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?  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But it is the February 7th 1974 communication that provides the bridge to the other three letters in this 12 day period, that may pour huge doubt on the validity of the Exorcist Letter as a Zodiac correspondence, ultimately relegating the Bay Area murderer back to 1971. The February 7th 1974 communication has many features contained in both the Exorcist and S.L.A. letters. In effect, the Symbionese Liberation Army were mimicking the Zodiac Killer in 1974 and the Zodiac Killer never returned at all for his 'second phase'. The assumed Zodiac S.L.A. Letter (not released to the newspapers), mailed the day before the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst, which was mimicked in its introduction and ending ("Dear" and "A friend") just one week later in the February 10th 1974 Symbionese Liberation Army typed letter, should be pause for thought. So, let us take a look at the February 7th 1974 letter.

Whether the Patty Hearst kidnapping was in response to the Joseph Remiro and Russell Little arrests one cannot be certain, nevertheless, this correspondence had some interesting features. Although it is not compelling to find the word "kill" in a threat letter, this word was possibly present in the rearranged Exorcist Letter characters, was highlighted in quotation marks in the S.L.A. Letter, and was significant within the above correspondence. Although not a staunch advocate of handwriting comparisons, I have placed "kill" and "friend" from the February 7th 1974 communication alongside the same wording on the S.L.A. letter to show a distinct similarity. Both letters, unsurprisingly, contain the American left-wing terrorist organization's name, the Symbionese Liberation Army, however, it is the language used pertaining to the Exorcist Letter that caught my eye.

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

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

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?

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

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

Since the author of the February 7th 1974 communication was likely a woman - and bearing in mind the Scandinavian connection to the S.L.A. Letter - it has to be considered that one of these female members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, could be the author of the S.L.A. Letter - and quite possibly the Exorcist Letter too.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Symbionese Liberation Army mailed the S.L.A letter just a day or two prior to the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst, seized on February 4th 1974. It was postmarked February 3rd 1974, so unless it was delayed significantly, there is an argument to be made it was relevant to the actual kidnapping itself. But why would the Symbionese Liberation Army invoke the "Old Norse" language in a rather benign and meaningless message. The S.L.A letter stated "Dear Mr Editor, Did you know that the initials SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army) spell "sla", an old Norse word meaning "kill". a friend". The message itself would be totally irrelevant but for the inclusion of the North Germanic language - once spoken predominantly in Scandinavia. Old Norse was divided into three dialects: Old West Norse, Old East Norse, and Old Gutnish. Old West and East Norse formed a dialect continuum, with no clear geographical boundary between them. For example, Old East Norse traits were found in eastern Norway, although Old Norwegian is classified as Old West Norse, and Old West Norse traits were found in western Sweden. Most speakers spoke Old East Norse in what is present day Denmark and Sweden.     

The Symbionese Liberation Army (much like Zodiac) were often reactionary to the injustice they perceived had been burdened upon them - often responding to newspaper articles, or referencing them, directly or indirectly within their correspondences. This is the approach we will take regarding the S.L.A letter, bearing in mind the Scandinavian element and the impending kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst. In other words, we have to look backwards at recent newspaper articles in the preceding months that encapsulated these features, especially considering one S.L.A associate, Sara Jane Olson (born Kathleen Ann Soliah), had Scandinavian ancestry.

On August 23rd 1973, Jan-Erik Olsson entered the Sveriges Kreditbanken in Norrmalmstorg Square armed with a submachine gun and took three women and one man hostage, demanding the release of his friend Clark Olofsson from jail. In a strange turn of events, an unlikely friendship formed between the hostages and captors, in what was eventually dubbed the ​Norrmalmstorgssyndromet by Nils Bejerot​ and the "Stockholm Syndrome" by overseas media in the latter months of 1973 and early months of 1974. It is therefore ironical that the Symbionese Liberation Army would then mail a communication using a Scandinavian translation of the word "kill" (albeit strike) just one or two days before Patricia Campbell Hearst was to also be taken hostage. In an uncanny turn of events, her case too was argued to have exemplified the term "Stockholm Syndrome", as she formed a bond with her kidnappers and eventually 'assisted' them in the Hibernia Bank robbery on April 15th 1974, also armed with a high capacity weapon.   

The definition of "Stockholm Syndrome" is a condition which causes hostages to develop a psychological alliance or friendship with their captors as a survival strategy during captivity. The S.L.A letter has the key ingredients of "a friend", a Scandinavian language and an impending hostage situation. The Symbionese Liberation Army would soon mail another letter demanding the release of two apprehended S.L.A members (Joseph Remiro and Russell Little), much like Jan-Erik Olsson successfully demanded the release of his friend, Clark Olofsson. Joseph Remiro and Russell Little had been arrested and charged with the murder of Marcus Foster who was gunned down with cyanide laden bullets on November 6th 1973 in Oakland. The following Symbionese Liberation Army communication contained all the key ingredients of threatening "to kill" Patricia Campbell Hearst if their demands were not met, akin to the S.L.A letter, while also highlighting the word "FRIEND". The comparison can be noted below.       

Eduard Versluijs brought to the attention of the Zodiac Killer Site forum a threatening letter directed toward Harland David Sanders,  best known for founding fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. He was titled 'Colonel' Sanders, although this was not an official rank, merely an honorary title. The envelope was addressed to Shelbyville, Kentucky. This letter was discussed with regards to the Zodiac Killer, but in actual fact it was almost certainly mailed by - you've guessed it - the Symbionese Liberation Army. The letter signed off with 'The General', which could be interpreted as a play on words, bearing in mind the 'Colonel' title of the recipient. However, it probably had more to do with the sender of the letter, or somebody sending it on his behalf. 

The SLA began as a collaboration between convicts and prison activists. Led by DeFreeze, an escaped convict and initially the only black member of the group, the seven other members, who were white middle-class men and women, adopted Swahili names and took up arms for the self-styled Symbionese Federation. The group’s motto, “Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people,” was included on each of their communiqués. The Symbionese Liberation Army were a small group of multiracial militant revolutionaries based in California during the 1970s that owes nearly all its notoriety to the kidnapping and subsequent indoctrination of Patty Hearst, the newspaper heiress. Founded in the Berkeley, California-area in 1973 by Donald DeFreeze, he was known to the group as General Field Marshal Cinque Mtume. This alone, would not be proof that the Symbionese Liberation Army mailed this communication, so we will dig a little further. 

Michael Morford unearthed a similar threatening letter mailed to Sammy Davis Jr in Las Vegas, Reno, Nevada, also signed off with 'The General'. There was an additional pink sheet of paper enclosed with a typewritten message beginning "Dec. 4, 1973..." and signed "Der Fuhrer". Both this and the Colonel Sanders threat were written on paper with the pre-printed address of Riverside Drive, Sherman Oaks, California, indicating they were almost certainly mailed by the same individual or group. 

The 'Colonel' Sanders threat was dated by the sender as January 14th 1974, and the Sammy Davis Jr threat was dated January 19th 1974. It is my contention that these two threats were probably mailed under the shortened pseudonym of General Field Marshal Cinque Mtume, aka Donald DeFreeze. The Symbionese Liberation Army were prolific letter writer's to the newspapers, radio and television stations, high profile individuals, along with the FBI and police. They used handwritten and typewritten communications - the latter of which is something the Zodiac Killer never did in any of his confirmed correspondence subsequent to July 30th 1969. These two threats were mailed to Shelbyville, Kentucky and Las Vegas, Nevada, and both were self-dated in January, 1974. So, you wouldn't be too surprised to hear that the Symbionese Liberation Army, led by a 'General', also mailed letters to Kentucky and Las Vegas in the same timeframe. 

Three letters from the Symbionese Liberation Army were mailed in February, 1974 to the 'Kentucky State Police in Henderson, Kentucky' (return address Henderson, Kentucky) and 'City Police Department, Berkeley, California' (return address Henderson, Kentucky). They also mailed a letter to the FBI in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 14th 1974. 'In early 1960s, the city of Las Vegas was growing rapidly, and the Bureau’s caseload there was rising right along with it. As a result, FBI Headquarters ordered the transfer of all cases and files pertaining to Nevada from the Salt Lake City Division to Las Vegas. In December 1960, John H. Williams was designated Special Agent in Charge and in February, 1961, the opening of the new division was announced. The new division was first housed in an office at 300 Fremont Street, but moved into a new federal building at 11th and Bridger Streets in May 1961'. FBI. In other words, the Symbionese Liberation Army were mailing to Kentucky and Las Vegas within one month of 'The General' mailing letters to 'Colonel' Sanders and Sammy Davis Jr, in Kentucky and Las Vegas respectively.  

The Symbionese Liberation Army appeared to target wealth (as they did with Randolph Hearst), in line with the seemingly anti-capitalist or anti-greed agenda they had built for themselves. Below are the four relevant envelopes mailed by the militant group, outlining their agenda.

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).  

In a series of recent articles it was shown that the February 3rd 1974 S.L.A. letter was mailed by the Symbionese Liberation Army, as likely were the other three 1974 communications purportedly mailed by the Zodiac Killer. The S.L.A. or Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) were thrust into the spotlight after the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, a media heiress, on February 4th 1974. They were a short-lived urban militant group, operating from 1973 to 1975. The S.L.A. letter was mailed from Los Angeles County - the location  of a deadly shootout between Symbionese Liberation Army members and law enforcement on May 17th 1974 at 1466 East 54th Street, resulting in the deaths of six urban militants. The Symbionese Liberation Army had its main headquarters in San Francisco and Los Angeles. However, despite the militant group effectively fragmenting in 1975, not all members or allies of the group were apprehended. The group mailed numerous letters and cassette recordings to the newspapers, and to radio and television stations during the height of their operations. It is certainly conceivable that all the 1974 'Zodiac' letters were in fact written by the Symbionese Liberation Army, with the January 29th 1974 specifically designed to mimic previous Zodiac correspondence. The proof for this militant group's involvement in posing as the Zodiac Killer would come approximately four years later, when the Channel Nine letter was mailed to KHJ-TV in Los Angeles on May 2nd 1978. Arriving just one week after the April 24th 1978 "I am back with you" letter, widely considered a hoax, it may indicate the Symbionese Liberation Army's involvement in both 1978 letters. There was little motivation for the Zodiac Killer to reappear in 1978 and threaten [1] Daryl Gates [2] Edward Davis [3] Pat Boone, and [4] Eldridge Cleaver, all of which had no relevance to him whatsoever. But the Symbionese Liberation Army certainly had every reason to threaten numbers 1 & 2 on the list - Daryl Gates and Edward Davis.

Patricia Hearst was convicted in March 1976 and sentenced to seven years imprisonment. 'Hearst suffered a collapsed lung in prison (the beginning of a series of medical problems) and underwent emergency surgery, which prevented her from appearing to testify against the Harrises on eleven state charges including robbery, kidnapping, and assault; she was also arraigned for those charges. Hearst, who was being held in solitary confinement for security reasons, was granted bail for an appeal in November 1976, on condition she was protected on bond. Dozens of bodyguards were hired by her father. Saying he considered that Hearst's actions had not been voluntary, Superior Court judge Talbot Callister gave her probation on the sporting goods store charge when she pleaded no contest. California Attorney General Evelle J. Younger said if there was a double standard for the wealthy it was the opposite of what was generally believed, and though Hearst had no legal brainwashing defense there was a good deal of equity favoring her in the essential point that everything started with her kidnapping. Hearst's bail was revoked in May 1978 when appeals failed and the Supreme Court declined to hear her case'. Wikipedia.

Her appeals had failed and the Channel Nine letter arrived on May 2nd, threatening to kill both Daryl Gates and Edward Davis. But why were these names top of the letter's hit list?

Daryl Gates was born Darrel Gates (as the Channel Nine letter stated).
​
'While not the first to use specially trained units, the LAPD was the first to form a police tactical unit, and originally created the term, "Special Weapons And Tactics". John Nelson was the LAPD officer who came up with the idea to form a specially trained and equipped unit in the LAPD, intended to respond to and manage critical situations involving shootings while minimizing police casualties. In 1967, Nelson's CO, then-Inspector Daryl F. Gates approved this idea, and he formed a small select group of volunteer officers. This first SWAT unit initially consisted of fifteen teams of four men each, for a total staff of sixty. These officers were given special status and benefits. They were required to attend special monthly training. This unit also served as a security unit for police facilities during times of civil unrest.

In 1971, SWAT personnel were assigned on a full-time basis to Metropolitan Division to respond to continuing action by subversive groups, the rising crime rate and the continuing difficulty of mustering a team response in a timely manner. Metropolitan Division, which had a long-established reputation as the tactical unit of the Department, was reorganized into 6 units: "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", and "K-9" Platoons. The Special Weapons And Tactics Unit was given the designation of "D" Platoon, and at the same time formally adopted the acronym SWAT.

The first significant deployment of LAPD's SWAT unit was on December 9, 1969, in a four-hour confrontation with members of the Black Panthers. The Panthers eventually surrendered, with three Panthers and three officers being injured. By 1974, there was a general acceptance of SWAT as a resource for the city and county of Los Angeles.

On the afternoon of May 17, 1974, elements of a group which called itself the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a group of heavily armed leftists, barricaded themselves in a residence on East 54th Street at Compton Avenue in Los Angeles. In response, more than 400 LAPD officers, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) deputies, California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers, and Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) firefighters surrounded the residence. Coverage of the siege was broadcast to millions via television and radio and featured in the world press for days after. Negotiations were opened with the barricaded suspects on numerous occasions, both prior to and after the introduction of tear gas. Law enforcement units did not fire until the SLA had fired several volleys of semi-automatic and fully automatic gunfire at them. In spite of the 3,772 rounds fired by the SLA, no civilians or sworn personnel sustained injury from gunfire.

During the gun battle, a fire erupted inside the residence. The cause of the fire is officially unknown, although police sources speculated that an errant round ignited one of the suspects' Molotov cocktails. Others suspect that the repeated use of tear gas grenades, which function by burning chemicals at high temperatures, started the structure fire. All six of the suspects suffered multiple gunshot wounds and perished in the ensuing blaze.
By the time of the SLA shoot-out, SWAT teams had reorganized into six 10-man teams, each team consisting of two five-man units, called elements. An element consisted of an element leader, two assaulters, a scout, and a rear-guard. The normal complement of weapons was a sniper rifle (apparently a .243-caliber bolt-action, judging from the ordnance expended by officers at the shootout), two .223-caliber semi-automatic rifles, and two shotguns. SWAT officers also carried their service revolvers in shoulder holsters. The normal gear issued them included a first aid kit, gloves, and a gas mask. In fact it was a change just to have police armed with semi-automatic rifles, at a time when officers were usually issued six-shot revolvers and shotguns. The encounter with the heavily armed Symbionese Liberation Army, however, sparked a trend towards SWAT teams being issued body armor and fully automatic weapons of various types'. Wikipedia.

'The public became aware of SWAT in May of 1974, when a shoplifting incident at an Inglewood sporting goods store led investigators to a South Los Angeles home on 54th Street. The Symbionese Liberation Army and heiress Patty Hearst, who were barricaded inside, exchanged gunfire with tactical officers for two hours before surrendering. Six SLA members were killed, as thousands of rounds of ammunition was used. The incident, which unfolded on live television, brought home the usefulness of SWAT to Gates, who was the field commander of that incident'. Policemag.com

Edward Davis was the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1969 to 1978. He instantly became well-known internationally in 1969 when he held a press conference announcing the arrests of Charles Manson and his followers for what are known as the Tate and LaBianca murders. His role is well-documented in the book Helter Skelter, written by Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor in the case. Wikipedia.

In an NBC News article reporting his death in 2006, it led with the words "Ed Davis, the tough-talking former Los Angeles police chief who led the department during its shootout with the Symbionese Liberation Army and the arrest of Charles Manson, died Saturday, a family spokesman said. He was 89".

You don't have to search hard on the internet to discover that Daryl Gates and Edward Davis were instrumental in the demise of the Symbionese Liberation Army and the deadly shootout on May 17th 1974 which resulted in the deaths of six of its members. The Zodiac Killer had never crossed swords with either of these two law enforcement officers and had absolutely no reason to want to threaten them with death, as displayed in the Channel Nine letter. On the contrary, an ex-member, close associate or sympathizer of the Symbionese Liberation Army had every reason to want to see these two LAPD servants dead. The author of the Channel Nine letter held them personally responsible for the slaying at 1466 East 54th Street.

On April 24th 1978, the author of the 1978 letter wrote "I am waiting for a good movie about me, who will play me". Eight days later, the Channel Nine letter was mailed to ​KHJ-TV in Los Angeles on May 2nd 1978, stating "Hey you actors, this is your lucky break. Whoever plays me has his work cut out for him". There is every chance that, if the Channel Nine letter was mailed by an associate or somebody sympathetic to the S.L.A cause, then the 1978 letter (widely regarded as a hoax anyway) was also mailed by somebody in and around the Symbionese Liberation Army circle. This wouldn't be the first time that somebody connected or loosely affiliated with the militant group mailed a letter pretending to be the Zodiac Killer. The 1974 S.L.A letter was almost certainly unconnected to the Bay Area murderer, and the remaining three 1974 letters are widely questioned.   


https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/sla-letter-not-zodiac-and-here-is-the-fbi-file-to-prove-it

Unless something extremely important surfaces in the coming weeks, this will be the final installment regarding the 1974 communications, and the distinct possibility that none were authored by the Zodiac Killer - effectively stripping just over three years from his perceived reign of terror. Changing this perception will inevitably generate fierce resistance from the hierarchy of 'Zodiac researchers', who have built a comfortable and reinforced narrative over the last fifty years. This has been my experience with many aspects of the Zodiac case, and the S.L.A letter is just another example of circumnavigating the truth to keep a lie afloat. Faced with tearing a chapter from a prized book, will certainly galvanize the mind into sailing around the facts and ultimately create an alternative reality. It started when Tom Voigt unwittingly announced a new Zodiac letter on his website, labelled the S.L.A letter - mailed on February 14th 1974 and postmarked "unknown". Neither of which are true. Unfortunately however, nearly everybody has embraced this narrative, and will likely carry on believing it, no matter the truth.  

The S.L.A letter was postmarked "U.S. Postal Service, CA 913 PM 3 FEB 1974". This tells you unequivocally that the S.L.A letter was mailed from Los Angeles County, and was likely posted on February 2nd or February 3rd - a day or two before the Patricia Hearst kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army, on February 4th 1974. 

What you will be told by the 'narrative keepers' is that a postmark is not visible on the S.L.A envelope, despite its obvious nth generation appearance. However, what they won't tell you - is they must therefore believe that the two FBI files have been created with malintent. They must believe the FBI files have simply been manufactured - just purposely created to deceive - despite the fact the general public had no access to them. Regardless of the fact that the Zodiac Killer mailed nearly all of his communications from San Francisco, the FBI (according to the doubters of a February 3rd postmark) must have apparently sat round a table and concocted both of these files, including the date and origin of the mailing. The idea that the FBI just chose, or 'plucked from thin air' the February 3rd 1974 date and zip code 913, from Los Angeles County, even though the Zodiac Killer had never mailed a correspondence from this location before, would be patently absurd. The 'narrative keepers' have two choices: If they have a book heavily reliant on a February 14th 1974 mailing, possibly involving a suspect, they can [1] Admit they are wrong and rewrite the chapter, or [2] Kill the messenger and destroy the credibility of the evidence presented. I think you know which number they will choose. This deliberate massaging of the facts to keep a narrative on track rears its ugly head throughout the Zodiac scene, evidently demonstrated in the Robert Graysmith Zodiac book, riddled with contradiction. Many have put faith in a DNA resolution to this case in the near future. But does anybody believe this will result in a mass book burning orgy by renowned Zodiac researchers, finally admitting their passionate fervor was flawed, or another round of circumnavigating reality? For many, the answer is set in stone and nothing will steer them away from the impervious cocoon they have built for themselves. 

I hope that the 'narrative keepers' maintain a February 14th 1974 mailing for the S.L.A letter, because then they have to explain how the Zodiac Killer reappeared after nearly three years of hibernation, to then write a letter about the Symbionese Liberation Army, beginning the correspondence with "Dear" and ending with "a friend", only four days after the actual Symbionese Liberation Army mailed a letter (not publicized) to the Hearst family on February 10th 1974, beginning the correspondence with "Dear" and ending with "A friend". Now that is one hell of a coincidence.  

Then we take a look at the Exorcist letter, mailed on January 29th 1974, which hopefully was not doctored by the FBI.
Kevin Robert Brooks created an extremely credible solution to the Exorcist letter symbols in the form of the words "To Kill". In view of the preceding paragraph, his solution is incredibly convincing: "If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing. To Kill". Whether this is the answer or not, it is certainly a powerful argument, when we consider the S.L.A letter was entirely geared to giving us the word "Kill". This seemed the only purpose behind the S.L.A communication - as though the letter was designed to give us an answer. The fact that the Exorcist letter symbols were withheld from the January 31st 1974 San Francisco Chronicle publication, may have been the inspiration for the February 3rd 1974 correspondence. It was certainly very fortunate that "Kill" could even be created by the symbols at all, and subsequently highlighted in quotation marks, a matter of days later. 

After the February 10th 1974 Hearst letter, ending with "A friend", another Symbionese Liberation Army communication quickly followed (shown above). Both were intercepted at the Burlingame, California, U.S. Postal Annex and both were addressed to Santa Inez Avenue in Hillsborough. The February 10th letter was postmarked CA 940 - so could have been mailed from Burlingame in San Mateo County, or Santa Clara County. The February 11th letter was postmarked Palo Alto, CA 943. Palo Alto is situated in the northwest region of Santa Clara County. Just shy of two weeks earlier, the Exorcist letter was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, postmarked CA 940. The FBI determined that the Exorcist letter was mailed from either San Mateo County or Santa Clara County, just like the two letters above. Probably another coincidence?     
​ 

We are coming towards the end of the series of articles examining the 1974 letters. This article will be a continuation of 'The Hearst Family Connection' with one final piece of the jigsaw regarding the May 8th 1974 Citizen card to look at. Here is a brief recap of the previous article: "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 article argued that the Citizen card had been targeted at William Randolph Hearst Sr, who had previously forbade his newspapers running any ads for the Orson Welles Citizen Kane movie, released in Los Angeles on May 8th 1941. Hence the context of the card and the signing off with "A citizen". 

The day after the Symbionese Liberation Army mailed the February 10th 1974 typed communication to the Hearst family, another typed communication arrived stating:
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   

The February 11th 1974 Hearst letter focused on the "yellow journalism" employed by William Randolph Hearst regarding the Spanish-American War and called for his forgiveness to be "expressed with abject humility". The following purported Zodiac communication on May 8th 1974 "expressed consternation at the lack of concern for public sensibilities" and demanded some action regarding the "yellow journalism" of murder-glorification that featured in the paper. Yellow journalism is described as exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism, designed to boost a newspapers circulation and increase sales - which includes the sensationalizing of murder. Exactly what the Citizen letter was calling out.

"The term was coined in the mid-1890s to characterize the sensational journalism that used some yellow ink in the circulation war between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. The battle peaked from 1895 to about 1898, and historical usage often refers specifically to this period. Both papers were accused by critics of sensationalizing the news in order to drive up circulation, although the newspapers did serious reporting as well. An English magazine in 1898 noted, "All American journalism is not 'yellow', though all strictly 'up-to-date' yellow journalism is American" Wikipedia.

"During the Gilded Age, yellow journalism flourished, using fake interviews, false experts and bogus stories to spark sympathy and rage as desired. Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World published exaggerated crime dramas to sell papers. In the 1890s, plutocrats like Randolph Hearst and his Morning Journal used exaggeration to help spark the Spanish-American War. When Hearst’s correspondent in Havana wired that there would be no war, Hearst — the inspiration for Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" — famously responded: “You furnish the pictures, I’ll furnish the war.” Hearst published fake drawings of Cuban officials strip searching American women — and he got his war". Politico.

We now have a May 8th 1974 Citizen card mailed on the same day as the Los Angeles release date of Citizen Kane, calling for advertisements not to be run about the Badlands movie, just like William Randolph Hearst insisted his paper do with the Orson Welles movie Citizen Kane, and an insistence in both cases that "yellow journalism" was not acceptable, beginning on February 11th 1974 and ending on May 8th 1974.

We could include the January 29th 1974 Exorcist letter featuring the much sensationalized William Friedkin movie "The Exorcist", in which the author plays down its impact, claiming it "the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen." In the final correspondence of 1974, on July 8th, the author complains about the "superiority complex" of Count Marco, who gave outrageous advice to women in a San Francisco Chronicle column geared towards sensationalism - the presentation of stories in a way that is intended to provoke public interest or excitement, at the expense of accuracy. The emphasis exhibited by the author of these three communications, was of somebody clearly irked by the newspapers coverage of events current and past, in the form of "yellow journalism." It certainly brings a new perspective to the phrase "red with rage." 

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.