As I was researching possible squadrons that Loring D Hill may have come in contact with, I printed a list squadrons that had A-3 Skywarriors that I found through the A-3 Skywarriors Association webpage. My interest in this began when I discovered through an old newspaper article that in 1968, Loring D Hill suffered an attack of the bends aboard a Skywarrior off the coast of Hawaii that left the deck of the USS Enterprise, in which he was stationed as an aviation structural mechanic, petty class officer 2 (AMS-2). When reviewing the list, there were a total of 39 squadrons that had A-3 Skywarriers along with their history of service. I was looking specifically for any squadron that he may have had the opportunity to be in contact with around the time of his injury. Finally, as I came across the 24th one on the list, I read that VAQ-132 was aboard the Enterprise during the time of the 1969 fire, and potentially could have been on the carrier two years prior. Once again, there is a striking coincidence found in my research that correlates to the case. VAQ-132 was the ONLY squadron I found on the list that had any close relation to the Enterprise AND (conveniently) it was named the “Scorpions.”
Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron One Thirty-Two VAQ-132 “scorpions” - was aboard the USS Enterprise during the fire. They lost one plane and one member.
The significance of this is found in a series of letters to John Walsh in 1991. One of those contained a cipher consistent with that of the Zodiac Killer, which states “Hi! Remember me?” Zodiac Killer allegedly authored an additional two page letter, that contained a piece of paper with Scorpion written on it, along with a drawn image of the creature. This is not to be confused with the 1971 movie character, “Scorpio” from Dirty Harry, which coincidentally was a movie based loosely on the Zodiac Killings in and around San Francisco. What we don't know is whether or not these letters are authentic Zodiac Killer letters. Our suspect, Loring D. Hill shares some similarities with the writings of the Zodiac in the way he also alters his handwriting and the peculiar use of certain words, misspellings, and use of punctuation. My speculation is that the Zodiac Killer suffered multiple personality disorder which allowed him to alter his writings, tone, linguistics, and even his M.O. Richard Grinell covers what is referred to as the three-tv-show cryptograms. They were letters sent between October 28, 1987 and September 25, 1990. Richard also writes about the “fifth scorpion letters” sent in 1991 to John Walsh. Richard’s review of these letters can be found on his website, zodiackillerciphers.com (link to sources, below).
Sources:
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/three-tv-show-cryptograms
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/the-fifth-scorpion-cipher
https://scienceblogs.de/klausis-krypto-kolumne/2018/01/30/the-top-50-unsolved-encrypted-messages-12-the-sccorpion-letters/
Https://www.a3skywarrior.com/ready-room/a-3-squadron-history.html?mbl=0
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