„My name is Zodiac…“
As far as unsolved mysteries go, this one not only takes the cake- it runs off with it too.
The Zodiac killer, responsible for an alleged 37 murders (although only seven victims are confirmed, two of whom survived) made a name for himself by writing taunting letters to the local press. These letters include four cryptograms, three of which remain to be solved to this day. The Zodiac murdered victims in Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa, and San Francisco between December 1968 and October 1969.
In April 2004, the San Francisco Police Department marked the case "inactive", yet re-opened the case sometime later. The California Department of Justice has maintained an open case file on the Zodiac murders since 1969.
Often second only to the case of Ted Bundy, the Zodiac remains one of the most horrifying serial murder cases in the realm of crime to this day, and remains unsolved.
Lake Herman Road/ Blue Rock Springs
The first murders widely attributed to the Zodiac Killer were the shootings of high school students Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, just inside Benicia city limits.
The couple was on their first date and planned to attend a Christmas concert at Hogan High School about three blocks from Jensen's home. The couple, instead, visited a friend before stopping at a local restaurant, and then driving out to Lake Herman Road. At about 10:15 p.m., Faraday parked in a gravel turnout, which was a well-known lovers' lane.
The killer exited a second car, parked nearby- and walked towards the couple, possibly forcing the pair to exit. Jensen appeared to have exited the car first. While exiting the vehicle, Faraday was shot in the head. Jensen was shot after attempting to flee the area.
In a strikingly similar scene shortly before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau drove into the Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, four miles 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. The car is said to have then left, returned and parked behind the lovebirds.
The driver of the second car then exited the vehicle, approaching the passenger side door of Ferrin's car, carrying a flashlight and a firearm. First, the killer directed the flashlight into Mageau's and Ferrin's eyes, before shooting each of the victims three times. When Mageau moaned in pain, the killer returned and shot each victim two additional times before driving off.
On July 5, 1969, at 12:40 a.m., a man phoned the Vallejo Police Department, reporting and claiming responsibility for the attack. He also took credit for the murders of Jensen and Faraday six-and-a-half months earlier. The police traced the call to a phone booth at a gas station at Springs Road and Tuolumne, in the close proximity of the victim’s homes and the local police station. Mageau survived the attack despite multiple shot wounds, making him one of both known survivors.
“Dear Editor, this is the Zodiac speaking…”
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 author included one-third of a 408-symbol cryptogram in each, which the killer claimed contained his identity. The demand was simple: they were to be printed on each paper's front page or he would "cruise around all weekend killing lone people in the night, then move on to kill again, until (he) end(ed) 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". It was the first time the killer had referred to himself by nickname. The letter was in response to the questioning of the authenticity of the letters.
On August 8, 1969, Donald and Bettye Harden of Salinas, California, cracked the 408-symbol cryptogram.
Before more letters would arrive however, further lives would be claimed.
Lake Berryessa/ Presidio Heights
On September 27, 1969, Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard were picnicking at Lake Berryessa. A man 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 cross-circle symbol on it. This symbol would become the Zodiac logo. He approached them, carrying a gun. The hooded man claimed to be an escaped convict and that he needed their car and money to go to Mexico. Using precut lengths of plastic clothesline, Shepard was forced to tie up Hartnell, before being bound herself. Hartnell initially believed it to be a weird robbery, but the killer stabbed both repeatedly. The killer then 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."
The utilization of a knife and the glorification of the crime on the car door opened a new era in the Zodiac Killings.
At 7:40 p.m., the killer called the Sheriff's office from a phone booth to report his crime. The phone was found, still off the hook, minutes later only a few blocks from the sheriff's office. Detectives were able to lift a palm print from the telephone but were never able to match it to any suspects.
Hartnell survived and gave detailed descriptions of the killer and crime scene to the press.
Napa County Sheriff Detective Ken Narlow worked on solving the crime until his retirement from the department in 1987.
On October 11, 1969, a man entered the cab driven by Paul Stine at the intersection of Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco requesting to be taken to Washington and Maple Streets in Presidio Heights. For reasons unknown, Stine drove one block past Maple to Cherry Street; and was then shot once in the head. He was observed by three teenagers across the street, who called the police and observed the man wiping the cab down before walking away towards the Presidio.
The radio dispatcher allegedly gave warning to be on the lookout for an African-American suspect, and as a result, officers drove past the killer without stopping. This mistake in descriptions remains unexplained. A sketch of the murderer was developed.
The San Francisco Police Department investigated an estimated 2,500 suspects.
Further letters arrive.
On October 14, 1969, the Chronicle received another letter from the Zodiac, this time containing a piece of Paul Stine's shirt, proving his involvement in the crime.
At 2:00 p.m. on October 20, 1969, someone claiming to be the Zodiac called Oakland PD demanding that one of two prominent lawyers appear on Jim Dunbar’s morning talk show. One lawyer agreed and someone claiming to be the Zodiac called several times, claiming to be called Sam. The lawyer, Melvin Belli, agreed to meet with him-but the suspect never showed up. The following month, the Zodiac mailed a card with another cryptogram consisting of 340 characters.
The 340-character cipher has never been cracked.
On December 20, 1969, exactly one year after the murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, the Zodiac mailed a letter to Belli, including another swatch of Stine's shirt.
Johns’ Abduction
On the night of March 22, 1970, Kathleen Johns, seven months pregnant and in the company of her 10-month-old daughter beside was driving from San Bernardino to Petaluma .While heading west on Highway 132 near Modesto, a car behind her began honking and flashing its lights. The man in the car parked behind her stated her rear tire was “looking funny” and offered assistance. Upon finishing, the man drove off. While driving away, the wheel instantly came off of Johns´ car. The man returned, offering to drive the stranded family to the nearest gas station for help. For approximately 90 minutes they drove back and forth around back roads, and each time Johns asked why he was not stopping, he would change the subject. Ultimately stopping at an intersection, the man told Johns that he was going to kill her and then throw the baby out after her. Johns jumped out with her daughter and while hiding in a field, the man drove off.
During her statement, Johns noticed the police composite sketch of Paul Stine's killer and recognized him as the driver.
There are numerous conflicting accounts of the Johns abduction, leading many to believe Johns made inaccurate statements about the incident.
The 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. The letter included a diagram of a bomb the Zodiac claimed he would use to blow up a school bus. At the bottom of the diagram, he wrote: "ZODIAC = 10, SFPD = 0".
Zodiac sent a greeting card postmarked 28 April 1970, to the Chronicle. Written on the card was, "I hope you enjoy yourselves when I have my BLAST". On the back of the card, the Zodiac threatened to use his bus bomb soon unless the newspaper published the full details he wrote. He also wanted to start seeing people wearing "some nice Zodiac buttons.”
On June 26, 1970, the Zodiac stated he was upset that he did not see people wearing Zodiac buttons. He also claimed responsibility for a murder the police have assured he is in no way linked to. Included with the letter was a Phillips 66 map of the San Francisco Bay Area. On the image of Mount Diablo, the Zodiac had drawn a crossed-circle similar to the ones he had included in previous correspondence. At the top of the crossed circle, he placed a zero, and then a three, six, and a nine, so the annotation resembled a clock face. 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 he had buried and set to go off in the autumn. The bomb was never located. The killer had signed the note with "ZODIAC = 12, SFPD = 0."
In a letter to the Chronicle postmarked July 24, 1970, the Zodiac took credit for Kathleen Johns' abduction, four months after the incident.
On October 7, 1970, the Chronicle received a three-by-five inch card signed by the Zodiac with the Zodiac Logo drawn with blood. The card's message was formed by pasting words and letters from an edition of the Chronicle, and thirteen holes were punched across the card.
The Final Chapters
After cases in Santa Barbara, Lake Tahoe and Riverside, all of which have been challenged as being Zodiac Killings, numerous letters were received by the Chronicle. Reporter Paul Avery was singled out and threatened, making front page news. The Chronicle then received a letter from the Zodiac, postmarked January 29, 1974, praising The Exorcist as "the best satirical comedy“ that he had 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".
Further letters that were received remain unverified.
Arthur Leigh Allen
Arthur Leigh Allen was the prime suspect in the Zodiac murders and the only suspect served search warrants by police. He was never charged with any Zodiac-related crime, and his fingerprints did not match those left by the killer of the taxi cab driver. In 1992, twenty-three years after the shootings, survivor Michael Mageau identified Allen as the man who shot him, from a photo lineup of 1968 driver's license photos.
Allen died in 1992 from kidney failure.
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All unsolved mysteries tend to get to me. The fact that it couldn’t be solved tends to challenge something in me, and make me want to read up on the case even more. It triggers the thirst of knowledge of wanting to know how such a criminal ticks, but at the same time never dampens the degree of evil it must take to be able to commit these crimes. So there I stand: trying and wanting to understand; but still in disgust of the brutality of the crime. This guy got away with murder for sure.
Popular Culture: Zodiac, directed by David Fincher, is based on the two non-fiction books by Robert Graysmith: Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked: The Identity of America's Most Elusive Serial Killer. Filming locations included San Francisco and Los Angeles, and it opened in theaters nationwide on March 2, 2007. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr. , Mark Ruffalo, Brian Cox , and John Carroll Lynch.
