The Zodiac Killer[n 2] is the pseudonym of an unidentified serial killer[1] who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s.[n 1] The case has been described as the most famous unsolved murder case in American history.[2] It became a fixture of popular culture and inspired amateur detectives to attempt to solve it.
Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau drove into the Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo and parked. It is four miles (6.4 km) from the Lake Herman Road murder site. While the couple sat in Ferrin's car, a second car drove into the lot and parked alongside them but almost immediately drove away. Returning about 10 minutes later, this second car parked behind them. The driver of the second car exited and approached the passenger side door of Ferrin's car, carrying a flashlight and a 9 mm Luger. The killer directed the flashlight into Mageau's and Ferrin's eyes before shooting at them, firing five times. Both victims were hit, and several bullets passed through Mageau and into Ferrin. The killer walked away from the car but returned and shot each victim twice more before driving off.[11]
The Zodiac Killer The Mystery Of Americas Most Infamous Serial Killer Zed 12
Robert Graysmith's book Zodiac advanced Arthur Leigh Allen, who died in 1992, as a potential suspect based on circumstantial evidence. Allen had been interviewed by police from the early days of the Zodiac investigations and was the subject of several search warrants over a 20-year period. In 2007, Graysmith noted that several police detectives described Allen as the most likely suspect.[104] In 2010, Dave Toschi stated that all the evidence against Allen ultimately "turned out to be negative".[105] Toschi's daughter said in 2018 that her father had always thought Allen had been the killer, but they did not have the evidence to prove it. Mark Ruffalo, who portrayed Toschi in the 2007 film Zodiac, commented, "If you get into who these cops were, you realize how they have to take their hunches, their personal beliefs, out of it. Dave Toschi said to me, 'As soon as that guy walked in the door, I knew it was him.' He was sure he had him, but he never had a solid piece of evidence. So he had to keep investigating every other lead."[106]
Case in point: the murderers below, who despite a concerted effort by police, were never apprehended. From the infamous Zodiac Killer who taunted the media with baffling clues about his crimes to the Cleveland Torso Murderer who beheaded and dismembered his victims, take look at these chilling serial killers who were never caught.
Many of the victims are First Nations women, leading locals to contend that racism played a part in the attacks as well as the lack of progress made in each case. Although it's likely that some, or even many, of these women were killed by different people, it is believed that a large number of the murders can be traced to one killer. Royal Canadian police have suspected American killer Bobby Jack Fowler as being responsible for killing anywhere from 10 to 20 of the victims. A Canadian serial killer, Cody Legebokoff, was convicted of one of the Highway of Tears murders.
The Long Island serial killer, also known as LISK and the Craigslist Ripper, killed at least 10 women and dumped their bodies along the Ocean Parkway in Long Island through the late 90s and 2000s. Many of the women targeted by the Long Island serial killer were sex workers, who advertised their services on Craigslist. Authorities believe the killer contacted these women on Craigslist, arranged a meet-up, then raped and murdered each victim.
John Bittrolf, convicted of the murder of two sex workers in the early 1990s, is a suspect in at least one of the LISK killings. Another notable suspect was James Burke. Burke, the former police chief of Suffolk County, had previously hired one of the victims. During the course of the investigation, it was revealed that Burke had during his time as police chief obstructed an FBI probe into the Long Island serial killer case. He was convicted of obstruction and the assault of a man who stole personal items from his vehicle. Burke has never been charged in connection with the actual killings, but he pled guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice in February 2016. He was released from jail in late 2018.
In the late 1800s, Austin fell prey to a crazed murderer with an axe. Seven women and one man were killed by the Servant Girl Annihilator, while six more women and two more men were brutally attacked. The killer would attack in the dead of night. He dragged most of his victims outside before brutalizing them with an axe. The killer tore across Austin for just under a year. Then, just like that, the attacks ceased.
Bible John was never apprehended, and his identity remains unknown. A convicted serial killer and rapist named Peter Tobin was suspected of being responsible for the murders, but he was never charged in the Bible John case.
The Cleveland Torso Murderer (also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run) was a Great Depression-era serial killer who terrorized Cleveland, Ohio between 1935 and 1938. The killer beheaded and dismembered multiple male and female victims, often dumping their bodies in the impoverished Cleveland neighborhood known as Kingsbury Run. The official number of victims attributed to the Cleveland Torso Murderer is twelve, although some researchers suggest the total body count may be as high as twenty.
Helen had been raped and strangled, just like the others. This time her handbag had been upended nearby, the contents scattered, but the bag itself was missing. She had grass stains on her feet, which showed she most likely tried to get away from her killer. There was also a human bite mark on one of her legs.
The Cleveland Torso Murderer remains unidentified to this day, and has been linked to up to twenty murders between 1935 and 1938. There are at least 12 victims officially attributed to the work of this serial killer, and each had been dismembered. Those that worked on the Cleveland Torso Murderer case believe that there are other murders he may be responsible for including some from the 1920s and 1950s.
This serial killer tended to target drifters, and as such, some of the victims have never been identified. There was no preference for gender, and he murdered both men and women. At that time in Cleveland, it was the Depression era, and his victims all appeared to come from the lower classes of society.
An active serial killer in the area at the time, many have speculated that Joel Rifkin may have been the Long Island Killer. However, although he has confessed to his other crimes, he denies being responsible for any of the Long Island murders.
After his release from prison, López went on an astonishing murder spree in Colombia and Ecuador, averaging three murders each week. With over 300 young girls missing, the authorities initially thought they were being sold into sexual slavery and prostitution, and they didn't suspect a serial killer was at work until López was arrested for a failed abduction.
In August 1969, following the murders of three of the five known victims, the Zodiac Killer sent three almost identical letters to three Bay Area newspapers. Each letter also included one-third of a 408-symbol cryptogram that the suspect said would reveal his identity. The killer demanded the papers publish the letters in full or he would kill again.
Wreaking havoc in Northern California from the 1960s to 1970s, the Zodiac Killer has claimed to have killed 37 while five murders have been confirmed. The American serial killer gained notoriety due to his frequent taunting of law enforcement, and the fact that he was never caught.
Like with most other serial killers, investigators had to consider the possibility that the Zodiac had other victims. Indeed, they suspected that he might have started killing as early as 1963 and that he continued after the death of Paul Stine.
Like we said, Allen was the only suspect the police ever named, but this did not stop other amateur sleuths from advancing all sorts of ideas . Many of them claim that other notorious killers like BTK or the Unabomber were also the Zodiac. One former detective wrote a book where he advanced the outlandish hypothesis that a convicted serial killer by the name of Edward Edwards was responsible for many other infamous unsolved murders. This includes the Zodiac killings, but also the Black Dahlia, JonBenet Ramsey, and Jimmy Hoffa.
There are so many questions that remain unanswered. Did the Zodiac truly stop killing? Why did he stop writing letters? Do his unsolved ciphers actually contain any useful information? Was Arthur Leigh Allen the killer all along? It seems like the Zodiac is destined to remain a mystery forever.
The serial killer claimed to have murdered 37 individuals in total but investigators have only confirmed seven victims, two of whom survived the attempt. He primarily targeted young couples but had also murdered a cab driver once.
The psychology of serial killers has long been a subject of interest worldwide. Serial killers have inspired wildly popular shows, like Criminal Minds, which ran for 15 seasons. Whether presented as movies or tv series, serial killer documentaries are typically very successful, as it can be hard to believe that monsters can walk among the ordinary.
Updated By Matthew Z. Wood on 9/10/2022: The list of great serial killer documentaries has grown since this article was originally published. CBR's formats have also changed since then and this update has added relevant links and information, including IMDb ratings, to the article.
The Shipman Files was a BBC documentary series about Harold Shipman, a medical doctor who specialized in elder care. After a thorough investigation, Shipman discovered that Shipman was a serial killer who had injected fatal doses of morphine into dozens of patients and falsified their death certificates, stating that they died of natural causes. 2ff7e9595c
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