1
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,400
Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely

2
00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:07,440
Speaker 1: those of the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast,

3
00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:11,520
Speaker 1: and do not necessarily represent those of iHeartMedia, How Stuff Works,

4
00:00:11,720 --> 00:00:12,560
Speaker 1: or its employees.

5
00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:39,239
Speaker 2: Christmas Time, nineteen sixty eight, All was not calm, All

6
00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:39,920
Speaker 2: was not bright.

7
00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:43,920
Speaker 3: Sorry, could you briefly describe what apparently happened last night?

8
00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:47,320
Speaker 3: We had a devil homicide that took place out on

9
00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:50,159
Speaker 3: a county road sometime after eleven o'clock.

10
00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:53,200
Speaker 4: Sixteen year old girl and a seventeen year old boy.

11
00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:56,600
Speaker 1: How did this incident occur?

12
00:00:56,680 --> 00:00:59,520
Speaker 5: Apparently well, they were shot.

13
00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:03,520
Speaker 2: Photographer Tom Balmer arrived on the scene.

14
00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:12,720
Speaker 6: The night of December twenty was an interesting one. Photographers

15
00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:18,520
Speaker 6: back then were ambulance chasers. We had radios with the

16
00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:22,959
Speaker 6: local police and fire frequencies and we followed what was

17
00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:30,319
Speaker 6: going on. I remember a dispatch to Lake Herman Road

18
00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:34,760
Speaker 6: in Benetia and they said that there were two victims

19
00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:38,399
Speaker 6: there and they thought it was a murder suicide. The

20
00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:42,160
Speaker 6: woman there that was shot was fairly small in size,

21
00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:44,720
Speaker 6: and they were thinking it was an adult and a child.

22
00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:49,400
Speaker 6: That was what the original dispatch was, as I recall it.

23
00:01:50,040 --> 00:02:01,480
Speaker 6: So I headed out that way. It was dark that

24
00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:06,920
Speaker 6: night out in the Boonies. There it was along the side.

25
00:02:06,680 --> 00:02:07,200
Speaker 2: Of the road.

26
00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:11,520
Speaker 6: Who's fairly quiet, no traffic going by, as I recall,

27
00:02:12,760 --> 00:02:15,520
Speaker 6: really not a sense of place there other than just

28
00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:19,760
Speaker 6: out in the open. As it turned out, there was

29
00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:23,639
Speaker 6: one person. His name was David Faraday. He had been

30
00:02:23,720 --> 00:02:27,760
Speaker 6: shot and his girlfriend, Betty Lujensen, had also been shot.

31
00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:30,440
Speaker 6: She was dead at the scene and they had taken

32
00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:40,000
Speaker 6: him by ambulance. He had died en route. The woman's

33
00:02:40,040 --> 00:02:44,280
Speaker 6: body remained under a blanket, and the investigators came out.

34
00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:54,560
Speaker 6: The blanket was between me and the investigators. They lifted

35
00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:57,760
Speaker 6: the blanket with them behind it and looking, so I

36
00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:01,000
Speaker 6: never got to see, but I shot a pictures of

37
00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:06,760
Speaker 6: the investigators looking. The newspaper then ran the pictures on Sunday.

38
00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:11,600
Speaker 6: The one thing a photographer learns to do right away

39
00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:16,280
Speaker 6: is go into a work mode. Just start recording and

40
00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:21,640
Speaker 6: not experiencing. If you started to get emotional over everything

41
00:03:21,720 --> 00:03:23,359
Speaker 6: you saw, you could never do anything.

42
00:03:24,919 --> 00:03:27,760
Speaker 7: Do you have any idea what the possible motive might

43
00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:28,600
Speaker 7: be for this killing?

44
00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:31,680
Speaker 4: We have no motive at this time.

45
00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:36,040
Speaker 6: Every time I see the word zodiac, I flashed back

46
00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:41,960
Speaker 6: for the moment. Wow, I was there. You can say

47
00:03:42,360 --> 00:03:44,839
Speaker 6: I photographed what then was thought to be the first

48
00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:49,360
Speaker 6: victims of the Zodiac Killer. That's something that not everybody

49
00:03:49,400 --> 00:03:49,880
Speaker 6: has done.

50
00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:10,560
Speaker 2: The Boogieyman a monster, a scare tactic, a mythical creature

51
00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:13,880
Speaker 2: dating back to as early as the Middle Ages. If

52
00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:16,920
Speaker 2: there's one thing I've learned from our first season Atlanta Monster,

53
00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:19,919
Speaker 2: it's that sometimes there's more fact than fiction to this

54
00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:24,359
Speaker 2: elusive nightcrawler. After all, what's the difference between the Boogeyman

55
00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:29,800
Speaker 2: and a rampant killer unidentified after nearly fifty years. The

56
00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:33,120
Speaker 2: Zodiac Killer is one of the most notorious serial killers

57
00:04:33,160 --> 00:04:36,880
Speaker 2: to date. He's a dark mark on San Francisco's Era

58
00:04:36,960 --> 00:04:40,400
Speaker 2: of Love. He wears his signature on his chest like

59
00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:45,480
Speaker 2: Superman gone horribly wrong. It's the infamous crosshair symbol, a

60
00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:51,680
Speaker 2: circle intersected with perpendicular lines. A target. The Boogeyman may

61
00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:54,960
Speaker 2: not be under your bed, but it can't exist, and

62
00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:59,120
Speaker 2: even more frighteningly, there's more than one to examine this

63
00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:03,280
Speaker 2: demon properly. It's important to understand what societal and psychological

64
00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:07,320
Speaker 2: elements allowed this evil to exist. This is our new

65
00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:27,200
Speaker 2: exploration the Zodiac Killer. I'm payin Lindsay. Last year, I

66
00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:29,400
Speaker 2: worked with the team at how Stuff Works to create

67
00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:33,640
Speaker 2: Atlanta Monster. Matt Frederick was one of those people. You

68
00:05:33,680 --> 00:05:35,200
Speaker 2: may remember Matt from last season.

69
00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:38,880
Speaker 1: A police officer who didn't know what a railroad trestle

70
00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:42,279
Speaker 1: was became the Achilles heel of a murder investigation that

71
00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:44,520
Speaker 1: cost more than nine million dollars.

72
00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:48,120
Speaker 2: For any Avid House Stuff Works listeners, you may know

73
00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:50,360
Speaker 2: Matt from Stuff they Don't want you to know. It's

74
00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:54,719
Speaker 2: a podcast about conspiracy theories, from the bizarre to the possible.

75
00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:59,000
Speaker 2: Matt's a questioner and an information junkie. This makes him

76
00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:02,360
Speaker 2: the perfect person to guide you through this story, presenting

77
00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:06,280
Speaker 2: the facts and the follies that riddle this case. Take

78
00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:06,960
Speaker 2: it away, man.

79
00:06:07,960 --> 00:06:10,880
Speaker 1: I've been researching unsolved mysteries for over ten years now,

80
00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:15,039
Speaker 1: separating the truth from the noise. I first became aware

81
00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:17,480
Speaker 1: of this case in two thousand and seven when David

82
00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:21,600
Speaker 1: Fincher's film Zodiac was released in theaters. I was hooked

83
00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:23,919
Speaker 1: and I needed to know more, so I read the

84
00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:27,799
Speaker 1: book from Robert Graysmith. It's also titled Zodiac. I started

85
00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:31,960
Speaker 1: scouring websites and message boards, and I quickly realized that

86
00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:35,200
Speaker 1: the book and movie had only scratched the surface. The

87
00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:38,159
Speaker 1: story of the Zodiac is about much more than just

88
00:06:38,200 --> 00:06:42,599
Speaker 1: a serial killer. It's about a country experiencing tremendous changes.

89
00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:47,360
Speaker 1: In the late sixties, a perfect storm was brewing and

90
00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:50,240
Speaker 1: the eye was squarely centered around San Francisco.

91
00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:53,320
Speaker 3: The Summer of Love is an expression of this awakening.

92
00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:55,679
Speaker 3: We call upon the world to help.

93
00:06:55,520 --> 00:07:00,159
Speaker 7: Us celebrate the infinite holiness of life.

94
00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:04,240
Speaker 5: The Summer of Love is the summer of nineteen sixty

95
00:07:04,320 --> 00:07:07,960
Speaker 5: seven when something like one hundred thousand young people flock

96
00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:09,200
Speaker 5: to San Francisco.

97
00:07:10,200 --> 00:07:13,240
Speaker 1: This is Peter Richardson. He's a historian and lecturer at

98
00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:14,920
Speaker 1: San Francisco State University.

99
00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:18,760
Speaker 5: They're told not to come by city officials, which is

100
00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:21,840
Speaker 5: the best way to get people to come, and they

101
00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:22,400
Speaker 5: do come.

102
00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:29,040
Speaker 4: You know, you know, America is so obsessed with bad

103
00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:31,240
Speaker 4: breath and with underarmed deodorant.

104
00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:33,160
Speaker 8: These are the biggest problems in the world.

105
00:07:33,240 --> 00:07:35,760
Speaker 4: If you watch television, I think that a generation of

106
00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:37,440
Speaker 4: kids which says we don't.

107
00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:40,679
Speaker 8: Care about your concepts of friendliness is a revolutionary generation.

108
00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:44,800
Speaker 5: When the LSC hits the streets, it really kind of changes,

109
00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:48,280
Speaker 5: kind of morphs into the hippie counterculture that people are

110
00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:50,720
Speaker 5: so aware it turns San Francisco into kind of a

111
00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:52,000
Speaker 5: global rock capital.

112
00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:54,920
Speaker 7: San Francisco police say that nine persons have been arrested

113
00:07:54,960 --> 00:07:58,560
Speaker 7: and a narcotics trade on the headquarters of the Grateful Dead,

114
00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:00,680
Speaker 7: a widely popular singing group.

115
00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:04,480
Speaker 5: There are a lot of bands. They're very creative and

116
00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:09,040
Speaker 5: innovative and influential. What was happening in San Francisco is

117
00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:14,280
Speaker 5: something much more improvisational, exploratory. It was part of a

118
00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:19,160
Speaker 5: larger art scene that included psychedelic posters and light shows,

119
00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:23,400
Speaker 5: and even the hippies didn't realize how many of them

120
00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:28,160
Speaker 5: there were, and they start getting publicity, national publicity.

121
00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:33,800
Speaker 2: Were all children in the nineteen sixties Offense of America,

122
00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:36,040
Speaker 2: Children of Blood Pole.

123
00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:43,520
Speaker 5: The scene kind of unravels fairly quickly. Despite its utopian aspirations.

124
00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:49,080
Speaker 5: The San Francisco counterculture is surrounded by all these other

125
00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:51,960
Speaker 5: forms of strife, so it's not a peaceful place to live.

126
00:08:52,640 --> 00:08:56,880
Speaker 7: The new Communist campaign in Vietnam continues. Just after midnight

127
00:08:57,000 --> 00:08:59,560
Speaker 7: their time, a band of Vietcong readers blew up a

128
00:08:59,600 --> 00:09:02,680
Speaker 7: power installation and attack two police stations in Saigon.

129
00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:06,400
Speaker 5: It's a really kind of heady mix. By the end

130
00:09:06,440 --> 00:09:10,880
Speaker 5: of the nineteen sixties, there's a larger backdrop of real

131
00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:14,280
Speaker 5: problems political violence against to emerge.

132
00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:17,959
Speaker 8: Doctor Martin Luther King, the apostle of nonviolence in the

133
00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:22,080
Speaker 8: civil rights movement, has been shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee.

134
00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:27,880
Speaker 5: And that segues into what author David Talbat calls the

135
00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:31,760
Speaker 5: season of the Witch, where you get the Zodiac Killer.

136
00:09:32,679 --> 00:09:35,560
Speaker 8: It would sound like a cliche Hollywood script if it

137
00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:41,120
Speaker 8: weren't true. A serial killer stalking victims, taunting police, even

138
00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:45,160
Speaker 8: keeping bloody mementos from his slayings, and boasting about his

139
00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:46,720
Speaker 8: deeds to the news media.

140
00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:53,600
Speaker 5: The randomness and the tone of the Zodiac Killer was very,

141
00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:58,600
Speaker 5: very traveling for people. We think of the Zodiac crimes

142
00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:02,320
Speaker 5: as being urban crimes, an associated with San Francisco, but

143
00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:06,600
Speaker 5: most of the confirmed killings actually happen farther north, pretty

144
00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:10,319
Speaker 5: far out there, and I think that adds to the creepiness.

145
00:10:11,160 --> 00:10:14,160
Speaker 5: The places are so isolated, and there is a kind

146
00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:18,960
Speaker 5: of theme in American cinema history where they really crazy

147
00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:23,320
Speaker 5: stuff happens out in the country. It's in these isolated

148
00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:35,840
Speaker 5: places that you really have to worry.

149
00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:39,440
Speaker 1: This case begins on December twentieth, nineteen sixty eight, on

150
00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:42,040
Speaker 1: Lake Herman Road in Benetia, California.

151
00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:46,440
Speaker 9: My name is Lorraine de Grot, I living NAPA from Valeo.

152
00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:50,720
Speaker 9: That was Christmas vacation and we had a rally on

153
00:10:50,840 --> 00:10:55,480
Speaker 9: Friday where you know, everybody joined in the big auditorium

154
00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:59,120
Speaker 9: and it was a rally. We set together, and when

155
00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:02,880
Speaker 9: we walked home, I said bye, and she said I remember.

156
00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:05,760
Speaker 9: She said, Okay, I'll see you next year, and I go, oh, yeah,

157
00:11:05,840 --> 00:11:08,400
Speaker 9: I'll see you next year. And that was the last

158
00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:12,600
Speaker 9: time that I spoke or saw Betty Lou.

159
00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:17,760
Speaker 4: David and Betty Lou were high school students. They met

160
00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:20,880
Speaker 4: at a church function and were smitten with one another.

161
00:11:22,160 --> 00:11:25,360
Speaker 1: This is Michael Butterfield. He's been researching this case for

162
00:11:25,400 --> 00:11:27,720
Speaker 1: over a decade and he's one of the people who

163
00:11:27,720 --> 00:11:29,000
Speaker 1: knows this story best.

164
00:11:29,880 --> 00:11:32,840
Speaker 4: Within two weeks they were on their way to becoming

165
00:11:32,880 --> 00:11:37,480
Speaker 4: a couple. David Faraday was a young, intelligent, very civic

166
00:11:37,520 --> 00:11:41,959
Speaker 4: minded individual, cared about other people, was well liked, good student.

167
00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:45,520
Speaker 4: Betty Lou Jensen was a very popular student, had many friends.

168
00:11:45,559 --> 00:11:49,040
Speaker 4: She was also a very talented artist. When David Faraday

169
00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:51,880
Speaker 4: asked her out. That was to be their first date

170
00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:56,439
Speaker 4: together and her first date totally. That night, they promised

171
00:11:56,600 --> 00:12:00,240
Speaker 4: Betty Lou's parents that they would be home by eleven PM.

172
00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:07,200
Speaker 4: They did not go home by eleven pm. At some point,

173
00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:10,040
Speaker 4: the two of them wound up on Lake Herman Road,

174
00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:14,120
Speaker 4: which is a kind of dark and isolated area that's

175
00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:18,600
Speaker 4: known as a lover's lane spot. Another vehicle pulled up

176
00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:21,400
Speaker 4: into the area. We don't know for sure what happened

177
00:12:21,440 --> 00:12:24,560
Speaker 4: after that because there are no witnesses, but the person

178
00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:27,120
Speaker 4: got out of the car. There were some shots fired

179
00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:30,760
Speaker 4: into the vehicle. David and Betty Lou escaped out of

180
00:12:30,800 --> 00:12:35,120
Speaker 4: the passenger side of the Rambler station wagon, but David

181
00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:38,480
Speaker 4: Faraday was shot at almost point blank range in the head.

182
00:12:39,400 --> 00:12:42,679
Speaker 4: Betty Lou Jensen appeared to have run away, and at

183
00:12:42,679 --> 00:12:46,000
Speaker 4: that point the killer shot at her at least five times,

184
00:12:46,160 --> 00:12:49,720
Speaker 4: hitting her in the back. Shortly after that, a driver

185
00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:52,560
Speaker 4: was passing through and saw the bodies laying on the ground,

186
00:12:53,080 --> 00:12:56,000
Speaker 4: drove into town, notified the police, and then the police

187
00:12:56,040 --> 00:13:01,080
Speaker 4: came on the crime scene. There was no discernible motive,

188
00:13:01,760 --> 00:13:05,520
Speaker 4: no personal animosity, no rape, no robbery or anything like that.

189
00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:10,079
Speaker 4: They're investigating people involved in the victim's backgrounds. People may

190
00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:13,960
Speaker 4: have had a grudge, career criminals, the so called usual suspects,

191
00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:17,880
Speaker 4: but none of that was working.

192
00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:26,440
Speaker 9: This is a yearbook. This is very special to me

193
00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:31,520
Speaker 9: because it's got Betty Lou in it. Bottom right, that's

194
00:13:31,559 --> 00:13:35,640
Speaker 9: Betty Lou. I hold this just dear to my heart.

195
00:13:35,800 --> 00:13:39,679
Speaker 9: I just think it's terrible. I've never been a situation

196
00:13:39,760 --> 00:13:42,080
Speaker 9: where you knew somebody and they got killed. You know,

197
00:13:42,160 --> 00:13:43,160
Speaker 9: it stayed with me.

198
00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:53,560
Speaker 4: After a period of months had gone by. It was

199
00:13:53,559 --> 00:13:59,600
Speaker 4: a cold case. The absence of any discernible motive made

200
00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:04,839
Speaker 4: it vertually impossible to keep investigating it. Serial killers were

201
00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:09,200
Speaker 4: not a national phenomenon back in the nineteen sixties. The

202
00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:13,559
Speaker 4: term serial killer did not even exist in popular language.

203
00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:18,559
Speaker 4: Most law enforcement agencies were not experienced in investigating serial homicides.

204
00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:27,520
Speaker 9: I'm so consumed to this day about Zodiac. I don't

205
00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:31,160
Speaker 9: think he'll ever be caught. My ears just pop up

206
00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:32,960
Speaker 9: if I hear the name Zodiac.

207
00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:43,080
Speaker 4: They were used to dealing with a killer who commits

208
00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:45,240
Speaker 4: a crime for a traditional motive and who could be

209
00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:48,960
Speaker 4: tracked down through traditional investigation. When you have someone who

210
00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:52,520
Speaker 4: commits a bunch of murders for no apparent reason. Innocent

211
00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:55,400
Speaker 4: people minding their own business out on a date. That's

212
00:14:55,440 --> 00:15:00,440
Speaker 4: bad enough. But when a person brags about it, wants

213
00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:05,080
Speaker 4: to taunt you, and threatens going to happen again, that's

214
00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:08,040
Speaker 4: a whole other level of terror.

215
00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:14,160
Speaker 7: The search goes on in San Francisco for the man

216
00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:16,320
Speaker 7: known as the Zodiac Killer.

217
00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:18,920
Speaker 6: Zodiac rags.

218
00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:22,080
Speaker 5: He's killed seven people, he tossed the police for not

219
00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:25,400
Speaker 5: finding him, and he says he will do his thing again.

220
00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:28,680
Speaker 10: We have reason to believe that he's a maniac.

221
00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:30,360
Speaker 9: Who is the Zodiac?

222
00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:31,400
Speaker 3: And chheer is he?

223
00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:38,160
Speaker 4: The story that you hear about the Zodiac case is

224
00:15:38,240 --> 00:15:41,120
Speaker 4: not the real story, and as you examine the facts,

225
00:15:41,600 --> 00:15:45,080
Speaker 4: that story starts to disintegrate, and behind it is this

226
00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:54,000
Speaker 4: other story. When I was twelve years old living in Phoenix, Arizona,

227
00:15:54,160 --> 00:15:57,560
Speaker 4: I worked as a paperboy in my neighborhood. I was

228
00:15:57,640 --> 00:16:00,160
Speaker 4: rolling the newspapers every morning and seeing stories about the

229
00:16:00,200 --> 00:16:03,360
Speaker 4: Atlanta child murderer and all kinds of things. So I

230
00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:07,160
Speaker 4: was already following true crime even as a young child.

231
00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:11,400
Speaker 4: Around that time, another twelve year old paper boy was

232
00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:16,520
Speaker 4: abducted and apparently murdered in our neighborhood. That was the

233
00:16:16,520 --> 00:16:19,400
Speaker 4: first time that I ever really realized that there were

234
00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:22,680
Speaker 4: people out there that wanted to kill you. Here in Phoenix,

235
00:16:22,840 --> 00:16:26,840
Speaker 4: they stopped the paper boys. That's when your newspaper started

236
00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:28,720
Speaker 4: being delivered by an adult in a van who was

237
00:16:28,760 --> 00:16:31,960
Speaker 4: throwing a paper out the window. And it woke me up.

238
00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:34,560
Speaker 4: And so that was the end of innocence in my

239
00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:36,960
Speaker 4: life in many ways. But it really wasn't until the

240
00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:39,640
Speaker 4: nineteen nineties that I started doing what you might call

241
00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:41,240
Speaker 4: legitimate research.

242
00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:45,280
Speaker 1: And with all of this research, Michael created a massive

243
00:16:45,320 --> 00:16:49,600
Speaker 1: online archive dedicated to the Zodiac case. It's called Zodiac

244
00:16:49,760 --> 00:16:52,400
Speaker 1: Killer facts dot com.

245
00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:55,360
Speaker 4: Gathering all the police reports I could, the FBI files

246
00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:58,000
Speaker 4: and everything, and then interviewing those who were involved in

247
00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:03,800
Speaker 4: the case, the original investigators, surviving victims, some of the witnesses, suspects,

248
00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:07,000
Speaker 4: and the people who accused them and their families, and

249
00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:11,119
Speaker 4: so over a period of years, I built up a database,

250
00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:15,679
Speaker 4: you might say, of information. I've devoted my website to

251
00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:19,280
Speaker 4: spreading information for people who are out there just like

252
00:17:19,400 --> 00:17:22,480
Speaker 4: I was years ago, struggling to find something and not

253
00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:25,399
Speaker 4: being sure what's true and what isn't true, what's fact

254
00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:29,880
Speaker 4: and fiction. I try to devote my research and make

255
00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:31,920
Speaker 4: some use of all the work that I've done by

256
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:35,639
Speaker 4: providing accurate information so people can separate fact from fiction

257
00:17:35,760 --> 00:17:38,760
Speaker 4: and reach their own conclusions. There are a lot of

258
00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:42,040
Speaker 4: major differences between the true story of the Zodiac and

259
00:17:42,200 --> 00:17:46,000
Speaker 4: the myth. A major component of the myth is that

260
00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:49,760
Speaker 4: the Zodiac was some kind of master criminal who was

261
00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:53,639
Speaker 4: playing some sort of elaborate game, who knew the victims,

262
00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:57,560
Speaker 4: who was an expert marksman, who was responsible for dozens

263
00:17:57,600 --> 00:18:00,600
Speaker 4: of murders. It's easier for someone like me, who doesn't

264
00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:03,560
Speaker 4: have a suspect or a theory, when I'm asked a question,

265
00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:06,560
Speaker 4: it's easier for me to say I don't know, because

266
00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:09,480
Speaker 4: that's the truth, and that's the most honest answer someone

267
00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:12,280
Speaker 4: can give you. But a lot of people aren't satisfied

268
00:18:12,359 --> 00:18:15,200
Speaker 4: by the truth, and they're not satisfied by a mystery.

269
00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:19,119
Speaker 4: People crave answers, and if someone's telling you I have

270
00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:22,440
Speaker 4: all the answers, that can be very attractive, very compelling

271
00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:24,639
Speaker 4: for a lot of people. And I think, like a

272
00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:27,840
Speaker 4: lot of things in society, someone would rather be satisfied

273
00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:31,080
Speaker 4: with the wrong answer than be satisfied with no answer

274
00:18:31,119 --> 00:18:35,760
Speaker 4: at all. The name Zodiac is very much like the Boogeyman. Especially,

275
00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:38,600
Speaker 4: it's the American version of Jack the Ripper. In many ways,

276
00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:43,520
Speaker 4: we don't know who the Zodiac was. He's a mystery.

277
00:18:44,560 --> 00:18:48,400
Speaker 4: That name. For me, it still scares me a lot,

278
00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:52,120
Speaker 4: to be honest with you, it's terrifying what he did

279
00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:53,879
Speaker 4: and what he got away with, the fact that he

280
00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:56,400
Speaker 4: got away with it at all is terrifying. So when

281
00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:58,280
Speaker 4: I hear that name, the first thing that pops into

282
00:18:58,280 --> 00:19:04,200
Speaker 4: my mind is he's still out there there. We don't

283
00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:06,160
Speaker 4: know who he is. We don't really know anything more

284
00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:08,600
Speaker 4: than what we did almost fifty years ago about him.

285
00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:11,159
Speaker 4: He could be anyone. He could be you know, that

286
00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:13,160
Speaker 4: guy that lives across the street from you and comes

287
00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:15,240
Speaker 4: out to pick his newspaper up in the morning, or

288
00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:18,840
Speaker 4: someone in your family. The name Zodiac it's come to

289
00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:22,240
Speaker 4: stand for many different things in the popular culture about

290
00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:24,720
Speaker 4: true crime. You know, he's either a master criminal, or

291
00:19:24,760 --> 00:19:28,119
Speaker 4: he's some kind of drooling maniac or whatever. But for me,

292
00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:33,120
Speaker 4: I've always viewed him more as a person. That makes

293
00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:35,000
Speaker 4: him much more terrifying to me.

294
00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:40,000
Speaker 1: At this point, I had heard and read so much

295
00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:42,680
Speaker 1: about the Lover's Lane on Lake Herman Road, but I

296
00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:45,280
Speaker 1: had never seen it with my own eyes. I wanted

297
00:19:45,280 --> 00:19:48,520
Speaker 1: to know exactly what David Faraday and Betty lou Jensen

298
00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:51,720
Speaker 1: saw when they encountered the Zodiac that night. So the

299
00:19:51,760 --> 00:19:55,040
Speaker 1: team and I, including our executive producer Jason Hoak, flew

300
00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:57,040
Speaker 1: out to the Bay Area, and the Lake Herman Road

301
00:19:57,080 --> 00:20:01,760
Speaker 1: site was our first destination. We headed east from Valeo

302
00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:04,240
Speaker 1: on Lake Herman Road for a little over three miles.

303
00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:06,879
Speaker 1: One of the first things you see is a huge

304
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:09,840
Speaker 1: rock quarry on the left, and then the relatively small

305
00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:12,720
Speaker 1: Lake Herman on the right. But other than that, it's

306
00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:16,840
Speaker 1: just rolling hills and very few signs of civilization. The

307
00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:20,280
Speaker 1: site itself is located about a mile across the current Benisha,

308
00:20:20,359 --> 00:20:24,639
Speaker 1: California line. What we're referring to as a Lover's Lane

309
00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:27,920
Speaker 1: is actually just a small turnoff to a private road.

310
00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:30,879
Speaker 1: That road leads down the hill to a Benicia Police

311
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:34,199
Speaker 1: Department shooting range. There's a large metal gate blocking the

312
00:20:34,280 --> 00:20:39,360
Speaker 1: road and it's secured by numerous single key locks. It's strange,

313
00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:41,040
Speaker 1: this is it? This is a turnoff?

314
00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:44,280
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's nothing here.

315
00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:45,800
Speaker 3: Carve right here.

316
00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:48,720
Speaker 1: It feels unlikely right, it.

317
00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:49,720
Speaker 10: Feels very unlikely.

318
00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:52,960
Speaker 5: This is in the middle kind of a country road

319
00:20:53,320 --> 00:20:54,480
Speaker 5: with a little pull off.

320
00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:58,240
Speaker 1: So if you're standing here at the entrance where the

321
00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:01,320
Speaker 1: gate is and you look out, there's no human beings.

322
00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:04,119
Speaker 1: I think this is the kind of place that a

323
00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:08,639
Speaker 1: Zodiac killer knows kids come and make out in a car,

324
00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:12,119
Speaker 1: knows they're going to be vulnerable. They just pitch black.

325
00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:17,800
Speaker 1: It's like easy pray for him. Just beyond the fencing,

326
00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:22,240
Speaker 1: there's an old sign that says no trespassing and no dumping.

327
00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:25,600
Speaker 1: And on the front of this sign, someone at some

328
00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:39,400
Speaker 1: point spray painted a large black Zodiac symbol. The murders

329
00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:42,800
Speaker 1: of Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday on December twentieth,

330
00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:47,199
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight were senseless and tragic, but at this point,

331
00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:50,840
Speaker 1: for the people of Benetia, California, and the surrounding area,

332
00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:54,920
Speaker 1: there was no further cause for alarm. As callous as

333
00:21:54,920 --> 00:21:58,600
Speaker 1: it sounds, this was just an unsolved crime in a

334
00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:03,720
Speaker 1: small town until that is, the following summer, when the

335
00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:05,480
Speaker 1: Zodiac killer struck again.

336
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:10,440
Speaker 4: The next crime occurred at Blue Rock Springs Park, which

337
00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:13,840
Speaker 4: is approximately two and a half miles away from Lake

338
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:17,399
Speaker 4: Kerman Road. I think Valeo was a popular city. Was

339
00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:19,560
Speaker 4: also a part of a port of entry, so there

340
00:22:19,640 --> 00:22:22,119
Speaker 4: was a lot of sailors, lots of influx of people

341
00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:24,959
Speaker 4: coming in, but it was still a bustling community with

342
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:28,000
Speaker 4: lots of good people in it. On the night of

343
00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:31,720
Speaker 4: July fourth, nineteen sixty nine, Darlene Farrin, a twenty two

344
00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:34,600
Speaker 4: year old mother and waitress, picked up a friend of

345
00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:37,600
Speaker 4: hers named Michael Migeaux. They were friends, they had met

346
00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:40,639
Speaker 4: at the diner where she worked, and they decided to

347
00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:44,320
Speaker 4: go to Blue Rock Springs Park, which is located across

348
00:22:44,359 --> 00:22:46,800
Speaker 4: the street from a large golf course, but it is

349
00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:49,919
Speaker 4: sort of outside it isolated in some ways, but it

350
00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:52,320
Speaker 4: was also another lover's lane area.

351
00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:56,919
Speaker 1: Valeo, California, is the next town over, just northwest of

352
00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:00,560
Speaker 1: Benetia where the first murders took place. To put this

353
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:04,480
Speaker 1: into perspective, the location where Darlene Ferren and Michael Majeaux

354
00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:07,639
Speaker 1: were attacked in Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo is

355
00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:10,480
Speaker 1: only a seven minute car ride away from the Lake

356
00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:14,399
Speaker 1: Herman Road site, and it's a fairly straight shot. There's

357
00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:20,040
Speaker 1: literally one turn. Two similar shootings, two lovers lanes just

358
00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:24,439
Speaker 1: miles apart. Things were starting to add up, but in

359
00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:28,600
Speaker 1: July nineteen sixty nine, no one had the full picture yet.

360
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:39,400
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, my name is Clarence Edward rust are USD.

361
00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:44,480
Speaker 3: I'm a retired Bleo Police Department lieutenant. On the night

362
00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:47,520
Speaker 3: of July fourth, nineteen sixty nine, I was working at a

363
00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:51,960
Speaker 3: lake shift with Mike partner John Lynch when the Zodiet

364
00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:56,040
Speaker 3: occurred in Loyo.

365
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:01,600
Speaker 8: A man in a match rob and stab them, leaving

366
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:05,840
Speaker 8: them for dad. Subjects stated, I want to report a murder,

367
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:08,040
Speaker 8: no a double murder.

368
00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:09,240
Speaker 3: I did it.

369
00:24:10,119 --> 00:24:13,600
Speaker 8: The man who wore a medieval style executioners hood, carried

370
00:24:13,600 --> 00:24:16,920
Speaker 8: a knife and gun and intended to use them.

371
00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:20,720
Speaker 6: They haven't arrested me because they can't prove a thing.

372
00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:24,760
Speaker 6: I'm not the damn Zodiac. Who is the Zodiac and

373
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:26,520
Speaker 6: where is he from?

374
00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:32,240
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio, Houstuff Works and Tenderfoot TV. This is Monster the

375
00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:38,000
Speaker 2: Zodiac Killer. This season on Monster the Zodiac Killer.

376
00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:40,080
Speaker 3: School children are nice targets.

377
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:42,960
Speaker 7: I shall wipe out his school by some morning, shoot

378
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:44,400
Speaker 7: out the tires, and then.

379
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:46,680
Speaker 8: Pick off the kiddies as they come bounding out.

380
00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:49,840
Speaker 3: That was the threat of the Zodiac Killer.

381
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:53,760
Speaker 5: When you talk to the survivors of dictims who can kill,

382
00:24:54,080 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 5: you get that this is not fun.

383
00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:57,600
Speaker 1: There's nothing fun about murder.

384
00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:02,120
Speaker 2: LeHo police have submitted letters and envelopes from the Zodiac

385
00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:05,840
Speaker 2: Killer to a private lab to obtain a DNA profile.

386
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:10,399
Speaker 6: I enjoy a good tussle that hey killing just for

387
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:12,160
Speaker 6: the pleasure of it.

388
00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:14,240
Speaker 4: It's got to be him, and then the lab results

389
00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:17,040
Speaker 4: would come back and it's an elimination, and that's just

390
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:18,520
Speaker 4: a crushing blow.

391
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:21,240
Speaker 5: He used to go there, even long after he retire

392
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:23,440
Speaker 5: and park his car and sit there and think about

393
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:24,359
Speaker 5: what did we miss?

394
00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:29,200
Speaker 10: Why didn't we catch him? When these individuals are arrested,

395
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:32,520
Speaker 10: one of the things that strikes us is how ordinary

396
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:37,239
Speaker 10: they are. Their ordinariess is also deeply unsettling. If we

397
00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:40,680
Speaker 10: come pick these people out of a crowd, then we're

398
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:43,399
Speaker 10: faced with a situation, well, how do we know that

399
00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 10: anyone is safe?

400
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:53,880
Speaker 2: Monster the Zodiac Killer is a fifteen episode podcast produced

401
00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:58,479
Speaker 2: by iHeartRadio How Stuff Works in Tenderfoot TV. Donald all

402
00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:01,680
Speaker 2: Right and I our executive us on behalf of Tenderfoot TV,

403
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:06,959
Speaker 2: alongside producers Meredith Steedman, Mason Lindsay, and Christina Dana Jason

404
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 2: Hope is executive producer on behalf of House stuff Works,

405
00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:13,960
Speaker 2: along with producers Trevor Young, Miranda Hawkins, ben Keebrick, and

406
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:19,200
Speaker 2: Josh Thain. Scott Benjamin provides additional voice talent. Matt Frederick

407
00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:23,080
Speaker 2: is our host. Original music is by Makeup and Vanity Set.

408
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:26,119
Speaker 2: If you haven't already, make sure to check out the

409
00:26:26,119 --> 00:26:29,320
Speaker 2: first season of Monster called Atlanta Monster, about the Atlanta

410
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:32,120
Speaker 2: child murders from the late seventies to the early eighties.

411
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:36,360
Speaker 2: Download the ten episode season right now. Have questions or comments,

412
00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:40,760
Speaker 2: email us at Monster at houstuffworks dot com, or you

413
00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:43,960
Speaker 2: can call us at one eight three three two eighty

414
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:47,199
Speaker 2: five six six sixty seven. Thanks for listening.