The Zodiac /// Part 3 /// 472 | Forensic Files

[Music] thank you [Music] two weeks after the attack at Lake Berryessa we are now at October 11
1969 on our zodiac timeline this is when a white male hailed a taxi cab driven by 29 year old Paul Stein
the passenger would hail the taxi cab at the intersection of Mason and Gary streets this is one block west of Union
Square in San Francisco this is in the Heart of the City the passenger requesting to be taken to Washington and
maple streets and the Presidio Heights area that's about a 13 to 15 minute drive from the location of where Paul
Stein picks up his passenger to where the passenger is requesting to be dropped off
for reasons unknown the taxi cab did not stop at the requested destination instead Paul Stein drove one block past
Maple Street to Cherry Street and you say well how do we know that the passenger requested to be dropped off
elsewhere one block prior to where the location where they do drop off it's based off of the taxi cab drivers
journal or log sheet for picking up the passenger at that location and where the
passenger requested to go now we know that it made the cab made it an additional block based off of eyewitness
testimony right the only reason why I question this is is it possible that the Zodiac said take me to this location and
the guy goes well I don't know exactly where that's at and he said well it's right by whatever and then that's what
the the cab driver put into his log that's interesting thing because it's always been pondered why go the
additional block and we can put in some uh speculation as to that but as you just pointed out that could be a
possibility maybe it's just the error a human error on the part of the taxi cab driver in his log sheet the white male
passenger then shot Paul Stein once in the head with a nine millimeter gun he took Paul Stein's wallet and car keys
and tore away a section of Paul Stein's blood-stained shirt tale this all went down Captain right at about 9 55 p.m on
that night of October 11th the passenger slash shooter was witnessed by three teenagers across the
street at that same time at 9 55 PM right this is very cool because they were actually able to call in the murder
two police while the crime was still in progress the way that this goes down is about 50 feet from where the murder took
place down there in the street we have a birthday party going on and one of the witnesses this would have been a young
teenage girl witnessed the crime in action calls over her two brothers and they witnessed this whole event
going down as well and they phoned the police and say hey there's a robbery or a shooting or something that's going
down in the streets below yeah this is going to give us probably our best eyewitness account of the zodiac that's
correct because in the second attack where Mike majo was able to offer up a suspect description keep in mind he had
been shot several times and was in a good deal of pain and Trauma when he saw the suspect and then later we have Brian
Hartnell who offers up a description but by this time our killer the Zodiac he is
disguised from head to toe right these Witnesses are not even a part of the crime they're just simply witnessing the
crime from afar not very far about 50 feet would be the estimation so they're going to get a decent look at this guy
now mind you it is dark but this is a The Heart of the City it's the busy part of the city where we should have pretty
well lit streets now the witnesses say that they saw the killer wiping the cab down before he walks away not running
just calmly walks away from the crime scene toward the Presidio area yeah and because we have three eyewitnesses we're
going to get a better description of this individual because we got three different perspectives yes as well as
the description of the suspect so he the suspect is heading to the Presidio area
again that would be one block north of the the crime now two blocks from the crime scene was another birthday party
yeah is a San Francisco patrol car that is responding to this very call they observed a white male walking along the
sidewalk East on Jackson Street and stepping onto a stairway leading up to the front yard of one of the homes on
the north side of the street this encounter lasted maybe 10 seconds or so this has always been a strange part in
the whole zodiac conversation and the whole investigation itself because we'll we'll see there's some weird
movements going on here where we may have had San Francisco police actually interact with the killer however they've
never been super forthcoming and completely Cooperative with that type of statement right there were two officers
in this patrol car they later said that a white male pedestrian was about 35 to maybe 45 years of age 5 foot 10 inches
tall with a crew cut similar to but slightly older than the description the teenagers who observed
the Killer said the killer to be the teenagers say that the man that they saw stepping out of Paul Stein's cab they
have him as about 25 to 30 years of age with a crew cut and again it's a white male that they are describing the
teenage Witnesses put the killer at about five foot eight inches to five foot nine inches tall one we have to
remember this is 1969 so that's actually going to be somewhat tall for the average male well
one thing that I find interesting about this piece of the story here Captain is that we have a discrepancy in age
described by the two different parties here the police officers describing someone older than the teenagers
describing right and I think that that could be for several reasons I think they're talking about the same guy
because the general description other than the age is in fact the same it's very very similar so what we have here
is a situation where the officers in the patrol car one likely got a better look
at the individual head-on face-to-face eye to eye sort of situation where the teenagers would have been up on the
second floor and they would have been seeing the killing and observing the suspect from from an elevated height
right which might change some things the other thing though too again the officers in the car they might have this
perspective in a better gauge on this suspect's age because they're probably likely most you know
they're definitely more close in age to the suspect himself now still to this day captain and no one
seems to be sure why or can agree why this took place but for whatever reason the police radio dispatcher initially
alerted officers responding to this call this robbery the shooting call to be on
the lookout for a black male suspect so when the officers saw this white guy and zodiac would tell us later that that
they interacted the officers interacted with him that night as he was running or walking
away from the crime scene they they did not suspect him to be the person they were looking for at that
time because of this flawed description this just wrong description of the suspect they should be looking for as
they drive to the crime scene well again with the Zodiac Killer it's very fascinating because it's the the change
of actual crime look confirmed killings you can debate other killings but the confirmed killings that we have the four
attacks two being Lover Lane shootings another one similar to lover Lanes but it's stabbing victims and then
you have this attack on a taxi cab driver it makes almost no sense yeah it doesn't
stick to the victimology and it doesn't stick to the mo that we saw in the first
two attacks and and it even I mean you one could argue the third attack has a very strong Mo to the first two and this
one the attack the murder of Paul Stein is significantly different now we mentioned that the Zodiac says that he
spoke to the officers San Francisco Police Department their stance has always been we didn't speak to the
Zodiac Zodiac says in the letter he did but again he's been proven to be a liar on more than one occasion but according
to this other version again the police actually stopped the man who might have been the zodiac
and they asked him if he's seen or heard anything suspicious to which the man that they stopped says
yes I saw a man waving a gun on Washington Street heading east so the police squealed their tires to
rush off to go looking for this non-existent man with a gun and again very likely let the Zodiac
Killer walk off into the night and it's almost as if the zodiac is like daring himself to do a crime that's
in the Public's eyes that people will see him and how will he react when the police arrive on the scene at the murder
scene Captain they find Paul Stein he's lying across the passenger seat he was dead from the single bullet fire to his
head damage to the entry of the bullet proved the killer placed the gun to Paul Stein's head before firing the gun so
this would be Point Blank Range that the killer used to kill Paul Stein the killer managed to take only
approximately 25 dollars from the cab driver they were able to come up with that dollar amount based off of again
the driver's log for that night on the fares that he had picked up throughout the night so it was called in as a
robbery in progress with a possible shooting however we now know that this being a zodiac case
the robbery is just secondary it it doesn't likely have anything to do and it was not the motivation for the murder
itself as we know in the three previous attacks the killer didn't molest any of the victims did not steal any of their
money so then we have the perpetrator of Paul Stein's murder wiping down the cab
this is based off of the three teenage eyewitnesses however the killer still managed to leave two fingerprints
smeared in Blood on the outside of the rear door on the driver's side now detective Bill Armstrong and David tosky
were assigned to the case they arrived there that night and anyone who has seen the 2007 zodiac film will know exactly
the detectives that we are talking about as the movie follows them for a good deal of their investigation now of
course because it went down in a taxi cab Paul Stein's murder was initially believed to be a robbery turned homicide
but then two days later on Monday October 13th the San Francisco Chronicle received a letter from the zodiac I call
this one the Paul Stein letter because it contained a torn section of Paul Stein's bloodstained t-shirt I think the
Zodiac added that because there started becoming questioning amongst law enforcement and probably the community
saying is he actually responsible for these murders or is he just taking claim to them well in in this communique what
we have here Captain is we have a very similar envelope addressed in a similar manner to the the previous letters
received this says s period F period Chronicle San Fran period Khalif we see that
caliph of the abbreviation the abbreviated California please rush to editor one difference that is is obvious and
noticeable right away in the way that this letter is addressed opposed to the others is in the upper left hand corner
where one would typically expect to see a return address we have the what we're calling the Zodiac logo the crosshairs
the circle with the cross in the middle is in place of the return address and again we see two stamps for this letter
so in typical zodiac tradition here right we're seeing more postage than what is needed the letter reads as
follows this is the Zodiac speaking I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by
Washington Street and Maple Street last night to prove this here is a blood-stained
piece of his shirt I am the same man who did in the people in the North Bay Area
the S period F period for San Francisco the San Francisco police could have caught me last night if they had
searched the park properly instead of holding road races with their motorcycles seeing who could make the
most noise the car driver should have just parked their cars and sat there quietly waiting
for me to come out of cover school children make nice targets I think I shall wipe out a school bus some
morning just shoot out the front tire and then pick off the kitties as they come bouncing out and of course he signs
it with the Zodiac logo the cross hairs well again zodiac likes to come off a little smug a little pompous
you know hey I'll just uh I'll just wreck a bus kill everybody I still don't understand why he would take
such a high risk to kill somebody basically in a public place with a bunch of eyewitnesses well I think that's a
perfect question here Captain because you're right it changes ammo completely he's now attacking a single male in a
taxi cab and as you pointed out this is going to be a busy area there's there is
a high risk for an eyewitness if not multiple eyewitnesses the other thing too is now the Killer is also going to
be dealing with the San Francisco Police Department rather than the Napa County Sheriff's Department or Vallejo where
they you know much smaller departments San Francisco is going to have better resources more officers more cars
motorcycles as he calls them and we even know that helicopters were flying around
that night trying to look for the man that they know lead on foot from the murder scene you mean helicopters yeah
motorcycles and helicopters that's right yeah so let's examine this one and compare it to the previous attacks what
we have here Captain is the first attack confirmed zodiac attack is Friday December 20th
1968 and this was the murder the double homicide of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen now about two miles away and
about six and a half months later on Friday July 4th 1969 Michael Maggio and Darlene Farren are gunned down as they
sit in Darlene's vehicle and thankfully Michael Maggio survives that attack then
let's fast forward just a brief period here to September 27th of that same year 1969 on Saturday when Brian Hartnell and
Cecilia Shepherd are attacked by a masked gunman who pulls a knife on them and stabs the both of them and again
Brian Hartnell survives now the zodiac claims to be the attacker of all three of these attacks in fact when he sends
letters to the chronicle The Examiner and Vallejo times the letters received on August 1st
he is giving detailed proof that he is in fact the murderer of the person that conducted the first two attacks and then
when he attacks Brian Hartnell Cecilia Shepard in at Lake Berryessa right he phones it in just like he did in the
second attack owner and he writes on Brian hartnell's Corridor the zodiac symbol followed with the previous dates
of two attacks and that he is claiming to be the attacker of Brian and Cecilia that day at Lake Berryessa what do we
have here now captain the final confirmed attack is a Saturday October 11 1969 of Paul
Stein one I find it intriguing alone that the first two attacks both take place on a Friday and then the second
two attacks attack number three and four both take place on a Saturday for whatever reason the zodiac is a
weekend warrior and I do not know why because he has a job there must be something keeping him from killing
during the week it's just so much more convenient for him to do what he does on the weekend
now in this situation the first attack he's successful he kills both of the people parked in the vehicle
he gets away with what maybe no eyewitness at all at least to his person there is one eyewitness saying that they
saw a vehicle parked near Faraday's car that night and that comes into question but then on the 4th of July he proves
that he is not perfect he's not as good as he claims to be or he believed himself to be because he leaves the
crime scene before he he's successful in killing both of the victims Mike Maggio
survives and even offers up a description of the suspect and the suspect's vehicle so what does he do he
adapts a little bit he's going to have to take his car out of the next crime I don't want my vehicle seen oh I can't be
seen as well because I know that I'm not perfect if I if I screw up again and I leave a witness if I leave a Survivor at
the crime they can describe me they can tell the police what I look like they can tell the public what I look like
this time I'll wear a disguise the thing with Paul Stein's murder that fascinates
me is the complete difference in Mo and I have to wonder and three attacks the last two he failed
to kill the male in both of those attacks and the last two attacks he failed to kill both victims and left of
a victim alive in both attacks has he evolved to the point of understanding that maybe I do not want to go and kill
two people again I've just not been that great at it the last two times but for whatever game that he's playing
he needs to keep killing to terrorize the San Francisco Bay area and then take that a step further he's killed in
Vallejo he's killed at Lake Berryessa he's not killed in San Francisco yet and yet he's been mailing threatening
letters and ciphers to San Francisco to two of their newspapers what the hell do people in San Francisco
got to be afraid of he's not even done an attack here we just keep reading about this guy in the newspaper I feel
like zodiac wanted to do a crime in San Francisco San Francisco proper like you said right in a busy area yes it's super
risky but that's the thrill this guy's getting out of this he's a terrorist at his heart well like you said it's
possibly the hometown of the zodiac is it possible to that yes who's doing these killings but was there something
that was allowing him to get away and maybe he had these all these plans of what he's going to do that weekend and
for some reason he couldn't leave but the urge to keep this going was too much so it's like oh well let's go downtown
yeah and it's it's also a situation of I think he planned a lot of this out of going okay well I need to
I I want to kill someone in San Francisco I need them to be by themselves because I don't want to
attack two people again and foul up and leave somebody alive and I think he came
up with a vulnerable situation a taxi cab driver is a dangerous profession because they get robbed at a
higher rate than than other professions right just simply based off of that they
are often alone with whomever they choose to let in their vehicle and so the Zodiac knew this and some people
have said that maybe the coordinates of where he wanted to kill the cab driver it was important to zodiac and maybe
that's why he picked a cab because they'll go where you ask them to go I don't want to play that game because I
don't want to get into the mathematics or geography of of that portion of it but I find it fascinating that not only
did he I feel like he wanted to prove that he could kill the male and I feel like he didn't want to keep
pointing out his flaws that he wasn't Perfect by leaving a Survivor so I'm going to choose one victim I'm going to
go after one individual I think he wanted a male victim but the other thing we have here too captain
is he takes the time to rip off a piece of Paul Stein's shirt Tale why because he's already given proof when he offered
up details about the first two crimes however he wants the papers and the police and the public to take him
seriously if any of you were out there doubting anything that I've said because a lot of the details I gave you so far
only the Killer and or police would know well here's your proof baby here's your bloody shirt
I am who I say I am I'm the Zodiac I'm the person responsible for these murders and I'm why you should be afraid
right every night why you should not be out on the streets at night [Music] foreign
[Music] we're back cheers you filthy animals extra fill the animals filthy animals if you're nasty on
November 8th 1969 the Zodiac mailed a card with another cryptogram consisting of 340 characters or symbols and this
Cipher was dubbed the z340 cipher which remained unsolved for over 51 years it was in fact just solved
December of 2020. the zodiac would continue to mail letters and threatening letters and he
even mailed some letters to famous attorney Melvin belli at some point and so he continued his open wave of
communication to the newspapers and police it's strange Captain because from here this is where we go from confirmed
zodiac attacks to the rest are open for speculation there are some attacks that the Zodiac
has claimed over the years there are some attacks that people have claimed were conducted by the Zodiac but we
never have any type of definitive proof like offered up in these four attacks that resulted in the five confirmed
homicides committed by the Zodiac Killer one a lot of people will throw the Sherry Joe Bates case in with zodiac
research I think that's fair but what we have is we have the killer that is calling himself or identifying
himself as the zodiac he doesn't make those claims and you would think that he would yeah
that's interesting because he throughout these four attacks never does he ever mention the murder of Sherry Jo Bates in
Riverside California and it's not until the police and others are already kind of hip to the idea that
the Riverside killer might be the same as the Zodiac that the Zodiac does finally hint around the idea that that
he might have been the murderer of and he doesn't even name the victim which was Sherry Joe Bates
another crime that is often linked to the Zodiac whether it be confirmed or not is the Kathleen Johns
story and Kathleen Johns was a young mother she had a 10 month old daughter with her and she was pregnant at the
time and in March of 1970 she's driving from San Bernardino California to Petaluma this was to visit her mother
with the purpose of you know letting her 10 month old daughter visit with her mom
she chose to because she would be driving with a child I mean 10 month old is a baby they need a lot of attention
you need a lot of time she decided you know what this is a long drive that's like 300 400 miles I think
that she would do most of this driving at night because the baby would sleep for a large portion if not the entirety
of the drive right and she could focus on driving and not have to pay attention to her young daughter
well this is pretty late at night and she was heading west on Highway 132 near Modesto California and she said that a
vehicle seam behind her was trying to get her attention now I do want to be clear here captain
this is a difficult story to tell because there are different versions of the story that have come out through the
years right and Kathleen Johns not that I don't believe her it's just she's told
a slightly different story on more than one occasion but the gist of it so that means you don't believe her well it it
makes it confusing to pass along this story and say that I feel super confident I believe it went down I
believe this story went down 100 percent I just the subtle variations are difficult yeah the problem with these
types of accounts are these are victims and the situation that they were in might be the highest stress situation
they've ever been in and so I think not always are they lying or that they're trying to be
you know manipulative or something they're they're I think they have a hard time recounting
the events because of how stressful it would have been or how traumatic it would have been yes that is very likely
I mean she has a lot to be concerned about not only her own life but the life of her very very small child at the time
too so stressful situation does not begin to describe the situation at all but the gist of this story Captain is
that the driver who is on the highway behind her is indicating that she should be pulling over
and once she pulls over the driver of the other vehicle mail guy male driver and people that have seen the Zodiac
movie The 2007 film know exactly what we're about to talk about because this is a terrifying part of the story one of
one of the more terrifying portions of the movie itself the man tells her hey your back tire
looks to be wobbly looks to be loose I can fix that for you and she says that she sat in her vehicle while this man
fixed the tire okay everything seems fine she thanks him he gets back in his vehicle he
drives off she starts back up on her journey and very quickly the tire that he was working on comes completely loose
and she is now in a situation where her vehicle is inoperable she gets out to discover that there's
only one lug nut still on the tire so while this man claimed to be fixing her problem he was creating a problem
he returns and offers her a ride to the nearest service station which in some of the versions she says was
close enough that she could see it and so she agrees to get into this individual's vehicle she gets in with
her baby they go a driving and she said that they just kept driving and driving and driving
and she kept pointing out hey you're driving past the service station hey there's one coming up here we're driving
past this one as well and and the the police report that I could find it states that she says that
anytime she mentioned service station or that he had just drove past one he would
change the topic of conversation to something else that the two were interacting for
the entirety of the drive now in the movie it appears to be a very short drive when in fact based off the police
report says that they drove around for like an hour maybe even an hour and a half wow but it also seems like such a
zodiac thing because he's yeah it's the misdirection hey I can help you with your tire there's nothing
wrong with her tire but you're going to create the problem you know I mean like uh it's it's very zodiac well it's also
very serial killer in yeah in general where you're you're setting a trap and we've seen Bundy do this we've seen
serial killers in movies do this in in real life time and time again they're setting a trap and unfortunately it
worked in this situation in some of the accounts there was a threat and when he takes a turn she bails out the vehicle
with her small child and then hides the baby and hides herself and the the person that picked her up drives off in
the police report it's a little different because in the movie he says again it's
a movie I understand but he says before I kill you I'm going to throw your baby out the window and in the police report
there is no such threat of her account of that night in fact there's actually no threat at all it
just says that she became increasingly concerned and became terrified as they just kept driving and driving and
driving and per the per the police report she says that when they got to either a stoplight or stop sign so the
vehicle is now stopped that's when she fled the vehicle and she didn't in fact hide but ran into a field
and just kept running out into the field for a while until he left the area and then of course had to flag someone down
what's interesting though here that is not in the movie is that her vehicle and this is no mistake at
all was moved it was moved from the the location where she left it and not only was it moved it looked like someone
attempted to burn out the vehicle set it on fire from the inside but was unsuccessful in doing so now the reason
why this gets lumped into the zodiac is one the time frame you know this is just
a handful of months five months after the Paul Stein murder but then top that off with the
description that she offers up is very similar to descriptions of the zodiac so much so that she sees the wanted poster
for the man in the Paul Stein murder and says that's the guy that gave me the ride that's the guy that jacked up my
tire and gave me the ride that's the son of a [ __ ] well then you can have you have to double down here because later
zodiac will lay claim to this attack in one of his Communications to the police or to the newspapers but but again he
could have read about the attack by that time right when he when he then claims to have been the man who he says
something you know smart ass statement like zodiac likes to give I'm the the man that gave the that poor woman a ride
or or the driver that uh helped out that woman on that night yeah it's uh do we have any record of her saying the the
height of this individual or I mean other than he just looked like the the wanted poster well that's
interesting because they you know she would have seen him for the majority of the time based off of that story they
would have been sitting right next to one another yeah so she'd have a decent amount decent idea of his height based
off of the two sitting next to one another of course she saw him out of outside of the vehicle a couple of times
but she said that the man the driver was actually shorter than her now she was a
tall woman five foot nine and so the police list the height of this man at five foot eight but that also fits with
close to other descriptions and like we said eyewitness reports you have to have a little wiggle room
there but as everyone knows Captain the regardless if the murders continued or not zodiac would have us believe that
they did often sending Communications saying that he has killed more people he puts a
tally like a murder number tally on some of his Communications and the number just keeps going up so he would have us
believe that the murders are continuing we can't confirm that what we can confirm is that the communications
continued and this continued up until it's believed to be 1974. yeah with the last murder the last
confirmed zodiac attack and murder taking place in late 1969. so it seems like the need to keep the communication
going was more important than the actual murders themselves if in fact he stopped
killing in 1969. come on this leads a lot of people to believe that the Zodiac died in in 74 as well because the letter
stopped he got writer's block it happens well or or he got to the point where he's like I'm not committing any more
real crimes why keep writing to law enforcement the more you have communication with them the more likely
you are to get caught and you're taking claims for crimes that we can't even prove that he did yes it's
keeping the risk level very high when you're communicating with the newspapers or police or what have you
and you know I know that the FBI Mind hunter that type of stuff they would say keep
these communications going and it looks like San Francisco and all involved did the best that they could to keep these
communications right going and in fact one of the more famous communiques in the whole zodiac investigation is the
letter to Paul Avery which was received October 27 1970. now this communication is quite scary for many reasons
especially if you're Paul Avery this was a Halloween card signed with the letter
Z and the Zodiac logo this was a threat to Paul Avery and the Zodiac wanted him to take this seriously
because apparently zodiac did not like what Paul Avery was writing about him in the chronicle Paul Avery was a
well-known reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle who had been covering the Zodiac case there would be
further Communications but Captain the Zodiac went silent for nearly three years
before a letter from the Zodiac was postmarked and received by the chronicle on January 29
1974. this was the letter that was praising The Exorcist as the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen
being the words of the zodiac and the letter included a the Zodiac Killer thinks he's hilarious yes he does and
and this is where he gives us the score right the San Francisco Police Department equals zero so f sfpd equals
zero me equal 37 giving the indication that he's killed 37 people and they've not been able to catch him
the San Francisco Police Department yeah I I find the Zodiac Killer to be super fascinating as long as well as so many
others and there's so much that we could talk about it's one of those cases that
people have been telling us oh we'd love for you to cover zodiac really to do the Zodiac case
proper I mean you could be talking about months and months of information from other crimes that people suspect
that he did that were not confirmed from suspects to everything wrong with those suspects and
everything right with those suspects it's a lot of information to cover well you have the Sherry Jo Bates murder
which may or may not be connected to the Zodiac it's forever linked to the Zodiac
but should they solve Sherry Jo bates's murder that doesn't mean that they've solved the Zodiac cases as well we can't
confirm that they're in fact connected other than we as the general public have always kind of linked them together ever
since those letters were received in the 70s and so Sherry Joe bates's murder investigation alone you could talk about
for for several episodes but then you also have the Domingo's Edwards case that's a whole Standalone case on its
own we don't know for certain that it's connected to the Zodiac we also have the
the nurse that went missing uh at Lake Tahoe another case of possible zodiac and then you have right here on this
what's often referred to as the Zodiac's Exorcist letter of him saying 37 victims
sfpd zero we only have five confirmed victims if you add Sherry Joe Bates now we're up to six Domingos Edwards we're
up to eight I mean I'm sure that we got a lot of blanks to fill in here uh at 37. yeah
but I'm sure that the San Francisco PD killed some people within that time that zodiac has just not giving them credit
for no I don't think that's what he means okay so but then the other thing here though becomes take almost every
famous crime expert they've had weigh in on zodiac you could do a week-long uh series on just the profiles that people
have given the expert profiles that people have given on the Zodiac well in Robert gray Smith's top suspect Arthur
Lee Allen alone is is hours of information and that's hours of information that list pros and cons for
why he is a good or bad zodiac suspect there is no perfect zodiac suspect yet because we would have The Man Behind
Bars he would have been caught for at least the five murder orders that we know the Zodiac to have committed but
again what we wanted to focus on mainly is the confirm Crimes of the zodiac and they confirm letters and communication
of the zodiac well and throughout time Captain ever since the Zodiac went silent in 1974 and even before that when
maybe the murder stopped in 1969 everyone has been trying to figure out who the zodiac is not just the San
Francisco police department or the Vallejo sheriff's department or Napa County Sheriff's department but the
public in general the state of California the communities and people of California and therefore we have had
probably dozens of suspects that their names have popped up from time to time some of the more famous would be Ted
Kaczynski the Unabomber he's someone who has been rumored to possibly be the Zodiac you have Rick Marshall who has
been a popular suspect throughout the years and in fact we have Ted Cruz right who was not even alive when the Zodiac
killings took place but he looks a lot like the picture so I mean dispute dispute all you will maybe he's a
vampire I don't know but um the thing is you don't have proof he isn't with with
the Zodiac two we know for a fact that the male perpetrators in the Manson family were looked at
strongly they were very strongly looked at and even stated to have been cleared by investigators as not being the Zodiac
one interesting one of late would be Gary Stewart who published a book in 2014 called the most dangerous animal of
all in which he claimed that his research his search for his biological father which turned out to be Earl Van
best Jr he says his search for his father led him to conclude that van best Jr was in
fact the Zodiac Killer and this anytime a new suspect comes about no matter if it's look we should be clear though Gary
Stewart is not the first person to come forward and say hey my father was the Zodiac there's been other people to say
hey I think my stepfather was the Zodiac or my father was the Zodiac my uncle was
the Zodiac one problem with the Zodiac case Captain is the the famous composite sketch drawing of the zodiac
a lot of dudes looked like that in the late 60s and through not just California throughout the United States and what
yeah most guys look like they were a penis wearing glasses in the late 60s but but this is also very similar to
Black Dahlia there's a lot of people that my father or my my stepfather I think it just happens in these huge
notorious cases well that's very interesting because Steve Hodel claims his father George Hodel was the
Black Dahlia killer and the Zodiac Killer and then of course everybody who listens to this show or basically any
other True Crime podcast knows the name Edward Edwards or Ed Edwards and it's been claimed that basically any unsolved
homicide at Edwards is responsible for now again anytime somebody brings up any of these suspects the zodiac is a big
name okay the Zodiac he was selling papers by writing to the police by writing to the
newspapers himself still to this day newspapers are selling newspapers by putting the Zodiac's name in articles
and on their front pages and so throughout time when any of these suspects pop up we want to get a
statement from law enforcement how good is this new suspect was he somebody that
you looked at in 68 69 or 70 is this name just new to the public or is it new to law enforcement as well
so I found a May 3rd 2018. press release from the Vallejo Police Department this says the Zodiac case has
been an open investigation for several decades in the City of Vallejo with any open homicide investigation Vallejo
police detectives still follow up on New Leads and continually work to identify a
suspect over the course of this investigation Vallejo police detectives have always taken advantage of emerging
Technologies and new advances in forensic science to assist in the identification of a suspect currently we
are not close to identifying a suspect nor do we anticipate developing that information at any time in the near
future we have no new information to provide at this time [Music] make sure you follow us on Twitter
Facebook Instagram at True Crime garage if you'd like to support the show make sure you go and leave us a five star
review or and or go to truecrimegarage.com and check out our store Page until next week be good be
kind and don't learn foreign [Music]

The Zodiac /// Part 3 /// 472

Part 3 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.

Our show - True Crime Garage “Off the Record” is available only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

The episode covers the Zodiac Killer's murder of Paul Stein and the police's flawed response to the crime.

Key points

The Murder of Paul Stein. On October 11, 1969, Zodiac kills taxi driver Paul Stein in San Francisco.
Eyewitness Accounts. Three teenagers witness the murder and call the police, providing crucial details.
Zodiac's Letter to the Chronicle. Two days after the murder, Zodiac sends a letter claiming responsibility, including a blood-stained shirt piece.
The Zodiac's Bold Claim. The Zodiac Killer confidently declares his identity and threatens the public.
The Unsolved Z340 Cipher. The Zodiac's cryptogram remained unsolved for over 51 years until it was cracked in 2020.
Kathleen Johns' Terrifying Encounter. A young mother recounts a harrowing experience with a man who claimed to help her.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is very cool because they were actually able to call in the murder.

Eyewitnesses reporting the crime in progress.

3:39WatchNov 8, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.