Old Police Reports May Shed New Light on Zodiac Murders

CHICAGO, Oct. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Between 1966 and 1969, a serial murderer known
as the Zodiac killer terrorized California. Despite intense law enforcement
and media scrutiny, few clues to the killer's identity or motives have ever
emerged.

Now, old police reports may shed new light on characteristics common to the
victims.

Collected for nearly a decade at a unique online repository for information
about the case, Zodiackiller.com, the reports -- from Napa, Vallejo, and
Solano County police and sheriff departments -- reveal that before they were
murdered, sometimes within days or weeks, each of the Zodiac's four known or
suspected female victims had broken off a relationship or rebuffed the
advances of a male admirer in favor of another male partner, and each breakup
involved public arguments or witnessed threats.

What's more, in the three murders involving male-female couples, the female
victim was the "older woman" in either her former or current relationship.

Experts say the similarities suggest the killer may have known more about his
victims than has previously been assumed, and may not have chosen them
entirely at random.

"The similarities are very intriguing and worth taking a second look at," said
Sheryl McCollum, founder and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research
Institute at Bauder College in Atlanta. "Similarities between victims are
often telling about the killer. I do not believe in coincidences -- much less
four of them. Therefore, the victims all having had a breakup or male stalker
becomes something that may need to be re-investigated."

Discovered during research for a story about the first public allegations in
the Zodiac murders -- when, beginning in 1981, retired government librarian
and true crime author Gareth S. Penn accused U.C. Berkeley public policy
professor Michael H. O'Hare of the crimes in a series of articles and books --
the findings were presented at the 2009 Midwest Criminal Justice Association
annual conference in Chicago and the 2009 Southern Criminal Justice
Association annual conference in Charleston, South Carolina this September.

For more information and in-depth details, read the exclusive feature story at
Weekly Scientist, http://www.weeklyscientist.com

RELATED LINKS:
http://spotlight.ccis.edu/2009/09/zodiac.html
http://www.mcja.org
http://www.scja.net

Provided by Newswise, online resource for knowledge-based news at
www.newswise.com

SOURCE Weekly Scientist

Michael J. Martin of Weekly Scientist, +1-573-874-1744,
mike.martin@weeklyscientist.com