The Channel Nine Letter's Envelope

The postmark is 5/2/78 from Anaheim, CA. Bruce Davis lived in Anaheim in 1964. He then moved to Riverside in 1966 finally leaving there in November of that same year.

Only one stamp is used on this letter. A popular assumption made is that Zodiac always used double postage on his letters. In keeping with Zodiac's 11/9/69 decision to "change" his ways, he also used only one stamp on the 6/26/70, 7/24/70, 10/5/70, 10/27/70, 1/29/74, 2/14/74 and 7/8/74 letters.



The starting and stopping point of the circle part of the crossed circle symbol on back side of the envelope is at the 1 o'clock position. (The back side of the envelope above is depicted upside-down.) Mike Rodelli feels this is a Zodiac trait. This is only the second time the symbol is used on an envelope!The first time was on the 10/13/69 envelope.



A city but no state is used in the address. Zodiac also did this on the 10/27/70 and 1/29/74 envelopes and the 3/22/74 "Pines" postcard.



A Zip Code is used for the first and only time. A Zodiac characteristic is that he would do things out of character and only once. Another factor is that by 1978 the Post Office was strongly urging the use of Zip Codes and saying that mail might not get delivered without its use. What could his letters do if no one ever received them?



All of the lettering characteristics are similar to other known Zodiac handwriting except for the number "9" in the Zip Code. (Interestingly this 9 looks like a 9 that Bruce Davis wrote on an envelope in 1991. Of further interest is that Manson and Davis felt that 9 (as in "Revolution 9") had a great significance.) The following are some examples of these handwriting similarities:

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The appearance of the letter "M" - Most of Zodiac's M's do not have the bottom of the mid-point contacting the base. However, there are at least two occurrences of this feature: The 10/27/70 and 5/8/74 letters.

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The "H" has a slightly shorter appearing right vertical line, similar to many of Zodiac's H's.

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The "T" has a fairly small horizontal bar and one "T" is similar to "The boy . . ." in the letter of 7/31/69 to the San Francisco Chronicle.

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The "U" does not have a vertical stem which is like the U's in the 7/8/74 letter and others.

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At least two of the "O"s loop together at the 12 o'clock position as in some other known Zodiac letters.

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The two "5"s have long vertical bars like many that are known to have been written by Zodiac. See the 4/30/67 Riverside envelope and in the 7/31/69 Vallejo Times-Herald letter for examples.

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The checkmark "r" - a Zodiac trait - is present.

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The "3" has a slightly larger diameter lower half-loop similar to other known Zodiac handwriting.

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The "8" is somewhat unique with the final stroke rising and curling to the left. See the 6/26/70 letter.

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The "G" in the "reversed code" is similar to G's used in the three 7/31/69 letters.

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The "-" (dash) is similar to the one used on the 10/27/70 envelope.

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Note the "reverse 4" has the horizontal crossbar going through the vertical bar - rare for Zodiac. It is used one other time on a previously unpublished, 1967 Zodiac envelope that can be found in the Zodiac / Manson Connection book.




The Code

Reversing the code we get: "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 A. G. C. G. T. H.!" (The "7" was not reversed.) "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, All Good Children Go To Heaven" is an old British children's rhyme (Zodiac's British connection) and the phrase is used in the Beatles song, "You Never Give Me Your Money" from 1969's "Abbey Road" album. On a door at Spahn Ranch, the Manson Family, along with other drawings, had written "1234567 ALL GOOD CHILDREN (go to heaven?)" as pictured here and also is in Vincent Bugliosi's book, "Helter Skelter."

The rest of the rhyme goes: "A penny on the water - Two pence on the sea. Three pence on the railway - Out goes she."

Both Manson and Davis were to come up for parole hearings later that year - 1978. Was this a threat against Susan Atkins? Her testimony threatened to block those paroles. This letter and envelope were not publicized and Charlie and Bruce were both denied their paroles.