With the letters we have this interesting timeline:

April 1967 – Bates had to die letters mailed in Riverside.
Around this time Ross moves to Santa Cruz.
Riverside letters stop forever.

1971 – Zodiac letters stop for 3 years.
Ross is said to be sent to Agnews around this time.

1974 – New Zodiac letters, first one mailed from Zipcode very close to Santa Cruz / Santa Clara.
Ross death cert shows he was back in Santa Cruz in 1974, released from Santa Clara.

1977 Ross dies.

1978 – Fake Zodiac letter.
Zodiac is silent. Never writes again.

The primary info and sources concerning Ross are all scattered all over the place, so I tried to organize them a little into this timeline:

http://zodiackillerciphers.com/wiki/ind … s_Sullivan

Let me know what I’ve left out!

Great work! I always like to see timelines if possible because they are easier to follow. The letter Peterson wrote to Toschi was exactly 1 year before I was born. Good times.

There are articles in the LA Times with Harold as late as August 28, 1960. That’s almost a year after Harriet’s 9/12/59 death. It seems to me that Jo Ann Bailey’s letter made it sound like he skipped town right after she died.

I was under the impression that Harriet died back east, and that the Sullivans moved west after that. Is that incorrect?

Harriet died in Los Angeles.

Alright i’ll let everyone in on something. About one and half months ago one of Ross’ first cousins (whom I contacted in summer of 2015) contacted me out of the blue. She didn’t really know much about Ross, because she was younger than him and never actually met him. She was friendly with Jonathon and Timothy as the east coast Sullivans and the west coast Sullivans reunited in the early 1970s and she got to know them then. She remains friendly with Jonathan’s family.

Anyway we exchanged several messages and talked about some things.

1) The family definitely knows about this site and our investigation of Ross.

2) Apparently there was some sort of family conference about whether they would help me/us at all after she and I began discussing this.

She is a very nice lady and has been very respectful, and seemed genuinely interested in what we have found. But it’s obvious that the family decided not to help and now she won’t talk to me anymore. The only information I got out of her was that Ross was no longer involved in family activities by the early 1970s and that Harold Sullivan had died of kidney cancer.

This was EXTREMELY disappointing for me. So much so that I all but gave up on the whole thing, until the past few days when this new information arrived.

Here’s the thing. I contacted her very recently again and asked her if she could tell me what happened with Harold that would cause him to leave his sons in foster care. Again, she was very nice, but she wrote, "i’m sorry Jeff, but you’re going to have to get that information from someone else," suggesting – as I strongly suspect – that something big had in fact happened. I believe the family knows far more than they are letting on. But the family clearly doesn’t want to talk about it and, honestly, they seem like very nice people. So I feel badly bothering them.

I have a suspicion I know what it is due to what Allan Sillanphant told us. But I have no details so I prefer not assume anything about it. But I think this newest lead could help us unravel this mystery. I know many people have not been as interested as some of us at looking at Harold. But Ross’ problems seem to have started around then and we know he spent time in mental hospitals BEFORE he went to Riverside. So this could lead to other information as well. I was wondering if anyone was willing to work together to locate this younger Prugh guy and ask him about Ross and Harold. Or possibly make another attempt to contact the Glendale YMCA and ask them if they’re willing to help us.

Not much has been going on and I assume most of you are as frustrated as I am researching this. But i’d like to give it another shot.

Thanks so much for doing all that you have done, JeffP. It’s not easy to reach out and get a dialogue going with people especially when we are trying to determine whether or not it is possible for one of their relatives to have committed a terrible crime.

While it’s commendable for the cousin to be loyal to her family, it doesn’t help us fill in the gaps that exist which leads to speculation.

Thanks so much for doing all that you have done, JeffP. It’s not easy to reach out and get a dialogue going with people especially when we are trying to determine whether or not it is possible for one of their relatives to have committed a terrible crime.

While it’s commendable for the cousin to be loyal to her family, it doesn’t help us fill in the gaps that exist which leads to speculation.

Seconded.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." – Edmund Burke
not sure how this applies to family

JeffP, thanks for taking the time to provide an update, and for the persistence of your attempts. It would be nice if we could convince a journalist or investigator to pick up the story and work very hard to chase down more details.

JeffP, thanks for taking the time to provide an update, and for the persistence of your attempts. It would be nice if we could convince a journalist or investigator to pick up the story and work very hard to chase down more details.

When I first read this, my thought was that it would be a shame to put that family through something like that. But thinking about it further…

Whether its fair or not, Ross is considered a (major) POI in the case. He’ll remain so until he can be eliminated as a suspect. I happen to think that, particularly due to his unusual size, he cannot possibly be the guy who shot Paul Stine and was witnessed by several people. So, to me, the sooner we can get some solid info on Ross, the sooner we can eliminate him as a suspect. This would be helpful to us at this site as we could turn our collective focus elsewhere, and of course it would be a relief to Ross’ family.

It’s been discussed before. A lot of people have pointed out that Ross had a very hard life, and with Tim dying at a young age too, this family has been through a lot. Would it be easier/better for them to help establish Ross’ innocence (which might actually be fairly easy to do,depending when he was hospitalized, what his documented weight was at the time of Paul’s attack, providing a DNA sample, etc.) or best to hope we can establish Ross’ innocence without their help. Or, hope that the Z case can be solved one day, clearing Ross in that fashion.

I’m not in this situation but I’m pretty sure that if this was my family, and one of my relatives, the last thing I would want would be to think that lingering doubt would hang over one of my family members for a crime of this magnitude, for the rest of history. And the thing is, if Ross’ innocence isn’t established while it still could be, that could be the legacy his memory will be burdened with forever.

To me the whole Ross situation is just plain sad, every way it’s looked at, and I feel very badly for the family. The only real question is, what’s the best way to have the speculation regarding Ross come to and end, once and for all?

Great work JeffP!

I’m not in this situation but I’m pretty sure that if this was my family, and one of my relatives, the last thing I would want would be to think that lingering doubt would hang over one of my family members for a crime of this magnitude, for the rest of history. And the thing is, if Ross’ innocence isn’t established while it still could be, that could be the legacy his memory will be burdened with forever.

Jack the Ripper will never be solved at this point. All those suspects, will be suspects till the end of time.

Even if Ross’ family doesn’t want to share the information, I would strongly encourage them to obtain any medical records they can get their hands on, to at least have a way to rule him out. And if they found something that ruled him out, it would spread just quickly over the web as him becoming a prime suspect.

AS FAR AS THE TIMELINE GOES-

Ross is uncounted for in 1969. If it was established he was committed that year, it might clear him. However, 2 important points:

1) Napa State allowed weekend releases. Since all the crimes in 1969 happened on Sat, State Hospital records might not reflect that.
http://www.zodiackiller.com/LBReport14.html

2) Tim stated "he was sure Ross was Z." Tim was in SF in 1969. This tells me that Ross was not locked up that year. Tim could not believe that, if he knew Ross was committed.

So that leaves us with this Gap: 1970 -1974

1970 – Ross was seen in Santa Cruz, not committed.
1974 – Ross is back in Santa Cruz.

If 1971-1974 was when Ross was in Agnews, it perfectly lines up with the gap in Zodiac letters.
Ross could have been committed those years and not be Z, but the dates can’t clear him as well.

The only way I can see, is a document that shows Ross was committed to Agnews on the date of an actual Z murder. Dec 68, July 69, Sept 69 or Oct 69.

I’m sure there are other ways. For example, a medical document proving Ross’ weight was 350 pounds at the time of the PH attack. Hopefully we could agree the witnesses and Foulke couldn’t have been off by 175 pounds, when giving their descriptions of the guy exiting and wiping down the cab.

We don’t know how serious Tim was when he said he thought Ross was Z. I mean, I’ve been heard to say that I think my brother-in-law is Spiderman… Had Tim actually gone to police with that assertion it would be one thing, but an offhand comment could very well mean nothing. I wouldn’t put too much stock in that. If Tim really, actually, thought his brother was out there killing people, one would think he would’ve taken some sort of action to stop it, and given Ross’ size, that would almost had to have been police intervention. Remember, Ross was immune from the death penalty given his mental state, so Tim "turning him in" would not have had a negative impact on Ross. Just a trip back to the hospital, this time with more restrictions.

All I’m saying is, I think there could be multiple ways to establish Ross’ innocence, and I think Tim’s comment should probably be discounted somewhat.

Alright i’ll let everyone in on something. About one and half months ago one of Ross’ first cousins (whom I contacted in summer of 2015) contacted me out of the blue. She didn’t really know much about Ross, because she was younger than him and never actually met him. She was friendly with Jonathon and Timothy as the east coast Sullivans and the west coast Sullivans reunited in the early 1970s and she got to know them then. She remains friendly with Jonathan’s family.

Anyway we exchanged several messages and talked about some things.

1) The family definitely knows about this site and our investigation of Ross.

2) Apparently there was some sort of family conference about whether they would help me/us at all after she and I began discussing this.

She is a very nice lady and has been very respectful, and seemed genuinely interested in what we have found. But it’s obvious that the family decided not to help and now she won’t talk to me anymore. The only information I got out of her was that Ross was no longer involved in family activities by the early 1970s and that Harold Sullivan had died of kidney cancer.

This was EXTREMELY disappointing for me. So much so that I all but gave up on the whole thing, until the past few days when this new information arrived.

Here’s the thing. I contacted her very recently again and asked her if she could tell me what happened with Harold that would cause him to leave his sons in foster care. Again, she was very nice, but she wrote, "i’m sorry Jeff, but you’re going to have to get that information from someone else," suggesting – as I strongly suspect – that something big had in fact happened. I believe the family knows far more than they are letting on. But the family clearly doesn’t want to talk about it and, honestly, they seem like very nice people. So I feel badly bothering them.

I have a suspicion I know what it is due to what Allan Sillanphant told us. But I have no details so I prefer not assume anything about it. But I think this newest lead could help us unravel this mystery. I know many people have not been as interested as some of us at looking at Harold. But Ross’ problems seem to have started around then and we know he spent time in mental hospitals BEFORE he went to Riverside. So this could lead to other information as well. I was wondering if anyone was willing to work together to locate this younger Prugh guy and ask him about Ross and Harold. Or possibly make another attempt to contact the Glendale YMCA and ask them if they’re willing to help us.

Not much has been going on and I assume most of you are as frustrated as I am researching this. But i’d like to give it another shot.

Thanks Jeff for the work & time you put in! You never know if it will lead to anything. It’s worth digging into. Maybe they will have a change of heart & open up.

JeffP, thanks for taking the time to provide an update, and for the persistence of your attempts. It would be nice if we could convince a journalist or investigator to pick up the story and work very hard to chase down more details.

When I first read this, my thought was that it would be a shame to put that family through something like that. But thinking about it further…

Whether its fair or not, Ross is considered a (major) POI in the case. He’ll remain so until he can be eliminated as a suspect. I happen to think that, particularly due to his unusual size, he cannot possibly be the guy who shot Paul Stine and was witnessed by several people. So, to me, the sooner we can get some solid info on Ross, the sooner we can eliminate him as a suspect. This would be helpful to us at this site as we could turn our collective focus elsewhere, and of course it would be a relief to Ross’ family.

It’s been discussed before. A lot of people have pointed out that Ross had a very hard life, and with Tim dying at a young age too, this family has been through a lot. Would it be easier/better for them to help establish Ross’ innocence (which might actually be fairly easy to do,depending when he was hospitalized, what his documented weight was at the time of Paul’s attack, providing a DNA sample, etc.) or best to hope we can establish Ross’ innocence without their help. Or, hope that the Z case can be solved one day, clearing Ross in that fashion.

I’m not in this situation but I’m pretty sure that if this was my family, and one of my relatives, the last thing I would want would be to think that lingering doubt would hang over one of my family members for a crime of this magnitude, for the rest of history. And the thing is, if Ross’ innocence isn’t established while it still could be, that could be the legacy his memory will be burdened with forever.

To me the whole Ross situation is just plain sad, every way it’s looked at, and I feel very badly for the family. The only real question is, what’s the best way to have the speculation regarding Ross come to and end, once and for all?

Alas,with any kind of fresh news,comes the nay-sayers. What do you mean by ‘unusual size’?? Ross was described by the witness that described him when he was attacked in the apartment as NOT being 300 pounds,more in the mid 200’s. Zodiac at lake Berryessa was felt to be "well over 200lbs" based on shoe track impressions. How tall was Ross again, 6ft2? It’s not like he was an unusual NBA height.

I’ll give you one more thing, if I am Fouke, or the kids in the window,I may be able to see if somebody has a crewcut,glasses,whether they are thin or stocky,etc. I could provide those details, but how accurately could I describe height? I’ll post pics from the crime scene. How can you say the Kids could judge height from this view? How tall is Toschi in this pic? Better yet, Fouke is seated in a moving car looking outside at somebody walking, how well could he judge height?