The self-proclaimed Zodiac Killer was directly linked to at least five killings in Northern California between 1968 and 1969, and he may have been responsible for even more during that time period. From 1969 through 1974, he taunted police officers and threatened them in letters to local newspapers before abruptly terminating all interaction with the media. However, in spite of numerous inquiries, no one has ever been prosecuted with the violations, and the inquiry continues to this day. The identity of the zodiac was allegedly revealed to be Gary Francis Pote in the year 2021, however this has not been proven as of yet. At one point, authorities allegedly classified the zodiac killer suspect as an African-American guy, despite the fact that a witness described the suspect as a stocky, Caucasian person during the initial stages of the investigation. There were theories that the zodiac was protected by political higher ups, a police officer, a former manson family member, the texarkana moonlight murder,a vietnam vet, and allegedly murdered couples due to him experiencing a breakup.
Ciphers
Desert Sun Note
The cryptic Zodiac killer claims to have killed a 12th person, but homicide police are skeptical. The individual claiming to be the Zodiac wrote a partially coded letter to the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday, claiming the shooting of patrolman Richard Radetich, as he has done in the past. After two months of silence, Zodiac wrote his first letter, saying, “I shot a man sitting in a parked car with a.38.” With his familiar cross and circle symbol, he signed the note.
Kathleen Jones Letter
This correspondence, which was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 24, 1970, just over four months after Kathleen Johns’ abduction, appeared to confirm the tale of Kathleen Johns’ kidnapping. However, the letter’s author omitted to expound on any specific details that had already been published in the press. It’s possible that the Zodiac Killer was merely taking credit for a crime he didn’t commit.
13 Ciphers
On April 20th 1970, the Zodiac Killer mailed a 13-Symbol cipher to the San Francisco Chronicle, in addition to a bus bomb diagram threatening to blow up a school bus. The answer to the 13-Symbol cipher may have been given to us by the Zodiac Killer on October 5th 1970 when he completed the introduction of “My name is…” to “My name is Fk, I’m crackproof”, again teasing us with a less than complete resolution to his real identity.
Timeline
Lake Herman Road
On September 27th, 1969 Cecelia Shepard, a 22-year-old woman, was stabbed ten times, five times in the front and five times in the back. Bryan Hartnell, 20, was stabbed in the back six times. The knife had a wooden handle and a blade that measured around 10 to 12 inches in length. The pair was lying on a blanket by the lake in a fairly distant location. Shepard observed a man approaching them, dressed strangely and wielding a gun. He appeared to be taller than 6’0′′ and had a bulky physique. After the assault the killer had etched a message on the couples car.
Second Attack
On July 5th, 1969 Darlene Ferrin, who was 22 years old at the time, was shot five times. Mike Mageau, who was 19 years old at the time, was shot four times. A 9mm semi-automatic pistol was used. There was no evidence of robbery or sexual assault. There were no bystanders. Mike survived while Darlene unfortunately succumbed to her wounds. Mike was one of the zodiac’s first victims to ever survive the horrific encounter.
First Attack
On December 20th, 1968 David Faraday, 17, was killed instantly after being shot once in the head at point-blank range. Betty Lou Jensen, 16, was killed instantaneously after being shot five times in the back. The weapon was a semi-automatic handgun with a caliber of.22 caliber. Winchester Western Super X copper-coated long rifle ammo was used. There was no evidence of robbery or sexual assault. Several vehicles were seen in the vicinity immediately before local resident Stella Borges discovered the crime scene, despite the fact that there were no witnesses.
Paul Stine Murder
Cab driver Paul Stine, age 29, was shot once in the head at point-blank range. The weapon was a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, not the same 9mm used in the Ferrin murder. There were three witnesses from a house on the southeast corner of the intersection.T on Oct. 13, 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle received a letter from Zodiac containing a portion of bloody shirt and taking credit for the killing. SFPD Inspectors Dave Toschi and Bill Armstrong, who were assigned the case, were shocked to realize the shirt belonged to Stine. Still later, Zodiac would claim he actually spoke with the patrolmen the night of the murder, leading them astray.
Alleged Zodiac Victim
Davis resided with his brother in a rented property at 525 S. Tremont Street in Oceanside after separating from his wife. Davis, a Checker Cab Company driver, picked up a fare at a downtown cab stop, possibly on Mission Avenue, at 11:10 p.m. and informed his dispatcher that he was bringing the fare to a South Oceanside location. Davis was never seen or heard from after that.
Suspects
Richard Gaikowski
The Napa County Sheriff’s Department conducted a brief investigation into Gaikowski in 1986. Detective Ken Narlow conducted a background check on Gaikowski and placed him under observation for a few nights after being urged by Goldcatcher and Pam Huckaby (Darlene Ferrin’s sister). Narlow discovered no evidence that warranted further investigation, and the case was closed. Meanwhile, the California Department of Justice decided that Gaikowski’s handwriting matched Zodiac’s handwriting and requested further examples of Gaikowski’s printing. Goldcatcher discovered printing that he thought might have belonged to Gaikowski, but the samples were found to be unrelated. An arrest was not warranted since there was insufficient probable cause.
Arthur Leigh Allen
Cheri Jo Bates was stabbed to death at Riverside City College (RCC) in Riverside, Calif., on Oct. 30, 1966, tying Arthur Leigh Allen to the Zodiac killer. Two anonymous, typewritten Bates-murder confession letters were mailed to the local police and newspaper in late November 1966. (It was determined that the typewriter was a Royal model, with either Elite or Pica type.) Allen is said to have been in Riverside the weekend Bates was killed. The Vallejo Police Department (VPD) and the California Department of Justice developed the material that placed Allen in Riverside in 1971. (DOJ). Allen later implied that it was real, initially claiming to be “in the vicinity” at the time.
Richard Marshall
Joe Don Dickey got a tip from a woman who works at a care facility in the Sacramento (Calif.) area in July 2008. Marshall was a patient where she worked, she said, and he had mentioned the Zodiac case. She was perplexed by his odd behavior and unsure what to do. I called my sources at the Napa County Sheriff's Department, the agency that first investigated Marshall in the 1970s, thinking he might finally be willing to talk because of his senior age and declining health. Marshall was not the Zodiac killer, according to two detectives who traveled to Sacramento and determined — using unknown means — that he was not the serial killer.
Articles
Because of his interaction with the media, the Zodiac Killer has enthralled the media. Soon after his first murder, Zodiac began sending coded notes to various newspapers taunting police. He signed these messages with his symbol, a circle with a plus sign over it. “This is the Zodiac speaking,” he famously sent as a cipher. Have you deciphered the last cipher I sent you? “Hi, my name is…” Then came a string of 13 symbols that were supposed to be his name, but were encoded.No suspect has ever been apprehended in any of the Zodiac murders, whether they are known or presumed. The inability to identify the Zodiac Killer, nearly five decades after the Faraday-Jensen killings, has continued to be a source of frustration for law enforcement officials. Amateur codebreakers cracked the Zodiac Killer's cipher in 2020, more than 50 years after it was first discovered. The message that was decrypted was as follows: "I hope you are having a good time trying to catch me that wasn't me on the television 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." During a press conference in October 2021, a group of 40 retired law enforcement investigators, known as the Case Breakers, claimed to have identified the Zodiac Killer. The FBI, on the other hand, claimed that the investigation was still ongoing.
Video
The Oakland Police Department got a phone call from a man claiming to be the Zodiac in the early morning hours of October 22, 1969. The caller stated that he wanted prominent Boston attorney F. Lee Bailey to come on a local television talk program, but that if Bailey was unavailable, he would settle with San Francisco lawyer Melvin Belli. Police reportedly stated that the caller knew unreleased details about the Zodiac crimes in one newspaper article, but this information was quickly contradicted by other news stories claiming that police doubted the caller was the Zodiac but went ahead with the television show in the hopes of exposing the imposter and possibly attracting the attention of the real killer. F. Lee Bailey was from the East Coast, but Belli was a well-known figure in the Bay Area, so he was the ideal candidate for a last-minute appearance on a San Francisco television show. Belli was a guest on the show with host Jim Dunbar just hours after the 911 call to Oakland police. A man called the KGO television station multiple times, claiming to be the Zodiac in communication with Belli, but he agreed to be called “Sam.” Sam had been interested in Belli for a long time, according to one discussion.
