When tying a single author or group to the mailing of the S.L.A letter, Citizen card and Red Phantom letter together under one banner, it is important to understand the focus of the communications as a whole. This all began on February 3rd 1974 with the S.L.A letter, postmarked "U.S. Postal Service, CA 913 PM 3 FEB 1974". This was the eve of the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst, which occurred on February 4th 1974. The letter signed off with "a friend". On February 10th 1974, a Symbionese Liberation Army member mailed a typed letter to the Hearst family at 233 W. Santa Inez Ave, Hillsborough, California, postmarked "U.S. Postal Service, CA 940 PM 10 FEB 1974". It too was signed off with "A friend". The impending and eventual kidnapping of Patricia Hearst may have been the inspiration behind the latter three communications in 1974, with the Hearst family and corporation the main focus. In other words, the S.L.A letter, Citizen card and Red Phantom letter were aimed at William Randolph Hearst Sr (deceased), William Randolph Hearst Jr and the Hearst Corporation as a whole. The Symbionese Liberation Army ran on an anti-capitalist agenda and against everything the Hearst Corporation stood for, hence their targeting of the young woman and the forced distribution of food, sourced from the Hearst's and given to the working class in the form of a ransom. Despite sending an incoherent message to the American public, the Symbionese Liberation Army had extremely well-educated members, which may have played a part in the design of the Citizen card and subsequent Red Phantom letter, with references to the Hearst family. In particular, the "signing off" portion of each correspondence.  

Writing to the San Francisco Chronicle on May 8th 1974, the author reprimanded the editors for "lack of sympathy for the public, as evidenced by your running of the ads for the movie "Badlands". This was the primary focus of the card, before signing off the communication with "A citizen". Notice the correlation between this and the February 10th 1974 typed Hearst family letter, ending with "A friend". There may have been a tinge of sarcasm portrayed in the Citizen card in relation to the "running of ads" for the Badlands movie. 

In the FBI files pertaining to the Symionese Liberation Army, a memorandum dated April 30th 1974 indicated that the Hearst Corporation was prepared to offer a 4 million dollar food plan on May 3rd 1974 for the safe return of their daughter. The Sunday San Francisco Examiner, asking for "citizen assistance" had already run a feature article on April 28th 1974 (based on the file information), which resulted in the paper receiving 75 telephone calls offering information regarding S.L.A members. Only 10 days later, on May 8th 1974, the 'Citizen' card arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle, scolding the paper for its movie advertisements, before signing off the letter with "A citizen". 

However, this may not have been the only explanation for the "citizen" reference. Here is an extract from Wikipedia:
"The quasi-biographical film (Citizen Kane) examines the life and legacy of Charles Foster Kane, played by Welles, a character based in part upon the American newspaper magnates William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, Chicago tycoons Samuel Insull and Harold McCormick, and aspects of the screenwriters' own lives. Upon its release, Hearst prohibited mention of the film in any of his newspapers. Kane's career in the publishing world is born of idealistic social service, but gradually evolves into a ruthless pursuit of power". The film incensed William Randolph Hearst Sr and started a long running feud with Orson Welles, resulting in the newspaper magnate forbidding his newspapers to run any advertisements for the Citizen Kane movie. Does this ring any bells? - "Sirs, I would like to expression my consternation concerning your poor taste + lack of sympathy for the public, as evidenced by your running of the ads for the movie "Badlands". why don't you show some concern for public sensibilities + cut the ad?  A citizen." 

This was detailed in History.com with the title 'William Randolph Hearst Stops Citizen Kane Ads': "One of Hollywood’s most famous clashes of the titans–an upstart “boy genius” filmmaker versus a furious 76-year-old newspaper tycoon–heats up on this day in 1941, when William Randolph Hearst forbids any of his newspapers to run advertisements for Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. Only a few days after the screening, Hearst sent the word out to all his publications not to run advertisements for the film. Far from stopping there, he also threatened to make war against the Hollywood studio system in general, publicly condemning the number of “immigrants” and “refugees” working in the film industry instead of Americans, a none-too-subtle reference to the many Jewish members of the Hollywood establishment. Hearst’s newspapers also went after Welles, accusing him of Communist sympathies and questioning his patriotism".

In the Telegraph under the title 'Citizen Kane 'feud' between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst thaws after 70 years' it states "When Welles' masterpiece was released in 1941 Hearst, who was the partial inspiration for the movie, was incensed and banned his newspapers from reviewing or even mentioning it".

Therefore, it must be an amazing coincidence that the Citizen card called for "cutting the ads" before signing off with "A citizen". Not to mention that the release date in Los Angeles, California for the movie Citizen Kane was May 8th 1941 - the exact date this correspondence was postmarked, on May 8th 1974.   

Two months later, the Red Phantom letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle, postmarked July 8th 1974, targeting the 'male chauvinistic' Count Marco column of Marc H. Spinelli. This letter continued the theme, demanding that the Chronicle "cancel the Count Marco column", before signing off with the rather curious "Red Phantom (red with rage)". But what did this pseudonym have to do with the Hearst family?

Entitled 'The Phantom: The Complete Newspaper Dallies Volume One 1936-1937' by Lee Falk, it states "Leon Harrison Gross was born on April 28, 1911, in St. Louis. By the time he sold his first comic strip, Mandrake the Magician, he had changed his name to Lee Falk. His tendency was to shave a few years off his age and he often told interviewers he was a 19-year-old junior at the University of Illinois when he started Mandrake. Actually he was 23, still an impressively young age to sell a comic strip to the largest syndicate in America, William Randolph Hearst's King Features. Two years later he came up with 'The Phantom' and King bought that one as well". See here.

​Founded in 1914, King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles, and games to nearly 5,000 newspapers worldwide. King Features Syndicate is a unit of Hearst Holdings, Inc., which combines the Hearst Corporation's cable-network partnerships, television programming and distribution activities, and syndication companies. King Features' affiliate syndicates are North America Syndicate and Cowles Syndicate. Each week, Reed Brennan Media Associates, a unit of Hearst, edits and distributes more than 200 features for King Features. Wikipedia.

The author of the July 8th 1974 Red Phantom letter was again demanding that the newspaper "cut or cancel" another section they disliked. The question being - was this another sarcastic dig at the Hearst Corporation, threatening to release 'The Phantom', a fictional costumed crime-fighter, to seek retribution on the San Francisco Chronicle and Count Marco. Except this time, 'The Phantom' had morphed into the 'Red Phantom', red with rage.

The four 1974 communications were mailed in and around the height of the Symbionese Liberation Army, beginning on January 29th 1974, just days before the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst and ending on July 8th 1974, just six weeks after the deadly shootout between Symbionese Liberation Army members and law enforcement on May 17th 1974, resulting in the deaths of six urban militants. The Hearst family being front and center of everything.    

The Exorcist letter was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on January 29th 1974 featuring a 'review' of the 1973 William Friedkin Exorcist movie, a verse from The Mikado's 'Tit-Willow', the usual threat and some curious Asian characters at the foot of the letter, whitewashed from the January 31st San Francisco Chronicle article regarding this communication. Just three days later, a follow-up correspondence, widely labelled the S.L.A letter was mailed, highlighting the word "Kill" at its foot. The Asian characters on the Exorcist letter have been 'decoded' by Zodiac researcher Kevin Robert Brooks to spell "To Kill", opening up the possibility that the designer of the S.L.A letter was immediately responding to the Chronicle's whitewashing of the characters, giving us the solution and thus verifying they were the author of both. However, without being able to convince everybody or anybody of the "To Kill" solution, more is needed in tying these two communications together, along with the May 8th 1974 Citizen card and July 8th 1974 Red Phantom letter. 

The Zodiac Killer had a penchant for the theatrical, appearing in costume at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969 and citing Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado twice in his July 26th 1970 letter. The 1974 Exorcist letter would feature film and theater, the Citizen card expressed consternation at the 1973 Badlands movie and the Red Phantom letter, likewise, may have been referencing a theatrical release of the film El Espectro Rojo or Red Phantom, as detailed by Tom Voigt on Zodiackiller.com. This provides another avenue of inspiration behind the Red Phantom pseudonym chosen by the July 8th 1974 author. It is certainly in keeping with the film and theater angle, heavily laden in the 1974 communications. Tom Voigt articulates that El Espectro Rojo or Red Phantom played at the Port Theater in Mill Valley, Marin County on the 27th and 28th April 1974, just three months prior to the arrival of the Red Phantom letter. The critical part now, is unearthing the inspiration behind the S.L.A letter from a film or theatrical standpoint, and connecting this to a Symbionese Liberation Army member. In a previous article, it has been shown that a Symbionese Liberation Army member typed a letter to the Hearst Family on February 10th 1974 and signed off with "A friend" - a few days earlier, the San Francisco Chronicle S.L.A letter arrived, also signing off with "a friend".  

One possible author of the S.L.A letter (and possibly the Exorcist letter) was Sara Jane Olson (born Kathleen Ann Soliah on January 16, 1947). She was a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army in the 1970s. She grew up in Palmdale, California, the daughter of Norwegian-American parents, Elsie Soliah (née Engstrom) and Palmdale High School English teacher and coach Martin Soliah. Engström, Engstrøm and Engstrom are surnames of Swedish and Norwegian origin. Was she responsible for authoring the S.L.A letter on February 3rd 1974, one or two days before the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst?

To examine this possibility we have to examine her background. The S.L.A letter was postmarked "U.S. Postal Service, CA 913 PM 3 FEB 1974". Kathleen Ann Soliah was brought up in Palmdale, Los Angeles County, California, often frequenting the nearby census-designated area of Agua Dulce. In fact, Agua Dulce was the commuter route from Palmdale to 1466 East 54th Street, Los Angeles -  the site of the deadly shootout between Symbionese Liberation Army members and law enforcement on May 17th 1974, resulting in the deaths of six urban militants. The Symbionese Liberation Army had its main headquarters in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Agua Dulce had a postal zip code of 91390, tying in nicely with the postmark on the February 3rd 1974 S.L.A letter. It is less than five miles from Palmdale. 

To discover the author of the 1974 communications attributed to the Zodiac Killer, we may be looking for somebody familiar with the Zodiac murders and correspondence (particularly with regards to the Exorcist letter), but also, somebody with film and theatrical leanings that may have a strong bearing on the design of the S.L.A letter.

​Kathleen Ann Soliah, after leaving high school, studied acting at nearby Antelope Valley College in Lancaster, California, near Palmdale. She then moved to study theater at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she met her boyfriend and future Symbionese Liberation Army member, James Kilgore. After graduating in 1969 her radicalization intensified during future years in the Bay Area, eventually becoming friends with the notorious Angela Atwood. This is where a blend of her theatrical leanings, Norwegian-American heritage and a passion for writing may have come into play.

S.L.A  member and boyfriend of Kathleen Ann Soliah, James Kilgore, was ultimately jailed in 2002 for his participation in the April 21st 1975 Crocker National Bank robbery that resulted in the murder of bank customer Myrna Lee Opsahl. “I accept full responsibility for my actions on that day,” said Kilgore, a former San Rafael High School honors student and one-time economics major who became an SLA bomb maker and eventually a professor at the University of Cape Town" ReligionNewsBlog. The July 8th 1974 'Red Phantom' letter was mailed from San Rafael, Marin County, and the May 8th 1974 'Badlands' letter was mailed from Alameda County, where the County Coroner's Office received Symbionese Liberation Army threats after the 1973 murder of Marcus Foster. Espectro Rojo or Red Phantom played at the Port Theater in Mill Valley, Marin County.      

When looking for the inspiration behind the S.L.A letter and "Old Norse", keeping in line with the theatrical influences of the Exorcist letter only days earlier, I looked for a link to the theater in the S.L.A letter too. Whoever designed the Exorcist letter, mimicked the July 26th 1970 Mikado letter mailed by Zodiac. The Mikado is a two part comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, which opened to the paying public on March 14th 1885, and was hugely successful, running for 672 performances at the Savoy Theatre in London. Hedda Gabler is a play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen was present at the world premiere, which took place on  January 31st 1891 at the Residenztheater in Munich. It is recognized as a classic of realism, nineteenth century theater, and world drama. The title character, Hedda, is considered one of the great dramatic roles in theater.

Symbionese Liberation Army member, Angela DeAngelis "General Gelina" Atwood died in the Los Angeles shootout on May 17th 1974. A year earlier "Kathleen Ann Soliah worked as a cocktail waitress in San Francisco and took small acting roles. She befriended Angela Atwood, the daughter of a New Jersey Teamsters boss who, like Soliah, had grown up in a middle-class home before coming to Berkeley. Atwood, who appeared with Soliah in "Hedda Gabler," helped her friend get a job at the Great Electric Underground, an upscale restaurant in the Bank of America world headquarters". link.

​If Kathleen Ann Soliah authored the February 3rd 1974 S.L.A letter referencing her Norwegian heritage of "Old Norse" and signing off with "a friend", then she was likely the author of the February 10th 1974 S.L.A Hearst letter, again signing off with "A friend". ​Her role in the Norwegian Hedda Gabler theater production would be an influence she carried forward, when we consider the presence of "Old Norse" in the February 3rd 1974 communication. The premiere of Hedda Gabbler opened on January 31st - the same day in history that the San Francisco Chronicle featured the arrival of the Exorcist letter. 

"At this period of Ibsen's youth, Norway experienced a nationalist awakening. The new literary generation, after 400 years of Danish rule, sought to revive the glories of Norwegian history and medieval literature. The middle ages were glorified as well because the romantic movement was in full swing throughout Europe. Thus, when Ole Bull, the great violinist, founded a norse theater at Bergen, the project met with enthusiastic approval from all the youthful idealists eager to subvert the influence of Danish culture.  Encouraged by the success of Ole Bull’s Norse theater in Bergen, enthusiasts of nationalist poetry in the capital also founded a new theater in direct competition with the conservative, Danish-influenced Christiania Theater. Asked to direct this new venture, Ibsen’s promised salary was twice the amount he received at Bergen, about six hundred specie dollars  The problems of Ibsen’s social dramas are consistent throughout all his works. Georg Brandes, a contemporary critic, said of Ibsen, as early as the 1860s, that “his progress from one work to the other is not due to a rich variety of themes and ideas, but on the contrary to a perpetual scrutiny of the same general questions, regarded from different points of view.”
Hedda Gabler, with its emphasis on individual psychology, is a close scrutiny of a woman like Nora Helmer or Mrs. Alving, who searches for personal meaning in a society which denies freedom of expression". link.

The Det norske Theater is a former theater in Bergen, Norway, and regarded as the first pure Norwegian stage theatre. It opened in 1850 by primus motor, violinist Ole Bull, and closed in 1863, after a bankruptcy. Norwegian (norsk) is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is the official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional varieties, and some Norwegian and Swedish dialects, in particular, are very close. These Scandinavian languages, together with Faroese and Icelandic as well as some extinct languages, constitute the North Germanic languages. Faroese and Icelandic are hardly mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them. While the two Germanic languages with the greatest numbers of speakers, English and German, have close similarities with Norwegian, neither is mutually intelligible with it. Norwegian is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. Wikipedia.

On November 6th 1973 two members of the urban militant group 'The Symbionese Liberation Army' killed school superintendent Marcus Foster and badly wounded his deputy, Robert Blackburn, as the two men left an Oakland school board meeting. Two months later on January 10th 1974 Joseph Remiro and Russell Little were arrested, charged and convicted of the murder of Marcus Foster. They would become the focus of a ransom note (February 7th) mailed by the Symbionese Liberation Army shortly after the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst on February 4th 1974. It read "We're holding your daughter Patricia Hearst and we're never going to give her back to you unless you pigs let Remiro and Little out of prison." On April 15th 1974 members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, including Patricia Hearst brandishing an M1 carbine, burst into the Hibernia Bank branch at 1450 Noriega Street, San Francisco, stole $10,000 and shot two civilians. Money needed to secure housing and supplies to continue their recruitment of new members to the cause, and carry on the fight to release their jailed comrades.

At about the same time, the Badlands film directed by Terrence Malick, and starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek was on general release in New York (24th March 1974) and Los Angeles (29th March 1974). The story, though fictional, is loosely based on the real-life murder spree of Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, in 1958. The San Francisco Chronicle ran advertisements for the film, which may very well have prompted a reaction from the Symbionese Liberation Army, who were still fighting for the release of S.L.A  members Joseph Remiro and Russell Little. On May 8th 1974 a communication was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, stating "Sirs -- I would like to expression my  consternation concerning your poor taste + lack of sympathy for the public, as evidenced by your running of the ads for the movie "Badlands," featuring the blurb: "In 1959 most people were killing time. Kit + Holly were killing people." In light of recent events, this kind of murder-glorification can only be deplorable at best (not that glorification of violence was ever justifiable) why don't you show some concern for public sensibilities + cut the ad?  A citizen." The Symbionese Liberation Army [supposition] could not understand, from their perspective, the hypocrisy of running advertisements for the 'Badlands' movie glorifying the murder of innocent civilians, while at the same time aiding their newspaper circulation by protracted coverage of the murder of Marcus Foster by Remiro and Little. The Chronicle, as they saw it, was benefiting financially from the murder-glorification of "recent events" (Marcus Foster) that they personally felt wronged by.  

In the FBI files regarding the Symionese Liberation Army (shown above), a memorandum dated 30th April 1974 indicated that  the Hearst Corporation was prepared to offer a 4 million dollar food plan on May 3rd 1974 for the safe return of their daughter. The Sunday San Francisco Examiner asking for "citizen assistance" had already run a feature article on April 28th 1974 (based on the file information), which resulted in the paper receiving 75 telephone calls offering information regarding S.L.A members. Only 10 days later, on May 8th 1974, the 'Citizen' card arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle, scolding the paper for its movie advertisements, before signing off the letter with "A Citizen". I'm sure the irony wasn't lost on the Symbionese Liberation Army.  

In a previous article entitled 'The Symbionese Liberation Army and the Zodiac Killer', an S.L.A member was considered as the possible author of the February 3rd 1974 S.L.A letter because of the "Old Norse" reference. Sara Jane Olson (born Kathleen Ann Soliah on January 16, 1947) was a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army in the 1970s. She grew up in Palmdale, California, the daughter of Norwegian-American parents. So, can we wipe away any preconceived notions about the S.L.A letter, Badlands card and Red Phantom letter with respect to the Zodiac Killer, and view them from the perspective of having been written by a woman, or at the very least, a member or affiliate of the Symbionese Liberation Army. Here is the text from the three communications:
[1] The S.L.A letter: Dear Mr Editor, Did you know that the initials SLAY spell "sla", an old Norse word meaning "kill". a friend.

[2]The Badlands card: Sirs -- I would like to expression my consternt (crossed out) consternation concerning your poor taste + lack of sympathy for the public, as evidenced by your running of the ads for the movie "Badlands," featuring the blurb: "In 1959 most people were killing time. Kit + Holly were killing people." In light of recent events, this kind of murder-glorification can only be deplorable at best (not that glorification of violence was ever justifiable) why don't you show some concern for public sensibilities + cut the ad?  A citizen.
​ 
[3]The Red Phantom letter: Editor: Put Marco back in the hell-hole from whence it came- he has a serious psychological disorder- always needs to feel superior. I suggest you refer him to a shrink. Meanwhile, cancel the Count Marco column. Since the count can write anonymously, so can I----the Red Phantom (red with rage).

Other than the psychological connection we touched upon in the Edward C. Adams article, what other possible reasons would the Zodiac Killer have for addressing Count Marco, a columnist who gave outrageous advice to women via the San Francisco Chronicle for 15 years. A murderer, who didn't give a second thought to shooting two women a total of 10 times, before also ruthlessly stabbing Cecelia Shepard in the back and abdomen 10 times, was now, just a few years later, objecting to "murder-glorification" and bigoted advise to women. A man devoid of empathy and driven by an insatiable ego had now become the proverbial "snowflake", quivering and upset because of an advice columnist and a film advertisement. Had the Zodiac Killer really achieved a complete transformation in just a matter of three years. If we believe the Exorcist letter as genuine Zodiac material, stating "If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing", then the transformation had occurred in just over 3 months.  

The Zodiac Killer could have been toying with the newspapers, disingenuously feigning concern while laughing at the authorities - or he was simply not the author of these banal communications that surfaced in 1974.

The Symbionese Liberation Army didn't have unrealistic ideals, but unfortunately used contemptible means to achieve them.

"In his manifesto "Symbionese Liberation Army Declaration of Revolutionary War & the Symbionese Program", Donald DeFreeze wrote, "The name 'symbionese' is taken from the word symbiosis and we define its meaning as a body of dissimilar bodies and organisms living in deep and loving harmony and partnership in the best interest of all within the body. "This political symbiosis DeFreeze describes means the unity of all left-wing struggles, feminist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and others. DeFreeze wanted all races, genders, and ages to fight together in a left-wing united front, and to live together peacefully". Wikipedia.

​With many female S.L.A members aligned with feminist ideals, would it be that difficult to believe, that the Red Phantom letter was aimed at Marc H. Spinelli (Count Marco) and his San Francisco Chronicle column because of its often belittling or denigrating comments towards women?

​"Betty Friedan, whose 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is credited with reviving the feminist movement, originally called the strike at the conference of the National Organization for Women in March. As head of the hastily assembled National Women's Strike Coalition, she had predicted an impressive turnout. Inevitably, the women had their detractors. The San Francisco Chronicle's Count Marco called the strike "a day of infamy and shame" and urged his supporters to wear black armbands "mourning the death of femininity." link. 
"Count Marco was an extremely popular columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle with an outrageous persona; this book of advice (Beauty and the Beast) on how to please a man was mainly for the ladies of "The Greatest Generation" and pre-boomers, whom it surely shocked and annoyed with its sexual frankness and its assumption that American women had everything to learn from European women; feminist readers now would be shocked by his assumption that women's lives are empty without masculine love and their main goal in life should be to please their "beasts." link.  In other words, the Red Phantom letter was authored by a female member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (or a male member with a belief in feminism) in order to confront the opinionated columnist. 

I am not a staunch advocate of handwriting analysis due to its subjective nature and the fact it can be disguised, but here is the Red Phantom letter next to an extract taken from a Symbionese Liberation Army notebook - written before the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst on February 4th 1974.

At around 2am on the morning of October 22nd 1969 an unknown male called the Oakland Police Department, claiming he was the Zodiac and requested that Francis Lee Bailey should appear on a channel 7 talk show later that day, but if F. Lee Bailey was unavailable he would accept Melvin Belli instead. Both were high profile lawyers of the day.
Melvin Belli, known as 'The King of Torts' by many, but also referred to as 'Melvin Bellicose' in a less favorable light by some, accepted the invitation to the Jim Dunbar Show, eventually receiving a telephone call from a man claiming to be the Zodiac, but Nancy Slover, Dave Slaight and Bryan Hartnell, the only three people to have heard the killer's voice, all categorically stated that the man who had phoned into the show was not the Zodiac. It turned out to be a mental patient called Eric Weil.
However, the Oakland officer who took the original call believed that the voice from the channel 7 talk show did not match his mystery caller, leaving open the possibility that the Zodiac may have still been involved in events.   

Francis Lee Bailey was a criminal defense attorney prominent in the retrial and subsequent release of Sam Sheppard, originally convicted for the murder of his wife Marilyn on July 4th 1954, who was found bludgeoned to death in her bed.
However, Francis Lee Bailey was not to be forgotten by the Zodiac Killer or at the very least it appeared that way.
After the questionable 'Pines' card of March 22nd 1971, the Zodiac Killer seemingly disappeared from prominence, either through incarceration, work commitments or simply by choice, having found a new pathway. But he was to reappear just shy of three years later heralding the Exorcist Letter on January 29th 1974, closely followed by the SLA letter on Valentine's Day of that year.
The letters of this period took a turn, and appeared less threatening, with the emphasis now shifting to a media driven fascination, citing the movies The Exorcist, Badlands, The Red Phantom, and indeed implied he was showing an avid interest in the current news of the day.
Throughout 1973 and 1974 breaking stories were pushing the Zodiac murders further from the front pages and in an apparent late rally the killer attempted to thrust himself back into prominence, allying himself to news articles, fearing his notoriety was beginning to dwindle. The Zebra murders in San Francisco spanning seven months from October 19th 1973 to April 16th 1974, and the Patty Hearst kidnapping from her Berkeley, California apartment by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) on February 4th 1974 seemed to reignite the dormant Zodiac into a response, but with one key figure possibly still prominent in his thinking.  

Patricia Hearst was the granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, gaining notoriety during the latter years of the counterculture revolution on account of her seemingly complicit involvement with the Symbionese Liberation Army. 
William Randolph Hearst's beginnings started when he took charge of the San Francisco Examiner in 1887 and his life story was the inspiration that drove the lead character in the Orson Welles 1941 film Citizen Kane, in certain polls voted the greatest film of all time.

It has been noted previously that the 'Citizen' card mailed on May 8th 1974 was indeed the 33rd anniversary of the Los Angeles premier of the Citizen Kane film in 1941. And in a previous article, that the 'Exorcist' letter mailed on January 29th 1974 was the 16th anniversary of the demise and capture of Charles Starkweather back in 1958. 
The 'Citizen' card criticized the glorification of Badlands in light of recent events, the 'Exorcist' letter was the notable anniversary of Charles Starkweather's arrest, and the 'SLA' letter can be associated with the Citizen card/Badlands letter through the Hearst family name, tying up all three pieces of correspondence into a neat bundle.
But if the Citizen Kane angle is not one you subscribe to, then the pack of cards we have just built is sitting on fragile ground. 

Thanks to http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/reply/68764#.UwuiYfl_tZl
http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/topic/6105/Citizen-Card-at-33-yr-anniv-of-Citizen-Kane#.UwujGvl_tZl

On May 8th 1974, a letter was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, often referred to as the 'Badlands' letter or 'Citizen' card, referencing the 1973 movie Badlands, directed by Terrence Malick and starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek.
The movie was based upon the real life events of Charles Raymond Starkweather (20) and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate (14), a pair of spree killers who went on a two month rampage killing numerous people, beginning in 1957 and culminating in 1958, including Fugate's entire family in the area of Nebraska and Wyoming, before they were finally captured. Starkweather was sentenced to death and died in the electric chair just after midnight at Nebraska State Penitentiary on June 25th 1959, while Fugate received a life sentence, eventually commuted, allowing her to be released in June 1976.
If this letter was genuine Zodiac correspondence, what was it about the movie Badlands that struck a chord with the killer of at least five people between December 20th 1968 and October 11th 1969. Was there anything in the movie or case history of these murderers, that sparked the trigger behind the Zodiac Killer, he now appeared to be at odds with.
Charles Raymond Starkweather was afflicted early on in his life with several handicaps, including bow leggedness, severe myopia, bordering on blindness and a speech impediment, which unsurprisingly led to bullying and teasing at Saratoga Elementary School, Everett Junior High School and Lincoln High School. The tables however would eventually be turned, as Starkweather grew from the bullied to the bully, in reaction to his years of torment at the hand of classmates.
He assimilated an identity based on the actor James Dean, famous for his starring role in the 1955 movie 'Rebel Without a Cause', even sweeping his hair back in similar fashion. 
This next section will be looking for any correlation between the killer in Northern California and the Starkweather and Fugate murder spree. 
We have previously considered that the Zodiac Killer may have suffered with a speech impediment, and we know the Zodiac Killer's voice was only heard by three people. Two police dispatchers, Dave Slaight and Nancy Slover took calls from the killer minutes after the Lake Berryessa and Blue Rock Springs Attacks, along with the surviving victim of the Lake Berressa Attack, Bryan Hartnell. Was our killer identifying or empathizing with Charles Starkweather in any way, however small. 
Nancy Slover described the voice as mature, without accent, who spoke even but consistent, soft but forceful, as if reading from a script. Bryan Hartnell stated that the man spoke with a drawl, a form of slow drawn out speech pattern, and later during an interview described the man's voice as a "unique way of talking". It has been surmised that the Zodiac Killer may have been afflicted with a moderate speech impediment, that he controlled in later years by speaking in a deliberate monotone fashion, not unlike the voice described by both Nancy Slover and Bryan Hartnell.
Kevin Robert Brooks highlighted that his prime suspect Donald Lee Bujok suffered progressive bullying at school on account of his speech impediment, that may have carved out the resentment that he carried forward into his adult life, not unlike Charles Starkweather before him.  

Is it possible the murderer of five people in Northern California, in any way identified with the infamous Charles Starkweather, in particular that they both suffered constantly throughout their childhood, possibly identifying through news reports the similarities of their upbringing, and the hurt that manifested itself in the most brutal way. Having possibly viewed the 1973 movie Badlands, the memories in our killer were reborn. But, in an apparently reformed guise, he was now condemning the glorification of murder depicted in the movie, the real instigators, which in his mind were fundamentally being ignored as the underlying reasons behind the crimes, signing off the latest letter and placing emphasis on the now reformed citizen. 
There is no suggestion of any correlation between the nature of the crimes in 1958 and the Zodiac Killer attacks over a decade later, although interesting observations have been noted from time to time. Here is an example from Zodiackiller.com. 
But there is another one, although it must be stressed this is only an observation and no credence should be necessarily given to whether or not a link exists. 
Charles Starkweather's final victim was attacked and murdered in his car, as was the Zodiac's. This final act ultimately was to bring about the demise of Charles Starkweather, whereas the Zodiac Killer exited the scene of Washington and Cherry Streets, never to be seen again and the rest, as they say, is history.
During the morning of January 29th 1958, Starkweather and Fugate were fleeing towards the state of Wyoming, near Douglas, but they needed to get rid of their 1957 Packard Patrician, as it was attracting too much attention. They spotted a traveling salesman Merle Collison (37) sleeping in his Buick and demanded that he relinquish his vehicle, but when he refused Starkweather shot him nine times in total, three times in the face. (View crime scene photograph). However he could not drive the Buick, as he was unfamiliar with its push pedal emergency brake system. When a passer-by offered his assistance Starkweather produced his rifle and the two men ended up wrestling with each other. At that exact moment Deputy Sheriff William Romer appeared on the scene, giving Fugate her opportunity to run to the Sheriff shouting "He's killed a man". Starkweather got back in the Packard and sped off into the distance. After a brief chase of speeds in excess of 100 miles an hour, finally law enforcement officers shot out the Packard's back window, injuring Charles Starkweather with shards of flying glass. He mistakenly thought he had been shot and surrendered meekly.

Driving through the dark lanes and highways from Montana to the fringes of Vallejo may have seemed a daunting journey for many back in December 1968, especially having just been released from Old Montana State Prison near Deer Lodge, but Donald Lee Bujok was no ordinary man.
Possibly fuelled by his mission to exact his revenge on the police and authorities and gripped by the psychosis that shaped his very nature, the thousand mile long journey began, before he would reach the dim flicker of the California skyline, driven by a disorder that few understood but many would fail to forget.
Did this journey of Donald Lee Bujok ever take place, one cannot be certain looking in from the window outside, but Zodiac researcher Kevin Robert Brooks takes a passenger side view of a man he believes is none other than the Zodiac Killer.
Donald Lee Bujok was marginalized early in his fledgling life and suffered from a form of bi-polar disorder, in which mania is a common trait, manifesting itself in distraction and behavioural changes that include aggression, invincibilty and sometimes rage, in which the subject may feel they have been chosen for a higher purpose.

'Montana Connection', despite many researchers having written Donald Lee Bujok out of their thoughts as a viable suspect.
But without being privy to the complete Donald Lee Bujok story, we can extract some interesting processes from the mind of Bujok from several letters he mailed to the Billings Gazette in 1974/5, and draw some interesting parallels to the Zodiac letters. Although nothing new, it is interesting none the less, to highlight once again this comparison.
Probably the most interesting letter he sent to the Billings Gazette was his reference to the Exorcist film (see here), dated June 2nd 1974, approximately four months after the Zodiac mailed the Exorcist Letter to the San Francisco Chronicle on January 29th 1974. Within the article he ridicules the idea of possession and thoughts of the supernatural, not unlike Zodiac's declaration at the top of the Exorcist Letter, where he stated "I saw and think the Exorcist was the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen".
On March 22nd 1974, in another letter to the Billings Gazette, he seemed irked by a Dick Tracy horror strip apparently promoting poor moral values, mirroring the Badlands/Citizen Letter sent by the supposed Zodiac on May 8th 1974, just one and a half months later, in which he chastised the running of advertisements for the Badlands movie in similar poor taste, as well as parallels to the attack on columnist Marco Spinelli in the Red Phantom Letter on July 8th 1974.
But certain inferences in the letters fly in the face of the Zodiac's tendency for threats and humiliation of law enforcement, when Donald Lee Bujok attempts to take the moral high ground. Unless of course you believe the 1974 Exorcist Letter marked the end of Zodiac's reign of terror and the address to the Billings Gazette, culminating with the Badlands Letter, marked a new dawn for Donald Lee Bujok, and the day when the mask of the Zodiac finally slipped from the face of a killer. 
Kevin Robert Brooks has taken this journey alongside Donald Lee Bujok- it has been a long one, but was the destination Benicia on one dark December night back in 1968, or was the road map just another twisting diversion of dead ends......    

Thanks to Kevin Robert Brooks.