The “Zodiac Killer” is one of America’s most feared and mysterious serial killers of all time. To this day, the “Zodiac Killer” is still an unsolved case, and no one has been convicted of the murderers. While nobody was identified as the “Zodiac killer”, there is one man who sticks out as a very big suspect, Arthur Leigh Allen. In Netflix’s newest documentary series, they take a look into the life of Arthur Leigh Allen and a trio of siblings, David Seawater, Connie Seawater and Don Seawater who were the closest to Allen during their childhood.
The Seawaters had a normal childhood. They spent the summers swimming in pools and eating ice cream, and in the other seasons, riding bikes and watching the changing leaves. One of their biggest mentors and idols growing up was their family friend Arthur Leigh Allen. Allen always took the kids to the pool, the beach, and on sunset drives in his car. The first Zodiac murder happened on Dec. 20, 1968, in which he shot and killed two high school students, David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, who were in their car on an old road by Lake Herman.
Especially in the parts where they describe the murders, Netflix does an excellent job of applying visuals and acted-out scenes to make the murders look like they are happening in real-time. That is one part that I always enjoy about documentaries because it helps the audience know how the murders took place, what happened, and how it was carried out.
After the first murder, there was not another Zodiac murder for seven months afterward, and the Zodiac was said to not be active, so this was a cooling period. Even after the first murder, no one had an idea of who the Zodiac was or who could do such a thing. The documentary then interviews David Seawater and Connie Seawater, where they explain how Arthur Leigh Allen had a good relationship with them, and even when the Zodiac killings were happening, Arthur never seemed too worried about them.
The next murder would take place after midnight on July 4, 1969. The couple of high school students were Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau. They were sitting in a parked car in an empty parking lot when a car pulled up next to them and quickly left. A few minutes later the same car pulled up just a few feet away from them and shined a flashlight into their car and started firing shots. After the shooting, the Zodiac fled and left no clues that could be traced.
The most interesting thing about the Zodiac that Netflix does is that it highlights how elusive the Zodiac is and how he never left any traces besides his famous Zodiac symbol. Connie and D. Seawater also mentioned that when they were kids, Allen would always have them make masks for his scuba diving gear, and the masks were very close to the mask that the Zodiac wore when he was doing his murders.
Throughout the documentary, Netflix explained how the Seawater kids would go on drives with Allen, and there was one time when Allen drove the kids to the beach and was gone for an hour while he hauled a body-looking bag toward the beach. There was some sort of blood left in his car trunk by mistake. Then before Allen passed away, David Seawater called Allen while he was in prison and Allen dumped everything on David Seawater. He said that when they were kids Allen would take them on drives he would drug them and molest them every time they went out with him. Then, David Seawater hung up the phone and never heard from Allen again.
I would recommend this documentary to anyone who likes history and a good mystery that will get their mind thinking. This is one of my favorite documentaries I have watched because it is described and told so well. Netflix does a marvelous of the visuals and interviews throughout the documentary because they have some 3-D scenes that help you understand how the murders took place and how the sea waters lived their childhood with Arthur Lee Allen. The documentary is a three-part series with each episode being around 40 minutes to an hour long. I would recommend this to anyone who is into documentaries.
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