Zodiac Killer
The Zodiac Killer is an unidentified serial killer known for a series of murders that occurred in Northern California during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He is directly linked to five confirmed murders, with authorities suspecting he may be responsible for additional killings. The Zodiac Killer gained infamy by sending taunting letters to local newspapers and police, which included details about his crimes that only the killer and law enforcement would know, along with a distinctive symbol resembling a zodiac sign. His first attacks targeted young couples in secluded areas, with his methodology evolving to involve brutal stabbings and shootings. Despite extensive investigations and numerous suspects over the decades, including notorious figures such as Ted Kaczynski and Charles Manson, his identity remains a mystery. The case has inspired various books and films, most notably the 2007 film "Zodiac." Various theories and suspects have emerged, including Arthur Leigh Allen, but definitive evidence to conclusively identify the Zodiac Killer has yet to be established. Interest in the case continues, with new suspects and theories surfacing even into the 2020s, reflecting the enduring intrigue surrounding this infamous criminal.
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Zodiac Killer
The self-proclaimed Zodiac Killer is an unidentified serial killer who terrified citizens in Northern California during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Authorities have directly linked the Zodiac Killer to five murders and suspect that he may have been responsible for others. The Zodiac Killer included a zodiac sign—a circle with a cross inside it—on the many letters he sent to newspapers and police in which he claimed responsibility for the crimes and revealed details about the victims that only the killer and police could have known, such as what the victims were wearing and the number of shots fired. The Zodiac began sending letters to the press in 1969 and then stopped abruptly in 1974. Despite subsequent decades of intense investigations, authorities were not able to identify the killer, and the case remained open. Numerous suspects have been investigated throughout the years, including the infamous Ted Kaczynski and Charles Manson. The mystery of the Zodiac Killer has inspired many books and films, such as the 1971 Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry and the 2007 film Zodiac, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr.
The Crimes
The Zodiac Killer's first two attacks were on young couples sitting in parked cars in remote areas of Vallejo, California. On the night of December 20, 1968, he shot and killed seventeen-year-old David Faraday and sixteen-year-old Betty Lou Jenson on Lake Herman Road. Then, early in the morning on July 5, 1969, he struck again, shining a flashlight on and then shooting twenty-two-year-old Darlene Ferrin and nineteen-year-old Mike Mageau. Ferrin was killed, and Mageau was seriously wounded. About an hour after the attack, a man called the police station alerting officers of the crime and location and then claiming responsibility for this attack and the one on Faraday and Jenson. Mageau later gave police a description of the assailant, but no arrest was made.
On August 1, 1969, the "Zodiac," as he called himself, sent handwritten letters to three local newspapers. The letters were identical and began with the words "Dear Editor: I am the killer of the 2 teenagers last Christmas at Lake Herman…." Then the letters revealed details about the crimes that had not been released to the general public. The Zodiac threatened the editors—if they did not print the letters, he would go on a killing spree. The letters contained the Zodiac cross-circle and a coded message called a cipher—the first of three that together were supposed to reveal his identity. The cipher did not appear to do this, however. When deciphered, part of it read, "I like killing people because it is so much fun."
The Zodiac's next attack was on September 27, 1969. He tied up and brutally stabbed twenty-two-year-old Cecelia Shepard and twenty-year-old Bryan Hartnell, who were having a picnic by Lake Berryessa. Both survived the initial attack—Hartnell by playing dead—but Shepard later died from her wounds. The Zodiac wore a black executioner's hood and a bib with the zodiac cross-circle on it. Shepard managed to see his face, however, and gave police a description before she died. Her description matched Mageau's.
The next murder did not involve a young couple. On October 11, 1969, the Zodiac shot and killed a twenty-nine-year-old taxi driver, Paul Stine, in San Francisco. After the killing, the Zodiac sent a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle giving details of the murder. The letter also included a bloody swatch of the victim's shirt—and a warning that his next attack would be on a school bus filled with children. While this attack never occurred, it was the inspiration for a scene in Clint Eastwood's film Dirty Harry (1971).
While some of the Zodiac's ciphers had been solved, one that had proven particularly difficult had remained unsolved into the 2020s. In 2020, it was announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had verified a solution proposed by a group of code breakers. According to the group, they used an advanced computer program and complex mathematics to reach their solution.
The Suspects
Police have theorized that the Zodiac may have been responsible for five more murders, all of which were committed before he stopped sending letters to the press in 1974. However, after decades of investigations and countless tips and leads, the identity of the Zodiac Killer remained one of the world's most famous unsolved mysteries.
Many considered the most likely suspect to be Arthur Leigh Allen, the only suspect to be served with search warrants by police. Allen, who died in 1992, was a former Vallejo, California, elementary school teacher who was suspected in the stabbing death of Cheri Jo Bates in 1966 (a murder that police believe may have been committed by the Zodiac). After the murder, two typed confession letters were mailed to police and a local newspaper. The typewriter used to create the letters was determined to be a Royal, and a Royal typewriter was found in Allen's home. While Allen did not resemble the composite sketch of the Zodiac Killer, Mageau identified Allen as the man who shot him. Police also spotted Allen wearing a watch with the Zodiac cross-circle. Allen was in possession of bloody knives when police interviewed him after the Lake Berryessa attack—Allen said he had killed a chicken. And, in 1974—the year the letters stopped being sent to the press—Allen was arrested and institutionalized for child molestation.
However, not all evidence pointed to Allen being the Zodiac Killer. DNA and fingerprints lifted from the crime scenes and the Zodiac Killer's letters did not match. A handwriting expert ruled out Allen as a suspect. A bloody handprint lifted from Stine's cab also did not match Allen's.
In his 2014 book The Most Dangerous Animal, Gary L. Stewart claims that his biological father, Earl Van Best Jr., was the Zodiac. Stewart's mother gave him up for adoption when she was a teenager after Best was arrested for statutory rape. Stewart identified his father and then concluded he was the killer. Among Stewart's evidence—he found EV, Best, and Jr. in the Zodiac's cipher, which was supposed to reveal the killer's identity. A mug shot of his father bears a striking resemblance to the composite sketch of the Zodiac. Stewart also claimed that his father's fingerprints, which contain a diagonal scar, matched the killer's. However, police pointed out that no conclusive evidence existed to prove that Best was the Zodiac.
As the case remained of interest to both investigators and the public, in the early 2020s reports came of new suspects named, though authorities continued to assert that no definitive evidence yet existed to substantiate any such claims. After an independent, volunteer investigative group called the Case Breakers argued in 2021 that evidence pointed to Gary Francis Poste, a Californian later accused of domestic violence, author Jarett Kobek suggested, based on circumstantial evidence, in his 2022 book How to Find Zodiac that the killer may have been Paul Doerr.
Bibliography
"The Allen-Zodiac Connection." Zodiackiller.com, www.zodiackiller.com/AllenFile.html. Accessed 30 July 2024.
Gell, Aaron. "Has the Zodiac Killer Mystery Been Solved (Again)?" Los Angeles Magazine, 22 Sept. 2022, lamag.com/news/zodiac-killer-paul-alfred-doerr. Accessed 30 July 2024.
Horton, Adrian. "The Zodiac Killer Has Been a Mystery for 50 Years—but One Man Thinks He's Solved It." The Guardian, 6 Mar. 2020, www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/mar/06/zodiac-killer-the-most-dangerous-man-of-all. Accessed 30 July 2024.
Kaufman, Anna. "Who Is the Zodiac Killer? Murderer's Identity Never Found, but Suspects Remain." USA Today, 3 Apr. 2023, www.usatoday.com/story/news/2023/04/03/who-was-the-zodiac-killer/10711601002/. Accessed 30 July 2024.
Marquez, Laura and Seven Cheng. "Zodiac Sleuths Devote Lives to Mystery." ABC News, 5 Jan. 2010, abcnews.go.com/Nightline/hunt-zodiac-killer-hot/story?id=9480955. Accessed 30 July 2024.
Ornes, Stephen. "How Mathematicians Cracked the Zodiac Killer's Cipher." Discover, 31 Oct. 2023, www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/how-mathematicians-cracked-the-zodiac-killers-cipher. Accessed 30 July 2024.
"The Zodiac Killer." Biography, 6 Sept. 2023, www.biography.com/crime/zodiac-killer. Accessed 30 July 2024.