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

In the last article we focused on the 1978 Channel Nine letter as a product born from the Symbionese Liberation Army, and highlighted the very real possibility that all the 1974 'Zodiac' communications were in fact authored by people connected to this militant organization. We discussed how the Symbionese Liberation Army specifically targeted the Hearst Corporation, not only by the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst on February 4th 1974, but by mailing the S.L.A. letter on February 3rd 1974, along with the subsequent Badlands and Red Phantom correspondences, all of which were designed with the Hearst family in mind. But it doesn't stop there. The Channel Nine letter stated "You people in LA are in for a treat. In the next three weeks you are finally gona have something good to report. I have decided to begin killing again". The August 1st 1973 Albany letter began in similar fashion: "You were wrong. I am not dead or in the hospital. I am alive and well and I am going to start killing again". This familiar trope of the Symbionese Liberation Army mimicking Zodiac correspondence may have possibly extended through a five year period, from August 1st 1973 to May 2nd 1978. The widely questioned Albany letter, I suggest, is another letter penned by this militant group for one specific reason - their hate of corporate greed and the Hearst family's apparent stranglehold on the narrative through their newspaper collective. The biggest question that has to be asked regarding the Albany letter is, why would the Zodiac Killer randomly pluck the Albany Times Union newspaper out of a hat when choosing to write his first correspondence in nearly two and a half years? What connection did the Zodiac Killer have with this newspaper? Many have put forward the notion of Richard Gaikowski and Darlene Ferrin as a connection, but this is a real stretch four years after her death. The Albany letter arrived at the Times Union only five months before the sequence of 1974 letters - it has been argued - were a subtle rebuke of the Hearst Corporation. So why should this correspondence be any different. The Symbionese Liberation Army had every reason to target this Hearst run newspaper, and may explain why it was chosen, despite being nearly 3,000 miles away from San Francisco.  

'The Times Union is an American daily newspaper, serving the Capital Region of New York. Although the newspaper focuses on Albany and its suburbs, it covers all parts of the four-county area, including the cities of Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Springs. It is owned by Hearst Communications. The paper was founded in 1857 as the Morning Times, becoming Times-Union by 1891, and was purchased by William Randolph Hearst in 1924'. Wikipedia.

George Randolph Hearst III (born 1955) is the Publisher and CEO of the Times Union newspaper in Albany, New York, and a director of the Hearst Corporation.
He is the second child of George Randolph Hearst, Jr. and Mary Astrid Thompson and great-grandson of William Randolph Hearst. Hearst was previously the Director of Operations of the Times Union and then its Associate Publisher and General Manager. He is the chairman of the board of trustees of the Albany Institute of History & Art, a member of the board of directors of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center  and St. Peter's Health Care Services, a hospital in Albany.

The threat issued to the Albany Times Union newspaper was the forerunner to the attack on the Hearst Corporation in at least three of the four 1974 communications, that sandwiched the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst on February 4th. Below are some communications mailed by the hand of the Symbionese Liberation Army to New York, including Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When we consider the identity of the author of the July 8th 1974 Red Phantom letter, we have to consider the person they are addressing and what do they stand for. The letter states "Editor: Put Marco back in the hell-hole from whence it came- he has a serious psychological disorder- always needs to feel superior. I suggest you refer him to a shrink. Meanwhile, cancel the Count Marco column. Since the count can write anonymously, so can I----the Red Phantom (red with rage)". 

​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" sfgate.. Most of the people dissatisfied with his newspaper column were disgruntled women, appalled with his views they deemed as male chauvinistic and sexist - so a good case can be argued that the author of the Red Phantom letter was likely a woman fighting for women's rights, upset by his perceived superiority complex. On the flip side, it could be the Zodiac Killer angered by the columnist for putting women down, despite the fact he had no problem murdering them.

His book 'Beauty and the Beast' was littered with distasteful comments towards women, such as 'Someone once asked me, "do you really believe a husband should beat his wife?" And I answered "Yes, most emphatically. There are times when she should not only be beaten, but kicked when she's down". Other examples can be readily found in the newspaper columns running up to the Red Phantom letter of May 8th, shown here in the 'Ten Days of Count Marco' by Zodiac researcher Michael Cole. Two such examples are "Female comics, she says, must play the role of ugly duckling or half-wit in order to get laughs. The real uglies of course are the ones who don't make a living at it: the average American housewife who prowls the public streets with her hair in rollers and her stretch pants defying all laws of container control" and "Besides, if a stewardess can't handle a flippant male passenger, then I don't think she's strong enough to open an emergency door".

So, it wouldn't be too surprising if the author of the Red Phantom letter was a woman with aspirations of equal rights and respect, who was familiar with the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper and despised the views of Count Marco, rather than a serial killer known for stabbing women in the back, and widely portrayed in many Zodiac circles as a man who vented most of his anger towards the women he encountered. This dichotomy, however, is largely disregarded, when the overarching desire is to believe the Zodiac Killer resurfaced in 1974 for phase two of his 'escapades'. Having previously poured huge doubt on the February 3rd 1974 S.L.A letter as Zodiac material (likely authored by a female member of the Symbionese Liberation Army), and questioned the authenticity of the Badlands or Citizen card, we shall now examine the Red Phantom letter from a similar perspective. We shall also look at the origin of the anonymous signature "Red Phantom (red with rage)"   

"The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was an American left-wing militant organization active between 1973 and 1975 that considered itself a vanguard army. The group committed bank robberies, two murders, and other acts of violence. In his manifesto "Symbionese Liberation Army Declaration of Revolutionary War & the Symbionese Program", Donald DeFreeze wrote, "The name 'symbionese' is taken from the word symbiosis and we define its meaning as a body of dissimilar bodies and organisms living in deep and loving harmony and partnership in the best interest of all within the body. "This political symbiosis DeFreeze describes means the unity of all left-wing struggles, feminist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and others. DeFreeze wanted all races, genders, and ages to fight together in a left-wing united front, and to live together peacefully". Wiki.

The group mailed large quantities of mail to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, and various television and radio stations, as well as many other outlets. They ranged from demands and threats, to spouting off Symbionese Liberation Army doctrine. Their membership was progressive, having a high proportion of female members with a staunch feminist ideology.

Therefore, bearing in mind the S.L.A letter, is it possible one of the female Symbionese Liberation Army members took umbrage over the Count Marco, San Francisco columnist's views on women and mailed a correspondence to him, telling him to get "back in the hell-hole from whence it came"? Or was the Zodiac having a mid-life crisis becoming more liberal with his views - rather than his bullets.
​ 
Here is a small fraction of the literature composed by female members of the Symbionese Liberation Army and their struggle for equality in the sexes. 

The 'Woman Question' referred to in the FBI 'Hearnap' (Hearst Kidnap) files "is translated from the French term querelle des femmes (literally, 'dispute of women') refers both to an intellectual debate from the 1400s to the 1700s on the nature of women and feminist campaigns for social change after the 1700s. While the French phrase querelle des femmes deals specifically with the Renaissance period, 'the woman question' in English (or in corresponding languages) is a phrase usually used in connection with a social change in the later half of the 19th century, which questioned the fundamental roles of women in Western industrialized countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, and Russia. Issues of women's suffrage, reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, property rights, legal rights, and medical rights, and marriage dominated cultural discussions in newspapers and intellectual circles. While many women were supportive of these changing roles, they did not agree unanimously. Often issues of marriage and sexual freedom were most divisive". Wikipedia.

The Symbionese Liberation Army women members often referenced a "cell" or "collective", and this leads us nicely on to the meaning behind "Red Phantom (red with rage)". 

Many have searched for the inspiration behind "Red Phantom" from a Zodiac perspective. Comic designers, movie makers and newspaper editors throughout the ages have attributed pseudonyms to fantasy characters and murderers alike. In other words, they have just been manufactured by the imagination of the creator and not necessarily copied or inspired by something previous. The "Red Phantom" pseudonym may just have been conjured up on the spur of the moment. However, I would like to focus on the only word the author used twice - the word "red."  If the letter was written by a female member of the Symbionese Liberation Army with feminist ideals, could the word "red" have been invoked for a deeper meaning.

"The late 60s saw the emergence of the Women’s Movement in Britain. In 1969 in London the Women’s Red Liberation Workshop established itself, developing consciousness raising groups and attempting to articulate and understand the ways in which women felt themselves to be oppressed and exploited. In the same year, a group of socialist women active in the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign started producing a journal called “Socialist Woman”, whose aims were both to impress on the left the importance of the “Woman Question” – to publicise the struggles of women in Britain and internationally and to try to develop a socialist analysis of women’s oppression it was to be distributed through the newly formed Socialist Woman Groups".  Redflagwalks. There was also the emergence of the socialist-feminist Red Rag Magazine championing women's rights. These publications inspired women internationally, including female Americans fighting for a better future. Were these publications and the rise of "red feminism", the catalyst for a push-back against the male chauvinist 'pigs' of America, including the Count Marco column of Marc H. Spinelli? Or did the Zodiac Killer undergo a complete transformation after murdering three women (5 people in total) - now rallying for "public sensibilities", despite being attributed with the threatening Exorcist letter just five months earlier?

                                                                     "the Red Phantom (red with rage)".      
​
​S.L.A LETTER NOT ZODIAC - AND HERE IS THE FBI FILE TO PROVE IT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A pasted card mimicking the '13 Hole' postcard was mailed to the home address of Dr. Edward C. Adams at 102 Camino Don Miguel, Orinda, California, postmarked October 17th 1970 from Berkeley. Edward C. Adams was a psychiatrist. The card read "Mon Oct 12, 1970. Edward Adams. The Zodiac is going to change the way of committing murders. I shall announce when I shall commit my murders, The Adamses are Next. you taught me to mean it. ADAMS YOU ARE NEXT. Zodiac".

Fast forward to July 8th 1974, when another suspected Zodiac correspondence was mailed to Marc Henry Spinelli of the San Francisco Chronicle. He was better known as Count Marco, running an advice column in the paper for 15 years. The only time Zodiac addressed the columnist was in respect to a topic on psychiatrists and psychologists, which featured only five days prior to the July 8th 1974 'Red Phantom' letter. The column, dated July 3rd 1974, began with "When I wrote that psychiatrists and psychologists ruined more marriages than they saved, I wasn't surprised by the angry reaction. I had contended that shrinks look at ordinary marriage problems as "cases," to be dissected, rearranged and deranged, leaving the "patient" totally disoriented. What would happen if a physician examined a patient and said, "You have such and such a disease. Now do something about it," without prescribing treatment. Mother Nature is like an oyster. She heals emotional wounds through passage of time. An oyster finds a grain of sand has forced its way into the shell. As time goes on its mucous continually covers the irritant until eventually what was a sore spot becomes a magnificent pearl. However, if one instead took a sharp instrument and sliced the pearl in half, the only result would be to expose the original grain of sand, the irritant. According to a report in The Chronicle, behavioral researchers have shown unmistakably that psychiatry is a very imprecise tool in diagnosing mental illness".
    
This clearly prompted a response from the author of the 'Red Phantom' letter, who wrote "Editor - Put Marco back in the hell-hole from whence it came - he has a serious psychological disorder - always needs to feel superior. I suggest you refer him to a shrink. Meanwhile, cancel the Count Marco column. Since the Count can write anonymously, so can I - the Red Phantom (red with rage)". Many people have attempted to analyze the Zodiac Killer from a psychological perspective, so is it possible the Zodiac Killer used his knowledge of this subject to play a game with his 'audience', throwing them red herrings throughout his communications? Directing the audience down a path he chose for them.

​"Edward C. Adams spent most of his life in the Bay Area where he attended the University of California Berkeley for his undergraduate work and Stanford University for his medical degree. His residency in psychiatry was received at the Menninger Clinic, Topeka, KS. During the Korean War he was an instructor in the Medical Field Service at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, TX. After retiring from an active practice in Psychiatry he devoted his energies to travel, fly fishing, the study of poetry and the enjoyment of his family and many friends. During the time spent at his Carmel home he volunteered as a docent at the Robinson Jeffers Foundation. He was a member of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Society and an active supporter of many environmental groups".  SFGATE.COM.

One of the addresses for Marc H. Spinelli was 747 Geary Street, San Francisco, the location often associated with where taxicab driver Paul Stine picked up the Zodiac Killer on October 11th 1969. He would be murdered a short time later at the intersection of Washington and Cherry Streets. How well the Zodiac Killer knew this area is subjective, but he may have chosen this area because he was familiar with the surroundings - crucial when planning an escape route from a murder. Had the Zodiac Killer worked or trained, somewhere in or close to Presidio Heights.  

In the FBI document on the right, it is clear that Inspector David Toschi of homicide detail believed the 'You Are Next' card may have been mailed to Edward C. Adams by a former patient of his. However, if the card was mailed by the Zodiac Killer, what connections could he have to Edward C. Adams, his profession, or Orinda, California? 

The crucial phrase in the card is "you taught me to mean it". You don't teach patients, you diagnose them. What if the Zodiac Killer trained as a psychologist, or went to one of Edward C. Adams' seminars or lectures? He could easily have picked up some useful 'psychological advice', used to convince his audience in the guise of the Zodiac Killer - conveying his threats with menace and meaning. In other words, Edward C. Adams "taught him to mean it" under the Zodiac umbrella.

Dr. Edward C. Adams was a member of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute & Society. "The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis was organized in 2007, combining the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute & Society, founded in 1941, with the San Francisco Foundation for Psychoanalysis, founded in 1991. The Center provides an extensive training program in psychoanalysis. The Center also sponsors a large, vibrant Extension Division which offers classes and seminars to mental health professionals as well as to the general public." link.​ Was the Zodiac Killer sitting in the audience taking a lesson from Edward C. Adams in how "to mean it"? The San Francisco Psychoanalytic Society and Institute is a facility for psychoanalytic research, training, and education located on 2420 Sutter St. in San Francisco, California. It is situated in Lower Pacific Heights, approximately one mile from the intersection of Washington and Cherry.

Marc H. Spinelli courted much controversy during his 15-year reign as San Francisco columnist Count Marco, offering advice to his women readers on a range of subjects. Some liked his columns, while others believed he offended 'public sensibilities' to which they expressed their 'consternation'. If the 1974 letters were mailed by the Zodiac Killer, it certainly appeared he had become upset by the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper for running advertisements featuring the 1973 Badlands movie, as well as publishing advice for women under the anonymous pseudonym of Count Marco, stating in a July 8th 1974 letter "Editor: Put Marco back in the hell-hole from whence it came- he has a serious psychological disorder- always needs to feel superior. I suggest you refer him to a shrink. Meanwhile, cancel the Count Marco column. Since the count can write anonymously, so can I----the Red Phantom (red with rage)".

This was likely a response to one or many of Count Marco's articles in the preceding days or weeks, several of which are shown on Michael Cole's Zodiac Revisited site. The July 3rd 1974 newspaper article appears the likely contender in drawing a response from the Zodiac Killer. It is entitled Your Mirror Can Also See Inside You and opens with the lines "When I wrote that psychiatrists and psychologists ruined more marriages than they saved, I wasn't surprised by the angry reaction. I had contended that shrinks look at ordinary marriage problems as "cases", to be dissected, rearranged and deranged, leaving the "patient" totally disoriented".

The Zodiac Killer often sourced his previous material for running themes, such as Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, often rehashing words repetitively in his later communications - so it wouldn't have been unusual to find the inspiration for the pseudonym "Red Phantom (red with rage)" in a previous correspondence.
 
On December 30th 2013, Tahoe27 discovered the likely inspiration behind the October 27th 1970 Halloween card, in the form of a Tim Holt Western comic entitled Redmask Meets Lady Doom and the Death Wheel. The links between Red Ryder, a form of cattle branding and the Zodiac Killer have been comprehensively discussed in the above forum thread.

"Red Ryder was a Western comic strip created by Stephen Slesinger and artist Fred Harman which served as the basis for a wide array of character merchandising. Syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association, the strip ran from Sunday, November 6, 1938, through 1965. The first Red Ryder comic book was published by Slesinger's Hawley Publications, Inc. in September 1940, followed by Hi-Spot comics for one issue. Dell Comics launched its Red Ryder in August 1941, changing its title to Red Ryder Ranch Magazine with #145, and then to Red Ryder Ranch Comics with #149. Red Ryder Comics consisted of reprints of the newspaper strip until issue #47 (June 1947), when it began producing original material. Altogether, Red Ryder Comics enjoyed a first run, for a total of 151 issues, ending in 1957, one of the longest continuous newsstand runs in the U.S., for any Western comic." Wikipedia.

Red Ryder and Red Phantom have been explored with regards to the word "red" being present in both, however, the source of "Red Phantom (red with rage)" may lie in one person, who starred in two western films featuring an anonymous "Phantom" and "Red Ryder", both released within one year of each other, in 1940 and 1941.   

Donald "Red" Barry was an American film and television actor. He was nicknamed "Red" after appearing as the first Red Ryder in the highly successful 1940 film Adventures of Red Ryder (view on IMDB); the character was played in later films by "Wild Bill" Elliott and Allan Lane. Barry went on to bigger budget films following Red Ryder, but none reached his previous level of success. He played Red Doyle in the 1964 Perry Mason episode 'The Case of the Simple Simon'. Wikipedia. Donald "Red" Barry went from the stage to the screen. After four years of playing villains and henchmen at various studios, Barry got the role that changed his image: Red Ryder in the Republic Pictures serial Adventures of Red Ryder (1940). Although he had appeared in westerns for two years or so, this was the one that kept him there. He acquired the nickname "Red" from his association with the Red Ryder character. After the success of "Red Ryder" Barry starred in a string of westerns for Republic." IMDB.

Don "Red" Barry also featured in the 1941 western movie 'The Phantom Cowboy" in which "Stan Borden (Milburn Stone) is an amoral businessman who has set his sights on the Toreno family's ranch. With the local sheriff (Rex Lease) in his pocket, Borden begins a bullying campaign to claim the place as his own. After an attempt to marry Elanita Toreno (Virginia Carroll) fails, Borden's devious designs lead to murder. Now, ranch hand Jim Lawrence (Don "Red" Barry) and his friend Miguel (Neyle Marx) unite to create El Lobo, a masked avenger who will make Borden pay for his crimes". IMDB.

Did the Zodiac Killer attempt to right the wrongs of Count Marco, drawing on the "Red" Phantom as his pseudonym - and Donald "Red" Barry - who was "red" with rage. This western hero featured prominently in both the Red Ryder syndicate and the 'Phantom' of the American frontier.

In addition to these two movies, in the film 'Phantom of the Plains' (1945), "Red Ryder and Little Beaver return to Blue Springs and learn that the Duchess, Red's aunt, is going to sell her stagecoach line and marry a snooty Englishman Talbot Champneys, who is really Fancy Charlie, who has the nasty habit of marrying rich women and then killing them for their fortune. The concerned Red thinks everything is okay until he sees Champneys mistreating Red's horse, Thunder, and he then decides to investigate Champneys because, as he tells Little Beaver, no true Englishman would mistreat a horse. Realizing that he doesn't have much time with Red snooping around, the western Bluebeard persuades the Duchess to return to England with him, meet him at the railroad station to be married and, oh yes, bring her money with her." IMDB.

The Red Ryder connection, in tandem with the Tim Holt Redmask Meets Lady Doom and the Death Wheel comic strip, both had western influences. So, did the Zodiac Killer ride into town one more time on July 8th 1974 - this time as the avenging "Red" Phantom, on a mission to reprimand the irrepressible and anonymous Marc H. Spinelli.