Zodiackillersite.com

up2something wrote:Pretty sure they're copies of the same letter. Differences are probably just an artifact of the copier technology of the times.

Have to respectfully disagree. The E d in editor are completely different. No artifact.
Possibly someone traced a copy on a light table and simply injected there own hand a different places.

That first one Definitely looks like a 14 to me (Halloween card anyone )

Talon wrote:

up2something wrote:Pretty sure they're copies of the same letter. Differences are probably just an artifact of the copier technology of the times.

Have to respectfully disagree. The E d in editor are completely different. No artifact.
Possibly someone traced a copy on a light table and simply injected there own hand a different places.

I have to respectfully re-agree? On both counts.

They are the same letter ... technically. Has it been 're-touched'? absolutely. I did wonder to what extent but having looked at it again I'm convinced and satisfied that it's 're-touched' and partially 're-drawn'.

Copy degradation is evident in the image we have and you can see the hard cut-off line where the tops of the letters in 'Editor' had to be 're-drawn'. The person doing this was obviously working from that copy and as such interpreted, incorrectly but based on what they had, the letter shapes to complete them.

Emann wrote:And the A in the word initials. One is capitalized the other lower case!

Even with this I'm satisfied that the degradation was to such an extent that the 'a' was incorrectly 're-drawn' as an 'A'. That tells you just how bad the copy was they originally worked from was.



As for the mystery 'Y'. Well we could speculate all day on that but without knowing the provenance of the image we are used to it's kinda pointless. What we do know is that it shouldn't be there but it is ... for whatever reason.


Here's the 'Dear Mr Editor' part with the 'cut-off' line shown and then the 're-drawn' section removed. Identical.



So... yeah. It's a retouched version of the same, albeit heavily degraded, letter. Even the 'e' in 'Dear' and possibly the 'o' in 'Editor' had to be retouched but I was too lazy to show that. I have checked though and the existing reference points that remain in it line up with the original.

not sure why people don't just assume it's a comma?

Chet Desmond wrote:not sure why people don't just assume it's a comma?

Are you talking about the comma?

I assume he means this thing.

oh thanks for clearing that up