The Zodiac Killer

Podcast Transcript

1968 marked the beginning of one of the most infamous killing sprees in American history.

For two years, Northern California was terrorized by a series of seemingly random murders. It wasn’t just the killings that terrorized people; it was the fact that the killer taunted the police and the media through a series of cryptic letters sent to newspapers.

Over 50 years later, the case still hasn’t been closed and remains one of the most notorious unsolved crimes in American history.

Learn about the Zodiac Killer, what we know, and speculation surrounding the murders on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

On the evening of December 20, 1968, a motorist was driving on Lake Herman Road in Benicia, California, a desolate area in Solano County known for being a lovers’ lane.

As he was driving by, the motorist made a grisly discovery.

On the road was a station wagon with a bullet hole piercing the back of the vehicle. Next to it lay two teenagers; one already deceased from gunshot wounds, the other still alive but with a gunshot wound to the head, which would later prove fatal.

Later, the bodies would be identified as Betty Lou Jensen and David Arthur Faraday, both of whom were still in high school. The pair had only known each other for two weeks.

These two murders would mark the first of several murders committed by one of the most notorious serial killers in United States history: The Zodiac Killer.

The next time the Zodiac would strike was roughly six months after the first killings on July 4, 1969. These murders also occurred in Solano County, California, just four miles away from the original crime scene.

This time, the murders occurred in Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, California, another remote area.

The two victims, Michael Renault Mageau and Darlene Ferrin, were sitting in Ferrin’s car when they noticed another vehicle arriving. The vehicle left for a bit and then returned.

The vehicle parked behind Ferrin’s car, and a man stepped out, approached the passenger side of the vehicle, and fired five rounds into the car.

After firing, the man walked away for a short period of time before returning and firing two more shots into each victim.

The two victims were left to die as the assailant drove off; fortunately, three teenagers would enter the parking lot a few minutes later, see the wounded couple, and go to get help.

When the police arrived, both victims were rushed to the hospital. Ferrin was pronounced dead at the hospital, but Mageau survived.

Mageau did his best to help investigators piece together what happened that night and also describe what the attacker looked like. He described the assailant as white and heavyset, estimating his weight to be between 195 and 200 pounds. He said that the attacker was around 5’8, and had curly, light brown hair, a larger face, and wore dark clothing.

Later that evening, the police received a phone call from a man claiming to be the killer. This call was placed from a payphone just two blocks away from police headquarters.

The call was brief and simply reported the “double murder” that had occurred that night, what weapon was used to shoot them, and confessed to the previous murders of Jensen and Faraday.

Zodiac would be thrust into the public eye on August 1, 1969, when the Vallejo Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and San Francisco Examiner received letters from someone claiming to have committed the prior attacks on Mageau and Ferrin, as well as Jensen and Faraday.

Accompanying each letter was a cryptogram which combined into a 408-symbol cypher. The writer claimed that the cipher would reveal their identity and demanded that the cipher codes be printed on the front page of each of the newspapers.

A reply letter was then published by the Vallejo Police Chief, who claimed that they weren’t confident that the letter was sent by the killer, and that he should send more facts to prove that he did, in fact, commit the crimes.

A few days after being published, the Examiner received another letter identifying himself as ‘Zodiac.’ In this letter, he also wrote a much longer piece, giving more details about the killings, while simultaneously referring detectives back to the letter.

Despite the Zodiac’s claims, the message didn’t reveal his identity, but instead explained the Zodiac’s worldview.

In this letter, he claims that killing people is “so much fun,” was a “thrilling experience,” and that he will be “reborn in paradise,” and that all the people he killed would become his slaves in the afterlife.

The Zodiac’s next confirmed murder would take place in September of 1969, when two college students, Bryan Harnell and Cecelia Shepard, were attacked while having a picnic at Lake Berryessa.

While eating, the two of them noticed a man watching them from behind a nearby tree. He soon approached them, wearing clip-on sunglasses, a black executioner’s hood, and a bib with the white zodiac symbol on it.

The man approached the two of them with a gun and claimed that he needed a car as he had killed a guard and needed money to travel out of the country.

The Zodiac then had Shepard bind Hartnell before stabbing them, with Hartnell being stabbed six times and Shepard 10.

After stabbing the duo, the Zodiac would hike up the road, leaving footprints behind for investigators. The trail led to Hartnell’s car, where he wrote his symbol and a message on the door.

Meanwhile, the two victims’ screams were heard by a fisherman and his son, who quickly went to get help. They were tended to by the park rangers until the police and ambulance arrived.

Shepard was still awake by the time officers had arrived and managed to give a detailed description of the attacker. She would later die from the wounds she suffered, but Hartnell survived.

While investigating the scene, people reported seeing a suspicious man in the area who was described as heavy-set and roughly six feet tall. The description and witness sketch matched Shepard and Hartnell’s reported accounts.

The Zodiac left the area and drove twenty-seven miles away from the crime scene. He then used a payphone to call the police about the murder. Zodiac had left the phone on when leaving the scene, so investigators were able to track the phone and lift a palm print from it.

The final confirmed Zodiac murder took place just two weeks after the Lake Berryessa attack.

On October 11, 1969, at roughly 9:40 pm, the Zodiac killer hailed a cab driven by Paul Stine in downtown San Francisco. The Zodiac rode in the cab to Presidio Heights, where he shot Stine in the head before taking his keys and wallet.

This crime was witnessed by three teenagers who quickly called the police department. As they called, the Zodiac was still in the cab, wiping down the vehicle. As the kids had a good look at the Zodiac, they described to the police that the murderer was a “husky” white man wearing a “dark or black” jacket.

The police responded quickly to the call, but the dispatcher mistakenly reported that the shooter was black. While on the way to the crime scene, they would encounter a man who looked similar to the teenager’s description. They pulled the man to the side and asked if he had seen anyone looking suspicious. The man said he did and pointed them east.

These five murders make up the official list of Zodiac victims.

There are numerous other murders that are possibly connected to the Zodiac Killer. The murderer himself claimed to have killed 37 people. It is difficult for authorities to connect any more cases to the Zodiac murders because of the various methods of murder and differing locations.

One of the most notable aspects of the Zodiac Killer case was the multiple instances of the murderer corresponding with and taunting law enforcement.

From 1969 to 1974, the Zodiac sent multiple letters and cryptograms to both law enforcement and media outlets. These letters were plagued by poor spelling and were signed with his symbol.

His first letters were the previously mentioned ones sent in August of 1969. He would continue corresponding with the police throughout the year, sending messages in both November and December.

The letter sent in November contained a 340-character cryptogram, where he essentially describes not being fearful of death because he will be in paradise sooner.

This cryptogram wasn’t solved until 2020.

His next cryptogram was sent in April 1970. This letter essentially said “My name is…” with a 13-character cipher. As of recording, this cipher has not been solved.

His next cipher was sent in June 1970, where Zodiac sent a letter complaining that no one was wearing Zodiac buttons, something that was requested in a separate, non-cryptogram letter.

As punishment, the Zodiac claimed to have shot a man and buried a bomb. To find the bomb, detectives would need to decrypt his 32-character cipher. The cipher has never been decoded, nor has a bomb ever been found.

Another notorious letter was sent in the months after the murder of Paul Stine. This letter was not a cryptogram, but was sent to confirm that he was the murderer and that he had watched the San Francisco Police Department search for him.

A later letter also referencing Paul Stine stated that he was questioned by police just minutes after he had murdered Stine. This was also sent with a piece of the shirt. This letter was also famous for its threat to shoot the tires of a school bus and murder the children as they left the vehicle.

Correspondence between Zodiac and the media and police would continue until 1974, though there was a three-year break after 1971. Reasons as to why the correspondence was paused are theorized to this day.

Despite years of taunting law enforcement and the media, the Zodiac Killer has never been caught. Thousands of people have have been suspected of being the killer over the years.

Obviously, I cannot go over every suspect in this episode, but I am going to name a few and go through some of the compelling evidence that may point to them being the murderer.

The first suspect, and arguably the most notable, was the only Zodiac suspect to be publicly identified and given search warrants by the police, Arthur Leigh Allen.

Allen was in the Navy until 1959 before becoming an elementary school teacher. Allen was suspected of being the Zodiac Killer after the death of Cheri Jo Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman.

Bates was stabbed to death in 1966, and there were suspicions that the case may have been done by the Zodiac Killer. After Bates died, two letters were sent to the police. These letters were said to have been written on a Royal typewriter, the exact type of typewriter Allen had in his home.

Additionally, Allen was identified by Zodiac victim, Michael Mageau, as the man who had shot him and Darlene Ferrin. He was also seen by police wearing a Zodiac symbol on his watch, and when he was interviewed after the Lake Berryessa Attack on Bryan Harnell and Cecelia Shepard, he had bloody knives in his possession.

For many, another damning piece of evidence against Allen was that he was arrested in 1974 for child molestation, the same time the Zodiac letters to the press ended.

Despite circumstantial evidence, Allen had never been confirmed to be the Zodiac Killer.

The reason is that there is plenty of evidence that points to someone else.

At the crime scenes and on the Zodiac letters, fingerprint and DNA evidence were found. Allen’s DNA and fingerprints didn’t match. The composite sketch of the Zodiac Killer also did not match.

Additionally, when handwriting analysis was completed against Allen and the Zodiac, Allen was ruled out as a suspect. Finally, when a bloody handprint was taken from the scene of the murder of Paul Stine, it was found that Allen’s did not match.

Another major suspect in the Zodiac murders was identified in Gary L. Stewart’s novel The Most Dangerous Animal. In this book, Steward claims that his father, Earl Van Best, was the Zodiac Killer.

Much of Stewart’s claims deal with circumstantial evidence. He claimed that his father had an uncanny resemblance to the police sketch, and pointed to handwriting matches, partial fingerprint matches, messages within the Zodiac letters, and partial DNA matches that proved that his father was the Zodiac.

However, many of Stewart’s claims were disproven during a FX Network documentary series. During this series, producers hired a private investigator, who found that Stewart had manipulated police reports and found that Van Best was in Europe when the Zodiac was active.

Additionally, the DNA, fingerprint, and handwriting evidence were also discredited. This made Stewart’s claims and the idea that Van Best was the Zodiac Killer highly unlikely.

The final major suspect is Gary Francis Poste. Poste was presented as a suspect in 2021 by a group called the Case-Breakers. This group was made up of roughly 40 people who were former law enforcement and military intelligence workers, journalists, and academics.

Once again, the case for Poste being the Zodiac is mostly circumstantial, and the FBI and local law enforcement are skeptical of whether the findings were correct.

Poste had a long history of violence. He had broken his wife’s pelvis after pushing her into a wall and allegedly attempted to attack a male relative with a hammer.

Additionally, Poste allegedly had a cult-like following of men whom he trained to be “killing machines.”

One of the main pieces of evidence the Case-Breakers claimed pointed to Poste being the Zodiac was his forehead scars, but it should be noted that no witnesses ever described the Zodiac as having these scars.

The Case-Breakers had other claims which pointed to Poste being the Zodiac. This includes the two having the same shoe size, and that if they were to retest DNA evidence found at the Bates murder, which was never confirmed to be from the Zodiac Killer, it would match Poste.

Poste has been a public figure in the Zodiac Killer case prior to the Case-Breakers as well. News anchor Dale Julin, has been claiming Poste was the Zodiac since 2014.

Julin claimed to have interviewed Poste in 2017, where Poste allegedly admitted to being the Zodiac. Julin also claimed that he used the anagrams from the Zodiac’s newspapers to find a tree where Poste allegedly murdered another victim, Donna Lass.

Although the Zodiac killer hasn’t been caught, that does not mean it will never happen. Modern developments in the field of forensics have renewed hope for investigators that they will finally be able to unmask the killer. Specifically, DNA matching through genealogy is a tool investigators are hopeful will help solve the murders.

Regardless, the Zodiac Killer remains one of the most notorious cases in American history due, not just to the murders, but to the public spectacle surrounding it.