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I Am Crackproof

The Zodiac Serial Killer: Closing in on a 50-Year-Old Unsolved Murder Mystery

By Paul BrucePublished 4 years ago 55 min read
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Sometime in late 1968, something inside an unknown individual snapped, and began what would become one of the world’s most famous unsolved murder mysteries. Emerging from what seemed a mundane, provincial murder case, sprang a modern, semi-mythological monster. An unknown, shadowy figure, who still haunts popular culture half a century later.

The Zodiac remains unique amongst serial killers, perhaps unique amongst any criminal. He comes across as a modern 1960s archetypal Trickster, with a dark, morbid sense of humour and a desperate need for fame and notoriety. A socio-path who waged a one-man war against the society that bred him, with a love of pop culture, fame, the press, pulp comics & TV. He used dark humour, symbolism, satire and cartoon-like imagery. He created collages using cut-up pictures, clip-art from greetings cards and employed enigmatic phrases, sometimes using phonetic spelling and odd, unexplained symbols.

He designed and made (skilfully) his own super-villain costume and even created his own logo, a crossed-circle with protruding points, resembling a gun sight.

Unlike other serial killers, he didn’t kill to fulfill extreme sexual desires, he didn’t steal from his victims (apart from a few items to authenticate his letters) or take body parts for trophies. He didn’t glory in inflicting pain and he didn’t kill because he hated his victims or what they represented.

And unlike most serial killers, he changed his MO several times, unusually, he killed both men and women and then, abruptly, he suddenly stopped killing..

Zodiac jumped into the late 1960s almost directly from the pages of a pulp novel. In fact, it seems highly likely that his inspiration was just that, a pulp/cartoon villain. He chose a comic-book name and designed his own super-villain costume, created a symbol to represent his name. He sent un-crackable codes to the press, boasted of his ability to hoodwink the cops, designed blueprints for giant bombs and murdered young people (almost exclusively students) perhaps for the sole purpose of achieving the fame his everyday idenitity could never attain.

I’m pretty certain that Zodiac was a fan of pulp comic fiction and was inspired by those classic Weird Tales magazines and comic-books so prevelent in the late 50s and 60s. If he could have beamed his enigmatic symbol across the night sky over San Francisco a la Batman, he’d have done it, but his hold over the Californian press and tv ensured he never needed to, his persona still hung over the city, terrifying its residents, forcing large-scale police patrols like scenes from a 50’s sci-fi movie. Often regarded as a criminal mastermind, a kind of 1960s evil alt-hippie genius (he was in fact very lucky,) the aura of the super-villain who escaped justice lingers well into the 21st Century.

The Zodiac mythos inspired Don Siegel and David Fincher as well as cartoonist Robert Graysmith, whose history of the case, ‘Zodiac’ remains one of the best-selling true crime books ever written, and no wonder!

The Zodiac murders were horrifying, abosorbing, gripping and are still among the most bizarre and mysterious cold cases in US history.

The Zodiac case still haunts and fascinates 50 years later. Last year, the History Channel filmed a 5-part series called ‘The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer’ it was almost a pulp series in itself, featuring real-life homicide cops Sal LaBarbera and Ken Mains, assisted by a talking super-computer called Carmel, who hunted for the now-geriatric serial killer. They failed in their effort, though a second series is being considered.

Since the Zodiac’s last communication, it’s often been believed that his identity would never be traced. Like Jack the Ripper, he was dead and no-one would ever find his true indentity. In fact, the Zodiac case remains eminently solveable, you could lay good odds on the real Zodiac being (almost literally) unmasked any day. If he is now dead, it’s likely some of the people who knew him are still alive and a chance memory could still lead to his true identity. He left behind an abundance of evidence and historical research could yet provide the critical data leading to the idenitity of the killer.

~

Although the night of December 20th 1968 was bitterly cold, it was dry and still. The ground had frozen hard underfoot, good conditions for raccoon hunting and for someone else, someone who wanted to leave no trace of his passing.

It was also a Friday night, and some of the residents of Benicia and its close neighbour, Vallejo in Northern California, were making the most of the last weekend before Christmas. In downtown Benicia, David Faraday was taking his girlfriend of one week, Betty Lou Jensen to a concert but instead they drove to visit a fellow student.

Between Benicia and Vallejo, lay around 5 miles of scrub land, bare, low rolling hills and a lonely country lane connected the outskirts of both towns, Lake Herman Road. The road lay on the outskirts of Benicia, little visited, its laybys were perfect for young lover’s trysts.

At 9:30pm that night, another young couple pulled into the gated entrance to pump station 10 on Lake Herman Road. The station entrance was wide but the lane to the pump station was gated with a single-bar gate. There was no lighting, so the area around the gate was pitch dark. The couple had been there only a few minutes when a light blue or brown, two-door car, apparently driven by two men, drove past them heading West towards Vallejo.

The car slowed to a stop some yards past the young couple, paused briefly, then began slowly backing up towards them. Unnerved by the other car’s behaviour, the teenagers reversed quickly out of the space and made off at speed back towards Benicia. Glancing behind them as they drove, they were alarmed to see that the mysterious car had turned and was tailing them at a fast rate. They made a turn on the road into Benicia and the car behind drove past them. Shaken, the couple called it a day and went home.

Although Lake Herman Road was isolated, it was not deserted. Two raccoon-hunters stalked the fields near the layby. An oil company employee and his wife were checking pipes along the road and the odd passing car made its way through the rat-run between Benicia and Vallejo. At around 10:00pm the pump station gateway was again deserted.

Driving a 1961 four-door Rambler Station Wagon, David drove the couple out to Lake Herman Road, arriving at the pump station gateway at roughly 10:15pm. The layby was pitch-black, the only illumination coming from the yellow dashboard light and the Rambler’s headlights. Occasionally, the layby was swept by the beams of headlights from passing cars.

The teenagers reclined the passenger seat to its fullest extent.

From the road, the car looked empty. Only someone who knew what the layby was used for would know the car was still occupied.

An oil company employee and his wife, Homer and Peggy Your, passed by the scene at 11:05pm. The Rambler was still parked there, David was holding the wheel and Betty Lou visible, resting her head on his shoulder. They were alone.

A few minutes later, another car approached the layby and pulled up next to the couple – shortly after, at around 11.14pm, James Owen, an employee of Humble Oil Co. in Benicia, travelling from Vallejo for a late shift, passed by and observed both cars parked side by side.

Parked close beside Faraday’s Rambler, was a vehicle which Owen’s described as dark and ‘lacking in chrome’. It was parked close beside the Rambler. Although this was the Zodiac’s car, oddly, he didn’t see anyone in, or around, either car. Alerted to the Zodiac’s presence, David and Betty Lou would have sat upright so it’s possible he was passing too quickly to notice. Alternatively, they were being held at gunpoint out of sight of passing traffic.

Owen travelled a further quarter of a mile, when he heard what sounded like a gun shot.

Owen’s statement means the Zodiac must have began shooting at 11:15pm or 11:16pm at the latest.

Waiting less than minute to allow Owen’s car time to leave the area, the Zodiac picked up a 9mm automatic handgun to which he’d taped a small flashlight. He got out of his car and walked to the rear of the Rambler. He shouted to the kids to get out of the car. When they didn’t respond, he fired a bullet that smashed the right rear passenger window and another into the roof of the Rambler. Forced outside, terrified, the young couple stood by the Rambler under the Zodiac’s gun. Perhaps Faraday tried to take off his class ring to give to the gunman, but the Zodiac ignored his offer, reached forward and shot Faraday, execution style, once in the head at close range. Jensen started running towards the road before the Zodiac fired another five shots, hitting her each time in the back. Courageously, ¬Jensen kept going despite being hit, but finally she fell, lying some 28 feet from the Rambler.

Aware that cars would still pass by the scene every few minutes, the Zodiac didn’t disturb the bodies or take any trophies. Instead, he walked back to his car and left, probably driving towards Benicia.

Mrs Stella Borges a nearby resident of the Borges Ranch on Lake Herman Road, around 1.5 miles from the murder scene, or a three-minute drive, was making her way to Benicia to pick up her 13-year-old son. No car passed her heading the opposite (Vallejo) direction. Reaching pump station 10 at around 11:20pm, Mrs Borges’ car headlights picked out the dead teenagers and the wide-open car door along with its smashed rear window.

Driving at speed, she made her way to Benicia and encountered officers Daniel Pitta and William Warner on routine patrol. Pitta and Warner arrived at the crime scene at 11:28pm. Both teenagers were found lying on the gravel turnoff, Jensen, with multiple gun wounds was dead at the scene, Faraday, shot once in the head at close range, was still breathing, but died while en route to hospital.

Mrs Borges had just missed catching sight of the Zodiac. If Zodiac had driven towards Vallejo, he would have left the scene at 11:16pm at the latest, taking 3 minutes to pass the Borges ranch at 11:19pm.

The police investigation estimated Borges had arrived at the murder scene at 11:20pm, meaning she left the ranch at 11:17pm. The Zodiac would therefore, have passed the ranch on his way to Vallejo at 11:19pm. So, the Zodiac must have gone towards Benicia after the killings.

This road carried less traffic, would avoid meeting police cars arriving from Vallejo, and from Benicia, Zodiac could have turned back to Vallejo along the Interstate 780, a 20-minute drive.

The police had little enough to go on. The frozen ground meant they were unable to obtain boot prints or tyre tracks. The police were only able to get a very limited description of the Zodiac’s car from Owen, who described a two-door car, smaller than the Rambler and ‘lacking in chrome’.

Some shells were recovered but ballistics reports later found they were so damaged that they could not be linked to any weapon.

What became clear was that crime was committed by a resident of either Vallejo or Benicia, someone who knew the area very well and was likely resident there. Later evidence points to Vallejo.

The Police investigation headed by Detective Sgt. Les Lungblad was already focussing on local suspects, young high school students with a grudge against the couple and oddly-behaving local youths, all of whom were quickly cleared. With no viable suspects or hard leads, the investigation stalled.

~

Seven months later, on July 4th 1969, 21-year-old mother Darlene Ferrin picked up Michael Mageau at his home for a night time tryst. Although married, Darlene was close friends with 19-year-old Mageau who often visited while her husband was working as a short order chef in a Vallejo bar and grill. On this particular night, he would be working till late. Darlene planned to take a trip to the Independence Day fireworks with friends. Later, at around 11:30pm, she picked Mageau up at his home and drove down Springs Road, looking for somewhere to eat. As they arrived, Darlene mentioned that she wanted to talk to him about something. Mageau suggested the Blue Rock Springs Country Park, an area of parkland which lay just outside the city. Darlene turned the car and they headed to the park, arriving there shortly before midnight. Their tete-a-tete was interrupted when a car and three revellers drove round the car park, yelling and letting off firecrackers before taking off at high speed.

Around 5 minutes after the revellers left, another car, a light-coloured probably tan-coloured, two-door car, not unlike Ferrin’s Chevrolet Corvair, arrived and parked behind Ferrin and Mageau. After a few moments, the car pulled out and made off at high speed back along the road leading into Vallejo city.

Mageau asked Ferrin if she knew the driver but she replied inconclusively; ‘Oh, never mind.’

Five minutes later, the car returned and again parked behind Ferrin’s car. Knowing the area well, and being a careful planner, the Zodiac was simply checking that no other traffic else was coming from Vallejo to interrupt him and his short scouting mission re-assured him that he had his victims to himself for a few minutes.

It’s likely the killer also carried out reconnaissance missions before the Lake Herman attack the previous December and some unknown vehicles had been seen on Lake Herman Road in the hours leading up to those killings. It’s possible the Zodiac also drove past the Lake Herman Road turnout a little way, to check the coast was clear, before beginning his attack.

A minute was all the Zodiac needed. The killer exited his car, leaving the door open and walked deliberately towards the young couple.

Suddenly, Mageau became aware of a flashlight pointing into their car. He was reaching for his ID when a volley of shots from a 9mm automatic, fired at close range from just outside the passenger window, struck Mageau in the neck and right arm. Bullets also hit Ferrin multiple times in the chest and abdominal organs. Mageau dove into the back seat, taking a shot to his knee and further shots struck both him and Ferrin, now slumped over the driving wheel. Mageau heard the Zodiac’s footsteps returning to his car, and unwisely let out a yell of pain.

Hearing this, the Zodiac stopped and walked quickly back to his victim’s car, firing two more shots into Mageau and into Ferrin’s back, before returning to his car and driving off at high speed.

George Bryant Jr. the son of the course caretaker, lived around 800 feet East of the Blue Rock Springs car park in bed but unable to sleep, he clearly heard both the firecrackers and shortly afterwards the repeated sounds of gunfire, as well as the Zodiac making his rapid escape from the scene.

Mageau opened the passenger door and fell out, lying beside the car as the Zodiac was driving away, fortunate that the killer hadn’t seen him falling out of the car as he left.

Mageau was found there at around 12:05 am when three other teenagers arrived in their own car, he was barely alive but breathing. He begged them to get help and they drove off to call the police. On the road back into Vallejo, they caught a glimpse of car tail-lights driving up Lake Herman Road. Possibly the Zodiac making his escape by the route least likely to encounter oncoming traffic. A pre-planned escape route.

The teenagers called the police, their call logged at 12:10am, and Mageau and Ferrin were found at the scene by officer Hoffmann of the Vallejo Police Department. Ferrin had been killed, Mageau, despite being shot several times, survived, his brief glimpse of the Zodiac as he began shooting becoming the first eye-witness description of one of the world’s most sought-after serial killers.

Mageau described catching a glimpse of a stocky, 5-foot 8-inch white male, with short light brown curly hair and a large, round face. He was wearing a light blue short-sleeved shirt and driving a two-door, tan-coloured, Corvair-like car.

At precisely 12:40am, Nancy Sloven, the Vallejo Police Dept. switchboard operator took a call placed to the Police Dept. from a Vallejo callbox.

‘I want to report a double murder. If you will go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to the public park, you will find kids in a brown car. They were shot with a 9-millimeter Luger. I also killed those kids last year. Goodbye.’

Partly to taunt and partly to inspire fear, the caller lifted the stress and intonation on the final syllable of ‘Goodbye.’

The call was later traced to a phone box located a few hundred metres from the police station. Later, the Zodiac would claim that he’d been seen making the call by a passer-by, the phone ringing again when he’d replaced the receiver attracting the man’s attention.

This incident raises a few obvious questions. First, the Zodiac had to know Vallejo well enough to find yet another lovers’ trysting place and the location of the phonebox. He’s not going to want to cruise about Vallejo late at night looking for a phone booth. He already knew where it was.

He’d also planned his ecape route back along Lake Herman Road which lead away from any approaching police vehicles and reconnoitred the area immediately before his assault.

Also, since the killings were committed at just after midnight and the call to the Police was logged at 12:40am, that leaves nearly 40 minutes unaccounted for. Driving directly to the phone booth from Blue Rock Springs would take only 10 minutes. It’s also likely that the Zodiac would have wanted to make his call as soon as possible after the attack and also unlikely he spent 25-30 minutes driving round Vallejo in a wanted car and carrying a freshly-fired handgun, looking for a phone booth. What did he do with the missing 30 minutes?

It’s possible he drove down Lake Herman Road (recall the vanishing tail-lights seen by the three teenagers) which would make a good escape route, heading away from any emergency vehicles headed for Blue Rock Springs and then doubled back into Vallejo from the opposite direction, before dropping the gun off at his home and walked to the booth. This would also account for a good portion of the missing time.

Vallejo is not a big city and a 15-minute walking radius centred on the booth, located almost in front of Vallejo Sheriff’s Office at Tuolumne Street and Springs Road, covers much of Central Vallejo.

Interestingly, the booth was located just outside a city garage. The Zodiac would want the gun stored safely away before he ventured out to make his call so there’s a strong chance that the Zodiac lived within a 10-15 minute radius of this phone booth.

Later, he would realise that one of his victims had survived and was talking to the police. The Zodiac must have passed the next weeks in a state of extreme tension, waiting for the pendulum hanging over his head to fall, wondering what Mageau had seen of his car. But nothing happened. He was still free. Mageau had a better look at the Zodiac’s car than he had of the killer himself. Lying on the ground, he’d watched the Zodiac’s speedy escape from the scene but all he could recall of the number plate was that it was a California registered plate.

Although he had escaped capture, slowly, the investigators were piecing together a picture of the Zodiac; A Vallejo (or possibly Benicia) resident, owner of a two-door, light brown Corvair-like car and a gun owner. Since his victims were shot with different guns, he owned and used handguns. He would have needed to practice using them and bought bullets, so may have belonged to a gun club. He was stocky, around 5’8 in height, (later evidence suggests he was slightly taller, more like 5’10’’) short, light brown hair, a round face, around late twenties to mid thirties. He spoke with a calm, measured tone, with no unusual accent.

The chilling call on July 4th was a flag to the police that they weren't dealing with a case of jealousy or revenge. But the authorities were soon to realise that neither was this an ordinary serial killer either.

4 weeks later, on July 31st 1969, the Zodiac mailed the first of a series of letters to 3 newspapers in Northern California - The Vallejo Times, The San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle.

The letters were nearly identical, all of them were posted in the afternoon, mailed in San Francisco, all of them contained double the postage required for delivery and were all marked 'Please rush to Editor'.

'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

1 Brand name of ammo

Super X

2 10 shots were fired

3 the boy was on his back

with his feet to the car

4 the girl was on her right

side feet to the west

4th July

1 girl was wearing paterned

slacks

2 The boy was also shot in

the knee.

3 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 ram-

Page Fry. night. I will cruse

around all weekend killing lone

people in the night then move

on to kill again, untill I en

up with a dozen people over

the weekend.'

The letter was signed with what would become the killer's signature, a crossed circle and also contained a code, split into 3 parts.

The heat following the earlier two attacks had faded, and the Zodiac had clearly spent some time since December 1968 working on creating his elaborate codes and perfecting his media strategy. He had finally decided on his name – early press reports had referred to the killer as the ‘Cipher Slayer’ and this was clearly not acceptable. The strategy was to prove wildly successful.

Although he had promised to reveal his real name, when the code was eventually cracked by a couple of high school teachers, it revealed only that The Zodiac had lied:

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 THEI 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

Untruths and misleading statements were to become a factor in subsequent Zodiac communications, but there were also some odd mis-spellings. Speculation that the Zodiac was a highly intelligent super-criminal who played at being a poor speller to hide his real level of education are still prevalent among researchers. The poor spelling may have been deliberate but since the same mistakes were repeated in later letters, it’s more likely the Zodiac was not college educated.

Some difficult words would be correctly spelled, while other simpler words would be written incorrectly. The code itself is riddled with errors - e.g 'Dangerous' transcribes as 'Dangeroue' and 'that' as 'thae'. These are probably inaccuracies in the killer's coding. While the Zodiac's codes were complex (several have still not been conclusively cracked to this day), it’s likely that the complexity of the codes wrong-footed the Zodiac himself and led him to encode textual errors. In other words, it's probable that the Zodiac wasn't a coding 'expert' at all but someone who had access to code-breaking books - probably borrowed from a Vallejo or Benicia library sometime after December 1968. He made errors encoding his texts and used codes that only beginners would use. Some of his symbols appeared in code books intended for children.

Zodiac's real genius was in self-promotion and media manipulation. In fact, as super-villains go, he made a number of basic mistakes.

In his next letter, just a week later, dated August 4th, the Zodiac crucially left two fingerprints. He was lucky that Mageau hadn't read his number-plate at Blue Rock Springs - or that Owen hadn’t read his car plates during his December 1968 attack. Now, they had his prints.

The Zodiac was reckless, possessed a native cunning and shrewdness, but he was no genius and law enforcement was steadily building up a trail.

~

At about 5:15pm on Saturday 27 September 1969, two young students, Bryan Hartnell and Cecilia Shepard, were seen by friends driving along Knoxville Road, which followed Lake Berryessa’s meandering shoreline. Cecilia was leaving for Riverside, Southern California and she aimed to spend some time with her friend Bryan. After attending a Church service in the morning, he helped her pack and then suggested a drive to nearby Lake Berryessa. It was a warm, late September evening and a final sojourn to the beautiful lakeside seemed an appealing way to mark her parting.

At around 6:30pm, Dr Clifton Rayfield, a Dentist and his young son were out walking along the shores of Lake Berryessa, a 25-mile long reservoir in Napa county, around 40 miles from Vallejo. The lake was used for leisure and recreation and popular with day-trippers from across Northern California. While walking along a secluded part of the beach, they caught sight of a lone figure. He was around 100 yards away, on the other side of one of the inlets. Around 5’ 10’’ in height, heavy-build, wearing dark trousers and a long-sleeved dark shirt. When he noticed that the men had seen him, he began walking uphill towards the road.

Less than a mile away, Hartnell parked his white ’56 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia by the roadside.

He and Cecilia walked down a path along the grass covered slopes that lead down to the shore to a little peninsula. There, on a grassy knoll, near two spreading oak trees, they spread a blanket and embraced, alone on the eerily quiet lake. Apart from the odd passing boat and occasional bird, the area was deserted.

After some minutes of conversation, Hartnell (who was resting on his back) heard some rustling. Cecilia spotted a man approaching them across the grassy slopes. He disappeared behind the farthest tree around 20 feet away. Cecilia mentioned there was a man around and he’d gone behind a tree. Hartnell, presumed the man was taking a leak but within a few seconds, Cecilia called out ‘Oh my God, he’s got a gun!’

Sitting upright, Bryan saw an approaching menacing figure training an automatic handgun on them.

He was stocky, around 5’10 with a distinct pot-belly, (the police would later establish his weight as around 220 pounds), he wore a bizarre, home-made costume, a square-shaped black hood with holes cut for the eyes and mouth. Clip-on sunglasses were attached to the eye holes, presumably to hide his eye colour. Through it, Hartnell glimpsed greasy brownish hair. The hood came down below the neck to form a sleeveless apron, reaching down to his stomach, the apron carried a stitched symbol, a circle bisected by a lateral and vertical line. The familiar crossed-hair symbol the Zodiac used in his letters. To Hartnell, the symbol looked expertly made, possibly machine-stitched. To maintain the hood’s square shape, the Zodiac had inserted a brown paper bag inside the headpiece.

He wore a windcheater-style long-sleeved jacket and old-fashioned, pleated trousers, out of fashion since the 1950’s. On his waist he carried a holster and a sheath that held a foor long bayonet-style knife. On his belt the figure carried some lengths of coiled plastic clothes-line.

The figure spoke evenly and calmly in a low voice with a slight drawl, possibly a rural accent. He told them he’d killed a guard and escaped from Deer Lodge, (a Montana prison) and needed money and their car to get to Mexico. He threw some lengths of the plastic cord over and ordered Cecilia to tie Bryan up. He then tied Cecilia and, aware that Cecilia had tied Bryan’s hands loosely, re-tied the boy.

He then tied their feet and attached another line between the two ties to hog-tie them. He turned them both over onto their fronts.

The man’s casual manner gave the couple no indication of the very real danger they were in.

‘Is the gun really loaded?’ Hartnell asked. Wordlessly, the Zodiac pulled the clip from the holster and showed Hartnell the fully-loaded clip before returning it to the gun. Hartnell turned to Cecilia and glimpsed the Zodiac pulling out his knife as he suddenly began stabbing Hartnell in the back. Cecilia screamed hysterically as the young man received six deep stab wounds, one puncturing his lung.

Hartnell played dead. Breathing heavily, the Zodiac stepped over to Cecilia, bent down and began stabbing her. Cecilia screamed and fought, rolling over the ground and taking nearly twenty deep stab wounds. After a pause, silently, the killer got up and walked away.

After the Zodiac had left, they began shouting for help, attracting the attention of a fisherman in a small boat who left to find help, reaching the Rancho Monticello Resort around 20 minutes later.

Meanwhile, the Zodiac had retraced his steps back up the trail to the roadside where he’d parked immediately behind Hartnell’s Karmann Ghia. Taking out his trademark felt-tip pen, he marked the passenger side door:

Vallejo

12-20-68

7- 4- 69

Sept 27-69 6:30

by knife

Getting into his car, the Zodiac drove off in the direction of Napa, a small town 27 miles away. It was now sometime around 6:45pm.

With Cecilia’s help, Bryan had managed to extract himself from his bindings and staggered and crawled back up the hill towards the road. At about this time, Mr Fong, the fisherman, raised the alarm and a call was made to the park rangers and the local law enforcement agencies.

By boat and car, the authorities made their way to the scene. Park Ranger Dennis Land, arriving at the roadside, found Hartnell, bleeding profusely, trying to crawl towards his car.

An ambulance arrived and carried the young kids to emergency theatre at Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa. Hartnell would survive, but the following day, Cecilia Shepard died of her wounds.

At 7:40pm, Officer Officer Slaight at Napa Police Department received a telephone call; ‘I want to report a murder – no, a double murder.’ The voice was young sounding, Officer Slaight estimated in his twenties. ‘They are two miles north of Park Headquarters. They were in a white Volkswagen Karmann Ghia.’

‘Where are you?’ Slaight asked.

The voice replied in a low, barely audible tone. ‘I’m the one who did it.’

The caller walked away, leaving the phone off the hook to prevent it’s being traced quickly and Slaight could hear passing traffic and passersby. Police later traced the call to 1231 Main Street, Napa Car Wash. The Zodiac had driven there straight after the attacks at Lake Berryessa, 27 miles to a phone booth only four and a half blocks from the police station. The call went through an operator, meaning the caller didn’t know the police department number but probably knew where it was.

The investigating officer Detective-Sergeant Kenneth Narlow of Napa County Sherriff’s Office and Deputy Collins began a detailed study of the crime scene. They discovered footprints, not those of the victims, leading to and from the crime scene and around the marked passenger door. The prints were deep and comparison fooprints soon established they were size 10 ½ and made by someone weighing around 220 pounds. The footprints were later to have found to have been made by Wing Walker boots, a military shoe sold in only a limited number of outlets.

Tyre treads at the scene revealed two different tread patterns, meaning the Zodiac had changed one tyre at some point. Both treads revealed old, worn tyres from an older Corvair or an old car, probably a two-door model, matching Mageau’s description and fitting in with the car seen at Lake Herman road by Owen. The Zodiac drove an old, beat-up, two-door Corvair, probably an older model and he did a lot of driving.

~

Saturday, October 11th was foggy and the clouds hung heavy over the crowded bustle of central San Francisco.

At around 9:30pm, a man in a dark Parka jacket, stepped off the sidewalk and hailed a passing cab. The cab-driver was Paul Stine, a 30-year-old medical student who drove cabs to pay his fees. Earlier, Stine had dropped a fare off at the airport and had been scheduled to make another pick-up when he was hailed, probably in Geary Street, San Francisco’s theatre district, the area was usually busy at the weekends and a good place to pick up fares. The hailer asked Stine to take him to Washington & Maple, in the middle of the ¬¬Presidio Heights district, a salubrious and affluent neighbourhood near the Presidio, a large area of Parkland in Northern San Francisco, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.

Most evenings, there was usually very little passing traffic and footfall in Presidio Heights and tonight was no exception. Dark sidewalks were the norm here, heavily shaded with the many matured oak trees that lined the streets and numerous secluded cul-de-sacs and with few passers-by or passing traffic.

The drive took around 10 minutes. Arriving at Washington & Maple, the fare asked Stine to drive one block further, to Washington & Cherry Street, where the cab pulled in.

Stine was preparing to collect the fare when he would have very briefly felt the muzzle of an automatic weapon pressed to his right cheek below his ear, before the gun fired, the bullet passing through the right side of his skull, killing him instantly.

The Zodiac put his gun away and either moving into, or already seated in the passenger seat, pulled Stine’s body across his lap. He went through the pockets and took his wallet and car keys. He also tore a large piece of Stine’s striped shirt off the body. Zodiac began wiping the interior of the cab, presumably in an attempt to remove prints. We know this because whilst searching Stine’s body, he was being observed by three teenagers from an upper-storey window in the house across the road. As one of them called the Police, the others watched as Zodiac exited from the passenger side door, walked round the cab to Stine’s side and began wiping the frame and handles of the cab on the outside. Pocketing the rag, Zodiac walked quickly away, turning the corner onto Jackson Street.

A nearby patrol car, occupied by Officers Donald Foukes and Eric Zelms, arrived on Jackson Street within a few minutes, however, for some reason the suspect description supplied by the call handlers described the killer as NMA (Negro Male Adult.)

The patrol car passed a bulky white man with a shambling walk, making his way down Jackson towards Maple Street’s cul-de-sac, where a low wall separated the whole neighbourhood from

West Pacific Avenue. Because the man was white, the police car didn’t stop him, though the Officers were able to observe the suspect as he walked.

At the crime scene, San Francisco Police Dept. Detective David Toschi and his partner Bill Armstrong had begun the laborious task of carefully searching the crime scene - where a spent slug was recovered on the cab floor - and interviewing witnesses. Shortly, they would combine the statements to produce the closest view yet of the Zodiac, the famous composite sketch of one of the world’s most notorious serial killers. Another major plus for Toschi was the recovery of two partial fingerprints from the cab, the prints had been made by a hand covered in Stine’s blood and so were undoubtedly those of the Zodiac.

Apart from the witnesses and a small trail of Stine’s blood leading away from the crime scene, the Zodiac had left no other traces or clues. But, matching up the descriptions by the 5 witnesses, the police were able to put together a composite image of the killer, horn-rimmed glasses, 5’10’’ in height and light-brown or red hair worn in a crew-cut. At Lake Berryessa just two weeks earlier, Hartnell had noticed wisps of hair through the eye-holes, did Zodiac have his hair crew-cut since 27th September because the strands of hair had interfered with his vision through the hood’s eye-holes? He wasn’t wearing his home-made costume here but maybe he’d planned to use it again and changed his mind?

On October 14th, the San Francisco Chronicle received another letter with the now typically-ominous marking; ‘Please Rush To Editor’. When opened, a square piece of Stine’s bloody shirt fell out, accompanied by another Zodiac communication:

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.

While this letter led to wholesale panic in the North Bay area with School buses travelling alongside armed police escorts, no such attack ever occurred. The Zodiac was playing mind games with the authorities. Further letters would follow, some claiming credit for murders committed by others in an attempt to throw the investigation off track. The Zodiac would also claim to have been stopped and released by the SF Police on the night of the Stine killing – this was always denied by the officers in question and given that he was bloodstained and carrying a gun that had been recently fired, it’s unlikely that Foukes and Zelm wouldn’t have noticed this at closer range. The Zodiac was playing the police against each other in an attempt to sow distrust, foster confusion and lay smokescreens.

The Zodiac continued to write letters, mainly to the Chronicle, nearly 20 in all. The letters included other ciphers – one, known as the Z340, stil unbroken to this day – as well as taunts, claims of further victims and bizarre symbolism but nothing in the way of idenitifiable evidence.

The letters served two purposes for Zodiac. The main aim was to provide him with the fame and notoriety he saught. The murders happened because the media exposure - which was his driving motivation - and the letters and ciphers were his route to fame. The other, ancillary value of the letters, were to act as misdirection and confuse and mislead investigators. There are innumerable examples of this, the Zodiac lied when claiming the first cipher revealed his identity. He subsequently claimed several murders known not to have been committed by the Zodiac, claiming responsibility for a murder in Southern California and commenting that ‘there were a lot more down there’ – a perfect way to re-direct the investigation away from Vallejo. Similarly, in his August 7th letter, the Zodiac mentions an unidentified Negro who passed him by at the Tuolumne Street phone booth and noticed him and his ‘brown’ car. The unnecessary and lengthy piece of detail, which suggests he didn’t want to reveal that he had parked his car in Vallejo before walking to the phone booth. The alleged witness was never traced.

Apart from revealing his psychopathic and possibly schizophrenic pathology, the writer made a few revealing entries including a mention of a basement, being ‘swamped out’ by flooding and quoting lengthy verses from Gilbert and Sulliven’s The Mikado, particularly from the arias of Ko-Ko the Lord High Executioner, one of the characters in the operetta.

All were franked from neighbourhood locations in and around San Francisco and mostly posted in the afternoons, San Francisco was less than an hour’s drive from Vallejo, and meets the useful misdirection test.

~

While the manhunt was vainly flailing around Northern California and nearly drowning in leads, tips and suspects, an anonymous writer dropped LA Chronicle journalist Paul Avery a letter.

Avery had covered the Zodiac case since the Stine murder and as a prominent and popular local journalist, his frequent articles on the Zodiac helped to cement the killer’s notoriety.

The note suggested Avery take a look at a murder that had been committed in Riverside, Southern California, around 400 miles south of Vallejo, in October 1966. A popular 20-year-old student,

Cheri Jo Bates had been viciously murdered by an unknown assailant who had stabbed her to death. Since nearby resident heard her screams, the time of death was pin-pointed sometime between 10:15pm and 10:45pm. The murder had been committed a short walk from the Riverside College library, (where Bates was a student) down an alley between two unoccupied houses. The murderer had subsequently sent a typewritten note as well as three handwritten notes which read ‘Bates Had to Die there will be more.’

One of which was callously sent to the victims father. Avery became convinced that there was a direct link between the unsolved Bates murder and the Northern California Zodiac cases and sent the details to Toschi. Toschi asked Morrill to look at the existing written material, which included a library desk with a sinister poem etched into its wooden surface.

Morrill concluded that the writing in this case matched the known Zodiac handwriting and Toschi arranged a meeting with Riverside PD to discuss the similarities between the two cases.

Subsequently, the Zodiac would claim credit for the murder in a letter in which he congratulated the police for uncovering his Riverside ‘activity’ and claimed there a ‘Heck of a lot more down there. ’

Toschi’s Riverside meeting ended inconclusively, since the local homicide division did not believe that the killing was the work of the Zodiac and favoured their own, local, suspect. Since then, the Bates case (which has remained unsolved) has haunted the Zodiac mystery, with many theorists supporting the Bates connection and others coming down on the side of the Riverside PD, that the two murder cases are not connected.

In fact, it looks likely, Morrill’s handwriting ID notwithstanding, that Bates was not murdered by Zodiac. Traces of a meal were found in Bates’ stomach at the autopsy. Since Bates had left home at 5pm to drive to the library and had been seen both on the route and waiting outside the library before it opened at 6pm, there wasn’t time for Bates to have eaten a meal prior to her going to the library. This means that Bates must have spent some time with her killer and trusted him enough to walk down a dark alleyway late at night, ruling out an unknown psychopathic serial killer and making it much more likely that Bates’ killer was known to her and the letters written to throw Police off the trail.

On November 9th, the Zodiac wrote again. In his longest letter yet, he bragged about making another bomb that he would use to target school buses enclosing a drawing of his device. Once again, the Zodiac never followed through with his threat. In this letter, the Zodiac also states;

‘ 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 committ 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.’

The Zodiac’s priority was no longer his one-man war against society, nor was it the thrill of killing or even the fame and notoriety he gained from his exploits, in fact his one over-riding focus now was now on avoiding detection. Since he faced the death penalty (briefly rescinded in California in 1972 but re-instated a few months later) if he was ever captured, the Zodiac took enormous pains to avoid ever being caught, but despite his careful planning, he came very close to being arrested by the police on October 11th, the authorites also now had his fingerprints, numerous good examplars of his handwriting, a general description of his vehicle, a palm print, ballistic evidence and an excellent physical description. The net was closing in and the Zodiac must have felt the pressure beginning to tell. I believe it was at this point that the Zodiac had to make a choice between continuing his campaign of terror and near certain capture, and stopping forever.

The boasts and taunts and claims of more crimes were just mis-direction. In this letter, the Zodiac tries to make the authorities think he was simply changing his MO when in fact, it was easier and less dangerous for him to simply claim credit for unsolved murders than to continue his killing spree. That way he could keep his name in the newspapers and news bulletins without the risk entailed in carrying out further crimes.

He may well have calculated that his freedom and life was worth the cost of his criminal career.

At this point, I feel, the Zodiac walked away from his crimes. Retaining his liberty and his secret, he may well have disposed of any remaining evidence and terminated his alter-ego. Not that the sociopathic and cold-blooded killer would ever have been able to rejoin normal society – he was a loner who could not empathise with his fellow humans. For a while, he continued to send taunting, often odd, letters to the authorities, which ranged from commenting on movies to lengthy, seemingly phonetically-spelled, quotes from the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta The Mikado – in which he identified with the High Executioner – to repeating his bomb threats, and providing new ciphers. Finally, these too ceased and there was only silence.

One last, bizarre incident acted as a sinister codicil.

On Sunday evening, March 22, 1970, Kathleen Johns, a young mother and 7 months pregnant with her second child, set off from her home in Southern California, along with her ten-month-old baby, to visit her mother in Petaluma, California.

The drive was a long one. By 11:00pm she was still some distance from her destination. Around Modesto in Central California, 91 miles south of Vallejo and east of San Francisco, she became aware of another car behind her on the lonely and dark Highway 132 headed west from Modesto. As she drove, the car behind began flashing its lights, signalling her to stop.

Since Highway 132 was pretty nearly deserted, Kathleen waited till she reached the junction with the busier Interstate 5 before pulling in to the hard shoulder. The driver of the light-brown car reversed and parked immediately in front of her. Getting out, he told her that her rear wheel was wobbling. He picked up a tyre wrench and, through the open passenger window, offered to fix the fault. Kathleen waited while the neatly-dressed man worked on her back wheel. Eventually, he rose and without speaking, got into his car, a light-tan two-door car, old and ‘badly beat up’, and drove off.

Kathleen turned her car ignition and drove off. As soon as she did so, she felt the ‘problem’ rear wheel immediately fall off. The car in front had only gone a little way and seeing what had happened, the driver returned.

He got out and looked at the damage, exclaiming that the problem had been worse than he’d thought.

He offered her a lift to a nearby ARCO gas station, its lights and tall, revolving, masthead sign visible in the distance.

Since she was pregnant and with an infant, Kathleen agreed and got into the passenger side with her baby. At this point, her trip became considerably darker and more menacing.

First, the stranger drove straight past the ARCO and off the main Interstate highway and through the rural, little-travelled country roads beside the Interstate. At first, the stranger seemed friendly, but Kathleen became more and more agitated as the driver drove silently past several gas stations and garages.

To make conversation, she asked him where he worked and he replied that he usually worked for a couple of months and then spent his time driving around, ‘mostly at night’.

They continued driving down through Tracy and past some more gas stations – the driver changing the subject when Johns asked if they could stop - then back out along some more dark, country roads.

Eventually, Johns asked the driver if he always assisted anybody who was in trouble, the driver answered in his low, calm voice that when he got through with them, they didn’t need any help.

Now terrified, Johns clutched her baby as the driver lapsed into silence and drove deeper into the night. He spent some one and a half hours driving seemingly aimlessly and mostly in silence. Johns took in some of the car interior as they drove. The car itself was fairly old – she later described it as ‘a piece of junk’ - and strewn around the interior were numerous bits of paper and what looked like scattered kid’s clothes. She described the driver as around 30, with crew-cut, dark brown hair, wearing horn-rimmed plastic glasses (secured with an elastic band,) about 160 pounds, wearing a dark ski jacket, dark

bell-bottomed trousers and brightly polished black shoes.

Getting more and more scared, Johns determined to escape and finally, the driver stopped after driving the wrong way up a Highway access ramp. Suddenly, Johns grabbed her baby and jumped from the car. She dashed into the adjoining fields and hid herself in the darkness. A lorry appeared at the top of the ramp. Wordlessly, the driver leaned over and closed the passenger door and drove off.

At 2:30am, after being given a lift by some passing motorists, Johns arrived, shaking with fear, at Patterson Police Department. Questioned by Sergeant McNatt, Johns glanced behind him and saw the now-infamous Zodiac wanted poster with its Zodiac composite drawing and began screaming. This was the man who had abducted her.

A few hours later, the police discovered her abandoned car by the roadside, now burned out and with the car keys missing.

Was this man the Zodiac? Although we can’t now be 100% certain, it seems very likely. Johns testimony has been called into question, mainly on the basis of her geography of the area the incident took place in, and the fact her story grew slightly in the telling. She gave the Zodiac some statements that don’t appear in her original police report: ‘You know you’re going to die, don’t you’ among them.

Nonetheless, she identified the Zodiac within an hour of her encounter – and she had never seen the composite drawing before – while her description of the driver matches the Zodiac very closely (apart from her estimation of the suspect’s weight which was off by 40 pounds or so.) Her portrayal of the suspect’s vehicle is a close fit to the one Mageau saw, and it’s run-down condition also matches the tyre tracks at Lake Berryessa. The driver also seems to have spoken in a calm, even monotone and his statement about people not needing his help afterwards sounds like Zodiac.

Some months later, in one of his communications, the Zodiac would take credit for this 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 interesting ride for

a couple howers one evening a few months back that ended in my burning her

car where I found them.

If the culprit was not the Zodiac, it’s very lucky he just happened to look exactly like him.

Taken together, the weight of John’s testimony strongly suggests that she had indeed encountered the Zodiac and if so, we have a tantalising glimpse inside the Zodiac’s car.

The Police witness statement noted: ‘She had noticed men's and children's clothing scattered about, books and papers, a black rubber handled flashlight, and two colored plastic scouring pads on the console dashboard. Kathleen estimated that the smaller patterned T-shirts were of the age range 8-12 years.’

The abductor admitted to working a couple of months and then spending his time driving at night – this also tallies woth the worn tyre treads at Lake Berryessa – and the spare time between his periods of employment would give him time to work on his codes and create his media mailing campaign. Also, it would allow him time to drive to San Francisco to post his letters at street-corner mailboxes.

Does John’s evidence point to a suspect who had a child? Could it be that the incident during 1968 that sent him over the edge was the loss of a partner and contact with his child? Some of his letters hint at a man in the throes of a deep depression. His letters use the phrase ‘would cheer me up considerably.’

Denied contact with his former partner and child and consumed with jealousy, maybe he began attacking young couples in love? Does John’s story lead us to the Zodiac’s motivation?

It’s a pity she didn’t get a closer look at the books and papers that were scattered about the car interior. Could they have been code books?

Some question why the Zodiac didn’t kill Johns outright when her car stopped on the Highway, but it’s possible he didn’t have his guns or bullets with him. He was neatly-dressed so maybe he was returning from work or some other more formal function. The Johns incident was impulsive and the Zodiac was normally a killer who planned his attacks methodically. Perhaps he was unsure of himself, not wanting to commit to a killing unless he could be sure he wouldn’t leave evidence or be seen in the act.

~

Looking back at the Zodiac case, given the detail and background we now hold about the unidentified killer, it may seem remarkable that he was never caught.

But had the law enforcement authorities in 1960s California had access to the tools and resources of their modern-day counterparts, it’s highly likely that even with his careful planning, he would have been identified. Working with only traditional police methods, the 1960‘s authorities were caught off-guard by the appearance of an adversary they were not equipped to deal with.

Nonetheless, the body of evidence collected at the time, built up a strong trail which could yet lead us to the true identity of the Zodiac. It would only take some memory to be sparked or a recollection of an individual, maybe a family photograph or a letter, and the case could still be solved. There have been major advances in the knowledge-base built up over decades of study into the habits and psychology of serial killers.

Kim Rossmo, pioneered the science of geographical profiling of serial killers and applied his techniques to the Zodiac case in 2007. This revealed that Vallejo and its neighbouring districts (principally the neighbouring town of Benicia and the nearby naval installation of Mare Island) were the likeliest places that the Zodiac would have lived in at the time.

The range of potential Zodiac habitations that Rossmo identified, included areas north of the city, in the rural hinterland just outside Vallejo and possibly reaching to Benicia just east of Vallejo.

Adapting some of these studies with historical research (as suggested by Rossmo himself) could yet lead investigators to the right door. There will be a wealth of social information held by the local authorities in these districts, from Census returns to car registration details to social welfare records that future historians and computer-led analysis could draw on to pinpoint the most likely individuals and existing (previously dismissed) suspects.

Fingerprints

Although the Zodiac used two coats of airplane glue on his fingers to hide his fingerprints, he still left two partial fingerprints in blood at the scene of the Stine killing. There is also a palm print and other prints taken from his letters.

In the 1990s, the prints were run through the US National DNA database with negative results. This effectively rules out all military personnel, most convicts and police staff as Zodiac suspects.

The Zodiac clearly was never charged with a serious offence nor was he army/navy base personnel.

Handwriting

There are nearly 20 genuine Zodiac letters written in blue felt pen, this represents a considerable exemplar set for comparison. Handwriting expert Sherwood Morrill is convinced the Zodiac wrote using his normal print and the potential remains for a suspect to be identified via handwriting, if enough samples can be obtained. To date, no suspect has been matched to the handwriting.

DNA

Although recently called into question, the DNA evidence (Zodiac DNA was lifted from the stamps of one of his letters in 2002) there still remains the possibility that the DNA obtained is that of the Zodiac. Although the previously unknown Golden State Killer – whose last murder was committed in 1986 – was identified when one of his relatives used a DNA system for geneology purposes, current DNA technologies are unable to establish a full DNA profile from the existing samples.

Car:

The Zodiac drove an old, beat-up two-door car that looked very much like a Chevrolet Corvair.

The car tires were old and very worn. One tire had been recently changed. This suggests the Zodiac only repaired the car when he had to rather than carefully looking after it. The car interior was messy, strewn with papers and some kids clothes. The driver used the car a lot and spent a considerable time in it driving at night.

Physical Description:

Of the various descriptions given by eye witnesses, the best evidence comes from the two Police Officers who came face to face with the Zodiac on October 11th - SFPD officers Foukes and Zelms, both trained observers, as well as Kathleen Johns and Hartnell who both spent some time with the Zodiac and survived. Mageau also saw the Zodiac at Blue Rock Springs, but only very briefly and under extreme stress.

Taken in toto, the witnesses describe someone about 5’10 in height, with short brown or reddish hair worn in a crew-cut, wearing horn-rimmed glasses, around 210-220 pounds in weight, a stocky individual with a paunch – stomach hanging over trousers. Aged around 30, possibly nearer 40.

He habitually wore dated, pleated trousers (unfashionable for the time) a dark zippered ski jacket like a Parka, black Wing Walker shoes and dark long-sleeved shirts.

Age:

Zodiac was born between 1928 – 1943 making him 25-40 years old when the crimes were committed, if he is still alive today, the Zodiac would be 75-85 year’s old.

Research shows that most serial killers ‘burn out’ by the age of 35 and coupled with the descriptions of the suspect, we can be fairly sure that the Zodiac fell in the 25-40 age range.

Location:

The Zodiac lived in Vallejo (or Benicia) during the commission of his first murders. It’s possible he may have moved to San Francisco in early 1969-1970.

There is abundant evidence to show this is the case: His obvious knowledge of Vallejo/Benicia lover’s lanes is one pointer. And, in some of his letters, the killer makes a few slips that unintentionally reveal more than he intended. In an early letter referring to the Lake Herman Road murders, the Zodiac writes ‘feet to the west’ revealing detailed spatial awareness of the Vallejo area. He also mentions the landscape being ‘surrounded by high hills and trees’. In another letter he states ‘I did not race away with squealing tires as reported in the Vallejo papers’ which hints at a local resident who habitually reads the Vallejo press.

Rossmo’s Geographical profiling, suggests that most serial killers commit their first murder in an area that is familiar to them. Often in and around familiar routes and junctions, between places that they know intimately. The comfort in familiarity is psychologically important for serial murderers as they begin, before spreading further afield as they become more comfortable with their methods.

This indicates the Zodiac knew and frequented Vallejo and its hinterlands and then moved further afield to San Francisco when the heat was on.

Background:

The suspect was a highly practical individual with skills in car maintenance, sewing, coding and weaponry.

The suspect owned an old car which he drove frequently mainly at night and maintained irregularly.

Since all his murders occurred at weekends, he probably worked Monday-Friday at least temporarily. He owned several handguns and used .22 bullets designed for rifles. Combined with knowledge of remote areas of Vallejo this suggests the suspect may have been at one time a hunter in the Vallejo area.

The suspect’s idea of taping a flashlight to his handgun also suggests someone who spent time with firearms outdoors at night. Hunters were not uncommon in the Vallejo countryside and it’s possible that members of the local hunting community would haave had some contact with the Zodiac, perhaps some time before he embarked on his killing spree.

The Zodiac was an afficianado of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘The Mikado’ and may have had a copy of the operetta on vinyl. He had learned the words to some arias by ear and misheard some of the lines.

He claimed to work for a couple of months and then spend his time driving, ‘mostly at night’ so could be a self-employed contractor who worked for military bases around California.

The Zodiac also had a strong knowledge of electronics and a good understanding of coding and cipher construction.

Blue Collar worker, not College educated. Probably not a strong speller. The impressions of survivor Bryan Hartnell were that the perpetrator was not college educated.

Psychology:

Psychologist Van Nuys (co-author of the excellent ‘This is the Zodiac Speaking’) estimates the subject held around 4 separate personality disorders, he would have been extremely sociopathic and psychopathic. The suspect seemed to suffer from extreme depression, his letters mention the need to ‘cheer him up considerably’. This individual would not have mixed well with his family or peers and would have been a loner. He may have acted normally during his working and daytime life, hiding his psychopathic tendencies.

The suspect would likely live alone or with an elderly parent and without a wife or long-term partner. There is an indication that the suspect may have associated with a young son/daughter although its likely if they had offspring that he was separated from his young family and estranged from his wife.

The individual was a loner, probably a cruel individual with no close friends.

The full truth about the Zodiac, his identity and his motives may never be known, but maybe, like the ageing Golden State Killer, a lonely, elderly man burdened with his dark secrets still awaits justice, still dreads the unexpected visitor and can still be brought to answer for his crimes.

SOURCES

Zodiac – Robert Graysmith

Zodiac Unmasked – Robert Graysmith

This is the Zodiac Speaking - Michael D Kelleher and David Van Nuys

Hunted: The Zodiac Murders – Mark Hewitt

Zodiac Killer Geographic Profile-Kim Rossmo

The Killers Among Us: Examination of Serial Murder and Its Investigations - Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Websites

http://zodiackillerfacts.com/reference/zodiac-reference-case-information/

Detailed analysis, background research and an invaluable resource of original police reports and witness statements.

https://www.zodiacciphers.com/

http://zodiackiller.com/

Podcast

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/true-crime-all-the-time/criminology/e/53364271

Detailed and thoroughly researched 12 episode podcast on the Zodiac crimes.

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