Dennis Kaufman & Nanette Barto: Smoke & Mirrors
Dennis Kaufman, with a little help from document examiner Nanette Barto, is alleging that someone is covering up the original handwriting of the Zodiac Killer. Ironically, it seems that their main argument is that the "a’s" don’t match Jack Tarrance’s. I guess it didn’t occur to them that the mismatch is more likely due to Tarrance not being the damned Zodiac. In case you’re unaware of this story, Dennis Kaufman claims his stepfather/boogeyman is the Zodiac Killer. He’s been trying to convince law enforcement of this for nearly a decade already. The whole thing is a sideshow that promises a lot but never delivers. The fact is, there is nothing to substantiate his claims. Still, he maintains the attention of one reporter in California who’s taken his story and inflated it with a little more hot air.
To cinch their case, CBS13′s Kris Pickel tries to imply a cover-up by relating how no one seriously involved in the Zodiac case will give her the time of day. The San Francisco Police Department won’t give her an interview, author Robert Graysmith ignores her, and ZodiacKiller.com webmaster Tom Voigt pays her no mind. It might help a little if she at least tried to spell his name right, but details don’t seem to be important to her story.
But, let’s not just ignore these claims. Let’s look at what is being alleged. Let’s address the issues. There are no cover-ups here.
First off, let’s look at this document examiner: Nanette Barto was was officially court qualified in the Oakland Superior Court on February 10th, 2009. She bills herself as "the best forensic document examiner, for the right price." She states her prices "are among the most inexpensive in the industry." Well, you get what you pay for, don’t you? Barto’s website also states that by "choosing to work with Nanette Barto, you will be working directly and indirectly with her mentor and teacher." Her mentor and teacher just happens to be providing assistance to Deborah Perez who –get this– also claims her stepfather/boogeyman is the Zodiac Killer! Baggett says of Perez’ claims: "there is something to the story. There are indicators she wrote some of the (Zodiac) notes." Document examiners the world over must be ecstatic that these two represent their trade.
Now, let’s look at the claims: Kris Pickel says that the San Francisco Police Department won’t cooperate with the FBI –that they won’t turn over evidence. She didn’t say who her source was, but we do know who has alleged this before: Dennis Kaufman. In fact, he used to have audio on his site where he made the allegations of uncooperativeness among agencies to an FBI agent. The agent denied any such lack of cooperation. Even if there is a lack of cooperation, it could probably be owed to the small amount of DNA material. Why waste such valuable evidence on a frivolous claim? Nothing –not one thing has officially panned out to corroborate Kaufman’s story. Whatever sweet nothings Dennis is hearing from the FBI, the public has gotten zilch connecting Jack Tarrance to the Zodiac from any law enforcement agency with an inkling of jurisdiction.
I can assure you, as an owner of the Graysmith books, that the differences are quite obviously due to efforts to clean up the original copies –to improve the book. If you look at the whole page, you can see ink blotches (since removed) that may not have even been part of the original letter. To say that it’s anything sneaky is just a load of hogwash.
Now Kaufman is implying conspiracy by saying Robert Graysmith and Tom Voigt have maligned the handwriting samples by altering the "a’s" so that they don’t match those of Jack Tarrance. As with most everything connected to Dennis Kaufman’s fantasies, this is absolutely preposterous. What you have is two copies at different resolutions. Anyone who has ever made a copy knows that sometimes things don’t quite match up. Anyone with an eye for the obvious will not think "conspiracy." As far as a cover-up, let me remind the public, that is those of the public that are foolish enough to buy into this crap, that neither Graysmith or Voigt have the actual letters. They have copies and/or photos of the letters. They are not law enforcement. They do not have the power or authority to cover anything up. What’s really shameful is that Kaufman wouldn’t have all the documents and information to look at in the first place, if not for those he’s insulting with his accusations.
Here are the allegations of document mangling. Kill a few brain cells and have a look. What you’ll see are different copies from different sources at different resolutions, some with possibly minor digital enhancement or cleaning up. after all, these letters were likely copied before Photoshop. Those of us old enough to remember old-fashioned copy machines can appreciate that someone might want to spruce them up a bit.
To show you just what I mean, notice two separate copies of another document –The Declaration of Independence. See the subtle differences? It’s because they’re different copies. No conspiracy. No cover-up.
Dennis Kaufman and his cronies have taken common sense and turned it into nonsense. The sad thing is that they still have an audience. To this day, the Zodiac Killer is unidentified. The case is still unsolved. The kooks and the frauds still come and go. Just like always.
I wanted to address a few more things without actually starting a new post. Since it would be futile to address Dennis on his own board (he only allows praise, dissent is immediately deleted), I’ll address him here. Dennis has responded to the above post on his message board. When this was brought to my attention, and I actually read what he had to say, I found it rather humorous. He really is predictable. Despite my verbosity, I really didn’t want to dignify this with a new post. But, in the interest of the truth, I thought I’d go ahead and clarify a few things here.
Here is his rebuttal to the above post, unedited:
Chris Yarbrough is the web master of website called "Crimeshadows" Here is a link to his recent comment about the recent news. http://crimeshadowsnews.com/main/2009/06/dennis-kaufman-nanette-barto-smoke-mirrors/ Chris Yarbrough claims that Kris Pickel doesn’t pay attention to detail, well neither does he. The "Declaration of Independence" you used for your example is the same in both documents with the exception of one being darker, the letter formations are the same in both documents. The documents that CBS shows are different, including the letter formations. The reason I bring his name up is because this guy has been trying to discredit me for years. He listened to a radio interview I did one time and he completely accused me of saying something I did not say, he later apologized for the mistake. When I showed some of the evidence that I was about to turn over to law enforcement to a news source, he made the doragotory statement "if the evidence was real Kaufman would have been wearing gloves" If Mr Yarbrough had paid any attention before he opened his mouth, he would have clearly seen that I had gloves on. I would put Chris Yarbrough in the same category as Voigt and his morons.
The Declaration of Independence comparison above was constructed within a few minutes. It’s purpose was to show the differences bewteen two different copies. I think the image acomplished this. Of course, the Zodiac letters are a bit more complicated. Some of the images are from photographs. Some are taken from books. Some are copies of copies. No one with an "eye for the obvious" would expect all of the copies to be identical. It is not unusual for copies to have anomalies, even only in part. Technology has not always allowed for uniformity in imagery, otherwise we would have no use for image processing and editing tools, of which there is a large market. That Dennis took my simple comparison as seriously as he did only goes to further express his naivety.
I have been following Kaufman for years. I have discredited him on more than one occasion, Dennis is not exaggerating here. I used to feel a certain pity for him. I used to think he actually believed that his stepfather was the Zodiac. Over the years, I’ve come to the realization that his accusations against Jack Tarrance are little more than a twisted effort to avenge his mother’s death and the cruelty his family endured at the hands of Jack Tarrance. Dennis is an angry man, but he’s also manipulative. He seems to draw people into his circle and then uses their talents –until they’re used up. More than a few of those involved with Dennis have learned this, only after enthusiastically supporting Dennis in his cause –the cause of punishing his dead stepfather.
Dennis says of me: "He listened to a radio interview I did one time and he completely accused me of saying something I did not say, he later apologized for the mistake."
To be clear, while Dennis did not make the derogatory statements directly, he stood by while his private investigator associate made the statements. If I remember correctly, the issue at hand was that Dennis’s site was the only fair website on the Zodiac Killer. A rather laughable contention, but one I took issue with at the time. By the way, that investigator in question distanced himself from Dennis years ago.
Dennis also said: "When I showed some of the evidence that I was about to turn over to law enforcement to a news source, he made the doragotory (sic) statement "if the evidence was real Kaufman would have been wearing gloves" If Mr Yarbrough had paid any attention before he opened his mouth, he would have clearly seen that I had gloves on."
My comments were made in a post on this site. After Dennis pointed out that he was indeed wearing gloves, I did make a correction. I have to concede that the mistake on my part was due to my own inattention to detail. You see, Dennis was wearing gloves. He just wasn’t wearing the gloves that one would expect to be used when handling forensic evidence. Also, he appeared to be handling several pieces of evidence with the same pair of gloves, a taboo in evidence handling. But then, if these items were seriously being considered as Zodiac evidence, they would have most likely been turned over with as little handling as possible by someone untrained and inexperienced. Instead, they were paraded for the TV cameras and handled very much like a peanut-butter sandwich and a bag of Ruffles® would be by a cafeteria lunch lady.
Kaufman then goes on to place me "in the same category as (Tom) Voigt and his morons." This, of course, is a reference to the webmaster he has accused of tampering with evidence, regardless of the fact that the actual files are in Law Enforcement custody and not in Tom Voigt’s possession. But, these are the sort of claims that come from the Kaufman Kamp.
Here are a few more claims that have actually been made on Dennis Kaufman’s website and message board:
- That Jack Tarrance was responsible for the Texarcana (sic) Phantom Murders
- That San Francisco Homicide Inspector Bill Armstrong Never Really Existed (wooo oooo oooo!)
- That Jack Tarrance Murdered Dennis Kaufman’s mother. (The official record of her death says otherwise.)
Dennis Kaufman keeps on promising that he has the case solved. Those that believe in him do so with an almost religious fervor, suggesting their own gullibility and a proclivity toward the incredible. One poster expresses their faith in these words: Dennis Kaufman’s "crowning glory could be coming very, very soon."
For those just coming across Dennis Kaufman and considering his credibility, take a look at his message board. Notice how many posters have been deleted (click on some poster names). Notice how many of these deleted posters once supported Dennis and his claims. Notice how there is no dissent allowed on his board, only praise. Notice how any serious questions that are asked are brushed off by pointed accusations of being from Tom Voigt or someone connected to him. Better yet, join the board yourself, if you have some time to waste. Ask some questions about the hard evidence or lack thereof. See what happens. Unless you praise Dennis, or berate those who question him, your account will be deleted. If you are a member of his board, you are there as a tool to feed his ego and admonish his detractors. That is the only reason you are allowed to remain. You certainly aren’t there for balanced discussion and analysis of the Zodiac case. Dennis already has that solved, doesn’t he?
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Another rant, because that’s what i do:
Contrary to what some misinformed poster has stated on Dennis Kaufman’s message board, CrimeShadows News is not associated in any way with the 2007 Fincher Zodiac movie. Any promotion of the film on this site was done with the goal of furthering interest in the unsolved case. I often promote television programs in cooperation with their producers or public relations people. I get some content to that saves me a little work and they get word out about their show. This was not the case with the 2007 Zodiac movie. I received absolutely nothing in return for my promotion of the film, which, as I said, was done to generate interest in the case. Indeed, the movie generated quite a bit of interest –which was great. Then there were the adverse side effects of such an increase. Along with the increased attention, more kooks started coming out of the woodwork, increasing pressure on the old kooks, who had to come up with new gimmicks –which they did.
Costs for running a virtual private server come out of my own pocket. I’ve recently had to upgrade from cheaper shared hosting, which some seem to think is sufficient for all websites. If those who thought that had more traffic, they would learn that sometimes websites can, indeed, become expensive. Any revenue generated by advertising or other means on this site does not even approach a fraction of the cost of operations. I do not get paid to write here. On the other hand, I gladly pay for the privilege of writing.
Dennis Kaufman’s website and message board sit on shared hosting. The most a person pays with his host is $14.95 a month –a relatively small sum, but I’m sure Dennis pays much less. I figure he has the basic upgrade (about 6 bucks and some change), a step up from free, which eliminates the host’s advertising and gives him a little more room for pictures of his stepdad. He certainly doesn’t pay for web design, at least that’s the way it appears. Kaufman’s message board is on a free, ad-supported service. Dennis Kaufman sells books and DVD’s. Sometimes his customers actually receive their orders. Dennis is much more postioned for profit.
As for the Zodiac movie itself, I thought it was a brilliant film. That being said, I thought the basement scene was a goofy gimmick designed to add a note of suspense. The movie was not an accurate depiction of what really happened. I never said that it was. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve made public statements to the contrary. I believe the premise that Arthur Leigh Allen is the Zodiac is unfounded, as I’ve made clear as my opinion for years. In fact, there is not one known suspect that I have seen with enough factual evidence to be called the "Zodiac."
It’s convenient to question my motives. But, it’s just an attempt to defract some of the negative light that’s being shone on Dennis’s own motives. Why I do what I do is not in question –at least not by anyone that isn’t playing defense . It’s not to promote my own theory – I have no suspect. It’s not for profit – I make no money at this. It’s not for fame – I seem to get more hate than praise. Because I do not hide behind the safety of anonymity, I’ve been called a self-important wannabe by a certain anonymous poster, Ironically, he’s the one that get’s the giggles when he’s quoted. I don’t need Dennis Kaufman to gain an audience, my site usually shows up in search results well before his. Nor does his site even approach the traffic level of CrimeShadows News, except when some reporter gets taken in. Check the stats –I actually send a lot of visitors to his site. I’m not saying CrimeShadows News is an extremely popular site –it’s not. It could be. I could write a lot more about the cases in the headlines instead of the obscure cases that don’t seem to get much press. But, that’s not why I began writing.
I write to get word out about cold cases and to let the truth be known. I write to expose people like Kaufman who would rather detract from the cause with stories about boogeymen that have nothing to do with the case whatsoever. I write about the Zodiac case because it is really the first cold case I ever started researching. I wrote about it before Dennis Kaufman jumped back into the press and continue to write about the Zodiac case whenever I feel I have something to add. I know that when Dennis comes up with a new gimmick that people searching for his site will very likely see mine (perhaps even first) and thus learn the truth, instead of being fooled with everything that Dennis pulls out of his attic.
Future posts on Dennis’s claims (unless related to current press coverage), can be found at ZodiacKillerTRUTH.com‘s new interactive section.
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