US4 min(s) read
Published 16:01 03 Jun 2026 GMT
A possible connection has been made in the mysterious case of the Zodiac Killer, who terrorised California in the 1960s and 70s.
The serial killer is believed to have murdered 37 people and infamously left taunting messages to the press - authorities have only confirmed that he killed five and injured two people.
It remains one of the most famous unsolved cases in US history, decades on from the murders, due to the culprit's use of cryptic ciphers and a crosshairs symbol.
But now, an independent cold case researcher has claimed that he's decoded one of the killer's coded messages and believes that it all points to a high-profile murder case from the 1940s.
Alex Baber, the co-founder of Cold Case Consultants of America, says he has spent nine months encrypting the Zodiac killer's ciphers, believing there is a clear link.
.jpg_RsdHPn?tr=cr-0.0.3148.4053,f-webp,q-70,w-1024)
The brutal Black Dahlia murder is what the 1947 killing of aspiring actress Elizabeth Short is referred to worldwide.
With the help of AI, Baber believes that the killer is linked to the murder.
Short's body was found mutilated in January 1947, in a vacant lot located in Leimert Park, Los Angeles.
Baber explained that he cracked a two-layer encryption using transposition and substitution in a 2×7 grid, according to the Daily Mail.
Apparently, he found that the Zodiac's messages weren't solely to taunt authorities; it was a coded confession which was linked with the Dahlia case.
The researcher used his knowledge of cryptography and AI software to find the name of a prime suspect in the Dahlia murder.
He zeroed in on the “Z13” cipher, a 13-character coded message from one of the Zodiac’s letters, where he wrote “My name is” followed by these symbols.
After generating 71 million 13-letter names, Baber sorted them using pattern analysis and his own interpretation of how the cipher could be structured.
This boiled down to a single suspected name, "Marvin Merrill."
After first revealing his discovery to the publication, he had gone through social security records and claimed that the name was an alias for the late Marvin Margolis, who was a military veteran and convicted fraudster.
Speaking at East Hampton Library in April this year, he told Fox News Digital: “Currently, for the first time in history, LAPD detectives approached the family of a suspect to obtain DNA,
“That’s never happened for the Black Dahlia case… we got a pretty good feeling that we’re sitting in the right seat.”
It is believed that Margolis dated Short in the 1940s and was a previous suspect in her murder.
The researcher further claimed that he went to see the suspect's son, who brought out handwriting samples of his father's, seemingly matching the Zodiac's letters, while also featuring similar phonetic spelling errors.
Baber claimed: “He immediately turned white, his hands started shaking and he reached across the table — when he grabbed my hand,
“First time I’ve ever had an interview where they’ve initiated physical contact with me, and at that point, he says, ‘We’re gonna be OK.'”
As for Short's remains, she was cut in half at the waist, with her mouth slashed from ear to ear, in one of the most gruesome killings in the past century or so.
Her body appeared drained of blood yet washed, with no blood found at the scene, leaving investigators perplexed.
Baber said he spoke with the son about his father being a suspect in the Dahlia case, claiming that he then produced a sketch, as Baber recalled: “He said, ‘Elizabeth? Well, let me show you something.'”
Allegedly, the son showed him a picture which his late father drew over 40 years after Short's death, of a naked woman with her breasts covered in black marks, while the name "Elizabeth" was written in capital letters below, with “Marvin Merrill.”
There was also a “Z” on her left arm.
The researcher further told the Daily Mail that a DNA request was rejected by the Margolis’ family, but added: “We have some new things going on on the forensic side of these cases as we speak,
“I promise you, the wheels are turning, and we’re coming close to putting an end to this mystery.”
Many names have been thrown around over the years, such as convicted sex offender Arthur Leigh Allen, or late American painter Gary Francis Poste, whose name was hidden in one of the Zodiac ciphers.
Decades on, and after several investigations, authorities have never gathered enough evidence to charge any suspect.
