The ending of David Fincher's Zodiac reflects the sad truth of a real life crime — the evidence simply isn't there to name Arthur Leigh Allen the Zodiac killer. Allen was the most likely suspect on a truly baffling case. Oddly enough, he died of a heart attack before he could be charged. As Zodiac's ending shows, it was generally accepted on circumstantial evidence that Allen was the killer, so the case went cold after his death. Let's break down why Allen wasn't the killer.
Zodiac is based a book of the same name by Robert Greysmith, who is a prominent figure in the film. His book chronicled the mysterious serial killer's reign of terror over Northern California. In the movie, police officer (Mark Ruffalo) and two reporters (Robert Downey, Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal) become obsessed with discovering his identity. Their obsession builds while the killer claims his victims and taunts the authorities with letters.
California lived in a state of terror while the Zodiac Killer was on the loose. As depicted in Fincher movie, those investigating the case so badly wanted to end the horror and heartbreak that the killer wreaked on their area, to the point of eventually having settling on their best guess for the killer, instead of finding someone who matched hard evidence. Ultimately, fear, trauma and heartbreak led to Arthur Leigh Allen falsely being identified as the Zodiac Killer.
The Zodiac Killer started to make a name for himself through handwritten letters. Early in the film, he began sending letters to The San Francisco Chronicle, bragging and taunting them. Obviously, finding a match for the handwriting would mean the authorities had their man. Police officer Dave Toschi (Ruffalo) believed they had a good start with Arthur Leigh Allen. Toschi began to suspect Allen for a number of circumstantial reasons. He wore a Zodiac watch, which bore the same symbol inscribed on all of the Zodiac Killer's anonymous letters. Allen's personality also fit that of a serial killer. He was on the quiet side, socially awkward and was a known pedophile.
Toschi had Allen's handwriting analyzed and was devastated to find out it wasn't a match. Allen was partially ambidextrous, and both hands were tested—still, there was nothing. While Allen's handwriting may not have come back as a match, the circumstantial evidence was enough to keep Allen at the top of his mind throughout the rest of the investigation. Police officers and journalists alike had been taunted by this killer. A few suspects emerged, but no one as strong as Allen. The initial handwriting sample didn't match, but he wasn't dismissed by the authorities. Arthur Leigh Allen was the first ray of light in a dark and frightening time for the people of San Francisco area. The journalists and police officers taunted by the Zodiac weren't ready to let that go.
The case against Arthur Leigh Allen was lacking physical evidence, but Toschi still couldn't let it go. He went for a second opinion on the handwriting and got some encouraging news. The second handwriting analyst shared a theory that a personality change could bring about other changes in a person, such as his handwriting. But a theory based on conjecture wasn't enough to convict someone, so Toschi and his team obtained a search warrant to scour Allen's trailer.
The police officers found enough evidence that should have hypothetically nailed Allen. He owned the same windbreaker as one found at the scene. His shoe and glove size matched the Zodiac's sizes. He had a gun. Allen was in the area when one of the murders occurred. He fit the profile perfectly, yet somehow the second handwriting sample, ballistics and the prints in his trailer did not match the Zodiac's.
Toschi, like others involved in the investigation, had become obsessed with the idea of Allen being the Zodiac. So he was shocked and devastated to learn there wasn't an ounce of physical evidence pointing to the fact that Allen was the killer. Toschi even admits that he's not sure if he actually thought it was Allen or just wanted it to be him. Fear and uncertainty had overtaken his hometown. As shown with Robert Graysmith (Gyllenhaal), some people were too scared to ever let their children out of their sight. Toschi just wanted this to be over.
Some events may have been slightly exaggerated for the sake of the film, but ultimately the events of Zodiac went down the same way they did in real life. Arthur Leigh Allen was a prime suspect for years with heavy circumstantial evidence against him. Just when it seemed like the police might have a break in the case, Allen died unexpectedly of natural causes. On paper, Allen was a perfect match for the Zodiac Killer. But the physical evidence simply wasn't there, meaning that it could not have been him. Investigators and the citizens of Northern California simply came to believe it was Allen because they needed to repair the damage the Zodiac Killer had caused in their community.
The fear, anger and pain in the Bay Area was tangible, and Zodiac aptly demonstrated that through the lens of Graysmith, Toschi and Paul Avery (Downey). These men so badly wanted to save their community that they gave up everything to do so. As Avery was a crime journalist at the Chronicle, he became engrossed in the Zodiac case, to the point that he began receiving death threats, and turned to drugs and alcohol to cope. Toschi's obsession led to accusations that he had forged a Zodiac letter, which prompted his department to demote him. Once Greysmith went public with his book, his family began receiving ominous calls with heavy breathing. His wife was so disturbed by his all-consuming obsession with the Zodiac Killer that she divorced him.
These men needed Arthur Leigh Allen to be the Zodiac Killer because they needed Northern California's collective pain and frustration to stop. As Toschi said during the film, they just needed this to be over—Allen was their best bet. Although there was never any strong physical evidence, accepting him as the killer may have put some minds at ease. Sadly, the families of the victims portrayed in Zodiac will never have that same comfort.
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