Richard Gaikowski-
Gaikowski served a short term in the Army during the 1950s. It is known that Gaikowski was trained as a medic. Medics were trained to tear the clothing of a bleeding victim to use as bandages if they did not have access to the proper equipment. Undershirt first, then shirt, then pants if necessary. That is the order of cleanliness, with the shirttail being preferred if tucked in. (Zodiac tore off a portion of a victim's shirttail.) Unfortunately, since 80% of such records were destroyed by fire in 1973, not much more is known about Gaikowski's military career.
In October 1965, Gaikowski was intentionally arrested for refusing to sign a traffic citation following a routine stop in Contra Costa County (Calif.). As an investigative reporter for the local newspaper, Gaikowski's goal was to write a story about the conditions within the county jail from the perspective of an inmate. Following his brief stay in jail, Gaikowski's mugshot was published along his story. However, by the time Gaikowski became a Zodiac suspect more than 20 years later, records of his fingerprints were long gone, making a comparison to Zodiac's fingerprints impossible without either Gaikowski's consent or a court order. There is no evidence either happened.
Eventual Zodiac victim Darlene Ferrin of Vallejo, Calif. got married on and moved to Albany, NY. Gaikowski quickly followed, moving across country from Martinez, Calif. (near Vallejo). Ferrin's husband worked at the Albany Times-Union newspaper; Gaikowski worked in the same building at the rival Albany Knickerbocker News. In August 1973, four years after Ferrin was killed by the Zodiac, the Times-Union received a letter from someone claiming to be the zodiac . When solved, the cipher that was included with the letter made reference to the Albany Medical Center.
In 1969, 1970 and 1971, Gaikowski was a member of an anti-police, pro violence counterculture newspaper and commune in San Francisco called Good Times. During this time, Gaikowski was known to smoke pot regularly and to use heavier drugs such as speed and LSD.
As early as January 1969, the Good Times newspaper was running violent works of fiction that were nearly a blue for Zodiac's future crimes.Wednesday was "production day" for the weekly Good Times newspaper, with the staffers working from early in the morning until very late at night to prepare the new issue. Between Zodiac's debut in July 1969 until the Good Times folded in 1973, the Zodiac mailed 15 letters. Never did he mail a letter on a Wednesday, although he did on every other day of the week.
At the time of his murder, the Good Times "switchboard" was located only yards from the residence of Zodiac victim Paul Stine on Fell Street in San Francisco.Carol, Paul Stine's sister, recognized Gaikowski as having attended Paul's funeral.
Stine was killed on San Francisco's Washington Street. Only one Gaikowski was listed in a city directory at that time, Richard's cousin, and she lived on Washington Street. Her birthday was October 11, the very day Stine was murdered by the Zodiac. Stine -- a cab driver -- was the one victim whom the Zodiac could choose when and where he would be killed.
On the very day Zodiac debuted by mailing three "rush to editor" letters to three separate newspapers in the San Francisco area (with each letter containing one third of a code), the Good Times (edited by Gaikowski) just happened to run a cover that was split into thirds. It was the only instance of Zodiac mailing a letter on a Thursday until after the Good Times folded in 1973. Five months later, the Good Times published a three-part code of its own. The Good Times also occasionally ran sensationalistic "Zodiac Killer" headlines that were out of place.In articles he published in 1969, Gaikowski had the habit of shortening his last name to four letters and use multiple spellings, such as "Gike" or "Gaik." Interestingly, "GYKE" can clearly be seen in Zodiac's three-part cipher mailed on July 31, 1969. What's more, how Zodiac chose to code the cipher phonetically gives you Gaikowski's full last name.
At the very time the Zodiac wrote his only letter to the Vallejo Times-Herald, Gaikowski's best friend, Bob, worked at that very newspaper.
Even though the Good Times was a counterculture/hippie newspaper, once Gaikowski came aboard it ran free ads for such unlikely events as performances of The Mikado, a Zodiac favorite. (Zodiac sometimes quoted from The Mikado in his letters.)
On March 13, 1971 the Zodiac sent a letter to the Los Angeles Times. Coinciding closely with the mailing, Gaikowski was involuntarily committed to the Napa State Hospital after "going berzerk." He was then diagnosed with a mental illness and began treatment at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco. The Zodiac didn't write again for almost three years.
When the Zodiac reemerged in 1974 with letters referring to recent movie releases, Gaikowski was operating a storefront theater in the Mission District of San Francisco. A film buff, Gaikowski eventually became involved with San Francisco's Roxie Theater.
Nancy Slover, the police dispatcher who spoke with the Zodiac in July 1969, has identified Gaikowski's voice as being the same as the Zodiac's voice.
In 1986, the Napa County Sheriff's Dept. briefly investigated Gaikowski. After urging from Goldcatcher and Pam Huckaby (sister of Darlene Ferrin), Detective Ken Narlow did a background check on Gaikowski and put him under surveillance for a few nights. Narlow found nothing to warrant further investigation and the matter was dropped. Meanwhile, the California Dept. Of Justice determined that Gaikowski's handwriting had consistencies with Zodiac's handwriting and more samples of Gaikowski's printing were requested. Goldcatcher found printing that he felt could have belonged to Gaikowski, but those samples were determined to not be a match. There was not enough probable cause for an arrest or search warrant and the investigation ended.
Arthur Leigh Allen-
Arthur Leigh Allen's connections to the Zodiac killer began on Oct. 30, 1966, when Cheri Jo Bates was stabbed to death at Riverside City College (RCC) in Riverside, Calif. In late-November 1966, two anonymous, typewritten Bates-murder confession letters were mailed to the local police and newspaper. (The typewriter was identified as being a Royal model, with either Elite or Pica type.) Allen allegedly was in Riverside the weekend Bates was murdered. The information placing Allen in Riverside was developed in 1971 by the Vallejo Police Department (VPD) and the California Department of Justice (DOJ). Allen later hinted it was true, first claiming to have been "in the area" at the time, then telling people he was in nearby Pomona when he first heard of the Bates murder.
Employed as an elementary-school teacher in California's Calaveras County at the time of the Bates murder, by the time his employment ended in late March 1968 Allen had used only one of 19 available sick days. The day Allen was absent was Nov. 1, 1966. (Initially, Allen attributed the absence to "school business." He was later charged with a sick day.) Did Allen stay an extra day or two in Riverside, gathering second-hand information to use in the anonymous confessions? Or did Allen actually kill Bates, missing work on Nov. 1 because of facial wounds inflicted by his victim? (Modern FBI profiles on serial killers usually say that during periods of activity, the killer will behave erratically, exhibit moodiness, drink or smoke more than usual and miss work.) During the execution of a 1991 search warrant, VPD seized a Royal typewriter with Elite type from the home of Allen.
In late-April 1967, three anonymous letters referring to Bates were mailed. In 1970, Sherwood Morrill, head of the Questioned Documents Section of California's Criminal Identification and Investigation Bureau, determined them to be the work of Zodiac. Each contained double the necessary postage, a Zodiac trademark. Two of the three letters were signed with an unusual symbol. Some believe the symbol resembles a sloppy "z," others say it looks like a "32." At the time Bates was killed, Allen was 32 years old, and his permanent residence was 32 Fresno St. in Vallejo, Calif. (In 1970, Zodiac would create a cipher that contained32 symbols.)
At the approximate time the three letters were mailed, a desk was discovered on the RCC campus that had a morbid poem scratched into the surface, possibly referring to the Bates murder. In 1970, Morrill claimed the poem was definitely the work of Zodiac, although other experts believed the condition of the desk prevented authentication. The poem was signed "rh." The president of RCC at the time Bates was murdered was RH Bradshaw, a detail a stranger to the area probably wouldn't have known.
Interestingly, after establishing the moniker "Zodiac," the only reference Zodiac ever made to the Bates murder came in a letter to the Los Angeles Times postmarked March 13, 1971. RCC, where Bates was a student, was founded on March 13, 1916. Timing his letters to be postmarked on a significant date was a Zodiac specialty and the Times reference to Bates is another example of this.
The Bates murder was initially merely local news, not likely to have gotten much exposure outside of the Riverside area. If Zodiac didn't actually kill Bates, which is a strong possibility, he at least had enough knowledge of the crime to produce the anonymous confessions.A strong case can be made that Zodiac had ties to the Riverside area. Allen certainly did.
Rick Marshall-
Rick Marshall is still considered a strong Zodiac suspect by several investigators.
Marshall's physical appearance and background match up very well with what is known (and assumed) about Zodiac. Marshall was born in Texas, approximately 1928.According to the statements of several acquaintances, Marshall lived in the area at the approximate time of the 1966 murder of possible Zodiac victim Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside, Calif.In 1969, Marshall lived in a basement on Scott Street in San Francisco. The location was within a few miles of Zodiac's only San Francisco crime scene.
Marshall worked as an engineer for San Francisco Bay Area Radio Station KTIM in the early 1970s. The KTIM call letters resemble the symbols Zodiac included in his "Exorcist" letter from January 1974.
A big movie buff, Marshall worked as a projectionist at a San Francisco silent-movie theater called the Avenue at the time Zodiac sent his "Red Phantom" letter in July 1974. It was assumed by investigators that Zodiac's motivation for signing this letter "the Red Phantom" was because he was influenced by a silent film.As of 1989, Marshall was working for Tektronix and repairing organs in San Francisco's Castro District.
Lawrence Kane-
Pam Huckaby, sister of Zodiac victim Darlene Ferrin, claims Kane followed Darlene in the months before her murder. Additionally, possible Zodiac victim Kathleen Johns identified Kane as her abductor.In 1969, during the peak of Zodiac's activity, Kane was 45 years old. He stood 5'9" and weighed approximately 160 pounds. His astrological sign is Taurus.As a result of massive brain damage from a 1962 auto accident, Kane was allegedly diagnosed by a psychologist in 1965 as "losing the ability to control self-gratification."Kane was arrested in Redwood City, Calif. in August 1968. The arrest was just four months before Zodiac's first San Francisco Bay Area murders of Dec. 20, 1968.As of early 1999, Lawrence Kane was living in Nevada.
Gaikowski served a short term in the Army during the 1950s. It is known that Gaikowski was trained as a medic. Medics were trained to tear the clothing of a bleeding victim to use as bandages if they did not have access to the proper equipment. Undershirt first, then shirt, then pants if necessary. That is the order of cleanliness, with the shirttail being preferred if tucked in. (Zodiac tore off a portion of a victim's shirttail.) Unfortunately, since 80% of such records were destroyed by fire in 1973, not much more is known about Gaikowski's military career.
In October 1965, Gaikowski was intentionally arrested for refusing to sign a traffic citation following a routine stop in Contra Costa County (Calif.). As an investigative reporter for the local newspaper, Gaikowski's goal was to write a story about the conditions within the county jail from the perspective of an inmate. Following his brief stay in jail, Gaikowski's mugshot was published along his story. However, by the time Gaikowski became a Zodiac suspect more than 20 years later, records of his fingerprints were long gone, making a comparison to Zodiac's fingerprints impossible without either Gaikowski's consent or a court order. There is no evidence either happened.
Eventual Zodiac victim Darlene Ferrin of Vallejo, Calif. got married on and moved to Albany, NY. Gaikowski quickly followed, moving across country from Martinez, Calif. (near Vallejo). Ferrin's husband worked at the Albany Times-Union newspaper; Gaikowski worked in the same building at the rival Albany Knickerbocker News. In August 1973, four years after Ferrin was killed by the Zodiac, the Times-Union received a letter from someone claiming to be the zodiac . When solved, the cipher that was included with the letter made reference to the Albany Medical Center.
In 1969, 1970 and 1971, Gaikowski was a member of an anti-police, pro violence counterculture newspaper and commune in San Francisco called Good Times. During this time, Gaikowski was known to smoke pot regularly and to use heavier drugs such as speed and LSD.
As early as January 1969, the Good Times newspaper was running violent works of fiction that were nearly a blue for Zodiac's future crimes.Wednesday was "production day" for the weekly Good Times newspaper, with the staffers working from early in the morning until very late at night to prepare the new issue. Between Zodiac's debut in July 1969 until the Good Times folded in 1973, the Zodiac mailed 15 letters. Never did he mail a letter on a Wednesday, although he did on every other day of the week.
At the time of his murder, the Good Times "switchboard" was located only yards from the residence of Zodiac victim Paul Stine on Fell Street in San Francisco.Carol, Paul Stine's sister, recognized Gaikowski as having attended Paul's funeral.
Stine was killed on San Francisco's Washington Street. Only one Gaikowski was listed in a city directory at that time, Richard's cousin, and she lived on Washington Street. Her birthday was October 11, the very day Stine was murdered by the Zodiac. Stine -- a cab driver -- was the one victim whom the Zodiac could choose when and where he would be killed.
On the very day Zodiac debuted by mailing three "rush to editor" letters to three separate newspapers in the San Francisco area (with each letter containing one third of a code), the Good Times (edited by Gaikowski) just happened to run a cover that was split into thirds. It was the only instance of Zodiac mailing a letter on a Thursday until after the Good Times folded in 1973. Five months later, the Good Times published a three-part code of its own. The Good Times also occasionally ran sensationalistic "Zodiac Killer" headlines that were out of place.In articles he published in 1969, Gaikowski had the habit of shortening his last name to four letters and use multiple spellings, such as "Gike" or "Gaik." Interestingly, "GYKE" can clearly be seen in Zodiac's three-part cipher mailed on July 31, 1969. What's more, how Zodiac chose to code the cipher phonetically gives you Gaikowski's full last name.
At the very time the Zodiac wrote his only letter to the Vallejo Times-Herald, Gaikowski's best friend, Bob, worked at that very newspaper.
Even though the Good Times was a counterculture/hippie newspaper, once Gaikowski came aboard it ran free ads for such unlikely events as performances of The Mikado, a Zodiac favorite. (Zodiac sometimes quoted from The Mikado in his letters.)
On March 13, 1971 the Zodiac sent a letter to the Los Angeles Times. Coinciding closely with the mailing, Gaikowski was involuntarily committed to the Napa State Hospital after "going berzerk." He was then diagnosed with a mental illness and began treatment at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco. The Zodiac didn't write again for almost three years.
When the Zodiac reemerged in 1974 with letters referring to recent movie releases, Gaikowski was operating a storefront theater in the Mission District of San Francisco. A film buff, Gaikowski eventually became involved with San Francisco's Roxie Theater.
Nancy Slover, the police dispatcher who spoke with the Zodiac in July 1969, has identified Gaikowski's voice as being the same as the Zodiac's voice.
In 1986, the Napa County Sheriff's Dept. briefly investigated Gaikowski. After urging from Goldcatcher and Pam Huckaby (sister of Darlene Ferrin), Detective Ken Narlow did a background check on Gaikowski and put him under surveillance for a few nights. Narlow found nothing to warrant further investigation and the matter was dropped. Meanwhile, the California Dept. Of Justice determined that Gaikowski's handwriting had consistencies with Zodiac's handwriting and more samples of Gaikowski's printing were requested. Goldcatcher found printing that he felt could have belonged to Gaikowski, but those samples were determined to not be a match. There was not enough probable cause for an arrest or search warrant and the investigation ended.
Arthur Leigh Allen-
Arthur Leigh Allen's connections to the Zodiac killer began on Oct. 30, 1966, when Cheri Jo Bates was stabbed to death at Riverside City College (RCC) in Riverside, Calif. In late-November 1966, two anonymous, typewritten Bates-murder confession letters were mailed to the local police and newspaper. (The typewriter was identified as being a Royal model, with either Elite or Pica type.) Allen allegedly was in Riverside the weekend Bates was murdered. The information placing Allen in Riverside was developed in 1971 by the Vallejo Police Department (VPD) and the California Department of Justice (DOJ). Allen later hinted it was true, first claiming to have been "in the area" at the time, then telling people he was in nearby Pomona when he first heard of the Bates murder.
Employed as an elementary-school teacher in California's Calaveras County at the time of the Bates murder, by the time his employment ended in late March 1968 Allen had used only one of 19 available sick days. The day Allen was absent was Nov. 1, 1966. (Initially, Allen attributed the absence to "school business." He was later charged with a sick day.) Did Allen stay an extra day or two in Riverside, gathering second-hand information to use in the anonymous confessions? Or did Allen actually kill Bates, missing work on Nov. 1 because of facial wounds inflicted by his victim? (Modern FBI profiles on serial killers usually say that during periods of activity, the killer will behave erratically, exhibit moodiness, drink or smoke more than usual and miss work.) During the execution of a 1991 search warrant, VPD seized a Royal typewriter with Elite type from the home of Allen.
In late-April 1967, three anonymous letters referring to Bates were mailed. In 1970, Sherwood Morrill, head of the Questioned Documents Section of California's Criminal Identification and Investigation Bureau, determined them to be the work of Zodiac. Each contained double the necessary postage, a Zodiac trademark. Two of the three letters were signed with an unusual symbol. Some believe the symbol resembles a sloppy "z," others say it looks like a "32." At the time Bates was killed, Allen was 32 years old, and his permanent residence was 32 Fresno St. in Vallejo, Calif. (In 1970, Zodiac would create a cipher that contained32 symbols.)
At the approximate time the three letters were mailed, a desk was discovered on the RCC campus that had a morbid poem scratched into the surface, possibly referring to the Bates murder. In 1970, Morrill claimed the poem was definitely the work of Zodiac, although other experts believed the condition of the desk prevented authentication. The poem was signed "rh." The president of RCC at the time Bates was murdered was RH Bradshaw, a detail a stranger to the area probably wouldn't have known.
Interestingly, after establishing the moniker "Zodiac," the only reference Zodiac ever made to the Bates murder came in a letter to the Los Angeles Times postmarked March 13, 1971. RCC, where Bates was a student, was founded on March 13, 1916. Timing his letters to be postmarked on a significant date was a Zodiac specialty and the Times reference to Bates is another example of this.
The Bates murder was initially merely local news, not likely to have gotten much exposure outside of the Riverside area. If Zodiac didn't actually kill Bates, which is a strong possibility, he at least had enough knowledge of the crime to produce the anonymous confessions.A strong case can be made that Zodiac had ties to the Riverside area. Allen certainly did.
Rick Marshall-
Rick Marshall is still considered a strong Zodiac suspect by several investigators.
Marshall's physical appearance and background match up very well with what is known (and assumed) about Zodiac. Marshall was born in Texas, approximately 1928.According to the statements of several acquaintances, Marshall lived in the area at the approximate time of the 1966 murder of possible Zodiac victim Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside, Calif.In 1969, Marshall lived in a basement on Scott Street in San Francisco. The location was within a few miles of Zodiac's only San Francisco crime scene.
Marshall worked as an engineer for San Francisco Bay Area Radio Station KTIM in the early 1970s. The KTIM call letters resemble the symbols Zodiac included in his "Exorcist" letter from January 1974.
A big movie buff, Marshall worked as a projectionist at a San Francisco silent-movie theater called the Avenue at the time Zodiac sent his "Red Phantom" letter in July 1974. It was assumed by investigators that Zodiac's motivation for signing this letter "the Red Phantom" was because he was influenced by a silent film.As of 1989, Marshall was working for Tektronix and repairing organs in San Francisco's Castro District.
Lawrence Kane-
Pam Huckaby, sister of Zodiac victim Darlene Ferrin, claims Kane followed Darlene in the months before her murder. Additionally, possible Zodiac victim Kathleen Johns identified Kane as her abductor.In 1969, during the peak of Zodiac's activity, Kane was 45 years old. He stood 5'9" and weighed approximately 160 pounds. His astrological sign is Taurus.As a result of massive brain damage from a 1962 auto accident, Kane was allegedly diagnosed by a psychologist in 1965 as "losing the ability to control self-gratification."Kane was arrested in Redwood City, Calif. in August 1968. The arrest was just four months before Zodiac's first San Francisco Bay Area murders of Dec. 20, 1968.As of early 1999, Lawrence Kane was living in Nevada.