The Zodiac Killer

In the late 60s and early 70s, an unknown attacker, called “Zodiac,” terrorized the San Francisco area, by attacking couples in specific areas. The Zodiac Killer is believed to be responsible for at least five killings between 1968 and 1969.  Following his attacks, he would send letters with details about his killings to the local newspaper to be published.  

The first victim is believed to be a college student in Riverside, California, Cheri Jo Bates, who was murdered on October 30, 1996 outside her school’s library.  Police recovered a male watch at the crime scene and reports of a white male driving an old car was seen in the area.  Months later, letters were sent to the newspaper, police and the victim’s father with the message “Bates had to die there will be more.”

Similar attacks on young couples in Valejo on July 4^th 1969 and December 20, 1968 were assumed to be that of the Zodiac Killer.  On December 20, he shot a couple on a date while they were parked at a lover’s lane killing both of them.  On July 4^th, another couple was attacked but only one survived, Mike Mageau.  After each killing, the killer wrote letters with part of a coded message to three different newspapers demanding that they print the codes otherwise he will kill again.  However, this time his coded messages included a symbol—a circle with two intersecting lines running through it.

His coded message was later decipher by a high school teacher from Salina.  Using codes, the killer revealed that he like killing people because it is so much fun and that “all the people he killed would be his slaves in the afterlife.”    By August, the killer began to call himself "Zodiac" in a letter to San Francisco Examiner. On September 27, 1969, the killer struck again, choosing another young couple in a remote area.   This time the killer did not shoot his victims; he repeatedly stabbed them.  Bryan Hartnell survived the attack, but his girlfriend Cecelia Shepard died two days later. A message was left on Hartnell's car door, which included the dates of the two earlier murders.

The survivors was able to provide the police with enough information to construct a sketch of the killer as a heavyset, white male in his late twenties or thirties with short brown hair and thick-rimmed glasses. During the attacks, he wore a large hood, like those worn by executioners.  His next attack deviated from his pattern.  On October 11^th, 1969, he shot a taxi driver and about two days later he wrote a letter taking credit for the murder while threatening to attack a school bus and killing schoolchildren.

To this date, the Zodiac killer has not been found.  While there are speculations about who the Zodiac Killer might be, DNA testing has failed to link any suspects to the killings. In 2007, producers working on a movie about the Zodiac Killer found letters in police custody that has not been tested for DNA. Police hopes that these letters will shed some new leads and information about the identity of the Zodiac Killer.