In American crime history, if one were to choose the two most chilling and unsolved mysteries, the 1947 Black Dahlia murder in Los Angeles and the Zodiac Killer, who shocked the nation in the 1960s and 1970s, would be almost undisputed answers. These two cases span different eras, cities, and victim backgrounds, yet both have left behind numerous mysteries and spawned countless conspiracy theories, novels, and films.
The coded letters sent by the Zodiac Killer to provoke the police and the media are a symbol of the "high-IQ serial killer" in American popular culture. In 2007, the film " Zodiac Killer ," directed by David Fincher, used a calm and realistic style to recreate the investigators' decades-long, futile pursuit, deeply embedding the anxiety of "the truth is always absent" in the hearts of the audience.
However, in late 2025, an amateur detective and cryptography researcher named Alex Baber dropped a bombshell, claiming that he had used artificial intelligence to crack the mystery of the Zodiac Killer that had plagued the world for more than half a century, and even further pointed out that this killer might also be the real culprit of the "Black Dahlia".
Amateur detective and cryptography researcher Alex Baber uses AI to decipher symbols
Baber's research focused on a mysterious cipher Zodiac sent to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1970, commonly known as the "Z13 cipher." This cipher begins with the provocative "My name is —" followed by 13 symbols that cannot be directly deciphered. For over half a century, countless cryptographers and amateurs have attempted to crack it, but a universally accepted answer has remained elusive.
Barber's approach differed drastically from traditional human deduction. He used AI to build a database of approximately 71 million names matching 13 character criteria, allowing algorithms to automatically sort, filter, and compare them. He then cross-analyzed these results with the 1950 U.S. Census, military records, marriage certificates, and other public archives, while applying eyewitness accounts of age, race, and place of residence to progressively eliminate discrepancies. Ultimately, Barber claimed the AI's answer was "Marvin Merrill," one of the aliases used by the suspect, Marvin Margolis.
Are the Zodiac of Death and the Black Dahlia case really connected?
What truly sparked the huge controversy was Baber's next line of reasoning. He further used AI to scan hundreds of thousands of newspaper advertisements and real estate records from the 1940s, discovering an intriguing coincidence: near the location where Elizabeth Short, a Black Dahlia victim, was found in 1947, there once stood a motel called "Zodiac Motel." Baber believes this name may have left a deep impression on the killer, becoming the inspiration for his later self-identification as "Zodiac." Even more explosive was the statement by a former NSA cryptographer verifying Baber's research, who pointed out that the key words used to generate parts of the Zodiac code were suspected to be "Elizabeth," the name of the Black Dahlia victim. If this is true, it means the Zodiac Killer didn't just randomly provoke society, but rather was long-term immersion in a fascination with his past crimes, repeatedly enjoying the thrill of killing through cryptography.
Who is Marvin Margolis, the belated culprit?
Marvin Margolis, the key figure identified by Barber, passed away in 1993. According to his background information, Margolis studied a medical-related major and had experience as a naval medic. This is highly consistent with the precise and cruel surgical cutting method in the Black Dahlia murder case and the gun handling skills demonstrated in the Zodiac case. The police also discovered that he had a brief relationship with Elizabeth Short and that he had even worked as an artist and created a work that was highly similar to Short's murdered remains.
Furthermore, Baber used image enhancement and AI recognition technology to analyze a sketch Margolis created shortly before his death. He claimed that the word "ZoDiac" emerged from the seemingly random ink marks, interpreting it as a non-verbal form of deathbed confession. Although this evidence is highly controversial, it has become an important piece of the puzzle supporting his theory.
While Baber's research has garnered technical acclaim from some former NSA cryptography experts, US official agencies remain quite conservative in their stance. The Los Angeles Police Department and related agencies have stated that they are currently treating the Black Dahlia and Zodiac Killer cases as "open investigations," lacking sufficient evidence for legal conviction. Experts point out that the greatest value of AI in unsolved cases lies in "narrowing down the possibilities," rather than directly equating it to forensic proof. The algorithm's results still depend on the completeness of the input data and the underlying assumptions; a deviation in the starting point can amplify and mislead the conclusions.
People's obsession with these unsolved cases may have long transcended the simple act of "solving the case" itself, pointing to a deeper, more profound question: can humanity truly understand the source of extreme violence, and is it capable of filling the gaps left by history? Even though Baber's theory has not yet been fully accepted by the authorities, the discussions he has sparked have already revealed the outline of a new era: when artificial intelligence can begin to intervene in humanity's darkest and most unverifiable memories through statistical analysis and generative computation, what will be redefined is not only the way "truth" is obtained, but may even shake the existing standards of evidence and the rule of law itself in the future.
This article, titled "Cryptography Enthusiasts Use AI to Decipher Two Major Unsolved Mysteries in the United States: 'The Deadly Zodiac' and 'The Black Dahlia'," first appeared on ABMedia ABMedia .
