THE ZODIAC KILLER
View FBI
Records on Hunt for Clues
03/02/07
The
seemingly random brutal murders of five people
in California's Bay Area in 1968 and 1969
and a series of taunting cryptic notes sent
by their killer terrorized Northern California
for years.
The
self-proclaimed "Zodiac Killer"
sent local newspapers a three-part coded message
explaining his motive for the killings in
1969 and in a separate letter to the editor
suggested his identity was buried within an
elaborate cipher message. The decoded message
did indeed reveal the killer's twisted motive,
but his identity remains a mystery.
The
unsolved nature of the murders and the Zodiac
Killer's elaborate methods of communicating
with the public and his pursuers still captures
the imaginations of screenwriters, authors,
true-crime buffs, forensic scientists, and,
of course, law enforcement.
The
murders did not fall under federal jurisdiction,
so the FBI never opened an investigation.
But a glance through the FBI's public records
on the case shows how local law enforcement
agencies called on the FBI's expertise in
handwriting analysis, cryptanalysis, and fingerprints
to aid their investigations.
To
view the records, visit the Zodiac
Killer entry in our Electronic Reading
Room.
The
FBI's role in 1969, much as it is today, was
to support local law enforcement in their
investigations. In the Zodiac Killer case,
correspondence between law enforcement agencies
in Northern California and forensic experts
at the FBI's Laboratory—in what was then
called the Technical Evaluation Unit—shows
our efforts to analyze handwriting samples
and lift latent fingerprints from the letters
and envelopes sent by the purported killer.
FBI cryptanalysts, or code-breakers, were
also enlisted to unravel a complex cipher
that used more than 50 shapes and symbols
to represent the 26 letters of the alphabet.
Ultimately the code was made public and broken
by two university professors.
But
then, as now, the case illustrates the extent
of partnerships between the FBI and other
law enforcement agencies. Here's a look at
just some of the ways we support our partners
in investigations:
