Quantity of Stamps and the Zodiac Killer's Dozen
In this article, Writing for Print, I realize that the Zodiac was likely writing his July 31, 1969, letter(s) with future newspaper publication in mind. Afterwards, I found myself thinking about the whole thing again:
1. His love for writing newspapers
2. His addressing of editors
3. His knowledge of typesetting
I wondered what else the Zodiac might have known about the newspaper business and how he may have used it when writing the July 31, 1969, letters.
When reviewing the three July 31, 1969 letters and envelopes you can’t help noticing the stamp quantity. If every envelope had contained the same number of stamps or, something relatively close to what would appear necessary for mailing, then nothing about the stamps would raise an eye. However, the Vallejo Times-Herald envelope had four times the postage than was actually necessary to mail the letter. Why?
I dove into the history of each paper and the following is what I was able to come up with:
The Vallejo Times-Herald first began in 1875 as the Solano Daily Times. Over the years, through a single name change and then a merger, the paper went through 4 different publishers:
1. Adolphe Benjamin Gibson
2. George Roe
3. Robert Woodhull Walker
4. Luther Earl Gibson
All 4 had owned what was known as the Vallejo Times. Luther Earl Gibson was publisher of the paper at the time the Zodiac killings began. He acquired the Vallejo Times in about 1922, and sometime afterwards, merged it with a paper he owned called the Vallejo Herald. From that point on the Vallejo Times would be forever known as the Vallejo Times-Herald.
The San Francisco Examiner first began in 1863 as the Democratic Press. Over the years the company went through three name changes, one acquisition and two publishers:
5. William S. Moss
6. William Randolph Hearst Sr.
Since 1951, the paper was under the control of a board of 13 trustees, five of which were Hearst family members. At the head of this board was William Randolph Hearst Jr. who was not only head at the time of the Zodiac killings but editor in chief.
The San Francisco Chronicle began in 1865 as the Daily Dramatic Chronicle. The paper changed names one time in 1869 to what is known today as the San Francisco Chronicle. Since the death of Michael de Young in 1925, on up to the time of the Zodiac killings, the paper has gone through 2 different publishers:
7. George Toland Cameron
8. Charles de Young Thieriot
The San Francisco Chronicle has always been family owned. It began with Charles and Michael de Young and was run by Michael de Young (after the death of his brother Charles) until his own death in 1925. One of the reasons why the Chronicle stayed family owned for as long as it has, was due to an inclusion in Michael de Young’s will that essentially stated the paper would only be run by family members until the last of Michael de Young’s daughters passed away. George Toland Cameron was married to Michael de Young’s daughter Margaret and ran the paper from the time of the founder’s death in 1925 to his own death in 1955. Charles de Young Thieriot was the son of another daughter of Michael de Young named Kathleen.
Charles de Young Thieriot was publisher at the time the Zodiac killings began.
As you can see, my position here is that the quantity of stamps used for mailing a letter to each paper relate directly to, the number of publishers that each paper went through from the time the papers began on up to the time the Zodiac killings were occurring.
For me this explains why the Zodiac had left a large gap, and excluded the word “Herald”, in the 4th line of text on page 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle letter after the word “times”. He was signifying that a begin look into the company “Vallejo Times” was needed.
Given that the Zodiac had a penchant for writing newspapers, addressing the letters to the editors and what seems to be a drafting of his letters for exact print in the paper, I see no reason why the Zodiac wouldn’t think to include the publishers as well. But the question is why?
A recap of the publishers for each paper:
At this point I am seeing 8 names, and all were publishers of the three papers the Zodiac wrote to. I start thinking about the newspapers, the stamps, publishing, typesetting and the like again. I then start thinking about the letters and how the Zodiac had threatened to kill a dozen over the weekend but never did. I began wondering if the “dozen” the Zodiac spoke of in his letter(s) related to the 8 I had already put together concerning the stamps and further wondered if 4 more could be found. After some thought I came to realize that I already had a partial answer: the Zodiac had addressed his letters to the editor of each paper he wrote to.
The following people were the editors of each paper the Zodiac sent a letter to:
Here we have a total of 11 publishers and editors that relate directly to the papers the Zodiac wrote to on July 31, 1969. Another recap:
For the dozen to be complete one name was left to be found. I went through his July 31, 1969, letters with a fine-tooth comb looking for anything that pointed to an individual connected in some fashion to the publishing and editing of the papers. I could find nothing on that subject. I finally just sat and thought about it all and ultimately came back to the stamps themselves. The stamps had the face of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an image of an individual.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, Dutchess County, New York. In 1900 he began attending Harvard College and received his undergraduate degree in 1903. In 1904 he returned to Harvard College for a year of graduate work. He then would attend Columbia Law School. From 1911 to 1913 he served in the New York State Senate and then later as Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1913 to 1920. In 1920 he ran as Vice President with the presidential candidate James M. Cox. The Cox/Roosevelt ticket lost to Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. In 1924 Roosevelt ran for Governor of New York and won. He served as Governor from 1929 to 1932. In 1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for President against Herbert Hoover and won. He was President of the United States between 1933 and 1945.
In all of my reading on Roosevelt I saw nothing that related back to the papers the Zodiac wrote to. Believing that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was likely the 12th person to be, named as his “dozen”, I went back and looked again. It was at this time that I realized that, while at Harvard College, Roosevelt was editor of Harvard’s student newspaper called the Crimson.
Given this editing/publishing, I believe this would make Roosevelt, number 12 in terms of the Zodiac’s “dozen”.
Another recap:
