Background
The person who used the name 'Zodiac' is linked to a series of attacks in Northern California between late 1968 and 1969, in and around Benicia, Vallejo, Napa and San Francisco. Law enforcement agencies attribute four attacks with seven victims to him: five people died and two survived. His identity has never been established.
The case is known not only for the attacks but also for the more than twenty letters and coded messages the offender sent to newspapers and police, signed with a crossed-circle symbol.
What happened
On 20 December 1968, David Faraday (17) and Betty Lou Jensen (16) were shot dead on Lake Herman Road near Benicia. On the night of 4 July 1969 Darlene Ferrin (22) died at Blue Rock Springs in Vallejo, while Michael Mageau (19) survived his injuries. On 27 September 1969 at Lake Berryessa in Napa County, Bryan Hartnell survived and Cecelia Shepard died two days later. On 11 October 1969 taxi driver Paul Stine was shot dead in the Presidio Heights district of San Francisco.
From August 1969 letters began to arrive at newspapers; the letter of 4 August introduced the nickname with the words 'This is the Zodiac speaking'. The last letter generally accepted as genuine dates from early 1974.
Ciphers and investigation
Among the codes the offender sent, the 408-symbol cipher was solved in 1969 by a couple from Salinas. The 340-symbol cipher resisted solution for about 51 years; in December 2020 amateur researchers David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke announced a solution using software, and the FBI verified it. The decoded text offered no clue to the writer's identity. Some other short ciphers remain unsolved.
The only suspect police ever named publicly was Arthur Leigh Allen, who died in 1992 and was never charged. San Francisco police declared the file inactive in 2004 and reopened it in 2006. The FBI, the California Department of Justice and the local sheriff's offices still treat the case as open.
Where it stands today
The Zodiac case is one of the best-known unsolved serial-murder files in the United States. On this page we remember Faraday, Jensen, Ferrin, Shepard and Stine, and those who survived the attacks and lived with them for decades, before the symbol and the ciphers. The case remains open, and anyone with new information can contact the authorities.