Chapter 2 — Letters of Blood
Ink, threats, and a signature the world would never forget.
“I want to report a double murder.”
He described the weapon. He described the scene. Then he named the road where the previous couple had been killed.
“This is the Zodiac speaking.”
Seven months later, on the night of July 4, 1969, another attack shook the Bay Area. At Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, a couple sat in a parked car when a man approached, fired multiple rounds, and walked away into the darkness.
Within an hour, a call came in to the Vallejo Police Department. The voice was low. Calm. Confident.
Days later, three Bay Area newspapers received nearly identical letters. Each contained a third of a cryptogram and a promise: publish this on your front page—or more people will die.
The signature appeared beneath the words: a circle with a cross, like a gunsight. The press inked it for millions to see. The symbol did not just sign a letter—it branded a nightmare.
The ciphers spoke in code. The letters spoke in riddles. The tone was theatrical, taunting, almost gleeful. He wrote as if the city itself were his audience and the police his unwilling co-stars.
The Bay Area woke up to fear—sudden, electric, and everywhere.
He demanded attention, and he got it. The letters ran in print. The ciphers landed on kitchen tables and office desks across California. Amateur codebreakers circled squares, drew lines, and argued at dinner about patterns no one had seen before.
To the police, something else stood out: his timing. The letters came fast on the heels of violence, like an echo designed to keep fear ringing. He didn’t just kill—he curated the terror.
From this point forward, the killer would have a voice. He would enter the conversation every time the city tried to forget him. He would announce himself with a phrase that never lost its power to shock:
Chapter 3 — He Calls Himself Zodiac
Media, fear, and the birth of a brand.
(Coming next…)
Chapter 4 — The Ciphers
Puzzles that turned living rooms into war rooms.
(Coming next…)
Chapter 5 — America in Fear
Night driving, locked doors, and the cost of panic.
(Coming next…)
Chapter 6 — Zodiac vs The Police
Headlines, hotlines, and a killer who read the news.
(Coming next…)
Chapter 7 — The Suspects
Names, handwriting, timelines—and doubt.
(Coming next…)
Chapter 8 — Arthur Leigh Allen Theory
The suspect who never quite fit—until he did.
(Coming next…)
Chapter 9 — New Evidence — The DNA Question
Forensics, partial profiles, and a case that resists endings.
(Coming next…)
Chapter 10 — The Killer Who Never Went Away
Why we still look over our shoulders.
(Coming next…)