Looking up the Zodiac Killer (as I only know the _very_ fuzzy details), I noticed something interesting on Google: "Do you manage the online presence for Zodiac Killer?". I can't imagine too many people are in a hurry to say yes to that!
As it turns out, the guy behind the Zodiac nick just confessed to be the Monster of Florence, the author of at least 7 murders of young couples in the area of Florence, Italy. Nothing official has been released to the public yet, but it seems he's a dismissed US Army officer. Here's the article in the Italian press: http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/politica/killer-zodiac-mi-ha-c...
John Douglas notes in his book 'Mindhunters' that serial killers cannot really stop. they typically continue until they 1) get locked up (typicall for something else) or 2) die. So it is super weird that the Zodiac just stopped in his 'prime'.
so, the hypothesis that _Zodiac =Monster of Florence_ would make a lot of sense, because it explains Douglas's observation. if that was the case, the Zodiac would be an absolute exception in the sense that he grew old and retired.
further, Douglas, from many years of experience of investigating serial killers, observes that killers have a 'signature'. a handwriting in their crimes, so to speak. and at first glance, the signature of the Zodiac and the Monster are very similar indeed, as others have mentioned.
>In an even broader sense, this frustration captures man’s existential dilemma in a Platonic universe of unknowable absolutes. Truth exists. Answers exist. A hard foundation of reality exists underneath a concealing fog. But humans will not always see it.
That is the reason why we want it so desperately. The unknown absolute - does it exist? Is there an absolute answer to everything? Is there a God?
This is probably from watching way to many profiling style crime dramas, but do serial killers ever just stop like this? I thought they typically escalated until they were caught.
If he's the Monster of Florence too, he didn't stop at all. He just moved to Italy, and kept killing people (the first documented murder there is just some months after he left the US)
Sure, Dennis Rader (BTK) did. He only resurfaced over a decade after his last murder because he started taunting police again, either because he got bored or he wanted recognition.
The theory seems compelling to me. The same guy they found by searching the newspaper for similar language, happens to be one of the guys police interviewed near the crime scene walking his dog. Among other coincidences. Pretty fun to speculate, don't think it'll ever get solved, but it's interesting.
I feel bad for the Norwegian’s friends and family having this accusation levelled at him. However the idea has appeal because it’s almost like he was selling each murder as though it was an imported car, something exotic, rarified, only for a particular discerning audience.
Wonderful novel, though. The book is by the great Friedrich Dürrenmatt, and is basically a deconstruction, as well as a subversion, of the detective novel (in fact, its subtitle is "Requiem for the Detective Novel").
