Rock and roll, peace symbols, flower children, hippies and lots of drugs. Many remember 1969 as the summer of love, with fondness and nostalgia. Decades before the internet and cell phones and before serial killers were really even a solidified concept in society’s eyes. Young people hitch hiked freely without the fear and stigma attached to it. But for people in Northern California, it was a dark time.
San Francisco Bay fell prey to a serial killer who to this day remains unknown. He was the demonic shadow behind phone calls and letters and taunts. A figure in black haunting lover’s lanes in the dead of night. Between 1968 and 1969, he murdered five people. Up until 1974, he taunted police and media through letters and phone calls, and then mysteriously vanished, never to be heard from again. The case remains open and, like Jack the Ripper, is still the topic of conversation among true crime lovers everywhere who hope maybe the case might one day be solved.
The Zodiac Killer
On December 20, 1968, David Faraday, 17, and his 16-year-old girlfriend, Betty Lou Jensen, were shot to death near their car on Lake Herman Road, a remote area outside of Vallejo, California. No clear motive was ever determined. I mean, they were teenagers out on a date – which means this was either a double murder of opportunity, or the killer knew where they were going to be and when. Teenagers make for vulnerable victims, less likely to fight back or resist. Which could mean the killer was likely insecure, not confident enough to face these kids. But as we will see, this changed rather quickly. He was just getting started.
He waited six months before striking again in a similar location outside Vallejo. Like David and Betty Lou, 22-year-old Darlene Ferrin and 19-year-old Mike Mageau, her boyfriend, were shot while sitting in a car. A man approached them with a flashlight, shot multiple times into the car, and left. Ferrin died, while Mageau was seriously injured, yet survived. This would have required the killer to approach them and have a face-to-face interaction with them, a sign that his confidence may have risen since his first murder, since he seemingly got away with it. It would have boosted his ego.
And when a killer’s ego gets continual boosts, they become bolder. More brazen.
A man called the Vallejo Police Department within an hour of the murders, citing the crime scene location. He even claimed responsibility for it and the December shooting! Mageau gave a description of the man, resulting in a police sketch that was released. Fingerprints were found at the scene. The cipher the Zodiac sent was decoded. Tips and leads were taken in. Still, the killer remained elusive, vague and unknown. Let’s remember, this was still a time before DNA. Police didn’t have the tools they do now to apprehend these killers. No social media to spread a sketch or any leads around quickly.
After a shorter cooling off period, the Zodiac struck again on September 27, 1969. Cecelia Shephard and Bryan Hartnell were together at Lake Berryessa in Napa County when they were approached by a man in black, tied up and stabbed. The killer scrawled a message on their car for the police to find. Again, he called the police to claim responsibility. Shephard died of her wounds in hospital, and Hartnell survived.
On October 11, 1969, 29-year-old taxi driver Paul Stine was shot in San Francisco. A letter from the Zodiac later took responsibility for this crime.
Other murders have since been tentatively attributed to the Zodiac Killer. In 1963, Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards were shot near Santa Barbara, California. The October 30, 1966 stabbing death of Cheri Jo Bates, a college student, is also thought to be one of his murders. He sabotaged her car outside of the library, then approached her to offer help, whisking her away to her fate. The letter sent after her death was similar to the others sent by the Zodiac. It arrived at the Riverside Press-Enterprise on April 30, 1967.
The letters themselves are fascinating. They contained cipher puzzles and taunts. One from the San Francisco Chronicle was solved in 1969 by a school teacher and his wife. In December 2020, news got out that someone else had solved another one! Fifty-one years after arriving at the newspaper, a code-breaking team from the US, Belgium and Australia have cracked it. This was such an exciting breakthrough – proof that things can be solved in time. The 340 cipher read:
“I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me. ... I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradice (sic) all the sooner because I now have enough slaves to work for me.”
IFLS.com reported on June 24, 2021 that an amateur codebreaker had cracked the final two Zodiac messages. Important to note though: the 340 cracked code was confirmed by the FBI. This most recent one has yet to be confirmed.
Image by Pit Karges from Pixabay
Why this case?
I have a thing for old cold cases. This case carries the same air of drama and intrigue as Jack the Ripper continues to. It likely always will, though there is admittedly more evidence to work with in the Zodiac case. Jack was elusive, like smoke. There then gone. But there are plausible suspects in the Zodiac case. San Francisco Chronicle comic artist Robert Graysmith wrote two books on his obsession with the Zodiac Killer and his own unravelling of the case, in which he revealed Arthur Leigh Allen to be the most likely suspect (and I personally agree). There was a saga in 2002 over DNA that didn’t match Allen, yet that was unreliable to begin with. The DNA sample was on the outside of the envelope in question, which means it could have belonged to anyone who handled the envelope. And Allen allegedly had people lick and seal his envelopes for him. This detail only came out in 2018.
Gary Stewart wrote a book called “The Most Dangerous Animal” in which he claims his father was the Zodiac Killer. Eric Van Best Jr certainly resembled the sketch, yet I didn’t feel the evidence against him to be as compelling as the mounted evidence against Allen. The book was intriguing, but didn’t convince me.
The Zodiac’s behaviour is perplexing, as well. The mixture of stabbing and shooting is usual. Typically, serial killers stick to one tried and true method. Even in his later murders, he continued to alternate between the two. He targeted primarily couples, but also killed people who were alone. Opportunistic or planned? Was he simply delusional and chose whatever fit said delusion at the given time? Choosing couples in remote areas, and people alone in urban areas, is a bizarre MO. Did he know the couples would be there? Did he follow them? Did he choose the lone people at random as he passed them by? The victimology is scattered. The MOs are sporadic. However, the signature remains: his letters. The need for communication with police and media, the need for validation, the need to take credit. He was someone who never got validation or credit, or so he believed. He felt overlooked at work and likely lived alone. He had the time to spend on creating those complex ciphers. This wasn’t someone with a ton of responsibility outside of his working hours. He had time to hunt, kill and taunt. This man existed on the fringe of society, functioning as much as necessary, then carrying out these horrific murders. Like many serial killers, there is probably a history of trauma. The problem is, is that this vague profile could fit many. It still leaves us with a list of suspects that is difficult to narrow down beyond circumstantial evidence and opinions.
There is much to unpack with this case, so I will leave a list of reading material below. This post barely touches the vast iceberg that is the infamous Zodiac Killer case. I highly recommend Robert Graysmith’s books, as he goes into great details about the case. Gary Stewart’s book is intriguing for another perspective. Tom Voigt has a website dedicated to the Zodiac Killer case and solving it. It is a central site for everything you need to know about the Zodiac.
As always, thanks for joining me! Next time, we’ll dive into a case that introduced me to the demented world of narcissists and the way they can manipulate people to do anything. The Cinnamon Brown case. Also, one of my favourite books by Ann Rule. But, more on that next time.
Sources and recommended reading
“Zodiac” and “Zodiac Unmasked” by Robert Graysmith
“The Most Dangerous Animal” by Gary Stewart
Tom Voigt’s website: https://www.zodiackiller.com/VPDER.html
Zodiac letters: https://www.zodiackiller.com/Letters.html
Cipher decoded, 2020: https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/zodiac-killers-infamous-340-cipher-decoded-and-his-message-finally-revealed/
IFLS article, 2021: https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/zodiac-killers-final-two-messages-may-have-been-decoded-and-his-identity-finally-revealed-once-and-for-all/
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