Hi, Meara,
I assume youre looking for an answer beyond consistency is not an R strong suit? 
The whole window story always appeared to me as a staging story supplied fantastically by JR, before hed really thought it all the way through. So with that bias upfront, my response reflects mho.
In the first interview (1997), JR tells the interviewers that he came upon the window and estimated it was open a little 1/8:
But the window was open, about an eighth of an inch, and just kind latched it. So I went back down with Fleet, we looked around for some glass again, still didnt see any glass. And I told him that I thought that the break came from when I did that last summer.
JR then tells the interviewers in 1998, ( LS, intruder theorist, is among the interviewers) that the window was open 1 before he closed it and latched it. What JR did not know or remember at the time was that FW had been in the basement between 6:30 and 7:00 am and found the window
closed and unlatched. FW did not see the window as open, according to Kolar. Its also notable that JR took FW to this room to witness the broken window when the two of them searched the basement. JR leaves FW there to ponder this for a moment, while he dashes to the WC and finds JB.
JR seems to be embellishing his broken window story as he considers it over the years. Maybe an 1 opening sounds more believable than 1/8? IDK. If there is one piece of evidence of desperate staging, or a desperate story, this has to be in my top 5. moo
From the interviews, uncertainty of JR in parentheses: The whole story about how during the previous summer (or it could have been 2 or 3 times he had to get in the home this way) JR came by cab (he thinks) maybe car (no that wasnt it) and took off his suit, except for his shirt, (but maybe he left his shirt on) then kicked out a hole with his shoe, reached in and unlatched the window - seems to me like an attempt to create a logical opening for the intruder.
BTW, neither PR nor JR can figure out if the window was ever repaired. And neither LHP nor the gardener ever remember that broken window.
In year 2000 DOI was published. In DOI JR wrote that he finds the pane broken and the window open. He also sees the Samsonite suitcase there, right under it. JR muses maybe this is how the kidnapper got in and out of our house. He does not say in DOI that he forgot to mention this broken window to LE at the time, and it was 4 months later it was brought up.
So my apologies, that I cannot find logic in the story. Perhaps someone else can. Except from JR's story about entering through this window, we once again witness JR in his skivvies, as it just so frequently happens to him in his times of trial. moo :scared: mho