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Shot in the
back. The bullet stayed lodged next to his spine.
March 29, 1990
Germán Montenedro
Gemini
Survives
Shot in the
left side of his lower body. The bullet went through his liver.
March 31, 1990
Joe Proce
Taurus
Dies
Shot in his
lower back, hitting his kidney. He survives attack, but dies in
hospital on June 24, 1990
June 19, 1990
Larry Parham
Cancer
Survives
Shot in the
chest. The bullet misses his aorta and exits his body through
his right armpit.
August 10, 1992
Patricia Fonti
Leo
Dies
Shot twice but
doesn't fall and then is stabbed over 100 times.
June 4, 1993
Jim Weber
Libra
Survives
Shot in the buttocks.
July 20, 1993
Joseph Diacone
Virgo
Dies
Shot in the
neck at close range.
October 2, 1993
Diane Ballard
Taurus
Survives
Shot in the
neck. The bullet missed vital arteries but stayed lodged against
her spine.
by Melissa
Nurczynski
This is the
Zodiac
At 3a.m. on
March 9, 1990, forty-nine-year-old Mario Orozco limped homeward through
the streets of East New York, a section of Brooklyn known for drugs,
violent crime and poverty. He used a heavy wooden cane as he made his
way slowly but surely down the familiar streets.
Although he
suffered from bad eyesight and a congenital limp, the proud Mr. Orozco
worked a tough job in the kitchen of a New York restaurant instead of
taking public assistance. The job's late hours required him to ride the
subway late at night and walk home on the nearly deserted streets.
Unbeknownst to
Orozco, a young man in a maroon beret stalked him from the shadows of a
nearby cemetery. Without warning, the man emerged from his hiding place
and shot Orozco in the back with a 9mm zip gun. Orozco never even saw
him.
The young man
wrapped a note around his gun and laid it carefully on the sidewalk.
Then, he disappeared. Mr. Orozco was a Scorpio. He survived.
"This is the
Zodiac"
At 3a.m. on
March 29, 1990, thirty-four-year-old Germaine Montenesdro wandered the
streets of East New York. He was unsure whether to go home to his
girlfriend in the Bronx or seek shelter at his father's nearby
apartment. The intoxicated man swayed as he walked, smelling strongly of
alcohol. Montenesdro walked past a high school campus, and a young man
watched him from a set of bleachers. As Montenesdro made his way slowly
forward, the young man began to follow him. He fired a shot. While
Montenesdro lay bleeding, the young man searched his pockets. He found
a wallet, but left the money. He took Montenesdro's passport and
slipped away. Montenesdro was a Gemini, and he survived.
"This is the
Zodiac"
So, begins a
bizarre and cryptic letter that arrived at East New York's 17th Precinct
on November 17, 1989, several months before the Orozco and Montenesdro
shootings. The letter was addressed to "Anti-Crime," the elite street
crimes unit. The letter contained a large drawn circle with lines
divided into sections representing the signs of the zodiac. The sign
"Virgo" was missing, but the Taurus section was marred by the words:
"The first sign is dead."
The full text
read:
This is the
Zodiac.
The First Sign
is dead.
The Zodiac will
Kill the twelve signs in the
Belt when the
Zodiacal light is seen?
The Zodiac will
spread fear
I have seen a
lot of police in Jamaica Ave and Elden Lane but you are no good and will
not get the Zodiac.
Orion is the one
that can stop Zodiac and the Seven Sister
The officers
checked through open cases to see if the letter was connected to any of
them, but after that they didn't think much about the letter. Hundreds
of odd letters arrive at the NYPD each week, and the vast majority of
them turn out to be nothing but sad, meaningless pleas for attention.
Each is investigated, but the hard truth is that even trained experts
sometimes have difficulty determining the writings of a harmless
crackpot from that of a violent criminal.
If anyone at the
department who read the letter noticed its resemblance the letters of an
uncaught serial killer who terrorized the Bay Area in the 1960s and
1970s, he or she did not make a report of it.
The Brooklyn
police did not connect the Orozco and Montenesdro shootings. Nor did
they ever find the gun that the shooter left beside Orozco. In the
chaotic days before New York City's crime turnaround, random acts of
violence were all too common, and the detectives had cases they had
hopes of solving. They never dreamed that two "random shootings" might
be the beginning of the most frightening crime spree the city had seen
since "The Son of Sam."
No Ordinary
Robbery
Joseph Proce
liked to walk the streets of East New York and Woodhaven, Queens late at
night. Proce was seventy-eight years old and used a cane. As a young
man he had survived combat in World War II, but now each step was
laborious. He was a lonely, elderly man who lived off public assistance
and his short-term memory often failed him. To his shame, he sometimes
rummaged through the trash for discarded food.
Woodhaven, where
Proce lived, borders East New York and suffers from a similar level of
violent crime, drugs and poverty. Despite warnings by concerned friends,
Proce continued his late night walks because he didn't want to give up
one of his few daily pleasures, and he disliked rummaging through trash
when neighbors could see him.
On May 31, 1990,
as Proce made his way home at around 1:30 a.m., a young man approached
him and asked for a glass of water. Wary of the stranger, Proce refused
and continued on his way, but he moved slowly. The angered young man
followed. After a short exchange about the water, the young man pulled
out a zip gun and fired a shot into Proce. He placed an eerie
handwritten note beside Proce's body and disappeared.
Proce was a
Taurus, and he died of his wounds on June 24th.
Before his
death, Queens detectives interviewed him about the attack. Because
Proce was expected to survive, the case was treated as a robbery rather
than a homicide. Nevertheless, two detectives, Mike Ciravolo and Bill
Clark, were concerned and frightened by the shooter's strange, occultist
note. Clark had served on the task force that had caught the "Son of
Sam," and both men suspected this was no ordinary robbery. It was
Ciravolo's case, and he quickly compiled a file that was unusually thick
for an attempted robbery. The file included faint fingerprints gleaned
from the Zodiac's letter.
Because the
first two incidents happened across the Queens/Brooklyn border, Ciravolo
did not know about the similar shootings or the earlier letter that had
been sent to the anti-crime unit.
Proce himself,
who proved to be an awful witness, further hampered the investigation.
He changed his story several times - including his description of the
assailant. First, Proce claimed the man was African-American. Then,
he claimed it was "possible" that he was white or "maybe even"
Hispanic. The night of the attack was dark; Proce verged on senility
and sometimes didn't recognize detectives who had questioned him.
The detectives
had another witness, a young woman who watched the shooter flee the
scene as she trysted with her boyfriend. Unfortunately, she and the
married boyfriend refused to cooperate with police for fear of exposing
their illicit affair. Then, Proce died.
Meanwhile,
Ciravolo and Clark's fear that the shooting might be the work of a
serial killer started to materialize. Letters similar to the one found
at the scene of the Proce shooting arrived at The New York Post and "60
Minutes." The Zodiac wrote in the same bizarre style as his earlier
notes, listing the time, place and date of each shooting along with the
victim's astrological sign. The letters said "all shot in Brooklyn."
A reporter at
the Post brought the note to the Brooklyn police with the hope that it
was genuine. Correspondence from a serial killer can make a career.
She was disappointed to discover there had been no murders that fit the
note's descriptions. The detectives agreed to continue to investigate
but believed the note to be a fraud.
On an unrelated
visit to the 17th Precinct, Clark accidentally discovered the
investigation into the note. He immediately recognized the connection
to the note left nearby his victim and crosschecked the dates and
astrological signs to recent murder victims. No results. However, when
he crosschecked the dates and astrological signs for shooting victims
that hadn't died, he found Orozco and Montenesdro. Obviously, the
Zodiac didn't realize he had crossed into Queens when he shot Proce.
The notes were
genuine. Ciravolo called the reporter with the good news. She agreed
to let them investigate other possible victims for a few days, but on
June 19th she broke the story. The front-page headline read: Riddle of
the Zodiac Shooter.
Operation
Watchdog
The Post article
put pressure on the police. New Yorkers remembered how the "Son of
Sam" used the press to taunt police and frighten citizens. Nobody
wanted to avoid a repeat of the "Son of Sam" debacle more than Chief of
Detectives Joseph Borrelli. He had served on the "Son of Sam" task
force and he had been personally mentioned in one of the "Son of Sam's"
letters.
He took swift
action. He called the detectives from the separate Queens and Brooklyn
precincts together for information exchange. When he saw how little the
Brooklyn detectives had on the first two shootings, he was livid. Many
believed the subsequent dressing down was a bit unfair, given that no
notes or reliable witnesses had been found in the Brooklyn cases, but
Borrelli was in no mood to make concessions.
The work of
Ciravolo and his detectives impressed Borrelli, and he assigned them the
case. Borrelli named the effort to catch the Zodiac "Operation
Watchdog" and pledged as much support as necessary. Ciravolo felt
confident they would catch the Zodiac quickly.
At this time,
someone in the 17th Precinct remembered the strange letter that had
arrived the previous November. It was added to Ciravolo's case file.
Over the next
few weeks, the press caught hold of the case and wouldn't let go. New
Yorkers began to wonder if the infamous Bay Area Zodiac had returned.
Astrologers appeared on television with predictions and explanations.
People no longer felt comfortable when asked the question, what's your
sign? Vigilante groups like the Guardian Angels began patrolling East
New York.
"Operation
Watchdog" detectives determined a pattern in the Zodiac's actions. They
predicted he would strike again on early Thursday morning, June 21st.
That night, scores of officers patrolled East New York both on foot and
by car.
Unfortunately,
they were patrolling in the wrong place.
Across the East
River in Manhattan, a homeless man named Larry Parham made up his bed on
a bench in Central Park. Before he settled down for the night, he hid
his wallet in one of his sneakers.
As a clean-cut,
well-dressed young man with $4,000 in the bank, Parham defied
stereotypes. He despised being homeless, but a streak of troubles left
him on the street, and he felt he needed to save more money to obtain a
solid start. He also felt the park was safer than a shelter.
Unbeknownst to Parham, a young man watched him from a nearby bench.
As Parham slept,
the young man crept over to his bench and carefully removed his wallet.
He examined the contents of the wallet but left the forty-nine dollars
in cash untouched. He returned the wallet, stood up and fired a shot.
Parham is a
Cancer, and he survived the shooting.
One Zodiac
An intriguing
Zodiac letter arrived at the Post the day after the Central Park
shooting. It contained the same occult symbolism, nonsensical ramblings
and a listing of the victims, time of death and sun sign. This letter
however, was unusual in its vehement attempt to convince the Post, and
thus the police and public, that New York's Zodiac was the same person
as the Bay Area's Zodiac.
Aside from a few
enthusiastic exceptions, the police, press and public never really
believed the two were the same. Everything from the killer's
handwriting to the victim's descriptions of the assailant pointed to the
fact that New York's Zodiac was a copycat.
The Zodiac's
June 22 note however, vehemently denied it:
This is the
Zodiac
The note Sent to
the Post not to any of The San Francisco Zodiac letter you are
Wrong the
handwriting look different it is
One of the same
Zodiac one Zodiac
In San Francisco
killed a man in the park with a
Gun and killed a
women with a knife and killed
A man in the
taxi cab with gun
As journalist
Kieran Crowley wrote in Sleep My Little Dead, many reporters salivated
at the idea that the original Zodiac had returned. After all, it would
have made an explosive story. However, the June 22 note struck Crowley
and his colleagues as just too desperate and angry. It was the work of
a young, non-white man from Brooklyn who wanted everyone to believe that
he was a white, middle-aged serial killer from San Francisco.
Nevertheless,
the fact that New York's Zodiac was a copycat didn't change the fact
that Joseph Proce died on June 24th. New York's Zodiac was officially a
killer and the NYPD mobilized to stop him.
Parham helped
the police put together a composite sketch. He described his assailant
as black, around 30 years old, 5 foot 10 inches to 6 feet tall and about
185 pounds. Wags nicknamed the composite sketch "Evil Al Roker" for its
resemblance to the jovial TV weatherman. The composite was released to
the press, prompting hundreds of calls.
Publicity-hungry
psychics offered to help the police solve the case. People reported
friends, neighbors, co-workers that had to be the Zodiac. One young man
was fingerprinted because he took a book on astrology out of the New
York Public Library. Another man was arrested and questioned because in
1980 he had signed a friend's yearbook with a quote from a San Francisco
Zodiac's letter. Police consulted astronomy professors for insights on
the constellations.
Through all
this, detectives began to believe the only way to catch the Zodiac was
to trap him in the act. After all, they knew when he would strike next.
Eddie Seda
Twenty-two-year-old Heriberto "Eddie" Seda lived with his mother and
half sister in East New York. He was clean-cut, handsome and kept his
room spotless. He didn't work, had no friends and he had dropped out of
high school at sixteen after being suspended for carrying a weapon.
Seda took no
public assistance the way his mother did. He obtained money by shoving
plastic bags up the return slots of pay phones and vending machines.
After a few days, he would return and remove the bag and the lodged
change.
Seda didn't date
girls. He was deeply religious and devoted his life to God. He
attended church regularly, which made his mother proud.
Seda and his
school-age sister Gladys "Chachi" Reyes didn't get along. Reyes had a
personality in direct opposition to her brother's. She was outgoing,
personable and had many friends in the neighborhood. When she was a
small child, Seda doted on her. However, as she grew, her brother
physically and mentally abused her. She went to school with bruises and
teachers sent social workers to check on her.
Around 1989, the
abuse stopped. The two still didn't get along, but Seda no longer beat
her regularly. He stayed in his room most of the time and pursued his
hobbies.
Seda loved to
read, particularly about guns and violence. He liked magazines like
Soldier of Fortune and books on serial killers. He idolized Ted Bundy,
who in addition to being a rapist and murderer was also a clean-cut man
and a good citizen who did volunteer work.
But, the killer
Seda most admired was the Bay Area's Zodiac. He was a mystery because
he'd never been caught. He was smarter than the cops. Movies like Dirty
Harry had been made about him. He was a servant of God and his sinner
victims would serve him in the afterlife.
One of the many
books on that subject which sat on Eddie Seda's shelf was a well-worn
copy of Robert Graysmith's Zodiac. Considered by many to be the
definitive book on the original Zodiac case, it provided the blueprint
for Seda's carefully constructed identity. He was the new Zodiac.
Since the press
coverage began after the Proce killing, Seda had lovingly compiled a
scrapbook of the New York Zodiac Case. He proudly kept that scrapbook
next to ones he had earlier compiled on Ted Bundy, The Zodiac and other
famous serial killers.
He had a small
arsenal of homemade weapons and explosives. He ordered ammunition from
catalogs, but he crafted a collection of zip guns himself. He knew that
with the zip guns, he could change barrels and thus avoid a ballistics
match.
He would not be
caught. Not only because he was smart, but because he believed "the
magic" was on his side. Yet, he feared "the magic" was wearing off.
The police had his fingerprints. If he were arrested for anything at
all, the police would know he was the Zodiac. Seda was scared, but he
had a course of action.
He would stop
killing.
The San
Francisco Zodiac stopped. Seda decided he would stop as well. That
way, they would never catch him.
When the
Operation Watchdog mobilized for an August Zodiac attack, nothing
happened. Soon, the Zodiac task force was reduced from 50 cops to 18.
In a few months, people calmed down and the city stopped worrying about
the Zodiac.
Since Proce had
died and there is no statue of limitations on murder, Ciravolo and other
detectives pursued the Zodiac when they had time, but the case was no
longer a top priority.
Random Acts
of Violence
Seda waited a
year. He thumbed through his scrapbook and visited the scenes of the
first four shootings.
It wasn't
enough. He knew it was time for the Zodiac to return. This time,
however, Seda knew he must make some changes in his style. The police
knew he liked Thursday mornings, so he couldn't shoot on Thursdays. He
also couldn't risk searching the victims for identification in order to
determine his or her astrological sign. This time around, he would
just shoot and run.
On August 10,
1992, thirty-nine year-old Patricia Fonti met a good-looking man near
the Highland Park reservoir. After some flirtatious banter, she agreed
to accompany him to the shore of the reservoir. At 1:30 a.m., he shot
her with a .22 caliber zip gun, but she got up and struggled with him.
In a panic, the Zodiac stabbed her over 100 times. She died on the
scene. She was a Leo.
One June 4th,
1992, forty-year-old unemployed construction worker Jim Weber
encountered a young man outside Highland Park at about midnight. The
young man shot him in the buttocks. He is a Libra, and he survived.
On July 20th,
1992, the young man shot forty-year-old mental patient Joseph Diacone
outside of Highland Park at 11:35 a.m. He was a Virgo, and he died.
On October 2nd,
1992, the young man shot forty-year-old Diane Ballard as she sat on a
bench in Highland Park. She is a Taurus and survived the attack.
The police
didn't connect these crimes. In a city that at that time averaged five
murders a night, detectives found nothing to connect them.
On March 10,
1994, police arrested Heriberto "Eddie" Seda outside his East New York
apartment building after finding him in possession of an illegal zip
gun. He was polite and cooperated fully with officers. His gun was
incorrectly labeled at the evidence lab, so it was never tested. Seda
walked free a week later.
On June 10,
1994, the Zodiac shot a white man in Highland Park with a .22 caliber
zip gun. The incident went unreported.
August 1, 1994,
the Post received the most bizarre Zodiac letter yet. It contained a
list of the new victims, a strange totem-pole code and the creepy line
"sleep my little dead how we lothe them." The Zodiac mailed it using a
"Love" stamp.
The press ran
with the story, and the city fell back into a panic.
The new Zodiac
letter baffled police. Was it a copycat of a copycat? Or, was the
original copycat back? Detectives didn't know and were sadly certain he
would strike again before they found out.
He didn't strike
again. The Zodiac, once more, disappeared.
The Standoff
Seda and his
seventeen-year-old sister were at odds constantly, especially since he
had started ratting on the local drug dealers. Reyes often socialized
with the young dealers in the neighborhood, and she told her brother to
keep his nose out of her friends' business. Seda warned her to stay
away from the young men. Reyes, who brought home the household's only
earned paycheck, thought her freeloading, ratting brother had no right
to tell her what to do. She warned him that the dealers were going to
come and get him. The two often screamed at each other.
Seda went over
the edge when on June 18th, 1996, Reyes invited a young male friend over
to the apartment. As he listened to the pair socialize in the girl's
bedroom, Seda boiled over with rage. He knew the unsavory young man to
be a dealer and couldn't stand the idea of his sister consorting with
him. He pounded on the wall that he shared with her bedroom.
Reyes knew that
meant her brother wanted her guest out of the house. She had always
obeyed him in the past, but she was angry about his snitching and fed up
with financially supporting him. She ignored him.
An infuriated
Seda took one of his zip guns and fired it into the wall. Reyes
screamed for him to stop. The brother and sister confronted each other
in the living room as Seda brandished a weapon. Seda shot her in the
back as she tried to escape through the front door. The gunshot wound
did not incapacitate her and she made it out the door into a neighbor's
apartment. The frightened neighbor bolted the door and did her best to
help the wounded girl. She called 911. Meanwhile, Reyes's friend locked
himself in her bedroom and cowered.
The ambulance
arrived first. The neighbor let two EMTs into her apartment and soon
the four of them were trapped in the apartment as Seda fired shots out
the window at police. Seventeen officers gathered in front of the
apartment building.
After several
hours, Detective Joey Herbert of the 17th Precinct managed to talk Seda
into giving himself up. When officers saw some of the zip guns he turned
over to them, they joked that it would be "a pisser if this were the
Z-man."
Confession
In keeping with
procedure, detectives asked Seda to write his confession. He obliged,
with poor grammar and spelling. At the end of the confession, he drew
the cross that he included on each of the Zodiac letters and three
sevens. Detective Danny Powers recognized the cross.
He went to
Detective Herbert and some other colleagues for confirmation of his
suspicion. They all agreed. Seda was the Zodiac. They quickly got
"major case prints" from Seda. "Major Case Prints" were sets of
fingerprints that included the palm and sides of the fingers in addition
to the fingertips. With sirens blazing, Detective Tommy Maher
transported the prints to Police Plaza for crosschecking with the
Zodiac's prints.
Meanwhile,
another Detective, Louie Savarese went home to retrieve some Zodiac
letters that he kept there. He had been obsessed with tracking the
Zodiac and worked on the case in his spare time. As Savarese and
Herbert began the long process of questioning Seda, the prints came back
a match.
As the news
spread through the department, Savarese and Herbert pushed hard. Maher,
who had returned from Police Plaza, played the "good cop." He consoled
Seda and told him that he needed to cleanse his soul.
They showed Seda
crime scene photos and for the first time he saw the results of his
"missions." He saw death close up.
They questioned
him about every detail of the case. He became confused, tired and
angry. He told his story in all its detail. Then, he asked about his
sister.
Aftermath
In June of 1998,
a jury convicted Heriberto "Eddie" Seda of being the New York Zodiac
Killer. His sentence determined that he must serve 83 1/2 years before
becoming eligible for parole. In a separate trial, he was convicted of
the attempted murders and sentenced to 152 1/2 years. Having been born
in the late 1960s, he obviously had nothing to do with the original San
Francisco crimes.
Today, Seda
resides in prison where he reads the Bible daily and quotes scripture to
his fellow inmates. After being arrested, he made several attempts to
reconcile with his sister. Gladys "Chachi" Reyes refused her brother's
calls.
She still lives
with their mother in East New York.
Most of the
Zodiac's living victims still suffer physically and psychologically from
the attacks. Some, like devoutly Christian Parham, have forgiven Seda
for what he did. Others, like Montenesdro refuse to discuss the case.
Orozco still lives in East New York and does not let fear stop him from
walking the streets or enjoying the company of friends.
The original
Zodiac was never caught. He remains a mystery.