Alleged Zodiac Killer’s Identity Reportedly Revealed on Facebook Years Before Investigators Named Him

After an independent group of investigators concluded the identity of the “Zodiac Killer” belonged to retired Air Force veteran Gary Poste, it seems the group wasn’t the only people to solve the long-riddled series of crimes. One man beat them to the punch years ago. Internet detectives sleuthing into Poste’s background found a few photos of the rumored killer on social media posted by a man, under the name Glynn Barnes, who seems to have befriended Gary while under the impression that he was the infamous serial murderer. 

The man posted multiple pictures of the man, showing the two hanging out on numerous occasions prior to Poste’s death in 2018. There’s not much edit history surrounding the posts, so they don’t appear to have been tampered with post-killer unmasking. It remains unclear how Barnes came to the conclusion about his friend on his own –– whether Poste said in a confession or saw Poste’s name among a list of suspects, has not been revealed as of yet. 

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“The Case Breakers” conducted their investigation using the information from previous detectives and modern technology to match Poste to the crimes as well as several others that were never previously attributed to the zodiac killer. Photos of Poste show that he had the same forehead scars to match a witness sketch of the killer. The investigators claimed to have gotten the photos from Poste’s personal darkroom. In addition to the photo evidence, they were also finally able to break down the Zodiac’s code by using the letters of Poste’s name. Jen Bucholtz, a former U.S. Army counterintelligence agent, says the name was integral to deciphering the riddled letters. “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.”

While Poste’s family hasn’t spoken to reporters as of yet, one of Poste’s former neighbors weighed in on the revelation, telling reporters she had no idea while she was a teenager. “He lived a double life,” Gwen said. “As I’m adult thinking back, it all kind of makes sense now. At the time when I was a teenager, I didn’t put two and two together until I got older. It hit me full-blown that Gary’s the Zodiac.”