00:00In the late 1960s, a shadow fell over Northern California.
00:04A shadow cast by a figure who would become one of America's most infamous and enigmatic serial killers.
00:09He called himself the Zodiac.
00:12Unlike other criminals who lurked in the darkness, he craved the spotlight,
00:16taunting the police and the public with bizarre letters and complex ciphers.
00:20He committed a series of brutal, seemingly random attacks,
00:24creating a climate of terror that gripped the entire San Francisco Bay Area.
00:28For decades, his identity has remained a haunting mystery, a puzzle with missing pieces.
00:34Who was the Zodiac Killer?
00:35This is the story of the unsolved case that continues to fascinate and horrify,
00:40a tale of murder, mystery, and a phantom who was never caught.
00:44The terror began on a cold December night in 1968.
00:48High school students, Betty Lou Yenzen and David Faraday, were on their first date,
00:53parked on a remote lover's lane in Benicia.
00:55They were shot and killed in a sudden, unprovoked attack.
00:59At first, police had few leads.
01:01But seven months later, the nightmare escalated.
01:04On the 4th of July, 1969, another young couple, Darlene Farron and Michael Mago,
01:10were shot in their car in a park in Vallejo.
01:13Darlene died, but Michael miraculously survived.
01:16Shortly after the attack, a man called the Vallejo Police Department.
01:20In a calm, rehearsed voice, he claimed responsibility for both attacks.
01:24This was just the beginning of his twisted game.
01:27Less than a month later, three major newspapers in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Chronicle,
01:32the San Francisco Examiner, and the Vallejo Times Herald each received a letter.
01:36The handwriting was chilling, the message terrifying.
01:40The author confessed to the murders and provided details only the killer could know.
01:44But there was more.
01:46Each letter contained a third of a 408-symbol cryptogram.
01:49The killer demanded the papers publish his cipher on their front pages, threatening more violence
01:55if they refused.
01:56He signed off with a crossed-circle symbol, a signature that would become synonymous with
02:01fear.
02:02The Zodiac had officially announced himself to the world.
02:05A week later, a high school teacher and his wife, Donald and Betty Harden, cracked the code.
02:10The decoded message was a rambling, misspelled confession, revealing the killer's disturbing
02:16motive.
02:16He claimed he was collecting slaves for the afterlife.
02:19The Zodiac's reign of terror continued.
02:22On September 27, 1969, he struck again, this time in broad daylight at Lake Berryessa.
02:28He approached college students Brian Hartnell and Cecilia Shepard, wearing a strange hooded
02:33executioner's costume adorned with his crossed-circle symbol.
02:37He tied them up before brutally stabbing them, leaving them for dead.
02:41He then drove to a payphone and once again called the police to report his masterpiece.
02:46Before hanging up, he drew a crossed-circle on the car door, along with the dates of his
02:50previous attacks.
02:52Cecilia Shepard died from her injuries, but Brian Hartnell survived, providing a chilling
02:56eyewitness account of the hooded attacker.
02:59The public was now in a full-blown panic.
03:01This wasn't just a killer.
03:03This was a monster, and he could be anywhere.
03:05Just two weeks later, the Zodiac claimed his final confirmed victim.
03:09On October 11, 1969, San Francisco cab driver Paul Stein picked up a passenger.
03:15A few blocks later, the passenger shot him in the head, took his wallet and keys, and
03:21tore off a piece of his bloody shirt.
03:23Teenagers across the street witnessed the scene and called the police.
03:27In a baffling twist of fate, responding officers briefly stopped a man matching the suspect's
03:32description, but let him go after a dispatcher mistakenly reported they were looking for a
03:36black suspect, not a white one.
03:38The Zodiac had slipped through their fingers.
03:41Days later, a letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle.
03:44It contained a piece of Paul Stein's bloody shirt as proof.
03:48In this letter, the Zodiac mocked the police for their blunder and escalated his threats,
03:52claiming he would target a school bus full of children.
03:55The threat against school children sent the Bay Area into a state of unprecedented fear.
04:01Police motorcades escorted school buses, and parents kept their children home.
04:05The Zodiac was no longer just a murderer.
04:08He was a puppeteer, and the entire region was his stage.
04:12He continued his campaign of terror through the mail, sending more letters, more cryptograms,
04:16and even a greeting card.
04:18One of his most famous ciphers, the 340 character code sent in November 1969, would remain unsolved
04:25for over 51 years.
04:27The letters were a mix of boasts, threats, and bizarre clues about his identity.
04:32He claimed his name was hidden in one of the ciphers and gave tantalizing, yet ultimately
04:36useless, hints.
04:38He reveled in the media attention, his ego fueled by every headline.
04:42The police, led by determined investigators like Dave Tosky of the San Francisco Police
04:47Department, were buried under an avalanche of tips and false leads.
04:51The investigation into the Zodiac case was one of the largest in American history.
04:56Thousands of suspects were considered.
04:58The most prominent was Arthur Lee Allen, a former schoolteacher with a troubled past.
05:03Allen was identified by a former friend who claimed Allen had spoken of his desire to
05:08hunt people and had used the name Zodiac before the killings began.
05:12Circumstantial evidence mounted.
05:14Allen wore a Zodiac brand watch, lived near one of the crime scenes, and possessed knowledge
05:19of codes.
05:19He was interviewed by police multiple times, and his home was searched.
05:23But no direct physical evidence ever tied him to the crimes.
05:28His handwriting and fingerprints didn't match those of the Zodiac.
05:32Despite the strong suspicion, he was never charged, and he died in 1992, taking any secrets
05:38he had to the grave.
05:39Other suspects have emerged over the years, each with their own compelling yet inconclusive
05:44set of circumstances.
05:45After 1974, the letters from the Zodiac stopped as abruptly as they had begun.
05:51He seemed to vanish into thin air.
05:53Did he die?
05:54Was he imprisoned for another crime?
05:57Or did he simply decide to stop content with the chaos he had created?
06:01The case went cold, but it never faded from the public consciousness.
06:04The mystery of the Zodiac killer has inspired countless books, movies, and documentaries.
06:10Amateur sleuths and online communities continue to dissect the evidence, hoping to be the one
06:15to finally unmask the killer.
06:17In 2020, there was a major breakthrough.
06:19A team of private citizens, including a web designer, a mathematician, and a warehouse
06:23operator, finally cracked the infamous 340 cipher.
06:28The message read in part,
06:29I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me.
06:33I am not afraid of the gas chamber, because it will send me to paradise all the sooner.
06:37It was another taunt from beyond the grave, but it offered no new clues to his identity.
06:43Today, the Zodiac case remains officially open in several jurisdictions.
06:47Decades have passed, but the victims are not forgotten.
06:50David Faraday, Betty Lou Yenzen, Darlene Farron, Cecilia Shepard, and Paul Stein.
06:56Their lives were cut short by a man who sought fame through fear.
06:59The case stands as a stark reminder of the limitations of law enforcement in a pre-DNA era and the
07:06enduring power of a mystery.
07:07The Zodiac's cross-circle symbol is no longer just a sign of an unsolved crime.
07:12It's a cultural icon representing the faceless, unknowable evil that can lurk just beneath the
07:18surface of society.
07:19He created a legacy not of a man, but of a ghost, a phantom who terrorized a generation,
07:25and then disappeared, leaving behind only a name and a question that may never be answered.
07:29Who was the Zodiac?
07:31The secret, perhaps, died with him, forever lost in the fog of Northern California.
07:36Thanks for watching.
07:37If you find true crime stories like this fascinating, be sure to subscribe for more deep divies into
07:43history's greatest mysteries.
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