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The Zodiac Murders

Code cracked - again.

Now, French software engineer Fayçal Ziraoui claims that that after just two weeks of trying, he's successfully decoded the letters, including one that reveals the name of the killer as "KAYR" which he believes is a miscoded spelling of the last name of Lawrence Kaye who has long been a suspect. The online community of Zodiac sleuths not only doesn't believe that Ziraoui succeeded but is furious at his hubris. From the New York Times:

https://boingboing.net/2021/06/22/f...may-have-cracked-the-zodiac-killers-code.html
 
Fresh claims that a team believe they have identified the zodiac killer:

'The Case Breakers is now saying it has identified the Zodiac Killer as Gary Francis Poste, who passed away in 2018. The team's years of digging uncovered new forensic evidence and photos from Poste's darkroom. One image features scars on the forehead of Poste that match scars on a sketch of the Zodiac, the team said.'

agaryfposte001.jpg


https://www.foxnews.com/us/cold-cas...xgGeN2KzUbnSPEYWdr2krrU3u24evuJS7_zQJ8RU6aaWA
 
I hadn't heard of this recent book called How To Find Zodiac by Jarrett Kobek, but it has a blurb on it from Alan Moore promoting it.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Find-Zodiac-Jarett-Kobek/dp/1737842807
"A scruffy masterpiece of criminology. It seems to me that either Kobek's painstaking deductions are correct, or we must urgently revise the laws of probability." -Alan Moore, author of From Hell
Dear Reader,
This is not the Zodiac speaking. The one thing that I ask of you is this, please read this book. It is called How to Find Zodiac. Being that this book is about the Zodiac, it offers a new suspect. The theory is probably correct. At the moment the theory is unproven. But the idea is a bomb waiting to go massive. Can you see the flaws in the hunting method or will you just agree and say case closed. Either way one thing is true. Zodiac can never look and seem the same after you read this book. It was written by Jarett Kobek.
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Was the building on Jackson street ever investigated where Officers Fouke and Zelms saw the white male go into right after the murder of Paul Stine? I know that at the time they had been told (for some unexplained reason) that the suspect was a black male, but I mean later, after the mistake had been realised. Did anyone go back and enquire who owned/rented/visited there?
 
Mythopoeika said:
Hope your Dad will be OK.
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Thanks for that.

He's got numerous health issues and since my mum died earlier in the year he's had a fall, a haematoma, sciatica and now shingles. Plus he has underlying heart issues, which can't be treated, and he happily describes himself as 'life expired'...

They're keeping in him for 48 hours to do a 'full MOT' on him and hopefully sort out his meds. I'm sure he's on some that aren't required.

But it is pretty stressful.

******************

I was also staggered how busy the hospital was, as the waiting room was like an airport - dozens and dozens of people. An old lady with a bloodied knee, a child with an arm in a sling, another on crutches... And with a 3-4-hour waiting time it wouldn't have been much fun.

My dad went straight through as he'd been told to go there by a doc on 111 - either by ambulance or lift. I figured a lift would be much quicker.
 
MrRING said:
I hadn't heard of this recent book called How To Find Zodiac by Jarrett Kobek, but it has a blurb on it from Alan Moore promoting it.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Find-Zodiac-Jarett-Kobek/dp/1737842807
Click to expand...
A long Twitter Reader presentation about this book and it's theory about Paul Doerr being the Zodiac with tons of compelling visual evidence revealed:

Part 1:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1572905163584835584.html

Part 2:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1572905327531823104.html

Part 3:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1572905547179126785.html
 
Our History channel just showed 'History's Greatest Mysteries' The Hunt For The Zodiac Killer (2023) the other night, I didn't get to see the whole show but it was a fascinating new look at the Zodiac.
I just picked up Robert Graysmith's 'Zodiac' book, his in-depth look at the Zodiac from the first days is compelling reading. And there are so many suspects, and new suspects.
 
I know very little of this case.

Strangely, the FBI, according to Wikipedia, has never closed this case and considers it still open.
 
charliebrown said:
I know very little of this case.

Strangely, the FBI, according to Wikipedia, has never closed this case and considers it still open.
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I would imagine if these murders had occurred today, and not late 1960s and 1970s, with our advanced technology, touch dna, etc., they would have been able to identify the Zodiac.
Particularly with that piece of Paul Stine's bloody shirt (the cab driver). They should have been able to find evidence on that.
 
Delightful said:
There's a good film dramatisation of the events.
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I assume you're talking about 'Zodiac' the 2007 movie?
I loved it, and seeing it from Robert Graysmith's perspective made it different from other dramatizations.
I still have so many questions - for example, Darlene Ferrin's sister claimed Darlene was frightened of a man she knew, living in the area, who had supposedly killed someone in military service perhaps. Darlene had a 'painting party' and this man showed up, so Darlene's sister actually saw him in person.
Yet I don't see anything about the sister being shown photos, to hopefully identify this man.
 
Lord Lucan said:
One of the better documentaries on the case - 'This Is The Zodiac Speaking'

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This documentary is the only one which shows the original investigators on the case, and Michael Mageau appears in person, speaking about how he and Darlene Ferrin were in love and planning to marry.
Fascinating!
 
Swifty said:
Fresh claims that a team believe they have identified the zodiac killer:

'The Case Breakers is now saying it has identified the Zodiac Killer as Gary Francis Poste, who passed away in 2018. The team's years of digging uncovered new forensic evidence and photos from Poste's darkroom. One image features scars on the forehead of Poste that match scars on a sketch of the Zodiac, the team said.'

View attachment 46192

https://www.foxnews.com/us/cold-cas...xgGeN2KzUbnSPEYWdr2krrU3u24evuJS7_zQJ8RU6aaWA
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Volunteer Cold Case Team Secures DNA from the Same Person an FBI Whistleblower Verifies is the “Zodiac Killer”


"Thomas J. Colbert’s “Case Breakers” (CBs) found DNA on a 30-year hiking mat once owned by USAF vet Gary F. Poste.

Poste is also the man that a senior FBI agent alerted the team about: The felon has been secretly listed as the Zodiac “suspect” in Headquarters’ computers since 2016 – with his “partial DNA” safely secured at the feds’ Quantico, Virginia lab

This shocker triggered “Plan B”: CBs found the ancestral town of the now-dead Poste, where DNA from a blood relative was offered by a confidential informant. Days later, “good profiles” from Poste’s kin and the mat’s DNA were compared by forensic experts from 5 colleges. “Strong similarities” were found; team hopes the results will be compared to hairs found on 1966 victim Cheri Jo Bates."

PDF press release: https://thecasebreakers.org/wp-cont...eblower-Reveals-Zodiac-Cover-Up-ExtendedX.pdf

maximus otter
 
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Zodiac Killer ‘finally unmasked’ by group of sleuths – 54 years after brutal murders

Reading the manuscript in front of her, Professor Jen Bucholtz became convinced it held the key to a string of grisly murders, still unsolved after 54 years.

A few days previously, Jen had been approached by a stranger with a remarkable proposition.

He was convinced he knew the identity of the mysterious “Zodiac”, a serial killer who claimed at least five lives in California in the ’60s.

Mainly targeting young couples in remote spots, the Zodiac shot or stabbed his victims between December 1968 and October 1969.

In June this year, Thomas Colbert, founder of The Case Breakers, an elite unit with backgrounds in investigation and the military, announced a symbol synonymous with the killer – a cross with a circle round it – had been discovered on a wooden post near a property once owned by the man who they believe to be the Zodiac Killer, Gary Francis Poste.

gary-poste-zodiac-killerjpg-JS696295118jpg-JS841678364.jpg


Poste

The revelation comes after The Case Breakers spent three years investigating the Zodiac, following disclosures in the manuscript received by Jen, one of its members, from Dale Julin back in 2020.

It was early that year when Dale, a retired news presenter, approached Jen, 48, a US Army veteran, after his theory was dismissed by the police and FBI.

“Dale told me that in 2014, a homeless man, Chris Avery, turned up at the TV station he worked at wanting to speak to him.

“Chris claimed that his stepfather, Gary Francis Poste, was the Zodiac and that when he confronted him about it, Poste tried to kill him, so he went on the run.”

Jen is certain Poste is the killer.

“In 1959, he was a passenger in a horrific car wreck, in which he sustained a massive head injury and was in hospital for weeks.

“All of his fellow airmen we located have said he became a totally different person after that wreck,” she says.

“Afterwards, he was sent to a radar station in Greenland, where he would have had to send encrypted messages all the time.

“He had training in cryptology and had the background to make anagrams.”

https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/23911159/zodiac-killer-unmasked-sleuths-54-years-later/

maximus otter
 
cycleboy2 said:
My dad went straight through as he'd been told to go there by a doc on 111 - either by ambulance or lift. I figured a lift would be much quicker.
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Very wise. This is the key to being seen right away at A&E: you ring 111 first and will be triaged on the phone, sent in and waved through. :nods:
 
DrPaulLee said:
At least one person is advising caution on these claims

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1446129078839349264
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maximus otter said:
Volunteer Cold Case Team Secures DNA from the Same Person an FBI Whistleblower Verifies is the “Zodiac Killer”


"Thomas J. Colbert’s “Case Breakers” (CBs) found DNA on a 30-year hiking mat once owned by USAF vet Gary F. Poste.

Poste is also the man that a senior FBI agent alerted the team about: The felon has been secretly listed as the Zodiac “suspect” in Headquarters’ computers since 2016 – with his “partial DNA” safely secured at the feds’ Quantico, Virginia lab

This shocker triggered “Plan B”: CBs found the ancestral town of the now-dead Poste, where DNA from a blood relative was offered by a confidential informant. Days later, “good profiles” from Poste’s kin and the mat’s DNA were compared by forensic experts from 5 colleges. “Strong similarities” were found; team hopes the results will be compared to hairs found on 1966 victim Cheri Jo Bates."

PDF press release: https://thecasebreakers.org/wp-cont...eblower-Reveals-Zodiac-Cover-Up-ExtendedX.pdf

maximus otter
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@DrPaulLee post #63 (quoted above) contains a link to a Xwitter series of post outlining the unlikelihood of anything being solved or cracked WRT to the ID of The Zodiac (unfortunately).
 
How cryptographers finally cracked one of the Zodiac Killer’s hardest codes

An international team of cryptographers has published a new whitepaper detailing the massive amounts of work, crowdsourcing, and computational programming that was required to translate a notorious serial killer’s half-century-old mystery message. Although one cryptographer uploaded a video rundown of their methodology to YouTube in 2020, the team’s new whitepaper further shows just how much work went into accomplishing their feat.

Between 1968-69, a man calling himself the Zodiac murdered at least five people in Northern California. During that time, as well as years after, the killer mailed a series of letters to local newspapers alongside a total of four ciphers. To this day, authorities have not formally named anyone as the Zodiac Killer, and only two of his cryptograms have been solved.

zodiac-killer-cryptography.jpg


The 'Z340' letter from Zodiac Killer, sent on November 8th 1969. Credit: FBI/Public Domain

One of those, however, was long considered the most difficult to parse. First published in newspapers on November 12, 1969, the 340-character cipher (often referred to as “Z340”) baffled amateur and professional cryptographers alike for years. In December 2020, however, an international team announced they believed they finally cracked the Zodiac’s encoded message. A subsequent review by the FBI supported the solution offered by David Oranchak, Sam Blake, and Jarl Van Eycke, putting to rest a 51-year-old enigma.

I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME,” the Zodiac Killer’s Z340 message begins, before clarifying he did not make the famous A.M. San Francisco television call-in on October 22, 1969.

THAT WASNT ME ON THE TV SHOW
WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME
I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER
BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER
BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME
WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE
SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH
I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS
LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH
Zodiac’s Z340 message, typos included
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https://www.popsci.com/technology/zodiac-letter-decode/

maximus otter
 
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