The Zodiac Killer has not been identified, despite what you may have read in the news today. According to an expert on the famed, still-unidentified serial killer who murdered at least five people in northern California in the late 1960s, this is the case.
A team of cold case investigators announced earlier today, via press release, that the Zodiac Killer was a now-deceased man named Gary Francis Poste. One of the sketch artist’s drawings has a furrowed brow that matches Poste’s forehead scarring; an allegation that one of the Zodiac’s mysterious ciphers could be unlocked using Poste’s full name; and claims that Poste killed a waitress named Cheri Jo Bates, an assumed-but-not-definite Zodiac victim.
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Gary Poste was dubbed the “Zodiac Killer” for a reason.
According to Colbert, the alleged killer pretended to be a pleasant house painter who was well-liked by the community. But, in the scenic mountain hamlet approximately 26 miles west of Yosemite, he began recruiting young men in their late teens and early twenties to form his own personal criminal gang.
A total of ten men were a member of what the locals dubbed the “Poste’s “Posse” remained loyal to him for decades, until his death in 2018.
He’d take them far into the mountains to teach them how to survive “Colbert added, “Hike and kill.”
“He showed them how to make a pipe bomb into a house-bombing bomb,” Colbert claimed. “If new cops arrived in town, he would smash their windows with rocks to force them to leave. He was involved in the loaning of guns to town’s suicidal residents.”
The males would go on hiking treks into the highlands to shoot animals for amusement, according to Colbert.
“He once had a child climb up a tree branch and hang raw meat stockpiles from it,” he added. “He also fastened fish hooks below the flesh to catch bears attempting to get to it. Three bears once tried to get the meat by bleeding to death from this tree, and Gary just stood there and laughed at them.”
Poste, he said, was a form of “Local “wayward youths” were collected up by “Fagin,” the kid gang leader from “Oliver Twist.” There was no indication that Poste had a sexual interest in or interactions with the young guys, according to Colbert.
Colbert only named one posse member as “Wil” left Groveland in 2010 after confronting Poste after viewing sketches of the Zodiac Killer, he said.
Hans Smits, a former Air Force Captain, met with “When Avery traveled to a Santa Cruz TV station to report Poste, he encountered Wil, whose true name is Chris Avery. At the time, Smits was pals with a TV anchor at the station, Dale Julin.
Julin, now a Savannah anchor, had spent years researching the Zodiac case and claimed to have decoded parts of the cryptograms using Poste’s name after meeting Avery and discovering his identity. Julin also filed court documents claiming that a Groveland guy (Chris Avery) told him that Poste confessed to him that he was the Zodiac killer.
Local law enforcement was aware of Poste, but did not take the Case Breakers’ assertion that he was the Zodiac Killer seriously, according to Tuolumne County Sheriff Bill Pooley, who told the Union Democrat last month.
Smits told The Washington Post that after the FBI interrogated him and decided not to pursue Avery’s claims, he took him under his wing. Smits claimed that he brought Avery out to dinner, and that Avery saw him “Groveland’s “two evil dudes” are following him.
Smits said he put Avery on a train to Whitefish, Mont., the next day. According to Smits, who said he still keeps an eye on Avery, who could not be reached by The Post, he has been on the run in Montana for the past decade.
Last month, a man thought to be Avery came out about Gary Poste in a YouTube video.
“He simply lacked a conscience,” Avery explained. “He could just kill whomever he wanted. After he arrived here, he couldn’t stop. To make himself feel better, he had to keep killing, even if it was tiny creatures. He did, after all, end up killing other people.”
Avery told Smits that he was with Poste at least once when Poste ordered another posse member to shoot and kill a guy at a mountain lake in the High Sierras, according to Smits. The victim, according to Smits, was someone Poste knew and had a grudge against. The Washington Post was unable to independently verify the claim or locate a second source to back it up.
When Avery asked Poste a question, Smits answered, “Are you the Zodiac?” says the narrator. With a five-pound hammer, the man attacked him.
Poste’s crew, according to Smits, always referred to him as “Poste.” “The Elder.” According to another report, Poste was a skilled house painter who worked on Clint Eastwood’s mother’s house in the 1970s.
Because of his physical resemblance to a 1969 police sketch of the killer, both of which feature forehead scars, and anagrams supplied to the San Francisco Chronicle that reportedly revealed Poste’s name, Colbert’s team believes Poste is the Zodiac.
Is the Zodiac Arthur Leigh Allen?
The ending of David Fincher’s Zodiac mirrors the tragic reality of a real-life crime: there isn’t enough evidence to identify Arthur Leigh Allen as the Zodiac killer. On a truly perplexing case, Allen was the most likely suspect. He died of a heart attack before he could be charged, strangely enough. As the ending of Zodiac reveals, it was widely assumed that Allen was the culprit based on circumstantial evidence, so the case was closed following his death. Let’s look at why Allen wasn’t the murderer.
Zodiac is based on Robert Greysmith’s book of the same name, and Greysmith plays a key role in the film. His book told the story of a mystery serial killer terrorizing Northern California. A cop (Mark Ruffalo) and two reporters (Robert Downey, Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal) get fascinated with figuring out who he is in the film. While the killer claims his victims and taunts the authorities with letters, their fixation grows.
Who was the Zodiac killer’s identity?
The Case Breakers, a group of more than 40 former law enforcement agents, journalists, and military personnel, announced on Oct. 6 that they had uncovered the identity of the famed Zodiac Killer.
In the 1960s, the Zodiac terrorized Northern California, sending police cryptic, encoded notes explaining the murders.
The FBI had suspected Arthur Leigh Allen, a known pedophile, of being the legendary murderer prior to this latest revelation.
There was never enough strong evidence to put him on trial, and he died of natural causes in 1992, putting an end to the investigation.
Gary Francis Poste, who died in 2018, has now been recognized as the serial killer by the group.
They were able to connect the original Zodiac crimes to the unsolved murder of Cheri Jo Bates, whose body was discovered in an alleyway in Riverside, California, in 1966.
The Zodiac claimed to have murdered 37 individuals in letters to the police between 1969 and 1974, however only five of those incidents have been traced to the same killer.
Bates would have been the Zodiacs’ sixth verified murder, if the Case Breakers are true.
The Zodiac had a meticulous approach to harming his victims, stalking them in broad daylight and then stabbing or shooting them with a pistol when they were alone.
He wore a black cloak with his iconic insignia emblazoned on the front that he wore the majority of the time.
A scar discovered on Poste’s forehead via photos from his darkroom that matches an old police sketch of the Zodiac, as well as a missing part of one of the anagrams sent by the Zodiac to the police that only reveals the message by plugging in the letters of Poste’s full name, are among the other incriminating evidence.
Two of the six Zodiac victims, Mike Renault Mageau and Bryan Calvin Hartnell, both survived the attacks and have testified to the scar on their attacker’s forehead. Their testimonies were critical in solving the case.
Poste’s identity as the Zodiac has yet to be confirmed by FBI officials. They have been unable to speak with possible subjects while working with the San Francisco and Riverside Police Departments, keeping the matter open.
The Case Breaker’s reasoning has a hole in it because Riverside authorities have officially said that they have ruled out any linkages between the Bates murder and the Zodiac Killings.
According to reports, the gang discovered strands of hair in Cheri Jo Bates’ palm that, if tested, would reveal Poste’s DNA and provide the exact proof they needed to convict him.
The test was never conducted, and Riverside Police claim they never received this information from the group, contradicting their previous claim.
Dedicated primarily to solving murder mysteries, the Case Breakers have had some success in taking up FBI slack during the last ten years by poring over old evidence and exploring new lines of inquiry on a variety of cases.
The DB Cooper mystery, which involves an unknown skyjacker parachuting off of a commercial plane with $200,000 in cash, was solved by the team in 2018.
The case had been open since 1971, and it was finally solved when it was revealed that the crime was perpetrated by renowned Vietnam pilot Robert W. Rackstraw.
“The FBI Uniform Crime Report states that there are more than 250,000 unsolved homicides across the United States, a statistic that climbs by 6,000 every year,” according to the Case Breakers website.
Only 5% of America’s overburdened police forces can afford a team of cold case detectives.”
The group brags about their connections to current federal and state agents, which gave them access to government resources that surely aided in the case’s resolution.
The distinction between the Case Breakers and currently employed FBI agents is well-made by Anna Gjika, sociology professor at SUNY New Paltz. Gjika discusses how the volunteer-based organization was able to achieve greater success in this scenario.
“I’d look into the fact that they’re all former officers.” “There’s an interesting contradiction between what they can do on the job, the resources they have access to, and the time they have to spend on a long-term investigation,” Gjika adds. “In contrast, when they are not on the job and have less bureaucratic pressure, they can do this more freely.”
Even without the help of contemporary FBI agents, this is the furthest any group has been in solving the Zodiac case since Arthur Leigh Allen’s death, leaving academics and true-crime fans convinced that Poste is the man the public has been looking for for 54 years.
Why isn’t Arthur Leigh Allen the Zodiac?
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Zodiac killer plagued northern California, especially targeting couples parked in lovers’ lanes. He communicated with the police and the media on a frequent basis, sometimes using cyphers. A veteran former school teacher who was sacked after being discovered assaulting children was one of the major suspects police liked for the Zodiac. Many people regarded Arthur Leigh Allen to be the main suspect in this unsolved crime. Robert Graysmith, a former political cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle at the time of the murders, promoted this notion in his book Zodiac: The Shocking True Story of the Hunt for the Nation’s Most Elusive Serial Killer, which was published in 1986.
According to John Douglas, the FBI profiler on whom Mindhunter is based, many serial killers aspire to join the military or work as police officers, but lack the necessary social skills to do so. Arthur Leigh Allen was a navy sailor who was dishonorably discharged in 1958 for an unspecified reason.
Animal abuse is another typical trait among serial killers. This is one of three qualities that make up the Macdonald triad, which can predict who will become a violent serial offender in the future. Karen Allen, Allen’s sister-in-law, has claimed that as a child, Allen maimed animals.
After being detected assaulting pupils, he was sacked from his employment as a school teacher in 1974. He was found guilty and sentenced to three years in the Atascadero State Hospital. Allen was also reprimanded for carrying a gun on campus during his time as a teacher.
Allen only took one sick day during his time as a teacher. Cheri Jo Bates was stabbed to death at Riverside City College on this day. Although this isn’t an official Zodiac murder, many people knowledgeable with the case believe Bates was the Zodiac’s first victim.
Michael Mageau, who was shot in the face, neck, and chest by the Zodiac from close range, chose Arthur Leigh Allen from a lineup. The lineup, on the other hand, took place 22 years after the attack. Allen also had access to the car identified by Mageau as the Zodiac’s arrival vehicle.
Allen wore a Zodiac watch, which is where the Zodiac emblem is thought to have originated.
Allen’s walk was deemed to be comparable to that described by Zodiac survivors by police officials.
Bryan Hartnell, another Zodiac survivor, agreed that Allen’s voice and stature (the Zodiac was wearing a hood during Hartnell’s attack) were perfect for the Zodiac.
Allen was pals with a man named Don Cheney for six years. Cheney claimed that the friendship ended because he was afraid Allen was the Zodiac killer. Cheney eventually went to the cops and told them Allen had fantasized about killing couples at random, that he wanted to be called “Zodiac,” that he signed his letters with the same symbol as the Zodiac, that he attached his flashlight to his gun in the same way the Zodiac did, and that he described preying on women by sabotaging their vehicle in the same way Kathleen Johns and possibly Cherri Jo Bates did.
Allen’s typewriter was the same brand and model as the one used to write some of the Zodiac letters.
Allen informed the cops that his “favorite” book was The Most Dangerous Game, a short story about a wealthy big game hunter who tires of shooting animals and starts hunting people instead. One of the Zodiac’s cyphers includes a reference to this book. Allen was “fascinated” by the thought of hunting humans, according to another of his buddies.
Arthur Leigh Allen may have been stalking Zodiac victim Darlene Ferrin, according to evidence. He told Don Cheney that he liked a waitress at her restaurant, and she had told others about a man named “Lee.”
Allen told investigators he was going to Lake Berryessa the day of the attack, but then changed his mind. He also claimed to have bloodied knives, which he claimed he got from killing chickens.
Allen had created designs of a bomb he could manufacture, according to a search of his home. In Zodiac letters, this type of explosive was mentioned.
Arthur Leigh Allen was found guilty on the basis of circumstantial evidence. Allen’s DNA and handwriting samples, in particular, did not match those of the Zodiac killer. He was never prosecuted with the killings and died of a heart attack in 1992.
Today, how old would Zodiac Killer be?
Although the serial murderer claimed to have murdered 37 people in California in the late 1960s, only seven victims have been officially confirmed.
Gary Francis Poste, according to the Case Breakers, was a man who died in 2018. In any event, this isn’t the first time that various detectives claim to have discovered the serial killer’s identity.
Arthur Leigh Allen, a paedophile who was expelled from the military and from school, was one of the people singled out in the past, but authorities eventually found no link in his case.
Whether it was Gary Francis Poste or not, one thing is certain: the Zodiac killer would now be around 90 years old, according to officials.
Who is the most likely Zodiac assassin?
According to the Case Breakers, a group of more than 40 former police investigators, journalists, and military intelligence personnel, Gary Francis Poste is the Zodiac Killer. The investigation was based on forensic evidence, images discovered in Poste’s darkroom, and part of the serial killer’s coded notes, according to the investigators.
In Zodiac, who was the man in the basement?
Robert Graysmith couldn’t resist his curiosity on a rainy September night in 1978.
An anonymous phone call about the identity of the Zodiac, the legendary Bay Area serial murderer, had been received by the San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist a month before. At the outset of an hour-long chat, the mystery voice said, “He’s a person named Rick Marshall.” The serial killer’s spate of murders had gone unsolved since 1969, but Graysmith had a new clue. Marshall, a former projectionist at The Avenue Theater, had stashed evidence from his five victims inside movie canisters that he’d rigged to explode, according to the informant. The anonymous caller instructed Graysmith to locate Bob Vaughn, a silent film organist who worked with Marshall, before hanging up. Graysmith discovered that the booby-trapped canisters had recently been transferred to Vaughn’s house. “Get to Vaughn,” said the voice. “See if he warns you not to go near any of his movie collection.”
Graysmith went into Marshall’s history after years of working separately on the case and discovered significant coincidences. His new suspect was a fan of The Red Spectre, an early-century film mentioned in a Zodiac letter from 1974, and had used a teletype machine similar to the killer. Marshall’s felt-pen posters outside The Avenue Theater even contained calligraphy that was comparable to the Zodiac’s strange, cursive strokes. Graysmith witnessed Vaughn playing the Wurlitzer and the Zodiac’s crosshair symbol plastered to the theater’s ceiling on his occasional visits to the upscale movie house. There were just too many indications that overlapped. He needed to get to Vaughn’s residence. “We realized there was a connection,” Graysmith says. “I was paralyzed with fear.”
Graysmith’s nightmarish encounter was converted into one of the creepiest movie scenes of all time by filmmaker David Fincher almost three decades later. It happens near the end of Zodiac, as Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) drives Vaughn (Charles Fleischer) home in his bright-orange Volkswagen Rabbit through the rain. The atmosphere rapidly becomes unsettling once inside. Vaughn brings a scared Graysmith down to his dimly lit basement after revealing that he, not Marshall, is responsible for the movie poster handwriting. The floorboards above Graysmith groan as the organist looks through his nitrate film records, implying the presence of someone. Graysmith races upstairs to the closed front door, rattling the handle, before Vaughn slowly pulls out his key and opens it from behind, after Vaughn convinces his guest that he lives alone. Graysmith dashes into the downpour, as if he’s just escaped the hands of the Zodiac.
In the end, the encounter in the third act is a red herring. Vaughn was never thought to be a serious suspect. However, in a film full of routine cop work and dead ends, just five minutes of tense tension transform a procedural into actual horror. The moment represents a culmination of Graysmith’s neurotic preoccupation with the Zodiac’s identitya glimpse into the life-threatening lengths and depths to which he’ll go to solve the caseas well as a brief rejection of the film’s otherwise objective gaze. “It’s actually so distinct from the rest of the movie,” explains Zodiac screenwriter James Vanderbilt. “It does give you that jolt that a lot of the movie is attempting to avoid.”
Simply put, the basement sequence is a classic Fincher adrenaline rush, bolstered by years of meticulous research, meticulous attention to detail, and last-minute studio foresight. Graysmith still gets shivers when he sees the movie, even though it was released thirteen years ago.
What happened to the Zodiac killer?
“The FBI’s investigation into the Zodiac Killer remains open and unsolved,” the FBI’s San Francisco office said in a statement to USA TODAY on Thursday.