The Zodiac Killer

The zodiac Killer

The Zodiac Killer stalked Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s when he killed 5 people beginning in 1968 and claiming responsibility for 17 murders in the San Francisco area in the late 1960s. The Zodiac killer claimed he chose his victims based on their astrological signs. The Zodiac has been profiled as a sexual sadist, a person who cannot achieve sexual fulfillment any other way than through the torture and ultimate death of another human being. --------------The only victims officially attributed to the Zodiac Killer are Cheri Jo Bates, 18, killed at Riverside City College. Betty Lou Jensen, 16 on a first date with David Faraday, 17 killed while trying to escape. Darlene Ferrin, 22, and Mike Mageau, 19. Mageau survived. Cecelia Shepard age 22 and Bryan Hartnell age 20 were tied and stabbed. Shepard died at the hospital. Hartnell survived. The last victim is Paul Stine age 29. ------------During the late 1960's and well into the early 1970s, the zodiac killer wrote many letters and these would be the questioned documents. He wrote several letters to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, which is a widely known paper in the bay area. He also wrote a note on the side of a car door. He wanted people to know what he had done so he would also write about the crimes he committed. The zodiac killer would write details only he and the police officers would know. He would also write letters in code. He sent dozens of letters, codes, and diagrams to area newspapers detailing his crimes, taunting the police, threatening mayhem, and claiming to identify himself. The first letter in the Zodiac case was in November 29, 1966. The letter was mailed anonymously to the Riverside Police and to the Riverside Enterprise. This letter was not handwritten but instead was typed using a portable Royal typewriter with either Pica or elite typeface and was titled "The Confession" on carbon copies. Investigators presumed that this letter was likely genuine, although those opinions changed over the years. Over a course of time, more were sent postcards, cards, etc., and many speculated that these were all from the same perpetrator but doubt existed as to the authenticity of all the questioned documents that were supposedly from the Zodiac killer. Because these letters were usually riddled with misspellings and bad grammar, the killer was initially believed to be a discretionary illiterate, with little education beyond popular films and novels, but some believe that his prolific writings reveal a working knowledge of chemistry, geometry, and literature that points