The Zodiac Killer

"I like killing people because it is so much fun."

The Zodiac Killer was an enigmatic spree killer who was active in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Background
Nothing definitive is known about the Zodiac's background. The only theories that exist, as profiled by John Douglas and other FBI agents, are that the killer may have a Naval background, and that--due to his uncommon grammar and spelling--may possibly be British.

Brief Case History
The first known confirmed Zodiac murders took place on December 20, 1968 on Lake Herman Road in California. The victims were Paul Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16, both of which were shot with a .22 handgun. No killer was ever caught. The Zodiac then remained inactive until July 4 the following year, when he shot another couple, Michael Mageau, 19, and Darlene Ferrin, 22, while they were seated in a parked car on the parking lot of the Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. Mageau survived, though he suffered severe injuries, and was able to provide a description. On August 1, the Vallejo Times-Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle received near-identical letters from the Zodiac in which he took credit for the murders, proving his guilt by stating several facts about the crime scenes, such as what the victims were wearing, how their bodies were positioned and what brand of ammunition he used. The only signature was the Zodiac's symbol. The letters also contained one part of a three-part cypher designed by the Zodiac, who ordered all three papers to publish the cyphers on their front pages and threatened to go on a killing spree over the weekend of they didn't comply. All three papers published the cypher, which was cracked after a little more than a week by Donald and Betty Harden. In the decoded message, the Zodiac claimed to have been killing in order to collect slaves for his afterlife.

The next Zodiac letter came the day before the cypher was cracked. In it, the Zodiac named himself for the first time and gave more details about the murders. The next murder took place near Lake Berryessa on September 27. This time, the victims, Bryan Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Shepherd, 22, were tied up and stabbed instead of shot. Hartnell survived his injuries, but Shepherd died a few days later. Fortunately, she saw the attacker without his mask on and was able to give a description before expiring. During his next killing, the Zodiac diverged from his pattern even further and shot and killed a cab driver, Paul Lee Stine, 29, in Presidio Heights in San Francisco on October 11 after riding with him. This time, a partial fingerprint in blood was found inside the car, along with a bloody pair of gloves. At first, the police were led to believe that the killer was black, which was later corrected. Before that, however, a pair of uniformed cops on their way to the crime scene spotted a man fitting the Zodiac's description dressed in a dark jacket and walking away from the crime scene mere minutes after the shooting. Though this was the last of the Zodiac's confirmed killings, he continued writing letters. Though he claimed responsibility for several murders during this time, it is generally believed that he lied for the attention.

The prime suspect of the case was, and remains to this day, Arthur Leigh Allen. The authorities began investigating him after they were told by one of his old co-workers, Donald Cheney, that Allen had told him about an idea he had for a novel about a serial killer who called himself "Zodiac" and did several things the Zodiac Killer did or threatened to do, such as taping a flashlight to his gun and killing the passengers of a school bus. Also, Allen was a skin diver who had been to Lake Berryessa on several occasions. He also admitted to having had bloody knives in his car on the weekend of the stabbing, but claimed that the blood came from a chicken he had killed for dinner. After a warrant for his trailer and handwriting was secured and carried out, his fingerprints was compared to the partial from the cab, his guns compared to the Zodiac evidence and his handwriting to that of the letters. None of the tests came back a match and Allen was let go. In 1991, Mageau was tracked down and shown a lineup of old photos of Zodiac suspects. After he fingered Allen as the killer, there were talks about formally charging him with the murders based on the massive amount of circumstantial evidence against him. Unfortunately, Allen died of natural causes before any trial could take place. To date (January 2011), the case remains unsolved.

Letters
See gallery below The Zodiac is known to have sent many cryptographic and puzzling letters to not only the SFPD but the press as well. In these letters, the Zodiac made his intentions and wishes known. In some, he would include odd drawings, mosaics of photos, and astrological charts. One letter include a cipher with which the police could use to discover his identity. They were unsuccessful in accurately translating it. Below are some of the letters The Zodiac sent to the SFPD and the local newspapers. To date, almost none of his ciphers have been definitively solved.

Profile
The Zodiac displays traits of both a serial killer and a spree killer; though he often targeted more than one victim, used a pistol and had shorter and shorter intervals, he did apparently not commit suicide right after his killings ended and usually targeted a specific, physical type rather than a certain demographic. The same way, he also displays traits of both an organized and a disorganized offender; though he left survivors, he brought his murder weapons with him (when he attacked Hartnell and Shepherd, he even brought pre-cut lengths of rope), had enough presence of mind to attack his victims in secluded locations and, most notably, got away with the killings.

The Zodiac was a narcissist who craved attention and sought to make himself known by taunting the police. From the letters received by police, it was apparent that the Zodiac wanted his identity to be known eventually but was interested in seeing who would be smart enough to crack his code. In this way he is very similar to Criminal Minds character George Foyet; the main difference being Foyet's use of the Eye of Providence as opposed to astrological symbols.

As mentioned before, his use of odd spellings led police to believe that he was foreign, possibly British, and would have a military background. This would be either Naval or Merchant Marine. Additionally, all of the Zodiac's confirmed murders took place on (Mageau and Ferrin) or near holidays (Faraday and Jensen) or on a Saturday at night (Stine) or the late afternoon (Hartnell and Shepherd), suggesting that he had a day-job or something else that kept him occupied during the week.

Modus Operandi
From the accounts of the few survivors of known Zodiac attacks, it is generally believed that the Zodiac dressed in black clothing of various types (depending on the month), and wore a hood and/or mask (at least during the 1969 stabbing), though he was unmasked when he attacked Mageau and Ferrin. A few of the eye-witness accounts describe his garb as being decorated with various Zodiac symbols as well as the truncated Zodiac wheel (a circle with a "+" sign in the center). His methods varied also, with some victims being dispatched by an automatic pistol (of several types) or bladed weapons; most notably what was probably a military-style knife. According to one of his letters, he, during the Christmas killings, had a pencil-sized flashlight taped to his gun in order to be able to shoot in the dark.

The Zodiac's usual pattern of attack, however, was to target Caucasian teenage couples, strike when they were inside some secluded lover's lane or in a car and kill them by either shooting or stabbing them. His method of approaching them is known to have varied; when he attacked Mageau and Ferrin, he just walked up to the car and started shooting at them without saying a word, while, during the Hartnell-Shepherd stabbing, he approached them pretending to be a robber before instructing Shepherd to tie up Hartnell and then tying her up himself. During the latter killing, he claimed to be an escaped convict from Montana who had killed a guard and needed their car and money so he could flee to Mexico.

Physical Description
The same survivors who describe the Zodiac's killing garb also describe him as:


 * Approximately 5' 6" to 5' 9" in height
 * Curly light brown or blond hair
 * Medium or slightly stocky build
 * One survivor describes the Zodiac as having an odd gait; that is, he had a peculiar, almost robotic way of walking
 * Bootprints found on the Hartnell-Shepherd crime scene were size 10½ and the gloves in Stine's cab were size 7.

Suspects

 * Arthur Leigh Allen (1933-1992)
 * Dishonorably discharged from US Navy
 * Elementary School Teacher
 * Lifeguard
 * Sail Maker
 * Admitted to having had bloody knives in his car on the weekend of the Zodiac's stabbing at Lake Berryessa, but claimed the blood came from a chicken he had killed for dinner.
 * Was in jail for child molestation during the time of the Zodiac's 1971-74 hiatus
 * Still generally considered the prime suspect in the case
 * His guns, fingerprint and handwriting were all compared to the case evidence, but he was cleared
 * In 1991, Michael Mageau pointed out him when shown a set of Zodiac suspect photos from the time of the killings.
 * Jack Tarrance (1928 - 2006)
 * Honorable discharge from US Air Force and Navy
 * Ham Radio operator
 * Steel company worker
 * General Electric test foreman
 * Laundry attendant
 * Was reported by his stepson, Dennis Kaufman
 * Kaufman turned over several pieces of evidence, including:
 * A hood similar to the one described by the Berryessa victims
 * Handwriting samples
 * Undeveloped photo film reels, one of which contained gruesome images
 * A knife covered with dried blood
 * A taped phone conversation in which Tarrance may indirectly hint that he was the Zodiac
 * DNA testing by the FBI proved inconclusive
 * Lawrence "Larry" Kane (1923 -Present)
 * Navy
 * various blue collar jobs
 * Bruce Davis (1942 - Present)
 * Former Manson Family Member
 * Richard "Rick" Marshall
 * Navy
 * Had code training
 * Silent Movie Theater Projectionist
 * Movie Buff
 * Was known to have had a bad temper with women
 * Notes: Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, was briefly considered a suspect for being the Zodiac Killer, but the theory was dismissed since he had been living in Illinois during most of the killings.

Confirmed

 * December 20, 1968, Lake Herman Road, Vallejo, California: David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen
 * July 4, 1969, Blue Rock Springs, Vallejo, California: Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin
 * September 27, 1969, Lake Berryessa, Napa, California: Bryan Hartnell and Cecilia Shepherd
 * October 11, 1969, Presidio Heights, San Fransisco, California: Paul Stine

Possible

 * June 4, 1963: Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards
 * October 30, 1966: Cheri Jo Bates
 * Months after the murder, letters stating "Bates had to die" were sent to local police and media. A letter stating "She had to die" was also sent to her father. Additionally, a type-written confession using some phrases the Zodiac later used was found in the university where she had studied as well as a macabre poem scribbled into a board describing the murder in detail.
 * Local investigators have good circumstantial evidence on a currently unidentified male, but because he was never charged with the murder, the case remains unsolved.
 * A possible Zodiac link, besides the letters, was that a size 8-10 military style heel print was found along on the scene along with a wristwatch that was traced to a military post, possibly in England, and whose wristband suggested that the owner had a ca. 7-inch wrist; some suspect that the Zodiac may have been English due to some of his spellings, a size 10½ military style bootprint was found at the Hartnell-Shepherd crime scene and the gloves found in Stine's cab were size 7.
 * The Zodiac claimed responsibility for a total of 37 victims, including his confirmed ones. Most of them were unnamed. Named ones include:
 * March 22, 1970: Kathleen Johns
 * June 26, 1970 (date of letter): Unnamed man

Copycats


To date, there have been two infamous killers who emulated the Zodiac Killer:


 * Heriberto "Eddie" Seda, "The New York Zodiac"
 * b. July 31, 1967
 * Was inspired by the Zodiac Killer
 * Shot 8 people, 3 of which died
 * Targeted his victims based on their Zodiac signs
 * Used zip guns
 * Is currently serving time in jail for murder and attempted murder
 * "Seito Sakakibara"
 * Japanese
 * 14 years old at the time of his arrest
 * Real name unrevealed due to Japanese child protection laws (though a leak revealed it is possibly Shinichirou Azuma).
 * Killed a 10-year old boy and an 11-year old girl
 * Also claimed to have assaulted three other girls
 * Wrote letters with a language similar to that of the original Zodiac
 * Released after several years of imprisonment

Criminal Minds Comparisons
The Zodiac is first mentioned in "Unfinished Business", where the Keystone Killer's signature of sending taunting letters and puzzles to the authorities is compared to the Zodiac's habit of sending letters. A few episodes later, in "A Real Rain", the Zodiac is mentioned again, this time as an example of a killer with an alternating MO. Three seasons later, in "Normal", when Norman Hill admits to his wife that he is the Road Warrior, his wife, thinking Norman is simply joking, sarcastically confesses to being the Zodiac. In "Omnivore", both the Zodiac and BTK are compared to the Reaper by Hotch, who states all three were "highly intelligent, disciplined, sadistic killers who name themselves in the press".

George Foyet, the aforementioned Reaper, also appears heavily inspired by the Zodiac. Like the Zodiac, he wore a black mask in his outings, his primary targets were couples, he usually either shot or stabbed his victims, and adopted a symbol (the Eye of Providence) as his "trademark". The Zodiac also threatened to kill a bus full of people, which Foyet actually does, and both also had victims who survived near fatal attacks, and provided vague descriptions of their assailants (though in Foyet's case, the attack was fake, designed to throw the authorities off his trail).