Throughout the late ’60s and early ’70s, a string of murders terrorized northern California. These were connected to a serial killer known as the Zodiac Killer, who was confirmed to have killed five people, but claimed to take the lives of thirty-seven.
Zodiac Killer first struck Dec 20, 1968 in Vallejo California
On December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road in Vallejo, California, seventeen-year-old David Faraday and sixteen-year-old Betty Lou Jensen were shot and killed while sitting in a parked car. By the time police arrived, Betty Lou was dead on the ground, thirty feet away from the car, but David was still alive, although he died on the way to the hospital.
On July 4, 1969, around midnight at Blue Rock Springs Park also in Vallejo, California, the Zodiac Killer approached a parked car with a flashlight, shooting twenty-two-year-old Darlene Ferrin and nineteen-year-old Michael Mageau. After walking away, he returned to shoot them both again. Although both were still alive when found, Michael was the only one who survived.
Michael described the attacker as a young, white male, about twenty-six to thirty years old, stocky, 200 pounds or larger, around 5′ 8″, with light brown curly hair and a large face. Within the hour, police received a phone call from someone claiming to be the shooter in both murders.
On August 1 of the same year, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, and the Vallejo Times-Herald all received letters marked to the editor from someone claiming to be the Zodiac, containing details only the murderer or police would know. The letters were all signed with the Zodiac’s symbol: a circle with a cross through it. The letters also contained “codes,” which the writer demanded be printed in the papers, or else they would kill again. The writer claimed the codes would reveal the Zodiac’s identity.
First code was eventually deciphered by a California couple
On August 8, the code was cracked by a couple in Salinas, California. The code read
“I LIKE KILLING BECAUSE IT IS SO MUCH FUN IT IS MORE FUN THAN KILLING WILD GAME IN THE FOREST BECAUSE MAN IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL OF ALL TO KILL SOMETHING GIVES ME THE MOST THRILLING EXPERIENCE IT IS EVEN BETTER THAN GETTING YOUR ROCKS OFF WITH A GIRL THE BEST PART OF IT IS THAT WHEN I DIE I WILL BE REBORN IN PARADISE AND THOSE I HAVE KILLED WILL BECOME MY SLAVES I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO SLOW DOWN OR STOP MY COLLECTING OF SLAVES FOR AFTERLIFE [sic].”
On September 27, 1969 in Napa, California by Lake Berryessa, twenty-two-year-old Cecelia Shepard and twenty-year-old Bryan Hartnell were picnicking when Cecelia spotted a man who seemed to be observing them and hiding behind a nearby tree. The man eventually came out, wearing an executioner-style hood over his face and the Zodiac symbol on his chest. The Zodiac tied up Cecelia and Bryan before stabbing them repeatedly; and although both survived the original encounter, Cecelia would die in the hospital.
Bryan described the attacker as heavyset, around 225 to 250 pounds, 5′ 8″ to 6′, and with dark brown hair seen through the eye holes of the mask. On the side of Bryan’s car, a message was found, reading the dates of the previous three killings and with the words “by knife” under the September date. It was also marked with the Zodiac’s sign.
Mysterious serial killer killed cab driver in San Francisco
October 11, 1969, in San Francisco, California, at the intersection of Washington and Cherry, Paul Stine, a cab driver, was shot in the head by his passenger. A bloody fingerprint was left in the car, later claimed by the Zodiac to throw the cops off his trail. Three witnesses in a home across the street heard the shot and were able to see the attacker, identifying him as a white male, between twenty-five to thirty years old, stocky, 5′ 8″ to 5′ 9″, and with a reddish-brown crew cut and heavy-rimmed glasses. A police dispatch, however, incorrectly identified the Zodiac as a black male, and the police were sent out in search of this description.
A police car driven by officers Donald Fouke and Eric Zelms, in this search, would come upon a white male fitting that description. However, they left the man alone. Later, the Zodiac would write a letter claiming that he had talked with police on this date, and that he had killed Paul Stine, including a piece of Stine’s bloody shirt in the envelope. On October 18, the famous police composite sketch of the Zodiac Killer would be published.
Kathleen Johns had actual facetime with the Zodiac killer and managed to escape
On March 22, 1970, on Highway 132 near Patterson, California, Kathleen Johns and her baby rode in the Zodiac’s car. After she entered the car, the Zodiac told her that he would kill her, and throw her baby out after her. As he was about to make a turn, Johns jumped out of the car with her baby, escaping into a nearby field. The encounter was unconfirmed to be the actual Zodiac Killer, but a letter from the Zodiac mentioned “[he] now [has] a little list, starting with the woeman [sic] + her baby that I gave a rather intersting [sic] ride.” Johns had extended face time with the Zodiac, and identified him out of a lineup of suspects’ photographs.
Zodiac task force was put together
A Zodiac task force was created as to easily share information about the serial killer between departments. On April 20, 1970, a letter addressed to the San Francisco Chronicle included a cipher with the sentence “My name is _.” The Zodiac would continue to send letters before stopping in 1974, where he proclaimed his thirty-seven kill count and, bizarrely, reviewed The Exorcist, calling it “the best saterical comidy [sic] that [he had] ever seen.”
In 2002, the San Francisco Police Department uncovered a partial genetic profile from saliva on a stamp, which was not enough to implicate one person, but enough to eliminate suspects. Of the most popular were Earl Van Best, Jr., Arthur Leigh Allen, and Lawrence “Kane” Kaye—Van Best for his similarity to the sketch and fulfillment of cipher characters; Allen for his violent and abusive tendencies, along with the nickname “Zodiac”; and Kaye for his interaction with Zodiac victims and matching appearance.
In August 1984, Earl Van Best, Jr. died in Mexico. In August 1992, Arthur Leigh Allen died from a suspected heart attack; and in May 2010, Lawrence Kaye died. The graves of the victims include Betty Lou Jensen in Skyview Memorial Lawn in Vallejo, California; Darlene Ferrin in Sunrise Memorial Cemetery, in Vallejo, California; Cecelia Shepard in Saint Helena Cemetery in Saint Helena, California; and Paul Stine in Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, in Colma, California. David Faraday was cremated.
Zodiac Killer Theories
Earl Van Best Was The Zodiac
Earl Van Best, Jr. was the Zodiac Killer. This theory was put forth by Gary Stewart, son of Van Best.
In Stewart’s book, The Most Dangerous Animal of All, Stewart remarked that Van Best looked similar to the composite sketch, and that the number of letters in Van Best’s full name matched up with the number of characters in the “My name is ” cipher.
Finally, the writing on Van Best’s marriage certificate was confirmed by a “virtually certain” handwriting expert to be the Zodiac’s handwriting. However, the marriage certificate was written by a priest, not Van Best. Furthermore, Van Best does not match the “heavyset” or “large face” put forth by multiple witnesses. When Stewart attempted to match his father’s DNA with the 2002 DNA, investigators did not comply, saying there was not enough evidence. Stewart claimed it was a police cover-up.
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Arthur Leigh Allen was the Zodiac Killer.
This theory was popularized by Robert Graysmith, and even featured in a 2007 film, The Zodiac. The day of the attempted murder at Lake Berryessa, Allen told his family he would be going scuba-diving there. Later that evening, he came home covered in blood, with a bloody knife in his car. In 1971, a friend of Allen, Don Cheney, admitted that Allen referred to himself as “The Zodiac” before the killer ever did, wore a Zodiac-brand watch, and told Cheney that he had been planning to hunt people with a gun and a flashlight tied to it.
Upon being interviewed by police, Allen would tell them his favorite book was “The Most Dangerous Game,” a book about a man who hunted humans, and which was referenced by the Zodiac in his letter to the press. In searching Allen’s trailer, police found small, dissected animals in a freezer, bloody knives and sexual devices. In 1974, Allen was convicted of child molestation, which he spent three years in jail for. During this time, no Zodiac letters were sent. A San Jose inmate, Ralph Spinelli, informed police in 1987 that Allen had confessed to him the murder of Paul Stine.
In 1991, Vallejo detective George Bawart interviewed Michael Mageau, who said that out of a lineup of photographs, Arthur Leigh Allen was the one who shot him. Police searched Allen’s trailer home again and found plans and construction of bombs, as well as tapes about the Zodiac Killer. Allen’s DNA did not match the DNA found on the Zodiac’s letter stamp. However, it is believed that Arthur tended to have others lick his stamps for him. Additionally, his fingerprints did not match the bloody fingerprint inside the car, his handwriting analysis did not match, and he did not look like the composite sketch drawn by police.
Lawrence Kaye Theory
Lawrence “Kane” Kaye was the Zodiac Killer. This theory was posited by Harvey Hines, retired Escalon police officer. In 1962, Kaye was involved in a car accident, retaining permanent brain damage. A psychologist claimed that as a result of the damage, Kaye was “losing the ability to control self-gratification.” The nickname “KANE” can be seen in the “My name is ” cipher; and three “8”s can be seen in it as well—8 multiplied by 3 is 24, and Kaye was born in 1924.
A sister of Darlene Ferrin, victim of the Zodiac, came forward to say that in the weeks leading up to the murder, Kaye had been stalking and harassing Darlene.
When the Zodiac was seen by police in 1969, Kaye fit the age description. Officer Fouke also agreed that of the hundreds of pictures he’d seen of Zodiac suspects, Kaye was the closest to what he remembered. Kaye also lived a six-minute walk away to where the cab driver, Paul Stine, was thought to have picked up the Zodiac. A Vallejo police report corroborated this in saying “Investigation has placed Kaye (Kane) in the locales where several of the Zodiac’s victims either lived or were killed.”
Kaye was actually identified as the Zodiac killer
In 1970, Kaye moved to South Lake Tahoe, where a suspected Zodiac victim disappeared that year. The victim also worked at the same hotel as Kaye.
Kathleen Johns had extended face time with the Zodiac. She identified Kaye as the Zodiac out of a lineup of suspects’ photographs.
However, there was no recorded instance of a DNA test against the stamp sample, nor Kaye’s fingerprints against the bloody one. Kaye’s handwriting also did not match, but was ruled inconclusive.
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