The search goes on in San Francisco
for the man known as the Zodiac Killer. The psychotic killer
has already murdered five. He claims that he has murdered
13 individuals. Of course, our records reflect five. The Zodiac killer
seems to crave publicity. He sent letters and cryptograms
to newspapers and the police. Police are now convinced that it was
the killer of a San Francisco cab driver who sent in a swatch of bloody cloth with
a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle. This guy is a pathological psycho killer. He had those headaches, Sam. Since I killed a kid! School children
make fine targets. I think I shall wipe out a school bus
some morning. Just shoot out the front tire,
and then pick off the kids as they come bouncing out. We have no known motive at this time. However,
we're not overruling any possibility. How about leads? We have several leads that we're working
on, and some of them have been expired. We have ruled him out. No, we're just about in the same position. We're still following
a tremendous amount of leads. We're
getting a tremendous amount of information every day, not only from the Bay Area
but from all over the nation. The murders terrorized
the Bay Area decades ago and the killer taunted police
by sending letters to the media. But now a team of independent investigator
says it has identified the Zodiac killer I also killed those kids last year. Good Bye can we put a documentary filmmaker
instead of the YouTuber? Unless one of you guys
can think of something more pretentious. The Zodiac case was one of the earlier
cases at a time that was rife with serial killers in the USA between the 1960s and early eighties. There was a multitude of serial killers by a killer who's become known
as the Night Stalker, a killer. The police are calling the hillside
Strangler desire or intent
to effect the death of Lisa Lehy This is where they live among the stables, barns and phony buildings
of an old rundown movie location. 20 miles from Los Angeles
has had three of its followers arrested in the investigation of the murder
of Sharon Tate and six others. Well, he said you got me. Police
say those words ended the biggest manhunt in New York City history
with a capture of Son of Sam. More bodies unearthed from the basement
crawlspace of Gacy's Norwood Park Township home today, bringing to 15
the number of found there since Friday. I'm called the banana
and I look really good. And there was obviously serial killers
outside of that time frame, but there was very much
a grouping of them around that time. And specifically in California,
it was awash with serial killers. And there was a few reasons for this,
all of which added up to the key reason, and that was the fact that it was just
easier to get away with murder. Big city police rejected evidence
from small town cops like Harvey Hinds and police rivalries hampered
the Zodiac investigation of possibly 30 murders all over the state. It wasn't handled,
as you would handle it today, because I don't think there was
the experience there to actually handle it that way. And under today's circumstances,
because of the technology we have today that we didn't have, then, they would have
worked that crime scene for 24 hours. I mean, they would
have taken Earth samples. They would have looked for fiber. You to look for folic hairs, any hair. I mean, it's been a lot more in-depth
just because they had the technology that today
that they did not have in those days. The interdepartmental politics
where police would be fighting that a case is theirs, or a case is someone else's, along with the fact that DNA evidence
just didn't exist and forensics in general was nowhere near
what it is today, just made it a lot easier for people
to get away with murder back then. And serial killers
thrived in that environment. And the Zodiac Killer
was one of the most famous. And it got more and more famous
as each year where it was unsolved went by between 1968 and 1987,
someone calling himself the Zodiac claimed responsibility
for up to 40 murders, and he left behind a trail of bodies
and taunting letters. Then suddenly the murders stopped
and he went silent with something about this case
that was different. And it became, I think, a battle,
you know, a chess game between the killer and people
like Captain Harlow of Napa, who were highly intelligent police officers
who really did their best. And if you watched the 2007 movie “Zodiac”
with Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr, Jake Gyllenhaal,
you would be forgiven for assuming that this case was solved,
but it couldn't be further from the truth. But you didn't see me all alone by myself. I'm helpless. What if a burglar broke in and, you know
they never did catch that Zodiac killer? Officially, it remains unsolved. Yes. Are people going to be dissatisfied with? I don't want to give them the full
ending of the movie away, but dissatisfied with the ending. Why has he not been caught? Extremely intelligent. This man has crafted ciphers
that have never been broken to this day. A certain amount of luck involved too. And he's highly skilled. He. He's skilled in explosives, cryptography, any type of master
criminal, a master criminal. And on court, to this day,
I still get calls almost daily from people
who believe they know who the Zodiac is. And I think part of its fame as well
was definitely helped by the fact that the lead detective on the case
was this rock star detective. For the last nine years,
the Zodiac investigation has been headed by homicide inspector David Toschi,
a San Francisco homicide detective. And the model for the Dirty Harry Movies vowed to catch the Zodiac,
but he never did. You've got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well do you punk? I have always felt a gut feeling that he was not dead
and that he was out there somewhere and that he would communicate.
Every Man and His dog
Thought their father or their dog did it. But this case remained unsolved
for a very long time. Now, though,
it seems like we are closer than ever to getting a final answer
on who the Zodiac is. But to really understand how, why and who we need to first
go back to where it all begins. I heard you paint houses. Yes. Yes, sir, I do. The first murders in this case took place in a very quiet and small town
in California called Benicia. The population was probably around 5000. It was a sleepy little community,
middle class crime rate was very, very low. The first killings and the enduring
mystery began not far from San Francisco. It is late one night. Five days
before Christmas in December of 1968, David Faraday took Betty Lou Jensen
out on their first date. The two high school students
made a fateful choice that night. They went to park in the secluded hills
around Benicia, California, when headlights appear out of
the darkness, the car stops behind them. A man emerged and began blasting a handgun into the driver's door of Faraday's car. We heard the Benicia Police Department
dispatcher put out a call of possible shooting victims on Lake Herman Road and describe the location. My partner
and I turned around at that time and responded to the call. Sergeant, could you briefly describe
what apparently happened last night? Yes, we had a double homicide
that took place out on a county road about sometime after 11:00 last night. A double homicide involving victims were a 16 year old girl and a 17 year old boy. What were the circumstances involved? Possibly they were ordered out of the car
by a responsible forcing the two kids out the passenger
side. The boy was shot
right at this side of the car and the girl apparently tried to run and she was shot and found 28
feet further on. There was one bullet hole that penetrated
one of the windows of the car. Was this a stray bullet or was this one of the bullets
that hit the victim and went on through? This could be a stray bullet or a warning bullet of some sort that we can't connect it with the bodies. But it's the same type of shell he reached his gun
through the window and shot David as he exited. And Betty Lou was running toward Benecia when he shot her some 26 feet away. Five times. He shoots David Faraday
as he tries to escape through that door. Betty Lou Jensen is hit with a light beam and the bullets as she runs toward
the road. This was a particularly brutal murder. The killer placed the gun right up against David's skull for the last shot. And then as Betty Lou started running as fast as she could away from the killer, he fired several shots into her back in a very, very close pattern. Whoever did this was clearly a marksman. They knew how to use a gun. Frightening because it's such a random act and frustrating because the hunt
for the killer turns up nothing. Obviously, given the fact that there was
no known related killings at the time. The police were a little bit dumbstruck by what the motive could be for this. Do you have any idea what the possible
motive might be for this killing? We have no motive at this time. And within a few days,
a picture started to form that this could be drugs related,
which was at first thrown out because Betty Lou and David didn't even drink. But there was then a report
that came to the attention of the police that David had threatened someone
who was pushing drugs in the local area. This execution style double
homicide took place in Vallejo, right at the peak of this wave of violent drug dealing and trafficking by biker
gangs. During that night,
we had served a search warrant at the what
we called the cottage at Lake Herman, which was owned by the city of Benicia,
a Narcotics Search Warrant, my partner and I, and we have we confiscated about a pound
and a half of marijuana, which, you know, in the 1960s,
that was a big drug bust. Today, it wouldn't
get very high on the Richter scale. David Farraday was an Eagle Scout. He received a God and Country
award from the Boy Scouts, one of the highest award
you can receive in the Boy Scouts. He was on the wrestling team. According to the police reports. Witnesses told investigators that a couple of days
before he was murdered that David got into a physical altercation,
almost a knockdown, drag out fight with this young punk from his high school
at the Pancake House on Tennessee Street. David said,
You're pushing drugs at my school and I'm going to put a stop to it. So for the first while,
after the murder, this is where the police were looking. but
that would change. I think that the FBI statistics
are still somewhere in the high eighties that most victims know their assailant. The next murders took place in Vallejo
at a place called Blue Rocks Springs, which was only about a six or seven minute
drive from Lake Herman Road
where the first murders took place. Again, another fairly quiet, fairly small and peaceful place. Never had too many murders. We solved them all well,
but there was just a few. Darlene Ferrin, a 22 year old waitress,
was the next victim. She lived nearby in Vallejo, California,
and had gone out with her friend Mike Mageu on the night of July 4th, 1969. They were cruising around Vallejo
when a car chased them out of town and cornered them. We were chased by
this guy, chased from a restaurant. He was chasing us,
and I told her to pull into the park and he chased us all night long. Restaurant, chased us to a coffee shop named Pauls, i think is what it was called. And then they chased us to the park. And we ended up in Blue Rock Springs Park
I thought he drove off, drove away, but he came back later on
and this guy pulled up beside them. Darlene and Mike looked across at them,
and apparently Darlene knew who this guy was
that was chasing them. 22 year old Darlene Ferron and 19 year old Mike Mageu believed the man approaching
their car is a policeman. And then suddenly the door flings open
and this crew cutted man with glasses, and a rather
pronounced stomach, gets out, shining a light into their eyes. They're totally blind. And Mike had reached for his wallet, almost as if
he thought it was some sort of policeman. And he fired bullets into the car
and the bullets passed through. Mike, who was very badly wounded. He had extensive surgery,
but Darlene was killed. He survived. Mike Mageu miraculously survived. Darlene was shot several times,
much more than Michael Mageu. Like this person really wanted
Darlene dead. This was a pretty brutal murder
once again. And most of the bullets were pumped into Darlene. Mike obviously took a few
pretty brutal shots, but it seemed like
the killer was very focused on Darlene. At least that was what the police and
what the reports would say at the time. And he asked Darlene,
do you know who that is? And she said something like, Never mind. And the fact is as well
that Darlene had been saying to people, including her sister, that there was someone who she was
afraid of, someone who basically she apparently had witnessed
do something before. She said that she seen them do something. She's seen them kill someone She never Mentioned a name, but something about
a Richard. Name of Richard. I hear the name Richard. So the initial thoughts were that
someone clearly knew the victim because of how brutal
it was, particularly to Darlene. For example, she was out with Michael. Her husband was apparently at home
with the kids at the time. You know, and Mike has said that he was her boyfriend at the time. She liked to go out and dance. And I work nights and it got back to me
and, she's out here whoring around. And I don't believe that. And some of her closer
friends said that wasn't true. They're just a group of girls going out. So there was a lot of intrigue
around this idea that it was someone that Darlene knew
that was chasing them. And the police officer
angle was quite interesting. This was one that was put forward very much by, I think, Graysmith
in his book at one point. And that
was an interesting one for a few reasons, not least the fact that Mike has admitted
in his testimony that they thought it was a police officer behind them,
the way the car parked behind them apparently was quite
like a police officer. And another part of that theory
that would make you think that perhaps this guy has some sort of in
with the police or is police is that according to Mike in Graysmith’s
book, the door handle
on the passenger side was removed and he couldn't actually get out of the car until the zodiac
opened the door to shoot him. But in the police reports, that door
handle was then back, which would mean someone who had access to the crime scene,
if that is to be believed. Graysmith wrote a book about the Zodiac and he mentioned
in his book that I was at her, Darlene and her husband's house on a house
painting party prior to her death. And I, I don't know anything about that. It wasn't me and the officer. I think it was Dick Hoffman. A patrol officer, got there first
and said he had a shooting. So I took that and a person of the signs
were all put into evidence. When the ambulance left, we told Hoffman to write in the ambulance
and keep trying to get a statement. Both of them were put in the ambulance
and I rode the ambulance with them. You knew her before the attack, right? I never laid eyes on her. You never laid eyes on. No. No. I had heard that she was a waitress at an all night restaurant in Vallejo. But I didn't know the girl at all. Initially, there was obviously the thought
that this was someone she knew. Some of those roads would have pointed
for obvious reasons, to her ex-husband, but there was a variety of other people
that could have been involved. Darlene definitely was afraid of someone. If it's true that Darlene is targeted
by a very personal motive, the first person who comes to mind
would be the ex-husband. And this particular ex-husband
does have a criminal record. When we first met, she was still married and having a little trouble with her husband
and wanted to get out from under him. They lived in a motel on the edge of town,
and he wouldn't let her sleep in the bed
and slapped her around a little bit. He owned a car
just like the one described by Mike. He was known to be stalking Darlene, in my opinion. Darlene Ferrin’s ex-husband
Jim is the prime suspect in her murder. He seemed very capable
of doing something like this. He was that strange. He was definitely a weirdo. All of those thoughts and ideas, though,
quickly went out the window after one terrifying phone call. Then the next call I got was about 12:40 Vallejo Police Department. I want to report a double murder. May I have your name or....,
if you go one mile east on Columbus Parkway Public Park. You’ll find kids in a brown car. They were shot with a nine millimeter Lugar. I also killed those kids last year. Goodbye.... Of course.
I immediately called for an I.D. man to go to the phone booth and preserve
whatever evidence was possible. He spent quite a few hours
there and recovered literally dozens and dozens of fingerprints that have not been identified
to this day. Some were so fresh that he had to artificially dry them
so that he could lift the print because it was too moist. Then the case’s most famous
signature, would be introduced. The killer now sent letters to two
newspapers the San Francisco Chronicle, The Examiner,
and the Vallejo Times Herald. They were the beginning
of a flood of written evidence. He would pour forth for years to come. He gave himself a name, Zodiac. Knowing such things
as describing what the woman was wearing. You know, enough details to tell the
police that he was the man. Print these pages or else. If you do not print this cipher, I will cruise around all weekend
killing lonely people in the night. And until I end up with a dozen. And what did that do to this community? It terrified everyone. Three newspapers
gave their front pages to this man. I mean, that's how terrified they were.
In this particular code. The Zodiac used what we referred to as
a common letter numeral substitution code where you might substitute the letter C or E and A for B, and etc., etc.. And coupled with that, he used some symbols that you might describe
as being something like semaphore flags, where he'd take a square and color
in half of it diagonally. Or he used some Greek symbols. The published codes
stumped hundreds of amateur cryptographers and several intelligence agencies. Police, the CIA, a variety of law enforcement
and governmental offices tried to break the cipher
that was given with these letters, but it was solved by an unlikely couple husband and wife
who were teachers in San Francisco. And finally, Donald Harden and his wife. We just simply sat down through sheer
stick-to-itiveness and worked around the clock. And they were the only ones,
the CIA, Naval intelligence. None of these people were able to crack
with three cipher codes. And this was certainly for his wife,
the very first attempt at any
sort of cryptography. For Don Harden, I think he done crossword puzzles. He had some various books on ciphers. But what they began begun to do is they looked for a combination of symbols,
the most common being a double ‘L’. And Mrs. Harden
thought that he would use the word kill. And so once they figured that were killing
or kill somewhere and those were double
L's that they were seeing throughout these ciphers, that eventually
gave them the key to to break it. I like killing people
because it is so much fun. It is more fun
than killing a wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal
of all. There's an interesting piece
in the cipher, which is about humans
being the most dangerous animal of all, which is a quote from the Dangerous game. And this definitely stood out
to police officers and got them a little bit worried
because at the end of the day, that is a movie about a man
who hunts humans basically for sport. So a little bit worrying that.
I'm going to be hunted. Oh no, no. Ms. Trowbridge.
Outdoor chess. His brain against mine. His wood craft against mine. Only after the kill, does man know the true extacy of love. Even with these letters,
the police essentially had nothing. The status of the case is just
about as it was. We're getting many, many letters
and telephone calls and everything. There's no no specific person
that we suspect this time. And it was about to get much, much worse. Hi Beav! Napas kind of a secluded community, were bordered on both sides
by major highways. Highway 80 to our east and Highway
101 to our west. And so we don't get a lot of the traffic
coming through Napa. Some of the other cities do. So we have a relatively low crime rate. We can sometimes go
several years without a homicide. Look what I got for our favorite girl. Jesus Christ. I think that particular year we had five
or six, which which was unusual. There's a lot of activity up in Berryessa
during the summer months. But after Labor Day,
when all the kids go back to school, it it kind of quiets down. And this was September 27th, probably
three and a half weeks after Labor Day. So it was a very,
very quiet Saturday evening up there. The weather was nice. September 27th, 1969,
For his new role of executioner, Zodiac chooses a peaceful setting
in the heart of California's wine country. Celia Shepherd and Brian Hartnell,
both in their early twenties, were sitting on this knoll of land
overlooking part of Lake Berryessa. They thought they were alone,
but there was a third man on this knoll, a man who wore a medieval style
executioner's hood, carried
a knife and gun and intended to use them. They were
approximately a quarter of a mile from the road down near the water front, and they were laying out
on a blanket, talking. They were schoolmates. And this subject approached them. They saw a subject come up by them. I happened to hear some rustling in behind
us, and I asked her to look as she was facing that direction. I was facing toward
the water and I asked her to note, you know, what was going on. And she said, there's a man walking
around. And she became concerned about. And I said, Well, actually,
don't worry about it. It's some there's a lot of people,
picnickers, etc.. And just, you know, if he kept coming,
let me know. And she kind of kept watching. I noticed
she wasn't following my conversation. She told me he was stepping behind a tree
and the tree was about 30 feet behind us. And when he came out,
she said, he's got a mask on. And that was my first inkling that there
was anything actually wrong going on. They didn't think too much about it. And the next thing they knew,
the subject was upon them with a gun and demanded the keys
to the car and money. And I actually laughed at the moment because I told him,
I says, I've only got $0.75 in my pocket. And I said, You're welcome to have it. I considered him a robber. I had absolutely no thought
that he was anything but that. And when we're at this robbery stage,
I didn't consider any real threat to my life
or to the girl or anything. I didn't consider this,
but I really wanted to help him. He pulled off some cuts of three foot
lengths of clothesline. It's actually plastic. It's the kind that is hollow
in the center. The young man stated that you're going to have my money. I've only got a few cents, 75 or $0.80. And with this
he says, Well, I'm going to tie you up. And he had the young lady tie her
friend up and then he tied the girl up. He said, Well, what I need right now
is to get you tied up. And so he had the girl tie me. And of course she was real nervous
and tied me rather loosely. And he came and he tightened the knot up
and then he tied her up and we continued the dialog along
most of this time The kid said the money’s in my pocket. He said, I don't want the money. I don't want to kill you. The boy asked and said,
You really mean that? And he said, Yes. I mean, he says, Well,
if you're going to kill me first because I can't stand to see the girl
be stabbed. He said, ‘well I'll do that’. So he starts stabbing the kid in the back and laid him face down. And with this, he proceeded to knife
both of them numerous times. Still on his knees. The man gave a ghastly,
frenzied sound and letting out a long, low exhalation
began stabbing the girl in the back. Ten times the knife fell. Instinctively,
Cecilia rolled over on her back and the dark hunter continued thrusting.
Once he plunged the knife full length into her chest. Sated at last, the stocky man stood up and tossed the money and keys
onto the blanket next to his victims. He walked slowly across the open peninsula and was soon lost in the empty twilight. Brian will probably be able
to leave Queen of the Valley Hospital fairly soon, but where he's going from
here is being kept secret. In the event that the man who attacked him
and killed Cecilia Shephard on Lake Berryessa a week
ago Saturday tries again. Brian made it for two reasons some people might regard as intangibles,
but reasons that for him were enough, a strong faith,
and an equally strong will to live. I got to where I able to untie one of her hands,
but she was too weak to untie me at that time. Finally, one fisherman
who's going real slow, he stopped. He shut off his motor
and we cajoled and called and we did everything
to try to get him to come. And he sat there for about 15 minutes
and he he did finally come closer,
but he wouldn't come to the shore. I guess he was afraid
that the man might still be around. He said he'd go get help. So I got, encouraged her
enough to get me untied, and I got one wrist loose
so that I could get the rest untied. How were you finally? How were you finally found? Well, she was found down on the blanket still. I made it up about 300 yards
up almost to the road. it was a slow process
because I kept blacking out. I couldn't see, you know,
I kept blacking out, my legs kept getting weak,
but I was getting progress. I think I could have made it to the road,
but a pickup truck, was coming along with these dirt roads, and apparently
this man had called for help. Such a change in crime. He was clearly evolving and getting, let's be honest, much worse. I've had 11 years patrol on this lake and I've seen a lot of people
cut up by boat accidents and this. But this is one of the worst things
I ever witnessed. So for no reason at all that a hooded man
came out with a pistol drawn on them, tied him up and told him
he had to kill him. So. So there have been this theory
that park ranger Dennis Land was somehow involved in this and his activities and his actions during
and after the crime are definitely cause for suspicion. Now, there is a person we know was present at the crime scene that day. We know he followed the victims
to where they parked their car. We know that he tampered with evidence
at the crime scene and then he happens to match the
description of the killer pretty closely. Brian Hartnell said that his first impression of this man
was that the killer had come back. That turned out to be park ranger
Dennis Land, and while waiting for detectives from the sheriff's
department to arrive, Deputy Land talked to the witnesses that were there and obtained statements from them. I began a search for evidence Dennis Lang had taken that with him
back to the park ranger station. As a professional investigator, I can't explain why any trained officer
would touch a crime scene. I interviewed the
the officers that was there. One was a park ranger
by the name of Dennis Land, and the other one was a park ranger
by the name of William White. Bill White sergeant. And at that time, Bill
White turned over to me some of the articles
that were found at the crime scene didn't really make me
too happy at the time because I couldn't actually go to the crime scene
because someone thinking they were doing the good,
the good thing and the right thing by protecting it, actually bundled up the blanket
and the clothing and stuff that was there and took it into his custody
at Berryessa Lake Park headquarters. He thought at the time
he was doing a very good thing. But at the same time, it took us away from the opportunity
to actually view the crime scene. So put in a few simple words. It wasn't really a crime scene
to view. And records of calls
between the station and Dennis Land. At 6:13 p.m.,
he radioed into the dispatcher that he was going to go ten seven. He was going to go out of radio contact and go check the marina and ten eight
would mean that he was back in radio contact, which is procedure,
but Land never radios a ten eight. So there's a missing time
gap of roughly 47 minutes until they get a report of the stabbing
at 7 p.m.. One crucial piece of evidence
that was found during this was a very unique boot
print. We discovered a footprint that led from Berryessa Knoxville Road to the victim's and back again, which was totally separate from the
the shoes that they were wearing. And it was determined to be
what was referred to as a wing walker shoe that was used primarily with the Navy
and the Air Force and maintenance due to the static free sole in the shoe
so the maintenance people could walk around the wings of aircraft
without creating static electricity. So we thought that was
a very crucial piece of evidence. Well, the pictures are in the paper. This last one that they put out, I think is probably as accurate
as any that they have put up. He was of medium to short height, kind of pouchy real casually
casual, I don't want to say sloppily, but casually, real casually dressed,
of course, a little dusty from the lake. And he had this black hood on, came clear down to here,
just little slits in the eyes. And where you know, these clip on glasses,
they were clipped into those little. One thing that's baffling
is if you're going to kill somebody then you normally don't wear a mask because you've got in your mind
you're going to kill him. So why do you have to hide your identity? So that's always been a puzzling matter
in this case. Why did the Zodiac go through
such a effort to make this mask to horrify people if he knew
he was going to kill them. But very quickly, there was some clear and evident links
that would tie this right back to the prior zodiac killings. 7:40 p.m. Officer Slaight at the Napa Police Department
received this call. Our switchboard was the old cord type you plug in
when a call comes in, the phone rang and I recall saying Officer Slaight
Napa police department. There was a male voice
on the other end of the phone and he said, I want to report a murder....
no...double murder. They are two miles north of Park headquarters, they were in a white Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. I'm the one that did it. The call to Napa Police came within an hour
after the stabbings. A young man's voice
reported the double murder. He described the couple, their car,
the scene and hung up. And then the dispatcher knew
that the phone was not hung up. It just went silent. And just minutes later,
one of the officers said that he had discovered a phone
off the hook at this car wash, which was only five or six blocks
from the local police department. My first thought was the ranger
that had found these young people had stopped someone and said,
I can't get out on my radio. Would you get to a phone and call
and let someone know that what's going on? While that call was terrifying for me,
it was do one thing, and that is assuage the idea
that this could have been Dennis Land because he was at the crime scene with
the detectives when that call was placed. And therefore,
I don't think he could have done it. You could get around that by saying
perhaps these killings are done by two people. But for me, it kind of assuaged me away. The idea that Dennis Land
had any involvement personally. I saw the white Karmann Ghia and I saw tracks leading away from it, which we felt may have been tire tracks
from the Zodiac's vehicle. The two front tires were different,
and which is unusual. Most people buy a set of tires,
or at least in pairs. But we here we had two tires that were distinctively different
on the front of this vehicle, which kind of led us to believe
it was an older model car by someone that probably couldn't afford
to keep up the maintenance on the vehicle. I look on the passenger door, the circle with the vertical and horizontal line
running through. It was displayed on the door
and there were several dates and then it ended with September 27th, 1969, 6:30 p.m. by knife, which was our crime. It was like an artist signing his work using a felt marker. He writes the dates
of all three of his attacks, the method of his latest crime
and his ominous trademark. It was essentially snubbing his nose
at law enforcement and basically telling others that, Hey,
I've been here, I can do what I want. I can do it as often as I want,
and there's nothing you can do about it. It's pretty thin point. You see a little OCD, though, with
the circles being filled in all the time. You know, if you're in a hurry,
you wouldn't do that. He was into time. You know, he's continually
telling us how far something is, what, how long it's been. Except this right here is the only thing that really nails down. With some degree of authenticity. We think the connection
between the cases. I agree with you. The killer was evolving. He was getting more brutal this time. He actually talked to the victims. He was experimenting. He was getting far more brutal. This was becoming a
big issue for the local area. There is, as far as I'm concerned, a definite pattern
between their killings and ours. And the message left
on the side of the victim's door with the dates of the Solano County murders and ours,
along with other items that are on there, have definitely indicated to us
that they're one and the same. Does it seem to you as if you're pretty much on the verge
of finding this man? Well, I wouldn't want to say that Dave, we're hoping we we've got some good things
working for us, but it takes time and to be able to reach out and pluck
this guy out of the air isn't done. In most murder cases. You'll find a motive. But of course, this guy is just a killer,
a mad killer, and you have no motive. So it makes it a little bit harder
for us to track him down. In early October, the police interviewed
a man who would go on to become
the most famous suspect in this case. And the man that I think Toschi
and Graysmith very, very quickly set their focus onto. And they still are fairly certain
that this is the guy who did it. There's a retired homicide investigator
in Vallejo, California, who thinks he knows who the killer is. His name is Jack Mullinax. 18 years ago,
when he was a homicide detective, he was assigned a case
involving the Zodiac. What was your feeling once you got once you got close to him,
did you feel strong that he was the guy? I did. I mean, I had the only of all the people
that I was involved in the investigation in Zodiac. He was the only person that really, really turned me on. Where is he now? You know, the last I heard, he was working in
a hardware store in Northern California. His name is Robert Graysmith,
and this man has spent ten years researching the Zodiac
before he wrote a book on it. He said, I'm Zodiac. And he didn't say I'm the Zodiac. He said, I'm Zodiac. I can kill these people and I can kill people
and take credit for it. A schoolteacher
named Arthur Leigh Allen. Graysmith has painstakingly compiled
a mountain of circumstantial evidence over the years, including witnesses
who place Allen at or near every Zodiac murder scene.
To know about Zodiac. Before there was a Zodiac.
to use the symbol, to wear that watch and and to be at the crime scenes
and to know the victims. He would have to be Zodiac. Now, there are a lot of strange theories
and things, but it fits one man, and it fits one man only,
he liked a children's world. He liked kids. He liked to be a part of that world. He went a little
too far with it, obviously. But he
enjoyed children and they loved him. And later he found out he was really
arrested for, he really was fired for child molestation. As far as I can tell,
Allen seems to be the best suspect they came up with.
Because there was no evidence, Robert. What do you mean, there's no evidence,
you have him seen with the ciphers. The military boot prints
the same size shoes and gloves, the most dangerous game, the Zodiac
watch, the background of schoolchildren, the misspellings of Christmas,
the bloody knives! All circumstantial! And Arthur Leigh Allen's
choice of very specific boots would also add suspicion
to his character in this case. And it was determined to be
what was referred to as a wing walk or shoe that was used primarily
with the Navy and the Air Force in maintenance
due to the static free soul and the shoe. Our suspect wears them. It's not just that
he's a size ten and a half. The shoes that were pressed into the dry
sand of Lake Berryessa were a size ten and a half. After I came in,
he showed me the watch and he was in the process of writing thank you notes and, you know,
stuffing them in envelopes and that and he had a box of stationary
items on the table that was handy. He says, Why don't you stamp
some of those envelopes for me? So I did that. ‘I can provide a service for your friends’ ‘and then take’ ‘take the heat off of you guys.’ And. And what are you talking about? ‘Well I can’ ‘You know, there's things I could do up
to and including killing someone.’ You know, there was more to Arthur Leigh Allen than met the eye. I felt at San Francisco after they served
a search warrant in Sonoma. Maybe should have looked at him
a little harder. I'm not trying to say anything
disparaging about them, but it just seemed like he was more of a viable suspect
than they looked at at that time. Personally, I don't think Arthur Lee Allen
looked like this sketches in any way. In fact, one of the sketches
definitely looks more like me. I think, than Arthur Leigh Allen but that could be explained away
very, very quickly. I look like the description passed out
only when I do my thing. The rest of the time
I look entirely different. A couple of years before the Lake Herman, Blue Rock Springs
and Lake Berryessa murders back in 1966, there was another case
that would eventually end up being very much tied to the Zodiac case,
and that was a case that took place in Riverside. Sherri Jo Bates was stabbed to death, nearly decapitated by her killer. She was an athletic girl, a strong girl
who was able to fight back. Unfortunately,
she couldn't fight off her killer, but she did manage
to knock his wristwatch off, which was found by the police,
and it was splattered with white paint, which perhaps would allude
to the job of the killer at the time. this was the only at the time, at least unsolved murder
in Riverside history. And six months later,
the police received a letter from supposedly the killer outlining what he had done
and taking credit for it. There was a few reasons why this letter
would later be tied to the Zodiac, not least because it was signed off
with the letter Z. But some instances in. At one point in the letter he said, I
then finish the job by cutting her throat. I am not sick, I am insane. But that will not stop the game. The fact that he put the game in there
obviously was later linked to the fact that he talked
about the dangerous game in later letters. But this he was obviously the big thing
that was brought up. But that connection wasn't made
until four years later by Paul Avery, six months later. There are other things that make me think that it's quite possibly him. I received a letter from an individual in Southern California
pointing out the similarities actually was an anonymous letter, and I. I felt that
there might be something to it. So I contacted the Riverside Police. They were very cooperative. Gave me information on the phone,
and then sent me some information,
Xerox copies of certain documents. And then they included
kind of, as an aside, a letter that had been received six months
after the Riverside girl had been killed. And so this might be of interest to you. And signed with a Z in 2016, according to, I believe, the FBI,
someone had called in to a police department or somewhere
and basically said that, look, that was a prank.
I wrote that letter. If that is the case,
it was in really, really poor taste. But that would essentially assuage
the idea that it was linked to the Zodiac
in any way. And there was another case
that very much lines up with similarities to the Zodiac case, and that was the 1962 killing of Ray
Davis, who was a cab driver. And letters also appeared
after that murder. But personally, I think the Ray Davis
killing was very much only linked to the Zodiac
because of what happened next in San Francisco after Lake
Berryessa. this has always been known
as a city of mystery. And it seems now to have a new
and real one on its hands. Five murders, somebody who says
he committed all and will commit yet more. The latest, a taxi driver in San Francisco came here to San Francisco
to commit a deliberate so that he might garner that attention
that had remained so elusive. And with the murder of Paul Stein, he gained that notoriety. Driver for Yellow cab
in San Francisco picked up a fair in downtown San Francisco and somewhere in route to the Sunset District. The fare asked him to stop
at a certain location. And at that time,
the Zodiac killer had shot the cab driver. For the Zodiac. This is a real departure
from his previous assaults. Before this, he ambushes
only young couples on remote lover's lanes in the suburb. This time he kills a lone cab driver
in a wealthy neighborhood in the big city, trying to prove
it seems that he can kill anyone anywhere. The description that came out over
the air was of an ‘NMA’ Negro male adult at the time. The only person they could have given
that information would have been the child
who called it in to police dispatch. What did you see
when you came down this road? My headlights went on to an individual who was walking in the shadow of the trees
at the time. The individual I saw
that night was a white male adult, approximately 35 to 45 years of age, five feet, ten inches tall. 180 to 210lbs. Fortunately, as I was told,
they were looking for a black man. They had been given
wrong information on the phone. Since we were looking for a Negro
male adult, we proceeded on Jackson Street towards Arduello,
continuing our search. We Continued. Moments
later, Fox Radio corrects the description. But by then the suspect has disappeared. As we arrived at Arduello Street. The description of the suspect
was changed to a white male adult, believing that the suspect was possibly
the one involved in the shooting. We entered the Presidio of San Francisco
and conducted a search on West Pacific Avenue
on the opposite side of the wall. The last direction that we observed the suspect going but
we did not find the suspect. Foulke was also very clear
as to what the person was wearing. Well, it just so happens that area
is extremely well-lit and I cannot imagine his not seen the shine of blood on the clothing if it had been Zodiac. I feel bad for him
if he believes that was the Zodiac. I don't think it was. He claimed later in a letter
that he had been watching the whole time, finding one psychopath in this city
could be a tall order. This latest communication from the killer
who calls himself Zodiac adds very little substantially to the case,
except that he may be a conservationist. Ed Lesly , News 13 San Francisco. It very seems like he only committed
this murder to prove a point just to get the bloody cloth
that he later sent in to the newspapers from Paul Stein's shirt. Police are now convinced that it was
the killer of a San Francisco cab driver who sent in a swatch of bloody cloth with a
letter to the San Francisco Chronicle. And two days later, the Chronicle, where I worked,
then received a letter from the Zodiac. The the envelope was opened. It was addressed to the editor,
and it was like a letter to the editor and the secretary who handled
that correspondence, opened the envelope, saw this bloodstained shirt and read the letter and rushed it in
to the executives at the paper. Over the next several weeks, Zodiac sends
two more swatches of the bloody shirt, along with letters taunting the police
for failing to catch him. And he confirms that he was spotted
that night by officer Foulke. I do feel I second guess myself that night. that you should have stopped him. Sure. Stopped and talked to him. Well, as you can see,
this shirt is bloodstained and what appears happened
is that the backside of what would be
the tail of this shirt has been cut out. Incredibly, the Zodiac lingers here
at the murder scene for quite a while, collecting his trophies. The cab driver’s wallet, his I.D.. He then calmly walks up Cherry Street. Little does
he know that just around the corner, a police squad car is approaching. All of the letters sent by the killer
have been posted from San Francisco, and police believe the man either
works or lives in the city. Laboratory tests on the cloth
torn from the shirt of Paul Stein prove that it came, in fact, from the cab driver when he was murdered
last Saturday night in Presidio Heights. And handwriting analysis
of a foreboding letter indicates the writer is the same man
who's committed five murders one here, three in Vallejo
and one in Napa over the last ten months. His chilling allusions to future slayings
are being counted with an intense drive to prevent him from fulfilling
any promises. Dick Carlson reporting for Newsbeat
from San Francisco Hall of Justice. There has also since been suspicion
that the Zodiac could live very close by, given the fact that,
according to one of his later letters, he was watching the entire thing
unfold afterwards as the police were running around
looking for him. You know, if you have a suspect
who is living in a house overlooking the crime scene
or the search area, then this person can both view the search
and also be totally immune from being captured because he's
watching from the comfort of his own living room, basically. In his letters, Zodiac taunts police
while admitting that he did remain near the murder scene, watching the police
search from the safety of a hiding place. I enjoy needling the blue pigs. Hey, Blue pigs. The dogs never came within two blocks of me
and they were to the west. The motorcycles
went by about 150 feet away. Nearly 50 years after the first murder. There was still a big push
to try and break the codes. They couldn't crack them. The CIA tried. The FBI had tried. Various code breakers had tried. They were alluded by these. And these were to codes in general. Z 13 because 13 characters
and likewise Z 340. The Z 13 in 2017 was thought to have been broken,
apparently. Once the Z 13 code was broken,
the shorter of the two. It alleged that the name of the person was Kane, K.A.N.E. The FBI, though,
very much had their doubts about this
and the accuracy of that code break. And the problem
with cryptography and encryption and so on is it's very hard to verify
something with a small subset. Realistically,
it's much easier to verify something along like the 340 code than it is
with the 13 code, because you don't have much to compare it to to check
whether the rest is gibberish. So the FBI still weren't 100% sure that
the Kane finding was actually accurate. Back in the late sixties, though,
while the police were still trying to crack these codes
and the killer things were going from bad to monumentally worse. Schoolchildren make fine targets. I think I shall wipe out a school bus
some morning. Just shoot out the front tire
and then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out. That was the threat of the Zodiac killer. Now, every day, police cars follow
the busses, which would be likely targets. Officers armed with shotguns
take the threat seriously. The new threat leaves families
with school children in fear. Many parents start driving their kids
police cruisers, escort school busses. Suddenly, everyone in town wants this thing solved and they want
it solved yesterday. In San Francisco, we have been since the first day
since the reception of this note. And up to now and continuing, we have a number of plainclothes officers following busses in the morning
and in the evening. You know, somebody shoots at your tire,
don't stop, keep driving. So there was a great panic,
as you can imagine. There was immense pressure on the police
to ensure that nothing happened and to get on top of this
as quickly as possible. And I think even the word immense there is probably the understatement
of the century. The bus patrol was started
first in this county Wednesday. Police units from various agencies
using marked and unmarked cars follow busses on their runs
to and from schools assisted by aerial patrols and some busses
now equipped with two way police radios. The massive patrols are responses to the Zodiac Killer's
threat to stop a bus and shoot children. The patrols are concentrated
in the remote sections of the county, similar to areas where five were murdered. The Napa School District is the third
largest in the state in bussing. Its 70 busses
travel more than 4000 miles a day. These patrols have been expanded
to several counties, and the Highway Patrol
has written guidelines for bus drivers. We have specifically requested
that they alert their drivers to not stop under any conditions
if a shot was fired or if the bus is subjected to a flat tire
by the sniper. Further, that they get the children down
immediately and proceed with all speed
out of the area and to try and attract
all the possible attention by blowing their horns
and therefore get out of the situation. We're satisfied
that it is all that can reasonably be done under the circumstances
that might be present at the particular time, giving due consideration
to the vast number of busses operating. Have any of the drivers expressed any concern over their job now? Well, there's naturally talk. Everybody,
I guess, tense about it, but they all seem to be in good spirits
and all seem to be going on with the job. I don't know of anybody that's quit. You're not afraid? No, not too afraid. On top of all of this, even worse, there was then a bomb threat thrown
in on top of a potential sniper situation. If you do not want me to have this blast,
you must do two things. Tell everyone about the bus bomb
and all the details. I would like to see some nice
zodiac buttons wandering about town. On the face of which says,
I hope you enjoy yourselves. When I had my blast.
The killer sent a diagram for an explosive device
that was in the hillsides around Napa. And this was working on an electric eye system,
where everything else could pass. But a school bus would set this bomb off. Bomb, as he described it
to us in the past, consist of a bomb planted in the street
or alongside of a roadside, which would be triggered
when a school bus passed by. He's an absolutely ruthless, completely merciless killer. He doesn't get great excitement. He just he thinks killing is just killing. So somebody like that is going to be
a very serious problem for us. What more do you know about the killer today than you did
earlier? Well, we have progressed. We've been able to come up
with more physical evidence that will be able to be used in in court. What we have to do is find the suspect, of course, and be able to apply those. And this man is a psychopath and very, very seriously mentally deranged. He appears to have no conscience at all,
no remorse after any of the acts and certainly no reason or even alleged justification for anything that he does. Several of the shootings have occurred
without a single word to anybody,
just merely to walk up and start shooting. This man is a serious problem to us. He's very,
very sick and very dangerous person. Thankfully, though, another letter
will arrive and for the first time, police were relieved to get a letter
from the Zodiac after last month's letters
and the murder of a cabdriver. The Zodiac threatened to kill children
on a school bus, so bus guards were provided in many Bay
Area counties, including these at Napa. Police say most of those precautions
have been halted. And now in the latest letter,
the Zodiac says if you cops think I'm going to take on a bus
the way I stated I was. You deserve to have holes in your heads. Sadly, though, throughout all of this,
police were no closer to catching the Zodiac killer. Are you confident
you will get him sooner or later? Well, of course, that's. I feel bad about all the murders
we're involved in. I mean, that's our business
and that's our job. And. And that's the only way to look at it
and approach it, is it? Of course. Eventually we'll get him. I'm standing in front of the Vallejo home, which investigators searched
last Valentine's Day. The home of the man police have suspected
off and on for the last 20 years. Thousands of people have been interviewed
and the Zodiac bounced in and out of the news. And through it
all, there has been one constant. Arthur Allen. I'm not the Zodiac killer. I feel that there are so many areas
that point directly at Arthur Leigh Allen that I feel that he is a viable suspect
and in all probability, the Zodiac. In 1991, there was a break in the case when a tip came in to one of the case. Detectives still working on this. Why did Arthur Leigh Allen
become prominent again in 1989? Well, we had had a couple of reasons. Our primary was that that a guy named Ralph Spinelli came forward and Ralph
Spinelli I knew him well. He was about my age and a small time
crook from from Vallejo. To make things
even more exciting for the police. Mike Mageu, one of the survivors
of the Zodiac killings, was able to I.D. a suspect. I gave him the set of pictures. He looked at it for about 20 seconds
and he said, he pointed to Arthur Leigh Allen, then said that's him.
That's the man that shot me. That is mine. But that's my third Karmann Ghia your third Karmann Ghia? According to the affidavit
unsealed by a judge late this afternoon, an armed robbery suspect arrested in San
Jose last December told police there that Arthur Allen, now 52 years
old, is the infamous Zodiac. That information led Vallejo police
to obtain a warrant and search Allen's home
last Valentine's Day. Police were looking for specific items,
22 caliber pistols, a black executioner style hood,
yellow taxicab keys. Without revealing everything they found. I learned they did confiscate
explosives, bombs exactly like those the Zodiac serial killer
described during his murder spree in the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s. Arthur Lee Allen died just months after
this and was never formally arrested or formally a suspect in the case. So if we're going to evaluate
someone like Arthur Leigh Allen, we have to consider all the ways
he doesn't match the the the profile of the zodiac or the evidence
pointing towards the Zodiac. The zodiac,
I believe, was a heterosexual male who was attracted to age
appropriate women. And Mr. Allen, is
my understanding, was preferred children. Since his death, though, there was
continued intrigue into him as a suspect. And this meant that as the nineties
moved on and into the 2000 new DNA and forensic technology
allowed investigators to, with more certainty, decide
whether or not Allen was in fact, the right suspect for the case,
whether or not he was the Zodiac killer. We are hoping to be able
to get some genetic information about the individual or individuals
that did seal these envelopes or place stamps
on them to produce a genetic profile. It needs just 50 human cells. Next. Dr. Holt compares
the partial profile from the Zodiac letter to a DNA sample from Bay Area
schoolteacher Arthur Lee Allen. Along the top there, you can see
they were distinctly different. Well, based on the information
that I developed, the Arthur Lee Allen could not have contributed
the DNA that I detected on the stamp. It did not match the partial profile
that we developed. Arthur Lee Allen did not donate the biological material
that was recovered from the stamp. When you write,
you rest the heel of your palm, a very characteristic part of it
on the paper and people in those days
weren't really aware that you could leave a palm print
and that it could be identified. They knew about fingerprints. It was compared to the one that had been
developed earlier and they don't match. That is not Arthur Allen's palm print. It seems then, at least
according to any hard evidence, that Arthur Lee Allen
did not commit the Zodiac killings. It seems like the only evidence left
is circumstantial. And under today's burden,
that just wouldn't be enough, given the fact that there's no DNA evidence and DNA evidence
from the letters and so on exists, that would point to the fact
that it just isn't Arthur Lee Allen. And during an interview here
last Friday night with Channel seven News, Arthur
Allen claimed that he is being persecuted by Vallejo police. Arthur
Lee Allen would go on until his dying breath, adamant
that he wasn't the Zodiac killer. Two types of liars in the world. Fishermen and policemen,
and not necessarily in that order. And their function is lying to
you is to trip you up. They can't do it to me
because I have nothing to trip over. No, I'm certainly most certainly not the Zodiac killer. They haven’t arrested me, because because they can't prove a thing. I'm not the damn Zodiac. Thank God for our Constitution, because that says a person is innocent
until proven guilty. Difficult as hell. And it can be. It can be terribly depressing. And if I deserved any of it,
that would be something different. But I don't. Michael Finney,
Channel seven News Tonight. So the issue for me personally with Arthur Lee Allen is not the fact
that I don't think he's a good suspect. He clearly is not a great person given he was charged with child molestation,
as far as I'm aware. It's the fact that we had a living victim,
a survivor who was able to be used at various points
to check the voice of the Zodiac killer against the voice
he heard. And at no point, as far as I'm aware,
did Brian Hartnell ever point to Arthur Lee Allen as sounding exactly
like the man who stabbed him? So that for me was the the point where...
that for me was the indication. I don't think Arthur Lee Allen did it,
or at least he didn't commit the Lake Berryessa stabbings.
I'd like to tell you about somebody a little different from this, this dark figure or this maniacal killer
that that seems to come across. He was a bright, interesting guy
with a good sense of humor. My mother liked him. My wife liked him. All my kids liked him. But he was not only left handed literally but figuratively, too. He reminded me when he was younger,
at least, of the young man in Catcher in the Rye. He was well-meaning, screw up. He could he could find more ways to to mess up his life
than anybody I ever met. But this is an even bigger problem,
isn't it? For police? Because if not, Arthur Lee Allen,
after all these years, then who? he was the mad man who called himself
the Zodiac Killer. And this is the surviving victim
who looked him straight the eye and says
she knows who the killer is. Kathleen Johns was a woman
that was there down in central California. It was late at night
and I had left in the evening. And the car behind me started flashing it’s lights
bright and dim, bright and dim And the car pulled up behind me
and this guy got out and he said that my back wheel was wobbly.
'The wheel looks like it’s not on good!’ And she claimed that somebody pulled next to her and said her
tyre was about to fall off. And then that person took her
and her child from her car into their car, drove around, scared her...
When we would come to any kind of stop sign, he would slow down,
but he didn't stop. So I jumped finally her and man in the field
she was able to jump out on a freeway overpass or entrance or something and hide from this person and ultimately
went to the Patterson Police Department. Just wait and see what happens. No, he could have stopped at any time
and physically been stronger than I was. I was like seven months pregnant
and I had a little kid on my lap. She was seven months pregnant
with an infant child in her arms and managed to
jump from the car and survive while it was moving. Terrifying stuff. Terrifying Stuff. But now one determined cop says he knows exactly who the killer is
and where he's hiding. Doug Buckner has the story. She did offer up
a clue to the investigators, though, a very, very interesting one. He says it's her eyewitness account that
proves suspect is, in fact, the Zodiac. Detective Harvey
Hinds of Eskelon says his analysis of these cryptic symbols reveals
the Zodiac name is Kane. We also have another clue. He installed another clue in the
in the cryptogram. It reads, Name Kane or name. Cane here
and a reading from right to left. She saw him and put her finger
down on the picture and said that was him. And she said, It's not only my eyes
telling me it's my stomach, too. Indeed,
there is a man who used the name Kane, who has a criminal record,
who was born in 1924. He's an ex mental patient
who fits the profile of the Zodiac killer. The man called Kane now lives in rural northern California,
but he hasn't been arrested. Later, he would be linked to another crime
where Donna Lass an employee in a hotel where Kane worked in Lake Tahoe, went
missing and was never seen again. And she was seen last in that area.
And a postcard supposedly from Zodiac, was sent later
on from that area, from Forest Pines. The limit of my knowledge
about the girl at Lake Tahoe, and we discussed that at the time that we were talking
during the investigation of Benelli here is that she was a nurse, that she got off
duty at a casino up there. And ostensibly
that's the last time anybody saw her. And the similarity
between that and Judith Acary is, that Mrs. Acary was a nurse and within reason, she got off duty. She was followed by a fellow employee
to a certain, you know, location. And she was never seen again. I understand there was also a similarity
in the way the parked cars were found to the car and in the girl in Lake
Tahoe was apparently found. And I just learned that today it was apparently found in her parking
stall in front of her apartment or her cabin or wherever
she her place of residence was. And Miss Acary’s Automobile was found in its parking spot
in front of her apartment. And there is a link between the Riverside
case and the Kathleen Johns case. And that is the fact in the Riverside
case, the killer did actually disable her
Volkswagen Beetle by removing the distributor coil and the condenser so
that the car wouldn't start. And then according to a later letter,
if it is to be believed and according to police in general,
it seems likely that the killer offered her help
to get to wherever she was going. And that's how we got her in the car. And this was similar to the Kathleen
Johns case where he decided to help with the wheel
but then went and loosened the wheel. There was never enough evidence though to either tie this to Zodiac or on Kane in general,
and Kane was never treated as an official police
suspect of the case in either situation. One of the most bizarre
parts of this case, though, is definitely the call in show...
Zodiac, a symbol that now stands for terror
in San Francisco. Today, there was a possibly significant
development in the terrifying case of the man who calls himself Zodiac.
Inspector, attorney Melvin Belli his office has said
that it has been contacted by a person claiming to be the Zodiac. Have you been able to verify that the letter received by
his office is authentic? Yes, we have. This has been done by our crime lab. Basically, it was a letter written to Mr. Belli, which was a personal type letter. And again, at this point of the investigation,
I would not want to comment on the particular details
of the contents of this letter. This bizarre situation
began at 2:00 this morning when the so-called Zodiac telephoned
police headquarters. He said he was sick, he needed help and
he wanted to talk to Belli on Television. All the scheduled guests were canceled
from the show on the ABC station KGO. Belli waited for Zodiac
to call on the private line. The phone was not tapped. The killer telephoned 12 times,
so he spoke very little with attorney Belli,
trying to draw him out. Tell us what's going on inside you right now please.
‘I have headaches’. And there was one moment when he talked about killing kids
that I still remember with. a shiver.
‘I wanna kill those kids!’. He calls back 11 times how long have you had those headaches Sa,? Been a long time? Since I killed a kid Just tell us what's going on inside
you right now. I have Headaches... Were you in service that
you might have had an injury. In service or did you ever fall out of a tree
or downstairs or were you ever unconscious. I don't know. You don't remember? So no one knows yet. If they had the Zodiac killer
on the phone, they'll have witnesses listen to a tape
of the broadcast to determine that. But it seems that a solution to the five
Zodiac murders is just as far away as it was before. Spencer Michaels, KCRA News,
San Francisco. The supposed Zodiac afterwards
even offered to meet up, but never showed. Bill, I finally arranged to meet Zodiac in Daly City, a suburb
south of San Francisco, to talk in person. The attorney waited in an office building,
but Zodiac never showed. I asked Belli if he thought the man
who called really was the Zodiac killer. I can't. Negative, I can't say. All I can say is this man needed help. This man seemed like a man
who was coming up to a storm or to a climax
and this very blood curdling thing. And then the said of an agonized cut off.
Enough to turn your hair lighter than mine. So inside the thrift shop, Saint Vincent
de Paul, attorney Melvin Belli and the San Francisco police
waited for the Zodiac killer. The man did not show. So now all we can do is wait. Perhaps for that next phone call
from the man who calls himself Zodiac, who has killed five,
says he's going to kill again. Dick Shoemaker. ABC News, San Francisco. Nothing came of that. We went out to the location
where the meet was to have been. Mr. Belli was out there. Mr. Dunbar was out there, and nobody appeared. Can you tell us where that was?
It was a little out of San Francisco, the outer end of the Mission District. Do you think it was the Zodiac
after all that? Not necessarily. I listen to the program,
my opinion, for what it's worth, my opinion is that this is no hoax
or no prankster. The man on that show, I sincerely believe,
has a problem, a mental problem, but he may or may not have been
the so-called Zodiac person. I hope you're having lots of fun
in trying to catch me. That's part of the chilling taunt from one of the Bay Area's
most notorious serial killers. Now decoded after 51 years, a major break in the case came in 2021 when these 340 cipher was finally cracked. This major development in the case
comes decades after that coded message
was sent to the San Francisco Chronicle in November of 1969, and many hope
it will help identify the serial killer. A coded 340 character message sent to the
San Francisco Chronicle from the infamous Zodiac killer of the 1960s cracked
by a group of amateur code breakers. In a statement, the bureau said
the FBI is aware that a cipher attributed to the Zodiac Killer
was recently solved by private citizens. We we tried several hundred thousand
incorrect ways of solving the cipher. And just by chance,
we happened to sort of stumble upon a fragment of how it could be solved. And using fragment,
we reverse engineered the entire solution and got the entire message out
from the Zodiac. Sadly, though, there was no name
to be found in this cipher. Fagen said there had been hope that the killer would reveal his identity
in one of his coded messages. This one didn't do the trick. It doesn't reveal his identity. Doesn't
give a lot of clues to his identity. I think more what it does
is the the method that he was able to use to create that that cipher may help track down who he is the Zodiac’s encrypting
is replaced with multiple symbols. It did, though, confirm what Brian Hartnell had said years and years ago that the voice who called in to the Jim
Dunbar show wasn't in fact the killer. And in the cipher
it said, ‘it wasn't me on the TV show.’ At one point in time,
I was asked to go down and listen to a tape of an interview
that had been on the Jim Dunbar Show. And if I recall correctly, Melvin Belli
was asked to come to the Jim Dunbar Show. And so I was asked to listen to the voice
and there was some interaction between Melvin Belli and Jim Dunbar. My recollection of that voice
is it wasn't. That wasn't even in the in the range of
what I had heard. I think I told him that
I didn't think that was the voice. After no new letters, contact or information
since 1974. Police finally got another break
in the case with a letter sent in by the supposed Zodiac in 1978. This letter from the Zodiac poses
more questions than it answers. Questions like Why has he only
communicated twice in the past nine years? Has he killed in that time? No clues in the latest letter. But more importantly,
who is the Zodiac and where is he? Every time the would send us a letter. We were spurred on
because we gleaned a little bit of intelligence information
out of every letter that he sent us. And we just hope that we can latch on to one little thing that might
might lead us to the Zodiac killer. We knew an awful lot about this. This killer. But in 1978, April 25th, I believe, we got
a letter that says, I am back with you. I've never been anywhere else. You know,
I've been with you all this time. San Francisco police displayed a blackboard
with excerpts of the latest Zodiac letter. At a news conference last night,
police are convinced it is authentic. Deputy San Francisco Police Chief Glenn D'Amico said it is the 16th letter
received from the Zodiac killer. However,
there was more to this 1978 letter than meets the eye...
towards the end. I don't know if we're we're getting some
some letters that turned out not to be authentic Zodiac letters. And and I believe the last time
we heard from them with an authenticated
letter was in April 1974. For the first time since the Zodiac case began nine years ago, Inspector
Dave Toschi is out of it. Tusk is under fire for writing phony
fan letters about himself to a newspaper
feature writer Armistead Maupin. And Maupin today
came up with far more serious charges that there are similarities between the
letters Toschi admits writing to Maupin and the most recent Zodiac
letter of last April. And that was it. Toschi was off the case
and close to losing his career after being one of the most
famous detectives only a decade earlier. Toschi admits writing the fan
letters to Maupin, but vigorously denies having anything to do with the letters purporting to come from the killer
known as Zodiac. Toschi was low profile
at the Hall of Justice today. He had been reprimanded over
the fan letters by being transferred from the homicide detail to the pawnshop
detail, and an official investigation is underway on any connection
he might have with the Zodiac letters. Thus far, the experts can't agree
on the authenticity of the last letter from the Zodiac. Right now, Toschi has admitted to nothing
more than being guilty of an indiscretion. As technology moved forward, the case
continued on in the background and investigators
struggled to find more and more evidence. Thankfully,
though, technology also got better and they had more DNA at their disposal
to either put more pressure on certain suspects
or completely clear them from their list. Careful as he was,
it's unlikely that 33 years ago Zodiac would worry about
leaving behind a genetic trail. But this tiny strand bears
Zodiac's DNA fingerprint. She examines it. But again no luck. Now we have a lot more to work with. It's going to be exciting. Well, the potential is exciting. Potential is higher now that we have three more envelopes, several more stamps. Exciting because homicide inspector
Kelly Carroll and his partner, Mike Maloney, can
then compare it with DNA samples from anyone
suggested as a possible suspect, something the original Zodiac
investigators could only have dreamed of from all of your investigations. What can you tell us about the Zodiac? Not a great deal. He's not an unintelligent man
by a long shot. His paragraph in his phrasing,
his punctuation is very good. I'm sure he has deliberately misspelled words in the intent to lead us to believe
that he's illiterate. But in so doing he has lead us to the point that we believe
just the opposite. Disappointment is followed quickly
by a possible breakthrough. Remember that taunting greeting card? Dr. Holt gets a tentative result
from the outside of the envelope that contained it. I can tell you that there is an indication
that there may be DNA from one of the stamps. You could
well be on the trail of the Zodiac. Well, it's the prospect of being able
to contribute to the story is exciting. Then out of the blue,
more good news for Dr. Holt. Our primetime investigation of the case
leads to a major discovery. Three more Zodiac envelopes
in mint condition. They quietly arrive at the lab after our
inquiries with a retired police source. He had kept them in his personal. I think that after the Golden State
killer was caught in 2021, investigators
more hope than ever, that they could potentially do the same thing with Zodiac
and catch him while he was alive. That bombshell arrest, that former
police officer who authorities say went on a reign of terror
for so many years. The numbers, as I mentioned,
are simply staggering. At least 12 murders, 45 rapes. They say this is their man, Joseph D'Angelo,
now 72, arrested outside his home. They surprised him. He spent years as a California
police officer. He'd been married. Law enforcement
now identifying 72 year old Joseph James D'Angelo
as the Golden State killer. But D'Angelo, not a suspect until days ago
when they got a break. They say cutting edge DNA
allowed them to make a match. Now, though, in 2023,
as each year passes by, it becomes less and less likely
that they'll catch man alive. There may now be a break in this case,
though. A nonprofit group claims
that it has identified the Zodiac killer. A group of independent cold case
investigators claims they have solved the more than 50 year
old mystery of the Zodiac killer. It is made up of former FBI
agents, military and forensic investigators
from all across the country. And they say they're confident
they have solved this mystery. The case
now, though, might finally be closer to being solved than it ever has before. But going to the library that simple
and going through Bay Area phonebooks that put him in the Bay Area at the right times
and there was just no way you could get around it
that it wasn't this person. Everything matched up, including stuff
that wasn't public, that we had kind of found and talked to.
The long unsolved Zodiac killer case and a high profile announcement
putting a name to the suspect's face. It's no surprise for the Sacramento and attorney. The group says Poste
had scars on his forehead from a car crash that matched scars
on a sketch of the Zodiac. That is irrefutable. That is a mark. That's the same. It's on him
all the way to his death at 80 years old. The case breakers point to Gary Post,
an Air Force veteran and house painter
who died in 2018. We have six people that he told towards his last years
that he was the Zodiac. The group says evidence like a shoe size
match, court affidavits matching facial features
and a clue that the killer hid his name in those ciphers prove their I.D. His name is Poste. He ended it with the stamp and they couldn't
figure out his last name. He cleverly used the postmarking as Gary Francis...stamp...Poste. And it's more than just this little riddle or code that was sent
to the San Francisco Chronicle. They have the scars apparently on, you know, Poste’s forehead that match
the drawing of the Zodiac killer. And they've even gone so far
as the interview Post's neighbor who says that she believed
that Post was the Zodiac killer. So they've done an outstanding job.
And it's interesting. First, obviously,
we dealt with Bob Durst after 40 years and now more 50 years, we're getting close
to identifying the Zodiac killer. Obviously, he's passed away, but if it is Poste. He's not going to face
face the same that Bob Durst. It's a good feeling. But there's there was a bit of,
you know, sadness to it that we actually when he was still alive, we're talking
to individuals in law enforcement about, you know, we were confident it was him. Sacramento attorney Mark Reichel and his long time investigator,
John Kennedy, named Gary Post as the likely Zodiac killer years ago
after their own lengthy investigation. This is the radar station where he worked. Kennedy showed me
the digital files of his own Zodiac Killer investigation tied to Gary Post
compiling records where Post was stationed in the Air Force before the Zodiac Killer
spree in the fifties. And in these places there were encrypted
messages being sent and received and where Post may have picked up
a knack for codes. Kennedy
also found a news clipping of a deadly car crash Post was involved in
just outside the base. So Mark Reichel and John Kennedy, while they believe that Post is,
in fact the Zodiac killer. They do acknowledge that. The evidence
that they have is circumstantial. They look forward to the day
that science will prove them right. An Expert like myself who has
had contact with members within the bureau that said that since 2016, Gary
Francis Post was their suspect. They will be releasing this evidence if
and when the FBI confirms whether or not they are accurate, using the database
of evidence that the FBI has on this case. Some aren't convinced. I woke up this morning.
I really thought it was April 1st. Tom Voight of ZodiacKiller.com calls
the claims hot garbage and says the theories presented are thin. Who are we to say yea or nay? San Francisco Chronicle reporter
Kevin Fagan has been covering
the Zodiac case for years. He says he's not so sure. Post is the right guy. You know, I got an email two weeks ago saying that they found Herb
Caen's name in the anagram. So Herb Caen must be the Zodiac. Before that, it was Charlie Manson. Back in December, the FBI confirmed that the Zodiac cipher
had been cracked by code breakers. His message said in part,
I hope you're having lots of fun trying to catch me
and I'm not afraid of the gas chamber. Now, I did reach out to the San Francisco
Police Department and the FBI, and they both told me
that this case remains open. They have not confirmed the theory
presented by the Case Breakers today. So at least for now,
the mystery continues. Until then, we can only ponder. But I for one, I've always been of the opinion that
this is most likely a gun for hire type. A man who was hired to commit murders on the behalf of others,
and he cleverly used the letters to make look like a serial killer
instead of a gun for hire. The San Francisco police say the Zodiac case is still open,
but it's not actively under investigation. In fact, many of the files in the case
have been stored in Sacramento and the original detectives
in the case every time. And I think given
that that's been my opinion on it, that makes the idea of post
who was a house painter even more poetic. And then I started painting houses.