Some investigators have hypothesized that Cheri Josephine Bates was an early — possibly the first — victim of the Zodiac Killer, and that this individual may have originated in Riverside before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area. The theory is strongly rejected by the Riverside Police Department and has never been conclusively proven.
Points cited in support
- The Cheri Jo Bates desk poem and the Cheri Jo Bates 1967 letters, whose language and handwriting were said to resemble the Zodiac letters.
- The perpetrator’s practice of writing to police and press with withheld murder details, similar to the Zodiac.
- Claimed similarities between the Bates murder and the Lake Berryessa attack of September 1969, which is attributed to the Zodiac.
Expert claims
According to journalist Paul Avery and handwriting expert Sherwood Morrill, on 1970-11-16 the desk inscription and the 1967 letters were “unquestionably” written by the same person who wrote the Zodiac letters.
Zodiac’s own claim
In a letter dated 1971-03-13 to the Los Angeles Times, the Zodiac claimed responsibility for the Bates murder, writing that police deserved “credit for stumbling across my Riverside activity” but were “only finding the easy ones,” adding “There are a hell of a lot more down there.”
Conflicting accounts
While Avery and Morrill asserted a handwriting match, the RPD remained unconvinced and continues to reject the Zodiac connection. DNA profiling reportedly indicated a Caucasian male killer but did not match the department’s surviving person of interest, and the case remains unsolved.