Why Did The Zodiac Stop Killing?

[addie123445]

He seemed to stop killing so abruptly. His last letter didn't indicate he was stopping. Maybe he died or something happened? Most of the time, serial killers will kill until they are caught.

 

[Richard]

Could have been for any number of reasons.
He might have been jailed for a different offense not related to his killings.
He might have died.
He might have been committed to a mental institution.
He could have become injured and rendered incapable of killing further.
He might also have moved to another place and continued with his killings, but they simply were not connected to the ones under investigation in California.

 

[BREAKER]

Church Hearings were getting close to their domestic activities and they wanted to lay low

 

[Dcwebster]

He seemed to stop killing so abruptly. His last letter didn't indicate he was stopping. Maybe he died or something happened? Most of the time, serial killers will kill until they are caught.

Not so most Killers burnout at a certain point the police believe when you stop killing your either arrested dead or moved on and killing somewhere else he did say he would keep on killing but would disguise his killings maybe he done just that or perhaps he simply burned out and found it more fun to taunt the police and make fools out of them I believe there's a good chance he was arrested for another crime or died or even moved away it is possible he never stop killing it is also possible he burnt out and got his jollies taunting the police

 

[Richard]

...
... I believe there's a good chance he was arrested for another crime or died or even moved away it is possible he never stop killing it is also possible he burnt out and got his jollies taunting the police

There is absolutely no doubt that Zodiac liked to taunt and bait the police investigators. His many letters are proof of that.

Some researchers have pointed out that the writer claiming to be Zodiac would often claim crimes that were proven to have been committed by others. Some of his claims came about after facts about the crimes were already published in the newspapers.

His reference to making murders appear as accidents was another example of his wanting to irritate and confuse investigators.

 

[Winward1]

The question is, why would someone who sent mailings the primary purpose of which was to take credit for attacks (secondary was to terrorize via the threat of future attacks) continue to send mailings after he stopped attacking?

The answer is, he wouldn't. To have continued on making empty threats would have made him a joke.

This is just one example, along with the envelopes changing in June, '70, an SFPD source admitting a letter was forged, a lead detective being taken off of the case for forging letters, a handwriting sample that links a dead suspect to the crimes, and the calls, sightings and attacks ending before the envelopes changed that Zodiac was dead.

 

[Kell1]

In the old days it was believed that there were only 2 reasons a serial offender stopped , this goes for rapists etc...

And that was that they were either dead or incarcerated for something else. As time went on and the field of criminal studies progressed we began to learn more and more about crime and those responsible for it

Contrary to what we thought we once knew about serial crime, there were MANY reasons these repeat offenders stopped doing their actions

AS noted above incarceration, and death would certainly hamper their ability to continue , however we know know thats only 2 of many.

AS we learned (Dennis Rader or Lonnie Franklin for example) stopped killing for a variety of reasons, Rader felt LE was getting too close to him, Franklin simply "lost the urge" at times and found other ways to satisfy his criminal psyche.

The criminal lifestyle itself is fraught with danger, we've seen killers who have become physically or mentally disabled, via trauma, disease or otherwise , we've seen them abscond to other parts of the world, sometimes, they are relocated for work, or due to military service, etc....sometimes in the new location they continue unbeknownst to us , the Highway Serial Killing Initiative for example exemplifies this , we've even on rare occasions seen a change of "heart" if you will , but ever so exceedingly rare enough to turn themselves, in , so I tend to call BS on that.

Some find other "outlets", such as drug addiction, some find religion, or so they claim, some have a complete lifestyle change, such as coming into money.

Some may change what they do slightly, for ex going from serial murder to rape, however the usual progression is the other way around

So why did he disappear? As I said above, it couldve been any one of a hundred reasons, in the case, of this particular criminal I feel he knew he was very close to getting caught, and stopped.

One particularly common thing I find about these types who taunt police, the "Letter writers" is despite all their tough talk and attempts to be scary, they are usually very scared/ paranoid individuals themselves.
'
The taunting of authority figures, is often a key to what you are dealing with as a severely inadequate, psychologically weak individual to begin with . It basically screams "I couldn't accomplish anything in the real world, so I created my own, and I'm god in it" , its akin to the child who "invents his own" game, because he cant win playing real ones, except this is an adult with severe disorders.

This is the role of fantasy in the killers mind

A better path to pursue in order to find out who this was would be , "Why did he start"? This wasn't some epiphany he had one day and decided to start killing, theres a path to this, look for the crimes leading up to it.

 

[killer Chaser]

He stopped because he got married, my suspect started out as an upper member of the Process Church they wore the same style of regalia as the Zodiac except it was a type of swastika, he left the Process Church and wanted to have his own little crazy cult he found this in the Mansion Family, there are also photos of the girls wearing the same style swastika on the front of there shirts. He's not a very well known member but he is listed as an associate of the family his initials are VF. Ed Sanders who wrote "The Family," Said he made the buckskins they wore when they killed Sharon Tate and her friends. The first edition of "The Family" has his name in it Ed Sanders was sued by the Process Church so later editions don't have their names. He's still currently alive and well the Zodiac.

 

[Maczino]

I believe he stopped because of the fact that he had such a close call after the Stine killing. He was spotted by two police officers, and if the call was accurately given by the SFPD dispatchers, then he most likely would’ve been caught. He knew this, and the risk was too much for him, at least in my opinion.

Zodiac may have claimed killing was his favorite thing, but I beg to differ. I think he got more of a thrill from taunting the public, and scaring them. He liked being in the news, even if it didn’t involve a crime he committed. I believe he was a classic-underachiever in life, and this (the publicity) made him feel like he had some sort of importance.

That crime (Stine) solidified in the Zodiac’s mind that every time he left his home it was a risk. He stopped because the fear of getting caught was enough to deter him, but also due to him realizing that the publicity/taunting was more than enough to give him the fulfillment he desired.

 

[tilomagnet]

I agree. The escape from the Stine scene was a close call for him that probably scared him permanently. His main intention was to cause fear and become (in)famous and he achieved that, so he resorted to some tentative claims of more murders which were likely to be never solved (e.g. the Radetich police murder) after 1969/70.

 

[sk716]

I think he had to have died, probably in an accident. He must of been incapacitated sometime in the immediate aftermath of the Stine killing/lucky escape. Zodiac was a boaster, even if he had to stop killing due to injury, he wouldn't have stopped taunting. If he had been incarcerated on some other charge, he wouldn't have been able to not boast of his accomplishments to other inmates. He could have fled to another continent, but I think he would have continued the taunting. He literally walked past a cop away from a crime scene, I don't think he would ever stop bragging about that. IMO, a couple of the confirmed Zodiac letters are written by other people.

 

[glockstr]

He may not have stopped. He may have just moved, changed his MO, stopped taunting the police/media.

 

[tilomagnet]

The letters got more infrequent towards 1974 and he seemed to have dropped the Z personality in those last letters. There is no reason to believe that he died a sudden death or was jailed. Most likely he lost interest and moved on even if that sounds strange.

 

[Oakie]

He may not have stopped. He may have just moved, changed his MO, stopped taunting the police/media.

I agree with this assessment.

Edit: By the way, I think the two best suspects are Dick Gaikowski and Edward Wayne Edwards (the latter, particularly, because he had spent time in Deer Lodge Prison, he looks like the descriptions, and he has a history of killing couples on lover's lanes.)

 

[Winward1]

It seems there's nothing to indicate Gaikowski assaulted anyone and Edwards ever stepped foot in CA but hey, this is the Zodiac case, where evidence-free suspects are often called "best." This, along with bogus mailings, denied FOIA requests, B.S. excuses re: DNA and firings of investigators (see Sims murder case) are reasons to believe there is an ongoing coverup and spooks abound.

 

[Benoit Bawles]

I believe he stopped because of the fact that he had such a close call after the Stine killing. He was spotted by two police officers, and if the call was accurately given by the SFPD dispatchers, then he most likely would’ve been caught. He knew this, and the risk was too much for him, at least in my opinion.

Didnt he spend most of the night hiding in the bushes in presidio park listening to the police and police dogs trying to find him? Probably scared him pretty bad, out of further killings. From that point on it was just letters, although I suspect there were one or more hoax writers in addition to zodiac.

 

[BDHOLLAND]

I vote didn't stop, just changed his m.o.

I think Zodiac is a phase. Like EARONS was comprised of phases including as the Visalia Ransacker.

• Zodiac has been seen by multiple witnesses including law enforcement.
• He has nearly been caught by law enforcement responding.
• He left prints.
• Stine is the last known canonical attack.

He was making mistakes. Two male victims had survived, one who could reveal his costume ruse and also heard his voice.

All that combined is enough to make him rethink everything. He sends Belli a letter asking for help. All of the above is consistent with a serial killer in their depressive phase and is best time to catch them (he was nearly caught which supports that).

He sends in his letters but slowly weans away from them.

The candidate non-canonical crimes for the Zodiac include Donna Lass and the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders but there are some problems with the criminal profile of the SRHMs to overcome. Still forensic psychology is just a guide and not a hard science. A tool we can use but nothing is written in stone. We use to think serial killers could never stop. Yet it is apparent that they can and do. Examples include BTK (Dennis Rader) and EARONS (Joseph James DeAngelo).

Also the advent of DNA profiling in the mid-80s seems to cause some of these offenders to go into hiding. DeAngelo appears to stop because he is forensically aware. Rader stops for awhile but can't resist resuming communicating again. Rader busted himself by sending in a disk with his name in the metadata. What a moron, lol. A fitting way for him to get caught.

 

[CaMan60]

I vote he Did Stop

In the last de-coded 340 cipher the main premise is. When He wrote I am Not afraid of the Gas Chamber. Okay so this guy was not going to live, and he knew that already. He must have been a terminal patient and on hard drugs. He is long gone and, L.E. knows he is long gone.
When he wrote to end a letter with his P.S. I hope you have fun trying to figure out who i killed. That was his way of ending it. And nobody wants his kind of thoughtless crime.

 

[TheosDawn1981]

Alrighty. First John Douglas is legendary. But I wonder, would he really have not been a psycopathic murderer if his mother was out of his life. I really have a hard time seeing that. This is where someone I respect John Douglas confuses me. How can it just be her fault? He terrorized his grandmother, kept tabs on his mother's friends addresses' they were so he could kill them. I mean I have no idea maybe the Mom but there is a lot about him that seems to be sick with or without his mother in his life. And not just his mom who rejected him. I am happy to be wrong but how can you really say if his mom were not in his life he would not have murderous tendencies. I am happy to be wrong. Can someone shine a light on how Clarnell Kemper is the reason her only son was a psychotic killer?

 

[Kell1]

Remember too, you are dealing with not only a psychopath, but a paranoid type....

Someone who, at the cost of losing all, may have taken his own life if he felt the heat .