The Black Magic Murders: The Untold Story of Lucifer's Fork

WHEN THE SUMMER OF LOVE BECAME THE YEAR OF FEAR

In 1967, San Francisco was known the world over as home to the Summer of Love. Three years later, the city was paralyzed by fear as the Zodiac taunted the police with a series of threatening letters and brutal slayings. When prominent citizen Malcolm Dorrance is murdered, homicide inspectors Will Michalson and Frank Paducci eliminate the Zodiac as a suspect and narrow their focus to one man: self-professed devil-worshiper Ian Cuthgert. But instead of denying involvement, Cuthgert confesses, telling the cops he used witchcraft to murder Dorrance and he intends to kill again. Michalson dismisses this explanation as drug-induced delusion, but Paducci, a devout Catholic, is convinced Cuthgert is telling the truth. After the autopsy confirms an inexplicable cause of death, the partners race to prevent the next murder even as the conflict between their beliefs threatens to derail the entire investigation. Long overshadowed by the more prominent hunt for the Zodiac, the complete account of what would come to be known as the “Black Magic Murders” is told here for the first time by those who lived through it.