Postmarked Vallejo on Thursday, June 18th 1970, two Oakland A's baseball tickets were mailed to Gerald Tagert of 1423 Roleen Drive in Vallejo, wrapped in a piece of paper with the message "Gift from Zodiac". The tickets for the baseball game were dated Saturday, June 20th 1970. It appeared that "Zodiac" or the impersonator wanted the couple to vacate their house and attend the baseball game in two days time. This communication was not released to the public and has only surfaced in recent years. Just over two years later, on Thursday, June 29th 1972 (and 18 miles west of Roleen Drive), Edward J. Salmina of 25 Crescent Lane, Novato received a death threat signed "Zodiac", stating "If you leave your house past 3:13:47 on the next ten Saturdays, you will be killed". Edward J. Salmina was a sports editor of the Novato Advance newspaper for 33 years and was a staunch baseball fan, who funded and managed the Novato Knicks team, while also having served as a sports correspondent for The Examiner newspaper. The specific threat on Salmina to not leave his house on ten consecutive Saturdays was almost certainly connected to his management of the Novato Knicks baseball team, thereby preventing his coaching of the team during this period of time.
We have two June communications separated by two years, both extremely brief in nature and connected to baseball, with both signed by the pseudonym "Zodiac" and mailed on the Thursday before the Saturday in question. Each letter was focused on the Saturday, The Oakland A's tickets were chosen for Saturday, June 20th 1970, encouraging the recipients to leave their house on 1423 Roleen Drive and attend the baseball game, whereas the letter to Edward J. Salmina on June 29th 1972 was encouraging him not to leave his house on the next ten Saturdays (and probably threatening him not to attend the baseball). The second author in 1972, if different to the one in 1970, could never have imitated the original threat without inside knowledge.
We have two June communications separated by two years, both extremely brief in nature and connected to baseball, with both signed by the pseudonym "Zodiac" and mailed on the Thursday before the Saturday in question. Each letter was focused on the Saturday, The Oakland A's tickets were chosen for Saturday, June 20th 1970, encouraging the recipients to leave their house on 1423 Roleen Drive and attend the baseball game, whereas the letter to Edward J. Salmina on June 29th 1972 was encouraging him not to leave his house on the next ten Saturdays (and probably threatening him not to attend the baseball). The second author in 1972, if different to the one in 1970, could never have imitated the original threat without inside knowledge.
Particular dates were the overriding focus of each letter, involving eleven Saturdays in total. The only other time the Zodiac Killer made reference to a specific date he would kill, is when he mailed the trinity of communications to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday, July 31st 1969, stating to the Chronicle that "the other 2 parts of this cipher are being mailed to the editors of the Vallejo Times and SF Examiner. I want you to print this cipher on the front page of your paper. In this cipher is my idenity. If you do not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry.1st of Aug 69, I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night. I will cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend". These specific threats to kill, again occurring on a Thursday, just one or two days before the intended premise of the letter.
The 1972 Novato letter threatening to kill Edward J. Salmina contained a series of symbols under the heading "message" (believed to be a short code). This is extremely interesting, because the next letter we know of (claimed to be from Zodiac) also contained a short code, while claiming he would kill on a specific date. The author of the Albany letter, mailed to the Albany Times Union newspaper in New York on August 1st 1973 and targeting the Albany Medical Center, promised to "kill her on August 10th at 5:00pm". The author of this letter gave a specific time he would murder, just like the author of the Novato letter who stated "If you leave your house past 3:13:47 on the next ten Saturdays, you will be killed". This was unique to both these letters. Although the Albany message was issued on a Wednesday for a week Friday, it was again issued with time being the central focus. The two 1970 Oakland A's tickets bore a time and date, the 1972 Novato letter bore a time and ten dates, as did the Albany letter in 1973. All three letters were aimed at a specific individual - Gerald Tagert, Edward J.Salmina and Connie Henly (from the decoded portion).
The 1972 Novato letter threatening to kill Edward J. Salmina contained a series of symbols under the heading "message" (believed to be a short code). This is extremely interesting, because the next letter we know of (claimed to be from Zodiac) also contained a short code, while claiming he would kill on a specific date. The author of the Albany letter, mailed to the Albany Times Union newspaper in New York on August 1st 1973 and targeting the Albany Medical Center, promised to "kill her on August 10th at 5:00pm". The author of this letter gave a specific time he would murder, just like the author of the Novato letter who stated "If you leave your house past 3:13:47 on the next ten Saturdays, you will be killed". This was unique to both these letters. Although the Albany message was issued on a Wednesday for a week Friday, it was again issued with time being the central focus. The two 1970 Oakland A's tickets bore a time and date, the 1972 Novato letter bore a time and ten dates, as did the Albany letter in 1973. All three letters were aimed at a specific individual - Gerald Tagert, Edward J.Salmina and Connie Henly (from the decoded portion).