Who Was Zodiac Killer - Code Has Been Cracked After Over 50 Years

OCY [email protected] December 13, 2020 | 19:13

Until now, Zodiac Killer is believed to kill seven people in Northern California but had no official link to the murder since October 1969, the unsolved case continues to fascinate. He also threatened people by sending letters, ciphers, information to taunt them for their inability to figure him out.

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Zodiac Killer - Photo: DailyMail.com

Who Was the Zodiac Killer?

At least five deaths in Northern California in 1968 and 1969 had a direct link to the self-described Zodiac Killer; there may have been more. His first three victims were isolated couples; two of them made it out alive.

A cab driver who was killed on October 11, 1969, in San Francisco was his last recorded victim. Zodiac gained attention and incited fear by communicating with authorities and the public through ciphers, letters, information, and threats both during and after his murderous rampage. Since October 1969, no murder has been officially connected to the Zodiac Killer, yet the case still fascinates.

Despite thorough investigations, no one has ever been taken into custody for the offenses, and the matter is still pending. Many novels and films have addressed the murders' mystery, notably filmmaker David Fincher's critically praised 2007 film Zodiac.

The Zodiac Killer Murdered Five People in A Year

Although there are five confirmed killings and two attempted murders that the Zodiac Killer is accountable for, there may be other crimes that he is also accountable for.

David Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16, were shot on their first date on December 20, 1968, in Benicia, California, as they were parked in a lovers' lane.

At first, police had no notion that a serial killer was behind these murders. As a result, the inquiry took more conventional routes, such looking into Jensen's ex-boyfriend. Later, Jensen's close friend revealed to SF Weekly, "The detectives all agreed that drugs had to be involved. They objected to any additional information."

Less than seven months later, on July 5, 1969, early in the morning at the Blue Rock Springs Golf Club in Vallejo, California, Mike Mageau, 19, and Darlene Ferrin, 22, were shot numerous times while inside Ferrin's automobile. Mageau survived the injuries to his leg, shoulder, and jaw while Ferrin was fatally wounded.

Zodiac called the Vallejo police department to report the incident less than one hour after the attack. He said: "I also killed those kids last year," referring to Faraday and Jensen, during the call.

Bryan Hartnell, 20, and Cecilia Shepard, 22, were enjoying a picnic at Lake Berryessa in Napa County on September 27, 1969. A man with a cowl bearing the image of two intersecting lines in a circle approached them. After tying up Shepard and Hartnell and threatening them with a gun, the man stabbed the two of them.

When assistance arrived, Shepard and Hartnell were both still alive. Shepard eventually passed away from her injuries, but Hartnell survived.

On October 11, 1969, Zodiac boarded Paul Stine's 29-year-old taxi in San Francisco. Zodiac shot Stine in the head inside the cab.

Police arrived quickly because there were witnesses to Stine's murder. The murderer was characterized by the witnesses as Caucasian, between 25 and 30 years old, with crew-cut hair, glasses, and white skin. Officers saw a man who fit this description after assuming the murder to be a robbery, but a dispatcher had misinformed them that the culprit was Black. The Zodiac Killer was not apprehended, and the individual was permitted to escape.

Zodiac Killer Letters, Symbol & Cipher

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Photo: nytimes.com

A handwritten letter without a return address was delivered to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Examiner, and San Francisco Chronicle on August 1, 1969. The letters contained information about the Zodiac Killer's crimes that only the killer could have known, and they all began, "Dear Editor: I am the killer of the 2 teenagers last Christmas at Lake Herman." If the messages weren't printed on the front page of the newspapers, the killer threatened other attacks.

Each letter ended with a sign that would later become known as the Zodiac Killer's symbol, which was a circle with a cross across it. Also, he included one of a three-part cipher that he claimed contained his identity with each letter.

Another letter soon appeared at the San Francisco Examiner as Bay Area police forces and the FBI worked tirelessly to find the murderer. It began, "Dear Editor: This is the Zodiac speaking," and went on to give a detailed account of the murders while mocking authorities for failing to decipher his code or apprehend him.

Photo: LADbible.com

High school teacher Donald Harden and his wife, Bettye, were able to decipher the cipher a few days later. It read, "I enjoy killing people because it is so enjoyable. "Because man is the most deadly animal of all, it is more enjoyable than killing wild game in the forest."

The San Francisco Chronicle received a letter alleging the murder of cab driver Paul Stine in 1969, the fourth documented Zodiac slaying, three days later. It described Stine's murder in detail and was accompanied with a bloodied fragment of Stine's shirt in the same erratic print as the Zodiac's earlier letters.

According to biography.com, The Zodiac Killer resumed his sarcastic correspondence with Bay Area newspapers in which he added further ciphers, asserted responsibility for a number of other deaths, and made fun of the police for failing to apprehend him.

The letters ceased in 1974, but the probe has not.

Zodiac Went Silent for Almost Three years

In addition to claiming responsibility for the killing of Stine, Zodiac wrote in the letter, "Children in schools make good targets. I believe I will crash into a school bus one morning. Just shoot off the front tire, then ambush the children as they emerge." The threat, which was made public on October 17, 1969, led to increased anxiety and police presence; officers guarded buses, helicopters kept watch overhead, and curfews were implemented in a number of counties. Some parents decided to completely keep their kids home from school.

Zodiac was frequently on the front page of the newspaper in 1969, and the public was frightened to learn that a disturbed serial killer was at large. With even the smallest piece of information, people poured into tip lines, overwhelming the authorities. Threats to attack a school bus and instructions to wear buttons bearing the crosshairs Zodiac symbol were among the letters that came in 1970.

Up until March 1971, Zodiac letters and notes continued to arrive, one of which claimed that every fresh victim meant "the more slaves I will acquire for my afterlife." Zodiac then stopped communicating until he sent a second letter on January 29, 1974, with the notation "Me - 37, SFPD - 0." This was thought to mean that he had claimed 37 lives. That year, a few more letters and postcards came in.

Once more, nothing happened until 1978, when the San Francisco Chronicle received a letter allegedly from Zodiac. The handwriting and tone of the message, however, were dissimilar from past Zodiac letters, raising doubts about its authenticity. Moreover, the revelation that year that a San Francisco detective had fabricated letters to the editor complimenting his own work on the case led others to speculate about whether the investigator had also fabricated this Zodiac letter, a claim that was refuted by both the detective and San Francisco police. The 1978 letter's veracity has not been verified.

Zodiac Has Never Been Identified

Zodiac Killer's cipher (Photo: GlobalNews.com)

Law enforcement officials and amateur investigators are still pursuing the Zodiac Killer. Their study is based on the initial investigations conducted independently by Vallejo, Napa County, and San Francisco law enforcement. Although the FBI supported the investigation by helping to decipher Zodiac's communications and analyze handwriting and fingerprints, the case was not federally regulated.

Over the years, more than 2,500 suspects—including the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski—have been under consideration. One key suspect, Arthur Leigh Allen, had a search warrant executed, but no concrete evidence was found. Allen's DNA did not match that of a Zodiac-sent stamp in 2002, and his fingerprints did not match those from Stine's taxi. The DNA sample was little, the results were not entirely conclusive, and Allen frequently had others lick stamps for him.

The enticing prospect of a conclusive answer to who the Zodiac is or was is made possible by today's more sophisticated DNA testing. But, police in the 1960s and 1970s were unaware of the advent of DNA analysis. As a result, certain evidence was handled improperly or the chain of custody was tampered with. Yet there are still bits of evidence scattered across different law enforcement organizations. There aren't many things to analyze, to put it briefly.

But in 2018, the Vallejo police department announced plans to submit some evidence in their possession for up-to-date DNA testing. A full DNA profile would make it possible to search open-source genealogy databases for a match. Another California killer, the Golden State Killer, was apprehended in 2018 thanks to this approach. But in the case of the Zodiac, no results have been reported thus far, cites biography.com.

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