Gareth Penn

http://gz4216.blogspot.com/

I set up this bloglet about six months ago as a place to post responses to questions put to me by frequenters of Zodiac websites, which were kindly forwarded by Zzam, whom I would like to thank for her good offices. I set a limit of fifty questions, thinking that would be enough to clear up misunderstandings and to counter malicious misinformation spread by manipulative sociopaths, who seem to have a big influence on the people in this group.


We went over the fifty-question limit a long time ago, and I confess to having grown weary of doing this, particularly because of the high incidence of repetition and dilatoriness, and the snide tone of the majority of them has not diminished. So I am bidding you all farewell; I would like to take this opportunity to address all past and future questions with a couple of observations which I hope — but do not expect — will be taken to heart.


This blog is titled GZ4216 for a reason, and I confess to being disappointed that no one has asked why. It’s time to put the answer to that unasked question on the record. In 1947, Ealing Studios released the first of its postwar comedies, Hue and cry. The movie has to do with a gang of children who try to track down a master criminal by looking for coded clues published in comic books. I don’t know whether this is true or not, but one of these children, who claims to be an expert on automobile license plates, asserts that the letter-combination GZ is not used in UK license plate numbers, and when one of the children sights a truck bearing the plate number GZ4216, the gang takes it as proof of the master criminal’s involvement in a nefarious plot. Well, Zodiac websites and the people who frequent them remind me of children who look for coded clues in comic books and chase after nonexistent license plate numbers. Not all of them, I hasten to add: Ray Grant and his website, latecomers to my attention, don’t remind me of Hue and cry but rather of North Korea — shrill, bellicose, and delusional.


I may be biased, but it appears to me that the work product of Zodiac websites and their fans has been an exercise in futility and has, after many years of wheels spinning wildly in ruts, produced nothing at all of any value. I suggest that the reason for this failure is systematic evasion of questions deserving of attention but not getting any from those who profess to be interested in resolving the Zodiac problem but have chosen instead to go hoarse from barking up wrong trees.


I’ll confine myself to just one example, noting that it is just one of many. The Zodiac sent four ciphers to the newspapers in 1969-1970. The first was formatted as a perfect rectangle having 24 rows and 17 columns; it was divided into thirds, each of them a perfect 8 x 17 rectangle. It is a substitution cipher, whose solution consists of 390 letters of English and 18 of gibberish. If the author had not included the gibberish, it would have been an imperfect rectangle. He went to some trouble to make it perfect by adding the gibberish. The second cipher was formatted as a perfect 20 x 17 rectangle. The third cipher was written in thirteen symbols and the fourth in 32. A vestige of the 17-column format is still evident in the fourth cipher, which has 17 symbols in the first row and 15 in the second; but it is imperfect, not forming a complete n x 17 rectangle. The author could have formatted it as a perfect 2 x 16 or 4 x 8 rectangle or even as a 1 x 32 margin-to-margin string of symbols; instead, he chose to make it an imperfect exemplar of the n x 17 format.


The Zodiac used a crossed-circle symbol in 1969-1971 as a signature. He offered to refrain from attacking school buses if Bay Area residents would wear buttons bearing the crossed-circle symbol. He also embroidered it on the hood he wore at Lake Berryessa, and he inscribed it on the door of the car belonging to one of the Lake Berryessa victims. Whatever its intrinsic significance, it is obviously important to him, and at least when he uses it as a signature, it appears to express his identity. He also uses it fifteen times as a cipher symbol. Here are the position numbers of the crossed circles in the four Zodiac ciphers:


#1) 100, 239, 267, 347
#2) 49, 73, 117, 132, 155, 205, 260, 295, 332
#3) 4
#4) 29


In each of the first three ciphers, the position number of the first crossed circle is a perfect square (an integer whose square root is also an integer). None of the other 12 crossed circles has this property. That those which do are the first symbols in as many consecutive texts runs counter to long odds. It seems inescapable that this effect is the product of design. And if it is the product of design, it must have some purpose.


These observations prompt two questions, the answers to which I believe to be related to one another. Why does the author produce two ciphers with a perfect n x 17 rectangular format and then abandon it in the two subsequent ciphers? What is the purpose of marking perfect-square position numbers with the first crossed circle in three consecutive texts? And what is the purpose of writing in cipher symbols in the first place?


I suggest, without any expectation that my suggestion will be taken to heart, that those who profess to be interested in a resolution of this mystery would be better advised to spend their time and effort on answering questions such as the above than in unproductive obsession over the date in 1969-1970 on which I moved from one address in Berkeley to another address in Berkeley.

I have to admit to being completely baffled as to why ANYONE would allow so much personal data about themselves be
posted on an internet forum.

This strikes me as very odd behavior. Who allows divorce decrees, bills, scholastic records, etc to be posted without contesting?

I realize things like that get reported in some peoples quest to investigate a POI, but it appears Mr. Penn has encourage the posting of
these items.

WHY? It does not compute psychologically to me. It is narcissistic and troubling.

MSneuropil wrote:

I have to admit to being completely baffled as to why ANYONE would allow so much personal data about themselves be
posted on an internet forum.

This strikes me as very odd behavior. Who allows divorce decrees, bills, scholastic records, etc to be posted without contesting?

I realize things like that get reported in some peoples quest to investigate a POI, but it appears Mr. Penn has encourage the posting of
these items.

WHY? It does not compute psychologically to me. It is narcissistic and troubling.

This is part of Penn's games. This is part of what draws some to take a much closer look at him. He did send all that info, and wanted it posted.
Seagull did find some wrong reporting s, which I hope she reports here............ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Seagull :-)
I recently sent off another Email to Penn from another VERY interested poster. This interested poster really has the whole Penn thing down, and
just asked him some interesting things to ahhhhhhhh ponder. Some of us really studied Penn over at yeah...The Opord. (This is how I feel you can
weigh a POI in or out. Penn is still in the Gray area for me....) This is before Nutsy Girl
showed up on the scene. Besides the silly posts, and the clews with The Dragon Tail, there really was some good research done. I'll keep everyone
posted IF and when I hear more.

I did find a couple of things that didn't quite jibe with Penn's "Marital Termination Agreement" in the records at ancestry.com. Ancestry is pretty good and their records are from official documents and ledgers.

The "Agreement" states Penn and Mary Ann were married Dec. 23, 1966, the official records say:

California Marriage Index, 1960-1985
about Gareth S Penn
Name: Gareth S Penn
Age: 26
Est. Birth: abt 1941
Spouse Name: Mary A Winterrowd
Spouse Age: 29
Date: 5 Feb 1967
Location: Alameda City

Also, the record at ancestry.com says this about the divorce:

California Divorce Index, 1966-1984
about Gareth Penn
Name: Gareth Penn
Spouse Name: Mary A
Location: Napa
Date: 22 Aug 1983

I looked at the ledger that it is recorded into and the column heading is Dissolution which by my way of thinking is the final. I have seen Preliminary ledgers and that is when the action is filed and it gives only the month and year but this looks like the final to me as a specific date is given.

Penn's "Marital Termination Agreement" is dated Dec. 7, 1984 after the dissolution was final. Generally the details such as an agreement are worked out in the interlocutory phase mid way through the proceedings.

I get a few emails an Pm's from people really interested in Gareth Penn as a suspect. This is one I received & was given permission to share. So here ya go.
(Disclaimer: I by no means am saying Penn is the Z. I'm just the messenger between Gareth and the posters PM's and Emails. )


From someone shocked to see Gareth had allowed you to post a picture of him without his trademark beard. Putting the pictures side by side is indeed eye-opening:

"It's miraculous Gareth released that picture of him without his beard. He's had to know, all these years, that a clean-shaven photo would only create huge speculation. I mean,

Do the glasses from this man:
http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2008/12/03/ba-zodiac_ph9_0496640354.jpg

Plus the clean-shaven face from this man:
https://2img.net/h/oi54.tinypic.com/1491737.jpg

Equal this man:
http://usspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Zodiac-Killer.jpg

Look at the lips, the nostrils, and the lower part of the face. Caucasian male, full head of hair, right age. Was he leaving the Stine crime scene wearing the vic's glasses? Expert marksman, loves opera, smart as all hell and back, and has spent his life obsessed about this case. But nooo -- he had nothing to do with it."

Thanks for posting that Zam.

Wow, with no beard, I must say Penn looks absolutely nothing like the SF Zodiac sketch.

Penn is revealed to have a long, long, LONG narrow face...SF Zodiac sketch the face is much more compact, rounded.

Lips are also very different, heck, everything is different.

AK Wilks wrote:

Thanks for posting that Zam.

Wow, with no beard, I must say Penn looks absolutely nothing like the SF Zodiac sketch.

Penn is revealed to have a long, long, LONG narrow face...SF Zodiac sketch the face is much more compact, rounded.

Lips are also very different, heck, everything is different.

Ah maybe, maybe not. Myself I don't put too much faith in the composite. I always play a game, I see someone and I try to
memorize everything about them. Shape of face, weight, height, hair line, clothes etc. Then an hour or so later I try to recall what I saw... try it, it's not that easy to do!.
I was watching a guy on TV last nite, a young race car driver...and honestly sometimes
his face looked roundish... other times narrow depending on the angle. Don't you look different in some pictures?
But as always it's interesting to hear others view points.
On Toms site a few people thought that Penn W/O the beard looks a lot like the mystery man in the pic with Darlene.
Any thoughts on IF Penn looks like the mystery man? I asked him and he said No he is not.

More from Penn. Attachments to follow.
Hi, Zam!


I have amended the puzzle currently published at GZ4216 with the same amendment that I added to a previous puzzle, i.e.


157116B


As before, it is quite elementary. I hope this improvement will be a success.


Also attached is something that may cause Garethers to gnash their teeth in agony: I just bought a pair of New Balance shoes (model 608 version 2). As the packing slip indicates, they are size 12. The Zodiac left a size 10-1/2 shoe print at Lake Berryessa.


Gareth

Quote: Also attached is something that may cause Garethers to gnash their teeth in agony: I just bought a pair of New Balance shoes (model 608 version 2). As the packing slip indicates, they are size 12. The Zodiac left a size 10-1/2 shoe print at Lake Berryessa.

Although I can believe that Penn have size 12, what does this prove?
I can go and buy a pair of size 7 today. Still doesnt make me a 7.

I find the model 608 v.2 is more intresting.

Quote :

"It's miraculous Gareth released that picture of him without his beard. He's had to know, all these years, that a clean-shaven photo would only create huge speculation. I mean,

Do the glasses from this man:
http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2008/12/03/ba-zodiac_ph9_0496640354.jpg

Plus the clean-shaven face from this man:
https://2img.net/h/oi54.tinypic.com/1491737.jpg

Equal this man:
http://usspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Zodiac-Killer.jpg

Look at the lips, the nostrils, and the lower part of the face. Caucasian male, full head of hair, right age. Was he leaving the Stine crime scene wearing the vic's glasses? Expert marksman, loves opera, smart as all hell and back, and has spent his life obsessed about this case. But nooo -- he had nothing to do with it."

Here’s a comparison between Gareth Penn (with glasses added) and the Zodiac sketch:



I’d say the eyes, lips, chin and hair color (described as a light shade) match pretty well. The nose and ears are somewhat close. The biggest negative point is the long narrow face of Gareth. Keep in mind however, that people’s faces enlarge with time. This is clearly shown when comparing the youngest version of Gareth (on top) with the one on the bottom. Also consider that the photo in the bottom was taken around 1965, while the Zodiac sketch was done in 1969.

This comparison might not prove anything, but it makes me wonder...

Zamantha, if it’s still possible, could you send Gareth the following question?:

“Where were you when cab driver Paul Stine was killed? This event occurred Saturday, Oct. 11, 1969 around 9:55 p.m.”

It is my hope that after all this time, he might be able to remember a few things for us…

Today's Email from Gareth.

I just posted this to GZ4216. Pass it along if you feel like it.

None of the puzzles published here has panned out, and I apologize to those who may feel disappointed by their failure to produce results. I suppose the prudent thing to do would be to refrain from any further essays of this sort, but I feel compelled to make one last attempt. If this one doesn’t work, I promise there will be no sequel.


C5O1M7B9A8

Physically GP doesn't really match with the Zodiac at all. The Zodiac was described as "stocky," not something one would say about Penn in any era. People wonder why Penn would allow this stuff to be posted, and even offer some of it up. It seems obvious to me. Penn is amused by all this and enjoys the attention he is getting. It probably feeds into some component of narcissism or something. There are too many things which disqualify Penn. He wears the wrong shoe size for one. He was in Oklahoma at the time of one of the murders. He doesn't match the physical description, and his handwriting looks nothing like the zodiac. He had a full beard during much of the time period. He plays along with this stuff because he probably thinks it's fun.

What would be really interesting is to know his thoughts on whether he still thinks Z is O'Hare after all these years.
It would be great if he could admit that O'Hare was never the zodiac, and if Penn could offer up some of his ideas on the case from a fresh perspective....and I don't mean bizarre numerology and binary codes. Penn is a really intelligent guy, and his insight could be valuable.

b_a wrote:

Physically GP doesn't really match with the Zodiac at all. The Zodiac was described as "stocky," not something one would say about Penn in any era.

The physical description of the Zodiac varied a lot from witness to witness. How can you be so sure the Zodiac was acting alone?

There's enough consistency between the physical descriptions for us to conclude that it was one guy.

Dark brown hair certainly doesn't jibe with what Mike M. stated in the beginning though. If you throw hair dye into the mix...hair color wouldn't even matter.