Michael Henry O´Hare

Handwriting M.O`Hare from Times 17.
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His handwriting is not a match; he is not the Zodiac.

No match on the handwriting.

His "K" 's are totally different - he does not do a three stroke "K" like Zodiac often does, and he does not do a 5 stroke lower case "m" like Zodiac often does.

And the feel and spacing are wrong.

I have a hard time making out the only k there is in the writing since its circled.
I will check if I have some more sample somewhere.

I see some similarities, and some differences...not enough to convince me the writing is a match. That seems to be the case with many POI's writing.

So far, the best side by side writing I have seen compared to Zodiac's are:

1- Foreigner's POI looks really good, would like to see more
2- TedK was actually pretty close looking
3- My POI has cursive that looks alot like the Lass xmas card-need to see some of his printing

Oh yeah, and I think it was Bently that posted some writing of one of the Manson girls(forget which girl) that writing was pretty close too

...the closest, IMO, of any "known" suspect where the handwriting has been truly verified is Ted K.

Hi Azazel,

That page is actually from TZMS (I should know, I circled the letters myself).

The paragraph down at the bottom right is also mine.

Granted, the text itself was assembled either from Times 17 or one of Gareth's handouts.

I actually discussed the samples years ago with the private investigator Gareth hired, Whit Caldwell, so I assume they're genuine.

I think most people looking at those samples will see them as matches. We in the Z community though are familiar with how having a POI tampers with your eyesight (Mike Rodelli recently accused me of the same thing).

No, most people will looking a this will NOT see them as matches. Also the way these are presented is invalid. The best way to compare handwriting exemplars is to do so with paragraphs of text from each sample, not a few individual letters, unless, of course, one is being desperate to prove something that is not, in fact, actually there...

Guest:

Nothing like a lecture about being disingenuous from someone who won't show his face.

Speaking of desperation . . . nice emoticon!

And as to what most people will think about the samples, let's ask someone:

"This material is VERY impressive, particularly the handwriting samples . . ."

Frank Drake (yes, that's THE Frank Drake)

By the way, you're about one post away from landing on my IGNORE list, so you'd better start making sense real soon . . .

O´Hare handwriting.


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I have to admit, circling the "L" and the "i" in the first post gave me a bit of a chuckle.

The "d" is the same and the "B" looks darn close at times. I don't see it with the little "a" and some of the other letters.

I think the handwriting is interesting to look at with any suspect, but Zodiac was asking for his letters to be published so I truly don't think it would look like his regular handwriting, BUT I do believe some natural flair would show through at times.

Thank you for posting.

Ray:

You had what I would consider a rare, long-term friendship/mentorship with Gareth Penn. During that time, you write that you noticed some odd things about him, and what's interesting is that in reading his books and your books about this case, as close as you were, definite differences in style do indeed emerge.

On the intellectual level, you and he are very similar. But you seem sincere, earnest, and less concerned with yourself, while he seems flat, often insincere, and very self-absorbed. Times 17 is, in large part, the story of his adventures with all the people he managed to draw into this drama, and his pontifications about those people, many of them negative and critical. It's very much all about Gareth and how great he is.

But your book, The Zodiac Murders: Solved, sticks entirely to reporting and theorizing about the case and the people involved in it. You say very little about yourself.

I've only spoken to Penn briefly, but emailed him extensively. I'd be very interested to hear your insights.

What was Penn like? What motivated him to dog the Zodiac case like he did? How did he convince you to get involved, and that he might be onto something? What first alerted you that he may be involved in this series of homicides? How did he act toward you? Did he ever discuss family, his life outside the Zodiac case, his employment, personal stuff? If so, what did he say? Did he talk much about Hugh? What was Diane like? Did you find him at all self-absorbed? How were your personalities similar? Different?

Does it surprise you at all that he's still going strong, writing reams of pages about his life and involvement with the case, even today?

Anything else along those lines you can think of.

Also, what was Whit Caldwell like? How did Gareth persuade Whit -- a professional and well-regarded PI -- to get involved in all this? What was your interaction with Whit? He's since passed away, but I would have loved to have talked with him.

ak wilks—

Gareth says, in his letter of December 14, 1986 (on the GP thread), that there are things in the Zodiac case that would change my mind, if I knew about them. I don’t know if I can change your mind, but there are definitely aspects to my long distance encounters with Michael O’Hare that might at least give you pause.

I sent my mailing of 96 copies of TZMS to the JFK School at Harvard in November 1990. In December 1990, the Zodiac’s (apparent) Eureka Card was mailed (though it wouldn’t be made public until 2007), which I say is a receipt for my mailing.

In May 1991, I composed a pamphlet (consisting of folded 8 ½ by 11 sheets) called The Zodiac Killer Lives!—In Brookline. I mailed this pamphlet to everyone living within a 3-block radius (with the help of a Cole Directory) of Michael O’Hare in Brookline. Henry Santoro, who is currently on the radio and who then was a reporter for The Boston Phoenix, lived on Abbottsford Road, down the street from Michael O’Hare. Other than a call from the Brookline Police, who reported that the residents couldn’t figure out why I was mailing the pamphlet to THEM (they also said they thought the pamphlet was well-composed and made sense on its own terms), the only phone call I got about the mailing was from Henry. He reported that he got “funny feelings” every time he walked past O’Hare’s house, and that he noticed there seemed to be a lot of construction work going on at 12 Abbottsford. I wondered why Michael O’Hare would be remodeling his house. I subsequently put together yet another edition of my book, for The Boston Phoenix, though they decided not to do a feature on it.

A year later, Cole Directory sent me their updated directory for that area, and I was surprised to find that Michael O’Hare had, in fact, moved. I called the current owner of his house, who reported that O’Hare had already sold the house and been gone when I sent out my pamphlet . . . which is why Henry Santoro had noticed the construction work (it was the new owner fixing the place up).

So here’s the timeline:

November 1990: I mail TZMS to the entire faculty of The JFK School (except Michael O’Hare, of course, and also to the president and provost of Harvard)

December 1990: The Eureka Card is mailed (but doesn’t surface for 17 years)

May 1991: Michael O’Hare is already gone from his house at 12 Abbottsford Road

You suggest that maybe Cal_Berkeley made Michael O’Hare an offer he couldn’t refuse. One has to wonder why that would result in a lectureship and not a professorship. Is Cal-Berkeley making big bonus offers to its teaching assistants? Because ‘lecturer’ is otherwise the bottom rung on the faculty staff ladder, and you’d think they’d have more big names on their roster if they were throwing money around like that.

I have this picture of Michael O’Hare sitting in his office in November 1990, counting all the gold doubloons Cal-Berkeley had sent him to buy his services, when a mail room boy came shouting that someone named Ray Grant had sent the entire staff a copy of his Zodiac book, and he, Michael O’Hare, was named as the Zodiac in it.

That’s quite a confluence of events, isn’t it?

Ray Grant wrote:

I sent my mailing of 96 copies of TZMS to the JFK School at Harvard in November 1990. In December 1990, the Zodiac’s (apparent) Eureka Card was mailed (though it wouldn’t be made public until 2007), which I say is a receipt for my mailing.

Might also be from Z to let everyone know he was still in CA and was therefore not the NY Z (who was in the news at that time after having wounded 3 and murdered 1).

Hi Ed, welcome to the forum, I just got here myself--

Excellent point about The Eureka Card, one I hadn't thought of (which is amazing in itself, hee-hee!).

You're right, the timing of the card is consistent with Z being self-conscious about the copycat activity, and the NYC Zodiac was the first (prior to BTK who copied several other killers, and the Tokyo Zodiac--he doesn't seem to have commented on those, but The Eureka Card was out of public view for 17 years before it surfaced, so we don't really know if he's commented on them).

What's your take on the xerox with the PO box keys?

Take care,

Ray

By the way, it's good to keep filing posts on this thread, as it will get us off this page eventually & the text won't be horizontal on the next one (I hope).

Who knows what was intended regarding those photocopies. Assuming the card is indeed from Z, then presumably it is a clue or a hint of some sort. Maybe "the key to my identity is in this card"? Or maybe he's saying his surname is Keyes. Personally, I think the card is almost certainly a genuine Z communiqué and that the photocopy is in fact a clue, but it hasn't really helped much.

Ed--great job getting the text on this thread back to normal!

I mailed a copy of my book to all 96 members of the faculty (with the exception of Michael O'Hare) at the JFK School at Harvard in November 1990. It's a fairly dramatic event in the Zodiac lore, if Michael O'Hare is the Zodiac.

In December 1990, The Eureka Card is mailed. It contains a xerox picture of TWO post office box keys.

1, I work for the U. S. Postal Service, something that's mentioned in the book; and

2, the address of my publishing house, Book 'em Books, was a PO box number in Pittsburgh.

In other words, two keys to the mystery are 1, me, and 2, my book. That's pretty straightforward.

Can you show proof that Harvard Professor O'Hare was in North Cal to mail the letter? Wouldn't that conflict with his class schedule?

I don't understand how you draw a connection to Pittsburgh from a letter mailed from CA.

What do you think the significance of Eureka was? The snowman? Groucho? Rabbit? Secret Pal?

That is not straightforward at all, this claimed connection to you. It is weird that you would claim that, really, without any proof. I mean, I understand what you are saying, but I think you might be stretching it a little. It is not an obvious connection to be made.

RAY

Don't know if I ever asked you this, but now (or when you present more on your evidence) can you tell me why you think Zodiac killed Joan Webster? Why was she selected? Was it random? Or did it have to do with the fact that her father was ex-CIA and a current VP of defense systems at ITT?

AK--

I don't mean to sound testy here, but do I have to review my entire theory every single time I post?

"Can you show proof that Harvard Professor O'Hare was in North Cal to mail the letter? Wouldn't that conflict with his class schedule?"

Again, my theory says the Zodiac was four people, two of whom lived in California.

"I don't understand how you draw a connection to Pittsburgh from a letter mailed from CA."

I don't understand the point. I mentioned Pittsburgh because the PO Box is in Pittsburgh, but 96 of my books were up in Harvard. The card would have been a reaction to the mailing, which wasn't made anonymously.

"What do you think the significance of Eureka was? The snowman? Groucho? Rabbit? Secret Pal"

Eureka means two things: that my book locates the burial position of a Zodiac victim ("I have found it," as Archimedes once said), and something else that I'll save until Saturday night, when I let the rest of the board tell me what it means.

The significance of Groucho is the nose-glasses, which were used by Woody Allen in Take The Money And Run; they're a comical way of suggesting the person needs to be disguised (in the movie, during an interview). In other words, Michael O'Hare was caught with his pants down by my mailing, and the Groucho glasses are a humorous way of depicting that.

"That is not straightforward at all, this claimed connection to you. It is weird that you would claim that, really, without any proof."

AK, I'm just going to vacate the board until Saturday.

It makes much more sense for people to read what I think and then decide if they accept it or not. If someone rejects my theory as a whole, I really don't see the point of attempting to explain each detail to him. My Presentation will offer the material in a format which makes it easy to follow. I probably shouldn't have returned to the board until I was ready, but a couple distractions (such as Tom's site going down) brought me back early.

I will see everyone on the Chat thread, probably mid-afternoon on Saturday.

Take care,

Ray

IMO the Eureka card is from Ted, and he should be quizzed about it. There are a lot of question marks over his involvement as the Unabomber not least of which is where did he get the money for materials, how with the equipment they found at his cabin (antiquated at best) did he make the welds for the bombs. He is oft rumoured to have been involved with other people, re accomplices who stayed in the background, provided funding. Many also believe that he wrote the manifest etc but was ultimately a patsy of sorts.

Where I differ from AK is that I don't believe that Ted is the Zodiac and that this mailing is believed to be from the Z because it was sent to the Chronicle. Ted does have a sense of humour you know, the Unabomber at the time this card was sent was on the FBI's most wanted list, he was also taking a hiatus.

Ray

Please don't interpret questions as hostility.

But I will wait until your full presentation before I ask any more questions.

I was wondering if anyone is going to comment about whatever was "presented" by Ray Grant in that chat on Sat night??

I'm too new and too stupid I guess to have figured out how to use the Chat...so I missed it all.

Hi MSneuropil,

If you go to my website/book:

http://thezodiacmurderssolved.com/

and then go to the Riverside chapter (click where it says C. Riverside up at the top), a lot of what we discussed is in the first few sections there, on The Desk Poem.

I have not found it easy to get into the chat room myself. You have to go to the bottom left of the main board at 10pm Saturday night & find where it says "join the chat" and click on that phrase. Then, when you see the listing of people who are currently in the chat room, go to the top & click on the REFRESH button, and that should get you in.

I look forward to seeing you there Saturday night!

Ray