passion project

The zodiac killer killed 37 people and to this day his identity still remains unsolved.

The zodiacs first kill took place on the night of December 20th, 1968 where he killed 16-year-old Betty Lou Jensen and her boyfriend 17-year-old David faraday by gun whilst near there car in a remote spot on lake Herman road on the outskirts of California. At the time nobody knew that this was the act of a mass murderer. The next attacks where six months later on the morning of July 5th, 1969 where he shoots Darlene Ferrin and Mike Mago he confesses to the shootings himself but ensure’s that his identity remains unrevealed.

Astonishingly Mike Mago survives the shooting and describes the man who shoots him as

Heavyset, 5 foot 8, with brown hair and 26-30 year’s old

On August first, 1969 three copies of the same handwritten letter were sent to the San Francisco Chronicles the San Francisco Examiner and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Signed with the zodiacs symbol that claimed responsibility for all the shootings and had in-depth descriptions of all the shootings that only the police would know. The letter also has codes which he claims will reveal his identity. The zodiac demands that the Vallejo times print the codes or he will kill again. So the newspaper prints the codes not wanting blood on their hands.

Seven days later an ordinary couple Donald and Betty Harding crack the code and while it doesn't reveal anything about the shooter it does read an interesting code. The cracked code reads this “I like killing because it is so much fun it is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl the best part of it is when I die I will be reborn in paradise and those I have killed will become my slaves. I will not give you my name because you will try to slow down or stop my collecting of slaves for afterlife”

on September 27, 1969, couple Bryan Hartnell and cochlea Shepard are feasting over a picnic on Lake Berryessa napa when near a tree a man approaches the couple wearing an executioner's mask and the zodiac symbol chest. He grabs the couple ties them up and stabs them repeatedly. He paints a message on the door dating all the murders he convicted that day's date and the words by stabbing wrote at the bottom of the message. Bryan Hartnell survived the killing.

On October 11th, 1969 cab driver Paul Stine was shot dead in the center of his head by a passenger. A bystanding teen witnesses the shooting and the man walking away from the scene as a white male, 5 foot 8, 25-30 years old with glasses somehow the police dispatcher calls out the suspect as a black male. So when two police officers later that week see a white male, 5 foot 8, 25-30 years old with glasses they just ask him if he has seen the suspect and then let him go on his way. In his next letter to the press he exclaims that he was the male the police talked to and basically called them out as idiots, he now says he is going to start killing kids due to this mix-up. He doesn't though but he wasn't above it either.

Two days after the Paul Stine murder Kathleen johns is driving with her baby daughter when a car signals her to pull over. Something is suddenly wrong with her tire and she accepts a ride from him in his car. Once they are driving and on their way, the man explains that he will kill her and throw her baby out after her. The stop for a moment before getting on the highway when Kathleen jumps out of the car and runs into the field with her baby and lies down. The man can’t find her and turns around and drives off. He later references this encounter in another letter.

In 1974 he writes his last letter indicating he has killed 37 people.  

The Zodiac killer has never been found but there still are suspects. The first and most convincing one to me is Arthur Leigh Allen. this theory was made by Robert Graysmith who was a political cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He wrote two books on his research towards the zodiacs case which mainly pointed at Arthur Leigh Allen. Arthur told his family that he was going diving at Lake Berryessa the day of the Hartnell and Shepard attacks. He came home covered in blood and holding a knife also a friend remembers Arthur referring to himself as the zodiac before the zodiac killer came public about it. The police searched Arthur's trailer and found bits of dead animals, bloody knifes, and sexual objects. Arthur was arrested for child molestation in 1974, the same years the letters stopped. His DNA was tested against one of the stamps from the letters that the zodiac sent it didn't match but he was rumored to have a habit of letting other people lick his stamps.

The second believed suspect is Earl Van Best Jr this theory was made by his own son Stewart who even went as far as to make a  book about it called the animal inside us and to add on top that Van Best looks like the male on the sketch's printed by the police but does not match earlier descriptions. The number of letters in his name matches one of the ciphers wrote by the Zodiac himself.

Now to the third and final suspect Lawrence Kane Kay. he was profiled on the November 14th, 1998 Americas most wanted. He lived in the area where every one of the victims lived or died.

Darlien Farenes sister told the press that Lawrence was harassing her sister up to her murder and one of the cops who supposedly saw the killer said that he was the closest to the man that he had seen. Another believed zodiac murder we didn't talk about was a woman who worked at the same hotel as Lawrence and mysteriously disappeared.

So who do you believe it was I personally think it was Arthur Leigh Allen but it's up to you to decide.

Conclusion

It was a fun yet boring project to complete I liked it at the start and then later found it boring and not as interesting as it used to be.

In the end, I liked it but probably would never do it again.