Zodiac (true crime book)

For other uses, see Zodiac (disambiguation).

Zodiac

Book cover
Author	Robert Graysmith
Language	English
Genre	True crime
Published	1986 (St. Martin's Press)
Publication place	United States
ISBN	0-312-89895-9
OCLC	12133242
Dewey Decimal	364.1/523/0979461 19
LC Class	HV6534.S3 G7 1986

Zodiac is a non-fiction book written by Robert Graysmith about the unsolved serial murders committed by the "Zodiac Killer" in San Francisco in the late 1960s and early '70s. Since its initial release in 1986, Zodiac has sold 4 million copies worldwide. Graysmith was a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle and later also wrote Zodiac Unmasked.

Synopsis

This book chronicles the history of the self-named "Zodiac" killer who was active in the 1960s and 70s in California from first hand details covered by Robert Graysmith's investigative efforts to unmask the "Zodiac" killer. The novel describes the investigations of the many law enforcement branches such as the LAPD, the FBI, the CIA , etc., that worked on the case and other murders that the "Zodiac" had proclaimed he committed, including the 1966 Cheri Jo Bates stabbing. Later chapters deal with Graysmith's many theories on the case, and the book eventually cites two possible suspects (who are given pseudonyms), Bob Starr and Donald Andrews, and details some of the circumstantial evidence against them. Graysmith received assistance from police departments that fell within the jurisdictions of the murders, and especially from Inspector Dave Toschi from the San Francisco Police Department, who had worked the Zodiac case.Although the case was never solved, there were instances where solid evidence was held among multiple suspects, even after the Zodiac murders had stopped.

Origin of the book

Robert Graysmith was a cartoonist working for The San Francisco Chronicle in the 1960s when the Zodiac murders started. The Zodiac sent letters to The Chronicle which he wanted published in the paper urgently. The letters included evidence that he was in fact the Zodiac; within one of his crimes, the "Zodiac" cut a piece of bloody cloth from one of his victims and attached it so several of his hand written letters to disable the thought of a fake "Zodiac: writing to the San Francisco Chronicle. Graysmith saw the letters arriving at The Chronicle and became intrigued. For years the cartoonist kept his own scrapbook of evidence, from which he independently attempted to determine the Zodiac's identity. When asked why he began working on the book, Graysmith replied, "I saw it going into obscurity. Nobody is sharing all the different jurisdictions, and all this information. What if I as a private citizen went around and got all this information?" This led to a 10-year period to collect information, and eventually the book was published in 1986 after a number of delays.

Robert Graysmith

Robert Graysmith was born September 17th, 1942. He is a true crime author and was a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle during the time of the Zodiac murders. Graysmith contributed a great amount to the cause of solving the case of the Zodiac killer by gathering information and pitching theories to the professionals on the case. Graysmith began a career in writing after the Zodiac case was closed and has published ten books up to date. Graysmith was 44 years old when he published "Zodiac".

1. David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen

David Arthur Faraday was a 17 year old scholar and varsity athlete at Vallejo High School, and Betty Lou Jensen was a pretty, dark haired 16 year old with similar characteristics as David. The two began to see each other quite often after meeting each other in 1968. The two had planned to go out to Lake Herman Road, where there was a remote lover's lane. While David and Betty Lou were together, in the remote lover's lane, a mysterious car pulled up next to where they were parked and in the car was a man described to be stocky, wearing a windbreaker and glasses. Eventually the stocky man got out of his car and asked David and Betty Lou to get out of their car; the young refused the order. The stocky man then went back to his car and came back with a gun, eventually shooting David in the upper part of his left ear, and Betty Lou 5 times in her effort to run for help. The stocky man then got into his car and drove off. As time went on, a woman named Mrs.Borges happened to pass by the dreadful scene where she then got help from officers Daniel Pitta and William T. Warner. The two were rushed to the hospital, but David was pronounced dead on arrival at 12:05 AM and soon after, Betty Lou died of her wounds.

2. Darlene Ferrin

Darlene Ferrin was a woman who similarly resembled Betty Lou Jensen; Darlene was 5'5 with light brown hair and blue eyes. Darlene was married to Dean Ferrin (her 2nd husband) and had a daughter named Dena. Darlene has a babysitter named Karen, who was 17 at the time. On February 26th, 1969, Karen had seen a man inside a white car watching the Ferrin's ground level apartment. Distressed by this, Karen went in Dena's room until Dean got home from work; however, Karen did not disclose she saw a man watching the Ferrin apartment since the white car was no longer there when Dean arrived. Karen later then informed Darlene about the strange man to which she replied "I guess he's checking up on me again. I saw him murder someone." Darlene mentioned a short common name within her explanation, but Karen did not hear it. On the 24th of May, 1969, Darlene threw a painting party to celebrate the purchase of her new house on Virginia street where many of her friends had shown up. Darlene had invited her sister as well, Linda, to come over to her new home through a phone call. While Linda was on her way, a stocky man had arrived at Darlene's house. After Linda's arrival, Darlene had prompted Linda to leave, as the stocky man was scaring her to death evidently. He wore dark-rim glasses, had curly hair, and was an older man. He was seemingly overweight and was roughly 5'8. Linda had soon left after Darlene had told her to go. Short after arrived Darlene's younger sister, Pam. Pam recognized the strange man as someone who left packages for Darlene; Pam and the man conversed every so often. Darlene instantly advised Pam to stop talking to the man at once. Pam also left the painting part soon after and some of the guests at the party had overheard the man pester Darlene over her sources of income. This man was thought to have a short and common nickname, Bob. On July 4th, 1969, Darlene had called her friend, Mike Mageau, to go and buy fireworks for the holiday. Darlene pulled into Mike's driveway, picked him up, and they were on their way; as Darlene left, she was trailed by a light colored car that was parked in the shadows. In attempt to lose the stranger following her, she began to make turn after turn at high speeds, but the stranger followed them at a high speed to not lose them. Eventually, Darlene nervously made a right into a parking lot that was in Blue Rock Springs Golf Course, where she hit a log and stalled the engine. The car who was following eventually caught up to them and turned its lights off and parked roughly 80 feet to their left. The strange car had soon left but returned 5 minutes later, where it parked in a perpendicular way to block off Darlene from leaving. The door of the strange vehicle opened and out of the car came a bright flashlight, which seemed to be indicative of police. The man with the flashlight pulled around to the passenger side and blinded Darlene and Mike with the brightness of the flashlight and shortly after shot Mike and Darlene. Darlene was hit by 9 bullets, 2 in the right arm, 2 in the left arm, and 5 to the right side of her back where her lung and left ventricle were pierced. Mike, who was still moving, tried to reach for the door handle but noticed it had been removed. The gunman had walked to his car and had been illuminated by the interior light of his car, leading to Mike being able to capture the face of his attacker. The gunman was described as "anywhere from 26-36 years old, had short, curly hair in a military style crew cut, beefy build without being blubbery fat, and about 5'8 with a slight potbelly." The gunman had then fired 2 more shots at both Darlene and Mike. Both still being alive, Mike finally opened the passenger door and toppled out of the car. Mike and Darlene were then found by three young teens and they then called the police. The two were urgently escorted to the hospital but Darlene was pronounced dead on arrival at 12:38 AM. At 12:40 AM,an anonymous call was received from a payphone to report a double murder to the Vallejo police department. In the anonymous call, details only the police and killer would know were shared such as " they were killed with a 9 mm Luger." On July 11th, 1969, an envelope with 2 Roosevelt stamps placed vertically above one another arrived to the San Francisco Chronicle. Within the letter inside the envelope came a cryptogram composed of strange symbols and a statement taking credit for the murder of Darlene, David, and Betty Lou.

3. Zodiac

Continuing with the letter that was sent to the San Francisco Chronicle, the letter stated that the writer is responsible for the murders of David, Betty Lou, and Darlene. The information provided is such that only the killer and police would know, such as ammo brand name, number of shots fired, direction of the male and female victims, the clothes they were wearing at the time of death, and where the victims were shot. In the letter, it was also stated that there were 3 parts of an encrypted cipher, where it will be pieced in 3 and sent to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Vallejo Times, and the San Francisco Examiner. The writer threatened to go on a killing rampage August 1st, 969 if the cipher was not printed on the front page of the newspaper. Several major law enforcement branches tried to solve the ciphers provided by the writer but they remained unsolvable by the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. Donald Gene Harden, a history and economics teacher took interest in breaking the cipher provided. After several tedious hours of trying to break the code, Harden's wife, Bettye June Harden, joined in. Eventually, the couple solved the cipher and phoned the San Francisco Chronicle, to which they asked Harden to mail the cracked cipher to them. The CIA, FBI, and NSA were mystified by Harden's ability to solve the cipher; Naval Intelligence double checked Harden's work and pronounced it was correct. In an attempt to gather more information on the writer, police chief Stiltz pleaded the killer to write another letter to confirm he was the killer and not a witness, and the killer did just that. On August 7th 1969, the killer wrote again. In this letter he gave more information about the killings and proclaimed himself as the "Zodiac". In the cracked cipher, there were several left over letters that were thought to be an anagram for the Zodiac's real name. The head of the American Cryptogram Association thought of the Zodiac as an amateur in secret codes. This led to the theory that the Zodiac had books on secret codes and it was thought that the books could possibly be traced back to him. Robert Graysmith then sought for basic books on secret writing, where he stumbled upon a book that had several of the symbols the Zodiac used; the discovery of this book, which was called Codes and Ciphers contained a code called the Zodiac alphabet. This finding explained the killer's odd choice of name.

4. Cecilia Ann Shepard

Cecilia had met Bryan Hartnell, who was a student at Pacific Union College in her first semester at PUC. The two were good friends and Bryan had helped Cecilia with packing her belongings, as she was moving for further studies in music. Bryan later asked Cecilia if she were doing anything in the afternoon, to which she replied why. Bryan threw the pitch of the two going to Lake Berryessa and Cecilia had agreed. Earlier in the day at Lake Berryessa, 3 women parked in a spot near an A&W. A strange car driven by a lone man had pulled up beside the 3 women and sat there with his head down as if he were reading. The driver was described as 25-35 years old, over 6 feet, around 200 pounds, and had dark, straight hair parted to the side. He was also described to be wearing a black short-sleeved sweat shirt and dark blue pants. A man of similar description was seen by a dentist and his young son, but scurried away after he saw the two notice him and that the dentist's son had a .22 rifle. It appears as if the stocky man was stalking the lone cars he saw and went to the lake to investigate occupants. Bryan and Cecilia had shown up to Lake Berryessa in Bryan's white Ghia. The stocky man left where the dentist had seen him and drove south where he saw Bryan's white Ghia and pulled in behind it. The strange man departed from his car and headed towards the lake where he saw a boy and girl lying upon a blanket. The boy and girl being Cecilia and Bryan. Cecilia could make out a man in the distance, stocky with dark brown hair, but he vanished roughly 250 yards away from Bryan and Cecilia. A few moments later, Cecilia caught a glimpse of the stocky man again and notified Bryan they had company. The stocky man was very close but Cecilia had lost sight of the man after dust blew into her eyes; Bryan remained looking at the sky on his back nonchalantly during this entirety. Moments later Bryan and Cecilia heard leaves rustling, where Cecilia saw the man about 20 feet away with a gun. The man walked towards Bryan and Cecilia in a ceremonial, midnight black hood. Through the slits the man used to see, Bryan saw dark brown hair. On the chest of the man, Bryan noticed there was a crossed circle symbol sewn on. Bryan judged this man to be between 5'10-6'2 in height and 200-250 pounds; however, Bryan was a poor judge of height since he was quite tall himself. The man asked for Bryan's money and keys to which Bryan gave the man. The man also carried a knife with him, which was described as " a blade that was 3/4 of an inch to one inch wide, 11-12 inches long, it had a hardwood handle decorated with brass rivets, white surgical cotton tape wrapped around the handle, the blade sharpened on both sides, and the whole knife fitted into a sheath of wood. In one of the letters sent by the Zodiac, he described man as The most dangerous animal of all to kill, which is a line that alludes to the film The Most Dangerous Game. Had Bryan seen the film, he would have been able to recognize that the knife the hooded man had is a copy of the knife from that film. The hooded man then ordered Cecilia to tie up Bryan, and she did so but loosely. The hooded man the tied up Cecilia as well. Shortly after, the hooded man saw loose knots on Bryan, and retied him extremely tight. After tying both Bryan and Cecilia, the hooded man stabbed both of them repeatedly; the man stabbed Cecilia much more severely than Bryan. Cecilia was stabbed in the shape of the circle symbol on the hooded man's chest according to Bryan. The two moaned in pain and eventually attracted a Chinese fisherman and his son. The fisherman and his son rushed to tell rangers of the attack. The rangers then rushed Bryan and Cecilia to the hospital. The report of a double stabbing was logged at 7:13 PM, and at 7:40 PM, the phone rang at the Napa Police Department. The man on the line stated " I would like to report a murder- no, a double murder." The caller also gave directions to where the stabbing happened, along with the statement saying "I'm the one that did it". The caller put down the phone but did not end the call. The police traced the call and found it was made from a payphone at 1231 Main Street, which was 4 1/2 blocks from the police station. Detective sergeant of Napa County Sheriff's Office, Kenneth Narlow, took charge of the investigation. Narlow went to the scene of the crime where the killer had handwritten in black felt-tip pen on Bryan's white Ghia the dates of the killings in Vallejo and Solano counties. Footprints were gathered from the crime scene; it was discovered that the killer wore size 10 1/2. It was also discovered that the boots the killer was wearing were called "Wing Walkers", government issued boots distributed to navy and air force installations on the west coast. On September 29th , 1969, Cecilia Shepard died of her wounds. The detectives on the case considered the commonalities of the Zodiac's crimes thus far: the victims were young couples, the attacks happened on the weekend, the murders were at dusk or night, there was no robbery or molestation, different weapons were used, the killer always bragged about the crimes, the Zodiac killed in remote lover's lanes, the victims were near water, and they slayings occurred near cars. It was believed that the killer disliked the woman more than the men, as the men did not die in two of the presented cases.

5. Paul Lee Stine

Paul Lee Stine just received a call for ninth avenue. Stine is a cabdriver and pulled his cab onto Powell street traffic and drove towards ninth ave. As Stine began to pass the Pinecrest Restaurant, a stocky man placed his hand on the driver's side and looked into the cab. The lights behind the man gave him a silhouette and a quick glare showed a crew cut hairstyle. The stocky man got into the backseat of Stine's cab and requested to be driven to Presidio Heights. The stocky man wished to be dropped of at "Washington and Maple". As Stine approached Washington and Maple, the stocky man saw a man walking his dog appear in the headlights of Stine's cab. The stocky man then leaned to Stine and asked him to drive another block. Stine made his way up to Washington and Cherry, directly in front of 3898 Washington. The stocky man then pressed the muzzle of his gun to Stine's cheek and shot. Paul Stine was dead on impact. The killer exited the rear door and opened the front door, where he took Stine's wallet and a piece of his shirt. Partygoers of a house nearby saw the stocky man with the cab driver's head on his lap, and what they saw was a bit of struggle from the stocky man. They then saw the man begin to wipe the down the interior of the taxi. The door handles and car mirrors were also wiped. The stocky man then closed the door and walked away. In the midst of the events, the partygoers called police communications center. The operator asked for a description of the suspect; the description was mistakenly given as a "Negro Adult Male". Police arrived to the scene 2 minutes after the report had been logged by the operator. In search of a black male, the police asked the stocky man who committed the crime if he had seen anything unusual in the last 2 minutes. The stocky man claimed he saw somebody waving a gun and running east on Washington. In this moment, the police could not see the blood stains on the stocky man's clothes since it was dark outside. Dave Toschi, a homicide detective, was then called to the scene and picked up by his partner, Bill Armstrong. The fingerprints of Stine were taken from the crime scene as a precautionary measure. The body of Stine was then taken to perform an autopsy. The wound in Stine's head was jagged and the bullet was lodged into his head. While the autopsy was being performed,the teen partygoers were asked questions to create a composite sketch of what the killer looked like. All the teens agreed that the man was stocky, about 5'8 , crew cut hair, around 25-35 years of age, and was wearing glasses at the time. The composite sketch was then created and sent to every cab company in the city of San Francisco. After the autopsy, Stine's clothes were removed and had an identification tag wire attached to each article. On October 13th 1969, Stine's fingerprint files were compared with the visible prints that were left in the cab, but the results indicated the two prints were different. In the crime lab where the prints were compared, print man Bob Dagitz identified that the other visible prints come from when the killer leaned forward to wipe the inside of the cab.

6. Zodiac

At 10:30 AM on October 14, 1969, the Zodiac had written his 5th letter. In this letter he placed a piece gray and white cloth that was splattered in blood that was neatly torn. In this letter, the Zodiac took responsibility for the murder of Paul Stine and attached a piece of his blood stained shirt. To close the letter, the Zodiac ended with a threat. The Zodiac stated that "school children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire and then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out." The letter and bloody cloth was brought to detectives Toschi and Armstrong. Toschi recognized the bloody cloth from Stine's shirt. This was later confirmed with the coroner who brought out Stine's clothing from the property clerk's office; it was the lower left portion of Stine's shirt. The school bus threat made by the Zodiac was withheld from newspapers while authorities figured the best way to handle the situation. 3 days later on the 17th of October, the Zodiac's threat was published. Instructions were given to all bus drivers on how to handle a situation of a violent attack if one were to break out. An extra man was assigned to each bus in the case a sniper attack occurred. Several police units were to accompany school buses on their routes to ensure safety of the children on the bus. Before all this occurred, the two policeman who came face to face with the killer of Paul Stine were called in to assist in the creation of a composite sketch of the killer. Their description of the man was in line with what the previous witnesses had stated with a few exceptions: the man was 35-45 years old, had a thick jaw, weighed around 200 pounds, around 5'8, had a crew cut, and wore heavy rimmed glasses.

7. Zodiac

On October 20th, 1969, a Zodiac seminar was held at the San Francisco Hall of Justice. Toschi, Armstrong, investigators from the counties of San Francisco, the FBI, Naval Intelligence, U.S Postal Inspectors, the Highway Patrol, and the State Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation were present in the seminar. At the end of the three hour session, there was no confirmation in closing in on the Zodiac killer's identity. After the seminars end, the endless questioning to gun dealers would surface, as detectives and print men were trying to match the handwriting from the Zodiac's letter to the signatures on gun registration forms. This effort would not be the most effective as many of the foreign made fire arms could be purchased through the mail from small outlets. On the 22nd of October in 1969 at 2 AM, the Oakland police department received a call stating "this is the Zodiac speaking." The caller wanted to speak with either F. Lee Bailey or Melvin Belli, under the condition that either of the previously listed two appeared on Channel Seven talk show. Both Belli and Bailey were respectable lawyers. Belli was contacted shortly after the call and agreed to appear on the talk show that very morning. The show usually began 7 Am but it began at 6:30 AM that day. The fans of the show were notified to leave the phones for this specific morning in hopes the "Zodiac" will call. At 7:10 AM, the phone rang but hung up immediately. The next call flowed in at 7:20 AM; it was the "Zodiac". Belli asked for a less ominous name to call the "Zodiac" by, to which he replied "Sam". The conversation between Sam and Belli went on for over two hours with constant interruptions such as hanging up. The conversation ended with Sam setting a point of meeting for Belli and himself: Daly city, in front of the St. Vincent DePaul Thrift Shop. The meeting was set for 10:30 AM. Belli was followed by police as he commuted to the location. Belli waited for 45 minutes, but to no avail; Sam never showed up, and Belli went home. The operator of the Oakland Police Department did not believe that Sam had the same voice as the man he initially spoke to at 2 AM. 3 of the 4 living persons who heard Zodiac's voice were brought to the building where the talk show was hosted; all of those people who were brought in agreed the voice did not match the Zodiac's. Sam was eventually found to be a mental patient at Napa State Hospital. On November 10th 1969, Toschi and Armstrong were notified two more letters from the Zodiac were received between November 8th and 9th, which enclosed a piece of Stine's shirt. In the first of the two letters, Zodiac claimed he killed two people in August, tallying his kill count to 7. In the same letter, the Zodiac attached a 340 symbol cipher. In the 2nd letter, Zodiac announced he will no longer announce his murders, instead he will make them look like accidents. Zodiac claimed there were no fingerprints left behind at the cab scene, as he wore transparent finger guards, he also said he got his guns before the Federal Gun Control Act took effect and got them through mail. The letter primarily consisted of poking fun at the police and their idiocy in the eyes of the Zodiac. On December 27th, 1969, Belli was in Germany when his house keeper sent a letter postmarked December 20th down to his office. Inside the letter was another piece of Stine's bloody shirt. The letter itself was similar to a plea for help, as the Zodiac claimed he was losing control and may take his 9th and 10th victims. Zodiac also mentions a bomb in this letter. Belli replied to Zodiac's letter saying he will do everything in his power to help him, but the Zodiac never responded to Belli's appeal.

8. Joseph DeLouise

Joseph DeLouise is a Chicago psychic, who felt he was getting "mental transmissions from Zodiac for about a month." DeLouise felt that Zodiac wanted to quit killing and turn over a new leaf. DeLouise also began seeing a picture of Zodiac's true appearance. DeLouise was a famous psychic who predicted several abnormalities, such as a bridge disaster in 1967. The Vallejo Times Herald got DeLouise to speak to them. In the conversation, DeLouise stated that he felt the Zodiac recently lived of currently lives in Berkeley. He also got the feeling that the Zodiac can be helped. He believed that Zodiac is committing these crimes because he has no guidance. DeLouise also claimed that he felt Zodiac underwent a great change in life because he was unjustly accused of something he did not commit. The recurring mental image DeLouise was getting from the Zodiac was a 5'8 man, around 135-145 pounds, 28 years of age, and dark, brown hair. The psychic came to San Francisco for 3 days in attempt to aid the law enforcement with any tips, but with the inability to touch objects, the psychic saw nothing. DeLouise pleaded for Zodiac to stop the murders but no response. After the three days DeLouise returned to Chicago.

9. Kathleen Johns

Kathleen Johns was on her way to see her sickly mother in Petaluma with her 10 month old daughter. Kathleen made her way where she took the route of a rarely used road, Highway 132. Kathleen slowed to let a car pass in front of her, but the driver began to flash the lights and honk the horn. Kathleen ignored the ruckus and continued driving. The driver who was initially honking sped up alongside Kathleen and prompted her to put her passenger side window down since her rear left wheel was wobbling. Kathleen pulled over after getting on the freeway where the man driving behind her pulled over as well. Kathleen said he was about 30 years old and neatly dressed. The man offered Kathleen a tightening of her lugs; Kathleen tried to get a visual of the problem but it was too dark to see. The man worked the lugs regardless. A bit after he got up, waved, returned to his car, and pulled onto the freeway. Kathleen did the same but her rear tire spun off entirely. She got off to see what happened and the stranger then returned and provided a lift to a service station. Kathleen got a good look at the man as he stood in her headlights for a brief moment. Kathleen accepted since she saw an ARCO service station a quarter mile away. Kathleen got into the stranger's car with her 10 month old daughter. The man began driving but not to the ARCO station. Kathleen did not become suspicious until the man missed various exits. The man soon said " you know you're going to die. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to throw the baby out. Kathleen very frightened, began to remember everything she could about the man in the slow drive. She noticed the man had Navy shoes, black, thick rimmed glasses, he was wearing a blue-black nylon windbreaker, he had a scarred chin, strong jaw, and brown hair in a crew cut. She noted that the man was not too large and looked like he weighed 166 pounds. Kathleen could no longer stand being in the car with the man, so she jumped out of the car when it stopped, scooping up her daughter. She leaped into an irrigation ditch covered by tall grass. The man got off the car and searched for Kathleen and her daughter with his flashlight. Luckily, down the road came an old semi truck, and the driver asked what was going on, which scared the man trying to kill Kathleen away. Kathleen was startled that it was another man and waited until a women came to leave with her. Eventually a woman came and Kathleen rode with her to a police station where she was dropped off. In the police station, she saw the composite sketch of the Zodiac and began yelling " That's him! That's him right there!" This murder attempt happened on a weekend, near midnight, the man had a crew cut, a monotone voice, and dressed in navy garb; Kathleen may have lived to escape from the Zodiac.

10. Zodiac

On April 19th, 1970, the Zodiac sent his 9th letter and stated he has killed 10 people up to the current letter. Also, he mentioned he had a created a bus bomb, but it had been a dud. In this letter, Zodiac mentioned he had been "swamped out by the rain." For the rest of the letter, Zodiac gave a blueprint of what his new bus killing bomb would be like and ended the letter with a score count "Zodiac-10 SFPD-0" on April 21st, 1970, the ninth Zodiac letter was received at the San Francisco Chronicle. The police took heavy interest in his statement of being swamped out. Detective Toschi and Armstrong checked for suspects who lived in recently flooded areas. On the 29th of April, 1970, the 10th Zodiac letter was received. In this letter he attached a greeting card with instructions to avoid his "blast" bomb attempt. He instructed for the newspapers to tell everyone about the bus bomb and to have the citizens wear Zodiac pins. He sealed this letter with his infamous Zodiac symbol. The press ignored this and never made buttons or reproduced the Zodiac's bomb drawing. on May 22nd, 1970, the mayor of Vallejo believed there were overlooked clues in the murder of Darlene Ferrin and thus had the case remain open in Vallejo. On June 29, 1970, Zodiac sent another letter to the San Francisco Chronicle. The letter entailed Zodiac's dissatisfaction with the people of the Bay area for their noncompliance. His plan to blow up a bus was not completed, as school was out during summertime, so he killed a man in a parked car with a .38. The Zodiac provided another scoreboard in this letter as well: "Zodiac-12 SFPD-0" Zodiac closed the letter out by stating he planted a bomb and next fall is the deadline to find it; Zodiac attached a cipher that was to be used alongside a map. July 27th, 1970, the next two Zodiac letters were received. His twelfth letter expressed dissatisfaction once again about the people not wearing Zodiac buttons. He then stressed that he was going to make a hit list of sorts, beginning with Kathleen Johns. In his 13th letter, he stated the torture he will put his slaves (those he murdered) through and enjoy every last bit of it. Zodiac provided another scoreboard in this letter: "Zodiac-13 SFPD-0". In this letter, Zodiac also provided a hint for his hidden bomb letter stating "the code concerns Radians and # inches along the radians." October 28th, 1970, Zodiacs next letter was received. This letter was different since it targeted Paul Avery personally. Avery is the San Francisco Chronicle's top investigative reporter; he wrote the majority of the Zodiac murder stories. In this letter, the Zodiac attached a Halloween greeting card with a skeleton and pumpkin. Inside the card, Zodiac pasted another skeleton along with exaggerating eyes peering out of slits. The killer signed the card with a new symbol that appeared to be crafted from meteorological symbols. In the card, he also stated "sorry no cipher". The card originally came with one peering evil eye, but Zodiac added 12 more in the car, and one on the skeleton, making 14. Zodiac closed the letter with " PEEK-A-BOO- YOU ARE DOOMED!" "4-TEEN". This letter was published by the San Francisco Chronicle the day of Halloween on the very first page of the newspaper. In response to the story about the threat on Avery's life, "an anonymous letter was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle from Southern California." The letter suggested that the Zodiac may have begun his life in Riverside, California. The anonymous source asked Avery to look into the possibility.

11. Cheri Jo Bates

A few years ago in Riverside, California, a young girl was murdered around the time of Halloween. Avery obtained information on the Riverside killing. Avery then began his commute to Riverside where he then met with sergeant detective Dave Bonine, the chief investigator that was assigned to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates. Avery went over Cheri Jo's last day alive in detail. She took a trip to Riverside Community College in her light green Volkswagen. An air force made who lived around the library reported seeing the light green Volkswagen being followed closely by another car. Avery thought that when Cheri Jo got down to go into the library, her killer had access to her car's engine where he messed with it, making it not run properly. It was thought that he also went into the library and waited for Cheri to realize her car would not run and offer her some help and a lift. The man took her to an unlit road and covered her mouth and pressed a knife on her throat. Cheri Jo fought back and screamed once she got the man's hand and knife away. A nearby neighbor reported an awful scream and a car engine starting up soon after. Cheri Jo' father, Joseph Bates, reported Cheri Jo messing at 5:43 AM on Halloween, which was the day after she went to the library. Soon after the missing person report, a grounds keeper at the library stumbled upon Cheri Jo's corpse. At the crime scene was an air force boot footprint, ranging from size 8-10. Five days after the murder, Cheri Jo was buried. The killer had written a letter restating the events that occurred leading up to Cheri Jo's killing. In the letter, the killer mentioned "the game", which is characteristic of the Zodiac. This letter contained scene specific information that only the killer would know, such as ripping out the Volkswagen's middle wire of the distributor. 6 months after Cheri Jo's death, the Riverside Press-Enterprise ran an article on her death and the very next day, the police received a new letter from the killer. The letter stated "BATES HAD TO DIE. THERE WILL BE MORE", and at the bottom of the letter was what was assumed to be the letter Z. Avery was left to go through the Bates files and he came upon two identical "Bates must die" letters. One towards Riverside Press-Enterprise and the other towards Joseph Bates. Avery convinced law enforcement to associate the Bates case with the Zodiac case. Avery mailed the evidence to Sherwood Morrill, an expert for the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. Upon further investigation, Morrill had no doubt it was the work of the Zodiac. On November 24th, 1970 Morrill received 7 handwriting samples of the man Riverside police thought was the killer of Cheri Jo, but there was no match to the Zodiac;a "state expert" confirmed that the hand printing is not the same. The Riverside killer and the Zodiac are different people.

12. Zodiac

March 15th, 1971, the 16th Zodiac letter was received. The letter focuses on taunting the police's ability to catch the killer, but he writes another scoreboard: "SFPD-0 Zodiac-17+. This indicates that the Zodiac had struck again. Near Pacific Union College (PUC), there had been an abandoned car discovered. The police and detectives had found pieces of clothing near the car. Due to environmental circumstances, it took 8 days to find the body of the victim. The body belonged to a woman. The body was badly bruised, there were signs of blunt force trauma, and it appears she had a noose violently tied around her neck. Similar to Cecilia Ann Shepard, she died in an isolated area. The murder of this woman, Lynda Kanes, was never served justice as the killer was never found nor linked to the Zodiac. On March 22, 1971, the Zodiac sent in a postcard directed to Paul Avery once again. In the postcard, Zodiac spoke about victim 12; "Zodiac mentioned peak through the pines, pass LAKE TAHOE, Sierra club", etc. The search for the body of victim 12 began, but there were no findings. On April 11th, 1971, Kathy Bilek, an 18 year old girl who had drove her car into a heavily wooded count park, was murdered via stabbing. Coincidentally, this county park is the exact area where two girls two years prior were stabbed to death as well. However, this killing was not pinned on the Zodiac, instead, the killing was pinned on Karl F. Werner. He was an 18 year old college student who had been a suspect in a knife assault on a women prior to this killing. With a search warrant, police raided his home and discovered a knife. Karl pleaded guilty to this murder along with the two that happened two years prior. Karl was sentenced to life in prison. March 22nd, 1972 marked one year since the Zodiac had written to any newspaper. Several speculated that the Zodiac may have been put in a mental institution, prison, or may have died, but Toschi believed the Zodiac was still alive. On January 30th, 1974, the Zodiac had written once again. In this letter he states he saw The Exorcist and calls it a satirical comedy. Zodiac closed the letter by demanding this letter be put in the newspaper, or he would do "something nasty". At the bottom of the letter, he placed another scoreboard: "Me-37 SFPD-0".

13. Andrew Todd Walker

Walker was a middle aged man, with thin lips, a high hairline, gray turning hair, dark rimmed glasses, a potbelly, 6'0 feet tall, and weighed over 200 pounds. The police had him as one of the suspects in the death of Darlene Ferrin. Walker seemed to be a suspicious man, as he seemed to be around cars and parking lots quite frequently, which is similar to the Zodiac's tendencies. Linda, Darlene's sister, was shown a photo of Walker, and she recalled seeing him twice before: once at the restaurant Darlene used to work at and once at Darlene's painting party. Also, it appeared that Walker's house was flooded at the time of Zodiac's letter that stated "I was swamped out by the rain we had a while back." Also, the "peek through the pines" postcard may have alluded to Walker, as he lived in a grove of pine trees in an isolated section. In an attempt to gather prints from Walker, an associate of investigators asked Walker for some assistance carrying fishbowls. Walker responded "I guess so." After Walker had touched the bowls, the associate grabbed the bowls and ran away, leaving Walker perplexed. No prints were gathered from this attempt due to water spilling. Eventually, the authorities were told to "cease their harassment of Andrew Walker" by a judge and "close the case against him." Walker was bypassed as the Zodiac since his prints did not match those at the Stine crime scene, and his handwriting did not match that of the Zodiac. Also, when Walker's picture was shown to the partygoer witnesses of the Stine murder, they believed Walker was far too old to be the killer.

14. Zodiac

As of July 24th, 1976, Dave Toschi became the only detective working on the Zodiac case, as his partner, Bill Armstrong, had quit homicide for good. On June 10th, 1977, a federal investigator interviewed Darlene Ferrin's old babysitter, Karen. The investigator proceeded to place a tape recorder on her living room table and write down every word she said as she recalled the events of February 26, 1969. Karen recalled seeing a "white American-made sedan being parked outside Darlene's house since 10:00 PM. A man had been watching the house. Karen described the man as "heavy-set with a very round face, he had very wavy dark brown hair, and was middle aged." Karen told the investigator that she mentioned the strange man to Darlene and she seemed to know him since Darlene replied "I guess he's checking up on me again. I heard he was back from out of state." Karen said to the investigator that the strange man had a short, common name, but Karen could not remember.

15. Zodiac

April 25th, 1978, a new Zodiac letter was received. The letter entailed an insult to detective Toschi, and the Zodiac claiming "I am now in control of all things." The Zodiac ended the letter with an ominous scoreboard: "Zodiac: guess SFPD-0". This was the killer's first letter since 1969. The letter was given to Toschi by deputy chief DeAmicis, where Toschi then took the letter to the head of the postal service crime lab, John Shimoda. Shimoda believed the letter was authentic and that the Zodiac was back. Toschi then informed DeAmicis of the confirmation and informed Duffy Jennings, the new reporter on the case of the Zodiac, as Paul Avery left the San Francisco Chronicle. On July 10th, 1978, Dave Toschi was transferred from homicide to pawn shop detail, and there was a press conference expressing the doubt in the newest Zodiac letter. A complaint was filed on June 6th, 1878 towards Toschi by a San Francisco Chronicle columnist and a public relations man stating they believed Toschi wrote the most recent Zodiac letter since he was receiving praise in it. Toschi admitted to writing 3 letters in 1976 to the columnist praising himself; however, he denied the accusation of faking the Zodiac letter. Several handwriting experts agreed that the newest Zodiac letter was real, not one written by Toschi. Upon further speculation on the newest Zodiac letter, several professionals thought the letter was forged. Robert Graysmith, the cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle, began to compare the writing of the newest letter to confirmed Zodiac letters. In Graysmith's research, he realized that the Zodiac wrote his letters by tracing a font of letters, changing the characters by enlarging the letter of choice or turning the paper. With the use of an overhead projector, Zodiac could produce a mixture of hand printing that was not his own, but a mixture of several. This theory was confirmed by Sherwood Morrill.

== 16. Donald Jeff Andrews An anonymous source phoned Graysmith, informing him that he knows who the Zodiac is. The suspected Zodiac as said by the anonymous source was Donald Andrews. According to the source, this was Kenneth Narlow's person of interest (Narlow of Napa police department). The man who spoke with Graysmith was Wallace Penny, a man who provided the same information to Sherwood Morrill. Penny informed Graysmith of Donald's personality: "nervous, frenetic, and temperamental and often exhibited hostility toward sex." Donald had background in code training according to Penny. Penny also stated that Donald showed him a blueprint of the Zodiac's 1969 school bus bomb from a book he owned. Penny tipped that Donald was a classic film collector, and the theory of the Zodiac symbol being inspired by a projectionist symbol on the film leader came about. Before the first hand written Zodiac letter, Donald began a friendship with a man named Marvin Bernell. The Zodiac letters were handwritten in a style quite similar to Bernell's. A friend of Penny thought that evidence of the Zodiac's murders were being held in a film canister in Bernell's possession. Penny claimed he had seen a canister that states "Do Not Open, Nitrate Film, Danger." Donald had worked in a small cinema with his friend, Mervin Bernell. Graysmith had gone down to Bernell's cinema and sparked a conversation with him. When Graysmith returned home, he had a letter in the mail from Bernell inviting him over to his home. The handwriting on the letter was strikingly similar to that of the Zodiac. Graysmith met with Bernell at his home and went into Bernell's basement after some conversation over the film The Most Dangerous Game. Graysmith's visit resulted in no new information, just assurance that Bernell had film canisters in his basement. Graysmith met with Bernell a second time and advised him that the Zodiac may have hidden evidence of his crimes in a film canister that was labeled with "Do Not Open, Nitrate Film, Danger.", and given it to a clueless friend to hold. Bernell confirmed that Donald had given him a canister similar to the description Graysmith provided. However, Donald took the canister back in 1972. Bernell had informed Graysmith that Donald left San Francisco in 1975 and returned in 1978, which may account for the delay between letters. Graysmith soon after finding out this information had learned the identities of the witnesses to the Stine murder. Graysmith then showed the witnesses photos of Donald, which they believed he was "too old and too fat." On May 3rd, 1979, nearly a year after showing the witnesses of Stine's murder a photo of Donald, Graysmith received a call from a Vallejo police officer informing him that an anonymous person has called due to fear of being murdered; the anonymous person claimed he was going to get killed because he knew his roommate was the Zodiac. The anonymous source told the Vallejo police officer his roommate had photos of all victims, he was into cryptography, and he looked like the composite sketch. On June 24th, 1979, Dave Toschi was reinstated to his position as a detective back in homicide. Graysmith took a trip to see the odd roommate who will be called "Jack". Graysmith saw Jack's appearance and compared his fingerprint to the bloody cab print from Stine's murder, both checked out, and Graysmith was convinced Jack was not the Zodiac.

17. Zodiac

On August 6th, 1979, Robert Graysmith had cracked the 340 line cipher that was sent by the Zodiac back in 1969. The cipher was not too coherent, but it confirmed that the Zodiac seemed to take drugs at the times of his killings, specifically LSD. Then the question of "why did the Zodiac kill at the times he did?" arose. It was theorized that the Zodiac killed and wrote his letters at the times of consecutive lunar phases. Upon talks with one of the nation's leading expert's in mass murder, Graysmith spoke to Dr. Donald T. Lunde who described the Zodiac as a sexual sadist. The psychological profile of a sexual sadist is typically a "male under 35, clever, stealthy, strong, and intelligent." Lunde also mentioned that a sexual sadist typically seeks revenge towards his mother, and in the case of the Zodiac, his victims serve as substitutes for his true target, the mother. A sexual sadist typically kills for sexual pleasure. Several more accurate details were addressed in the topic of a sexual sadist between Graysmith and Lunde, which all applied to the Zodiac. On march 2nd, 1980, Graysmith had a hunch that the Zodiac would write to Toschi using his real name due to such a gigantic ego. Toschi had received one letter from a Zodiac suspect, a Vallejo student named "Starr". Starr had recently gotten out of prison 6 months ago, and the letter that was received was authenticated.

18. Robert "Bob" Hall Starr

Bob Starr was a "professional student" during the time 1968-1970 where he lived with his mother in Vallejo. In 1969, Starr had looked like the composite sketch of the Zodiac and he collected rifles and hunted "game". "To his sister-in-law and brother, he spoke of 'man as true game'." Starr referred to man as the "most dangerous game". Starr's family became concerned when Starr had a bloody knife in the front seat of his car the day of the Lake Berryessa murder, but he claimed it was chicken's blood. Starr had been suspected of a terrible crime: molesting a child at a school he worked at. Starr's family began to suspect he could be the Zodiac, so they informed Toschi, and set the path to get a search warrant. After acquiring the warrant, the detectives headed for Starr's trailer. The search in Starr's trailer came up empty, but the detectives had gotten Starr's fingerprints and had him write a couple of sentences both left and right handed. According to the print expert that handled the Paul Stine murder, the fingerprints of Starr did not match in the slightest. Sherwood Morrill also confirmed that the handwriting was not a match either. At the time, nobody was aware that the Zodiac could have been using a tracing technique to write his letters. Starr posed as a very good suspect, as he studied chemistry and the Zodiac bomb was a chemical bond, his father passed a love of sailing to him and he could possibly wear sailing clothes during killings, and he owned two trailers, but the police and detectives may have searched the wrong one. Starr's timetable was interesting; his schedule fit that of the Zodiac. It was 1971 when Starr's trailer was searched, the Zodiac letters stopped for 3 years. The Zodiac letters began again in 1974. Starr was committed to an institution in 1975 and the Zodiac letters stop again. Starr is released in 1977 and writes to Toschi sorry he was not the Zodiac. A Zodiac letter is then received in 1978. In 1979, murders in Santa Rosa take place once again, as they had before back in 1975. The search of Starr's trailer could have caused a brief break period in the Zodiac writing if he were the Zodiac. Graysmith found that Starr had an enlarger, which could assist him in writing letters in different handwriting styles and fonts. A conversation was had with Starr's parole officer where the P.O stated Starr now works as a salesman at a store. Graysmith went to Starr's store to gather a closer look at the man and even try to get samples of handwriting, but Graysmith left due to fear. Graysmith's description of Starr matched with that of the Zodiac: stocky, crew cut, etc. Graysmith learned more about Starr in Vallejo on March 11th, 1980. Before any murders or letters, Starr allegedly told his two friends that he would rather "hunt people than wild game." I think of man as true game." Starr then proceeded to elaborate on how he would hunt humans and coincidentally his made up plan matched exactly with the Zodiac's killing technique for the murder of Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday. Starr also mentioned to his two friends that he would "write taunting letters to the police and papers." He also stated he would call himself the Zodiac.

19. Zodiac

On January 12th, 1981, Jack Mulanax, the policeman on the case of the Ferrin-Mageau investigation, provided Graysmith with valuable information that was not known. Mulanax had told Graysmith that Starr was a student at a college down in Riverside during the first Zodiac murder. Graysmith had informed Toschi of this information and speculation began. On January 14th, 1981, Graysmith learned that there was a recording of the Zodiac speaking to one of the operators at Vallejo police department on the night of one of the murders. Graysmith asked Toschi to verify the recording's existence. Graysmith also informed Toschi of the fact that there was a man bringing Darlene presents from Mexico and all that was known was he went by Bob. Linda, Darlene's sister, provided this information and gave a description of his appearance as well; the appearance was in line with that of Starr's. Another rarity that Starr shared with that of the Zodiac is a basement, which is not a commonality in California.

20. Zodiac

As the case died down, theories of what happened to Zodiac arose once again. Did he pass? Did he leave California? Is he in jail for a separate crime? Has he been committed to a mental institution, etc. After the years have passed, Starr remained the "favorite" for being the Zodiac and the case remained unsolved.

Arthur Leigh Allen

Allen was the prime suspect in the Zodiac killer case. Allen was born December 18th, 1933 and died August 26th, 1992. Allen died of natural causes. In comparison with Robert Graysmith's novel, Bob Starr was the name used for Arthur Leigh Allen. Allen was discharged of the Navy in 1958 and lost his job of being an elementary school teacher in 1968 for molestation allegations. In 1974, Allen was arrested on molestation charges and released from Atascadero State Hospital in 1977 where he served his sentence. Some direct evidence that Allen was the Zodiac killer comes from a surviving victim, Mike Mageau, picking Allen out from a police line up. For further reference see Arthur Leigh Allen.

Film

The film adaptation Zodiac (2007) is roughly based on Graysmith's books, Zodiac (1986) and Zodiac Unmasked (2002). The film follows the work of Graysmith as a cartoonist in 1969 aiding the authorities in figuring the identity of the infamous Zodiac killer. All the while, the film shows the occurrences of the murders in a recreated cinema format.

Cryptography adaptation

The Zodiac killer was created several ciphers that were quite difficult to crack. At the time of his letters, the utmost high authorities (FBI, CIA, NSA, etc.) could not crack the encrypted code. The Zodiac killer may have laid the groundwork for the improvement of crypt decoding. In the "Zodiac" novel, it is mentioned that there was software that could decode ciphers of a certain length and longer. Today there is decoding software that could decode just about any encrypted message. The Zodiac's clever ciphers led to further investment and time into adjusting decoding software to crack the most complicated of codes.

Crime Scene Investigation advancement

With the unsolved case of the Zodiac killer, several doors were opened to improve crime scene investigation. The technological advancements over time have assisted in crime solving. The Zodiac may have influenced the addition of cameras that overview an area, trace evidence, and forensic light sources.