Case 200: The Zodiac (Part 1) 

Thank you for using my book, HUNTED: the Zodiac murders, in your research of accurate, primary sources. I appreciate you referencing it on your list of resources. Keep up the great work!

Not much makes me happier than seeing "Pt 1" in a Casefile vid title. 😊 Stoked you're back! 👍🏼🥰

Finally after 2 long months without a video. What a awesome way to start off a Saturday morning.

2022 is going to be the year for Casefile!!!

Greetings and salutations all from Cabbagetown in Toronto and welcome back Casefile and team! It`s 5:53 a.m. here and the bodum and I salute you.

Oh how good it is to see you back. Your my 'settle down' listen to and I've now started listening from your beginnings just to keep going. I've seen and heard various on this one but I know you'll give me more details than I've had before. Just great, thank you. Pam, UK

Thank God you're back! My Saturdays just haven't been the same without you. Any much longer and I'd have spiraled into a decline I'd never have recovered from...lol.

So good to have you back. Hope you’re well rested and Happy new year 🥳

Yay Case Files are back.....love you guys ♡♡♡

Nice touch with the different recording sound/voice at the start of each 'chapter', making it sound more of the era. This case will never get old...I just watched something on TV this weekend about the Zodiac. It's still fascinating. This and Jack the Ripper are 2 of the most infamously unsolved cases that I hope will finally be solved before I meet my maker! Looking forward to part 2!

When this dropped, I was like "Yay,, you're ba --- the Zowhat? Aww, c'mon... OK, favourite podcast, benefit of the doubt I guess." By end of Part 1, I was fully expecting you guys to break the case. Stellar work. Glad I waited 3 more weeks and binged the whole case through.

Thank you for the new episode legend

Anyone ever think the Zodiac Killer is really multiple crimes, committed by multiple criminals and only connected by the letters & code which were likely put together by someone working on the newspapers, in short there is no Zodiac. The crimes literally have nothing in common. What the heck? I hear you say, but pause a moment and look at the facts. The word Zodiac was never mentioned in the first two crimes - one of which was almost certainly a love-triangle, the victim implied she knew the killer and the surviving boyfriend in a recent interview said they had been followed all night - that's not a serial killer but an angry ex. The phone calls received afterwards said nothing about Zodiac or codes. We don't even know they came from the killer(s) or even the same person, listening to police scanners and making prank calls was a common problem. If it was the killer why not start with the Zodiac nonsense - he supposedly phones in the first two murders, but then it's hieroglyphics and mysterious codes in San Francisco? Really? Then the newspapers begin receiving the Zodiac codes/letters and start the whole mystery, only then did a guy appear in the Zodiac outfit and attack the couple by the lake. The Zodiac outfit was never seen before and never after, likely it was Arthur Allen, or some other nutcase, looking to claim credit and get attention. Who constructed the codes? Likely the cartoonist in the Chronicle who felt ignored by serious journalists and this allowed him to insert himself into the crisis. Like the crazy nurse who makes patients ill so she can be the centre of attention and save them. The Zodiac movie actually 'nods' towards this if you watch it closely - e.g. he is asked how could he know he wouldn't reveal his name in the first codes? A good question, how could he have known? He knew way too much. Worth noting Jack the Ripper got his name from a letter being sent to a newspaper, almost certainly sent by a journalist looking to wind things up a bit for sensationalism and circulation. Subsequently one police officer came under scrutiny for sending in a fake Zodiac letter - so the idea was not unusual and it was clearly happening. Multiple people were sending in multiple fakes as if there wasn't enough confusion. But the key point is the codes predicted nothing that ever happened, nothing. They were backward looking and clearly made by someone aware of the news, but not the person committing any of the crimes. The codes literally created the Zodiac not the other way around. Then there was the final crime, a taxi driver robbery and killing - his wallet wasn't taken but some money was. Unfortunately taxi robberies were common in SF at the time. The police wrote it off as just that without a second thought. Then parts of his shirt began arriving, the shirt was from the taxi driver alright but it wasn't mentioned at the time in police reports. It could have been taken by anyone after the crime or maybe it was the lake side killer, again looking for attention. But what did killing a taxi driver have to do with couples? Or maybe it was a another lone killer - but there's no real thread in the crimes. What serial killer goes from couples in a Lover's Lane to a Taxi rank? After that there were a stream of people claiming to be the Zodiac, including one literally calling from an insane asylum, and they fooled many people. Then we had letters arriving from various people, various codes and lots of hysteria. But none of the threats were ever carried out. Who wrote the later letters? Who knows, part the original cartoonist, part copycat, part attention seekers etc. This list is endless and there are 'experts' devoted to analysing these letters trying to fit them all together and picking the real fakes from the fake fakes etc It's a tangled mess of lies and deception, which is what makes it so interesting to many people. It's a giant puzzle but there's no solution. The reality is that there is no common DNA, no common fingerprints, no common bullets or even weapon. Eyewitnesses cannot agree or who or what he looked like. People have endlessly searched for other crimes to add to the 'collection' but the reality is they should be removing crimes. Endless efforts are made to find one common suspect but they always fail because one crime/circumstance/alibi or another rules them out, the obvious solution is that there is no one suspect but multiple killers with varying reasons all intersecting and some trying to claim credit for other crimes. All that ties them together is the letters/codes most of which are accepted as fakes - so why not all of them? Nothing else ties the crimes. Arthur Allen is at best responsible for 1, at a stretch 2 of the crimes. He was likely triggered by the appearance of the codes in the media. But when Arthur Allen's DNA does not fit one of the stamp's DNA the people who are convinced he is 'the one' claimed, he often got other people to lick his stamps. FFS! Imagine your in a post office and you say to the person beside you, could you please lick my stamp? Can anyone imagine that occurring and the other person saying 'sure I will lick your stamp', rather than moving away slowly from you without making eye contact. People are so focused on being right about one person, they ignore the obvious. Yes Allen likely killed one couple, but that's probably it. He wasn't sending in letters or making up cyphers and codes. Once you accept it's multiple people, it all slots into place. This is why he has never been caught, there is at least three separate criminals and various people sending in cyphers and letters. Now there's literally a Zodiac industry, with experts, books, seminars etc etc. And in the greater scheme of things it's relatively harmless, it's a hobby like bird watching. But it's a fruitless one because the 'one killer' will never be found.

Finally you are back, sweet, remember me casefile, I said 1 day you would reach 100k followers, when you had about 300 followers, more than halfway there, great stuff 😎

So excited to see this. Going to charge my headphones 🎧 just for this!

No better and compelling reportage than Casefile

Oh what a start to the year!!

I'm so glad I found this channel. I've been looking for a podcast like this to play while I cook!

Youre BACK!!!!!at last! Thank you.

This is the zodiac speaking "The Dude is Jeff Bridges"

Yeah!!!! You’re back 😊 * my heart skipped a beat

you do not get enough views for the quality of your videos. You will though, these are amazing

I was obsessed with Zodiac killer for a long time. I've come to my personal conclusion, that there was no Zodiac killer but someone who did kill and then various murders and copycat killings.

“The FBI’s investigation into the Zodiac Killer remains open and unsolved” - the FBI circa 2022

Man oh man have I missed your channel 😩😍

Darling casefile presents ,where were u all these days....I missed u so much..every Saturday I had waited for ur videos....what took u this long? I jumped to a conclusion that u r no longer providing videos.

As a bass guitar player you are the coolest 👍🏻😎

I think I got too excited 😅 but welcome back. Will listen tomorrow. I already liked,

To those who have no understanding of the word "FILLER" nor been in a position to have had to take advantage of one now and then please note: this is not the only thing you need to learn. When your boogling your little eyes off finding the meaning for strange unknown words like "Filler" nows the time to boogle the meaning of this little beauty too "PREVIEW"... Once again now.. "PREVIEW"... All together now... "PRE....". OK ok... Assignment #01 (notes, don't let there be a #02) Q. What does this mean "Search preview" when we're talking about fillers ? >8-D

I've only heard the intro so far & already I'm hooked. I never heard of this cab driver & certainly not as part of the Zodiac case.

Ok but how do they know what he said after killing the Volkswagen girl ?

And then he became Ted Cruz

Ah!!💙💙💙🙋🏼‍♀️

How cheri was kidnapped from the car taken to alley and killed is all speculation nobody knows what happened

🤨

Love your podcasts. Have started listening from the beginning. Am on case 40. But...I have listened to one or two of your newer ones and the way you speak is completely different. Slower and more dramatic. It’s quite off putting. Can you not go back to how you spoke before, just normally?

No offense but this story has been played out. I'm bored with it

Meh, no offense but this is a terrible way to start a series on the Zodiac. I know this podcast love to focus on obscure cases, but this time you tried to do too much and you're way off track. Way off. 90% of these cases (Davis, Robert-Linda, Johnny-Joyce) are only remotely (very very very remotely) linked to the actual Zodiac case, sorry but that's taking your audience in a direction that is way off track. I get what you tried to do but the case as a whole is already complex enough like that, you shouldn't have started the series by talking about these cases that have no real link to the Zodiac and the confirmed facts surrounding the case. I respect what you do, but that's a really bad decision.

Dude you have let the adds get out of control. Unsubbed

Unsurpassable! The intro to this video is both heart-breaking and chilling. The story-telling in the rest of it is riveting. Much as I thought I was familiar with this story Casefile as always delivers details I had never heard before. It's going to be a long week waiting for the next installment. The courageous bravery of Robert Domingues and Johnny Swindle stands in stark contrast to the cowardly attacks of their killer and the phone calls and letters smack of a pathetic need for attention by a narcissistic psychopath who thinks himself superior to others but is in fact a loser, way beneath the victims he claims may they rest in peace.

Great to have you back with a whopper of a case. Can't wait to hear your take on this.

Great episode! Listeners might take the opportunity to watch Dirty Harry which is loosely based on the Zodiac killer (called Scorpio in the film).

Starting of the year with a bang! Excellent to have you back, team. Thanks for this great episode!

NOICE!

This was fascinating. Never heard of these crimes, and they all sound like Zodiac murders for sure. Very intrigued by the idea that there are a slew of other incidents that go beyond what you would normally hear about if you watched literally any Zodiac documentary. Can’t wait for part two. California really had it tough from the 60’s to the 80’s. Zodiac, East Area Rapist, Original Night Stalker, Night Stalker, Hillside Stranglers, etc.

So glad to hear from you again Casefile. Also the Zodiac Killer case reminds me of the Unsolved mystery of Mr Cruel.

Omg youre back i have missed u 😢

To the CASEFILE team. Perhaps take a look a the "Cheshire Home Invasion" case. Very disturbing case from my home state of Connecticut here in the US. Something perhaps not many people here have heard of and DEFINITELY would be great presented in CASEFILE style. I personally think the husband helped plan it, give it a look sometime.

Bummer to start the year with a continuation, multi part. Now I have to wait for all parts to drop, since I hate not finishing.

Where u been

yes.

Yay!! Your back! Happy days!

Huh...I thought you had done this one. Should be an interesting take/presentation on a well know case.

wooo!

To find his idenity you have to solve the ciphers. Which are not ciphers. They are language translations. Your origin is the keyboard of an arabic typewriter. Starting 75, he lived in Asia, his daughers birth records says she was born there. You grab with cursor, then you drop it in Google trans. Press enter. You cont need a 12 million dollar paperweight that supposedly thinks like a serial killer, all you need is your brain. Kids translated some of these. its only hand movements and nothing more than that. Once you have that done, take a look again. His name will be staring you in the face in plain english.

Thank you.

Not sure how but you've managed to make this case a note. Sorry.

I’m the zodiac

I love your voice. I have been listening to Case files since the beginning. You could just read the phone book (if those are still available) & I would still listen to you. Australian is the 2nd sexiest accent in the world. (The 1st being Texan. There is just something the way a Texan says "ma'am" that makes my knees weak.). Anyway, keep putting out these interesting cases. Thank you. 🙂

thanks, this is very thorough and quite rightly looks beyond the 5 crimes that were spoon fed to the police. until recently i started the count with cabbie ray davies but am now considering moving the clock back to betty jean williams march 1961, a long way away in texas but i think there will be others in distant places. the bates confession letter where he alludes to a plea of mental instability makes me suspicious of the whole williams yarn.

Great content but way to many sponsors/ads..... disappointing!

This is so disappointing. I love case file but largely for the cases that we wouldn't otherwise hear about. I'm extremely disappointed that we had to wait two months for a four part episode on a case with a Hollywood movie that we all know probably every detail about. No one needs to cover it again.