The Zodiac Killer is allowed to produce handwriting in subsequent letters the same or similar to previous communications because he is effectively doing no more than mimicking himself. A copycat or hoaxer can mimic the Zodiac Killer using previously published letters and envelopes in the newspapers, but what they cannot do is mimic unreleased communications by the Zodiac Killer. To my knowledge, only two envelopes were released to the newspapers prior to January 29th 1974 that were addressed to San Francisco. The envelope to the Melvin Belli letter was released on December 28th 1969 with the address of "Mr. Melvin M. Belli 1228 Mtgy San Fran Calif". The envelope to the 340 cipher was released on November 16th 1970 with the address of "S.F. Chronicle San Francisco Calif Please Rush to Editor".  The author of the Exorcist letter (if a hoaxer) when addressing their envelope to the San Francisco Chronicle only had these two envelopes to work with, but copied neither. This mimicry would have been expected of a hoaxer.  

Instead, the author of the Exorcist letter chose to mimic part of the address from two envelopes mailed by the Zodiac Killer in April 1970. These two envelopes were addressed San Fran (dot) Chronicle on April 20th and April 28th 1970 and never publicly released via the newspapers prior to January 29th 1974. When you look at the April 28th 1970 envelope in particular, it isn't just the handwriting that is extremely similar, it's the positioning of the detached full-stop, the spacing between each of the three components, the very slight left to right slant, the marginally elevated letter L, the letter I is dotted directly above in every instance, and both the letters R and H are slightly separated. The April 20th and April 28th envelopes were the only two Zodiac communications up to January 29th 1974 that were addressed in this fashion, yet the author of the Exorcist letter (if a hoaxer) would have managed to virtually replicate every facet of this address despite having never laid eyes on them. This clearly shows that the Exorcist letter author was the Zodiac Killer, putting to rest any notion that this letter may have been fraudulent.     

People will say this just further proves that the Exorcist letter was penned by Inspector David Toschi, who had inside knowledge of the two April 1970 letters. Why would Inspector David Toschi copy the address so perfectly from an envelope that had never been released into the public domain by January 29th 1974, thereby drawing suspicion towards somebody from within? He was an intelligent seasoned investigator, not an imbecile. The exact same reasoning can be applied to the 1978 letter when comparing the opening line from each communication. A copycat or investigator would apply logic, and mimic the widely publicized "This is the Zodiac speaking" introduction displayed in four San Francisco Chronicle publications (or mimic the 11 out of the 12 communications prior to January 29th 1974 that carried this introduction), not mimic an introduction never released into the public domain such as "This is the Zodiac speaking I" in the Melvin Belli letter. However, the Zodiac Killer is perfectly allowed to be himself.   

According to Alan Keel, Criminalist at the San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco, California from 1996 to 1999, he "revealed that there were two letters in possession of the department that, in contrast to the "true" Zodiac letters, had abundant saliva and DNA-containing oral epithelial cells on them, that DNA was easily extracted from these two letters, and that the DNA extracted from these two letters matched between them. These two letters were considered forgeries, since the "true" Zodiac verifiable letters had not been licked by the sender". According to Zodiac researcher, Mike Rodelli, Alan Keel had "analyzed two letters, one of which is the 1978 'forgery', and finds that this letter and one of the 1974 letters are loaded with saliva and cells. He then easily extracts DNA from both of these letters using the more primitive DNA technology of that time and finds that the DNA matches between those two letters, thus proving that one person sent both". 

In Mike Rodelli's latest book In the Shadow of Mount Diablo he makes it obvious that he believes the SLA and Red Phantom letters are communications mailed by the Zodiac Killer. He is also fairly confident that the true Zodiac letters were not licked by the sender. This being the case, then he must accept that the SLA and Red Phantom letters should have no oral epithelial cells on them. The Badlands postcard was pre-stamped, so provided no opportunity for reliable DNA testing. Therefore, the only possible match between the DNA from the 1978 letter and one of the 1974 letters, using Mike Rodelli's thought process, had to be between the 1978 letter and the Exorcist letter. If Alan Keel's claimed statement is correct, then I agree. The problem however, is that the Exorcist letter is almost certainly genuine Zodiac material because of the comparison between its envelope and the unpublished envelopes from April 1970 (which hadn't been published by January 29th 1974). So, if the Exorcist letter is genuine, so is the 1978 letter.        

If the SLA and Red Phantom letters had been tested and had hypothetically produced a full DNA sample, then Mike would probably agree that the DNA on both letters should have matched (and therefore was secreted from Zodiac). In fact, they couldn't have been tested to produce a full DNA sample, because if they had been authored by the same individual, the 1978 letter would have matched at least two 1974 letters, not one (as apparently claimed by Alan Keel). This is apparent in the DNA chart, that doesn't attribute anything to the Red Phantom letter in comments, and doesn't even include the SLA letter at all. If correct, then the statements of Alan Keel implies that both the 1978 and Exorcist letters have a full DNA profile, which can then be stored and entered into CODIS when required, or used in the science of genetic genealogy. Unless this DNA "print out" has been mislaid or thrown away (which would seem inconceivable), then the profile of these communications can be used, much like Joseph James DeAngelo Jr, to search for any genealogical links that may be relevant to a killer operating in the Bay Area of Northern California.  

FOLLOW UP ARTICLES:
THE GENETIC IDENTITY OF THE KILLER      WE MAY ALREADY HAVE ZODIAC DNA

Based on Mike Rodelli's book and everything he has stated over the last few years, we should today have the ability to either incriminate or exclude Kjell Qvale as the Zodiac Killer.once and for all. According to Alan Keel, Criminalist at the San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco, California from 1996 to 1999, he "revealed that there were two letters in possession of the department that, in contrast to the "true" Zodiac letters, had abundant saliva and DNA-containing oral epithelial cells on them, that DNA was easily extracted from these two letters, and that the DNA extracted from these two letters matched between them. These two letters were considered forgeries, since the "true" Zodiac verifiable letters had not been licked by the sender". According to Mike, Alan Keel had "analyzed two letters, one of which is the 1978 'forgery', and finds that this letter and one of the 1974 letters are loaded with saliva and cells. He then easily extracts DNA from both of these letters using the more primitive DNA technology of that time and finds that the DNA matches between those two letters, thus proving that one person sent both". The only problem with the statements by Alan Keel is that the 1978 letter is unlikely to be a forgery. 

On October 29th 2021, Mike Rodelli stated on the Zodiac Killer message board "The fact remains that in 2007 Keel told me, as he had told Lafferty before me, that there is a 1974 forgery based on DNA and the ONLY 1974 letter that had been tested for the presence of cells during Keel's tenure (as demonstrated by the DNA chart that I believe Keel made in about 2000) was the Exorcist letter. This is not rocket science.  Even if it is not the Exorcist letter that Keel was talking about, it IS a candidate as being a forgery whose DNA matches the 1978 letter based on the information in the chart". Mike Rodelli is correct. The only communication from 1974 that can conceivably match the DNA from the 1978 letter is the Exorcist letter. Mike also stated on the Zodiac Killer Net forum "This is where the rubber truly meets the road in this discussion and where we can see that it is unlikely that anyone but Zodiac wrote the SLA letter. When you look at the hand printing on the SLA letter in a vacuum, it certainly does not jump off the page to me that it was penned by Zodiac. But when you take a close look at the envelope, that is a different story". Mike then shows comparisons between the SLA envelope and the Stine envelope, 340 envelope, Bus Bomb envelope and Kathleen Johns envelope, arguing "It's hard to look at these envelopes and not see the similarities. And note that the November 8, 1969 envelope contained a piece of Stine's shirt, thus proving its authorship as being from Zodiac".       

Therefore, if Mike Rodelli is being fair-minded and believes the SLA handwriting is consistent with these other communications, then he should have no argument conceding that the handwriting and construction of the Exorcist envelope handwriting is consistent with the envelopes from April 20th 1970 and April 28th 1970, which he believes are Zodiac communications. Mike should therefore come to the same conclusion, that since the two April 1970 envelopes were the Zodiac Killer, then so is the Exorcist letter. The April 1970 communications were the only two confirmed Zodiac envelopes to carry the address of San Fran (dot) Chronicle prior to January 29th 1974. The envelopes were also never released into the public domain, meaning the Exorcist letter author could not have mimicked them.       

Mike should now agree that having established the Exorcist letter as genuine Zodiac material - and using the findings of Alan Keel and Mike's correct argument that the 1978 DNA should conceivably match the Exorcist letter DNA (being the only ones tested in the DNA chart) - we have to conclude that the 1978 letter is genuine as well. Mike went on to say on the Zodiac Killer message board "Keel further allowed, although not in this email but in a conversation I had with him at about the same time, that there was so little saliva on the Zodiac letters that it would not be unfair to say that they had been sealed with tap water and the stamps applied with tap water. So if you're wondering why after 20 years we still don't have a verified sample of Zodiac's DNA it's because the only DNA he may have left on these letters is from when he applied the stamps to the envelopes. If he wet the stamps with water but didn't wear gloves then as he applied the stamps to the envelopes the glue could have pulled a few odd cells off of the tips of his fingers thus leaving essentially touch DNA on the stamps. That is why if they do have Zodiac's DNA today it is because of this minute number of cells that they have had to find using the most Advanced Techniques available".

The argument being that the "true Zodiac letters" had few cells, whereas the fraudulent Zodiac letters had "had abundant saliva and DNA-containing oral epithelial cells". However, we have now established that the Exorcist letter is genuine, just like the two April 1970 communications. Yet these two envelopes have few cells found in the DNA chart, whereas the Exorcist letter has abundant cells, despite one author throughout. This disproves the contention of Alan Keel that the 1978 letter is a forgery, that matches one of the 1974 communications. All it proves is that the Zodiac Killer authored the 1978 letter and one of the 1974 communications. These findings also disprove the notion that the Zodiac Killer didn't lick his envelopes and/or stamps. The only way to argue the findings presented above, is to claim that there is unfounded similarity between the Exorcist envelope handwriting and the two April 1970 envelopes, while simultaneously claiming there is a similarity between the SLA envelope and the Stine envelope, 340 envelope, Bus Bomb envelope and Kathleen Johns envelope, But this would be an argument in bad faith.

The DNA chart stating that a "DNA sample was obtained" from the 1978 letter appears to back up Mike Rodelli's statement of this letter producing enough DNA to create a profile, based on the findings of Alan Keel. This being the case, if the profile of the 1978 letter matches the profile of the Exorcist letter, then we have a full DNA profile of the Zodiac Killer. Forensic genetic genealogy can now be used to discover the ancestry of the killer and ultimately identify him, in similar fashion to that used in the case of the Golden State Killer, resulting in Joseph James DeAngelo,Jr. pleading guilty to thirteen counts of murder on June 29th 2020 

FOLLOW UP ARTICLE: WE ALREADY HAVE ZODIAC DNA   

Below, on November 16th 1970, is one of the rare times that a Zodiac Killer envelope found itself published in the San Francisco Chronicle. This was the envelope containing the Dripping Pen card and 340 cipher. 

To this day the vast majority of people believe the Exorcist letter to be a genuine Zodiac communication. If this is the case, then the 1978 letter should also be considered genuine Zodiac material, if you believe the findings of Alan Keel as testified to by Zodiac investigator Mike Rodelli. Alan Keel, Criminalist at the San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco, California from 1996 to 1999 "revealed that there were two letters in possession of the department that, in contrast to the "true" Zodiac letters, had abundant saliva and DNA-containing oral epithelial cells on them, that DNA was easily extracted from these two letters, and that the DNA extracted from these two letters matched between them. These two letters were considered forgeries, since the "true" Zodiac verifiable letters had not been licked by the sender". According to Mike, Alan Keel had "analyzed two letters, one of which is the 1978 'forgery', and finds that this letter and one of the 1974 letters are loaded with saliva and cells. He then easily extracts DNA from both of these letters using the more primitive DNA technology of that time and finds that the DNA matches between those two letters, thus proving that one person sent both".

The only two communications tested in the San Francisco Police Department DNA  report  for cells, from 1974 onwards, were the Exorcist letter and 1978 letter. Therefore, these were the only letters that could reasonably have matched for DNA. Two of the other 1974 communications were not processed for DNA, and the SLA letter wasn't even listed as a "suspected Zodiac correspondence". If Alan Keel believes the 1978 letter to be a "forgery" along with one of the 1974 letters, it is unlikely to be the Exorcist letter. The envelopes of the April 20th 1970 (13-Symbol cipher letter) and April 28th 1970 (Dragon card) were not published in any newspapers. These were the only two confirmed Zodiac envelopes to carry the address of San Fran (dot) Chronicle prior to January 29th 1974. Below is a comparison from these two envelopes and the Exorcist letter. The author of the Exorcist letter (if a hoaxer) had the option to copy the envelope published in the San Francisco Chronicle on November 16th 1970, but chose not to. The handwriting, spacing and composition almost certainly suggests one author. If you believe that the April 20th 1970 and April 28th 1970 letters to be the Zodiac Killer, then it's reasonable to conclude the Exorcist letter (and envelope) was composed by the Zodiac Killer as well.

If we arrive at the conclusion that the Exorcist letter is genuine based on the above comparisons, and dismiss the SLA & Red Phantom letters as having nothing to do with the Zodiac case based on findings previously shown on this website, then one has to conclude (if Alan Keel is correct) that the DNA from the 1978 letter must match the DNA from the Badlands/Citizen card. But this seemingly wasn't tested for cells in the DNA chart.  If the DNA from the 1978 letter (claimed as a forgery) somehow matched either the SLA or Red Phantom letter, then we would have to rule out both the SLA and Red Phantom letters because their envelopes were written by the same author (see below). Mike Rodelli has argued to the SLA letter (and envelope} being authored by the Zodiac Killer based on handwriting. If he is an advocate for handwriting analysis, then he should come to the conclusion that the SLA & Red Phantom envelopes were written by one author (since neither were published in the newspapers). The SLA & Red Phantom envelopes would also contain the same DNA profile. This being the case, along with the comparisons above suggesting the Exorcist letter is genuine, leaves only the Badlands/Citizen card to match in DNA with the 1978 letter (because only one 1974 letter matched with the 1978 letter). But again, this wasn't tested in the DNA chart. The claim of Alan Keel (assuming this is correct) "that the DNA extracted from two letters matched in DNA", can now produce only one possibility. If the DNA from the 1978 letter matched the Red Phantom letter, then the SLA letter can be ruled out also (this would effectively be three matches). If the DNA from the 1978 letter matched the SLA letter, then the Red Phantom letter can similarly be ruled out.

Therefore, if only two letters matched in DNA, the only possible option is the Exorcist letter and 1978 letter, making both genuine Zodiac communications. Especially when you consider the Exorcist letter was the only communication processed for DNA (and cells were found). This suggests that Zodiac did lick his envelopes and/or stamps. It also suggests that David Toschi is not responsible for writing the 1978 letter, because if he did, he would also be the author of the Exorcist letter, April 20th 1970 letter and April 28th 1970 letter, based on the argument of Alan Keel and the findings above. 

THE PHANTOM ZODIAC LETTER ON JULY 8TH 1974 [PART ONE]
​THE PHANTOM ZODIAC LETTER ON JULY 8TH 1974 [PART TWO]

Whether the New York "by fire" attacks on Catholic churches in July 1974 were inspired by the events in San Francisco and Daly City in 1974 is unknown, but let us examine the story anyway.

Somebody purporting to be the Zodiac Killer phoned the San Francisco Police Department and several newspaper outlets on January 11th 1974 claiming to have murdered a woman and placed her body inside a Daly City church. Police mobilized a search, but after several hours they were unable to find any murdered woman, concluding it was very likely a hoax. On January 29th 1974, a letter believed to have been authored by the Zodiac Killer arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle stating "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy that I have ever seen".

Exactly six months after the postmark date of The Exorcist letter, on July 29th 1974, a blaze erupted at the Roman Catholic Church, St. Vincent Ferrer, at 65th Street and Lexington Avenue in the Upper East Side of Manhattan at about 9:50 pm. Reverend Thomas Smith (71) unable to escape the fire, unfortunately died of asphyxiation. Ten minutes after the fire engulfed the church, a man claiming to be the Zodiac Killer phoned the news agency United Press International threatening to "unleash a tirade against the Catholic church. Priests are going to die. Someday people will realize that Christianity is a fraud". This phone call was followed by several more to The Daily News from 10:30 pm to 3:45 am, also claiming to be from the Zodiac Killer, The following day at 11:33 pm, the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, at Fifth Avenue and 10th Street became the second church to be targetted by the arsonist, shortly followed by a third attack just 30 minutes later and two miles away, at the Episcopal church, St. Mary the Virgin, at 145 West 46th Street. No other casualties were reported at the latter two fires.

It was the fire at St. Mary the Virgin that gave officers their initial break, when a female eyewitness was able to give a description of the killer. He was eventually arrested close to West Side Church and identified as Gordon Earl Marais (56), a former mental patient living at 117 West 71st Street, located within three miles of every crime scene. After the arrest of the suspect, Assistant Chief James T. Sullivan, the acting chief of detectives, described the suspect as bearing “considerable animosity toward the Catholic Church". The police suspected he was the telephone caller, who used the pseudonym “Zodiac". 

The Zodiac Killer is often dismissed as a footnote in history, 'only' responsible for the murder of five people in California over fifty years ago, but it seems that his legacy may have inspired many more murders subsequent to his relatively brief reign of terror, that included Heriberto Seda, dubbed the "New York Zodiac", and the 1997 Tokyo Child Murders committed by Shinichiro Azuma. Arsonist and murderer, Gordon Earl Marais may not be the Zodiac Killer, but his attacks on Catholic churches just six months after the Daly City affair, along with the mailing of The Exorcist letter in San Francisco, in response to the William Friedkin movie revolving around catholicism, makes you wonder how far his legacy reached - and is still reaching. 

On December 26th 1973, The Exorcist film, directed by William Friedkin and based on a novel by William Peter Blatty, was released over the festive period to an eagerly anticipated American audience, who were both shocked and amazed in equal measure. Reactions ranged from laughter and enjoyment, to vomiting, fainting, suicide, miscarriage, the clutching of rosary beads and the inevitable response of the church, who for the most part, found the movie ill-timed and offensive. However, this was no deterrent to a voracious public, quite prepared to queue around the block for hours in freezing weather. The Exorcist became the second most lucrative film that year behind The Sting, grossing $66.3 million during its initial run. It played to captivated audiences at the Northpoint Theatre, 2290 Powell Street, San Francisco, with quite possibly one person in attendance who was less than impressed.

The film and its audience reaction was covered by San Francisco Chronicle reporter, Paul Avery, who released an article entitled Weird Goings-On At the Movies on January 11th 1974. One person had a fixation with the San Francisco Chronicle and Paul Avery, having addressed the reporter personally on at least two occasions. Therefore, despite the Zodiac Killer story having largely vanished from the newspapers, it seems rather unusual that later on that night, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer would ring the San Francisco Police Department and several newspaper outlets, making a chilling claim that would cause police "to run all over town with".

The caller claimed to have murdered a woman and placed her body inside a Daly City church. Despite the police suspecting it was the usual hoax, the storyline of The Exorcist film and the publication by Paul Avery just hours earlier, makes the premise of the caller being the Zodiac Killer appear much more likely, when one considers the arrival of The Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974, just over two weeks later. The phone calls and letter, seemingly with The Exorcist film the common thread, after barely, if any Zodiac activity for two years, could be argued as having originated from the same responsible.

When we also consider that The Exorcist letter was mailed from either San Mateo or Santa Clara County, of which Daly City is the largest city in San Mateo County, one could be forgiven for believing the mailing location of The Exorcist letter was deliberately chosen because of the threat of murder bestowed upon the churches of Daly City. 

The phone calls to the San Francisco Police Department and newspaper outlets occurred eighteen days prior to the postmarked date of The Exorcist letter, so either they are bound by the real Zodiac Killer, a hoaxer was responsible for both phone calls and letter, or quite possibly, the hoax phone calls reinvigorated the authentic Zodiac Killer from hibernation into action once again. But if the Daly City wild goose chase was connected to the January 11th 1974 newspaper article by Paul Avery and The Exorcist film, why would a phone caller playing games with police, need to invoke the name of the Zodiac Killer after very little newspaper publicity regarding the case during the last two years? For somebody to make several phone calls on January 11th 1974 claiming to be Zodiac Killer, shortly followed by a similar inference in The Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974, may lend credence to the authenticity of this later communication. 

To this day the vast majority of people believe the Exorcist letter to be a genuine Zodiac communication. If this is the case, then the 1978 letter should also be considered genuine Zodiac material, if you believe the findings of Alan Keel as testified to by Zodiac investigator Mike Rodelli. According to Mike, Alan Keel, Criminalist at the San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco, California from 1996 to 1999, had "analyzed two letters, one of which is the 1978 'forgery', and finds that this letter and one of the 1974 letters are loaded with saliva and cells. He then easily extracts DNA from both of these letters using the more primitive DNA technology of that time and finds that the DNA matches between those two letters, thus proving that one person sent both".

The only two communications tested in the San Francisco Police Department DNA  report  for cells, from 1974 onwards, were the Exorcist letter and 1978 letter. Therefore, these were the only letters that could reasonably have matched for DNA. Two of the other 1974 communications were not processed for DNA, and the SLA letter wasn't even listed as a "suspected Zodiac correspondence".

It is highly likely that the 1978 letter wasn't ruled out through DNA (just placed on the list and attributed in comments as not an authentic Zodiac letter}. Had it been ruled out through DNA, then it would have been an admission from the San Francisco Police Department that the DNA from the 1978 letter either matched somebody they knew wasn't Zodiac (such as David Toschi), or the DNA originated from a female. If the DNA from David Toschi had matched the 1978 letter, then logically they should have ruled out the Exorcist letter too, according to the findings of Alan Keel. But the San Francisco Police Department didn't attribute the Exorcist letter in comments as not an authentic Zodiac letter, in effect, leaving it under the general heading of Suspected Zodiac Correspondence. Therefore, by reverse logic, we can conclude that if the Exorcist letter is deemed a Suspected Zodiac Correspondence, then we must conclude the 1978 letter is a Suspected Zodiac Correspondence, according to not only the findings of Alan Keel, but the fact that none of the other 1974 letters were tested for DNA (hence why none have any findings in comments in the DNA table). If Alan Keel is correct, then it is impossible to accept the Exorcist letter as genuine Zodiac material without embracing the validity of the 1978 letter also. 

Mike Morford has placed the Exorcist letter under Confirmed Zodiac Letters on the Zodiac Killer Site forum, as have other Zodiac websites. If Alan Keel's findings show that one of the 1974 communications matched in DNA to the 1978 letter, then by the SFPD's own admission in the DNA report, that neither the SLA letter, Citizen card and Red Phantom letter were ever tested for the presence of saliva, it becomes obvious that only the Exorcist letter could have matched in DNA to the 1978 letter. This corroborates the claim of Alan Keel when he stated "that the 1978 letter and one of the 1974 letters are loaded with saliva and cells". Suspects like Ross Sullivan would be eliminated if Alan Keel is correct, because Ross Sullivan died a year before the 1978 letter was mailed.

If the SFPD had really deemed the 1978 letter not an authentic Zodiac letter through DNA, then barring a female author, they would have to know the identity of the person who licked the 1978 envelope, who they equally knew wasn't Zodiac. If this were the case, then they have been less than forthcoming with that information. But again, it doesn't explain why they haven't declared the Exorcist letter as not authentic if Alan Keel's findings are correct. Everything points to the fact that the 1978 letter was only ruled out through handwriting and placed into the DNA report under this assumption, thereby giving us the impression that the 1978 letter has categorically been ruled out as Zodiac correspondence, which it hasn't. 

If we conclude that the Exorcist letter and 1978 letter author are the same person, then researchers and forum members alike, who believe the Exorcist letter is authentic Zodiac correspondence, cannot use handwriting analysis as a reason to challenge the authenticity of the 1978 letter. Every time you argue against the 1978 letter on the basis of handwriting, you would be simultaneously negating the authenticity of the Exorcist letter. According to the findings of Alan Keel, you either embrace both letters as genuine communications, or you consign both to the increasing pile of hoaxed Zodiac correspondence.  

This is another speculative article searching for the name of the Zodiac Killer within his communications - so caution must be applied to any conclusions that are reached in the following analysis.

After the challenge by Dr. Marsh on October 22nd 1969 requesting that the Zodiac Killer give us his real name in a cipher "however complicated", the notion of a killer hinting at his name in later communications is certainly plausible. Presented in a hidden format, the Zodiac Killer knew that it could never be used as evidence against him, unless the unearthed solution could be proven beyond doubt to be the correct one. In the article Return to Sender we explored the introduction and answer to the 13 symbol cipher of "This is the Zodiac speaking. By the way have you cracked the last cipher I sent you. My name is....Fk, I'm crackproof". The Zodiac Killer effectively giving us his name, but in the shortened format. 

Three months later, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Little List letter on July 26th 1970 paraphrasing the recital of Groucho Marx's As some day it may happen from the Gilbert & Sullivan comedic opera, The Mikado. On October 12th 1970, the San Francisco Chronicle featured this letter under the title of Gilbert and Sullivan Clue to Zodiac, stating "A quiet search for onetime Ko-Ko's has turned up none that could be Zodiac. Obvious differences in physical description and handwriting comparisons have cleared all Ko-Ko's tracked down since the arrival of the July 27 letters". But what if the Zodiac Killer wasn't choosing the character of Ko-Ko because he played him in a production or even liked the theater, but the name Ko-Ko was somehow pertinent to his identity. Bearing in mind the phrase "My name is....Fk, I'm crackproof", could the Zodiac Killer's surname begin with Ko. The phrase "FK, I'm crackproof" is actually 14 letters long, but it was fashioned into a code of only 13 characters. Could this deliberate formatting indicate his initials were FK in a name comprising of 13 letters?

Although questionable Zodiac correspondence, the December 1990 Eureka card yet again featured Groucho Marx in imagery on the front of the card, promising us his name yet again. The card read "From your secret pal, can't guess who I am yet? Well, look inside and you'll find out" - and contained within was a xerox copy of two keys. This too triggered the notion of a surname beginning with K. The Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974 also featured a verse recited by Groucho Marx, but more importantly, the verse of Tit-Willow by Ko-Ko was preceded by the line "Signed, yours truley", implying the character in the verse had something to do with his name. This wasn't all.

We argued that the Zodiac Killer gave us the answers to all his "unsolved" codes in his own words, and the Celebrity Cypher mailed on September 25th 1990 to the Vallejo Times-Herald may have followed a similar pattern. The name of the sender was hidden behind 5 and 8 characters totaling 13, placed on the address side of the postcard and at the foot of the communication. A Celebrity Cypher with a likely introduction of "My name is", exactly like 13 symbol cipher mailed on April 20th 1970. If the initials of the killer were given in that instance within the phrase "Fk, I'm crackproof", then there are reasonable grounds to believe the 5 and 8 letters of the name on the Celebrity Cypher begin with an F and K also. In the Return to Sender article we hypothesized the forename as "Frank", based upon the phrase "how much money you have on my head now" in reference to the stamp on the April 20th 1970 letter - and this fits nicely into the Celebrity Cypher solution. I have speculatively placed "Ko" at the beginning of the surname regarding The Mikado references, but will venture no further. There are possibilities based on the "keys" provided by the Eureka card to suggest his surname could end in "key" or "ki" such as "Kominski", however, there are plenty of other options pertaining to the xeroxed image.

Comparisons can be drawn between the April 20th 1970 and September 25th 1990 communications with respect to a name comprising of 13 letters (split into 5 and 8 characters) - and bearing in mind the Christmas card, likely mailed close to December 25th 1990 continuing the theme of promising us his name - can a link be forged between all three regarding the identity or name of the Zodiac Killer? 

Doreen Gaul (19) and James Sharp (15) were murdered on November 21st 1969, their bodies discovered in a Los Angeles alleyway, between Arapahoe Street and Magnolia Avenue. A threatening typed letter signed "The Zodiac Killer" was discovered in Doreen Gaul's belongings with the message "So you think you can fool the old killer, ha ha. I know all your movements and the time they are made. Time is short, enjoy life while you can. You are to beautiful to live and I must kill you".

On August 1st 1973, a letter postmarked Albany, New York was mailed to the Albany Times Union newspaper declaring "You were wrong, I am not dead or in the hospital. I am alive and well and I'm going to start killing again. Below is the name and location of my next victim. But you had better hurry because I'm going to kill her August 10th at 5:00 pm when the shift change. Albany is a nice town". It contained a code stating "(name) Albany Medical Center this only the beginning". The Albany Letter was a direct response to a New York Daily News article about the Zodiac Killer.

The two-page news article was published on July 22nd 1973, speculating on whether the Zodiac Killer was in "a mental hospital or dead", so it wasn't too surprising that the author of the Albany Letter replied just nine days later and began with "You were wrong, I am not dead or in the hospital. I am alive and well". And then added a cryptogram threatening a medical center. But was the Zodiac Killer or hoaxer a resident of Albany, New York, or had traveled there for family or business? Albany Medical Center was 350 feet from Myrtle Avenue, the street on which Doreen Gaul previously lived. The exact address was 570 Myrtle Avenue, shown here on Google Maps. 

Five months after the Albany Letter, The Exorcist film was released in the USA on December 26th 1973 - a supernatural horror movie showcasing the fight between good and evil through the practice of exorcism and the Catholic Church. Sixteen or seventeen days later, on January 11th/12th 1974, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer telephoned the San Francisco police and several news outlets, stating they had killed a woman and placed her body in a Daly City church. Despite an extensive search, no such victim was discovered. This newspaper cutting is courtesy of Seagull from the Zodiac Killer Site forum.   

 Was the release of The Exorcist film the trigger for the phone calls? These telephone calls arrived at about the same time as a San Francisco Chronicle publication on January 11th 1974 by Paul Avery, entitled "Weird Goings-On At the Movies" and describing the audience reaction to The Exorcist film. The Zodiac Killer may have been responding to this Paul Avery newspaper article by phoning the police and applying a religious angle to his threats. A movie featuring Catholicism and exorcism, shortly followed by the claim of a "murdered woman in a church" would be remiss to ignore. The 01/29/74 Exorcist Letter postmark has been linked to San Mateo County, California, in which Daly City is the largest city.

On July 10th 1972, Jan and Brian Neven requested the assistance of psychics, reporting that paranormal activity and fires were spontaneously occurring in their home in Daly City (bordering San Francisco). This "poltergeist activity" eventually drew the services of Greek Orthodox priest Father Karl Pazelt, renowned for performing exorcisms.

This story was featured heavily 18 months later in a New York Times article on January 25th 1974, stating  "Father Pazelt said the family members were reportedly the victims of peculiar forces that he labeled as “exterior signs of the devil.” At times, he said, the devil choked them by the throat, knocked them unconscious, threw knives and glasses through the air and caused objects to break, burn, move, and fly.” Father Pazelt concluded that After receiving permission from San Francisco Archbishop Joseph T. McGucken, Father Pazelt performed 14 exorcisms of the Nevens family and Dr. Freda Morris in 1972-73". If the Zodiac Killer (or impersonator) had been living in New York (in or near Albany), could this New York Times article only four days prior to the mailing of the Exorcist Letter on January 29th 1974, coupled with The Exorcist film, have been the inspiration behind the Exorcist communication? The Daly City escapades of Father Karl Pazelt also appeared in a January 19th 1974 Watertown Daily (New York) feature, describing the unfolding drama in the Nevens family home.link.

With the former home address of Doreen Gaul, the typed letter and her eventual murder, the Albany Letter, and the New York publications regarding Father Karl Pazelt occurring in the ten days run-up to the Exorcist Letter, can we argue a case for the Zodiac Killer in New York on these dates? Or was he firmly resident in the Bay Area and vicinity, claiming a "church murder" as a response to Paul Avery or the recent release of the Exorcist film - or both?

In a series of articles it has been shown that the Zodiac Killer was extremely unlikely to have reappeared in 1974 firing off four communications - of which three were primarily aimed at the feature film industry, newspaper advertising and columnists - with the other referring to the SLA directly. If this was the Zodiac Killer, then it seems he had suddenly become a film critic, calling for the removal of advertisements for the Badlands movie and the cancelling of the San Francisco Chronicle's Count Marco column. The Zodiac Killer was suddenly objecting to murder glorification, the very thing he perpetrated to propel his pseudonym onto the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald. He was perfectly comfortable stabbing and shooting defenceless women in the back, but was now furious with the male chauvinist Count Marco for his ridicule of women. The claim that the Zodiac Killer had now apparently turned his life around and was repenting for his sins is an extremely difficult argument to sell, when we consider that a far better option exists with the left-wing militant organization of the Symbionese Liberation Army. This group fought for the rights of women, the oppressed and the hungry, albeit with a misguided view of how to achieve it. Their disdain for the Hearst Corporation, the capitalist media and the greedy corporations was evident in everything they wrote - and saturated throughout the four communications mailed from January 29th to July 8th of 1974. In a previous article, inspired by the findings of Rubislaw32, we showed a 5/23/74 communication that threatened the daughter of President Richard Nixon and signed off with "a concerned citizen", postmarked only 15 days after the "Citizen Card" purportedly mailed by the Zodiac Killer.    

It has been argued that the Symbionese Liberation Army mimicked the Zodiac Killer many times, but equally, some of their communications may have inadvertently been mistaken for the Bay Area murderer. Several members of the group even mimicked the Zodiac introduction of "This is the Zodiac Speaking" in a series of taped communications spanning February through June of 1974, with a barrage of threats toward Randolph A. Hearst, the newspapers and various corporate entities

On February 8th 1974, Donald David DeFreeze sent Taped Comminique No.4, beginning "My name is Cinque and to my comrades I am known as Cin. I am a Black man and a representative of Black people. I hold the rank of General Field Marshal in the United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army. Today I have received an order from the Symbionese War Council, the Court of the People, to the effect I am ordered to convey the following message in behalf of the SLA and to insert a taped word of comfort and verification that Patricia Campbell Hearst is alive and safe". This was one of many taped messages from members of the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974.  

The communique continued, protesting the Hearst family and their profiteering from murder and suffering, primarily through the newspapers of the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner. Not surprising then, that on May 8th 1974, the San Francisco Chronicle should receive the "Citizen Card" 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". Followed only 15 days later from another "concerned citizen", threatening the White House of Richard Nixon, who is equally highlighted in the taped communiques of the Symbionese Liberation Army.  

Although the Hearst Corporation were not directly involved with the Exorcist and Badlands movies, the disdain for their involvement in "propaganda films for both national and international use" is apparent and relevant. when we consider the mocking nature of the Exorcist Letter towards the film on January 29th 1974, and the concern over the Badlands movie and its murder glorification in the newspapers through advertising on May 8th 1974. This is further bolstered when we consider the confrontation between Orson Welles and Randolph Hearst with regard to the "Citizen Kane" film (released on May 8th 1941 in Los Angeles), with Randolph Hearst demanding that the newspapers "cut the ads" for the film after becoming aware the movie was depicting him as the central character. The May 8th 1974 Citizen Card combined all the elements of "cutting ads", Randolph Hearst, Citizen Kane, "murder glorification" and the San Francisco Chronicle under one neat banner - and all referenced in the taped communiques of the Symbionese Liberation Army, spanning not only the Citizen Card, but encompassing all 1974 communications thought to be from the Zodiac Killer  

Then came the spoken introductions to some of the taped Symbionese Liberation Army messages. Was this further proof that the Symbionese Liberation Army were mimicking the Zodiac Killer, at a time when the newspapers were replete with column inches speculating the return of the Zodiac Killer?  

In previous articles I have attempted to show that the February 3rd 1974 SLA Letter was mailed by the Symbionese Liberation Army, along with the Citizen Card and Red Phantom Letter. However, the Exorcist Letter mailed on January 29th 1974 (five days earlier) is difficult to ascertain whether it was mailed by the Zodiac Killer or the left-wing militant group. The SLA Letter stated "Dear Mr Editor, Did you know that the initials SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army) spell "sla", an old Norse word meaning "kill". a friend". Many have argued that the author of this correspondence incorrectly attributed the word "kill" to "sla" in Old Norse - but this is not true. 

Sla in Old Norse can be inferred as "kill", to which the author of this communication claimed. Sla in Old Norse means "to strike" or "to smite". The archaic use of the word "smite" as shown by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, defines "smite" as to kill or severely injure. In Wiktionary it is shown as the ability to strike down or kill with deadly force. So (in archaic usage like Old Norse) "sla" means "smite", and "smite" is used as "kill". Here is a PDF of Old Norse from York University, compiled by Ross G. Arthur. This will confirm that the author of the SLA Letter was correct all along. The author didn't write "Dear Mr Editor, Did you know that the initials SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army) spell "sla", an old Norse word with a direct translation to "kill". a friend". They used the word "meaning", which is something that it expresses or represents - and "sla" can represent or express the word "kill" through "smite". The whole communication was dedicated to highlighting the word "kill" through Old Norse.

Old Norse was a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements from about the 9th to the 13th centuries. The Proto-Norse language developed into Old Norse by the 8th century, and Old Norse began to develop into the modern North Germanic languages in the mid- to late 14th century, ending the language phase known as Old Norse. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century. Old Norse was divided into three dialects: Old West Norse, Old East Norse, and Old Gutnish. Old West and East Norse formed a dialect continuum, with no clear geographical boundary between them. For example, Old East Norse traits were found in eastern Norway, although Old Norwegian is classified as Old West Norse, and Old West Norse traits were found in western Sweden. Most speakers spoke Old East Norse in what is present day Denmark and Sweden. Old Gutnish, the more obscure dialectal branch, is sometimes included in the Old East Norse dialect due to geographical associations. It developed its own unique features and shared in changes to both other branches. Inscriptions have become synonymous with Runes. Wikipedia.

If the Symbionese Liberation Army were the architects of the SLA Letter, then the whitewashed symbols of the Exorcist Letter from the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper on January 31st 1974 would only be known to the designer of the SLA Letter, If those symbols also highlighted the word "kill" or the verb "to kill", we could conclude the SLA Letter was simply the answer to the Exorcist Letter. There have been several examples of people trying to compare runic symbols to the Halloween Card and Asian style characters to the Exorcist Letter. Kevin Robert Brooks, an avid Zodiac researcher, used neither in decoding the Exorcist Letter to spell the words "To Kill", and thereby tying the January 29th and February 3rd communications into one neat bundle (shown below).  

Bearing in mind the Old Norse element of the SLA Letter, I thought I would make a provisory attempt at looking for a runic connection to the Exorcist Letter that complimented Kevin Robert Brooks solution. There is an eastern Rhaetian language that used runic symbols. It is clear that in the centuries leading up to Roman imperial times, the Rhaetians had at least come under Etruscan influence, as the Rhaetic inscriptions are written in what appears to be a northern variant of the Etruscan alphabet. The ancient Roman sources mention the Rhaetic people as being reputedly of Etruscan origin, so there may at least have been some ethnic Etruscans who had settled in the region by that time. In the diagram below I have taken the Rhaetian symbols and their corresponding English letters to spell the combined wording T'Kill.

The letters K, I and L mimic the symbols used by Kevin Robert Brooks to form the word "kill", and the exclamation type symbol is used to form "T'Kil", thereby phonetically creating the sound "To Kill" using runic symbols (running from left to right on the Exorcist Letter). This last section is not claiming an answer in the slightest, just searching for a correlation between ancient or archaic characters in keeping with Old Norse from the following communication.

The disdain for "yellow journalism", capitalism, multi-media conglomerates and the Hearst Corporation in particular, was clearly evident in the actions and writings of the Symbionese Liberation Army from 1973 through to 1975. Their communications were diverse and many during this period - with the group becoming the focus of attention when they kidnapped media heiress, Patricia Campbell Hearst on February 4th 1974. The Zodiac Killer was attributed with four communications between January 29th 1974 (Exorcist Letter) and July 8th 1974 (Red Phantom Letter), however, doubt has been cast on at least three of these four communications - in particular, the SLA Letter mailed from Los Angeles on February 3rd 1974. Here is a brief summary regarding the SLA Letter and its possible links to the Exorcist Letter. The following will examine the notion of the Exorcist Letter having been mailed by the Symbionese Liberation Army as a form of veiled attack on the film industry and its control of the populace through mass indoctrination. This became further evident when the Badlands Letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle on May 8th 1974, expressing consternation at the running of advertisements for the Badlands movie, directed by Terrence Malick and starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. But first, here is an example of the Symbionese Liberation Army threatening to "Seize CBS" (Columbia Broadcasting System) in a communication addressed to Paul Greenberg on February 19th 1974. CBS (an initialism of the network's former name, the Columbia Broadcasting System) is an American English language commercial broadcast television and radio network that is a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major production facilities and operations in New York City (at the CBS Broadcast Center) and Los Angeles (at CBS Television City and the CBS Studio Center). 

William Samuel Paley (September 28, 1901 – October 26, 1990) was the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into one of the foremost radio and television network operations in the United States. William Paley met Dorothy Hart Hearst (1908–1998) while she was married to John Randolph Hearst, the third son of William Randolph Hearst. Paley fell in love with her, and, after her Las Vegas divorce from Hearst, she and Paley married on May 12, 1932, in Kingman, Arizona. This may have been one of a number of reasons why the Symbionese Liberation Army targeted this network, not withstanding the headline on the front page. Much of the Symbionese Liberation Army's communications and tape recordings were mailed to the newspapers and radio stations, often exhibiting a hatred of "big business" and global capitalism. This may have included the film industry as well, and hence the ridicule of The Exorcist movie which was attracting huge audiences and vast media coverage before and after its release. The author of the Exorcist Letter (possibly the Symbionese Liberation Army), were clearly rattled by the wallowing masses bewitched by this film, describing it as "the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen". Who were subsequently irked by the coverage of the Badlands movie also.

The Symbionese Liberation Army held headquarters in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the latter of which ties both The Exorcist and Badlands movies together under the banner of Burbank, California. The Exorcist and Badlands films were both distributed by Warner Brothers. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. is an American entertainment company headquartered in Burbank, California and a flagship subsidiary of AT&T's WarnerMedia. Founded in 1923. It has operations in film, television and video games and is one of the "Big Five" major American film studios, as well as a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The "Big Five" are the five major players in the film industry that included Columbia Pictures, who in 1972 went into partnership with Warner Bros.to form the Burbank Studios in the heart of SLA country. Was this a secondary motive for the Symbionese Liberation Army (if responsible), highlighting The Exorcist and Badlands movies because they were both the product of Warner Bros. in Los Angeles? The January 29th 1974 Exorcist Letter featured Tit-Willow from Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado. The 1967 British film adaptation, directed by Stuart Burge, was also distributed by Warner Brothers, as ironically, was the Dirty Harry film starring Clint Eastwood, that passed Zodiac by.

The disdain would continue with the Red Phantom Letter, mailed on July 8th 1974 to the San Francisco Chronicle, when Count Marco was told to go back to the "hell-hole from whence it came". The letter was again demanding the removal of elements featured in the newspaper. The appearance of sensationalized material, "yellow journalism" and the coverage of challenging material such as The Exorcist and Badlands movies through adverisements - and likely swaying the masses - seemed only to engender the mocking derision in the author of the 1974 communications. The overblown and dramatic coverage of The Exorcist film, featured in the San Francisco Chronicle on January 11th 1974 under the title of Weird Goings on at the Movies, appeared the driver behind the January 29th 1974 letter. But was that driver the Symbionese Liberation Army or the Zodiac Killer?  

On November 6th 1973, in Oakland, California, two members of 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. The hollow-point bullets used to kill Foster had been laden with cyanide. Although Foster had been the first black school superintendent in the history of Oakland, the SLA had condemned him for his supposed plan to introduce identification cards into Oakland schools, calling him "fascist". In fact, Foster had opposed the use of identification cards in his schools, and his plan was a watered-down version of other similar proposals. On January 10th 1974, Joseph Remiro and Russell Little were arrested and charged with Foster's murder, and initially both men were convicted of murder. Both men received sentences of life imprisonment. On February 7th 1974, just three days after the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst, a communication was addressed to Andy Park, Channel 5, KPIX, San Francisco demanding the release of Joseph Remiro and Russell Little. If the demands in the letter were not heeded, the author promised that Patricia Campbell Hearst would pay the ultimate price.

This Symbionese Liberation Army correspondence was preceded by two letters attributed to the Zodiac Killer. The Exorcist Letter was postmarked January 29th 1974 from San Mateo or Santa Clara County, closely followed by the SLA. Letter on February 3rd 1974 from Los Angeles. Then came the Symbionese Liberation Army letter demanding the release of their jailed comrades. The letter was almost certainly mailed by a woman, because the the top left corner of the correspondence contained the wording "P.S. Hury. Russle Little. We miss you babe". Not withstanding, that the rest of the text had the traits of female authorship. Although I cannot know for certain, I believe this February 7th 1974 communication was written in disguised writing by either Camilla Christine Hall (eventually killed in the 1466 East 54th Street, Los Angeles shootout on May 17th 1974), or  Sara Jane Olson (born Kathleen Ann Soliah) who is still alive today. 

I have long believed that at least three of the four 1974 letters attributed to the Zodiac Killer, were in fact authored by the members or close affiliates of the Symbionese Liberation Army. There were four communications mailed in a 12 day period from January 29th 1974 to February 10th 1974 - and all were interwoven with one another. The Exorcist Letter (01-29-74) had a hidden message in the form of Asian-style characters, possibly decoded by Zodiac researcher Kevin Robert Brooks to spell the words "To Kill". Five days later the SLA. Letter was mailed on February 3rd 1974, stating "Dear Mr Editor, Did you know that the initials SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army) spell "sla", an old Norse word meaning "kill". a friend". Then, just one week after this mailing, a typed communication postmarked February 10th 1974 and addressed to the Hearst Family or FBI, was intercepted at the Burlingame, California, U.S. Postal Annex. This communication also began with "Dear" and ended with "A friend" - and the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA.) was the common denominator in both.

But it is the February 7th 1974 communication that provides the bridge to the other three letters in this 12 day period The February 7th 1974 communication has one significant feature contained in the SLA. letter. The assumed Zodiac SLA. Letter (not released to the newspapers), mailed the day before the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst, which was mimicked in its introduction and ending ("Dear" and "A friend") just one week later in the February 10th 1974 Symbionese Liberation Army typed letter, should be pause for thought as to its authenticity as a Zodiac communication. So, let us take a look at the February 7th 1974 letter.

Whether the Patty Hearst kidnapping was in response to the Joseph Remiro and Russell Little arrests one cannot be certain, nevertheless, this correspondence had some interesting features. Although I am not a staunch advocate of handwriting comparisons, I have placed "kill" and "friend" from the February 7th 1974 communication alongside the same wording on the SLA. letter to show a distinct similarity. Both letters, unsurprisingly, contain the American left-wing terrorist organization's name, the Symbionese Liberation Army. However, it is the language used pertaining to the Exorcist Letter that caught my eye, giving the impression that the Symbionese Liberation Army may have mimicked the Exorcist letter mailed by the Zodiac Killer one week earlier.

The Exorcist Letter stated "If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing." The February 7th 1974 communication stated "I want you to put this in the news and in your paper, and if you don't you might be our next victim". This similarity would not normally be unusual in threatening letters, but for the fact that all these communications crossed over one another in just 12 days, along with the uncanny "Dear" and "A friend" in the February 3rd 1974 letter - thus far attributed to Zodiac - with the same introduction and ending attributed to the Symbionese Liberation Army on February 10th 1974. 

The "old Norse" reference on the SLA. Letter indicated we may be looking for a Symbionese Liberation Army member with Scandinavian heritage.

One possible author of the SLA 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 SLA letter on February 3rd 1974, one or two days before the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst?

The other was Camilla Christine Hall, whose parents, George Fridolph Hall (1908-2000) and Lorena Daeschner Hall (1911-1995), worked at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota from 1938-1952. In addition, her father was a minister in the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lutheran Church in America, and later the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Her mother, Lorena (Daeschner) Hall, helped found Gustavus Adolphus College's Art Department and served as the department head.

Camilla Hall attended Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. She transferred to the University of Minnesota after her freshman year at Gustavus. Hall attended special lectures, exhibits, and concerts at the University. On June 10, 1967, Hall graduated with a humanities degree from the University of Minnesota. Gustavus Adolphus College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in St. Peter, Minnesota, United States. A four-year, residential institution, Gustavus Adolphus College was founded in 1862 by Swedish Americans and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The college retains its Swedish and Lutheran heritage. Gustavus is guided by five core values: excellence, community, justice, service, and faith.
Camilla Hall's blonde hair and fair complexion caused people to remark of her Scandinavian ancestors.

Since the author of the February 7th 1974 communication was likely a woman - and bearing in mind the Scandinavian connection to the SLA. Letter - it has to be considered that one of these female members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, could be the author of the SLA. Letter. We can ultimately rule out Camilla Hall because she was killed on May 17th 1974 in a shootout with police before the Red Phantom letter was mailed on July 8th 1974. The reason why, is because the same person authored both the SLA letter and Red Phantom letter. See The Phantom Letter On July 8th 1974 

Most, if not all Zodiac forums and websites classify the January 29th 1974 Exorcist letter as confirmed Zodiac correspondence. It is widely touted by law enforcement, newspapers and documentaries as the last confirmed Zodiac communication, and in a poll conducted on this site, 86% of visitors believe it to be genuine Zodiac material. This mailing was listed in the 2000 San Francisco 'Suspected Zodiac Correspondence' DNA Report as one of the communications processed for DNA. The subsequent 1974 letters were not processed for DNA, otherwise the report would have stated this. Since the Exorcist letter was widely considered to be the last confirmed Zodiac communication, it would therefore make perfect sense that this took priority over the Citizen Card and Red Phantom letter to be the only 1974 correspondence tested.

Mike Rodelli wrote in his book, 'The Hunt for Zodiac:The Inconceivable Double Life of a Notorious Serial Killer', that Alan Keel, Criminalist at the San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco, California from 1996 to 1999 "revealed that there were two letters in possession of the department that, in contrast to the "true" Zodiac letters, had abundant saliva and DNA-containing oral epithelial cells on them, that DNA was easily extracted from these two letters, and that the DNA extracted from these two letters matched between them. These two letters were considered forgeries, since the "true" Zodiac verifiable letters had not been licked by the sender." Mike Rodelli added that "In contrast (to earlier communications), Keel analyzed two other letters, one of which is the 1978 forgery, and finds that this letter and one of the 1974 letters are loaded with saliva and cells. He then easily extracts DNA from both of these letters using the more primitive DNA technology of that time and finds that the DNA matches between those two letters, thus proving that one person sent both."  

For two letters to have a definitive match of DNA they must have a complete profile. A partial DNA profile from one letter compared to a full DNA profile of the other could only be used to exclude them as having been licked by the same person, not conclusively tie them together as having a single contributor. Since the Exorcist letter appeared to be the only 1974 letter processed for DNA, it can be argued from Alan Keel's statement that the two letters that matched in DNA were the 1978 letter and Exorcist letter. If the San Francisco DNA report concluded that the 1978 letter was "not an authentic Zodiac letter", then there should be a strong argument that neither was the Exorcist letter.

For those who resolutely argue that the Exorcist letter is a genuine Zodiac communication, may have to accept the authenticity of the 1978 letter too. According to all the above observations, these two communications are inextricably linked by one sender. In early 2018 Vallejo police Detective Terry Poyser, who has worked the Zodiac case for four years, said his agency has submitted two envelopes (in late 2017) that contained letters from the Zodiac Killer for a type of advanced DNA analysis that previously had not been available in the case. Poyser declined to identify the lab, but said it would attempt to obtain a full DNA profile from saliva on the envelope flap and stamps. He said he expected to have results back from the lab as soon as in the next few weeks, and almost certainly by summer. Sacramento Bee.

Why are they attempting to find a full DNA profile, when presumably they have already achieved a full DNA profile, according to Alan Keel and the San Francisco Police Department DNA report? They cannot claim the 1978 letter as "not an authentic Zodiac letter" in a DNA report, unless a full profile exists. Furthermore, how did they ascertain the 1978 letter was not Zodiac, unless they knew who licked the envelope and stamp seal - and knew that person wasn't Zodiac. They couldn't ascertain the 1978 letter wasn't Zodiac by comparing it to authenticated early Zodiac material, because seemingly these had not yielded a full DNA profile as we stand today. They clearly seem to have little faith in the Exorcist letter either, because if this has generated a full DNA profile in the past, but they are still "attempting to obtain a full DNA profile from saliva" today, then I presume this invalidates their confidence in its authenticity.  

Tom Voigt recently began a forum thread on the Zodiac Killer message board entitled Vallejo Police Department DNA Update, stating "The lab work has turned into more lab work. VPD is still at it. The hunt continues..." Why are they still hunting for viable DNA when apparently a full profile has been secured previously? Even if law enforcement have little confidence in the Exorcist and 1978 letter, these would have provided the best options to run through a genealogy website 18 months ago and the results would have been in by now had anything fruitful been generated. Unless of course, you already know who forged both of these letters. I see no benefit in not seeking profiles from these two letters (generated from the 1978 letter and another, if different to suggested) to enter into a familial DNA program. If the familial search threw out a notable family tree, or the lineage of a recognized Zodiac suspect, then it would add credence to the previously doubted Zodiac communication. 

For the 60% of people who voted on this site, believing the 1978 letter to be from the hand of the Zodiac Killer, the question you should be asking is, why did the the 2000 San Francisco DNA report determine the 1978 correspondence to be "not an authentic Zodiac letter" if they hadn't already obtained a full DNA profile to make such an authoritative and conclusive judgement, the only other reasonable conclusion, is that they already knew who the author was?    ​

The widely held consensus is that the Zodiac Killer wrote his last communication in 1971 during his first letter writing campaign, before returning to fire off another brief volley of four communications in 1974. For this to be the case, we would have to believe the Zodiac Killer, either willingly or through circumstances beyond his control, chose not to correspond with the newspapers to comment on The Zodiac Killer film directed by Tom Hanson released on April 7th 1971, or the Dirty Harry movie directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood, released on December 23rd 1971. Yet, he returned from his hibernation after nearly three years because he was driven or felt compelled to comment on The Exorcist movie, describing it as "the best saterical comidy that I have ever seen". You would have thought he would have got his priorities in order.

The letter was effectively a mishmash of previous Zodiac tropes, but significantly, it mimicked his first ever letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969. These 1969 letters threatened to go on a "kill rampage" over the weekend if his ciphers were not published on the front page of the respective newspapers. The Exorcist letter mailed on January 29th 1974 was identical, threatening that if his note was not published in the paper he would do something nasty which you knew he was capable of doing. The only thing synonymous with the Zodiac Killer that we knew he was capable of doing, was "to kill". This logically should be the conclusion. Therefore, it makes perfect sense, that the strange collection of characters at the foot of the Exorcist letter should be able to be rearranged to the spell the verb "to kill". This is exactly what Kevin Robert Brooks, author of the upcoming book The Montana Connection, discovered several years ago - and it is the logical extension to the passage above it. Whether or not the Exorcist letter was written by the Zodiac Killer is another matter entirely. 

The San Francisco Chronicle placed this letter in their newspaper on January 31st 1974 under the title 'Zodiac Mystery Letter-the First Since 1971', but crucially omitted and whitewashed the strange Asian characters from their publication, meaning that any follow-up letters pertaining to this disguised message could be verified as likely originating from the same author. In other words, if a follow-up letter made a point of highlighting the verb "to kill", then they were likely the author of the Exorcist letter also. All the San Francisco Chronicle and law enforcement had to do, was to look at any highlighted word in the subsequent letter/s and ascertain whether this word could be created using the Exorcist symbols or characters. If it could, then it's highly likely the two letters had the same author. This is exactly what happened only five days after the Exorcist letter was mailed, and only three days after the San Francisco Chronicle omitted the Asian characters from their publication.

On February 3rd 1974 (the day before the Patty Hearst kidnapping) somebody mailed the SLA. letter to the San Francisco Chronicle from Los Angeles, with the whole communication focused on introducing us to the verb "to kill" in the Old Norse language. Sla in Old Norse can be inferred as "kill", to which the author of this communication claimed. Sla in Old Norse means "to strike" or "to smite". The archaic use of the word "smite" as shown by the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines "smite" as to kill or severely injure. In Wiktionary it is shown as the ability to strike down or kill with deadly force. So (in archaic usage like Old Norse) "sla" means "smite", and "smite" is used as "kill". Here is a PDF of Old Norse from York University, compiled by Ross G. Arthur. 

The SLA. communication finished off the message by highlighting the word "kill", exactly as the Exorcist letter had done just 5 days earlier. Furthermore, the SLA. letter began its introduction with "Dear" and signed off with "a friend". This is important, because 7 days later the real Symbionese Liberation Army mailed a letter to the Hearst family on February 10th 1974, beginning their correspondence with "Dear" and ending the communication with "A friend". Uncanny that. 

So, did the Zodiac Killer reappear from his slumber after nearly three years to critique the Exorcist film for our benefit, and tell us that "sla" (Symbionese Liberation Army) was the Old Norse word for "kill" to expand our foreign language skills? ​Or, is it more likely the Symbionese Liberation Army wrote the February 3rd 1974 SLA. letter one day before the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst and referenced the Symbionese Liberation Army within their own communication? Then just happened to mail another letter only 7 days later writing "Dear" and "A friend", exactly mimicking their previous one. It seems the Exorcist letter is beyond reproach, so I guess the.legend lives on.