Part 3

A Common Criminal Signature

People who smile inwardly at the notion of vampires, werewolves and ghouls might do well to consider that, in their own time, monsters more hideous by far exist within the realms of the very neighborhoods in which they live. This is no exaggeration.

The two victims were a mother and her sixteen-year-old daughter. The actual intended victim was the sixteen-year-old. The mother was killed as she attempted to defend herself and her daughter. The killer had waited until the victims were ready for bed. He struck the sixteen-year-old in the head with a baseball bat, which resulted in her instant death. He then confronted the mother with a knife, as she became aware of his presence in the home. The mother suffered several defense wounds to her arms and hands before succumbing to some 31 stab wounds of her body. There was evidence that she was tortured as well. Once his victims were unconscious and dead he engaged in hours of sexual deviance with their bodies. His intention was to knockout the sixteen-year-old and then torture her to death. However, he had hit her with such force that she died. He eviscerated both of his victims. He had sex with their corpses and drank their blood before posing and propping them with their body parts and inserting a baseball bat into the daughter's vagina. He removed the breasts from the mother and placed them in the bedroom on end tables on either side of the bed where the daughter's body was found. He incised the skin of the pubis from the mother and placed the tissue into her mouth. He incised the skin of the pubis from the daughter's body and placed it upon the right side of her face. He then engaged in postmortem piquerism by stabbing into the daughter's throat a total of sixteen times. [Vernon J. Geberth, Anatomy of a Lust Murder, Law and Order Magazine, Vol. 46, No. 5, May 1998].

Should the reader remain unconvinced, let him consider this brief synopsis from criminologist J. Paul De River's classic work, The Sexual Criminal:

The following case illustrates the most brutal type of sadistic lust murderer. This suspect confessed to the murder and dissection of his female victims. The bodies of both women had been slashed: the first victim with a butcher knife, and the second victim with a safety razor blade. This subject had a fetish for both knives and safety razor blades. The body of the first victim had been dissected, her legs and arms disarticulated; the throats of both victims were cut, and in both cases the breasts had been slashed, and the vagina mutilated. On one of the victims he had bitten the breast, and later confessed he might have swallowed the nipple. He practiced cunnilingus on the first victim. When he was arrested his mustache showed evidence of blood.

Famed killer Ted Bundy bludgeoned his female victims into a state of insensibility, then followed the assaults with various acts of rape, torture, mutilation and death by strangulation. Once the victims had expired, he indulged his taste for necrophilia and post-mortem mutilation. Ed Kemper committed rape, stabbing, and manual strangulation upon his living victims; decapitation and necrophilia upon the dead. Lawrence Bittaker's fancy was to torture teenage girls with a pair of pliers and a hammer. Prior to strangling them with a wire coat hanger, Bittaker drove an ice-pick through his victims' ears. His partner, Roy Norris, tape-recorded the sessions of rape and torture. At the ensuing trial, a replay of those recordings sent jurors and spectators running from the courtroom in horror and disgust.

The term "serial killer" is commonly used in reference both to a type of crime and the psychological character of the person who commits it. FBI profiler John Douglas defines a serial killer as "someone who has murdered on at least three occasions, with ... an emotional cooling-off period between each incident." This description assumes as its premise the fact that certain killers, formerly referred to as "psycopaths" or "sociopaths," have a tendency to continue killing until they are either caught, or some external circumstance puts an end to their murderous ways. It defines the "serial killer" as someone who commits a "series" of "killings." In a very broad sense, the description serves its purpose. It fails, however, to define its subject's nature. Completely apart from the sheer number of times a serial killer strikes lies a bizarre, complex and frightening array of characteristics that set this particular type of murderer apart from all others. The National Center for the Victims of Crime offers a chilling definition of the term that states its case with naked clarity:

Serial murder is the supreme manifestation of violent criminality as evidenced by the horrifying acts perpetrated against innocent victims. The crime is often an interrelation and culmination of extreme sexual perversity and brutal homicide which generally leaves the victim in a condition far worse tha[n] simply the infliction of death. Many victims of serial killers endure prolonged periods of suffering until the lethal assault saves them from further torment .... Although serial murder is relatively rare in comparison to homicide or violent crime in general, the serial killer receives much more disdain from society because of the agony he inflicts upon the victim in what the public considers a senseless occurrence. [Quoting Waters, Kevin. "Understanding Society's Most Dangerous Offender: A Typology and Corresponding Dynamic Analysis for the Substantive Theory Formulation of Serial Murder," (Masters Thesis). Florida State University, School of Criminology, 1987.]

By the time of its adoption in the last decades of the twentieth century, "serial killer" had supplanted the earlier terminology of "sociopath," "psychopath," and "sexual-sadist" that had been used to define what essentially comprised the same kind of criminal. Although it is less fashionable nowadays to refer to killers as sociopaths, the appellation of sexual sadist is commonly employed to describe the serial killer; to suggest that the person to whom the label applies is something more than simply a killer who takes a particular number of victims over a particular period of time.

"Sexual crimes," wrote J. Paul de River in The Sexual Criminal, "are probably the most demoralizing and horrifying of all crimes, and administer the greatest shock to those who come in contact with them." As illustrated in the examples above, the horror of which de River speaks is a direct result of the manner in which the sexual sadist carries out his acts. In the case of sexually-sadistic murder, death is simply the denouement of a series of actions that have been scripted in the fantasies of the perpetrator long before the act itself. Those actions are calculated to gratify a warped and perverted sexual impulse that can achieve satiety only by witnessing the physical suffering of another human being. They are actions planned far in advance of the actual assault, and, unless they are interrupted by some unforeseen circumstance, involve prolonged and intimate contact with the victim.

Robert Graysmith's classic Zodiac has remained a staple of true-crime literature since its first appearance in 1986. The reason for its enduring success must be considered something of a mystery, since the Zodiac case itself affords the true-crime reader very little of the shock and horror customarily sought by aficionados of the genre. Consider the nature of the Zodiac attacks. Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs involved a blitz-style shooting that would have required little more than 60 seconds to carry out. Following the commission of his crimes, the perpetrator calmly drove away. The incident at Lake Berryessa involved a brief conversation with the victims that was calculated for no purpose other than to convince Hartnell and Shepard that they were to be robbed, not harmed, and that they should comply with the request to tie each other up. Based on Hartnell's testimony, the attack itself was quick and unforeseen, and would have required no more than a minute to carry out. Following the stabbing, Zodiac immediately left the scene. The Stine murder was carried out with a single shot to the head of an unsuspecting victim. Within a minute or two of carrying out the crime, its perpetrator calmly disappeared into the night.

These were the actions of neither a sexual sadist nor a serial killer as those terms are commonly defined and understood. Particularly missing was the element of hands-on interaction with the victims that comprises such a common factor in cases of sadistic murder. Even in the Berryessa crime, that kind of interaction was noticeably absent. This puzzles us, because, of all the Zodiac events, Berryessa afforded Zodiac the optimum conditions for perpetrating sadistic acts upon his victims. Given the isolation of the locale, the helplessness of his captives and the declining state of day, Zodiac could easily have performed a prolonged and leisurely assault. Incredibly, he did not so much as verbally assail the unfortunate couple that lay bound and helpless before him. Two weeks later he struck anew, in an attack reminiscent of the blitz-style assaults at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs. From that point on, he was never known to have killed again.

In order to understand the nature of a crime, it is essential that we understand the motivations of its perpetrator. FBI profiler John Douglas and writer Mark Olshaker offer an excellent assessment of criminal motive in their 1999 book The Anatomy of Motive. They underscore the value of using motive as a means of distinguishing crimes that on their surface might appear to be identical. Two cases of burglary, seemingly similar in their outward appearances, become clearly distinctive when the authors demonstrate that the first had been perpetrated by teenage boys intent upon furnishing their apartment; the second by a fetishist collecting women's undergarments to feed a paraphilic fantasy. One case of criminal poisoning is driven by the desire to collect insurance payments, while a second poisoning, identical in its results, is shown to have been motivated by the desire for revenge. These distinctions are important, especially when attempting to link crimes by unknown perpetrators. Why did Zodiac kill? The answer to that question may lead us to an understanding of his nature quite at odds with the conventional wisdom that has dominated the case so far.

In this case, victimology may suggest a motive. In three out of four attacks, Zodiac's victims were a young male and female caught alone together in an isolated place where it could be assumed by the killer that they were engaged in sexual activity. To all appearances, Faraday and Jensen parked their Rambler at the turnoff on Lake Herman Road in order to indulge in "necking." The box of "partially used prophylactics" enumerated in the Lake Berryessa incident carries its own unavoidable interpretation. (Less titillating, though perhaps of no lesser significance, was the book of party jokes found alongside the victims' effects following the incident.) Finally, while there exists no evidence to indicate sexual contact between the victims at Blue Rock Springs, the implication is unavoidable. Whatever the reason for the assignation between Darlene Ferrin and Mike Mageau, the couple placed themselves in a position where any individual who happened upon them would instantly have inferred that a tryst was taking place.

Extrapolating from these circumstances alone, we feel confident that at the very least a provisional motive can be ascribed to the assaults. To all appearances, Zodiac's murders comprised a personal vendetta against a particular class of individuals. Fueled by envy, his primary motive was the desire to achieve revenge.

At first glance this may seem an oversimplification, based only upon the victimology alone, with no corroborating evidence. Yet the most significant aspect of the entire case - without which the name of Zodiac would never have acquired its status as a household word - lends credence to the theory. The very existence of the correspondences serves to depict their author as an individual suffering from a variety of social pathologies that manifested themselves in his inability to function both socially and sexually.

Taken together, the letters and the murders bear this out. Upon the face of it, a man who murders to achieve publicity is a man who has difficulty expressing himself through the usual channels of social interaction. The progression of the letters shows that even as late as the period from mid-1970 through 1974, when the murders had ceased and the credibility of the bomb threats had declined to nothing, Zodiac continued to take advantage of his stature as a public figure, in a series of correspondences that grew less threatening and more bizarre with each succeeding letter.

The first hint that Zodiac offers of sexual inadequacy is contained in the Three-Part Cipher, solved by the Hardins in 1969. In that correspondence, Zodiac declares that "to kill something" is "even better than getting your rocks off with a girl." Given the circumstances of the crimes, this is tantamount to saying that what Zodiac has (i.e., the ability to kill) is superior to what his victims have (sexual relations). It implies a "sour grapes" attitude toward sex, coupled with an almost snobbish inference that Zodiac's attainments are loftier and better. Freudian interpretations aside, one wonders why Zodiac would have reached for such an analogy, apart from the imputation that he was sexually inadequate himself and had never experienced the act of getting his "rocks off with a girl."

The Dripping Pen Card contains yet another allusion to sexual frustration. "I get awfully lonely when I am ignored," it states, "so lonely I could do my Thing!!!!!!" The allusion to the killer's loneliness is revealing in itself. In the late sixties "doing one's thing," could be associated with a number of meanings. Chief among those meanings, however, was a thinly-veiled allusion to having sex. That the killer's "thing" ostensibly was murder, and that he identified the process as superior to sex, corroborates the notion that Zodiac, if not positively asexual, had very little success in his strivings for sexual fulfillment.

Later, Zodiac's introduction of The Mikado and the character of Ko-Ko bring this notion more clearly into focus. So far from his usual pattern did Zodiac meander to bring us his interpretation of the Gilbert and Sullivan production that one must wonder whether he sought intentionally to offer this as a particular insight into the true motivation behind his acts. His identification with the character of the Lord High Executioner appears extremely logical in connection with the Zodiac victimology. In his role as Lord High Executioner, Ko-Ko is tasked with executing people who are caught in the act of flirting. Given the prudish nature of nineteenth century sensibilities, a contemporary of Zodiac might well have interpreted "flirting" in a variety of ways more extreme than those who enjoyed The Mikado in its early days. Such sexual connotations would have been obvious to Zodiac, who in essence performed a similar role to Ko-Ko's by literally executing people whom he caught in the act of flirting.

The Lord High Executioner's Aria offers a further insight. In that solo piece, Ko-Ko presents "a little list" of "society offenders," comprising a select group of annoying persons with unendearing habits whose loss will be "a distinct gain to society at large." The association of this song with Zodiac is at once both cogent and transparent. We are led to assume that there is something about Zodiac's victims which he finds perturbing or annoying; something that incites his anger and exercises his sense of righteous indignation. Referring back to the role of Ko-Ko, we can perceive that this something consists of "flirting," or, more plainly, of sexual behavior in general. Like Ko-Ko, Zodiac's is the avenging hand that will administer justice to those found enjoying their sexuality in flagrante delicto.

Zodiac enlarges upon this theme in his Exorcist Letter of 1974, providing his final quote from The Mikado. "Titwillo" comprises yet another Ko-Ko song, concerning a little bird who dies from unrequited love. The quotation hints of suicide:

He plunged him self into
the billowy wave
and an echo arose from
the sucides grave
titwillo titwillo titwillo

The final stanza of the song (not quoted, but clearly implied) relates the reason for the unfortunate bird's despair:

Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name
Isn't Willow, titwillow, titwillow,
That 'twas blighted affection that made him exclaim
"Oh, willow, titwillow, titwillow!"

It appears as if, like the tom-tit in the song, an inability to achieve the object of his desires has driven Zodiac to the extreme acts of murder and (as hinted in the letter) suicide. This may be further borne out by the weird symbol appearing on the bottom of the page; a symbol that Graysmith thought resembled a specimen of Chinese writing. To the left of the symbol are two small doodles that, while definitely forming part of the symbol, were completely ignored by Graysmith in his analysis of the letter. Looking closely at the symbol one sees a small "dot" atop of which is a somewhat larger, tadpole-like "squiggle." To our minds, these doodles resemble nothing so much as representations of a sperm and egg; a supposition supported by the "Chinese writing" symbol which, in that context, appears strikingly like a specimen of human chromosomes. If the dot-and-squiggle were indeed intended to represent a sperm and egg, the depiction is of a sperm that has missed its mark, or overshot its target. That, in pictorial terms, would perfectly state the sexual frustration implied by Zodiac not only in the Exorcist Letter, but in the other missives we have mentioned as well. Similarly, it might also imply that, in murdering his victims, Zodiac has prevented the conjunction of sperm and egg, by separating the participants whom he has caught in the act of sex.

In offering the recurrent theme of The Mikado, Zodiac related, as clearly as he was able, the motivation for his crimes. Taking his victimology into account, there can remain very little doubt as to what impelled Zodiac to kill. That motive can be simply stated as hostile rage against a particular class of people, having its origins in sexual frustration.

This is certainly a far cry from the motivation of a sexual sadist or a sociopathic personality. Clearly missing is the "recreational" element that comprises the essence of that particular type of crime. When committing murder, Zodiac's interest in the victims does not progress beyond the deed itself. (We qualify the crime at Berryessa because in that instance the binding of the victims served only to immobilize them for the subsequent stabbing. Likewise we qualify the Stine murder, because the events immediately following the slaying were calculated for the purpose of authenticating the attack and manipulating evidence.) He does not taunt them, abuse them, or sexually assault them. His interest lies in killing them, and nothing more.

The criminological profession commonly divides multiple killers into two distinct groups: serial killers and mass murderers. The latter group, according to profiler John Douglas, consists of murderers who kill "four or more people in one location in one incident." While generally descriptive, this definition is far from satisfactory, since it fails to account for the psychological distinctions or general motives that define its subject.

In most instances, mass murder is the last act of a desperate individual. Unlike the recreational killer, who derives a perverse sense of joy from his hidden crimes, the mass murderer acts in a single, violent paroxysm of inexplicable rage, exposing himself to identification, capture, and often death at the hands of the police. The murders are acts of desperation, serving as vehicles for bringing the perpetrator into the public eye and drawing attention to his sense of impotence, his frustration, his anger and hostility. The mass murderer is a psychologically troubled and deeply disaffected individual who often seeks to preserve his ego at the expense of his existence.

The mental state of such a disaffected killer is, as the dictionary defines the term, one of fathomless resentment and unending discontent. By the time he acts out his murderous intentions, the disaffected killer has reached the end of his metaphorical rope. He looks into the mirror and despises what he sees; at the same time comparing his life's achievements with those of others whom he perceives as enjoying prominence and success. Green-eyed envy consumes his waking thoughts. Constant failure, or at least the perception of constant failure, imbues him with a sense of hopelessness that the future may hold brighter days in store. These feelings in their turn lead invariably to depression and despair. His ego, always precariously balanced, stands poised upon a precipice. Life becomes a prison from which there can be but one means of escape.

Ultimately, mass murder offers its participants two distinct benefits (if such a term may be applied). First, in committing violence, the disaffected killer assuages his pent-up anger and releases his hostility in a single, overwhelming act that exposes him to the risk of death. Second, and perhaps most significant, it affords him a stage upon which he can stand and make his statement to the world. Nothing, it would appear, is more calculated to arrest the attention of society and divert it toward a single individual than the act of murder in the mass.

Given the clear distinction between the recreational (serial) and the disaffected (mass) killer, we contend that Zodiac most likely belonged to the latter, rather than the former, class. His victimology suggests the twin elements of hostility and rage, while his writings give evidence of a psychological need to become noteworthy in the public eye. Envy - sexual envy - plays a key role in his motivations. These are the attributes of a disaffected killer, the more especially since none of the elements of recreational murder are present and despite the fact that the requisite pattern of mass murder (four or more people in one location in one incident) is not seen. (Zodiac's published threats intimated exclusively of mass murder, e.g., the warning that he would go on a "kill rampage"; the statement that he would "wipe out" a school bus full of children; and the bombs designed to blow up passing busses.) Zodiac, in short, is a mass murderer who meets the primary requisites for that distinction in a qualitative, though not a quantitative, sense.

To be continued