Thousands of men have been proposed as potential identities for the Zodiac Killer, the unidentified serial killer active in the San Francisco Bay Area between December 1968 and October 1969. The Guardian reported in 2012 that more than 2,500 people had been put forward as possible suspects, of whom at least a half-dozen were considered credible. By 2009 the San Francisco Police Department had reportedly investigated roughly 2,500 suspects. According to Richard Grinell, who operates the website Zodiac Ciphers, around 50 to 100 new names are floated each year as of his 2022 comment.
Despite this volume of speculation, the only suspect ever publicly named by authorities was Arthur Leigh Allen. No one was ever arrested for the killings, and the killer’s identity remains officially unknown.
Confirmed victims referenced
Investigators recognize seven confirmed assault victims in Northern California, five of whom died: David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen (Lake Herman Road murders); Michael Renault Mageau (survived) and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin (Blue Rock Springs attack); Bryan Calvin Hartnell (survived) and Cecelia Ann Shepard (Lake Berryessa attack); and Paul Lee Stine in San Francisco. The killer claimed in later Zodiac letters to have murdered thirty-seven people, including some in Southern California such as Cheri Josephine Bates, though no such connection has been proven.