Free Blog: Profile

Behavioral analysis of criminals has slowly began to increase in the last thirty years, and there is even a special branch of the FBI dedicated to psychologically profiling killers. Since I am planning to study psychology in college this blog seems like a perfect place to try out my profiling skills.

Let's start with the times of the killings, each confirmed killing occurred on weekends or holidays around dusk or after dark. This tells us that the Zodiac most likely worked during the week and therefore could only "hunt" at times when he did not have to work. We can also deduce from this that the Zodiac lived alone, due to him operating on holidays, if he had been living with someone the person would have noticed him leaving every time there had been a killing. 

Next we look at the actual killings. It is obvious that the killer had a tremendous hatred for women, this is shown in his overkill of the women he focused all his attention on them which is part of the reason that two male victims from different times survived. The Zodiac spent so much time focused on the women that he forgot to finish off the men. Now you may be asking why then the killer targeted couples when he only had rage against women. We can assume from his targeting of couples that he had a hatred of relationships most likely due to a failure to have one of his own. Now, let's take a look at how the couples were attacked, most were simply gunned down in their vehicles by a man who approached on foot. The pattern changed however when he attacked the couple at the lake, he switched to killing them with a knife. Once again he spent all his time on the woman and the man survived. While many killers use a knife because it is much more personal and symbolizes sexual penetration. This deviation from using a gun is incredibly odd, most serial killers will never voluntarily change their MO, or mode of operation. I theorize however, that the Zodiac's pleasure came not from the kills, but from the control he had over the police and the media. This could explain why it was so easy for him to change his MO.

Statistics

For this post I am not going to discuss the Zodiac, instead I shall discuss the statistics of serial killers within the U.S. and other countries. I will first discuss a chart found in a database compiled by Rad-ford University. The chart shows the number of serial killers per decade in the U. S. versus the rest of the world. The chart begins in 1900 and increases by increments of  10 years up to the year 2010. According to the chart the decade with the largest number of serial killers who began killing was 1980. The number of killers in the US during the 80's was 680. Compared to the rest of the world which had 192 killers begin killing in 1980, this number is quite freighting. There are several more charts and graphs in this database and the US is number one on each and every chart. This data scares me as it shows an enormous increase in killers over the century. While we have seen a slight decrease in the last decade, the numbers in the US are more than twice that of every country in the world. We need to change this. Another statistic that really grabbed my attention was the total number of serial killers in the last 100 years. The US has had 2,265 killers, naturally we are on the top of the list. The troubling thing is that the next country down on the list is England, with 142 in the last century.
Let's talk about why the US has had the most serial killers in the century. Many people believe that it is due to the fact that our country was not at all connected, during the 1970's and 80's you were basically on your own, there was no community or fellowship. This is changing slightly with the explosion of the internet, which helps people become more connected throughout the country. My personal theory about serial killers is that our country does not let our children express themselves, they are forced into servitude and their imagination is destroyed in school. In the 80's this schools were almost ten times worse than they are now, which can explain why the numbers have been steadily growing smaller. Overall, the data of serial killers within our country is quite alarming and I feel it needs more attention from the government or it will be out of control.

Source
Aamodt, M. G. (2014, September 6). Serial killer statistics. Retrieved (2015, February 16) from http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/serial killer information center/project description.htm

Conflicting Views

Now that we have discussed the history of the Zodiac killings it is time to discuss who the killer may have been. Arthur Leigh Allen is perhaps the most talked about suspect for the Zodiac, but there has never been any hard evidence linking Allen to the kills. Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle conducted his own research into the case and found a horde of circumstantial evidence that he believed was enough to definitively say that Allen was the Zodiac. Graysmith wrote about his findings in his book simply entitled Zodiac. Graysmith researched the killings for eight years while writing the book, he discovered evidence that was never revealed to the public and large amounts of evidence against Arthur Leigh Allen. The first point of evidence was the murder of college student Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th, 1966 in Riverside California. Reports say that Allen was in Riverside on the weekend the murder occurred. In November of that same year two typewritten letters were mailed to the local police and newspaper.
The letters confessed to killing Bates. Experts determined that the letters were written using a Royal model typewriter. This was perhaps the first evidence that points to Allen. Several years after Bates was killed police searched Allen's trailer and found a Royal Typewriter with Elite Type font. The next bit of evidence was Arthur Leigh Allen's wristwatch. The watch was a Christmas gift from his mother, the watch was significant because it was made by the company Zodiac, and the symbol for this company just so happens to be the symbol the Zodiac signed all his letters with. Also, during the search of Allen's trailer size 10 1/2 Wing Walker boots that were only available to those in the Navy or a relative of someone in the Navy. While this point of evidence is quite incriminating, there is still more that makes Allen a prime suspect. According to police statements, within days of receiving the watch, Allen is alleged to have made these claims to his friend, Don Cheney (Allen used the premise of writing a novel to communicate this fantasy. Cheney estimates the conversation took place on Jan. 1, 1969.)
He would like to kill couples at random.
He would taunt the police with letters detailing his crimes.
He would sign the letters with the cross-circle symbol from his watch.
He would call himself "Zodiac."
He would wear make-up to change his appearance.
He would attach a flashlight to the barrel of his gun in order to shoot at night.
He would fool women into stopping their cars in rural areas by claiming they had problems with their tires, then loosen their lug nuts and eventually take them captive.

As you can see this list of ideas is very incriminating and if Allen really did say them, then he is a very strong suspect, but as with all suspects he is innocent until proven guilty. 

The second suspect that I will discuss is named Rick Marshall. Marshall was a suspect during the killings and even now he is still considered a strong suspect for the Zodiac. One major difference between Marshall and Allen is what they look like. During the investigation a sketch artist created a picture of what the Zodiac looked like as described by one of the survivors of the attacks. Many people say that Allen looks nothing like the sketch. Rick Marshall however looks almost exactly like the sketch. Rick Marshall also is reported to have lived in the Riverside area during the time in 1966 when Cheri Jo Bates was killed. In 1969 Marshall lived in a basement on Scott Street in San Francisco which was within a few miles of the only San Francisco Zodiac killing. In his book Zodiac Robert Graysmith also discovered that the Zodiac had a particular fondness for the book The Most Dangerous Game, Marshall worked at the San Francisco silent-movie theatre and the movie version of the book was played there several times. The theatre is also responsible for another explanation of where the mysterious Zodiac symbol came from. As many of us films usually start with a count down, well if you have ever looked at the countdown for a movie it looks eerily similar to the Zodiac Symbol. One other important piece of evidence is that a police call operator who spoke with the killer identified Marshall's voice as belonging to the Zodiac. Overall, Rick Marshall may not have as much evidence as Arthur Leigh Allen, but he was and is still considered a viable suspect in the on going investigation into the Zodiac. 

Here is the Sketch of the Zodiac as well as pictures of Rick Marshall and Arthur Leigh Allen

 

Sources

Graysmith, Robert. Zodiac. New York, NY: Berkley, 2007. Wikipedia. Web. 2 Feb. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer#Timeline>.

History

Ask anyone who was a teenager during the 1970's about the Zodiac, and I am certain they will have heard about the mysterious killings that plagued San Francisco. However, if you are relatively young and were not around during the 1970's then you may be wondering, "what exactly were the Zodiac murders?" The Zodiac murders were a string of kills occurring in the late 60's and early 70's. Many people believe the first killing was that of an 18-year-old college student in 1966. Soon after this killing the police received a letter detailing specific evidence not released to the public. This killing is not confirmed to be the work of the Zodiac, and many experts say that this was not a killing by the notorious killer. In fact, the only evidence pointing to the Zodiac was a similarity between this murder and later, confirmed, attacks.
The first confirmed Zodiac murders were those of David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen on December 20, 1968 on Lake Herman Road near the town of Benicia, California. The victims were shot and killed while in a parked car. The second attack was on July 4, 1969 at Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, California; again a couple was shot at while in a parked car, but one of the victims survived, a man named Michael Mageau the women, Darlene Ferrin unfortunately did not survive. The next day Vallejo police received a phone call from a person claiming responsibility for killing Darlene and wounding of Michael, and also for the killings of David and Betty Lou the previous year. Police traced the phone call to a phone booth at a gas station a few blocks away but were unable to located the caller.
The police had no further contact with the killer until August 1, 1969, three letters written by the Zodiac were delivered to the Vallejo Times Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The San Francisco Examiner newspapers. Each letter contained one third of a 408 symbol cryptogram, that supposedly revealing the name of the killer. This cryptogram was eventually solved by a married couple who "liked puzzles" the cipher revealed a eerie message stating that the killer was collecting slaves for his afterlife, and that he would never reveal his name because the police would stop his collecting. The next Zodiac event was the attack of a couple while they were picnicking at Lake Berryessa in California. The couple was approached by a man in a black hood with the zodiac's symbol painted on his chest. He tied the couple up and proceeded to stab them repeatedly. As with the second attack, the man survived while the woman died. The killer then called a Napa County Sheriff's office from a payphone to report the crime.
The next Zodiac sighting came two weeks later on October 11, 1969. A cab driver named Paul Stine was told to drive to the intersection of Maple and Cherry street in Presidio Heights. As the cab parked in the intersection the driver was shot point blank in the back of the head. Children watching from a nearby window called police immediately, but a faulty dispatch saying the suspect was an African American male allowed the killer to escape. On October 14, 1969 the Chronicle received another letter from the killer, containing a piece of Paul Stine's bloody shirt, and a threat to attack a school bus. On November 8, 1969 the Zodiac sent yet another cipher this time containing 340 characters, the next day seven page letter saying that two policemen had actually talked with the killer three minutes after killing stine, but due to the faulty report the policemen did not question the man. On December 20, Melvin Belli, a well known attorney, received a letter from the Zodiac asking Belli to help stop the urge to kill. Belli agreed and went on TV in order to help, the show received a call from a man named Sam claiming to be the Zodiac, the police traced the call to a mental institute and the call was revealed to be a fake.
The next attack did not occur until March 22, 1970. A woman was driving with her ten month old infant in her car on a lonely road and was flagged down by a car travelling behind her. The driver of that car said he noticed her tire was loose and offered to tighten it. Kathleen Johns thanked the man and began to drive away, almost immediately her wheel fell off. The man then offered to drive Johns to a gas station to get help, Johns agreed and entered his vehicle. The man drove for approximately 90 minutes without stopping, Johns eventually escaped and hid from the man. She then went straight to the police. The Zodiac continued to taunt police and press with numerous letters. One letter contained a 13 character cipher saying "My name is _________". The Zodiac then sent several letters claiming responsibility for resent murders, including a bombing, and the shooting of Sgt. Richard Radetich. The letters also claimed responsibility for the attack on Kathleen Johns.
On October 27, 1970 Chronicle reporter Paul Avery was mailed a Halloween card saying "Peek-a-boo, you are doomed." The card was published on the front page of the Chronicle and the threat on Avery's life was taken very seriously.
The Zodiac sent various letters for the next year claiming responsibility for several unsolved murders committed in 1960's. The validity of these claims however, has never been proven. The final letter arrived in 1974 after almost three years of inactivity. The letter praised the movie "The Exorcist" as "the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen." The final letter was concluded by the words Me=37 SFPD=0. Communication with the Zodiac stopped after this letter, and several theories have cropped up to explain this, the most prominent being: he died, he was incarcerated, or he simply stopped writing because it no longer gave him pleasure.
Several more letters were sent over the years but none of them have ever been completely identified as letters from the actual Zodiac.

This is a scan of the first Zodiac letter delivered to the San Francisco Chronicle 


Sources

Graysmith, Robert. Zodiac. New York, NY: Berkley, 2007. Wikipedia. Web. 2 Feb. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer#Timeline>.

"Zodiac killer". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 30 Jan. 2015

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1245958/Zodiac-killer>.