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Zodiac Killer revealed? Alleged discovery of serial killer's identity refuted
A new claim by cold case investigators about the real identity of the Zodiac Killer has been refuted by law enforcement.
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The Zodiac Killer terrorized the San Francisco Bay neighborhood throughout the 1960s. (Unsplash) (Unsplash/Lacie Slezak)
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group of cold case specialists called the Case Breakers revealed to people's surprise on Wednesday that the infamous Zodiac Killer, whose murders in Northern California, the United States, remained unsolved for six decades, had been a man who died in 2018.
The Case Breakers are an unofficial task force of 40 volunteers comprising former law enforcement personnel, prosecutors, intelligence officers, as well as people with legal and academic backgrounds. They said in a press release that new physical and forensic evidence pointed to a man named Gary Francis Poste as the notorious killer.
The group’s forensic experts said Poste was “a very strong suspect”, pointing out a similar scar on Poste’s forehead and a 1969 San Francisco Police Department sketch of the Zodiac. Poste’s scar was documented in 59 years of photos.
They also believed the deciphered letters from the Zodiac contain anagrams of Poste’s name. The Zodiac killer used to mail a series of taunting letters filled with astrological symbols to regional newspapers and the police.
However, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and local police in San Francisco and Riverside, California, dismissed the group’s “circumstantial evidence".
"The case remains open and there is no new information to report," the FBI said as quoted by NBC News.
The Zodiac Killer terrorized the San Francisco Bay neighborhood throughout the 1960s. He was also famous for the cryptograms he sent to police and newspapers, in which he claimed to have murdered 37 people. However, the murders of only five people have been officially tied to him.
Police have reportedly received many tips on the possible identity of the Zodiac, but the only suspect they have ever publicly named was former elementary school teacher and convicted sex offender Arthur Leigh Allen, who died in 1992.
The murders have inspired numerous films, such as 1971’s The Zodiac Killer, Dirty Harry, and 2007's Zodiac, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal.
