Mikey
Appearances
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
I call last. Andy, why don't you go first? Am I just reading everything about me, the cards, everything?
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Yeah, that's all I got. Terrific. Thank you so much. Mikey, tell us a little bit about your character.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
That is true, that's canonically true.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Wait, so they know these two things about us? The traits are what your personality are driving.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
One trade on one card and one trade on the other.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Wait, they have to be two character traits? A character trait on one and a character trait on the other.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
I eat some what I believe to be muktuk.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
That's the flavor of what you're experiencing in your life. Just congealed.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
All right, I wrote one down. Mike has never looked at me with such disappointment before. Okay.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
And you swing with all of his might. Have you ever seen when something drops out from someone and they try to jump? Yeah, do that weird scorpion thing. You get like six inches off the ground before you fall prone.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Good night, my father. You are my son.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Oh, there's two Ls in the middle. Oh my god.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
We twist it. Okay. Thank you, Chad.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Could it potentially be based off of these two new traits that I have now? You can use those for inspiration if you want to, very much.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
How far could he reasonably throw? Not 99 feet.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
They don't work. Pass those over to you, Mikey.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
You take two points of damage.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
From like 100 feet below, you just hear assault.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Sorry, are you all right? So we have the rope up here, he tied himself, and he's dangling.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
What was the high one, 11? 11 plus, so 18.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Someone roll a 1d4 for me. Oh, boy. Oh, this is fun.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Let someone do it. I'm dead. I'm dead. Yeah, sausage died, so you need to do it. I feel like I should rewrite mine. Four. So you're going to pass your yellow card four to the left, which means that they stay in your hands. Wait, seriously? Yeah. All right, I was making mine more generic. No, no, no, no, no. It would have been one, two, three, four. It would have come back to you. We got a three.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Well, then pass to your right, because that would be three to the left.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Chasing the dragon, literally.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Can we just jumble them up and pull them out of a... Sure. Why not?
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Oh, yeah, yeah, give me one of these bad boys. I just dropped a bunch of G2 pilots on the table. I hate G2 pilots. Unpopular opinion.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
I put it next to me. Oh! He watches Artie, doesn't even get back into his sarcophagus. He just...
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Mm-hmm. Mine has absolutely nothing to do with Icebound. You must be a real threat in the Muktuk eating contest.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
We're out of cards. Oh, there's a little one. No, that's her name. That's the name. Okay. Okay. Someone roll a d4. I'm on it. And he's on it. Two. Pass two to the right. Once. Once. And then twice. Twice.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Thank you, Chet. Eh, I got a 12. A 12.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Make a group intelligence check. I have lower than you. Ten. Ten. Yeah!
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
As you furiously masturbate in the corner. He's like 40 feet away at any given moment.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Side Story 2 | A Story For Another Time
Oh, did he? Yeah, just Rich. Oh shit, okay, I'll just reroll. Roll a d20. I'm sorry. We'll finish this later.
Morbid
Episode 637: The Bobbed Haired Bandit
And it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but for you, it's probably June.
Morbid
Episode 653: Spooky Lakes (Volume 2)
Yeah, that's a hard one. I totally blanked on how to say the word. It's going from the T to the Z. That's what it is.
Morbid
Episode 653: Spooky Lakes (Volume 2)
Oh, God, I wonder what happened, what the conversation was.
Morbid
Episode 653: Spooky Lakes (Volume 2)
My entire magma reservoir, and then I collapsed it on myself. Iconic.
Morbid
Episode 653: Spooky Lakes (Volume 2)
And the pity I feel is because I love you. I don't want you to feel gross. You're making me feel gross.
Morbid
Episode 653: Spooky Lakes (Volume 2)
Sorry, guys. You know, sometimes it'd just be like that.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Hey weirdos, it's Ash here, ready to share a little secret. Have you heard of Wondery Plus? With ad-free episodes and one week early access, it's like having an all-access pass to our lighthearted nightmare. So come join us on the dark side and try Wondery Plus today. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
So Pellicetti requested an ambulance and additional officers with dogs to comb the area in search of the suspect. And within a few minutes, all seven canine units had responded to the request, along with a ton of San Francisco police officers.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
A large number of San Francisco firefighters were also called to the scene so that they could set up their ladders and high-powered lamps to kind of like illuminate the area more. And once they collected all the evidence and removed the body, investigators left the scene still thinking that this was some kind of robbery.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Because actually at that point, it was pretty common for cab drivers to get robbed or face some kind of violence like this. So, you know, they just thought that that was it. And the search teams and the dogs didn't turn up anything else and search for the killer.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Based on the description of the shooter from the teenagers who reported the shooting, investigators were actually able to produce a sketch of the killer, which was published in the local papers a few days later. This man was described as a white man. So the teenagers had not said to the...
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Wait a second. Oh. Mercury is out of retrograde. Oh, it doesn't feel that way. I know. Well, we're in the after effects right now. It got out of, it stopped retrograding. I think that's how you say that, right? On April 7th.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
I'm leaning towards the former. The racism, yeah. I don't understand how the black man comment was made because all three said he was a white man, 25 to 30 years old, 5'8 or 5'9 inches tall, and weighed about 150 pounds. It's pretty clear. Yeah, definitely. I always wonder how people come up with that. I have no fucking idea. I don't even know how tall I am.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
A hundred percent. I also just like remember people looking completely different than they do. I'm not great at that either.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But they also said he has reddish brown hair, which he wears in a crew cut and was wearing heavy rimmed glasses and a navy blue or black jacket at the time of the slaying. Okay. So not the outfit. No.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Right now, I think it's April 9th. So we're still feeling the, we're circling the toilet drain here. Sometimes I feel like that's when it's the worst, is the after effects. Yeah. So maybe that's why we feel so weird and why everybody's so annoying. It also might just be like facts.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Now, it wasn't until two days later on October 13th that Paul Stein's murder was linked to the Zodiac. That afternoon, a letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle containing one single page note written in what was now familiar writing and in a blue felt tipped handwriting of the killer. He said, this is the Zodiac speaking.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by Washington Street and Maple Street last night. To prove this, here is a bloodstained piece of his shirt, which he did include. He said, I am the same man who did in the people in the North Bay area.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
The SF police, San Francisco police, could have caught me last night if they had searched the park properly instead of holding road races with their motorcycles, seeing who could make the most noise. The car driver should have just parked their cars and sat there waiting for me to come out of cover. School children make nice targets. I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Just shoot out the front tire and pick off the kitties as they come bouncing out.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
School children make nice targets. And then he said, like, come bouncing out of the bus.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And it's just like he starts with couples. Then he targets this cab driver. So that's a complete diversion. Maybe I'll just kill kids now. And now he's going to kids.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Like what the fuck? Nobody's safe. No. Which we're going to get into. Literally nobody's safe. Now, just like the other letters, the latest note was signed simply with those crosshairs, the symbol. And as proof of its authenticity, like I said, the letter writer also included a swatch of fabric ripped from Paul Stein's blood-soaked shirt. Whoa. So he was like, this is me. Yeah.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And they also did an analysis of the handwriting, and it concluded that it matched the other letters that the San Francisco area papers had gotten a few months earlier. Police Captain Martin Lee told reporters... There are very strong indications including the handwriting that we are dealing with the same person. All of the evidence is pointing toward this.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And that inclusion of Paul's gray and white striped shirt was irrefutable proof that the killings were linked. And if the previous attacks were any indication there was going to be more murders to follow. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
An article from the LA Times read, he could be old Mrs. So-and-so's boy who never says boo and still loves that home or that bachelor who keeps to himself and never seems to have any fun or that poor guy who works so hard at that lousy job and never complains and never lets on that his marriage is miserable. That's bleak. The way that they wrote back then.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And I remember that clip. I remember he could be Mrs. So-and-so's boy who never says boo. Yeah. For some reason that always stuck out to me. But if we know anything about the 60s and 70s in California, or really anything about the last few episodes of Morbid, we know that Californians had to contend with killers in the past.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Some of these killers, obviously, like we've talked about, were theatrical and like egomaniacal. But the Zodiac wasn't like anything anybody had ever experienced before. Like we were just saying, he changed his method of killing unexpectedly, changed his preferred victims. He performed his attacks and murders with a kind of showiness, too.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And a killer with an unpredictable victim pattern hunting the streets of San Francisco was terrifying enough, but this guy's doing it while wearing a fucking executioner's hood. Yeah. Like, that adds to everything.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Yeah, it definitely does. I can't imagine living in this area at that time. No. Because for me, it's the costume, but also the fact that literally, like I said earlier, no one is safe. Yeah. Couples, cab drivers, kids, and he would just switch at a moment's notice.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
So in the wake of the most recent letters from the Zodiac, the Sheriff's Department assigned more than 70 deputies to guard the school buses as they transported children to and from school.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
It seemed like the killer was expanding his geographic range to a degree too, so a kind of interagency task force was assembled, which included officers from all local and regional law enforcement agencies, with the intention of pooling resources and evidence that could lead to an arrest, which is... Kind of profound because it doesn't happen a lot. Yeah, no. These agencies work together.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
No, that's actually the most shocking. And I think it also points to how desperate they were to catch this guy. Almost a year had passed since the Zodiac first struck in Vallejo, and in that time he had now killed five and seriously wounded two others, again leaving very little evidence behind and just openly taunting investigators and the public.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But while it seemed like the Zodiac was only just starting his rampage, interestingly, Paul Stein would turn out to be the last victim officially linked to the Zodiac.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
I don't know for sure if Paul really was the Zodiac's last victim, but officially he is. Okay. That being said, a lack of victims didn't mean a lack of attention, and the man known as the Zodiac Killer was about to be elevated to a status that had never been seen before in American history.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Within a few days of receiving and publishing the Stein letter, public concern over the threat posed had reached a point where the law enforcement agencies couldn't ignore it. So Chief of Police Martin Lee released an all-points bulletin containing instructions for school bus drivers who might find themselves the target of the killer.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
The bulletin read, and this is just, I can't imagine putting my kids on a school bus during this time. Oh, God. It read,
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Yeah, absolutely it is. Holy shit. And then thinking like these little kids getting on the bus and like if that were to happen, the bus driver's just supposed to tell them to lay on the ground.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
So somehow the notice from Lee did help reassure a lot of the drivers, but he still couldn't help but take a swipe at the killer, the police chief. He referred to the Zodiac as a, quote, clumsy criminal liar and a latent homosexual. huh, like what? What if anything indicated his sexual preference?
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
It's just guys being dudes sometimes. Dudes being bros, you know? It's just... What? You can call that guy a lot of things. To just pull out of thin air and be like... But to just be like... He's a lightened homosexual. He's gay. He's gay and he's pretending he's not. Okay. Alrighty. I don't think that's why we're here, but... Damn. Sounds good. Thanks for being professional about it.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
I'm also like, yeah, that's good. Needle the crazy man threatening to shoot up a bus full of children.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Like, I'm not defending the Zodiac by any means here, but that was just stupid. No, of course you're not defending the Zodiac. Jesus Christ.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
There you go. That was easy. Yeah, I just did it. So the California Attorney General, Thomas Lynch, also got involved, acting as a coordinator for various state and local agencies involved in the now-growing manhunt, and he provided updates to the public.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But you said that he, what was it, that you weren't dull or something? I don't know.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
In his initial statement, Lynch acknowledged the threat to the public—you couldn't not—but assured them that a competent task force was pursuing the killer. He said, And in an effort to quell public hysteria, he told them the odds are that no tragedy will occur. But it's like, I feel like the odds are actually the opposite at this point if we're actually like... Being real?
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
If we're like really looking at this. If we're living in a place of reality, I feel like... Because odds are that the Zodiac will strike again because if history has told us anything, he has. Yeah, let's be on alert. Luckily here, it worked out for him, this statement. But I was like, what was that based on?
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Anyway, at the same time, he also issued an appeal to the Zodiac, urging the killer to turn himself in. He said he's obviously an intelligent individual. He knows that eventually he'll be taken into custody, so it would be best that he give himself up before tragedy is written in blood. That's the way you go about that.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And it's like, that's the way to go about that. You do have to do a little, like, complimenting, and then you kind of threaten him a little bit. Like, you know what I mean? There's a way to go about it.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
No, did he compliment at one point and you were like, that's for me?
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Lynch's assurances were more than just lip service, though, or him trying to simply placate a very increasingly worried public. In Napa County, the school district's 64 school buses were given armed police escorts every day as they covered roughly 4,000 miles transporting children to 28 different schools.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
So they really put in a lot of resources. And additionally, a volunteer spotter was added to every school bus, and their job was to watch for any unusual activity along the bus route.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Yeah, seriously. But the statements and the press coverage of the manhunt prompted a massive public outpouring, and within a few days, the San Francisco police had received hundreds of tips, but none provided any useful information. Among the most bizarre was a call from a man claiming to be the killer and offering a strange offer of surrender, basically.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
On October 21st, the caller told investigators he wanted them to arrange for a nationally recognized lawyer, F. Lee Bailey, to appear on the local morning show AM San Francisco the next morning. And he said he would call in to discuss a possible surrender. And he said if Bailey's not available, he would settle for California defense attorney Melvin Belli. Mm-hmm.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And you said, mm-mm. Because I think that I understand Nicholas. Well, he's in your home, so. He is, so I think I vibe with him. Maybe he is related to us. Maybe. I was going to say maybe he's related to you and then I was like, well, then he would be related to me as well.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
So the next morning, host Jim Dunbar, who was joined by Melvin Belly, urged regular listeners not to call in so that the lines would remain completely open for the killer. For nearly an hour, the two men just chatted on air as they waited for this supposed killer to call, who finally called in about 50 minutes into the show. In the clip, Belly can be heard saying, did you hear me?
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And a disembodied voice replies, yes, I did. And then hangs up the phone. A few minutes later, the man claiming to be the Zodiac called back and they started a strange conversation where he told Belly to refer to him as Sam. Like the name Sam. Interesting. Yeah.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Throughout the conversation, both Dunbar and Belly tried to get some confirmation that the caller was the man who had called the police the night before, if not the actual killer. But Sam, quote unquote, dodged their questions and just continued insisting that he was the killer. He said, I don't want to give myself up. I want to kill those kids. I'm getting one of my headaches now.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
I've got to kill. I've got to kill. And this is just in like a morning show. Like, damn, that's the scariest thing ever. Hello? Literally, hello. After roughly 20 minutes, the caller told Belly, meet me on top of the Fairmont Hotel with nobody else or I'll jump. No, thank you. So Belly refused to meet the man on the roof. Thank you. But he said they ended up agreeing on an alternate location.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
He was like, I'll meet you somewhere. So they made plans to meet at 10.30 a.m., but when Belly arrived at this secret location, there was no one there to meet him.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
He waited until 11.15, but when Sam, quote unquote, failed to show up, he just abandoned the plan and left. Okay. Now, that Sam didn't show up at the agreed upon location didn't come as a surprise to a lot of people. Captain Lee, not the below deck star. I knew you were going to say that.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
An officer told reporters, I think the caller has a problem, but whether he's involved in the killings, I cannot say. Yeah. So he was like, I think this might just be a sick individual. Makes sense.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
The dispatcher who had taken the call from the supposed killer the night before listened to the audio from AM San Francisco and was certain that the voice of the caller from the night before was not the same voice that called to speak to Belly.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
According to the dispatcher, the caller, quote, revealed knowledge about one or more of the five murders charged to the Zodiac that had never been made public. So she was like, the dispatcher said they said that the night before, but they didn't sound like the guy who called him. Yeah.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
So whether it was the killer who called or not, the opportunity to continue contact was lost once the show was over, unfortunately. So after the botched interview on AM San Francisco, the Zodiac went quiet for a few weeks until finally popping back up with a greeting card and yet another cipher sent to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
followed a day later by a rambling seven-page letter known now as the Dripping Pen Card and the Bus Bomb Letter. The Dripping Pen Card. The Dripping Pen Card. Crepey. Very crepey. On the front of the greeting card was an illustration of a wet fountain pen hanging up to dry and pre-printed text that said, Sorry, I haven't written, but I just washed my pen. Wow. Like what? That's upsetting.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
No, I know. That's like, it's so fucking creepy, but you can't explain why. Sorry. I just washed my pen. Sorry, just washing my pen. Inside the card contained the pre-printed message and I can't do a thing with it. No. So the card just said, like, on the front, sorry, I just washed my pen and I can't do a thing with it. Nope. I don't like that at all. What? I don't like it.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Into this pre-printed message, the killer added, this is the Zodiac speaking, which is a dumb thing to say because you're not speaking.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
He continued, I though, but it's supposed to say thought, you would need a good laugh before you hear the bad news. You won't get the news for a while yet. P.S. Could you print this new cipher on your front page? I get awfully lonely when I'm ignored. So lonely I could do my thing. Do my thing? So lonely I could do my thing. Exclamation mark, exclamation mark, exclamation mark, exclamation mark.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And the word thing was written in bold, dark letters and underlined six times. Huh. Yeah. Underneath the text, the writer drew the crosshair symbol, of course, with some text beneath that read des, like December, July, aug, sept, oct, equals seven.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
So the dates on the bottom were quickly interpreted as a taunt to the police with the killer trying to indicate that he had actually killed seven people, not five.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
According to author Michael Cole, there was a high-profile double murder in San Jose on August 3, 1969. Two young women, Deborah Furlong and Kathy Snoozy, were savagely murdered, each being stabbed more than a hundred times. Oh my, what? Yeah. Holy shit.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And Cole claims there are many who believe these to be the Zodiac's six and seven victims, but there's no evidence conclusively linking him to either murder.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And actually, several years later, a man named Carl Werner pleaded guilty to the murders of Furlong and Snoozy, as well as a third victim. Oh, okay. Yeah. Who knows? All right. But the second letter received by the examiner, which was much different than anything the Zodiac had sent before.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Among the more obvious differences, according to Cole, was that the previous communication, quote, had been noticeably matter of a fact and somewhat detached. But this letter exhibited a clear sense of palpable hostility, primarily at law enforcement. The letter read in part, this is the Zodiac speaking, "...up to the end of October I have killed seven people.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
I have grown rather angry with the police for telling their lies about me, so I shall challenge the way of collecting slaves. I shall no longer announce to anyone when I commit my murders they shall look like routine robberies, killings of anger plus a few fake accidents, etc." The police shall never catch me because I've been too clever for them.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
If you wonder why I was wiping the cab down, I was leaving fake clues for the police to run all over town with. As one might say, I gave the cops some busy work to keep them happy. Hey, pig, doesn't it rile you up to have your nose rubbed in your boo-boos? If you cops think I'm going to take on a bus in the way I stated I was, you deserve to have holes in your heads.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Well, that's the thing. I'm like, so did you do that? Because remember, like I said, Paul Stein is the last official victim. Yeah. But did he kill, like, who knows how many other people he could have killed and made it look like accidents, robberies. Because obviously there's a degree here where people are like, I don't even know that he's that intelligent.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Like, look at all the grammatical mistakes he makes. I think those are on purpose. Yeah. Possibly. And it's like, he has gotten away so far, so he does know how to make things look a certain way. You know? Yeah. I mean, he definitely... I think he was capable of making things look like accidents.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Oh, yeah. And we'll get into it. There were plenty of letters that were sent that were not from the Zodiac.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
I feel like it will be. Well, when we turned off the episode and we kept doing something, somebody named Jacob came.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
It does, yeah. Well, the letter goes on to describe the killer's new plan, where he would place a bomb described as a, quote, death machine and, quote, my masterpiece on a local bus. And the letter included a list of components used to create the bomb, as well as a kind of crude diagram and the same blue felt tip pen used to write the letter.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
The letter ended in a postscript instructing the editors to print the diagram of the bomb and on the back final page was a second postscript that said, to prove that I am the Zodiac, ask that Vallejo cop about my electric gun site, which I used to start my collecting of slaves.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
It's just like, what? It's like in his mind, he's like a supervillain, not a murderer.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
It's so weird when they do this. No, it's bizarre. Yeah. Well, six weeks or so later, on December 20th, the one-year anniversary of David Faraday and Betty Jensen's murders, the Zodiac wrote again, this time to Melvin Belly. In the now-familiar blue felt-tip pen, in much better handwriting, though, he wrote— And the fact that he writes with blue ink.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But he wrote, and again, in much better handwriting. Interesting. He said, Dear Melvin, this is the Zodiac speaking. I wish you a happy Christmas, spelled incorrectly the same way he had in the first letter. The one thing I ask of you is this. Please help me. I cannot reach out for help because of this in me won't let me. I'm finding it extremely difficult to hold it in check.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
I am afraid I will lose control again and take my ninth and possibly tenth victim. Please help me. I am drowning. At the moment, the children are safe from the bomb because it is so massive to dig in. Plus the trigger mech requires much work to get it adjusted just right. But if I hold back too long from no nine, I will lose all control of myself. Plus set the bomb up. Please help me.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
I cannot remain in control for much longer. That one was really hard to read because the grammatical errors are a plenty. Yeah. The letter was signed with the same crosshairs now common among all Zodiac letters and it included another swatch of fabric from Paul Stein's shirt. That's fucked up. Which meant it was an authentic letter.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But he's still saying he's making this bomb, but like it's too much work. Yeah. If he can't get help, he's going to use it.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
It is. Whoever this individual was, they were sick. Scary. And scary. All of the above. Yeah. A few days later, Melvin Belli contacted the Chronicle, who did agree to publish his response to the Zodiac on the front page of the December 28th edition of the paper. Belli said,
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
He offered to meet the killer in a private location of his choosing, but as the days passed without a response, it became clear that the Zodiac had no intention of actually turning himself in or meeting with Belly.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Yep, I agree. After the letter was sent to Belly in late December, communication from the Zodiac ceased for several months until a pair of letters showed up at the offices of the Chronicle in late April about a week apart. Like the other letters, the latest seemed to be an attempt to manipulate the press into keeping the story alive on the front pages. Because remember, there's no new leads.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
He hasn't killed anybody that the police can link to him. So this isn't being reported on exactly how it was when it was like when everybody was in the thick of it. Yeah. But in these letters, the Zodiac demanded that investigators release, quote, all of the details of his bus bomb threat and called on San Franciscans to wear – to start wearing, quote, some nice Zodiac buttons.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
case of power trip it is in the worst way possible yeah well the april letters repeated their earlier claims that the killer had developed a massive bomb and was planning to leave it in an undisclosed public location in order to cause now he's at the most damage possible like the previous threats this obviously caused considerable panic among the public but after a few weeks without an evidence any kind of evidence about an actual bomb things slowly started to return to normal
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And like the previous letters, the April letters stated that the killer had taken more lives, of course, but the police had yet to catch on. He said, I have killed 10 people to date. It would have been a lot more, except I was swamped out by the rain we had a while back. Fuck. Like, oh, okay. Oh, cool. More letters followed a few months later.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
In late June, the editor of the Chronicle received a note along with a new cipher saying, this is the Zodiac speaking. I've become very upset with the people of the San Fran Bay area. They have not complied with my wishes for them to wear some nice crosshair symbols button. I promised to punish them if they did not comply by annihilating a full school bus.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But now school is out for the summer, so I punished them in another way. I shot a man sitting in a parked car with a .38. Oh, now this is interesting. Yeah. The note was signed with the usual crosshair symbol, of course, and text indicating that the Zodiac had now killed 12 people and was accompanied by what would be his fourth and final cipher.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
So a lot of people think that the line about the man being shot in his car with a 38 was a reference to the June 19th death of 25 year old San Francisco police officer. I looked up his name. I'm not positive. There's a few different pronunciations, but But I think the best one is Richard Raddick. Okay. Right?
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
You know? GhostTube's fun, and I think it's for reals.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
So around 5.30 a.m., this officer was sitting in his car and had started writing a parking ticket for a vehicle parked in front of him. Sorry, parked in front of a hydrant when an unknown assailant approached him from behind and fired three shots through the driver's side window.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Yeah. It is worth noting, though, when referencing the first five murders in his letters, the Zodiac offered some form of evidence that validated his claims, like an unpublished detail or, in the case of Paul Stein's murder, a piece of physical evidence.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But the claims made in the letter since Paul Stein's death didn't include any verifications, and he very likely did learn about them through the press. Oh, so there you go. Yeah. But still, the letters are believed to have been sent by the Zodiac himself. Okay. So who knows? It's possible.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Two more letters were sent that year, one to the Chronicle on October 5th and another to Chronicle writer Paul Avery directly on October 27th. Like the others, these letters seemed to be an attempt to keep the story on the front page as a power move, since it had started to be replaced by other, more pressing matters.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
The difference in the case of the October 27th letter, though, was that it was one of the rare instances where the killer addressed a single person. The only other time he had really done that was when it was Melvin Belly. Oh, yeah, yeah.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
In this case, the killer sent a Halloween card to Avery, who had done the bulk of the reporting on the Zodiac for the Chronicle and made a vague threat on his life. But in an interview, Paul Avery said, I'm really not scared. I've needled him in some of my stories. Maybe that's why you wrote me.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
He's like, I'm not afraid. That's fine. I'd be fucking terrified. Damn. Five months after Avery received the Halloween card threatening his life, the editor of the Los Angeles Time received its first letter from the killer. In the latest letter, the killer noted the number of victims was now 17. So he's going up like exponentially. I was just going to say that was a jump.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And he said, the reason that I'm writing to the Times is this. They don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others. Wow. He used this as an opportunity, obviously, to declare a higher victim number. Of course. It was mostly yet another letter taunting the police who had failed to make any significant progress on the case. He said, like I've always said, I'm crack proof.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
If the blue meanies... Ew. I hate that that's, like, what he's claiming this is for. It's so gross. To go from boo-boos to blue meanies... I'm like, you were calling them pigs at one point. Like, that's rude and, like, shitty. Now you're saying blue meanies?
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Something going on. But after sending the letter to the LA Times, the Zodiac went quiet for almost three years until the Chronicle received what would prove to be the final communication from the Zodiac himself on January 29th, 1974.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
In his latest communication postmarked from Santa Clara County, the Zodiac gave no indication of why he'd gone silent for such a long period of time, which is interesting and we'll touch on it later. But instead, he offered only three thoughts – He said, I saw and think The Exorcist was the best satirical comedy I've ever seen. Signed yours truly.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
He plunged himself into the billowy wave and echo aroused from the suicider's grove. Tit willow, tit willow, tit willow. P.S. If I do not see the note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing. Wow. So now he's just like, I'll just do something.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Because, I mean, that's exactly what he says, essentially.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
In small script on the bottom right corner of the page, he included me 37, SFPD 0, like San Francisco Police Department. So now he's claiming he's killed 37 people. I mean, and at this point, though, too, it's like, who knows? He might have. Yeah. Additionally, the signature on the letter wasn't the actual recognizable crosshair symbol this time.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Yeah, so it was like the late 60s and everybody thought he was 20. So let's do some math.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
A series of strange markings that looked like maybe Chinese or Japanese writing, but they've never been identified as any known language. Scary. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But here he just makes a snarky joke about The Exorcist, which had been released in theaters a couple months earlier.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And then he just quotes line from the Rodgers and Hammerstein play, The Mikado, and makes what feels like we were just saying is like a pretty vague threat of violence just for the hell of it. Yeah, just to do it. Yeah. But the letter has been analyzed thoroughly and it is believed by law enforcement officials to be authentic. I wonder why. Like, what about that feels authentic?
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
maybe the blue felt pen or maybe something yeah sure i know that one i'm not positive about especially the fact that it didn't have the crosshair symbol i'm like this feels very jack the ripper-y where it's like yeah it's totally a real one yeah i don't know i don't know about that well and i don't know i mean like obviously handwriting analysis is a real thing but it's also like a tricky science yeah it can definitely be tricky i don't know
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But the Chronicle did publish the letter in full either way. They left out the strange markings on the bottom, though, at the request of the San Francisco police. But in the years that followed, investigators would receive hundreds, if not thousands, of letters and cards claiming to come from the Zodiac.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
I will not be joining you in that. So it's 2025 minus, we'll just say 1970 for the hell of it. I like that. That was 55 years ago. If you were 20, let's say he was like 25. He could be like 80.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But as far as investigators are concerned, this was the last time any news outlet or law enforcement agency would hear from the Zodiac. Yeah. So who the fuck was this guy? Yeah. We got to talk about it. We do. So obviously a lot of the Zodiac story is, you know, result of the media attention, the public fascination that surrounded the case.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But at the same time, there's also a massive and very long ranging investigation there. There was that went on behind the scenes. Countless law enforcement officers from local cops to FBI all work together to try to stop him.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Their efforts obviously didn't make it into the endless stream of press coverage because there wasn't a lot to say beyond we don't really have much to go on, but we're trying.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Because he's just going to be like, cool. First, they started here. Then, they went here. And like we know, he had left some evidence behind at the crime scene and he provided some clues throughout everything that he was doing. But they never got any major, major breaks in the case. But there were actually at least 13 other murders where the Zodiac was briefly considered a suspect.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
It's just that they could never be confidently connected. He could never confidently be connected to the case.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Yeah. And while it's true that there were never any major breaks in the case, like I just said, there have been close to 2,500 suspects over the course of the case. That's horrible. Which is wild. That's pretty terrible. Yeah, over 2,500 in general, with at least a handful of them being considered by investigators to be serious.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Yeah. But with a suspect list so long and one that includes a number of actually high profile killers like Ted Kaczynski and Charles Manson, it would be pretty impossible for us to sit here and go through every single suspect. Yeah. So we're going to get into the three most popular suspects.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Okay. So today we're going to, can you imagine? All right, so the first one is Richard Gajkowski. When the Zodiac murders started, he was living in the San Francisco area. He had been living there for about six years, and he was working as the editor at the popular newspaper Good Times. Good Times. Good Times, man.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
He would have been within a short distance of two of the Zodiac crime scenes, which were the Lake Herman Road and the Blue Rock Springs attacks. He does bear a resemblance to the sketches of the Zodiac released in the press. And all of the evidence against him is circumstantial, but some of it is pretty compelling.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
So when Mike Mageau gave his statement to the police after his attack, he mentioned that he had actually been chased by one of Darlene's former boyfriends just before they were assaulted that night. Huh. Yeah. He said, I thought he drove off and drove away, but he came back later and shot us. So he really thought it was that person. And he does resemble the sketch. He does. He very much does.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And Mike continued, she told me it was a friend of hers and he was just jealous. She mentioned his name and she referred to him as Richard. And later, Darlene Farron's sister, Diane, claimed her sister did in fact have a former boyfriend named Richard who was a journalist.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
So those two things link up. Interesting. Now, another circumstantial piece of evidence, Nancy Slover, I think it is, a former police dispatcher who took the call from the Zodiac after the Farron murder, after Darlene's murder. Yeah. Interesting. She said,
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
wow this one this next one creeps me out it will give you the chills paul stein the young cab driver who was murdered his sister claimed that a man resembling geikowski was at her brother's funeral but she had no idea like she had no way of knowing who he was at the time oh shit but then later when it was brought to her attention she was like oh i saw somebody that looked just like that
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
He was like in his mid to late 70s when he got caught. Well, that's the thing. Just being a douchebag still. Absolutely. The thing about the Zodiac, though, is like I don't think he would have just gone away because he loved the theater. Yeah. And the dramatics and like loved even when it seemed as though he stopped killing people, like they stopped linking crimes to him officially.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Like even the hairline is the same. Yeah. And like the narrowness of the forehead. Yeah. Like the hairline and everything.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
That picture is, at least. It is. Well, in the last big piece of circumstantial evidence against him, a lot of his coworkers at good times found him to be pretty strange. And in 1971, they actually filed paperwork to have him involuntarily committed to the Napa State Mental Hospital.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And there he was diagnosed with an undisclosed mental illness, but that hospitalization would have coincided with the drop off in communication from the Zodiac in 1971. Okay. And remember, when he came back, he didn't say shit all about where he had been like when they got the next letter. So that's interesting. That's a compelling one. That's interesting.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
He was investigated by the FBI after Darlene Ferren's murder, but told investigators that he was out of the country at the time, which effectively ruled him out as a suspect. But according to amateur investigator Tom Voight, Gajkowski had actually lost his passport just before the murders, so it wouldn't have been possible for him to leave the country.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And Voight alleges that the FBI never bothered to follow up on Gajkowski's alibi, but if they had, they wouldn't have ruled him out. Hey, FBI, what the fuck? Honestly. And after being released from the Napa State Hospital, Gajkowski went back to San Francisco, where he just opened a small movie theater in a store and managed a few local punk bands. Whoa. Which is just wild.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
While also advocating for progressive political issues. So maybe he did get some kind of treatment that helped him in the hospital and maybe, like obviously speculating here, but maybe received ongoing treatment that got him in check. But he did pass away in 2004.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And at least one former co-worker has been very vocal about him being the Zodiac, but he's never been seriously investigated by law enforcement. That's wild. Yeah. That's wild. Yeah. If anyone that you know, like, if you think someone's the Zodiac, you know a wild-ass person. Yeah, that's the thing.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
I can't imagine one of my friends being like, I think that, like, you might be a notorious serial killer.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Our next one is Gary Francis Post. In 2021, an independent group of retired investigators known as the Case Breakers, which I love. That's amazing. It reminds me of in Yellow Jackets.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Well, they identified Gary Francis Post as the man who was most likely to have been the Zodiac Killer. He was a former member of the U.S. Air Force, and he had a very long history of very violent behavior, including a history of domestic violence. He lived within a 15-minute drive of several crime scenes while the murders were taking place.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And like Richard Gajkowski, the case against Post is built entirely on circumstantial evidence and has been refuted by the FBI. But he remains a popular suspect with the casebreakers and just people who enjoy true crime in general.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
According to the group casebreakers, photos showed Mr. Post with supposed scars on his forehead that they believed matched marks shown on a police sketch of the Zodiac Killer. And that's among a handful of facts related to physical evidence that they believe makes him a strong suspect.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Others include the fact that a size 10 military boot military style boot print was discovered at one of the crime scenes. And that was similar to the style of boots that he was known to have worn at the time. So that's interesting. OK.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Also, a Timex watch band was discovered at one of the crime scenes, which investigators believe was purchased at a military base around the mid to late 60s, which is when he would have been in the military. OK.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Perhaps maybe the most important, at least as far as the case breakers are concerned, is his supposed link to the murder of Sherry Jo Bates, an 18-year-old girl who was killed in Riverside in 1966. That fall, she started her first year at Riverside Community College, and the last time she was seen was when she was studying at the library on the night of October 30th.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
The next morning, a groundskeeper on the campus had just started street sweeping when he came across her body in an alley on campus. Yeah. And police believe her killer had disabled her vehicle and then waited for her to go back to her car, which is so fucking terrifying.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
At some point in the life of the Zodiac case, Sherry Jo Bates was considered actually to be one of the victims linked to the Zodiac. Oh. And the case breakers believe that Post was responsible for her death.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Given the link between her murder and the Zodiac and his history of violent behavior and enthusiasm for guns and military propaganda, they think he's the best suspect.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But despite their enthusiasm, investigators on the Zodiac case completely reject their theory, and they ruled him out completely as a suspect. Huh. Yeah.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
In 2021, a spokesperson for the Riverside Police said, in 2016, investigators received an anonymous letter from a person admitting the handwritten letter sent to our department months after Sherry Jo Bates was murdered was written as a sick joke and that he was not the Zodiac Killer. That's fucked up. That's not any kind of joke. That's ridiculous. No.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Riverside police officer Ryan Railsback went a step further when he told ABC News, We don't know how we can be any more clear. The $50,000 private reward is still valid. If someone has any information on the Bates case, please come forward. So he was like, it's not this guy. We looked at him.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
No, I feel the same way. So the FBI and the Riverside Police and me and Elena might have ruled Gary Post out as a Zodiac suspect, but the case breakers remain committed to their belief that he is the guy. In an interview with Post's former neighbor, referred only to as Gwenny, the woman told the reporters he, meaning Gary, lived a double life.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
As I'm an adult thinking back, it all kind of makes sense now. At the time when I was a teenager, I didn't put two and two together until I got older. It hit me full blown that Gary's the Zodiac.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
It's just like, what are we doing? And just to be like, I never thought about it before, but now that the case breaker said it, Zodiac. Tap, tap, period. That guy's the Zodiac.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Humans do crazy shit. We're wiling. Well, this next one and last one that we'll talk about is also very interesting. The Gajkowski suspect is so strong. So far, he's my guy. He's strong. Post, not so much. This one, back to strong.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
The, uh... trajectory kind of thing i just i am not ruling it out like it's definitely possible but something about this dude i feel like he wouldn't be able to resist that urge and that's just me who has like no profiling experience whatsoever but that's what my gut tells me hey i'm willing to listen to your gut thank you i'll listen to it over here thank you she's trashed but
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
This is Arthur Lee Allen. So Gajkowski and Post may top the list of amateur investigators, but as far as the members of the actual Zodiac Task Force were concerned, the most compelling suspect and the only person to ever be publicly identified by investigators was former elementary school teacher Arthur Lee Allen.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Yeah, I hate that he was an elementary school teacher.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
He served in the U.S. Navy and he was honorably discharged in 1959. And two years later in 1961, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, found work as a teacher, until he was fired in 1968 when a student made accusations of sexual misconduct. Weirdly, he was generally well-liked, but a lot of people in later years did find him to be strange.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And later, friends and neighbors would find similarities between the things that the Zodiac wrote in letters and comments made by Alan over the years. Just like the way he spoke and certain things he would say.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
It should also be said that Allen was the number one suspect for the lead detective on the case, who was Dave Toshi, and also a former San Francisco Chronicle writer, Robert Graysmith, who covered the case extensively for the paper. He also believed that this was like the number one guy.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Gray Smith and others who believe that Allen was the killer are not just speculating. They do cite some pretty compelling evidence. On the day of the attack at Lake Berryessa, Arthur Lee Allen was known to be only one of nine people to visit the lake that day. Wow. That's compelling.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Also on that same day, a Vallejo police officer pulled him over for speeding that afternoon, like the same day as the attack at the lake. Yeah. And when the officer looked in the back of Alan's car, he discovered a bloody hunting knife, which Alan said he used to kill chickens. Oh. Yep.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Before the killing started, Alan frequently bragged to his friends that he was, quote, going to hunt couples at night, send letters to the press, and call himself Zodiac. Before any of this happened. I mean, whoa. Allen's coworker, Don Chaney, told police about these statements and voluntarily took and passed a polygraph. Wow. Yeah.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
In 1971, Chaney reported Allen to the police after he made several alarming statements indicating a, quote, desire to commit violence, some of which like some of the things he was saying were similar to statements made in the Zodiac letters. He said, quote, that phrase about picking the little darlings off. I remembered that. And that's what forced me to go to the police. Wow, this is compelling.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Compelling, right? After their interview with Chaney in 1971, police actually interviewed Allen a number of times and they searched his home where they discovered hunting knives inside as well as a freezer of dead hamsters, squirrels, and birds.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
I don't know, man. But yeah. And in 1991, they searched his home again, and this time they found, quote, some writings, some pipe bombs, and some illegal weapons.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Yeah. Vallejo Police Captain Roy Conway told the San Francisco Chronicle in 1992, none of it was sufficient to make an arrest for him being the Zodiac.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Now, in 2002, DNA and fingerprint analysis was conducted comparing Allen's DNA and fingerprints to those found on the Zodiac letters, and they were not a match, which ruled him out as a suspect. But I don't know. I don't know. This one's weird. Yeah. Despite that finding, in 2018, Vallejo police detective Terry Poser told reporters, our Vallejo suspect, Alan, is probably still the best lead.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
There are probably 30 different circumstantial things that point to him. He was extremely intelligent, but a deviant dude. Unfortunately, he died of natural causes in 1992. Yeah. Yeah. Now, in 2004, the case was officially made inactive by higher-ups at the San Francisco Police Department. They explained that their caseload required them to just set aside some older unsolved cases. It makes sense.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Even if I don't want to listen to your gut, she's telling me things. Yeah, she's always talking.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But in 2007, the case was reopened when investigators wanted to do additional DNA testing. And in 2018, after the capture of Joseph James D'Angelo... the Golden State Killer, using familiar DNA testing. Another profile was put together actually using the DNA from samples from the Zodiac letters, but the results were inconclusive. Of course they were. Yeah.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But as of now, the case does remain open with the FBI. Holy shit. And that is the infamous Zodiac case.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Gajkowski hits really, really hard. Yeah. He's up there.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
The number one thing for me or the number like tied for number one pieces of evidence against Arthur Lee Allen are the fact that he was at Lake Berry at that day and only one of nine people. And then the fact that he got pulled over that afternoon and had a bloody hunting knife.
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Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
When you have all those other circumstantial pieces of evidence that we talked about and then he looks like the sketch.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
It's so interesting, too. Like, it's so weird because you hear, like, Zodiac and in your mind you're like, he killed, like, so many people.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But there's only, and it's awful, but there's only five that are confirmed. You just wonder how many people he actually killed. Yeah, because he claimed, like, somewhere in the 30s. Yeah, I think it ended up being, like, 37, something like that. And it's like... How many people weren't connected? That's the thing.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And again, the police came out and said themselves there were cases that were considered, but they just couldn't conclusively rank them. It's just scary. It freaks you out. It's a very wild, very interesting case.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
I mean, they solved the Golden State Killer case after how many years? Nope. Like you always say, a cold case is never cold. It's never cold. Yeah. Just got to warm it up a little. Just thaw it out. Yeah. So thaw that out, guys. Yeah. And we hope you keep listening. We hope you keep it weird.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But not to worry that we don't solve the Zodiac Killer case because can you fucking imagine if that's solved within our lifetimes? Let's go. It'd be crazy. Let's do it. Goodness. Thank you.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Like, in general, but it works with instinct. Yeah. So that's a little bit about our guts. Now let's get into it. So we're back. We're back, everybody, with part two. We're back. In part one, we went over the first of the attacks, which started with the murders of 17-year-old David Faraday and his girlfriend, Betty Lou Jensen. She was 16 years old, and this was her first boyfriend ever.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
That broke my heart. Awful. And her first date. And then we went over the attack zone, two more couples, 22-year-old Darlene Ferrin and 19-year-old Mike Majoe. Then lastly, 22-year-old Cecilia Shepard and 20-year-old Brian Hartnell. And if you remember from part one, those last two attacks, both of the men survived.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
It doesn't actually seem like that was intentional, like, on the part of the killer, but... You know, it happened. And, of course, we got into the theatrics that surround the case as far as the taunting letters to the media, the weird ciphers, the fucking crazy costume that he was wearing with the clip-on sunglasses. So unsettling. I'll never be over the clip-on sunglasses.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And the flat top of the head, like the executioner's hood being flat-topped.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Horrifying. Yeah. So now let's get into part two, which, as most of us know, unfortunately does not end with the capture of this fool. But luckily, the attack at Lake Berryessa produced more evidence than the first two attacks. Because remember, the first two attacks, there was like nothing to go off of, basically. This gave us a little bit more.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But not so luckily, detectives had pretty much exhausted any lead that they had within like two weeks. Yeah. Not great. No, not great at all. No, not great at all. The witness descriptions and communications with the killer allowed investigators to get some kind of insight into the person that they were looking for. But funny that I was just talking about profiling.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
At that time, psychological profiling was still years away. It wasn't a thing that was really tapped into yet. Yeah. And any kind of profile that they developed at that time was really just speculation. For example, a psychiatrist in Napa, quote, suggested that the killer may be psychotic rather than psychopathic. Thinking that the cipher revealed the Zodiac's delusional thinking.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Now, if you're like me and you found that quote a little bit confusing, according to a quick Google, psychosis, a.k.a. being psychotic, is a symptom of mental illness involving a loss of touch with reality.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by lack of empathy and remorse. Okay. That's the difference between those two things.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Because when I first read that, I was like, isn't that the same thing? Excuse me? And Google said, no. No. She sang it to me. She said, nor. She said, nor, girl. So within a matter of a few weeks, all the theories from a ton of sources started to merge into kind of one big theory that created a kind of unofficial and obviously, again, highly speculative profile of the killer.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
In early October, a reporter from the Sacramento Bee wrote, he's fairly bright, but his spelling and grammar indicate a poor education. This is a quote. He is fat, so he probably does not do too well with girls. In fact, he has unwittingly indicated a sexual inadequacy. Oh, and he is an astrology fan.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
I didn't like the look in your eye when you were saying that at all. Mikey said, nope.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And when the signs are right, he goes out and finds young boys and girls together who symbolize everything life has denied him. Wow. Oh, the 60s.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Damn. That was journalism. Yeah, sure was. But like a lot of the theories about the identity and motives of the Zodiac that have come out in, you know, five decades since the first attacks, it's unclear what led reporters and investigators to some of these conclusions and most of them.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But while everybody was speculating and piecing together the clues that they did have, the Zodiac was back out on the streets. On the afternoon of October 11th, 29-year-old cab driver Paul Stein got ready to head out for his shift for the night. Paul was a PhD candidate at San Francisco State College, and he was working as a cab driver just to cover the cost of his education.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
He was just a few months away from finishing his degree requirements and would have been on track to graduate in January. Not far at all. By 9.30 p.m., Paul had finished his first fare of the night, and he got a notification from the dispatcher about another fare needing to be picked up.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
While he was on his way to get this second fare, he stopped to pick up a single passenger, a man who hailed him at the intersection of Mason and Geary Streets. The man asked to be dropped off at Washington and Maple Streets, which was in a pretty wealthy neighborhood in San Francisco, Presidio Heights.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
So Paul entered the location in the logbook and started the meter and then pulled away from the curb. What happened next is really just based off of speculation based on evidence found at the scene. When they arrived at the intersection the passenger had requested, the man instructed Paul to drive just one block further to the corner of Washington and Cherry Streets.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Once there, the man produced a 9mm handgun and placed the barrel to the back of Paul's head just behind his right ear and pulled the trigger, killing Paul instantly. Come on. Nobody was really around to witness the actual shooting itself, but the sound of the gunshot was loud enough to attract the attention of three teenagers who were in an apartment building across the street.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And by the time they went to the window to see what the hell was happening, they actually saw the killer move from the back seat to the front passenger seat and where it seemed like he was going through Paul's pockets and some kind of robbery. So while one of the kids called the police, the other two went down to a lower floor of the building to try to get a better look at the guy in the cab.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And from their new position, they could see the shooter wiping down the surfaces on the cab with what looked like a cloth. And then he moved Paul's body into an upright position and exited the cab through the passenger door. He wiped down the handle before and after closing it.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Once he was outside the car, the shooter walked around to the driver's side, opened the door, and repositioned Paul's body again since it had kind of like slid down and forward when he got out.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And then after wiping down the inside and outside of that, the driver's side door, the man closed it and just calmly walked away from the scene toward Cherry Street like he was just some normal fucking dude walking down the street after taking a cab.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
You imagine watching that as a teenager, watching that ever.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Wiping the doors down, like, ugh. I hate it. So when the witnesses placed a call to the police, for some reason, there was some kind of miscommunication. And for whatever reason, the dispatcher thought that the shooter was a black man and advised responding officers to that detail.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
As a result, on their way to the scene, those officers drove right past the actual shooter as they traveled down Jackson Street, paying no attention to this white man casually walking away, even though he was the only person in the vicinity of the crime scene at that point.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
That is possible. You know? I don't think so, though, because I think that would have been, like, a major detail that the kids would have called.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Because it was, again, like, late 60s or early 70s. Yeah. Because I don't think he would have been wearing the outfit because I think Paul, like... That would have been startling. Yeah, it wouldn't have got to the final destination.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
And later on, the teenagers describe him, so yeah. That makes sense. So San Francisco police officers Armin Pellicetti and Frank Pita were the first to arrive at the scene, and they found two of the three teenage witnesses just standing near the cab. Just taking the scene in.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
After moving them to a location further from the scene, they took their statements, which is when they realized that that initial description of the shooter had been wrong, like somehow lost in translation. Mm-hmm. Pellicetti quickly radioed dispatch with the update of a corrected description and that went out to responding officers.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
But by the time the additional officers got to that area on Jackson Street where they had just passed a white man and like the only fucking man in the vicinity. Jesus Christ. He was gone.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
Completely gone. So back at the crime scene, Officer Pellicetti approached the cab and looked inside. By that point, Paul's body was again slumped forward and the officer could see that there was a hole in his head right behind his right ear. Between the injury and the large amount of blood in the front of the cab, it was obvious that Paul had died, unfortunately.
Morbid
Episode 668: The Zodiac Killer (Part 2)
In the backseat of the cab, the killer had left a pair of size 7 black leather gloves, which was a noticeably small size for a man at that time. They also found a single 9mm shell casing and 30 fingerprints. Wow. Which, remember, it's a cab, so tons of people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
The Basement Yard
#498 - The Morning Routine
I think it'd be cool to experience something that you have, like, just sitting around looking.
The Basement Yard
#498 - The Morning Routine
Dude, you're fucking... Actually, yeah, I mean, that's a... I mean, think about it.
The Basement Yard
#498 - The Morning Routine
I mean, I want to go see pyramids being built. I don't know, right? Yeah.
The Basement Yard
#498 - The Morning Routine
That's what I was going to say. The same people that say that usually go to sleep at 6.30 p.m. Yeah.
The Basement Yard
#498 - The Morning Routine
What the hell? Yeah. No, there's way more than that. I can look up the big magic machine.
The Basement Yard
#498 - The Morning Routine
I'm not a giant Dr. Pepper guy. Not naughty enough for me.
The Basement Yard
#498 - The Morning Routine
How'd you feel about the London food? Because when I went, I didn't really like it.