The 408-symbol cipher a schoolteacher solved — and what it said about the afterlife

The 408-symbol cipher sat in the newspaper office, a grid of letters and shapes that looked like a child's game.

A Vallejo schoolteacher and his wife worked on it in their spare time, according to the record of the case.

They solved it.

The decrypted message claimed the killer was collecting slaves for the afterlife.

That was the boast on the front page.

The cipher was one of several taunting letters and cryptograms sent to the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, and the Vallejo Times-Herald.

Each arrived with a claim of responsibility, a threat of more violence.

The schoolteacher's solution gave the public its first clear look at the killer's stated motive.

It is a statement from the cipher, not a proven fact.

The identity of the killer is not established.

No one was ever charged with the murders.

The letters kept coming for years, and the case never closed.

What kind of man writes that down in code and mails it to a newspaper?

What kind of man waits for someone to read it?

What kind of man calls the afterlife a collection?

That would require evidence.

It never arrived.

THE ATTACKS

The first attack came on a lovers' lane near Benicia.

Two teenagers were shot there on December 20, 1968.

A .22-caliber pistol was used.

The second attack came in Vallejo on July 4, 1969.

Two people were shot in a parked car.

One of them died. The other survived.

Another .22-caliber pistol.

The third attack came at Lake Berryessa in Napa County on September 27, 1969.

Two people were stabbed.

One of them died. The other survived.

A knife was used there.

The fourth attack came in San Francisco on October 11, 1969.

A taxi driver was shot.

A 9mm Luger was used.

Between December 1968 and October 1969, a serial killer later known as the Zodiac Killer murdered at least five people in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The attacks occurred in Benicia, Vallejo, Napa County, and San Francisco.

Four locations. Four weapons. Four months of escalation.

The killer drove a car in at least one attack.

The vehicle was never identified.

That is not established.

Neither is the killer's identity.