Who Was the Zodiac Killer? Arthur Leigh Allen Wasn’t the Only Suspect—Who Netflix’s Documentary Left Out

Arthur Leigh Allen

Arthur Leigh Allen was the only man ever named by police as a suspect in the investigation. A convicted sex offender who was fired from his job as a primary school teacher after allegations of sexual misconduct, Allen was also discharged without honor from the US Navy.

He was first interviewed by the police in 1969 after he was seen near the scene of one of the crimes. Later, it was discovered that in his job as a teacher, Allen worked just minutes away from where the Zodiac Killer’s first victim, Darlene Ferrin, was murdered. 

In 1971 police once again investigated Allen after a friend claimed Allen spoke of his desire to kill people and used the name Zodiac. One of the Zodiac killer survivors, Michael Mageau, identified Allen in a photo line-up, but conflicting testimony from other witnesses meant police could never charge him with the crime.

After he died in 1992, police searched his house and discovered more evidence that points to Allen having been the Zodiac Killer: his watch, a Zodiac Sea Wolf wristwatch, had the same logo seen on the killer’s letters. 

Gary Francis Poste 

In 2021 a group named The Case Breakers claimed they had solved the Zodiac Killer case, and the name they presented was not the same as the police’s prime suspect. Instead, the group made up of ex-journalists, military intelligence workers, law enforcement officers, and academics, claimed the murderer was Gary Francis Poste.

The group also claimed to have linked Poste to a sixth murder that had never been associated with the Zodiac Killer. Poste, who had a history of violence against animals that The Case Breakers also indicate fits with the profile of the Zodiac Killer, died in August 2018 at the age of 80, after being diagnosed with sepsis and vascular dementia. 

According to The Case Breakers, Poste’s connection to the case became obvious looking at the Zodiac Killer’s ciphers. In one particular note, they claimed, removing the letters of his full name revealed a hidden message.

“So you’ve got to know Gary’s full name in order to decipher these anagrams,” former Army counterintelligence agent Jen Bucholtz told Fox News.

“I just don’t think there’s any other way anybody would have figured it out.”

Earl Van Best Jr.

Earl Van Best Jr.’s son and daughter-in-law accused him of being the Zodiac Killer, but the evidence of Van Best Jr. being the killer was always thin at best. He bore a striking resemblance to the man on the police sketch, and that was enough to make him a suspect, but nothing ever came of this suspicion.

After marrying 14-year-old Judy Chandler when he was 28, Van Best Jr. was arrested and imprisoned for statutory rape. Chandler, however, was already pregnant by that time and gave birth to a son, Gary Stewart, who she would later give up for adoption. That son, Stewart, wrote a nonfiction book in 2014 titled “The Most Dangerous Animal of All” which accused his father of being the Zodiac Killer.

Van Best Jr. died in 1984 in Mexico, after a life of crime that included being charged with DUI, fraud, rape, and pedophilia.

Ross Sullivan

Sullivan, a library assistant at Riverside City College, was another man who was suspected mostly because he looked very similar to the police sketch of the murder. Additionally, his coworkers became suspicious after Sullivan went missing for days after Cheri Jo Bates’ murder, which took place in Riverside City College.

However, there was no other evidence tying Sullivan to the murders. In 1968, Sullivan moved to Santa Cruz and was treated for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. He died in 1977 at the age of 36.

Louis Joseph Myers

Meyers reportedly confessed to the murders in 2001 after finding out he was dying from cirrhosis, and instructed his friend Randy Kenney to go to the police after his death. However, the only evidence typing Meyers to the case was that no Zodiac letters were sent from 1971-1973 when Meyers was stationed abroad with the military.

According to Kenney, Meyers targeted couples after a bad breakup.