Zodiac The French/Canadian Connection

The more I have studied the Zodiac case and read the many Police/FBI reports as well as reading the variety of Investigators who all have their own websites, which you can find on my Bibliography page. I came to the conclusion that Zodiac may have had a French/Canadian Connection.

The Letter which caught my attention more than any other is the Scotch Tape Letter. The Scotch Tape letter was sent July the 19th 1978 to San Francisco Chronicle and as far as I am aware is an Unconfirmed Zodiac Letter due to the controversy surrounding Inspector Toschi's removal from the Zodiac case around this time.

Inspector Toschi had been caught sending fake fan mail to writer Armistad Maupin in 1976 which Toschi admitted to, Maupin made allegations regarding Toschi and some of the Zodiac Letters, but no evidence has ever come to light that Inspector Toschi did anything untoward regarding the Zodiac case. It is my opinion that Inspector Toschi worked the Zodiac case for many years, honestly, never giving up and doubt that he would jeopardize the case in anyway. I have reason to believe the Letter was from Zodiac and that it does reveal something more about the killer.

The Scotch Tape Letter was typewritten and reads as follows -

"I am the ZODIAC and I am in control of all things. I am going to tell you a secret. I like friction tape. I like to have it around in case I need to truss someone up in a hurry....I have my real name on a small metallic tape. You see, while you have it in your possession, I want you to know it belongs to me and you think I may have left it accidentally. I am athletic. It could be swim fins, or a piece of scuba gear. But maybe you play chess with me. I have several cheap sets in closets all over. I have my name on the bottom of the lid with the scotch tape....My tape is waiting for me all over California. Do you know me? I am the ZODIAC and I am in control".

One of Zodiac's claims is that his name can be found on the bottom of the Scotch Tape tin. If we look at the Vintage Scotch Tape tin we can see that it reads St Pauls, Minnesota, I also found one which says France, Minnesota. Many think it could point to the name Paul and though I believe Zodiac did give us his name I think the message he was also sending here was of his origins. There is also another clue above to Zodiac's French connection.

Zodiac states "It could be swim fins, or a piece of scuba gear." I found it an interesting statement to make so went searching and found out all about swim fins and scuba gear. Turns out that the first fins/flippers were found in the 1920's by the bold adventurers of the French Mediterranean Coasts. By the 1930's Commercial and Military Diving had a firm presence but the only available apparatus were crude goggles and Corlieu Fins, these were hard to come by though and many divers made their own home made equipment.

It was in 1914 that Frenchman Louis de Corlieu made the first public demonstrations of his fins or “propulseurs de nage” as he called them. Being a Lieutenant Commander in the French Navy, he wanted to display the effectiveness of his invention to his colleagues.

Another young adventurer on the scene was Jacques Cousteau. Cousteau explains that he began diving as a hunter. In the 1930s, he and his close companions Frederic Dumas and Philippe Tailliez, speared fish – some weighing more than 120 kg/280 lbs. Eventually their purpose for diving began to stray from hunting and they found themselves drawn to the sea’s mysteries, wanting to explore the last frontier on Earth. Cousteau wanted a better breathing apparatus not so much to go deeper but to be able to stay down there longer, trying out several pure oxygen devices used by the military and compressed air devices but none suited their purpose.

In 1942, Cousteau brought Emile Gagnan into the picture. Gagnan wasn’t a scuba diver, but a compressed gas engineer. Cousteau asked Gagnan to design a compressed air device that would deliver air at the surrounding water pressure only when the diver inhales. Gagnan did so, and after a few test devices and minor modifications, he and Cousteau patented the world’s first open-circuit scuba regulator, the Aqua-Lung.

So as you can see so far Zodiac appears to be pointing us towards the French connection. That the Scotch Tape and Swim Fins/Scuba Gear should originate the same message pointing to France caught my attention as I had already looked into the Minnesota Mining Company and knew there was a connection there also with France and Canada.

A theme in Zodiac's communications that shows up on occasion is his likeness for the Old West with Zodiac's wheel of death often regarded as taken from the 1930's Actor Tim Holt's western Films and Comics that became popular throughout the 1940's/50's.

The Scotch Tape Letter's link to the Minnesota Mining Company got me thinking about the Mining aspect of Paradise in California. I had been looking over the Old Maps of Paradise and Chico in California and knew the area played an important part of the Californian Gold Rush so began looking into the history of the area.

The first European people to arrive in California were of French origin, some were British, German and Italians also followed but due to the Revolution in France, 1849 seen a great number of French people arrive in their search for Gold in the California Hills. They became known as the 49ers which in turn rhymes with miners possibly a clue to look into the mines further?

So again I thought Zodiac was leading us to the French Connection which in turn led me to look more into Minnesota and it's origins where I also found early settlers in the 17th century were French Fur traders, there is also an area that was established by the French in County Hennepin named after a Franciscan Missonary b.1640 who had been part of the La Salle Expedition.

The fur trade business began to die out due to beaver becoming scarce and control of industry by the Hudson Bay Company, early French Canadians in the fur trade business began to establish farming as their livelihood in Minnesota. The city of St. Paul began from once such early French Canadian settlement.

Due to the Scotch tape letter inferring St Pauls, Minnesota Mining, the Scuba gear and fins was Zodiac telling us he had French Canadian roots? I think so. Minnesota was also rich in minerals and many mines were also established, is there a connection to mines for Zodiac or did he just ride all over the old gold towns of California because he loved the Old Wild West? There is also the possibility that the mines represented Zodiac's fondness of bomb blasts which would occur all the time in Mining operations.

I know many will say it's not a confirmed Zodiac Letter so can we really take any of this into account but Handwriting Analysis is not an exact science regarding the Envelope in which the letter was sent and as for Typewritten documents there are many aspects which determine if they can be forensically linked to other Zodiac letters. The allegations against Inspector Toschi were just that and he would later be exonerated. Many believe this to be real Zodiac Letter but as far as I am aware Law Enforcement have kept it as not an Authentic Zodiac Letter.

I for one find it intriguing that the Scotch Tape Letter infers a relationship to France and possibly Canada and when we link it to the California Gold Rush 49ers, which also points to France I think it's an area worth looking into regarding Zodiac's origins.