Richard accused me of having and pushing a false agenda that I know for CERTAIN is false because as anyone can allegedly plainly see, the SLA letter, simply because it was not posted from the Bay Area and was posted the day before the Hearst kidnapping, had to be from the SLA. When I pointed out that there were, according to a former SLA member with whom I have exchanged emails, no SLA in existence in LA prior to them fleeing SF in May 1974 (a seemingly safe but incorrect assumption based on the fact that the ultimate shootout with police took place in Compton and based on insufficient research on the topic) all of a sudden it became one of the "fans" or syncophants of the SLA.

This "fan" would not only have have have been familiar in some respect with Old Norse, he or she would have also copied the formatting of an envelope that may have been published nearly five years earlier in the Chronicle, long before the SLA existed. Who was this mystery person and why were they so obsessed with Z’s handwriting and the SLA? If this were a letter from the SLA or its fans, why try to attribute it to the Zodiac, of all people writing anonymously from LA to tell us something snarky, not to make a specific threat or expose people to the SLA philosophy?

I do not in any way believe that the alleged date or alleged location from which this letter was sent, including the signature "a friend" sent on a subsequent SLA letter, proves that it was not written by Zodiac. What specific goal would the SLA-leaning letter writer have accomplished for the group? But for Z, it would once again show how much smarter he was than his pursuers by demonstrating that he knew, or even semi-knew, this obscure language and a bit of trivia that allowed him to once again thumb his nose at the police.

The printing on the envelope, not the date on which or location from which the letter was sent, is the key here. Everything else is noise. Just look at the handwriting on the envelope. Unless you believe the low-percentage possibility that someone intentionally and pretty masterfully copied the 11/8 envelope, it was likely written by Z.

I don’t see how that ‘older’ version can be used to make any of the other SLA communication variants we have seen.

It’s smaller, lower quality, compressed and yet people were able to enlarge it, with no artifacts? Was Industrial Light and Magic working on it or something? I can almost make out what looks like paper grain in the larger one and even the pressure from the pen and ink on the page. That’s some digital enhancement!

I am sorry RG, but something doesn’t make technical sense here. That version you have contains more artifacts than the larger one. Those artifacts should be present in the larger version.

It seems to me the original source is absent and what we are seeing are more than one line of reproduction. If that’s the case, this older version could have in theory gone through many more copies than the newer version which may have gone through far less.

Quote (Mike:) "When I pointed out that there were, according to a former SLA member with whom I have exchanged emails, no SLA in existence in LA prior to them fleeing SF in May 1974 (a seemingly safe but incorrect assumption based on the fact that the ultimate shootout with police took place in Compton and based on insufficient research on the topic) all of a sudden it became one of the "fans" or syncophants of the SLA".

No, I actually posted the possibility of this well before we started writing on this thread. Here is the article I wrote on April 5th 2020, quote "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". So again, your making things up.

https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-ne … 4-part-two

Quote from Mike "Because it was not posted from the Bay Area and was posted the day before the Hearst kidnapping, had to be from the SLA". A few posts ago, I stated "They (or some other person) just wrote a letter to the Chronicle and it was mistook as Zodiac". I believe it was the SLA, affilliate or sympathizer, but certainly not Zodiac as claimed.

I have looked at the writing on the envelope and I cannot see any recognisable handwriting features to say with any confidence it looks like any earlier Zodiac envelopes. Based on your confidence of the SLA letter being written by Zodiac, I therefore presume you are a staunch advocate of the 1987 envelope being Zodiac Mike.

As I said BD Holland, then go with SLAY. We’ll just say the version of the letter I posted was incorrect.

As I said BD Holland, then go with SLAY. We’ll just say the version of the letter I posted was incorrect.

Okay. That sort of makes more sense to be honest. At least in those reproductions. If there is others maybe that will change. I just get the feeling this earlier one was like tons of generations down the line and so someone shrank it and compressed it with some contrast adjustment to make it legible. Then later on someone found another better quality versions of it and released it after which would explain the greater detail. I just don’t see how that information (detail) could have been extracted some something of that poorer quality.

Also as a note, there are crossword puzzles in some papers around the Zodiac time that would have puzzles like "Old Norse word for work" and "Kill, 2 words" – The Press-Tribune, Roseville, California 16 Nov 1967, Thu.

There are also crosswords appearing just a few months after the SLA letter that have something similar. "Norse God" and "Kill; Slang". The Los Angeles Times 03 Apr 1974.

You can easily see how someone looking up Nordic words just might check out what the one for kill is. That’s a word the Zodiac seems to get excited over quite often don’t you think? Hardens used it to break the Z408.

This is just an alternative explanation for why this Norse context rather than appealing to someone’s heritage.

Hi,

LOL. The only Old Norse clues from crosswords are ones that people have at least a fighting chance to know: the Prose Edda and "runes" or that it is a "runic" language. The Norse word for "kill" or "strike" or whatever being asked of an average American puzzler? Good luck!

Face it Richard, the notion that the SLA letter was sent by the SLA itself (no members in SoCal at the time) or a prankster who knew Old Norse and had a thing for reproducing Z envelopes is only a possibility, is not something I "know" to be 100% true and that I am lying about or otherwise misrepresenting because I "have an agenda" to mislead or lie to people. In fact, given the hand printing on the envelope and discounting the extremely outside chance of it being from a prankster who for some reason used Z’s printing on the envelope, the notion that sla means something in Old Norse fits in well with the other potential Norse references in the Z case–a bumerke comprised of two Norse runes, slaves in the afterlife and Odin’s cross. And it strongly suggests that the author was actually Z.

Just be careful who you accuse of things in the future. I’ve been at this a long time and don’t take such accusations kindly.

Hi Mike, I don’t wish to offend, I have learned so much from both you and Richard – I just have a question about the motivation behind the missive. Why do you believe the Zodiac may have sent this SLA letter? I know the clues that point to it being Zodiac, but do you think he did it just to annoy authorities? Offer a clue to his identity? Why mention the SLA?

When you state condescending remarks like "Maybe Grinnell has not done his homework" (when you cannot even spell my name in the same sentence) and "I thought you would have figured this out for yourself" and "You’re trying to hit me with dumb things", then expect some pushback. I’ve been at this a long time and I don’t take condescension kindly. Shall we draw a line under this pointless back and forth.

Hi Mike, I don’t wish to offend, I have learned so much from both you and Richard – I just have a question about the motivation behind the missive. Why do you believe the Zodiac may have sent this SLA letter? I know the clues that point to it being Zodiac, but do you think he did it just to annoy authorities? Offer a clue to his identity? Why mention the SLA?

Because he was playing a power-assertive game using his Norwegian heritage, I guess will be the answer Druzer.

Hi Mike, I don’t wish to offend, I have learned so much from both you and Richard – I just have a question about the motivation behind the missive. Why do you believe the Zodiac may have sent this SLA letter? I know the clues that point to it being Zodiac, but do you think he did it just to annoy authorities? Offer a clue to his identity? Why mention the SLA?

In one of the definite Zodiac letters he mentioned the Black Panthers, another militant political group in the news at the time. If I was arguing the SLA letter was Zodiac I’d point to this to support my claim.

The difference Jacob, was the "black power" mention was but a fraction of the Dragon card, whereas the SLA letter was fully dedicated to one topic.

Druzer,

He sent it for the reason he sent many of his other letters. To be snarky and to show the police how much smarter he was than them.

Also as a note, there are crossword puzzles in some papers around the Zodiac time that would have puzzles like "Old Norse word for work" and "Kill, 2 words"

Good find.

Most likely, the writer (Zodiac, KQ, Soliah, Erik the Viking, or whoever) was thinking of these puzzles. They made that morbidly humorous connection and couldn’t help themselves. Which may or may not reflect on the authorship.

Now, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, this letter’s listed in Graysmith’s UNMASKED with the designation "SFPD Lab #11" and a Feb. 14th postmark. It sounds like he has access to something like the lab report that Voigt got in ’99, but SLA wasn’t mentioned anywhere at all on Voigt’s copy; it doesn’t look redacted, it simply isn’t there. I wonder if I’ll be mulling this mystery over in my old age…

Also as a note, there are crossword puzzles in some papers around the Zodiac time that would have puzzles like "Old Norse word for work" and "Kill, 2 words"

Good find.

Most likely, the writer (Zodiac, KQ, Soliah, Erik the Viking, or whoever) was thinking of these puzzles. They made that morbidly humorous connection and couldn’t help themselves. Which may or may not reflect on the authorship.

Now, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, this letter’s listed in Graysmith’s UNMASKED with the designation "SFPD Lab #11" and a Feb. 14th postmark. It sounds like he has access to something like the lab report that Voigt got in ’99, but SLA wasn’t mentioned anywhere at all on Voigt’s copy; it doesn’t look redacted, it simply isn’t there. I wonder if I’ll be mulling this mystery over in my old age…

I just would like an end to this SLA date mystery so we know what’s what.

The Zodiac is definitely someone who would try to combine 1 and 2 of that crossword puzzle into something else. He is always doing stuff like that. So many of his communications have ‘double’ meanings. Double this, double that, double stamps, double trouble. Double examples of use of the Zodiac symbol. You could do a whole study of the Zodiac and double meanings.

A few people have attempted Z340 interpretations as a crossword. I don’t think it’s a bad idea. Could even be just a basic word search like the BTK puzzle.

SLA referencing Nordic stuff never made sense to me because of how Nazi’s twisted Scandinavian genealogy into their Aryan race doctrines. While the SLA were evidently warped, a cult of terrorists, they just don’t seem to have the extreme far right in their ideology at all, but extremists none the less, yes. They seem to be a multicultural bunch from all classes. The Manson family would be more of the profile for a far right Aryan race supporting cult.

Hi Mike, I don’t wish to offend, I have learned so much from both you and Richard – I just have a question about the motivation behind the missive. Why do you believe the Zodiac may have sent this SLA letter? I know the clues that point to it being Zodiac, but do you think he did it just to annoy authorities? Offer a clue to his identity? Why mention the SLA?

In one of the definite Zodiac letters he mentioned the Black Panthers, another militant political group in the news at the time. If I was arguing the SLA letter was Zodiac I’d point to this to support my claim.

This is very interesting indeed.

If there is one thing that is prolific about the Zodiac is the amount of reading he did. I think every morning this guy went to work and would have half a dozen newspapers to read from around the area. He had time to read them all and when he went home watched movies and read more books. This guy would have an extensively library of all sorts of stuff.

You would know the Zodiac just by walking into a room with it. There would hits all over the place. You could throw a dart and it would land on some literature he has borrowed/copied from.

The Zodiac seems incapable of coming up with any ideas of his own, IMO or if he did, they were so fractured as to be incomprehensible to regular people.