A bombshell investigation has concluded that two of America’s most infamous unsolved murder cases were committed by the same perpetrator, potentially closing the books on mysteries that have haunted law enforcement for over half a century.
The Daily Mail reports that independent investigators have identified a suspect who they believe was both the Zodiac killer and the murderer of Elizabeth Short, known as the Black Dahlia.
The FBI and multiple California police departments are now reviewing the findings and evidence.
The investigation, led by Alex Baber, co-founder of Cold Case Consultants of America, has identified Marvin Skipton Margolis, who later used the alias Marvin Merrill, as the suspected killer in both cases.
Margolis was born in Chicago in 1925 to Russian and Polish parents.
Between 1968 and 1969, the Zodiac killer murdered at least five victims in northern California while claiming responsibility for dozens more deaths.
The killer taunted authorities and media with letters and encrypted ciphers, challenging the public to discover his identity.
Two decades earlier in January 1947, aspiring actress Elizabeth Short was found dead near a Los Angeles lovers’ lane.
Her body had been severed at the waist and her face mutilated with a carved smile.
The brutal nature of the crime shocked the nation and launched one of the largest investigations in Los Angeles history.
Baber claims to have cracked two of the Zodiac’s ciphers using artificial intelligence, newly released Census records, and traditional cryptography methods.
The Z13 cipher, which the Zodiac hinted contained his real name, allegedly revealed Margolis as the suspect.
According to Baber, the Z32 cipher also contains references linking back to the Black Dahlia murder.
Margolis joined the Navy in 1943 and served with the 1st Marine Division as a corpsman.
His medical training gave him both surgical knowledge and marksmanship skills that investigators believe are consistent with injuries inflicted in both crime series.
During World War II, Margolis was stationed overseas for 27 months and participated in the Okinawa campaign.
Veteran Affairs records obtained by a grand jury show that he was buried alive in a cave during the war and forced to dig himself out.
Afterward, military doctors described him as resentful and apathetic with an affinity for aggression.
When a military neuropsychiatrist asked Margolis what he would do if another war occurred, he made an ominous statement.
He said that the next time there was a war, two people would not be going: himself and whoever came after him.
He left the Navy on fifty percent mental disability grounds, per the Daily Mail.
Margolis brought home a distinctive Japanese rifle and bayonet with a wooden sheath from the war, according to a 1945 newspaper article and his youngest son.
Investigators believe this bayonet matches the weapon used in one of the Zodiac attacks.
After military service, Margolis moved to Los Angeles and enrolled as a medical student at the University of Southern California in 1946.
His first assignment was dissecting a human corpse, giving him experience investigators believe was evident in how Short’s body was mutilated.
Court records from the 1949-1950 Los Angeles grand jury investigation into Short’s murder identified Marvin Margolis as one of 22 suspects.
He came under scrutiny due to his medical training and a brief, allegedly volatile relationship with Short. However, as the investigation intensified, he fled Los Angeles and moved between Chicago, Atlanta, Arizona, and Kansas while changing his name to Marvin Merrill.
Grand jury records indicate that Margolis was the only pre-medical student who lived as a boyfriend with Short. Investigators believe they met in Chicago in summer 1946 and began dating.
That October, three months before her murder, Short moved into a Los Angeles apartment with Margolis and two other roommates.
After living together for only 12 days, Short fled the apartment.
Witness accounts suggest the breakup stemmed from her attending a CBS broadcast with another man.
She traveled to San Diego, apparently to escape Margolis.
On January 7, 1947, two mystery men and a woman appeared at the friend’s home where Short was staying. The next day, she returned to Los Angeles.
In the weeks before her death, Short told friends she feared for her life because of a jealous ex-boyfriend.
On January 14, 1947, a Los Angeles police officer encountered a woman she identified as Short at a downtown bus station.
The woman was hysterically sobbing and said she had encountered her insanely jealous ex-Marine boyfriend, who threatened to kill her if she dated another man.
Among Short’s known boyfriends and the 22 grand jury suspects, Margolis was the only one with Marine Corps ties.
The next morning, January 15, 1947, a woman walking with her child discovered Short’s body in Leimert Park.
The body had been severed cleanly at the waist with surgical precision.
There was no blood at the scene, leading investigators to conclude she was killed elsewhere and her body washed before being dumped.
Social Security records show that Margolis returned to California a couple years before the first confirmed Zodiac attack.
In his final years, after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, Merrill drew a sketch featuring a woman named Elizabeth and what appears to be the hidden word ZoDiac.
Baber believes this drawing represents a deathbed confession.
The Daily Mail reports it has spent months reviewing Baber’s investigation and examining hundreds of documents.
Baber told the outlet that the connections make it mathematically impossible for Margolis not to be the perpetrator.
Law enforcement agencies are taking the investigation seriously.
Baber met twice with California police departments responsible for the Zodiac case.
He presented his evidence to an interagency group consisting of the San Francisco Police Department, Napa County Sheriff’s Office, Solano County Sheriff’s Office, and the FBI.
Members of Baber’s team also met with LAPD Police Chief Jim McDonnell in October, who directed his robbery-homicide division to examine the Black Dahlia findings.
