The Case
The Zodiac case is an unsolved series of murders committed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1968–1969 by an offender who, in a long campaign of letters to local newspapers, called himself “the Zodiac.” Police and investigators concur on a confirmed series of attacks on four occasions in which seven people were targeted; five were killed and two survived. The offender claimed responsibility for many more deaths than the confirmed count, and his true identity has never been established. The case remains officially open.
Zodiex documents this case as a source-first archive: it organizes what was recorded — the attacks, the letters, the cryptograms, the investigation across multiple jurisdictions, and the decades of suspect theories — and ties each claim to its source. It does not attempt to name the offender. Where a person has been alleged to be the Zodiac, that allegation is recorded on that person’s own page as an attributed claim, never as a finding.
Where to begin
- The Zodiac — the offender as known through the evidence: the name, the symbol, the letters and ciphers, and the modus operandi. Identity open.
- The Attacks — the confirmed series of crimes, the seven victims, and the four occasions on which they occurred.
- Letters & ciphers — the correspondence sent to Bay Area newspapers from 1969 to 1974, and the four cryptograms, two solved and two unsolved.
- Suspects & theories — the figures named over the decades, each handled as an attributed claim.
- Investigation — the agencies that worked the case: Vallejo PD, the Napa and Solano county sheriffs, the San Francisco Police Department, the California Department of Justice, and the FBI.
Status
The attacks, the correspondence, and the investigation are documented from contemporaneous records. The offender’s identity is unverified and open; no suspect has been confirmed. Claimed victim counts beyond the confirmed series are recorded as claims, attributed to the offender’s own letters.