allan said:
Do other people think this is a genuine 911 call? In other words, is Patsy Ramsey genuinely seeking help from the authorities or is she beginning a process through which she intends to manipulate the authorities? ...
Allan, it is an acting job from someone whose "talent" in pageants was drama.
Any of us who have training in this area could make a very "believeable" 911 call right down to the heavy breathing (which was overdone in my opinion).
Linguistically, "We have a kidnapping" is very suspect. Most people would say, "My daughter has been kidnapped." But Patsy chose to distance herself from JonBenet by not using the personal possessive pronoun "my" and instead used the plural non-possessive "we." She leaves out "daughter" altogether.
So, instead of focusing the operator's attention on
her daughter, JonBenet, Patsy tries to focus attention on the word
kidnapping. She is setting the stage, trying to sell the idea that JonBenet has been "kidnapped." To reinforce this, Patsy next hurriedly mentions the ransom note.
When the operator tries to get Patsy to give details of JonBenet's appearance, all Patsy can say is that she is six years old and blonde. Her mind is not on describing JonBenet, it is on SELLING the "kidnapping."
After a pause in the conversation, Patsy is afraid the operator is not buying her story, so she ups the ante but putting "panic" in her voice and changing her speech to an emotional pleading in order to elict the operator's sympathy.
Still afraid her performance has not been totally convincing, and wanting to call multiple friends to come over, (even though the ransom note said JonBenet would be beheaded if they talked to a dog), Patsy HANGS UP on the operator!
In addition, I believe Burke was standing there, and Patsy did not want him to hear her performance. Burke was sent back to bed with strict instructions to STAY THERE until further notice, and then Patsy got busy calling friends to come over. This kept the line busy so the operator could not call back, and the friends served many purposes. They helped contaminate the scene and were a buffer for the Ramseys.
At this point, you have a conundrum. If Patsy truly believed the ransom note so much as to say to the operator "We have a kidnapping," why did Patsy NOT believe the ransom note when it said if you talk to ANYONE, "she" (meaning JonBenet) would be beheaded? Did Patsy believe the ransom note or not?
Even if a person thinks, "I'll call the police anyway because I need help and I'll risk it" ... would you call over multiple friends? Would you call them the minute you hung up with the 911 operator? Would you have them come in and contaminate everything in your house before investigators could begin processing the crime scene?
Patsy was selling something when she called the 911 operator. She was selling the story of a kidnapping that never took place. She had to explain JonBenet's dead body in their house. Patsy was either covering for herself, or someone else, but the ransom note (penned by Patsy) and the 911 call were all for the same purpose. She had to sell the idea that there had been an attempted kidnapping by some nefarious "foreign faction."
Patsy may be a semi-believeable actress, but she's no salesman ... and I'm not buying.
IMO