Zodiac Killer

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An explosive and historic New York Times bestseller of true crime and an emotionally powerful and revelatory memoir of a man whose ten-year search for his biological father leads to a chilling discovery: His father is one of the most notorious-and still at large-serial killers in America—THE BASIS FOR A 4-PART FX DOCUMENTARY MINISERIES.

“I promise that you’ve never read anything like The Most Dangerous Animal of All. Mesmerizing from the first page, the story includes a shattering surprise that will sear itself in your memory. Be prepared to read non-stop; this really is a book you won’t be able to put down.” —Jeff Guinn, author of Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson

Soon after his birthmother contacted him for the first time at the age of thirty-nine, adoptee Gary L. Stewart decided to search for his biological father. It was a quest that would lead him to a horrifying truth and force him to reconsider everything he thought he knew about himself and his world.

Written with award-winning author and journalist Susan D. Mustafa, The Most Dangerous Animal of All tells the story of Stewart’s decade-long hunt for his father following a complex trail of startling twists and connections. Combing through government records and news reports and through conversations with his father’s relatives and friends, Stewart turns up a host of clues, including forensic evidence, identifying his father as one of the most infamous and still-wanted serial killers in American history.

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"You make a strong argument based on good circumstantial evidence. Ted Braden looks to be a strong suspect" - Michael E. Anderson, Former F.B.I. Assistant Special Agent in Charge - Enron Investigation

Ted B. Braden was “the perfect combination of high intelligence and criminality.” - Jo Ann, Ted Braden’s sister-in-law

November 24th, 2021 will mark the 50th Anniversary of the only unsolved skyjacking case in American history. The case, nicknamed “Norjack” by the FBI as it involved the hijacking of a Northwest Orient 727 Airliner, would create a folk hero, if not a legend, of a mysterious man who would be immortalized by the name D.B. Cooper. This fascinating case has garnered a myriad of colorful and interesting suspects.

One of the “dark horse” suspects who emerged over the years was a member of the most elite Special Forces unit created by the United States Government to serve during the war in Vietnam: a secret and covert unit called the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG). This rather benign-sounding name served as a thin veil, masking what was known to a few as the “black ops” unit in Vietnam. Many of the soldiers who served in this elite unit consider one of their own to be the infamous D.B. Cooper who hijacked Northwest Orient Flight 305; demanded a ransom of $200,000 in cash; and jumped out of the lowered aft staircase of the plane into the stormy night, never to be seen again.

It was even stated by some of the most highly-decorated members of MACV-SOG, legends such as Major John Plaster and Sergeant Billy Waugh, that one man in SOG had the parachuting expertise, the know-how, and, most of all, the “balls of steel” to pull off the D.B. Cooper skyjacking. This man was Ted B. Braden.

Raised in the Mid-West during the Great Depression, young Ted could not have foreseen that the trajectory of his life would be set by events happening thousands of miles from his boyhood home. At age 16, Braden joined the army to fight in World War II, a decision that led to a twenty-year on-again/off-again military career marked by dangerous covert operations; C.I.A. intrigue; desertion, arrest, and incarceration (only for him to be freed without trial under mysterious circumstances); Cold War mercenarism; and ultimately, distrust in a government for whom he could have surrendered his life. The story of

Ted B. Braden, master parachutist and soldier of fortune, trained by Uncle Sam in the art of war but not in the art of peace, is the quintessential American story, the story of the men of his generation and of a war that defined that generation.

Ted Braden was an enigma as a person, driven by a brilliant, unorthodox mind that struggled to adapt to a society based on law and order and routine. He was a true super soldier who was suspected of having mental illness, most likely from post-traumatic stress disorder. He was a tortured soul with the burning frustration that he could never parlay his soldiering skills into big financial gains. He was fearless in his military endeavors to the point of risking lives but was endowed with natural instincts of survival that kept him and the men under his command alive.

It is tragic that a man like this is no longer alive to share his story. It is tragic that a man like this never will be fully understood. He had an ability to be very kind and very cruel, an ability to be very forthright and very cunning, an ability to be very committed as a soldier and very adrift as a civilian.

Was he the man who fearlessly leapt out of a Boeing 727 with $200,000 strapped around his body on a rainy Thanksgiving Eve in 1971? We may never know, but even if Ted Braden is not D.B. Cooper, he is one of the most fascinating people whose story you never knew - until now.

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Now updated with compelling new information!

December 20, 2019, marked the 51st anniversary of the first canonical Zodiac crime, and for decades, police and amateur detectives have been searching for clues to the identity of the man whose reign of terror began the year after the “Summer of Love.”

After 50 years is it possible for anyone to discover anything new, anything that will unmask the infamous killer? Drew Hurst Beeson says, “Yes,” and in Sighting In on The Zodiac Killer, he reveals the newly-discovered clues, the fascinating connections, and the compelling evidence that point to the man, hiding in plain sight, who just might be the Zodiac Killer.

Drew Hurst Beeson has been exploring the unknown all his life. Inspired by Coast to Coast AM and Unsolved Mysteries, Drew is on a mission to understand our mysterious world. Drew’s first foray into true crime writing is his latest book, Sighting In on the Zodiac Killer: Unmasking America’s Most Puzzling Unsolved Murders. He is also the author of The Cloak of the Brethren and Asleep in Hell and hosts a true-crime/conspiracy YouTube channel. Drew has recently been featured on a number of podcasts: Paranormal Dimensions with David Young of Paranormal U.K. Radio, Conspiracy Unlimited with Richard Syrett, The Cooper Vortex with Darren Schaeffer, and Zodiac: the Most Dangerous Game with Herschel Norman. In addition, he has appeared on radio as a storyteller on Coast to Coast AM’s annual Ghost to Ghost episode and as a featured guest on Midnight in the Desert with Dave Schrader. He is currently working on a book about the Riverside murder of Cheri Jo Bates, a book on D.B. Cooper, and a novel about missing persons.

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Only one killer solves the riddle of the Zodiac. Theodore Kaczynski, dubbed the Unabomber, fills in the gaps of the Zodiac mystery to present the full picture of both criminal careers.

Ted Kaczynski:

— had experience building bombs which he threatened to use on school children as the Zodiac, and that he subsequently used to kill his victims as the Unabomber

— had a psychotic break at age 24, where he convinced himself that he was free of any moral or ethical standard that would prevent him from killing anyone he chose

— was a professor at UC Berkeley as the Zodiac murders began, and had easy access to all of the murder sites and victims

— was a prolific letter writer whose primary mode of communication was the written word, just like the Zodiac killer

— was a genius-level mathematician who was fully capable of creating the Zodiac ciphers, as demonstrated by the codes found in his cabin after his capture in 1996

— as the Zodiac, acted out his plan for gaining the attention of the public that he later presented in his Unabomber manifesto

— possessed the type of weapons, disguises, and margin notes that would be expected of the Zodiac serial killer

The evidence is there. The answer is Ted Kaczynski.

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