Q: Do you have any thoughts on the strange symbol that Zodiac wrote at the bottom of his Exorcist Letter?
A: I do have some thoughts. I did not include them in MOST EVIL but will here as - “food for thought” so to speak.
Hollywood, California 1949
We know that George Hodel in 1947, as “The Black Dahlia Avenger” was at the top of his “GAME” in marketing HIMSELF to the press. His taunts and letter writing ”campaign” achieved his goal- NATIONAL HEADLINES.
But, he didn’t stop there. In the late 1940s, as a side-business to his medical practice, he introduced California to a new product – FIVE DYNASTY TEA. And with the introduction he also invented a legend to market his product and then placed it in many of the state’s major restaurants, food and high-end Department stores in both the Bay Area and Southern California.
George Hodel did it all! Created the marketing brochures and advertising, and even designed his own labels for the tea tins and boxes. His marketing campaign ad read:
”As served and sold in the world’s leading restaurants, hotels, and exclusive shops.”
(See Impressive List of Retail Distributors below.)
When I first saw the EXORCIST LETTER SYMBOL, my initial thought and impression was that it resembled a Chinese character. Further, it is not unlike the one seen on my father’s FIVE DYNASTY LABELS from the 1940s. (I and my brother’s spent many long hours in the basement putting these very same labels on tins and boxes for father.) Perhaps there is a secret message in ZODIAC’s symbol that someone familiar with the Chinese language might be able to “crack.” Remember also that George Hodel studied Chinese “taking a crash course back east” in preparation for his trip to Hankow, China with UNRRA in 1946. (His widow June informed me of this after my father’s death and added, “George had a difficult time with trying to learn Chinese and never really learned the language.”)
Just five days before George Hodel’s arrest for incest and child-molestation the below article appeared in the Los Angeles Times which mentions Dr. Hodel by name and provides readers with the “LEGEND OF THE FIVE DYNASTY TEA” which was obviously narrated (and invented) by Dr. George Hodel. I recommend reading it to get a deeper understanding of how his mind worked. No wonder his later endeavors would focus on the world of MARKETING. He was a natural. (Also note in the article that the rare shipment of tea was purchased by George Hodel after he discovered it stored in San Francisco. In his promo material in addition to our Franklin House address, 5121 Franklin Ave., Hollywood, we see listed a second address of: 735 Stockton St., San Francisco.)
THE LEGEND OF DR. HODEL’S FIVE DYNASTY TEA
Los Angeles Times, Oct 1, 1949
LIST OF RETAIL DISTRIBUTORS OF DR. HODEL’S FIVE DYNASTY TEA: (SKH- Note the date in the lower left corner 1/3/50, just 45 days before the DA/LAPD would install the electronic surveillance in the Franklin House and assigned 18 detectives to an around the clock, 24/7 five-week stakeout of George Hodel as the prime-suspect in the murder of Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short.)
Was Zodiac’s mysterious Exorcist symbol a Chinese character cryptogram or will it link to something else? We may never know. It is a riddle, an enigma. But, I for one am confident that like everything that ZODIAC did or said- IT HAS A MEANING.
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THE FOLLOWING THOUGHTFUL COMMENT AND IMAGE REC’D FROM VIEWER “T.A. SCOTT” ON 10/06/09 which I am posting here for all to see/read:
Comment:
I was aware of the Zodiac Exorcist symbol but somehow missed your father’s Five Dynasty Tea marketing graphic. Here is my interpretation which is based on surrealism. The Zodiac Exorcist symbol appears to be a deconstructed version of your father’s earlier ad image. Such disintegration is a well known surrealist technique used extensively by Salvador Dali during his Atomic Phase in the 1950s, a period when he was exploring advances in science, especially quantum physics. This scientific decomposition derives from earlier themes of decay and death found in earlier works featuring insects, mainly flies and ants. His painting process breaks subject matter down into atomic particles, and Dali often re-interpreted his past material. I do emphasize this last observation, because it appears the Zodiac Exorcist symbol is a surreal re-interpretation of your father’s earlier Five Dynasty ad graphic. I think both Zodiac and Dali are creating a variation on earlier themes o!
f decay and death. I have emailed you an image that depicts two famous paintings by Dali that illustrate this clearly.
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Very interesting indeed. I wonder if you know what the Chinese character means which was on the Five Dynasty Teas?
BW- No, sorry, I don’t know the translation. (I could guess- “Long Life and Tea Time”, but I won’t.) But, maybe one of our billion + Chinese viewers does? Anyone? Anyone? Also,does the Zodiac symbol come close to anything “real” in Chinese?
I was aware of the Zodiac Exorcist symbol but somehow missed your father’s Five Dynasty Tea marketing graphic. Here is my interpretation which is based on surrealism. The Zodiac Exorcist symbol appears to be a deconstructed version of your father’s earlier ad image. Such disintegration is a well known surrealist technique used extensively by Salvador Dali during his Atomic Phase in the 1950s, a period when he was exploring advances in science, especially quantum physics. This scientific decomposition derives from earlier themes of decay and death found in earlier works featuring insects, mainly flies and ants. His painting process breaks subject matter down into atomic particles, and Dali often re-interpreted his past material. I do emphasize this last observation, because it appears the Zodiac Exorcist symbol is a surreal re-interpretation of your father’s earlier Five Dynasty ad graphic. I think both Zodiac and Dali are creating a variation on earlier themes of decay and death. I have emailed you an image that depicts two famous paintings by Dali that illustrate this clearly.
TS: Thank you for the interesting observations on this. GHH would have definitely been tuned-in and turned-on to all the esoterica of Dali and Surrealism. I have posted your image for all to see on the original blog on this subject. I don’t know that the 5-Dynasty-Tea character specifically connects to Zodiac’s symbolism, but perhaps a later Chinese character? Maybe a more direct “clew?”
Here are a few additional observations I neglected to mention from a strictly technical perspective.
Regarding how the Exorcist symbol is actually written, while I am not a calligrapher I do count nine separate strokes. I count the same number of strokes in the Five Dynasty symbol. Although the Exorcist symbol appears heavily re-arranged visually when compared to the Five Dynasty graphic, both images retain the same structural symmetry. The Exorcist image appears to be yet another offered puzzle, perhaps a graphical anagram.
The extent of deconstruction to the Exorcist symbol appears to be intentional, as if Zodiac wants to provide a real clue, but only a vague hint, nothing more. This fits the overall taunting behavioral pattern, the nature of most other cipher letters, and it probably also intensifies the excitement level in general for the killer.
These are my initial impressions from a surreal and purely technical approach, which could be an entirely wrong path to venture down. My thoughts are perhaps too narrowly focused on the comparison of these two symbols using the two chosen perspectives. As you know, the number of analysis approaches available is large, with an equal number of differing interpretations.
TS: Thanks again for your additional insights/observations.
I wrote to a friend who has a PhD in Chinese from Berkeley. Unfortunately, the character is what you’d expect. Here’s his response:
“My Chinese is a bit rusty — the degree was more in economics and
China — but this character is a relatively common one. It means
‘tea’.”
BW-
“TEA” huh. Well,no riddle wrapped in a mystery there. For once, “what you see is what you get.” Kind of refreshing! Thanks for the research.
P.S. Did your friend happen to say if the Zodiac symbol appeared similar to anything “real”?
On the bottom of the list of retailers of the tea, there’s a symbol that looks, shape-wise, a lot like the Zodiac symbol.
Also, on the Zodiac Killer website, there’s an animation that shows that the symbol (including the little apostrophe-type thing to the left, which you have left out of your explanation) can be rearranged to form the name “Leigh.”
So perhaps it’s a combination of that, the Chinese symbol, and the symbol on the bottom of the retailers list?
Whatever it is, it must mean something, because the Zodiac ALWAYS gave some sort of clue, no matter what he did. I wonder if it has something to do with a date, as important Zodiac dates often coincided with dates from his life.
Interesting article, too!
Hi Steve! I’ve had difficulty filling in properly some of the comments sections. But i hope this goes through. I believe that your Dad’s tea symbol, upside-down, is the Mayan symbol for the devil. It fits. The Lloyd Wright designed home was rather creepy, though fascinating, Mayan style architecture.