The Zodiac killer operated in Northern California in the late 1960s, killing at least five people. Some of the victims included high school sweethearts David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, as well as taxi driver Paul Stine. The killer taunted police with ciphers and letters and was never identified. Crime scenes were processed using techniques like triangulation, baselines, and polar coordinates to map evidence and recreate the crimes. The Zodiac killer remains one of the most infamous unsolved serial murder cases.

1. The Zodiac Murders
By Conor Stellman

2. The zodiac

3. The Case
• Killed from December 1968 through October
1969
• A man who went by the name of the Zodiac
Killer was terrifying the city of San Francisco
• The Zodiac claimed 37 victims, although police
agencies only consider seven to be definite
Zodiac victims.

4. Facts
• The notorious and very bizarre serial killer who called himself The Zodiac
remains one of the world's great unsolved cases.
• In Oct., 1966, a girl was viciously murdered in Riverside, California when
she permitted a man to help start her car up
• that he had intentionally disabled when she was in her school library.
This homicide began a ghoulish series of murders that panicked the
people of the San Francisco area.
• For years the Zodiac taunted the police with weird ciphers, phone calls,
insulting and cryptic messages
• Even though police investigated over 2,500 potential suspects, the case
was never solved.
• There were a few suspects that stood out, but the forensic
technology of the times was not advanced enough to nail any
one of them conclusively.

5. Letters
• The zodiac sent the police and newspapers letters
about his killings and of what how he did them.
• The Zodiac sent at least 18 letters, usually to
newspapers but occasionally to private citizens.
• The first letter was sent July 31, 1969 and the last on
July 8, 1974.
• In 1966, 1967 and 1978, communications were
received that might have been from the Zodiac.
• However it's not known for sure if he was the author.

6. Cryptographs
• The zodiac killer also used cryptographs to
send coded messages to the police.
• The cryptographs were full of symbols and
shapes that made up a message

7. Possible Suspects
• Many different suspects were interviewed about the case and
if they were involved
• Suspects:
•
• Arthur Leigh Allen
• Bruce Davis
• Lawrence Kane
• Michael O'Hare
• Richard Marshall
• Ted Kaczynski

8. Letter from zodiac to an attorney looki
help with his violent tendencies

9. Zodiac footprint

10. Victims
• The following slides will tell you more about
some of the victims of the Zodiac Murderer.

11. David Faraday
• 1st Zodiac Killer victim
• David Faraday, age 17, was shot once in the
head at point-blank range and died within
minutes

12. David Faraday crime scene
Blood stains

13. Betty Lou Jensen
• 2nd Zodiac Victim
• Age 16, was shot five times in the back and
killed instantly. The weapon was a .22 caliber
semi-automatic pistol.
• The ammunition was Winchester Western
Super X copper-coated long rifle.

14. Betty Lou Jenson crime scene
Betty Lou's body

15. Details on the two murders
• According to the police report, the victims were apparently approached while
occupying Faraday's station wagon. Shots were fired into the vehicle in an
apparent effort to force them out. Jensen exited the front passenger door first,
followed by Faraday. Faraday was shot as he emerged from the car, Jensen was
then shot as she fled on foot. It was the first date Jensen had ever been allowed
on and the crime shocked the community. The shooting could not be explained by
Faraday's family. Jensen's family was equally dumbfounded.

16. Darlene Ferrin
• 3rd Zodiac Victim
• Zodiac victim
• age 22
• was shot five times
• The weapon was a 9mm semi-automatic
pistol. There was no indication of robbery or
sexual molestation. There were no witnesses.

17. Details
• Ferrin was married and worked as a waitress at Terry's Restaurant. Mageau was
single and worked as a laborer. Ferrin's husband, Dean, was initially a suspect in
the murder, however was ruled out once it was established he was working as a
cook at Caesar's Restaurant at the time of the murder. Ferrin's first husband,
James Phillips Crabtree, was also briefly a suspect. According to surviving victim
Mageau, he and Ferrin had parked at the isolated location to talk. A car, possibly a
light-brown Ford Mustang or Chevrolet Corvair, pulled into the lot just a few feet
away.

18. Crime scene

19. Mike Mageau
• age 19, was shot four times
• The weapon was a 9mm semi-automatic
pistol. There was no indication of robbery or
sexual molestation. There were no witnesses.

20. Cecelia Sheppard
• age 22
• was stabbed 10 times
• five in the front
• and five in the back.

21. Case Details

22. Detail continued

23. Brian Hartnel
• age 20
• was stabbed six times in the back.
• The knife had a wooden handle and a blade
approximately 10 to 12 inches long.

24. Message on Hartnel door

25. Paul Stine
• Cab driver Paul Stine, age 29, was shot once in
the head at point-blank range.
• The weapon was a 9mm semi-automatic
pistol, not the same 9mm used in the Ferrin
murder.
• There were three witnesses from a house on
the southeast corner of the intersection.

26. Paul Stine crime scene
Blood stains

27. The cab in color

28. Portion of stines shirt stolen by
zodiac

29. Picture of fare book in blood
puddle

30. details

31. Bibliography
• Voigt, Ted. "Zodiac Killer | Zodiac Killer Police
Reports | Zodiac Murders | California Serial
Murder." Zodiac Killer | Zodiac Killer Police
Reports | Zodiac Murders | California Serial
Murder. Tom Voight, 15 May 2012. Web. 15
Sept. 2012.
<http://www.zodiackiller.com/index.htm>.
• Wark, Jake. "The Zodiac Killer." / Zodiac
Murders. Tru Tv, n.d. Web. 3 Sept. 2012.
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_kil
lers/notorious/zodiac/river_1.html.

32. Bibliography 2
• "The Zodiac Killer." About.com Crime /
Punishment. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2012.
http://crime.about.com/od/history/a/zodiacki
ller.htm
• "The Zodiac Killer - Zodiac Killer FACTS -
Reporting the Facts / Debunking the Myths."
The Zodiac Killer - Zodiac Killer FACTS -
Reporting the Facts / Debunking the Myths.
N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2012.
<http://www.zodiackillerfacts.com/

33. •
The End
The Zodiac killer is still at large today even though there has been no incidents
currently
• I think that the zodiac is either dead or old and not capable of doing anything else
• I think that the best suspect would have to be Arthur Leigh Allen because
of these things that he claims he would do if he was a killer:
• He would like to kill couples at random.
• He would taunt the police with letters detailing his crimes.
• He would sign the letters with the cross-circle symbol from his watch.
• He would call himself "Zodiac."
• He would wear make-up to change his appearance.
• He would attach a flashlight to the barrel of his gun in order to shoot at
night.
• He would fool women into stopping their cars in rural areas by claiming
they had problems with their tires, then loosen their lug nuts and
eventually take them captive.

34. How Were the Crime Scenes
Processed in These Cases

35. Crime Scene From One Case
• Use a poster board to show where evidence is
placed.
• Use Triangulation and Baseline measurements
to show how math is used to recreate crimes
• Use polar coordinates to show where
evidence is placed.

36. X/Y Grid Example

37. Baseline Coordinates

38. Triangulation

39. Polar Coordinates

40. Cross Projection