What do Burke's interviews tell us?

[madeleine]

I want to know how a hammer would line up with the head wound? It appears perfectly plausible to me.

Most people own a hammer. Even people who aren't handy have hammers.

I'm thinking he may have threatened her with the knife to get her to the basement and did exactly as he said. struck her.






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was thinking about the hammer too...but wouldn't a hammer cause damage to the scalp?maybe not when hit with the handle?

 

[x_files]

It could be that he's actually telling us what happened...he says someone quietly took her down the basement...she was hit on her head...or stabbed (a knife was found down in the basement,his knife...maybe this was part of his fantasy but he was interrupted??)...then he was overheard talking about manual strangulation (we always suspected that the garrote was put around her neck to cover for manual strangulation)...

anyway,for someone who never asked questions regarding his sister's death this boy knows a lot of details!!

Stabbing to a nine year old boy could use mean jabbing a broken paint brush handle into her vagina. (Sorry to be explicit).
Maybe he wanted to stab her but didn't or used the train track to jab her.

 

[x_files]

IMO attachment disordered.


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It shows he doesn't fear mommy or daddy or they'd be looming over him like monsters.

 

[CircuitGuy]

It shows he doesn't fear mommy or daddy or they'd be looming over him like monsters.

That could be because he thinks he is immune because he's a boy. I suspect the Ramseys or someone they know committed the crime, and they all including BR know who did it. I suspect the crime was tied into JBR's beauty pageant persona. BR didn't participate in any pageant-like events, so he may feel like it can't happen to him.

 

[borndem]

I want to know how a hammer would line up with the head wound? It appears perfectly plausible to me.

Most people own a hammer. Even people who aren't handy have hammers.

I'm thinking he may have threatened her with the knife to get her to the basement and did exactly as he said. struck her.






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I certainly think a hammer could've done it. How 'bout a golf club?

 

[wengr]

I want to know how a hammer would line up with the head wound? It appears perfectly plausible to me.

Most people own a hammer. Even people who aren't handy have hammers.

I'm thinking he may have threatened her with the knife to get her to the basement and did exactly as he said. struck her.






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Imho, a hammer does not fit at all. I know of no hammer that would cause the unique damage to the skull. I believe that the skull damage does not tell us exactly what the weapon was, but it surely tells us what it was not.

 

[BOESP]

I'd like to mention that the displaced piece of skull is, basically, in the back of the head, just above the upper right edge of the occipital bone.

If she was struck with something it either had to be from swinging an object in a side-to-side motion (which is doubtful based on the direction of the fractures). Or the person who struck her stood a fair distance above JonBenet's head swinging the object while standing/sitting in front of JonBenet because the linear fracture runs the greatest distance from back to front (literally to JonBenet's temporal lobe or "temple").

 

[FreeSafety36]

IMO, as in the opinion of many others in the thread, Burke did know too much to be guessing. I can't psychoanalyze him, but one thing does REALLY stand out to me.

He felt safe. If he believed someone broke into his home, kidnapped his little sister and killed her inside the house and neither he, his mom nor his dad woke up in the process, I don't think there's a single, sane nine-year-old child who would still feel safe in their home- no matter that it was a different home. It happened once where we felt safe, why couldn't it happen again?

The second part to that is that if he knew one of his parents or anyone they knew killed JonBenet, how could he feel safe living with them anywhere? I don't think he could've deduced in his nine-year-old mind that this crime was gender-specific; unless he knew that someone was molesting her that night, and in that case, we'd also have to believe that he'd never been molested (I believe he was), otherwise, his gender wouldn't protect him from the same fate his little sister met.

The only possible way I can see that this child felt safe is because he killed her. That's the only possible way he can know that he's in no danger. Even if he knew JR or PR had done it by accident, I believe at that age he'd have that fear that they might have an "accident" with him as well.

I think the fact that he felt safe tells us everything. If it was anyone other than himself, how could he feel safe?

 

[FreeSafety36]

Also, to add to my post above, regarding the "hugs and kisses" line...I think he might have felt that this counselor was trying to take him away from his mom and dad. At nearly ten-years-old, he'd probably heard about that happening either through school or on television or somehow. Possibly even JR and/or PR told him that could happen if he didn't convince her that everything was good. I believe that response was just BR laying it on a little too thick.

 

[DeDee]

The only thing that stands out to me is that he's not afraid for his own safety. I could imagine he's blocking the tragedy out of his mind. If he hasn't experience death before, he may imagine it's not permanent; or its permanence may not register with him emotionally.

I find the notion of an intruder able to do what he said, take her quietly to the basement and murder her, very scary on a visceral level. He should feel safe in his house and room, but if an intruder could get in and kill someone without anyone hearing it shatters that notion.

Kids are normally afraid various monsters and boogymen. I would expect some kind of anxiety or odd behavior of some sort centered around the threat of an intruder.

This makes me think he knows who did it. I don't know if it was him. But I don't think slept through the whole thing. The same goes for his parents. I get freaked out when my kids (5 and 3) are playing the back yard and lose sight of them. If a kidnapper or murderer even attempted to get into my house, I would not let the kids out of my sight. If the kidnapper were on the loose, I literally would make my child nap in front of me, not in his room. I wouldn't turn my back.

No one in this family shows a normal sense of paranoia associated with an unknown criminal. That makes me think they all know who did it. It could have been any one of them or some family friend, but they all know who it was.

Not absolving the chilling account BR offers but perhaps BR believes it was done quietly because it did not awaken him. I don't think BR awoke until Patsy screamed for John after she feigned discovering the RN.

Couldn't BR's reaction, or lack thereof, also be due to the fact that BR has always held the belief that an intruder did it? A creature is how John always describes the killer. Would JR say that the killer is a creature if he knew it was his own son?

Perhaps it is best for protecting his psyche to maintain the innocence of his parents in the death of his sister. His parents protected him from the media by moving to GA. They were immediately and often found sightseeing or taking long weekend trips as a threesome. Sometimes, Patsy would introduce herself as Patsy Ramsey, JonBenet's mother. JonBenet remains a worldwide name despite never competing in the Miss America pageant.

 

[dodie20]

Not absolving the chilling account BR offers but perhaps BR believes it was done quietly because it did not awaken him. I don't think BR awoke until Patsy screamed for John after she feigned discovering the RN.

Couldn't BR's reaction, or lack thereof, also be due to the fact that BR has always held the belief that an intruder did it? A creature is how John always describes the killer. Would JR say that the killer is a creature if he knew it was his own son?

Perhaps it is best for protecting his psyche to maintain the innocence of his parents in the death of his sister. His parents protected him from the media by moving to GA. They were immediately and often found sightseeing or taking long weekend trips as a threesome. Sometimes, Patsy would introduce herself as Patsy Ramsey, JonBenet's mother. JonBenet remains a worldwide name despite never competing in the Miss America pageant.

I was thinking yesterday about the name 'JonBenet'. I'd never heard it before, and don't expect to ever hear it again. unique and one of a kind.

 

[Blue Bottle 01]

I was thinking yesterday about the name 'JonBenet'. I'd never heard it before, and don't expect to ever hear it again. unique and one of a kind.

It was made out of John Bennet Ramsey. Patsy fancied herself a Francophile, something she copied from Muriel Spark.

 

[borndem]

Hmmmm...

BR felt safe at his home in Boulder.
Apparently he did not make a scene, cling to either parent in fear, etc., when he was whisked out of the house by FW to go to FW's home -- one of his good buds was there, so maybe that made the difference.
He must have known that Disney was off the table -- he may have thought that the trip was to please JBR, so maybe that was okay...dunno..

Oh, the things that child must have had swirling around in his mind. And apparently he held it all in... and is still holding in all in. No wonder he had trouble with his temper from time to time. If he did it or not.... a big load on that child's shoulders. And both parents are gone... um, that could make for one scary adult, possibly...

Just my opinion & thoughts...:twocents:

 

[eileenhawkeye]

I was thinking yesterday about the name 'JonBenet'. I'd never heard it before, and don't expect to ever hear it again. unique and one of a kind.

The US Social Security website has information on how many babies are born every year with a certain name. However, it only lists names where there were at least 5 babies born that year, so for some years, it could be anywhere from 0-4 babies. Anyway, for the name, JonBenet:

1997: 14 babies
1998: 0-4 babies
1999: 6 babies
And then from 2000-2012, it was 0-4 babies a year.

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/limits.html

I've been looking up lots of baby names from different high-profile victims to compare the years before they went missing, to when the case was prominently in the news, and most names aren't showing any notable increase. The only ones I found that at least doubled were Caylee, Natalee, and Kyron.

 

[Mountain_Kat]

his drawing shows that mommy was insignificant and daddy was basically never there ...HE is the most important person in that drawing....narcissist??

Or a boy who suddenly sees himself as large and important because he's no longer in anyone else's shadow?

 

[txsvicki]

I just can't imagine how JonBenet was hit in the head in the kitchen as Kolar believes. No matter what she was hit with, it's hard for me to understand how the impact didn't cause her to fall down from standing, fall over from sitting, or even push her face into the floor if crouching. Wouldn't there have been other bruising unless she were lying on a bed or someone had hold of her at the time?

 

[DeeDee249]

I just can't imagine how JonBenet was hit in the head in the kitchen as Kolar believes. No matter what she was hit with, it's hard for me to understand how the impact didn't cause her to fall down from standing, fall over from sitting, or even push her face into the floor if crouching. Wouldn't there have been other bruising unless she were lying on a bed or someone had hold of her at the time?

It depends where she was when she was struck. Of course, this kind of head blow would render her instantly unconscious. But if she were in her bedroom, which had carpet, or in the carpeted area of the basement, there would probably be no bruising. She was only just over 40" tall- that is not a very large distance to hit the floor, and she only weighed around 40 pounds. She wouldn't have hit the floor with enough force, especially on a carpet.
She may also been on her bed when struck and didn't fall at all.
And if there was a second abuser, they may have been holding her or caught her when she fell.

 

[wengr]

In my experience, one of the common reasons given when people discount BDI, is that they do not believe that BR would have enough strength to inflict the skull damage.
I personally do not agree, and I feel that the required strength would be based on numerous factors including the physical attributes of the weapon, and the positioning of both JBR and the assailant.
One factor would be to what degree the skull was able to move in response to the blow. If the positioning was such that the head was against something firm, then there would be no lost energy, and nearly all of the force of the blow would be transferred to the skull.
It appears to me that the basement had a low pile (possibly berber?) type carpeting. I think it's quite possible that if JBR was lying on the basement floor, she could have been hit from behind, and the carpet could protect her face from marking while the fact that her head is fixed against the floor maximizes the damage to the skull.

 

[Chelly]

Hasn't it been said BR displayed a flat or "blunted" affect? Is this not a common symptom of schizophrenia?

 

[borndem]

Originally Posted by txsvicki
I just can't imagine how JonBenet was hit in the head in the kitchen as Kolar believes. No matter what she was hit with, it's hard for me to understand how the impact didn't cause her to fall down from standing, fall over from sitting, or even push her face into the floor if crouching. Wouldn't there have been other bruising unless she were lying on a bed or someone had hold of her at the time?

from wengr: In my experience, one of the common reasons given when people discount BDI, is that they do not believe that BR would have enough strength to inflict the skull damage.
I personally do not agree, and I feel that the required strength would be based on numerous factors including the physical attributes of the weapon, and the positioning of both JBR and the assailant.
One factor would be to what degree the skull was able to move in response to the blow. If the positioning was such that the head was against something firm, then there would be no lost energy, and nearly all of the force of the blow would be transferred to the skull.
It appears to me that the basement had a low pile (possibly berber?) type carpeting. I think it's quite possible that if JBR was lying on the basement floor, she could have been hit from behind, and the carpet could protect her face from marking while the fact that her head is fixed against the floor maximizes the damage to the skull.

txsvicki, I don't think JBR's head wound was delivered in the kitchen, either. I agree that there is no position for her to have had that would make sense unless she was lying on the floor or had her head down on the counter. And if she had been lying on the kitchen floor, seems to me that she would have had injuries on the other side of her head, too -- i.e., at least bad bruising, as you suggest in your scenarios.

wengr, you make very good points there, IMO. In looking at that terrible picture of her skull injury -- oh how awful it is -- I think her head would have to have been against a solid object as you suggest. And just like you said -- so that her head would absorb most of the energy from the blow. If this is what happened, I agree that BR could have had the strength to do it, especially if he were in a rage. JMO

I will add, after looking at the skull wound again, that a golf club, IMO, would have been an ideal object with which to express that anger and deliver all that energy that had to come from a blow that would inflict that much damage. The club would have enabled the user to reach back, so to speak, and then swing hard. But a head wound would bleed quite a bit. Where did the blood go? This has bugged me for years.

Any ideas? Or did I miss something about blood?