The Zodiac Killer
Hello hello True Crime Club and welcome back to the blog. I would like to issue you a trigger warning at this time: The material we are covering is intense and is not suitable for all viewers, while the pictures are not too gory, they do depict the actual crime scene.
From 1968 to 1969, in Bay Area, California there were a total of five victims of the Zodiac Killer. These brutal murders are still known today as the number one most brutal killings in America. These murders were a string of random murders which resulted in the injury of 2 people, two confirmed deaths but 20-28 total deaths. However, he claimed responsibility for 37 total. However the only confirmation we had was a trio of taunting cryptic notes that have not yet to be deciphered. As the murders did not fall under federal jurisdiction, the FBI never officially opened an investigation on the murders. But a glance through the FBI’s public records on the case shows how local law enforcement agencies called on the FBI’s expertise in handwriting analysis, cryptanalysis, and fingerprints to help out their investigations.
However we must remember that the most important aspect to true crime are the victims. So let’s learn about the victims of the Zodiac killer.
The first victim we’re going to talk about today is David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen. David Faraday was a 17 year old man on the very first date that 16 year old Betty Lou Jensen was allowed to go on.When at approximately 11:15 PM, they suffered the fat of being shot with a .22 caliber semi automatic pistol. David was shot once, in the head and at point-blank range. Betty Lou was shot 5 times in the back although being killed instantly. within the city limits of Benicia on Lake Herman Road.
The next victims we’re going to discuss are Michael Renault Mageau who was a 19 year old man and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin who was a 22 year old married woman. At approximately 12:10 AM on July 4, 1969, they were supposedly talking in a parked vehicle when they suffered the wrath of the Zodiac Killer in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. Mageau was shot 4 times and survived the attack, however Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. The two were shot using a 9mm semi automatic pistol.
Thinking there’s no connection other than the parked car? Think again. About 45 minutes after receiving the news of this attempted murder- murder, the Vallejo Police department received a phone call of a man who was claiming responsibility for not only this attack but also claiming responsibility for the murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Johnson. And not only did this caller correctly identify the murder weapon but on July 31st he also sent letters to The Vallejo Times- Harold, The San Franscico Examiner and the San Franscisco Chronicle. These letters contained one third of a cipher that if solved would have given the identity of the Zodiac Killer and also included information that would have only been obtainable by the killer or a witness, which according to law enforcement, were none for either case.
On September 27, 1969 at approximately 6:15 PM, on the shoreline of Lake Berryessa near Napa, Bryan Calvin Hartnell who was 20 and Cecelia Ann Shepard 22 were attacked in this remote location on Lake Berryessa. The Zodiac Killer then made conversations with the couple for several minutes before he tied them with a plastic clothesline before stabbing Cecelia a total of 10 times between the front and the back of her body and stabbing Bryan 6 times in the back. Cecelia nor Bryan were killed at the scene, and although Bryan did survive his injuries, Celecelia succumbed to her injuries 2 days later.
So now we’re back to the question, how does this tie in to the other murders and injuries that have taken place. The areas aren’t the same, the victims are farther apart in age from the rest of them, the crime was not committed with even the same type of weapon. So how does this connect? The murder itself doesn’t. BUT upon further examination of the crime scene, deputies took note that the attacker had written a message on the victim’s door. Included in this message were the dates of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen and the dates of Michael Renault Mageau and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin deaths. The police also noticed tire tracks from a vehicle parked behind the couples car, they also recovered shoe prints which were later identified. Through this shoe print, they were also able to tell the size of the attacker’s shoes and they were able to estimate the attacker's weight at 210 pounds. Upon further investigation, detectives had found three women that had seen a strange man but were not able to give a description other than his clothing.
Let's dive into the next victims.
Paul Lee Stine was a 29 year old cab driver who at 9:55 PM on October 11,1969 on the northeast corner of Washington and Cherry Streets in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco faced the fate of the Zodiac killer. At the beginning, this case was not connected to the Zodiac Killings because law enforcement believed that it was a cab robbery gone wrong. Paul Stine was shot once point-blank range in the head with a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol. Upon investigation of the crime scene, Stine had been stripped of his wallet and keys and a portion of his shirt was torn off. They did find bloody fingerprints potentially on the suspects. There were also three witnesses to this murder from 60 meet away from the cab, and they watched the attacker wipe the cab down with a cloth after the murder. However when this was brought to the attention of the police department, he was described as “a white male 25 to 30 years of age, 5’8 to 5’9 with a stocky build, reddish-brown hair worn in a crew cut, heavy rimmed glasses and dark clothing. Police dispatch had described the suspect to the officers as a black male adult and so when officers saw someone who would have matched the original description, police let the man walk with no questions.
FINALLY a case that seems like it DOES connect to some of the other ones! Wrong. The 9mm gun that was used to kill Stine, was not the same gun used in the murder of Ferrin and Mageau. So how does it connect? There’s been a pattern with the zodiac killer, not the kill style, that pattern has been constant communication with the police. On October 13,1969 The San Francisco Chronicle received yet again another letter from the zodiac killer along with the portion from Stine’s shirt that had been missing in the original crime scene.
A message about the cryptic notes that have yet to be cracked:
FBI cryptanalysts, or code-breakers, were also enlisted to unravel a complex cipher that used more than 50 shapes and symbols to represent the 26 letters of the alphabet. Ultimately the code was made public and broken by two university professors.
The decoded message did indeed reveal the killer’s twisted motive, but his identity still remains a mystery. ( Experts say the code is too short to determine the cipher code and therefore cannot be cracked.)
(Note do not change the spelling errors in these as they are true to the killers own writing)
The 408 Ciphers message:
"I like killing people because it is so much fun it is more fun than killing wild game in the forrest because man is the most dangeroue anamal of all to kill something gives me the most thrilling experence it is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl the best part of it is thae when I die I will be reborn in paradice and all the I have killed will become my slaves I will not give you my name because you will try to sloi down or atop my collectiog of slaves for my afterlife ebeorietemethhpiti"
On November 8, 1969, the Zodiac mailed a card with another cryptogram consisting of 340 characters. This cipher "Z-340", remained unsolved for over 51 years. On December 5, 2020, it was deciphered by a team of private citizens, which included an American software engineer David Oranchak, an Australian mathematician Sam Blake and A Belgian programmer Jarl Van Eycke.
The Z340 cipher message:
"I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me
that wasnt me on the TV show
which brings up a point about me
I am not afraid of the gas chamber
because it will send me to paradice all the sooner
because I now have enough slaves to work for me
where everyone else has nothing when they reach paradice
so they are afraid of death
I am not afraid because I know that my new life is
life will be an easy one in paradice death"
Be on the look out for the first post of our podcast!
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