Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / How the Zodiac Killer Taunted Investigators with Letters and Ciphers

Transcript

How the Zodiac Killer Taunted Investigators with Letters and Ciphers · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: California's Zodiac Killer stands out among murderers for his audacious behavior,
• 0:05
  as he openly mocked law enforcement and instilled fear within
• 0:09
  the community. He took pleasure in his heinous acts and
• 0:13
  threatened further violence through a series of disturbing handwritten letters.
• 0:19
  These letters, dispatched to local media outlets, contained intricate cipher
• 0:23
  puzzles that he claimed would reveal his identity. He also
• 0:28
  demanded that his messages be published, seeking the notoriety he
• 0:32
  so desperately desired. One letter even included a bloodstained piece
• 0:38
  of evidence to substantiate his claims of being the killer,
• 0:42
  as reported by ABC News. To this day, law enforcement
• 0:48
  has connected five notorious murders to the Zodiac Killer, although
• 0:53
  it is conceivable that he may have committed additional crimes
• 0:57
  during his spree. The initial double homicide took place on
• 1:01
  December twentieth, nineteen sixty eight, when seventeen year old David
• 1:06
  Faraday and his sixteen year old girlfriend, Betty lou Jensen
• 1:10
  were parked at a secluded area on Lake Herman Road
• 1:14
  near Vallejo, California. The assailant fatally shot both teenagers. A
• 1:20
  similar attack occurred on the morning of July fifth, nineteen
• 1:24
  sixty nine, when twenty two year old Darlene Ferren and
• 1:28
  her nineteen year old boyfriend Mike Majeaux were parked in
• 1:32
  a remote location. A man approached their vehicle and opened fire,
• 1:37
  resulting in Ferran's death, while Majeaux managed to survive. Within
• 1:42
  an hour of the assault on Ferren and Majoe, a
• 1:45
  male caller contacted the Vallejo Police, revealing the location of
• 1:50
  the latest crime scene and taking responsibility for the earlier
• 1:54
  attack at Lake Herman. What did the Zodiac letters say?
• 1:59
  Weeks later, in August nineteen sixty nine, three local newspapers
• 2:03
  received nearly identical handwritten letters from an individual claiming to
• 2:08
  be the murderer, who referred to himself as Zodiac. Dear editor,
• 2:13
  I am the killer of the two teenagers last Christmas
• 2:16
  at Lake Herman and the girl on the fourth of
• 2:19
  July near the golf course in Vallejo. He wrote to
• 2:22
  the San Francisco Chronicle, as reported by Zodiac killer dot Com.
• 2:27
  To demonstrate my involvement, I will disclose certain facts that
• 2:31
  only I and the police would know. The correspondence went
• 2:35
  on to include specific information such as the type of
• 2:38
  ammunition used in the Lake Herman incident, the total number
• 2:43
  of shots fired, and the positioning of the victim's bodies. Additionally,
• 2:48
  he detailed what Ferrin was wearing on the night of
• 2:51
  her murder, the ammunition used in her assault, and noted
• 2:55
  that Majeau had been shot in the knee. Accompanying the information,
• 3:00
  each newspaper received one third of a cipher that the
• 3:04
  killer claimed would unveil his identity. He insisted that the
• 3:08
  newspapers publish his letter on the front page, threatening further
• 3:12
  violence if they failed to comply. It terrified everyone, stated
• 3:17
  Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle whose
• 3:22
  own investigation into the killer inspired the two thousand seven
• 3:26
  film Zodiac, in an interview with ABC News. Three newspapers
• 3:32
  gave their front pages to the man. I mean, that's
• 3:35
  how terrified they were. The letters were ominously signed with
• 3:39
  a crosshair symbol. Shortly thereafter, the San Francisco Examiner received
• 3:44
  another unsettling letter. The correspondence began with the salutation, Dear Editor,
• 3:50
  followed by the declaration, this is the Zodiac speaking. The
• 3:55
  perpetrator mocked law enforcement for their failure to decipher his
• 3:59
  coded message. By the way, have the authorities been enjoying
• 4:03
  their time with the code? He inquired. If they are not,
• 4:07
  they should remain optimistic. Once they successfully decode it, they
• 4:11
  will find me. He reiterated once more the particulars of
• 4:16
  his criminal activities. Who cracked the Zodiac cipher. A few
• 4:21
  days following the dispatch of the letter, the cipher was
• 4:24
  deciphered by high school educator Donald Harden and his spouse Betty,
• 4:29
  As reported by Biography. However, the solution did not disclose
• 4:33
  the identity of the murderer, as he had asserted it would,
• 4:37
  instead serving to further mock law enforcement. I derive pleasure
• 4:41
  from taking lives because it is immensely enjoyable, the message stated.
• 4:46
  It surpasses the thrill of hunting wild game in the woods,
• 4:50
  as man is the most perilous creature of all. Additionally,
• 4:54
  the perpetrator asserted that his killings were intended to amass
• 4:58
  slaves for the after life. As noted by Wired, the
• 5:02
  initial puzzle may have been unraveled, yet the violence persisted.
• 5:07
  In late September, another couple fell victim to an attack
• 5:10
  while enjoying a picnic at Lake Berriessa in Napa County.
• 5:15
  The sole survivor, twenty year old Brian Hartnell, later recounted
• 5:19
  to law enforcement that the assailant emerged from the woods
• 5:22
  clad in an executioner's hood and assaulted the couple. As
• 5:27
  reported by u p I in two thousand eighteen, Hartnell's
• 5:31
  girl friend, twenty two year old Cecilia Anne Shepard, tragically
• 5:35
  lost her life during this brutal incident. The Zodiac Killer
• 5:40
  seemed to diverge from his established modus operandi when he
• 5:43
  claimed his final victim, taxi driver Paul Stein. The following month,
• 5:49
  Steyne was shot by the Zodiac Killer, who had posed
• 5:52
  as a passenger.