Zodiac Killer Research Paper

Introduction

For over 50 years many experts and critics have strived to decipher the true identity of the Zodiac Killer. Although the identity of the Zodiac Killer still remains unsolved, the police and media have gathered evidence about many suspects including: Arthur Allen, Gary Francis Poste, Richard Marshall, and Lawrence Kane. The Zodiac Killer was Americas first celebrity psycho, the man who pioneered homicide as mass-market entertainment (Johnson, 2007). This serial killer terrorized not only residents of the San Francisco Bay area but also the media during the late 1960s. For decades the zodiac manipulated the media and authorities, he eventually claimed responsibility for over two dozen victims (Johnson, 2007). The Zodiac still

According to Radu Alexander (2021), “In the decades following the Zodiacs murders, over 2,500 suspects have been investigated, yet none of them have ever been arrested or changed with anything” (p.1). Arthur Leigh Allen was first linked to the Zodiac Killer in 1966, the day a victim named Bates, was killed by the Zodiac. The first connection made was on November of 1966, two anonymous typewritten Bates-murder confession letters were sent to the local police and newspaper. The typewriter was identified as being a Royal model, with either Elite or Pica type (Kim, 2021). One of these typewriters was later found in Arthur Leigh Allen’s home, but this evidence was quickly ruled out. A former friend of Allen named Cheney, “claimed that before the Zodiac crimes were ever started, Allen bragged that he would start killing people and calling himself the Zodiac”(Andrews, 2021, p.1). All of these factors along with Allen being fired as a primary school teacher after allegations of sexual conduct, raised major suspicion among the San Francisco, Bay Area and media. San Francisco police searched his home but no real evidence was found that linked him to the murders (Davis, 2021). In the years following he was discharged as a

Kane had a lengthy criminal record going back to the 1940s, he was 45 years old in 1969, during the height of the Zodiac Killer’s activity (Kim, 2021). Due to his extensive criminal record, suspicions arose and many came to believe he was The Zodiac Killer. Kane also suffered a traumatic brain injury in the mid 1960s, and some claim that as a result of this, it left him unable to control violent urges (Andrews, 2021). The Zodiac sent messages to the press through cipher cryptograms. These messages were sent to brag and taunt the police. “Kane's name was alleged to be embedded in one of the Zodiac Killer's ciphers, according to a retired police detective investigating the case in the 1980s” (Kim, 2021, p.1). This was just an allegation and nothing came of it. In later years, Kane was also pinpointed as a suspect by a victim named Kathleen Johns who claimed to have been abducted by the killer (Davis, 2021). Kane was soon diagnosed with impulse-control disorder after suffering brain injuries in an accident then died in 2010 (Davis,