Mystery of who the real Zodiac Killer was could finally be solved as Netflix doc reveals new evidence
A new documentary hopes to solve the mystery of the Zodiac Killer with explosive claims from a family close to the leading suspect.
This is The Zodiac Speaking shares startling revelations from David and Connie Seawater, who say suspect Arthur Leigh Allen made a startling confession to them.
The Seawaters – students of the late school teacher – remember Allen taking them to murder sites as news broke of the infamous killings in the 1960s, recalling bloodied rags and police sirens from hazy and unsettling childhood memories.
David Seawater also claimed Allen confessed unequivocally to him years later when asked about the killings, and said he was ignored when he went to police.
A box left behind by his mother after her death was also said to have contained cryptic messages about a wish to confess and police hunting for ‘us mass killers’.
Allen died in 1992, decades before expert cryptographers could break the infamous 340 Cipher sent to police after the Zodiac killings.
The former elementary school worker was the only suspect named by police. The case remains unsolved.
Arthur Lee Allen took the Seawater children on trips in their youth
A sketch of what the Zodiac Killer may have looked like amid the investigation in 1969
A sketch purporting to show the mass-murdering Zodiac Killer
In 2020, an international code-breaking team cracked Zodiac’s notorious ‘340 cipher’ (pictured) sent to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969
Cheri Jo Bates was murdered at Riverside City College, on October 30, 1966
Betti Lou Jensen (left), David Faraday (center), and Darlene Ferrin (right) are said to be three of the Zodiac killer’s victims
In the new documentary, released on Netflix on Wednesday, the Seawaters say they developed a close relationship with Allen as children.
Allen taught David and Connie Seawater before becoming something of a father figure to them, with their father institutionalized.
Arthur Leigh Allen is one of the most significant Zodiac suspects as he was the only one ever officially named by law enforcement
The school teacher built a close relationship with their mother, Phyllis, and would come to dinner and take the children out on trips.
Connie said in the documentary she now believes Allen was the Zodiac Killer – and likely took them to some of the murder scenes on various trips over the years.
On one trip in June 1963, Allen took them to the nearby Tajiquas Beach.
They later learned it was the day Zodiac Killer victims 18-year-old Robert George Domingos and his fiancée, 17-year-old Linda Faye Edwards were shot dead on a beach in Gaviota State Park.
They claim Allen left the children to play by themselves while he disappeared down the beach with boxes picked up earlier.
After an hour he was said to have returned with a red rag. Connie asked about the blood on his arm, but Allen just took off.
Connie and David also remember going racing with Allen in Riverside the day before the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, at Riverside City College, on October 30, 1966.
Both recalled losing consciousness. Connie said she found David unresponsive, and suffered amnesia herself after drinking juice found in the motel.
Connie was later taken on a rout of the same college campus where Bates was killed on October 30, before again losing her memory and coming to in the car as Allen sped away with police sirens in the distance.
It would be years before the children started to put the pieces together.
After Allen was confronted by a reporter in 1991, Connie said she asked him outright whether he was the Zodiac Killer while out on a boat with him.
‘If I told you that, I’d have to kill you, too,’ he was alleged to have said.
Allen (centre) bonded with Phyllis Seawater and took an active role in her children’s lives
Darlene Ferrin was shot nine times with a 9mm semi automatic pistol in 1969, aged 22
Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22, (left) and Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, (right) were relaxing on a blanket at a remote location by Lake Berryessa in Napa County on September 27, 1969 when attacked
The Zodiac’s final known victim was taxi driver Paul Stine (pictured). On October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, Stine unknowingly picked the killer up as a passenger
David said on the documentary he would call Allen in later life to thank him for his involvement when they were children.
One day, he claims Allen became unusually emotional and made a shocking confession.
‘I was not as good to you as you think I was,’ he allegedly said. ‘I drugged you guys.’
David said he pressed Allen on the lost memories of the Riverside trip, and was told: ‘I molested your sister.’
When he asked Allen if he was the Zodiac Killer, he allegedly replied: ‘Yes, it was me.’
David said he was ignored when he reported Allen to police.
When he told his mother, Phyllis, she only told him that after she died, he would find a box that explained everything.
The children became convinced Allen was the killer after seeing the 2007 film Zodiac.
David then found a box buried in his mother’s garage after she died in 2017, believed to contain proof.
Inside the box were confessional letters that read, ‘I almost decided to confess to finally bring it to an end’.
Another referred to police ‘dealing with us mass killers’.
Marlene Seawater, the third youngest of the children, would discover in 1991 that Allen had been charged with molesting students at the elementary school years prior.
In 1974, Allen had been arrested for child molestation and pleaded guilty.
He received a suspended prison sentence and was sent to hospital for evaluation.
Allen was ultimately out of the picture for three years – at a time the Zodiac Killer was dormant.
Police received an eerie new letter from the Zodiac Killer in 1978, upon Allen’s release, stating: ‘I am back with you. I am waiting for a good movie about me’.
Pictured: A photocopy of the cryptogram sent to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969 by the Zodiac Killer
Investigators with the group believe a scar on the Zodiac killer’s forehead is similar to the one seen on 25-year-old Poste
Journalist Thomas Colbert alleged last year that an FBI whistleblower confirmed to him that Air Force veteran Gary Francis Poste, who has been previously posited as the killer, is currently listed by the bureau as a suspect
Police had recovered a watch, which they believed to have belonged to the Zodiac killer
The watch was found splattered with paint which investigators believe was linked to Poste
The Zodiac Killer – whose identity has never been conclusively revealed – targeted at least seven victims, five of whom died.
He would frequently taunt officers with letters mailed to newspapers, threatening to embark on mass murder sprees. He claimed to have killed 37 victims.
The killer was dubbed ‘Zodiac’ because some of his cryptograms included astrological symbols and references.
The series of unsolved murders inspired many books, documentaries and movies.
While Allen was the only suspect ever named by police, new suspects have been floated by investigators over the years.
Journalist Thomas Colbert alleged last year that an FBI whistleblower confirmed to him that Air Force veteran Gary Francis Poste, who has been previously posited as the killer, is currently listed by the bureau as a suspect.
Colbert claimed FBI labs have a ‘partial’ DNA sample on Poste – who has been dead since 2018 – that links him to the murders, and believes authorities didn’t look into him enough when he was alive.
Poste, a former house painter, was identified by Case Breakers as their leading suspect in at least five murders that took place in the Bay Area in 1968 and 1969.
A wristwatch splattered with paint and believed to have been worn by the killer was found near Cheri Jo Bates’ body.
Additionally, a heelprint found in the dirt at the scene of the stabbing was said to have been been from a ‘military-style boot’ consistent with the style and size of footprints found at three known Zodiac crime scene, and also of Poste.
The FBI has long denied that the long-open case has been solved, confirming it remains open as recently as October 2021.
