The Purpose Of the Ransom Note

Discussion in 'Justice for JonBenet Discussion - Public Forum' started by Learnin, Apr 5, 2010.

  1. koldkase

    koldkase FFJ Senior Member

    I think Patsy was perfectly capable of believing Jesus saved her from ALL her sins, because that's what Christianity is based upon. So she easily justified in her mind what happened that night, IMO, as well as her further lies and behavior, and believed that Jesus forgave her/others and always would.

    I saw this in the Ramsey's TV interview with the Christian Broadcast Network, when they said (approx.): What if we did commit this crime? Wouldn't we be the very people Christians should want to come to church?

    So they'd already rationalized away their guilt and responsibility not only for the murder, but even TO ADMIT THE TRUTH and quit victimizing all the people having RST fingers pointed at them for being a child molester and murderer, IMO. That's the part that I find especially UNChristian of the Ramseys, BTW.

    Remember how quick John was to jump on Thomas' statement about "forgiveness" in their LKL faceoff? Can't remember it exactly, but Thomas said the Bible states you have to ask for forgiveness or acknowledge your sins--something like that. John jumped right on that and said, NO, it doesn't say that in the Bible! Uh...methinks they'd thought about that A LOT.
     
  2. fr brown

    fr brown Member

    After I watched Ruthless People again I found myself peppering my kid with "Do you understand?" when I was annoyed with her.

    I think it took Patsy a long time to come up with the final note.
     
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2010
  3. koldkase

    koldkase FFJ Senior Member

    If by "a long time" you mean hours, maybe.

    But here's something interesting: have you ever read JonBenet's Mother, the book put together by Patsy's lifelong friend, former teacher, and big time fan, Linda McLean?

    In it, Patsy's friends and family are quoted at length praising her saint-like qualities as a person, a friend, sister, wife, mother, etc., ad nauseam. But here's the irony: they speak at length to how Patsy could and would throw together this and that event, party, aid, whatever, in no time, no problem. All her life, she was a leader and she took charge, according to her friends and family, and worked brilliantly under pressure. And they gave lots of examples, too.

    I can't help but think they'd be editing some of that out now, knowing what they now know about this murder. The copyright is 1998. The RST case talking points are all there in the book, too, that early. Verbatim, it's the intruder argument Team Ramsey has been spinning to this day.

    Interesting, isn't it?
     
  4. Elle

    Elle Member

    I am glad we have corresponded DeeDee and you know where my thoughts are where religion is concerned, and still accepted me as a friend, knowing the full story as to how I arrived at this point in my life.
    I thank you for that. I am still very much intrigued about how you are in touch with the afterlife world. This side of things I enjoy hearing about, and I do respect all you have to say relating to it.

    I do know about the suicide deal, but even at that, I still wondered how Patsy could still face everyone after what she had done; however, Patsy Ramsey was a very strong and determined woman and she pressed on with her plan to hoodwink the Boulder Police.
     
  5. Elle

    Elle Member

    Oh good grief fb, your young daughter must have wondered what was wrong with her nice Dad (?). "Do you understand!" :)
     
  6. fr brown

    fr brown Member

    I've never read that book, but I'm not surprised that Patsy had those qualities.

    I think it may have taken a couple of hours, maybe more, to get the ransom note just right. I'm going by the nine pages missing before the "practice" note and also my hypothesis that she was starting with something pretty close to the Ruthless People demand.
     
  7. Elle

    Elle Member

    I tired out reading the following account of Patsy Ramsey's life, KK according to Steve Thomas "JonBenét" - Courtesy of Little.






    Writing came easily to Patsy Ramsey, and the ransom note was just another challenge for her, just like all the others she had mastered. She sure wasn't a wilting violet.
     
  8. fr brown

    fr brown Member

    I think Patsy may have run out of time when she was re-re-rewriting the note. There are still a couple of scratch-outs and a rather professional edit in it. My guess is that she was planning to do another rewrite, but it was 5:30 and she was out of time.
     
  9. DeeDee

    DeeDee Member

    Yep. Sounds about right to me.
     
  10. koldkase

    koldkase FFJ Senior Member

    A very interesting thread has been started at WS about the ransom note and Bible verses to which John's Bible was open, seen in crime scene photos. It's just getting started--or finished, ha ha, so right now it's a short but informative read.

    There are some things I'm finding fascinating in the Psalm passages quoted, in relation not only to the language of the ransom note, but possibly to Patsy's frame of mind.

    I had no idea, for instance, how disturbing Psalms 35 and 36 are. But they were mentioned in DOI as being essential in Patsy's ability to fight her cancer. Here's the link, for anyone interested:

    http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117338
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2010
  11. fr brown

    fr brown Member

    I think everybody already knows, but....it was Donald Foster who first pointed out that the Bible in the third-floor study was open to Psalms 35 and 36 and that the first four verses of Psalm 35 in the Ramsey version look like this:

    Contend, O Lord, with those who contend
    with me; fight against those who fight against me.​

    Take up shield and buckler; arise and come to
    my aid.​

    Brandish spear and javelin against those who
    pursue me.​

    Say to my soul, "I am your salvation."

    Foster determined that those characters occurred in that arrangement nowhere else in that Bible.

    The subject of the psalm, God battling Patsy's enemies, must have comforted her. But God forgot to tell her to flip a few dozen pages after she was done.
     
  12. koldkase

    koldkase FFJ Senior Member

    Oops. "God" has a bad habit of forgetting little details when she's wielding a bludgeon in the battle against a six year old.

    Actually, I had forgotten who first brought that "S.B.T.C." passage up, or where I first read it, anyway. Thanks for the reminder.

    I've tracked down and put a lot of relevant quotes, about the Bible found with those circled passages, on that Websleuths thread, taken from the Ramseys' LE interviews; also from the Christian Broadcast Network interview.

    A poster there also made a brilliant post about what Patsy might have been thinking relating to those passages and their author--King David.

    It really gives me insight into how Patsy was able to maintain the facade she did all those years.
     
  13. fr brown

    fr brown Member

    And the fact that she got rid of the previous nine pages, but left the "practice" note suggests she was making mistakes as she was running out of time.
     
  14. fr brown

    fr brown Member

    Steve Thomas says the Bible was found open to Psalms 35 and 36 in the "third floor study." It's clear that Thomas is saying the Bible was found on the third floor, which was John and Patsy's bedroom. John had a desk there.

    Here's Linda Wilcox discussing that Bible in PMPT:

    "Then the detectives asked me about the Bible on John's desk in the bedroom. The cover was embossed John and Patsy Ramsey. Sometimes it was by the bed. It was always being read. I know, because I never had to dust it. I told the police that I never saw it open; it always had a bookmark in it."

    Unless the ransom note was written before the murder, that means an "intruder" was running around the bedroom while John and Patsy slept to get the inspiration for his sign-off in Patsy's favorite Bible.

    If the Bible was typically left closed, it may mean that Patsy left it open on purpose. She makes a point in the interviews of saying the Bible was John's and that she didn't have much to do with it, but I suspect that she was the one reading it all the time.
     
  15. koldkase

    koldkase FFJ Senior Member

    Here's some of what Patsy had to say about the Bible when questioned by Haney in'98. [From my Websleuths post.]

     
  16. koldkase

    koldkase FFJ Senior Member

    I guess I may as well put the whole rundown here, while I'm at it, because the WS thread has led me to a firm mind about what the Ramseys were doing, with all their "clues." IOW, a lot of pieces of the evidence puzzle have fallen into place for me now. I follow what they were thinking, the "trail of evidence" they were leaving and why.

    Here are the quotes from JR's interviews I find relevant:

     
  17. koldkase

    koldkase FFJ Senior Member

    This poster put Patsy's frame of mind into perspective for me with this brilliant post:

     
  18. koldkase

    koldkase FFJ Senior Member

    Here is where I am now in my thinking: these pieces of evidence are tied up for me in what the Ramseys were trying to lead LE to believe was in the MIND of the intruder(s). This is why the long ransom note, the Bible verses circled, the use of "118" in the ransom amount.

    [BTW, there is are good posters writing good stuff on this WS thread, if y'all have time and are inclined.]

    http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117338

     
  19. fr brown

    fr brown Member

    But why use the Bible on John's desk at all? Why leave it open? She could have used one of the other Bibles she talks about, then put it back on the shelf wherever it lived. Leaving the Bible in their bedroom open to the page she used for her sign-off didn't deflect attention from them. The cops found it interesting enough to take a photograph of it.

    Then she identifies the Bible as John's in the interview. That sort of points the finger at him. I'm tending to think that it was part of Patsy's attempt to frame John, but with enough subtlety so that she had plausible deniability.
     
  20. koldkase

    koldkase FFJ Senior Member

    I think in the short time they had to come up with the plan, they got a bit confused from time to time. Just guessing, but Patsy states in her '98 interview with Haney (see above) that she believes the "intruder" was there while they were gone. I think that was their original story. So circling the Bible upstairs, in the private of their own bedroom suite, implied this killer had the house to himself and roamed around in it, invading their privacy to leave clues they personally would recognize as a real threat of religious vengence.

    Since I believe John was in on the cover up that night/morning, as I stated above, I don't think Patsy meant to point to John, just an intruder. The ransom note was written to include John as the target, Patsy was literally written out of the script, something they didn't mean to be known but for the remainder of "Mr. and Mrs. I" found above the tear in the pad. So it makes sense they'd say it was John's Bible...?

    Of course, this is just what I believe, what makes sense to me. I don't expect anyone else to think as I do.
     
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