Ross Sullivan: Timeline of primary sources

[Paul_Averly]

With the letters we have this interesting timeline:

April 1967 - Bates had to die letters mailed in Riverside.
Around this time Ross moves to Santa Cruz.
Riverside letters stop forever.

1971 - Zodiac letters stop for 3 years.
Ross is said to be sent to Agnews around this time.

1974 - New Zodiac letters, first one mailed from Zipcode very close to Santa Cruz / Santa Clara.
Ross death cert shows he was back in Santa Cruz in 1974, released from Santa Clara.

1977 Ross dies.

1978 - Fake Zodiac letter.
Zodiac is silent. Never writes again.

[ophion1031]

The primary info and sources concerning Ross are all scattered all over the place, so I tried to organize them a little into this timeline:

http://zodiackillerciphers.com/wiki/ind ... s_Sullivan

Let me know what I've left out!

Great work! I always like to see timelines if possible because they are easier to follow. The letter Peterson wrote to Toschi was exactly 1 year before I was born. Good times.

[Eric P Norman]

There are articles in the LA Times with Harold as late as August 28, 1960. That’s almost a year after Harriet’s 9/12/59 death. It seems to me that Jo Ann Bailey’s letter made it sound like he skipped town right after she died.

[murray]

I was under the impression that Harriet died back east, and that the Sullivans moved west after that. Is that incorrect?

[Seagull]

Harriet died in Los Angeles.

Harriet Sullivan death record.PNG

[JeffP]

Alright i'll let everyone in on something. About one and half months ago one of Ross' first cousins (whom I contacted in summer of 2015) contacted me out of the blue. She didn't really know much about Ross, because she was younger than him and never actually met him. She was friendly with Jonathon and Timothy as the east coast Sullivans and the west coast Sullivans reunited in the early 1970s and she got to know them then. She remains friendly with Jonathan's family.

Anyway we exchanged several messages and talked about some things.

1) The family definitely knows about this site and our investigation of Ross.

2) Apparently there was some sort of family conference about whether they would help me/us at all after she and I began discussing this.

She is a very nice lady and has been very respectful, and seemed genuinely interested in what we have found. But it's obvious that the family decided not to help and now she won't talk to me anymore. The only information I got out of her was that Ross was no longer involved in family activities by the early 1970s and that Harold Sullivan had died of kidney cancer.

This was EXTREMELY disappointing for me. So much so that I all but gave up on the whole thing, until the past few days when this new information arrived.

Here's the thing. I contacted her very recently again and asked her if she could tell me what happened with Harold that would cause him to leave his sons in foster care. Again, she was very nice, but she wrote, "i'm sorry Jeff, but you're going to have to get that information from someone else," suggesting - as I strongly suspect - that something big had in fact happened. I believe the family knows far more than they are letting on. But the family clearly doesn't want to talk about it and, honestly, they seem like very nice people. So I feel badly bothering them.

I have a suspicion I know what it is due to what Allan Sillanphant told us. But I have no details so I prefer not assume anything about it. But I think this newest lead could help us unravel this mystery. I know many people have not been as interested as some of us at looking at Harold. But Ross' problems seem to have started around then and we know he spent time in mental hospitals BEFORE he went to Riverside. So this could lead to other information as well. I was wondering if anyone was willing to work together to locate this younger Prugh guy and ask him about Ross and Harold. Or possibly make another attempt to contact the Glendale YMCA and ask them if they're willing to help us.

Not much has been going on and I assume most of you are as frustrated as I am researching this. But i'd like to give it another shot.

[Seagull]

Thanks so much for doing all that you have done, JeffP. It's not easy to reach out and get a dialogue going with people especially when we are trying to determine whether or not it is possible for one of their relatives to have committed a terrible crime.

While it's commendable for the cousin to be loyal to her family, it doesn't help us fill in the gaps that exist which leads to speculation.

[traveller1st]

Thanks so much for doing all that you have done, JeffP. It's not easy to reach out and get a dialogue going with people especially when we are trying to determine whether or not it is possible for one of their relatives to have committed a terrible crime.

While it's commendable for the cousin to be loyal to her family, it doesn't help us fill in the gaps that exist which leads to speculation.

Seconded.

[Mr lowe]

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
not sure how this applies to family

[doranchak]

JeffP, thanks for taking the time to provide an update, and for the persistence of your attempts. It would be nice if we could convince a journalist or investigator to pick up the story and work very hard to chase down more details.