ZODIAC KILLER

Opening

Between December 1968 and October 1969, an unknown gunman attacked seven people in northern California, killing five. He then wrote to San Francisco Bay Area newspapers, gave himself a name, the Zodiac, and sent four coded messages, promising that one would reveal who he was. Only one was solved quickly. Another took 51 years and three codebreakers with modern software. Two are still unsolved. The Zodiac has been "identified" many times since, most recently in 2025. The case remains officially open.

Timeline

20 December 1968Students David Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16, on their first date, are shot dead on Lake Herman Road, on the edge of Benicia near Vallejo.

4 July 1969Just after midnight, Darlene Ferrin, 22, is killed and Michael Mageau, 19, wounded in a car park at Blue Rock Springs, Vallejo. Less than an hour later, a man phones Vallejo police to claim the attack and the killings on Lake Herman Road.

1 August 1969The San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner and the Vallejo Times-Herald receive letters, each with a third of a 408-symbol cipher and a demand that it be printed.

4 August 1969A letter to the Examiner opens with the words that give the killer his name: "This is the Zodiac speaking."

Early August 1969Within days of publication, schoolteacher Donald Harden and his wife Bettye, of Salinas, solve the 408-symbol cipher at home. It describes killing as more thrilling than hunting and talks of collecting slaves for the afterlife. It doesn't give a name.

27 September 1969A hooded man with a crossed-circle symbol on his chest stabs Bryan Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Shepard, 22, at Lake Berryessa. Before leaving, he draws his symbol on Hartnell's car door and writes the dates of the Vallejo attacks beneath it. Shepard dies two days later.

11 October 1969Taxi driver Paul Stine, 29, is shot dead in San Francisco's Presidio Heights. Two days later the killer mails a piece of Stine's bloodied shirt to the Chronicle. In December he sends another piece to the famous lawyer Melvin Belli.

8 November 1969A 340-symbol cipher arrives.

April and June 1970Two short ciphers are sent: one of 13 symbols, introduced with the words "My name is", and one of 32 symbols, with a map of Mount Diablo. Neither has been solved.

27 October 1970Chronicle reporter Paul Avery, who had been covering the case, receives a Halloween card reading "Peek-a-boo, you are doomed." He turns down police protection and starts carrying a gun.

29 January 1974The last letter generally accepted as genuine, signed off "Me = 37, SFPD = 0." Police confirm five killings.

2004 to 2006San Francisco police mark the case inactive, then reopen it. Other agencies, including the FBI and the Vallejo, Napa and Solano authorities, keep it open throughout.

December 2020David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke crack the 340-symbol cipher. The FBI confirms the solution. Again, no name.

October 2021A group called the Case Breakers names Air Force veteran Gary Francis Poste, who died in 2018. The FBI and San Francisco police say the case remains open.

December 2025Investigator Alex Baber claims a name hidden in the ciphers points to Marvin Margolis, a former suspect in the 1947 Black Dahlia murder, and that the FBI is reviewing his material. Nothing has been confirmed.

Key figures

The five people who were killed: David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen, Darlene Ferrin, Cecelia Shepard and Paul Stine. And the two who survived, Michael Mageau and Bryan Hartnell, whose descriptions shaped the police sketch.

Dave Toschi, the San Francisco homicide inspector who worked the case for years and became, through films and books, its public face.

Paul Avery, the Chronicle reporter who covered the killings and was himself threatened.

Donald and Bettye Harden, and the 2020 team of Oranchak, Blake and Van Eycke, solved the two ciphers that have been broken.

Arthur Leigh Allen was the prime suspect for decades and the focus of Robert Graysmith's books and the 2007 film Zodiac. He was never charged, and handwriting, fingerprint and DNA comparisons never matched him. He died in 1992.

Physical and documentary trail

The trail: the letters and envelopes, the four ciphers, the pieces of Stine's shirt, the writing on Hartnell's car door, a partial fingerprint from the Stine scene, survivor statements, police notes of the July 1969 phone call to Vallejo police, and the police files in Vallejo, Napa, Solano and San Francisco. The Zodiac was unusually generous with evidence, and it has still not been enough.

Still missing: a confirmed DNA profile, a fingerprint match, and any solved cipher that names the writer.

I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me.

Things you might not know

• A married couple broke the first code at their kitchen table. The Hardens solved the 408 cipher in days, after the newspapers published it.
• The last solve took 51 years and 650,000 attempts. The 2020 team used software to test hundreds of thousands of possible ways of reading the 340 before one worked.
• He misspelled on purpose, or didn't. The 408 cipher is full of errors, including "anamal", and nobody knows if they were mistakes or a trick.
• He claimed 37 victims. Police only ever linked him to five killings.
• Every solve came from outside the police. Both broken ciphers were cracked by members of the public.
• He signed off with a score. His last accepted letter, in January 1974, ended "Me = 37, SFPD = 0."
• He wrote to a celebrity lawyer. Melvin Belli received a Christmas-time letter in 1969 with another piece of Paul Stine's shirt.
• His first two victims were on a first date. David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen had gone out together for the first time that evening.

Competing explanations

Arthur Leigh Allen. The long-time favourite of detectives, with suggestive circumstantial details, but cleared by every forensic comparison made.

Gary Francis Poste. The Case Breakers' candidate, based on photographs and a method of reading names from the letters that cryptographers say can be made to fit almost anyone.

Marvin Margolis. The 2025 claim linking the Zodiac to the Black Dahlia. Not confirmed by any police agency.

Someone never named. The position of the agencies still holding the case.

Later life of the case

The Zodiac is America's most famous unidentified serial killer, and every few years someone announces a solution. The 2020 cipher break was real. The identifications so far have not held up.

Finding

The killings and letters are thoroughly documented, and two of the four ciphers have been solved, but neither solution names the killer. No suspect put forward so far has been backed by forensic evidence or accepted by investigators.

What still will not resolve: the 13- and 32-symbol ciphers, and whether either really contains the name he promised. Rest in peace, David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen, Darlene Ferrin, Cecelia Shepard and Paul Stine. 🕯️