John Osborne - ""What shocked
me more than anything else was the idea that someone
would go in a stranger's
home and commit a crime as horrific as this particular crime and
then sit down in the kitchen
and write out two pages."
Erin Moriarty - "When they
first heard a ransom note had been found, handwriting experts John and
Paul Osborne were sure
that the 370 word trail would lead straight to the killer of JonBenét
Ramsey.
John Osborn - "It would
be among the most primary pieces of evidence that an investigator
would want considered
in trying to identify who it was that committed the crime."
Erin - "After all, there
was another famous child murder...the Lindbergh baby kidnapping
case where ransom notes
were key."
John Osborn - "There wasn't
just one ransom note, there were 12 or 13."
.
Erin - "Paul's father
and grandfather, pioneers in handwriting analysis, identified the writer
of those notes. Bruno
Hauptman, who was later convicted in court."
.
Paul Osborn - " My grandfather
and father, they both testified. The evidence was really
quite overwhelming."
Erin - "Unfortunately,
in the Ramsey case, the ransom note hasn't been the big break
authorities had hoped
for. Why?"
John Osborn - "Simply because no one has clearly been identified as the writer of the note."
Erin - "The problem is
this. While JonBenét's father has been excluded as the author of
the
note, that's not the case
with her mother. Sources tell 48 Hours that 2 analysts hired by the
Ramsey family have ruled
out Patsy Ramsey as the author but state experts contend while
they can't say with certainty
she wrote the note, they can't eliminate her either."
John Osborne - "They can not make a determination one way or the other."
Erin - "The reason may
be that the author of the ransom note disguised his or her
handwriting."
John Osborne - "The note
begins in a fashion which could be described as writing that is
more slowly executed and
ends up with writing that appears to be more rapidly and freely
executed."
Erin - "Either if someone
has described their handwriting sufficiently enough to confuse
these handwriting or the
police haven't found the right person."
John Osborne - "I would say that's a pretty good synopsis of the situation."
Erin - "Today, Ramsey case
investigators may no longer be looking just to handwriting
experts, but instead to
this man, a man who believes it's not how you write...
Foster - "It's diction
and phrases and so forth..."
Erin "...but what you
write that gives you away."
Erin- "Donald Foster, a
literature professor at Vassar College in New York, seen here in a
1995 CBS interview, volunteered
to help the Ramsey case investigators. He uses computers
to analyze the content
of documents to determine who wrote them. That's how, in 1995, he
uncovered the anonymous
writer of "Primary Colors" And in 1997, tied Theodore
Kaczynski to the "Unibomber
Manifesto."
Then he turned to the Ramseys.
Foster won't discuss his work in that case, but in trying to
analyze the content of
the ransom note, Foster had to contend with the fact that many of
the phrases seemed to
be borrowed from the cripts of famous movies.
Take the line, "If we catch
you talking to a stray dog, she dies." - sounds a lot like - "If you
talk to anyone, I don't
care if it's a Pekingese pissing against a lamppost, the girl dies." from
the movie Dirty Harry.
How about the line, "Don't
try to grow a brain, John"? And from the movie Speed, "Jack,
nothing tricky now. Do
not attempt to grow a brain."
Foster took the movie references
and all from the ransom note and compared them to the
writings of possible suspects.
Last summer, sources tell
48 Hours. Foster gave Ramsey investigators what no other expert
has been able to do -
he tied Patsy Ramsey to the ransom note.
But like everything else
in this case, the story doesn't end there. We've learned that before
Professor Foster started
working with the Boulder authorities, he had a very different
suspect in mind - Not
Patsy Ramsey, but her step-son, John Andrew.
It's a bizarre story that
raises questions about Foster's credibility - a story that begins with
the internet and this
woman.
Bennett - "I am a stay at home housewife, bakes bread.'
Erin - "47 year old Sue
Bennett became fascinated with the Ramsey case and would spend
hours online discussing
it."
Bennett - "The threads are the topics we are talking about for the day..."
Erin - "...that's where she met Professor Foster"
Bennett - "They are talking about clues, homicide survivors..."
Erin - "Bennett says that in May of 1997, a writer using the screen name 'jameson'"
Bennett - "jamesonTimeLine - the ransom note is there..."
Erin - "who seemed to know
a lot about the murder, caught Foster's attention."
So what was Donald Foster
seeing on his computer?
Bennett - "He only saw "posted by jameson"...
Erin "There were literally hundreds of statements posted by jameson."
Bennett - "jameson didn't
mince words, he just comes out and says, "The Ramseys are
innocent." And Donald
Foster saw one voice out of 100 who said, "The Ramseys are
innocent, I know this."
Erin - "After spending
some time analyzing Jameson's writings, Foster came to a startling
conclusion - that jameson
was John Andrew Ramsey. More startling, that John Andrew
might be the killer."
Bennett - "I mean it's just, it's crazy."
Erin - "Foster was so sure
that in a letter to his literary agent, he bragged that he had
"...solved this Colorado
crime".
Bennett - "This text analyst from Vassar, this well-respected professor, got it wrong."
Erin - "How does Sue Bennett know?"
Bennett - "I'm jameson. There's never been another jameson."
Erin - "That's right. Sue Bennett is jameson."
Bennett - "Somehow, this
man who can tell everything from analyzing text determined that
I could murder a six-year-old
child with a garrotte."
Erin - "Foster responded
to Bennett's accusations in a letter to 48 Hours, saying he had just
been speculating and had
"never publicly accused anyone of anything."
Bennett - "If he was wrong
with all my samples, I don't believe that there's any way that
anyone should give him
any credibility now judging Patsy Ramsey."
Erin - "And Foster's credibility
could become crucial if the grand jury acts on his report and
indicts Patsy Ramsey.
At that point, the two-and-a-half page ransom note could once again
become the crucial piece
of evidence in the case."
Statements by LadyBug and jameson:
Some months ago
in a conversation with Jameson, we spoke about identity on the internet.
She briefly
explained that her identity would soon be exposed to the media and the
internet community.
She
said it would most likely happen after the Holidays or after the first
of the year. She had already
made up her mind and she said her decision to go public had been carefully
considered.
She
wasn't excited about it. She was concerned about going public, however
she felt it was her
obligation, her honesty and the only 'right' thing to do.
She
was definitely going public with information she had about the JonBenet
Ramsey case. She didn't
feel it fair to herself or anyone concerned to remain silent.
Jameson
didn't elaborate. The matter seemed to be both serious and also confidential.
I didn't
question her. Thanks,
Lady Bug
--------------------------------------------------
Statement from Jameson April 12, 1999
I
did not go on 48 Hours for " personal glory " or for 15 minutes of fame.
I went on 48 Hours
because I felt it important to encourage the public to question the work
of Donald Foster. I
believe he is a charlatan who is hoping to "cash in" on this case and others.
I was not going to
be silent and watch him present his 100 page report to the authorities
without opposition.
Donald Foster claims he can tell a lot about a person from their writings.
Well,
he read thousands of my on-line posts, he had scores of my e-mails, my
work on the
TimeLine... and he determined I was a 20 year old homicidal male.
I
am not male, he missed the age by more than a quarter century, and I haven't
considered
killing anyone since.... well, no need to get into that. *grin*
Bottom line is this -
Donald Foster made a "mistaken attribution" in the jameson situation.
He
clearly indicated in his FAX
to his literary agent that he had access to the ransom note.
(He was going to include a "close reading" of that note and the two Ramsey
TV appearances in
his article that he said he could have on their desk within days.) So he
had access to the note
(unless he was lying to his agent).
He believed Patsy didn't write the ransom note .
He thought jameson was John Andrew and was the killer.
If
he was wrong with hundreds of jameson pages to examine, how can anyone
believe NOW that
he can really tell who wrote those 31 sentences that make up the ransom
note?
jameson