Unsolved Murders by the Zodiac Killer Still Fascinate

It's a case that has fascinated many: A serial killer who had no rhyme or reason for choosing his victims and was never captured. For years, the public's fear was only intensified with cryptic letters printed in newspapers, threatening more attacks. A murderer on a killing spree never brought to justice, inspiring a copycat killer.

While the focus eventually landed on one primary suspect, the man, denying any part in these crimes, died before the case could be proven. Some say he may still be out there, while others believe it's over. A new motion picture based on these deaths retells the story, and ignites a new found interest in the Zodiac Killer.

In the late 1960s to the early 1970s, victims were selected at random in Northern California and were killed at the hands of one of the most mysterious serial killers. The string of murders has been tied to a killer known as the Zodiac, a self-imposed moniker he used to sign his enigmatic letters. The Zodiac has murdered five people and claimed responsibility for 17 more.

The first suspected victim was Cheri Jo Bates, 18. Bates was killed in an alley at Riverside City College on October 30^th, 1966. The first of the letters was sent after her murder with no postage, warning of more killings to come. "She is not the first and she will not be the last I lay awake nights thinking about my next victim...So don't make it to easy for me. Keep your sisters, daughters, and wives off the streets and alleys...Beware. I am stalking your girls now."

The note described details only the murderer would know. A single fingerprint left on the envelope was found, but has never been matched to anyone. It is unclear whether it was left by the author, the postman, or an officer. Letters with extra postage, a signature trait along with the crossed circle symbol found in following notes, were also sent to her family and the police, stating that she had to die.

Sixteen year old Betty Lou Jensen, shot 5 times in the back, and seventeen year old David Arthur Faraday, shot once in the head, were killed in their car on Lake Herman Road, a gravel road near Vallejo, California on December 20^th, 1968. A witness, Stella Borges, saw a car near the scene, described as a light-colored Chevy, before discovering the bodies. Despite efforts by law enforcement, their killer was never found.

Six months later, in the early hours of July5^th, another couple was killed in a secluded park near Blue Rock Springs, leaving Darlene Ferrin, 22, dead with 5 gunshots, and Mike Mageau, 19, wounded with 4 shots. Mageau was able to catch a glimpse of the car and the murderer in profile. The car was a brown Ford Mustang or Chevy Corvair; the man was 5'8" tall, with a large face and about 195 pounds, heavyset but not blubbery fat. A call was received stating, "I want to report a double murder...They were shot with a 9mm Luger. I also killed those kids last year. Goodbye." Though the gun used was actually what police believe to be a 9mm Browning High-Power or a handgun, it could have been a method to throw the police off track in their investigation.

July 31^st, 1969, letters were sent to the San Francisco Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald with one-third of a cryptogram that was to be published on each of their front pages by August 1^st. A bloody weekend rampage was promised if they did not comply. Donald Harden, a high school teacher and his wife, Bettye, solved the cryptogram and submitted it to the Vallejo Police Department. The solution was "I like killing people because it is so much fun it is more fun than killing wild game in the forrest because man is the most dangerous animal of all to kill..." It continued to say that the deaths are a rebirth for him, and the victims will be his slaves in the afterlife.

On September 27^th, 1969 at Lake Berryessa, a couple was held at gunpoint and hog-tied before being stabbed. Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22, died from ten stab wounds, while Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, survived six stabs. Hartnell described the man as having greasy brown hair, being heavyset, 5'8" to 6' tall, wearing glasses and a black hood with the Zodiac symbol sewn on. At first demanding money and their car keys, the man ordered Shepard to tie Hartnell up, and then tied her as well, before stabbing them both. Afterwards, the man used a black magic marker to inscribe the circle-crossed signature of the Zodiac on their vehicle. The killer notified police on where to find the bodies with a phone call; "I want to report a murder - no, a double murder...I'm the one that did it." Crime scene investigators found footprints and determined them to be a size 10, low-cut military boot, set deep in the sand, suggesting that they belonged to a heavyset man.

The last documented murder of the Zodiac happened in Presidio Heights on October 11^th, 1969, when 29 year old taxi driver, Paul Stine, was shot in the head 4 times. Three teenage siblings witnessed the murderer cutting Stine's shirt from the upstairs of a building across the street from the cabbie's parked car. They called police, who incorrectly broadcast the suspect's appearance, enabling the Zodiac Killer to walk free. A letter was sent to the Chronicle along with a bloodied piece of the victim's shirt. "This is the Zodiac speaking. I am the murderer of the taxi driver...to prove this here is a blood stained piece of his shirt...The S.F. Police could have caught me last night if they had searched the park properly..." The Zodiac also warned of attacks on children next.

"School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the frunt tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out." Later notes suggested he would use a bomb on a school bus. Since the pattern appeared to be broken, killing one person as opposed to going after couples, law enforcement feared he would make good on the bus threat; he didn't. Though that was the last known murder attributed to the Zodiac Killer, further letters promising more deaths followed.

On March 22^nd, 1970, traveling on Highway 132 through San Joaquin County, a seven month pregnant Kathleen Johns, 23, was going to visit her mother with her infant daughter before being pulled over by a 'concerned' driver. Under the pretense of spotting a wobbly tire, she stopped the car and the man made a show of tightening the lug nuts while really loosening them, leading to Johns accepting a ride to a gas station from him. Passing several service stations, the driver of the light-colored American car held her captive for over an hour, until she saw her chance to escape, running into a field as the car stopped. Johns and her daughter were rescued by a Good Samaritan and brought to the local police station in Patterson. Prominently displayed was the composite sketch of the Zodiac Killer, the same man who held her captive. Upon recovery of Johns' car, it was found torched. Within the next few years, letters continued to trickle into the newspapers, but this marked the last documented time the Zodiac was seen in person.

The police got a tip from Donald Cheney, a friend of Arthur Leigh Allen for years before moving to southern California. A 1968 conversation with Allen, in which he had discussed odd similarities to the Zodiac crimes, was reported to police. Allen brought up Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game, a short story of a count who hunts shipwrecked travelers for sport. Continuing on the subject of human hunting, Allen allegedly spoke of how he would commit murders in lovers' lane, and talked of shooting a school bus' tires, and picking off the 'little darlings' as they came off the bus. Allen also allegedly mentioned how he would taunt the police with harassing notes and would call himself the Zodiac.

In 1969, Detective John Lynch interviewed Allen. At the age of 19, Arthur Leigh Allen was rejected as a Vallejo Police Department applicant, and was discharged from the US Navy at 25. He owned several weapons, and allegedly always kept one in his vehicle. Allen was a convicted pedophile and was committed to Atascadero State Hospital because of it. While in Atascadero, Allen studied abnormal psychology. Allen openly bragged about being considered a Zodiac suspect. Cheney was then interviewed by SFPD Inspector William Armstrong, and determined that his accounts of the suspicious conversation were foggy. The dates were jumbled, the stories became more elaborate in follow up interviews, and it could have been considered pay back after an inappropriate incident involving Allen and Cheney's daughter, where he allegedly patted her bottom. Nonetheless, in conjunction with the VPD, the detectives interrogated Allen.

Allen denied the conversation with Cheney, but knew an excessive amount of information regarding the Zodiac crimes, either from personal knowledge or second hand from reading the papers. During the interview, he made references to what the Zodiac wrote in the letters. The detectives commented on Allen's unusual watch; it was a Christmas gift from his mother in 1967. The Sea Wolf model was made by Swiss manufacturer Zodiac and used the same logo as the letters. A search warrant was issued in 1972 to look through his Santa Rosa property, but investigators found no evidence to link him to the crimes.

Allen was again a source of interest to the police, following the arrest of Ralph Spinelli and the publication of Robert Graysmith's best-seller, true-crime novel, Zodiac. Spinelli claimed that in 1969 Allen had mentioned he was going to kill a cab driver. Another search warrant was commissioned, and Allen's Vallejo property was searched. Although passing a lie detector test, and his prints and handwriting samples not matching those of the Zodiac Killer, Allen was believed to be the perpetrator because of the strong circumstantial evidence. His Zodiac watch was confiscated, as well as bomb-making materials, newspaper clippings, firearms, a knife and a typewriter. Allen denied any involved until his dying day in 1992.

A copycat killer soon emerged on the opposite side of the country. Heriberto "Eddie" Seda was born in the late 1960s. Raised on the east coast in Brooklyn, New York, his apartment building was riddled with drug dealers, gang activity and prostitution. The obsessive Bible reader became enamored towards becoming a Green Beret. Despite constant studying of weapons and military techniques, Seda failed the entrance exam to the Special Forces. Upset, Seda thought, "What am I going to do with all this information I have?" The answer came to him upon seeing a PBS special about the Zodiac Killer. "This guy terrorized a whole city and never got caught...I already got those skills. I could be famous. I could do that." Seda shot at least 8 victims at random from 1990 to 1996, killing 3. Seda was caught after shooting his half sister and holding her boyfriend captive in a three-hour hostage situation before finally surrendering to NYPD.

The new motion picture, "Zodiac" retells the accounts of the original 1960s-1970s killer. The $80 million film was made in 2005 in the Bay Area and stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Robert Graysmith, a political cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Graysmith's intense investigation of the Zodiac case is told in his 1986 book, Zodiac, in which the movie is based on. It also stars Mark Ruffalo as Inspector David Toschi, the real life inspiration for Clint Eastwood's classic film, "Dirty Harry." The man behind "Fight Club," "Seven," and "Panic Room," director David Fincher, takes the reigns of recounting the story. Graysmith was impressed with Fincher's unrelenting passion to keep the movie as historically accurate as possible, using the same clothes, the same pen and pad, and trying to track down survivors.

Ken Narlow, former Napa County detective, served as a consultant for the movie. After screening Zodiac, Narlow commented that the film will generate renewed interest in the unsolved crime spree. Lieutenant Richard Nichelman of the Vallejo Police Department stated Friday that 3 envelopes were sent to crime labs for retesting, due to the advanced technology available today in DNA matching. Nichelman denied the movie being the cause of the retesting.

While Narlow believes that the killer is still at large, both Graysmith and Tochi are convinced that it was Allen. Though the murderer was never apprehended, and many suspects were questioned, the popular belief is that the crimes lay at the hands of Arthur Leigh Allen. Although all of the original investigators have since retired, the Zodiac Killer engrosses attention from many. From the mysterious symbols, the puzzling codes, and almost catching him in the act, the appeal is there. The release of the movie, Zodiac, will no doubt create intrigue in the unsolved deaths of the Zodiac Killer.