Essay on The Zodiac Killer

Serial murder is one of the most baffling crimes that occur in the U.S. and all over the world. Knight (2006) defines serial murder as the killing of three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a significant cooling-off period. The cooling off period may be weeks, months or even years long. Researchers have proposed various psychological, biological and sociological theories that offer a partial understanding of the nature of serial murder. Some propose that the basis for criminal behavior is a predisposition to violence as well as a mix between environment, personality traits and biological factors. Serial killers are predominantly male. Only 3 percent of serial murders are committed by women (U.S. News and World Report,

Zodiac's first victim was Cherri Jo Bates. Although the murder was not attributed to Zodiac until 1970, she was murdered one day before Halloween in 1966. Like Zodiac's other victims Cherri Jo was a student. She lived with her father in Riverside, California and attended Riverside City College. She was a petite blond with blue eyes, although she was tan at the time of her death she had a light complexion. (Graysmith, 164)

Ted Bundy was an American born rapist, a necrophile; a serial killer and a kidnapper who assaulted and murdered several young women during the 1970’s. The criminal kept on denying the charges for more than ten years and later confessed of having committed the thirty homicide crimes in seven different states before his execution (Rule, 2009). Bundy’s handsome and charismatic appearance made it possible for him to easily win the confidence of young women who were always his targets. He broke into the dwellings of his victims at night and bludgeoned them as they slept. He also approached young women in public places where he impersonated as an authority figure or feigned injury on his victim before empowering and assaulting at a

Once again, he killed the female and failed to kill the male. It seems like he was intimidated by another man's power, maybe he was afraid to lose to a struggle. People say that killing women-for him-was the only intimate relationship he could have with one. The error was pointed out in the media that this serial killer seemed unable to kill the males. It was mysterious to people. This angered Zodiac enough for him to prove people wrong. Two weeks after his last attack, he shot a young male cab drive in the back of the head.

Death is the sixth highest fear in the US. The idea of death is very prominent in our society, as around 6,775 people die a day, in the US alone. Serial killers are the monsters of the real world and should be feared the most. Villains in comic books or movies are fake, and can only bring us entertainment or the sense of being afraid. Serial killers bring true fear into people’s lives. The Zodiac uses this knowledge of fear and implements it into his own style of killing mass amounts of people, and not be caught. The Zodiac Killer’s intelligence is used to get away from the police, with killing many people of all statuses, age, and gender, by using ciphers and encrypted messages slowly giving the police hints. These hints are used so that

Los Angeles, California went through a time period where serial killings happened and the suspect was on the run for over two decades. Most of the victims were prostitutes in South Los Angeles. The serial killer began his killings in 1987, apparently stopped for 13 years then resumed with his killings. The killer left little to no evidence, besides his DNA from sexually assaulting his female victims. For decades LAPD failed to find the killer or anyone who was related to him (Dolan & Landsberg, 2010).

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

Lucas Kelleher/ Street Law 10/3/08 The Zodiac Killer The Zodiac Killer is a serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s. His identity to this day still remains unknown. The Zodiac coined his name in a series of taunting letters he sent to the press. His letters included four cryptograms (or ciphers), three of which have yet to be solved. The Zodiac murdered five known victims in Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa, and San Francisco between December 1968 and October 1969. Four men and three women between the ages of 16 and 29 were targeted. Others have also been suspected to be Zodiac victims, but they have been ruled inconclusive. The lack of consensus about the number of victims, the inability of law enforcement

The Zodiac usually targeted young couples in secluded areas. He used both guns and knives as weapons. On at least one occasion he wore an unusual costume. On two occasions he telephoned the police afterward to report his murders. After killing, the Zodiac would write letters to local newspapers and demand they be published. The letters would sometimes include physical evidence from a crime scene. Occasionally the Zodiac would send the newspapers cryptograms which he claimed included his identity. The Zodiac sent at least 18 letters, usually to newspapers. The first confirmed incident took place on the night of December 20, 1968, when 17-year-old David Faraday and his 16-year-old girlfriend Betty Lou Jensen were shot to death near their car at a remote spot on Lake Herman Road, on the outskirts of Vallejo, California. Then, on the early morning of July 5, 1969, Darlene Ferrin, age 22, and her boyfriend, Mike Mageau, age 19, were sitting in parked car in a similarly remote Vallejo location when they were approached by a man with a flashlight who fired multiple shots at them, killing Ferrin and seriously wounding Mageau. Within an hour of the incident, a man called the Vallejo Police

Zodiac’s career, which would become the most cerebral murder case of all time, began in Riverside California on the night of October 30, 1966. The first victim, Cheri Jo Bates, a young student at the university was brutally murdered outside the college library. She was stabbed 42 times with a knife with a small

The man then proceeded to fire multiple shots at them, resulting in the death of Darlene and seriously wounding Mike. Within an hour of the incident, a man called the Vallejo police department, giving them the location of the crime scene as well as claiming responsibility for both that attack and the attack that had occurred in 1968. Despite the evidence including fingerprints, the decoded ciphers, a wave of tips and leads, his confession, and Mageau’s description of him being “A young white male between the age of 26 and 30 having a stocky build with light brown curly hair” the police were unable to track down the zodiac (“The Zodiac Killer”). Then on the evening of September 27, 1969, he struck again, approaching a young couple Cecilia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell. Wearing an executioner styled hood with his symbol on it, he tied them up before brutally stabbing them, he scrawled a message for the police on their car door before leaving the scene. He then called the Napa police department to claim responsibility and provide the location of his victims. Shepard and Hartnell were both alive when emergency services arrived, however Shepard died shortly

In the San Francisco Bay area, as well as in the rest of California, the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s was a time of terror and fear. What started out as a seemingly random, but brutal murder on the night of October 30th, 1966, turned out to be the start of a series of horrific murders that would span 2,500 suspects, 56 possible victims, and over 400 miles. On the calm, cool night of December 20th, 1968, a young seventeen year-old named David Arthur Faraday was getting ready to take a young sixteen year-old named Betty Lou Jensen on her first date.

December 20, 1968 David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen would go on their first and last date together. On this fateful day the two would be brutally murdered by an unknown killer, who would become known as the Zodiac Killer. There are as many as 37 other victims that were claimed by the Zodiac Killer. The Zodiac Killer’s identity is still unknown today and is the antagonist of one of the most disturbing cases in American history. As the Zodiac Killer took innocent lives as if he was picking candy from a candy store he tested what methods worked, what he liked, and how to not get caught. He took innocent lives of people, and did it in some of the most brutal ways possible (Zodiac). This sounds a lot like a problem we are faced with in today’s society; the destruction of children for the use of stem cell research, the use of embryonic cells, and cloning.

“Zodiac Killer.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 31 Jan. 2018, www.biography.com/people/zodiac-killer-236027. Accessed 22 February 2018. The author of this article went into detail about the facts of the Zodiac case. They explained what happened to each of the victims and how the Zodiac Killer contacted the police afterwards. They not only talked about the facts of the case, but about the movie that came out based on the Zodiac killings.

Creeping around the shadowy house, the predator found its prey waking to strange sounds. The victim lay facedown, with a sweating forehead pressed fearfully into the pillow, silently praying the noises would just go away. Suddenly the victim found himself straddled and pinned to the bed. He was unable to scream for help due to the pressure of the handle of a pick-axe against his throat, preventing any breath from escaping, much less any sound. The victim struggled beneath the weight of the assailant. The scant light from the sodium-arc street light outside cast a peculiar silhouette on the walls of the darkened room, projecting an image that looked oddly like that of a cowboy saddled upon