Ross Sullivan is the Zodiac

[Paul_Averly]

We know Ross was living in the San Francisco region (Santa Cruz) we know his brother Tim lived in San Francisco at that time
(I think near the Stine crime scene ?) so he could have stayed there from time to time.

We know Ross was accustomed to living at the YMCA hotel/apartments (there was a YMCA near where Paul Stine picked up Z)

If anyone has access to a Vallejo 1969 phone directory could you look up the address for the YMCA in Vallejo ?

The SF YMCA was close to city hall, where the wedding took place. You can even see the building from the steps of city hall.
If you leave that building at night, city hall is closed and there is only one direction one would walk (to get to an area with some nightlife), and it leads right to where Z picked up the cab.

Vallejo's YMCA was converted into a hotel. In 1969 there was no YMCA in Vallejo to my knowledge. So it's anyone's guess where Ross was staying.
There seemed to be one in Richmond. I don't think there was one in Napa.

*This is something I have been meaning to look into, but it would be pure speculation. The SF YMCA holds weight because it was right near the wedding Ross and CJB attended.

My speculative theory on Ross and his connection to Vallejo is that Ross in early 1968 was sent to Napa State hospital.
He got out mid-1968 and was helped by social workers to get some low level job, like washing dishes at Mare Island or some other civilian job on or near the base.

He might have bounced around YMCA locations including SF.

Mare Island is a big part of the geo profile:
https://www.scribd.com/document/1812896 ... ossmo-Ph-D

[monarch]

We know Ross was living in the San Francisco region (Santa Cruz) we know his brother Tim lived in San Francisco at that time
(I think near the Stine crime scene ?) so he could have stayed there from time to time.

We know Ross was accustomed to living at the YMCA hotel/apartments (there was a YMCA near where Paul Stine picked up Z)

If anyone has access to a Vallejo 1969 phone directory could you look up the address for the YMCA in Vallejo ?

The SF YMCA was close to city hall, where the wedding took place. You can even see the building from the steps of city hall.
If you leave that building at night, city hall is closed and there is only one direction one would walk (to get to an area with some nightlife), and it leads right to where Z picked up the cab.

Vallejo's YMCA was converted into a hotel. In 1969 there was no YMCA in Vallejo to my knowledge. So it's anyone's guess where Ross was staying.
There seemed to be one in Richmond. I don't think there was one in Napa.

*This is something I have been meaning to look into, but it would be pure speculation. The SF YMCA holds weight because it was right near the wedding Ross and CJB attended.

Did Cheri Jo attend Bonnie & Tims wedding ?

[snooter]

I remember it being discussed about cjb at the wedding but not sure how solid that is...there is no question cjb and ross are associated/aquaintance though....

[Paul_Averly]

We know Ross was living in the San Francisco region (Santa Cruz) we know his brother Tim lived in San Francisco at that time
(I think near the Stine crime scene ?) so he could have stayed there from time to time.

We know Ross was accustomed to living at the YMCA hotel/apartments (there was a YMCA near where Paul Stine picked up Z)

If anyone has access to a Vallejo 1969 phone directory could you look up the address for the YMCA in Vallejo ?

The SF YMCA was close to city hall, where the wedding took place. You can even see the building from the steps of city hall.
If you leave that building at night, city hall is closed and there is only one direction one would walk (to get to an area with some nightlife), and it leads right to where Z picked up the cab.

Vallejo's YMCA was converted into a hotel. In 1969 there was no YMCA in Vallejo to my knowledge. So it's anyone's guess where Ross was staying.
There seemed to be one in Richmond. I don't think there was one in Napa.

*This is something I have been meaning to look into, but it would be pure speculation. The SF YMCA holds weight because it was right near the wedding Ross and CJB attended.

Did Cheri Jo attend Bonnie & Tims wedding ?

The answer to that question is in the yellow book. The first time I read that book, something jumped out at me. It was a short paragraph talking about how CJB (something like 3 weeks before her murder) was in SF to visit her boyfriend. I thought at the time, surely LE looked into this and who she was in contact with when she visited SF.

Regardless. The yellow book makes no mention of a wedding. However, member JeffP verified that Bonnie at CJB were still very close friends. So it's safe to assume, Bates was in town for more than the reason to visit her boyfriend who was at SFSU. This would also explain how a much older Ross would know CJB and she might trust Ross more than if he was just a guy from RCC.

[JeffP]

It's going to be the letter Z by Ross that carries the most weigh it matches the Bates letter Z symbol

Great find and hope to see a full sample soon. But it's no longer surprising. We had a very small sample to look at and we found all kinds of matches.

the nay-sayers, doubters, and critics can say what they want, but if it's legit, it's a match short and simple. How many more 'coincidences' with Ross must there be before it's no longer all a coincidence?

We have reached the point where now we find a clear writing match, and we learn Ross was into crypto. However, LE could match his prints to the cab and there would still be people claiming Ross can't be Z... Just wait for it!

1. Ross was in the radio club in high school (1958) and wrote a paper on ciphers in college (1966). He was probably into ciphers and crypto for almost 10 years.

2. And his z matches the z from the Bates 1967 letter. The thing about that z is that Ross writes in this half-cursive and half-printing style. Which means this isn't taught and many of the letters develop naturally over time. Writing a z like that is unique, where the top part is cursive, bottom half is printed. Not only that. It basically confirms that the letter/symbol at end of the Bates letter was in fact a Z. Which means that the killer signed the letter with a Z. I wonder why.

This is very compelling evidence. We have to look even harder. We might be the only ones who really know/believe Ross is the killer. The witnesses are not getting any younger. This might be the last legit chance to solve the case.

P.S. Morf did you get my PM? I'm having trouble sending it out for whatever reason. If you don't get it by morning, PM me your email address and i'll give you his phone number.

[Ham Friend]

Do we know for sure that Ross was in the ham radio club?

Also, as long as LE is ok with me posting the full passage in my yearbook I will do that today. Still waiting to hear back from the detective. I will post it to official Ross Sullivan thread that Morf has asked me to. Sorry to keep everyone hanging!

[morf13]

Do we know for sure that Ross was in the ham radio club?

Also, as long as LE is ok with me posting the full passage in my yearbook I will do that today. Still waiting to hear back from the detective. I will post it to official Ross Sullivan thread that Morf has asked me to. Sorry to keep everyone hanging!

I don’t know if Ross was in the ham radio club. His friend he wrote the inscription to was. One thing I want to clear up, and one problem with responding too hastily,Ross did not write the letter Z in the yearbook. The sample we see in that comparison isn’t a Z, it’s from turning Ross’s letter h to the right and it closely resembles that Z symbol on the Bates had to die letters. Hang with me I’m hunting this week and trying to do this all from a tree stand on my phone. I’ll tackle this more and hope to have more clarity when I’m back in 2 days

[Quicktrader]

As I rather believe that Ross Sullivan is not the Zodiac, this thread could be a good way to finalize the thoughts about him.

What exactly are the hard facts that could imply that Z was indeed the Zodiac?

1. He was a strange guy at the RCC library who - according to the author(s) may have escaped from a mental institution etc.
("A couple of years ago I called the police to call about our suspect and was told he had an alibi for that night")

As you can see, police is assuming that Ross had an alibi. Other assumptions in the RCC library letter accusing him to be a murderer may or may not be true (what he had said to other people; that he had changed his clothes; that he didn't show up on the day after the murder; that he had left to Santa Cruz etc..).

IMO this is very vague. Is there any other hard fact linking Ross Sullivan to any of Z's murders? I mean so far he may have been acting strangely but in fact was eliminated by the police due to his alibi. Such alibi most likely would have been confirmed by someone else, too. A simple accusation, years later, imo is not enough to make Ross Sullivan a 'suspect' (as already claimed in the letter).

Though, any other hard facts regarding Ross Sullivan?

QT

[morf13]

Using your logic, there isn’t enough to make ANY of the known Z suspects worthy of consideration then. I think where things started out with Ross was that he was in the RCC library where zodiac’s writing was found. We finally found his photo and low and behold he’s the closest likeness to the zodiac sketch we’ve seen. For some reason a good one or a bad one, his own brother thought he was Z. Recently, we find he took cryptography class. We already know he wrote a paper on how to write with various handwriting. Those are all good reasons to consider him as a suspect. The lack of a solid link to SF Bay Area has always been a sticking point

[Paul_Averly]

Do we know for sure that Ross was in the ham radio club?

Also, as long as LE is ok with me posting the full passage in my yearbook I will do that today. Still waiting to hear back from the detective. I will post it to official Ross Sullivan thread that Morf has asked me to. Sorry to keep everyone hanging!

I don’t know if Ross was in the ham radio club. His friend he wrote the inscription to was. One thing I want to clear up, and one problem with responding too hastily,Ross did not write the letter Z in the yearbook. The sample we see in that comparison isn’t a Z, it’s from turning Ross’s letter h to the right and it closely resembles that Z symbol on the Bates had to die letters. Hang with me I’m hunting this week and trying to do this all from a tree stand on my phone. I’ll tackle this more and hope to have more clarity when I’m back in 2 days

That is a very unusual 'h' and it matches perfectly to the Bates 'z' like letter. Perhaps the 'z' on the Bates letters was an "h". It would line up with 'r.h.' from the desktop.

Back then anyone into crypto, would also be into Ham radio. The two go hand and hand.
Notice the cover and the mention to electronic components? Bus Bomb diagram used very simple electronics.

The Bus Bomb also calls for a 6v car batt. This was unusual since most car batteries were 12v. Only cars that used 6v were VW like Ross drove.