Links:

    -Robert Graysmith (Wikipedia)
    -FILMOGRAPHY: Robert Graysmith (IMDB)
    -ESSAY: Failure to catch the Zodiac killer was a sign of the times: David Fincher's new film is based on my books about the San Fran serial killer. With today's technology he would have been caught long ago. (Robert Graysmith, 5/01/07, The Guardian)
    -PROFILE: A Killer Obsession: Robert Graysmith Was a Cartoonist Until the Zodiac Case Drew Him In (William Booth, 3/01/07, Washington Post)

The Zodiac shot Stine in the head at the intersection of Cherry and Washington in the posh Presidio Heights neighborhood. Oct. 11, 1969. "That's Columbus Day," Graysmith says. "Hey, I never thought of that before. Another holiday." Zodiac murdered two teenagers on the Fourth of July. Another teenage girl right before Christmas. Hmmmm.

Careful. You are in danger of falling down the rabbit hole with Graysmith on perhaps the greatest cold case ever, the bizarre and theatrical and still-unsolved serial murders by a real-life ghoul who called himself Zodiac, who claimed in letters to have killed 37 people (though police have focused on five homicides and two attempted murders in the greater Bay Area in 1968 and 1969).

How bizarre? He wrote taunting letters to the police, like Jack the Ripper. He claimed his victims would be his slaves in paradise. He mailed a Happy Halloween card to the Chronicle reporter covering the case. He sent cryptograms to the newspapers. The FBI could not crack them; a high school teacher did.

Creepy? He wore a costume. In broad daylight, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County, Zodiac stabbed a couple while wearing a medieval executioner's outfit, all in black, with a hood and his trademark insignia -- a circle with a cross -- neatly sewn onto his chest. The woman died.

Graysmith was a new editorial cartoonist working at the San Francisco Chronicle when the first Zodiac letter arrived at the paper in Aug. 1, 1969, and Graysmith just happened to be in the meeting when the envelope was handed to the editor. The letter accurately described two murder scenes and promised more if the cipher was not published.

"I looked at the small printing on the letter," Graysmith wrote in "Zodiac." "Primarily, I felt rage at the coldness, arrogance and insanity of the murderer." Rage -- and fascination. "Irretrievably hooked, immediately obsessed, I wanted to solve what I felt was to become one of the great mysteries."

Obsessed? Boy, he is not kidding. In the beginning, Graysmith was only peripherally involved with the Zodiac case. The story belonged to veteran crime reporter Paul Avery, played in the movie with flamboyant verve as a hard-drinking, drug-snorting hotshot by Downey. Zodiac sent him a card, "PEEK-A-BOO -- YOU ARE DOOMED!," and his colleagues at the paper donned campaign-style buttons that read "I Am Not Paul Avery." You can't make this stuff up.

The San Francisco investigator assigned to the case was already famous: Dave Toschi (Ruffalo), with his .38 Cobra in its quick-release shoulder holster and his black turtlenecks, was the model for Steve McQueen in "Bullitt."

But Graysmith? He really went deep into the Zodiac wormhole. The cartoonist spent a decade researching and writing his first (of two) Zodiac books. He kept his job at the Chronicle until 1983 -- he was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize six times by the paper for un-Zodiac-related cartooning -- but Zodiac consumed him. He'd sit in the front window of the Owl and the Monkey cafe. "They let me sit there for 10 years," Graysmith recalls. When the place closed (it's now a health food joint), the owners gave him his table, chair, coffee cup and tray, as mementos. [...]

Between 1973 and 1983, Graysmith interviewed hundreds of people about the case, and reviewed their police statements, including two of the survivors of Zodiac, one who had repeatedly been shot (and became a vagabond) and the other repeatedly stabbed (who became a lawyer). By the late 1970s the Zodiac case had gone cold. There were 2,500 suspects. Eventually his studio apartment contained more than one ton of material. Boxes to the ceiling. The police let him examine files, he says, hoping that he would turn something up, that he could do things as a private citizen that they couldn't do without probable cause and warrants.

Among his investigative techniques? Pure will. Once, Graysmith came across a phone number in a victim's handwriting. Instead of just dialing the number, wary of tipping off whoever would answer, Graysmith went through the Vallejo phone book. The entire phone book. Number by number.

    -PROFILE: Intrigue and obsession: the life of Robert Graysmith (Jennifer Vazquez, 4/20/07, The Flyer)
    -INTERVIEW: Robert Graysmith Is Still Obsessed with Zodiac (Evan Jacobs, 7/23/07, MovieWeb)
    -INTERVIEW: ‘The Most Cerebral Murder Case of All Time’: An expert on the 40-year-long fascination with the 'Zodiac' serial killer—and why the mystery may never be solved. (Karen Breslau, Mar 2, 2007, Newsweek)
    -INTERVIEW: Interview: 'Zodiac' Author Robert Graysmith (Kim Voynar, Mar 2nd 2007, Cinematical)
    -INTERVIEW: Robert Graysmith - Zodiac Interview (Troy Rogers, UGO)
    -PROFILE: Author believes he knows Zodiac Killer's identity (Drake Rossiter, Mar 1, 2007, SF Examiner)
    -PROFILE: Graysmith finds big screen fulfillment for his 30-year obsession with the Zodiac killer (WILLIAM ARNOLD, 3/03/07, Seattle PI)

“One thing I got out of the Zodiac experience, besides a couple of books, is a great friend, (former San Francisco homicide) inspector Dave Toschi, who was the model for ‘Dirty Harry’ and Steve McQueen in ‘Bullitt,’” Graysmith says. “Dave and George Bawart of the Vallejo police and his boss, Roy Conway, they’re convinced (the Zodiac) is Arthur Leigh Allen, the same man I believe was the killer. Other people believe it was someone else. All I can say is, there were 2,500 suspects, and it took me 10 years to get it down to six.”

    -REVIEW: of Zodiac Unmasked by Robert Graysmith (Bill Wallace, SF Chronicle)
    Massachusetts Man Says He's Cracked Zodiac Killer Code: Corey Starliper believes he has solved the 41-year-old "340" cipher and has identified the legendary serial killer who terrorized northern California. (Brandon Schillemat, July 21, 2011, Belmont Patch)