In January of 1998, Donald Foster gave a gift to Detective Steve Thomas.
According to Thomas, in his book - "JonBenét - Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation", Foster told him, "Steve, I believe I am going to conclude the ransom note was the work of a single individual:
Patsy Ramsey."  Steve Thomas called them "magic words".

In his book, Thomas described Foster as "a true professional", "a hell of a linguistics
detective", and "the best in the country at what he did".  Thomas said DA Alex Hunter "enlisted"
Donald Foster to work on the Ramsey case, but he gave no date for that.  He wrote that Hunter
was anxious to tie "Santa" Bill McReynolds and his wife to the note, that when Foster failed to
do that, Hunter "seemed to lose interest".  Apparently Thomas was given Foster's name then - and
permission to work with him.

Thomas wrote that he spent the month sending samples to Foster - and that Foster was busy
working on the handwriting.  He also indicated that Foster already had an idea what his conclusion
might be.  DA Alex Hunter was sending information to Foster - information that indicated to him -
Hunter - that there was "no way the parents did this".  Foster was not opening the mail - and
Thomas was encouraging Foster to stick with the chosen path.  Thomas wrote, "'Stay clear of him.
You work for the Boulder Police Department, not the DA's office.', I told Foster." Foster told
Thomas, He's just desperately trying to find an intruder.  I'm not sure he has the resolve to pursue
this in the direction that I'm seeing."

March 1998

According to Thomas in his book, there was a special "briefing" - and Foster, described by
Thomas as "the top linguistics man in the country", gave his presentation to the Boulder
authorities.  Thomas wrote that Foster "built a wall of linguistic evidence before our eyes, brick by
brick."  "Patsy Ramsey wrote it, he said. 'Those are her words'".

He noted that the DA investigators didn't seem impressed.  He wondered why; HE sure was!

Foster spoke about how no two people use the English language in quite the same way - people
don't share the same vocabulary, they make different errors in spelling and punctuation, they
don't construct sentences the same. Further, each person is influenced by their life experiences.
Their beliefs and history have a way of influencing what they write.

Foster said that he had studied the work of Patsy Ramsey and had determined that she - and no
one else - wrote the 31 sentences that made up the ransom note.  He pointed out that the
paragraphs were indented, that there were numerous exclamation points, that the closing of the
letter was indented, the signature indented further. (He failed to take into consideration, I fear,
that that is proper writing, what we all were taught in school.)
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Thomas went on - Foster linked the 118 in the note to Patsy.  He said that the Ramseys liabilities
was $1,118,000 (so why not ask for a million dollars?  Or a million and a quarter?) He said that
the Christian Patsy had referred to psalm 118 in some of her writings. (Not that the note was
religious in any way - but the number is in the bible and Patsy is religious). And he said Patsy had
access to the amount of John's bonus - a near match. (So did anyone rummaging around in the
house - the amount of the bonus was on nearly every pay stub John took home that year.)

Foster noted that a year after the murder, the phrase "and hence" appeared in the Ramsey
Christmas message.  (Apparently, he felt that was convicting evidence. After living a year with that
ransom note, I can understand that note becoming part of one's vocabulary - it became part of
some posters' vocabularies - evidence to be found in the forums)

Then Foster did something that even surprised me - he did a handwriting analysis and said Patsy
not only wrote the a's in the ransom note but that she had altered her hand after the murder.
(Examining the small a's, I think it is easy to say Foster is no better at handwriting analysis
than he is at text analysis.  The a's clearly are NOT a match - not even close!)

Foster pointed out other similarities, equally as common, or silly, IMO.  Then he moved on to
something that REALLY made me fall out laughing when I heard it.

Because the Ramseys are religious, Foster looked to the bible for the source of SBTC.  Nowhere
in the bible do those letters appear in the bible.  Not as letters in a row, first letters of
sentences, verses or stanzas.  BUT.... if you get this ONE particular bible, and if you go to
the Psalms, you CAN find them BACKWARDS - as the first letters of the first words of 4 sentences
in a row!   Viola - Foster's case was perfect  - - as far as Thomas was concerned.  Hunter said
he needed to think about it.

Foster wrote, "I was totally engrossed by the presentation and thought Foster had thoroughly tied
Patsy to the ransom note.  It was a bombshell of evidence. So why did the DA's office seem so
dismissive?"

Foster was proud of his work.  According to Thomas he said, "How can anyone still think this was
the work of an intruder?  This case appears solved.  Now it needs to be prosecuted."

But Foster forgot his paper trail - either that or he underestimated Patsy Ramsey and the
housewife from North Carolina.  I can't imagine how he thought we would be silent.  I had been
publicly silent - but privately I had gone to a few key people with Foster's file - at least part
of it. And that was enough to end Foster's work on the Ramsey case.  At least officially.

I will remind the reader that Thomas uses Foster's "expert" opinion to make his case. It is the
strong point in his book - although he DOES state that Foster was discredited. (Yeah, the book
is a strange one.  Thomas doesn't always make sense and- the evidence does NOT support his
theory.)

Back to the book - Thomas says that it wasn't long before they got the message from the DA's
office.  Foster had been "consigned to the DA's junk pile" - - discredited by his earlier work on the case.

This is where Thomas lies in his book - for lying by omission is still a lie.

Thomas wrote, "Foster once guessed incorrectly that the anonymous jameson was really John
Andrew Ramsey..."  That's it. Thomas did NOT go on to say that Foster identified John
Andrew/jameson as the killer of JonBenét Ramsey.  Thomas left his book with a LIE - a lie that
will help keep the Ramseys under that umbrella of suspicion for a LONG TIME. The detective
once again decided to ignore evidence that was not convenient.

Thomas called the loss of Foster as a witness "a devastating blow" - said the case should have
brought to trial and a jury should have been left to decide if Foster's evidence was credible.

Peter Hofstrom of the DA's office said, "The defense would eat him alive." Thomas said that may
have been, but he wanted Foster allowed to testify - even though the man and his science had
NEVER been allowed in a courtroom before - even though Foster clearly was compromised.

June 1&2, 1998

The Boulder PD presented the case to the DA - and Thomas once again presented Foster's "work".

He wrote in his book, "there was only one (suspect) whose writing showed evidence that suggested
authorship and had been in the home the night of the killing and could not be eliminated by no
less than six document examiners - Patsy Ramsey.  I followed that up with a lengthy description
of the findings by linguist Don Foster, who had concluded that Patsy wrote the ransom note."

READ THIS CAREFULLY - other suspects were asked for more than one sample - so some other
suspects DID have similar handwriting. However, they certainly did not admit to being in the
house that night - and Patsy did.  Misleading a bit here, I think, Steve.  Finally, could not be
eliminated by 6 handwriting experts. Well, I don't think all the handwriting samples were given to
all the handwriting experts - and hence Thomas once again gets to play the semantics game.
Bottom line here is that not one of the handwriting experts could say Patsy wrote the longest
ransom note in history - and they had PLENTY of handwriting samples from her - requested and
historical.  And the FACT is that others had similar handwriting as well.  The SAD fact is that
we don't know if the killer submitted a sample at all.

Thomas wrote in his book that the state attorney general's office and the three lawyers working
pro-bono for the BPD were "lobbying for Don Foster to be used as a witness in court".

That was in June of 1998

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July 1998 - Thomas wrote, "...at the end of July Don Foster, the Vassar linguist who had helped
make our case, telephoned to tell me that the DA's office had just dismissed him.  Not only did
they fire Foster but they informed him that he was through doing this kind of work.  Citing his
internet comments to jameson when he knew nothing about the case, they declared that his later
conclusions, when he knew everything, were unreliable.

Rather than fight to use his testimony, they declared that he would be open to impeachment on
that one issue.  Furthermore, Foster was given the plain message that is he didn't contact the
FBI and other law enforcement agencies he's worked for and admit he was compromised and
damaged goods, then the Boulder DA's office might make the call.  "He's cooked here," said one
detective.
 

MY COMMENT - Foster was discredited by his own words and actions.  He should have crawled
into some hole and stayed there, but he did not.

Rather than fight to use his testimony, they declared that he would be open to impeachment on
that one issue.  Furthermore, Foster was given the plain message that is he didn't contact the
FBI and other law enforcement agencies he's worked for and admit he was compromised and
damaged goods, then the Boulder DA's office might make the call.  "He's cooked here," said one
detective.

It was a ridiculous attack on the man's sterling reputation.  Without Don Foster the case against patsy Ramsey was much more difficult, but the DA's office threw him overboard.  Not only did they want him off the case but it appeared they wanted to ruin his life.  It was so like them, I thought, to go after the dissenters, those who didn't agree with them.  The DA's office wouldn't stand up to Team Ramsey but had no hesitation about burning good people who stood in their way.

I hate bullies.  A main reason I got into police work was to protect those who could not protect themselves.  But how do you do that when the law itself is the bully?"
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