Great find on the article. In regards to the height and weight it says that was what the caller reported. That he was pinned in the phone booth by a naked man, who was 6’2" and weighed 300 lbs. I’m pretty sure that was just his perception. I can’t image he was weighed by the police. Probably at the hospital but they would never released info from medical records. I’m sure the caller was terrified and may have exaggerated.

Great find on the article. In regards to the height and weight it says that was what the caller reported. That he was pinned in the phone booth by a naked man, who was 6’2" and weighed 300 lbs. I’m pretty sure that was just his perception. I can’t image he was weighed by the police. Probably at the hospital but they would never released info from medical records. I’m sure the caller was terrified and may have exaggerated.

Agreed. There’s no way the police got his weight.

Also, if Ross was 285, they still would likely round it to 300.

I may have jumped the gun on RS. To be honest, I really want to close the book on this guy because Z appears to me to be more of a sociopath than someone with psychosis, but now I see I still can’t dismiss him as a suspect. Afterall he has that widow’s peak, and he was indeed beefy, which is how Mageau described him. When you look at the incriminating, albiet circumstantial, evidence as it relates to Bates, than I guess he has to remain in the cannon of suspects for me too.

I don’t think the weight, which may be approximate rather than accurate, rules him out either. And a 6 ‘2 guy at roughly that weight doesn’t necessarily appear as being fat. Just big or "heavy". He would have been strikingly big, though, I’d say. Hard to reconcile with what the Stine witnesses had to say. But I’m less inclined than ever to pay much attention – beyond the most general of traits – to what any of the witnesses claimed at the time.

Also, I doubt the info stems from the phone booth guy. More likely the cops determined it one way or the other, possibly from his driver’s license. It was no mystery here, no need for the papers to talk to the witness and no need for the cops to record a possible description on the witness’ part. They got the guy, brought him in and obviously were in a better position than the phone booth guy to determine how tall and heavy he was.

I may have jumped the gun on RS. To be honest, I really want to close the book on this guy because Z appears to me to be more of a sociopath than someone with psychosis, but now I see I still can’t dismiss him as a suspect. Afterall he has that widow’s peak, and he was indeed beefy, which is how Mageau described him. When you look at the incriminating, albiet circumstantial, evidence as it relates to Bates, than I guess he has to remain in the cannon of suspects for me too.

I’m away on vacation, so I don’t have my Graysmith book on me, but in the yellow book, he mentions a Psychiatrist ( possibly named Murray??? Can’t remember) who did a psyche evaluation on Z and describes z as no doubt suffering from Schizophrenia, and possibly having ‘episodes’. He describes Ross to a T. If somebody wants to look it up and post it please do, or I will do it later on

" March 3, 1977 the FBI had requested copies of all the Zodiac letters. Even in 11977 the bureau was still poking around in the Zodiac case. The top psycholinguistics expert in the country, Dr. Murray S. Miron, working from nineteen of the killer’s letters, came to these conclusions about Zodiac in a secret Syracuse Research Institute report: Zodiac " has had some exposure to our training in elementary cryptography" and " is a Caucasian unmarried male in his twenties. He is no more than high school educated, reads little, is isolated, withdrawn, and unrelated in his habits, quiet and unprepossessing in disposition" Miron felt the killer had good eyesight and was " a discretionary illiterate, " someone who prefers " the passiveness of pictures, T V, and the movies" and does not even have a library of " cheap pocket books." Zodiac, in Miron’s opinion, "would have spent much time in movie houses specializing in sado-masochistic and occult eroticism" and was " a borderline psychotic… His communications display the characteristic signs of magical thinking, and narcissistic infantilism typical of the schizophrenic. "Zodiac rather well fits the pattern of what might be called pseudoreactive schizophrenia…Such individuals engage in their bizarre behavior as sort of a cover up for their underlying and more hidden psychosis. They can be expected to display wide swings of emotion from intense euphoria to deepest depression. "He lives the secret life of seclusion and presents to the world a mask of containment, pleasantness and ordinariness." Miron thought thee December 1969 letter to Melvin Belli contained hints of the depression that " frequently overtakes him… It is not unlikely thatn in one of those virulent depressions, such individuals could commit suicide." Because of Zodiac’s concern with control, Miron felt he would shun the "disinhibiting effects of alcohol," and would avoid norman sexual contacts with women."

Thanks for posting that Paul, and much of that matches Ross

Now find a VHT article from 1971 or 1974, from Vallejo, detailing the mental-health arrest of an individual matching The Zodiac, because I’m almost sure that’s what happened, especially in regards to 1971…

Really, just read the Red Phantom Letter. It’s all about The Zodiac, not Count Marco…

Seems like Zodiac covered a fair amount of ground at Lake B. That would not have been easy for someone the size of Ross, unless he had gotten himself into fairly decent shape by September, 1969. And the guy the sunbathers described was normal-sized too (if it was actually Z).

Any way to remove the "BREAKING NEWS" from this thread? Keeps throwing me off.

Any way to remove the "BREAKING NEWS" from this thread? Keeps throwing me off.

Done

Seems like Zodiac covered a fair amount of ground at Lake B. That would not have been easy for someone the size of Ross, unless he had gotten himself into fairly decent shape by September, 1969. And the guy the sunbathers described was normal-sized too (if it was actually Z).

I personally think he was just really stocky and not all that out of shape in the late 60’s. Could you see a morbidly obese guy running around naked? If he was a big fat slob, he probably had low self esteem and wouldn’t want anyone to see him naked. I think his health declined over the years, but he probably wasn’t in that bad of shape until ’72 or ’73.

But that is what the news article described — so it’s difficult to refute, IMO. He clearly wasn’t in a rational state of mind as well, which would explain the lack of clothing.

Zodiac had a car at Lake Berryessa. The girls originally saw him in the parking lot when they arrived, inside his car. We know that Zodiac parked his car next to Bryan Hartnell’s so he obviously drove the distance. The two events also happened two hours apart. I believe the girls saw the same guy, but Zodiac was obviously staking out the park/lake looking for a victim/victims.

The Zodiac was described as a large man by everyone who saw him at LB. The footprints they found were deemed to be of someone who was at least 220 lbs. Watch the first police press conference from Sept 1969. He was described by the police officer as a "very large man."