Looking For Dad, Finding A Killer

A Review of The Most Dangerous Animal of All

by Don Redman

Susan Mustafa’s The Most Dangerous Animal of All, a collaborative effort with Gary L. Stewart, defies all labels – part true crime, part memoir, part mystery, part inspirational – but in toto, it’s a very compelling book.

The subtitle gives a clue to the book’s central premise: “Searching for My Father and Finding the Zodiac Killer,” and the person searching for his father is Gary Stewart, Mustafa’s collaborator. Stewart was adopted into a loving family when he was only three months old, but his world was turned upside down when, at the age of 39, he received a phone call from a woman claiming to be his biological mother.

And so Stewart’s journey begins as he sets out from south Louisiana to San Francisco to reconnect with his biological mother, hoping to learn about the circumstances that led to her decision to offer him up for adoption, and to hopefully acquire details about his biological father.

As American novelist James Baldwin once said, “Be careful what you set your heart upon – for surely it will be yours.”

What begins as a feel-good reunion between son and mother, soon devolves into an obsessive pursuit for the truth and a descent into near despair. 

It’s a tough balancing act for Mustafa, who must make sense of bundles of seemingly unrelated threads: underage marriage; an abandoned baby; a ruthless biological father; a happy reunion with biological mother; police cover-up; family secrets; a loving adoptive family; and cold-blooded murder. To say the least, this is not your typical true crime book.

But it wasn’t supposed to be a true crime book. Not in the beginning.

Mustafa’s masterful retelling of the events, based in part on Stewart’s journals and records and on her own meticulous research, weaves for us a full, rich and detailed kesi upon which every aspect of Stewart’s life is on full display: the good, the bad and the ugly.


Stewart is to be commended for opening his life up so completely, and it is not easy not to wince as he speaks frankly about his biological parent’s dubious past, nor is it easy to witness the unfolding of his suppressed but lingering pain of abandonment and rejection. But his dogged determination to expose the truth may have uncovered the real identity of the serial killer known as the Zodiac, Earl Van Best, Jr. – his father.

Earl Van Best Jr. next to police sktch of the Zodiac killer

The Zodiac serial killer is believed to have killed five people in northern California between December 1968 and October 1969 and gained notoriety by mocking the police by writing several letters to San Francisco Bay Area newspapers boasting of the slayings. These letters included four codes or ciphers in which the killer claimed also contained his identity. Of the four cryptograms sent, only one has been definitively solved, but not his identity.

 The Zodiac claimed to have killed as many as 37 people, but police have been able to positively pin only five murders on him. While the case remains open in various jurisdictions, the case is cold and remains a low priority.

Gary Stewart appeared at one point to have been very close to convincing the San Francisco Police Department to actively pursue his father as a plausible candidate as the Zodiac, but for mysterious reasons, the investigation into Earl Van Best, Jr. was shut down without explanation or fanfare. Potentially at the heart of the sudden dismissal may be an attempt by unseen hands to stifle the investigation to prevent possible embarrassment to one of SFPD’s favorite sons, the late Rotea Gilford, who had married Van Best’s ex-wife (and Stewart's mother). Stewart and Mustafa muse that it is possible that Gilford’s friends on the police force wanted to protect Gilford’s legacy; to protect him from forever being tied to the Zodiac killer.

Employing Mustafa’s contacts in the world of forensic science, Stewart has compiled very credible evidence and makes an impressive argument that his biological father was indeed the Zodiac killer. He even finds what past decoders never could uncover: the hidden name of the killer within the cipher – Earl Van Best Jr.

The research and documentation aside, what gives the book a real heart and soul is Stewart’s personal story: his relationship with his own son and his adoptive parents; his topsy-turvy relationship with his biological mother; his disastrous search for his half-brother and half-sister; his spiritual journey; and the emotionally draining but dogged chase after a ghost … a ghost that was alternately a father and a drunk and a monster. And finally, it’s about making peace with the past, whatever that may have been.

Regardless how the facts may play in the future, whether Stewart’s research was correct or not, the book is a very compelling read and a deep and personal examination of one man’s soul.

Susan Mustafa talks about her book, “The Most Dangerous Animal of All.”

Read our interview with Susan here.