Zodiac code key sent to Vallejo PD 8/10/69

Quicktrader wrote:

San Jose High 1958 yearbook p. 77
Patterson High 1065 yearbook p. 74, 78,..

Please expand on this....

bruce3 wrote:

A call came to the Palo Alto Times October 1969 or about two months after the key note mentioned in the above post.
The caller said "This is the Zodiac. I had to leave San Francisco because I'm too hot there." The police Chief thought it was a "serious" call. Who knows for sure.

If more were known about the details of the call to the Palo Alto Times, it might well be "serious"; however, my comment is on the 12 Aug 69 anonymous letter to the VPD regarding the last 18 letters. This letter is interesting for two reasons.

1. It was received about two days following the postmark for the code key communication. So we have two anonymous letters addressing the two issues regarding the 408 cipher: the code key and the meaning of the last 18 letters sent about two days apart.

2. On its face, the short description of the second letter has typical Zodiac characteristics. Like the code key letter it is a put on--a kind of Zodiac joke with a play on words and numbers, to wit, "phone number with one number missing"--he must be kidding.

My point is that the code key letter and the note about the 18 letters are a pair. It would be worthwhile to get a copy of this letter: envelope, letter (or card), and clippings from newspapers enclosed. I'm looking for help/advice in making this communication public.

AK Wilks wrote:

Harden Key

AK, where did this key image originally come from? Was it created by nin over at ZK, or did someone else create it?

Honestly do not remember where I got that from!

Sometimes things are posted, with no copyright asserted or creator name or tag, then they get reposted somewhere else, and so on. I came across this key, with no ID on who created it. I am not asserting it was done by the Harden's. You could ask NIN if she did it. Perhaps whoever did it can claim it.

Was there a particular reason you wanted to know who created it? Is there something unusual about it? Or did you just want to get permission to repost it? I believe very much in following copyright laws, and in giving proper credit, but I also believe in the fair use provision. If someone creates an unoriginal work, like a version of a public domain code key, and puts it on the internet without assertion of copyright or identifying themselves as creator, it pretty safely falls under fair use to repost it, as long as it is done non-commercially, in other words no fee to see it.

Recently I've been diving into the details of the 408 cipher, and the Harden and Concerned Citizen keys, and I want to make sure I've accurately sourced all the material surrounding them.

For instance, I'm still wondering where Tom Voigt obtained the copies of the Hardens' worksheets. He's had them on ZK.com for, what, over a decade now? Did they come from a California crime report? Or an FBI source? Do we even know for sure they were authored by the Hardens? I'm not accusing anyone of misrepresenting the documents; I'm just genuinely curious to know the source.

More details on the key for the 408 (I tried to compare the Hardens' solution to the Concerned Citizen key):

https://zodiackillersite.forummotion.com/t1602-detailed-analysis-of-the-408-solution

(Incidentally, to answer my earlier question, I think the Hardens worksheets on Voigt's site originally came from Graysmith's Zodiac Unmasked.)

morf13 wrote:

Quicktrader wrote:

San Jose High 1958 yearbook p. 77
Patterson High 1065 yearbook p. 74, 78,..

Please expand on this....

1965 of course..

Theforeigner wrote:

sandy betts wrote:

Oddly enough, the name Daniel means very much to me.
Whom ever left the Lake.B.costume in my car at the end of Sept 69, left many other things with it. One being a plastic name tag with the name "Daniel Perez", put on the back seat of my car in Napa.
I have mentioned this name many times before to my Z friends.
However I doubt that the killer would put his name tag in my car with the killers costume. I feel now that I know the case pretty well, it could be the name of another Z victim, and he was drawing attention to that person. I didn't find any with that name in northern Calif. Pryor to Sept 1969, but there was one who died in southern Caif.at a young age. I haven't gotten the death cert. yet, but that is in the plans.

Hi Sandy, I did a little reseach on the Daniel Perez name, here is what I found:

In the California Death Index, 1940-1997 , a timeframe of 57 years !!! only 48 males by the name Daniel Perez has been listed as have died in California.

But in 1964, 4 males by that name died, so:

ALL 4 died in 1964
ALL 4 very young; 3,22,19 and 1 years old
All 4 died in Los Angeles
ALL 4 have 4 in their birthdate 14, 4, 24 and 24
ALL 4 was either born in Jan or Feb..Jan, Feb, Jan, Feb

Kind of odd IMO

It would be interesting to know how thise 4 young males died?



3 years old at the time of death

California Death Index, 1940-1997
about Daniel R Perez
Name: Daniel R Perez
Sex: Male
Birth Date: 14 Jan 1961
Birthplace: California
Death Date: 21 Jan 1964
Death Place: Los Angeles
Mother's Maiden Name: Holguin




22 years old at the time of death

California Death Index, 1940-1997
about Daniel G Perez
Name: Daniel G Perez
Social Security #: 567587789
Sex: Male
Birth Date: 4 Feb 1942
Birthplace: California
Death Date: 9 May 1964
Death Place: Los Angeles
Mother's Maiden Name: Gamboa



19 years old at the time of death

California Death Index, 1940-1997
about Daniel O Perez
Name: Daniel O Perez
Social Security #: 550600878
Sex: Male
Birth Date: 24 Jan 1945
Birthplace: Texas
Death Date: 24 May 1964
Death Place: Los Angeles
Mother's Maiden Name: Orosco




1 years old at the time of death

California Death Index, 1940-1997
about Daniel P Perez
Name: Daniel P Perez
Sex: Male
Birth Date: 24 Feb 1963
Birthplace: California
Death Date: 19 Nov 1964
Death Place: Los Angeles
Mother's Maiden Name: Ponce

Thank you TF for this information. I would be very interested in the 19 yr old and 22 yr old. Perhaps I can look at the LA times round the death date to see if it made the paper ?

I believe the name tag was left to point to a victim by that name.I find it odd that these two died in the same month and yr ?

Quicktrader wrote:

morf13 wrote:

Quicktrader wrote:

San Jose High 1958 yearbook p. 77
Patterson High 1065 yearbook p. 74, 78,..

Please expand on this....

1965 of course..

Thank you Quicktrader for the classmate pictures. San Jose is an area I am looking at, for where one of my suspects lived after the known Z murders took place. He was living there at the time of Dick Hansen's Z like murder.

For some reason i thought i remembered the key being postmarked in Vallejo but I see that it was postmarked in San Fran,also shown here in BRS report:


It also mentioned that they would send the key to Don Harden for his thoughts. We were discussing in a thread recently that some people suspected Harden sent the code key in

A small green card with a picture of a leprechaun was left in my mail box late 80's. At that Time I didn't know that Darlene's birthday was on St Patty's Day. Written oat the bottom of that card were the words: 5 E's the 5th letter, then something else about the I's. The other words on that card : "Me thee Hippii Robeet." That is very close to one of the above solutions. So what I got from that was that he used numbers for letters. And that his first name could be Robert .

Thank you Morf for getting this letter and posting it.

Thank you Guest for pointing out that it was at Zkiller. com, but that it was on the main page. I am guilty of not checking the main page too many times. I go right to the message board and have missed a lot of good "new" information. Tom has asked me if I have read the main page and recommended that I read it. When he tells you he has read it before or has had something , you can bet the ranch that he has !