I am mainly concerned with the ransom note, and I try to analyse it item by item. At present I am trying to answer one simple question: what small foreign faction are we supposed to have brought to mind by this note? To what foreign faction is the note alluding? Is it a particular foreign faction or is it meant to be vague and generic?
One possibility is that we should think of a Muslim faction in the al-Qaeda style. But the murder was in 1996. If it had been post-911 then small foreign faction might definitely have been suggesting radical Muslims. Nevertheless, it was in September 1996 that Bin Laden declared a fatwa of hostility upon the USA. So Muslim extremists is a still a possibility in that context.
(Im not suggesting here that any foreign faction was actually involved, by the way. I dont think for a minute that Bin Laden and co might have killed JBR! I think the note is all misinformation, but what is it that we are supposed to think?)
All the same, there is nothing else in the note that points in this direction. No other hints. It doesnt end with Allahu akbar! or other Muslim extremist slogans, for example.
On the contrary, I think that the signature Victory SBTC is most likely Christian in intent. Saved By The Cross. (And I think the opening Listen carefully may have a Biblical tone too.)
So what other foreign factions if not Arabs? Latinos? Mexicans? Nicuraguans? Canadians!? In a Cold War context one might think Cubans, but not in Boulder in 1996.
One possibility I have considered is: Koreans. And, in that case, the foreign faction may mean a faction within the church. Americanized Koreans are into exactly the same style of Christianity as the Ramseys, and indeed the Ramseys church had/has congregations in South Korea. And there are Christian Korean communities in Boulder and Denver etc. since the 1950s.
Two things point to this identification. The word Korea on the paintbrush used as a garotte. And the threat of beheading in the note.
Post Iraq war we associate beheading with al-Qaeda, but probably not so readily in 1996. Whereas beheading was an infamous traditional mode of execution among Koreans.
Additionally: South Korea does lots of computer business. If you look at the computer literature of that period youll find that the phrase Skills Based Technological Change is being used routinely to describe the computer revolution then booming in South Korean society.
A case can be made for the "foreign faction" being Arabs, but it seems unlikely to me.
Can anyone add any thoughts on this question. What foreign faction are we supposed to have in mind here?
One possibility is that we should think of a Muslim faction in the al-Qaeda style. But the murder was in 1996. If it had been post-911 then small foreign faction might definitely have been suggesting radical Muslims. Nevertheless, it was in September 1996 that Bin Laden declared a fatwa of hostility upon the USA. So Muslim extremists is a still a possibility in that context.
(Im not suggesting here that any foreign faction was actually involved, by the way. I dont think for a minute that Bin Laden and co might have killed JBR! I think the note is all misinformation, but what is it that we are supposed to think?)
All the same, there is nothing else in the note that points in this direction. No other hints. It doesnt end with Allahu akbar! or other Muslim extremist slogans, for example.
On the contrary, I think that the signature Victory SBTC is most likely Christian in intent. Saved By The Cross. (And I think the opening Listen carefully may have a Biblical tone too.)
So what other foreign factions if not Arabs? Latinos? Mexicans? Nicuraguans? Canadians!? In a Cold War context one might think Cubans, but not in Boulder in 1996.
One possibility I have considered is: Koreans. And, in that case, the foreign faction may mean a faction within the church. Americanized Koreans are into exactly the same style of Christianity as the Ramseys, and indeed the Ramseys church had/has congregations in South Korea. And there are Christian Korean communities in Boulder and Denver etc. since the 1950s.
Two things point to this identification. The word Korea on the paintbrush used as a garotte. And the threat of beheading in the note.
Post Iraq war we associate beheading with al-Qaeda, but probably not so readily in 1996. Whereas beheading was an infamous traditional mode of execution among Koreans.
Additionally: South Korea does lots of computer business. If you look at the computer literature of that period youll find that the phrase Skills Based Technological Change is being used routinely to describe the computer revolution then booming in South Korean society.
A case can be made for the "foreign faction" being Arabs, but it seems unlikely to me.
Can anyone add any thoughts on this question. What foreign faction are we supposed to have in mind here?