Criminal Profiler Roger L. Depue, Chief of the FBI's Behavioural Science Unit, at Quantico, who on retirement, went onto setup an elite forensics company The Academy Group, was requested by Bert Brown, who was acting as a consultant on behalf of Boulder DA's office, to review and offer an opinion on JonBenet's homicide, specifically with respect to the ransom note. The following is a summary account.
Roger was sent a photocopy of the two and half page note, written on a legal pad. The question asked , was what type of person might have written it?
Roger's view was that the ransom note was a crime scene in and of itself, hard physical evidence that remained as fresh as it was on the day it was found. And it could be interpreted. The written word word is human behaviour, like any other behaviour, and it will betray the traits and characteristics of the writer.
In two decades of analyzing written crime scene evidence I'd never seen a two-and-a-half-page, hand printed ransom note. Never. Thats how unusual it was. Criminals who write ransom notes are trying to get across only the information that they need to. Anything else is superfluous, and only going to give more clues about their identity, and theres no need need to write an opus. A real kidnapper has no interest in revealing the kind of information that this note did. According to my analysis, here are some telling characteristics:
The note begins with a formal salutation, followed by an exclamation point. The author wants the reader to 'hear' the message, as if the material will be spoken or read to someone.
"a group of individuals" - this usually means one person trying to appear as a group.
"a small foreign faction" - foreign to whom? A meaningless phrase.
"respect your bussiness" - misspelled, but shows an awareness of John Ramsey's business.
"posession" - again, shows the authors proclivity for pisspelling double S words.
"but not the country it serves" - a political staement inappropriate to the goal of ransom.
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"withdraw $118,000.00 from your account" - shows proprietary information, i.e. knowledge of the precise amount of John Ramsey's bonus, and that it is in a bank account rather than somewhere else, as in other investments.
"Make sure you bring an adequate size attache to the bank" and "I advise you to be rested" - both maternal sounding remarks. Shows motherly. Also, why 'attache' and not the more common 'attache case'?
"You will...be...denied burial" - more likely to be said by a female than a male. Also suggests the victim is already dead. If the victim is still alive, burial would be the least of anyones concerns.
"gentlemen" and "watching over" - again, more likely to be used by a female.
"fat cat" - an expression common in the 1950's and 1960's. Indicates a writer in the forty-something bracket.
