Gareth Penn - Accusation Against Michael O'Hare

Accusation Against Michael O'Hare

Starting around 1981, Penn began publicly accusing University of California, Berkeley 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 he 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 but stated he had no intent to extort anything.