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.

I’ll lean with Sherwood being right about the desk, and Ross looking identical to the sketch outweighing any doubts. Not just Sherwood I believe in, but Trav too (And my own untrained eyes)

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.

I’ll lean with Sherwood being right about the desk, and Ross looking identical to the sketch outweighing any doubts. Not just Sherwood I believe in, but Trav too (And my own untrained eyes)

Also brings us back, again, to my point that:
Technically the 1978 letter WAS Zodiac writing, but forged. And if RG forged it, he had been consulting with SM and knew what he would be looking for.

Morrill’s purpose was to know the difference Paul_Averly.

It WASN’T Zodiac’s writing and that is the point of it all. Morrill thought it was—it wasn’t. Which leaves the possibility he was mistaken with other writings as well.

Nope

How do we explain the fact that other experts were able to identify the letter as a fake then? Divine inspiration?

Possibly. Or it might be that they spotted what Morrill failed to spot, in spite of being The Foremost Zodiac Handwriting Expert In The World (TM).

The point is that Morrill clearly was not infallible. What we have then is a clearly not infallible expert whose area of expertise is anything but an exact science to begin with – and whose conclusions, regarding the Bates material, are controversial: The FBI were unable to confirm them. Shimoda opposed them directly (at least as far the Bates notes go – and he certainly did not confirm the others, including the infamous desktop poem).

The problem with Morrill is that he is certain. Even when the samples are tiny, even when the exemplar is exceptional – he’s convinced this is Z. The FBI conclusion seems far more logical to me: Yes, there are similarities, but no we can’t possibly conclude it’s the same hand.

Yes, there are similarities, but no we can’t possibly conclude it’s the same hand.

Exactly. And everything else you said.

Morrill would’ve authenticated a ham sandwich as coming from The Zodiac’s refrigerator if he could have.

Yes, there are similarities, but no we can’t possibly conclude it’s the same hand.

Exactly. And everything else you said.

Morrill would’ve authenticated a ham sandwich as coming from The Zodiac’s refrigerator if he could have.

And you base this on? That’s why he didn’t link Arthur Leigh Allen then? There are several mentions of Sherwood excluding people based on their writing, George Saxberg is another one off the top of my head.

Yes, there are similarities, but no we can’t possibly conclude it’s the same hand.

Exactly. And everything else you said.

Morrill would’ve authenticated a ham sandwich as coming from The Zodiac’s refrigerator if he could have.

And you base this on? That’s why he didn’t link Arthur Leigh Allen then? There are several mentions of Sherwood excluding people based on their writing, George Saxberg is another one off the top of my head.

He also excluded Bob Barnett as the writer of the Zodiac letters. Unfortunately that started the idea that Z and the CJB killer could be two separate people. And they can be, but with the details of her murder in the confession, and the fact that her case has be unsolved for almost 50 years, leads me to believe Z did all of it. The Riverside writings, Bates murder and the later Z crime spree.

pros: he was in riverside, librarians thought he murdered bates, he might have lived somewhere near sf or vallejo, he was fat, he had a widow’s peak.

cons: we don’t know for sure zodiac killed bates, no one has any writing samples that indicate he was capable of writing the letters, no evidence that he was versed on ciphers, no evidence he did or could drive, no evidence he was of a size approximate to the descriptions of zodiac, no evidence he owned a gun or was known to handle guns, no evidence he ever killed or murdered anyone, no evidence he had a bad perception of law enforcement or ever otherwise taunted cops, no evidence he was anywhere near any of the murder scenes during the time frame of the murders, law enforcement was aware of the concerns of the librarians and likely investigated further but then seemed to have dropped him.

A Pro of Ross being Zodiac, was this description of Zodiac’s weight in the DOJ report, 200-250lbs, overweight. We know Ross was overweight, and while we know he was 300 pounds in the pics we have of him, we also know he didn’t look like he was 300 lbs, so Hartnell might have also described Ross as 200-250

A con of Ross being Z, may be his shoe size. I haven’t done research about shoe size in relation to height. Could a 6ft2 or 6ft3 Big guy have 10.5 length Boots, like the wingwalkers?

I’m six foot two, 220 pounds (yeah, I know 28.1 BMI, which means I’m technically overweight even though people keep calling me skinny for some odd reason) and I wear a 10.5.

I could wear an 11 easily, actually.

And you know what they say about men with big feet..

(in the case of Ross, might not width play more of an important role than length?)

I’m six foot two, 220 pounds (yeah, I know 28.1 BMI, which means I’m technically overweight even though people keep calling me skinny for some odd reason) and I wear a 10.5.

I could wear an 11 easily, actually.

And you know what they say about men with big feet..

(in the case of Ross, might not width play more of an important role than length?)

Thanks for the info, good to know a bigger guy, like you, wears that size Boot, which shows Ross may have also

People are arguing about whether Ross could have been Zodiac because he was allegedly 300 pounds. WWF wrestlers are big guys, but carry their weight well and do not look obese. Ross didn’t look like he was 300 pounds in the pictures. Here are some guys that are about Ross’s size, and they do not look particularly fat (I got the information from http://www.tpww.net/info/heightsweights/ ):

Balls Mahoney 6’2″ 310 lbs.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balls_Mahoney

Sgt. Slaughter 6’3″ 310 lbs.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sgt._Slaughter

Thanks Smokie. Fouke also said that Zodiac was ‘barrel chested’, so he may have carried weight in his chest.