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Zodiac Killer News: Netflix Docuseries Explores New Evidence Surrounding Suspect Arthur Leigh Allen
A new Netflix docuseries, This Is the Zodiac Speaking, premiered on October 23, delving into fresh evidence that may shed light on the identity of the infamous Zodiac Killer. This three-episode series focuses on Arthur Leigh Allen, the only suspect publicly identified by law enforcement in connection with the Zodiac murders.
Arthur Leigh Allen passed away in August 1992 without ever being definitively linked to the crimes attributed to the Zodiac Killer. However, investigative journalist Robert Graysmith featured Allen prominently in his seminal works on the case: Zodiac, published in 1986, and its 2002 follow-up, Zodiac Unmasked.
According to Netflix’s Tudum, This Is the Zodiac Speaking presents “never-before-seen evidence and interviews with individuals who had connections with Allen, a former elementary school teacher and convicted sex offender.” A significant focus of the series is Allen’s relationship with the Seawater family, for whom he provided care and companionship. In the trailer, an adult David Seawater reflects on their experiences, stating, “We realized we had been to all the murder sites before the murders.”
Who Is the Zodiac Killer?
The self-proclaimed Zodiac Killer is directly connected to at least five murders in Northern California during 1968 and 1969, with two additional victims surviving despite suffering severe injuries. Between 1969 and 1974, the killer taunted law enforcement and issued threats through letters sent to local newspapers, abruptly halting communication thereafter. In these correspondences, he claimed responsibility for as many as 37 murders. Despite extensive investigations and various theories regarding the serial killer’s identity, no one has ever been apprehended, and the case remains open. The enigma surrounding the Zodiac Killer has been the inspiration for numerous books and films, most notably director David Fincher’s acclaimed 2007 movie, Zodiac.
Zodiac Killer Letters, Symbol, and Cipher
On August 1, 1969, the San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle, and Vallejo Times-Herald each received an identical handwritten letter in an envelope without a return address. The letter began, “Dear Editor: I am the killer of the 2 teenagers last Christmas at Lake Herman,” and included details of the Zodiac Killer’s murders that only the perpetrator could have known. The letter concluded with a threat of further attacks if the letters were not printed on the front page.
Each letter was marked with a distinctive symbol—a circle with a cross through it—later identified as the Zodiac Killer’s emblem. Additionally, each letter contained a portion of a three-part cipher that he claimed would reveal his identity. Despite the urgent efforts of local police departments and the FBI to apprehend the killer, another letter arrived at the San Francisco Examiner shortly thereafter. Opening with, “Dear Editor: This is the Zodiac speaking,” it provided a detailed account of the murders and mocked law enforcement for their inability to decipher his code or capture him.
Days later, high school teacher Donald Harden and his wife, Bettye, managed to decode the cipher, revealing the chilling message: “I like killing people because it is so much fun. It is more fun than killing wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal of all.”
Three days after the murder of taxi driver Paul Stine on October 11, 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle received a letter claiming responsibility for the crime. Written in the same erratic script as previous letters, it detailed Stine’s murder and included a bloody scrap of his shirt. The letter concluded with a chilling statement about targeting children.
The Zodiac Killer continued to send taunting letters to Bay Area newspapers, which included more ciphers and claims of additional murders. In 1974, the letters ceased, but the investigation remains ongoing.
Victims
The Zodiac Killer is definitively linked to four separate attacks involving seven victims. The first confirmed incident occurred on December 20, 1968, when 17-year-old David Faraday and his 16-year-old girlfriend, Betty Lou Jensen, were shot near their vehicle on Lake Herman Road, on the outskirts of Vallejo, California. Authorities were perplexed, unable to ascertain a motive or identify a suspect.
On July 5, 1969, at approximately 1:00 a.m., Darlene Ferrin, age 22, and her boyfriend Mike Mageau, age 19, were attacked in a parked car in Vallejo. A man approached with a flashlight and opened fire, killing Ferrin and severely wounding Mageau. Within an hour, a man called the Vallejo Police Department, revealing the crime scene location and claiming responsibility for both this attack and the earlier murders of Faraday and Jensen.
The Zodiac struck again on September 27, 1969, targeting young couple Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Wearing a hood with a circle-cross symbol, he bound them before brutally stabbing them and scrawling a message on their car door. He then called the Napa Police Department to claim responsibility. While both victims were critically injured, emergency services arrived in time to save Mageau; however, Shepard succumbed to her wounds shortly thereafter.
The Zodiac’s final confirmed victim was 29-year-old taxi driver Paul Stine, shot in San Francisco’s Presidio Heights neighborhood on October 11, 1969. Initially classified as a robbery, the murder was later connected to the Zodiac Killer when a letter claiming responsibility arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle.
At least five additional murders have been tentatively linked to the Zodiac Killer, including the 1963 shooting of Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards near Santa Barbara, California, and the 1966 stabbing death of college student Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside, California.
Zodiac Killer’s Identity: Theories and Possible Suspects
Despite composite sketches based on witness descriptions from the scene of Stine’s murder, the Zodiac Killer has remained unidentified for over five decades, leaving law enforcement frustrated by their inability to close the case.
Public fascination with the mystery has led to numerous theories regarding the killer’s identity. Some claims are plausible, while others border on absurd, suggesting suspects such as Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and convicted murderer Charles Manson, or speculating that the Zodiac moved to Scotland to commit further crimes.
Arthur Leigh Allen
True-crime author and former San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith, in his books Zodiac (1986) and Zodiac Unmasked (2002), identified Arthur Leigh Allen as a prime suspect. Although police questioned Allen in 1969 and 1971, his fingerprints did not match those found at Stine’s murder scene, and he was never conclusively linked to the Zodiac killings. Allen was arrested for child molestation in 1974 and served two years in prison before dying in 1992. The 2024 Netflix docuseries This Is the Zodiac Speaking includes interviews with experts and former students of Allen, exploring new evidence about his potential involvement.
Earl Van Best Jr.
In 2014, Gary L. Stewart published The Most Dangerous Animal of All, claiming his father, Earl Van Best Jr., who resembled the police sketch, was the Zodiac Killer.
Louie Myers
In 2014, another man alleged that his friend Louie Myers confessed to being the Zodiac Killer prior to his death in 2002. While certain aspects of Myers’ history aligned with known details of the Zodiac case, conclusive proof remains absent.
Multiple Killers
A 2023 docuseries, Myth of the Zodiac Killer, suggests that the murders may have been perpetrated by multiple individuals. Director Andrew Nock noted, “It’s very unusual for cold cases to have this much information. But if you read all the police files, you see that there’s very little linking these crimes together—different weapons, different M.O.s, different victim profiles, even eyewitness statements.”
Despite the myriad theories and continued public interest, the true identity of the Zodiac Killer remains one of the most enduring mysteries in American criminal history.
The Case Today: Solved Cipher and Additional Theories
In 2020, amateur codebreakers achieved a significant breakthrough by solving a cipher associated with the Zodiac Killer after more than 50 years. The decoded message revealed critical information about the infamous serial killer’s communications.
In October 2021, a team of 40 former law enforcement officials known as the Case Breakers announced that they had identified the Zodiac Killer as Gary Francis Poste, who passed away in 2018. Their claims were primarily based on DNA evidence collected from the scene of Cheri Jo Bates’ murder in 1966 at Riverside City College in California. According to USA Today, the Case Breakers argued that Poste matched certain physical characteristics of the Zodiac, including having the same shoe size and similar forehead scars. They further suggested that the letters sent to the press contained anagrams of Poste’s name. However, law enforcement has maintained that Bates has not been definitively linked as a victim of the Zodiac Killer, which has prevented Poste from being formally regarded as a suspect.
In 2022, author Jarett Kobek published an investigative book titled How to Find Zodiac, in which he proposed an alternative theory regarding the killer’s identity, suggesting that it could be Poel Doerr, a San Francisco Bay Area resident who died in 2007. Kobek noted that both Doerr and the Zodiac Killer shared interests in creating homemade explosives, particularly using ammonium nitrate and fertilizer. Furthermore, he highlighted that Doerr had a similar physical build to the suspected killer and had worked at a shipyard in Vallejo during the timeframe of the murders.
Cinematic Representations of the Zodiac Killer
The Zodiac Killer has inspired various portrayals in film and television. One of the earliest adaptations was the character based on the killer in Clint Eastwood’s 1971 film Dirty Harry, which features a dramatic scene involving the hijacking of a school bus filled with children.
Years later, Robert Graysmith’s investigative writings served as the foundation for David Fincher’s critically acclaimed film Zodiac, released in 2007, which starred Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr.
Further dramatizations of the case include the 2017 feature film Awakening the Zodiac, which follows a couple who becomes embroiled in their investigation of the killer, ultimately putting themselves in danger. That same year, The History Channel aired a nonfiction series titled The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer, which chronicled ongoing efforts by investigators to decode the Zodiac Killer’s messages.
In March 2020, FX premiered a documentary series titled The Most Dangerous Animal of All, based on Gary L. Stewart’s book of the same name, further exploring the complexities surrounding this infamous case.