Fred Manalli

onewhoknows wrote:

So did he fall asleep or commit suicide?
By the way only about 2% of the male population is 6"3" or taller.

If you have a copy of Zodiac Unmasked, you can read about the accident on pages 186 and 187 (and more about this guy on pages 188 and 260-261. ) Fred was driving a 1965 VW van and hit a 1972 Toyota. The model of the Toyota is not mentioned, but even if it were a truck it wouldn't be the best vehicle to hit to insure death. A Mack truck would be a better target. On the other hand, a Mack truck would not be a good idea if you didn't want your death to look like a suicide. So maybe suicide, but doesn't seem likely. Especially since he didn't die right away, but at 1:25 the next morning while on the operating table at the hospital. The crash occurred about 8:30, when he'd been driving for about half an hour. So possibly he fell asleep. An observer saw Fred's headlights go out right before the crash, and there were only two feet of light skid marks, indicating he hadn't tried to brake. Another possibility is that he had a seizure. His wife reported that he'd been having seizures controlled by medication. This is according to ZU.

Thanks for your post, Jem. The page numbers you've given are for the hardcover edition of ZU. In the 2007 paperback the pages are 174-176 and page 243.

On the first page under the heading "Thursday, August 24, 1976", in either edition discussing Manalli, Graysmith states that Manalli had gone to the German Car Center east of Merced for repairs to his van. I am trying to nail down this information because I think it might be a little misleading.

There is a town named Merced which is in the general area of where Kathleen Johns was kidnapped. It really doesn't make any sense to me that Manalli would drive all the way to the town of Merced for car repairs. What I think is more likely is the car repair shop was located in Santa Rosa near Merced Avenue, the nearest cross street to where Manalli's Highway 12 accident occured.

I don't know if Graysmith was trying to loosely associate Manalli with being familar with the area where the Johns incident took place or what.

Merced is at least 1/2 hour west of Highway 132, which is approximately Modesto. From Santa Rosa to Merced, the drive would take about three hours-
1 hour to Concord area, two to Merced. The long way would be to take 680 to the Altmont Pass and go that way via Pleasanton and Livermore.

Why anyone would drive that far to have an old VW van replaced is a good riddle. Remember, VW vans had no protection, for the driver or front passenger, as the motor was, I believe, in the back. Most motors for the vans in those days werebetween the passenger and driver. If he had hit my big Duce-and-a-quarter-he would have been wiped out! Instead, he hit a little puddle-bug, and look what such a small car did!

A seizure is a good possibility as to the cause. Just because meds control seizures does not mean one will be prevented.

I am surprised that Highway 12 is still two-lane road, given today's cars on the road in California. Highway 99 is finally freeway.

Seagull wrote:

Thanks for your post, Jem. The page numbers you've given are for the hardcover edition of ZU. In the 2007 paperback the pages are 174-176 and page 243.

On the first page under the heading "Thursday, August 24, 1976", in either edition discussing Manalli, Graysmith states that Manalli had gone to the German Car Center east of Merced for repairs to his van. I am trying to nail down this information because I think it might be a little misleading.

There is a town named Merced which is in the general area of where Kathleen Johns was kidnapped. It really doesn't make any sense to me that Manalli would drive all the way to the town of Merced for car repairs. What I think is more likely is the car repair shop was located in Santa Rosa near Merced Avenue, the nearest cross street to where Manalli's Highway 12 accident occured.

I don't know if Graysmith was trying to loosely associate Manalli with being familar with the area where the Johns incident took place or what.

Here are 4 German car autorepair shops in 1970 Santa Rosa City Directory:





Here is one active today. It is located 3.9 miles north/east of Merced Avenue in Santa Rosa.
Somone local could call them and ask if they existed back in 1976:


GERMAN AUTOMOTIVE SERVICE BY RAUL
CA, 345 W 9TH ST, 95401 SANTA ROSA | (707) 544-4844.

volkswagen, independetn full service repair, auto repairing, how do check my brake pads, auto transmissions, automotive, automotive repair, engine mufflers exhaust systems, engine rebuilding


And this might be the same bizz:

Entity Name: GERMAN-AMERICAN AUTOMOTIVE SERVICES, INCORPORATED
Entity Number: C0604773
Date Filed: 08/10/1970 Status: SUSPENDED
Jurisdiction: CALIFORNIA
Entity Address: *
Entity City, State, Zip: *
Agent for Service of Process: *
Agent Address: *
Agent City, State, Zip: *

Thanks TF. This would have been in 1976 though. The last time I was at the library in Santa Rosa I asked to look at the Polk's Directory for 1976. They had switched over to the Haines Criss-Cross Directory by then and things were not indexed the same as the Polk's. They did not list by name or type of business only address and phone number. I was running short on time and didn't ask if they had a 1976 phone book. They need to go to the basement for that kind of stuff and it takes forever so I will have to do it next time I'm there.

I was able to find the page in the Criss-Cross directory for the address Manalli was living when he died but he is not listed. His address on the DC is 6665 Sebastopol Rd Sebastopol. That street is called Road in Santa Rosa but Avenue in Sebastopol so the DC is off on that. Manalli did live in a trailer park and that is what the Criss-Cross Directory says was there at the time.

The book was huge and I had to make two passes on the copy machine to get everyone who lived at that address. It starts at the bottom of the first column on the first page and continues at the top of the second column of the second page.

Here's what 6665 looks like today.

So an auto malfunction? I personally know of a man here locally who drove
home and crashed his car. They took him to Emergency, and then released him
to go on home. When he got home he hung himself in the backyard for his six
children and wife to find. I don't write this stuff, I just report it.

By the way my POI, drank himself to death at the age of 52. Alcoholism.

Where have you gone Fred Manalli? This thread really died off as we seem to have hit the proverbial 'wall' in investigation of him. My local library was trying to get me some of his writings, but then they vanished and I cant get anything. Maybe I will have to stop in and surprise them....TRAV, you seem to have been taking a little Zodiac vacation like myself...its good to recharge the old batteries. Seagull,did you ever get anythingg additional? Ever get that PARADISE story?

I'm really surprised this guy is not getting more attention. The handwriting analysis done by Trav shows such amazing similarities to the Z writings, imo. Can't imagine we could ever find a closer match. Maybe Fred never killed anyone, maybe he did not create the codes, maybe he didn't even compose the letters himself, but imo FM wrote those letters and, therefore, he's somehow involved.

A few items of possible interest:
1) The name Eric means "red" in Old Norse. F-red-eric. That's 2 REDs
- Red Phantom letter - 2 REDs
- Desktop poem - 2 REDs

2) Some posters here think the strange symbol on the Halloween Card looks a lot like the former logo used by Macmillan & Co. publishers.
- First two letters of Macmillan are MA and last five letters reversed are NALLI.

3) In one of his letters, Fred mentions something like things started "after the assassination", referring to his mental condition, maybe? He doesn't say whose assassination, but likely it was JFK, RFK or MLKJr.
- In the Unsolved 32 cipher, the only letters that are reversed are J, F and K.

Jem wrote:

The name Eric means "red" in Old Norse. F-red-eric.

His name is actually spelled Fredric.

thebigZ wrote:

Jem wrote:

The name Eric means "red" in Old Norse. F-red-eric.

His name is actually spelled Fredric.

Yeah, it is. Sorry bout that! I thought it was Frederic because that's how it's spelled on this website showing his Master's thesis, Short Stories: The Blakentia Sextet. Obviously misspelled there.

http://books.google.com/books/about/Short_Stories.html?id=NyKKNwAACAAJ

I've came back to this and I think it was inspired by recent discussion somewhere on the forum about Zodiac and Stine murder and dogs etc etc. I've pondered it before, as to where he went on that evening. As we all have. I don't know but there are certain things that would seem tie in to all of the attacks and even alleged attacks.

First of all I noticed that they all occur on or pretty near to a major freeway network. Then I couldn't fail to notice that his same system ran through Santa Rosa.

In fact it's more than that. Hopefully what I'm posting will make sense. I'm slightly reticent about this as it involves Santa Rosa and Manalli and I would prefer to be more objective but regardless of a POI there might be something in it.

First off here's an overview of the FWY Network I'm talking about



Next is Berryessa. We don't know how he arrived but he left via Napa and headed west. Here are the options that I can see after leaving Beyyessa to get to Napa.




We know he's moving west because he has to deliberately turn west to get to Napa.

Now this part moves into theory territory. If we assume that he continues West, where's he heading? well lets suggest for now that it's back onto that FWY Network. So here's possible and logical routes that lead to Santa Rosa. I also want to add that this need not involve Manalli but it could potentially involve Santa Rosa as it appears to serve as a logical return point in this theory. Try and think about it as if there was no Santa Rosa POI connection, but keep an open mind that it might lol. Simples.



Next if we look at Vallejo. This will have to include a mention of LHR but we don't have anything to go on. As with Berryessa he leaves the crime scene and heads West. Now we know that he did this to make the phone call to police very close the police department so he travelled a fair bit into vallejo to do this. It also brought him close to an intersection to get back onto the FWY Network. An intersection that coincidentally looks like a zodiac symbol. I've marked the 4 main routes out and he could have taken any of them but they could also have eventually took him back to the freeway but if he's already west like he did after LB then we have to consider that West might be important.




Here's an overview of the route if he had indeed been heading for Santa Rosa.



Next Shows Vallejo, Benicia and Paul Stine in relation to the network.



This bit concerns Manalli. We know he lived in Santa Rosa and travelled to work in San Quentin. Yup its also on the same FWY network and infact a major chunk of it invloved his one time route to work.



So there you have it. Oh I should mention that the FWY extends out east and goes right between Lake Tahoe and Reno. OH and it also runs right through Modesto which is where Zodiac followed KJ from. From Modesto on Hwy 132 until she got onto the I5 at the intersection. Again heading west from one main route on the network to another. If in doubt, get back on the freeway.

There is also the possibility that he took a quick exit option after PS and headed directly north which would be the quickest way to rejoin the network. Or that might have been his plan anyway. He states that after he 'came out of cover' he then "disappeared into the park never to be seen again." Does this imply that once he was in the park he was home free, or perhaps more likely reached his vehicle. If this was the case it's in keeping with him heading in the direction of home as he may well have been after the other attacks, in this instance it would be North.

Santa Rosa just happens to fit on this network in a good place for operating from but as to whether it's relevant beyond that and Manalli I can't say I can only speculate but may be a pattern here regarding zodiac's movement (that we know of) after each crime. Moving west after the majority of them and then potentially moving North after the Stine attack.

With regards Manalli SF, Santa Rosa, Oakland and San Leandro are all on this major network and Sebastopol is just to the west of Santa Rosa with an arterial road connecting it to the major network. This also gives alternatives as to escape routes from the crimes. Most notably LHR, BRS and Kathleen johns.

So we have two things here really. Do the Zodiac's actions after each attack give us a clue to where he was heading? Does factoring in Manalli's residence at the time of the crimes tell us anything useful or telling.

WOW. Hope that all made sense.

Lastly here's a pulled image to show where Tahoe fits on the network.

Having lived in the Napa Valley and Franz Valley which is technically Santa Rosa I can tell you that the route anyone familar with the area would take to get from Lake Berryessa to Santa Rosa. From Berryessa you would take Hwy 128 going in a westerly direction, when it combines with Hwy 29 go north to Calistoga. Then you would make a left on Petrified Forest Rd. in Calistoga and go over the mountain past the Petrified Forest until you come to Porter Creek Rd. You have a choice here, if you turn right on to Porter Creek Rd. you will be going towards Hwy 101 just north of Santa Rosa, you will also pass Franz Valley Rd., where three of the SRHM victims were found, which is about three miles from that intersection. You will also go along side the creek where the last SRHM victim was found.

If you continue straight on Petrified Forest Rd. it becomes Calistoga Rd. at the intersection. Two of the SRHM victims were found on Calistoga Rd. Calistoga Rd. takes you to Hwy 12, where if you turn right you end up right in downtown Santa Rosa.

Yes, you can get to Santa Rosa by the route you've outlined but it's the long way.

Well there's no reason that he couldn't have used your route to get there and my route to get back? We know he headed south then turned westward and headed for Napa. But that's good Deb, the sort of things I was hoping this might be useful for with people seeing how their own POI's stack up against the road and heading west theory.

Yeah Trav, he could have done that. There's the possibility that he went to Napa, made the phone call and headed north on Hwy 29 in Napa and went back to Santa Rosa by the route I described. There are also other crossroads off of Hwy 29 that go over towards the Santa Rosa area.

Oakville Grade in Oakville, which becomes Trinity Rd at the Sonoma County line and ends at Hwy 12 near Kenwood or St. Helena Rd. out of St. Helena on Hwy 29. St. Helena Rd. ends at Calistoga Rd. and you would turn left to get to Santa Rosa.

would your route require you to be familiar with the area?

EDIT: Never mind you as much as said that lol.

Here's the HWY 128 route marked, I think.

Finally got my hands on this 'PARADISE' story written by Manalli. I intend to read it later on this evening, and will post what I can here of it.

To our Northern Ireland Friend, Traveller:

The map, above, does not come close to Santa Rosa. I don't remember if Highway 12 went to Napa in the 1960's - today, one could backtrack on 29 and take 12 to Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa is over two sets of
hills to the far west of where Napa would be. I used to go there a lot, but would take 37 to 121 and stay on that as it becomes 12 and goes right into Santa Rosa. From Napa, there is the Napa Wine Country - over the other side of the hills, there is the Sonoma Wine Country, and over the other side of those hills is Santa Rosa.

Being familiar helps, for sure. Keep in mind, I drove those routes in the early 1960's - I am sure they have changed. I lived in the bay area for 55 years, but never considered Santa Rosa as part of the bay area. For commute purposes, it is considered part of the SF Bay Area today.

If Manalli was in Vallejo, he would be better to take the route I mentioned, above, as it is faster then 29.

Just a matter of opinion, but I prefer the Sonoma Wine Country to the Napa Wine Area, probably because it is less commercialized and very pretty.
You can access Santa Rosa from there.

If anyone was at Berryessa, the route Seagull gave is the easiest. I don't know, anymore, but there was no through freeway from Santa Rosa to, say Sacramento, at that time, so one had to take back roads.

Please correct me if I am wrong - it has been so long since I went to Santa Rosa.

Here is the story PARADISE,IT'S A NICE PLACE, by Fred manalli. I don't see any smoking guns from manalli in the story, although we see his knowledge and further discussion of firearms, and he uses the word 'FIDDLE'. I still think, on top of the other 45 pages of manalli stuff here, that the timing of this story is incredible. Zodiac uses the term "slaves in Paradise" only a few months before the Manalli story about Paradise is printed, which means, he likely was writing it earlier in 1969.

Thanks for posting Morf.

Just glancing through it at the minute but these caught my eye. One being the variation on Paradise with the mention of Pair-O-Dice as the old name containing the "c".

The other was the phrasing in the second highlighted bit which made me think of "I'd like to report a murder - no, a double murder".

We've discussed some of the other pages before in respect the german revolver and basement workshops filled with wires. I found the little dialogue he has with himself regarding the conversation had about the shoe repair shop where, after been told that the shoes are sold at cost after a certain time he ponders with the words "at what cost?and sold to whom?". I just have to wonder about the implication here - what is he suggesting to the reader? The "at what cost" part I can understand, perhaps suggesting an unseen series of events that could be affected by, or already have happened, that somehow involve your shoes not being collected and ultimately sold.

The bit I'm no so sure about is the "to whom?". When coupled with "at what cost?" as it is, it suggests a cost incurred due to the shoes being sold to a certain person. There is also mention of a stitching machines as well.

Good observations TRAV. I do recall some posts here, or on another forum perhaps, discussing the spelling of PARADISE vs PARADICE....etc, and possibly some meaning or clue pointing to Paradise CA. Will have to see if I can find it. Anybody remember it?

Nicastro appears to be real.

1968 and the name Frederick pop up in it's history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicastro

morf13 wrote:

Good observations TRAV. I do recall some posts here, or on another forum perhaps, discussing the spelling of PARADISE vs PARADICE....etc, and possibly some meaning or clue pointing to Paradise CA. Will have to see if I can find it. Anybody remember it?

I seem to recall that Nanette Barto said she found the Paradice spelling on an old. old map of the area. I don't know that she ever posted an image of the map though.

Seagull wrote:

morf13 wrote:

Good observations TRAV. I do recall some posts here, or on another forum perhaps, discussing the spelling of PARADISE vs PARADICE....etc, and possibly some meaning or clue pointing to Paradise CA. Will have to see if I can find it. Anybody remember it?

I seem to recall that Nanette Barto said she found the Paradice spelling on an old. old map of the area. I don't know that she ever posted an image of the map though.

Oh....Nanette Barto.... Don't hold your breath

Paradise, CA is about 30 miles east of Chico. It is quite a ways from Santa Rosa, or any known Z activities. It is more known as a retirement community.