Zodiac Killer case: How the San Francisco Chronicle was involved
Dec. 14, 2018
"One of the characteristics that set the Zodiac Killer apart from most murderers was the string of sociopathic letters he mailed to newspapers — and 17 of the known 22 went to The Chronicle.
With each letter, things got creepier. And more frightening, as he came to aim his bile at Chronicle staffers...."
Zodiac Killer case: How the San Francisco Chronicle was involved
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Zodiac Killer case: DNA may offer hope of solving the mystery
May 4, 2018
"Inspired by the apparent success of DNA searches in the Golden State Killer case, detectives at the Vallejo Police Department have sent decades-old letters from the infamous Zodiac Killer to a forensics laboratory with the hope of getting a genetic profile they can use to identify a suspect, investigators said.
Detectives in San Francisco and Napa counties, where the Zodiac also killed during his macabre murder spree in 1968 and 1969, are also re-evaluating their evidence to see if it’s worth making a new try at getting DNA profiles....
The Vallejo department has sent two envelopes, with their stamps, from letters the Zodiac mailed July 31, 1969, to The San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner. The stamps and adhesive areas of the envelopes were also tested about 10 years ago, but the DNA indicators were too small to be considered useful. The new hope is that improved techniques for separating glue from saliva will yield better samples....
The main items being re-evaluated by investigators in the Zodiac case include the door of a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia used by a couple that the Zodiac attacked at Lake Berryessa in Napa County in September 1969. The killer stabbed Cecelia Shepard, 22, and Bryan Hartnell, 20, killing Shepard; then wrote with a pen on the car door, giving dates of his attacks and scrawling his symbol, a circle with a cross in it. Investigators were able to lift what may have been at least parts of the killer’s fingerprints from the door.
Also still in storage is a bloody glove retrieved from the scene of the one confirmed San Francisco killing, and the last authoritatively attributed to the Zodiac — the shooting of cabdriver Paul Stine, 29, in October 1969...."
Zodiac Killer case: DNA may offer hope of solving the mystery
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