Anyone interested in the show will be brought to this site. Much of things they are referencing lead right back here and to all the fine work you guys have done. It’s really astonishing.

Past TV specials on Z have always focused on weak suspects and no real basis as far as background links to Z.

With Ross, this special has benefited from the years we spent digging into his background and all the great finds we have made. There is much more that I hope they cover and get into.

my understanding of the information that is lacking –

no evidence he lived, worked, or was ever in san francisco and no evidence of where he was during the necessary timeframe
no evidence that he was available during the timeframe of the attacks (we still don’t know when he was incarcerated, right?)
no evidence that he owned cars or guns described in the attacks
rumor that he was schizophrenic, and we lack the information to know whether he had the mental capacity to complete the attacks, letters, codes, etc
no handwriting sample to make a comparison
nothing that connects him to anything related to the zodiac attacks, writing, codes, etc other than his connection to riverside/bates

is this a fair assessment?

There is some handwriting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-W6g-Hbxcg

It basically comes down to no one knows where Ross was in 1969-73. Right when the Z crimes happened. Ross’s brother we know for a fact lived in SF in 1969. He believed Ross was Z, so he would also have to know Ross was in SF for some parts of 69-71.

The only question I want to know is why did Dave Peterson have all this info and never connect the dots? Perhaps he came across some misinformation?

thanks for the handwriting information. is that enough for a handwriting specialist to do anything with (do handwriting specialists even exist anymore)?

i’m hoping the show can use its resources to find information that we are unable to access – address history, more details on his arrest, a timeline of him being in mental institutions, etc. a lot of those types of things are available to le but not to us.

So, episode 1 is finally over. As you know, Ross Sullivan starts off the History channel Zodiac documentary as suspect #1. I’ve had to keep this stuff all close to the vest. but Ross is finally being noticed and looked at on a larger scale. Finally, I can tell you- we did get our hands on Vallejo Times Herald reporter Dave Peterson’s Zodiac stuff including notes about Ross. Still some surprises in store.

So….did you see the part about Ross taking cryptography courses?

My good, but now deceased friend, worked at the VTH for years. He told me that Dave Peterson was obsessed with the Zodiac Case Research. In as much as the VTH staff started to wonder if he was the Zodiac.
Zamantha*

So, episode 1 is finally over. As you know, Ross Sullivan starts off the History channel Zodiac documentary as suspect #1. I’ve had to keep this stuff all close to the vest. but Ross is finally being noticed and looked at on a larger scale. Finally, I can tell you- we did get our hands on Vallejo Times Herald reporter Dave Peterson’s Zodiac stuff including notes about Ross. Still some surprises in store.

So….did you see the part about Ross taking cryptography courses?

My good, but now deceased friend, worked at the VTH for years. He told me that Dave Peterson was obsessed with the Zodiac Case Research. In as much as the VTH staff started to wonder if he was the Zodiac.
Zamantha*

Dave Peterson would have known about the library connection but I doubt he knew about Bonnie and Timothy and their connection to Cheri. That’s what makes that other information so much more compelling. Two independent sources believed Ross was the killer for completely different reasons and neither knew of the other.

I wonder what other evidence was found in the box from Dave Peterson’s investigations. I’m guessing there are school transcripts. Since Ross was still living, I wonder if he spoke with Ross at the Live Oak Rest Home. I wonder if we can still get out hands on that information now that the show has aired?

I have a feeling this episode might be the only one dedicated to Ross, there seem to be other suspects. How many episodes are there all together?

So, episode 1 is finally over. As you know, Ross Sullivan starts off the History channel Zodiac documentary as suspect #1. I’ve had to keep this stuff all close to the vest. but Ross is finally being noticed and looked at on a larger scale. Finally, I can tell you- we did get our hands on Vallejo Times Herald reporter Dave Peterson’s Zodiac stuff including notes about Ross. Still some surprises in store.

So….did you see the part about Ross taking cryptography courses?

My good, but now deceased friend, worked at the VTH for years. He told me that Dave Peterson was obsessed with the Zodiac Case Research. In as much as the VTH staff started to wonder if he was the Zodiac.
Zamantha*

Dave Peterson would have known about the library connection but I doubt he knew about Bonnie and Timothy and their connection to Cheri. That’s what makes that other information so much more compelling. Two independent sources believed Ross was the killer for completely different reasons and neither knew of the other.

I agree! This is SO exciting.
Just spoke to another older, retired, long time VTH Reporter. He said this about Dave Peterson, when I asked a question about him: Dave was grumpy and very private.

Thought this letter in Dave Peterson’s archives was quirky:

It mentions the word Hemet and goes on to say that Zodiac might’ve had something to do with the killing of a service station owner in Hemet. Some background info:

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.

Now, what I found quite interesting is the following: ALA worked at Hemet mental hospital in 1960, after which he went on to work at Atascadero. Supposedly he had shown others Zodiac-like ciphers made by a patient at Atascadero. We know that Ross has been to a mental hospital before attending RCC. He had bragged it was in San Bernardino but what if he in fact was at the Hemet hospital in Riverside?

What if this patient that ALA mentioned was Ross? What if ALA met him while working at Hemet (and not Atascadero) and the ciphers were in fact made by Ross?

The television show was excellent. Whoever thought of it had a really good idea. Thanks to everyone who worked so hard on it.

I really liked the part about comparing the Confession Letter to Zodiac letters. I remember this conversation very well and think it is significant. I don’t think that I was the first person to express this point, but am pleased that it was made on the show.

I have not made up my mind completely, but think that there is a very strong possibility that Zodiac drafted The Confession Letter. Let’s make an objective comparison between The Confession Letter and the Little List Letter:

BUT I SHALL CUT OFF HER FEMALE PARTS AND DEPOSIT THEM FOR THE WHOLE CITY TO SEE. SO DON’T MAKE IT TO EASY FOR ME. KEEP YOUR SISTERS, DAUGHTERS, AND WIVES OFF THE STREETS AND ALLEYS. MISS BATES WAS STUPID. SHE WENT TO THE SLAUGHTER LIKE A LAMB. SHE DID NOT PUT UP A STRUGGLE. BUT I DID. IT WAS A BALL. . . . SHE WENT VERY WILLINGLY. HER BREAST FELT VERY WARM AND FIRM UNDER MY HANDS, BUT ONLY ONE THING WAS ON MY MIND. MAKING HER PAY FOR THE BRUSH OFFS THAT SHE HAD GIVEN ME DURING THE YEARS PRIOR. SHE DIED HARD. SHE SQUIRMED AND SHOOK AS I CHOAKED HER, AND HER LIPS TWICHED. . . . BUT THAT WILL NOT STOP THE GAME. THIS LETTER SHOULD BE PUBLISHED FOR ALL TO READ IT.

Some I shall tie over ant hills and watch them scream + twich and squirm. Others shall have pine splinters driven under their nails + then burned. Others shall be placed in cages + fed salt beef untill they are gorged then I shall listen to their pleass for water and I shall laugh at them. Others will hang by their thumbs + burn in the sun then I will rub them down with deep heat to warm them up. Others I shall skin them alive + let them run around screaming. And all billiard players I shall have them play in a darkened dungen cell with crooked cues + Twisted Shoes. Yes I shall have great fun inflicting the most delicious of pain to my slaves

They both have a very dark literary quality, include fantasies of mutilating other human beings, have spelling errors, and use some of the same no so commonly used words. And of course we have mention of some type of "game," and demands that the letter be published. So we can go around and around about whether these facts are coincidences or not. And for whatever reason some people have made up their mind that this could not be the same writer, no matter what the similarities are. We can go around and around about whether the use of the word "shall" is a coincidence or not. And we can go around and around about whether the misspellings are a coincidence or not.

But let’s consider the fact that Zodiac spelled twitch as "twich" in the Little List letter. This may be statistically, I mean mathematically, very significant. Twitch isn’t exactly the most frequently used word in the English language, and the Confession Letter does not have very many words. Zodiac’s letters, collectively, don’t have very many words. They fill up maybe several pages of a book.

What is the probability that two different killers used this infrequently used English word in anonymous letters to newspapers that described their crimes and fantasies of human mutilation, in the same State, within a few years of each other, and demanded that the letters be published, with such a small sample of total words to work with? Not very likely. And then, what is the probability that both killers would misspell this word the exact same way?

Not very likely. This is the reason why I think that Zodiac may have written the Confession Letter. You can have coincidences. But to have so many coincidences together, and this one coincidence that is very statistically improbable, that shows strong evidence that the writers could be the same person.

viewtopic.php?f=106&t=3138&p=49511&hilit=twich#p49511

I have a feeling this episode might be the only one dedicated to Ross, there seem to be other suspects. How many episodes are there all together?

There are only 5 episodes total which will air consecutively each Tuesday. History has this site up along with the show: http://www.history.com/shows/the-hunt-f … iac-killer

They listed 8 suspects here (only 2 they didn’t list as why ruled out were Lawrence Kane and Ross Sullivan): http://www.history.com/news/history-lis … iac-killer

I have a feeling this episode might be the only one dedicated to Ross, there seem to be other suspects. How many episodes are there all together?

There are only 5 episodes total which will air consecutively each Tuesday. History has this site up along with the show: http://www.history.com/shows/the-hunt-f … iac-killer

They listed 8 suspects here (only 2 they didn’t list as why ruled out were Lawrence Kane and Ross Sullivan): http://www.history.com/news/history-lis … iac-killer

I think Ross will be the main suspect for the 5 part series.
The first episode had a bunch of filler, setting up the "super computer" to solve the codes, walking the Riverside crime scene.

What is interesting is how they dramatize the investigators findings as if they are in real time. For example, they show the investigators "discovering" how Ross lived next to the Palace Stationers and how they once sold Zodiac stationary.
(We found this in 2015: viewtopic.php?f=106&t=2654)
This is presented as if their super computer dug this info up and we see the discovery at the time it happened.

We all know this came from here. So they are using our findings as the base layer of their case. And that is great, get it out to the public!

JeffP, I would bet that on the final episode they "discover" the connection between Ross, Cheri and Bonnie. And it’s all thanks to us.

I have a feeling this episode might be the only one dedicated to Ross, there seem to be other suspects. How many episodes are there all together?

There are only 5 episodes total which will air consecutively each Tuesday. History has this site up along with the show: http://www.history.com/shows/the-hunt-f … iac-killer

They listed 8 suspects here (only 2 they didn’t list as why ruled out were Lawrence Kane and Ross Sullivan): http://www.history.com/news/history-lis … iac-killer

I think Ross will be the main suspect for the 5 part series.
The first episode had a bunch of filler, setting up the "super computer" to solve the codes, walking the Riverside crime scene.

What is interesting is how they dramatize the investigators findings as if they are in real time. For example, they show the investigators "discovering" how Ross lived next to the Palace Stationers and how they once sold Zodiac stationary.
(We found this in 2015: viewtopic.php?f=106&t=2654)
This is presented as if their super computer dug this info up and we see the discovery at the time it happened.

We all know this came from here. So they are using our findings as the base layer of their case. And that is great, get it out to the public!

JeffP, I would bet that on the final episode they "discover" the connection between Ross, Cheri and Bonnie. And it’s all thanks to us.

Yea I thought I had seen that befor about the stationary shop. But then again one of the guys in the supercomputer room is a huge contributor here!

I have a feeling this episode might be the only one dedicated to Ross, there seem to be other suspects. How many episodes are there all together?

There are only 5 episodes total which will air consecutively each Tuesday. History has this site up along with the show: http://www.history.com/shows/the-hunt-f … iac-killer

They listed 8 suspects here (only 2 they didn’t list as why ruled out were Lawrence Kane and Ross Sullivan): http://www.history.com/news/history-lis … iac-killer

Wow that’s pretty exciting. So they probably introduce and then dismiss the others. But Ross and Kane are the two main ones. Or maybe Ross alone.

What is interesting is how they dramatize the investigators findings as if they are in real time.

Yes I noticed that. It is how some of those types of shows are written, so it appeals to a broad audience. It’s a lot better than shows about people searching for bigfoot though. It is actually a really great idea for a television show.

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.

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