I’ve got it! Zodiac was clearly Christopher Walken.

I’ve got it! Zodiac was clearly Christopher Walken.

This post needs more cowbell.

Just replying to an earlier mention of Fouke’s description in this thread.

How could Fouke provide such an incredibly detailed description of someone he saw from a moving car for supposedly such a short time? AT NIGHT!?!

Unless of course if he actually stopped him and spoke to him.

As others have mentioned, Zodiac didn’t have an accent or drawl as much as a unique speech pattern or cadence to his speech. Both dispatcher’s described it as if he was reading off a script. Hartnell made it clear that he didn’t think Z was well-educated by his speech and vocabulary.

The term "accent" means different things for different laypeople. The notion that anyone’s speech can be "unaccented" is a flawed one — everyone speaks in some way that is different from others, at the very least by virtue of the fact that everyone has a slightly different vocal tract. For a linguist, "accent" just means "speech variety," and does not presuppose any norm. Colloquially, "accent" can mean a number of things: it can mean "speech that is different from my own" or "speech that is different from the speech around here" or "speech that is different from the standard" or "speech that suggests the speaker does not speak the language natively." It’s unclear which of these the earwitnesses had in mind when they described Zodiac’s speech as "unaccented," although I think we can rule out that he had a foreign or strongly regional (Boston, East Texas…) accent.

It’s worth noting that California is a distinct dialect region, and that California English is not considered "Standard" American English. "Standard" American English is often described as being spoken in the Midlands, although it is less strongly tied to geography than other dialects (it is used, for instance, in national television broadcasts).

The most salient features of dialects are segmental (i.e., having to do with consonants and vowels) and lexical (i.e., having to do with words). But speech varieties can also differ in subtle prosodic ways, and I think that this is what the earwitnesses were noticing when they described "cadence" and rate of speech. It’s probably impossible to know what they were picking up on: Did he have a low word-per-minute rate? Did he have significantly elongated vowels? Did he release every word-final stop? There are a number of features that could contribute to the impression that speech is "slow" or "precise." It’s also hard to know what to attribute this "accent" to. Was it an affectation? Genuine, but particular to his speech? Regional, but unfamiliar to the earwitnesses?

I think it’s also significant that Hartnell emphatically stated that Zodiac did not sound educated. He must have picked up on the phonetic or lexical features of some sociolect.

There are a few spelling errors in Zodiac’s correspondence which, if you believe they were largely unintentional (as I do), might shed light on his dialect. For instance, his spelling of "re-route" as "re-root" suggests that "route" for him was homophonous with "root" (as opposed to rhyming with "out"), which maybe rules out that he was from…Montana or North Dakota (see dialect survey here: https://www.businessinsider.com/america … highway-12). And the patterns of unstressed vowel deletion (e.g. in "intersting") and nasal flapping (in "idenity") suggest that he was…probably American.

All of this is to say that, unfortunately, Zodiac’s speech was pretty nondescript, possibly creepified for dramatic effect. If i had to venture a guess with so few data, I would guess that he came of age in the ruralish Midlands. But I also think it’s perfectly possible that he was a fairly uneducated native Californian with idiosyncratic prosody.

Why colorado…what connection could colorado have to z???….im not totally against entertaining an accent angle and z being a so cal transplant..but not really going into that blind rivet hole…interesting theory though at this point

Fred Harmans Red Ryder Pagosa Springs ranch Colorado “by fire”etc

I would guess that he came of age in the ruralish Midlands.

In central England?

I would guess that he came of age in the ruralish Midlands.

In central England?

He meant US midwest.

Hi All,

Something interesting that struck me about Bryan’s recollection was his description of Z’s accent. He described Z having a slight drawl, but not southern. Do we think Z was faking? If so, why? He didn’t expect Bryan to be living and talking after the attack. Also, when people try to put on an affected drawl, they usually go way past a slight drawl to some flavor of a southern accent. I’m not even addressing that Bryan felt that Z was uneducated. I know Slover said Z had no accent, however this could be colored by her own accent/ear. Not to mention it was over the phone, and a much short convo than Bryan had. So having said all that, what do we think?

P.S. Sorry if this isn’t new, but I haven’t seen these specific points brought up broadly for POI’s.

I have heard the voice of my suspect, whom I got away from in Vallejo the winter of 1968. He not only looked like the composite , he talks like Bryan had said.

It is for sure a "drawl" , but not like a accent at all. He is paralyzed on one side of his face , it is sometimes hard to understand what he is saying. He talks slowly and enunciates each syllable, to try and make his words more clear. If you hold your tongue with your fingers and try to talk, you will get what I am trying to explain. Some have said he sounds like he has food in his mouth and sort of mumbles.

It is not as noticeable when he whispers. I have one of the recordings of him whispering to me on my phone recorder, on "You Tube". It is under the listing of "Enhanced voice of man who claims to be Zodiac". It was so hard to hear that it had to be enhanced a bit louder to make out what he was saying. What he said was : "I like your voice baby—- Bye Bye to you too! " Then he breathes real heavy and starts to say :I want, I then picked up the phone and he hangs up. He doesn’t like to talk to me, he is a coward. In that video you will see a copy of the Lake B killing costume.

The best voice recording is in the evidence room at SFPD. On that tape he says "Sorry I missed you, well I guess I will say goodbye. Don’t worry, we will get together soon." This call came shortly after his attempt to shoot me , he missed my head by only a couple of inches! That was in the middle of the day, the neighbors saw him climb over the fence with the gun in his hand. They did not call the police, because they had been smoking MJ. I have two suspects , one looks like the SFPD drawing and the other looks like the Lake Berryessa drawing. The Berryessa one I call Honcho, the other is RH.

The term "accent" means different things for different laypeople. The notion that anyone’s speech can be "unaccented" is a flawed one — everyone speaks in some way that is different from others, at the very least by virtue of the fact that everyone has a slightly different vocal tract. For a linguist, "accent" just means "speech variety," and does not presuppose any norm. Colloquially, "accent" can mean a number of things: it can mean "speech that is different from my own" or "speech that is different from the speech around here" or "speech that is different from the standard" or "speech that suggests the speaker does not speak the language natively." It’s unclear which of these the earwitnesses had in mind when they described Zodiac’s speech as "unaccented," although I think we can rule out that he had a foreign or strongly regional (Boston, East Texas…) accent.

It’s worth noting that California is a distinct dialect region, and that California English is not considered "Standard" American English. "Standard" American English is often described as being spoken in the Midlands, although it is less strongly tied to geography than other dialects (it is used, for instance, in national television broadcasts).

The most salient features of dialects are segmental (i.e., having to do with consonants and vowels) and lexical (i.e., having to do with words). But speech varieties can also differ in subtle prosodic ways, and I think that this is what the earwitnesses were noticing when they described "cadence" and rate of speech. It’s probably impossible to know what they were picking up on: Did he have a low word-per-minute rate? Did he have significantly elongated vowels? Did he release every word-final stop? There are a number of features that could contribute to the impression that speech is "slow" or "precise." It’s also hard to know what to attribute this "accent" to. Was it an affectation? Genuine, but particular to his speech? Regional, but unfamiliar to the earwitnesses?

I think it’s also significant that Hartnell emphatically stated that Zodiac did not sound educated. He must have picked up on the phonetic or lexical features of some sociolect.

There are a few spelling errors in Zodiac’s correspondence which, if you believe they were largely unintentional (as I do), might shed light on his dialect. For instance, his spelling of "re-route" as "re-root" suggests that "route" for him was homophonous with "root" (as opposed to rhyming with "out"), which maybe rules out that he was from…Montana or North Dakota (see dialect survey here: https://www.businessinsider.com/america … highway-12). And the patterns of unstressed vowel deletion (e.g. in "intersting") and nasal flapping (in "idenity") suggest that he was…probably American.

All of this is to say that, unfortunately, Zodiac’s speech was pretty nondescript, possibly creepified for dramatic effect. If i had to venture a guess with so few data, I would guess that he came of age in the ruralish Midlands. But I also think it’s perfectly possible that he was a fairly uneducated native Californian with idiosyncratic prosody.

Sorry. For whatever reason it cut my reply off? I think maybe it’s just my phone.
What you said blew my mind though! I immediately thought of upstate New York as far as saying "root" instead of "route" and also I’d like to say that they tended to over enunciate words and seemed to draw out their words. At first it was strange to me being from AZ but after awhile I didn’t notice it nor did I think about it til I saw your post. I’d say that it’s a 50% possibility that this guy may be from the Upstate NY are or Western Vermont. I say 50% because who knows? We don’t necessarily have a voice to go off of unfortunately but I’d say based off the description of Bryan Hartnell it could certainly be a possibility.

Nobody who heard the Zodiac’s voice described an accent, let alone a distinctive accent such as New York.

Nobody who heard the Zodiac’s voice described an accent, let alone a distinctive accent such as New York.

Absolutely, not even the slightest hint of an accent!

Another reason why Larry Kane could not have been Zodiac, he did have a slight NY accent. I did hear a recording of Kane talking to 20-20 in 1990.

Tom, Sandy. I’m not talking about the Southern NY "city" accent. I’m talking about upstate NY north of Albany NY. It’s very Different than the "get outta here" accent that most people associate with NYS.

Could someone explain to me; what is the difference between a drawl and accent ?