Secret Agent by Conrad - Influence on Kaczynski and Zodiac

[akwilks]

In the fifth column as seen below in the proposed first stage solution to the Zodiac 340 Code we have:

E T I N L P T E K B A R S N E L E A S H

With two types of RESTRAINTS, BARS and LEASH, appearing naturally, as is, no anagrams.

With anagram application we could have:

KEPT LINE NET BARS LEASH or

KEPT IN NET BARS LEASH (with EL left over).

KEPT applies to all these types of RESTRAINTS, such as BARS, LEASH, NET and LINE.

Mr. Kite and myself have been examining the fifth column of the Graysmith first stage solution, and have noted that two types of RESTRAINTS appear naturally, as is, no anagrams - BARS and LEASH. With anagrams, you can have KEPT IN BARS LEASH NET. The Zodiac seems to be using words like LEASH and other types of RESTRAINTS to signify government and societal control over the individual, which is also how Ted Kaczynski seems to have used these words.

Look at these lines from the Unabomber Manifesto:

26. ...Thus the oversocialized person is kept on a psychological LEASH and spends his life running on rails that society has laid down for him. In many oversocialized people this results in a sense of CONSTRAINT and powerlessness that can be a severe hardship. We suggest that oversocialization is among the more serious cruelties that human beings inflict on one another.

28. ...The leftist of the oversocialized type tries to get off his psychological LEASH and assert his autonomy by rebelling. But usually he is not strong enough to rebel against the most basic values of society. Generally speaking, the goals of today's leftists are not in conflict with the accepted morality.

30. ...By their own account, violence is for them a form of "liberation." In other words, by committing violence they break through the psychological RESTRAINTS that have been trained into them.

76. ... As long as the system gives them their opportunities it still has them on a LEASH. To attain autonomy they must get off that LEASH.

114. ...modern man is STRAPPED DOWN by a network of rules and regulations.

Notes 6. ...Some of the symptoms listed are similar to those shown by CAGED animals.

Notes 24. ... But only planned, circumscribed, limited freedom is in the interest of the system. The individual must always be kept on a LEASH, even if the LEASH is sometimes long.

And on a personal level, when his brother David told him he was getting married, Ted told him that the woman (Linda) was over controlling, and that he knew "who would be wearing the DOG COLLAR in that relationship", once again showing a focus on a LEASH.

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It seems these themes and words were important to Kaczynski, as he used them multiple times in his manifesto, with the same implied meaning the Zodiac did, as a way society keeps people in check, a form of mental slavery.

I have been reading the Joseph Conrad book "The Secret Agent". Good book. I have found a number of interesting things. Remember that this was TJK's favorite book, one he read over a dozen times, told his family to read it to understand him, and kept a copy by his bedside as a young man. The character that he most identified with was the Professor, an anarchist bomber. The FBI felt TJK drew many things from the book, perhaps basing his "FC" name on the terrorist group "FP" from the novel, and using other themes in his crimes and writings. Listen to what the (fictional) anarchist bomber Professor said:

I am not impressed by them. Therefore they are inferior. They cannot be otherwise. Their character is built on conventional morality. It leans on the social order. Mine stands free from everything artificial. They are BOUND in all sorts of conventions. They depend on life, which, in this connection, is a historical fact surrounded by ALL SORTS OF RESTRAINTS and considerations, a complex organized fact open to attack at every point; whereas I depend on DEATH, WHICH KNOWS NO RESTRAINT and cannot be attacked. My superiority is evident."

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You revolutionists are the SLAVES OF THE SOCIAL CONVENTION, which is afraid of you; SLAVES of it as much as the very police that stands up in the defence of that convention.

The Secret Agent, p. 58 (emphasis added).

Thus there is the possibility of a pattern - a book and character that we know inspired Kaczynski, thoughts from that book and character about restraints, the appearance of those themes and words in the Zodiac 340 and the appearance of those themes and words, fleshed out, in the Kaczynski manifesto.

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In the book "The Secret Agent" it is said that they can't just attack the rich or the military but that the very foundations of society must be destroyed and that that the public needs a "good scare", thus the anarchists are encouraged to attack by bombs symbols of SCIENCE (which Kaczynski certainly took to heart) and symbols of EDUCATION or LEARNING. Is there any greater symbol of education than a SCHOOL BUS? Was Zodiac inspired to threaten to explode this symbol of education by reading THE SECRET AGENT? Interestingly, prior to his arrest as the Unabomber, Kaczynski had only ONE violation of the law - he was ticketed for passing a stopped SCHOOL BUS.

See anything on this cover that the Zodiac might have been inpsired by?

Like a circle on top of a cross?

One of the characters in the book is so secret that he does not have a name, and signs his letters only with a geometric symbol, a triangle. The Zodiac signed his letters with a geometric symbol, the unit circle, which is a cross inside a circle.

Ted Kaczynski also signed his name with a cross inside a circle - he called it "his mark". Kaczynski also drew a broken cross inside a circle at a crime scene (the Yggdrasil aka Algiz Rune).

[KITE]

That Column Five is quite amazing. I'm sure there are many who don't believe there is a legitimate 340 solution or that Kaczynski is a legitimate suspect, but then there's that unbelievable Column Five with it's clear BARS LEASH reading along with the anagrammed KEPT--seemingly so closely alligned with a Manifesto style lecture. Could be a coincidence or maybe there's some angle to it. I'll mention again here the two possible cryptic clues in the 340 that are up for consideration. Line Two of the solution has the anagrammed BLAST as BTSAL B (TSA) L. Could be an acronym for The Secret Agent. And, the other involves no solution. Line Eleven ends with the symbols (BPBTMKO) B(P)B(T)M(K)O. The skip-a-letter-pattern of PTK surrounded by BOMB. Both cryptics suggested have three initials mixed with BLAST and then BOMB. That fictional character with a geometric signature is quite an interesting parallel.