donna letter sent to Donna’s sister Mary.

There was another Paul that I remember who came into my work place "Lucky Lanes" in San Pablo. He was always alone and brought me a pretty watch, not sure if it was for my birthday or not? That was about 1964.
He was a plumber who did live in Vallejo. I do not remember his last name, he looked pretty close to the SFPD composite. I wasn’t afraid of him and there wasn’t anything that would make me think he was evil. I felt sorry for him because he seemed lonely.He was always very nice to me, I don’t think he ever asked me out? He was sort of shy and was about 30 to 35 yrs old, light thinning hair. Not a crew cut, no glasses, medium build not stocky.

He didn’t look anything like the stocky man with the round head with brown curly hair, who followed me from Vallejo to Napa in 1968, he still lurks around from time to time.
That one is scary!

Regarding the ‘my name is on the bottom lid of a scotch tape’ issue..Z’s last name could also have been ‘Mininger’, which is a last name matching the my-name-is cipher, too, as the Scotch tape company is actually ‘Minnesota Mining & MFG Co.’..just an idea.

QT

I still think that the RH written at RCC, is the best clue to the killers real name. A few weeks ago a detective who is looking at the case about my suspect. Noticed that there was a name found from one of the many phone traps I had back in the 90’s, that I was never told about.
That name is Roberto Hernandez.
On one of my several trips to Riverside years ago, I found a Roberto Hernandez who had made a claim for a mine in Riverside county. He bought 20 acres in March 1966. The handwriting on the claim looks a lot like Zodiac’s!

Thinking about that mine, made me think about the victim Dana Lull, who was put in a mine shaft north of Las Vegas.Did her killer just stumble by a mine shaft, or did he know about it because he was looking for mines in that area at one time?

The name R Hernandez fits one of the codes and the full name of Robert Hernandez fits another code. " It me thee hipi robeet" was a clue left for me about the 18 letter code. He added at the bottom of that information, "5 E’s the fifth letter, 3 I’s the 9th letter. Not sure what to make of that? Except 5+3= 8 and there were 3 8’s in the code. The 8th letter of the alphabet being H.

Hmm.

While looking through the yearbooks, precisely Ramona High Aries 1965, on page 63 found a T. P. Goughnour. His second name matches the "St. Paul" theory regarding the bottom lid of scotch tape.

So far nothing special but the interesting part of it is that he is listed with two interesting locations: Napa as well as Visalia. Thus, he is a classmate of Cheri Jo Bates who used to live in Napa, next to Vallejo. "Welsh" looking can’t say anything about that, but the last name certainly is a fit to that, too. No ’round face’ but that could have had changed over 4-5 years.

QT

https://www.classmates.com/siteui/yearb … 74?page=63

https://www.whitepages.com/name/Thomas-Goughnour/CA

QT, He would be worth looking into. Good job!

QT, It looks like this guy is still alive and may be a cop? He is 71 yrs old and did go to Ramona High school in Riverside. Might have to remove his information from here ?

For this purpose I did not write his full name nor do I associate him directly to any crime. Any person being a cop could be even more interesting due to shooting skills etc.

Not many Pauls out there who went to Ramona High with CJB and lived in Napa, though. A person being 71 years old actually is a good match regarding the age, too (of course, because same yearbook). About 19 years old in 1966.

Would be interesting to find any connection to any other victim, the Mikado or the SF Chronicle.

Some articles refer to him being a former Juvenile Probation Officer in Rialto, most of the articles from ’74 to ’75. Not sure what’s the connection to Napa, though.

QT

I am pretty sure that the Napa library has their city directories on line. You might want to join that site? I lived in Napa , I don’t recognize him. I didn’t know everyone who lived there, but working as a waitress we see many people every day.

Q, interesting your suspect is called Thomas. Zodiac might have hinted at the name Tom with his Mikado quotes ("little Tom Tit, tit willow", "a victom must be found") and the "Red Phantom".

My suspect’s first name is Paul btw…More below from my report taken from the excellent post of this site

The following message was posted on the Zodiackillersite.com by Quicktrader. It is a very Interesting observation. As it too claims to break the sender’s code and reveal the same first name of the Zodiac, ….PAUL.

By Quicktrader » Fri Jul 12, 2013 3:51 am
‘I am the ZODIAC and I am in control of all things. I am going to tell you a secret. I like friction tape. I like to have it around in case I need to truss someone up in a hurry…I have my real name on a small metallic tape. You see, while you have it in your possession,

I want you to know it belongs to me and you think I may have left it accidentally. I am athletic. It could be swim fins or a piece of scuba gear. But maybe you play chess with me. I have several cheap sets in closets all over. I have my name on the bottom of the lid with the scotch tape…My tape is waiting for me all over California. Do you know me? I am the ZODIAC and I am in control.’

1. Only three months after the first Herb-Caen-letter, Z again uses the term ‘in control of all things’ (‘I am now in control of all things’), this time not only at the end but also at the beginning of his letter.

2. Like in the Bus-bomb-letter (11/9/69) as well as the Button-letter (6/26/70) as well as the ‘some of them fought it was horrible’ (10/5/70) as well as the Manor Township letter (1/5/77) Zodiac uses the term that he has to ‘tell you’ something.

3. He further teases with ‘telling his name’ and, also quite Z typical, often refers to himself (‘I’) signaling him being sort of an egomaniac.

Now this letter is more interesting as it seems to be. Z clearly gives a hint on his person. Let’s have a look at it again:

“’I like friction tape. I have my real name on a small metallic tape. You see, while you have it in your possession, I want you to know it belongs to me and you think I may have left it accidentally. I am athletic. It could be swim fins or a piece of scuba gear. But maybe you play chess with me. I have several cheap sets in closets all over. I have my name on the bottom of the lid with the scotch tape…My tape is waiting for me all over California.’”

The term ‘scotch tape’ caught my attraction…then I found this one:
http://www.fuzzymemories.tv/index.php?c=405

So there was an excellent commercial in 1978, the year of this letter, about ‘scotch tape’. Does he have his name on the bottom of the lid with the scotch tape? His tape is waiting for him all over California? This could mean that it was sold everywhere?

His name is on the bottom of the lid of the Scotch tape…taking this seriously, in connection with this lid… I’d say that Zodiac’s first name is PAUL:

The following clue I think I have broken

The first clue referencing the tape I think we could all agree points to his first name as "Paul"
The scuba gear clue is the next one for the last name… and it is not exactly where you may think but the clue is a good because technically his last name is found on all the diving equipment if you know where to look

Just an update
TGOZ

I am the ZODIAC and I am in control of all things. I am going to tell you a secret. I like friction tape. I like to have it around in case I need to truss someone up in a hurry….I have my real name on a small metallic tape. You see, while you have it in your possession, I want you to know it belongs to me and you think I may have left it accidentally. I am athletic. It could be swim fins, or a piece of scuba gear. But maybe you play chess with me. I have several cheap sets in closets all over. I have my name on the bottom of the lid with the scotch tape….My tape is waiting for me all over California. Do you know me? I am the ZODIAC and I am in control.’

Z communicates about friction / "SCOTCH" / small metallic tape that you have in your possession. His name on the bottom lid (Paul? Scotch tape is produced in St. Paul, Minnesota, which is written on the bottom of the lid of Scotch tape). He wants us to know that something ‘belongs’ to him and that he had left it accidentally, swim fins or scuba gear. Or playing chess, several cheap sets in his closets? And his tape is waiting for him all over California?

We found the scotch tape hint, what about the others?

Scuba gear equipment:

MASK
SNORKEL
FINS
BUOYANCY CONTROL DEVICE
WEIGHT SYSTEM
REGULATOR
SUBMERSIBLE PRESSURE GAUGE
DIVE COMPUTER
DIVE WATCH
DIVE KNIFE
DIVE LIGHT
SCUBA GEAR BAGS
WETSUITS AND DRY SUITS
UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO EQUIPMENT
SCUBA ACCESSORIES
DIVE FLAG AND FLOAT
SIGNALING DEVICES
SCUBA TANK
REBREATHERS
SIDEMOUNT
TECHNICAL DIVING EQUIPMENT

His first name is "Paul"? OMG! That’s MINE! And I’m old enough to have been active during Z’s reign of terror. I’m waiting for the knock on my door… .