l evidence. All the police had to go off was Zodiac’s handwriting, (from the letters) and a bloody palm print found inone of his victim’s car. This proved troubling to police. Some investigators felt the bloody palmprint may have not even belonged to Zodiac. They theorized that the meticulous killer would havenot made such a careless mistake; perhaps it was just to lead police down the wrong trail. Printsof the main suspects were compared to the palm print and there was never a match. Therefore, thereal Zodiac may have been in the presence of police and gone free.The second piece of evidence authorities used in narrowing suspects were handwritinganalysis, since the majority of Zodiac’s letters were handwritten ( a few were typed.) The suspectwhose writing was a closest match was Robert Hall Starr (this name has been changed) Policewere able to obtain a sample of his writing from his place of employment. (Graysmith, 282)However, when police received a search warrant to search his house and demanded a handwritingsample the writings were not a match. It was not until later that authorities learned that a sexualsadists handwriting may change under stressful conditions. (Graysmith, 267) At this time theywere also not aware that Zodiac may have used a tracing device to write the letters. This wouldassure that if he was captured his natural handwriting would not match the notes. Starr hadmultiple residences, but only one was searched. It might have been possible that one of thesemachines or other evidence would have been found at his other homes. Graysmith gave theimpression he felt Starr was, in fact, Zodiac. (Graysmith, 304)Although Zodiac is one of the most baffling cases in recent American history, it has manysimilarities to other serial killer cases. For example, it is not usual for serial killers to leave asignature or trademark. (Weis, Keppel, 403) Zodiac wrote letters to police taking credit for hiscrimes but other ...
