Cottonstar
Case Analyst | Expert in Staged Crimes
Pageantry, Performing, Pineapples, Proper Possession, and the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
Here’s the thing. Patsy Ramsey wrote the ransom note. She did so in her own hand, at the very least. However, this isn’t an exposé on Patsy’s handwriting. Numerous highly-qualified forensic document examiners have concluded that she wrote the note via handwriting analysis. Enough said.
This post is about another piece of evidence, found inside the ransom note, that points directly to Patsy Ramsey. When someone stages a crime scene, the personality of the stager is reflected in how the crime scene was staged. If you take a deep dive into the staging of any crime scene, and pair it with a completely thorough examination of known suspects, you should see the eyes of the stager looking right back at you. I see Patsy.
Patsy and Pageantry. Bread and Butter. Patsy was involved in pageantry and performing for a good number of her formative high school and college years. For the Talent portion of all of the pageants she performed in, she prided herself on doing something different. It was the “bread and butter” of her performances. While ninety-percent of contestants did some sort of of singing, dancing, or musical instrument routine, Patsy stuck out as an actor, playing and providing the voices for all characters in a scene she had picked out from her favorite book/play/movie. That play was The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
For at least five years straight, Patsy read, memorized, and crafted a performance from a scene in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. This play/book/movie was Patsy’s greatest influence growing up. Much like a certain band, song, or movie, may have influenced your life, this is what inspired Patsy in numerous ways in her young performing life.
From Linda McLean’s, 1998 book, JonBenét’s Mother: The Tragedy and The Truth! We gain this information and introspect:
“Patsy won the Miss West Virginia pageant held in June 1977. She had just finished her last final exam of the semester and had to hurry home just in time for the event. For her talent presentation, she used a scene from the play called “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.” This was the same scene she had performed to win national honors on our high school forensics team. In oral interpretation, as student takes a scene from a story or play and interprets it for the audience. There are no costumes, props or theatrical makeup and the speaker talks in a different voice for each character.”
This piece from the Charleston Daily Mail on July 12, 1977, when Patsy Ann Paugh said:
“My talent is a dramatic interpretation that I wrote based on a portion of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I play two characters Miss Mackay, the stern head mistress, and Jean Brodie, the eccentric, vivacious school teacher. When I won second place in the National Forensic Tournament in Philadelphia the interpretation was 10 minutes long. For the talent competition it had to be cut to two minutes and 50 seconds. It's very difficult to establish character and build to a dramatic climax in less than three minutes.”
It is important to establish how influential TPOMJB was to Patsy. The main character-Miss Jean Brodie, was an independent, vivacious character whose favorite expression was “Crème de la crème”, which is a French term meaning, "the best of the best". Can you say “Jacqués, JonBenét, and Attaché?
Patsy took four months after the death of her daughter to finally sit down for an official interview. Her journalism and pageant background wasn’t lost on them either. Look what pops up almost right out of the gate, while asking about her education.
TRUJILLO: I’ve got to ask which talent.
PATSY: (Laughter) “The Kiss of Death” dramatic dialog.
THOMAS: (Inaudible) Miss Jean Brody.
PATSY: Your right.
TRUJILLO: Was that, was that earlier?
PR: “The Pride of Miss Jean Brody.” Well actual. . . no it wasn’t, actually what happened, uh, I did the Miss Jean Brody, I competed in high school with that and uh, placed nationally with it and then I had done that for Miss West Virginia and won with that and then when you go to Miss America you have to do through this business of um, in the event you make the top ten and your on television there are all these rights and royalties or whatever they call it and uh, I have, they have to give you clearance, okay, and to make a long story short, I was unable to get clearance for this. Uh, I can’t remember exactly the details, but uh, I ended up writing a dialog that I used and I don’t even remember, but it had a lot of the same characterizations and that kind of thing. It was all, I was definitely thrilled when I won the talent, you know, because it was a real chore getting there.
The following are quotes from the book/play, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie:
“Sandy screamed. Monica, whose face was becoming very red, swung the attaché case which held her books, so that it hit the girls who stood in its path and made them stand back from her.”
The speciality of the feast was pineapple cubes with cream, and the speciality of the day was that they were left to themselves. Both girls saved the cream to the last, then ate it in spoonfuls.
Coincidence? Perhaps. However, the next reference found inside the book, connects Patsy directly to the ransom note. This is from the same book/play that had inspired and influenced Patsy so profoundly, that she spent hours, days, years even- memorizing, rehearsing, and performing a full ten-minute skit from it.
“Oh dear,” said Rose out loud one day when they were settled to essay writing, “I can’t remember how you spell ‘possession.’ Are there two s’s or—?”
Everyone knows that the ransom note writer incorrectly spelled the word “possession”, using only one s, instead of two. Do you know how astronomical the odds are that anyone other than Patsy, is the ransom note writer?
Although not exactly the same, this connection is akin to a line Ted Kaczynski wrote in his published manifesto, “You can’t eat your cake and have it too.” The FBI BAU spotted this rather odd turn of phraseology, in a historical written document by Ted Kaczynski many years before. His influence was his mother, who taught him the “correct” way to say the proverb. Most of us today say “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” This piece of forensic linguistics evidence, became known as the “smoking proverb”. This case was solved almost entirely by forensic linguistics analysis, which determined that Ted Kacyznski, was indeed, the UNABOMBER.
Patsy said that her dramatic interpretation in her pageants was from a scene in TPOMJB, that involved her playing both, Miss MacKay and Jean Brodie. There is an explosive scene in the story that revolves around a fake letter that was written by two of Jean Brodie’s students pretending to be Jean Brodie. Familiar? The scene has Jean Brodie providing her own amateur handwriting and linguistic analysis. The following quotes are from the scene.
From the film, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969):
“It is in fact a letter. It was found by Ms. McKenzie in a library book. She glanced at it, but, after the first sentence she dare not actually read it, she brought it instantly to me.”
Patsy claimed in her interview with police that when she found the ransom note, she read a few lines and didn’t bother reading the rest. Ironically, the one line she did say she read was the one that ended with the word possession.
“At this time we have your daughter in our posession”
After Ms. McKay reads the letter out loud to Ms. Brodie, she hands the letter over to her and asks for her response. This is when the coy and calm, Ms. Brodie, confidently offers up her own handwriting analysis:
“It is a literary collaboration, two separate hands are involved. One of the authors slants her tail consonants in an unorthodox manner and the other does not. Also, the paper seems somewhat aged.”
Ms. MacKay becomes further perturbed by Ms. Brodie’s words and when she attempts to force her to resign her teaching post, Ms. Brodie delivers this statement from high on her soap box:
“I will not resign, and you will not dismiss me, Miss MacKay. You will not use that excuse of that pathetic, that humorous document to blackmail me. Mr. Louder, you are witness to this. Miss MacKay has made totally unsupported accusations against my name and yours. If she has one authentic thread of evidence. Just one. Let her bring it forth. Otherwise, if one more word of this outrageous calumny reaches my ears, I shall sue. I shall take Miss MacKay to the public courts and I shall sue the trustees of Marcia Blain, if they support her. I will not stand quietly by and allow myself to be crucified by a woman whose fit of frustration has overcome her judgement. If scandal is to your taste Miss MacKay, I shall give you a feast!
Pure Patsy.
JOHN RAMSEY: Patsy writes very neatly. She’s a feminine writer. There is misspellings in the note. She graduated at the top of her class. She doesn’t misspell words like business and possession.
Clearly, Patsy was influenced greatly by, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She embedded the story into her everyday life, especially into her pageant performances. Another discovery from a Redditor, made some months ago, clearly provides proof that Patsy had a history of embedding movie line references in her historical writings and letters.
In the 1980 movie, "The Shining", there is a scene that shows the author, Jack, had obsessively typed out the phrase, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", over and over and over, on his typewriter. In Patsy's 1995 Christmas newsletter to friends and family, she wrote, "All work and no play makes John a dull boy". This is clear evidence of Patsy using a line from a movie in her historical writings.
The author of the ransom note did the same thing.
Here’s the thing. Patsy Ramsey wrote the ransom note. She did so in her own hand, at the very least. However, this isn’t an exposé on Patsy’s handwriting. Numerous highly-qualified forensic document examiners have concluded that she wrote the note via handwriting analysis. Enough said.
This post is about another piece of evidence, found inside the ransom note, that points directly to Patsy Ramsey. When someone stages a crime scene, the personality of the stager is reflected in how the crime scene was staged. If you take a deep dive into the staging of any crime scene, and pair it with a completely thorough examination of known suspects, you should see the eyes of the stager looking right back at you. I see Patsy.
Patsy and Pageantry. Bread and Butter. Patsy was involved in pageantry and performing for a good number of her formative high school and college years. For the Talent portion of all of the pageants she performed in, she prided herself on doing something different. It was the “bread and butter” of her performances. While ninety-percent of contestants did some sort of of singing, dancing, or musical instrument routine, Patsy stuck out as an actor, playing and providing the voices for all characters in a scene she had picked out from her favorite book/play/movie. That play was The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
For at least five years straight, Patsy read, memorized, and crafted a performance from a scene in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. This play/book/movie was Patsy’s greatest influence growing up. Much like a certain band, song, or movie, may have influenced your life, this is what inspired Patsy in numerous ways in her young performing life.
From Linda McLean’s, 1998 book, JonBenét’s Mother: The Tragedy and The Truth! We gain this information and introspect:
“Patsy won the Miss West Virginia pageant held in June 1977. She had just finished her last final exam of the semester and had to hurry home just in time for the event. For her talent presentation, she used a scene from the play called “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.” This was the same scene she had performed to win national honors on our high school forensics team. In oral interpretation, as student takes a scene from a story or play and interprets it for the audience. There are no costumes, props or theatrical makeup and the speaker talks in a different voice for each character.”
This piece from the Charleston Daily Mail on July 12, 1977, when Patsy Ann Paugh said:
“My talent is a dramatic interpretation that I wrote based on a portion of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I play two characters Miss Mackay, the stern head mistress, and Jean Brodie, the eccentric, vivacious school teacher. When I won second place in the National Forensic Tournament in Philadelphia the interpretation was 10 minutes long. For the talent competition it had to be cut to two minutes and 50 seconds. It's very difficult to establish character and build to a dramatic climax in less than three minutes.”
It is important to establish how influential TPOMJB was to Patsy. The main character-Miss Jean Brodie, was an independent, vivacious character whose favorite expression was “Crème de la crème”, which is a French term meaning, "the best of the best". Can you say “Jacqués, JonBenét, and Attaché?
Patsy took four months after the death of her daughter to finally sit down for an official interview. Her journalism and pageant background wasn’t lost on them either. Look what pops up almost right out of the gate, while asking about her education.
TRUJILLO: I’ve got to ask which talent.
PATSY: (Laughter) “The Kiss of Death” dramatic dialog.
THOMAS: (Inaudible) Miss Jean Brody.
PATSY: Your right.
TRUJILLO: Was that, was that earlier?
PR: “The Pride of Miss Jean Brody.” Well actual. . . no it wasn’t, actually what happened, uh, I did the Miss Jean Brody, I competed in high school with that and uh, placed nationally with it and then I had done that for Miss West Virginia and won with that and then when you go to Miss America you have to do through this business of um, in the event you make the top ten and your on television there are all these rights and royalties or whatever they call it and uh, I have, they have to give you clearance, okay, and to make a long story short, I was unable to get clearance for this. Uh, I can’t remember exactly the details, but uh, I ended up writing a dialog that I used and I don’t even remember, but it had a lot of the same characterizations and that kind of thing. It was all, I was definitely thrilled when I won the talent, you know, because it was a real chore getting there.
The following are quotes from the book/play, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie:
“Sandy screamed. Monica, whose face was becoming very red, swung the attaché case which held her books, so that it hit the girls who stood in its path and made them stand back from her.”
The speciality of the feast was pineapple cubes with cream, and the speciality of the day was that they were left to themselves. Both girls saved the cream to the last, then ate it in spoonfuls.
Coincidence? Perhaps. However, the next reference found inside the book, connects Patsy directly to the ransom note. This is from the same book/play that had inspired and influenced Patsy so profoundly, that she spent hours, days, years even- memorizing, rehearsing, and performing a full ten-minute skit from it.
“Oh dear,” said Rose out loud one day when they were settled to essay writing, “I can’t remember how you spell ‘possession.’ Are there two s’s or—?”
Everyone knows that the ransom note writer incorrectly spelled the word “possession”, using only one s, instead of two. Do you know how astronomical the odds are that anyone other than Patsy, is the ransom note writer?
Although not exactly the same, this connection is akin to a line Ted Kaczynski wrote in his published manifesto, “You can’t eat your cake and have it too.” The FBI BAU spotted this rather odd turn of phraseology, in a historical written document by Ted Kaczynski many years before. His influence was his mother, who taught him the “correct” way to say the proverb. Most of us today say “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” This piece of forensic linguistics evidence, became known as the “smoking proverb”. This case was solved almost entirely by forensic linguistics analysis, which determined that Ted Kacyznski, was indeed, the UNABOMBER.
Patsy said that her dramatic interpretation in her pageants was from a scene in TPOMJB, that involved her playing both, Miss MacKay and Jean Brodie. There is an explosive scene in the story that revolves around a fake letter that was written by two of Jean Brodie’s students pretending to be Jean Brodie. Familiar? The scene has Jean Brodie providing her own amateur handwriting and linguistic analysis. The following quotes are from the scene.
From the film, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969):
“It is in fact a letter. It was found by Ms. McKenzie in a library book. She glanced at it, but, after the first sentence she dare not actually read it, she brought it instantly to me.”
Patsy claimed in her interview with police that when she found the ransom note, she read a few lines and didn’t bother reading the rest. Ironically, the one line she did say she read was the one that ended with the word possession.
“At this time we have your daughter in our posession”
After Ms. McKay reads the letter out loud to Ms. Brodie, she hands the letter over to her and asks for her response. This is when the coy and calm, Ms. Brodie, confidently offers up her own handwriting analysis:
“It is a literary collaboration, two separate hands are involved. One of the authors slants her tail consonants in an unorthodox manner and the other does not. Also, the paper seems somewhat aged.”
Ms. MacKay becomes further perturbed by Ms. Brodie’s words and when she attempts to force her to resign her teaching post, Ms. Brodie delivers this statement from high on her soap box:
“I will not resign, and you will not dismiss me, Miss MacKay. You will not use that excuse of that pathetic, that humorous document to blackmail me. Mr. Louder, you are witness to this. Miss MacKay has made totally unsupported accusations against my name and yours. If she has one authentic thread of evidence. Just one. Let her bring it forth. Otherwise, if one more word of this outrageous calumny reaches my ears, I shall sue. I shall take Miss MacKay to the public courts and I shall sue the trustees of Marcia Blain, if they support her. I will not stand quietly by and allow myself to be crucified by a woman whose fit of frustration has overcome her judgement. If scandal is to your taste Miss MacKay, I shall give you a feast!
Pure Patsy.
JOHN RAMSEY: Patsy writes very neatly. She’s a feminine writer. There is misspellings in the note. She graduated at the top of her class. She doesn’t misspell words like business and possession.
Clearly, Patsy was influenced greatly by, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She embedded the story into her everyday life, especially into her pageant performances. Another discovery from a Redditor, made some months ago, clearly provides proof that Patsy had a history of embedding movie line references in her historical writings and letters.
In the 1980 movie, "The Shining", there is a scene that shows the author, Jack, had obsessively typed out the phrase, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", over and over and over, on his typewriter. In Patsy's 1995 Christmas newsletter to friends and family, she wrote, "All work and no play makes John a dull boy". This is clear evidence of Patsy using a line from a movie in her historical writings.
The author of the ransom note did the same thing.
