The Zodiac on True Crime with Aphrodite Jones - A Response

Note: This post concerns the episode that aired Thursday, April 8 on Investigation Discovery at 9:00 PM Central.

I watched Aphrodite Jones' True Crime on Investigation Discovery tonight. The episode was about the Zodiac Killer, a crime I have studied for quite some time now. Jones' guests on the show were Dennis Kaufman and Nanette Barto, who claim that the Zodiac was Jack Tarrance --Kaufman's stepfather. I think Ms. Jones coverage of the case was compelling. I think the Zodiac case deserves some serious attention and I believe that is the same goal Jones had in mind with this episode. Aphrodite Jones is good at what she does and, while I do not agree with her on many topics, I believe she is truly sincere. The episode is very well produced. It is very convincing --Aphrodite does her job well. However, I have some serious problems with the theory embraced on this episode.

Deborah Perez has been debunked, the glasses were not a match. Dennis Kaufman has also been debunked, but he still gets attention by the media. Why?

I, by means of this blog and my site ZodiacKillerTRUTH.com, have been one of the most vocal critics of Kaufman and Barto's assertions. I believe that is the reason Ms. Jones left a comment on this blog before the show aired asking us to keep an open mind.

The claim that Jack Tarrance is the Zodiac has been debunked by law enforcement, by Kaufman's own family members and other witnesses, and by myself on this blog and my website, ZodiacKillerTRUTH.com. So, it was rather disturbing to see what can only be seriously referred to as a farce created by Dennis Kaufman, being presented to the public at large once again. As I have written in a post prior to this episode's airing, those of us "in the know," that is the amateur research community, were asked to watch this episode with an open mind. No problem. I had an open mind back in 2006 when I first heard of Kaufman's claims. I gave him the benefit of the doubt back then. But, you can't believe what Dennis says and also believe the hard facts --it is just not possible. So, with all due respect to Aphrodite Jones, I must present the other side of the coin.

Most of in the Zodiac research community sincerely want to see this case solved. Many researchers even personally knew the actual victims of the Zodiac. So, while major media may present us a lot of kooks and obsessives, I think it is only fair to inform the public that this group has contributed greatly to the investigation with new discoveries and the uncovering of evidence and testimony that would otherwise be unheard of. We are a devoted group. We know the case inside and out. Many of us welcome new theories and enthusiastically research every angle and pursue every lead. This is what we did in the case of Jack Tarrance. Tarrance was not just swept aside as a suspect for no reason whatsoever. Tarrance was investigated very seriously by our community. He was an interesting suspect. He did kind of look like the composite. But, beyond that and the fact that he was just a very cruel and disgusting individual, there was just nothing there. Furthermore, the lies and the twisting of the truth on the part of Kaufman was found to be outrageous. The amount of misinformation that Dennis Kaufman and his supporters have introduced into the public domain is too large to be covered in this single post. But, what you will read here should be enough for you to cast serious doubt and take yet another look at the claims being made.

Jack Tarrance might have been a cruel person. You might not like him or the things he did. But, there is no proof whatsoever that he was connected to the Zodiac murders. There were, and still are, lots of men as mean and nasty as Jack Tarrance. I'm sure you can think of someone in particular that is just as bad. But, that does not make him the Zodiac Killer. So, please, put the innuendo and coincidence aside. Look at the evidence. Look at the facts. Look at the sources of these claims. Then ask yourself: Is there really enough here to suspect Jack Tarrance of committing the Zodiac crimes? Are the people making these claims looking to gain something from what they are telling Jones? If the FBI has confirmed this evidence, why hasn't there been a major announcement in one of the most mysterious crimes of the twentieth century?

I'm sure there are many children of abuse who see their stepfathers as "boogeymen." That doesn't make them the Zodiac. While Dennis may be able to "pinpoint" Jack's locations, as claimed in the episode, none of those locations were the Zodiac crime scenes.

Dennis Kaufman has a long history of presenting lies and exaggeration as fact. The "suspect," Jack Tarrance, isn't a new discovery. This isn't even the first time he's appeared on a major television network. Back in 2000, Kaufman came out with his story using the alias "Kenny Kilgore." He claimed back then, as he does now, that the FBI is working with him on this case.

Some of the most compelling content on this True Crime episode were the audio excerpts of Jack Tarrance's so-called confession. But, where is the audio? Can we listen to it in its unedited form as it was originally recorded? I think it would tell a different story. I can say this because Kaufman used to have this audio on his website. I've listened to it. It doesn't sound like a man confessing to the Zodiac murders. But, good editing and production can be pretty convincing.

Dennis Kaufman claims that his mother was murdered by Jack Tarrance. But, here is the death certificate right there on Dennis Kaufman's website.

Dennis claimed that Tarrance drew bomb diagrams. He even scanned and posted them on his site. The photos are actually electrical diagrams for normal, benign purposes. One is a diagram for an alternator. Another is for a defrost circuit for a freezer. Another is a circuit containing a relay. Even if you’re not familiar with electrical diagrams, it’s not that hard to decipher –the drawings are labeled in Jack Tarrance’s own writing. Nowhere on the paper do you see the words "bomb," "explosive," or anything else bomb related.

He claimed to have gruesome images of murder found on a camera belonging to Jack Tarrance. However, the only "gruesome" photo is that of Dennis's half-sister's fiance, who had fallen off of a bridge. Dennis knew who the man was, but chose to lie about it on television to make his claims seem more credible. He later admitted to the same reporter, that the photo was, indeed, that of his half-sister's boyfriend.

At one point, Dennis Kaufman announced publicly that a DNA match to the Zodiac had been made. His followers rejoiced and congratulated him, as they have every time he has made this sort of premature and unwarranted announcement. He then had to explain to his posters that he was mistaken. The results were actually found to be inconclusive.

Kaufman and Barto even claim that the FBI has said that Jack Tarrance's handwriting matches that of the Zodiac. If that is the case, why does Barto complain in an online rant that the FBI results were inconclusive? We have an excerpt of that rant below.

Dennis Kaufman is always trying to build up suspense for some new ground-breaking development that never seems to materialize. Shortly after David Fincher's movie came out, Dennis was fired up once again. He gave some old junk to the FBI and had everyone believing that the case was solved. Only it wasn't. It still isn't.

Then we have Nanette Barto, a real estate agent who took Bart Baggett's home-study course on handwriting analysis. If you remember, Baggett had a Zodiac suspect of his own that was eventually debunked. What is funny is that when Baggett announced his suspect with a press conference, Nanette Barto just happened to match up Jack Tarrance as the Zodiac, too. Wow! If you want to solve the Zodiac case yourself, maybe you should sign up for one of Bart Baggetts courses. Not only has he solved the case, but his apprentice has, too. Too bad they couldn't decide on the same guy.

Barto has matched Jack Tarrance's handwriting to that of the Zodiac. Amazing, huh? No. Not really. Not if you take into consideration that Barto has pretty much matched Tarrance's handwriting to virtually every major unsolved crime committed in the latter part of the twentieth century. One of the suspect letters she has somehow matched to Tarrance's handwriting wasn't even handwritten at all - it was a paste up of letters taken from magazines and newspapers. Yet, somehow, she has made a connection. Here's a list of all the crimes that Barto has matched to Tarrance:

• The Zodiac Killer
• The Phantom Killer of Texarkana
• The Black Dahlia Killer - This was discovered very conveniently around the time Steve Hodel released his latest book.
• The Lipstick Killer - Even though serial killer William Heirens confessed to the murders.
• The Scorpion Letters - Threatening Letters sent to John Walsh
• The I-45 Killings/League City, TX murders
• The Anthrax letters - Even though the FBI found that 2001 attacks were carried out by Bruce E. Ivins, an Army biodefense expert who killed himself in 2008.
• Other murders, too. Check out Kaufman's message board.

That's quite a list, isn't it? Somebody should let the authorities know that Barto has solved all of their crimes. Now, let's take a look at the handwriting that Barto has examined and found NOT to be that of Tarrance:

• Oops. Nothing here.

Here's Barto herself in an excerpt of a rant taken from Dennis Kaufman's message board. Even she admits the FBI doesn't take her seriously:

In November I asked Chris Hopkins (FBI) if they had checked on the whereabouts of JT's (jack Tarrance) mom and when she had resided in Chicago? We know she sold the farm in 1944, so when did she move into Chicago? And, we ask what is going on with the handwriting, and Dennis is picking up the negatives that have been sitting in his file since March 09.

FBI response, Nanette you can't tie JT to every murder just because he was in the area, and the handwriting matches! The handwriting was taken away from the examiner that it had been given to because he is only concerned with making his career, and had seen something he didn't like, and began working on something other than Chris Hopkins had asked him to do. I was told he was a newbie just trying to make his career. (This would be the case, so now I'm really confused.)Either way, Chris Hopkins said it is better that the gal got it back because that is who he wanted to do the exam anyway, and that we would have an answer back by December.

(They just had me report on the Z-BD-LK Nuances, and now I'm being told that I can't talk about LK.) WTF

Between November and December I examined the Scorpion letters, Anthrax letters, and eventually the I-45 letters in January while saying nothing to anyone except Dennis, who thought I was out of my mind. After putting the communications together from Tom Voigt, John Walsh, Anthrax, and Tim Miller, I realized that JT knew his identity was being supressed for some reason. Read these letters together and you see that JT sent his fingerprints and DNA to people to prove who he was, and they kept it mum, IMO because of pending movies, books, and careers. Look how SFPD will test everyone except JT, they just keep losing his stuff, or corrupting it through the testing process. I am very happy to see them under scrutiny.

With no new info from December to January, we finally get a meeting with Hopkins, I believe the 2nd week of January, where by the way, the handwriting examination report had just arrived that morning

Pay attention to what she says next:

FBI response to the handwriting was inconclusive

Did you get that? Inconclusive! Doesn't sound like the FBI believes that the handwriting matches. But, that's what they say on the TV --that the FBI says it was a match. Someone is having some problems with the truth, aren't they?

A CBS13 report also makes it very plain that there is NO handwriting match.

"The FBI's test on handwriting evidence from a potential suspect (Tarrance) has come back. The results are not negative, but they are inconclusive."

Inconclusive. That means they couldn't tell one way or the other -even after looking at Barto's chicken scratches. However, since Aphrodite Jones repeated Barto and Kaufman's false claim on the air, the Kaufman camp is celebrating and stating that a match is now "official." It seemed apparent that Jones was not making an authoritative statement, but, instead, was asking if this outrageous claim was really true. Barto told her that it was. This is the kind of deception I have been pointing out for years. This is why no one should take their claims seriously.

Just to show that I haven't taken anything out of context or misconstrued anything (as I am often accused). Here is a link to the entire rant. I'm sure they'll be covering their bases now, though.

One of the problems with Barto's credibility, as CrimeShadows News has pointed out in the past, is her total inability to grasp the concept of digital imaging. She doesn't seem to notice the difference between actual documents and copies scanned and uploaded to the Internet. She confuses those tiny squares most of us know as pixels for evidence of a vast conspiracy on the part of the San Francisco Police Department in coordination with certain webmasters and true crime authors. In reality, those smudges she mistakes for sinister alterations are just changes in pixelization resulting from differing resolution and common digital enhancement procedures. But, try explaining that to Barto and you become part of the conspiracy.

But what about the other so-called evidence?

Notice how Kaufman and Barto both claim that the FBI is working with them. There was some initial interest on the part of the FBI. But, it appears that the enthusiasm of law enforcement is no longer there when it comes to Barto and Kaufman. They, especially Barto, say this as if they were some sort of third party brought in by the agency to solve the Zodiac case. The most sophisticated law enforcement facility in the country certainly wouldn't hire an inexperienced and undereducated examiner to verify their documents.  They even say the FBI has agreed that the handwriting is a match. But, we never hear from any representative of the Bureau -we just have to take Kaufman and Barto's word for it. The only thing the FBI has said publicly is that the Zodiac case is still an active investigation. In other words, the case has never been solved.

On the other hand, the FBI must waste valuable time and resources investigating their claims because if they don't Kaufman and Barto cry "conspiracy" to the press. So, they must humor them and show to the public that all reports are taken seriously. To date, the FBI has not made one announcement verifying any of the claims made by Barto and Kaufman.

Jones says that to date the FBI has not publicly released DNA results on the mask that Dennis "found." However, Dennis has said that the hood was found to have DNA on it from Tarrance's son --Dennis' stepbrother. Big whoop. Dennis was making these claims while Jack Tarrance was still alive. Dennis and his family and friends have manufactured several props for movies and documentaries. It is really no surprise that a hood would be found, because Dennis has reportedly made several of them.

The knife with "blood" on it was given to the FBI a long while back. Have you heard any major announcements about the blood on that knife belonging to victims of the Zodiac or the Zodiac himself? No. You haven't. You're not going to. Just like most everything Dennis has said regarding Tarrance, the claim is bogus.

If you're on a budget, by all means do your forensic photo work at Wal-Mart. They might have a guy there than can superimpose photos for a real convincing effect. That is exactly what Dennis Kaufman did.

Jack Tarrance has never been proven to be at or near any of the crime scenes at the times of the attacks. Most of the claims Dennis has made about Jack can be said about thousands of other men, too. There is nothing but vague references and meaningless innuendo.

So, why does Dennis keep on telling this story even though he has been proven wrong time after time? Maybe he needs the money. Did you know that Dennis is so broke he can't even afford to host his own website? It's true. He had to let one of his board members  host it for him. In fact, she hosted it in her own name. It looks as if Dennis has tried to rip her off, too. She's not only been a friend to Dennis, but also supports his claims that Jack Tarrance is the Zodiac.

That said, when I told Dennis about my personal reasons for solving Z, he locked me out of the account and I have been funding this MB for months. I have the reciet that shows I bought the URL 12/29/09 but I believed the conversation between Dennis and I was also to include the MB. I tried to call Dennis about this 2 days ago, left message, he hasn't returned a call. None-the-less, there is no funds backing this MB, so, it will go down this week. I don't want to appear like I am discrediting Dennis but I wish he was more honest with me and gave me the courtesy of a call telling me he was changing passwords and locking me out when I am the one funding the MB. I don't believe my money was spent in vain. So, please...you naysayers, don't use this as fuel to fan your flames. I believe Jack Tarrance is a very, prolific killer, I believe Dennis knows alot more then he has disclosed as I have come to see with my own eyes that Dennis is very, intelligent but has a habit of biting the hands that feed him. I have chosen not to support Dennis' MB and Site financially and honestly, after seeing the events unfold this last week (mysterious powder reported in Jacks Stuff) and then the thrashing Nanette Barto got and she's a big reason why Investigation Discovery did a segment on Jack, well, I just don't think the people who spent 100s of 1000s on the segment will air it now, especially if there isn't an MB about JT.

The worst thing about this episode was seeing Dennis' crocodile tears when it came to his critics. He says nobody wants to see this case solved. He says he feels for the victims. yet, time after time he is caught in lie after lie. I for one, think it is disgusting.

He has a neat story. Someone is always willing to listen to a creepy story, especially if somebody says its true. But, it isn't true.

This episode has proven that Jack Tarrance was a bad guy. It does not prove he was the Zodiac. Meanwhile, the case of the Zodiac remains unsolved.

UPDATE (April 9, 2010): Now the Kaufman camp is hinting that an announcement of a handwriting match by the FBI is imminent. I will tell you right now this is an empty hope. There will be no announcement by the FBI connecting Jack Tarrance to the Zodiac. How can I say this? Because this is the same kind of build-up and let down that has been going on for a decade. Don't hold your breath.

"Bottom line AJ (Aphrodite Jones) says the FBI confirms that it is a match! We did it girlfriend, and I could never be happier even if Chris Yarborough (sic) wanted to discount it!"

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Jones only asking Barto if the FBI made confirmation? Aphrodite Jones may have said the FBI confirmed a handwriting match, but that information apparently came from Nanette Barto, who, as I have pointed out, stated earlier that results were inconclusive.

UPDATE: Monday, April 12, 2010 - Since Dennis Kaufman and Nanette Barto have, very ironically, accused me of lying, I invite them to respond by pointing out exactly which of my statements is untrue. But, please be sure to quote that statement verbatim; I know your record for twisting around other people's words. Not that I have to worry --neither of you has the guts to say anything where you're not allowed to delete the comments you don't like or ban the person who says makes them. You are more than welcome to disagree with me at CrimeShadows News without having your comments deleted. I won't be holding my breath, though.

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