WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.120 --> 00:00:04.599 You're listening to Killer in the Code Solving the Black 2 00:00:04.679 --> 00:00:08.800 Dalia and Zodiac Cases. I'm Michael Connolly and this is 3 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:15.800 chapter six. I want to begin today with a mini 4 00:00:15.880 --> 00:00:20.239 profile the killer this podcast is focused on. This is 5 00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:24.440 taken from the official records of the investigation. The crime 6 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:27.679 would indicate a person, to my estimation, who had a 7 00:00:27.719 --> 00:00:31.320 mania for publicity. They wanted to gloat over the fact 8 00:00:31.359 --> 00:00:34.320 that they have been successful in their crime and got 9 00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:38.039 a kick out of it. Okay, so I think I 10 00:00:38.119 --> 00:00:40.479 know what you were thinking. That's got to come from 11 00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:44.320 the Zodiac case files, right, He's the one who wrote 12 00:00:44.359 --> 00:00:48.600 all the letters to the newspapers and authored the tantalizing ciphers, etc. 13 00:00:48.840 --> 00:00:49.039 Etc. 14 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:52.399 Well, yes, and no, you could call it an early 15 00:00:52.520 --> 00:00:56.119 profile of the Zodiac, but it's actually from the sworn 16 00:00:56.200 --> 00:00:59.359 testimony of the lead detective in the Black Dahlia case, 17 00:01:00.039 --> 00:01:03.920 spoken to a grand jury in nineteen fifty, almost twenty 18 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:06.959 years before the Zodiac killings took place, and the self 19 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:11.599 proclaimed Zodiac began using publicity to gloat and taunt the 20 00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:14.840 public and to hold it in the grip of fear. 21 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:22.200 A mania for publicity. That detective certainly got that right there. 22 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:25.319 Are people who think these cases are so dramatically different 23 00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:28.879 they could never be linked, but on a psychological level 24 00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:32.599 they are much more the same than not. And today 25 00:01:32.599 --> 00:01:35.200 we are going to reveal as best we can, the 26 00:01:35.239 --> 00:01:40.159 man who is behind all these crimes. Marvin Margolis aka 27 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:44.920 Marvin Merrill, among many other names, the man who wrote 28 00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:48.239 the letters and constructed the ciphers, the man who was 29 00:01:48.280 --> 00:01:55.280 a cipher himself. A quick recap here Alex Baber, Citizen Slewice, 30 00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:59.719 an amateur cryptologist, broke Disease thirteen code, the thirteen characters 31 00:02:00.359 --> 00:02:03.200 said to reveal the name of the Zodiac Killer, but 32 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:06.319 also thought to be unbreakable for more than a half 33 00:02:06.359 --> 00:02:10.560 a century. The name hidden in the code was Marvin Merrill, 34 00:02:11.199 --> 00:02:14.960 the primary alias adopted by Marvin Margolis after he was 35 00:02:15.039 --> 00:02:18.960 identified more than twenty years earlier as a suspect in 36 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:23.000 the murder of Elizabeth Short, better known as the Black Dallion. 37 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:29.680 Baber's methodology and solution to Z thirteen has been independently 38 00:02:29.759 --> 00:02:32.960 confirmed by some of the top cryptanalysts in the world. 39 00:02:34.319 --> 00:02:37.120 Other evidence gathered by Baber and a team of veteran 40 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:41.080 cold case detectives has been documented in the previous episodes 41 00:02:41.080 --> 00:02:45.520 of this podcast. The bottom line is Margolis, who died 42 00:02:45.560 --> 00:02:49.360 in nineteen ninety three, checked all the boxes, and now 43 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:52.199 we want to attempt to track his movement across time 44 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:57.199 and geography. It's not an easy task. Margolis at times 45 00:02:57.240 --> 00:02:59.759 is a bit of a ghost. He changed names and 46 00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:02.719 moved about like a man looking over his shoulder to 47 00:03:02.759 --> 00:03:04.319 see who might be on his trail. 48 00:03:05.479 --> 00:03:06.479 This is Alex Baber. 49 00:03:07.159 --> 00:03:09.039 His own family would call him Skippy because he would 50 00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:11.520 skip out for long periods of time that he'd be 51 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:15.400 unaccounted for. The Skippy nickname was obviously a player on 52 00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:16.400 his middle name, skip Day. 53 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:20.680 He also changed occupations and careers as often as he 54 00:03:20.759 --> 00:03:24.800 moved geographically. At various times, he was an artist, an 55 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:29.719 auto mechanic, an engineer, an insurance salesman, a car racing promoter, 56 00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:34.560 a computer programmer, and an urban planner. His son called 57 00:03:34.599 --> 00:03:38.280 him a serial entrepreneur, with most of his endeavors seeing 58 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:39.719 very little success. 59 00:03:40.039 --> 00:03:42.039 It appears that he did many things, but he wasn't 60 00:03:42.039 --> 00:03:44.840 good at any of thom Throughout the years, in decades, 61 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:48.439 he would often change his expertise or field of employment. 62 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:51.319 Some of them. Members told me that you know a 63 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:54.120 lot of stuff that he did, He taught himself, and 64 00:03:54.159 --> 00:03:57.520 he wouldn't stay long within that field of expertise. 65 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:00.879 This is veteran homicide detective of Rick Jackson. 66 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:05.639 My initial thoughts on his moving around a lot as 67 00:04:05.719 --> 00:04:08.439 well as the changing of names. The first of all, 68 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:10.840 the moving around the lot. There are people that do that. 69 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:13.879 There are people that are lost, they can't find jobs, 70 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:16.360 they go from one place to another. That's one thing, 71 00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:20.279 but when you couple that with constantly changing names, then 72 00:04:20.360 --> 00:04:22.639 it brings it to a higher level of concern about 73 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:26.120 why that's being done. That's a quick patty answer, but 74 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:30.240 that's that's my reaction to what we see with Margolis 75 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:30.839 slash meow. 76 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:36.040 In addition to changing names as he moved, Margolis also 77 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:40.560 appropriated the histories of others will embellishing his own. The 78 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:43.560 biggest task here was trying to determine what was real 79 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:45.720 about Marvin Margolis. 80 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:45.800 And what was not. 81 00:04:47.639 --> 00:04:49.720 One thing we know for sure is that he was 82 00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:53.920 born in Chicago to immigrant parents. In nineteen twenty five, 83 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:59.519 his own father changed his name from Isaac Margolands to 84 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:03.000 is A we Are Margolis, something that many immigrants do, 85 00:05:03.160 --> 00:05:06.519 but it early on exposed Marvin Margolis to the idea 86 00:05:06.600 --> 00:05:12.160 that identity was malleable. Before we go on here, let 87 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:15.000 me say that the timeline and the biographic details we 88 00:05:15.079 --> 00:05:19.879 have put together here come from official records, newspaper articles, 89 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:24.199 and interviews with members of Margolis's family. We have agreed 90 00:05:24.279 --> 00:05:26.959 not to name members of the family in exchange for 91 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:33.000 their cooperation. Margolis enrolled at the University of Illinois in 92 00:05:33.079 --> 00:05:37.240 nineteen forty two, but left after one semester with failing grades. 93 00:05:37.720 --> 00:05:40.079 At the time, the country is in the middle of 94 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:43.800 a world war, and in nineteen forty three, Margolis walked 95 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:47.639 into a Navy recruiting office in Chicago and joined up. 96 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:51.560 He was trained as a corpsman and sent overseas to 97 00:05:51.639 --> 00:05:55.160 the battle in the Pacific. He was attached as a 98 00:05:55.199 --> 00:05:58.279 medic to the marine battalion that made the first landing 99 00:05:58.319 --> 00:06:01.199 on the island of Okinawa. What ensued was one of 100 00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:04.800 the bloodiest and costliest battles of the war. Over ten 101 00:06:04.839 --> 00:06:10.879 thousand American soldiers died on Oakanalwa. We documented Margois's time 102 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:14.199 there in chapter one of the podcast, but suffice it 103 00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:18.360 to say his experiences there, including one near death experience 104 00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:22.720 in particular, was harrowing. Upon returning from the war. He 105 00:06:22.839 --> 00:06:26.439 was given a fifty percent disability for mental neurosis what 106 00:06:26.480 --> 00:06:31.160 would now be diagnosed as post traumatic stress disorder. Family 107 00:06:31.160 --> 00:06:33.680 members have told us he was treated for this the 108 00:06:33.759 --> 00:06:35.600 rest of his life and. 109 00:06:35.639 --> 00:06:36.759 He was put on medication. 110 00:06:37.439 --> 00:06:39.759 And we discovered through the family members that when he 111 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:42.959 would disappear for these lengthy periods of time, they would 112 00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:45.600 reach out to his younger brother, Milton, who lived in Chicago, 113 00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:47.839 who had a connection at the local BA and what 114 00:06:47.879 --> 00:06:51.680 he would do, apparently was contact this connection and he 115 00:06:51.720 --> 00:06:54.759 would look up where the last description was filled, and 116 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:58.360 then Milton would hunt Marvin Dowell and ask him, what 117 00:06:58.399 --> 00:07:00.639 are you doing. You have a family about legations, You 118 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:03.199 needed needed to get back to where you belong. 119 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:08.439 This is MITCHI. Roberts, veteran homicide detective and former supervisor 120 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:10.639 of the LAPD cold case unit. 121 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:14.399 All you have to really do is review the testimony 122 00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:19.600 at the grand jury as well as a review, you know, 123 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:22.040 any of his documents that came out of his time 124 00:07:22.079 --> 00:07:25.920 at the war to know that you know, what he 125 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:29.959 saw over Okinawa was the worst of the worst, and 126 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:34.079 I think they've been mentioned mingled bodies, and you know 127 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:35.920 he was working in the medical. 128 00:07:35.560 --> 00:07:36.800 Field, so he saw them up. 129 00:07:36.839 --> 00:07:41.079 It wasn't just seen your buddy, you know here get 130 00:07:41.399 --> 00:07:45.160 you know, severely injured. He's actually trying to save lives. 131 00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:48.959 And from everything I've read, he came back from that 132 00:07:49.079 --> 00:07:54.600 war just a damaged man, for sure, mentally just damaged. 133 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:00.199 Margos landed in Los Angeles after the war, and in 134 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:04.920 nineteen forty six enrolled at the University of Southern California 135 00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:08.839 as a pre med student. During a grand jury investigation 136 00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:11.920 that would delve into the Black Value case. Four years later, 137 00:08:12.600 --> 00:08:15.480 it was revealed by the deputy district attorney who led 138 00:08:15.519 --> 00:08:18.759 the probe that Margois had taken part in a body 139 00:08:18.839 --> 00:08:23.959 dissection just months before Elizabeth Short's bisective body was found. 140 00:08:24.600 --> 00:08:28.279 We could find no independent confirmation of this. While it 141 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:30.720 was unlikely that a pre med student would have a 142 00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:36.120 class in which cadavers were dissected, Margolis's wartime experiences may 143 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:38.840 have opened doors at USC for him to take part 144 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:42.320 in what was likely something reserved for more advanced to 145 00:08:42.440 --> 00:08:47.720 med students. As one of his veterans, administration evaluators reported 146 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:51.000 in giving him the mental disability, he had dealt with 147 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:53.039 many quote mangled. 148 00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:54.960 Bodies on Okinawa. 149 00:08:56.360 --> 00:08:59.559 Either way, Margolis was attending classes at the time he 150 00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:03.399 had a res relationship with Elizabeth Short, and subsequently when 151 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:06.960 she was found murdered on January fifteenth, nineteen forty seven. 152 00:09:08.039 --> 00:09:11.840 At some point Margous changed his focus and started pursuing 153 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:15.559 a pharmacy degree. Records show that in nineteen forty eight 154 00:09:15.960 --> 00:09:19.159 he was elected as an officer in the Pharmacy School's 155 00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:23.360 service organization. A transcript of his grades from that year 156 00:09:23.799 --> 00:09:26.440 showed him to have been a good student, getting mostly 157 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:30.240 a's in pre med and pharmacy classes and only won 158 00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:35.600 C in piochemistry. Curiously, he had registered at the school 159 00:09:35.679 --> 00:09:40.200 under the name Marvin Henry Margolis. His actual middle name 160 00:09:40.279 --> 00:09:43.799 was Skipton, and this is the earliest point where we 161 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:44.480 see him. 162 00:09:44.360 --> 00:09:46.639 Engage in identity deception. 163 00:09:49.320 --> 00:09:51.879 Margolis was in the class of forty nine, but he 164 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:56.720 apparently didn't finish at USC. Instead, he left town and 165 00:09:56.759 --> 00:10:00.120 picked up a degree in commerce from Roosevelt College in 166 00:10:00.120 --> 00:10:04.000 his hometown of Chicago. Why did he leave town and 167 00:10:04.120 --> 00:10:07.480 change schools? At the time, it had been two and 168 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:10.360 a half years since the murder of Elizabeth Short, and 169 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:13.759 no arrests had been made in the case. Early on 170 00:10:13.879 --> 00:10:17.519 in that investigation, Margois had been interviewed twice by the police, 171 00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:21.799 and though he initially lied about his relationship with Elizabeth Short, 172 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:27.320 he offered an alibi that his new wife confirmed. Phinnis Brown, 173 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:31.080 the lead detective on the case, would later testify that 174 00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:35.000 it was impossible to throw him out as a suspect, 175 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:40.440 it was impossible to tie him in. But nineteen forty 176 00:10:40.519 --> 00:10:42.879 nine was also when a new police chief took the 177 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:46.799 reins at the Los Angeles Police Department. William Morton was 178 00:10:46.840 --> 00:10:50.679 a hard charging former marine who declared in a widely 179 00:10:50.759 --> 00:10:54.960 publicized media statement that the Black Dalley investigation had been 180 00:10:55.039 --> 00:10:59.159 run poorly and been bungled by the original team on it. 181 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:02.960 He called for a grand jury investigation of the murder 182 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:06.440 to refocus the case, but by the time that grand 183 00:11:06.519 --> 00:11:12.080 jury was impaneled that year, Margolis was gone. Investigators with 184 00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:15.039 the grand jury tried to find him and enlisted the 185 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:17.960 help of the Chicago Police Department, but to no avail. 186 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:22.879 Dennis Brown was left to testify that Margolis was quote 187 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:29.639 possibly a very good suspect. How diligently authorities searched for 188 00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:33.720 Margolis in Chicago is not clear, but they missed their chance. 189 00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:37.120 Three years later, when he was working in Chicago as 190 00:11:37.159 --> 00:11:41.039 a used car salesman and was charged with defrauding customers 191 00:11:41.039 --> 00:11:44.480 by tricking them into paying higher prices than agreed to 192 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:49.240 for their car. Margois avoided jail time and the apparent 193 00:11:49.320 --> 00:11:53.159 notice of the LAPD by paying a fine and restitution 194 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:56.159 to several customers. But it was at this point that 195 00:11:56.279 --> 00:11:59.679 he left town once again, and when he re emerged, 196 00:11:59.720 --> 00:12:01.399 he had a new profession and. 197 00:12:01.399 --> 00:12:02.080 A new name. 198 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:05.360 He was now in Atlanta and he set up shop 199 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:11.320 as Marvin Merrill, insurance salesman. Merrill spent at least three 200 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:14.679 years in Atlanta and even started a side gig, which 201 00:12:14.759 --> 00:12:18.399 was an auto club for teenagers. He corded membership and 202 00:12:18.519 --> 00:12:22.759 publicity with the inclusion of a NASCAR racing champion named 203 00:12:22.759 --> 00:12:26.679 Tim Flock as a partner. But eventually Merrill moved on 204 00:12:26.840 --> 00:12:30.159 from Georgia and made even shorter stops in Ohio and 205 00:12:30.279 --> 00:12:34.559 Arizona before landing in Kansas. By this time, his first 206 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:38.279 marriage was over and he reinvented himself once again, this 207 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:41.360 time as an artist and an art dealer in the 208 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:45.480 small town of Wellington, thirty eight miles south of Wichita. 209 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:49.320 He was now known as Skip Meryll, and a profile 210 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:52.080 of the artists that ran in the local newspaper offered 211 00:12:52.120 --> 00:12:56.519 some insight into how Meryll blended fact and fiction into 212 00:12:56.559 --> 00:13:02.039 a new PERSONA paper reported that he had studied under 213 00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:07.240 Salvador Dolly, the master of surrealism at USC. I learned 214 00:13:07.240 --> 00:13:10.480 a lot of realism from Dolly. Merrill was quoted as saying, 215 00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:14.200 he paints the clock. It may be distorted, but it 216 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:18.559 looks like a clock. The Baber team found no evidence 217 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:22.799 that Dolly ever taught painting or lectured at USC, so 218 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:25.559 the record is clear that Dolly was in Los Angeles 219 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:30.759 at the time Merrill, as Margolis, attended USC. Perhaps what 220 00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:33.919 is most intriguing about the profile in the Wellington Daily 221 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:38.039 News is Merrill's embellishment of his war record. Here was 222 00:13:38.080 --> 00:13:40.639 a man who could truthfully say he was with the 223 00:13:40.679 --> 00:13:44.440 Marines on Okinawa, one of the bloodiest and most important 224 00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:47.720 battles of World War Two. He could talk about building 225 00:13:47.720 --> 00:13:51.559 a field hospital in a cave on that island, but 226 00:13:51.679 --> 00:13:55.720 apparently that wasn't good enough for him. Instead, he told 227 00:13:55.720 --> 00:13:58.399 the newspaper that he had been a member of the 228 00:13:58.440 --> 00:14:02.519 Flying Tigers, the legendary group of pilots who flew missions 229 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:08.879 over China during the war. Why did he lie? It 230 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:11.840 almost seems to me as though Merrill used the newspaper 231 00:14:11.879 --> 00:14:15.399 profile to leave hands or clues about the Black Dahlia case. 232 00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:19.519 He told the newspaper that he had been a newspaper correspondent, 233 00:14:19.919 --> 00:14:23.200 but the truth was the only correspondence was his courting 234 00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:26.919 the media in Atlanta and his letters and phone calls 235 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:31.000 to the Los Angeles newspapers as the Black Dahlia Avenger. 236 00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:36.279 Then the mentions of the Flying Tigers and Salvador Dali. 237 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:40.080 The reference to the legendary air squadron seemed to be 238 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:44.039 a direct reference to Elizabeth Short and her lost fiance. 239 00:14:44.759 --> 00:14:47.600 During the war, she was engaged to pilot Matt Gordon, 240 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:52.039 who flew missions over China and was credited with shooting 241 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:58.440 down five Japanese planes in aerial dogfights. Those plans tragically 242 00:14:58.519 --> 00:15:00.960 changed when Gordon was killed in a plane crash in 243 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:05.679 nineteen forty five. Was it Gealousy that made merilynbellish his 244 00:15:05.759 --> 00:15:10.120 record or was he intentionally dropping a clue into the story. 245 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:14.279 He was indeed a war hero in his own account right. 246 00:15:14.320 --> 00:15:17.159 He's on the front lines as a naval corman. He's 247 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:21.799 out there attempting to rescue people. You know, he's tending 248 00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:24.919 to be wounded, and he comes back and then you 249 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:27.559 have this fourteen year gap between the time the murder 250 00:15:27.559 --> 00:15:29.519 of Elizabeth Swore took place in the time he did 251 00:15:29.559 --> 00:15:33.039 this interview in well it was in Kansas, and instead 252 00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:34.840 of just saying I was a naval corman on the 253 00:15:34.840 --> 00:15:39.240 front line and said, you know, held a medical unit 254 00:15:40.120 --> 00:15:42.919 and took care of my comrades, you know, under fire, 255 00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:48.360 he injects this stolen valor as we call it, where 256 00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:53.360 he's a Flying Tiger, which is a very unique unit 257 00:15:53.679 --> 00:15:56.200 during World War Two. There's no reason for him to 258 00:15:56.240 --> 00:15:59.159 claim to be a Flying Tiger as rare as that 259 00:16:00.440 --> 00:16:03.480 you know unit was, and for it to be directly 260 00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:06.799 connected to Elizabeth Short through her only fiance, Matt Gordon, 261 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:14.039 is a very unique and obvious connection that he's making 262 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:19.000 to Elizabeth and himself. In my opinion, that's a dirty deed. 263 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:22.879 That's something, you know, that's him being jealous. That's him 264 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:26.519 and having some kind of envy towards towards Matt, you know, 265 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:29.799 and his relationship with Elizabeth long before he knew her. 266 00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:31.519 That's obsession. 267 00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:36.759 And Dolly was a surrealistic painter, while Merrill said he 268 00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:40.399 was a realistic painter. His work was even described as 269 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:43.919 being closer to the impressionist master of Benson van God 270 00:16:44.039 --> 00:16:48.440 than Dolly. But Dolly created several paintings that depicted women 271 00:16:48.519 --> 00:16:52.200 in ways similar to the Black Dahalia crime scene. Was 272 00:16:52.279 --> 00:16:55.519 Merrill hinting that he was influenced by Dolly as a 273 00:16:55.600 --> 00:17:00.799 killer or a painter? These are a questions that obviously 274 00:17:00.919 --> 00:17:03.320 can't be answered. You can take a look at some 275 00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:07.160 of Dolly's work on the Killer and the Code website. 276 00:17:08.400 --> 00:17:11.200 Though in the newspaper profile, Meryll said he was so 277 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:15.200 inspired by Kansas that he could paint there forever. Things 278 00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:18.680 soured for him when a local art association he had 279 00:17:18.759 --> 00:17:23.400 created split into two factions and voted in new leadership. 280 00:17:24.400 --> 00:17:28.759 Merrill once again packed his bags. This time he headed west, 281 00:17:29.119 --> 00:17:33.920 back to California. Merrill landed in the town of Oceanside 282 00:17:33.920 --> 00:17:37.880 in San Diego County in early nineteen sixty two. On 283 00:17:37.960 --> 00:17:41.039 an evening, shortly after his arrival, a man called the 284 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:44.799 police department anonymously and said he was about to commit 285 00:17:44.839 --> 00:17:48.680 a crime that would baffle the police and never be solved. 286 00:17:49.559 --> 00:17:52.920 The next night, a taxi cab driver named Raymond Davis 287 00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:55.759 was shot to death in his cab and his body 288 00:17:55.839 --> 00:17:58.920 was dumped in an alley behind the mayor's house. The 289 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:04.640 cab was later found abandoned fifteen blocks away. The next night, 290 00:18:04.799 --> 00:18:08.279 the anonymous man called the police again. He took credit 291 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:11.000 for the murder of Davis and said he was going 292 00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:14.480 to shoot a bus driver next. This, in turn gripped 293 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:18.160 the community and fear, and marines from a nearby military 294 00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:21.240 base were used to ride in buses and taxis for 295 00:18:21.359 --> 00:18:25.640 added security. The murder of Davis, the dumping of his 296 00:18:25.759 --> 00:18:29.240 body behind the mayor's house, and the subsequent threat to 297 00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:33.920 kill a bus driver drew massive media attention, seemingly underlying 298 00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:37.799 the unknown killer's mania for publicity. To use a phrase 299 00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:43.599 from the Black Dahia Killer's profile. Eight years after the 300 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:46.880 Davis murder, the killing of San Francisco cab driver Paul 301 00:18:46.920 --> 00:18:51.119 Stein by the Zodiac would draw comparisons, but like the 302 00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:55.279 Sherry Joe Bates case in Riverside, that Davis killing was 303 00:18:55.359 --> 00:18:59.920 never formally declared a Zodiac case. Perhaps it was because 304 00:19:00.039 --> 00:19:04.720 authorities did not know what we can now reveal. On 305 00:19:04.799 --> 00:19:08.720 the night Davis was murdered in Oceanside. His killer abandoned 306 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:11.480 his cab in the four hundred block of Pacific Street, 307 00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:14.519 which was an eight hundred foot walk to the house 308 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:19.000 on Elm Street where Marvin Merrill was living following his 309 00:19:19.160 --> 00:19:21.279 recent move from Kansas. 310 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:27.279 I do believe that paul Stein was, in a likelihood 311 00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:29.640 a piece of a puzzle to connect him back to 312 00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:31.720 his earlier letter of Ray Davis. 313 00:19:31.799 --> 00:19:34.880 It does make sense paul Stein was the first. 314 00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:37.359 It was such a brazen attack because it was done 315 00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:39.799 right in the middle of a major city in front 316 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:40.319 of people. 317 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:41.680 He walked away. 318 00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:44.279 It was a brazen attack, and I think that was 319 00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:48.519 done intentionally to shake things up a little bit. And 320 00:19:48.559 --> 00:19:51.519 why not shake things up a little bit by doing 321 00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:55.279 something that you've done before in nineteen sixty two with 322 00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:58.119 the cab driver or in ocean Side. Why not do 323 00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:00.160 the same thing again. It could be part of the 324 00:20:00.200 --> 00:20:02.640 game wondering, Okay, are they're gonna be able to put 325 00:20:02.640 --> 00:20:06.240 this all together? That it's need the Zodiac working before 326 00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:10.400 I became the Zodiac, and then seven years later you 327 00:20:10.519 --> 00:20:13.160 do the paul Stein case to bring it right back 328 00:20:13.160 --> 00:20:14.799 into your new hunting grounds, if you will. 329 00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:18.680 It just kind of proves that this guy evolves in 330 00:20:18.759 --> 00:20:19.359 his emma. 331 00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:21.039 I mean he doesn't. 332 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:26.000 It doesn't fit quite exactly with of course, the Black 333 00:20:26.119 --> 00:20:30.839 Dadia and the Zodiac, but it's just an evolution, and 334 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:32.240 it's the two. 335 00:20:32.039 --> 00:20:37.039 Are the same. Baber notes that the investigation has established 336 00:20:37.039 --> 00:20:41.759 that Margolis Merrill wasn't either close or close enough proximity 337 00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:45.960 to the murders of Elizabeth Short, Ray Davis, Sherry, Joe Bates, 338 00:20:46.559 --> 00:20:51.079 and the five Zodiac victims, all of which remain cases 339 00:20:51.160 --> 00:20:56.480 officially unsolved, all of which involved a perpetrator who showed 340 00:20:56.519 --> 00:20:58.359 a mania for publicity. 341 00:20:59.039 --> 00:21:01.440 He's either most I'm not guy on the planet, or 342 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:03.960 he's the killer. He's the perpetrator of these crops. 343 00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:08.319 Marvin Merrill's professional apex may have come briefly in the 344 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:11.319 middle sixties, when he had left the art world for 345 00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:14.599 the business world and was president and chief engineer of 346 00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:19.319 Pacific Project's Consultants, a company planning the construction of a 347 00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:24.000 ten story hotel on the beach in Oceanside. Merrill called 348 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:26.559 a press conference to announce his plans and got a 349 00:21:26.599 --> 00:21:30.079 good run from it, but the project never came to fruition, 350 00:21:30.599 --> 00:21:34.039 and Meryll was eventually sued by his investors, who wanted 351 00:21:34.039 --> 00:21:38.400 their money back. According to members of Merrill's family, other 352 00:21:38.440 --> 00:21:42.319 real estate ventures and development plans followed, but none led 353 00:21:42.359 --> 00:21:45.920 to success, like the speculative purchase of land near a 354 00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:50.920 projected freeway interchange that never came to be. Meryl's son 355 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:54.359 described home life at this time as always being tense, 356 00:21:54.799 --> 00:21:57.799 with the family living hand to mouth and his father 357 00:21:57.960 --> 00:22:04.240 often moody and physically abused, even though money was sure. 358 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:07.880 During these times, Merrill kept a second residence in San Jose, 359 00:22:08.599 --> 00:22:12.519 where he did work for Intel, the microchip company. Efforts 360 00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:16.960 to confirm this through Intel were unsuccessful, but in documents 361 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:20.319 turned over to the Baber team by Meryll's son, there 362 00:22:20.319 --> 00:22:24.160 are Intel business cards and W two tax forms issued 363 00:22:24.200 --> 00:22:29.200 by the company to Merrill. It's unclear whether this was 364 00:22:29.240 --> 00:22:32.720 a side job or another career change, but by the 365 00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:36.720 early seventies, Merrill was back in the car business, operating 366 00:22:36.759 --> 00:22:40.359 an auto repair and tire shop called Buck Savers. He 367 00:22:40.440 --> 00:22:44.359 was also back in trouble with the law. Four days 368 00:22:44.359 --> 00:22:48.000 before Christmas nineteen seventy one, Merrill was jailed on multiple 369 00:22:48.079 --> 00:22:52.599 charges of defrauding his customers at the shop. Two months later, 370 00:22:52.839 --> 00:22:55.839 he was found guilty in court and sentenced to thirty 371 00:22:55.920 --> 00:22:59.920 days in jail and three years probation. Those three years 372 00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:04.160 coincided with three years of silence from the Zodiac, a 373 00:23:04.200 --> 00:23:07.000 period of time when no letters and no ciphers were 374 00:23:07.039 --> 00:23:09.920 sent to the media. 375 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:11.880 During this investigation. From the time it starts to the 376 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:15.359 time he's arrested, to the time he's given probation to 377 00:23:15.400 --> 00:23:19.079 the time probation ends, the Zodiac doesn't appear again. There's 378 00:23:19.079 --> 00:23:20.640 no letters, no phone calls. 379 00:23:20.559 --> 00:23:21.240 No attacks. 380 00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:25.079 As soon as Marvin Merrill's probation ends early, all of 381 00:23:25.079 --> 00:23:29.039 a sudden, that same month he reappears, and then we 382 00:23:29.119 --> 00:23:31.200 have this first letter in thirty four months. 383 00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:35.279 Merril's second marriage came to an end in nineteen seventy 384 00:23:35.319 --> 00:23:38.480 eight after what family members told us was a physical 385 00:23:38.519 --> 00:23:43.960 altercation with a teenage child. After that, the family began 386 00:23:44.039 --> 00:23:47.960 to lose track of Merrill. His son told us he 387 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:51.119 had lost touch with his father for nearly a decade. 388 00:23:51.240 --> 00:23:55.920 After the divorce, records show that Merrill eventually moved north 389 00:23:55.960 --> 00:24:00.680 toward the middle of California, with the addresses in Ascadero 390 00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:05.759 and Creston, before finally landing in Santa Barbara. Copies of 391 00:24:05.839 --> 00:24:08.720 tax returns from these years show him making very little 392 00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:14.000 money and alternately listing his occupation as engineer, ex engineer, 393 00:24:14.200 --> 00:24:18.680 and shopkeeper. During his last decade, it appears, at least 394 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:21.880 through banking records, that he used all variations of his 395 00:24:21.960 --> 00:24:24.119 aliases and kept separate checking. 396 00:24:23.839 --> 00:24:25.640 Accounts under each name. 397 00:24:28.519 --> 00:24:31.240 In nineteen ninety two, while he was facing a terminal 398 00:24:31.319 --> 00:24:35.880 cancer diagnosis, Margos rented an art studio in Santa Barbara 399 00:24:35.960 --> 00:24:39.200 for seven hundred dollars a month. He used the name 400 00:24:39.319 --> 00:24:42.519 Marty Merrill and signed a five year lease commencing on 401 00:24:42.599 --> 00:24:47.039