It’s almost impossible for me to rule out Ross for involvement in the CJB murder and/or the Confession Letter. Ross and his brother Tim were very close to Cheri, which creates multiple conceivable emotion-based motives. We know Ross could become violent with a knife. I’d love to know exactly what his alibi was, and how solid, and even with that I’d still bet he wrote the Confession letter and maybe the notes too.
If Ross etc were “very close” to CJB then one would expect to see his name / phone number in her address phone number book.
Besides that, I doubt a knuckle head like Ross would be of any interest to CJB.
Ross is not a logical suspect, Ross was a big boy, and CJB rather small. The apparent scuffle that occurred is not indicative of a 6ft 3? Man vs a 5ft 3 woman. CJB fought back hard against a assailant who was more equally sized.
If there is anyway to dismiss Ross it would be the wrist watch, the wear marks do not denote someone of Ross’s size or ALA. (my memory is hazy on this part)
If Ross etc were “very close” to CJB then one would expect to see his name / phone number in her address phone number book.
Besides that, I doubt a knuckle head like Ross would be of any interest to CJB.
Ross is not a logical suspect, Ross was a big boy, and CJB rather small. The apparent scuffle that occurred is not indicative of a 6ft 3? Man vs a 5ft 3 woman. CJB fought back hard against a assailant who was more equally sized.
If there is anyway to dismiss Ross it would be the wrist watch, the wear marks do not denote someone of Ross’s size or ALA. (my memory is hazy on this part)
What differences would you expect to see in the crime scene if a 6’3", 250 lb plus man fought with Bates as opposed to a man closer to her size?
If Ross etc were “very close” to CJB then one would expect to see his name / phone number in her address phone number book.
Besides that, I doubt a knuckle head like Ross would be of any interest to CJB.
Ross is not a logical suspect, Ross was a big boy, and CJB rather small. The apparent scuffle that occurred is not indicative of a 6ft 3? Man vs a 5ft 3 woman. CJB fought back hard against a assailant who was more equally sized.
If there is anyway to dismiss Ross it would be the wrist watch, the wear marks do not denote someone of Ross’s size or ALA. (my memory is hazy on this part)
What differences would you expect to see in the crime scene if a 6’3", 250 lb plus man fought with Bates as opposed to a man closer to her size?
That’s correct, He may have been struggling with her initially trying to rape her (not to kill her) and then
became enraged due to her fighting and resisting and then decided to kill her.
The difference would be better control of the situation, I wouldn’t expect scratch marks on Ross’s face either just to address that notion.
The whole narrative of it being Ross or ALA is wrong, CJB certainly walked in the dark with her assailant, can anyone see CJB walking with that giant nut in the dark willingly? I don’t, it’s reminiscent of Bundy, someone she deemed not threatening, a smaller male or much older man.
Lastly, if you were the assailant and your victim was half your weight, would you just leave her body like that or would you move it somewhere a bit more discreet (Domingos)? Who ever killed her couldn’t move her easily. murder is a massive act and the perp couldn’t move the only evidence to buy a little time?
Refresh my memory please, wasn’t there signs she was sort of dragged after the act?
This is all speculation of course, who knows, she could have kicked him straight in the nuts.
A little summary of Ross as a suspect. I’m not sure how you can completely discount him.
He worked at the library. He was familiar with the library annex 10 feet from where Cheri Jo was killed. In fact, he was familiar with all of those buildings, including nearby Little Theater.
He was implicated by about as good of a witness as you could want in this circumstance in Jo Ann Bailey, a witness who provided many details, and did so with more humility than what is often purported about her. Bailey said he was such a strong suspect to her that she herself tried calling RPD about him, that she spoke not just for herself but for several people, and she included the head of counseling at the school, Evan Vail, as a separate person who also tried to call RPD about him. She said one of the staff witnessed him with a motor bike, he had bad grammar and spelling but liked to enroll in literary classes, that another faculty member had received a term paper about writing in different styles, that she saw him the day before in the quad at night talking to a girl similar to Cheri Jo, that he disappeared after the attack, and that when he came back after the murder he had changed his clothing. He transferred the following semester.
Gerald Katz, another witness and a Riverside acquaintance, said Ross knew Cheri Jo through his brothers marriage to Bonnie Bartlett. He called Ross "depressed/agitated", "a psychotic", "extremely passionate, loved starved, jealous and resentful", and said Ross threatened him when he was dating a girl Ross liked. "I was more scared that I have ever been of anyone else". Katz also said that Ross had skinned sheep and brought the pelts to Noelle as decorative hanging and that Ross’s brother Tim "was sure" Ross was the Zodiac. Another witness later had Ross barging into an apartment threatening someone with a knife in a kind of stupor.
The only way we know he had an alibi, as far as I’m aware, was that Bailey wrote about it and she immediately discounted the alibi saying "Our response to that is his ‘alibi’ would be too frightened not to agree with the alibi". She also, reasonably imo, said "If you have concrete evidence of why the murder couldn’t have been done by Ross, we’d appreciate hearing from you." It doesn’t seem she heard from them. Katz said the police visited about Ross and "didn’t seem interested".
The difference would be better control of the situation, I wouldn’t expect scratch marks on Ross’s face either just to address that notion.
Have you ever grappled with anyone before? Regardless of how big you are, it’s tough to control an opponent’s hands completely, especially when you’re trying to attack them at the same time. Even a smaller, weaker opponent can fight back and put up a good fight for a bit. If the assailant is holding a knife in one hand, that means he only has one hand to control Bates. She has two free hands. She could easily get a hand free long enough to scratch his face, especially if he’s flailing at her with a knife and he only has one arm to defend.
It’s all speculation, Ross is big and she very small, it sounds like the perp had her from behind, I could see someone like Ross bear hugging her with one arm no problem.
And the part about Ross’s bad grammar, confession letter is rather well written.
Ross relocating afterwards is probably very innocent, it’s clear he is weird and alienated. People gossip and he simply might not have liked it. The people who went to the police witnessed nothing, they are suspicious and scared.
The part about the person giving the alibi being “scared” is dubious at best.
The argument against Ross is that he is a physically big scary weirdo.
We can all speculate, the perp here is a average male who I believe thought he had a chance with CJB, probably way closer to her than any has realised and was brushed off by her.
And the specimen of hair found on CJB believed from the perp was brown, Ross was blonde, you can’t neglect physical evidence. That’s why he is probably dismissed as a suspect, it basically should end right there.
Sure he might be the Zodiac, but he didn’t kill CJB.
It’s all speculation, Ross is big and she very small, it sounds like the perp had her from behind, I could see someone like Ross bear hugging her with one arm no problem.
And the part about Ross’s bad grammar, confession letter is rather well written.
Ross relocating afterwards is probably very innocent, it’s clear he is weird and alienated. People gossip and he simply might not have liked it. The people who went to the police witnessed nothing, they are suspicious and scared.
The part about the person giving the alibi being “scared” is dubious at best.
The argument against Ross is that he is a physically big scary weirdo.
We can all speculate, the perp here is a average male who I believe thought he had a chance with CJB, probably way closer to her than any has realised and was brushed off by her.
I don’t like Ross either. He’s not a good suspect for other Zodiac murders. I can’t see anyone mistaking him for 5’8". Without RPD specifically stating why they thought he had an alibi, it’s hard to comment intelligently on whether he committed the Bates murder. If he had mental problems, I don’t see him disappearing for a period of time as all that strange. He might have just had a psychotic episode. Perhaps he had one because Bates was murdered, not because he murdered her (assuming he was actually close to her).
And the specimen of hair found on CJB believed from the perp was brown, Ross was blonde, you can’t neglect physical evidence. That’s why he is probably dismissed as a suspect, it basically should end right there.
Sure he might be the Zodiac, but he didn’t kill CJB.
There is far better evidence that Ross killed CJB than there is evidence that he was the Zodiac. How can anyone mistake him for 5’8"? As for the hairs, we don’t know that there weren’t two assailants. I would love to know why Ross’s brother thought he was the Zodiac, though.
Ross’s hair was dirty blonde and appears brown in some pictures. Facial hair is sometimes a different color than other hair.
"The argument against Ross is that he is a physically big scary weirdo."
No, the argument is that Ross had complete familiarity with the crime scene, can be placed at it a day before the crime, witnessed disappearing after it, and witnessed coming back two weeks later with different clothes. The argument is that he was witnessed with a motor bike, was violent, and witnessed to know Cheri Jo Bates through his brothers marriage to what was reported as one of her best friends. We know he left town the next semester.
Is all of this true? Even, if so, does it mean he killed Cheri Jo Bates? Well, how are you gonna know unless you investigate the claims? Just because you can come up with an alternate reason doesn’t mean it’s a bad investigative lead.
Ross’s hair was dirty blonde and appears brown in some pictures. Facial hair is sometimes a different color than other hair.
I did some Google searches on blond hair and read that blond hair can turn dramatically darker in winter or
with lack of sun exposure.
We really don’t know exactly what color Ross’ hair was in Oct. 1966 or EXACTLY what color the hairs
recovered from CJB’s hand was, It would be foolish to rule someone in or out based on this.
