04x02 - Who is the Zodiac k*ller?

[bunniefuu]

Tonight, a spree

of horrifying murders

shocks Northern California

and the world.

Search goes on in San Francisco

for the man known

as the Zodiac k*ller.

The maniacal k*ller goads police

leaving cryptic clues

to his identity.

The suspect's

very involved in this.

He seems to enjoy

taunting law enforcement.

And he's on a roll

of doing this.

It's almost something

out of a Hollywood movie.

Now, we uncover the top theories

about one of history's

most notorious serial K*llers.

He seemed obsessed with her,

to the point where

he followed her every move,

There's a chance

that Zodiac had more victims

and may have left behind

evidence that's gone unnoticed.

Grisly murders start happening

in Florence, Italy, and they fit

the Zodiac's M.O. to a T.

Can new evidence

finally cr*ck his code?

After years and years of trying,

they finally cr*ck the cipher.

And maybe that'll tell us who

the k*ller is once and for all.

Who is the Zodiac k*ller?

Benicia, California,

December 20th, 1968.

At 11:00 p.m.,

local resident Stella Borges

drives along a darkened stretch

of Lake Herman Road.

Miss Borges

comes around the bend,

and then suddenly she sees

two bodies lying motionless

on the ground.

She's shocked, but she knows

well enough not to linger.

So, she keeps driving until

she can flag down a police car.

And when the police come,

they're able to identify

the two individuals

Betty Lou Jensen,

who's 16 years old,

and David Faraday,

who's 17 years old.

Just two high school students

on their first date.

Detectives examine

the bodies and see that David

was k*lled by a single g*nsh*t

behind his left ear.

Betty Lou was sh*t

five times in the back.

Police are stumped

why anyone would commit

an execution-style m*rder on

an innocent high school couple.

There was

no evidence of any robbery

or sexual as*ault of any kind,

which led them to believe

that it might have been

a random att*ck by a stranger.

For seven months

police have no leads.

Then, on July 4th, 1969,

they receive a shocking

phone call.

The call is taken

by Vallejo police dispatcher

Nancy Slover, and the caller

speaks in a very low,

monotone voice,

and describes where

two bodies can be found.

He also states

that they've been sh*t

with a 9-millimeter Luger.

And before he ends

the phone call,

he also says, "I also k*lled

those kids last year."

Police rush

to Blue Rock Springs Park

in the city of Vallejo

four miles from the first

crime scene.

When they arrive,

they find another young couple

inside of the car suffering

from multiple g*nsh*t wounds.

EMTs quickly transport

the victims to the hospital.

22-year-old Darlene Ferrin

is pronounced dead on arrival.

But 19-year-old

Michael Mageau survives.

Michael is badly injured,

but he's still able

to describe what happened.

He says that they were randomly

att*cked by a stranger

who shined a flashlight

in their faces

right before

he fired five sh*ts.

He describes the suspect

as a Caucasian,

about 30 years old, 5'8",

200 pounds,

with short curly hair.

The Bay Area now has

a serial k*ller on the loose.

He's claimed three victims

so far, nearly four.

Almost a month

after the Vallejo att*cks,

the k*ller contacts local press.

He includes a strange three-part

coded message, or cipher.

On July 31st

three Bay Area newspapers

receive three virtually

identical handwritten letters

from someone who claims

to be the k*ller.

He demands that a cipher which

is included with the letters

be published on August 1st,

or he threatens to k*ll

more victims.

The cipher

and the accompanying letters

are published, as demanded.

Then, on August 4th,

another letter arrives.

This letter sent

to the San Francisco Examiner

says, "Dear Editor,

this is the Zodiac speaking."

And now, our k*ller has a name.

Zodiac.

His name becomes front-page news

in the Bay Area.

That publicity quickly leads

to a breakthrough.

On August 8th, 1969, news broke

that the Zodiac's cipher

had been solved

by a couple

in Salinas, California.

The message read that,

"man is the most dangerous

animal of all."

The writer also states

that the victims he had k*lled

would serve as his slaves

in the afterlife.

But it doesn't reveal

his identity.

In fact, it specifically says

that he won't give his name

because he intends

to keep k*lling.

People are already scared

about these murders.

The victims on this are young,

they appear to be random,

and now we have all

these letters coming out,

and it shows that this

maniacal k*ller

that likes to play games,

likes to taunt law enforcement,

it's almost something

out of a Hollywood movie.

On September 27th,

the Zodiac keeps his word.

At 7:40 p.m.,

the police receive a phone call

from the Zodiac,

again in that low,

monotone voice.

He tells the dispatcher

that he wants to report

a double m*rder.

The bodies can be found

at Lake Berryessa

in Napa County.

When the police

arrive at Lake Berryessa,

they find the bodies

of two college students

Bryan Hartnell

and Cecelia Shepard.

Both victims had been stabbed

multiple times.

Shepard dies from her injuries,

but Hartnell's lucky.

None of his vital organs

were struck, so he survives.

Bryan Hartnell

tells police that the man

was over six feet tall,

was heavyset,

that he was wearing

a hooded costume

with a crossed circle

on the chest.

That same chilling

symbol appears

in Zodiac's letters,

causing widespread public fear.

At this point,

descriptions

of the Zodiac k*ller

are all over the media.

Search goes on in San Francisco

for the man known

as the Zodiac k*ller.

He was a big guy,

six foot or better,

over 200 pounds.

And tips are just pouring in

to law enforcement.

Some witnesses reported

that they had seen a man

lurking in the area

just prior to the att*ck.

The man's name,

Arthur Leigh Allen.

When police dive

into Allen's background,

they find a ton of red flags.

In 1968, the same year

the killings start,

he's fired from his job

as a schoolteacher

for molesting a student.

Allen was apparently

seen at Lake Berryessa

on the day of the att*ck,

but he tells police

that he was scuba diving

at a totally different area

called Salt Point that day,

and he spent the night

out there.

There are no witnesses

to corroborate his alibi.

Even Allen's

own friends and family

are suspicious.

Don Cheney

is a close friend of Allen,

and he tells police that Allen

is in fact writing a book

about a character

that kills couples,

taunts police with letters,

and even calls himself

the Zodiac.

Police interviewed

Allen's brother Ron,

who said that their mother

had given Allen

a Zodiac brand wristwatch

for a Christmas gift in 1967.

This watch featured

the crossed circle symbol

used by the k*ller.

But not everything lines up.

There are certainly

some discrepancies

in the witness statements.

For one, Allen is 6'1"

and 240 pounds,

which is much bigger than

previous witness statements

have described.

He's also bald on top,

while the witnesses

mentioned short brown

curly hair.

And that's not the only issue.

Allen's writing

doesn't match Zodiac's.

Police dispatcher Nancy Slover

also doesn't think it's Allen.

When she's asked to listen

to a recording of Allen's voice,

Slover is confident

that is not the man

who called in to report

the first murders.

It's not Zodiac.

Allen dies in 1992

without being arrested

or charged in any Zodiac m*rder,

including one that takes place

in San Francisco

in October 1969.

Three teenagers are

sitting in their apartment

in San Francisco when they

believe they hear a g*nsh*t.

They look out the window

and they see a man

hovering over a taxicab driver

in what appears to be a robbery.

One of them calls police

to report the crime in progress,

and reports that they saw

the k*ller

apparently wiping down the cab

with some sort of cloth.

When they arrive, they find

29-year-old

taxi driver Paul Stine

dead from a g*nsh*t wound

to the head.

There are a few other

similar murders

that some suspect

could be connected,

but this is the last k*lling

that the Zodiac

explicitly takes credit for

in a letter sent

to the newspaper.

After the Stine m*rder

Zodiac keeps sending letters

intermittently for a few years,

and some even include

more cryptograms.

This psychopathic k*ller

seems to think of himself

as some uncatchable genius.

All told, Zodiac sends

more than 20 letters

and a total of four ciphers.

Then, in January 1974,

they suddenly stop.

Luckily, the Stine m*rder

has something

none of the others do

independent eyewitnesses.

Thanks to these witnesses,

police are able to make

a composite drawing,

which two days later,

they're released to the media.

We should mention

that this sketch

looks nothing like

Arthur Leigh Allen,

but it does open the floodgates

for a lot more tips,

and police are about

to have a lot more suspects

to investigate.

After the Zodiac k*ller

goes on a 10-month k*lling spree

that claims five victims,

police get a break.

Eyewitnesses help them

create a composite sketch

with one vital clue.

This is the first sketch

that shows the suspect

wearing glasses.

Immediately, the police tip line

gets flooded with calls.

Everybody and their mother

thinks that they know somebody

who resembles the man

in the sketch.

Police estimate they've tracked

over 2,500 suspects

in the Zodiac case.

Most are very quick dead-ends,

people with alibis

or with no connections

whatsoever

to locations

or victims in the case.

Most, but not all.

There's a journalist

and amateur investigator

named Blaine Blaine,

who at the time

of the Zodiac killings

writes a column

named "Cop Watch"

for the Good Times newspaper.

He's fascinated by the case

and spends 10 years

looking for a suspect

who matches the sketch.

Blaine studies the ciphers.

He compiles a list

of the victims' friends,

neighbors, classmates,

you name it.

He looks at every

angle possible.

And eventually,

he finds his perfect match,

Army veteran Richard Gaikowski.

We should start off

by saying just because someone

looks like the sketch,

doesn't make that person guilty.

Doesn't even make 'em

the suspect.

That's kind of a long sh*t.

But the photos

are very striking,

and Gaikowski definitely

fits the description

of the Zodiac k*ller.

But of course,

Blaine doesn't stop there.

He finds a lot more

circumstantial evidence.

Gaikowski is a journalist,

and he moved to Martinez,

California, in 1964,

four years before

the first known Zodiac m*rder.

Martinez is within one hour

of all the known m*rder sites.

He's in the right place

at the right time,

and with the right appearance.

But the really big red flag,

the most suspicious thing

about Gaikowski and his link

to the Zodiac killings

comes when Blaine looks

into the lives of the victims.

It appears Gaikowski

has a connection

to at least one victim

Darlene Ferrin.

In January of 1966,

Darlene Ferrin gets married,

and with her husband

move to Albany, New York.

The next thing you know,

Richard Gaikowski

uproots his life and then

moves to Albany as well.

When Darlene and her husband

move back

to Northern California,

Richard also moves back to

Northern California.

Blaine does not think

this is a coincidence at all.

When authorities

read Blaine's dossier,

they find it convincing enough

to open an investigation.

Police immediately confirm

several key details

from Blaine's report.

First, Gaikowski lived only

12 miles from Blue Rock Springs,

where Darlene was m*rder*d.

And second,

he seemed obsessed with her,

to the point where he followed

her every move.

Detectives look

into other possible links

to the Zodiac's victims.

They look back at

the Lake Berryessa crime scene

where Cecelia Shepard and

Bryan Hartnell were att*cked,

and they find a very specific

style of footprint.

They're from a special

wing walker model of a boot

worn by the Army.

You know who's a medic

in the U.S. Army?

Richard Gaikowski.

There's a possible

connection between Gaikowski

and victim Paul Stine as well.

When the police

interview Stine's sister,

she tells them that Gaikowski

attended Stine's funeral.

She found this very odd

because the two men

were not friends.

They weren't acquainted

anywhere.

Why would he be

at her brother's funeral?

So now, we have

connections between Gaikowski

and three of the four

known murders.

The next thing police look at

is the letters.

Zodiac writes letters regularly

starting in August of 1969.

Pretty much every

couple of months,

letters show up

until March of 1971.

Then, suddenly, he's silent

for almost three years.

The final letter

comes in January 1974.

This three-year gap

coincides with a time

when Gaikowski is committed

to a mental asylum.

We don't have a lot of details

on his involuntary commitment,

but we know he spent time

at Napa State Hospital

for quote, "going berserk."

And there's one more clue

hidden in the Zodiac's

first cryptogram.

Zodiac said

he was identifying himself

in that first set of cryptograms

from August 1st, 1969,

but there was no name listed

when the code was cracked.

But what if the name

was buried in the code itself?

In one part of the code

you can clearly see the letters

G-Y-K-E Gyke.

In articles written

by Gaikowski in 1969,

he frequently shortened his name

to four letters.

He used multiple spellings

such as G-I-K-E

or G-A-I-K.

Some theorists

have taken this even further.

The translation of those letters

once the code was solved

is A-U-S-E.

And again, once you look

at both the code

and the solution,

you see the letters K-E-Y.

"Gyke," "Ause," "Key."

Gaikowski.

The k*ller says his identity

was in the cipher.

Was he telling the truth?

By 1985, Blaine is ready

to take his investigation

to the next level.

Blaine wants more

definitive proof

that Gaikowski

is, in fact, Zodiac.

So, he calls him up

and tricks him

into talking about code,

and records the conversation.

Well, detectives get

this tape from Blaine.

Then they ask Nancy Slover,

the police dispatch

who actually talked

to the Zodiac,

to listen to Gaikowski's voice.

She says it's the same

as the Zodiac k*ller's voice.

Detectives confront Gaikowski

and ask him

where he was at the time

of the Lake Herman Road murders.

And Gaikowski tells them

that he was overseas

covering the conflict

in Northern Ireland

for the Knickerbocker newspaper.

Authorities

immediately check his alibi.

Detectives pull

Gaikowski's passport application

which is dated October 1968.

In the box where it says

approximate date of departure,

it says November 1st, 1968.

Now, this isn't proof

that he traveled on that day,

but it does show that

he intended to.

Now, this isn't

a foolproof alibi.

He could have applied

for a passport

and not traveled on it.

He could have written articles

about Northern Ireland

from any location, and just

pretended to be in Europe.

Is it possible?

Yes, but very unlikely.

Frustrated,

police make one final effort

to gather proof.

Detectives have

a handwriting expert

look at Gaikowski's handwriting

and compare it

to the Zodiac k*ller's.

The expert concluded that

those two samples did not match.

With no physical evidence

tying Gaikowski

to any of the Zodiac murders,

detectives determine

that there is not

enough probable cause

for either an arrest

or a search warrant.

At the time of his death

in 2004,

Gaikowski is officially

no longer a suspect.

Between 1969 and 1970,

the Zodiac k*ller sends

four coded messages

to newspapers.

But after codebreakers

solve the first cipher

in less than a week,

the remaining three

stay unbroken for decades.

A couple in Salinas

solved the first cryptogram

by using what they call a crib.

That's where you guess

the words and phrases

that you think

might be in the cipher,

and then you go from there.

They believed that the cipher

would contain the word "k*ll,"

so they looked for pairings

of certain symbols

that could represent

two letter "L"s.

And they were successful.

The message read,

"I like k*lling people

because it's so much fun."

Once they verified

the corresponding symbols

for that phrase,

the rest of it

they solved pretty quickly.

Zodiac's following ciphers

are infinitely more complex,

and for 51 years

cryptologists

don't even come close

to solving the remaining

ciphers.

Investigators wonder if this

is one of Zodiac's tricks.

Then, in 2020,

an all-star group of decoders

takes on the challenge,

hoping to cr*ck one of the three

unsolved Zodiac ciphers.

I got involved with

this case about 15 years ago.

We decided to try to decode

a 340-character cryptogram

by Zodiac

that he had mailed

on November 8th, 1969.

We planned to use a method

called h*m* substitution,

and that's where one letter

might be swapped

for multiple symbols.

The team creates

a powerful software program

that processes millions

of h*m* substitutions

per second.

They run this software program

for months and months,

and not much happens.

Then one day,

they run an updated version

of the software, and they

finally solve the cipher.

Over time we were able

to identify a few phrases

that ended up being part

of the right solution.

Phrases like

"trying to catch me"

and "gas chamber."

Once we saw those phrases,

we took a closer look

in our experiments, and after

a little bit of effort,

we were able

to unlock the entire message.

The newly decoded message

picks up

where the last

cryptogram left off.

It said, "I hope you are having

lots of fun trying to catch me."

"That wasn't me on the TV show,

"which brings up

a point about me.

"I am not afraid

of the gas chamber,

"because it will send me

to paradise all the sooner,

"because I now have

enough slaves to work for me

"where everyone else has nothing

when they reach paradise,

"so they are afraid of death.

"I am not afraid, because I know

that my new life will be

an easy one in paradise."

If this one can be solved,

then maybe the other two

can be solved as well,

and maybe that will tell us who

the k*ller is once and for all.

Among those eager to

solve the remaining cryptograms

is Parisian engineer

Faycal Ziraoui.

In 2020, Ziraoui zeroes in

on one in particular.

Ziraoui writes his own software

to tackle what is thought

to be the most difficult

cryptogram of them all.

On April 20th, 1970,

the Zodiac sends a short cipher

consisting of 13 symbols

known as the Z13.

Because it's so short,

it makes it

much more difficult to cr*ck.

It begins with

"My name is"

followed by

a 13-character cryptogram.

So, solving the cipher

is actually supposed

to provide us with

the Zodiac's name.

Once again, modern technology

provides a breakthrough.

Ziraoui's software

translates the cipher

as the letters K-A-Y-R.

To many, the translation

sounds like gibberish.

But veteran Zodiac investigators

immediately recognize the name.

Detectives who study

the Zodiac's letters

know that he misspells

quite a few words.

We think that's often

deliberate,

and that "K-A-Y-R"

might just be "K-A-Y-E."

This potential

solution generates excitement

about a decades-old lead.

In 1973, Escalon Police

Detective Harvey Hines

is assigned to the case,

and keys in on an ex-convict

named Lawrence Kaye.

Hines begins looking into Kaye

after noticing

that Kaye's mugshot

bears a striking resemblance

to one of the Zodiac sketches.

The Zodiac is described

as a male

between 40 and 45 years old,

5'9", and 165 pounds

with dark-colored hair.

Lawrence Kaye is 45 years old,

5'9", dark hair, and 160 pounds.

Lawrence Kaye

is a convicted criminal

with a long history of arrests

for voyeurism as a peeping Tom,

prowling, burglary, and more.

This is important

because criminals

don't just jump

straight to m*rder.

Their crimes usually escalate.

Perhaps most surprisingly

in Kaye's background

is that in 1942

he's admitted to the Navy's

Radio Materiel School

in Chicago, where he's trained

in electronics,

but more importantly, in coding.

This may have also

given him access

to the m*llitary's

wing walker boots,

which would match the prints

at the Lake Berryessa

m*rder site.

Hines next tracks

Kaye's movements

on the days surrounding

the Zodiac killings.

Kaye lives at 217 Eddy Street

in San Francisco.

That's only

two and a half blocks away

from where the cab driver

Paul Stine

picked up the Zodiac

on the night he was m*rder*d.

Hines also discovers

that Darlene Ferrin,

who was m*rder*d

at Blue Rock Springs,

worked at her aunt's cafe

which was just two blocks

from Kaye's apartment.

When Hines interviews

Darlene's sister,

Pam Huckaby,

she recognizes a photo of Kaye.

Apparently, he often came

to the cafe

to pester her sister,

to the point that Darlene

was very afraid of him.

But Hines needs more

than circumstantial evidence

to make his case.

Detective Hines

contacts Bryan Hartnell,

who survived the Zodiac's

Kn*fe att*ck at Lake Berryessa,

and he's heard

the Zodiac's voice.

Hines secretly records

a conversation

with Lawrence Kaye,

and then plays it for Hartnell.

And without hesitation, he says,

"This is the voice

of the Zodiac."

Hines next pays a visit

to San Francisco police officer

Donald Fouke.

Fouke rushed to the crime scene

on the night that the cab driver

was m*rder*d in San Francisco.

For years, Fouke has claimed

that he may have crossed paths

with the k*ller that night.

He saw someone suspicious

who matched later descriptions.

But those descriptions

weren't out yet,

and he was on his way

to a m*rder scene,

so he didn't stop.

But Fouke claims

he's never forgotten that face.

When Hines shows Fouke

a picture of Kaye,

he states that out

of the hundreds of mugshots

he's seen since the m*rder,

Kaye's picture

bears the most resemblance

to the man he saw that night.

With three witnesses

identifying Kaye

as the Zodiac k*ller,

Hines takes his report

to Captain Roy Conway

and Lieutenant James Husted

of the Vallejo

Police Department.

Hines thinks he's solved

the case of the century,

and he is expecting

a huge pat on the back.

But after Conway

and Husted read his report,

they basically say,

"Thanks, we'll get back to you,"

and they never do.

Discouraged,

Hines calls in one final favor.

Of course, cops know a lot

of other cops.

So, Hines sends his report

to two San Bernadino detectives

he knows

and begs them

to take a look at it.

The two detectives

read the report,

and they believe it.

They think it's good

police work.

These two detectives

fly up to Lake Tahoe,

they go to Kaye's home,

they ask him his whereabouts

on the night Paul Stine

was m*rder*d,

Darlene Ferrin,

all kinds of stuff.

Kaye has an answer

for everything.

Kaye cooperates

with investigators,

supplying his fingerprints

and handwriting samples.

So, Hines is at home,

and he's waiting

with bated breath

to hear from the two detectives.

They eventually call him,

and they say

that based on Kaye's answers

and the handwriting sample,

they concluded

that he is not the Zodiac.

Kaye passes away in May of 2010.

By this time, he's changed

his name to Cane,

C-A-N-E, but he's never

arrested for the murders.

"Zodiac," a pseudonym

first published

in a 1969 letter

that strikes fear to this day.

For decades, that's all

we've known

to call this cryptic k*ller.

But in 2002

a witness comes forward

with a dark family secret

that may finally

reveal his true name.

For most of Gary Stewart's life,

the only parents he knows

are the ones that adopted him.

Stewart is born in 1963.

He's given up for adoption

rather quickly

and raised by

Loyd and Leona Stewart

of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

He wonders about

his birth parents,

but he has no idea

who they really are.

But in 2002,

when he's 39 years old,

his biological mother,

Judy Gilford, tracks him down.

She tells him how she had him

when she was just a teenager,

and his biological father

who is now deceased

is named Earl Van Best, Jr.

Back in 1963,

Van Best is 27 years old

when he impregnates Gilford,

who is only 14.

Van Best is sent to prison

for statutory r*pe,

but when he gets out on parole,

he and Gilford go on the run,

abandoning their baby

in New Orleans.

Stewart is stunned.

But the biggest shock comes

when he sees a photo

of his biological father.

When Stewart

looks at the picture,

he immediately feels like

he's seen this face before,

and not because

of the family resemblance,

but because it actually bears

a striking resemblance

to the wanted poster

for the Zodiac k*ller.

This photo serves as a catalyst

for Stewart to find out

everything he can

about his biological father.

He starts digging

for information,

and quickly learns that Van Best

is a bad guy

with a long history

of criminal activity.

He's been convicted of fraud,

pedophilia,

r*pe, drunk driving,

you name it.

But not m*rder.

So, he's a criminal,

but is he the Zodiac k*ller?

Stewart looks closer

into his father's whereabouts

at the time of the murders.

Stewart learns that

his father was incarcerated

in San Quentin Prison,

and that he was paroled

right before

the first

Zodiac killings occurred.

And guess where

Earl Van Best ends up

when he's released?

He moves into San Francisco's

Presidio District,

the same neighborhood

where cab driver Paul Stine

is k*lled.

For Stewart, this is like

a bad dream.

Everything he learns

about his father

points to him

being the Zodiac k*ller.

He reads all

the Zodiac's letters,

and one of them references

the musical "The Mikado."

Then, he finds out Earl Van Best

was a huge fan

of "The Mikado."

Detail after detail

is just piling up.

Stewart decides

that the best way

to unload

all of his personal baggage

is to write a book proving that

his father is the Zodiac k*ller.

He really doesn't have

enough information

to take to a publisher

at this time.

But armed with a bunch

of circumstantial evidence,

he digs deeper.

Stewart hires an expert

to compare his dad's handwriting

to the Zodiac's.

This is a moment

of truth for Stewart.

This is where a lot

of the other Zodiac suspects

have fallen apart.

The handwriting expert

compares the handwriting

of Van Best's

marriage certificate

to the handwriting

of the letters

sent to the newspaper

by the Zodiac k*ller.

And after hours

of detailed analysis,

he concludes they are a match.

Next, Stewart asks police

to compare his father's

fingerprints

to partial prints

from the Stine m*rder scene.

The fingerprints

found on the taxi cab

are partial latents which show

traces of blood.

So, they're incomplete

and they would be

inadmissible in court,

but it still might

tell them something.

Garrett provides

an enlarged side-by-side picture

of the best fingerprints

from Stewart's father

and the Zodiac crime scene.

When Stewart looks

at the visual comparison,

he sees a distinguishing

characteristic

an identical scar

on both the Zodiac's

and his father's index fingers.

Armed with this evidence,

Stewart shares his story

with the public.

Stewart's book

is published in 2014,

and it's called "The Most

Dangerous Animal of All"

another reference

to Zodiac's letters

and it's a huge bestseller.

Stewart decides

to parlay his success

into a television series,

so he meets with some

TV producers,

and they tell him

they're interested

in optioning his book.

Before they put

their reputation on the line,

they decide to hire

a private investigator

in order to vet his research.

And that investigator

immediately finds flaws

in Stewart's research.

First, he discovers

that the handwriting sample

taken from Van Best's

marriage certificate

is not actually

Earl Van Best's handwriting.

It's the writing of the priest

who conducted the ceremony.

The investigator also checks

Van Best's credit card records.

Now, this is where

the case against Van Best

actually crumbles.

Through the credit card reports,

the investigator

is able to determine

that Van Best is actually

in Europe

during the heart

of the Zodiac's k*lling spree.

So, it's definitely not him.

Still, when you look

at the sketch,

the resemblance is uncanny.

It's easy to see

why Stewart believed,

but as we all know,

appearances can be deceiving.

In April 2004,

35 years after the first m*rder,

the San Francisco

Police Department

officially marks

the Zodiac k*ller file inactive.

Caseloads are busy, and they

have active cases coming in.

There's really no leads going on

on this case.

The public learns that

this case has been shut down,

and they're upset about it.

They don't like the idea

that police have given up on it.

It's clear that there's

still not much to go on

after all this time.

So, as we've seen

in many cold cases before,

the public and amateur

investigators

decide to take up the mantle

and keep going

with the investigation.

Now, a lot of the

theories presented by the public

are quickly sh*t down

because the evidence

just doesn't add up.

Like Gary Stewart's claims

about his father, for instance.

But in 2021, a group

of researchers makes headlines

claiming they've identified

the Zodiac k*ller,

and they are definitely

not amateurs.

The group calls themselves

the Case Breakers,

and they are comprised

of 40 different people

with impeccable credentials.

We're talking retired

FBI agents,

retired m*llitary,

forensic analysts,

and academics.

So, the fact that they believe

they solved this case

means a lot more

than hearing it

from your average Joe.

On October 6th, 2021,

the Case Breakers

announce that the Zodiac k*ller

is a former m*llitary man

named Gary Francis Poste.

Gary Poste is quite different

than most of the other suspects

that they've looked at

in the past.

He's a very quiet guy,

he lives in a rural area.

He paints houses.

He flies under the radar.

There's really no red flags

to make him the suspect.

Poste is brought

to the attention

of the Case Breakers

by one of his neighbors,

a guy named Chris Avery.

When they hang out together,

Avery discovers that Poste

is quite a different man

than he appears.

It turns out that Avery

is one of several young men

that Poste has recruited

to mentor,

kind of in a paramilitary way,

and they call themselves

The Posse.

Poste takes these guys on trips

up to the mountains,

and they say he is obsessed

with torturing

and k*lling animals,

and building bombs which are

similar to the expl*sive devices

described by the Zodiac.

According to Avery,

on one of these trips

Poste makes a confession.

Poste implies to Avery

that he has committed

one of the Zodiac murders.

And for him,

that's the last straw.

He decides that he wants

to move away from Groveland,

and that it's also time

to report Poste.

Coincidentally,

one of Avery's friends

is actually part

of the Case Breakers.

After speaking with Avery,

the Case Breakers

agree to investigate.

Before they have

a chance to dive in,

Poste dies in 2018

at the age of 80.

The Case Breakers

decide to keep going regardless.

One of the first things

they learned about Poste

was that he's an Air Force

veteran.

The Case Breakers

are able to gain access

to Poste's property

in Groveland.

In the photography darkroom,

they find an old photo of Poste,

and the photo

bears a striking resemblance

to the sketch of the Zodiac.

Soon, they find

even more chilling evidence.

The Case Breakers look into

other California murders,

unsolved ones that happened

around the same time

as the Zodiac crimes.

There's a chance that

the Zodiac had more victims

and maybe left behind

more evidence

that's gone unnoticed.

They zero in

on a top potential candidate

for another Zodiac m*rder.

In 1966, Riverside City College

student Cheri Jo Bates

is stabbed to death

near the campus.

This is just a couple of years

before the Zodiac appeared

in Northern California.

A stabbed young woman

certainly fits the mold,

but even more so, Bates' k*ller

sends a confession letter

to police a month

after the m*rder.

The letter is typed, so they

can't compare much handwriting,

but the address is handwritten

on the envelope,

and definitely bears resemblance

to the Zodiac's writing.

The letter itself

has the same tone and style

as the later Zodiac letters.

Naturally, they ask

where was Gary Poste

on the day of Bates' m*rder?

Turns out he was undergoing

a physical examination

at March Air Force Base,

15 minutes from the crime scene.

According to records

of Bates' m*rder,

police find size 10 1/2

m*llitary-style boot prints

next to the body.

m*llitary boot prints

once again, just like Zodiac,

and in Poste's exact size

of 10 1/2.

If she's the first victim,

then he has to be

our first suspect.

Obviously, Poste can't be

arrested or tried at this point.

So, the Case Breaker

announcement

is met with some skepticism.

As with every Zodiac theory,

the public picks it apart.

First of all,

despite his resemblance

to the sketch,

Poste never wore glasses.

The same day as

the Case Breakers' announcement,

the Riverside Police Department

releases a statement

saying that the Zodiac

was not responsible

for the m*rder

of Cheri Jo Bates.

Are the cases connected?

Is Poste responsible

for the Bates m*rder?

Was that the first

Zodiac k*lling?

At this point, we're stuck with

more questions than answers.

As investigators

pursue the true identity

of the Zodiac k*ller,

one vital question

could hold a clue.

Police think the murders

ended in 1969,

the letters in 1974.

But why did they stop?

The suspect's

very involved in this,

seems to enjoy taunting

law enforcement,

and he's on a roll doing this.

And then, as quick as he starts,

he stops.

What happened here?

Was the suspect arrested,

incarcerated?

Were they institutionalized?

Were they k*lled?

There's a lot

of open-ended questions

as to why these murders

all of a sudden stopped.

According to Italian

journalist Francesco Amicone,

the explanation

is truly surprising.

Amicone believes that the reason

the Zodiac killings stop

is because the k*ller

moved from California to Italy,

and that in fact,

the killings didn't stop at all.

In September of 1974,

just months after

the Zodiac k*ller

sends his last message

to newspapers,

a series of grisly killings

begins in Florence, Italy.

And these murders fit

the Zodiac's M.O. to a T.

Like the Zodiac k*ller,

the Italian m*rder*r

mostly targets young couples.

He att*cks mostly

on the weekends

or public holidays.

He almost always

sh**t the male victim first,

then the female.

And just like the Zodiac,

he uses a small-caliber handgun.

When the Italian press

realize a serial k*ller

is at large, they dub him

the Monster of Florence.

The Monster of Florence

has a much longer reign

of terror than the Zodiac.

From 1974 to 1985,

he murders 14 people.

But he is just as elusive

as the Zodiac.

Italian police

spend decades chasing leads,

interrogating ex-cons,

staking out

secluded lovers' lanes.

But nothing works, they cannot

identify this k*ller.

Then in May of 2018,

a bombshell.

On May 29th of 2018, the Italian

newspaper Il Giornale

publishes the theories

by Francesco Amicone.

He accuses a man

named Giuseppe "Joe" Bevilacqua.

According to Amicone,

Bevilacqua,

an American Army veteran,

confessed to him

and agreed to turn himself in

eight months earlier.

As the news breaks, Bevilacqua

recants his confession.

But police in Italy and America

are already investigating

every facet of his life.

Bevilacqua was born

in New Jersey,

and from 1954 to 1974

he served in the U.S. Army.

You can see on his m*llitary ID

that he's 5'8", 200 pounds.

His physical description

certainly matches

some of the descriptions

given by witnesses

of the Zodiac k*ller.

Detectives also learn

that in 1964

Bevilacqua becomes

an undercover agent

for the Army's

criminal investigation division.

One of his assignments

takes him to San Francisco

right around the time

taxi cab driver Paul Stine

is m*rder*d.

In June of 1974

Bevilacqua retires from the Army

and moves to Florence, Italy.

Zodiac's letters suddenly stop

and dead bodies start

appearing in Florence.

In 2020 the Florence

Public Prosecutor's Office

decides they have enough

circumstantial evidence

that they better get

a DNA sample from Bevilacqua.

Everyone is sitting

on pins and needles

waiting for results

to come back,

because the findings could solve

two of the biggest

m*rder mysteries in history.

So far, Italian authorities

have been unable to match

Bevilacqua's DNA

to any of the Florence

crime scenes.

But investigators have hope

that DNA evidence

will one day solve

this long-running mystery.

With all of the advancements

we've made in forensic science

and investigation in general,

I am confident that there

is still an opportunity

for us to solve this case.

And there certainly remains

an entire community of people

who are dedicated

to seeing this case solved.

Recently, the Vallejo

Police Department

was able to isolate

a partial profile of DNA

from saliva on the back

of stamps

used on Zodiac's letters.

While this incomplete profile

can't identify a suspect,

it can be used

to rule out a few.

In the meantime,

an army of sleuths

continues to try to finally

solve this cold case.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching

"History's Greatest Mysteries."