The killer that behind clues, weird notes, and loved getting the attention from the media, yes we are talking about the Zodiac Killer. They called him the Zodiac killer because of the notes he sent. In total he sent 18 letters. The notes constitutive of weird and strange signs like a code of some sort, but they also had normal sayings. He always signed his letter with a circle and a cross of it. In one of the letters it actually said his name but it was in a weird code and nobody could crack it. He sent out his first letter on August 1, 1969, to the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, and the Vallejo Times Harold. They all contained the same hand writing and the letter also had facts to prove that the writer was in fact killer. In one of his letters he claimed he had killed 37 people but police confirmed that he only killed 5.
On December 20, 1968 the first victims of his was 17 year old David Faraday and 16 year old Betty Lou Jensen in Vallejo, CA Lake Herman RD. They were both shot and Betty was found 30 feet away from the car, dead and they found David alive but later he died on his way to the hospital in the ambulance. 7 months late he struck again on July 4, 1969 at Blue Rock Springs Park Vallejo, CA shooting 22 year old Darlene Ferrin and 19 year old Micheal Mageau. He walked away then came back to shoot them again but they where still alive when found. Sadly only Micheal survived. He described the killer as a young white man, 26-30 years old, stocky, 200 LBS or larger, about 5’8, light brown curly hair, and had a large face. An hour later the police received a phone call from the killer and after that happened that was when the first three letters were sent. They included three different codes and in the letters he demanded that the police publish the codes in newspapers or else he would kill again. The Zodiac killer said that the cracked codes would reveal his identity. The police did publish them. The next letter he sent ,which was on August 4, said in the beginning, “This is the Zodiac Killer speaking,” which made this the first time that he refers to himself as the Zodiac killer. Four days later after on August 4, 1969 a couple had cracked the code and it said this:
Later on September 27,1969 two people died at Lake Berryessa, Napa CA. 22 year old Cecelia Shepard and 20 year old Bryan Hartnell. Cecelia saw a weird man staring at her behind a tree, a few moments later a man comes and ties up Cecelia and Bryan and stabs them repeatedly. Cecelia dies in the hospital but Bryan survived. Left on the car was a note, it was a list of the people he had killed with a knife. Bryan gave a description very similar to the other one. On October 11, 1969 in San Francisco CA, at the intersection of Washington and Cherry, a taxi driver, Paul Stine, was shot by the passenger. Across the street was a teenage girl who heard the gunshot and then called the police. She described him as a white male, 25 to 30 years old, 5’8, stocky, reddish-brown crew cut, and heavy-rimmed glasses. As the police got to the scene, a police dispatcher described the man as an African american because of all the chaos. They found a man that fitted the description but didn’t arrest him because they where looking for a African american and he was not. They letter received a letter saying, “two cops pulled a goof about 3 minutes after I left the cab”. The police found a bloody fingerprint in the car, but in the letter he sent he said it was to throw off police his trail. A couple days later the San Francisco Chronicle receives another letter saying, “I am the murder of the taxi driver…”. This letter also included a piece of Stine’s bloody shirt and he talks about shooting up a school bus full of children. Also in the note was a diagram of bombs that could be used on buses. A picture was drawn of the killer from the description.
Later after this all happened a Zodiac task force was created so they could all share information about the Zodiac killer and his notes. On April 20, 1970 San Francisco Chronicle received another letter that said:
His letters continued but then stopped in 1971. His very last letter was sent in 1974 and he says he had killed 37 people. In 2002 they took the saliva on the letter to identify someone but sadly did not find a match but they where able to eliminate suspects. The true identity of the Zodiac killer was never solved.
Innocent men would try to turn them selves in but the police determined that known of them were the killer. sadly the killer was never caught. Poor Elizabeth, she old lived 22 years and never saw her death coming but none of us ever do.
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