Who is Michael Mageau? Man who accused Zodiac Killer suspect Arthur Leigh Allen of shooting him four times

MICHAEL Mageau was attacked by the Zodiac Killer in 1969 and he pointed out his attacker in a photo line-up. 

He claimed that he was attacked by Arthur Leigh Allen and new evidence about the case is revealed in the Netflix documentary This Is The Zodiac Speaking.

Late night murder

Michael was born on October 29, 1949 in Vallejo, California, which is the same hometown as Zodiac suspect Arthur Leigh Allen. 

He was sitting in his car with his friend Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin on July 5, 1969, when he claims that they were attacked by the Zodiac Killer. 

The couple were listening to music when a car pulled up next to them. 

Reportedly, he asked Darlene if she recognised the car and she replied “oh, never mind” which puzzled him. 

Then, a man emerged from the mysterious car and fired a gun at Darlene and Michael. 

The police arrived shortly after and the pair were rushed to a nearby hospital, but Darlene sadly died during the journey. 

Michael would later describe his attacker as being heavy set and around 5”8 in height. 

At the hospital, Michael was rushed to surgery as it was revealed that the attacker had shot him four times. 

Later, Michael named Allen as the Zodiac Killer in a photo line-up but a witness claimed that Allen was 100lbs too heavy to be the attacker.

Arthur Leigh Allen’s criminal past

Arthur was never charged in connection to the Zodiac murders, but he was put behind bars for sexually assaulting a teenage boy in 1974.

By this time, he had already been accused of sexual misconduct and fired from his teaching job in 1968. 

The Seawater family, whom Allen grew close to in the early 1960s, believed that he was the Zodiac Killer and thought he committed murders while on holiday with them. 

The three Seawater children recalled one holiday in This is the Zodiac Speaking, where Allen left them on the beach before returning some time later with something red on his hands. 

They recalled that he was out-of-breath and in a hurry to get them back in the car.

It was later revealed that two teenagers named Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards had been killed nearby. 

Connie Seawater, one of the children, recalled another trip where she and her brother fell into a deep sleep after drinking some juice in their motel room. 

They awoke the next day to Allen taking them to the car and saw, on the news, that a girl named Cheri Jo Bates had been murdered in the area. 

The Zodiac Killer’s murder spree

The Zodiac Killer began his crime spree on December 20, 1968,  with the murder of Betty Lou Jensen, aged 16, and David Arthur Faraday, aged 17.

His murder spree continued until the killing of Paul Stine, a 30-year-old taxi driver, on October 11, 1969.

During his murderous rampage, the killer would send cryptic ciphers to newspapers across California, which he claimed held the key to his identity. 

He also wrote ominous letters to the police, which mocked them for being unable to catch him and were signed off with a mysterious symbol.

The symbol later matched a logo on one of Allen’s watches, which was named the Zodiac Sea Wolf wristwatch. 

However, a group of cold case investigators later suggested that the cipher could be solved by removing the name of another Zodiac suspect Gary Francis Poste, raising doubts about whether Allen was the killer.