The Crime Scene #2

I recently finished another True Crime book. (Shocking...) This time the book focused on The Zodiac Killer from Northern California. The Zodiac operated from the 1960's-1970's.
The book I'm referring to is called The Most Dangerous Animal Of All: Searching for my father and finding The Zodiac Killer by Gary L. Stewart w/ Susan Mustafa.

We begin this book with a man from New Orleans (Gary), who tells the story of how he came to find out that he was adopted, and how he re-united with his biological mother. In talking with his birth mother and learning about her family and how she was able to find him, he uncovers information about his father and his father's side of the family.
His mother was just 14 when she met his father and she ran away with him and got married. His father being 27 at the time. He had been arrested for abducting the young girl but he couldn't stay away from her and nor her from him. Eventually the two ran away from the California city that they lived in and made their way to North Carolina where his father had some family. In the process of making their way across the country, news had spread about this man and the young girl in his company. His family was told not to help them, because he was wanted by the law, but an Uncle gave them a place to sleep and told the couple that if they wanted to eat, they better learn to hunt. Gary's mother was pregnant and his father was not happy about it. The uncle wanted them out of his house and the couple obliged, leaving for New Orleans. After Gary was born, his mother had to work and his father didn't exactly take care of him the way he should have. One day, Gary's father tells his mother that he is going to take Gary to town to find a way to get rid of him. Gary's father ends up leaving him on the steps of an upper class apartment building. Eventually "Baby John Doe" was adopted by a wonderful couple from Baton Rouge who had lost their first adopted child in a tragic car accident.

The story takes place over a decade and Gary finds himself in the middle of forensic evidence, linked to his father...and The Zodiac Killer. Gary soon begins gathering and ingesting information that would prove that his father was, in fact, the serial killer from the 60's and 70's.

His story is fascinating and heartbreaking at the same time. We learn more about Gary than we do about the Zodiac Killer but seeing how everything unfolds and connects and how through cryptic messages, it seems that he wanted the same thing his abandoned son wanted: To Be Found.