Zodiac copycat boasts pregnant soldier murder

[LaStrega]

(on edit: anyone know anything about this news source? I'm put off by the conservative advertising there ...)

Zodiac copycat boasts pregnant soldier murder
Posted: June 28, 2008
4:00 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

A smeared envelope containing a letter that confessed to a murder, promised more to come and concluded with the signature used by the famous Zodiac killer, who murdered five people in Northern California from December 1968 to October 1969, thrust a North Carolina newspaper into a quandary this week.

The letter, sent to the Fayetteville Observer, specifically confessed to the murder of Spc. Megan Lynn Touma, a solider seven months pregnant and stationed at Fort Bragg, who was found dead in a hotel bathtub last week. She is the second pregnant U.S. soldier murdered in the last six months.

The letter's chilling words said, "I am responsible for the dead body," then named the address where Touma was found. "It was a master piece," the note said. "I confess that I have killed many times before in several states, but now I will start using my role-model's signature. There will be many more to come."


Full Article

[Fenris]

1. File news source as "fucking nutty right-wing rag"

[Tunkamerica]

2. actually it was on the news here

and that's exactly what the letter said, though they arrested a soldier today and they think the note was meant to confuse the police.

[Fenris]

3. My point was re: the site itself

They do run legitimate news stories.

[LaStrega]

5. thanks for the clarification ...

A 'friend' forwarded me the article. I should've known better and Googled a bit for a more reputable news source (read as "not-right-wing-rag").

Note: 'friend' = person who forwards me the Obama = Muslim horseshit, even though I've repeatedly asked him to not do such. I blame the kool-aid. Meh. I'll mark him as spam and carry on my merry way.

[Adsos Letter]

4. That conclusion regarding motive has the ring of truth.

[bluestateguy]

6. Why don't the cops redouble their efforts to catch the original Zodiac killer?

It seems that they just kind of quietly gave up in the late 70's.

[Tunkamerica]

7. 'cause if he was caught we wouldn't be scared of him anymore

[Prophet 451]

9. Complicated

There's several reasons. Firstly, the police force tend to have a "deal with the now" mindset and once the Zodiac was no longer actively comitting crimes (or being accused of them anyway), the urgency of catching him disappeared. Secondly, running a large scale effort to catch someone is expensive and the money wasn't there. Thirdly, the Zodiac was in his late-thirties or early-forties when the crimes were committed so he may very well be dead by now.

Finally and most importantly, there was virtually no evidence to go on. He looked entirely mundane, the weapon he used could be found in any gun store, he killed random strangers (always a nightmare to track down) and beyond the obsession with wordgames revealed by Robert Graysmith's work on the case, there was nothing very different from any other criminal. Contrary to fiction, the random killer of strangers is virtually impossible to track down. Most of those who are caught are caught either by their own carelessness (i.e. boasting to friends) or by random luck (for example, Peter Sutcliffe was caught when he was pulled over for a busted taillight). Even if evidence, fingerprints for example, are left at the scene (which they usually weren't in the Zodiac case), they're only useful if the killer is already in the system or a suspect is in custody. We're talking needles and haystacks here.

It's estimated that there are around fifty serial murderers operating in the United States.

[LeftyMom]

11. At this point, he's quite likely died.

Iirc, most of the identified suspects have died off.

[Prophet 451]

8. News source

The source is often referred to as WorldNutDaily. It's an extreme right-fringe tabloid. Story may still be true, of course, but don't buy it until you see it in some more credible source.

[captainmorgan]

10. Sick

That's why in this kind of case I support the death penalty.