Quite a few of the History Channel shows are over for me, before they begin. I analogize them to Click Bait on YouTube. The Curse of Oak Island is the one exception for me, because Rick & Marty Lagina are absolute fanatics about the subject. I know Tim Kennedy and, other than the opportunity to travel around the world (which we did in the Army), can’t understand why he would want to be a part of that train wreck.

The Zodiac show was one giant disappointment, and I blame the producers. The Carmel "super computer" was a bad Hollywood joke. I liked Bauer’s KISS theory on Z340, with the non-ciphered letters and the gibberish. If Bauer’s decryption is correct, I’m not the least bit surprised that Zodiac didn’t include his name but rather that of President Nixon’s. If I were to give my opinion of Zodiac’s profile, I would have to say he is/was a mentally ill, cowardly, unimaginative, raging egoist who never got any kind of validation from anyone. Military? If he was, he never served out a full term and may have been discharged, due to disciplinary/mental health issues, further reinforcing the non-validation….couldn’t even get that right. The boots could have been bought in any Army/Navy store.

My theory for the gibberish in Z304 stems from the quick solving of Z408. I don’t think he was capable of creating a proper encryption; Z408 shows the simplicity of his "cipher". If he was mentally ill, he would have been enraged when Z408 was decrypted, so what better way to get back at and re-captivate your "audience" than throw something out there in the style of Z408 but not? I can imagine him screaming, "Okay you f’ers, let’s see you solve this!" Some of it would have solvable elements, to keep people from losing interest, but then the rest would be gobbledygook thus restoring his sense of superiority, as people rack their brains out for the next several decades trying to decipher Z304.

Sullivan’s hospitalization for bi-polar/schizophrenia, coupled with the uncanny resemblance to the police sketch, his ties to Albany and then Riverside College, would lead me to name him as my only suspect. I’m surprised he was never questioned by law enforcement. What’s even more surprising to me is that there is very little information about him online. He supposedly died in ’77, but has that ever been confirmed?

I agree, especially about the ciphers. If you take his first cipher as an introduction to his capabilities then you have to think they were limited. It isn’t logical to think he made some great leap forward in his coding between the 408 and 340 ciphers. Putting gibberish in would suit his sense of humor but it also would underscore that he wasn’t much of a cryptographer to begin with.

The Carmel computer is interesting to me because of what it should have been capable of doing (decoding 340 successfully or at least coming up with a potential solution). If it didn’t even deliver a partial solution and it has the computing power it is advertised to have it could indicate there is "no there there", in other words 340 is at best a partial cipher.

I sent an email to the History Channel asking them to look into Fred Manalli for season 2 and possibly try to get a DNA sample from his sister. I believe it is Manalli’s DNA that they have on file… I also asked them to look at Randall Clemons’ work with the Phillips 66 map and 340 overlay. I think that is brilliant and deserves more attention.

I sent an email to the History Channel asking them to look into Fred Manalli for season 2 and possibly try to get a DNA sample from his sister. I believe it is Manalli’s DNA that they have on file… I also asked them to look at Randall Clemons’ work with the Phillips 66 map and 340 overlay. I think that is brilliant and deserves more attention.

If someone was really going to look into Fred as a Z suspect, I think the first assumption would have to be that he had a partner, because he definitely does not match the descriptions from PH or BRS. He’s much too tall. So, the first two places I would suggest they look would be: Are there any Z suspects Fred could have met when he worked at the prison, and the other would be, if Fred owned the houses he lived at during the time of Z, who was his realtor? The deeds/abstracts for those properties should exist somewhere, and it might be possible to identify the title companies, and perhaps from there, backtrack to the realtor.

Longshot, of course, but as awesome as it would be, tying Fred to the Z writings through DNA would only solve half the puzzle IMHO.

I sent an email to the History Channel asking them to look into Fred Manalli for season 2 and possibly try to get a DNA sample from his sister. I believe it is Manalli’s DNA that they have on file… I also asked them to look at Randall Clemons’ work with the Phillips 66 map and 340 overlay. I think that is brilliant and deserves more attention.

If someone was really going to look into Fred as a Z suspect, I think the first assumption would have to be that he had a partner, because he definitely does not match the descriptions from PH or BRS. He’s much too tall. So, the first two places I would suggest they look would be: Are there any Z suspects Fred could have met when he worked at the prison, and the other would be, if Fred owned the houses he lived at during the time of Z, who was his realtor? The deeds/abstracts for those properties should exist somewhere, and it might be possible to identify the title companies, and perhaps from there, backtrack to the realtor.

Longshot, of course, but as awesome as it would be, tying Fred to the Z writings through DNA would only solve half the puzzle IMHO.

Fred did not own any real estate, he and his wife rented. That is something that has already been looked into. Are you thinking about the personals ad that was in the Chronicle where it said "your partner is in deep real estate"? I believe deep real estate refers to being dead and buried, like six feet under the ground or bought the farm.

I sent an email to the History Channel asking them to look into Fred Manalli for season 2 and possibly try to get a DNA sample from his sister. I believe it is Manalli’s DNA that they have on file… I also asked them to look at Randall Clemons’ work with the Phillips 66 map and 340 overlay. I think that is brilliant and deserves more attention.

If someone was really going to look into Fred as a Z suspect, I think the first assumption would have to be that he had a partner, because he definitely does not match the descriptions from PH or BRS. He’s much too tall. So, the first two places I would suggest they look would be: Are there any Z suspects Fred could have met when he worked at the prison, and the other would be, if Fred owned the houses he lived at during the time of Z, who was his realtor? The deeds/abstracts for those properties should exist somewhere, and it might be possible to identify the title companies, and perhaps from there, backtrack to the realtor.

Longshot, of course, but as awesome as it would be, tying Fred to the Z writings through DNA would only solve half the puzzle IMHO.

Fred did not own any real estate, he and his wife rented. That is something that has already been looked into. Are you thinking about the personals ad that was in the Chronicle where it said "your partner is in deep real estate"? I believe deep real estate refers to being dead and buried, like six feet under the ground or bought the farm.

Agreed and means they kick the bucket to me to use another phrase.

I agree, especially about the ciphers. If you take his first cipher as an introduction to his capabilities then you have to think they were limited. It isn’t logical to think he made some great leap forward in his coding between the 408 and 340 ciphers. Putting gibberish in would suit his sense of humor but it also would underscore that he wasn’t much of a cryptographer to begin with…

Yep. This strengthens my suspicion that Sullivan was Zodiac. He took cryptography classes but it didn’t make him a bonafide, certified, expert cryptographer, just an amateur. Again, the mental illness aspect fits the bill….in his delusional mind, those classes made him an expert.

Just imagine the rage that consumed him, when Donald Gene and Bettye June Harden cracked 408.

….Sullivan’s hospitalization for bi-polar/schizophrenia, coupled with the uncanny resemblance to the police sketch, his ties to Albany and then Riverside College, would lead me to name him as my only suspect. I’m surprised he was never questioned by law enforcement. What’s even more surprising to me is that there is very little information about him online. He supposedly died in ’77, but has that ever been confirmed?

As far as I know, he didn’t have ties to Albany. Surely someone will correct me if I am wrong.

His brother called him a "paranoid schizophrenic"….not sure how bipolar came up.

He was questioned by law enforcement.

He is dead. See the Ross Sullivan threads. The first (locked) one also shows his death certificate.

….Sullivan’s hospitalization for bi-polar/schizophrenia, coupled with the uncanny resemblance to the police sketch, his ties to Albany and then Riverside College, would lead me to name him as my only suspect. I’m surprised he was never questioned by law enforcement. What’s even more surprising to me is that there is very little information about him online. He supposedly died in ’77, but has that ever been confirmed?

As far as I know, he didn’t have ties to Albany. Surely someone will correct me if I am wrong.

His brother called him a "paranoid schizophrenic"….not sure how bipolar came up.

He was questioned by law enforcement.

He is dead. See the Ross Sullivan threads. The first (locked) one also shows his death certificate.

From the research I’ve been able to do on him, he was born in New York and lived in Binghamton, until his family moved to CA in 1957.
Binghamton is about two hours away from Albany. When I lived in San Angelo, Texas, we went to San Antonio, Austin and Ft. Worth/Dallas all the time, and those cities are twice as far as Ross was from Albany, so it’s not a stretch to think he might have still had ties there.

I found the bit about him being bipolar on this site. I also saw somewhere else that he suffered from depression.

I would love to see the results of that questioning.

Cause of death pending….it’s interesting that the pic of the death certificate I saw was issued to the inquirer in 2012, and they still hadn’t updated COD.

About a 2 hour drive. Sure, he could have…just wanted to clarify there doesn’t appear to be direct ties to Albany.

It is said Ross had an alibi and was checked for scratches…and I believe prints were taken. Hopefully more will come out about this—we’ll have to wait and see.

There is another death certificate that shows what the cause of death was – "pending" on the second one is referring to what was originally written on the first.

About a 2 hour drive. Sure, he could have…just wanted to clarify there doesn’t appear to be direct ties to Albany.

It is said Ross had an alibi and was checked for scratches…and I believe prints were taken. Hopefully more will come out about this—we’ll have to wait and see.

There is another death certificate that shows what the cause of death was – "pending" on the second one is referring to what was originally written on the first.

I’m not saying Albany is a certainty, just that he seems to fit the bill on most everything else; the fact that he came from New York is the cherry on top for me.

In the military we use two words, when writing intel reports….."possibly" and "probably", when we can’t say that something is 100% sure. Based on what I’ve read about Sullivan so far, I’m in the "probably" camp on him being Zodiac.

So he was a tubby and died of heart failure….doesn’t surprise me.

Agreed and means they kick the bucket to me to use another phrase.

No I agree, the ad referred to someone dying. Whether it was a legit ad placed by someone who was referring to Fred, who knows. But the timing is notable (as is the probability, I think, that if Fred was involved, there would have been a "partner.")

What I was getting at is, since the History Channel is looking at Sullivan and Kane, IF someone was to bring Manalli into the picture, an angle I think could be worthwhile to investigate would be, could he / did he know either of these guys. Could he have met Kane at the prison he worked at, for instance. And since Kane was a realtor, I thought it would be pretty cool if there as documentary evidence that he had worked with Fred on a real estate transaction. Or, if there were still records of students who took classes from Fred. Angles like that.

I know Occam’s Razor logic points to Z being one individual and I tend to think he was. But, again, that would probably rule out Manalli. If we look at Manalli we, in my opinion, need to pair him with someone else, specifically a shooter at BRS and PH. If you take Fred’s writing, use of phrases, etc. and combine that with Kane’s description and mental state, the combination is pretty interesting. A difficult but interesting development would be if these two guys could somehow be linked to each other.

Got this today…

You can purchase it here: https://www.amazon.com/History-Channel- … nel+zodiac

You can find in select stores. I know Target has it.

EDIT: I removed the cover photo. Not supposed to reproduce…dumb since it might sell copies!

Got this today…

You can purchase it here: https://www.amazon.com/History-Channel- … nel+zodiac

You can find in select stores. I know Target has it.

Wow that was quick and guess they are trying to cash in sales before Christmas. I bought all the Eps on Vudu. Cool though you got to buy it since you are in the Eps.

I have a feeling this magazine began production long ago–before the documentary, although it’s just a guess. It is more of what I expected in the documentary. Donna Lass is but a mere mention under a quick synopsis about Larry Kane. Everything is outlined and laid out nicely. It’s a great, quick rundown of the case.

Still not without its errors. In the BRS heading, they list the location as "Vacaville, CA"…but the entire story is about Vallejo. They spell Cecelia Shepard’s first and last name wrong, as "Cecilia Shephard"…one of my peeves.

A bonus is when they share a bit about Earl Van Best Jr. and mentioned the marriage certificate being written by the minister and not by EVB Jr. as mentioned in the book. Props to Mike Rodelli for that glorious find…the magazine states students "quickly found flaws".

Ken, Sal, the code team, nor myself were mentioned in this publication, by name. ZodiacKiller.com, Zodiackillerfacts.com, and Zodiacciphers.com are. Quite unfortunate this site was not mentioned considering morf, the admin here, was a consultant for the documentary. Ross Sullivan is not mentioned at all…which leads me to believe this was in the works a while ago.

There were also some interesting tidbits I hadn’t heard before in regards to the Halloween Card and the 1974 letters. I will reserve comment for now.

Lol I just look at it quick and thought it was a DVD of the show. Interesting its a magazine and thanks for the review Tahoe, I may have to get it now to hear their thoughts on the HC card,