Opinions on this writing

This is not a known Zodiac letter, and as far as I know, nobody ever suspected it of being Zodiac related. I just wanted some opinions from people here...any Z qualities in the writing? It kind of reminded me of that Rick Marshall movie poster writing, and supposedly, they thought Marshall's writing was pretty close to Zodiac.. (This letter was NOT written by Marshall)



Also, this is POSSIBLY from the same author(or at least from the same source, same year):

A few of the letters don't match Zodiac's, such as the upper case M's. Otherwise, it doesn't look bad at all. Kind of like a hybrid of Zodiac's neat, measured printing and his usual manic style. Are you at liberty to reveal who wrote this stuff, morf?

One of the known suspects, two stroke K. I vote no.

Nachtsider wrote:

A few of the letters don't match Zodiac's, such as the upper case M's. Otherwise, it doesn't look bad at all. Kind of like a hybrid of Zodiac's neat, measured printing and his usual manic style. Are you at liberty to reveal who wrote this stuff, morf?

I stumbled across it when I was looking for leads on my old POI in the LIVERMORE area. Funny enough, I did not find anything on my POI, and I dont think he had anything to do with this writing...I put it aside, and was sorting out some old stuff today when I rediscovered it.

Thanks for the opinions guys...something about it just stood out to me. I never had considered it as a possible Z letter, i was just saving it mainly because it was something I looked into in the Livermore area, not too far from the Johns abduction spot.

I agree Bentley, the "K" doesnt seem to have the same strokes.

On the other hand, some similarities that stand out to me-

look at the words "triger" and "longer" in the Belli letter down towards the bottom, shown below:

The zodiac started out writing neatly, but soon reverted back to his messy writing. When he did, the lower case "g", hooks over under the letter in front of it. He did that alot, as did the writer of the letter I posted.

In the following Zodiac letter, all of the double "L"s tend to lean. The same is true of the author in the letter i posted, also the lower case "y" seems similar in both:


Again the letter for comparison:


Also, some Zodiac-like spelling errors....probably all a coincidence, but I thought it was interesting

Hey Morf - good eye

At first glance it appears similiar to RM and Z -- but agree with above...T's and small case "u" dont look same; very similiar style of print though.

I print all the time since my cursive is bad and tend to print differently with diff pens etc....

Thanks again guys for looking...and for your thoughts, you never know if some letter or document like this that someone finds will be the big break we need.

Hi Morf -

It's not a match, either to Z's writing, or Marshall's...Marshall's writing is more "fluid and artistic"; the writing in your sample is not.


While both your sample and Z's writing are block printing, most of the letters, are in fact, formed differently.

I think what folks are forgetting is that "block printing" was really taught and emphasized in the schools back then, and was not unusual. Many people, especially men, who felt less comfortable with cursive, continued to writie in lower case block printing, or sometimes even in uppercase (like my dad does). Also men in certain professions, mechanics, drafsmen, carpenters, the skilled trades, and many technical areas, all used block printing, some "extemporaneous", and some "taught", like architect's lettering for example.

Some men only used cursive to sign their names, for example...

Hey morf--

In the club meeting letter I do see some similiarities with Z. The word "meeting"...especially the "g". The "d's" are similiar. More doesn't look like it than does, but there are similarities.

I'm always on the lookout for the "q".

Definitely some similarities, but some differences too. I dont think the lower case "f" looks like Zodiac's. Zodiac had a candy cane style "f".

morf13 wrote:

Definitely some similarities, but some differences too. I dont think the lower case "f" looks like Zodiac's. Zodiac had a candy cane style "f".

Then again, the "f" in the word FRIEND on the SLA letter looks similar:

Not that its a secret, but this letter is from a Parachute club newsletter in Livermore CA, close to Pleasanton, and also the Johns attack site.

Around the same year(71-72) there was a parachute store/shop that opened on Tennessee St. in Vallejo.


http://books.google.com/books?id=BKTuTXrXQu0C&pg=PA187&lpg=PA187&dq=%22vallejo%22+%22altitude+shop%22&source=bl&ots=n_toym0P4r&sig=jHwRwwFnNfXcbkvAKkjxgtlYZoc&hl=en&ei=hjYiTMH-FIL58AbP4eWZDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22vallejo%22%20%22altitude%20shop%22&f=false

It was called THE ALTITUDE SHOP at 927 Tennessee St.

I had wondered if people that hung out there were also part of this club in Livermore. Obviously, we know how Tennessee st fits into the Zodiac case ,and to Darlene Ferrin (even though she died 2 years before the store opened on that street)

Found this on a message board:

"I jumped a Top Secret for a while. Didnt care for the plastic ripcord handles, but I liked the rig a lot. The guys that made it (Altitude Shop) [b]had their store right in downtown Vallejo CA [/b], not at a DZ. They sold rock climbing gear and skydiving gear"

I also found an ad that said they sold ski equipment too. Will post that later

Little more interesting...look at the way this writer makes his capital "L" in the word LIVERMORE down near the bottom:


Now look at the capital "L" in the celebrity cipher:

...maybe that means that your "parachute guy" wrote the "celebrity cipher" - which is not out of the realm of possibility given where you indicated this guy was from, and also that there were copycats at that time - ( I do not think the celeb. cipher is an authentic Z communication), but neither one are the Zodiac, IMO...