Decades after the Zodiac Killer rained terror over the San Francisco Bay Area, dedicated true crime sleuths continue to pore over the details of his murders, the letters he sent to news outlets and the puzzling codes that accompanied them.
David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were killed on Lake Herman Road in 1968 and are considered the Zodiac Killer's first victims.On the evening of December 20, 1968, at the end of a tumultuous and frightening year for the United States, a new monster emerged from the dark.As the decade drew to a close, Americans had a sense that their social fabric was fraying at the seams, that such relentless violence would only beget more violence.
First, he announced that just 45 minutes prior, he had shot a young couple talking in their car in the parking lot of a nearby park. To this day, he has never been found and the San Francisco Police Department still lists the murders as cold cases. But what started out as a quest for peace and free love would end in violence and a string of killings two years later when the area became a hunting ground for one of the country's most famous murderers.
Inside were identical cover letters accompanied by different cryptograms from a person claiming to have killed David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen last Christmas, as well as Darlene Ferrin the month prior.To prove his identity, the author listed some facts that "only I and the police know", including the brands of ammunition used in the murders, descriptions of the crime scene and the positions the bodies were found in.
The cryptogram was eventually solved by school teacher Donald Harden and his wife Betty, over breakfast. In lieu of a suspect and a reason for the killing spree, experts put forward various motives for the murders, including a Freudian theory that the Zodiac was striking out against those demonstrating an intimacy he craved.
Using 1.8-metre strips taken from a plastic clothesline, the stranger tied their hands behind their backs and between their legs, before stabbing Bryan 10 times with a 12-inch blade until he collapsed. When they arrived on the scene, police discovered the familiar calling card of the Zodiac, a crossed circle, on Bryan's car door accompanied by the dates of his previous murders.
But just as police were working off the new information in their investigation, the serial killer struck again in a different manner. When two nearby officers drove by minutes later, they observed a white man walking north but didn't pull him over because he didn't match the description they were given.In a seven-page letter to the Chronicle, the Zodiac Killer claimed he killed the cab driver and had been pulled over by police shortly after the incident.To the police, it was evidence that the Zodiac Killer, whoever he might be, was growing bolder.
The increasing frequency of the crimes had alarmed investigators. Stine's death had occurred just two weeks after the attack at Lake Berryessa Park. It also contained a bloodstained piece of Paul Stine's shirt and prompted a plea from the attorney to the Zodiac asking for advice on how he could be of assistance.In other letters, the Zodiac threatened to use a bomb to kill children, referenced other crimes in the area and encouraged people to wear "buttons" in his honour.
Gary Francis Poste was also named by a group of former cops, forensic analysts and retired military investigators as being the Zodiac Despite all the many guesses over the years, only one man has officially been identified as a suspect: Arthur Leigh Allen. It struck Toschi at the time because it was the same symbol the Zodiac killer used to sign some of his letters.
The enduring mystery of who the Zodiac might be means there will always be more questions than answers. The size of the sample, derived from saliva off a licked stamp, is also not precise enough to pinpoint the Zodiac. Instead, it may only ever be used to rule out potential suspects.
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