Newly Located 1961 Photograph Challenges Current Margolis/Zodiac Comparisons
May 22, 2026
Birch Bay, Washington
A newly located November 12, 1961 Kansas City Star article provides what appears to be the first date-verified public photograph of Marvin “Skipton Merrill” Margolis at age 36. The article identifies him as “Skipton Merrill” and places him in Wellington, Kansas, where he was attempting to organize what became the Wellington Art Association.
The image is significant for one simple reason: chronology.
Recent online discussions comparing Margolis to the 1969 Zodiac composite have generally relied upon photographs taken many years earlier, when he was still in his twenties. The newly located 1961 newspaper photograph presents a far more contemporaneous image of Margolis/Merrill only eight years prior to the San Francisco Zodiac composite sketch issued in October 1969.
Readers can judge the comparisons for themselves.
The purpose here is not to enter into another endless “suspect debate,” but simply to add a historically anchored photograph to the public record. In visual comparisons involving age progression, chronology matters.
The 1961 article itself also raises additional biographical questions. In the article Merrill claims he “studied art under Salvador Dali” and he had flown “F4U’s over China” as part of “Chenault’s Flying Tigers” during WWII. Yet available military information reportedly places Margolis in Okinawa in 1945 serving as a medical corpsman prior to discharge and attendance school in California.
The original Flying Tigers under Claire Chennault famously flew P-40 fighters—not F4U Corsairs—and ceased operations years earlier.
Whether this reflects self-mythologizing, faulty memory, or something else entirely, the discrepancies are noteworthy.
What is not in dispute is that the November 1961 photograph now establishes a documented public appearance of “Skipton Merrill” at age 36, providing a significantly more accurate visual reference point for later comparison purposes.
Marvin Skipton Merrill Margolis aka “Skip”1961 Photo – age 36
In the below photographs we see Margolis in his twenties and in second photo , unknown date/age compared to 1969 “Zodiac” police sketch. At far right we see known photo of him taken in November, 1961 with beard at age 36. Note- For comparison to Zodiac sketch one would need to age Merrill another eight-years.(Did Merrill still have his beard in 1969?)
