It basically positing that Z was not a very good marksman and NOT In the military. The main reason is that Z used a .22 that had very little power when he shot Jensen and Faraday, and no one with experience with guns would choose that particular calibar.

This bog is still in early stages and needs some serious editing. I still haven’t read it all. It’s hard to follow. There are equations.

Just finished reading the entire blog and I have to say while I appreciate the in-depth analysis and the scrutiny of the effort I was not convinced with a lot of the speculation. First, just because Z used a not very powerful .22 to kill Jensen and Faraday, and shot Jensen all over her back, it does not mean he was inept with automatic weapons, or had no military training. It could easily mean that Z liked the challenge, or the perceived risk of using weapons that were not the most useful, like the knife used to kill Cheri, or it could mean that this was the only gun he had available at the time. Also he wasn’t out there for target practice, he was having fun peppering two innocent people. His objective was killing not precise marksmanship.

I also didn’t agree with the dismissal of the sla letter and the red phantom letter. I think that it is possible, even likely that they weren’t the work of Z but the the consensus of the blog creators is that those letters are irrelevant. I think if they weren’t the writings of Z they were the writings of someone who kn ew the score and was dropping hints.

The biggest issue is that they argue the eureka card is authentic. I just don’t see it and they don’t really show why.

I did learn Z sent most of his letters from northern SF. I didn’t know that before.

.22 is a common round for use on small game. I’m not a hunter myself nor do I know about California’s License law, but I know that you have to have a permit to use a larger caliber gun and hunt larger game. It may not require a permit to hunt smaller game with a .22, and if that was the case it could be used by people who don’t want to have paperwork associated with their weapons. You can understand why that would be appealing to someone up to no good.

Zodiac’s other gun was a nine mm. Also a small caliber, for what it’s worth. To me that just shows he understood that he was not using his weapons for a military or hunting situation. It doesn’t show that he did or didn’t have a knowledge of military weaponry.

Yeah, there are an awful lot of typos, I hope he cleans it up at some point. His most interesting theory (bearing in mind that I’m not in a position to fact-check), is that Z lived in a specific area of San Francisco, due to the postmarks appearing to indicate a sort of "buffer zone" — assuming that Zodiac generally wouldn’t have killed or mailed letters in areas where people might recognize him.

As for LHR, he’s rebutting the old saw that, due to the pattern of bullet wounds, Z had to be some kind of expert marksman (which had more traction in the days before the morgue photo was available). It’s one of those old debates that will probably go on forever. I don’t know anything about guns, so I can’t comment on that aspect.

I agree with him on the boots, Z could have gotten those from anywhere. You’d think if Z knew about photo tracing, he would have realized the implications of leaving boot prints at crime scenes.

He does show where (in his opinion) the handwriting on the Secret Pal card matches Zodiac’s, but one thing I noticed — he never mentions Z’s f! The "f" on the Secret Pal card is definitely Zish. Definitely has the plus sign "t"s. Not so sure about the "r"s or the "d." Why’s he so confident that it wasn’t traced? Well, he did say he would discuss it further at a later time.

I thought this analysis of Zodiac’s "possible victims" was interesting. He covered ground that has been much discussed about possible victims in August of sixty nine, but suggested that Zodiac’s "score" of 7 could refer to two additional victims in October. The reasoning is that the two victims were added between the sending of Zodiac letters, which places them in Oct. I don’t agree that is supported…not that I really agree there is any support other than speculation about additional victims.

I don’t understand why he went on so much with all the math about how zodiac constructed a grid pattern to make his ciphers. Can someone explain why that is necessary? Couldn’t Z have just drew them into columns by hand, why did he require any kind of copying/transfer mechanism?

He talks about Graysmith’s idea for using a projector to trace writing, but Graysmith was talking about Zodiac using that to copy someone else’s hand writing for the letters, not for the ciphers.

Zodiac’s other gun was a nine mm. Also a small caliber, for what it’s worth.

I thought this analysis of Zodiac’s "possible victims" was interesting. He covered ground that has been much discussed about possible victims in August of sixty nine, but suggested that Zodiac’s "score" of 7 could refer to two additional victims in October. The reasoning is that the two victims were added between the sending of Zodiac letters, which places them in Oct. I don’t agree that is supported…not that I really agree there is any support other than speculation about additional victims.

I don’t understand why he went on so much with all the math about how zodiac constructed a grid pattern to make his ciphers. Can someone explain why that is necessary? Couldn’t Z have just drew them into columns by hand, why did he require any kind of copying/transfer mechanism?

He talks about Graysmith’s idea for using a projector to trace writing, but Graysmith was talking about Zodiac using that to copy someone else’s hand writing for the letters, not for the ciphers.

By the time the secret pal card was sent the public had seen photos of the envelopes. To me the words look traced or written very carefully, beyond Z’s stiff formal style that he used sometimes.

Hi-

I believe this person should watch the DVD from the Z movie that talks about this crime scene and then reassess his or her findings. I assume that he/she doesn’t do all this math by hand. I believe he/she therefore proves the old adage that "To err is human but to really f^&k things up you need a computer."

As far as I am concerned, their analysis places the car at essentially a right angle to the way it was in real life. Just look at the photo on the DVD where you can see the fence for the "bank" in the background and tell me the car was facing "in."

I don’t think so.

Mike

Zodiac’s other gun was a nine mm. Also a small caliber, for what it’s worth.

I assume that you are posting that to contradict my claim that a nine is "small caliber". I understand that, it’s nearly twice the size of a .22…what I meant was that it was a smaller round than would generally be used for military or hunting purposes.

The type of ammo really isn’t important. The site’s claims were that a .22 round was too small for a hunter or solider to use, so therefor Zodiac was not a hunter or a solider. I support that a hunter could have used a .22 and that the issue of whether or not Zodiac was a hunter or solider cannot be determined based on his choice of ammo alone, but that does not rule it out as a good possibility.

The fact is that Zodiac owned and used a variety of guns and was able to fatally shoot several people. That shows he had some familiarity and skill with weapons. I don’t think we can accurately assess his skill level or marksmanship ability, nor his background, beyond that.

I don’t understand why he went on so much with all the math about how zodiac constructed a grid pattern to make his ciphers. Can someone explain why that is necessary? Couldn’t Z have just drew them into columns by hand, why did he require any kind of copying/transfer mechanism?

He talks about Graysmith’s idea for using a projector to trace writing, but Graysmith was talking about Zodiac using that to copy someone else’s hand writing for the letters, not for the ciphers.

He makes a compelling argument for Z using some kind of a light table — it isn’t really possible to make such perfectly straight columns and rows, as we see in the ciphers (and most of the letters) without a visual aid. Which is interesting, as it indicates Z had draftsman skills (not the first time it’s been suggested), which could potentially be a major clue. Did Z use the exact method described? Who knows, perhaps someone can debunk. I admit I skimmed the math parts, as I can barely cope with my checkbook.

By the time the secret pal card was sent the public had seen photos of the envelopes. To me the words look traced or written very carefully, beyond Z’s stiff formal style that he used sometimes.

True, but this is writing on a thick greeting card envelope with a Bic (in my experience, they don’t always flow well & I have to go back and write over my words, and if the ink isn’t flowing well, it tends to create resistance), vs. the usual blue felt tip on smooth writing paper.

Also interesting that the author wrote the address out properly & the Groucho reference would have gone over everyone’s heads in 1990. I don’t think even Graysmith or SFPD realized Z was quoting the Groucho version of The Mikado (?).

By the time the secret pal card was sent the public had seen photos of the envelopes. To me the words look traced or written very carefully, beyond Z’s stiff formal style that he used sometimes.

True, but this is writing on a thick greeting card envelope with a Bic (in my experience, they don’t always flow well & I have to go back and write over my words, and if the ink isn’t flowing well, it tends to create resistance), vs. the usual blue felt tip on smooth writing paper.

Also interesting that the author wrote the address out properly & the Groucho reference would have gone over everyone’s heads in 1990. I don’t think even Graysmith or SFPD realized Z was quoting the Groucho version of The Mikado (?).

Assuming that it was Z or was someone trying to pass off as Z… I don’t think the Groucho on the card was in reference to the Mikado. It could be, but that is certainly occult. My assumption is that it was a reference to the ’71 Zodiac Killer movie where he wore the Groucho glasses and nose as a disguise. And that movie no doubt did not base that on the Mikado, it was just a coincidence.

Zodiac’s other gun was a nine mm. Also a small caliber, for what it’s worth.

I assume that you are posting that to contradict my claim that a nine is "small caliber". I understand that, it’s nearly twice the size of a .22…what I meant was that it was a smaller round than would generally be used for military or hunting purposes.

The type of ammo really isn’t important. The site’s claims were that a .22 round was too small for a hunter or solider to use, so therefor Zodiac was not a hunter or a solider. I support that a hunter could have used a .22 and that the issue of whether or not Zodiac was a hunter or solider cannot be determined based on his choice of ammo alone, but that does not rule it out as a good possibility.

The fact is that Zodiac owned and used a variety of guns and was able to fatally shoot several people. That shows he had some familiarity and skill with weapons. I don’t think we can accurately assess his skill level or marksmanship ability, nor his background, beyond that.

Yes, I posted that so people don’t think 9mm is a small caliber. 9mm is currently the main handgun used by U.S. military. It’s not too small of a round to use for hunting, unless you hunting elephant. I personally don’t know anyone that hunts with a 9mm, because it’s a handgun round. It is actually a bigger round (width) than a 30.06. True story.

As to Zodiac owning and using a variety of guns……three. Two niners and a .22. My mom has more of an arsenal.

IMO, If zodiac was a hunter or military guy, he was an inexperienced one for using a .22 on LHR. .22 good for varmint and targets. Plunkers.

Or…. he was a hunter and/or military guy that was completely off his rocker and couldn’t suppress his urge to kill at that particular moment and all he had was a .22.

Assuming that it was Z or was someone trying to pass off as Z… I don’t think the Groucho on the card was in reference to the Mikado. It could be, but that is certainly occult. My assumption is that it was a reference to the ’71 Zodiac Killer movie where he wore the Groucho glasses and nose as a disguise. And that movie no doubt did not base that on the Mikado, it was just a coincidence.

I forgot about the movie. Hanson was obsessed with the case, ate lunch with Paul Avery etc., even had a suspect that he stalked for several years…don’t know if he made the Groucho connection at the time or if it was just another one of those weird things they made up.