Agree that a DNA comparison would be ideal. But would RPD work with civilians?

Didn’t they submit DNA on the Zodiac Mystery Quest episode? Seems like they were left in the dark after they submitted.

Mystery Quest was SFPD and they no longer have confidence the stamp DNA is actually from Z.

What the RPD detective told me was that Cheri was killed by (1) someone local (2) who likely knew her. If Morf can show that (and I think he can) I think RPD (or FBI) would compare the mtDNA.

We know that the FBI has that DNA profile since they excluded ‘Bob Barnett’. Maybe RPD could be circumvented altogether. Problem is, where or how are we getting DNA from Ross? Only shot is his Brother, and that ain’t happening

The FBI used the mtDNA from the hairs in Bates hand to exclude Barnett. Yes the FBI would probably do it. But RPD might because your suspect was local and knew Cheri.

You are now in the same boat I am in with David Kaczynski. Welcome to this frustrating club. In my case the brother won’t do it because he doesn’t want to expose his brother to the death penalty. In your case the brother is dead so no worry there. I think you could present it to the brother, maybe through the reporter, as a way to clear his name. By just plucking a hair from his head he can clear his brother. If he really thinks he is innocent there is no reason not to do it. If he refuses that will be reported and interpreted that he wouldn’t do it for fear it would match. Worth a shot.

The FBI used the mtDNA from the hairs in Bates hand to exclude Barnett. Yes the FBI would probably do it. But RPD might because your suspect was local and knew Cheri.

You are now in the same boat I am in with David Kaczynski. Welcome to this frustrating club. In my case the brother won’t do it because he doesn’t want to expose his brother to the death penalty. In your case the brother is dead so no worry there. I think you could present it to the brother, maybe through the reporter, as a way to clear his name. By just plucking a hair from his head he can clear his brother. If he really thinks he is innocent there is no reason not to do it. If he refuses that will be reported and interpreted that he wouldn’t do it for fear it would match. Worth a shot.

I agree with all of this, but, I am afraid that to continue approaching the Brother, may open us up for stalking,harassment,etc. My feeling is that he,or a Family Member of his already watches this site, or will now that a Reporter has come to the house. All somebody in his Family needs to do is google Ross Sullivan, and Zodiac hits for this site. They can find us, and read these messages. How about it Sullivans? Why not help us clear Ross?

How about it Sullivans? Why not help us clear Ross?

It seems Ross was considered a suspect. Toschi knew, and the librarian says she told the police. Considering he was associated with the RCC library and brought to the attention of LE, do you think there IS a chance Ross WAS looked at and already cleared by LE? Asking genuinely.

How about it Sullivans? Why not help us clear Ross?

It seems Ross was considered a suspect. Toschi knew, and the librarian says she told the police. Considering he was associated with the RCC library and brought to the attention of LE, do you think there IS a chance Ross WAS looked at and already cleared by LE? Asking genuinely.

Yes, Tahoe, I agree. There is a very good chance that Ross was already cleared by law enforcement. According to Bailey, Ross had an alibi for the night that Cheri Jo was murdered. But we don’t know who gave the alibi. Maybe Toschi knew about the Santa Cruz arrest, and cleared Ross on grounds that he was too fat.

On the other hand, law enforcement was overwhelmed with information, and the various jurisdictions did not cooperate and share information with each other. The Riverside PD had a top suspect for years who didn’t turn out to be Cheri’s killer after DNA testing. People get tunnel vision and so emotionally attached to their own suspect that they cannot acknowledge that someone else’s suspect could be Zodiac, no matter what the evidence is.

Also, there have been other serial killers who law enforcement suspected at first, and then cleared or forgot about by mistake. Like the Green River Killer.

Maybe we should all pursue a career in law enforcement instead of internet sleuthing to get some answers. Sadly, I wouldn’t pass the physical, so I am out.

How about it Sullivans? Why not help us clear Ross?

It seems Ross was considered a suspect. Toschi knew, and the librarian says she told the police. Considering he was associated with the RCC library and brought to the attention of LE, do you think there IS a chance Ross WAS looked at and already cleared by LE? Asking genuinely.

Yes, Tahoe, I agree. There is a very good chance that Ross was already cleared by law enforcement. According to Bailey, Ross had an alibi for the night that Cheri Jo was murdered. But we don’t know who gave the alibi. Maybe Toschi knew about the Santa Cruz arrest, and cleared Ross on grounds that he was too fat.

On the other hand, law enforcement was overwhelmed with information, and the various jurisdictions did not cooperate and share information with each other. The Riverside PD had a top suspect for years who didn’t turn out to be Cheri’s killer after DNA testing. People get tunnel vision and so emotionally attached to their own suspect that they cannot acknowledge that someone else’s suspect could be Zodiac, no matter what the evidence is.

Also, there have been other serial killers who law enforcement suspected at first, and then cleared or forgot about by mistake. Like the Green River Killer.

Maybe we should all pursue a career in law enforcement instead of internet sleuthing to get some answers. Sadly, I wouldn’t pass the physical, so I am out.

I think there is a chance Ross was cleared as a Suspect, sure. The issue is, how do we know? We don’t. I know his name never came up in any reports I have seen. Also, we know that Dave Peterson didn’t present Ross to Toschi until when Ross died. The Green River killer is a good example of how people slip thru the cracks.

Hey morf,

Just a friendly reminder, Joanne Bailey’s letter needs to be added to the synopsis.

There are also a couple of other pictures of Ross when he was younger that could be added as well.

Even though Ross was younger in these photos, he looks exactly like the police artist sketch (except younger), with or without the glasses. Any person with two normally functioning eyeballs can see that.

Not trying to tell you what to do for the sake of trying to tell you what to do. Just wanting you to succeed.

S.T.

I will add some more stuff soon.

I am afraid that to continue approaching the Brother, may open us up for stalking,harassment,etc. My feeling is that he,or a Family Member of his already watches this site, or will now that a Reporter has come to the house. All somebody in his Family needs to do is google Ross Sullivan, and Zodiac hits for this site. They can find us, and read these messages. How about it Sullivans? Why not help us clear Ross?

Morf (since you are the face of this site)
Maybe a very friendly letter to the brother would help. Explain the reasons Ross is suspected, include the Bailey letter, include the fact that Ross has been a suspect since the 70’s. And leave yourself open to any questions the family has. At least would get them on the same page…

I am afraid that to continue approaching the Brother, may open us up for stalking,harassment,etc. My feeling is that he,or a Family Member of his already watches this site, or will now that a Reporter has come to the house. All somebody in his Family needs to do is google Ross Sullivan, and Zodiac hits for this site. They can find us, and read these messages. How about it Sullivans? Why not help us clear Ross?

Morf (since you are the face of this site)
Maybe a very friendly letter to the brother would help. Explain the reasons Ross is suspected, include the Bailey letter, include the fact that Ross has been a suspect since the 70’s. And leave yourself open to any questions the family has. At least would get them on the same page…

He knows and has seen.

My apologies, but I was reading this thread and had to interject when encountering this part:

*Desktop linked to Zodiac by State writing expert, and backed up by Traveller1st. Now Trav is certainly not a documents examiner, but his profession & ability allows him to demonstrate and highlight some very striking similarities between confirmed Z letters, and the desktop.

Morrill was a trained document examiner. He wasn’t using Photoshop to copy and paste and highlight letters from exemplar to exemplar. My understanding is that, as quoted, Traveler is a "graphics artist", and as such, does not possess the prerequisite document examination training.

More to the point…I know my way around Photoshop, which is often more toy than tool, and I also know my way around other graphics-based software programs. I too performed a "test" in which I copied random letters from known Zodiac communications onto the "desktop poem", comparing them with my superficial laymen eye.

My findings? Even though the task was never fully completed, the results were hardly conclusive: about 50% of comparisons roughly matched. The other half did not. Of the half that did, the match was not definite. An H might compare well, but only if I changed the slant or altered some other parameter.

As an addendum: I compared my handwriting to that of The Zodiac’s. The result was that a fair portion of my non-cursive writing could be construed to match that of the killer’s.

Long story short, and at the risk of insulting someone else…copy-pasting into Photoshop is not proper document analysis, which would require access to the original documents, some form of analog examination device, such as a magnifying glass or, even better, an optical microscope, and a mind highly-trained for the field of document analysis.

Photoshop, on the other hand, is far more ideal for removing red-eye and pasting a dog’s head onto a catfish.

I don’t know what programs Traveller1st uses, but it doesn’t matter, in his comparisons of Zodiac’s writing to the desktop, I can see the similarities with my own two eyes. We are not talking one or two stray letters, we are talking lots of them. We see a couple similarities with Ross Sullivan’s writing too when compared to Z. But we only have a small sample of poor quality writing for Ross. Sherwood Morrill was working from original clear samples & exemplars, so obviously, we don’t have the same advantage he did, but if we did, maybe the similarities Trav pointed out and which many of us see would be even more impressive. Bottom line, nobody here, including myself is a trained doc examiner, especially with the credentials Morrill had, so I defer to his expert opinion for this. Which brings us back to the desk poem found in the RCC Library,written by a man that looked like the SF Z sketch, which brings us back to Ross.

I use ‘trav-eye’ and ‘trav-brain’. They are bespoke and powerful but sometimes play up.

I am afraid that to continue approaching the Brother, may open us up for stalking,harassment,etc. My feeling is that he,or a Family Member of his already watches this site, or will now that a Reporter has come to the house. All somebody in his Family needs to do is google Ross Sullivan, and Zodiac hits for this site. They can find us, and read these messages. How about it Sullivans? Why not help us clear Ross?

Morf (since you are the face of this site)
Maybe a very friendly letter to the brother would help. Explain the reasons Ross is suspected, include the Bailey letter, include the fact that Ross has been a suspect since the 70’s. And leave yourself open to any questions the family has. At least would get them on the same page…

I am afraid to contact him any further, as he’s made it clear, he wants no part of this,so I will respect his wishes. Maybe he will read about Ross on the net and have a change of heart

Bottom line, nobody here, including myself is a trained doc examiner, especially with the credentials Morrill had, so I defer to his expert opinion for this. Which brings us back to the desk poem found in the RCC Library,written by a man that looked like the SF Z sketch, which brings us back to Ross.

Which also brings us back to an excellent post by Norse who mentioned that Sherwood Morrill also thought the ’78 letter was Zodiac, hence, it could not be Ross. Sort of a conundrum.