‘The Zodiac Killer”, is an infamous serial killer that haunted Northern California from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. The Zodiac Killer claimed to have killed 37 people in the San Francisco area. He would send letters to police and bloody pieces of clothing and well as cryptic notes. He was never caught. Based on new forensic testing, the killer is believed to be Gary F. Poste, a house painter, who died in 2018. The killer, in a letter to police, called himself Zodiac. The press latched on and gave him the nickname “the Zodiac Killer.” No one knows why Poste referred to himself as Zodiac.

His first of five murders took place in Santa Barbara, California. Robert Domingos and his fiancé Linda Edwards were seniors at Lompoc High School in Santa Barbara County in California. They participated in the tradition of senior ditch day. Instead of school, they went sunbathing on a beach near Gaviota State Park. When they didn’t return home the next day, Robert’s father went to the beach and found their bodies tied up lying together inside the remains of a crumbling shack. The victims had tried to escape, but were sadly shot with a 22- caliber weapon. In 1972, The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s department announced a possible Zodiac connection with the beach murder.

In 1966, he killed eighteen-year-old Cheri Josephine Bates. In 1968, it was high school sweethearts Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday. In 1969, he had killed wife and mother Darlene Ferrin. This was the first time the zodiac had called the police after his murder, he had said, “According to the police dispatcher, the caller spoke in a low, monotonous voice, saying: “I want to report a murder. If you will go one mile east on Columbus Parkway, you will find kids in a brown car. They were shot with a 9-millimeter Luger. I also killed those kids last year. Goodbye.”

Following this were a series of letters sent to police. On July 31, 1969, the zodiac sent letters to different news agencies such as: Vallejo Times-Herald Letter, San Francisco Examiner Letter, San Fransico Chronicle letter. On August 4th, 1969 another letter was sent to the “San Francisco Examiner.” In these letters, he described details of the murder, encrypted ciphers and he threatened to kill more people if the letters weren’t published.

On September 27, 1969, along the shore of Lake Berryessa, he stabbed and killed Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard. After he had killed them, he wrote on Hartnell’s car door the dates of previous attacks and how he killed Hartnell and Shepard.

Then on October 13, 1969, he killed Paul Stein, a 28-year-old student and husband, who worked as a cab driver in San Francisco. Stein had picked up the Zodiac during his shift and was shot nine times in the head. This was seen as a regular robbery until The San Francisco Chronicle received a letter from the zodiac say, “I am the murderer of the taxi driver.”

Another letter was sent from Zodiac to the Chronicle on October 13, 1969.  In the letter, he mocked the police for not finding him; he also threatened to shoot children on a school bus. This envelope also contained the blood-covered shirt of Paul Stein.

Between April 20, 1970, and July 26 , the killer sent a series of letters to the San Fransisco Chronicle. These letters were threats of bombings schedued around the area.

After these letters, during 1970,  he had tried to kill a woman and her child, but they were able to jump out of his car and get away. They went to the police and identified the man as the Zodiac Killer.

After this, the Zodiac Killer stopped killing. You would think after all the evidence The Zodiac had left: ciphers, bloody clothing, and messages that police would have found him, but they didn’t. The “Zodiac killer” case went cold and many people since 1970 have tried to crack the case, but no one could.

However, on October 8, 2021, 50 years after the zodiac last attempted murder, a group of law enforcement agencies working as an independent group of cold-case investigators have claimed that they identified the Zodiac Killer as Gary Francis Poste, 80, who passed away in 2018. The evidence they used to claim Poste as Zodiac included a scar on Postes’s forehead matching the scars on the police’s composite sketches and a hidden message in the letters he sent that provided Poste’s full name.

This case is still being investigated for more evidence and confirmation that Gary Francis Poste was, indeed, the Zodiac Killer.