I find it interesting that Zodiac commented on movies: Badlands, The Exorcist. He even wondered who would play him in a movie. Then Dirty Harry comes out, taken right from the headlines of Zodiac, and he says nothing. I read on another forum people commenting that he probably just didn’t like the movie. Really? First you can’t shut this guy up then a movie comes out screaming Zodiac and he says nothing. Not even that he didn’t like it. I still think that is significant. Then I had this thought. I’m sure Z saw the movie. What if he was truly repulsed by the despicable image of "Scorpio" and it effected him. The movie came out on December 23rd 1971. Gaikowski had a break down in 1971 and was institutionalized for a spell. The letters stopped for three years after that. The closest I could find as to when Gaik has he break down was late March or April which put it before the movie came out. Then I found a movie review of Dirty Harry by Roger Ebert Jan 1971. Movie reviewers got to see advanced screenings. We know that Gaik wrote reviews for the papers he worked at. This is just me thinking out loud. I think it is worth noting that the letters stopped right after Dirty Harry and Gaik’s break down.
Well I dunno about Gyko, but I like the idea that Zodiac turned tail and ran because he thought Dave "Bullit" Toschi was gonna blow him away like he did on screen. 
Well I dunno about Gyko, but I like the idea that Zodiac turned tail and ran because he thought Dave "Bullit" Toschi was gonna blow him away like he did on screen.
I agree, I don’t think the ending was going to be one Z liked. On another note, I’m going through my notes to see where I read that people had to be shoed away from the cab. Sadly I think it may have come from one of the Graysmith books which is a poor source for facts. I’ll do a better job of vetting before posting in the future.
FYI I posted this info on another Zodiac forum back in 2009:
http://www.zodiackillerfacts.com/forum/ … f=83&t=421
Re: Dirty Harry
Postby Theforeigner » Fri Dec 25, 2009 6:32 am
There is actually a connection between "Badlands" and "Dirty Harry"
The movie "Badlands" (released 15 October 1973 ) was directed/written/produced by Terrence Malick
Terrence Malick also wrote one of the first dafts for the script for the movie "Dirty Harry"
(released December 22, 1971, and losely based on the Zodiac case)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badlands_(film )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrence_Malick
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Harry
Hi, english is not my first language so please bear with me 
FYI I posted this info on another Zodiac forum back in 2009:
http://www.zodiackillerfacts.com/forum/ … f=83&t=421
Re: Dirty Harry
Postby Theforeigner » Fri Dec 25, 2009 6:32 amThere is actually a connection between "Badlands" and "Dirty Harry"
The movie "Badlands" (released 15 October 1973 ) was directed/written/produced by Terrence Malick
Terrence Malick also wrote one of the first dafts for the script for the movie "Dirty Harry"
(released December 22, 1971, and losely based on the Zodiac case)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badlands_(film )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrence_Malick
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Harry
Was not aware of that connection. Thank you.
Apologies for this being about Manalli. I know he’s been creeping up again lately in interest in a few threads. I’m just posting this for reference and context of how the discussion came about and it just happened to be about Manalli. The reason for posting this in the context of this thread is to do with Roger Ebert. See the end of the post pertaining to the Exorcist letter. This is from this thread near the bottom. viewtopic.php?f=46&t=895&p=7601&hilit=ebert#p7601
traveller1st, Subject: Re: Fred Manalli Thu Sep 13, 2012 2:42 am
Jem wrote:
The article in this thread that’s about Manalli overseeing a student project – any way we could find some of the students whose names are listed there? Just to see what they remember about him, personality, character, whatever might be of interest.
Here’s something I googled on Dan Curley.
Daniel Curley Papers, 1932-91 | Archon Sandbox
sandbox.archon.org/latest/?p=collections/controlcard&id=13655
Title: Daniel Curley Papers, 1932-91 Add to your cart. ID: 15/7/37 … include Stanley Elkin, Roger Ebert, Hilton Kramer, Fred Manalli, John Moffitt, and C. P. Snow.Looks like Fred was in good company! Roger Ebert, a student of Curley, the famous movie critic, and C. P. Snow, a well-known author. Four of these guys are in Wikipedia. Moffit, a televison writer and producer, is not, but seems to be quite successful. And then there’s Manalli… he won an award for his writing, but that’s about it. Just doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest, imo. Yes, he died relatively young, but it doesn’t seem like he was on track to becoming a great writer. Or great anything else. His letters to Curley don’t seem particularly interesting (outside of the fact that they match Z so well!). I’m just wondering why Curley would want to keep up a correspondence with Manalli for so long.
Interesting fact. Like Manalli, Dan Curley died because of injuries sustained in a car crash. His car was struck by another vehicle as he was going through an intersection, and he died of complications of a broken neck he suffered in the crash. This was in 1988, in Florida, where he was vacationing. The obit I saw doesn’t say who was driving the car Curley was in, but says that "the driver had the green light". Not sure if "driver" refers to the driver of the car Curley was in or the driver whose vehicle struck him.
If anyone’s interested in reading a couple of Dan Curley’s short stories, here’s a link to his book of short stories, Living With Snakes. A NYTimes book reviewer said that Curley was very good at "making good stories out of bad marriages", or something like that.
Very well spotted Jem,
I was doing the same last night and also found the Ebert connection. I was then re-reading this entire thread to see if there was something unrelated already posted before I talked about the Ebert connection and I’ve just found this post of yours. Re-viewing stuff is good.
To expand on the Ebert thing. I went back and checked the Manalli letters and found no direct mention but with film critic in mind I was suddenly taking on board how much Manalli was into films/movies. He talks in quite a few letters about going to see movies and then gives his opinion on them, subscribes to a movie publication, goes to movie festival with his wife.
Reading then about Ebert, he seems, by all accounts, to be a bit of a prodigy of sorts, starting very young in life in his pursuit of a journalistic direction in life and was studying under Dan Curley in Illinois during a time when Manalli was writing to Dan there. Reckon he was jealous if Dan ever mentioned Ebert in his letters back to the struggling Manalli?
Then it instantly struck me – film critic – "The Exorcist"
Oh how sweet it would have been if he’d called it a satirical comedy – he didn’t. Here’s the review – http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-exorcist-1973
What did catch my attention though was the date 12/26/73 one month and 3 days prior to the Exorcist letter, which starts with an alternative critique of the movie, dated 1/29/74
“I don’t know Chief, he’s very smart or very dumb.“
Sorry, but I’m going to take this into another direction. I’ve said this before, but I think it’s interesting in regards to this topic.
It’s kind of weird that Toschi was accused of writing the ’78 Zodiac letter that said, ‘"I’m waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me?" When they did make a sort of Zodiac movie that was sort of about him. And he is shown in Fincher’s Zodiac as having attended the screening of Dirty Harry and meeting Robert Graysmith. I wonder if that really did happen.
