In the decades since the first murder, many potential suspects have been investigated. Gary F. Poste has been identified as the infamous Zodiac Killer by The Case Breakers, which investigates cold cases. Courtesy of The Case Breakers. The team's years of digging uncovered new forensic evidence and photos from Poste's darkroom.
One image features scars on the forehead of Poste that match scars on a sketch of the Zodiac, the team said. Other clues include deciphering letters sent by the Zodiac that revealed him as the killer, said Jen Bucholtz, a former Army counterintelligence agent who works on cold cases.
In one note, the letters of Poste's full name were removed to reveal an alternate message, she told Fox News. Bates, 18, was found dead in an alleyway on the Riverside City College campus after her father phoned police to report her missing. The following year, authorities received a handwritten letter that led investigators to believe the killing may be linked to the Zodiac Killer. In , investigators received an anonymous typed letter from someone who admitted to writing the earlier note and said it was a "sick joke.
Investigators later confirmed the author was not involved in the Bates murder , and the Zodiac was never linked to the crime. The Case Breakers believe Bates was Zodiac's sixth victim and have tried getting investigators to compare her DNA to that of Poste, to no avail, the team said.
San Francisco police circulated this composite of the Bay Area's "Zodiac" killer. He was also ambidextrous, which some theorists say could have helped disguise his handwriting. Police investigated Allen again in after an informant facing armed-robbery charges said Allen had boasted to him about killing a cab driver. At that point, Michael Mageau, who survived the Vallejo attack, identified a photo of Allen as the shooter.
According to the film, police were closing in when Allen died. The movie contained many fictitious elements, Zodiac researchers say.
Allen died of a heart attack in He lived in a basement apartment, which the Zodiac also cited. He owned a typewriter and a teletype similar to those the Zodiac used. They both liked felt-tip pens and odd-size paper. A former coworker sent long, rambling letters to law-enforcement agencies accusing him of being the Zodiac and said Gaikowski invited him to engage in violent acts together.
On Wednesday, the Case Breakers - a group of cold case specialists - named a man who died in as the killer. But the FBI and local police have pushed back against the allegations. Police and newspaper reporters reportedly receive hundreds of tips each year on possible suspects in the decades old mystery. No ordinary tipsters, the Case Breakers are a team of over 40 volunteers from law enforcement, military, legal and academic backgrounds.
They say new physical and forensic evidence all connect a man named Gary Francis Poste to the infamous slayings. The group - whose website boasts fresh leads on several high-profile cases - says Poste is also "a very strong suspect" in the death of a teen girl hundreds of miles away, a case never linked to the Zodiac. Shepard and Hartnell were both in critical condition but alive when emergency services arrived, but Shepard died of her wounds shortly thereafter.
At least five other murders have been tentatively linked to the Zodiac Killer, including the shooting of Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards near Santa Barbara, California, and the stabbing death of college student Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside, California.
But despite mounting evidence and the investigation of numerous suspects, the Zodiac remained at large. In both the known and presumed Zodiac murders, no suspect has ever been arrested. In the nearly five decades since the Faraday-Jensen murders, the inability to identify the Zodiac Killer has continued to frustrate law enforcement. Ranging from plausible to crackpot, these include the claims that he was Unabomber Ted Kacznyski or convicted murderer Charles Manson , or that he eventually moved to Scotland and committed more murders there before finding happiness and giving up his wicked ways.
Allen died in , however, and was never conclusively connected to any of the murders. Another man came forward in to reveal that a friend named Louie Myers had confessed to being the killer before his death in Certain events in Myers' history matched up with those connected to the Zodiac, but as with Allen and Van Best, there was no conclusive proof. In , after more than 50 years, amateur codebreakers solved the Zodiac Killer's cipher.
The decoded message read:. In October , a team of 40 former law enforcement investigators called the Case Breakers, claimed to have identified the Zodiac Killer. However, the FBI stated that the case was still open.
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