The Most Dangerous Animal of All by: Gary L. Stewart and Susan Mustafa

Book Cover

When I first decided to read this book, I did not realize how compelling the evidence would be. I never thought, especially from previous reviews and comments on the book, that I would be about 90% convinced that the Zodiac Killer had finally been found. Many people had a lot of negative feedback about this book including:

• He's just doing it for the fame.
• Or the money. It's definitely that.
• Everyone claims this without substantial evidence.
• None of the evidence makes sense.
• Someone else claimed they wrote the handwriting sample therefore he must be right.
• and so many more asinine comments.

408 Cipher

So let's address each and everyone of the above:

Mugshot overlaid on sketch

• Fame & Money: I'm going to combine these two instead of becoming repetitive. If you actually read the book you would understand why he did it this way. The SFPD would not follow through and use his DNA even with all of his evidence. When one googles Gary L. Stewart, you will not find much. He hasn't been seeking fame. I have yet to find a single social media account.
• No substantial evidence? Please! Mr. Stewart has some of the MOST substantial evidence that I have seen in regards to this case. And yes, some people have claimed there family members/friends/whomever is the Zodiac Killer without any evidence.
• All of the evidence makes sense once you actually look at it and think about it. I've included some of the key findings in the pictures around this post.
• It is said that the Reverend is the one who wrote on the marriage certificate for Earl Van Best Jr. and Judy Chandler. BUT Judy, who was most definitely there, claims Van wrote it out. Plus some of the Reverend's handwriting doesn't match up to the document. And if it was the Reverend's handwriting, well I guess he was the Zodiac Killer then?

With any big declaration, there is going to be some hate and negative feedback. That isn't anything new. But, to be completely honest, either none of those people actually read the book or they didn't understand it. Like I said, I'm pretty convinced that Mr. Stewart has finally put a name to this most despicable person.



340 Cipher

Gary Stewart was adopted when he was only a couple months old. It was a closed adoption and no one knew who his parents were, or his actual name. After many years, his mother, Judith Chandler, finally contacted him and introduced herself. She was very young when she gave birth (14 or 15) and her "husband" was about 27 or 28. A huge age difference. So once Stewart found his birth mother, he began wondering about the man whose genes he shared.

It took many years to build up the profile of who his father was: Earl Van Best Jr. A criminal who was arrested for numerous things including: kidnapping, statutory rape, forging documents, and drunk driving. He was never arrested for murder.

Although the story encompasses more than just the Zodiac Killer and the evidence, that's what I really want to focus on. I  believe that that is the most important aspect of why Gary Stewart wrote this book, obviously.

The Evidence
There is a large sum of evidence associated with this book. Some of it just makes too much sense. Earl Van Best Junior.

• Van had a fascination with weaponry and hurting animals when he was younger.
• The Mikado is something Van memorized since he was very young. The Zodiac quoted the Mikado in some of his letters.
• Paul Avery, a journalist who wrote articles about the Zodiac received some alarming messages himself. Avery just happened to also write about Van when he was accused of kidnapping. He titled it "The Ice Cream Romance."
• In the Halloween card the Zodiac sent Avery, he had written "4-teen," which doesn't make any sense. Unless you look into the past and see that Judy was 14 when she met Van.
• Van's father was involved in the second World War. From this, Earl Sr. learned how to write and decipher many different codes and ciphers. He then taught Van how to do the same. The Zodiac, obviously, had a very extensive knowledge of ciphers that he gave to the police and newspapers.
• The mugshot of Van and the drawing of the Zodiac Killer are strikingly similar. Overlaid against each other, how can one tell the difference?
• The fingerprints obtained from the taxi of Paul Stine have a very distinct scar that matches a scar Van had exactly.
• The handwriting is definitely a match to the letters the Zodiac wrote.
• A piano that Van played in a local church has a symbol underneath it. A symbol that very closely resembles that which the Zodiac Killer used.

Fingerprints

Motive: in any murder, motive is one of the key elements. Why would someone do something so heinous? Well, no one was ever really able to find a motive as to why the Zodiac Killer did what he did. He never robbed anyone. Never sexually assaulted anyone. He seemed to really take it out on the women. Gary Stewart puts a very clear, very reasonable, and very convincing motive out there: revenge. Each one of the victims looked similar to Judy. Van had a thing for younger women, and so did the Zodiac.

The Ciphers: Stewart was able to find his dad's name in the 408 cipher. EV BEST JR. But there was another cipher that many people had no idea how to solve. no one has been able to ever solve it. Until someone connected to this book did it. They found EARL VAN BEST JUNIOR in the 340 cipher. Backwords, one letter in each column. I have included most of this evidence in the pictures.

I don't have much doubt in my mind that we have found the killer. Neither did Stewart. That's why, 10 years ago, he submitted DNA to be compared to that of the killer. A very prominent detective in the force took it and promised to get to the bottom of this all. He never did. Stewart's DNA has never been compared to that of the Zodiac. The SFPD wouldn't even allow him to see is father's file, claiming it was to heinous. They wouldn't even let one of the prominent detectives on the force see it. They claim these files have now been destroyed.

This screams like a cover up to me. Why? Judy Chandler, Earl's mom, married Rotea Gilford, who became a very prominent part of the police force and the politics in San Fran. They didn't want his reputation ruined.

Gary went to the police first. He tried his best to obtain even more evidence before publishing this book. But he couldn't because they wouldn't allow him to.

Hopefully this will become a catalyst and the DNA profile that Gary has for his father will be used to compare to the Zodiac and possibly shut a case that's been open for so very long. It would give everyone some closure.

By the way, Earl Van Best Jr. is no longer alive. He passed away in Mexico in 1984.

Letter from handwriting expert

All images were taken from themostdangerousanimalofall.com

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult is one of those authors that I can never get enough of. Each book pushes deep into my mind and forces me to reconsider some of the values that I have always held close to my heart. The topics she deals with are not light ones. Between a kid going and murdering his former bullies to another kid agreeing to kill is girlfriend because she begs him to. Ms. Picoult has a way of taking a very controversial topic and breaking it down so deeply that you go to a place in your mind where you never thought you'd be.
In every book that I've read, Jodi Picoult has challenged my views. In her latest book, The Storyteller, she picks another very controversial topic and attempts to make you consider what you'd do if that situation. It was the first book of hers that I could not really reconsider what my views were.
There are five main characters in her book: Ania, Sage, Leo, Josef, and Minka. Each of them, like every other human being, has secrets hidden within them. Some of these secrets are more harsh than others. One is a former Nazi, another is a Holocaust survivor, one works for the DOJ attempting to find and prosecute Nazis, one killed her mother, and the last one is a fictional character written by the Holocaust survivor. In short, here is a mini family tree:

• Josef: A "former" Nazi who is seeking retribution for his actions by asking a Jew to help him die. In "present time" during the book, he is well into his 90s.
• Minka: A Holocaust survivor, she will not speak of what happened to her during that time until she is coaxed to do so.
• Sage: Minka' granddaughter who believes that she is the cause of her mother's death. Josef contacts her and begs her to help him die while revealing his "true" identity.
• Leo: A contact at the DOJ that Sage calls upon to reveal what Josef has told her.
• Ania: A character that Minka made up in her younger years and wrote a story about that reflected some of the things she was going though at the time of war. While it is not exactly about the Holocaust, it has the same recurring themes.

Jodi Picoult is asking you if you could forgive a "former" Nazi who has attempted to turn his life around after the war. I, honestly, could not even consider this. He has murdered, sacrificed, tortured, and punished people who did nothing wrong to him.
The story is broken down into sections that are written in the view of one of the specific main characters. Each section starts with a piece of Minka's story about Ania. There are many similarities between the two; both girls' fathers are bakers. Minka's story is about the horrors she endured during the Holocaust, while Ania's story is about her village being torn apart by a monster.
Some people view every Holocaust story as being the same, once they've heard one they've heard them all. I feel differently about this though. Every Holocaust story is different. Different people, different hardships, different starts, different endings, different places. Every single story is unique in this aspect, so I cherish every single one I can get my hands onto. Minka's story was probably one of the worst I have read. Although it was fictional, it was based on facts of the time. Some people surely endured some of the hardships Minka did. People were in those camps that she was in. Although no one faced the exact same things that she did, many faced similar ones.
One part of the book that really stood out to me was when Minka said she had tried talking once before about her experience. It was to a classroom full of kids. As she was talking, one kid stood up and claimed the Holocaust didn't exist. I know that there are people out there who believe/say this stuff because they claim to be "Neo-Nazis," but, for someone to say that to a Holocaust survivor that shows blatant ignorance.
Jodi Picoult throws a major twist in at the end, which really shocked me. So what happens to Joef? What does Sage decide? What really happened to Minka during the Holocaust? Does Leo arrest Josef? How does Ania's story end? I strongly recommend that you read it!

To purchase the book head to:

• Your local bookstore
• Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-storyteller-jodi-picoult/1112033163?ean=9781439102763
• Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Storyteller-Jodi-Picoult/dp/1439102767
• For a signed first edition: http://premierecollectibles.com/the-storyteller/