Letters from Zodiac?

Recently, on www.zodiackillersite.com, we discussed some of the unconfirmed Zodiac letters, letters that may be from the Zodiac Killer, but so far, have not been positively connected.

Two of the letters most discussed are the 'Bleeding knife of Zodiac' & 'This State is in Trouble' letters. These were mailed together  12/16/69, and were postmarked from Fairfield, CA.

These may have been sent by Zodiac in time for the one year anniversary of his first confirmed attack on 12/20/68.

Personally,I have been on the fence as to whether they are really from Zodiac or not, but recently, I am leaning towards them being from the real Zodiac, and NOT a copycat or hoaxter. Most people that view these mention that they don't look much at all like the Zodiac's confirmed writing, and that is true, but if you want to make somebody think you are mailing a real Zodiac letter, then you make it look as close to the real thing as possible. There is some suggestion that Zodiac practiced the altering of his handwriting,and may have disguised it at times, and these letters may be evidence of that. In fact, the FBI could not rule these letters out as being authored by Zodiac.

A moderator,Seagull, at my website, was able to find this news story-



Fresno Bee
Dec 20 1969
Page 1

"Zodiac" 10 Are Marked For Murder

SAN JOSE (AP)- The Highway Patrol station here reports receiving a telephone call from a man identifying himself as "Zodiac" and threatening to kill five patrolmen and a family of five by Monday.

Sgt. Robert Rengstorif said he took the call at 10:10 p.m. Friday from a man who told dispatcher Shirley Searcy he was "the Zodiac" and wanted to speak to the man in charge.

Rengstorif quoted the man as saying:
"I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday."

The patrolman said the call was not recorded and there is no way of knowing who it came from.

A killer who calls himself Zodiac first struck a year ago in Vallejo and has killed a total of five persons.

His last known communication was a month ago in two letters addressed to the San Francisco Chronicle.



Based on the phone call containing the threat against cops, and the mention of San Jose, and the fact the call came in almost the exact time the letters were mailed, I have no doubt that the caller & letter writer are one and the same. The question is, is that person Zodiac?


To join the discussion and share your ideas, or theories, please visit the following links:

http://www.zodiackillersite.com/viewforum.php?f=74

http://www.zodiackillersite.com/viewforum.php?f=71

http://www.zodiackillersite.com

A big clue in the case of the Zodiac Killer, from a comic book of all places?

At my forum, www.zodiackillersite.com one of my long time Members, and site Moderator, 'TAHOE27', may have found a big clue related to Zodiac's Halloween card that he mailed to reporter Paul Avery in October, 1970. The Halloween card was a standard Hallowen card of the time, with a few 'additions' created by Zodiac to scare Avery. Zodiac wrote "you are doomed" (in the hole within the tree). He also included an odd symbol, and on the back of the card, a message that mentioned the various ways he could presumably kill people, By Knife, By Rope, By Fire, By Gun.

Over the years, many people have tried to explain the meaning of the card, the symbol, etc, but it was all open to speculation. First of all, the Zodiac had placed several eyes on the card. A day or two before Zodiac mailed this card, a female was found murdered in the Presidio Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. Her eyelids had been sadistically sliced off. I personally think that Zodiac included the eyelids on the card, and mailed it card immediately after the body was found, so that police would think he had killed her, afterall, it was the same neighborhood in which Zodiac had killed cab Driver Paul Stine, the October before. It was not long before the Police identified the female victim as a prostitute,and her Pimp was found to be responsible for her murder, NOT the Zodiac. Although the eyelids may have been easy enough to explain away, the other clues on the Halloween card, were still of interest.

Regarding the odd symbol, that resembled a combined Z&F, with 4 dots sorrounding the center, Author Robert Graysmith, in his book, ZODIAC UNMASKED, noted that the sybmol was a close match to the cattle brand symbol used by Fred Harmon, a Rancher from Pagosa Springs, Co. (Top right of the photo below)

 

 

Fred Harmon was associated with a comic book based on his western experiences. In December, 2013, TAHOE27 discovered that there was possibly yet another connection between Fred Harmon & Zodiac. In one comic,there is a 'wheel of doom'. The DOOM part is interesting of course because of Zodiac using that word in his threat to Avery. But even more striking, is what the wheel of doom looked like in the comic book. It closely matched Zodiac's clues involving knife,rope,gun,fire.

In 44 years, nobody before Tahoe27, had found a clue like this regarding the Halloween card. This proved that Zodiac used a clue that closely matched Harmon's cattle brand symbol in the Halloween card, and in addition, had used the 'wheel of doom' comic, as inspiration for his card as well. The question is, why did Zodiac reference the comic book, and cattle symbol? Was he somehow connected to Fred Harmom or his ranch? Was it a clue of some sort? When Zodiac attacked at Lake Berryessa in 1969, he mentioned to surviving witness, Bryan Hartnell, that he had escaped from a prison,after killing a guard. Although it has long been believed by many people that the prison referenced by Zodiac was Deer Lodge Prison, in MT, other sources have mentioned that the prison was actually in Colorado. If so, was it close to Fred Harmon's ranch? Did Zodiac have ties to that area?

The connection regarding the symbol, and comic book between Zodiac & Fred Harmon, raises more questions than answers, but one thing is hard to deny, there IS a clue there someplace.