The Zodiac Killer Project

2085 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analysis of zodiacs murders

The Zodiac Killer Project The crime spree murders of the Zodiac killer is one of the greatest unsolved murdered cases of all time. The Zodiac’s murders took place from later 1960s, through to about 1972. Most of The Zodiac’s murders took place in Northern California. Some main areas where murders took place are Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa, and San Francisco, California. Two out of the four men that were attacked lived and three women out of the three were killed. The ages of the victims goes from 16 up to about 29 years of age. The Zodiac claimed he murdered 37 people in the letters he sent to the local newspaper. Investigators were only able to confirm seven victims, two out of these seven survived. The seven murders consisted of David Faraday, Betty Jensen, Michael Mageau, Darlene Ferrin, Bryan Hartnell, Cecelia Shepard, and Paul Stine. The Zodiac struck first when he committed the murders at Lake Herman Road Attack it was the shooting of Betty Lou Jenson who was 16 and David Arthur Faraday who was 17 both in high school. The date of the first murders was December 20, 1968 along Lake Herman Road in the city of Benicia, California. Around 10:15p.m., David Faraday parked his mother's rambler off the road in Lover’s Lane which is a turnout off the side of the road. A little after 11:00p.m., their bodies were found by a nearby resident, Stella Borges, no leads were found when the Solano County Sheriff's Department looked into the case. After forensic data was analyzed by Robert Graysmith, he conclude that another car had drove into the turnout a little before 11:00 p.m. and had parked right next to Faraday's car. The murder then exited his car and walked towards Faraday and Jensen as they were in there were in their car, he ... ... middle of paper ... ... there was a partner. Thompson 5 The Zodiac changed his appearance to much to have a physical description his best known for the symbol he wore and wrote on his letters. There is no one yet responsible for the Zodiac killings. No one has been caught and proven to be the Zodiac killer but most agencies that took on the investigation have kept there investigation open and still haven’t closed it. The San Francisco Police Department closed their investigation in April 2004 but re-opened it in March 2007. Thompson 6 Work Cited Graysmith, Robert. Zodiac. New York, NY: Berkley Books, 2007. Print Kelleher, Michael D, and Nuys D. Van. "this Is the Zodiac Speaking": Into the Mind of a Serial Killer. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2002. Print. www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/zodiac/river_1.htm zodiackiller.com/

Show More
Related

  • James Oliver Huberty

    1152 Words  | 3 Pages

    Schechter, Harold. The serial killer files: the who, what, where, how, and why of the world's most terrifying murderers. New York: Ballantine Books, 2004. Print.

    Read More

  • Gary Ridgway: The Green River Killer

    1432 Words  | 3 Pages

    One well-known serial killer is Gary Ridgway. Ridgway was born in February of 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah. His early life can be viewed as an indicator to his la...

    Read More

  • Murderers and Serial Killers in the Chicago Area

    1733 Words  | 4 Pages

    An analysis of the most famous murderers and serial killers in the Chicago area shows varying degrees of psychopathy or mental illnesses, which ultimately contribute to homicidal conduct. Analysis also shows that the paths of serial killers have a tendency to converge.... ... middle of paper ... ...

    Read More

  • Serial Killers: H. H. Holmes

    2489 Words  | 5 Pages

    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 ...

    Read More

  • Zodiac Killer Cultural Impact

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Who Was The Zodiac Killer

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    Now this man killed allot of people so this paragraph isn’t for the faint of heart. The first victim will be Paul Lee Stein. He worked as a cab driver in the late 1960s 1968 to be exact. The zodiac hopped in the car of steins cab… A normal customer is all steins must have thought but boy was he wrong…. He asked to get taken across town. About a block before arrival he shot stein in the head with a 9mm. pistol. After he took his wallet keys and a piece of his shirt for proof. Now onto Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin the next victim on the list. She sat in her car with her boyfriend who survived the attack… he must have been devastated by the fact that he couldn’t help what is possibly the love of his life…. When the zodiacs car parked behind them. He got out and shot both multiple times with a 9mm. luger pistol. Later, Ferrin, had a medical professional pronounce her dead. The final victim will be Cecelia Ann Shepard. The zodiac pulled up his car by a couple having a picnic he then said he had just escaped from prison he held tied them up while holding a 45. He stabbed both of them but only Shepard died. As it can see he could be known as a very evil man and killed at weird times as the saying goes expect it when it’s least expect

    Read More

  • The Elusive Zodiac Killer

    2064 Words  | 5 Pages

    Zodiac’s career, which would become the most cerebral murder case of all time, began in Riverside California on the night of October 30, 1966. The first victim, Cheri Jo Bates, a young student at the university was brutally murdered outside the college library. She was stabbed 42 times with a knife with a small blade. Following the stabbings, her throat was slit so brutally that it secered her larynx, jugular, and carotid artery. Authorities classified the extreme brutality of the murder “overkill”, which typically happened in cases where the victim and perpetrator are acquainted.

    Read More

  • The Zodiac Killer

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    The mysterious person did not have a real name because no one was able to identify him. The murder gave his a name which was the Zodiac Killer. The Zodiac Killer was responsible for five murders in California during the late 1960s. The Zodiac Killers first two murders was on December of 1968 in Benicia, California. David Farraday, who was 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, who was 16, were the first two of a series of murders by the Zodiac Killer. The two of them were inside a parked, when the Zodiac Killer came up behind them and shot them. A similar case happened to the next victim of the mysterious killer. The following year, on July 4, 1969, another couple were shot dead in their car, in Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, California. 22 year old Darlene Ferrin was shot dead, but Michael Mageau, who was 19 years old survived the shots. The strange thing after these murders is that the police received a phone call from an unidentified person that confessed to murdering those people. The next killings occurred two months later, on September 27, 1969. Two couples were also in a parked car in Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Cecelia Shepard and Brian Hartnell were shot at by the killer, but Brian Hartnell, who was 20 years old survived the mu...

    Read More

  • How Serial Killers came to be

    1910 Words  | 4 Pages

    A serial killer is traditionally defined as the separate killings of three or more people by an individual over a certain period of time, usually with breaks between the murders. (Angela Pilson, p. 2, 2011) This definition has been accepted by both the police and academics and therefore provides a useful frame of reference (Kevin Haggerty, p.1, 2009). The paper will seek to provide the readers with an explanation of how serial killers came to be and how they are portrayed in the media. Several serial killers have a definitive and common personality profile.

    Read More

  • Ted Bundy Criminology Theory

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Zodiac Killer

    1242 Words  | 3 Pages

    In California, December 20, 1968, Zodiac attacked Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday. This was his first significant criminal act. In a matter of 2 or 3 minutes, the attack was finished and he drove casually away from the scene. He showed no signs of remorse and seemed very calm about all of his actions. After the attack of these two people-murdering the female-Zodiac would have read about his actions in local newspapers, listened to it on a radio report, or watched it on a local news report on the tv. Seven months later he attacked Darlene Ferrin and Micheal Mageau on July 4, 1969, killing the woman of course. Afterward he phoned the Vallejo Police departement to brag about what he did. He also wrote to three newspapers to brag.

    Read More

  • The Zodiac Killer

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    Just a few months later, he kept to his promise that there would be more deaths. 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. 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.

    Read More

  • Serial Killers

    2571 Words  | 6 Pages

    'Serial murder'; has long been a term used to describe those human beings that repeatedly commit heinous crimes. It is rare that the average person probes the mind of a serial killer without bias. However, what lies behind the eyes of a serial killer deserves more than the cold hard look that society so often gives (Aaronson, Inter...

    Read More

  • The Zodiac Killer Essay

    1432 Words  | 3 Pages

    A: A mysterious man who was never found committed 37 horrifying murders in the late 1960’s and early 70’s, and earned the title of the Zodiac Killer. He was constantly seeking the attention of the public by sending taunting letters to the police, as well as blood curdling phone calls to the station after each stabbing. Many of his letters were written as cryptograms or ciphers that were eventually encoded by the police; one of the messages translated to say “I like killing people because it is so much fun”. He struck so much fear into the people of San Francisco, and even though to much of the cities effort to catch this cold blood killer was never found. (“The Killer Called Zodiac”10)

    Read More

  • Social Learning Theory Of Ted Bundy

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ted Bundy is one of the most infamous, sadistic serial killers known to man. During his tenure as a killer, Bundy confessed to the murders of 30 women, though the official number of kills is unknown to this day. Bundy’s sadistic habits began at an early age due to his rough upbringing and abusive parents. His tactical methods of killing left miniscule amounts of evidence, which remained undetectable by the “still rudimentary forensics techniques of the 1970s” (Crime Museum). Bundy also managed to uphold an impressive “clean-cut appearance” and portrayed characteristics of an “upstanding character” (Crime Museum). Ted Bundy, through the course of a troubled childhood and keen wit, managed to successfully become known as one of the most infamous

    Read More

More about The Zodiac Killer Project

Open Document