The ransom note

[fr brown]

A trait that Patsy Ramsey shares with the RN writer is sometimes adding a space after a prefix. The RN writer does that here: un harmed, out smart, and under estimate. In her requested rewritings Patsy does this on un harmed pass 5 and in all five passes on counter measures.

Of the 338 Colorado writers in Gerald McMenamin's "corpus" of variants, 6% put a space between un and harmed. (That seems high, but I'll accept it at face value.) Zero writers in the corpus wrote under estimate. (McMenamin doesn't tell us how many writers wrote counter measures, but since it's a "free root compounded to another root" like underestimate, that's probably zero too.) BTW, zero writers wrote buriel. No surprise there.

I think adding a space inside some words was a strategy Patsy consciously employed as a disguise, but she didn't realize that it's not particularly common for writers to do that: her addition of a very pronounced space into countermeasures in her requested writings increased her association with the RN writer rather than diminishing it.

"Adding spaces" wasn't very well implemented in the ransom note anyway: the space between under and estimate is much smaller than the spaces between words in that area of the note. And in her 4th pass, it could be argued that Patsy did the same thing as the ransom note writer, wrote under estimate (!)

 

[fr brown]

I've been thinking today about the phrase adequate size attache. It's always struck me as odd because I would say adequately-sized. (I don't think the ransom note version qualifies as wrong, though: you wouldn't say adequately size.)

I looked at the interviews and see that Patsy in 1997 says twin size blanket and notebook size paper. (But in 1998 she says "it was letter-sized.") John avoids sizing anything.

In Death of Innocence, "Patsy" talks about a full-size angel tree while "John" talks about a medium-sized business. (Oddly perhaps, in the 2001 edition this has been changed to medium-size business.) I should mention that the NYT style manual seems to freely mix -size and -sized. Either seems to be acceptable.

Flat adverbs (those lacking ly) sometimes raise people's hackles. Patsy and John both seem to attach an ly where you'd expect, but it's harder to search for something that's not there.

Thinking about why an awkward adequate (with or without ly) would be in the ransom note, I wondered whether adequate was a favorite word of either of the Ramseys. John seems to like it; in 1998 he says that child Patsy had been disciplined by verbal rebuke but "it was very adequate." (Clunk!) In Death of Innocence there are five instances of adequate: one is in the ransom note; three are in John's voice; one I didn't find. In The Other Side of Suffering, there's an adequately explain and a fuel supply that's barely adequate. It's a fairly common word, I realize, but I haven't seen an instance of Patsy using it...except in the ransom note.

I don't, though, think the ransom note was dictated by John. I think if they'd both been involved that night, they'd both look like they'd just gotten up. Neither of them did. John was showered and shaved. Patsy was made-up and dressed. She, no doubt tweaking and recopying her ransom note, had run out of time, perhaps because John got up before his 5:30 alarm went off.

Why did Patsy burn through nine pieces of paper making a ransom note stuffed with Ramsey inside baseball? I think it was a clever attempt to frame John. He wouldn't perceive that he says, percent, and hence and adequate a lot. He didn't know that SBTC came from the conspicuously open Bible on his desk. But Patsy did. When she's being quizzed about that Bible during her interview, she never asks why all the questions, but she makes sure to say that it was always closed and that only John read it. On the first floor, an open dictionary had a corner folded up pointing to the word incest.

I do think this was too much to put together on the fly. I (reluctantly) suspect that this was an idea she'd been flirting with for some time. Spring 1996 had seen the Unabomber caught because of the unique word usage in his long manifesto. The story of his arrest was a huge deal. If Patsy was expecting to be replaced by another woman, her rough treatment of JonBenet would become known. That would be unacceptable for several reasons. Someone else would need to take the blame, uncontradicted by JonBenet.

 

[fr brown]

I've been thinking today about the phrase adequate size attache. It's always struck me as odd because I would say adequately-sized. (I don't think the ransom note version qualifies as wrong, though: you wouldn't say adequately size.)

I looked at the interviews and see that Patsy in 1997 says twin size blanket and notebook size paper. (But in 1998 she says "it was letter-sized.") John avoids sizing anything.

In Death of Innocence, "Patsy" talks about a full-size angel tree while "John" talks about a medium-sized business. (Oddly perhaps, in the 2001 edition this has been changed to medium-size business.) I should mention that the NYT style manual seems to freely mix -size and -sized. Either seems to be acceptable.

Flat adverbs (those lacking ly) sometimes raise people's hackles. Patsy and John both seem to attach an ly where you'd expect, but it's harder to search for something that's not there.

Thinking about why an awkward adequate (with or without ly) would be in the ransom note, I wondered whether adequate was a favorite word of either of the Ramseys. John seems to like it; in 1998 he says that child Patsy had been disciplined by verbal rebuke but "it was very adequate." (Clunk!) In Death of Innocence there are five instances of adequate: one is in the ransom note; three are in John's voice; one I didn't find. In The Other Side of Suffering, there's an adequately explain and a fuel supply that's barely adequate. It's a fairly common word, I realize, but I haven't seen an instance of Patsy using it...except in the ransom note.

I don't, though, think the ransom note was dictated by John. I think if they'd both been involved that night, they'd both look like they'd just gotten up. Neither of them did. John was showered and shaved. Patsy was made-up and dressed. She, no doubt tweaking and recopying her ransom note, had run out of time, perhaps because John got up before his 5:30 alarm went off.

Why did Patsy burn through nine pieces of paper making a ransom note stuffed with Ramsey inside baseball? I think it was a clever attempt to frame John. He wouldn't perceive that he says, percent, and hence and adequate a lot. He didn't know that SBTC came from the conspicuously open Bible on his desk. But Patsy did. When she's being quizzed about that Bible during her interview, she never asks what's with all the questions, but she makes sure to say that it was always closed and that only John read it. On the first floor, an open dictionary had a corner folded up pointing to the word incest.

I do think this was too much to put together on the fly. I (reluctantly) suspect that this was an idea she'd been flirting with for some time. Spring 1996 had seen the Unabomber caught because of the unique word usage in his long manifesto. The story of his arrest was a huge deal. If Patsy was expecting to be replaced by another woman, her rough treatment of JonBenet would become known. That would be unacceptable for several reasons. Someone else would need to take the blame, uncontradicted by JonBenet.

 

[fr brown]

Of course now I've found an instance of Patsy writing "adequate." In a letter to Mike and Pam, she says that thank you doesn't seem adequate enough. "Enough" looks more like "eanigh" but not sure what else it could be...

 

[fr brown]

....Why did Patsy burn through nine pieces of paper making a ransom note stuffed with Ramsey inside baseball? I think it was a clever attempt to frame John. He probably wouldn't that he be aware that he says, percent, and hence and adequate a lot. He didn't know that SBTC came from the conspicuously open Bible on his desk. But Patsy did. When she's being quizzed about that Bible during her interview, she never asks why she's being asked all these questions, but she makes sure to say that that Bible was always closed and that only John read it. On the first floor, an open dictionary had a corner folded up pointing to the word incest.

I do think this was too much to put together on the fly. I (reluctantly) suspect that this was an idea she'd been flirting with for some time. Spring 1996 had seen the Unabomber caught because of the unique word usage in his long manifesto. The story of his arrest was a huge deal. If Patsy was expecting to be replaced by another woman, her rough treatment of JonBenet would become known. That would be unacceptable for several reasons. Someone else would need to take the blame, uncontradicted by JonBenet.

One piece of evidence I overlooked until a few days ago is probably a piece of staging. It points to Patsy's guilt and suggests the motive. I'm going to be deliberately vague here. (But it has nothing to do with Burke and cannot be construed to support his involvement.)

Steve Thomas suggests that JonBenet's chronic genital injuries were a result of rough wiping, so they were probably not very deep into the vagina. Maybe they wouldn't be enough to get Patsy a jail term, but they still might adversely affect a divorce settlement, judges being only human.

Though I had taken a step toward premeditation based on the complexity of the ransom note, I ignored other aspects that might logically occur to someone premeditating a crime like this: gloves, cord, and duct tape, for instance. Why couldn't Patsy acquire these and ensure they have some foreign DNA on them? DNA degrades, but remnants can persist for a long time indoors. We know that Patsy was familiar with the OJ Simpson case. DNA evidence was big in that.

 

[fr brown]

I'm thinking primarily of the DNA in JonBenet's (new) underwear, which may be from saliva and which Bode said is from the same person who left his DNA on the waistband of the long johns. Assuming the above is correct, it does need explaining. (And there have been a few hypotheses.)

If Patsy wrote the note, which I'm convinced she did, how could that DNA get in those two places? Cheek swabbing for DNA came about in the early 1990s. Could swiping the rim of someone's glass with a glove (with later transfer) have done it? I'm not sure Patsy's quite that class of master criminal.

And of course I think there's evidence that Patsy intent was to frame John so foreign DNA would probably be more of a plan B.

 

[Emerald2]

[QUOTE) fr brown said:

Though I had taken a step toward premeditation based on the complexity of the ransom note, I ignored other aspects that might logically occur to someone premeditating a crime like this: gloves, cord, and duct tape, for instance. Why couldn't Patsy acquire these and ensure they have some foreign DNA on them? DNA degrades, but remnants can persist for a long time indoors. We know that Patsy was familiar with the OJ Simpson case. DNA evidence was big in that.

fr brown:

There is other evidence of premeditation. You mentioned the cord and duct tape. Neither of these items was traced to a source inside the house. The lack of sources is a little more consistent with premeditation than a spontaneous crime, for if Patsy was taken by surprise she might overlook the significance of hiding the sources. But if the crime was premeditated she had ample time to dispose of the sources beforehand.

More evidence of premeditation emerges from the hang-up 911 call at the Christmas party shortly before the murder. If the crime was an accident it cannot have much of a backstory, so police must treat this call as a random mistake unrelated to the crime. But there is not a shred of evidence to support this, and the silence of the people in the house regarding the call suggests somebody knows something they aren't telling.
The conclusion that some kind of conflict within the family was building to its climax is more realistic than the police effort to explain the call away.

Perhaps the best evidence of premeditation was enunciated by Fly of FFJ:

The accident idea is attractive mostly because it handles how a parent could be responsible for her death without requiring the parent be mentally ill or evil enough to kill her in cold blood. The problem, however, is that there are two horrendous injuries inflicted prior to death - the head injury and the strangulation - and two injuries makes it very, very hard to fit to an accident theory.

Advocates of accident theories must resort to far-fetched scenarios to deal with this issue. For example, in the traditional theory of Steve Thomas we are expected to believe a bright woman like Patsy couldn't tell if her own daughter was dead or alive.

The bottom line? Premeditation is the best model of the Ramsey case available.

 

[fr brown]

I don't know that people inside the house were silent after the Dec 23 911 call. I think there was a party going on. Fleet White said he misdialed.

Personally, I suspect that certain things walked out of the house in Patsy's handbag, like drafts of the ransom note.

I still view JonBenet's death that night as a rage killing by Patsy. But the complexity of the ransom note seems like too much for Patsy to have put together entirely on the fly.

 

[David Rogers]

I don't know that people inside the house were silent after the Dec 23 911 call. I think there was a party going on. Fleet White said he misdialed.

Personally, I suspect that certain things walked out of the house in Patsy's handbag, like drafts of the ransom note.

I still view JonBenet's death that night as a rage killing by Patsy. But the complexity of the ransom note seems like too much for Patsy to have put together entirely on the fly.

I would like to see a quote where Fleet White says he misdialed. You don’t misdial 911. If you had to dial 411 with a 9 In front you get 9411. You don’t get 911

 

[fr brown]

I would like to see a quote where Fleet White says he misdialed. You don’t misdial 911. If you had to dial 411 with a 9 In front you get 9411. You don’t get 911

Well, actually in the 80s or 90s, 911 would sometimes be dialed when I was connecting via modem. I don't remember the details of how and when it happened, but on one occasion a cop came to the house. He didn't come in.

In the reddit thread I looked at regarding this call, someone said that during the 90s, he sometimes connected to emergency services if the numbers appeared in the right sequence somewhere in the phone number.

The information about Fleet White appears to have come from DOI: "During the party Fleet White used our phone to make a series of calls, trying to get some medicine to his mother in a hospital in Aspen, Colorado. Apparently he dialed wrong and got 911. The police called back, but after checking with Fleet and the rest of the people in the house, Susan Stine informed them that the call was a mistake. The 911 call remains somewhat of a mystery." If Fleet White disputes this, I'm not aware of it.

 

[10ofRods]

Fleet White said in an interview that he's not sharing whatever it is he told the Grand Jury. He and Priscilla are still hoping to be witnesses in a future proceeding.

 

[fr brown]

Fleet White said in an interview that he's not sharing whatever it is he told the Grand Jury. He and Priscilla are still hoping to be witnesses in a future proceeding.

Steve Thomas' book was published after DOI. His account of the call is consistent with the Ramseys' though he doesn't mention who was involved.

Thomas is good friends with the Whites. I'm sure White would've told him.

 

[David Rogers]

Well, actually in the 80s or 90s, 911 would sometimes be dialed when I was connecting via modem. I don't remember the details of how and when it happened, but on one occasion a cop came to the house. He didn't come in.

In the reddit thread I looked at regarding this call, someone said that during the 90s, he sometimes connected to emergency services if the numbers appeared in the right sequence somewhere in the phone number.

The information about Fleet White appears to have come from DOI: "During the party Fleet White used our phone to make a series of calls, trying to get some medicine to his mother in a hospital in Aspen, Colorado. Apparently he dialed wrong and got 911. The police called back, but after checking with Fleet and the rest of the people in the house, Susan Stine informed them that the call was a mistake. The 911 call remains somewhat of a mystery." If Fleet White disputes this, I'm not aware of it.

Death of Innocence. Let the defendants provide the facts.

 

[David Rogers]

Fleet White said in an interview that he's not sharing whatever it is he told the Grand Jury. He and Priscilla are still hoping to be witnesses in a future proceeding.

That can only John or Burke.

 

[addie123445]

Dont get me wrong I think one of the Ramseys penned the ransom note, but Ive always thought it was wierd that there were no tears found on the paper, think about this, with all that went on that night how could anyone be composed, and not in a state of chaos, and yet be be able to pen a ransom note that was pristine?

It certainly is very suspicious. I am relatively new to this case, so from first glance, it does seem interesting. The note doesn't seem to make sense. Why would they fake the note? The fact that it had no finger prints makes it even stranger. This seems hard to do before they called the cops.

 

[IronOrchid]

What if the ransom note was written by Patsy, but ordered by someone else who didn't double check it or have the goddamned sense to tell her it was weird and too long?

 

[ekardh]

The ransom note really screws with everything, because when I examine what happened to JonBenét I don't believe it was done by any of the three suspects. She was strangled with a garrote so tight that the wire was almost invisible. That wasn't staging. No way did Burke bash her over the head and the parents decide "quick let's brutally garrote her still-warm body and stick a paintbrush up her foo-foo!". They could've pretended she fell down the stairs or slipped in the bath if that's really what happened.

Whoever garroted JonBenét did it for sadosexual reasons. Unless Burke was something out of The Omen (and there's no reason to believe that), it couldn't have been him. That leaves John or Patsy, and they don't seem to fit the profile either. Problem is that the ransom note stinks of Patsy, and why would you fake a ransom note if you were innocent? My only theory is that Patsy assumed that Burke had done it, as they couldn't see any evidence of an intruder, they panicked and tried to cover it up.

What kind of intruder is going to hang around drafting long-winded ransom notes? I guess if it was someone with some kind of developmental disorder, who had to have known details about John and his bonus. Someone who had been to the house before, a baby-sitter? Relative or family friend?

I think this case is unsolvable. The murder screams intruder but the ransom note screams inside-job.

 

[fr brown]

The ransom note really screws with everything, because when I examine what happened to JonBenét I don't believe it was done by any of the three suspects. She was strangled with a garrote so tight that the wire was almost invisible. That wasn't staging. No way did Burke bash her over the head and the parents decide "quick let's brutally garrote her still-warm body and stick a paintbrush up her foo-foo!". They could've pretended she fell down the stairs or slipped in the bath if that's really what happened.

Whoever garroted JonBenét did it for sadosexual reasons. Unless Burke was something out of The Omen (and there's no reason to believe that), it couldn't have been him. That leaves John or Patsy, and they don't seem to fit the profile either. Problem is that the ransom note stinks of Patsy, and why would you fake a ransom note if you were innocent? My only theory is that Patsy assumed that Burke had done it, as they couldn't see any evidence of an intruder, they panicked and tried to cover it up.

What kind of intruder is going to hang around drafting long-winded ransom notes? I guess if it was someone with some kind of developmental disorder, who had to have known details about John and his bonus. Someone who had been to the house before, a baby-sitter? Relative or family friend?

I think this case is unsolvable. The murder screams intruder but the ransom note screams inside-job.

I would have agreed that Patsy not fitting the profile is a pretty good argument--until last week.

A woman I've known for 15 years who I would have characterized as completely normal, boring even, a mother, doesn't drink, was transformed into a raging psycho, delivering cryptic threats in a low voice so that neighboring tables couldn't overhear. Everyone within earshot was backing away with hands raised. This was in response to a compliment about the nice relationship she has with her daughter. I have no idea what would have happened if there had been a heavy flashlight to hand instead of a butter knife.

There had been a mention some years ago of a medication for some mysterious autoimmune disease causing behavior issues. I assumed irritability. Holy c**p.

 

[dgfred]

that is interesting ekard... I never thought about PR 'thinking' BR had hurt JonBenet and then writing the note. Hmmmm

 

[Chewy]

The thing that makes me think Patsy wrote the note is that whoever wrote it, put the notepad back in the drawer they took it from. Why would they do that? Wouldn't they just leave it out and leave? Obviously it's a fake note. But really maybe someone did break in and do this to the little girl and Patsy thought John did it because she knew of previous sexual assault We don't know what kind of man he was at home, he may have been a drunk who had raging blackouts and she didn't believe him when he denied it so she wrote the note to cover up.