A man saying he is the killer of three persons in Vallejo has written newspapers in the Bay Area offering them a clue in code.

'.'To prove his authenticity the anonymous letter writer offered what he said were facts known only to him and to the police in the unsolved slayings of Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22, of 930 Monterey S., and Thomas Faraday and Bettilou Jensen, both students at Vallejo High School.

Vallejo police said that the details in the letter could have been known to persons other than the murderer although officers confirmed that some of the details were not made public. The slaying of the two high school students occurred Dec. 20.

In Cipher

The letter named the brand of ammunition Super X although this was not disclosed by investigators at the time. He also said that 10 shots were fired and detailed the positions of the body.

Police said that this information, although not made public, was available to anyone who had been at the scene of the crime on Lake Herman Road.

The letter writer also detailed the brand of ammuni- tion used in the Ferrin slay ing. He then offered a clue wit-ten in an elaborate cipher with the message split into three parts one sent to the Vallejo Times, one to the San Francisco Chronicle and one to The Examiner.

Police are working on the cipher but they said that they would not be convinced it had been sent by the murderer unless the letter writer could come up with more details which were not generally known.

Call Made

The letter to the Examiner was mailed yesterday in San Francisco. . One reason the police are taking the letter more seriously than the usual crank note is that following the Ferrin slaying July 5, a caller notified police of the killing.

The anonymous caller confessed to shooting the woman and said he also had killed the teenagers the preceding Christmas. The call was made 30 minutes after the slaying and before it had become generally known in Vallejo.

Police said that this call seem to fit with the personality of the letter writer. They said they would believe in the authenticity of the letters if more details were disclosed.

++The San Francisco Examiner++ ++San Francisco, California++ 01 Aug 1969, Fri • Page 3

Betty Lou Jensen