A new claim in the long-running Zodiac Killer mystery has emerged after amateur cryptographer Alex Baber said he used artificial intelligence and codebreaking techniques to interpret the Zodiac’s short “Z13” cipher.
According to Baber, the decoded message points to “Marvin Merrill,” allegedly an alias linked to Marvin Margolis, a man who had previously been questioned in connection with the 1947 Black Dahlia murder of Elizabeth Short. He suggests the finding could indicate a connection between the Zodiac case and earlier unsolved crimes in Los Angeles, in addition to the Northern California killings of the late 1960s.
However, authorities have not confirmed these claims. The identity of the Zodiac Killer remains officially unknown, and experts caution that short ciphers like Z13 are extremely difficult to verify, as multiple interpretations can fit the limited number of characters.
The claim has renewed public interest in both cases, but it remains an unverified theory rather than a confirmed breakthrough.
