The Copycat Zodiac Killer, Eddie Seda – Bizarre Buffet Podcast
Most fans of True Crime are familiar with the well known story of the mysterious Zodiac Killer based out of San Francisco in the 1960’s, but some of you may not know that in the 1990’s there was an emergence of a second Zodiac (a copycat killer) whom was targeted victims in and around New York City.
On this episode of Bizarre Buffet the gang sits down to discuss a lesser known story of the copycat Zodiac Killer, Eddie Seda. Eddie began his wave of murder with the ominous concept of killing 12 people, one person for each sign of the Zodiac.
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” The Copycat Zodiac Killer ” Episode Credits
Original Episode Art By Mark Tauriello
Story Concept And Production By Marc Bluestein
The Copycat Zodiac Killer – Episode Show Notes
The Mission Of The Zodiac Killer
A serial killer promised to kill 12 people, one for each astrological sign. And he only killed when certain constellations were visible. It took a forensic astronomy expert, a hand writing analysist expert, and a world war 2 code breaker to find him.
Zodiac Killer Victims
March 1990 , the first victim. Mario Arosco the first shooting victim who survived , he was a Scorpio
Hermand Montinagro was a Gemini
Joe ponche —— was a Taurus.
Copycat Zodiac Killer Taunts Police
Now in one of the Zodiac Killer ‘s first letters to the police he references these initial victims as if they were dead, but unbeknownst to the Zodiac, some had survived his murder attempts. It was made clear from his letter that the zodiac was working his way through the astrological signs with each victim, but the question still remained , how did he know his victims astrological signs before his attacks !?
Now at this point the NYC police department is losing their shit, it becomes a huge manhunt. During all of this they realize that the zodiac had mad contact with them before, they just didn’t notice.
Theee months prior he sent a letter, they just thought it was ramblings of a crazy person. However this letter that they just ignored held a pretty important clue “ The Zodiac will kill the 12 signs in the belt when the Zodiacal light is seen. Orion is the one that could stop Zodiac and the Seven Sisters”
The Forensic Astronomy Expert
Now an astronomy expert told the police that the constellations of Orion and the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades were not visible on the nights of the shootings (fucking weird right ) . What this is saying is that the zodiac wouldn’t murder when Orion and the Seven Sisters were visible in the sky.
Is This The Same Zodiac Killer That Was Never Caught?
Now of course theres the obvious element comparing this zodiac to the more infamous case of the OTHER zodiac killer based out of San Francisco in the 60’s. Now that’s seen as an ever bigger problem because the zodiac killer based in California was never caught, and here we are in the 90s in NYC, so it’s like, holy shit, this is not good. Is it possible that he’s relocated, or is this someone being a “copycat killer “
From this point they’re like ok we definitely need a handwriting analysis to compare the two zodiac killers to see if there’s consistencies between the two , when it was all said and done they came to the conclusion that the two zodiac killers were different people based of the analysis, so that’s out of the way. However, now they’re faced with the fact that theyre dealing with a very sophisticated copycat.
When Did The Zodiac Killings Occur ?
Now let’s get back to the killings. The shootings had taken place at 21 and 63 day intervals, this suggested variations of a three week cycle, but keep in mind they happened on nights when the constellations Orion and the Seven Sisters were not visible in the sky.
Astronomer Helps Zodiac Killer Case
So, the police enlisted the help of astronomer Gregory Matloff to help identity the next time the Zodiac is likely to strike within the 21 day cycle that Orion and the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades would not be visible in the sky.
Matloff consulted his astrological charts, by adjusting the time, day and location, you can see what is rising and what’s setting. Matloff had predicted that Zodiac would strike next on June 21st, the summer solstice. Now the prediction turned out to be correct, however the Zodiac switched it up and got his next victim Larry Parham (a homeless man who was sleeping on a bench in Central Park in Manhattan .
Police Get A New Letter From The Zodiac Killer
Another letter is sent to police and of course the zodiac somehow knew that his most recent victim was a Cancer sign , yet again, working his way through the 12 signs.
So at this point one of the letters is taken for testing to see if they can recover any fingerprints, and they do, they recover a thumb print. They compared this print to everyone in their database and to no avail. With only one element of forensic evidence and no one being able to ID this Person, it’s not looking so great. Keep in mind that the zodiac is making it very clear that the only thing that can and will stop him from killing is the presence of Orion and the Seven Sisters being visible in the sky.
Zodiac Killings Stop, Then Start Again
Now from all the correspondence sent by the zodiac to the police, etc, it was pretty obvious to law enforcement that the killer was following the news headlines about him and these cases. So when it was published that the police had a fingerprint from the zodiac killer, the killings stopped for about 2 years. Fast forward to 1994. The zodiac sent his next letter after a 2 year hiatus, announcing his return.
In this new letter he claim responsibility for the murder of Patricia Fonti (a Leo) , as well as claiming responsibility for the shooting of Joseph Diacone, Joseph was a Virgo. So here we are two years later with the obvious element of the zodiac picking up where he left off is quite apparent.
New Zodiac Victims
The zodiacs next victim is James Weber , a Libra. Now James survived this murder attempt, a long with three other victims . So far all 7 victims including those who survived and those who unfortunately died were all different astrological signs, amazingly, that is until his next victim Diane Ballard, who thankfully survived the zodiacs murder attempt as well. Now , Diane was a Taurus, and the zodiac had already went after his “Taurus victim” . The zodiac also referenced another victim in one of his letters but the police were unable to confirm this attack. (Whom would be his 9th victim)
So at this point the zodiac is super confident that he’s never going to be caught, but in one of his letters he made a big mistake …he licked the envelope used for his letter police and left enough saliva for dna testing. At this point the police had the dna profile of the zodiac.
Clues From The Zodiac Killer
Now in one of the zodiac letters there’s another clue left by the killer, a drawing of 9 towers with different symbols in them, 9’towers representing each of his victims. So they had someone come in who was a code breaker during ww2 who could help break down the symbols and assist , it was a fucked up alpahbet of sorts. Turns out the alphabet being used was a maritime system of international flags abs pendants, now with this discovery they were able to decipher the zodiacs secret message . It said :
“This is the zodiac speaking, I am in control, who mastery, be ready for more, yours truly”
‘M
Now in March of 1996 even with the dna from the envelope, the fingerprint, things still weren’t moving towards catching the zodiac, until they did.
A Weird Story From Brooklyn
This dude from Brooklyn was in his apartment when he got enraged that his younger sister and her boyfriend were alone in her bedroom together , he demanded that her boyfriend leave and when he didn’t , this guy got so mad that he fired a shot through her bedroom door. When this guys sister came out to confront him and say “what the fuck dude” the guy shot his sister in the ass with a shotgun. The police get there and realize that the guy is holding his sisters boyfriend hostage in their apartment. At this point they send in Captain Herbert who’s a hostage negotiator. About three hours later this guys wands to surrender, he sends all of his weapons out the Window in a bucket , this guys name is Eddie Seda, a 26 year old high school dropout who was still living at home with his mom and sister.
Eddie Seda, The Zodiac Killer ?
So, they have this guy Eddie in custody now and they ask him to provide a written statement of exactly what transpired in his apartment a few hours earlier. In doing so , at the end of this letter, he signs his name with a very odd symbol next to his name. When asked , Eddie said it was something about god and love or some shit. But when the hostage negotiator got to see this letter, he was like oh no, yeah I know what this is, this dude is the zodiac killer.
So, they don’t just say “you’re the zodiac because you drew this” they turned to forensic science . First this dude Eddie was fingerprinted, compared to the print they had from the zodiac letter, it was a match. Next they compare the handwriting from the zodiac letters to the written statement they just received about the apartment shooting/hostage situation, the experts concluded it was the same persons writing. Ballistics experts then examined this dude’s collection of 15 zip guns (never heard of this shit they look weird ) .
How They Caught Eddie Seda, The Copycat Zodiac Killer
Now this is an important element because in one of the letters the zodiac states his guns didn’t have the traditional lands and grooves inside for testing , but the zodiac didn’t take into account the element of “tool markings “ which basically means how the metal / bullets were polished. Finally blood dna, his blood sample matched the saliva from the envelope.
Ironically , the zodiac stated in early letters that only Orion and the seven sisters could stop him, and on the day of his sisters murder, Orion and the seven sisters were overhead they just weren’t visible in the overcast sky.
Eddie Seda was charged with shooting 6 people and killing 3 others. He received a sentence of 232 years in prison.
The question still remains how the zodiac knew his victims birthdays. Some think he looked in his victims wallets after each shooting and that all the different signs was simply luck, and we may never know.
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