Winner of the Fall 2018 StMU History Media Award for
Best Article in the Category of “Crime”
Best Article in the Category of “Political History”
Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist working for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969, developed an obsession to discover who the Zodiac Killer was. On a rainy night he received an image of a driver’s license of a man named Arthur Leigh Allen. On this license was Allen’s date of birth, December 18, 1933. This information became the final clue in Graysmith’s investigation, allowing him to put all the pieces together to discover the identity of the Zodiac Killer.
On August 1, 1969, the first letter written by the Zodiac Killer was delivered to the San Francisco Chronicle. The letter was a confession to the murder of two teenagers, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau, on July 4, 1969, at Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, California.1 A cypher was attached to the letter and the killer demanded that his cypher and letter be published in the newspaper, threatening to kill more if the paper did not do so. This letter and the cypher that came along with it was the initial spark that led Graysmith into his obsession with finding out who this Zodiac Killer was. He himself tried to decode the cypher by reading different books involving code breaking, but was beaten to solving it by Donald and Bettye Harden, who solved the code themselves. Within the cypher, it talks about “man [being the most] dangerous animal of all.”2 Graysmith discovered that this line was from the movie The Most Dangerous Game, which is about a man who hunts people for sport. Nonetheless, this became Graysmith’s first piece of evidence to be discovered from the Zodiac Killer’s letter; yet, it wasn’t until seven years later, in 1977, when Graysmith started adding up the evidence that would pointhim to Arthur Leigh Allen as the Zodiac Killer.
Arthur Leigh Allen had a friend named Don Cheney, who provided information that pointed to Allen as the prime suspect in the investigation. Cheney had mentioned that on “September 27, 1969 in Napa, California, Allen [had told his family] he’d be leaving for the afternoon to go scuba diving at Lake Berryessa.”3 However, later that day Allen returned home covered in blood with a bloody knife found in his car. That same day a police report was filed for one murder that involved the killing of Cecelia Shepard, age 22, and although Bryan Hartnell was a victim in the attack that killed Shepard, he was able to survive.
Allen’s same friend, Don Cheney, also confessed that Allen referring to himself as the “Zodiac” before the publication of the letters, and even before the murders had taken place. Allen not only referred to himself as “Zodiac,” but also wore a Zodiac brand watch. The police further investigated him by searching his trailer, but “only [found] small dissected animals, bloody knives and sexual devices.” 4 None of this, however, was direct evidence linking Allen to the murders. Although he was not convicted for murder, he was separately convicted of child molestation resulting in a three year sentence in prison. Coincidentally, no Zodiac letters were sent during this time to the San Francisco Chronicle. Additionally, during his time in prison, one of Allen’s inmates reported to the police a confession Allen had told him. Allen reportedly took responsibility for the murder of Paul Stine, a taxi driver who was shot in the head by his passenger. This murder was also mentioned in one of the Zodiac’s letters. Right after this incident, an interview on national television by Melvin Belli had tried to elicit a confession from Allen for the murders, but unsuccessfully. Afterward, the Zodiac Killer tried to reach out to Belli by calling his house on December 18, 1969. Belli was unable to answer, but his maid did. She stated that all the Zodiac Killer said was, “It’s my birthday, I must kill.”5 A chilling, yet important fact in the investigation.
One piece of evidence that seemed to sealed the deal for Graysmith that Allen was the Zodiac Killer was Graymith’s interview with Linda Ferrein. Graysmith sought to question Darlene Ferrin’s sister, Linda Ferrin, to find out whether there was any correlation with her sister and the Zodiac Killer, due to a piece of information referencing Darlene’s painting parties in one of his letters. As Graysmith interviewed Linda, she described Darlene as always being surrounded by boys. But there was one in particular who stood out to her. Linda described this boy as antisocial when he attended one of Darlene’s painting parties. Darlene also warned Linda to stay away from him because she said he scared her, and also mentioned to her sister that this was the same man who confessed to her he had killed someone. Not only that, but he had a nickname for himself, which was Leigh, which was also Allen’s middle name. During that same time, Graysmith received an image of Allen’s driver’s license confirming Allen’s date of birth, December 19, 1933, the same date on which he made a phone call to Melvin Belli stating, “It’s my birthday, I must kill.”6 All of this piled up evidenced convinced Graysmith that Allen was the Zodiac Killer, because this was the only time that the Zodiac Killer gave out a piece of personal information. Unfortunately, authorities planned to have a meeting charging him with all these murders, but Allen suffered from a heart attack before the meeting could take place.
Convincing enough? This is one of the most popular theories from Robert Graysmith who believed the serial murderer was Arthur Leigh Allen. Although there is supporting evidence that points towards him as the killer, many question Graysmith’s judgment and overall investigation. Regardless, the case still remains unsolved and we may never know who the real Zodiac Killer was. Was it Arthur Leigh Allen or was Graysmith’s theory further off than we thought?
- William Booth, “The Zodiac Writer,” The Washington Post, Mar. 09, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/03/09/DI2007030900522.html (accessed September 5, 2018). ↵
- Robert Graysmith, Zodiac (Penguin Publishing Group, 2007), 78. ↵
- William Booth, “A Killer Obsession,” The Washington Post, Mar. 1, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/02/28/AR2007022801979.html (accessed September 5, 2018). ↵
- Justin Moyer, “And the Zodiac Killer is…,” The Washington Post, May 14, 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/05/14/and-the-zodiac-killer-is/?utm_term=.28c06c343598 (accessed September 7, 2018). ↵
- Robert Graysmith, Zodiac unmasked (New York: Berkley Books, 2003), 180. ↵
- Robert Graysmith, Zodiac unmasked (New York: Berkley Books, 2003), 180. ↵
125 comments
Pedro Gonzalez Aboyte
This was a great article and was very easy to feel compelled to keep reading. All of the evidence found by Graysmith definitely seemed to point to point to Arthur Allen. The similarities between the two seem extremely uncanny and there is no way it was not him. It is truly disturbing how a man can think and do such things that the Zodiac did. Having the need to kill because it is your birthday is just insane and completely disturbing. All in all, I do believe Graysmith was correct in thinking that Allen was the Zodiac killer. He never gave up on his theory and kept going at it until the end. But who knows, maybe he wasn’t the killer and we may never know who it really was.
Megan Copeland
This was a very well written and researched article. It provided us many facts about the Zodiac Killer and told us why Robert Graysmith thought Allen was the Zodiac Killer. He was a very smart man and was very good at taunting the public as well as the police. This was one of the cases that never really made any sense to the police and they had a very hard time figuring out who the killer was. I am glad someone finally figured out who the killer was so the families of the deceases people could finally have closure.
Daniela Duran
This was a great article! I totally enjoyed reading it because it was very well written and easy tp follow! It kept me entertained all the ay through. I was really shocked when the Zodiac killer sent the message that said “ITs my birthday, I have to kill”, because it is certainly cold-hearted and intimidating! I can’t believe how much fear people must have felt, knowing that there was someone like him around…. free to continue killing in horrendous words. I really enjoyed your article!
Jose Fernandez
I didn’t know anything about the Zodiac Killer before and this article is very informative. For starters, the image used for the cover really caught my attention. I always enjoy reading about mysteries and this is a great one. I believe Allen was the Zodiac Killer, it is a shame he died and that we will never be sure about what happened. I think this person was very creepy. Great article!
Harashang Gajjar
Those are the sinister words written by the man who would come to be known as the Zodiac Killer, a man who terrorized the San Francisco area from 1966 to 1970 and baffled investigators in their search for his true identity, which is still unknown to this day.It is believed that his first victim was Cheri Jo Bates, an 18-year-old freshman at Riverside City College near Los Angeles. While she studied at the campus library on the evening of October 30, 1966, somebody tampered with her car.
Adam Portillo
This article is for sure interesting and brings a mysterious element to it also which I think the author did a tremendous job doing that. I truly believe that the mystery behind the Zodiac Killer will never be solved, but it is still fun to theorize. For me the article was well written and it kept me engage throughout the whole article. Awesome article on a topic that seems to never end with so much mystery behind it.
Jose Sanchez
This was a very interesting article. The Zodiac killer remains a big mystery in America that still leads to much speculation today, many decades after this even took place. While I am not familiar with all the different theories on who the Zodiac killer was, this theory seems logical and plausible. I think we can all agree that Ted Cruz is the Zodiac killer (sarcasm).
Pamela Callahan
This was such a crazy story! It is mind-blowing that people are even capable of committing actions such as these. What could drive a person to mindlessly yet intentionally rip away the lives of innocent people? The victim’s families have to go on everyday living with the fact that their loved ones are gone. I find it amazing that detectives can trace down one single person out of the millions in the world, and I am grateful for the work that they do because they help make the world a better, safer place.
Raymond Nash Munoz III
This article was way better then I had expected, because I originally thought that this article was going to have the same general information that the other zodiac article had. Though, right from the introduction I was wrong and became enticed into the story all over again. The first article I had read on the zodiac killer gave more details about his crime and the copy cats, while this article focuses on a possible suspect. For me, the idea of a possible suspect is what made this article so great, because it brought in a new perspective that unfolded the story in an amazing manner.
Kathyleen Lauriano
This article was very interesting to read. I had read other stories about the Zodiac Killer but this one by far is the most interesting to me. Its sad that the people that were murdered will ever get the justice they deserve and we will never know who the Zodiac Killer was. This article did a great job about explaining Graysmith’s theory and his research. This article was well written. Great job!