RedHanded - The Zodiac Killer: Part One | #400

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

Violent attacks, sadistic taunting, and uncrackable puzzles; in some ways “The Zodiac” laid the foundations for every murderous TV psychopath and movie villain of the next half-century. For our 400th episode we decided to dedicate three whole episodes to the potentially the most famous serial killer in history: how he operated, how his puzzles were solved, and who he might have been.In part one we’re going to tell you everything you need to know about the Zodiac’s first four victims: David Farady, Betty Lou Jensen, Darlene Ferrin, and Michael Mageau. Two pairs of “young lovers”, all killed at night by a lone gunman, seemingly without a motive…Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad free. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple podcasts. Premium Blackjack Pro, where strategy meets top-tier gameplay. Drop in on the exciting Sugar Rush and Crazy Time slot games, or play the dazzling MGM Grand Emerald Nights, a slot experience that captures the magic of MGM. With so many games, it's time to make your move. Download the app and visit BedMGM Ontario today to experience the next level of gaming. Visit BedMGM.com for terms and conditions.

19 plus to wager, Ontario only. Please, gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham,

the host of Wondry's American History Tellers. In our latest series, at the turn of the 20th century, rapid industrialization, urbanization, and political corruption were ravaging America. But soon President Theodore Roosevelt and a diverse group of reformers known as progressives would fight back. Listen to American History Tellers on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Inspired by the hit podcast Against the Odds comes the gripping guidebook, How to Survive Against the Odds. Learn how to handle whatever nature throws at you through gut-wrenching true stories of life or death situations. This might just be the most important book you'll ever read. Go to SurvivalGuidebook.com to pre-order How to Survive Against the Odds today. I'm Saruti. I'm Hannah. And welcome to Red-Handed. For the 400th time. Oh my god.

Mad. Yeah. Pretty mad milestone today. 400 episodes. And that isn't even counting. The bonuses, the hand of the duvets, the short hands. All of the ones that we had to re-record because they weren't good enough. Yep, yep, yep.

All of that. What is there to say on this momentous occasion? Well done, I guess. Yes. Well done. You. Yeah. Well done. Me. And well done to everyone listening. Absolutely nuts. Whether they've joined us today for the first time or whether they have been here since the violin cupboard.

Yeah. Yeah. Well done, everyone. People quite often ask, like, you know, what was the goal? I'm like, I don't know. I genuinely don't know what I thought was gonna happen. No, I think the goal at the start for me was purely just like, let's have a fun creative hobby.

Yes, I definitely remember that period of time because I was just a phone monkey on a reception, being quite concerned that I was in very significant debt for my brain and I wasn't using it and I felt like I could feel it deflating. Yeah, yeah. Yes, I think that was initially the plan. We were so nervous. Oh, it was horrible. The first time we recorded, it was like, and I had a Chromebook because I couldn't afford a laptop. We had one microphone and a Chromebook and whatever fucking app that like, cause the thing about Chromebooks is like, I don't have any memory. So whatever the recording app was, I can't even remember

what it was called. And I'm sure it doesn't exist anymore because it was so shit. It would just stop working if we recorded more than five minutes and you were like, we're going to give up if it keeps doing this. We have to find something else. So I had to take my brother's laptop. My brother at the time was a teenager and I was just like, can I have it? Because I can't buy my own. Oh my God. I remember and I didn't even have a laptop. I had no work laptop and I was like, can I have it? Because I can't buy my own. Oh my God. I remember. And I didn't even have a laptop. I had my work laptop. And I was like, I can't put fucking random bits of software on my work laptop. We're going to have to find a solution.

No. So, and then, yeah. So I stole from my teenage brother. I don't know how I pulled that off. I really don't remember. And then I remember sitting in your kitchen trying to upload onto Podbean, which is where we started it. And it was like, oh, do you want to buy it for one month, for three months, for six months, for 12 months? And it was like, obviously a price break as you went higher and higher and we're like, let's do one month, shall we? And then calling my dad because we didn't know how to upload anything onto Podbean. We didn't know how to convert it into a JPEG.

Because it was like, must this fucking image that Saru's made on Canva, free Canva by the way, which was our original red-handed logo. Yeah, it was just like, it needs to be a JPEG. My dad's like, are you stupid? Again, much like you. You've got a master's and it's telling you it's not a JPEG. And I think whether we believed in ourselves or not, I don't think anybody thought we could get here, not because they didn't, you know, think we're stupid or anything, but because we didn't know what a JPEG was and we didn't have a laptop. I didn't tell anybody until we charted. Until we charted top 40, I didn't breathe a word to anybody.

No, I didn't tell anybody. I didn't tell anybody at all. I told my boss at the job that I was going for because I thought it would make me sound interesting. Yeah, it was a job interview. And then he was like, oh, and then he listened to it and I was like, oh, sweet Jesus. Anyway, we're here now. We are here now. And I'm my boss. You're not the boss of me now.

And you're not so big ****. Who I of course mean the solicitor who defended ****. Absolutely not anybody else off that name. Oh my god, no, listen, state that out. So yes, 400 episodes in or there or thereabouts, we come to you today. Humbly, tea in hand, ready to enthuse you hopefully. Yep. And it's taken 400 episodes, but we've got two mics now. We do. And we're in the same room. Yes. Yes.

Progress. So let's get on with it. Just after 11pm on the 20th of December 1968, two teenagers, David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, were found dead in a lay-by in Vallejo, California. Both had been shot by a.22 caliber pistol and at first the assumption was that it was some sort of robbery gone wrong, but the truth was a whole lot more complicated. In reality, David and Betty Lou's murders marked the beginning of a new era in American crime. David and Betty Lou were victims one and two of the Zodiac, America's most infamous serial killer.

For half a decade, the Zodiac held a vice-like grip over the San Francisco Bay Area. Not only were his crimes meticulously well-planned, but his obsessive need to toy with the authorities was like nothing anyone had ever seen before. And honestly, it would have been laughable if everyone hadn't been so fucking terrified of him. The Zodiac dominated the headlines by sending goading messages to local newspapers, all in his own increasingly fiendish code. And he would threaten to kill again if these codes weren't printed on the front page. In

these cryptic messages not only did the Zodiac talk about hunting people like prey, but he also reveled in the gory details of how exactly he had murdered his victims. Using techniques he'd taken straight out of military handbooks and spy films, he created an intricate web of near-unsolvable murders. The only clues the police had to go on were a set of ciphers that the Zodiac sent into papers and they're known as Z13, the Z32, the Z340 and the Z408. I think we have to make a choice now. Whether we are going to say Z or Z.

Z. Okay. We're the boss. Okay, fine. I really strongly said DMZ for so long and then that just sounds dumb. I'll give you that. I think DMZ and Jay-Z, the only two times I'll say Z. Gen Z?

Gen Z. I hate that. ZTV, that's Indian. Whatever. Those are the only times. Okay. Those are it. There's room for one more in the top five of Zs. Top five in the five Zs. That's it. Okay, okay. And it's not these ones. And it's not Zodiac or his ciphers. Fine. Just so quickly. It's a hard line, Hannah. This is a hard line issue for me. Anyway, these Zs, these Z-Cyphers, were multi-layered intricate pages of symbols that claim to hold the key to the Zodiac's identity. But as of 2025, only half of them have ever been solved. And while theories abound, we still don't know for

sure who the Zodiac was or is. For over half a century, various police forces and the FBI have pored over the litany of letters that the Zodiac sent to the press, trying to find some shred of evidence that might bring him to justice. But as of today, the 400th day of Red-Handed, the only breaks in the entire case have come from amateurs, armchair detectives who cracked two of the supposedly uncrackable ciphers. The first time that happened was when the Zodiac was still actively out there killing. It was actually a school teacher and his wife who solved the first of the zodiac ciphers. Do you love to see it?

Oh you do. I love the idea of them because I have read about them and I think they just like love a crossword, they love like a Sudoku and I love the idea of them just sitting around one day with like a pot of coffee, fag in hand. Should we have a go? Let's have a crack at it. Love it. It's like that amateur Mesopotamian enthusiast who cracked with the cuneiform tablet that no one else could do.

Love that for you. Love it. You could dine out on that for the rest of your fucking life. My God. Nothing fills me with more dread than when I'm in a situation as an adult and someone's like, can you think of a fun fact about yourself? It would be great, wouldn't it? If it was that you cracked that code. Oh, that is so good.

What is it? What is your fucking mind? Because I went and did like a, what is it, like a careers day at school. And they were like, Oh, can you think of two truths and a lie about yourself to like do an icebreaker with the kids? And I was like, what in the fresh fuck? I've got whole fucking presentation. I don't have that. And I was like, shit. And I was like, think, think, think.

Oh, I was, I was savage. Do you want to know what happened? I was like, okay, I think I've got, I think I've got some good ones. I was like, I can lick my elbow. Yeah. I've got, I think I've got some good ones. I was like, I can lick my elbow. Yeah. I've got two dogs named blue. Yep. And I'm getting married next year.

I heard two of the girls in the front row go, she's not getting married. The shade. Excuse me. The shade. I know. I was like, excuse me? But I also experienced from shade the other day when I was on the phone, a guest on a podcast on the phone with the producer and he was like, so can you just sort of tell me a bit about yourself? Because usually I just go through someone's Wikipedia page. And you haven't got one. I was like, was that a read? How dare you? Oh god.

I was like, that's so rude. Anyway. Now imagine he's a teenage girl sat looking at you. Hell is a teenage girl. Hell is a teenage girl. Fucking hell. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real?

Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, and each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr.

Bolland's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show. Listen to Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple podcasts. Inspired by the hit Wondery podcast, Against the Odds, comes the gripping guidebook, How to Survive Against the Odds, Tales and Tips for Animal Attacks and Natural Disasters.

This might just be the most important book you'll ever read. Go inside life or death situations where everyday people survive nature's most extreme scenarios. And, learn how you can too. In these tales, you'll hear about the grit, willpower and know-how needed to endure shipwrecks, alligator attacks, earthquakes, and more. You'll learn from experts, including top doctors, about what happens to your body and mind in life-threatening situations, plus important tips on what to do, and equally important, what NOT to do when faced with

a situation that is truly against the odds. Go to SurvivalGuidebook.com to pre-order How to Survive Against the Odds Today and get the perfect gift and time for graduation and Father's Day. The second cipher was not cracked by the same husband and wife team but it was cracked when an international team of cryptographers revealed the solution to the zodiac's second attempt half a century after it had been written. Oh you'd feel even more smug wouldn't you if you were that schoolteacher and his wife. Oh yeah! It took a team, an international team of cryptographers to crack the second one.

Love it. I hope they put that on their fucking gravestone. Or maybe the fame ripped them apart and they had a horrible divorce. Oh. It's okay, we can choose to believe that didn't happen. Yeah. So over the next three parts of Red-Handed, we are going to tell you everything you need to know about the Zodiac.

I believe this is our first ever three-parter. I'm not gonna challenge you on that because I think you're right. I think I am. No. Oh Fritzl. Oh. I think. I can't remember. Whatever. Who cares. I'm the boss. So yes we are doing three parts on the Zodiac because we have to, he is arguably one of the most obsessed about figures in true crime and there is a lot to talk about from the fucking costume. Can you call a bag on your head a costume? Uh, sure.

Why not? The shitty fucking name and all of the ciphers, all of the murders. He's got it going on. He's got it going on he's got it going on but was he truly that impressive well it all depends on how you look at it to be honest did he really start killing in 1968 or were there earlier victims maybe and how the hell did he come up with that name spoilers he probably stole it from a watch.

But to really, truly try and understand this guy, and we are going to say he's a guy. There was some discussion in the office earlier. We're like, oh, do we know it's a man? Of course it's a fucking man. Zodiac is a man. I'm putting it out there. But to really understand him, we need to start at the beginning. Or at least what most people would agree is the beginning. With David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen.

On the afternoon of the 20th of December 1968, 17-year-old David bunked off school and rushed across town to see his new girlfriend, who went to a different school. The girl in question was, as you may have guessed, 16-year-old Betty Lou. The two teenagers had only met about five days earlier, while decorating their local Pythian castle in Vallejo, California. What is a Pythian castle, you may ask? It is a fraternal clubhouse, it turns out, run by a group called the Knights of Pytheas, which is a secret society a bit like the Freemasons.

How juvenile. And if that sounds like a bonkers choice of hangout for two 16-year-old lovebirds, it is, but it's also the 60s. And in the late 60s, the Knights of Pythias would offer up their castles as event spaces for youth clubs and music concerts across the United States. Presumably to keep the kids off the streets and more importantly, to scope out any potential new recruits. And to be fair to the Knights of Pythias, the streets were indeed getting more worrying

than they had been a decade before. At least to the white picket fence residents of small town California like Vallejo, where David and Betty Lou both lived. LSD's on the way. LSD's are coming. It is. It is indeed. It's coming all over your fucking mouth.

The 50s Americana dream of teenagers cruising to their local fast food restaurant to split a milkshake with their best gal and then heading off to a local dance hall was fading fast. In cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, it had disappeared altogether. Teddy boys, modest printed skirts and Coca-Cola had been replaced with hippies, drugs and free love. For David and Betty Lou out in Vallejo, the Lana Del Rey dream was still somewhat alive, but drugs, festivals and orgies had started to filter into the teenage zeitgeist. In fact, David had actually won over Betty Lou with a story about how he'd punched a weed dealer

in the face for giving him grief. Now whether or not that's true, we'll never know. But it paints a good picture of the weird cultural crossroads that David and Betty Lou were living in. In California, right at the forefront, there in the trenches. That's the front lines of the culture wars. Let's get back to the 20th of December 1968. As we told you, David Faraday had bumped off and rushed over to Betty Lou's school, which was called Hogan High. The two of them met

up and they chatted for a while before they bumped into Betty Lou's ex-boyfriend, who in my head is Kenicki. But he's not called Kenicki, he's called Ricky. Rhymes. Close enough. Uh-huh. I'll take it. And David and Ricky already had some beef. Ricky was jealous that Betty Lou had a new man and he told some of his mates that he

was going to bash David's teeth in with brass knuckles. Or challenge him to a drag race. Thunder Road! I know you haven't seen Grease. And I know you say you have. But on a bus doesn't count. I was about to say I'd seen it on a bus. When these two actually bumped into each other, like most teenage boys having spoken quite

a large game, Nothing actually happened. Some words were exchanged But then Ricky went on his merry way We don't know what was said it could have been no hard feelings nice jacket Or I'm gonna fucking kill the pair of you either or But unfortunately for Ricky Kenicki this brief conversation would have quite a profound effect on his entire life. Because less than 24 hours after this chat, David and Betty Lou would be dead. For a brief moment in time, before even the Zodiac had given himself the ubership Megadork moniker of the Zodiac.

A random teenage kid called Ricky would be the prime suspect in what is now one of the largest and most highly publicized murders in history. But before any of that, David left Betty Lou and Ricky behind and headed home to his mum's house in the Lewis Ranch Estates. David's parents were separated and he'd had to do some growing up pretty fast, taking on more responsibilities around the house, that kind of thing. So when he told his mum that he wanted to go out that night, she said he could only take her car if he also dropped his younger sister Debbie off at her Rainbow Girls meeting. Yeah. And despite sounding like some sort of lesbian pop group, the Rainbow Girls was actually

a mildly Masonic version of the Girl Scouts. We've got the rainbows. Yeah, I don't know if it's the same as the rainbows or if it's like something's up bro. It seems a bit more Masonic. The rainbows is quite Masonic. I've decided just now. You said it so convincingly. I was like, I won't challenge it. They jump over a stick. They wear a little tabard. So many tabards. I was never a rainbow.

Were you not? I was a brownie and then I was a guide. Yeah, you were. And then? And then what were you? And then I was a young leader. I was going to say much to my shame. I was a guide. Yeah, you were. And then. And then what were you? And then I was a young leader. I was going to say much to my shame. I'm not ashamed. I'm proud.

Kept that tabar till I was 17. He's got to drop Debbie off there. And he's like, fine, mum. And he does it. And unsurprisingly, the Rainbow Girls being Masonic were actually meeting up at the Pythian castle where David and Betty Lou had first met. So David dropped Debbie off at the Pythian Castle at around 7pm and then set off to Betty Lou's parents' house in a part of town called Villago Manor.

Given that we're in 60s America, it should come as no surprise to you that both David and Betty Lou's families were particularly Christian. David's were Presbyterian, which is kind of sort of Protestantism, but quite hardline. And Betty Lou's family were from the Church of Christ scientists, which is Christian science. I did not know that was their official name. I didn't know either. The only thing I know about Christian scientists, they don't believe in medicine and you're not allowed to go to hospital. Absolutely.

On the one hand, they believe in healing through prayer, which is why they don't believe in the hospital. But yes, the reason you will hear about them most of the time is refusing urgent treatment for their children. However, there are some highlights. The Christian scientists don't believe that sin fundamentally corrupts the soul, but rather that sin is just a sickness when you're too far away from God and you're ignorant. So that means that sin isn't inherently evil and neither are you as a person, but when you do a bad thing, it's just a mistake and you can rectify that by prayer and getting to know God better, not through shame and

punishment. Which like my inner Catholic is like, well, that's stupid. Oh, so they don't have a hell as punishment, but rather a sort of holding area where you get to have a good think about what you've done before you eventually get to heaven. We've got that too, it's called purgatory. Sometimes you never get out. Yeah. So why on earth are we telling you all this? Well, for David and Betty Lou, it meant that premarital sex wasn't totally off the table. But if Betty Lou did get pregnant, she's sure as hell was keeping her. So with premarital sex most probably not far from his mind, 17-year-old David drove over to Betty Lou's parents' place and rang the doorbell. Betty Lou answered the door in her best purple dress with a white collar and cuffs and introduced

David to her mum and dad. Now this might be a daunting prospect for many a 17-year-old, but David was more than qualified for the occasion. He was a camp counselor and an Eagle Scout. He's one of me. Would you punch a wee dealer in the face though? He's quite nuanced. No, I get my drugs sent to me in other ways.

Carry a pigeon. So yeah, he's there, he's hanging out and for the next few minutes, David put Betty Lou's parents completely at ease with all his polite chat. Presumably he didn't tell them about punching weed dealers in the face. And then he said it was time for them to leave because he was taking their daughter to a pre-Christmas show, whatever the fuck that is, at her high school, Hogan High. And he promised that he would have Betty Lou home by 11. And off they went to the pre-Christmas concert. Whatever that is. What is that? I don't know. I was hoping you would tell me. I mean pre-Christmas is just Advent, isn't it? So, I don't know. Everyone simultaneously opens the window

on their Advent calendar and then they share, I don't know. Sure. And it doesn't really matter because they didn't go. That's not what they did at all. We actually don't know if a concert ever happened. It's just something that people plop into the narrative now and again. And it actually seems that the existence of the concert in

the first place may have just been a lie that was told for the benefit of Betty Lou's parents. The teenagers obviously were on their way to go and get off with each other, but they didn't do that straight away. We think this is the timeline that we have done our best with. After leaving Betty Lou's house, the pair of them drove to see Betty Lou's friend who's called Sharon. They arrived at Sharon's house about 20 past eight in the evening and they hung out there for about 40 minutes. Before Sharon was like, please leave. I need to get ready for a party that you're not invited to fuck off. Sharon walked the couple out to their car and they drove off in that car at about 9. Then there's an hour of blank. We don't know what happened in the next

hour. Some places report that they went to a diner but there's not really any concrete evidence that they did so let's just leave it a mystery. We do know that by 10.15pm the young couple were parked up on the corner of a road that led to the Benesia water pumping station which is near Lake Herman. And that station was gated off during the night. But the few feet of dirt track that peeled away from the road before getting to the gates made a pretty good place for two teenage canoodlers to park up in private. We know that David and Betty Lou weren't in this so-called lover's lane any earlier than 10.15 because another teenage couple, probably also pretending to be at some sort of pre-Christmas

Advent calendar opening show, were parked up there between 9.30 and 10.00pm and they hadn't seen David or Betty Lou. But by 10.15 that couple was long gone and that's when David's mum's car was seen by a family friend of David's, a woman named Helen Axe. Oh man. She knew the car and she knew David. Probably with a little twinkle in her eye, Helen left the young couple alone. But maybe if she knew why the previous couple had bolted,

she might have checked in on David and Betty. Because a couple that had been parked up before David and Betty Lou had arrived had been scared off. When a blue car drove past the turnoff, abruptly stopped and started reversing towards them. The two teenagers started the car and sped away, probably scared that they were in for a bit of a bollocking. But this blue car then followed behind them for a while,

before it eventually faded from their rear view mirror. At 14 minutes past 11, a quarter of an hour past their curfew, let's remember, David and Betty Lou were still parked up, alone, and had been spotted by several more passing motorists, the last of which was a man called James Owens. He saw the pair at a quarter past 11, but that time they weren't alone. James Owens noticed that another car was parked on the Lovers Lane, right alongside the teenager's car, and then six minutes later a woman called Stella Medeiros cruised toward the lay-by that so many teens used as a hook-up spot. And as Stella swung around the corner towards David's car,

it was briefly illuminated by her headlights. And by the time Stella got there, only David's mum's car was on the lane. But David and Betty Lou weren't in the car anymore. David was lying on his back next to it and Betty Lou weren't in the car anymore. David was lying on his back next to it and Betty Lou was several yards away on her side, also down in the dirt. Both of them were lying in pools of their own blood. As Stella raced to the nearest payphone, she actually managed to flag down a passing patrol

car before she got into town. When the police arrived at the scene, David was still breathing, but Betty Lou was already dead. Now only David and Betty Lou know exactly what actually happened between when they were last seen by James Owens with another card around 11.14pm and when they were found six minutes later by Stella. But as we said, Bettilou was already dead when the police arrived, and David also passed away in the ambulance on his way to the hospital.

So the best we have is a scenario that the police pieced together from evidence found at the scene. And this is what they think happened. First, someone had forced David and Bettilou out of the passenger side of the car at gunpoint. Then, as the pair stumbled their way out of David's mum's car, their attacker fired two shots at the car to hurry them up. The first went through the back window, the second through the roof. Once the teenagers were standing out in the dirt, their attacker had put his pistol behind David's ear and shot him point-blank in the head.

David collapsed to the ground and in the chaos Betty Lou made a break for it, but she couldn't outrun the mystery attacker who shot her five times in the back as she ran for cover. And then with both teens incapacitated or dead, the attacker got back into their car and drove away. And the Ballistics report concluded that the attacker had used a cheap 22 caliber pistol. One that you would use for killing small animals like rabbits and rats, not for people. But even though it wasn't very powerful, that little pistol was more than enough to kill a person from just a few feet away. With nothing but the spent pistol casings as evidence, and with no obvious motive because neither David nor Betty Lou had been robbed or sexually assaulted, the police were left dumbfounded. Naturally the finger was pointed at Betty Lou's ex-boyfriend Ricky. But Ricky was all talk.

The pair had only dated for a few weeks before Betty Lou had hooked up with David, and Ricky was no killer. On top of that, he had a strong alibi for the night of David and Betty Lou's murders. But unfortunately for Ricky, although the police knew he wasn't a killer, the local community weren't so sure. Eventually, Ricky's name would be cleared, although probably not under the circumstances he might have hoped. About six months after Betty Lou and David were murdered, the real killer would finally

come forward and take the credit. A killer whose MO would become clinically dispatching young lovers, reveling in their deaths and then toying with the police. All whilst calling himself the stupidest of names. But before the killer, the real killer, would clear Ricky's name, he would strike again. This time on the 4th of July, the following year, as the great US of A celebrated another cracking year of independence from us, another young couple would come into the crosshairs of the same person who had killed David

Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen six months earlier, except Darlene Ferrin and Michael, it can't be Michael Magoo. Mr. Michael Magoo. Fuck. Except Darlene Ferrin and the very unfortunately named Michael Magoo weren't just another young couple. Their story's a little bit more complicated than that. For a start they were older. Darlene was 22 and Michael was 19. So it wasn't either of their first rodeo. Actually Darlene was married with a child. Which seems mad at 22 but again 60s. Darlene had told Michael that her marriage was over and despite still living with her

husband, she told him, who's 19, don't love it, that her husband didn't care if she slept around. In the early hours of December 4th, 2024, CEO Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets of Midtown Manhattan. This a silent pulls out a weapon and starts firing at him. We're talking about the CEO of the biggest private health insurance corporation in the world. And the suspect he's been identified as Luigi Nicholas Mangione became one of the most divisive figures in modern

criminal history was targeted premeditated and it's so terror. I'm Jesse Weber host of Luigi produced by law and crime and twist this is more than a true crime investigation we explore a uniquely American moment that could change the country forever. Welcome the people to a true issue. I mean maybe this would lead rich and powerful people to acknowledge the barbaric nature of our healthcare system.

Listen to Law and Crime's Luigi exclusively on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Spotify or Apple podcasts. At the turn of the 20th century, rapid industrialization, urbanization and political corruption were ravaging America. But soon President Theodore Roosevelt and a diverse group of reformers known as progressives would fight back. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondries Podcast American History Tellers. We take you to the events, times, and people that shaped America and Americans, our values,

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And the pair made an odd couple. Michael was three years younger, full of youthful exuberance and excitement. Darlene was older and jaded, and at 22, already tired of men altogether. According to people who knew Darlene, she spent most of her time in a kind of haze of disinterest, often coming across as a bit spaced out and bordering on a bit thick. However, when pushed, she would snap back into reality and fire back with a vicious and witty tongue. It's been speculated that Darlene had started taking drugs to make the days go by a little bit easier. On the 4th of July, Darlene and her sister Christine went to watch the fireworks. Afterwards, Darlene dropped off her sister and headed back to her own house at 1300 Virginia Avenue,

where she lived with her husband and children. When she got home, Darlene told her two teenage babysitters that she had to nip back out to fetch some fireworks for her husband, since apparently he wanted to have a party with his boss. Darlene didn't go and find fireworks. She went to go and find her teenage lover Michael Magoo at 864 Beechwood Avenue

where he lived with his dad. And then the two of them decided to go and get some food. When they got to the restaurant that they had picked, Darlene said the one thing that absolutely nobody ever wants to hear ever, we need to talk. And when she said that Michael decided they actually wasn't that hungry and suggested that they find somewhere to park up in their car to have this chat. He suggested the Blue Rock Springs car park which was just up the road. Blue Rock Springs is a creek that runs through the outskirts of Vallejo where people go and ride their bikes and play golf and stuff. At night time the car park was pretty dead so in Michael's opinion it was the perfect

place to have a talk. Except not tonight it wasn't. Not long after the pair pulled up a car full of drunk teenagers pulled up behind them and set off some fireworks in the car park before driving away. Not great vibes for a big chat. And not long after the drunk teenagers had moved on, another car drove into the car park and pulled up alongside Darlene's car and stopped. Michael made a comment asking Darlene if she knew the guy who was driving. It was a running joke that Michael always made. Darlene seemed to know every man in Malaho.

Darlene shot Michael down and the car pulled away again. The pair sat in the car for another five minutes. And despite being the one to instigate the big chat, it seemed that Darlene had lost her nerve or perhaps started to have second thoughts. The two of them sat in the car without saying a word with only the radio to break the silence. And then yet another car drove into the car park and parked right next to them. We still don't know whether that was the same car that had pulled up beside them five minutes earlier, or whether it was a completely different one.

Although, considering what we're about to tell you, it's pretty likely that it was the same car. It's very odd behaviour for two different cars to do. Yeah, and like, the car park is empty. It's just Darlene's car. People are coming and going but for a car to pull up in the parking spot next to their car, twice? Yeah. So the second time, whoever was driving the car got out of it and pointed a high-powered torch into Darlene's car, blinding the couple inside. When their eyes adjusted,

through the bright light, the couple saw a man walk round the back of their car to the passenger side where Michael was sitting. Naturally, Michael and Darlene both assumed that this must be a cop, and they started to rummage through their pockets for some ID, but they didn't have the chance to find it. As Michael rummaged through his pockets, the man with the torch shot him twice in the back and neck. Instinctively, Michael threw himself into the back seat, diving for cover, but the man with the torch kept shooting. Michael was peppered with more bullets, some of which went all the way through him and hit Darlene in the driver's seat. The man with the torch then unloaded several more shots into Darlene, which hit her in

the heart and lung, before the stranger started making his way calmly back to his own car. But before he got there, Michael let out a wail of pain and the man stopped in his tracks. It wasn't over. He walked back to the young couple and shot them both two more times to make sure they were dead. Then he finally got in his car and drove away. A few moments later, three teenage hippies, Debbie, Jerry and Roger, Roger's an unfortunate name if you choose that lifestyle isn't it, rolled around the corner looking for a friend of theirs. We don't exactly know who that friend was but it seems like it was a girl that they brought drugs from in the past. And

as these three wheeled into the car park, they saw the headlights of Darlene's car flash and they heard Michael scream for help. Debbie, who was driving, slammed on the brakes. As she reversed, the scene came into view. Michael had managed to get the passenger side door open and was lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood. The three of them couldn't see Darlene because she was dying in the passenger seat. The two men, Jerry and Roger, jumped out of the car and ran over to Michael, who screamed at them to call an ambulance.

Jerry wanted to stay with Michael to make sure he was okay until the ambulance arrived. But his two friends convinced him it was just too dangerous. What if the shooter returned? They drove like hell to Jerry's house and called an ambulance. Then, worried that the police might think it was a hoax, they rushed over to Debbie's brother-in-law's house. Debbie's brother-in-law was a police officer. They called the police again, with him present, to make sure that help was definitely coming. Pretty good for hippies. Pretty good work for hippies. I'll give them that. When they got through to the operator that second

time, she told them the officers were already at the scene. And they were. As the police arrived, both Darlene and Michael were rushed to hospital. They arrived at about 12.38 in the morning. Darlene was dead on arrival, but unbelievably, Michael was still alive. And he looked like he was gonna make it. He was still conscious when he arrived at the hospital, and he gave the

police a blow-by-blow account of what had happened. But still there was more to come. As Michael gave his version of events a few peculiar facts became immediately clear to the police. The first odd thing was that neither Michael nor the three hippies who'd found him could give any good reason for being in a random car park in the middle of the night. The second peculiar thing was that Michael was wearing three thick layers of clothes when he was shot, layers which almost certainly contributed to his miraculous survival. The question was why on earth was a 19- 19 year old boy wearing three layers of both shirts and trousers in a car park when it was almost 20 degrees Celsius at night?

The shirts I'm like less concerned by. Three pairs of trousers. Are they meeting up to play strip poker? Possibly. The only person I've ever met who would do something like that is someone, I didn't even go to uni with him, an affiliate. He had essentially a wasting disease that made him really skinny and he was really self-conscious about it. And he couldn't exercise too much because it would just get worse. It wasn't muscular

dystrophy or anything like that. He was completely mobile, but he was so sensitive about it. So he would wear three pairs of trousers. So that I can kind of see, especially as a teenage boy he's 19. Yeah. Maybe he's trying to bulk up. Maybe. To impress his cougar. Yeah, could be. To impress his cougar. Yeah, could be. So yeah, the police rightfully think it is pretty weird.

And over the years, it has become widely assumed that Darlene was keeping Michael around because he could score drugs. Drugs, which they were going to score in that carpark. Now we can't say for sure, but many people have theorised that they might not actually have been out buying fireworks at midnight. The third peculiar thing happened at about the same time that Darlene and Michael arrived at the hospital. Somebody called 911 from a payphone. The emergency dispatcher who answered the call, Nancy Slover. And the emergency dispatcher who answered the call, Nancy Slover, was the same dispatcher who had picked up the call

from the three hippies earlier that night and weirdly enough the call was to report the same crime even though Darlena Michael had already been moved. When Nancy answered the second call about the same crime, the voice on the line began slowly to read what sounded like a pre-prepared script. Agonizingly, because this happened almost six decades ago, we don't have a recording of this call, so we have to take Nancy's word for what was said. But this is what she says was said. The voice on the other end of the line said, I want to report a double murder. If you go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to the public

park you will find the kids in a brown car. They were shot with a nine millimeter Luger. I also killed those kids last year. And then the man on the other end of the phone said, Goodbye! My god, he's such a fucking dick. This is such a like, sad little, and look, I'm not taking away from how scary it would have been, but it's such a sad little attempt, as everything goes on to be with the Zodiac, of just like, look at me, look at me, nobody's even noticing how fucking cool I am. Ugh, shut the fuck up.

Ugh. And look, I'm not saying it's more noble to be a serial killer who just kills for your own purposes, but he is just killing for the drama of it all. Yes. I'm not saying just, like, obviously there's probably some sort of sexual release, some sort of revenge motivation, some sort of anger at these couples. But like, the world is his stage and everybody needs to be paying attention to him. And when they're not, he's sad.

Yeah. Now, according to Nancy Slover, the voice on the line was calm, slow and accentless. As he spoke, Nancy tried to interrupt to ask questions, but the person never answered. The voice simply carried on talking over Nancy. That's how you know it's a man. The only change in tone came when it said the long sarcastic goodbye. Nancy would spend the rest of her life recalling the voice that she had had on the phone. Little did she know at the time that she had just become a member of a very exclusive club. There would only ever feature a handful of people, those who had heard the voice of the Zodiac Killer, and survived.

The final very strange thing that happened that night, the night that Darlene and Michael were shot, was that very shortly after that 911 call, Darlene's husband Dean also received a phone call. No talking this time though, all the caller did was ring him and stay on the line in complete silence. And then, even stranger still, at about the same time, Dean's parents received a very similar call. So let's assume that the killer is the one making these calls, which I just think we have to. Why would they call Dean and then Dean's parents rather than Darlene's parents or Michael's

parents even? We don't know, but the most probable scenario is that the killer rummaged through Darlene's handbag, found her ID and memorized her surname, Ferrin, which is of course her married name. It's not her maiden name. It's Dean's name, her husband's name. So therefore any Ferrins that the killer may come across in the phone book wouldn't have been on Darlene's side of the family. They would have been on her husband's possibly. And also I do think we, because we no longer exist in the age of the phone book. This is like, how could you possibly have it's or everyone's in the

phone book? You know? Yeah. I think some people are like, Oh, maybe the killer knew Darlene and he targeted her. But then it's like, again, it doesn't explain why he wouldn't call her parents to taunt them or do whatever he was doing. So I think that does make more sense, especially because it's before it's like public, like before it's in the papers, before anybody knows about it. It's like on the night of the murders itself. So all he does have is possibly her name.

He doesn't know her maiden name or anything. And also probably in his mind, he doesn't know that their marriage is a total car crash. He probably does think calling Dean is going to be the most, you know, the most like hurtful person to talk. Not I'm saying that Dean didn't care that his wife and mother of his children had been murdered. But yeah, it just speaks of a man who I don't think knew Darlene. I do think it was a crime of opportunity.

Yeah. I think if he knew Darlene, then he would have called her parents. Exactly. Exactly. So yeah, a weird one. And I think again, speaks to, regardless of who he's phoning, the fact that he has that urge to phone anybody at all, speaks again to a level of sadism. Maybe not to the extent we see with like the Gilgo Beach killer who like actively taunts the family,

saying horrible things about their loved one who he killed. But it's definitely wanting to insert himself wanting that kind of voyeuristic glimpse into these families lives, maybe some sort of sick pleasure in like, maybe this is the last conversation or the last moment this person will have before they hear the worst news imaginable. Like a, like a snapshot in time in Dean's mind of like, before I found out my wife and the mother of my children was brutally murdered. I don't know, but it's definitely, you know, says a lot about the Zodiac. So now you might be expecting that this double murder would have caused quite a bit of a

stir in the local community, perhaps even in the wider area. But quite frankly, California at this point had a lot going on. Firstly, there was a war on, the Vietnam War to be specific, and the front pages were filled to the brim with gory details of VKs killing GIs out in the jungle. Secondly, as we've already said, California was an absolute hotbed of change, both positive and negative. When the papers weren't talking about the war, they were focused on drugs, gangs, festivals and orgies. In the California desert, for every free, loving, hippie hideaway

that had sprung up, so had stabbings, shootings and violence. Please refer to the episode we will never make on Charles Mountain. Thank you. So sadly, a few dead teenagers aren't going to make the news. Not with that attitude anyway. Like the attackers on Lovers Lane, the Car Park murders were back page news at best. And to be frank, the police treated them that way. There was a brief investigation into a man referred to simply as George, but after one interview the police never spoke to George again. Investigators did look into Darlene's husband Dean, the obvious

choice, but just like Mr. George, he too was a non-starter. Dean had a solid alibi for the entire night that his wife was killed, and despite her getting around a bit, he didn't seem particularly motivated to kill her. By the 13th of July 1969, nine days after the second shooting, the case had gone ice cold. And the police were still debating if the car park killing was even connected to the Lovers Lane murders six months before. And then the case practically became an icicle when, for the first time in Californian history,

a police force and a fire department both went on strike at the same time. So the Vallejo PD didn't even glance over the investigation for another week. But this total lack of interest didn't last forever. Because little did the police know, what their mystery caller wanted above all else was of course attention. And from the killer's perspective, if the police weren't going to create a big enough deal about all the fantastically clever work it took to carry out those murders, well then he'd have to create a big deal himself. On the 31st of July 1969, three anonymous letters would arrive at three of San Francisco's biggest newspapers.

The Vallejo Times Herald, the San Francisco Examiner, and The San Francisco Chronicle. The letters were almost identical. I know we've discussed this attention thing, and obviously he goes on to be quite dramatic with Cyphus, and he's already been quite dramatic with phone calls. It's not that impressive. He's just driving around 60s California where the only thing couples can do who aren't married is sit around in their cars and get off with each other and finding them. It's not some sort of puppet master scheme. He's not the

Unabomber. Yeah, I know. I know. And I think, as we've said multiple times on the show before, like killing people that you have no connection to whatsoever makes it very hard to be caught. That's not a genius ploy. That's just a basic tactic. I think the hype that people give around the Zodiac, because yeah, like you said, he's just driving around shooting fucking kids in their cars. It's just the mystery surrounding it.

And I think the minute you hear his cipher, the minute you hear code, uncrackable by the FBI, by anyone on the planet, except a school teacher and his wife, you think genius. But we'll get more onto the ciphers next week, but I absolutely take your point. What so far has been genius? Nothing. So let's stick to the letters. If the postmarks on them can be trusted, which they probably can't, the letters came from the Inner Richmond District. On the front of all three of the

envelopes were the same words. Please rush to editor. They're so full of themselves. I know. Why didn't you just write from hell? The contents of each of these envelopes were worded slightly differently, but all three roughly said something similar to. Dear editor, I am the murderer of the two teenagers last Christmas, misspelled with two S's, at Lake Herman and the girl on the 4th of July near the golf course in Vallejo.

To prove I killed them, I shall state some facts which only I and the police know. And then, these letters correctly state that David and Betty Lou had been shot with Super X brand ammunition and that 10 shots had been fired. And the writer also detailed the positions in which the teenagers had been found in. And the writer of these letters also correctly identified the ammunition used in the attack on Darlene and Michael and described Darlene's outfit as well. Also contained within the envelopes were three pages of random symbols written in neat columns and rows. The symbols were made up of letters, both backwards and forwards,

and shapes, squares and triangles. It was a cipher, a coded message written using secret symbols that only the writer could understand. Now if you're really struggling to imagine what this looks like and you don't have access to Google, visualise three pieces of paper covered in neat rows of those weird lines of green symbols from the matrix. Inside the envelope that contained the cipher was a letter stating that if all three parts of the cipher weren't posted on the front page of all three newspapers by the 1st of August, well then the author also said that the cipher contained his name, but he omitted this in the letters to the other two newspapers. The letters were all signed off with the same symbol, a circle with a cross. Despite the killer's threat, the 1st of August rolled around without the papers publishing his cipher on their front pages, which will have driven him absolutely up the wall. And there are a couple of reasons for that. The

letters were only posted on the 31st, which didn't give the newspapers enough time to get it in there even if they wanted to, which most of them didn't. And before you get too excited about the morals of journalists, they didn't not want to publish these ciphers for ethical reasons. They would happily publish the ciphers once they were big news, but when they first turned up the papers just didn't really think they were that interesting. So the ciphers were chucked on the back pages with some side notes about David, Betty Lou Darlene and Michael.

But surprisingly, the killer wasn't upset that he didn't make the front page. He was absolutely over the moon that he got any press at all. All that mattered to him was that he'd made the news. And even more excitingly, Vallejo's police chief, Jack E. Stiltz, had mentioned him in an interview. It's like when, I don't know, like your mum keeps like a newspaper clipping of like the like church fates because you won a goldfish or something like, and it's in the box examiner. Like it's like that but it's for himself. Oh yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my mum got out loaded newspapers the other day of clipping she had kept from my childhood. Oh, cute. And there was one of me on the front page of the fucking Comet, which is our local newspaper where I grew up, playing the fucking drums. And it was like some celebrity, I want to say it was Robbie Williams, was there. And I was like, I have absolutely no fucking memory of this whatsoever. But I look in that picture old enough to remember. How have I lived in your pocket for almost a decade and you've sat on the fact that

you met Robbie Williams? I don't remember doing it. I think it's a deep fake my mother has made. I don't remember that ever happening. I was like, what the fuck is this? It's wild. Wow. That's nuts. That's your interesting fact. I think met might be a strong word for have been in the same room playing bongos with. No, that's your interesting fact for next time. I've met Robbie Williams and I don't

remember. I played bongos with Robbie Williams and I don't remember. Is he in the picture? He's like in the picture, but I'm not looking at him. I don't, I honestly, I'll find it. I don't, I don't remember. Is he in the picture? He's like in the picture, but I not looking at him. I don't, I honestly, I'll find it. I don't, I don't know what's going on. I think you have to. I will. It's when I was rocking my tragic Victoria Beckham Bob, which we all had back then. We did all have it. At least yours all went in the same direction. Mine did not. Side note, I think I'm going to get a Korean perm.

Oh, I think you should. Good choice. Even though the interview that the chief of police gave about the killer and the ciphers, he described it all as a hoax and said that he wanted more proof, that didn't matter. It was enough. And the killer couldn't wait to send another letter and get in the papers all over again. And he did so very, very impatiently and very quickly. On the 4th of August, a month after Darlene and Michael were shot, the killer hand-delivered a second letter to the San Francisco Examiner, and it opened with the now very famous line,

Dear editor, this is the Zodiac speaking. For almost half a decade, the Zodiac would reign over the Bay Area as the world's most famous serial killer. He would take more lives, send more ciphers, and run rings around the police and even the FBI. The story of his spree of murders and the efforts of authorities to catch him would become the subject of countless books, TV shows, and Hollywood movies. Journalists would make and break their careers reporting on him, and even as late as 2020,

new evidence of the Zodiac Killer would still be emerging. break their careers reporting on him, and even as late as 2020, new evidence of the Zodiac killer would still be emerging. But before any of that, while the Zodiac was still just a minor local celebrity, who most people thought was a hoax, somebody had to crack his cipher. And despite the efforts of the police, the Navy, and the FBI, the code would not be cracked by any of the police, the Navy and the FBI, the code would not be cracked by any of the authorities. Instead, as we told you at the start, it would be cracked by a middle-aged couple who thought

that they'd just give it a go. But to cover that and everything else that would come after, we need another full episode. And then another one after that. So join us next week for part two of Red-Handed Does the Zodiac Killer in what will be episode 401. Bring your code crackers. Let's do it. I'm pumped. Not very good at codes.

I don't know. I like a Sudoku. Love an escape room. I love a fucking lot of escape rooms. I think escape rooms is codes. Sudoku. Love an escape room. I love a fucking lot of escape rooms. I think escape rooms is codes. Yeah, I love an escape room. I think you're pretty good at codes. Maybe. Maybe. Escape rooms are fun.

And I play, genuinely do play June's Journey on my phone. I don't know if I'll sponsor this week. Glad someone does. So that's it guys. we will see you next week. Stay safe, don't go to lovers lanes, or if you do, wear like three pairs of clothes and don't punch your weed dealer in the face. Unless he deserves it. Well, unless he deserves it and you're sure you can run away.

Exactly. That was a very clear exit point. Precisely. Goodbye. Exactly. That's a very clear exit point. Precisely. Goodbye. Goodbye. Last year, long crime brought you the trial that captivated the nation. She's accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe with her car. Karen Reed is arrested and charged with second degree murder. The six-week trial resulted in anything but resolution. We continue to find ourselves at an impasse.

I'm declaring a mistrial in this case. But now the case is back in the spotlight. And one question still lingers. Did Karen Reed kill John O'Keefe? The evidence is overwhelming that Karen Reed is innocent. How does it feel to be a cop killer, Karen? I'm Kristin Thorn, investigative reporter with Law and Crime and host of the podcast,

Karen, The Retrial. This isn't just a retrial. It's a second chance at the truth. I have nothing to hide. My life is in the balance and it shouldn't be. I just want people to go back to who the victim is in this. It's not her. Listen to episodes of Karen, The Retrial,

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