The Zodiac

On Friday, opening night, L and I went to see Zodiac. It was amazing. Best film I've seen in years, so f'ing worth it.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Zodiac Killer, I recommend taking a peek at this Wikipedia Page, where you will find the basic information on his 5 confirmed murders as well as his other suspected crimes. The image on the left is from his infamous attack at Lake Berryessa, where he bound and stabbed a couple out on a secluded island before carving a kill list into the couple's car door... How fucking crazy is that costume? I mean if you and your significant other were enjoying a delightful picnic on a secluded lake and were approached by a cat dressed like that how terrified would you be?

David Fincher's movie is awesome, wonderful in its attention to detail. It does an excellent job with a variety of threads and narrative arcs, and ends nicely for a film about an unsolved crime...

Zodiac is especially relevant to these pages on account of his obsessive letter writing to both police and the SF Chronicle... The guy has the audacity to send evidence and taunting clues, and even with the advent of DNA he still can't be identified...
He was in it for attention clearly, and I sincerely doubt he was traditionally insane. Deranged, perhaps, but not insane. Unlike the Jack the Ripper case, these letters are pretty much consistent with each other in terms of grammar, handwriting etc...

As far as suspects, I can't really believe it was Arthur Leigh Allen... Something about a pedophile also being a serial killer (of adults) seems really unlikely to me. I guess, as with the JFK thing, we'll never really know...

But the characters in this film are really enticing, and Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Rupert Murdoch, and Mark Ruffalo all do just great things, great things. Just kidding about Rupert Murdoch being in the movie. To my knowledge he has nothing to do with the California Zodiac killings, but I do believe his NY Post covered the New York copycat, whose reign of terror lasted from 1990-94, and was really pretty awful... Anyway, the movie is worth seeing, and more analysis of the Zodiac Killers will appear on these pages very soon...