Yes, it is him. This is confirmed by cross-referencing.

There may be a connection between the paper owners and the person also.

I wonder how common it is to have a POIs name in a paper with a front-page Zodiac story in 1970?

I would then wonder how common it is for the name of any criminal who carried out a crime to also appear later on in the paper, in an unrelated story, let alone is also the same person who carried out the crime.

Is this the sort of thing we should most definitely ignore? That it has all the hallmarks of just yet another coincidence? Or is it something that makes you think maybe there is more to it than that?

The problem is that this is the Zodiac case which makes it so untypical of other crimes that I have no clue how to answer that question.

https://relentless1.net/2021/11/10/paradise-lost/

https://www.foxnews.com/us/cold-case-zodiac-killer-identified-murder

"

The Case Breakers is now saying it has identified the Zodiac Killer as Gary Francis Poste, who passed away in 2018. The team's years of digging uncovered new forensic evidence and photos from Poste's darkroom. One image features scars on the forehead of Poste that match scars on a sketch of the Zodiac, the team said. 

Other clues include deciphering letters sent by the Zodiac that revealed him as the killer, said Jen Bucholtz, a former Army counterintelligence agent who works on cold cases. In one note, the letters of Poste's full name were removed to reveal an alternate message, she told Fox News. 

"So you've got to know Gary's full name in order to decipher these anagrams," Bucholtz said. "I just don't think there's any other way anybody would have figured it out."

The team believes Poste also killed Cheri Jo Bates on Oct. 31, 1966, in Riverside, Calif., hundreds of miles south from the San Francisco area and two years before the first killing linked to the Zodiac occurred. Bates, 18, was found dead in an alleyway on the Riverside City College campus after her father phoned police to report her missing. "

Has Herb Caen really been looked at with a fresh eye? Was Bill Cosby seriously looked at?

Herb Caen lived and worked in SF, at the Chronicle. He was a media-savvy narcissist-type personality who loved having his name in the paper. 

He owned a Black OMEGA Constellation wristwatch, linking with the Omega Symbol in the letter & linking with the angular velocity method in the Mt. Diablo Letter.

He worked every day EXCEPT Saturday...

He grew up going to the Lake Tahoe area as a kid...

We know Zodiac was a character personality with not much fear of being caught, which could mean the suspect wore a full-on disguise to hide his identity, including hiding his face with some sort of mask as cited in the Charlie Chan at Treasure Island Film.

Herb Caen wrote columns about Treasure Island.

Herb Caen was known to love Role Playing as different characters in his newspaper column. Taking on a different persona was nothing new to this man.

Just because he was a well-known "Celebrity" in his day DOES not exclude him from criminal activity. In fact, this would even help him get away with a crime, as ironic as it sounds...

He was born in Sacramento and knew the area surrounding it. He was in the Air Force for four years and had Photo/Map Recon experience.

He owned four Royal Typewriters including the exact model Police identified... He used blue ink to write with.

Herb + C is found in the cipher.

It may be a long shot, but perhaps someone else can find something else.

If not, that's ok. It was worth a shot, ;)

Thanks,

-- Alonzo.