So you're out on a date with your best gal and decide to pull into a lonely lover's lane
for a bit of late-night snuggling.
The glow of the stars above sets the romantic mood, and as you pull each other in close
you hear the crunching of tires on gravel from behind your car.
Annoyed at having your romantic moment interrupted, you look into the rearview mirror and see
a pair of headlights parked directly behind your car, followed by the opening of a car
door.
A heavy set man gets out and starts approaching your car, flashlight in hand.
At first you think that maybe it's just a cop, checking to make sure yours is not another
abandoned vehicle, but you realize that whoever this person is, they're alone.
As they get near your car door you see the flash of a pistol at their side and with a
sinking feeling you realize that you're about to become another victim of the most infamous
American serial killer of all time.
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Infographics Show's You Versus- today we're
putting you, the average joe, up against the Zodiac Killer.
Britain has Jack the Ripper, Australia has John Wayne Glover, and the United States has
Zodiac.
Giving himself the moniker in letters written to the press during which he taunted the police
to try and discover his identity, Zodiac prowled northern California between December 1968
and October 1969.
Officially he is credited with the attempted murders of four men and three women, all between
the ages of 16 and 29, though unofficially Zodiac himself claimed as many as 37 total
murders in his letters to local newspapers.
Zodiac's typical MO was to ambush couples parked or picnicking somewhere remote, specially
in well-known 'lovers lanes' where young couples would go for a bit of privacy.
His first attack was against a young 16 year old couple out on their first date, where
he parked beside the couple before approaching the vehicle, shooting the male as he exited
the vehicle once in the head and the girl five times in the back as she tried to run
away.
Six months later he struck again, much in the same style, shooting both victims while
they were still in their vehicle.
Zodiac would go on to phone the police that night and let them know of the murder, and
though the call was traced Zodiac was long gone by the time police got to the payphone
used.
A few weeks after the second set of murders, Zodiac sent a series of letters to three local
newspapers, taking credit for the shootings and including a 408 symbol cryptogram in which
he claimed was hidden his identity.
He demanded that the letters be printed on the front page or he would go on a murder
spree that next weekend, killing anyone alone that he met until he had reached a bodycount
of a dozen victims.
The cryptogram was solved just days after being published, only it contained no personal
information and instead a rambling claim that killing people was more fun than killing wild
game and that he wouldn't give his identity because he was killing people in order to
collect slaves for the afterlife.
Clearly, Zodiac was very disturbed- or at least just messing with the police.
Zodiac would go on to strike again a month later, targetting another young couple who
this time were out on a picnic together.
He attacked both with a knife, though the male victim would go on to survive and give
a detailed eyewitness account of Zodiac.
Zodiac also called the police again, but once more the trace would be far too late.
Two weeks later Zodiac would enter a cab in San Francisco and shoot the cab driver in
the head, only to be witnessed by a bunch of teenagers.
It's believed that police very nearly caught Zodiac this time around, but responding officers
had received an APB to be on the lookout for a black suspect and thus Zodiac slipped away,
tantalizingly close to having been caught.
Zodiac would go on to taunt the public and police both once more, sending letters to
the San Francisco Chronicle and even calling in to a live tv show.
Neither the letters or the calls to the tv show were helpful in catching Zodiac though,
and after a five month hiatus, Zodiac struck again.
This time he flagged a car being driven by a young mother who was seven months pregnant
off the road.
In the car was her 10 month old daughter, and after he had flagged them down he pulled
up behind them and told the young mother that her rear tire was wobbling and loose.
He offered to tighten up the lug nuts for her, but instead he secretly loosened them.
When she tried to drive away her wheel came completely off and Zodiac offered to help
her get to a service station.
Climbing into his car, Zodiac drove the two around for 90 minutes before finally the young
mother was able to flee from the car along with her daughter.
The two hid in a field until Zodiac finally gave up.
Once more despite detailed eyewitness testimony, Zodiac's identity eluded the police.
After that attack Zodiac would go on to strike two more times, though eventually he came
to be blamed for almost every mysterious disappearance or murder of young victims.
In 1974 Zodiac sent his final letter, in which he praised The Exorcist, which had recently
been released, as “the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen”, and signed the letter
with the score, Me = 37, SFPD = 0.
Zodiac's identity has never been discovered, and now he's back from the past with his eyes
set on scoring a new set of victims- so how are you going to defeat Zodiac?
Unlike most of our challengers in this series, Zodiac is just an ordinary guy, so there's
no superpowers or supernatural abilities to worry about.
What is known about Zodiac is that he's clearly proficient with firearms, and not afraid to
get in close and dirty with a knife.
So how are you going to defeat him?
Zodiac is as most serial killers an ambush predator, preferring to trick his prey into
a false sense of security before murdering them.
Lucky for you, this is a match to the death, so Zodiac's typical strategy of pretending
to be a friendly stranger until he's close enough to strike isn't going to work out.
This is a simple cage match, mano a mano, man versus man, with no tricks or high powered
weaponry to worry about.
First, if you're able, a concealed firearm is an obvious solution to the Zodiac problem-
although in the real world it would have been of little use to most of his victims.
That's because as mentioned, Zodiac often ambushed his victims, hiding under the guise
of social norms- and for those of you who scoff and think your concealed piece would've
saved you, then we'd like to know how often you pull guns out on random strangers that
approach you to ask for directions or offer help with car troubles.
That was why zodiac was as successful as he was, he didn't come out of nowhere gun drawn
and ready to kill, instead he lulled his victims into a false sense of security, or at least
confused them as he blinded them with a flashlight pretending to be a cop.
In best case scenario, you might get a chance to go for your own piece- but Zodiac already
has his out and aimed, getting the drop on you.
So we're gonna skip the obvious and say no firearms allowed, simply because this would
be a really, really short fight.
Instead we'll focus on Zodiac's attacks where he used a knife, which can be defended against
quite easily.
The first thing to do in a life and death struggle is to mentally prepare yourself for
pain- this is something military operatives and professional fighters both do, they psyche
themselves up and accept that in a fight against an opponent who's wielding a weapon, you're
gonna have to take some pain.
The key is figuring out how to take that pain, and where.
You obviously don't want Zodiac stabbing you in the chest with that knife, so instead you
want to use elbows and other hard bony areas of your body to deflect a stab or slash- even
your skull is surprisingly effective against a knife, given the half-inch thick shell of
bone around your brain.
And hey, better to get slashed or stabbed into some thick skull bone rather than straight
into a jugular in your neck- we're not saying it's ideal, but it's better than bleeding
to death instantly.
The key is to get Zodiac into close enough quarters that his knife becomes a liability
rather than a tool.
Knifes require at least about a foot's swing or thrust distance to be dangerous, so that's
physical distance you want to deny zodiac.
If possible, get in close under his swing, or deflect a stab with your forearms and quickly
close the distance.
You want to get as close as possible to chest to chest with Zodiac, giving him little room
to maneuver his knife.
Then, get a hand on the weapon as best you can, and this is the part that's going to
suck, but if he does manage to stab you with it- force him to keep it there.
Not only will this minimize blood loss, but it'll prevent him from repeating the stab,
although be warned: it's going to hurt like the dickens.
Remember that we told you to prepare for pain.
Once you've got a bit of control over the blade though, you want to start targeting
Zodiac's vulnerable areas in order to incapacitate him.
At close quarters a sharp upwards thrusting headbutt into the nose can shatter the delicate
structure of the nose and cause serious pain, along with spreading the shock upwards to
the eyes which will immediately begin to water.
Forget any fantasies about pushing nose bone into the brain and killing someone that way-
the nose is cartilage, that's pure myth.
Because Zodiac is a man, you want to follow up your nose smash by grabbing onto his adam's
apple and squeezing as hard as you can- this prompts the body to immediately go into a
panicked choking response, turning his attention from hurting you into preventing you from
choking him.
With Zodiac vulnerable, smash your knee into his groin as hard as you can, repeating once
or two for good measure.
Now you've got Zodiac bloodied and bruised, so next: run.
We know this is supposed to be a death match, but because Zodiac was a real killer and someone
who could be copycat'ed in the real world, we feel it's our responsibility to be realistic
for once.
The key to any street fight or any fight for your life, is not to defeat your opponent-
it's to get away.
Any self-defense professional will tell you as such, so you should follow our, and their
advice, and simply run as fast as you can, as far away as you can, heading somewhere
public.
If you live to fight another day, you've already won, and forget any hero fantasies about bringing
down a serial killer.
The dna evidence all over your body will do that for you, and serial killers are best
brought down by police detectives.
Do you think Zodiac really did kill again after 1974?
Who do you think he was?
Also, make sure you check out our other video, You vs Pennywise from the IT Movie!
See you next time!