The Zodiac Killer Was Not As Brilliant As You Think (And Why He Has Not Been Caught)

originally posted by: GogoVicMorrow
a reply to: WarminIndy

It has long been suggested that intentionally misspelling simple words was a gag. He thought it's funny. I've done it as well.

I think he was very intelligent, but not genius.

He wasn't caught because he killed in different jurisdictions creating confusion. Another smart move.

I have studied the case thoroughly, he was smart, but also the police were incompetent.

I agree. The police refused to cooperate across jurisdictions and the immediate follow-up the night the cabbie was killed was a boondoggle on the part of one officer who probably saw the killer. I have always wondered whether he recognized him as someone he knew personally (ie. another cop). The lead detective was also caught writing one of the letters to the newspaper.

a reply to: WarminIndy

Well I saw the movie in the theatre, it was the longest most drawn out thing I have ever been subjected to. I thought someone was playing a prank on me it was so repetitive and stupid. If anyone has seen the movie they know exactly what I am talking about.

Wasn't there a guy who claimed, or one of his kids claimed he was the zodiac?

I think it wasn't a cypher at all, just a bunch of jibberish to keep the investigators chasing their tails.

The symbols and everything I think were just nonsense he came up with to make himself appear to be above-mortaility or above humanity or whatever...

And I know plenty of educated people who are terrible spellerZ.. myself included..except im not very well educated.. and use spell check alot.. so technically im not a bad spellah

originally posted by: JiggyPotamus
I've looked at all the available data I could find on the case, but I've never actually investigated it or anything. I'm sure there is a lot I don't know. But my opinion has been that Arthur Allen was the killer. There were too many similarities. The search of one of his residences yielded the bomb-making diagrams he alluded to, as well as other things of that nature, he owned a knife with a riveted sheath that is quite similar to one described being used in an attack, the typewriter he owned fit the bill for the letters he typed and sent to the police, among other things. I think the most incriminating thing, aside from the things listed above, are his own statements. An acquaintance of his told police that Allen had made statements about killing people, and how he would do it, which are too similar to what actually took place to be ignored.

Adding everything up there are simply too many similarities. The main thing that "exonerated" him is the fact that later DNA tests that were done showed that the saliva obtained from one of the letters didn't match Allen. But I think that it didn't match because he didn't lick the letter. One of his letters, the only one with a partial palm print, was crumpled. I think the most obvious explanation is that, him understanding fingerprints, he wore gloves when writing letters, and thus this piece of paper was crumpled because someone else threw it away. He simply used it for a letter, probably to throw off police. People that knew Allen stated that he often liked to misspell words in an attempt at humor. I believe the using two x's in Christmas, or X-mas, was something they said he did as well.

He can also be placed in the general vicinity of some of the crimes. There is much damning evidence against the man, and the evidence for his guilt, although somewhat circumstantial, is still the best lead that exists. Again, statements he made to police during questioning seem to me like things a guilty person would say. I don't know how intelligent he was, but he was a school teacher. I don't know if you had to have a degree to do that back then. But I do think the misspellings are intentional, and thus are not good indicators of intelligence. The handwriting also differs between the handwritten letters, and there are the tell-tale signs of someone trying to mask their handwriting. These signs make me think it was one person rather than multiple people, as the differences in handwriting styles seems intentional. Some letters clearly show multiple start-stop points, which is a technique for trying to write in a different style. There are no connecting marks between letters, meaning the letters could have been deliberately and methodically styled. I think the killer was insane. He obviously had some mental issues, and this could potentially make certain things look like two different people as well.

I agree that Arthur Leigh Allen, along with Gaikowsky, remains a strong suspect.

a reply to: WarminIndy

I think it would be inadvisable to assume from merely the grammatical cues, that the Zodiac was an ill educated, or sub normally intelligent individual.

Ever since the days of Jack the Ripper, letters to police and news outlets, sent by serial killers, have been examined to discern the type of mind from which they came, the better to understand their identity, to narrow the suspect pool by illuminating factors and features of the psychopathology which authored these writings.

Zodiac would have known this, since such things were not new to criminalists even back then.

It is probable that the reason we see mistakes in the letters sent by Zodiac, is that the killer was aware that the construction of a letter speaks volumes about its author, and sought to denude the police of a useful route of enquiry, by obfuscating the level of intellect and education they possessed.

originally posted by: chemo
Edward Edwards was the zodiac killer.

While a few people have championed the case that Edward Edwards was the Zodiac, there are quite a few reasons why I have my doubts about that.

The first being, while he was quite prolific neither his DNA or fingerprints were found to a match to the admittedly sparse finger print and DNA evidence in the Zodiac case. A retired detective from great falls claimed years later that the reason for this is that Edwards DNA was never entered into the system. I have my doubts about that as by the time he was last incarcerated in 2011, DNA would have been obtained.

Another issue I have with this suspect is that he was known to have been incarcerated in June of 1963 when the murders of Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards took place. He was also Incarcerated in October of 1966 when Cheri Jo Bates was murdered and in 67 when the Bates letters where sent.

Penny

I always attributed those mistakes to late night drunken bragging. Much like everyday folks do on social media sights. Or like I am doing now.

I don't think spelling mistakes equate to lack of education.

Constitution Spelling Errors

The days before spellcheck.

he put aircraft cement on his fingertips, I read that somewhere. He wouldn't have left fingerprints. Aviation or military or construction. Or he lied. He had to be gullible to be so fascinated with astrology. Military footprints are the biggest clue. I'm the same size 10 1/2 you could only buy those shoes on a military base or boots I mean surplus didn't sell them. Guy was still able to wear them same size years apart, so we know it was an adult cause the foot didn't grow. We know he wasn't overseas at certain times but was in the military. The reason this case was never solved was probably because the military wouldn't cooperate. Without that it's impossible to know and yes I was in the army they issue you everything, they know your shoe size they know how many centimeters tall you are they know your weight and footprints would give you a weight too. The footprints might also tell if you're flatfooted which is something else the military would have on record we know he traveled to California or lived there, if you've ever been to california you know you have to stop at the border. So he either hopped on an airplane to california or got stopped at one of the border inspection stationsor he lived there and he's an adult not a military brat and he was so many pounds heavy and he has access to aircraft cement and add that all up and you've found the guy. The military probably executed him in secret or gave him a secret trial or both. The murders stopped for some reason. Or they protected him, everything wasn't computerized back then so it's possible they never even looked into it because of the records it would require looking through.
Maybe he kept killing somewhere else whenever he moved or after police questioned him but the killing stopped for some reason, that's another clue either he moved or was questioned or they were getting close.

a reply to: WarminIndy

Misspelled intentionally or was a schizophrenic. Schizos can sometimes spell completely differently or write with another handwriting without them thinking about it.

originally posted by: HauntWok
I don't think spelling mistakes equate to lack of education.

Constitution Spelling Errors

The days before spellcheck.

Constitutional spelling errors are based on today's standards. When I was in school, I was taught to spell it's for its, meaning possessive for it, or it possesses. That changed after I was out of school. It had become standardized after I graduated.

And we know at the time the Constutution was written, there was very little standardization in spelling, but thanks to Daniel Webster, it led to the difference in British and American English. Right now, Canadians also spell according to British English, but your spell check right now will tell you that honour is spelled honor, and yet it is correctly spelled in British English. The signers of the Constitution still spelled in British English.

But by 1969, American Standard was standardized to the point one should spell having instead of haveing. Remember the old joke "mommy, we learned in school today how to make babies"? I before E except after C.

I am making my assertion on the educational standards for 1969, which were much higher than now. The person at least lived in California, we don't know that he might have been born elsewhere. He knew the Old Norse word for sla, which means "to kill", so he was at least exposed to Old Norse.

Who, in this country in 1969, would have known Old Norse? People who were college linguistics professors or Germanic people. I don't think Susan Atkins would have known that, and yet the Zodiac mentions her by name, saying he wanted to kill her for being a "Judas" to the Manson Family. Why defend the Manson Family?

The Zodiac mentions in that same letter wanting to kill Darrel Gates, but we have to ask why. Darrel Gates was the investigator of the Manson Family killings.

Why also mention Eldridge Cleaver? He was a Black Panther and that was the only mention of anything against a black person from the Zodiac, but the Zodiac killed young, clean cut white people.

Manson, the Zodiac and Weather Underground were just three violent factors of the late 1960s.

originally posted by: mattsawaufo
he put aircraft cement on his fingertips, I read that somewhere. He wouldn't have left fingerprints. Aviation or military or construction. Or he lied. He had to be gullible to be so fascinated with astrology. Military footprints are the biggest clue. I'm the same size 10 1/2 you could only buy those shoes on a military base or boots I mean surplus didn't sell them. Guy was still able to wear them same size years apart, so we know it was an adult cause the foot didn't grow. We know he wasn't overseas at certain times but was in the military. The reason this case was never solved was probably because the military wouldn't cooperate. Without that it's impossible to know and yes I was in the army they issue you everything, they know your shoe size they know how many centimeters tall you are they know your weight and footprints would give you a weight too. The footprints might also tell if you're flatfooted which is something else the military would have on record we know he traveled to California or lived there, if you've ever been to california you know you have to stop at the border. So he either hopped on an airplane to california or got stopped at one of the border inspection stationsor he lived there and he's an adult not a military brat and he was so many pounds heavy and he has access to aircraft cement and add that all up and you've found the guy. The military probably executed him in secret or gave him a secret trial or both. The murders stopped for some reason. Or they protected him, everything wasn't computerized back then so it's possible they never even looked into it because of the records it would require looking through.
Maybe he kept killing somewhere else whenever he moved or after police questioned him but the killing stopped for some reason, that's another clue either he moved or was questioned or they were getting close.

All good points.

Would his glasses also have been military issue? Could it be that the guy was in the military and was bounced out because of age or other factor? He could have been in there for a year and then for some psychological or mental condition was put out. Some witnesses say he was middle-aged, if he were in that age range and didn't go higher than what he did, then he must have been released from service.

My brother was stationed at Oakland Alameda, he was in the Navy. They should have started there, the closest Navy base.

The reason I say he was stalking the victims is that he didn't just show up coincidentally with the costume at Berryessa, he had it planned. He wouldn't have just been driving around with the costume in his trunk to wait for any couple to randomly be there. He could have waited for days.

If he were stalking them, then he knew their movements and followed them to Berryessa, after he planned it.

I knew it was an inside job when the 2 policemen stopped the Killer (whom they claimed they couldn't clearly identify later) and he told them he saw a black guy running from the scene of the crime, and let the only car in the vicinity go! What the hell man?

Frisco PD knows who the hell did it, and I'm willing to bet its one of their own.

Bundy was caught. Gacy. Dahmer. The Unicorn Killer. Son of Sam. But not this one? Puleeze.

Spelling is irrelevant. A friend of mine is highly intelligent and can't spell worth a damn.

Funny you brought this up OP. I have studied the Zodiac case on and off for a long time. I can say that I think the misspelled words are likely for a reason. I also am confident that the symbols used are from old california brand books, most likely one that was not ever published but was handed down or found or something of the sort. Zodiac had a lot of travel in CA and the areas he traveled to were farming/movie areas as well. My hunch is that he was either a movie set person, due to his clues involving a lot of movies and in particular Tim Holt movies/comics, or he was one of the actors/actors children on these movies. I have done a LOT of digging into this and have my own person of interest in the subject.

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
Funny you brought this up OP. I have studied the Zodiac case on and off for a long time. I can say that I think the misspelled words are likely for a reason. I also am confident that the symbols used are from old california brand books, most likely one that was not ever published but was handed down or found or something of the sort. Zodiac had a lot of travel in CA and the areas he traveled to were farming/movie areas as well. My hunch is that he was either a movie set person, due to his clues involving a lot of movies and in particular Tim Holt movies/comics, or he was one of the actors/actors children on these movies. I have done a LOT of digging into this and have my own person of interest in the subject.

Vasa, could you expand on your post? I'm very interested in what you have to say.

originally posted by: Restricted

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
Funny you brought this up OP. I have studied the Zodiac case on and off for a long time. I can say that I think the misspelled words are likely for a reason. I also am confident that the symbols used are from old california brand books, most likely one that was not ever published but was handed down or found or something of the sort. Zodiac had a lot of travel in CA and the areas he traveled to were farming/movie areas as well. My hunch is that he was either a movie set person, due to his clues involving a lot of movies and in particular Tim Holt movies/comics, or he was one of the actors/actors children on these movies. I have done a LOT of digging into this and have my own person of interest in the subject.

Vasa, could you expand on your post? I'm very interested in what you have to say.

Sure, which part would you like more explanation of?

a reply to: Vasa Croe

I have never heard of the Tim Holt angle. Could you explain your perspective?

a reply to: Restricted

It would take a LONG time to explain all of that, but in a nutshell, Zodiac was a HUGE fan of Holt and his series as well as his comics. It is evident in a LOT of the Zodiac letters. One specific instance is the letter where Zodiac references "By Fire, By Knife, By Gun, By Rope." This was directly from a comic which Tim Holt was featured in:



Look at the wheel of doom and read the ways you can die....same as Zodiac.

Tim Holt was a famous actor for RKO studio. RKO was the studio that released The Most Dangerous Game, also referenced by Zodiac.

The symbols Zodiac used line up to multiple symbols in the 19XX's California Brand Books, while some do not, I equate that to the book he used being either a non-published "ranch hand" version, or possibly also incorporating mining symbols. This is part of my theory on the Holt connection as his family has ties to both ranching/ranches and mining operations in the areas that Zodiac was active.

Very interesting. Thank you.

Then there is also the red mask Zodiac Card:



The red mask was colored in by Zodiac. Red Mask is also what Tim Holt was called in his comic series as you can see by the comic I linked to above.