I think it was within a year that Manalli mentioned the questioning in a letter to his literary agent and then died in the car accident. I’d have to go back through more than 100 pages of correspondence to get an exact date and I just don’t have the time to do that now.

Manalli certainly could have committed suicide but he also had been known to have seizures. A seizure could have precipitated the accident, too. I might be something we will never know for sure.

I must admit I never knew Manalli was on the police’s radar screen. Wonder how he got there? That little tidbit has definitely piqued my interest. No more SRHM after he died, right? On a related topic, this reminds me of list of potential Z victims in Graysmith’s Zodiac. I am inclined to think most of those murders (apart from the 5/6 confirmed Z victims) were not committed by Zodiac. California in the 1970s/80s seems to have been a fertile ground for serial killers. Take out the Santa Rosa series, Lynda Kanes, Doris Dewberry, etc.

This guy looks better and better every day as Z to me.

Just can’t shake the feeling that he was involved one way or another.

Could Manalli have been someone who was often in the orbit of Zodiac? A friend or someone they worked with? That the reason for the common themes is a shared interest that forms these converging traces of the Zodiac with Manalli? If Manalli was a homicide case then one would maybe consider that the Zodiac believed that his proximity to Manalli and Manalli being a language arts teacher may have been able to spot the Zodiac’s themes and handwriting in his interactions with him years before the Zodiac even showed up. However since his death was from a car accident I can only think maybe the Zodiac and Manalli share something and finding the common origin would probably be an interesting place to look. Could be something as simple as creative writing seminars they both went too or some society they were part of.

Not a bad thought, and I believe Manalli came out of the SF State English department in the early to mid-60’s.

Not a bad thought, and I believe Manalli came out of the SF State English department in the early to mid-60’s.

What I find interesting is that Manalli has a documented social history appearing at functions being held in various places including his own theatrical work. The same places were holding functions at the same time for various lodge groups doing whatever social thing they do which is mostly benign local charity work and dances etc. When he lived in SR he lived very close to a lodge there also. David Faraday also appears at some of the lodge meetings like this in the next town south.

Remember Lake Berryessa and ‘Deer Lodge’ in Montana? One must remember Hartnell didn’t know what lodge was mentioned. LE suggested Deer lodge. It has the name of an animal in it.

Moose Lodge is the one in the newspaper clipping there.

Moose is part of the Deer family. It’s that close.

The other lodge of interest that has appeared in my research is the Druids lodge. That is the one up the road from Manalli’s home in SR.

For the most part these are modernized lodges, benign and do nothing more than organize social events and contribute to the community. I am just saying it’s a connection for simply social reasons and nothing to do with the Zodiac directly at all. Not the cause of it. He is just simply a member in his day to day life because everyone else in his circle is also. His esoteric interests are private/family stuff and these lodges just a place to network. Nothing more than that. No conspiracy. No secret society hiding the Zodiac. It’s just the scene he is in to maintain seeming like a normal church going person that nobody would think is the Zodiac.

I think Manalli may have known the Zodiac and was friends with him. These people would attend the same lodge, went to the same functions and likely helped each other along in getting jobs and positions in life. I think Manalli was close enough to be aware of his friends general habits, handwriting and things pointing at him resembling the Zodiac. I think the Zodiac was concerned about Manalli as a potential way of getting identified. If he was friends with him and didn’t want to kill him then the next best thing would be to have something to use against him. So it’s possible the Zodiac got him involved in something serious like one of the SRHM crimes and that way Manalli found himself unable to do anything. A partner in crime if you will.

Do you remember the ad put out around the time Manalli died? About partners being in deep estate and only the grand wizard can save them? Could that have been a member of the Zodiac group telling him that he better stop with the SRHMs now that Manalli is out of the way? There are quite a few interpretations of that one.

Good post and analysis, I think manalli And others were part of some sort of secret society /cult or social club, bholland look at cragle’s post Where he found coded messages in the daily nexus newspaper (sorry not sure how to add link) it seems to me that these are military or ex military men sending codes to one another, one of the messages it says “identify yourself”, that term normally is used in the military service,

I’m very doubtful it’s a coincidence. It is possible however that someone was trying to frame a dead man in order to throw off the scent. Though that too, seems doubtful.

As for Nachtsider’s comment about the composites being similar enough, I have to respectfully disagree. The composite based on the man at LB to me looks nothing like the composite based on Fouke and the kids description. There is however something interestingly similar. The shuffle/limp is a trait that appears in both descriptions. I don’t think that it was faked either. The kids who witnessed Stine’s murder noticed the shuffle. There’s no reason he’d fake it if he didn’t think anyone was watching.

This brings me to another point. I find it very strange that a man with a personality as rare as Zodiac’s, with a distinguishing feature like a limp, and a composite of his face pasted all over the bay area, and on national news, could elude everyone.

6 years ago someone and here is pointing out the possibility of a framing. This is very interesting.

Good post and analysis, I think manalli And others were part of some sort of secret society /cult or social club, bholland look at cragle’s post Where he found coded messages in the daily nexus newspaper (sorry not sure how to add link) it seems to me that these are military or ex military men sending codes to one another, one of the messages it says “identify yourself”, that term normally is used in the military service,

I think you mean this.

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I have often been under the impression that the Zodiac communications contain some portions that are hidden messages intended for another person. If this is the Zodiac then it’s a game.

It’s seems to me that the Zodiac game would have evolved from something else. What’s really important to me is that the Zodiac’s signature, his emotional need, is to communicate. While he can stop killing I think the need to be doing all that communications stuff will be a consistent before, during and after the crimes even if it takes another form.

I would suggest there is a possibility here that the game being played by the Zodiac is to reference something in common they both have between them.

In that list a few stand out. What probably stands out there is the use of superhero names. So what they could be referencing is a comic collection they both have, know well and have talked about.

So the lines are scenes from comic book panels and they have to figure out which ones. I am also currently looking into the possibility the Zodiac canonical crimes are re-enactments from movies. viewtopic.php?f=79&t=3000&start=20#p80173

If you watch the trailer for the 1968 movie Targets you will see Sniper-X ammo in it.

I think if he was involved it was to do the writing. I can’t imagine his height being incorrectly reported in each case.

So I would think one hitman, one writer, with both doing this for some sort of mob or cult related reasons. I can’t imagine two doing this just for fun.

Spinelli told this story about ALA coming up to him offering to be a hitman. Maybe there was some truth in Spinelli’s lie, the truth being that ALA would have been the hired the gun. Cheney provided the car at least for BRS (basically said so himself if you believe ALA did use his car). Manalli would blur the investigation with the letters.

If Manalli was the writer, you might even have multiple hitmans.

To get rid of all that and bring it back all to Manalli everyone has to screw up his height.

To be honest I’m astounded that more people don’t think Fred manalli wrote the correspondence, not just the handwriting but the same sometimes rare words he used, squirm/twitch and the way he wrote public for example I mean what are the odds of other people writing public like he did? I’d guess pretty rare! In his writings he mentions rape/murder/torture/trauma/ect, some of his poems come across as macabre alluding to suicide imo, Fred was a creative writing instructor and loved writing especially to Dan curly (who he either fancied or looked up to) and also newspapers, I truly believe Fred played a massive part in the zodiac and the SRHM, I mean 2 of his students disappeared and another suspected him is this just another coincidence? I recon not, as there is no smoke without fire every time I go through the manalli threads on here on what morph/seagull/trav/ak wilks/ophion and all the others who contributed over the years, I just think “how the hell can Fred not be involved?” The perfect cover is a respected teacher hiding in plain sight I think the partner doing the brutal murders was Taylor Teaford (he had been seen in sonoma county according to newspaper articles) again not fact but another strange coincidence that these 2 were possibly in the same county at the same time

To be honest I’m astounded that more people don’t think Fred manalli wrote the correspondence, not just the handwriting but the same sometimes rare words he used, squirm/twitch and the way he wrote public for example I mean what are the odds of other people writing public like he did? I’d guess pretty rare! In his writings he mentions rape/murder/torture/trauma/ect, some of his poems come across as macabre alluding to suicide imo, Fred was a creative writing instructor and loved writing especially to Dan curly (who he either fancied or looked up to) and also newspapers, I truly believe Fred played a massive part in the zodiac and the SRHM, I mean 2 of his students disappeared and another suspected him is this just another coincidence? I recon not, as there is no smoke without fire every time I go through the manalli threads on here on what morph/seagull/trav/ak wilks/ophion and all the others who contributed over the years, I just think “how the hell can Fred not be involved?” The perfect cover is a respected teacher hiding in plain sight I think the partner doing the brutal murders was Taylor Teaford (he had been seen in sonoma county according to newspaper articles) again not fact but another strange coincidence that these 2 were possibly in the same county at the same time

I guess there is no voice recording of either of them?

Here is my opinion and best guess.

They think Manalli is involved in the Zodiac case and the SRHMs.

However there is also strong evidence that he is not acting alone and there is a possibility he is being framed for things by that same person.

In fact the person may have been framing him all along. That person is seeing the same evidence we are and has been copying it since 1966.

They just don’t know who is doing that.

@egg Cheney said he left his car at the service station where ALA worked and this was in July so he thought ALA could have gotten the keys and used the car (at BRS) but ALA lost his job there in April.

See: https://www.zodiackiller.com/MulanaxReport12.html