There were four major suspects in the Zodiac Killer’s case, but none of them were ever charged with committing the crimes. For years, the killer’s identity remained unknown, despite the ciphers and letters he had sent that supposedly contained clues about who he was.
One of the most famous messages was a cipher containing 340 characters. It remained unsolved for decades, becoming one of the biggest mysteries connected to the case.
Then, in December 2020, the 340 character cipher was finally cracked.
The breakthrough gave new attention to the question of who the Zodiac Killer really was. Less than a year later, in October 2021, The Case Breakers, a team made up of 40 detectives, journalists and military intelligence officers, claimed that they had identified him.
According to the team, the person responsible for the attacks and murders in 1968 and 1969 was Gary Francis Poste. Their claim included the murders of Cecelia Shepard and Darlene Ferrin.
The Case Breakers said they discovered Poste’s identity after finding a picture that showed scars on his forehead. They claimed the scars matched a sketch of the Zodiac Killer.
The team also stated that Poste’s full name was the secret to solving one of the Zodiac’s ciphers. Their theory suggested that the name provided an important clue hidden within the mysterious messages.
However, there was a major problem with the identification.
Gary Francis Poste had died in 2018 at the age of 80. That meant he could never be officially questioned about the killings or charged with the crimes.
The claim was also disputed by people who questioned the evidence behind it. Critics argued that the theory relied on inaccurate sketches and did not provide new forensic evidence or witnesses connecting Poste to the crimes.
The FBI and San Francisco police rejected the theory and stated that the case remained open.
That meant the claimed breakthrough did not officially close the mystery. The 340 character cipher had been cracked, and a team had publicly named a possible suspect, but the identity of the Zodiac Killer remained unresolved by authorities.
The case had already produced years of letters, ciphers and suspects. Now it had another proposed answer, but no criminal charge against Gary Francis Poste and no official conclusion that he was the person behind the attacks.
For decades, people have tried to determine who was responsible for the killings and what the Zodiac’s messages really revealed. The 340 character cipher eventually gave investigators and codebreakers another piece of the puzzle, but it did not provide an officially accepted identity for the killer.
The Zodiac Killer’s identity therefore remains an open question, despite the cipher being cracked and the later claim that Gary Francis Poste was responsible.
