Gareth Sewell Penn (born January 1, 1941) is an American true crime

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

and amateur

detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...

known for being among the first non-journalists to write about the Zodiac Killer case. He published a theory about the killer's motives, publicly accused a noted UC Berkeley public policy professor of the crimes, and labeled himself a one-time suspect. Reviewing the 2007

David Fincher David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American film director. His films, mostly psychological thrillers and biographical dramas, have received 40 nominations at the Academy Awards, including three for him as Best Director. Fin ...

film ''

Zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the Sun path, apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. ...

'' for the ''Las Vegas Weekly'', Mike D'Angelo wrote, "I think the movie erred in selecting author Robert Graysmith as its source and nominal protagonist. Zodiac buffs know well that the true obsessive is a fellow named Gareth Penn."

Early life

Penn graduated from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1962 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree (BA) in Germanic languages and again in 1965 with a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

(MA) in

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

Germanic languages. He received a

Master of Library Science The Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS), also referred to as the Master of Library and Information Studies, is the master's degree that is required for most professional librarian positions in the United States. The MLIS is a relativ ...

(MLS) from U.C. Berkeley in 1971. In 1965, Penn entered the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

Berlin, Germany Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituent ...

and received basic training at

Fort Dix, New Jersey Fort Dix, the common name for the Army Support Activity (ASA) located at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, is a United States Army post. It is located south-southeast of Trenton, New Jersey. Fort Dix is under the jurisdiction of the Air Force A ...

. He received artillery survey training at

Fort Sill, Oklahoma Fort Sill is a United States Army post north of Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles (136.8 km) southwest of Oklahoma City. It covers almost . The fort was first built during the Indian Wars. It is designated as a National Historic Landmark ...

, where he became an Artillery Surveyor Instructor. He received the National Defense Service Medal and the designation of Expert Rifle Marksman. In 1967, Penn moved back to

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

, where he was transferred to the

Army reserves A military reserve force is a military organization whose members have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional manpower. Reserve f ...

. He was honorably discharged in 1971.*Penn, Gareth, ''Times 17: The Amazing Story of the Zodiac Murders in California and Massachusetts, 1966-1981'' (The Foxglove Press, CA, April 1987). .

Career

Writing

Penn's writing, mostly focused on the Zodiac case, was largely published in '' The Ecphorizer'', the newsletter of the San Francisco chapter of

Mensa International Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organisation open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test. Mensa formally compr ...

, which had a peak readership of 700 and was published between 1981 and 1995 A 1972 piece he wrote while attending UC Berkeley, '' Gottfried von Strassburg and the Invisible Art'' was published in the peer-reviewed journal of Germanic studies Colloquia Germanica. The piece is a reflection on the legend of

Tristan Tristan (Latin/ Brythonic: ''Drustanus''; cy, Trystan), also known as Tristram or Tristain and similar names, is the hero of the legend of Tristan and Iseult. In the legend, he is tasked with escorting the Irish princess Iseult to wed ...

, a 12th-century hero of

Celtic folklore Celtic folklore may refer to: The Folklore in the modern Celtic nations: * Hebridean mythology and folklore * Irish folklore * Scottish folklore * Welsh folklore Or the mythologies of ancient and modern Celtic peoples: * Celtic mythology * Irish ...

. Penn says his father, Hugh Scott Penn, who had been a U.S. Army cryptographer during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, introduced him to the Zodiac case while he was working for the

California Department of Justice The California Department of Justice is a statewide investigative law enforcement agency and legal department of the California executive branch under the elected leadership of the California Attorney General (AG) which carries out complex cri ...

. Penn wrote two self-published books: ''Times 17: The Amazing Story of the Zodiac Murders in California and Massachusetts, 1966-1981'' released in 1987; and ''The Second Power: A Mathematical Analysis of the letters attributed to the Zodiac murderer and supplement to Times 17'' in 1999.

Zodiac Killer

Gareth Penn started writing about the Zodiac case in a 1981 article for ''California Magazine'' entitled ''Portrait of the Artist as a Mass Murderer.'' In ''Portrait'', Penn theorized that the Zodiac crime scenes were selected by the killer in order to create a geometric shape over the surface of the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

as a sort of "murderous art project." Part of Penn's commentary about that theory included the observation that, "Other artists had sought to remove their work from the ordinary human perspective. Zodiac trumped them all." Penn then spent the better part of two decades publicly accusing University of California, Berkeley public policy professor Michael O'Hare of the Zodiac murders.

Accusation against Michael O'Hare

Starting around 1981, Penn began publicly accusing

public policy professor Michael O'Hare of the Zodiac murders in amateur newsletters and self-published books. Penn openly accused O'Hare on at least two occasions. The basis for these accusations was Penn's cryptographic analysis of a Zodiac letter, which he claimed yielded the name "Mike O." He also accused O'Hare of the murder of Joan Webster, a graduate architecture student at Harvard who disappeared in 1981 and whose remains were found near Boston in 1990. Penn argued that a "geometric design" yielded similarities between the Webster murder and the Zodiac killings in California. On that basis, he accused O'Hare of murdering Webster. O'Hare denied being involved in any murder, and has written about his strange experience. O'Hare filed an FBI complaint against Penn and in May 1981, the Bureau investigated Penn for possible extortion. According to FBI memos, an agent "contacted Penn by telephone and told him that if he was responsible for the correspondence to 'Harehe should immediately cease and desist, pointing out that it could jeopardize any investigation and he could possibly be subject to both civil and criminal penalties." In a May 1981 meeting with FBI agents, Penn "freely admitted sending material to 'Harebut stated he had no intent to extort anything.

Cryptography Blog

Penn continues writing about the case, maintaining a narrative blog entitled D550.Penn, Gareth (May 24, 2010)
"the jig is up"
D550. Blogger. Retrieved March 24, 2014.

Book

* ''Times 17''

References

External links

Jake Wark at This is the Zodiac Speaking website
*Gareth Penn

{{DEFAULTSORT:Penn, Gareth American non-fiction crime writers 1941 births Living people United States Army soldiers Mensans Zodiac Killer People from Carmel-by-the-Sea, California American conspiracy theorists