Grasping for anything that will help solve cases, hysteria sets in and it's a scramble for evidence that will convict someone of the murders. In the late twentieth century gruesome murders took shape in Northern California, a man whom of which named himself the zodiac killer terrorized and murdered a plethora of victims causing a witch hunt with his letters. The Zodiac killer induced hysteria, and a pandemic of accusation.
June of 1963 two seniors skipping school went to the nearby beach to sunbathe. This supposed day off turned out to be forever; they were found in a burning shack tied up and shot many times by a “.22 caliber weapon”(Butterfield). Robert was shot times 11, Linda 9 times, because they tried to escape. Robert’s father, a worried parent, went to look for them at the beach when
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neither of them returned home by the next day, he was horrified at the sight of his on son burning in a shack. For a man to rip the life from these kids is troubling, who would take the life of such young people who had their future ahead of them?
In his letters he had hinted to commiting 37 ghastly murders just like this one, these letters were the basis of the witch hunt that he caused. He taunted police with these letters that he made public. The letters consisted of coded messages, of him confessing to murders, and revealing his identity. The letters were there for the world to see and yet he was never caught.
The zodiac killer was a modern day witch hunt because of his letters in which he terrorized the public and caused all lot of people to look for him. The first letter that he sent was deciphered by a history teacher, and it contained a confession of his murders. This only pushed the public to be more involved in the murders.
The letters were made for the public to see the zodiac killer wanted to boast of his “accomplishments” and what he might do next. Something that the zodiac pressured the public to do is wear buttons. Some think this was a scare tactic to show his dominance, he would always back up one of these comments with a threat to give them a reason to wear
it. He would make his letters for the eyes of the public and was eager to see it in the papers. Again he would threaten to do something terrible so that they would be seen in the papers. He even went as far to threaten to blow up a children's bus just for a spot in the papers. This never happened and this was because of “summer break”(Zodiac). Regardless it was scary for the public to read this especially if they had children of their own. Zodiac said that he was afraid of what he has become, which was a mockery of the people and taunted saying he will kill his 9th and 10th victim. In most of his letters he would claim his masterpieces. He was claimed to have set off a bomb that killed a cop, but he cleared it up and said that he wouldn’t “dare to move in on someone else's territory”. This was quite honorable in a way, but quickly changed to demented when he discusses the glory in killing a cop over a child. The Zodiac linked himself to a crime through one of his letter in which he describes shooting a couple “with a .38”(zodiac) but he did not kill the man and he was able to give a description of the zodiac. This caused people to be on the lookout for the Zodiac, and he responded to this in his letter and accused someone else of being him. The police arrested him but could never convict him. His bus bomb letter letter describes how he's is frustrated with the police for telling the pubic lies and he said that he will make his killings more discreet and look like “a few fake accidents”(zodiac). He also said that they have not discovered what they looked like because he looks “entirely different”(zodiac), and they have not found his fingerprints. The public became more afraid of him because now you can’t easily identify him and his crimes. The letters struck fear in the public, making people cautious and anxious. The question that was among the minds of manny during his reign “will he ever be caught”. To this day his identity is still being questioned and so are some of his murders that he has claimed to have commited. Though people might say that the zodiac killer was not a modern day witch hunt because of its lack of widespread hysteria, it was a witch hunt because his identity and his coded letters are still being sought for to this day. For those reasons the Zodiac killer is a modern day witch hunt. The letters were a key component in the witch hunt providing the public with information of his presence, and what he is capable of. Thus inducing mass hysteria just like the crucible when the mention of witchcraft entered the township. Without the letter the witch hunt would not be possible because his presence would have been kept with the police. Within the crucible the people of salem were frantically accusing one another to save themselves, just like when the one the victims could identify him people started mass accusing, and brought about chaos. Another relation between the two witch hunts was that people were being tried for false accusations, more specifically Arthur Leigh Allen who was accused of being the killer but could never be convicted because of insufficient evidence linking him to the zodiac other that his watch and physical stature. Work Cited Bauer, Craig P. “The Zodiac Ciphers: What We Know.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 8 Nov. 2017, www.history.com/news/the-zodiac-ciphers-what-we-know. Butterfield, Michael. “The Zodiac Killer: A Timeline.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 8 Nov. 2017, www.history.com/news/the-zodiac-killer-a-timeline. Riverside Desk-Top Poem, www.zodiackiller.com/ZPoem.html. Rutherford-Morrison, Lara. “Here's What The Zodiac Killer Actually Did.” Bustle, Bustle, 22 Feb. 2018,www.bustle.com/articles/169465-everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-the-zodiac-killer-but-were-too-afraid-to-google. “Zodiac Killer.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 31 Jan. 2018, www.biography.com/people/zodiac-killer-236027.
On Sunday April 28, 1996, Martin Bryant ambushed the Tasmanian tourist destination Port Arthur and heightened the Australian death toll for a single person massacre to a ravaging 35 people. The day had good, calm weather, attracting numerous abundances of tourists to the small Broad Arrow Cafe of Port Arthur in the early morning. By 1.00 pm, an estimate of over 500 visitors were at Port Arthur, although the number died down to about 60 people remaining just before Bryant’s initiation of attack. In his first few seconds, Bryant had managed to claim three young victims, an asian couple and the girlfriend of Mick Sargent, who escaped death with a grazed scalp. Using an AR15 semi-automatic rifle, Martin Bryant’s shots were clean, fast, and unanticipated - causing people to run and hide for their lives. Many males were killed in heroic attempts to shelter their wives and children from the gunfire, with some killed instantly and many left to bleed to death at a slower, more painful ra...
Ted Bundy was a notorious Florida Serial Killer, convicted of murdering and raping thirty women and girls, and suspected of having more than twenty other victims. After being convicted on July 31st, 1979 of these heinous crimes Bundy was sentenced to death and spent ten years in a Florida penitentiary until he finally faced the electric chair and his sentence was carried out. What kind of background did Ted Bundy have, and what insight might we glean from this? What criminological theories could even begin to explain the reasons behind such heinous crimes? What role, if any, did the seduction of crime have on Ted Bundy’s choice to carry out his killings? Perhaps more is unknown than is known, however, the evidence is clear: Bundy was a born
July 15, 1999, was an ordinary night for Kristopher Lohrmeyer as he left work at the Colorado City Creamer, a popular ice cream parlor. Kristopher had no idea that his life was about to end. When Michael Brown, 17, Derrick Miller and Andrew (Andy) Medina, 15, approached Kristopher and demanded his money and his car keys. Before the boys knew it shots had been fired and Kristopher was dead. About an hour after the fatal shooting of Kristopher Lohrmeyer, all three men were in custody and telling their version of the night’s events. Michael and Derrick who had run away after the shooting confessed to police and named Andy as the shooter. According to the three boy’s testimony, they had only recently met and needed away to get some quick cash, so they developed a carjacking scheme and headed to Andy’s house to pick up 2 stolen handguns. The three boys were uneducated and had spent most of their time on the streets in search of drugs. The judge ruled that they would be held without bail and there was probable cause to charge them all with first-degree murder (Thrown Away, 2005).
Serial killers are everywhere! Well, perhaps not in our neighborhood, but on our television screens, at the movie theaters, and in rows and rows of books at our local Borders or Barnes and Nobles Booksellers” (Brown). When people think of serial killers, names such as Dahmer, Gacy, Bundy, and Gein are cited. During the time Jack the Ripper was executing his victims in London, Holmes began his gruesome career in Chicago (America’s Serial Killers). “Despite being America’s first serial killer, Holmes is hardly a familiar name and until now we haven’t had any popular visual record of his crimes: (Spikol). Why is it that people only think of the more popular killers with higher known profiles? They are all very similar to one another because they share characteristics. H.H. Holmes was a successful serial killer because he was well educated, cunning and charming. Those are just a few traits Holmes ...
The Zodiac Killer is an unidentified man who is presumed to be a serial killer that operated in Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Murdering at least five people, but the Zodiac claims to have killed upwards of 37 people in total. In 1969 the Zodiac Killer began sending letters to the Bay Area newspapers, taking credit for the five killings and threatening further violence. The Zodiac Killer would call and send cryptic letters to the law enforcement agencies in Northern California, taunting them since they were unable to bring him to justice. The police had suspects but none that they could ever charge for the murders, due to lack of evidence, so this mystery still remains unsolved. The cultural impact that the Zodiac Killer has had on tv, movies and the media is still around today and has had many shows and movies remade after what this killer did. The cultural impact as well as for the families of the victims still remains today with still no closure, for those families who live in Northern California still there is the fear that crosses the minds on how such an awful criminal was once a part of their society, someone they may
Scott, S. L. “What Makes Serial Killers Tick?”. Crime Library. Retrieved April 3, 2014, http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/tick/victims_1.html
The most resent developments to the Zodiac case have taken place on the East Coast. In 1998, a string of murders occurred in the New York metro area by someone claiming to be the Zodiac. Though police have assumed that this is a copycat case, it has not been ruled out that the Zodiac may once again be on the move. Bibliography Graysmith, Robert Zodiac.
...trigues me a lot. Many questions pop up in my head. How could someone get away with five murders with little to no clues about who the killer is? Was he a former FBI or CIA operative? Did he outsmart the police? Where did he go after the murders? These questions will probably never be answered unless the secret messages offer insight to who the Zodiac Killer is, if someone could decode the three of them. The Zodiac Killer must have been a very smart person to leave no evidence for the police to find him other than the letters. He was one step ahead of the police, and he could have probably continued if he wanted too. Another thing that intrigued me was that the Zodiac Killer just randomly stopped killings people. This mysterious killer sparked the making of books, movies, and theories. This is definitely an interesting story, but not one that I hope happens again
Almost every major social, biological, psychological, behavioural influence that has been seriously suggested as playing a role in causing crime has been thoroughly thought of as potentially contributing to the behavior of serial killers (Levin, 2008). The time period and amount of killings fluctuate depending on the individual committing the crime. Usually, the murders happen in different geographical areas. A mass murder has a separate definition than a serial killer, because a serial killer has a “cooling off” period, where mass murders kill several individuals in a single event. Each of a serial killer’s killings temporarily gratifies whatever provokes the killer’s actions, and each subsequent killing terminates a separate sequence of behaviors.
Introduction: On the spectrum of criminal activity, serial killers are rather rare. Rarer still is a serial killer like Ted Bundy. Bundy confessed to killing 28 women in the 1970s in ghastly fashion and some believe he may have killed far more. It is hard to imagine what could cause any person to cross the mental boundary into such macabre behavior as Bundy perpetrated. Nevertheless, it is important to try to understand that behavior because only though such an understanding would society be able to identify and deter mass murderers in order to save lives.
A mixed psychopathic serial killer torments the San Francisco Bay area through several random violent killings in the 1960's and 70's while never been caught either. The intelligent serial killer also demands that the local newspapers print his vivid and detailed letters describing the horrifying facts regarding his killings. If they choose to ignore or not take him seriously, he will show them in the form of continued killings how serious he is. Leaving several clues to whoever can rise to the occasion and outsmart him, but always stays one step ahead of the authorities. The Zodiac saw himself as the hunter, but he also was thrilled with getting the chance to play the role of the hunted.
He was in control of his actions and was also able to keep a life hidden from suspicion amongst neighbours. Like most serial killers, no single act of violence, no matter how thrilling at the moment, seemed to last.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer from the late 60’s and early 70’s. The zodiac killer identification was never known. The Zodiac Killer was most famous for killing couples in their car at night. He started his killing spree on October 30, 1966 in San Francisco with his first victim, eighteen-year-old Cheri Jo Bates. Cheri’s throat was cut so deep it almost decapitated her. On November 29, 1966, the Riverside police received a copy of an anonymous letter in the mail. This letter taunted the police about the murder of Cheri Jo Bates and how she will not be the last. (Wilbur R. Miller, 2012) This was his way of being in control and getting his voice heard. Just a few months later he kept to his promise that there will be more death. The Zodiac killer murdered a young couple, David Faraday and Betty Jensen, in Vallejo, California. David was killed by one shot to the head and Betty was shot five times ten feet away from the car. The police suspected Arthur Leigh Allen, a child molester, who fit the description of the Zodiac Killer almost to a T, but there was no incriminating evidence, so he was never charged. The Zodiac Killer was suspected of killing 2,500 people throughout his killing spree, and was never caught. The Zodiac Killer’s reason for killing was that once he killed his victims they would be his slaves in the afterlife. He thought of himself as a “God”, all powerful and all knowing. (Wilbur R.
...nd most stunningly, the NSA deciphered cryptographs that contained his name; all pointing to him as the most likely, and the most probable culprit.The Zodiac was one of the most cold and calculating murderers of the twentieth century. His gruesome and violent ways of killing, along with the coinciding of his murders with moon phases, star appearances, radians, and the astrological chart, among other things, also make him the most terrifying murderer of the twentieth century. The scariest thing of all is that this maniac was never caught, and if not dead, is still living somewhere, potentially threatening the lives of the peaceful people around him.
Kelleher, Michael D, and Nuys D. Van. "this Is the Zodiac Speaking": Into the Mind of a Serial Killer. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2002. Print.