"Zodiac" is an astrological term. The ancient Babylonians divided the ecliptic (the earth's orbit around the sun) into 12 equal parts, or zodiac, each house corresponding to a constellation, thus developing an astrological system.
Between 1968 and 1974, a serial killer committed multiple homicides in the San Francisco area of California (hereinafter referred to as California). Rendezvous couples, taxi drivers on the night shift, etc., have become his targets. The killer, who called himself the "Zodiac", killed at least 37 people (the police identified 7 victims), and sent at least 18 letters after committing the crime to satirize the incompetence of the police, including 4 coded letters mixed with multiple symbols.
More than half a century later, who the zodiac killer is is still a mystery to be solved. In October, a team of more than 40 former law enforcement investigators, intelligence officers and other experts, "Case Solvers," announced that they had found their true identity — a veteran named Gary Francis Post, who had died in 2018. Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, was busy tweeting thanking the "crackers" for clearing himself of his grievances, as someone online had said Cruz "resembles this serial killer." This is certainly not possible. Cruz was born in 1970, and the Zodiac Killer was not yet born when he first committed his crime in 1968.
Post was considered a zodiac killer by the "solver" for the following reasons: First, he and the sketch of the murderer drawn based on the testimony of the victim who had escaped by chance had similar "forehead scars". Second, the "solver" claimed to have deciphered an anagram letter from the murderer, revealing that Post was the murderer. A former U.S. military agent said: "You must know Post's full name to decipher these anagrams." Third, the "solver" believes that the forensic evidence at the scene of the murder of Shelly Bates pointed to Post, which included a watch with paint splashed, the brown hair that Bates was clutching in his fist (the same color as Post's hair), and the heel mark of the military boot left at the scene (according to which the style and size of the shoe were the same as the shoes that Post was wearing).
Police wanted warrants for the Zodiac killer.
But bates, 18, died two years before the first homicide in the Zodiac, when his body was found in an alley in Riverside, California. Local police believe Bates' death had nothing to do with the Zodiac killer. The "crackers" said they had received a 1975 FBI memorandum to Riverside police saying Bates was also a victim of the Zodiac killer. However, the FBI San Francisco bureau quickly told the media that the identity of the zodiac killer could not be determined, and the case was still unsolved.
In police records, the first murder committed by the Zodiac killers occurred on December 20, 1968. It was Friday, and Betty Jensen, a 16-year-old girl in Vallejo on the outskirts of San Francisco, was waiting in front of her home for her boyfriend, David Faraday, a classmate at Vallejo Middle School. At 10:15 p.m., Farardi drove his girlfriend to Lover's Lane on Lake Herman Road. The little couple was completely unaware that a car was creeping up on them. A man got out of the car and went straight to their car and shot Faradi in the head. Jansson was frightened, opened the car door and ran, and was shot 5 times in the upper right corner of his back without running a few steps.
The killer quickly fled by car. A few minutes later, a pedestrian found two people in a pool of blood and immediately called the police. Jenson was dead when police arrived, and Faradi died on his way to the hospital. The police found only 9 empty shell casings at the scene and found nothing else.
Above: Betty Jensen and David Faraday. Below: The scene of the crime of the zodiac killer's first murder.
This is just the beginning of a series of nightmares. In the middle of the night on 5 July 1969, the Vallejo Police Department received another report. The victims this time were a young couple, Darlene Feilin and Michael Magel, who were committed near Blue Rock Springs Park, just 6 kilometers from Lover's Lane. The killer fired several shots at the two men and then returned to his car, and the badly injured Magel groaned several times in severe pain from the wound, which was overheard by the killer. The killers came over again, fired several re-shots at their car, and left. Luckily, Magel survived after being shot. He told the police who rushed to the scene: "A white man drove after us, he got out of the car, didn't speak, kept shooting. According to its description, the police drew a sketch of the killer.
The police determined that the two cases were related and did not rule out that the same person committed the crime. At 00:38 that day, Film died. Two minutes later, police received a call from a man: "I want to report a double-body murder." There was a brown car in the Blue Rock Springs Park parking lot with two young men who were shot dead by a 9 mm Rugel pistol. I also killed a few young people last year. "The location of the crime, the tools, the circumstances of the victims, these details, in addition to the police on duty, only the real murderer knows." Seven minutes later, the police tracked down the location of the police telephone, which was in front of the Vallejo Security Office Building. By the time the police arrived, the killer was long gone.
The murderer was so arrogant that the policeman was angry. However, in that era, there was neither surveillance nor witnesses at the crime scene, coupled with the fact that the police handling the case accidentally destroyed some on-site evidence, and the investigation work stagnated.
On July 31, three weeks after the Blue Rock Springs murders, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Observer, and the Vallejo Times Herald simultaneously received letters claiming to be the killers.
The letter begins with the words, "I am the murderer of two murders." Subsequently, the letter writer listed some details of the crime that were only known within the police to prove that what he said was true. The second page of the letter is a cipher letter composed of Greek letters, Morse codes, weather forecast symbols, and other symbols. The killer said that his information was hidden in the password letter. He also demanded that the newspapers publish all the letters in the headlines, or else they would continue to kill on weekend nights until enough 12 people were killed. At the letter signature, the murderer drew a strange symbol, made of a combination of a circle and a cross, a bit like a shooting bullseye. He never explained the meaning of the symbol.
Upon learning of this, vallejo police station asked 3 newspapers to publish the letter and asked the letter writer to provide more details of the crime in order to "prove that he was the murderer". At the same time, the police sent the password letter to the US Naval Intelligence Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and other agencies for help. The day after the password letter was published, an old couple who were keen on cryptography research unlocked the code. The letter read: "I like to kill people. Killing people gives me a thrilling feeling, more enjoyable than being with a woman. What makes me happiest is that when I die I will ascend to heaven and be reborn, and those I kill will become my slaves. "A short paragraph of text makes people shudder.
Left: Letters sent by the Zodiac Killer to the newspaper. Right: The Zodiac Killer mixes multiple symbols in the anagram letter.
On August 7 of that year, the killer sent another letter as requested by the newspaper. He called himself the "Zodiac Killer" and described the two murders in more detail in a flaunting tone. Since then, the killer has repeatedly sent letters mocking the incompetence of the police. At the same time, he could not resist the killing heart and was eager to move.
At 4 p.m. on September 27 of that year, a young couple was having a picnic by Lake Burjeza when they were suddenly attacked by a man wearing a black hood and black suspender pants. The man hung a pendant on his chest, and the pattern was exactly the symbol used by the zodiac killer. He stabbed two people dozens of times, and the woman alone was stabbed 24 times. After the murder, the man took the initiative to call the police as usual to report the crime and reported the name of the zodiac killer. Half a month later, he disguised himself as a passenger and killed another taxi driver. The murder process was witnessed by 3 young people, and 3 people immediately called the police. Unfortunately, the operators heard the white murderer as black and let the real murderer slip away from the police. Police conducted a carpet investigation and investigated more than 2,500 people, but still found nothing.
Three days after the taxi driver was killed, the San Francisco Chronicle received a letter from the killer saying that the next target would be the school bus. When the police learned of this, they deployed a large number of police forces to protect school buses across the United States. After tossing and turning for many days, the Zodiac Killer did not move. The police determined that the killer was playing tricks on themselves and demanded that the media no longer publish letters from the zodiac killer. This apparently angered the murderer. He shot a traffic cop and sent a score to the San Francisco Chronicle: "San Francisco police vs. Zodiac: zero to thirteen." ”
The serial killer of the Zodiac has caused panic in the United States, and people are afraid to become his next target. However, from 1971 to 1974, he suddenly disappeared, no longer wrote letters to newspapers, and there were no similar cases in society. In July 1974, he sent a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle about the aftermath of the movie The Exorcist, claiming that he had killed 37 people. This was the last letter from the Zodiac Killer. Although letters were received in 1978 and 1990 claiming to be the killers of the Zodiac, none of them could be confirmed to have been sent by the killers. The Zodiac Killer disappeared completely. In 2004, the serial murder was classified as a cold case by the police.
Although the Zodiac Killer no longer appears, his confusing identity and the code letter in the clouds have become the hot theme of American mass culture. In 2007, Hollywood director David Finch made the Zodiac movie, known as a thriller genre classic.
The zodiac killer is so "famous" that it has something to do with the social background of the United States. He committed his crimes at the end of the Vietnam War, which caused tensions in American society to intensify and conflicts between hippies and conservatives to escalate. Many incomprehensible Slayers appeared in that era and had a large number of "fans". For example, charles Manson, a famous cult leader and serial killer, is a demon star. The Zodiac Killer has also gradually become an "idol" for some Americans, and his usual mysterious symbols have even become so-called "pop culture phenomena".
In September 2008, nearly 40 years after the dormancy, a man named Kaufman told the FBI that his late stepfather was a zodiac killer. While sorting through his stepfather's belongings, he found a black turban with symbols similar to those described in the letters of the killers published by the police that year, a knife with blood stains, and photographs of some of the victims. Kaufman also found a letter in which his stepfather confessed that he was the Killer of the Zodiac. Kaufman compares his stepfather's body shape, appearance, and handwriting at different times to prove that his stepfather is the killer of the zodiac. However, the FBI concluded after its investigation that Kaufman's stepfather was not a zodiac killer. There are many similar situations, some people voluntarily admit to being murderers, and some people identify others as murderers, but the conclusions are "inconclusive".
Poster of the movie "The Zodiac".
To this day, the Zodiac Killer case is still hot. The San Francisco Chronicle still receives letters related to the case, and the newspaper's editorial board has made room for thousands of letters and related items related to the case. Perhaps one day, these objects will become evidence of the identity of the real murderer.