Thanks to the work of [insert username], who compiled nearly 4,000 letters from the Opinions of the People column in the Vallejo Times-Herald dated January 1, 1966 to December 31, 1971, we may have uncovered a new letter potentially authored by the Zodiac killer.
Published on October 27, 1969, this letter signed “Concerned Father” appeared exactly one month after the Lake Berryessa attack (September 27, 1969) and precisely one year before the Zodiac’s “Halloween card” was postmarked (October 27, 1970).
Aside from its particularly intriguing timing, the “Concerned Father” letter also bears resemblance to other Zodiac communications (some of which had not yet been written) sharing parallels in topics, narrative structure, theatrics, syntactic construction, and communicative intent.
Themes & Topics
This letter addresses a combination of themes & topics found across multiple Zodiac communications such as:
- Children as potential victims
- Halloween
- Weapons (specifically gun and knife)
- A plea for newspaper coverage
Zodiac’s first mention of school children as potential victims also occurred in October 1969. Postmarked October 13, the Zodiac sent a letter and a piece of taxi driver Paul Stine’s blood-soaked shirt to the San Francisco Chronicle to prove he was the killer. In this letter he claimed the following:
School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. just shoot the frunt tire +. then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out.
The theme of children as victims is recurrent throughout the remainder of the Zodiac communications when he threatens to bomb a school bus and sends various bomb diagrams to reinforce those threats.
The topic of “Halloween” was mentioned by the Zodiac on October 27, 1970 when he sent a Halloween card to Paul Avery which also contained the weapons, “by gun, by knife, by fire, by rope” written in a cross formation.
At the end of the Concerned Father letter, the author requests media coverage of the Zodiac crimes, which is a theme consistently found throughout Zodiac’s known communications.
Narrative Structure
Approximately 50 percent of the time the Zodiac concludes his letters with a request for newspaper publication. While the request for media attention in the “Concerned Father” letter is more meek and unassuming compared to the Zodiac’s often aggressive demands usually accompanied by threats of violence, it still reflects a clear desire for coverage of the Zodiac crimes.
Theatrical Storytelling
Both the Zodiac and the “Concerned Father” exhibit similar storytelling features that are both dramatic and visually descriptive. The Concerned Father writes:
“this mad man could just as easily dress in a Halloween costume and have a gun or knife hidden underneath his costume.”
This kind of theatricality mirrors the Zodiac’s description of the aftermath of Paul Stine’s murder in his November 9, 1969 letter, where he falsely recounts a scene where a suspect runs by waving a gun and the police “peeled rubber” after him, only for him to disappear into the park.
Grammatical and Lexical Similarities
There is one phrase used near the end of the “Concerned Father” letter which bears a grammatical and lexical similarity to two separate Zodiac communications which had not yet been authored.
“The point I want to bring up is this…”
The above phrase written by the Concerned Father in October of 1969 is eerily similar to the Zodiac’s March 13, 1971 letter to the Los Angeles Times in which he states:
“The reason I’m writing to the Times is this,”
Both phrases are discourse markers that frame the information which follows. In Zodiac’s case, it was a declarative statement that the Times doesn’t bury him on the back pages while the Concerned Father follows with a request to warn the public.
These phrases are similar in grammatical nature as they both contain:
- A noun phrase (“the point,” “the reason”)
- A delayed declarative clause (“is this”), used to build tension
Additionally, the phrase also echoes a line from the Z340 cipher (postmarked November 8, 1969, cracked in 2020):
“Which brings up a point about me”
Here, we see the same lexical pairing of the noun “point” and the verb “bring”, embedded in a sentence.
Authorial Intent
“The point I want to bring up is this” effectively summarizes the letter’s intent, leading into the key statement that follows:
“…could this newspaper please warn citizens… about what could happen to our children?”
This is framed as a civic concern but the overall intent is to publish and spread information about the Zodiac in Solano and the surrounding counties and spread fear potential child victims.
Conclusion
Could this author have really been a “Concerned Father” or was it the Zodiac experimenting with an indirect channel to provoke fear and obtain publicity?
While we don’t have a definitive answer, the overlap in timing, topics, language, and purpose is certainly suspicious.
Call for Collaboration
If any dedicated Zodiac researchers are willing to help, [insert username] and I are currently building corpora of regional opinion columns and letters editors using the date range January 1, 1966 to December 31, 1971.
It’s slow, detailed work but with enough help, we believe more potential Zodiac communications might come to light. Maybe even under his real name.
If you’re interested in helping compile data, please reach out. Must have a subscription for Newspapers.com.