While it is entirely circumstantial, it doesn’t seem as though many people have accurately psychologically profiled Zodiac. While it’s tough to psychologically profile an anonymous individual, if there is an individual whose crimes follow a similar chronology as Zodiac, and was caught; it is Sam Berkowitz (Son of Sam).
1. Both chose random victims
2. Both targeted couples
3. Sam served in Army and Zodiac is believed by most to have military background
4. Both sent taunting letters to media; ostensibly seeking notoriety
5. Both were able to send taunting letters to media, commit murders in large cities, and elude any police suspicion; for several years.
Sam is often profiled in the media as a schizophrenic individual due to his behaviors after his capture, but several years later once he was seemingly resigned to his fate he admitted that the bizarre behavior, was a hoax. He stated that he had thought about committing his crimes for years, and more or less planned these crimes; ostensibly with the intention of eluding capture. This speaks to an individual with a form of anti-social personality disorder whose lack of social success acts as the impetus for his crimes, who receives the attention one with this disorder craves through the letters to the media which gain him notoriety, who receives gratification through the adrenaline derived from committing high-risk of capture crimes against multiple individuals in non-desolate areas, the frequency of the killings speaks to a lack of impulse control which corroborates the notion he derived gratification through the acts themselves and reveled in the subsequent notoriety. Over time both individuals need for the gratification derived by the adrenaline of committing the crimes lead to further crimes of increasingly high-risk of capture. Sam changed his method around during his last crime and was captured as a direct result, though it is likely had he not done so these crimes would have remained unsolved due to his ‘skill’ at committing such crimes and the fact he was not even known to law enforcement until his final crime. Zodiac’s final confirmed crime, in which he killed a cabbie and then walked away, was one in which law enforcement encountered him and due to a dispatcher error his description was not that of the man law enforcement was told witnesses had observed committing the crime. Had law enforcement been given a correct description it is very likely Zodiac would have been captured, it was simply luck that this crime did not result in his capture. However, the witnesses who observed the crime were able to help police craft a legible perp sketch and Zodiac seemingly acknowledged this close capture in his last confirmed letter. The adrenaline derived from encountering law enforcement and walking away resulted in the end of his crimes because there was simply no high that could match that of encountering law enforcement and walking away still unknown. This speaks to the facts Zodiacs highly valued his anonymity despite his desperation for the attention he got from his letters. This also would help explain why he sent the letters which he claimed contained his identity, though the only one ever solved reveals his identity was not contained in the letter, and he had ostensibly done so for the thrill of the letter itself.
While Ross Sullivan seems to be the new hot theory as to Zodiac’s identity, this is unlikely if you compare him to what we know about Berkowitz and what I just outlined about Zodiac. Zodiac despite his social failures possessed the emotional intelligence to blend into society like Berkowitz without being an outcast (unlike Sullivan who was arrested under bizzare circumstances and institutionalized) and the intelligence to methodically plan out his crimes and allude capture (he is more similar to BTK in this respect, though unlike BTK he was not as obsessed with the method or manner in which the killings occurred). BTK had better impulse control than Zodiac and Son of Sam, but Zodiac seemingly possessed the intelligence of BTK when it came to planning his crimes methodically. However, the main distinction between these other two individuals and Zodiac is the fact he may have reached his peak after his final crime in terms of the adrenaline and subsequent gratification; he knew there was nothing that could match what he felt and he moved on. It is possible Zodiac was not able to commit further crimes due to being deceased or immobilized, but his profile more or less speaks to a sociopathic individual who simply realized he could not match his last crime and moved on to other thrill seeking activities.
Unlike many, due to his psychological profile, I don’t believe Zodiac’s real identity has ever been uncovered. There is also a good chance he is still out there due to the fact he was seemingly young (20s) when these crimes occurred, and for these reasons I believe new avenues and individuals should be explored rather than harping on the same bunch of suspects who all have several strikes against them being Zodiac. BTK proved that these sadistic individuals can go decades without their identity being uncovered, and many don’t seem to acknowledge Zodiac’s intelligence, and need for adrenaline. I would guess we have a better chance of finding Zodiac by looking through the flight logs of all individuals who engaged in skydiving in the Bay Area during that period than the current bunch we speculated on. I could be totally off base here, but my gut says this is closer to the reality.
Honestly, I Think this is an interesting idea, However, it is going to be near impossible or almost entirely speculation for many reasons.
I Think Sam was a bad comparison.
You said:
1. Both chose random victims
2. Both targeted couples
3. Sam served in Army and Zodiac is believed by most to have military background
4. Both sent taunting letters to media; ostensibly seeking notoriety
5. Both were able to send taunting letters to media, commit murders in large cities, and elude any police suspicion; for several years.
First, most do not believe the zodiac randomly targeted his victims, Cheri jo bates was not random in any way, he had even disabled her car, now, since this is not a confirmed zodiac, even though he takes credit for it, I will move on. Darlene ferrin, according to mike, had made many comments as they were being "chased all over town", in the "this is the zodiac speaking" documentary Mike says Darlene told him at first "don’t worry about it", implying she knew exactly what was going on, she then told mike "he is just jealous" and "he will kill us both" and then mentioned "something about Richard", so zodiac knew her as well. At lake berryessa I feel he wore the mask because he knew Cecilia. It also explains why the males often survived, it was the females who were the true targets. Paul Stein was likely just killed for his bloody shirt so Kodiak could continue his games with the press, making Paul Stein the only real random attack.
I feel zodiak was not necessarily targeting couples, he was targeting the women, and the only time most of these women would be out in a secluded area would be in a "lovers lane" type situation, as women to normally fish or hunt, so it may have just been that it was the best opportunity of location… …or perhaps his jealousy made him want to attack the males as well, it’s hard to say.
Zodiac was likely military, I feel he was a police officer.
And yes he did taunt the media.
But if you want to profile zodiac we must start with the facts.
·Male
·is alone on holidays/commits crimes on holidays (most people are with their friends and families on holidays, yet zodiac is not)
·Attacks couples, often failing to kill the males
·Zodiac is not sadistic, and doesn’t seem to take much pleasure in more gruesome acts, he even mentions "some of them fought, it was horrible", while a sadistic killer would have enjoyed the violence, mutilated the bodies, and so in.
·Zodiac appears to be very intelligent.
…things like these are probably your best method of building a profile.
I think comparisons are a bad idea, specially in regards to psychological profile, it’s difficult enough to understand the known serial killers which have been studied, let alone one who was never identified.
·Zodiac appears to be very intelligent.
That’s one of the puzzling things about Zodiac to me, the guy had to be rather intelligent IMO simply due to his codes, also his ability to elude capture. But then there are the mis-spellings. I wonder sometimes if those are intentional for some reason. Has anyone ever checked to see if maybe he was placing a code in the non-coded letters? Might be the reasons for the mis-spellings, just a wild thought.
Also, the profiler of the Uni-Bomber apparently found what appeared to be mis-spellings/mis-use of sayings in his letters (and no, I don’t think TK is the Zodiac) but they turned out to just be an older type of speaking due to TK’s educational methods. I wonder if something like that would be of use in Zodiac’s letters.
Also something I noticed in the Cherie Jo Bates letter, he mentions the coil wire he removed from the car and said something like "the battery must have been about dead by then". If he thought removing the coil wire would run down the battery, he didn’t know much about cars.
·Zodiac appears to be very intelligent.
That’s one of the puzzling things about Zodiac to me, the guy had to be rather intelligent IMO simply due to his codes, also his ability to elude capture. But then there are the mis-spellings. I wonder sometimes if those are intentional for some reason. Has anyone ever checked to see if maybe he was placing a code in the non-coded letters? Might be the reasons for the mis-spellings, just a wild thought.
Also, the profiler of the Uni-Bomber apparently found what appeared to be mis-spellings/mis-use of sayings in his letters (and no, I don’t think TK is the Zodiac) but they turned out to just be an older type of speaking due to TK’s educational methods. I wonder if something like that would be of use in Zodiac’s letters.
Also something I noticed in the Cherie Jo Bates letter, he mentions the coil wire he removed from the car and said something like "the battery must have been about dead by then". If he thought removing the coil wire would run down the battery, he didn’t know much about cars.
It’s not necessarily what zodiac did overtly that makes me Think he was intelligent, it was the intentions behind some of his actions, for example, the letters to police and the press allowed him to control a good deal of the narrative of the investigation, he was spoon-feeding them clues to guide them into investigating the things Which he wanted them to be looking into, rather than looking into the things which could actually get him caught, that’s pretty clever, even more so since it worked.
Then we have zodiac’s knowledge of chemistry/explosives, the engineering behind the device in the diagram was again, very clever.
As for the misspellings, I feel these were intentional, and this could have been for various reasons, one could have been to disguise his true writing style and writing habits, by using intentional misspellings and by using phrases which would not be used in his normal writing, if one were to make comparisons with his actual writing with the zodiac writings, determining a conclusive match would be very difficult. This is pretty clever.
Another reason could be that he was leaving "klews", or at least what looked like clues. Or, he could have been simply messing with people.
Another reason could be that zodiac was creating portmanteau words, similar to how James Joyce would. Zodiac actually shows signs of being rather well read and being incredibly well learned in literature and culture, he makes detailed references in incredibly subtle ways, he is also good with double entendre, portmanteau words, and makes subtle references to highly regarded cultural works.
As for the codes, this does not necessarily catch my eye as being the work of a highly intelligent individual, but it could imply the possibility. The 408 cipher was not very sophisticated, if the other ciphers are in fact true ciphers, then I would have to give him credit there. …it’s actually pretty amazing that he created something which so many people have been able to derive so many meanings from.
I am not saying he is intelligent as a compliment, I only mention it as I think it is a crucial piece of a potential psychological profile.
…There is also the possibility that zodiac was more than one person, which would make creation of an accurate psychological profile nearly impossible.
As for the car of Cheri jo bates, The wire from the distributor cap to the ignition coil had been removed.
Zodiac said: Then I waited for her in the library and followed her out after about two minutes. The battery must have been about dead by then.
(Though the facts surrounding this homicide show that zodiac May not be telling the truth here, there are discrepancies from what is known.)
I think it shows enough knowledge to disable the ignition, but yeah, not sure why he mentions the battery. However, this could be because in reality he knew a good deal about cars, and wanted us to think that he did not… the car from lake berryessa that zodiac was said to be driving had two different tires on it, two different sizes with different tread, this is odd, and may imply that zodiac had intentionally altered the tires of his vehicle, which would require a small amount of auto knowledge… any way, it’s hard to say.
It’s not necessarily what zodiac did overtly that makes me Think he was intelligent, it was the intentions behind some of his actions, for example, the letters to police and the press allowed him to control a good deal of the narrative of the investigation, he was spoon-feeding them clues to guide them into investigating the things Which he wanted them to be looking into, rather than looking into the things which could actually get him caught, that’s pretty clever, even more so since it worked.
I think he was very good at throwing them off of his trail while also gaining the public attention he sought. I believe nearly everything he did was intentional, I also suspect he took credit for murders he didn’t commit in order to set up red herrings. I mean, here it is all these years later and we can still only actually be certain of 4 attacks while many, myself included, believe he committed many more. I think he enjoyed sowing confusion, setting up many rabbit holes that he knew would lead people to dead ends. It was all part of "the game".
As for the misspellings, I feel these were intentional, and this could have been for various reasons, one could have been to disguise his true writing style and writing habits, by using intentional misspellings and by using phrases which would not be used in his normal writing,
I’ve only looked into a very few, but everyone of the "misspellings" I did check out can be found in use in old texts.
Saterical – This first one looks like "faterical", but F was used as S years ago.
https://books.google.com/books?id=KIxKA … al&f=false
https://www.parkhurstrarebooks.com/page … -melodrama
Comidy –
https://books.google.com/books?id=B-gIA … dy&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=8zFHA … dy&f=false
Twich –
https://books.google.com/books?id=Tk1dA … ch&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=tn5EA … ch&f=false
Not sure how much this aspect has been looked into, but someone here has already found a supposed misspelling was actually a word that has been used and spelled the way Zodiac spelled it.
I don’t know if this means it was just a natural part of the way Zodiac would spell these words, or if he did this intentionally just to see who would notice. Perhaps they are even meant as some sort of clue.
if one were to make comparisons with his actual writing with the zodiac writings, determining a conclusive match would be very difficult. This is pretty clever.
Possible he wrote with the hand he would not normally use to write.
As for the codes, this does not necessarily catch my eye as being the work of a highly intelligent individual, but it could imply the possibility. The 408 cipher was not very sophisticated, if the other ciphers are in fact true ciphers, then I would have to give him credit there. …it’s actually pretty amazing that he created something which so many people have been able to derive so many meanings from.
I have to wonder if some of the unbroken codes can’t be broken because they are purposefully meaningless. It could be one of those red herring rabbit holes he liked to send people down.
It’s not necessarily what zodiac did overtly that makes me Think he was intelligent, it was the intentions behind some of his actions, for example, the letters to police and the press allowed him to control a good deal of the narrative of the investigation, he was spoon-feeding them clues to guide them into investigating the things Which he wanted them to be looking into, rather than looking into the things which could actually get him caught, that’s pretty clever, even more so since it worked.
I think he was very good at throwing them off of his trail while also gaining the public attention he sought. I believe nearly everything he did was intentional, I also suspect he took credit for murders he didn’t commit in order to set up red herrings. I mean, here it is all these years later and we can still only actually be certain of 4 attacks while many, myself included, believe he committed many more. I think he enjoyed sowing confusion, setting up many rabbit holes that he knew would lead people to dead ends. It was all part of "the game".
As for the misspellings, I feel these were intentional, and this could have been for various reasons, one could have been to disguise his true writing style and writing habits, by using intentional misspellings and by using phrases which would not be used in his normal writing,
I’ve only looked into a very few, but everyone of the "misspellings" I did check out can be found in use in old texts.
Saterical – This first one looks like "faterical", but F was used as S years ago.
https://books.google.com/books?id=KIxKA … al&f=false
https://www.parkhurstrarebooks.com/page … -melodrama
Comidy –
https://books.google.com/books?id=B-gIA … dy&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=8zFHA … dy&f=false
Twich –
https://books.google.com/books?id=Tk1dA … ch&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=tn5EA … ch&f=false
Not sure how much this aspect has been looked into, but someone here has already found a supposed misspelling was actually a word that has been used and spelled the way Zodiac spelled it.
I don’t know if this means it was just a natural part of the way Zodiac would spell these words, or if he did this intentionally just to see who would notice. Perhaps they are even meant as some sort of clue.
if one were to make comparisons with his actual writing with the zodiac writings, determining a conclusive match would be very difficult. This is pretty clever.
Possible he wrote with the hand he would not normally use to write.
As for the codes, this does not necessarily catch my eye as being the work of a highly intelligent individual, but it could imply the possibility. The 408 cipher was not very sophisticated, if the other ciphers are in fact true ciphers, then I would have to give him credit there. …it’s actually pretty amazing that he created something which so many people have been able to derive so many meanings from.
I have to wonder if some of the unbroken codes can’t be broken because they are purposefully meaningless. It could be one of those red herring rabbit holes he liked to send people down.
I have to agree, he was great at throwing one of the trail while generating several false trails and rabbit holes, while simultaneously manipulating the media and law enforcement…it seems like it would be hard to unintentionally do what zodiac did.
Since these misspellings exist in these old texts it only furthers my notion that zodiac was intelligent and quite well read.
When you mentions he was writing with his opposite hand, I have seen examples of this on the car door at lake berryessa, where it says "by knife" there is a gap in the "e" after the "f" in knife, the reason why it’s there is because he was writing with his left hand which got in the way of the "e". Seriously, take a marker on paper and with your left hand write "by knife" in the style zodiac did, this helps if it’s on a vertical surface like a dry erase board which can mimic a car door, you will find your Hand will get in the way in that exact manner.
The bates letter (bates had to die there will be more) was obviously written with the wrong hand, the phenomenon on the "m" is evidence of this.
I am not in any way a handwriting expert, and I know next to nothing about forensic hand writing, I am simply being observant, though if I make an error, please points it out.
(I still don’t think evidence of ambidextrous writing points Arthur Leigh allen, but I will get into this later)
I have considered that the unbroken ciphers were nonsense, but still have reservations. The same thing was said about "the voynich manuscript", which I believe also has meaning.
The thing is, the coded sections could be buried in nonsense, you have to know where the code is, and how to "arrange" the nonsense to get the actual code.
…this is not even that sophisticated, for example, in 6th grade I would take a text, I would devise a substitution code (replacing known letters with characters which I created or chose), then I would take a piece of graph paper and cut out a square with certain dimensions 10×10 squares for example, and would create a Caesar-square, I would arrange the text vertically down the squares of the graph paper, then code out the vertical result on another sheet of paper, so to brake the code you would need to find out which symbols represent which characters, breaking the substitution code, then you would need then figure out to create a Caesar-square, along with the dimensions of the square to get the text. This is about as basic as code writing gets, yet it’s incredibly difficult to decode, specially the Caesar-square dimensions. (I would usually have the dimensions hidden somewhere in the code, which would give a code breaker a method of cracking the square.)
the Steganographia by Johannes Trithemius has been helpful with the zodiac ciphers.
I have to agree, he was great at throwing one of the trail while generating several false trails and rabbit holes, while simultaneously manipulating the media and law enforcement…it seems like it would be hard to unintentionally do what zodiac did.
Agreed. My only question is did he actually leave bread crumbs that would indeed lead to him, or is it all just intended as confusion and will forever keep those seeking him chasing their tail. I can’t help but feel part of his "game" was leaving an actual trail to see if anyone was smart enough to find him.
Since these misspellings exist in these old texts it only furthers my notion that zodiac was intelligent and quite well read.
Yes, and there are quite a few more words that I didn’t link that are also not "misspellings" but the old use of the word. The question here is, was he self taught or was this learned in a classroom. If self taught, not much to go on unless there is personal knowledge of a suspect. If learned in the classroom, it could help narrow down the suspect list.
I am not in any way a handwriting expert, and I know next to nothing about forensic hand writing, I am simply being observant, though if I make an error, please points it out.
No expert here either, just curious. I do like puzzles however and the Zodiac is a tough one. Perhaps the toughest ever.
(I still don’t think evidence of ambidextrous writing points Arthur Leigh allen, but I will get into this later)
Unless something knew comes up, I’m pretty well content to dismiss ALA as a suspect. I never completely rule out anything with Zodiac though.
I have considered that the unbroken ciphers were nonsense, but still have reservations. The same thing was said about "the voynich manuscript", which I believe also has meaning.
Coding is something I know nothing about and have zero experience in, except for solving a few cryptoquote puzzles in the newspaper. I leave that to those who know.
Sam Berkowitz (Son of Sam).
Dont you mean David Berkowitz?
Agreed. My only question is did he actually leave bread crumbs that would indeed lead to him, or is it all just intended as confusion and will forever keep those seeking him chasing their tail. I can’t help but feel part of his "game" was leaving an actual trail to see if anyone was smart enough to find him
…Or maybe part of his game was leading others to believe he was leaving a trail for those smart enough to catch him.
This is why I chose to keep the notes and ciphers separate from my investigations of the actual crimes, leading yourself into zodiac’s world is a total mind-f*ck.
Coding is something I know nothing about and have zero experience in, except for solving a few cryptoquote puzzles in the newspaper. I leave that to those who know.
I’ve never been formally trained or have ever formally studied coding.
I mean, the basics anybody can do, like a "Caesar-box" or "Caesar-square", there were typos in my last explanation, but you got the idea, right?
You simply Choose the dimensions of your square, like 4×4 for example, you write your text vertically across the grid, then you transfer the horizontal text onto a new piece of paper, even placing artificial spaces between the text.
Now, let’s say first you used substitution code, this can be done in many ways, you can have a=1, b=2, c=3 … z=26. Or You can have every letter be represented by an alphabet letter which is 3 letters forward from the letter you are using. There are several known methods. Or you can even create symbols of your own to represent each character.
When I was young I would first use a substitution code for my text, then I would make a Caesar-box, and run the already substituted text through that.
These are all very, very, basic methods of coding, its like the stuff you learn as a kid.
My interest in ciphers was man mainly derived from the study of texts from the 1400s to the late 1600s. I had been in study Johannes Trithemius, which led to study of john dee and Edward Kelley, which led to Rudolph the second, and eventually the voynich manuscript.
It was the ciphers that got my attention regarding this case, but again, I also have not shared any of my work with the ciphers, and try not to talk about codes and ciphers that often.
Again, I am doubting that cracking those ciphers will help solve the crime in any way, and in all honesty, do you really want to know what’s in them if it won’t solve the case? Seems like bad mental hygiene to me, but I guess I can understand the curiosity.
I actually just love the challenge of breaking a code, of gaining knowledge of a secret which I was supposed to be locked out of, I guess it’s something analogous to safe-cracking for a thief, only my reward is beating the puzzle.
An interesting aspect of a psychological profile that I never hear mentioned was, "why was zodiac alone on christmass and the fourth of July?"
Most people spend these holidays with their families and friends, yet zodiac was alone, why?
An interesting aspect of a psychological profile that I never hear mentioned was, "why was zodiac alone on christmass and the fourth of July?"
Most people spend these holidays with their families and friends, yet zodiac was alone, why?
How do we know he was alone on Christmas? I see your point though.
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
…Or maybe part of his game was leading others to believe he was leaving a trail for those smart enough to catch him.
This is why I chose to keep the notes and ciphers separate from my investigations of the actual crimes, leading yourself into zodiac’s world is a total mind-f*ck.
LOL, yeah, the Zodiac is the mother of all rabbit holes and will leave you doubting if you have actually figured something out or are just wasting your time.
I actually just love the challenge of breaking a code, of gaining knowledge of a secret which I was supposed to be locked out of, I guess it’s something analogous to safe-cracking for a thief, only my reward is beating the puzzle.
Yeah, I see how it can be damned interesting and quite the challenge. I see no use in someone such as myself trying to decode Zodiac’s messages since many much better than I ever would be have tried and failed, for years.
That said, I am glad there are people out there still trying and I hope someone finally hits on the solution.
An interesting aspect of a psychological profile that I never hear mentioned was, "why was zodiac alone on christmass and the fourth of July?"
Most people spend these holidays with their families and friends, yet zodiac was alone, why?
How do we know he was alone on Christmas? I see your point though.
Possibly lived with say an elderly mother who was used to him being gone constantly. Or just a complete loner who had no real friends and family. Or a family man with lots of friends who had ways of conveniently ducking out for a couple of hours while he did his thing. LOL, there’s those rabbit holes again. I basically went full circle, chased my tail.
A sad, unpopular loner is my guess – jealous of other successful people who were out having fun.
