Paintbrush handle

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wengr

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The paintbrush handle of the garotte has always bothered me. Imo it makes little sense as an actual aid to the strangulation. For one thing, what is the point of breaking it? It would serve the same exact purpose unbroken.

Also, another conversation here got me thinking and I got a piece of cord and tried it myself. I read at the PBworks site that the length of the cord between the neck loop and the handle is 17 inches. So accounting for the size of the knots at each end of the cord, we have a distance of at least 17 inches from the neck loop to the paintbrush handle.

The problem is that 17" is too long. I am a 5'10" adult male. I tried to simulate the strangling, and in each scenario(short of standing up), the 17" cord leaves my arm already far to retracted to get anywhere near my maximum strength.
What I am saying here is that the paintbrush handle which appears to have been added to facilitate strangling actually IMO IMPEDES strangling. There was sufficient cord available to do what I feel would be the natural inclination in such a situation - simply wrap the cord around the hand, much closer to the neck, which leaves the arm mostly extended and in proper position to retract with full force.

As a result, I have to believe that the paintbrush handle was added after the fact. Why I can't say. Did PR add her paintbrush to the crime in order to suggest herself to investigators by design?
If anyone else would like to try this, I would be interested to hear your thoughts - I'm off to try and explain to my children why daddy is trying to kill their large stuffed rabbit.
 
The investigators made a mistake in assuming what was done to the body was staging, IMO. They then dismissed much of the evidence as bad staging done by non-criminals using crime books and movies as source material not having experience themselves committing crimes.

You bring up one of the functional faults in the use of the neck ligature as a garrote. Another is the notion that the "garrote" was "twisted" causing the strangulation. This is Craig Silverman's comment.

Steve Thomas himself in his book says the neck ligature was made more like a noose than a twisting garrote.

I'm not aware if the investigators ever considered purposeful intent in the construction of the ligatures and that they were functional as designed and constructed.

The fact that the use of the cords as I have proposed bring the arms to the exact postion they were described to be when found in the small room, IMO, is no coincidence.
 
wengr said:
The paintbrush handle of the garotte has always bothered me. Imo it makes little sense as an actual aid to the strangulation. For one thing, what is the point of breaking it? It would serve the same exact purpose unbroken.

Also, another conversation here got me thinking and I got a piece of cord and tried it myself. I read at the PBworks site that the length of the cord between the neck loop and the handle is 17 inches. So accounting for the size of the knots at each end of the cord, we have a distance of at least 17 inches from the neck loop to the paintbrush handle.

The problem is that 17" is too long. I am a 5'10" adult male. I tried to simulate the strangling, and in each scenario(short of standing up), the 17" cord leaves my arm already far to retracted to get anywhere near my maximum strength.
What I am saying here is that the paintbrush handle which appears to have been added to facilitate strangling actually IMO IMPEDES strangling. There was sufficient cord available to do what I feel would be the natural inclination in such a situation - simply wrap the cord around the hand, much closer to the neck, which leaves the arm mostly extended and in proper position to retract with full force.

As a result, I have to believe that the paintbrush handle was added after the fact. Why I can't say. Did PR add her paintbrush to the crime in order to suggest herself to investigators by design?
If anyone else would like to try this, I would be interested to hear your thoughts - I'm off to try and explain to my children why daddy is trying to kill their large stuffed rabbit.
Click to expand...

wengr,
I have long held the opinion that the garrote could never function as advertised.

IMO the ligature plus paintbrush handle represents staging which has been highly successful since many people think JonBenet was asphyxiated in the basement!


.
 
wengr said:
The paintbrush handle of the garotte has always bothered me. Imo it makes little sense as an actual aid to the strangulation. For one thing, what is the point of breaking it? It would serve the same exact purpose unbroken.

Also, another conversation here got me thinking and I got a piece of cord and tried it myself. I read at the PBworks site that the length of the cord between the neck loop and the handle is 17 inches. So accounting for the size of the knots at each end of the cord, we have a distance of at least 17 inches from the neck loop to the paintbrush handle.

The problem is that 17" is too long. I am a 5'10" adult male. I tried to simulate the strangling, and in each scenario(short of standing up), the 17" cord leaves my arm already far to retracted to get anywhere near my maximum strength.
What I am saying here is that the paintbrush handle which appears to have been added to facilitate strangling actually IMO IMPEDES strangling. There was sufficient cord available to do what I feel would be the natural inclination in such a situation - simply wrap the cord around the hand, much closer to the neck, which leaves the arm mostly extended and in proper position to retract with full force.
Click to expand...

A conclusion I reached several years ago through my own experiments.

As a result, I have to believe that the paintbrush handle was added after the fact. Why I can't say. Did PR add her paintbrush to the crime in order to suggest herself to investigators by design?
If anyone else would like to try this, I would be interested to hear your thoughts - I'm off to try and explain to my children why daddy is trying to kill their large stuffed rabbit.
Click to expand...

It does pose an interesting question.
 
Hard to tell much from pictures, but that paint brush handle looks just like a stick to me. Of course, we know it's a paint brush handle, but something about it still strikes me as "stick" even though I know what the damned thing is. It just makes me wonder...could it have been used for whittling or something? Is that why the ends were broken off? Is that why we find a pocket knife in the basement? And wood fibers near the door of the WC?

Just something that has always made me go, "hmmmm".
 
Mountain_Kat said:
Hard to tell much from pictures, but that paint brush handle looks just like a stick to me. Of course, we know it's a paint brush handle, but something about it still strikes me as "stick" even though I know what the damned thing is. It just makes me wonder...could it have been used for whittling or something? Is that why the ends were broken off? Is that why we find a pocket knife in the basement? And wood fibers near the door of the WC?

Just something that has always made me go, "hmmmm".
Click to expand...

BR was known to whittle, but we have no way of knowing whether he whittled Patsy's art brushes. I can imagine she wouldn't be pleased about that. The "stick" used to wind the cord is indeed proven to be an artist's paintbrush- made of wood and stamped with "Korea" in gold. Shards of wood from snapping the brush into 3 pieces match the paintbrush, and the splinters found in her vagina also were matched to that same brush. It gives the impression of a "stick" because it is the middle section, not the brush part or tapered end. One of the 3 pieces is still missing. One was left in the tote and one, as we know, was attached to the cord around her neck.
It was never proven (as far as we have seen it discussed) that she was penetrated with the paintbrush or whether the splinters got into her vagina on a finger (which was used to break the brush). Blood in the vagina and wiped from her thighs and pubic area do signify an injury severe enough to cause the bleeding. But the coroner never mentioned (at least in his report) that her injuries may have been caused by the paintbrush. He told LE felt there had been digital penetration, so maybe that is how the wood splinters got there. I have a hard time picturing BR whittling the brush after killing his sister. The splinters were shown to have come from breaking the brush and nothing was said about the brush itself being whittled.
 
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