Directed and presented by Andrew Nock (Unidentified with Demi Lovato; Haunted Towns), Myth of the Zodiac Killer (Peacock) is a two-episode docuseries that reexamines the still-unsolved case of the Zodiac, a name attributed to a suspected serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s and early 70s. This tale has been told before – David Fincher’s 2007 film Zodiac, the 2007 documentary This is the Zodiac Speaking, and many more. But with Myth of the Zodiac, Nock and his interviewees keep asking one central question: what if all of that other Zodiac stuff was totally wrong?
Opening Shot: “For over 50 years, there’s been a universal belief that the Zodiac Killer was responsible for five murders and a series of cryptic, chilling letters and ciphers that took credit for the crimes.” What Myth of the Zodiac Killer proposes is “What if…all this time…the single killer theory…is nothing but a myth?”
The Gist: The murders of five people in the San Francisco Bay Area between 1968 and 1969 have never been solved. The cases remain open, making justice elusive for the victims’ loved ones. But the larger mystery of the Zodiac has grown over the decades and become a pop culture cause célèbre, especially with the murderer’s potential motives and identity wrapped up in those letters and other correspondence, which made claims of responsibility and included mysterious cryptograms that also remain partly unsolved. “The Zodiac” has become shorthand for a single suspect, a serial killer who was never caught. But Myth of the Zodiac Killer is here to suggest otherwise.
Andrew Nock says it was Thomas Henry Horan’s podcast that led the filmmaker to the English professor and former insurance investigator. (“Now, there’s an alternate theory by one controversial professor,” declares a title in Myth written in a typeface reminiscent of the Zodiac’s handwriting.) What if the single killer theory is wrong? Did the information in all of those letters to Bay Area newspapers really align with evidence collected by police? Horan believes not. He tells Nock the five murders aren’t connected, that it wasn’t an individual serial killer, and that the letters were written by someone other than the killer or killers. According to Horan, the letters and ciphers are all just components of a fictional character whose development distracted the police and public from finding the truth. And what about drug-dealing 60s biker gangs in California? Were they involved?
Nock asks Horan for a clarification. Everyone else who investigated the Zodiac for the past 50-plus years, from the police on the case, to the FBI, to the many amateur internet sleuths who’ve conducted their own investigations, are they all wrong? Horan: “Bingo.” And the Hawaaian shirt-clad podcast host and author travels with Nock to the scene of the first two murders to illustrate how he thinks it happened. Then, Nock delves into another Zodiac murder, the shooting death of Darlene Ferrin in 1969. He interviews the victim’s younger sister, and tracks down Ferrin’s ex-husband, a man named James Crabtree. Back then, Crabtree was cleared as a suspect. So why does his side of the story now seem suspect to Nock and Horan?
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Versions of the Zodiac, or characters inspired by the facts of the case, have surfaced in everything from Criminal Minds to the American Horror Story anthology series. The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer, a five-episode docuseries that appeared on Hulu in 2017, put forth its own theories about potential suspects, new evidence, and new translations of the Zodiac ciphers. And FX/Hulu also features The Most Dangerous Animal of All, the 2020 docuseries that traces Gary L. Stewart’s search for the father who abandoned him, a man who Stewart has come to believe was also the Zodiac.
Our Take: The unsolved Zodiac case will almost certainly remain so after Myth of the Zodiac Killer. There is a lot of inference here, “if this, then this,” and personal interpretations of available evidence in the case that manufacture their own plausibility. Maybe Thomas Henry Horan is correct in his assertion that there had to be a second shooter at the scene of the first two murders, because of the trajectory of the bullets. Maybe. And so Myth becomes its own unsolved case, that of who believes whom in the realm of Zodiac’s official and unofficial investigators. And sometimes they can get catty. “Speculation?” retired San Francisco Police Department homicide inspector Frank Falzon says. “That doesn’t solve cases. I’m asking you: prove it.” Drew Beeson, another Zodiac author, at least hedges on fully shit-canning Horan’s theories. But Michael Butterfield, another guy who’s written widely on the Zodiac, says that when he was asked to debate Horan and his claims, he outright refused. “You might as well debate a ham sandwich.” Everyone has their pet theory about what went down when the Zodiac struck. And everyone seems to know that they’re the ones who are right and everyone else is wrong.
Sex and Skin: Nothing explicit beyond a few grisly crime scene photos.
Parting Shot: With the second part of Myth of the Zodiac Killer on tap, Andrew Nock gets Florian Cafiero and Jean-Baptiste Camps on a Zoom call, two experts who used computational linguistics to try and identify “Q” of QAnon conspiratorial infamy. Did their study of the Zodiac correspondence point to one letter writer, or multiple scribes? “There is so much deception in the way those letters have been conceived…”
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Sleeper Star: Thomas Henry Horan is a real one-man cottage industry of Zodiac research and lore. He hosts a podcast about the subject, he’s written a book, The Myth of the Zodiac Killer: A Literary Investigation, and he’s interviewed by Andrew Nock in a kind of work nook cluttered with Zodiac clippings, a human skull, reel-to-reel projectors, Xeroxed evidence photos, wind-up novelty chattering teeth, and two backup Hawaaian shirts visible behind the one he wears throughout this doc.
Most Pilot-y Line: Horan lays out his main Zodiac theory, the one that led Nock to him in the first place, and which probably doubles as the front flap summary of his book. “There was no serial killer. There was no single killer involved in the murders. And the person writing the letters didn’t commit any of the murders. The Zodiac killer is a fictional character. He’s a literary invention.”
Our Call: Here’s a docuseries for all of the online crime sleuths out there. They’ll want to stream Myth of the Zodiac Killer because it includes them in what it refers to as the “Zodiac community.” That vein of determined speculation is the strongest draw here, beyond the basics of the true crime genre. Is the Zodiac the product of myth? People like Thomas Horan are convinced, whether or not you will be. And they’re happy to tell you all about their theory.
Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges