Terrifying Theories About the Zodiac Killer

Who was the Zodiac Killer? In case you've been living off the grid in a literal man-cave in the Ozarks for the last sixty years or so, here's some quick background on the killer who kept Northern California in the grip of fear from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s:

The mystery of the Zodiac began on August 1, 1969, when three separate California newspapers (San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, and Vallejo Times Herald) received nearly identical letters by someone claiming responsibility for two recent attacks on couples parked in their cars, attacks that left three dead and one survivor with gunshot wounds to the face, neck, and chest. Along with the letters, each paper received a third of a cryptogram, which, once solved, explained that killing was better than sex and that the victims would be Zodiac's slaves in the afterlife.

Many killings, letters, and cryptograms followed until the mid-Seventies, when the pattern ceased. But the Zodiac Killer was never discovered or arrested. He (or she) remains one of the most infamous uncaught serial killers in history. But myriad theories abound as to his identity. Let's explore the most intriguing of those, shall we?

It's very uncommon for a serial killer to just stop killing, but this seems to have been the case with the Zodiac - unless he was imprisoned, died, or moved out of the country, that is. Some have suggested the Zodiac was deployed to Vietnam and killed there, ending his crime spree. This would also explain why the killer wore military-issue boots of a type mostly worn by the Navy - and why witnesses at one scene described his as having a crew-cut. 

Retired highway patrolman Lyndon Lafferty claimed in his book The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up that he and a handful of other retired law enforcement officers known as the "Mandamus Seven" discovered the identity of the Zodiac way back in '71. However, the killer was protected by powerful political intervention. Lafferty died on March 5, 2016, never having revealed the identity of his suspect.

A man named Randy Kenney claims his friend Louis Myers admitted to being the Zodiac before he died in May 2002 of cirrhosis of the liver. Myers claimed he was motivated to kill couples because he had suffered romantic rejection.

Myers went to high school with two of the victims and worked at the same restaurant with a third. He was also in the military, giving him access to the type of boots the Zodiac wore. In fact, he had been deployed to Germany for two years, during which time there was a lapse in all communications from the Zodiac.

If you've seen the film The Town That Dreaded Sundown, then you're more or less familiar with the Texarkana Moonlight Murderer, also known as the Phantom Killer. Some have theorized this killer may have become the Zodiac later in life.

The similarities between the two are fairly striking: both wore hoods as masks, both targeted young couples and lover's lanes, both primarily used handguns, both used flashlights to blind their victims, and both abruptly ceased their activity. The theory is that the reason the TMM stopped his killing is that he fled to California, only to resume his activities as the Zodiac.

The biggest problem with this theory is the time discrepancy. TMM was active in the mid-'40s, whereas the Zodiac committed his crimes in the late '60s and early '70s, which would mean that TMM would had to have been in his early twenties at the oldest during the period he was active, in order to be the appropriate age of the Zodiac, based on witness descriptions—but this is not at all implausible.

Arthur Leigh Allen was a convicted child molester who allegedly told friends that he was the Zodiac. He wore a Zodiac wristwatch, which is where some theorize the Zodiac got his name, as the brand uses the same crosshairs symbol as the logo that the killer used when signing letters. Police found a typewriter in Allen's trailer matching the brand and typeface used to produce one of the Zodiac letters. But no hard evidence ever surfaced linking him to Zodiac, and he died in 1992.

Because so much circumstantial evidence linked Allen to the killings, but his DNA and handwriting did not match any found on the Zodiac's letters, some have theorized Allen had an accomplice: he would carried out the murders, but a different man wrote the letters.

In 2014, Gary Stewart published the book The Most Dangerous Animal of All, in which he claimed that his father, Earl Van Best, Jr., was the Zodiac Killer. Evidence included the similarity between Best's visage and the police sketches of the Zodiac, claims that Best's name appears in the Zodiac's cryptograms, and a scar on Best's right index finger that matches that in a fingerprint left at a Zodiac crime scene.

Furthermore, publicist Chris Harris claims that he saw Best at a diner in 1969, near the site of one of the killings. Harris was in the area at the time making a documentary about the Zodiac when he sat beside a man who resembled Best. According to Harris, Best turned to him and said, "You have no idea what it's like to have to kill."

An increasing number of people (mainly Floridians and Internet trolls) believe that Texas Senator Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer. What evidence is there? Well, he sorta kinda looks like the Zodiac police sketch, he's creepy and widely disliked, and he's never said he wasn't the Zodiac Killer. Sounds suspicious as hell so far. The only problem? Cruz was born after the killings had started and was a baby for most of the rest. Hey, no theory is without counter-arguments...

After the arrest of Charles Manson, and during the Zodiac slayings, police looked into any connections between the two. The most plausible connection was Bruce Davis, a man who lived in northern California at the time of the murders and dropped off the grid, supposedly working in construction at Riverside Community College, where an alleged Zodiac murder took place. He was in Berkeley during another Zodiac attack in the region, and then joined the Manson Family, engaging in two murders with the cult.

Some of the Zodiac's actions indicated possible knowledge of police procedure. For instance, he often attacked in very public places, almost as if he knew when cops wouldn't be there. His attacks also occurred in many different jurisdictions, causing confusion and evidence spreading amongst all the police precincts. Also, a Zodiac fingerprint is theorized to have been a fake - something that would require forensic know-how.