Zodiackiller.com Message Board: Zodiac Media: Zodiac Publications

It looks like this is now the official home of the Z-publications list. I shall also include a Z-list of programs/documentaries and movies at a future date, but this should help whet the appetites of everyone who is hungry for more Z-information. I hope this list is helpful to everyone, and if anyone knows of or discovers any other books that reference Z that I have not included, just e-mail me (Ed N.) so that I can keep this list updated.

As an aside, both Howard Davis (The Zodiac/Manson Connection) and Douglas Oswell (Dr. Zodiac) are regular contributors to this message board.

1971: Robert Colby, "Horror-Scope for Murder," The California Crime Book (Pyramid Books, NY), pp. 174-188;

1974: Duffy Jennings, "This is the Zodiac Speaking...," Great Crimes of San Francisco: True Tales of Intrigue by the Bay (Comstock Editions, Sausalito, CA), pp. 145-177, Dean W. Dickensheet, ed.; this is hard to come by these days; general overview of the case as it stood at the time;

1981: Gareth Penn (under the pseudonym "George Oakes"): "Portrait of the Artist as a Mass Murderer," California Magazine, November, pp. 111-114, 166-170; this is a sort of a Times 17 prototype;

1982: Carl Sifakis, "Zodiac Killer: California mass murderer," Encyclopedia of American Crime: Abbandando to Zwillman (Facts on File, Inc. NY), p. 784; basic encyclopedic entry, some errors;

1983: Colin Wilson and Donald Seaman, The Encyclopedia of Modern Murder, 1962-1982 (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, NY), pp. 258-260; basic encyclopedic entry, some errors;

1986: Robert Graysmith, Zodiac (St. Martin’s Press, NY); the paperback edition is the most popular (Berkley, NY, 1987); available just about everywhere; Graysmith borrowed from Duffy Jennings’ treatment of the case from twelve years before as well as newspaper reports dating back to 1968, but otherwise, everyone should be familiar enough with it;

1987: Gareth Penn, Times 17: The Amazing Story of the Zodiac Murders in California and Massachussetts, 1966-1981 (The Foxglove Press); available through Amazon.com; Penn accuses Berkeley professor Mike O’Hare of being the Zodiac, but the “theory,” for want of a better term, is so full of holes, errors and apparent fabrications that it is completely untenable;

1990: William L. Beeman (under the pseudonym “Doctor O. Henry Jigglelance”), Jack the Zodiac (Jack the Ripper Reincarnated), Part I and II (White Lite Publishing, Vallejo, CA); no longer available; Beeman accuses his late brother Jack of being the Zodiac, and while there are certainly some interesting things about him, he is not really a viable suspect;

1990: Jay Robert Nash, "Zodiac Killer," Encyclopedia of World Crime, Vol. IV (Crime Books Inc., Wilmette, IL), pp. 3221-3222; basic encyclopedic entry, many errors;

1991: Andrea McNichol with Jeffrey A. Nelson, Handwriting Analysis: Putting It to Work for You (Contemporary Books, Inc., Chicago, IL), pp. 88-90; available through Amazon.com; analysis of the forged 1978 letter;

1991-92: Harry Martin, “Zodiac” series, The Napa Sentinel; probably still available as a reprint from The Sentinel at 1627 Lincoln Ave, Napa CA 94558-4807 or e-mail sentinel@napanet.net; this wacky theory accuses just about everyone and their grandma of being involved with the Zodiac murders, and is rife with errors, inconsistencies, contradictions and apparent fabrications;

1993: Howard Davis, The Zodiac/Manson Connection and supplement (Pen Power Publications, Costa Mesa, CA); available through Amazon.com; this theory is self-explanatory;

1993: True Crime, Volume IV, Unsolved Crimes (Time-Life Books, Alexandria, VA), pp. 4-47; pretty hard to come by these days; overview of case, based on Graysmith, but has lots of photos not previously available;

1993: David Everitt, Human Monsters: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Most Vicious Murderers (Contemporary Books, Lincolnwood (Chicago), IL), pp. 191-193; available through Amazon.com; short rundown of case, some errors;

1994: Rider McDowell,"On The Trail Of The Zodiac," This World section, San Francisco Chronicle, May 8 and 15, 1994, pp. 7-12; available on microfilm, which you should be able to order through most libraries; the reason I included this newspaper report is because this is apparently the first in which Larry Kane (“Larry Krew”) is publicly linked to the Zodiac;

1994: Michael Kurland, A Gallery of Rogues: Portraits in True Crime (Prentice Hall General Reference, NY) p. 405; currently out of print; basic encyclopedic entry, some errors;

1994: Crime and Punishment: The Illustrated Crime Encyclopedia, Volume 18 (H. S. Stuttman Inc. Publishers, Westport, CT);

1994: Almanac of Famous People, 5th ed. (Gale Research Inc., Detroit, MI), Volume 1, Biographies, p. 1657, and Volume 2, Indexes, p. 1001. Beverly Baer and Neil E. Walker, eds.; this is nothing more than a few lines of reference;

1995: John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit (Pocket Books, New York, NY), p. 150; available through Amazon.com; Douglas mentions Z in passing in relation to the Trailside murders, and incorrectly places him in Los Angeles rather than the Bay Area;

1996: Lustmord: The Writings and Artifacts of Murderers (Bloat Books, Burbank, CA), pp. 286-309, Brian King, ed.; available through Amazon.com; basic rundown of case, focusing on Z's communications;

1996: Harold Schechter and David Everitt, The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (Pocket Books, New York, NY), pp. 338-340; available through Amazon.com; basic encyclopedic entry, some errors;

1997: Bill Nelson, Manson Behind the Scenes (Pen Power Publications, Costa Mesa, CA), pp. 293-346; available through Amazon.com; this theory focuses on Bruce Davis, Charles Manson’s right-hand man, as being the Zodiac;

1998: Douglas Oswell and Michael Rusconi, Dr. Zodiac: The Unabomber-Zodiac Connection; available through The Unabomber-Zodiac Connection website; Dr. Zodiac is here! will take you to the ordering information page; this theory is self-explanatory;

1999: Colin Wilson, "The Zodiac Killer," The Mammoth Book of Unsolved Crimes, (Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., New York, NY), pp. 438-451, Roger Wilkes, ed.; available through Amazon.com; basic rundown of case, some errors;

1999: Gareth Penn, The second power: A mathematical analysis of the letters attributed to the Zodiac murderer and supplement to TIMES 17; ordering information once available through Jake Wark's This is the Zodiac Speaking... website but no longer because of threat of litigation; Penn’s at it again trying other ways to prove that Mike O’Hare is the Zodiac, this time using a system that is essentially the same as the Bible Code warmed over.