While Zodiac was writing to the press about his ‘Slaves in Paradise’, Manalli was having a story of his published called ‘Paradise, it’s a nice place’. Just one of the many connections that Manalli has with Z (will post more later)

Traveller1st wrote:

Analysis of one of Manalli’s poems (Supplied by Seagull with many thanks)

[url= http://www.servimg.com/image_preview.php?i=207&u=17065889 ]

BTW What it seems to be about is writing a will

Morf13 wrote:

MISC-

The next few posts are of the thesis Manalli wrote to get his masters degree from San Francisco State College. It was six part set of short stories called Blaketia Sextet.

Traveller1st wrote:

Ok, I’ve been going through Manalli’s Blaketia Sextet.

There are of course many references to murder and killing and death and some pretty abstract stuff that could be interpreted as "Zodiacesque". I was going to start with them but I found this interesting and have decided to go with it first.

One thing that seems evident to me is that Manalli models his characters on himself. Whether it’s narcissism or limited imagination I can’t say. But I’d go for both lol.

The description below is of the main character in the story "May Day". First of all various elements are similar to the description of Zodiac and some are, I think, of Manalli. I’ve included the pics of him sourced by Morf to illustrate. It would be interesting to see if the bit about dental work shows up in any army docs we might get.

The bit for me though is about the nose. The description of a once "Norman" shaped nose being flattened and twisted due to boxing jumped out at me for two reasons.

1. It solves the appearance of Manalli’s apparently large nose with an explanation that may well be something that actually happened to him. I have shown what I think are differences in his photos regarding this. In the first image It appears that he has a very shallow, practically non existent, bridge. In the other photos the bridge appears to be deeper and actually present.

2. One of the first things I had floating around in my noggin concerning the Stine composite was possible reasons for the way the nose was drawn. One of my theories was that I wondered if it had been drawn that way to give it a more flattened appearance. The amended sketch certainly seems to have flattened the nose more. I also wondered if this was because the Zodiac had been a boxer or a football player.

Those are my thoughts on it. I may be drawing connections where there aren’t any but why are they so easy to draw in the first place.

Traveller1st wrote:

Here’s the part from Blaketia that had me looking at that stuff.

Traveller1st wrote:

Comments welcome on this one. Does anyone know what a tarbox is? There are many references to it being a name. The only other reference I can find for it, which makes sense, is from John Updike’s novel "Couples" which is centred in the fictional town of Tarbox.

You may also note the homosexual references in this section. The biting buttocks bit got me but I don’t think it all that stuff about Bundy came out till after Manalli was dead.

Traveller1st wrote:

A rather unusual metaphor.

Traveller1st wrote:

From "A Day That Might Never Come"

An obvious reference to this:-

Berlin ultimatum
In November 1958, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev issued an ultimatum giving the Western powers six months to agree to withdraw from Berlin and make it a free, demilitarized city. At the end of that period, Khrushchev declared, the Soviet Union would turn over to East Germany complete control of all lines of communication with West Berlin; the western powers then would have access to West Berlin only by permission of the East German government. The United States, United Kingdom, and France replied to this ultimatum by firmly asserting their determination to remain in West Berlin and to maintain their legal right of free access to that city.

So it’s a reasonable assumption, given Manalli’s service dates and mentioning living in Germany and specifically referencing Berlin, that he was stationed there for this occurrence and has used the experience as part of his writing.

The one thing I can’t get out of my is that theory, or suggestion, that the Timex watch found at the CJB murder scene my have been bought at a military PX in Europe.

Traveller1st wrote:

Trav, the title story in Manalli’s thesis Blakentia Sextet is made up in six parts, I think that is where the Sextet come in to play. I believe the thesis itself is complete and there is no missing sixth story.

Manalli’s letters seem to indicate that he has grandmother issues. The Blakentia Sextet story has a matron type character, Seraphina, who I would guess is fashioned after his grandmother. Seraphina is gunned down by machinegun fire in the story. I thought that part was rather telling. I have not read the entire thesis yet, just the first two stories but it does seem to me that Manalli is writing from the heart, fictionalizing his own life experiences.

Yup, got that on the missing sixth story. I rem him saying that in his letters. Also took note of the Seraphina incident and was thinking since he does seem to fictionalize his experiences and the mention of his Grandmother stuff, how that and other things might be reflected in his writing.

The story "The Survivor" is rather interesting. Can’t wait to hear interpretations of that one. I went back to the PDF there to check the name and landed on this bit.

At this point I have to say the image uploader at this forum is pretty slick! So easy to use and much quicker than using an off-site image uploader and transferring back and forth. Thumbs up on you choice of forums, Morf!!!!

Thanks Seagull

I agree, Seagull. Lots of useful functions here.

And, after re-reading all the transferred posts on Manalli I now remember why he is my favorite possible suspect.

Traveller1st wrote:

Thanks for posting that Seagull.

Check this bit out

It says "Hang by your thumbs" in case it’s hard to read.

EDIT: With the little list.

Thats absolutely incredible! ‘HANG BY THEIR THUMBS’ & ‘HANG BY YOUR THUMBS’….this is hust another coincidence Actually I am being sarcastic, I find that to be beyond a typical coincidence.

Morf13 wrote:

Thanks for posting this writing Seagull….whats your take on it?

Seagull wrote:

This story was a lot more readable than any in the Blakentia Sextet. Manalli was engaging and drew me into the story, that is until the very end which I found uninspired and a total cop out! I’d say Manalli was terribly narcissistic and felt superior to those around him. Anything is possible with a personality like that. His sense of right and wrong had more to do with how life affected him than the conventional rules and standards.

I’d like to find a story that he wrote that has something to do with codes. That’s the one large piece missing for me.

It may very well be that Manalli is not Zodiac but that Zodiac is a person about the same age as Manalli with the same level of education and background. Many times you can tell a person’s age by the wording and catch phrases they use without ever having met them. Our parents and their friends are perfect examples. You know when your talking to someone’s parents.

I don’t think that exploring Manalli is a lost cause because if he isn’t Zodiac I feel he at the least is giving us some insight as to what type of person Zodiac is and an idea of his personality.

At the beginning of the book there is a short bit about each of the contributors to this edition. Manalli’s reads-

"F.S. Manalli lives in Santa Rosa, California. He has published a story in Perspective and poems in Southwesterner and Outlet."

The story in Perspective is Paradise, It’s A Nice Place and I’m trying to get it. I do not know the titles of the poems or when they were published in the other two books.