Edward Theodore Gein Having long claimed the murders of Kathie Snoozy (15) and Debra Furlong (14), brutally stabbed in San Jose on August 3rd 1969, the Zodiac Killer had clearly been exposed as a fraud when their real killer, Karl Francis Werner, was interviewed and questioned about the murders of Kathy Bilek, Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong at the end of April 1971. The Zodiac Killer's response was immediate, mailing the 148 character cipher and letter shortly afterwards, followed by the Monticello card on July 13th 1971. The Zodiac Killer was determined not to relinquish the two victims he had claimed in his running total on November 8th 1969, by compounding matters, and adding Kathy Bilek to his list on July 13th 1971. Karl Francis Werner, in his eyes, had stolen two of his victims, so he was going to steal back all three for his afterlife and vicariously live through the memories of the three young girls.
Upset with law enforcement and Werner, who the Zodiac Killer probably viewed with disdain, needed to reclaim the victims and threaten further action in the coming days or weeks. The 148 character cipher and letter laid bare his intentions by threatening to "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and mail "a patch of human skin if there is some left over". This was straight from the playbook of Theodore Edward Gein, who roamed the graveyards of Plainfield, Wisconsin looking to exhume body parts to fashion grisly souvenirs from the skin and bones. His mother, Augusta Wilhelmine Gein (who died on December 29th 1945), was a domineering woman with an intense hatred for females, but whose death from a stroke left Edward Gein devastated and alone in the farmhouse. Soon after his mother's death, Gein began to create a "woman suit" from pieces of skin so that "he could become his mother and literally crawl into her skin". It appeared as though Edward Gein wanted to feel close to his dead mother and become the embodiment of her once life.
Upset with law enforcement and Werner, who the Zodiac Killer probably viewed with disdain, needed to reclaim the victims and threaten further action in the coming days or weeks. The 148 character cipher and letter laid bare his intentions by threatening to "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and mail "a patch of human skin if there is some left over". This was straight from the playbook of Theodore Edward Gein, who roamed the graveyards of Plainfield, Wisconsin looking to exhume body parts to fashion grisly souvenirs from the skin and bones. His mother, Augusta Wilhelmine Gein (who died on December 29th 1945), was a domineering woman with an intense hatred for females, but whose death from a stroke left Edward Gein devastated and alone in the farmhouse. Soon after his mother's death, Gein began to create a "woman suit" from pieces of skin so that "he could become his mother and literally crawl into her skin". It appeared as though Edward Gein wanted to feel close to his dead mother and become the embodiment of her once life.
Anthony Perkins Edward Gein's dark thoughts fashioned the idea behind the movie Psycho (1960), produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. Norman Bates, the lead character played by Perkins, had previously killed his mother, Norma, and her lover out of jealousy ten years earlier. For many years, Norma and Norman had lived together in the fictional small town of Fairvale, California "as if there is no one else in the world". Norma raises her son Norman with cruelty and forbids him to have a life away from her, and teaches him that sexual intercourse is sinful and that all women (except herself) are whores.
When Norman was a teenager, his mother met Joe Considine and planned to marry, who then convinces Norma to open a motel. Norman grows furiously jealous, believing that Norma has abandoned him for her fiancé, and murders them both with strychnine. He then stages it like murder-suicide, making it look as if Norma had killed Considine and then herself. Unable to bear the loss of his mother, Norman stole Norma's corpse and mummified it in the fruit cellar, and spoke to it as if his mother were still alive. He also spoke to himself in her voice and frequently dressed in her clothes. Norman Bates has effectively become his mother in order to escape the awareness of her death and the guilt of having murdered her". Wikipedia.
It is plain to see the similarities between Norman Bates and Edward Gein, both of whom were controlled by a domineering mother with a hatred for other females, whose male fantasies centered on their mothers living on after death. The following newspaper clipping from the Chicago Daily News on November 20th 1957 describes a mother who often told Edward Gein and his brother to "Watch out for women. They are evil".
When Norman was a teenager, his mother met Joe Considine and planned to marry, who then convinces Norma to open a motel. Norman grows furiously jealous, believing that Norma has abandoned him for her fiancé, and murders them both with strychnine. He then stages it like murder-suicide, making it look as if Norma had killed Considine and then herself. Unable to bear the loss of his mother, Norman stole Norma's corpse and mummified it in the fruit cellar, and spoke to it as if his mother were still alive. He also spoke to himself in her voice and frequently dressed in her clothes. Norman Bates has effectively become his mother in order to escape the awareness of her death and the guilt of having murdered her". Wikipedia.
It is plain to see the similarities between Norman Bates and Edward Gein, both of whom were controlled by a domineering mother with a hatred for other females, whose male fantasies centered on their mothers living on after death. The following newspaper clipping from the Chicago Daily News on November 20th 1957 describes a mother who often told Edward Gein and his brother to "Watch out for women. They are evil".
When you consider the specificity of the Zodiac Killer's statement to "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and mail "a patch of human skin if there is some left over", shortly after the arrest of Karl Francis Werner, it should become obvious that the Bay Area murderer was condescendingly referring to Kathie Snoozy (15), Debra Furlong (14) and Kathy Bilek (18) as the three kids he wanted to make a skin suit from.
Kathy Bilek was buried in the Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, Debra Furlong in the Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz, and Kathie Snoozy in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The pasted phrase of "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April" in the Zodiac Killer's Monticello card on July 13th 1971, was referencing the murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971 in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, not far from the Monticello neighborhood where Kathie Snoozy was buried. The Zodiac Killer was tying both victims together under the banner of one postcard - and by extension - the murder of Debra Furlong.
Any doubts that this was the case were expelled on September 18th 1973, when somebody removed a tombstone from the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose and placed it in front of the cemetery gate. The tombstone had the pseudonym "Zodiac" written on it in crayon. In the whole of California (and America) we have only one instance of a tombstone being removed from a cemetery with the pseudonym "Zodiac" being written on it - and it just happened to be from the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose where Kathie Snoozy was buried. It's pretty obvious this deed was done by the Zodiac Killer, especially when you consider that the contents of the Monticello card were not publicly known on September 18th 1973. This was a Zodiac Killer who threatened to dig up the bodies of the three girls, who later visited the gravesite of Kathie Snoozy. This connection should have been made in 1973.
Kathy Bilek was buried in the Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, Debra Furlong in the Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz, and Kathie Snoozy in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The pasted phrase of "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April" in the Zodiac Killer's Monticello card on July 13th 1971, was referencing the murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971 in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, not far from the Monticello neighborhood where Kathie Snoozy was buried. The Zodiac Killer was tying both victims together under the banner of one postcard - and by extension - the murder of Debra Furlong.
Any doubts that this was the case were expelled on September 18th 1973, when somebody removed a tombstone from the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose and placed it in front of the cemetery gate. The tombstone had the pseudonym "Zodiac" written on it in crayon. In the whole of California (and America) we have only one instance of a tombstone being removed from a cemetery with the pseudonym "Zodiac" being written on it - and it just happened to be from the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose where Kathie Snoozy was buried. It's pretty obvious this deed was done by the Zodiac Killer, especially when you consider that the contents of the Monticello card were not publicly known on September 18th 1973. This was a Zodiac Killer who threatened to dig up the bodies of the three girls, who later visited the gravesite of Kathie Snoozy. This connection should have been made in 1973.
Fast forward to January 19th 1978, three months before the April 24th 1978 "I am back with you" letter from the Zodiac Killer. A six-page letter was mailed to Mayor Tom Bradley in Los Angeles during the search for the Hillside Strangler. Its author has never been identified, but it carried the dominant word of "PLEASE" followed by two exclamation marks, not dissimilar to the dominant word "PLEASE" on the Zodiac Killer's "Channel Nine" letter on May 2nd 1978, also mailed from Los Angeles. The Channel Nine letter read "PLEASE hold the applause", followed by one exclamation mark. Both letters ultimately had a connection to Los Angeles Chief Daryl F. Gates.
I wondered whether the Zodiac Killer may have been responsible for this six-page letter, because we know of the Zodiac Killer's propensity to write multi-paged letters, often interjecting himself into murder investigations he had no involvement in. But it was something else in the January 19th 1978 letter that struck a chord. It reminded me of the movie "Psycho", based loosely on the story of Edward Theodore Gein. The letter told of a man who had killed his mother, who couldn't get her out of his head. A woman who told him to "kill those bad and evil ladys", just like the mother of Edward Gein, who told her sons to "Watch out for women. They are evil". The author of the January 19th 1978 letter claimed that his mother made his "head hurt", not unlike the character of Norman Bates in the movie "Psycho". We know that the Zodiac Killer referenced the movies and its award ceremonies throughout his communications, so did the film "Psycho" bridge the gap from 1971 to 1978 in the musings of one mind. Below is page one of the January 19th 1978 correspondence.
I wondered whether the Zodiac Killer may have been responsible for this six-page letter, because we know of the Zodiac Killer's propensity to write multi-paged letters, often interjecting himself into murder investigations he had no involvement in. But it was something else in the January 19th 1978 letter that struck a chord. It reminded me of the movie "Psycho", based loosely on the story of Edward Theodore Gein. The letter told of a man who had killed his mother, who couldn't get her out of his head. A woman who told him to "kill those bad and evil ladys", just like the mother of Edward Gein, who told her sons to "Watch out for women. They are evil". The author of the January 19th 1978 letter claimed that his mother made his "head hurt", not unlike the character of Norman Bates in the movie "Psycho". We know that the Zodiac Killer referenced the movies and its award ceremonies throughout his communications, so did the film "Psycho" bridge the gap from 1971 to 1978 in the musings of one mind. Below is page one of the January 19th 1978 correspondence.
Chief Daryl F. Gates holds part of the letter
The following describes the four year journey of the Zodiac Killer from July 31st 1969 to September 18th 1973. It is a blend of many previous articles, hoping to achieve a greater understanding into the mind of a killer, who thrived on terror and extortion.
A FOUR YEAR JOURNEY TO TOMBSTONE
A FOUR YEAR JOURNEY TO TOMBSTONE