Tonight, a spree of horrifying murders
Shocks northern california and the world.
Reporter: Search goes on in san francisco
For the man known as the zodiac killer.
The maniacal killer goads police
Leaving cryptic clues to his identity.
John tefft: 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 killers.
Evy poumpouras: He seemed obsessed with her,
To the point where he followed her every move,
David oranchak: There's a chance that zodiac had more victims
And may have left behind evidence that's gone unnoticed.
Robert schug: Grisly murders start happening
In florence, Italy, and they fit the zodiac's m.O. To a t.
Can new evidence finally crack his code?
Kelly knight: After years and years of trying,
They finally crack the cipher.
And maybe that'll tell us who the killer is once and for all.
Who is the zodiac killer?
[music]
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.
Robert: Detectives examine the bodies and see that david
Was killed by a single gunshot behind his left ear.
Betty lou was shot five times in the back.
Laurence: Police are stumped why anyone would commit
An execution-style murder on an innocent high school couple.
Michael butterfield: There was no evidence of any robbery
Or sexual assault of any kind,
Which led them to believe that it might have been
A random attack by a stranger.
Laurence: For seven months police have no leads.
Then, on July 4th, 1969,
They receive a shocking phone call.
Kelly: 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 shot
With a 9-millimeter luger.
And before he ends the phone call,
He also says, "I also killed those kids last year."
Robert: 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 gunshot wounds.
Laurence: 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 attacked by a stranger
Who shined a flashlight in their faces
Right before he fired five shots.
John: He describes the suspect as a caucasian,
About 30 years old, 5'8",
200 pounds, with short curly hair.
Evy: The bay area now has a serial killer on the loose.
He's claimed three victims so far, nearly four.
Laurence: Almost a month after the vallejo attacks,
The killer contacts local press.
He includes a strange three-part coded message, or cipher.
Michael: On July 31st three bay area newspapers
Receive three virtually identical handwritten letters
From someone who claims to be the killer.
He demands that a cipher which is included with the letters
Be published on August 1st,
Or he threatens to kill more victims.
Laurence: The cipher and the accompanying letters
Are published, as demanded.
Then, on August 4th, another letter arrives.
Kelly: This letter sent to the san francisco examiner
Says, "dear editor, this is the zodiac speaking."
And now, our killer has a name.
Laurence: Zodiac.
His name becomes front-page news in the bay area.
That publicity quickly leads to a breakthrough.
Michael: 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 killed
Would serve as his slaves in the afterlife.
Evy: But it doesn't reveal his identity.
In fact, it specifically says that he won't give his name
Because he intends to keep killing.
John: 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 killer
That likes to play games, likes to taunt law enforcement,
It's almost something out of a hollywood movie.
Laurence: On September 27th, the zodiac keeps his word.
Kelly: At 7:40 p.M., the police receive a phone call
From the zodiac,
Again in that low, monotone voice.
Evy: He tells the dispatcher that he wants to report
A double murder.
The bodies can be found at lake berryessa
In napa county.
John: 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.
Evy: Shepard dies from her injuries,
But hartnell's lucky.
None of his vital organs were struck, so he survives.
Michael: 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.
Laurence: That same chilling symbol appears
In zodiac's letters, causing widespread public fear.
John: At this point,
Descriptions of the zodiac killer
Are all over the media.
Reporter: Search goes on in san francisco
For the man known as the zodiac killer.
He was a big guy, six foot or better,
Over 200 pounds.
And tips are just pouring in to law enforcement.
Michael: Some witnesses reported that they had seen a man
Lurking in the area just prior to the attack.
Laurence: 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.
Robert: Allen was apparently seen at lake berryessa
On the day of the attack, 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.
Laurence: Even allen's own friends and family
Are suspicious.
Kelly: 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.
Michael: 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 killer.
Laurence: 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.
Evy: He's also bald on top, while the witnesses
Mentioned short brown curly hair.
Laurence: 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.
Laurence: Allen dies in 1992 without being arrested
Or charged in any zodiac murder,
Including one that takes place in san francisco
In October 1969.
Kelly: Three teenagers are sitting in their apartment
In san francisco when they believe they hear a gunshot.
Evy: They look out the window and they see a man
Hovering over a taxicab driver in what appears to be a robbery.
Michael: One of them calls police
To report the crime in progress,
And reports that they saw the killer
Apparently wiping down the cab with some sort of cloth.
Laurence: When they arrive, they find
29-year-old taxi driver paul stine
Dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
Evy: There are a few other similar murders
That some suspect could be connected,
But this is the last killing that the zodiac
Explicitly takes credit for
In a letter sent to the newspaper.
Kelly: After the stine murder
Zodiac keeps sending letters intermittently for a few years,
And some even include more cryptograms.
This psychopathic killer seems to think of himself
As some uncatchable genius.
Laurence: All told, zodiac sends more than 20 letters
And a total of four ciphers.
Then, in January 1974, they suddenly stop.
Luckily, the stine murder has something
None of the others do-- independent eyewitnesses.
Evy: 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.
Laurence: After the zodiac killer
Goes on a 10-month killing 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.
Evy: 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.
Robert: 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.
Laurence: Most, but not all.
Evy: 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.
Kelly: 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.
John: 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 shot.
But the photos are very striking,
And gaikowski definitely fits the description
Of the zodiac killer.
But of course, blaine doesn't stop there.
He finds a lot more circumstantial evidence.
John: Gaikowski is a journalist,
And he moved to martinez, california, in 1964,
Four years before the first known zodiac murder.
Laurence: Martinez is within one hour
Of all the known murder 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.
Laurence: It appears gaikowski has a connection
To at least one victim-- darlene ferrin.
Evy: 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.
Kelly: 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.
Laurence: 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 murdered.
And second, he seemed obsessed with her,
To the point where he followed her every move.
Laurence: 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 attacked,
And they find a very specific style of footprint.
Evy: 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.
Laurence: There's a possible connection between gaikowski
And victim paul stine as well.
John: 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?
Kelly: So now, we have connections between gaikowski
And three of the four known murders.
The next thing police look at is the letters.
Robert: 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.
Laurence: This three-year gap coincides with a time
When gaikowski is committed to a mental asylum.
Robert: 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."
Laurence: And there's one more clue
Hidden in the zodiac's first cryptogram.
Evy: 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 killer says his identity was in the cipher.
Was he telling the truth?
Laurence: 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 killer's voice.
Laurence: Detectives confront gaikowski
And ask him where he was at the time
Of the lake herman road murders.
Robert: And gaikowski tells them that he was overseas
Covering the conflict in northern ireland
For the knickerbocker newspaper.
Laurence: Authorities immediately check his alibi.
Kelly: 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.
John: 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.
Laurence: Frustrated, police make one final effort
To gather proof.
Kelly: Detectives have a handwriting expert
Look at gaikowski's handwriting
And compare it to the zodiac killer's.
The expert concluded that those two samples did not match.
Evy: 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.
Laurence: Between 1969 and 1970,
The zodiac killer 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.
Evy: 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.
Michael: They believed that the cipher
Would contain the word "kill,"
So they looked for pairings of certain symbols
That could represent two letter "l"s.
And they were successful.
The message read, "I like killing people
Because it's so much fun."
Kelly: Once they verified
The corresponding symbols for that phrase,
The rest of it they solved pretty quickly.
Michael: 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.
Laurence: Then, in 2020, an all-star group of decoders
Takes on the challenge,
Hoping to crack one of the three unsolved zodiac ciphers.
David: 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 homophonic substitution,
And that's where one letter might be swapped
For multiple symbols.
Laurence: The team creates a powerful software program
That processes millions of homophonic 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.
David: 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.
Evy: 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 killer is once and for all.
Laurence: 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.
Michael: 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 crack.
Kelly: It begins with "my name is..."
Followed by a 13-character cryptogram.
Evy: So, solving the cipher is actually supposed
To provide us with the zodiac's name.
Michael: Once again, modern technology
Provides a breakthrough.
Ziraoui's software translates the cipher
As the letters k-a-y-r.
Laurence: 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."
Laurence: 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.
John: 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.
Michael: Lawrence kaye is a convicted criminal
With a long history of arrests
For voyeurism as a peeping tom,
Prowling, burglary, and more.
David: This is important because criminals
Don't just jump straight to murder.
Their crimes usually escalate.
Robert: 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 military's wing walker boots,
Which would match the prints
At the lake berryessa murder site.
Laurence: 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 murdered.
Hines also discovers that darlene ferrin,
Who was murdered at blue rock springs,
Worked at her aunt's cafe
Which was just two blocks from kaye's apartment.
David: 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.
Laurence: But hines needs more than circumstantial evidence
To make his case.
Detective hines contacts bryan hartnell,
Who survived the zodiac's knife attack at lake berryessa,
And he's heard the zodiac's voice.
Evy: 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."
Michael: 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 murdered in san francisco.
For years, fouke has claimed that he may have crossed paths
With the killer 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 murder 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 murder,
Kaye's picture bears the most resemblance
To the man he saw that night.
Laurence: With three witnesses identifying kaye
As the zodiac killer, hines takes his report
To captain roy conway and lieutenant james husted
Of the vallejo police department.
Evy: Hines thinks he's solved the case of the century,
And he is expecting a huge pat on the back.
Kelly: But after conway and husted read his report,
They basically say, "thanks, we'll get back to you,"
And they never do.
Laurence: 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.
David: The two detectives read the report,
And they believe it.
They think it's good police work.
Robert: 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 murdered,
Darlene ferrin, all kinds of stuff.
Kaye has an answer for everything.
Laurence: Kaye cooperates with investigators,
Supplying his fingerprints and handwriting samples.
Kelly: 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.
Michael: 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 killer.
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.
Kelly: Stewart is born in 1963.
He's given up for adoption rather quickly
And raised by loyd and leona stewart
Of baton rouge, louisiana.
Evy: 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 rape,
But when he gets out on parole, he and gilford go on the run,
Abandoning their baby in new orleans.
Laurence: Stewart is stunned.
But the biggest shock comes when he sees a photo
Of his biological father.
Kelly: 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 killer.
This photo serves as a catalyst
For stewart to find out everything he can
About his biological father.
Michael: 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,
Rape, drunk driving, you name it.
Laurence: But not murder.
So, he's a criminal, but is he the zodiac killer?
Laurence: Stewart looks closer into his father's whereabouts
At the time of the murders.
John: Stewart learns that his father was incarcerated
In san quentin prison,
And that he was paroled right before
The first zodiac killings occurred.
Evy: 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 killed.
For stewart, this is like a bad dream.
Everything he learns about his father
Points to him being the zodiac killer.
Evy: 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.
Kelly: 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 killer.
John: 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.
Laurence: Stewart hires an expert
To compare his dad's handwriting to the zodiac's.
Kelly: This is a moment of truth for stewart.
This is where a lot of the other zodiac suspects
Have fallen apart.
John: 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 killer.
Evy: And after hours of detailed analysis,
He concludes they are a match.
Laurence: Next, stewart asks police
To compare his father's fingerprints
To partial prints from the stine murder scene.
Michael: 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.
Evy: Garrett provides an enlarged side-by-side picture
Of the best fingerprints from stewart's father
And the zodiac crime scene.
Robert: 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.
Laurence: 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.
Evy: 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.
Kelly: Before they put their reputation on the line,
They decide to hire a private investigator
In order to vet his research.
Laurence: And that investigator immediately finds flaws
In stewart's research.
Robert: 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.
Laurence: The investigator also checks
Van best's credit card records.
Kelly: 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 killing spree.
So, it's definitely not him.
Evy: 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.
Laurence: In April 2004, 35 years after the first murder,
The san francisco police department
Officially marks the zodiac killer 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.
Kelly: 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.
Michael: Now, a lot of the theories presented by the public
Are quickly shot down because the evidence
Just doesn't add up.
Like gary stewart's claims about his father, for instance.
Laurence: But in 2021, a group of researchers makes headlines
Claiming they've identified the zodiac killer,
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 military, forensic analysts,
And academics.
Robert: So, the fact that they believe
They solved this case means a lot more
Than hearing it from your average joe.
Laurence: On October 6th, 2021, the case breakers
Announce that the zodiac killer is a former military man
Named gary francis poste.
John: 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.
David: 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.
Kelly: 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.
Michael: Poste takes these guys on trips
Up to the mountains, and they say he is obsessed
With torturing and killing animals,
And building bombs which are similar to the explosive devices
Described by the zodiac.
Laurence: According to avery, on one of these trips
Poste makes a confession.
Kelly: 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.
Laurence: After speaking with avery,
The case breakers agree to investigate.
David: 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.
Laurence: 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.
Michael: They zero in on a top potential candidate
For another zodiac murder.
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.
Robert: A stabbed young woman certainly fits the mold,
But even more so, bates' killer sends a confession letter
To police a month after the murder.
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' murder?
Turns out he was undergoing a physical examination
At March air force base, 15 minutes from the crime scene.
Laurence: According to records of bates' murder,
Police find size 10 1/2 military-style boot prints
Next to the body.
David: Military 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.
Michael: The same day as the case breakers' announcement,
The riverside police department releases a statement
Saying that the zodiac was not responsible
For the murder of cheri jo bates.
Are the cases connected?
Is poste responsible for the bates murder?
Was that the first zodiac killing?
At this point, we're stuck with more questions than answers.
Laurence: As investigators pursue the true identity
Of the zodiac killer, one vital question
Could hold a clue.
Police think the murders ended in 1969,
The letters in 1974.
But why did they stop?
John: 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 killed?
There's a lot of open-ended questions
As to why these murders all of a sudden stopped.
Laurence: According to italian journalist francesco amicone,
The explanation is truly surprising.
Kelly: Amicone believes that the reason
The zodiac killings stop is because the killer
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 killer
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.
David: Like the zodiac killer, the italian murderer
Mostly targets young couples.
He attacks mostly on the weekends
Or public holidays.
He almost always shoots the male victim first,
Then the female.
And just like the zodiac, he uses a small-caliber handgun.
Laurence: When the italian press realize a serial killer
Is at large, they dub him the monster of florence.
Robert: 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 killer.
Laurence: 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.
Laurence: 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.
John: Bevilacqua was born in new jersey,
And from 1954 to 1974 he served in the u.S. Army.
You can see on his military id that he's 5'8", 200 pounds.
His physical description certainly matches
Some of the descriptions given by witnesses
Of the zodiac killer.
Robert: 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 murdered.
Laurence: 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.
David: In 2020 the florence public prosecutor's office
Decides they have enough circumstantial evidence
That they better get a dna sample from bevilacqua.
Robert: Everyone is sitting on pins and needles
Waiting for results to come back,
Because the findings could solve
Two of the biggest murder mysteries in history.
Laurence: 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.
Kelly: 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."