New Zodiac Killer Evidence From Netflix's This Is The Zodiac Speaking Explained (2024)

Netflix's explosive new documentary This is The Zodiac Speaking reveals previously unknown evidence surrounding the man police have long suspected to be the murderer, Arthur Leigh Allen. Allen's untimely death in 1992, at the age of 58, appeared to put an end to the case, with the killer's identity unsolved. The Zodiac Killer had seven confirmed killings between 1969 and 1974 in the era of serial killers. Still, he is a unique figure in American crime for the letters he sent to police and the media after each killing. The Zodiac Killer's letters contained ciphers full of astrological symbols, which, he insisted, would expose him if solved.

Throughout the 1970s, and until his death, Allen was the police's only named suspect for the Zodiac Killer murders; they connected Allen to the killings through largely circumstantial evidence and a tenuous link to the first victim, Darlene Ferrin. This Is The Zodiac Speaking's principal thesis is that Allen was responsible, courtesy of evidence supplied by the Seawater family, to whom Allen became something of a father figure after befriending Phyllis Seawater upon the death of her husband. The Seawaters have kept their secrets for over fifty years, and This Is The Zodiac Speaking is their confessional.

The Zodiac Killer Was Accused Of Three More Murders

Allen Was On Site For All Three Killings

The Seawaters' chief revelation is that Allen may have been responsible for two further killings. On June 4th, 1963, Linda Edwards, 17, and her fiancée, Robert Domingos, 18, were brutally shot and killed on a remote beach south of Gaviota in Santa Barbara County, California. The weapon used was a .22 rifle, which chimed with the Zodiac's known murders (via zodiackiller.com). The similarities with the Zodiac's Blue Rock Springs attacks on Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau in July 1969 were striking, and the ammunition matched that of his Lake Herman Road attack of 1968, where Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday were murdered.

On October 29th, 1966, 18-year-old Cheri Jo Bates was stabbed to death on the grounds of Riverside City College. The likely murderer sent two letters to RPD headquarters and the offices of the Riverside Press-Enterprise, Zodiac-style, claiming responsibility for the killing, and chillingly confessing that he had approached Cheri with the words: "It's about time," and when she asked "About time for what?" he simply replied: "About time for you to die." The ferocity of the stabbings recalled the Zodiac's attack on Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell at Lake Berryessa in September 1969.

Arthur Leigh Allen Lied To The Seawaters About His Molestation Conviction

The Zodiac Was Silent While Allen Was Incarcerated

Between 1962 and 1968, Allen was an elementary school teacher but was fired in 1968 for allegedly molesting students. In 1974, he was formally arrested for child molestation, pleaded guilty, and was sent to Atascadero State Hospital for evaluation, finally receiving a suspended prison sentence. He was away for three years, during which time the Zodiac Killer was entirely dormant. In 1978, after his release, the police received a new letter stating: "I am back with you. I am waiting for a good movie about me."

During his incarceration, he told the Seawaters he had been imprisoned for a violent offense. It was only when Marlene Seawater was interviewed by police in 1991 that they were told the truth. Still, they refused to believe it, and Connie continued to visit and sail with him, alongside her children, until his death the following year. He left her his boat, which she renamed Mr. Allen. It would be some years, and under the weight of continued corroborating evidence, before the Seawaters were able to see Arthur Leigh Allen for the man he was.

The Seawaters Place Allen At The Scenes of Crime

The Seawaters Were With Allen When The Murders Happened

In This Is The Zodiac Speaking, David, Don, and Connie Seawater recall that Allen took them to nearby Tajiquas Beach that very day of the Domingos and Edwards murders. Having stopped at Lompoc Military Commissary, Allen bought some boxes that he deposited in the trunk of his car, before leaving the kids with the car while he disappeared down the beach, taking the packages with him. He was gone for over an hour, eventually returning, carrying a red rag. When Connie inquired about the blood on his arm, Allen took off in a hurry.

In the documentary, the Seawaters also remember Allen taking them racing in Riverside the day before the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, booking an overnight stay at a motel. Both Connie and David remember blanking out at the motel, but Connie was awakened by Allen and taken on a tour of the same college campus where Cheri Jo Bates was killed, and on the same day. She recalls blanking out while there, then waking up as Allen drove quickly away, police sirens sounding in the distance. Later, the children's blanking out would take a sinister turn.

David Seawater Says Allen Confessed to Him

Allen Admitted That He Was The Zodiac Killer

In 1991, reporter Rita Williams chanced an interview with Allen simply by knocking on his door and asking for one. Shockingly, he agreed, and their discussion was aired on local television soon after. Allen vehemently denied being the Zodiac killer. The Seawaters, now adults, thought the allegations ridiculous. Connie, who was closest to him, drove to see him to inform him she believed none of it. He took her out on the boat, and she asked him the question directly. His answer surprised her: "If I told you that I'd have to kill you, too." In that same year, Marlene found out the truth about his molestation charges.

David recounts how he phoned Allen to offer his support and check in with the man he'd seen as a father figure. He thanked him for always having been good to the Seawater family. Allen, he recalls, was unusually emotional, and began sobbing: "I was not as good to you as you think I was," he said, "I drugged you guys." Shocked, David remembered the blanked-out periods on the Riverside trip, so that when Allen went on to admit, "I molested your sister," he couldn't help but ask: "Are you the Zodiac killer?" to which Allen replied bluntly, "Yes, it was me."

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Allen Sent Incriminating Letters Found In Phyllis Seawater's Secret Box

Allen Described Himself As A Mass Killer

David insists he called the police with Allen's confession but was ignored. When he told his mother, she refused to believe him but cryptically instructed him that after she died, he'd find a box that would explain everything. It seemed that Phyllis was more aware of Allen's true nature than she'd revealed. She passed away in 2017, and buried deep in her garage, the Seawater siblings found the box. In it were confessional letters including statements such as "I almost decided to confess to finally bring it to an end," and a reference to police "dealing with us mass killers and all."

The family had separated as adults but were brought together after seeing David Fincher's film Zodiac, and realizing collectively that they had been present with Allen on or around the dates and times of not only the Zodiac's confirmed killings, but also the three suspected murders. They got together, piecing out each event, and finding new evidence. A knife given to Connie's son by Allen is being examined by forensic scientists, and may yet yield more definitive results. This Is The Zodiac Speaking might have finally proved the identity of the Zodiac killer.

SOURCES: zodiackiller.com

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This Is the Zodiac Speaking

After decades of mystery, the Seawater family presents new evidence about the Zodiac Killer, sharing their story and naming the only suspect agreed upon by detectives.

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