In anticipation of HorrorScope’s release, it is best to prepare the ground a bit. The search for the Zodiac Killer’s identity has been a long quest— some 15 years. HorrorScope’s release was fraught with delays due not to a lack of evidence but to too much trickling in. One clue led to another. One person of interest led to yet another. Each new POI looked as good or better than the preceding, and each somehow potentially shared a level of guilt with the others because some stubborn clues continued to imply there was an accomplice in the Zodiac crimes.

     To a large extent I also questioned the rudimentary evidence. The Napa sketch of a heavyset, young man, was not of a man in perpetration. The SFPD sketch, radically different than the Napa sketch, was heavily inspired by the description of the perp in a previous cab robbery in the area. This gave us a young, mongoose-looking perpetrator at odds with the physical description given by the kids in the room with a view and augmented by officer Don Fouke. One simply cannot find a man in the past who resembled either sketch and have confidence.

     I laboriously studied Zodiac’s letters and it became undeniable that he was disguising his printing— there is clear indication that he wrote backward and forward, was an ambidexter, and even wrote some words upside down. One is simply not going to find a neat note from any “suspect” that matches the Zodiac Killer’s writing style.

     Geoprofiling offered clues— Zodiac came from afar. Following these results, I checked the POI list and found one who fit— a Sacramento based man who had gone barmy in the Air Force. Curiously, I discovered he had shared the same hobby as Arthur Leigh Allen. Although the number 1 popularized suspect in the Zodiac legend, to me Leigh was a vainglorious babbler. But the more I dug, the more I discovered enough clues that convinced me Leigh Allen had feared he had inspired the real Zodiac Killer. Following his shadow, I was finally able to uncover the identity of the Atascadero inmate who had written him a rambling letter complaining about his county appointed attorney. I got a picture of this young man and a copy of his court case. He was a dead ringer of the Napa sketch and his court case was a template for the Zodiac Killer crimes. He shared not just one hobby with Leigh Allen. He shared every hobby: car racing, scuba diving, boating, hunting/fishing. His language to his female victims at parking spots was very similar in style to the Bates Confession letter.

     Briefly married, he had a brother-in-law in the East Bay Area who was a petty criminal and in the midst of a broader network of ex-cons, one of whom had a former father-in-law who was an English national.

     I followed these shadows the most. Why? My hope was to lead to southern California and the “Shadow Zodiac” murders of the Swindles, Domingos/Edwards, and perhaps even Ray Davis. Either Zodiac did them all or the clues indicating two men in the Z crimes meant one could have inspired the other. It was certain that my Sacramento based POI and the Atascadero POI were not available for the southern Cal crimes. But both looked very good for the Zodiac crimes of northern Cal.

     Yet there remained those nagging clues that two men were involved in northern Cal. Could one be the southern “Shadow”?

     Searching for this shadow caused the longest delays. I had to study lovers’ lanes crimes. Although HorrorScope grew too thick for me to include examples of lovers’ lanes crimes, it was obvious the Zodiac’s murders evolved from the template of southern Cal lovers’ lanes crimes, especially those occurring between Santa Monica and Newport Beach— the area of aircraft industry and the Hermosa oil tract. The connections with the industry of the East Bay Area was obvious; as obvious is the fact that Zodiac’s first northern Cal crime is an outcropping of the lovers’ lanes crimes of southern Cal. In the Lake Herman Road murders he orders the victims out at gun point. This was the M.O. of every lovers’ lane crime in so. Cal.  It was surprising how many times 2 men worked the lovers’ lanes together.

     Leigh Allen’s shadow pointed to many doors. Each I had to open. Whatever you think of Leigh Allen, he does represent a conspiracy of silence. He portrayed himself as innocent but often implied he knew the identity of the Zodiac and that he was the Atascadero inmate who had formed a bond with him. I have discovered this man, but found out that Allen was guessing more than certain himself. There was someone else, in deeper shadows than the Atascadero inmate. Who was this?

     I couldn’t believe it was the “affluent Jew.” The rumors, the grumbles, if you will, have persisted, and I finally had to pursue the evidence and see if it was worth enduring a shit show of anti-semitism and anti-Zionism. The cadre of clickbait cretins will do what they will do at the instigation of rolodex rangers. I simply had to ignore what might happen if I pursued the possibility of a socially prominent Jewish arch Zodiac. In 1888, fear claimed that riots would break out against Jews if Jack the Ripper was identified as a Jew. Has the same misplaced fear been responsible for the Zodiac going officially unidentified? I could not ignore the subject. It finally had to be aired.

   The reader will understand why I was so long in the quest. Please read HorrorScope carefully.

     As for promotions, it will be very low key in the beginning. We will see where it builds from there. The book will soon be listed on online sellers for presales, and then will be available everywhere. For some the internet is the only reality. After walking away from doing so much TV documentaries, I discovered some trolls really try and control the web and are bold enough behind their alias names to say anything. One thing I will address here. Although my name has been considered unusual, it was always known to be my real name. I had to sign many contracts with the media. However, the media is in the real world. If it is not on the web, trolls do not even imagine that facts exist in the real world. During the glut of interest in the EAR/ONS, I was stunned to find that message board threads were devoted to condemning my name as an alias. I found the oldest Driver’s License I could just for sh-ts and giggles.

Gian J. Quasar

May 24, 2025