The Most Dangerous Animal of All (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - The Search - full transcript

San Fransisco apparently has
a mad killer in its midst.

Since last December, five
persons have been murdered

in the San Francisco area,

and in each case, the killer,
who calls himself Zodiac,

has boasted of the slayings
in letters to newspapers.

One letter, Zodiac said,

"I love killing people."

REPORTER 1:
Two more communications have
been received from the Zodiac.

REPORTER 2:
One of the letters was signed
with the symbol of the Zodiac

and written in code.

REPORTER 3:
"Bates had to die.
There will be more."



BRYAN HARTNELL:
He had this black hood on.

Just little slits in the eyes.

I did think I was going to die.

MARTIN LEE:
That little symbol
of the circle

with the cross in
the center of it,

this symbolizes the center
of the universe.

So, this is probably
sign of the Zodiac.

♪ ♪

REPORTER:
It appears that he is killing

just for the thrill of killing.

LEE:
He's an absolutely ruthless,

completely merciless killer.

In letters,
he claimed 37 murders.

Police confirmed
at least six.



Then, four years ago,
the killing stopped

and so did Zodiac's letters.

MAN:
We're still following
tremendous amount of leads,

but as far as any
specific individual,

we're no closer than we were.

REPORTER:
Four decades later,

the search for this
serial killer goes on.

♪ ♪

GARY:
Why did I stumble across

this psycho‐serial killer

partway through my journey
of looking for my father?

I was not the guy who...

looked for answers
to mysteries.

I had a family.

I had a commitment to
120 employees at my company.

I would much rather
go home right now,

and go see my son
and my grandson and say,

"it wasn't us.

We don't have that
defective gene."

LEONA:
And Gary was kinda
upset to tell us

that he thought that his
dad was the Zodiac killer.

I was really upset about it.

It worried us what
he would find out

'cause Judy would
not tell us anything

about him.

JUDE:
It was so preposterous to me.

I don't believe that the San
Francisco Police Department

were trying to
cover up for Rotea

because, I can assure you,

if Rotea could've
solved that crime,

he would've
solved that crime.

♪ ♪

But, in hindsight,

the next time Gary
came to San Francisco,

we should've gone together

to the police
department and said,

"we gotta have
some clarity here."

But, that didn't happen.

GARY:
I often get asked
the question, "why?

Why, when you first
suspected your father

was the Zodiac Killer,
why didn't you just stop?"

Because it was my identity,
and it was my story.

And regardless of the outcome,

I just had to know.

♪ ♪

(theme song)

♪ ♪

I spent years
searching for my father

before I ever suspected that
he was the Zodiac Killer.

And as I researched
my father's life,

I began writing about
my journey to find him.

It began with a journal,

notes that I would take when
I would find out something new.

Eventually, I had written
hundreds of pages,

but it only contained maybe

two or three pages
about the Zodiac Killer.

My story was too complicated
for me to handle.

So, when I went to
a friend of mine,

looking for a serial
killer expert to help me,

he says, "boy, have I
got the writer for you."

(gunshot)

♪ ♪

(gunshot)

(gunshot)

SUSAN:
I've been
an investigative journalist

for more than 20 years,

and I'm the author of several
best‐selling true crime books.

As a true crime author,
you get a lot of people

approaching you, wanting
to tell this story or that.

When Gary Stewart came to me
and told me that he believed

his father was the Zodiac
Killer, I was very skeptical

because so many people

have come out
of the woodwork

and claimed that their father
was the Zodiac Killer,

or this person was,
or that person was.

This is a case that's
50 years old. I mean,

nobody believes
it can be solved.

But when I read the manuscript,
I thought...

maybe he was onto something.

However, if I wrote this book,

and it turned out
it wasn't true,

then my reputation was ruined.

♪ ♪

But aside from
the Zodiac Killer,

there were quite a few things
that sold me on this project.

You had the Ice Cream Romance,

Judy and Van running away to
New Orleans, abandoning Gary.

You had the adoption
the story of Gary

being left in this stairwell,

and then adopted by
these wonderful parents.

And then, Gary's journey
to find his father.

It was just too much

of a story to resist writing.

GARY:
When I got Susan to
help me write the book,

she took the investigation

to another level, to a place

that I had never
dreamed we would go.

♪ ♪

SUSAN:
Before I met Gary,
he had spent years

researching his father,

but we needed to
investigate further.

So, we went to San Francisco

to recreate the life
of Earl Van Best Jr.,

and follow the trail
of the Zodiac.

GARY:
So, after serving 90 days in

Atascadero State Hospital,

and then three years
in San Quentin Prison,

my father returned
to San Francisco

and married a third time.

Edith Kos was his

social worker from San Quentin.

I think that marriage
was part of his...

attempt to be cured

of whatever evil he had.

(traffic noise)

When Edith became pregnant,
I'm pretty certain

that she never knew anything
about my father's past,

and that Van had another son

who he had thrown away.

Before he passed away,

my father's best friend,
William Lohmus, told me

that Van dreaded
having another baby.

And when Edith gave birth,

Van was out of work.

Now with a crying baby at home,

Van started
experimenting with drugs

and found an escape
in the Summer of Love.

("Liar, Liar" by
The Castaways playing)

In 1967,

San Francisco
was transforming.

♪ Liar, liar, pants on fire ♪

♪ Your nose is longer
than a telephone wire... ♪

GARY:
People from all
over the country

were attracted to free love,

sex, drugs,
the counterculture.

♪ Know it's a lie ♪

♪ Come kill me,
honey, see how I cry ♪

GARY:
My father immersed
himself into the scene

and was hanging out with
some very bad people.

(screech)

♪ ♪

REPORTER:
Robert Beausoleil,
a member Charles Manson's

so‐called "hippie family,"

was sentenced to die in
a California gas chamber

for stabbing a musician
to death last year.

♪ ♪

GARY:
William Lohmus told me that
Van was also hanging out

with Anton LaVey,

the founder of
the Church of Satan.

Open wide the gates of Hell.

GARY:
And as William tells it,

my father was fascinated
with the occult.

‐Hail Satan.
‐CONGREGATION: Hail Satan.

SUSAN:
According to William,

Van met Anton LaVey

at San Francisco City College,

where they both
studied criminology.

Anton was also
an accomplished musician,

and they bonded over their
love of playing the organ.

And when Van got out of prison,

he became more and more enamored

of Anton LaVey's
Satanic principles.

♪ ♪

If one were to do
a psychological profile on Van,

from the hatred of his mother

to the abandonment
by his father,

and as he grew,

he became violent
towards his wives.

It was obvious Van's
rage was building,

which would inevitably
lead him to murder.

♪ ♪

(insects chirping)

VAN:
Dear editor,
this is the murderer

of the two teenagers last
Christmas at Lake Herman

and the girl on
the Fourth of July

near the golf
course in Vallejo.

To prove I killed them,
I shall state some facts

which only I
and the police know.

‐(crowd chatter)
‐Christmas.

One, brand name of ammo,

Super‐X.

Two, 10 shots were fired.

Three, the boy was on his back

with his feet to the car.

Four, the girl was on her
right side, feet to the west.

‐Fourth of July.
‐(fireworks)

One, the girl was
wearing patterned slacks.

Two, the boy was also
shot in the knee.

Three, brand name
of ammo was Western.

♪ ♪

Here is part of a cipher.

I want you to print this cipher

on the front page
of your paper.

In this cipher is my identity.

If you do not
print this cipher,

I will go on a kill
rampage Friday night

until I end up with a dozen
people over the weekend.

DUFFY JENNINGS:
When the first
Zodiac letter came in,

it was just something
totally new to us.

The cipher didn't seem
to make any sense at all.

You know, there were letters
and there were shapes

and there were
circles and triangles.

The writer was making
threats to kill more people.

So, there was talk and buzz
around the newsroom

about whether to print it.

Do you tell people
and risk panic?

♪ ♪

Ultimately, the decision
was to print the cipher.

SUSAN:
The writer sent three
virtually identical letters

to theSan Francisco Chronicle,

the San Francisco Examiner,

and the Vallejo Times.

GARY:
The newspapers each received

one part of this cipher,

and he demanded that
they print the ciphers

by Friday August 1st,

which is a significant date.

It was actually

seven years after

the debut of
the Ice Cream Romance

by Paul Avery in
the San Francisco Chronicle.

SUSAN:
In the letters,
the writer took credit

for two sets of murders
that had happened

in Northern California
in the past six months.

REPORTER:
...briefly described what
apparently happened last night.

LEE:
A double homicide involving

16‐year‐old girl
and a 17‐year‐old boy.

SUSAN:
Betty Lou Jensen
and David Faraday

were in their car when
the Zodiac started firing.

David was shot in the head.

Betty Lou was shot
five times in the back

as she tried to escape.

♪ ♪

Six months later, the Zodiac

attacked another couple,

Darlene Ferrin
and Michael Mageau,

in Blue Rock Springs Park.

He killed Darlene, and...

Michael Mageau survived.

(typewriter clicking)

The police had no suspects,

so they publicly asked the
killer to send another letter,

hoping that more information
would lead to his arrest.

DAVID VAN NUYS:
The next letter started off

with a new salutation.

"This is the Zodiac speaking."

The Zodiac, as if
it was like the God.

We see the first sign of this

grandiosity of the Zodiac.

♪ ♪

VAN:
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.

By the way, are the police

having a good time
with the code?

LEE:
We haven't personally
started anything on it

because none of us in the police
department know cryptography.

However, we have
sent copies of it

to certain experts
in that field,

and we anticipate
that if there is a...

if it is a logical...

‐cryptogram, that we
will have it solved.
‐(indistinct)

GARY:
I had no idea what the cipher
had to do with my father.

And this is exactly like

every other discovery I made.

I wrote to Washington, DC,
requesting my...

grandfather's military record,

just to try to
find out anything.

♪ ♪

I knew that my grandfather
was a chaplain in the navy,

but when I got his military
record, I discovered

I discovered that he was
also an intelligence officer

and had formal training
in code breaking.

HATTIE:
Gary's grandfather,

Earl Van Dorn Sr.,

was a code breaker.

He passed on his
code breaking skills

to his son,

Van.

GARY:
In my search, I discovered
a film of my grandfather

in the military.

The family says that

my grandfather would actually

write codes,

and challenge Van to
break those codes,

and they would go back
and forth doing that,

trying to trick each other.

And that just kinda shocked me

right there
because I'm thinking

is that more than
a coincidence?

♪ ♪

SUSAN:
The Zodiac said
break this code,

and you will know who I am.

But the police and other
law enforcement agencies

were baffled by the ciphers.

Eventually,
a high school teacher

and his wife were able
to break the code.

They believed that
the killer's ego

would dictate that
the letter "I"

would be the first
letter in the cipher.

They also believed that
he would talk about killing,

so therefore they looked for

the double symbols
that represent

two L's in the word
"kill" or "killing."

GARY:
The hidden message began,

"I like killing people

because it's so much fun.

It's more fun than killing
wild game in the forest

because man is the most
dangerous animal of all."

♪ ♪

The Zodiac said,
"if you crack this cipher,

you will have my identity."

But there was no name
in the solved cipher.

I think...

the police just...

prematurely stopped looking

for a name in that cipher

because you had to write

the solution next to

each symbol and each letter.

So, it's the solution
plus the original puzzle.

When I looked at it,
I immediately saw...

my father's name.

E... V...

B... E... S... T...

J... R...

And...

it pops right here.

♪ ♪

Finding my father's
name in the cipher,

that's when I was
convinced that

my father...

was the Zodiac Killer.

♪ ♪

(insects chirping)

♪ ♪

(insects chirping)

(door closes)

(deposits coin)

(dials phone)

(phone ringing)

WOMAN (phone):
Napa County Dispatcher.

What's your emergency?

VAN (phone):
I wanna report a murder.

No, a double murder.

They are two miles north
of park headquarters.

They were in a white
Volkswagen Karmann Ghia.

I'm the one that did it.

(rattling)

(opens door)

OFFICER:
When I arrived on the scene,

found this young girl laid
on the shoreline here.

All stabbed in several places.

And her boyfriend,
male companion, had...

came to from...
He had been stabbed,

and he had taken off for help.

♪ ♪

HARTNELL:
Cece and I happened to hear
some rustling behind us,

and I asked her to look

'cause she was facing
that direction.

I was facing toward the water.

And when he came out,

she said, "he's got a mask on."

Just little slits in the eyes,
and these clip‐on glasses.

They were clipped
into those loops.

He mentioned that he was a
convict trying to get to Mexico

and needed money, and he said,

"what I need right now
is to get you tied up."

And so he had the girl tie me.

Of course, she was real nervous
and tied me rather loosely.

I did think I was going to die.

MAN:
The message left on the side
of the victim's door

were the dates of
the Solano County murders,

and ours. Have they
indicated to us that

they're one in the same.

He knows he has
a problem, definitely.

He's a mental...

person that is sick.

♪ ♪

VAN NUYS:
This was the third couple that

the Zodiac targeted,

and he seemed to target women

more than men.

At Lake Berryessa,

he stabbed Cecelia

many more times,
more viciously.

She, in fact, dies as
a result of the stab wounds.

His huge anger
against women

would speak to his...

not having been mothered well.

These symptoms,
they don't come from nowhere.

It's reasonable to assume that

the Zodiac had very
traumatic beginnings,

and felt uncared
for as a child.

And so, these people who want

to inflict pain on others,
they're often...

reenacting the pain that
was inflicted upon them.

There's a kind of revenge

motive behind all this.

♪ ♪

GARY:
The most significant
connection to my father

from Lake Berryessa

was the fact that

the Zodiac told
Bryan Hartnell that

he wanted his car keys

so he could drive to Mexico.

That's where my father
earned his money.

My father's profession
was an antiquities dealer.

He's making trips
down to Mexico.

I also found out
that Darlene Ferrin,

from the second Zodiac murder,

Darlene's sister

told the police of

someone with the name of

Lee that brought Darlene
gifts from Mexico.

During his time on
the run with my mother,

my father used
the alias "Harry Lee"

to write bad checks.

Another one of
those coincidences.

♪ ♪

After the Lake
Berryessa murder,

I discovered that in late 1969,

my father's marriage to
Edith Kos ended abruptly,

with Edith taking her kids

to go live with her father

back in Styria, Austria.

I was hoping to get answers
from the Austrian siblings

to find out what
happened with my father

and his Austrian family.

So, I contacted Edith,

as well as my half‐
siblings in Austria.

And I'll never
know why they left,

but they all made
it perfectly clear

that they wanted
nothing to do with me

or anyone in my
father's family.

♪ ♪

The more I researched
the Zodiac Killer,

the more it became
an obsession.

That search began with
one piece of paper,

grew over time

to thousands and thousands
of pieces of paper.

And that was a journey that

has lasted almost 17 years now.

I was educating myself
on the Zodiac case.

I knew the good, the bad,
and I knew the ugly.

(whirring)

I had all sorts of...

thoughts go through
my head whenever...

whenever I was told
that Rotea participated

in the Zodiac investigation.

Did Rotea actually know...

who Jude Gilford was
before he married her?

That is more than
just a coincidence.

(whirring)

JUDE:
Van, I don't believe
that he could've become

a serial killer.

He operated with his
brains, not his brawn.

With Gary, things began

to get tense simply because

he believes it very strongly,

and he has even said‐‐

I mean, he's shouted
at me on the phone,

"what did my dad tell Rotea?"

♪ ♪

GARY:
A very disappointing

and low point in
our relationship

was the fact that
I kept pressing.

(whirring)

ZACH:
You might say it
was an intense time.

It's something that's been

a consuming aspect of
his life for probably

his entire adult life.

SUSAN:
Gary Stewart pursued this
like a dog chewin' a bone.

So, when he started
getting information,

he just started pursuing it.

As he went along

and uncovered clue
after clue after clue,

he became even more
obsessed with it.

SISTER:
He's always been a researcher,

and he just

took with it and ran
and wanted to find out more.

I was concerned for
him as an older sister

because he was finding out

some ugly stuff.

I wanted to make sure
that he was okay,

and I wanted to make sure that

Zachary was okay.

JUDE:
In this very
difficult situation,

my husband, D. A., has been

a tremendous source of strength

through the entire process.

D.A.:
When the door was
opened to his identity,

Gary had the passion

not just to open the door,

but kick it open,

and pursue every detail
to the nth‐degree.

So, when do you stop?

♪ ♪

HATTIE:
I know that Gary got divorced

from Zach's mother,
and it's understandable.

How could a wife
live through that?

He was obsessed with...

every minute of his life,

with finding out his identity.

There's no doubt in my mind

my determination
to find my father

affected previous
relationships.

CATHY:
My name's
Cathy Bercegeay Stewart.

I'm his fourth wife.

Gary and I were married
for three and a half years,

and it started in
a whirlwind romance,

and it ended about
as quick as it began.

The search for Gary's father
consumed our whole lives.

Gary and I got divorced,

and the search for his father
played a big role in that.

I think all of Gary's
wives were mesmerized.

I got a call from Zach's mom

before we married, and she said,

"you don't know him.

You're all in love right now,
but you don't know him."

♪ ♪

GARY:
It was very unfair

for me to expect that
anybody around me

would ever know the depths...

of the tragedy

and of the sense of loss...

of what I went through.

KRISTY:
I probably realized how
important it was to him

maybe a year or so into
our marriage, when he...

became nearly obsessed,

if you will,

with digging and finding
more and more.

So, we had many
discussions over...

the fact that I felt
like it was taking away

from us and our family
and our children.

GARY:
I have got the best thing

that ever happened
to me in my life now.

And for nearly 12 years,

Kristy has...

held my hand through

the most difficult
days of my life.

She helps me understand,

although she has been
on the receiving end

of my frustration and anger.

♪ ♪

KRISTY:
As time went on, I realized
how important it was to him

to find the closure so
that he could move on.

I never dreamed it
would take this long.

It was difficult for me
because it took away from

time that I thought‐‐ I mean,
we were early in our marriage,

that we should be doing other
things besides researching...

serial killers.

LEE:
We haven't personally
started anything on it

because none of us in the police
department know cryptography.

However, we have
sent copies of it

to certain experts
in that field,

and we anticipate
that if there is a...

if it is a logical...

‐cryptogram, that we
will have it solved.
‐(indistinct)

GARY:
I had no idea what the cipher
had to do with my father.

And this is exactly like

every other discovery I made.

I wrote to Washington, DC,
requesting my...

grandfather's military record,

just to try to
find out anything.

♪ ♪

I knew that my grandfather
was a chaplain in the navy,

but when I got his military
record, I discovered

I discovered that he was
also an intelligence officer

and had formal training
in code breaking.

HATTIE:
Gary's grandfather,

Earl Van Dorn Sr.,

was a code breaker.

He passed on his
code breaking skills

to his son,

Van.

GARY:
In my search, I discovered
a film of my grandfather

in the military.

The family says that

my grandfather would actually

write codes,

and challenge Van to
break those codes,

and they would go back
and forth doing that,

trying to trick each other.

And that just kinda shocked me

right there
because I'm thinking

is that more than
a coincidence?

♪ ♪

SUSAN:
The Zodiac said
break this code,

and you will know who I am.

But the police and other
law enforcement agencies

were baffled by the ciphers.

Eventually,
a high school teacher

and his wife were able
to break the code.

They believed that
the killer's ego

would dictate that
the letter "I"

would be the first
letter in the cipher.

They also believed that
he would talk about killing,

so therefore they looked for

the double symbols
that represent

two L's in the word
"kill" or "killing."

GARY:
The hidden message began,

"I like killing people

because it's so much fun.

It's more fun than killing
wild game in the forest

because man is the most
dangerous animal of all."

♪ ♪

The Zodiac said,
"if you crack this cipher,

you will have my identity."

But there was no name
in the solved cipher.

I think...

the police just...

prematurely stopped looking

for a name in that cipher

because you had to write

the solution next to

each symbol and each letter.

So, it's the solution
plus the original puzzle.

When I looked at it,
I immediately saw...

my father's name.

E... V...

B... E... S... T...

J... R...

And...

it pops right here.

♪ ♪

Finding my father's
name in the cipher,

that's when I was
convinced that

my father...

was the Zodiac Killer.

♪ ♪

(insects chirping)

(door closes)

(deposits coin)

(dials phone)

(phone ringing)

WOMAN (phone):
Napa County Dispatcher.

What's your emergency?

VAN (phone):
I wanna report a murder.

No, a double murder.

They are two miles north
of park headquarters.

They were in a white
Volkswagen Karmann Ghia.

I'm the one that did it.

(rattling)

(opens door)

OFFICER:
When I arrived on the scene,

found this young girl laid
on the shoreline here.

All stabbed in several places.

And her boyfriend,
male companion, had...

came to from...
He had been stabbed,

and he had taken off for help.

♪ ♪

HARTNELL:
Cece and I happened to hear
some rustling behind us,

and I asked her to look

'cause she was facing
that direction.

I was facing toward the water.

And when he came out,

she said, "he's got a mask on."

Just little slits in the eyes,
and these clip‐on glasses.

They were clipped
into those loops.

He mentioned that he was a
convict trying to get to Mexico

and needed money, and he said,

"what I need right now
is to get you tied up."

And so he had the girl tie me.

Of course, she was real nervous
and tied me rather loosely.

I did think I was going to die.

MAN:
The message left on the side
of the victim's door

were the dates of
the Solano County murders,

and ours. Have they
indicated to us that

they're one in the same.

He knows he has
a problem, definitely.

He's a mental...

person that is sick.

♪ ♪

VAN NUYS:
This was the third couple that

the Zodiac targeted,

and he seemed to target women

more than men.

At Lake Berryessa,

he stabbed Cecelia

many more times,
more viciously.

She, in fact, dies as
a result of the stab wounds.

His huge anger
against women

would speak to his...

not having been mothered well.

These symptoms,
they don't come from nowhere.

It's reasonable to assume that

the Zodiac had very
traumatic beginnings,

and felt uncared
for as a child.

And so, these people who want

to inflict pain on others,
they're often...

reenacting the pain that
was inflicted upon them.

There's a kind of revenge

motive behind all this.

♪ ♪

GARY:
The most significant
connection to my father

from Lake Berryessa

was the fact that

the Zodiac told
Bryan Hartnell that

he wanted his car keys

so he could drive to Mexico.

That's where my father
earned his money.

My father's profession
was an antiquities dealer.

He's making trips
down to Mexico.

I also found out
that Darlene Ferrin,

from the second Zodiac murder,

Darlene's sister

told the police of

someone with the name of

Lee that brought Darlene
gifts from Mexico.

During his time on
the run with my mother,

my father used
the alias "Harry Lee"

to write bad checks.

Another one of
those coincidences.

♪ ♪

After the Lake
Berryessa murder,

I discovered that in late 1969,

my father's marriage to
Edith Kos ended abruptly,

with Edith taking her kids

to go live with her father

back in Styria, Austria.

I was hoping to get answers
from the Austrian siblings

to find out what
happened with my father

and his Austrian family.

So, I contacted Edith,

as well as my half‐
siblings in Austria.

And I'll never
know why they left,

but they all made
it perfectly clear

that they wanted
nothing to do with me

or anyone in my
father's family.

♪ ♪

The more I researched
the Zodiac Killer,

the more it became
an obsession.

That search began with
one piece of paper,

grew over time

to thousands and thousands
of pieces of paper.

And that was a journey that

has lasted almost 17 years now.

I was educating myself
on the Zodiac case.

I knew the good, the bad,
and I knew the ugly.

(whirring)

I had all sorts of...

thoughts go through
my head whenever...

whenever I was told
that Rotea participated

in the Zodiac investigation.

Did Rotea actually know...

who Jude Gilford was
before he married her?

That is more than
just a coincidence.

(whirring)

JUDE:
Van, I don't believe
that he could've become

a serial killer.

He operated with his
brains, not his brawn.

With Gary, things began

to get tense simply because

he believes it very strongly,

and he has even said‐‐

I mean, he's shouted
at me on the phone,

"what did my dad tell Rotea?"

♪ ♪

GARY:
A very disappointing

and low point in
our relationship

was the fact that
I kept pressing.

(whirring)

ZACH:
You might say it
was an intense time.

It's something that's been

a consuming aspect of
his life for probably

his entire adult life.

SUSAN:
Gary Stewart pursued this
like a dog chewin' a bone.

So, when he started
getting information,

he just started pursuing it.

As he went along

and uncovered clue
after clue after clue,

he became even more
obsessed with it.

SISTER:
He's always been a researcher,

and he just

took with it and ran
and wanted to find out more.

I was concerned for
him as an older sister

because he was finding out

some ugly stuff.

I wanted to make sure
that he was okay,

and I wanted to make sure that

Zachary was okay.

JUDE:
In this very
difficult situation,

my husband, D. A., has been

a tremendous source of strength

through the entire process.

D.A.:
When the door was
opened to his identity,

Gary had the passion

not just to open the door,

but kick it open,

and pursue every detail
to the nth‐degree.

So, when do you stop?

♪ ♪

HATTIE:
I know that Gary got divorced

from Zach's mother,
and it's understandable.

How could a wife
live through that?

He was obsessed with...

every minute of his life,

with finding out his identity.

There's no doubt in my mind

my determination
to find my father

affected previous
relationships.

CATHY:
My name's
Cathy Bercegeay Stewart.

I'm his fourth wife.

Gary and I were married
for three and a half years,

and it started in
a whirlwind romance,

and it ended about
as quick as it began.

The search for Gary's father
consumed our whole lives.

Gary and I got divorced,

and the search for his father
played a big role in that.

I think all of Gary's
wives were mesmerized.

I got a call from Zach's mom

before we married, and she said,

"you don't know him.

You're all in love right now,
but you don't know him."

♪ ♪

GARY:
It was very unfair

for me to expect that
anybody around me

would ever know the depths...

of the tragedy

and of the sense of loss...

of what I went through.

KRISTY:
I probably realized how
important it was to him

maybe a year or so into
our marriage, when he...

became nearly obsessed,

if you will,

with digging and finding
more and more.

So, we had many
discussions over...

the fact that I felt
like it was taking away

from us and our family
and our children.

GARY:
I have got the best thing

that ever happened
to me in my life now.

And for nearly 12 years,

Kristy has...

held my hand through

the most difficult
days of my life.

She helps me understand,

although she has been
on the receiving end

of my frustration and anger.

♪ ♪

KRISTY:
As time went on, I realized
how important it was to him

to find the closure so
that he could move on.

I never dreamed it
would take this long.

It was difficult for me
because it took away from

time that I thought‐‐ I mean,
we were early in our marriage,

that we should be doing other
things besides researching...

serial killers.

♪♪

(traffic noise)

WOMAN (radio):
All units, 211 in progress.

Presidio Heights. Suspect
is African American male.

Proceed with caution.

(siren)

ARMOND PELLESETTI:
When I got the call

and drove up Washington Street,

saw the cab sitting there.

There was blood everywhere.
It was incredible.

The first description that
came over communication

was an African‐American male.

But, as soon as
I started talking

to the teenagers who
had seen the Zodiac,

first words out of
their mouth was,

"well, it was this white guy."

Who screwed up? I don't know.

I notified the station,
and at that point,

Inspectors Toschi
and Armstrong showed up.

So they took over the scene,

and started doing

the full investigation.

♪ ♪

VAN NUYS:
Instead of attacking

a couple on a lover's lane,

he's attacking a lone male.

The Zodiac shot
Paul Stine in the head.

(gunshot)

The Zodiac very
nearly got caught.

A couple of policeman
see the Zodiac,

but erroneously
have been told that

the murderer was
a black person. And so,

the Zodiac was able to get away.

REPORTER:
The most wanted man
in San Francisco

calls himself
the Zodiac Killer.

5‐foot‐8, about 30 years old,
reddish‐brown hair.

This bloody shirt belonged

to the latest victim,
the cab driver.

Zodiac mailed
a small piece of it

to the
San Francisco Chronicle.

And with the shirt,
there was a handwritten letter.

"This is Zodiac
speaking," he wrote.

"I murdered the taxi driver

and did in the other
people in the Bay Area."

Since the release of
the latest letter yesterday,

our office has received
additional phone calls

from different persons in
the Bay Area, who feel that...

they can be helpful
in the, uh...

apprehension of
the Zodiac suspect.

It's generally stirred up
quite a bit of interest.

♪ ♪

KELLY CARROLL:
The Zodiac caught
the attention of everyone

in the Bay Area,

and conned a very
high‐profile case.

So much can come
flooding in to...

cloud the investigation.

The Zodiac case presented

several functional problems

from a law enforcement
perspective.

You have multiple
jurisdictions.

A crime that might occur

just across the border in
a different jurisdiction

doesn't necessarily involve

a regional effort.

There are practical reasons
for holding back information,

but there's an instinct
towards not sharing.

SUSAN:
The police botched
that investigation.

Not only did you have
multiple jurisdictions

not sharing information,
but you had a situation

in which every detective
in Northern California

wanted to be the one to
solve the Zodiac case.

There's nonsensical ego

at the core of so much of this,

and that can work against

solving the case.

(whirring)

♪ ♪

As I looked at the details

from the Paul Stine murder,

many things popped for me.

I discovered through
the Polk City directories

that my father lived at

797 Bush Avenue,

which is exactly
two blocks from where

the Zodiac hailed
Paul Stine's cab.

But the most compelling thing

about the Paul Stine murder

was the bloody fingerprints
left on the cab.

The police, they
weren't able to extract

a complete fingerprint,

but the first thing
I noticed is this guy

has a distinctive scar on
his right index finger,

going in the exact same
direction as my father's.

I reached out to Bob Garrett,
who's a fingerprint expert.

Mr. Garrett told me that

scars cannot be compared.

But, he did an overlay
from the Zodiac print

against Van's print,

and, I mean,
you can look at that

and decide for yourself.

♪ ♪

What are the odds that
Gary Stewart's father

could have the same scar
as the Zodiac Killer?

REPORTER:
And there was another message.

This one was signed with
the symbol of the Zodiac

and written in code.

The experts have
yet to decipher

the meaning of this cryptogram.

GARY:
The 340 Cipher is considered

the Zodiac's most
sophisticated cipher,

and it's called the 340
because it contains

340 characters.

All the experts tried
to solve the 340 Cipher,

but the one piece of
information they were missing

was my father's name.

My father created this cipher

to fit his name perfectly,

utilizing all 17
columns of the cipher.

You can see it clearly.

E... A... R... L...

V... A... N...

B... E... S... T...

And he spelled out Junior
for the very first time.

J... U... N... I... O... R.

"Earl Van Best Junior,"
backward.

♪ ♪

The fact that my father's name

fits perfectly,

utilizing every column,

is not only unique,

but I think astronomical
to the point to where

it had to be him.

In San Francisco,
two more communications

have been received from
the person who calls himself

the Zodiac Killer.

♪ ♪

VAN:
This is the Zodiac speaking.

Up until the end of October,

‐(clicking)
‐I have killed seven people.

I have grown rather
angry with the police

for their telling
lies about me,

so I shall no longer
announce to anyone

when I commit my murders.

They shall look like
routine robberies,

killings of anger,
and a few fake accidents.

The police shall never catch me

because I've been
too clever for them.

One,

I look like the description
only when I do my thing.

Two, as of yet,

I have left no
fingerprints behind me,

contrary to what
the police say.

In my killings, I wear
transparent fingertip guards.

All it is is two coats
of airplane cement

coated onto my fingertips.

Quite unnoticeable
and very effective.

♪ ♪

P.S., two cops pulled a goof

about three minutes
after I left the cab.

I was walking down the hill
when this cop car pulled up

and asked if I saw
anyone being suspicious,

and I said, "yes.

There was this man who was
running by, waving a gun."

And the cops peeled rubber.

And I disappeared,
never to be seen again.

Hey, pig,
doesn't it rile you up

to have your nose
rubbed in your boo‐boos?

REPORTER:
The new letters from
the Zodiac Killer

were sent to
the San Francisco Chronicle.

There was also a greeting
card which said,

"sorry I haven't
written sooner.

I just washed my pen."

♪ ♪

GARY:
Everyone always thought
that the Zodiac case

would be solved
with handwriting.

And in my search for my father,

I discovered my father's
marriage certificate

to my mother.

And I had seen the Zodiac
letters enough to know

when I looked down at
that piece of paper...

I mean, my heart stopped.

I had seen that
handwriting before.

SUSAN:
Some of this looks
really, really similar.

So, I contacted
Michael Wakshull,

who is a forensic
handwriting expert.

WAKSHULL:
As a document examiner,

at least 21 different
attributes that we look at

for handwriting comparison.

Some of those are relative
height of the letter.

Does the person write large?
Do they write small?

Do they write in cursive?
Do they write in print?

Is it all uppercase
or is it uppercase lowercase?

How does the person dot the I?

Do they dot it
right over the I,

or do they dot it to
the right, to the left?

And no one of those attributes

will confirm or not confirm

that it's a person.

You have to look at the whole,
the entirety of the writing.

So, here's an example.
In the marriage certificate,

there's "est" in best.

Then, in several of
the Zodiac letters,

he wrote the word "western."
In each instance,

it's the second, third,
and fourth letter of the word,

which is good because you're
comparing at the same locations.

When I did the comparison,

the spacing between
the letters was the same.

The heights are
relatively the same.

The slant is
basically the same.

And in the Zodiac letters,

there is July,
and July was capitalized.

There were two J's in
the marriage certificate.

And what's interesting when you
look at this, they're perfect.

I mean, once it's right
on top of the other,

the curves, the way
that they're on top,

crossed, the arc on the bottom,

it's identical.

My opinion was that there's
a strong probability

that Earl Van Best Jr.
wrote the Zodiac letters.

The words "strong probability"
is synonymous

with virtually certain.

♪ ♪

SUSAN:
When Mike Wakshull
sent me the overlays

of the Zodiac's handwriting

and Van's handwriting,

and I saw them,
I could not believe it.

As we were writing the book,

the deeper we went into it,
the more I begin to believe.

I mean, what are the odds
that Gary Stewart,

who lives in Louisiana,
thinks his father

was the Zodiac Killer,

and they've got
the same handwriting?

And they've got the same scar?

And the police sketch, it's
like it's the same person.

And they're in the same places.

You know, it just
added up too much.

GARY:
I can't answer for

the things that my father did,

and what he became
later in life.

I certainly have to
compartmentalize my feelings

about the father I never knew.

In order to try to
give him a fair shake...

♪ ♪

because I believe everybody...

who may have done
something in their past

should be given the opportunity
to receive forgiveness.

And so, my sole intent

and my sole purpose
was to find this man.

♪ ♪