Based on the Robert Graysmith books about the real life notorious Zodiac, a serial killer who terrorized San Francisco with a string of seemingly random murders during the 1960s and 1970s.
A serial killer named Zodiac starts his trauma in the San Francisco Bay Area on 4th July, 1969 by shooting two people. In August, letters are sent to The San Francisco Examiner, The Chronicle and The Vallejo Times Herald. Each letter is part of a cryptic message that contained clues to identify the killer.
On appearance of these letters, few investigators and reporters start the quest for the murderer. Prominent amongst them were homicide detective David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) with his partner Inspector Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards), the expert reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) and a cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal).
The four work in their own way to gather lots of circumstantial evidence against Zodiac. They get so much preoccupied by this case, that they almost forget their personal lives. But, Zodiac’ salways a step ahead of them at any time. Graysmith continues his detective work and with the help of Avery, he’s able to filter the suspects to one single person.
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A Massachusetts man says he has solved something that has boggled authorities for 40 years – the writings of a notorious murderer.
Known as the Zodiac Killer, the unknown subject killed at least seven people and terrorized California’s Bay Area in the late 60s.
The high-profile crimes were made more mysterious by the cryptic writings the killer sent to local newspapers.
Now, Corey Starliper, of Tewksbury, says he has solved those writings.
Mr Starliper, 27, who admits he’s ‘extraordinarily consumed’ in the case, spent nine hours working on the code.
He told Patch.com: ‘I found it exciting, that I was actually able to get into his head when nobody had for over 40 years.’
The first cipher, which appeared three parts sent to three newspapers in August of 1969, contained 408 characters.
It took just a few days for a history teacher and his wife to solve it.
Mr Starliper said: ‘The first code was cracked by amateurs. So they figure that any communication after that would be able to be cracked by amateurs.’
So he began to work on the most famous – and unsolved – code, a 340-character cipher mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper on Nov. 8, 1969.
‘The first one was cracked by a history teacher and his wife,’ said Starliper.
‘What I’m driving at was the first code was cracked by amateurs. So they figure that any communication after that would be able to be cracked by amateurs.’
Starliper’s interest in the infamous killer was sparked by Zodiac, the movie about the murders.
The 2007 film starred Jake Gyllenhaal, Marc Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr.
It was based on the writings of Robert Graysmith, who scribed two books about the case.
When all was said and done, Mr Starliper came up with the following:
KILL/SLF/DR/HELP/ME/KILL/MYSELF/GAS/CHAMBER/AEIOUR/DAYS/QUESTIONSABLE/EVERYY/WAKING/MOMENT/IM/ALIVE/MY/PRIDE/LOST/I/CANT/GO/ON/LIVING/IN/THIS/WAY/KILLING/PEOPLE/I/HAV/KILLD/SO/MANY/PEOPLE/CANT/HELP/MYSELF/IM/SO/ANGRY/I/COULD/DO/MY/THING/IM/ALONE/IN/THIS/WORLD/MY/WHOLE/LIFE/FUL/O/LIES/IM/UNABLE/TO/STOP/BY/THE/TIME/YOU/SOLVE/THIS/I/WILL/HAV/KILLD/ELEVEN/PEOPLE/PLEASE/HELP/ME/STOP/KILLING/PEOPLE/PLEASE/MY/NAME/IS/LEIGH/ALLEN/
Mr Starliper said the name ‘Leigh Allen’ refers to Arthur Leigh Allen, who was listed as the prime suspect at one point, but never arrested.
But a handwriting expert determined the scrawls of the killer were not the same as Allen’s, who also passed a lie detector test.
Despite that evidence, Robert Graysmith maintained in his writings that Allen was indeed the killer, and Mr Starliper agrees.
He said: ‘Leigh Allen, in that situation, was forcing his handwriting to look different from the way that he normally wrote.’
Mr Allen died in 1992 at the age of 58.
After completing his work, Mr Starliper tried to reach out to Bay Area authorities to report his findings, but it wasn’t well-received.
After little success contacting Solano, Vallejo, and Napa counties, he tried the San Francisco Cold Case and Special Investigative Units.
But he got no response.
Disappointed, he said: ‘It’s disheartening to know that the authorities have basically shut the door on it.’