Hello to the board!

I’m a huge fan of comic-books, especially older ones, as well as fantasy and actually, old pulp stories. I suppose that is part of what fuels my interest in the case because I sense a strong influence from comic-books and pulp magazines in the Zodiac persona. Perhaps the greatest reason for my interest in the case, though, is simply that it has not been solved. I checked out a book called "The Encyclopedia of American Crime" from the school library in 6th grade and I think that’s where I first came across the Zodiac. I couldn’t quite process the fact that the case didn’t have a definitive end, that someone had done the sorts of things the Zodiac had done and never paid the piper.

I kept coming back to the case after that, almost to double-check, to make sure that I hadn’t misread something, because it was just hard to accept. I think I was in high school when I first heard about Arthur Leigh Allen, which made things even more frustrating because the sources I read regarding him made it seem as though he was ever so close to being a fit, but not quite.

Then I read through another encyclopedia, this one on serial killers, which I believe has been since pulled from shelves, because it seemed to disappear suddenly. This one had an entry on Zodiac that focused heavily on Gareth Penn’s theories and provided a dramatic, compelling and highly sympathetic account of his search for the Zodiac Killer. It made it seem as if Michael O’Hare had been taunting Penn and had even made attempts on his life. The story was so compelling that I became hooked after that, even though it wasn’t long after that I realized how one-sided the encyclopedia’s account of the case had been.

That was long, long ago, close to 20 years, but ever since then it has occupied a place in my mind. The same could be said for the Original Night Stalker case, somewhat; I came across it in high school while looking up information on Richard Ramirez for a paper I was working on and just couldn’t get it out of my head that unlike Ramirez, the Original Night Stalker had never been caught. Here’s hoping Zodiac shares the same fate as Deangelo