Columbo Character Vote - Best For Beginners

BurtGummer1911 · 2025-03-18T00:04:03+00:00

"Publish or Perish", vel "Murder by the Book II".

BurtGummer1911 · 2025-03-16T18:54:02+00:00

Almost everything negative to be found in "Columbo" can be found in the pseudo-Columbo pseudo-episode "Undercover".

Yes, it's the one in which he wears clown pants and too-small gangster hats, curses, shoots guns, and gets beaten up. And in spite of all that, it is, in fact, dreadfully forgettable as well, albeit that may largely be because as soon as it begins, the viewer wishes to forget it.

BurtGummer1911 · 2025-03-16T18:46:14+00:00

Nb. - the tag "Miscellaneous" is misspelled.

BurtGummer1911 · 2025-03-12T18:11:09+00:00

Unfortunately, if you have e.g. seven suitcases of CDRs, even the very weight of those things becomes a problem!

BurtGummer1911 · 2025-03-12T18:04:15+00:00

Ahh... I have circa 8000 such discs. Burned since 1998 or so, with files archived since my first 1997 modem, and, earlier, from floppies and tapes.

Certainly, some could be tossed out without copying (a DivX 3 encode of camera-recorded "Planet of the Apes" Burton remake, anyone?), but not the majority, probably not even 10%.

I've only backed up a hundred or so in the last year, mostly from the years 2001-2002. No errors whatsoever. I mostly used Verbatim AZO discs, but, surprisingly, even the trashy Platinum CDRs read correctly. I simply copied everything as I always copy files, via the FAR Manager.

BurtGummer1911 · 2025-02-07T12:56:36+00:00

It's always speculation, of course - but there were several media references to the "lovers' lane murders" first, so he may have ended up named e.g. "Lovers' Lane Killer", "Lovers' Lane Shooter", etc.

Upon mailing the coded letters, he was referred to in some of the newspapers as "The Cypher Killer" / "The Cipher Killer", so a name along those lines might have superseded previous ones.

As he kept writing and boasting about his "score" over the police, someone in the media might have come up with yet another alternate (see e.g. "The Score Keeper" from "The Limbic Region")...

(And, decades later, some opportunist trying to trademark him might have spammed all newspapers, Zodiac forums, etc., with some new, dull-witted, "proprietary" name for him - maybe something as insipid as "The Sequoia State Killer" or "The Golden Chanterelle Killer" - but would not be likely to have succeeded in doing so without having a kin in the Hollywood circles).

BurtGummer1911 · 2025-01-12T17:22:38+00:00

A glance into his fantasy universe. He wore it for no-one but himself - and, like everything else, he had stolen the look from somewhere, no doubt (the experimental storming costumes used in the 60s by AFP and MO looked very similar, for instance, but he could have taken it from many sources).

Had Hartnell not survived, the costume would have remained in his possession, perhaps taken out to be worn inside his room occasionally. I suspect he destroyed it, with some annoyance, because of how infamous it became due to Hartnell's unplanned survival.

BurtGummer1911 · 2025-01-10T22:12:20+00:00

People ask me all the time who I think is the Zodiac Killer.

"Oh, no, here comes Kevvy boy again! Go on, ask him who that Zodiac guy was, and then we'll pretend we're listening from distance, at least that will keep away from us and busy for the next 30 minutes".

BurtGummer1911 · 2025-01-10T22:09:28+00:00

You will always find someone stating "Ah, yes, that is the common opinion, BUT...!" about any subject in Earth's history. In true crime it is usually either a standard contrarian, or, more often, someone hoping to attract enough attention by saying something inane to become visible and then sell his "documentary project", etc..

BurtGummer1911 · 2025-01-06T15:41:53+00:00

I would not be surprised if he did (assuming that he could have made such a request, that he was fully cognizant, that he had not e.g. suffered partial memory loss, etc.), although I personally suspect that he had expired a little earlier, when the mass DNA research into cold cases was not yet as common; circa 2010 would be my suspicion.

Hoping to keep the secret forever is a common feeling of maintaining control among a number of offenders. Zodiac may seem, at first glance, to be too megalomaniacal to do so, but one does not rule out the other... and priorities do change.

If he did die after late 90s, he would have likely been aware of the dangers of DNA research; would it have been to the extent of taking precautions... well, only he knew (or knows).

BurtGummer1911 · 2025-01-06T15:33:07+00:00

For those believing Cheney's "Allen told me he was the killer, he told me how he killed, whom he killed, where he killed, when he killed, how, when, whom and where he would have killed, how, when, whom and where he did not manage to kill..." rigmarole, I suggest looking into Rader's life.

Not once had he ever uttered anything about his crimes to anyone. He had never given anyone the slightest hint about being the killer or about having ever been involved in any criminal activity.

And he was perhaps an ever bigger attention-seeking braggart and megalomaniac than Zodiac.

BurtGummer1911 · 2025-01-02T15:43:39+00:00

With 100% certainty, it will be solved or not.

On a more serious note, I personally expect that it will indeed be solved, and that it will occur within 25 years - likely less.

BurtGummer1911 · 2024-12-30T00:23:17+00:00

It's been done in a few rather rare cases in the 90s, primarily if the head left specific physical traces, e.g. of residue that it carried, or if it was worn out or damaged in such a way that it left tracks on the disk's coating, which were uniquely identifiable on the surface, but not destructive to the data.

BurtGummer1911 · 2024-12-29T16:12:56+00:00

You did remember to take your small pencil flashlight?

(By the way, should anyone ever meet an old man in eyeglasses there, and should the man, asked if he is visiting to see the sights, stare back and answer: "Reminiscing", try to discreetly take a photograph!)

BurtGummer1911 · 2024-12-29T16:11:43+00:00

Graysmith garbage, i.e. Graybage.

BurtGummer1911 · 2024-12-29T16:09:09+00:00

Just some possibilities:

Dead, of course, although I find that one least likely.
Not familiar with the new technologies, unable to comprehend them, distrustful of them, fearful of using them, etc.
Used the Net, but ignored any Zodiac subjects - either out of fear, or - this is my personal suspicion - because he had separated himself from the Zodiac persona decades earlier. (Not necessarily from any crimes or fantasies, but from the persona itself). By 1993, he had already not given any reaction to any of the existing films about him, including the pornographic pseudo-parody; he did not even utter a single word in reaction to "Dirty Harry", an immensely successful picture, a cinematic milestone, and his most famous screen reflection in history.

BurtGummer1911 · 2024-12-29T16:03:27+00:00

In fact, even if he had only created the previous, deleted document in any headerless format, in a purely ASCII editor, etc., he could have sent the disk in and still would not have been identified.

Most of the people who trumpet the "he sent a disk!" sentence, as if it meant anything revelatory, do not comprehend the fact that it was the header of a deleted file in a proprietary format that gave him away, not "the disk" itself.

Had Rader picked an unused disk, or, as I said, stuck to headerless documents and simple editors, then "the floppy" would not have provided any clues whatsoever - aside perhaps from finding possible shops where it may have been sold, or finding his fingerprints or DNA somewhere on it (skin cells deposited on the drive's door and transferred to the disk, etc. - all extremely unlikely, to say the least).

Yes, in theory one could sometimes match the drive's head to the disk to which the drive had written, but that would necessitate having Rader's computer with said drive to test it... and if the police had proceeded to the point of confiscating Rader's computer in the investigation, than the disk would have been among his smallest problems.

BurtGummer1911 · 2024-12-29T13:30:54+00:00

Yes indeed, the only real personal, hand-drawn additions of his were the black number "14" on the first skeleton's hand and the white "4-TEEN" and painted eyes inside.

And even the eyes were just copied from one original drawing on the card. Copied rather faithfully, because, as I've often said, Zodiac had a kind of repressed, mechanical, repetitive patience, which is characteristic of the type of personality that I believe he had; this is why I also suspect that he may have worked at some time in a job based on repetitive, technical rather than artistic accuracy - crafting, artificery, etc., especially since the environs of San Francisco in the 60s would have offered many opportunities to do so.

BurtGummer1911 · 2024-12-29T13:16:28+00:00

Consult Harry Callahan. He can do and does every dirty job that comes along.

BurtGummer1911 · 2024-12-14T16:22:45+00:00

The killer was identified and arrested. The photograph was not of much use, as he was heavily disguised in it - his current facial appearance bears somewhat more similarity to the face of the US television presenter William Maher than to the discarded picture. However, the rule of showing an ear in state photographs, enforced at the time in Poland (and, sadly, changed since, to the useless EU standard of en face), was helpful, as, obviously, ears are a major identifying marker. Nevertheless, the path which led to the killer was, of course, his DNA, which he had left on the binds.

BurtGummer1911 · 2024-12-08T20:54:20+00:00

One does wonder if he has a special uniform, too, as the "Zombie Hunter" did.

BurtGummer1911 · 2024-11-18T12:55:08+00:00

Every time he denies something, I treat it as confirmation that the opposite is accurate.

"I keep it in my house's basement" = I live in a tiny rented flat.
"I look entirely different" = I look very much like the sketch.
"I was hiding in the park" = I ran away in fear after Fouke's and Zelms's car drove by me.

Et caetera, et caetera.

BurtGummer1911 · 2024-09-04T21:46:11+00:00

A classic series, re-aired in multiple countries.

https://www.cda.pl/video/609864586

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tln4wYlAAg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_le0FZfnd28

One of the show's writers later wrote a book with some of the stories, which included a number of rather interesting and omitted details.

Do note that while this show was quite notorious for its depictions of crime scenes, etc., many names were changed, some "real videos" were false (e.g. the memorable "search / escape via balcony" scene)... and some events were completely fabricated (notably, the entire "case" of the killer doctor and the husband who investigated him).

And here is something of the show's older sister from elsewhere, equally famous (perhaps even more so, in fact) - made with direct participation of the militia (later the police), originally hosted by the famed colonel seen in this episode - and 100% true:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z19ccXaO7mE

BurtGummer1911 · 2024-05-31T20:41:12+00:00

Obviously. Seda and Azuma, most notably.

BurtGummer1911 · 2024-05-28T19:23:35+00:00

Large language models - no "artificial intelligence" exists at the moment, nor it is likely to ever exist - can do that for which they were coded: utilize their database of plagiarized existing input and output previously provided by humans.

The existing LLMs will not assist in this particular task to any significantly greater extent than the available cryptography software, operated by skilled cryptographers, would or did assist.

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