Forensic linguistics could solve this crime

Discussion in 'Justice for JonBenet Discussion - Public Forum' started by heymom, May 7, 2014.

  1. heymom

    heymom Member

    Cherokee, I know that you have already done much of this work, but wouldn't it be great to get one of the "big guns" in forensic linguistics to study the ransom novel? Our programs here in the U.S. are relatively recent - the term "forensic linguistics" originated in England, and that is where the main body of work still comes from. I just found out about this field of work, and I'm still tracking down all the experts, but two possibilities are:

    this bloke

    and

    this program.

    Here is a New Yorker Magazine article about the field.

    I'm very serious - I think it would make a great topic for one of these courses to explore. Think of the publicity for the professor and his program! If Patsy wrote the ransom note (and we all know that she did) then there was no intruder, and all of the lies through the years fall completely apart. Can we dare to hope after all this time?

    (Of course, this still does not tell us who killed JonBenet, but I do think that once the intruder story is finally debunked, the truth might come out...ahem Fleet White...)
     
  2. heymom

    heymom Member

    I had forgotten....

    that Donald Foster (who is not a linguist, let alone a forensic linguist) did us no favors by getting involved in the sideshow of Mark Karr.

    Crap. :curse::banghead::censored:
     
  3. Elle

    Elle Member

    Hello there heymom. So good to see you are still involved. You have contributed greatly to the JonBenét case. So hard to believe it still hasn't
    been solved.
     
  4. heymom

    heymom Member

    Hi Elle,

    Nice to "see" you still here too. I haven't contributed much, but I've been in admiration of the ones who have. I've read everything I can get hold of, and still, some days I argue with myself about what happened on that Christmas night so many years ago.

    I was watching a couple of Youtube videos made by grad students at Hofstra University, where a forensic linguistics Master's Degree is offered. One of them mentioned that they had studied the JonBenet Ramsey ransom note in their classes! Sometimes it really seems as though there is some kind of impenetrable shield around John Ramsey, and the truth will never be known.

    Meanwhile, in the UK, men are being brought before the courts for things they did 30, 40, 50 years ago - and these are not murder cases but sexual assault cases! So if that can come back to haunt someone and put them in prison, why can't we bring up this case again and get answers??

    :verdict:
     
  5. Learnin

    Learnin Member

    I agree, heymom, that the ransom note, and linguistics, hold the key to solving much of this riddle. The ransom note is the most important piece of
    evidence in this case. I believe there should be a computer program developed, at some point, that could definitively rule in, or rule out, PR as author. A computer program would remove the human bias involved in any judgment and eliminate the defense bringing in one of their "experts" to rebut.
     
  6. Cherokee

    Cherokee FFJ Senior Member

    Will you be contacting these people about the JBR case? If so, please let us know what happens.

    Many years ago, there was a poster named "Twilight" at WebSleuths who was a brilliant linguist (with multiple degrees) from Canada. She did an analysis of the ransom note and concluded Patsy had written it. Twilight wrote an academic paper on it (under her real name) and gave a presentation on the paper at a conference in Canada. Of course, no one in the media cared, or reported on it, at the time. If I remember correctly, this was sometime around 2003. Twilight and I corresponded through WS for awhile, but I don't know if she is still posting anywhere now.
     
  7. heymom

    heymom Member

    At least one of the linguists is working on a computer program that will do just that, but I am not sure it will happen any time soon. Human communication is just too complicated for computer algorithms to analyze in depth...but people can do it, based on real standards.

    I sincerely think that Patsy's ransom note is beyond human bias. Any linguist worth his/her training would be able to spot the unusual aspects that line up so well with Patsy's other writings. Just that one phrase, "and hence," should red-flag it - it's not a common phrase at all. The very idea that two people who use the same phrase would cross paths in that way, is patently absurd and beyond belief. Patsy used that phrase often, and we're supposed to believe that a random kidnapper would also use it??
     
  8. heymom

    heymom Member

    Yes, I will certainly think about contacting the Hofstra program and perhaps the bloke in London as well.

    There probably wouldn't be any publicity on a project on the ransom note, even now. Even if someone took it to Beckner personally. Why do I keep doing this to myself...We're never going to see justice, are we...It's just so damned unfair.

    :cand:
     
  9. Cherokee

    Cherokee FFJ Senior Member

    No, Heymom, we are never going to see "justice," as in someone arrested and tried for JonBenet's murder.

    However, instead of what we call JUSTICE ... in the next few years, we will learn THE TRUTH of what really happened to JonBenet. We will also learn HOW the cover-up was orchestrated and then carried out for years with the help of two Boulder DAs, corrupt officials, powerful contacts in American media (and delusional egotists like Lou Smit and Michael Tracey). Once the ball was set in motion; one lie was told to cover another, and then it was necessary to keep up the façade that had been built by many dirty hands.

    In some ways, having THE TRUTH in the public arena, countering years of Ramsey lies and cover-up, is a form of JUSTICE. All of the Ramsey's efforts to protect their good name by destroying the good name (and lives) of innocent people will eventually be made known.

    To John Ramsey, Lin Wood, Alex Hunter, Mary Lacy, et al: this isn't a threat; it's a promise ... and it will come from many who will no longer be silenced.
     
  10. heymom

    heymom Member

    From your lips to God's ears, Cherokee. I can only keep praying that your predictions come true.
     
  11. fr brown

    fr brown Member

    How did Donald Foster involve himself with John Mark Karr?
     
  12. heymom

    heymom Member

    I thought that he had stated he believed that Karr did write the ransom note, but I could be confused. I can't find any links to that statement. In any case he came out on the side that Patsy probably did NOT write the ransom note, so we know he had a bias going in. He is a literary forensic linguist, not a criminal one.
     
  13. fr brown

    fr brown Member

    Foster did write Patsy Ramsey and tell her that he was sure that she didn't write the ransom note, but that was before he got involved in the case. Foster characterizes this as a "rookie mistake." After he examined her writings and the books and movies the Ramseys had in their house, Foster changed his mind.

    In JonBenet, Steve Thomas covers Foster's presentation to LE about Patsy authoring the ransom note. In that talk, Foster mentions "and hence" and its occurrence in a Ramsey Christmas letter. I believe Foster gave his presentation in 1998. (JonBenet was published in 2000.) That's the earliest mention of the presence of "and hence" in both places that I've found. (That's not to say that others couldn't have discovered it independently at an earlier or later date.)

    I don't think that Foster would have expressed an opinion about Karr one way or another because he'd already been off the case for years when Karr was arrested.
     
  14. Elle

    Elle Member

    I was sidetracked for a spell heymom! Thank you for your reply. I never heard anything about the courts in the UK delving into the cases you mention above. I wonder how they are planning this one!(?). Seems
    a bit far out; however to each his own!

    I'm still amazed with the posters on this board who are still deeply involved with the research. I do like to keep on reading what you all have to say.
    It was interesting to read about the grad students at Hofstra University
    studying the Jonbenét ransom note.
     
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