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Man "cracks" Zodiac code through astonishing "whatever the hell I want" method

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xbhaskarx said:
It was pretty clear that the Zodiac killer was probably Arthur Leigh Allen, so maybe start with the end of the code being something along the lines of "MY/NAME/IS/LEIGH/ALLEN/" and then work backwards?
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uhhhhh.. no, no it is not clear.
 
I still think the Zodiac killer is Richard Gaikowski.
*Gaikowski was born in Watertown, S.D. on March 14, 1936. He attended nearby Webster High School and then Northern State Teachers College in Aberdeen, S.D. He died of cancer in San Francisco on April 30, 2004.

*Gaikowski served a stint in the Army during the 1950s. It is known that Gaikowski was trained as a medic. Medics were trained to tear the clothing of a bleeding victim to use as bandages if they did not have access to the proper equipment. Undershirt first, then shirt, then pants if necessary. That is the order of cleanliness, with the shirttail being preferred if tucked in. (Zodiac tore off a portion of a victim's shirttail.) Unfortunately, since 80% of such records were destroyed by fire in 1973, not much more is known about Gaikowski's military career.

*In October 1965, Gaikowski was intentionally arrested for refusing to sign a traffic citation following a routine stop in Contra Costa County (Calif.). As an investigative reporter for the local newspaper, Gaikowski's goal was to write a story about the conditions within the county jail from the perspective of an inmate. Following his brief stay in jail, Gaikowski's mugshot was published along with his story. However, by the time Gaikowski became a Zodiac suspect more than 20 years later, records of his fingerprints were long gone, making a comparison to Zodiac's fingerprints impossible without either Gaikowski's consent or a court order. There is no evidence either happened.

*Eventual Zodiac victim Darlene Ferrin of Vallejo, Calif. got married on Jan. 1, 1966 and moved to Albany, NY. Gaikowski quickly followed, moving across country from Martinez, Calif. (near Vallejo). Ferrin's husband worked at the Albany Times-Union newspaper; Gaikowski worked at the rival Albany Knickerbocker News.

*In 1969, 1970 and 1971, Gaikowski was a member of an anti-police, pro-violence counterculture newspaper and commune in San Francisco called Good Times.

*As early as January 1969, the Good Times newspaper was running violent works of fiction that were nearly a blueprint for Zodiac's future crimes.

*Wednesday was "production day" for the weekly Good Times newspaper, with the staffers working from early in the morning until very late at night to prepare the new issue. Between Zodiac's debut in July 1969 until the Good Times folded in 1973, the Zodiac mailed 15 letters. Never did he mail a letter on a Wednesday, although he did on every other day of the week.

*At the time of his murder, the Good Times "switchboard" was located only yards from the residence of Zodiac victim Paul Stine on Fell Street in San Francisco.

*Carol, Paul Stine's sister, recognized Gaikowski as having attended Paul's funeral.

*Stine was killed on San Francisco's Washington Street. Only one Gaikowski was listed in a city directory at that time, Richard's cousin, and she lived on Washington Street. Her birthday was October 11, the very day Stine was murdered by the Zodiac. Stine -- a cab driver -- was the one victim whom the Zodiac could choose when and where he would be killed.

*On the very day Zodiac debuted by mailing three "rush to editor" letters to three separate newspapers in the San Francisco area (with each letter containing one third of a code), the Good Times (edited by Gaikowski) just happened to run a cover that was split into thirds. It was the only instance of Zodiac mailing a letter on a Thursday until after the Good Times folded in 1973. Five months later, the Good Times published a three-part code of its own. The Good Times also occasionally ran sensationalistic "Zodiac Killer" headlines that were out of place.

*In articles he published in 1969, Gaikowski had the habit of shortening his last name to four letters and use multiple spellings, such as "Gike" or "Gaik." Interestingly, "GYKE" can clearly be seen in Zodiac's three-part cipher mailed on July 31, 1969.

*At the very time the Zodiac wrote his only letter to the Vallejo Times-Herald, Gaikowski's best friend, Bob, worked at that very newspaper.

*Even though the Good Times was a counterculture/hippie newspaper, once Gaikowski came aboard it ran free ads for such unlikely events as performances of The Mikado, a Zodiac favorite. (Zodiac sometimes quoted from The Mikado in his letters.)

*On March 13, 1971 the Zodiac sent a letter to the Los Angeles Times. Coinciding closely with the mailing, Gaikowski was involuntarily committed to the Napa State Hospital after "going berzerk." He was then diagnosed with a mental illness and began treatment at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco. The Zodiac didn't write again for almost three years.

*When the Zodiac reemerged in 1974 with letters referring to recent movie releases, Gaikowski was operating a storefront theater in the Mission District of San Francisco. A film buff, Gaikowski eventually became involved with San Francisco's Roxie Theater.

*Nancy Slover, the police dispatcher who spoke with the Zodiac in July 1969, has identified Gaikowski's voice as being the same as the Zodiac's voice.

*In 1986, the Napa County Sheriff's Dept. briefly investigated Gaikowski. After urging from Goldcatcher and Pam Huckaby (sister of Darlene Ferrin), Detective Ken Narlow did a background check on Gaikowski and put him under surveillance for a few nights. Narlow found nothing to warrant further investigation and the matter was dropped. Meanwhile, the California Dept. Of Justice determined that Gaikowski's handwriting had consistencies with Zodiac's handwriting and more samples of Gaikowski's printing were requested. Goldcatcher found printing that he felt could have belonged to Gaikowski, but those samples were determined to not be a match. There was not enough probable cause for an arrest or search warrant and the investigation ended.
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gykemuglarge.gif

aniwanted.gif
 
My (and probably many other people's) theory is that the "code" is bullshit and that it's just a bunch of random symbols that he created and sent to the police for kicks.
 
louis89 said:
My (and probably many other people's) theory is that the "code" is bullshit and that it's just a bunch of random symbols that he created and sent to the police for kicks.
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That doesn't make sense when one considers the Zodiac's personality. He got a kick out being a step ahead of the police and being brazen. I don't think there's any evidence that states that the code was nonsense.
 
Zodiac is an excellent film. Seriously one of my top 10 favorite films of all time. After the first time I watched it, I wanted to go try crack the code myself, but figured if people who do stuff like that for a living couldn't, I wouldn't be able to either.
 
Kerrby said:
What an awful thread title, who ever changed it to that should be ashamed.

Only in America (tm).
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It was confirmed he is full of shit like, immediately before you posted.

Just a heads up.
 
I came into this thread with my hopes up, but after reading the first couple pages my hopes have been dashed. His method seems like total garbage, not to mention the fact that Arthur Leigh Allen was cleared by a DNA comparison.
 
That weird bastard was reading so deep into the Zodiac cases and was so convinced that it was Leigh Allen that he made up a random words to try and prove it. A professional wrote it off as gibberish and now he's crying.

Oh, and then a GAF detective finds out that the Area code he used for the first step in solving the code wasn't even created until 1997.

Hilarious.
 
VGChampion said:
Wonder if this was related to the guy on Reddit who said he was going to work on the code.
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I found this: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/iwrmj/i_am_the_guy_who_solved_the_zodiac_340/


Based on
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/hj4a4/iama_guy_who_is_taking_3_days_off_of_work_to/

and http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/i6b1o/update_im_the_guy_who_took_3_days_off_of_work_in/

they don't seem to be the same guy. That is if the first link is true, of course.
 
TheOddOne said:
I still think the Zodiac killer is Richard Gaikowski.

gykemuglarge.gif

aniwanted.gif
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It really sounds like it would be him. But the portrait, what hair color was the Zodiac reported to have by those that made that portrait? That's the main thing that doesn't match, and the nose. But all other details sure make it sound like it was really likely to be him.

edit: But reading about the other suspects, that Allen guy also sounds like he could be the guy. Now I can understand why this case was never cracked, a lot of the suspects are... suspect:p

edit2: How the fuck did the police fuck up so much with this guy? Wow. Were they even trying to catch him? Anyway that Allen guy is definitly the Zodiac. But then again so could that Gaikowski guy be. Argh.
 
Significance junkies are my least favorite people. I got repulsed when I hear stupid shit like the "Add the numbers and get some more numbers, and then add those numbers, and here's where it gets 'creepy,' it equals the birthday of the suspect's aunt!" nonsense.

It's also disturbing how guys like this convince themselves that they've done something of value to such an extent that they're annoyed when people don't take them seriously. I mean, this is just some random guy, and learning that an actual cryptographer says that he's solution is invalid doesn't deter him at all.
 
Was actually about to bust out my Zodiac Blu-Ray and give it another watch. It's been a while.

Movie is a gem. If anyone hasn't seen it, they really ought to.
 
Zodiac is awesome. This dude who claims he cracked this is full of shit. If Jake Gyllenhaal couldn't then he shouldn't even be acting like he can.
 
ThisWreckage said:
That doesn't make sense when one considers the Zodiac's personality. He got a kick out being a step ahead of the police and being brazen. I don't think there's any evidence that states that the code was nonsense.
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well sure, but i think it's totally possible that a person like that would get even more of a kick out of making the police pull their hair out over a code without an answer.
 
Funny about the area code only being in use since 97.

Zeliard said:
Was actually about to bust out my Zodiac Blu-Ray and give it another watch. It's been a while.

Movie is a gem. If anyone hasn't seen it, they really ought to.
Click to expand...

I'll have to give it a watch.
 
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