Is This The Face of The Zodiac Killer?

Personally I do not feel the photos are identical, as has been claimed. They are similar in my opinion, but that is just an opinion. I think if you take the glasses off it would make a difference as well. Regardless, I just thought about a possibility. They said that the odds of the name being included in the encrypted message are astronomical. Now what if, and this is a big what if, the real killer looked for people who looked like he did, or looked like the witness sketch if that sketch was not too close to what the real killer looked like, and he found that person and found his name, and included that name in the message simply to place focus on someone else?

So essentially the police would find the lead incredible, and thus would place more resources on investigating this person. It would be absolutely brilliant, although the man and his acts were utterly despicable, but as a tactic I mean it would be smart. Placing resources on investigating someone else means that there are less resources to go in the right direction. It may not be plausible, but it is possible, and it could explain all the evidence presented suggesting this man's father is the killer.

a reply to: JiggyPotamus

Made an overlay of the two images and they do seem to be very similar.


And the original images I used:


I picked up the book last night and am about to dive in to it now. I'm a little curious as to why he didn't wait until the DNA results prior to making his claim, but I guess he wouldn't make money on the book of he was wrong.

a reply to: intrptr

I read the link and have seen the movie It may have been Allen but it may not have been, the circumstantial evidence on him is pretty overwhelming.

I remember when they were filming up at Lake Berryessa, it was the talk of the town!

I'm one of those folks who thinks this case will never be solved.I truly hope I am wrong ,but its been more than 40 yrs since the last known victim.

I don' t think it was Leigh because of the dna/fingerprints/writing are not matches.Why would he have someone else lick the stamps?Was dna testing common knowledge back then?I agree that some of the evidence against him is damning,but in my opinion the composite looks nothing like Leigh.

However it does look like the newly named suspect,alot.As I stated above,I think this case will remain a mystery.I hope for the victims families sake,I am wrong.

The photo and sketch look dead on but I watched a show, Aphrodite jones, where she investigated the Zodiac killer and was blown away by what she uncovered. It is the daughter of a man, also deceased, who believes her dad was the Zodiac killer and her story and the evidence are pretty compelling.
I was born and raised in the area where the Zodiac hunted and have read the book,
saw the movie, and heard plenty of speculation but you should really find it
online and watch it.

Hi Jennyfrenzy,

You got me interested with your OP and I am reading the book now! I can't speak to the veracity, but I'll check back in with impressions later...

Gwynn

a reply to: crazyeddie68

It's crazy how similar the composite sketch is to Van Best!

This is an image of a younger Arthur Leigh Allen:


Allen resembles this composite of the Zodiac more than the famous image in the OP:


It will be interesting to see what the DNA results have to say.

a reply to: Dscott

Thanks, I'll check it out. I am also from the area, have read the book and saw the movie.

I grew up seeing the effect these murders had on my parents. Two of the victims were their friends, my moms best friend was a victims sister. They were teenagers when this occurred. The Zodiac terrified people all throughout the Bay Area and it would be nice to see the families get some answers as to who this was.

a reply to: Jennyfrenzy

The Zodiac case is indeed an interesting one and the lack of solid, substantial leads despite the wealth of evidence has obviously haunted everyone involved.

I became interested in the case when a friend asked me to take a look at what I know now to be the 340 cypher. As of now I'm more than halfway through my mapping of this particular cypher and 15 years into my inadvertent interest in this case.

I wanted to comment on this particular composite sketch, which IMO does resemble Arthur Leigh Allen, It is not however a definite sketch of the Zodiac. This sketch is from witnesses who saw this man parked near them at a nearby A&W and again watching them near Lake Barryessa earlier on the day that Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Ann Shepard were attacked there.

There are two things about this that I find interesting, the first being, the man the girls describe was not wearing glasses when he pulled up at the A&W or when they saw him again at the lake.

The second thing that has always struck me are the obvious differences between this man and the man witnessed by children who lived upstairs and across the street from the scene of the cab driver Paul Stine. I will add here that having seen many photos from the Paul Stine scene and looking over the property returned to Paul's wife, the question of whether or not the glasses worn by the man wiping down the cab and leaving the scene were taken from Mr. Stine along with a piece of his shirt. I'd also like to add here that there were two sketches done in the Paul Stine case. The first is the one seen in your opening post. The second sketch was amended at the request of witnesses a few days later and although the changes made are subtle it does IMO look more like this Earl Van Best fellow.

These are the two side by side



Speaking to the evidence that the name Earl Van Best appears in whats known as the "my name is" cypher and the 340. It's my opinion that the first is far too short to get any reliable info out of. At least not as a stand alone cypher. The 340 is similar although for opposite reasons, Its so big that pulling a name out of the whole with out connecting it to the remainder of the cypher is questionable. Meaning every other suspects name can and has been created within the 340.

This fellow is interesting non the less IMO, I look forward to what the DNA results have to say as well.

Penny

Why are people still so obsessed with this guy?

a reply to: 3u40r15m

I'm going to say that the reasoning is likely different for everyone but speaking for myself, This man was brutal and obviously had some sort of message he was hoping someone would figure out. He taunted the public and law enforcement by sending numerous letters, cards, cyphers, diagrams, maps and physical evidence taken from crime scenes. There seems to be a mountain of evidence including DNA and various finger prints. And yet, he has yet to be definitively named.

The 340 cypher itself is incredibly complex and for anyone who is interested in that kind of thing is interesting in its own right.

Penny

originally posted by: pennylemon
a reply to: 3u40r15m

I'm going to say that the reasoning is likely different for everyone but speaking for myself, This man was brutal and obviously had some sort of message he was hoping someone would figure out. He taunted the public and law enforcement by sending numerous letters, cards, cyphers, diagrams, maps and physical evidence taken from crime scenes. There seems to be a mountain of evidence including DNA and various finger prints. And yet, he has yet to be definitively named.

The 340 cypher itself is incredibly complex and for anyone who is interested in that kind of thing is interesting in its own right.

Penny

So it's kind of like a wild goose chase decoding things and trying to make it a scavenger hunt, people just want to be THE ONE to figure it out? Seems legit... I'll shut up. I had no idea, never really took interest.

a reply to: pennylemonWhats your opinion on the theory that Zodiac was more than one killer.I often wonder if it could have been two people wofking together.

a reply to: crazyeddie68

To be honest Eddie I just don't know. You are definitely not alone in this respect. As I was saying in an earlier post, my main focus was and is the 340 cypher. I realized early on that to better understand it I had to better understand the details of the case.

That being said, I could see a secondary person in the role of a subordinate rather than a partner.. I don't personally have a pet suspect although for those who favor Arthur Leigh Allen, a partner would explain why his fingerprints, handwriting or DNA do not match those on file. It would also explain why the witnesses sketch of the man doing the watching at Lake Barryessa and the witnesses sketch of the man seen wiping down the cab and leaving at the scene of the Paul Stine murder are so very different. In the case of Allen, I would consider him a better fit as the subordinate.



Penny

Interesting stuff.

Almost incredible how far crime scene technology has come since then. DNA evidence on a stamp is something nobody would have even thought of in the 1970's.

There is a possibility of using a sponge or wet rag to moisten the stamps for you. I highly doubt someone else did it for him.

"Hey can you lick these letters and put stamps on them for me? I saw this Seinfeld episode and I am paranoid about adhesive poisoning anyways. Oh yeah, double check the address' for the San Francisco Chronicle and SFPD are correct on the front. Don't read the letters, you can't understand my symbols anyways. Oh and disregard the bloody shirt package, its this whole long-winded story you dont want to hear..."

Just seems unlikely to me.

I do hope they find out who it was, at least the families would get some kind of closure and a grave to piss on.

I have to say, that flick of hair on the right eyebrow (his left) is certainly pronounced
and the artist impression definitely also has a pronounced line in that area,
on the amended version specifically.

Looking at the Artist Impression beforehand you could be mistaken thinking it is a wrinkle in the skin,
I think them witnesses may have mentioned stray hairs.

is there any witness descriptions available? I'd be interested to know if his eyebrow is mentioned.
Such an stand out feature.

Just my first impression, certainly an interesting story if true.

The messages on Ancestry.com mentioned earlier are the only red flags for me so far.

originally posted by: Jennyfrenzy
a reply to: JiggyPotamus

And the original images I used:

The dude doesn't have any wrinkles on the forehead, no indention in the cheeks and no crew-cut. He doesn't look like a large size man as described.... only the glasses match, back then everyone wore that style of glasses!!!

That said, my bet is that the Zodiac Killer was a cop, some of the killings where remote patrolled area's...

a reply to: Jennyfrenzy

I believe the author published the book in part, to push SFPD into moving forward with the DNA comparison. According to the author, they collected the DNA and submitted the request a few years ago but have been sitting on it ever since.

a reply to: intrptr

Are you reading the solution in reverse? If you read it in reverse, the first and last name match perfectly and the "V" in "Van" is simply rotated around "JR". Seems like a pretty eerie match to me. Also, the Altered Dimensions article was updated today to show another example from the 340 cipher. Again working from reverse, each column contains a character in the name "earl van best junior". Surely you could fit lots of names in that same manner (although I could find none) but that the author's proposed culprit fits so well - seems like an odd coincidence.

Reference: Altered Dimensions

a reply to: AlteredDimensions

Along with a drawing, sure. Is that it? Oh, we're "waiting for more".

The volume of coincidences in Leigh's overall profile is much more lengthy.

Thats the rub. a compelling tidbit or two is less conclusive than an overall pile of added up stuff. Thats the problem I have with adding anyone new to the list. Did this guy have opportunity like Leigh? Was he "around"? Did he boast to others like Leigh?

Was he in the Navy, used ciphers, wore wing walkers and a Zodiac watch like Leigh? But a few from that long list.

Remember what happened during the hunt for the Boston Bomber when every tom, dick and harry resembled the FBi composite?

Like I read somewhere everybody back in the 60s looked like that.
A lot of people.
Heck even DB cooper sort of looks like that sketch.

Could be this guy in the book or somebody else.
Interesting story for sure and I am reading the book.

I personally think the Zodiac was more than one person, and either a Satanic cult or one I read a while back was that it was a team of hit men that were covering their tracks with a serial killer cover.

Still holds a lot of interest even 50 years later.