THE ZODIAC KILLER

 

 

The Zodiac Killer is one of the great unsolved serial killer mysteries of all time.

Even though police investigated over 2,500 potential suspects, the case was never officially solved. There were a few suspects that stood out, but the forensic technology of the times was not advanced enough to nail any one of them conclusively. This October, 1966 killing began a ghoulish series of murders that panicked the people of the San Francisco area. For years the Zodiac taunted the police with weird ciphers, phone calls, insulting and cryptic messages.

IN MY BLOG I AM GONNA EXPLAIN YOU  HIS LETTERS AND HIS SANITY TO YOU.

FIRST LETTER

                                          29 NOVEMBER 1996 

Two carbon copies of an anonymous letter were mailed to the Riverside Police and the Riverside Enterprise.  Typed using a portable Royal typewriter with either Pica or Elite typeface, it was entitled "The Confession," and carried a "byline" that consisted of the word "BY" followed by twelve underscores.

Both copies were on low-quality white paper eight inches wide and torn at the top and bottom so as to be roughly squarish, and had been sent unstamped and with no return address from a secluded rural mailbox.  Presumably, the author planned on the letters being sent by Postage Due mail. 

THE Letter

This confession has been double-spaced to make reading easier.

THE CONFESSION

BY _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

SHE WAS YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL BUT NOW SHE IS BATTERED AND DEAD. SHE IS NOT THE FIRST AND SHE WILL NOT BE THE LAST I LAY AWAKE NIGHTS THINKING ABOUT MY NEXT VICTIM. MAYBE SHE WILL BE THE BEAUTIFUL BLOND THAT BABYSITS NEAR THE LITTLE STORE AND WALKS DOWN THE DARK ALLEY EACH EVENING ABOUT SEVEN. OR MAYBE SHE WILL BE THE SHAPELY BRUNETT THAT SAID XXX NO WHEN I ASKED HER FOR A DATE IN HIGH SCHOOL. BUT MAYBE IT WILL NOT BE EITHER. BUT I SHALL CUT OFF HER FEMALE PARTS AND DEPOSIT THEM FOR THE WHOLE CITY TO SEE. SO DON'T MAKE IT TO EASY FOR ME. KEEP YOUR SISTERS, DAUGHTERS, AND WIVES OFF THE STREETS AND ALLEYS. MISS BATES WAS STUPID. SHE WENT TO THE SLAUGHTER LIKE A LAMB. SHE DID NOT PUT UP A STRUGGLE. BUT I DID. IT WAS A BALL. I FIRST CUT THE MIDDLE WIRE FROM THE DISTRIBUTOR. THEN I WAITED FOR HER IN THE LIBRARY AND FOLLOWED HER OUT AFTER ABOUT TWO MINUTES. THE BATTERY MUST HAVE BEEN ABOUT DEAD BY THEN. I THEN OFFERED TO HELP. SHE WAS THEN VERY WILLING TO TALK TO ME. I TOLD HER THAT MY CAR WAS DOWN THE STREET AND THAT I WOULD GIVE HER A LIFT HOME. WHEN WE WERE AWAY FROM THE LIBRARY WALKING, I SAID IT WAS ABOUT TIME. SHE ASKED ME, "ABOUT TIME FOR WHAT?" I SAID IT WAS ABOUT TIME FOR HER TO DIE. I GRABBED HER AROUND THE NECK WITH MY HAND OVER HER MOUTH AND MY OTHER HAND WITH A SMALL KNIFE AT HER THROAT. SHE WENT VER WILLINGLY. HER BREAST
FELT WARM AND VERY FIRM UNDER MY HANDS, BUT ONLY ONE THING WAS ON MY MIND. MAKING HER PAY FOR ALL THE BRUSH OFFS THAT SHE HAD GIVEN ME DURING THE YEARS PRIOR. SHE DIED HARD. SHE SQUIRMED AND SHOOK AS I CHOCKED HER, AND HER LIPS TWICHED. SHE LET OUT A SCREAM ONCE AND I KICKED HER IN THE HEAD
TO SHUT HER UP. I PLUNGED THE KNIFE INTO HER AND IT BROKE. I THEN FINISHED THE JOB BY CUTTING HER THROAT. I AM NOT SICK. I AM INSANE. BUT THAT WILL NOT STOP THE GAME. THIS LETTER SHOULD BE PUBLISHED FOR ALL TO READ IT. IT JUST MIGHT SAVE THAT GIRL IN THE ALLEY. BUT THAT'S UP TO YOU. IT WILL BE ON YOUR CONSCIENCE. NOT MINE. YES, I DID MAKE THAT CALL TO YOU ALSO. IT WAS JUST A WARNING. BEWARE...I AM STALKING YOUR GIRLS NOW.

CC. CHIEF OF POLICE
ENTERPRISE

Evidence from the Crime Scene

> a Male's Timex watch stopped at 12:23.
>The watch was paint-splattered and had a broken wristband.
> Unidentified fingerprints in the victims car
Sadly no one would suspect what other horrible things were already being planned for the ever so near future.

EXPECTED PSYCHOLOGICAL BEHAVIOR

 Dr. Lawrence Z. Freedman, chairman of the Institute of Social and Behavioral Pathology at the University of Chicago, studied the Zodiac's words and deeds in order to understand the mind of the murderer. Freedman concluded that the Zodiac committed his crimes because he was “overwhelmed with terror,” and “spreads terror because he leads a terror-dominated life, and he insists on his power because he feels powerless. He will be caught because he wants to get caught.” Freedman said that the killer’s behavior indicated he was most likely insane and suicidal. “In his suicide, he will be expressing finally what his homicides have meant to him. To those who gave him being but denied him affection or recognition, he is saying, however insanely, ‘Look at what you have done to me.’” Freedman believed that the killer targeted couples and “has struck out in savage rage against those who seem to flaunt an intimacy that he craves with an intensity which only the fantasy of the deeply frustrated human being can imagine.”

SECOND LETTER

(Desk-Top Poem)

 December 1966

Found carved into a desk at the Riverside City College Library, not known to be the work of the killer, though it is largely assumed to be.

 

Sick of living/unwilling to die

cut.

clean.

if red /

clean.

blood spurting,

dripping,

spilling;

all over her new

dress

oh well

it was red

anyway.

life draining into an

uncertain death.

she won't (smudge)

die.

this time

someone ll find her.

just wait till

next time.

rh

 

 

  THIRD LETTER 

 30April 1967

On the six-month anniversary of Bates' death, the Riverside Press, the police, and the victim's father (whose name and address had appeared in the local newspaper the day after the murder) were each sent nearly identical copies of another letter, this one written in pencil on lined notepaper.

Instead of a signature, two of the letters bore a symbol that resembled a letter Z joined with a numeral 3.  In what would become a hallmark of the Zodiac's epistolary style, the envelopes were franked with excessive postage: in this case, they each carried two of the necessary four-cent stamps.


The letters sent to the police and Press read as follows:

The copy without the hieroglyph signature, sent to Joseph Bates, substituted "Bates" with "She." follows:

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