The Zodiac Killer

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Discretion is it by him? Murder? If you know true crime, you've

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heard of the Zodiac Killer. He's
one of the world's most famous serial murderers.

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Even though five decades have passed since
his killing spree and fifty years on,

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his case is still wide open,
with law enforcement working to uncover the

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identity of the man who killed at
least five people between late nineteen sixty eight

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and nineteen sixty nine. Why does
the world still have such a fascination with

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an unidentified killer From the nineteen sixties, the crimes carried out by the Zodiac

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were not unusual. Five confirmed murders
where two young couples and one lone cab

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driver were shot to death. Two
other victims had been wounded but survived their

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injuries, but they weren't able to
identify the assailant. The descriptions of the

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killer provided by their survivors are vague
enough that they could have been almost anyone.

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Whites, brown headed, male,
late twenties or early thirties, around

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two hundred pounds, less than six
feet tall, wearing dark clothing. There

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was nothing about him that seemed especially
memorable, apart from the fact that he

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was killing strangers without remorse, and
the one report of him wearing a black

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execution style hood while approaching his victims. It's possible that if all he had

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done is murder his victims and then
disappear, he might have been forgotten by

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now. But it wasn't necessarily the
killings themselves that made the Zodiac so notorious.

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It was what he did next.
It was not uncommon for serial killers

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to contact police or local media in
searching themselves into the investigation, making threats

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or taunting the cops for not being
able to catch them quickly enough. The

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Zodiac did this, even calling the
police to report a murder shortly after he

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had finished shooting his victims. He
also seemed to have some knowledge of how

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to slow down law enforcement, killing
several of his victims in areas where police

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jurisdiction overlapped, making the investigations slower. One of the reasons for the Zodiac

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Killer's notoriety is the sheer volume of
letters that he submitted to local newspapers taking

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responsibility for the recent killings, including
encrypted text puzzles called cryptograms, one of

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which he claimed would reveal his identity
if solved. He said that if the

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letters weren't published on the front page
of the newspaper. He'd kill a dozen

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people over the weekend. It was
in one of these letters that he gave

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himself a nickname, Dear Editor.
The letter began, this is the Zodiac

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speaking. He was responding to a
request by the Vallejo police chief, who

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had asked the author of the previous
letters to prove that they were the real

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killer by revealing details that the public
weren't aware of. Sure Enough, the

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letter from the Zodiac contained details about
the crimes that only the killer would know.

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It was confirmed they had been communicating
directly with the man who would quickly

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become known by his own nickname.
They were reading a letter from the Zodiac

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Killer. One of the letters contained
a list of ways in which the killer

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had supposedly murdered his victims, including
two methods which had not been seen in

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any of the linked cases. By
rope presumably meaning strangulation, and by fire.

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In the confirmed killings, the Zodiac's
weapons of choice had either been a

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military style bladed weapon or an automatic
pistol. It seemed as if he preferred

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using guns. He'd admitted in one
of his letters to taping a flashlight to

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his pistol, allowing him to aim
when shooting at night. In another letter,

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he claimed to be responsible for thirty
seven murders. The details the Zodiac

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had provided in his letters so far
had been accurate. What if he was

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telling the truth and he had other
victims that had not been connected to the

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case. Out of all the murders
that could possibly be linked to the Zodiac

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Killer, the Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders
were probably the most famous. During the

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early nineteen seventies, at least seven
women hitchhiking through California's North Bay area were

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murdered, stripped, and found dumped
in an isolated area or in creek beds.

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The killer was never found, but
the Zodiac Killer has remained near the

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top of the list of suspects,
especially after an occult symbol similar to those

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in his letters was found by the
body of one of the hitchhikers. Several

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of the victims had been slowly strangled
to death with a length of court Could

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this have been what the Zodiac meant
when referring to rope. This was the

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kind of valuable information provided by the
Zodiac Killer's communication. Hince at his m

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o, his personality and other crimes
that he may have committed. It was

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likely that one day the Zodiac's letters
would be the thing that got him caught

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DNA advancements, getting too confident,
revealing too much information. There were so

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many traps that he could have fallen
into. But in nineteen seventy four,

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all communication from the Zodiac Killer ceased. It seemed as if he might have

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just stopped killing, but it was
hard to tell. Without the taunting messages

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and damning letters linking the cases together
and proving that the killer was the same,

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Investigators were left trying to solve the
puzzles that he'd provided, while also

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narrowing down a hefty list of suspects. The only suspect whose name was ever

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made public was a convicted sex offender, Arthur Lee Allen. Some of the

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circumstantial evidence was suspicious. Arthur lived
close to one of the victims. He'd

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been in the area when at least
one of the young couples were murdered,

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and one of his friends had told
the police that Arthur talked about wanting to

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murder people and even used the name
Zodiac to refer to himself. Other pieces

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of evidence I'm using air quotes there
seemed more like grasping at straws. Arthur

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owned a wristwatch made by the brand
Zodiac. He used the same typewriter that

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one of the letters had been written
on. But all the evidence against Arthur

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Lee Allen was just that circumstantial.
In two thousand and two, a decade

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after Arthur passed away, a DNA
profile was created from samples of the Zodiac

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Killers saliva. Arthur's DNA was compared
to the sample. It was not a

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match. Lloyd Cunningham, police handwriting
expert, who had worked on the case,

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said this about the possibility of Arthur
Allen being the killer quote. They

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gave me banana boxes full of Arthur
Lee's writing, and none of his writing

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even came close to the Zodiac,
Nor did DNA extract it from the envelopes

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on the Zodiac's letters come close to
Arthur Lee Allen. In total, four

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cryptogram puzzles were sent by the Zodiac
Killer. One cipher was solved shortly after

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it was published, providing the insight
that the author quote liked killing people because

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it was so much fun. For
years, investigators, codebreakers and puzzle enthusiasts

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worked together on a common goal solving
the remaining three ciphers. As time passed,

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many people began to wonder if the
ciphers were impossible to solve, it

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would make sense for a killer who
liked to taunt the police to mess with

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them in this way, providing three
cryptograms that were gibberish and one that was

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easy to solve, making them waste
their time and energy trying to solve an

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impossible puzzle. As it turned out, this theory was not true, at

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least not for all three remaining ciphers. In twenty twenty, amateur code breakers

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got in contact with the FBI.
They believed that they had solved one of

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the three remaining cryptograms, nicknamed the
three forty cipher because of the number of

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characters in the puzzle. The three
forty cipher had been infamously sent to the

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newspaper alongside a ripped, bloodstained section
of one of the victim's shirts, concrete

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proof that the author was the killer. In December twenty twenty, an FBI

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spokesperson gave a statement quote, the
FBI is aware that a cipher attributed to

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the Zodiac killer was recently solved by
private citizens. The break in the case

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was officially confirmed. Half of the
Zodiac ciphers were now solved. Although the

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three forty cipher's message referenced an incident
where a man pretending to be the Zodiac

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killer had called into a local talk
show, it did not reveal his true

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identity. Instead, it gave insight
into the inner monologue of a man who

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had murdered in cold blood and taunted
the police for fun. It read quote,

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I hope you're having lots of fun
and trying to catch me. That

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wasn't me on the TV show,
which brings up a point about me.

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I'm not afraid of the gas chamber
because it will send me to paradise all

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the sooner, because I now have
enough slaves to work for me, where

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everyone else has nothing when they reach
for paradise, so they are afraid of

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death. I am not afraid because
I know my new life will be an

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easy one in death. That is
ten Minute Murder for Today Brief and Bingeible

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True Crime. I'm Joe, I'm
the host, and thank you for listening

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Go to ten minute Murder dot com
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And now quickly, let's get to
an email if you'd like to send

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me an email. By the way, my email address is Joe at ten

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minute Murder dot com. Joe,
are you an introvert or an extrovert?

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That? It's from Roxy in Killeen, Texas. Roxy. I'm an introvert,

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but it's complicated. I can be
somewhere with a lot of people.

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I'll talk, I'll move around,
I'll say funny things, but it's it's

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not my authentic self. That's not
normal for me. My normal is quiet.

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And while I'm at whatever social gathering
I'm attending, when the urge hits

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that I've had enough, my social
battery is dangerously low to empty, I'm

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out because otherwise I'll find a quiet
spot, sit on the floor and pet

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the dog of the house. So
I'm an introvert with occasional extrovert tendencies.

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You wouldn't know unless you know that's
going to do it for this episode.

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Thank you so much for listening to
ten minute Murder. Goodbye,