A group of former law enforcement pros want their new claim to be tested.<\/b>
\nThe Zodiac Killer may still be out there. A team of former law enforcement investigators said Wednesday that they may have cracked the case of the mass murderer believed to be responsible for at least a handful of deaths in Northern California in the 1960s. But the Federal Bureau of Investigation isn\u2019t buying it. \u201cThe case remains open and there is no new information to report,\u201d the FBI told news outlets. Case Breakers, which claims as its members dozens of veteran sleuths, said in a statement that they think they know the identity of the \u201cCalifornia psychopath who shot, stabbed or choked to death possibly as many as 10 victims between 1962 and 1970.\u201d That group said their suspect, an Air Force veteran who worked as a housepainter, died in 2018. They identified him as Gary F. Poste. Case Breakers believes that alleged killer\u2019s casualties include Riverside, Calif., stabbing victim Cheri Jo Bates, whose body was found in 1966. Riverside police Officer Ryan J. Railsback told NBC News that there is no connection between Bates and the Zodiac Killer, though Case Breakers disagrees and is asking for a DNA test that they think could link the two. In its press release, Case Breakers says it\u2019s drawing public attention to its claims against Poste because local law enforcement isn\u2019t giving the organization\u2019s allegations sufficient attention. The group of investigators boasts 40 members. It said that their \u201cstatewide examination\u201d has turned up eyewitnesses and includes \u201cnew physical and forensic evidence\u201d as well as \u201cdecades of pictures from Poste\u2019s former darkroom.\u201d An anonymous handwritten note from someone claiming to be the Zodiac Killer was ruled a hoax by Riverside Police in August. The person cops believe to have been the real Zodiac Killer taunted investigators and media with similar letters 50 years ago. Former San Francisco Police Department homicide investigator Frank Falzon told TMZ that he doesn\u2019t think Poste was the Zodiac Killer either. Falzon worked on the case when it was fresh. He said he doesn\u2019t recall the painter\u2019s name being mentioned among the more serious suspects. The Zodiac Killer case was inactive for three years before San Francisco cops reopened it in 2007. The San Francisco Examiner reports that advances in DNA testing motivated investigators\u2019 efforts to try and solve the mystery again. It was because of a 1969 letter to the Examiner that the murderer became known as the Zodiac Killer. The Examiner was one of several papers contacted by the person believed responsible for the terror that gripped the San Francisco Bay Area during and after the crime spree, which seems to have suddenly stopped. One letter to the Examiner contained material from clothing that was worn by one murder victim. All of the murders believed by authorities to have been committed by the Zodiac Killer occurred between December 1968 and October 1969. The first three attacks were against couples. What seems to have been the Zodiac Killer\u2019s final slaying came at the expense of a cab driver. Either a gun or a knife was used in all of those killings. The chilling effect of the Zodiac Killer\u2019s exploits has not been lost on Hollywood. The 1971 \u201cDirty Harry\u201d film starring Clint Eastwood centered on a serial killer named \u201cScorpio\u201d who strung along cops and reporters with notes alluding to his crimes. David Fincher\u2019s 2007 film \u201cZodiac,\u201d starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo, also borrowed from the real-life horror.<\/p>\n