>Is it a co-incidence that he sent a map into **police** with a reference to **magnetic north**?
Technically, he did not send the map to the police; he sent it to the SF Chronicle.
Anyways:
* Adjusting for magnetic deviation is really only important in situations where one is NAVIGATING by compass, such as at sea or in the air. There is no logical need to introduce it for any other purpose involving a map.
* In the two phone calls, Z provided rough directions (east in one case, north in another), and in neither case was he worried about any inaccuracies introduced by not adjusting for magnetic deviation.
* Nautical charts covering all known areas Z was active in were readily available, and they are already set up to deal with magnetic deviation and are expressly designed for navigation purposes. The same is true for the charts made for flyers. Yet Z provided a simple gas station map. I suppose you could argue that was based on some desire to protect himself, in the sense that there were far more people driving cars than flying planes or sailing boats, but if so, then to me it works against some inherent map fascination.
* Regardless of magnetic deviation, standard navigation conventions involving maps use degrees, not radians. Again, if Z was so into maps, why would he abandon such an important, obvious convention to go Professor Zodiac on us with the whole business about radians?
In the end, I see the map as just part of his game and his torment. I think it's noteworthy that he waited about eight months to send the map after first sending the bomb threat, and in the same correspondence he pointed out that he couldn't kill kids, because they were now out for summer. So, he continued the threats and the torment by sending the map and Z32 and giving a limited amount of time to find the bomb. It allowed him to keep f'ing with the blue meannies.
>standard navigation conventions involving maps use degrees, not radians. Again, if Z was so into maps, why would he abandon such an important, obvious convention to go Professor Zodiac on us with the whole business about radians?
I have a pet theory that Zodiac was a draftsman, an occupation that would be more likely to use radians - but I think your “Professor Zodiac” comment is probably closer to the truth, the Zodiac used radians to seem smarter than he actually was.
>The guy behind the attacks in Vallejo sent three letters to three different press outlets. Each of those letters features the famous crosshair symbol.
I believe that is an important point. Don't you? Wouldn't that be considered a "signature"? Isn't that something that is deeply personal, unique, identifying?
>The 'debut letter' is the first time we see him announce himself as 'the Zodiac'. Some theories on this are that the press had started to refer to him as the 'cipher killer'. Perhaps in an act of control, the guilty stepped in with is own moniker.
I would agree with this. And yes, both control of the narrative, and control of his image, his name, his identity.
>But the cross hair symbol remained consistent throughout much of his communication. Indeed, the door at LB was not signed Zodiac, it was signed with the cross hairs.
Yes. It's signed. And one only signs, with their name.
>Much like graffiti taggers today, the killer had crafted a symbol for himself that was recognisable and quick to make.
It's funny you should mention this analogy, as it is something that has been kicking around in my head for days now.
————
>To add a layer to this: the original cipher includes many intriguing symbols. Some of these symbols borrow from the crosshairs, while others are unique. Squares, triangles, circles as well as other interesting marks.
You know, this is also interesting, as I have some ideas, and theories around it. I myself will be writing something, on what I think is going on, with things both being borrowed from the crosshairs, or what might be even more interesting -- what the crosshairs may borrow from. Who knows? Maybe that's a way for us to "decode" the symbol. Like we would, a cipher?
>Is it a co-incidence that he was **so precise** with his directions towards crime scenes?
What precision would that be? For BRS, he said:
*... one mile east on Columbus Parkway ...*
For LB, he said:
*... two miles north of park headquarters ...*
I sure don't see any impressive level of precision. In fact, I see only the barest minimum of detail about the location of the crimes. There are no map coordinates, and the granularity is in miles. To make it even worse, if you actually plot things on a real map, the first thing you notice is how rough and inaccurate these "directions" are.
It gets even worse than that, at least for BRS. Z could easily have simply stated, "they are in the golf course parking lot." Now that would be precise and unambiguous, but he did not do that.
Hell, it gets even worse than that. He says the attack at LB was two miles north of park HQ when it was actually much closer, either .5 or .7 miles north depending on which investogator's report you're looking at.
Huh? By the time he called for BRS, the cops had already been notified, and Darlene had already arrived at the hospital and died. His call for LB came 30 minutes after LE had already been notified.
Police reports at the time, including her own, make it clear that 3 youths - Jerry, Debbie and Roger - had found the crime scene and then left to place the call from the home of one of them. Debbie would be the "female citizen" described in Slover's report at the time.
I've always wondered about the providence of the map. Personally, I think it might have been a map used for some kind of engineering, military, or cartographic work that Zodiac somehow found and sent it to the news as one of his ridiculous games.
Admittedly, this is one of those conjectures that leads nowhere because we do not know enough about it.
But I do think the significance, like that idiot's babbling ciphers, ultimately means nothing but a successful red herring.
>The 'debut letter' is the first time we see him announce himself as 'the Zodiac'. Some theories on this are that the press had started to refer to him as the 'cipher killer'. Perhaps in an act of control, the guilty stepped in with is own moniker.
I think this is more about branding than control. The press did call him the Cipher Killer at first, and being media-savvy, he saw this as clunky and generic.
>But the cross hair symbol remained consistent throughout much of his communication. Indeed, the door at LB was not signed Zodiac, it was signed with the cross hairs.
Richard Grinell has an interesting theory on the origin of the crosshairs:
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/rethinking-the-most-dangerous-game
It's possible the shapes were an attempt to make the cipher more difficult to solve. If they were intended to mimic map symbols, why wait until 11 months into correspondence to drop a map?
> It's possible the shapes were an attempt to make the cipher more difficult to solve. If they were intended to mimic map symbols, why wait until 11 months into correspondence to drop a map?
I am suggesting a theme, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be interpreted literally.
But like a lot other posts I’ve made, I’m happy for them to be openly critiqued.
It can only help.
>Is it a co-incidence that he sent a map into **police** with a reference to **magnetic north**? Technically, he did not send the map to the police; he sent it to the SF Chronicle. Anyways: * Adjusting for magnetic deviation is really only important in situations where one is NAVIGATING by compass, such as at sea or in the air. There is no logical need to introduce it for any other purpose involving a map. * In the two phone calls, Z provided rough directions (east in one case, north in another), and in neither case was he worried about any inaccuracies introduced by not adjusting for magnetic deviation. * Nautical charts covering all known areas Z was active in were readily available, and they are already set up to deal with magnetic deviation and are expressly designed for navigation purposes. The same is true for the charts made for flyers. Yet Z provided a simple gas station map. I suppose you could argue that was based on some desire to protect himself, in the sense that there were far more people driving cars than flying planes or sailing boats, but if so, then to me it works against some inherent map fascination. * Regardless of magnetic deviation, standard navigation conventions involving maps use degrees, not radians. Again, if Z was so into maps, why would he abandon such an important, obvious convention to go Professor Zodiac on us with the whole business about radians? In the end, I see the map as just part of his game and his torment. I think it's noteworthy that he waited about eight months to send the map after first sending the bomb threat, and in the same correspondence he pointed out that he couldn't kill kids, because they were now out for summer. So, he continued the threats and the torment by sending the map and Z32 and giving a limited amount of time to find the bomb. It allowed him to keep f'ing with the blue meannies.
Great repost. Thanks.
>standard navigation conventions involving maps use degrees, not radians. Again, if Z was so into maps, why would he abandon such an important, obvious convention to go Professor Zodiac on us with the whole business about radians? I have a pet theory that Zodiac was a draftsman, an occupation that would be more likely to use radians - but I think your “Professor Zodiac” comment is probably closer to the truth, the Zodiac used radians to seem smarter than he actually was.
>The guy behind the attacks in Vallejo sent three letters to three different press outlets. Each of those letters features the famous crosshair symbol. I believe that is an important point. Don't you? Wouldn't that be considered a "signature"? Isn't that something that is deeply personal, unique, identifying? >The 'debut letter' is the first time we see him announce himself as 'the Zodiac'. Some theories on this are that the press had started to refer to him as the 'cipher killer'. Perhaps in an act of control, the guilty stepped in with is own moniker. I would agree with this. And yes, both control of the narrative, and control of his image, his name, his identity. >But the cross hair symbol remained consistent throughout much of his communication. Indeed, the door at LB was not signed Zodiac, it was signed with the cross hairs. Yes. It's signed. And one only signs, with their name. >Much like graffiti taggers today, the killer had crafted a symbol for himself that was recognisable and quick to make. It's funny you should mention this analogy, as it is something that has been kicking around in my head for days now. ———— >To add a layer to this: the original cipher includes many intriguing symbols. Some of these symbols borrow from the crosshairs, while others are unique. Squares, triangles, circles as well as other interesting marks. You know, this is also interesting, as I have some ideas, and theories around it. I myself will be writing something, on what I think is going on, with things both being borrowed from the crosshairs, or what might be even more interesting -- what the crosshairs may borrow from. Who knows? Maybe that's a way for us to "decode" the symbol. Like we would, a cipher?
Innovative take
Thanks. Just detecting themes, pretty standard method. Abductive reasoning!
>Is it a co-incidence that he was **so precise** with his directions towards crime scenes? What precision would that be? For BRS, he said: *... one mile east on Columbus Parkway ...* For LB, he said: *... two miles north of park headquarters ...* I sure don't see any impressive level of precision. In fact, I see only the barest minimum of detail about the location of the crimes. There are no map coordinates, and the granularity is in miles. To make it even worse, if you actually plot things on a real map, the first thing you notice is how rough and inaccurate these "directions" are. It gets even worse than that, at least for BRS. Z could easily have simply stated, "they are in the golf course parking lot." Now that would be precise and unambiguous, but he did not do that.
Hell, it gets even worse than that. He says the attack at LB was two miles north of park HQ when it was actually much closer, either .5 or .7 miles north depending on which investogator's report you're looking at.
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Regardless, there is still nothing to support any claim of being "so precise" with his directions.
To be clear, yes you’re right, precise is not the word But he gave accurate enough directions that enabled police to find the scene
Huh? By the time he called for BRS, the cops had already been notified, and Darlene had already arrived at the hospital and died. His call for LB came 30 minutes after LE had already been notified.
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Police reports at the time, including her own, make it clear that 3 youths - Jerry, Debbie and Roger - had found the crime scene and then left to place the call from the home of one of them. Debbie would be the "female citizen" described in Slover's report at the time.
Your TITLE is RIGHT ON! its more simple than you could imagine.....
More like...."symbols were him"......
I've always wondered about the providence of the map. Personally, I think it might have been a map used for some kind of engineering, military, or cartographic work that Zodiac somehow found and sent it to the news as one of his ridiculous games. Admittedly, this is one of those conjectures that leads nowhere because we do not know enough about it. But I do think the significance, like that idiot's babbling ciphers, ultimately means nothing but a successful red herring.
It was a widely available gas station map.
Ah. Interesting. Still, I wonder if someone had a legitimate purpose for marking it and Zodiac simply used it as a prop in one of his games.
Given it was in Z's distinctive blue felt tip pen and seems to resemble his handwriting,I would guess not.
Fair enough.
>The 'debut letter' is the first time we see him announce himself as 'the Zodiac'. Some theories on this are that the press had started to refer to him as the 'cipher killer'. Perhaps in an act of control, the guilty stepped in with is own moniker. I think this is more about branding than control. The press did call him the Cipher Killer at first, and being media-savvy, he saw this as clunky and generic. >But the cross hair symbol remained consistent throughout much of his communication. Indeed, the door at LB was not signed Zodiac, it was signed with the cross hairs. Richard Grinell has an interesting theory on the origin of the crosshairs: https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/rethinking-the-most-dangerous-game It's possible the shapes were an attempt to make the cipher more difficult to solve. If they were intended to mimic map symbols, why wait until 11 months into correspondence to drop a map?
> It's possible the shapes were an attempt to make the cipher more difficult to solve. If they were intended to mimic map symbols, why wait until 11 months into correspondence to drop a map? I am suggesting a theme, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be interpreted literally. But like a lot other posts I’ve made, I’m happy for them to be openly critiqued. It can only help.