TWO POSTCARDS, TWO BURIAL SITES?

In the previous article regarding the design of the Pines card, we measured the distance between between the pasted "Sierra Club" (thought to be Clair Tappaan Lodge) and the center of the punch-hole. This distance, based upon the standard postcard size in the US of 5.8 X 4.2 inches, measured 2.39 inches. Using the scale of 6.4 miles to the inch on the Phillips 66 map, mailed by the Zodiac Killer with his Button letter on June 26th 1970, we can convert this distance to miles. Multiplying 2.39 by 6.4, we get a distance of 15.3 miles between the pasted Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club" and the center of the punch-hole. If the punch-hole was designed to indicate a burial or deposition site, the author of the postcard (or Zodiac) was claiming Donna Lass was to be found in the Camp Spaulding area (which is 15.3 miles by crow from Clair Tappaan Lodge). We don't yet know the exact location of her remains, but a postcard identifying the region of Camp Spaulding would be pretty damning evidence of prior knowledge. This, of course, depends on the above interpretation being correct. It would mean that the sole purpose of the Pines card was to identify a deposition or burial site containing the remains of Donna Lass.

​Whether or not you believe this interpretation, it is vitally important that you consider the design of the Monticello card, mailed by the Zodiac Killer on July 13th 1971. This postcard did identify the burial site of one of Zodiac's previously claimed victims - that of Kathy Snoozy - who the Zodiac Killer claimed alongside Debra Furlong, when he added August to his chronological victim count in the "Dripping Pen" card on November 8th 1969. The Monticello card (like the Pines card) contained a message of pasted newspaper text, reading "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". This text was identifying the name of Kathy Bilek by using the namesake of one of his previously claimed victims.

​Kathy Bilek was murdered in the Villa Montalvo woods on April 11th 1971, hence the words "In The Woods Dies April". The Zodiac Killer also gave us a clue to the name of Kathy Bilek by identifying her namesake, Kathy Snoozy, who was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The murder of Kathy Bilek in the woods in April was near to the Monticello neighborhood. The three murder victims of Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek were all credited to Karl Francis Werner, who was arrested and questioned about their murders on April 29th 1971. The Zodiac Killer, having previously insinuated himself responsible for the murders of Snoozy & Furlong on November 8th 1969, now felt compelled to also claim the murder of Kathy Bilek in the Monticello card. The fact that Kathy Bilek, "in the woods died April", with "Monticello" containing the burial site of Kathy Snoozy, who were both murdered by Karl Francis Werner (along with Debra Furlong) and claimed by the Zodiac Killer, should not be overlooked when examining the Pines card mailed four months earlier. 

The Monticello card contained pasted newspaper text, never directly named Kathy Bilek as the victim he was claiming, and gave us directions to the burial site of one of his previously claimed victims (Kathy Snoozy). The Pines card used the same template by failing to mention the name of Donna Lass (but insinuating her as the victim) - and may have used the newspaper cuttings to direct us to the deposition or burial site of the Lake Tahoe nurse, just like he did with Kathy Snoozy at Monticello. If the Zodiac Killer was the author of the Pines card, then he retrospectively claimed the lives of Donna Lass, Kathy Snoozy, Debra Furlong and Kathy Bilek months after their murders. He would retrospectively claim the murder of Cheri Jo Bates also. We may now have two pasted postcards, both possibly giving us directions to the remains of a murder victim claimed by the Zodiac Killer.

"ZODIAC" PSEUDONYM WRITTEN ON TOMBSTONE 

Read more: The Monticello card and The San Jose Murders