UBC: Graysmith, Zodiac

[truepenny]

Zodiac by Robert Graysmith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


See also Zodiac Unmasked: The Identity of America's Most Elusive Serial Killer Revealed.

There are two main problems with both Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked. One of those problems they have in common: the nature of their material. The Zodiac case is a mess. No one agrees on when the murders started, on how many there were, on when they ended, on how many of which letters are from the real Zodiac, or on who Zodiac was. There are several different jurisdictions involved, and one of the really striking differences between the Zodiac murders and the Green River murders is the way that King County set up a task force, whereas the Zodiac murders were like a tug-o-war, with different departments actively refusing to pool information because nobody wanted some other department to get the credit for solving "their" case. Graysmith, as a journalist who could talk to all the investigators, ended up with more information than any of the detectives, and while that's good journalism on his part, it is criminally bad law enforcement on the part of every police and sheriff's department involved.

So the Zodiac case is inherently incredibly confusing. Graysmith does not help matters by the way he tells the story, bouncing back and forth along the timeline in a completely unnecessary attempt to heighten narrative tension. I just ended up confused. Given this problem--and the fact that as a prose stylist, I would describe Graysmith as "dogged"--Zodiac is a pretty good book. He has compiled a remarkable amount of information and he makes a good case for his pseudonymous Robert Hall Starr as the killer. And he does a good job of showing the conflict between San Francisco PD, Vallejo PD, Vallejo County Sheriff's Department, Riverside PD, Santa Rosa PD, Napa County Sheriff's Department, and the California Department of Justice without taking sides or judging. He lets the obvious errors and bad decisions speak for themselves.

And the final image of the book is chilling--both as an image of the Zodiac killer and as a startlingly accurate, startlingly self-aware metaphor for Graysmith's obsession:

Across the blindingly bright illuminated showroom, Starr was reflected in the brass compass, duplicated in the shiny varnished sides of the Chris Craft, reflected in the deep and highly polished floor, mirrored in the brass work around him, and copied in a hundred polished shaft bearings. He was reproduced full length in the floor to ceiling show window.

Starr was everywhere I looked.



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