Title: What do you feel are the best pieces of evidence for and against each suspect? Addendum: What is the best piece (or pieces) of evidence for any theories about this (lone psycho killer, team, cause fear, infamy, to hide the actual victim among many etc.)
Arthur Leigh –
For: The alleged confessions to Don Cheney
Against: Fingerprints didn’t match (Multiple things rule him out)
Gaikowski –
For: Strong connections to two victims, Paul and Darlene
Against: Ask Tom on that.
Richard Marshall –
For: Was overheard as saying he found something “much better than sex.”
Against: Fingerprints didn’t match
Ross Sullivan –
For: Had always worn the same clothes everyday, the day after Cheri’s murder, he wore different clothes
Against: No connection to the Bay Area
Troy Houghton –
For: The Minutemen’s uncanny “Traitor’s Beware!” poster to Zodiac’s letters
Against: No real proof that he was even alive 1968-1969
Kjell Qvale –
For: His strange letter sent to the SF Chronicle
Against: Was fit and 50 years old at the time of the murders, opposite of Zodiac’s estimated age and weight
So, let me sums it… there is actually no solid evidence (at the very best very weak circumstantial) against any of suspected people. But for solving the case, I have to ask how strong undisputable evidence we have against any possible suspect in future.
I have one huge issue with hard evidence itself and I have to ask “how solid hard evidence police really have in this case”. In Zodiac letters there are some sort of palm prints from hand laying on paper when letters were supposed to be written. Sorry, but I think that we should also consider the large possibility its false evidence (its possible that papers used by Zodiac could have been used or manipulated with by multiple people – lets say that he possibly used papers obtained from his work – not fresh bundle of papers just bought from store) and quite frankly – I dont believe Zodiac was dumb to leave his traits on paper. I find it hillarious to think that he somehow protected his fingers to not to leave any solid fingerprints on papers (as far as I know there are none) and then just took his gloves off and left his hand laying on paper during writing…. If he manipulated with papers with gloves, he wrote letters with gloves – and then its not his palm print there (or maybe we should ask why investigators think its HIS palm print)…
So – what is the strongest hard evidence known to exist in this case? Bloody fingerprint left on taxicab after Stine´s murder? Why police assume that DNA evidence left on letter stamps (or do we have it from other source from confirmed Zodiac victims too?) necessary MUST be Zodiac´s DNA? I dont consider palm prints from letter as strong evidence at all which is usable for ruling out or confirming suspects.
Here’s my take on Ross Sullivan. This will be a long post, please bear with me. I am going on memory from forum threads I researched a few months ago, so there may be inaccuracies. Please correct anything that is wrong, I do not wish to spread misinformation. And please note that I am not 100% confident that Ross Sullivan was the Zodiac. This is just the suspect I did the most research on because he intrigued me more than the others.
The facts:
Ross Sullivan moved from his birthplace of New York (born 28 June or July 1941, making him approximately 27-28 at the time of the Zodiac crimes) to California with his two brothers and his parents. His mother passed away sometime after that (before the Zodiac crimes happened; I apologize that I cannot remember or find the year at the moment). Following that, his father returned to New York, leaving the three brothers in California.
Ross worked in the Riverside library in 1966 and was there the night of Cheri Jo Bates’s murder. The next day he did not return to work, and was gone for an extended period of time (1-2 weeks, I believe). Allegedly, he was visiting his father in New York.
According to a statement made by a fellow library co-worker, Ross was strange and made many of the staff uncomfortable. He wore the same outfit daily, but when he returned after the CJB murder, he was wearing a completely different outfit.
His handwriting, found on his Social Security application and a yearbook dedication of which the authenticity/provenance is unconfirmed, is remarkably similar to the desktop poem, numerous Zodiac letters, and the 1974 letters (the cursive “SLA” and the “Red Phantom” letter in particular).
His brother Tim had married a friend of Cheri Jo Bates’s, and both Sullivan and CJB had attended the wedding together. At some point before the Zodiac crimes began, Tim moved to Canada, where he lived until his passing in (I believe) 1980.
Ross was arrested for disorderly conduct in Santa Cruz in June of 1968, and placed on a 72-hour mental hold. Some have theorized that 72 hours was the recommended time, but that patients may have been kept there for longer.
Photos of Ross from 1959 or thereabouts, when he was attending Glendale High School, are eerily close to the Presidio Heights sketches, right down to the “widow’s peak” hairstyle (as independently described by the children who saw the aftermath of the killing and by Don Fouke).
Ross was held at a mental institution from 1974 (although I cannot find the exact month of this), around the same time that the final confirmed Zodiac letters were sent. He remained there until his death in 1977. EDIT: Forgot to add that this mental institution was in Santa Cruz, where he apparently went to college after leaving Riverside although I don’t know if this was ever verified.
The unverifiable:
Tim Sullivan, the brother who moved to Canada, allegedly suspected his brother of being the Zodiac killer. The details of why are unknown, as Tim is no longer with us.
Jon Sullivan, who I believe was the oldest brother (?), has repeatedly refused to provide information about Ross, or potential DNA to rule Ross in or out as a potential Zodiac (as is his right to do so). The most he has divulged is that Ross was “sick”, something which can be backed up by his stay the mental hospital for the final years of his life.
Ross allegedly wrote an essay about disguising one’s handwriting. No proof of this has ever been provided. Even if this is true, the similarity between the Zodiac letters and the writing on Bryan Hartnell’s car door (which, as many have posited, must have been done quickly to minimize the risk of being seen) would probably render this a moot point anyway.
There is speculation that Ross may have lived at the YMCA hotel several blocks from the location of the Stine murder. I believe this rumor stems from Ross’s father being a pastor or minister and having some connection to the YMCA. There is no actual proof of Ross’s residence there.
For the defense:
Ross was very tall (6’2″ or thereabouts) and was overweight for much of his life, cited as being 300 pounds at the time of his 1968 arrest. The Presidio Heights attacker (on which the sketch Ross resembles is based) was estimated at between 5’8″ and 5’10” and 180-200 pounds. Ross Sullivan is known to have died from a heart attack brought on by a medical condition caused by excess weight (forgive me, I can’t find or remember the name of it). Thus, it can be logically deduced that Ross was most likely larger than the Presidio Heights attacker.
No information on Ross’s whereabouts is known between his June 1968 arrest in Santa Cruz and his admittance to the mental hospital in 1974. While it would seem unlikely he would have moved away and then returned, there isn’t even verifiable proof that he was in California at the time.
Needless to say, there is a lot that incriminates Ross Sullivan, but every scrap of it is purely circumstantial. The handwriting is a frightening match, from the Riverside poem to the known letters to the 1974 letters. Photos of Ross from a decade before the crimes are eerie in their likeness to the Presidio Heights sketch. But ultimately so little is known about Ross Sullivan that, barring the unlikely event that Jon Sullivan agrees to provide some form of DNA to rule his late brother in or out of contention, we may not ever be able to confirm or deny his involvement in the crimes. Even discovering that he had a place of residence near the crime scenes would not be evidence against him in the crimes, just another strange coincidence… in a case where every suspect, even the ones cleared by DNA, are surrounded by strange coincidences.
Ross Sullivan was eliminated based on fingerprint analysis.
“Murder will out, this my conclusion.”
– Geoffrey Chaucer
@chaucer Interesting, I don’t remember seeing this in the 200-ish page RS thread! Thanks for informing me.
Gary F. Poste – liked guns and lived in California at the time. Case closed!
Gary F. Poste – liked guns and lived in California at the time. Case closed!
Don’t forget about the scar on his forehead, which matches exactly with the one described by the eyewitnesses and the police sketch. 😉
While it’s obviously a sham, the biggest tell is that this team called asking for the $50,000 reward money, but never responded when asked for proof. They also claim to know the identity of DB Cooper and the fate of Jimmy Hoffa; funny how the FBI didn’t comment on those, either.
If you ask me, the best way to summarize Gary F. Poste as a Zodiac suspect is as follows:
For: Saw it on the news
Against: Saw it on the news
I don’t believe Arthur Leigh Allen was the Zodiac, but I do have to say that the unprompted explanation of the bloody knives in his car the day of the Lake Berryessa attack is extremely suspicious. I’m not sure exactly when that interrogation took place, so presumably it would have been known that the victims were stabbed by that time (even if “by knife” on the car door hadn’t been released to the public yet).
Don Cheney’s accusations are extremely compelling provided you don’t know how many times he’s changed his story and contradicted himself.
By the way, this is a great idea for a thread. I look forward to seeing more entries, as it can neatly summarize a suspect and might spark a deeper dive for someone who reads it.
Pros for Lawrence Kane: brain injury causing violent impulses, career criminal (voyeurism could explain fixation on couples), Navy service (wing walkers and ciphers), career in show business (kind of person who might reference The Mikado), alleged stalking of Darlene Ferrin, link to Donna Lass and Dana Lull, visual ID by Officer Fouke and possibly Kathleen Johns, appearance and cars he owned close to witness descriptions.
Cons: no fingerprint match, voice does not match witness descriptions (strong New York accent in 1940s), no known connections to Vallejo area.
Pros for Lawrence Kane: brain injury causing violent impulses, career criminal (voyeurism could explain fixation on couples), Navy service (wing walkers and ciphers), career in show business (kind of person who might reference The Mikado), alleged stalking of Darlene Ferrin, link to Donna Lass and Dana Lull, visual ID by Officer Fouke and possibly Kathleen Johns, appearance and cars he owned close to witness descriptions.
Cons: no fingerprint match, voice does not match witness descriptions (strong New York accent in 1940s), no known connections to Vallejo area.
I may be thinking of someone else, but didn’t Kane weigh something like 160-175 lbs? While height, hair, and facial features differ between accounts, the one thing that always lines up in all of the reports is that Z was not physically fit.
Kane, like ALA, is certainly a disturbing individual and isn’t entirely innocent, but there’s enough obstacles toward them both being Z that we have to remain skeptical.
@iletthesungodown Kane being 5’10 and 175 pounds would probably qualify him as “stocky”.
@jacob That may be true, but apart from being a white male adult, the most consistent thing in all eyewitness descriptions is that Z was a big boy. Nobody said “fat”, but they did suggest that 200 pounds (overweight to obese for someone of that height range) was accurate. I myself am a terrible judge of weight, but a difference of ~25 pounds I would think is a noteworthy deviation from the generally accepted standard.
Gaikowski –
For: Strong connections to two victims, Paul and Darlene
Against: Ask Tom on that.
Nothing that I have found.
It’s hard to categorically rule out “average-looking white guys of a certain age who were known to frequent the Bay area,” which is probably why LE wants DNA.
And, I’ve never heard of a suspect being rejected because he didn’t have a paunch, limp, or a widow’s peak.
