In summer 2017, I knew a man named Joe Bevilacqua. One afternoon, while on the balcony of his home, an apartment facing the Autostrada del Sole and the hills of Chianti in a town near Florence, I gave him the first page of Zodiac’s letter with his encrypted identity. Joe started to read it aloud, translating each row in Italian. When he reached the thirteen symbols, he smiled: “Let’s forget it”. Then he said: “This sentence is strange”. Joe was talking about the row immediately under the cipher. He had translated in Italian “cerous” as “waxy”. “Why did he write it?” he asked me. “Why did he not write ‘I am curious’?”.
A few weeks later, when I reflected on Joe’s insistence about “cerous”, I became aware that this word could be fundamental to solve the puzzle[1].
While developing decryption of Zodiac’s name, two years ago, I noticed a further detail. In the Oxford paper dictionary 1988 edition, the poem “Aeneid” by Latin poet Virgil and its main character “Aeneas” were the only words starting with “Aen” like Zodiac’s cipher[2].
Finally, I have discovered that this classical reading was a key element for the precise identification of the serial killer more than how much was to achieve the solution[3].
Several references quoted by Zodiac were popular in 1969-1970. The most peculiar are Woody Allen’s “Take the money and run” and actor Bekim Fehmiu’s name, other than letters and symbols he took from works related to ancient civilizations.
Zodiac’s name is not encrypted using a substitution code. Symbols are just pieces of a puzzle game.
Cipher
Zodiac’s name was presumably encrypted in the 13 symbols row on page 1 of the letter that the murderer sent to the San Francisco Chronicle on April 20, 1970. Soon after this message from Zodiac was received, the San Francisco Police Department requested the FBI to decrypt the cipher, but they could not4]. The text was too short. In a document delivered to the SFPD through the Army CID at the Presidio, the Army Security Agency said that Zodiac had received military training in cryptography[5]. The author of the cipher knew that his name could not be “cracked” without clues like thathe put in his Halloween card[6] , few months later (the letter Q, according to my solution here).
Search for clues
On page 1 of the letter, Zodiac asked the readers if they had already cracked the previous cipher. He said that he was “cerous” – instead of curious – to know the amount of his reward. He added that he is not the author of a recent bombing at a police station, even if he argues that there is “more glory” in killing a cop instead of a “cid”. He also wrote that he had been swamped out by the rain.
On page 2, Zodiac drew a sketch with the functioning of a bomb, adding the information on how it was set up.
1. “Set up like this”
The first block of the code is built using an ancient Greek word in capital letters, ANETHEKE, featured in the book “The alphabet” by Frederic W. Goudy, recognizable for the Theta looking like a Sun cross. This is an inscription from the temple of Poseidon on Lake Taenarus, in Laconia, Greece[7]. This finding was first published on the website zodiackiller.com[8].
The word ANETHEKE matches the structure of the first part of the cipher with a few differences
Zodiac effected three changes to the original inscription. He:
switched E with N
put a Sun cross in place of a Theta
substituted the second and third E with an 8 circled
Zodiac’s signature was the Sun cross. It is probable that the murderer stole both his name and signature from the brand of the watch manufacturer “Zodiac”. The most publicized product of the Zodiac in the late 60s appears to have been the diver’s watch Sea Wolf[9].
Zodiac’s Sun cross is similar to the Theta in the inscription reported on page 11 of “The Alphabet” by Goudy and can explain why Zodiac chose to make this substitution. For its symbolic importance, it may encrypt an initial.
The reason why Zodiac used the word ANETHEKE in his code is related to how the code is built. In fact, this ancient Greek word translates into English with the word “set up”[10], ie the same verb that the author of the code used on page 2, in the preamble of the explanation of how the bomb was “set up”.
What Zodiac intends to suggest using ANETHEKE and the verb “set up” could be: “My name is – set up like this”. “My name is – built like this”. The diagram below with the sun, road and bus could indicate the deciphering method.
Method of decryption suggested by ANETHEKE
2. “Let the sunshine in”
There is a link between the cipher and the first part of page 2 based on the connection “ANETHEKE – Set up” that suggests the method of decryption.
Explanation
Overlap the drawing on page 2 over the code on page 1. Keep the lane where the bus is “clear” and the cipher text at the top of the path (image above).
The letter “I” is circled by the sun. Symbol ⑧ is crossed by the first arrow that ends in correspondence to the route of the bus. The result of the collision between the bus and sunshine decoded the seventh symbol of the cipher, “I”. An “E” is obtained from the first ⑧, making the bus and the “sunshine” intersect in the same way. In the third case, there is not a letter to substitute, but the dash must be overlayed on the word “cerous”, which leads to the elision of the letters “rous”. This ray beam coupled with the action of the second arrow related to the “I” makes the word “ICE”, which could be a tip for the decryption of the third⑧.
I, E, Ice
The sunshine, represented by the sun disc and arrows, decrypts E and I from the first two ⑧. The ray beam starting from the third ⑧ does not decrypt a letter but forms the word ICE.
The sunbeam intersects the bus in its route
The symbol 8 and sun disc
The ⑧ is a composition of the symbol 8 taken from ads and posters of the musical Hair[11] and the sun disc drawn by Zodiac on page 2 of his letter.
A tip
Aquarius – Let the sunshine in
This part of the cipher is encoded using a song by The Fifth Dimension in vogue in 1969, “Aquarius-Let the sunshine in“, which won the Grammy award for Record of the Year in 1970[12].
Fifth’s Dimension song is an arrangement of “Aquarius” and “Let the sunshine in”, two different musical pieces both taken from the musical “Hair”[13] which was on the scene at the Geary Theatre, in San Francisco, the same day of the murder of Paul Stine, on October 11, 1969[14]. The Geary Theatre was few yards away from the corner where Zodiac hailed the cab driven by Stine[15]. In 1969-1970, that pacifist milestone in hippy culture was so successful (like Fifth Dimension’s “Aquarius-let the sunshine in”) that it was still on stage in San Francisco, at Orpheum, on Market & Hyde when Zodiac sent his letter
In 1969-1970, that pacifist milestone in hippy culture was so successful (like Fifth Dimension’s “Aquarius-let the sunshine in”) that it was still on stage in San Francisco, at Orpheum, on Market & Hyde when Zodiac sent his letter[16].
The posters of the musical depicted two mirror faces with hair in the shape of an 8. The same symbol, although “lying down”, is present on the I of “Hair”, also in advertisements[17].
Donna
“Let the sunshine in” is the last song in the official soundtrack of the musical Hair, while the first one is “Aquarius”, followed by “Donna”, like the possible Zodiac’s victim on 6 September 1970[18]. In a postcard dating back to March 1971, the serial killer seemed to hint at his own responsibility for the disappearance of Donna Lass from South Lake Tahoe[19].
The references for the second part of the cipher must be found
Ticked in green – the changes in ANETHEKE that have been explained. In red – symbols effectively decrypted
3. L’acqua
As well as ANETHEKE, the anchor-like symbol before NAMalsocomes from an ancient civilization. It is the Bhrami letter “Ya”.
A search for the anchor-like symbol has resulted in the discovery below
The drawing of the seal above accompanied by symbols L, ACHH, MI, YA, was published in “Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum” (inscriptions from India) by Alexander Cunningham. The two symbols used by Zodiac were part of a tentative of translation of the inscription on the sea by Cunningham[20].
The words MI and YA are rearranged in the first two letters above and below the encrypted message as “My” and “I a”. The respective letters Bhrami, that is the symbol of Taurus (similar to that of Hair) and of the anchor, are instead depicted in the ciphertext.
Is the adjective “cerous”, a misspelling or word game? In theory, Zodiac meant not “cerous” but “curious”, a word so commonly used that it is unrealistic to think it was mangled by mistake. So why did Zodiac write “cerous”? He needed it to get the word “ice”. But is there more?
In English, this term is mainly related to the metal “cerium”[21], a metal. However, there is no connection between this meaning and the cipher text. Instead, the question changes if it assumes the meaning deriving from the Latin etymology “cera”, wax, also in English one of the main prefixes for words starting with “cera”, “ceri” or “cero”[22].
It is possible that “cerous” means “waxy” in the sense of “full of wax”, like the similar “cerosus” in Latin[23].
Cerous probably is a calque from the Italian “ceroso”, which just means “waxy”
The binomial “to seal” and “wax” (from “cerous”, waxy) forms the term “SEALING WAX“. This word is the simplest product of the correlation between “cerous” and the “seal stone” from Harappa from which Zodiac has taken the anchor symbol[24].
In the past centuries, the sealing wax was used to fasten letters and certify official documents. It is a compound principally made by shellac[25], also called lac[26], which is also the name of the insect that secretes it.
Lac is a 3-letters word, the same number as the symbols above “cerous”
The third ⑧ is composed of the disc of the sun and the 8 of Hair, similar to the symbol of Taurus (MI) that accompanies the Bhrami YA in Cunningham’s translation of the inscription on the Harappa seal[27]. It suggests that the letter to be decrypted is in connection with ICE[28].
Now you need to check if ICE has a connection with LAC.
The decryption of the ILAC sequence through the song “Aquarius-Let the sunshine in” and the Harappa seal is useful to find almost the whole solution, not only the reason why Zodiac connected the “a” of “lac” to the word “ice” . This is an eventuality that the author of the encrypted message had certainly not foreseen.
List of all surnames containing the sequence “ILAC” reported in the statistics of the U.S. Census 2010[29]
In the right column, the number of individuals per surname
Few surnames contain the sequence ILAC in the United States. Among them, Ilacqua and Bevilacqua[30] are compatible with the decryption and also contain the Italian word for “water”, ACQUA[31], which can be easily connected to “ice”.
The word “ICE” is connected to “A” as the first letter of “ACQUA”, water, last part of Zodiac’s name
Zodiac used the song “Aquarius/Let the sunshine in” for his encryption probably because his surname contained the Italian word “acqua”
4. Qua-nam
The last part of the word “water” in Italian is QUA. If it is the right decryption, these three letters have a correlation with NAM. Which one?
Like “cerous”, the syntagma “as to how”, isolated from the context, could be linked to the part of the cipher above (NAM). In fact, the union of QUA and NAM produces the Latin word “qua-nam”, which is the translation of “how”, “as to how”, “in what manner”[32]. This is a confirmation of the decryption.
The sentence above by Pliny occurs in almost all the Latin dictionaries where I have found Quanam (not reported here for brevity). It is just the last reference to the water of several ones met during the decryption. The complete list follows:
ANETHEKE, an inscription from a temple of Poseidon, the god of the sea[34]
The diver’s watch Zodiac Sea Wolf[35]
The word “ice”[36]
Aquarius, the Water-bearer[37]
Lastly, dolphins’ method of hearing
The part of the decryption related to the word “ACQUA” is compatible with my solution of Zodiac’s Halloween riddle about the letter “Q” (there is a Q in the killer’s name). The Halloween card was mailed on October 27, 1970, six months after the letter bearing his enciphered name. Zodiac wanted to provide a clue for the decryption.
In the Halloween card, the killer mentioned a “wheel of death” featured on the cover of the comic book “Tim Holt” No. 30, omitting only one death among those mentioned, that “by water” (see my solution here). Zodiac also copied on the card a symbol almost identical to the cattle brand of a bull depicted on a cover of Red Ryder No. 15[38]. The reason of this choice is that a bull was engraved on the seal from which translation he took the anchor-like symbol for his cipher (image below).
Most of crimes of Zodiac and his letters have some link to the water, not only the decryption and method that lead the decryption of this cipher.
Dave Smith, Los Angeles Times journalist, wrote in 1969[39]:
“Dr Leonti Thompson, a psychiatrist at Napa State Hospital 15 miles north of Vallejo, has found a number of different meanings in the killer’s crossed-circle “signature.” In one primitive culture it represents the earth; in another, the ancient notion of the four elements that make up the world: earth, air, fire and water. Still, another symbol, the “X”, represented water in the alphabet of the legendary continent of “Mu”. “And the killings took place near water,” Thompson notes speculatively.”
“I thought it was strange that the killings so far had taken place in locations that had a form of water in their name: Lake Herman Road, Blue Rock Springs, Lake Berryessa, and Washington Street, which was quite close to Lake Street.”
Riverside and Lake Tahoe, two places where Zodiac committed other possible crimes, are compatible with the “water theory” too, as well as the oil and gas station “Joe’s Union” in Springs Road in Vallejo[41] and the car wash in Napa[42] where the serial killer made the two phone calls to the police on July 5 and September 27, 1969, respectively. Besides, at Lake Berryessa, he tied the victims with a clothesline[43].
Zodiac’s references to the water are numerous also in his letters: his signature possibly plagiarized from the dive watch Zodiac Sea Wolf[44]; «Water hose», August 4, 1969[45]; a greetings card with the sentence «I just washed my pen», November 8, 1969[46]; «I am drownding (sic)», December 20, 1969[47]; «I was swamped out by the rain», April 20, 1970[48]; «Blue meannies (sic)», from “Yellow Submarine” (The Beatles’ movie), April 20, 1970[49]; «I shall listen to their pleass (sic) for water», July 26, 1970[50]; «I am crack proof», which alludes to “water-proof”, October 5, 1970[51]; «By fire, by gun, by knife, by rope», citation from which Zodiac omitted “By water”, October 27, 1970, Halloween card[52] (based on the cover of Tim Holt No. 30)[53]; and again «I am crack proof» and «blue meannies (sic)», March 13, 1971[54]. In the end, Zodiac’s last signature dating back to January 29, 1974, is a text on a drowning[55].
Actors Bekim Fehmiu and Candice Bergen in “The adventurers” (1970)
The M that Zodiac inserted between “ANETHEKE” and the citation of the seal from Harappa is the last letter in the ciphertext whose purpose and origin must be found out.
It can be easily observed that if you decrypt the symbols ⑧, adding the M produces the word “EKIM”. A search of this term in the newspaper editions of 1970 on the website newspapers.com resulted in the name of the Serbian-Albanian actor “Bekim Fehmiu”[56].
The adding of an M is justifiable to encrypt another part of the text. Which one?
Fehmiu starred as Ulysses in the Italian tv series “The Odyssey”, first broadcasted on Italian television in 1968[57]. In spring 1970, he appeared with Candice Bergen as the main character Dax Xenos in the Hollywoodian movie “The adventurers”[58]. This expensive film was screened at the Alexandria on Geary Street at 18th, in San Francisco, and in other eight theatres/drive-in in the Bay Area, just before[59] and after Zodiac mailed his letter[60].
The third result for the search term “Bekim” in the newspaper editions of 1970 on newspapers.com[61] is a piece entitled “10 Million risked on an unknown” published in the San Francisco Examiner on 3 January 1970, three and a half months before his name ciphered was sent to the Chronicle[62].
On the same page, there are advertisements for hit movies[63] like “I am Curious” and “Take the money and run”[64].
The TV series “The Odyssey” (1968) starring Bekim Fehmiu was aired on the first channel of the Italian public broadcasting in July 1974[65], a few months after Zodiac had mailed his last official letter, on January 29, 1974[66]. On 14th September of the same year, the “Italian” serial killer called “Monster” began to kill young couples near Florence, Tuscany, at Le Fontanine (little fountains) in Rabatta, using a gun apparently related to a double homicide of 1968[67]. According to a postman condemned as accomplish of the serial killer, Mario Vanni, the murderer was an American named “Ulysses”[68].
An excerpt from the conversation on the American suspect “Ulysses”, Monster of Florence case (July 30, 2003)
Vanni: It was Ulysses to… who killed all that people! Black! Nesi: Who is black? Vanni: He is an American.
The Odyssey in schedule on July 28, 1974, La Nazione
The exclusion of the 1968 case from the Monster’s murders
“According to experts’ conclusions, the murders have similar characteristics with the exception of the case Lo Bianco-Locci (August 21, 1968 TN), and were attributable, with respect of the responsibility and psychological profile, to the same subject, with the exception of the case Lo Bianco-Locci.”
Zodiac’s surname is Bevilacqua, the first one containing “ILAC” for number of individuals in the USA[69]
The substitution M/L is also in my decryption of the Mt. Diablo cipher[70]
“Drink mildly”
6. Take the money and run
Every reference that Zodiac used to compose its code has been discovered, but an explanation of the replacement of the N with the E in the word ANETHEKE is missing.
Three letters remain to decrypt. The switch of N with E should lead Zodiac’s full name
It is not clear why the Zodiac changed the letters N and E, however, the most common words starting with “Aen” in an English dictionary appear to be the Aeneid by poet Virgil and Aeneas[71].
Just two words begin with “Aen” in the Oxford paperback dictionary, Aeneas and Aeneid
A reading of the news dating back to the week the Zodiac killed taxi driver Paul Stine suggests that he was once again inspired by a movie, also in the choice to exchange the E with N. In those days, in fact, a very famous comedy which premiered in August[72] with main character named Virgil, like the author of the Aeneid, was on the screen for the first time in San Francisco[73].
Zodiac wrote in his letter:
Why did he talk about the rain? The last sentence of the famous comedy the piece on the Examiner was talking about is:
It is a line by New Jersey criminal Virgil Starkwell, played by red and bespectacled Woody Allen, in “Take the money and run”[75]. The movie, mostly filmed in San Francisco, opened on October 8, 1969, at the Bridge Theatre on Geary at Blake[76], few blocks away from where Stine was found dead three days later. In the same week, “I am curious” also opened at the Gateway, while “Hair” was at the Geary Theatre[77].
Zodiac’s disguise compared with Virgil Starkwell
Zodiac and Woody Allen (1969)
Zodiac’s sentence on his disguise after the murder of Paul Stine[78]
Advertisements of the movie “Take the money and run” dating back to a few days before the murder
S.F. Sunday Examiner and Chronicle, Datebook, October 5, 1969
On October 18, 1969, ten days after the debut of “Take the money and run” at the Bridge, “The Mikado” performed by the Lamplighters started at the Presentation Theatre[79]. Zodiac quoted the operetta by Gilbert & Sullivan in 1970[80] and 1974[81], when he used an excerpt from it as his signature[82].
Excerpt from “Take the money and run”
The incipit of the movie is this: “In December 1, 1935, Mrs. Williams Starkwell, a wife of a New Jersey handyman gives birth to her first and only child. It is a boy, and they name it Virgil. He is an exceptionally cute baby,with a sweet disposition. Before he is 25 years old, he will be wanted by police in six states, for assault, armed robbery, and illegal possession of a wart[83].” Virgil (Woody Allen) tries to escape from a prison with a bar of soap looking like a gun but he got caught as soon as it starts to rain and the gun liquefies[84]. He gets away after a vaccine test and met Louise (Janet Margolin). An excerpt from their dialogue follows:
Virgil: “Are you an artist?” Louise: “No, of course not. I’m not an artist.” Virgil: “No? Well, what do you do?” Louise: “I’m a laundress”. Virgil: “Laundress? Laundry?” Louise: “Yeah. I wash clothes, in Maryland.”[85]
Virgil tries to rob a bank but failed to make himself understood by the teller and goes in prison again, where he is put to work in a laundry too. He explains to Louise: “And uh, they got me. I misspelled a note.” A few days later, he manages to escape taking a taxi. The film ends with an interview with Virgil in prison while he is carving another bar of soap. As already said, the punchline of the bespectacled, reddish, New Jersey criminal is:
“I’m very skilled with my hands… Do you know if it’s raining out?”[86]
Important fact is that “Take the money and run” did not open in San Francisco until October 8, 1969[87]. However, already on Septemper 27, Zodiac “quoted” the movie by telling the victims a made-up story on his escape from prison[88], tying them with a washing line[89], and calling the police from a phone booth in front of a car wash[90] next to a laundry[91]. He should have been in Los Angeles[92] or outside of California[93](the premiere was held in New York on august 18) in the previous days for having been able to watch Woody Allen’s movie before the Berryessa attack.
As zodiacciphers.com reports, the phone booth of the Napa Car Wash where Zodiac called the police was beside the laundry “Sam Kee”[94] at Main and Clinton Street[95](see Google Maps). That can be added to the allusions to “Take the money and run” mentioned before.
1245 Main Street, Napa. The phone booth where Zodiac called the police was located to the right of the building. Photo by G. J. Golik – 1972
Two further links between the decryption of the name of Zodiac and Woody Allen’s work
A week before the attack on Lake Berryessa, on September 21, 1969[96]Candice Bergen, Fehmiu’s wife in “The Adventurers”, and the Fifth Dimension guested at The Woody Allen Show[97].
The first comedy by Allen performed on Broadway was “Don’t drink the water”[98]. In November 1969, the film taken from Allen’s play was on the screen at the Alexandria, San Francisco[99].
7. Joe
The classical male names with an N as second letter are only two, according to the source nameberry.com: Eno and Enu. On the contrary, several names end with E[100].
The switch N/E may indicate that the third symbol in the ciphertext, the letter N, replaces an E.
The syntagma “I am” coupled with E and AEN forms a u-shape sentence that reads: “I am Enea”. Enea is Aeneas in Italian[101].
Two letters are still to be decrypted
The conclusion of the decryption is hinted at by Zodiac himself at the end of page 2 of his letter, where he placed the last “I” just above the equals sign in the equation Sun cross = I0[102] (picture below). The word “Io” translates “I” in Italian[103].
Ten or “Io”?
I am Joe
The “J” replaces the “I” of “IO”. Zodiac’s name is “Joe”. The substitutions O/J and I/O in my decryption of the Mt. Diablo cipher support this conclusion[104]. It will also be remembered that the phone booth from where Zodiac first called the police was located at the Joe’s Union petrol station in Vallejo[105].
“I” was also the first encrypted letter of Zodiac’s first cipher[106], like Bettye Harden, one of the solvers, had intuited[107].
“Harden was ready to give up on the cryptogram the next morning, but he couldn’t convince Bettye to stop. Even though at time she didn’t have the slighest idea what she was doing, she kept working; eventually, Harden joined her. Bettye was of the opinion that the killer was such an egomaniac that he would start out with ‘I'”.
[67] Francesco Ferri, decision of the Appeal Court, Florence, Pietro Pacciani trial, February 13, 1996. In courts, the responsibility of the so-called “Monster” for the 1968 crime has so far been excluded.
[83] Take the money and run, directed by Woody Allen, ABC, Palomar Pictures International, 1969. Min. 0.10 of the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYaIoHRI76A.
[84] Ibidem. Min. 1.06 of the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYaIoHRI76A. “I was swamped out by the rain we had a little back”, wrote Zodiac allusively in his letter postmarked on December 20, 1970, see pp. 6-7.
[85] Ibidem. Min. 2.14 of the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYaIoHRI76A. See the references by Zodiac to “wash”, and the false story on his escape he told Brian Hartnell and Cecilia Shepard in the chapter “L’acqua”.
S.F. Sunday Examiner and Chronicle, Datebook, October 5, 1969
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