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

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GameChanger [Music] [Music] 2 weeks after the attack at Lake Barry Essa we are now at October 11th
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 in the prido Heights area
that's about a 13 to 15minute 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 driers 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 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 taxy cab driver in his log sheet the white male passenger
then shot Paul Stein once in the head with a 9 mm gun he took Paul Stein's wallet and car keys and tore away a
section of Paul Stein's bloodstained shirt tail this all went down Captain right at about 9:55 p.m. on that night
of October 11th the passenger SL shooter was witnessed by three teenagers across
the street at that same time at 9:55 p.m. right this is very cool because they were actually able to call in the
murder to police while the crime was still in progress the way that this goes down is about 50 ft 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 a young teenage girl witness the crime in action calls over her two brothers and they witness this whole
event going down as well and they phone the police and say hey there's a a robbery or a shooting or something
that's going down in the streets below yeah and this is going to give us probably our best eyewitness account of
the zodiac that's correct because in the second attack where Mike mou 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 AAR not very far about 50 ft 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 a
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
precidio 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 precidio 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 obs
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 in the whole
investigation itself because we'll we'll see there's some weird movements going on 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' 10 in 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 5' 8 in to 5'9 in tall
one we have to remember this is 196 9 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 ilar 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 and 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
Rob 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 Tu being Lover Lane shootings another one similar to lover
Lanes but it's stabbing victims and then you have this attack on a taxi c cap driver it 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 strongo 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 a 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 ask him if he's seen or
heard anything suspicious to which the man that they stop says yes I saw a man waving a gun
on Washington Street heading east so the police squeal 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 fir 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 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 fairs 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 tshi 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 2 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 they're 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 and in this communic 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 Calif 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 leftand 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 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 MH the car drivers 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 cros 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 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 emo 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 valo 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 fled 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 l Jensen now about 2 miles away and about
6 and 1/2 months later on Friday July 4th 1969 Michael Mao and Darlene faren are
gunned down as they sit in Darlene's vehicle and thankfully Michael Mao 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 Shepard are attacked by a massed 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 first 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 and Cecilia Shepard in at Lake baresa right
he phones it in just like he did in the second attack phoner and he writes on Brian hartel's car door 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 beresa what do we have here now Captain the final confirmed attack is a
Saturday October 11th 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 on a Saturday for whatever reason the zodiac is a weekend warrior and I do not know why cuz he has a job
he 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 fourth 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 Mao 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 in three attacks the last two he failed to kill the male in both of those attacks in the
last two attacks he failed to kill both victims and left a 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 beresa 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 and is it possible to that yes he was doing these killings but was there something that was allowing him to get
away and maybe had these all all these plans of what he was 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 I'll just 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 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
the 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 uh 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 tail 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 Andor 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 [Music] night this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the holidays
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animals extra filthy 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 belly 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 this 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 Sher Joe Bates in Riverside California and it's
not in 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 Sher Joe Bates another crime that is often linked
to the Zodiac whether it be confirmed or not is the Catholic John's story and Kathleen John's 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 attention she decided you know what this is a long
drive it'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 SE 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 John's 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 and say that I feel super confident I believe it went down I believe this
story went down 100% I just the the subtle variations are difficult yeah the problem with these types of accounts are
these are victims and the situation that they were in is 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 like 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 male 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 in 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 cuz he's you 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 what 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 stop light 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 mhm 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 5 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 yeah 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 smartass 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 help helped out that woman on that
night yeah it's uh do we have any record of her saying uh the the height of this
individual or I mean other than he just looked like 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 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 5' n and so the
police list the height of this man at 5 fo8 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 well and 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 going and in fact one of the more famous communic in the whole zodiac investigation is the letter to
Paul Avery which was re received October 27th 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 a 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 3 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 f fpd equal 0 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 fascinated 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 are 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 Joe Bates murder which may or may not be connected to the Zodiac it's
forever linked to the Zodiac but should they solve Sherry Joe 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 Sher Joe bates's murder investigation alone you could talk about for for several episodes but then you
also have the Domingos 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 Taho MH 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 30 seven
victims sfpd zero we only have five confirmed victims if you add Sher Joe Bates now we're up to six Domingos
Edwards we're up to eight I mean I'm sure 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 is 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 weekl long uh series on just the profiles that people have given the
expert profiles that people have given on the Zodiac well and Robert Grey 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 murders 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 the confirm letters and communication of the zodiac well and
throughout time Captain ever since the Zodiac went silent in 1974 for 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
kazinski the UN bomber 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 2 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 re search 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 in 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 Dalia um 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 hodell claims his father George hodell was the Black Dalia kill 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 Ed Edward Edwards or Ed Edwards and it's been claimed that basically any unsolved
homicide Ed 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 that 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 identif ification 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 [Music]
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The Zodiac /// Part 3 /// 472

Part 3 of 5

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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 murder of Paul Stein and the police's failure to apprehend him despite eyewitness accounts.

Key points

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Zodiac's Letter. The Zodiac Killer claims responsibility for a murder and threatens more.
Zodiac's Confession. The Zodiac Killer claims responsibility for his murders, asserting his identity to the public.
The Unsolved Cipher. The Zodiac's z340 cipher remained unsolved for over 51 years until its recent resolution.
The Terrifying Tire Incident. Kathleen John's harrowing experience with a man who sabotaged her car, leading to a near abduction.
Zodiac's Threat to Paul Avery. A Halloween card sent to journalist Paul Avery threatens him for his coverage of the Zodiac case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

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0:08WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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