This week, FX debuts its miniseries on the Zodiac Killer. Best spent most of his life in California, which is also where he first met Judith Chandler, Stewart’s mother. I'm placing my bets. Not much information about Best’s remaining years is available. After all, the similarities were uncanny. The two then eloped and were on a run for quite a while since Judith was a minor. Best, then, decided to the abandon their month old child, and left him at an apartment building in Baton Rouge. The 408-symbol cipher was broken by an unlikely pair: Donald Harden, a teacher at Alisal High in Salinas, and his wife Bettye. Best’s handwriting from a marriage certificate was virtually identical to Zodiac’s handwriting from the cryptic letters he sent to the police and media. Just a few thoughts in general about handwriting, my 2 cents, for what it's worth. Stewart puts forth a theory that his father’s links to Zodiac were covered up by SFPD in order to protect this detective. Then, he began stabbing them. Van Best made San Francisco news in the early ‘60s when at age 28 he began a predatory relationship with a 14-year-old girl. And so the mystery endures, endlessly fascinating amateur investigators and the public alike. The identity of the Zodiac Killer remains one of history’s most notorious unsolved cases, as evidenced by the number of theories that are still being explored decades later. In 2014, Stewart, who was raised by his adoptive parents, published The Most Dangerous Animal of … According to Stewart, who was adopted as a baby, his search for his biological mother led him to Judith Gilford (Chandler) in 2002. Interestingly, Best also had an alleged connection to Paul Avery as Stewart, in his book, states that Avery wrote the “Ice Cream Romance” article. Gary Stewart was interviewed by Richard Grinell of ZodiacCiphers.com. Gilford told Stewart a terrible story: She was just 14 when she ran away with a 27-year-old rare book dealer named Earl Van Best Jr, giving birth to his child in New Orleans in 1963. Below is the Marriage Certificate of Earl Van Best Jr. and Judith Chandler. For the next half-decade, Zodiac continued to sporadically send letters to newspapers around California. Only Stewart can answer that, of course. In his new book, "The Most Dangerous Animal of All," Gary L. Stewart says his father, Earl Van Best, Jr., was the notorious murderer who terrorized Northern California in the '60s. Encounter: A Los Angeles man believes he met Earl Van Best Jr, the man suspected of being a Zodiac killer in a book released last year. It ran during news coverage of his "child bride" scandal, dubbed the "Ice Cream Romance" by the press. In conducting my analysis, bit by bit, it became clear that Earl Van Best Jr. had, in fact, written the Zodiac letters—my conclusion is virtually certain that the two men who wrote the documents are one and the same person. The Zodiac Killer took on a mythic status not so much because of his crimes but because of his words: He sent bragging, cryptic letters (and sometimes cryptograms) to the media. They’ve chosen to highlight one of the weakest suspects in the infamous case. that the name “Earl Van Best Jr” can be found in the ciphers One of the Zodiac cyphers which Gary Stewart says reveals the Zodiac’s real name – Earl Van Best Jr matches in the handwriting of ‘Van’ and the Zodiac letter, corroborated by a hand-writing analyst Looks exactly the same as sketch. A Louisiana man claims his father, Earl Van Best, Jr., who's now dead -- was the Zodiac Killer. Each one boasted of more victims, but none of those have ever been confirmed. Zodiac is described by the majority of witnesses as possibly being slighty overweight and a little under 6 feet tall. FX’s new four-part documentary series The Most Dangerous Animal of All explores the life of Earl Van Best Jr., the subject of the New York Times bestselling book of the same name by Van Best’s son Gary Stewart (pictured) and journalist Susan Mustafa. FX’s new documentary miniseries The Most Dangerous Animal of Allexplores the claims of Gary Stewart, who believes that his biological father, Earl Van Best Jr., was the notorious killer. By that time, Van Best had been imprisoned for statutory rape. This was years before the z murders. There's almost no evidence Earl Van Best Jr. was the Zodiac Killer, At 12:40 a.m., Vallejo police received a call from a man claiming to be the shooter. Earl Van Best Juniorspelled out one-letter-per-column in the 340 Cypher. Stewart also stated that he found Best’s name in a cryptic message that the Zodiac sent. In Earl Van Best Jr.’s case, the only possible way to determine whether or not he’s the Zodiac is through a DNA match. But whether putting that story out there for the world to see on television helps or hurts Stewart's case remains to be seen. Zodiac approached their vehicle and ordered them out at gunpoint. The handwriting is similar to z. This was years before the z murders. Just one week after publication, in a bizarre twist of the documentary evidence, the accusing finger that was originally pointed toward the father [Earl Van Earl Best Jr.] of a San Francisco Homicide Detective’s stepson, as being the Zodiac killer, has now turned, and if the book’s handwriting analysis by court-certified Questioned Document Expert, Michael Wakshull, is to be believed, would now accuse the Baptist minister that married the father… A so-called expert in handwriting, who found connections between Van Best’s scrawl and the Zodiac Killer ’s from the letters he sent the media, is debunked by another handwriting expert, who breaks down the mistakes the first expert made. Through it all, Arthur Leigh Allen has been a prime suspect, especially after Robert Graysmith‘s investigative work. Best was a rare books dealer, who met Judith outside an ice parlour in San Francisco, called Herbert’s Sherbert Shoppe. The handwriting, that is supposed to be the match with Zodiacs, is actually not even from Van Best, but the priest, ... (the O with an 8/X inside) and Earl Van Best JR has 3 spaces. The police saw a white man walking near the scene but, zeroed in on a black suspect, they drove right by him. It was said that EVB Jr. filled out this certificate and that this handwriting was (almost positively) that of Zodiac. Earl Van Best, Jr. is the subject of FX's The Most Dangerous Animal of All, and it was his son, Gary Stewart, who worked with experts to compile the evidence against his birth father. Stewart does not link Van Best to individual crime scenes — except to say he may have lived near the Paul Stine murder site — nor does he provide any ties to murder weapons or physical evidence. A car pulled up beside them, idled, then left. Over the years, countless suspects have been investigated, but police never got close to an arrest. Their affair made several headlines in the news as a child-bride case. The narratives around the Zodiac Killer are the kind that great urban legends are made of. He asked a handwriting expert to compare it to samples of the Zodiac’s handwriting and the expert declared it a likely match, but that's very much contested ground. --See examples below. In 2002, SFPD tested his DNA against a partial profile they obtained from the saliva on stamps from Zodiac's letters. “My mother said he filled out the documents,” he said. He bound them and said he was an escaped prison inmate. The Vallejo Times Herald, San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner all received letters from Zodiac boasting of his crimes and warning he'd strike again if the letters were not published on the front page. Six months after her death, Riverside police received a letter that read: "Bates had to die. In their conversation, she revealed the truth about her relationship with Best, and why Stewart was abandoned in Baton Rouge. Also, Ross Sullivan (13 with space), Lawrence Kane (13 with space), Jack Tarrance (13 with space) have the same amount of characters as the cipher (13). However, some believe that Cheri Jo Bates, an 18-year-old student at Riverside City College who was slain in 1966, may have been a victim of Zodiac. In 2014, Stewart, who was raised by his adoptive parents, published The Most … But 39 years later, a conversation with his biological mother changed everything for him. Van Best: $1 MIL. The case has inspired everything from movies like "Zodiac" to TV shows like "American Horror Story. Stewart’s 12 years of painful research led him to believe that his father, Earl Van Best Jr., might be the Zodiac Killer. "That’s not the father’s handwriting, I’m sure of it," Audrey Phelps, administrator at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Reno, told The Chronicle in 2014. Zodiac Killer. The Zodiac murders have had several suspects in the past, including numerous cases where people claimed to know the Zodiac. Stewart was adopted and did not learn about his biological parents until 2002 when he was contacted by Judy. However, while Stewart’s investigation is certainly enthralling, it is not enough to determine if Best really was the Zodiac. Stewart really believed that Earl Van Best Jr. could be the Zodiac. It is believed that he was born in 1934, in Wilmore, Kentucky. The marriage certificate between Best and Kos with a signature and the marriage certificate between Best and Judith Chandler with the printing. That’s not the only evidence that Stewart collected for his book.Another very compelling, yet greatly disputed argument is that Van Best Jr. and the Zodiac Killer had the same handwriting. He tracked down relatives, went through government records, new reports, and even forensic evidence. He opened fire, killing them both. --See examples below. Detective Toschi said in 2010 that despite intensive investigation, their leads on Allen "turned out to be negative.". But the police never found concrete evidence to prove anything. In the quiet Presidio Heights neighborhood, Zodiac pulled a 9 mm and shot Stine in the head. Alongside the fact that handwriting analysis as a science is widely questioned, shortly after the book’s publication, a manager at the church that issued the marriage certificate laughed it off. Riverside police dismiss any links between Bates' death and the Zodiac Killer. Stewart’s self-serving cipher solutions, creative fingerprint claims, and invalid handwriting analysis were easily debunked, leaving only the trivia to justify the ongoing … EV Best JR., Van, Earl, etc. The 340 contains the name, Earl Van Best Junior, spelled backward across the cipher with one letter of his name in each column. One morning, Chandler woke up to find Best scrounging in her purse, Stewart said. The name given to the nameless man who continues to rule the American mythology. Lawrence Kane: $200,000. Stewart really believed that Earl Van Best Jr. could be the Zodiac. The 408 cipher is posted, and the 340 cipher will be posted soon. Zodiac is described by the majority of witnesses as possibly being slighty overweight and a little under 6 feet tall. Master it with this $34 training, The difference between N95, KN95, PF94 and surgical masks, Experts beg Americans to keep wearing masks. ", Second earthquake in just three hours strikes Bay Area, Why you should still wear a mask even if you've been vaccinated. Wakshull’s book, The End of the Zodiac Mystery (Self pub print and e-book, 97 pages) presented his handwriting evidence , along with this dramatic claim: “I am virtually certain that the writer of the marriage certificate between Earl Van Best Jr. and Judith Chandler is the same writer as the writer of the Zodiac letters.” Bates was stabbed to death after leaving the library one night. James Owen $50,000. https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/gary-stewart-and- Earl tortured animals when he was younger and he liked it. Gareth Penn. One of the cornerstones of Stewart’s evidence is analysis he had done on a marriage certificate allegedly filled out by Van Best. The pair pulled into a well-known lover's lane on Lake Herman Road in Benicia. But it is believed that he married once more, and eventually died in 1984 in Mexico. Stewart spent 12 long years investigating his father after he realized the eerie similarity between him and the wanted sketch of the Zodiac Killer. Superficially, Van Best did have some commonalities with the Zodiac Killer. When asked about the many problems with his handwriting “match,” Stewart claimed that he had other samples of Earl Van Best’s handwriting. But Stewart, through his book and the docuseries, certainly offers a compelling probable theory that could lead somewhere. The handwriting is similar to z. One of the cornerstones of Stewart’s evidence is analysis he had done on a marriage certificate allegedly filled out by Van Best. I laughed when I saw it in that book.". Gary Stewart’s book The Most Dangerous Animal of All was released in May 2014.Three months later, ZodiacKillerFacts.com featured a review of Stewart’s book which debunked his claims that his father Earl Van Best, Jr. was the Zodiac killer. Recently I contacted Gary Stewart, author of the HarperCollins book 'The Most Dangerous Animal of All', in which he names his biological father Earl Van Best Jr as the infamous Zodiac Killer. A handwriting expert compared Van Best's handwriting in two marriage certificates to the Zodiac's letters. A San Francisco Chronicle photo of Earl Van Best Jr. By the end of the weekend, they'd done it. The best-known Zodiac suspect was Arthur Leigh Allen, who police investigated heavily at the time. At 7:40 p.m., he called the Napa County Sheriff's Office from a payphone to report the crime. VanBest s weight when last estimated was put at about 160. Stewart was left abandoned in a stairwell in Baton Rouge, and soon got adopted by a loving family. One of those men is Stewart, who says he instantly knew his biological father, Earl Van Best Jr., was the murderer after seeing the famous Zodiac Killer police sketch on TV one night. Stewart believed that Zodiac’s female victims resembled his mother. Allen was ruled out. As he approached, they were shocked to see he was wearing a black executioner-style hood. All 17 letters of name appear in order on cipher. The 340 contains the name, Earl Van Best Junior, spelled backward across the cipher with one letter of his name in each column. Tim Boyle/Des Plaines Police Department John Wayne Gacy killed 33 … He asked a handwriting expert to compare it … A Louisiana man claims his father, Earl Van Best, Jr., who's now dead -- was the Zodiac Killer. He also took responsibility for the Benicia murders, saying, "I also killed those kids last year.". The Handwriting: A good portion of Stewart’s argument rests on the testimony of Questioned Documents Expert, Michael Wakshull. that the name “Earl Van Best Jr” can be found in the ciphers One of the Zodiac cyphers which Gary Stewart says reveals the Zodiac’s real name – Earl Van Best Jr matches in the handwriting of ‘Van’ and the Zodiac letter, corroborated by a hand-writing analyst Van Best was also allegedly an abusive father, eventually abandoning his one-month-old in Louisiana. Judith had reached out to Stewart in 2002 when he was 39 years-old. After his first marriage in 1957, he got married to Judith in 1962. Thinking he'd killed them both, Zodiac returned to the parking lot, where he drew his signature cross-circle on Hartnell's car door (seen here) and, with a black pen, wrote the locations and dates of all three murder sites. Van Best was also a fan of ciphers. He died in 1992. It was in February 1963, while the two were on the run, that Judith gave birth to Stewart, who at the time was baptized as Earl Van Doren Best IV. Katie Dowd is the SFGATE Managing Editor. However, this too, may not be completely accurate. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Zodiac didn't give his real name, but the note was suitably creepy. Tim Boyle/Des Plaines Police Department John Wayne Gacy … Into that void have stepped dozens of people claiming to know, or be related to, the real Zodiac Killer. Zodiac hailed the unlucky cab on the corner of Mason and Geary and asked to be driven to Washington and Maple. IMDb, the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. Gary Steward, author of the book “The Most Dangerous Animal of All” proposed that his father Earl Van Best Jr. was the Zodiac. FX's new documentary miniseries The Most Dangerous Animal of All explores the claims of Gary Stewart, who believes that his biological father, Earl Van Best Jr., is the notorious killer. FX’s new documentary miniseries The Most Dangerous Animal of All explores the claims of Gary Stewart, who believes that his biological father, Earl Van Best Jr., was […] On Dec. 20, David Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16, were on their very first date. While the cases are still open, and the investigation continues, there is no way to confirm if Earl Van Best Jr. really was the Zodiac Killer. Police had no leads until six months later... On the night of July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau were sitting in their parked car at Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. ... in which he claimed his search for his biological father, Earl Van Best, Jr., led him to conclude Van Best was the Zodiac Killer. "I like killing people because it is so much fun it is more fun than killing wild game in the forrest because man is the most [sic] dangeroue animal of all," it read. On Aug. 1, 1969, newspapers began to receive the first of Zodiac's famous letters. Two weeks later, Zodiac killed his final confirmed victim: San Francisco cab driver Paul Stine. San Francisco homicide inspectors David Toschi, left, and Bill Armstrong were assigned to the case. At Long Last, Kamala Harris Is Home: Take a Look Inside the Vice... Video of Black Army officer's police encounter goes viral, Man found dead, woman alive, in treacherous Death Valley rescue, 'We're in a lot of trouble': East Brother lighthouse has no power, This wild Netflix heist show is the next great true crime series, 'Death at Haight orgy': The 1969 SF murder witnessed by many, The otherworldly barbecue joint behind the Richmond refineries, The best movies of 2021 on Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon and Disney, Horoscope for Saturday, 4/10/21 by Christopher Renstrom, Korean grocery store anticipates SF opening this month, It's time to learn Excel. In the days and weeks that followed, they were sent more letters from Zodiac. Three teens in a house across the street called the police, thinking they were watching a robbery. Three days after Stine's murder, Zodiac sent a scrap of Stine's bloody shirt to prove he was a the killer. She was pregnant with their son — Gary Stewart — at 15. He also states he was working under the assumption that "Judith Chandler observed Earl Van best Jr. write all the entries on the marriage certificate other than signature of witnesses." Judith Chandler got married to Earl Van Best Jr. when she was fourteen and he was 27-year-old. Wakshull’s book, The End of the Zodiac Mystery (Self pub print and e-book, 97 pages) presented his handwriting evidence , along with this dramatic claim: “I am virtually certain that the writer of the marriage certificate between Earl Van Best Jr. and Judith Chandler is the same writer as the writer of the Zodiac letters.” By turning a bad guy into The Bad Guy, a horrible personal history becomes something more meaningful. Earl Van Best jr is the subject of both a book and television series (on FX) called "The Most Dangerous Animal Of All." "I love Judy and she loves me…it was love at first sight.". ... "Looked identical to the sketch" or "handwriting was identical".....things like that. Louis Myers and Jack Tarrance were also suspects, amongst several others. Gary claims to have found his father's name, Earl Van Best Jr. in two of those ciphers. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Katie Dowd is an SFGATE Senior Digital Editor. It’s been over fifty years since the Zodiac murders, and yet, no one knows who the Zodiac was. "I can’t help the difference in our ages," Van Best told the San Francisco Chronicle in a 1962 jailhouse interview. Claiming that it was, in fact, his professor, Micheal O'hare, the … Read More: The Unbelievable True Story Behind The Most Dangerous Animal of All. Best’s handwriting from a marriage certificate was virtually identical to Zodiac’s handwriting … Stewart believed that Zodiac’s female victims resembled his mother. "It’s Reverend Edward Fliger’s (the priest who signed the certificate). There will be more." The 408 cipher is posted, and the 340 cipher will be posted soon. Some of the main arguments against Van Best Jr. being the Zodiac are: One of the handwriting samples analyzed was from Earl Van Best Jr’s marriage certificate from 1962. If you look in all three sections of the 408 cipher, you will find Van’s name in each section in some variation, i.e. I saw a tv special that made a lot of convincing evidence. Police arrived on scene and a series of blunders allowed Zodiac to get away... For reasons unknown, the dispatcher told police to look for a black male suspect. Gilford recounted how she had met his biological father, 27-year-old Earl Van Best Jr., when she was just 14 years old, and gave birth to … The book tells of how Stewart, watching a crime show one night on television, saw the only Zodiac Killer suspect sketch and believed it was nearly identical to a photo he’d seen of his father. In an odd coincidence, Stewart’s biological mother Judy ended up marrying a detective in the San Francisco Police Department. Van Best, who would go on to be charged with DUIs, fraud, rape and pedophilia, among other crimes, died in 1984 in Mexico. They wound up in New Orleans, where Earl Van Doren Best Jr. was born on Feb. 12, 1963, at Baptist Hospital. Shepherd and friend Bryan Hartnell were enjoying a day by Lake Berryessa when Shepherd noticed a strange man watching them from the trees. Richard Gaikowski: $100,000. FX then offers an answer to the mind-bending mystery through its riveting docuseries. The four-part docuseries explores an irresistible new take on the identity of the notorious serial killer who terrorized the Bay Area in the 1960s. The show is just the latest in a long line of television and film explorations of the serial killer's identity, from dozens of true crime specials to David Fincher's modern classic "Zodiac." He always filled those out. The handwriting on the envelope resembles Zodiac's print, but was declared inauthentic by forensic document examiner Lloyd Cunningham. RICHARD MARSHALL. Because Dick stopped recording the Dick Van Dyke show in 1966, at the time of Jo Bate's murder. Why Suspected: Marshall, a ham radio operator and movie projectionist, lived … They both loved operas, specifically "The Mikado" which is referenced in a Zodiac letter. That’s not the only evidence that Stewart collected for his book.Another very compelling, yet greatly disputed argument is that Van Best Jr. and the Zodiac Killer had the same handwriting. Contact her at katie.dowd@sfgate.com. Mike99 looked into this further and discovered the handwriting was actually that of the Reverend Edward Fliger. Upon investigation, the cipher regarding the name of the Zodiac fit Earl’s, the handwriting of the Zodiac matched with Earl’s handwriting from his marriage certificate.