The Groucho Marx theory was recently debunked and quite soundly IMO. It happened recently with almost no reaction from long term members.
Got a link?
Zodiac was a screwup. He left behind five breathing victims, two survivors, bootprints, possibly fingerprints and palmprints, tiretracks, eyewitnesses, and earwitnesses. If the APB had gone out for a WMA he would have been locked up in ’69.
http://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=5034&p=82154&hilit=Marx#p82154
OK, so it looks like there’s good evidence Zodiac patterned his lyrics after Martyn Greene instead of Groucho. Good catch by brubaker.
The point’s the same, of course. Zodiac wasn’t a monocle-wearing dandy with season tickets to the theater. He was just some goofball who heard a funny song.
Zodiac was a screwup. He left behind five breathing victims, two survivors, bootprints, possibly fingerprints and palmprints, tiretracks, eyewitnesses, and earwitnesses. If the APB had gone out for a WMA he would have been locked up in ’69.
Hmmm he sure writes letters and makes jokes like a dandy. I mean he’s camp. How many people do you know who write camp jokes? I know heaps, but most people don’t.
As for the Groucho thing, what always bothered me is this idea that a Groucho Marx cover was like this super lowbrow mainstream thing. There’s a middle ground. Musical theatre isn’t exactly the exclusive past time of the wealthy elite, but it’s not exactly blasting in trailer parks either. It’s kind of… upper middle class… I guess. And Groucho’s version is pretty legit. I mean, I think most musical theatre fans would have seen Groucho’s version as the real deal, not some attempt by the mainstream to cash into theatre culture. Zodiac doesn’t have to be some monical wearing classical music aficionado, but he doesn’t have to be some smuck either. Here is a wild idea, maybe he’s just exactly what he appears to be, a musical theatre fan.
Why do we have to constantly try to move the dial on his personality either toward the idiot end, or the genius end? I don’t know too many idiots who are into musical theatre and I don’t know too many geniuses who write with such criminal disregard for the English language. Maybe he was just a mildly interesting loner, who appeared a bit smarter than average, but nothing special. There is whole personality spectrum here. He doesn’t have to be at the extreme ends, or at the extreme middle, he could be anywhere along it.
Do I think he’s eating nacho’s off his belling in trailer somewhere? No. Do I think he’s solving maths equations whilst listening to Bach? No.
Maybe he was just a mildly interesting loner, who appeared a bit smarter than average, but nothing special.
That’s pretty much exactly where I put him, intellectually. A little above average intelligence, somewhat excitable, with knowledge available to anyone who went to high school and paid attention in math and science.
Zodiac was a screwup. He left behind five breathing victims, two survivors, bootprints, possibly fingerprints and palmprints, tiretracks, eyewitnesses, and earwitnesses. If the APB had gone out for a WMA he would have been locked up in ’69.
FWIW, Zodiac’s version of "As Some Day it May Happen" (the "I’ve got a little list" song) isn’t from The Mikado per se. Zodiac’s version doesn’t match the theatrical version. That’s because he had heard the Groucho Marx version, which was available on an album prior to the Z crimes.
Michael Cole covers this in Zodiac Revisited (2nd book, page 88), and it’s been discussed on the forums before. When you see the three versions side-by-side – the original, Groucho’s version, and Z’s version – it’s obvious Zodiac was quoting Groucho’s version and not the original. It’s also obvious Z misunderstood and misquoted some of Marx’s lyrics, to boot.
In other words, trying to link Z to productions of The Mikado may not be fruitful. Someone posted a San Francisco Chronicle story about the SFPD’s chase down the Mikado rabbit hole. SFPD learned pretty quickly that the lyrics in Zodiac’s letter were incorrect. They theorized that Zodiac might have sung the part of Ko-Ko and was recalling the lyrics from memory (hence the differences from the original), so they interviewed people who had played Ko-Ko in area productions of The Mikado, to no avail.
The Groucho Marx theory was recently debunked and quite soundly IMO. It happened recently with almost no reaction from long term members.
Was it debunked? Or is the jury still out? Certainly the evidence is compelling, but I haven’t heard much more about it in months.
“Murder will out, this my conclusion.”
– Geoffrey Chaucer
Cole was clearly relying on Tahoe there. Like "The Chicago Red Phantom," who was later revealed to be recycled column filler thanks to Newspapers.com, some of these old musings haven’t stood the test of time.
