The Zodiac (Part Two: This Is The Zodiac)

Unresolved

Unresolved Productions

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2018

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Three weeks after the Fourth of July shooting incident at Blue Rock Springs Park - in Vallejo, California - a mysterious series of letters were received by publications in San Francisco's Bay Area. The writer offered up a three-part cipher, which supposedly contained the identify of the shooter.

As the media began to pick apart these cryptograms, another couple of crimes seem to continue the killer's crime spree. First, a young couple is brutally attacked at Napa County's scenic Lake Berryessa in September of 1969; then, a San Francisco cab driver is randomly targeted just weeks later, in October.

The writer of the original letters - who dubbed himself "The Zodiac" - takes credit for all of these murders. But then he begins to wage a war of terror on the Bay Area itself...

Part two of three.

Written, hosted, and produced by Micheal Whelan

Learn more about the podcast at unresolved.me

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Music Credits

krackatoa - "Noahs Stark"

The Gateless Gate - "The Idea Of North"

Pulse Emitter - "Triangulum Galaxy"

Joao Picoito - "Untitled"

Kai Engel - "Sunset"

ROZKOL - "Stay Quiet"

Parvus Decree - "Subway Reflections"

Jahzzar - "Little Chance"

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	On July 31, 1969, three separate letters were received by the mail centers of the following
0:17.8	newspapers.
0:19.2	The Vallejo Times Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Francisco Examiner, each of
0:25.8	the three letters were handwritten and written in a slanted format.
0:30.1	The three letters differed from one another in certain aspects, but included the same
0:34.6	salutations, signature, and basic information.
0:38.8	Each letter began with dear editor and then proceeded to take credit for the two shootings,
0:44.3	both the Leicherman Roadmurders, which took place around last Christmas, with two S's
0:49.5	at the end of the word, and the girl who was shot near the Vallejo Golf Course on the 4th
0:54.4	of July.
0:55.6	These letters then went on to detail facts of the separate crimes, which were only known
0:59.9	by police and the person's responsible.
1:03.3	These included details about the ammunition used in each shooting, the clothing that the
1:07.5	victims had been wearing, and the location of their gunshot wounds.
1:12.1	Also included with each of these letters was a segment of a cipher, consisting of odd
1:16.7	numbers, letters, and characters.
1:19.8	Each newspaper was given a third of the whole cipher, which, when arranged and deciphered,
1:25.9	was supposed to contain the identity of the person responsible.
1:29.8	The person who wrote the letters demanded that each portion of the cipher be put on the
1:33.8	front page of their paper the following day, Friday, August 1st.
1:38.6	If not, the writer threatened to, quote,
1:41.6	"'Cruise around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again,
	...

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