I’d guess that most people
don’t know what a real ransom note looks like/sounds like, and that ransom notes aren’t part of a general education in communications and/or PR.
I’m guessing the first thing that would come to mind is one of those letters-cut-out-of-newspapers jobs (not for people on this sub, of course
) , which are mostly a Hollywood trope.
If pressed, and required to write a ransom note, even after all my Ramsey/true crime reading, all I really know is a) don’t cut letters out of magazines and b) 3 pages is too long.
This quote from
Mark Twain Blaise Pascal always comes to mind when I think of the RN:
That said, I don’t think we actually disagree in substance.
I also have had the vague thought: what if the RN was actually written not night of, but at some point past in preparation for some screwing over of JR (ie, PR preparing to leave him; perhaps ‘the event’ would occur at Charlevoix.)
Something dreadful but unexpected happened Christmas night instead, changing plans, and the already written RN, intended for some other nefarious purpose, was hastily employed to help explain it.
*wild speculation
You raise an interesting question. There were rumors at the time, and persisting, that there was strife in the marriage and possible infidelity. The main difficulty I see is that that theory requires a lot of explanation for why PR stayed with JR.
For the reasons cited, I'm holding out for Patsy's savvy about what a real ransom note looks like. Maybe milder terms would help? I'm confident Patsy knew that ransom notes are typically not long and rambling.
But -
but - there is one factor that might possibly have influenced her to write a longer one.
* also wild speculation : )
The house in Charlevoix was located at 112 Belvedere Ave., about eight minutes from Castle Farms, a family recreation and fancy wedding venue featuring a mansion modeled on a Normandy castle, extensive gardens, a model railroad, a WWI museum, and various historic collections. Given PR's penchant for antiques and all things French, JR's interest in airplanes and the military, BR's interest in trains, and JBR’s love of flowers, it's fair to assume the Ramseys visited there..
The castle was the centerpiece of a state of the art dairy farm built in 1918 by one Albert Leob, who became one of the largest employers in the county; and, though the property no longer bears his name, it's still woven into the local history, in Leob Bay, Leob Creek, and Leob Road. Unfortunately, it’s also woven into national history because in 1924 his son, Richard, became the Leob in the infamous Leopold and Leob case. Of course, Castle Farms doesn't mention anything about its origins as Leob Farms, but it's the kind of lore you learn when you live in a place or visit there frequently.
There are a number of similarities between the Leopold and Leob case and the Ramsey case.
(If you believe both JR and PR were involved) both crimes were carried out by two people.
In L&L, they meant to kill Bobby Franks but first kidnapped him off the street, then murdered him in the car, hid the body, and sent his father a ransom note. Similarly with JBR, when the Rams showed the police the RN on the 26th, she was already dead, and her body concealed.
L&L’s original plan was to strangle Franks with a cord but, when he struggled, Leob battered him on the head with a wrapped chisel and then stuffed a rag into his throat. Franks could have died from the head injuries, and may have done. If he didn’t, he died from suffocation. JBR was struck a lethal blow to the head but died from asphyxiation, by strangulation by cord, before the earlier injury became fatal.
L&L planned to kill Franks together by looping the cord around his neck and pulling from opposite ends so that it couldn’t be determined which of them had killed him. We don’t know what the Rams may have planned, but in the end the Grand Jury couldn’t determine who had done what.
Franks’ body was found before L&L could collect the ransom. JBR’s body was found before the Rams could complete whatever kidnapping narrative they may have had in mind.
The RN helped police zero in on L&L because it was written in an educated style and had no grammar errors. Similar qualities in the JBR letter led Boulder police to suspect Patsy as the author.
Both RNs are unusually wordy and long; 2 pages for L&L, 3 for JBR.
Both are oddly formal and begin with a greeting (“Dear Sir,” “Mr. Ramsey”), and both have a closing and are signed (Like, who signs a ransom note?).
The texts of the letters follow a similar distinct outline.
Both letters say that the next communication will be by telephone at a certain time and both give detailed instructions for packaging the ransom money.
Both instruct the parents to pay in specific denominations/amounts.
The letters share similar phrases and some of the same words e.g., “carefully,” “follow instructions to the letter,” at present well and safe/ at this time….safe and unharmed.
Both letters switch between “I” and “we.”
No conclusions can be drawn from these similarities; coincidences happen. Still, they seem to me worth a look. The L&L letter and the Ramsey letter have much more in common than either does with, say, the Lindbergh RNs. Is there a connection? Did PR happen to read about the Leopold and Leob case one summer? When she had to write a ransom note, did she look up L&L in a book on hand about notorious cases?
There is one known connection. When JR married Jan Rousseaux in 2016, the wedding was held at…Castle Farms. Okay - nearby, over 90 years since L&L, 20 years since JBR’s murder, maybe with some faded happy memories, but still – What sort of person has a daughter who is reportedly kidnapped and then found murdered in one of the country’s most controversial cases ever, in which he remains a suspect, and, out of all possible locations, remarries in the home of a killer in another of the country’s most infamous kidnap-murder cases? Too creepy for words.
