Why would we assume that Z was an attorney?

Why would we assume that Z was an attorney?

Well, just an assumption – for a second. IF the button of Belli was from the American/Californian Bar Association, then Z didn’t like it (‘nasty ones’). Of course he could have been a client or someone completely different. However, in three of his letters, Z refers to Belli (2x) or his ‘nasty’ buttons. Police did check Belli’s former clients etc. but I simply wonder why he went for that button issue at all?

This I’d rather expect from someone being in contact with the bar association itself.

Either he did not like Belli (his letter written to him is written in an explicitly ‘cautious’ handwriting style) and/or he did not appreciate such a button because it might have caused him some trouble, e.g. in his professional life.

Some lawyers do get the status ‘not eligible’ or get dismissed from their profession and sometimes another lawyer might be involved into that process, too. So if Z was a lawyer who had lost his admission to practice law (because of Belli?), then it could have been a reason for Z to write to Belli plus to mention his ‘button’. Such a person’s name matching the my-name-is-cipher could then be an indication towards this person, furthermore to do some additional investigation such as checking if this person had once lived in the Riverside area.

It is more difficult if Z was a former client of Belli. A doctor, for example, could have had similar troubles with a lawyer like Belli.

Somehow I am convinced that Z has met Belli at least once. It simply wouldn’t make any sense to hate an innocent attorney and to mention him – directly or indirectly – in at least three different ‘homicidal’ letters and post cards. This, however, had happened over months – December/April/June – so Z did not forget about this issue. Doing so, Z uses the ‘button’ issue as equally important as the ‘Melvin Belli’ issue. Therefore I thought it might be possible that Z had not only troubles with Belli, but also (or even rather) was connected with the button’s organization itself.

Another possibility is that Z was a law student who finally failed to get access to the bar association. We do know that Belli had been in the LA area to meet students. So if he was responsible for e.g. taking exams (to be able to practice law), a disappointed student could follow a similar motivation.

QT

Why would we assume that Z was an attorney?

Because QT asked us to lol.

For the purpose of theorizing and considering the idea and if it’s worth exploring. Based on the tenuous links he suggested. Some more so than others. Tarbox’s suspect was a merchant sailor BTW QT. The fact that Tarbox was a lawyer bears no … nah I can’t even finish that sentence hahaha.

The rest? who knows? Perhaps there’s something to mull over in the minutia but I would think something stronger would need to be found among the pieces of this case to point in that direction and presented with supporting conjecture if not evidence.

Maybe Z was an extra in Star Trek. One of the ‘red uniforms’ who nearly always never survive away missions.

Z could have had a run in with Belli, or was represented by him, or any number of possibilities. I know ZODE from San Bernardino had a fascination with him, and Belli visited his college where he was taking some legal class

Humpf..let’s assume that Z was a merchant sailor. For a second. Then, this job profile would differ him from most of the other clients Belli had. Police looked into all of Belli’s clients. But what if someone looked for a merchant sailor amongst them? Too bad Belli won’t answer that one anymore..

QT

I personally don’t think that Zodiac himself was a lawyer, but if that personal ad is authentic, then Z probably had some sort of tie to a lawyer. "I’ll terminate your case" sounds like lawyer talk to me. I have a "little list" of about a half dozen lawyers I had checked out based on either their location(s), or them possibly having ties to a POI. Never really found anything of interest, but there are a few lawyers (other than Belli) with possible connections to the case. Nobody worth mentioning yet, though.

Bill Thoresen met with Belli once to obtain his services on one of his many charges, but IIRC he ended up choosing another lawyer. If memory serves, Thoresen just wanted to meet with Belli so he could feel like a big shot. That guy had a bunch of lawyers and did not like most of them, so he usually would use different lawyers for different matters. One lawyer even had to stop him from throwing his wife out of a hotel window.

You said:

"a SF lawyer claims to know who Z is. So overall, there is some reason that Z might have been a lawyer".

If Z was a lawyer, why would he need to go to another lawyer for legal advice? You could safely assume any lawyer would know the repercussions of his actions.