Thread by @ThePaulOfHaynes

Continuing my thread on Jarett Kobek's Zodiac suspect.

17. Doerr was, as Zodiac (based on items he sent) probably was, a packrat and amasser of random shit. And, like Zodiac, he clipped items from newspapers. (A newspaper clipping is visible on his desk, here.)

18. Like Zodiac, Doerr likes to write lists of things, ending in "etc."

19. More writing style similarities:

Like Zodiac, Doerr likes to share how-to's, proposed ideas, or how he achieved something, laid out in a list of steps.

20a. Like Zodiac, Doerr prolifically uses the ampersand instead of "and" + renders it the same way in his handwriting.

20b. Here's Doerr using both "etc." and a Zodiac-style ampersand.

(Compare to Zodiac doing the same thing.)

21. Both Doerr and Zodiac occasionally use an open circle to dot lower case i's, and for punctuation marks.

22a. Doerr was on a mailing list for the right-wing militia the Minutemen, known for mailing anonymous threats featuring a gunsight similar to Zodiac’s crosshair symbol.

Coincidentally, Doerr attended a ren faire in 1968, photos from which show a flag bearing a similar shape.

22b. The Minutemen bulletins also were apparently the first place the ANFO bomb formula (reproduced by both Doerr and Zodiac) was published.

The Minutemen also encouraged sending mailings from corner boxes or distant post offices, and buying guns that are untraceable.

23. Zodiac writes almost exclusively in printscript, which Doerr—whose writing post-'69 is either in ALL CAPS or cursive—avoids. In one of the few extant examples of Doerr’s print (from the early 80s), handwriting similarities include similar capital M's + similar lower-case n's.

24. Both exhibit a penchant for WRiTiNG PHRASES iN ALL CAPS EXCEPT FOR THE LOWER CASE i's.

25. Their question marks are similarly rendered.

26. Zodiac wore military-issued Wingwalker boots.

Doerr, who spent a year in the military ca. 1945 (and was allegedly discharged for trying to shove a fork down someone’s throat), worked at Mare Island Naval Base in Vallejo from the 1960s through the 1980s/1990s.

27. Zodiac claimed to have purchased unregistered guns out-of-state of via mail order—which may or may not be true, but Doerr decried gun registration and advertised to buy guns via the mail in classifieds.

28. In issue #10 (1972) of his zine PIONEER, Doerr uses language reminiscent of Zodiac: “I’ve always said” (which he also used elsewhere) and refers to authorities questioning his writing "and some of my other activities."

29. Zodiac and Doerr’s respective repertoires exhibited even more cross-over:

Zodiac referred to Mag. N on a map he sent to the @sfchronicle on 6/26/70. Doerr wrote a whole paragraph about magnetic poles in PIONEER.

30. The stamp on Zodiac’s 10/27/70 letter to the CHRONICLE was a commemorative stamp—sold out by this time—celebrating the Apollo 8 moon landing. Doerr talks about collecting commemorative stamps.

In Doerr’s home office hung the “Blue Marble” photo taken from Apollo 17.

31. Zodiac’s description of the use of a pencil flashlight as a gun sight in the dark is identical to one published in the 12/67 issue of POPULAR SCIENCE magazine, back issues of which Doerr collected.

32. Zodiac sent a postcard referencing the Sierra Club, which Doerr also references in multiple issues of PIONEER.

Doerr was also likely a member of the Bay Area chapter of the Sierra Club (as he reproduces a recipe from their members-only newsletter, called the Yodeler).

33. It’s theorized Zodiac’s “By Knife / By Gun / By Fire / By Rope” was inspired by TIM HOLT #30 which was published in 1950 and would be unusual for someone to have in 1970, as comic book collecting wasn't a common hobby then. Yet here’s Doerr trading old comics in 1968.

34. Doerr twice—in a 1970 issue of PIONEER and a 1979 letter—references a Zodiac copycat crime... and even started his own serial killer zine, yet makes not a single mention of the Zodiac Killer in any of the tens of thousands of words he wrote in his extant zines and letters.

35. Doerr at least once uses one of the same stamps Zodiac used: the Eisenhower 8¢, which Zodiac used on his 1/29/74 "Exorcist" letter to the CHRONICLE. Doerr uses this stamp on two issues of PIONEER, including one from 1973.

36a. After the composites were released, and after it was reported Zodiac left fingerprints behind, Zodiac wrote:

36b. Translation:

1. Oh shit. I was closely observed and the sketch in the paper really looks like me.
2. Holy fuck. I think I left fingerprints behind in the cab.

Why would Zodiac really want to 'reveal' his tricks? What advantage would this give him? None. [cont'd]

36c. [cont'd] Zodiac did not want to be caught (otherwise he’d have encoded something of evidentiary value in his ciphers, rather than bullshit; he’d have continued killing and then bragging about each crime to the press;… [cont’d]

36d. [cont'd] ...instead, he got spooked by his near-miss and his series ended, thereafter only taking credit for crimes he likely didn’t commit). This was misdirection.

Zodiac looked exactly like the description passed out, and police have his fingerprints on file.

Thread concludes here: