I thought this may be worthy of a new topic as I have some questions we might want to think about answers to, and the general Ross feed is getting really long.
First, there is that monotone speech associated with Z, from police calls, to the LB attack, etc. I wonder when that developed. He was involved in debate and acting in high school in California, plus that "movie" he and his friends were making. If I had to guess, I would think it was the result of medication or antiquated treatments (electroshock, etc) if he was institutionalized in California circa late 1961-64.
Also, there must have been a precipitating event that cause him to go into an asylum in ’61, and I believe that he left RCC near the end of the semester. Has anyone tried to find an article, even if the person wasn’t named, that could be it? Unfortunately, Riverside Press Enterprise is one paper I can’t seem to find nearby (NY) on microfilm. That could be a hint of when his illness began.
I have tried in the Binghamton paper to see if there was any incident here before his father moved to California. The month of August of the Binghamton Press before his father was "replaced" at the YMCA is missing on fultonhistory.com, and I think is also missing from the microfilm at the Binghamton library, as were those years from a file they have on the Y. I will be checking this weekend again, and there is another local Binghamton area newspaper not on fultonhistory yet, but is available on microfilm from back when there was a morning and an evening paper.
I just find the situation odd, given Ross’s mother seems to have stayed behind until her cancer diagnosis. I wonder if Ross and his brothers did also, or went west with their father.
So to sum it up:
1) Why was Ross’s father replaced suddenly at the Y? (though I have a guess)
2) Did the mother staying behind have anything to do with a possible issue with one of the sons, or a desire to leave their father?
3) When did Ross and his brothers go to CA?
4) Did he always speak monotone, or did that develop and when?
5) When were the first signs of his illness, we believe schizophrenia, developing, and were they violent? Later stories seem to elude to that.
-m
The problem when solved will be simple– Kettering
I really appreciate your analysis here and specifically your concern as to what events transpired to put Ross in mental institutions in the 60’s before CJBs murder.
Thanks, Pink.
I have about a top 3-5 top POIs with a couple teetering at the top. If one can be eliminated, all the better. Finding Ross in the Bay area given the number of communes, and I assume his ability to camp (skills his father taught on YMCA road trips- and possibly included marksmanship- guns weren’t so stigmatized back then), placing him there may be nearly impossible.
His early timeline, however, can be established. I can probably hunt down some Binghamton info, just gotta make the right connections, and I may have someone I can talk to from Binghamton High School when he was there, (uncle of my best friend), but they were 2 years apart. I know the ideal is to place him in the bay area for the murders, but first we really need to profile him in his earlier years. A killer doesn’t become a killer overnight usually, and even the drunken phone booth incident doesn’t necessarily have me convinced.
Drunk, stupid, and mentally ill are certainly explanations for a lot. Purposefully going to lovers lanes and killing… I just don’t know. I like Ross as a suspect based on a lot of the evidence, but a few major things are lacking. If there is early evidence of violent tendencies, that is extremely important. It was a different time, but three years in an asylum in the early 60’s? It had to be major. Of course he was also abandoned by his father, so who knows.
But those are just my thoughts, and maybe I can come up with some answers.
And I forgot 1-
6) What the hell was his father doing back in Binghamton when he died in 1968 while living/working in NYC? Making amends? I can get the death cert in 3 years, NY is not so accommodating with releasing information.
-m
The problem when solved will be simple– Kettering
