The Problem with Burke Ramsey
BR presents a unique problem in this best-fit. He cannot be entirely excluded on the grounds of prima face facts alone. But if he were the party physically responsible for the murder, then we would have to imagine that he both premeditated the murder and concocted the idea of a ransom note. We examine these possibilities in this section.
Were the parents just covering up for him? Was there something really “off” about this 9, almost 10 year old child? We would aver that yes, there was something very off about this child. Having an incestuous relation with his sister at that age represents a kind of sexual deviancy that is deep, precocious and extreme. Some have questioned the very idea of an incestuous relation between two children that young. But what if BR was the aggressor and the little sister is just going along because she doesn’t understand what it going on?
Enter stage right and we see that the assailant was a weakling indeed who couldn’t even heave the 45 pound child plus the chair weight in mid-air. Was PR that weak? And, of course, the low ceiling and pipes making 68 inches an absolute maximum stature suggests someone a bit shorter. And how did JBR put up such a rumble of a fight against PR? Is this a smoking gun? We think it appears to be on first glance, but it is countered by the issue of foreknowledge. We don’t think BR wrote the ransom note. Did BR plan to do so and photograph a scene demonstrating his foreknowledge of it? Did his mother re-write it for him realizing how inculpatory the child’s own note would be? That would explain the theory of two notes being written. We need more evidence to fully exclude BR. If it were BR, we are baffled at the psychology of this child. As deep into the depravity of sick minds as this article has tried to force the reader, maybe we didn’t go deep enough? Could a 10 year old child do this? The mechanics say, “yes”. What we need is not so much further “analysis” of the ransom note, but more understanding of its provenance.
On 20 October, 2010, we decided to tighten things up a bit. We did some research on that basement ceiling. Alas, the constraints given cannot generate a definite resolution to this issue. The ceiling was even lower than our last update suggested. It was only about 7 feet 6 inches. This is 92 inches. Subtracting the pipe thickness in that area leaves around 87 inches of full height, floor to clearance. Despite the repetition, we’re going to drop our mechanical free-body diagram back in once again:
This, though adorned with little detail, is how JBR’s head came to be injured the way it was. Let us imagine that the attacker swung the bat or golf club normally, that is, with the choke rotation having a maximum arc height equal to the height of the attacker. This is a classic, axe-style swing. If we assume a bat (or golf club) of a minimum of 28” then we can do the math pretty easily. At 59 inches height the hilt, or hand grip base is arcing past the top of the assailants head. The assailant is 59 inches tall. But wait, that means he is only around four feet, eleven inches, or right at five feet tall. Was this BR’s height at that time? It would seem a simple question but we have been unable to find an answer. Regardless, we have a winner in …
Burke Ramsey, taken in the State of Hawaii, December, 2009
We believe the “BR Problem” is explained in simplest terms by the attack having been initiated in the back of the “boiler room” where total clearance was greater, something we’ve discussed previously in this article. In conclusion, we can say that it is prima facie fact BR or PR physically murdered this child and that PR and JR aided and abetted. Working for and against BR, in summary:
BR’s height is better suited to the mechanics involved. PR would have to use a modified, hybrid baseball to axe swing.
PR’s strength is better suited to that required for the attack, though we admittedly assume that an adult, middle aged female is stronger than a 9 – 10 year old male. Having said that, we also note that in an axe style swing there is a mechanical advantage some analysts have ignored which is almost certainly relevant: PR could put her weight into the swing better than BR could have (because he weighed less).
Related to 2, the heaving on the chair seems to make PR out to be fairly weak for an adult female. However, if the child is 45 pounds and the chair is, say, a wooden chair of 20 pounds or so, the heaving by PR makes more sense. At that point, this middle aged woman likely would not have been able to lift 65 pounds and “shake it” up and down in mid-air. But neither would BR. Having noted these things, the only reason why felt the attack was a heaving attack (as opposed to a brute force lynching in mid-air by shaking the child up and down) was because of the sounds heard by one of the witnesses after the child screamed. The sounds were described as “metal scraping on concrete”. We think that this was the actual sound of a melee in progress with a child physically bound to a chair that the attacker was heaving backward because they were unable to lift chair and child by the rope placed around the child’s neck. But we also realized that it wasn’t just the witness description that made the heaving attack most likely: since the heaving was being done by grasping rope, the apparent “weakness” of the attacker might be overstated. Lifting 65 pounds into mid-air by a thin rope in your hands is far more difficult than lifting it by, say, steel handles made for that purpose. We think all these factors converge to the heaving conclusion.
The attack likely began in the back of the “boiler room” where clearance was maximum.
After an exhaustive analysis of the mechanics I’ve concluded that, alack, it was in fact BR who committed this murder. His parents aided and abetted in trying to cover it up which explains all the behavior we elucidated in this work. It also explains the bizarre tendency of some people to defend what appeared to be the defenseless. The parents were simply trying to protect their surviving child.
Fleet White
FW obviously had been acting on JR’s behalf in that basement in such a manner as to place him in an awkward position. How so? Below is PR’s account from 1998 of her and JR’s visit to their Priest’s office. Note is made of the journalist’s note on the business card stating, in paraphrase, you know Fleet, there has been some question about whether it was you or John that removed the tape from JBR’s mouth. This journalist knew what had happened and the position Fleet was in. Note FW’s near state of panic over the idea that there might be some “question about who pulled the tape from JBR’s mouth”. This best-fit is tying every little detail of this case together. Someone knew, and they had put the nail on the head with that question. Neither one of them pulled the tape from JBR’s mouth. And we were obviously not the first to figure this case out.
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