Questions about the Garotte

I've scratched my head and looked sideways and contemplated till my contemplater got sore and I still can't figure out what the significance of the wood on the garotte was. If there had been a piece of wood on each end of the garotte and the knot at the back of the neck had been a slip knot, then I wouldn't be confused at all. But with the set-up that was found on JonBenet, it doesn't make much sense.

Two questions:

1. Am I just not understanding the whole set-up as it has been presented? Is there something about how that piece of wood would some how of made a difference from just using the chord that I'm not understanding?

2. If the answers to 1's questions are "no", then do you believe the garotte was different during the strangulation and then some how modified after the death?

 

The standard explaination for the garrote is it was made to look like a torture/killing device by a person that knew little of such devices, thus the anomalies.

The device was probably placed where it was found after JB was unconscious or even dead, having succumbed to the head blow or an initial strangulation.

My guess is the device was constructed correctly by the perp for the purpose of display, not for discovery by police. I think the handle was fashioned to fit into something; a holder.

gibbet 1. a gallows with a projecting arm at the top, from which the bodies of criminals were formerly hung in chains and left suspended after execution.

 

And just because there was little or no evidence of a hanging doesn't mean the cord and handle device wasn't made for such an act. An attempt could have been aborted.

 

From the Carnes decision

"The method by which JonBenet was killed also suggests it more likely that she was killed by an intruder than by her mother. JonBenet was strangled through the use of a garotte and bondage device that was sophisticated and employed the use of a series of tightly and neatly made knots that would appear to have taken some time to make. There is no evidence that the defendants had the skill to create such a device. Moreover, it is plaintiff's theory' that, after thinking she had accidentally killed her daughter, Mrs. Ramsey worked quickly, before the household awoke, to set up a staged kidnapping scenario. The creation of this bondage device would appear to have required more time and calm than one would think Mrs. Ramsey could have mustered under the circumstances."

Keep in mind that this decision was based on evidence presented to the court by Darnay Hoffman ABK. Darnay is widely regarded as one of the worst lawyers in America.

Edited to add: I didn't give ABK status to Darnay because he knows who killed JonBenet and is hiding the truth; but because Darnay is so stupid that he helps other ABK's hide the truth.

 

Teddy Lloyd's method of presentation was similar, it was economical, and it always seemed afterwards to Sandy that where there was a choice of various courses, the most economical was the best, and that the course to be taken was the most expedient and most suitable at the time for all the objects in hand. She acted on this principle when the time came for her to betray Miss Brodie.

 

'JonBenet was strangled through the use of a garotte'

No, she wasn't.

'garotte and bondage device'

No, it was neither.

'device that was sophisticated'

No, it wasn't.

'some time'

But not more than 5 hours.

'There is no evidence that the defendants had the skill to create such a device.'

No evidence that they didn't either.

'The creation of this bondage device would appear to have required more time and calm than one would think Mrs. Ramsey could have mustered under the circumstances.'

The whole thing required some thinking in advance, or rather fantasizing in advance.

 

I think she had a "go-by" looking at the doll JonBenet loved...See the cord at the back of the doll's neck.

Heymom

 

I have pondered whether the parent(s) realized that JonBenet wasn't dying from the headblow in time to make their call to LE that morning. They had a deadline, remember, because of the trip to Charlevoix. The pilot was going to be waiting at the airport. Burke was going to wake up. (If he wasn't involved in any way.) And two adult children +fiance were scheduled to be waiting to be picked up in Minnesota, wasn't it?

Here's what I'm wondering: if JonBenet had "the accident" and the parent(s) realized a trip to the hospital was going to involve one or possibly two arrests of family members, and if they believed JonBenet was not going to survive anyway, and certainly not without serious brain damage, perhaps they began making their plans, writing the note, etc. But she didn't die quickly enough, so they had another dilemma: if LE found her alive, they'd have no way to escape, but would be expected to stay with her at the hospital, etc. Questions about her vaginal injuries would be asked once they were found.

Perhaps she/they realized she/they had to find a way to dispatch her and quick. Strangled by hand? Too close. How about something less personal than feeling her neck being crushed by your own hands? Ah.

Who in that family might have ever heard or thought of such a thing as the garrote invention that was used to strangle her?

Oh, and unless someone can explain to me how her neck had a perfectly matching bruise line on her skin under the garrote cord found on her, so tight the weave of the cord could be seen in the bruise, which means she was alive when the garrote was used on her, yet the garrote found on her wasn't actually used to strangle her...the evidence is clear to me: she was strangled by the instrument found on her neck. I don't see how it's possible to strangle her with one thing to create an identical bruise while she was breathing and then perfectly align such a tight and perfect match with the cord afterwards. Also, the lower neck has another bruise line that obviously was created when the cord was first pulled taut, then rolled up the neck as it was tightened, WITH THE NECKLACE BEING ROLLED INTO THE CORD AS IT MOVED UPWARD.

Here's a picture.

CAUTION: DISTURBING AUTOPSY PHOTOS:

http://zyberzoom.com/JonBenet.html

But if someone can explain how all that happened some other way that's plausible, I'm willing to listen. I haven't found that person yet, however, and I've asked many times. I know some people speculate that a scarf was used first. Perhaps. But that doesn't change the fact that the cord found tightly embedded in her neck bruised the skin under it. She had to be breathing for that to happen, unless the bruise was post mortem. From all I've found on the topic and the published autopsy results that many forensic pathologists have examined and addressed, that was not the case. Post mortem bruising is distinctly different than bruising created while the victim is still alive.

 

The Boy Scout "Tightening Stick"

In the 1996 Boy Scout Handbook, instructions for the fabrication and use of a device called a "tightening stick" were displayed. I used to have a picture of the device but I seem to have misplaced/lost it. The tightening stick closely resembles the "garrote". Incidentally I think "garrote" is a misnomer, IMO the device that was around JonBenet's neck when her body was "found" is not a garrote.

 

How stupid does a judge have to be to state "one would think" is evidence and therefore use that as a qualifier to making a judgment of what a person is or is not capable of doing?

One thing that never ceases to amaze me since I've been studying the Ramsey murder is how incompetent those who run our judicial system are. Truly mind-boggling.

 

"JonBenet was strangled through the use of a garotte and bondage device that was sophisticated and employed the use of a series of tightly and neatly made knots that would appear to have taken some time to make."

Absolutely false. Michael Kane took exception to this one on national TV to say that the knots were so simple a child could have made them.

Took me about three minutes.

"There is no evidence that the defendants had the skill to create such a device."

You wouldn't need any.

"The creation of this bondage device would appear to have required more time and calm than one would think Mrs. Ramsey could have mustered under the circumstances."

How the hell does she know what a given person is or isn't capable of?

"1. Am I just not understanding the whole set-up as it has been presented? Is there something about how that piece of wood would some how of made a difference from just using the chord that I'm not understanding?"

Not really, with the absurd cord length lessening your leverage.

"2. If the answers to 1's questions are "no", then do you believe the garotte was different during the strangulation and then some how modified after the death?"

Not necessarily. The kind of knot at the back of her neck is the kind that tightens easily, but does not loosen as easily. If you put this on, and the person's breathing is shallow enough (such as from a head blow) the cord will strangle them with one good pull because they can't expand their windpipe enough to loosen it.

 

My memory isn't what it once was, lol, does anyone know if the Ram's were ever asked to duplicate the knot? Of course, in reality, that would prove little ---I guess they could fake their knot tying abilities as well as they faked their handwriting.

 

It wouldn't have made much difference. You're right.

 

Burke's Swiss Army knife was found in the basement on a counter not far from JonBenet's body, and wood shards were found near Patsy's paint tote. The reason Linda Hoffmann-Pugh, the housekeeper, had hidden Burke's Swiss Army knife was because she was tired of sweeping up shards from his whittling.

I think the brush end of the art brush snapped off in the whittler's hand while the other end was being whittled, and the snapped-off brush end was tossed into the tote. Then the remainder was tied onto one end of the cord, to be used as a handle of some sort. It's possible that the so-called "garrote," complete with whittled handle, was initially fashioned to be used as something else, something completely innocent, not as a device with which to strangle JonBenet. It appears to me that the hair visible in photos of the stick part of the "garrote" was not inside the cord windings, but on the outside.

 

KK, it was Dr. Spitz that suggested a prior strangulation, possibly by her shirt collar. The RST is fond of saying that would have stretched out the shirt collar, but nobody ever investigated if that type of shirt even stretches. (Sounds like a job for SUPER JAYELLES!)

I've never heard of the scarf being used. But I've wondered if JonBenet didn't slip her favorite nightgown over the shirt and leggings and it was THAT collar which was used to choke her. That would not only explain the neck marks Spitz saw, but also the lack of stretching in the white shirt collar, and also why the nightgown was lying next to her body.

The only difference in post-mortem bruising and regular bruising is that post-mortem requires an outside source of pressure to force the blood out of the broken veins into the tissue. You have that outside source in the garrote cord.
I wish that when Spitz was bashing the heads of child cadavers trying to match the skull fracture with the flashlight he would have also yanked a cord around the cadaver's neck to see what the results would be.

 

I also suggested (at WebSleuths several years ago) the idea of prior strangulation by JonBenet's shirt collar before I knew Dr. Spitz had suggested the same thing. It made sense to me that if the so-called "garotte" was practically useless, then it was put there for a reason other than strangulation:

1. To help draw attention from the fatal head wound

2. To help cover up any strangulation marks on JonBenet's neck that were already there from either manual strangulation or the use of a piece of clothing

 

From what I remember, in the Boy Scout manual it shows a diagram of how to use a stick to tighten a tourniquet using a belt or scarf. Perhaps that is what you are thinking of, Spade?

Someone refresh my memory, didn't LHP see a photo of the garrote and say she remembered Burke leading the dog around with a similar device?

 

omg, BlueStrat, I have thought for years that I was the only person on the forums who'd read that LHP said Burke used to lead the dog around with something that resembled the garrote. My problem has always been that I couldn't remember where I got the information. Do you remember where you did?

Edit: Silly question. If you could remember, I doubt you would ask someone to refresh your memory.

 

That's how I view it as well, kk.

But I don't believe anyone decided to finish her off after the head blow by strangling her. I think the scenario went something like this, with the steps in fairly quick succession:

cord yanked taut/ skull whacked / cord pulled harder

 

Oh god Tril.... Dont tell me...Geraldo said it!
:fg:

Seriously, I'm thinking I read that so long ago that it may have come from Dicknay Hoffman when he used to post as "NYL" on JW.
Or could that info have come from a BlueCrab post?