January 19, 2018
Los Angeles, California
“Scorpion’s” Remember Me?” threatening letters and Cryptograms mailed to America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh in 1990
In Black Dahlia Avenger II (2012 & 2014) Chapter 22, “Touch DNA” I called for the analysis of numerous items currently booked as evidence in various law enforcement agencies, that I believed might contain ZODIAC DNA. This included the confirmed 1978 Zodiac Envelope Letter (stamps) sent to KHJ-TV which remains untested in LAPD Property Division. (Shown below)
Also referenced in that chapter were several threatening letters and cryptograms mailed to John Walsh, the host of America’s Most Wanted television show which he received back in 1990. (The same year George Hodel permanently relocated to the United States.)
July 22, 2011 CNN’s Anderson Cooper interviews John Walsh on “Notorious Crimes” the “Black Dahlia” and “Zodiac”
“When I first profiled the Zodiac killer, I got a letter sent exactly like his code. Sent to me in exactly the same kind of envelope that he sent others. I had to give it to the FBI. It was signed in blood. In human blood. He said, “I will kill you. You will be the ultimate victory. I got away with it. I’ve committed mayhem since I murdered those other people. You will be my ultimate prize. I still have the ability to kill people.”
Walsh went to to say, “ It’s fascinating. We don’t know if it was the Zodiac killer? Nobody knows.”
I now again, in 2018, submit that these “Scorpion Letters”, currently in FBI evidence, need to be tested for Touch DNA. If DNA is obtained it can easily be compared to the new DNA samples in possession of SFPD (Stine gloves).
If the DNA matches and Zodiac DNA is confirmed, then I will provide my father’s full DNA profile for comparison.
DID GEORGE HODEL CHOOSE THE 1990 PSEUDONYM, “SCORPION” AS A TAUNT FROM A VINTAGE COMIC BOOK, JUST AS HE HAD AS “ZODIAC” BORROWING “TIM HOLT/RED MASK” COMIC FOR HIS “ BY ROPE, BY GUN, BY KNIFE, BY FIRE, BY WATER”?
The linkage of George Hodel to his personal acquaintances, actors Tim Holt and Carol Forman (a resident in his home in 1948-9) have been documented in BDA II and need not be represented here.
But, the use of these comic book connections by George Hodel as Zodiac, raises the obvious question:
Was he also for a second time, using a 1940s comic book source for his letter writing threats against John Walsh in 1990? (As I have indicated many times, the key to understanding George Hodel’s M.O. and Crime Signatures is found in HIS PAST.)
Why the name “SCORPION”?
1)It could simply be because that was similar to the name used by the suspect in the copycat Zodiac-like serial killings in the 1971 film, DIRTY HARRY. ( In the film he called himself, “SCORPIO” not “SCORPION”.)
2)Or, perhaps the killer was much more erudite, and decided to go for a double-entendre?
How so?
Did GHH plagiarize and was Zodiac’s Costume inspired by the “Scorpion” Character in the 1941 Capt. Marvel comic book?
Reasons for FBI Crime Lab to test the John Walsh AMW “Scorpion Letters” for DNA comparison to current and new unidentified Stine gloves DNA and other samples in LE possession:
-
Handwriting and cryptograms highly suggestive of being written by Zodiac (Despite an FBI QDE opinion they are not same)
-
Wording and taunts in letters identical to Zodiac’s “voice” (Read attached letters in full as PDF)
-
Walsh’s statement that envelopes used to mail Scorpion Letters IDENTICAL to those used by Zodiac twenty years prior
-
According to John Walsh the letters were “signed in human blood” which may yield further DNA linkage
-
Requires no additional manpower investigation, and minimal expense. Just a phone call to lab saying, “Test it”.
Typed reproduction of “Scorpion” Letter threats to John Walsh- Click below link.
Scorpion Message to John Walsh
Reproduction of letters/cryptograms mailed to AMW John Walsh in 1990 by “Scorpion”
The post Can DNA Testing of John Walsh America’s Most Wanted 1990 “Remember Me? Letters” Link “SCORPION” to San Francisco’s “ZODIAC”? appeared first on Steve Hodel.