Analysis of the Linguistics and Handwriting in the Ramsey Ransom Note

[Cherokee]

This graphic is a comparison between words containing the lowercase letter 'n' used by John Ramsey, the Ransom Note author, and Patsy Ramsey.

[Cherokee]

HANDWRITING ANALYSIS – Part I, Section III

The Shape of the Lowercase Letter ‘o’

Another identifying factor is the individual letter trait of the lowercase letter 'o'.

John Ramsey uses an elliptical lowercase 'o' that starts at the top left of the letter and slants backwards. The 'o' looks as though it's being compressed.

Ovals are communication letters, and it is obvious John has trouble with communication. His oval is mashed down as if being pushed from a force above. There is enormous pressure on John to keep his mouth shut. He may have learned this from his family of origin. It is possible he may not have been allowed to "talk back" and or openly communicate his true feelings, so he learned to suppress what he really wanted to say.

In addition, John's lowercase 'o' starts to the left top of the letter, and achieves the backwards slant common to the rest of his writing.

The Ransom Note author does not have a compressed 'o'. On the contrary, the Ransom Note author uses a rounded lowercase 'o' that starts at the middle top of the letter, with a slight flattening on the right underside of the oval.

Patsy Ramsey also uses a rounded lowercase 'o' that starts at the middle top of the letter, with a slight flattening on the right underside of the oval.

This is a subconscious "flattening" is not something a person would think of to change or modify in an effort to disguise their handwriting.

As shown in the two graphics below, Patsy Ramsey writes the same lowercase ‘o’ as that of the Ransom Note author. John Ramsey does not.

The following illustration is a comparison of the individual lowercase letter 'o' between John Ramsey and the Ransom Note author.

[Cherokee]

This graphic is a comparison between words containing the lowercase letter 'o' used by John Ramsey, the Ransom Note author, and Patsy Ramsey.

[Cherokee]

HANDWRITING ANALYSIS – Part II, Section I

The Typographical vs. the Copybook Lowercase Letter ‘a’

Prior to JonBenet's death, Patsy liked to use the typographical lowercase letter 'a' with a little hood joining the stem over the half circle. After Christmas 1996, Patsy began to switch her lowercase 'a' to a copybook 'a' with no hood.

The ransom note writer used the typographical 'a' with the hood. Patsy's pageant application used the typographical 'a' with the hood.

Patsy's "ransom note" done for investigators after JonBenet's death used both copybook AND typographical lowercase 'a's. She appeared to be making a conscious effort to use the copybook 'a', but the typographical (hooded) also appeared in her "ransom note." Sometimes, Patsy tried to minimize the hood by making the half circle come up to meet it after the hood was already formed, but several times Patsy forgot, and the hood is very apparent.

In the comparison below, I have circled the typographical "hooded" lowercase 'a's.

[Cherokee]

Here is another comparison of Patsy's lowercase typographical 'a's. In the "London letter" which was written for investigators, Patsy switches between the typographical 'a' with the hood, and the copybook 'a'. In all of Patsy's single word exemplars done for investigators, Patsy uses the copybook 'a' without the hood, but when writing sentences, she uses both forms of the letter 'a' interchangeably.

[Cherokee]

HANDWRITING ANALYSIS – Part II, Section II

The Lowercase Letter ‘q’

Patsy Ramsey also uses a unique identifying letter trait in her writing of the lowercase letter ‘q’ which tends to resemble the numeral ‘8’. There is no true bar stroke extending below the baseline, but rather a curved bulb that connects back to the oval of the top of the letter.

In the graphic below, there are examples of this numeral 8 ‘q’ from Patsy’s exemplars written at the request of investigators. One is the word “adequate” written as a series of words, another is the abbreviated word “Esq.” written as part of Patsy’s “London Letter,” and the last one is Patsy’s right hand sample of the Ransom Note.

[Cherokee]

HANDWRITING ANALYSIS – Part II, Section III

The Identifying Use of Space Between Words

Another identifying factor in handwriting is the use of space between letters, between words, between lines and on the page. Patsy Ramsey usually writes with the same well-defined space between the words in a line. It is very evident in her natural writing and even in the writing samples obtained by investigators. Examples of this habit of spacing are illustrated in the graphics following.

It should be noted that in Patsy’s right hand sample of the Ransom Note written for investigators, Patsy changed some of her identifying traits that are present in other examples of her handwriting, especially those written before JonBenet’s death. One of those traits is Patsy’s predilection for indenting paragraphs which she habitually did before Christmas 1996, but left out of her sample Ransom Note. As is illustrated below, the Ransom Note author ALSO indented their paragraphs.

In this first graphic, I have underlined in red a section of the Ransom Note that is identical as to the words placed on the line. Patsy substituted words for numbers as she copied the Ransom Note, and made other changes, but her natural spacing placed BETWEEN words continued to be relatively unchanged.

[Cherokee]

In this second graphic, I have marked the spacing length between the words in blue. The similarity of spacing is evident.

[Cherokee]

This last example shows the underlined words in the Ransom Note in a transparent overlay on the words written by Patsy Ramsey in her Ransom Note sample. As you can see, it is an exact match.

Even though some of the lines in Patsy’s sample have added words because she left out her usual paragraph indentation and decided to spell out number words instead of copying them exactly, the basic spaces between words remains the same throughout both the Ransom Note and Patsy’s sample Ransom Note.

(Note: Please refer to the section on linguistic analysis of the Ransom Note for examples of Patsy Ramsey’s indentation of paragraphs prior to Christmas 1996.)

[Cherokee]

HANDWRITING ANALYSIS – Part II, Section IV

The Tail-Less Lowercase Letter ‘u’ in the Ransom Note

During John Ramsey’s recent campaign for the Michigan State house, there was a photo of one of his political signs that said “Support Ramsey.” I immediately noticed the 'u' from the campaign sign had no tail. This is unusual, as most people make the letter 'u' with a tail that helps it stand on the base line. Interestingly, the writer of the ransom note also made their 'u' with no tail.

The campaign sign was painted, and the ransom note was written with a sharpie pen. The sharpie will often leave jagged edges to a letter as the ink is absorbed from the sponge tip. But there was no mistaking the similarity of lowercase 'u' and even one upper case 'u' between the campaign sign and the Ransom Note.

Of course, we do not know who wrote the words "Support Ramsey" on the campaign sign, but it is not a stretch to think Patsy was involved since she is very artistic, a communications major, and an integral part of John's campaign.

Below is a graphic wherein I have circled all of the 'u's in the first page of ransom note and juxtaposed the word "support" from the campaign sign for comparison.

[Cherokee]

As shown the in the graphic above, the ‘u’ in the Support Ramsey sign is the same tail-less ‘u’ written by the Ransom Note writer. In addition, both of them have the same slight flattening of the right underside of the ‘u’ that is also present in the lowercase ‘o’s.

An example of Patsy’s printed handwriting prior to JonBenet's death that includes the letter 'u' was unavailable for comparison. However, as part of her handwriting examples given to investigators after JonBenet's death, Patsy had to write a "ransom note." In that note, Patsy switches back and forth between a 'u' with a tail, and a 'u' without a tail.

In the following graphic, I have circled those 'u's without a tail, and placed the word "support" from the campaign sign next to a copy of Patsy's ransom note for your comparison.

[Cherokee]

Below is a comparison of Patsy's uppercase letter 'U' with the Ransom Note uppercase letter 'U'. Notice neither one of them have a tail extending to the baseline. This is quite unusual. I have also added the letter 'u' from the Ramsey campaign sign for comparison.