On the night of his last known murder in San Francisco, the Zodiac narrowly escaped when two police officers passed him as he walked away from the crime scene. He then bragged about the attack in his next letter and mocked police for failing to capture him. Police then called the Zodiac a clumsy criminal, a liar, and a latent homosexual. The killer was clearly angered by these statements and this appears to have sparked the Zodiac’s obvious hatred of the San Francisco police department. He responded with a rambling letter in which he claimed that police officers had stopped and talked to him but let him go. This controversial claim fueled decades of debate and confusion. Was the killer telling the truth? Did police let him escape justice? Or was the story of the "Zodiac stop" just a desperate lie created by the killer to humiliate his pursuers? The ZODIAC: A TO Z podcast examines this chapter of the Zodiac story in the next episode "Shadows & Fog: The Zodiac vs. The SFPD."

Written and produced by Michael Butterfield for ZodiacKillerFacts.com / Copyright 2019

Voice of "The Zodiac" by John Knight 

All music licensed and used by permission. “Run and Hide” composed and produced by Jens Kiilstofte. “Ghost” composed and produced by JM Scherf.