Zodiac Killer
Serial killer in California · United States · Historical Figures
Zodiac Killer is read about 12,271 times a day, in 57 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 390 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?An unidentified serial killer who murdered at least five people in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1968-69, then taunted police and newspapers with cryptograms and letters claiming far more victims. The case remains open, the name unsolved, the attention unrelenting.
Also in Deutsch
Photos 11
David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen
Darlene Ferrin
Zodiac letter to the San Francisco Chronicle, August 1, 1969.
Part 1 of Z408 cipher and its decryption by Donald and Bettye Harden. (Parts 2 & 3)
Lake Berryessa
Photo of Bryan Hartnell's car door, where the Zodiac tallied his crimes
Witness sketch of man seen at Lake Berryessa shortly before the murderAbout this person
Between December 1968 and October 1969, the Zodiac attacked three couples and a cab driver across Benicia, Vallejo, unincorporated Napa County, and San Francisco - seven victims, five dead, two survivors. The killer mailed letters to Bay Area newspapers claiming credit, threatening bombings and more deaths if unpublished, and enclosing cryptograms; two were decrypted in 1969 and 2020, two remain unsolved. The last letter arrived in 1974, claiming a total of 37 kills. Police named one suspect: Arthur Leigh Allen, a former elementary school teacher and convicted sex offender who died in 1992. San Francisco PD marked the case inactive in 2004, reopened it in 2006, and the file stays open across multiple agencies while amateur detectives worldwide continue the search.
Historical Figures from the United States 6
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