Has the Zodiac Killer been identified and how did it get its name?
THE Zodiac Killer is one of history’s most intriguing serial killers, and his case is shrouded in mystery.
In a horrific killing spree between 1968 and 1969, he murdered five people, all in the Bay Area of San Francisco, California.
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Has the Zodiac Killer been Identified?
No, the Zodiac Killer was never identified.
In the more than 50 years since the horrific event, there has been a long list of suspects of varying degrees of credibility crime.
Arthur Leigh Allan was identified as an early suspect based on circumstantial evidence, including the fact that he owned the same typewriter used to write Zodiac’s letters to the press and wore a Zodiac watch.
He had been dishonorably discharged from the US Navy and was fired as an elementary school teacher on allegations of sexual misconduct.
However, both he and his friend Don Cheney were disqualified from the investigation in 2002 after it was found that the handwriting and DNA samples from the letters did not match theirs.
Alan died in 1992.
In 2021, an unsolved cases team called Case Breakers claimed to have identified Zodiac as Gary Francis Poste, who died in 2018.
Accordingly FoxNewsthe letters of Gary Francis Poste’s name were completely removed from one of the anagrams of the zodiac sign and added that his full name had to be known in order to figure out the code.
However, investigators did not believe their evidence was strong enough to warrant a focus on Poste.
This was not helped by the fact that one of the team’s key claims was that Poste had scars on his forehead that matched the killer’s descriptions.
Author Tom Voigt referred to this as “cops***” and noted that no witness to any of the murders believed to be connected to Zodiac made any account of scars.
However, in 2023, witness Linda Jensen came forward and disputed the existing police sketches of the killer.
She said: “He had very straight hair that was parted and combed back [it] really straight…[he looked] just very intense, like concentrated.
“The vibes that emanated from him were bad, dark. We all felt that.”
The Zodiac Killer is believed to be a California man who gave himself the nickname to hide his identity from authorities.
He is known to have targeted at least seven victims – three couples and a lone cab driver. Two of them survived ambushes with guns and knives.
The same killer has been linked to as many as 28 murders and in letters to newspapers claimed to have killed 37 people.
How did Gary Poste die?
Just hours after his alleged identity was made public, TMZ received Poste’s death certificate and revealed how he died.
According to the media company, Poste suffered from high blood pressure, osteoporosis, hypothyroidism and atrial fibrillation.
He died at the age of 80, was then cremated and his remains were scattered in the Sierra Mountains.
According to the document, Poste was married and had served in the armed forces before becoming a house painter.
The identity of his wife remains unknown.
Why is the Zodiac Killer called the Zodiac Killer?
In his fourth letter to the press dated August 7, 1969, he called himself “Zodiac”.
In it he wrote: “Dear editor, this is the zodiac speaking.”
From then on, the press dubbed him the “Zodiac Killer” – although it is not known why the killer chose that name.
He also signed his letters with a circle and a cross over it, seemingly like a target or a coordinate symbol.
Authorities believe the signature symbols were intended to represent coordinates that might indicate future killing locations.
However, the authorities were never able to fully decipher the symbols.
What are the latest updates to the Zodiac Killer?
The Zodiac killer’s case had been dormant since 2004, but was resumed by San Francisco police in March 2007.
Australian software engineer Sam Blake, American cryptographer David Oranchak and Belgian software engineer Jarl Van said they finally got the symbols, numbers and letters to decipher a message left by the zodiac.
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The message read: “I HOPE YOU WILL ENJOY CAPTURE ME THAT WAS NOT ME IN THE TV SHOW WHAT SHOWS A POINT ABOUT ME. I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBERS BECAUSE IT SEND ME TO PARADISE.”
“UMZ FASTER BECAUSE NOW I HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES WORKING FOR ME WHERE ALL OTHERS HAVE NOTHING, WHEN THEY REACH PARADISE SO THEY FEAR THE DEATH. I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE WILL BE SIMPLE LIFE IN PARADISE AND DEATH,” the killer said.
It is unknown which television show Zodiac was alluding to.
In an opinion on it NBC From FBI Headquarters, the FBI announced that its own Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU) had recognized and validated the work of the codebreakers.
They said: “Over the past 51 years, CRRU has considered numerous proposed solutions from the public – none of which had any merit. The cipher was recently cracked by a team of three private individuals.”
“The FBI is aware that a cipher attributed to the Zodiac Killer was recently cracked by private individuals,” the FBI’s San Francisco office said in a statement.
In 2018, Vallejo Police tried to collect conclusive DNA evidence using the stamps on the letters, but no results have yet been reported.