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A Cold Affairs task force claims to have identified the notorious Zodiac Killer, who terrorized northern California in the late 1960s and taunted authorities with cryptic notes.
Case Breakers investigators told Fox News that the group – led by former FBI agents and retired law enforcement officers – identified the infamous killer as Gary Francis Poste, who died in 2018.
They also linked the infamous serial killer to a sixth murder in Southern California.
The Zodiac Killer had previously been linked to five murders in 1968 and 1969 in the San Francisco area by the FBI.
During his madness, the madman sent a series of letters to local newspapers, in which he made up his nickname and threatened more murders if they were not printed. Some letters included numbers – with a few puzzles still unsolved decades later.
A figure received by the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969 was finally deciphered in December, revealing a message saying he was not afraid of being executed if he was ever caught.
But years of digging have led to new forensic evidence in the case, including photos from Poste’s darkroom that show scars on his forehead matching scars on the Zodiac sketch, the Zodiac said. team at Fox News.
Deciphering the letters sent by the Zodiac also revealed that Poste was the killer who claimed to have slaughtered up to 37 people.
In a note, the letters of Poste’s full name were removed to reveal another post, a Case Breakers investigator told Fox News.
“So you have to know Gary’s full name to decipher these anagrams,” former Army Counterintelligence Officer Jen Bucholtz said. “I just don’t think there is any other way for anyone to figure it out.”
The team also believe Poste killed Cheri Jo Bates on Halloween in 1966, some 400 miles from San Francisco and two years before the first murder was linked to the Zodiac Killer.
Bates, 18, was found dead with more than 40 stab wounds in an alley on the Riverside City College campus after her father reported her missing, according to Fox News.
The following year, authorities received a handwritten letter that later led them to believe that Bates’ murder could be linked to the zodiac killer – until investigators received another anonymous letter in 2016 claiming that the previous note was a “sick joke,” Fox News reported.
“The perpetrator admitted that he was not the zodiac killer or the killer of Cheri Jo Bates and was just looking for attention,” Riverside Police said.
The Zodiac Killer was ultimately never linked to Bates’ murder – and the case is still open, Riverside police told Fox News.
However, the Case Breakers believe Poste is a “very suspect” in Bates’ murder and urge investigators to compare his DNA to his.
A wristwatch with paint splatter believed to have been worn by the killer was found at the scene of Bates’ murder – and Poste had painted homes for more than four decades, according to the Cold Case team.
Additionally, a heel print of a military-style boot at the murder scene matched his and others found at the Zodiac crime scenes, Fox News reported.
FBI investigators even identified Bates as the Zodiac Killer’s “sixth victim” in a 1975 memo obtained by the team.
But the first known Zodiac Killer murders took place in December 1968 when a couple was shot dead in a car in Benicia, California.
Another couple were shot dead in Vallejo in July 1969, the man having survived. Later that year, a couple were stabbed near a lake and the man survived, while a taxi driver was shot dead in San Francisco.
An FBI spokesperson told The Post on Wednesday that the office would look into the Case Breakers’ claims about Poste.
Meanwhile, San Francisco Police told Fox News they cannot comment on potential suspects in the Zodiac investigation as it is ongoing.
A $ 50,000 reward was offered earlier this year by the Riverside Police Department for a conviction in the unsolved murder of Bates.
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