December 20 is an important date in the unsolved case of the Zodiac serial killer: here’s why

It is 56 years to the day since the self-christened ‘Zodiac’ killer, one of the US’s most notorious serial murderers, took the lives of his first confirmed victims.

On December 20, 1968, he gunned down two high-school students - Betty Lou Jensen, 16, and David Arthur Faraday, 18 - on a ‘lovers’ lane’ on Lake Herman Road in Bernicia, California.

In all, the Zodiac is known to have slain five people in Northern California in the late 1960s - but over the more than half a century since then, his identity has remained a mystery.

Who else is the Zodiac confirmed to have killed?

The Zodiac is also confirmed to have been behind a July 1969 gun attack in Vallejo which targeted 22-year-old Darlene Ferrin and 16-year-old Michael Mageau, as the pair sat in Ferrin’s car in a parking lot in Blue Rock Springs Park. Ferrin was killed, but Mageau survived.

Two months later, the Zodiac chose a new modus operandi: having so far shot all his victims to death, he inflicted a knife attack on college students Brian Hartnell, 20, and Celia Shephard, 22, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Again, his female target died, while the male victim made it out alive.

The final verified Zodiac murder came in October 1969, when he shot 29-year-old taxi driver Paul Stine in the head in San Francisco, after riding in Stine’s cab to a street corner in the upmarket Presidio Heights area.

Zodiac sends taunting letters, coded messages to media

During, and beyond, the 10-month period in which his confirmed killings took place, the Zodiac corresponded regularly with the press, in letters written chiefly to the San Fransisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner and the Vallejo Times. He bragged about his murders, taunted law enforcement over its inability to catch him, and even threatened to shoot children as they got off school buses.

The Zodiac’s correspondence to the media, which appears to have lasted until 1974, also included coded messages which, he explained, would reveal his motives and even his identity.

One coded letter, sent to the Examiner in 1969, was cracked not by law enforcement, but by a couple of amateur sleuths in Salinas, California. The message read, in part: “I like killing people because it is so much fun. It is more fun than killing wild game in the forest, because man is the most dangerous animal of all. To kill something gives me the most thrilling experience. It is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl.” (Note: misspellings have been corrected and punctuation has been added.)

The code to another message, sent to the Chronicle in 1969, was finally cracked in 2020. Neither deciphered letter, however, has led the Zodiac’s true identity to be uncovered.

“I’m not the damn Zodiac”

Several Zodiac candidates have been put forward over the years - most notably Arthur Leigh Allen, a school teacher who is the only person ever to be officially named by law enforcement as a suspect.

Allen was never arrested or charged, and vehemently maintained his innocence until his death in 1992. The year before he died, he told an interview with TV channel KTVU: “They haven’t arrested me because they can’t prove a thing. I’m not the damn Zodiac.”

Get your game on! Whether you’re into NFL touchdowns, NBA buzzer-beaters, world-class soccer goals, or MLB home runs, our app has it all.

Dive into live coverage, expert insights, breaking news, exclusive videos, and more – plus, stay updated on the latest in current affairs and entertainment. Download now for all-access coverage, right at your fingertips – anytime, anywhere.