The Most Dangerous Game (1932) and Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939) seem to have the closest connection to the crimes of any films I’ve seen (the latter is almost unwatchable and offensive by today’s standards, yet has the clearest connection to letter writing as a criminal strategy, the Bay Area and features Dr. Zodiac). Curiously, these were vintage films at the time of the attacks.
Zodiac was a magpie, a bit like with the ciphers; he’s borrowing symbols from here and there, as well as inventing his own. I’m not entirely sure anything really comes from noting the influences. It’d only be useful if there was a suspect known to be impressed by these films.
That said, according to D’Angelo’s son, GSK was known to get visibly excited during the chase scene in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Andrew, this is interesting stuff. Have you seen Targets (1968)?
Andrew, this is interesting stuff. Have you seen Targets (1968)?
No never heard of this. Just watching a preview!
Might have to watch this.
Definitely worth a watch. Released pretty close to first attack. Couple of eyebrow raising moments in it.
I’m gonna watch the ones you’ve posted!
Erm…. I’m a newbie here but isn’t the easiest answer “zodiac brand watches”? I don’t mean this as an ALA thing but it is surely too unlikely a coincidence for the name and symbol to be together… now, where did they come up with it?
This is the crime story that uses the phrase, "This is Z speaking"?
That was the guy who shot himself and left a fake murder note.
The Zodiac watch is just branding based on this association. The selling point of marine wristwatches like the Zodiac Sea Wolf is that they are accurate within a few seconds per year. It’s really just clever marketing really.
Imma take off my Zodiac nerd hat and put on my watch nerd hat, so skip this if you’re only into the Zodiac.
The Zodiac Sea Wolf is a mechanical watch and mechanical watches aren’t very accurate. There’ is a Swiss accuracy organization called COSC. COSC certification requires the watch to vary no more than up to 4 seconds slow or up to 6 seconds fast per day (not per year). If a watch can meet that standard, the manufacturer can label it a chronometer, thus the "superlative chronometer" text on Rolex dials.
So you can expect an accuracy of -4 to +6 seconds per day for a new, chronometer-grade movement in good repair. My 10-year old Seiko Monster (which was never a chronometer-grade movement; far from it) runs about a minute fast per day. If I need accuracy, I wear one of my Casios, which are accurate to within a second a day. If you need accuracy within a few seconds per year, you can get that with High-Accuracy Quartz: https://www.watchtime.com/featured/high … -seiko-9f/
Watch nerd hat off. 
Zodiac was a screwup. He left behind five breathing victims, two survivors, bootprints, possibly fingerprints and palmprints, tiretracks, eyewitnesses, and earwitnesses. If the APB had gone out for a WMA he would have been locked up in ’69.
Trailer for the 1960 film: https://youtu.be/8udpRP1MdVs
What stuck out to me in the trailer is that there is a ghost for each member of the family.
