I will start this blog with a quote I came across while I was working on this post. It was found under the cap of my Honest Tea drink and I found it quite fitting.
“If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.
~ Albert Einstein
Edgar Allan Poe’s stories were ones obsessed with madness and the condition of absurdities and unbelieving truths. I feel the Zodiac Killer was attempting just this with his cipher codes. Poe’s character in “The Gold Bug” story who uncovers the answers to a coded message he found was believed to be mad for a time until he actually found the treasure along with two dead bodies.
But now you may be asking yourself why Edgar Allan Poe would have anything to do with the Zodiac Killer…let’s find out why.
While researching about the Zodiac Killer recently, I found something interesting I had not known before. There was an article written to the Zodiac Killer to try and persuade him to place his real name within a cipher coded message of his own creation. The article quoted Edgar Allan Poe to try and manipulate the Zodiac Killer into using Poe’s cipher code methods. The author of this article did this so that when Zodiac created a new code he might end up using one of Poe’s cipher methods to create it. That way it might be more easy to decode his hidden message within when and if he were to take the bait and send a new cipher letter. Here is the article mentioned.
Will Stevens. “Cipher Expert Dares Zodiac To ‘Tell’ Name.”
San Francisco Examiner (Oct. 22, 1969)
Learn more by reading this article. “My Name Is” Cipher Motivation by Michael Cole
I was previously unaware that Edgar Allan Poe had any association with cipher codes until I had researched about this written article. But I was semi familiar with stories such as “The Tell-Tale Heart”. So I started researching more of his stories to see if I could find any connections with my previous work I had done on Zodiac’s correspondences.
On my journey to find out more I fell down another rabbit hole. The story I found ended up leading me to some very interesting things. I now believe my theory for the Halloween card and the way I have decoded it goes hand in hand with Edgar Allan Poe’s Story “The Gold Bug”. I also have a theory that once this link between the two has been discovered it can then open a new door to the Z340 code as I have started to see similarities between all three subjects when linked together.
The San Francisco Examiner article was published Oct. 22, 1969
The Z340 was sent on November 8th 1969
A couple of weeks after the article was published.
Learn more about the Z340 here.
This would not have given Zodiac much time to create a thoughtful code. Perhaps this was just a quick response to the article.
Zodiac’s Halloween Card was mailed on October 27th 1970
Sent almost exactly a year apart from the article.
Learn more about the Halloween card origins here .
Learn about the Halloween card and what Zodiac altered in it here.
If the Halloween card is a response to the article, he would have had time to really plan a coded message out. (Perhaps he mixed his previous codes with this one.)
Now let’s look into Edgar Allan Poe’s story…
“The Gold Bug” Plot Summary – Quoted from Wikepedia
“William Legrand has relocated from New Orleans to Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina after losing his family fortune, and has brought his African-American servant Jupiter with him. The story’s narrator, a friend of Legrand, visits him one evening to see an unusual scarab-like bug he has found. The bug’s weight and lustrous appearance convince Jupiter that it is made of pure gold. Legrand has lent it to an officer stationed at a nearby fort, but he draws a sketch of it for the narrator, with markings on the carapace that resemble a skull. As they discuss the bug, Legrand becomes particularly focused on the sketch and carefully locks it in his desk for safekeeping. Confused, the narrator takes his leave for the night.
One month later, Jupiter visits the narrator on behalf of his master and asks him to come immediately, fearing that Legrand has been bitten by the bug and gone insane. Once they arrive on the island, Legrand insists that the bug will be the key to restoring his lost fortune. He leads them on an expedition to a particular tree and has Jupiter climb it until he finds a skull nailed at the end of one branch. At Legrand’s direction, Jupiter drops the bug through one eye socket and Legrand paces out to a spot where the group begins to dig. Finding nothing there, Legrand has Jupiter climb the tree again and drop the bug through the skull’s other eye; they choose a different spot to dig, this time finding two skeletons and a chest filled with gold coins and jewelry. They estimate the total value at $1.5 million, but even that figure proves to be below the actual worth when they eventually sell the items.
Legrand explains that on the day he found the bug on the mainland coastline, Jupiter had picked up a scrap piece of parchment to wrap it up. Legrand kept the scrap and used it to sketch the bug for the narrator; in so doing, though, he noticed traces of invisible ink, revealed by the heat of the fire burning on the hearth. The parchment proved to contain a cryptogram, which Legrand deciphered as a set of directions for finding a treasure buried by the infamous pirate Captain Kidd. The final step involved dropping a slug or weight through the left eye of the skull in the tree; their first dig failed because Jupiter mistakenly dropped it through the right eye instead. Legrand muses that the skeletons may be the remains of two members of Kidd’s crew, who buried the chest and were then killed to silence them.”
Read the full story here.
“The Gold Bug” – Readable PDF – Full Story ( read pages 1 – 47)
Here is the information about the books origins.
Book Source Link
Here are a few pages from the book just for quick reference.
This is a small excerpt from an article about the origins of “The Gold Bug” story.
THE GOLD-BUG: The Most Mysterious Edgar Allan Poe Story You’ve Never Heard Of. By Tasha Brandstatter
The Gold-Bug was the first work of fiction to incorporate cryptography into the plot. In fact, the very word cryptograph was invented by Poe and used for the first time in this story. It inspired future cryptologists for generations to come (including William F. Friedman, an American famous in cryptographic circles for breaking Japan’s PURPLE code in WWII), and dozens of writers all over the world. Think Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s Devils in Daylight, or The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers. It’s entirely plausible that the science of cryptanalysis as we know it today wouldn’t exist without The Gold-Bug. Before Poe, cryptography was a complete mystery to most people. Simple substitution ciphers like the one in The Gold-Bug were considered unbreakable unless you possessed the key to decode them. But Poe’s knowledge of language and obsession with logic, or “ratiocination,” made him realize that any code could be broken. And he showed people exactly how to do it.
In 1839, four years before the publication of The Gold-Bug, Poe published an article in Alexander’s Weekly Messenger where he challenged the readers to send him coded messages, stating,
It would be by no means a labor lost to show how great a degree of rigid method enters into enigma-guessing. This may sound oddly; but it is not more strange than the well know fact that rules really exist, by means of which it is easy to decipher any species of hieroglyphical writing—that is to say writing where, in place of alphabetical letters, any kind of marks are made use of at random. For example, in place of A put % or any other arbitrary character—in place of B, a *, etc., etc. Let an entire alphabet be made in this manner, and then let this alphabet be used in any piece of writing.
You can read the full article here.
Now that you have either read the story or the plot summary, how does Poe’s story connect to the Zodiac Killer’s “Halloween Card”?
Let’s look at what I did with some of this information.
One of the things I had done when I was first working on the Halloween Card last year was to take a computer printed version of the card to a light box so I could see through it. This helped me figure out a few things within the card itself to solve it. You can find some of that previous work here.
After finding out about “The Gold Bug” story I decided to look for new connections again. The story stood out to me to begin with simply because it had mentioned two skeletons as well as a cipher code which seemed to be a similarity to the “Halloween Card”. When reading the “Gold Bug”story, the main character mentions the way he first started to figure the coded message out was by accidentally placing it up to the light of the burning fire; only than did things start to appear to him within the parchment.
In the story it was heat that uncovered the code. But what if Zodiac also read it as light and used that instead to create his own code? Or perhaps he used both methods. Though I do not know if a heated process would work on parts of the “Halloween Card”.
These two excerpts are quoted from “The Gold Bug” story. It is the beginning of the explanation of how the character figured out the coded message through the use of the lighted fireplace.
“When, at length, we had concluded our examination, and the intense excitement of the time had, in some measure, subsided, Legrand, who saw that I was dying with impatience for a solution of this most extraordinary riddle, entered into a full detail of all the circumstances connected with it.
“You remember,” said he, “the night when I handed you the rough sketch I had made of the scarabaeus. You recollect also, that I became quite vexed at you for insisting that my drawing resembled a death’s-head. When you first made this assertion I thought you were jesting; but afterwards I called to mind the peculiar spots on the back of the insect, and admitted to myself that your remark had some little foundation in fact. Still, the sneer at my graphic powers irritated me –for I am considered a good artist –and, therefore, when you handed me the scrap of parchment, I was about to crumple it up and throw it angrily into the fire.”
“The scrap of paper, you mean,” said I.
“No; it had much of the appearance of paper, and at first I supposed it to be such, but when I came to draw upon it, I discovered it, at once, to be a piece of very thin parchment. It was quite dirty, you remember. Well, as I was in the very act of crumpling it up, my glance fell upon the sketch at which you had been looking, and you may imagine my astonishment when I perceived, in fact, the figure of a death’s-head just where, it seemed to me, I had made the drawing of the beetle. For a moment I was too much amazed to think with accuracy. I knew that my design was very different in detail from this –although there was a certain similarity in general outline. Presently I took a candle, and seating myself at the other end of the room, proceeded to scrutinize the parchment more closely. Upon turning it over, I saw my own sketch upon the reverse, just as I had made it. My first idea, now, was mere surprise at the really remarkable similarity of outline –at the singular coincidence involved in the fact, that unknown to me, there should have been a skull upon the other side of the parchment, immediately beneath my figure of the scarabaeus and that this skull, not only in outline, but in size, should so closely resemble my drawing. I say the singularity of this coincidence absolutely stupefied me for a time. This is the usual effect of such coincidences. The mind struggles to establish a connection –a sequence of cause and effect –and, being unable to do so, suffers a species of temporary paralysis. But, when I recovered from this stupor, there dawned upon me gradually a conviction which startled me even far more than the coincidence. I began distinctly, positively, to remember that there had been no drawing on the parchment when I made my sketch of the scarabaeus. I became perfectly certain of this; for I recollected turning up first one side and then the other, in search of the cleanest spot. Had the skull been then there, of course I could not have failed to notice it. Here was indeed a mystery which I felt it impossible to explain; but, even at that early moment, there it seemed to glimmer, faintly, within the most remote and secret chambers of my intellect, a glow-worm-like conception of that truth which last night’s adventure brought to so magnificent a demonstration. I arose at once, and putting the parchment securely away, dismissed all farther reflection until I should be alone.
“At this stage of my reflections I endeavored to remember, and did remember, with entire distinctness, every incident which occurred about the period in question. The weather was chilly (oh rare and happy accident!), and a fire was blazing on the hearth. I was heated with exercise and sat near the table. You, however, had drawn a chair close to the chimney. Just as I placed the parchment in your hand, and as you were in the act of inspecting it, Wolf, the Newfoundland, entered, and leaped upon your shoulders. With your left hand you caressed him and kept him off, while your right, holding the parchment, was permitted to fall listlessly between your knees, and in close proximity to the fire. At one moment I thought the blaze had caught it, and was about to caution you, but, before I could speak, you had withdrawn it, and were engaged in its examination. When I considered all these particulars, I doubted not for a moment that heat had been the agent in bringing to light, on the parchment, the skull which I saw designed on it. You are well aware that chemical preparations exist, and have existed time out of mind, by means of which it is possible to write on either paper or vellum, so that the characters shall become visible only when subjected to the action of fire. Zaffre, digested in aqua regia, and diluted with four times its weight of water, is sometimes employed; a green tint results. The regulus of cobalt, dissolved in spirit of nitre, gives a red. These colors disappear at longer or shorter intervals after the material written on cools, but again become apparent upon the re-application of heat.
“I now scrutinized the death’s-head with care. Its outer edges –the edges of the drawing nearest the edge of the vellum –were far more distinct than the others. It was clear that the action of the caloric had been imperfect or unequal. I immediately kindled a fire, and subjected every portion of the parchment to a glowing heat. At first, the only effect was the strengthening of the faint lines in the skull; but, on persevering in the experiment, there became visible, at the corner of the slip, diagonally opposite to the spot in which the death’s-head was delineated, the figure of what I at first supposed to be a goat. A closer scrutiny, however, satisfied me that it was intended for a kid.”
Knowing that Zodiac liked his codes placed within the newspapers as he sent them to reporters to publish, it would be a good assumption that light is to be used instead of heat. He wanted random people to try and figure out his coded messages.
Placing Zodiac’s “Halloween Card” up to a glowing light source.
When I started noticing similarities between Poe’s “Gold Bug” story and Zodiac’s “Halloween Card” I decided to put the images into Photoshop instead of using a light box so I could create a version of it the way it would be seen through a light source. This way I could more easily look for visual connections to see if the two had any more similarities between the story and the images shown. Would the Halloween Card mimic anything within Poe’s story?
This was the result.
The Original
Now let’s see what happens when you put the card up to a light source. Does anything interesting happen?
If you look at this picture closely, it now looks like the skeleton on the card is climbing a tree similar to the character within the story of “The Gold Bug”. In fact this is one of the more memorable parts of the story where the character “Jupiter” climbs a tree while holding onto a string with a gold bug or a (goole bug; the name Jupiter gives the beetle) tied to the end of it to reach out and place the bug within the skeletons eye that is hanging from the long main branch of the tree.
Quoted from “The Gold Bug”
“De bug –I’m berry sartain dat Massa Will bin bit somewhere bout de head by dat goole-bug.”
This video from 1980 of the ABC’s Saturday Special adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Gold Bug” will give you a small visual in similarity before I show how the “Halloween Card” relates to the story even more.
There is a spot in the video where a boy climbs a tree and places the gold bug hanging from a string within the skeletons left eye till it reaches the ground and then they draw a Bee line from the tree.
Please note they changed the character to a little boy instead of the adult servant (slave) “Jupiter”in Poe’s story. This movie is not an exact replica of Poe’s story but shows a good visual representation of what has taken place in the actual book.
Start at the time 34:13 and stop at 36:30 to see the spot I am mentioning.
Could this represent the depiction in Zodiac’s Halloween Card?
Poe’s Cipher code solved within his story.
On page 42 of “The Gold Bug” (from the pdf mentioned earlier in this post) the first paragraph describes part of the stories solved coded message. This leads into climbing the tree in the story after they followed the codes directions.
Here is Poe’s solved coded message.
‘A good glass in the Bishop’s hostel in the Devil’s seat — forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes — northeast and by north — main branch seventh limb east side — shoot from the left eye of the death’s-head — a bee-line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out.'”
Now back to the Zodiac’s “Halloween Card” and how the code might relate.
Now that we see the Halloween card through a light source similar to in Poe’s story let’s see if the solved code also has any coincidences or parts that match up.
If the Zodiac killer was trying to incorporate visuals into his coded message similar to dual coding theory methods then maybe this is what he did.
“main branch seventh limb east side”
I believe the eyes resemble the branches on the tree. His foot is nestled on (branch 1). His head is next to (branch 7) His arm is holding onto the main branch (branch 6 ). The Zodiac Killer circled the main branch with text. (Peek-A-Boo You are doomed) The skeletons arm is reaching outward from the main branch towards the other skeletons skull which is resting on the long main branch. (branch 6). I believe the sentence ( “But, then, why spoil the game!”) resembles the rest of the long main branch with the skeletons head resting on it.
In Poe’s story there is a bit of a confusion between the main branch and branch 7.
“One, two, tree, four, fibe –I done pass fibe big limb, massa, ‘pon dis side.”
“Then go one limb higher.”
In a few minutes the voice was heard again, announcing that the seventh limb was attained.
The skeletons hand is extended almost as if it is holding something like a string in it’s hand. (The string is not visible though.)
If the skeleton was holding a string like the servant (slave) Jupiter in the “Gold Bug” story, then what is directly below where a string would be hanging?
A capital B rests directly below. (Could the letter “B” be a reference for Bug or Beetle?)
Is this Zodiac’s attempt to show the story of “The Gold Bug” through a coded message? Did he pick this card because he saw the ironic similarity with the story? I believe him to be a visual thinker as well as an artist. Minds that can see images together easily simply by looking at them. But unless we knew what we were looking for and what importance they had, the images together would remain a mystery as they would not connect in a solvable way.
If the letter “B” does resemble the gold bug in Poe’s story then the character in the story had climbed the tree not once but twice with the same bug. They had made a mistake the first time and placed the bug through the wrong skeletons eye dropping it on the ground and digging in the wrong location. Does this rendering of the “Halloween Card” show this?
The B is found twice under the pinched fingers of the hand.
What other clues can we find that might follow this story?
“shoot from the left eye of the death’s-head — a bee-line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out.'”
If we follow Poe’s story he drops the string with the bug attached to the end through both of the skeletons eyes. Let’s see what would happen if we dropped a string from both eyes.
Strangely two B’s rest right below the skeletons eyes as well. But only when this card is seen through a light source just like in Poe’s story. The coded message can only be fully seen when brought to the light.
After each string was dropped in Poe’s story they had drawn a Bee Line ( straight line) from the tree. This is what I found within the legs of the skeleton right between the “two B’s” that are only seen next to the skeleton in the card when placed up to a light source. Could Zodiac have used similarities, visuals along with wordplay to jest this as a letter B for creating a Bee line?
After they drew a B line they had dug holes within that spot. If the center of the B legs is the digging spot what will we find inside?
On the left the letters D and I are found but are halfway cut off and not fully within the leg digging spot. On the right the reverse K is directly found within this leg digging spot. This was from the left eye of the skeleton where there was something supposed to be found there. I have a theory about this letter. You can find it further down in this post.
Let’s look at another portion of Poe’s solved coded message from earlier.
“forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes — northeast and by north — main branch seventh limb east side
The numbers 41 and 13 seemed familiar within the “Halloween Card” to me. In fact those numbers stood out to me when I first read Poe’s story and noticed them directly in his solved code. I thought to myself what were the chances that they just fit?
Here are two images I put together for one of my previous posts about these numbers.
Now if we go by Poe’s code from the story and use it in reference to the “Halloween Card” what do we find?
“main branch seventh limb east side.”
Here I have sectioned off the spot where the 7th limb would be above the main branch. It mentions the east side of the branch, (northeast by north) so lets look right from the tree. Lets take notice that this is exactly where the skeletons starting hand is at first.
“forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes — northeast and by north”
When you view this card like this the 14 in the hand looks like a 41 and the word TEEN can resemble the number 13 for teen years. The 4-TEEN could even resemble a relevance to time. 4:13.
What were the coincidences that this is what would be found in that spot?
The skeletons hand has it’s fingers circled directly in the right spot to make this look like the symbol you use for degrees when placed above a number.
The 3 fingers in the hand could symbolize an E for East.
If you add the arms of the skeleton that are located where the main branch is and put them into the equation, they look like the symbol for N.
If we used a map this also might relate to a different kind of directions.
Looking for more clues within the 7th limb location.
I decided to look and see what letters stood out when looking at this spot in the “Halloween Card” by following Poe’s story directions.
This is what I found. (The letters on the left are excluded as we were meant to look eastward from the tree.)
The letters G and F shine through the card when placed to the light source.
The other letters present in this specific spot without the light present is the letter T both within the eye of the skeleton as well as in the word TEEN. If you want you can also include the letter b within the hand of the skeleton as I have shown it previously within another blog. The letter B shows through when placed up to a light source right below the b hand symbol.
Also notice when placed up to the light source that within the wrist of the skeleton the letter t shines through as well.
“T.B” or all of the letters “T. G. F. B. ”
Following Poe’s story to find two letters which are possibly a clue to directions.
If we look North East on the card like in the directions for Poe’s story, the one letter that shines through with light is the letter P. And then if we follow the other directions with digging a hole within a specific spot I believe we get the letter K which shines through only with light.
I personally believe these two letters have to do with road names for directions to a specific location that I have decoded previously within the Halloween card as it says “By P. as well as By K”
The directions I have uncovered and followed lead me to an unsolved murder to a boy who was stabbed by a knife 4 times with the initials of T.B. He was killed on the church grounds of Saint Basil the Great in the center of two streets one by the name Pike Springs Rd. or (113) and the other by the name Kimberton Rd.
Part of a postcard Zodiac sent within the same month of the Halloween Card
The Saint Basil church where the boy was murdered has some very interesting artwork within it’s church that seems very similar to some of the constructs of this card as well.
I have placed a partial amount of information about the directions I came by and a few other things that go along with them on a previous blog.
If you would like to learn more you can read about it here towards the middle of the blog.
Connecting Zodiacs “Halloween Card” and Poe’s story “The Gold Bug” to Zodiac’s “Z340” code.
Once I started noticing things through a light source I also began seeing possible similarities between Zodiac’s “Z340 “cipher code and his “Halloween Card.”
Here is just one out of many I have found.
After this I got an idea from reading a post by Shaqmeister.
Take the skeleton from the inside of Zodiac’s “Halloween Card” and place it onto Zodiac’s “Z340” coded message. This skeleton was placed onto the “Halloween Card” by the Zodiac Killer and was not part of the original card.
You can read the original post here.
I used Photoshop once again and tried to size the skeleton to be the proper dimensions to fit the Z340 in the way it could be meant to be used. While this is just an example for now, there are many different things that I have seen shine through when the skeleton is placed within specific spots.
I also started looking for clues within Poe’s “Gold Bug” story to see if there were any similarities between the story to piece together with Zodiac’s “Halloween Card” and the “Z340” all in one. I believe I have found quite a few connections when messing with wordplay and a few other similarities in descriptions. But these connections will all be for another blog at another time.
Taking a closer look at the characters in Poe’s story.
Character Analysis
William Legrand – The text’s protagonist, Legrand is a reclusive man who lives on desolate Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina. A man of the wealthy Huguenot bloodline, we are told Legrand lost his riches (although we are not told how) while living in New Orleans and moved to South Carolina to removed himself from the embarrassment of his misfortune.
Legrand is an intelligent and focused man; showing a resilience to distractions once he realizes that his bug can help him hit the jackpot. That said, his mission devours his entire being, resulting in what appears as manic behavior to the narrator and Jupitar. After they have recovered the treasure however, Legrand is composed, confident and ultimately proud of his accomplishment. His erratic behavior has ceased, and he calmly explains to the narrator how he figured out the location of the riches. Legrand has a passion for cryptology, mystery and nature.
Unnamed Narrator – Although he carries the entire story, the only things we are told about the narrator is that he lives in Charleston, practices as a physician, and is a friend of Legrand’s. He accompanies the man on his treasure hunt out of worry of his health.
Jupitar – Legrand’s black servant. A dim-witted and southern-tongued freed slave, Jupitar provides comic relief with his thick accent and tendency to disappoint his master. Although Legrand gets frustrated and angry with Jupitar on the hunt for treasure, it is understood that they maintain a peaceful, quasi-friendship.
Captian Kidd – An allusion to the 17th century Scotish sailor who was executed by English Parlimanet in 1701 for charges of piracy. At the time of the text, Kidd is long dead, only living on through the enormous treasure of that Legrand finds buried on Sullivan’s Island. Legends of Kidd treasures exist not only in The Gold-Bug, but in other literature as well as in folklore. It’s possible, though, that these tales are based in fact – for a treasure buried by the sailor was found on Gardiner’s Island off of Long Island, NY, shipped back to England and used as evidence against him in his trial. Kidd’s physical character does not appear in the text, but his contribution to the story is so great that he warrants a description on this page.
Take a look at the Biography of Captain Kidd history channel video here.
Old Negro Woman – Woman that Legrand finds in the brush; helps him locate the site of the buried treasure.
The Gold-Bug – classified by Legrand as a member of the Old World genus Scarabaeus, the beetle is dominantly gold in color – save for multiple black spots on the bug’s back – and about the size of a hickory nut. There is confusion as to whether or not the insect displays antennae; Legrand insists they are present and visible, while Jupitar and the narrator insist they cannot see them. No identical species exists in nature, though it is hypothesized that Poe used a combination of traits from Callichroma splendidum and Phanceus carnifex to create his composite gold-bug (see Poe’s Motive and Inspiration).
My thoughts on possible relations and observations to the characters within Poe’s story “The Gold Bug” combined with the “Halloween Card”.
The man climbing the tree in Poe’s story is called “Jupiter”. When you relate this character to the skeleton climbing the tree in the Halloween card what do we find?
When I was previously working on the Halloween Card I had associated this skeleton with the name Jack / John. They all have the same first initial. You can read more about Jack/john here.
In Poe’s story he mentions a Lieutenant G– but never gives the name. He just uses the initial G.
I had found the letter G on the main branch seventh limb spot using Poe’s code.
Here is a previous blog I wrote about the name George.
William Legrand is probably representative to the person trying to figuring out Zodiac’s riddle. If this were true it would be a kind of sick humor on Zodiac’s part. Him wanting people to think the person solving his riddles to be insane.
Captain Kidd could relate to another card zodiac wrote, “The Dragon Card” which has pirate references in it. Learn more here.
In conclusion…
I think the Zodiac killer wanted to make the person who uncovers the answers to his codes to appear to be mad in a way. Because what code would appear in this form and how will they find a way to explain it?
Language can be a tricky thing. Spoken language can have one meaning while written can have another separate meaning; add an image into the mix and you might have multiple meanings. How do we find the right way for the pieces to fit together? And are there multiple ways that they are saying the same thing over and over in the different formats to prove them to be the answer?
Though I am not an expert on all coded formats nor the names by which they go by, I believe the Zodiac Killer may have used something similar to a dual coding theory method meant to confuse the mind and leave people questioning if the answers found are actually true. This way all we can do is speculate. The methods used were controversial for the times back then and they still are to this very day. That is why I believe they are so hard to prove.
I will share a couple of small excerpts from this book…
The Visual Experience of Image Metaphor: Cognitive Insights into Imagist Figures By Daniel W. Gleason
“In the 1960s, however, the cognitive turn in psychology and the rise of reader-response theory in literary studies helped thaw the mental imagery freeze. Slowly, and then with increasing speed, psychology studies brought the visual image back into circulation., As Roeckelein (2004: xii) notes, scientific interest in the topic of imagery made “a dramatic recovery with enormous increases from 1961 to the present.”- Stephen Kosslyn, William Thompson, and Giorgio Ganis (2006: 5) note that this shift was sparked by changes in methodology: “Cognitive psychology offered a way to begin to assess properties of internal representations, which opened the door to studying mental imagery objectively.” Alan Richardson (1969), Paivio (1971), and P. W. Sheehan (1972) were among the first psychologists to closely investigate mental imagery after behaviorism. During this time, the modern imagery debate (the successor to the imageless thought debate of the late nineteenth century) began, and cognitive psychologists con-ducted experiments to discover the format of mental representations; some argued that the brain represents information through a propositional code (i.e., an abstract verbal code) alone, and others countered that the brain makes use of both propositional and depictive (i.e., visual image–based) formats..
Paivio’s “dual coding theory,” which posits a nonverbal, mental image–based mode of mental representation alongside a verbal one as an explana-tion for the mnemonic superiority of concrete words over abstract words,/has attracted serious attention to mental imagery and visual imagery in particular. Though the “nonverbal” code accommodates mental imagery in general, Paivio’s early methods and discussion privileged the visual mode within mental imagery. Indeed, in Paivio’s (1971: 233) 1971 formulation the dual coding theory proposed the image and verbal codes after studying responses to “abstract words, concrete words, and pictures,” a framework that helps reveal the theory’s particular investment in visual imagery. Much of Paivio’s (ibid.: 207) discussion reveals a slippage between broad term image and the more specific visual image: “Thus concrete words not only are read or heard but some of them also evoke referent images; familiar pictures are perceived (images are aroused).” Perhaps because a few thinkers challenged the preeminence of visual imagery within his nonverbal system (Kintsch 1977; Flanagan 1984), Paivio (1986, 1991, 2007) moderates this visual investment in later versions of the theory, carefully noting the many modalities within the image system. Nonetheless, visual imagery remains a key feature within Paivio’s system”
Ironically, such an association of Imagist poem and picture prompted the editors of Some Imagist Poets (1916: v) to attempt to push beyond this simple equation: “In the first place ‘Imagism’ does not mean merely the presen-tation of pictures. ‘Imagism’ refers to the manner of presentation, not the subject.” Finally, there is Hulme. In his dogmatic, declarative way, Hulme is perhaps most emphatic about the importance of visual imagery in poetry, both for the reader and for the writer. Hulme’s literary philosophy centers on a sharp, visual language that communicates through images. He declares: “Each word must be an image seen . . . a man cannot write without seeing at the same time a visual signification before his eyes. It is this image which precedes the writing and makes it firm” (Hulme 1955c [1925]: 79). To Hulme, authors can only write through visual imagery, and readers must be able to see (presumably through visual imagery) each word that the author has written—a daunting requirement. Hulme (1955a [1908]: 73) even argues that the best poetry will make readers visualize so much that they become exhausted: “The new visual art . . . depends for its effect . . . on arresting the attention, so much so that the succession of images should exhaust one.” Certainly, other sensory modes, most notably touch, appear within Imagist theories of poetry, but overall their visual poetics is foundational. Despite these strong claims of visuality for both the writer and the reader in Imagist theories of poetry, many scholarly accounts of Imagist poetics seem uninterested in or even hostile to the visual aspect of those poetics. Scholarship on Imagism disagrees widely on a few contentious issues (e.g., who really created Imagism?), but the central accounts of Imagism seem to agree that the visual imagination is not a very important subject for schol-arly attention. These accounts particularly devalue the reader’s visual imagery, minimizing its role within Imagist poetics and its contribution to poetic understanding.
Anyways this is just a little food for thought to ponder over. There is much more that may be gleaned from Poe’s story “The Gold Bug” as there is a whole code he mentions within the pages that may relate in another way to the Zodiac’s messages. These are just a few of my thoughts and ramblings, please take them with a grain of salt.
My Honest Tea Cap
The Zodiac Killer may have used Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Gold Bug” to create some of his cipher codes. I will start this blog with a quote I came across while I was working on this post.