On October 6, 2021, Fox News published an article reporting that the Case Breakers, a volunteer team of more than 40 former law enforcement investigators, journalists, and military intelligence officers, had identified a man named Gary Francis Poste as the Zodiac Killer2. Poste was an Air Force veteran who ran Pine Mountain Painting Co. in Groveland, California and had died on August 23, 2018, at age 805.

The Case Breakers built their claim on several pieces of evidence: photographs from Poste's darkroom showing forehead scars that matched a 1969 police sketch of the Zodiac, a cipher decryption that allegedly revealed Poste's full name when specific letters were removed, and circumstantial links to the 1966 murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside, California2. Former Army counterintelligence agent Jen Bucholtz, a team member, told Fox News: "So you've got to know Gary's full name in order to decipher these anagrams. I just don't think there's any other way anybody would have figured it out"10.

The FBI responded the next day by telling CNN that the Zodiac Killer case "remains open" with "no new information to share"1. The Riverside Police Department went further, explicitly stating that their Homicide Cold Case Unit had "determined the murder of Cheri Jo Bates in 1966 is not related to the Zodiac killer"2. Poste was never linked by DNA, and no working law enforcement agency confirmed his identity as the killer3.

The Case Breakers' announcement generated major news coverage from CNN1, Fox News2, the Daily Mail9, Newsweek12, KQED7, and HowStuffWorks11, among dozens of other outlets. The story sat at the intersection of true-crime culture and meme culture, with many people engaging with both the serious criminal investigation angle and the comedic possibilities at the same time.

The case highlighted the growing role of civilian investigative groups in cold cases, though it also drew criticism about the reliability of their methods when official law enforcement repeatedly declined to confirm their findings4. The Wikipedia article on Zodiac Killer suspects includes Poste alongside other named suspects like Arthur Leigh Allen and Earl Van Best Jr., noting that "rumors about Poste as a suspect had been investigated by the SFPD in 2017"4.

The story also briefly revived interest in the Zodiac Killer's unsolved ciphers. Two of the four cryptograms remain unbroken as of 2024, and experts have noted that because they are so short, it may be impossible to definitively prove any decryption is correct11.

The Zodiac Killer murdered at least five people in the San Francisco Bay Area between December 1968 and October 1969, targeting young couples and a cab driver named Paul Lee Stine4. The killer taunted police and newspapers with cryptic letters and ciphers, claiming to have killed 37 people total. Of four ciphers he produced, only two have been solved: the "408 cipher" was cracked shortly after publication in 1969, and the "340 cipher" wasn't broken until 2020 by a team of amateur codebreakers, over 50 years later11. The case became one of the most famous unsolved murder cases in American history, spawning the 2007 David Fincher film *Zodiac* and countless documentaries4.

Gary Francis Poste was born on November 8, 1937. He joined the Air Force as a young man and sustained severe head injuries in a jeep accident while stationed near Rockville, Indiana around 1957, when the vehicle crashed into a railroad tunnel wall, killing the driver5. The accident left distinctive scarring on his forehead and required the removal of all his teeth5. After recovery, he was stationed at a radar installation in Greenland before eventually settling in Groveland, California around 1970, where he married a woman named Mary and ran a house painting business for over four decades85.

Those who knew Poste painted a disturbing picture of his private life. A neighbor named Gwen, whom Poste and his wife used to babysit, told reporters he taught her to shoot guns as a child, sometimes going to the woods five times a week to practice. She said Poste's wife only slept on the couch and she witnessed him being violent toward her8. Gwen recalled: "He lived a double life. As I'm an adult thinking back, it all kind of makes sense now"8. Chris Avery, who claimed to have been part of a group of young men Poste mentored, described him as lacking "a conscience" and said Poste "groomed me into a killing machine"8. Thomas Colbert, the Case Breakers' lead, told the New York Post that Poste ran a crew of about 10 young men who were unfailingly loyal to him, and he taught them to make pipe bombs and intimidate local police8.

In February 2016, Poste was arrested at age 78 for domestic violence after allegedly pushing his wife Mary into a wall and breaking her pelvis in four places6. He was placed in Tuolumne County Jail but was later found mentally incompetent to stand trial and transferred to a California state hospital5. He died on August 23, 2018, from sepsis, septic shock, dysphagia, and vascular dementia5. Before his death, he distributed his weapons, pistol components, gunpowder, bullets, and over a thousand shell casings to his "favorite" individuals5.

The Case Breakers' October 2021 announcement drew immediate pushback from law enforcement. The San Francisco Police Department confirmed the investigation was still open but would not comment on specific suspects1. The Riverside Police Department was more blunt, stating that the Cheri Jo Bates case was "not related to the Zodiac killer"2. Ryan Railsback, the Riverside PD spokesman, said the Case Breakers' claims relied heavily on circumstantial evidence4. The SFPD had actually investigated rumors about Poste as early as 2017, visiting his jail, though they declined to say whether they interviewed him4.

The Case Breakers doubled down in the following years. In November 2021, they claimed a "goldmine" of evidence had been uncovered, including weaponry Poste had given away before his death6. In May 2023, they made their most explosive claim yet: an FBI whistleblower had told them Poste had been listed as a Zodiac suspect in the bureau's computers since 2016, with his partial DNA secured at the Quantico lab12. They accused the FBI, SFPD, and Riverside PD of a "cover-up" involving mishandled DNA evidence and ignored leads12. The FBI responded only that the case "remains open and unsolved"12.

On the internet, the story's meme life burned hot and fast. The combination of true-crime fascination and absurdist humor created a brief but intense cycle of content. The fake Metacritic review format was the most creative output, with users competing to write the most darkly funny fake album reviews from Poste's supposed account3. The format worked because it played on the idea of a serial killer hiding in plain sight while leaving subtle clues nobody noticed. The Ted Cruz callback jokes also got significant traction, as people imagined the real alleged killer watching the internet blame a senator for his crimes3.