QT, although my person of interest is obviously an artist, I’m going to disagree with your premise here. Of the four items you mention here, only one (the Halloween card symbol) was definitely created by Zodiac and I think it’s a huge leap to presume that the cattle brand was his inspiration. The "peak through the pines" card may or may not be from Zodiac. The other two are entirely speculation and unless Zodiac happened to be working on the Riverside yearbook committee, he didn’t create that classroom symbol. I’m really not surprised that we don’t know who created a drawing in a 50 year old yearbook and I honestly don’t find any relevance to it. It’s a mathematical symbol and completely in context drawn on the blackboard as it appears.

I do think that the collage aspect of the Halloween card, the use of white ink, use of symbols, apparent interest in movies and plays and general creativity lend to the idea that Z had some artistic/creative leanings. If the 13-hole card came from Z, it would be another example. It seems like Z started expressing his creativity more as time went on, particularly after Stine. A lot of folks would point to the crude Bus Bomb diagram to dispute the Zodiac as artist suggestion and suggest that if that’s the best Z was able to draw, he better go back to the drawing board.

Well, Zodiac liked to draw. And to use felt pens.

IF the confession letter is from Z: Yes, then I don’t believe in coincidence that the Z symbol in the Riverside classroom would appear accidentially.

QT

Well, Zodiac liked to draw. And to use felt pens.

IF the confession letter is from Z: Yes, then I don’t believe in coincidence that the Z symbol appears accidentially.

QT

Agree on the first part but respectfully not on the second, QT. That cross/circle symbol has a million and one meanings and is found in a million different contexts in every culture. Z himself used it as a gunsight (perhaps), a solar wheel, a clock and a compass. It’s used in geometry (radians etc.) and other forms of math so it at least fits the context in which it’s used in that particular drawing. Some observant person noticed that in the yearbook and it’s really interesting but I don’t necessarily see any direct connection even though I do believe that Z very likely wrote the Bates letters and probably the Confession letter. Just my opinion…

You may be right, nevertheless I’d urgently like to know who made that drawing. It appears as if Fred Harman made the drawing, as a comic artist, by himself. I wonder if there is any connection between him and other artists, e.g. from Ramona High. Or if the artist from RH can be ruled out.

There should be some people out there who know.

QT

Here’s the yearbook drawing:

http://www.zodiackiller.com/CrossCircle.html

Me too, of course, but like the desk poem it’s not always easy to locate someone who produced a yearbook drawing from 50 years ago. I hope you can get an answer to that question, QT.

Whilst Entropy is completely correct that the symbol has many uses and is found in many different places, it certainly seems necessary to follow up and see where this might lead. I’m still completely on the fence about any CJB connection to Z but it’s funny that we have in her case:
z-like letters with characteristic mis-spellings
z-like sign-off
z-like desk poem
and a z-like symbol in a related yearbook.
There’s only so many coincidences we can accept in one place before it starts to look like more.
Although this is the first I’ve heard of the yearbook drawings I’m aware they’ve been known about for years judging by the archived forum posts. Does anyone know if any digging has already been done?

If I am not mistaken, I believe all involved in the art dept for that yearbook were girls. Simply a coincidence, imo.