A French engineer is convinced he's solved one of true crime's greatest mysteries. But the problem is no one seems to believe him.
In January, Fayçal Ziraoui began posting on a popular forum where sleuths dissect theories about the Zodiac Killer, who murdered five people in the Bay Area from 1968-69. Ziraoui's long, detailed posts describe the process by which he says he cracked two of Zodiac's unsolved ciphers, known as Z13 and Z32. Z13 was sent to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1970 and says "My name is" followed by 13 letters and symbols. Z32 was also received by the Chronicle in 1970, along with a letter threatening to "wipe out a school bus" and an annotated map of Mount Diablo.
Ziraoui used the key that finally unlocked Zodiac's 340 cipher last December and made a number of substitutions. He says the results came to him in just two weeks. He claims the longer code reads, "LABOR DAY FIND 45.069 NORT 58.719 WEST," and the shorter one is the name "KAYR," which Ziraoui deduced is similar to Kane, the name of longtime Zodiac suspect Lawrence Kane.
The New York Times reports that not everyone in the Zodiac community is keen on Ziraoui's proposed solutions.
It's long been believed that without additional information, the "my name is" cipher cannot be solved; short ciphers are generally the hardest to crack, as the limited number of characters make it difficult to find patterns or repeats. In addition, many think the Zodiac — who thrived on creating mystery and getting attention — would never actually reveal his real name.
According to the Times, Ziraoui's work was so disliked by one forum, a moderator removed his comments altogether within 30 minutes of posting. One of the men who solved the 340 cipher also expressed his doubt in Ziraoui's work. Due to the shortness of these ciphers "it is practically impossible to determine if any of them are correct," David Oranchak told the Times.
But Ziraoui remains convinced Lawrence Kane is his man. The name is a familiar one to Zodiac obsessives, mostly because of his link to two cases in the Tahoe area, where he lived at the time. According to Ziraoui, the coordinates in his alleged cipher solution correspond with a spot in South Lake Tahoe.
In 1970, Kathleen Johns was driving near Patterson, Calif., when she said she was flagged down by another driver, who claimed he noticed her car was showing signs of trouble. Instead of helping, Johns said he kidnapped her and her infant child, driving them around for hours before she was finally able to escape.
Once at a police station, Johns identified the wanted poster of Zodiac as her attacker, and would later pick Kane out of a photo lineup.
Kane also allegedly worked at the Sahara Hotel-Casino, where hotel nurse Donna Lass disappeared from in September 1970. Her body was never found, and her ties to Zodiac are tenuous at best: A supposed Zodiac letter tried to take credit for her murder, but Zodiac was known to brag about murders he didn't commit.
Kane died in 2010. He was never officially name as a suspect.
For his part, Ziraoui isn't posting on Zodiac forums anymore but remains convinced he's cracked the elusive codes.
“He came in and told them ‘end of the game’,” his brother Youssef Ziraoui told the Times. "But these people don’t want the game to end."