Chester A. Ubowski
Some of Ubowski's preliminary findings were revealed in the affidavit used as justification for the Charlevoix search warrant. According to affiant Jane Harmer, Ubowski provided Detective Linda Arndt the following information: "The analysis of the handwriting samples obtained from Patsy Ramsey showed "indications" which suggest that Patsy Ramsey may have written the reported ransom note." Later in the affidavit, Harmer further states "He determined that there is evidence which indicates the ransom note may have been written by Patricia Ramsey but "the evidence falls short of that necessary to support a definite conclusion." Ubowski "is said to have found 24 of 26 letters in the ransom note which matched exemplars from Patsy Ramsey"
Leonard Speckin
concluded that differences between the writing of Mrs. Ramsey's handwriting and the author of the Ransom Note prevented him from identifying Mrs. Ramsey as the author of the Ransom Note, but he was unable to eliminate her. "When I compare the handwriting habits of Patsy Ramsey with those in the questioned ransom note, there exists agreement to the extent that some of her individual letter formations and letter combinations do appear in the ransom note." (Epstein Deposition (p. 138:9-14) "When this agreement is weighed against the number, type and consistency of the differences present, I am unable to identify Patsy Ramsey as the author of the questioned ransom note with any degree of certainty. I am, however, unable to eliminate her as the author." However, Speckin reportedly was ready to testify that "there was only an infinitesimal chance that some random intruder would have handwriting characteristics so remarkably similar to those of a parent sleeping upstairs."
Edwin F. Alford, Jr.
Edwin Alford, a private forensic document examiner, states the evidence fell short of that needed to support a conclusion that Mrs. Ramsey wrote the note.
Lloyd Cunningham (Hired by the Ramseys)
Lloyd Cunningham, a private forensic document examiner hired by defendants, concluded that there were no significant similar individual characteristics shared by the handwriting of Mrs. Ramsey and the author of the Ransom Note, but there were many significant differences between the handwritings. In his Wolf v. Ramsey deposition, Gideon Epstein agreed with Ramsey attorney James Rawls' characterization of Cunningham's findings: "he cannot identify, nor eliminate Patsy Ramsey as the author of the ransom note..." and "he has spent 20 hours examining the samples and documents and found that there were no significant individual characteristics, but much significant difference between Patsy's writing and the note"
Howard C. Rile, Jr. (Hired by the Ramseys)
Rile Findings. "Howard Rile concluded that Mrs. Ramsey was between "probably not" and "elimination," on a scale of whether she wrote the Ransom Note.
Larry Ziegler
" It was determined and is still determined by myself that Patsy Ramsey is the writer of the ransom note."
Cina Wong
Question by Lin Wood: "Well, do you feel that you have eliminated all reasonable doubt about whether Patsy Ramsey wrote the ransom note?
Answer by Cina Wong: In this case, I highly believe she wrote the note.
Q. And please answer my question.
A. I am sorry.
Q. Do you feel that you have eliminated all reasonable doubt?
A. With the people, the possibilities of who could be involved in this case with the three handwriting samples that were given to me and enormous -- the enormous similarities that Patsy Ramsey's handwriting and the note, yes, I believe she is the writer.
Richard Dusak
His study concluded that there was no evidence that Patsy wrote the note.
Gideon Epstein
from his deposition
Q. What is your degree of certainty yourself as you sit here today that Patsy Ramsey wrote the note?
A. I am absolutely certain that she wrote the note.
Wolf vs Ramsey was flawed in the Ramseys favour. Above are the opinions of all the examiners I could find. If you are going to accept the opinions of experts hired by the suspects in a murder case, go ahead. But we know that the Ramsey's cherry picked people to perform lie detecter tests, and it still took several attempts for them to pass. The fact that their two paid experts give the lowest likelihood that Patsy authored the note is not a coincidence. Remove those two from the equation and only Richard Dusak remains as a doubter that Patsy wrote the note.
Andreww
I think some of what you’ve written re: Ubowski is misleading and possibly incorrect. Specifically:
Later in the affidavit, Harmer further states "He determined that there is evidence which indicates the ransom note may have been written by Patricia Ramsey but "the evidence falls short of that necessary to support a definite conclusion." Ubowski "is said to have found 24 of 26 letters in the ransom note which matched exemplars from Patsy Ramsey"
This reads as if the “24 of 26 letters” is stated in the search warrant/affidavit. I’ve been wrong before, but I don’t think that I am this time. This quote does not come from the search warrant/affidavit, nor does it come from any official source.
As it turns out there is reason to doubt that Ubowski ever made such a claim.
As some (sadly, not all) of us understand, interviewers are not permitted to lie or deceive during depositions (unlike the interviews conducted by Thomas, Smit, Levin, Kane, etc wherein deception is permitted). Of course, during a deposition one might lie anyway, but the consequences can be quite serious. In the Thomas deposition we learn – unless Wood is breaking the law and violating the code ethics, etc – that “...Mr. Ubowski and the CBI said they don't even make that kind of analysis with respect to the 24 out of the 26 letters of the alphabet...”
The “24 of 26 letters” originates with Thomas, who claimed that Wickman told Eller and Eller told him.
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Out of your list of experts, Epstein and Wong were both rejected by the Court. YOU can disagree with the Court and that’s fine but it doesn’t change the fact that in this matter a court of law did not find these experts to be credible (Epstein didn’t find Wong credible, either!). This is something that should be taken into consideration when considering expert’s opinions.
Ziegler is forgotten, to me so I’ll pass on him. I tend to ignore the Ramsey expert’s. That leaves us the four BPD experts. None of the four BPD experts identified Mrs Ramsey and none of them were able to eliminate her. If you read the Thomas deposition it becomes clear that the majority of people tested could not be eliminated. This is the reason why Thomas was always careful to say that out of the 73 people whose handwriting had been compared, Mrs Ramseys was the only one KNOWN TO BE IN THE HOUSE who could not be eliminated.
The question should be, what significance do we attach to the fact that Mrs Ramsey could not be eliminated? It seems that RDi attach a great deal to this, but IDI – myself, anyway – attach very little. Most people could not be eliminated. No credible expert identified her.
Incidentally, I think that even if these experts had eliminated her one could still argue that Mrs Ramsey wrote the note (experts can be fooled) just as some argue, despite elimination, that Mr Ramsey wrote the note.
...
AK
