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fairs division has investigated the f{ matter but Capt. John Mahoney, . head of the division, declined com- ment. — Gain also declined comment -- today, as did- officers i in the intellig- “* The department’s internal af- ence division; “Which also was in- | - - volved in the investigation. Lt. Jack Jordan, Toschi's former homicide. "boss, was not available for com oo - lent. -4:.. ,, Toschi- has -been on the force for 25 years, the last 18 on the | homicide detail. He had been as- *: Signed to the Zodiac case for the “Past nine years. w....The announcement of his ‘ transfer was made shortly before 5 _ Pm. after a conference between Police Chief Charles Gain and Deputy Chief Clement DeAmicis. ° 1.3 -The reason, Gain said, was that . ‘a “departmental investigation had disclosed that Toschi, using: ficti- “tious names, had written several . complimentary letters about ‘him- self and mailed them to a :San : Francisco writer. The police statement did not name the writer, but he was identified through other sources as «. Maupin. . Gain also announced that there » mow is some doubt about the ‘a authenticity of the April 24 letter | and that experts have disagreed on. . _ Whether or not it is the real thing.” “The continuing investigation tL BD BRIG eT eal ag Ki | a a a eee oe te he maT mee Fee oment Pome — of the Zodiac case by our Zodiac investigation team, established in April 1978, has led to the conclusion that there is reason to -doubt whether Zodiac in fact wrote the April 24 letter,” Gain said. -* The team was composed ~of Toschi and Inspectors James Tedes- ” co and James Deasy. gh “It was given the mission to go over every bit of the Zodiac case — to examine, collate and codify, and to re-examine what had been exam- ined before,” DeAmicis said. ’ DeAmicis was asked if anyone ‘had raised the possibility that the April 24 letter might have been- _Toschi’s handiwork. “There is absolutely nothing | demonstrable that Inspector Toschi wrote any of the Zodiac fetters, Pe ay DeAmicis replied. Gain said in announcing Tos- chi’s reassignment that “I conclude — that reassigning Inspector Toschi would be beneficial both to the _inspector and to the San Francisco Police Department.” Regarding the letter, the chief said that “there is a conflict in the opinion of some of the questioned-. document experts who examined the April letter and compared it with previous Zodiac letters. This letter will be the subject of further examination by experts.” Robert Prouty, ¢ the State Bureau of Criminal Identi- fication and Investigation, said he didn’t think the April letter was” Eee Mpa ot i tgateeetings Sen en A ret een WR Se ‘From Pagel 1 . genuine Zodiac. © previous Zodiac letters.” .ly held the post now ‘filled by | chief of the = they were always as honest with me ‘ questioned-documents section of * ' as they. could be we Sorte een + Gate pe ee “I examined photographs of © the April letter and those of pre- vious letters attributed to Zodiac and in my opinion the April letter ° -Wwas .not written by. the same . person,” Prouty said. a ee “Several let fer “characteristics: : . in my opinion did not match the = “gtylé used by Zodiac. The slant of ~ some letters was not consistent with previous. Zodiac communica: : tions. “My first impression was that it : was in the same general style as - previous letters, but after closer ~ examination my ultimate conclu- sion was that there were so many © ~— differences that it was not written < ~ by the saine person who wrote the { TB: Sherwood Morrill, who former- [ Prouty and who is now retired and = in private ane disagreed sharp ly with Prouty. . . Boo “The last letter was by the real Zodiac,” Morrill declared. ‘There is - no question in my mind. I’ve heard they're accusing Toschi of writing . them. If Toschi wrote the last one, he's the Zodiac. He wrote them all. “My suspicion is that somehody . 4s after Toschi, because 1 worked wlth Toschi and Armstrong (inspec- 4 tor Bill Armstrong, who aiso has - worked on the Zodiac case) and * Morrill said « -of ‘Toschi’s trans ‘fer: “It shocked me, and I'm not ays shocked after all these ‘years.