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The Zodiac Killer

Disclaimer: I in no way endorse killing nor do I romanticize killers; this post is just for information, and I do not know everything about the case; I feel for the victims and their families.

I have always had a fascination with serial killers, which isn't healthy, I will admit, but as someone who loves to do research, when I find a serial killer who was never found, I love to dig as deep as I can and one of the serial killers I have always come back to and can never get enough of is the Zodiac killer.

For those who are not familiar with who the zodiac killer is, he is an American serial killer who operated in Northern California from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. The Zodiac killer murdered victims in Benicia, Vallejo, Napa County, and San Francisco between December 1968 and October 1969. his true identity still remains unknown as he was never caught.

In this blog post, I will be going through the information that we do know and, in the end, tell you who I think did it.

The first bit of information is how many peoples lives the zodiac killer took. The zodiac killer claimed to have killed thirty-seven people, but only five of his victims were confirmed dead, and two more were injured. the seven confirmed cases from him consisted of four men and three women between the ages of 16 and 29, 

His confirmed victims were:

  • David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16, were shot and killed on December 20 1968.
  • Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22, were shot on July 4, 1969; while Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead.
  • Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969; Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back while Shepard did sadly die of her injuries
  • Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969


The zodiac killer gave himself the name "Zodiac" and would send taunting letters and cards to the local Bay Area press. The letters included four cryptograms (or ciphers).

The first of the letters were received on August 1, 1969. Three letters prepared by the killer were received at the Vallejo Times-Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The San Francisco Examiner. The nearly identical letters, subsequently described by a psychiatrist, have been written by "someone you would expect to be brooding and isolated."

He took credit for David Arthur Faraday's killings, Betty Lou Jensen, Michael Renault Mageau and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin. Each letter also included one-third of a 408-symbol cryptogram which the killer claimed contained his identity. The killer demanded they be printed on each paper's front page, or he would "cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend." The Chronicle published its third of the cryptogram on page four of the next day's edition. An article printed alongside the code quoted Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz as saying, "We're not satisfied that the letter was written by the murderer" and requested the writer send a second letter with more facts to prove his identity. The threatened murders did not happen, and all three parts were eventually published.

on the 7th of august, the zodiac killer sent another round of letters  "Dear Editor, This is the Zodiac speaking." This was the first time the killer had used this name for identification. The letter responded to Chief Stiltz's request for more details that would prove he had killed Faraday, Jensen and Ferrin. In it, the Zodiac included details about the murders, which had not yet been released to the public, as well as a message to the police that when they cracked his code, "they will have me."

On August 8, 1969, Donald and Bettye Harden of Salinas, California, cracked the 408-symbol cryptogram. It contained a misspelled message in which the killer said he was collecting slaves for the afterlife. No name appears in the decoded text, and the killer said that he would not give away his identity because it would slow down or stop his slave collection.
the decoded message: "I like killing people because it is so much fun; it is more fun than killing wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal of all to kill something gives me the most thrilling experience it is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl the best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradise and the I have killed will become my slaves I will not give you my name because you will try to sloi down or atop my collectiog of slaves for my afterlife ebeorietemethhpiti."

There were several suspects in the case, from Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. Ross Sullivan and Lawrence Kane are suspected of being the Zodiac killer. The list goes on to include Arthur Leigh Allen, Richard Gaikowski, Gareth Penn, Rick Marshall, Michael O'Hare, Bruce Davis, Fred Manalli, Kjell Qvale, Earl Van Best, William J. Grant, Rafael Cruz, Jack Tarrance, Charles Clifton Collins, George Russell Tucker, Guy Ward Hendrickson, Joseph Newton Chandler III, Louie Myers.

Some reports also suspect the Zodiac is also the Monster of Florence.

I personally think the killer was Arthur Leigh Allen, who died on August 26, 1992, from a heart attack.

there is a movie on the zodiac killer which was released in 1971 by Tom Hanson titled the zodiac killer

any information I got came from 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer
https://zodiackiller.fandom.com/wiki/Suspects

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