The Zodiac Killer in popular culture

The crosshair-like symbol used by the Zodiac Killer in signing his correspondence

The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer who operated in Northern California in the 1960s and 1970s. His identity remains unknown. His crimes, letters and cryptograms to police and newspapers inspired many movies, novels, television and more.

Movies

• Dirty Harry directed by Don Siegel, starring Clint Eastwood, was filmed in San Francisco and released on December 23, 1971. In the movie, which is very loosely based on the Zodiac case, the killer (played by Andrew Robinson), who calls himself "Scorpio", at certain points sends intimidating letters, with the handwriting based on the real life killer's and kidnaps a school bus full of children and threatens to kill them all.
• The Zodiac Killer, directed by Tom Hanson and starring Hal Reed and Bob Jones, was released on April 6, 1972.
• The "Gemini Killer" in the movie The Exorcist III, released on August 17, 1990, was also loosely based on the Zodiac Killer.
• In 2000, a short film entitled Disguised Killer was produced in Vallejo; set in the present, it is based on the Lake Herman Road murders and has a Filipino cast.
• "Hunting The Zodiac," a documentary by John Mikulenka, was first screened for the public in San Francisco on March 3, 2007 at the 4Star Theater.
• In 2005, Lions Gate Entertainment released Zodiac Killer. Set in the modern day, the films features a nursing home employee who begins copycatting the Zodiac, angering the original killer, who is revealed to be a member of a moralistic secret society, and who has been living under the guise of Zodiac-expert Simon Vale (portrayed by writer and director Ulli Lommel). Two years later, the company released Curse of the Zodiac, a loose retelling of the original murders, also written and directed by Lommel.
• In 2006, THINKFilm released The Zodiac.
• Zodiac, directed by David Fincher, is based on the two non-fiction books by Robert Graysmith: Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked: The Identity of America's Most Elusive Serial Killer. Filming locations included San Francisco and Los Angeles, and it opened in theaters nationwide on March 2, 2007. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Graysmith, Robert Downey Jr. as Avery, Mark Ruffalo as Toschi, Brian Cox as Belli, and John Carroll Lynch as Allen.

Television

• The Zodiac case forms the basis for "The Mikado," a second season installment of the television series Millennium. The episode, featuring a fictionalized version of the Zodiac Killer known as Avatar, was written by Michael R. Perry and first aired on February 6, 1998.

• The Zodiac killer is mentioned numerous times in "Criminal Minds" - a television program which follows a team of profilers at the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. On January 18, 2012, an episode set in the Bay Area with a Zodiac Killer copycat aired.

Music

• Kamelot's album Poetry for the Poisoned features two songs, "Dear Editor" and "The Zodiac", about the Zodiac Killer.

• The heavy metal band Macabre's album "Sinister Slaughter" features a song entitled "Zodiac", about the killer.

• The 1998 demo Poverty Sucks by San Francisco Bay Area's Poverty included the song "Insane Instinct," the lyrics of which were drawn directly from a Zodiac Killer letter. The late Buddy Mills (Insanity) played drums on the recording. The session vocalist, Rob Huffman, is author of the short story "Campin' With The Zodiac." A rough edit of the story was quoted heavily in Robert Graysmith's Zodiac Unmasked, the sequel to Zodiac. Huffman's family had ties with prime Zodiac suspect Arthur Leigh Allen.