Arthur Leigh Allen was the prime suspect in the Zodiac killer case. With a new documentary about the murders now streaming on Netflix, here’s what we know about Allen, including how and when he died.
The identity of the Zodiac killer remains one of the greatest mysteries in American criminal history.
Throughout the 1960s, Zodiac murdered couples as well as lone men and women in California, and mostly around the San Francisco Bay Area. He also wrote letters to local news, taunting law enforcement and journalists covering the case. But the killer was never found.
New Netflix documentary ‘This is the Zodiac Speaking’ aims to shed some light on the case, and via the Seawater family who knew him, points a finger directly at Arthur Leigh Allen.
Arthur Leigh Allen was the prime Zodiac killer suspect
Arthur Leigh Allen was a school teacher during the time of the Zodiac murders, and became the number one suspect as far as the police were concerned.
That’s because there was much circumstantial evidence connecting him to the case. He owned and wore a Zodiac Watch that might have inspired his own nickname. Drove a car that matched the killer’s. Owned a typewriter in line with the letters that were written. While he also had the same shoe size.
Michael Mageau, who survived a Zodiac attack, picked him out in a lineup years later. While Bryan Hartnell, another survivor, believed he recognized his voice and stature.
Friend Don Cheney also said Leigh claimed he would kill couples, and planned to take out a bus full of children in exactly same way that the Zodiac killer described such an act in a letter to newspapers.
Arthur was never charged with any of the crimes
Don Cheney reported what he heard to police, who then interviewed Arthur Leigh Allen in 1971 and searched the trailer in which he lived.
But the evidence remained circumstantial, and when his fingerprints and handwriting samples didn’t match the Zodiac’s, Allen walked free.
That was the second time he’d been interviewed by police about the crimes, and they spoke to Lee and searched his property multiple times throughout the 1970s.
Indeed, Arthur Leigh Allen remained the only suspect that police ever publicly named, while investigator and author Robert Graysmith claimed he was the killer in multiple books.
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Director David Fincher did the same when he adapted Graysmith’s work into the 2007 movie Zodiac; a film in which Arthur was played by John Carroll Lynch.
Beyond the case, Allen was arrested for child molestation in 1974, crimes to which he pleaded guilty and was incarcerated in Atascadero State Hospital. The Zodiac killings – and letters to the media – stopped during the period he was in prison.
Allen denied being the Zodiac Killer
Arthur Leigh Allen always publicly denied being the Zodiac killer, both to police, and reporters.
Speaking in the above TV interview, Allen says: “I’ve never been known for good luck, and I guess this is pretty much living proof of it. I couldn’t murder anyone.”
The new Netflix documentary features a video compilation of those interviews and Zodiac news reports that Allen edited together and sent to his friend Phylis Seawater.
Phylis’s children also produce multiple letters that Allen wrote to her in which he references the killings, and even says “the most dangerous thing is when I almost decided to confess.”
Arthur Leigh Allen’s death explained
Arthur Leigh Allen died on August 26, 1992, at the age of 58. According to the documentary, he was found face-down in his basement, having suffered a hematoma to the head. An autopsy later revealed that he had died of arteriosclerotic heart disease.
Speaking in the documentary, Robert Graysmith says: “Oddly enough when he died, face-down in his basement lair, the last thing he had in his hand was a letter to the police. [We thought] oh boy, this may be it. This may be the one. But it wasn’t. It was, ‘You guys are just terrible.’ That kind of letter.”
In his final correspondence, Arthur Lee Allen wrote: “If this letter sees the light of day, it will be because I’m dead… I am not the Zodiac killer… the police are wrong, and all their lies can’t change that… I wish the world all the best. All the world except of course the Vallejo Police. I wish them all the worst. They richly deserve it.”
‘This is the Zodiac Speaking’ is now streaming on Netflix, while you can head here to find out where to watch David Fincher’s Zodiac movie.
