The Zodiac Killer
Brittany Anderson
Fort Hays State University
Abstract
This paper will discuss the Zodiac killer and the crimes that were committed. I will provide you with detailed information regarding the crimes, who the victims are and how the crimes were committed and there locations. I will also provide you with a profile of the killer and why I believe this profile fits this specific person based on what I have learned in our text.
The Zodiac Killer
The Zodiac Killer is believed to be responsible for several murders in the San Francisco area, between 1968 and 1969.
In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, citizens of the San Francisco Bay area and the rest of California were represented with terror, fear and death. The bizarre and theatrical and still unresolved serial murders by an unknown assailant who called himself “Zodiac”, who claims in letters that he is responsible for 37 murders (Voigt, 1998), but police have focused on five murders and two attempted murders between 1968 and 1969, during which time he sent letters and made taunting phone calls to the local newspaper and police departments. Many suspects have surfaced over the years, but the killer has yet to be apprehended.
First Murders
Friday December 20, 1968, a young couple, David Faraday 17 who was a scholar and varsity athlete, and Betty Lou Jensen 16 a hardworking student with a good reputation, were out on their first date when they were shot on a gravel parking area along a well-known “lovers lane” among teens at Lake Herman Road. The couple had been approached by a man who shot at the teens while they had been occupying Faraday’s station wagon. This is believed to have been done in order to force the couple out of the car.
David was shot in the head at point-blank range as he exited the car. David died within minutes after the attack. Betty was shot five times in the back and killed instantly. It had appeared Betty had attempted to escape on foot because her