Zodiac: A Review

 RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Who was Zodiac? A serial killer who claimed 37 dead. A sexual sadist who taunted police with anonymous notes. A madman who was never apprehended. This is the first, complete account of Zodiac’s reign of terror. Is he still out there?

“This is Zodiac speaking. I like killing people because it is so much fun…the most thrilling experience.”

A sexual sadist, the Zodiac’s pleasure was torture and murder. He taunted the authorities with mocking notes telling where he would strike next. The official tally of his victims was six. He claimed thirty-seven dead. He was never caught.

Author Graysmith tells the inside story of the hunt for the hooded killer, and finally reveals his possible true identity. 

 

The book chronicles the infamous history of the self-named serial killer “Zodiac” who was active in California during the 1960s and 1970s. Robert Graysmith was a political cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper where the Zodiac sent his first letters and where some of the murders took place. The book describes the investigations of the many law enforcement agencies, such as the LAPD, the FBI, and the CIA, that worked on the case and the other murders that the Zodiac claimed. Robert Graysmith took it upon himself to also investigate the Zodiac in an attempt to find out the real identity of the illusive killer. He received assistance from the police departments that fell within the jurisdictions of the murders and also received assistance from Inspector Dave Toschi from the SFPD, who was one of the lead investigators on the Zodiac case. Over 50 years after the murders occurred, the case of who is the Zodiac killer is still unsolved though there were instances where the evidence was solid against a number of suspects. 

 

I have been interested in true crime for years and the Zodiac case is one of the most infamous true crime cases. I had watched the film last year and found it so interesting. My brother got me this book for Christmas and I was excited to learn more about the case. The Zodiac case is mentioned in almost every true crime show and is referenced constantly that I knew the gist of it but not the details. Robert Graysmith discusses all of the evidence from the case, the work that was put into the case, and presents the most likely suspects from the murders, changing their names to afford them some privacy. 

            Even after the murders stopped, the Zodiac case continued to have a massive effect on the families of the victims, the survivors, and the investigators who poured hours into the case. For many of the people working on the case, it became personal as the Zodiac continued to taunt the police through his letters to the press and threatening to commit more murders if the letters weren’t printed. The Zodiac killer haunted San Francisco and southern California for years. In 2004, the case was marked “inactive” by the San Francisco Police Department but reopened prior to March 2007. The case still remains open in the city of Vallejo, in Napa County and in Solano County.

 

This book was such an interesting read and I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in true crime cases. I never realised the extent of the work that went into attempting to solve the case. We may never know the true identity of the Zodiac killer but from reading the book and reading about the suspects, I have my guesses. 

Until next time, I'll continue reading with wanderlust.

📚🧳✈️🗺