Zodiac Killer Research Paper

It’s a cold California night in December as David Faraday and Betty Jensen are sitting in their car with heavy feeling towards each other. They are the only ones around, lost in each other’ embrace. This might sound like a love story, but shortly after, their fantasy was ripped apart as they stared into the twisted, evil eyes of a man. That was the last thing they saw, evil, and they died in fear. What followed would be the first confirmed murders by the Zodiac killer. He is the most successful serial killer in the world, claiming thirty-seven lives, though we can only confirm five. Both the fact that the police were not prepared for and the fact that the Zodiac evolved allowed him to elude connection to these lurid murders. The Zodiac Killer

The murders themselves became more intimate as he kept killing. “December 20, 1968, when 17-year-old David Faraday and his 16-year-old girlfriend Betty Lou Jensen were shot to death near their car at a remote spot on Lake Herman Road” (Biography). During this murder it seems like he just killed them and he got enough out of that for it to not be any worse. As the murders progress, the Zodiac Killer tries to become more intimate in the way he kills to try to obtain more out of them. “On the evening of September 27, 1969, he struck again, approaching young couple Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell...Wearing a hood and a shirt bearing a circle-cross symbol, he tied them up before brutally stabbing them, scrawling a message for police on their car door and leaving the scene.” (Biography). With this murder, he wanted to feel more powerful when he killed them. He wanted them to suffer and die slowly compared to his other murders where he just shot them. “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 OF ALL TO KILL SOMETHING GIVES ME THE MOST THRILLING EXPERENCE IT IS EVEN BETTER THAN GETTING YOUR ROCKS OFF WITH A GIRL”(Polito). Once they were able to decipher his messages, it revealed why he was evolving in his kills. Thrill, he was chasing this feeling

He never took credit for the first murder in December of 1968, until after the murders in July of 1969. This makes it seem like he gained confidence after he got away with the first murders. He started by calling the police and valiming them, but shortly after, as he got away with more murders he started sending in letters to the news. “On August 1, 1969, the San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicleand Vallejo Times-Herald each received an identical handwritten letter...Beginning “Dear Editor: I am the killer of the 2 teenagers last Christmas at Lake Herman . . .” the letters contained details from the murders that only the killer could have known.” (Biography). Starting in August, the Zodiac started sending letters explaining the murders and claiming them. He sent 3 identical letters, each with a part to a cipher that if cracked had hints to his identity and the reasons he has been killing these people. If he is confident enough that they won’t crack it, he has gained a lot of confidence from when he started. The Zodiac keeps evolving because in September, shortly after these letters were sent, he left a message at the site of a murder. He wrote on a car door the dates of all the murders he talked about in his letters, including the one he just committed. It’s a pretty bold move to leave a message at the crime scene for the cops to taunt them, but it didn’stop here. “it gave the details of Stine’s