08x25 - Sign of the Zodiac

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: for six years, a
serial k*ller prowled the

Streets of new york city,
hunting his victims.

He promised to k*ll 12 people,
one for each astrological sign.

And he only struck while certain
constellations were visible.

It took forensic astronomy,
handwriting analysis, and a

World w*r ii code breaker to
find him.

Narrator: late one cold night
in march, 1990, 49-year-old

Mario orozco was walking home
from his restaurant job in

Brooklyn.

Without warning, he was shot in
the back.

[ g*nsh*t ]
mario survived, but he couldn't

Describe his attacker.

Three weeks later, there was a
similar incident a few blocks

Away.


Germaine montenesdro was

Walking home after a serious
night of drinking when someone

Shot him in the back.

He, too, survived, but he didn't
see the gunman either.

Police recovered the 9mm b*llet.

There weren't no grooves on
the b*ll*ts and we're probably

Dealing with a zip g*n, um, uh,
type of homemade w*apon.

Narrator: two months later, a
short distance away in queens,


To open the door to his

Apartment when he was shot with
a 9mm zip g*n.

Proce died later at the
hospital.

This time, the k*ller left a
note beside the victim.

It was a threat to k*ll 12
people, one for each

Astrological sign of the zodiac.

"This is the zodiac.

The twelve signs will die when
the belts in heaven are seen."

Narrator: the next day, a
similar note arrived at the

Offices of the "new york post"
newspaper.

It was so crazy.

There was this wheel with signs
of the zodiac.

It was unusual, it was a little
different.

Most are just scribbled lunacy,
and this guy was organized, he's

Got this chart -- it was
bizarre.

Narrator: the k*ller called
himself, "the zodiac."

The zodiac claimed
responsibility for the three

sh**t, but he mistakenly
believed that he had k*lled all

Three.

It was apparent the zodiac knew
his victims' birthdays and

Astrological signs.

Mario orozco was a scorpio.

Germaine montenesdro was a
gemini.

And joe proce was a taurus.

But how did the zodiac know the
victims' astrological signs?

Are you kidding?

It freaked them out completely.

The new york city police
department went into the biggest

Manhunt -- it was mammoth.

And it was driving them crazy.

Narrator: at this point,
investigators realized the

Zodiac had contacted them
before -- they just didn't know

It.

Three months earlier, he had
written a letter to police

Headquarters, but it was
ignored.

And basically it was viewed
humorously -- "here's a nut

Letter."

I believe it was posted on a
bulletin board, it was not taken

Very seriously.

Narrator: this letter held
yet another clue.

"The zodiac will k*ll the 12
signs in the belt when the

Zodiacal light is seen.

Orion is the one that could stop
zodiac and the seven sisters."

Narrator: an astrologer told
police that the constellations

Orion and the seven sisters of
the pleiades were not visible on

The nights of the sh**t.

The zodiac's letter implied he
wouldn't strike when orion and

The seven sisters were in the
sky.

This thing's all over the
newspaper now, I mean, this

Guy's claiming the zodiac.

So now, this thing is really a
hot potato, and it's like the

Biggest case in years in
new york city.

Narrator: 25 years earlier, a
man in san francisco k*lled six

People and wrote taunting
letters to police.

He, too, called himself the
zodiac, and was never

Apprehended.

Was it possible the
san francisco zodiac was now in

New york city?

If the zodiac from california
in the '60s had resurfaced in

New york, they knew this was a
complete law enforcement

Nightmare.

Narrator: new york city
police were searching for a

k*ller who called himself the
zodiac.

He promised to k*ll one victim
for each of the 12 astrological

Signs.

Before the zodiac k*ller, in
new york, when a guy said to a

Girl, "what's your sign," he was
hitting on her.

Afterwards, I mean, there was
literally a case where a guy

Asked a girl her sign and she
screamed for the police.

Narrator: handwriting experts
compared the new york zodiac

Letters to those written by
san francisco zodiac k*ller 25

Years earlier.

One characteristic of this
writer is he makes his

Horizontal lines in a descending
way.

His t-bars tend to descend, the
crossbar on his lowercase f's

Tend to descend.

Narrator: handwriting experts
concluded that the san francisco

Zodiac and the new york zodiac
were two different men.

Investigators now realized they
were dealing with a very

Sophisticated copycat.

The sh**t had taken place at


Suggesting variations of a three
week cycle.

And they happened on nights when
the constellations orion and the

Seven sisters of the pleiades
were not visible in the sky.

The planets aren't just named
after gods and goddesses, they

Were the gods and goddesses.

The stars also were either homes
of gods or the lights into

Heaven.

So, these are powerful ideas,
these are powerful symbols.

Narrator: to predict when the
zodiac would strike next, police

Asked astronomer gregory matloff
to identify the next time within

The 21-day cycle that orion and
the seven sisters would not be

In the sky.

He did so by consulting his
astrological charts.

By just adjusting this for
time and day, and in some cases

Location -- your latitude -- you
can see what is rising and what

Is setting.

Narrator: matloff predicted
zodiac would strike next on june


Longest day of the year.

So we have hundreds of
plain-clothes detectives out on

Nights when we think this guy's
going to sh**t again.

Narrator: and the zodiac was
even more clever than

Anticipated -- he did strike,
but not in the same area as

Before.

This time, it was in manhattan.

He shot a homeless man,
larry parham, who was sleeping

On a bench in central park.

In the victims' shoe was a
note.

The zodiac somehow knew that
larry parham was a cancer, a

Sign different from the other
three victims.

And zodiac registered his
indignation that the newspapers

Were calling him a copycat.

"One zodiac."

He's angry, he's trying to
convince us, "no, no, I'm the

Zodiac.

One zodiac."

And, you know, we knew it wasn't
him, we knew it was a copycat.

Narrator: to look for
forensic evidence, criminalists

Saturated the letter with
ninhydrin, a chemical that

Reacts with the amino acids from
skin oils.

Then the letter was placed in a
humidity chamber for several

Hours.

The moisture in the chamber
accelerated the chemical

Process, eventually revealing an
almost perfect thumbprint.

This was photographed and then
compared to prints in every

Fingerprint database available.

They did databases for city
employees, department of motor

Vehicles, postal workers, and
they were going through those

Databases, including police
officers, every police officer

In new york's fingerprints were
compared to the zodiac's.

Believe me, they tried it,
and...nothing.

No hits.

Narrator: there had been no
witnesses.

None of the surviving victims
could give a description, and

The only forensic evidence was a
single fingerprint.

Zodiac claimed that only the
constellations orion and the

Seven sisters could stop him.

New york police hoped to add
themselves to the list.

Narrator: the zodiac k*lled
one man and wounded three others

In new york city, and for some
unexplained reason, he struck

Only on nights when the
constellations orion and the

Seven sisters were not in the
sky.

Just as unusual was the fact
that he apparently knew the

Birthdays of all four of
his victims.

And it was clear from the
zodiac's letters that he was

Following the investigation in
the newspaper.

I printed a story that the
police had his fingerprints --

He messed up, and I'm convinced
as soon as he saw that, you

Know, he folded his tent,
because he knew that once they

Had fingerprints, if they had
comparison, he was cooked.

Narrator: and for almost two
years, there were no more

Zodiac sh**t.

It wasn't until 1994 that the
zodiac sent his next letter,

Announcing his return.

The zodiac claimed
responsibility for the stabbing

Death of 39-year-old
patricia fonti in highland park.

But tricia was a leo, and


Shot and k*lled while he was
walking near this highway

Underpass.

Joseph was a virgo.

The b*llet was a
through-and-through wound, which

Severed his carotid artery and
he bled to death there within

Moments, certainly.

Narrator: zodiac's next
victim, 40-year-old james weber,

Was shot in the same location.

He was a libra, and fortunately,
he survived the attack.

He snuck up behind them, gave
them no warning, you know, he

Just shot them, and ran away
laughing.

According to weber -- weber
said after he was shot in the

Buttocks he heard him laughing
as he jumped into the cemetery.

Narrator: amazingly, each of
zodiac's seven victims had a

Different astrological sign.

But the pattern stopped with his
eighth victim, 40-year-old

Diane ballard, who also survived
the sh**ting, but was a

Taurus -- the same sign as an
earlier victim.

Zodiac also took credit for
sh**ting a ninth man in

Highland park, although police
couldn't confirm the sh**ting

Took place.

One of his last remarks in
each of those letters, he

Actually says, "no grooves," and
those are the ballistic

Identifiers that ordinarily most
examinations and comparisons are

Made by in the field of
ballistics.

Narrator: although the zodiac
bragged that police would never

Catch him, with this letter he
made a mistake.

He licked the envelope flap and
left enough saliva for dna

Testing.

Police now had the dna profile
of the zodiac k*ller.

The letter also included another
clue.

I-i just -- I knew it was a
code.

It was a nine towers, 'cause
there were nine victims.

And I wrote down all the
different symbols, and I think I

Had 23 -- very close to an
alphabet.

And then I did something called
a frequency count, which is --

You write down how many times
each letter is used, because,

For example, "e" is the most
commonly used letter in the

Alphabet.

Narrator: kieran crowley's
father-in-law had been a

Code breaker in world w*r ii.

Together, they discovered that
the alphabet was based on a

Maritime system of international
flags and pendants.

And with this discovery, they
were able to decipher the

Zodiac's secret message.

It said, "this is the zodiac
speaking.

I am in control.

Who mastery, be ready for more.

Yours truly."

Narrator: the zodiac k*ller
had been walking the dark,

Deserted streets of
new york city undetected for six

Years.

Captain joseph herbert worked on
the zodiac task force, and he

Knew that eventually the
forensic evidence would catch

Him.

This case is actually studied
in forensic investigations,

Because I knew at the time from
working on the task force that

We had partial fingerprints from
two of the letters from the

Earlier sh**t.

The b*ll*ts that were removed
from the bodies were not

Traditional lands and groove
b*ll*ts, but they did have

Barrel markings on them that
could be compared to other

Barrels.

We knew that we had a dna sample
from one of the letters.

Narrator: police continued to
search for the zodiac.

On a dark, dreary march
afternoon in 1996, their luck

Began to change.

[ Knocking ]
open the door, priscilla.

Narrator: a young man in a
brooklyn apartment apparently

Got angry because his younger
sister and her boyfriend were

Together alone in her bedroom.

He demanded the boyfriend leave.

When they refused, he fired a
shot through the bedroom door.

[ g*nsh*t ]
when the woman ran out to

Confront her brother, he shot
her in the buttocks with a

Shotgun.

The police arrived to discover
the man was holding his sister's

Boyfriend hostage.

Captain herbert was assigned as
the hostage negotiator.

I'm behind one side of the
door, and he's behind the other

Side of the door, and I'm
talking to him, and I'm trying

To articulate to him that enough
damage has been done.

After about three hours, he
indicated to me that he wanted

To surrender.

Narrator: herbert convinced
him to put all of his weapons in

Buckets police lowered from the
roof to his apartment window,

And he surrendered.

His name was eddie seda, a


Unemployed, who was still living
at home with his mother and

Younger sister.

One day he seemed religious
and quiet and shy and strange,

And other days he seemed
aggressive and scary.

Narrator: at headquarters,
police asked seda to provide a

Written statement describing
what happened inside his

Apartment.

Seda complied, and when
finished, he signed it with an

Odd symbol next to his name.

And the detective who did it
looks at it and says, "what's

This"?

And he said that that was a
symbol for god and god's love

Or something.

Narrator: an alert police
officer asked hostage

Negotiator joseph herbert to
have a look.

Herbert knew immediately what
he was looking at.

I remember the feeling to
this day, it was a very calm

Feeling, 'cause I knew we had
him.

I studied those letters for four
years and it was ingrained in

Not only my memory -- all the
guys who worked the zodiac task

Force.

The statement out of my mouth
was, "as sure as I'm standing

Here, this is zodiac k*ller."

Narrator: to prove their
suspicions, police turned to

Forensic science.

First, seda was fingerprinted.

His prints were then compared
with the print left on the

Letter in central park -- it was
a match.

Next, handwriting experts
compared the handwriting from

The zodiac's letters to seda's
known handwriting sample.

The experts concluded they were
written by the same hand.

Ballistics experts examined
seda's collection of 15 zip

g*ns.

In his letters, zodiac claimed
no one would catch him because

His g*n barrel didn't have the
traditional lands and grooves

Inside for testing.

But the zodiac apparently didn't
know about forensic tool-mark

Analysis.

A tool mark is a
characteristic left behind

During the process of using a
tool to either cut, grind, file,

Or polish a piece of metal.

Narrator: there can be
hundreds of microscopic tool

Marks in a pipe used in a
homemade g*n.

When ballistics experts compared
the b*ll*ts from the victims to

Those fired from seda's zip g*n,
the tool marks were

Microscopically similar.

Finally, police asked seda for
a blood sample for dna testing.

His dna matched the saliva on
the envelope flap of the zodiac

Letter.

How you doing, eddie?

Eddie, I want to introduce you
to detective louis savarese.

How are you, eddie?

Narrator: detective savarese
had the pleasure of telling

Seda they knew his true
identity.

I put out my hand and said,
"I've been looking for you for

Six years."

And I said, "you're the zodiac."

And he says, "no, I'm not."

I says, "you're the zodiac."

That was beginning of a six,
seven hour interrogation on the

Zodiac sh**t, until finally
he did give it up.

He did confess to it.

He didn't want to go to jail
for simply sh**ting his sister

In the butt with a shotgun.

He wanted to take credit for his
years of handiwork.

Narrator: in one of his first
letters, the zodiac claimed that

Only orion and the seven sisters
could stop him.

Ironically, on the day of his
sister's sh**ting, orion and the

Seven sisters were overhead.

They just weren't visible in the
overcast sky.

Eddie seda was charged with
sh**ting six people and k*lling

Three others.

Prosecutors had so much forensic
evidence, they had a hard time

Deciding how to hold the jury's
interest.

We weren't certain that the
public-at-large would be as

Interested in all of this
forensic evidence, and we were

Curious about how the jury would
receive it, and ultimately, we

Set aside a week that we just
referred to as forensic week.

We were shocked -- the jury sat
on the edge of their seats.

And I just remember one
morning, sifting through the

g*ns and the knives, and just at
that moment being struck by,

Like, "wow.

What am I going to do with this
stuff"?

You beat the ballistics, you've
got the fingerprint.

You beat the fingerprint, you've

Got the handwriting.

You beat the handwriting, you've
got the statement.

You beat one statement, you've
got another statement.

All those forensic entities

Came back to haunt eddie
big-time.

Narrator: eddie seda was
convicted and sentenced to 232

Years in prison.

Eddie seda was a coward.

He att*cked his victims from the
rear.

He shot them for no reason other
than that he could.

Narrator: but one question
remains -- how did seda know his

Victims' birthdays?

[ g*nsh*t ]
some speculate that he looked

Inside his victim's wallet after
each sh**ting, and that all had

Different astrological signs due
to nothing more than luck.