Zodiac Killer Case Analysis | Mental Health & Personality

welcome to my scientifically informed insider look at mental health topics if you find this video to be interesting or helpful please like it and subscribe to my channel hello this is dr. grande today's question asks I can analyze the Zodiac killer so what are the mental health and personality factors at work in a case like this so just reminder here that I'm not diagnosing anybody only speculating about what could be happening in a case like this so usually in videos like this I look at the crime the trial then the background and the mental health personality characteristics the Zodiac killer was never caught so there is no trial and we don't know anything about his background the timeline is extensive because of the letters he wrote therefore in this video I'm going to weave the timeline together with most of the mental health analysis but I'll still do a little bit more mental health analysis at the end when attempting to construct an accurate timeline in a case like the Zodiac killer we see it becomes challenging because experts don't agree on how many murders he committed there does seem to be some consensus around the theory that he killed five people so that's what I'm going to cover here in the timeline I've also not included all of the communications there are a lot of communications that were thought to have originated with the Zodiac killer many people sent messages pretending to be the Zodiac killer so it's really very difficult to know which ones were authentic so now we moved to December 20 1968 a 16 year old female and a 17 year old male were sitting in a parked car on their first date in a remote area north of San Francisco not long after 11:00 p.m. a killer approached their vehicle he shot the male in the head while the victim was still in the vehicle the female exited the vehicle but was shot several times in the back 10 22 caliber shell casings were found at the crime scene at this point of course nobody knew about the Zodiac killer this crime alone would not qualify the suspect as a serial killer but even still I find this crime has an interesting parallel to David Berkowitz the Son of Sam who primarily targeted young couples sitting in their cars even Oh Berkowitz did not make physical contact with the couples his motivation was sexual in nature and it makes me wonder if we don't see the same thing here with the Zodiac killer in terms of a motive moving to July 4 1969 sometime around midnight about four miles away from the 1968 crime scene so again north of San Francisco 22 year old Darlene Ferrin told her babysitter she was going out to buy fireworks Darlene then picked up 19 year old Michael Mayhew Darlene was married to another man so these two were having an affair the couple noticed that they were being followed by another car so Darlene sped up and eventually hit a log in a golf course this caused her vehicle to stall and of course come to a stop the suspicious vehicle followed them and pulled up behind them but then left moments later only to return about five minutes later the driver parked behind them and he left his lights on he exited his vehicle and walked up to the passenger side of their car shining a flashlight in their faces Darlene and Michael started to retrieve their drivers licenses because they thought the assailant was a police officer the killer started shooting both Michael and Darlene Darlene was struck nine times as the killer returned to his vehicle Michael got a look at his face the killer returned again and fired two more shots at each of the victims before ultimately driving away the caretaker of the golf course reported to the police that he heard gunshots but the police did not respond to the call because it was July 4 and they believed the caretaker was simply hearing fireworks not long after this three teenagers reported the same shooting this time the police decided they would respond at the scene they found that Darlene was dead and Michael was alive now this account of what happened that night is interesting because Darlene and Michael were having an affair as I mentioned the police did not believe Michaels story for that reason there are also some inconsistencies with the story the police department switchboard received a call at 12:40 a.m. which was two men after Darlene was pronounced dead the caller said he wanted to report a double murder he gave the location of the couple and indicated that the cartridges used in the murder or nine-millimeter Luger he also claimed to have killed the other two victims that I was talking about before in the 1968 murder the call originated from a payphone outside of the sheriff's office just after this three of Darlene's relatives received telephone calls where the caller was just breathing heavy they didn't say anything so with this murder we see that the Zodiac killer seemed to direct more attention to the murder of Darlene as compared to Michael the idea here is that his focus and his drive are oriented toward women killing the man was something necessary for him to do what he really wanted to do which was killed a woman we also see some hesitancy he chased them until they crashed he left and then he came back like he wasn't sure if he wanted to go through with it he was still trying to figure out his MO he was not comfortable as a killer after being careful if that is what he was trying to do by initially leaving he then places a phone call from the pay phone right outside the sheriff's office taunting law enforcement to catch him so we see hesitancy but then we see he's really fearless the last interesting thing I'll talk about in terms of this crime was the heavy breathing phone calls it's possible that he knew Darlene or else how would he have known to call three of her relatives assuming he was the one that made the call Darlene was also having affairs with a number of police officers and it's thought that one of them perhaps called the relatives that's not really a strong motive for them to do that another thought here is the Zodiac killer selected Darlene because she was having affairs with police officers and he wanted to get back at those officers moving to July 31 1969 three area newspapers receive a letter from the killer in the letter he supplies details that only the killer could have known he also sent each newspaper a distinct cypher so there were three ciphers that would go together to make a complete message at least in theory here we see our first look at the zodiac killers ability to murder grammar and that's what he did in the letters that he wrote right he didn't have any respect for the rules of grammar August 7 1969 here we see a three-page letter sent by the Zodiac killer this is the first time the killer refers to himself as the zodiac in this letter he provided more details about the crimes that only the killer would have known and we see some other interesting elements here he wasn't happy with not getting more press coverage so we see a narcissistic quality here he wanted to be admired for the crimes he committed he was offended when people didn't recognize him he emphasized that he was calm during the July 4 murder that he pulled his car away slowly and didn't rush from the scene he wanted to be seen here as dominant confident and he wanted to be regarded as callous and unemotional so he could commit this murder and just drive away casually he wasn't flustered by any of this he didn't want anybody to think less of him another point he seemed to take pride in being able to aim his weapon using this flashlight he taped to the firearm so the police had noted he was able to shoot these victims in the dark and he was kind of explaining how he had this flashlight I think here he's really just bragging to the police like he had some sort of superior method in terms of using his weapon he seemed to enjoy the idea that the police may be struggling to break the cipher so mocking the police seems to give him pleasure bringing them down makes him feel superior a couple from Salinas California actually decoded a cipher a few days before this letter was delivered so he thought the cipher had not been broken but it had been broken the zodiac killers message from July 31 indicated that he enjoyed killing people and he believed that he was collecting slaves for the afterlife this is the first good evidence that points to this idea that he was delusional or he wanted to appear delusional this is a belief that we see with other serial killers like they are collecting people the more people they kill the more they have later on in the afterlife so they're helping themselves there building up their ability to be happy later on death is the ultimate insult for a narcissist through this delusion the Zodiac killer could defeat death by preparing for it and looking forward to it September 27 1969 at around 4:00 p.m. at a man-made lake north of San Francisco 22 year-old Cecelia Shepard and 20 year-old Bryan Hartnell are having a picnic the Zodiac killer approached them carrying a firearm he was wearing a hood and he had clip-on sunglasses attached to the outside of hood to cover his eyes he told the story about having just escaped from Montana he said he wanted to steal their car and take their money he told Cecelia to tie up Bryan with some rope that he brought with him then he tied her up he stabbed both of them Cecelia would die a few days later Bryan would survive after the attack the killer used a felt-tip pen and drew a message on Bryan's car door it had a symbol that he'd used before it's a crosshair like shape he also had the dates of the crimes and some other information at 7:40 p.m. a person believed to be the killer calls the Napa Police Department and takes credit for what he described as a double murder so the killer didn't realize that Bryan was alive the police found the pay phone that the killer used and lifted a palm print from it here we see the lone eroticism of this killer he's cold calculating unemotional and has no empathy he has an ability to stay calm he also switched to a different method so he'd used a firearm and now he uses a knife I think here he wanted to show off his criminal versatility he took pride in his actions as evidenced by the resume of sorts that he recorded on that car door at this point we see the Zodiac killer has tried to kill six people three females and three males but he failed to kill two of the males and what might have been an effort to prove he was capable of killing men his next target was a man this brings us to October 11 1969 downtown San Francisco the killer hails a driven by twenty nine-year-old Paul Stine he asked Paul to drive him to Washington and maple after arriving at that destination he asked Paul to drive one more block after seeing a man walking a dog in front of a cab so he was trying to avoid having witnesses the killer shoots Paul Stine in the head with a nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistol he then exits the vehicle and opens the front door takes the victim's wallet wipes down the interior of the cab closes the door and wipes down the outside of the cab witnesses called the police but the message was misinterpreted so the police were looking for an african-american male instead of a Caucasian male it appears the police did actually stop the Zodiac killer when they first came onto the scene they asked him if he saw anything the killer reported he saw a man waving a gun on Washington Street the police followed that lead instead of taking him into custody in a letter written two days later October 13 1969 the Zodiac killer seemed to corroborate this idea that the police should have caught him but failed to do so he included a torn piece of the victims shirt which had blood spatter on it and he threatened to target students who would be writing school buses now this crime was quite different than his prior crimes killing somebody in a crowded area and in a manner that would certainly attract attention and of course it did here we see a lot of criminal versatility and a number of efforts to avoid being caught although he did leave a fingerprint on the inside of the car October 22 1969 the Oakland Police Department receives a call from a person claiming to be the Zodiac killer the killer wants to get on a talk show with either f lee Bailey or Melvin belli two well-known attorneys Melvin Bell I did end up talking to a man on that show but the call was traced back to a patient at a mental institution even though this person was not the Zodiac killer this connects to something we see later on November 8 1969 the Zodiac killer writes another letter which appears to indicate he committed another in August the only unsolved murder from August 1969 in that area was of two teenage girls two years later it would be connected to another murderer who did not commit the other zodiac murders this letter was also accompanied by a cipher referred to as the 340 cipher because it had three hundred forty characters this cipher was never decoded and it's not clear that it really contains any meaningful message so here we see the Zodiac killer needs to feed his narcissism even though he may be scared to commit more murders Paul Stine was the last confirmed victim of the Zodiac killer the next day November 9 we see another letter and this one makes it clear that the Zodiac killer killed seven people of course the police believe there were only five murders right so he added two in this letter he suggests that he's going to change the way he commits murder so nobody will be able to attribute the murders to him he said I'll make them look like accidents routine robberies or murders caused by anger he talks about how he really didn't leave fingerprints behind as it was reported in the news he did that just to throw off the police he again mocked the police for not catching him he seemed to remove all doubt that the police had actually stopped him after the Paul Stine murder so there was a massive missed opportunity there they were right there with the Zodiac killer and let him go he also described how he had built what he referred to as a death machine this would be something he would be using in theory from now on to commit more murders so here the Zodiac killer desperately tries to cover up the fact that he's not committing murders anymore but he still wants to be feared he wants to be mysterious and elusive he begins a pattern of claiming victims that were not connected to him that attorney I mentioned before Melvin belli he received a letter from the Zodiac killer on December 20 1969 this letter was accompanied by another piece of Paul Stine's shirt entity talks about working on a bomb and expresses concern about losing control he also uses the phrase be Christmas instead of Merry Christmas this led people to believe that he may have been British this is interesting because this is the same attorney who the institutionalized man had spoken with on that talk-show was this a coincidence was there some sort of connection between the real killer and that man that no one could figure out or was the Zodiac killer listening to the talk show if he was listening to the show this is highly consistent with the narcissism he demonstrated before he loved to hear people talking about him this takes us to March 17 1970 a woman named Kathleen John's was driving near Modesto California when a man in a car behind her started flashing his lights and sounding his horn she pulled over and the man pulled over behind her he got out and indicated that one of her tires was wobbling in the back he offered to tighten up the lug nuts after he was done she pulled away in the wheel fell off evidently he had removed the lug nuts the man offered to give her a ride she got into his car with her ten month old daughter the man did not take her to a service station as he promised but rather he drove around saying that he was going to kill her he repeatedly pulled his car off the road like it was going to stop but then he pulled back onto the road and accelerated eventually Kathleen jumped out of the car with her daughter and hid in an irrigation ditch a truck driver stopped and scared the man away in the police station Kathleen saw a composite sketch of the Zodiac killer and identified him as the assailant if this was the Zodiac killer again we see he breaks from any established style demonstrating criminal versatility it's not clear what he was trying to accomplish with this crime he had many opportunities to kill Kathleen John's but it did not another thing I find unusual here after she escapes he went back to her vehicle he put the wheel back on moved it and set it on fire this was really taking a lot of risk that was probably unnecessary the thinking about the Zodiac killer at this time after the Paul Stein murder that he was scared of being caught because he was almost arrested that day but here we see his behavior seems to conflict with that theory one possibility here was that the Zodiac killer was enraged that he did not kill Kathleen John's and he went back to that car and set it on fire out of anger this is similar to what we see with Gary Ridgway when Gary Ridgway would target somebody who wanted to kill if he wasn't able to go through with it he would go into a rage although he never set a car on fire we still see the anger component April 20 1970 we see another letter here he talked about wanting to kill a police officer because they can shoot back he mentioned how his bomb had failed and he was designing a new bomb and he hoped the police were having fun trying to figure out who he killed he explains that he killed 10 people even though the number of confirmed murders was still at 5 so here we're back to the narcissism he's brave he's great he'll take on any adversary he's not afraid of anybody he doesn't mind being in danger he likes the thrill of killing we see more desperate attempts to garner admiration April 20 1970 here we see a letter where he says he wants people to make a zodiac buttons and wear them around town June 26 1970 the killer indicates that he's upset with the people in the San Francisco Bay Area because they did not wear the buttons as he instructed before he claimed that he shot a man in a car with a 38 caliber revolver to make them pay for this failure to wear the buttons he also gave them another cipher and a map that allegedly identified the location of a bomb the police had already issued an arrest warrant for the person who committed the murder to which he was referring July 24 1970 the Zodiac killer confirms that he was the person who abducted Kathleen John's and set her car on fire it's interesting here that he chose to accept responsibility for that attack July 26 1970 in a letter that was largely plagiarized from another work the Zodiac killer continues to complain about the buttons now there was something important about this sweater it was clear from the letter that the Zodiac killer knew what a Radian was this is a term used in geometry it's a way of measuring an angle without using the traditional method of degrees like a 90-degree angle or a 45-degree angle it moves away from that as a different system later a man named Gareth pen discovered that one Radian with an apex drawn on the location marked on the map provided by the Zodiac killer had legs that lined up with two of the murder locations one of those was the Paul Stine murder which seems to explain why the Zodiac killer chose that victim he needed to commit the murder in a particular place so the geometry would work out so here we see the narcissism on display again he wants people to walk around with this zodiac button he won't what this go is on and on with this button thing he really needed to be the center of attention now as far as the use of geometry specifically his knowledge of the term Radian this has led to a variety of theories there's a theory that anybody who understands what a Radian is must be extremely intelligent and all those misspellings in his letters must have been deliberate he's actually a criminal mastermind after all this really doesn't change my opinion of his intelligence I don't buy into this theory what he did wasn't exactly revolutionary in the field of geometry as far as I know he simply put the apex of a Radian on a location and lined up one of the legs with a murder he had already committed and then looked at where the other leg went to he figured out a point on that line where he could commit a homicide unusual but not indicative of an evil genius if he had tied all of his murders together with some type of complex geometry that would show a higher level of functioning I think he just remembered this term from high school March 22 1971 we see another letter claiming responsibility for a murder that was not tied to him then on January 29 1974 we see he sends another letter claiming to have killed 37 people this was the final verified communication from the Zodiac killer so I talked about the mental health again I kind of wove it into the timeline when I rounded out here so we see the Zodiac killer is narcissistic and psychopathic he probably would have qualified as having antisocial personality disorder he may have qualified as having narcissistic personality schizotypal personality disorder would have been another possibility if he was not delusional it's not really clear if he had psychosis or not substance use I think would have been a good possibility here as well based on what we know I would guess that his personality profile would be high and openness to experience mid range conscientiousness low extraversion low agreeableness and low neuroticism in terms of his history we can really only speculate there's only a small population of serial killers so we can't really have a lot of points of comparison here and in that small population we see quite a bit of variability on one side we have killers like Dennis Rader or Gary Ridgway who maintained relatively steady employment and were married on the other hand you have killers like Richard Ramirez and Joel Rifkin who had unstable employment and relationship histories so with that in mind here's my guess in terms of the Zodiac killer we would probably see traumatic experiences when he was young he was probably isolated and bullied probably had a bad relationship with his mother a fascination with fire he would hurt small animals fantasies of having a lot of power and there was probably bedwetting we would also expect to see juvenile delinquency and having difficulties in relationships with women especially being rejected early in a relationship or being rejected before the relationship really started at all he most likely was employed in solitary work so a line of work where he didn't have to interact with a lot of people he was probably viewed as odd maybe even bizarre he was insecure disorganized and not-self short when somebody is confident they don't have to demand that other people believe they are confident and of course that's what we saw with the Zodiac killer he probably had an adult criminal history the addition of juvenile and it's probably one that started with lower-level crimes and escalated to more serious offenses as he grew older the last question I look at here is who was the Zodiac killer of course there's no way to know but many people have theories many people believe that the Zodiac killer was their father right we see a number of people who said their father was this killer some people have said their ex-husband was the killer their brother was the killer so again we should see a lot of people who believe they know who the Zodiac killer is and it happens to be a person that they're related to no fingerprints or DNA that were taken from any of the crime scenes were ever tied to any suspects it is kind of frightening though how many people are a good match for this behavior when I looked at a lot of these other suspects there were a lot of similarities everyone that looked at it seemed convincing for a short time until we realize that there's always going to be overlap in these situations there were probably thousands of people if not more than that if not tens of thousands or 100,000 people that in some way shared enough characteristics with this killer that somebody could say okay maybe they were the killer so a lot of people might seem like they could be the killer but only one person could be and again I haven't been convinced by any of the suspects that have been brought forward so far that I've seen maybe one of them was the Zodiac killer but I don't think so at this point of course it's likely that the Zodiac killer has died he may have died in prison or somewhere else but it away it's likely he's not alive now the same traits that contributed to him being a serial killer would have likely led to a number of other problems in his life right so this kind of explains why we wouldn't expect a long life expectancy I know whenever I talk about cases like the Zodiac killer there will be a variety of opinions please put any opinions and thoughts in the comments section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be interesting thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 478,826

Keywords: Zodiac, Zodiac Killer, narcissism, grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism, narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, factor 1 psychopathy, factor 2 psychopathy, sociopathy, hypersensitivity to criticism, mental health, counseling

Id: yzwEzK80B8E

Length: 26min 37sec (1597 seconds)

Published: Wed May 13 2020