The Zodiac Killer
The cipher-writing phantom who taunted police for decades.
Between December 1968 and October 1969, a self-proclaimed serial killer known as the Zodiac murdered at least five people in Northern California. He terrorized the region with taunting letters and cryptic ciphers sent to newspapers, some of which remain unsolved to this day.
It began on a lover's lane outside Vallejo. Two teenagers, David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, were shot dead beside their parked car on December 20, 1968. Seven months later, on July 4, 1969, the killer struck again — this time in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park. Darlene Ferrin died at the scene. Her friend Michael Mageau survived and gave a description.
Then came the letters. In August 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle, Vallejo Times-Herald, and San Francisco Examiner each received a letter demanding front-page publication of an accompanying cryptogram. The killer signed it with a crosshair symbol and called himself 'Zodiac.' He threatened to kill a dozen more people if the ciphers weren't published.
Over the next months, Zodiac attacked couples at Lake Berryessa (killing Cecelia Shepard) and shot cab driver Paul Stine at the corner of Washington and Cherry Streets in San Francisco. He continued writing letters until 1974 — bragging, threatening schoolchildren, and mailing bloodstained scraps of Stine's shirt as proof. He claimed 37 victims.
Despite one of the largest manhunts in Californian history, the Zodiac was never officially caught.
- Dec 20, 1968Faraday and Jensen murdered near Lake Herman Road.
- Jul 4, 1969Blue Rock Springs attack — Ferrin killed, Mageau survives.
- Aug 1, 1969First 'Zodiac' letters mailed to newspapers with 408-symbol cipher.
- Aug 8, 1969The 408 cipher is cracked by schoolteacher Donald Harden and his wife.
- Sep 27, 1969Lake Berryessa hooded attack. Shepard dies; Hartnell survives.
- Oct 11, 1969Cabdriver Paul Stine murdered in Presidio Heights, San Francisco.
- Nov 8, 1969The unsolved '340' cipher is mailed.
- 2020The 340 cipher is finally decoded by a private team of codebreakers.
- EX-01Four ciphers, two still unsolved (Z13 and Z32).
- EX-02Recovered bloody fingerprints from Paul Stine's cab.
- EX-03Handwritten letters bearing the crosshair signature.
- EX-04A pair of black wingtip shoes with a distinctive tread pattern.
"Something in this file doesn't sit right. Ask the detective — he's read it a hundred times."