Top Zodiac killer suspect Arthur Leigh Allen was the subject of three search warrants. During one of those searches, police confiscated Allen’s infamous Zodiac wristwatch.
That wristwatch is now missing and officially listed as stolen.
After Allen died in 1992, police offered all of the confiscated items — including the wristwatch and numerous weapons — to Allen’s brother, Ron. However, Ron Allen only accepted certain firearms, as they had originally belonged to their father, Ethan.
Along with Allen’s wristwatch, also missing from custody is a large knife that had belonged to Allen, and had fit the general description provided by a surviving victim of the Zodiac killer. The fate of the missing knife remains unknown.
Exactly how the Zodiac wristwatch went missing isn’t much of a mystery: It is strongly suspected that, decades ago, a now-deceased police captain took the wristwatch in order to show it off to friends.
Should Arthur Leigh Allen’s stolen wristwatch turn up for sale, its specific serial number is logged into a national database of stolen items, and the seller will be busted. Unfortunately, nabbing the Zodiac killer will be a bit more difficult.