The Unsolvable Case Of The Zodiac Killer

The Zodiac Killer

In the late 60s and early 70s, the Zodiac Killer terrorized Northern California. Killing at least five people and claiming to have killed 37 people in total.

Where It All Began

On December 20, 1968 around 11 PM near Vallejo, California. 17 year old David Faraday and 16 year old Betty Lou Jensen were shot and killed while sitting in a parked car, in a gravel parking area off of Lake Herman Road. their bodies were found by Stella Borges, who lived nearby.

By the time police arrived, Betty was found dead, on the ground 30 feet away from the car, but David was still alive. However, David would die on the way to the hospital. The Solano County Sheriff's Department investigated the crime but no leads developed. At this time, nobody knew that this was the work of a serial killer.

The Killing Continues

The Zodiac's next crime would occur on July 4, 1969, at around midnight near Blue Rock Springs Park, only a few minutes away from the previous crime. The Zodiac approached a parked car with a flashlight, shooting 22 year old Darlene Ferrin and 19 year old Michael Mageau before walking away and coming back to shoot them both again.

Both were still alive when found, but only Mageau would survive. Mageau was able to make out the face of the man who shot him and described him as a young white man, approximately 26 to 30 years old, stocky, 2 pounds or larger, about five foot eight with light brown curly hair, and a large face. Within an hour, the police received a phone call from somebody claiming to be the shooter. He also claimed to be the shooter in the Lake Herman Road

The Hunt Begins

On August 1, 1969 the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner and the Vallejo Times Harold all received identical hand written letters from someone claiming to be the killer. The letters revealed specific details about the murders to prove that the writer was in fact the killer. The letters were signed with a distinct mark, a circle with a cross through it, the mark that would eventually become known as the mark of the Zodiac Killer. Also included in the letters were three different codes that the Zodiac demanded be printed in newspapers or else he would kill again.

On August 4, another letter was received that started with the phrase, "This is the Zodiac speaking." Marking the first time the killer referred to himself as the Zodiac. On August 8, 1969 the code was cracked by a couple in Salinas, CA. It reads, "I like killing because it is so much fun, it is more fun than killing wild game in the forest "because man is the most dangerous animal of all to kill. "Something gives me the most thrilling experience, it is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl. The best part of it is that when I die, I will be reborn in paradise and those I have killed will become my slaves. I will not give you my name because you will try to slow down or stop my collecting off slaves for afterlife."

It Keeps On Going

22 year old Cecelia Shepard and 20 year old Bryan Hartnell were picnicking on the shore of Lake Berryessa when Cecelia saw a man hiding behind a nearby tree and staring at her. After some time, the man came out from behind the tree wearing an executioner style hood over his head with the Zodiac Killer symbol on his chest. He had a gun and a long knife and used pre-cut rope to tie up Cecelia and Bryan before stabbing them repeatedly. Cecelia died at the hospital, but Bryan Hartnell would survive, despite being stabbed six times in the back. Bryan Hartnell described the man as being five foot eight to six feet tall, heavy set, weighing about 225 to 250 pounds with dark brown hair that he saw through the eye holes in the mask. A message was found on the side of Bryan's car with the Zodiac sign, the dates of all three killings, and the words, "by knife" written below the September 27th date.

The Fifth Kill And Cipher 340

On October 11, 1969 just before 10 PM in San Francisco, California at the intersection of Washington and Cherry a cab driver Paul Stine was shot in the head by his passenger. A teenage girl from her home across the street heard the shot along with two other witnesses in her home and got a good look at the man as he wiped down the car and walked away. They called the police and described the man as a white male between 25 to 30 years old, Five foot eight to five foot nine tall, stocky, with a reddish-brown crew cut and heavy rimmed glasses. A police car that was nearby came quickly to the scene, but the chaos of the situation would strangely result in the police dispatcher incorrectly identifying the suspect as an African American male.

The police car driven by officer Don Fouke and Eric Zelms would come upon a white male walking on the sidewalk described by officer Fouke as five foot 10, 170 pounds, about 40 years old, wearing glasses with reddish hair and a crew cut. Very similar to the description offered by the teenage girl. However, because they were looking for an African-American male, Fouke and Zelms left the man alone. Watching him disappear into the park.

The Zodiac would later comment on this interaction in a later letter in detail. Making it very likely that Fouke and Zelms came into contact with that nation's most notorious serial killer at the time without even knowing it. A composite sketch would be drawn based on the two descriptions that would later become part of a famous wanted poster.

Another crucial piece of evidence was a bloody finger print discovered in the cab. However, the Zodiac also claims in a letter that it was planted by him to throw the cops off his trail. Two days later the San Francisco Chronicle gets another letter that claims responsibility for the cab driver, Paul Stine's murder, and includes a piece of Stine's blood stained shirt. Even more horrifying, the letter also included quote, "School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire and then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out." He also later included diagrams of bombs that could be used on buses.

Just over a week later, someone claiming to be the Zodiac called the Oakland Police Department. The person demanded that either one of two big-shot lawyers, F. Lee Bailey or Melvin Belli, go on a popular local talk show hosted by a man named Jim Dunbar. Belli did just that and appealed for the killer to call in. A man who said he was the Zodiac did call. He said “I need help, I’m sick. I don’t want to go to the gas chamber” and he even said he’d meet with Belli, but in the end, he didn’t turn up. As you’ll soon find out, there was likely more to that call than first meets the eye. This brings us finally to the unbreakable puzzle. Not long after that no-show with the lawyer, the Chronicle received a new communication from the Zodiac. This time it was a cryptogram containing 340 characters, which came to be known as cipher 340, and it proved to be too difficult for the best minds in the world to decipher at the time. People tried for decades from the USA and across the world, but what the Zodiac killer had created was something special, trying and failing, the puzzle was forgotten by most code crackers.

But then in 2006, a global team of crack code breakers took a look at the impossible puzzle again. They knew it meant something, but finding the key was no easy task, and it would end up taking them fourteen years to finally decipher the code. The fully decrypted words of the Zodiac himself from a code that remained unbroken for over fifty years.

He wrote:

“I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME - THAT WASN’T ME ON THE TV SHOW - WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME - I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE - SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH - I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH.”

It was true, the man who called and spoke to Melvin Belly really was an imposter. The Zodiac had always been somewhat narcissistic in his writing. He’d always bragged about being one step ahead of the cops. He’d never seemed scared or repentant, like how the caller sounded. The Zodiac, perhaps suffering from mental illnesses, actually believed his victims would be waiting on him hand and foot in the afterlife. The FBI subsequently issued a statement saying it was true, and while it is exciting and a huge accomplishment to finally have cracked the code, it didn’t actually get us any closer to understanding the true identity of America’s most confounding serial killer. The message doesn’t really help the investigation at all, which the FBI says is still ongoing. “We continue to seek justice for the victims of these brutal crimes,” wrote the agency.

The Suspects

In 2002 the San Francisco police department was able to extract a partial genetic profile from a Zodiac letter from the saliva on the stamp. The profile was not enough to conclusively identify a single person, but enough to eliminate potential suspects. And with that, the suspects with the most circumstantial evidence against them.

First Suspect

The first theory is from Gary Steward who believes that his father, Earl Van Best Jr. was the Zodiac killer. Gary Steward published a book called the Most Dangerous Animal of All that presents this theory. Earl Van Best Jr bares and uncanny resemblance to the composite sketch from the Paul Stine killing. His name also matches the number of characters in the my name is cipher. Finally, Stewart says a handwriting expert is virtually certain that Best's handwriting on his marriage license matches the writing of the Zodiac killer.

Now, here are reasons why Best may not be the Zodiac. According to an administrator at the church where Best's marriage certificate came from, the handwriting is that of the priest and not Best himself, making the match that was virtually certain implicate the priest rather than Best. Furthermore, Best only matches the description of the Zodiac at the Paul Stine killing, but not the heavy set large-faced description of the Zodiac in the previous three killings. Gary Steward also tried to test his father's DNA against the recovered 2002 Zodiac DNA, but investigators never complied with their reason being not enough evidence to make a case. Gary Stewart has maintained this is a police cover up.

Second Suspect

The second and most famous theory is from Robert Graysmith who believes that Arthur Leigh Allen is the Zodiac Killer. This theory is the basis for the 2007 film, The Zodiac, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Robert Graysmith.

Robert Graysmith was a political cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle that became obsessed with finding the Zodiac. After a decade of personal research, Graysmith wrote two books entitled Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked that heavily implicate Arthur Leigh Allen as the Zodiac. Here's Graysmith's case for Arthur Leigh Allen. The day of the third Zodiac attack at Lake Berryessa in 1969, Allen told his family he was going scuba diving at Lake Berryessa. Later that evening, he would come home covered in blood with a bloody knife in his car. And if you'll recall, the Zodiac murdered Cecilia Shepard that day with a knife.

Two years later in 1971 one of Allen's friends, Don Cheney said that Allen called himself the Zodiac before the killer publicly referred to himself as the Zodiac. As a result of this information, the police would interview Allen a second time where Allen would say his favorite book is The Most Dangerous Game. A book about a man who hunted humans. And a book referenced by the Zodiac in his first letter to the press. To add insult to injury, Allen was also wearing a Zodiac brand watch which contained the same symbol the killer used. The police searched Allen's trailer home where they found small dissected animals in a freezer, bloody knives, and sexual devices, but no direct evidence of the murders. In 1974 Allen was convicted of child molestation, a crime for which he spent three years in jail. Coincidentally, during this time no Zodiac letters were received.

In 1987 a San Jose jail inmate named Ralph Spinelli told police that Allen admitted to him that he murdered Paul Stine. In August 1991, Vallejo detective George Bawart interviews Mike Mageau, the man who survived the second Zodiac attack and saw the Zodiac without his mask on. When shown a lineup of photographs Mageau picked out the man who shot him, it was Arthur Leigh Allen. With this info, the police search Allen's home again and this time they find formulas for bombs, constructed bombs, and tapes about the Zodiac killer. They interview Allen again and he says he knows nothing. One year later in August 1992, Allen is found at home dead from a suspected heart attack.

And with that, let's transition into reasons why Allen may not be the Zodiac killer. Allen's DNA was compared against the 2002 DNA extracted from stamp saliva on a Zodiac letter, it was not a match. However, it's also believed that Allen had a habit for letting others lick his stamps instead of him, which would explain why the profile didn't match him. Additionally, in 1971 the police took Allen's finger prints, but the prints did not match the bloody prints recovered from the Paul Stine crime scene. They also had Allen undergo handwriting analysis, but the handwriting did not match the Zodiac either. Allen also does not look like the sketch from the Paul Stine killing in the slightest, but it's worth mentioning that Arthur Leigh Allen was considered the prime suspect for the Zodiac for most involved police departments and is widely believed to be the Zodiac.

Third Suspect

The third theory is from retired Escalon, California police officer, Harvey Hines who believes Lawrence Kaye, more commonly known by the surname Kane was the Zodiac killer. Kane was involved in a car accident in 1962 which resulted in brain damage influencing his behavior. One psychologist claimed Kane was quote, "Losing the ability to control self-gratification,". Additionally, Kane can be see in the Zodiac's "my name is" cipher. And in that cipher there are three eights with circles around them, three times eight is 24 and Kane was born in 1924. Additionally, the Zodiac's second victim, Darlene Ferrin had a sister who said Kane was the man who followed and harassed Darlene in the weeks leading up to Darlene's murder.

In the 1969 Paul Stine murder, the man suspected to be the Zodiac seen by officer Don Fouke was described as 35 to 45 years old. Kane was 45 in 1969. Officer Don Fouke said in 1987 that of the hundreds of pictures over the past 20 years he had been shown, Kane was quote, "The closest of them as he remembered the killer." Kane also lived a six minutes walk away from Mason and Geary, the location where cab driver, Paul Stine was thought to have picked up his killer. In fact, an excerpt from Vallejo PD states, "Investigation has placed Kaye in the locales where several of the Zodiac's victims either lived or were killed,".

To piggy back on that sentiment, in 1970 Kane moved to South Lake Tahoe and that year a possible Zodiac victim that I didn't discuss earlier named Donna Lass disappears in South Lake Tahoe. Donna Lass also coincidentally worked at the same South Lake Tahoe hotel as Kane. But the last and arguably most damning evidence Kane is about another Zodiac interaction

On the night of March 22, 1970 on highway 132 near Patterson, California, Kathleen Johns and her baby were tricked into riding in the Zodiac's car. After entering the car, the Zodiac told Johns that he was going to kill her and throw her baby out after her. As the Zodiac was about to make a turn, Johns jumped out of the car and ran into a nearby field with her baby and escaped. Despite some believing this is an unconfirmed Zodiac encounter, others believe a letter confirms this incident. Quote, "So I now have a little list, starting with the woman plus her baby that I gave a rather interesting ride." The reason I bring this encounter up is because Kathleen Johns, unlike most surviving Zodiac victims, had extended face time with the Zodiac. This is important because when shown a line up of photographs, Kathleen Johns was reportedly able to pick out the man who tried to kill her. It was Lawrence Kane.

But now let's look at some evidence that proves Kane isn't the Zodiac. I couldn't find an instance of a DNA test against the recovered 2002 sample, nor could I find a record of Kane's fingerprint being tested against the fingerprint found at the Paul Stine crime scene. Furthermore, Kane's handwriting was not a match to the Zodiac's, but also could not be ruled out. Additionally, Kane, much like Earl Van Best Jr., matches the description of the killer at the Paul Stine murder scene, but does not match the large heavyset description of the Zodiac in the first three crime scenes.

Now that you've heard all the stories, who do you think did it?

Sources: Wikipedia , SFGATE , Buzzfeed Unsolved , The Infographics Show , USA TODAY , San Francisco Chronicle