The Clock Face Calendar
Blog Post #6
(This is an image of the Bus Bomb Letter’s sixth and final page, hence “6/6” in the top-right corner.)
Like most of the Zodiac Killer’s correspondences, the Bus Bomb Letter is signed with the cross-and-circle insignia for Zodiac brand watches—but this one looks different from his other signatures; it has five Xs along the circle. What could they mean?
To make a long story short, the Bus Bomb Letter’s cross-and-circle signature works as a circular calendar broken up into four quarters—and the Xs on its circumference mark the dates of all four canonical Zodiac Killer attacks, plus the murder of Cheri Jo Bates. However, there is a code, unsurprisingly—but it isn’t very complex. (By the way—in this case, canonical means “widely considered to have been perpetrated by the Zodiac Killer.”)
The code is: 1) Take the date for each canonical attack and remove the year as well as the second digit from the day if it has one, 2) mark the results on the Clock Face Calendar with an X, and 3) mark the date for the murder of Cheri Jo Bates without removing the second digit from the day because she’s special. Results below.
David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen: 12/20/1968
Darlene Ferrin (Michael Mageau survives attack): 7/4/1969
Cecelia Shepard (Bryan Hartnell survives attack): 9/27/1969
Paul Stine: 10/11/1969
Cheri Jo Bates: 10/30/1966
The exact middle of a normal year is July 2nd at noon (for leap years, add twelve hours and get July 3rd)—therefore, July 4th would be less than two days past dead center. And so, the Clock Face Calendar’s first (clockwise) X marks July 4th as accurately as the average human hand could hope to with the one-chance-only aspect of using a permanent pen; as the relatively small circle is invisibly divided into three hundred sixty-five equal sections, the difference from one day to the next would be almost imperceptible to the human eye.
Moreover, the three-quarter mark of a normal year occurs during the evening of October 1st—and so, the Clock Face Calendar’s third X perfectly fits what the code demands for the murder of Paul Stine.
Written by the Zodiac Killer after the Lake Berryessa attack, the hyphen [-] beside “6:30” literally blends time with date.
(This is an image of the Bus Bomb Letter’s second of six pages, hence “2/6” in the top-right corner.)
Let’s call the Clock Face Calendar’s code the “Except One” code because that seems to be what the Zodiac Killer called it; like the Clock Face Calendar, the phrase “except one” appears in the Bus Bomb Letter (see image above). "Except one” works as an allusion to the code because its only exception involves the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, which in real-world time is chronologically first—or number one—of the five attacks marked on the Clock Face Calendar.
Also, the phrase “except one” is followed by a nonsense symbol (as underlined with green in the previous image)—and because the context of what precedes and follows it would be the best clue to its reason for being, the nonsense symbol draws attention to the phrase “except one” and the statement “it was bought out of the state.”
“It was bought out of the state” likely has (at least) two purposes: 1) It’s probably a lie designed to get the cops looking in the wrong places, and 2) all things considered, it seems to comment on the Clock Face Calendar’s treatment of Cheri Jo Bates’ murder—saying that it’s “out of the [normal] state” of the code.
Another clue to unlocking the Clock Face Calendar’s “Except One” code is the Bus Bomb Letter’s postmark date of 11/9 (in 1969); 11 + 9 (the postmark’s month plus its day) = 20, and the 20th of December is the day of the first canonical Zodiac Killer attack—while 11 – 9 (the postmark’s month minus its day) = 2, and the 2nd of December is marked on the Clock Face Calendar as the manipulated date of the same attack. The logic works as follows.
11 ± 9 = 20 or 2.
Therefore, 20 and 2 are interchangeable.
In other words, 20 = 2.
And so, December 20th = December 2nd.
To sum up, the Bus Bomb Letter contains the Clock Face Calendar—and its postmark date of 11/9 arithmetically indicates that the “Except One” code is real.
More evidence that the “Except One” Code is real can be found in the Paul Stein Letter; with uncanny subtlety, it foreshadows the Clock Face Calendar’s X-mark for the date of his murder.
This is a cropped image of the Paul Stein Letter. In it, the famous line “This is the Zodiac speaking” has at least one but probably two undotted lowercase I’s; an undotted lowercase I looks exactly like the number 1–therefore, two of them would look like the number 11. Fittingly, the 11th of October was “last night (when the murder of Paul Stein [’the taxi driver’] took place).”
The Paul Stein Letter has another undotted lowercase I in the word “taxi,” which gives it a total of two or three undotted lowercase I’s along with the one or two from “This is the Zodiac speaking.” Fittingly, three digit 1s occur in 10/11–the month and day of Paul Stein’s murder. And so—whether the Paul Stein Letter contains two undotted lowercase I’s or three, the end result works as an allusion to the date of his murder; two would constitute 11 for the 11th of October, while three would constitute the three 1s in 10/11.
In other words, the Paul Stein Letter uses undotted lowercase I’s as Dual Characters—that is, they are each the letter I and the number 1 at the same time. Uncannily, another Zodiac Killer-related document does virtually the same thing; as explained in Blog Post #5, the Desktop Poem has a Dual Character that is both an undotted lowercase I and a slash mark [/] at the same time—an i/slash. To make a long story short, the i/slash is a sinister play on words that comments on how the author of the Desktop Poem stabbed (or will stab) Cheri Jo Bates to death.
And the undotted lowercase I’s in the Paul Stein Letter make a larger statement as well.
If Undotted I and Undotted I = 11th of October,
then Undotted I = 1st of October.
And so, taxi’s X-Undotted I = X-1st of October.
X-1st of October works as a description for the X-mark that represents the murder of Paul Stein on the Clock Face Calendar; even though his murder happened on October 11th, it is X-marked as October 1st because of the “Except One” code.
Above is an image of a map the Zodiac Killer sent with the “Buttons” Letter on 6/26/1970. Its hand-drawn circle represents the Clock Face Calendar; just as the circle has an arrow pointing to the number 0, the Clock Face Calendar starts at 0—resulting in January’s being represented by “hour” 0 instead of “hour” 1. . . . In other words, a year has twelve months just as a clock face has twelve hours—but the beginning of the year starts at month 1 (January) unlike a clock face, which starts at hour 12 (noon or midnight); to rectify this discrepancy, the Clock Face Calendar starts at 0:00 instead of 12:00. The result is that January is hour 0, February is hour 1—and so on.
By the way, the 0:00 start is why the middle of the Clock Face Calendar year occurs at 6:00 even though—in reality—it occurs early in the 7th month (July).
The Clock Face Calendar was not properly interpreted for over fifty years because of its 0:00 start and its “Except One” code. Simple as that.
As its nomenclature alludes to, the Clock Face Calendar is nothing more than the cross-and-circle insignia for Zodiac brand watches with five Xs along the circle.
(By the way, Zodiac brand watches well predate the Zodiac Killer case.)
Fittingly, a Timex watch with a broken wristband was found conspicuously near the body of Cheri Jo Bates. Its damaged state is indicative of her having put up a good fight against her attacker. But the killer could have purposely left the watch as a way to foreshadow the Clock Face Calendar and also how he would become the Zodiac Killer (again, because the Zodiac cross-and-circle insignia first appeared on watches)—knowing it would seem to have been accidentally lost during his struggle with Cheri Jo Bates.
The watch was found very close to Cheri Jo’s body. . . . As the images above show, the exact location was between two houses and not far from trees, shrubbery, and another structure (perhaps a garage or workshop). . . . Because the area was practically surrounded by big things, it was likely shielded from the wind.
A leaf was positioned very near the watch left behind by the killer. That could be by chance—or it could be a visual pun (like those described in Blog Post #5): By one definition, leave means “to put forth leaves”; by another, it means to “cause (something or someone) to be in a particular state or position.” In other words, the leaf and the watch could together be an “I leave the watch” visual pun.
Strangely, the murderer seems to have foreshadowed how he would leave the Timex watch at the scene of the murder.
In the Desktop Poem, the words “over” and “time” are written wholly with boldface lettering; “die” probably is as well. “it” (the first word in the third row underneath the Boldface “over”) would be another case of a Boldface Handwritten Word if the sideways mark on its T were thicker. . . . I would say that “oh” from the line “oh well” is written wholly in boldface—except the O in “oh” more so resembles a C upon close inspection.
“ch” are the first two letters in Cheri; “oh” rhymes with Jo. And so, the ambiguous letter may be intended as a C-O Dual Letter (like the Dual Letters described in Blog Post #4) that alludes to the name Cheri Jo (when coupled with the H that follows it).
“time” is one of three or so words written wholly with boldface lettering throughout the Desktop Poem—and boldface lettering would be difficult to produce on a wooden surface. . . . As explained in previous blog posts, the Emboldened Eye (underlined with green in the second image above) aka the O/Eye Image is crucial in interpreting the Zodiac Killer documents. And so—when it comes to the Desktop Poem, boldface lettering seems to be used for a typical purpose: emphasis.
Cutting to the chase, the Boldface “time” seems to foreshadow how the Timex watch will be left at the scene of Cheri Jo’s murder. Why else would the poet go through the extra work of emboldening the whole word on a wooden surface? The answer is: to foreshadow the Clock Face Calendar as well.
The murderer of Cheri Jo Bates left the Timex watch because of the brand name; it is spelled like Time With An X. . . . In regard to the Clock Face Calendar, Time = Date—therefore, Time With An X becomes Date (Marked) With An X. In other words, Timex = Clock Face Calendar’s X Marks.
And so, the Clock Face Calendar seems to be a thematic blend of Timex and Zodiac brand watches.
Another word written wholly with boldface lettering in the Desktop Poem is “over.” To make a long story short, the Boldface “over” seems to foreshadow the “[This is] not over” visual pun described in Blog Post #5.
And seemingly, the only other word written wholly with boldface lettering in the Desktop Poem is “die” (though its “i” is arguably not substantial enough). The Boldface “die” seems to foreshadow the PIE or DIE dilemma described in Blog Post #4.
(If you want to better understand what comes next in this blog post, you have the option of watching the Tom Voigt YouTube video at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mPBH0AXaFc&t=529s. It is the same video linked in Blog Post #4.)
“I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by Washington St and Maple St last night.”
Paul Stine (the “taxi driver”) was murdered on the corner of Washington and Cherry—not Washington and Maple; Cherry St. becomes peculiar by not being mentioned.
(The Zodiac Killer mailed out the Dripping Pen Card less than a month after the murder of Paul Stein. . . . If its red ink represents blood, then its phrase “washed my pen” represents murder.)
“Washington and Cherry” is what I will call a Homophonic Rearrangement Puzzle; (after “ington” is dropped from Washington) the sh-sound from Wash and the ch-sound from Cherry get switched and you’re (homophonically) left with “Watch and Cheri.”
Maple St. is mentioned because of the instantly recognizable shape of a maple leaf.
And so, Washington, Maple, and Cherry = Watch, Leaf, and Cheri.
(Out of consideration for your eyes, I blocked out Cheri Jo’s body with the red and green marks.) In the words of her killer, it was about time.
And now it’s time for me to make a general statement about this website: If you’re having difficulty wrapping your mind around the idea that such uncannily subtle things are intended to be clues in a serial killer case, please try to remember that real and surreal are not mutually exclusive. . . . It is surreal to imagine that a serial killer dressed up in an executioner’s outfit, tied up two people, and stabbed them—but it happened. In broad daylight. One of them died.
Her execution is marked as 9/2 on the Clock Face Calendar.
