Zodiackillersite.com

Thanks for the thorough reply, trav - enlightening for me, who know far too little about this subject.

Much appreciated.

N.

I think handwriting is a good starting point for any Z suspect.
Since Z was never identified, it is possible he managed to alter his handwriting enough to throw LE off.

Since this thread is about Ross, I feel like there are good similarities but nothing conclusive one way or the other.
Ross is a unique suspect with many factors contributing his suspicion. Since Ross is a special case, handwriting should not be enough to clear him.

Paul_Averly wrote:Since Z was never identified, it is possible he managed to alter his handwriting enough to throw LE off.

Is it though? I'm asking because I don't know if it is or if there have been any instances of this in history. Not saying I don't think it's possible but that I don't know.

The one thing, regardless of whether it's possible, is that Z didn't seem to do it. You might argue that he tried, and he did but he failed because he neglected to alter his ingrained habits (probably a hint as to why in the word ingrained). This is based on an eight year period so I would wonder if he didn't manage it then could he have managed it later?

It's possible (as you suggest) to imagine that his day to day writing is not like the writing(s) in the evidence but I would say that it would share enough form commonalities and still those pesky habits. I guess he could have pre-altered/created a set of habits specifically for the Z letters and applied whatever style he felt like as by default there would far less times in his life when this was required. That's straying into creative theorizing territory though I think. Morrill, by the lake, with the felt pen if Zodiac Cluedo were a real thing.

Just some thoughts on it.

Not much lowercase to go with on the SS app, but I wanted to compare it to the desktop poem.

Ross on the left, desktop on the right.

Also the e's. Ross on the top, desktop on the bottom.

Paul_Averly wrote:Also the e's. Ross on the top, desktop on the bottom.

Ross-e.jpg

Wow those middle Es look like a match, I wish the same pen was used for both writing would be easier to compare as opposed to two different writing untensils

Sorry to keep being a nay-sayer but I see consistent differences. Namely in the turn on the left hand side of the e. Whilst Ross's are more elliptical and his turns are based more in the middle to upper half region of the e, Zodiac's have a sharper turn more often that not and are based in the lower half of the character, This is almost certainly an ingrained habit as it's also present in his c's.

Whilst you could argue that similarities can be found in certain points on the characters this isn't an indication of common authorship. These are 'normal' variations that anyone would have and when looking at two exemplars, if there is a style similarity to begin with these 'cross-over' points are going to exist. When you take a step back though and look at the things that can be termed 'habits' and compare those then, even with a small example such as this, you can see that there is a difference in habit.

I know we aren't dealing with the clearest examples here but I hope the diagram below will assist in explaining my technical ramblings.

There are many things to consider, both for and against. Assuming Ross filled out the SS application, there was a 10+ year gap. Zodiac also, may have altered his writing.

But one thing is for sure, both Z and Ross seems to construct many letters and numbers in the same manner.

There are some real similarities in the writing samples.

Wish we had more handwriting samples available. He liked to write, so it's possible that a living relative has journals that belonged to Ross. Not that we could ever get ahold of them.

Paul_Averly wrote:But one thing is for sure, both Z and Ross seems to construct many letters and numbers in the same manner.

There are some real similarities in the writing samples.

You are correct.

This is what I mean though about having to look at these things in stages. There are some very real similarities but again that will and does happen with lots of examples. I know it seems like it's looking for problems rather than answers but it's not. It's more about being able to come to decisions and the least pain free way of reaching them.

All the thoughts about changing habits, varying styles, passing time etc etc. I've had them all too and I guess I'm just trying to save anyone else go through them to no conclusion. You could spend all day finding compelling similarities in writing and you will (trust me I have) but it doesn't lead to anything other than the encouragement to keep going cause this could be Z. The problem is that sneaky old Z introduced letters that pretty much set that up. No matter how clinical I try to be about these things I still, rather inefficiently, have to check every bloody thing Z wrote to see if there's an unnoticed trait or style when looking at POI's exemplars.

Here's one for Ross - not sure if it's been posted yet - to illustrate the point.



I would have, at one point, thought - no way! It is compelling to first see it but once you get over the "similarity shock" even this, what you would think is unique, has it's differences and they are consistent in and to each.

Similar - pointed loop on both l/c a's and long horizontal tails. Elongated n's with similar construction.

Different - X heights of preceding characters compared to the n. X heights of the n's compared to each other. The tails on both a's and n's are different in their inflections but consistent with each other within each example i.e Both Ross's a and n tails inflect upwards at angles consistent to each other. Zodiac's go down and with an angle and curve consistent to themselves.

I could list more but basically what look's like a "no f'ing way" moment becomes a "more questions than answers", as the song goes, moment on detailed inspection.

P.S. Notice that little 'kink' in the turn of the curve on Z's lower case c. Same as his l/c e's.