In 2012, the judge presiding over Orange County’s worst mass-shooter case gave a seemingly simple order. He told the Sheriff’s Department to reveal information about a mysterious jailhouse informant. When defense attorney Scott Sanders probed deeper, he announced that he had discovered a wide-ranging and illegal cell-block informant operation—and a conspiracy to cover it up.

In the final episode of this four part series, we’ll talk to historian William J. Mann about his new book on the Dahlia case, which points to the same long-forgotten suspect whose name has been linked to a Zodiac cipher.

Were the Black Dahlia and Zodiac murders the work of the same man? A new theory argues a disturbed World War II veteran was responsible. In this episode, a former FBI profiler explores the psychology behind both cases, examining where they overlap and where they diverge.

Marvin Margolis was a promising early suspect in the Black Dahlia murder, but he managed to slip through the cracks. So who was this man of many pseudonyms? In this episode, we’ll explore what Margolis did during and after the Dahlia investigation, and a key piece of evidence that potentially links both the Dahlia and Zodiac cases.

The identity of the Zodiac Killer has remained a mystery for decades, but new developments may finally point to an answer. At the center is the infamous Z13 cipher, a 13-character code sent to the San Francisco Chronicle that has long defied experts. Self-taught codebreaker Alex Baber used artificial intelligence and exhaustive analysis to narrow millions of possibilities down to a single name. As his theory gained traction, former detectives and intelligence experts began testing its credibility. The result is a provocative possibility: the name hidden in the cipher may also belong to the man behind another infamous California murder — the Black Dahlia.

On this season of Crimes of the Times, Los Angeles Times journalist Christopher Goffard explores criminal cases that have left a mark on California history. This season’s stories include new developments in the Black Dahlia and Zodiac cases, the snitch scandal that rocked Orange County, the plight of the Japanese American woman known as Tokyo Rose, and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

Attorney Frank Carson spent decades defending the accused in California's Central Valley. He made powerful enemies among law enforcement. When they put him on trial for murder, he insisted he was being framed. He was acquitted after a lengthy trial, but his widow says the ordeal destroyed his health and hastened his death. As part of a malicious prosecution lawsuit, the man who once served as the state’s star witness against Carson admitted his testimony was a pack of lies. In April, Stanislaus County agreed to pay $22.5 million to settle the suit—one of the largest payouts of its kind.

In 1986, 29-year-old Sherri Rasmussen was just starting her married life when she was brutally murdered in her Van Nuys home. The LAPD called it a “burglary gone bad,” ignoring red flags pointing to one of their own for years. Detective Stephanie Lazarus might have gotten away with it if she hadn’t left behind a key piece of evidence.