Amateur sleuths claim new clues in the Zodiac Killer case

Private sleuths investigating the Zodiac Killer believe they may have uncovered new ‘clues’ in the infamous 1960s serial murder case, including symbols found in locations with possible ties to the killer.

Thomas J. Colbert, whose group Case Breakers has spent years investigating the Zodiac case, told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that his team had discovered the killer’s infamous crosshairs symbol on a wooden post in Groveland, California.

Colbert said the post with ‘the serial killer’s painted symbol and strange coding on it’ was discovered near property once owned by Gary Francis Poste, who died in 2018, and whom his group has named as a prime suspect in the case.

Separately, Fayçal Ziraoui, a French-Moroccan business consultant and amateur Zodiac enthusiast, this week told the New York Times that he had discovered a bullseye rock formation in the Sierra Nevada, using coordinates he claims to have deciphered from the killer’s letters. 

In each of the two instances, there is nothing definitive indicating that the killer himself left the symbol, which was widely published and known around the world.

A photocopy of the cryptogram used to sign a letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969 by the Zodiac Killer

Thomas J. Colbert, whose group Case Breakers has spent years investigating the Zodiac case, told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that his team had discovered the killer’s infamous crosshairs symbol on a wooden post in Groveland, California (pictured). The property was once owned by Gary Francis Poste, who died in 2018, and who his group has named as a prime suspect in the case 

Fayçal Ziraoui, a French-Moroccan business consultant and amateur Zodiac enthusiast, said he had discovered this bullseye rock formation in the Sierra Nevada

In a statement to DailyMail.com, the FBI’s San Francisco Field Office said: ‘The FBI does not confirm or deny any tips or information we may receive from the public.’

‘The FBI’s investigation into the Zodiac Killer remains open and unsolved. Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, and out of respect for the victims and their families, we will not be providing further comment at this time,’ the bureau added.

The Case Breakers group consists of about 40 former law enforcement officials who are dedicated to solving infamous cold cases.  

The founder Colbert last month said that an FBI whistleblower confirmed to him that Poste, an Air Force veteran who has been previously posited as the killer, is currently listed by the bureau as a suspect in internal databases. 

Colbert claims FBI labs have a ‘partial’ DNA sample on Poste – who has been dead since 2018 – that links him to the murders, and believes authorities didn’t look into him enough when he was alive. 

This week, he told DailyMail.com that the Zodiac’s symbol was discovered on a wooden post in Groveland in 2021, when a landowner was clearing manzanita thorn bushes that had been growing for four decades.

Colbert said the post stood just a half-mile away from property that Poste owned in the remote mountain town.

Thomas Colbert says that an FBI whistleblower told him that Air Force veteran Gary Francis Poste (left), who has been previously posited as the killer, is currently listed as a suspect in the Zodiac case in FBI databases. The FBI declined to comment on the matter

Meanwhile, 170 miles away from Groveland, the French businessman Ziraoui believes he’s found his own clue in the case.

Ziraoui told the Times that he found the bullseye rock formation near Hell Hole Reservoir by searching satellite images, after believing a cipher sent by the killer pointed to the coordinates.

The rock formation, which is about 25 feet wide, has a notable deviation from the Zodiac’s trademark symbol, however, as it has a second circle around the perimeter of the inner crosshairs symbol. 

Ziraoui’s inquiries to the local US Forrest Service office and Native American tribal representatives did not produce any clues about the origin of the rock formation, or how long it have been there.

Ziraoui has his own suspect in the Zodiac case: Lawrence ‘Kane’ Kaye, a South Lake Tahoe resident who died in 2010 and had been previously suspected by investigators.

The Frenchman came to his conclusion through his examination of one of the Zodiac killer’s ciphers known as Z13, which has never officially been solved.

Although the rock formation is far from the scenes of the Zodiac’s confirmed attacks in the Bay Area, it is fairly close to an unconfirmed victim’s disappearance.

In 1970, Donna Ann Lass disappeared after leaving work at the Sahara Tahoe casino in Stateline, Nevada. Her remains have never been found.

Nothing definitive ever linked Lass to the Zodiac, but a postcard supposedly from the killer contained references to Lake Tahoe and seemed to imply Lass was a victim. 

After Ziraoui went public with his discovery, investigators connected with the Zodiac case were quick to express skepticism over its significance.

Former San Francisco homicide inspector Gianrico Pierucci, who oversaw the Zodiac investigation before retiring in 2017, said that there was no indication the publicity-hungry killer would have driven hours into a remote mountain area to leave a symbol that might never be found.

‘At this point, with what we know — the Zodiac being in the mountains? No,’ Pierucci told the San Francisco Chronicle.

‘Here’s the thing — why would the Zodiac do that?’ he said. ‘Anybody could have done it. And how many people know about the Zodiac symbol? Everybody.’

While the Zodiac killer is confirmed to have killed five people in Bay Area, the true figure could be as high as 20 to 28 people, while the killer himself claimed to have killed 37 in taunts sent to officials. 

Betti Lou Jensen (left), David Faraday (center), and Darlene Ferrin (right) are said to be three of the Zodiac killer’s victims

Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22, 9left) and Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, (right) were relaxing on a blanket at a remote location by Lake Berryessa in Napa County on September 27, 1969 when attacked

In 2021, Case Breakers identified Poste as their leading suspect in at least five murders that took place in the Bay Area in 1968 and 1969. 

Last month, the group claimed that the FBI considers Poste a suspect in the case, but has done little to act on the clues.

‘The felon has been secretly listed as the Zodiac ‘suspect’ in Headquarters’ computers since 2016,’ Case Breakers said in a statement. 

Case Breakers believes that the federal law enforcement organization has ignored evidence and state laws in their mishandling of the case. 

‘Like cops, federal agents are dealing with huge caseloads, constant training, odd rules and bureaucracy,’ their FBI whistleblower says, according to the group.

‘But when someone wearing a badge or uniform works with others to avoid or hide materials, sidestep difficult procedures, or lie about evidence, they’re hurting our volunteers and the thousands of families waiting for answers.’

The team of investigators had also used photographic evidence to compare a distinctive scar seen on the Zodiac Killer and compared it to photos of Poste. 

They have even requested the FBI to test their findings for DNA.

The Case Breakers have also relied on accounts of people who knew Poste, including a neighbor whom the alleged serial and his wife used to babysit as a child, a man who claimed to have been a part of Poste’s criminal ‘posse’ that roamed the High Sierra region, and an ex-girlfriend of the alleged suspect’s son. 

Investigators with the group believe a scar on the Zodiac killer’s forehead is similar to the one seen on 25-year-old Poste 

Cold case detectives previously believed Ross Sullivan (left) or Lawrence Kane (right) to be the Zodiac killer

According to information released by the Case Breakers, the Zodiac killer was also responsible for the brutal killing of co-ed Cheri Jo Bates, 18, who was found stabbed 42 times and nearly decapitated on October 31, 1966, in Riverside, more than 400 miles south of San Francisco and two years before the Zodiac’s first known killing.

Members of the investigative group claimed that around the time of Bates’ murder, Poste, an Air Force veteran, was getting a check-up at a hospital located just 15 minutes away from the crime scene.

A wristwatch splattered with paint and believed to have been worn by the killer was found near Bates’ body. Case Breakers noted that Poste spent 40 years working as a house painter. 

Additionally, a heelprint found in the dirt at the scene of the stabbing was said to have been been from a ‘military-style boot’ consistent with the style and size of footprints found at three known Zodiac crime scene, and also of Poste.

A year after Bates’ murder, the Riverside Police Department received an anonymous letter, whose author appeared to confess to murdering Bates for turning down his romantic advances. 

In 1975, an FBI memo sent to the Riverside Police Department linked the Bates murder to the Zodiac killings, describing the 18-year-old woman as the elusive murderer’s sixth victim.   

In 2021, Officer Ryan Railsback, the spokesperson for the Riverside Police Department, told DailyMail.com that their homicide unit, working with FBI genealogists, has ruled out any links between the Bates murder and the Zodiac killer, or anyone being potentially identified as the Zodiac killer. 

Five people were fatally stabbed or shot to death in Northern California in 1968 and 1969, and their killer sent taunting letters and cryptograms to the police and newspapers – including the San Francisco Chronicle.

The killer was dubbed ‘Zodiac’ because some of his cryptograms included astrological symbols and references.

The series of unsolved murders inspired many books, documentaries and movies.

Who were the Zodiac’s confirmed victims, and who are the suspects?  

The Case Breakers team first named Gary Francis Poste as a suspect two years ago but recently said that the FBI has a partial DNA match, which could tie him to the murders.

However, Poste isn’t the only suspect in the frame as the serial killer who claimed in menacing letters to newspapers in the 1970s that he had killed 37 people.

The only suspect authorities ever publicly identified is Arthur Leigh Allen, a schoolteacher who was institutionalized in 1975 for child molestation. But the cops only ever had circumstantial evidence against the pedophile who died in 1992.

Other suspects include Lawrence Kane, who was picked out of a photo line-up by a woman who claimed she was abducted by the Zodiac; Ross Sullivan, who bore a striking resemblance to the killer’s police sketch; and Richard Gaikowski, who was said to have a similar voice.

Such is the fame of the case as it has become a fixture of popular culture. Senator Ted Cruz has even been the subject of facetious claims that he is the murderer, although the killings took place before he was even born.

Here DailyMail.com looks at the Zodiac case: Who was murdered and who are the suspects…

Who was murdered?

Although the Zodiac claimed in letters to newspapers to have committed almost 40 murders, investigators agree on seven confirmed victims, five who were killed and two who survived.

Betty Lou Jensen, 16, and David Faraday, 17

On December 20, 1968, the Zodiac Killer struck for the first time, taking the lives of high school sweethearts David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen. The couple was parked in a secluded area of Benicia, California, when they were ambushed. The assailant shot Faraday in the head, killing him instantly, before turning his gun on Jensen, who was also fatally shot.

Betti Lou Jensen (left), David Faraday (center), and Darlene Ferrin (right) are three of the Zodiac killer’s victims

Darlene Ferrin, 22, and Michael Mageau, 19

Around seven months later, on July 4, 1969, the Zodiac attacked again, this time at Lake Herman Road near Benicia. Darlene Ferrin and her companion, Michael Mageau, were sitting in a parked car when the killer approached and opened fire. Ferrin died instantly, succumbing to multiple gunshot wounds, while Mageau was gravely wounded but survived the attack.

Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22, and Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20

Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22, and Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, were relaxing on a blanket at a remote location by Lake Berryessa in Napa County on September 27, 1969. Shepard was stabbed ten times while Hartnell was stabbed six times in the back. He survived the attack, while Cecelia succumbed to her injuries two days later. Hartnell told cops the killer initially struck up a conversation before tying them up and stabbing them with the 12-inch blade.

Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22, 9left) and Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, (right) were relaxing on a blanket at a remote location by Lake Berryessa in Napa County on September 27, 1969 when attacked

Paul Stine, 29

The Zodiac’s final known victim was taxi driver Paul Stine. On October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, Stine picked the killer up as a passenger. Shortly after entering the cab, he shot Stine in the head. This case gained significant attention due to the serial killer’s brazen act of cutting a portion of Stine’s shirt which he mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle two days later.

The Zodiac’s final known victim was taxi driver Paul Stine (pictured). On October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, Stine unknowingly picked the killer up as a passenger

Who are the suspects?

Gary Francis Poste 

Gary Francis Poste (b. November 8, 1937 – d. August 23, 2018), an Air Force veteran, was first named as a suspect by cold case investigators in October 2021.

An organization, including ex-FBI agents, called Case Breakers fingered Poste for the killing of co-ed Cheri Jo Bates, 18. She was stabbed 42 times and nearly decapitated on October 31, 1966, in Riverside, more than 400 miles south of San Francisco and two years before the Zodiac’s first known killing.

Case Breakers say that around the time of Bates’ murder, Poste was getting a check-up at a hospital located just 15 minutes away from the crime scene.

A wristwatch splattered with paint and believed to have been worn by the killer was found near Bates’ body. Case Breakers note that Poste spent 40 years working as a house painter.

Additionally, a heelprint found in the dirt at the scene of the stabbing was said to have been from a ‘military-style boot’ consistent with the style and size of footprints found at three known Zodiac crime scene, and also of Poste.

Investigators with the group believe a scar on the Zodiac killer’s forehead is similar to the one seen on 25-year-old Poste 

The members of The Case Breakers believe that the Zodiac Killer was linked to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates in 1966, two years before the killing spree had began

Poste died at age 80 in Groveland, California, on August 14, 2018. He was never charged with any offenses related to the Zodiac killings.

Little is known about Poste’s life beyond the fact that he was married, had a son and worked as a painter after retiring from the military. 

In February 2016, The Union-Democrat reported that Poste was arrested on suspicion of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse.

A California woman who lived next door to Poste and his wife, and who had been babysat by the couple as a child in the 1970s and 80s, told Fox News she now believes her neighbor was the Zodiac killer. 

The woman, who gave her name only as Gwen, Poste taught her how to shoot, sometimes going into the woods for target practice five days a week.

‘In the last year of her childcare, [Gwen] witnessed his callousness and violence towards his wife – a wife that only slept on a couch,’ according to the Case Breakers. 

In a phone call between Gwen with Poste’s widow, who is now in her late 70s and residing in an assisted living facility, the elderly woman was said to have told her former neighbor: ‘I’m sorry that I didn’t tell the cops about his past.’

A man named Hans Smits told the Case Breakers that over the past 10 years, he had been shielding a ‘Zodiac whistleblower,’ who had allegedly escaped from Poste’s criminal ‘posse’ that was said to have been active in the High Sierra area of California for several decades.

The watch had been found splattered with paint which investigators believe was linked to Poste as he had been a house painter at the time

Police had recovered a watch, which they believed to have belonged to the Zodiac killer

‘Now in his 50s and hiding in the Northwest, [the whistleblower] says he’s angry and ashamed, claiming the psychopath ‘groomed me into a killing machine,” according to the investigative group.

The whistleblower also claimed to have witnessed Poste burying murder weapons.

A woman named Michelle said she was the common-law wife of Poste’s son, and the mother of his grandson, who is now in his 30s. 

According to Michelle, when her 10-year relationship with Poste’s son ended, the house painter sent two members of his posse to break her windows, harass and assault her, ultimately driving her out of state.

Arthur Leigh Allen

Arthur Leigh Allen is one of the most significant Zodiac suspects as he was the only one ever officially named by law enforcement

Arthur Leigh Allen (b. December 18, 1933 – d. August 26, 1992) is one of the most significant Zodiac suspects as he was the only one ever officially named by law enforcement.

Allen is also the subject of David Fincher’s acclaimed 2007 movie, Zodiac, starring Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr. In the film, Ruffalo plays Inspector David Toschi who was convinced that Allen was the serial killer. Ruffalo once told how Toschi said to him: ‘As soon as that guy walked in the door, I knew it was him.’

Allen first came under suspicion after he was reported in the vicinity of the Lake Berryessa attack against Hartnell and Shepard on September 27, 1969. He was interviewed a week later by Detective John Lynch of the Vallejo Police Department.

The Navy veteran said he had been scuba diving on the day of the attack at Salt Point – around 100 miles away on the coast.

He came to the cops’ attention two years later after his friend Donald Cheney reported to police that Allen expressed a desire to kill, used the name Zodiac and obtained a flashlight attachment for a firearm.

The Vallejo Police Department uncovered that Allen had received a dishonorable discharge from the Navy in 1958 and was fired from his job as an elementary school teacher in March 1968 after allegations of sexual misconduct with students. He was reportedly ‘fixated on young children and angry at women’.

Allen was interviewed by cops again in 1971 and his home was searched the following year.

In 1974, he was arrested for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy. He admitted the crime and served two years in prison.

Vallejo Police searched his home again in 1992. They found a Royal typewriter with an Elite type, the same brand used for a letter sent to the Riverside Police Department from someone claiming to be Cheri Jo Bates’ killer.

Allen owned and wore a Zodiac brand wristwatch and lived and worked just minutes away from where another victim, Darlene Ferrin, lived.

Two days after Allen’s death in 1992, the police searched his home again. But nothing conclusive was found tying him to the killings.

In 2002, the San Francisco Police Department developed a partial DNA profile from the saliva of stamps and envelopes on the Zodiac’s letters. This was tested against Allen’s profile but did not come up with a match.

Handwriting expert Lloyd Cunningham, who worked on the Zodiac case for decades, examined Allen’s letters. Cunningham stated that ‘none of his writing even came close to the Zodiac.’

Ross Sullivan

Cold case detectives have claimed Ross Sullivan (left) and Lawrence Kane (right) to be the Zodiac killer

Ross Sullivan (b. July 28th, 1941 – d. September 29th, 1977) was a library assistant at Riverside City College. He is suspected by sleuths of being the serial killer because he bears a striking resemblance to the police sketch and for his proximity to co-ed Cheri Jo Bates – who some believe was the Zodiac’s sixth victim.

He was said to have made people on campus feel uneasy and peers said he wrote ‘creepy’ poems.

Sullivan did not show up for work after Bates’ murder on Halloween, 1966. However, when he did return, he wore a different outfit than normal – this was significant because colleagues said he always wore the same clothes.

He reportedly arrived in the Riverside area months before Bates was killed and then moved to the Bay Area just weeks before the murders in Benecia, Vallejo, and Lake Berryessa.

He was supposedly living in Presidio Heights at the YMCA center at the time of the Paul Stine killing.

Sullivan later moved to New York, where a known Zodiac letter sent to the LA Times in 1974 originated, as proved by a postmark from Albany. 

He died in 1977, which some believe is why the murders and letters ceased. 

Richard Gaikowski

Richard Gaikowski (b. March 14, 1936 – d. April 30, 2004)

Richard Gaikowski (b. March 14, 1936 – d. April 30, 2004) moved from South Dakota to San Francisco in 1963 taking a job at the Daily Commercial News, a financial newspaper.

The following year he moved to Martinez, about 45 minutes outside the city, and less than five miles south of the Zodiac’s first killings.

During that time, Gaikowski worked as managing editor for the local newspaper in Martinez, the News-Gazette. 

He joined the anti-police, counterculture newspaper Good Times newspaper in 1969. He was known to smoke a lot of marijuana as well as experiment with harder drugs such as speed and LSD during this time.

The paper ran violent works of fiction which sleuths claim were similar to the Zodiac’s future crimes.

Carol Stine, the sister of murdered taxi driver Paul Stine, claimed she recognized Gaikowski as having attended his funeral. 

In articles he wrote in 1969, Gaikowski changed his byline occasionally to shortened spellings such as ‘Gike’ or ‘Gaik.’ The letters ‘GYKE’ are clearly seen in a Zodiac cypher mailed to newspapers on July 31, 1969.

On March 13, 1971 the Zodiac sent a letter to the Los Angeles. Shortly after, Gaikowski was involuntarily committed to the Napa State Hospital after ‘going berserk.’

He then began treatment for a mental illness at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco. The Zodiac did not write again for nearly three years.

When he did start writing again in 1974, the Zodiac referenced recent film releases. Gaikowski was working a theater in the City by the Bay at the time.

One of the other key pieces of evidence cited by sleuths is that police dispatcher Nancy Slover said she recognized Gaikowski’s voice as being the same as the Zodiac who she spoke with in July 1969.

The Napa County Sherriff’s Department investigated Gaikowski briefly in 1986 after being urged to by Darlene Ferrin’s sister.

Detective Ken Narlow carried out a background check and placed him under surveillance for a few nights but said he found nothing worth following up.

Separately, the California Department Of Justice deemed that his handwriting was not consistent with that of the Zodiac’s.

Lawrence Kane 

Cold case detectives previously believed Ross Sullivan (left) or Lawrence Kane (right) to be the Zodiac killer

Born Lawrence Klein on April 29, 1924, in Brooklyn, New York, the suspected Zodiac Killer went on to adopt many aliases, including Larry Kane.

He had a long rap sheet dating back to the 1940s for shoplifting, theft and ‘prowling.’

Pam Huckaby, sister of Zodiac victim Darlene Ferrin, claims Kane had followed her for months before her murder.

Additionally, possible Zodiac victim Kathleen Johns, who was kidnapped on March 22, 1970, identified Kane as her abductor. Johns, 22, was taking her infant daughter to visit an ailing relative in Petaluma, California. She had pulled over as another driver had indicated she was having a problem with her wheel.

The suspect offered to help but then apparently made the mechanical issue worse. He offered to give them a ride but kidnapped Johns and her baby, driving them around for two hours on back roads and threatening to kill them.

San Francisco’s major newspapers covered the incident. On July 24, 1970, Zodiac mailed a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle, appearing to take credit for the crime.  

Prior to the Zodiac crimes, Kane had been in a bad car crash in 1962. Three years later, he was diagnosed by a psychologist as ‘losing the ability to control self-gratification.’

He died on May 20, 2010, in Reno, Nevada.