The Zodiac Killer

By Chantel Castrejon, Staff Reporter

Courtesy of GETTY IMAGES

In Northern California between 1968 and 1969, the self-proclaimed Zodiac Killer was linked to at least five killings, and it is speculated more.

Couples in secluded areas were his first three targets; two of which survived. His last known victim was a cab driver killed in San Francisco on Oct. 11, 1969. Zodiac gained publicity and spread terror before and after his killing spree, when he exchanged ciphers, messages, details, and warnings with officials and the media.

Police began the investigation into the Zodiac Killer in Vallejo, a city outside San Francisco, citing a name he used in his letters since his first two victims were shot dead there.

“They were confident they would be able to get something off it,” Vallejo detective Terry Poyser said.

Initially, the police were unaware the mass murderer was responsible for these fatalities. During their first date, 17-year-old David Faraday and 16-year-old Betty Lou Jensen were shot in Benicia, California, while parking on a lovers' lane. After this incident, more steps were taken by the investigation, such as locating Jensen's ex-boyfriend. Seven months after those murders, while seated in Ferrin's car at the Blue Rock Springs Golf Club in Vallejo, California, Ferrin was killed, but Mageau survived with wounds to his jaw, shoulder and leg.

The then unknown Zodiac Killer phoned the Vallejo police station less than an hour after the assault to aggravate the incident. He said during the call, "I also killed those kids last year," a reference to Faraday and Jensen. The Zodiac Killer gave media outlets a series of letters claiming responsibility for the slayings during the murder spree. The letters contained unreleased information and documentation from the crime scenes to prove the validity of the allegations.

The Zodiac Killer started to contact newspapers after his July 1969 assault through letters that contained information only the killer would recognize. In addition to phoning the police after the murders he committed in July, in September he made a statement via phone call to law enforcement.

He took steps to ensure that communications were exchanged widely, such as promising to go on a "kill rampage" until a cipher was printed in the San Francisco Chronicle and making a separate threat in The San Francisco Examiner to have a cipher written.

In November 1969, he sent a letter to The San Francisco Chronicle after murdering the remaining two identified victims, which contained a new puzzle. The cryptogram was referred to as the Z-340, or simply the 340, because it had 340 characters within it.

“The cipher had been unsolved for so long, it had a huge target on its back, and I felt like it was a challenge that had a chance of being solved,” said Dave Oranchak.

Some assume that after the murder of cab driver Paul Stine, Zodiac kept committing murders, but Stine's is the last murder that can be definitively traced to the enigmatic murderer. Three witnesses saw him and he was only minutes from being caught by the officers. The near-miss may have terrified him

Zodiac did not seem to be concerned with death, unlike murderers such as Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. In a few short months, he became the most talked-about serial killer in the world, and it was his strange, mysterious letters that really did it.