i live 90 miles from Chicago. i could get in my car, leisurely drive to Chicago,
rob a bank and easily be back home for dinner. i have no cellphone and
i don’t stop to buy gas or i don’t take the toll road. how does anyone prove
i was in Chicago for the afternoon 45 years later. get real. most all of what
we are reasonably going to establish about Ross at this point is speculation
or circumstantial. could some of you folks quit the Sgt. Friday routine?

That’s utterly irrelevant.

This isn’t about keeping someone alive as a suspect in the case. That’s easily done. Look at the list of "suspects" associated with the Z case, many of whom are still being – precisely – kept alive by their proponents because nobody can prove there is no connection.
my point was only how difficult it will be to PROVE Ross’s connection as
to proximity to the crimes around Vallejo. he drove a car, stayed at the Y,
and Gerald Katz said lived all over San Fran. where do we go from here?
eyewitnesses, phone records, etc isn’t going to be happening. why couldn’t
he have driven up from Santa Cruz and slept in his car for a few days?
The latter is neither here nor there. It’s not a valid argument. I can’t prove that my grandfather was NOT in Vallejo on the 4th of July 1969.

That was NOT Bruce3’s original quote. It didn’t say anything about fingerprints. Only that Toschi asked Riverside about Ross.

Quite possible. I was just commenting on "Bruce3" and his general credibility, if you will.

Not saying I don’t trust Howard, but I have to see something like that statement with my own eyes.

We have seen countless times in the FBI Files, that Napa,Vallejo,and SF sent prints to the FBI of suspects to be compared to zodiac’s. The FBI could find no records in their system pertaining to Ross Sullivan. Does that mean they never had one, or didn’t check Ross’s prints? I don’t know,I just know they didn’t have any record of it. The same could not be said of Rick Marshall or Larry Cane,they had files on both of those guys when I wrote to them. In fact, they even went into details about Marshall’s stating that he had been a Zodiac suspect, and that his file had just been recently purged

sorry Norse, my post got messed up for some reason. this was my response.
my point was only how difficult it will be to PROVE Ross’s connection as
to proximity to the crimes around Vallejo. he drove a car, stayed at the Y,
and Gerald Katz said lived all over San Fran. where do we go from here?
eyewitnesses, phone records, etc aren’t going to be happening. why couldn’t
he have driven up from Santa Cruz and slept in his car for a few days?

Not saying I don’t trust Howard, but I have to see something like that statement with my own eyes.

We have seen countless times in the FBI Files, that Napa,Vallejo,and SF sent prints to the FBI of suspects to be compared to zodiac’s. The FBI could find no records in their system pertaining to Ross Sullivan. Does that mean they never had one, or didn’t check Ross’s prints? I don’t know,I just know they didn’t have any record of it. The same could not be said of Rick Marshall or Larry Cane,they had files on both of those guys when I wrote to them. In fact, they even went into details about Marshall’s stating that he had been a Zodiac suspect, and that his file had just been recently purged

so it would appear my argument that Santa Cruz PD never seriously looked
at him as a suspect is correct?

If you read the posts from back then, everyone became very down on Ross. We found much more since then. Just need to keep digging.

This isn’t a partisan thing for Christs sakes.

Hehe – it damn well shouldn’t be, my friend.

But having been around these forums for…decades now, I’m sorry to say that it very obviously is. For some people.

PS That has nothing to do with this particular quote/misquote/whatever. Just a general truth. It’s partisan – to a perfectly idiotic degree – for some people. And some people keep pushing their partisan – and idiotic – agendas beyond having been called out on their idiocy many years ago.

Not saying I don’t trust Howard, but I have to see something like that statement with my own eyes.

We have seen countless times in the FBI Files, that Napa,Vallejo,and SF sent prints to the FBI of suspects to be compared to zodiac’s. The FBI could find no records in their system pertaining to Ross Sullivan. Does that mean they never had one, or didn’t check Ross’s prints? I don’t know,I just know they didn’t have any record of it. The same could not be said of Rick Marshall or Larry Cane,they had files on both of those guys when I wrote to them. In fact, they even went into details about Marshall’s stating that he had been a Zodiac suspect, and that his file had just been recently purged

Didn’t those files say they didn’t have CKanes prints? I remember discussing this with Welsh Chappie. I knew they had his prints as I was privy enough to have them. He didn’t (understandably) want to take my word for it. I think a (valid) argument was (partially) based of lack of proof of prints. He now knows otherwise.

so, can we get back on track? my immediate response to the bogus
fingerprint post was to say, if it is true, then Ross is clear as a suspect.
since it isn’t, without any partisanship, i can say that circumstantial
evidence is continuing to mount against Ross. and hopefully some members
of this site will come up with some more great finds like the Polk’s directory
which led to Morf’s conversation with the fellow who lived in the same
building that Ross had.

sorry Norse, my post got messed up for some reason. this was my response.
my point was only how difficult it will be to PROVE Ross’s connection as
to proximity to the crimes around Vallejo. he drove a car, stayed at the Y,
and Gerald Katz said lived all over San Fran. where do we go from here?
eyewitnesses, phone records, etc aren’t going to be happening. why couldn’t
he have driven up from Santa Cruz and slept in his car for a few days?

Yes, I get that – of course.

But what you seem to say is this: "Just because we can’t prove beyond doubt that he was in the vicinity of LHR or BRS…or whatever on the dates in question, doesn’t mean he isn’t still a viable suspect."

And that’s reasonable enough – in itself. Because he wasn’t a million miles away. But we need something tangible here – something beyond "he could have, because he wasn’t a million miles away".

To me, we need a proper connection to the areas in question – not just a general one.

If Ross was Z, he operated – with a car – at LHR and at BRS in a particular context (as it seems to me, at least). He had some kind of connection to the crime scenes. How does this tie in with what we know about Ross? What is his connection to these places? These are the questions I would need a convincing answer to.

The above is not particular to Ross. It’s a general sort of criterium for me.

so, can we get back on track? my immediate response to the bogus
fingerprint post was to say, if it is true, then Ross is clear as a suspect.

Would he be?

Back on track…

I just thought of something. If Ross returned to his old apartment building, I wonder if this meant (and of course this is speculation) that he had only recently returned to Santa Cruz in mid to late 1970. Because why would he return to where he lived in 1967 and early 1968 2+ years after he lived there? Could we not infer that this was the place and area he remembered best from Santa Cruz? Then he likely didn’t live anywhere else up until then, right? Or is that too much of a stretch?

I’m guessing that this is where Ross may have lived based on information we have…

Summer/fall 1967 – Spring 1968 – Santa Cruz (based on arrest record/Polk Directory/ Bailey letter stating his transcripts indicating he went to school at UCSC)

Spring 1968 – Summer 1970 – various mental institutions/ ??? locations unknown ???

Summer 1970 – 1971 – Santa Cruz/Agnews State Hospital (based on information from new informant)

1971 – 1973 or 1974 – Agnews State Hospital (full time resident?) (based on fact his death certificate had him living in Santa Cruz for three years in 1977)
* problem is Agnews stopped treating mental patients in 1972. So is it possible that Ross may have been transferred to a half way house or another institution during this time?

1974 – 1977 – Santa Cruz. (Based on death certificate)

Norse wrote:

If Ross was Z, he operated – with a car – at LHR and at BRS in a particular context (as it seems to me, at least). He had some kind of connection to the crime scenes. How does this tie in with what we know about Ross? What is his connection to these places? These are the questions I would need a convincing answer to.

Norse, i couldn’t agree more with that statement! my points are twofold.
even if he lived in Santa Cruz at the time of the Z crimes, it doesn’t
rule him out. secondly, he was obviously crazy. now we get some
more confirmation of just how crazy and the reaction from some of our
members is to rule him out because of that. as i posted earlier, then
compare him to Son of Sam. and there you go.

so, can we get back on track? my immediate response to the bogus
fingerprint post was to say, if it is true, then Ross is clear as a suspect.

Would he be?

is that a serious question?

so, can we get back on track? my immediate response to the bogus
fingerprint post was to say, if it is true, then Ross is clear as a suspect.

Would he be?

is that a serious question?

Sure! Do you know how many people have POI’s with prints on hand who dismiss them for one reason or another? There is always justification for people with a serious POI. It’s just the way it goes…