EVEN AS A LITTLE, little kid growing up in the Bay Area, I was surprised by the intense interest, novelty of the Zodiac killer. Yeah, killer, he did kill 5 people and terrified the Bay Area in the late 1960's.
At the height of his killness, 1969, I was seven and still navigating my way of nursery school and wondering what was going on in my early life. I do remember the Zodiac. It freaked the crap out of me; I didn't have the mindset, yet, of knowing how charming this guy was; all I remember is that he messed with all of us, was responsible for cancelling Halloween because he liked to threaten, and made for the preview of Bay Area terror frenzy involving the Zebra killers and SLA. Quite a time in Bay Area murder lore.
Even with Friday's news that a Zodiac mystery was solved, I'm still stunned, sort of, by his loyal following of murder sleuths and hobbyists. Again, he killed five people. There's hardly any sexiness to that factor. Yet, there was movies about the Zodiac.He sent letters to the Chronicle. To Herb Caen. Almost an entire media industry was founded on his notoriety --I still don't get it.
Many people think he was a member of SFPD poking fun at the Mayor and Police Chief.
ReplyDeleteDid they ever caught this person? There was a movie starring Robert Downy Jr and there was no ending who was the suspect.
ReplyDeleteNo, Jose, not caught yet.
DeleteNo different than the fascination with Jack the Ripper, The Boston Strangler, or Michael Corleone.
ReplyDeleteor a certain Incumbent and his followers
DeleteWe are the same age, Rich, and that story freaked the crap out of me too.
ReplyDeletecharming?
ReplyDeleteAs Don Henley so eloquently stated; It's interesting when people die. Give us dirty laundry.
ReplyDeleteHe changed the Z in his name to K and is now selling tobacco chew
ReplyDeleteWhile I was 11 (to Rich's 7 year's of age), I was already wearing my "newspaper" reporter's hat, scooping the local junior high schools for stories (anyone remember/go to Cypress Junior High, SJ? I was there) and Zodiac was THE most intriguing story to happen (until Patty Hearst got herself hood-winked). Great times, for ALL US newspaper types. TV? They couldn't compete, BUT they had the pictures and would broadcast AFTER reading OUR newspaper stories for background and information ...
ReplyDelete