Who Is This Masked Killer? A Subscriber Figured It Out. Mystery Solved?

Here’s what happened. Back in 2018 I posted a 1955 video clip of a masked criminal being interviewed by a Michigan police officer describing his early life. The clip is from a Michigan police training video produced to help officers deal with lifelong criminals and understand them more deeply. It has gotten 4 million views and more than 12,000 comments, many wondering who he was. One of my subscribers has figured it out (I believe). The masked man is the world-famous notorious Zodiac Killer and this interview was done before he committed most of his horrific murders. His name is Edward Edwards and the subscriber who figured it out, Tim Spencer, has recently published a book on the subject titled “55” Zodiac Killer Identified. Before I say more about Tim’s findings here is a bit about Edwards.   Edward Edwards was a convicted serial killer born in 1933, and died in prison in 2011. After serving several prison terms he claimed to have reformed and wrote a book in 1972 titled “Metamorphosis of a Criminal: The True Life Story of Ed Edwards,“ in which he recounted his life of crime and subsequent redemption. However in 2009 Edwards was arrested and confessed to five murders between 1977 and 1996. In recent year, there has been speculation that Edwards may have been responsible for other unsolved murders, including high-profile cases like the Zodiac Killer. The Zodiac Killer is a still-unidentified serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The moniker “Zodiac“ originated from a series of taunting letters and cryptograms the killer sent to local Bay Area press. These letters included four cryptograms, only one of which has definitively been solved as of my last training cut-off in September 2021. In addition to the murders, the Zodiac Killer sent numerous letters to local newspapers, threatening more violence, mocking law enforcement, and sending cryptic messages, which added to the public’s fear and the media frenzy surrounding the case. Tim Spencer is 95% certain Edwards was the Zodiac Killer. You can decide for yourself by watching Edwards speaking on several YouTube videos. He got himself on TV on To Tell The Truth being interviewed by Alan Alda and Kitty Carlyle and is also on a YouTube clip from 2010 confessing to 5 murders.   Says Tim Spencer: “Gut instinct. I think he is the guy - the Zodiac Killer. I have been studying Edwards for 15 years. I have a photo of Edwards at that age as in your video with same poofy hair on top, same color, same ear (looking closeup). He was most active committing murders in Ohio, Wisc. & Mich. He is a complete sociopath with no remorse - feelings about his murders-strikingly similar to your interview. I recently watched a podcast, Crime Countdown, and they presented their top ten suspects for who killed The Black Dahlia. Their possibilities included the Zodiac Killer. These murders occurred only a few years before your video clip and I believe Edwards is linked to all.” The Zodiac Killer is confirmed to have killed five people although he claimed in his letters to have killed as many as 37. Despite extensive investigations, the Zodiac Killer has never been definitively identified and the case remains one of the most notorious unsolved mysteries in the annals of American crime. In his book “Metamorphosis of a Criminal: The True Life Story of Ed Edwards”, Edwards narrates a childhood marked by neglect and difficulties which led him to a life of crime. The book covers his time spent in various juvenile facilities and prisons, his escape from jail, and his eventual capture by the FBI, landing him on their Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in 1961. In his narrative, Edwards claimed to have turned his life around after serving time in federal prison, even speaking at various venues about his reformation. However, this narrative was later challenged when Edwards was arrested in 2009 and subsequently confessed to five murders committed between 1977 and 1996.
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