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Richard Grinell, Coventry, England
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ROSS SULLIVAN - LETTER FROM RCC

1/4/2019

 
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Click the image above to view the complete letter.
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Here is an extract from the letter sent by the Riverside City College library staff regarding their favorite 'suspect' Ross Sullivan. The first thing we notice, is that even they admit that police told them Ross Sullivan had an alibi for the time period of Cheri Jo Bates' murder. This clearly wasn't enough for the amateur sleuths of the Riverside City College library (we have to assume the police are just lying) who went on to compile a horrifying list of infractions and suspicious behavior perpetrated by Ross Sullivan. These include:

[1] His "potential for doing harm" - although we have no cited examples of harm inflicted upon any of the library staff. However, what he potentially could have done, is possibly a cause for concern. 
 
[2] Bragged about escaping over the wall from Patton State Mental Hospital, which doesn't equate to being a murderer.

[3] The library staff member stated "I wish I could remember the poem about the cataloging boss he and I both had. I remember that she did not understand the poem he wrote. I didn't either but was frightened by it". Frightened by a poem you neither understand and can't remember, is terrifying enough on its own

[4] "We could see him from the cataloging department. He was like a statue - always there". Clearly he was a menacing statue - not moving - but an ominous presence nevertheless.

5] "When the murder happened, I stated to my fellow workers that when Ross reappeared on campus (because he was not around the day after the murder), and if he had on different clothes, then he would be guilty in my mind, until someone proved him innocent". I really hope this person never sat on a jury. Whatever happened to those good old values of 'innocent until proven guilty'? Whatever happened to 'beyond a reasonable doubt'? I hereby sentence you to 50 years for buying new clothes.

[6] "Sure enough, it was a few weeks before he reappeared at his spot on the pit wall and he had on a totally new set of clothes". Guilty as charged Sir - how dare you wear a different set of clothes after a few weeks.

[7] "One rainy night after he was back in Riverside, I stopped at a liquor store in Market Street. I pulled up alongside a car that was parked just in front of the store doors. I ran inside but left the doors locked as I always do. When I ran back to my car something told me to do a very strange thing. I ran around to the passenger side and in a flash I had the door open and was inside and the door locked behind me. Just at that instant Ross came from a large hedge in front of my car door and walked between the two cars and out of the parking lot. He did not look at me. Needless to say I drove out of there as quickly as possible". This is called historical narrative building - creating a sensationalized and novelistic reconstruction of events that never happened. The person is selling you a story. Using the introduction of "one rainy night" is unnecessary to the story, used for dramatic effect. She just happened to pull up to a liquor store where Ross was hiding behind a bush in the rain, then coincidentally "something told her to do a very strange thing" - get in the wrong door of her vehicle, just before Ross "instantly" emerged from a large bush. What told her to do a very strange thing? - a sixth sense of impending doom, before she raced away fearing for her life. The fact of the matter, is that nothing happened - and if Ross Sullivan was there, he was likely just walking by without even noticing her. Had he glared at her menacingly from his sodden, furrowed brow, with dastardly intent, the story may have been a bit more compelling. Or, if he had he leaped from the bush wielding a dripping axe and mumbling incoherently. 
 
[8] "Ross apparently parked a motorbike close to one of the faculty members car each day during the fall of 1966. That faculty member also put Ross at the top of his list as a suspect in the murder. Didn't apartment residents near the murder site recall hearing a motorbike start up just after the screams". No they didn't, so it is probably advisable to read up on the facts of the murder, before establishing Ross Sullivan at the top of your suspect list - guilty of parking his motorbike close to a car in the parking lot. Was it menacingly close, bordering on threatening? Did it get closer each day, inching to a dramatic conclusion? Was it raining each day?

[9] "There are half dozen or so of us at Riverside City College that agree on a suspect - but it isn't one that the police are interested in". I will probably side with the police on this one, who actually did a proper investigation and stated he had an alibi. On the flip side, the library staff may have a compelling case to bring to court  - Ross Sullivan was smelly, changed his clothes at least once, allegedly hopped from a bush in the rain without an axe, threateningly parked his motorbike in the campus grounds, wrote poems nobody can remember and moved as fast as a statue, apart from when he was vaulting mental hospital walls. In his spare time he murdered five people in the Bay Area, despite the fact nobody can place him within 75 miles of any crime scene. On a rainy night, maybe he rode stealthily into the Bay Area on his old Triumph motorbike four times, placing the executioner's costume in the top box on September 27th 1969 for the return journey to Santa Cruz. Or maybe some evidence would help. 

Shawn
1/22/2019 07:47:52 am

I think Ross Sullivan had the capabilities of murdering Cheri Jo Bates as a one off murder.

Ross Sullivan does not meet the profile of *serial killers* that have evolved over time. Especially Zodiac who seem to be a cunning killer who had enough emotional stability to pull off and get away with multiple murders.

Instead of the 1960's thoughts of serial killers as loner maniacs. We have to look at real life serial killers who have been caught since then. Most lived in plain sight.

Green River killer - Stable Job - Married 3 times with kids

BTK - Stable job - Long time marriage with kids.

GSK - Ex Cop (Stable jobs) married a number of years with kids.

Bundy - Charismatic good looking cunning killer easily able to lure women.

Dahmer - Cunning, well thought out, Lonely mentally disturbed person who kept his victims after death for company.

With the recent arrest of GSK, now we have to entertain ex Cops now as suspects who are probably hardest to catch due to the brotherhood of cops not being snitches - protective of each other.

Richard
1/22/2019 08:41:56 am

"I think Ross Sullivan had the capabilities of murdering Cheri Jo Bates as a one off murder." Apart from his creepy behaviour according to the above letter and the mental problems detailed, why do you think he was capable of a one off murder anymore than the local garage attendant, or any student at the college Shawn. In fact, anymore than you or I.

Shawn
1/23/2019 06:37:02 am

As far as place of work at the library, opportunity and acquaintance via his brother's girlfriend and (Bates attendance at his brother's marriage...if true) Ross Sullivan should be considered a suspect. Seeing his brother successful with women and the probability of his awkwardness/frustration toward the opposite sex.

As far as a one off murder, I can see this happening more so if he felt cornered and scared (not by Bates) and had a knife on him. According to message boards he was diagnosed as being a schizophrenic. People living in this mental state can have many delusions not in touch with reality. Often over react to normal everyday life problems.

BB
4/5/2019 12:59:32 pm


viewpointsonline.org/2013/11/05/its-time-to-remember-cheri-jo/

"From the fingernail scrapings, police know the killer was a white male."

Cleophus Martin is here eliminated as a suspect

BB
1/22/2019 09:54:58 am

right - we are all capable

Judith
1/22/2019 10:23:48 am

Gee She protesteth too much. How do we know for sure that it was a male person who killed Cheri Jo, by the way.

Lemonboy
1/22/2019 10:57:56 am

So many things wrong with this letter. Sullivan smelled so he had to be a murderer apparently.

Lori F
1/22/2019 02:50:21 pm

I first learned of Sullivan when (I believe) the History Channel ran a 5 or 6 part special on the Zodiac case a few years ago. They concluded that the Zodiac Killer must be Sullivan or Kane. As quite a novice and overly uninformed at the time, I found their reasoning very believable.

Now after reading much more info and monitoring Richard's site, I am no longer buying what they were selling.

I believe that Cheri Jo was a victim of the Zodiac Killer, but his identity is still a complete mystery to me. :(

Richard
1/22/2019 03:59:56 pm

I remember Lori, when Earl Van Best Jr's picture was placed alongside the famous Zodiac sketch, people stated there was a strong likeness. This is also stated by proponents of Ross Sullivan. Strange therefore, that Ross Sullivan doesn't look anything like Earl Van Best. In truth, placing a carefully selected image of a suspect - one chosen for best likeness to the sketch - and then claiming this as evidence, is as weak an argument that there is. It is akin to rooting around for individual alphabetical letters in Zodiac's and a favoured suspect's handwriting to place side-by-side as another layer of evidence. If your suspect's handwriting is wildly different then you use the tactic of claiming Zodiac disguised his handwriting. Most of the side-by-side comparisons of the Presidio Heights sketch, the suspect chosen is usually wearing glasses to align with the sketch. However, Michael Mageau described as suspect without glasses, Bryan Hartnell only described clip-on sunglasses and Dr Rayfield & Son, along with the three young women sunbathers all described the suspicious man as not wearing glasses. If eyewitness identification is notoriously unreliable, then comparing a suspect to a sketch deemed a notoriously unreliable practice, is by extension even more unreliable.

BB
4/6/2019 10:19:26 am

Richard and Sandy - I found a good place that refers to the music room and some other stuff.
Particularly the suspicious character, Detective Bud Kelly (was a pedophile that lived by CJB) Authored "The Case of the Garrulous Parrot" a Sherlock Holmes story...

viewpointsonline.org/2007/03/09/nov-5-1996-on-30th-anniversary-rcc-murder-still-unsolvedbr/

The experts also said that a bizarre poem found on the underside of a desk in the music room in 1968 was written by the “Zodiac.”

BB
1/22/2019 05:03:00 pm

True Richard. We must only allow the evidence to lead us. All other ways are folly.

BB
4/6/2019 04:07:50 pm

Name: KELLEY,GRANVILLE Jr. AKA "BUD"
DOB: 9/13/1937
Sex: MALE
Height: 5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
Weight: 180 lb (82 kg)
Eye Color: HAZEL
Hair Color: SANDY
Ethnicity: WHITE
Two double "L's" in his name
here are two pics of Bud Kelly;
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/zodiackillerfr/retired-bates-detective-charged-with-child-molesta-t6026-s20.html

xxx
5/2/2019 04:36:45 am

I think Ross Sullivan was very capable of murdering. We're not talking about a guy who was mentally retarded; we're talking about a schizophrenic. As a psych. nurse, I can 100% say, there are many schizophrenics who are smart enough to pull off a murder, as they are hardly dumb and incapable. Btw, Ross didn't have a catatonic type schizo. personality, he had a paranoid or disorganized if anything. Idk his dx, but I do know he was not catatonic, and therefore very capable! Use your head, we're talking a guy that enrolled in college, and that speaks some volume. Sure, later on his mental capabilities and reasoning may have declined, but certainly not during those college year(s). Anyone that can write a thesis and an essay, not to mention took cryptography IS NOT incapable of plotting and murder. People seem to think that schizophrenia means laying in bed all day completely disabled and oblivious. I can verify it does not mean that at all. I've worked with many schizophrenic patients and many are very clever. Of course, in the 1950's and 60's, he could have easily been misdiagnosed. It was a very common! He could have had bipolar or more than likely, an antisocial personality disorder AKA sociopathic, and many are very intelligent!

Harvey
8/26/2019 03:17:26 am

LISA NORRELL - Was the last murder of what after 40 years of work I thought was the zodiac killer or the best suspect. An 83 yo Man by the name of Bane Notley.Jr . He is a dead ringer of the zodiac sketch even at an older age but without glasses. He was a mail carrier for 12 years in Nevada. riviera is the town he worked. He died in 2016. Told a man named Larry hiles that he almost made it to 40 about a month before he passed away but No one knew what he meant until they cleared out his room and found he had a small canvas bag with all the zodiac killer clippings from all the newspaper articals. If you do the research which in a bit tedious and are still interested contact me and I will share the info I have. Good place to start .

Katie
9/22/2019 03:29:44 pm

I just stumbled into this today, watching an old History channel program currently after going down a rabbit hole with Edward Edwards (which was insane) and thought Ross Sullivan was the best bet. But you make some very good points.

I'm sure I'll be looking into this for a while but from what I've seen so far it sounds to me like the Zodiac probably has a military background. I've also seen it noted that the ideograms in the letters (shaded circles) were used by defense and defense contractors. Unless they were all in/around DC (which is possible) were there any using it out in CA? And there are suggestions that he's smart, which may be true but he also can't spell. "Twitch" seems like a basic word. Unless he did it purposefully I don't think he's Einstein. Possibly an entry level contractor or assistant.

Richard
9/23/2019 12:08:36 am

Harvey L. Poppel is generally credited with inventing Harvey balls in the 1970s while working at Booz Allen Hamilton as head of their worldwide IT consulting practice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_balls

However, this was the 1970s, so the shaded circles may be more astrological in nature. It's difficult to say, because there are multiple possibilities. The Zodiac Killer almost certainly misspelled deliberately. The example of "buttons" and "butons" in one correspondence being an example. He often managed much longer words, while incorrectly spelling much shorter words we could spell at 8. The ability to create a fairly complex 408 cipher doesn't sit well with a killer who can't spell "victim" or "dark". I don't believe many people think he was uneducated. He, like you said, was certainly not a genius, but he was educated enough to create ciphers and radian maps. It's always difficult to assess an individual by correspondence alone, because like the internet you can project who you want to be, often in contrast to who you really are. Some of the insidious trolls that trawl the internet daily wouldn't dare say the things they do when face to face with people. My guess, is Zodiac went under the radar to family, friends and colleagues because the Zodiac and the everyday person, were effectively two different people. These people often get overlooked as a potential Zodiac because they are ordinary and nondescript. Think of the contrast with people who knew a serial killer or lived with one. They say, he was just an ordinary guy, friendly and polite, who went to church and mowed the lawn on a Saturday, but the people who didn't know him, who just saw him in court, in a photograph or on television, they say, when I looked in his eyes there was nothing. It was like looking into a soulless, evil and vacant monster - it sent shivers down my spine. Hindsight is a wonderful thing Katie.

BB
7/31/2020 12:22:48 am

According to Ross Sullivan's childhood friend, Allan Silliphant, Ross was intelligent. He would read the New Yorker while Allan was reading comic books. Tim and Ross often stayed at the Silliphant's place. Sterling and Robert were brothers of Allen's. Their father was a Director. And all were into making movies. Ross played the role of a mad killer in one. Perhaps Ross was being set up to be a fall guy for the Zodiac case. The Silliphant's were fascinated with killers. They were into making horror movies. The Badlands and the Exorcist seemed to get some ones interests going. Ross was born in 1941. The year the war began. The year of the movie Citizen Kane. The year the Zodiac's signature was first published in the Detective Story Magazine.


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