A best-fit analysis of the facts and circumstances related to the death of JonBenet Patricia Ramsey

We cannot assess this transcript’s veracity because the audio has not been released. Thus we exclude it for the purposes of a best-fit. In any case, according to the 911 call recording, the original note, and PR’s deposition, this appeared to her to be a ransom note and she believed that JBR had been kidnapped. The police would arrive in approximately 7 minutes (marked police unit, Officer Rick French). They were greeted by PR and JR, with PR wearing the outfit from the previous evening and in full, fresh makeup. Whether PR wore this outfit all night or whether she inexplicably put the same outfit back on speaks to her state of mind, which we cannot know. Hence, we dismiss this evidence for the purposes of a best-fit analysis.

The back door through which Mr. Fernie read the ransom note. The windows into the Den are on the left.

The windows into the formal dining room and back yard in background

The Ransom Note

First, we’ll have a look at the verbatim transcription of the ransom note discovered on the morning of 26 December, 1006.

1.          "Mr. Ramsey.

2.          Listen carefully! We are a group of individuals that represent

3.          a small foreign faction. We xx respect your bussiness

4.          but not the country that it serves. At this time we have

5.          your daughter in our posession. She is safe and unharmed and

6.          if you want her to see 1997, you must follow our instructions to

7.          the letter.

8.          You will withdraw $118,000.00 from your account. $100,000 will be

10.        that you bring an adequate size attache to the bank. When you get

11.        home you will put the money in a brown paper bag. I will call you

12.        between 8 and 10 am tomorrow to instruct you on delivery. The

13.        delivery will be exhausting so I advise you to be rested. If we

14.        monitor you getting the money early, we might call you early to

15.        arrange an earlier delivery of the money and hence a earlier

16.        delivery pickup of your daughter.

17.        Any deviation of my instructions will result in the immediate

19.        for proper burial. The two gentlemen watching over your daughter

20.        do not particularly like you so I advise you not to provoke them.

21.        Speaking to anyone about your situation, such as Police, F.B.I.,

22.        etc., will result in your daughter being beheaded. If we catch you

23.        talking to a stray dog, she dies. If you alert bank authorities, she

24.        dies. If the money is in any way marked or tampered with, she dies.

25.        You will be scanned for electronic devices and if any are found, she

26.        dies. You can try to deceive us but be warned that we are familiar

27.        with Law enforcement countermeasures and tactics. You stand a 99%

28.        chance of killing your daughter if you try to out smart us. Follow

29.        our instructions and you stand a 100% chance of getting her back.

30.        You and your family are under constant scrutiny as well as the

31.        authorities. Don't try to grow a brain John. You are not the only

32.        fat cat around so don't think that killing will be difficult. Don't

33.        underestimate us John. Use that good southern common sense of yours.

34.        It is up to you now John!

35.                                             Victory!

36.                                             S.B.T.C.

The ransom note (rn) has garnered much controversy in this investigation. The reasons for that, at a gross level, are:

1.)          The rn was much, much longer than typical ransom notes

2.)          The rn appeared to be written by a fairly well-educated individual which is not the background of a typical kidnapper.

3.)          The author appeared to have been educated in either English or Journalism, not often seen in kidnappers.

4.)          The rn contained corrections that indicated an attempt to deceive the reader by making the author appear less educated than the author was, something a kidnapper rarely does. We shall see later that this feat is something very, very challenging for a Narcissist.

5.)          The author appeared to exhibit a feminine writing style not usually attributed to kidnappers.

6.)          The child was later found dead in this same house, not kidnapped.

7.)          A call was promised between 8 and 10 a.m. and never came (though, obviously, if the killing were not a part of the original plan, we wouldn’t expect the call to be placed).

8.)          A ransom note with the subject of the ransom dead in the basement of the same house could only serve the purposes of a known inhabitant of the house who was guilty of murder. It doesn’t logically serve any other purpose. The logical rule applied here is that people generally tend NOT to incriminate themselves. The only exception to that rule would be when a person has reason to generate evidence to deflect other evidence away from them.

9.)          The letter ‘a’ in the ransom note was unique in that it was written just as it is typed on a typewriter. Few people formulate this letter that way.

10.)       The grammatically incorrect phrase “and hence” was used in the rn, which is an unusual literary construction. Though many have claimed that “hence” is seldom used, this view is revealingly declasse. “Hence” is used commonly in academic settings and is not that unusual. But certainly unusual for the typical kidnapper. To incorrectly add “and” to that makes the construction very unique, even for an academic. These kinds of mistakes in grammar are common to people with some exposure to, and admiration of, academia but who are in fact not well read themselves. It is also a sign of intellectual insecurity. This would be very odd for a kidnapper who likely is not concerned about their “academic standing” amongst peers.

In forming this list of “gross” discrepancies responsible for so much controversy, we have dramatically shortened the lists usually put out for discussion. The reason is that, we have found handwriting analysis seems not a little like voodoo science in that it is loaded with subjective analyses that cannot lend confidence to the conclusion, in my view. For that reason, we isolated only those features of the rn that were the least subjective and most obviously problematic with respect to any supposition of authentic authorship. Again, this is for the purposes of a best-fit analysis. So, we’ll examine the list above one by one and discuss in the context of the issue at hand. For our part, we immediately suspected some kind of sadistic humor – some kind of arrogant taunting - was at play in this ransom note, but we’ll delay those observations for later.

The length of the rn is an issue. It might be more useful to ask what kind of personality is likely to do that rather than to ask specifically what their state of mind was in deciding to do that. Let’s begin with the obvious. Someone writing such a serious letter probably does not want to leave a lot of evidence behind that might inadvertently reveal the truth.  But if the individual personality involved has features of Narcissistic personality disorder, they will be