Who do you think the Zodiac Killer actually is?

[bdsjr]

The Zodiac killer was one guy, I believe. I've looked at all official reports, multiple times. He was 5'8' to 6'0", stocky build, and was 30 or younger: this was directly from the two victims who saw and/or heard him from just a couple of feet away. The reports of 40's in a single incident happened from witnesses who were not close up. However, out of all of the sightings in confirmed offenses, one thing never changed: stocky build. That's interesting because in 1969, overweight and obesity rates were significantly lower for younger people indicating this man was a little more distinct from his contemporaries. There's no way to prove it was more than one guy and it is not logical based on what we know about the crimes and the confirmed Zodiac communication.

 

[Sor Juana]

A newer theory suggests Gary Francis Poste was the Zodiac, but the FBI isn't sold on the idea yet. Everyone is waiting for a DNA match through a family tree. This could happen if one of his relatives takes a home DNA test and the results point back to someone living in the Bay Area in 1969.

 

[GracefulD1an]

A newer theory suggests Gary Francis Poste was the Zodiac, but the FBI isn't sold on the idea yet. Everyone is waiting for a DNA match through a family tree. This could happen if one of his relatives takes a home DNA test and the results point back to someone living in the Bay Area in 1969.

Did he have a criminal record? I would love to know that if he is a potential candidate

 

[Leprikawn]

Did he have a criminal record? I would love to know that if he is a potential candidate

From what I saw he had an arrest for Domestic violence. He also had a car accident when he was 20 that caused some damage to his brain. He was a member of the air force and was stationed in Greenland. Since the "Code breakers" announced him as a suspect in 2021 I would assume that DNA testing did not match him.
3 months ago it came out that an Autistic man solved the cipher and was able to figure out who it was. Apparently a detective in Los Angeles and a former FBI agent looked at this findings and said they agreed he solved it. The man was apparently the person who killed the black Dahlia as well and was the main suspect. He left Los Angeles and changed his name. settling into the bay area and then moved on to Chicago.

 

[Leprikawn]

Zodiac and Black Dahlia killer may have been same man, amateur codebreaking whiz claims: ‘Irrefutable’

Alex Baber used AI and an exhaustive investigation through public records to narrow down his suspect

nypost.com

 

[bdsjr]

Timeline is the most critical thing in considering a suspect in this case. Establishing who was in the area of the known crimes on or about the dates of their occurrence is where the real homework is done. What do we really know about these recently named suspect's timelines? I am not sold in anyway on anyone ever publicly named as a suspect and won't even consider someone unless I see timeline info that puts them the Solano-Napa County areas starting in late 1968. I will also add something: most named suspects were arrested at some point, with fingerprints in the FBI's criminal file. If a suspect was ever arrested, it is unlikely he's the Zodiac. There are comparable prints on file and there has been since 1969. Hundreds if not thousands have been compared. Nothing has ever matched. Historic military and federal government employment/background prints were different. They are held in a civil file and still may be warehoused somewhere out in West Virginia, some of which may not be digitally searchable even today. My conclusion: The Zodiac killer was one in a hundred million. He had some luck yes, but the reason he got away with it was because he was invisible in the community where he lived. He was the low key, patriotic, dutiful son, brother, husband, the guy next door who fixed your mower or the kid's bike. The thrill for him was knowing that he was the most infamous criminal in history while still the most anonymous invisible guy in town. The world was looking for a monster but he never leaked that image to anyone. No one suspected a thing and that is the reason we are still talking about something from almost 6 decades ago.

 

[snooptroop88]

Timeline is the most critical thing in considering a suspect in this case. Establishing who was in the area of the known crimes on or about the dates of their occurrence is where the real homework is done. What do we really know about these recently named suspect's timelines? I am not sold in anyway on anyone ever publicly named as a suspect and won't even consider someone unless I see timeline info that puts them the Solano-Napa County areas starting in late 1968. I will also add something: most named suspects were arrested at some point, with fingerprints in the FBI's criminal file. If a suspect was ever arrested, it is unlikely he's the Zodiac. There are comparable prints on file and there has been since 1969. Hundreds if not thousands have been compared. Nothing has ever matched. Historic military and federal government employment/background prints were different. They are held in a civil file and still may be warehoused somewhere out in West Virginia, some of which may not be digitally searchable even today. My conclusion: The Zodiac killer was one in a hundred million. He had some luck yes, but the reason he got away with it was because he was invisible in the community where he lived. He was the low key, patriotic, dutiful son, brother, husband, the guy next door who fixed your mower or the kid's bike. The thrill for him was knowing that he was the most infamous criminal in history while still the most anonymous invisible guy in town. The world was looking for a monster but he never leaked that image to anyone. No one suspected a thing and that is the reason we are still talking about something from almost 6 decades ago.

Largely agreed but think he-- either individually or as one of multiple perps-- may have had minor offenses on his record. From what I can see, prints were collected for the FBI database in that timeframe for felonies and "most" misdemeanors. Also, if he had committed some offense when he was a minor, I don't know what the situation with the prints would be in such a case.

Then there's his claim about not having left prints at the scenes, can't be certain that was a bluff. And he may have taken measures to actually alter this own prints in a meaningful way if he moved from a point where he'd had some small-time booking... into a period where he would actually kill. Here's something very strange, when I searched this, I'm seeing that...there's a trick criminals might use to distort their own prints, the "Z" trick. With the z-pattern cut, they can scar and distort the natural fingerprint and play with and manipulate the actual pattern of the print.. Isn't it interesting it's called the Z trick? Considering Zodiac sometimes signed with that "Z." Zodiac knew about the airline glue trick. Maybe another of his deceptions was to use a different trick-- not the airline glue after all-- to mask the prints. If so, that's quite a bag of tricks, but considering he's escaped not only capture, but even detection to this point... I'd say it had to be a pretty extensive and sophisticated bag of tricks.

 

[GracefulD1an]

Zodiac and Black Dahlia killer may have been same man, amateur codebreaking whiz claims: ‘Irrefutable’

Alex Baber used AI and an exhaustive investigation through public records to narrow down his suspect

nypost.com

Oh no….

 

[bdsjr]

Largely agreed but think he-- either individually or as one of multiple perps-- may have had minor offenses on his record. From what I can see, prints were collected for the FBI database in that timeframe for felonies and "most" misdemeanors. Also, if he had committed some offense when he was a minor, I don't know what the situation with the prints would be in such a case.

Then there's his claim about not having left prints at the scenes, can't be certain that was a bluff. And he may have taken measures to actually alter this own prints in a meaningful way if he moved from a point where he'd had some small-time booking... into a period where he would actually kill. Here's something very strange, when I searched this, I'm seeing that...there's a trick criminals might use to distort their own prints, the "Z" trick. With the z-pattern cut, they can scar and distort the natural fingerprint and play with and manipulate the actual pattern of the print.. Isn't it interesting it's called the Z trick? Considering Zodiac sometimes signed with that "Z." Zodiac knew about the airline glue trick. Maybe another of his deceptions was to use a different trick-- not the airline glue after all-- to mask the prints. If so, that's quite a bag of tricks, but considering he's escaped not only capture, but even detection to this point... I'd say it had to be a pretty extensive and sophisticated bag of tricks.

That's very interesting. I also believe he had a big bag of tricks. Probably had his head buried in the detective magazine smut from that era. I think this guy was playing all of this out in his mind when he was a teenage boy, over and over until one day, it was time to turn fantasy into reality.