THE Zodiac Killer’s identity has remained a mystery for over 50 years, despite police publicly naming school teacher Arthur Leigh Allen as the prime suspect in the brutal murders.
Now, over 30 years after his death, people who knew Allen throughout their childhoods have shared the chilling clues that led them to believe that Allen was the notorious serial killer.
Arthur Leigh Allen with the Seawater children[/caption]
Coded letters mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle by the Zodiac serial killer in 1969[/caption]
Connie Seawater, Arthur Leigh Allen, and Phyllis Seawater[/caption]
The Zodiac Killer is suspected of murdering at least five victims between December 1968 and October 1969 that police tied directly to him, but cops could never confirm the total number of killings.
He terrorized northern California for years by writing messages in code and demanding they be published in local newspapers or else he’d kill more people.
Police identified Allen as the main suspect in the case, but never obtained enough evidence to arrest him before he died in 1992.
In Netflix’s new three-part documentary called This is the Zodiac Speaking, a family who was close to Allen at the time of the murders shared more insight into the suspect – who they believe was the serial killer.
David and Connie Seawater were Allen’s former students who became close with the beloved teacher in the 1960s due to his friendship with their mom, Phyllis, the doc revealed.
The kids, along with their younger brother Don, viewed Allen as a father figure who joined them for family dinners and often took the children on trips to the beach or the movie theater.
EERIE REMARK
After reviewing years of hints and strange behavior, Connie said in the series she now believes Allen gave her clues that he was the Zodiac Killer as they remained close even after she was an adult.
She said she asked Allen point-blank if he was the Zodiac Killer when the pair went sailing together in 1991 – a year before his death.
Allen eerily responded that if he told her the truth, then he’d have to kill her.
“I thought it was a big joke,” Connie said in the docuseries.
However, the Seawater kids had become wary of Allen over the years as a few field trips ended in strange circumstances.
David and Connie said that a beach day in 1993 ended early when Allen ran to them with what appeared to be blood on his hands and made them leave the beach.
The kids became suspicious when they found that Robert Domingos, 18, and Linda Edwards, 17, were murdered around that time.
NIGHTMARE TRIP
In another questionable instance, the pair shared that Allen took them on a trip to a racetrack in Riverside, which is about seven hours away from San Francisco, when they were both in high school in October 1966.
Zodiac Killer’s victims
The Zodiac Killer claimed to have committed 37 murders. However, police only ever confirmed seven victims:
- David Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 15, were shot to death on December 20, 1968
- Michael Mageau, 19, was shot on July 4, 1969 and survived
- Darlene Ferrin, 22, was shot and killed on July 4, 1969
- Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, was stabbed on September 27, 1969 and survived
- Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22, was stabbed to death on September 27, 1969
- Paul Lee Stine, 29, was shot and killed on October 11, 1969
Two days after the trip started on October 28, Connie recalls finding David in a deep sleep in a motel where the group was staying. She went for a drive with Allen and alleged he put his hands down her pants.
In the documentary, Connie said she returned to the hotel and drank some juice, which led her to a deep sleep.
She said she woke up with memory loss and couldn’t remember anything but Allen bringing the high schoolers to the car on October 31.
David and Connie believe that while they were unconscious throughout the trip, Allen murdered a woman named Cheri Jo Bates, who was found dead on October 30, 1966. Bates’ murder has never been solved.
CRIMINAL BACKGROUND
The Seawaters continued their relationship with Allen after he was fired from an elementary school in 1962 for having a firearm on school grounds.
In 1968, Allen was fired from the next elementary school he worked at and charged after he allegedly molested students.
He was arrested for the crime in 1974 and pleaded guilty. Coincidentally, the Zodiac murders stopped in 1974.
San Francisco police’s composite of the Zodiac Killer[/caption]
A cipher mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle in November 1969[/caption]
A letter from the Zodiac Killer to police bragging about his kills[/caption]
Allen spent three years in prison and served five years of felony probation until 1982.
His criminal background combined with digging by Robert Graysmith, who wrote Zodiac: The Shocking True Story, led police to consider Allen as a suspect in the Zodiac case.
Eyewitness accounts also implicated Allen after Zodiac survivors noted similarities in voice and stature with the killer.
PHONE CALL ‘CONFESSION’
When Allen’s health began to rapidly decline in 1992, David said he called to check in on the former teacher due to his mom’s suggestion.
David recalled Allen breaking down in tears on the phone and confessing to drugging them as kids and molesting Connie.
He said Allen confessed to being the Zodiac Killer after David asked him.
However, Allen maintained his innocence throughout interviews while he was alive.
“I know that deep in my soul,” he said in 1991.
“I’ve never been known for good luck, and I guess this is pretty much living proof of it. I couldn’t murder anyone.”
CHILLING LETTERS
Allen died of heart disease aged 58 at his home on August 26, 1992.
While Allen was publicly identified as a suspect, multiple other men have also been accused of being the Zodiac Killer in the decades since the mass hysteria, including deceased veteran Gary Francis Poste.
The Seawater kids said their mom never admitted to believing that Allen was the killer.
However, the series revealed that after Phyllis’ death in 2017, her kids discovered countless letters between her and Allen that they found incriminating.
“Every time someone mentioned police to me I’d jump,” Allen wrote in one of the letters, saying in another one that his palms turned “sweaty” when he saw headlines about murder.
In another letter, Allen wrote, “The most dangerous thing is when I almost decided to confess.”
This is the Zodiac Speaking is available for streaming on Netflix.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
Zodiac victims Paul Stine, Cecilia Shepard, and Bryan Hartnell[/caption]
Zodiac victims Betty Lou Jensen, David Faraday, and Darlene Ferrin[/caption]
