Why Zodiac was never caught?

Stupidest question ever.

-Police chief ruling out the handwriting samples, assuming that just because it didn't match, it wasn't him.
-Not following up quickly enough or diligently enough on the only person who was eyewitness to the Zodiac committing his act - Mike Mageau - irregardless of the fact that he supposedly skipped town.

the reason the zodiac was never caught is down to one simple fact: he quit killing and faded back into the woodwork. if he had kept killing, he would have been caught.

Since the Zodiac there have been over 25 serial killers who have never been identified and only two-thirds of all murders across the country are ever solved - and that does not necessarily mean it leads to an arrest. We are so used to crime TV, movies and books where the bad guys always get caught that's it's hard to believe in real life, that's just not the case. The Zodiac is the most famous case because he engaged with the media and police, it was unique.

There is a website called "Serial Killers Statistics & Demographics" that is interesting. For instance.....I was interested in how many serial killers are active at any one time in the USA?

The answer is 35. Just think how many people have seen a serial killer, I know the answer is a lot and I think mathematically, that some people who use this site have seen one, without knowing it of course. Do people who know more about this type of thing agree with that?


The serial killer with the highest number of Proven Victims is Dr. Harold Shipman from England who was active from 1975-1998. His Proven Victim count is 250. I didn't research whether he was caught or just died, but that is a lot of murders to get away with.

I'd assume he would be harder to find because he was a doctor (I didn't look up what kind of Dr. he was), but that is still a huge number of victims.

The USA's serial killer with the Highest Number of Proven Victims comes in 11th worldwide. It was Gary Ridgway (who was also known as The Green River Killer because he left his victims around/in it). He got away with it from 1982 to 2000 until he was caught (18 years) & got his victims from the same general area & dumped them in the same general area.

The statistic that surprised me the most was the race of serial killers. White Serial Killers came in at 52.21%, & black Serial Killers came in at 40.3%. I thought the % of Whites would be higher & the % of Blacks would be lower.

I would guess if you're killing people who you have no connection to (completely random). If you kill people that are located over a very large area. If you've never been in trouble before with the police. If you are very smart. If your killings don't have the same M.O., you kill your victims in different ways.

Anyway - I can see how somebody could get away with being a serial killer for a long time. I wonder how many other serial killers were never caught, and just died from old age & what that does to your health.

I liked this movie and one thing I think the movie got right was the music right at the end. They play "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donavan (if you are a young person, you probably don't know this song or music) which came out in the late 60's I think. It can give off a haunting, eerie, sound which is just right for the end of this movie.

P.S. - if you want to know more about Serial Killer Statistics and Demographics...go here

http://www.statisticbrain.com/serial-killer-statistics-and-demographics/

It can be difficult to catch serial killers, even now, because the killer usually lacks any connection to the victims. This means that the cops can't use things like motive or access to the crime scene to narrow down their pool of suspects. If the killer was careful and didn't leave fingerprints (or now DNA) then it can be exceedingly difficult to catch him. With the exception of Paul Stine, the Zodiac attacked couples who were alone in isolate locations, thus limiting the potential for witnesses. While Mageau and Hartnell survived, Zodiac wore a mask in the Hartnell case, thus preventing any real identification.

There's been a number of killers who have been caught just because of pure dumb luck. Son of Sam was famously caught because his car got a ticket in the vicinity of one of the crimes. But Ted Bundy and the Yorkshire Ripper were both caught because of routine police stops which uncovered incriminating evidence. Without these providential stops the killers probably would have been able to go on to kill more people.

Unless Alpert's covered in bacon grease, I don't think Hugo can track anything.