The Big Picture
- David Fincher's film Zodiac is a retelling of the story of the infamous Zodiac killer, who remains unidentified to this day.
- The Zodiac killer murdered multiple people in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and sent letters to publications like the San Francisco Chronicle.
- The case remains unsolved, with Arthur Leigh Allen being a suspect but never conclusively linked to the crimes.
David Fincher is a master of his craft at the height of his career, boasting several Oscar-nominated modern classics such as Seven, The Social Network, and Fight Club. The 2007 movie Zodiac starring Robert Downey Jr., Jake Gyllenhaal, and Mark Ruffalo not only joins this lineup of impressive Fincher films, but is also inspired by one of American history's most infamous serial murderers.
Written by James Vanderbilt and based on the books Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked by Robert Graysmith, who worked as a cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle during the murders, the movie follows Jake Gyllenhaal's Graysmith, whose obsession with the Zodiac becomes the focus of its tagline: "There's more than one way to lose your life to a killer." But how much of Graysmith's book and Fincher's movie is true?
Zodiac
R
Crime
Drama
Mystery
Thriller
Between 1968 and 1983, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorizes Northern California with a killing spree.
- Release Date
- March 2, 2007
- Director
- David Fincher
- Cast
- Jake Gyllenhaal , Mark Ruffalo , Anthony Edwards , Robert Downey Jr. , Brian Cox , John Carroll Lynch
- Runtime
- 157 minutes
- Main Genre
- Crime
- Writers
- James Vanderbilt , Robert Graysmith
- Tagline
- There's more than one way to lose your life to a killer
- Website
The Zodiac Killer Murdered Five People Before the Movie's Opening Scene
The real Zodiac story begins with two Lompoc High School seniors, fiancées Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards. While sunbathing on a beach near Gaviota State Park during their "Senior Ditch Day" in June 1963, the two were bound with rope and were shot eleven and nine times respectively. Their bodies were dragged to a nearby shack where Robert's father found them soon after. Similarly, in October 1966, Cheri Bates left her father a note to say she'd gone to the Riverside City College Library only for her Volkswagen Beetle to be found abandoned there the next day, and her stabbed corpse left between two nearby houses. The local paper received a typed confession from the supposed killer one month later, and the following year, the newspaper, police, and Bates' father all received similar handwritten letters signed "Z." These events wouldn't be linked to the Zodiac killer until years later.
The story continues with more high schoolers, Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday, whose first date took place in December 1968. According to passing motorists, they were parked at a lovers' lane in Benicia before Jensen was found shot in her back in the front seat and Faraday shot in the head outside the vehicle. In Vallejo the following year, married mother Darlene Ferrin parked in another lovers' lane with Michael Mageau. They were approached by a stranger who shot them both. Ferrin died of her injuries but Mageau survived. The killer called the Vallejo Police that night to confess, stating, "I also killed those kids last year. Goodbye." The killing of Darlene Ferrin is where David Fincher's Zodiac begins its story.
Did the Zodiac Killer Really Write to the Newspaper?
On July 31, 1969, three letters were posted to the Vallejo Times-Herald, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The San Francisco Examiner respectively. These were mostly identical, detailing the weapons and ammunition used in the murders. They stated, "I like killing because it's so much fun," and threatened to kill again if the publications refused to publish his attached cipher. Another letter was sent to the Examiner five days later teasing the police for failing to solve the cipher. "When they do crack it, they will have me." This letter features the first use of the name "the Zodiac." San Francisco Chronicle published their cipher, but it didn't stop the killing. The following September, college students Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard were both stabbed by a man wearing a hooded costume and the Zodiac symbol. Shepard died of her wounds but Hartnell survived.
One month later, 28-year-old cab driver Paul Stine was shot in the head and had a piece of his shirt removed. SFPD's Dave Toschi investigated the scene and would soon become the inspector most famously related to the case. Toschi's fame and style would go on to inspire movies such as Dirty Harry and Bullitt. Toschi considered Stine's death part of a routine robbery until the killer sent a letter to The San Francisco Chronicle that included the missing piece of Stine's bloodstained shirt to prove his legitimacy. In the movie, the Chronicle's Paul Avery reads the letter, bringing Toschi (Ruffalo), Avery (Downey Jr.), and cartoonist-turned-Zodiac-obsessive Robert Graysmith (Gyllenhaal) together at last.
Zodiac and Paul Avery Became Unlikely Pen-Pals in Real-Life
The Chronicle soon became the Zodiac's primary correspondence for publication, sending them two more letters that year. The letters included ciphers and accounts of the police nearly catching him but ignorantly letting him go. They would go on to receive several more letters from the Zodiac throughout 1970, some denying involvement in recent crimes, others claiming responsibility. Enjoying the fame Avery's articles provided him, the Zodiac demanded in April 1970 that the people of San Francisco's Bay Area wear "Zodiac buttons" featuring his symbol. In July 1970, he complained about the lack of "Zodiac buttons" being worn. The Chronicle decided against publishing a few Zodiac letters at this time, with Avery controlling the narrative himself. As a result, the killer likely became frustrated and began targeting Avery personally.
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One year after receiving Paul Stine's bloody clothing in the mail, Avery received a Halloween card that read, "From your secret pal," "Peek-a-boo - you are doomed," and the number "4-teen" implying either the Zodiac had claimed an unidentified fourteenth victim, or that it could be Avery himself. Unlike the movie suggests, there was no bloody cloth in this envelope as Paul Stine's clothing was received the year prior. However, as the movie suggests, this new targeted correspondence directed at Avery specifically (or "Averly" as Zodiac frequently misspelled it) meant that Avery carried a .38-caliber revolver with him at all times after that. The film also correctly notes that Chronicle employees including Avery himself would later wear "I Am Not Avery" buttons as a joke to avoid becoming the Zodiac's next victim.
The Zodiac Case Remains Unsolved
The Zodiac killings seemed to stop in the following years. This was seemingly contradicted by a letter to the Albany Times Union in August 1973 that stated where and when he would kill again. The police failed to identify any murders from that date to relate to the Zodiac, and handwriting experts were unable to verify whether it was even written by the same person. Another letter to the Chronicle in 1974 stated, "Me – 37, SFPD – 0" implying the killer had claimed 37 victims by then and was still at large.
Ultimately, the Zodiac's identity remained a mystery, with Toschi convinced it was Arthur Leigh Allen, a teacher and child molester who had served three years in a mental hospital. Unfortunately for Toschi though, Allen’s fingerprints and handwriting didn’t match the killer’s, and he passed a polygraph test that Allen said went on for 10 hours. Police quietly reopened the case in 1991. 1969's Zodiac survivor Michael Mageau identified Allen from a mugshot in 1991, but the Vallejo police department deemed this to be invalid since, by his own admission, Mageau never got a good look at the gunman at the time. Allen died in 1992. Robert Graysmith would go on to write the book that Fincher's movie was based on, both of which attempt to provide some closure by surmising that Allen was the Zodiac but that he died before the police could question him again after Mageau's supposedly valid statement.
Zodiac is available to watch on Paramount+ in the U.S.
