This is the Zodiac Speaking sheds new light on a notorious serial killer

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

Netflix’s new true crime documentaries This is the zodiac speaking approaches one of history’s most notorious serial killers 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 ’60s, the three-part series presents no new thesis about the Zodiac Killer’s true identity. Rather, it reinforces the prevailing opinion with new evidence.

What could the Seawater children have seen that would make a difference in a case that has misled investigators for decades, you may ask? Well – how This is the zodiac speaking made clear – a lot.

“We thought he was just the best,” remembers Don, now in his 70s. More than 50 years after their first meeting and despite everything that has come to light, 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, Allen was an elementary school teacher in Atascadero, California. But several years before the murders began, the characteristics that would later characterize the Zodiac Killer were already clear: “Every Friday we received a cipher [to solve]” recalls former student Darin Alvord, recalling the sophisticated codes the killer used in his infamous anonymous letters to newspapers. Another classmate remembers Allen playing music The Mikado during class – songs that would be quoted years later in the Zodiac Killer’s letters.

But to the Seawater children, Allen was more than just their teacher. He developed a relationship with her single mother Phyllis, who became more intimate and manipulative the more he gained access to her children. He began to take his siblings on “excursions” – the significance of which would only become clear later. On a memorable trip 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 in the sand.

While Allen was arrested and convicted of child molestation in 1974, the Seawaters continued their relationship with him into adulthood – until media speculation that he was the Zodiac Killer became impossible to ignore.

David responded by confronting him and claiming that Allen confessed to the crimes over the phone and then abandoned their relationship. Still, it wasn’t so clear-cut for all 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 confession letters were discovered after her death in 2017 showing that she knew he was the Zodiac Killer.

The Seawaters’ statements felt authentic; Inevitably, catharsis ensued as they finally expressed their decades-long doubts, even if they came with internal conflicts. By the end of the documentary, I personally had no doubt that Allen was the Zodiac – what that meant morally, especially for people who had loved him as children, was much more unclear to me.

Unlike many true crime cases that just rehash grisly facts, This is the zodiac speaking offers truly new and insightful statements on a case that is still open. As a genre, true crime is at its best when it illuminates behaviors we can barely imagine, let alone sympathize with This is the zodiac speaking is a poignant, problematic reminder that even the most cartoonish villain among us is ultimately three-dimensional.

Whether you believe Allen was the Zodiac Killer or not, he was clearly guilty of horrific acts. Hearing how people who once felt such tender feelings for him remember him is as confusing as it is captivating. Given this unpleasant moral grayness, This is the zodiac speaking focuses on true crime – all the more disturbing and alluring.

This Is the Zodiac Speaking is streaming on Netflix