I would like to revisit something I've covered previously regarding the Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974 and the "My Name is" letter mailed on April 20th 1970. When the Zodiac Killer designed the Exorcist letter he wrote "signed, yours truley" and then proceeded to paraphrase a verse from Tit-Willow and Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado. One would have thought that placing "signed, yours truley" preceding this verse was a prelude to his identity. When we visit the entirety of this act from The Mikado, it becomes apparent that the next line in the verse following what Zodiac quoted is "Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name is(n't) Willow, titwillow, titwillow".
In this instance we have a trinity of coincidences, where the Zodiac Killer tempts us with a signature from the verse, from which we can form the sentence of "my name is", that he previously used in his April 20th 1970 letter as an introduction to a mystery 13 symbol code and his name.
The Exorcist letter broke with tradition when he used "Me" instead of his crosshairs as an identity, before giving us his running victim total. Bearing in mind the aforementioned correlation between the Exorcist letter and "My Name is" letter, I couldn't help thinking his identity of "Me" would be found in the 13 symbol code using an extremely simplistic method. There is little doubt that the Zodiac Killer knew a 13 character code could not be solved using conventional techniques because of its length, so very likely created something superficial. The fact that this letter was mailed with an AM postmark on the same day the Robert Salem murder broke in the morning edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, with the Zodiac pseudonym scrawled on the wall of the victim's apartment - likely meant that this letter was prepared in haste. A code created this quickly has a high probability of being solved - a code with one repetitive feature of three circled 8's. Using the shift technique the Zodiac Killer employed in the 340 cipher, solved by David Oranchak (USA), Sam Blake (Australia) and Jarl Van Eycke (Belgium) in 2020, I used a period 8 shift in the code to select new characters 8 places to the right.
In this instance we have a trinity of coincidences, where the Zodiac Killer tempts us with a signature from the verse, from which we can form the sentence of "my name is", that he previously used in his April 20th 1970 letter as an introduction to a mystery 13 symbol code and his name.
The Exorcist letter broke with tradition when he used "Me" instead of his crosshairs as an identity, before giving us his running victim total. Bearing in mind the aforementioned correlation between the Exorcist letter and "My Name is" letter, I couldn't help thinking his identity of "Me" would be found in the 13 symbol code using an extremely simplistic method. There is little doubt that the Zodiac Killer knew a 13 character code could not be solved using conventional techniques because of its length, so very likely created something superficial. The fact that this letter was mailed with an AM postmark on the same day the Robert Salem murder broke in the morning edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, with the Zodiac pseudonym scrawled on the wall of the victim's apartment - likely meant that this letter was prepared in haste. A code created this quickly has a high probability of being solved - a code with one repetitive feature of three circled 8's. Using the shift technique the Zodiac Killer employed in the 340 cipher, solved by David Oranchak (USA), Sam Blake (Australia) and Jarl Van Eycke (Belgium) in 2020, I used a period 8 shift in the code to select new characters 8 places to the right.
Click image to expand Using a circular shift pattern, the first circled 8 right-shifted to the letter "M", the second circled 8 right-shifted to the letter "E", and the third circled 8 right-shifted to the Zodiac crosshairs, thereby equating the Zodiac Killer's identity to "ME", just as he had done in the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. Both of these correspondences tempted us with a name, both communications can be linked to The Mikado and the "my name is" phrase, and the April 20th 1970 code can easily reproduce the "Me" signature present in the Exorcist letter using the standout numerical feature in the code.
Another communication, mailed on October 27th 1970, also featured a name synonymous with The Mikado, when the Zodiac Killer wrote *peek-a-boo you are doomed" around the knot-hole of a tree. Peek-a-boo was a character from an 1888 production of The Mikado, entitled The Capitalist. But take a look at the "ME" in the word doomed, in a card that stated "I feel it in my bones, you ache to know my name, and so I'll clue you in."
Another communication, mailed on October 27th 1970, also featured a name synonymous with The Mikado, when the Zodiac Killer wrote *peek-a-boo you are doomed" around the knot-hole of a tree. Peek-a-boo was a character from an 1888 production of The Mikado, entitled The Capitalist. But take a look at the "ME" in the word doomed, in a card that stated "I feel it in my bones, you ache to know my name, and so I'll clue you in."
By the way, are the police having a good time with the code? If not, tell them to cheer up; when they do crack it, they will have me.