ALBANY, NEW YORK - Jesse Bartlett a/k/a the “Chinese Zodiac Killer," age 46, of LaFargeville, New York, was sentenced today to 16 months in prison for mailing threatening letters.
United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), made the announcement.
From about April 2021 to May 2022, and while using the alias “Chinese Zodiac Killer," Bartlett mailed threatening communications to media outlets, government offices, houses of worship, and private businesses throughout New York, as well as in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. In the letters, which he signed as the “Chinese Zodiac Killer," Bartlett wrote that he killed people, ate their flesh, and that he intended to kill more people, including an unnamed bus driver.
Chief United States District Judge Brenda K. Sannes also imposed a 3-year term of supervised release to follow Bartlett’s term of incarceration.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), with assistance from the New York State Police and the United States Postal Inspection Service, investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Wentworth-Ping prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys