Search results
The Zodiac Killer [n 2] is the pseudonym of an unidentified serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s. [n 1] The Zodiac murdered five known victims in the San Francisco Bay Area between December 1968 and October 1969, operating in rural, urban and suburban settings.
- Unidentified
- 5 confirmed dead, 2 injured, possibly 20–28 total dead (claimed to have killed 37)
- Uncertain
- 1968
- Arthur Leigh Allen
- Earl Van Best Jr.
- Louie Myers
- Multiple Killers
True-crime author and former San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith wrote two separate works on the killer (1986’s Zodiac and 2002’sZodiac Unmasked), ultimately identifying a man named Arthur Leigh Allen as the most likely suspect. Allen died in 1992, however, and was never conclusively connected to any of the murders.
In 2014, HarperCollins published The Most Dangerous Animal of Allby Gary L. Stewart, in which he claims that his father, Earl Van Best Jr.—who bears a strong resemblance to the man in the police sketch—was the Zodiac Killer.
Another man came forward in 2014 to reveal that a friend named Louie Myers had confessed to being the killer before his death in 2002. Certain events in Myers’ history matched up with those connected to the Zodiac, but as with Allen and Van Best, there was no conclusive proof.
A 2023 Peacock docuseries Myth of the Zodiac Killer posits the murders were carried out by multiple people. “It’s very unusual for cold cases to have this much information. But if you read all the police files, you see that there’s very little linking these crimes together,” series director Andrew Nock told the New York Post. “Different weapons, di...
Oct 6, 2021 · CNN — Law enforcement agencies said they are still investigating the Zodiac Killer case as an independent group of cold-case investigators came forward Wednesday to claim they had solved the...
- 2 min
Oct 1, 2022 · Sat 1 Oct 2022 01.01 EDT. W hen author Jarett Kobek started researching the Zodiac killer for a book during the pandemic, he didn’t want to become just another amateur sleuth claiming to have...
- Dani Anguiano
- Michael Butterfield
- Letter to the Vallejo Times-Herald, postmarked July 31, 1969. The writer claimed responsibility for the two shootings and provided details about the victims, the weapons, the number of shots fired and the brand of ammunition.
- Letter to The San Francisco Chronicle, postmarked July 31, 1969. One of three virtually identical letters accompanied by one-third of a cipher. The writer demanded publication of the letters and ciphers by Friday, August 1st.
- Letter to The San Francisco Examiner, postmarked July 31, 1969. The writer threatened to kill again if newspapers did not publish the cipher, which included the words, “I like killing people because it’s so much fun.”
- Three-page letter received by the Examiner on August 4, 1969 Sent in response to police asking for information to prove the writer actually committed the murders, this was the first use of the name “the Zodiac.”
Mar 28, 2024 · Zodiac killer, unidentified American serial killer who is believed to have murdered at least five people in northern California between 1968 and 1969. An earlier murder, the stabbing death of an 18-year-old college student in Riverside, California in 1966, is also sometimes attributed to the Zodiac killer.
Dec 11, 2020 · Published Dec. 11, 2020 Updated June 22, 2021. It took 51 years to crack, but one of the taunting messages written in code and attributed to the Zodiac Killer has been solved, according to the...
