Zodiac Killer Timeline

The late 1960’s and early 1970’s were a time of great change in America. The Vietnam War, the civil rights movement and the sexual revolution were just some of the issues on the evening news in American households. For citizens of the San Francisco Bay area, as well as the rest of California, the late 60’s early 70’represented terror, fear and death. “The bizarre and theatrical and still unresolved serial murders by real-life ghoul who called himself Zodiac, who claimed in letters to have killed 37 people (though police have focused on five homicides and two attempted murders in the greater Bay Area in 1968 and 1969” (Booth,2) have intrigued people for nearly four decades. How has Zodiac remained so elusive? What

Serial murders are not just part of the United States they also happen globally. There are many investigative tools that are used when working a serial murder case and we will discuss some of those. We will also discuss the problems with the media when it comes to serial murders. We will also talk about how the criticism of the public and media can affect serial murder cases.

Eric Hickey (2012) in “Serial Killers: Defining Serial Murder” defines what a serial killer is exactly. In the article the Hickey describes serial killers are usually

In the late sixties and early seventies, California was haunted by dozens of unsolved murders. The offender remains unknown to this day. The murderer, who referred to himself as "the Zodiac," made contact with the police and area newspapers throughout his reign of terror through a series of menacing notes. Although the police were never able to apprehend Zodiac, they were able to gather information about him via the letters. Zodiac boasted of killing up to forty victims, however, police estimated he may have killed over 50.

Out of all the Infamous killers in the U.S the two well-known killers that I will be researching are Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy. These two murderers share many similarities such as their backgrounds, Crimes, and Motives. Both Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy are serial killers who’ve killed over a dozen people each. They’ve committed crimes including rape, murder, and kidnapping. In this research paper I will be comparing and contrasting the two serial killers.

     In October, Zodiac murdered a man named Paul Stine and within moments of Stine's murder, Zodiac found himself face to face with two San Francisco Police officers. The killer actually talked his way out of the most risky situation he had ever faced. I think that's pretty amazing considering he was confronted with all that male power, which he always seemed to avoid. By luck, Zodiac got out of being arrested that night, and later bragged about what happened to the authorities, frustrating them in a way that was obviously hard to deal with.

Ever heard of the zodiac killer? He was a serial killer who operated in northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The killer's identity remains unknown. The Zodiac murdered victims in 5 states between December 1968 and October 1969. The general profile for a serial killer is a person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, predictable behavior pattern. There are many types of serial killers. There are natural born killers who are born willing to kill someone, insane killers which have mental and physical disorders and criminaloids who do not exhibit specific traits. The childhood of a serial killer would typically be someone who is neglected by their family mainly their mothers. They tend to be antisocial and have anger issues. Poor families often cannot provide what the child always wants so they might commit crimes to get want they want. Abused children have a higher chance of being killers also because they have a lot of built up aggression and anger. All can lead to substance abuse which is never a good thing to mix in with a potential serial killer in the making. General behavioral progression from pre-crime to post-crime are that they use killing as a source of relief. Before committing a serious crime they could have built up anger and hatred. They is a high possibility that they are suffering from depression and anxiety too. After killing someone the killer feels relieved. They also feel

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.

The serial killer I chose to do my report on was Dennis Rader. Rader was born on March 9, 1945 in Pittsburg, Kansas and as of today he is still alive. Rader was the oldest of four sons. When Dennis was a child he hung stray cats. He grew up in Wichita, Kansas. Rader served our country by joining the U.S Air Force which he served from the mid to late 1960’s. He got married to Paula in 1971 and he work for a company that sold camping gear but he only worked there for a few years. He worked for ADT services in 1974.

The Zodiac Killer was an infamous murderer who terrorized Northern California in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. He killed with zero remorse and even stated in one of his letters that “I like killing people because it’s so much fun” (“Zodiac Killer”). Between December 1968 and October 1969 had killed a total of five people and severely injured two others. He made his first appearance on December 20, 1968, when he shot and killed 17-year-old David Faraday and his 16-year-old girlfriend Betty Lou Jensen. The police were unable to determine the motive for the crime or a suspect. However, on August 1, 1969, the zodiac sent letters to the San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle, and Vallejo Times Herald. Each letter started the same “Dear Editor:

This research paper will explore the life of a serial killer named Ted Bundy. We will look at the cause and effects of him becoming a serial killer. We will also discuss the different criminology theories behind Ted Bundy’s actions. Based on what was discovered in the research no one theory can explain the action of Ted Bundy as a serial killer. The remainder of the paper is laid out as follows: biography of Ted Bundy, introduction, discussion of crimes and theories, and the conclusion.

What has the Zodiac done. The Zodiac left his fingerprints in the cab in which paul Stein was murdered in his own taxi. The Zodiac Killer is known for trickery that's why he is on their top ten unsolved murders of all time. The Zodiac was a mysterious killer that was never caught. The Zodiac said “I like killing people because people can fight back.” There's a lot we don’t know about the Zodiac Killer because we don’t know his identity. The Zodiac operated in Northern California. The Zodiac Killer is a killer that killed five people in California. The victims of The Zodiac Killer were killed in Benicia, ValleJo Lake, Berryessa, and San Francisco. He was never caught after forty-five years. Recently Jory Starliper solved one of the 340 ciphers.

The horrors in California began on Friday, December 20, 1968 in the city of Vallejo when sixteen-year-old Betty Lou Jensen and seventeen-year-old David Faraday were killed while out on a date. At the time, according to Haugen (2011), they had driven to a remote lover’s lane on Lake Herman Road. It was while they were there that a vehicle stopped nearby and the driver got out, shot out the rear passenger window of David Faraday’s station wagon, and then shot the left rear tire. The man shot Faraday behind the left ear, while Betty Lou Jensen was running for the road. Unfortunately, she was unable to escape and was shot in the back five times by the assailant before he fled the scene.

Serial killers walk among us every day; they can walk past us without us even knowing. Murderers have been around for years. There are many people who have heard of some famous ones, such as: Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, and The Zodiac Killer. Serial killers each have a different motivation and a different backstory. Jeffrey Dahmer is a good example. Dahmer, over the course of thirteen years, killed a total of seventeen men that he found in gay bars, bus stops, and malls. Jeffrey Dahmer was withdrawn and eventually became friendless. He became interested in murder and necrophilia at the age of fourteen, but did not act on his impulses until the breakdown of his parents’ marriage and their divorce (“Jeffrey Dahmer”). Dahmer was turned into a killer from his lack of social skills and the isolation his parents’ divorce created. John Wayne Gacy is another good example. Gacy, at a young age, was beaten by his father, along with his mother. He became alienated at school due to a heart condition that his father also saw as another failure. Later, Gacy found out that he was attracted to men, causing an inner issue with himself that continued into his outward actions (“John Wayne Gacy”). The lack of acceptance that Gacy had led to his dangerous life choices and his father's continuous abuse. Serial killers are a form of evil plaguing our world from the lack of parental care and support; therefore, it is a known fact that serial killers are created and

Explaining a mystery is an act of reassurance. It makes us feel that chaos has been defeated, and the forces of order restored. Zodiac, David Fincher's vastly intricate and dazzling drama about the hunt for the serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area starting in 1969, offers no such soothing closure, and that's part of what's haunting about it. It spins your head in a new way, luring you into a vortex and then deeper still, fascinating us as much for what we don't know as what we do. Reenacting one of the most infamous "cold" cases in U.S. criminal history, Fincher has broken with the fanciful mode of tawdry baroque opulence he employed in Fight Club, Panic Room, and his first serial-killer outing, Seven. Zodiac is based on piles of documents culled from police records, and it's been made in a style of