The latest of the hundreds of Zodiac Killer theories floated each year emerged this week from a private team of investigators who named a man from the Sierra foothills who died three years ago as the killer, but FBI and police officials say the Zodiac case remains unsolved.
The team, calling itself the Case Breakers, said it is basing its theory on several factors, including a similarity in photos of their suspect to a 1969 police sketch of the Zodiac, particularly with what appear to be identical forehead scars, and on anagrams they say reveal their suspect's name. They also say they have proof that their suspect killed Cheri Jo Bates, a woman slain in Riverside in 1966 that some have attributed to the Zodiac — a theory that Riverside police said in August they have debunked.
"I absolutely feel we solved this case," Tom Colbert, a member of the Case Breakers, told The Chronicle. He said his team, which includes former journalists and law enforcement officers, has been investigating cold cases for 10 years and also believes it solved the D.B. Cooper hijacking-ransom mystery and the disappearance and apparent murder of union boss Jimmy Hoffa.
"There's no ego here," he said. "We do this to solve cases."
The Chronicle traditionally has not named Zodiac suspects unless law enforcement investigators confirm they are being actively looked into. The only man named as a suspect was Arthur Leigh Allen of Vallejo, who died in 1992.
Federal and police investigators tasked with solving the 52-year-old Zodiac mystery, however, said this new tip doesn't hold up. The Zodiac killed five people in 1968 and 1969 in the Bay Area, his last victim being cab driver Paul Stine in San Francisco, and mailed taunting letters with ciphers to The Chronicle and other newspapers.
"The Zodiac killer case remains open. We have no new information to share at the moment," the San Francisco office of the FBI said in a statement Wednesday. The San Francisco Police Department echoed the statement. Sources at both agencies told The Chronicle the evidence presented by the Case Breakers does not appear to be conclusive.
"Is there a chance that (the Case Breakers suspect) killed Cheri Jo Bates? No," Riverside Police Officer Ryan Railsback told The Chronicle. "If you read what they (the Case Breakers) put out, it's all circumstantial evidence. It's not a whole lot."
As for any Zodiac links to Bates' murder, Railsback said his department worked with FBI agents to debunk a letter and other indicators that had purportedly pointed to the Zodiac, and in August announced that information along with a $50,000 reward for tips leading to Bates' actual killer. The Case Breakers called him about the reward, he said, but they didn't follow up when he asked for more information.
The Chronicle and police get hundreds of tips every year on potential Zodiac suspects and solutions to the ciphers, pointing to everyone from people's fathers to killers like Charlie Manson and even newspaper columnists.
The Chronicle was called six years ago by a relative of the Case Breakers suspect, who said the man lived in Groveland (Tuolumne County) and had tried to kill him with a hammer. He contacted investigators, but when The Chronicle followed up with law enforcement, they said the Zodiac connection did not appear to be there.
The Groveland man's former daughter-in-law told The Chronicle on Wednesday that she was intimately familiar with the other relative's fears, and she believes the Case Breakers have nailed the killer. She lives out of state and said she moved to get away from threats from the man and his supporters. The Case Breakers suspect died in 2018 of natural causes, she said. County records show he was 80.
"It's my birthday today, and this all coming out is a great birthday present for me," said Michelle Wynn, 52. The Case Breakers suspect "is the Zodiac, without a doubt. Being around him, knowing his demeanor and his shadiness and twistedness — I have an intuition, I can read people."
Wynn said the 1969 police sketch "was like a bell-ringer for me. ... I saw that and thought, 'That's him.' Totally," she said.
David Oranchak of Virginia, who led a team that the FBI confirmed cracked the Zodiac's 340 Cipher in December, said Wednesday it was improbable that the Case Breakers were correct in their analysis that the killer's ciphers contained their suspect's name. The Case Breakers were interpreting anagrams, he said, and that technique can produce a dizzying array of names and words with easy manipulation.
"It seems ... unlikely that the name is actually in there," he said. Colbert said Oranchak's team was largely right in its solution to the cipher, but that it missed the anagram that contained the Case Breakers' suspect's name.
Other teams over the years, including some that involved former law enforcement officers like the Case Breakers, have come up with different suspects. Perhaps the most prominent group was based in Vallejo, led by former California Highway Patrol Officer Lyndon Lafferty. It stated in 2011 that the Zodiac was a 91-year-old former real estate salesman in Fairfield. Both Lafferty and the salesman have since died, and investigators say there wasn't enough evidence to prove their suspect was the right man.
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