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Santa Barbara Attack
The first Zodiac victims were a high school senior couple, Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards, they were shot near Lompoc, CA. The Zodiac then tried to burn their bodies in a small shack. -
Riverside Attack
Cheri Jo Bates, a Riverside Community College student, spent the evening at the campus library until 9 P.M. Neighbors reported to hear screaming around 10:30 P.M. And the next morning, Bates was found brutally beaten and stabbed to death. But her torn wristwatch stopped at around midnight after the attack occurred. -
Riverside Investigations (Part 1)
After the mysterious murder of Cheri Jo Bates, her father Joseph, the Riverside Press-Enterprise, and the Riverside Police all received nearly identical letters which read, "Bates had to die there will be more." -
Lake Herman Road Attack
In Benicia, CA, when Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday are on their first date, they were planning a Christmas concert at Hogan High. But around 10 p.m., the killer arrived in his car, like the couple, and Faraday was headshot then Jensen was shot five times in the back. An hour later, their bodies were found by Stella Broges. -
Blue Rock Springs Attack
Just before midnight, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau drove into the park in Vallejo, CA. Then the murderer parked his car behind the couple while carrying a flashlight and pistol and shot them both. Ferrin was declared dead but Mageau survived despite being shot in the face, neck, and chest. He described the murderer as a 26-to-30-year-old, 5'8" male with short, light brown curly hair. The reporter of the crime is unknown. -
Letters from the Zodiac
Three letters from the killer were received by the Vallejo Times Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Francisco Examiner. Each of them included one-third of a 408-symbol cryptogram which was cracked a weak later. It contained a misspelled message in which the killer claims it was collected slaves for the afterlife. Just the day before the message was cracked, the killer revealed his name. That's how the "Zodiac Killer" got his name. -
Lake Berryessa Attack
Pacific Union College students Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard were picnicking at Lake Berryessa until the Zodiac approached them with a gun and forced Shepard to tie up Hartnell. Then the Zodiac stabbed them both with a knife and reported his own crime in Napa County, CA. The couple was taken to the Queen of the Valley Medical Center by ambulance. Shepard died, but Hartnell survived and claimed the killer was about 5'11" with combed greasy brown hair. -
Arthur Leigh Allen (Part 1)
Arthur Leigh Allen, the most noticeable suspects of the Zodiac killings, was interviewed by John Lynch of the Vallejo Police Department because he was reported in the vicinity of the Lake Berryessa attack against Hartnell and Shepard. -
Presidio Heights Attack
In San Franciso, CA, the Zodiac entered a cab driven by Paul Stine near Union Square to Presidio Heights. When they arrived, the Zodiac headshot Stine and took his wallet and car keys and ran away. Reports called the police and claimed the murderer was a white male to be 25-to-30 years old, 5'8" to 5'9" tall and with a crew cut hair. But patrol officer Don Fouke saw the murderer as to be 35-to-45 years old and 5'10" tall. -
Communication from the Zodiac (Part 1)
The San Francisco Chronicle received a new letter from the Zodiac saying that he's going to kill children on a school bus to "just shoot out the front tire and then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out." Six days later, "he" called the Oakland Police Department to have one of the lawyers, F. Lee Bailey or Melvin Belli, to appear on A.M. San Francisco, hosted by Jim Dunbar, on Television. During the show, Belli agreed to meet with "the Zodiac" but he never showed up. -
Communication from the Zodiac (Part 2)
The Zodiac mailed a card to the San Francisco Chronicle with a new cryptogram with 340 characters, but it was never decoded. The next day, he mailed a seven-page letter containing a statement that two policemen stopped and spoke with him for three minutes after he shot Paul Stine. -
Modesto Attack
One night, while Kathleen Johns, along with her baby daughter, was heading west on Highway 132 near Modesto, CA to visit her mother, a car honked on her and she pulled over. When the Zodiac came out of that car and went into hers, he drove back and forth for 90 minutes. After he stopped, Johns jumped out with her daughter and hid in the field. The Zodiac tried to find her using his flashlight but gave up. After being taken to a police station, her car was found gutted and torched. -
Further Zodiac Communications (Part 1)
The Zodiac wrote a letter, "My name is _____," along with a 13-character cipher, stating that he wasn't responsible for bombing a police station in San Francisco. The letter included a diagram of a bomb he would use to blow up a school bus. Eight days later, he wrote a card, " I hope you enjoy yourselves while I have a BLAST." -
Further Zodiac Communications (Part 2)
The Zodiac wrote another letter stating that he was upset by not seeing people wearing Zodiac buttons and him shooting a man which refers to the death of Sgt. Richard Radetich a week earlier, but it was unsolved because the SFPD denies it. The letter included a Phillips 66 roadmap of the San Francisco Bay Area and a 32-letter cipher which was never decoded. -
Further Zodiac Communications (Part 3)
Two days after taking credit for Johns' abduction, the Zodiac posted a third letter was about a song from The Midako, adding his own lyrics about making a small list planning to torture his slaves in paradise. At the bottom of the letter, he wrote, "P.S. The Mount Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians." -
Lake Tahoe Disappearance
Donna Lass, a nurse at the Sahara Tahoe hotel and casino, worked until about 2 A.M. But later that day, both her employer and landlord received phone calls from an unknown male trying to claim Lass left town. And to this day, she was never found. -
Further Zodiac Communications (Part 4)
The San Francisco Chronicle received a 3" by 5" card signed by the Zodiac which is drawn with blood and punched with 13 holes across it. -
Zodiac Letter to Paul Avery
The San Francisco Chronicles reporter Paul Avery received a Halloween Card from the Zodiac who wrote, "Peek-a-boo, you are doomed." After that, he received another letter from an anonymous writer altering him to the similarities between the Zodiac's killings and the unsolved murder of Cheri Jo Bates. -
Riverside Investigations (Part 2)
The Zodiac mailed a letter to the Los Angeles Times. In the letter, he credited the police for finding his murder about Bates. But the connection remains uncertain because Paul Avery and the Riverside Police department recalled the Zodiac's killing against Bates and thought that the letter was circumstantial evidence. -
Lake Tahoe Investigations
The Zodiac sent a postcard to the San Francisco Chronicles which he claims to responsible for Donna Lass' disappearance. But no evidence of the connection of the Zodiac's killings and Lass' disappearance was uncovered. -
Santa Barbara Investigations
A Vallejo Times-Herald story appeared about the murder of a couple at a beach in Santa Barbara. Bill Baker of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office read it claimed it was the Zodiac's responsibility. -
Final Zodiac Letter
When the Zodiac remained silent for almost three years until the San Francisco Chronicle received the last letter from the Zodiac praising The Exorcist as "the best saterical comidy that I have ever seen." -
Arthur Leigh Allen (Part 2)
Allen was found guilty of molesting a 12-year-old boy and served imprisonment for two years.
