17a. My Name is…KMAK

XA, GK, RM, LK

The Zodiac Phillips 66 Map (sent with the Buttons Z32 letter 06/26/70) gives us these instructions:

Orient the Zodiac symbol cross to magnetic north, which at the time was 17° to the East of Map North. Or, as I’ve done here, orient the map itself to Mag N.

The Radians are the crosshairs. And there may be a Radian revealed in the 32 letter cipher. Richard Grinell reveals a possible Radian in San Francisco as does my own Z32 solution (see below).

Placing the crime scenes in ‘inches along the Radians’ and noting the weapon used at the crimes within each 6.4 mile ring (one inch on the Phillips 66 map) gives us information about the Zodiac’s territory. Anything inside the black circle is ‘By Gun’. His logic is supported by a reading of the Z symbol as crosshairs of a target.

The earlier 3/22/70 Kathleen Johns abduction crime scene (the burning of her car) gives us the ring of ‘By Fire’. The bomb will be placed somewhere within this ring, but as he indicates it might be stored anywhere in the Z territory.

Anything beyond is ‘By Knife’. These are the personal murders of loose canon Kane, the knife wielder. His murders are being lumped into the Zodiac story by the letter writer/gun man- the leader of a group as suggested by the ‘Wheel of Doom’. The lead man had his roots and possibly a secret life within the black circle territory. Kane was also sent by this man to destroy Johns’ car for the insurance but he did so in a most unorthodox manner.

The letter writer and central figure of this bunch who were conducting criminal activities is also revealing an even more specific base of operations as Grinell has hypothesized. The instructions place the zero degree or Aries point at the Mag N point. The intersection of the innermost circle and the Mag N line places him at or near Pittsburg, Ca.

Solutions for the 13 Symbol Name Cipher

revealing the identities of a foursome:

Xenophon Anthony: participant or patsy

Lawrence Kane: loose cannon Kane- mid life crisis: if they didn’t go with him he would kill them instead

K & M: Real Estate development and Casino partners Karadanis and Maloff

In Gematria, Greek version, according to Richard Grinnell, 888 represents Jesus. Who couldn’t use a little help from Jesus?

Kane’s employer in South Lake Tahoe at the time of the Donna Lass disappearance was Robert Maloff. The company name was HKM but there was a close relationship between the 2 partners Maloff and *George Karadanis, a Greek American contractor who’d grown up in Pitsburg, right across the water from Vallejo and Benicia. Mount Diablo looms over Pittsburg, Ca where George had attended high school and met his wife until moving to Tahoe in the early 50s. Karadanis developed and built motels and other properties in at least 3 States: Arizona, California and Nevada. He had business in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Sacramento, Tahoe and Reno. The close partnership with Maloff started sometime in the late 50’s. Pittsburg family and other ties may have kept George closely attached to his old stomping grounds there.

I believe Karadanis and Kane (‘the shake and shingle man’) had been working together constructing motels and other properties at least since 1966, and that it was Karadanis who sent Kane to work with his partner Maloff in South Lake Tahoe in 1970. He may have sent Donna Lass to Maloff as well. There was a long term relationship between Kane and Maloff especially after Kane settled in Reno. *Thanks to Zodiacciphers commenter Robin Smith, a Tahoe insider, for bringing attention to the Karadanis name.

George Karadanis’ birthday was December 26th, and he may have had a messianic complex as displayed in some of the letters and cards. Born in 1930 he would have been within the Zodiac age range. After 1974, George moved most of his focus from Tahoe, Sacramento and parts beyond to Reno, Nv where he developed, built and managed a large casino, The Sundowner, with partner Maloff. They still maintained Tahoe properties, however.

In 1974 the last confirmed letter from Zodiac was received, coincidently.

Engineer Karadanis certainly had the intelligence to pull off the ciphers. He had been an executive for Shell Chemical in Martinez before starting his own business. With his Greek cultural heritage he is likely to have understood Bible Gematria as investigated by Richard Grinell, and more likely to have known Greek American Xenophon Anthony. It begs the question- was the Zodiac symbol a Greek Cross? I believe Karadanis wrote the letters and committed the gun murders as shown on the map above and covered for Kane’s knife murders. He also had Xenophon Anthony assist him in committing the Stine murder as it was on the edge of his ‘territory. The bloody shirt was needed to send as evidence in order to quash any doubts in the media as to whether the construct- ‘Zodiac’-was killing and sending the related letters. There may have been another motive for the killing of Stine- drug dealing perhaps.

Karadanis was disappointed in Anthony’s performance in the Presidio Heights SF crime, supposed to look like a cabby robbery, and almost outed him in the Z340 Cipher. I believe all of the Z victims were known to Karadanis.

Karadanis’ contracting activities may have taken him to Riverside. It would be interesting to know if Kane was working with him on the renovation of houses on the Riverside College Campus where Cheri Jo Bates was attending school, or on construction projects in Loma Linda, where Cecelia Shepard was attending school. He may have run in the same circles there with Greek American Xenophon Anthony, who was in LA up until ’65 or ’66.

The collecting of ‘slaves’ for Paradise/Paradice/Paradise, Nevada may have literally been just that. Karadanis and crew may have been conducting what we now call sex trafficking for the benefit of Las Vegas high rollers. Cheri Jo Bates might have been just one of their abductions gone horribly wrong thanks to brain damaged handler Kane losing his cool.

Karadanis wrote the first letter as a cover. Gradually over time ‘The Zodiac’ evolved- out of the necessity to cover drug, money laundering, sex trafficking and the personal Kane knife murders. They may have created Z to blame their murders on an imaginary serial killer who’s killing would seem so arbitrary as to be untraceable and unfathomable.