Postmarked Vallejo on Thursday, June 18th 1970, two Oakland A's baseball tickets were mailed to Gerald Tagert of 1423 Roleen Drive in Vallejo, wrapped in a piece of paper with the message "Gift from Zodiac". The tickets for the baseball game were dated Saturday, June 20th 1970. It appeared that "Zodiac" or the impersonator wanted the couple to vacate their house and attend the baseball game in two days time. This communication was not released to the public and has only surfaced in recent years. Just over two years later, on Thursday, June 29th 1972 (and 18 miles west of Roleen Drive), Edward J. Salmina of 25 Crescent Lane, Novato received a death threat signed "Zodiac", stating "If you leave your house past 3:13:47 on the next ten Saturdays, you will be killed". Edward J. Salmina was a sports editor of the Novato Advance newspaper for 33 years and was a staunch baseball fan, who funded and managed the Novato Knicks team, while also having served as a sports correspondent for The Examiner newspaper. The specific threat on Salmina to not leave his house on ten consecutive Saturdays was almost certainly connected to his management of the Novato Knicks baseball team, thereby preventing his coaching of the team during this period of time.

We have two June communications separated by two years, both extremely brief in nature and connected to baseball, with both signed by the pseudonym "Zodiac" and mailed on the Thursday before the Saturday in question. Each letter was focused on the Saturday, The Oakland A's tickets were chosen for Saturday, June 20th 1970, encouraging the recipients to leave their house on 1423 Roleen Drive and attend the baseball game, whereas the letter to Edward J. Salmina on June 29th 1972 was encouraging him not to leave his house on the next ten Saturdays (and probably threatening him not to attend the baseball). The second author in 1972, if different to the one in 1970, could never have imitated the original threat without inside knowledge.       

Particular dates were the overriding focus of each letter, involving eleven Saturdays in total. The only other time the Zodiac Killer made reference to a specific date he would kill, is when he mailed the trinity of communications to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday, July 31st 1969, stating to the Chronicle that  "the other 2 parts of this cipher are being mailed to the editors of the Vallejo Times and SF Examiner. I want you to print this cipher on the front page of your paper. In this cipher is my idenity. If you do not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry.1st of Aug 69, I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night. I will cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend". These specific threats to kill, again occurring on a Thursday, just one or two days before the intended premise of the letter.

The 1972 Novato letter threatening to kill Edward J. Salmina contained a series of symbols under the heading "message" (believed to be a short code). This is extremely interesting, because the next letter we know of (claimed to be from Zodiac) also contained a short code, while claiming he would kill on a specific date. The author of the Albany letter, mailed to the Albany Times Union newspaper in New York on August 1st 1973 and targeting the Albany Medical Center, promised to "kill her on August 10th at 5:00pm". The author of this letter gave a specific time he would murder, just like the author of the Novato letter who stated "If you leave your house past 3:13:47 on the next ten Saturdays, you will be killed". This was unique to both these letters. Although the Albany message was issued on a Wednesday for a week Friday, it was again issued with time being the central focus. The two 1970 Oakland A's tickets bore a time and date, the 1972 Novato letter bore a time and ten dates, as did the Albany letter in 1973. All three letters were aimed at a specific individual - Gerald Tagert, Edward J.Salmina and Connie Henly (from the decoded portion).

In a case where every crime and confirmed correspondence has been covered extensively, it is always refreshing to examine some of the dubious outlier communications - ones that are often regarded as more questionable Zodiac material. This brings me to the threatening letter received on June 29th 1972 by Ed Salmina, a sports editor of the Novato Advance newspaper for 33 years. Ed Salmina was a staunch baseball fan, who funded and managed the Novato Knicks team, while also having served as a sports correspondent for The Examiner newspaper.

On June 30th 1972 the San Rafael Daily Independent stated that "Edward J. Salmina, sports editor of the Novato Advance, reported to Novato police yesterday he had received a death threat yesterday in a letter signed "Zodiac". The hand-printed letter said: "If you leave your house past 3:13:47 on the next ten Saturdays, you will be killed". In the lower left corner under the heading "message" were a series of symbols. Salmina of 25 Crescent Lane told police he didn't know who or why anyone would send him such a letter. Police said a copy will be sent to the homicide division of the San Francisco Police Department to determine if the note was printed by the Zodiac Killer". 

Below I have placed the time 3:13:47 onto a clock face and marked the 10 Saturdays the author of the letter demanded that Ed Salmina remain in his house. His first Saturday of freedom, had he complied, would have been September 9th 1972. I have performed a cursory search regarding the numbers stipulated on the letter, but other than sections of Bible verse and Crown Prince Waterford (using 03:13:47) little else seems of note. Bearing in mind some code was inserted at the bottom of the message, only 63 (3+13+47 = number of characters in the 340 cipher) sprang to mind. Whoever wrote this message seemed rather specific with the time, giving the impression that it held some significance to the author of the correspondence, so hopefully a more logical suggestion can be discovered.       

It is without doubt that many Zodiac letters were hoaxed, particularly during the height of the murderer's activities from December 20th 1968 to July 13th 1971. One would expect the number of fraudulent Zodiac correspondences to have dwindled after his campaign of terror reached its conclusion sometime in 1971, which only goes to make these outlier letters all the more curious. It is likely that many will be unconvinced by this letter, but it doesn't do any harm in analyzing them, just in case something is unearthed by a reader of this article. 

Linked by U.S. Route 101, north of San Francisco, the residence of Ed Salmina at 25 Crescent Lane, Novato is only 20 miles (25 minutes driving time) from the scene of the attack on Isobel Watson along Pine Hill Road in Mill Valley. Approximately 3 months prior to the Novato threat letter being mailed, Isobel Watson (33) had just got off the bus on the evening of April 7th 1972, and was walking home along Pine Hill Road, Tamalpais Valley, Marin County at 9:00 pm, when a light-colored vehicle veered towards her, knocking her to the ground. The driver exited his vehicle offering to take her home, but after she had refused his offer of apparent help a second time, the concerned citizen suddenly became enraged, pulling out a knife and stabbing the woman in the neck and shoulder. ​Her screams alerted the neighborhood, forcing the assailant into a hasty retreat from the scene. She was treated at Marin General Hospital and fortunately survived the brutal attack.

​Her description of the man alerted investigators to a possible Zodiac connection, that of a man with heavy-rimmed black glasses, in his early 40s, 5' 9" in height and short brown hair. It was not overlooked by police that the killer had attempted to lure the woman into his vehicle, not dissimilar to the method employed in the Modesto abduction of Kathleen Johns. Napa County homicide detective Kenneth Narlow believed in a greater than 50-50 chance of a Zodiac connection, bearing in mind the description given by Isobel Watson   

The author of the Novato threat letter may have been primarily targeting Saturdays to keep Ed Salmina away from coaching the Novato Knicks baseball team, that one would have thought played over the weekend, but there could be any number of reasons. The only other purported Zodiac communication that was connected to baseball, was mailed to Gerald Tagert of 1423 Roleen Drive, Vallejo on June 18th 1970, just over two years prior to this correspondence. On that occasion the letter stated "gift from Zodiac" and contained two tickets for the June 20th 1970 Oakland A's game at the Coliseum. One letter attempting to encourage the recipient to visit a baseball game, while the other seemingly attempting to separate Ed Salmina from his love of baseball. But were either of these two letters from the hand of the Zodiac Killer?   

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