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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
Amanda Quiroz
The Zodiac Killer is new to me. I’ve also read so many articles on these different serial killers, predators, and other criminals. It’s scary to think that people like this exist. This is a little off topic but my mom and I used to watch stories about these kinds of people on LMN. It’s really creepy but also interesting to think of the strategies and they use.
John Estrada
The infamous Zodiac killer is used in many discussions in criminology and forensics classes that I took. Learning about his letters that were presented in your article and about the murders, most importantly about the controversy of who the killer really was. I had no idea, in all the years of being familiar with the killer, that there was a single man who was remarkably the most widely known approximation of the killer. I had never heard of Allen, so I am delighted to have read this article and find out the eerily convincing evidence that pointed to Allen.
Brianna Trevino
I personally have read and watched movies/ documentaries over the Zodiac Killer. The Zodiac Killer is one of the reasons why I am study criminology. All the letters the Zodiac sent to the police it was like he was rubbing the crimes he committed in their faces because no one could seem to catch this guy and still to this day no one has a clue to who he was. One of the most notorious killers that ever lived.
Todd Brauckmiller Jr.
So terrifying when learning about these serial killers, to think anyone at anytime could just go on a rampage. What really surprises me is how intelligent and creative these killers get, sending encrypted messages is the last thing I’d even try. Hopefully with the direction society is going it will be more easy for solve murders and use smart methods on tracking down the actual killer. This was a very informative article and I find each time I read one about crime the more I wonder just how creative can these serial killers get.
Rosa Robledo Martinez
I never heard about the zodiac killer, but I am honestly glad that I read this article because now I feel well informed about the topic. It’s pretty interesting on what everyone interprets about the topic and how they have different views about the zodiac killer theories. I’m glad that as years pass, we also improve in technology so that something that has happened to Allen doesn’t happen to others. For example Allen’s fingerprints didn’t match the scene, I think in my opinion he was innocent in that one crime.
Sebastian Azcui
The title was something that really caught my attention. I never heard of the Zodiac Killer story and it sound very interesting as of what were his purposes and why is he called like that. Allen seems very weird as he is not a normal murderer and has a different profile. Even though there was a lot of evidence against him, this case is still unsolved and the zodiac killer is someone very hard to get. I find it really cool that this article goes through the research that they have done in order to solve this mystery and catch the zodiac killer.
Andrea Degollado
I honestly did not know or had ever heard of the Zodiac killer , but i did find this article extremely interesting. I honestly feel with the evidence provided that the Zodiac killer was Arthur. I feel like there were too many coincidences for it to be a considered a coincidence, it had to be him. This article was really interesting to read and I find it so interesting how people get so fascinating and hooked on something that they are willing to spend so much time to figure out this puzzle.
Amelia Hew
Even though the theory seems logical and all the evidence was pointing at Arthur Leigh Allan, however due to his death, we won’t know for sure on whether he was the Zodiac Killer or just a citizen fantasizing himself as the killer and made the evidence on purpose. It’s interesting on how the killer was never caught despite him constantly giving out letters and phone calls to challenge the authority. For now, many years had passed, the killer might not even be alive anymore, the secret of the killer’s identity shall be carried in his grave, never to be spoken again. Though this might sounds harsh, but I might just say that the Zodiac Killer, in the end had the last laugh.
Nicole Ortiz
I had heard about the story of the Zodiac Killer but I never really looked into knowing more about it until I read this article. Although i don’t know much about this case, after reading this article, it seems like Allen might be the zodiac killer after all because all of the evidence seems to all point back to him. I just wish that we really knew who the Zodiac Killer actually was to satisfy the curiosity of not knowing who it was for sure.
Shea Slusser
I know the Zodiac Killer was a big deal and is one of the most profound mysteries of all time. Based on the information in this article, it seems that Allen is very clearly the Zodiac Killer. I hate to think that people like this actually exist, but in today’s world, we have to be so cautious about whats happening around us because all these crime article’s just go to show that there are more messed up people in this world than you may think.