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.
Sara Jane Olson (born Kathleen Ann Soliah on January 16, 1947) was one possible author of the SLA letter. She grew up in Palmdale, California, the daughter of Norwegian-American parents, Elsie Soliah (née Engstrom) and Palmdale High School English teacher and coach Martin Soliah. Engström, Engstrøm and Engstrom are surnames of Swedish and Norwegian origin. Was she responsible for authoring the SLA letter on February 3rd 1974, one or two days before the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst? She was "a friend" of the Symbionese Liberation Army with close ties to Angela Atwood. She also had Scandinavian ancestry, that may have influenced the "Old Norse" reference on the SLA letter.
When Atwood and other key members of the SLA were killed in 1974 during a standoff with police in Los Angeles, the Soliahs organized memorial rallies, including a rally in Berkeley's Willard Park where Soliah spoke in support of her friend Angela Atwood while being covertly filmed by the FBI. Kathleen Soliah said that her fellow SLA members had been: "viciously attacked and murdered by 500 pigs in L.A. while the whole nation watched. Well, I believe that Gelina [Atwood] and her comrades fought until the last minutes, and though I would like to have her with me here right now, I know that she lived happy and she died happy. And in that sense, I'm so very proud of her. SLA soldiers – I know it is not necessary to say; but keep on fighting. I'm with you and we are with you". But if Kathleen Soliah was responsible for the February 3rd 1974 SLA letter, then she had to be responsible for the July 8th 1974 Red Phantom letter also (if we conclude the author of both envelopes were the same handwriting).
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.
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]