Has The Zodiac Killer Actually Been Identified After All These Years?

Handcuffs on top of a fingerprint form.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Handcuffs on top of a fingerprint form.

Abbie Kraus, Staff Writer

The need to identify the notorious Zodiac Killer had tormented investigators and citizens alike since his first murder in 1968. Since this first murder, he is thought to be responsible for upwards of thirty-seven other homicides in California and potentially even Nevada. However, this all changed a matter of days ago. We learned that we might have a potential name, face, and identity for the man who had plagued America for decades.

An independent group of forty retired police officers, investigators, and private agents known as the collective “Case Breakers” has claimed through research and witness testimony that a man by the name of Gary Francis Poste might just be the man who has committed these heinous crimes all these years ago. Here’s the thing, though; he died in 2018, already incarcerated under unrelated charges, so we cannot interrogate this man for any further information. But, how did the Case Breakers tie this seemingly random man to murders that occurred five decades ago, committed by an uncatchable, elusive, cryptic killer? Well, there is some circumstantial evidence that does tie him to a few murders we know were committed by the Zodiac Killer. Gary Francis Poste had a dark room (a place to take and develop photographs) that allegedly has “forensic evidence and photos” that the Case Breakers have yet to share. However, one potentially very crucial piece to the puzzle lies in one of the photos he took… of his forehead. The Zodiac Killer, described by witnesses who survived his attacks, had these distinctive scars on his forehead that we can see also on Gary Francis Poste. We also know that he was in San Francisco during the timeframe the Zodiac committed his crimes and spent the majority of his life in varying locations in California as well.

Gary Francis Poste's wife thinks he was Zodiac too: CaseBreakers

Some people that were in his life before his passing also say that these claims might be substantiated. A lady, who was his neighbor when she was a teenager, claimed he was always shooting guns around and was abusive to his wife. There is also an old friend of Gary’s that has made some eerie posts and captions, made after his friend’s death. This friend, by the name of Glynn, has made at least three separate posts that either claim Gary is indeed the Zodiac Killer or that eerily says the word “zodiac” randomly in the caption itself.

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Why could this be? Did Gary Francis Poste make some sort of death-bed confession to his friend before his passing? Why would his friend post these odd captions in the same year of his friend’s death? Apparently, these posts also have been deleted since the release of the Case Breakers’ findings. Whether Glynn’s posts have any substance to them is unknown, but either way, it is very eerie and spine-chilling to read what he says about his late friend.

We really do not know if Gary Francis Poste is the Zodiac Killer, and we most likely will never know for sure without DNA evidence giving us a confirmation, because we can no longer get a potential confession from the man himself. With the cracking of the Zodiac’s taunting notes sent to law enforcement in the years after his murders, it seems we are getting closer to really unveiling the man who thought he was so high and mighty as to traumatize the entire nation with his inability to get caught. All we can do is wait for more information to release, and see if the findings of the Case Breakers team can be confirmed by any other detectives or law enforcement officials with crime scene DNA and actual forensic evidence.

What do you think? Could this man really be the notorious, uncatchable Zodiac Killer?