His name came up thanks to Robert Graysmith. Almost forgotten about, a little digging produced some simply fascinating facts, and paralells between Manalli, and the Zodiac Killer.
In Robert Graysmith's Zodiac Unmasked, the Author tried to link his suspect, Arthur Leigh Allen, to Fred Manalli, a Santa Rosa Junior College teacher who was killed in an auto accident in 1976. He mentioned that Manalli, during the mid 1960's, had lived in Riverside CA. I, and others, have found no evidence to support this claim. Riverside is a city very important to the Zodiac mystery due to the Cheri Jo Bates case (more on Bates coming to this blog later). Zodiac writing expert, Sherwood Morrill stated that letters received in the Bates case, as well as a desktop poem found in Riverside City College, were "unquestionably the work of Zodiac". If true, that is a major clue to Zodiac's identity.
Although no connection between Manalli and Riverside has been established, certain things about Manalli HAVE been that seem to line up with well between Manalli & Zodiac, almost perfectly. What follows is that material, in no special order (try to follow along as I mention a bunch of stuff that may seem to be written with no clear pattern or order)
The writing, words, phrases, etc used by both Zodiac & Manalli, is simply remarkably similar, almost as if one borrowed from the other,either that or Manalli was Zodiac. When Zodiac wrote his first confirmed letter in August, he included a 3 part cipher. When it was deciphered, part of the reveal read "slaves in Paradise". At about this time, Manalli had a short story published entitled, "Paradise, It's a nice place". Both Manalli & Zodiac connect the TH in their writings.
Next, let's examine the word 'public' as written by both. They both have an unusual 'rainbow' formation to them.
Next, both Zodiac & Manalli used the word Saterical(Satirical). An odd word, not frequently used:
Zodiac
Manalli
Both Zodiac & Manalli have the same writing habit in which they split the word 'something' into two words:
They do the same word 'splitting' with other words too,as they do with the word 'caught':
When Zodiac & Manalli write or reference numbers, they both write them as if they are a score, or with a line in front of them:
Manalli
Zodiac
Zodiac & Manalli share another odd writing trait, they sometimes write a half or incomplete letter w:
Zodiac was very fond of the word 'shall', as was Manalli. This was a very unusual word not used by many people as it was a word primarily used in England:
Manalli was very friendly with Author Dan Curley, and in this letter, he asks Curley about his story,'The Manhunt'.
The Manhunt sounds like something that Zodiac would be interested in, and it is widely believed that Zodiac referenced and was influenced by a short story called, 'The Most Dangerous Game'. In 1968, Curley's story, MANHUNT, was included in a story collection along with THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME:
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 ;
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 ;
Back to Manalli and his use of the word 'SHALL', here is one more example in which Manalli uses the word and interestingly, references Author James Joyce's well known book 'Finnegan's Wake'. This is most interesting, because in the book, Author Joyce deliberately spells many words incorrectly. Zodiac also did the same in many of his letters, and in fact, he misspelled many of the same words Joyce misspelled in his book, with the same spelling errors.
Manalli wrote this to Curley:
Zodiac would later mail this card to the press:
The paralells in the writings of Zodiac & Manalli don't seem to end. Here's another odd word used by both:
Zodiac
Manalli
Manalli wrote about dark and violent thoughts, depression,suicide,and more. In this piece, read the last line:
Now, read Zodiac's statement from his letter,the tone or message sounds similar:
Both Zodiac & Manalli refer to a letter as a 'note':
Zodiac & Manalli use even more similar phrases and word tracks:
Compare the lower case letter g between Zodiac & Manalli:
Compare the & symbols as written by Manalli & Zodiac:
Both Zodiac & Manalli use an unusual phrase:
Both Manalli & Zodiac mention 'circles of light':
In Augist, 1969, Zodiac mailed a coded message to local papers. When it was eventually decoded, one of the phrases from Zodiac was "slaves in Paradise". Around the same exact time, Manalli had a short story published called, 'Paradise,it's a nice place':
Another odd habit both Zodiac & Manalli share, notice how they both sometimes doubly dot the tops of their lower case i:
Manalli wrote many times about his own personal medical & mentals illnesses, as well as discussion of violence & suicide:
Zodiac wrote a letter in which he called himself the 'red phantom'.
Zodiac mailed a Halloween card to Reporter, Paul Avery, in which he wrote "you are DOOMED".
Last, but certainly not least of all, was a personal ad that ran in the Zodiac's favorite Newspaper. In August,1976, Fred Manalli was killed when he swerved head on into oncoming traffic, and collided with another vehicle. The very next day, a stunning, and mysterious personal ad ran in the San Francisco Chronicle:
The Ad read, "Zodiac your partner is in deep real estate, you're next. The Imperial wizard can save you. Surrender to him, or I'll terminate your case"
It could not be determined who placed the ad, or what it meant. To many people, the phrase "deep real estate", sounded alot like "6 feet under", basically that somebody was dead. The fact it ran the day after Manalli died is very interesting, and the timing is amazing. Could Manalli have placed it himself knowing he was going to commit suicide- by- auto? Was he warning somebody else, a partner perhaps? In Robert Graysmith's book, he had linked (not confirmed by anybody)Manalli to his suspect, Arthur Leigh Allen. If there was ever a case for a Zodiac 'team', maybe this ad might support it. Then again, if the ad was placed by Manalli, maybe it was part of some delusional thought process from Manalli, or maybe, the ad is simply a creepy and amazing coincidence. No matter what the case, the similarities between Zodiac & Manalli are hard to ignore. With so many common words, phrases, and similar subject matter, it's hard to dismiss the fact they seemed to be on the same plane, and thinking and discussing the same subjects.
I would challenge anybody with a Zodiac suspect, or person of interest, to put forth as compelling a writing comparison between their suspect, and Zodiac.
My Thanks to Mark (Travellerfirst), a Moderator at my web forum, for his side by side & digital examination of the Manalli letters, and to Deb (Seagull),another one of my Moderators, for obtaining some of the original letters to examine.
