User Reviews

First 3 episodes was interesting because interesting reveal of zodiac killers history but the shows ending is disappointing because they can't solve who zodiac killer is!!

Is what I'm giving this because I think i solved it based on this show... Two killers - BOTH the top suspects here. Undeciphered ciphers are messages between killers - to knock of the faking. This is why top part of z340 is easy and rest is nothing. ONe half for copss and one for crooks. Also why the reward poster. Both were meant for HEAVY circulation. Sullivan is making a REAL LIFE remake of charlie chan movie. Can't shoot the police parts or else it would draw attention so he's using real tv. These murders were FILMED.

It seems all the History Channel's investigative reports rely on about four things... 1) Repeat yourself ten or more times. 2) Make every piece of evidence a huge or incredible 'discovery'. 3) Just plain copy what was already known and act like you found it. 4) Treat every piece of useless evidence as though it is the big break.

Every time the guys in the field run into another big clue, I seemed to already know the answer from reading lots and lots of other stuff on the Zodiac killer. For example, when they 'discovered' that victim Paul Stine had drove about 3.2 miles from where he picked up the killer, I already had the answer, from the Theater District. This is not new material... The 'investigators' started bouncing around a few guesses and concluded it was, wait for it, the Theater District. And just like in the god awful 'Hunting Hitler' series, these guys would run off to anywhere with the smallest amount of evidence and of course, prove absolutely nothing. And of course the police stations and the FBI were more than happy to turn over evidence so these 'experts' could waltz out the door with it to read in their spare time. Are they crazy ? No one in their right mind lets evidence walk out the door like what was portrayed. On a still open case. The police acted like finally, someone was finally going to solve the case they couldn't solve for the last 50 years. I was waiting for these 'investigators' to get thrown out of the station. The 'investigators' said that one cop had been trying to solve the case forever, but he was only a patrolman who responded to the scene, not an actual police investigator like a detective. The local cop may have wondered I am sure to who did this, but it just ain't his job to solve crimes... And then you got the other crew at the small 'rent an office' playing around with a super computer that actually makes noises and stuff when working (sure it does), who feed in the most stupidest stuff so the computer can find the killer. And all it does is produce a stupid poem. It never does crack the 'Z340" cryptogram. One of the guys calls the office at midnight to tell someone there that he solved it. How did he know that anyone was there ? And you can tell it was staged because, 'thank the Lord', a camera crew was there to record the scene. Sure they were.... Any good camera crew would be at the local bar swilling away, laughing at these imbeciles they are told to film. And the other 'experts' with the super computer, mainly just sit around and agree with whatever the moron in charge has to say... The narrator has to tell us at least 150 times when and where the murders took place, we are shown at least 50 times the sketch made of the Zodiac killer, and after every commercial, and at the start of every episode, we are brought up to date on the 'investigation', ad nauseam ... Totally unnecessary. So the guy figures out the code and then can't tell us what it says until he contacts the CIA... Sure he does... A paid actor is the CIA agent and he almost immediately agrees that this guy has the answer. The CIA ? What in the hell do they care ??? And the truth be told, everything they cover in 5 episodes, at 42 minutes each episode, could have been told in about 15 minutes real time without all the repetition, idiotic drama, stupid film shots off the "investigator" lighting up another smoke or traffic around San Francisco... A totally useless documentary that should be avoided, look up Zodiac on the internet, read the book by Graystone, see the movie, you will get much more info than this ridiculous attempt by the History Channel to solve a case. It is really just an embarrassing laugh...

Okay it's a complete load of crap just like all those shows of this formula That came before this show.. You see the show starts with a trailer, A trailer that is, So full of misleading crap its not funny it's pilot starts with the usual hype trailer, With clips of people talking about cracking the code, discovering the Zodiacs identity, claims they've solved the biggest mystery ever it's so misleading it's not funny. Then its just recycled already know information, And the end of each episode, You guessed it the show ends with a big cliff hanger that ends up being nothing, It's just there to get you to watch the next episode. Truth is nothing new happens they make out they have found a new victim they go all out by the way to convince you they have, And nothing there's no new victim they don't find out the Zodiac Killers identity, And they tease you with finding out his name yes his real name for what 2 episodes, Then guess what they reveal it, Drum Roll....... Richard Nixon.... Yes that's right, Look its well made yes but the repeated misleading crap is too much the show ends with the same thing as they all do, With the promises to keep searching, The speech about being so close to the truth, blah blah blah, Its basically identical to American Ripper but that somehow manage to not annoy you, As it never claims to solve the mystery it's more opinion, This however is totally misleading

Ok, it's watchable, quite well made, particularly if you're a serial killer tragic (is that a wierd thing to be into?). Tenuous, very circumstantial 'evidence' has them virtually hang, draw and quarter the first suspect, despite ignoring some other rather obvious and glaring glitches in their suspicions (an English major spelling that badly?). Another laughable point has a 'sniffer dog' find a tree (wow, dog sniffs tree!) and one of the bozo's finds a spot that has been dug over (well, he reckons) - near a camp site. Er, it's not only bears that excrete in the woods bud. Campsite, hole in the ground - hello? Next oooh, man in the early '70's uses "what's your zodiac sign?" as pick up line. Must be a serial killer 'cause nobody else would ever do that then, right? Oh and hey, law enforcement guys, when on camera (or for that matter, talking to a member of the public) wearing your shades doesn't make you look cool & serious. It makes you look insecure and untrustworthy and is not camera friendly. Ooh, found larvae when digging for a body - OF A FIFTY YEAR OLD MURDER. Grubs don't eat bones boys! Oh and some earth has grubs just hanging out! Any time they get close to actual real evidence, they drop the ball and move on (why not give the San Fran theatre man a photo ID parade?) Maybe afraid they'll be proved wrong in their wild guessing? Honestly, if this is US investigation at its best, no wonder they resort to lynching and the death penalty. Git it done before questions can be asked.

Don't waste your time watching the whole thing. The 5th episode is quite enough. No clue, no evidence of anything.

First episode is good because it deals with known facts, but it goes rapidly downhill when they run out of actual evidence. From then on it becomes more and more ridiculous in its efforts to come up with something, anything vaguely new or relevant to the investigation. There are so many ifs, buts, maybes and possiblys that it becomes laughable and you realise what a con this series is. There is nothing here that hasn't been revealed before and the whole thing is stretched so thinly with filler and red herrings that it loses all credibility before you get half way through. Hopefully the case will be solved some day, but this doesn't get close.

Although this shows started out with a lot of promise it began to degenerate into something that felt much to Hollywood to be taken seriously. They made sure the end of each episode drew you into the next episode but at the end it was like a roller coaster ride. It was exciting but it never really went anywhere. If you watch this expecting any definitive proof as to the identity of zodiac you'll be very disappointed. The "supercomputer " component was boring and didn't yield anything remarkable although the scientists were beside themselves with self congratulations. They say that the computer spits out a name which they lead you to believe is the name of the zodiac killer and it is not. It is Richard Nixon. But they went all out Hollywood on this. It's entertaining but nothing substantive.

The real cracking of the Z340 code in December 2020 makes fools of the stooges who acted as experts in episode 5 entitled "The Code is Cracked". They were so off in their "solution" that it isn't funny, it's pathetic.

All of the episodes with ex cops running all over the USA chasing phantoms is pathetic to watch, too.

This series is representative of the worst of American so-called documentaries.

If I could give it ZERO stars, then I would.

First 4 episodes were balderdash. Most of these 4 hrs were so bad I couldn't help but verbally counter- to the tv! Couldn't believe the asinine comparisons/absurd 'leads'!!

Lowest point- trying to connect the Donner pass to Zodiac (low brow!)

Here, there, grasping...can't believe they got an 'in' with FBI for this doc...

The only person I could remotely give ANY kudos to at all/respect opinion of during whole series was Knight.

(Oh I really nitpicked the handwriting analysis! Well I nitpicked a lot but that was a top 3) Last ep raising the most interesting questions for me (making first four ep superfluous and total waste of budget $!)

However, they didn't solve anything (as I knew they wouldn't by end of ep 2) I do not believe they decrypted the Z340 cypher and just left it open by end of last ep and no ep 6. No closure!

Wtf-why bother making this series?!!

This show gave me nothing new except the NY stuff. They obviously didn't solve the Z340 cypher. First it's written by a 5th grader it seems. Then it's indecipherable & last it names Richard Nixon but if I'm correct LBJ was in office until January 1969. I just don't remember when they got the Z340 in the mail. It seems before the Stein murder and that is in 10-1969 so it's close. I've read somewhere that they think all the Zodiac letters are false except the Stein letter because it had the piece of shirt. Anyway these guys are so full of themselves especially that young guy with the older cop running all over the country. His arrogance exudes from his pores. What they never mention or think of is their 2 suspects are always in the area and both are identified as suspects, have links to NY etc. They are working together! There is just too much evidence for it to be a coincidence! But no they never mention it! Either way they'll never solve it because it's made up. They solved the first one and the Stein one very easily but for 50 years can only come up with 5th grade Dr. Seuss? These guys did it together, also I thought what if they knew Manson and were mixed up with him somehow? Same time and places! But they throw the Unabomber out there! Lol. He lived in a rural cabin in Montana with his only transportation a bus and he was too busy mailing bombs from post offices all over the country! I'd bet they did it together and probably knew or were aquatinted with Manson & they fooled the cops because it was 2 or maybe more in on it. Just like Son of Sam when you see all the eyewitness drawings it wasn't Berkowitz alone & maybe just a patsy. Nice try bozos! You got the sheep all excited but just like Finding Bigfoot & anything else they have a vested interest in not finding it because they can keep making money off it if it's never solved. This case will never be solved just like Jack the Ripper. Now it's Arthur Conan Doyle until it becomes someone else. People making money off people who enjoy mysteries but too many are addicted to this stuff and spend a fortune on all this stuff. I know I used to have hundreds of books on all subjects. I'm a little more picky & skeptical now! Next it will be Ted Bundy or someone else. It never ends. It sucks they are making tons of $ on the horrific murders of these people. I'm going to be much more picky from now on!

The episodes were entertaining and gave plenty of excitement and suspense, went through a lot of different scientific method and interesting people with varied backgrounds and expertise.

Unfortunately, almost every thread chased throughout the entire 5 episode run all came to nothing; no evidence, no result, no connection, no solves.

All just a lot of so called experts chasing empty leads or patting themselves on the back for nothing of value.

And the "expert" who Carrie's on with self congratulations over "cracking" the z340, but then suggests 2/3s of it is intentional gibberish - absolute con artist IMO.

Was an interesting watch if you view it as a drama instead of a doco - and don't expect any answers.

This is another of the shows that's made for sale to TV networks. Same as Monster Quest and a few similar shows. They make the show so it's interesting to get people hooked on watching it. They pretend to find information when the information was already out there. They play dramatic music to try and entice people to watch. The characters act like they're so serious and like they actually found new evidence when they haven't. The show is nothing but fodder to sell to any network that will buy it to make money without actually having to do any research on the subject matter. They never find anything new in the case. The sole purpose was to make money.