His place in history depends on whether he's your garden variety sociopathic murderer, ala the Hillside Strangler, or whether he's a very, very interesting individual, like any one of the Manson family.
How interesting could a Zodiac on trial be? Well, there's a theory that Theodore Kaczynski is Zodiac. That's right--the Unabomber was a student at Berkely University during the time of the accepted Zodiac killings.
An early seventies Zodiac who gives the court an insane political manifesto attacking modern technology is going to be tapping into some interesting strains of zeitgeist. People will be drawing a connection between the sixties anti-war radicalism of the campuses he'd been on, the emergence of the environmental movement, and the austerity politics of the new decade (books like 'Silent Spring' and 'Population Bomb' had been published in the sixties--1973 is the year of the first World Environment Day and the beginning of skyrocketing oil prices thanks to OPEC's response to the Yom Kippur War.) This is the era of Nixon and co. seeking out new bogey men. Tying the revolutionary hippy Left to the emerging ecological agenda will be a no brainer for those conservatives who don't like things turning green. Nixon himself won't necessarily be one of those folk, but there will be plenty of media commentators who will happily be as much.
This is all assuming Dr K is our guy.
LATE EDIT: Wow, this is an old thread to bring back to life.
There are also suspicions that Zodiac was "burying" one murder under a few others as a way to avoid being caught.
Investigators and the prosecution suggested during pre-trial motions that Muhammad intended to kill his ex-wife Mildred, who had estranged him from his children. According to this theory, she would appear to be just another random victim of the snipers. Muhammad frequented the neighborhood where she lived during the attacks, and some of the incidents occurred nearby. Additionally, he had earlier made threats against her. Mildred herself made the claim that she was his intended target. However, Judge LeRoy Millette, Jr. prevented prosecutors from presenting that theory during the trial, saying that a link had not been firmly established.
So--no consistent MO. No intensification. A group of letters that are probably a hoax. NOT a serial killer. Probably not even the same man.
This was possibly the plan of the DC Snipers. The first victim was in the same neighborhood as J.A. Muhammed's ex wife. The next few to cover up any connection. The next few...well, the infamy was just too hard to let go.
*Sigh*Exactly. Look--we're looking at several different crimes, few of which resemble each other when we look at them closely. Further, instead of INTENSIFYING with time, as has happened with virtually every serial criminal on the record, the crimes grow less severe.
So--no consistent MO. No intensification. A group of letters that are probably a hoax. NOT a serial killer. Probably not even the same man.
And if you think I'm being a buzzkill--let me get going on Jack the Ripper...