In December 1968, two teenagers were shot to death in their car. There were no clues pointing to who was responsible, leaving investigators with a deadly mystery and no obvious suspect.
Seven months later, another couple was attacked in their car. Then, only two months after that, a third couple was attacked. This time, the attacker used a knife and stabbed the victims.
Three attacks had taken place, yet the person responsible remained unknown. Then someone began contacting police and newspapers, claiming responsibility for the crimes and calling himself the Zodiac Killer.
In 1968, the Zodiac Killer terrorized the San Francisco area. Instead of remaining completely silent after the attacks, he deliberately contacted the media by calling or sending coded messages to police and various newspapers.
His messages contained details about his crimes. He also signed his letters with a distinctive symbol, a circle with a plus sign over it, giving the mysterious killer an identifying mark.
The Zodiac made another extraordinary claim. He said that he had killed 37 people.
However, police could only link him to seven victims. Five of those victims died, while others survived their attacks. The difference between the number he claimed and the number police could connect to him became another part of the mystery surrounding the case.
The letters also brought a new challenge. Along with details about the crimes, the Zodiac sent coded messages that attracted the attention of people trying to determine what they meant.
For years, the identity of the person behind the attacks remained unknown. His communications kept the case in the public eye, while the surviving victims were left with their own experiences of encounters with the attacker.
Some of those survivors came remarkably close to death. One victim was stabbed five times and survived, raising the question of how anyone could live through such an attack.
The Zodiac’s communications eventually came to an end. He sent his last letter in 1974, and then he vanished.
His disappearance left police and the media baffled. The person who had claimed responsibility for the attacks was no longer sending messages, but the letters and codes he had left behind remained important pieces of the mystery.
The case therefore became more than a series of unexplained attacks. There were the victims, the claims of 37 killings, the distinctive symbol, and the coded messages sent to police and newspapers.
The Zodiac Killer’s letters had transformed an unknown attacker into someone who was communicating directly with the public. But even after years of attention, his identity remained a question.
The stories of the people who survived his attacks provide another side of the case. Their experiences show what happened when the unknown attacker suddenly appeared, while the letters offer clues that others have spent years trying to understand.
