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The Zodiac: A Reigning Symbol of Terror, 45 Years Later

Who is the Zodiac Killer?

Bryan Cain-Jackson
Bryan Cain-Jackson, Yahoo Contributor Network
Jan 7, 2014

The 1960’s saw an eruption of violence – the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy in 1963; Malcolm X in 1964; Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968.

In 1966, Richard Speck committed one of the most grotesque acts of violence in Chicago in which he raped and murdered 8 nurses in Chicago.

The phrase that would later refer to someone going crazy known as climbing a bell tower was born in the 1960’s in one of the first school shootings. Less than a month and a half after Speck’s murder massacre, Charles Whitman engaged in a mass shooting rampage all from within the top of the bell tower on the campus of the University of Texas.

Multiple serial killers began to sprout up throughout the decade – please bear in mind this was before the phrase "serial killer," which we know to be common today, was a known terminology at the time that all of this violence was taking place.

It was at the end of the decade that one of the world’s most notorious serial killers would begin to "do his thing," and leave a permanent mark on the Northern California Bay Area.

The infamous killer would make his claim to fame by creating a unique moniker for himself and through murder and intrigue – in albeit not the most typical ways

The Beginning

In Vallejo, California — December 20, 1968, a cold Friday night that reached a low of 27 degrees. It was one of the coldest nights on record.

David Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16, were going out on their very first date together. Although the two didn’t get to see each other often because they went to two different schools, they were quite smitten with each other. David was a senior at Vallejo High School while Betty was a junior at Hogan High School.

Betty was particularly excited because this was going to be the first time that her parents even allowed her to go on a date – this was a big deal, she labored with her sister for hours that day over which outfit looked the best. After all, nothing could be left to chance when it came to her Prince Charming.

David was very well liked and respected by all of his peers in high school; he demonstrated leadership in everything that he did – particularly in his extracurricular activities.

The time had come, David drove a two-toned 1961 Rambler station wagon, dark tan over light tan. He drove to pick up Betty at her home just a short distance away from his in Vallejo. There, he met Mr. and Mrs. Jensen, Betty’s parents. He and Betty told them that they would be attending a Christmas concert.

David and Betty had different plans.

After going to a Christmas party to hang out with friends, they went to a local diner to have a meal and get in some alone time.

From that diner, David and Betty would take a drive down Columbus Parkway until it led them to a dark and secluded area.

Lake Herman Road was a narrow and at the time not very well driven area that was known as a lover’s lane. Teenagers frequented this road in search of privacy, listening to music, getting high, holding hands – among other things.

At night, Lake Herman was pitch dark, like a country road with no street lights. It would get so dark, you wouldn’t be able to see your own hand in front of you.

It was just after 11:00pm when they arrived at a turn in that was gated and locked. It was actually the entrance to a pumping station – they were no longer in Vallejo, it was an unincorporated area. Today, it’s part of the city of Benicia, California.

They sat, talked, listened to music, and probably held hands.

Around 11:10pm, a car pulls up beside them. Since, it was known at that time for being a regular spot where young people would hang out – nothing was thought of it, therefore, it’s believed that David and Betty had no reason to be alarmed by the arrival of another car.

A strange man gets out of the car, a small flashlight is lit – the man raises the flashlight and a single gunshot is fired at the back right window of David’s car.

The flashlight was pencil-sized and taped to the barrel of the man’s .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol. Such a primitive handmade gun sight was actually effective in aiding the man with his aim – it was safe to assume that he had fairly average marksmanship, but he was no expert.

The first shot was no doubt terrifying, Betty screams, she jumped out of the driver’s seat of the car – the man aimed for her head but missed and fired into the roof lining of the car.

The man swiftly approached the passenger side door where David was getting out of the car and fired a single shot at the back of his head right behind his left ear at point blank range. David fell to the ground and bled out.

Betty was trying to run in the dark, she hadn’t gotten very far but was making her way to the road when the man caught up with her and fired five shots at her – all of them hit her in the back, she fell face first to the ground and was dead within seconds.

The man looks at his handy work and makes sure they are dead, he calmly walks back to his car, gets in it and drives away slowly, careful in not drawing attention to himself.

David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, two young people who felt deeply for each other and whose lives were extinguished far too early as the result of a brutal murderer committing a senseless act.

Local resident, Stella Borges, was headed to Benicia High School to pick her grandson up after his recital. She and her daughter, also named Stella, had gotten into her big Oldsmobile and started down the narrow Lake Herman Road where she and her family lived on a ranch.

Driving down the familiar road, they were coming to a leftward turn – to the right of that narrow road was the entrance to the pumping station where moments earlier David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were fatally shot.

Within seconds, in the view of her car’s headlamps was a station wagon and two bodies lying on the ground in a pool of blood.

Stella pushed the pedal to the floor and sped as fast as she could, honking her horn as she drove, she was distraught and hoping to get the attention of someone. Minutes later, Stella found a member of local law enforcement to report what she saw.

The Benicia Police department, followed by Solano County Sheriff’s department and the Fairfield, California newspaper – the Daily Republic’s photographer were at the scene.

After as thorough an investigation as possible with crime scene analysis techniques of the time, very little evidence was left behind by the murderer.

Days turn into weeks and then months, the case eventually goes cold.

Unbeknownst to Stella Borges, the investigators, the Faraday and Jensen families – they were about to become part of the now legendary story of an unsolved set of serial murders in the Northern California Bay Area.

These heinous acts were committed by a murderer who called himself – the Zodiac.

The Aftermath

The Zodiac did more than claim the lives of victims, he immortalized the attacks with his own desire to be the center of attention – a desire that was so deep rooted within him, that he controlled the entire Bay Area.

Starting with his second murder in Vallejo, California seven months later on July 4, 1969, a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle would follow. The letter would sometimes be accompanied by a cryptogram that the Zodiac taunted the press and the police with.

It was signed with a simple, yet terrifying – a gun sight.

It would not be until the murderer’s second letter, that he would give himself the moniker that all would come to fear upon hearing it.

The Zodiac rose to national fame in October of 1969 with a threat to take out a school bus one morning and to "pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out."

The Zodiac’s threat towards school children after claiming the lives of five people was not taken lightly. For close to a year, nearly every county in the Bay Area were tasking the police to patrol every school bus in the mornings and afternoons every day. Armed with shotguns and other forms of heavy artillery, law enforcement fully expected the Zodiac to make good on his threat.

"I can remember at a young age seeing the report of the Zodiac threatening school buses on the CBS Evening News with Walter Kronkite, my mother was terrified." Tom Voigt, founder of Zodiackiller.com said.

"He [Zodiac] was the earliest example of a domestic terrorist," Tom said. "Jack the Ripper sent letters too, but the Zodiac took it to a new level."

Zodiackiller.com celebrates its 15th anniversary. Tom is the definitive expert on the case. In fact, it’s safe to assume that the website’s tip hotline probably receives more tips than the four law enforcement agencies that have a Zodiac case in their jurisdiction combined.

In a case this infamous, we all know that there will be quite a few ridiculous suspects that are brought to Tom’s attention.

"Apparently, Peter O’Toole had been named a suspect at one point. D.B. Cooper, who was most famous for hijacking an airliner, was once considered a suspect." Tom said.

Onion, an often hilarious online satire news publication, reported that Dick Van Dyke had confessed to being the Zodiac.

The Zodiac case is clearly one of the most famous unsolved serial murder cases in history – second to Jack the Ripper.

In cases such as these, fact gives way to interpretation of the events and its suspects – meaning that often the facts will become shrouded in the beliefs and opinions of millions of different individuals from the original investigators to armchair sleuths as well as other interested spectators.

In order to properly research the case, one must start at the beginning to separate fact from fiction.

It all comes down to one question.

Who is the Zodiac?

It’s very possible that this question might not ever be answered. However, that won’t stop people from believing who they want to believe is the Zodiac.

There have been many theories – let’s start with the two primary suspects in the original Zodiac investigation that garnered serious attention from law enforcement at that time.

Tom, in his expertise in the Zodiac investigation, will walk us through this.

"Arthur Leigh Allen was the first major Zodiac suspect and was eventually subjected to three warrants. To police, Allen was mainly of interest because he had two individuals — Don Cheney and Ralph Spinelli – separately claim that he confessed to them he was the Zodiac. There were also circumstantial details about Allen that were compelling, such as the close proximity of his residence to two Zodiac crime scenes. However, he was eventually ruled out based on having the wrong handwriting, fingerprints, palm prints and DNA to be the Zodiac. In 2001, almost a decade after Allen died, Don was subject to a DNA test by police because of suspicion he might have been the actual Zodiac while framing Allen. Don’s DNA was not a match to the suspected Zodiac DNA obtained by police and Don was cleared of involvement. In 2007, Allen was immortalized as the villain in the David Fincher film, Zodiac, starring Robert Downey, Jr."

"Rick Marshall, who was also immortalized in the Fincher film, became a Zodiac suspect because of comments he made over his H.A.M. radio during a conversation with two strangers. Even with police involvement, nothing solid was ever found to tie Marshall to the Zodiac crimes. In 2009, Marshall was eliminated as a Zodiac suspect after a tip I received via Zodiackiller.com. The tip was from a woman who worked at a care facility in the Sacramento, California area. She told me that Marshall was a patient where she worked, and that he had spoken about the Zodiac case. She found him to be extremely suspicious and was not sure what to do. Thinking Marshall might finally be ready to talk due to his advanced age and deteriorating health, I contacted my sources at the Napa County Sheriff’s Department, the agency that originally investigated Marshall back in the 1970s. Two detectives made the trek to Sacramento and spent a significant amount of time interviewing Marshall. The info obtained from that interview was enough for investigators to finally dismiss Marshall as a viable Zodiac suspect after more than three decades."

Once again, the question that remains at the forefront of anyone’s mind where this case is concerned – who is the Zodiac?

The last 5 years have certainly added more fiction to the Zodiac investigation thus further clouding the facts. This happens via people who are either completely convinced that they have identified the Zodiac, or like the Zodiac himself, they are media whores.

Intense scrutiny had been placed on Jack Tarrance, via Dennis Kaufman; for a snap second we watched as a real estate agent named Deborah Perez stood on the steps of the San Francisco Chronicle alongside her personal representative who was nothing more than a disbarred attorney and made the announcement to the press that her father, Guy Ward Hendrickson, was the Zodiac. A retired California Highway Patrol Officer, Lyndon E. Lafferty, wrote a book that many consider being unreadable claiming that the Zodiac lived in Fairfield, California. Apparently, Lafferty’s suspect went on a killing spree as the Zodiac as a result of his wife having had an affair with a known Solano County politician.

"There will always be people who come forward with theories and stories that might hold water, while others are just sad." Tom said.

As we have indicated previously, Tom is an expert in this case and has dedicated himself to helping the dozens of people who have been marred by these events find justice.

That brings us to where we are at today.

A Person of Interest

Earlier in this story, we spoke of Tom’s credibility in the ongoing investigation into the Zodiac. It’s hard to refer to it as an ongoing investigation. Using that terminology means that each of the law enforcement agencies that have had a Zodiac murder in their jurisdiction are actively investigating any and all possible leads.

While it’s true that three of the four law enforcement agencies are actively investigating any and all possible leads into solving the Zodiac case, it’s clearly evident that Zodiackiller.com gets more leads and seems to be trusted on a greater scale than law enforcement. The agencies that have a Zodiac case are the Solano County Sheriff’s Department, Vallejo Police Department, Napa County Sheriff’s Department, and the San Francisco Police Department. San Francisco has reportedly closed their Zodiac case, although it officially remains unsolved.

Tom works with the law enforcement agencies on viable leads that his website receives in the case.

The most recent and promising lead that has been brought to Zodiackiller.com has peaked Tom’s interest.

"His name is Richard Gaikowski." Tom stated.

Richard Gaikowski, born in 1934 in Watertown, South Dakota is considered by many followers of the Zodiac case to be one of the most compelling suspects to date.

It was one of Richard’s closest friends who first informed Tom of why he believed that this individual is the Zodiac.

"On the message board of Zodiackiller.com is a section called, ‘Gyke: Nails in the Coffin.’ This is a list of the most compelling circumstantial evidence that makes Gyke a good suspect in the Zodiac case."

According to our conversation with Tom and the contents of this list provided on the websites, here is a small sample of confirmed facts that make this a truly compelling suspect.
•· Richard Gaikowski used several aliases which were variations of his name; Dick Gaik, Dick Gike, and D. Gyke. The latter, "Gyke," can be found in the dead center of part of the Zodiac’s first cipher. In the letter accompanying this cipher, the Zodiac indicated that "in this cipher you will find my identity."
•· Gyke was a newspaper man, albeit, not an ordinary one. He served as an editor for an underground newspaper called Good Times – a newspaper that one month after the Lake Herman Road murders advocates the murdering of white suburban youth in the same manner that David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were killed.
•· Gyke lived in the basement of a San Francisco home that served as the main switchboard for the Good Times counterculture publication. That home was two doors away from an acquaintance who also was a writer – Paul Stine – the Zodiac’s last victim, a cab driver in San Francisco.

Compelling, right?

Tom has provided law enforcement with evidence that could be used to find out if Richard Gaikowski was indeed the Zodiac.

"We’re just waiting to see what they’re going to do with it."

Let’s bear in mind that as with previous Zodiac suspects, the evidence is purely circumstantial – though very compelling.

The questions to you the readers are:

Who is the Zodiac?

Do you think we’ll ever get the answer to this question?

Published by Bryan Cain-Jackson

Bryan, an Assistant Editor for Technorati, is a native of the Northern California Bay Area and is an acclaimed actor/writer on the stage since the age of 12.