The Case Breakers, a group of former law enforcement personnel, prosecutors, and intelligence officers, announced on Wednesday that they had identified the perpetrator responsible for a string of murders in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s.
The investigation into the killings, however, is still ongoing, according to authorities. Law enforcement receives tips regarding the case on a daily basis, including from those who believe they know who the culprit is.
The Zodiac killer committed a series of murders in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s and is still considered one of America’s most notorious cold cases. Despite the media attention this week, some police officers and investigators remain doubtful of the purported development. The Zodiac has remained in the news for years, with new hypotheses emerging all the time.
The Case Breakers said they had new physical and forensic evidence as well as eyewitnesses to back up their theory that the killings were committed by an air force veteran who died in 2018.
“Tom Colbert, a member of the Case Breakers, told the San Francisco Chronicle, “I certainly believe we solved this case.”
The FBI and the San Francisco Police Department both declined to comment on the news, but both stated that the investigation was still ongoing.
“The investigation into the Zodiac Killer by the FBI is still ongoing and unresolved. We will not be giving further information at this time due to the ongoing nature of the investigation and out of respect for the victims and their families,” the FBI’s San Francisco office said in a statement.
In a press release, the Case Breakers said they based their identification on images of the suspect showing scars on his forehead that match a police sketch of the Zodiac. The suspect’s name was also found in anagrams supplied by the Zodiac, according to the team.
Between 1968 and 1969, the Zodiac terrorized northern California communities and claimed the lives of five people. He may potentially be involved in other crimes, according to police. Numerous documentaries have been made about the deaths, as well as the 2007 thriller Zodiac.
According to a 1975 FBI letter released by the Case Breakers, the killer is also responsible for the 1966 murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside, which the FBI may have revealed at one point. Bates’ assassination was not linked to the Zodiac, according to local police.
After sending taunting messages and ciphers to local media, threatening to commit greater violence if his letters were not reported, the Zodiac Killer gained notoriety.
A team of experts cracked the code to a 1969 cipher the Zodiac sent to the San Francisco Chronicle in 2020, though law enforcement stated it didn’t help investigators at the time.
“I hope you’re having a good time trying to catch me,” reads the message, which was transmitted in a series of symbols. “I’m not afraid of the gas chamber since it will speed up my arrival in heaven because I now have enough slaves.”
The arrest of the Golden State Killer in 2018 stoked hopes that the Zodiac would finally be identified as detectives utilized forensic genealogy to link a former police officer to decades-old rapes and killings. However, unlike that case, no DNA from any of the Zodiac killings has been confirmed. By examining saliva traces from a stamp on a letter delivered by the Zodiac, police were able to develop a partial profile, although it can only be used to rule out suspects.
In This Article...
Is the Zodiac murderer still on the loose?
“The FBI’s investigation into the Zodiac Killer remains open and unsolved,” the FBI’s San Francisco office said in a statement to USA TODAY on Thursday.
In the year 2021, where is the Zodiac killer?
“The investigation into the Zodiac Killer is still ongoing. At this time, we have no new information to provide “CNN received a statement from the FBI. The individual is also suspected in the 1966 murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside County, California, according to the Case Breakers.
Is the Zodiac encryption deciphered?
In 1969 and 1970, the Zodiac transmitted four cryptic signals to the newspaper. The first had 408 characters and took a week to crack. The second was a 340-character cipher that was just cracked. Following that, the killer sent two very brief ciphers, one of which had only 13 characters and the other only 32. An engineer in France claimed to have solved them in January 2021, but Blake is skeptical. He claims, “They’re both too short to have a unique solution.”
What happened to the Zodiac case?
Investigators (Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards) and journalists (Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr) become obsessed with figuring out who the culprit is and bringing him to justice.
Meanwhile, Zodiac continues to claim victims, taunting authorities with cryptic notes, ciphers, and threatening phone calls.
The film concludes with Gyllenhaal’s character, reporter Robert Graysmith, following down Arthur Leigh Allen, whom he believes to be the Zodiac killer.
Physical evidence, such as fingerprints and handwriting samples, do not implicate him, despite the fact that circumstantial evidence suggests he is guilty.
Today, how old would Zodiac Killer be?
Although the serial murderer claimed to have murdered 37 people in California in the late 1960s, only seven victims have been officially confirmed.
Gary Francis Poste, according to the Case Breakers, was a man who died in 2018. In any event, this isn’t the first time that various detectives claim to have discovered the serial killer’s identity.
Arthur Leigh Allen, a paedophile who was expelled from the military and from school, was one of the people singled out in the past, but authorities eventually found no link in his case.
Whether it was Gary Francis Poste or not, one thing is certain: the Zodiac killer would now be around 90 years old, according to officials.
Is the Zodiac Killer’s DNA present?
In 2007, former SFPD Forensics Lab director Alan Keel let me in on a dirty little secret about the Zodiac letters, telling me that when he tested the “true” Zodiac letters for the presence of saliva (which would prove that the person who sent the letters actually licked them and left DNA on them to begin with), he only found “background,” or very, very low, levels of saliva on the Zodiac letters. Surprisingly, Keel came to the conclusion that the Zodiac letter writer applied his stamps and sealed the flaps of his envelopes using a sponge and tap water rather than licking them! In other words, if that is the case, it is almost certain that the writer never left DNA on the letters in the first place!
SFPD conducted DNA testing in 2002 at the request of ABC News, which was covering the case at the time. According to reports, ABC paid for the testing. This DNA was then utilized on national television to rule out three potential Zodiac candidates. It took until 2018 and the testimony of a whistleblower for us to learn the truth about what transpired at the time. The lab initially sought for Zodiac DNA on the underside, or glue side, of the stamps and in between the sealed flaps of the envelopes, where you would moisten the flap with saliva and seal it, according to the whistleblower. They didn’t find any DNA that could be linked to the Zodiac letter writer in either location! Indeed, that whistleblower claimed that there was no Zodiac DNA in 2018… and that there had never been any!
Instead of making the absence of Zodiac’s DNA on the letters a major story on the ABC show, the lab, possibly feeling obligated to provide ABC News with a fragment of DNA from somewhere on the letters, allegedly sampled the outside of a single stamp, which is the part of the stamp that has been exposed to contaminant DNA from anyone who has handled the outside of the envelope over the years.
To put it another way, there are untold numbers of humans.
The lab then gave ABC News permission to utilize this unconfirmed (i.e., DNA from a single stamp) probable contamination DNA to rule out three candidates on national television.
Because there was no necessity for SFPD’s lab to be open or responsible, if the whistleblower had not come forward, the lab would have been free to hide this second secret about the Zodiac letters from the public, specifically the source of the 2002 DNA as being from the front of just one stamp. They were just given the excuse that police “cannot divulge” anything on a “ongoing investigation.” Fortunately, we were able to witness what happened behind the curtain of secrecy in SFPD’s lab in 2002 thanks to the activities of the 2018 whistleblower. Who knows what’s going on in forensics labs across the state today, given that the same conditions of investigation secrecy that existed back then also present today. What is the current condition of the Zodiac evidence analysis, and why does the public still have no clear idea whether the VPD, SFPD, DOJ, or anybody else has any DNA that can be clearly declared to be from the Zodiac after more than 20 years?
The point is, does anyone check over the shoulders of police scientists to make sure they’re doing sound science in the public interest? That didn’t appear to be the case in 2002, when SFPD allegedly created DNA expressly for ABC’s television expos. Or are police-run laboratories conducting research in order to promote the illusion that “Only DNA can solve the Zodiac case,” despite the fact that there is no DNA on the Zodiac letters! What is the purpose of the DNA on the Zodiac letters if it exists? Have the cops been able to learn anything about the killer’s background, such as where his ancestors originated? Is this something they sent? “Zodiac DNA” to Parabon Labs for a phenotype-based suspect sketch? Why not, if not? If that’s the case, where is the drawing? Why hasn’t the general public noticed it? Is there any evidence that the Zodiac had reddish-brown hair based on this DNA? Consider genetic genealogy, which was utilized to track down the Golden State Killer. Is that the case?
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 Arthur Leigh Allen the sign of the zodiac?
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.
Is it true that the Zodiac Killer was ever a suspect?
The Case Breakers suspected a now-dead man of being the Zodiac, based on claimed facial scars that matched images of their suspect and sketches of the Zodiac. Gary Francis Poste was named as the Zodiac suspect by the squad, which includes retired law enforcement officials and forensic experts.
Have you figured out all of the zodiac ciphers?
Fayal Ziraoui claims to have deciphered the final two ciphers of the Zodiac Killer. Despite the breakthrough, Z13 and Z32 ciphers remained unsolvable. These ciphers are substantially more difficult to crack since they are so short.