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The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up: The Silenced Badge
The true identity of the psychotic ZODIAC killer has been known by the Mandamus Seven (group of retired law enforcement officers, federal agents, a minister, and a District Attorney) since March 15, 1971. This true story is now being told for the very first time. Official corruption and political intervention forced the investigation into a top-secret, covert status, giving the insane ZODIAC killer immunity and a license to kill. Of the over 2,500 suspects cleared by the local authorities and the Department of Justice, this man is the only suspect who had the uncontrollable and powerful motive―adultery! Mind and body ravaged by years of severe alcoholism, his blood-lusting revenge turned him into the most shocking and vicious killer in our 20th century. Through his tauntings of the police, his codes, ciphers, and letters, he was on a mission to redeem his shattered ego, to prove that he is better, smarter, and more clever than all the judges and police put together. With lordly arrogance and jealousy, and with the assistance of the police, he continued his killing spree until he claimed a total of 37 victims. Lips sealed by secret oaths and federal obstructions of justice, the investigation was further impeded by personal associations with the suspect and his tenacious, intrepid wife, placing family members in imminent danger. The evidence is overwhelming and given the totality of the facts, it is the author’s opinion that there is no jury in the world that would not find the suspect guilty of being the criminal genius, ZODIAC. Author’s Bio: Lyndon E. Lafferty is an passionate outdoorsman who hiked to the top of Mt. Lassen three times and once to the top of Mt. Fujiyama, Japan during the Korean War. He also made two attempts each to climb Mt. Shasta and Mt. Whitney. Lyndon holds a U.S. patent and two patents pending. He loves to write and is currently working on two more novels. Lyndon has an excellent record with the California Highway Patrol with many commendations devoting 27 years to law enforcement. He is best known for crushing the hood and top of a patrol car as he and fellow officers used it as a platform to rescue 38 injured and trapped passengers on a commercial bus in November 1976. Inheriting the Zodiac investigation has been both a blessing and a curse. Bound by oaths of secrecy to a highly respected homicide detective, his lips were sealed until the death of the detective in 1977.
504 pages, Hardcover
First published February 8, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 23, 2014
Reads as though it was clearly written by someone with the vocabulary and attitudes of an elderly ex-cop.
Repeatedly and regularly makes ridiculous, unsubstantiated jumps in reasoning. Misstates many known and accepted facts about the case (see the critique on the zodiackiller.com forum for specific page numbers and instances of this). Large chunks of the book (tens of pages at a time) are fabricated from whole cloth and include details such as dialogue and inner monologue that would be simply impossible for the author to know with any authority.
When you pick up a 200-page book with the intent to get more information about an event that happened in real life, you're bound to be frustrated to find large passages that simply have to be fabrication and overactive imagination on the author's part. Further, when the author enters periods of intelligible reason, the earlier fabrications simply sully things - if he was happy to make things up earlier, what is he basing this portion on?
This doesn't read like a solid, well-documented / endnoted piece of nonfiction like the better Zodiac books (particularly: This is the Zodiac Speaking...), instead it has the quality of writing, vocabulary, structured arguments and copious unsupported tangents and nonsense nonsequitors of an old man spinning a yarn for his buddies at a bar.
This is hands down the worst piece of 'nonfiction' I've read in years. Unlike my favorite Zodiac books, it absolutely punishes critical thought. Easily the single worst Zodiac book out there.
At its present price online, buying it today would be a complete waste of money.
Repeatedly and regularly makes ridiculous, unsubstantiated jumps in reasoning. Misstates many known and accepted facts about the case (see the critique on the zodiackiller.com forum for specific page numbers and instances of this). Large chunks of the book (tens of pages at a time) are fabricated from whole cloth and include details such as dialogue and inner monologue that would be simply impossible for the author to know with any authority.
When you pick up a 200-page book with the intent to get more information about an event that happened in real life, you're bound to be frustrated to find large passages that simply have to be fabrication and overactive imagination on the author's part. Further, when the author enters periods of intelligible reason, the earlier fabrications simply sully things - if he was happy to make things up earlier, what is he basing this portion on?
This doesn't read like a solid, well-documented / endnoted piece of nonfiction like the better Zodiac books (particularly: This is the Zodiac Speaking...), instead it has the quality of writing, vocabulary, structured arguments and copious unsupported tangents and nonsense nonsequitors of an old man spinning a yarn for his buddies at a bar.
This is hands down the worst piece of 'nonfiction' I've read in years. Unlike my favorite Zodiac books, it absolutely punishes critical thought. Easily the single worst Zodiac book out there.
At its present price online, buying it today would be a complete waste of money.
December 11, 2023
I discovered, ordered, received, and read “The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up: The Silenced Badge,”
by Lyndon E. Lafferty, less than one month ago. I have been fascinated with the Zodiac Killer from Day One. Since I was a child at that time, it fuelled any number of quirks that I hold to this day.
Of the tomes I've devoured over the years, this one offers the least fantastical reading. Maybe there is some magical thinking in it, but author Lafferty lays out his story drily with a minimum of drama (his version of the episode with the suspect off the highway is much less chilling than in Graysmith's story).
Lafferty first lays out his personal story and qualifications, as well as his history with law enforcement and the city of Vallejo. He gives us his theories and backs them up with the elements that got him there. Reading this book, I find Lafferty's proposed suspect to hold up better than others. It is noteworthy that he was social with his suspect (post-killings) and Arthur Leigh Allen (high school). I never liked the Allen proposition, and those of us who concur were satisfied when Allen was finally removed from the list of suspects.
As one reviewer has already stated, this book is written by “someone with the vocabulary and attitudes of an elderly ex-cop.” I cannot deny this; that's what Lafferty is. His assessment of the various law enforcement agencies falling all over themselves like Keystone Kops has been posited before, and it is infuriating and frustrating that there was never any central repository of information.
My disappointment with the book is that Lafferty took his information to the highest levels of law enforcement with little or no action on their parts. I think that if you have incriminating information that can close a case, these agencies would have been hot on the trail immediately. None of them took action. This hints to me that Lafferty does not have the right suspect.
I have the first edition, so I did not know that Lafferty's suspect has since passed away. This indicates again that his was not the right suspect. Since “Tucker”'s passing, I have heard nothing about identification of Zodiac. Perhaps this is due to the incompetence of the law enforcement agencies involved, a notion that I cannot reject.
Unfortunately, this book often sounds like--and again I cite the previous reviewer-- an old man spinning a yarn for his buddies at a bar. Also, I found the name of his group of investigators, “Mandamus Seven,” a bit precious.
Lafferty's book was self-published, and he did not have the resources of a publishing house behind him. He most definitely needed a better editor. Citations, bibliography, and an index are missing, and each would have made reading the book more enlightening. In my first edition, Lafferty does not mention until the last chapter that “Tucker” is a fictitious name. What is noteworthy about this is that there is a George Tucker living in Fairfield, California, and he is the correct age for this suspect. I do not know what to make of this.
by Lyndon E. Lafferty, less than one month ago. I have been fascinated with the Zodiac Killer from Day One. Since I was a child at that time, it fuelled any number of quirks that I hold to this day.
Of the tomes I've devoured over the years, this one offers the least fantastical reading. Maybe there is some magical thinking in it, but author Lafferty lays out his story drily with a minimum of drama (his version of the episode with the suspect off the highway is much less chilling than in Graysmith's story).
Lafferty first lays out his personal story and qualifications, as well as his history with law enforcement and the city of Vallejo. He gives us his theories and backs them up with the elements that got him there. Reading this book, I find Lafferty's proposed suspect to hold up better than others. It is noteworthy that he was social with his suspect (post-killings) and Arthur Leigh Allen (high school). I never liked the Allen proposition, and those of us who concur were satisfied when Allen was finally removed from the list of suspects.
As one reviewer has already stated, this book is written by “someone with the vocabulary and attitudes of an elderly ex-cop.” I cannot deny this; that's what Lafferty is. His assessment of the various law enforcement agencies falling all over themselves like Keystone Kops has been posited before, and it is infuriating and frustrating that there was never any central repository of information.
My disappointment with the book is that Lafferty took his information to the highest levels of law enforcement with little or no action on their parts. I think that if you have incriminating information that can close a case, these agencies would have been hot on the trail immediately. None of them took action. This hints to me that Lafferty does not have the right suspect.
I have the first edition, so I did not know that Lafferty's suspect has since passed away. This indicates again that his was not the right suspect. Since “Tucker”'s passing, I have heard nothing about identification of Zodiac. Perhaps this is due to the incompetence of the law enforcement agencies involved, a notion that I cannot reject.
Unfortunately, this book often sounds like--and again I cite the previous reviewer-- an old man spinning a yarn for his buddies at a bar. Also, I found the name of his group of investigators, “Mandamus Seven,” a bit precious.
Lafferty's book was self-published, and he did not have the resources of a publishing house behind him. He most definitely needed a better editor. Citations, bibliography, and an index are missing, and each would have made reading the book more enlightening. In my first edition, Lafferty does not mention until the last chapter that “Tucker” is a fictitious name. What is noteworthy about this is that there is a George Tucker living in Fairfield, California, and he is the correct age for this suspect. I do not know what to make of this.
May 9, 2019
A seasoned California HIghway Patrol officer, the late author, Lyndon Lafferty, spent more than 3 decades investigating the Zodiac killings along with a team of other experienced law enforcement officials. My impression is that he wrote this book not for any personal glory but to urge police agencies at all levels to take a closer look at the suspect he portrays in great and scary detail. That man still lived at the time of the book's first publication, though he was quite elderly at age 91. The second publication has a new forward indicating that the individual passed away in 2011 without any apprehension.
The author presents a strong case of staggering incompetency conducted at all levels - local, state and federal law. The maddening details include secret meetings, sexual affairs at high levels, orders of destryoyed reports and other gross acts of injustice that, he says, allowed the killer free reign to continue his rampage throughout Solano County, the Bay Area and other parts of California. The account of the team's work is fascinating and, in many instances, fraught with danger.
The author is no William Faulkner when it comes to writing but I found his style easily conveyed his arguments and the complex nature of the case. This book was an easy read, though some parts lacked good transitions. I found his case credible and his accounts of the collective stupidity and the delibate actions of a judge, sheriff and law enforcement agencies to evade justice and turn a blind eye toward this suspect mind-blowing. More than a half-century after the initial Zodiac killings the suspect portrayed in this book is now dead, as is Arthur Leigh Allen, the suspect pointed at in Robert Graysmith's books and in the 2007 "Zodiac" movie. Like Jack the Ripper we'll probably never know and the Zodiac will continue to haunt the halls of sensational unsolved mysteries.
The author presents a strong case of staggering incompetency conducted at all levels - local, state and federal law. The maddening details include secret meetings, sexual affairs at high levels, orders of destryoyed reports and other gross acts of injustice that, he says, allowed the killer free reign to continue his rampage throughout Solano County, the Bay Area and other parts of California. The account of the team's work is fascinating and, in many instances, fraught with danger.
The author is no William Faulkner when it comes to writing but I found his style easily conveyed his arguments and the complex nature of the case. This book was an easy read, though some parts lacked good transitions. I found his case credible and his accounts of the collective stupidity and the delibate actions of a judge, sheriff and law enforcement agencies to evade justice and turn a blind eye toward this suspect mind-blowing. More than a half-century after the initial Zodiac killings the suspect portrayed in this book is now dead, as is Arthur Leigh Allen, the suspect pointed at in Robert Graysmith's books and in the 2007 "Zodiac" movie. Like Jack the Ripper we'll probably never know and the Zodiac will continue to haunt the halls of sensational unsolved mysteries.
April 27, 2013
Fact filled. Such an atrocity. Good old boy mentality allowed a killer to live among us for decades!
January 19, 2014
I loved the book, the story, and how it gave detaied information on my Uncle, Detective Les Lundblad in the Zodiac investigation.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews