The Zodiac Killer Story Literature Essay
The date of Zodiac’s birthday is unknown, so his story begins from the date of the first murder – 20 December 1968. Butterfield (2012) relates that that day, late in the evening college students – a 16-year-old Betty Lou Jensen and a 17-year-old David Faraday were on their first date in the car on a small parking lot on the edge of the highway in the vicinity of the lake near the town of Vallejo (CA). There they were caught by death, which came in the form of a man with a gun. David died in a cabin by a single bullet, Betty managed to jump out of the car and tried to run away – her body stricken with 5 bullets was found in more than 10 meters from the car. The traces of sexual violence were absent. The bodies were found a few minutes after the murder, but policemen were unable to detain the murderer, who escaped in his car. Six months later, in July 1969, another murder was committed. Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau parked their car when someone came up to the vehicle. A man came out, shined his flashlight, and shot them both. Then he got into his car and drove away. Ferrin died, but Mageau survived and was able to tell about it. The very next day, a man called the police and said that he was a murderer. September 27, 1969, the students Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard spent time at a picnic by the Berryessa Lake. A man in a hood and black glasses approached them. He identified himself as an escaped convict and, threatening with a pistol, forced Cecilia to tie Bryan. Later he tied Cecilia, took out a knife and inflicted many knife wounds to the couple. Soon, he called the police himself to tell about crime with ridicule. Shepard died of her injuries, but Hartnell survived (Butterfield, 2012).
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In October 11, 1969 a taxi driver Paul Stine was killed in his car by the passenger; Zodiac cleaned all his traces by a piece of the victim’s shirt (Butterfield, 2012). Three teenagers saw him and made up a description of the killer, but he was never caught. On the night of March 22, 1970, being seven months pregnant, Kathleen Johns with her little daughter was driving to her mother in Modesto. The driver behind her stopped and signaled. The man told her that something had gone wrong with the car and offered his help. Kathleen and her daughter got into the car. The man drove more than hour without stopping; then he said he was going to kill them. At an intersection, Kathleen and her daughter jumped out of the car and hid in a field. The man tried to find them but then he gave up and drove away. Jones got to the police and confirmed that they were kidnapped by a man who looked like a sketch, drawn on the description of the murderer by Paul Stein.
Speaking to the authorities with the help of reporters, Zodiac taunted police in inaction in his letters and ciphers. In total, the editors of various newspapers in California received about 20 letters and postcards from Zodiac.
When investigating cases like the Zodiac Killer case, it is important to stick to the evidence derived from what the serial killer provided publicly to the police and the newspapers. The longer that a case such as this goes unsolved, the more theories about the case are heaped upon older theories to eventually create a zone of silence away from the truth (p.29).
The investigation of Zodiac’s figure continued for many years. Zodiac disappeared for a while and reappeared after some years. Sometimes, the police began to doubt that it was Zodiac who committed the murder, not some imitator. Policemen put forward different versions and found more and more suspects. It makes no sense to analyze each of them, but some versions were unique and worth mentioning. According to one version, Zodiac was not one person, but an organized gang in which different people killed. Actually, this version had only one advantage – it compensated the deficiencies of the version of one killer, whose track could not be found.
According to another version Zodiac did not stop his activities, and “retrained” into the “murderer of Santa Rosa” (a town in California), who killed 14 girls in the years 1972-1975 and also stayed uncaught. Now only enthusiasts were involved in the searches. They exchanged information and versions on their website and even filmed a documentary “Hunting the Zodiac” dedicated to their searches. The exact number of victims of Zodiac is unknown. In his letters, he took the blame for seven murders. Another thirty killings are similar to his crimes by “handwriting”, but there is no evide
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