Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 1, 1990 TAG: 9007010004
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
The book, "Zodiac," by Robert Graysmith, includes boastful letters sent by the San Francisco killer to newspapers during the late 1960s and early 1970s, claiming responsibility for a series of murders and taunting the police to catch him.
"We have looked at that book, yes," Police Commissioner Lee P. Brown told reporters. He added that the New York Zodiac killer probably has, too.
The original "Zodiac" is believed to have killed as many as 40 people since the late 1960s. New York's Zodiac has shot four people since March, one of whom later died.
The letters from the San Francisco murderer began with the sentence "This is the Zodiac." The same phrase begins the six letters sent to the New York City police and two news organizations, claiming responsibility for the shootings here.
The San Francisco Zodiac was never caught, but neither Graysmith nor police believe he has somehow been transplanted to the East. The New York Zodiac, while borrowing some of the San Francisco killer's methods, has established a pattern all his own, authorities say.
"It's absolutely not the same man. The handwriting is wrong, the modus operandi is wrong," Graysmith declared. "Zodiac was attacking people by a body of water, on Saturday nights, during a full moon, usually young couples who were out having a good time, which is something that he didn't have."
In contrast, the New York gunman chose some of the city's most vulnerable citizens, in some of the most crime-prone areas, as his prey.
In his first note to police, dated Nov. 19, 1989, the New York gunman threatened to kill 12 people - one for each astrological sign.
"It's the astrology thing that seems to be the one link," between the New York and the San Franciscan gunmen, said Graysmith.
The author, who worked as a political cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle and saw the Zodiac gunman's frequent letters to the paper, spent 10 years researching his book, which was published in 1986.
Chief of Detectives Joseph Borrelli said Friday that investigators assigned to the Zodiac task force believed the gunman stalking New York City had read and copied parts of Graysmith's book.
Candice Skrapec, a psychology professor at John Jay College for Criminal Justice, said that from his letters to police and the media it was clear the New York gunman had read the book.
But Skrapec, whose specialty is serial killers, doubts the New York gunman thinks he is the "Zodiac" killer of San Francisco. Instead, the psychologist believes the New York gunman "thinks of himself as continuing the unfinished work of the Zodiac."
by CNB