The next month, identical letters were sent to Riverside police and The (Riverside) Press-Enterprise by someone claiming to have killed Bates.
The letters included a poem titled "The Cofession" [sic] that offered details of the murder that only the police and the killer could know.
The letters warned that Bates was not the first or last victim. Many interpreted the tone of the letter as similar to that of the Zodiac letters mailed after the Vallejo murders.
In December a custodian at Riverside City College discovered a poem carved into the underside of a folding desk.
The poem, titled "Sick of living/unwilling to die," had a tone similar to the Zodiac's letters and similar handwriting. Some believed the author, who signed the poem "rh," was describing Bates' murder.
Others theorized that the letter was written by a student who had tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide. However, document examiner Sherwood Morrill believed that the author of the poem was the Zodiac.
Six months after Bates' murder, three nearly identical letters were received by The Press-Enterprise, Riverside police, and Bates' father.
The letters contained more postage required, and two were signed with a symbol that looked like the letter Z next to the number 3.
The Zodiac letters sent in the 1970s contained excessive postage, symbol-type signatures, and threats that more murders would follow.
The letters received by the newspaper and the police read:
BATES HAD
TO DIE
THERE WILL
BE MORE
Bates' murder was never solved. Riverside police maintain that a local man was the key suspect, not the Zodiac, although the letters might have been written by him.
On March 17, 1971, a letter was sent to the Los Angeles Times because, as the writer put it, "they don't bury me on the back pages."
In the letter, the Zodiac gave police credit for making the Bates connection but added that they were still finding the "easy ones" and plenty more were "out there."
The letter included the score, "SFPD-0 [Zodiac Symbol]-17+."
That was the only letter sent to the Times and the only one postmarked outside San Francisco.
YOU ARE READING
Zodiac killer
Phi Hư CấuThis book is about the Zodiac Killer this information is not mine but I will be putting some of it into my own words, I am making this book for my serial killer fans or actaul serial killers but anyways. I enjoyed hearing about the Zodiac Killer's...
