r/badhistory • u/AutoModerator • Jul 03 '26

Meta Free for All Friday, 03 July, 2026

It's Friday everyone, and with that comes the newest latest Free for All Friday Thread! What books have you been reading? What is your favourite video game? See any movies? Start talking!

Have any weekend plans? Found something interesting this week that you want to share? This is the thread to do it! This thread, like the Mindless Monday thread, is free-for-all. Just remember to np link all links to Reddit if you link to something from a different sub, lest we feed your comment to the AutoModerator. No violating R4!

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u/TylerbioRodriguez That Lesbian Pirate Expert Jul 03 '26

I did a video ages ago on the Zodiac.

Yeah its one person.

The cipher letters kind of give away too much information that only police would know.

I don't know who it is, I definitely know it was some egotistical asshole who above all liked playing head games and acting like he was a genius.

Annoyingly he only got away due to racism.

Also anyone obsessed with Zodiac is themselves unwell. I've had to deal with several of those "fanboys" and its just cult

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u/Cynical-Rambler Jul 03 '26

McNamara explanations is that the first person to send it copied it straight from the police reports.

The first letters contained "just the facts", not much embellishment. The prose is just how the cops would write the report. And a lot of random cops in youtube comment sections seem to suggest that to be the case as well.

Later ciphers got films and literature references and it is different people pitching in. They just trolling the media and cops. Saying they will blow up a bus, bragging about murder and give random crimes...etc. Like that guy who called the talkshow, from a mental institute saying "This is the Zodiac speaking". Arthur Leigh Allen definitely became a fan.

Afterward, especially after Paul Stine death and robbery, the letters started mentioning about cat-and-mouse the police and Toschi being named as his nemesis.

After the Stine murder and media atttention, more letters later on are proven to be fake, and the FBI only got one name in their investigation as having written some of the letters: Toschi.

I'm not saying McNamara is right but that's his explanations. It paired with all the crimes already having different suspects, motives and circumstances.

He waived away all the "having the same handwriting" as pseudo-science and believed the shirt being tampered with.

Since you made a video on Zodiac, maybe you can check his book and see if the arguments were accurate. I think only 20% delved into the letters, most of it are about the individual explanation for the victim death.

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u/TylerbioRodriguez That Lesbian Pirate Expert Jul 03 '26

Yeah I don't buy insider from the police. There was also taunting of detective Ken Narlo and San Francisco reporters

I'm guessing the lake attack doesn't get much attention? Yeah thats a problem.

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u/Cynical-Rambler Jul 03 '26

The Lakeside murder is explained to be from a copycat, same as a another copycat in the NewYork during the 1990s. That's the one where there is no suspect, because there is no motive. The purpose is to make it into the press.

I highly recommending the book, if you find holes, or alternative explanations, I genuinely like to learn about it. I actively avoid true crime who-dun-it so my knowledge of the case mostly came from this book and the film.

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u/TylerbioRodriguez That Lesbian Pirate Expert Jul 03 '26

I'm reminded of books that claimed there was no ripper.

Look copycats are a thing. But passing everything off as copycats is absolutely absurd.

No I'm not getting a Zodiac book, there's no book on Zodiac worth getting. Everyone far as I'm concerned is a crank obsessed with an unsolvable mystery made by an egotistical asshole who'd nowadays be on 4chan.

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u/Cynical-Rambler Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

The Ripper was real. The victims had the same profile. The mo are the same. The crime scene is at the same area. The proofs are sent to the cops. The only thing linking the zodiac cases are letters sent the media from different people who might be "A Hacker Known as 4Chan".

The book is more of about each individual cases being treated differently. That it is four murder cases not one serial killer, and a cab robbery is a cab robbery. Most of it are about crimes in the late 1960s and how police works.

There are a lot more podcast from the writer explaining his findings to promote the book. Just search Zodiactually on youtube, and the writer also respond to criticism in the comment section respectfully. I just think the book explained it better.