Fred Manalli was from Rockford Illinois where he grew up and went to school. He was born March 7, 1935 in Illinois to John (Jack) J and Irene Manalli and died August 26 1976 in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. He was 41 years old at his death.

The 1940 US Census where Fred is listed as being 4 years old has his father Jack, age 30, born in Illinois, with Italian as his native tongue (both of Jack’s parents were born in Italy), he was a knitter in a hosiery mill. Fred’s mother, Irene nee Murawski, age 28, born in Illinois, was a topper in the same hosiery mill, Contour Hosiery Mills, as the father. Both parents had finished their first year of high school. The family of three lived with Fred’s maternal grandmother Mary Murawski age 56 and born in Germany.

Fred’s father is listed as both Jack J Manalli and John J Manalli in vital records at Ancestry. He was born March 27 1910 and died March 11, 1992 in Rockford Illinois. Fred’s mother Iene Manalli was born October 8, 1911 and died December 1984 in Rockford Illinois. In the city directory section of Ancestry John J and Irene Manalli are listed a dozen times between the years 1935 to 1954. Also at that the same address the entire time was Irene’s mother Mary Murawski who appears to have died December 1972.

Fred had a sister who was born in 1946 when Fred was 11 years old and a brother born in 1948. Both of Fred’s siblings are still living.

Fred went to the University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana campus, graduating in 1957 with a degree in English. Continuing with his education he went to San Francisco State College, as it was then called and received his masters in English in 1964.

Fred married Suzanne (Sue) Carlson in 1958, I believe in Illinois. Records show that Fred and Sue filed for divorce twice. The first was in Sonoma County August 1970 and the second time was in San Francisco December 1973.

This is a picture of Fred Manalli from his senior year of college at University of Illinois Champaign Urbana. He is the person on the right, both the picture and the written part.

This part is copied and pasted from a post I made on the old forum.

I was able to buy a yearbook from Manalli’s senior year in college. It’s the University of Illinois Champaign Urbana 1957 Illio. The picture I posted above is from the yearbook. The blurb beside his picture says that he was in the fraternity Theta Chi. There is a picture of all the fraternity brothers in the yearbook but Manalli is not pictured with them nor is he named as not being in the picture. Don’t know what is up with that, did he quit or maybe get kicked out???

Anyway, I did notice that the fraternity’s logo, that is shown on what appears to be a lapel pin, looks an awful lot like the Zodiac crosshair symbol. I looked the fraternity up online and it seems they are no longer using this particular logo.

The Greek letters for Theta Chi are OX, with a small line in the center of the O. So the lapel pin pictured in the yearbook makes sense. Here is a current page for Theta Chi merchandise with the new logo.

http://www.thetachistore.com/thchigime.html

While I still don’t think that Manalli was Zodiac, I do think that the lapel pin logo used by the fraternity back in the late ’50’s is a worthy find. Perhaps Zodiac got his inspiration for his logo from being in this fraternity?????

Here’s the page in the yearbook.

If only we could place him in Riverside

I am grabbing posts from the old forum. This is a post by Morf who found an article written in a local newspaper when Manalli taught at a high school in Ohio after he graduated from the University of Illinois.

He was at Durand HS in 61. He was Faculty Director

I wasn’t sure where to put this but Trav in this post conveys a little of Manalli’s personality. I would have to say after having read all of Manalli’s letters to Dan Curley, Trav has summed up what occurred to me as well. It is possible that Manalli was a "latent homosexual" as was written in some of the newspaper articles about Zodiac.

Now this is really interesting. In this 1962 letter to Author Dan Curley,Manalli’s mentor(and man crush i think) ,Manalli asks Curley about a story of Curley’s called "THE MANHUNT"… The first thing I thought of, is this story like THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME???

I tried to search for the words,text, or storyline for THE MANHUNT, but I could not find it. But then I came across this book published in 1968 called STUDIES IN THE SHORT STORY.

Studies in the short story,
New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston [1968]
Book : Fiction : English : 3d ed
pt. 1. Basic elements of fiction — Most dangerous game / Richard Connell ; And the rock cried out / Ray Bradbury ; The Manhunt / Daniel Curley ; The last day in the field / Caroline Gordon ; A Tree, a rock, a cloud / Carson McCullers — pt. 2. Point of view — The Horse Dealer’s Daughter / D. H. Lawrence ; What we don’t know hurts us / Mark Schorer ; Rain / W. Somerset Maugham ; The girls in their summer dresses / Irwin Shaw — pt. 3. Honesty and dishonesty in fiction –De Mortuis / John Collier ; The Lottery / Shirley Jackson ; Necklace / Guy de Maupassant — pt. 4. Symbol — Girl / Meridel Le Sueur ; Portable phonograph / Walter Van Tilburg Clark ; Good country people / Flannery O’Connor ; Flowering Judas / Katherine Anne Porter — Pt. 5. Humor, satire, and fantasy — Catbird seat / James Thurber ; First Confession / Frank O’Connor ; Forks / J.F. Powers ; Other side of the hedge / E. M. Forster ; Adam and Eve and Pinch me ; A. E. Coppard — pt. 6. Theme and variation — Leader of the people / John Steinbeck ; That evening sun / William Faulkner ; Absolution / F.Scott Fitzgerald ; Short happy life of Francis Macomber / Ernest Hemingway — pt. 7. More stories for study — Tell-tale heart / Edgar Allen Poe ; My Kinsman, Major Molineux / Nathaniel Hawthorne ; Bartleby / Herman Melville ; Lament / Anton Chekhov ; Real Thing / Henry James; Herart of Darkness/ Joseph Conrad ; Open Boat / Stephen Crane; Gentleman from San Francisco / Ivan Bunin ; Little Cloud / James Joyce ; Petrified man / Eudora Welty ; Goodbye, my brother / John Cheever; Unspoiled reaction / Mary McCarthy ; Patented gate and the mean hamburger / Robert Penn Warren ; Who made yellow roses yellow? / John Updike ; Defender of the faith / Philip Roth

I have almost ZERO doubt that Manalli read this book. (if you knew the full extent of how Manalli was up Curley’s ass you would understand what I mean).And if he read everything in the book, then he read about THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME 😯

Morf13 wrote:

Foreigner, he had one main address at 428 8th st in Santa Rosa. He had also lived in San Fran too in the early to mid 60’s. Here is a listing for him & his wife in 66-
http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sanfrancisco … 6_1225.pdf

and here from 64… http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sanfrancisco … 4_2488.pdf

And here is a pic of his Santa Rosa house sent by TRAV:

Peek thru the Pines anybody?? Actually had a chuckle about that with Trav last night,and after some research determined that some pine tree species grow at 2 feet per year. I guess its hard to know how old those trees are,but I dont think they were that high when he lived there. But if they were,then ‘peek thru the pines’ would be interesting

Traveller1st wrote:

Here’s a start to a timeline for addresses and locations. Thanks to BigZ for the Holyoke St address. Please add to or amend where necessary.

1963
961 Union St, San Francisco. Calif.

1964
462 Holyoke St., SF (living with Walter Buczeke)

1966
still at 462 Holyoke (wife Sue is also listed at the address, as well as Buczeke)

1969/1970
428 Eighth St, Santa Rosa. Calif. 95401

1973
109 Frederick St, San Francisco, Calif. 94117

1975
2353 S.Alpine Road, Rockford Il 61108

And 2 without dates

c/o Stuart – 1750 Bay Meadows, Florrisant, Missouri (I’m assuming it’s around ’75 as it seems to be a Christmas visit for a few days and after that he’s back to Alpine Rd in Rockford)

Don’t know where this one falls in the timeline but again assuming it’s between 73 & 76 unless it’s pre 63.

725 N.Dardiner Ave, Rockford Il.

He also mentions being being in San Leandro at the library there. Need to check for date.

EDIT: He was in Germany at some point. Don’t know if that would have been with the army?

Seagull wrote:

From a letter dated Sept. 1, 1961 the San Leandro address-

532 Bancroft Ave.
San Leandro CA

Letter dated Sept. 19, 1961-

Begins attending San Francisco State College to earn credits for his masters degree.

Begins teaching part time at San Quentin Prison. Assigned to teach 5th-7th grade lauguage arts to prisoners.

From an April 6, 1963 letter address of-

961 Union St.
San Francisco

The address given when Manalli filed his DD214 military discharge with the Sonoma County Recorders Office was-

1570 North St. #11
Santa Rosa CA

Address at his death-

6665 Sebastopol Ave.
Sebastopol CA

Seagull wrote:

Manalli also worked for the US Forest Service as a firespotter for a few summer seasons along with his wife, Sue. They were stationed in Mendocino County on Anthony Peak, near the Round Valley Indian Reservation.

They were also stationed at Lake Tahoe for at least one season late ’60’s.

Another address from a letter dated Oct. 11, 1970

PO Box 178
Guernewood Park CA

Guernewood Park is located in Sonoma County in the Russian River area about a mile west of Guerneville.

Morf13 wrote:

Some more Manalli pics & stuff, I may have a few more things tomorrow. Unfortunately,these pics are also from the 1950’s.

Morf13 wrote:

The pictures of Manalli came from college photos?

One big difference between now and the 1950’s – everybody dressed up for
formal occasions.

Those were High School photos. Here’s one more…of course, Manalli was in the drama club as seen in this photo-holding a sword or stick

Morf13 wrote:

I got Manalli’s military records back. No smoking guns. He was not trained in ciphers or cryptologyor bombs,in fact it states "no formal service schools attended". He IS a sharpshooter! "sharpshooter Badge w rifle bar". No records of any court martials. In 1960, he was with the 814thQM Co(Mechanical & metal repair). No indications of mental pr physical health,which is no surprise since that is classified info,as is whether or not he has prints on file which I hoped there may be,but I dont know for sure.

I guess it wouldn’t hurt to post Manalli’s death certificate, it is a public record.