When did Zodiac stop "doing his thing"

We know he stopped announcing his murders. But when did he actually stop killing? Is he still out there? If so, is he still committing murders?

Thoughts?

Well there are many options we can examine here-

1. Zodiac died
2. Zodiac went to prison for other crimes
3. Zodiac stopped killing for an unknown reason
4. Zodiac kept on killing
5. There never really was a Zodiac killer
6. Zodiac was frozen in a cryogenics chamber so that he could be thawed out 50 years in the future and start killing again

Option #7... Zodiac went to Disneyland. just kidding. I'm not even going to take a guess because I have no idea. It would be strange for a serial killer to just stop killing. Cutting off communication (the letters) was pretty weird as well. Maybe the police got too close? Or, and this is probably which way I would lean, maybe there was a group of people responsible for these crimes.....

Another thought is that some people created "Zodiac" and there was no use for this "character" anymore. This idea is just based on the weirdness of the case, not being an ordinary serial killer case and all. I highly doubt that this was just one lunatic acting alone.

i think he probably died in the mid 70s

ZodeMode wrote:Well there are many options we can examine here-

1. Zodiac died
2. Zodiac went to prison for other crimes
3. Zodiac stopped killing for an unknown reason
4. Zodiac kept on killing
5. There never really was a Zodiac killer
6. Zodiac was frozen in a cryogenics chamber so that he could be thawed out 50 years in the future and start killing again

ha ha at #6

The Zodiac took a considerable amount of time at the Stine scene cutting swatches of shirt. He put himself in a lot of danger just to get those swatches. I think the length of time and swatches of shirt is a good indicator that he didn't kill any more after Stine.

Soze

ZodeMode wrote:
6. Zodiac was frozen in a cryogenics chamber so that he could be thawed out 50 years in the future and start killing again

Lol. Given that he may have stopped writing in '74 we have about 7 years to figure out who he is before he starts beating us down with "I shall" and killing again.

Soze

Soze wrote:

ZodeMode wrote:
6. Zodiac was frozen in a cryogenics chamber so that he could be thawed out 50 years in the future and start killing again

Lol. Given that he may have stopped writing in '74 we have about 7 years to figure out who he is before he starts beating us down with "I shall" and killing again.

Soze

ophion needs to make that into a movie. I would pay to go see that. actually I think it is an awesome idea for a movie

I do not believe for one minute that he ever stopped killing. That for once he kept his word at least for a while, about not reporting his murders. I have posted before that there was a person who was described as being a older man who was killing all over Contra Costa County Ca.in the 80's -90's. He went as far as to phone the police and tell them where he killed a girl and then claimed to be thee Zodiac. They thought he was a hoaxer as far as being Zodiac, but they did find the body where he said it was. I heard that he looked like my suspect, so I got involved in trying to find the man. I did spot him trolling the area where most of the victims had been picked up. It was my POI for sure! I made several copies of his picture and gave it out to the prostitutes ( Those were mostly the killers targets)I didn't tell them that I believe he is Zodiac and they never knew my name or where I lived. Yet one of the pictures I handed out was sent to my PO box. No name on the envelope nor was there a return address. The stamp was a upside down love stamp.I believe the killer sent it to me, to let me know that he killed one of the girls that I gave his picture to.He is still alive, I saw him again last week.

Eric X wrote:

Soze wrote:

ZodeMode wrote:
6. Zodiac was frozen in a cryogenics chamber so that he could be thawed out 50 years in the future and start killing again

Lol. Given that he may have stopped writing in '74 we have about 7 years to figure out who he is before he starts beating us down with "I shall" and killing again.

Soze

ophion needs to make that into a movie. I would pay to go see that. actually I think it is an awesome idea for a movie

I second that....

Ophion...the balls in your court.....

Soze

Soze wrote:The Zodiac took a considerable amount of time at the Stine scene cutting swatches of shirt. He put himself in a lot of danger just to get those swatches. I think the length of time and swatches of shirt is a good indicator that he didn't kill any more after Stine.

Soze

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He didn't cut a bunch of swatches at the crime scene, he cut one large one. It was after he got home is when he cut from that swatch.It didn't take that long to do one swatch. It makes no sense to me that that would have stopped him from any more killings? Killers like him don't just stop ,unless they are caught or die.

It doesn't matter whether he cut one or several. Frankly, I don't know how long it takes to cut even one. I've never tried. We could put that to a test if you like using various types of knives. Not sure how significant it would be as I'm sure it's going to take at minimum a minute to do. Add in his wiping the cab down and you have another minute that's passed. All of this adds up and puts him in the vicinity of Jackson and Maple when the cops approach. He could have been long gone had he not done either.  The object of any criminal, murderer or otherwise, is to commit the deed, escape and avoid capture. The Zodiac threw all that out the window the second he cut that/those swatch(es) and cleaned up the crime scene. This means that/those swatch(es), and obviously his fingerprints, were pretty darn important to him, hench, the reason I made my post regarding the subject: "when did the Zodiac stop doing his thing".

Soze

Note: 2 edits made. First to add in fingerprints and second to correct a spelling error.

If we look at that a little deeper, why was it so important that he get a piece of Stine's shirt? I could be wrong, but I think it has something to do with a 2nd killer. I think Stine's murderer was not the same person who committed the prior Zodiac murders and that the pieces of Stine's shirt were important for that reason, although I don't know why and I have no proof, obviously, it is just my opinion.

I think the obvious answer is that he needed to prove himself the one and only Zodiac. I'm not meaning that to sound that I'm a one Zodiac theorist, although I have to admit, I am a one Zodiac theorist. I just mean he needed to prove. He always felt the need to prove in some form or another. The first letter he makes the statement "to prove I killed them". In the next letter he is making the statement "ask the Vallejo cop". When he talks about the bomb he has to talk about what ingredients he used to show how much he knew....so on and so on. Outside of that I just don't know.

Soze

I can say though, the act of taking a swatch, is personal and psychological. His act of taking a swatch is a signature behavior; psychological acts needing to be performed by a criminal that goes above and beyond what is necessary to commit the crime. Now what's so psychological about a swatch, well, I'm stumped.

Soze

Yeah, I can see your point there. The Stine murder is just so much different than the previous murders and that is one of the reasons why I think there was a 2nd killer. But yeah, mailing in a piece of the victim's shirt definitely proves that this person was the killer of Paul Stine.

I wonder if they have ever ran tests on that piece of the bloody shirt... like they recently did on the D.B. Cooper tie. Maybe with the advancements in technology they should do that even if they had already done it years ago.

Oh I don't know. I try to stay out of the DNA arena. Speaking of D B Cooper... Did you see my post at Morfs about airplane engines? It was so ironic reading that thread on D B and then like a week later watching an episode about another killer getting caught by the same alloys. Interesting I thought.

Soze

Yeah I did read that. Crazy!! Crazy but very interesting.

When all murders of females who are not raped or robbed have stopped and the person killing them no longer phones the police to say he is Zodiac, that is when I will believe he has stopped. Until then he is still doing his thing as far as I am concerned. And as far as more than one Zodiac working in tandem , there are people in LE including Ken Narlow who believed there was more than one. If all the witnesses were correct, then the Lake B killer who was huge , became much smaller in two weeks, at the Stine scene. I believe that Foukes saw the Zodiac on Jackson st.and that man was not the same as the one at Lake B.The shirt served two purposes ,one to wipe off his finger prints and to use as proof he was the killer.He knew he had plenty of time before the police would show up. I wouldn't put it past him to call 911 a day or week before, just to see how long it would take for them to show up. He had to be surprised to see one so soon. That close encounter wouldn't make him stop, it probably gave him more confidence. He said he would continue to kill and I believe that he has.

And, if you are right, this will not stop until he is dead or is physically unable to commit murder. I don't think I knew that Ken Narlow believed it was more than one person. Pretty sure I hadn't heard that before. The thing about LBS is that Zodiac was wearing the costume and could have easily stuffed a pillow or something into his shirt to make him appear larger, but I honestly don't think that is what happened. I think it was just a different killer in San Fran but that the two killers were working together. Another thing about that, maybe Stine's killer did stop after that since he was somewhat seen but the "original Zodiac" kept on killing.