0:00

Due to the graphic nature of this killer's

0:02

crimes, listener discretion is advised.

0:05

This episode includes discussions of violence

0:07

and murder that some people may find

0:09

offensive. We advise extreme caution

0:11

for children under 13.

0:17

17-year-old David Faraday eased

0:20

his 1961 Rambler station wagon

0:22

off the side of the road and put it in park.

0:25

Then he turned to Betty Lou Jensen in the

0:27

passenger seat and smiled

0:30

uneasily.

0:31

Betty Lou was nervous too. It

0:33

was their first date and she had

0:35

major butterflies. As David

0:38

leaned in close to her, she couldn't

0:40

help but let out an anxious giggle.

0:42

The outburst was a relief to David,

0:45

who was just as nervous. He

0:47

snickered and soon the two of them

0:49

were laughing

0:50

But the tension had hardly broken

0:53

before a car sped by in the road

0:55

beside them. Betty Lou took a breath

0:57

and tried to relax as it passed.

1:00

David felt himself flush and

1:02

was glad it was too dark to see. He did

1:04

his best to act cool, slowly

1:07

reaching his arm around her.

1:10

Then another car pulled up

1:13

and parked right next to the couple. Frustrated,

1:16

David prepared to yell the driver away. But

1:19

when the stranger reached out of his window,

1:21

David saw a gun in his hand, gleaming

1:25

in the moonlight.

1:35

Hi, I'm Greg Poulsen. This is

1:38

Serial Killers, a Parcast original.

1:41

Every Monday, we dive into the minds and

1:43

madness of serial killers. Today,

1:45

we're exploring the twisted mind of the

1:47

Zodiac Killer, a mysterious,

1:49

attention-hungry murderer who remains

1:52

unidentified to this day. I'm

1:54

here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson.

1:56

Hi, everyone. You can find episodes

1:58

of Serial Killers

3:47

Ten

4:00

minutes later, she came up behind a patrol

4:02

car, flashed her lights and honked

4:04

at the policeman inside.

4:06

Officers Daniel Pitta and William

4:08

Warner listened to Stella's account and

4:10

called in the report. They reached

4:13

the turn up three minutes later, around

4:15

11.28pm.

4:17

There they found a horrific

4:19

scene. The girl, 16-year-old

4:22

Betty Lou Jensen, lay face

4:25

down in the gravel by the road, almost

4:28

30 feet from the tan rambler, a sickening

4:30

pool of blood collected around

4:33

her head.

4:33

Officers searched in vain for

4:35

a pulse, but she had already lost

4:38

too much blood.

4:41

The autopsy later found that Betty

4:43

Lou had been shot five times,

4:47

the bullets penetrating her heart, liver

4:49

and right kidney.

4:50

The young boy, David Faraday,

4:53

was not far away from Betty Lou. They

4:55

lay face up near the car, his

4:57

head also covered in blood.

4:59

When police arrived, David was still

5:02

clinging to life. It was a cold

5:04

night, only 22 degrees Fahrenheit,

5:07

and they could still see his faint breath

5:10

in the air. His fingers were

5:12

locked around his class ring, adorned

5:15

with a brilliant red stone. One

5:17

of the officers said it looked like David

5:20

was protecting it, as if someone

5:22

had tried to take it from him before

5:24

his death.

5:25

An ambulance soon arrived for

5:27

David. A bullet had gone through

5:29

his left ear and into the back of his head,

5:32

but he was in slightly better shape than Betty Lou.

5:35

Some officers followed the ambulance to the hospital

5:37

in hopes he would recover and be able to give

5:39

a statement.

5:40

Others stayed behind to examine the scene

5:43

more closely. Authorities found

5:45

shells of several small-caliber

5:47

bullets on the ground and two

5:49

bullet holes in the right side of the rambler.

5:52

Investigators stayed at the scene for

5:54

several hours, completing their examination

5:57

around four in the morning.

5:59

They had received word that David had died

6:02

in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

6:05

All told,

6:07

a fair amount of evidence was gathered, but

6:10

none of it shed much light on what had

6:12

happened. Benicia was a sleepy

6:14

town, and there hadn't been a murder there

6:16

in the past five or six years.

6:19

Local officers weren't experienced in

6:21

dealing with such violent crime, and

6:24

the most important clue, the motive for

6:26

the crime, couldn't be ascertained.

6:28

It's undoubtedly more difficult to

6:30

track down a killer with no apparent

6:32

motive. With that said, studies

6:35

have shown that there are commonalities

6:37

between senseless killers, and

6:39

these similarities can help police create

6:42

a psychological profile to

6:44

aid

6:44

in their search. Benicia's going to take

6:46

over on the psychology here and throughout the episode.

6:49

Please note, Benicia is not a licensed psychologist

6:52

or psychiatrist, but she has done a lot

6:54

of research for this show.

6:55

Thanks, Greg. According to

6:57

a 2006 paper published in the

6:59

American Journal of Psychiatry, individuals

7:02

who have committed impulsive, senseless

7:04

murders demonstrate a severe

7:07

weakness of impulse control, blurring

7:09

of the boundaries between fantasy and reality,

7:12

blunted and shallow emotional reactions,

7:15

and a violent and primitive fantasy

7:18

life.

7:18

This may provide some insight into

7:21

the Zodiac's early motivations, a

7:23

preoccupation with some kind of alternate

7:25

reality may have driven him to enact his

7:27

violent fantasies in the world.

7:30

And because of his delusion, it's

7:32

possible he did have a motive. It

7:34

just might not make sense to outside

7:36

observers. His victims may

7:38

have been central to his fantasies without

7:41

ever suspecting it.

7:44

Regardless of the killer's true motivations,

7:47

authorities at the time were stumped. The

7:49

morning after the murder, officers interviewed

7:52

David and Betty Lou's families in search of

7:54

a suspect. Betty Lou's friend

7:56

Sharon told detectives she'd seen

7:58

Betty Lou with David the previous

7:59

evening, but she had no idea where they

8:02

went after 9 p.m. Betty

8:04

Lou's sister suspected her jealous

8:06

ex-boyfriend, Ricky. Police

8:08

investigated him thoroughly, but ultimately

8:11

found that at the time of the killings, he was

8:13

with family and friends. He

8:15

had an airtight alibi.

8:17

Another lead was provided by James

8:20

A. Owen, a local man who drove

8:22

past the pump station the previous night around 11.14

8:24

p.m. He said

8:26

he saw the station wagon parked at the turnout

8:29

and that he noticed another vehicle beside it. Unfortunately,

8:32

he could only remember that it was a mid-size,

8:35

dark-colored car. He didn't see

8:37

anyone outside of the car or nearby.

8:39

This meant that the shooting must have

8:41

occurred sometime between 11.14 when Owen drove

8:43

past and 11.20,

8:48

the time Stella Medeiros came on

8:50

the scene.

8:51

It was an extremely small window for

8:53

two murders to have occurred.

8:54

Even as the months passed and the investigation

8:57

stalled, it looked more and more

9:00

like the killer had committed a senseless

9:02

act of violence

9:03

and then disappeared.

9:06

Though the prospect baffled authorities at the time,

9:08

it was the only thing that made sense.

9:11

After all, even if someone had been specifically

9:14

looking for David and Betty Lou, they

9:16

couldn't have known beforehand that two of

9:18

them would be parked at the Lover's Lane.

9:20

Neither one of them had told any of their friends

9:23

where they'd be and a reliable stream

9:25

of witnesses had accounted for the cars

9:27

in the area, so it was unlikely

9:30

the couple was followed all the way

9:32

to Lake Herman

9:32

Road. Only the dark-colored

9:35

car seen by James Owen remained

9:37

a loose thread, but as the months

9:39

passed police were unable to track it down

9:42

and it seemed like the trail

9:44

had gone cold.

9:45

Until the killer came

9:48

back. Six

9:51

months after the Lake Herman Road murders, there

9:53

was another murder, just four

9:55

miles away, in the town of Alejo.

9:58

On July 4th, 1967, a man who had been arrested for a murder in a city of a In 1969, Darlene

10:01

Farin drove 19-year-old Michael

10:03

Majeau to a secluded lot near the

10:05

entrance of Blue Rock Springs Park.

10:07

As she stopped the car, 22-year-old

10:10

Darlene Farin turned the radio

10:13

down low and looked at her date. Like

10:15

the Lake Herman turnout, the Blue Rock

10:18

Springs lot was a well-known lover's

10:20

lane.

10:21

Darlene and Michael chatted for a while. Darlene

10:24

joked with her date for wearing so many layers

10:26

on such a warm day. He was wearing

10:28

a coat, multiple shirts, and even a

10:30

couple pairs of pants. Since he

10:33

was thin, Michael was self-conscious about

10:35

how lanky he looked and had tried to look

10:37

more muscular.

10:38

As the couple laughed, they noticed

10:40

another vehicle pull up behind them,

10:43

its headlights shining in the rear-view

10:45

mirror.

10:46

Michael and Darlene assumed it was a police

10:48

officer and reached for their IDs. A

10:51

man got out of the car carrying a large

10:53

flashlight and approached the passenger

10:56

side door where Michael was sitting.

10:58

Michael rolled down

11:00

his window, blinking in the bright light.

11:03

Before he had a chance to say anything,

11:06

the stranger emptied a 9mm

11:09

Luger pistol into the vehicle

11:11

with no warning. Both

11:14

Michael and Darlene were hit and

11:16

began gushing blood. Without

11:18

a word, the shooter turned away

11:21

and walked back to his car.

11:23

He was almost there when Michael

11:25

let out a scream, the pain

11:27

unbearable. At the sound,

11:30

the killer stopped and crept

11:32

back to the passenger side window.

11:34

Seeing that Michael was still

11:36

alive, the killer fired again,

11:39

hitting both Darlene and Michael two

11:41

more times. Then, for the

11:44

second time, the shooter nonchalantly

11:46

returned to his car. Michael heard

11:48

the vehicle slowly back out of the lot

11:51

and turned down the road.

11:52

As he gasped and bled

11:55

all over the back seat, Michael

11:58

tried his best to hold on to the car.

13:59

called the police to report the shooting.

14:02

At 12, 10 a.m., the call

14:04

was put out to officers in the area, and

14:07

two cars responded. The

14:09

first, occupied by officers Lindemann

14:11

and Myring, intercepted a Cadillac

14:14

which appeared to be fleeing the scene.

14:16

The officers pulled the Cadillac over.

14:19

Two 19-year-olds, Andy and Betty,

14:21

were in the car. Andy immediately

14:23

asked if the stop was about, quote, the

14:26

guy laying down back there. Apparently,

14:28

he'd seen Michael Majeau

14:30

riding on the ground of the parking lot, but

14:33

hadn't stopped to help.

14:34

Betty and Andy were arrested on

14:36

suspicion of being involved in the shooting, while

14:39

the second patrol car continued on.

14:42

Officer Richard Hoffman

14:44

arrived at the lot to find Darlene's

14:46

brown Chevrolet Corvair parked

14:49

near the road. The headlights

14:51

were on, and the steady click

14:53

of the turn signal mingled with the

14:55

sound of quiet pop music still

14:58

drifting through the radio.

15:00

The eerie scene turned heart-wrenching

15:03

as Hoffman saw Michael Majeau laying

15:05

on his back outside the passenger door.

15:08

He feebly gestured to the officer for help,

15:10

coughing and bleeding on the pavement. Hoffman

15:13

could tell Michael had been shot in the chest, the

15:16

neck, and his left leg.

15:18

Hoffman then looked in the driver's

15:20

seat and saw Darlene Farron

15:23

collapsed against the door. She'd

15:25

been shot twice in the arm and once

15:28

in her side. She was breathing,

15:30

but just barely.

15:32

Hoffman rushed to call an ambulance

15:34

as another officer, Sergeant Conway, arrived.

15:37

Conway tried to question Michael. Gritting

15:39

his teeth through the pain, Michael could

15:42

only say a white male in a brown

15:44

car was responsible.

15:46

When the ambulance arrived, Hoffman rode

15:49

along in case either of the victims spoke

15:51

during the drive, but neither

15:53

did. Darlene was declared

15:56

dead by the time the ambulance arrived at the

15:58

hospital. Michael was murdered.

15:59

rushed into surgery. Meanwhile,

16:02

authorities continued to comb the scene at the

16:04

park. They dusted the car for fingerprints

16:07

and interviewed the people who had called the police

16:09

station, but had little luck getting

16:11

specifics on the killer.

16:15

At first, no one connected the attack

16:17

to the Lake Herman Road murders, but

16:20

the killer was determined to take credit

16:22

for every bit of horror he'd

16:25

wrought.

16:26

At 1240 a.m., 40 minutes

16:28

after the attack, a call came in to

16:30

the Vallejo police station. When the

16:32

operator answered, a male voice

16:34

told her he'd like to report

16:36

a double murder,

16:38

one that he'd committed. In

16:40

addition to confessing to the attack on

16:42

Darlene and Michael, the caller

16:44

said he was responsible for the murders

16:47

of those kids the previous

16:49

December.

16:51

His voice was steady and dispassionate,

16:54

so much so that it gave the operator Nancy

16:56

Slover the chills.

16:58

At the end of what sounded like a rehearsed

17:00

confession, the caller ended

17:03

with an ominous, mocking, goodbye.

17:07

The haunting farewell stuck with

17:09

Slover for the rest of her life.

17:13

By taunting the police like

17:15

this, the Zodiac knew he was putting

17:18

himself at risk of getting caught. He

17:20

had revealed his voice and possibly

17:22

the location he was calling from. At

17:25

first, it seems like he had nothing to gain by

17:27

jeering at authorities.

17:29

But criminology professor Scott Bond

17:31

posits that this kind of taunting was

17:34

what exhilarated the Zodiac the most.

17:36

Bond classifies the Zodiac as

17:39

a thrill killer. He writes,

17:41

the primary motive of thrill

17:43

killers is to induce pain or terror

17:46

in their victims prior to killing

17:48

them, which provides intense stimulation

17:51

and excitement. It soon

17:53

became clear that the Zodiac planned

17:55

on claiming many more lives,

17:57

but the actual act of

17:59

killing

17:59

almost an afterthought. What

18:02

he really sought was to terrify

18:04

the public, the authorities, and

18:07

his potential

18:08

targets. The unsettling

18:10

call to the police definitely did the trick.

18:13

After the killer hung up, there was a frenzy

18:15

of activity and confusion in the station.

18:18

Police traced the call to a nearby

18:20

gas station. Officers raced

18:23

to the secluded phone booth, but found

18:25

it empty. The gas station had

18:27

closed four hours earlier, and

18:29

no one was around the area when the call

18:31

was made.

18:32

The near miss shook many

18:34

in the department, who were unsure what

18:36

to make of the call.

18:38

At the time, there was little precedent for

18:40

the Zodiac's crimes. Most

18:42

of the serial killers that would later become infamous

18:44

hadn't yet emerged. It was

18:47

just over a month before the grisly

18:49

Manson murders would rock the country.

18:51

Police could only hope that they could

18:54

get a lead on the culprit soon. Otherwise,

18:57

it seemed certain the killer

18:59

would strike again.

19:03

Michael Majeau seemed to be their best

19:06

shot at getting ahead of the murderer.

19:08

Remarkably, he survived several

19:10

operations and stabilized over

19:12

the next couple of days. When he recovered,

19:15

he was able to give officers a full

19:17

account of what had happened.

19:20

According to Michael, Darlene had

19:22

picked him up at his home around 1130 that night. They

19:25

had to be discreet, as Darlene

19:28

was already married.

19:29

The two of them were initially headed to a diner

19:32

to eat, but Darlene pulled a U-turn

19:34

as they approached the restaurant.

19:36

Michael said Darlene wanted to talk to him

19:38

about something, but she never told him

19:40

what.

19:41

Instead, she pulled into the Blue Rock

19:43

Springs lot. According to Michael,

19:46

there were three other cars parked nearby.

19:49

Soon, the other cars took off, leaving

19:51

him and Darlene alone in

19:54

the dark.

19:54

But only minutes later,

19:57

another car pulled up behind them. The

19:59

car stayed

19:59

where it was for about a minute, and

20:02

then sped off, out of the lot. Michael

20:05

didn't get a good look at the vehicle or

20:07

its driver.

20:08

Five minutes later, another car

20:10

pulled into the lot. Michael thought

20:12

it was the same car that had just sped off,

20:15

but couldn't be sure. This

20:17

time, the vehicle pulled up until

20:19

it was only inches behind

20:21

Darlene's car.

20:22

The driver got out and approached

20:25

the passenger side. Though he held

20:27

a bright flashlight in Michael's face, Michael

20:30

could tell he was a young white man, likely

20:32

in his late 20s. He told authorities

20:35

the assailant was around 5'8", 200 pounds, and had curly,

20:37

light brown hair.

20:41

Michael seemed confident about the killer's

20:43

appearance, but couldn't be positive

20:45

about all of the details. The

20:47

painkillers he was on after the surgery,

20:49

as well as his lengthy recovery period,

20:52

may have dulled his memory.

20:54

Though he'd survived the Zodiac's vicious

20:57

work, he hadn't fully escaped its

20:59

consequences. He suffered

21:01

from the debilitative effects of the shooting

21:04

for the rest of his life.

21:05

In later years, it affected his ability

21:07

to speak and work.

21:11

But thanks to Michael's resilience, police

21:14

had the subject's description. However,

21:17

they needed more, and they were

21:19

willing to go to unusual lengths to gather

21:21

new clues. For example, Darlene's

21:24

babysitter, a woman named Karen,

21:27

piqued their interest with some enticing

21:29

testimony.

21:30

She claimed she spotted a mysterious

21:32

man stalking Darlene's house not

21:34

long before the attack. According

21:37

to her, a white man in a sedan had

21:39

parked outside Darlene's house for several hours,

21:41

while Karen was babysitting one night.

21:44

Karen related the incident to Darlene,

21:46

who told Karen that the man must have been

21:48

checking up on her. Darlene

21:51

explained that she'd witnessed the mystery

21:53

man committing murder, and he'd been

21:55

watching her ever since. Karen

21:58

claimed Darlene even told her the man

21:59

man's name, but she couldn't recall

22:02

it. Nevertheless, her statement

22:04

encouraged authorities.

22:06

They set Karen up with the hypnotist,

22:09

hoping it could help her recall additional details.

22:12

The session yielded a more in-depth description

22:14

of the stalker, one that matched closely

22:16

with Michael Majeau's description of his shooter.

22:19

Despite the hypnotist's best efforts,

22:21

however, Karen still couldn't

22:24

remember the man's name.

22:26

Undeterred, police interviewed a

22:28

multitude of Michael and Darlene's friends

22:30

and family over the following days. Once

22:33

again, there was no apparent motive, and

22:36

thus, few solid leads.

22:38

They were also still perplexed

22:40

by the taunting phone call. They

22:42

were mystified further on July 7,

22:45

when the parents of Darlene's husband

22:47

reported they'd also gotten a suspicious

22:50

call the night of the attack.

22:52

According to them, the call came in around 1.30

22:54

a.m. They heard heavy breathing for a

22:58

moment on the other end of the line. Then,

23:00

the caller hung up. It

23:02

wasn't much to go on, but it did

23:05

deepen detectives' suspicions that

23:07

the killer was intent on mocking

23:09

his victims. His mockery

23:11

would only grow more extreme,

23:14

and his scare tactics more

23:17

terrifying.

23:20

Then we return, but learn how the Zodiac

23:22

Killer truly shocked the

23:25

nation. Now back to the story.

23:29

By July 1969, the

23:32

Zodiac Killer had attacked four

23:35

known victims, but his true notoriety

23:37

would arise when he began taunting the public

23:40

and the police with menacing phone

23:43

calls. Police suspected that

23:45

the killer wanted to terrorize people

23:47

and mock his victims.

23:49

Their suspicions were confirmed on

23:51

July 31, 1969, when the killer emerged once again.

23:57

He clearly wanted attention.

23:59

Today, the Vallejo Times Herald,

24:02

the San Francisco Chronicle, and

24:04

the San Francisco Examiner all

24:07

received mysterious, almost identical,

24:09

letters. They were the first

24:11

of many communications from the Zodiac.

24:14

In them, he claimed responsibility for

24:17

the Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock

24:19

Springs murders.

24:20

To prove it, he gave a short list

24:22

of facts about each crime that only

24:24

the police or the murderer could possibly

24:27

know, information that hadn't

24:29

been released to the press.

24:31

He gave the brands of ammunition used

24:33

in both crimes, as well as some

24:35

specifics about his victims and the

24:38

number of shots fired.

24:40

After supplying his proof, the

24:42

Zodiac ended with a demand.

24:45

Along with each letter he'd sent to the newspapers,

24:47

he'd included a separate page written

24:50

in code. Each paper

24:52

got one-third of the code, and

24:54

the Zodiac commanded that they print

24:56

the ciphers on their front pages.

24:59

According to him, cracking the ciphers

25:02

would reveal his identity.

25:06

In each letter he ended

25:08

with a warning. Quote, If you do

25:10

not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry,

25:13

1st of August, 69, I will

25:15

go on a kill rampage Fry night. I

25:18

will cruise around all weekend, killing

25:20

lone people in the night, then move

25:22

on to kill again, until I end

25:25

up with a dozen people over

25:27

the weekend.

25:28

Following the threat, the letters

25:30

were signed with a symbol resembling the

25:32

crosshairs of a gun sight. The

25:34

same symbol was found in the cipher, which

25:37

also included English letters, mirrored

25:40

letters, US naval flags,

25:42

and mathematical symbols.

25:45

The letters were turned over to police departments.

25:47

They were then sent to a naval radio station

25:50

near Vallejo to see if the cryptologists

25:52

there could break the code.

25:53

In the meantime, the papers faced

25:56

a predicament. They weren't sure which

25:58

action carried a greater rate.

25:59

risk, publishing the letters and

26:02

inciting panic or holding

26:04

them back and defying the murderer.

26:07

If they chose not to circulate the letters

26:09

and a dozen people were killed, someone

26:12

might blame the publishers for refusing to

26:14

follow the killer's instructions.

26:17

And as offensive as the situation

26:19

was, publishing the letters was undeniably

26:22

mutually beneficial from a business standpoint.

26:25

The papers wanted to sell more copies,

26:27

and the killer wanted more publicity.

26:29

All three papers consulted

26:31

each other and eventually published the letters,

26:34

though not all exactly to the killer's

26:36

specifications. Only the

26:38

Vallejo News Chronicle, owned

26:40

by the same company as the Vallejo Times

26:43

Herald, published the cipher on its

26:45

front page by the August 1st

26:47

deadline.

26:48

The San Francisco Chronicle and the

26:50

Examiner published it on page 4 of

26:53

its August 2nd joint paper.

26:55

As expected, the story received

26:57

nationwide attention. People

27:00

all over the country attempted to crack

27:02

the Zodiac Code.

27:05

The killer was getting exactly what he

27:07

wanted, infamy.

27:09

Law enforcement could only hope that the cipher

27:11

would reveal his identity and that the

27:14

murderer's need for fame would be his

27:16

downfall.

27:17

The chief of the Vallejo police publicly

27:19

challenged the Zodiac to send even more

27:22

proof that he was truly the killer.

27:25

In

27:26

actuality, the police were firmly

27:28

convinced the author of the letters was

27:30

the perpetrator of the murders. He had

27:32

provided more than enough proof in his

27:34

first letter.

27:35

Instead, the challenge was meant to

27:38

bait the killer. It was years

27:40

before the term serial killer gained

27:42

popularity or the FBI

27:44

began developing criminal profiles,

27:47

but the Vallejo police astutely

27:49

recognized that a fame-obsessed criminal,

27:52

like the Zodiac, could be tempted

27:54

into a trap.

27:56

On August 7th, the killer responded

27:58

to the police chief's request.

27:59

via another letter to the examiner. It

28:02

began with the now famous line,

28:05

dear editor, this is

28:07

the Zodiac speaking.

28:09

In the following three pages, the

28:11

Zodiac provided more details about

28:13

how he committed his first murders.

28:16

The information confirmed that the Zodiac

28:18

was no imposter, but more importantly,

28:21

it gave the police some insight

28:23

into how the killer operated.

28:26

For example, the killer gave a patient

28:28

and detailed description of the way he attached

28:30

a flashlight to his gun barrel before

28:33

the Blue Rock Springs murder. It

28:35

revealed his careful and exacting

28:37

planning.

28:38

His eccentric spelling mistakes throughout

28:40

the letter also led detectives to believe

28:42

he was purposely disguising his speech,

28:45

possibly to hide his true intelligence

28:48

or level of education.

28:50

Even so, there wasn't much to go off

28:52

of. The most significant impact

28:54

of the letter was that it gave the killer a name,

28:57

one which ended up sticking, the

28:59

Zodiac.

29:02

With his blackmail of the press

29:04

and his spooky name, it was

29:07

clear that the Zodiac was deliberately

29:09

crafting a public persona for himself.

29:12

By hiding behind spelling mistakes

29:14

and misleading detectives about his motivations,

29:17

the real killer wasn't making himself famous.

29:20

Instead, he was elevating the character

29:22

he'd created, the Zodiac.

29:25

It may

29:25

be that in creating the Zodiac

29:27

identity, the killer was seeking

29:30

to disassociate himself from his own

29:32

crimes. Author Soren Korsgaard

29:35

writes that the Zodiac's actions are

29:37

consistent with the psychological concept

29:39

of deindividuation. Deindividuation

29:43

theorizes that people can lose their

29:45

own sense of self, especially

29:47

in a violent group setting. Korsgaard

29:50

writes, the usage of the name

29:53

Zodiac could have been a component of his

29:55

deindividuation

29:55

process, as it would

29:58

have allowed him to focus and identify. with

30:00

the skills, capabilities, and

30:02

temperaments of his imagined

30:04

character Zodiac, hence resulting

30:07

in a loss of self-identity, as

30:09

well as an ability to block out

30:12

possible feelings of guilt.

30:13

The Zodiac name then might

30:16

not have been chosen simply to terrify the

30:18

public. It could also have served to

30:20

give the killer a buffer between his actions

30:22

and reality.

30:23

If he was prone to violent fantasies

30:26

already, it might have been easy for the Zodiac

30:28

to let go of his real identity and

30:31

his final connection to reality

30:33

entirely.

30:37

This would have been an especially terrifying

30:39

concept to police, who already

30:41

felt like they were chasing a ghost. The

30:44

real name of the killer

30:45

remained a mystery.

30:47

Instead, all authorities had

30:49

were a couple of unsettling letters and

30:52

a possibly meaningless series of bizarre

30:54

symbols. They had to hope they

30:56

would catch a break soon.

30:58

Luckily, they did.

31:00

The day after the Zodiac's second letter, a

31:03

couple in Salinas, California called the San

31:05

Francisco Chronicle.

31:06

They'd broken the encryption.

31:09

Don and Betty Hardin, two

31:12

ordinary puzzle buffs, had spent

31:14

the previous few days, around 29

31:17

hours in their estimation, solving

31:20

the riddle. The key to their

31:22

strategy was in looking for the word

31:24

kill and the phrase, I

31:26

like killing, which they thought

31:29

might be hidden somewhere in the code.

31:31

They guessed correctly, but

31:33

even then, cracking the cipher wasn't

31:35

easy. The Zodiac had intentionally

31:38

misspelled words, omitted at least

31:40

one important word, and used multiple

31:42

symbols to represent the same letters of

31:44

the alphabet throughout.

31:46

Unfortunately, the solved cipher

31:48

failed to reveal the true name

31:51

of the Zodiac. He explained

31:53

why at the end of the uncoded

31:55

message.

31:57

The best part of it is that when

31:59

I die...

31:59

I will be reborn

32:02

in paradise and all

32:04

I have killed will become my

32:07

slaves I will not give

32:09

you my name because you will try

32:11

to slow down or stop my

32:14

Collecting of slaves for my

32:16

afterlife

32:17

The police were left with only guesses

32:20

about how to proceed next the

32:22

zodiac was beating them that much

32:24

was clear and

32:25

He was just getting

32:28

started

32:40

Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers

32:43

will be back Monday with part two exploring

32:45

the zodiac's continuing reign

32:48

of terror and the police investigation

32:50

which failed to catch the Cryptic

32:53

killer for more information

32:55

on the zodiac killer amongst the many sources

32:57

we used we found the book Hunted the

33:00

zodiac murders by mark Hewitt Extremely

33:02

helpful to our research

33:03

you can find more episodes of serial

33:05

killers and all other parkast originals

33:08

for free on Spotify We'll see you

33:10

next time have

33:10

a killer week Serial

33:14

killers was created by max cutler

33:16

and is a parkast studios original Executive

33:19

producers include max and Ron Cutler

33:22

sound design by dick Schroeder with

33:24

production assistants by Ron Shapiro Carly

33:26

Madden Freddie Beckley and Paul mauler

33:29

This episode of serial killers was written

33:31

by Terrell Wells with writing assistants

33:34

by Abigail Cannon and stars

33:36

Greg Poulson and Vanessa Richardson

33:44

Welcome to Jurassic week Don't

33:47

forget to catch our three-part deep dive

33:49

into the legacy and science behind

33:51

the hit blockbuster Jurassic Park

33:54

follow conspiracy theories to hear all

33:56

three episodes listen free

33:58

only on Spotify

33:59

Spotify.