This is a cross-post from The Dark Side.
At Tom Voigt's catchbtk.com we were discussing similarities between the BTK Strangler [Google search] and the Zodiac Killer [Google search].
It's a legitimate line of discussion, only underscored by the fact that the man now accused of being the BTK Strangler, Dennis Rader [Google search], is at this point known to be a consumer of detective and suspense fiction. That, and serial killers are frequently consumers of true crime accounts, utterly fascinated as only malignant narcissists can be with the exploits of others with similar "pursuits." The literature about the profiling, investigation and capture of serial killers is rife with reports from detectives who found, once they had their quarry in shackles, libraries in the murderers homes on others of their kind.
One fellow poster, Nightdriver, recently reminded me of an interesting file I'd found a while back at the DoeNetwork.
From Nightdriver's post, which was a response to our discussing the fact that some authorities have closed their Zodiac investigations:
"...Recently, two people posted on the A&E discussion board about a person in a blue station wagon giving them a ride on US 101 in 1971 or 1972. The threads are interesting. Also, take a look at Doenetwork, case no. 454UMOH. Not an exact hit, but very interesting, nonetheless.My opinion of the similarities between Denny and Z is that Denny knows just as much about Z as I do, and I've been looking at Z off and on for about 22 years. The posters here who have pointed out similarities in their writings are right on the money. The only difference between the two is that Denny's knowledge of codes and ciphers doesn't even come close to Z's..."
I took another look at Case file #454umoh with questions about the Zodiac Killer in mind - a killer who seemed to disappear after 1974. I'd found the file before, and wondered in passing about the story...what little is known about the man in the file did make me think of Zodiac, but like Nightdriver I thought it wasn't an "exact hit."
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
It was the Christmas season, 1945. Joseph Newton Chandler III was riding in a car with his mom and dad, going from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Weatherford.
The full details are not known to me, but somewhere along highway 82, the Chandler family had a wreck, and mother, father, and little Joseph III were killed.
About 57 years later, in Eastlake, Ohio, a man in his middle sixties sat in an apartment with a Charter Arms .38 caliber handgun in hand. He was dying from colon cancer, but it is not known if he was aware of this.
Article comments
1 - Embersage
Steve, As usual I am impressed with your work. Your right about the fact that we have been discussing Dennis Rader's obsession with the Zodiac Killer. I have been working along side you as well as the others on these cases for a while now. We may never know the face behind the mask. Yet he has left us with some answers, as Rader tried to do. Hiding them in puzzles and codes. We may never have all the answers to who and why. Yet we will keep on searching. For in knowledge there is power.
2 - kat self
I have been blogging on crime rant.com. I have compiled a massive file linking B.T.K. tot the unsolved Zodiac murders. I have uncovered interesting tibits such as a Zodiac letter and a map made by B.T.K. both sighed with the initals r.H. and a Japanese connection on two Zodiac writings. There's plenty of more solid connections too. I'd like to see B.T.K. prosecuted for all his crimes. I'd like to blog with like minded researchers.
3 - intelligert
It's a mnisconception to think that it takes a genius to pose such ciphers. A 7 year old would be capable of doing this. If you have only a couple hundred of letters it's very difficult to break it.
How can you claim his letters had an intellectual appeal? they are more like from a smart annoying boy.
And btw, the cipher was solved by a teacher-couple. Imagine, the wife had a profession herself - crazy times those 60ies!!!
best wishes.