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For your Portfolio Project you will play the role of researcher and investigator to analyze the Zodiac Killer case and provide an opinion on if the Zodiac Killer is real or a myth. For this milestone you will create a timeline of the Zodiac Killers murders. Before you begin, be sure to review the full .

The Zodiac Killer is one of Americas most infamous serial killers who murdered at least five people during the 1960s and 1970s near San Francisco and in Northern California. The victims were couples being murdered in remote locations. The first victim was Cheri Jo Bates and he wrote a message to beware. He also included 13 symbols to the letters as well as a circle with a cross inside as his trademark. In over 50 years, numerous researchers, detectives and forensic specialists have tried to identify the Zodiac Killer. The big question remains, did he commit all those murders?

• Research the Zodiac Killer and create a timeline of his murders.
• Begin with the first murder and include date, name of victims, and location of murder.

portfolio priject mod 8 instructions :

Between 1968 and 1976, five murders were committed in the San Francisco Bay and Northern California. Between 1969 and 1974, police and the area newspapers received letters from a man who was self-proclaimed as the Zodiac Killer. After 1974, the communication through the letters stopped.

On August 1, 1969, the San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle and Vallejo Times-Herald each received an identical handwritten letter in an envelope without a return address. The letter began with Dear Editor: I am the killer of the 2 teenagers last Christmas at Lake Herman, the letters contained details from the Zodiac Killers murders that only the killer could have known. The killer went on to threaten further attacks if the letters werent printed on the front page of the papers (Biography, n.d.).

The killer had developed his own symbol of a circle with a cross through it which was found on each letter. At the bottom of each letter was a three part cipher that he explained contained his identity. Police and FBI worked on deciphering the code when another letter was sent to the San Francisco Examiner where he described the murders in detail as only the killer would know and blamed police for not cracking the code. A High School teacher, Donald Harden and his wife Bettye were able to solve the cipher which read…. I like killing people because it is so much fun, it is more fun than killing wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal of all (Biography, n.d.).

His victims were young couples and a single cab driver.

Although the Zodiac Killer claimed in letters to newspapers to have committed 37 murders, investigators agree on seven confirmed assault victims, five of whom died and two survived. They are:

• David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16, were shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia.
• Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22, were shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. Mageau survived the attack; Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. .
• Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22, were stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries a couple days later on September 29.
• Paul Lee Stine, 29, was shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood of San Francisco.

The case has been open for over 50 years. Police and the FBI had several links and listed possible suspects, however, no arrests were made in the case. There has been a wealth of research performed by criminal investigators, journalists, forensic specialists in the United States and in Europe to identify the Zodiac Killer.

On July 14, 2023, the US Sun newspaper reported a suspect list and is asking if the killer is caught. A group of investigators reported on May 17, 2023 to the Daily Mail that the FBI identified the Zodiac Killer as the retired Air Force veteran Gary Francis Poste who died in 2018.

The following unanswered questions still remain:

• Did the Zodiac Killer commit all the murders?
• Who wrote all the letters?
• Was there more than one killer?
• Is the killer a psychopath or a sociopath? Explain your decision with facts from the case.