THE Zodiac Killer is one of the most infamous murderers in American history.
The killer operated in the 1960s and challenged police to a high-stakes game of cat and mouse, sending them letters with clues about his next murder.
The case has never been solved, but his unique methods and cipher captured the public imagination, leading to countless films being based on the case.
But the police did have some suspects whom they thought might be the Zodiac killer.
The Zodiac’s murder spree
The Zodiac’s first confirmed victim was Betty Lou Jensen, aged 16, and David Arthur Faraday, aged 17, on December 20, 1968.
The couple were killed in Benicia, California, but the Zodiac killer then went silent for seven months.
He struck again in July 1969, when he attacked 19-year-old Michael Renault Mageau and killed 22-year-old Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin.
Next, the murderer attacked Bryan Calvin Hartnell and killed Cecelia Anne Shepard in September 1969, before killing Paul Lee Stine in October 1969.
Bryan and Michael are the only known survivors of the attacks, but police think that there are many more victims involved in the case.
Self-titled killer
The Zodiac Killer got his name from a letter he wrote to the press on August 7, 1969.
He wrote letters to the police from 1969 until 1974, with each letter containing a fragment of a 408-symbol cryptogram he claimed contained his identity.
In the August 1969 letter, he identified himself as “Zodiac” with “Dear Editor this is the Zodiac speaking”.
His letters were also always signed with a strange symbol, which took the shape of a circle with a cross through it.
The symbols have never been decoded but authorities have speculated that the symbols are coordinates for future killing locations.
Californian police forces began to consult occult experts and psychics to help them find meaning in his bizarre messages but they failed to catch him.
A breakthrough moment
In 2007, the San Francisco Police Department reopened the case after it had been inactive for three years.
Australian software engineer, American cryptographer David Orchak and Belgian software engineer Jarl Van said they finally cracked one of the killer’s codes in 2020.
The killer’s unsolved note read: “I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME THAT WASNT 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.”
One fake Zodiac killer
The Zodiac killer was never caught, but one man did come forward claiming to be the murderer in October 1969.
Eric Weil called the Oakland Police Department (OPD) and demanded that either F.Lee Bailey or Melvin Belli, prominent lawyers, would appear on a San Francisco talk show.
He phoned in several times and gave the name “Sam”, before arranging to meet Melvin in Daly City.
Eventually, the phone call was traced to Eric Weil, a mentally unwell man who authorities confirmed was not the Zodiac.
Only one suspect named
Arthur Leigh Allen was the only man ever named as a suspect by the police in the Zodiac Killer case.
Allen was an elementary school teacher and convicted sex offender, who worked minutes away from where Darlene Ferrin (the Zodiac’s first victim) was murdered.
He had been fired from his teaching job in March 1968, after allegations of sexual misconduct with students.
Michael Mageau, a survivor of an attack by the killer, named him as the Zodiac in a photo line-up but another witness said that Allen was 100lbs heavier than the killer.
When he died in 1992, a police search was conducted on his home.
Allen’s watch, a Zodiac Sea Wolf wristwatch, bore the same logo seen on the killer’s letters.
Allen was also arrested in 1974, around the time that the killings ended, for “lewdness” with an underage boy.
Earl Van Best Jr. was suspected by his own son Gary Stewart of being the Zodiac killer.
Gary and his wife Susan Mustafa based the theory on the police sketch of the murderer and the fact that Van Best had partial DNA and print matches for the killer.
However, subsequent testing by experts ruled Van Best out of the investigation.
One final suspect, Gary Francis Poste, was identified as the killer by the Case Breakers in 2021.
The Case Breakers were an independent group of former law enforcement officers, journalists, academics and military intelligence workers.
They claimed that one solution to the clues gave his name and that his shoe size matched that of the killer’s.
Poste was also known for having a violent background and even trained a group of me to become “killing machines”.
