Ross Sullivan: Timeline of primary sources

[marie]

A few edits you may want to include:

I just thought I'd mention the list of Ross's Yearbook organizations is from the Glendale High School 1959, the year he graduated.

Do we know when Ross arrived in Glendale? His father was replaced at the YMCA in Binghamton on Sept 4, 1957! (See my post in this thread from Sept 5), I couldn't get the article to repost.

If his father was pursuing opportunities out west, Ross clearly was around for most of 1957 in the Binghamton area, possibly into 58 as his mom stayed. I don't think she left until her cancer diagnosis, as her death certificate says she lived in CA ~18 months, putting her ~Feb or March of 1958 when she moved to Glendale. I will try to get info on when she left her teaching position in Binghamton, and possibly if any of the brothers stayed.

-m

[marie]

I have been looking at all the new info with regard to Ross's timeline and where he might have been. I am not sure if this the right thread for it, but it encompasses many of the other threads, so here goes:

We have Ross in Polk 68 living in Santa Cruz. I think it is important to remember that those books were assembled the fall (or even summer before), so it may have been more likely part of 67 he was living there. According to the librarian letter, he had his transcript sent to UC Santa Cruz on 11/9/1967. And here is where some of my confusion lies- when did he stop working at the library at RCC? The dates to me overlap in an odd way. How would she know when he sent his records, and how would he make it into the 68 Polk?

My thought (supposition) is he didn't live in Santa Cruz very long since the bizarre arrest article is dated 2/6/1968, and says he was from Riverside. Since the Polk directory had him working at UCSC, it at best should have said formerly of Riverside. Could just be bad reporting, or he no longer lived in SC.

So this is now some more of my supposition: he was put into a mental hospital short term, and then must have gone to live with or around his brother Tim- the SF address from 1969 for Tim (which means he was probably there in part of 1968) and timeframe seems credible, potentially explaining how and why Tim suspected Ross of being Z. But then the draft happens, and Tim is off to Canada in December? of 69.

AND THE Z CLAIMED MURDERS STOP- though the letters and taunting escalate.

Which then leads to all the questions we have- why, where, what, how was Ross living? And how did the conservatorship come to be- maybe arrests for petty things? Crazy behavior? Who knows?

So where does that leave my thoughts- FOIA, FOIA, FOIA. Ross left RiversideCC in November of 61 and said he was in an Asylum when he returned to the RCC library in 1964. If true, something precipitated that action. FOIA the police records for that time as it must have been significant, and they cannot legally claim it is part of the CJB "open case" and refuse to release it. Also, FOIA the Bay area police for records of him, particularly between killings, letters, etc (I don't know CA law, NY likes as many specifics relative to a date as you can give- in other words you can't ask for any and all reports on a Ross Sullivan, SS#... from 1967-1971 or they can refuse). I am more than willing to help, any thoughts?

-m

[morf13]

I've thought of all this, I have reached out to mental institutions about Ross, but they will not release info based on privacy laws. Same goes for the colleges we know Ross was at. I also reached out to the police dept who arrested Ross in 68, and they have no files on him,as the old non serious(murder, kidnap,rape type stuff)crime files were purged after many years. I also filed FOIA with the Dept Of Justice, which did not have any files on Ross,which is disturbing, because if Ross's prints were checked, they likely would have been sent to the FBI for examination,thus leaving a file likely for him,but again, they do not have one.

[marie]

I definitely fear that as a response, and I am going to check with some lawyers at my local law library. Even if arrest records were purged, court records might not have been. I am in no way saying what they told you wasn't true, but I think there are records, even of arrests- and you can't purge court records. And with so many jurisdictions involved...

But I also wonder, there had to be a paper trail to get Ross in the Conservatorship. I am guessing by date it was the State, and probably due to his "chaos," even if not as Z.

And as for the colleges, they were public institutions. They are legally obligated to say where tax dollars went- and look for pensions, etc. Also, if he was a food service worker at UCSC, he was probably Union. I'm guessing he didn't make his 90 days?

I'll do some poking (next week, crazy Halloween weekend) to see what is Foilable. NYS has people who you can appeal to, I would assume CA would be the same.

Might hit roadblocks, but I will see what I can. How specific were you with FOIA? I know they can ignore a lot of things on a lot of bases.

-M

[JeffP]

I definitely fear that as a response, and I am going to check with some lawyers at my local law library. Even if arrest records were purged, court records might not have been. I am in no way saying what they told you wasn't true, but I think there are records, even of arrests- and you can't purge court records. And with so many jurisdictions involved...

But I also wonder, there had to be a paper trail to get Ross in the Conservatorship. I am guessing by date it was the State, and probably due to his "chaos," even if not as Z.

And as for the colleges, they were public institutions. They are legally obligated to say where tax dollars went- and look for pensions, etc. Also, if he was a food service worker at UCSC, he was probably Union. I'm guessing he didn't make his 90 days?

I'll do some poking (next week, crazy Halloween weekend) to see what is Foilable. NYS has people who you can appeal to, I would assume CA would be the same.

Might hit roadblocks, but I will see what I can. How specific were you with FOIA? I know they can ignore a lot of things on a lot of bases.

-M

California has it's own freedom of information act I believe.

[marie]

I am still waiting to hear back from the Law Library I contacted, but I did see offenses can theoretically "expunged," however the arrest or court record still probably exists somewhere (our old favorite- microfilm!). Even a court calendar could have the info. I probably just forgot or we don't know, but in what jurisdiction was the Conservatorship filed? This may be where FOIA-ing could turn stuff up.

There should be a way to contact Riverside to confirm when he was a student there, though that he attended at a specific time and if he graduated or not is all they can legally say. Employers use this all the time to check resumes.

And that led me to one more thought- in NYS, anyone can check on public employees for purposes of pensions, and even current salaries of some employees. I found a CA site, but it only seems to go back to 2010. I will continue to poke as I have time, and I am not sure how his death would effect it, but there is a record, somewhere. Both his jobs at Riverside (at least when he wasn't a student) and UC Santa Cruz (as a food service worker) would be considered state jobs as they are public institutions. The Library job was most likely civil service*, its possible his UC job would have been through a union, but they, too, would have records.

*I don't know how CA works, but there are jobs you "test" into for civil service, like your postal workers, Librarians or head clerks at any publicly funded library, etc. but usually not at the lower positions (often called library pages). And there are many jobs that are considered non-competitive and require no testing either, such as a scientific researcher.

Just some thoughts on where to look, I will see what I can find out, too (I wont't contact anyone without further communications), but any public info out there, we should go after. And on that note- I would like to see some info that could go either way- he was in jail, (or court proceedings could say sent for a mental evaluation) during a time of one of the murders, or the picture becomes clearer that he is an excellent candidate for Z.

-m

[Paul_Averly]

The more I look at the timeline, the more I think it makes sense that Ross might have been back in Santa Cruz in 1970.

If we look at the Ross timeline:

1969 Tim Sullivan leaves SF, Ross is alone.

Late 1969
Z seems to take more risks almost gets caught in PH.
Composite of Z is released, if Ross was Z, he can't think this is good.
Late 1969, Z writes to Melvin Belli, saying he is losing his mind.

1970
Now, with Ross without support, and the SFPD looking all over for a guy fitting his exact description, this would be a good time for Ross to leave town.

There are no new Z letters Jan-March 1970.
Letters start again in April, June and July.
Ross coming into town to mail letters would explain these gaps.
*Wasn't there letters mailed from South SF? If Ross was driving up, this could explain why the SSF postmark.

The Z letters get more and more crazy mid 1970.
At some point the Ross butter incident happens.
Big gap in the letters from July to Oct. (if cards are fake, July to March 1971)

Ross is committed to an asylum in Santa Clara.
Final (Z signed) letter is mailed from Pleasanton, March 1971.
Pleasanton is much closer to Santa Cruz and Santa Clara.

[Paul_Averly]

The 1974 Exorcist letter, was mailed from the Peninsula!

That was where Ross was around 1974! (If he got out of the Santa Clara hospital that year...)

The Exorcist letter is postmarked from the "940" zip code, which included much of San Mateo County and South San Francisco including the following areas:

94002 BELMONT
94005 BRISBANE
94010 BURLINGAME
94011 BURLINGAME
94013 DALY CITY
94014 DALY CITY
94015 DALY CITY
94016 DALY CITY
94017 DALY CITY
94018 EL GRANADA
94019 HALF MOON BAY
94020 LA HONDA
94021 LOMA MAR
94022 LOS ALTOS
94023 LOS ALTOS
94024 LOS ALTOS
94025 MENLO PARK
94026 MENLO PARK
94027 ATHERTON
94028 PORTOLA VALLEY
94030 MILLBRAE
94035 MOUNTAIN VIEW
94037 MONTARA
94038 MOSS BEACH
94039 MOUNTAIN VIEW
94040 MOUNTAIN VIEW
94041 MOUNTAIN VIEW
94042 MOUNTAIN VIEW
94043 MOUNTAIN VIEW
94044 PACIFICA
94060 PESCADERO
94061 REDWOOD CITY
94062 REDWOOD CITY
94063 REDWOOD CITY
94064 REDWOOD CITY
94065 REDWOOD CITY
94066 SAN BRUNO
94070 SAN CARLOS
94074 SAN GREGORIO
94080 SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO
94083 SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO
94085 SUNNYVALE
94086 SUNNYVALE
94087 SUNNYVALE
94088 SUNNYVALE
94089 SUNNYVALE
94096 SAN BRUNO
94098 SAN BRUNO

[morf13]

Interesting timeline for sure. Tim was gone and I wonder if Jon was back in CA by then?

[Paul_Averly]

Interesting timeline for sure. Tim was gone and I wonder if Jon was back in CA by then?

Jon moved to Berkeley in 1976.

Jon Sullivan grew up in the Northeast and southern California. While an undergraduate at Raymond College at the University of the Pacific, he discovered Berkeley. Jon did graduate work at the University of Minnesota, secured a doctorate in American Studies at Emory and taught history at Georgia Tech and Emory's Center for Lifelong Learning. He moved to Berkeley in 1976.