Z Is for the Zodiac Killer
This month I'm participating in the A to Z Challenge. My theme this year is Unsolved Mysteries. Today's letter is:
It began on December 20, 1968, when teenagers David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were shot to death in Benicia, California.
There were three more incidents that same year, all in California. Each time, couples were targeted and all died but two survivors. Here is the full list of the deaths he was confirmed to have caused.
Unlike many serial killers, the Zodiac Killer liked to draw attention to himself. He repeatedly sent letters to area newspapers taking credit for the killings. Each letter contained part of a 408-symbol cryptogram, along with a demand that the paper print the symbol on its front page to avoid another person being killed.
In 1970, a reporter linked the killer to another murder three years earlier. Cheri Jo Bates was a student at Riverside City College in Riverside, California.
After the possible connection made news, the killer disappeared. Police were eventually able to crack the cryptogram, finding it read that the killer was collecting slaves for the afterlife. Giving his identity away would stop his progress on that, he said.
A number of suspects have been named over the years, including this man:
But to this day, it remains a mystery. Perhaps one of the most puzzling unsolved serial murder cases of all time.
Thank you so much for sticking with me through my last A to Z Challenge. It's been a blast the past few years. The fun won't end here. I'll still be sprinkling some unsolved mysteries into my blog posts, including some that I couldn't get to this month.
⬅️ Y Is for Ylenia Carrisi
It began on December 20, 1968, when teenagers David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were shot to death in Benicia, California.
There were three more incidents that same year, all in California. Each time, couples were targeted and all died but two survivors. Here is the full list of the deaths he was confirmed to have caused.
Unlike many serial killers, the Zodiac Killer liked to draw attention to himself. He repeatedly sent letters to area newspapers taking credit for the killings. Each letter contained part of a 408-symbol cryptogram, along with a demand that the paper print the symbol on its front page to avoid another person being killed.
In 1970, a reporter linked the killer to another murder three years earlier. Cheri Jo Bates was a student at Riverside City College in Riverside, California.
After the possible connection made news, the killer disappeared. Police were eventually able to crack the cryptogram, finding it read that the killer was collecting slaves for the afterlife. Giving his identity away would stop his progress on that, he said.
A number of suspects have been named over the years, including this man:
But to this day, it remains a mystery. Perhaps one of the most puzzling unsolved serial murder cases of all time.
Thank you so much for sticking with me through my last A to Z Challenge. It's been a blast the past few years. The fun won't end here. I'll still be sprinkling some unsolved mysteries into my blog posts, including some that I couldn't get to this month.
⬅️ Y Is for Ylenia Carrisi
No comments have been added yet.
