I-Team: Friend confesses to being Zodiac Killer

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- It is the symbol most associated with the Zodiac Killer - the cross hairs. Drawn on letters, the side of one of the victim's cars and on the outfit the killer wore at the Lake Berryessa attacks.

"It was a black mask and it came over, over his shoulders, down his front, around his back and had a circle with cross hairs in the center," says retired Napa County Sheriff's Deputy Dave Collins.

Collins was one of the first responders to the Lake Berryessa crime scene.

But Randy Kenney says those aren't cross hairs. He says his friend Louie Myers confessed to him that he was the infamous murderer and told Kenney what the symbol really means.

"The Zodiac sign is a Celtic Cross. That's not the cross with the sights," according to Kenney.

Kenney says that Myers was obsessed with his Scottish heritage and that's why he chose the Celtic Cross.

Today, you can find the symbol at some the zodiac crime scenes.

Did the Zodiac Killer leave a clue in a card?

The Zodiac Killer is known for writing cryptic and taunting letters to police and newspapers. The best friend of a man who confessed to committing the crimes says one card gave a hint about the Zodiac's young age.

At a 1978 press conference San Francisco Police Deputy Chief Clem Deamicis read the words that became the Zodiac Killer's opening line, "Dear Editor, this is the Zodiac speaking. I am back with you."

It is believed that the murderer sent 15 letters and cards to newspapers and law enforcement from the late 1960's through the 1970's.

"He boasted in that '74 letter that he had 37 victims and the SFPD had zero," according to former SFPD Inspector Dave Toschi at the 1978 press conference.

Randy Kenney says his friend Louie Myers was the killer.

Myers would have been in his late teens at the time of the murders.

According to Kenney, Myers tried to give police a clue about his age on what has become to be known as "The Halloween Card."

"The Halloween card said 'look for teen.' Alright? And at that time the authorities just thought it meant 14 victims. But it meant 'look for a teen,'" said Kenney.

Friend confesses to being Zodiac

He's the one that got away. The Zodiac Killer terrorized the Bay Area in the late 60's and early 70's. Now, almost 45 years later the crimes remain unsolved.

Local law enforcement tell us they still receive about one tip a week on the case, including one from a New York man who says he knows who The Zodiac is because the killer confessed to him. We've learned both the Napa County Sheriff's Department and San Francisco police have the name on their list of suspects.

Investigators have tied the Zodiac to five murders in 1968 and 1969. He sent cryptic messages to local newspapers, taunting police about their inability to arrest him.

In December 1968, he killed two teenagers on Lake Herman Road in Benicia. At the time, Solano County Sheriff's Deputy Les Lundbald said the killer forced the teens out of the car before shooting them.

In July 1969, a couple was shot while parked at Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. The female victim died. The male victim survived.

"This guy just literally shot those two kids to pieces," according the retired Vallejo Police Officer Ed Rust.

In September 1969, a masked man stabbed two people at Lake Berryessa in Napa County, killing one of them.

Retired Napa County Sheriff's Deputy Dave Collins says, "We wanted to administer first aid, but there was no place to give first aid."

October 1969, a San Francisco cab driver was shot and killed. Days later, a local paper received a letter from the Zodiac claiming responsibility for the murder, along with a piece of a bloody shirt.

At the time, ABC7 News reporter Dick Carlson said, "The writer is the same man who's committed five murders."

In 45 years, police have investigated and cleared more than 2,500 suspects. The tips keep coming, including the one from Randy Kenney of New York.

"He said, 'I killed some people. I'm the guy their looking for. They've been looking for me for over 30 years. I'm the guy that's The Zodiac Killer,'" according to Kenney.

Kenney tells the I-Team his best friend, Louie Myers, confessed in April 2001 after doctors told him he was dying from cirrhosis of the liver. Kenney says Myers asked him to wait until after he died to tell authorities and that he wanted Kenney to write a book with the proceeds going to the victims' families.

Myers died in May 2002 and Kenney has spent years trying to get police to listen.

"I really, truly feel that Louie was 100 percent honest with me that day," says Kenney.

Myers lived in Vallejo from 1965 to 1971. Kenney says Myers told him the reason he became a killer at the age of 17.

"It was over a girl he broke up with. That's what the deal was with the couples," according to Kenney.

Myers has some interesting circumstantial connections to the crimes.

The first connection, Kenney says, was that he went to school with the kids. Myers went to both Vallejo and Hogan high schools. He could have known first Zodiac victims David Farraday at Vallejo High and Betty Lou Jensen at Hogan.

The second connection Kenney points out is that he worked in the restaurant with the waitress. Kenney says Myers worked as a bus boy at Terry's restaurant in Vallejo and so did Zodiac victim Darlene Ferrin.

The third connection Kenney mentioned is that a military-style boot print was found at the Lake Berryessa crime scene. Myers' father worked on Mare Island and would have access to this type of boot. We're told Myers briefly worked at Victory Military Surplus in Vallejo.

Myers didn't know San Francisco cab driver Paul Stine.

Kenney: "He was just robbing the cab driver."

Noyes: "He told you that?"

Kenney: "Yeah, that was just for drug money."

Myers got in trouble with Vallejo police, unrelated to the Zodiac murders. His rap sheet includes disorderly conduct, theft and possession of stolen property.

"Louie was a good guy, you know. He was a lot of fun," said Myer's childhood friend Bob Robitaille. He stopped hanging out with him after Myers started getting arrested. "That got Louie in big trouble and the way he got out was he went into the Army."

Connection number four -- military records show Myers stationed in Germany between June 1971 and January 1973. Coincidentally, the Zodiac didn't send any letters during that time.

After the Army, Myers moved back to New York and became a long-haul trucker, making runs back to the Bay Area.

That's when Robitaille says Myers also confessed to him in 1976. He says, "And that was the time that he told me that he was The Zodiac."

Robitaille didn't believe Myers at the time, but he has changed his mind now.

"It freaked me out for a second then I just pushed it aside. We never talked about it again," Robitaille says.

Noyes: "He could have been just a nut job who had delusions of being a serial killer."

Kenney: "That's possible too."

Rust and Collins, who responded to Zodiac crime scenes, are skeptical a teenager could have pulled off the attacks. Plus, Myers doesn't fit witness descriptions of the Zodiac, including one by a surviving victim.

"This picture of this Myers guy doesn't, to me, look anything like what Michael Mageau described," says Rust.

Still, the former officers believe the Myers' tip is credible enough to pursue, especially if they can come up with new evidence that actually ties him to the crimes.

"A suspect will keep certain items they use in a homicide, the knife, the gun, the hood," says Collins.

Those are items Kenney hasn't seen and doesn't have.

"I've already talked to San Francisco and, uh, that's what they want, the smoking gun. And I don't have it," says Kenney.

All the law enforcement agencies investigating The Zodiac declined to be interviewed citing open investigations. We did speak over the phone with some of Myers' family members back in New York. Some said there was no way he was a killer, but his daughter told us she would like police to look into it and give a definitive answer.