S3 E2: New York Zodiac Copycat: We Need to Put This Fire Out

Break in the Case

New York Citiy Police Department

True Crime

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2023

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

At Zodiac Task Force headquarters in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, tips pour in from across the city. Even the psychics get in on the action. After one of the victims dies from his wounds in the hospital, the case becomes a homicide.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence. Please be advised.
0:08.9	It's early morning, Thursday, June 21, 1990. 21 days since the zodiac shot Joseph
0:16.3	Proci in front of his house on the Brooklyn Queen's border. A special operation is in effect.
0:23.4	Operation Watchdog. All night, the zodiac task force circles a five-block area where the
0:29.8	first three shootings occurred, looking for the zodiac. But he has other plans. He takes an
0:36.0	A train to Central Park and shoots a homeless man. For task force leaders, Sergeant Michael
0:41.9	Cerevolo, the fourth shooting changes the scope of the investigation. He's got a victim in Central
0:48.3	Park. Now, where do I concentrate the manpower? The victim, 30-year-old Larry Parham,
0:55.5	what's sleeping on a park bench near the banjo? He woke up to a burning sensation in his chest,
1:01.7	said he saw a guy running away. The zodiac left note on the bench, written on loosely paper
1:07.6	in blue bullpoint pen and green fell tip marker. The 12 signs will die when the belts in the
1:13.8	heaven are seen. Like other notes written by Zodiac, there was a drawing of crosshairs
1:20.4	and a zodiac chart with three astrological signs. At the bottom of the note was a drawing of the
1:26.5	symbol for cancer. The fourth sign, it said. That was true. Larry Parham's sign was cancer.
1:33.9	That note was sent to the lab. We also were able to dig around and we got another round and that
1:40.3	was sent to the lab. It went in and out of the victim and was lodged in the bench.
1:45.9	Sergeant Cerevolo's long night turned into an even longer day. Chief Burrelli calls me again
1:53.5	and he says, I'm going to give you a task force. I'm going to give you the best detectives in
1:58.0	New York City and we got to get this guy and we got to get him quick. This case had become so high
2:04.9	profile, so quickly, there's great urgency to this because now the press is running with this case.
2:13.6	I'm Retired Detective Sergeant Wally Giants and you're listening to Break in a Case, a true crime
2:21.7	podcast written and produced by the New York City Police Department and supported by the New York
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