The Zodiac Killer is the pseudonym of an unidentified serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s. The case has been described as the most famous unsolved murder case in American history, becoming a fixture of popular culture and inspiring amateur detectives to attempt to resolve it.
The Zodiac murdered five known victims in the San Francisco Bay Area between December 1968 and October 1969, operating in rural, urban and suburban settings. He targeted young couples and a lone male cab driver, and his known attacks took place in Benicia, Vallejo, unincorporated Napa County, and the city of San Francisco proper. Two of his attempted victims survived. The Zodiac himself claimed to have murdered 37 victims, and he has been linked to several other cold cases, some in Southern California or outside the state. However to date there are only seven confirmed canonical victims which I will go into later in this podcast that we can say were done by him. As for the other deaths he is linked to, he has yet to be confirmed as the killer in those cases.
The Zodiac originated the name himself in a series of taunting letters and cards that he mailed to regional newspapers, threatening killing sprees and bombings if they were not printed. Some of the letters included cryptograms, or ciphers, in which the killer claimed that he was collecting his victims as slaves for the afterlife. Of the four ciphers he produced, two remain unsolved, and one took 51 years to crack. While many theories regarding the identity of the killer have been suggested, the only suspect authorities ever publicly named was Arthur Leigh Allen, a former elementary school teacher and convicted sex offender who died in 1992.
Although the Zodiac ceased written communications around 1974, the unusual nature of the case led to international interest that has sustained throughout the years. The San Francisco Police Department marked the case "inactive" in April 2004, but re-opened it at some point prior to March 2007. The case also remains open in the city of Vallejo, as well as in Napa County and Solano County. The California Department of Justice has maintained an open case file on the Zodiac murders since 1969.
Murders and correspondence
Confirmed murders
Although the Zodiac claimed to have committed 37 murders in letters to the newspapers, investigators agree on only seven confirmed victims, two of whom survived. They are:
David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia.
Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital.
Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969.
Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco.
Lake Herman Road murders
The first murders widely attributed to the Zodiac Killer were the shootings of high school students Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday on December 20, 1968 on Lake Herman Road, just inside Benicia city limits. The couple were on their first date and planned to attend a Christmas concert at Hogan High School, about three blocks from Jensen's home. They instead visited a friend before stopping at a local restaurant and then driving out on Lake Herman Road. At about 10:15 p.m., Faraday parked his mother's Rambler in a gravel turnout, which was a well-known lovers' lane. Shortly after 11:00 p.m., their bodies were found by Stella Borges, who lived nearby. The Solano County Sheriff's Department investigated the crime but no leads developed.
Utilizing available forensic data, Robert Graysmith postulated that another car pulled into the turnout just prior to 11:00 p.m. and parked beside the couple. The killer may have then exited the second car and walked toward the Rambler, possibly ordering the couple out of it. It appeared that Jensen had exited the car first, but when Faraday was halfway out, the killer shot him in the head. The killer then shot Jensen five times in the back as she fled; her body was found 28 feet from the car. The killer then drove off.
Blue Rock Springs murder
Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau drove into the Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, four miles (6.4 km) from the Lake Herman Road murder site, and parked. While the couple sat in Ferrin's car, a second car drove into the lot and parked alongside them but almost immediately drove away. Returning about 10 minutes later, this second car parked behind them. The driver of the second car then exited the vehicle, approaching the passenger side door of Ferrin's car, carrying a flashlight and a 9 mm Luger. The killer directed the flashlight into Mageau's and Ferrin's eyes before shooting at them, firing five times. Both victims were hit, and several bullets had passed through Mageau and into Ferrin. The killer walked away from the car but upon hearing Mageau's moaning, returned and shot each victim twice more before driving off.
On July 5, 1969, at 12:40 a.m., a man phoned the Vallejo Police Department to report and claim responsibility for the attack. The caller also took credit for the murders of Jensen and Faraday six and a half months earlier. Police traced the call to a phone booth at a gas station at Springs Road and Tuolumne, located about three-tenths of a mile (500 m) from Ferrin's home and only a few blocks from the Vallejo Police Department. Ferrin was pronounced dead at the hospital. Mageau survived the attack despite being shot in the face, neck and chest. Mageau described his attacker as a 26-to-30-year-old, 195-to-200-pound (88 to 91 kg) or possibly even more, 5-foot-8-inch (1.73 m) white male with short, light brown curly hair.
Now this murder in particular was interesting because Darlene Ferrin shortly before her murder made several really weird and cryptic remarks. for example:
During her visit with psychic Joseph Delouise, Darlene’s mother claimed that her daughter had exhibited her own ability to accurately predict the future. Mrs. Suennen told Delouise that Darlene had made a cryptic remark just hours before she died, “You might read about me in the papers tomorrow.” Darlene’s mother had not mentioned this potentially important information during any of her conversations with police, yet she only shared this secret with a psychic months after the murder.
There are other odd instances that cannot be verified because the veracity of said stories and statements is hard to corroborate because one person claims they witnessed or did something while the other person claims it never happened.
Vallejo Police Lt. Jim Husted’s report documented an interview with another informant. “A young woman by the name of Karen was a babysitter for the deceased Darlene Ferrin during the months of January through May of 1969,” Husted wrote. Karen recalled an incident in the Ferrin home that took place sometime in February or March 1969. “[Karen] stated she was babysitting approximately 10:00 pm one night, was looking out the front window of the Ferrin’s apartment, and she noticed a man whom she took to be middle-aged sitting in a white American-made sedan watching the apartment. She stated he was there for several hours but left before Dean returned from work shortly after midnight. She stated she could not really describe this individual and only knew he was middle-aged because he either turned on the inside car light or lit a cigarette so that she got a partial look at the man.”
Karen claimed that “the following day she related this incident to Darlene Ferrin who at the time (was) recalled in the bathroom putting on her makeup to go out. Darlene asked her what the car and the man looked like, and after relating a description to her, Dee said something to the effect, ‘I guess he’s checking up on me again. I heard he was back from out of state.’ Followed by, ‘He doesn’t want anyone to know what I (meaning Darlene) saw him do. I saw him murder someone.” Karen added that “Dee appeared to be genuinely frightened of this individual and mentioned sometime that he had been checking up on her at Terry’s Restaurant where Darlene was employed.”
If true, Karen’s story indicated that someone had been watching and perhaps stalking Darlene in the months before she was killed. However, Karen had not shared this story with police at the time of her murder, nor did she report the suspect during the years that followed. Karen only came forward with this strange story after rumors about Darlene, and stories about her stalker, had been circulating throughout Vallejo, thanks to the efforts of Darlene’s sisters, Pam and Linda. Karen was unable to describe the stranger or remember his name. Husted’s report read, “Karen stated that Dee sometime during this conversation mentioned the man’s name, and that the first name was very short, three or four letters and that the second name was just slightly longer. The name was quite common.”
Police then questioned Darlene’s family, friends and coworkers in an effort to identify the stranger. Some witnesses claimed to recognize Walker as a man who allegedly “spent many hours at the restaurant where Darlene worked as a waitress.” Husted explained that “this has been verified by a VPD Officer, Officer [Steve] Baldino who picked the subject’s picture out of a lineup indicating he had been seen in there conversing with the deceased.” Police then interviewed Darlene’s sisters, Pam and Linda. Both sisters recalled a “painting party” held at Darlene’s home several months before her murder, and a mysterious, well-dressed man who attended and scared Darlene. Linda reportedly identified Walker as the sinister stranger but Pam disagreed. When asked about the party, Steve Baldino told investigators that he was a guest.
Pam would later claim that she had seen this mysterious man on at least eight occasions, and that Darlene warned her to stay away from him because he was a murderer. Like Linda, Pam failed to mention this potentially important information during her many interviews with police, and her selective silence and sensational stories cast doubt on her credibility. Vallejo police detective George Bawart had come to know Pam after investigating claims that she was the victim of harassment by an anonymous and threatening stalker. Bawart once told a television producer that Pam was “nutso.” Darlene’s husband Dean Ferrin told the same producer that Pam and Linda were prone to prevarication.
Pam had claimed that Darlene’s cousin Sue Ayers had visited surviving victim Michael Mageau as he recovered in the hospital. According to Pam, Mike told Sue that he and Darlene had seen chased to the crime scene and the gunman had uttered Darlene’s nickname, “Dee,” just before the shooting started. Sue Ayers has since denied that she spoke to Mike at the hospital and denied that she had ever told anyone such a story. She also said that Linda and Pam were not credible witnesses and that the two sisters were responsible for many of the myths regarding the life and death of Darlene Ferrin.
Both Pam and Linda would later befriend Sandy Betts, who claimed that she had been the victim of harassment at the hands of suspect Larry Kane and other suspects. Authorities had investigated these claims and determined that Betts was not a credible person. Retired reporter Dave Peterson often repeated many of the stories told by Pam and Linda, including the myth that Darlene had been spending more money than she could have made as a waitress. This claim was based on the notion that Darlene had magically obtained a large sum of money in order to buy a house, yet Darlene’s husband Dean explained that they had purchased the home with the financial assistance of Darlene’s father.
Then we come to the infamous zodiac phone call recording.
Officer Steve Baldino claimed that he had heard the tape recording of the Zodiac’s telephone call to Vallejo police on the night of the Ferrin murder. In an interview for the tabloid television show NOW IT CAN BE TOLD, Baldino said, “I heard it – I know there was a tape because I heard it, I think it was that night.” He added, “That tape is apparently now missing.” Darlene’s sister Pam and others also claimed to have heard the infamous tape. Baldino complained about incompetence and corruption within the Vallejo Police Department, and once stated, “I have found over the years that some people there did not care about the truth.” Rumors regarding the recording circulated in the years after the 1977 investigation, and Steve Baldino repeated the story to anyone who would listen. Author Robert Graysmith included Baldino’s story in the book Zodiac and created the legend of the Zodiac voice recording. In his book, Graysmith states that Vallejo police Detective Jack Mulanax had searched for the recording, and the detective later stated that he never found any evidence that such a recording had ever existed. None of the Vallejo police reports mentioned the recording which would have identified the Zodiac, and Baldino was the only member of the Vallejo Police Department who had ever claimed that the recording existed. Former Vallejo police dispatcher Nancy Slover answered the Zodiac’s call to the Vallejo Police Department, and she denied that she had ever played such a tape for Baldino or anyone else. She emphatically stated that the tape had never existed. Slover explained that the Vallejo Police Department did not have the equipment to record incoming phone calls in 1969, and that anyone who had worked for the department at that time would be aware that such a tape could not and did not exist.
Baldino, Graysmith and others suggested that someone had stolen or destroyed this recording because this evidence somehow implicated an individual or individuals who were responsible for Darlene’s death yet also enjoyed the protection of the police. This theory implicated members of the Vallejo police department as co-conspirators in the entire Zodiac crime spree, including the murders on Lake Herman Road, the stabbing at Lake Berryessa, the killing of a San Francisco cab driver, and the many letters linked to the Zodiac. The NOW broadcast also suggested that Darlene was murdered because she was planning to expose one or more individuals involved in other crimes and killings.
Steve Baldino was the only member of the Vallejo Police Department who ever claimed that such a recording had ever existed.
First letters from the Zodiac
On August 1, 1969, three letters prepared by the killer were received at the Vallejo Times Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The San Francisco Examiner. The nearly identical letters, subsequently described by a psychiatrist to have been written by "someone you would expect to be brooding and isolated", took credit for the shootings at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs. Each letter also included one-third of a 408-symbol cryptogram which the killer claimed contained his identity. The killer demanded they be printed on each paper's front page or he would "cruse [sic] around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend".
Dear Editor
This is the murderer of the 2 teenagers last Christmass at Lake Herman & the girl on the 4th of July near the golf course in Vallejo
To prove I killed them I shall state some facts which only I & the police know.
Christmass
Brand name of ammo
Super X
10 shots were fired
the boy was on his back with his feet to the car
the girl was on her right side feet to the west
4th July
girl was wearing paterned slacks
The boy was also shot in the knee.
Brand name of ammo was western
Here is part of a cipher the other 2 parts of this cipher are being mailed to the editors of the Vallejo Times & SF Examiner.
I want you to print this cipher on the front page of your paper. In this cipher is my idenity.
If you do not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry. 1st of Aug 69, I will go on a kill rampage Fry. night. I will cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, untill I end up with a dozen people over the weekend.
The Chronicle published its third of the cryptogram on page four of the next day's edition. An article printed alongside the code quoted Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz as saying "We're not satisfied that the letter was written by the murderer" and requested the writer send a second letter with more facts to prove his identity. The threatened murders did not happen, and all three parts were eventually published.
On August 7, 1969, another letter was received at The San Francisco Examiner with the salutation "Dear Editor This is the Zodiac speaking." This was the first time the killer had used this name for identification. The letter was a response to Chief Stiltz's request for more details that would prove he had killed Faraday, Jensen and Ferrin. In it, the Zodiac included details about the murders that had not yet been released to the public, as well as a message to the police that when they cracked his code "they will have me".
Dear Editor
This is the Zodiac speaking.
In answer to your asking for more details about the good times I have had in Vallejo, I shall be very happy to supply even more material. By the way, are the police haveing a good time with the code? If not, tell them to cheer up; when they do crack it they will have me.
On the 4th of July:
I did not open the car door, The window was rolled down all ready. The boy was origionaly sitting in the front seat when I began fireing. When I fired the first shot at his head, he leaped backwards at the same time thus spoiling my aim. He ended up on the back seat then the floor in back thashing out very violently with his legs; thats how I shot him in the knee. I did not leave the cene of the killing with squealling tires & raceing engine as described in the Vallejo paper,. I drove away quite slowly so as not to draw attention to my car.
The man who told the police that my car was brown was a negro about 40–45 rather shabbly dressed. I was at this phone booth haveing some fun with the Vallejo cops when he was walking by. When I hung the phone up the dam X@ thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me & my car.
Last Christmass
In that epasode the police were wondering as to how I could shoot & hit my victoms in the dark. They did not openly state this, but implied this by saying it was a well lit night & I could see the silowets on the horizon. Bull Shit that area is srounded by high hills & trees. What I did was tape a small pencel flash light to the barrel of my gun. If you notice, in the center of the beam of light if you aim it at a wall or celling you will see a black or darck spot in the center of the circle of light about 3 to 6 inches across. When taped to a gun barrel, the bullet will strike exactly in the center of the black dot in the light. All I had to do was spray them as if it was a water hose; there was no need to use the gun sights. I was not happy to see that I did not get front page coverage.
On August 8, 1969, Donald and Bettye Harden of Salinas, California cracked the 408-symbol cryptogram. It contained a misspelled message in which the killer seemed to reference "The Most Dangerous Game". The author also said that he was collecting slaves for his afterlife. No name appears in this decoded text, and the killer said that he would not give away his identity because it would slow down or stop his slave collection.
The letter read:
"I like killing people because it is so much fun it is more fun than killing wild game in the forrest because man is the most dangeroue anamal of all to kill something gives me the most thrilling experence it is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl the best part of it is thae when I die I will be reborn in paradice and all the I have killed will become my slaves I will not give you my name because you will try to sloi down or atop my collectiog of slaves for my afterlife ebeorietemethhpiti"
Lake Berryessa murder
On September 27, 1969, Pacific Union College students Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard were picnicking at Lake Berryessa on a small island connected by a sand spit to Twin Oak Ridge. A white man, about 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) weighing more than 170 pounds (77 kg), approached them wearing a black executioner's-type hood with clip-on sunglasses over the eye-holes and a bib-like device on his chest that had a white three-by-three-inch (7.6 cm × 7.6 cm) cross-circle symbol on it. He approached them with a gun, which Hartnell believed to be a .45. The hooded man claimed to be an escaped convict from a jail with a two-word name, in either Colorado or Montana (a police officer later inferred that the man had been referring to a jail in Deer Lodge, Montana), where he had killed a guard and subsequently stolen a car, explaining that he now needed their car and money to travel to Mexico because the vehicle that he had been driving was "too hot".
The killer had brought precut lengths of plastic clothesline and told Shepard to tie up Hartnell before he tied her up. The killer checked, and tightened Hartnell's bonds after discovering that Shepard had bound Hartnell's hands loosely. Hartnell initially believed this event to be a bizarre robbery, but the man drew a knife and stabbed them both repeatedly, Hartnell suffering six and Shepard ten wounds in the process. The killer then hiked 500 yards (460 m) back up to Knoxville Road, drew the cross-circle symbol on Hartnell's car door with a black felt-tip pen, and wrote beneath it:
Vallejo
12-20-68
7-4-69
Sept 27–69–6:30
by knife
At 7:40 p.m., the killer called the Napa County Sheriff's office from a pay telephone to report this latest crime. The caller first stated to the operator that he wished to "report a murder – no, a double murder," before stating that he had been the perpetrator of the crime. The phone was found, still off the hook, minutes later at the Napa Car Wash on Main Street in Napa by KVON radio reporter Pat Stanley, only a few blocks from the sheriff's office, yet 27 miles (43 km) from the crime scene. Detectives were able to lift a still-wet palm print from the telephone but were never able to match it to any suspect.
After hearing the victims' screams for help, a man and his son who were fishing in a nearby cove discovered the victims and summoned help by contacting park rangers. Napa County Sheriff's deputies Dave Collins and Ray Land were the first law enforcement officers to arrive at the crime scene. Shepard was conscious when Collins arrived, providing him with a detailed description of the attacker. Hartnell and Shepard were taken to Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa by ambulance. Shepard lapsed into a coma during transport and never regained consciousness. She died two days later, but Hartnell survived to recount his tale to the press. Napa County detective Ken Narlow, who was assigned to the case from the outset, worked on solving the crime until his retirement from the department in 1987.
Presidio Heights murder
Two weeks later, on October 11, 1969, a white male passenger entered the cab driven by Paul Stine at the intersection of Mason and Geary Streets (one block west from Union Square) in San Francisco, requesting to be driven to Washington and Maple Streets in Presidio Heights. For reasons unknown, Stine drove one block past Maple to Cherry Street. The passenger then shot Stine once in the head with a 9 mm handgun, took Stine's wallet and car keys, and tore away a section of Stine's bloodstained shirt tail. The perpetrator was observed by three teenagers across the street at 9:55 p.m., and they phoned the police while the crime was in progress. They observed a man wiping the cab down before walking away toward the Presidio, one block to the north. Two blocks from the crime scene, patrol officers Don Fouke and Eric Zelms, responding to the call, observed a white man walking along the sidewalk east on Jackson Street and stepping onto a stairway leading up to the front yard of one of the homes on the north side of the street; the encounter lasted only five to ten seconds.
Fouke estimated the white male pedestrian to be 35 to 45 years old, 5'10" tall with a crew cut, similar to but slightly older than the description provided by the teenagers who observed the killer in and out of Stine's cab. The teenagers described the suspect to be 25 to 30 years old with a crew cut and standing approximately 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) to 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) tall. However, the police radio dispatcher had alerted officers to look out for a black suspect, so Fouke and Zelms drove past the perpetrator without stopping; the mixup in descriptions remains unexplained. A search ensued, but no suspects were found. This was the last officially confirmed murder by the Zodiac Killer.
The Stine murder was initially believed to be a routine robbery that had escalated into homicidal violence. However, on October 13, the San Francisco Chronicle received a new letter from Zodiac that claimed credit for the killing and contained a torn section of Stine's bloody shirt to "prove this" fact. The three teen witnesses worked with a police artist to prepare a composite sketch of Stine's killer; a few days later, this police artist returned, working with the witnesses to prepare a second composite sketch. Detectives Bill Armstrong and Dave Toschi were assigned to the case. The San Francisco Police Department investigated an estimated 2,500 suspects over a period of years.
1969 mailings
On October 14, 1969, the Chronicle received another letter from the Zodiac, this time containing a swatch of Paul Stine's shirt tail as proof he was the killer; it also included a threat about killing schoolchildren on a school bus. To do this, Zodiac wrote, "just shoot out the front tire & then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out".
This is the Zodiac speaking.
I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by Washington St & Maple St last night, to prove this here is a blood stained piece of his shirt. I am the same man who did in the people in the north bay area.
The S.F. Police could have caught me last night if they had searched the park properly instead of holding road races with their motorcicles seeing who could make the most noise. The car drivers should have just parked their cars and sat there quietly waiting for me to come out of cover.
School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire & then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out.
At 2:00 p.m. on October 20, 1969, someone claiming to be the Zodiac called the Oakland Police Department (OPD), demanding that one of two prominent lawyers, F. Lee Bailey or Melvin Belli, appear on A.M. San Francisco, a talk show on KGO-TV hosted by Jim Dunbar. Bailey was not available, but Belli did appear on the show. Dunbar appealed to the viewers to keep the lines open. Someone claiming to be the Zodiac called several times, and Belli asked the caller for a less ominous name and the caller picked "Sam". The caller said he would not reveal his true identity as he was afraid of being sent to the gas chamber (then California's capital punishment method). Belli arranged a rendezvous to meet the caller outside a shop on Mission Street in Daly City, but no one arrived. The call was later traced back to a patient in a mental institution, and investigators concluded that the man was not the Zodiac.
On November 8, 1969, the Zodiac mailed a card with another cryptogram consisting of 340 characters. This cipher, dubbed "Z-340", remained unsolved for over 51 years.
This is the Zodiac speaking
I though you would need a good laugh before you hear the bad news. You won't get the news for a while yet.
PS could you print this new cipher on your frunt page? I get awfully lonely when I am ignored, so lonely I could do my Thing!!!!!!
On December 5, 2020, it was deciphered by an international team of private citizens, including American software engineer David Oranchak, Australian mathematician Sam Blake and Belgian programmer Jarl Van Eycke. In the decrypted message, the Zodiac denied being the "Sam" who spoke on A.M. San Francisco, explaining that he was not afraid of the gas chamber "because it will send me to paradice [sic] all the sooner". The team submitted their findings to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which verified the discovery. The FBI stated that the decoded message gave no further clues to the identity of Zodiac.
The decoded message read:
"I hope you are having lots of fan in trying to catch me that wasnt me on the tv show which bringo up a point about me I am not afraid of the gas chamber becaase it will send me to paradlce all the sooher because e now have enough slaves to worv for me where every one else has nothing when they reach paradice so they are afraid of death I am not afraid because i vnow that my new life is life will be an easy one in paradice death"
On November 9, 1969, the Zodiac mailed a seven-page letter stating that two policemen stopped and actually spoke with him three minutes after he shot Stine. Excerpts from the letter were published in the Chronicle on November 12, including the Zodiac's claim; that same day, Officer Don Fouke wrote a memo explaining what had happened on the night of Stine's murder.
This is the Zodiac speaking
Up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people. I have grown rather angry with the police for their telling lies about me. So I shall change the way the collecting of slaves. I shall no longer announce to anyone. When I comitt my murders, they shall look like routine robberies, killings of anger, & a few fake accidents, etc.
The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them.
I look like the description passed out only when I do my thing, the rest of the time I look entirle different. I shall not tell you what my descise consists of when I kill
As of yet I have left no fingerprints behind me contrary to what the police say in my killings I wear transparent finger tip guards. All it is is 2 coats of airplane cement coated on my finger tips—quite unnoticible & very efective
my killing tools have been boughten through the mail order outfits before the ban went into efect. Except one & it was bought out of the state.
So as you can see the police don't have much to work on. If you wonder why I was wipeing the cab down I was leaving fake clews for the police to run all over town with, as one might say, I gave the cops som bussy work to do to keep them happy. I enjoy needling the blue pigs. Hey blue pig I was in the park—you were useing fire trucks to mask the sound of your cruzeing prowl cars. The dogs never came with in 2 blocks of me & they were to the west & there was only 2 groups of parking about 10 min apart then the motor cicles went by about 150 ft away going from south to north west.
ps. 2 cops pulled a goof abot 3 min after I left the cab. I was walking down the hill to the park when this cop car pulled up & one of them called me over & asked if I saw anyone acting suspicious or strange in the last 5 to 10 min & I said yes there was this man who was runnig by waveing a gun & the cops peeled rubber & went around the corner as I directed them & I disappeared into the park a block & a half away never to be seen again.
Hey pig doesnt it rile you up to have your noze rubed in your booboos?
If you cops think I'm going to take on a bus the way I stated I was, you deserve to have holes in your heads.
the system checks out from one end to the other in my tests. What you do not know is whether the death machine is at the sight or whether it is being stored in my basement for future use. I think you do not have the manpower to stop this one by continually searching the road sides looking for this thing. & it wont do to re roat & re schedule the busses because the bomb can be adapted to new conditions.
Have fun!! By the way it could be rather messy if you try to bluff me.
PS. Be shure to print the part I marked out on page 3 or I shall do my thing
To prove that I am the Zodiac, Ask the Vallejo cop about my electric gun sight which I used to start my collecting of slaves.
On December 20, 1969, exactly one year after the murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, the Zodiac mailed a letter to Belli that included another swatch of Stine's shirt; the Zodiac said that he wanted Belli to help him.
Dear Melvin
This is the Zodiac speaking I wish you a happy Christmass. The one thing I ask of you is this, please help me. I cannot reach out for help because of this thing in me won't let me. I am finding it extreamly dificult to hold it in check I am afraid I will loose control again and take my nineth & posibly tenth victom. Please help me I am drownding. At the moment the children are safe from the bomb because it is so massive to dig in & the triger mech requires much work to get it adjusted just right. But if I hold back too long from no nine I will loose complet all controol of my self & set the bomb up. Please help me I can not remain in control for much longer.
Suspected victims
Various authors speculated at the time of the killings that other murders and attacks may have been the work of the Zodiac, but none have been confirmed:
Local historian Kristi Hawthorne suggests that the Zodiac may have murdered cab driver Ray Davis in April 1962 in Oceanside, California. On April 9, 1962, the day before the murder, an individual believed to be the culprit had phoned the Oceanside Police Department and told them "I am going to pull something here in Oceanside and you'll never be able to figure it out". A few days after the murder, the police received another call from who is presumed to be the same individual, in which he told police details of the murder and said he would kill a bus driver next. Following Hawthorne's research Oceanside police announced that they were looking into possible connections between the murder and the Zodiac.
Bill Baker of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office postulated that the 1963 murders of a young couple in northern Santa Barbara County might have been the work of the Zodiac Killer. On June 4, 1963, high school senior Robert Domingos and his fiancée Linda Edwards were shot dead on a beach near Lompoc, having skipped school that day for Senior Ditch Day. Police believed that the assailant attempted to bind the victims, but when they freed themselves and attempted to flee, the killer shot them repeatedly in the back and chest with a .22-caliber weapon. The killer then placed their bodies in a small shack and then tried, unsuccessfully, to burn the structure to the ground.
Cheri Jo Bates, 18: stabbed to death and nearly decapitated on October 30, 1966, at Riverside City College in Riverside. Bates's possible connection to the Zodiac only appeared four years after her murder when San Francisco Chronicle reporter Paul Avery received a tip regarding similarities between the Zodiac killings and the circumstances surrounding Bates's death.
Kathleen Johns, 22: allegedly abducted on March 22, 1970 on Highway 132 near I-580, in an area west of Modesto. Johns escaped from the car of a man who drove her and her infant daughter around the area between Stockton and Patterson for approximately 11⁄2 hours.
Donna Ann Lass, 25: last seen September 6, 1970 in Stateline, Nevada. A postcard bearing an advertisement for Forest Pines condominiums (near Incline Village at Lake Tahoe) pasted on the back was received at the Chronicle on March 22, 1971. No evidence has been uncovered to connect Lass's disappearance with the Zodiac Killer.
Cheri Jo Bates
On October 30, 1966, an 18-year-old student at Riverside City College, Cheri Jo Bates, spent the evening at the campus library annex until it closed at 9:00 p.m. Neighbors reported hearing a scream around 10:30 p.m. Bates was found dead the next morning, a short distance from the library, between two abandoned houses slated to be demolished for campus renovations. The wires in her Volkswagen's distributor cap had been pulled out. She was brutally beaten and stabbed to death. A man's Timex watch with a torn wristband was found nearby. The watch had stopped at 12:24, but police believe that the attack had occurred much earlier.
A month later, on November 29, 1966, nearly identical typewritten letters were mailed to the Riverside police and the Riverside Press-Enterprise, titled "The Confession". The author claimed responsibility for the Bates murder, providing details of the crime that were not released to the public. The author warned that Bates "is not the first and she will not be the last".
THE CONFESSION
BY____________
SHE WAS YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL. BUT NOW SHE IS BATTERED AND DEAD. SHE IS NOT THE FIRST AND SHE WILL NOT BE THE LAST. I LAY AWAKE NIGHTS THINKING ABOUT MY NEXT VICTIM. MAYBE SHE WILL BE THE BEAUTIFUL BLOND THAT BABYSITS NEAR THE LITTLE STORE AND WALKS DOWN THE DARK ALLEY EACH EVENING ABOUT SEVEN. OR MAYBE SHE WILL BE THE SHAPELY BLUE EYED BROWNETT THAT SAID NO WHEN I ASKED HER FOR A DATE IN HIGH SCHOOL. BUT MAYBE IT WILL NOT BE EITHER. BUT I SHALL CUT OFF HER FEMALE PARTS AND DEPOSIT THEM FOR THE WHOLE CITY TO SEE. SO DON'T MAKE IT TO EASY FOR ME. KEEP YOUR SISTERS, DAUGHTERS, AND WIVES OFF THE STREETS AND ALLEYS. MISS BATES WAS STUPID. SHE WENT TO THE SLAUGHTER LIKE A LAMB. SHE DID NOT PUT UP A STRUGGLE. BUT I DID. IT WAS A BALL. I FIRST PULLED THE MIDDLE WIRE FROM THE DISTRIBUTOR. THEN I WAITED FOR HER IN THE LIBRARY AND FOLLOWED HER OUT AFTER ABOUT TWO MINUTS. THE BATTERY MUST HAVE BEEN ABOUT DEAD BY THEN. I THEN OFFERED TO HELP. SHE WAS THEN VERY WILLING TO TALK TO ME. I TOLD HER THAT MY CAR WAS DOWN THE STREET AND THAT I WOULD GIVE HER A LIFT HOME. WHEN WE WERE AWAY FROM THE LIBRARY WALKING, I SAID IT WAS ABOUT TIME. SHE ASKED ME "ABOUT TIME FOR WHAT". I SAID IT WAS ABOUT TIME FOR HER TO DIE. I GRABBED HER AROUND THE NECK WITH MY HAND OVER HER MOUTH AND MY OTHER HAND WITH A SMALL KNIFE AT HER THROAT. SHE WENT VERY WILLINGLY. HER BREAST FELT VERY WARM AND FIRM UNDER MY HANDS, BUT ONLY ONE THING WAS ON MY MIND. MAKING HER PAY FOR THE BRUSH OFFS THAT SHE HAD GIVEN ME DURING THE YEARS PRIOR. SHE DIED HARD. SHE SQUIRMED AND SHOOK AS I CHOAKED HER, AND HER LIPS TWICHED. SHE LET OUT A SCREAM ONCE AND I KICKED HER HEAD TO SHUT HER UP. I PLUNGED THE KNIFE INTO HER AND IT BROKE. I THEN FINISHED THE JOB BY CUTTING HER THROAT. I AM NOT SICK. I AM INSANE. BUT THAT WILL NOT STOP THE GAME. THIS LETTER SHOULD BE PUBLISHED FOR ALL TO READ IT. IT JUST MIGHT SAVE THAT GIRL IN THE ALLEY. BUT THAT'S UP TO YOU. IT WILL BE ON YOUR CONSCIENCE. NOT MINE. YES, I DID MAKE THAT CALL TO YOU ALSO. IT WAS JUST A WARNING. BEWARE...I AM STALKING YOUR GIRLS NOW.
CC. CHIEF OF POLICE
ENTERPRISE
In December 1966, a poem was discovered carved into the bottom side of a desktop in the Riverside City College library. Titled "Sick of living/unwilling to die", the poem's language and handwriting resembled that of the Zodiac's letters. It was signed with what were assumed to be the initials rh. During the 1970 investigation, Sherwood Morrill, California's top "questioned documents" examiner, expressed his opinion that the poem was written by the Zodiac.
Sick of living/unwilling to die
cut.
clean.
if red /
clean.
blood spurting,
dripping,
spilling;
all over her new
dress.
oh well.
it was red
anyway.
life draining into an
uncertain death.
she won't
die.
this time
someone ll find her.
just wait till
next time.
rh
On April 30, 1967, exactly six months after the Bates murder, Bates' father Joseph, the Press-Enterprise, and the Riverside police all received nearly identical letters. In handwritten scrawl, the Press-Enterprise and police copies read "Bates had to die there will be more," with a small scribble at the bottom that resembled the letter Z. Joseph Bates' copy read "She had to die there will be more," this time without the Z signature. In August 2021, the Riverside Police Department's Homicide Cold Case Unit announced that the author of the handwritten letters anonymously contacted investigators in 2016 and was identified via DNA analysis in 2020. He admitted the correspondence was a distasteful hoax and apologized, explaining that he had been a troubled teenager and wrote the letters as a means of seeking attention. Investigators confirmed that the author was not the Zodiac.
On March 13, 1971, five months after Avery's article linking the Zodiac to the Riverside murder, the Zodiac mailed a letter to the Los Angeles Times. In the letter he credited the police, instead of Avery, for discovering his "Riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there".
The connection between Cheri Jo Bates, Riverside and the Zodiac remains uncertain. Paul Avery and the Riverside Police Department maintain that the Bates homicide was not committed by the Zodiac, but did concede that some of the Bates letters may have been his work to claim credit falsely.
Donna Lass
On March 22, 1971, a postcard to the Chronicle, addressed to "Paul Averly" [sic] and believed to be from the Zodiac, appeared to claim responsibility for the disappearance of Donna Lass on September 6, 1970. Made from a collage of advertisements and magazine lettering, it featured a scene from an advertisement for Forest Pines condominiums and the text "Sierra Club", "Sought Victim 12", "peek through the pines", "pass Lake Tahoe areas", and "around in the snow". The Zodiac's crossed-circle symbol was in both the place of the usual return address and the lower-right section of the front face of the postcard.
Lass was a nurse at the Sahara Tahoe hotel and casino. She worked until about 2:00 a.m. on September 6, 1970, treating her last patient at 1:40 a.m. Later that same day, both Lass's employer and her landlord received phone calls from an unknown male falsely claiming that Lass had left town because of a family emergency. Lass was never found. What appeared to be a gravesite was discovered near the Clair Tappaan Lodge in Norden, California, on Sierra Club property. No evidence has been uncovered to definitively connect the Lass disappearance with the Zodiac Killer.
Kathleen Johns
On the night of March 22, 1970, Kathleen Johns was driving from San Bernardino to Petaluma to visit her mother. She was seven months pregnant and had her 10-month-old daughter beside her. While heading west on Highway 132 near Modesto, a car behind her began honking its horn and flashing its headlights. She pulled off the road and stopped. The man in the car parked behind her, approached her car, stated that he observed that her right rear wheel was wobbling, and offered to tighten the lug nuts. After finishing his work, the man drove off; yet when Johns pulled forward to re-enter the highway the wheel almost immediately came off the car. The man returned, offering to drive her to the nearest gas station for help. She and her daughter climbed into his car.
During the ride, the car passed several service stations, but the man did not stop. For about 90 minutes, he drove back and forth around the back roads near Tracy. When Johns asked why he was not stopping, he would change the subject. When the driver finally stopped at an intersection, Johns jumped out with her daughter and hid in a field. The driver searched for her using a flashlight, telling her that he would not hurt her, before eventually giving up. Unable to find her, he got back into the car and drove off. Johns hitched a ride to the police station in Patterson.
When Johns gave her statement to the sergeant on duty, she noticed the police composite sketch of Paul Stine's killer and recognized him as the man who had abducted her and her child. Fearing that he might return to kill them all, the sergeant had Johns wait in the dark at nearby Mil's Restaurant. When her car was found, it had been gutted and torched.
Most accounts say that the man threatened to kill Johns and her daughter while driving them around, but at least one police report disputes that. Johns's account to Paul Avery of the Chronicle indicates that her abductor left his car and searched for her in the dark with a flashlight; however, in one report she made to the police, she stated that he did not leave the vehicle.
Further Zodiac communications
Zodiac continued to communicate with authorities for the remainder of 1970 via letters and greeting cards to the press. In a letter postmarked April 20, 1970, the Zodiac wrote, "My name is _____," followed by a 13-character cipher that hasn't been solved to this day. The Zodiac went on to state that he was not responsible for the recent bombing of a police station in San Francisco (referring to the February 18, 1970, death of Sgt. Brian McDonnell two days after the bombing at Park Station in Golden Gate Park) but added "there is more glory to killing a cop than a cid [sic] because a cop can shoot back." The letter included a diagram of a bomb the Zodiac claimed that he would use to blow up a school bus. At the bottom of the diagram, he wrote: "
This is the Zodiac speaking
By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you?
My name is—
I am mildly cerous as to how much money you have on my head now. I hope you do not think that I was the one who wiped out that blue meannie with a bomb at the cop station. Even though I talked about killing school children with one. It just wouldn't doo to move in on someone elses teritory. But there is more glory in killing a cop than a cid because a cop can shoot back. I have killed ten people to date. It would have been a lot more except that my bus bomb was a dud. I was swamped out by the rain we had a while back.
The new bomb is set up like this
PS I hope you have fun trying to figgure out who I killed
Zodiac sent a greeting card postmarked April 28, 1970 to the Chronicle. Written on the card was "I hope you enjoy yourselves when I have my BLAST," followed by the Zodiac's cross-circle signature. On the back of the card, the Zodiac threatened to use the bus bomb soon unless the newspaper published the full details that he had written. He also wanted to start seeing people wearing "some nice Zodiac butons [sic]".
I hope you enjoy your selves when I have my
Blast.
P.S.
If you don't want me to have this blast you must do two things. 1 Tell everyone about the bus bomb with all the details. 2 I would like to see some nice Zodiac butons wandering about town. Every one else has these buttons like, ☮, black power, melvin eats bluber, etc. Well it would cheer me up considerably if I saw a lot of people wearing my buton. Please no nasty ones like melvin's
Thank you
In a letter postmarked June 26, 1970, the Zodiac stated that he was upset that he did not see people wearing Zodiac buttons. He wrote, "I shot a man sitting in a parked car with a .38." The Zodiac was possibly referring to the murder of 25-year-old Sgt. Richard Radetich one week earlier. At 5:25 a.m. on June 19, Radetich was writing a parking ticket in his squad car when an assailant unrelated to the traffic violation shot him in the head with a .38-caliber pistol through the closed driver's side window. Radetich died 15 hours later. The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) denies that the Zodiac was involved; the murder remains unsolved.
Included with the letter was a Phillips 66 roadmap of the San Francisco Bay area. On the image of Mount Diablo, the Zodiac had drawn a crossed circle similar to those from previous correspondence. At the top of the crossed circle, he placed a zero, a three, six, and a nine. The accompanying instructions stated that the zero was "to be set to Mag. N." The letter also included a 32-letter cipher that the killer claimed would, in conjunction with the code, lead to the location of a bomb that he had buried and set to detonate in the fall. The cipher was never decoded, and the alleged bomb was never located. The killer signed the note with "
This is the Zodiac speaking.
I have become very upset with the people of San Fran Bay Area. They have not complied with my wishes for them to wear some nice ⌖ buttons. I promiced to punish them if they did not comply, by anilating a full School Buss. But now school is out for the summer, so I punished them in another way. I shot a man sitting in a parked car with a .38.
SFPD-0
12-⌖-12
SFPD-0
The map coupled with this code will tell you where the bomb is set. You have untill next Fall to dig it up.
In a letter to the Chronicle postmarked July 24, 1970, the Zodiac took credit for Kathleen Johns's abduction, four months after the incident.
This is the Zodiac speaking.
I am rather unhappy because you people will not wear some nice ⌖ buttons. So I now have a little list, starting with the woeman + her baby that I gave a rather intersting ride for a couple howers one evening a few months back that ended in my burning her car where I found them.
In a July 26, 1970 letter, the Zodiac paraphrased a song from The Mikado, adding his own lyrics about making a "little list" of the ways in which he planned to torture his "slaves" in "paradice [sic]". The letter was signed with a large, exaggerated crossed-circle symbol and a new score: "
This is the Zodiac speaking
Being that you will not wear some nice ⌖ buttons, how about wearing some nasty ⌖ buttons. Or any type of ⌖ buttons that you can think up. If you do not wear any type of ⌖ buttons, I shall (on top of everything else) torture all 13 of my slaves that I have wateing for me in Paradice. Some I shall tie over ant hills and watch them scream & twich and sqwirm. Others shall have pine splinters driven under their nails & then burned. Others shall be placed in cages & fed salt beef untill they are gorged then I shall listen to their pleass for water and I shall laugh at them. Others will hang by their thumbs & burn in the sun then I will rub them down with deep heat to warm them up. Others I shall skin them alive & let them run around screaming. And all billiard players I shall have them play in a darkened dungen cell with crooked cues & Twisted Shoes. Yes I shall have great fun inflicting the most delicious of pain to my slaves
SFPD=0 ⌖ =13
As some day it may hapen that a victom must be found. I've got a little list. I've got a little list, of society offenders who might well be underground who would never be missed who would never be missed. There is the pestulentual nucences who whrite for autographs, all people who have flabby hands and irritating laughs. All children who are up in dates and implore you with im platt. All people who are shakeing hands shake hands like that. And all third persons who with unspoiling take thoes who insist. They'd none of them be missed. They'd none of them be missed. There's the banjo seranader and the others of his race and the piano orginast I got him on the list. All people who eat pepermint and phomphit in your face, they would never be missed They would never be missed And the Idiout who phraises with inthusastic tone of centuries but this and every country but his own. And the lady from the provences who dress like a guy who doesn't cry and the singurly abnormily the girl who never kissed. I don't think she would be missed Im shure she wouldn't be missed. And that nice impriest that is rather rife the judicial hummerest I've got him on the list All funny fellows, commic men and clowns of private life. They'd none of them be missed. They'd none of them be missed. And uncompromiseing kind such as wachmacallit, thingmebob, and like wise, well—nevermind, and tut tut tut tut, and whatshisname, and you know who, but the task of filling up the blanks I rather leave up to you. But it really doesn't matter whom you place upon the list, for none of them be missed, none of them be missed.
PS. The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians & # inches along the radians
On October 7, 1970, the Chronicle received a three-by-five inch card signed by the Zodiac with the
DEAR EDITOR:
You'll hate me, but I've got to tell you.
THE PACE ISN'T ANY SLOWER! IN
FACT IT'S JUST ONE BIG thirteenth
13
Some of Them Fought
It Was Horrible'
Zodiac
P.S.
THERE ARE REPORTS city police pig cops are closeing in on me. Fk I'm crackproof, What is the price tag now?
Letter to Paul Avery
On October 27, 1970, Chronicle reporter Paul Avery (who had been covering the Zodiac case) received a Halloween card signed with a letter 'Z' and the Zodiac's crossed-circle symbol. Handwritten inside the card was the note "Peek-a-boo, you are doomed." The threat was taken seriously and was the subject of a front-page story in the Chronicle. Soon after receiving the letter, Avery received an anonymous letter alerting him to the similarities between the Zodiac's activities and the unsolved murder of Cheri Jo Bates, which had occurred four years earlier at the city college in Riverside in the Greater Los Angeles Area, more than 400 miles (640 km) south of San Francisco. Avery reported his findings in the Chronicle on November 16, 1970.
Then there was the March 13th 1971 letter. Claims 17 victims. Sent to the Los Angeles Times, this was the first letter postmarked outside SF, in nearby Pleasanton.
This is the Zodiac speaking
Like I have allways said, I am crack proof. If the Blue Meannies are evere going to catch me, they had best get off their fat asses & do something. Because the longer they fiddle & fart around, the more slaves I will collect for my after life. I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there. The reason I'm writing to the Times is this, They don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others.
SFPD-0
Final Zodiac letter
After the Lake Tahoe card, the Zodiac remained silent for nearly three years. The Chronicle then received a letter from the Zodiac, postmarked January 29, 1974, praising The Exorcist as "the best saterical comidy [sic] that I have ever seen". The letter included a snippet of verse from The Mikado and an unusual symbol at the bottom that has remained unexplained by researchers. Zodiac concluded the letter with a new score, "Me = 37, SFPD = 0".
I saw and think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy that I have ever seen.
Signed, yours truley:
He plunged himself into the billowy wave
and an echo arose from the suicide's grave
titwillo titwillo titwillo
PS.
If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing.
Later letters of suspicious authorship
Of further communications sent by the public to members of the news media, some contained similar characteristics of previous Zodiac writings. The Chronicle received a letter postmarked February 14, 1974, informing the editor that the initials for the Symbionese Liberation Army spelled out an Old Norse word meaning "kill". However, the handwriting was not authenticated as the Zodiac's.
Dear Mr. Editor,
Did you know that the initials SLAY (Symbionese Liberation Army) spell "sla," an old Norse word meaning "kill."
Then there was the March 13th 1971 letter. Claims 17 victims. Sent to the Los Angeles Times, this was the first letter postmarked outside SF, in nearby Pleasanton.
This is the Zodiac speaking
Like I have allways said, I am crack proof. If the Blue Meannies are evere going to catch me, they had best get off their fat asses & do something. Because the longer they fiddle & fart around, the more slaves I will collect for my after life. I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there. The reason I'm writing to the Times is this, They don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others.
SFPD-0
Final Zodiac letter
After the Lake Tahoe card, the Zodiac remained silent for nearly three years. The Chronicle then received a letter from the Zodiac, postmarked January 29, 1974, praising The Exorcist as "the best saterical comidy [sic] that I have ever seen". The letter included a snippet of verse from The Mikado and an unusual symbol at the bottom that has remained unexplained by researchers. Zodiac concluded the letter with a new score, "Me = 37, SFPD = 0".
I saw and think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy that I have ever seen.
Signed, yours truley:
He plunged himself into the billowy wave
and an echo arose from the suicide's grave
titwillo titwillo titwillo
PS.
If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing.
Later letters of suspicious authorship
Of further communications sent by the public to members of the news media, some contained similar characteristics of previous Zodiac writings. The Chronicle received a letter postmarked February 14, 1974, informing the editor that the initials for the Symbionese Liberation Army spelled out an Old Norse word meaning "kill". However, the handwriting was not authenticated as the Zodiac's.
Dear Mr. Editor,
Did you know that the initials SLAY (Symbionese Liberation Army) spell "sla," an old Norse word meaning "kill."
a friend
A letter to the Chronicle, postmarked May 8, 1974, featured a complaint that the movie Badlands was "murder-glorification" and asked the paper to cut its advertisements. Signed only "A citizen", the handwriting, tone, and surface irony were all similar to earlier Zodiac communications.
Sirs—I would like to expression my consternt consternation concerning your poor taste & lack of sympathy for the public, as evidenced by your running of the ads for the movie "Badlands," featuring the blurb—"In 1959 most people were killing time. Kit & Holly were killing people." In light of recent events, this kind of murder-glorification can only be deplorable at best (not that glorification of violence was ever justifiable) why don't you show some concern for public sensibilities & cut the ad?
A citizen
The Chronicle subsequently received an anonymous letter postmarked July 8, 1974, complaining of their publishing the writings of the antifeminist columnist Marco Spinelli. The letter was signed "the Red Phantom (red with rage)". The Zodiac's authorship of this letter is debated.
Editor—
Put Marco back in the hell-hole from whence it came—he has a serious psychological disorder—always needs to feel superior. I suggest you refer him to a shrink. Meanwhile, cancel the Count Marco column. Since the Count can write anonymously, so can I—
A letter, dated April 24, 1978, was initially deemed authentic but was declared a hoax less than three months later by three experts. Dave Toschi, the SFPD homicide detective who had worked the case since the Stine murder, was thought to have forged the letter. Author Armistead Maupin believed the letter to be similar to "fan mail" that praised the work of Toschi in the investigation, which he received in 1976; he believed both letters were written by Toschi. While he admitted to writing the fan mail, Toschi denied forging the Zodiac letter and was eventually cleared of any charges. The authenticity of this letter remains unverified.
Dear Editor
This is the Zodiac speaking I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here, I have always been here. That city pig toschi is good - but I am bu smarter and better he will get tired then leave me alone. I am waiting for a good movie about me. who will play me. I am now in control of all things.
Yours truly:
⌖ - guess
SFPD - 0
On March 3, 2007, an American Greetings Christmas card sent to the Chronicle, postmarked 1990 in Eureka, was re-discovered in their photo files by editorial assistant Daniel King. This letter was handed over to the Vallejo police. Inside the envelope, with the card, was a photocopy of two U.S. Postal keys on a magnet keychain. The handwriting on the envelope resembles Zodiac's print but was declared inauthentic by forensic document examiner Lloyd Cunningham; however, not all Zodiac experts agree with Cunningham's analysis. There is no return address on the envelope nor is his crossed-circle signature to be found. The card itself is unmarked. The Chronicle turned over all the material to the Vallejo Police Department for further analysis.
May 4th 1978
Dear Channel Nine;
This is the Zodiac speaking. You people in LA are in for a treat. In the next three weeks you are finally gona have something good to report. I have decided to begin Killing again—PLEASE hold the applause! Nothing is going to happen until I do. You people just wont let me have it Any other way. I plan to kill five people in the next three weeks (1) Chief piggy Darrel Gotes (2) Ex Chief piggy Ed Davis (3) Pat Boone—his theocratic crap is a obscenity to the rest of the world! (4) Also Eldrige Cleaver—the niggers gotta get their 20% quota—after all. And Susan Atkins—The Judas of the Manson Family. Shes gonna get hers now. Hey———you actors—this is your lucky Break. Remember—whoever plays me has to their work cut out for him. See you in the News!
21st century developments
In April 2004, the SFPD marked the case "inactive", citing caseload pressure and resource demands, effectively closing the case. However, they re-opened their case sometime before March 2007. The case is open in Napa County and in the city of Riverside.
In May 2018, the Vallejo Police Department announced their intention to attempt to collect the Zodiac Killer's DNA from the back of stamps he used during his correspondence. The analysis, by a private laboratory, was expected to check the DNA against GEDmatch. It was hoped the Zodiac Killer may be caught in a similar fashion to the "Golden State Killer" Joseph James DeAngelo. In May 2018, a Vallejo police detective said that results were expected in several weeks. However, as of April 2022, no results have been reported.
Suspects
The Zodiac murderers remain unsolved, and numerous suspects have been suggested. The most commonly suggested suspects are Arthur Leigh Allen and Gary Francis Poste.
Arthur Leigh Allen
Robert Graysmith's book Zodiac advanced Arthur Leigh Allen, who died in 1992, as a potential suspect based on circumstantial evidence. Allen had been interviewed by police from the early days of the Zodiac investigations and was the subject of several search warrants over a 20-year period. In 2007, Graysmith noted that several police detectives described Allen as the most likely suspect. In 2010, Dave Toschi stated that all the evidence against Allen ultimately "turned out to be negative". Toschi's daughter said in 2018 that her father had always thought Allen had been the killer, but they did not have the evidence to prove it. Mark Ruffalo, who portrayed Toschi in the 2007 film Zodiac, commented, "If you get into who these cops were, you realize how they have to take their hunches, their personal beliefs, out of it. Dave Toschi said to me, 'As soon as that guy walked in the door, I knew it was him.' He was sure he had him, but he never had a solid piece of evidence. So he had to keep investigating every other lead.”
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 18th 1933, Arthur Leigh Allen became probably the most scrutinized of all the suspects attached to the case, but to this day the crime remains unsolved. Allen was also the only suspect to be served with search warrants by police.
But as yet no definitive evidence has directly implicated him in any of the crimes, despite several key pieces of circumstantial evidence pointing in his direction. Moreover, DNA and fingerprints lifted from several items connected with the crimes have failed to produce any match, including fingerprints retrieved from the taxicab murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969 and a palm print lifted from the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974 - and in 2002 DNA (now widely discredited) extracted from stamps and envelopes from the Zodiac letters failed to implicate Allen or his former friend Don Cheney. Recent discoveries on this website validating the April 24th 1978 letter as a genuine Zodiac correspondence has poured huge doubt on Arthur Leigh Allen as the Bay Area murderer, with Allen's DNA having not matched that extracted from the 1978 letter. Of course, the person who licked the envelope and stamps could be different to the murderer of five people, but it's not the likeliest of the two options.
Another discrepancy attaching Allen to the Zodiac crimes is the fact the best known composite sketch of the killer bore little, if any resemblance to Arthur Leigh Allen. He also underwent handwriting tests that the police had prepared for him using the relevant pens and involving particular words found in the letters, with a handwriting expert determining there was no correlation between the Zodiac letters and the handwriting Allen submitted to them.
However, Allen did own a Zodiac watch adorned with the now infamous crosshairs symbol, given to him by his mother in 1967, and had connections with the US Navy after enlisting in 1957, which could have linked him to the 10.5 size Wing Walkers military style boot found to have made the footprint impressions during the Lake Berryessa attack on Bryan Calvin Hartnell and Cecelia Ann Shepard - and Allen wore 10.5 shoes.
Additionally, in a confession to police, he revealed he was in possession of knives covered in blood on the day of the Lake Berryessa attack, but stated they were used to kill a chicken.
On October 6, 1969, Allen was interviewed by detective John Lynch of the Vallejo Police Department. Allen had been reported in the vicinity of the Lake Berryessa attack against Hartnell and Shepard on September 27, 1969; he described himself scuba diving at Salt Point on the day of the attacks.
On September 27th 1969, the day of the Lake Berryessa attack, he claimed he returned to the Vallejo area and remained at home for the rest of the day. During further investigation, on August 4th 1971, Detective Jack Mulanax, along with Inspectors Dave Toschi and Bill Armstrong headed to the place Arthur Leigh Allen now worked, an oil refinery in Pinole, California, made famous for the restroom interview featured in the 2007 movie Zodiac. He was once again questioned about his movements during the day of the Lake Berryessa attack, recalling his prior interview with Sergeant John Lynch, claiming that he had made conversation with a service man and his wife that day. Furthermore, he claimed he had spoken to an elderly neighbor William White in Vallejo at approximately 4:00 pm that afternoon. However, this could not be corroborated because William White had died only a week after this alleged conversation. They noticed he was wearing a Zodiac watch with the crossed circle logo. Allen appeared eager to divulge information, no matter that it only seemed to draw suspicion toward him.
He stated he had read 'The Most Dangerous Game' at high school and had also been in the region of Riverside, California - an area possibly connected to the Zodiac case with respect to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates alongside the Riverside City College library on October 30th 1966 - and then parted with a veiled insult, looking forward to a time "when people no longer referred to police officers as pigs".
Investigators interviewed Arthur Leigh Allen's sister-in-law, Karen Allen, to collect as much information they could on their prime suspect - and although she found the Zodiac connection unlikely, Allen had some unsettling issues with children, apparently unable to cement any meaningful relationships with women of his own age. After being shown several pieces of Zodiac correspondence, in particular the Melvin Belli letter mailed to the Belli residence at 1228 Montgomery Street in San Francisco on December 20th 1969, it was claimed she pointed out that her brother-in-law would condense the spoken phrase "trigger mechanism" to "trigger mech", as well as having received a Christmas greeting card from Arthur Leigh Allen using the double 'S' spelling of Christmas.
She also alluded to the fact that Arthur Leigh Allen was left-handed, but had learned to write with his right hand under pressure from his schoolteachers. Arthur Leigh Allen's brother, Ronald Allen, believed it was unlikely that Donald Cheney would make up stories if they were not correct. Their were further stories that Donald Cheney had confided to Ron that Arthur Leigh Allen had made an inappropriate sexual advance (involving touching the child) concerning one of his children, but in an interview by Tom Voigt with Donald Cheney's daughter it was revealed that this molestation never happened, with Donald Cheney remaining friends Allen years after the alleged assault. Therefore, the claims that Donald Cheney sent investigators in the direction of Arthur Leigh Allen as a form of revenge, does not hold any water.
He also owned a Royal typewriter, which police removed from Allen's home - similar to the one that produced the 'Confession' letter in connection to the unsolved stabbing of Cheri Jo Bates outside the Riverside City College Library on October 30th 1966,
Allen again came to police attention in 1971 when his friend Donald Cheney reported to police in Manhattan Beach, California, that Allen had spoken of his desire to kill people, used the name Zodiac, and secured a flashlight to a firearm for visibility at night. According to Cheney, this conversation occurred no later than January 1, 1969.
Jack Mulanax of the Vallejo Police Department subsequently wrote Allen had received an other than honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy in 1958, and had been fired from his job as an elementary school teacher in March 1968 after allegations of sexual misconduct with students. He was generally well-regarded by those who knew him, but he was also described as "fixated on young children and angry at women”.
His residence at 32 Fresno Street was located just 10 minutes walk from the payphone at the intersection of Springs Road and Tuolumne Street, where the Zodiac made his first payphone call to police dispatcher Nancy Slover just 40 minutes after the attack on Michael Mageau and the murder of Darlene Ferrin at Blue Rock Springs Park on July 4th 1969. Both the Blue Rock Springs attack and the double murder at Lake Herman Road were within a 15 minute driving distance from the Fresno Street residence. For approximately six months, Allen was employed at the Arco Service Station in Vallejo before he was dismissed in the April of 1969, with his employer citing Allen's drinking problem and an unhealthy interest in small girls.
Darlene Ferrin had worked at the International House of Pancakes on Tennessee Street, Vallejo, situated about one block, or short walking distance from the Arthur Leigh Allen residence at 32 Fresno St. A police report at the time highlighted that somebody by the name of 'Lee' was apparently often seen in the company of Darlene Ferrin. Don Cheney, a close associate of Arthur Leigh Allen, stated that Allen had mentioned to him that he was fond of a waitress at that restaurant. Arthur Leigh Allen often went by the name of 'Lee', actually spelling it in the shortened version.
Met by Detective George Bawart at Ontario Airport in California on August 16th 1991, Michael Mageau picked out Arthur Leigh Allen from a photographic line-up of 1968 driver's licenses, but this was undertaken twenty-two years after the attack at Blue Rock Springs Park, so has little evidentiary value. He also requested the search warrant for Allen's Santa Rosa trailer in Sunset Park in 1991, activated by Inspector Bill Armstrong and granted by a Sanoma County judge. When inspectors David Toschi and Bill Armstrong first arrived at the trailer park Allen was not at home, however, when they entered they found dead squirrels in a freezer, sexually explicit items and reading material scattered throughout. But more importantly, on Allen's return, were able to leave with samples of his handwriting which were later used to compare to the Zodiac letters. View the police report regarding the interview with Arthur Leigh Allen at the Sunset Trailer Park.
Between 1970 and 1974 Allen attended Sanoma State College, approximately thirty miles northeast of Pinole. It was this area that became synonymous with the coed killings or Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders that began on February 4th 1972 with the murders of Maureen Louise Sterling (12) and Yvonne Lisa Webber (12), who disappeared while hitchhiking along the Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa. The murders may have drawn to a close with the killing of Theresa Walsh (23) at Mark West Creek, a thirty-mile stream in Sanoma County on December 22nd 1973. All told, claiming the lives of at least seven women, but likely more. Allen was known for his predatory instincts. The Sunset Trailer Park in Santa Rosa lies close to the hitchhiker murders
In September 1972, San Francisco police obtained a search warrant for Allen's residence. In 1974, Allen was arrested for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy; he pleaded guilty and served two years imprisonment.
During this time period the Zodiac letters ceased, but after his release from the Atascadero State Hospital on August 31st 1977, the resumption of what is claimed to be another Zodiac one page letter surfaced on April 24th 1978, stating "I am back with you”.
He also stated that his favorite story was 'The Most Dangerous Game', bearing in mind this was partially mentioned in the 408 cipher (man is the most dangerous animal). This short story by Richard Connell, first published in 1924, chronicled a man called General Zaroff who lived on Ship-Trap Island, where he indulged in capturing shipwrecked sailors, equipping them with a hunting knife and food, before releasing them with a three-hour head start. The "prey" would then be hunted down for sport by Zaroff until they were killed. However, if they survived for three days he would grant them their freedom.
General Zaroff had become bored with just hunting wild animals because as he alluded, it posed no challenge - with the 408 cipher stating "I like killing people because it is so much fun it is more fun than killing wild game in the forest”.
In the November 9th 1969 Bus Bomb letter, the Zodiac stated ''What you do not know is whether the death machine is at the sight or whether it is being stored in my basement for future use' and 'Take one bag of ammonium nitrate fertilizer + 1 gal of stove oil & dump a few bags of gravel on top + then set the shit off + will positivily ventalate any thing that should be in the way of the blast". On February 14th 1991, the Vallejo Police Department armed with a search warrant entered the basement of Allen's Vallejo residence, where they found bomb making diagrams, including the use of oil and ammonium nitrate, pipe bombs and a host of incriminating evidence - but Allen claimed they had been left there by a third party. No charges were filed against him as a result of their findings.
In the 2007 Zodiac Killer documentary His Name was Arthur Leigh Allen, George Bawart, a former Vallejo Police Department officer, commissioned with investigating the prime suspect Arthur Leigh Allen, discusses how he was approached by Ralph Spinelli in 1989. Ralph Spinelli, described by George Bawart as a small time crook from Vallejo, furnished him with an interesting story involving Arthur Leigh Allen, namely that he was approached by the aforementioned subject outside one of his nightclubs in Fairfield, California called the 'Crazy Horse Saloon'. Arthur Leigh Allen allegedly said to him that he could offer his assistance to Spinelli as a form of hitman, following this up by claiming "I'm Zodiac", and stating that he could kill people and take credit for it. Ralph Spinelli, rejecting Allen out of hand, was supposedly further told "I'll prove to you I'm telling the truth, I'll kill someone in San Francisco and you'll know its me".
Also, Donald Cheney, who first alerted police to his former friend as the likely Zodiac Killer, recalled Arthur Leigh Allen mentioning an Agatha Christie book, with which he had developed an interest in due to its intricate plotline. He said that Allen had not mentioned the book by name, but Cheney had identified it at a later date upon reading it. The book was called the ABC Murders.
In one of his final interviews, Arthur Leigh Allen rejected the notion he was Zodiac, talked of the police searches and refuted the claims by Ralph Spinelli, stating "They took a lot of my tapes, samples of my handwriting and screwed up a lot of my stuff here too, but they didn't take that. They took a couple of typewriters. I know who the guy was (referring to Spinelli), I never said a word to him, I didn't like the punk, and I said this guy must be on the hot seat for something, and they said (the police), 'Oh no, he just phoned down and volunteered this information.' When I found out the next day by a different police officer that yes he sure had, he was trying to plea bargain his 30 year rap on multiple armed robberies. I couldn't murder anyone, it's difficult as hell, and it can be terribly depressing....and if I deserved any of it, that would be something different, but I don't. There are two types of liars in the world, fishermen and policemen, and not necessarily in that order. And their function is lying to you, as to trip you up. They can't do it to me because I have nothing to trip over. I am not the Zodiac Killer. I know that, I know that deep in my soul. I've never been known for good luck, and I guess this is pretty much living proof of it. I couldn't murder anyone".
The police had Allen on their radar for the Blue Rock Springs attack after Mageau identified Allen as the killer, but one month later Arthur Leigh Allen was found dead on the floor of his 32 Fresno Street, Vallejo residence.
Arthur Leigh Allen died of arteriosclerotic heart failure, brought about by diabetic renal failure on August 26th 1992. Although DNA and fingerprints (in particular, the blooded print lifted from Paul Stine's taxicab) provided no correlation and all appear to rule him out as a suspect, the book has not been closed on him by either the Vallejo or San Francisco Police Department.
Detective George Bawart would later say "The only reason I look in that direction and I am 95 percent sure it was him, is because so many coincidences point in his direction. What really bothers me about this case is that we were ready to charge Arthur Leigh Allen, with the idea in mind that it would be taken to trial so that 12 jurors could make that determination. But he died before we could do that”.
In the subsequent years to 1978, Arthur Leigh Allen worked several jobs and spent a few years employed at Ace Hardware by Tennessee and Amador Streets in Vallejo. His role was a buyer for the garden and tool departments and will be remembered being portrayed by John Carroll Lynch in the closing scene of the David Fincher 2007 Zodiac movie, when amateur sleuth Robert Graysmith, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, enters the Ace Hardware store to set eyes on the man he is utterly convinced is the Zodiac Killer. But according to Robert Graysmith, the real story unfolded like so: "I'm following (Allen) around in an orange Volkswagen Rabbit and I park outside of Ace Hardware and obviously he's seen me from the big window and so I'm parked and he pulls alongside me so I can't get my door open and he gives me this look like you wouldn't believe”.
Robert Graysmith was a political cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle when the Zodiac Killer story broke, becoming obsessed with the unfolding mystery - an obsession that would eventually cost him his marriage. His fascination with the case, along with detailed information he has collected down the years, led him to write his first Zodiac book, released in 1986, before following this up with Zodiac Unmasked in 2002. Robert Graysmith became utterly convinced of Arthur Leigh Allen's guilt, who he referred to under the pseudonym 'Robert Hall Starr' in his early writings, until the real name emerged after Allen's death in 1992. However, despite Allen being cleared forensically, Robert Graysmith was not about to drop his interest in a man he had vested so much interest into, not withstanding the two books he had painstakingly compiled.
In a later interview he stated that the Zodiac letters had been stored in plastic envelopes, enduring extremes of temperature for many decades, along with being handled by many people, thereby arguing his suspect was still a viable candidate for the Bay Area murders because evidence preservation of yesteryear was not as stringent by today's standards. He also questions that the Zodiac Killer would ever have licked a stamp, even back in 1969 - for although DNA testing was not available, the ability to procure blood type from the analysis of saliva was - and doubts that an intelligent killer, wearing gloves to conceal fingerprints, would not have been aware of this fact. Robert Graysmith has come under widespread criticism for his many inaccuracies and embellishments regarding the Zodiac case, but it must also be remembered that his contribution, is why we are, where we are today. His contribution to the Zodiac Killer story, without doubt, kept the case alive in the public domain.
Vallejo police served another search warrant at Allen's residence in February 1991. Two days after Allen's death in 1992, Vallejo police served another warrant and seized property from Allen's residence. In July 1992, victim Mike Mageau identified Allen as the man who shot him in 1969 from a photo line-up, saying "That's him! That's the man who shot me". However police officer Donald Fouke, who is speculated to have seen the Zodiac fleeing from the Stine killing, said in the 2007 documentary His Name Was Arthur Leigh Allen that Allen weighed about 100 pounds more than the man he saw, adding that his face was "too round". While Nancy Slover, who received the call from the Zodiac in the aftermath of the Mageau/Ferrin shooting said that Allen did not sound like the man on the phone.
Other evidence existed against Allen, albeit entirely circumstantial. A letter sent to the Riverside Police Department from Bates's killer was typed with a Royal typewriter with an Elite type, the same brand found during the February 1991 search of Allen's residence. He owned and wore a Zodiac brand wristwatch. He lived in Vallejo and worked minutes away from where one of the Zodiac victims (Ferrin) lived and from where one of the killings took place.
In 2002, the SFPD developed a partial DNA profile from the saliva on stamps and envelopes of Zodiac's letters. The SFPD compared this partial DNA to the DNA of Arthur Leigh Allen. A DNA comparison was also made with the DNA of Don Cheney, who was Allen's former close friend and the first person to suggest Allen may be the Zodiac Killer. Since neither test result indicated a match, Allen and Cheney were excluded as the contributors of the DNA.
Retired police handwriting expert Lloyd Cunningham, who worked on the Zodiac case for decades, stated, "They gave me banana boxes full of Allen's writing, and none of his writing even came close to the Zodiac. Nor did DNA extracted from the envelopes (on the Zodiac letters) come close to Arthur Leigh Allen."
Gary Francis Poste
In October 2021, the Case Breakers, a team of over 40 cold case investigators composed of former law enforcement investigators, military intelligence officers, and journalists, claimed to have identified the Zodiac Killer as Gary Francis Poste, who died in 2018. The team claimed to have uncovered forensic evidence and photos from Poste's darkroom, and noted that scars on Poste's forehead matched those they said were described on the killer. They also claimed that removing the letters of Poste's name from one of Zodiac's cryptograms revealed an alternate message. The FBI subsequently stated that the case remained open and that there is "no new information to report," while local law enforcement expressed skepticism of the team's findings to the Chronicle. Riverside police officer Ryan Railsback said the Case Breakers' claims largely relied on circumstantial evidence, and author Tom Voigt, a Zodiac Killer investigator, called the claims "bullshit." Voigt noted that no witnesses in the case described Zodiac as having scars on his forehead.
Other suspects
A letter to the Chronicle, postmarked May 8, 1974, featured a complaint that the movie Badlands was "murder-glorification" and asked the paper to cut its advertisements. Signed only "A citizen", the handwriting, tone, and surface irony were all similar to earlier Zodiac communications.
Sirs—I would like to expression my consternt consternation concerning your poor taste & lack of sympathy for the public, as evidenced by your running of the ads for the movie "Badlands," featuring the blurb—"In 1959 most people were killing time. Kit & Holly were killing people." In light of recent events, this kind of murder-glorification can only be deplorable at best (not that glorification of violence was ever justifiable) why don't you show some concern for public sensibilities & cut the ad?
A citizen
The Chronicle subsequently received an anonymous letter postmarked July 8, 1974, complaining of their publishing the writings of the antifeminist columnist Marco Spinelli. The letter was signed "the Red Phantom (red with rage)". The Zodiac's authorship of this letter is debated.
Editor—
Put Marco back in the hell-hole from whence it came—he has a serious psychological disorder—always needs to feel superior. I suggest you refer him to a shrink. Meanwhile, cancel the Count Marco column. Since the Count can write anonymously, so can I—
A letter, dated April 24, 1978, was initially deemed authentic but was declared a hoax less than three months later by three experts. Dave Toschi, the SFPD homicide detective who had worked the case since the Stine murder, was thought to have forged the letter. Author Armistead Maupin believed the letter to be similar to "fan mail" that praised the work of Toschi in the investigation, which he received in 1976; he believed both letters were written by Toschi. While he admitted to writing the fan mail, Toschi denied forging the Zodiac letter and was eventually cleared of any charges. The authenticity of this letter remains unverified.
Dear Editor
This is the Zodiac speaking I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here, I have always been here. That city pig toschi is good - but I am bu smarter and better he will get tired then leave me alone. I am waiting for a good movie about me. who will play me. I am now in control of all things.
Yours truly:
⌖ - guess
SFPD - 0
On March 3, 2007, an American Greetings Christmas card sent to the Chronicle, postmarked 1990 in Eureka, was re-discovered in their photo files by editorial assistant Daniel King. This letter was handed over to the Vallejo police. Inside the envelope, with the card, was a photocopy of two U.S. Postal keys on a magnet keychain. The handwriting on the envelope resembles Zodiac's print but was declared inauthentic by forensic document examiner Lloyd Cunningham; however, not all Zodiac experts agree with Cunningham's analysis. There is no return address on the envelope nor is his crossed-circle signature to be found. The card itself is unmarked. The Chronicle turned over all the material to the Vallejo Police Department for further analysis.
May 4th 1978
Dear Channel Nine;
This is the Zodiac speaking. You people in LA are in for a treat. In the next three weeks you are finally gona have something good to report. I have decided to begin Killing again—PLEASE hold the applause! Nothing is going to happen until I do. You people just wont let me have it Any other way. I plan to kill five people in the next three weeks (1) Chief piggy Darrel Gotes (2) Ex Chief piggy Ed Davis (3) Pat Boone—his theocratic crap is a obscenity to the rest of the world! (4) Also Eldrige Cleaver—the niggers gotta get their 20% quota—after all. And Susan Atkins—The Judas of the Manson Family. Shes gonna get hers now. Hey———you actors—this is your lucky Break. Remember—whoever plays me has to their work cut out for him. See you in the News!
21st century developments
In April 2004, the SFPD marked the case "inactive", citing caseload pressure and resource demands, effectively closing the case. However, they re-opened their case sometime before March 2007. The case is open in Napa County and in the city of Riverside.
In May 2018, the Vallejo Police Department announced their intention to attempt to collect the Zodiac Killer's DNA from the back of stamps he used during his correspondence. The analysis, by a private laboratory, was expected to check the DNA against GEDmatch. It was hoped the Zodiac Killer may be caught in a similar fashion to the "Golden State Killer" Joseph James DeAngelo. In May 2018, a Vallejo police detective said that results were expected in several weeks. However, as of April 2022, no results have been reported.
Suspects
The Zodiac murderers remain unsolved, and numerous suspects have been suggested. The most commonly suggested suspects are Arthur Leigh Allen and Gary Francis Poste.
Arthur Leigh Allen
Robert Graysmith's book Zodiac advanced Arthur Leigh Allen, who died in 1992, as a potential suspect based on circumstantial evidence. Allen had been interviewed by police from the early days of the Zodiac investigations and was the subject of several search warrants over a 20-year period. In 2007, Graysmith noted that several police detectives described Allen as the most likely suspect. In 2010, Dave Toschi stated that all the evidence against Allen ultimately "turned out to be negative". Toschi's daughter said in 2018 that her father had always thought Allen had been the killer, but they did not have the evidence to prove it. Mark Ruffalo, who portrayed Toschi in the 2007 film Zodiac, commented, "If you get into who these cops were, you realize how they have to take their hunches, their personal beliefs, out of it. Dave Toschi said to me, 'As soon as that guy walked in the door, I knew it was him.' He was sure he had him, but he never had a solid piece of evidence. So he had to keep investigating every other lead.”
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 18th 1933, Arthur Leigh Allen became probably the most scrutinized of all the suspects attached to the case, but to this day the crime remains unsolved. Allen was also the only suspect to be served with search warrants by police.
But as yet no definitive evidence has directly implicated him in any of the crimes, despite several key pieces of circumstantial evidence pointing in his direction. Moreover, DNA and fingerprints lifted from several items connected with the crimes have failed to produce any match, including fingerprints retrieved from the taxicab murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969 and a palm print lifted from the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974 - and in 2002 DNA (now widely discredited) extracted from stamps and envelopes from the Zodiac letters failed to implicate Allen or his former friend Don Cheney. Recent discoveries on this website validating the April 24th 1978 letter as a genuine Zodiac correspondence has poured huge doubt on Arthur Leigh Allen as the Bay Area murderer, with Allen's DNA having not matched that extracted from the 1978 letter. Of course, the person who licked the envelope and stamps could be different to the murderer of five people, but it's not the likeliest of the two options.
Another discrepancy attaching Allen to the Zodiac crimes is the fact the best known composite sketch of the killer bore little, if any resemblance to Arthur Leigh Allen. He also underwent handwriting tests that the police had prepared for him using the relevant pens and involving particular words found in the letters, with a handwriting expert determining there was no correlation between the Zodiac letters and the handwriting Allen submitted to them.
However, Allen did own a Zodiac watch adorned with the now infamous crosshairs symbol, given to him by his mother in 1967, and had connections with the US Navy after enlisting in 1957, which could have linked him to the 10.5 size Wing Walkers military style boot found to have made the footprint impressions during the Lake Berryessa attack on Bryan Calvin Hartnell and Cecelia Ann Shepard - and Allen wore 10.5 shoes.
Additionally, in a confession to police, he revealed he was in possession of knives covered in blood on the day of the Lake Berryessa attack, but stated they were used to kill a chicken.
On October 6, 1969, Allen was interviewed by detective John Lynch of the Vallejo Police Department. Allen had been reported in the vicinity of the Lake Berryessa attack against Hartnell and Shepard on September 27, 1969; he described himself scuba diving at Salt Point on the day of the attacks.
On September 27th 1969, the day of the Lake Berryessa attack, he claimed he returned to the Vallejo area and remained at home for the rest of the day. During further investigation, on August 4th 1971, Detective Jack Mulanax, along with Inspectors Dave Toschi and Bill Armstrong headed to the place Arthur Leigh Allen now worked, an oil refinery in Pinole, California, made famous for the restroom interview featured in the 2007 movie Zodiac. He was once again questioned about his movements during the day of the Lake Berryessa attack, recalling his prior interview with Sergeant John Lynch, claiming that he had made conversation with a service man and his wife that day. Furthermore, he claimed he had spoken to an elderly neighbor William White in Vallejo at approximately 4:00 pm that afternoon. However, this could not be corroborated because William White had died only a week after this alleged conversation. They noticed he was wearing a Zodiac watch with the crossed circle logo. Allen appeared eager to divulge information, no matter that it only seemed to draw suspicion toward him.
He stated he had read 'The Most Dangerous Game' at high school and had also been in the region of Riverside, California - an area possibly connected to the Zodiac case with respect to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates alongside the Riverside City College library on October 30th 1966 - and then parted with a veiled insult, looking forward to a time "when people no longer referred to police officers as pigs".
Investigators interviewed Arthur Leigh Allen's sister-in-law, Karen Allen, to collect as much information they could on their prime suspect - and although she found the Zodiac connection unlikely, Allen had some unsettling issues with children, apparently unable to cement any meaningful relationships with women of his own age. After being shown several pieces of Zodiac correspondence, in particular the Melvin Belli letter mailed to the Belli residence at 1228 Montgomery Street in San Francisco on December 20th 1969, it was claimed she pointed out that her brother-in-law would condense the spoken phrase "trigger mechanism" to "trigger mech", as well as having received a Christmas greeting card from Arthur Leigh Allen using the double 'S' spelling of Christmas.
She also alluded to the fact that Arthur Leigh Allen was left-handed, but had learned to write with his right hand under pressure from his schoolteachers. Arthur Leigh Allen's brother, Ronald Allen, believed it was unlikely that Donald Cheney would make up stories if they were not correct. Their were further stories that Donald Cheney had confided to Ron that Arthur Leigh Allen had made an inappropriate sexual advance (involving touching the child) concerning one of his children, but in an interview by Tom Voigt with Donald Cheney's daughter it was revealed that this molestation never happened, with Donald Cheney remaining friends Allen years after the alleged assault. Therefore, the claims that Donald Cheney sent investigators in the direction of Arthur Leigh Allen as a form of revenge, does not hold any water.
He also owned a Royal typewriter, which police removed from Allen's home - similar to the one that produced the 'Confession' letter in connection to the unsolved stabbing of Cheri Jo Bates outside the Riverside City College Library on October 30th 1966,
Allen again came to police attention in 1971 when his friend Donald Cheney reported to police in Manhattan Beach, California, that Allen had spoken of his desire to kill people, used the name Zodiac, and secured a flashlight to a firearm for visibility at night. According to Cheney, this conversation occurred no later than January 1, 1969.
Jack Mulanax of the Vallejo Police Department subsequently wrote Allen had received an other than honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy in 1958, and had been fired from his job as an elementary school teacher in March 1968 after allegations of sexual misconduct with students. He was generally well-regarded by those who knew him, but he was also described as "fixated on young children and angry at women”.
His residence at 32 Fresno Street was located just 10 minutes walk from the payphone at the intersection of Springs Road and Tuolumne Street, where the Zodiac made his first payphone call to police dispatcher Nancy Slover just 40 minutes after the attack on Michael Mageau and the murder of Darlene Ferrin at Blue Rock Springs Park on July 4th 1969. Both the Blue Rock Springs attack and the double murder at Lake Herman Road were within a 15 minute driving distance from the Fresno Street residence. For approximately six months, Allen was employed at the Arco Service Station in Vallejo before he was dismissed in the April of 1969, with his employer citing Allen's drinking problem and an unhealthy interest in small girls.
Darlene Ferrin had worked at the International House of Pancakes on Tennessee Street, Vallejo, situated about one block, or short walking distance from the Arthur Leigh Allen residence at 32 Fresno St. A police report at the time highlighted that somebody by the name of 'Lee' was apparently often seen in the company of Darlene Ferrin. Don Cheney, a close associate of Arthur Leigh Allen, stated that Allen had mentioned to him that he was fond of a waitress at that restaurant. Arthur Leigh Allen often went by the name of 'Lee', actually spelling it in the shortened version.
Met by Detective George Bawart at Ontario Airport in California on August 16th 1991, Michael Mageau picked out Arthur Leigh Allen from a photographic line-up of 1968 driver's licenses, but this was undertaken twenty-two years after the attack at Blue Rock Springs Park, so has little evidentiary value. He also requested the search warrant for Allen's Santa Rosa trailer in Sunset Park in 1991, activated by Inspector Bill Armstrong and granted by a Sanoma County judge. When inspectors David Toschi and Bill Armstrong first arrived at the trailer park Allen was not at home, however, when they entered they found dead squirrels in a freezer, sexually explicit items and reading material scattered throughout. But more importantly, on Allen's return, were able to leave with samples of his handwriting which were later used to compare to the Zodiac letters. View the police report regarding the interview with Arthur Leigh Allen at the Sunset Trailer Park.
Between 1970 and 1974 Allen attended Sanoma State College, approximately thirty miles northeast of Pinole. It was this area that became synonymous with the coed killings or Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders that began on February 4th 1972 with the murders of Maureen Louise Sterling (12) and Yvonne Lisa Webber (12), who disappeared while hitchhiking along the Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa. The murders may have drawn to a close with the killing of Theresa Walsh (23) at Mark West Creek, a thirty-mile stream in Sanoma County on December 22nd 1973. All told, claiming the lives of at least seven women, but likely more. Allen was known for his predatory instincts. The Sunset Trailer Park in Santa Rosa lies close to the hitchhiker murders
In September 1972, San Francisco police obtained a search warrant for Allen's residence. In 1974, Allen was arrested for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy; he pleaded guilty and served two years imprisonment.
During this time period the Zodiac letters ceased, but after his release from the Atascadero State Hospital on August 31st 1977, the resumption of what is claimed to be another Zodiac one page letter surfaced on April 24th 1978, stating "I am back with you”.
He also stated that his favorite story was 'The Most Dangerous Game', bearing in mind this was partially mentioned in the 408 cipher (man is the most dangerous animal). This short story by Richard Connell, first published in 1924, chronicled a man called General Zaroff who lived on Ship-Trap Island, where he indulged in capturing shipwrecked sailors, equipping them with a hunting knife and food, before releasing them with a three-hour head start. The "prey" would then be hunted down for sport by Zaroff until they were killed. However, if they survived for three days he would grant them their freedom.
General Zaroff had become bored with just hunting wild animals because as he alluded, it posed no challenge - with the 408 cipher stating "I like killing people because it is so much fun it is more fun than killing wild game in the forest”.
In the November 9th 1969 Bus Bomb letter, the Zodiac stated ''What you do not know is whether the death machine is at the sight or whether it is being stored in my basement for future use' and 'Take one bag of ammonium nitrate fertilizer + 1 gal of stove oil & dump a few bags of gravel on top + then set the shit off + will positivily ventalate any thing that should be in the way of the blast". On February 14th 1991, the Vallejo Police Department armed with a search warrant entered the basement of Allen's Vallejo residence, where they found bomb making diagrams, including the use of oil and ammonium nitrate, pipe bombs and a host of incriminating evidence - but Allen claimed they had been left there by a third party. No charges were filed against him as a result of their findings.
In the 2007 Zodiac Killer documentary His Name was Arthur Leigh Allen, George Bawart, a former Vallejo Police Department officer, commissioned with investigating the prime suspect Arthur Leigh Allen, discusses how he was approached by Ralph Spinelli in 1989. Ralph Spinelli, described by George Bawart as a small time crook from Vallejo, furnished him with an interesting story involving Arthur Leigh Allen, namely that he was approached by the aforementioned subject outside one of his nightclubs in Fairfield, California called the 'Crazy Horse Saloon'. Arthur Leigh Allen allegedly said to him that he could offer his assistance to Spinelli as a form of hitman, following this up by claiming "I'm Zodiac", and stating that he could kill people and take credit for it. Ralph Spinelli, rejecting Allen out of hand, was supposedly further told "I'll prove to you I'm telling the truth, I'll kill someone in San Francisco and you'll know its me".
Also, Donald Cheney, who first alerted police to his former friend as the likely Zodiac Killer, recalled Arthur Leigh Allen mentioning an Agatha Christie book, with which he had developed an interest in due to its intricate plotline. He said that Allen had not mentioned the book by name, but Cheney had identified it at a later date upon reading it. The book was called the ABC Murders.
In one of his final interviews, Arthur Leigh Allen rejected the notion he was Zodiac, talked of the police searches and refuted the claims by Ralph Spinelli, stating "They took a lot of my tapes, samples of my handwriting and screwed up a lot of my stuff here too, but they didn't take that. They took a couple of typewriters. I know who the guy was (referring to Spinelli), I never said a word to him, I didn't like the punk, and I said this guy must be on the hot seat for something, and they said (the police), 'Oh no, he just phoned down and volunteered this information.' When I found out the next day by a different police officer that yes he sure had, he was trying to plea bargain his 30 year rap on multiple armed robberies. I couldn't murder anyone, it's difficult as hell, and it can be terribly depressing....and if I deserved any of it, that would be something different, but I don't. There are two types of liars in the world, fishermen and policemen, and not necessarily in that order. And their function is lying to you, as to trip you up. They can't do it to me because I have nothing to trip over. I am not the Zodiac Killer. I know that, I know that deep in my soul. I've never been known for good luck, and I guess this is pretty much living proof of it. I couldn't murder anyone".
The police had Allen on their radar for the Blue Rock Springs attack after Mageau identified Allen as the killer, but one month later Arthur Leigh Allen was found dead on the floor of his 32 Fresno Street, Vallejo residence.
Arthur Leigh Allen died of arteriosclerotic heart failure, brought about by diabetic renal failure on August 26th 1992. Although DNA and fingerprints (in particular, the blooded print lifted from Paul Stine's taxicab) provided no correlation and all appear to rule him out as a suspect, the book has not been closed on him by either the Vallejo or San Francisco Police Department.
Detective George Bawart would later say "The only reason I look in that direction and I am 95 percent sure it was him, is because so many coincidences point in his direction. What really bothers me about this case is that we were ready to charge Arthur Leigh Allen, with the idea in mind that it would be taken to trial so that 12 jurors could make that determination. But he died before we could do that”.
In the subsequent years to 1978, Arthur Leigh Allen worked several jobs and spent a few years employed at Ace Hardware by Tennessee and Amador Streets in Vallejo. His role was a buyer for the garden and tool departments and will be remembered being portrayed by John Carroll Lynch in the closing scene of the David Fincher 2007 Zodiac movie, when amateur sleuth Robert Graysmith, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, enters the Ace Hardware store to set eyes on the man he is utterly convinced is the Zodiac Killer. But according to Robert Graysmith, the real story unfolded like so: "I'm following (Allen) around in an orange Volkswagen Rabbit and I park outside of Ace Hardware and obviously he's seen me from the big window and so I'm parked and he pulls alongside me so I can't get my door open and he gives me this look like you wouldn't believe”.
Robert Graysmith was a political cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle when the Zodiac Killer story broke, becoming obsessed with the unfolding mystery - an obsession that would eventually cost him his marriage. His fascination with the case, along with detailed information he has collected down the years, led him to write his first Zodiac book, released in 1986, before following this up with Zodiac Unmasked in 2002. Robert Graysmith became utterly convinced of Arthur Leigh Allen's guilt, who he referred to under the pseudonym 'Robert Hall Starr' in his early writings, until the real name emerged after Allen's death in 1992. However, despite Allen being cleared forensically, Robert Graysmith was not about to drop his interest in a man he had vested so much interest into, not withstanding the two books he had painstakingly compiled.
In a later interview he stated that the Zodiac letters had been stored in plastic envelopes, enduring extremes of temperature for many decades, along with being handled by many people, thereby arguing his suspect was still a viable candidate for the Bay Area murders because evidence preservation of yesteryear was not as stringent by today's standards. He also questions that the Zodiac Killer would ever have licked a stamp, even back in 1969 - for although DNA testing was not available, the ability to procure blood type from the analysis of saliva was - and doubts that an intelligent killer, wearing gloves to conceal fingerprints, would not have been aware of this fact. Robert Graysmith has come under widespread criticism for his many inaccuracies and embellishments regarding the Zodiac case, but it must also be remembered that his contribution, is why we are, where we are today. His contribution to the Zodiac Killer story, without doubt, kept the case alive in the public domain.
Vallejo police served another search warrant at Allen's residence in February 1991. Two days after Allen's death in 1992, Vallejo police served another warrant and seized property from Allen's residence. In July 1992, victim Mike Mageau identified Allen as the man who shot him in 1969 from a photo line-up, saying "That's him! That's the man who shot me". However police officer Donald Fouke, who is speculated to have seen the Zodiac fleeing from the Stine killing, said in the 2007 documentary His Name Was Arthur Leigh Allen that Allen weighed about 100 pounds more than the man he saw, adding that his face was "too round". While Nancy Slover, who received the call from the Zodiac in the aftermath of the Mageau/Ferrin shooting said that Allen did not sound like the man on the phone.
Other evidence existed against Allen, albeit entirely circumstantial. A letter sent to the Riverside Police Department from Bates's killer was typed with a Royal typewriter with an Elite type, the same brand found during the February 1991 search of Allen's residence. He owned and wore a Zodiac brand wristwatch. He lived in Vallejo and worked minutes away from where one of the Zodiac victims (Ferrin) lived and from where one of the killings took place.
In 2002, the SFPD developed a partial DNA profile from the saliva on stamps and envelopes of Zodiac's letters. The SFPD compared this partial DNA to the DNA of Arthur Leigh Allen. A DNA comparison was also made with the DNA of Don Cheney, who was Allen's former close friend and the first person to suggest Allen may be the Zodiac Killer. Since neither test result indicated a match, Allen and Cheney were excluded as the contributors of the DNA.
Retired police handwriting expert Lloyd Cunningham, who worked on the Zodiac case for decades, stated, "They gave me banana boxes full of Allen's writing, and none of his writing even came close to the Zodiac. Nor did DNA extracted from the envelopes (on the Zodiac letters) come close to Arthur Leigh Allen."
Gary Francis Poste
In October 2021, the Case Breakers, a team of over 40 cold case investigators composed of former law enforcement investigators, military intelligence officers, and journalists, claimed to have identified the Zodiac Killer as Gary Francis Poste, who died in 2018. The team claimed to have uncovered forensic evidence and photos from Poste's darkroom, and noted that scars on Poste's forehead matched those they said were described on the killer. They also claimed that removing the letters of Poste's name from one of Zodiac's cryptograms revealed an alternate message. The FBI subsequently stated that the case remained open and that there is "no new information to report," while local law enforcement expressed skepticism of the team's findings to the Chronicle. Riverside police officer Ryan Railsback said the Case Breakers' claims largely relied on circumstantial evidence, and author Tom Voigt, a Zodiac Killer investigator, called the claims "bullshit." Voigt noted that no witnesses in the case described Zodiac as having scars on his forehead.
Other suspects
- In 2018 Italian journalist Francesco Amicone implicated Joseph aka Giuseppe Bevilacqua, former superintendent of the Florence American Cemetery and Memorial, as a suspect in both the Zodiac and Monster of Florence murder cases. Amicone alleged that on September 11, 2017 Bevilacqua confessed to being the killer in both cases. In 2021, at the request of the Attorney in charge of the investigation on the Monster, Pm Luca Turco, the investigations into Bevilacqua resulting from Amicone's inquiry were closed. Turco, in justifying his request, affirmed that "this journalistic inquiry is characterized by suggestions, assumptions, asserted intuitions, and it does not contain any factual element likely to rise to the dignity of a clue". Pm Turco also proceeded against Amicone for libel against Bevilacqua.
- In 2009, an episode of the History Channel television series MysteryQuest looked at newspaper editor Richard Gaikowski. During the time of the murders, Gaikowski worked for Good Times, a San Francisco counterculture newspaper. His appearance resembled the composite sketch, and Nancy Slover, the Vallejo police dispatcher who was contacted by the Zodiac shortly after the Blue Rock Springs Attack, identified a recording of Gaikowski's voice as being the same as the Zodiac's.
- Retired police detective Steve Hodel argues in his book The Black Dahlia Avenger that his father, George Hodel, was the Black Dahlia killer, whose victims include Elizabeth Short. The book led to the release of previously suppressed files and wire recordings by the Los Angeles district attorney's office of his father, which showed that the elder Hodel had indeed been a prime suspect in Short's murder. District Attorney Steve Kaye subsequently wrote a letter which is published in the revised edition stating that if George Hodel were still alive he would be prosecuted for the crimes. In a follow-up book, Hodel argued a circumstantial case that his father was also the Zodiac Killer based upon a police sketch, the similarity of the style of the Zodiac letters to the Black Dahlia Avenger letters and questioned document examination.
- Lawrence Kaye, later Lawrence Kane: Kathleen Johns, who claimed to have been abducted by the Zodiac Killer, picked out Kane in a photo lineup. Patrol officer Don Fouke, who possibly observed the Zodiac Killer following the murder of Paul Stine, said that Kane closely resembled the man he and Eric Zelms encountered. Kane worked at the same Nevada hotel as possible Zodiac victim Donna Lass. Kane was diagnosed with impulse-control disorder after suffering brain injuries in a 1962 accident. He was arrested for voyeurism and prowling. Fayçal Ziraoui, a French-Moroccan business consultant, claimed in 2021 that he solved the Z13 cipher and the solution to the puzzle reads "My name is Kayr", which he said is a likely typo for Kaye. Others disputed that Ziraoui could have solved the cipher.
- Police informants accused Richard Marshall of being the Zodiac Killer, claiming that he privately hinted at being a murderer. Marshall lived in Riverside in 1966 and San Francisco in 1969, close to the scenes of the Bates and Stine murders. He was a silent film enthusiast and projectionist, screening Segundo de Chomón's The Red Phantom (1907), a name used by the author of a possible 1974 Zodiac letter. Detective Ken Narlow said that "Marshall makes good reading but [is] not a very good suspect in my estimation."
- In February 2014, it was reported that Louis Joseph Myers had confessed to a friend in 2001 that he was the Zodiac Killer after learning that he was dying from cirrhosis of the liver. He requested that his friend, Randy Kenney, go to the police upon his death. Myers died in 2002, but Kenney allegedly had difficulties getting officers to cooperate and take the claims seriously. There are several potential connections between Myers and the Zodiac case; Myers attended the same high schools as victims David Farraday and Betty Lou Jensen, and allegedly worked in the same restaurant as victim Darlene Ferrin. During the 1971–1973 period, when no Zodiac letters were received, Myers was stationed overseas with the military. Kenney says that Myers confessed he targeted couples because he had had a bad breakup with a girlfriend. While officers associated with the case are skeptical, they believe the story is credible enough to investigate if Kenney could produce credible evidence.
- Robert Ivan Nichols, also known as Joseph Newton Chandler III, was a formerly unidentified identity thief who committed suicide in Eastlake, Ohio, in July 2002. After his death, investigators were unable to locate his family and discovered that he had stolen the identity of an eight-year-old boy who was killed in a car crash in Texas in 1945. The lengths to which Nichols went to hide his identity led to speculation that he was a violent fugitive. The U.S. Marshals Service announced his identification at a press conference in Cleveland on June 21, 2018. Some Internet sleuths suggested that he might have been the Zodiac Killer, as he resembled police sketches of the Zodiac and had lived in California, where the Zodiac operated.
- Ross Sullivan became a person of interest through the possible link between the Zodiac Killer and the murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside. Sullivan was a library assistant at Riverside City College and was suspected by coworkers who said that he went missing for several days after the murder. Sullivan resembled sketches of the Zodiac and wore military-style boots with footprints like those found at the Lake Berryessa crime scene. Sullivan was hospitalized multiple times for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
- In 2007, Dennis Kaufman claimed that his stepfather Jack Tarrance was the Zodiac. Kaufman turned several items over to the FBI, including a hood similar to the one worn by the Zodiac. According to news sources, DNA analysis conducted by the FBI on the items was deemed inconclusive in 2010.
- Former California Highway Patrol officer Lyndon Lafferty said the Zodiac Killer was a 91-year-old Solano County, California, man he referred to by the pseudonym George Russell Tucker. Using a group of retired law enforcement officers called the Mandamus Seven, Lafferty discovered Tucker and outlined an alleged cover-up for why he was not pursued. Tucker died in February 2012 and was not named because he was not considered a suspect by police.
- In 2014, Gary Stewart published a book, The Most Dangerous Animal of All, in which he claimed his search for his biological father, Earl Van Best Jr., led him to conclude Van Best was the Zodiac Killer. In 2020, the book was adapted for FX Network as a documentary series.
Unnamed suspects
In 2009, former lawyer Robert Tarbox, who was disbarred in August 1975 by the California Supreme Court for failure to pay some clients, said that in the early 1970s a merchant mariner walked into his office and confessed to him that he was the Zodiac Killer. The seemingly lucid seaman, whose name Tarbox would not reveal based on confidentiality, described his crimes briefly but persuasively enough to convince Tarbox. The man said he was trying to stop himself from his "opportunistic" murder spree but never returned to see Tarbox again. Tarbox took out a full-page ad in the Vallejo Times-Herald that he claimed would clear the name of Arthur Leigh Allen as a killer, his only reason for revealing the story 30 years after the fact. Robert Graysmith, the author of several books on Zodiac, said Tarbox's story was "entirely plausible".
In 2010, a picture surfaced of known Zodiac victim Darlene Ferrin and an unknown man who closely resembles the composite sketch, formed based on eyewitnesses' descriptions, of the Zodiac Killer. According to America's Most Wanted (February 19, 2011), police believe the photo was taken in San Francisco in the middle of either 1966 or 1967.
Cleared suspects
- Convicted serial killer Edward Edwards, who committed five murders between 1977 and 1996, was linked to the Zodiac murders and several other unsolved cases by former cold case detective John A. Cameron. Cameron's theories were met with "almost universal disdain, especially from law enforcement".
- Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, was investigated for possible connections to the Zodiac Killer in 1996. Kaczynski worked in northern California at the time of the Zodiac murders and, like the Zodiac, had an interest in cryptography and threatened the press into publishing his communications. Kaczynski was ruled out by both the FBI and SFPD based on fingerprint and handwriting comparison, and by his absence from California on certain dates of known Zodiac activity.
- The Manson Family: following the capture of Charles Manson and his murderous cult, a 1970 report by the California Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation stated that all male members of the Manson Family had been investigated and eliminated as Zodiac suspects.
- A group of unofficial investigators claim they've identified a "very strong suspect" as the notorious Zodiac Killer, who taunted authorities in California by sending coded letters and bloodied evidence in the 1960s and 70s.
The killer has been definitively linked to at least five murders through the 1960s, but this group says another victim is the link to their suspect.
The cold-case investigators, dubbed the Case Breakers Team, say a former US airman and house painter named Gary F Poste is responsible for the killings.He died in 2018.
The Zodiac Killer has been officially linked to five murders but the Case Breakers say Cheri Jo Bates, an 18-year-old student killed in 1966 in Riverside near Los Angeles, was the sixth victim.
They say that was corroborated by the FBI in a note in 1975.’
Some of the evidence they say points to Mr Poste includes:
- A paint-splattered watch bought at a military base found by police after Ms Bates's murder
- A heelprint of the same style and shoe size found at three other Zodiac crime scenes
- Forehead scars similar to the San Francisco Police Department's sketch of the Zodiac Killer
- Links between his name and coded messages sent to police by someone claiming to be the killer
The San Francisco office of the FBI said in a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle that the case remained open and they had "no new information to share at the moment.”
Sources also told the newspaper that the latest evidence didn't appear to be conclusive.
The Case Breakers said in a statement they wanted to share evidence about Ms Bates with local police, but local police said they were "100 per cent" sure the Zodiac Killer wasn't responsible for her death.
The group claims DNA evidence from Ms Bates's killer could be tested against Mr Poste's DNA to help confirm their theory.
Mr Poste's former daughter-in-law told the San Francisco Chronicle she believed the Case Breakers had nailed the killer.
Michele Wynn told the paper he was the Zodiac Killer "without a doubt" and the police sketch from 1969 was "like a bell-ringer for me.”
"Being around him, knowing his demeanour and his shadiness and twistedness — I have an intuition, I can read people," she told the Chronicle.
"It's my birthday today, and this all coming out is a great birthday present for me.”
The cold-case team's website says they're a 40-strong group, including former FBI agents, National Security Agency codebreakers, and professors in crime scene investigation.
Some of the volunteers working on this Zodiac investigation include a former police chief who is now a professor at the University of Maryland; a private investigator and investigative reporter; and a former military counterintelligence agent.
Letters, often starting with "This is the Zodiac speaking", were sent to local newspapers in Northern California until the 1970s.
But what gets the most attention is the four ciphers — handwritten codes sent with the letters that claimed, among many things, to reveal the identity of the killer.
One of the Case Breakers Team, former Army counterintelligence agent Jen Bucholtz, told Fox News in the US that one of these notes could now be deciphered to reveal another message.
"So you've got to know Gary's full name in order to decipher these anagrams," Ms Bucholtz said.
"I just don't think there's any other way anybody would have figured it out.”
Late last year Melbourne mathematician Sam Blake helped to crack the so-called "340 cipher", thanks to the extra time he had on his hands during lockdown.
Two of the ciphers officially remain unsolved (including the one that's said to reveal the killer's name).
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-07/zodiac-killer-could-be-gary-poste/100520022
https://zodiackillerfacts.com/myths-legends/darlene-ferrin-myths-the-beginning/
https://zodiackillerfacts.com/myths-legends/darlene-ferrin-myths-the-beginning/darlene-ferrin-myths-the-painting-party-the-stalker-andrew-todd-walker/
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/12/zodiac-killer-cipher-is-cracked-after-eluding-sleuths-for-51-years/
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/arthur-leigh-allen.html
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Zodiac_Killer
