The 'Zodiac' Killings

Welcome everyone to Mysteries Tonight! This is my first blog and so I'd like to start by sharing one of the most infamous and notorious mysteries ever!
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 "I like killing people because it is so much fun."

In July 1969 a letter arrived at the San Francisco Examiner newspaper, containing these exact same words.

The man, who identified himself as the 'Zodiac' in the letters, had killed 5 people in a single year and had claimed to kill 32 others in the subsequent 5 years.

His first victims were David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jenson, both teenagers, on the 20th of December 1968 on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia who were shot and killed.

Only after seven months, on the 4th of July 1969, the Zodiac was back in action. Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22, were both sitting in Darlene's car in a secluded parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. Suddenly a car came and parked just behind them, restricting Darlene's car to move. Darlene seemed to have recognized the driver but she wouldn't tell Mageau. Unfortunately for Darlene, the Zodiac exited his car and walked toward's her, flashed a torchlight at them, temporarily blinding them, and then fired bullets. Darlene was shot five times and ultimately died, but somehow Mageau survived four bullets.
The Zodiac then called the cops informing them that he had shot two teenagers in Vallejo and in that same call also claimed the murders of Faraday and Jenson(His first victims in Benicia).

The cops and The San Francisco Examiner along with some other prominent newspapers received a letter by the Zodiac stating details of the killing of Darlene which only he and the cops could've known such as the type of the bullets. He put a cipher in his letter, on which he claimed if deciphered, his identity will be revealed.
He made a demand to the newspapers to publish his letter on the front page on the next day's edition, or else he would go on a 'Kill Rampage' over the weekend.

The next day a history teacher and his wife had decoded the cipher. It contained " I like killing people because it is so much fun", and to the dismay of the police "I won't reveal my name because I haven't killed enough people yet". Unluckily this first cipher is still the only official decoded Zodiac ciphers to date.

On the 27th of September 1969, the Zodiac came with a paper bag on his head, fully dressed in black with his logo of a circle and two intersecting perpendicular lines through its center on his shirt at Lake Berryessa. He tied up Bryan Hartnell and Cecilia Shephard and repeatedly stabbed them in a gruesome way. Cecilia was stabbed ten times! Five in the front and five in the back, while Hartnell was stabbed six times in his back. Hartnell survived, but Cecilia didn't make it.

His final confirmed killing was that of Paul Stine, a cab driver, on 11 October 1969, who was shot to death in Presidio Heights in San Francisco. There were witnesses but nobody seemed to have seen his face. Witnesses state that after shooting Stine, the shooter went in the front seat where the dead body lay. Police were immediately called but by the time they reached the crime scene, the Zodiac had fled.
The Zodiac then sent another letter to the police, with a blood-stained piece of the shirt of Paul Stine. He even contacted San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli, by sending him a letter with another stained piece of the shirt of Stine, and the letter contains: "Please help me I am drowning".
He continued taunting the police till 1974 by sending letters claiming murders and sending ciphers in which he promises his identity lies for real. None of them have officially been decoded. He claims many other murders, but only these five murders are officially attributed to him by the police.

His next letter and his final one came three years later in 1977. He says that the police are wrong in guessing that the Zodiac is dead. He claims he is well and active and will kill many others. He also praises Inspector Toschi, the lead investigator in the Zodiac case by saying, "He is smart, but I am smarter."

                                         The Prime Suspects:

1) Arthur Leigh Allen:

Leigh Allen remains the only suspect to be ever named in the police files to date. A lot of evidence points against him, but he was never charged because he didn't tick all the boxes either.

Arthur Leigh Allen's best friend first pointed the cops towards him by claiming that Leigh Allen started calling himself the Zodiac, months before the first Zodiac Killing. The Police then questioned him, and Leigh Allen "appeared to have liked the attention". He also wore a watch of the company Zodiac with the same logo as the killer's logo.

Leigh Allen was arrested for child molestation in 1974 and released in 1977, exactly matching and explaining the absence of the Zodiac letters in these three years. Crime writer and a former cartoonist of the San Francisco Examiner, Robert Graysmith, who was there when the Zodiac letters were still coming in, found out that Darlene Ferrin(His second killing) indeed knew a guy by a name of Leigh Allen.

Leigh Allen's favorite book was the "Most dangerous game" which was mentioned in the Zodiac letters. The book's storyline itself was against him. The book's protagonist gets stuck on an island with some people and he starts killing people just because 'he was bored with killing animals.'

He spelled Christmas with two s's just like the Zodiac repeatedly used 2 s's in his letters. He was ambidextrous, maybe the reason behind why his handwriting didn't match with the letter.

The murdered taxi driver's destination was Allen apartments. Codebooks were found at his house. A large knife was found in his car, after the slashing murder of Shephard, which he conveniently claimed he used on chickens. He was very familiar with the first three murder destinations.
His friend drove the same vehicle as the one identified by the surviving victims. He might have borrowed it.

And the final evidence- in 1989, Mageau, the survivor of the Vallejo incident, was shown the photos of some suspects and was asked to identify his shooter. He was 90 percent sure and he pointed at the photo of Leigh Allen. After this Leigh Allen was about to be questioned again, but Allen died due to health problems before taking him in.

Extra information: Corey Starliper now claims he has solved the biggest Zodiac cipher (which contains 340 symbols) and it goes as below:


Even though this has not been officially confirmed by the police it still seems genuine.
Check: https://patch.com/california/fostercity/has-the-code-of-the-zodiac-killer-been-cracked


2) Lawrence Kane:

He served in the Naval reserves here he might have learned coding. A 1962 car accident left him with a serious brain injury that could have compromised his ability to control urges. He was arrested for peeping in 1961 and for prowling in 1968(released later that year; The Zodiac struck in 1969)

A retired police detective claimed that Kane's name was found in one of the Zodiac Ciphers. Darlene's sister Linda had identified Kane as the man ho had bothered Darlene once. A San Fran police officer who might have seen the Zodiac escaping after the Stine murder said Kane's photo was the closest match than any other. Kathlene Johns who had escaped with her newborn from a man she believed to be the Zodiac, also identified Kane as her abductor.

Kane is also linked with the murder of  Donna Lass, who disappeared in 1970, though it has never been proven


3) Rick Marshal:

 His location during the murders was confirmed to be very close to the actual crime scene. He also worked at the KTIM radio station where the logos on call letters supposedly look like the same cryptic symbols that the Zodiac used in his letters. He lived in a basement apartment, which the Zodiac had cited in the letters. He owned a typewriter and teletype similar to those that the Zodiac used. They both liked felt-tip pens and odd-sized paper.


4) George Hodel:

There is only one evidence against him so the case against him seems a little weak.
A zodiac cipher was decoded and it contained the name -"Hodel"
See for decoding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQj6KPlK7Nk
(This decoding hasn't been declared official by the police either)

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I personally think that Leigh Allen was the Zodiac. Even though some of the most important evidence didn't line up with him such as- his handwriting not matching, DNA not matching to the DNA found on the Zodiac letters(although the DNA proof is controversy as it was done in the 2000s and till then the DNA might have got tampered with, as the letters were not handled with care), and Hartnell, the second Zodiac survivor, stating that the Zodiac didn't have the build nor the height as that of Leigh Allen.
Still, the evidence pointing against him just cannot be coincidental.
But saying that, Lawrence Kane couldn't be left out either.
This mystery will only be solved when the Zodiac ciphers are officially solved.

What are your views on this?

References:
The 'Zodiac' book by Robert Graysmith
'Zodiac' (2005) movie
'Most Evil II' book by Steve Hodel