The Zodiac Killer: California's Unsolved
A daily true-crime series re-examining the Zodiac Killer case that terrorized Northern California from 1968 to 1969. It covers the known attack sites, the cryptic letters and ciphers sent to the San Francisco Chronicle, and the 340 cipher cracked in 2020. It also revisits suspects such as Arthur Leigh Allen and Gary Francis Poste, exploring why the case remains unsolved after decades.
Episodes
Northern California's First Victims: How the Zodiac Killings Began
(00:00:00) Northern California's First Victims: How the Zodiac Killings Began
(00:01:29) Building the Pattern
(00:03:00) The First Cipher Breaks
(00:04:26) The Killing Continues
(00:06:33) The Letters to the Chronicle
(00:08:06) Suspects and Dead Ends
(00:10:15) The 340 Cipher
(00:12:01) What the Case Has Always Been
In December 1968, seventeen-year-old David Faraday and sixteen-year-old Betty Lo
Ciphers, Letters & Control: How the Zodiac Built His Audience
Most killers avoid attention. The Zodiac Killer demanded it — and engineered exactly how it would reach the public. In this chapter of the series, we move beyond the murder sites and into the machinery the Zodiac built around them: the letters, the ciphers, and the deliberate use of the San Francisco Chronicle as his personal broadcast network.From August 1969, the Zodiac sent twenty-two known com
The 340 Cipher: 51 Years, Three Amateurs, One Breakthrough
(00:00:00) The 340 Cipher: 51 Years, Three Amateurs, One Breakthrough
(00:01:06) The 408 Arrives
(00:02:34) A Schoolteacher and His Wife
(00:04:10) The 340 Holds
(00:05:08) Three Amateurs, One Solution
(00:06:34) What the 340 Actually Says
(00:08:00) The 408's Lesson, Revisited
(00:08:46) Suspects and the Limits of Evidence
(00:10:08) What Remains Open
For half a century, the Zodiac Killer's 340-
Five Dead, No Witnesses: The Zodiac's First Year of Terror
December 20, 1968. Two teenagers are shot dead on a quiet road outside Benicia, California, and the case that will consume investigators for six decades begins without anyone knowing it. This episode follows the Zodiac Killer's first year of confirmed attacks — from Lake Herman Road through Blue Rock Springs, Lake Berryessa, and the cab murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights — tracing not just t
Inside the 340: What the Cipher Actually Reveals About the Killer's Mind
(00:00:00) Inside the 340: What the Cipher Actually Reveals About the Killer's Mind
(00:00:52) The Murders That Created the Letters
(00:02:30) The First Cipher and What It Said
(00:04:05) Three Hundred and Forty Characters
(00:05:28) What the Three Forty Actually Says
(00:07:25) What Remained Unsolved
(00:09:12) What the Cipher Culture Built
(00:10:37) Where the Case Stands
For fifty-one years, t
The Man Who Fit Everything — Except the DNA
For more than two decades, Arthur Leigh Allen was the name investigators kept returning to. The geography fit. The timeline fit. His possessions overlapped with crime scene evidence in ways that were difficult to dismiss — a Zodiac-brand watch bearing the killer's crosshair signature, a knife consistent with the Lake Berryessa attack, wing walker boots matching prints from a confirmed crime scene,
Arthur Leigh Allen: The Suspect Who Fit — Until the DNA Didn't
(00:00:00) Arthur Leigh Allen: The Suspect Who Fit — Until the DNA Didn't
(00:01:34) The Voice on the Phone
(00:02:52) The Suspect That Fit
(00:04:28) Twenty-Two Years Later
(00:06:02) What the Case Was Built On
(00:08:15) Where Allen Sits Now
(00:09:32) Mageau's Weight
In 1991, Mike Mageau — the only confirmed Zodiac survivor with a direct line of sight to his attacker — sat down with a photo li
Presidio Heights: The Murder the Zodiac Almost Got Away With
(00:00:00) Presidio Heights: The Murder the Zodiac Almost Got Away With
(00:01:08) The Ride That Ended It
(00:03:10) The Shirt Becomes a Letter
(00:04:36) The Investigation Intensifies
(00:05:39) Arthur Leigh Allen
(00:07:05) The Question the Evidence Won't Answer
(00:08:31) The 340 Cipher and What It Didn't Say
(00:10:05) Why the Night of October Eleventh Still Matters
On the night of October 11
The Hood, the Knife, and the Car Door: Lake Berryessa Decoded
(00:00:00) The Hood, the Knife, and the Car Door: Lake Berryessa Decoded
(00:01:37) What We Know About That Day
(00:03:15) The Phone Call
(00:04:19) What Hartnell Gave Investigators
(00:05:28) Where This Fits in the Sequence
(00:06:48) The Letters That Followed
(00:08:28) The Suspects and the Distance
(00:09:47) Why Berryessa Still Matters
(00:11:08) What Comes Next
On September 27, 1969, the Zod
You Are Doomed: The Zodiac's War on the Press
(00:00:00) You Are Doomed: The Zodiac's War on the Press
(00:00:53) Building the Stage
(00:01:58) The Logic of the Letters
(00:03:01) Escalation and the 340
(00:05:03) The Reporter in the Crosshairs
(00:06:49) The Suspects Behind the Bylines
(00:08:47) What Hasn't Closed
(00:09:58) Why Paul Avery Still Matters
When a serial killer names a journalist as his next target, the case changes shape enti
Evidence in a Box: Why the Zodiac Case Refuses to Close
Fifty-six years after the first confirmed murder on Lake Herman Road, the Zodiac case still has no conviction, no consensus suspect, and physical evidence sitting in a California storage room that nobody will test. This episode of California's Unsolved brings the full weight of the established record to bear — and asks a harder question than whodunit: why has this case been engineered to resist re
Cracking the 340: How Three Amateurs Solved a 51-Year-Old Cipher
(00:00:00) Cracking the 340: How Three Amateurs Solved a 51-Year-Old Cipher
(00:00:51) The first cipher falls
(00:02:12) The 340 and the fifty-one-year wall
(00:03:15) What the amateurs found
(00:05:02) The cipher as a weapon
(00:06:22) The suspects and the forensic wall
(00:08:41) What remains unsolved
(00:10:06) The case that stays open
For half a century, the Zodiac Killer's 340-cipher stood a
Letters, Ciphers, and a Locked Door: Why the Case Won't Close
(00:00:00) Letters, Ciphers, and a Locked Door: Why the Case Won't Close
(00:01:01) The Killings
(00:03:27) The Ciphers
(00:05:36) The Press as Target
(00:06:58) Arthur Leigh Allen
(00:08:50) Gary Francis Poste and the Case Breakers
(00:10:03) The Locked Door
(00:11:48) What the Case Has and Hasn't Told Us
(00:13:41) Closing
Five confirmed murders. Twenty-two known communications. Four ciphers —
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