I know: “Not another show about the Zodiac Killer!” I get it. This unsolved case has been hashed and rehashed since the crimes happened in Nor-Cal in the late ’60s, but I have to say, this series grabbed my interest because of its local connection. It’s premised on the theory that Cal Poly grad, former Santa Rosa Elementary School teacher, and Atascadero State Hospital-incarcerated sex offender Arthur Leigh Allen was the infamous killer.
Using never-before-seen evidence and interviews with people who knew Allen, not to mention archival footage and on-camera interviews with Allen himself, it paints a compelling, albeit circumstantial, case that Allen was indeed the Zodiac Killer. Much of the series focuses on the Seawater family, whose children spent considerable time with Allen. Now adults, they’re able to piece together chilling evidence that they visited many of the murder sites on trips with Allen before the killings took place and may have even accompanied him during at least one double homicide.
The series is based on Robert Graysmith’s 1986 book Zodiac, which was the basis for David Fincher’s brilliant 2007 film of the same name. Graysmith is interviewed extensively in this new series. (three approximately 45-min. episodes)
—Glen Starkey
This article appears in Nov 14-24, 2024.