case 3 pt 3

Late again. I offer no excuses. Only an apology. - Dahlia

Evidence:

There isn’t much in the way of physical evidence in the confirmed Zodiac cases, but there is a little.  There were letters sent to local press from the Zodiac, and these letters were processed for prints, DNA, and handwriting comparison. Evidence has thus far been inconclusive. There were bloody prints left at the Paul Stine crime scene in the taxi. Though Zodiac claimed he purposely planted those prints, witnesses don’t corroborate that. Which leads to the next portion of evidence in the cases. Witnesses. Other than the Paul Stine crime scenes, the murders were conducted in rural areas, thus leaving only the surviving victims as witnesses to those crimes. At the Stine scene; however, there were actually witnesses at multiple areas around the scene itself. Sketches were created, but there are some discrepancies in them. The letters themselves can serve as a means to analyze the killer himself, making them invaluable pieces of evidence.

Media:

                The Zodiac was a narcissist, who felt powerful by playing with the media, as well as the police. His first cry for press attention came on August 1, 1969, when he sent letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, and the Vallejo Times- Herald. And his game continued from there. He taunted and challenged reporters, seemingly for the fun of it. He sent the famous ciphers, claiming that if the code was broken, his identity would be revealed. This was proven to be untrue, when a few days later, the original code was broken. To this day, not all of the code has been solved. Zodiac kept contact with the press until 1974.

Suspects:

Arthur Leigh Allen: probably the best known and most fitting suspect in this case is Arthur Leigh Allen. Police in the original case suspected him, but they could never make anything stick. There is a good bit of evidence linking Allen and Zodiac, including the fact that Allen’s whereabouts line up with the dates and locations of all of the Zodiac’s victims. Allen also had a Zodiac model watch with the cross and circle symbol now synonymous with the Zodiac killer. There is also a connection between Allen and statements made about hunting humans, which is a phrase used in one of the Zodiac’s ciphers. Michael Mageau also positively identified Allen as his attacker. Allen’s attitude when being questioned about the crimes was flippant.

Earl Van Best Jr.:  more recently, Gary Stewart has come forward to identify his birth father, Earl Van Best Jr., as the Zodiac. Van Best was originally a suspect, but not as solid of one as Allen. In 2012 Mike Wakshull, a forensic document examiner, poured over both the Zodiac letters and samples of Van Best’s writing, and he concluded that they came from the same source. It should also be noted that Van Best looks shockingly similar to one witness sketch. I couldn’t find much more in the way of evidence against Van Best.