The Missing Period (.)

BlueCrab

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Things are slow, so maybe this unusual little lead could be investigated further.

When the person who wrote the ransom note finished writing it he signed off with S.B.T.C

Was it the writer's mistake to leave off the final period? Or did the writer intend to leave it off?

How many people, who use four initials to identify themselves, would put periods after each initial except the last one? It's rather unusual, unless they do it all of the time.

I can't make the link work (maybe one of you can), but please type "Asian Pacific American Coalition" into your search engine and then scroll down and click on the one that says "Asian Pacific American Coalition: Last updated on April 14, 1997 by K.J.L.B Groups", then scroll to the bottom of that page.

Note that K.J.L.B Groups is missing the period after "B", the last letter, just as S.B.T.C is missing the period after "C", the last letter.

Now this missing period all by itself would not be important, except that APAC was a pro-active "group of individuals" at Colorado University and its 29 members could loosely be described as "a small foreign faction". APAC suspiciously shut down shortly after JonBenet was murdered, even though it had been in business for years. The University said the group's financial activity ceased after 1996, although it left its website up but untended. The group had speakers scheduled for its meetings in 1997 but abandoned them too.

APAC's connection to the JonBenet case is by way of Nathan Inouye, the teen college student who lived at the Stine's house and was Doug Stine's caregiver while the parents, Glen and Susan Stine, worked at the University. Nathan was a member of APAC.

Doug Stine was Burke Ramsey's best friend, and Nathan was often with the two boys. Nathan continued to live at the Stine's even after the Ramseys and the Paughs moved into the Stine's house and stayed there for five months.

Can a missing "period" tell us something about the writer? Perhaps. One other thing that "K.J.L.B" and "S.B.T.C" have in common : We don't know what the four initials stand for.

JMO
 
We do know that Patsy likes to use acronyms...

John told Linda Arndt that this was an "inside job"...and when Nedra was asked what SBTC could stand for, she did not hesitate and said it stood for Son of a *advertiser censored* Tom Carson.

Was Tom Carson the man who was to take blame for the RN? Remember a few weeks before the murder, Tom Carson had dinner with John Ramseys enemies. It was well known that John Ramsey did not like Tom Carson and either did Don Paugh. It seems like they wanted to give TC the boot and have Don Paugh take over Carson's job as Chief Financial Officer.

Was Tom Carson...who was CFO, made privy to John Ramseys bonus? If so, then he would be number one Patsy.
 
I have been of the opinion that the "missing period" is not really missing. Think about it. You have never seen a quality reproduction of the note, not even from the Ramseys themselves, where the entirety of every preprinted line on the paper was visible. You see scattered pieces of lines, but chunks are missing. Why would this be? Why would some parts of the preprinted lines show up on a photocopy, but not others? I believe the "missing period" is missing for the same reason those pieces of lines are; because the photocopying process of the original was not optimal to begin with, and the subsequent generations have certainly gotten no better.
 
Since the lack of a period after the C would be a subtle clue, I doubt the notewriter did it on purpose. WN has an interesting idea that it might have been faint and not shown up on a copy. Or maybe the writer forgot it, or they were inconsistant in their writing( spelling) and left it out, or maybe they wanted to finish it but their mind was racing ahead and they didn't notice.
 
The perp had a tendency--at least in the note, to put periods after acronyms, like in F.B.I. Why wouldn't he include the last period unless the C stood for something like coalition? 'Course even if we knew what the letter stood for, it doesn't mean, it was an intent to identify himself, but to point at some real small forein faction.
 
The period isn't missing, the note was just so freaking long the Sharpie went dry.

It's a given the note was obviously written by Some Bitch That's Crazy

The integral question becomes how did John Ramsey squeeze his big old claude hoppers into Patsy's glass slipper.
 
why_nutt said:
I have been of the opinion that the "missing period" is not really missing. Think about it. You have never seen a quality reproduction of the note, not even from the Ramseys themselves, where the entirety of every preprinted line on the paper was visible. You see scattered pieces of lines, but chunks are missing. Why would this be? Why would some parts of the preprinted lines show up on a photocopy, but not others? I believe the "missing period" is missing for the same reason those pieces of lines are; because the photocopying process of the original was not optimal to begin with, and the subsequent generations have certainly gotten no better.


I don't see any words or punctuations missing or unclear in my copy of the ransom note, not one. They are in heavy black and clear. The only thing that doesn't reproduce clearly are the thin pre-printed horizontal lines on the paper. The reason the horizontal lines don't reproduce very well is because they are in light blue, a color that doesn't reproduce very well in copying machines. It's obvious to me the period after the C in S.B.T.C was never written.

JMO
 
If it is missing, it could simply mean the writer's hurry to just be done. Perhaps, he/she just was relieved to not worry about using punctuation in the note anymore?
 
Imon128 said:
If it is missing, it could simply mean the writer's hurry to just be done. Perhaps, he/she just was relieved to not worry about using punctuation in the note anymore?


Or it could mean the person who wrote "K.J.L.B" in the APAC domain and the person who wrote "S.B.T.C" in the ransom note are one and the same.

JMO
 
egads! why_nutt and LP agree on a single point (actually a period, but let's not debate semantics on this one LOL)
 
Could be, BC, I am open to any new idea at this stage of the investigation. Have you sent your idea to Keenan to have it checked out? Of course, Keenan might not be the person to send it to, LOL. She appears to be catching a few zzzzzz's.

Anyhow, I think the upside down caret is a more important punctuation piece. It also fits in with how I think the writer wrote the note.

One of my guesses is that the note writer normally didn't use good punctuation and knew that the lack of certain punctuation marks might give him away, so he made sure to use it as correctly as he could.
 
LovelyPigeon said:
egads! why_nutt and LP agree on a single point (actually a period, but let's not debate semantics on this one LOL)


LP, if you agree with Why Nut's theory, then please show me even ONE letter or punctuation mark elsewhere in the RN that is unclear, let alone missing. There aren't any. It's obvious the period was never written.

JMO
 
I can't show you the original note or even what I can assure is 1st generation copy. I agree with why_nutt that a period may be there in the original.

I think SBTC was meant to be taken to stand for the name of the "small foreign faction" that was presented as being responsible for the kidnapping. I don't think it stood for anything, really, just random letters.
 
LovelyPigeon said:
I can't show you the original note or even what I can assure is 1st generation copy. I agree with why_nutt that a period may be there in the original.

I think SBTC was meant to be taken to stand for the name of the "small foreign faction" that was presented as being responsible for the kidnapping. I don't think it stood for anything, really, just random letters.

Sorry LP, but I totally disagree. SBTC meant something to the writer. And the copy of the note I have is clear -- no evidence of a period ever being there because nowhere else in the note are there any writing or punctuation marks missing.

JMO
 
Here's one theory why S.B.T.C is missing the period after the final letter:

THE WRITER OF THE RANSOM NOTE IS A COMPUTER NERD WHO HAS SPENT A LOT OF TIME WRITING E-MAIL ADDRESSES. EVEN THOUGH DOTS ARE USED IN THESE ADDRESSES, THE END OF AN E-MAIL ADDRESS OR "LINK" NEVER ENDS WITH A DOT. THEREFORE THE WRITER LEAVES OFF THE DOT OR PERIOD AT THE END OF A BUNCH OF LETTERS SUCH AS K.J.L.B OR S.B.T.C BY HABIT.

jmo
 
The "tail" on the C is long enough that the period was placed so close it merged with the tail of the C.

I don't think SBTC meant any more to the writer than the foreign faction did--both were non-existent.
 
Maikai said:
The perp had a tendency--at least in the note, to put periods after acronyms, like in F.B.I.

That is a very interesting point. I've noticed my kids tend not to put periods after initials or acronyms. Is the use of periods old fashioned? Could it indicate an older writer?
 
Patsy put periods in the acronyms she used when corresponding with friends, didn't she?
____
IMO
 

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