The Attacks
Police and investigators concur on a confirmed series of attacks carried out on four occasions between December 1968 and October 1969. Seven people were targeted; five were killed and two survived. The offender later claimed additional victims, but the four attacks below are the series on which the investigating agencies agree. Each attack and each victim is documented on its own page.
The confirmed series
- Lake Herman Road, Benicia — December 20, 1968. David Faraday (17) and Betty Lou Jensen (16) were shot while parked on a rural road just inside the Benicia city limits. Both died.
- Blue Rock Springs Park, Vallejo — July 4–5, 1969. Darlene Ferrin (22) and Michael Mageau (19) were shot shortly after midnight in a park parking lot. Ferrin died; Mageau survived.
- Lake Berryessa, Napa County — September 27, 1969. Cecelia Shepard (22) and Bryan Hartnell (20) were stabbed by a hooded assailant at the lakeshore. Shepard died of her injuries; Hartnell survived.
- Presidio Heights, San Francisco — October 11, 1969. Paul Stine (29), a taxi driver, was shot during a fare in the Presidio Heights neighborhood. He died at the scene.
Beyond the confirmed series
The offender claimed responsibility for many more deaths in his correspondence, and investigators and authors have over the years proposed links to other crimes. Those proposed connections are recorded as attributed claims on the relevant pages, distinct from the confirmed series above — see The Zodiac for the full list of possible additional victims.
Status
The four attacks and their seven victims are documented from contemporaneous police and press records. Additional attributed crimes are recorded as claims or theories, each tied to its source.