You would think that "lived a second life as one of the most infamous serial killers in America" would be enough for even the most demented of men, but apparently that's just not the case:
Gary Francis Poste, the Air Force veteran-turned-house painter who may or may not have been the notorious Zodiac Killer, has been revealed as the ringleader of a group of men he trained as "killing machines."
A team of 40 private investigators claimed last month that they had unmasked Poste as the Zodiac Killer — who terrorized the Bay Area in the late 1960s with brutal murders accompanied by creepy riddles — through photos and anagram code-breaking. Now, they tell The Post that, after the murders, Poste led a bizarre double life in a small Sierra Nevada town...
The alleged killer fronted as a mild-mannered house painter and was well-liked by the locals, [Case Breakers leader Thomas] Colbert said. But he also began recruiting young men in their late teens and early 20s as his own personal criminal gang in the picturesque mountain town about 26 miles west of Yosemite.
Some 10 men were part of what locals called "The Posse" and they stayed loyal to Poste for decades, until he died in 2018. He would take them deep into the mountains where they learned to "hike and kill," Colbert said.
The behavior of this alleged gang was nothing short of depraved:
According to Colbert, the men would go on hiking trips into the mountains to kill animals for fun.
"One time he had a kid climb out on a tree branch and hang caches of raw meat from it," he said. "He also nailed salmon hooks below to catch bears trying to get to the meat. One time there were three bears bleeding to death from this tree trying to get the meat and Gary just watched them, laughing at them."
