The Bates Letters

The Bates Letters: On the 6th month anniversary of his daughter’s death, Joseph Bates received a letter in the mail. His daughter, Cheri Jo Bates of Riverside, CA, had been murdered the day before Halloween in 1966. An autopsy on Bates' body revealed that she put up a good fight as she struggled with her killer. A janitor at Riverside City College Library found her body the following morning. Bates had been stabbed numerous times in the lungs, arms, throat, and face. Two more letters had also been mailed out - one to the Riverside P.D. and the other to the Riverside Press. The crime remains unsolved, but San Francisco Chronicle reporter Paul Avery uncovered clues linking Cheri Jo Bates murder to the Zodiac serial killer - including these three letters and a poem carved into a desktop at Riverside City College.