Culture

Has The Identity Of The Zodiac Killer Actually Been Revealed?

A cold case task force claims they've figured out who the Zodiac Killer is based on new "physical and forensic evidence".

by Michelle Rennex  7 October 2021
Zodiac Killer Gary Francis Poste

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I bet you probably didn’t have ‘the identity of the Zodiac Killer casually being revealed on a Thursday morning’ on your 2021 bingo card, hey?

Well, considering this year has well and truly proved that anything can happen, it’s really no surprise that a team of cold-case investigators reckon they’ve cracked the infamous case, more than 50 years after the serial killer’s first reported crime.

The Case Breakers task force — comprised of 40 former FBI agents, journalists, and retired law enforcement — claims that “physical and forensic evidence” actually points to the killer being a man named Gary Francis Poste.

But how exactly did Gary Francis Poste become the Case Breaker’s main suspect? Let’s dissect:

Who Is The Zodiac Killer?

The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer who terrorised Northern California in the late ’60s. While technically still unidentified, the Zodiac Killer murdered at least five people in the San Francisco area from 1968 to 1969. He is also tied to additional crimes, like the stabbing of Cheri Jo Bates in 1966.

The Zodiac Killer had seven known victims, two of whom survived. This included Paul Stine, Cecelia Shepard, Darlene Ferrin, David Faraday, and Betty Lou Jensen. Bryan Hartnell and Mike Mageau are the only ones who survived their attacks.

But the Zodiac isn’t one of the world’s most infamous serial killers because of his crimes. The Zodiac is actually so well-known because of the taunting letters sent to newspapers and the menacing calls made to police after the murders.

From 1969 to 1974, the Zodiac Killer sent numerous letters to media that claimed he was been responsible for 37 deaths — letters that were sometimes written in code. The Zodiac also threatened to kill again if these letters were published by the press.

One of these ciphers, known as 340 Cipher, was actually so hard to solve that it took last year’s lockdown for an Aussie mathematician to finally crack the code after half a century.

Sadly, decoding the infamous cipher didn’t reveal anything about the Zodiac Killer’s identity and investigators still had no clue who the killer was — that is, until the Case Breakers came out with their findings.

Who Are The Case Breakers?

The Case Breakers (TCB) are a non-profit cold case task force that volunteers their skills to help crack unsolved crimes. The “small army of volunteers” is comprised of 40 members who are either journalists, former law enforcement investigators, persecutors, or military intelligence officers.

According to their website, The Case Breakers’ three main goals are to “solve cold cases, fund more volunteer teams, and promote careers in all branches of public service”. They have been operating for 10 years.

Beyond the Zodiac Killer, TCB has also tackled other unsolved mysteries like Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance and the D.B. Cooper hijacking.

Why Do People Think Gary Francis Poste Is The Zodiac Killer?

In an interview with Fox News late last night, The Case Breakers pinned Gary Francis Poste as the Zodiac Killer. Poste, who died in 2018, became the main suspect of the task force after they discovered “new physical and forensic evidence”.

After securing pictures from Poste’s former darkroom, TCB found that the scars on Poste’s forehead — the result of a car crash — matched those found on the sketch of the Zodiac Killer.

The Case Breakers also believe that Poste was responsible for the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, which occurred in 1966.  At the scene of the crime, a paint-splattered wristwatch, that investigators believe was bought at a military base, was found along with a “military-style boot” footprint.

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After leaving the US Air Force, Poste was a house painter for 40 years. But as a veteran in the mid-1960s, he was still receiving check-ups at the March Air Force Base hospital for a gun injury, which was a 15-minute drive away from the murder location. Additionally, after trying to defend herself from the 42 stab wounds, brown hairs were found in Bates’ clenched fist.

The TCB team is now pleading for the Riverside Police Department (RPD) to allow those hairs to be tested against Poste’s DNA as forensic experts believe he is a “very strong suspect”.

Additionally, TCB thinks Poste is the Zodiac Killer because of the typed confession that was mailed to the RPD a month after Bates’ murder. This is because the 1966 confession and a hand-written Zodiac letter from 1970 both misspell the word “twitch” the same way.

The Case Breakers also claim to have Zodiac Killer eyewitnesses and sources that can speak to Poste’s alleged “criminal posse” — including an “outlaw-turned-Zodiac” whistleblower, a woman who was babysat by Poste, and Poste’s own daughter-in-law. You can read more about the sources here.

What Happens With The Zodiac Killer Case Now?

While an FBI spokesperson told The Washington Post that they would look into The Case Breakers’ claims that Gary Francis Poste was the Zodiac Killer, the case remains open.

According to The San Francisco Chronicle, police are skeptical of The Case Breakers’ theory because all evidence is currently circumstantial.

“Is there a chance that (the Case Breakers suspect) killed Cheri Jo Bates? No,” Riverside Police Officer Ryan Railsback told the newspaper. “If you read what [The Case Breakers] put out, it’s all circumstantial evidence. It’s not a whole lot.”

Over the years, authorities have investigated a number of potential suspects but have never been able to prove their guilt. One famous suspect was alleged pedophile Arthur Leigh Allen was interviewed as a suspect in 1969 and his home was searched again in 1972.

Where Has Gary Francis Poste Been For The Last Five Decades?

If Gary Francis Poste is actually found to be the Zodiac Killer, it’s too late to charge him with anything because he died at the age of 80 in 2018.

However, on the off-chance that investigators find Poste to be guilty, this means he was alive long enough to hear all the ‘Ted Cruz Is The Zodiac Killer’ memes and was around to watch films about the Zodiac’s crimes like Dirty Harry. This has been very amusing news to people online.

But other than that, Poste appeared to be a pretty regular guy who used Facebook and posed for photos he seemed to really want no part in.

As investigators have not yet confirmed The Case Breakers findings, no one can say for sure that Gary Francis Poste is the Zodiac Killer. But it does seem awfully strange that his friend randomly put the word “Zodiac?” in the middle of a random Facebook post in 2018.

Regardless, until we know more that’s everything you need to know about the latest Zodiac Killer suspect.

Michelle Rennex is a senior writer at Junkee. She tweets at @michellerennex.