I just saw the movie for the first time last night after finding it on DVD. It did seem to be very factual and very well done. But being that it was based on the work of Graysmith, I knew it was going to point to Arthur Leigh Allen. It paints such a convincing picture that you scarcely believe Zodiac could have been anyone else but Allen.
But there are problems:
The problem for me is that the descriptions people gave of the mystery man that harrassed Darlene Ferrin doesn't match Allen. I have seen of photo of him taken in 1966 and he was already balding and the man was described as having his "champagne-colored hair" piled high on top into a kind of "pompadour." You would think that anyone who saw both the mystery man and images of Allen would have immediately come forward to finger him but, to my knowledge, that never happened.
If you put thick rim glasses on any photo of Allen, it simply doesn't look like the composite which is the best description we have of the killer.
I still believe Cheri Jo Bates was Zodiac's first victim. The way he kept sending letters out bragging about it to anyone he thought would listen, tells me it was his first kill and that he was exceedingly proud of it. Allen would have been 33 years old in 1966. It's hard to believe Zodiac didn't start killing until that age. Serial killers start much earlier. Even if you go back to the murders of those two high school kids in '63, Allen was still 30--too old. Moreover, I don't believe those two kids were killed by Zodiac. There was too much braggin going on after the murder of Bates for it to have been anything but Zodiac's first kill. The movie has Allen stating that he spent a lot of time in Riverside in 1966 but I don't know if that's true. But I get the impression that the writer of "The Confession" was someone closer to Bates's age--late teens, early 20s--not a man in his 30s.
As for Don Cheney's statements that Allen had told him before any of the murders occurred that he would hunt people down and send letters to the cops calling himself "Zodiac" just doesn't wash with me. I mean, if Allen said that then he is Zodiac. I just don't buy it. Too convenient.
Let us not forget poor Richard Jewell who tried to foil a bombing in Atlanta and probably saved a few lives in the process. His former employers stated that he was a weirdo security guard who stopped people for no reason and when he left them to take the job in Atlanta, stated that he would foil a bombing and be a big hero. As a result, he became suspect #1. It was years before his name was cleared but by then the damage was done. Jewell died in '07 at age 44 or so and I will always believe all the pressure he was under as a suspect did him in. We have the same thing with Allen--a general weirdo who had people from his past saying he made statements that immediately causes close LE scrutiny. I remember watching an interview with Allen and he wept when describing how horrible it was to have the Zodiac killing pinned on him and he too died not long after.
While the movie was often factual and very well done, quite entertaining, I just don't believe Arthur Leigh Allen is Zodiac and the movie comes close to slandering a man who can no longer defend himself.
But there are problems:
- To my knowledge, Mike Mageau never named Allen as his shooter. I had always heard that he maintained that he never really got a good look at him.
- In the movie, Darlene Ferrin's sister states that Darlene called the mystery man "Lee" but, as far as I know, she called him "Paul."
- In the movie, Melvin Belli's housekeeper stated that the mysterious caller told her that it was his birthday and that he had to kill again. I have never heard this. Since the call was allegedly received on December 18 and Allen was born December 18, it paints Allen most assuredly as the killer. But I have never heard of this before seeing the movie.
- The composite described by the cops at the murder of Paul Stine and refined by Kathleen Johns who got probably the best look at him of anyone, was never shown in the movie and I had to wonder if that was because it looks nothing like Arthur Leigh Allen.
The problem for me is that the descriptions people gave of the mystery man that harrassed Darlene Ferrin doesn't match Allen. I have seen of photo of him taken in 1966 and he was already balding and the man was described as having his "champagne-colored hair" piled high on top into a kind of "pompadour." You would think that anyone who saw both the mystery man and images of Allen would have immediately come forward to finger him but, to my knowledge, that never happened.
If you put thick rim glasses on any photo of Allen, it simply doesn't look like the composite which is the best description we have of the killer.
I still believe Cheri Jo Bates was Zodiac's first victim. The way he kept sending letters out bragging about it to anyone he thought would listen, tells me it was his first kill and that he was exceedingly proud of it. Allen would have been 33 years old in 1966. It's hard to believe Zodiac didn't start killing until that age. Serial killers start much earlier. Even if you go back to the murders of those two high school kids in '63, Allen was still 30--too old. Moreover, I don't believe those two kids were killed by Zodiac. There was too much braggin going on after the murder of Bates for it to have been anything but Zodiac's first kill. The movie has Allen stating that he spent a lot of time in Riverside in 1966 but I don't know if that's true. But I get the impression that the writer of "The Confession" was someone closer to Bates's age--late teens, early 20s--not a man in his 30s.
As for Don Cheney's statements that Allen had told him before any of the murders occurred that he would hunt people down and send letters to the cops calling himself "Zodiac" just doesn't wash with me. I mean, if Allen said that then he is Zodiac. I just don't buy it. Too convenient.
Let us not forget poor Richard Jewell who tried to foil a bombing in Atlanta and probably saved a few lives in the process. His former employers stated that he was a weirdo security guard who stopped people for no reason and when he left them to take the job in Atlanta, stated that he would foil a bombing and be a big hero. As a result, he became suspect #1. It was years before his name was cleared but by then the damage was done. Jewell died in '07 at age 44 or so and I will always believe all the pressure he was under as a suspect did him in. We have the same thing with Allen--a general weirdo who had people from his past saying he made statements that immediately causes close LE scrutiny. I remember watching an interview with Allen and he wept when describing how horrible it was to have the Zodiac killing pinned on him and he too died not long after.
While the movie was often factual and very well done, quite entertaining, I just don't believe Arthur Leigh Allen is Zodiac and the movie comes close to slandering a man who can no longer defend himself.
