The Zodiac killer 'identified': Infamous Sixties murderer is a 91-year-old man still living in California, claims author after 40-year investigation

Serial killer from San Francisco has never been found despite 40-year hunt

New theory says killer is a 91-year-old man living in California

Murderer has been protected by powerful officials, says author



A retired highway patrolman believes he has found the infamous Zodiac killer that is responsible for at least five deaths that haunted California in the 1960s.

Lyndon Lafferty - a childhood friend of the police's main suspect - penned a book on his decades-long hunt for the Zodiac called 'The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up' in which he adds an intriguing new theory as to who the killer is and why he was never caught.



Mr Lafferty believes that the killer is a 91-year-old man living in Solano County, California, and that he was protected from investigators by 'power brokers' that refused to stop him.



Wanted: A retired highway patrolman believes he has found the infamous Zodiac Killer, pictured here in a police poster from October 1969, the period when he was on the loose in the Bay Area Code: The Zodiac Killer terrorized the San Fransisco Bay Area from 1968 to 1969 when he killed at least five people. He would routinely send newspapers letters and cryptograms that were so complicated that some have still not been solved to this day

'Official corruption and political intervention forced the investigation into a top-secret, covert status, giving the insane ZODIAC killer immunity and a license to kill,' said Mr Lafferty in his new book, published on February 8 of this year.



The Zodiac Killer terrorized the San Fransisco Bay Area from 1968 to 1969 when he killed at least five people.

There was never an arrest, though law enforcement officials followed dozens of clues that all went cold.

The killer would routinely send newspapers letters that taunted police and cryptograms that were so complicated that some have still not been solved to this day.

Victims: Paul Stine, Cecilia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell were three of those killed or injured by the killer

In the letters, he claimed that he killed 37 people.



'The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them,' the Zodiac wrote in a letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle.



His young victims were either stabbed or shot to death in Northern California and were between the ages of 16 and 29.



The San Francisco Police Department closed the case in 2004, but reopened it in 2007.



Numerous people have claimed they have identified the killer, but none have ever been confirmed by the police department.

The main suspect, Arthur Leigh Allen, was cleared after DNA evidence taken from the saliva of the Zodiac's sealed letters exonerated him.

The Hunt: Lyndon Lafferty penned a book on his decades long hunt for the Zodiac called 'The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up' in which he adds an intriguing new theory as to who the killer was and why he was never caught

Adaptation: Robert Downey Jr and Jake Gyllenhaal starred in Zodiac, a 2007 film about the famous case

Mr Lafferty, who went to High School with Mr Allen, claims that the identity of the Zodiac killer has been known since March 15, 1971.

The 'Mandamus Seven,' a group of retired law enforcement officers, federal agents, a minister and a District Attorney banded together to prove, once and for all, who the Zodiac really is.



The motive for the killings, Mr Lafferty says, was adultery.



'Mind and body ravaged by years of severe alcoholism, his blood-lusting revenge turned him into the most shocking and vicious killer in our 20th century,' Mr Lafferty writes.



'Through his tauntings of the police, his codes, ciphers, and letters, he was on a mission to redeem his shattered ego, to prove that he is better, smarter, and more clever than all the judges and police put together.'



Mr Lafferty says that the Zodiac started his killing spree after his wife had an affair with a Solano County Superior Court Judge, according to the Daily Republic.



Suspect: After an artist's impression of the killer (left) was released, Arthur Leigh Allen (right) was arrested and question but later released without charge Mr Lafferty locked onto the Zodiac case in 1970 when he became suspicious of a man he saw parking at Vallejo highway rest stops, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. He tracked the man, who drove a white Chevrolet sedan and looked just like the wanted posters, and decided he had to be the one.

One time, Mr Lafferty said, he even confronted the killer.

'I looked into a quivering, snarling face like I was looking to the face of death,' Mr Lafferty said to the Daily Republic. 'It scared the hell out of me.'

Mr Lafferty, who said he worked as a code breaker during the Korean War, even claims that the name of his suspect appears in the Zodiac's codes. Chase: Law enforcement officers meeting in 1969 in an attempt to hunt down the Zodiac Killer Single-minded: San Francisco detective Dave Toschi spent years hunting the murderer

Some have questioned Mr Lafferty's zest for the Zodiac, as so many before him have claimed to have solved the case.



Reviews of his book on Amazon.com complain of numerous research inaccuracies and question Mr Lafferty's use of an alias to hide the name of his person of interest.

But Mr Lafferty is so convinced that he knows who the killer is that he thinks the killer has his eye on him.



Mr Lafferty says he may have been threatened by the Zodiac himself in his own cryptic letter, out of retaliation for publishing his book.



'Many innocent people could spend the rest of their lives in prison if the truth were told,' a letter addressed to Mr Lafferty reportedly said.



'I had to wait until some people, including the suspect's wife, finally died. But that has finally happened recently, and now it's time to tell the story.' Lyndon Lafferty

The letter contained 'evidence' that it was indeed from the Zodiac and was signed 'A Concerned Citizen.'

Undaunted, he decided that it was time to blow the whistle.



'I had to wait until some people, including the suspect's wife, finally died,' Mr Lafferty said to the San Francisco Chronicle. 'But that has finally happened recently, and now it's time to tell the story.'



Mr Lafferty does have one prominent believer of his theories: Pam Huckaby, the sister of the Zodiac's third victim.



'I am sure Lyndon has the right guy,' Mrs Huckaby said to the San Francisco Chronicle.



She claimed that her sister, Darlene Ferrin, was being stalked by a man that resembled the sketches of the Zodiac killer for months before her death.