Louisiana man claims his biological father was Zodiac Killer

The Zodiac serial killer is believed to have killed five people in 1968-69 and gained notoriety by writing several letters to police boasting of the slayings, with swatches of bloody clothing as proof of his claims. The serial killer claimed to have killed as many as 37 people and has never been caught, CNN reports. Now Gary L. Stewart, a vice president at the cleaning company Delta Tech Service in Baton Rouge, is recounting his decade-long search for his biological father and has concluded that man -- Earl Van Best, Jr., who's now dead -- was the Zodiac Killer, the publisher said. On Tuesday, police in northern California said they weren't aware of the book or its claims. "It's an open and active case, so we don't comment," San Francisco police spokesman Albie Esparza told CNN. "But (it's) certainly something our homicide investigators will take a look at." Added Capt. Steve Blower of the Napa County Sheriff's Office: "We have talked to many people over the years. We've gotten reports over the years from people who don't pan out. This case is still open, and we still do accept tips or leads that may have bearing on the case." Bryan Hartnell, one of only two survivors of the Zodiac Killer, was just a college kid more than 40 years ago at Pacific Union College, just north of San Francisco, when he and a then-girlfriend, Cecilia Shephard, were attacked while picnicking. Their attacker was a man in an eerie costume: he wore a black hood and black shirt with a white symbol on the front that looked like crosshairs on a gun sight. That image would later become the Zodiac's trademark symbol. Read more