"The Zodiac is going to" postcard from 10/12/70

Sorry, I enhanced this and made it as clear as possible. It appears that the writer, or most likely the FBI, has redacted certain words from the postcard.

The text, as far as I can tell, reads as follows:

MONDAY OCT 12,1970

______(word redacted)

THE ZODIAC IS GOING TO CHANGE THE WAY OF COMMITTING MURDERS.

I SHALL ANNOUNCE WHEN (unreadable) SHALL COMMIT MY MURDERS________(word Redacted) NEXT

YOU TAUGHT ME (unreadable) ______(word redacted)

_____(word redacted) YOU ARE NEXT

ZODIAC, followed by the crosshair symbol.


I wish this was clearer, but its all we have.

My initial thoughts are:

*The author is saying the same thing(or the opposite, its hard to read) as Zodiac did when he said he would no longer commit his crimes. This postcard was sent about 11 months after the Zodiac letter in which he said he would not announce his crimes.

*The postcard has double postage

*The postcard is made up partially, with magazine cutouts like the Lass postcard.


Thoughts & opinions please...

My thoughts are that people are psycho.

Why do some feel the need to do this? Does it make them feel a part of the case somehow? I don't know...

It's really great you took the time to get these Morf, regardess of what I think of the writing, etc.

This may well be a REAL Zodiac card.

October 12, 1970 is about the one year anniversary of the Paul Stine murder. Four years later Arlis Perry would be killed at the Stanford Church.

I think Nancy Bennallack was killed right around the time this card was sent.

Reminds one of the Lass "Peek through the pines" card and more specifically one sent ONE WEEK before this card:

The Zodiac was thought to have sent this card on October 5, 1970, claiming 13 vicitms. He also makes the (upside down) statement that "Fk - Im Crackproof".



Now upside down:



Now compare to 10/12/70 card:

At ZKF Entropy noted the October 5, 1970 possible card from Zodiac that said "FK I'm crackproof", had newspaper cut outs (like some from Jack the Ripper, Black Dahlia and kidnapping ransom notes, also the Zodaic "Peek through the Pines" card) and a victim claim of 13. He asked this question:

Entropy - "I'm not sold on this being legitimate. I just find it more interesting than most for a lot of reasons and I think it's at least an above-average fake. For the sake of discussion, does anyone know of any unsolved murders in the SF Bay area between 10/5/70 and 10/27/70 (or between 7/26/70 and 10/27/70 perhaps)? Not suggesting that Z actually killed anyone during this period but perhaps he had someone specific in mind to claim for his "scorecard"?"

AK - Sacramento court secretary Nancy Bennallack was killed on October 26, 1970. Robert Graysmith reports that the Halloween Card was sent in the mail before this murder hit the newspapers. If accurate, it seems that if Zodiac correctly (i.e., honestly) upped the body count from 13 to 14, the most likely victim was in fact Nancy Bennallack.

Now we have a possible Zodiac card also done with cut outs on 10/12/70, exactly 14 days before the murder of Nancy Bennallack.




Victim: Nancy Bennallack
Location: Sacramento County
Date of Occurrence: October 25, 1970

Synopsis:

Nancy Bennallack was a 27 year old court reporter in Sacramento County. Nancy lived alone in an upstairs apartment at Arden Way and Bell Avenue. Nancy was last seen alive by her fiancé on 10-25-1970 at approximately 11:30p.m. When Nancy did not show up for work the following morning, Nancy's co-worker telephoned her son to check on Nancy. The friend's son went to the apartment manager for assistance and he used a pass key to unlock the front door. Nancy was found murdered in her apartment.

Can anyone identify the STAMPS on this 10/12/70 card?

AK Wilks wrote:

Can anyone identify the STAMPS on this 10/12/70 card?

Statue Of Liberty

Thanks.

I know that "Zodiac" dates it as "Monday, Oct 12, 1970", but what date does the postmark say? What city?

AK Wilks wrote:

Thanks.

I know that "Zodiac" dates it as "Monday, Oct 12, 1970", but what date does the postmark say? What city?

If only Bentley was here, he could pull that postmark right up for us.

Does this appear to be the stamp used?

The first two letters in the postmark appear to be "EE". Is there a town in California that starts with "EE"?

I think it says Berkeley. FWIW

I think the October 5 card might be legit, due to its 'body count' of 13 matching the hitherto unreleased body count of the last letter confirmed as Zodiac's work. This new card dated October 12 is very much like the October 5 card; I therefore think it might be the real deal, too. It would seem that Zodiac was pretty big on cut-and-paste DIY postcards during this time period (these cards and the Halloween card, for instance).

morf, do you or anyone else know if Zodiac's penchant for excess postage was a publicly available fact at the time?

Hmm, any possible Zodiac suspects who lived and worked in Berkeley and knew that area...????

Nachtsider wrote:

I think the October 5 card might be legit, due to its 'body count' of 13 matching the hitherto unreleased body count of the last letter confirmed as Zodiac's work. This new card dated October 12 is very much like the October 5 card; I therefore think it might be the real deal, too. It would seem that Zodiac was pretty big on cut-and-paste DIY postcards during this time period (these cards and the Halloween card, for instance).

morf, do you or anyone else know if Zodiac's penchant for excess postage was a publicly available fact at the time?

Nacht I agree with you. This postcard has the same "feel" as the Oct. 5, 1970 card.

There were pictures of the envelopes in the newspaper. One that comes to mind right now is the Belli letter envelope.

AK Wilks wrote:

Hmm, any possible Zodiac suspects who lived and worked in Berkeley and knew that area...????

Good job, AK. That's exactly what I was picturing but I don't have the computer skills to do what you did!

Good ideas and discussion everybody. That is what is great about these questioned documents, written by Zodiac or not.

I wish this was a little clearer and sharper.

Seagull wrote:

I think it says Berkeley. FWIW

Yes, credit to Segull.

I thought it might say "Eerie" something, there is a Lake Eerie, and I think an Eerie, PA. But I now agree it likely starts with a "BE".

And all the letters do fit BERKELEY, and I do think thats what it says.

Good job! Teamwork!

Nachtsider wrote:

I think the October 5 card might be legit, due to its 'body count' of 13 matching the hitherto unreleased body count of the last letter confirmed as Zodiac's work. This new card dated October 12 is very much like the October 5 card; I therefore think it might be the real deal, too. It would seem that Zodiac was pretty big on cut-and-paste DIY postcards during this time period (these cards and the Halloween card, for instance).

morf, do you or anyone else know if Zodiac's penchant for excess postage was a publicly available fact at the time?

Very good question NACH. I saw that some of the Zodiac's letters were printed in the papers, but not the envelopes. Anyone else know if they were shown in the papers, or if the extra postage was mentioned? Dont forget, the Bates mailings had extra postage too.

We have noted a Zodiac theme on the stamps of Presidents, Revolutionaries and Patriots.

The Statute of Liberty fits in the general broader theme of Patriotsim.

The double postage on the Bates letters is what sells me on Zodiac as being their originator.

For what it's worth, I'm presently reading some of the detective magazines on Tom' site, and none of them appear to mention the double postage.

Nachtsider wrote:

The double postage on the Bates letters is what sells me on Zodiac as being their originator.

For what it's worth, I'm presently reading some of the detective magazines on Tom' site, and none of them appear to mention the double postage.

I will look at some of the 1969 Zodiac articles to see if there is any mention.

The other day, I was on eBay and there was a post card for sale sent from Vallejo to Honk Kong in the 60's. Had double the postage and "air mail" was written on it.

I don't think putting double postage is all that rare. I would bet money, by October of 1970, it was mentioned many times about double postage.

There are also many Zodiac letters where he did NOT use double postage. The Halloween card being one. I don't think any of those cut and paste ones are Zodiac...and I will always question the Halloween card.

This just looks so "beneath" Zodiac. Someone who couldn't copy Zodiac's writing, so did he next best thing.

Here an image of the Belli letter envelope that appeared in the SF Chronicle Dec. 28, 1969. It's very apparent that the envelope has excess postage.