America's most dreaded killer remains elusive even today. It is still not known who this Zodiac Killer was. Though the police suspected it to be Arthur Leigh Allen, there was no concrete evidence to support the claim. Since he has been an enigma to the cops, little is known about his early days and what prompted him to become a serial killer. Till date the case is open and world's top investigators are foxed by the complexity of this case. Allen was the only one who came close to the killer's description. But his DNA doesn't match with any of the samples found at the site of crime. The San Francisco Police Department marked this case closed in April 2004 but has reopened it now.



The Zodiac Killers modus operandi is intriguing, as he wrote letters to media in code language about the killings ,sometimes even before hand . In fact, once he even called up the police and accepted responsibility for killing two youngsters in a parking lot. The call was traced to a telephone booth near the Vallejo Police Department. In 1968, the Zodiac killings came to light with the murder of Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday on December 20, 1968 in California City. He shot them point blank on their head. A neighborhood lady Stella Borges found the bodies and alerted the police. But no leads were found. This was followed by a spate of killings which baffled the cops and made them helpless. No conclusive evidence was found in any of the killings.

In 1969, letters were received by the Vallejo Times-Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Francisco Examiner. The letters consisted of one third of a cryptogram with a total of 408 characters which he claimed contained his identity. He demanded they be printed on the front page or he would go on a rampage and kill a dozen people that weekend. Though the threatened murders did not happen, all three parts were eventually published.

The cryptogram was cracked in August 1969 by Donald and Betty Harden. Though the message was unraveled it didn't contain the killer's identity. According to the excerpts published the letter was as follows:

I LIKE KILLING PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS SO MUCH FUN IT IS MORE FUN THAN KILLING WILD GAME IN THE FORREST, BECAUSE MAN IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANAMAL OF ALL TO KILL. SOMETHING GIVES ME THE MOST THRILLING EXPERENCE - IT IS EVEN BETTER THAN GETTING YOUR ROCKS OFF WITH A GIRL THE BEST PART OF IT IS THAT WHEN I DIE I WILL BE REBORN IN PARADICE AND ALL THE GIRLS I HAVE KILLED WILL BECOME MY SLAVES I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO SLOI DOWN OR STOP MY COLLECTING OF SLAVES FOR MY AFTERLIFE EBEORIETEMETHHPITI.

The last 18 characters couldn't be unraveled.

The killings continued and flummoxed everyone in Bay Area. The Zodiac Killer also dutifully reported every crime to the police. Though fresh evidence could be collected, they could never be matched with anybody. Letters continued to come to media and so did the killings. There were around 49 murders linked to zodiac killer out of which 15 were occult killings in Northern California.

Theories abound in Zodiac Killers case but no conclusive evidence was ever found. Many films were inspired by this and Hollywood had a fascination for making movies and TV serials on zodiac killer. The killer always signed his notes with " = 12, SFPD = 0".

Though police investigated over 2,500 potential suspects, the case is still unsolved. This is one of the greatest unsolved serial killer mysteries of all times in American crime history.

By: Carlos Cabezas L'pez

(The author is the editor of Digital Journal Caso abierto)