Troy Houghton: The Minuteman

Since we're talking wheel track measurements, there are thirteen holes in TH's car (see my avatar on the left here); and Troy thought that was awfully important:


There are thirteen punched holes in this card:

Any ideas why Z punched 13 holes into the card? He did it for some reason. Just another of the 50 or so coincidences linking TH to Z, I suppose.

rand wrote:

rand wrote:

Troy had a very controlling and eccentric mother, whose name was VALERIE ALDERMAN/BOYLE. She went by the name, VAL.

Back to the Halloween card (as usual). Z tells us: "You Ache To Know my Name, And So I'll Clue You In..."

Note that Z underlines LAV in AVERLY and there is a prominent "LAV" in SLAVES from the figure on the back of the card:



Z seemed to want us to see LAV. LAV backwards is, of course, VAL.

Something else worth pointing out. Several people have mentioned that Z placed the skeleton inside the card in such a way as to highlight the word OIL. Notice that the skeleton's right hand is pointing towards the B in But. B-OIL. BOIL - BOYLE. VAL BOYLE was his mother's name.




Moreover, if we look at a horizontal from BOO! to the skeleton itself, which is shaped like a Y, to the "e!" at the end of "game," it reads: BOO-Y-El or BOYEL = BOYLE.

I just read some excellent analysis by AK. Here's what he said:

But Zodiac spells out it AVERLY.

He adds an "L". Why?

PAUL AVERLY.

Zodiac then underlines LAV.

Why?

Reverse those letters he underlined, then read it out loud.

VAL ERLY.

Say that aloud.

VAL - ER - LY.

Sounds like VALERIE to me.


ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, AK!

Perhaps a "Valerie" broke the Z's heart....
And the Z was seeking re-venge as retaliation.

This is for you, rand. I am sure it does not need any further explanation :







-ME NIN

But that doesn't fit my storyline, Zam

Nin wrote:

This is for you, rand. I am sure it does not need any further explanation :







-ME NIN

rand wrote:

I came up with this a while back. BUT WOW, NIN!!!!
That's amazing.
I do need an explanation, however, for this one (I'm a bit thickheaded, I guess):

Letter 9,10,11 an 12 of the last line in the 408 compared to letter 9,10,11 and 12 in the 340. 408 and 340 both have 17 letters in width. Same locations, last line 408, letters 9,10,11,12 ands 340 last line letters 9,10,11,12. The crosshair Z + the strange ZODAIK..

-Nin

ReverseQ E H M in the last line of the third part is a repeat of the ReverseQ E H M in the last line of the first part. In the first part the revQEHM translates according to Harden to METH.
The "filler" line repeats the revQEHM in the same location. Compared to the 340 it is the same location as the crosshairsymbol , the Z and the next 2 letters which are part of the strange ZODAIK:

Very interesting, NIN. Nice!
I translated the last part of the 408 (including the crosshair signature, which is a D) and got:
ROBERT DEPEW: IT IS ME, TH. So we're thinking along similiar lines
My key code was the same as the one sent anonymously (but I didn't have that key at the time). So I think there's some inter-coder reliability.

What NIN found above is, in her words, "the closest I have seen any initials or possible ID's being planted in the ciphers. It is not forced, it is obviously there. That's hard to ignore in my view."
There's also IM TH at the bottom of page two of the 408.

I think that Z provided lots of clues about his identity. Here's one I posted last year that I think got short shrift:

rand wrote:

troy H

rand wrote:

There are thirteen punched holes in this card:

More on this. IMO, Z was trying to emphasize the fact that he punched exactly 13 holes in the card. So he says: In fact it's just one big thirteenth. But look at this part of the card:



Notice he adds a "TH" at the end of 13: One big thirteenth. He's making several points with the word "thirteenth": 13 bullet holes, 13 punched holes and TH for Troy Houghton. He also adds a cross or "t" under the number 13: t for Troy.

Notice also that he carefully placed the capital T for Them over the H for Horrible here:



Now if we read the PS message that's upside down, we get another IM TH:





Does this look familiar? Check out the 2nd page of the 408, the last two letters:






There's a pattern to this. Above, NIN and I showed how he wrote: ME TH and IM TH. Now notice how in this unconfirmed letter, the author capitalizes the TH at the outset but nowhere else:

If a person is presumed to be dead and they murder people, little wonder that they would say: I'm collecting slaves for the afterlife. After all, they're already in an "afterlife" state. Apparently and I'm sad to say, most people are more convinced by heresay (e.g., that someone said that someone used this phrase) than they are by a solid reason why Z would have used the phrase. So I'll just keep trying to explain this case to everyone and posting what I think are compelling and provocative insights, and you can all keep on ignoring me. It won't change the truth about this case one iota. But it is an exemplar of the logic: I'll see it when I believe it.

rand wrote:

If a person is presumed to be dead and they murder people, little wonder that they would say: I'm collecting slaves for the afterlife. After all, they're already in an "afterlife" state.

Z also called himself the Red Phantom. phan·tom noun
1. an apparition or specter.
A person who was presumed dead but appeared would be an apparition. Someone we would call a phantom or ghost.

One more thing on this. He called himself the RED phantom. We know that Z was described as having reddish tinted hair. We also have (or think we might have) his initials from the Riverside desk: rh
I'm wondering if TH had reddish hair and whether his nickname was Red (his hair might have been more reddish when he was a child). If so, then "rh" would fit. I'll look into this.

I'm surprised you've missed that the skeleton looks more like he is pointing to the TH in "then"

Whoa!!! You're right Keep the insights coming, Q.

So we have the BOO! OIL for BOYLE. And once again, we have TH ME. The right hand is pointing to the TH and the other hand is pointing down to the other side of the skull, which says ME. Incredible.

Rand remember who told you about the "TH" on the bleeding knife letter???



Its not about competition its about helping, sharing and sometimes debating. All in the search for the truth...and having some fun along the way!

couldn't agree with you more, AK. And, yes indeed, AK found the capital TH on the Bleeding Knife Letter. Your insights, like those of NIN, Quagmire, and everyone else here, are much appreciated

Based on what I just read in the Deer Lodge Gang thread, I figure I haven't underscored this point effectively. One of the many, many reasons I think TH was Z was the timing of the crosshair symbol and the moniker The Zodiac.
The killer first sent letters to the three papers with the crosshair signature but he referred to himself as "the murderer," not the Zodiac. The Zodiac moniker came several days later in a letter with the crosshair signature and NO ADDRESS written at the bottom.
My theory is that the killer realized, rather quickly, that the crosshair symbol gave too much away. It was associated with the Minutemen. Here is a Minutemen symbol from 1968:



And here's a label from MM survival tabs:



Compare it with the crosshair on one of the killer's initial letters:


The timing of the crosshair coming prior to the killer calling himself the Zodiac is crucial, IMO.
The killer realized he may have given far too much away with the crosshair symbol, so he thinks: I need to divert attention from the association of the crosshair with the MM.

The trick is to associate the crosshair with something else that everyone would recognize and do the switch quickly before anyone figures it out. So he figures: what can I associate the crosshair symbol with? I got it: there's a watch with this symbol and it's called Zodiac. So he dashes off another letter, in which he calls himself the Zodiac. Incredibly, everyone has bought into this bait and switch trick. Yet, there is little in Z's letters that would make anyone believe that he was an astrology enthusiast -- much less that his entire identity was wrapped up in the Zodiac. He said he was killing people to collect slaves for the afterlife. Is there anything esp. Zodiac-like to this motive. I don't see it. What else besides a few Zodiac symbols in his ciphers would lead someone to believe that his identity and motives were driven by the Zodiac signs? astrology? Nothing really. And that's a key point to me.
Indeed, Z switched his identity to A Citizen, the Red Phantom, etc.

Very interesting rand. By the way, do you know when the Minutemen starting using the cross-hair symbol?

1962

Note that Z says: " they have not complied with my wishes for them to wear some nice [crosshair symbol] buttons." He doesn't say Zodiac buttons or Zodiac killer buttons, which he might have done and then drawn the crosshair symbol to indicate what he intended.



Again this is another example of my belief that the crosshair symbol did not actually mean The Zodiac to Z. It was a ruse. The original crosshair was intended as a Minutemen crosshair symbol. In the letter above, Z doesn't write that he is annoyed that people aren't wearing Zodiac buttons because, for him, the buttons were political buttons indicating support for the Minutemen.

Troy Houghton wore political buttons.


Everything about TH fits Z.
Here's another example:



Here we have a MM crosshair symbol with the numbers 9-3-0-6
TH's birthday was 9-30-33: 9-3-0-(3+3)6
The MM went by number codes, not names. TH's code name was 930.