Troy Houghton: The Minuteman

Rand have you asked TH's best friend if he has som old handwritten letters/cards/notes from Troy H?

Yes. He was noncommital but said he would search and get back to me. I think he'll find something...I'm hoping he will.

rand wrote:

Yes. He was noncommital but said he would search and get back to me. I think he'll find something...I'm hoping he will.

Yes that would be great.

Theforeigner wrote:

Rand have you asked TH's best friend if he has som old handwritten letters/cards/notes from Troy H?

The paper the above writing is on is an example of what I've described elsewhere. It appears to be more off-white in color here, but elsewhere today, I saw that someone had posted an example of it with the lines and had highlighted them in different colors which really emphasized them. Thanks so much. AK Wilks was the poster and I think it was the Christmas envelope and letter to Melvin Belli. The thought was that the paper could have been crumpled and possibly retrieved from a wastepaper basket or trash can.

What interests me here is the contrast and the way this whitish color blends into the pinkish part. On the other ones, there is more pink and there are a few dark spots near the top. The letters at the top and right end look smudged on the one with the lines, as if they had gotten wet or something smudged them before they'd dried. There is a sort of diamond pattern formed on the letter to Belli around the lines which could have come from folding. That makes me think of origami and then the Mikado!

It would be so interesting if this paper could be identified as it is so unusual imo.

I imagine that the wetness and smudging is a result of a solution used to find fingerprints.

Good to hear rand! It's always nice to talk to folks who had actual connections.

Thanks, Tahoe. Everyone connected to TH and the MM still seem deathly afraid to discuss TH's disappearance -- which, I suppose, is understandable. So it's been like pulling teach to get information from them. But I'll keep trying.

Troy's friend sent me a picture of Troy's car that he drove in the 1950s and 1960s (it's a Ford and it has the 13 bullet holes he spoke of in the Look article). I think it's a 1955 Ford Fairlane:



He also mentioned that Troy had a very distinctive printed handwriting. This is what he wrote me:

I checked what few records I still have, and was unable to locate anything with Troy's handwriting. Frankly, I was surprised. But, as the years have passed, I've purged more and more. (As you stated in your email (below), Troy printed almost everything -- but his printing was distinct.

I did some checking on the tire tracks found at LB. The width between the front wheels was 57 inches. This seems consistent with a 1955 Ford Fairlane.

Model Fairlane
Chassis Data
Wheelbase: 115.5 in
Overall Length: 198.5 in
Width: 75.9 in
Front Tread: 58 in
Rear Tread: 56 in
Tires 6.70 x 15

I'm just wondering - if he drove that car from the 1950's and there's a photo of it shot to bits by 1963, do you think he still would have been driving it in 1969/70?

I know he was driving it a few weeks before he disappeared in 1967. The story is that he bought a used car right before he vanished. So was the recently bought used car the one they supposedly found on the side of the road? Or was it this one?

And remember, people described Z's car as having old-style California license plates. There were two different kinds of worn tires on the front, according to LE at LB.

btw, it occurred to me that this symbol is composed of an F and an L. Could it be a symbol that was found on a 1955 Ford Fairlane in chrome or something like that? FL for Fairlane? I'm going to check the chrome designs.



Something like this V-8 symbol on the side of the car:

Description of man following Darlene Ferrin: American-made sedan, white with a large windshield. Car similar to 1963 Corvair, "Older and bigger, old plates."
Why does everything seem to fit TH, who might have been driving a dark-colored car with a far larger width between the wheels than 57 inches. But, no. TH drove a white car, older than a 1963 Corvair, with a big windshield, and had a width of 56-58 inches between the wheels. Why do things always fit him? Could he be incredibly unlucky? Or was he Z?

13 PUNCHED HOLES



HOUGHTON SAID HIS CAR HAD 13 BULLET HOLES IN IT.
CHECK THEM OUT:


BY THE WAY, I'M NOT SURE HE WAS STILL DRIVING THIS CAR IN 1966. IN JUNE 1966, HE SAYS: "I LOST ONE CAR. 13 BULLET HOLES." BUT WHEN I ASKED BETTIE (HIS WIFE) WHAT CAR TROY WAS DRIVING WHEN SHE LAST SAW HIM, SHE INDICATED OR INTIMATED THAT IT WAS THIS CAR.

It's certainly all food for thought, Rand. The fact that Z possibly sent a card with 13 holes in it and Houghton drove a car with 13 holes in it is definitely curious.

Having said that, we mustn't forget the light brown car similar to a Corvair that Mageau reported Z as driving.

Let me once and for all make it perfectly clear why I believe TH is an excellent if not the best POI. There are two KEY pieces of evidence - of the more than 50 other items I can list -- al of which seal the deal for me. I'm boiling it down to these two items merely to give a short presentation. I invite and encourage criticism and comments. But please don't pick out one piece and leave out everything else I'm about to present. Address the arguments in their totality please. Otherwise, you're presenting a strawman and cutting it down (as so often happens here).


EXHIBIT ATHE MM STICKERS PUT ON CARS IN THE BAY AREA IN 1968:



Newspaper article: 8-11-68



Here we have a crosshair symbol with a paragraph about how MM will kill traitors by rope, by knife, by gun, and by poison pen. Show me another POI that links a crosshair to these types of killings? Remember, Z put a crosshair on his initial letters PRIOR to calling himself the Zodiac. I bellieve that the Zodiac was a ruse to coverup the fact that Z had given too much away with the original crosshair symbol. Compare the original crosshair to a MM crosshair in AZ:



EXHIBIT B: THE HALLOWEEN CARD

This is key. Zodiac says that you're dying to know my identity, so let me clue you in.
Everything that Z did to this card implicates TH. Indeed, TH sheds light on things we didn't see about this card; and when you have the right guy, that's precisely what should happen.




Prior to TH, no one had suggested that what Z did with his manipulations of this innocent HC is to make it an image of a flasher. He places a pumpkin over the Skeleton's genital region, then puts a skeleton inside the card sans the pumpkin in a garrish pose. Moreover, he writes PEEK-A-BOO!
Why is this important? Because TH was defined by two arrests for indecent exposure. Everytime he was mentioned in the newspapers, they prefaced his name with "a convicted sex offender." It defined his public identity. Moreover, his conviction of indecent exposure in Cheyenne, WY in Feb. 1967 most likely prompted him to go underground with, might I add, a LITTLE LIST, which, might I add, TH was associated with in an LA Times, nationally sydicated column:



Back to the HC. Notice that the figure on the back is a tH for Troy Houghton:



Notice that there are eyes on the card. Eyes = Looking. Look magazine featured an article about TH in June 1966.



What about the strange symbol? I've seen a convincing demonstration that it is a rune for LA. The person claimed that this proves it was Leigh Allen. I disagree. THe card is essentially a flasher image. TH was convicted for flashing in LA, where he was born.

Alternatively, TH was also convicted of indecent exposure in Cheyenne, WY. Is the symbol some kind of Cheyenne Indian pictograph?

And TH engaged in Halloween pranks. Here's an excerpt about him: "The California “Minutemen” was the brainchild of Troy Houghton of San Diego, CA. Houghton, while favoring the militant slant to anti-Communism, was bent to Halloween type pranks against the better known socialists and leftists of his area. One such rank was the mailing of a small tape recorder complete with a tape to a elected victim, usually some left wing character. Naturally, if you were to anonymously receive such an item you would be apt to play the tape. The voice on this tape said: “...this recorder contains ahigh explosive bomb set to go off in exactly ten seconds — nine — eight — seven — six — ....” One can only imagine the gymnastics performed by the mark in trying to dispose of the “bomb” before zero! Houghton's ability to escalate a touchy situation rather than defuse it, a fascination for machine guns and his apparent leaning toward other questionable areas would later become his undoing."From: http://www.scatteredremnant.org/MMCh4.pdf

Now look at the HC. There are three symbols: an unknown one, a Z, and a crosshair symbol. To me, this indicates that the Z is for Zodiac (one part of his identity); the crosshair, however, is not for Zodiac but rather for Minutemen. Why else would he include a Z and the crosshair? Why put a Z and crosshair for Zodiac? It's redundant. No, the two symbols are put their to tell us that he has two identities (and a third, which I believe is related to his indecent exposure identity). He's telling us: the crosshair is not for Zodaic, the Z is for Zodiac. The crosshair is for my other identity: a Minuteman.

Two final comments:
1) For those (morf) who say: But you can't place TH at the scene of any of the crimes. True. But please understand that this is not DISCONFIRMING evidence. If you can prove that TH was in Kansas, for example, when a Z crime was committed THAT would be disconfirming evidence. But simply not being able to place a POI at the scene of any of the crimes is not disconfirming. It means that I don't yet have CONFIRMING evidence of that sort.

2) For those (morf) who say: You can't prove that TH was alive. Again, that's not DISCONFIRMING evidence. If you can prove he was dead, that's disconfirming evidence. If a man disappears three weeks after he says he's going underground with a little list of victims, well...I imagine he's going to be difficult to locate. After all, TH was said by LE to have more aliases than anyone they'd ever seen. Moreover, he trained people in ciphers, explosives and other ways to kill people, and to survive in the wilderness. That was TH's job. So the fact that I can't locate him after 1967 is neither surprising nor disconfirming evidence. Everything I know about this guy fits Z to a tee. He fits all of Z's iconographies and clues.

Rand,

I just want to say you have done a great job with your POI and he remains one of my favorites. At least he looks like what people who actually saw the man described. Do you remember Bryan Hartnell saying, “he (Zodiac) looked like a slob” and then reading how others in the Minute Man book described Troy Houghton like that way as well? It might of been 'sloppy' the word they used. Anyway, it means the same. He has the receded hairline, the widow's peak and the bad back that could cause a shuffle. He was stocky! He had a big face, the haircut witnesses described (military) He has the knowledge of knives, bombs, Guns and the early signs of sociopathic behavior-(arson, criminal behavior.) The evidence you have provided is pretty darn good! Hell Troy wasn't bad looking when he was young...! Remember the girls at LB saying he was fairly nice looking... Well as there were not too many people at LB at the time and this guy dressed like they (the 3 girls) described I believe he was Zodiac.

Again, thank you so much for keeping this interesting. I really like this guy Bujok as well... The letters to the paper, the mug description, the reason for his army discharge.... his size, his round face, stocky description, I would love to see what he looked like in "69." Have you spoken to Betty as of late? Remember, I worked on medical research for court cases. There are things I see in detail that many don’t see…. The hairline is important in that composite as it is receded at the temples just as the children on Washington and Cherry and Fouke described...

Many people go underground just as Dryman did. Some never get found again…. Our intelligence just isn’t that good! These people are master criminals must of the time pretty darn smart, not perfect; they know their foes….. They learn much from their prison stays.

You should ask me about the court case I did psychological medical research for. It was a child with ‘Reactive Attachment Disorder.’ The things this child did would send chills up your spine and he was 7! I did tell you all the Bujok was discharged out of the Army because he was Manic Depressive… Although they said a mild form…. I’m not stuck on anyone but I do believe one of these suspects on this board is Z. Hell, it could be Gaik but he's not one of my favorites.

Oh, and another thing the distance between the car tracks at Lake Berryessa was 52 inches not 57. The Police report on page 16 says 52. Graysmith says 57 in his book. One is wrong and I'll bet it's Graysmith's book. What say you? In Graysmith's book he also says that the man that was stalking the girls also pulled up behind the dentist car (tire tracks) and then went to Hartnell and Shepard... I have not seen that in the police report but it would not surprise me if the police didn't check it out..... I wouldn't fight about proving Troy was alive as no one could prove Dryman was alive or by the way find him until a couple of years ago..... We can't prove Jimmy Hoffa is dead! No body no proof....although he probably is.... Houghton may be sipping Peña Coladas in South America, just as many Nazis that escaped to there after the war.... Who knows....? He is a great suspect but you are a little wacky... as are we all here.

Good going on Troy!!!

Hey Kevin. Thanks for compliments and for the long and interesting post. It gets lonely on this thread
You're right about the 52 inches. Thanks for that important correction.
I, too, like Bujok and the gang as suspects (and you're doing a great job with that thread). I'm looking forward to seeing how that one develops. And I agree 100% with you: we're all a little wacky! Thank heavens for that, I suppose -- someone's got to keep life interesting On a more serious note, it never ceases to amaze me how the internet has changed everything (you, being my age, will agree). We would never have had this opportunity to share our wacky interests and kick it all around if it were not for the internet. Some things do change for the better!

rand wrote:

Hey Kevin. Thanks for compliments and for the long and interesting post. It gets lonely on this thread
You're right about the 52 inches. Thanks for that important correction.
I, too, like Bujok and the gang as suspects (and you're doing a great job with that thread). I'm looking forward to seeing how that one develops. And I agree 100% with you: we're all a little wacky! Thank heavens for that, I suppose -- someone's got to keep life interesting On a more serious note, it never ceases to amaze me how the internet has changed everything (you, being my age, will agree). We would never have had this opportunity to share our wacky interests and kick it all around if it were not for the internet. Some things do change for the better!

It's just what the 'Police report' says.... that's pretty darn narrow.... I wonder which is correct....

Here it is:

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/famous-disappearances-1312313900-slideshow/#crsl=

It is very narrow. Hmmmm. I wonder.

rand wrote:

Hey Kevin. Thanks for compliments and for the long and interesting post. It gets lonely on this thread
You're right about the 52 inches. Thanks for that important correction.
I, too, like Bujok and the gang as suspects (and you're doing a great job with that thread). I'm looking forward to seeing how that one develops. And I agree 100% with you: we're all a little wacky! Thank heavens for that, I suppose -- someone's got to keep life interesting On a more serious note, it never ceases to amaze me how the internet has changed everything (you, being my age, will agree). We would never have had this opportunity to share our wacky interests and kick it all around if it were not for the internet. Some things do change for the better!

Thanks for the props but Morph and the Foreigner have done that and I think it's great! The only thing I did was look up why he was discharged.....I have been trying to find family members of Bujoks...

I spoke with Houghton's best friend again. Here's what he told me:

1) Houghton had a low, controlled voice
2) he was highly disciplined and didn't like procrastinators, that is, people who"fiddled and farted around"
3) He was raised Catholic and went to Mass (Christmass)
4) he disappeared for weeks at a time and always had a gun and handcuffs in his car
5) He was fascinated by ciphers, absolutely obsessed
6) obsessed with ammonium nitrate as an explosive to make bombs: always talked about it
7) he constantly talked to his friend about taping a pencil light to the barrel of his gun; told him how, if you shot at the dark circle, you could hit your target
8. He was absolutely obsessed with paper. Talked about paper all the time, especially Dissolvo paper (a vegetable paper that dissolves in water). Here's the link: http://www.shopwiki.com/_Dissolving-Spy-Paper?o=242180648&s=90111
Wrote and kept files on Dissolvo paper. His step-father owned a printing company.
9) Had a teletype machine with his shortwave radio
10) he had a specific kind of walk; a shuffle. He walked on the balls of his feet and his hips would stay very even; TH's walk and voice were very specific to his identity
11) TH was obsessed with aliases and blending into a crowd. Knew how not to draw attention to himself
12) spoke about Zodiac symbols; specifically, talked about his wife Bettie in those terms; something about Scorpio and Libra
13) was turned off by religion. Disliked religious fanatics.
14) he was raised by a controlling mother; TH's arson was a sexual acting out
15) he thinks that TH was left-handed but would print with his right hand if he didn't want to be identified by his handwriting
16) He hated the press and he hated LE.
17) talked about and taught how to disguise your fingerprints with nail polish

Good work... Again he's one of my favorite suspects.

Thanks, Kevin. I get the feeling that if I posted TH at LB with a knife and hood, it would be met with the typical deafening silence I get on this thread. After all, I interview TH's best friend and find out loads of details, including that TH talked about attaching a pencil light to the barrel of a gun so you could shoot at night and hit your target, his obsession with paper, ciphers, and ammonium nitrate, that he disappeared for weeks at a time driving around with a gun and handcuffs, and nothing. I suppose this is all too boring for some (morf).
Anyhow, after long thought, I think I've figured out the strange symbol on the HC. In my view, it's obvious that the image Z painstakingly created is of a flasher.
He writes 4-TEEN.
TH was convicted twice of flashing: once in LA he flashed two teenage girls, and once in Cheyenne WY, where he flashed two teenager girls. That's 4 TEENS he was convicted of flashing.

Now for the symbol. It's composed of an F and L with 4 dots. The FL stands for FLASHER, the whole point of the clue to his identity in the HC. The four dots are the 4 TEENs he flashed.

So at the bottom of the card, Z puts a crosshair symbol for his Minutemen identity; a Z for Zodiac, and an FL sign with four dots for his flasher identity.

Let me make this case as simple as I can, and I'll use very conservative odds.

How many people have talked about putting a pencil light on the barrel of a gun? (1 in 500?)
How many people have shot the tires out of a car with a woman still inside? (1 in 1000?)
How many people are fascinated by paper? (one in 1000?)
How many people are fascinated by ciphers and talk about it? (one in 100?)
How many people talk about ammonium nitrate as an explosive to kill people? (1 in 500?)
How many people have had a nationally syndicated column about them saying in the title that they "Have a Little List" of people they're going to assassinate? (1 in a million?)
How many people have been convicted twice of flashing 4 TEENs in total? (1 in 10,000?)
How many people had an explosives license issued in CA? (1 in 500?)
How many people owned a company with BLAST in the title? (1 in 10,000?)
How many people had a front page LA Times article about them regarding giving a speech at the Jolly Roger Inn? (1 in 10000?)
How many people were major figures in an organization represented by a crosshair symbol? (1 in 10,000?)
How many people have an obsession with aliases? (1 in 1000?)
How many people look just like the Z composite and lived in Southern California in the early 1960s (1 in 100?)
How many people were arrested several times for tampering with vehicles? (1 in 500?)
How many people were arrested for tampering with a library book? (1 in 10000?)
How many people have a shortwave radio and teletype machine? (1 in 1000?)
How many people are on record hating the press and LE? (1 in 100?)
How many people wrote newsletters exhorting people to write Letters to the Editor? (1 in 1000?)

That should be enough for now.
Okay, now multiply those odds and that's the probability that one person would have all those traits. Would the number be 1 in a billion?
Troy Houghton fits all of them.

Good case, but what would nail him down? DNA? Finger Prints?