Zodiac, the Atlanta Child murders, and Betsy Aardsma...all connected? Read on and decide.

For a long time I pondered if murdered Penn State student Betsy Aardsma, in November 1969, could be a Zodiac victim. Her murder had eerie paralells to Bates including the fact she was killed at her college library while wearing a red dress (Riverside desktop poem), and that a desktop etching was found nearby the Penn State crime scene(which may or may not be connected to her case). This murder happened in between Zodiac letters, and when Z did write again, he upped his murder number by one. Who was the victim? One additional eerie paralell in this case to Zodiac- in 1979, 10 years later, an anonymous postcard, postmarked in Atlanta, was sent to Penn State university. It read, "you never did catch the guy that killed that cunt in the library did you?" Well all of that was interesting, but I strongly felt and still do, that the odds of it being Zodiac were slim, and it was all a case of coincidences.

But then I looked thru some old FBI files & old archived ZK.com messages boards, and found some other possible connections that may actually link Zodiac to Atlanta (where the Aardsma letter was postmarked), and the town of Williamsport, PA (about one hour from Penn State where Aardsma was killed).

Much of this is found here:
http://www.zodiackiller.com/discus/messages/28/1012.html?1171242095

Back in 2007, a member named ARTNY posted some really good stuff about questioned documents mentioning Zodiac in the declassified FBI files. They are as follows-

Postmarked March 2,1981 in Cleveland, OH- A letter threatening to kill kids in Atlanta was sent to the Danbury mint in CT.


A week or so later, a letter postmarked March 8,1981 in Atlanta was sent to a local tv station there. It read "Hello its me" The writer claimed they were the Zodiac killer. So basically, we have a threat to kill kids in Atlanta, then about a week later, we have a letter from someone in Atlanta claiming that they were the Zodiac. This is not made up, or fantasy, this was all real as shown in these FBI files, and most interesting of all, the FBI says they "can not rule Zodiac out as being the author of the letters".







Wow, there may have even been latent prints. Were they compared to Zodiac's???

Finally, the Williamsport, PA link. This town in PA is an hour's drive to Penn State.




So we have a Z-like crime (or at least an eerie reminder of the Bates case) at Penn State university, an anonymous letter from Atlanta years later. Then we have another Atlanta connection in the FBI reports, someone calling themselves Z, writing Z-like letters. Finally, we have a letter that seems to be connected to the person claiming to be Z in the town of Williamsport, PA, an hour's drive from Penn State.

Is this all coincidence? And what about the FBI saying that they cant rule Z out as the author of the writing? I am not going to try and sell anybody on Aardsma being a Z victim, I still think it is a longshot. But these possible connections are hard to ignore.

Would love to hear opinions on the bus threat. Raise your hands if it reminds you of Z's writing

I know that AK has looked at these, as well as other members on some of the forums. Please, if anyone has anything to add, PRO or CON, please do so.

Note also these similarities in the letters-

The Williamsport letter starts off with "you SHALL". Z was fond of the word SHALL.

And also, in the March 2 letter, the writer wrote BUSSING instead of the correct spelling BUSING. In his June 1970 letter, Z wrote the word BUSS instead of BUS.

Morf, the interesting thing is there is evidence that Zodiac should be considered a suspect in the Aardsma case in Pennsylvania, and a letter from "Zodiac" says he is responsible for some of the Atlanta Child Murders, and the FBI says the writing has aspects that match the real Zodiac.

Then IMO we have a letter likely from the Aardsma killer sent from ATLANTA in the spring of 1979...and the Atlanta Child Murders start in the Summer of 1979.

Then we have these possible letters from the Zodiac concerning the Atlanta Child Murders, and one is sent from Williamsport Pennsylvania and another is sent on a card only mailed to 3 cities, one of which is Harrisburg Pennsylvania.

I did a FOIA request for this letter mentioned in the FBI Atlanta Child Murders file, it was denied and I have appealed.

It says it is from the Zodiac, and the FBI handwriting analyst could not say it was from Zodiac, but he could NOT exclude it as being from Zodiac.

All we know is it starts:

"Hello its me. Haven't you..."

Another letter is this time frame, perhaps also from this "Zodiac", was a demand that the Washington Post classified run this ad as a secret message:

DANIEL PLEASE CALL HOME

What the hell does that mean???

DANIEL
PLEASE
CALL
HOME

At almost the same time, a message was sent in the same way as the Zodiac Sacramento Cancer and Leo cards - in a prepaid envelope.

This letter was treated as credible, there are 10 pages on it in the files, and 3 kids were killed that March in Atlanta.

Only three cities got this insert for classic model cars that the message came in - Harrisburg Pennsylvania, Chicago IL (home of Z suspect Ted Kaczynski) and Long Beach FLA.



MrBungle said "The "Hello it's me..." opening is obviously not consistent, so that's a red flag in my opinion.

The bottom letter wouldn't seem to be from Zodiac based on the obvious racial intent, which was never a factor with Zodiac.

Still, I'm game for seeing more."

AK = It does depart from tradition - sign of a hoaxer or Zodiac showing some variety 7 years after the last confirmed letter?

On the surface, the other message does appear racist, something we don't really match to Zodiac, so again this could point to this being a hoax (in terms of being Zodiac) but it may be from the killer of young black boys, who many speculated was racist.

Zodiac did talk about getting "slaves", however, and mentioned blacks as "banjo players", a line from Mikado that had been deleted from most modern versions. Zodiac also seemed to know Norse, a belief system often associated with racialist views.

But given the media speculation that the Atlanta child killer could be a Klansman, Neo - Nazi or racist of some kind, if what we have here is a serial killer who really murders for the thrill, this "racist" message could be misdirection.

Also, there are some who opposed forced busing for reasons other than racism. Some thought it eradicated black culture and was an attempt to make them "white".

A 1971 Fairfield "Zodiac" letter threatened to kill and skin 3 little kids.

Also, Zodiac had nothing to do with the SLA, yet felt compelled to write a letter about that high profile case. Even if this is from the Zodiac, that doesn't mean he killed anyone in Atlanta - though 3 boys were killed in March, as this letter predicted, or threatened.

Some vicitms were last seen with a white male, a bearded white male was seen near the houses of some victims, and Caucasian light brown body hairs were found on some victims. Yet Wayne Williams was convicted for two murders of retarded adults, and a recent mtDNA test showed hairs found on another body were consistent with the 3% of the black population Williams was in.

Morf noted that the writer spells a word wrongly the same way Zodiac did - "BUSSING", and I think Zodiac spelled "BUSS" for a school bus. Minor point, but interesting.

The message was sent the same weird way as the Sacramento Zodiac "Cancer" and "Leo" cards, in a pre-paid envelope? Same hoaxer? Or same Zodiac?

And there is something slightly familar about the writing - not sure where I saw it, but I have seen, I think, some writing like this somewhere in the case.

Bates note? Or something else?




The we also have the poem sent in by "The Ghost Killer" claiming credit for the Atlanta Child Murders. Of course there was a poem in the Bates case that handwriting experts say was by the Zodiac.

The FBI dismissed this as from an "educated individual" who wanted attention, but likely NOT the real killer.

What they didn't know at that time is that this writer WAS RIGHT, and another body of a boy WOULD be found in the area where Lubie was found.

What do people think of the content? Both Zodiac and EAR/ONS wrote poems.

What do people think of the cursive writing? Any similarities to the Lass card? Other writing from another case?

"Ghost" is like a "Phantom". Red Phantom? DC Freeway Phatom, who also killed young black children?

Is this a hoax? If so, how did the writer know another body would be found in that field? Lucky guess, maybe.

AK said "Then IMO we have a letter likely from the Aardsma killer sent from ATLANTA in the spring of 1979...and the Atlanta Child Murders start in the Summer of 1979."

Would really like to see that card & the writing. Dont forget, the Aardsma card was mailed on a holiday, wasnt it? If this writer(s) in the aardsma case, the Atlanta case, and DC case is all the same writer (and also happens to be Z), then I think we can assume Z was in a line of work that moved him around. Also, I think there are military bases in all of these areas, as there was in the bay area & in southern CA, making it possible that Z was military of civilian working on base.

The PA State Trooper on the Aardsma case told me the letter said something like [Warning - explicit langauge]: "Here is a present for George Washington's Birthday. You never did catch that guy who killed that cunt in the library, did you?"

I also thought she told me it was on or near Washington's Birthday (?), which would be February, right? So not clear why she told you April.

But in any event it appears to be from Atlanta around Spring 1979, and then the Atlanta Child Murders start that same summer.

Yes I would love to see the writing on the letter, I think we may be able to rule Z in or out based on that. We did send the Trooper Z writing, so they can compare it, if they wish.

I think Wayne Williams is guilty of some, but not all, of the murders.

Hopefully I will win my appeal and we will get to read the "Zodiac" letter and perhaps then we can tell more, by the handwriting and content, if this is likely to be Z or a hoax.

AK Wilks wrote:

The PA State Trooper on the Aardsma case told me the letter said something like [Warning - explicit langauge]: "Here is a present for George Washington's Birthday. You never did catch that guy who killed that cunt in the library, did you?"

I also thought she told me it was on or near Washington's Birthday (?), which would be February, right? So not clear why she told you April.

But in any event it appears to be from Atlanta around Spring 1979, and then the Atlanta Child Murders start that same summer.

Yes I would love to see the writing on the letter, I think we may be able to rule Z in or out based on that. We did send the Trooper Z writing, so they can compare it, if they wish.

I think Wayne Williams is guilty of some, but not all, of the murders.

Hopefully I will win my appeal and we will get to read the "Zodiac" letter and perhaps then we can tell more, by the handwriting and content, if this is likely to be Z or a hoax.

The trooper in the Aardsma case didnt tell me,I found the date here:
http://labyrinth13.com/OtherWorks_BetsyAardsma.htm

"In April of 1979, an anonymous postcard, bearing an Atlanta, Georgia postmark, was sent to the Pennsylvania State University campus police that tauntingly stated, "You never did catch the guy who killed that cunt in the library." The police soon discovered that it would be an almost impossible task to try to connect an Atlanta person to the postcard, due to the enormous number of Penn State grads who either lived in Atlanta, or had ties to the area."

Perhaps there is an error on the date?

She told me, from her memory, it said something like "Here is a present for George Washington's Birthday. You never did catch that guy who killed that cunt in the library, did you?"

She told me she thought, from memory, it was on or near Washington's Birthday. Perhaps April 1st being within a month or so of Washington's Birthday, she thought (from memory) that it was "near"?

Or as you say, that April date may be wrong, and it was really February or maybe early March.

I find the reference to "Washington's Birthday" mildly interesting. Why did he say that? What, if anything, does it mean?

Zodiac used stamps of Presidents, Patriots and Revolutionaries a lot, and Washington was all three.

I think it was a Washington stamp on the infamous "Hautz" letter. And Stine was killed near Washington and Cherry/Maple.

QUOTING AK here-

Only three cities got this insert for classic model cars that the message came in - Harrisburg Pennsylvania, Chicago IL (home of Z suspect Ted Kaczynski) and Long Beach FLA.


I DID find one man (born in 1940) that lived in Solano County CA in 1980(and before?),but also used an address at 2669 Peachtree Parkway in Atlanta(Cumming,GA), and was related to people that were living in FL in the 80's. He may be of some interest. Cumming, GA, is a suburb of Atlanta. Question is, is Peachtree Parkway in Cumming GA, the same Peachtree St that this news station is located at?

On the flip side, I couldnt find anybody that lived in both Lycoming County PA (where Williamsport is) & Solano county.

morf13 wrote:

QUOTING AK here-


I DID find one man (born in 1940) that lived in Solano County CA in 1980(and before?),but also used an address at 2669 Peachtree Parkway in Atlanta(Cumming,GA), and was related to people that were living in FL in the 80's. He may be of some interest. Cumming, GA, is a suburb of Atlanta. Question is, is Peachtree Parkway in Cumming GA, the same Peachtree St that this news station is located at?

On the flip side, I couldnt find anybody that lived in both Lycoming County PA (where Williamsport is) & Solano county.

Wasn't the letter was sent to '1611 W Peachtree St. NE 30308', too? Possibly that one:

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/400-W-Peachtree-St-NW-UNIT-1611-Atlanta-GA-30308/88828895_zpid/

QT

The Atlanta postcard is given a good, likely explanation in Derek Sherwood's book, Who Killed Betsy?

I don't believe that it is Z related.

Dreamnine wrote:

The Atlanta postcard is given a good, likely explanation in Derek Sherwood's book, Who Killed Betsy?

I don't believe that it is Z related.

That might explain the Aardsma postcard, but NOT all of the possible zodiac related stuff in Atlanta. The FBI seemed to investigate that Atlanta stuff pretty extensively for a Z connection there. By the way, I spoke with police in the Aardsma case, and at one point, they said I might be welcome to view the written note sent from Atlanta in the Aardsma case. I wanted to see if it looked like any of the Z writing. But I lost touch with the Detective in her case, so I dont know if that will happen. I still would like to see it,.

Hey morf did u know that even after they arrested wayne Williams and he went to jail , The murders continued. and get this after david berokiwitz and others killed people in new York, THE PROCESS CHURCH MOVED FROM NEW YORK TO ATLANTA AND SET UP HEAD QUARTERS ! little odd yuh.