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Post by Joanna on Dec 1, 2017 16:38:27 GMT -5
'Zodiac Killer' Could Soon Be IdentifiedThe “Zodiac Killer,” a shadowy serial assassin who terrorized northern California in the 1960s and ‘70s with a string of grisly murders and mystifying, unsolvable riddles, may have finally given officials a code they can crack: His DNA.
Throughout his bloody rampage, the killer – one of history’s most infamous unidentified serial murderers – taunted law enforcement with enigmatic ciphers and bizarre letters in which he claimed as many as 37 victims.
Now, a half-century later, a detective team has extracted DNA from one murder victim’s clothing that may finally help put a name to the infamous, anonymous killer. “We have the potential to obtain Zodiac’s DNA,” cold case detective Ken Mains told Fox News. In October 1966, Cheri Jo Bates was stabbed after leaving the library at Riverside Community College – a murder the Zodiac Killer claimed as his handiwork, though authorities never officially linked him to the crime. “During the examination of Bates’ clothing, I discovered, without a doubt, two bloody hand prints at the bottom of her pants,” Mains, a former FBI task force member and Marine Corps veteran, added. “We have touch DNA from those hand prints.”
The revelation came during the recent premiere of History’s series “The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer,” in which Mains, former Los Angeles homicide detective Sal LaBarbera and computer science professor and code-breaker Kevin Knight seek to solve the case. The five-part limited series, which began on Nov. 14, also features a “supercomputer” named CARMEL, which was fed Zodiac’s writings so it could learn to “think” like the killer himself.
The team says it may have solved a significant portion of the diabolically complicated Zodiac code, Z340, and has obtained unprecedented access to police files, new witnesses and clues. It also has the cooperation of the CIA and FBI.
Mains said the team has so far focused on two suspects: Ross Sullivan (above left) and Lawrence Kane (right). Sullivan, who would now be 76, worked in the library where Bates was last seen alive. He was known to wear military-style clothing and combat boots, according to library staff, and footprints that appeared to have been made by such boots were found at the scene. Sullivan also bears a striking resemblance to a police sketch of the Zodiac Killer released at the time. Sullivan was questioned by police in the murder of Bates, who was never officially declared a Zodiac victim. But Mains noted Bates’ murderer sent a letter to police and newspapers confessing to the crime. “That letter was very similar to ones the Zodiac sent – so much so that he misused and misspelled the same letters,” Mains continued.
As for Kane, he was a Navy veteran who studied cryptography. The Zodiac, Mains noted, sent encrypted communication to area newspapers divulging intimate knowledge of the murders. Kane, who died in 2010, “has some red flags in his background that jump out to me that make him a viable suspect,” he explained.
The first Zodiac message was a three-part cipher sent in portions to the Vallejo Times-Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner on July 31, 1969. The cipher, cracked by a California schoolteacher and his wife, began with these chilling words: “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 dangeroue anamal.”
The code would be followed by many others that baffled investigators using every resource to solve the riddles. The most infamous was a 340-character cipher mailed to the Chronicle that has never been decoded.
“We’ve got five of the world’s best code-breakers working on these ciphers the Zodiac had taunted police with all these years,” Mains said. “They’re using this supercomputer to try to help them decipher it.” He also said that four of the known Zodiac killings were “all done on the same day in the lunar calendar cycle. Coincidentally, the symbol for that is the Zodiac symbol,” he advised.
Police confirmed seven murders and two attempted murders were the work of the Zodiac because of information he provided in his letters that was unknown to the public. Among his many victims were David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, teens who were on their first date in December 1968 when they were gunned down in Benicia, California. But the killer took credit for 37 murders in all.
Mains said he believes his team can uncover the killer’s identity with advancements in DNA analysis and other forensic technology that wasn’t available to investigators at the time. “It’s probably the greatest American unsolved serial killing case,” he added. “I’m very confident it can be solved.”Sources: Christina Corbin, Fox News, December 1, 2017, and Brynn Holland, History, November 28, 2017.
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Post by jason on Dec 1, 2017 17:47:15 GMT -5
I don't have a lot of confidence in TV investigations. They go in for cheap sensationalism instead of serious investigation.
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Post by Joanna on Jan 30, 2018 23:38:27 GMT -5
DNA from Envelope Doesn't Identify 'Zodiac'With apologies to Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac Killer is the most compelling unsolved serial murder case of our time. Zodiac has four confirmed murder victims – there were three others who survived those attacks – and is suspected in several others. He claimed even more. Like Jack the Ripper and Son of Sam, Zodiac taunted police and the news media with letters outlining details of his past and future crimes. To add to his creepy mystique, he sent coded messages in bizarre ciphers and committed one attack while dressed in a bizarre hood with his signature cross-hairs symbol emblazoned across his chest – like a comic book super villain come to life. The case remains unsolved to this day and his identity remains a mystery.
There have been several books written about the Zodiac Killer – some more credible than others – and his crimes were mirrored in the movies, notably in the original Dirty Harry film, which focuses on a killer named Scorpio terrorizing San Francisco and sending letters to the police. David Fincher’s 2007 Zodiac movie starring Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr. is an absolute masterpiece, too. Fincher’s Zodiac is based on the writings of Robert Graysmith, a San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist who found himself obsessed with the case as it unfolded.
Graysmith, who is portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal in the film, wrote two books on the case, Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked. While Graysmith spotlights several suspects in the course of his work – and to be sure, there are problems with the case he builds it in his books – the one who gets the most attention is Arthur Leigh Allen, who had a significant amount of circumstantial evidence pointing his way. However, there was never anything concrete enough for authorities to bring charges against Allen, who died in 1992. Allen appeared to be ruled out as a suspect when DNA was collected from the envelope of one of the Zodiac letters in 2002, which was the subject of an ABC TV special. The DNA profile created from that genetic material did not match Allen’s DNA, nor that of several other suspects.
The best, most complete resource for Zodiac Killer information around is ZodiacKiller.com. Its webmaster, Tom Voigt, has kept Zodiac sleuths up-to-date on every new development in the case for more than 15 years. In a post to the site’s message board, Voigt confirms that the material collected from the envelope in 2002 to create the Zodiac DNA profile wasn’t collected in a manner that could guarantee it came from the killer. “The partial DNA profile that was obtained back in 2002 by Dr. Cydne Holt for the ABC television show Primetime Thursday was collected from the outside of the stamp,” Voigt wrote. “No genetic material was obtained from behind the stamp, or the seal of the envelope, or anywhere else that would have most certainly belonged to the Zodiac.” (Emphasis his.)
Voigt obtained the information from “a retired SFPD inspector” and he then confirmed the information with Holt. Apparently Holt was clear concerning the parts of the envelope from which the DNA was collected, but this was lost in the editing process for the ABC special. The DNA profile created from that genetic material could have been from a postal employee or anyone else who handled the envelope in its journey.
It would now appear that Arthur Leigh Allen and other suspects, believed to have been disqualified, can once again be considered viable suspects. Allen in particular remains one of the most intriguing.Source: Mike Cecchini, Den of Geek!, January 23, 2018.
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Post by jason on Jan 31, 2018 14:24:33 GMT -5
That's interesting about the DNA test. But it could still be the Zodiac's DNA since we know he handled the stamp, unless you believe he asked someone else to put the stamp on before the era of DNA. What are the odds that someone else left DNA on the stamp? Possible but you'd think that would leave two separate samples.
I made the mistake of reading the Zodiac Unmasked book first which made Arthur Leigh Allen look like Case Closed. It's better to read the so-called Yellow Book, Zodiac. It gives you a totally different view of the killer. A portrait that doesn't bear similarity IMO to the follow-up book.
I have to admit the proverbial Rabbit Holes are fun to go down until you find out it's just a Rabbit Hole. Then you need to find another one. Only DB Cooper is better than this one. In one of his letters, the Zodiac said: "As of yet I have left no fingerprints behind me contrary to what the policesay in my killings I wear transparent fingertip guards. All it is is 2 coats ofairplane cement coated on my fingertips -- quite unnoticible + very effective" A man that careful wouldn't have made the mistake of handling a stamp without wearing gloves or the same fingertip guards.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2018 17:06:49 GMT -5
As I recall, he took off his gloves at the Stine murder and left a hand print including fingerprints on the car. I remember that his bloody fingerprints are available to view online.
P.S. I also remember there was a diagonal scar on one finger that an author said matched his relative's but I believe the diagonal was in an unmatched direction.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2018 0:38:37 GMT -5
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Post by jason on Feb 3, 2018 2:27:44 GMT -5
As I recall, he took off his gloves at the Stine murder and left a hand print including fingerprints on the car. I remember that his bloody fingerprints are available to view online. P.S. I also remember there was a diagonal scar on one finger that an author said matched his relative's but I believe the diagonal was in an unmatched direction.
There's no evidence those prints left on the outside of the taxicab were those of the Zodiac. They could have been the prints of any one of hundreds of people. The kids who saw the man who killed Stine didn't say anything about seeing him take off his gloves. They saw him touching, or maneuvering the body around and he cut off a piece of Stine's bloody shirt, but I don't think he would have been dumb enough to take off his gloves and risk leaving prints after he had bragged in his earlier letter about not leaving fingerprints.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2018 20:52:21 GMT -5
Okay I reviewed the case somewhat. The gloves were too small for him - a man's Small. They might have been left by a woman but the recent Zodiac show on History got a male profile from the inside. If they don't fit..... It's apparent he was barehanded because he was wiping down the car. The witnesses saw him put his bloody hands at the positions where the prints were found. The door handle on the passenger side and the driver's side divider. He wiped the dash and driver door handle clean. www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/category/fingerprint%20evidenceFingerprints and DNA discounted my favorite suspect. I now don't see him as the best suspect after all. So the evidence looks good.
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Post by steve on Apr 1, 2018 14:07:38 GMT -5
Okay I reviewed the case somewhat. The gloves were too small for him - a man's Small. They might have been left by a woman but the recent Zodiac show on History got a male profile from the inside. If they don't fit..... It's apparent he was barehanded because he was wiping down the car. The witnesses saw him put his bloody hands at the positions where the prints were found. The door handle on the passenger side and the driver's side divider. He wiped the dash and driver door handle clean. www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/category/fingerprint%20evidenceFingerprints and DNA discounted my favorite suspect. I now don't see him as the best suspect after all. So the evidence looks good.
He said in one of his letters that he used 2 coats of airplane cement on his fingertips. He probably wiped down the car in case he left any palm prints.
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Post by Graveyardbride on May 2, 2018 22:58:34 GMT -5
Zodiac DNA Results Expected in Next Few WeeksInvestigators searching for the Zodiac Killer have submitted evidence to a private DNA lab in the hopes of obtaining a genetic profile of one of California’s most elusive criminals – then tracking him down using the same sort of family-tree tracing recently used in the East Area Rapist case.
Vallejo police Detective Terry Poyser, who has worked the Zodiac case for four years, said his agency has submitted two envelopes that contained letters from the Zodiac Killer for a type advanced DNA analysis that previously had not been available in the case. He declined to identify the lab, but said it would attempt to obtain a full DNA profile from saliva on the envelope flap and stamps. He said he expected to have results from the lab in the next few weeks, and almost certainly by summer. “They were confident they would be able to get something off it,” Poyser added.
The envelopes had been sent to the lab a few months ago, before Joseph DeAngelo, who is suspected of being the East Area Rapist, was caught after investigators used a DNA profile run though an open-source database. Poyser indicated he hoped the same approach could be used if a complete profile of the Zodiac is obtained. “If we get a good profile, then you start tracking back,” he explained. “It really comes down to DNA. Without it, you have nothing. It’s a 50-years-old case.”
The use of public genealogy sites to track criminal DNA is relatively new. Prior to the case of the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer, most investigations were limited to running DNA samples through state and federal databases that largely contain DNA from convicted felons only. To be successful, those searches required the DNA belong to someone previously convicted, or to a close relative who also was a felon and therefore in the database.
In the East Area Rapist case, investigators have said they uploaded a genetic profile into an open source DNA database used by amateur genealogists searching for relatives, providing a much wider pool of potential matches. According to Poyser, Vallejo police plan to do the same if a Zodiac sample is obtained. “We are having [the evidence] retested, and then we will go the routes we can,” he said.
With the exception of identical twins, each person has a unique DNA profile. This makes DNA matching a powerful tool for finding and convicting the perpetrator of a crime.
The Zodiac Killer roamed Northern California from December 1968 through October 1969, but was never caught despite at least one close run-in with police. He is known to have attacked seven individuals – in Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa and San Francisco – killing five and leaving two survivors. However, the Zodiac claimed responsibility for many more deaths in letters, often signed with the symbol of a cross over a circle.
Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday were the first victims. The two high school students were shot December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road in Benicia, close to Vallejo. Source: Anita Chabria, The Sacramento Bee, May 2, 2018.
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Post by steve on May 3, 2018 16:19:47 GMT -5
I hope that he is identified. We used to have some neighbors (in NY) who were living in California when the Zodiac was killing people and they were related to one of his victims.
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Post by Isbeau on May 8, 2018 18:19:35 GMT -5
If you're on Ancestry, you and your relatives are okay privacy-wise because the police go to the sites where you upload the raw data. In the GSK case, they used GEDmatch and Ysearch.
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Post by jason on May 12, 2018 17:37:06 GMT -5
If you're on Ancestry, you and your relatives are okay privacy-wise because the police go to the sites where you upload the raw data. In the GSK case, they used GEDmatch and Ysearch.
Why would anyone on Ancestry or similar sites care about privacy as it relates to their DNA? People don't know who has the same DNA as that of some serial killer, so what difference does it make?
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Post by catherine on Aug 20, 2018 13:10:00 GMT -5
It's now been more than 3 months and the Zodiac hasn't been identified. What's the holdup?
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