Not to ignore the Ramsey psychodynamics but, as detectives know, people often stage murder scenes not simply to point away from themselves but to make their guilt seem preposterous. 'There's no way the father (mother, sibling, relative, close friend) did that,' or 'If she was smart enough to hide this or that, why would she leave this other thing that puts her right in the frame?'
I think PR and JR covered both ends of the spectrum. Any staged injuries to JBR were meant to seem too shocking for any family member to have inflicted them. When the ransom note mocks JR, it inevitably raises the question of why either parent would be so clumsily obvious. At both extremes -- too awful, too dumb -- the staged elements succeeded in straining credibility and hamstringing a unified theory of the crime. I mean, look at us, 20 years on, still trying to connect all the pieces. That kind of success rarely comes by chance.
So again, not discounting possible subtexts (heh : ) I think the end of the ransom note and a number of other things were "duh" staging. I've wondered whether the Rams were capable of that much misleading detail under the circumstances, then realized I was trying again to understand them by thinking like a normal person - not the best method. Yes, I think the Rams were capable of that kind of spontaneous misleading detail, for two reasons.
In DOI, JR tells of how he began dating Patsy before breaking things off with the soon to be former girlfriend. The two women ended up walking towards John's apartment, Patsy with two soon to be used wine glasses in hand. Patsy avoided an altercation by saying (as John cowered behind the door) that she was a neighbor and was returning the glasses she'd borrowed. John was in awe of Patsy's ability to lie quickly, easily and well. In one way it's a funny story, but given JBR's horrendous injuries and murder, and the fact that the girlfriend Patsy headed off was the same one John had been cheating on his wife with for a year, we have to cross out "light-hearted anecdote" and say what was really going on; namely, that John and Patsy were bonding over shared values of pretense, avoiding blame, skillful lying, and pleasure in deceiving people they disliked or found inferior (This clannishness is to some degree rooted in Southern culture, but with the Rams there is some individual pathology too.)
The second reason I think the Rams were capable of many spontaneous staging details, verbal and visual, is that people whose egos are disordered in the way theirs were/are have a relationship with lying very different from other people's. Think for a moment about someone who sings well. This person has been a member of choirs and vocal groups off and on for years, and so on any singing occasion - around a bonfire on the beach, at holidays, just listening to music - this person can improvise harmonies, virtuality without thinking about it. Threading through the melody and chord structure is second nature. People like the Rams have the same sort of relationship with lying and deceiving. They've been doing it for years, they do it a little all the time; they blend in well. It's instinctive, second nature, no analytic thought required.
As to the pictures in the basement, although the police sound like they're recording the demo tape for How Not To Conduct An Interview, Patsy is marvelously unhelpful.
