The Sound of Crime

“I like killing people because it’s so much fun.”
In July of 1969, a letter arrived at The San Francisco Examiner newspaper containing those chilling words in a coded message.
The sender: the soon-to-be-notorious Zodiac, killer terrorized Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s
That identity has stymied law-enforcement officials, professional code breakers and armchair criminologists for nearly five decades.
Between December 1968 and October 1969, three (3) women and four (4) men were attacked in San Francisco and Northern California.
All died except for two (2) of the men,
The killer originated the name "Zodiac" in a series of taunting letters and cards sent to the local Bay Area press. The letters included four (4) cryptograms.
Of the four cryptograms sent, only one has been definitively solved.
The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) marked the case "inactive" in April 2004, but re-opened it at some point prior to March 2007.
The California Department of Justice has maintained an open case file on the Zodiac murders since 1969.[
THE ZODIAK claims he killed 37 people. There’s really only proof of 5
During this episode, we interview Chris Garcia, a well-known expert on the Zodiac killings who has a podcast dedicated to the Zodiac killings.
We talk about a lot of the cases but concentrate on the cannonical cases - the ones that are assuredly attributed to the Zodiac.
The ones that we concentrate on are the Ferrin-Mageau, the Hartnell-Shepard and the Paul Stine cases.
On September 27, 1969, college students Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell were sitting by Lake Berryessa enjoying a relaxing visit.
They did not know that a man was nearby, watching and waiting for the right moment to set his plan in motion.
Bryan heard some noise and asked Cecelia to look around for the source.
She saw a man as he moved behind a tree.
Cecelia and Bryan dismissed the man as harmless and did not notice as he donned a dark hood featuring the symbol of a white crossed-circle.
The stranger came prepared with a some pre-cut lengths of clothesline to restrain Bryan and Cecelia.
On his belt, a sheath held a foot-long knife and the holster for the gun in his hand. The man needed the gun to prevent Bryan and Cecelia from running away if they began to suspect his true intentions.
He would lie to them and keep them calm with the promise that he meant no harm. Once they complied and were subdued, the man would no longer need the gun and could proceed with his plan.
After stabbing them both, he left and drove to a phone booth and reported the attack.
At 7:40 PM, the Napa Police Department received a call from a telephone booth at a local car wash.
Officer David Slaight answered the call.
The voice of a young man addressed Slaight in a calm, deliberate tone. “I want to report a murder– no, a double murder. They are two miles north of park headquarters. They were in a white Volkswagen Kharmann Ghia.”

The Paul Stine murder was to become the fifth and final confirmed murder by the Zodiac Killer, despite this being challenged by many as a highly unlikely supposition, based upon future unsolved crimes bearing hallmarks of the killer and his claim in the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974 to have killed at least 37 people.
The Zodiac hailed Stine's cab and gave a Presidio address in the posh San Francisco neighborhood.
After stabbing Stine, he took at piece of his shirt, wiped down the car and walked awasy.
Three teenagers saw this event and called the police to report it. Unfortunately they reported the killer as a black man and this probably kept the Zodiac from being caught.
The crime appeared to be a routine robbery and murder until an envelope arrived at the office of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.
The letter inside stated, “This is the Zodiac...

“I like killing people because it’s so much fun.”
In July of 1969, a letter arrived at The San Francisco Examiner newspaper containing those chilling words in a coded message.
The sender: the soon-to-be-notorious Zodiac, killer terrorized Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s
That identity has stymied law-enforcement officials, professional code breakers and armchair criminologists for nearly five decades.
Between December 1968 and October 1969, three (3) women and four (4) men were attacked in San Francisco and Northern California.
All were murdered except for two (2) of the men,
The killer originated the name "Zodiac" in a series of taunting letters and cards sent to the local Bay Area press. The letters included four (4) cryptograms.
Of the four cryptograms sent, only one has been definitively solved.
The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) marked the case "inactive" in April 2004, but re-opened it at some point prior to March 2007.
The California Department of Justice has maintained an open case file on the Zodiac murders since 1969.[
THE ZODIAC claims he killed 37 people. There’s really only proof of 7.

The murder of Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards, in June 1963 is believed to be one of the first Zodiac killings.
The couple were brutally shot while fleeing on a Santa Barbara beach. It was a sunny day and the couple were relaxing on Senior Ditch Day when the killer approached them with a .22 rifle and shot them as they fled. Eleven times in the back for Robert and eight times for Linda.
The murders of Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards have not been widely confirmed as Zodiac Killer victims, probably due to the time period and location, although some similarities do exist between this case and the Zodiac Killer attack at Lake Berryessa. In both instances a lone couple callously attacked near a beach used by fishermen.

Riverside, California was a safe place to raise children. The illusions of relative safety crumbled Halloween morning of 1966 when a pretty, wholesome coed was found brutally slain on her college campus.
Cheri Jo Bates was a freshman at Riverside Community College. Cheri Jo was an outgoing girl who was “popular but not cliquish.” She had no enemies that anyone knew about and was the apple of her father’s eye. Cheri Jo, the quintessential girl next door, had recently become engaged to Dennis Highland, her boyfriend of two years.
On Oct. 30, 1968, she spent part of the day with her father and then went to the library to study.
By 5:30 am the next day when she hadn't come home, her father reported her missing. Less than an hour later they found her mutilated body near the library.
The killer disabled Cheri’s car by ripping out the middle distributor coil. When she tried to start it, he likely offered to help. We will see this in another case many years later.
Cheri Jo’s case went silent. No further clues came for four years. The investigating team believed they identified the killer, but couldn’t convict him based on the evidence in their possession.
Riverside police never gave the suspect’s actual name, just the alias “Bob Barnett.”
Police believed Cheri Jo had a relationship with Bob.

On August 1, 1969, the San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle and Vallejo Times-Herald each received an identical handwritten letter in an envelope without a return address. Beginning,
“Dear Editor: I am the killer of the 2 teenagers last Christmas at Lake Herman,” the letters contained details from the Zodiac Killer’s murders that only the killer could have known.
The killer went on to threaten further attacks if the letters weren’t printed on the front page of the papers.
The first murders widely attributed to the Zodiac Killer were the shootings of high school students Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday on December 20, 1968, on...

Their worlds seemed destined to collide. They were two of the most talented hip-hop rappers on the scene. And they both were dedicated to exposing the truth of the tribulations of life on the streets, social injustice and the racial divide.
But the biggest difference between Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls:
They represented different coasts.
What exploded into arguably the biggest rivalry in music history, ended up in the death of both artists, just as their careers were skyrocketing.
Tupac was gunned down on September 7, 1996, and died six days later, while Biggie was shot and killed six months later on March 9, 1997.
Neither murder has ever been solved.
But, there’s no question that they started off as friends and ended up as enemies
Biggie’s murder was originally investigated by a detective named Kelly Cooper and then transferred to Russell Poole, whom we met last week
This started an investigation which revealed the largest scandal of a major police department in the country.
And of course, we know from last week, that Russell Poole theorized that the LAPD was involved as many of them worked for Suge Knight, thus implying that they had the access and motivation to kill Biggie Smalls.
Last week we know that Russell Poole pointed the finger at a corrupt officer named David Mack and his partner and friend Amir Mohammed.
Russell became even more convinced that the LAPD was involved when they tried to cover up his work and he eventually quitting/being fired in 1999.
The general public was pretty well convinced that he was right.
The Task Force, taken over by Greg Kading did everything they could to discredit Russell Poole's theory because the City of Los Angeles was facing a $400 million law suit from Biggie's mother for future earnings of Biggie's career, which was cut short.
One of the prevailing theories about Biggie's murder was that Suge Knight ordered it and it was done by "Poochie" Wardell, one of Suge's closest and most trusted associates.
As far as Tupac was concerned, there is some consensus that Orlando Anderson was the shooter who killed Tupac, but who was behind it is up for some question.
There is strong evidence that Orlando's uncle, Keffe 'D was hired by Puffy D to kill Tupac,
There is also the theory that Suge Knight, himself wanted Tupac dead because Tupac was talking about leaving Death Row Records and also Suge owed him somewhere upwards of $10 million for royalties....money he didn't have.
The cases are still officially unsolved although there are strong suspects in both cases.

Their worlds seemed destined to collide. They were two of the most talented hip-hop rappers on the scene. And they both were dedicated to exposing the truth of the tribulations of life on the streets, social injustice and the racial divide.
But the biggest difference between Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls:
They represented different coasts.
What exploded into arguably the biggest rivalry in music history, ended up in the death of both artists, just as their careers were skyrocketing.
Tupac was gunned down on September 7, 1996, and died six days later, while Biggie was shot and killed six months later on March 9, 1997.
Neither murder has ever been solved.
But, there’s no question that they started off as friends and ended up as enemies
From day one, there were questions about who was involved, who wanted Biggie dead, who pulled the trigger and who helped after the fact.
Rumors that it was the latest slaying in an ongoing, and increasingly violent West Coast v. East Coast beef hit the airwaves and inspired more bloodshed.
Biggie’s murder was a tragic milestone in ’90s American culture, one that still has people reeling and heads spinning all these years later.
For many, it was also, regrettably but undeniably, a quintessentially Los Angeles crime—steeped in celebrity, money, and entertainment, and wrapped in a shroud of conspiracy.
In his 2002 book, LAbyrinth, Sullivan connected Biggie’s murder to Suge Knight, Death Row Records, and a coterie of LAPD officers who were allegedly working as record company security and may have been involved in the Wallace attack.
Former LAPD officer David Mack, working in connection with Death Row Records’ Suge Knight, was believed to be involved in arranging the murder of Christopher Wallace, with Amir Muhammad allegedly acting as triggerman.
Mack was also implicated in the Rampart police corruption scandal and was convicted for his role in a $722,000 robbery of a Los Angeles Bank of America branch, resulting in a fourteen year sentence in federal prison.
FBI agent Phil Carson, originally came to the Wallace murder by way of investigating LAPD corruption
The FBI’s investigation into David Mack’s involvement in the Biggie slaying was stymied by the fear potential cooperators had of Mack, the former LAPD officer.
Phil Carson visited Mack in federal prison and interviewed him in connection with the Wallace murder and its links to police corruption.
Some pal eople believe they spotted Biggie alive in 2016:
WHY HAVEN’T THESE CASES BEEN SOLVED?
Russell suspects police involvement because it was so well-orchestrated and police officers know exactly what to do.
Russell pointed the finger a DAVID MACK, an LAPD police officer who used scanners and radios to orchestrate the hit. Many of these were found in his house.
Officer Rafael Perez was Mack’s former partner and best friend was convicted for the sale of drugs, racketeering and falsifying evidence.
Russell also suspected Harry Billips AKA AMMO MUHAMMED as a possible hit man.

Their worlds seemed destined to collide. They were two of the most talented hip-hop rappers on the scene. And they both were dedicated to exposing the truth of the tribulations of life on the streets, social injustice and the racial divide.
But the biggest difference between Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls:
They represented different coasts.
What exploded into arguably the biggest rivalry in music history, ended up in the death of both artists, just as their careers were skyrocketing.
Tupac was gunned down on September 7, 1996, and died six days later, while Biggie was shot and killed six months later on March 9, 1997.
Neither murder has ever been solved.
But, there’s no question that they started off as friends and ended up as enemies.
Tupac Amaru Shakur, born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971– September 13, 1996, popularly known by his stage name 2Pac”
He is considered by many as one of the most significant rappers of all time. Much of Shakur's work has been noted for addressing contemporary social issues that plagued inner cities, and he is considered a symbol of resistance and activism against inequality.
Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), widely known by his stage name The Notorious B.I.G., or, more commonly among the familiar, Biggie Smalls or simply Biggie,[2] was an American rapper, in the New York and gangsta rap traditions, who ranks among the greatest rappers ever.
On November 30, 1994, Tupac Shakur was shot five times during a robbery in a recording-studio lobby in New York. He was headed up to meet Biggie and Puffy.
They were scheduled to work on a project together for another rapper, Little Shawn.
Shakur survived, but believed Biggie and his label boss Combs had orchestrated the attack.
It didn't help that the B-side to Biggie's single "Big Poppa," released a little more than two months after the incident, featured the song "Who Shot Ya?" Tupac interpreted this as Biggie taunting him, and released an explosive diss track, "Hit 'Em Up," the following year, on which he claimed to have slept with Biggie's wife, Faith Evans.
Next week we will discuss all the different theories surrounding the death of these 2 superstars.

On June 23, 2001, Mary Jane Rebollar was found dead in her own car which had been abandoned in a field and set on fire. An autopsy revealed that she died of multiple stab wounds. The ensuing investigation led to the arrest and indictment of Gustavo Mireles.
Actual Innocence Review is a non-profit organization found by Daryl Parker, who is our guest today.
AIR has conducted an exhaustive investigation of the facts of this case, in which Mr. Mireles was convicted of the 2001 murder of Mary Jane Rebollar, and sentenced to Life in prison. We believe there is significant evidence to support Mr. Mireles’ claim of Actual Innocence.
On June 21st, 2001, Gustavo Mireles went to a bar in Donna, TX, where he casually met and talked to the victim, Mary Jane Rebollar and her female friend.
After initial polite conversation, Mary Jane and her friend went to play pool, while Gustavo returned to watching a soccer game on the bar's television.
Mary Jane's friend left early, but Mary Jane and Gustavo both stayed until closing time, when everyone left and went home.
Mary Jane was found two days later in the closed cab of her truck, which was parked in a plowed field.
She had been stabbed over forty times with a screwdriver-type weapon.
Two drops of blood at the scene and a pubic hair "matched" Gustavo.
-Gustavo had no record of violence, and only one misdemeanor violation at the time of the crime

- Mary Jane's boyfriend was a cartel drug-dealer with a violent criminal history

- Mary Jane's family, who reported her missing, describe the boyfriend's conflicting stories as to where he was over the two days before her body was found

- When police went to speak to the boyfriend about the murder, they found over $1 million worth of drugs in his house

- Those drugs were packed in boxes from a company belonging to a politically connected family

- Due to the size of the drug bust, investigators called in the DEA, who whisked the boyfriend away

- Investigators let the drug bust supersede the homicide, and failed to even document their interview with the boyfriend

- Investigators failed to discover that Mary Jane's friend was having an affair with her boyfriend, and had left the bar early to go meet him

- Despite the bar owner being able to read and write English, investigators wrote the statement out for him, in which he identified Gustavo as talking to Mary Jane in a car after closing time

- The bar owner has since clarified that he saw Gustavo speaking with a woman in a car, not the victim in her red and white pickup truck

- The bar owner said it was too dark to identify the woman Gustavo was speaking with

- The bar owner said that Gustavo and the woman in the car were the only people in the parking lot, so the victim was already gone

- Despite a very bloody crime scene, police found none of the victim's DNA on Gustavo's clothing

- The crime scene DNA was badly degraded because of the hot conditions inside the truck cab

- The two blood drops and pubic hair identifying Gustavo supposedly found at the crime scene were not degraded at all

- Police had collected blood and hair samples from Gustavo, and had those samples in their possession at the same time they possessed the crime scene evidence

- The relevant samples were received by the lab in unsealed condition

- There is no scientific explanation for the difference in degradation in these samples

- This is strong evidence that the samples attributed to Gustavo from the crime scene were actually taken from the samples police collected from him after his arrest

- Blood spatter evidence in crime scene photos demonstrate that at least two people loaded Mary Jane's body into the truck

- Mary Jane had female tissue under her nails

This episode brings you up-to-date on the latest information about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
In 2011, Operation Grange was instituted by Scotland Yard to help solve the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. They translated and reviewed more than 100,000 documents associated with the case. At that point, they held out hope that Madeleine was still alive
The McCanns also believed and have always held out that she is alive. They pinned their hope on cases like Jaycee Dugard, an 11 year-old who was abducted by a pedophile, Phillip Garrido and his wife. She escaped 18 years later after having been held in a backyard shed and having given birth to 2 children.
The other famous case that gave the McCanns hope was the Elizabeth Smart abduction by a pedophile, David Mitchell and his wife. Elizabeth was found and released 9 months after her capture.
These 2 girls who returned home alive gave the McCanns hope.
The astonishing element of this case is the amount of money that has been spent. To date, almost $20 million has gone toward the Madeleine McCann investigation. This has raised resentment from many parents who have not benefited from this same treatment.
Over the years, there have been many leads that all ended up as false.
Currently, there are a couple of live leads that the police are actively following.
One is Martin Ney, a German pedophile who is currently in jail for the murder of 3 prepubescent boys. He appears to match sketches of the abductor seen by the Martin family and Jane Tanner.
Another person associated with Ney is also a person of interest. Both are suspected to be part of a pedophile sex ring.
Currently, the McCanns have entered a legal action with the Court of Human Rights in France to overturn a decision in favor of Goncalo Amaral, the Portuguese inspector who wrote a scathing book accusing the McCanns of being involved in the coverup of their daughter's accidental death.
As of March of 2020, there are still dozens of active leads in the case, although no one has been charged in the case.
It is still an open case

There are two distinct views of what happened to Madeleine McCann.
The primary Portuguese police investigator, Goncalo Amaral wrote a book, THE TRUTH OF THE LIE, and is of the opinion that the parents, Kate and Gerry McCann accidentally killed their daughter, Madeleine with a sedative and then covered up the crime.
Kate McCann wrote a book, MADELEINE defending she and her husband from all the accusations that has them involved in the disappearance of their child.
Robert Murat, an Englishman, living with his mother, next door to the McCann's holiday apartment became a suspect very early on, but no solid evidence could ever be discovered that would link him to the disappearance.
There is a lot of discussion about the window in the room that Madeleine was sleeping. Kate claims that is was open when she arrived. No one else remembers seeing it open after the disappearance. This small detail along with a lot of other discrepancies caused the Portuguese police to question the involvment of the parents.
Because of the politics of this case, the Portuguese police were hampered in their attempts to thoroughly investigate this case.
For instance, they tried to reconstruct the night of the disappearance, but never got the cooperation of the McCanns or the other friends who were traveling with them.
The press complicated everything and were primarily on the side of the McCanns.
An Irish family who were returning to their holiday apartment reported that they saw a man carrying a child around 9:55 on the night of the disappearance. They didn't think anything about it until they returned to Ireland and saw a report on the disappearance and realized they might have seen the abductor. Later when Gerry and Kate returned to England, the Smiths saw Gerry getting off the plane and said that it who they saw carrying the child.
One of the most important events that came out of the investigation was the use of Martin Grime's cadaver and blood dogs to search the McCann's apartment and the clothes and cars of anyone involved. The dogs found traces of blood and cadaver in two (2) locations in the apartment and 2 locations of the McCann's rented car.
Then the DNA results created another controversy with the Portuguese police saying the results are conclusive enough and the McCanns' saying that they're not conclusive and flawed.

There are two very different views of what happened to Madeleine. There is a book written by Goncalo Amaral, the Portugueses police lead investigator and he has written the book, The Truth of the Lie, to defend the actions of the police and particulary himself because he felt like he was never given the chance to explain why the police did what they did.
Kate McCann wrote a 500 page book was written to defend themselves from all the accusations that came from the Portuguese police.
It was early on in the process that the Portuguese police became suspicious of the parents and part of the conflict is attributable to the differences in the two cultures. The British approach and the Portuguese approach are tie to their cultures. There is also a language barrier that further contributes to the chasm between the two.
From the very beginning there was a conflict between the parents and the police. The Portuguese police were incensed by the treatment that they got from the British police and politicians. They felt like they were being left out and were being treated as if they were a third world police force. Here again you can sense the cultural differences.
The police were also shocked at the level of political involvement and the massive amount of press that descended on Praia de Luz. The police also became more suspicious as the McCanns hired a press consultant to handle their interaction with the press.
From the beginning the Portuguese police noticed many inconsistencies in the reports and interviews of the McCanns and all the friends they were traveling with.
The McCanns panicked and called everyone they knew. The police, on the other hand, never panic because they know that there are many things that could have happened, one being, that Madeleine wandered off and was not abducted. The McCanns jumped to that conclusion without much consideration.....another suspicious action according to the police.
Goncalo retires, or is forced out, much to the pressure put on the Portuguese government by the British government. He has been a policeman for 26 years and resents what happened to him.
The events immediately following the disappearance of Madeleine demonstrate that the McCanns and friends took control and the police never had control, meaning that the "crime" scene was destroyed by all the people that trampled through it during the panic right after Madeleine was discovered missing.

Months after Madeleine goes missing, Brian Kennedy, a wealthy Brit hired Metedo 3 to help solve the disappearance. Metedo 3 dove in and started infiltrating the underworld of pedophiles and the dark web.
Even though they put a lot of work into the case, they came up with no solid leads and Brian fired them.
Then he hired a very powerful American investigative company called Oakley International. The founder Kevin Halligen had assembled a dream team and they went to work.
They went back to zero and looked at all the original sightings and work that had been done.
During this time Gonzalo Amaral had written a book and it was released. A TV program was made from the book and both accused the parents of covering up the accidental death of Madeleine. It changed the minds of many of the Portuguese public. In 2009, a court sided with the McCanns and banned the continued distribution of the book and TV program.
Brian was receiving huge bills from Oakley's investigation and he was starting to get suspicious.
Oakley was making all kinds of claims that turned out to be useless.
It was eventually discovered that Kevin Harrigen was a complete fraud and had done this kind of scam before.
18 months went by without any progress.
The McCanns' hired another investigative team that came up with two (2) of the most significant sightings that had never been reported before.
One was a woman who lived above them who saw a man steathly leaving the McCann apartment the afternoon before the disappearance.
The other was a couple seen near Lagos, the port, early the next morning crossing a road with a baby in their arms.
Finally, the McCanns convinced Scotland Yard and the local British police to take over the case.
They made some significant progress identifying some sketchy men who had been hanging around the area. It seems they might have been associated with a trafficking ring.
Six years later there still is not clear evidence of what happened to Madeleine McCann.