S3 E1: New York Zodiac Copycat: Kid, You've Got the Case

Break in the Case

New York Citiy Police Department

True Crime

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s the summer of 1990, and crime in New York City is at an all-time high. Daily headlines bring fresh stories of random violence and stranger-on-stranger crime. Then, one day in June, someone calling himself “Zodiac” writes a disturbing letter to the New York Post. He claims to have killed three people in Brooklyn according to their astrological signs, and he promises to kill nine more. When the shootings check out, the NYPD forms a Zodiac Task Force. Retired Lieutenant Michael Ciravolo and retired New York Post reporter Anne Murray recount their involvement in the early days of the investigation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence. Please be advised.
0:09.6	So I came in that morning at 7 a.m. It's working at 7 or 3.
0:15.1	That's retired Lieutenant Michael Cerevolo. In May 1990, he was a detective sergeant
0:21.2	overseeing the Queen's crimes against senior citizen squad.
0:24.9	As I walked in, pouring my cup of coffee and he caught him own approach me.
0:29.8	And he had worked night watch the night before. And he said,
0:34.2	Sergeant, we had a shooting of a senior last night in the 102 precinct.
0:39.6	And this note was found near the body. And it was a very, very bizarre,
0:46.7	eerie note with some cryptic signs on it.
0:50.2	The note was written on white loose leaf paper.
0:53.0	At the top of the page was a circular zodiac chart with three symbols,
0:57.6	Scorpio, Gemini, and Taurus. At the bottom, there was a drawing of a gun site.
1:03.6	This is a zodiac. The 12 signs will die when the belts in the heaven are seen.
1:09.1	It was signed Faust, a reference to a literary character who sold his soul to the devil.
1:15.4	To me, it immediately was reminiscent of the Son of Sam Case.
1:20.4	The serial killer Son of Sam, whose real name was David Berkowitz,
1:24.5	killed six people and wounded seven others in New York City in 1977.
1:30.3	During his crime spree, he terrorized the city by writing taunting notes
1:35.2	to both police and the media.
1:37.1	I walked down the hall and detective Bill Clark, a top-notch homicide detective in Queen's,
1:44.1	is having his coffee at 7 a.m., and we went to the scene.
1:49.0	The shooting took place in Woodhaven, a quiet block of two-story homes near Highland Park,
	...

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