The Zodiac /// Part 2 /// 471 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] August 1st 1969 three letters were received one at the Vallejo Times Herald
one to the San Francisco Chronicle and one to the San Francisco Examiner the nearly identical letters took credit for
the shootings at Lake Herman Road in Blue Rock Springs each letter also included one-third of
what is referred to as the Zodiac 408 Cipher it is called this because the author used 408 different symbols in the
cryptogram which the killer claimed that when solved you'll have my name so the cryptogram is to contain his identity
the author demanded that the letters and the cipher be printed on each paper's front page
let's go through each and give a good description of everything that was received first the Vallejo times
the envelope to the Vallejo times is addressed to Vallejo Times Herald Vallejo Calif as to say California
c-a-l-i-f please rush to editor with four stamps in the upper right corner of the envelope so way too much postage the
back of the envelope says please rush to editor the envelope to the San Francisco
Examiner is addressed to S period F period examiner San Fran period caliph please rush to editor with two postage
stamps in the upper right corner of the envelope the back of the envelope again says please rush to editor the envelope
to the San Francisco Chronicle is addressed to S period F period Chronicle San Fran period caliph please rush to
editor again with two stamps in the upper right corner of the envelope and again the back of the envelope says
please rush to editor all three envelopes are postmarked from San Francisco and dated as mailed on July
31st 1969 the day before they're received so when we talk about where zodiac lived and What murders he might
be quote local too we know one simple fact and that is on Thursday July 31st 1969 the Zodiac was in San Francisco
right now for the letters all three letters say basically the same thing with subtle differences throughout each
I even went to the exercise of sitting down and examining all three and comparing them so that I could write
down every subtle difference between the three they are not identical letters but
they are basically delivering the same identical message but real quick they're all three handwritten they're all three
handwritten and the exercise that I did to find the subtle differences between the three was Pilates it does not work
well for our audio presentation of this case it would be something that would be
interesting to visually show to everyone drop your pants there we go the letters
read dear editor this is the murderer of the two teenagers last Christmas Christmas spelled with m-a-s-s
at Lake Hermann and the girl on the 4th of July near the golf course in Vallejo to prove that I killed them I shall
State some facts which only I and the police know Christmas again spelled m-a-s-s brand of ammo Super X 10 shots
were fired the boy was on his back with his feet to the car the girl was on her right side feet to the west and real
quickly there's no way he would know this as far as this was imprinted somewhere where
any Layman would know this information so from what I could find based off of the newspapers and and their versions of
the story of the attacks prior to this right that's why I purposely went through the
fact that they were saying in the first attack that each victim was shot three times we know that's not the truth the
female victim was shot five times and that would have been hold back information they did not want anyone to
know the number of shots fired even though the police themselves did know that they said each victim shot three
times they said something like four shell casings were found near the vehicle one thing that he is telling us here
that only the police would know one is ten shots were fired and two he's naming the brand of ammo that was used
to shoot the two teenagers right he goes on to say fourth July girl was wearing patterned slacks the boy was also shot
in the knee brand name of ammo was Western so again the name of the ammo would not be known and from what I could
find to the the statement of the boy was also shot in the knee this does not seem
to have been general knowledge at the time then he writes over on the page to make sure that you do not fail to flip
it over because he's wrote some more on the back here is part of a cipher the other two
parts of this Cipher are being mailed to the editors of the Vallejo times in San
Francisco Examiner now right you're going to change those titles depending on which of the three letters you're
reading I want you to print this Cipher on the front page of your paper in this Cipher is my identity if you do not
print this Cipher by the afternoon of fry f r y first of August 69 now for August he just put OGG Aug I will go on
a kill Rampage fry night I will Cruise any misspells cruise around all weekend killing lone people in the night then
move on to kill again until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend so as he stated in each letter
it contained one-third piece of this Cipher the chronicle published its third of the cryptogram on page four of the
next day's Edition well again he's telling them post this on the front page and again I'll bring up the Zodiac movie and
I know it's a dramatization but it's the idea is that these newspapers then had to contemplate do it we don't want blood
on our hands but at the same time we don't want to meet all the demands of a serial killer Yes and so the cryptogram
was printed on the fourth page of the chronicle and what's interesting here is the article was printed alongside sorry
there was an article that was printed alongside the code that quoted Vallejo police chief Jack stilts as saying quote
we're not satisfied that the letter was written by the murderer and requested that the writer send a second letter
with more facts to prove his identity I think that was a way to bait him well and what's interesting too Captain is
that the his demands were not carried out as he instructed right and the threatened murders did not happen he you
know nobody drove around shooting people until they killed a dozen people that weekend
but eventually all three parts were published right just not on the front page but look when you think of all the
cases that we covered this blows my mind the level of sophistication yeah okay you spell some
words wrong uh and I think you know I think the spelling Christmas like that is probably some just stupid joke he's
trying to make just like the flip over right I mean like I said it's just there's this level of sophistication of
we're going to send this to three papers because now I get to see the reaction of three companies and their heads and
what they're going to do whether they print it on the first page or the fourth page and then there's different readers
for every paper so now I'm going to hear and feel the reactions of when I'm going through my
daily life not as the Zodiac right just as as a regular dude and I'm going to hear the the Rumblings
about my work about what I'm creating it's uh I I I can't think of another crime off the top of my head of of
something that ballsy well if the police chief from Vallejo was trying to in fact
bait the killer or at least the author of that letter well they took the bait because on August 7th 1969 another
letter was received this was a three-page handwritten letter and it was received by the San Francisco Examiner
with the salutation deer editor this is the Zodiac speaking okay so now this monster has officially given himself a
name this will be the first time the killer had used this name for identification right the letter was a
response to Chief stiltz's request for more details that would prove he had killed Faraday Jensen and farron this
letter says Dear editor this is the Zodiac speaking in answer to you're asking for more details about the good
times I have had in Vallejo I shall be very happy to supply even more material by the way are the police having a good
time with the code if not tell them to cheer up when they do crack it they will have me on the 4th
of July I did not open the car door the window was rolled down already the boy was originally sitting in the front seat
when I began firing when I fired the first shot at his head he leaped backwards at the same time
thus spoiling my aim he ended up on the back seat then the floor in the back thrashing out very violently with his
legs that's how I shot him in the knee I did not leave the scene of the killing with squealing tires Racing Engines as
described in the Vallejo paper I drove away quite slowly so as not to draw attention to my car the man who told
police that my car was brown was a negro about 40 to 45 rather shabbily dressed I
was in this phone booth having some fun with the Vallejo cop when he was walking
by when I hung the phone up the damn thing began to ring and that Drew his attention to me plus my car
last Christmas again m-a-s-s in that episode the police were wondering how I could shoot and hit my victims in the
dark they did not openly State this but implied this by saying it was a well-lit
night and I could see silhouettes on the horizon [ __ ] that area is surrounded by high
hills plus trees what I did was tape a small pencil flashlight to the barrel of my gun if you notice in the center of
the beam of light if you aim it at a wall or ceiling you will see a black or dark spot in the center of the circle of
the light about three to six inches across when taped to a gun barrel the bullet will strike in the center of the
black dot in the light all I had to do was spray them as if it was a water hose there was no need to use the gun sights
I was not happy to see that I did not get front page coverage and then this is where he signs it with what we would
later refer to as the zodiac symbol the circle with the cross in the center of it and then he wrote no address so let's
think about this for a second what does this tell us about our killer well first
he seems to read all three papers and would appear to expect to have access to all three to double check their work on
Friday night or as he says fry night because that's when he's going to start killing people if he doesn't see his
work in the papers yeah but again we don't know how much time this guy has on his hands he could make the time if it's
that important to collect these resources again I don't have the notes in front of me like you do but there's
not a lot of misspelled words this guy isn't a Dennis Raider he's not misspelling a bunch of words
and he's also explaining to you how he basically jimmied his gun to have light in the dark
I I I don't want to give this guy too much credit but again I think you're dealing with a somewhat of an
intellectual yeah and I think that it's a strong possibility that the Zodiac has
some type of military background now talking about where he may live or what he has access to again I don't believe I
I can't believe that he threw out this threat and didn't want to double check their work I really firmly believe he
would have been in a position to have the ability to access all three newspapers that
Friday night to see his work that's what he that's what he loves yeah you wonder
if he's a some kind of driver or Delivery Man or well what I find interesting is we know that on the day
before he would have been in San Francisco because that's where the letters were mailed from right all three
yet of the newspapers the Vallejo times would be the smallest of the three papers and I wonder how much
availability at the time that Vallejo paper would have been in the bigger city of San Francisco I could see being in
Vallejo and being able to get the San Francisco papers I just wonder could one get the Vallejo paper in San Fran the
other thing that I want to point out here too is we also know that he reads the San Francisco Examiner and that
seems like a dumb statement but I want to include that because we know that he reads the San Francisco Examiner
specifically because he responded to Chief stiltz's request for more details that was only printed in one of the
three papers but what's interesting for whatever reason he's responding to something he read in the San Francisco
Examiner but he sends those additional details to the other paper to the San Francisco Chronicle right so it's it's
weird it's uh why why the preference of having it printed in the San Francisco Chronicle when you respond to something
that was in The Examiner or is it just another one of his weird little games and here comes Captain Obvious for you
again a little bit of sophistication a little bit of cat and mouse a little bit of
I I want to see how people react but the intellectual part the cipher dividing up the cipher in three parts
and I'm not great at cryptograms or anything like that so I'm not going to pretend to fully understand this but
some things that I do know is one you're looking for words that have the common double consonant use that's that's one
key indicator that you could quickly pick up on right as well as the the most common letter used in the English
language is the letter e and he was sophisticated enough to know this that he used I believe it was seven different
symbols for the letter e so it you know you couldn't one couldn't easily pick this up and figure out the letter e
immediately just by looking at it you know you would you would count up the number you would count up the symbols
that were used repeatedly and the one that was repeated the most you would say well that should be e right and start
from there well he used seven different symbols if not more for the letter e now
interestingly enough on August 8th so he's already responded to their request for more information to prove that he's
the killer before the cipher is solved because it's solved on the eighth and this was solved by Donald and Betty
Hardin of Salinas California they were the ones that cracked the zodiacs 408 Cipher are they mathematicians they were
I believe teachers nerds um and I don't know if it was math or or what but both of them had an interest in code cracking
and it was kind of a hobby of theirs the the interesting thing too it seems like
Donald was a little more schooled in this ability but it was Betty that kept the two of them at task like they were
multiple times where he's like it's impossible just give up and she's like no we got we're going to
stick with this we'll be able to solve it and so the husband and wife yeah behind every great man is an even better
woman a smarter woman but what I like about it is I love the people that go don't don't give up we're almost there
well and we'll get into the decipherment here in a minute but the cipher contained misspellings as you said
and the killer seemed to be referencing the most dangerous game now for those that don't know the most dangerous game
was also it's a story that was also published as the hounds of Zaroff it's a short story by Richard Connell after
decoded the cipher reads as follows I like killing people because it is so much fun it is more fun than killing
Wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal of all not true that's mosquitoes to kill something
gives me the most thrilling experience it is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl the best part of
it is that when I die I will be reborn in Paradise the I have killed will become my slaves
I will not give you my name because you will try to slow down or stop my collecting of slaves for my afterlife
and then there are 18 letters e b e o r i e t e m e t h h p i t i so the 408 symbol Cipher next time won't you single
as the captain pointed out includes several misspellings and grammar errors now the meaning if there in fact is any
meaning at all of the final 18 letters has never been determined okay but how can they say that the couple cracked the
code well this is really interesting and this is this like throws some psychology
into it as well because the couple they were saying look obviously this guy wants attention or he wouldn't have
bothered to write the letters in the first place right I agree so they said said you know we went into this after
examining it for a while with the idea that someone's so self-centered would likely begin the letter or the whole
message with I with the word I also Betty She suspected that the word kill would obviously appear in the message at
some point right so that's a good question yeah and she said that she took it as far as to suggest that the message
might even begin with the phrase something to the effect of I like killing so if you use that and apply it
and say all right well we we think that maybe it will start with the word I and that we will see the word kill at some
point in there you're looking for the double consonants the two L's and kill two symbols the same next to each other
to be used or you apply that uh I like killing as a possible first phrase and then
work it out through there I think we talked a little bit about this off record but the type of killing that he's doing
yes I mean by having two individuals it seems like it there's more cause for possibly a
mistake for one of them to get free and to live and then become a eyewitness but
it's one of the less risky crimes he's uh he's prey on people in in areas that that they know they're going to be
vulnerable and they're going to be alone and you can take advantage of that yeah
yeah it's again It's tricky to completely we were talking about decoding it's it's
difficult to decipher how he's coming up with his victims but one thing that seems to be going on in this situation
is that killing might not be the number one objective here no it almost feels like
the the reaction the suspense of him killing again is what really truly excites him
and that's where I go back to the idea of the threat of oh I'll drive around if you don't print print this on your front
pages like I asked you to I'm going to drive around all weekend shooting people until I end up with a dozen dead over
the weekend we didn't do that we know he didn't do that and so you go well why didn't he do that
because he got just as much enjoyment out of seeing the reaction the Panic the people working to try to to solve the
cipher and the reaction that it was putting out there for that weekend he achieved enough excitement over that
that he didn't have to go out and actually shoot and kill anybody yeah I agree and I think that's because the the
excitement is actually higher because I would actually think that you have more chances of getting caught they're
asking for the letter so they know it's coming so how much information can they find out about where that letter is
coming from but that's what baffles me a little bit is their demand is a higher risk that he could get caught
then him going on to kill other people yes and that's why it's a good kind of proactive
technique to try to bait the author into sending something again because look if
you can't shake the bushes and get the killer to come out then your second goal is well let's
shake the bushes and maybe the author comes out and it turns out that they weren't the Killer
and yeah and if you can shake the bushes well enough then you're a masturbator but what happens is they when they bait
the author they end up getting more confirmation that yes the author is in fact the person that killed all three of
those victims foreign [Music] [Music] foreign welcome back you True Crime addicts
cheers mates cheers all right Captain we have another attack so brace yourself this time the Zodiac
Killer will strike in broad daylight the date is Saturday September 27th 1969. the location is Lake Berryessa
Lake Berryessa is the largest lake in Napa County Florida located in the Vaca mountains to give a general location to
the listeners in relationship to the previous attacks Lake Berryessa is located about 36 miles north of Vallejo
so quite a quite a good distance considerable distance considering the first two attacks were within about two
miles of each other in the evening hours Pacific Union college students this is 20 year old
Brian Hartnell and 22 year old Cecilia Shepard are picnicking at Lake Berryessa on a small island connected by a sand
spit to Twin Oak Ridge a man approached them now as he got closer they could clearly see that the man was wearing a
disguise and holding a handgun the disguise or as I would call it the Zodiac's costume is described as a
hooded mask with a symbol sewn onto the chest The Mask resembles a paper grocery
bag in shape flat on top with the corner sticking out it was black with slits cut in it for
the eyes and mouth over the eye holes there were clip on sunglasses The Mask draped down over the
chest and back of the man the symbol sewn onto the chest portion of the Mask is a circle with a cross in
it the now familiar cross hairs looking symbol that the Zodiac uses as his logo so to speak yeah so now we have the guy
gives himself the name the Zodiac a very ominous name the Zodiac and now he's wearing this costume and he's given
himself a logo as well we have a killer that's really kind of coming to life as almost like a super villain from a comic
book yeah but hearing that his mask is similar to like a grocery sack it's that's a little disappointing hey look
at me I'm captain sackhead give me some candy well let's get into that after we go through what happened on that day the
hood that we're talking about came down over a dark colored windbreaker the windbreaker was worn over top of what
has been called a rusty black shirt I don't know exactly what that means my guess is anybody that's owned you know
you wear a black shirt a whole bunch of times it can can get faded but sometimes
it almost takes on this Rusty appearance yeah so he's wearing black gloves as well
he's wearing baggy pleated pants tucked into boots he has on a belt with a wooden holder
attached to the belt and the holder is for a long knife now the knife resembles a bayonet with a wooden handle
he had some lengths of rope stuffed inside his belt I've seen several sources state that these were very
likely cut clothesline probably cut into 18 inch or two feet long pieces given the time period in other cases we have
reviewed cut clothesline makes good sense the attacker was five feet ten inches to
six foot two inches tall the hood is often described as a black Executioner's type Hood so given that
description and the general shape of this Hood I would believe this may make his exact height a little more difficult
to determine and that's why I think he may have chose that oddly shaped grocery bag type shape for the hood right plus
he has it cut in a way that it's going to drape down the front of him and the back of him it just really makes his
exact height very difficult to determine yeah and also doesn't hug the features of his face correct
he's described it does not hug the face it doesn't hug my face he's described as
possibly 225 to 250 pounds so a big boy stocky and build again given the fact that he was clearly very overdressed
with unnecessary layers of clothing and baggy pants he may appear to be heavier than what he actually is and I know this
is a point of contention in the Delphi case with the bridge guy a glimpse into the space this is very interesting a
glimpse into the space behind those clip-on sunglasses right by our one of our victims revealed brown hair
and what he said a glimmer suggesting that maybe the attacker is wearing glasses underneath the hood
his voice it is said sounded like he was in his twenties Brian Hartnell believed that the gun
that the man had was a 45. now the way that a 45 looks traditionally is very consistent with what some in law
enforcement say was the likely used in at least one of the earlier attacks that that Browning high-powered uh handgun
that we spoke of okay so again let's let's take a step back for a second because we have a guy that now we think
he has access to multiple guns has access to multiple Vehicles he is now sending letters not just calling and
taking responsibility but sending letters taunting different Publications different entities if you will and then
this one seems a little more Brash because it's in the daylight he's wearing a costume so he's going to stick
out like a sore thumb or a sore loser it's also on a remote part like you said almost an
island so it seems like again setting himself up in more of a dangerous scenario to get caught yes yes and maybe
no and I have a lot of thoughts on that why he's kind of changing what he's doing I think he's in a way evolving and
adapting to to the battlefield if you will I actually believe that this guy is playing a game and he's not informed the
rest of us that this game is going on right and it is a type of game that he's playing and he doesn't he's chosen not
to tell us the rules of this game but his objective is to kill terrorize put the fear of the community into the
people in the community and not get caught for it and I think what you see here is too you mentioned access to
multiple weapons or now we're potentially seeing different guns used and a bayonet type knife this guy his
makeup his profile very much would indicate this guy has to be kind of a weapons enthusiast
of some sort he's not somebody that just purchased one gun or or his daddy died and gave him a gun no this is a guy that
that is actively collecting using practicing with different guns and weapons so much so that he explains to
them look you made it sound like oh I could I was just shooting at the Silhouettes as
they ran from me no that's [ __ ] I purposely outfitted my weapon so that I could hunt in the night and make it easy
on me it's dark I don't want to use my sights it's almost nearly impossible if not impossible to use them in the pitch
black so I taped a pencil flashlight to the barrel of my gun anybody that's ever
aimed that at a wall or ceiling knows that you will see this and the gun behaves and reacts in relationship to
the flashlight in this manner yeah this means this is all stuff this dude has practiced and tried on his own
the only thing he was missing was an audience and the audience unfortunately would be his future victims
when he played this out again yeah but I also think when he said hey look here's
my demands put these notes in the the ciphers on the front page and then they didn't instead of going with his
original plan they zigged he zagged he was killing people at night okay now they're on to that I'm gonna show them I
can kill a different way I'm willing to kill in the daylight so now we don't have a killer that we're just worried
when the when the Sun goes down we have a killer that we need to be worried about all the time therein lies the
terrorist aspect of this killer it's you're only truly good at the terrorism game if people are afraid of you all of
the time and this is to suggest to the community look I don't just hunt at night time baby I do this whenever I
feel like it and until I am caught you all should be very afraid continuing on with the description of the attack at
Lake Berryessa the hooded gunman demanded the couple's money and car keys saying he wanted to drive to to Mexico
right he said he escaped from a prison in Deer Lodge Montana where he had killed a prison guard he's said that he
had no money and was driving a stolen car Brian gave the attacker his money and keys to his Volkswagen Karmann Ghia
then using the pre-cut lengths of clothesline he instructed Cecilia to tie up Brian
then the hooded man tied up Cecilia put her face down next to Brian the killer then checked and tightened Brian's
bindings the couple seemed to believe the man's story they thought they were simply being robbed this is until he
told them that he was going to stab them both right then he drew his knife and he
stabbed them both repeatedly he began by stabbing Brian first in the back and then he moved on to Cecilia and did the
same but she rolled onto her back in like in in the struggle and ended up being stabbed repeatedly on in the front
as well Brian said that he pretended to be dead now after the attack the attacker tossed the money and keys onto
the couple's blanket and simply walked off so he came up with this story I'm here to take your money in your your car
and then tossing them on the blanket indicates he didn't want their money nor did he need their car the killer then
hiked 500 yards back to Knoxville Road this is to Brian hartnell's Volkswagen Carmen Ghia right before the killer left
using a black felt tip marker he wrote a message on Brian hartnell's car he drew
a cross circle symbol on hartnell's car door and wrote beneath it Vallejo 12-20-68
7-4-69 September 27 69 630 by knife so the zodiac symbol followed by Vallejo the location of the first two attacks
followed by the dates of those attacks then the date of the current attack September 27th the Lake Berryessa he
even provided the time 6 30 and the method for which he intended to kill the victims by knife begin
what did we do here I'm killing my victims with a gun at night now I'm going to switch to killing
my victims during the day with a knife yes and what's interesting to me Captain I actually I say that I believe that the
Killer is evolving he's evolving for the purpose of his game again his game is to terrorize
continue to terrorize and not get caught I mean but that's your blanket statement
is that it's that's what my belief as a game of terrorism but there's no like there you don't have deeper details that
you no the Zodiac has not told me that I'm correct so I'm just guessing I'm a [ __ ] I'm just guessing here but I also
believe that his main goal out of all of this is not to get caught so if I apply
that to these crimes let's think about this for a second the first the first attack the
first 100 confirmed zodiac attack took place just before Christmas 1968. he's successful and to the point
of not only killing both victims but there's no real Witnesses you know the problem for him then becomes on July
4th he does a very similar attack or what we can believe would be a very similar attack as the first one however
he screwed up he left before killing both victims one of the guys survived to the point where he could offer a
description of the zodiac yeah it was a couple but the the male survived correct
Michael Maggio he survived and what does he provide police he provides them with
a description of the shooter as well as a somewhat vague but a description of the vehicle here's what I think is super
interesting why is he changing I don't think it's so much so to terrorize and prove that he can kill in any method or
any manner that he chooses I think it's all kind of convenient because he's learning what he did wrong
so he knows now that he's not perfect he's had two attacks on four victims one survives
he now knows that he's not perfect after his second attack doesn't go down the way he wanted it to right
so what has he taken from this well they've already kind of there's a description out there about my vehicle
there's a description out there about me okay well I'm going to attack now in a manner that does not have me pulling my
vehicle up to their vehicle or up to the victims because if I accidentally leave
one of them alive his intent is to kill let's let's not be confused here his intent is to kill everyone he attacks
but he knows that he's not perfect so I do not want to have to put my vehicle where if one of these people manages to
survive somehow we'll have a description of my vehicle also I'm gonna wear a disguise because if in fact one of them
do survive they can't give a description of me because I've worn this elaborate disguise right the potato sack how about
I take it a step further one a gun is pretty loud and I'm doing this at Lake Berryessa which is in fact just
basically a huge gigantic Park all that noise is going to cause a lot of people awareness of me and they might be seeing
me so let's use some something much more quiet Like a Knife oh and that's even better too because then I'm not leaving
behind bullets and casings that they can match it to my previous crimes or to or
or back to me because it's a firearm that I own yeah and I also wonder if he changed the way in which he's attacking
victims not just the throw off law enforcement or to like show people hey look I I can kill people however I want
and and that will strike fear into the community but in the in that moment you have to stab that individual more
times than you'd have to shoot them and you have to be at a closer range so do you get more of
whatever he's getting off on he's getting off on chaos and rage and their fear and how they're reacting to him
you think I would think that attack with a knife would be more intimate yes he's
certainly becoming more violent and whether that's because he aspires to become more violent or if it's through
necessity of changing his Mo right the other thing with the in broad daylight see I feel
like the Zodiac would want all of us to go oh wow I mean he's so he he's so confident that he's out there killing in
broad daylight and now he's hands on and and he's wearing a potato sack I think that he would enjoy and would want us to
think that where I think that he's actually fairly inadequate where I think that he does not have a whole lot of
confidence even though he tries to tell us that he does I think that he has made these moves in
these maneuvers to change what he's doing because he is afraid that he's going to get caught
that he does know that he has made mistakes I think if it were up to him he would have simply kept doing
what he did in the first attack and been successful all along but because he was learning that he's not
perfect he's deciding that he has to change well I was talking to a a seasoned detective retired and he just
said oh what's your next case I said uh zodiac and he goes uh yeah this was this was a real
detective he he didn't read a lot about uh true crime stories or other cases going on he worked his cases he's like
how did he kill his victims again uh wasn't he lover Lovers Lane shooter or something I said uh yeah yeah Lover
Lover Lane and he and he and he basically was saying coward and so we also don't know
what people were saying around the Zodiac when he's in his normal life he could have just had a buddy
that he was like man that zodiac man he's going around killing people and the guy went oh what a wuss you know guy
pulls up on unsuspected victims in the middle of night with a gun what kind of [ __ ] what kind of fair
fight is that you know I mean well it never is with these guys and that's why in fact they are all cowards at at the
at the core of it at the core of of their being they're all I mean he's ambushing teenagers unarmed people it's
not a it's it's not a fair fight and he knows that going into it yeah but that's
what I'm saying is what I think is interesting is how much of the decision is he making based off this game he's
playing or this uh zigging zag game that he's playing with law enforcement or it
could be simply he you know he's talking to people about the crime in his regular
life and they make some observations and then he goes well I gotta change it up because uh Zodiac's not impressing
people enough you know in this killing in broad daylight I don't think that it shows that his confidence is growing I
think it's just out of necessity he's killing at basically what is a big giant park right so when do parks close when
the Sun goes down so if you want to drive there looking for a victim your likelihood of finding a victim after
Sundown is less likely so he I again I think because of him choosing this area he's kind of forced into attacking
during broad daylight now Captain it looks like our two victims they were able to crawl some distance
from the scene their screams and cries for help were in fact heard by a man who was with his son they were on a fishing
trip uh in the area that day the man contacted the park rangers now Cecilia was conscious when Law Enforcement
Officers arrived right this was Napa County Sheriff's Office that arrived on scene but she very quickly slipped into
a coma during the transportation to the hospital and never regained consciousness
she died two days later from her injuries Brian Hartnell the the male victim survived and was able to provide
law enforcement with the details of the attack and the attacker the details that
we just went through right at 7 40 PM by the Killer's own words this would be a little more than one hour after the
attack A call came into the Napa County Police Department on the call the unidentified
male caller sounded to be maybe early 20s according to the person taking the call said he wanted to report a double
murder and before he hung up he said he was the perpetrator of those murders not
just reporting the murders right but I'm the guy that did the call was from a pay
phone at a Napa car wash on Main Street in Napa the phone was found still off the hook minutes later by a radio
reporter this pay phone is located only blocks away from the Napa Sheriff's Office this is 27 miles though from the
crime scene again weird that this guy okay he's going to carry out these attacks and again by his own words
he thinks he was successful he's calling in a double murder and fortunately Brian Hartnell survived
yeah but in an hour to an hour and 10 minutes uh roughly and then this location probably a 30-minute drive would be my
guess I don't find too much of a problem with the missing time here and that's because we know several facts
about this crime one the killer walked a considerable distance from the parking area to where he
attacked both of the victims and then walked then had to walk back he wrote on the vehicle
and then he left the area the detectives were able to lift a still wet palm print from the telephone used
by the Killer but it looks like they were never able to match it to any one suspect
at the crime scene Captain there were tire tracks found near Brian's car so someone parked behind Brian's car it is
believed that this is the vehicle of the Killer and here's why they said that the
front of this car that that left tracks they could tell by the tracks that the front of this car seemed to have tires
that were not only worn but they were actually two different sizes okay so we believe this to be the Killer's vehicle
because Footprints led to the murder scene and then back again to that parking area that went right up to the
door of Brian's Carmen Ghia the shoe size was ten and a half the subject was estimated to weigh at
least 220 pounds so this fits with Brian's description as well right the prints were from a wing walker type
of boot this type of boot was produced under government contract and distributed on the west coast to Navy
and Air Force some people at the lake that day provided descriptions of a man that they
said seemed to be suspicious this unidentified male was in a light blue or silver Chevy with California
tags smoking cigarettes he was six foot tall or more 200 to 230 pounds mid-20s to mid
30s with straight dark hair side part clean cut they have him wearing a black sweatshirt
with sleeves long sleeves I'm sorry dark blue slacks and a t-shirt was visible hanging out of the pants uh in the back
and what was hanging out in his front and here's another I unidentified male description maybe the same person maybe
not we don't know this person was described as five foot ten stocky wearing a dark long sleeve
shirt with some red on it and dark pants now long time listeners of this show will know from our John Douglas mind
Hunter episodes as he said the FBI did not investigate the Zodiac crimes at the time but did so
later Douglas however suggests that maybe the killer at this attack provided us a clue to his identity
specifically the I escape from a prison in Deer Lodge Montana and Douglas who even lived in Montana at
some point in his life says that Deer Lodge Montana is not just the kind of place that you just pick at random or
pull it out of thin air he believes that there's a likelihood that this the attacker the killer the Zodiac has
some connection to that area now he did say that it was specifically looked at there was not a recent escape from a
prison there there was not a recent murder of a prison guard there that part was made up but Douglas firmly believes
that this Deer Lodge Montana it was real is is more truth Than Fiction so I always just thought it was
a ruse just to throw him off the set Douglas actually suggested using some proactive techniques and he said that he
would use this Deer Lodge Montana idea and maybe snuffing out the stuff up I guess sniffing out the killer he says
what he would have done if he would have been active on the case at the time would be to cooperate with an
investigative reporter in the Deer Lodge Montana area right and have them run some kind of story about the Zodiac and
that they're seeking information from some different people and whatnot he really felt that if you could tie
together Vallejo California Lake Berryessa California and Deer Lodge Montana there's not going to be a great portion
of the population that have lived in both places and that would really shrink down your
suspect pool now the description that we gave of the suspicious man this may not
be the Zodiac at all may not be the killer at all this is just somebody that was spotted at Lake Berryessa that day
by two different groups of people maybe the same man maybe not but they said they all thought this guy to be
suspicious you're asked have you seen anything unusual or anything suspicious in nature you report that to police and
we went through the description of this mail or males this was put out to the public and in a very smart move the
police did not refer to this man as a suspect simply they said this is someone that was at Lake Berryessa on the day of
the murders and is somebody that police would like speak with yeah I mean it's the same thing they did in Delphi with
Bridge guy but I wonder if you know if he was in this prison does that mean that he's catchable well I don't
necessarily think that Douglas thinks that the man served time in prison I think he's just pointing out that not
everyone across this big country would even know that Deer Lodge Montana exists right and
that there is a prison in the area and so he's just saying that this simply means that somebody had some kind of
knowledge of that Deer Lodge Montana area and it's not wouldn't be commonplace for anyone to have that
information all right so again after this one he wants that recognition we don't see this all the time with serial
killers where they want law enforcement to know hey guys I'm out here and I'm not stopping most of the time The
Killers want to hide that aspect but he he places a call again and the interesting thing here is on that call
from the reports that I've seen it doesn't necessarily say that he's taking responsibility for all of the zodiac
murders he's simply saying that he's reporting a double murder at Lake Berryessa and I'm the guy that killed
the two well he knows that he can keep his message his phone call short and sweet he doesn't have to go into the
Vallejo crimes right because he knows that when law enforcement arrive on the scene they're going to find Brian
hartnell's vehicle and on that car door he wrote Vallejo and the two dates of the attack then he
wrote today's date and the time by knife he knows the shock value of that is going to be Supreme when the when law
enforcement show up on the scene and see that on the car door they will immediately know right that he's done
all three and it's fascinating because as you pointed out this is an individual that
he wants some kind of credit for these murders and he wants law enforcement to know that he's a serial killer and you
all he also wonder during this time frame how many calls that they're getting that are hoaxes yeah and the
scary thing too that I've always considered is look if this kind of thing was going on
on a public level this is all very public we have letters going to the newspapers being printed out so anybody
can read them yes the the scary thing I've always thought about in regards to the Zodiac Killer case is if if you had
somebody that you wanted to take out that you wanted to kill at this time well what better way to go and kill that
person and maybe the Zodiac takes credit for it or maybe the public thinks that the Zodiac did it
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The Zodiac /// Part 2 /// 471

Part 2 of 5 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

In the late 60’s and early 70’s a hooded serial killer terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area. The killer told the press and police to call him the Zodiac. Few cases in modern True Crime have been discussed and speculated about more, especially on the west coast. In 2018 Law Enforcement in California finally apprehended Joseph Deangelo better known as the Golden State Killer. The Golden State Killer was dormant for 32 years and they still were able to arrest and convict him. The Zodiac, a much different type of killer has been silent for over 45 years. Is there still time to pull off the hood and final identify the one who calls himself the Zodiac? Join us in the Garage as we go through the Zodiac’s confirmed kill timeline and of course we will offer up some speculation and insights along the way.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the Zodiac Killer's letters, the 408 Cipher, and the Lake Berryessa attack on Brian Hartnell and Cecilia Shepard.

Key points

Zodiac's Letters. Three letters sent to local newspapers claimed responsibility for murders and included a cryptogram.
The First Use of 'Zodiac'. The killer identifies himself as the Zodiac in a letter to the San Francisco Examiner.
Decoding the Cipher. The 408 Cipher was cracked by a couple, revealing chilling messages from the Zodiac.
The Zodiac's Daylight Attack. The Zodiac Killer strikes again in broad daylight at Lake Berryessa, showcasing his evolving methods.
A Disturbing Disguise. The killer approaches his victims wearing a hooded mask resembling a grocery bag, adding to the terror.
A Call from the Killer. An hour after the attack, the Zodiac calls police to report the murders, claiming responsibility.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is the murderer of the two teenagers last Christmas.

Zodiac's letter to the editor.

3:44WatchNov 8, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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