A lot of speculation has been going around that the Zodiac might have used a few comic books as his inspiration for the creation of his Halloween card. He had created a code within the Halloween Card taunting that his name could be found probably within the bones of the skeletons.

“I feel it in my bones. You ache to know my name, And so I’ll clue you in… …But then why spoil the game!”

The card was originally sent to the reporter Paul Avery on October 27th 1970.

Learn more about the Halloween card here.

But how are comic books connected to this card? What drew people to this conclusion?

Let’s look into one of Paul Avery’s news articles.

I decided to look up Paul Avery’s articles that he had written before the Halloween card. I had found one that got my attention. It was written almost exactly one year before the Halloween card was sent to him directly.

The thing that got my attention about this article is that Paul Avery mentions comic strips and associates the Zodiac Killer with them.

So we know Zodiac would read these articles. And since Avery had already mentioned comic strips and the like it would not be too far of a stretch if Zodiac then decided to use comics for his creations like the Halloween card which was sent directly to Avery one year after this article was published. The idea was already being circulated in the general public. So it was already a thought in many peoples minds.

San Fransisco Chronicle – October 24th 1969 Halloween Card – October 27th 1970

In the clipping it says that the Zodiac is not the zodiac from the comic strip. Maybe for his Halloween card he used certain comics that he thought did give us a clue to who he is. Could this be a connection? Could Paul Avery have given the Zodiac Killer the idea to use comic books to clue us into his identity?

It’s interesting to think that he may have been taunting Avery due to the article he had written about comic strips and sent him a card that is connected to certain comics to help break the code without cluing him into it. Maybe he thought he could connect those dots?

Let’s see what links and information we can find to this comic book theory.

Tahoe27 originally found the connection between the Halloween card and the Lady Doom comic book and posted it to Zodiackiller.com found here.

Let’s look at the Tim Holt issue #30 Lady Doom comic book.

Front Page of Issue #30 Lady Doom Comic

This comic has been linked to the Halloween card by the similarities of the death wheel and the back of the Halloween card.

“Death by Gun, Death by Knife, Death by Fire, Death by Rope”

Back of Halloween Card

The character Red Mask is also linked due to the red mask placed onto the skeletons face inside the Halloween card.

The way the initials of the artist are demonstrated also play a role of similarity.

Notice how the 4 dots within the Halloween card match the shape of the center of the artists initials. The only difference is they are upside down. But they are both in the center. The F is obvious and the only one that is a question is the upside down L.

Is this comic book artist signature a clue to de-coding Zodiac’s signature?

Frank W. B olle is the Comic Book Artist.

Could this name be a link to Zodiac’s name?

The name Frank/ Francis has come up consistently with all of my research.

If you have read any of my previous posts then you know that the names Jack and John keep popping up every time I research most of the clues Zodiac has left us within his cards and letters. The name Frank is also one that pops up over and over and I’ve started seeing George now and again as well as names similar to Bannan.

The comic is also about Lady Doom and in the Halloween card Zodiac wrote in white paint around the eye that is staring at the red masked skeleton.

“PEEK-A-BOO YOU ARE DOOMED!”

Doom being the linking word in similarity.

It is also linked due to the Issue number of the comic book itself. Issue No. 30 which that number is also found on the hand of the skeleton.

Found within Issue No. 14 of Tim Holt’s comic series on page 11 – 3rd down on the strip (113) is almost the same hand gesture.

Tim Holt’s Issue No. 14 cover page and page #2 can also be considered similar due to there being two characters shown in the comic as well as the two skeletons on the Halloween Card.

Even the stamp on the envelope the Halloween card was in can be linked to issue No. 30 comic book from one of the inside pages.

Major Mars – Mission to Venus

Here are my findings on the Apollo 8 stamp.

Researching Apollo 8

Automatically I saw the name Frank show up along with all of the same first initials and last initial that match the names.

Members Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, William Anders

Frank Borman was the pilot similar to Major Mars role in the comic book.

When I first connected these clues together I immediately thought of the name I had already decoded in The Halloween card which was extremely similar to this one.

Let’s take a look at one of my finished code work pages from the Halloween Card

The Initials F.B. are the same as well as the first names. The last names are just slightly different. “Frank Borman vs. Frankie Bannan”

So the Apollo 13 mission was launched on April 11th of 1970. It just so happens that the Halloween Card was received on October 27th 1970. The events of the Apollo 13 mission were current big news of the time. So seeing an Apollo 8 stamp would instantly trigger you to think about the Apollo 13 mission that had just failed.

Was the Zodiac sending this stamp as a clue to both missions to clue us into these names? Or are these all just strange coincidences?

Apollo 13 mission.

Jack Swigert was the pilot.

His real name was John Leonard “Jack” Swigert Jr.

Take a deeper look at the Zodiac stamps findings from a previous post here.

The whole Issue #30 comic book following the Lady Doom strip is riddled with many interesting things that can support many of the Zodiacs personality quirks. It almost seems to be a criminals handbook for ideas and ways to fool people and get away with murder.

The man of 1000 faces for instance.

Notice the artist Frank Bolle wrote his name this time instead of just his initials.

Within this issue he describes how he can fool people with disguises and how he has learned to forge other peoples handwriting.

Now that we have seen some of the connections for this comic book and how they link with the Halloween card…let’s look into the history of the character of Red Mask.

I came across an interesting blog by Western Comics Adventures. (Author unknown)

“When Tim Holt #19 came out in 1950, the last page of the comic asked the question…” Who is this man? “…when #20 came out two months later, the readers found out who the masked man was…”

“Many Western movie and tv stars had self-titled comics that played on the conceit that the actors actually were Western characters! But this was the only series that a “reel-life” Westerner assumed a masked identity he hadn’t played on the silver screen…” The masked identity became so popular that almost every cover from #20 onward featured the masked hero, and the book was re-titled Red Mask with #42!”

I would think Zodiac probably grew up reading all of these comics and probably was a big fan of westerns as well.

So let’s assume Zodiac used this comic book character to clue us into who he is. The character “Red Mask” is now linked to a real person “Tim Holt”.

Back in those days it seems they wanted people to believe that the characters portrayed were their actual identity. So Tim Holt is Red Mask in real life which is the message they are sending.

But who is Tim Holt

So Tim Holt’s actual name is Charles John “Tim” Holt III.

Tim Holt’s fathers name is “Jack” Holt. Let’s take a look.

It would seem that both father and son have the same exact name (Charles John Holt) but they are also both more known by a nickname instead. One is known as Tim and the other as Jack. Both are very famous stars and they have even been together in films.

The Arizona Raider is a 1948 Western starring Tim Holt and his father Jack, the only movie where they co-starred. RKO head of production Dore Schary, impressed by the Holts being in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, gave the film a bigger budget than Holt Westerns normally received.[5] It was also known as The Arizona Ranger.

Now that we have uncovered the identity of the Red Mask, let’s look at the other comic book believed to be associated with the Halloween card.

The September-October 1943 Red Ryder Comic #15 as well as the 1952 Red Ryder Paint Book.

The Red Ryder comic is about a character called Red Ryder and his sidekick Little Beaver. The artist is known as Fred Harman.

Fred Harman (February 9, 1902 – January 2, 1982) was an American artist, best known for his popular Red Ryder comic strip, which he drew for 25 years, reaching 40 million readers through 750 newspapers. Harman sometimes used the pseudonym Ted Horn.

These two comics are also said to be used as the Zodiac’s inspiration for the Halloween Card. The main reason is due to the symbol on the covers of these two comics. It is almost identical to the Zodiac Killers signature on the Halloween Card except these ones have a line on the bottom. But when you look at the envelope the Halloween card was sent in the Z is in the right spot to make that extra line.

Top left image: Halloween card signature from inside of the card. Right image: Envelope the Halloween card was in. Two bottom left images: Red Ryder Comic Symbols.

Top: Halloween Card Signature Bottom Two: Red Ryder Comic Symbols Signature on the Envelope of Zodiac’s Halloween Card

So now that we see the same similar symbol, the question is what does it mean?

In the context of the comic book it is known as a Cattle brand.

The symbol is known as the Flying VF Bar Cattle Brand

More info

It is commonly called the Flying VF bar. It is also referred to as representing the Big Dipper constellation. It is also said to be the name of the current ranch owner Vincent Fontana. However Vincent Fontana did not own the ranch in the Zodiac era. It was then owned by Jon Clark Cummings, who also used this brand. The Flying VF brand was registered in 1941. A comment by JudgeJudy on Zodiackiller.com

It is interesting that the name John comes up again. He was the owner of the ranch with the Flying VF Bar Cattle Brands in those days. Another clue maybe? (I still need to find the sources for this.)

In terms of the Zodiac’s Halloween Card creation, the signature is slightly different than this cattle brand.

Another thing that can be considered similar is the negative space within the bottom part of the RR symbol directly above the Flying V.F. Bar Cattle Brand.

The negative space makes a similar shape to that of the 4 dots in the Halloween Card signature. Remember Frank Bolle’s signature in the other comic book with the W? Could this be another clue that the dots are supposed to be lines?

Another similarity is the number 14 or 41.

The Indian is pointing North East after the number 41.

Could this maybe be a clue for directions on a road as well as reversing the numbers? 30 is in the hand of the skeleton as well as the 14.

Place the numbers together then reverse the 14 and it ends up being 4130.

If you reverse this number as a whole you get 0314 the equivalent for PI. Which is found all over the Halloween card. It’s even written within the wrist of one of the skeletons.

Another similarity was the circled symbol that looks as if it could be an axe or the letter T on the Red Ryder Paint Book. If you look closely into one of the skeletons left eye in the Halloween card you can see a T written within in a circle.

I also noticed there is a tent and a broken arrow next to this symbol.

It makes me wonder if this is a victim of the Zodiac killers. Maybe a child or a boy-scout was killed in a tent by an arrow, knife or even an axe who’s first name starts with a T. The fact that the letter T is within the skeletons eye could mean that the boy was last seen in the eye of the killer….the skeleton representing one of the murderers.

I also noticed that the same skeleton is holding up his hand in the shape of a lowercase b which is right next to the T. So initials could be T.B.

The reason I bring this up is due to some of my first work on the Halloween card. I had actually found a code within the card and broke it. I found not one but two full names/ two killers who appear to be family related with the same last name. This is what lead me on a goose chase to finding all the same names many times over within all the clues Zodiac has sent in his correspondences .

I also found directions within the code to a certain location. The starting location given was S.E. PA, Paradise. I will not go into the full logistics of the entire code and how it works. But here is a very small piece from my original work. It was done through a chronological method of matching letters, numbers and imagery similar to a card game like rummy but also different. Notice how the letters in SECRET PAL are all in big caps the same as how Zodiac wrote the back of the card message PARADiCE / SLAVES.

As I followed the directions I had decoded they lead me to a church where I had later found out a boy who was on a camping trip had been stabbed multiple times within his tent. The case is still unsolved. His initials are T.B. and the murder happened exactly six months and one day before the Halloween card was received. This would have given Zodiac ample time to create a well laid out coded card as well as deliver it on the 6 month anniversary of the killing.

The church also had many different kinds of art and symbolism that are extremely similar to the imagery in the Halloween card.

The church is known as St. Basil the Great.

And this is Saint Basil. (Notice the hands.)

Was this church artistry and the monarch’s used to help inspire and create the Halloween Card?

The camping trip brought up the memory of Tim Holt’s issue No. 14 Comic book on page 11 – 3 down where they mention a camp on this specific page directly next to the hand symbol. Also noted is they are in unfamiliar territory known as vagrants.

Another interesting thing was the hand imagery and directions S.E. of PA, Paradise matched the hand with the 14 reversed. (Directions starting at Highway I – 1 (1 Eye circled) then to 41 then to 30)

Remember how I had placed these numbers in this order 4130 reversed 0314 or 3.14

4-TEEN = 413. Maybe a clue to the order in the directions.

Note that the hand symbol also resembles 3.14 as well.

However the directions did not lead into Paradise. It was just the place that was shown within the Halloween card as the first location to look for. A more in depth look at this may be a post for another day. But I will say that it was up one big thirteenth. (113) Which coincidentally I found out this number is also linked to the number 3.14.

The Issue No. 14 Tim Holt comic also had this story within it on page 26 and 27. The imagery of tents at the top labeled “The Young Warrior”.

Another thing to note is this boy was stabbed four times. (4-TEEN)

As of right now this is all speculation, but it is a strange and very bizarre path that I have found. Maybe one day we will find out if there is any truth in this. Until then all we can do is speculate and ask the question “what if…?”.

I’m sure there are probably a few more things that are similar within this comic book to the Halloween card but lets start looking at the characters of the comic book now.

About the Red Ryder Comic Book Characters

Astride his mighty steed Thunder, Red was a tough cowpoke who lived on Painted Valley Ranch in the Blanco Basin of the San Juan Mountain Range with his aunt, the Duchess, and his juvenile Native-American sidekick, Little Beaver, who rode his horse, Papoose, when they took off to deal with the bad guys. Little Beaver spoke in the pidgin English now considered an offensive caricature (for example: “Spinach heap good. Me like’m!”). Other notable characters were ranch hand Buckskin Blodgett, Red’s gal pal Beth, and bad guy Ace Hanlon.

So now for the question… who was Red Ryder?

Jim Bannon was who portrayed Red Ryder’s character in film. He was also well known for his most prominent acting role for being a detective called Jack.

What I noticed instantly when I saw this is the last name almost matches completely with the last name I had decoded in the Halloween Card with one difference; an o instead of an a.

(Bannon / Bannan)

The other thing I noticed was his initials. which are J.B. (Jim Bannon) and that his most prominent acting role was being Detective Jack Packard.

His sons name is also Jack Bannon.

John James Bannon (June 14, 1940 – October 25, 2017) was an American television and stage actor, known as Jack Bannon.[1][2] He was best known for his role as Art Donovan on Lou Grant, a role he played for the duration of the series, from 1977 to 1982. At age 24, Bannon began working as a dialog coach on Petticoat Junction.[3] In 1963, he appeared in the Season 1 episode “Kate’s Recipe For Hot Rhubarb” of the series as Bobbie Joe’s date, Roger. In 1969, Bannon was seen again on Petticoat Junction (after his mother died in 1968) appearing as “Buck” in the episode “One of Our Chickens Is Missing”.[4] Bannon’s signature role was that of Art Donovan on Lou Grant. The actor’s film career included What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969)

Are these more coincidences and are they linked?

Perhaps Zodiac did use these comic books for his inspiration to create his Halloween card. Maybe he wanted us to find them and find the links. Or perhaps he didn’t think we would ever find them and he got off on never being able to be caught even though the clues were placed. It makes you think though.

I definitely see many similarity’s. And in my opinion I believe he used techniques of hiding things in plain site with multiple meanings using imagery similar to that of other things to help us make a connection. It draws our eye from one place to the next. Artists have been using this process for a very long time. And isn’t that what the zodiac is in a way; an artist?

Please remember that I had originally found all of these names as well as the directions through a code within the Halloween Card on it’s own without looking into these comic books and the clues within.

I only started finding out later how they may be connected. While not everyone will agree with my theories at least the information is here laid out for people to view and ponder over. The Halloween card and comic are not the only places these names keep popping up. There are many more through Zodiac’s correspondences.

In my next post I will be taking a closer look at the Dripping Pen Card Zodiac sent. Did you know dripping pens link back to the same names?

Pen leakage Meanwhile, many inventors turned their attention to the problem of leakage.[20] Some of the earliest solutions to this problem came in the form of a “safety” pen with a retractable point that allowed the ink reservoir to be corked like a bottle. The most successful of these came from Francis C. Brown of the Caw’s Pen and Ink Co. and from Morris W. Moore of Boston.[21] In 1898, George Safford Parker released the Parker Jointless, named so because its barrel was single-piece to prevent leakage. The section assembly fit into the pen’s end like a cork stopper; any leaked ink was kept inside the nib.[22] In 1908, Waterman began marketing a popular safety pen of its own.[23] For pens with non-retractable nibs, the adoption of screw-on caps with inner caps that sealed around the nib by bearing against the front of the section effectively solved the leakage problem (such pens were also marketed as “safety pens”, as with the Parker Jack Knife Safety and the Swan Safety Screw-Cap).[24][25]

If you feel that I missed something that should be added to this blog please leave a comment. I will update with things that are needed.

If you would like to see a more in depth look at how the comic books help to unlock the Halloween card signature please take a look at a previous blog here.

A few links to Jack.

A few links to George – This is a name that can also link with the Halloween card.

Links to Frank – I have not written this blog quite yet as Frank comes up allot but here is an added link to the name Frank from the stamp on the envelope of the Halloween Card.