On this day, Dec. 20, in 1968, the Zodiac Killer murdered his first victims.
The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer whose brutal murders, cryptic letters and haunting phone calls terrorized Northern California residents and confounded investigators for decades even though the last confirmed killing was in 1969. The first victims were San Francisco Bay-area high school students Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday. Faraday had parked his mother’s Rambler at a lover’s lane near Vallejo. About 45 minutes later, another car pulled up beside them. A gunman ordered the couple out of the car. He shot Faraday in the head. As Jensen fled, he shot her five times through her back. The shooter began sending chilling and taunting letters to area newspapers. He called himself the Zodiac. The killer claimed to have murdered more than 30 people, but police attributed seven victims, two of whom survived. The California Department of Justice has maintained an open case file on the Zodiac murders since 1969. The Zodiac’s identity remains unknown.
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— Scott McCabe
