Over half a century after the Zodiac Killer began his killing rampage in the San Francisco area, the infamous serial killer’s identity has finally been discovered and revealed. The Case Breakers — a 40-member private investigation team with retired FBI agents, journalists, and military intelligence officers — have officially identified the Zodiac Killer as Gary Francis Poste, who they describe as a “California psychopath who shot, stabbed or choked to death possibly as many as 10 victims between 1962 and 1970.”
According to Fox News, Poste, taunted authorities with complex ciphers in letters sent to newspapers and law enforcement, passed away in 2018.
Bettmann/Getty Images
An Air Force veteran, Poste reportedly spent four decades painting homes, all the while, hiding in plain sight as one of the most notorious American serial killers of the 20th century. After spending years of digging through new forensic evidence and photos from Poste’s darkroom, the Case Breakers were finally able to uncover his true identity after deciphering coded letters, which purposely omitted Poste’s full name to reveal an alternate message.
“So you’ve got to know Gary’s full name in order to decipher these anagrams,” Jen Bucholtz, a former Army counterintelligence agent who works with the Case Breakers, revealed. “I just don’t think there’s any other way anybody would have figured it out.”
The Zodiac Killer’s rampage during the 1960s was just were one of many unsolved serial killing sprees in the United States, so perhaps the Case Breakers will be able to continue solving more in the future, like the infamous Atlanta Child Murders from 1979 to 1981.
[via]