Zodiac Killer: An Analysis of the Excorcist Letter in 1974
In this article I will be analyzing the “Exorcist Letter” sent from the Zodiac Killer in January of 1974. According to Zodiac researcher Richard Grinell and his website Zodiacciphers.com the letter was mailed in January 1974 to the San Francisco Chronicle.
See below for the letter:
The following analysis will be in reference to Joseph Paul Franklin. If you haven’t read my previous articles on Franklin I do believe him to the the Zodiac Killer, so before I begin the analysis I will add that he did have an extreme form of OCD called arithmomania. This is characterized by his fascination with certain numbers such as the number 8 which I will explain the importance of below.
The importance of the number 8 goes back to his original Z408 ciphers, the first ciphers he wrote to three newspapers back in August of 1969. Eight lines of code to three separate newspapers we see the numbers 888. As this may happen by chance the instances of the number 8 that keep reaccurring is remarkable. The numbers 18 and 8 specifically, sometimes the number 3 as well.
Now, to the Excorcist Letter and the number 8.
Notice three instances of the “Tit Willo” repeated three times as well. This is in line with the feature of OCD and numbers being present with the Zodaic Killer.
As a side note the correct spelling I believe to be “Tit Willow” not Tit Willo as the Zodiac writes. Could be just a simple misspelling as the Zodiac was known to misspell words also.
Next, we have the symbol at the bottom:
We can make some letters that somewhat form from this:
Backward K
Large J
P
F
N
I believe you can take some of letters from this so lets put them all together
JKPFN
In regards to Joseph Paul Franklin I believe that the initials can be taken to mean the name Joseph Paul Franklin.
Lastly we have the number count of 37 for Zodiac vs 0 for the authorities. A sad statement which I believe to be true knowing that the Zodiac is Joseph Paul Franklin.
For comparison look at the two photos from both:
Below is the sketch of the Zodiac Killer after the Presidio Heights murder:
