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Thread: Zodiac Killer

  1. #1
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    Zodiac Killer

    Cops examine claims that carpenter was behind infamous 1960s murders

    A Southern California woman said Wednesday that her late father was the infamous Zodiac killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay area four decades ago.

    San Francisco homicide investigators said they will check into the information from Deborah Perez, who said her father, Guy Ward Hendrickson, killed at least two of the known victims 40 years ago.

    Sgt. Lyn Tomioka said the investigation into the 1969 death of San Francisco taxi driver Paul Lee Stine related to the Zodiac killer remains ongoing.

    "We get a significant number of calls a year. We will look into whatever evidence that is presented to us," Tomioka said about the case that also became a hit movie in 2007 .

    During a frenzied news conference outside the San Francisco Chronicle on Wednesday, Perez, of Corona, Calif., said she has given police what she believes are Stine's eyeglasses and letters she wrote — some to the newspaper — on her father's behalf about the crimes.

    'He told me he was sick'

    Perez claims she was a naive 7-year-old tagging along with her father during the killings.

    "He told me he was sick, and all I wanted to do was help my dad," said Perez, who came to her conclusion about two years ago. "He kept telling me he was sick and he killed many, many people. I had no idea."

    The self-described Zodiac killer is blamed for at least five murders in 1968 and 1969. He was never caught, though many believe he was Arthur Leigh Allen, a convicted child molester who died in 1992.

    Hendrickson, a carpenter with six children, died in 1983 from cancer.

    Perez said she could not keep her father's secrets any longer.

    Source
    No murder can be so cruel that there are not still useful imbeciles who do gloss over the murderer and apologize.

  2. #2
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    Has the Code of the Zodiac Killer Been Cracked?

    Corey Starliper believes he has solved the 41-year-old "340" cipher and has identified the legendary serial killer who terrorized northern California.

    OUTSIDE SAN FRANCISCO -- To most, the word “Zodiac” conjures up images of astrological symbols and the positions of stars.

    But Corey Starliper, a Tewksbury native and hobby code-cracker, thinks of a serial killer of the same name.

    Starliper also thinks that he has solved a cipher devised by Zodiac that has remained unsolved for over 40 years.

    Zodiac was the name taken by a murderer who operated in the San Francisco area, including Napa, Solano, and Vallejo counties, in 1968 and 1969. Zodiac sent encrypted communication to area newspapers, taking credit for killings and warning of more to come, according to Robert Graysmith, who personally investigated the murders and wrote several books on the case.

    Police attributed seven murders and two attempted murders to Zodiac because of information he was able to provide that was unavailable to the public, though the number of unconfirmed victims may be much higher.

    The first coded communication was a three-part cipher sent in portions to the Vallejo Times-Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Francisco Examiner on July 31, 1969, according to “Most Evil”, written by Steve Hodel. The complete cipher contained 408 characters and was published on August 2 and 3, 1969 in accordance to Zodiac’s demands. It took just a few days for the code to be deciphered.

    “The first one was cracked by a history teacher and his wife,” said Starliper. “What I’m driving at was the first code was cracked by amateurs. So they figure that any communication after that would be able to be cracked by amateurs.”

    After the decryption of the first code, Zodiac sent many more communications to law enforcement and the media, including his most famous: a 340-character cipher, mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, according to zodiackillerfacts.com. To this day, the cipher has not been completely cracked.

    Starliper, however, believes he has found the solution to that code.

    “The first time I saw this code was a couple of years ago, and I knew that it could be cracked,” he said. “It was just instinct, I had a gut feeling that it could be cracked. Any code created by man can be cracked by man.”

    A 2007 movie entitled “Zodiac” was what sparked interest in Starliper about the case.

    “I saw the movie first, and when I saw the movie, (I had) instant interest in it,” he said, snapping his fingers. “When I read the book, I was ... just hungry for more when the book ended.”

    Starliper describes the Zodiac serial killer case as “extraordinarily consuming.”

    “I became absolutely obsessed with the case, to the point that I’d look up from Graysmith’s books ... and realize that I’d actually forgotten to eat.”

    Starliper said that after becoming interested in the code, he abandoned it for some time, but after that, an idea for breaking the code came to him almost by “accident.”

    According to Robert Graysmith, in “Zodiac”, tips received by police after Darlene Ferrin’s murder indicated that the killing was connected to the U.S Virgin Islands. Starliper believed that the “340” of the 340 cipher was significant, and had some tie-in with the U.S. Virgin Islands. It was then that he found out that 340 is the area code for a portion of the U.S Virgin Islands — not an insignificant connection.

    “So that’s what I started with,” said Starliper. “I thought, there’s no way ... that Zodiac is going to be prosaic enough not to mention the U.S. Virgin Islands in this code. This is where it gets even creepier. 3+4+0=7. Right. So you get 7+0=7. 707...707 are the area codes for Vallejo, Napa, and Solano. So I figured, why not start this with Caesar code using 3,4.”

    Caesar code is a substitution type cipher where an encoder has “simply replaced each letter in a message with the letter that is three places further down the alphabet,” according to http://www.simonsingh.net/The_Black_Chamber/caesar.html.

    This doesn’t mean the 340 is such an easy task to decode, considering the fact that the original 340 cipher is full of symbols: >, +, and ▲ being just a few of the signs found in the code. To combat this problem, Starliper extracted symbols and changed them to letters they could correspond with. For example, a ^ or < symbol could be interpreted as inverted or sideways “V”s.

    “I first went in there and I did that,” he said. After everything symbolic had been interpreted alphabetically, he started applying reverse Caesar shifts. He found the first two letters to be “K” and “I”.

    “What are the next two going to be? right? I figure, what’s the first word he’s going to throw in there? Kill,” said Starliper. “And I was able to keep going from there.” For the first few lines, the pattern remained constant, but it changed beyond that. He said he was able to figure out the non-patterned series that by finding “similarities in the numerical sequence.”

    Starliper split his work into two sessions of 6 hours and 3 hours. When he was done, he had decoded the following text: KILL/SLF/DR/HELP/ME/KILL/MYSELF/GAS/CHAMBER/AEIOUR/DAYS/QUESTIONSABLE/EVERYY/WAKING/MOMENT/IM/ALIVE/MY/PRIDE/LOST/I/CANT/GO/ON/LIVING/IN/THIS/WAY/KILLING/PEOPLE/I/HAV/KILLD/SO/MANY/PEOPLE/CANT/HELP/MYSELF/IM/SO/ANGRY/I/COULD/DO/MY/THING/IM/ALONE/IN/THIS/WORLD/MY/WHOLE/LIFE/FUL/O/LIES/IM/UNABLE/TO/STOP/BY/THE/TIME/YOU/SOLVE/THIS/I/WILL/HAV/KILLD/ELEVEN/PEOPLE/PLEASE/HELP/ME/STOP/KILLING/PEOPLE/PLEASE/MY/NAME/IS/LEIGH/ALLEN/

    Arthur Leigh Allen was a prime suspect during the Zodiac investigation. When Sherwood Morrill, a handwriting expert, examined Allen’s writing, he told investigators that the writing was “similar, but not the Zodiac killer’s”, according to “Zodiac Unmasked” by Robert Graysmith. Allen also passed a polygraph exam during the investigation.

    These facts don't bother Starliper.

    “Leigh Allen in that situation was forcing his handwriting to look different from the way that he normally wrote,” said Starliper, referencing the work of detectives.

    Allen died in 1992 at age 58.

    The discovery of a solution to the code wasn’t “disturbing”, as Starliper said he had heard it described, but invigorating.

    “To me, I found it exciting, that I was actually able to get into his head when nobody had for over 40 years,” said Starliper. “It was a high. One of the best highs I had ever experienced was cracking something that nobody else had cracked in over 40 years.”

    Starliper didn’t let it rest at just solving the code. He tried to get in touch with the counties where the murders originally took place and received little response.

    “But Napa, after I sent them the solution to the code, said that they would delve into the case later on in the year. Which to me means, 'you know what kid ... leave me alone.'”

    Along with a lack of progress contacting Solano, Vallejo, and Napa counties, Starliper has contacted the San Francisco Cold Case Unit and Special Investigative Unit without response.

    “I didn’t want it getting lost in the mix. I wanted to contact someone directly,” he said. “It’s frustrating that ... interest in the case has dropped off, because at one time it was one of San Francisco’s highest priorities. It’s disheartening to know that the authorities have basically shut the door on it.”

    He even sent the code to a cryptographer, who, after looking over the solution, said that it appeared “not valid,” according to Starliper.

    “That really ticked me off,” he said. “With a code that constantly changes a pattern ... you can’t attack it using brute force. There are people who have tried. Out of all of the solutions that I’ve seen this one has the highest readability and probability for accuracy that I’ve ever come across.”

    What Starliper hopes to do is to apply his number patterns to the other unsolved ciphers that Zodiac sent to the police.

    “What I really mean to do by cracking these codes ... my main goal, is to figure out, for one, exactly who did it, and to bring peace to the families of at least some of Zodiac’s suspected victims,” he said.

    Source
    No murder can be so cruel that there are not still useful imbeciles who do gloss over the murderer and apologize.

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Who is the Zodiac? A look at suspects we’ve considered

    In his new book released today, a Louisiana cleaning company vice president named Gary Stewart reveals that his father was the famed local serial killer, the Zodiac. Collectively, the Bay Area will utter, “Sure he was.”

    “The Most Dangerous Animal of All Unabridged” was released today by Harper Collins, which describes it as a “singular work of true crime at its finest—a compelling, unbelievable true story told with the pacing of a page-turning novel—as well as a sensational and powerful memoir.”

    Notoriously unsolved, the Zodiac killings have fascinated true crime junkies and locals for decades. Every few years, we’re offered a new possibility on the killer’s identity, but the mystery is never really solved. With this new book, will we finally learn that one of the most famous murderer mysteries of all time was really perpetrated by Gary’s dad? That would be pretty amazing, considering just how many serious suspects history has considered. Let’s make a list!

    Arthur Leigh Allen: Historically, Arthur Leigh Allen has been the name tied most closely to Zodiac suspect lists. If you saw the David Fincher film “Zodiac” based on the book by Robert Graysmith, you probably left the movie convinced Arthur Leigh Allen was the Zodiac killer and that there just wasn’t enough evidence to charge him. The connections and coincidences between “Leigh” and the killings were numerous and creepy. However, a 2002 DNA test of Allen with a confirmed Zodiac letter didn’t match. Did Allen get other people to lick his stamps? We’ll never know. He died in 1991.

    The Unabomber: One theory is that Ted Kaczynski, otherwise known as The Unabomber, could be Zodiac. While the authorities don’t think so, there are some connections. He lived in the Bay Area at the time of the murders. He’s homicidal. He wrote letters to the newspapers, as Zodiac did.

    Guy Hendrickson: Deborah Perez of Orange County (along with a disbarred lawyer as her representative and a lot of TV cameras) proclaimed her stepfather, Guy Hendrickson, to be the Zodiac killer. Apparently, Guy took 7-year-old Debbie along on some of his murders. Decades later, she wished to right his wrongs with a press conference in front of the Chronicle building.

    The Old Man In Solano County: Former CHP Officer Lyndon Lafferty wrote a book (along with his crime investigating group, the Mandamus Seven!) claiming that the Zodiac is a 91-year-old alcoholic living in Solano County. Because he wanted to protect the supposed serial killer’s identity, Lafferty wouldn’t reveal his name.

    David Joseph Carpenter: Otherwise known as the “Trailside Killer”, Carpenter is currently on Death Row in San Quentin for a series of murders in the Santa Cruz mountains, Mount Tamalpais, and Point Reyes in the 1980s. Many have considered him for Zodiac, including a veteran state parks ranger with whom I once chatted on Mount Tam.

    Do you think we’ll ever know the real identity of the Zodiac? Is it Gary’s dad? Will the case ever be solved?

    http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2014/05/...ed/#23326101=0
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  4. #4
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    DNA match sought to Zodiac Killer after break in Golden State Killer case

    By Associated Press

    Northern California detectives still trying to identify the infamous Zodiac Killer, who targeted victims in the late 1960s and taunted investigators with letters, say they hope to try the same DNA tracing technology recently used to arrest a suspect in another string of cold-case serial slayings — those blamed on the Golden State Killer.

    But first they have to get a better DNA profile.

    Several months ago, the Vallejo Police Department sent two letters written by the Zodiac Killer to a private lab in hopes of finding his DNA on the back of the stamps or envelope flaps that may have been licked. They are expecting results soon.

    "They were confident they would be able to get something off it," Vallejo police Det. Terry Poyser told the Sacramento Bee.

    Poyser said he hopes a full DNA profile will be found that will enable detectives to try the same DNA sleuthing techniques that were used to arrest Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. last month. Authorities suspect he committed at least 12 slayings and 46 rapes in California between 1976 and 1986.

    Investigators uploaded DNA collected at one of the crime scenes to an open-source genealogical website and found a partial match to a distant relative of DeAngelo's. From there, they constructed a family tree dating back several generations before they zeroed in on DeAngelo.

    Some privacy advocates say they are concerned with the process and worry about future abuses, but detectives investigating the Zodiac Killer say they hope the technique will help solve one of the most vexing cold cases in the country.

    "That's a great idea," said Gary Harmor, founder and director of the Serological Research Institute, a private DNA lab. "I think we'll see more investigations use this technique."

    Detectives in Southern California are testing DNA collected from a double-killing and rape to see if they can be tied to DeAngelo. Another man, Craig Coley, was recently cleared of those crimes after spending 38 years in prison in the slaying of a 24-year-old college student and her 4-year-old son in 1978.

    The Zodiac Killer fatally stabbed or shot to death five people in Northern California in 1968 and 1969, then sent taunting letters and cryptograms to the police and newspapers. The Vallejo police are the lead investigators because the first two victims were killed there.

    The suspect was dubbed the Zodiac Killer because some of the cryptograms included astrological symbols and references.

    Various pieces of evidence, including a rope used to tie a victim as well as the letters, have been tested unsuccessfully for the killer's DNA profile. Poyser said recent advances in DNA testing prompted investigators to seek a match on two of the killer's letters.

    Vallejo Mayor Bob Sampayan said the samples were sent to the lab as a matter of routine. Sampayan, a former homicide detective, said police submit samples every couple of years in hopes that advances in DNA testing will finally yield a profile detectives can use.

    "It was coincidental," Sampayan said of the new DNA test occurring at the same time as the breakthrough in the Golden State Killer case.

    "There will come a time when we get a match," he said.

    The 2007 movie "Zodiac," starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr., renewed widespread interest in a case that has always had a cult following of amateur detectives and cryptographers who sought to crack the killer's code.

    One of those amateur sleuths, Tom Voigt, said the key to solving the Zodiac killings is mimicking the Golden State Killer investigation, which included forming a full-time task force dedicated to the case and exploiting publicly accessible DNA databases.

    Voigt said the Zodiac case was being investigated part time by a Police Department in a city that filed for municipal bankruptcy.

    "There's a formula to follow," Voigt said. "And it's to simply copy what happened to the Golden State Killer."

    http://www.latimes.com/local/califor...503-story.html
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  5. #5
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    I just read that they’ve identified the Zodiac Killer as Gary Francis Poste, who died in 2018
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  6. #6
    Senior Member CnCP Addict johncocacola's Avatar
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    The SF Police an FBI haven’t confirmed it yet so I’m not so sure.

  7. #7
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Yes but reading the evidence it looks like he might be the real deal. According to the cold case investigators they actually have forensic evidence as well as pictures from his old house. He also apparently had the exact same scar on his forehead that a witness said the Zodiac had. He’s also been linked to another Murder apparently. He became a suspect when they found his name in the cypher, and get this: in 2017 he went on a Reddit thread about the Zodiac and suggested himself as a suspect. That’s weird
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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