I like killing people because it’s a lot of fun. It’s much more fun than hunting game in the forest.
These words belong to one of the most mysterious serial killers in history.
For several years, he dealt with his victims in cold blood and taunted the police with mysterious letters with encrypted messages.
The attacker always acted prudently and left virtually no evidence.
Numerous witnesses were unable to clearly see his face, which greatly hampered the investigation.
Only the maniac’s nickname, Zodiac, is known for certain.
This is exactly what he signed in his cryptic messages. According to the killer’s confessions, 37 people became his victims.
But why is the case of the most mysterious maniac of the 20th century still not solved? How many victims did he count and what were his motives?
Last date.
Late in the evening of December 20, 1968, a frightened woman contacted the police in the city of Vallejo.
In a parking lot near her home, she discovered the bodies of two young men. A young man and a girl were lying on the ground next to an empty car.
The police who arrived at the crime scene did not find a single clue to catch the criminal. The killer left no traces.
It was later revealed that the victims of the unknown killer were David Faraday and Betty Lou Gerson.
That evening they went on their first romantic date to Lake Herman.
Around ten o’clock in the evening the couple parked the car in the so-called place for lovers.
In a secluded parking lot where local youth came to retire.
Presumably an hour later, another car stopped next to the lovers.
The driver approached their car and, probably holding a pistol, ordered Faraday and Jenson to get out.
As soon as the young people left the back seat, an unknown person shot the guy in the head.
The girl tried to hide from the attacker and started to run, but he shot her five times in the back. After this, the killer disappeared unnoticed by anyone.
Less than a year later, on the Fourth of July 1969, the scenario repeated itself.
Not far from the scene of the previous crime, an unknown man shot another couple of lovers.
True, this time, one of the victims, Michael Mageau, by a happy coincidence, managed to survive.
He told investigators what happened to him and his girlfriend Darlene Ferrin.
That fateful evening, the young people parked in the local Blue Rock Springs Park. At that moment, there was no one else in the parking lot except them.
But after some time, another car stopped nearby. An unknown man got out and hurried to the car of Ferren and Mageau.
Coming closer, he pulled out a pistol and shot the lovers five times.
It seems that the handwriting and the murder weapon in two cases led the police to believe that a serial killer might be at work in the city, and an hour later the mysterious attacker himself confirmed the suspicions of law enforcement officers.
The Vallejo City Police Department received an anonymous call.
The man on the other end of the line coolly reported that he had just killed two young men in the park.
And then, laughing, he added that he was also responsible for the death of those children last year.
The police immediately identified the location of the pay phone from which the call was made.
It turned out the criminal was calling from the home of his recent victim, Darlene Ferrin.
Well, be that as it may, the prompt reaction of the investigators did not bring any results.
The identity of the serial killer still remained undisclosed, and no significant evidence could be found.
Decipher it if you can.
On July 31, 1969, the public was excited by the maniac’s new trick.
He sent a letter incriminating himself to the editors of three local newspapers.
Vallejo Times Herald, San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner.
In each envelope, the criminal put part of a riddle in which he allegedly encrypted his own name.
In addition, all three messages had a mysterious symbol drawn on them, a small circle with a cross in the middle.
The killer demanded that the publication publish his letters no later than August 1st.
Otherwise, he threatened to kill at least 12 people. After consulting with the police, the newspapers decided to agree to the criminal’s condition.
On the appointed day, all fragments of the cryptogram appeared on the pages of publications.
Six days later, an unknown person sent another letter to the San Francisco Examiner.
It started with words.
“Dear Editor, this is the Zodiac speaking.” This was the first time the killer identified himself.
The message contained not publicly disclosed details of Faraday’s murders of Jenson and Farin.
In addition, the author said that the police would be able to detain him as soon as they cracked the slate of the previously published cryptogram.
However, Zodiac was lying; there was nothing more or less significant for the investigation in the note.
The cryptogram contained a misspelled statement stating that he enjoyed killing people.
“The best thing about this is that when I die, I will be resurrected in the Garden of Eden, and everyone I killed will become my slaves.”
By the way, the riddle of the criminal was not deciphered by the police, but by an ordinary American couple who are fond of puzzles.
New victims.
In the fall of 1969, the killings continued. On September 27, Brian Hartnell and Cecelia Ann Shepherd were attacked by an unknown assailant near Lake Berryessa.
A man fishing nearby heard their screams and reported it to local rangers.
When the victims were found, the girl was still conscious and described the criminal in detail.
According to her, at about 6 pm, she and Brian noticed a strong man wearing dark glasses nearby. Seeing that he was being followed, he hid behind a tree for a moment.
And then he came out to the young people in a black hood and an apron with the image of a crossed out circle. The unknown man had a pistol in his hands, and a knife was sticking out from his belt.
He told the frightened couple that he had escaped from prison and was going to steal their car.
Hoping for a safe outcome, Hartnell and Shepard allowed themselves to be tied up, but when the maniac was convinced that the knots were tightened securely, he used a knife and dealt many brutal blows.
After that, he drew the same crossed out circle on the car of his victims.
He noted the dates of his previous murders and disappeared. Doctors who arrived to the emergency call tried to save the victims.
But on the way to the hospital, Cecilia fell into a coma and died two days later. Brian Hartnell survived and helped the police create an approximate sketch of the criminal.
Without changing his habits, Zodiac called the police again after a while and told about what he had done.
The sheriffs figured out where the signal was coming from and arrived at the phone booth literally a couple of minutes later, but of course they didn’t find anyone there.
However, this time the police managed to remove the still wet palm print of the caller from the telephone receiver.
The latest proven victim of the serial killer called the Zodiac was taxi driver Paul Stine.
Three teenagers who heard shots reported the crime to the police.
Investigators found that Stein picked up the passengers at an intersection in San Francisco.
The man asked to be taken to the intersection of Mason and Washington streets in the northern part of the city, but when the car approached the final destination, the passenger changed his mind about getting out and asked to drive a little further.
The driver stopped a taxi a block away. The police combed the entire neighborhood, but on the way they met only one passerby, but whose appearance did not match the description of the witnesses.
A little later, Zodiac allegedly called the police station, mocking the stupidity of the patrolmen, who, having met him, did not even suspect him of being the same killer.
Stein’s murder dismayed law enforcement officials. This time the zodiac has retreated from its characteristic style.
Previously it was believed that he dealt only with young couples in love who were inside or next to the car.
Now the police have serious reasons to fear that other unsolved murders in the area are the work of the same eccentric maniac.
Sociable killer.
On October 14, 1969, the Chronicle received another letter sent by the Zodiac.
As proof that he was Paul Stein’s killer, the sender included a piece of the taxi driver’s bloody shirt in the envelope.
In its message, the zodiac reported that it was preparing a mass murder of children.
He is allegedly going to shoot out the front wheel of a school bus and will shoot the kids when they run out.
Another 6 days later, the Oakland Police Department received a call.
The man, introducing himself as Zodiac, demanded to connect him with one of two famous lawyers, Lee Bailey or Melvin Belay.
The first was unavailable, the second agreed to talk with the criminal.
Eventually, someone calling himself a zodiac made several calls.
He said that his real name was Sam, Bellay agreed to meet Sam outside the studio, but he did not show up for the meeting.
The police later determined that the anonymous person who had previously called the police and Sam were different people.
The police tracked where the calls to the studio were coming from. This place turned out to be a psychiatric hospital, and Sam was one of the patients.
On November 8th of the same year, the editor-in-chief of the Chronicle received a postcard that contained another cryptogram from the Zodiac.
It contained 340 characters and was only deciphered in 2020 by a team of three people.
In the message, Zodiac stated that he was not the one calling the morning show.
I hope you’re having enough fun trying to catch me. I’m not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to heaven even earlier. Now I have enough slaves working for me.
On December 20, 1969, Belay received a Christmas message from the Zodiac. Attached to the postcard was another bloody fragment of the murdered taxi driver’s shirt.
During the seventieth year, the maniac regularly sent letters and postcards to newspapers.
In one of them, he even said his name, albeit in his characteristic manner.
Until now, this cryptogram remains encrypted; it consists of 13 characters. Too small to pick up the key.
In this letter he also included a diagram of a bomb designed to kill children on a school bus.
Below it was an inscription, the Zodiac symbol is equal to 10, and SFPD is equal to zero, where SFPD is an abbreviation for the San Francisco Police Department.
The killer kept score.
Zodiac’s last letter to the editors of Zechronicol came in 1974.
In it the author wrote, I=37, SFPD=0. This was interpreted as a statement of 37 murders, but officially no specific crimes occurred after 1969.
The police then said that they could confirm only 4 cases of attacks, but 18-year-old Robert Dominguez and 17-year-old Linda Edwards, who were shot dead in California in 1963, were also among the possible victims at different times.
18-year-old Damn Jo Bates, who was stabbed to death in the fall of 1986; and 25-year-old Donna Lass, who went missing in the fall of 1970.
It is believed that the Zodiac simply took credit for several crimes, wanting to draw attention to his person.
Among other things, the eccentric maniac expressed regret that people on the streets do not wear badges with his symbol.
Who are you, Mr. Zodiac?
The zodiac has truly disappeared. The murders and similar crimes of the mysterious maniac stopped, but the police continued the search.
Over the course of several decades, up to two and a half thousand people were suspected, but in the end it was not possible to collect direct evidence against anyone.
Investigators have long been looking into the involvement of former teacher Arthur Lee Allen in the murders.
At one time he was accused of molesting children, and he also kept firearms at home.
He made the same mistakes when writing as the Zodiac and even wore a watch from the company of the same name.
Teacher acquaintances testified that Lee Allen liked to talk about hunting people and killings.
But apart from circumstantial evidence, the investigation could not present anything to Lee Allan.
After the advent of DNA tests, they took on him with renewed vigor; Arthur was forced to provide saliva samples, as well as undergo a polygraph test, the results of which were subsequently found inconclusive.
At the same time, a survivor of the Zodiac assassination attempt, Michael Mojo, who was then already over 40 years old, identified Arthur Allen as the very man who tried to kill him.
And most likely Allan would have been recognized as the Zodiac, but in 1992 he died.
And in 2002, it turned out that his DNA did not match the samples that, according to investigators, belonged to the Zodiac.
For more than 50 years, one of the most notorious cases in history was considered unsolved, but on October 6, 2021, a group of journalists, criminologists and former detectives reported that the name of the maniac had finally been established.
According to community members, a certain Gary Francis Post was hiding under the mask of the zodiac; one of the main evidence, as in many other cases, is Post’s resemblance to the portrait of the Zodiac, compiled from the description of witnesses.
In the portraits of both, specific scars were seen on the forehead.
In addition, investigators linked Post to the murder of 18-year-old Cherie Jo Bates in Riverside on October 30, 1966.
It was also attributed to Zadiac at various times; moreover, on November 29 of the same year, an anonymous letter was sent to the editor of a local newspaper, the author of which confessed to the murder and claimed that it was not the first and not the last.
Grey Francis Post at the time lived just 15 minutes from Riverside College, where the murder took place.
The fact that he worked as a painter all his life also spoke against Post.
And not far from the crime scene, a watch was found that was splattered with paint.
Also at the scene of the murder, a print of an army boot was found, the same as that found near the places where the Zodiac killed.
Post, in turn, was an Air Force veteran and wore similar shoes.
Despite the facts from Post’s biography discovered by journalists and the results of the investigation of enthusiasts, the police and the FBI do not consider the collected evidence to be valid.
What also hinders the conclusion of the independent investigation is that the official investigation refuses to allow detectives to compare the DNA tests of Post and Zadiac.
Be that as it may, the alleged maniac will not face the deserved punishment in any case.
The post ended in 2018, but who do you think was hiding under the mask of the Zodiac?
Why did the serial killer disappear so suddenly?
And will the American police ever be able to get to the bottom of the truth?