This is the Zodiac speaking . . .

During his reign of terror in the late '60s and early '70s, the Zodiac killer attacked three couples in Northern California, killing one man, severely wounding two, and murdering all three women. He also shot and killed a San Francisco cabbie. In total, five people dead. He may have killed more, though the facts aren't clear. But the fascination of the Zodiac killer is not based on body count. It's based on terror. Like Jack the Ripper and the Son of Sam, the Zodiac sent letters and taunted the police. He captured the public's imagination. He made threats about bombs and killing children on a school bus. He also falsely claimed murders he did not commit, perhaps in an effort to confuse authorities or to build up his image and gather more attention. He liked being a media star. He mailed cryptograms peppered with cultural references and purposeful misspellings (only one of the ciphers, the first, was broken). He designed a costume. He changed murder weapons and patterns. He was a thrill killer. A sexual sadist. A keen manipulator. He had intelligence. He was a planner. A game player. And he was never caught. Other infamous serial killers (BTK and the Green River Killer come to mind) lost their horrific auras when the sad, twisted, bland men behind those monikers came into the light. They'd gotten lucky in pursuing their compulsive dark blood fantasies, they evaded the cops, then their luck changed and some combination of DNA and egotism betrayed them and they were caught. Not so with Zodiac. Robert Graysmith makes a compelling argument that Arthur Leigh Allen was Zodiac. The circumstantial evidence against Allen is staggering. But DNA, fingerprints, and handwriting excluded Allen, though the validity of the DNA, fingerprints, and handwriting analysis used to exclude is also debatable. Graysmith's first book, Zodiac, is an excellent study of the case. This Is the Zodiac Speaking: Into the Mind of A Serial Killer by Michael D. Kelleher and David Van Nuys is worth reading as well. Zodiac inspired the movie villain Scorpio in Dirty Harry. David Fincher's beautiful and entertaining film, Zodiac, follows Graysmith's growing obsession with the case and the toll it took on those whose lives were entwined with the crimes. Tom Voigt's website Zodiackiller.com is a treasure trove of information, though Voigt's strong opinions and personality may rub some people the wrong way. Like his predecessor, Jack the Ripper, Zodiac has become a cultural icon. We know the shadow and not the man, the crimes but not the identity of the criminal. He killed and he vanished. He scares us because he is an enigma, an avatar of evil. He was smart, cruel, and powerful. He did what he wanted to do and he got away with it. No closure. We don't have him, so he has us. I suspect he always will.