(Editor: Mark Walsh is a talented designer, graphic artist, and Zodiac researcher. In this article, Walsh uses his unique skills and perspective to unravel a bit of the shadowy personality and background of Zodiac. Since the unknown killer left a legacy of written material that provides a small window into his motives and background, there is always room for learning more about the man through original research. Walsh has provided this interesting peek at the killer who has remained so mysterious for so long, also pointing out that long-held impressions first derived from Zodiac correspondence is likely incorrect. For readers who would like to study the Zodiac material mentioned in this article, please see the General Research section for the appropriate image archives.)

Mike Kelleher

First Impressions . . . Last

All the letters discussed in the article have been authenticated and argued over by document examiners. Many have been tested for DNA trace evidence, dusted for fingerprints, and opined upon by professionals and amateurs alike for over 40 years. Quite likely, they have been endlessly held up to the light, just to be sure.

Their contents have been analyzed, discussed, pondered over, scrutinized and compared to everything from a neighbor’s discarded notes, to Gilbert and Sullivan plays, to everything in-between. Even the blue, felt-tip pen that Zodiac favored has been researched, and likely brands have been identified.

To say that these written clues have been thoroughly looked at would be an understatement. What we know for sure is that these are letters written by a killer, and the majority of them, despite authentication, remain contentious.

What we do know with absolute certainty is that they are inked constructs committed to paper. This simple certainty can tell an interesting story.

First Impressions

July 31st 1969. Three letters, consisting of 2 pages each and a cipher, split into 3 parts, a piece of the cipher sent with each letter.

These are the first Zodiac letters seen by the world and have, I believe, left an effective and misleading impression. They are untidy, with poor margins, and the majority of the content slopes down to the right in a quite dramatic fashion. The writing itself appears scrappy and has led to it being widely described as “child-like,” a comfortable label too-easily applied to an individual of such apparently diminished responsibility as a serial killer. However, these (and similar) conclusions are not necessarily accurate, even though they persist to this day.

Unfortunately, first impressions last. This has certainly been the case with Zodiac. But, is it reality?

Accompanying the first letters is a cipher, split into three parts. Three separate documents which, in their construction, are in direct contradiction to what the letters seems to convey about the author’s competency with pen and layout. Comprising a grid of symbols 8 lines by 17 columns, each part of the overall cipher was created in the center of a page, carefully orientated to landscape. The symbols are quite evenly spaced and to a degree that is comfortable to read. The positioning of the cipher within the page appears considered, as it creates an ample and visually comfortable frame around the cipher. It is slightly elevated above dead center, which is an established method within design standards when presenting layouts on a page or mounting board. Positioning something dead center actually has a negative visual effect of making the presentation appear to be sitting too low within its frame. This elevation practice is naturally observed in framing and photography, and any discipline that involves the presentation of visual materials.

We have two competing impressions here. One is chaotic and unconsidered (the letter) and the other is controlled, measured and visually well executed (the cipher). So, which one is true to the writer?

Both are true because they disclose the author’s approach or “style” which, in my opinion, is measured and considered, despite the impact seen in Zodiac’s original letter. This considered approach can be clearly seen in the production of the ciphers. But what about the handwriting?

Zodiac answers that question himself in his next communication, only five days later.

August 4th 1969. One letter consisting of 3 pages.

The extreme slope of the writing, to the right and down, has suddenly vanished and his writing now remains consistent across all three pages. Also across all three pages there now appears a defined and precise margin of equal width. This was a conscious choice, a choice of “styling.” This recognizable style continues in subsequent communications.

September 27th 1969. Message written on Bryan Hartnell’s car door.

The cross-hair Zodiac symbol has been placed so as to allow the crossbar to be drawn along the crease of the door, and started at a position to allow comfortable inclusion of the longer 4th line, which includes the time of his attack. The overall layout seems well-considered, despite the vicious attack that has just occurred. The lines Zodiac drew were straight and not sloping off or severely angled as in his first letters. Any deviations in writing can be seen to follow the natural shape of the car door.

October 13th 1969. “The Stine letter.” One letter consisting of 1 page.

Again, the written lines are straight and the margin is consistent. It should be noted that some of the images that we are used to study this letter have been cropped and, in fact, it is possible that letters such as this one may be even more carefully constructed than they appear in the reproductions.

A Return to the Old Ways

November 8th 1969. “The Dripping Pen Card & Z340 Cipher.” One greeting card and a single cipher on a single page.

To echo the “styling” used in the first Zodiac letters, the writer’s scrawl has returned. A further echoing of style is that this communication includes a cipher. There has been a conscious decision to re-create the initial “effect” or “style” at this point.

Again, we have a cipher. Again, it is neatly arranged, this time in a grid of symbols 20 lines by 17 columns. Again, following the rules of positioning, the cipher is elevated above dead center except, this time, there was a problem. Despite observing “good positioning,” the side margins were too narrow to create effective framing. What to do? When this happens there are only a few things that could be done:

1. Trim the top and bottom of the page to create a smaller but more proportional framing, thus balancing with the margins.

2. Trim the cipher with an equal margin all round and re-mount it on a larger board to create the framing.

3. Start again.

4. Increase the image area vertically to balance the side margins.

In this cipher, Zodiac apparently chose the last option. By adding the cross-hair of sufficient size to visually integrate it with the cipher size, and placing the material above dead center within the space between the bottom of the cipher and the bottom of the page, the margins are now properly balanced.

Normal Service Resumes

November 9th 1969. “The Bus Bomb Letter.” One letter consisting of 6 pages and a single page diagram.

Spread across six pages, the margins are consistent, the lines are straight and show a remarkable consistency in their spacing throughout the entire letter. This was accomplished on un-ruled paper. The diagram can hardly be described as a work of art, but it is functional and serves its purpose. Again, it has been well-considered as to the placement of the information and the orientation of the elements on the page to separate the bomb schematic from the vehicles diagram. Even the profile sections of the “switch” have been placed to suitably occupy what would have been uneven areas of empty space on the bottom right and bottom of the page.

Normal service not only resumed here, but continued. The remaining communications, in my opinion, only served to betray Zodiac’s well-considered approach and displayed further evidence of his abilities. One only has to look at the “little list” letter and compare each page vertically to each other to see how precisely the margins are maintained. This is a stark contrast to those first letters, allegedly penned by a psychotic, out-of-control mind.

The only other time Zodiac uses “the scrawl effect” is in the 1971 letter to the Los Angeles Times. In reality, of the 28 full page exemplars of Zodiac’s writing, only 7 of the pages employ this approach or style (this does not include notes on diagrams or smaller missives on the front of cards, which also do not employ it). Given the low percentage and sporadic use of “the scrawl effect,” it would appear that Zodiac employed this style as a device rather than anything that could be considered his normal writing style.

I mention 7 pages rather than 8 because, even in his first communications, Zodiac did not stick to this scrawly style. In the letter to the Vallejo Times-Herald the writer abandons, or neglects, to continue this approach onto the second page. Again, if you compare these two pages vertically, you can not only see the contrast between them but the writer’s intent becomes more clear. Simply turning the page slightly before writing on it, and perhaps expanding this effect by doing so on an unstable surface (such as a book on your knee or against the steering wheel of your car, where the writing arm has no support) easily creates the scrawly style. We have already seen an example of how changes in surface angles affected Zodiac’s writing style on Bryan Hartnell’s car door.

Last Impressions

Would Zodiac win a handwriting competition? No. Was he an accomplished illustrator? Probably not. Was he a designer, a draughtsman? I can’t say for sure, but he displayed a knowledge of layout and visual problem-solving that was not amateurish. There are also “styling” choices, font choices, and formatting choices that are not simple in their presentation and show implied knowledge and skill in layout and design.

This conclusion certainly does not preclude an individual from learning these approaches through books or by intelligent observation of such techniques. Even if that is the case, we are still looking at a person with a creatively-inclined mind. Such people, it could be argued, usually find a creative path in life, whether that be in their profession or their interests and pastimes.

The question here is not, was Zodiac creative? I believe he was. The question is to what degree, and what this tells us about the man behind the murders?

Mark Walsh

A designer with one of Ireland’s top design consultancy’s for 17 years, Mark now woks freelance. His clients have included Inside Story (NY Law episode), Royal Mail (NI Definitive Stamps collection), Smirnoff(International fashion awards) and the Royal Ballet.