I'm a Scandinavian girl who basically ends up going from looking at kittens to gory murders in one sitting, the days I'm sick or sometimes when I can't sleep.
I was pretty surprised to find an entire forum with a ton of people talking about this particular unsolved murder series.
After looking a bit at different posts I can see that most of you are in deep in this case and have done a ton of research about it which is really impressive!
I am pretty new to this case, but I love mysteries and trying to solve them, and I have already come up with a few observations, I would love some feedback about it! Also tell me if Im wrong please about some details.
Looking at a lot of witness descriptions I am a bit confused because witnesses seem to describe different types of killers, which is normal human behavior, we often struggle to remember correctly these things.
Most of the witnesses seem to agree that the killer was overweight but not obese, had a large, round face and short to regular height. These are the few things everyone agrees on.
When it comes to the killers hair it has been described as three versions
1) light brown hair that appears his own, wavy/curly and not well maintained/greasy
2) short crew cut, "dark" and parted to the side, and seems well maintained and rather meticulous,
3) having a reddish hair colour.
However from what I have seen suspects agree that the killer seems to have a full head of his natural hair (although they could of course be mistaken)
The first hair observation was observed by surviving victim Mike Mageau although he did not see the killer for a long time, or up close. The killer Mageau describes seems to be not very hygienic, and also this character seems sloppy when it comes to his attacks (perhaps not very intelligent). He seemed to first shoot at them once, then Mike appeared to be alive so the killer came back and shot at him a second time before driving off.
Although Mike might not have been able to get a good look at the killer, it is quite obvious to me that it must have been an accurate observation that the killer was about to leave then came back and shot a second time when he saw Mike appeared alive, because thats something Mike would most likely notice and remember.
This to me proves that the killer did not purposedly intend to leave a victim alive, hence the killer was merely being sloppy and not very smart. So in this case we have a sloppy, not very intelligent killer, who is also possibly not very hygienic.
This to me contradicts the police sketches in every possible way, as well as contradicting other witness descriptions. The police sketches show a man who has very perfect and tidy looking hair. He also has glasses, but what bothers me the most is that in the police sketches he does not have a large and wide face, which seems to be something all the witnesses agreed upon. Should we all together disregard the police sketches as being incredibly wrong and badly put together and are they possibly just leaving us astray? Or do we use them as important guidelines and should disregard the witness descriptions?
Also, did the Zodiac killer kill Paul Stine? If so why? It seemed very random and out of character to me. The zodiac killer seemed to attack young couples, as well as trying to attack a young pregnant mother with a child. The killer was also reported to be completely silent while attacking, not speaking a word. This all proves to me, that the zodiac killer had problems with social situations and the ability to develop meaningful relationships in his private life. The killer had no sexual interest in his victims, and he did not appear to personally know them. He did also not appear to want to create an intimate connection with his victims before killing them, unlike many other serial killers. This killer simply wanted to kill people who to him demonstrated their successful social skills and ability to create meaningful relationships, which he himself was incapable of.
The suspect Arthur Leigh Allen, could certainly fit a description of being not hygienic, sloppy, short to regular height, overweight but not obese, and a large face. He did have an education and could not be called stupid but perhaps below average. Allen also often would misspell words as a joke, which also showed low social skills because he was attempting to engage in social settings, but all he did was create his own internal joke with himself which the people around him could not enjoy or take part of (his own language sort of which only he could enjoy). This last personality trait is more important to me than the zodiac watch and mentioning of the same book as the zodiac killer.
Allen was a convicted child molester. A lot of people think this excludes him as a suspect, because these murders are not related to children. Is it possible that these young couples to him represented a society that did not accept his "sexual preference" or all the things he was always told he should be?
To me this seems unlikely because to me I feel like the killer took great pride and interest in his murders. He created all of the notes and ciphers, the mark at the car door, he even had his own costume. In his ciphers he wrote that he was collecting slaves for his afterlife and that his victims would become those slaves. It seems that we are dealing with a killer who is isolated from social activity to such extent that he has created an entire world of his own and possibly even his own religion where he is justifying his actions and feels righteous about it. His costume also seems to support this theory, that he almost is creating a super hero status for himself. This behavior as well as the misspelling which obviously is on purpose, is the same as Allen.
But like I said it seems unlikely to me that Allen would kill young couples because when you are that narcissistic and socially dysfunctional and living in your own world and when you make the decision to not pay attention to the law, or normal moral codes, -
a person who enjoyed killing as well as was a pedophile would certainly target children rather than young couples. It doesnt make sense to me that he would limit himself like that.
Also if we believe that the killer was sloppy and not very intelligent, in that case Allen was the killer; he was a suspect for a long time and the police took great interest in him, so had Allen been the killer he MUST HAVE left some type of definite incriminating evidence behind, being that sloppy.
So I personally do not believe that the killer was Allen. I have not gathered enough info about the other suspects yet to be able to have an opinion, but if we believe the killer is sloppy and less intelligent, then any of the other main suspects seem unlikely as well.
However there is also the theory that the killer is highly intelligent (either stupid or very smart) In this case, is it possible that he is writing codes with all of his purposedly placed misspellings in all of his notes? The one cipher which has been decoded was decoded into a product full of misspellings and a bottom row with what appeared to be random letters. Is it possible that he has created his own systems for the ciphers and that is the reason why people havent solved them? Is it possible that his first cipher which was solved, that the solved cipher came with a second hidden message through misspellings and the bottom row of letters? And then with his remaining three ciphers, are they created from a completely new system which he himself has created?
I think that at least the last part is highly probable, considering the killers narcissism, and social dysfunctional behavior. Even if he is not intelligent, it is still most probable that he created his own system for the three remaining ciphers, because the killer created his own identity for himself, his own costume, and possibly his own religion, so it only makes sense he would create his own language and system for the ciphers. In fact I think it would be completely out of character for the killer to continuously use common systems for his ciphers.
In the killers notes, it is also clear that the killer is surprised that his other ciphers are not solved. This is yet another great indication that the killer is highly narcissistic and socially dysfunctional. He is seeing a very obvious solution to all of the ciphers because he created them, and being unable to be put himself in the position of someone else, he can not understand that they are not easily solved. That is like a child sees things; identifying all his surroundings using himself as his only reference.
When it comes to the theory of a TEAM Zodiac I cannot make myself believe thats true. I agree that witness descriptions have varied a lot. However, what I am the most interested in is the clearly displayed personality of the killer and probable cause for targeting young couples. This killer like I said is an absolute loner, living in his own world, completely incapable of social relationships. His behavior to me proves severe problems not just in romantic relationships but also friendly relations, and even family relations. This person with this kind of personality has been completely isolated from meaningful human interaction for the biggest part of his life, and I do not believe he is even in regular contact with family members. The idea that he would be working with someone else seems absolutely and utterly impossible to me.
How would two such loners ever even find each other and connect before a time of internet? They wouldn't. Had there been two loners, who against all odds knew each other; that relation would be so extremely rare and meaningful to them, and they would be so proud of having it, that I strongly believe we would have found evidence of a Zodiac team, and possibly a sort of war-like attitude. It is more likely they would instead show up both in the same identical costume, same identity, and be killing side by side for the same "righteous cause".
If there was a TEAM Zodiac that would have to mean that they each agreed on their own specific role in the killing. This again does not make any sense, because the personality of the killer clearly displayed in all of the notes and all of the encounters, is so incredibly narcissistic and socially incompetent, that he would NEVER be the kind of person to agree to give any of his important roles up to another person. The killer is also taking great pride in his killings, it is infinetely important to him, and he feels a strong sense of ownership and pride over it.
He would never agree to have a partner to listen to, take advice from, negotiate, compromise, and plan with, as well to give some of the credit to, that just makes ZERO sense to me.
Thats all I have for now
