Reporter Dave Peterson & Ross

[morf13]

Reporter Dave Peterson had some sort of interest in Ross, and had dug up info on him. Dave was a reporter for the Vallejo Times Herald, and was the equivalent of Paul Avery for the VTH. He supposedly had gotten his hands on Ross's police report from his arrest. Dave passed away some time ago. Today, I decided to call Dave's Widow to take a shot on getting more info about Ross, or to find out what else Dave may have found out about Ross. To my surprise, I just got a call back from Dave's Wife, She is elderly, but despite her age, and being a little bit hard of hearing, she sounded pretty sharp. She said that she does not have Dave's Zodiac stuff anymore, but thinks that a Family Member does. She's going to check and get back to me. Let's cross our fingers

[Paul_Averly]

More great news!

*I wanted to re-post the following as it fits better in this thread.

The letter from the librarian seems old and mentions "the new library." The new RCC library was built in 1968.

My guess would be that Dave Peterson looked into Ross back around 1971, when the Riverside connection was made.
Howard also mentions that Toschi looked into Ross at the request of Dave Peterson.

If this is the case, it would have had to happen before 1978 (when Toschi was kicked out of homicide). If Toschi really did look into Ross, it was probably around 1971, the point in the investigation where SFPD had the most suspects to look at. It's very possible Ross lucked out due to the high volume of suspects and they simply missed his fingerprint match.

[Seagull]

Here is a letter that Dave Peterson wrote to Dave Toschi about Ross Sullivan. It looks like Peterson did not tell Toschi about Ross until 1977.

Dave Peterson Letter to Toschi 1.PNG

Dave Peterson letter to Toschi 2.PNG

[Paul_Averly]

That's great Seagull, but is there any other Ross info out there we don't know about.

As for the prints, here is a video of what was going on back then.

21 min in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_ZCOyngiPE

[morf13]

Wow Seagull, where did you get that from? I don;t think I have ever seen it. The million dollar question, did Toschi ever get the prints? Jesus, if he did not tell him till 77, Ross may have been dead already by the time Toschi got around to checking out Ross. And if he was dead, and Ross did not have prints on file, maybe he never got them.

[murray]

I still say they HAD to have printed him at the time of the naked phone booth incident. I just can't see, even if they decided to get him mental health care, how that much disturbing the peace would have gone without some of the usual protocol.

And unrelated, but didn't the librarian at RCC say that Ross had been institutionalized prior to being a student at the community college? I just wonder what incident might have prompted that hospital stay.

[morf13]

I still say they HAD to have printed him at the time of the naked phone booth incident. I just can't see, even if they decided to get him mental health care, how that much disturbing the peace would have gone without some of the usual protocol.

And unrelated, but didn't the librarian at RCC say that Ross had been institutionalized prior to being a student at the community college? I just wonder what incident might have prompted that hospital stay.

Well now adays, the prints from all arrests are supposed to hit the database,and finding a match is easy, but back then, they would need to get the print cards for the arrests, and manually check them.

[murray]

Well now adays, the prints from all arrests are supposed to hit the database,and finding a match is easy, but back then, they would need to get the print cards for the arrests, and manually check them.

Ugh - too much time has gone by. This makes a trip to Santa Cruz tempting for me -- I have friends in Soquel that might let me stay, and help me do some digging. I just don't know what would be left.

Piecing together a few things, here -- it will be great if Dave Peterson's family has any of his notes.

Ross M. Sullivan
Born in July 1941
SS issued in 1958 (Age 17 when he obtained SS)
SS# 564-56-7947
Mom died in 1959
Started at RCC in 1961 (age 20)
Sent RCC transcripts to UC Santa Cruz (age 26)
Died in 1977 (Died age 36)
Funeral Director: White’s Mort Inc, Santa Cruz.
Soquel CA Crematory
Address at death: 2177 17th Avenue Santa Cruz, CA 95062 (now Paradise Villa)
Listed as living in Santa Cruz county for 3 years - in the state of CA for 20 years
Signed by John (or Jonathan?) Sullivan, 1929-B Russell Street, Berkeley 94703

Questions: Where did he work as a dishwasher in SC? That might give some clues as to how long he was in that area.
A social security statement would give his employment history. That would show if he was in the Bay Area at any time between 1967 and 1970.

[Tahoe27]

Thanks for that Seagull! I have never seen it. There is a name or two I have never noticed before...like the other "Philip".

And what I would give to know the last name of Claudia! THAT I have seen before.

[murray]

Great letter, Seagull -- interesting that Dave and Dave were looking into this as far back as '77.