He believed Patsy innocent, then tied her to ransom note
By Lisa Levitt Ryckman
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
A linguistics scholar who told Boulder police that Patsy Ramsey wrote the ransom note had first offered his services to the Ramseys because of his strong belief in her innocence.
"I know that you are innocent -- know it, absolutely and unequivocally," Donald Foster wrote in a June 18, 1997, letter to Patsy Ramsey, mother of the slain 6-year-old JonBenet.
"I would stake my professional reputation on it -- indeed, my faith in humanity."
Steve Thomas, a former lead detective in the case, cites Foster's analysis as key evidence in his claim that Patsy Ramsey wrote the three-page ransom note left in the Ramsey home on Dec. 26, 1996.
Thomas details his accusations against Patsy Ramsey in his book, JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation, due out today.
"I finally heard the magic words while seated in the book-lined office of Don Foster, an Elizabethan scholar and professor at Vassar College in upstate New York, who just happened to be a hell of a linguistic detective," Thomas writes.
"'Steve,' said Foster, 'I believe I am going to conclude the ransom note was the work of a single individual: Patsy Ramsey."'
But in his 1997 letter to Patsy Ramsey, Foster told her, "I believe you were an ideal mother, wise, protective, caring and truly devoted." He goes on to offer his services to help prove Patsy Ramsey's innocence.
Neither Foster nor Thomas could be reached for comment.
Although Thomas mentions Foster's letter to Patsy Ramsey in his book, the document goes into far greater detail than the author suggests. The Ramseys' attorney, Lin Wood, provided Foster's letter to the Denver Rocky Mountain News on Monday.
The Ramseys have denied involvement in JonBenet's death. They did not accept Foster's offer of help, and he eventually did some analysis for District Attorney Alex Hunter and the Boulder police.
Among Thomas' reasons for concluding that Patsy Ramsey wrote the note:
On a recent talk show, Hunter said that although Patsy Ramsey could not be excluded as the writer, "The handwriting people that we have retained in this case and that have been retained by the Ramseys (say) it is a very low probability" that she is its author.
The Ramseys have said that on a scale of 1 to 5, handwriting analysts rated John Ramsey a 5 -- excluding him completely -- and Patsy Ramsey a 4.5.
In his book, Thomas says that Foster wrote the letter to Patsy Ramsey before Foster had examined the case file. The letter was prompted by Foster's belief that he had found, on the Internet, JonBenet's killer: a poster named jameson, who Foster believed was JonBenet's half-brother, John Andrew Ramsey.
The ransom note, Foster wrote to Patsy Ramsey, "appears to have been written by a young adult with an adolescent imagination overheated by true crime literature and Hollywood thrillers."
In fact, jameson was actually Susan Bennett, a middle-aged mother and Ramsey supporter. Authorities have said John Andrew Ramsey was in Atlanta at the time of the murder.
Contact Lisa Levitt Ryckman at (303) 892-2736 or ryckmanl@RockyMountainNews.com.
April 11, 2000
