Very interesting theory!

One thing that doesn’t fit is with BB tinkering with CJB’s engine, BB fingerprints were a no match
for the greasy prints lifted from Cheri’s car, so the prints would have to belong to Ross.

It is unclear if Ross Sullivan’s prints were ever compared to the crime scene prints.

Yep, maybe Ross tinkered with her car and not Bill. Rest of my theory remains the same.

I just feel Bill had to be involved in the Bates murder but someone else performed the actual killing. Heck, maybe Bill even paid Ross.

At the end of the day i think Ross knew the murder wasn’t his "own" and that is what he wanted and that is when the zodiac was born.

was there not just one set of footprints.

I cannot remember off the top of my head.

But a lack of footprints wouldn’t rule this out for me.

It is unclear if Ross Sullivan’s prints were ever compared to the crime scene prints.

There’s no evidence that the police even considered Ross as a suspect, now, is there?

The police occasionally make mistakes, but in the case of Ross Sullivan, I believe it would be doing a disservice to your police force to consider them less than mentally subnormal. The fingerprints of 65 attendees at the Riverside City College library reconstruction were taken, to exclude them from the greasy fingerprints left on the Volkswagen. These people had only attended the library that night, this was the primary reason they were tested. Ross Sullivan on the other hand was highlighted by the Staff (in a letter sent to Morf) to be an extremely ‘strange’ individual who they didn’t like being around, and by all accounts was "guilty until proven innocent" in Cheri Jo Bates’ murder, if he appeared next time they saw him in different clothing. Thank God Ross Sullivan wasn’t arrested and we had like minded individuals on the jury, who would condemn an individual so readily on the fact he was "creepy" and put his clothes in the washing machine.
Ross Sullivan was supposedly high on their list of suspects, if not their number one, he worked at the library and knew Cheri Jo Bates, but the police, bless their cotton socks, managed to circumvent this ogre of a man and despite fingerprinting hundreds of people, managed to completely forget to fingerprint Ross Sullivan. In your wildest dreams you surely cannot believe the Riverside Police were really that inept.
The typed letter from the staff stated "A couple of years ago I had called the police to ask about our suspect and was told he had an alibi for that night." Are we assuming the police were lying and were just saying this for the fun of it. Considering Cheri Jo Bates had blood and skin under her fingernails, one would assume the police would also be looking for scratches on the perpetrator’s face and hands, which I suspect were not present on Ross Sullivan, unless he vanished off the face of the earth for upwards of two months.
The reason the police were not interested in Sullivan, as the staff alluded, was probably because he had an alibi, had no distinguishing marks on his body from fingernails or blade marks and had no motive for the vicious attack, unlike the teenage staff who with hindsight were all trained detectives offering little more than he was a "weird" chap with different clothes. Sherlock Holmes would be proud of that extensive analysis and a quick kangaroo court should have been set up immediately.
There is no circumstantial evidence on ‘BOB BARBETT(pseudonym), as he was cleared using mitochondrial DNA testing, but similar to the Arthur Leigh Allen, people choose to ignore the evidence exonerating these people, and pursue an alternative theory, such as the ‘accomplice hypothesis’ and such like, to keep their theories on track.
The police were rigorous in their investigation tracking down potential suspects, as one magazine reported ‘Detective teams have contacted all of Cheri Jo’s known friends and people she had worked with during the past six months while working part time at a local bank’. But obviously not Sullivan who not only knew Cheri, but worked at the very place she was murdered leaving, Riverside City College Library. Sometimes you have to accept the police did the basics here, as you and I would most certainly have done. To believe that they didn’t fingerprint Ross Sullivan, is just not credible, but of course it is mighty convenient to keep believing they didn’t, as it keeps the chase alive.
This is not trying to debunk one particular suspect, it is not unlike every other Zodiac suspect ever named, held together by flimsy circumstantial evidence and hearsay and fortunately the courts require a lot more burden of proof, because otherwise we would likely have sentenced to death about 50 people now for the same crime, on nothing more than rudimentary conjecture and a tissue of second hand information.

EDITED by Morf13 on 2/15/17 to add a pseudonym for Suspect’s name

In reply to UK:

Your post does make a lot of sense and thanks for replying. If it can be proven that Ross had his fingerprints taken and there was no match, I’m happy to rule him out. Until I see that with my own eyes I will not assume anything.

And in regards to Ross having an alibi, again to me that is just heresay unless I see the alibi in writing from LE. And even with alibis, how many convicted felons have alibis only to be later found out.

I am not standing here saying it is Ross, but I am saying that from all the suspects and all the evidence I have seen..he is my favourite for a number of reasons.

Sherwood Morrill has even said the desktop poem was a match to the Zodiac letters. Is he wrong? Possibly. But you know what, even if Ross didn’t kill Cheri maybe he became obsessed about it…after all it was his college. Maybe he sent the letters regarding her murder and maybe he became the zodiac as a result.

There is lots of maybes and lots of speculation but it will remain my favourite theory until it is disproven.

It is unclear if Ross Sullivan’s prints were ever compared to the crime scene prints.

There’s no evidence that the police even considered Ross as a suspect, now, is there?

That’s just it we really don’t know anything for certain about Ross.

One would think somebody like Ross would have been looked at thoroughly by RPD, but who knows
maybe he just slipped through the cracks somehow.

It’s so frustrating that RPD won’t answer a simple question like: yes Ross’ prints were checked or no Ross’ prints were
not ever checked.

That’s just it we really don’t know anything for certain about Ross.

One would think somebody like Ross would have been looked at thoroughly by RPD, but who knows
maybe he just slipped through the cracks somehow.

It’s so frustrating that RPD won’t answer a simple question like: yes Ross’ prints were checked or no Ross’ prints were
not ever checked.

Given the facts that the librarian, communicating with LE, referred to Ross as "our" suspect, and the fact another Patton patient was thoroughly investigated in the Bates case because of his confession (perhaps this was even Ross himself??) it does not seem possible that Ross, another Patton alum, who worked in the library and was "our" suspect, would not have been quite thoroughly checked out. and cleared.

He was a known mental patient who the librarians were warning LE about… not exactly a guy flying under the radar.

viewtopic.php?f=106&t=1441&hilit=bates+patton&start=1960

That’s just it we really don’t know anything for certain about Ross.

One would think somebody like Ross would have been looked at thoroughly by RPD, but who knows
maybe he just slipped through the cracks somehow.

It’s so frustrating that RPD won’t answer a simple question like: yes Ross’ prints were checked or no Ross’ prints were
not ever checked.

Given the facts that the librarian, communicating with LE, referred to Ross as "our" suspect, and the fact another Patton patient was thoroughly investigated in the Bates case because of his confession (perhaps this was even Ross himself??) it does not seem possible that Ross, another Patton alum, who worked in the library and was "our" suspect, would not have been quite thoroughly checked out. and cleared.

He was a known mental patient who the librarians were warning LE about… not exactly a guy flying under the radar.

http://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.p … start=1960

IIRC one of our members (jeffp) spoke to the RPD Detective currently in charge of Cheri’s case, the Detective knew
who Ross is but was unaware of Ross’ mental illness.

So there must be a file on Ross but it does not contain the most important thing about him (his mental illness)

So one has to wonder if the first group of RPD Detectives in 1966 knew much about him either.

Perhaps the only reason he was interviewed at all was because he was an employee of the RCC library.

(Hopefully jeffp will chime in and add some details about his conversation with the Detective)

It is unclear if Ross Sullivan’s prints were ever compared to the crime scene prints.

There’s no evidence that the police even considered Ross as a suspect, now, is there?

‘The Librarians definitely suggested to look into Ross. They did, they found out he had an alibi,and after that,he was not suspected by Police. Was the alibi air-tight? I don’t know. Was the Person who provided ir,covering to help him? I don’t know, but one was or another since he had an alibi, he was cleared. To me, that doesn’t matter, because the Bates letter writer didn’t have to be Cheri’s killer, and Ross could have written those letters.

That’s just it we really don’t know anything for certain about Ross.

One would think somebody like Ross would have been looked at thoroughly by RPD, but who knows
maybe he just slipped through the cracks somehow.

It’s so frustrating that RPD won’t answer a simple question like: yes Ross’ prints were checked or no Ross’ prints were
not ever checked.

Given the facts that the librarian, communicating with LE, referred to Ross as "our" suspect, and the fact another Patton patient was thoroughly investigated in the Bates case because of his confession (perhaps this was even Ross himself??) it does not seem possible that Ross, another Patton alum, who worked in the library and was "our" suspect, would not have been quite thoroughly checked out. and cleared.

He was a known mental patient who the librarians were warning LE about… not exactly a guy flying under the radar.

viewtopic.php?f=106&t=1441&hilit=bates+patton&start=1960

IIRC one of our members (jeffp) spoke to the RPD Detective currently in charge of Cheri’s case, the Detective knew
who Ross is but was unaware of Ross’ mental illness.

So there must be a file on Ross but it does not contain the most important thing about him (his mental illness)

So one has to wonder if the first group of RPD Detectives in 1966 knew much about him either.

Perhaps the only reason he was interviewed at all was because he was an employee of the RCC library.

(Hopefully jeffp will chime in and add some details about his conversation with the Detective)

Ross was associated with Cheri, so if this Patton patient in the article was Ross, they missed the link. The mental patient thinking he may have killed her is interesting

The police occasionally make mistakes, but in the case of Ross Sullivan, I believe it would be doing a disservice to your police force to consider them less than mentally subnormal. The fingerprints of 65 attendees at the Riverside City College library reconstruction were taken, to exclude them from the greasy fingerprints left on the Volkswagen. These people had only attended the library that night, this was the primary reason they were tested. Ross Sullivan on the other hand was highlighted by the Staff (in a letter sent to Morf) to be an extremely ‘strange’ individual who they didn’t like being around, and by all accounts was "guilty until proven innocent" in Cheri Jo Bates’ murder, if he appeared next time they saw him in different clothing. Thank God Ross Sullivan wasn’t arrested and we had like minded individuals on the jury, who would condemn an individual so readily on the fact he was "creepy" and put his clothes in the washing machine.
Ross Sullivan was supposedly high on their list of suspects, if not their number one, he worked at the library and knew Cheri Jo Bates, but the police, bless their cotton socks, managed to circumvent this ogre of a man and despite fingerprinting hundreds of people, managed to completely forget to fingerprint Ross Sullivan. In your wildest dreams you surely cannot believe the Riverside Police were really that inept.
The typed letter from the staff stated "A couple of years ago I had called the police to ask about our suspect and was told he had an alibi for that night." Are we assuming the police were lying and were just saying this for the fun of it. Considering Cheri Jo Bates had blood and skin under her fingernails, one would assume the police would also be looking for scratches on the perpetrator’s face and hands, which I suspect were not present on Ross Sullivan, unless he vanished off the face of the earth for upwards of two months.
The reason the police were not interested in Sullivan, as the staff alluded, was probably because he had an alibi, had no distinguishing marks on his body from fingernails or blade marks and had no motive for the vicious attack, unlike the teenage staff who with hindsight were all trained detectives offering little more than he was a "weird" chap with different clothes. Sherlock Holmes would be proud of that extensive analysis and a quick kangaroo court should have been set up immediately.
There is no circumstantial evidence on Bill Bennett, as he was cleared using mitochondrial DNA testing, but similar to the Arthur Leigh Allen, people choose to ignore the evidence exonerating these people, and pursue an alternative theory, such as the ‘accomplice hypothesis’ and such like, to keep their theories on track.
The police were rigorous in their investigation tracking down potential suspects, as one magazine reported ‘Detective teams have contacted all of Cheri Jo’s known friends and people she had worked with during the past six months while working part time at a local bank’. But obviously not Sullivan who not only knew Cheri, but worked at the very place she was murdered leaving, Riverside City College Library. Sometimes you have to accept the police did the basics here, as you and I would most certainly have done. To believe that they didn’t fingerprint Ross Sullivan, is just not credible, but of course it is mighty convenient to keep believing they didn’t, as it keeps the chase alive.
This is not trying to debunk one particular suspect, it is not unlike every other Zodiac suspect ever named, held together by flimsy circumstantial evidence and hearsay and fortunately the courts require a lot more burden of proof, because otherwise we would likely have sentenced to death about 50 people now for the same crime, on nothing more than rudimentary conjecture and a tissue of second hand information.

If Ross had an alibi, and that ruled him out in their minds, maybe they didn’t bother to finger print him.

I have a theory of my own,about something we can not get a definitive answer about, but RPD has always been staunchly opposed to Zodiac killing Cheri Jo,and have flat out said, "Cheri Jo was NOT a victim of the Zodiac". I believe it’s possible that they compared prints from her crime scene to prints of Zodiac,and they did not match,thus,ruling Zodiac out as her killer,but we can’t get a straight answer about that.

To the OP,ZED. Interesting theory. I personally think that ‘Bob Barnett’- PLEASE DO NOT USE HIS REAL NAME AGAIN-would not have traveled in the same circles as Ross,and the two would not have been connected in a crime willingly. One other thing, there were no letters postmarked in Santa Cruz by Zodiac.