The Zodiac Killer is the pseudonym of an unidentified serial killer who murdered at least five people in the San Francisco Bay Area between December 1968 and October 1969. The Zodiac attacked three couples and a cab driver in Benicia, Vallejo, unincorporated Napa County, and the city of San Francisco.
Despite several theories about the Zodiac's true identity, the only suspect police named was Arthur Leigh Allen, a former elementary school teacher and convicted sex offender who died in 1992. The Zodiac's murders, cryptograms, and letters to newspapers have made the case one of the most famous unsolved cases in American history. In 2004, the San Francisco Police Department marked the case "inactive," but subsequently re-opened the case in 2006.
The Victims
Police and investigators concur The Zodiac attacked seven people on four occasions in California.
- Betty Lou Jensen (16) and David Arthur Faraday (17): Shot on December 20, 1968, in Vallejo.
- Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin (22) and Michael Renault Mageau (19): Shot around midnight between July 4 and 5, 1969, in Vallejo.
- Bryan Calvin Hartnell (20) and Cecelia Ann Shepard (22): Stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County.
- Paul Stine: Cab driver, murdered on October 11, 1969, in San Francisco.
The Lake Berryessa Attack
On September 27, 1969, Pacific Union College students Bryan Hartnell (20) and Cecelia Shepard (22) were picnicking at Lake Berryessa on a small island connected by a sand spit to Twin Oak Ridge. Sometime later, Shepard noticed a man watching them.
When he emerged from behind a tree, he put on a black executioner's hood with clip-on sunglasses. He wore a bib with a white 3x3" symbol on it. He brandished a gun, which Hartnell believed was a .45. Before tying up Shepard, the Zodiac made Shepard bind Hartnell with precut lengths of plastic clothesline. He tightened Hartnell's bonds because Shepard's knots were too loose. Hartnell still believed they were being robbed when the Zodiac drew a knife and stabbed them.
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The Zodiac hiked 500 yards to Knoxville Road, leaving several footprints for investigators to study. After hearing the victims' screams, a fisherman and his son sought help. Hartnell untied Shepard's ropes with his teeth, and she freed him. Two park rangers arrived and tended to the stricken couple until the ambulance arrived. Napa County deputies Dave Collins and Ray Land responded to the report of the attack.
Shepard was conscious and gave a detailed description of their attacker. She and Hartnell were taken to a hospital in Napa. Shepard lapsed into a coma during transport; she never regained consciousness and died two days later.
Earlier that day, a suspicious man had been seen around Lake Berryessa by several people. A dentist and his son saw a heavyset man looking at them from a distance before he hurried off. After they had arrived to sunbathe, they noticed the man again. Since they had potentially seen the Zodiac without his hood, the women worked with Napa Valley Register photographer Robert McKenzie to create a composite sketch using an Identi-Kit facial compositing device.
The Zodiac drove 27 miles from the crime scene to a car wash in downtown Napa. He called the Napa Police Department from a payphone at the car wash. He told the dispatcher he wished to "report a murder - no, a double murder" and confessed to the crime. He did not hang up the phone. KVON radio reporter Pat Stanley found the phone off the hook a few minutes later. The payphone was located a few blocks from the sheriff's office.
Communications and Cryptograms
From 1969 to 1974, the Zodiac sent over twenty letters to newspapers, police, Chronicle writer Paul Avery, and attorney Melvin Belli. These letters often contained cryptograms.
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On August 1, 1969, the Vallejo Times, San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner all received letters written by someone taking credit for the attacks in Vallejo. Enclosed in all three letters was a different cryptogram. They combined to form a 408-symbol cipher (Z408). The writer claimed, "In this cipher is my idenity [sic]." He demanded the codes be printed on each newspaper's front page. If they were not, he threatened to "cruise around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend."
The Chronicle published its third of the cryptogram inside the August 2 edition. In the accompanying article, Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz said, "We're not satisfied that the letter was written by the murderer". In this second letter to the media, the killer wrote at much greater length. He happily obliged Chief Stiltz's request for more information about both murders. He provided minute details about how he shot Michael Mageau. Regarding the Lake Herman Road attack, he revealed that he had taped a flashlight to his gun in order to aim easily in the dark.
On August 5, the Z408 cipher was cracked by Donald and Bettye Harden, a couple in Salinas. Neither was a cryptologist. The decoded message did not reveal the Zodiac's identity. The Zodiac explained killing was a way of collecting slaves for his afterlife.
Two of the Zodiac's four cryptograms were decrypted in 1969 and 2020, and the other two remain unsolved.
List of letters sent by the Zodiac
- July 31st 1969: San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, and Vallejo Times. One-third of "Z408 cryptogram" enclosed with each letter.
- August 4th 1969: Examiner.
- October 13th 1969: Chronicle. Swatch of Paul Stine's shirt.
- November 8th 1969: Chronicle. "Z340 cryptogram." The "Dripping Pen" card.
- November 9th 1969: Chronicle. Bomb diagram.
- December 20th 1969: Melvin Belli. Swatch of Stine's shirt.
- April 20th 1970: Chronicle.
- April 28th 1970: Chronicle. Greeting card.
- June 26th 1970: Chronicle.
- July 24th 1970: Chronicle.
- July 26th 1970: Chronicle.
- October 5th 1970: Chronicle. Thirteen-hole punch card.
- October 27th 1970: Paul Avery at Chronicle. Halloween card.
- March 13th 1971: Los Angeles Times.
- January 29th 1974: Chronicle.
The Zodiac's last letter was received by the San Francisco Chronicle in 1974.
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The Investigation
SFPD detectives Bill Armstrong and Dave Toschi were assigned to the case. Toschi ended up working on the case by himself and filled eight filing cabinets with potential suspects. In 1976 he told the Associated Press that Zodiac's letters were an "ego game". He believed the killer lived in the San Francisco Bay Area.
After working on the Zodiac case for seven years, Toschi started writing anonymous letters praising his own investigative work to Chronicle columnist Armistead Maupin. Two years later in 1978, Toschi was removed from the case and demoted to pawn shop detail. He expressed regret for the hoax.
The last confirmed Zodiac murder took place two weeks after the Lake Berryessa attacks. On October 11 in downtown San Francisco, the Zodiac hailed a cab which was driven by a doctoral student named Paul Stine. The killer gave a destination in Presidio Heights.
The last confirmed Zodiac murder took place two weeks after the Lake Berryessa attacks. On October 11 in downtown San Francisco, the Zodiac hailed a cab which was driven by a doctoral student named Paul Stine. The killer gave a destination in Presidio Heights.
When the taxi arrived at Washington and Maple streets, the killer asked to be driven another block. Three teenagers witnessed the crime from a house directly across the street from Stine's cab. The Zodiac's face was clearly visible by streetlight. The teenagers watched as the Zodiac wiped down the vehicle and rifled through Stine's clothes. He left behind two partial fingerprints from his right hand.
While the Zodiac was tending to the cab, the kids called the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD). They described the criminal as a "husky" white man in a "dark or black jacket". Just two minutes after the call to SFPD, two nearby patrol officers responded to the radio dispatch. They encountered a white man in dark clothes walking north towards the Presidio army base. They pulled alongside the man and asked if he had seen anything suspicious. The man confirmed he had seen someone waving a gun and heading east. The officers hurried away. The Zodiac later claimed he was the witness that spoke to the two officers.
When police arrived at the scene, Stine was declared dead. SFPD canvassed the area, including the Presidio.
Police assumed the murder was a result of the robbery. The teenage witnesses helped a police artist make a composite sketch of the man they saw at Stine's cab. The two patrol officers who questioned the witness near the scene realized it may have been the Zodiac.
The Z340 cryptogram was deciphered by an international team of private citizens on December 5, 2020. It remained unsolved for 51 years.
The case remains one of the most baffling and infamous unsolved mysteries in American history, continuing to fascinate and intrigue investigators and the public alike.