- Joseph aka Giuseppe Bevilacqua, former manager of the Florence American Cemetery and Memorial, was named as a suspect in both the Zodiac and Monster of Florence murder cases by Italian journalist Francesco Amicone in 2018. According to Amicone, Bevilacqua confessed to being the killer in both incidents on September 11, 2017. The investigations into Bevilacqua emanating from Amicone’s inquiry were closed in 2021 at the request of the Attorney in charge of the Monster investigation, Pm Luca Turco. “This journalistic inquiry is marked by ideas, assumptions, stated intuitions, and it does not contain any factual element likely to rise to the dignity of a clue,” Turco said in defending his request. Pm Turco also filed a lawsuit against Amicone for defamation of character against Bevilacqua.
- Richard Gaikowski, a newspaper editor, was the subject of a 2009 episode of the History Channel television series MysteryQuest. Gaikowski worked for Good Times, a San Francisco counterculture publication, at the time of the murders. His look matched the composite sketch, and a tape of Gaikowski’s voice was identified as the Zodiac’s by Nancy Slover, a Vallejo police dispatcher who was contacted by the Zodiac immediately after the Blue Rock Springs Attack.
- In his book The Black Dahlia Avenger, retired police investigator Steve Hodel claims that his father, George Hodel, was the Black Dahlia perpetrator, who murdered Elizabeth Short. The book prompted his father’s Los Angeles district attorney’s office to produce previously concealed files and wire recordings, revealing that the senior Hodel was certainly a main suspect in Short’s murder. In a letter published in the amended edition, District Attorney Steve Kaye stated that if George Hodel were still alive, he would be prosecuted for the crimes. In a follow-up book, Hodel suggested that his father was also the Zodiac Killer, based on a police sketch, the Zodiac letters’ closeness to the Black Dahlia Avenger letters’ style, and a questioned document study.
- Kathleen Johns, who claimed to have been kidnapped by the Zodiac Killer, identified Lawrence Kaye, afterwards Lawrence Kane, in a photo lineup. Don Fouke, a patrol officer who may have seen the Zodiac Killer after the death of Paul Stine, said Kane looked a lot like the man he and Eric Zelms saw. Kane worked at the same Nevada motel as Donna Lass, a suspected Zodiac victim. After sustaining brain injuries in a 1962 accident, Kane was diagnosed with impulse control disorder. He was arrested for prowling and voyeurism. In 2021, Fayal Ziraoui, a French-Moroccan business expert, claimed to have cracked the Z13 cipher, claiming that the solution reads “My name is Kayr,” a possible misspelling for Kaye. Others questioned Ziraoui’s ability to crack the code.
- Richard Marshall was accused of being the Zodiac Killer by police informants who claimed he had informally hinted at being a killer. Marshall lived in Riverside, California, in 1966 and San Francisco, California, in 1969, close to the Bates and Stine killings. He was a silent film fan and projectionist who screened Segundo de Chomn’s The Red Phantom (1907), a picture whose title was allegedly borrowed by the author of a 1974 Zodiac letter. “Marshall makes good reading but not a very good suspect in my judgment,” Detective Ken Narlow said.
- Louis Joseph Myers confessed to a friend in 2001 that he was the Zodiac Killer after learning that he was dying of liver cirrhosis, according to a story in February 2014.
- Upon his death, he demanded that his friend, Randy Kenney, report to the police. Kenney apparently had trouble getting cops to participate and take the allegations seriously after Myers died in 2002. Myers went to the same high school as victims David Farraday and Betty Lou Jensen, and apparently worked in the same restaurant as victim Darlene Ferrin, therefore there are multiple possible links between him and the Zodiac case. Myers was stationed overseas with the military from 1971 to 1973, at which time no Zodiac letters were received. According to Kenney, Myers admitted that he targeted couples because he had a horrible split with a partner. While cops involved in the investigation are suspicious, they believe Kenney’s allegation is plausible enough to examine if he can offer reliable proof.
- Robert Ivan Nichols, also known as Joseph Newton Chandler III, was an identity thief who killed himself in Eastlake, Ohio, in July 2002. Investigators were unable to identify his family after his death, and it was determined that he had stolen the identity of an eight-year-old kid murdered in a vehicle accident in Texas in 1945. The efforts to which Nichols attempted to conceal his identity fueled speculation that he was a dangerous criminal on the run. On June 21, 2018, the US Marshals Service announced his identification at a press conference in Cleveland. Some Internet sleuths speculated that he was the Zodiac Killer because he looked like the Zodiac in police sketches and had resided in California, where the Zodiac operated.
- Ross Because of the suspected link between the Zodiac Killer and the death of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside, Sullivan became a figure of suspicion. Coworkers suspected Sullivan, a library assistant at Riverside City College, after he went absent for many days after the murder. Sullivan wore military-style boots with tracks similar to those found at the Lake Berryessa crime site and matched sketches of the Zodiac. Sullivan was admitted to the hospital several times due to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
- Dennis Kaufman claimed his stepfather Jack Tarrance was the Zodiac back in 2007. Kaufman handed up many artifacts to the FBI, including a hood identical to the Zodiac’s. According to news reports, the FBI’s DNA analysis of the objects in 2010 was judged inconclusive.
- Former California Highway Patrol officer Lyndon Lafferty claims the Zodiac Killer was a 91-year-old man named George Russell Tucker from Solano County, California. Lafferty located Tucker and presented an alleged cover-up for why he was not pursued using a group of retired law enforcement personnel known as the Mandamus Seven. Tucker died in February 2012 and was not identified because authorities did not believe he was a suspect.
- Gary Stewart claimed in his book The Most Dangerous Animal of All, published in 2014, that his quest for his biological father, Earl Van Best Jr., led him to the conclusion that Van Best was the Zodiac Killer. The novel was converted into a documentary series for FX Network in 2020.
In This Article...
Is the Zodiac Arthur Leigh Allen?
The ending of David Fincher’s Zodiac mirrors the tragic reality of a real-life crime: there isn’t enough evidence to identify Arthur Leigh Allen as the Zodiac killer. On a truly perplexing case, Allen was the most likely suspect. He died of a heart attack before he could be charged, strangely enough. As the ending of Zodiac reveals, it was widely assumed that Allen was the culprit based on circumstantial evidence, so the case was closed following his death. Let’s look at why Allen wasn’t the murderer.
Zodiac is based on Robert Greysmith’s book of the same name, and Greysmith plays a key role in the film. His book told the story of a mystery serial killer terrorizing Northern California. A cop (Mark Ruffalo) and two reporters (Robert Downey, Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal) get fascinated with figuring out who he is in the film. While the killer claims his victims and taunts the authorities with letters, their fixation grows.
Why isn’t Arthur Leigh Allen the Zodiac?
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Zodiac killer plagued northern California, especially targeting couples parked in lovers’ lanes. He communicated with the police and the media on a frequent basis, sometimes using cyphers. A veteran former school teacher who was sacked after being discovered assaulting children was one of the major suspects police liked for the Zodiac. Many people regarded Arthur Leigh Allen to be the main suspect in this unsolved crime. Robert Graysmith, a former political cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle at the time of the murders, promoted this notion in his book Zodiac: The Shocking True Story of the Hunt for the Nation’s Most Elusive Serial Killer, which was published in 1986.
According to John Douglas, the FBI profiler on whom Mindhunter is based, many serial killers aspire to join the military or work as police officers, but lack the necessary social skills to do so. Arthur Leigh Allen was a navy sailor who was dishonorably discharged in 1958 for an unspecified reason.
Animal abuse is another typical trait among serial killers. This is one of three qualities that make up the Macdonald triad, which can predict who will become a violent serial offender in the future. Karen Allen, Allen’s sister-in-law, has claimed that as a child, Allen maimed animals.
After being detected assaulting pupils, he was sacked from his employment as a school teacher in 1974. He was found guilty and sentenced to three years in the Atascadero State Hospital. Allen was also reprimanded for carrying a gun on campus during his time as a teacher.
Allen only took one sick day during his time as a teacher. Cheri Jo Bates was stabbed to death at Riverside City College on this day. Although this isn’t an official Zodiac murder, many people knowledgeable with the case believe Bates was the Zodiac’s first victim.
Michael Mageau, who was shot in the face, neck, and chest by the Zodiac from close range, chose Arthur Leigh Allen from a lineup. The lineup, on the other hand, took place 22 years after the attack. Allen also had access to the car identified by Mageau as the Zodiac’s arrival vehicle.
Allen wore a Zodiac watch, which is where the Zodiac emblem is thought to have originated.
Allen’s walk was deemed to be comparable to that described by Zodiac survivors by police officials.
Bryan Hartnell, another Zodiac survivor, agreed that Allen’s voice and stature (the Zodiac was wearing a hood during Hartnell’s attack) were perfect for the Zodiac.
Allen was pals with a man named Don Cheney for six years. Cheney claimed that the friendship ended because he was afraid Allen was the Zodiac killer. Cheney eventually went to the cops and told them Allen had fantasized about killing couples at random, that he wanted to be called “Zodiac,” that he signed his letters with the same symbol as the Zodiac, that he attached his flashlight to his gun in the same way the Zodiac did, and that he described preying on women by sabotaging their vehicle in the same way Kathleen Johns and possibly Cherri Jo Bates did.
Allen’s typewriter was the same brand and model as the one used to write some of the Zodiac letters.
Allen informed the cops that his “favorite” book was The Most Dangerous Game, a short story about a wealthy big game hunter who tires of shooting animals and starts hunting people instead. One of the Zodiac’s cyphers includes a reference to this book. Allen was “fascinated” by the thought of hunting humans, according to another of his buddies.
Arthur Leigh Allen may have been stalking Zodiac victim Darlene Ferrin, according to evidence. He told Don Cheney that he liked a waitress at her restaurant, and she had told others about a man named “Lee.”
Allen told investigators he was going to Lake Berryessa the day of the attack, but then changed his mind. He also claimed to have bloodied knives, which he claimed he got from killing chickens.
Allen had created designs of a bomb he could manufacture, according to a search of his home. In Zodiac letters, this type of explosive was mentioned.
Arthur Leigh Allen was found guilty on the basis of circumstantial evidence. Allen’s DNA and handwriting samples, in particular, did not match those of the Zodiac killer. He was never prosecuted with the killings and died of a heart attack in 1992.
Ross Sullivan, who was he?
Ross Sullivan, who had a striking resemblance to Zodiac. On Oct. 30, 1966, Cheri Jo Bates was stabbed to death and nearly beheaded. She is suspected of being a victim of the Zodiac Killer, according to police.
Ross Sullivan’s age is unknown.
Death. At the age of 36, Sullivan died of a heart attack on September 29, 1977. His ashes were either donated to a family member or a friend after he was cremated.
What is the real name of the Zodiac killer?
The identity of the elusive Zodiac Killer has finally been revealed, according to a cold-case work committee led by former FBI officers and retired law enforcement authorities.
In the late 1960s, the arch criminal terrorized Northern California with a series of random murders, but he gained famous for his cryptic messages to authorities and the media. Authorities have never been able to identify him, and only just cracked the encryption on one of his letters.
According to Fox News, investigators with the Case Breakers task force have identified the killer as Gary Francis Poste, who died in 2018. The FBI has linked the Zodiac Killer to five killings in the San Francisco region between 1968 and 1969. Poste was also linked to a sixth homicide in Southern California, according to the Case Breakers.
Who is most likely to be the Zodiac Killer?
According to the Case Breakers, a group of more than 40 former police investigators, journalists, and military intelligence personnel, Gary Francis Poste is the Zodiac Killer. The investigation was based on forensic evidence, images discovered in Poste’s darkroom, and part of the serial killer’s coded notes, according to the investigators.
Is it true that the Zodiac killer wore a Zodiac watch?
Yes. Zodiac suspect Arthur Leigh Allen (John Carroll Lynch) is shown sporting a watch with the killer’s emblem and the brand name Zodiac on it. The actual Arthur Leigh Allen wore a Zodiac Sea Wolf watch, which was identical to the one worn by the character (pictured below). “To utilize the symbol… to wear the watch, to be at the crime scenes and to know the victims… he would have to be the Zodiac,” Robert Graysmith said in an interview.
Who deciphered the Zodiac code?
Blake wrote about how he utilized Mathematica, a math software application, for his part in March 2021, and van Eycke made headlines again in January when he cracked a 386-year-old code written by a Dutch scientist.
What were the contents of the Zodiac Killer’s letters?
The Zodiac Killer sent out four ciphers along with letters explaining his crimes in 1969 and 1970. The first, which was sent on July 31, 1969, was decrypted a week later.
The cipher, Z408, read, “I like killing people because it is so much pleasure.” “Because man is the most dangerous animal of all, it’s more enjoyable than killing wild game in the wilderness.”
Authorities were mocked by the cipher, which was mailed to The San Francisco Chronicle with a victim’s bloodstained shirt. “I hope you’re having a great time trying to catch me,” wrote the Zodiac Killer.