The Horrifying Murders of the Zodiac Killer - VoiceTube: Learn English through videos!

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- This week on BuzzFeed Unsolved we're covering
the Zodiac Killer.
Right now we are at the scene of his first crime which,
at the time, seemed like a good idea,
but now that we're here, it's fucking pitch black.
This is a horrible idea so let's just get this over with.
- Sounds good, let's do it.
- [Voiceover] So, in the late 60s and early 70s,
the Zodiac Killer terrorized Northern California.
Killing at least five people and claiming to have killed
37 people in total.
- [Voiceover] 37?
- [Voiceover] He claims to have killed 37 people.
- [Voiceover] Like, he wrote a note?
- Yeah, he was a, he was a douche bag.
On December 20, 1968 around 11 PM near Vallejo, California
17 year old David Faraday and 16 year old Betty Lou Jensen
were shot and killed while sitting in a parked car
in a gravel parking area off of Lake Herman Road.
In the exact spot we are sitting right now.
- The exact spot, like right here?
- Like right here.
- Its' just the wind.
- Yes, right here.
(yells) - It's the wind!
- You're not freaked out a little right now?
- What the fuck, dude?
- It's the wind.
You don't want me, we can close the windows.
- Yeah, let's close the windows, fuck this shit.
- If anything, though, it would make it somewhat easier
to hear footsteps that sneak up on us.
- Fuck, you're right, let's open the windows.
(laughing)
By the time police arrived, Betty was found dead
on the ground 30 feet away from the car,
but David was still alive.
However, David would die on the way to the hospital.
At this time, nobody knew that this was the work
of a serial killer.
- [Voiceover] Oh, 'cause it was the first murder?
- 'Cause it was the first time.
Can we leave now?
- Should I grab the camera?
- What is wrong with you?
Are you really not scared right now?
- Why? Why on earth?
- [Voiceover] 'Cause look where the fuck we are, dude.
Look where the fuck we are.
There's nothing around!
- Have you never been in the middle of nowhere before?
- [Voiceover] No, I am freaking out!
Look at this shit, where the fuck are we right now?
There's two of us out here and who knows what the fuck
is out in that darkness.
Not down to find out.
Call me a wiener, whatever, I don't care.
The Zodiac's next crime would occur on July 4, 1969
at around midnight near Blue Rock Springs Park,
only a few minutes away from the previous crime.
The Zodiac approached a parked car with a flashlight,
shooting 22 year old Darlene Ferrin and 19 year old
Michael Mageau before walking away and coming back
to shoot them both again.
Both were still alive when found,
but only Mageau would survive.
Mageau was able to make out the face of the man who shot him
and described him as a young white man, approximately 26
to 30 years old, stocky, 200 pounds or larger,
about five foot eight with light brown curly hair,
and a large face.
Within an hour, the police received a phone call from
somebody claiming to be the shooter.
He also claimed to be the shooter in the Lake Herman Road
murders.
Happened right around here.
The parking lot was probably empty just like this.
I don't like the way this feels either.
- I mean, it's eerie 'cause it's night time,
but if I was here during the day,
it wouldn't feel weird at all.
Right behind you is a freaking kiosk that says,
"Parking fees are free today."
Like, that's not a scary sight.
- I guess.
On August 1, 1969 the San Francisco Chronicle,
the San Francisco Examiner and the Vallejo Times Harold
all received identical hand written letters from someone
claiming to be the killer.
The letters revealed specific details about the murders
to prove that the writer was in fact the killer.
The letters were signed with a distinct mark,
a circle with a cross through it, the mark that would
eventually become known as the mark of the Zodiac Killer.
Also included in the letters were three different codes
that the Zodiac demanded be printed in newspapers
or else he would kill again.
- [Voiceover] Why did they print them?
- [Voiceover] Because he said if they didn't print them,
he would kill more.
- [Voiceover] That just creates fear and gives the killer
what they want.
- [Voiceover] But at the same time, I wouldn't want death
on my hands either.
- [Voiceover] It's not your hand, you're not killing anybody
that guy is killing someone.
- [Voiceover] True.
- [Voiceover] You not printing something has nothing to do
with whether or not someone is going to kill someone.
- [Voiceover] The Zodiac claimed that the cracked codes
would reveal his identity.
On August 4, another letter was received that started with
the phrase, "This is the Zodiac speaking."
Marking the first time the killer referred to himself
as the Zodiac.
On August 8, 1969 the code was cracked by a couple
in Salinas, CA.
It reads, "I like killing 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 to kill.
"Something gives me the most thrilling experience,
"it is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl.
"The best part of it is that when I die,
"I will be reborn in paradise and those I have killed will
"become my slaves.
"I will not give you my name because you will try to
"slow down or stop my collecting off slaves for afterlife."
- [Voiceover] Since when do you get to keep slaves
in the afterlife when you kill someone?
- [Voiceover] Well, apparently that's common knowledge
in crazy town.
Also, this dude must've skipped class the day they taught
run on sentences because that shit was ridiculous.
- [Voiceover] Also this guy sounds like, just the biggest
bro douche ever, right?
Killing is better than getting my nuts off with a girl?
Like, shut up.
- [Voiceover] On September 27, 1969 in Napa, California
22 year old Cecelia Shepard and 20 year old Bryan Hartnell
were picnicking on the shore of Lake Berryessa when Cecelia
saw a man hiding behind a nearby tree and staring at her.
After some time, the man came out from behind the tree
wearing an executioner style hood over his head
with the Zodiac Killer symbol on his chest.
He had a gun and a long knife and used pre-cut rope
to tie up Cecelia and Bryan before stabbing them repeatedly.
Cecelia died at the hospital, but Bryan Hartnell would
survive, despite being stabbed six times in the back.
Bryan Hartnell described the man as being five foot eight
to six feet tall, heavy set, weighing about 225 to 250
pounds with dark brown hair that he saw through the
eye holes in the mask.
A message was found on the side of Bryan's car
with the Zodiac sign, the dates of all three killings,
and the words, "by knife" written below the September
27th date.
- [Voiceover] What did he use to write on the car?
- [Voiceover] Just a little black paint, you know?
Maybe he went to Joan's Crafts and supplies.
- [Voiceover] Right, Michaels.
- [Voiceover] Michaels, he went to Michaels.
On October 11, 1969 just before 10 PM in San Francisco,
California at the intersection of Washington and Cherry
a cab driver Paul Stine was shot in the head by his
passenger.
A teenage girl from her home across the street heard
the shot along with two other witnesses in her home
and got a good look at the man as he wiped down the car
and walked away.
They called the police and described the man as a white
male between 25 to 30 years old.
Five foot eight to five foot nine tall,
stocky, with a reddish-brown crew cut and heavy rimmed
glasses.
A police car that was nearby came quickly to the scene,
but the chaos of the situation would strangely result
in the police dispatcher incorrectly identifying
the suspect as an African American male.
(laughter)
- [Voiceover] Classic!
Way to go, fucking San Francisco police.
- [Voiceover] Yeah.
- [Voiceover] Are you kidding me?
- [Voiceover] Yeah, when I saw that I was like,
"God damn it."
- [Voiceover] Oh my lord.
- [Voiceover] That incorrect identification would prove
to have disastrous consequences.
The police car driven by officer Don Fouke and
Eric Zelms would come upon a white male walking on the
sidewalk described by officer Fouke as five foot 10,
170 pounds, about 40 years old, wearing glasses with
reddish hair and a crew cut.
Very similar to the description offered by the teenage girl.
However, because they were looking for an African-American
male, Fouke and Zelms left the man alone.
Watching him disappear into (mumbles) park.
Brutal right?
Right now we're coming up to where the two officers
allegedly saw the Zodiac.
They turned left onto Jackson right here.
And they saw a white guy walking right here.
So the officers think he walked down to the park,
entered through here, and that's where they lost him.
The Zodiac would later comment on this interaction in
a later letter in detail.
Making it very likely that Fouke and Zelms came into
contact with that nation's most notorious serial killer
at the time without even knowing it.
A composite sketch would be drawn based on the two
descriptions that would later become part of a famous
wanted poster.
- [Voiceover] Is this the Ted Cruz wanted poster?
- [Voiceover] Yeah, it is.
- [Voiceover] It is the one that everyone looks like
Ted Cruz.
- [Voiceover] Regardless, the theory is ridiculous because
Ted Cruz wasn't even alive when the Zodiac was killing
people.
Case closed, it wasn't Ted Cruz unless he's a fucking
time traveler.
- [Voiceover] Unless he changed his birth certificate, man.
Remember how obsessed about Obama's birth certificate
they were?
I want to see Ted Cruz's real birth certificate
is all I'm saying.
- [Voiceover] Another crucial piece of evidence was a
bloody finger print discovered in the cab.
However, the Zodiac also claims in a letter that it was
planted by him to throw the cops off his trail.
Two days later the San Francisco Chronicle gets another
letter that claims responsibility for the cab driver,
Paul Stine's murder, and includes a piece of Stine's
blood stained shirt.
Even more horrifying, the letter also included quote,
"School children make nice targets,
"I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning.
"Just shoot out the front tire and then pick off the kiddies
"as they come bouncing out."
End quote.
He also later included diagrams of bombs that could
be used on buses.
- [Voiceover] Where is he dropping these letters off?
How does he get these letters to the press?
- [Voiceover] I don't know.
Also, like the image of the Zodiac sitting down in his
little desk getting his, like, pen ready--
- [Voiceover] I mean he does seem like he'd be into
calligraphy.
- [Voiceover] Maybe.
- [Voiceover] This guy seems crazy enough that he's
got a fucking quill pen.
- [Voiceover] He has a letter-writing desk.
- [Voiceover] What's the name they call letter-writing
desks?
- [Voiceover] Oh fuck, I don't--
- [Voiceover] There's a specific name.
- [Voiceover] After this, a Zodiac task force was
created so that multiple departments could share info.
On April 20, 1970 a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle
included a cipher with the sentence "my name is" blank.
Which would later become a point of contention in
potential suspects.
The Zodiac would continue to send letters before
stopping in 1971.
Only to send his last letter in 1974 where he claims to
have killed 37 people and bizarrely reviews his viewing
of The Exorcist, which he called, quote,
the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen, end quote.
- [Voiceover] What? This guy.
- [Voiceover] I can't imagine why he felt the need to write
a Rotten Tomatoes review in his last letter, but--
- [Voiceover] Because he had no friends,
the only people he could talk to were the press and
the police.
- [Voiceover] Do you think he would be a frequency Yelper
today if he were still alive?
- [Voiceover] Oh, he'd definitely be a fucking one star
Yelper.
- [Voiceover] Skipping forward, in 2002 the San Francisco
police department was able to extract a partial genetic
profile from a Zodiac letter from the saliva on the stamp.
The profile was not enough to conclusively identify
a single person, but enough to eliminate potential
suspects.
And with that, let's take a look at the suspects with
the most circumstantial evidence against them.
The first theory is from Gary Steward who believes that
his father, Earl Van Best Jr. was the Zodiac killer.
Gary Steward published a book called the Most Dangerous
Animal of All that presents this theory.
Earl Van Best Jr bares and uncanny resemblance
to the composite sketch from the Paul Stine killing.
His name also matches the number of characters in the
my name is cipher.
Finally, Stewart says a handwriting expert is virtually
certain that Best's handwriting on his marriage license
matches the writing of the Zodiac killer.
Now, here are reasons why Best may not be the Zodiac.
According to an administrator at the church where Best's
marriage certificate came from, the handwriting is that
of the priest and not Best himself, making the match
that was virtually certain implicate the priest
rather than Best.
- [Voiceover] Where do you even go to get handwriting,
like, certification skills?
Probably from the fucking University of Phoenix.
- [Voiceover] Oh shit!
What did the University of Phoenix do to you?
- [Voiceover] They're like a for-profit college.
- [Voiceover] Are they?
Furthermore, Best only matches the description of the
Zodiac at the Paul Stine killing, but not the heavy set
large-faced description of the Zodiac in the previous
three killings.
Gary Steward also tried to test his father's DNA against
the recovered 2002 Zodiac DNA, but investigators never
complied with their reason being not enough evidence
to make a case.
Gary Stewart has maintained this is a police cover up.
- [Voiceover] Number, why did they say there was not enough
evidence to comply?
- [Voiceover] Yeah, why not just test against the DNA
though?
- [Voiceover] Yeah, does it like cost money or like,
what's the reason not--
- [Voiceover] Maybe that DNA lab is super popping, like,
they just had no time for theoretical tests.
The second and most famous theory is from Robert Graysmith
who believes that Arthur Leigh Allen is the Zodiac Killer.
This theory is the basis for the 2007 film, The Zodiac,
starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Robert Graysmith.
- [Voiceover] Who is that?
Internet sleuth? Like us?
- [Voiceover] He's definitely more credentialed than us.
- [Voiceover] Okay.
He has a card.
(laughter)
- [Voiceover] Actually, Robert Graysmith was a political
cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle that became
obsessed with finding the Zodiac.
After a decade of personal research, Graysmith wrote two
books entitled Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked that heavily
implicate Arthur Leigh Allen as the Zodiac.
Here's Graysmith's case for Arthur Leigh Allen.
The day of the third Zodiac attack at Lake Berryessa
in 1969, Allen told his family he was going scuba diving
at Lake Berryessa.
Later that evening, he would come home covered in blood
with a bloody knife in his car.
And if you'll recall, the Zodiac murdered Cecilia Shepard
that day with a knife.
Two years later in 1971 one of Allen's friends,
Don Cheney said that Allen called himself the Zodiac
before the killer publicly referred to himself
as the Zodiac.
- [Voiceover] Wait, wait, wait, wait.
So, he literally called himself "the Zodiac"?
- [Voiceover] I guess, that's true.
- [Voiceover] Hey Ryan, call me the Zodiac from now on,
that's my nickname.
- [Voiceover] How do you even work that into a conversation?
- [Voiceover] I know, right?
- [Voiceover] The only time I can think of is when you go
bowling and you write your name on like the frames.
Write your name as the Zodiac.
- [Voiceover] Right.
- [Voiceover] And then your friends will be like,
"Who the fuck wrote their name as the Zodiac?"
Could you imagine if he's like super douchey about it too?
Like, he won't respond unless you call him Zodiac.
They're like, "Arthur you wanna go out?"
He'd be like, "That's not my name."
(heavy sigh)
- [Voiceover] Ugh!
- [Voiceover] "Okay, Zodiac do you want to go out?"
Okay.
Cheney also said Allen told him he was planning to hunt
people with a gun and a flashlight tied to it.
- [Voiceover] What?
You tell your friend that.
- [Voiceover] I know.
- [Voiceover] He just laughs, says, "Oh, Zodiac,
"You're such a funny guy."
- [Voiceover] You're such a trickster!
As a result of this information, the police would interview
Allen a second time where Allen would say his favorite
book is The Most Dangerous Game.
A book about a man who hunted humans.
And a book referenced by the Zodiac in his first letter
to the press.
To add insult to injury, Allen was also wearing a Zodiac
brand watch which contained the same symbol
the killer used.
The police searched Allen's trailer home where they found
small dissected animals in a freezer, bloody knives,
and sexual devices, but no direct evidence of the murders.
- [Voiceover] That's a weird thing to keep in your freezer.
Cut up animals and sexual devices?
- [Voiceover] Oh no, the sexual devices weren't in the
freezer, that would be weird.
No one wants a frosty dildo inserted into them.
In 1974 Allen was convicted of child molestation,
a crime for which he spent three years in jail.
Coincidentally, during this time no Zodiac letters
were received.
In 1987 a San Jose jail inmate named Ralph Spinelli
told police that Allen admitted to him that he murdered
Paul Stine.
In August 1991, Vallejo detective George Bawart
interviews Mike Mageau, the man who survived the
second Zodiac attack and saw the Zodiac without his
mask on.
When shown a lineup of photographs Mageau picked out the
man who shot him, it was Arthur Leigh Allen.
- [Voiceover] What?
- [Voiceover] With this info, the police search Allen's
home again and this time they find formulas for bombs,
constructed bombs, and tapes about the Zodiac killer.
They interview Allen again and he says he knows nothing.
- [Voiceover] Wait, wait, wait, they found bombs and/or
plans for bombs in his house and they don't,
they're not able to detain him?
- [Voiceover] The Zodiac put diagrams of bombs in his
fucking letters.
- [Voiceover] Right, and he talked about putting bombs on
children's school bus and this guy molested a kid.
- [Voiceover] And there was fucking tapes about the Zodiac
killer, this guy's reliving his greatest hits at home
via audio book? What the fuck?
- [Voiceover] He just a said what? "Plead the fifth"
at this point?
- [Voiceover] One year later in August 1992,
Allen is found at home dead from a suspected heart attack.
And with that, let's transition into reasons why Allen may
not be the Zodiac killer.
Allen's DNA was compared against the 2002 DNA extracted
from stamp saliva on a Zodiac letter,
it was not a match.
However, it's also believed that Allen had a habit for
letting others lick his stamps instead of him,
which would explain why the profile didn't match him.
- [Voiceover] But I don't even like thinking that this
guy was smart enough to think that.
- [Voiceover] In my opinion, that's an Olympic level
stretch.
Additionally, in 1971 the police took Allen's
finger prints, but the prints did not match the bloody
prints recovered from the Paul Stine crime scene.
They also had Allen undergo handwriting analysis,
but the handwriting did not match the Zodiac either.
Allen also does not look like the sketch from the
Paul Stine killing in the slightest, but it's worth
mentioning that Arthur Leigh Allen was considered
the prime suspect for the Zodiac for most involved
police departments and is widely believed to be
the Zodiac.
The third theory is from retired Escalon, California
police officer, Harvey Hines who believes Lawrence Kaye,
more commonly known by the surname Kane was the
Zodiac killer.
Kane was involved in a car accident in 1962 which resulted
in brain damage influencing his behavior.
One psychologist claimed Kane was quote,
"Losing the ability to control self-gratification,"
end quote.
Additionally, Kane can be see in the Zodiac's
"my name is" cipher.
And in that cipher there are three eights with
circles around them, three times eight is 24
and Kane was born in 1924.
- [Voiceover] Okay, that means nothing to me.
- [Voiceover] Yeah, I didn't think you would like that one.
- [Voiceover] Well, I mean, it's just like reaching at
straws at that point.
- [Voiceover] Additionally, the Zodiac's second victim,
Darlene Ferrin had a sister who said Kane was the man
who followed and harassed Darlene in the weeks leading
up to Darlene's murder.
In the 1969 Paul Stine murder, the man suspected to be
the Zodiac seen by officer Don Fouke was described
as 35 to 45 years old.
Kane was 45 in 1969.
Officer Don Fouke said in 1987 that of the hundreds of
pictures over the past 20 years he had been shown,
Kane was quote, "The closest of them as he remembered
"the killer." End quote.
Kane also lived a six minutes walk away from Mason and
Geary, the location where cab driver, Paul Stine was thought
to have picked up his killer.
In fact, an excerpt from Vallejo PD states, quote,
"Investigation has placed Kaye in the locales where
"several of the Zodiac's victims either lived or were
"killed," end quote.
To piggy back on that sentiment, in 1970 Kane moved to
South Lake Tahoe and that year a possible Zodiac victim
that I didn't discuss earlier named Donna Lass
disappears in South Lake Tahoe.
Donna Lass also coincidentally worked at the same
South Lake Tahoe hotel as Kane.
- [Voiceover] That's crazy.
- [Voiceover] But the last and arguably most damning
evidence Kane is about another Zodiac interaction
I haven't discussed yet.
On the night of March 22, 1970 on highway 132
near Patterson, California, Kathleen Johns and her
baby were tricked into riding in the Zodiac's car.
After entering the car, the Zodiac told Johns that he
was going to kill her and throw her baby out after her.
As the Zodiac was about to make a turn, Johns jumped out of
the car and ran into a nearby field with her baby and
escaped.
Despite some believing this is an unconfirmed Zodiac
encounter, others believe a letter confirms this incident.
Quote, "So I now have a little list, starting with the
"woman plus her baby that I gave a rather interesting ride."
End quote.
The reason I bring this encounter up is because
Kathleen Johns, unlike most surviving Zodiac victims,
had extended face time with the Zodiac.
This is important because when shown a line up
of photographs, Kathleen Johns was reportedly able to
pick out the man who tried to kill her.
It was Lawrence Kane.
- [Voiceover] I mean, that's some pretty strong evidence.
- [Voiceover] But now let's look at some evidence that
proves Kane isn't the Zodiac.
I couldn't find an instance of a DNA test against the
recovered 2002 sample, nor could I find a record of
Kane's fingerprint being tested against the fingerprint
found at the Paul Stine crime scene.
Furthermore, Kane's handwriting was not a match
to the Zodiac's, but also could not be ruled out.
Additionally, Kane, much like Earl Van Best Jr.,
matches the description of the killer at the Paul Stine
murder scene, but does not match the large heavyset
description of the Zodiac in the first three crime scenes.
Now that you've heard all the stories,
who do you think did it?
- I think those two at the end are the most plausible.
But I think the real answer would have to be there was
one person and then a copycat, as well.
- It's possible, in my mind, Arthur Leigh Allen was the
killer for the first three, stopped,
and then Lawrence Kane took over as a copycat.
- Oh, well then yeah.
- It seems like to me he wanted to get caught,
he was like asking to get caught almost.
- He was playing that line.
He was tired with like, "Oh, I've killed someone and
"gotten away with it," he's like, "How far can I push it,
"that line?"
- That's true, yeah.
Regardless, the case remains unsolved.
And probably will stay unsolved, unfortunately.
- Trying to find this crime scene.
No idea where the hell we're going right now.
Do you keep getting hit by spiky things in your socks?
- No.
- Calling all people right to us.
- Seriously, dude, let's fucking just clap a little
bit louder.
This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved, did you see that
fucking shadow?
- No, there's no shadow.
- That, for sure you heard that.
Fuck you, you heard that for sure, right?
(laughing)
You fucking for sure heard that shit, right?
- There's nothing, Ryan!
- Is the back door open?
- Our headlights are on.
- We're on the side of a gravel road in the middle
of the fucking night.
- I heard crickets chirping and frogs.
- Let's just fucking skedaddle on home.
- Statistically speaking, though, we're probably super
safe right now.
Did the killer live around here?
We're right in the middle of this farm.
Is this like his farm?
Is he like no trespassers.
- We're not doing this right now, we're going home.
We'll be safe, I'm not died.
- Alright, Buzzfeed Unsolved, I'm cutting.
(mysterious music)