A code-breaking team has cracked the mysterious cipher sent by the serial killer known as the Zodiac to a newspaper. The killer, who shot or stabbed seven people in the San Franciso Bay area in California, US between 1968 and 1969, was never caught. All, but two of his victims died.
"I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me
That wasn't me on the TV show which brings up a point about me
I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradice all the sooner
Because I now have enough slaves to work for me where everyone else has nothing when they reach paradice so they are afraid of death
I am not afraid because I know that my new life will be an easy one in paradice death," the decoded message read. The television show referred to in the message is 'The Jim Dunbar Show,' a local television talk show. Two weeks before the cipher was sent, a person claiming to be the Zodiac Killer had called into the show.
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The serial killer's crimes have inspired movies like Dirty Harry starring clint Eastwood and The Zodiac starring Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downing Jr.
Solving the Zodiac ciphers has become an international fixation for true-crime followers. The cipher was cracked by David Oranchak, a software developer in Virginia, Jarl Van Eycke, a Belgian computer programmer, and Sam Blake, an Australian mathematician. Oranchak said he had hoped the cipher would yield information about the killer's identity.
The killer, who claims to have killed 37 people, used to write letters to the police and the media taunting them about the murders. The letters would be written in code and would include bits of bloodied clothing as proof of his actions.
