Equinox 3:33 p.m.

Different Es in the same word twice. Also the slants. Interesting.

Wow just amazing the looks! Also the Phillip map makes sense with this guy and his last name is pretty close to the Citizen letter. But damn on the looks like I posted earlier!

Started a dedicated thread about the possible author of the EQUINOX letter here;
https://zodiackillersite.forummotion.com/t1082-phillip-gordon-gietzen

Sorry, but I have to chim in here; the note PG wrote does not contain any kind of Zodiac symbol or any other reference to the Zodiac persona.
I mean, more or less, all "hip" people in 60s/70s was into astrology.

And why compare his photo to the first Zodiac sketch when the sketch was changed a cupple of days later, by the witnesses, to be more accurate.
All POI's, IMHO, should be compared to the 2nd Stine sketch due to that THAT was what the witnesses belived that Zodiac looked like.

In all respect, great work Morf, but I just don´t see this guy as interesting as you and others do.

morf13 wrote:

In July, 1975, someone claiming to be the Zodiac sent a letter in. It started with "Equinox 3:33 p.m." According to the FBI memo, it was "largely handwritten", and the Zodiac's known writing was "largely hand printed".

I requested this letter from the FBI and it was rejected a while back. I will appeal.

When I googled "Equinox 3:33 p.m.", I got the following-

Sep 22 Autumnal equinox, 3:33 pm, EST

Been wondering about this too. Where did he claim to be the Z?

Trying to catch up on this thread I hadn't seen before...

morf13 wrote:

In July, 1975, someone claiming to be the Zodiac sent a letter in. It started with "Equinox 3:33 p.m." According to the FBI memo, it was "largely handwritten", and the Zodiac's known writing was "largely hand printed".

Morf, how do we know the writer of this letter was claiming to be Zodiac? Who was it sent to? Its inclusion in the FBI file would just seem to indicate that whoever received this letter felt that it might be related or that it might have been brought to the attention of the FBI and someone there suspected a possible connection, both of which would be understandable. The content, however creepy, is totally ambiguous and doesn't really seem to connect to the Zodiac Killer, even as a hoax, in any way other than the focus on astrology.

Am I missing something?

Theforeigner wrote:

Sorry, but I have to chim in here; the note PG wrote does not contain any kind of Zodiac symbol or any other reference to the Zodiac persona.
I mean, more or less, all "hip" people in 60s/70s was into astrology.

And why compare his photo to the first Zodiac sketch when the sketch was changed a cupple of days later, by the witnesses, to be more accurate.
All POI's, IMHO, should be compared to the 2nd Stine sketch due to that THAT was what the witnesses belived that Zodiac looked like.

In all respect, great work Morf, but I just don´t see this guy as interesting as you and others do.

Good points.

First off, I am only showing the photos of him that I can find which are highschool & college pics, if I find any of him for 69-71, I will post those too. I simply dont know what he looked like during the Z murders. The ones I do have of him look 'similar' to the Z sketch....but then again, a thousand other guys in the area looked like the Z sketch, so I dont base alot on that.

The main reason he is interesing is because he very well may have written the Equinox letter. I dont know exactly HOW the equinox letter came into the posession of the FBI ,or how it was thought to be Zodiac related. If anybody has the exact details, please post them here. Anybody that wrote any letters in the Zodiac case should be looked at and ruled out in my opinion. Thats what i am trying to do here.

I posted this so long ago that I cant remember where I found it:
"In July, 1975, someone claiming to be the Zodiac sent a letter in. It started with "Equinox 3:33 p.m." According to the FBI memo, it was "largely handwritten", and the Zodiac's known writing was "largely hand printed".

entropy wrote:

Trying to catch up on this thread I hadn't seen before...

morf13 wrote:

In July, 1975, someone claiming to be the Zodiac sent a letter in. It started with "Equinox 3:33 p.m." According to the FBI memo, it was "largely handwritten", and the Zodiac's known writing was "largely hand printed".

Morf, how do we know the writer of this letter was claiming to be Zodiac? Who was it sent to? Its inclusion in the FBI file would just seem to indicate that whoever received this letter felt that it might be related or that it might have been brought to the attention of the FBI and someone there suspected a possible connection, both of which would be understandable. The content, however creepy, is totally ambiguous and doesn't really seem to connect to the Zodiac Killer, even as a hoax, in any way other than the focus on astrology.

Am I missing something?

Again, I dont know HOW this letter became a Zodiac case letter, and I am hoping somebody here knows the details. I just know it is a Zodiac case letter, and I believe I know the identity of the author of it...whether he was Z or not, I cant say. When the FBI released this letter to me, they did NOT provide any details about how it came into their hands. Maybe somebody found it, who knows, then again, maybe it was sent to a local news paper. The letter is dated 1972, but it seems to have been recived in 1975.

Thanks, morf. Hey, I think it would be pretty amazing to not only determine the source of a 40+ year old piece of questioned Zodiac evidence but to determine whether it had anything to do with the case. I just think we need to keep in mind that the FBI undoubtedly was bombarded with all kinds of letters from obvious hoaxsters, random lunatics and well-meaning citizens so just because a piece of evidence is discussed in their files, doesn't mean it is related to the case. Knowing who this letter was sent to would certainly be interesting to know. I would guess that the date discepancy indicates that the letter was sent and received in 1972 but, for whatever reason, only came to the attention of the FBI in 1975.

I'm all for checking this guy out or even trying to contact him but making a circumstantial case against him just seems to be kind of putting the cart before the horse, IMHO. I do also think his comparison to the Stine sketch is 100% passable by the way but he is certainly not alone in that respect. Z's somewhat generic look has served him well over the years. Why couldn't he have been 6' 7" with flaming red hair or something like that? That would have made the damn composite sketch far more helpful.

entropy wrote:

Thanks, morf. Hey, I think it would be pretty amazing to not only determine the source of a 40+ year old piece of questioned Zodiac evidence but to determine whether it had anything to do with the case. I just think we need to keep in mind that the FBI undoubtedly was bombarded with all kinds of letters from obvious hoaxsters, random lunatics and well-meaning citizens so just because a piece of evidence is discussed in their files, doesn't mean it is related to the case. Knowing who this letter was sent to would certainly be interesting to know. I would guess that the date discepancy indicates that the letter was sent and received in 1972 but, for whatever reason, only came to the attention of the FBI in 1975.

I'm all for checking this guy out or even trying to contact him but making a circumstantial case against him just seems to be kind of putting the cart before the horse, IMHO. I do also think his comparison to the Stine sketch is 100% passable by the way but he is certainly not alone in that respect. Z's somewhat generic look has served him well over the years. Why couldn't he have been 6' 7" with flaming red hair or something like that? That would have made the damn composite sketch far more helpful.

We cant contact this guy because he is dead. But I hope to get some writing samples of his soon including HAND PRINTED samples. I dont know if we can ever determine who this letter was sent to or why it was turned into the FBI, but I would love to know its background. As far as his description, you are right, like alot of other guys, he looks alot like the sketch so that doesnt help. This guy may have only been guilty of writing a fake Z letter(not sure what he could have been charged with for that), but I am sure the statute of limitations would have expired long ago for it, and he is dead anyhow.

I wouldn't even go so far as calling it a fake Z letter. There is no reference to Z, not even a threat. My guess is it got turned into LE simply on it's astrological theme, and we don't even know if the Zodiac's name had anything to do with astrology.

I'm not hot on this one, but carry on...

bentley wrote:

I wouldn't even go so far as calling it a fake Z letter. There is no reference to Z, not even a threat. My guess is it got turned into LE simply on it's astrological theme, and we don't even know if the Zodiac's name had anything to do with astrology.

I'm not hot on this one, but carry on...

Bentley, I agree....but I am not going to turn around now and not at least take a peek in the door now that I found it unlocked. How many times has ANY writer of a letter(real, fake, or inconclusive) in the zodiac case found in the FBI's files, been identified? This is the only guy I know of, so I have to see for myself. I am in the process of getting hand signed (& hopefully printed) documents of his. We can then compare them to the Equinox letter and to the confirmed Zodiac letters. Probably a dead end, but after 40+ years aren't we all used to that? Also, I wrote the FBI once again under the Freedom of info act requesting details about how this letter came to law enforcement's attention, which agency forwarded it to them, and any other details they can provide. This too may be a dead end, but nothing to lose now.

Besides that, I still have my money riding on my 2 favorite suspects...
1-the guy that graduated high school with Cheri Bates, was living in Vallejo during the Zodiac spree, and last used an address in Vallejo in 1974(the same year of the last Z letter) before he moved back down to the Riverside area.

or

2-The ex-Air Force guy that moved to Vallejo just before the z murders, and who appears in multiple Zodiac police reports, was the only person confirmed to be on LHR the night of the murders without a witness to verify his statements, and with multiple inconsistencies regarding his statements and the flawed way in which they ruled him out


If I was to bet my house, it would be on one of those two,but thats a whole new thread

entropy wrote:

Thanks, morf. Hey, I think it would be pretty amazing to not only determine the source of a 40+ year old piece of questioned Zodiac evidence but to determine whether it had anything to do with the case. I just think we need to keep in mind that the FBI undoubtedly was bombarded with all kinds of letters from obvious hoaxsters, random lunatics and well-meaning citizens so just because a piece of evidence is discussed in their files, doesn't mean it is related to the case. Knowing who this letter was sent to would certainly be interesting to know. I would guess that the date discepancy indicates that the letter was sent and received in 1972 but, for whatever reason, only came to the attention of the FBI in 1975.

I'm all for checking this guy out or even trying to contact him but making a circumstantial case against him just seems to be kind of putting the cart before the horse, IMHO. I do also think his comparison to the Stine sketch is 100% passable by the way but he is certainly not alone in that respect. Z's somewhat generic look has served him well over the years. Why couldn't he have been 6' 7" with flaming red hair or something like that? That would have made the damn composite sketch far more helpful.

Turns out, this guy gets a bit more interesting. He wrote a letter to the editor of a local newspaper,and was himself editor of his school's newspaper. See the thread aboout Gietzen in the SUSPECTS section.

...guess you already have done that, but did you compare your two suspects´ names with the my-name-is-cipher?

QT

Quicktrader wrote:

...guess you already have done that, but did you compare your two suspects´ names with the my-name-is-cipher?

QT

Yes, the one from Riverside is a match in letter/symbol frequency, and the last 3 letters of his name match the last 3 symbols(in anagram). Also, he is a Taurus, and the symbols that look like circled 8's are Taurus symbols.

am not so sure if Z used anagrams..also the 'magic eight' / 'taurus' symbol could also be just another code symbol. Just thoughts.

As I already suspected, I am quite sure that the author of this questioend EQUINOX letter, has been identified, and he is Phillip Gordon Gietzen. I got my hands on the first piece of his confirmed writing today, and there is no doubt he wrote the Equinox letter. The sample that I have is very much like the Equinox letter, in that it goes from printed writing to cursive. He signs his nam, and overlaps the PH just as we see in the Equinox letter. In addition, his printed capital R, is a definite match to the capital printed R in the Equinox letter. All of that being said, his printe writing does NOT look to be a match for Zodiac's, although I have more samples coming. Its a bit of a letdown, but I still want to know how & why this letter is in the FBI's zodiac files.

Yes morf, I would say the signature seals the deal! Good job!

Nice work Morf. With everyone running around suspecting their next door neighbor of being the Zodiac, and SFPD receiving 10 letters a week or whatever it was, it not surprising they got this one. The bigger question, as you noted, is why it got passed on to the FBI. There may perhaps have been something else to suspect him, a photo similar to the sketch, or maybe just the cryptic sound of the letter.

Great stuff, morf. I think the PH in his signature nails it. Any idea of the context of the Feb. 5 sample? Who was it sent to and why? Do we know what year? I don't picture Zodiac signing his real name to letters but ya never know.

Yes, the number '4' and the Ampersand do not match the Zodiac's writing.

Nice work Morf.

It's the 'you' that seals it for me. Anyone's P can run into their h but the way he does the word 'you' is quite distinct and the same in both samples. Well done.

morf13 wrote:

As I already suspected, I am quite sure that the author of this questioend EQUINOX letter, has been identified, and he is Phillip Gordon Gietzen. I got my hands on the first piece of his confirmed writing today, and there is no doubt he wrote the Equinox letter. The sample that I have is very much like the Equinox letter, in that it goes from printed writing to cursive. He signs his nam, and overlaps the PH just as we see in the Equinox letter. In addition, his printed capital R, is a definite match to the capital printed R in the Equinox letter. All of that being said, his printe writing does NOT look to be a match for Zodiac's, although I have more samples coming. Its a bit of a letdown, but I still want to know how & why this letter is in the FBI's zodiac files.

Good work Morf! I also agree, Phil sent the Equinox letter.

entropy wrote:

Great stuff, morf. I think the PH in his signature nails it. Any idea of the context of the Feb. 5 sample? Who was it sent to and why? Do we know what year? I don't picture Zodiac signing his real name to letters but ya never know.

The name TOM DEWITT, as written on the writing sample, I believe was an associate of Gietzen's or involved in some way. I dont know why he wrote that note, or who he sent it to,but it was in his file at Canyon cinema...much like Gaikowski's Canyon Cinema file had various things in it.

morf13 wrote:

entropy wrote:

Great stuff, morf. I think the PH in his signature nails it. Any idea of the context of the Feb. 5 sample? Who was it sent to and why? Do we know what year? I don't picture Zodiac signing his real name to letters but ya never know.

The name TOM DEWITT, as written on the writing sample, I believe was an associate of Gietzen's or involved in some way. I dont know why he wrote that note, or who he sent it to,but it was in his file at Canyon cinema...much like Gaikowski's Canyon Cinema file had various things in it.

Well. that was easy enough, THOMAS DEWITT:
http://canyoncinema.com/catalog/filmmaker/?i=90

I wonder if any of the fellow film buffs at Canyon Cinema like Gietzen, or Gaikowski, had any interest in THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, MIKADO, etc? And for what it's worth, this DEWITT guy has ties to ALBANY NY( Gaik, Ferrin, Crabtree, and the possible Z letter in Albany)