Zodiac Killer Possibly Identified
America’s most prolific serial killer might finally be unmasked after over 50 years
Photo Courtesy of The Case Breakers
Although, the Zodiac Killer has been identified, it is still one of the world’s favorite mysteries to solve.
A group of more than 40 independent investigators called “The Case Breakers” have identified Gary Francis Poste as the notorious Zodiac Killer.
Poste was an Air Force veteran and painted houses for a living.
He was arrested in 2016 for charges of domestic violence. He was diagnosed with dementia and ruled incompetent to stand trial.
He died two years later in 2018.
If you don’t have an unhealthy obsession with true crime like I do, here’s the rundown of the Zodiac Killer.
The Zodiac Killer operated from 1968 to 1969 in Southern California. He attacked seven people and claimed the lives of five of them, though he claimed to have killed 37 in total.
From 1969 to 1974, he taunted the public and law enforcement with handwritten letters that he sent to various local newspapers.The killer threatened to attack more people if the newspapers did not publish his letters on the front page.
The letters included information that only the killer would have known and a symbol of a circle with a cross through it, which became the killer’s calling card.
The killer frequently criticized the police for not being able to catch him.
The letters also contained four ciphers, which the killer claimed would reveal his identity.
Cipher Z408 was cracked by a high school teacher and his wife soon after it was published.
51 years later in 2020, cipher Z340 was cracked by multiple codebreakers.
Ciphers Z13 and Z32 remain unsolved. Expert coders believe that these ciphers may be impossible to crack since they are so short.
There are seven confirmed victims of the Zodiac Killer, five who died and two who survived.
His confirmed victims were 16-year-old Betty Lou Jensen, 17-year-old David Faraday, 19-year-old Mike Mageau, 22-year-old Darlene Ferrin, 20-year-old Bryan Hartnell, 22-year-old Cecilia Shepard and 30-year-old Paul Stine.
Mageau and Hartnell were the only survivors.
The Case Breakers were created in 2011 by documentarians Thomas J. and Dawna Colbert. Now there are more than 40 members including retired law enforcement, private investigators, forensic scientists, FBI personnel, legal associates, military intelligence and journalists with over 1500 years of combined experience. These individuals volunteer their time to help agencies with their cold case files.
With new evidence of a possible DNA match, affidavits, the killer’s personal photos and multiple eyewitnesses, the team’s former FBI agents have described it as irrefutable evidence towards Poste being the famed killer.
Although there are only seven confirmed Zodiac victims, there was one murder in 1962 and one in 1966 that predate the known Zodiac killings and are believed to be his first victims.
The murder of Ray Davis in 1962 is thought to be the work of the Zodiac Killer because the killer called the police prior to the murder and said he would be “committing a baffling crime.”
After the murder, he called the police again to warn of future attacks. The killer used two guns, a .22 caliber and long rifle.
A .22 caliber weapon was used in the known Zodiac killings as well.
The murder of Cheri Jo Bates in 1966 is thought to be the work of the Zodiac Killer because of multiple pieces of evidence tied to the case.
The investigators discovered a broken Timex wristwatch. This watch was believed to have been purchased at a military base.
Poste was an Air Force veteran who at the time was being treated for a gun-related injury at March Air Force Base just 15 minutes from the crime scene.
A heelprint was also found at the crime scene. This print was confirmed to be a size six military style boot.
This is the same size and style of prints found at confirmed Zodiac killings, and also matches the size and style of Poste’s boots.
The Coroner who performed the autopsy of Bates found four brown hairs that belong to the killer. Poste had brown hair; however, brown hair is common so this evidence is not as strong.
A letter from the killer named “The Confession” was sent to the local police department one month after Bate’s murder.
While this letter was typed instead of written like the rest of the confirmed Zodiac letters, it had similar vocabulary including the misspelling of the word “twitch” which the killer spelled as “twich.”
This letter is not confirmed to be from the Zodiac Killer.
While the police department that handles the Bates murder did not believe that this was the work of the Zodiac, the FBI referred to Bates as the Zodiac Killer’s sixth victim in a memo released in 1975.
Eyewitness accounts are not as reliable as other pieces of evidence, but they are still worth mentioning.
A man named Wil, who refers to himself as an “outlaw turned Zodiac whistleblower,” claims to have been a part of Poste’s Zodiac “posse” and groomed him into a “killing machine.”
After escaping from the killer’s posse Wil became homeless. He went to the authorities but they would not give him the time of day. That’s when The Case Breakers stepped in and retired Capt. Hans Smits took him in to support him.
“He had a great side. He just didn’t have a conscience. He could kill indiscriminately,” Wil said about Poste in an interview with The Case Breakers.
Wil said that Poste would have to kill to feel better, even if it was just small animals.
Wil also claimed to have witnessed Poste burying murder weapons. He has given the location of these weapons to The Case Breakers.
Poste’s former daughter-in-law reported that two of his goons came after her when she divorced his son. They threatened, harassed and even assaulted her until she moved to another state.
In the 1970s, Poste and his wife babysat a girl named Gwennie. They taught her how to operate firearms and took her out to the woods almost every day.
Gwennie noticed violent and careless behavior in Poste, especially towards his wife.
Gwennie reconnected with Poste’s former wife, who is 75-year-old and in assisted living.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t tell the cops about his [Zodiac] past,” his former wife said in the conversation with Gwennie.
The most damning evidence for Poste being the famed Zodiac Killer are the scars on his forehead.
In the official police sketch of the killer, there are multiple distinguished scars on his forehead.
Photos of Poste show that he has scars on his forehead that fit the size, shape and location of the scars in the police sketch.
Law enforcement are still skeptical to consider this a conclusion to this half-century long case.
“Investigation into the Zodiac Killer remains open and unsolved,” San Francisco FBI official statement said. “Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, and out of respect for the victims and their families, we will not be providing further comment at this time.”
While this is not the true end to the case of the uncrackable killer, this is the closest the case has been to finally being solved.
Jonathan • Jul 6, 2022 at 2:59 PM
If they still aren’t totally absolutely sure of the killer’s identity, and the sketch plus Hartnell’s account and description of this individual won’t isolate a few suspects, then what? If the suspect can be said to be roughly 200 lbs. clothed in black with a symbol on the chest, and the symbol is usually associated with a kind of cross found mostly in certain religions, espeially in parts of Europe, but also in the USA. Here in America it is used to mark asphalt for road work, repaving or putting down paint, sometimes done by inmates. So then, what churches are in the nearby vicinity of Berryessa? Was there a significant road repaving job nearby? Next, why these particular locations? How long have the sunken city been known about? Is there more than this under Lake Berryessa? So I say there are a few suspects that might be known by other crimes that you may not have considered. I am not being paid to point out, yet I am willing to give two good clues, in addition to the clues that I have already suggested. But first, understand that if a killer has just done his thing, more than likely will immediately try to dislocated from the area of the crime. That is why I have suggested these two suspects. They are from different regions at a upswing in overall killing activity. The religious symbol, Dennis Rader was a very mobile and active hunter of victims, and he was a high ranking person in his local church ( hence the symbol) as well as boyscout leader, etc. He fits the general description, and the fact that he liked to tie his victims up ( as opposed to using handcuffs) and also knives and .22’s being very available during these years is no special feature, but perhaps the types of bullet is a key point. If it was a stolen weapon with stolen ammo from a military base where guns and ammo are literally everywhere, a motivated killer would have little to no trouble acquiring a gun by theft or murder, or both.
But there may be another person of particular interest who was an avid huntsman who also had a pilot’s license and who used his airplane to escort victims to his hunting ground, and he was from Anchorage, Alaska, and he used the same general methods as Rader, involving hunting victims, restraining them, moving them from one place to another in a car or airplane, and the use of a Ruger .22. His name is Robert Hansen, aka the butcher baker.
It has been postulated that the Zodiac Killer was a military man, but perhaps our killer was attempting to cast a shadow, and so this makes me consider the possibility of more than one killer, taking clues from newspaper headlines to perpetrate crimes under a pseudonym or pseudonyms. It is interesting to me the exact time of the moniker being given to the killer by the media, and it being accepted and used by the supposed killer and now the writer of letters with too much postage, who may be a decoy anyway, or another person entirely, or even a previous victim was forced to write before they were disposed of. No internet at this time, just magazine publications being sold door to door and cold calling by telephone, or a chain letter dosed with LSD. Which magazines could you place an ad in for free or for cheap where you could post an opportunity for adventure and hunting? Maybe there is a very obscure link in a magazine article, photography publications, soldier of fortune. I spend too much time sleuthing, but perhaps the killer uses the phone book like the Terminator for some crimes, or picks someone out while trolling for hardware stores for other crimes, and has already a few victims tied up for other reasons, like cipher writing and confusing the police with thier disappearance in a National Park while accompanied by the perpetrator himself.
meowmeow • May 26, 2022 at 10:53 AM
is it just me or does that look like david spade
Pakize • Feb 13, 2022 at 9:50 AM
O deyil a bala loxsuz? Bu əmidə zodiac tipi var?
Anonymous • Apr 15, 2022 at 7:25 PM
He isnt a puppy. ????????
Sharon • Jan 9, 2022 at 2:18 PM
I solved Z13 and Z32. He lied. There is nothing to do with his name and it has nothing to do with a bomb. It does tell his occupation which he did at the time of killing and even not. The solutions are absolutely correct. case can be solved if you knew what they said. Faycals solution is wrong. There IS enough characters to solve both. TV cryptos have lied to you, and his last name is in Z340, I have it, TV cryptos missed and said name wasnt there. It is. Solved 408, by that ebormetth word – I knew his name was there. That means something is hidden. Its his full name. Case can be solved with this information. His occupation is something not really seen every day. I believe that is how he picked victims. From his roof work.
Sharon • Jan 9, 2022 at 2:26 PM
He is an unknown 17 year old at the time. His own classmates he killed, 3 of them
Laura • Dec 2, 2021 at 4:41 AM
Glad they caught him because I thought for years it was my friends grandpa because when he passed away his grandson ended up with a zodiac watch and s 22 caliber hand gun that fired only .22 caliber long bullets. This friend came from a line of sociopaths and grandpa was angry about the death of his wife and his daughter’s health failing also as she was coming down with MS. She required her two kids to be caregivers so they lost out on their childhood. This man resembles one of the sketches and he always went up north and down south here in California with the newspaper he worked for. He also had a bike as well as I saw family photos of him dressed in black with boots as someone could mistake him as being a police officer. He had perfect handwriting or penmanship as I saw stacks of letters he wrote to his daughter weekly when she was in college. He was extremely smart and that entire family all came with IQ,s off the roof. I could see him killing silently for sure. I always taunted his grandson and my friend that he was a serial killer because these people were weird. Especially after his death and seeing that watch and gun, both of which I thought were somewhat rare, not found in every household! Well glad he was figured out, that makes me actually wrong for once with all my hunches!
Becky • Oct 14, 2021 at 9:27 PM
I just don’t think this work is enough to be damning evidence. But if it was Poste he achieved the ultimate “gottem!” I’ve ever heard of.
Steve • Oct 14, 2021 at 12:39 AM
Wow, wish people did this 30 years ago but good work… maybe now go after some active killers with that team?