Ransom Note and Common Sense

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SheBoss

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Hello All!

I'm a long time lurker, but new to posting. I have a question for all the great minds RDI and IDI alike. I've searched this and cannot find an answer, so if I'm starting a duplicate thread, I apologize and ask the mods to merge it. So here's my question:

On the morning of Dec 26, after PR and JR read the ransom note, why the phone calls? I understand calling the police. That makes sense. After all, cops are trained to deal with kidnappings and all say not to call the police (at least that's what I would think). However, Patsy didn't say anything to the dispatcher about the ransom note saying they were watching the house, if anyone was contacted, JonBenet would die, etc. Why not? And then, they preceeded to call even more folks until ending up with a houseful of people. If they thought this was a legitimate note at the time and believed this note to be true, why completely disobey the kidnappers, in effect, killing their own child?

All I've found in defense of this is Patsy saying that she just glanced at the note. Again, that makes no sense. If my daughter were in the hands of a "small foreign faction", I would read the letter line by line to make sure I did exactly what they wanted me to do so I would see my little girl again. Why didn't the Ramseys? Can anyone point me to anywhere or tell me anything that makes any sense as to why they did this? This one action alone makes them look very, very guilty...and I don't want to think that yet. I'd rather keep an open mind until I read all the evidence.

Thanks in Advance!
 
SheBoss said:
Hello All!

I'm a long time lurker, but new to posting. I have a question for all the great minds RDI and IDI alike. I've searched this and cannot find an answer, so if I'm starting a duplicate thread, I apologize and ask the mods to merge it. So here's my question:

On the morning of Dec 26, after PR and JR read the ransom note, why the phone calls? I understand calling the police. That makes sense. After all, cops are trained to deal with kidnappings and all say not to call the police (at least that's what I would think). However, Patsy didn't say anything to the dispatcher about the ransom note saying they were watching the house, if anyone was contacted, JonBenet would die, etc. Why not? And then, they preceeded to call even more folks until ending up with a houseful of people. If they thought this was a legitimate note at the time and believed this note to be true, why completely disobey the kidnappers, in effect, killing their own child?

All I've found in defense of this is Patsy saying that she just glanced at the note. Again, that makes no sense. If my daughter were in the hands of a "small foreign faction", I would read the letter line by line to make sure I did exactly what they wanted me to do so I would see my little girl again. Why didn't the Ramseys? Can anyone point me to anywhere or tell me anything that makes any sense as to why they did this? This one action alone makes them look very, very guilty...and I don't want to think that yet. I'd rather keep an open mind until I read all the evidence.

Thanks in Advance!
Click to expand...

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102137&page=4
Post#86
 
Thanks Cynic, for the link. I never put 2 and 2 together like that! Really interesting. However, I'm not sure that answered my question (if that's what you were trying to do). Did I misunderstand something?
 
My answer, they had no fear, they already knew she was dead.
 
Hi SheBoss. The problem here is it's hard to keep an open mind after their behavior re the ransom note. Logically, what they did makes no sense at all. So to keep an open mind you'll probably have to lay that question aside for a while and go on to the next question. Sorry, but I haven't been able to find anyone else who behaved that way when faced with a ransom note concerning their daughter. There are so many issues in this case that one has to look at everything as a whole in order to form an educated opinion.
 
joeskidbeck said:
Hi SheBoss. The problem here is it's hard to keep an open mind after their behavior re the ransom note. Logically, what they did makes no sense at all. So to keep an open mind you'll probably have to lay that question aside for a while and go on to the next question. Sorry, but I haven't been able to find anyone else who behaved that way when faced with a ransom note concerning their daughter. There are so many issues in this case that one has to look at everything as a whole in order to form an educated opinion.
Click to expand...

Sadly, I think you're probably right. But, again, looking at it from a common sense pov, to discount this behavior is kinda like sweeping something under the rug. To me, behavior may not be "evidence" in the strictest sense of the word, but it should have some bearing on the overall decision. I just can't get past this. I was really hoping someone could point it out to me where it's all explained away nice and tidy.
 
SheBoss said:
Sadly, I think you're probably right. But, again, looking at it from a common sense pov, to discount this behavior is kinda like sweeping something under the rug. To me, behavior may not be "evidence" in the strictest sense of the word, but it should have some bearing on the overall decision. I just can't get past this. I was really hoping someone could point it out to me where it's all explained away nice and tidy.
Click to expand...

We've all (RDI/IDI) tried to explain it away, but it always comes up lacking in one respect or another. Give it a few minutes and I'm sure there will be an IDI come along to explain their behavior.
 
SheBoss said:
On the morning of Dec 26, after PR and JR read the ransom note, why the phone calls? I understand calling the police. That makes sense. After all, cops are trained to deal with kidnappings and all say not to call the police (at least that's what I would think). However, Patsy didn't say anything to the dispatcher about the ransom note saying they were watching the house, if anyone was contacted, JonBenet would die, etc. Why not? And then, they preceeded to call even more folks until ending up with a houseful of people. If they thought this was a legitimate note at the time and believed this note to be true, why completely disobey the kidnappers, in effect, killing their own child?

All I've found in defense of this is Patsy saying that she just glanced at the note. Again, that makes no sense. If my daughter were in the hands of a "small foreign faction", I would read the letter line by line to make sure I did exactly what they wanted me to do so I would see my little girl again. Why didn't the Ramseys?
Click to expand...

You don’t have to be particularly smart to understand what might happen when the terms of a ransom note are blatantly violated.
The Ramseys were both very smart people, and while it’s difficult to imagine even one of them making such an error, it strains credulity to believe that both would.
“Oops, I guess I should have my morning coffee before I picked up the phone” just doesn’t cut it when you are potentially dealing with the life of your child.
It does make sense when you are trying to explain why there is a dead child in your basement.
 
SheBoss said:
To me, behavior may not be "evidence" in the strictest sense of the word, but it should have some bearing on the overall decision.
Click to expand...
It is important, atypical behavior has been used as element of many successful prosecutions involving circumstantial cases.
 
Any normal person would not listen to the ramblings of some psychopath,and the first instinct would be to call the police. Patsy asked JR what they should do, because the note said not to call the police. He told her to call the police. As he said in their book, he thought they would put up roadblocks, etc. to try to find her.

Patsy read only the beginning where it said they had their daughter...and she ran upstairs and saw JBR missing and called for John. Their actions seem normal to me. They had no idea that the police would screw things up. I doubt the perp was watching the house, but if he were, he would have seen the police come right up to the house.

Had the Ramseys not done what most people would do, and not call the police, I can only imagine what would have been said about those actions.
 
Maikai said:
Any normal person would not listen to the ramblings of some psychopath,and the first instinct would be to call the police. Patsy asked JR what they should do, because the note said not to call the police. He told her to call the police. As he said in their book, he thought they would put up roadblocks, etc. to try to find her.

Patsy read only the beginning where it said they had their daughter...and she ran upstairs and saw JBR missing and called for John. Their actions seem normal to me. They had no idea that the police would screw things up. I doubt the perp was watching the house, but if he were, he would have seen the police come right up to the house.

Had the Ramseys not done what most people would do, and not call the police, I can only imagine what would have been said about those actions.
Click to expand...

I have to say that, though I am RDI, I agree with this. I think anyone would have made that 911 call in a real kidnapping situation regardless of what the note said.
 
Maikai said:
Any normal person would not listen to the ramblings of some psychopath,and the first instinct would be to call the police. Patsy asked JR what they should do, because the note said not to call the police. He told her to call the police. As he said in their book, he thought they would put up roadblocks, etc. to try to find her.

Patsy read only the beginning where it said they had their daughter...and she ran upstairs and saw JBR missing and called for John. Their actions seem normal to me. They had no idea that the police would screw things up. I doubt the perp was watching the house, but if he were, he would have seen the police come right up to the house.

Had the Ramseys not done what most people would do, and not call the police, I can only imagine what would have been said about those actions.
Click to expand...


Okay fine, I can see and completely understand calling the police. I would too.

I would not be breaking out my rolodex and calling everyone else I knew before I read every word on the ransom note, repeatedly! Wouldn't you want to know WHO took your daughter so you could get her back? Wouldn't you think, maybe the answer is in the note?
 
Linda7NJ said:
Okay fine, I can see and completely understand calling the police. I would too.

I would not be breaking out my rolodex and calling everyone else I knew before I read every word on the ransom note, repeatedly! Wouldn't you want to know WHO took your daughter so you could get her back? Wouldn't you think, maybe the answer is in the note?
Click to expand...

I agree, Linda. I have never had a problem with the Ramseys calling the police. I KNOW that I would have done the same. My problem is them calling all their friends (except the Stines, of course) and being allowed to thoroughly bungle the crime scene.
 
DeeDee249 said:
I have to say that, though I am RDI, I agree with this. I think anyone would have made that 911 call in a real kidnapping situation regardless of what the note said.
Click to expand...

And of course, we all know in hindsight that she was already dead, but the parents thought she had been 'kidnapped'. The friends were most likely called to help in the search for her or for support and guidance.
 
MurriFlower said:
And of course, we all know in hindsight that she was already dead, but the parents thought she had been 'kidnapped'. The friends were most likely called to help in the search for her or for support and guidance.
Click to expand...

The parents knew she was already dead, too. That's why they weren't worried about calling their friends over. It wasn't a real RN and it wasn't a real kidnapping. The only friend who searched was FW and he only looked in the house. JB didn't run away. She was thought to be kidnapped. Where would you search? It's not like she was just missing. You search for missing kids. You don't search for kidnapped kids.
French was wrong to allow them to remain in the house.
 
DeeDee249 said:
The parents knew she was already dead, too. That's why they weren't worried about calling their friends over. It wasn't a real RN and it wasn't a real kidnapping. The only friend who searched was FW and he only looked in the house. JB didn't run away. She was thought to be kidnapped. Where would you search? It's not like she was just missing. You search for missing kids. You don't search for kidnapped kids.
French was wrong to allow them to remain in the house.
Click to expand...

In your biased opinion I think is the preface here.

If they already knew she was dead they would have just written the RN to say they would be contacted by 6am, and then rang 911 and said "we did like they said, but no one phoned". Remember, in your biased opinion they were the ones writing the script, so they could have made it anthing they liked.

JR would not have hidden her if he intended to find her again, he would have just stood back comforting his wife while they searched. Cops find the body, parents are completely outside the crime scene.
 
One of the best RDI paradoxes: parents call 911 hours or even a day before the ransom note that they themselves wrote said to. They could've called later and gotten rid of the pineapple, cord, etc. especially if they thought maybe a witness would remember them buying the stuff.
 
If RDI and it happened around midnight they did call hours later and if RDI I'm sure they did used those hours to stage,clean,get rid of things...
 
claudicici said:
If RDI and it happened around midnight they did call hours later and if RDI I'm sure they did used those hours to stage,clean,get rid of things...
Click to expand...

Sorry maybe its me but I'm not getting any of this...

They could've called 911 operator from anytime that night up to 10AM on Dec 27th, the next day. They would still have a valid argument that they simply wanted to comply with the ransom note.
 
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