The serial killer who terrorized northern California for ten months in the late '60s gave himself the name of Zodiac.
He is known to have attacked seven people, five of whom died, though the actual number of victims may be much higher. He's never been identified, despite a pool of suspects and despite over a dozen letters to newspapers taunting authorities to find him.
In the years since then, there's been a whole sub-genre of fictional, and ever-more-extreme serial killers in books and movies -- we've gotten somewhat used to them. That's not how it was at the time of the Zodiac killings and there's no exaggerating how disturbing this was to Californians as it unfolded.
The events are captured in the chilling new thriller opening Friday called Zodiac, based on Robert Graysmith's books about the case. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey, Jr. (who is terrific as usual).
• Trailer
• Graysmith's books: Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked
• Zodiac websites
• Watch a 4-minute clip of a documentary about a subculture of amateur detectives determined to solve the decades-old murders.
written on Monday Feb 26, 2007
killer,
taunter,
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