The Zodiac Killer 2023 Guide: Decades of Murder and Research

By Shannon V. Marin and Sandy Betts

In his 1986 book, the author Robert Graysmith speculated that Zodiac continued to kill long after a near arrest in San Francisco in 1969, but this was a divisive idea. An alternate view, apparently popular in law enforcement, was that Zodiac's murders preceded or overlapped with those of an unrelated killer hunting girls and young women in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders were a core part of this theory. In both sets of killings, females with blonde or light brown hair were the preferred targets. As information about both cases has grown and been refined, the number of common elements between the Zodiac killings and the Santa Rosa killings has grown. Though not the focus of this book, law enforcement apparently has entertained the idea that the perpetrator of the Santa Rosa murders killed in several other states. While such a scenario is still speculative, there are strong reasons to believe that Zodiac continued to kill, year after year, for decades.

The most elaborate Zodiac attack was at Lake Berryessa in September of 1969. Zodiac had made a costume and manipulated two young adult victims, claiming that he was carrying out a robbery to flee to Mexico. Once the victims were bound, Zodiac stabbed them. He probably left the male alive intentionally. While this is a confirmed Zodiac attack, its elaborate nature is often ignored. When considered with television and film themes in messages the killer sent, we have a theatrical, almost comic book murderer. This is important when evaluating unsolved claims of Zodiac responsibility.

This book focuses on the characteristics of the different crimes in which Zodiac is confirmed or suspected. Some unsolved homicides with Zodiac-like characteristics are included. Crimes for which Zodiac is no longer a suspect are provided as well. As the search for Zodiac victims has been centered on the general areas of San Francisco and Vallejo, the authors hope that this book will contribute to identifying overlooked victims in other regions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350915952

Book preview

Chapter I

Zodiac Case Overview

Hitchcock Film Images

Psycho (1960): The Shower Scene. Janet Leigh played the character of Marion Crane. This is one of the most famous scenes in film history. Though unclear from this still frame, Leigh had blonde hair. The screeching violins in the soundtrack were arranged by Bernard Herrman. Image © Alamy: 2MDN77F FlixPix / Alamy Stock Photo

Also from the Psycho shower scene. Image © Alamy: DXK330 Universal Pictures / Ronald Grant Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

Rope (1948). James Stewart’s character confronts the two killers. They had strangled a man with a rope earlier that evening. Image © Alamy: DY82JK cineclassico / Alamy Stock Photo

Shadow of a Doubt (1943). Hitchcock stands with members of the cast and crew while shooting on location in Santa Rosa. This probably was for the scene in which Uncle Charlie arrives like the Devil riding into town. Image © Alamy: PNP07K TCD / Prod.DB / Alamy Stock Photo

Rebecca (1940). Female characters in Hitchcock productions often had negative qualities. Judith Anderson’s character, on the left, is malicious and dominating. Joan Fontaine’s character is emotionally weak and cannot navigate nor endure the strife in her new home. Image © Alamy: H85P2A United Archives GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

The Wrong Man (1956). The film is based on a true story in which an innocent man is mistaken for an armed robber. The story follows the innocent man’s incarceration and trial, as well as the mental breakdown of his wife. In the above scene, Henry Fonda’s character finally meets the actual criminal. Hitchcock experimented with many forms of identity confusion. Image © Alamy: PN9XNN TCD / Prod.DB / Alamy Stock Photo

Introduction

This chapter introduces the main ideas. Many topics are described in detail later. If you are familiar with the case, you might skip to the Highlights of New Information chapter.

The Zodiac killer was active at least during the 1960’s. There is no consensus as to how many decades the killings spanned. Looking only at the 1960’s, couples appeared to be the preferred targets. If the 1970’s are included, blonde women and other women with light-colored hair were the main targets. In 1969 there was a near arrest of the killer in San Francisco. An unusual aspect of the case was that Zodiac called and sent messages to police departments and newspapers. Some of the letters included ciphers and at least one code. Zodiac even sent a letter to one victim’s family and probably made harassing calls. Eventually, the letters indicated an interest in crime and horror dramas. At least one victim appears to have been targeted because of a grudge. Most victims were apparently strangers. In various ways, the killer interacted with the famous attorney Melvin Belli. A letter to Belli appeared to be authentic, while some calls related to the radio station KGO and Belli’s home were either fake or made by proxy. (A man named Eric Weill reportedly made at least one of these calls. Sandy Betts believes that a different individual made the other calls.)

The public deluged law enforcement with all manner of analyses and suspects. Every white adult male on the West Coast showing signs of frustration or aggression became a viable suspect in the eyes of neighbors and family members. For a time, law enforcement believed that they had identified the killer. Eventually, most investigators came to believe that this suspect implicated himself to gain notoriety. This suspect probably did as much harm to the investigation as anything engineered by the real killer.

The massive number of suspects did cause strong candidates to emerge. A general phenomenon in the case has been that it has been easy to fall in love with a suspect. Many suspects have closely matched the expected persona of the Zodiac killer. Certainly, many dangerous men deserved the scrutiny of law enforcement. Given the number of people reported by the public, it was expected that some strong candidates would be identified. A phenomenon that has not been discussed is that some Zodiac candidates with exceptionally strong reasons to be considered suspects have been cleared and then completely ignored. Investigators did not ask, How can a person show remarkably strong links to the case, but not be the Zodiac killer?

Eventually, the confirmed and obviously similar Zodiac attacks dropped off. For years, Zodiac appeared to continue to send letters, but there has been no agreement as to which messages were authentic. The case became a grand mystery within the United States. While the core events were the brutal killings of youth and adults, the challenge of solving the case still has tremendous appeal. The crimes influenced many films and started the Dirty Harry series. So many books have come out with new information that one reporter stated that California residents consider major Zodiac revelations to be a seasonal occurrence.

This is an unusual case. Other killers have contacted law enforcement and newspapers, but it is uncommon. A variety of themes and links have been discussed. Zodiac may also have killed and left bodies in areas near water or with water themes in their names. Riverside, Lake Herman Road, and Lake Tahoe are examples of such locations. Zodiac does seem to have repeated elements of crimes intentionally. For example, several likely victims had the surname Davis.

As of 2023, the identity of the killer or killers is still unconfirmed, at least in the eyes of law enforcement. Advancements in the case primarily come from:

Researchers studying newspaper articles and publicly accessible documents.

The sharing and formal release of law enforcement reports. Online discussions of potentially new information and ideas.

It is unclear how energetically law enforcement is working to solve the case via DNA. There are some DNA samples available, but the DNA may be from people with only weak connections to the primary killer. The most interesting new material often comes from law enforcement giving key researchers such as Tom Voigt access and permission to print key documents. Tom Voigt has been contributing to the case for years, so law enforcement will cooperate with him. Most of us will never get any information directly from law enforcement.

Online discussions often degenerate into arrogant bickering. Behind it all, however, is curiosity and imagination. Some people have spent hours upon hours studying microfiche newspaper accounts of possible Zodiac crimes. There is a desire to solve the case. The hope of recognition is part of this, but the case also represents a challenge. Making contributions to such a high-profile mystery does feel like an achievement. There is also a lot of information available, despite law enforcement’s denying access to important information. Some people have contributed considerable research in the form of books and online posts. Though individual threads are often not impressive, thought does go into many of them. The discussions have been valuable in understanding the Zodiac case.

A topic not usually discussed directly is what criteria should be used to evaluate different scenarios. Must Zodiac closely match other serial killing cases? Should only probable scenarios be considered? Should the views of law enforcement always outweigh those of amateurs? One interesting aspect of the case is that the understanding of crime has grown since the Zodiac killings began. There are many examples of serial killers to study. There are also copycat crimes inspired by crime and horror dramas. This last point is especially important for the Zodiac case.

This book is intended to be an introduction as well as to provide updates to people who browse case articles once a decade. The core information in this book has been discussed previously, in print and on the Internet. The purpose is to provide the most important information in an organized publication. Some views advocated by the authors are unpopular, but we consider the content to form a cohesive account of the Zodiac crimes. Some of the most surprising claims that follow actually have strong justification. Sometimes important claims made over the years have simply been lost amidst the plethora of Zodiac articles, books, and online posts.

Topics such as the role of law enforcement and the reliability of witnesses are discussed in the Background chapter. It is near the end of the book because it is less interesting than the core of the Zodiac case. It will be helpful for people who are systematic when studying a topic.

The starting point for much of the Zodiac research has been web content written and moderated by Tom Voigt. Much of the original information available to researchers originates from police reports and newspaper articles.

Other than Zodiac associates, almost all killers mentioned in this book are either dead or in prison. If a man has the same name as a killer named here, but is alive and not in prison, he is almost certainly not the same person as the killer in this book.

Abbreviations and Terms

Common abbreviations: These are some of the abbreviations used online and in source materials. The primary ones used in this book are in bold.

ALA: Arthur Leigh Allen, a former Zodiac suspect, is now discounted as the primary killer.

CA: California

CJB: Cheri Jo Bates. Stabbed to death on October 30, 1966, in Riverside, CA.

Hitch: Hitchcock’s nickname for himself.

DOB: Date of birth.

LB: Lake Berryessa attack, September 27, 1969. Zodiac wounded Bryan Hartnell and killed Cecelia Shepard.

LE: Law enforcement. This includes city, county, state, and national (FBI) law enforcement agencies.

MLZ: The primary man framed by Zodiac. He is also referred to as Zode.

MO: Modus operandi. The characteristics and methods of a crime (or other action).

OCR: Optical character recognition. Online web services often use this to read documents.

PD: Police Department, as in VPD for Vallejo Police Department.

Perp, perpetrator: The person responsible for a specific crime.

SF: San Francisco

SRHM: Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murder: During the 1970’s, many young women were murdered in Northern California, many by the same perpetrator. The core set contains roughly 11 victims.

SRHM+: This includes a variety of attacks which seemed to have had the same perpetrator as the core SRHM murders.

V, vic: Victim/target. This abbreviation is mainly used by law enforcement.

WFA: White female adult.

WFJ: White female juvenile.

YB: The Yellow Book, Robert Graysmith’s 1986 book entitled Zodiac.

Z: Zodiac

While SRHM is a common abbreviation, the victim list is poorly defined. Many homicide victims have been considered over the years, both by law enforcement and amateur investigators. SRHM+ is an expanded set, which is even more nebulous than most SRHM lists. It is meant to include similar attacks and attacks which for other reasons seem to have the same perpetrator as the SRHM crimes. The SRHM+ list is meant to cover both California and Nevada. Most candidate attacks in the SRHM and SRHM+ set come from law enforcement.

Ciphers and codes are from messages with approximate dates:

Z408: July 31, 1969. Mostly solved soon after receipt.

Z340: November 8, 1969. Mostly solved in 2020.

Unnamed cipher: December 7, 1969. It consisted of five or six characters. (unconfirmed).

Z13: April 20, 1970.

Z32: July 26, 1970.

Z148: Sometime in 1971. The solution was simple. (unconfirmed)

Celebrity Cipher: September 25, 1990 (unconfirmed).

For brevity, some terms are used loosely in this book and source documents:

Cold case: This term is used informally to mean a significant criminal case in which there is little or no law enforcement activity.

Nude: This may describe bodies even when small articles of clothing remain.

Rape, sexual assault: The meanings are often ambiguous, but often are from source documents.

Ravine: This can mean anything from a ditch to a valley. It sometimes implies, or is mentioned with, a watercourse (e.g. creek).

Researcher: Someone who investigates cases like Zodiac, typically from outside law enforcement. The term includes traditional researchers, who rely on printed material and interviews, as well as web sleuths.

Victim: This covers a person killed, injured, attacked, or stalked.

Zodiac: Depending upon the context, this refers to a primary killer or people possibly cooperating on the Zodiac messages and some attacks.

The broad usage of ravine is unfortunate, but source documents often use it to describe the locations where the bodies of Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murder and related victims were found. Many of the locations were near or in bodies of water or were in or near a dry watercourse.

Most of the text is written as if a primary killer was responsible for all Zodiac phone calls and attacks. When discussing the experiences of Sandy Betts, the characteristics of individuals working together to stalk her are given. These individuals probably coordinated scouting, stalking, attacking, harassing, and establishing alibis.

In the main text, Zodiac killer is written with a small k to improve readability.

Cities and counties are in California, unless otherwise specified.

Confidence

When significant claims are not part of the common Zodiac narrative, the book describes the robustness of the sources. For example, there are many sources indicating that Zodiac framed a young man with the initials MLZ. The sources are listed in this book. However, the possibility that Zodiac framed Walter Boyd Williams for the murder of Lynda Kanes (1971, Napa County) comes only from online commentaries. Correspondingly, the framing of MLZ is asserted much more strongly than the framing of Williams.

The authors consider research from certain individuals, such as Morf13, to be reliable. Morf13 is well known and has studied the Zodiac case for decades. Tom Voigt, Deborah Silva, and Sandy Betts are other long-term researchers on serial killings in California.

Information about victims is a soup. Early books, including Graysmith’s 1986 Zodiac Yellow Book (YB) had many errors. Some researchers take a negative view of the book, though there is certainly valuable information in it. Formal-looking documents in circulation among researchers are often unclear and use key terms loosely. Online subscription services, such as Ancestry.com, appear to have digitized the text content from many documents with OCR. This has introduced a variety of errors as well.

In this book, victims are typically identified by: name (year of attack, location). Dates and locations are both subject to ambiguity. Victims often had nicknames, and many names in print are misspelled. The exact meaning of dates is often unclear, even in law enforcement documents. A date associated with a victim may refer to:

Date last seen.

Date first noticed missing.

Date first reported missing.

Date of attack.

Date of death, estimated or known.

Date body found.

The above list is not even exhaustive.

Location may refer to:

Location of abduction.

Location killed. (This is often unknown for abductions, Zodiac or otherwise.)

Location where the body was found.

The dates of Zodiac letters are imprecise. Dates can represent estimates as to when the letters were sent or received, or the date of the postmark.

With respect to this book, dates of birth are probably the least reliable pieces of information. Dates of death will also have errors in online services and books. Also, it is easy to mistakenly use information for the wrong person. Even paid subscription services can jumble information for different people together.

Errors in victim and attack information posted in online discussions are frequently flagged. Enough people have studied the case that many errors are recognized on sight. However, there are times in which online discussions overlook basic news reports. For example, online discussions about the murder of Jenny Low Chang (1977, SFSU) usually ignore reports of a man stalking and threatening multiple women on campus around the time of Chang’s murder. This information is available in the microfiche newspaper archives of San Francisco’s main library. If witness statements are correct, the suspect in the murder of Chang was far too young to have been the Zodiac killer. Also, the killer repeatedly stalked women in a comparatively small area. This is unlike the first decades of confirmed and suspected Zodiac attacks.

Sometimes a homicide case has been so high profile that reporters, police investigators, and amateur researchers have piled up the facts and insights to the point where nobody agrees on the basics of the case. The murder of JonBenét Ramsey generated so much coverage, partly because of false leads, that many claims in the case should be discarded.

Some of the names of victims are spelled differently in other publications. For example, Cecelia Shepard is spelled differently both in print and on the Internet. The authors have made efforts to choose the correct spellings of victim names. Note that mistakes sometimes go back to the first newspaper articles identifying the victims, so it is difficult to detect errors. One early newspaper article on the murder of Cathy Pethtel (1973, Livermore) identified her as Cathy Fechtel. Another gave her surname as Pehtel. (Despite smug claims that social media is junk, it is where people resolve the myriad of errors that appear in print and in subscription service databases.) Spellings in this book should not be considered definitive, however.

Responsibility

People becoming involved in research on Zodiac or any other major criminal case should note:

Witnesses should not be disturbed out of casual curiosity.

Potential new suspects should not be identified in public, especially if they are living.

Don’t get yourself killed.

Witnesses in high-profile crimes often do not want to answer any questions about the case. You might send a postal letter, but don’t hound witnesses if they do not respond. In some instances, researchers such as Sandy Betts, Morf13, and Tom Voigt speak directly with witnesses. They have demonstrated a strong understanding of the case and can share the information they receive. In some instances, contacting witnesses will result in an angry detective calling you. Even sending a letter to a witness can trigger this.

New Zodiac suspects still emerge, but their names should not be made public if they are still alive. Even if the suspect is deceased, there should be restraint in condemning the person as a possible monster. Many people can be gruff and even threatening, but few are serial killers. The names of potential witnesses should also be kept private unless their names have already been reported in the context of major criminal events.

Though the primary Zodiac killer has probably died, associates may still be alive. Do not meet anyone in a remote forest at midnight to