(Trends Wide Español) — More than 50 years have passed, but the Zodiac Killer is still in the news. This time, The Case Breakers, a team of 40 former police investigators, said they identified the man they believe would be the alleged criminal, and they say he would have died in 2018. They relied on new physical and forensic evidence and information from eyewitnesses. it’s a statement.
But what do we really know about this killer? Here we tell you some keys to the case, which remains unsolved.
Key facts about the Zodiac Killer
- The Zodiac Killer has been linked to at least five deaths between 1968-69, although he claimed to have killed 37 people.
- He became known for bragging about his murders in letters to the police and the press. These messages were sometimes in code.
- In his letters he included pieces of bloody clothing as proof of his crimes.
- The killer had no apparent motive for his crimes. It is believed that he chose his victims at random.
- He threatened to shoot children, but there are no records of him doing so.
- To kill he used knives and pistols.
- The last known victim of the killer was San Francisco taxi driver Paul Stine. He was shot dead in his taxi in 1969. The killer sent a piece of Stine’s bloodstained shirt to a newspaper along with a letter.
- The crimes are believed to have stopped there, although the letters continued to arrive until 1974.
- He was never caught and it is not known if he is still alive.
Many suspects and suspected clues
- There were more than 2,500 people suspected of the crimes attributed to the Zodiac Killer.
- Dennis Kaufman appeared on various television shows claiming to be the “stepson of the Zodiac Killer.” He claimed that his stepfather’s handwriting was similar to that of the murderer.
- Deborah Perez assured that when she was 7 years old, she wrote some of the messages in which her father supposedly assumed responsibility for the crimes. His half-sister said his claims were a lie.
- Steve Hodel, who said his father was a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, the newspaper to which the Zodiac Killer sent his mocking notes. His claim was also dismissed.
- Gary Stewart said the killer was his biological father, who died in 1984.
In this May 3, 2018 file photo, a Wanted bulletin from the San Francisco Police Department is shown and copies of letters sent to the San Francisco Chronicle by a man calling himself the Zodiac are shown.
A message from the Zodiac Killer deciphered?
In December 2020, a team of code breakers claimed they finally solved one of the mysterious coded messages the killer sent to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969.
This is the message known as “encryption 340”. David Oranchak, a software developer in Virginia; Jarl Van Eycke, a Belgian computer programmer, and Sam Blake, an Australian mathematician, said the decoded message says the following. It was sent in capital letters, without punctuation and included the misspelling of paradise (paradice instead of paradise; deliberately reflected in the translation with the equivalent error in Spanish):
“I hope you guys are having tons of fun trying to catch me
That wasn’t me on the tv show, which shows something about me
I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradise sooner.
As now I have enough slaves who work for me where everyone else has nothing when they get to paradise so they are afraid of death.
I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be easy in a death of paradise “.
On the new tracks
Trends Wide attempted to communicate with family members of the man The Casebreakers investigators identified as the alleged Zodiac Killer, now deceased, but was unsuccessful.
The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) confirmed to Trends Wide that there is still an open investigation. The FBI, which has been supporting local police in the investigation, also did not acknowledge the claims.
This article was written with information from Leah Asmelash, Cheri Mossburg, Rusty Dornin, Faith Karimi, Sarah Moon and Cheri Mossburg
