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In November of 1967, the following letter was received by the Riverside Press-Enterprise:
Note: The text below is transcribed as closely to the original as possible. Any errors, grammatical or typographical, were made by the original author. Nov 1,1967
To the Editor
Your human interest story (Oct 1,1967) about Cheri, the RCC girl
that was killed was very interesting. Perhaps a story about the boy
that killed her could be more rewarding. If people were to read of
the life of a boy that turned killer, they might stop to think about
the lives of their own children. " Are we laying the blue print for
another killer?" might be one of the questions brought to mind by
such a story.
With hope,
Patricia Hautz
Fellow Student
Was this letter sent by the Zodiac killer? Was it sent by the man who killed Cheri Jo Bates? You can view the actual letter at ZodiacKiller.com.
The webmaster of this site has located a namesake of the letter’s author. Research indicates she was living in the Riverside area at the time this letter was authored. As of this writing, the person located lives within an hour of Riverside. I can say, with a degree of certainty, that a woman named Patricia Hautz did live in the area at the time this letter was written. Of course, this person no longer goes by her maiden name. It is quite possible that she was the author of the letter. It could also be that someone wrote the letter using her name. With respect to the person’s privacy, I can post no more information at this time.
A few other researchers have knowledge of this information. Though it cannot be denied that a Patricia Hautz was living in the area, opinions differ as to the significance of a person with the same name living in the area at the time the letter was written. One thing that makles this letter suspicious to some is that it was written well over a month after the publication of the article to which it refers. Another is that no record of a Patricia Hautz was found to have attended Riverside Community College.