On July 4, 1969, Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin and Michael Renault Mageau parked in the parking lot of the Blue Rock Springs golf course. They too are there to exchange a few stolen kisses. A car drives up to them then drives off again. The heat stroke is over. But here she comes again, full headlights, dazzling Darlene and Michael, 22 and 19 years old respectively. A man gets out of the vehicle, a flashlight in his hand. He shoots his two victims five times, leaving them for dead. When he hears the young man’s moans, he retraces his steps and fires two more projectiles. Darlene dies during her transfer to the hospital, Michael miraculously survives.
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A month later, three Californian newspapers received a letter with hesitant penmanship: the Vallejo Times-Heraldthe San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner. Attached is a code of 408 symbols which, according to the killer, would reveal his name. He demands that his missive and his mysterious cryptograms be published on the front page, otherwise he will kill again and again.
The logs run. Less than a week later, the Chronicle receives a new letter which catches the eye of a couple of mathematicians, Donald and Betty Harden, who “crack” the code. For the first time, the letter is signed “Zodiac” and is full of details about the murders. The police are on the lookout but have no clues, no prints, not the shadow of a lead.
At the end of September 1969, a new attack took place on the banks of Lake Barryessa. A young couple, again. Cecilia Ann Shepard and Bryan Calvin Hartnell are stabbed multiple times. She succumbs to her injuries, he escapes. Before leaving the scene, the Zodiac draws the symbol he has made his own on the door of their car – a circle crossed out with a Celtic cross – and adds the dates of his various murders.
Added to this were the assassination of a taxi driver, Paul Lee Stine, 29, shot dead on October 11, 1969, in San Francisco and several assassination and assault attempts. Despite significant resources, despite the stubbornness of certain police officers and journalists, the case will never be resolved. More than 2,500 suspects will be heard, then dismissed. Among them, a certain Arthur Leigh Allen, formally recognized by one of the survivors, Michael Renault Mageau, in 1992. The graphological analyzes and the partial print found in Paul Stine’s taxi, however, will not “match”…
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Mr. Allen, the kind teacher
However, it is this man, Arthur Leigh Allen, who is at the center of the three-part documentary, broadcast on Netflix and which, since its release, has established itself on the podium of the most watched series. There is something fascinating about This is the Zodiac Speaking (It’s the Zodiac that speaks to you), title directly inspired by the first sentence of the letters received by the newspapers.
Directed by Ari Mark and Phil Lott, the documentary gives voice, for the first time, to a family who knew him very well: the Seawaters. Since the father was interned in a psychiatric hospital for deviant sexual behavior (in particular with one of his daughters), the mother is raising her six children alone. Almost seven since she is pregnant. The Seawaters moved to Atascadero in 1961 and the three oldest siblings – Dave, Connie and Don – attended school there. It is there that they meet Mr. Allen, their friendly teacher. Plump, good-looking, diving champion, he seduces the children as much as the mother, who invites him more and more often to dinner. Totally overwhelmed, she doesn’t say no when Leigh – she now calls her by her nickname – offers to take the kids for a ride in her convertible, to eat ice cream, to play at the beach.
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A former soldier, in the Navy from 1951 to 1959, Allen therefore joined the teaching staff in 1960, where he met the Seawater. His career as a teacher there was only short-lived: he was fired for bringing a weapon to school and then fired from another establishment after molesting some kids. But Phyllis Seawater, at the head of her family, doesn’t care: these are false allegations, Leigh is a charming man. She will defend him, tooth and nail, until her last breath.
Decades later, Connie, facing the camera, with tears in her eyes, said these terrible words: “We were only children, but given what we know today, I would have preferred to put this story in the closet and not think about it anymore.” And further: “I asked him if he was the Zodiac and he said if he told me he would have to kill me too.”
“Given what we know today,” understand the details discovered during a long investigation, which owes a lot to Robert Graysmith. This designer of San Francisco Chronicles will become passionate about the affair to the point of writing a reference book on the Zodiac. In the documentary, Connie remembers, for example, this day in 1963 when, with his brothers, Allen took them to the beach. On the road, he stops and disappears on a path that leads to the sea, ordering the three Seawater to stay in the car. Time passes and when he finally returns, his forearms are red. Connie wants to help him clean up a little but he rebuffs her, rushes into the car and drives off. It is only later, much later, that Dave, Don and Connie will make the connection with the deaths, on a nearby beach, of Robert Domingos, 18 years old and Linda Edwards, 17 years old.
Three years later, good old Mr. Allen offers to take Connie and her brother David to see a car race in Riverside. The kids are enthusiastic: they will be able to admire Steve McQueen at the wheel of his car. They spend the night in a motel, where David literally collapses, having barely returned. Connie drinks a glass of orange juice served by Mr. Allen and… falls into a bottomless sleep too. Not far away, that night, a young 18-year-old student, Cheri Jo Bates, was stabbed to death. Today, both are convinced that they were drugged. But at the time…
Four years of silence
However, from 1971, Arthur Leigh Allen became a very credible suspect in the murders attributed to the Zodiac. Don Cheney, who had been friends with Allen for years, told police that they once had a strange conversation, in which the former soldier described his desire to go on a manhunt, to murder people. young couples or to sign their crimes with the name Zodiac. If Cheney is not credible – why did you wait all this time to denounce Allen? – he shines a spotlight on a very good “client”.
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Other disturbing coincidences support the thesis according to which the police had the right culprit there. In 1974, Arthur Leigh Allen was interned at the Atascadero psychiatric institute for touching and violence against children. He only came out in May 1977. During this time, no more signs of the Zodiac, no more murders, no more letters, no more codes…
By juxtaposing the facts, the testimonies of relatives of the victims, those of the Seawater family and that of Robert Graysmith, directors Ari Mark and Phil Lott skillfully maneuver, leaving little room for doubt in the viewer’s mind. The climax was reached when, in 1992, concerned about his deteriorating health, Dave Seawater called Allen. The latter is on dialysis, at the end of his life. In one breath, he admits to Dave that he once abused his sister Connie. And then, well, while we’re at it, in a sob, he also confesses to being the Zodiac.
Delirium of a man driven mad by an investigation that affects him closely or a real revelation? We will never know since, that same year, Arthur Leigh Allen was found dead in his home, face down, holding a letter in his hand in which he swore that he was not who he was believed to be. When Allen dies, the Seawater children are torn apart. Dave versus the rest of the world. It wasn’t until the film came out Zodiacby David Fincher, in 2007, that they will, one and the other, review their position. “There was so much about this movie that was familiar and scary“, Connie explains. “Far too many familiar elements to be coincidences.”emphasizes Don.
At the request of Robert Graysmith, the author of the book of which the film is a faithful adaptation, the Seawaters meet again and undertake excavation work in the family archives. Particularly in the numerous letters kept by the mother, Phyllis, who also died. It is the fruit of these very late reflections and revelations that Ari Mark and Phil Lott film in this documentary which does not claim to resolve the case but, at the very least, to prevent it from being closed for good. “In fifty years, we will still be talking about this affair.”concludes Robert Graysmith. “She’s unique.”
The investigation into the Zodiac is, to this day, still open.
- It’s the Zodiac that speaks to youseries created by Ari Mark and Phil Lott. With Robert Graysmith, Connie, Dave and Don Seawater,… Netflix, 3 x 50 minutes.
