Ross main suspect on History Channel series

[StitchMallone]

Great to have a new show raising the profile of the case and looking into Ross who is definitely an intriguing POI. It’s a bit annoying though how they say witnesses all describe Z as 6’2” and 200-250lbs and describe Ross as the same. We all know that most witnesses described Z as close to 5’8” and 180lbs and Ross historically described as closer to 300lbs. Foulkes even said ALA was 100lbs bigger than the guy he saw at Presidio Heights and Ross was arguably much bigger than him!

I’m not rubbishing Ross as a POI as I realise witnesses might have made mistakes and I think he is intriguing as a suspect. I know they’re trying to sensationalise things for the show but I wish they’d not bend the truth so much to fit suspects as it really doesn’t help new researchers.

At the end of the day, they wanted a good TV show to entice audiences, compelling stuff, and make some $$$. There were over a million views for ep1, so mission accomplished. Like Ross as a suspect or not, it's refreshing that a new show in 2017 isn't still re-hashing the likes of Allen, Tarrance, Gaikowski..etc. We've been down that road before, and we know where it wound up. It's time to look at new POI's & suspects

AGREED Morf and said in the other post about the show. I'm not a fan of Ross but good too see him brought to the light than the same ole usual suspects over and over again!

[Nick, no Nora]

Saw it last night. I take it we didn't know about the code-breaking term paper or what have you?

I couldn't remember.

Huge.

[monarch]

Saw it last night. I take it we didn't know about the code-breaking term paper or what have you?

I couldn't remember.

Huge.

Yes, that is new info that came from Dave Peterson's files.

Very Interesting !

[Nick, no Nora]

My question is there something I'm missing regarding Sullivan? Anything people generally cite to rule him out? I've read through the dissenters thread. He just seems like such a strong suspect with what has been presented so far.

IIRC, he had an alibi from a hippie chick for the night of the Bates murder. He can be placed in Santa Cruz but not the Bay Area. Zodiac seemed local to the East Bay Area, knowing the make-out spots and such. Ross' mental health had already deteriorated before the Zodiac killings, making his basic functioning a question mark. No one knows when or if he was in or out of mental institutions during the murders. His whereabouts are unknown.

But the stuff pointing his direction has always been good, and seems to have gotten even better.

[Nick, no Nora]

Sad tale about Lamb's Canyon: Back in 1965 on a foggy Saturday morning just as he was opening up for business Hemet resident and local businessman Curtis Houghton was robbed, assaulted, abducted, kidnapped from his Shell service station that was located at the intersection of Florida Ave (Hwy74) & Girard St. His station was left with the doors open, cash drawer gone, some tools missing and Houghton's personal vehicle with the keys in the ignition and driver side door wide open. There was evidence of a struggle and some blood was found at the scene presumably his. The papers said his station was robbed and he was nowhere to be found. He was missing for several days (if memory serves a couple of weeks) until some hikers in Lambs Canyon found his body lying in a make-shift above ground grave made of tree limbs, brush and weeds. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head likely from a tire iron missing from the Shell station. The cops never found the person or persons who committed that horrible crime and it remains one of, if not the only Hemet area murder cases that were never solved. Though Houghton was a Hemet resident the crime was in the juristiction of Riverside County Sheriff's Dept because the Shell station was then in the unincorporated area of east Hemet and the location of the body out in the hills of Lamb's Canyon between San Jacinto & Beaumont.

That screams mob hit to me.

[Nick, no Nora]

BTW, Morf: You wouldn't happen to now if they are going to use the supercomputer to analyze writing styles with the natural language software? they might be able to do that and see if the writings of Manalli, Kaczynski, Gaikowski, and Qvale, etc. were similar. Correct?

[Nick, no Nora]

Also, did we know the two houses adjacent to the Bates murder site were unoccupied and used for storing extra library books, and that Ross as a library employee would likely know they were unoccupied?

I know I didn't know that. I knew they were unoccupied. I didn't know they were used by the library for storing books.

[murray]

I finally watched this tonight -- they tie the information together in a very watchable format but still get the facts right, or at least the overall relevance of the facts as they relate to the story (so far). I am intrigued by the Riverside librarian interview, the detail about those houses being vacant and used to store books, a more consolidated view of the military shoe/boot print (and the small portion of print they have had to work with), Ross's cryptography studies, and Dave Peterson's files. And I'm hearing a surprising amount of interest in the case from people who have previously had none.

[Gunya]

I was glad to see all those boxes of Dave Petersen’s Files !

[CuriousCat]

Zodiac seemed local to the East Bay Area, knowing the make-out spots and such.

I'm not so sure about him knowing the area that well. Sure, he was familiar with it, but when he made the phone call after the Blue Springs attack, he didn't call it "Blue Springs" like it seems a local would. His exact words were "If you will go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to a public park", seems someone who had lived around there a long time would call it by name.