Recently, I explored the likely reasoning behind the Symbionese Liberation Army (or a sympathizer of the group) choosing to use the phrase "red with rage" within the Red Phantom letter. On May 17th 1974, the last stand of six Symbionese Liberation Army members took place at 1466 East 54th Street in Los Angeles between the police and the left-wing militant group. Under heavy fire and tear gas grenades, Donald DeFreeze, Patricia Soltysik, Nancy Ling Perry, Angela Atwood, Camilla Hall and Willie Wolfe, all perished in the burning building. As a response to the Symbionese Liberation Army deaths, another left-wing group, the Weather Underground, set off a powerful bomb in the Old State Building in the early morning hours of May 31st 1974, shattering the reception room of Attorney General, Evelle J. Younger and causing considerable damage to three floors of the building. 

A few hours later, the Los Angeles Times and radio station KPFK were told to go to certain telephone booths where they would retrieve letters from the Weather Underground, expressing their condemnation of the killing of six SLA members, stating "To our sisters and brothers in the Symbionese Liberation Army we want to express with you and all free-loving people grief and rage at the deaths". This "grief and rage" was reported heavily in the newspapers throughout the June of 1974, alongside a slew of psychological appraisals of the Symbionese Liberation Army by numerous psychiatrists, turning the "grief and rage" of the Weather Underground back onto the Symbionese Liberation Army, claiming their use of psychotic drugs and repressed hostility towards their parents manifested itself as a "rage reaction". Read full article. But what about the "Red Phantom" signature? 

On the same day that the Weather Underground expressed its "rage" at the deaths of six Symbionese Liberation Army members, the Symbionese Liberation Army delivered a letter signed "B Team Leader" to the television station KNXT stating that they had downed a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter in revenge for their compatriots, resulting in the death of Paul Gillen and the severe injury to three others (including two SWAT members).

​The Police Bell 206 Jetranger helicopter was claimed by the group to have been shot down using a Russian military-type anti-aircraft missile, despite the police claiming otherwise and attributing the helicopter crash to a mechanical failure of the rotor blades. The Russian designed 9K32 Strela-2 is a light-weight, shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missile system. It is designed to target aircraft at low altitudes with passive infrared-homing guidance and destroy them with a high-explosive warhead. Roughly 95–120 kills and several dozen damaged are attributed to Strela-2/2M hits between April 1972 and the Fall of Saigon in April 1975, almost all against helicopters and propeller-driven aircraft. Wikipedia. 

Was the "Red Phantom" signature mentioned by the Symbionese Liberation Army on July 8th 1974 taken from the comic book character "The Phantom" (from King Features Syndicate owned by Hearst communications), who converted it into the "Red Phantom" because of the covert Russian missile strike they claimed downed the LAPD helicopter? The irony of using military grade weaponry dubbed the "Red Phantom" wouldn't have been lost on the Symbionese Liberation Army, because of the recent retirement of a record-breaking Firebee drone at the Air Defence Weapons Center, nicknamed The "Red Phantom". It successfully avoided being destroyed with "enemy fire" for 87 missions before flying its last mission on November 12th 1973 and being retired in May 1974. The choice of this nickname by the Symbionese Liberation Army, in a mission deemed successful in bringing down an aerial "enemy combatant" using Russian military hardware, could be argued as strategic wordplay towards the police and military by a group who rejected wholesale the capitalism and imperialism of the American government.    

On May 17th 1974, the last stand of six Symbionese Liberation Army members took place at 1466 East 54th Street in Los Angeles between the police and the left-wing militant group. Under heavy fire and tear gas grenades, Donald DeFreeze, Patricia Soltysik, Nancy Ling Perry, Angela Atwood, Camilla Hall and Willie Wolfe, all died in the burning building. As a response to the Symbionese Liberation Army deaths, another left-wing group, the Weather Underground, set off a powerful bomb in the Old State Building in the early morning hours of May 31st 1974, shattering the reception room of Attorney General, Evelle J. Younger and caused considerable damage to three floors of the building.

A few hours later, the Los Angeles Times and radio station KPFK were told to go to certain telephone booths where they would retrieve letters from the Weather Underground, expressing their condemnation of the killing of six SLA members, stating "To our sisters and brothers in the Symbionese Liberation Army we want to express with you and all free-loving people grief and rage at the deaths". This "grief and rage" was reported heavily throughout the June of 1974, alongside a slew of psychological appraisals of the Symbionese Liberation Army by numerous psychiatrists, turning the "grief and rage" of the Weather Underground back onto the Symbionese Liberation Army, claiming their use of psychotic drugs and repressed hostility towards their parents manifested itself as a "rage reaction". Newspapers piggybacked off this psychoanalysis by stating that the six SLA members "perished not as martyrs but as victims of roles they assumed and emotions they summoned from within themselves - their desperate rage, their destructive and self-destructive fantasy world, their paranoid folly. The forces of their inner rage varied with their life situations. But in each case their imaginative leap released their rage, letting it fix on the society as target and the gun as means".   

The Symbionese Liberation Army were heavily made up of strident feminists who wrote numerous letters expressing the empowerment of women and their fight against misogyny within the capitalist stranglehold of society. The embodiment of misogyny and the target for many women during 1974 was Marc Henry Spinelli, better known as Count Marco, who was a columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle. Often accused of belittling and ridiculing women in his popular newspaper column, it really wasn't that surprising he would receive a letter on July 8th 1974 stating "Editor. Put Marco back in the hell-hole whence it came - he has a serious psychological disorder. 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)".

This is a letter much more likely to have originated from the hand of a female writer, possibly from a remaining Symbionese Liberation Army member, a sympathizer or friend of the group or somebody allied to the Weather Underground, who made special reference to a "psychological disorder", "shrink" and "rage", thereby turning the newspaper column inches throughout June back onto an individual who embodied everything they hated about American society - a misogynistic and capitalist newspaper columnist in the clutches of a newspaper magnate. 

Or was it the Zodiac Killer, who didn't use the "Zodiac speaking" introduction, didn't use his crosshairs, didn't use a running victim total, didn't threaten to murder anyone, didn't use handwriting synonymous with previous letters (according to most observers), didn't make any spelling mistakes, and used an address style only previously found on the Symbionese Liberation Army letter/envelope mailed on February 3rd 1974? A letter mailed from Los Angeles, totally devoted to the Symbionese Liberation Army - and again - devoid of all the aforementioned traits of the Zodiac Killer. The handwriting on the Red Phantom envelope is virtually identical to the handwriting on the SLA envelope, despite both of these letters being kept out of the public domain. So why do Zodiac researchers keep insisting that these are Zodiac communications despite the overwhelming evidence against? The answer is pretty straightforward. They have been brainwashed by individuals who peddle misinformation and perpetuate the notion that letters can be authenticated by looking at them. They are continuously bombarded with lazy references to an authenticated list of Zodiac communications, in absence of any critical thinking on behalf of themselves. It's easier for them to follow the pack and abandon the notion of self discovery.

When we throw in the Symbionese Liberation Army letter mailed on February 10th 1974 to the Hearst family beginning with "Dear" and signing off with "A friend", just like the February 3rd 1974 SLA letter to the San Francisco Chronicle, seven days earlier, it becomes apparent that both the February 3rd 1974 and July 8th 1974 communications have one author, who is connected to the February 10th 1974 letter. But will this article make any difference to individuals, who for decades have believed the SLA and Red Phantom letters are from the Zodiac Killer. The answer is an unequivocal no - because these individuals don't follow evidence and lines of logic - they follow the notion of what they have been told to be true in absence of any reasoning. What they have been indoctrinated with for decades is too powerful for any logic to penetrate. Ask them why they believe the Red Phantom letter to be genuine, and they will tell you that handwriting document examiners told them so. The very same document examiners that can't agree with themselves about certain other Zodiac letters - and the many certified document examiners who cannot agree with each other on who authored the JonBenet Ramsey 3-page ransom note. Not to mention the certified document examiners who align themselves to multiple "Zodiac suspects" who can't all be the Zodiac Killer. Yet people will still quote the authorative statement of a document examiner as evidence, despite the very nature of handwriting analysis being subjective. In absence of this argument, I'm still waiting for a logical and coherent answer to why this letter is genuine Zodiac material. They can't give you one, because there isn't one.    

What you will be presented with is this: "I would rather believe a document examiner with first-hand knowledge of the letter than somebody analysing the letter 50 years later". This is not an answer, only whataboutery. It attempts to suspend your critical thinking about the flaws of the handwriting argument shown above, by making a comparison between two individuals and arguing one is better than the other. It doesn't address the issue of why we should believe document examiners who can't agree with one another. You will notice that this issue is ignored when boldly claiming a letter has been authenticated. I would like to know which of the many document examiners got the final vote on which communications made the authenticated list. This is another question that won't be answered by esteemed Zodiac researchers, who have a perfunctory attitude towards any kind of analysis regarding the Zodiac Killer communications. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

On February 3rd 1974 the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), an affiliate of the group, or a "friend" of the militant collective, mailed a communication from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Chronicle on the eve of the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst, the granddaughter of American newspaper publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. The Symbionese Liberation Army were an anti-capitalist organisation, fueled by a hatred for the publishing magnate, who would later demand anywhere between 4 and 400 million dollars of food to be distributed to the public, to be donated from the Hearst family. Their connection to William Randolph Hearst didn't end there, when on May 8th 1974, somebody from the Symbionese Liberation Army (or a sympathizer or friend of the group) mailed the Badlands card, urging the newspapers to remove the advertisements for the recently released Badlands movie, directed by Terrence Malick and starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. The communication read "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". The choice of words in this communication will take us back to one person in 1938 and 1941, indicating that the individual who composed this card was extremely well read and historically knowledgeable. 

On October 30th 1938, aired by the CBS Radio Network, an adapted broadcast was narrated by Orson Welles, based on the 1898 H .G. Wells novel "The War of the Worlds". The broadcast attempted to convince radio listeners that the human race was under attack by Martian invaders. It was reported in the statewide newspapers as causing panic and hysteria amongst the public. But one word was prevalent, as shown by a New York newspaper on the left, featuring Orson Welles, "whose radio dramatization of H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" caused nationwide consternation Sunday night". This word appeared over and over again in newspapers throughout America. A New York Times publication on October 31st 1938 stated H. G. Wells had "expressed profound regret that his dramatic efforts should cause such consternation", somewhat mirroring the words used in the Badlands card of "I would like to expression my consternation".  A simple search on Google shows this word's prevalence with regards to Orson Welles.

​This connection may seem weak, until you consider the rest of the wording on the Badlands card.

The author of the Badlands card wrote "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". 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 individual who chose these words was very likely referring back to the widely publicized spat between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst (Patty Hearst's grandfather), who attempted to prevent the movie release of Citizen Kane (1941), by claiming that it presented an insulting portrayal of his life story (see below). William Randolph Hearst also demanded that his newspapers "cut the ads" promoting the Citizen Kane movie, just like the author of the May 8th 1974 card, who asked for advertisements of the Badlands movie to be removed from the newspapers. The Badlands card was mailed on May 8th and signed off with "A citizen", The Citizen Kane movie by Orson Welles premiered in Los Angeles on May 8th. This theme of censorship would continue in the Red Phantom letter on July 8th 1974, in which the author insisted that the newspapers "cancel the Count Marco column". These attacks on newspapers and the media - in particular, William Randolph Hearst - were prevalent in the communiques written (and typed) by the Symbionese Liberation Army. In fact, they would sign off their February 10th 1974 typed communication about Patty Hearst (and addressed to the Hearst family), by using "A Friend", just like the February 3rd 1974 letter, a week earlier. 

It is extremely likely that the SLA letter (2/3/1974) and the subsequent kidnapping of Patty Hearst the following day (2/4/1974), along the Badlands card (5/8/1974), both had links to William Randolph Hearst. It also seems credible that the Badlands card, through the subtle use of language and an acute awareness of history, tied Orson Welles to William Randolph Hearst by referencing "consternation", "cutting the ads" and "A citizen". The author of the SLA letter, Badlands card and Red Phantom letter was almost certainly not the Zodiac Killer, but somebody within the Symbionese Liberation Army, or closely allied to them.

MORE READING: THE PHANTOM ZODIAC LETTER ON JULY 8TH 1974

Mike Rodelli is convinced that DNA will not solve the Zodiac case because the authenticated letters were not licked by the sender. Mike Rodelli spoke to Alan Keel in 2007, who was a Criminalist at the San Francisco Police Department from 1996 to 1999. He gave Mike Rodelli the following information: "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".

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".

In his book, The Hunt For Zodiac, he stated "Now there was DNA proof that whoever had penned the April 1978 letter had also penned one of the 1974 letters. And apparently it was not Zodiac. According to the chart of DNA testing results compiled by SFPD's lab in ca. 2000, the only one of the 1974 letters that had been tested by Keel up to that time was the January Exorcist letter. This was the letter that had a swarm of palm prints on it. This created an interesting dilemma that lends credence to the possibility that this is a forged letter. Zodiac had penned a dozen letters prior to writing the Exorcist letter and had never left even a single palm print on them. So why had he suddenly and carelessly taken off his glove(s) to write this one and leave a virtual montage of his palms all over it. From that standpoint alone, it makes sense that someone else may have written the Exorcist letter, its bizarre content notwithstanding. While it is possible that one of the other three letters was tested for DNA subsequent to the compilation of the DNA summary chart that Keel had assembled, I believe that on balance the most likely candidate for being the 1974 forgery is the Exorcist letter until proven otherwise". Mike Rodelli is almost certainly correct that the 1974 Exorcist letter is overwhelmingly the most likely DNA match for the 1978 letter (because it was the only tested in the DNA chart), but here is the almost certain proof that neither the 1974 Exorcist or April 1978 letter were forgeries. 
​
Take a look at the address style, spacing and handwriting of the Exorcist letter envelope (below), and compare it to the two April 1970 communications (in particular the Dragon Card envelope). These two April 1970 envelopes had not been publicly released by 1974. They were the only confirmed Zodiac communications to use the address style of San Fran (dot) Chronicle prior to January 29th 1974. The January 29th 1974 author (if a hoaxer) could never have produced such similarity, or had knowledge of the address style of the April 1970 communications. But the real Zodiac Killer could have. 

​Mike Rodelli is confident that the SLA letter mailed in 1974 was authored by the Zodiac Killer, stating "Envelopes: 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 gave me a list of envelopes here, to compare with the SLA envelope. If Mike is confident that these comparisons strongly argue for the SLA letter being Zodiac, there is no way he can argue against the Exorcist letter envelope being the same author as the two April 1970 communications (particularly the Dragon Card). If the two April 1970 communications are genuine Zodiac, then so is the Exorcist letter. If the Exorcist letter is genuine, and the argument in favor of the Exorcist letter DNA matching the 1978 letter DNA by Mike Rodelli is correct, then the 1978 letter is genuine too. 

In the link above, Mike Rodelli argued that the writing on the SLA envelope is consistent with the Stine envelope, 340 envelope, Bus Bomb envelope and Kathleen Johns envelope, stating "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. There it is in black and white. So the evidence seems to show that, regardless of the timing and his reason for being in Los Angeles on February 3, 1974 (assuming that the letter was posted from there on that date), it was, in fact, the Zodiac killer who sent the SLA letter, not the SLA itself, which, once again, would not have benefitted from its contents. Nor is there any reason why they would have benefitted from imitating Zodiac's handwriting on the envelope but not attributing the enclosed later to him".

Again, if Mike Rodelli is claiming these envelope comparisons are good proof the SLA letter is genuine, he now cannot with any good conscience claim that the comparisons between the Exorcist envelope and the two April 1970 envelopes are not equally as good. Especially when the April 28th 1970 envelope had never been released into the public domain for the author of the Exorcist envelope to copy (not only the handwriting, but the format of San Fran (dot) Chronicle). This being the case, Mike Rodelli (based on his statements) must now accept that the Exorcist letter and SLA letter are genuine Zodiac correspondence. Therefore, if Alan Keel is correct and the 1978 letter DNA matches one of the 1974 communications, we are left with the Badlands card or Red Phantom letter for Mike Rodelli to choose from. But this is what happens to the SLA envelope when we add the "tails" from the Red Phantom envelope. Bearing in mind the SLA envelope wasn't available for the author of the Red Phantom envelope to copy, the writing is virtually indistinguishable from one another, along with a single comma and address format. If Mike Rodelli finds "It hard to look at the envelopes he suggested and not see the similarities to the SLA envelope", he cannot fail to see the similarity between the SLA envelope and Red Phantom envelope. If he believes that the SLA letter was authored by the Zodiac Killer, he now must accept (using his arguments) that the Red Phantom letter was authored by the Zodiac Killer as well. Fortunately, in his book he does.    

However, in his book Hunt For the Zodiac, he also makes an extended case for the Badlands letter being the Zodiac Killer, stating "In it (the Badlands letter), the anonymous author is accepted based on hand printing as having once again been Zodiac". So, Mike Rodelli is arguing that the SLA letter, Badlands card and Red Phantom letter are genuine Zodiac, but the Exorcist letter is the one he questions most. But if he accepts the arguments he has given for these communications being authentic Zodiac (including the SLA envelope handwriting), he can only come to the conclusion that the Exorcist letter is genuine too. We can therefore conclude, using Mike Rodelli's own words, that if Alan Keel showed a DNA match between the 1978 letter and one of the 1974 letters (and all the 1974 letters are genuine), then the Zodiac Killer licked the envelopes and stamps on the 1978 letter, Exorcist letter, SLA letter, Badlands card and Red Phantom letter. In other words, he never used tap water. The only way that Mike Rodelli can maintain the claims made at the beginning of this article, is to say the comparisons between the two April 1970 envelopes and the Exorcist envelope are not as valid as the comparisons he has made between the SLA envelope and the four envelopes he listed. In good faith, that argument cannot be made. The reality is, that the Exorcist letter is genuine Zodiac correspondence, and contrary to the arguments Mike Rodelli has made. 

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

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]

The Red Phantom letter, postmarked San Rafael on July 8th 1974, was authored by the same individual who created the Symbionese Liberation Army letter on February 3rd 1974. Irrespective of who mailed each correspondence, it was almost certainly not the Zodiac Killer. The entire focus of the Red Phantom letter was aimed at Count Marco (Marc H. Spinelli) and his overtly chauvenistic views towards women, calling for the cancellation of his column in the San Francisco Chronicle. Much of the rhetoric evident in the communications of the left-leaning Symbionese Liberation Army would carry the message of equality for women. A search for the inspiration behind the Red Phantom pseudonym has long been sought, with many possible explanations having been suggested, including the theatrical release of the 1908 Pathé Frères film, El Espectro Rojo or The Red Phantom at the Port Theater in Mill Valley, Marin County on the 27th and 28th April 1974. However, the inspiration for the pseudonym may be nothing more than an angry response to the July 3rd 1974 article by Count Marco in the San Francisco Chronicle, with the Red Phantom pseudonym inspired by the article itself.   

The Red Phantom letter begins with "Put Marco back in the hell-hole whence it came - he has a serious psychological disorder". A sentence clearly inspired by the article on the left, in which Marc H. Spinelli uses the words psychiatrists, psychologists and psychiatry multiple times. Then the letter suggests to the San Francisco Chronicle that they "refer him to a shrink".

The Red Phantom letter ends with "Meanwhile, cancel the Count Marco column. Since the Count can write anonymously, so can I". The article on the left ends with "You don't need psychiatry. All you need is the Count Marco column". Hence the reference to "column" in the letter.

Marc H. Spinelli wrote this column under an anonymous pseudonym - and why the author of the July 8th 1974 communication used the word "Phantom". A phantom can be described as a ghost, a figment of the imagination, not real or illusory. The author was simply choosing a pseudonym lacking visibility and substance. Although, The Phantom was an American adventure comic strip published by Lee Falk in February 1936 that has run in many newspapers to this day, syndicated by King Features of Hearst Holdings, Inc.

The addition of "Red" before "Phantom" explained perfectly by the bracketed "red with rage" placed underneath. The Count Marco column had already detailed in the first paragraph that he "wasn't surprised by the angry reaction" when he wrote about psychiatrists and psychologists, so it's probably no surprise that the author of the San Rafael letter used the word "Red" before "Phantom" to express their anger or rage. No external "Red Phantom" was required as inspiration for this correspondence, because every element of the correspondence was derived from within the July 3rd 1974 Count Marco column. The Red Phantom is just a construct of the author's mind, that has ultimately become a figment of our imagination.   

Before the United States entered World War I, Hearst’s sympathies lay with Germany. He used his publishing empire to gather pro-German editors and writers around him, did a deal with a German agent for newsreel footage, and used a paid agent of the German government as his newspaper correspondent for German matters. But once the United States declared war on Germany, Hearst could no longer maintain this stance, so he took up a new one. With American flags decorating his newspapers’ masthead, he declared that the freshly belligerent Americans should tender no aid to the Allies also fighting Germany: “Keep every dollar and every man and every weapon and all our supplies and stores AT HOME, for the defense of our own land, our own people, our own freedom, until that defense has been made ABSOLUTELY secure. After that we can think of other nations’ troubles. But till then, America first".

With “AMERICA FIRST” at the center of his newspaper masthead, emblazoned above a stylized eagle clutching a ribbon reading, “AN AMERICAN PAPER FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE", Hearst promoted the virtues of Nazism, whose “great achievement”—and a lesson to all “liberty-loving people”—was the defeat of communism. Hearst now saw communism everywhere—not only in the Roosevelt administration, but among college professors “teaching alien doctrines” and among striking union workers in San Francisco, against whom Hearst’s papers encouraged vigilante violence. In July 1934, during the San Francisco general strike, mobs broke the windows of residents in tradesmen’s neighborhoods, threatened them with violence, and told them to move; “police,” The New York Times daily reported, “said that not all the victims were radicals.”For his part, Hearst responded appreciatively: “Thank God the patriotic citizens of California have shown us the way". Eric Rauchway, writing for The Atlantic

Unsurprising then, that this drew ire from some American citizens, when they wrote to the authorities accusing William Randolph Hearst of being part of the fifth column. Here are some anonymous examples from a single author in the early 1940s, addressing the District Attorney in Los Angeles with a signature of "A Citizen" and "An anxious Citizen", with respect to their concerns as an American patriot. The anonymous letters would include newspaper clippings regarding the statements of William Randolph Hearst in his newspapers.

The competition between the Chronicle and Examiner took a financial toll on both papers until the summer of 1965, when a merger of sorts created a Joint Operating Agreement under which the Chronicle became the city's sole morning daily while the Examiner changed to afternoon publication. The two newspapers produced a joint Sunday edition, with the Examiner publishing the news sections and the Sunday magazine and the Chronicle responsible for the tabloid entertainment section and the book review. From 1965 on the two papers shared a single classified-advertising operation. This arrangement stayed in place until the Hearst Corporation took full control of the Chronicle in 2000.

Postmarked May 8th 1974, the San Francisco Chronicle received a card berating them for the running of advertisements for the 1973 movie Badlands movie, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. This doesn't seem particularly out of the ordinary, until we consider the rancour between William Randolph Hearst and Orson Welles, during which Hearst demanded that his newspapers stop running advertisements for the 1941 Citizen Kane film. Here is a small extract from 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 authors, separated by over three decades, expressing their concern for "public sensibilities" with respect to William Randolph Hearst and his newspaper coverage of disturbing content. Bearing in mind the Chronicle and Examiner ran a single classified-advertising operation, it wasn't unusual for the author of the May 8th 1974 communication to be addressing the Hearst family through the San Francisco Chronicle, whose reach was far greater. Both authors expressing consternation regarding the activities of William Randolph Hearst and his coverage of the World War and the Badlands movie. Just off the back of the Symbionese Liberation Army letter to the San Francisco Chronicle on February 3rd 1974, three months earlier.

The Symbionese Liberation Army had typed a similar letter to the one in the 1940s, when they addressed the Hearst family on February 10th 1974, again berating William Randolph Hearst for his commentary on another American war. The letter read

Hearst Family, 
(Second Commandment: "For I the Lord as a jealous God and visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation). No, we are not religious nuts, but we hate you for your father's part in starting the Spanish-American War, and also for his later, cheap liason with the trollop Marion Davies." Our male ancestors were killed in your father's war and their wives were left with pensions of $25 to $50 a month for life. We wonder how you can hold up your heads in decent society, and why your contemporaries can stomach your presence. Our once proud families were destroyed by your father's war.....which he started to boost his circulation. HERE IS WHAT WE DEMAND; Before we release your daughter Patricia, you must show proper humility by acknowledging the guilt of William Randolph Hearst (in regard to starting yellow journalism and instigating the Spanish-American War. You must publicly beg the forgiveness of your country. This must be done on ALL media and must be expressed in terms of abject humility. When we are convinced you are showing abject humility for the sins of your father and his papers, we will release Patricia, whose only sin is that she carries the genes of William Randolph Hearst. The SLA.

This letter bisected the SLA letter (February 3rd) and Citizen card (May 8th), with all three likely mailed by the Symbionese Liberation Army - and all three directly or indirectly referring to the Hearst family. The SLA letter, postmarked the day before the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst, referenced the Old Norse word of "kill" and signed off with the equally respectful "a friend". Then came the July 8th 1974 Red Phantom letter to the San Francisco Chronicle, again expressing consternation, but this time aimed at Count Marco, requesting the cancellation of his newspaper column, much like the retraction desired in the Citizen card. The author wrote "Since the Count can write anonymously, so can I - the Red Phantom". When we consider that the author of the Citizen card was referring to a 1941 feud between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst and the SLA letter was postmarked the day the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst, it wouldn't be too surprising if the pseudonym "Red Phantom" was another subtle dig at William Randolph Hearst through the newspapers. "Hearst promoted the virtues of Nazism, whose “great achievement”—and a lesson to all “liberty-loving people”—was the defeat of communism. Hearst saw communism everywhere". Was this another "Red Phantom" lurking in the shadows?   

It has been shown recently that the February 3rd 1974 SLA letter and the July 8th 1974 Red Phantom letter were almost certainly authored by the same individual, assuming the author of the envelope in each case was responsible for its contents. The SLA envelope was not featured in the newspapers, so the author of the Red Phantom envelope could not have mimicked the address so accurately. It was also shown how the SLA letter was almost certainly authored by the Symbionese Liberation Army, who not only mailed it the day before Patty Hearst's kidnapping, but typed a letter and addressed it to the Hearst family on February 10th 1974 mimicking the introduction and signature of the SLA letter. Both communications began with "Dear" and ended with "a friend".  

A friend of the Symbionese Liberation Army, associate of the group or a member themselves, had they authored the SLA letter and envelope, were with little doubt also responsible for authorship of the Red Phantom letter and envelope. The problem being that the Red Phantom letter was mailed on July 8th 1974, nearly two months after the deadly shootout with Los Angeles police on May 17th 1974 at the 1466 East 54th Street SLA hideout. Six members of the Symbionese Liberation Army died that day, including Nancy Ling Perry, Angela Atwood, Camilla Hall, Willie Wolfe, Donald DeFreeze and Patricia Soltysik. Therefore, it is patently obvious that none of these individuals were responsible for the Red Phantom letter, and by extension, the SLA letter. That reduces the pool drastically and could open the door to an associate or friend of the Symbionese Liberation Army.  

Kathleen Soliah was born in Fargo, North Dakota, while her family were living in Barnesville, Minnesota. When she was eight, her conservative Lutheran family relocated to Southern California. After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Soliah moved to Berkeley, California with her boyfriend, James Kilgore. There she met Angela Atwood at an acting audition where they both won lead roles. They became inseparable during the play's run. Atwood tried to sponsor Soliah into the SLA. Regardless, Soliah and Kilgore, along with her brother Steve and sister Josephine, followed the SLA closely without joining. It is apparent these were fringe players in the early days of the Symbionese Liberation Army, but nonetheless sympathizers and friends who would later play a more integral part.

Sara Jane Olson (born Kathleen Ann Soliah on January 16, 1947) was one possible author of the SLA letter. 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? She was "a friend" of the Symbionese Liberation Army with close ties to Angela Atwood. She also had Scandinavian ancestry, that may have influenced the "Old Norse" reference on the SLA letter. 

When Atwood and other key members of the SLA were killed in 1974 during a standoff with police in Los Angeles, the Soliahs organized memorial rallies, including a rally in Berkeley's Willard Park where Soliah spoke in support of her friend Angela Atwood while being covertly filmed by the FBI. Kathleen Soliah said that her fellow SLA members had been: "viciously attacked and murdered by 500 pigs in L.A. while the whole nation watched. Well, I believe that Gelina [Atwood] and her comrades fought until the last minutes, and though I would like to have her with me here right now, I know that she lived happy and she died happy. And in that sense, I'm so very proud of her. SLA soldiers – I know it is not necessary to say; but keep on fighting. I'm with you and we are with you". But if Kathleen Soliah was responsible for the February 3rd 1974 SLA letter, then she had to be responsible for the July 8th 1974 Red Phantom letter also (if we conclude the author of both envelopes were the same handwriting).

As with many female members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, Kathleen Soliah was a staunch advocate of women's rights and equality, and the polar opposite of the image portrayed by Marc H. Spinelli in his column in the San Francisco Chronicle. The Count Marco column drew regular ire from its female readership, who branded Count Marco a misogynist. The obituary of Marc H. Spinelli began with "Marc H. Spinelli, better known to Chronicle readers as Count Marco, a columnist who gave outrageous advice to women for 15 years. As Count Marco, Mr. Spinelli was a star performer in a circulation war in the 1960s between The Chronicle and other Bay Area newspapers. At the height of his fame, he wrote his newspaper column, appeared on his own daily television show, wrote three books, won prizes and developed a huge audience that was either amused or appalled by his words".

Therefore, it wouldn't have been too surprising if his column inches had caught the attention of one of the female members or associates of the Symbionese Liberation Army, who were voracious letter-writers throughout 1974. In the September and October of 1976 Olson, under the name Nancy Bennett, was still involved in female activism, appearing in two feminist plays in Seattle. She disappeared after four performances. The viability of female authorship through the SLA and Red Phantom envelope handwriting, makes her a credible candidate (although not a certainty). But there is one other crucial factor that links the SLA letter and Red Phantom letter together. 

In 1969, James Kilgore began dating Kathleen Soliah. She joined a band of extremists known as the Symbionese Liberation Army or SLA. In 1974, Soliah introduced Kilgore to group members Emily and Bill Harris. He soon became involved in the organization. He helped create fake IDs for several of the members and began orchestrating bank robberies. They claimed that they committed the robberies so they could finance their plan to overthrow the government. In late February of 1975, SLA members held up the Guild Savings and Loan in Sacramento. On April 21, 1975, Kilgore, Soliah, the Harrises, and Michael Bortin decided to rob the Crocker National Bank in Carmichael, California. At the same time, forty-two-year-old Myrna Opsahl and two of her friends arrived at the bank, planning to deposit money from their church group.  Unsolved Mysteries. So it is fairly obvious Kathleen Soliah and James Kilgore, heavily bound to the Symbionese Liberation Army, were extremely close to one another.   

James William Kilgore was born in California, graduating from San Rafael High School in 1965. Kathleen Ann Soliah grew up in Palmdale, Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles and San Francisco were the two headquarters of the Symbionese Liberation Army.

The February 3rd 1974 SLA letter (Old Norse being spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia) was mailed from Los Angeles, where Kathleen Soliah grew up with her Norwegian-American parents, and the July 8th 1974 Red Phantom letter was mailed from San Rafael (where boyfriend of Soliah, James Kilgore spent his early years). Two members and/or close associates of the Symbionese Liberation Army with close ties to both these locations.

Whether the SLA letter or Red Phantom letter were mailed by Kathleen Soliah cannot be proven, but with little doubt, these two communications were likely authored by the same individual. If a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army was responsible for the SLA letter, then a high probability exists they mailed a communication to Count Marco also.  

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

According to the accepted story, the Zodiac Killer mailed the authenticated Los Angeles letter on March 13th 1971, then reappeared in the January of 1974. The Zodiac Killer was an extremely lucky serial killer, evading capture by a fortuitous series of events in the aftermath of the Paul Stine murder on October 11th 1969. But not half as lucky, when after nearly 3 years, he supposedly mailed the February 3rd 1974 SLA letter (writing about the Symbionese Liberation Army), just one day before the SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army) kidnapped Patty Hearst, granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. Can you imagine the stroke of fortune that befell the Zodiac Killer, masquerading as a soothsayer, and just happening to write about the Symbionese Liberation Army the day before they pulled of their most high profile crime.

What is even more amazing, is that the Zodiac Killer began the SLA letter with "Dear" and ended the communication with "a friend". This letter was not published in the newspapers. Despite this, the Symbionese Liberation Army typed a communication to the Hearst family just seven days later, on February 10th 1974. It too began with "Dear" and signed off with "A friend". Not only was the Zodiac extremely fortunate to time his SLA letter the day before Patty Hearst's kidnapping, but seven days in advance, he predicted the opening and ending words in the February 10th 1974 Symbionese Liberation Army letter. The sarcasm dripping from my internet keyboard should be obvious, that I don't believe the SLA letter was authored by the Zodiac Killer - and neither was the Red Phantom letter.       

Having already stuck two fingers up to the father of Patty Hearst and the newspaper magnate's empire, it probably wasn't surprising that the Symbionese Liberation Army (in the Citizen card on May 8th 1974) invoked the "running of ads" in their next offering, akin to William Randolph Hearst and his protestations regarding his paper running advertisements for the Orson Welles movie Citizen Kane in 1941. However, it is the Red Phantom letter objecting to the newspaper column of Count Marco, mailed on July 8th 1974, that would become the paragon of imitation. The author of this communication managed to add "tails" to the address on the envelope, metamorphosing the SLA letter into the Red Phantom letter.

Because the SLA letter and envelope were not released to the public at the time, the author of the Red Phantom envelope had an uncanny knack of imitating the handwriting and format of the SLA letter. These are with little doubt the same author. If the Zodiac Killer was not responsible for the SLA letter, then he wasn't responsible for the Red Phantom letter either.

In a previous article we compared a postcard from the Symbionese Liberation Army 'Hearnap' FBI files threatening the daughter of President Richard Nixon, to the Citizen Card purportedly mailed by the Zodiac Killer. The composition of the Citizen Card, expressing consternation and concern at the running of advertisements for the Badlands movie and signing off with "A citizen", was compared to the Richard Nixon Postcard with respect to "A concerned citizen". This, coupled with similarities between the February 3rd 1974 SLA Letter and a communication dated February 10th 1974 from the Symbionese Liberation Army, led to the conclusion that neither the Citizen Card or SLA Letter were penned by the Zodiac Killer. This has been questioned, leading to speculation that the Zodiac Killer may in fact have been responsible for both the Richard Nixon Postcard mailed on May 23rd 1974 and the Citizen Card mailed on May 8th 1974.     

Just prior to these two communications the Symbionese Liberation mailed a similar threat to Randolph Hearst stating "It now appears to SLA that he would rather sacrifice his daughters life than to print the truth to the American people". The message finished with "We wish C.B.S, A.B.C. or N.B.C. would dedicate one hour of national network time to the founder of C.C.S.D. so the man could deliver a message to the people that could save the nation from political disaster and economical destruction". The man they wanted to be given air time was Roland L. Hayes from the corporation of Concerned Citizens for Social Development (C.C.S.D) - and included his writings. This man clearly inspired the Symbionese Liberation Army with his message of fighting for the people against corporate greed and the likes of Randolph Hearst. Is it therefore surprising that several weeks later, a postcard was mailed to President Richard Nixon invoking a threat on his daughter and signing off with "A concerned citizen for freedom"? As can be seen in the excerpts below the SLA directive, Roland L. Hayes titled many of his sections "concerned citizens for social development" and subtitled one "The President", detailing President Richard Nixon on more than one occasion.

When we look at the wording on the Richard Nixon Postcard "Dear King, We know where Patty Hearst is. But wait till we get your daughter. A concerned citizen for freedom", the comparisons can be noted. With the Citizen Card sandwiched in between the Dear Mr. Chancellor Letter and the "Dear King" Richard Nixon Postcard, we have more cause for concern about the validity of the May 8th 1974 communication as a Zodiac Killer offering. It was directing its consternation at the running of ads by the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner - two newspapers previously highlighted with ire by the Symbionese Liberation Army because of their connection to Randolph Hearst.

To view the entire FBI documents on this matter, visit page 400 of the Hearnap files, part 36 of 42.

Here is another interesting feature, discovered by investigators written on the apartment wall of a previously occupied Symbionese Liberation Army residence. The discovery would have been prior to the July 8th 1974 Red Phantom Letter, signing off with "the Red Phantom (red with rage)". The message scrawled on the wall began "Every day my rage grows fonder of the poison I pack into the heads of my bullets". But did this rage last until July 8th 1974?

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?  

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?  

When tying a single author or group to the mailing of the SLA 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 SLA 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 SLA 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 SLA 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.

These three 1974 communications were mailed in and around the height of the Symbionese Liberation Army, beginning on February 3rd 1974, just one day 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 SLA 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 SLA 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 The 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 SLA 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 SLA letter arrived, also signing off with "a friend".  

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?

To examine this possibility we have to examine her background. The SLA 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 SLA 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, but also, somebody with film and theatrical leanings that may have a strong bearing on the design of the SLA 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.

SLA  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 SLA letter and "Old Norse", keeping in line with the theatrical influences, I looked for a link to the theater in the SLA letter. 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. He 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 SLA 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 SLA Hearst letter, again signing off with "A friend". ​Her role in the Norwegian Hedda Gabler theater production may 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.