Thanks to a new Netflix docuseries from true crime mainstay Joe Berlinger, audiences across the country are asking a question true crime fans never let go.
new series, Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsay?It doesn’t actually spend much of its three-hour-long episode speculating about its title question. Instead, it mostly argues for a hot take that’s less hot than you might think — that of JonBenét’s own parents. did not do it
After JonBenét’s violent death—which occurred in the early hours of December 25 and 26, 1996, at his family’s large home in Boulder, Colorado—it was a very popular theory. During the media frenzy that followed, many members of the public looked to John Ramsey and his wife Patsy (who died in 2006) and assumed the case was open and shut.
The victim was one eerily have sex 6-year-old pageant queen; Her face graces tabloid magazine covers in every checkout line in America. In 1997, no single news item was bigger; By 1998, the Los Angeles Times called him “The nation’s most famous murdered child after the Lindbergh baby” and although a 2003 Federal Rule supported Ramses’s innocence and they were official Released in 2008Many people are convinced that one or both of JonBenét’s parents were criminals and suggest that they did it to cover up a horrific accident committed by their 9-year-old son. A huge influence 2016 CBS series Make that argument with confidence about the case.
Yet in recent years, many experts, including several featured in Berlinger’s documentary, have argued that an intruder committed the crime — a theory that the actual police investigation never seemed to take seriously and that led to deep divisions among Boulder police, the district. Attorneys, and the FBI.
Much of the confusion stems from the fact that the original investigation was flawed from the start, allowing the police to completely contaminate the crime scene, allowing evidence to move around, rooms to be cleaned, and visitors to set a string of traps. The Ramses were all over the house hours after calling 911. As a result, even decades later, every detail remains up for debate.
As for the list of possible suspects, while there are several early contenders, including Ramsey, it is often difficult to discuss them at arm’s length. This is perhaps due to a single piece of evidence, one of the most infamous in the history of true crime: the ransom note.
For most people who look at the JonBenét case, how they look at the ransom note determines how they look at the rest of the case, including who did it. This is because the ransom note itself is so inexplicable that it immediately, and perhaps permanently, biases and derails the entire investigation.
The strangest ransom note ever
The first strange thing about the ransom note is where Patsy claims to have found it — lying unconvincingly on the floor of a back spiral staircase in the early hours of December 26. He gives conflicting stories about the sequence of events: in one version, he first checks JonBenet’s room and notices that she is missing, and then finds the ransom note; In the more frequently repeated version, he first finds the note, then runs upstairs to check on JonBenét, only to discover it’s missing.
The next weird thing about the ransom note is… well… everything about it. Here is the full text:
Mr. Ramsay,
Listen carefully! We are a group of individuals who represent a small foreign faction. we are [the word “do” has been scribbled out] Respect your business [sic] But it does not serve the country. Your daughter is in our possession at this time [sic]. He is safe and sound and if you want to see him in 1997 you must follow our instructions to the letter.
You will withdraw $118,000.00 from your account. $100,000 will be in $100 bills and the remaining $18,000 in $20 bills. Make sure you bring an adequately sized attache [sic] Come home to the bank and put the money in a brown paper bag. I will call you between 8 and 10 am tomorrow to give delivery instructions. Delivery will be tiring so I suggest you rest. If we observe that your money is getting early, we may call you early to arrange early delivery and so on. [sic] before [“delivery” is scribbled out] Pick up your daughter.
Any deviation from my instructions will result in the immediate execution of your daughter. You will also be denied his remains for proper burial. Two gentlemen are not keeping an eye on your daughter [“not” has been inserted between words] Especially like you so I advise you not to provoke them. Talking to anyone about your situation, such as the police, FBI, etc. will result in your daughter being beheaded. If we catch you talking to a stray dog, it will die. If you alert the bank authorities, he dies. If money is somehow identified or tampered with, he dies. You will be scanned for electronic devices and if any are found, he will die. You can try to trick us but be aware that we are familiar with law enforcement countermeasures and tactics. If you try to be smart you have a 99% chance of killing your daughter [sic] Follow our instructions and you stand a 100% chance of getting her back.
You and your family are under constant investigation by the authorities as well. Don’t try to grow a brain John. You’re not the only fat cat around so don’t think it’s going to be hard to kill. Don’t underestimate us John. Use that good southern common sense of yours. It’s up to you now John!
Victory!
SBTC
There’s a lot to unpack here: The odd ransom amount — $118,000 — matched John’s year-end bonus that year at the profitable tech company he runs. The note’s over-the-top language appears to refer to well-known quotes from movies that feature kidnapping and ransom. dirty harry, ransom, cruel manAnd speed. “Foreign group” is very obviously not real, and “SBTC” has never been associated with any existing group.
The final oddity of the note is where it came from — a notepad belonging to Patsy. Not only did the writer of the note use Notepad, they wrote a draft version of the note that was originally written by “Mr. and Mrs.” before handing the note to just John. They even used a Sharpie from home that they then helpfully returned to the correct pen holder.
Patsy participated in a string of handwriting analysis sessions, during which multiple analysts concluded that it was possible, but not certain, that she wrote the note. However, modern understanding of handwriting analysis generally holds that it is a shaky forensic field. Significant cognitive biasesAnd that is less experienced analysts More possibilities Not only to be wrong, but to be wrong more confidently than their colleagues. from other handwriting analysts to give Totally different opinions on who wrote it. Behavioral analysts, too, tried to analyze the note with questionable results. To give you an idea of the kind of hysteria surrounding this case, here’s an official psychological profile claimed that “SBTC” could mean “saved by the cross” and argued that Patsy was a “delusional sociopath” who killed as part of a mystical religious ritual.
The ransom note is so strange that many people find the mere impossibility of writing it impossible. After all, what purpose would it serve to lock an intruder in a house after a crime, taking their time to write multiple drafts of a note that didn’t happen for a kidnapping?
An argument against this is that the intruder could write the note before Crime The Ramseys were hours away at a Christmas party that evening, which gave a potential predator time to enter the home, familiarize themselves with the home’s layout, and play with creative writing exercises while waiting for the family to return and settle down. the night
But the question of purpose – why? — seems, to most people, away from an intruder and straight back to a Ramsay: the note is so fantastic that the most obvious conclusion is that it was written by someone who was desperate to get attention away from home and away. from family
For a while, if that was the motivation, it worked: Boulder police converged on the house but then left without securing it as a crime scene, leaving only one officer there all day until JonBenét’s body was finally found by his father in the basement. .
Yet if this was indeed a cover-up by the family, the question of motive still remains: Why would the family leave JonBenet’s body in the basement (or place) if they wanted the police to think he had been kidnapped? Why write such an elaborate ransom note or ask for such an especially criminal amount? Any way you look at it, the ransom note makes no sense.
For most people, there’s only one way to read the ransom note: Patsy wrote it. What else could it be?
An alternative way to think about this ransom note comes to us adviceA recent podcast hosted by former members of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, Mindhunter Reputation We know criminal profiling is as pseudoscientific as any other cool-but-really-rubbish forensic tool, so we have to take this analysis with a grain of salt. But between them two parts series Studying the ransom note earlier this year, host Julia Cowley and her guest Robert Drew made an interesting observation about the mindset of the letter writer — respecting the fact that they were really in a movie about a kidnapping.
This sounds like an obvious point, but profilers use it to make an important point about who might commit such a crime. Each of the films mentioned in the note involves a villain who, at the moment when he is demanding ransom, has a complete grip on the hero. He’s not just calling the shots, but doing it gleefully and spitefully, just like the letter writer is trying to do with John. Former FBI profilers argue that the letter is a fantasy of control over someone rich and powerful — that it’s not an anomaly, but rather an extension of a crime scene created by a sadistic child abuser.
Of course this is not the only way to read the note, but it is a reasonable way to think about how the note fits into the intrusive situation. And given the resurgence of interest in the case, perhaps this truly bizarre piece of evidence will finally start to make some sense.
