The Zodiac Killer Covered: The Mystery That Horrified Northern Carolina

Source: criminal.media

The Zodiac Killer is without a doubt one of the most mysterious killers within the history of America. A bloody, cold-hearted killer in the 60’s and 70’s, he remains one of the biggest questions today: who was he, what were his motives, and why was he never caught? By the end of this post on my blog, we will have covered four points:

• The Canonical Murders and Victims
• His Letters
• Top 3 Suspects
• My personal opinion on ‘who dunnit?’

The Canonical Murders and Victims

The Zodiac killer is known to have five canonical victims, 2 injured but survived, and 37 of which he had claimed to kill (way to build your ego up, Zodiac).

On the night of December 20th 1968 near Vallejo, California, 17 year old David Arthur Faraday and 16 year old Betty Lou Jensen were tragically shot and killed whilst sitting in their car which was parked off of Lake Herman Road. David was still alive when police arrived to the bloody scene. However unfortunately for Betty, she was found dead, her body around thirty feet from the parked car. It was not long, however, before David would follow suit and pass away on the way to the hospital. It is without a doubt terrifying to think that nobody would suspect that this was the work of a soon-to-be serial killer that would leave a mark on American true crime history for decades to come, as well as future attacks, haunting the minds of anyone who knows the name of the Zodiac Killer. The site of which the murder had occurred will forever be stained by the horrors that took place there.

The Zodiac Killers next attack would not take place until over six months later on July 4th, 1969 in the middle of the night near Blue Rock Springs Park (Vallejo, California). In a strange turn of events, this attack took mere minutes away from where he had previously attacked David and Betty the previous year. Now I’m no expert serial killer, but I would say that without a doubt that this was a stupid and reckless act as it would automatically give way that perhaps the Zodiac killer was a local, which would only fuel the fear of the people. Although I suppose, from the evidence of which I will give later, fear is the exact thing that he wanted: his sadistic nature aspired him to torture others to fuel some kind of sick and twisted hope for otherworldly power. The zodiac killer approached the parked car with a flashlight, and proceeded to shoot 22 year old Darlene Ferrin and 19 year old Michael Mageau. He then proceeded to move away from the car and back to his own, however did not leave immediately. Instead, when Michael attempted to escape the vehicle, the Zodiac shot four more times, twice at Darlene and twice at Michael, before quickly getting in his car and driving away. These shots were heard by the golf course’s caretaker, who reportedly heard them about 12:10 AM.

Just 30 minutes later, Darlene would be pronounced dead… however, as for the Vallejo Police Department, they experienced something highly chilling. Mere moments after Darlene had been pronounced dead, they received a call from a public phone no further than two miles away from the station from who was (supposedly) from the Zodiac killer. He reported to them “I want to report a double murder. If you go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to the public park you will find kids in a brown car. They were shot with a 9-millimeter Luger. I also killed those kids last year. Goodbye.” Whether or not this man calling was actually the Zodiac killer is still unknown, yet without a doubt must have sent fear down their spines: again, giving this sadist of a killer something to feed off of. Michael Mageau was able to give a statement on what the man had looked like:

• White Male
• Large Face
• Around 200lbs
• Around 5″8
• Stocky
• Short, curly hair (Light Brown)
• Potbelly

After this incident, the Zodiac took almost 3 months to kill again, next striking at Lake Berryessa in Napa, California on September 27th 1969. The two victims of the attack were Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell, who were having a picnic on the shore of Lake Berryessa when Cecelia spotted a man hiding behind a tree, watching the two. According to Bryan, he approached the couple wearing a black executioner’s-type hood with clip-on sunglasses. The bib of the executioner hood had a white symbol, a circle with one horizontal line and one vertical line going through it; or as everyone knows it to be, the famous Zodiac symbol. He also had a gun on him.

The man who approached them claimed to be an escaped convict who had killed a guard and stolen a car in other Colorado or Montana, however which of the two is still unclear. He also told the two that he had a two letter name, and that he needed their car and money because the car that he had stolen was ‘too hot’. I personally find it quite comedic and eerie at the same time that out of all things to complain about after escaping prison was the heat of a car. Whoever this man was, Zodiac or not, clearly harboured the same nonchalant nature that the Zodiac often presented when committing crime. If this man was a copycat, he was doing a damn good job of it.

The man instructed Shepard to tie up Hartnell with pre-cut rope that he had brought with him, and she did, before he tied her up as well. Shepard had bound Hartnell’s ropes loosely, perhaps with the intent to allow Hartnell to run if needed, which the man then noticed and bound. This seemed to aggravate the man, and he proceeded to pull out a knife and stab them repeatedly, stabbing Hartnell six times and Shepard ten. After he had doe so, he left the two tied up and walked about 500 yards to Knoxville Road and found their car, in which he drew his classical symbol with black felt tip pen as well as the dates for the previous two killings, writing “20-12-68. 7-4-67. Sep-27-69 by knife.”

Chillingly, like the last attack, the Zodiac called the Napa County Sheriff’s Department at 7:40, claiming he wanted to “report a murder- no, a double murder”. It is for these reasons why it is suspected he had walked 27 miles away from the crime scene to the car wash and called the police, as he did not know that only on of the two had died, and Hartnell’s car was still in the parking lot at Knoxville Road. Cecelia was conscious when the police arrived and managed to give a detailed description before slipping into a coma en-route to the hospital, where she wouldn’t wake up again, and die two days later. Bryan miraculously survived the attack and also gave a description of the man who had attacked them. His description is as follows:

• White Male
• Heavy Set
• 5″8-6″
• Around 200 lbs
• Dark brown hair which he had spotted through the eyeholes of the mask

This description has minimal if any differences from the description provided by Michael Mageau given just under three months prior, meaning that this man was most likely the man that were involved in the last two killings at Vallejo, meaning he would also have to be the infamous Zodiac Killer.

Two weeks later on October 11th 1969 in San Francisco, California, a white male got into the cab that a man named Paul Stine was driving ad requested to be driven to the Washington and Cherry Streets, where he would shoot and kill Paul Stine in the back of the head, likely killing him instantly. He then took Stine’s wallet and keys. All of this was witnessed by a teenage girl who had heard the gunshots across the street, as well as two other witnesses within her home. They called the police and described the man as follows:

• White Male
• Stocky
• 5″8-5″9
• Mid twenties to early thirties
• Reddish-brown crew cut
• Heavy rimmed glasses

Whilst this statement was similar to that of the previous three killings in terms of bodily physique, it does not match the statement of the previous three killings when it came to his hair and glasses. However, it is entirely possible that the zodiac could have simply cut his hair and put on glasses merely for the purpose of disguise. Two police officers responded to the scene, and may have spotted the Zodiac killer walking towards the Presido Army Base. However, they left this man alone, as due to the frantic confusion, the man they were supposed to be looking for was reported to them as African American. This unfortunate reality of the racist ideology in San Francisco at the time would prove to serve dire consequences later on. Police officer Fouke gave a description of the man:

• White Male
• 5″10
• 170 lbs
• About 40 years old
• Glasses
• Reddish hair
• Crew cut

This description is evidently similar to the description given by the three eyewitnesses, however because the two policers officers were looking for an African-American male, they left this man alone. A sketch was posted in a newspaper based on the descriptions given by the teenage girl and Donald Fouke, later becoming part a famous wanted poster, which you can still easily find through a google search today.

His Letters

With all the canonical victims now covered, it is important to also look into the letters in which he sent to the press and the police. The first letter from the Zodiac killer was sent to the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner and the Vallejo Times Harold on August 1st, 1969. These were all identical and handwritten, the handwriting slightly cursive, slight sloppy, and leaning off to the side, slowly trailing down into a curve shape. Here he took credit for the killings at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs Park, naming things only the police would know. He also went on to send a three codes to all three presses, claiming that if they had not done so by the afternoon of the day they received them, he would go on a killing rampage, “killing lone people in the night, then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over this weekend”. This letters where all signed with his famous mark; a circle with a cross. He claimed that by cracking the codes, his identity would be public.

On August 4th, the killer wrote once again, officially referring himself as ‘the Zodiac’ for the first time: “This is the Zodiac speaking.” He also informed them that when the police discovered his identity, “they will have me.”

By August 8th, the codes had been quickly cracked by a couple in Salinas, California. The deciphered (and grammatically corrected as to not hurt your brain) codes read as follows:

“I like killing people because it is so much fun. It is more fun than killing wild game in the forest, because man is the most dangerous animal of all. To kill something gives me the most thrilling experience. It is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl. The best part of it is that when I die I will be reborn in paradise, and all those I have killed will become my slaves. I will not give you my name because you will try to slow down or stop my collection of slaves for my afterlife.”

Whoever this Zodiac killer may be clearly didn’t take religious studies in school, otherwise he would know, as well as any sane person would, that that is not how the afterlife works. Given how awful it was originally spelt, he must’ve skipped a lot of remedial English too. The last eighteen letters spell out to say “ebeorietemethhpiti”, a passage still unknown of it’s meaning.

On October 13th, after the Paul Stine killing, the zodiac sent a letter out which confirmed that he had been the one to kill Paul Stine. Nearing the end of the letter, the Zodiac described in gruesome detail about how he would shoot the tires of a school bus and murder children. He claimed that; “School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out.” He later sent diagrams of bombs which could be used on buses.

On November 8th, 1969, the Zodiac mailed another code on a post stamp which was recently translated in 2020. The code reveals that he was not a man named ‘Sam’ who claimed to be the Zodiac killer on a talk show back in October (the man on the talk show later was confirmed to be a mental patient named Eric Weill, who was eventually labelled as not being the Zodiac Killer. The code (deciphered and grammatically corrected) reads as follows:

“I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me. That wasn’t me on the tv show, which brings up a point about me. I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradise all the sooner, because I now have enough slaves to work for me where every one else has nothing when they reach paradise, so they are afraid of death. I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one in paradise.”

On November 9th, the Zodiac mailed a seven page letter stating that two policeman had spoken to him whilst they were searching for the killer of Paul Stine, proving that the man that was in the sketch as a result as Fouke’s statement was indeed the Zodiac killer, and that Fouke ad the other police officer had been face to face with California’s most famous serial killer of the time. He also went into detail about blowing up a school bus, and how the police would never succeed in catching him, because according to him, “I have been to clever for them.”

In a letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle on April 20th, 1970, the Zodiac left a code, in which he had started with “My name is…”. Using the previous deciphers of the zodiac codes, I was able to translate some of the code. The partially deciphered code results in the sentence reading “My name is Weea?s?h?oewh.”, the question marks being the parts I could not decipher. The question marks contained a symbol that I was unable to find on the previous zodiac letters, and I believe he may have done so intentionally as to make it harder for those trying to uncover his identity, still leaving us to play cat and mouse and allowing the Zodiac to feed off of the fear of the public.

The Zodiac continued to send letters to newspapers until 1971, only to stop entirely and send his last letter in 1974. In a queer turn of events, he made a comment about watching the movie ‘The Exorcist’, which was banned in multiple states after it’s release due to the sheer amount of horror and distraught that it had brought to viewers. However, unlike most Americans, he commented on it as being “the best saterical comedy I have ever seen”. I think next time before he posts about film reviews in his letters to the press, someone should probably inform him that Rotten Tomatoes exists first. He later when on to claim that he had killed 37 people, a number still unconfirmed, as even when the suspected victims included only adds up to around 35, two less than what he had claimed to have done. of course, he may have just taken extra credit.

Top 3 Suspects

These suspects will be included as they have the most evidence pointed against them, the others of which you are free to look into yourself. I have also chosen these specific three as they were the ones chosen by the infamous Buzzfeed Unsolved in their video on the Zodiac Killer which was posted to YouTube on 24th June 2016.

The first suspect is Earl Van Best Jr, whose son, Gary Stewart, believed to be the Zodiac killer. Earl Van Best Jr was actually the father to Gary Stewart. Earl was a convicted pedophile who started a relationship with Gary’s mom when she was 14 and he was 27 after meeting her at an ice cream parlour, a shocking 13 year age difference (Sweet Home Alabama, here we come). The two married before he was arrested. Gilford then gave birth to Stewart, and both Gilford and Earl went on the run after Earl was released on bail. They fled to LA where Earl abandoned Stewart, which resulted in him growing up with adoptive parents until he reunited with his mother in 2002. Earl was arrested again and spent several years in a mental institution for the mentally insane, and did some more time in prison before being paroled in 1964. Earl had died in 1984, and after his son discovered his death, he started to find evidence that his father may have been the Zodiac killer, and he reveals all of tis in his book titled ‘The Most Dangerous Animal of All’.

Earl holds an unbelievable resemblance to the sketch from the alibi’s provided by the teenage girl and officer Fouke from the Paul Stine killing. His name also has the same amount of letters with the code from the ‘my name is’ letter. A handwriting expert came forward and, through a sample on his marriage license, stated that he was ‘virtually certain’ that Earl had the same handwriting as the Zodiac killer. Earl was reportedly into cryptographs, much like the Zodiac killer had sent to the police. According to the Guardian, he lived just two streets down from where one of the murders in San Francisco took place.

However, there are many reasons why Earl Van Best may not be the Zodiac, which I believe rules him out as a suspect. The handwriting sample provided from the marriage certificate that was ‘virtually certain’ was actually the handwriting of the police, which would be directing the suspect of the Zodiac killer towards the priest and not Earl. Earl also only matched the appearance of the Paul Stine killing, and not the large, heavy set appearance that matched the previous attacks. Stewart requested that his fathers DNA be compared to a DNA sample taken from a letter back in 2002 which the Zodiac killer had mailed to the San Francisco press, only to be denied due to lack of evidence that Earl was the Zodiac, and Stewart reportedly went on to claim it was a police cover up, reasons unbeknownst. Whether or not Earl was the Zodiac, I wish nothing more but for Gary Stewart to find peace with his father and find the news he is searching for to provide him with the closure that he desires.

The second and most popular suspect is of course, Arthur Lee Allen, a former elementary school teacher and sex offender. Allen is the only suspect so far to be named by police as the Zodiac. Here’s the evidence (of which I will bullet point to make it a little easier for the reader):

• The day of the attack on Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell, he informed his family that he would be going swimming at Lake Berryessa, the same lake where Shepard and Hartwell were picnicking. When he arrived home, he was covered in blood with a bloody knife in his car. As mentioned earlier, he had attacked the couple earlier that day with a knife.
• Allen worked minutes away from where victim Darlene Ferrin lived, and lived minutes away from one of the murder sites.
• In 1971, a friend of Allen claimed that he referred himself as ‘the Zodiac’ ages before the killer did; before the killer even made his first move. This same friend also claimed that Allen had told him he was planning to hurt people with a gun and a flashlight, and as mentioned earlier, the first two attacks happened at night in dark parking lots, where a flashlight would be needed, and a flashlight was reportedly shone through the car at the second attack. Both attacks were also performed with a gun.
• Allen had been fired from his teaching job in March 1968 after allegations that there had been sexual misconduct with him and a student. He was also described by some as being ‘drawn to young children and angry at women’. The women in his crimes where typically treated worse, whether that was being stabbed or more than the men had been or being killed in a more violent way, or had been killed quicker than the men had been.
• Allen claimed an interview that his favourite book was called ‘The Most Dangerous Game’, which was a book about a man who hunted humans. In the Zodiacs letters, he not only referred to this book, but also claimed to ‘hunt’ his victims.
• A typewriter had been found in his home when they searched his residence in 1991 matched the typewriter that the Zodiac had used to write one of his letters.
• Allen wore a Zodiac brand watch, which contained the symbol that the killer used.
• Allen’s residence was searched in 1991, and small dissected animals had been found in the freezer, as well as sexual devices and the most strikingly terrifying and evident: bloody knifes.
• Allen was arrested for child molestation in 1974, the same year that the last letter from the Zodiac killer had been sent.
• In 1987, an inmate in San Jose prison admitted to police that Allen and told him he was the murderer of Paul Stine.
• Michael Mageau, the survivor of the second Zodiac attack, was interviewed in 1991. When shown a lineup of photos after being asked to identify the man who shot him that night, he picked out Allen and exclaimed “That’s him! That’s the man who shot me!”
• Allen’s trailer was searched again, and this time they had found formulas for bombs, constructed bombs, and tapes about the Zodiac killer. The Zodiac killer would talk about bombs in his letters and was also extremely full of himself, naming himself as some great person who was collecting slaves so he could have a peaceful afterlife.
• Allen and the Zodiac had the same shoe size, 10 and a half.

Whilst all these reasons point all fingers of the jury towards Allen, there are also many reasons why Allen may not have been the zodiac killer. Here is the evidence to back up Allen:

• The DNA extract from the stamp taken in 2002 was not a match for Allen (however, Allen was known for having other people lick his stamps, which would explain why his DNA did not match to the DNA on the stamp).
• Lloyd Cunningham, a retired police handwriting expert who worked on the Zodiac case for decades, said that, “They gave me banana boxes full of Allen’s writing, and none of his writing even came close to the Zodiac.”
• The bloody finger prints left on the Paul Stine murder scene did not match Allen’s fingerprints (however, the Zodiac had claimed in a letter that he had been leaving clues that would throw the police off, which could possibly mean the fingerprint was a red herring).
• Policeman Fouke said that Allen was about 100 pounds heavier than the man that he saw, and that Allen’s face was ‘too round’ after watching the 2007 documentary ‘His Name Was Arthur Lee Allen’.
• Allen’s appearance does not match the man at the Paul Stine killing.
• Nancy Slover, the women who had answered the phone call of the man who reported the murder of Darlene Ferrin, stated that Allen did not sound like the man she spoke to on the phone.

Whilst I want to yapper on about my opinions on Arthur, there is still one suspect that needs o be considered: Lawrence “Kane” Kaye. Out of all of the suspects listed here, i believe that Lawrence has the most evidence against him to be the Zodiac killer, despite Arthur Lee Allen being the most popular theory. The list that follows is the evidence that Lawrence was the Zodiac Killer:

• Kane was involved in a car accident in 1962, which may have lead to brain damage resulting in his strange behaviour (if he was the Zodiac). A psychiatrist stated that Kane was even losing the ability to “restrain himself from self-gratification”, aka he was unable to stop himself with following through with his desires, impulsive or not.
•  Fayçal Ziraoui, a business consultant, claimed in 2021 that he solved the ‘my name is’ letter, which resulted in the deciphered sentence reading “My name is Kayr”, which he said is a likely typo for Kaye, and the Zodiac was known to make typos in his letters, especially coded ones.
• The letters for his nickname ‘Kane’ can be found within the ‘my name is’ code, and there are also 3 circles with 8’s inside of them. 3 x 8 = 24, and Kane was born in 1924.
• Darlene Ferrin, the victim of the second attack, had a sister, who claimed that Kane had been stalking and harrasing her in the weeks leading up to her murder.
• Don Fouke, the officer who came face to face with the Zodiac claimed that out of hundreds of pictures that he had been shown over the years, Kane was ‘the closest to which he had remembered the killer’. Fouke had also described the man he saw as being 35-45 years old in 1969, and Kane was 45 in that year.
• Kane lived six minutes away from where Paul Stine had picked up his killer.
• In 1970, Kane moved to South Lake Tahoe, and a possible Zodiac victim called Donna Lass went missing in South Lake Tahoe in 1970. Kane also worked in the same hotel where Donna worked.
• Another possible Zodiac victim, who unlike his other victims had extended face time with her would-be killer, identified Kane as the man who tried to kill her. On the night of March 22 1970 on highway 132 near Patterson, California, Kathleen Johns and her baby were tricked into riding in the Zodiacs car, possibly after trying to hitchhike. He told her that he was going to kill her and kill her baby afterwards (very casual thing to say to someone who’s in your car). When he was about to make a turn, she jumped out, sprinted with her baby to the nearby field and called the police. She later identified him to the police as Kane. The Zodiac also wrote about this encounter in a little, in which he states “So I have a little list, starting with the woman + her baby that I gave a rather interesting ride”.

And finally, before we dive into my mind, here are some reasons that Kane is not the Zodiac:

• Kane’s DNA was not tested against the DNA on the stamp, nor the fingerprints found at the Paul Stone crime scene.
• Kane’s handwriting was not a match, but was not ruled out and deemed inconclusive.
• Kane matched the appearance of the Paul Stine murder scene, but not the large, heavy set description of the previous murders.

My personal opinion on ‘who dunnit?’

After extended research, countless hours of writing and watching true crime videos on the Zodiacs case later, I can confidently say that I believe Arthur Lee Allen is not the right guy. Despite a lot of evidence that points him to the murders, there is absolutely no direct confirmation with the evidence and Allen, and most of the evidence presented has been disproven. The only liable evidence that has not been disproven out of the list on Arthur Lee Allen above would be the fact they have the same favourite book, the same shoe size, and the fact account from his family where he had come home covered in blood. However, I do not fully deny the possibility that he may be the Zodiac killer.

My most confidence answer out of all suspects listed is without a doubt Lawrence ‘Kane’ Kaye. He has the most evidence pointed against him, none of which is disproven, and the only real reason why he cannot be pinpointed is because his DNA was never tested against the DNA on the stamp, not the fingerprint at the Paul Stine crime scene.

Here is my main theory about the Zodiac killer: Kane is the real Zodiac killer and Allen fed off of the popularity. I believe with full confidence that Kane is the reason why Donna Lass went missing and is the same man who attempted to kill Kathleen Johns and her baby. It is also highly likely and plausible that he is responsible for the canonical murders, as I hold no doubt he was the killer of Paul Stine, and the fact that Arthur Lee Allen was not the man who self-reported the murder of Magaeu and Ferrin and confirmed he also killed Faraday and Jensen as he did not sound like Allen according to Slover, it is highly plausible (to me, at least) that Kane was the one to commit these murders as he had been stalking Ferrin beforehand, so it is not unwise to suspect him as her killer and therefore the killer of Faraday and Jensen. This popularity was obviously not good for Kane, but it may have been good for someone else who wanted that fame: Allen. Allen was already a sick minded person, known to have been violent to women, committed sexual crimes and had strange fascinations towards children, so the desire to profit fame off of something so horrific would not be surprising for someone like Allen to want. Many of his behaviours also revolved around the zodiac, such as the fascination with bombs, the tapes of the Zodiac killer found in his home, his admitting to committing the crimes to a cellmate, having the same favourite book, wearing the watch with the Zodiac symbol… it’s almost if he’s a fanboy gone mad. So mad that he’d be willing to take the credit for the crimes.

Of course, this isn’t my only theory, despite being my main one and the one I will choose to follow suit with and believe in. My second theory is that Kane and Allen worked together. This theory would make some sense as to why Allen was named Mageau’s shooter (which make make him the killer of Ferrin, Faraday and Jensen), but Kane was named as the man at the Paul Stine killing and of the attempted murder of Kathleen Johns. It could also make sense why their handwriting didn’t match: because they were working together and switching up their handwriting. It would also make sense as some letters, the handwriting curves down to the right, and some it doesn’t. Also, the writing on Hartnell’s car was less cursive that the Zodiac’s usual writing. It would only make sense that the two were working together for all/ the majority of the Zodiac killings, hence why the police could never find a match with DNA or fingerprints, because they would always use each-other’s. Also, Allen would be able to claim that he was the one who killed Paul Stine in prison and in the letter if he got Kane to do the work, because they were both the Zodiac killer.

My third and final theory is that Allen was the original Zodiac Killer and when he stopped, Kane became a copycat. This would provide another explanation as why the two different men were pointed towards two murders by the same killer, and why Allen didn’t match the Paul Stine killer. It would also explain why Allen’s DNA was not a match at the Paul Stine crime scene. However, this would not make sense as to why the letters would continue and why Allen would agree he killed Paul Stine. Maybe he wanted more credit? Maybe he wanted to fuel more fear into the people of Northern Carolina and become even scarier? That we will never know.

One thing is for certain: whoever the Zodiac is, is a sick-twisted, sadistic and mentally unwell individual who is clearly suffered from some kind of neurological or mental illness that forced them to go insane and believe that they had to kill to achieve paradise in heaven, and by not doing so they would not achieve peace after death. But it is without a doubt he also did so willingly, and wanted to hurt people for their own disgusting satisfaction. Maybe one day the case of who the Zodiac killer is will be solved, and finally bring closure to those invested in true-crime who seek it.