Zodiac killer

The Zodiac Killer was the nickname of a serial killer who found his victims in and around San Francisco, California, in the late 1960s. His identity remains unknown, though it was once rumored that he may have been Ted Kaczynski, also known as The Unabomber.

In popular media

The actions of the Zodiac Killer inspired several movies.

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• Best known is Dirty Harry starring Clint Eastwood, filmed in San Francisco and released in 1971. In the movie, the killer calls himself Scorpio, who at one point kidnaps a school bus full of children and threatens to kill all of them.
• The fictional "Gemini Killer" in the movie The Exorcist III was also loosely based on the Zodiac killer.
• Steve McQueen based his character in the 1968 movie Bullitt on SFPD homicide detective Dave Toschi, who gained a modicum of fame for his work on the Zodiac case. (McQueen's preparation for the role included having a copy made of Toschi's custom fast-draw shoulder holster.)
• The fictional serial killer "Avatar" from the TV series Millennium is also based on Zodiac.
• The most recent work is Zodiac directed by David Fincher. Currently shooting in San Francisco with Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr. and Gary Oldman, this film is slated for a 2006 release.
• In the second season of San Francisco cop show Nash Bridges (1996), Don Johnson's police inspector is on the hunt for a killer copying the Zodiac's work years ago. He worked on the original case, and enlisted the help of the retired cop in charge of that investigation.