JonBenet's Skull Fractures: The Weapon

BOESP, it is difficult to know the truth about what caused that horrific head injury to the child. We have never had the benefit of having the evidence presented and tested at trial, no experts to argue one way or another under oath. And we probably never will.

I'm not saying this is what happened. I'm as confused as anyone. But we keep trying, for various reasons, to figure it out.

To that end, I hope I haven't killed otg's interest with this golf putter tangent. I have found some pics online to demonstrate the points about the grip of the golf club and how any golfer who works at it builds technique and strength with a club. I know Burke was not yet 10, but even a child gets better with practice, so for consideration, I'm going to include the pics and then I'll let it ride in hopes otg will continue with his studies. And my apologies, otg, if I've hijacked your thread. All I can say is...PYRATE!

Here are illustrations of various hand grips and then an instructional pic demonstrating technique used by golfers:

 

I promise...My cantaloupe-whacking will be as clean as wind-driven snow...It will not, I promise you, WILL NOT be...

Rated "arrrrrrrrrgh!"

:floor:

 

I was actually going to carry out this experiment in the backyard, dear Elle! I don't want cantaloupe "guts" all over my kitchen!

 

Oh geeze, If you whack it in the garden, the neighbours will be thinking it's a substitute for your husband! (?)

 

Don’t anyone worry about hijacking this thread. I welcome any theories that might contribute toward helping us understand what happened. As I’ve said before (and I truly mean it), I don’t consider this my personal soapbox -- it’s a forum. We discuss the possibilities, point out our agreements and disagreements, and we will sometimes go in different directions from there. But hopefully in our hashing it out, we'll make progress in figuring this out.

But in that spirit of mutual respect for one another’s opinion, let me explain why I am having doubts about the likelihood of it being a golf club (not that I won’t continue considering it in any future experiments).

I know that continuing to concentrate on some type of golf club of a particular configuration, being used at a certain angle, from a particular position, and contacting JonBenet’s skull a certain way, is very attractive because of what we have been told. I listed the six reasons in my first post that had made me think for so long that the weapon was a putter. I also demonstrated in the first video using my “homemade†putter head how I had thought it had happened. It did indeed cause a rectangular depression as originally described in the AR. But since I now believe (and I hope most reading this agree) the depressed fracture is actually an oval, I know that my prior belief was wrong, and I freely admit this and hope to move on and determine what is more likely.

Many posters have speculated about different types of golf clubs. Again, I understand the attraction of trying to do this. But consider the shape of the depressed fracture, the dimensions, and what would have had to happen in order for any particular part of the golf club to cause it. For example, the hosel that has been mentioned often is about 1/2†in diameter. This will vary depending on whether it is a wood or and iron, and also the brand and model. From a golf blog:

The above stated differences are in the hundredths of an inch, or fractions of a millimeter, so I think it would be safe to use 1/2†for the outside diameter of the hosel. This also is approximately what cynic showed in this post.

If the width of the depressed fracture is 1/2â€, that means that almost half the width of the hosel would have to have gone down into her skull to create it, and that (depending on the length of the hosel on the shaft) the hosel would also have to be at least long enough create the length (1-3/4â€) of the depression without its ends affecting the pattern of the oval. (The reason I have to add the word “almost†in the above sentence is because of the variables that have to be given some consideration such as the scalp thickness (which would of course be compressed at the moment of impact) and her hair.) But the shaft, or the hosel on the shaft, are both cylindrical, so I can’t eliminate its possibility on that alone. However, one other required factor that would have to be met if a near 1-3/4†long hosel were the cause is that it would have to be landed at exact dead-center of parallel to the skull surface to allow both ends of the resulting depression to be within the limitations of the oval. IMO, this begins getting into the improbability of everything being exactly right to have been the cause. But, again, I understand the attractiveness of the golf club theory -- it drew me to it for at least ten years.

There were a multitude of golf clubs in that house. They were very nearby where her body was “foundâ€. She was injured with one only a couple of years earlier by BR (the details of which we only have from PR’s account). JR inexplicably requested that his golf bag and clubs be retrieved from the house, in the dead of winter, just a day after his daughter’s life ended. Believe me, I understand the attractiveness of the golf club theory, and I know how difficult it is to leave behind something you have believed for a long time.

Koldkase, you can’t kill my interest in seeing this through, and I appreciate all you do and bring to the discussion. I will continue posting when I can, and I will not be discouraged from continuing my “experiments†and demos. And I have to say also that I encourage anyone to do their own experiments with whatever they have at their disposal (What a trouper, heymom!) and post their results if they want.

Thanks to the illustrations in your post here, kk, it finally dawned on me banghead what you and Cherokee were talking about. If a putter shaped exactly like the depressed fracture caused it, it would of course have to also be the exact dimensions as the “voidâ€. I’m not a golfer, but is there any putter that would be oval shaped and only 1/2" by 1-3/4"? (For reference, the USGA regulation ball is “no less than 1.68-inches (42.7mm) in diameterâ€. This is what is referred to as “The American Ballâ€, because British balls are just a little smaller at 1.62" -- with no further comment from me on that.)

Another reminder to get prepared:
"The Great Boiled Egg Smash and Slaughter Day" is the day after Easter. (How appropriate is it for all of us whose family members just don’t understand that it will fall this year on April’s Fool day?) Yes, it could get messy. There might be congealed ornithological embryonic fluids spilled and splattered. I advise waiting until other family members are sound asleep before attempting to participate; and if caught, just pretend you were in some sort of sleepwalking trance and didn’t know what you were doing. Better they suspect you of that than have to explain what you were actually doing. And good luck!

 

With all due respect heymom, we are only making fun of you whacking the melon with a golf club which has to really look odd to the neighbours. We are in no way associating this with the actual murder of JonBenét, as we do not want to offend anyone posting here. Please separate this from this case. We are only being human beings here and enjoying heymom's fun with her sons.

 

Of course, Elle! And, we have 8' fences all around, so any neighbors observing me would have to be snooping, or looking down on my yard from their 2nd story, and I only have one neighbor who can do that. And then only in part of my yard. They might be curious as to why I am out in the yard whacking a golf club into a melon, but so what...won't be the last time they are curious about me! LOL

 

Oh, good point. I can't imagine a golf club "face" that small, even a putter. I did see some children's hard-rubber putters like those used at putt-putt golf courses, but even that wouldn't be that small, I don't think.

So now I see why Cherokee has been focused on a different club.

Perhaps only part of the club contacted the skull and left that impression.

Or not at all.

What I do want to further explore, though, is that little "divet" off to the side at one end. That's the thing that made me think of a putter looking at the image, and whether it's from a hosel on a club or something else on the actual weapon, I wonder if it can tell us something?

Like what would cause that part of the "punch out"?

Of course, that's assuming something did come in contact with the skull which directly caused that. But after seeing it in the "putter" experiment, I can't yet dismiss it.

If it was caused by some "extension" of the weapon, what weapon? The Maglight, for example, doesn't have something like that attached to it. Or a baseball bat, either. If only part of the weapon came into contact with the skull and caused the comminuted fracture, whatever it was, it was asymmetrical like a golf club, it appears.

Does this make any sense?

 

I'm laughing out loud all by myself here at the very thought of you doing this!:rolling:

 

otg,
Just took my putter out my golf bag, with your printed post above and asked my husband what he thought, and he said he thinks the heel of a golf iron or a putter. This was what I thought too a few posts back. He said there isn't a putter small enough to equal the size of the injury to JonBenét's skull. The strike would have been at about a 45 degree angle with only partial penetration. He has never seen these drawings before,
and was quite taken aback by this injury to such a young girl.

 

Okay, just because I can't let it go...for some reason beyond me...

When asked what he thought happened to his sister, Burke made a motion like a hammer.

So now I'm thinking about hammers. There are all kinds of hammers.

So what hammer might have a curve like that?

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of a geological hammer or one for climbing...? I will have to do some research, but thought I'd mention it first in case we have someone here who knows of a hammer about the right size with curved head?

In the meantime, I've been studying the part of the comminuted fracture that has caught my attention. I agree with you, otg, that because of the bloody work pictured, it's hard to even "see" the edges of the damage to the skull.

But I wonder if there is an "indention" into the skull of sorts at that spot. I've never considered it before, and maybe it's just a misdirection caused by the variations of color in the photo, but here what I'm looking at might be a ridge and a shadow from it. Thoughts?

 

A rock hammer is quite large. That's not our weapon.

Didn't Burke describe the way JonBenet died as, "Someone hit her with a hammer and then strangled her?" Or am I getting that quote wrong? Haven't got Kolar's book right next to me.

p.s. I'm hoping to get some time to do these experiments next Monday when everyone is gone again!

 

As you know, I have said the exact same thing in my previous posts - that it was the heel of the iron or putter and it came down at an angle. I believe the last graphic I uploaded showed a golf club at about a 45 degree to the head injury because that's how I visualized how it happened. Elle, I know your husband is an engineer, so he would be bringing his scientific background to what he saw in the photos of JonBenet's skull.

What your husband said about the strike only causing partial penetration would account for JonBenet's scalp not being broken.

 

Yes, Cherokee, I do remember you saying exactly the same way back somewhere. It stayed with me, because you were really the first one I remember posting it may have been a golf club. I told my husband about you saying the exact thing he said. Too bad he won't get involved. I think all of you are fantastic with what you all come up with. I think I ended up with thinking it may be the heel of a club too. It's the actual act of the swinging this club that ties me in knots. I must show Jim your post!

 

Elle, I think it's easier to imagine the motion of the club being swung up and then in downward movement onto the back of JonBenet's skull if the weapon were a junior-size golf club and not a full adult-size club.

I'm not saying the weapon WAS a junior-size club for sure, but there is that possibility since we know a set of junior golf clubs was in the basement, and we know Burke used junior clubs. In fact, he "accidentally" hit JonBenet in the face with one while they were in Charlevoix one summer. John was a golf nut, and Patsy had learned to golf to be with John, so it's only natural they would raise Burke as a golfer as well.

 

I haven't seen the junior-size clubs, Cherokee, but I did think the actual club head was the same size as the adults, with the actual length of the club being much shorter. I must look at them in the Sports Store the next time I come across them. The shorter length of the club would be easier for Burke to handle, I'm thinking! You were the one who stood out for me years ago thinking it may have been a golf club. I do remember JonBenét's face was badly injured from Burke hitting her with one of his clubs. He was really a sad neglected little boy I think!(?). He really got tired of JonBenét and her friend teasing him.

 

Just found an interesting web page...

Skull Fractures From a Hammer

Take a look at Fig. 4 and Fig. 5.

No, the fractures aren't ovoid, but they also don't look like the round head of the hammer. I don't think we can rule out a hammer of some kind.

 

That's very interesting, heymom, because I was looking at the comminuted skull fracture yesterday and noticed something I hadn't paid any attention to before, and it's present in the photos you mention: one side is a smooth edge and the other is ragged.

Let me illustrate my thoughts on this.

The site you referenced and where I got the first two autopsy photos of a skull perforated by a hammer, with one photo of the hammer:

[PS I have no idea what kind of hammer this is which has this type of hammer tip. Anyone?]

The bottom photo is of the comminuted fracture of JonBenet, in case that's not clear.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1344622312000752

 

I was thinking Burke said that, as well, but don't have the quote at hand and have to run for now.

One thing: the fracture caused by the hammer in the pics from the website you posted is from a "hammer" type of bludgeon, like hitting an object with the end designed to impact something. I'm wondering if the curved fracture of JB's skull might have been from a hammer of some kind hitting it sideways, flat?

But I'm not ruling out a golf club "heel" as y'all are describing. I remember your photo you posted on this thread, Cherokee. I just can't think of how to recreate that injury to fit by using photos, so I'm going to wait for the results from those of you who work in 3 dimensional demonstrations. :eye::eye:

 

Just checked with my golfing better half. The heads on golf clubs are all the same but women's and junior sets have short and shorter (respectively) shafts. That is the only difference.