Modern Serial Killer Case: The Zodiac Killer

Media Assignment 3 The Zodiac killer case is one that has befuddled law enforcement for decades. The serial killer was often involved with the media in the form of sending letters to various news departments in northern California including the Vallejo Times Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Francisco Examiner. In those letters, he demanded have his communications to be posted on the front page, while threatening to kill more people if his demands were not met. Kevin Haggerty states in his article titled, Modern Serial Killers, that there are six preconditions for serial killing that are “distinctively modern.” Essentially these are prerequisites that need to exist for it to be possible for a serial killer to exist. The preconditions are: 1. The mass media and the attendant rise of a celebrity culture, 2. A society of strangers, 3. A means/ends rationality that is largely

Haggerty mentions the Zodiac killer’s exploitation of media by saying, “The Zodiac killer, for instance, was not the only serial killer to use the media to communicate with the public and taunt the police (Gibson, 2006).” Obviously, the internet did not exist when the Zodiac killer was active, in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, but he still successfully used the media to achieve celebrity status, as he was the subject of national attention with the FBI involved in attempts to catch him. The mystery of who he is/was and why no one could ever catch him only adds to his fame. Haggerty (p.174) says of fame, “In a largely secularized society, fame also offers citizens the prospect of surviving beyond death.” Even decades after, the Zodiac is still a name that most people would know, and it has been articulated in many forms of media since including books, movies, documentaries,