Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Biographies Zodiac Zodiac Serial killers almost without exception enjoy playing games. Whether played with their victims’, or the police forces trying to track them down, the game of the kill is almost as essential as the murder itself. In most instances this need to draw out the experience leads to the downfall of the culprit. This was not the case with the elusive Zodiac Killer of the San Francisco Bay Area. Zodiac’s career, which would become the most cerebral murder case of all time, began in Riverside California on the night of October 30, 1966. The first victim, Cheri Jo Bates, a young student at the university was brutally murdered outside the college library. She was stabbed 42 times with a knife with a small blade. Following the stabbings, her throat was slit so brutally that it secered her larynx, jugular, and carotid artery. Authorities classified the extreme brutality of the murder “overkill”, which typically happened in cases where the victim and perpetrator are acquainted. Evidence found at the scene of the crime included a military class watch with a broken wristband, hair, blood, and skin tissue under Ms. Bates fingernails, and palm and fingerprints on her car. In addition, paint splattered on the watch was identified as being a variety used on ships. Ms. Bates clothes were still intact, and her wallet remained on her, leaving no other motive for attack. The Cheri Jo Bates murder would have been believed to have been committed by a spurned lover, were it not for a bizarre twist occurring almost a month after the murder. On November 29, 1966 an anonymous letter was sent to both the Riverside Police and the Riverside Enterprise, a local newspaper. The letter, entitles “The Confession” was typewritten on a Royal typewriter with Pica typeface and included graphic details of the murder. In mid-April 1967, a janitor at the RCC Library discovered a poem about the murder inscribed on a table at which Ms. Bates was studying at prior to the incident. Technology in the late 60’s was insufficient to collect DNA samples from suspects, however, in 1998 Riverside Police collected skin samples from their only remaining suspect in the case. The results of these tests have not been released to the public. Almost two years passed after the Bates murder, when in December of 1968 the Zodiac struck again. This time the Zodiac struck in a park at Vallejo, twenty miles north of San Francisco. David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Johnson, had told their parents they were going to a Christmas party, when instead going to a secluded lover’s lane. Several people reported seeing a light colored chevy impala that was raising suspicion by it’s unnatural behavior. This vehicle pulled up beside David Faraday’s vehicle. The driver, based on footprints at the scene, walked up behind the car and began firing. Sixteen year old Betty Lou Jensen ran from the car only to have to Zodiac fire five shots into her back using perfect marksmanship. Autopsy results show the shots were fired from approximately ten feet away. Faraday, on the other hand was killed by a single shot to the head. The killer used a handgun loaded with .22 LR ammunition. After the entire incident was over, Stella Borges drove up the lane, passing the Chevy Impala as it drove away, and found the bodies laying outside the car. The only evidence at the Faraday and Jensen murders was the identification of the vehicle, footprints left in the dirt, and the eight rounds that were found at the scene of the crime. Only six months later, on the Fourth of July, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau parked outside a golf course in Vallejo to talk privately. While in the lot a brown Falcon pulled up next to them, left, and returned about five minutes later. The vehicle pulled up directly behind Darlene Ferrin, and the driver exited the vehicle. To conceal his identity, he held up a lamp shining the light on the victims. As he neared the window, he pulled out a handgun and fired at Mageau. The shots hit with such force that they wnet through is body and into Darlene’s. Mageau managed to move into the backseat of the car, however the perpetrator continued firing at Darlene Ferrin. When the killer finally did leave, Mageau was still alive, and the fisrt composite sketches were made of the Zodiac from his description. At 12:40am, roughly one hour after the murders, a call came into the police station from a pay phone. In this call, the Zodiac not only confessed to, but reported the murders to the police department. The call was eventually traced to a payphone only blocks away from the police station. Three weeks after the murder, the three major newspapers each received a letter from the Zodiac. These letters each contained one third of a cryptogram, which the murderer insisted be published on August first, or he would embark on a weekend-long killing spree, To further encourage the papers to publish the cipher he added that in the cipher was the key to his identity. The latter was thought to be simply a sensational story until recent discoveries have been uncovered. The cipher did however state that the Zodiac killed because man was the ultimate game, a line from a movie, and added that all of his victims would be his slaves in the afterlife. After the printing of the letters, the Zodiac sent another letter to the media on August fourth. Police were unsuccessful at developing the latent prints on the first set of letters, consequently, the second was sent to the FBI Crime lab where it was identified as Woolworth’s “Fifth Avenue” brand paper. Though there were useful prints on the letter, they did not match any in the FBI database. On Saturday September 27, 1969 a man matching the Zodiac’s description was seen wandering around the shores of Lake Berryessa, 60 miles northeast of San Francisco. When anyone took notice of him, he quickly retreated. Cecilia Ann Shepard and Bryan Hartnell had gone up to Lake Berryessa for a picnic, and lingered till sundown. Cecilia saw the man who was aboud 200 pounds with short dark hair, and thought he seemed fairly unremarkeable. The man started to move closer to the young couple, but before coming upon them too closely, ducked behind a tree and, put on a self-crafted executioners hood. This hood, resemblant of that of the Lord High Executioner from the Gilbert and Sullivan light opera “The Mikado”, had embroidered on it the crossed-circle design that had appeared on the cryptograms and would become the Zodiac’s trademark. With his erratic behavior and voyerism increasing with each murder, the Zodiac decided to take another new step and speak to his victims. Posing as an escaped criminal, he asked for money and the keys to the car. Hartnell gave him the requested items without hesitation. After speaking for a few moments, the man removed a piece of clothesline from his belt and asked Shepard to hogtie her friend. This done, the Zodiac tied up Cecilia Ann Shepard and then announced, “I’m going to have to stab you people.” Bryan Hartnell, requested that he be stabbed first in order to spare Ms. Shepard from the inevitable. The Zodiac complied, stabbing him six times with a double-edged footlong knife, possibly a bayonet. Shepard, however, was fatally stabbed ten times. Takeing his time after the murder, the Zodiac took out a black magic marker and inscribed his logo on the car door, along with an inscription regarding the murders that had taken place so far. In analysis of the crime scene, detectives found a series of clear footprints leading to and from the scene of the attack. These footprints served to identify the shoe the killer was wearing: Wing Walkers, a style of low-cut military boot, size 10 ½. After this murder was complete, the man again placed a call to the police headquarters from a payphone. This payphone, again located near the station, had a palm print on the receiver. Unfortunately, the San Francisco police department print man smudged the print while attempting to lift it, and destroyed any evidenciary value. Following the murders at Lake Berryessa, the media attention was growing stronger and stronger. Of special interest was the apparent inability of the Zodiac to kill a male, and the extreme measures taken against women. There were questions drawn as to sexual dysfunction or weakness. Criminal profilers have suggested this as the reason for the next of the string of Zodiac murders. On Saturday, October 11, 1969, San Francisco cab driver Paul Stine picked up a passenger in Union Square headed for the Presidio, close to a military base. Wehther the killer made the trip in the front seat, or got into the front later is uncertain. The occurrences of that night were out of character from Zodiac’s typical exploits. A single shot the base of the skull left Paul Stine dead at the wheel. Three teenage siblings across the street from where the cab was parked witnessed the murderer cut off pieces of Paul Stine’s shirt, wipe down the cab, and lean on the driver’s side dorr before heading away. With the arrival of the police on the scene chaos soon ensued. The dispatcher reported that the suspect was a Negro male, a mistake that was blatantly thrown back into the faces of the police department later. Two officers looking for the suspect approached the Zodiac, and even asked him if he had seen anything out of the ordinary, not realizing that they were face to face with the most prolific serial killer of the time. Ballistics testing on the crime scene from the Stine murder identified the bullet to be a 9mm. From the cab, thirty latent fingerprints were found, three palm-prints, and one impression from a lower finger or palm. Though some of the prints were even made in blood, none of them matched any prints on file. Two days later, another letter arrived for the press. Three fingerprints were developed from this letter, but as yet, they have yet to be matched to a suspect. The profile of the Zodiac Killer given by psychological profilers is that he was most likely born between 1938 and 1943, which would have made him between 25-30 at the start of his known killing spree. His slow metered speech with no trace of accent indicates a background in the Western United States. His letters hint of Dyslexia or early childhood mental illness. In addition his tastes in Gilbert and Sullivan Lyric Opera and expertise in mechanical procedures hint to a childhood with both parents in the home. He was possibly sexually abused as a child, and most notably found his personal redemption in marksmanship and a separation from societal norms. Though the Zodiac did strike in many other ways, the Stine murder would be the last indentifiably his. He had a few vague patterns, but none that stuck out in an identifiable manner. Of these patterns, his murders always took place near dusk or after dark on a weekend. His letters to the media, calls to the police station, and most significant, his signature. In the late nineties, an officer working on the case placed certain criteria specific to the Zodiac case in a computer to find other related unsolved crimes. This computer search pulled up a string of related incidences across California and the Pacific Northwest. Oddly, the sites of these events formed two rectangles held together by a solid line. This symbol, whose origin is the same as the Zodiac symbol used by the murderer, symbolizes the afterlife, and is placed on graves to hurry the souls to the afterlife. With Zodiac’s obsession with the afterlife, and the need for slaves in the thereafter, it is hypothesized that he is responsible for close to 100 murders across the area. The most resent developments to the Zodiac case have taken place on the East Coast. In 1998, a string of murders occurred in the New York metro area by someone claiming to be the Zodiac. Though police have assumed that this is a copycat case, it has not been ruled out that the Zodiac may once again be on the move. Bibliography: Bibliography Graysmith, Robert Zodiac. Berkley Books, New York. 1986 members.aol.com/Jakewark www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/7640/zodiac.html Word Count: 2050
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