Ransom Notes

Elle · Jun 16, 2005

As I read over the ransom note in the Bobby Franks' kidnapping (Leopold and Loeb 21 May, 1924) it was chilling because it reminded me of the JonBenÃ©t ransom note. This was also a very long one.. Makes me wonder if Patsy brought this up on the net before she wrote her own. Creepy!

Anyone else feel chills as they read this ransom note for Bobby Franks?

http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/index_1.html?sect=12

"Dear Sir:

As you no doubt know by this time, your son has been kidnapped. Allow us to assure you that he is at present well and safe. You need fear no physical harm for him, provided you live up carefully to the following instructions and to such others as you will receive by future communications. Should you, however, disobey any of our instructions, even slightly, his death will be the penalty.

1. For obvious reasons make absolutely no attempt to communicate with either police authorities or any private agency. Should you already have communicated with the police, allow them to continue their investigations, but do not mention this letter.

2. Secure before noon today $10,000. This money must be composed entirely of old bills of the following denominations: $2000 in $20 bills, $8000 in $50 bills. The money must be old. Any attempt to include new or marked bills will render the entire venture futile.

3. The money should be placed in a large cigar box, or if this is impossible, in a heavy cardboard box, securely closed and wrapped in white paper. The wrapping paper should be sealed at all openings with sealing wax.

4. Have the money with you, prepared as directed above, and remain at home after one o'clock. See that the telephone is not in use."

It was signed George Johnson and guaranteed that if the money were delivered according to his instructions that Bobby would be returned unharmed

Elle · Jun 16, 2005

Come to think of it, Patsy Ramsay graduated in 1979 from the West Virginia University with a magna cum laude degree in journalism, and she probably knew all about this ransom note from her studies, so it would only take her seconds to look it up.

Little · Jun 16, 2005

Very interesting Elle. Even that ransom note was a bit wordy, wasn't it?

That Crime Library site has some great stories, doesn't it?

Little

Elle · Jun 16, 2005

I thought the JonBenÃ©t ransom note was the longest one in history. I was wrong when I came across this one.

Yes, Little, Crime Library does have a good selection of stories.

Little · Apr 30, 2006

Well, maybe some day Cherokee and this guy can put their heads together and nail another one??

Ella, I thought your ransom note thread would be ok to add to. Hope you don't mind.

Language detectives literally read between the lines

By FRANK ELTMAN
Associated Press Writer

April 30, 2006, 8:37 AM EDT

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Because of a quirk in his grammar, a Pennsylvania wife-killer wound up with a 40-year sentence.

For investigators in the world of forensic linguistics, dissecting the punctuation and grammar in a ransom note or threatening letter can sometimes lead police to a kidnapper or a serial killer.

Whether poring over the 35,000-word manifesto penned by Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, a ransom note found in the basement of JonBenet Ramsey's home, or the missives sent by an anonymous mailer of anthrax, law enforcement increasingly looks to language experts to help crack cases.

"This avenue of investigative technique has a lot of potential," said Cpl. George Cronin, an investigator with the Pennsylvania state police. "Especially in this day and age of the Internet, messaging back and forth, and audiotapes from terrorists, this particular technique is going to be developed more and more."

He noted that with the boom in electronic communication via e-mail and personal hand-held devices, it is no longer enough to employ handwriting analysis and other longtime investigative techniques.

Cronin recently worked with Rob Leonard, who heads Hofstra University's forensic linguistics program, on a homicide case near Harrisburg.

Police were able to arrest a man in the murder of his wife after they connected letters he wrote in 2002 with missives sent after the homicide.

Leonard quickly noticed that the author of all the notes always wrote "I am," although he was liberal in using contractions for other words. It was that quirk in his writing that led investigators to the woman's husband, Leonard said.

"He connects the dots for us," Cronin said of Leonard. "He literally was able take the words right out of that guy's mouth."

The accused killer pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison, although he is now trying to recant.

Forensic linguistics is even employed in crime prevention. Undercover police officers are trained on teen vernacular in the hunt for sexual predators on the Internet, said FBI Supervisory Special Agent James Fitzgerald, who heads the agency's forensic linguistics unit.

For undercover officers posing as teenagers, using "like" or "er, duh" in the proper place in a sentence can be critical in seeming authentic to potential online predators.

Other aspects of writing can point investigators to a particular geographical region or can help identify the age of a writer, Fitzgerald said.

One of the things that helped crack the Unabomber case was Kaczynski's manifesto, in which each paragraph was numbered, a trait that pointed to someone educated in a time before computers, when such numbering was standard practice for college students writing dissertations. Kaczynski also included a "corrections page," another indicator of writing style from a bygone era.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/w...apr30,0,164630.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
Click to expand...

Elle · Apr 30, 2006

No, Little, this is a very good article. Thank you. I'm just wondering what Rob Leonard's thoughts were on the Ramsey ransom note (?). I don't recall reading any analysis by him.

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