Top 10 Things Zodiac Got Factually Right and Wrong
Top 10 Things Zodiac Got Factually Right and Wrong
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Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Things Zodiac Got Factually Right and Wrong. For this list, we’ll be looking at what was fact and fiction in David Fincher’s 2007 film, “Zodiac.” Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments below.
#10: The Zodiac Letters
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What set the notorious Zodiac killer apart from other murderers was the fact that he sent taunting letters to police departments and news organizations. Like in the film, he specifically targeted The San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Police Department due to his location being in Northern California. He often included ciphers with hidden messages in his mailings, one of which only recently got decrypted back in December of 2020. The letters and ciphers got the public so obsessed with the Zodiac, that entire forums online still exist today attempting to figure out their hidden meanings.
#9: The Zodiac Calling On Live Television
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Someone claiming to be the Zodiac did, in fact, call onto Jim Dunbar’s live television show on October 22, 1969. Not long before, the man had called the Oakland P.D. and expressed interest in calling the show if either attorney Melvin Belli or F. Lee Bailey attended the program. Although the man turned out to be a patient from a mental institution, this incident captured the public’s obsession with the Zodiac. Countless people came forward claiming to either be the Zodiac or know who the Zodiac was, which swamped the police investigation. If there weren’t so many pointless leads, perhaps the search for the man might have been successful.
#8: Robert Graysmith’s Obsession with the Zodiac
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Just like in the film, real-life Robert Graysmith was a cartoonist for The San Francisco Chronicle. At the height of the Zodiac murders, Graysmith became so enthralled by the case, he eventually went on to write the book that the film is based on. He even cites his obsession as having caused the divorce with his wife. However, Graysmith has stated in interviews that he believes more good came out of the book than bad. If it wasn’t for his obsession, the film would not exist and perhaps the public interest garnered because of it might one day help solve the case.
#7: Police Did Not Question the Couple Who Solved the First Zodiac Cipher
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When the Zodiac Killer sent out his first cipher, it stumped professionals everywhere. In the film, we see an older couple solve the cipher rather quickly after reading the morning paper. While this is accurate, police were extremely suspicious of how quickly the couple solved it and the husband even became a suspect for a short time. Thankfully, the man did not remain a suspect for long and did help police in cracking the first Zodiac cipher. While the film likely cut these details out due to time constraints, it goes to show how unprecedented something like that was at the time.
#6: Bryan Hartnell & Cecelia Shepard’s Relationship
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During the Lake Berryessa attack, Zodiac ended up killing college student Cecelia Shepard and severely wounding her friend Bryan Hartnell. In the film, it is strongly suggested that the two were in a romantic relationship at the time. However, the pair had just recently convened at Pacific Union College in San Francisco and decided to have a picnic together. Because the Zodiac previously targeted young couples, it’s entirely possible he mistook their relationship even though the two were simply just old friends. Nonetheless, the story is as tragic as it is horrifying, and our hearts go out to the victims and their families.
#5: Paul Avery’s Life
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While Paul Avery was a crime reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle, a large chunk of his friendship with Graysmith is fictionalized in the film. The plot interweaves them much more than what occurred in real life as the two didn’t actually meet until both of them had already left The Chronicle. The film also depicts Avery as having gone off the deep end after having left, which is not true either. According to his family, Avery went on to live a happy and normal life before passing away in 2000.
#4: Police Walked Right Past The Zodiac Killer
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After Paul Stine’s murder, police received a dispatch call identifying the suspect as an African-American male. However, witnesses had already reported a completely different identification and the police who arrived on the scene drove right past the killer. This incident was one of many poor police practices that led to Zodiac evading capture. Nowadays, anyone in the surrounding area would have been questioned and the murderer would have easily been caught. Zodiac even taunted police about his escape in a letter, suggesting he could have been apprehended had police searched the area properly.
#3: Graysmith Met Arthur Leigh Allen
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In the movie, we see Robert Graysmith track down Arthur Leigh Allen at the hardware store he works at. According to Graysmith, he did actually travel to Allen’s workplace, and the pair convened outside. It wasn’t exactly how the film displays it, though. Graysmith claims Allen drove up next to him in the parking lot and the two stared each other down in their vehicles. It’s hard to know whether or not Graysmith’s paranoia was getting to him or if there was something more sinister at play, because Allen died of a heart attack in 1992.
#2: Arthur Leigh Allen Was the Only Main Suspect
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Because the film is based on Robert Graysmith’s book, this isn’t entirely David Fincher’s or screenwriter James Vanderbilt’s fault. Although the film lightly touched on suspect Rick Marshall, there were several other key suspects that it left out entirely. This included Richard Gaikowski and Lawrence Kane who both, like Allen, had many things pointing for and against them. The bizarre amount of leads is one of the main reasons why this case was so hard to crack - and in fact, October 2021 brought forth another name to the mix, thanks to a group of cold case investigators calling themselves the Case Breakers. They claimed the late Gary Francis Poste was actually the Zodiac Killer, having matched his DNA to a crime that hadn’t been associated with the Zodiac prior to this.
#1: No One Knows How Many People Zodiac Murdered
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Although Zodiac claimed to have killed a total of 37 people, the true number of victims is a mystery. Because he indicated knowledge or sent proof of his murders originally, police believe he likely took credit for ones that weren’t his after he started doing otherwise. Following the Paul Stine case, there were several instances where Zodiac would only give details in his letters that had already been public knowledge. There is only direct proof of 5 murders attached to Zodiac but due to a lack of evidence, the true number of victims might never be uncovered. However, if the Case Breakers’ identification of Gary Francis Poste proves correct, new facts and details may be subsequently uncovered in the future.
