Zodiac Killer Essay

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Joe Neithardt 12/7/16 Introduction to Cryptology Dr. Bready The Zodiac Killer During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a string of mysterious murders shook the area of northern California and baffled both local and federal law enforcement for ensuing decades. The killings were carried out by an individual who began calling himself the “Zodiac” in a taunting letter to law enforcement after one of his killings. To this day, the case of the Zodiac is still unsolved and many are still attempting to figure out who the infamous perpetrator was. There were a total of five confirmed murders with the possibility of up to an additional thirty two victims. The first two victims were a young couple, David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, who were gunned down in a lover’s lane on Lake Herman Road in the city of Benicia, on December 20th, …show more content…

Graysmith provided additional details that would suggest that Allen was indeed the Zodiac such as his excessive collection of Zodiac paraphernalia and recipes for bombs that matched the recipe that was sent to one of the newspapers in 1969. The problem with all of the evidence present was that it was entirely circumstantial. There was no smoking gun that could definitively put Allen away. In 1991, Michael Mageau was contacted by law enforcement to speak about the July 4th attack and to identify the Zodiac from a picture lineup. Interestingly enough, Mageau, who was attacked roughly twenty years earlier, picked Allen out of that lineup within thirty seconds (p. 322). Allen unfortunately died of natural causes about a year later before the police could formally prosecute him and officially close the Zodiac case once and for all. To this day, Allen is considered by many to be the best and only relevant suspect in the case of the Zodiac

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