Zodiackillersite.com

ZodiacRevisited wrote:These are the main reasons why I believe CJB's murder was committed by the man who would later go on to become the Zodiac.

• twich misspelled (personally, I believe this is one of the only true spelling mistakes made by the Zodiac)
• "scream + twich and squirm" (letter) vs. "SHE SQUIRMED AND SHOOK AS I CHOAKED HER, AND HER LIPS TWICHED. SHE LET OUT A SCREAM..." (letter)
• Capital letters used in conjunction with large lower-case 'i's. Zodiac. Confession Envelope
• Circles instead of dots
• Felt-tip pen
• The word shall
• Claims to have called police in the Confession. Police acknowledged "crank" calls.
• I refer to the manipulation used on CJB as "Intentional Sabotage Followed by a Good Samaritan Ruse." This is precisely the same manipulation used on Kathleen Johns.
• The Confession was sent approximately 1 month after murder of CJB. Zodiac's first letters were sent approximately one month after BRS.
• CJB: Similar letters were sent to three recipients at the six month anniversary. Zodiac: Similar letters were sent to three newspapers.

Mike, I totally agree with the points you made above, and think Zodiac without question, wrote the Bates case letters-all of them. However, I am on the fence about him killing her. The reason I say that, is because Police were originally saying that the confession letter included details only the killer could know, but we found news articles in he days following the murder that included a lot of specific details of the crime.

Norse wrote:Re: the last point above.

Those notes were sent, unless I'm mistaken, the day after the Enterprise ran a piece on the Bates murder (six months after her death).

Now, if I didn't know any better I'd say someone read that piece – and then sat down to write the notes. It looks beyond coincidence to me.

It was the same day. The article was published and the letters were mailed on April 30th, the precise six-month anniversary of the murder. It's certainly possible that the person who mailed the letters did so as a direct response to the article. It's also possible that he did it for the same reason the newspaper published the article, i.e. to commemorate the anniversary.

morf13 wrote:Mike, I totally agree with the points you made above, and think Zodiac without question, wrote the Bates case letters-all of them. However, I am on the fence about him killing her. The reason I say that, is because Police were originally saying that the confession letter included details only the killer could know, but we found news articles in he days following the murder that included a lot of specific details of the crime.

Yeah, there were a lot of details published in the wake of the murder. But, the identity-verifying detail from the Confession is that the killer pulled the "middle" wire of the distributor. I'm not aware of any publication that mentioned that detail.

ZodiacRevisited wrote:

morf13 wrote:Mike, I totally agree with the points you made above, and think Zodiac without question, wrote the Bates case letters-all of them. However, I am on the fence about him killing her. The reason I say that, is because Police were originally saying that the confession letter included details only the killer could know, but we found news articles in he days following the murder that included a lot of specific details of the crime.

Yeah, there were a lot of details published in the wake of the murder. But, the identity-verifying detail from the Confession is that the killer pulled the "middle" wire of the distributor. I'm not aware of any publication that mentioned that detail.

I'll go back and double check the articles. I thought they mentioned the distributor wire, which was the middle wire. I think Bentley, on the old site was very knowledgeable about car mechanical stuff-I on the other hand am not.

Here ya go, from the 10/31/66 Redlands Facts paper. By mentioning, 'coil wire', I think that indicates the middle one

morf13 wrote:Here ya go, from the 10/31/66 Redlands Facts paper. By mentioning, 'coil wire', I think that indicates the middle one

Interesting, to be sure. So, yes, somebody with car knowledge could infer that it was the "middle" wire that was tampered with if he read this particular UPI story.

Honestly, I just don't understand the appeal of this scenario. If we believe the killer murdered Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards (as many of us do), we know he is active in Southern California. Yet, we are to believe he reads about a murder he didn't commit and then goes to great lengths to take credit for it, mailing not only the Confession, but also the six-month anniversary letters? Why is this more satisfying than the idea that the man actually did it?

The "intentional sabotage followed by a Good-Samaritan ruse" is related to the killer himself. The premeditation and the situational control are both very Zodiac like. And the killer admitted he did it. Riverside had no unsolved murders on the books before 10/30/66. The man who became the Zodiac, who was likely responsible for at least 7 other unsolved murders, just happens to take credit for this murder that also remains unsolved for the last 5 decades? Just doesn't make sense to me.

ZodiacRevisited wrote:

morf13 wrote:Here ya go, from the 10/31/66 Redlands Facts paper. By mentioning, 'coil wire', I think that indicates the middle one

Interesting, to be sure. So, yes, somebody with car knowledge could infer that it was the "middle" wire that was tampered with if he read this particular UPI story.

Honestly, I just don't understand the appeal of this scenario. If we believe the killer murdered Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards (as many of us do), we know he is active in Southern California. Yet, we are to believe he reads about a murder he didn't commit and then goes to great lengths to take credit for it, mailing not only the Confession, but also the six-month anniversary letters? Why is this more satisfying than the idea that the man actually did it?

The "intentional sabotage followed by a Good-Samaritan ruse" is related to the killer himself. The premeditation and the situational control are both very Zodiac like. And the killer admitted he did it. Riverside had no unsolved murders on the books before 10/30/66. The man who became the Zodiac, who was likely responsible for at least 7 other unsolved murders, just happens to take credit for this murder that also remains unsolved for the last 5 decades? Just doesn't make sense to me.

I guess this is all open to speculation & opinion.

Here's my take-

Zodiac, a young, disturbed Guy, aprox the age of Cheri Jo, maybe a year or two older than her, OR somebody that knows her and may be infatuated with her in some way(Ross Sullivan perhaps?)doesn't kill her, but is affected somehow by her murder is moved to write the letters. Maybe he has fantasized about killing, but never done so, but Cheri's murder causes him to react with writing letters taking credit. Remember, Zodiac wrote letters taking credit for Radetich(likely was not his killer)and Johns(possibly was not her abductor),so taking credit for other people's work is not beneath him.

Also, Zodiac wrote on the car door at Berryessa but did not write 1966 on there, so maybe, he actually did not kill Bates. Of course, if he did kill Cheri, he would be foolish to leave a trail for police to follow back to Riverside. Also, after the link to Cheri & Riverside broke, Z was quiet for months as opposed to stepping up and taking credit and getting attention. Why? I think it's because he was afraid that police would be knocking on his door at any moment. After months went by, and he realized the police were not knocking on his door, he felt safe to take credit for Cheri's murder(even if he really did not kill her). He wrote my "riverside activity". 'Activity' may refer to him only writing letters.

Again Mike, I concur with you, and have no doubt Zodiac wrote all of the Riverside letters, and the poem on the desk. Whether he killed Cheri, I just do not know. I also think Cheri knew her killer. I just do not think she would walk down a dark alley with a stranger when she could head back into the Library. A fellow student of hers, or somebody close in age, would also line up with Officer Slaight & Hartnell describing Zodiac's voice as being like a Student's or being in his 20's.

On the other hand, if Z was responsible for the D&E murders, we could be talking about an older killer. Also there's the rumor that Wingwalker tracks were found at the D&E crime scene. If true, it would be hard not to think Z was responsible, especially combined with the D&E crime M.O. matching Berryessa so well.

ZodiacRevisited wrote:It's also possible that he did it for the same reason the newspaper published the article, i.e. to commemorate the anniversary.

That's possible, of course. We can't know for sure either way. To me, though, it looks like a connection there: The article appears in the paper, the notes are sent on the same day.

Unless it would've been impossible for the writer to read the piece before dispatching the notes, I'm inclined to say the most likely explanation is that he sent them as a reaction (of one kind or another) to the piece.

If the above is true, it does not mean that Bates' killer can't be the writer, but it does put a question mark on it. Why wait six months? It's a nice, round date – you could say – but still, does it actually make sense? Why didn't he send those notes right away?

^^That is sort of my take on it too Norse, but we obviously (generally) think along the same lines.

A newspaper article, a reaction. Like with the "Deep Real Estate" ad coming right after the Toschi/psychic article, etc., etc.

Yes. Crackpots. Pranksters. Or that combination of crackpot and prankster who like to insert themselves into well broadcasted murder cases.

It happens all the time - and it happened back then too.

With Z, and the case as such, this phenomenon plays a huge part - annoyingly so. Z was an attention seeker himself - just like the crackpots who (undoubtedly on some, if not many, occasions) made themselves out to be him.