courtroom for the susan berman murder trial, people gasped. >> he looked weak and frail, his voice barely audible. his attorneys confirmed his poor health, and many wondered if he would live long enough to hear the verdict. in spite of any evidence against him, durst always insisted he did not kill his best friend, susan. the jury found him guilty. donnie wahlberg. thanks for watching. good night.

his is the zodiac speaking to kill something gives me the most thrilling experience. >> i like killing people because it is so much fun. it is more fun than killing wild game in the forest. because man is the most dangerous animal of all. >> welcome to very scary people. i'm donnie wahlberg. at the end of the 1960s, a series of murders in northern california in different towns using different weapons would turn out to be the work of one man. but police didn't connect

the crimes until the killer did it for them. not satisfied with just getting away with murder, he bragged to newspaper reporters and taunted investigators. what would inspire someone to conjure up such a twisted plot? stalking innocent people and killing them for sport? his reign of terror would go on for years, and he would live in infamy, naming himself the zodiac he taunted police with letters and terrorized the people they protect. more than three decades later, a famous serial killer case goes unsolved the first set of murders took place near christmas. >> benicia is about an hour away from san francisco. >> benicia was a very quiet community. benicia never had the crime rate that san francisco had

on december 20th, 1968, david faraday came to betty lou jensen's house to pick her up for their first date, and they promised her parents that they would return by 11 p.m. david and betty were just typical high school kids back then. betty lou jensen was 16 years old and david faraday was 17 years old. he was a popular young man. betty lou jensen was an art student who showed tremendous talent. they went to a restaurant and spent some time with some friends. >> they were supposed to go to a christmas play, but instead they went to a place where young people parked.

>> betty lou and david thought they were alone, but they weren't. we know that they were there at 10:30 another person drove by and saw their car, and again after 11. >> another person drove by and saw their car. so they were out there for quite a while and we don't know exactly when she planned to leave, but she wasn't going to make curfew that night. >> venetia was a safe town. you're not going to think twice about parking at lake herman road. i'd be surprised if they were worried about much of anything. right then. they were in the car. >> when suddenly. a car came and blocked them off. and this figure gets out

and walks around their car firing bullets into it. >> bullet shattered a window. but at some point it appears the killer forced the victims out of the vehicle. david was shot in the head once and betty lou jensen was shot in the back five times as she was trying to run away. >> ten shots were fired that evening, and apparently the assailant got back in the car and drove away and was not spotted. after leaving the scene. >> it wasn't so remote that there weren't other people around. so risky for the offender, but he was also able to commit these murders and then get out of the the area pretty successfully. >> myself and my partner were

going back to the police department when we heard the call come over the air saying there was some type of a disturbance or vehicle accident on lake herman road possibly they were ordered out of the car by the responsible and the boy was shot right at this side of the car, and the girl apparently tried to run and she was shot and found 28ft further on. >> when we got there, we again found the two victims and of course realized that this was not just a routine call. we could see the young lady had found out, had run from the car. and she was dead. he was still breathing. it was fairly cold. in fact, if you could see the breath too. that's why we knew there was some life left in him. >> oddly enough, even though he was still alive, a responding officer did a chalk outline of his body.

>> the boy was an eagle scout. the girl that was on her first date, and there was no record of any misbehavior on either one of them. >> he was rushed to the hospital, but he was doa. and if you were at that scene and saw the waste of life and these young kids turn your stomach, this was real life. >> police found many shell casings at the scene of the crime, and they also found several bullets. the evidence indicates that there were certain elements of gunshot residue on her dress, which indicated that the first shot may have occurred while she was closer to the killer. >> the police also found the tire tracks showing where the killer's car had been parked. >> they did take photographs, picked up the spent cartridges, did some fingerprinting on the car. that was it. and you have to realize that we didn't have the technology then that we have today the police initially

investigated the possibility that the victims were killed by someone they had known. we had no idea at all who the responsible or responsibles were. it could have been more than one person. we didn't know. >> the police tend to focus on the inner circle because usually when someone is killed, especially a low risk type victim like betty lou and david faraday, probably the perpetrator knew them and was mad at them. it's called a crime of passion. >> there was one young boy who apparently had an interest in betty lou jensen, and was jealous of her relationship with david. but police investigated and discovered that he had an alibi for the time of the crime. >> other suspects. in the murders of david and betty lou included the usual suspects, the local druggies. they were focused on, and it just went nowhere. >> do you have any idea what

the possible motive might be for this killing? we have no motive at this time. >> the case went cold almost immediately. >> without a motive to go back and find out what was the causation. i mean, the causation for the person or persons to do this. just speculate. and there was all type of speculation, which none of it actually panned out. it was hard to believe at first. is this really happening here in this community? we had some robberies and that type of thing, but not where you just actually zero in on someone and just take their life. >> the community was horrified by this murder. there were not murders like this in the. past. >> it turns out that the killer was actually just getting started andy anderson, take a seat.

>> look at this. you're wet. disheveled. there's debris hitting you. >> why do you have that on your phone? >> i watch it all the time. hey, listen, we need to be ready for new year's eve. there could be an ice storm or a hurricane. and obviously, confetti maybe you are ready. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn and streaming live on max. >> lowes knows the perfect gifts don't have to stretch your budget. that's why we offer a free select tool when you buy select tools and batteries from our top brands. so perfecting the holidays. >> oh you're good. >> it's easier than ever. lowes knows how to help you holiday. >> nothing dims my light like a migraine with nurtec odt, i found relief nurtec odt can provide relief in two hours, which can last up to two days when used for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults. to those with migraine, i see you don't take if allergic to nurtec odt, allergic reactions can occur even days after use

like trouble breathing and rash. >> get help if you have trouble breathing, swelling of the face, mouth, tongue, or throat. common side effect is nausea. >> it's time we all shine. >> talk to a doctor to see if nurtec is right for you i'll be home for christmas. >> you can count on me. please have. snow and. mistletoe and presents under the tree. right now, all over

the country, kids at shriners hospitals for children are able to go home and be with their families for the holidays. and it's only possible because of the monthly support of people just like you. >> thanks to a generous donor. every dollar you give will go three times as far to help more kids with your gift of just $19 a month, only $0.63 a day. >> we'll send you this adorable love to the rescue blanket as a thank you and a reminder of the care you'll be providing so kids can be with their families. this eve will find me where the love. >> light. gleams. >> it only takes a moment to call the number on your screen. or you can visit love shriners.org right now on your phone or computer. >> your gift of $19 a month will have three times the impact in the lives of kids like me, because every child

just wants to be home for the holidays, and your gift makes that possible. your call is the best gift of all. your gift will be my favorite christmas present. this year. >> please call the number on your screen or go online right now with your monthly gift. >> and when you become a monthly donor, your first gift will be tripled. thank you for giving. >> the first murders happened december 20th, 1968. it was on lake herman road, just outside of vallejo in solano county, california. >> after six months, the double murder was cold. they'd done everything they could do. barring a miracle, they weren't going to solve that murder. and then they had a new one. >> darlene ferrin was 22 years old. she was a wife, a mother,

and she was a very popular waitress at a local restaurant. >> she had been married once that ended, and she was relatively early into her second marriage. >> darlene or d as i knew her. we met through our work. i was a cook and she was a waitress at the pancake house. we ended up getting married. the daughter was born in january of 1968. she was a type of person that people could fall in love with just because she was outgoing and bubbly. just friendly to people. i know it upset a lot of the other waitresses that she worked with, because she always made better tips. >> on the night of july 4th, darlene farrin had apparently been out everybody's downtown. >> the sky is full of fireworks crowds. there's marching bands. >> i was working at my regular job. she was going to go out and buy some fireworks, and we were going to meet at the house. >> she went out with her friend michael, just to kill some time until her husband got home from

work. >> we don't know for sure what the nature of their relationship was. michael developed some sort of fixation on darlene, which led to an odd friendship michael told darlene that he wanted to talk to her about something, so they drove to blue rock springs park. they parked in the parking lot. >> blue rock springs is a lovely place again, off the beaten path. >> again, a lover's lane area had only been there a few minutes and a car pulled up behind them as they were parked in the car talking. the vehicle pulled up behind it, sat there for a moment, but they didn't think anything of it. >> a few minutes later, what appeared to be the same vehicle returned mike is very upset. >> it's the police, he thinks, because the guy is shining a huge light on him and he walks toward the car. >> but instead of asking for their license, he opened fire through the window of the passenger side. michael was hit

once in the jaw. he was hit in the shoulder, but the shooter isn't done yet. >> he walks around the car and then starts shooting darlene repeatedly in the driver's seat in the process of returning to his vehicle, michael cried out in pain, causing the assailant to turn around and return to the window and fire twice more at each of them he got in his car and drove away. >> three teenagers were driving in the area, and then they saw a vehicle parked in the blue rock springs parking lot. they decided to investigate and when their headlights hit the area, they saw michael laying on the ground and one of the kids jumped out and asked him if he was okay, and michael michaud explained that they had been shot and that they needed a doctor. they drove on to a house and called the police. darlene was still breathing when police arrived and one of

the detectives tried to talk to her, and she appeared to be trying to say something, but it wasn't intelligible. >> the police found shell casings, but that's really it. in terms of evidence, no other evidence was found. no footprints, no. no fingerprints, no tire prints, nothing. there didn't appear to be a motive. >> to me, what's so interesting is that these crime scenes are pretty clean of emotion. they're devoid of emotion. you don't see any expression of anger, like any battering to the face of the victims. like coming up to the car and yelling and screaming and then punching and slapping them. >> they're rushed to the hospital and at the hospital, darlene is pronounced dead. but michael miraculously survives darlene ferrin is a little bit like laura palmer in the twin peaks television show. >> you know, her death set off this thing in vallejo.

>> one murder could be the result of a grudge or the act te two similar murders had police very worried that it could be something far more sinister. >> they were both what you might call blitz style attacks using a handgun. >> now, this is the beginning of a theme. he's going to do this again. >> we think that he's it appears to us that he is killing just for the thrill i want to be the greatest player that i could possibly become baath party halie torrrel. >> these days, $20 won't get you far, but at red lobster, you're a big shrimp. and baby, it's shrimp your way. choose three flavors for $20, like crispy dragon shrimp. get to

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>> i'd be closing while i'm hiking in wyoming if my home just had a brain. >> i like the son of sam, the boston strangler, btk. the zodiac stalked his prey and then slaughtered them. >> a couple parked at a lover's lane was shot in december of 1968, and then six months later, another couple was shot. >> now we have a second attack that took the life of a young mother, but left a living witness that could potentially identify the shooter. and it's also possible that darlene knew the man who killed her. >> there have been stories over the years that darlene ferrin was the victim of some mysterious stalker who was following her in the weeks and months before her death. >> she worked at an ihop, and he would sit there and watch her. >> police were never able to

find whoever it was that was bothering her michael manzo was very traumatized by these events. >> he was the only living person to have seen the killer, and that put him in a very difficult place. >> mike is interviewed by the police and he is able to articulate that a white man approached the car round face glasses, maybe 30s, and he thinks that if he saw a photo, he might be able to identify this shooter. it's not much to go on, and the killer could just disappear. except that he doesn't. >> about 45 minutes after the shooting, the killer chose to go to a phone booth in vallejo and actually report what he had just done to darlene and mike and take credit for killing betty lou and david. >> he identified the type of weapon used as a nine millimeter. he also described darlene's car when the dispatcher tried to interrupt the caller to ask him a question. the man raised his

voice and said, i'm the one who did it. dispatcher nancy slover described the call as taunting, and she said that when, at the end of the call, the man said goodbye in a long, taunting tone. that call was traced to a nearby gas station, but they were not able to find any evidence, and the killer was long gone. >> he's ratcheting up what he's doing, and he's changing. >> the interesting thing about the phone booth is what do you think is across the street? vallejo pd. now, this is the beginning of a theme. he's going to do this again. he's taunting the police. >> why was he willing to take such risks that could have resulted in an arrest made of him? taking high risks is important to this offender. and it increases the thrill and excitement of his murders. >> three days after the shooting, vallejo detective ed rust interviewed michael maggio at the hospital, and he provided a detailed account of what happened that night, including a description of the killer. he described the man as

being approximately five eight. the beefy build, short brown curly hair. >> this murderer, he's the sort of generic man who could easily disappear into a crowd. the most interesting aspects of this attack at this point are the similarities and connections to the murders that happened just six months before. >> they were both what you might call blitz style attacks, using a handgun on victims sitting in a parked vehicle. >> he's choosing young couples on a weekend under the moon, in a lover's lane. on specific days. i would not be surprised if he had never had a real relationship with a woman. and so he's going to get people that have what he does not have. >> somebody who, in their own life, feels very powerless, feels very weak, and only feels important and significant if they can go out and kill somebody

there was some sort of serial killer operating in the bay area. >> we think it is. it appears to us that he is killing just for the thrill. >> for the next three weeks, the investigation goes nowhere. then the killer does something really odd. he reaches out to the media three bay area newspapers received three virtually identical handwritten letters he wrote to the vallejo times. >> he wrote to the san francisco examiner, and he wrote to the chronicle as a political cartoonist, i was 20ft away when the letters came in or across the hall. >> these letters were so specific. they really went into detail about the victims and their appearances and the number of shots. it couldn't have been anyone other than the culprit. >> these three letters were accompanied by a section of a cipher, a coded message. the

letter claimed that the ciphered message would reveal the killer's identity. normally, killers don't send letters bragging about their crimes to newspapers and including mysterious codes that they're trying to compel people to to work on. >> so it was a very unique thing for the newspaper. >> he demanded that these ciphers and the letters be published in the newspapers and threatened to go on a killing rampage over the weekend if that was not done. >> they had to weigh a lot of different factors before deciding to publish. >> they published them. i don't think the police were very happy with that. and here's where you enlist the public. >> many citizens took this as a challenge to try to solve it, and they were successful. >> donald harden was a high school teacher in salinas, and he and his wife saw the codes in the paper and decided to start working on it. it took donald and betty 20 hours on and off to solve the first cipher from the killer. i like

killing people because it is so much fun. it is more fun than killing wild game in the forest, because man is the most dangerous animal of all. >> what is intriguing about his choice of words is he actually gave away the cipher because everybody was looking at this, the hardins especially. they were looking for i. this is an egotist. he's going to begin his letter with i. and they were right. and they said, okay, what's the most commonly double letter in ever used in the english language? l two l's. look, i like killing people. now. they had an i, they had two l's. they had a g an i n. that's the way it starts. and they solved it in that manner. but it was basically based on the killer's own egotism. >> the last section of that has never been decoded. and of course, the theory is that it includes the killer's name. i actually think it was just planted there to baffle and confuse the decoders, and it's obvious that he wants to get credit for his crimes he

appeared to want to taunt the police. >> dear editor, this is the zodiac speaking in answer to your asking for more details about the good times i have had in vallejo, i shall be very happy to supply even more material. >> that message made it clear just how close police may have come to catching the zodiac killer. and as you'll see next, the terror was far from over sometimes nightmares are real. >> there was a pool of blood that had been smeared as if something was crawling around in it. >> sometimes monsters walk among us she screamed at me. >> he will kill you too. >> he's a serial killer. who? even the serial killers fear. i'm donnie wahlberg. >> very scary. people returns with an all new season sunday at nine on id. >> everyone's running to

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anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn. >> welcome back to very scary people. by the summer of 1969, two young couples had been shot on lover's lanes. three are dead and one is seriously injured. instead of retreating to the shadows, the killer is writing letters to newspapers. the police and the public have begun asking, what does zodiac really want, and what will he do to get it? >> by the end of the summer in 1969, we have two attacks, three murder victims, another victim who is seriously injured, and now a killer who's writing letters to the local newspaper and taking credit for all of it. >> he appeared to want to taunt the police just days after the initial communications from the killer. >> a new letter arrived and

that letter was the first to begin with the phrase this is the zodiac speaking. >> dear editor, this is the zodiac speaking in answer to your asking for more details about the good times i have had in vallejo, i shall be very happy to supply even more material. he named himself. he called himself zodiac what exactly that meant and where the word zodiac came from has never been described by the killer. >> when you think about the definition of the zodiac, the zodiac is everything out there in the universe, and it's all powerful and it's all dark. it implies somebody who's omnipotent. and so i think that this is an individual who is very arrogant, loves that power, loves that control. >> it was kind of developing his own character through these

communications and through these ciphers. >> the three page letter includes a great many details about the darlene and michael attack that only the killer could know. >> on the 4th of july, i did not open the car door. the window was rolled down already. >> the killer provided more details about the crimes, which apparently satisfied police that he was responsible these letters contain some misspellings, which led some people to believe that the killer had a very limited education. >> the intelligence of the zodiac is still an open question. in his letters, he spells some very difficult words. exactly correctly, and yet mess up on very simple words. >> but it's also possible that that was a put on that he was trying to make himself appear less intelligent than he actually was in order to throw off investigators. >> i've always called it, as he's playing chess against the police. i think the killer is matching wits. he's making himself feel important.

>> he may have misspelled some words, but the message that he's trying to get across is very clear. >> last christmas in that episode, the police were wondering as to how i could shoot and hit my victims in the dark. what i did was tape a small pencil flashlight to the barrel of my gun. i was not happy to see that i did not get front page coverage. >> he seemed to be very interested in gaining publicity. >> the zodiac obviously had a tremendous ego. when he didn't get what he wanted, he complained. >> his next move ensures that he will continue to get the attention from the public that he's been seeking. >> he hogtied them so that they were lying on their stomachs, with their feet tied behind their backs. the zodiac then drew a foot long knife out of a scabbard in his belt. >> and i'm just kind of like waiting to die you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a

lifetime. he was a boss from the beginning. >> luther said, i have a sound in my head. i got to get it out. you are my shining star. >> my. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life had extremely joyful moments and some really difficult moments. >> if we were to be able to talk to luther as fans, we'd be able to say we just love you, luther. >> never too much. new year's day at eight on cnn. >> your parents have given you some amazing gifts, but what about the inherited ones? celebrate them with ancestry dna. the simple test that shows your deep family roots from your mom's side and your dad's side with some serious detail. trace the journeys and history that shaped who you are today and see the traits they pass down. your connections to the past are all waiting. see just how gifted you are. for only $39. >> growing old is part of the

journey. even when you have heart failure. but when he had shortness of breath, carpal tunnel syndrome, and lower back pain, we wondered, could these be warning signs of something bigger? thank goodness we called his cardiologist because these were signs of atcm a rare and serious disease that gets worse over time. if you see any of the warning signs, don't wait. ask your cardiologist about atcm today i'll be home for christmas you can plan. >> on me. >> please. how snow and. >> mistletoe and presents on the tree.

>> right now all over the country. kids at shriners hospitals for children are able to go home and be with their families for the holidays. and that's only possible because of the monthly donations from people like you. >> thanks to a generous donor, every dollar you give will go three times as far to help more kids with your gift of just $19 a month, only $0.63 a day, we'll send you this adorable love to the rescue blanket as a thank you and a reminder of the care you'll be providing so kids can be with their families christmas. >> eve will find me. >> where the love light. gleams. >> it only takes a moment to call the number on your screen. or you can visit love shriners. org. your gift of $19 a month will have three times the impact in the lives of kids

like me, because every child just wants to be home for the holidays, and your gift makes that possible. your call is the best gift of all. your gift will be my favorite christmas present this year. please call the number on your screen or go to love shriners. org to give whatever you can. and when you become a monthly donor, your first gift will be tripled. >> thank you for giving. >> closed captioning brought to you by book.com. >> if you or a loved one have mesothelioma, we'll send you a free book to answer questions you may have. call now and we'll come to you. >> 808 two one 4000. >> and zodiac killer craved publicity. taunting the public with creepy letters to the media in which he said he had killed 37 people. those letters, often written in a cipher. he seemed to have invented himself after gunning

down two teenage couples, the killer starts writing to the press, and he's given himself a name. >> the zodiac. it's as if he wants us to think of him as a signature or a symbol, even a brand. >> september 27th, 1969. the zodiac showed up at lake berryessa, where bryan hartnell and cecelia shepard were lying by the water's edge. >> 22 year old cecelia shepard, a local college student, she was transferring from one college to another, and she got the help of her fellow college student, bryan hartnell, to pack up her room. >> bryan hartnell was a young man attending college for pre-law, and he had had a previous relationship with cecelia and obviously still had a lot of feelings for her, and they decided to spend some time together the weather. >> on september 27th was very pleasant. it was a beautiful day. >> this is a remote lake. this

is up in the mountains. is there? you go through, you know, from vallejo, all the way over napa, and you go up this hill. >> we were not on high alert or expecting anything like this to occur. we didn't have that type of community. >> as they were sitting there. cecelia noticed a man walking through the trees in the distance. she commented to bryan about the man and bryan assumed he was just there doing whatever and dismissed the man as he approached and got closer and closer. >> he reached the point to where he was approximately 75ft away when he stepped behind a tree, put on a hood with sunglasses that had a chest covering that had the zodiac's crosshair symbol on it. >> he approached them with his gun drawn. >> bryan started to get up and he told him to get down. get back down and he pointed the

gun at him. >> he told bryan and cecelia that he had escaped from a prison, and he needed their car keys and some money to escape to mexico. >> he's wearing the scary halloween mask contraption on his head, gauging in conversation with these people who are looking up at him, seeing this knife hanging off of him, seeing this gun, seeing the ropes hanging off of them that mask his conversation. i'm sure increased their fear and their expressions and how they responded to him. that's everything that they want to see. the fear in the eyes of the victims. >> bryan said to him, he said, i don't have any money. i've only got some change here. take, take my take the change. take the car keys. you can have it and zodiac did not take it. >> he had cecelia tie up bryan. then he tied up the two of them. he hugged, tied them so that they were lying on their stomachs, with their feet tied

behind their backs. >> bryan thought that was going to be the end of that. >> the zodiac then drew a foot long knife out of a scabbard in his belt and stabbed bryan about six times in his back, and then turned to cecelia, who then was screaming and yelling and rolling and trying to get away from him, and he began stabbing her. she was stabbed approximately ten times. five times in the front, five times in the back. >> i felt my my life, my energy just as dark. >> and i'm just kind of like waiting to die. >> he watched them for a moment or two and then quietly walked away. >> bryan and cecelia, with these multiple stab wounds, have been left to bleed to death, but they don't give up. >> the killer left both of the victims alive. >> they waited to be sure he was gone. and then bryan turned to her and he tried to get her loose by using his teeth on her

knots. he was barely able to get it loose enough to where she could get a hand free. then he felt cecelia actually get a hand and loosen his knots, and so he became free. >> why would anybody stab a total stranger? i didn't know how badly i was injured, i just knew i had been stabbed a lot of times, and i felt i was dying, and i could still remember thinking, well, i'm still thinking, you know, maybe we got a shot here. >> bryan got up and tried to walk to flag down help, and they were a good 300 yards away from the road. he was never able to really get very far. >> i couldn't see, you know, i kept blacking out and my legs kept getting weak. >> offshore, a father and son see something on the shore and they roll like crazy. and they get the two park rangers to come to them. >> i was on patrol in napa, on the east side of town. it was 715 when i received the call to respond to a double stabbing at lake berryessa. so by the time

i got to the scene, it's over an hour that the victims had lay injured. >> can you describe for us what your attacker looked like? >> he was of medium to short height, kind of, uh. pouchy. uh, he had this black hood on, came clear down to here. just little slits in the eyes. >> the costume of lake berryessa is one of the most fascinating portions of the case. if not for brian hartnell's survival, we would never have known about it. >> he had some clip on glasses that were either affixed to the hood or affixed to glasses underneath the circle on the chest was was a perfectly formed circle. >> it was always puzzling to us that the zodiac would wear a mask to cover his identity if he had intended to kill him. >> i think he just felt like his follow up performance had to be something just shocking

and terrifying. so he created this costume, but it wasn't for the benefit of his victims. it was for his own need. >> when i got there at the scene, i went right to cecilia and my partner went to brian. she knew that she was critically ill and she knew that she had to give as much information as she could so we could try and catch him. she saw him without his hood on. she saw that he had a round type face and that he had brown hair. and then within 10 to 15 minutes, the ambulance did arrive. >> brian and cecilia are taken to the hospital and police comb this crime scene for evidence. >> they found several boot prints which appeared to belong to a military style boot. >> their wing walkers is what they were called. these are extremely rare boots, 150,000 made and sold only at military bases. you had to literally be

in the navy or the air force. >> those boot prints led from the area where the killer apparently parked his vehicle down to the crime scene, and then back up to brian hartnell's car. >> what i found was a karmann ghia with oregon plates, and on the side, the zodiac had scrolled his symbol, which was the circle with the crosshairs in it, he writes with a blue felt tip pen on the car. >> it's dead on zodiac letter. he puts the time of the murder. he puts all of his previous attacks. >> the royal and benicia crimes, and he ended that by saying by knife, lake berryessa. so we knew that this all tied together with one individual without that message on that car door. >> it's perfectly possible that crime may never have been connected to the zodiac he's doing the investigators work for them, which goes back to the whole idea of i want credit for these murders. >> these are mine. now make

sure you give me credit for these cases. it's very compromising for him because now they are going to connect them, which ups his risk of being caught. >> he was able to do what he always does. he made a phone call to the police he is a cunning man. >> he pulled out a gun and held it to the back of his head. >> we have reason to believe that he's a maniac. >> with each attack, he keeps ratcheting up the risk factor. it really begs the question, what is he planning to do next welcome to times square that's not in my life. >> it's so embarrassing. >> we are joined by john mayer. we are at a cat bar

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learn more at cisa.gov/secureourworld ♪that's how we can secure our world!♪ love every time. visit hickory farms.com to get your holiday shopping done. >> this is cnn, the world's news network. >> investigators hoping to crack one of america's most mysterious, unsolved cases. authorities in california have been trying to hunt down the zodiac killer for decades. the murder has been linked to five deaths in the late 1960s and early 1970s. >> the zodiac was so brazen, calling the police a second time in a downtown location in daylight was very risky, and at any point he could have gotten caught. >> the subject stated, i want to report a murder. no, a double murder. i did it, and with that, the officer could feel that there was nobody on the line. >> the police are able to trace the call and it goes to a

payphone at a napa car wash. at 1231 main street, just five blocks away from the police station. so close to them. but of course, when they get there, there's no one there. however, this time they're able to get a palm print. >> he's right near the police department. once they figure out which payphone he's called from being able to do this under the nose of law enforcement is certainly a way of saying, i can do this and carry it out right in front of you, and there's nothing that you can do about it. >> there's a sketch that comes from some eyewitnesses who saw a man earlier in the day. he's white with brown hair and has a round face. he might be the zodiac. >> well, sheriff, what type of person is this man? >> he is a cunning man. he knows just exactly what moves he's going to make. he knows where he's going to start and when he's going to end. and he knows just exactly how this thing is going to turn out. we

think it is. it appears to us that he is killing just for the thrill of killing. well, we have reason to believe that he's a maniac. >> the attack on cecilia shepherd and brian hartnell had been particularly brutal. especially cecilia. she had been stabbed twice as many times as brian. >> cecilia died three days after the attack at lake berryessa. she was lucky to have survived that long. she fought back. she was very strong and unfortunately she was not strong enough. >> brian miraculously survived. >> this guy took his anger and all of his fury out on the woman once again. the men survive. the women die. that just seems to be the motif of the zodiac crimes. >> when you're in control and you're able to shoot them in a very cold blooded manner. victims are no longer human beings. >> i don't i don't think that that he was acting under his

total, complete, total complete consciousness. when a man is, if you don't mind me, the word sick, you can't. you can't hold this against them. the real concern that i have is that he doesn't do this again. >> contrary to all things logical, this killer is leaving lots of clues, almost intentional clues. not just at the crime scene, but he's also calling the police from payphones, sending letters to the media, talking out loud in front of a victim. why would a killer be so careless? or is it just all part of his grand scheme? >> does it seem to you as if you're pretty much on the verge of finding this man? >> well, i wouldn't want to say that the one thing that is indisputable is that this killer loves attention. >> when you see taunting behavior in a case, it's not typical even for a serial killer. and they know that if

they taunt the police, they run the risk of getting caught a lot sooner. but for zodiac, i think at a certain point in his crimes, it was the taunting behavior that continued to motivate him more so than the murders themselves. >> with each attack, he keeps ratcheting up the risk factor. the first one was a shooting, the second one followed by a phone call. now the third one, there's that element of terror. the executioner's costume, the knives tying the victims up again, followed by a phone call. it really begs the question, what is he planning to do next after the gruesome stabbing attack at lake berryessa. it's only two weeks before the zodiac killer strikes again. it's in the heart of san francisco. >> paul stein was a cab driver who was working the evening of october 11th, 1969. >> paul was working two jobs at the time. he was selling

insurance and also driving a cab. of course, he was putting himself through college and was pretty interesting. intelligent guy. >> we know some of what happened because of the taxi logs zodiac had been waiting under a place called the pine street magazine shop, and it was on geary. >> the driver pulls by and he says, hey, can i get a ride? >> he directed the driver to take him to a location at the intersection of washington and maple streets, which was located in the upscale presidio heights neighborhood. >> he drove out there and went to park the car, where he was told to, and for some reason, he go another block further. >> this is zodiac. i want you to go to washington and cherry. he wants to get to an isolated spot. >> when he pulled over at the side of the road and put the car in park, the zodiac apparently pulled out a gun and held it to the back of his head toward his ear and fired a bullet, which killed him

instantly. >> some kids who were in a house nearby apparently heard some kind of commotion and looked outside the window, and they observed the man inside the cab handling paul stein's body. >> what the kids see is really bizarre. >> he was tearing off a square of falstein's shirt, and the cab driver is bleeding. zodiac gets out. he begins wiping down the car. he might have left prints. >> then he walked away. up north, up cherry street and disappeared the three kids who were observing what had happened called the police, and they described the killer. the facts got confused. and when the police broadcast a description of the killer, they described him as a black man instead of a white man. two police officers were responding to the scene, were driving down jackson street, one block north of washington, and they apparently saw this white man walking down the street.

>> zodiac is stopped by a police car, and they see him. stocky man round face. >> the officers ask him if he has seen anyone suspicious, but zodiac says, oh yeah, i saw a man running with a gun. >> he went that way and they thank him and off they go. >> zodiac was right there. he would have caught him. he was within arm's reach who is this man so ordinary that his presence near a crime scene doesn't alarm police, and yet so terrifying that the entire country is now on alert. >> with this chance to catch the killer having slipped through their hands. investigators hope he'll make another mistake, but zodiac is about to make a move that changes everything. the hunt for the zodiac killer has only just begun. next on very scary people.