This is the Zodiac Speaking sheds new light on an infamous serial killer

In the late 1960s, California was terrorized by a series of theatrical murders carried out by a murderer who sent coded letters to newspapers, signed “Zodiac.” And although the Zodiac case remains unsolved to this day, authorities have long considered a single man – Arthur Leigh Allen – to be the likely perpetrator.

Netflix’s new true crime docuseries It’s the zodiac speaking approaches one of the most infamous serial killers in history from a new – sometimes almost touching – perspective. Driven by interviews with siblings Connie, Don and David Seawater, who spent much of their childhood with Allen in the 1960s, the three-part series does not present a new thesis about the true identity of the killer of the Zodiac. On the contrary, it reinforces the prevailing one with new testimonies.

What could the Seawater children have seen that could have made a difference in a case that has vexed investigators for decades, you might ask? Well – like It’s the zodiac speaking clearly – a lot.

“We thought he was just the best,” remembers Don, now seventy. More than 50 years after their first meeting, and despite everything that has been revealed, it is clear that Connie still feels affection for him. “I feel like I’m betraying someone I’ve cared about for a long time,” she said.

Decades ago in Atascadero, California, Allen was an elementary school teacher. But even several years before the murders began, the traits that would later characterize the Zodiac Killer were abundantly clear: “Every Friday, we were given a number (to solve),” recalls Darin Alvord, a former student, evoking the elaborate codes which the murderer used in his famous anonymous letters to newspapers. Another classmate remembers Allen playing music from The Mikado during class – songs that the Zodiac Killer’s letters would quote years later.

To the children of Seawater, however, Allen was more than just their teacher. He developed a relationship with their single mother, Phyllis, which became increasingly intimate and manipulative as he had more access to her children. He began taking his siblings on “field trips” – the importance of which would only become clear in hindsight. On a memorable outing to Tajiguas Point in 1963, Connie recalled how Allen left her and her brothers in the car for an hour, only to return to them with “something (red) on his hands “. The next day, local teenagers Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards were found murdered on the sand.

Read next

While Allen was arrested and pleaded guilty to child molestation in 1974, the Seawaters maintained their relationship with him into adulthood, that is, until media speculation that he was the Zodiac Killer become impossible to ignore.

David responded by confronting him, alleging that Allen had confessed to the crimes over the phone and then renounced their relationship. Yet it wasn’t so clear to all the siblings: “I couldn’t get over my childhood happiness with him,” Don said.

As for Phyllis, the extent of her relationship with Allen only became clear when confessional letters were discovered after his death in 2017, hinting that she knew he was the Zodiac Killer.

The Seawaters’ testimonies seemed authentic; Inevitably, there was catharsis in finally expressing the doubts that had accompanied them for decades, even if it was accompanied by internal conflicts. By the end of the documentary, I personally had no doubt that Allen was the Zodiac – what that meant morally, especially to people who had loved him as a child, seemed much less clear.

Unlike many true crimes which only rehash macabre facts, It’s the zodiac speaking offers truly new and enlightening testimony on a case that is still open. As a genre, true crime peaks when it shines a light on behavior we can hardly imagine, let alone sympathize with, and It’s the zodiac speaking is a poignant and problematic reminder that even the nastiest among us is ultimately three-dimensional.

Whether or not you believe that Allen was the Zodiac Killer, he is clearly guilty of terrible acts. Hearing him remembered by people who had once felt so fondly towards him is as confusing as it is compelling. Given this uncomfortable moral grayness, It’s the zodiac speaking puts the truth in true crime – all the more disturbing and tantalizing.

“This Is the Zodiac Speaking” is streaming on Netflix