February 12, 2019 • 30 mins
Investigators finally put a name and face to the Zodiac. The prime suspect is revealed.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast,
and do not necessarily represent those of iHeartMedia, How Stuff Works,
or its employees.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Robert Graysmith is the author of a book called Zodiac.
Well what happens thirty three years later when you still
don't have the killer? Are there still people working on
this case? Are there still tips coming in anything to
this investigation?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (00:26):
You know, we were pretty certain we know who he was,
and he died with bombs in his basement and the
Zodiac bomb formula, a disc in his computer that said Zodiac.
I'm pretty sure that the cases solved. So much information
and so much attention was focused on the prime suspect
in the case, The man who actually was the first suspect,
who knew all the victims, who stalk them, who had
(00:48):
the skills and intelligence to write the letters and to
commit the crimes, was literally stopped at in his tracks.
He was watched, eventually sent to prison for child molesting,
during which there were no more activities from the Zodiac.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
The suspect that was focused on and highlighted in the
film and in Grace Smith's book, and to a certain
extent even for Tusking Armstrong, Arthur Lee Allen was what
they call a good suspect.
Speaker 6 (01:14):
It's probably Arthur Lee Allen.
Speaker 7 (01:16):
That was what all the main guys investigating it here thought.
I think Arthur Lee Allen was the guy.
Speaker 8 (01:23):
I enjoy a good tussle. That Hey, there were coincidences
that tended to point towards me and kill him just
for the pleasure of it. Thank God for our constitution,
because that says a person is innocent until proven guilty.
A man in a mask robbed, tied, and stabbed him,
(01:46):
leaving them for dad. Subject stated, I want to report
a murder, no a double murder.
Speaker 7 (01:54):
I did it.
Speaker 9 (01:55):
The man who wore a medieval style executionershood, carried a
knife and gun and intended.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
To use them.
Speaker 10 (02:03):
They haven't arrested me because they can't prove a thing.
I'm not the damn Zodiac.
Speaker 9 (02:08):
Who is the Zodiac and.
Speaker 7 (02:10):
Where is he from?
Speaker 11 (02:11):
iHeartRadio, Houstuff Works and Tenderfoot TV. This is monster the
Zodiac killer. The Zodiac case is rife with mystery, first
and foremost the Zodiac's true identity. Up to this point,
there'd only been vague glimpses of the man behind the moniker.
(02:33):
Witness descriptions were cloudy. He was only ever seen in
the dark of night or behind a terrifying costume. We
heard a strange voice call into a TV show, but
it wasn't actually the Zodiac. So who was this guy?
For years it seemed like there would never be an answer,
But then a name, a face, and a voice were
(02:56):
finally attached to the zodiac publicly, one man became the
most visible and likely suspect.
Speaker 12 (03:10):
One of the prime suspects in the Zodiac case over
the years was a man who was initially identified for
reasons we don't know, in October of nineteen sixty nine.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
This is Zodiac expert Michael Buttererfield.
Speaker 12 (03:26):
Arthur Lee Allen was a former school teacher who was
working as a janitor, largely because he had been caught
molesting children and had lost his job for some reason.
John Lynch of the Lao Police Department went and questioned
Arthur Lee Allen and on October sixth, nineteen sixty nine,
(03:47):
regarding his whereabouts at the time of the stabbing at
Lake barri Essa. Allan said that he was at Salt
Point Ranch and he had killed some chickens, and that
he didn't have any involved in the crime.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Salt Point is about ninety miles west of Lake Veriessa.
It's close but not close enough, and with no direct
evidence linking him to the murder, Allan was let go.
Speaker 12 (04:14):
After that, the police forgot about Arthur Lee Allen, and
then in nineteen seventy one, an estranged friend of Alan's
went to police and said that prior to the Zodiac murders,
(04:34):
Arthur Lee Allen had professed his desire to kill people
and write letters to the media calling himself Zodiac. The
police investigated. The Valeo Police and the San Francisco Police,
including Bill Armstrong and Dave Toski, spent about two weeks
investigating Arthur Lee Allen and gathering information, talking to people
who knew him, including his brother and sister in law,
(04:56):
and the individual who made this claim, Don Cheney. Don
Cheney was first friends with Arthur Lee Allen's brother Ron,
and that's how he got to know Arthur Lee Allen,
or who was normally referred to as Lee. They became friends.
They would hunt and fish and drink together and do things.
But then at a certain point it appears that Arthur
(05:18):
Lee Allen attempted to molest one of Don Cheney's children.
Don Cheney complained to Lee's brother Ron, and was adamant
that something had happened and he was very upset about it,
and he apparently severed his relationship with Arthur Lee Allen
at that time. According to Cheney's timing of events, this
occurred sometime in nineteen sixty eight, the last time he
(05:41):
had ever talked to Arthur Lee Allen.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
According to Vallejo PD Detective George Bowert, Alan told Cheney
he wanted to write a novel, and in this novel,
a character would do the following things, kill random couples,
taunt police with letters, recounting his crimes, to disguise himself,
secure a flashlight to his gun so he could shoot
(06:05):
in the dark, call himself Zodiac. Cheney was questioned again
about this story years later, and these new details were
recorded by Detective Bowart. Cheney recalled that Alan was gifted
a Zodiac brand watch by his mother, and on the
face of this watch there was a symbol a circle
(06:27):
with a cross through it. Cheney said Alan wanted to
sign letters with the same cross circle symbol from his watch.
Cheney also claims that Alan wanted to fool women into
stopping their cars in isolated areas. He would claim they
had problems with their tires, then loosen their lug nuts
and take them captive. Shortly after this, investigators learned of
(06:53):
a connection to Darlene Ferron, who was shot and killed
by the Zodiac at Blue Rock Springs. As it turns out,
Alan's family home was just a fraction of a mile
away from the restaurant where Darlene worked, and Alan supposedly
said he had become friendly with a waitress at that restaurant.
Police records say an unidentified man named Lee often visited Darlene,
(07:17):
so it's possible Alan was stalking Darlene.
Speaker 12 (07:20):
There was also a story that Arthur Lee Allen may
have used a friend's car to commit the murder at
Blue Rock Springs, because the surviving victims said that the
killer was driving a car similar to Darlene's brown cordare
Alan was working at a gas station where a friend
of his had apparently put a car up for sale,
and the theory was that he had taken the car
(07:41):
and committed the crime. Because Alan did not own a
Corbert or any vehicle similar to one, and eventually, in
nineteen seventy two, the San Francisco Police Department obtained a
warrant to search Arthur Lee Allen's trailer in Santa Rosa, California.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
On September fourteenth, nineteen seventy two, San Francisco Police obtained
a warrant and searched Allan's trailer. Here's a partial list
of what police were looking for. Writings, letters, and cryptograms
in the same handwriting as suspect letters. Any pistol with
a flashlight attached to the barrel, a blood stained portion
(08:34):
of cloth from a striped gray and white shirt, the
wallet or identification of Paul Stein taxi keys from a
yellow cab, a black executioner type hood with a circle
and cross on it, a large knife with a wooden handle.
Speaker 12 (08:52):
They did find some oddities in his home, like dead
squirrels and his refrigerator that he was using for his
biology is, some sex toys, guns, things like that.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Investigators found many bizarre things, but they didn't find any
of the materials they were looking for, so they had
no hard evidence to use against Allan. They did, however,
obtain his fingerprints and samples of his writing. Those were
thoroughly cross examined with the Zodiac letters, and.
Speaker 12 (09:23):
That's when they learned that his fingerprints in handwriting didn't match.
And so essentially Arthur Lee Allen was abandoned as a suspect.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yet again, Arthur Lee Allen was let off the hook.
Despite some suspicious activity, Allan was in the clear until.
Speaker 12 (09:39):
Years later a best selling book came out called Zodiac,
written by Robert Graysmith.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
I still talk to the investigators on the case. Inspector
David Toski, who was the main man on the case.
He believes it was Arthur Lee Allen. The main man
in Wallejo, George bauerd who's retired now, he thinks it
was Arthur Lee.
Speaker 7 (10:01):
Virtually all the top.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Investigators, men who I really respect, believe that this was
the man.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That was Robert Graysmith. In the early seventies, he was
a political cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle. Gray Smith
developed an obsession with the Zodiac case and so he
was doing his own private investigation. In nineteen eighty six,
gray Smith published a book containing his complete findings on
the case. It was simply titled Zodiac and It went
(10:30):
on to sell over three million copies.
Speaker 12 (10:35):
And in that book, gray Smith had given Arthur Lee
Allen the pseudonym Bob hall Star. A lot of people
started to figure out that Arthur Lee Allen was Bob
hall Star. People in the Bay Area realized he was
the person they were talking about, and that book, of course,
because it was a best selling book, had a tremendous
(10:55):
influence on the public and the media.
Speaker 9 (10:59):
Arthur Lee Allen, a long time the Lahoe resident and
former professional student, is the man many still believed to
be the dreaded Zodiac. In Robert grace Mis's best selling
book Zodiac, the suspect's brother and sister in law say
that Allan often spoke of man as the most dangerous game.
(11:19):
His own family at one time found him terrifying.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Grey Smith connected many dots between Arthur Lee Allen and
the Zodiac, one of which is that Alan was allegedly
in Riverside when Sherry Joe Bates was murdered in nineteen
sixty six. The Valeo Police Department had placed him in
the area, and when questioned, Alan said he was in
nearby Pomona during the Bates murder. He also called in
(11:44):
sick from his job on November one, the day after
Bates was found dead. It's possible Allan missed work to
hide facial wounds inflicted by his victim. You may also
remember that Zodiac left behind a footprint at Lake Barriessa.
That footprint was made by a military boot. This suggested
(12:07):
the Zodiac had some military experience. Arthur Lee Allen had
numerous connections to the military. His father was the commander
of a nuclear submarine at nearby Mare Island. Allan himself
was in the Navy for less than two years before
being discharged other than honorably. While there, Graysmith believes Allan
(12:28):
developed an interest in codes and ciphers. Much of this
is hearsay. The Zodiac book laid out one undeniable mark
against Alan. Gray Smith points out that the last official
Zodiac letter came on July eighth, nineteen seventy four. Only
a few months later Allan would go to prison on
(12:50):
child molestation charges. During Allen's time in prison, there were
no Zodiac letters. Then, in nineteen seventy eight, just months
after Alan was released, a new letter showed up at
the San Francisco Chronicle.
Speaker 13 (13:10):
Dear editor, this is the Zodiac speaking, I am back
with you. I am waiting for a good movie about me.
Who will play me? I am now in control of
all things yours truly, Zodiac Guess, San Francisco Police Department zero.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
It's important to note here that this letter was never authenticated.
We'll get into that in a later episode. Still, many
investigators found this coincidence to be striking. Gray Smith built
a massive case of circumstantial evidence against Arthur Lee Allen,
and it was enough to convince a lot of readers
of his guilt. Was Alan truly the villain gray Smith
(13:58):
made him out to be, or was Alan just an
incredibly strange individual. We asked someone who knew Alan personally.
Speaker 6 (14:07):
He had him a few chipmunks at his house. One
time he came in the shop and after he had
a job up in the foothills, and he carried one
around on his shoulder, and I think that was from
when he worked up in the up in the hills
where he you know, he said, come on up and
I'll show your kids how to sail.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
This is Carl Eubner. He ran a blacksmith shop in
downtown Valeo. Arthur Lee Allen came by frequently.
Speaker 6 (14:34):
He came down to the Leo and came into the
shop and said, you know, why don't you bring him
several times? In fact, why don't you bring the kids
up and I'll, you know, teach him the sailing. And
I said to him, I wife, well, are going to
do that sometime, you know. But we never did, and
I found out he was canned anyway, and that ended that,
so I never did go up there.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
We also talked with Mark Eubner carl Son at the time,
he was just a kid.
Speaker 14 (15:04):
When I heard that story, my first reaction was he
certainly wouldn't mess with the kids of a friend of his.
I'd be surprised.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
I knew Arthur Lee Allen in school. He was half
a grade behind me, but we knew each other. And
then later on he would come in his shop once
in a while. He worked on his car, so he
did blocksmith's work. We made things like gates, railings, and
we'd weld something up for him. Lee Allen at a
(15:38):
time worked at Ace Hardware, down half a dozen blocks
in the shop on Tennessee Street.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Eventually, Mark and Carl started interviewing each other, and Mark
had a lot of questions for his dad.
Speaker 14 (15:52):
What about then he had the rear end done though.
Speaker 6 (15:56):
Oh yeah, well he was one instant. He had the
you know whatever ranz on the car and the old cars,
they they're pretty heavy, and so we did some work
on it. He came and picked it up and and
he just grabbed it and put it up over his
head and walked out. And one of the guys kind
of shook. He said, what the heck?
Speaker 7 (16:13):
You know?
Speaker 6 (16:14):
But I don't think it was that so much that
he was so strong. It was just odd that he
did it that way. But most guys wouldn't do that.
But he was pretty strong guy. He came in one
time and and said, hey, I have this letter. He
just said that he was no longer a suspect in
the Zodiac case.
Speaker 14 (16:34):
I was thinking about this earlier. So like when he
came in with the with the letter. Was he just saying,
here's the letter, I'm exonerary. It was like, Carl'll trust me, man,
this isn't me. I mean, I'm wondering how if he
was emphatic at all or just about no.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
He he was just I wouldn't say blase, but he
just came in. I said, hey, I got you something
to show or whatever he said. And then here's a
letter from the Sonoma County Sheriff that says that I'm
not a suspect.
Speaker 14 (17:05):
Or any more.
Speaker 6 (17:06):
Yeah, whatever the wording was, that I'm not a suspect anymore.
Speaker 14 (17:10):
Because I think you also told me once that he
needed that letter because he kind of couldn't get a job.
He had to have that letter so he could go
apply for a.
Speaker 6 (17:18):
H He didn't have to show the letter, but he
did if it ever came up and said, hey, look,
I think a lot of people were a little bit
leery of him probably after that. As far as I know,
he did not have a girlfriend, never mentioned it, and
never seen him with one. He was kind of a
loner in that respect. I don't want to describe him
(17:39):
as a loaner, but I don't know. But he did
have friends, I guess. I never really seen him with anybody.
It was always by himself.
Speaker 14 (17:48):
But let me just I'm curious, so, like, if you
saw his name in the paper or saw his name
in the news, what did you think, Like, Hey, that's
my friend, did.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
You Yeah, we weren't qualified, We weren't Yeah, buddies. I
knew him from school and a little bit after school
and were yeah, we were friendly one good time And
did you.
Speaker 14 (18:08):
Ever think he did it?
Speaker 6 (18:10):
It ran through my mind, of course, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 14 (18:14):
It was just weird to think that I knew the
guy as a kid. I knew my dad knew him.
It's one of those things that I would love to
know what the real answer is. I would love to
know if it was him. I've seen other suspects name,
but obviously the only one that is in my head
is Lee Allen. I certainly believe he could have been.
I mean again, I didn't know him like my dad,
(18:36):
but just all the stuff I've read and seen about him,
it seems plausible. I'd say that it certainly seems plausible
that he could have been the guy.
Speaker 12 (19:03):
In December of nineteen ninety, another individual from Arthur Lee
Allen's past, another person who he had a falling out with,
came forward and claimed that shortly before the Zodiac murdered
cab driver Paul Stein, Arthur Lee Allen had professed his
desire to kill a cab driver and claimed that he
was the Zodiac. This was Ralph Spinelli, who was a
(19:29):
career criminal. He had been arrested for several charges. Of
armed robbery and was probably facing the rest of his
life in prison, and he approached authorities asking to make
a deal. He didn't want to go to prison. In
an exchange, he would name Alan as the Zodiac.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
By the time Spinelli came forward, the Gray Smith book
had been out for years. Allan's involvement in the Zodiac
case was now public, and with this new testimony pointing
in Allan, investigators once again took him seriously as a suspect.
Speaker 12 (20:01):
The Valeo Police Department relaunched their investigation of Arthur Lee Allen.
In nineteen ninety one. The Valeo Police Department consulted the FBI,
and a profiler told them that if Allan was indeed
the Zodiac, it was likely he still had some trophies
or belongings from the victims and the crimes. They got
(20:25):
another search warrant for his home, and the news broke
into media.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Here's a partial list of what police found in Allen's
home in nineteen ninety one. Four pipe bombs, a Ruger
twenty two caliber revolver, a Zodiac brand watch, news clippings
about the Zodiac case, a large hunting knife, a small flashlight,
a royal manual typewriter. This typewriter had an important connection.
(20:58):
The letter's claiming responsibility for the murder of Sherry Joe
Bates were made by a Royal model typewriter. There were
some things the police were able to determine at this point.
Alan's shoe size matched the Zodiac's bootprint from Lake Barriessa.
Both used large knives, and both used the same guns
(21:18):
and the same type of ammunition. Alan's home was searched
several more times after this, and they found even more
suspicious objects, but they never found anything that directly linked
him to the Zodiac murders. For the third time, Arthur
Lee Allen was exonerated, at least officially.
Speaker 7 (21:42):
Well, good cops have instincts, and when Toski talked to Alan,
he creeped him out, you know, he thought he had
a live one that counts for a lot in an investigation.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
This is San Francisco Chronicle journalist Kevin Fagan. He's the
current reporter signed to the Zodiac case. As part of
that role, he's talked with all the lead investigators and
journalists involved in the story, and he knows more about
the prime suspect than just about anybody else. We went
to Kevin Fagan to understand what investigators finally concluded about Alan.
Speaker 7 (22:18):
Everyone who went to that house came away feeling, wow,
this might well be the guy. He was a little
shaky in his denials that he was the Zodiac. He
was eager to talk a lot.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
This is the Vallejo man many investigators considered to be
the notorious Zodiac Killer, and this is the first time
his picture has been revealed. His name is Arthur Lee Allen.
Speaker 8 (22:48):
Are you the Zodiac Killer? There would be nothing farther
from my mind.
Speaker 10 (22:54):
No, I'm certainly, most certainly not the Zodiac Killer.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
He just came off like a possible guy. He get
a tingle and that's what I heard from everyone who
talked to him back in the day. Allen has been
the only one named directly as a suspect by any
of the investigators, and he cropped up through Dave Toski,
(23:20):
who was the main homicide inspector in San Francisco who
was working the case actively during the height of the
Zodiac craze. He kept going back to Alan year after
year after year. But he's been the guy for a
lot of investigators.
Speaker 12 (23:38):
There's so many lies I caught him man his denying
things didn't have any relevance anymore.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
That was the LAOPD Captain Roy Conway talking about Alan.
The LAYOPD Detective George Bauert also spoke about Allan's guilt.
Speaker 8 (23:52):
I feel that there are so many areas that point
directly at Arthur Lee Allen that I feel that he
is a viable suspect in all probability of the Zodiac.
Speaker 7 (24:02):
Alan had a lot of aspects that tied him to
the crimes. He owned boots identical to those worn by
the Zodiac. According to the Prince taking it the scenes.
His favorite short story was The Most Dangerous Game and
the Zodiac. In one of his letters, talked about how
he loved to hunt humans because they're the most dangerous game.
(24:24):
It wasn't that obscure a story at the time, but
it wasn't on everyone's mind. The fact that Alan mentioned that,
and the fact that that got mentioned in the letter
raises your eyebrows pretty high. He was picked out in
a photo lineup by one of the victims, and he
wore a watch that had Zodiac crosshairs on it. A
(24:45):
lot of things matched. He looked like the.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Sketch and remember, investigators also had the testimony of Don Cheney,
an old friend of Alan's.
Speaker 7 (24:55):
Yeah, Cheney had conversations with Alan that disturbed him. He
thought Allan was making statements that fingered himself as the Zodiac.
Now I have to say that there are quite a
few people who have gone to the police with similar
accounts on different people. So yeah, yeah, I just have
(25:16):
to throw it into the mix and make what you
can make of it.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Alan later retold his story about killing chickens during the
Lake Buriesa attack. On this occasion, he told Tosky he
kept large, bloody knives in his trunk.
Speaker 7 (25:33):
Bloody knives in the trunk. Yeah, that just came off creepy.
You start building up things like that, and the boots
and the watch that he had, and the statements to
his friend, it stacks up pretty high. There was enough
there that my colleague at the Chronicle, Robert Graysmith, wrote
(25:55):
a whole book naming Alan as the guy.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
As far as I can tell, Alan seems to be
the best suspect that come up with.
Speaker 7 (26:04):
And the last time I talked to Robert, which wasn't
that long ago, he was convinced that Alan was still
the Zodiac. It's one of those things that you know
until it's over, it's never over. But a lot of
things point to this guy. The fact that he was
never charged, never convicted, leaves it an open question. He
(26:30):
seemed to have a somewhat sad life. He was hounded
by people who thought he was this killer. At least
that's how he put it. He didn't like being named,
he didn't like getting the visits from police.
Speaker 8 (26:45):
Not the only way that heat will stop is well,
if I die, that'll cure it for me, or a
Zodiac himself confesses.
Speaker 7 (26:57):
Yeah, it's difficult to say. If he really was the Zodiac,
then he deserved all the attention he got. If he wasn't,
then that's unfortunate because even a criminal should have a
chance to rehab his life and move on. I don't know.
I never met Allen. The people I know who did,
I thought he was disturbing, a low life, not a
(27:19):
good guy. My impression is he did not live a
joy ass life leading up to his death in nineteen
ninety two. He had this cloud over him the whole time.
Speaker 10 (27:30):
They you haven't arrested me because they can't prove a thing.
I'm not the damn Zodiac, the.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Zodiac Killer or victim of years of police harassment, Arthur
Lee Allen took the answer to his grave.
Speaker 11 (27:49):
Next time on Monster the Zodiac Killer.
Speaker 12 (27:52):
There's some serious, serious problems with Don Cheney and his credibility,
and he's the foundation for all of this.
Speaker 15 (28:00):
The Zodiac writing was very quickly and rapidly written, and
that was of the opinion that it was the natural
writing of that person. And there were numerous consistent differences
with the writing of Arthur Lee Alley.
Speaker 12 (28:16):
The idea that Michael Michau could have accurately identified anyone
was questionable even in nineteen sixty nine, so much so
that Ed Rust actually wrote that.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Into the report.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
In my mind article we ou out of six foot five,
two hundred and fifty plus pounds had walked up to
the car, Michael Micheau would have said this guy was huge,
or something along that line.
Speaker 12 (28:39):
It's got to be a really terrible place to be
to know that there's a book out there that claims
you're the Zodiac and people believe it.
Speaker 8 (28:47):
I've never been known for good luck. I guess this
is pretty much living proof of it.
Speaker 10 (28:52):
I couldn't murder anyone.
Speaker 11 (28:58):
Monster The Zodiac Killer is a fifteen episode podcast produced
by iHeartRadio, House stuff Works and Tenderfoot TV. Donald Albright
and I are executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV,
alongside producers Meredith Steedman, Mason Lindsay, and Christina Dana. Jason
Hope is executive producer on behalf of House stuff Works,
(29:18):
along with producers Trevor Young, Miranda Hawkins, ben Keebrick, and
Josh Thain. Scott Benjamin provides additional voice talent. Matt Frederick
is our host. Original music is by Makeup and Vanity Set.
If you haven't already, make sure to check out the
first season of Monster called Atlanta Monster, about the Atlanta
child murders from the late seventies to the early eighties.
(29:40):
Download the ten episode season right now. Have questions or comments,
email us at Monster at houstuffworks dot com, or you
can call us at one eight three, three two eight
five six six sixty seven. Thanks for listening.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast,
and do not necessarily represent those of iHeartMedia, How Stuff Works,
or its employees.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Robert Graysmith is the author of a book called Zodiac.
Well what happens thirty three years later when you still
don't have the killer? Are there still people working on
this case? Are there still tips coming in anything to
this investigation?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (00:26):
You know, we were pretty certain we know who he was,
and he died with bombs in his basement and the
Zodiac bomb formula, a disc in his computer that said Zodiac.
I'm pretty sure that the cases solved. So much information
and so much attention was focused on the prime suspect
in the case, The man who actually was the first suspect,
who knew all the victims, who stalk them, who had
(00:48):
the skills and intelligence to write the letters and to
commit the crimes, was literally stopped at in his tracks.
He was watched, eventually sent to prison for child molesting,
during which there were no more activities from the Zodiac.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
The suspect that was focused on and highlighted in the
film and in Grace Smith's book, and to a certain
extent even for Tusking Armstrong, Arthur Lee Allen was what
they call a good suspect.
Speaker 6 (01:14):
It's probably Arthur Lee Allen.
Speaker 7 (01:16):
That was what all the main guys investigating it here thought.
I think Arthur Lee Allen was the guy.
Speaker 8 (01:23):
I enjoy a good tussle. That Hey, there were coincidences
that tended to point towards me and kill him just
for the pleasure of it. Thank God for our constitution,
because that says a person is innocent until proven guilty.
A man in a mask robbed, tied, and stabbed him,
(01:46):
leaving them for dad. Subject stated, I want to report
a murder, no a double murder.
Speaker 7 (01:54):
I did it.
Speaker 9 (01:55):
The man who wore a medieval style executionershood, carried a
knife and gun and intended.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
To use them.
Speaker 10 (02:03):
They haven't arrested me because they can't prove a thing.
I'm not the damn Zodiac.
Speaker 9 (02:08):
Who is the Zodiac and.
Speaker 7 (02:10):
Where is he from?
Speaker 11 (02:11):
iHeartRadio, Houstuff Works and Tenderfoot TV. This is monster the
Zodiac killer. The Zodiac case is rife with mystery, first
and foremost the Zodiac's true identity. Up to this point,
there'd only been vague glimpses of the man behind the moniker.
(02:33):
Witness descriptions were cloudy. He was only ever seen in
the dark of night or behind a terrifying costume. We
heard a strange voice call into a TV show, but
it wasn't actually the Zodiac. So who was this guy?
For years it seemed like there would never be an answer,
But then a name, a face, and a voice were
(02:56):
finally attached to the zodiac publicly, one man became the
most visible and likely suspect.
Speaker 12 (03:10):
One of the prime suspects in the Zodiac case over
the years was a man who was initially identified for
reasons we don't know, in October of nineteen sixty nine.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
This is Zodiac expert Michael Buttererfield.
Speaker 12 (03:26):
Arthur Lee Allen was a former school teacher who was
working as a janitor, largely because he had been caught
molesting children and had lost his job for some reason.
John Lynch of the Lao Police Department went and questioned
Arthur Lee Allen and on October sixth, nineteen sixty nine,
(03:47):
regarding his whereabouts at the time of the stabbing at
Lake barri Essa. Allan said that he was at Salt
Point Ranch and he had killed some chickens, and that
he didn't have any involved in the crime.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Salt Point is about ninety miles west of Lake Veriessa.
It's close but not close enough, and with no direct
evidence linking him to the murder, Allan was let go.
Speaker 12 (04:14):
After that, the police forgot about Arthur Lee Allen, and
then in nineteen seventy one, an estranged friend of Alan's
went to police and said that prior to the Zodiac murders,
(04:34):
Arthur Lee Allen had professed his desire to kill people
and write letters to the media calling himself Zodiac. The
police investigated. The Valeo Police and the San Francisco Police,
including Bill Armstrong and Dave Toski, spent about two weeks
investigating Arthur Lee Allen and gathering information, talking to people
who knew him, including his brother and sister in law,
(04:56):
and the individual who made this claim, Don Cheney. Don
Cheney was first friends with Arthur Lee Allen's brother Ron,
and that's how he got to know Arthur Lee Allen,
or who was normally referred to as Lee. They became friends.
They would hunt and fish and drink together and do things.
But then at a certain point it appears that Arthur
(05:18):
Lee Allen attempted to molest one of Don Cheney's children.
Don Cheney complained to Lee's brother Ron, and was adamant
that something had happened and he was very upset about it,
and he apparently severed his relationship with Arthur Lee Allen
at that time. According to Cheney's timing of events, this
occurred sometime in nineteen sixty eight, the last time he
(05:41):
had ever talked to Arthur Lee Allen.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
According to Vallejo PD Detective George Bowert, Alan told Cheney
he wanted to write a novel, and in this novel,
a character would do the following things, kill random couples,
taunt police with letters, recounting his crimes, to disguise himself,
secure a flashlight to his gun so he could shoot
(06:05):
in the dark, call himself Zodiac. Cheney was questioned again
about this story years later, and these new details were
recorded by Detective Bowart. Cheney recalled that Alan was gifted
a Zodiac brand watch by his mother, and on the
face of this watch there was a symbol a circle
(06:27):
with a cross through it. Cheney said Alan wanted to
sign letters with the same cross circle symbol from his watch.
Cheney also claims that Alan wanted to fool women into
stopping their cars in isolated areas. He would claim they
had problems with their tires, then loosen their lug nuts
and take them captive. Shortly after this, investigators learned of
(06:53):
a connection to Darlene Ferron, who was shot and killed
by the Zodiac at Blue Rock Springs. As it turns out,
Alan's family home was just a fraction of a mile
away from the restaurant where Darlene worked, and Alan supposedly
said he had become friendly with a waitress at that restaurant.
Police records say an unidentified man named Lee often visited Darlene,
(07:17):
so it's possible Alan was stalking Darlene.
Speaker 12 (07:20):
There was also a story that Arthur Lee Allen may
have used a friend's car to commit the murder at
Blue Rock Springs, because the surviving victims said that the
killer was driving a car similar to Darlene's brown cordare
Alan was working at a gas station where a friend
of his had apparently put a car up for sale,
and the theory was that he had taken the car
(07:41):
and committed the crime. Because Alan did not own a
Corbert or any vehicle similar to one, and eventually, in
nineteen seventy two, the San Francisco Police Department obtained a
warrant to search Arthur Lee Allen's trailer in Santa Rosa, California.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
On September fourteenth, nineteen seventy two, San Francisco Police obtained
a warrant and searched Allan's trailer. Here's a partial list
of what police were looking for. Writings, letters, and cryptograms
in the same handwriting as suspect letters. Any pistol with
a flashlight attached to the barrel, a blood stained portion
(08:34):
of cloth from a striped gray and white shirt, the
wallet or identification of Paul Stein taxi keys from a
yellow cab, a black executioner type hood with a circle
and cross on it, a large knife with a wooden handle.
Speaker 12 (08:52):
They did find some oddities in his home, like dead
squirrels and his refrigerator that he was using for his
biology is, some sex toys, guns, things like that.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Investigators found many bizarre things, but they didn't find any
of the materials they were looking for, so they had
no hard evidence to use against Allan. They did, however,
obtain his fingerprints and samples of his writing. Those were
thoroughly cross examined with the Zodiac letters, and.
Speaker 12 (09:23):
That's when they learned that his fingerprints in handwriting didn't match.
And so essentially Arthur Lee Allen was abandoned as a suspect.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yet again, Arthur Lee Allen was let off the hook.
Despite some suspicious activity, Allan was in the clear until.
Speaker 12 (09:39):
Years later a best selling book came out called Zodiac,
written by Robert Graysmith.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
I still talk to the investigators on the case. Inspector
David Toski, who was the main man on the case.
He believes it was Arthur Lee Allen. The main man
in Wallejo, George bauerd who's retired now, he thinks it
was Arthur Lee.
Speaker 7 (10:01):
Virtually all the top.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Investigators, men who I really respect, believe that this was
the man.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That was Robert Graysmith. In the early seventies, he was
a political cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle. Gray Smith
developed an obsession with the Zodiac case and so he
was doing his own private investigation. In nineteen eighty six,
gray Smith published a book containing his complete findings on
the case. It was simply titled Zodiac and It went
(10:30):
on to sell over three million copies.
Speaker 12 (10:35):
And in that book, gray Smith had given Arthur Lee
Allen the pseudonym Bob hall Star. A lot of people
started to figure out that Arthur Lee Allen was Bob
hall Star. People in the Bay Area realized he was
the person they were talking about, and that book, of course,
because it was a best selling book, had a tremendous
(10:55):
influence on the public and the media.
Speaker 9 (10:59):
Arthur Lee Allen, a long time the Lahoe resident and
former professional student, is the man many still believed to
be the dreaded Zodiac. In Robert grace Mis's best selling
book Zodiac, the suspect's brother and sister in law say
that Allan often spoke of man as the most dangerous game.
(11:19):
His own family at one time found him terrifying.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Grey Smith connected many dots between Arthur Lee Allen and
the Zodiac, one of which is that Alan was allegedly
in Riverside when Sherry Joe Bates was murdered in nineteen
sixty six. The Valeo Police Department had placed him in
the area, and when questioned, Alan said he was in
nearby Pomona during the Bates murder. He also called in
(11:44):
sick from his job on November one, the day after
Bates was found dead. It's possible Allan missed work to
hide facial wounds inflicted by his victim. You may also
remember that Zodiac left behind a footprint at Lake Barriessa.
That footprint was made by a military boot. This suggested
(12:07):
the Zodiac had some military experience. Arthur Lee Allen had
numerous connections to the military. His father was the commander
of a nuclear submarine at nearby Mare Island. Allan himself
was in the Navy for less than two years before
being discharged other than honorably. While there, Graysmith believes Allan
(12:28):
developed an interest in codes and ciphers. Much of this
is hearsay. The Zodiac book laid out one undeniable mark
against Alan. Gray Smith points out that the last official
Zodiac letter came on July eighth, nineteen seventy four. Only
a few months later Allan would go to prison on
(12:50):
child molestation charges. During Allen's time in prison, there were
no Zodiac letters. Then, in nineteen seventy eight, just months
after Alan was released, a new letter showed up at
the San Francisco Chronicle.
Speaker 13 (13:10):
Dear editor, this is the Zodiac speaking, I am back
with you. I am waiting for a good movie about me.
Who will play me? I am now in control of
all things yours truly, Zodiac Guess, San Francisco Police Department zero.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
It's important to note here that this letter was never authenticated.
We'll get into that in a later episode. Still, many
investigators found this coincidence to be striking. Gray Smith built
a massive case of circumstantial evidence against Arthur Lee Allen,
and it was enough to convince a lot of readers
of his guilt. Was Alan truly the villain gray Smith
(13:58):
made him out to be, or was Alan just an
incredibly strange individual. We asked someone who knew Alan personally.
Speaker 6 (14:07):
He had him a few chipmunks at his house. One
time he came in the shop and after he had
a job up in the foothills, and he carried one
around on his shoulder, and I think that was from
when he worked up in the up in the hills
where he you know, he said, come on up and
I'll show your kids how to sail.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
This is Carl Eubner. He ran a blacksmith shop in
downtown Valeo. Arthur Lee Allen came by frequently.
Speaker 6 (14:34):
He came down to the Leo and came into the
shop and said, you know, why don't you bring him
several times? In fact, why don't you bring the kids
up and I'll, you know, teach him the sailing. And
I said to him, I wife, well, are going to
do that sometime, you know. But we never did, and
I found out he was canned anyway, and that ended that,
so I never did go up there.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
We also talked with Mark Eubner carl Son at the time,
he was just a kid.
Speaker 14 (15:04):
When I heard that story, my first reaction was he
certainly wouldn't mess with the kids of a friend of his.
I'd be surprised.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
I knew Arthur Lee Allen in school. He was half
a grade behind me, but we knew each other. And
then later on he would come in his shop once
in a while. He worked on his car, so he
did blocksmith's work. We made things like gates, railings, and
we'd weld something up for him. Lee Allen at a
(15:38):
time worked at Ace Hardware, down half a dozen blocks
in the shop on Tennessee Street.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Eventually, Mark and Carl started interviewing each other, and Mark
had a lot of questions for his dad.
Speaker 14 (15:52):
What about then he had the rear end done though.
Speaker 6 (15:56):
Oh yeah, well he was one instant. He had the
you know whatever ranz on the car and the old cars,
they they're pretty heavy, and so we did some work
on it. He came and picked it up and and
he just grabbed it and put it up over his
head and walked out. And one of the guys kind
of shook. He said, what the heck?
Speaker 7 (16:13):
You know?
Speaker 6 (16:14):
But I don't think it was that so much that
he was so strong. It was just odd that he
did it that way. But most guys wouldn't do that.
But he was pretty strong guy. He came in one
time and and said, hey, I have this letter. He
just said that he was no longer a suspect in
the Zodiac case.
Speaker 14 (16:34):
I was thinking about this earlier. So like when he
came in with the with the letter. Was he just saying,
here's the letter, I'm exonerary. It was like, Carl'll trust me, man,
this isn't me. I mean, I'm wondering how if he
was emphatic at all or just about no.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
He he was just I wouldn't say blase, but he
just came in. I said, hey, I got you something
to show or whatever he said. And then here's a
letter from the Sonoma County Sheriff that says that I'm
not a suspect.
Speaker 14 (17:05):
Or any more.
Speaker 6 (17:06):
Yeah, whatever the wording was, that I'm not a suspect anymore.
Speaker 14 (17:10):
Because I think you also told me once that he
needed that letter because he kind of couldn't get a job.
He had to have that letter so he could go
apply for a.
Speaker 6 (17:18):
H He didn't have to show the letter, but he
did if it ever came up and said, hey, look,
I think a lot of people were a little bit
leery of him probably after that. As far as I know,
he did not have a girlfriend, never mentioned it, and
never seen him with one. He was kind of a
loner in that respect. I don't want to describe him
(17:39):
as a loaner, but I don't know. But he did
have friends, I guess. I never really seen him with anybody.
It was always by himself.
Speaker 14 (17:48):
But let me just I'm curious, so, like, if you
saw his name in the paper or saw his name
in the news, what did you think, Like, Hey, that's
my friend, did.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
You Yeah, we weren't qualified, We weren't Yeah, buddies. I
knew him from school and a little bit after school
and were yeah, we were friendly one good time And
did you.
Speaker 14 (18:08):
Ever think he did it?
Speaker 6 (18:10):
It ran through my mind, of course, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 14 (18:14):
It was just weird to think that I knew the
guy as a kid. I knew my dad knew him.
It's one of those things that I would love to
know what the real answer is. I would love to
know if it was him. I've seen other suspects name,
but obviously the only one that is in my head
is Lee Allen. I certainly believe he could have been.
I mean again, I didn't know him like my dad,
(18:36):
but just all the stuff I've read and seen about him,
it seems plausible. I'd say that it certainly seems plausible
that he could have been the guy.
Speaker 12 (19:03):
In December of nineteen ninety, another individual from Arthur Lee
Allen's past, another person who he had a falling out with,
came forward and claimed that shortly before the Zodiac murdered
cab driver Paul Stein, Arthur Lee Allen had professed his
desire to kill a cab driver and claimed that he
was the Zodiac. This was Ralph Spinelli, who was a
(19:29):
career criminal. He had been arrested for several charges. Of
armed robbery and was probably facing the rest of his
life in prison, and he approached authorities asking to make
a deal. He didn't want to go to prison. In
an exchange, he would name Alan as the Zodiac.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
By the time Spinelli came forward, the Gray Smith book
had been out for years. Allan's involvement in the Zodiac
case was now public, and with this new testimony pointing
in Allan, investigators once again took him seriously as a suspect.
Speaker 12 (20:01):
The Valeo Police Department relaunched their investigation of Arthur Lee Allen.
In nineteen ninety one. The Valeo Police Department consulted the FBI,
and a profiler told them that if Allan was indeed
the Zodiac, it was likely he still had some trophies
or belongings from the victims and the crimes. They got
(20:25):
another search warrant for his home, and the news broke
into media.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Here's a partial list of what police found in Allen's
home in nineteen ninety one. Four pipe bombs, a Ruger
twenty two caliber revolver, a Zodiac brand watch, news clippings
about the Zodiac case, a large hunting knife, a small flashlight,
a royal manual typewriter. This typewriter had an important connection.
(20:58):
The letter's claiming responsibility for the murder of Sherry Joe
Bates were made by a Royal model typewriter. There were
some things the police were able to determine at this point.
Alan's shoe size matched the Zodiac's bootprint from Lake Barriessa.
Both used large knives, and both used the same guns
(21:18):
and the same type of ammunition. Alan's home was searched
several more times after this, and they found even more
suspicious objects, but they never found anything that directly linked
him to the Zodiac murders. For the third time, Arthur
Lee Allen was exonerated, at least officially.
Speaker 7 (21:42):
Well, good cops have instincts, and when Toski talked to Alan,
he creeped him out, you know, he thought he had
a live one that counts for a lot in an investigation.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
This is San Francisco Chronicle journalist Kevin Fagan. He's the
current reporter signed to the Zodiac case. As part of
that role, he's talked with all the lead investigators and
journalists involved in the story, and he knows more about
the prime suspect than just about anybody else. We went
to Kevin Fagan to understand what investigators finally concluded about Alan.
Speaker 7 (22:18):
Everyone who went to that house came away feeling, wow,
this might well be the guy. He was a little
shaky in his denials that he was the Zodiac. He
was eager to talk a lot.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
This is the Vallejo man many investigators considered to be
the notorious Zodiac Killer, and this is the first time
his picture has been revealed. His name is Arthur Lee Allen.
Speaker 8 (22:48):
Are you the Zodiac Killer? There would be nothing farther
from my mind.
Speaker 10 (22:54):
No, I'm certainly, most certainly not the Zodiac Killer.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
He just came off like a possible guy. He get
a tingle and that's what I heard from everyone who
talked to him back in the day. Allen has been
the only one named directly as a suspect by any
of the investigators, and he cropped up through Dave Toski,
(23:20):
who was the main homicide inspector in San Francisco who
was working the case actively during the height of the
Zodiac craze. He kept going back to Alan year after
year after year. But he's been the guy for a
lot of investigators.
Speaker 12 (23:38):
There's so many lies I caught him man his denying
things didn't have any relevance anymore.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
That was the LAOPD Captain Roy Conway talking about Alan.
The LAYOPD Detective George Bauert also spoke about Allan's guilt.
Speaker 8 (23:52):
I feel that there are so many areas that point
directly at Arthur Lee Allen that I feel that he
is a viable suspect in all probability of the Zodiac.
Speaker 7 (24:02):
Alan had a lot of aspects that tied him to
the crimes. He owned boots identical to those worn by
the Zodiac. According to the Prince taking it the scenes.
His favorite short story was The Most Dangerous Game and
the Zodiac. In one of his letters, talked about how
he loved to hunt humans because they're the most dangerous game.
(24:24):
It wasn't that obscure a story at the time, but
it wasn't on everyone's mind. The fact that Alan mentioned that,
and the fact that that got mentioned in the letter
raises your eyebrows pretty high. He was picked out in
a photo lineup by one of the victims, and he
wore a watch that had Zodiac crosshairs on it. A
(24:45):
lot of things matched. He looked like the.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Sketch and remember, investigators also had the testimony of Don Cheney,
an old friend of Alan's.
Speaker 7 (24:55):
Yeah, Cheney had conversations with Alan that disturbed him. He
thought Allan was making statements that fingered himself as the Zodiac.
Now I have to say that there are quite a
few people who have gone to the police with similar
accounts on different people. So yeah, yeah, I just have
(25:16):
to throw it into the mix and make what you
can make of it.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Alan later retold his story about killing chickens during the
Lake Buriesa attack. On this occasion, he told Tosky he
kept large, bloody knives in his trunk.
Speaker 7 (25:33):
Bloody knives in the trunk. Yeah, that just came off creepy.
You start building up things like that, and the boots
and the watch that he had, and the statements to
his friend, it stacks up pretty high. There was enough
there that my colleague at the Chronicle, Robert Graysmith, wrote
(25:55):
a whole book naming Alan as the guy.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
As far as I can tell, Alan seems to be
the best suspect that come up with.
Speaker 7 (26:04):
And the last time I talked to Robert, which wasn't
that long ago, he was convinced that Alan was still
the Zodiac. It's one of those things that you know
until it's over, it's never over. But a lot of
things point to this guy. The fact that he was
never charged, never convicted, leaves it an open question. He
(26:30):
seemed to have a somewhat sad life. He was hounded
by people who thought he was this killer. At least
that's how he put it. He didn't like being named,
he didn't like getting the visits from police.
Speaker 8 (26:45):
Not the only way that heat will stop is well,
if I die, that'll cure it for me, or a
Zodiac himself confesses.
Speaker 7 (26:57):
Yeah, it's difficult to say. If he really was the Zodiac,
then he deserved all the attention he got. If he wasn't,
then that's unfortunate because even a criminal should have a
chance to rehab his life and move on. I don't know.
I never met Allen. The people I know who did,
I thought he was disturbing, a low life, not a
(27:19):
good guy. My impression is he did not live a
joy ass life leading up to his death in nineteen
ninety two. He had this cloud over him the whole time.
Speaker 10 (27:30):
They you haven't arrested me because they can't prove a thing.
I'm not the damn Zodiac, the.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Zodiac Killer or victim of years of police harassment, Arthur
Lee Allen took the answer to his grave.
Speaker 11 (27:49):
Next time on Monster the Zodiac Killer.
Speaker 12 (27:52):
There's some serious, serious problems with Don Cheney and his credibility,
and he's the foundation for all of this.
Speaker 15 (28:00):
The Zodiac writing was very quickly and rapidly written, and
that was of the opinion that it was the natural
writing of that person. And there were numerous consistent differences
with the writing of Arthur Lee Alley.
Speaker 12 (28:16):
The idea that Michael Michau could have accurately identified anyone
was questionable even in nineteen sixty nine, so much so
that Ed Rust actually wrote that.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Into the report.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
In my mind article we ou out of six foot five,
two hundred and fifty plus pounds had walked up to
the car, Michael Micheau would have said this guy was huge,
or something along that line.
Speaker 12 (28:39):
It's got to be a really terrible place to be
to know that there's a book out there that claims
you're the Zodiac and people believe it.
Speaker 8 (28:47):
I've never been known for good luck. I guess this
is pretty much living proof of it.
Speaker 10 (28:52):
I couldn't murder anyone.
Speaker 11 (28:58):
Monster The Zodiac Killer is a fifteen episode podcast produced
by iHeartRadio, House stuff Works and Tenderfoot TV. Donald Albright
and I are executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV,
alongside producers Meredith Steedman, Mason Lindsay, and Christina Dana. Jason
Hope is executive producer on behalf of House stuff Works,
(29:18):
along with producers Trevor Young, Miranda Hawkins, ben Keebrick, and
Josh Thain. Scott Benjamin provides additional voice talent. Matt Frederick
is our host. Original music is by Makeup and Vanity Set.
If you haven't already, make sure to check out the
first season of Monster called Atlanta Monster, about the Atlanta
child murders from the late seventies to the early eighties.
(29:40):
Download the ten episode season right now. Have questions or comments,
email us at Monster at houstuffworks dot com, or you
can call us at one eight three, three two eight
five six six sixty seven. Thanks for listening.
Monster: The Zodiac Killer News
Hosts And Creators
Payne Lindsey
Matt Frederick
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