Best products from r/ZodiacKiller

Easily the best Zodiac book I ever read- This Is the Zodiac Speaking by Michael Kelleher and David Van Nuys. Kind of expensive because it's out of print but maybe you can find a copy at the library.

Edit: Here's a link: http://www.amazon.com/This-Is-Zodiac-Speaking-Serial/dp/031336138X

https://www.amazon.com/Hunted-Zodiac-Murders-Revised-Serial/dp/0990857573/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=mark+hewitt+zodiac&qid=1557448475&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull

https://www.amazon.com/Peyton-Allan-Files-Phil-Stanford-ebook/dp/B007J6KR4C/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520886631&sr=1-2&keywords=peyton+allan+files&dpID=518haZabDaL&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

https://www.amazon.com/Edward-Wayne-Edwards-Serial-Killer-ebook/dp/B00OTVQJ0G/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520886661&sr=1-1&keywords=its+me+john+cameron

Can you corroborate your claim regarding slurred speech and PTSD?

I’ve recently been reading ‘The body keeps the score’.

Your claim sound shaky, based on everything I’ve learned about PTSD through this book.

https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0143127748

Yeah, cut to the chase. Otherwise the "Zodia Myth Busters & co" will waste years of your time. The issue is this: "Zodiac" signed his real name on a 1970 Halloween card sent to SFPD. See this https://youtu.be/cQj6KPlK7Nk then for more info see this
https://www.amazon.com/Most-Evil-Presenting-Investigation-Decryption/dp/1942600453/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442495210&sr=8-1&keywords=most+evil+II

The Zodiac episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved is pretty thorough and explains things quite well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzIxYdWVbm0

I'd say the best book on the subject (is disputed, but still the most complete) would be Zodiac by Graysmith. Beware, many say he makes up facts, but I think it's really left up to reader interpretation. Just my opinion.

https://www.amazon.com/Zodiac-Shocking-Nations-Elusive-Serial/dp/0425212181/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501565171&sr=8-1&keywords=zodiac

I've listened to A TON of Zodiac podcasts, but there are three that are head and shoulders above the rest. The Serial Killers Podcast, E15 and E16 (Zodiac Killer Pt 1 and 2), Unsolved Murders: True Crime Stories, E26 and E27 (Zodiac Killer Pt 1 and 2), and True Murder, "HUNTED: THE ZODIAC MURDERS" with a well deserved honorable mention to Cold Case Murder Mysteries E2 (The Zodiac).

In terms of a full documentary, my favorites are "His Name Was Arthur Leigh Allen" and "This Is The Zodiac Speaking," but if you're looking for a more complete documentary I'd go with the ABC Primetime Investigation. There really isn't a complete documentary that stands above the rest in terms of full suspect theories.

Hope this helps!

As the brother of Cathy Thomas, who together with her girlfriend Rebecca Dowski were the first two victims in the Colonial Parkway Murders, I have always thought that the idea that the Colonial Parkway Murders were related to the Zodiac was a long shot at best. As JackieBlue1970 points out, we aren't even sure that the Colonial Parkway Murders are all related, never mind tying them into Zodiac. Theorize away, but proceed with caution.

If you want to learn a bit more about the Colonial Parkway Murders, here are some links to help you come up to speed.

​

Thanks.

​

Bill Thomas, Brother of Cathy Thomas, Colonial Parkway Murders

1. Colonial Parkway Murders Wikipedia Page
   
   We try to keep up to date and accurate— unfortunately, Wikipedia recently deleted dozens of our links to media coverage, podcasts and interviews, so their list of links is much shorter than it should be.
   
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial\_Parkway\_Murders
   
   
2. Washington Post Magazine story on Bill Thomas and search for answers in the unsolved Colonial Parkway Murders, August 4, 2019
   
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2019/07/30/feature/victims-families-and-americas-thirst-for-true-crime-stories/?
   
   
3. Virginian Pilot story with Colonial Parkway Murders map, Oct 2016
   
   https://pilotonline.com/image_14f03a99-cf6e-5f22-8c87-b6ba935bf5de.html
   
   
4. Daily Press Series, Oct 2016.
   
   Eight part in-depth newspaper series with hundreds of photographs, video interviews and some of the best writing ever on the Colonial Parkway Murders. It is a little hard to navigate, but well worth the time.
   
   http://www.dailypress.com/news/crime/dp-four-cases-link-families-scenic-colonial-parkway-murders-20161004-story.html
   
   
5. Investigation Discovery Crimefeed Story, Sept 2017
   
   http://crimefeed.com/2017/09/colonial-parkway-murders/
   
   
6. WVEC Norfolk 13 News Now Story, Nov 2017
   
   http://www.13newsnow.com/news/crime/family-new-dna-testing-could-crack-colonial-parkway-murders-case/492039399
   
   
7. WAVY-TV Norfolk 10 News 2 Part Story, April 2018
   
    April 9, 2018 30 Years Later: The Colonial Parkway Murders Part One WAVY-TV, Norfolk, VA
   
    April 10, 2018 30 Years Later: The Colonial Parkway Murders Part Two WAVY-TV, Norfolk, VA
   
   
8. A three Part series that ran in the Virginian Pilot in 1991; the paper re-ran the stories in 2010. The newspaper had full access to lead investigator Robert Meadows, FBI Special Agent.
   
   https://www.pilotonline.com/news/crime/article_3c3d2efa-6a64-506c-84ec-efc50916159d.html
   
   https://www.pilotonline.com/news/crime/article_e5f643ce-a437-5bdb-b2e2-3559501351e2.html
   
   https://www.pilotonline.com/news/crime/article_dd5c74dd-c581-5730-afd6-4d1a2da04e84.html
   
   
9. “The Murder In My Family” podcast July 7, 2018 Host Mike Morford discusses Cathy Thomas and the Colonial Parkway Murders with victim advocate and brother Bill Thomas.
   
   https://shows.pippa.io/the-murder-in-my-family/cathy-thomas/
   
   
10. Colonial Parkway Murders Facebook Page
    
    Administered by Bill Thomas and Kristin Dilley
    
    https://www.facebook.com/ColonialParkwayCase/
    
    
11. Two other Colonial Parkway Murders FB pages
    
    Administered by Joyce Call Canada and Jennifer Phelps
    
    https://www.facebook.com/What-happened-to-Richard-Keith-Call-Cassandra-Hailey-48312425938/
    
    https://www.facebook.com/Colonial-Parkway-Victims-Gone-But-Not-Forgotten-152566591439809/
    
    
12. Dark Minds Episode, (Investigation Discovery) April 2013
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nTK0XeyFgo
    
    
13. A Special Kind of Evil: The Colonial Parkway Serial Killings
    Book by Blaine Pardoe and Victoria Hester, July 2017
    
    
    The book covers a lot of the basics of the case and is worth a read. Available in e-book and trade paperback editions.
    
    
    https://www.amazon.com/Special-Kind-Evil-Colonial-Killings/dp/1947290045/ref=cm\_cr\_arp\_d\_product\_top?ie=UTF8
    
    
    
    
    We have also done scores of additional interviews, including television, radio, print, and true crime podcasts, and are currently shooting a limited television series for the Oxygen Network via Texas Crew Productions/XG Productions. It will likely air in May/June 2020.
    
    Thanks for your interest and support from the Call, Dowski, Edwards, Hailey, Knobling, Lauer, Phelps and Thomas families.

“I think Don Cheney just falls under the same conspiracy umbrella that Gareth Penn fell under.”

First of all, Don Cheney was one person, and he was accusing one person, so he wouldn’t fit under a conspiracy umbrella. If you’re saying that Cheney is an example of an accuser who then becomes the accused, presumably because he was thereby calling attention to himself, that would make him more similar to Gareth Penn.

“Gareth Penn wrote a book in 1981 that publicly accused professor Michael O'Hare of Berkley as the Zodiac.”

Gareth Penn self-published TIMES 17 in 1987. It is, however, true that he first accused Michael O’Hare of being the Zodiac, in conversations with the FBI, in 1981. And O’Hare wasn’t at Cal-Berkeley in 1981. I don’t have O’Hare’s current resume in front of me, but he was an assistant professor at MIT from 1971 to 1979, then worked for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1979 to 1981, and then was a lecturer in public policy at the JFK School at Harvard from 1981 until 1991. He sold his house in Brookline and bought a house in Berkeley Heights in the summer of 1991 and was a lecturer at the Goldman School that fall.

“For those unfamilar with the Radian Theory, he theorized that the Zodiac made the Mt. Diablo letter to hint to us that he was using the murder sites to make a geographical pattern as a sort of murder art project.”

Mike Butterfield demonstrates this on the CASE REOPENED TV program in 1999:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2gsk67

Discussion of the Radian Theory begins at 35:30 of the video.

“Once he brought this theory to the surface, some people started thinking maybe Gareth Penn was a suspect.”

I began publicly accusing Gareth in 1990. Chris Farmer of OPORD did it in 2004. The late Glen Claston did it on Tom Voigt’s Original Archived Message board circa 2000.

http://ciphermysteries.com/2014/07/20/obituary-timothy-rayhel-glen-claston-1957-2014

That’s three people. There may be a You Tube video that also accuses Gareth.

“He started to stack things against himself when people viewed him with a conspiratory eye:”

The only person I’m aware of who thinks Gareth was involved in a conspiracy is me. The others who accused him believed he was the Zodiac Killer all by himself.

“he was former military, most specifically set in the "expert" class of marksman with a rifle;”

Okay, but the only murder event that suggests significant expertise with firearms is Lake Herman Road, and that not so much because of the accuracy as the knowledge of how to attach a flashlight or penlight to a gun barrel and have everything work.

“his father was a cryptographer during WWII;”

Hugh Penn was in the Army Air Corps in WWII; I’m sure he did cryptography but I’m not certain what level of expertise that would require, since they wouldn’t exactly have been working on Enigma or JN-25. What’s more interesting about Hugh Penn is that he was a statistician for the California Highway Patrol and then for the CA Attorney General’s Office. This means at least two things:

1. he had an insider’s familiarity with police procedure; and
   
2. he had access to the state driver’s license and vehicle registration records, which would have come in handy if you were targeting specific individuals. If I had access to the PA DMV database, for example, I could quite easily recreate The ABC Murders of Agatha Christie.
   
   “he was born in 1941, so he fit the age description given at the first murders (25-35 years of age, he was 27 in 1968);”
   
   But Gareth, who is tall and thin and apparently wore a beard circa 1969, doesn’t fit the physical description. Plus he was stationed at Fort Sill in Oklahoma during the time of the Cheri Bates murder. Mike Morford brings this up every time he tries to debate me, oblivious to the fact that I’m not saying Gareth was the Zodiac trigger man.
   
   “Zodiac specifically mentioning radians in the Bus Bomb letter.”
   
   He mentions them in the “Mikado” or “Little List” letter of July 26, 1970.
   
   “Some people felt Gareth Penn was "nudging people" in a "if you aren't smart enough to solve it, let me subtly give you hints" kind of way.”
   
   Well, no one would have been smart enough to figure out the scenario as presented in TIMES 17 (and then in my own books). The Zodiac conspirators realized that a PR Man would be necessary if they wanted to pursue a back-and-forth “game” with the police and public. It wasn’t as if Gareth were rolling his eyes at our stupidity; it’s that they realized from the very beginning that the Zodiac Project was at least a Saturday New York Times crossword (not a Monday).
   
   “I think when someone says enough things about the Zodiac, who would also fit in the age range and rough geographical location of the murders, that they too become implicated as the Zodiac solely because the American public is easily suspicious when given a good story.”
   
   Well, I fit in the age range (I’m five months older than David Faraday), and I’ve been yelling my head off about the Zodiac Killer since 1985, and yet I’ve only been accused by anonymous people heckling me on message boards.
   
   I think people tend to react positively to Gareth being accused because Gareth’s blown a lot of people off. While I don’t mind this, they hate Gareth for the wrong reason.
   
   It’s a little like Tom Voigt. The documentation on his website is state-of-the-art. And Voigt has bankrupted himself in the process of pursuing the case, so you can’t accuse him of being in it for the money. But because Tom’s such a fucking jerk—and that’s also been documented—people hate his guts and tend to dismiss everything he says. Voigt wrote what I consider to be the definitive book review of Gary Stewart’s book (scroll down to the sixth review on the page):
   
   https://www.amazon.com/Most-Dangerous-Animal-All-Searching-ebook/product-reviews/B00FJ3AD2I/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_paging_btm_3?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&filterByStar=one_star&pageNumber=3