#MurderMovieMonday: Zodiac

People always ask me who my favorite serial killer is. If you’ve read my earlier blog posts, you’d know it’s Ted Bundy. You know who comes in close second? The Zodiac Killer.

I’ll admit, I didn’t know much about the Zodiac Killer until I saw this movie. Like the Devil’s Knot (last week’s #MurderMovieMonday post) this movie served as a starting point for more research on the Zodiac Killer.

This movie is fucking GOLD. It came out in 2007, with Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr. playing all the lead roles.

Since The Zodiac Killer has never been caught, the movie focuses on the manhunt reporters at the San Fransisco Chronicle went through trying to catch him.

The Zodiac Killer was killing people during the golden age of serial killers. (late ’60s/early ’70s.) He had the same M.O., always killing couples in secluded areas. Many times he’d get so caught up on killing the girl that he’d forget to make sure the guy was really dead.

What made this movie so fucking good was that the directors and producers spent a year and a half looking into the Zodiac murder themselves before they even started filming.

The Zodiac Killer was another textbook narcissist. After killing all these people, he’d write letters to the San Fransisco Chronicle with coded letters and evidence from the crime scene.

The first half of the movie takes you step by step through the early stages of the investigation when the murders were still fresh. The last half of the movie jumps almost a decade later, where only one guy from The Chronicle is still investigating the Zodiac. (Robert Graysmith/Jake Gyllenhaal) He thinks he cracked the case and even wrote a book about it.

The last half is so gripping. My favorite scene is towards the end when two detectives get all these tips from Graysmith, and go and interview Arthur Leigh Allen, who is to this day the main suspect on the case.

That scene had me SHOOK. It still does, even when I watch it years later.

Quick background on what we know about the Zodiac:

• Forensics knows the killer wears a rare military style boot, and even know his shoe size.
• They’ve seen the letters/handwriting of the killer, and know he’s ambidextrous
•  They know what his signature “symbol” is

These detectives show up at his work, right? He works at some warehouse. The movie immediately cuts to his shoes, making us think those are the rare, military-style boots they’ve heard so much about. (Allen had previously been in the Navy.)

The question him about an incriminating conversation he had with a former friend, to which he denies. They also ask him about being ambidextrous, as the foreman told them he was. This he also denies.

After getting a little flustered with all the questions he gets quiet for a couple seconds, then says: “I’m not the Zodiac, and even if I was, I wouldn’t tell you.” WHAAAAAT. The book corroborates he actually said this shit too.

Then the best part, they ask to see his watch. (They assume he got his “signature” from the Zodiac watch company that coincidentally had the same symbol.) He reluctantly gives it to them and yep, it’s a Zodiac watch. Complete with the symbol and everything.

He then blathers on about why the bloody knives were in his trunk, which the detectives didn’t even know about. He says something about his fave book The Most Dangerous Game too, that’s about that guy who hunts humans on his private island.

Anyway, the detectives have to let him go but then call the only survivor of the attacks to see if he can identify who shot him. 22 years later and this guy picked his picture out of the lineup almost instantly. He said he was almost certain it was him, on a scale of 1 to 10 at least an 8.

After this, the police set up a meeting with Allen to question him again and possibly charge him for the Zodiac murders. OF COURSE, he had a heart attack like days before the meeting and died.

Some true crime analysts theorize it was someone other than Allen, but I still believe it was him. Circumstantial evidence may not hold up in court, but it holds up in my gut. The cases still remain open.

Overall, one of my favorite movies. I’ve been meaning to read the book, as I hear it gets way more in-depth, but rewatching the movie is good enough for right now. 10/10 would recommend.