I think most of us just want to know who the Zodiac killer was or is without a shred of a doubt and then reconstruct his life and crimes and so forth.

I think it was Ted Kaczinsky. He’s still alive. Maybe he’ll confess on his deathbed.

I think Z was a college kid at berkley prior to 67 and grew up in riverside area…therefore he could still be out there…of course i do not have a suspect and withold the right to change my mind at any time..obviously z could be taking a dirt nap just as easy..

I think Z was a college kid at berkley prior to 67 and grew up in riverside area…therefore he could still be out there…of course i do not have a suspect and withold the right to change my mind at any time..obviously z could be taking a dirt nap just as easy..

Well there are only two possibilities; he’s either dead or alive. If alive, he would have to be in his seventies and I doubt very much that he would ever be brought to trial considering the expense involved. There would have to be undeniable dna or other evidence for charges to be filed imo. especially considering the many years that have passed and all the other people who have been named as poi’s. Additionally, if he is alive he could have serious health issues and be unable to stand a trial. The only way I can imagine anyone would be convicted is if they confessed or if charges were filed, pled guilty in a plea bargain.

Well there are only two possibilities; he’s either dead or alive. If alive, he would have to be in his seventies and I doubt very much that he would ever be brought to trial considering the expense involved. There would have to be undeniable dna or other evidence for charges to be filed imo. especially considering the many years that have passed and all the other people who have been named as poi’s. Additionally, if he is alive he could have serious health issues and be unable to stand a trial. The only way I can imagine anyone would be convicted is if they confessed or if charges were filed, pled guilty in a plea bargain.

Agreed. If he is still alive, he likely isn’t much threat to anyone anymore. Still if they had strong evidence, DNA or a fingerprint match, public opinion might force him to be charged and tried.

"Agreed. If he is still alive, he likely isn’t much threat to anyone anymore".

Just because someone is in their 70’s doesn’t mean they are weak and have health issues.
Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger are virtually 70 and both are miles stronger than the average 25 year old, and both are quite capable of carrying a gun, so never underestimate people based on age.

If, as many believe, the Z was Ted Kaczinsky, he’s locked up for life with no possibility of parole so he’s not killing any civilians. Possibly a deal of some kind was made where they wouldn’t try to get him for previous crimes (eg. Zodiac, Tylenol) in exchange for the guilty plea. Maybe the Powers That Be didn’t want him shedding a lot of light on his MK Ultra experiences, which any trial involving him could do.

Occam’s Razor would suggest he is dead. The fact that he never went through with his elaborate bomb plot (never so much as shot at a bus of kids) and only "achieved" a couple of the criminal acts on the Wheel of Doom, it seems obvious to me that the Zodiac stopped killing a long time ago. As it seems highly unusual for a serial killer to suddenly go straight, I believe he must have got incarcerated, or became too sick to do anything due to some medical complaint. He possibly ended up in a psychiatric institution where he spent the remainder of his days. If not dead my guess is he would have no idea who he even is, and may not even recall committing any of those crimes. His ego is such that if he read things like this written about him, he would have to respond in some way. But plenty of things have been written and published about the Zodiac, but he has never responded. He never responded to anything about the Dirty Harry or Zodiac movies.

I believe the Zodiac was physically sick as well as mentally, and the Zodiac knew that his days were numbered. This is why he claimed that he was upset by the attitude of people in San Francisco so from that time on he would only commit random crimes that seemed unrelated to him. He knew that even though he was incapacitated, any crime that was suspicious and unsolvable could still be blamed on him. He could therefore achieve mythical and legendary (god-like) status. He could go on "killing" without actually killing anyone.

The thing that REALLY worries me is this, and I’m sure it must also worry LE. There is the very real possibility that there is a bomb buried out there somewhere, which the Zodiac never got around to setting off. Of course the whole thing may have been a red herring just to get the police running about chasing their tails, but how does anybody know for sure?

I personally think Z is dead, whomever he was. I don’t think he could ever stay quiet for too long, and his persona was likely what made him feel ‘important’ or ‘recognized’.
After all of the publicity,books,movies,etc, I don’t think he could resist reaching out. Maybe, he died unexpectedly or suddenly? I have always thought that Z might be bold enough to leave a confession letter & evidence to be discovered after his death by Family etc.

My gut feeling is that Ross Sullivan was likely Zodiac,so his death in 1977, and Ross’s infirmary in 1974 when the Z letters stopped,(after he took a mental & physical turn for the worse)lines up well with Zodiac. Whether or not I am right about Ross being Z, who knows.

Occam’s steely blade says Zodiac likely died in August 1992.

One could look at a life expectancy table like this:

http://demog.berkeley.edu/~andrew/1918/figure2.html

For example, if you think Z was born in 1940, the table says the average male born that year lived to be 60.8 year old.

Based on that table, the earliest year at which the average life expectancy would keep a person alive to 2016 and beyond is 1951.

But that’s just the overall average; there is a lot of variance in life expectancies. A better approach might be to use a life actuarial table to try to estimate the probability that a person born during a particular year would still be alive in 2016.

I was born in 1939, and am seventy-six years old. Take your actuary table with a boulder of salt.

The trouble with this life expectancy table, is it doesn’t bear a relationship with the average life expectancy of hardened criminals, which my guess is likely lower, due to the danger they place themselves in. Zodiac likely had mental health issues, increasing his likelihood of suicide or ill health. Zodiac could have been executed by the state, murdered by another criminal inside or outside of jail, or suffered in a mental institution. I cannot believe a man with such an insatiable ego, could resist not dropping us a line in 42 years. This pathetic individual had 6 years of notoriety in the spotlight, but I doubt his cowardly existence stretched to 7 years after the Lake Herman Road murders.

Dead or not, the person or persons responsible for these crimes should be revealed (if possible) for who and what they are / were. I suspect to the victims families the information, if obtainable, would provide some sort of closure and in addition to the family members, I think the communities where these crimes were committed also deserve closure for those who’s lives were impacted by the murders as well as for the history books. If the record can be set straight then that in itself is the reward.