Zodiac: Movie Based on True Crimes

Zodiac, which opens March 2, is based on the Robert Graysmith books about the Zodiac killer. Jake Gyllenhal will star as the writer, and Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, and Anthony Edwards will also appear. The Graysmith books are in turn based on a real life killer, whose real identity hasn't been determined (hence the nickname).

Zodiac worked the San Francisco bay area for more than three years and targeted at least ten victims. One of Zodiac's first murders happened in December 1968. A couple from Vallejo, California was traveling home after a concert. Bettilou Jensen, 16, and Thomas Faraday, 17, parked at about 11 p.m. A half hour later, Faraday was found shot through the head and Jensen was found 30 feet from the car, shot in the back five times.

In the summer of 1969 Zodiac committed a similar crime. A young waitress and her boyfriend were parked by a lake near Vallejo, only to find themselves shot at. The waitress died instantly, and her boyfriend survived after several weeks of critical surgery.

Similar to Jack the Ripper, Zodiac began taunting the police. He would call police, giving grisly details about his latest murders. Zodiac also began writing letters to local newspapers. One such letter ran in the San Francisco Chronicle, suggesting school children make good targets.

There didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to Zodiac's methods, but authorities suspected he was selecting victims based on his own interpretations of astrology. Zodiac had mentioned in letters that certain individuals were being killed to serve as his slaves in the afterlife. He also included symbols from dead civilizations in Asia and Africa, as well as South American Indian cultures.

Zodiac had been briefly spotted at a crime scene, and witnesses provided a partial description. He was Caucasian, medium height, about 200 pounds, and had red hair. He would have been in his mid-thirties at the time.