This is the original police sketch that gave a first look into what The Zodiac Killer could possibly look like. During the incidences throughout the 60's and 70's that involved Zodiac, there were hundreds, if not thousands of suspects that were taken in for questioning. Below, are the closest that California law enforcement ever got to catching this serial killer.
Accused Suspects
Richard Gaikowski was born on March 14, 1936 in Watertown South Dakota and served a stint in the Army during the 1950's. It is known that he was also trained as a medic. Medics were trained to tear the clothing of a bleeding victim to use as bandages if they did not have access to the proper equipment. (In reference to the Stine murder and the ripped shirt). In 1969-1971, Gaikowski was a member of an anti-police, pro-violence counterculture newspaper and commune in San Francisco called Good Times. As early as January 1969, the Good Times newspaper was running violent works of fiction that were nearly a blueprint for Zodiac's future crimes. On the very day Zodiac debuted by mailing three "rush to editor" letters to three separate newspapers in the San Francisco area (with each letter containing one third of a code), the Good Times (edited by Gaikowski) just happened to run a cover that was split into thirds. Five months later, the Good Times published a three-part code of its own. The Good Times also occasionally ran sensational "Zodiac Killer" headlines that were out of place. In articles he published in 1969, Gaikowski had the habit of shortening his last name to four letters and use multiple spellings, such as "Gike" or "Gaik." Interestingly, "GYKE" can clearly be seen in Zodiac's third-part cipher mailed on July 31, 1969 (shown below). What's more, how Zodiac chose to code the cipher phonetically gives you Gaikowski's full last name. In October 1965, Gaikowski was intentionally arrested for refusing to sign a traffic citation following a routine stop in Contra Costa County, California. As an investigative reporter for the local newspaper, Gaikowski's goal was to write a story about the conditions within the county jail from the perspective of an inmate. Following his brief stay in jail, Gaikowski's mugshot was published along with his story. However, by the time Gaikowski became a Zodiac suspect more than 20 years later, records of his fingerprints were long gone, making a comparison to Zodiac's fingerprints impossible without either Gaikowski's consent or a court order. There is no evidence either happened. On March 13, 1971 the Zodiac sent a letter to the Los Angeles Times. Coinciding closely with the mailing, Gaikowski was involuntarily committed to the Napa State Hospital after "going berserk." He was then diagnosed with a mental illness and began treatment at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco. The Zodiac didn't write again for almost three years. When the Zodiac reemerged in 1974 with letters referring to recent movie releases, Gaikowski was operating a storefront theater in the Mission District of San Francisco. In 1986, the Napa County Sheriff's Department briefly investigated Gaikowski and Detective Ken Narlow did a background check on him and put him under surveillance for a few nights. Narlow found nothing to warrant further investigation and the matter was dropped. There was not enough probable cause for an arrest or search warrant and the investigation ended. Richard Gaikowski died of cancer in April of 2004.
Arthur Leigh Allen's connections to the Zodiac killer began on October 30, 1966, when Cheri Jo Bates was stabbed to death at Riverside City College in Riverside, California. In late November 1966, two anonymous, typed Bates murder confession letters were mailed to the local police and newspaper. The typewriter was identified as being a Royal model, with either Elite or Pica type. Allen allegedly was in Riverside the weekend Bates was murdered. The information placing Allen in Riverside was developed in 1971 by the Vallejo Police Department and the California Department of Justice. Allen was employed as an elementary-school teacher in California's Calaveras County at the time of the Bates murder, by the time his employment ended in late March 1968 Allen had used only one of 19 available sick days. The day Allen was absent, was on November 1, 1966. This led to question, did Allen stay an extra day or two in Riverside, gathering second hand information to use in the anonymous confessions? Or did Allen actually kill Bates, missing work on November 1 because of facial wounds inflicted by his victim? Modern FBI profiles on serial killers usually say that during periods of activity, the killer will behave erratically, exhibit moodiness, drink or smoke more than usual and miss work. In late April 1967, three anonymous letters referring to Bates were mailed. In 1970, Sherwood Morrill, head of the Questioned Documents Section of California's Criminal Identification and Investigation Bureau, determined them to be the work of Zodiac. Each contained double the necessary postage, a Zodiac trademark. Two of the three letters were signed with an unusual symbol. Some believe the symbol resembles a sloppy "z," others say it looks like a "32." At the time Bates was killed, Allen was 32 years old, and his permanent residence was 32 Fresno St. in Vallejo, California. (In 1970, Zodiac would create a cipher that contained 32 symbols.) At the approximate time the three letters were mailed, a desk was discovered on the Riverside City College campus that had a morbid poem scratched into the surface, possibly referring to the Bates murder. In 1970, Morrill claimed the poem was definitely the work of Zodiac, although other experts believed the condition of the desk prevented authentication. The poem was signed "rh." The president of the college at the time Bates was murdered, was RH Bradshaw, a detail a stranger to the area probably wouldn't have known. A strong case can be made that Zodiac had ties to the Riverside area. Allen certainly made one. In 1991, a search warrant on Allen's house made startling discoveries. Vallejo Police Department seized evidence containing a Royal typewriter with Elite type that linked to the Bates confession letters. To date, Vallejo Police Department has not attempted matching Allen's typewriter to that of the anonymous confessions.
Allen also owned the same type of ammunition used to kill the victims of Zodiac's Lake Hermon Road attack. According to a police report, in mid 1992, the surviving Blue Rock Springs victim Mageau, picked Allen out of a Vallejo Police Department police lineup, saying "That's him! He's the man that shot me!" It was also found that he owned a foot-long knife with a sheath and rivets. To date, even though it was an item police were looking for, Vallejo law enforcement has not attempted matching Allen's knife to the wounds of the Berryessa victims. In August 1992, Arthur Leigh Allen died of natural causes at age 58, since he suffered from diabetes and a heart condition. Later in August of that same year, police reissued another warrant of Allen's house and many more interesting items that Vallejo police have been very secretive with and have not released the contents to the video.
Allen also owned the same type of ammunition used to kill the victims of Zodiac's Lake Hermon Road attack. According to a police report, in mid 1992, the surviving Blue Rock Springs victim Mageau, picked Allen out of a Vallejo Police Department police lineup, saying "That's him! He's the man that shot me!" It was also found that he owned a foot-long knife with a sheath and rivets. To date, even though it was an item police were looking for, Vallejo law enforcement has not attempted matching Allen's knife to the wounds of the Berryessa victims. In August 1992, Arthur Leigh Allen died of natural causes at age 58, since he suffered from diabetes and a heart condition. Later in August of that same year, police reissued another warrant of Allen's house and many more interesting items that Vallejo police have been very secretive with and have not released the contents to the video.
Rick Marshall is still considered a strong Zodiac suspect by several investigators. Marshall's physical appearance and background match up very well with what is known (and assumed) about Zodiac. This also included some of Marshall's handwriting. Rick was born in Texas, approximately 1928. According to the statements of several acquaintances, Marshall lived in the area at the approximate time of the 1966 murder of possible Zodiac victim Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside, California. In 1969, he lived in a basement on Scott Street in San Francisco. The location was within a few miles of Zodiac's only San Francisco crime scene. In the early 70's Marshall worked as an engineer for San Francisco Bay Area Radio Station KTIM. The KTIM call letters resemble the symbols Zodiac included in his "Exorcist" letter from January 1974. As a big movie buff, he worked as a projectionist at a San Francisco silent-movie theater called the Avenue at the time Zodiac sent his "Red Phantom" letter in July 1974. It was assumed by investigators that Zodiac's motivation for signing this letter "the Red Phantom" was because he was influenced by a silent film. As of 1989, Marshall was working for Tektronix and repairing organs in San Francisco's Castro District.
The Letters
For years following the first attacks claimed by the Zodiac, police officials received over 20 letters written in regards to murders he has conclusively been linked to and others that he has not yet been affiliated with. To this day, most of the ciphers sent by him remain unsolved.
The first set of letters sent to police included a set of three separate ciphers following the Ferrin-Mageau attack. The first cipher was sent to the editor of Vallejo Times, the second was sent to The San Francisco Examiner and the third to The San Francisco Chronicle.
After the Stine murder, this was the letter sent that also contained a portion of the bloody shirt that had been cut off.
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Probably the most famous letter from The Zodiac, is the "My name is..." letter. This letter was never decoded completely and it is unknown whether the killer put his real name in writing or not.
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