· 2020
Robert Graysmith’s New York Times bestselling account of the desperate hunt for a serial killer and his own investigation of California’s unsolved Zodiac murders. A sexual sadist, the Zodiac killer took pleasure in torture and murder. His first victims were a teenage couple, stalked and shot dead in a lovers’ lane. After another slaying, he sent his first mocking note to authorities, promising he would kill more. The official tally of his victims was six. He claimed thirty-seven dead. The real toll may have reached fifty. Robert Graysmith was on staff at the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969 when Zodiac first struck, triggering in the resolute reporter an unrelenting obsession with seeing the hooded killer brought to justice. In this gripping account of Zodiac’s eleven-month reign of terror, Graysmith reveals hundreds of facts previously unreleased, including the complete text of the killer’s letters.
· 2007
Robert Graysmith’s New York Times bestselling account of the desperate hunt for a serial killer and his own investigation of California’s unsolved Zodiac murders. A sexual sadist, the Zodiac killer took pleasure in torture and murder. His first victims were a teenage couple, stalked and shot dead in a lovers’ lane. After another slaying, he sent his first mocking note to authorities, promising he would kill more. The official tally of his victims was six. He claimed thirty-seven dead. The real toll may have reached fifty. Robert Graysmith was on staff at the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969 when Zodiac first struck, triggering in the resolute reporter an unrelenting obsession with seeing the hooded killer brought to justice. In this gripping account of Zodiac’s eleven-month reign of terror, Graysmith reveals hundreds of facts previously unreleased, including the complete text of the killer’s letters.
· 2007
Robert Graysmith reveals the true identity of Zodiac—America's most elusive serial killer. Between December 1968 and October 1969 a hooded serial killer called Zodiac terrorized San Francisco. Claiming responsibility for thirty-seven murders, he manipulated the media with warnings, dares, and bizarre cryptograms that baffled FBI code-breakers. Then as suddenly as the murders began, Zodiac disappeared into the Bay Area fog. After painstaking investigation and more than thirty years of research, Robert Graysmith finally exposes Zodiac’s true identity. With overwhelming evidence he reveals the twisted private life that led to the crimes, and provides startling theories as to why they stopped. America’s greatest unsolved mystery has finally been solved. INCLUDES PHOTOS AND A COMPLETE REPRODUCTION OF ZODIAC’S LETTERS
· 2007
"This is the Zodiac speaking. I like killing people because it is so much fun... the most thrilling experience..." This shocking true crime classic is now a major movie. A sexual sadist, the Zodiac?s pleasure was torture and murder. He taunted the authorities with mocking notes telling where he would strike next. The official tally of his victims was six. He claimed37 dead. He was never caught. Author Robert Graysmith tells the inside story of the hunt for the hooded killer, and finally reveals his possible true identity. The new movie Zodiac is based on this book. Directed by David Fincher (Fight Club),it stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Graysmith himself, Robert Downey Jr and Chloe Sevigny.
· 2021
From the Bestselling Author of 'Zodiac' , 'Auto Focus' and 'Black Fire'. DAVID FINCHER WAS AFTER THE TRUTH. WITHOUT IT, HE WOULD NOT SHOOT ZODIAC. For nearly two decades, Hollywood had been trying to make a movie of Zodiac, and for nearly two decades, it had failed. In 2003, producer Brad Fischer, and screenwriter Jamie Vanderbilt attempted the undoable, and set their sights on the one filmmaker they felt unequalled for the helm: director David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club). Fincher’s eye for detail, probing mind, and unrelenting quest for answers made him ideal. His personal connection to the case made him perfect. From Hollywood boardrooms to remote fog-shrouded crime scenes, they battle a huge script that refuses to be beaten, a case that refuses to be solved, and a running time and budget that threaten their film. Follow as they track down missing witnesses, gather the original investigators, visit the original crime scenes, discover boxes of Zodiac case files from an attic, unearth new clues, a videotape of the prime suspect’s police interrogation, and a surviving victim who doesn’t want to be found. To keep Fincher on board, and get their film greenlit, it will take cold leads, private eyes, new evidence, and most of all, perseverance. “He’s hooked. If he doesn’t make the film, he’ll solve the case.” —Detective Ken Narlow “SOMETHING DRAWS THE GIRL’S attention,” David Fincher said. The maverick director paused at the spot along the shore Captain Ken Narlow had indicated. Something was not right. Fincher looked down at the rocky ground and the steep slope of the rotting tree as if he had not seen them before. Without a word he wheeled and walked some distance around to the adjacent peninsula. The retired detectives watched the celebrated filmmaker follow the curve of land and circle to a little inlet on the other bank. His head was down as he took long, athletic strides. Suddenly, he knelt and studied the ground. He picked up a fistful of earth, let it drift between his fingers, and watched as the wind carried the reddish particles away. He looked up at the road high above where the victims’ car had been found, then looked back at the tree. Next, he tossed a few rocks in the air and gazed to the center of the lake where it was a couple hundred feet deep. Fincher wondered what other mysteries might be buried there. Further up, underneath the dam at Devil’s Gate, was the narrow point of Putah Creek. Fincher returned from his scouting trip and made an announcement. His voice was confident and clear, ringing out over the lake. “The other side of the little island out there is much more vertical than this side,” he said. “I think that is the actual murder site.” “Let’s go over and take a look,” Narlow said and started north with Jamie Vanderbilt. “I’m not one hundred percent convinced this is the place.” When Narlow reached the other side of the inlet, he clapped a hand to his forehead and then hailed Fincher and the rest of the men across the water. “My God!” he hollered, “I took you to the wrong spot!” In that arcane way he had of penetrating to the heart of a riddle, Fincher had discerned the truth. He became quiet as he began working the puzzle of the open taxi door, the blood that should have been elsewhere, a bloody print that belonged to no one, and the shot nobody heard. “David’s considered one of the touchiest and weirdest directors by executives, but as a writer I consider him the nicest and most normal of them all. But maybe the same thing that is wrong with him is wrong with me.” —Jamie Vanderbilt, screenwriter
· 2021
From National Bestselling author Robert Graysmith comes the original book about the mysterious UNABOMBER, the elusive mailbomber who baffled authorities for 17 years, creating the longest and most expensive investigation in FBI history. November 15, 1979, the cockpit crew aboard American Airlines Flight No. 444 felt a concussion, a “thump,” and heard a “loud sucking noise” come from the area of the forward cargo hold. The sleek, silver outer skin of the fuselage began to peel and blister, just outside where the bags of mail were stored. Panic set in as acrid, dense clouds of black smoke billowed into the passenger cabin. The plane descended from 30,000 ft at twice the normal velocity, over 600 mph. The crew made a harrowing landing, the doors immediately flew open, and plumes of smoke roiled out. At its center lay a peculiarly made device, built from commonplace odds and ends, with one strange distinction–some key components were made from wood and carved by hand. This time no one was killed, but that would soon change. Who was this man? What was with his strange fascination against technology? And what made him so elusive? What reviewers are saying about Unabomber: A Desire to Kill: “The work of a careful and conscientious investigative reporter . . . thought provoking . . .”--Bill Tafoya, Expert FBI Profiler, Crime and Justice International. “An intensive portrait of the Unabomber”--Variety.
· 2009
During the 1920s, in more than a dozen cities, over four years, and across two continents, women were being butchered. Eyewitneses claim the perpetrator was a hulking Bible-carrying brute who lumbered on all fours, and laughed maniacally with each new slaughter. The crimes haunted San Francisco Police Captain Charles Dullea, the last honest cop in one of the most notoriously corrupt departments in the country. But nothing could have prepared Dullea for where the case- and the truth-would take him.
· 1990
The author of the bestselling Zodiac returns with another true story of a serial killer.ime, here is the full story of the crimes, the criminal, the search, and the arrest of David Carpenter, an unpredictable salesman of cheap trinkets who terrorized San Francisco from 1979 until his arrest nearly three years later. 30 halftones, line illustrations, maps.
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· 1994
Investigates the bizarre 1978 murder of the popular television star of Hogan's Heroes, the shocking orgies and sexual activities of his last days, and the 1992 arrest and trial of John Carpenter. Reprint.
· 2011
Marli Renfro was Janet Leigh's body double in the Hitchcock classic Psycho. When she disappeared, it was believed she was the victim of a serial killer. It was a mystery that took decades to solve-and a crime that could only have happened in Hollywood.