The Ransom Note: a calling card?

[BlueCrab]

Like most people I think Patsy wrote the ransom note but I think she wrote it in conjunction with someone else. I think the someone else was one of the perpetrators and was beside her, dictating most of it to her, maybe there was another one giving instructions over the phone.

aussiesheila,

The six qualified document examiners assigned by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to study the original ransom note before it was destructively destroyed for further scientific testing determined it was very unlikely that Patsy wrote the note.

The QDE's eliminated John as the writer and came close to eliminating Patsy, but they could not eliminate Burke as the writer.

It's important to know that the CBI's six experts were the only QDE's who had the original note to examine, an essential ingredient to produce a credible analysis. All other QDE's worked from photo copies of the original note.

IMO Burke penned the ransom note in conjunction with an older teen. Their vocabularies were assisted by the dictionary found open on the table.

BlueCrab

 

[Holdontoyourhat]

IMO the author is a middle-aged male, not a child.

Elementary school aged children's penmanship is typically better than the writing found in the note.

Words 'attache' and 'fat cat' more likely found in the vocabulary of an older man, not a child.

The type of crime using these methods (ransom note, blunt instrument, garrote) is exponentially more commonly perpetrated by an older man.

Note that the methods that were used to kill would also have been effective against an adult. That indicates the killer has killed before and likely since.

 

[aussiesheila]

reply to BlueCrab

Yes maybe I shouldn’t have said that. What I meant was that most people posting on this forum think Patsy wrote the note. But even that may not be correct - it was just an impression I got.

If there are no other experts who have given a contrary opinion to to the QDE’s that you refer to, then I will have to revise my theory. However I thought there were other experts who considered it highly likely that Patsy wrote the note. I will have to go back and check.

I have never really considered Burke before, probably because I have based my ideas mainly on what I read in the Schiller book and I don’t think he paid too much attention to Burke.

I can quite believe that Burke was one of the children who was being sexually abused and that the perpetrators had him involved in their activities on the night of the murder. If that was so then I think it quite likely that Burke would have been the one they got to write the note. I still think though that Patsy was part of it, and even if she didn’t write the note she knew it had been written and that she had to ‘find’ it the next morning.

I have just read somewhere else in this forum where someone said that Burke's bed was 'made' ie unslept in on the morning after, which I thought interesting although I am not sure that it is a 'fact'. But if that is true it would certainly point to Burke's involvement.

 

[twilight]

According to Steve Thomas - page 19 - The lights were off in the nearby bedroom of the second child, and Reichenbach looked in on Burke Ramsey, who appeared asleep, then closed that door.

The bed being made in the photo sited by Camper, would have been taken after Burke left - otherwise he would be in the bed. Some people - even children and especially children with problems, have compulsive behaviour. (I was never that lucky with mine) but this compulsive behaviour could include things like bed making. It is part of the routine and you do it in an obsessive/compulsive ritual. Or he could just be a very well behaved 9 almost 10 year old boy, despite the fact that his role model mom was rumoured to be less than tidy behind the scenes and his sister for sure was not a neetnik. Thomas page 19 describes her room. "Dolls and clothes lay about the room. ... Strewn amid the toys were trophies and little tiaras."

Or maybe John, nope that doesn't work - his own bed wasn't made - well, maybe Fleet White was the OC. Anyway, someone sure was because Officer Reichenbach saw Burke in the bed. End of discussion.

 

[Miss Daisey]

reply to BlueCrab

Yes maybe I shouldn’t have said that. What I meant was that most people posting on this forum think Patsy wrote the note. But even that may not be correct - it was just an impression I got.

If there are no other experts who have given a contrary opinion to to the QDE’s that you refer to, then I will have to revise my theory. However I thought there were other experts who considered it highly likely that Patsy wrote the note. I will have to go back and check.

I have never really considered Burke before, probably because I have based my ideas mainly on what I read in the Schiller book and I don’t think he paid too much attention to Burke.

I can quite believe that Burke was one of the children who was being sexually abused and that the perpetrators had him involved in their activities on the night of the murder. If that was so then I think it quite likely that Burke would have been the one they got to write the note. I still think though that Patsy was part of it, and even if she didn’t write the note she knew it had been written and that she had to ‘find’ it the next morning.

I have just read somewhere else in this forum where someone said that Burke's bed was 'made' ie unslept in on the morning after, which I thought interesting although I am not sure that it is a 'fact'. But if that is true it would certainly point to Burke's involvement.

Re: who wrote the note? Nobody knows. The CBI or some so-call handwritting experts have claimed the possibility of one person or the other. In PMPT, Schiller notes that a federal judge in the Oklahoma City bombing...which, I believe, was held in Denver, Colorado...would not allow handwritting analysis into evidence saying she/he thought of it as "junk science". (paraphrasing) I suppose one draws conclusions by phrasing or writting style but depending on how many cups of coffee I've had you probably wouldn't recognize my handwritting from a/m to p/m either...especially if I were trying to disguise it.

Re: Burke's "made" bed; Did he ever go to bed that night...or was he sleeping elsewhere?

There's also the matter of the bed skirt in either a guest room or JAR's room. I can't remember where I either saw a photograph or read that it was turned up on one side. I'm wondering whether a perp might have hidden under that bed; whether someone turned it up while searching the house for JonBenet; or if Burke hid under that bed instead of sleeping in his own bed. In any case, it's reasonable to assume that he either saw, heard or knew what was happening, IMO.

 

[BlueCrab]

I have just read somewhere else in this forum where someone said that Burke's bed was 'made' ie unslept in on the morning after, which I thought interesting although I am not sure that it is a 'fact'. But if that is true it would certainly point to Burke's involvement.

aussiesheila,

Yes, Burke's bed was made in the crime scene photo. There's a rumor that Fleet White made the bed before taking Burke to his house at 7:00 AM that morning, but there's no source for that statement. And why would someone make a bed at a crime scene?

Earlier, the parents and at least one cop allegedly looked in on Burke and he reportedly was in the bed asleep (although he later admitted he was faking sleep). However, no one "woke him up" until 7:00. Also, the enhanced 911 call places Burke downstairs in the kitchen at 5:52 AM. I wonder if Burke was fully dressed at 5:52 when his voice was captured on the 911 tape?

The logo from a Hi-Tec boot was imprinted in the mold on the wine cellar floor, next to JonBenet's body. The police have determined the parents had been lying about Burke not owning Hi-Tecs. But Burke himself and Fleet White III admitted to the grand jurors in 1999 that Burke owned Hi-Tecs. However, why would Burke be wearing boots in the middle of the night?

Was Burke dressed so as to carry the body outside and complete the bogus kidnap staging described in the fake ransom note, but was stopped by the surprise snowfall and the footprints that would be left in the snow?

BlueCrab

 

[twilight]

I am a linguistic expert with a published article on the Ramsey ransom note. I concluded that Patsy Ramsey wrote the note.

There are a number of sites on the Internet that look at the Ramseys and their note. Pretty much everyone (linguistically) concludes that Patsy is the author.

The QED's look at handwriting. Linguists look at how the text is structured and functioning. There is a huge difference.

When people attempt to forge signatures - primarily the work of QED's - they make comparisons between the authentic and the forged. They are really good at spotting discrepancies. However, when people attempt to disguise their handwriting it becomes difficult.

The ransom note was written to disguise. The letters are not consistent. Therefore, it becomes difficult to compare a bunch of different letters. If you have 2 a's, for instance, as you might in a signature, you can say this a is different from that a. But when you have 5 a's you can say well this one is similar to that one, but not to that one, and only slightly to that one, and not at all to that one and possibly to that one. See the problem. It's disproving versus proving. It's easy to say they don't match. It's difficult to say with any certainty that attempts to disguise do match.

But text - there you can make a match. People structure text the way they have learned to do it. The average person cannot vary their syntactic structure, or their semological choices. Most cannot even vary their semological level of functioning. For instance, do you know the difference between an offer of goods and services as opposed to a statement of information? This is Hallidayian theory of how the language works. Could you vary your text to knowingly reflect one, or the other? Most people can't. They only change the words and that is almost insignificant in the bigger scale of things.

Thus, when you look closely at the Ramsey ransom note, it is possible to see a lot of language stuff that cannot be changed at will. That's what I do. I look very, very closely using a tried and true method to deconstruct the text.

Patsy wrote the note.

 

[BlueCrab]

Patsy wrote the note.

Twilight,

You're wearing me down. Or maybe it's because you were nice to me for a change in one of your posts. In either event, I agree that linguistics look at the issue differently and therefore Patsy could be the writer of the ransom note. However, I have one more item pointing to Burke as the writer.

In addition to the government's six QDE's who say it's not likely Patsy wrote it, please take a look at the conclusions Darnay Hoffman's experts came up with in preparation for the Wolf v Ramsey defamation lawsuit. In 1997 they didn't have the exemplars from Patsy they really needed to make credible analyses, so they used whatever they could get. Their exemplars included the captions on the pictures in Burke's personal photo album, which Hoffman told them were written by Patsy.

But IMO the captions were clearly written by Burke, not Patsy. Hoffman's QDE's said whoever wrote the captions also wrote the ransom note. IOW, if I am right, without realizing it they said Burke wrote the ransom note.

When Patsy was questioned about who wrote the captions on the pictures, she said she doesn't remember. The captions can be reviwed at ACandyRose website.

BlueCrab

 

[bensmom98]

Was Burke dressed so as to carry the body outside and complete the bogus kidnap staging described in the fake ransom note, but was stopped by the surprise snowfall and the footprints that would be left in the snow?

BlueCrab

BC-

In some earlier posts you estimated that Burke was 90 lbs at the time of the murder. JonBenet was 45 lbs. That would be half of his body weight! Do you really think that he would have been able to carry her outside without a HUGE commotion? Would he have had to carry her upstairs, too? Are you suggesting that he was going to be accompanying someone who could have carried her body?????

 

[twilight]

Twilight,

You're wearing me down. Or maybe it's because you were nice to me for a change in one of your posts. In either event, I agree that linguistics look at the issue differently and therefore Patsy could be the writer of the ransom note. However, I have one more item pointing to Burke as the writer.

In addition to the government's six QDE's who say it's not likely Patsy wrote it, please take a look at the conclusions Darnay Hoffman's experts came up with in preparation for the Wolf v Ramsey defamation lawsuit. In 1997 they didn't have the exemplars from Patsy they really needed to make credible analyses, so they used whatever they could get. Their exemplars included the captions on the pictures in Burke's personal photo album, which Hoffman told them were written by Patsy.

But IMO the captions were clearly written by Burke, not Patsy. Hoffman's QDE's said whoever wrote the captions also wrote the ransom note. IOW, if I am right, without realizing it they said Burke wrote the ransom note.

When Patsy was questioned about who wrote the captions on the pictures, she said she doesn't remember. The captions can be reviwed at ACandyRose website.

BlueCrab

Well, IMO, he'd have to be one weird little boy. I think Patsy wrote the captions. Many mothers do this. They write in 1st person for their young children in the belief that it is cute. Mothers also talk in 1st person for babies. It is considered to be cute. Patsy strikes me as this sort of 'cute' mother. JBR would probably disagree, but that is neither here nor there. Public persona versus private persona. Not always the same as we see over and over and over again.

Darney Hoffman's lawsuit was long after 1997. I think it was about 2001. He had access to a lot of stuff. I'm surprised he didn't use linguistic analysis. There certainly are lots of forensic linguists available in the US.

And in summation I have to say - Burke simply would not be able to write the note. It is too sophisticated and complex for any 9, almost 10 year old. There's all sorts of stuff out there on the Internet - corpuses of children's writing - this means large collections of language that kids of various ages have constructed. Even at age 10 - they simply do not hit this level of competency. I'm not talking handwriting - I'm talking syntactic structure. Even the spelling - come on. 'countermeasures' 'individuals' 'foreign' heck I even know a 20 something male the consistently spells 'monitor' - 'moniter.' 'attaché' - that's another 10 year old word.

Are you suggesting Burke's a savant? This I might buy, but his mother still wrote the note.

 

[Voice of Reason]

In addition to the government's six QDE's who say it's not likely Patsy wrote it, please take a look at the conclusions Darnay Hoffman's experts came up with in preparation for the Wolf v Ramsey defamation lawsuit. In 1997 they didn't have the exemplars from Patsy they really needed to make credible analyses, so they used whatever they could get. Their exemplars included the captions on the pictures in Burke's personal photo album, which Hoffman told them were written by Patsy.

But IMO the captions were clearly written by Burke, not Patsy. Hoffman's QDE's said whoever wrote the captions also wrote the ransom note. IOW, if I am right, without realizing it they said Burke wrote the ransom note.

BlueCrab,

i agree with a lot of your opinions on this case, but here, i think you've erred for two reasons.

1-if the 6 QDE's are credible, then burke is not the author of the ransom note, and they had plenty of real samples of burke's to work with. they unquestionably eliminated burke and john as the author.

2-if you want to buy the analysis of hoffman's QDE's, you must not only dismiss the conclusions of the original 6 QDE's, but also be prepared to accept the conclusion that the captions MAY have been written by patsy. heck, these guys were brought in by hoffman specifically to counter the 6 original QDE's!! also, these were not accepted by the courts as credible since they worked with copies of the ransom notes as well as copies of the samples, so the conclusions were not that solid.

in sum, you have to either buy the first set of analyses or the second. they stand juxtaposed to each other, and there is no way around it. if you want to believe burke wrote the note (as you seem to suggest), you must assume the first 6 QDE's were wrong in their conclusions, and the second 6 were wrong in their assumptions as to whose writing they were actually analyzing! those are rather ambitious assumptions...

 

[Holdontoyourhat]

I agree, Burke was incapable of writing the note. I disagree Mr. or Mrs. Ramsey wrote the note, but you knew that already.

I'm not a criminologist, but I believe you have to have the capability, the motive, and (and here's the important part) the will to kill. These posts are full of so-called half-baked motives, but you need to have some really serious will to kill a child. That capability, that motive, and that will, have not been described to the extent necessary to implicate anyone.

 

[BlueCrab]

BC-

In some earlier posts you estimated that Burke was 90 lbs at the time of the murder. JonBenet was 45 lbs. That would be half of his body weight! Do you really think that he would have been able to carry her outside without a HUGE commotion? Would he have had to carry her upstairs, too? Are you suggesting that he was going to be accompanying someone who could have carried her body?????

bensmom98,

The ransom note in the house and the body in the house doesn't fit. For the ransom note to make sense the body would have had to be removed from the house and taken somewhere, even if no further than someone's backyard.

None of us know for sure what really happened in this murder but, because of the coverup and the missing crime scene evidence, one of my theories is the crime was committed by two boys. Two boys could have easily carried JonBenet's body outside. The sudden dusting of snow would have changed that plan.

Who were the two boys? Well, let's just say one of them remained in the house; and the other one left bicycle tracks in the snow across the Ramsey's front lawn as he high-tailed it outa there on Patsy's new bicycle.

 

[BlueCrab]

if the 6 QDE's are credible, then burke is not the author of the ransom note, and they had plenty of real samples of burke's to work with. they unquestionably eliminated burke and john as the author.

Voice of Reason,

The CBI's six QDE's could not eliminate Burke as the possible writer of the ransom note. Of the three people in the house, they could eliminate only John.

 

[Voice of Reason]

Voice of Reason,

The CBI's six QDE's could not eliminate Burke as the possible writer of the ransom note. Of the three people in the house, they could eliminate only John.

could you please provide a source for that information? if i recall collectly, i thought the only person the original QDE's had problems eliminating as the author was PR. i'm having a hard time tracking down sources on this. the best i've found is the "bonita papers." might we have heard a bit more about this if burke had not been eliminated? he provided plenty of samples from his schoolwork, etc...

"In addition to Patsy, John and Burke, over 50 persons had submitted handwriting samples. After analysis, none of these persons are indicated to be the author of the ransom note."

 

[Toltec]

Hello everyone....BlueCrab, Twilight...heeee! New baby, no computer, so now new computer and I'm raring to go!

I've only been able to see page one of the 2000 tax form and was amazed at what I saw when the other pages became available! This is definately Patsy who filled out the tax forms....the signature at the bottom....you can make out the first letter of the last name...(R).

What "foreign faction" is familiar with so many american movies? Remember that they do not like our country.

 

[BlueCrab]

could you please provide a source for that information? if i recall collectly, i thought the only person the original QDE's had problems eliminating as the author was PR. i'm having a hard time tracking down sources on this. the best i've found is the "bonita papers." might we have heard a bit more about this if burke had not been eliminated? he provided plenty of samples from his schoolwork, etc...

Voice of Reason,

There aren't many sources, and what's available is often convoluted to suit one side or the other.

For instance, early in the case the BPD was convinced that Patsy killed JonBenet and wrote the fake ransom note. The cops collected their "evidence" and tweaked the news releases at every opportunity to make it appear Patsy did it.

Finally it was time to present their evidence and turn the case over to the DA for prosecution. On June 1 and 2, 1998 the BPD made its VIP presentation to the DA and invited guests, including the FBI, Henry Lee, and Barry Scheck, in which Steve Thomas did the handwriting part of the presentation that was geared to try to obtain the indictment of Patsy Ramsey.

Despite having the results from the CBI's six handwriting experts, who concluded it wasn't likely that Patsy wrote the ransom note, Steve Thomas told the VIP's this:

"The CBI examiners explained that of the 73 persons whose writing had been investigated, there was only one whose writing showed evidence that suggested authorship and had been in the home the night of the killing and could not be eliminated by no less than six document examiners -- Patsy Ramsey."

With no evidence for an indictment, Steve Thomas resorted to a bald faced lie. It cost him his job.

Of the 73 who were examined there were many who couldn't be eliminated as the writer, including Patsy and Burke. Although the results of the handwriting examinations have never been made public, tid bits of information have leaked out. The information about Burke was gleaned early in the case from a 3/6/97 search warrant for the Ramsey house in Charlevoix.

The cops, to obtain the search warrant, had to convince a judge that Patsy's historic exemplars were needed to complete their analyses of her handwriting, so this is how they worded their affidavit, based on info they got from the CBI:

"The analysis of the handwriting samples obtained from John Ramsey showed 'indications' that John Ramsey did not write the reported ransom note.

"The analysis of the handwriting samples obtained from Burke Ramsey showed that it was 'probable' that Burke Ramsey did not write the reported ransom note.

"The analysis of the handwriting samples obtained from Patsy Ramsey showed 'indications' which suggest that Patsy Ramsey may have written the reported ransom note."

It's "probable" that Burke didn't write it? Why didn't they come right out and say there were indications he didn't write it, as they did for John? The only answer is Burke, like Patsy, could not be eliminated as the writer. John is the only one of the three who was eliminated.

BlueCrab

 

[sissi]

http://www.acandyrose.com/05061999colfax-partyspotmap.jpg

While you're looking at handwriting, look at his. He isn't a suspect, but tell me how different it is, could you have assigned an age/sex to it, had you not known?http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/arkansas/1023/art/rtk1.jpg

 

[Holdontoyourhat]

Your post:

There are a few lines in the note that depart from movie script; they are superfluous to the nth degree: "We respect your business..." Huh? "..see 1997..." "..withdraw...from your account." "If we monitor you getting the money early....and hence.....of your daughter." "...deviation OF...instructions..." "... denied her remains..." "The two gentlemen watching over your daughter do not particularly like you so I advise you not to provoke them." Huh? "...alert bank authorities..." "You can try to deceive us...be warned..." "....stand a 99% chance....stand a 100% chance.." "...fat cat..." "Use that good Southern common sense of yours." "It is up to you now John." "Victory" "SBTC"

In the case of an insider or family member, the ransom note would be, as you say, 'superfluous to the nth.'

In the case of an intruder, the statements you have listed are not superfluous, but instead would be exactly what it seemed to be: a barrage of warnings aimed at Mr. Ramsey.

Since the ransom note has more purpose and meaning with an intruder as its author (fewer superfluous elements), and since the nature of this killing suggests an experienced killer, you should rule out family or other insiders.

 

[twilight]

You can just delete post #78, as I don't seem to be able to access it to edit it. Strange, I don't know why. So, just take it out. And anything else you don't like. I don't mind.