Cherokee's Thread/Analysis

I agree with you all the way here, Cherokee. I have always equated Patsy being able to write her winning talent speech "overnight" from the play "The Pride of Miss Jean Brodie" with the ransom note. It was no problem for her to sit down and let her mind take over her pen.

She couldn't get the copyright from the play so she was forced into writing another speech, and with the help of a friend, she managed it overnight. The favourite speech from this play/movie was one of her favourites.

Ironically, her winning speech was about copyright, and
she walked of with the Talent Prize.

 

You're so right about this Cherokee, the cents would be wiped out.

Yes! Have always thought the RN author was throwing suspicion on Access Graphic Employees to detract it away from Patsy and John. Patsy was a crafty operator.

Patsy denied knowing about John's bonus when questioned. She never bothered about things like that, she told Detective Haney or Thomas (?) She was lying. She must have known. Once again she bounces the ball back into the Access Graphic's court.

Did Patsy ever do a good job of throwing Access Graphics under the bus, Cherokee? I'll say she sure did! The staff were taken to task. As you have stated so often, the writer did put distance between the Ramseys and what happened to JonBenét.

What a great job you're doing here, Cherokee.

 

I know we have all been through this ransom note on the boards before and pulled it apart until we were blue in the face, but my hat is off to you for your efforts here, Cherokee. I think Patsy produced a movie in her head and probably enjoyed the process, forgetting Her little six year old was now dead. She was pushed aside for Patsy's dramatic effort of writing this ransom note. You're right, Patsy was instructing instead of demanding.

What a giveaway. Her Foreign Faction went down the toilet fast. Probably in this fantasy, she didn't want them to get the full credit for her "War and Peace" masterpiece.
Patsy liked using French words. The little "Bijon Friese" dog was "Jacque" Oh de drama!

 

About that verb "bring," Cherokee wrote:

I'm from the South, born and bred, many generations going back a couple of centuries, and I have ALWAYS said "I'll bring this to the house" or "Bring this to the party." I never even thought about it.

You know, in light of my midnight ramblings about the sequence of actions in the basement that night, I ended up with "the ransom note is the only insight we have into the mind of the killer."

I have to go back and reread and edit those posts, and I'm going to think about what I believe the killer was doing to JonBenet and how those "thought processes" played out during the actual murder, as related in the ransom note.

Good stuff, Cherokee, good stuff.

 

Are you saying here Cherokee that Patsy was in a way playing a psychological game here, with JonBenét ending up looking like one of the Twinn dolls where the heads can be exchanged, and the string is exposed? Oh this is creepy.

Patsy Ramsey did write in "Death Of Innocence" about the doll looking like JonBenét in a coffin when she opened the lid, but this was written long after the crime, and it does sound very dramatic She makes the reader think she was a bit off the wall thinking like this on Christmas Eve, about a gift she's about to wrap up for her six year old daughter.

I know there was a lot of psychology used with both Patsy and John. This is how they are both still free.

 

You know, that was one reason I was hesitant to post my analyses ... because I know the ransom note has been dissected ad nauseam on the forums for years. I know most JBR posters have heard and seen it all when it comes to the facts of the case and the contents of the ransom note.

Like I said before, I don't know that I have anything new to say, but perhaps the accompanying discussion will be of benefit to the posters here, and MAYBE some media or law enforcement lurker will see what we're saying here at FFJ, and somehow, someway, let the world know what we know ... that the Ramseys were involved with JonBenet's death and the subsequent cover-up. Even if they are never prosecuted, I don't want the Ramseys to win the PR war if we can help it.

You are so right that Patsy liked the idea of using French words because she thought it helped her appear to be "high class." Just look at JonBenet's name for an example. She literally "made up" a name by combining the English names "John" and "Bennett" to form the French sounding "JonBenet," complete with the non-spoken final 't' and an accent mark at the end.

 

It's true, isn't it? There are regional differences in the way American English is spoken ... and those differences can be found in the ransom note. We'll see another example in the next section.

Of course, it doesn't mean that EVERYONE in the South uses words the same way, just as everyone in the North doesn't speak in identical fashion ... but there are regional speech patterns and vocabularies, including specific colloquialisms.

When I post the next section, I will include a map that shows how linguists have divided the US into different regions based on the areas mentioned above. West Virginia is included in the Southern speech region.

People have argued that West Virginia, because it split from Virginia during the Civil War and sided with the North, is NOT a Southern state. But linguistically, they are wrong.

The northwestern part of Virginia (that became West Virginia) is mountainous; the rest of Virginia is not. The mountains did not have plantations, and therefore, did not have the need for slaves. Lowland and coastal Virgina DID have plantations and slaves. So, West Virginia did not have the economic need of slavery, and could afford to side with the Union.

However, until that split, they were one state with the same heritage and ancestry. One hundred and fifty years later, they are still basically Southern in their speech and customs. I have a friend who is from Beckley, WV, and she has a VERY strong Southern accent and speech patterns. If you didn't know it, you'd think she was Scarlett's sister off the old plantation in "Gone With the Wind."

 

Actually, Elle, I wasn't alluding to the My Twinn dolls scenario, but it is an interesting thought.

I believe the staging of JonBenet's body was already done when the ransom note was written. I also believe the cord was placed around JBR's neck AFTER the head blow in hopes of covering any previous manual, or clothing, strangulation marks on JonBenet's neck that might show up. The cord was worthless as a true strangulation device, so I think it's real purpose was to aid in the staging of the crime scene, and to point away from the Ramseys. ("Who could ever think that loving parents would tie a strangling cord around their child's neck? It would HAVE to be an intruder.")

With that in mind, the ransom note author concocts the "foreign faction" who is responsible for the mayhem of the crime scene. We know that the writer wants to provide a reason for why JonBenet is found dead in the home. They decide that the Ramseys will "disobey" the kidnappers and their ominous warnings, thus causing JonBenet's death.

In a flash of inspiration, the ransom note author sees the cord around JonBenet's neck (in their mind) and decides to add the detail that JonBenet will not only be "executed," but "beheaded." Now the writer has successfully delivered on the kidnapper's promise right down to injury, and primary staging done, to JonBenet's neck. The "two gentlemen" were "provoked" because the Ramseys screwed up and called over the whole neighborhood.

What a nice, neat little story, all tied up in a package with a nylon cord at the end.

 

Hmmm ... and just where were these friends the night of December 25, 1996? (Just kidding.)

You have brought up a very good point. For every rule, there is an exception, and for every regional linguistic pattern, there is an exception.

There can be pockets of word use transplanted across the US because of human migratory routes or because of common (but geographically scattered) family ancestry.

It would be more exact to say the PRIMARY misuse (or substitution) of the words "bring" and "take" occurs in the South. Obviously, secondary locations would be in the Boston area and a few others around the US.

As with anything, linguistic analyzation should not concentrate on specifics to the exclusion of the whole. Other clues in the ransom note point to a writer raised in the American South which would then exclude a Boston, or other geographical, connection.

We haven't gotten that far yet in the analysis, but it's coming.

 

Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.

The level of panic Patsy was experiencing at the time made her concoct lots of this out of the first things that came to her mind. Rather than using rational thought, she was acting and writing from her subconcious, which was more available to her due to the dire circumstances she was in.

I think everything in the note and staging shows this (with the exception of the nightgown in the blanket, which I think was just there due to static electricity when it was grabbed out of the dryer). I think the 99% chance kill/100% chance live section of the note came from Patsy's other fear, cancer treatment, for example.

One thing Cherokee said that was new to me - linguists read from the end of a sample to the beginning, because the end is where we get the truer portrait of the writer. At the end of this note, we have "It's up to you now John!" Hmmm...handing it all over to the hubby?

I've been re-reading the ransom note from the end to the beginning and getting some new thoughts.

Thanks a lot, Cherokee.

 

I have always believed the head blow came first, and the staging of the garotte second, Cherokee, and I have always felt it was an accidental death, with Patsy thinking JonBenét was already dead from the blow to the head. A mother and daughter scene gone wrong.

There's still a loose end there Cherokee. Patsy doesn't equate for the body being brought back to the house with the friends all in it??????? You've lost me here! Sorry!?

I feel a migraine coming on. :burnedup:

 

I'm sorry about your migraine, Elle. I hope it goes away soon.

Regarding your question ...

Patsy was concocting the ransom note in answer to events that had already happened, so in effect, it was like writing a story backwards. Patsy already had the ending, now she just needed to write the middle and beginning.

When she wrote the ransom note, she planned (as the Ramsey parent) to call the police (the 911 call) and her host of friends ... BUT ... she didn't know exactly WHEN the friends would show up. In her mind, the action of calling was the trigger for JonBenet's "IMMEDIATE EXECUTION" as promised by the kidnappers.

Since John and Patsy did NOT look all through the house for JonBenet, and certainly did not go down into the basement, for all they knew, the kidnappers were down there at the time they called, monitoring their every movement. The kidnappers could have killed JonBenet and left the house before police and the friends arrived ... or if they were hiding somewhere in a car nearby while monitoring the Ramsey's phone line, they could have sneaked in and left her body there before everyone descended on the house.

At this point in the story, Patsy is not concerned with the logistic details ... it's all she can do to come up with the story. Patsy's fantasy is full of "plot holes," but it worked as far as buying the Ramseys time, and getting them away from the house and lawyered up. It wouldn't have won an Oscar, but it did get them the "red carpet" treatment.

 

About the migraine, Cherokee, my head was hurting from trying to think it through. I do suffer from them! I see where you're going with this now. Thank you for taking me through this. I must admit, you're making me think in a different way, and there's no harm in this at all. I want to cover all the angles in this case.

Yes, yes, yes, it's full of plot holes, Cherokee, and you're right, it damn well worked, for buying the Ramsey's time.
:verdict:

 

You're welcome, Wombat.

To answer your question ... I believe that's exactly what Patsy was doing. She'd invented the "back story," written the note, done what she could with her part of the staging, and she felt it was up to John to do do HIS part. The only way she and John could pull off the cover-up of what really happened to JonBenet was for both of them to work together at obfuscating the truth.

And John "delivered."

He took charge, immediately "lawyered up," got Burke out of the house so he couldn't be questioned, "found" JonBenet's body, tried to arrange a flight out of Boulder to Georgia, wouldn't let investigators question him or Patsy that day, and basically, insisted things were to be done the "Ramsey way" from that moment until now.

 

I'm still amazed that John Ramsey got away with getting Burke out the house so fast, Cherokee, because Burke was in the Ramsey house when the crime was committed, and he should have remained there until the cops questioned him. A detective did question Burke later that afternoon at Fleet White's.

Isn't it ironic the best friend who helped him with Burke ended up as a Ramsey enemy?

 

After the note was "found", Patsy screamed and John "came running downstairs" to read it, Patsy made that dopey phone call to 911. She opened the door to the cops. The she called in the friends. You argue convincingly that she was thus making that part of the ransom note true.

Then she goes over to the couch and waits for the rest of her play to be acted out. I have written before that her sitting on the couch after John cries out "call an ambulance" is the most damning act that we actually KNOW happened - she didn't have to run to see if JonBenet was alive, because she knew she wasn't. She wrote the play, as someone said, like she wrote her Miss America speech.

Wow.

 

Yes, Patsy HAD to make that call to trigger JonBenet's "immediate execution," otherwise, the whole scenario as written in Patsy's mind would fall apart. The calling over of friends just added to the Ramseys OVERT disobeying of the kidnapper's instructions. It also had a second added benefit ... the complete contamination of the crime scene.

At no time did Patsy tell the 911 operator of the ransom note's threat, and we can assume by their actions, she didn't tell any of the friends either. The police arrived with sirens blazing in marked cars, the friends came to the front of the house in plain view as if arriving for morning brunch.

You are so right. The inaction of Patsy at John's shout for an ambulance is a tell-tale sign Patsy already knew JonBenet was dead.

The commotion of Fleet White and John coming up the stairs, along with John's shouting, would have brought any other mother running. Not Patsy Ramsey. She didn't have to be told what John was carrying, but she DID have to prepare herself to give the acting performance of her life.

Patsy knew the next few minutes were important in that everyone would be watching her reaction to JonBenet's dead body. She felt she had to act appropriately shocked and hysterically bereaved in order to convince those present that this was the FIRST time she'd seen JonBenet's lifeless body.

Immediately following her overwrought display of motherly grief, John and Patsy left the house never to return, and most importantly, never to be questioned according to the usual and necessary police protocol.

Patsy's spontaneously written "script" was over. It had been executed to perfection, and the curtain went down, covering JonBenet and the truth in a blanket of lies and deceit.

 

This is good, Cherokee. I think you've got it right.

I also agree that BOTH Ramseys' reactions to finding their child dead "suddenly" sent up multiple red flags.

Besides Patsy, a supposedly desperate mother anxious to "find" her little girl, sitting on her butt while people are screaming and shouting and running around like crazy, there are a few other things that tell the tale.

It's classic guilty behavior when a perp "finds" a body, or is told their "loved one" is dead, yet never asks...HOW DID SHE DIE? I couldn't imagine myself in that position and not immediately looking for ways to SAVE HER. I'd have been all over her, alright, trying to stop death, trying to find a sign of life, trying to spark it...something, anything, dear god, she cannot die!

But Patsy and John never even bother to see HOW she died? Was she shot? Stabbed? Smothered? Beaten? Was there ANYTHING ANYONE COULD DO? Not even a question...not a wonder...nothing. She's dead, oh woe is us...goodbye, we're outta' here.

NO WAY. Guilty knowledge. All over them.

 

Right, KK. The Ramseys lack of questions regarding JonBenet's death is absolutely incomprehensible to any loving parent of a child.

They claimed not to have read the autopsy report ... they claimed they didn't talk to Burke about JonBenet's death ... they claimed no interest in hearing about JonBenet's molestation ... et cetera et cetera et cetera.

Apparently, the Ramseys didn't care to know what happened to JonBenet after they supposedly tucked her in for a good night's sleep.

"La la. JonBenet was killed in our home last night right next to Burke and under our noses ... but hey, how about a trip to Atlanta?"

Well, why not? Why ask questions about something of which you have first hand knowledge. You were there. You don't need a textbook or film at 11:00. I mean, YOU wrote the ransom note. You planned and executed the cover-up. That's all there is. Cut. Print and wrap. It's over, now let's just get on with our lives.