Codebreaker Claims One Man Was Behind the Zodiac and Black Dahlia Murders
For decades, the Black Dahlia murder and the Zodiac killings have stood as two of California’s darkest and most frustrating unsolved mysteries. Investigators chased countless leads, theories piled up, and generations grew up believing these crimes might never be solved. But now, a dramatic new claim has been brought forward, and it suggests something even more chilling: that the same man may have been responsible for both.
According to a recent report, a self-taught codebreaker named Alex Baber believes he has uncovered the truth. Baber, who runs Cold Case Consultants of America, has spent years obsessively studying cryptic messages linked to the Zodiac Killer. With support from retired homicide detectives and former National Security Agency code experts, he argues that the Zodiac Killer and the murderer of Elizabeth Short — famously known as the Black Dahlia — were one and the same.
That man, Baber claims, was Marvin Merrill, later known as Marvin Margolis.
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The Black Dahlia case dates back to January 1947, when the brutally mutilated body of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short was discovered in a Los Angeles neighborhood. Her body had been carefully cut in half, posed, and drained of blood, suggesting she had been killed elsewhere. The brutality shocked the nation, and the case quickly became legendary. Despite intense investigation, no one was ever charged.
Years later, beginning in the late 1960s, a killer calling himself the Zodiac terrorized Northern California. Letters filled with taunts and coded messages were sent to newspapers and police, claiming responsibility for multiple murders. Five deaths were officially linked to the Zodiac, though the killer himself claimed more.
Baber’s breakthrough centers on one infamous Zodiac message known as the Z13 cipher. In a 1970 letter, the Zodiac dared authorities to uncover his real name, hiding it within a short sequence of symbols. After months of nearly nonstop work, Baber says he cracked it. The name he found embedded in the code was “Marvin Merrill.”
Retired detectives who once worked on both cases reportedly reviewed Baber’s findings and found the connections compelling. They pointed to Margolis’ background as a pre-med student with surgical ambitions, his documented psychological trauma from World War II, and his proximity to Elizabeth Short before her death. It was also noted that he changed his name, moved frequently, and left behind strange artwork containing hidden references to “Elizabeth” and “Zodiac.”
Former NSA codebreakers were then asked to independently examine the cipher solution. According to reports, they agreed Baber’s decoding was valid, with one expert stating the odds of another explanation being correct were extremely small.
Marvin Margolis died in 1993, taking any chance of prosecution with him. While authorities have reportedly been informed of these findings, it remains unclear whether either case will ever be officially closed. Still, for many investigators, this theory offers something long missing from both stories — a sense that the truth may finally be within reach.
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