Catching Killers season 3 covers how the NYPD had to look into witchcraft and astronomy to catch the Zodiac Killer copycat that surfaced in New York in the 1990s.
To decrypt the notes New York’s Zodiac Killer sent and his MO, the NYPD relied on Detective Larry Milanesi’s team, which looked into the astronomy side of things.
In his notes, Zodiac mentioned that he had already targeted people with three different Zodiac Signs, and the cops believed he had a game plan to target the rest as well.
How did New York’s Zodiac Killer work?
Milanesi’s team studied Zodiac’s notes, which were very detailed. With the times and dates of shooting and zodiac signs, the team created a chart.
Milanesi’s team noticed a pattern in the shootings taking place. New York’s Zodiac Killer followed a 21-day pattern. He targeted people every 21 days, but only when three constellations were present in the sky. The constellations were the Seven Sisters, Taurus, and Orion.
If these constellations weren’t visible, he wouldn’t attack. Milanesi believed the next attack would take place on June 21, 1990, between 1 and 4 a.m.
As Milanesi’s team predicted, the Zodiac did attack a person on the 21st of June in Central Park. However, the cops weren’t able to catch him despite strict surveillance. They had the date and time, but not the location where he would attack his next victim.
Milanesi continued to study Zodiac’s notes. One of these notes had the sign of “Faust”. Faust was a 16th-century magician who had sold his soul to the devil for knowledge.
Milanesi met a Warlock to understand these notes better. The Warlock instructed him to get the Book of the Law by Aleister Crowley. Aleister Crowley was an English Witch. He died in 1947, and he has followers all over the world.
Milanesi realized that he was dealing with something strange and dangerous when the Warlock claimed that he doesn’t touch Aleister Crowley’s stuff.
Aleister’s book has a lot to do with taking slaves for the afterlife. It mentions striking hard and striking low. In Zodiac’s case, even he never attacked anyone’s head.
The change in MO
Zodiac disappeared after the attack in Central Park. The first task force disbanded. Zodiac reappeared and sent letters again in 1994, claiming that he has attacked five more victims. This time, he changed his MO.
Zodiac abandoned his zodiac pie charts and used maritime flags instead. The code meant to say that Zodiac is back, and he promises there will be more.
The cops managed to catch Zodiac a year later for a completely different crime. A man named Heriberto Seda, also known as Eddie, was identified as the Zodiac.
Unfortunately, the cops never learned how Eddie found out about the zodiac signs of the people he targeted.
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