Serial KillerUnsolved

The Zodiac Killer

San Francisco, California, United StatesDecember 20, 1968

Between 1968 and 1969, a serial killer who called himself the Zodiac sent a series of taunting letters to San Francisco Bay Area newspapers, claiming responsibility for at least five confirmed murders in Vallejo, Napa, and San Francisco. The killer used a distinctive crosshair symbol as his signature, encrypted his communications in ciphers, and made specific threats that created widespread public terror throughout Northern California. He claimed in his letters to have killed as many as thirty-seven people, though investigators confirmed only five deaths with certainty. The Zodiac killed couples at lover's lane locations, a taxi driver, and attacked survivors who were able to provide witness descriptions.

The investigation involved multiple law enforcement agencies across several counties and generated hundreds of thousands of tips over the following decades. A partial palm print was obtained; witness descriptions produced composite sketches; handwriting analysis was conducted. Despite the killer's unusual willingness to communicate — sending over thirty letters to police and newspapers — the Zodiac was never identified or arrested. A prime suspect named Arthur Leigh Allen, a convicted sex offender, was investigated extensively for decades but was never charged; DNA testing in 2002 did not match evidence from crime scenes, though investigators noted limitations in the samples available.

Three of the Zodiac's four encrypted ciphers remained unsolved for decades. The first cipher was cracked by amateur code-breakers in 1969. The 340-character cipher — so named for its length — was solved in December 2020 by an international team of amateur cryptanalysts, yielding a taunting message that provided no identifying information. The 13-character cipher, sent with a letter claiming to contain the killer's name, has never been solved.

The Zodiac Killer became one of the most culturally pervasive unsolved murder cases in American history, inspiring David Fincher's acclaimed 2007 film "Zodiac" based on Robert Graysmith's books, countless documentaries, and a permanent community of online investigators. As of 2025, the Zodiac's identity remains officially unknown, though the San Francisco Police Department officially lists the case as open. The case is the paradigmatic example of how a killer's deliberate cultivation of mystery can ensure lasting infamy.

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Serial KillerSolved

The Golden State Killer

Visalia, California

Beginning in the mid-1970s and continuing through the 1980s, a predator operating across California committed an extraordinary series of crimes that would remain unsolved for over four decades. He was known by multiple names as his crimes evolved — the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker — before the cases were linked and he was collectively dubbed the Golden State Killer. He committed at least 13 murders, more than 50 sexual assaults, and over 100 residential burglaries across dozens of California communities. Investigators were long baffled by the perpetrator's intelligence and discipline. He would surveil neighborhoods for weeks before striking, disabling porch lights, unlocking windows, and memorizing the layouts of homes. During assaults, he often called victims on the phone before or after attacks, taunting them. He left minimal physical evidence, and although a DNA profile was developed from crime scenes, it matched no one in existing databases for decades. Victims, investigators, and true crime researchers spent years piecing together the case with little progress. The breakthrough came in 2018 through genetic genealogy — investigators uploaded the killer's DNA to the public ancestry website GEDmatch and traced distant relatives, eventually narrowing to Joseph James DeAngelo, a 72-year-old former police officer living in suburban Sacramento. DNA recovered from a discarded item confirmed the match. DeAngelo was arrested in April 2018. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder and admitted to the other crimes in exchange for life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Golden State Killer case transformed law enforcement's approach to cold cases, sparking widespread adoption of investigative genetic genealogy as a tool. It also sparked significant ethical and legal debates about privacy and the use of consumer DNA databases by law enforcement — debates that continue today. Author Michelle McNamara, who coined the name "Golden State Killer" and spent years investigating the case, died in 2016, two years before his capture; her posthumous book 'I'll Be Gone in the Dark' became a bestseller and critically acclaimed HBO documentary.

MurderUnsolved

The Black Dahlia Murder

Los Angeles, California

On January 15, 1947, the body of Elizabeth Short, a 22-year-old aspiring actress, was found on a vacant lot in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Her body had been drained of blood, cut precisely in half at the waist, and posed with the two halves carefully separated. Her face had been slashed from the corners of her mouth toward her ears in a grotesque "Glasgow smile." There were no footprints, drag marks, or other trace evidence at the dump site — the body had been delivered with clinical deliberateness. Short, who became known as "The Black Dahlia" from her dark hair and reportedly favored black clothing, had been dead for approximately ten hours. The LAPD investigation became one of the largest in the department's history, involving hundreds of detectives and generating over 150 confessions — all false. Short had lived a transient life in the years following World War II, moving between cities with shifting companions and relationships, which made tracing her movements in her final days difficult. Her complex social life and the sensational nature of the mutilation drew enormous press attention that complicated the investigation. Despite decades of investigation, numerous books naming suspects, and extensive analysis of the crime, no arrest was ever made and no consensus suspect has emerged. Proposed suspects over the years include a doctor (based on the precision of the bisection), a mortician, an LAPD officer, and dozens of others. Author Steve Hodel long argued his own father, a physician, was responsible — a theory taken seriously by some investigators but never proven. The Black Dahlia murder remains unsolved and is one of the most famous cold cases in American history. It has inspired countless novels, films, and television productions, and has become a fixture of Los Angeles noir mythology. The combination of a beautiful young victim, extraordinary mutilation, a massive failed investigation, and absolute mystery has made it one of the most studied and speculated-upon murders of the twentieth century.

Serial KillerSolved

The Night Stalker

Los Angeles, California

Richard Ramirez — a twenty-five-year-old drifter from El Paso, Texas — terrorized the greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area between June 1984 and August 1985, killing at least fourteen people and committing numerous sexual assaults and other violent crimes. Ramirez had no consistent victim profile: he attacked men, women, children, and elderly people; he broke into homes at night through unlocked windows and doors; he used guns, knives, hammers, and a tire iron. He left pentagrams at crime scenes and sometimes forced survivors to "swear to Satan." The press named him "the Night Stalker," a title that reflected the reign of terror he imposed on an entire region. The investigation spanned multiple jurisdictions and involved a collaborative task force. The breakthrough came after Ramirez committed a final assault in Mission Viejo on August 24, 1985, during which a surviving witness sketched his face from memory. His name came from fingerprints matched to prior criminal records; his photograph was published widely. On August 31, 1985, Ramirez arrived in East Los Angeles after a bus trip from Phoenix, where he had been out of state during the media frenzy. Recognized by community members in a store, he was chased, caught, and beaten by a crowd before police arrived to take him into custody. Ramirez was charged with thirteen counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, eleven sexual assaults, and numerous other crimes. His trial — delayed repeatedly — was a spectacle: Ramirez flashed pentagrams to the courtroom, threatened and intimidated witnesses, and attracted a fan following of women who sent him love letters. He was convicted on all nineteen counts of murder and attempted murder in 1989 and sentenced to death nineteen times over. He remained on California's death row for over two decades, becoming one of its longest-serving condemned inmates. Richard Ramirez died of natural causes — B-cell lymphoma — on death row at San Quentin State Prison on June 7, 2013, at age fifty-three, without ever facing execution. He had married a fan and journalist, Doreen Lioy, in a prison ceremony in 1996, though she reportedly separated from him after DNA evidence confirmed additional crimes. The Night Stalker's murders remain among the most disturbing in California history, a case that reshaped security consciousness in the suburban sprawl of Los Angeles and left psychological trauma in communities throughout Southern California.

Serial KillerSolved

Son of Sam

New York City, New York

David Berkowitz, known as the "Son of Sam," conducted a shooting spree across New York City between July 1976 and July 1977 that killed six people and wounded seven others, triggering one of the most intensive manhunts in New York City history. He targeted young couples and women sitting in parked cars, firing a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver and leaving no apparent motive connecting his victims. The city was gripped by fear, with nightlife noticeably declining as residents feared becoming the next target. Berkowitz compounded the terror by writing taunting letters to police and to New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin, signing them "Son of Sam." In the letters he described hearing voices commanding him to kill and spoke of demonic dogs belonging to his neighbor — a claim he later admitted was fabricated to support an insanity defense. The letters generated enormous press coverage and turned the case into a national obsession. He was caught in August 1977 through methodical police work: a parking ticket placed near the scene of his final shooting was traced back to him. Officers conducting surveillance arrested him outside his Yonkers apartment building. At the time of arrest he was calm, apparently expecting to be caught. He pleaded guilty to six murders and was sentenced to six consecutive life terms with no possibility of parole. In prison, Berkowitz claimed he had converted to Christianity and became a born-again Christian, co-authoring a book and participating in victim-awareness programs. He has consistently been denied parole, which he himself has reportedly supported. His case changed New York law — "Son of Sam laws," which prevent criminals from profiting from their notoriety through books or media deals, were enacted in direct response to his case and later adopted across the United States.

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