Unsolved Zodiac Killer and Black Dahlia Cases Could’ve Been Done by the Same Person, Sleuth Suggests

The same person could be responsible for the Zodiac Killer murders and the killing of the Black Dahlia, according to new reports.

“It’s irrefutable. It’s just mathematically impossible for it not to be him,” investigative consultant Alex Baber — who is not a licensed private eye — told the Daily Mail of a man named Marvin Margolis (who also used the alias Marvin Merrill).

“With all the connections, either he’s the unluckiest man in the history of the world — in the wrong place at the wrong time, every time — or he’s the perpetrator,” Baber added to the outlet in the article, which was published on Monday, December 22.

The Los Angeles Times also reported on Baber’s findings, which link the same man (who died in July 1993 at age 68 from cancer) to the cases.

Baber believes that Margolis is the one who killed Elizabeth Short — who, in death, became known as the Black Dahlia — in Los Angeles in January 1947. Her cold case gained infamy because of the nature of her death (her naked body was found severed in half).

Years later, the Zodiac Killer took the lives of at least five people in the San Francisco Bay Area between December 1968 and October 1969. That case also remains unsolved.

Using tools like AI and Census records, Baber believes he has finally cracked the Z13 cipher, which was written by the Zodiac Killer in a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle that said, “My name is—.” It was followed by 13 characters, but no one could figure out the code.

Baber used artificial intelligence to generate a list of 71 million possible 13-letter names, according to the LA Times, and then began to narrow it down based on known facts regarding the Zodiac Killer.

“This takes me nine months of working 18-20 hour days,” he told the Times. “I’m starting to kill this onion. I’m starting to eliminate layers: Too tall, too short, or wrong race.”

He finally landed on Margolis, who was a suspect in the Black Dahlia case.

The former Navy soldier learned marksmanship and surgical skills while serving in World War II. He had a brief and volatile relationship with Short, and his handwriting reportedly matches a letter written to L.A. papers and signed “The Black Dahlia Avenger.” It is now being compared to the Zodiac’s letters.

“In my opinion, these are solved cases,” former LAPD homicide detective Rick Jackson told the Times. “There are too many links with both. There’s overwhelming circumstantial evidence. He’s left breadcrumbs all along.”

However, Mitzi Roberts, the former cold case detective at the LAPD, isn’t sure we’ll ever really have a concrete answer.

According to the Times, the LAPD is aware of the new findings. However, “It’s not a burning thing on their radar right now,” Roberts said. “I don’t think the LAPD will ever take a position and say it’s solved.”